A Walk Through the Valley (Ant, 0/1)

Only a few minutes at most had gone by since Morrigan released the wolf. She was still walking through the dark, hazardous decay with not a drop of fear or urgency, but heard distantly the wolf’s yelp. Not a cause to stop on its own, but the earth-rending boom to follow swiftly garnered her attention. Whipping around too late to see anything in the dusk, Morrigan paused and began to reach out with her senses. Far-off heartbeats, breaths, the tensing of muscle, anything… Even a weak animal would stand out in this desolate land, but she could feel none.

Tentatively, the martial artist turned to resume her trek, not too hurried but with more purpose than before. Her senses remained on edge, taut against the still atmosphere and ready to snap at the slightest disturbance. A part of her mind worked to assure her, if she couldn’t sense it then it couldn’t have been there. And yet, against that reason, she couldn’t relax. Putting one foot in front of the other until she froze, feeling the ground vibrate beneath her.

On a hair trigger, Morrigan’s internal energy soared with the beating of her heart. Rising violently from the earth around her looked to be some manner of monstrous serpents or worms! Though they struck out with surprising coordination, Morrigan reacted quickly. Leaning back from the first to reach her, she raised her leg high and hooked it below the jaw with her heel, then pivoted on her planted foot to drag it in the path of the others, throwing off their energy.

Shaken by the strange creatures, Morrigan didn’t retaliate against them in their staggered state but instead took the chance to hop a goodly few meters away. She hadn’t struck with the intent to do significant harm, but perhaps she’d passed along the message that she wasn’t worthwhile prey. Failing that… Well, she adopted a battle stance nevertheless and waited to see the beasts’ decision.

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Morrigan’s efforts seemed to have prompted her assailants to back down, but she’d have been a fool to lower her guard. The quaking of the ground grew no less intense, so her problem was deciding to stick around. As she anticipated the next attack, it occurred to her that those snakey maws were not nearly large enough to cause this magnitude of shaking, which meant one of two things. They were either travelling as an immense school, or those were only the appendages of a much larger beast. Yet never in her years had she heard of such a thing. Not on Earth, at least.

Just as she began to grow wary of how long the monster was taking to strike, the shrieking hit her ears even with its source buried underground. Distancing herself from where the vibrations were most intense, Morrigan forced down her apprehension as this time a blunter appendage burst from the earth, somewhat confirming her second theory. Recognizing the rapidly expanding bead of energy that formed at its tip, Morrigan jumped high into the air in the instant she had before it fired after her. She’d have been surprised that the creature could manage to use its ki in any other circumstance. Now, though, a clarity came to her as energy rose up within. Just as the attack was about to strike, a rosy aura burned to life around Morrigan, blunting it and growing to gradually consume it.

Thrusting her hands downward, Morrigan shouted and expelled the rush of energy into the ground, illuminating the valley with a pink glow visible for kilometres. Propelled by the force of her attack, she hung in the air even as the blast subsided before eventually dropping gracefully down back onto the ground. Dust filled the air, tar had been burned away or splattered into long streaks. A reckless move on her part, but fortunately the Skull Valley wasn’t much of a flourishing ecosystem. Could a beast really have survived that?

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Whatever hope she had that the monster had been felled by her attack, Morrigan caught on fast to the reality of the situation. The tremors continued, their maker fleeing underground, forcing the human to put her guard back up. Retaining balance was doable, but the rapid shifting of the sands demanded she constantly readjust her stance. Being forced to wait on it to make the first move was none too favourable, on top of being a strange creature she didn’t know how to fight. And if it could move with this vigour after enduring her most powerful attack...

Focus. Dwelling on her every disadvantage was an idiot’s game. For years she had honed her technique, and whatever bizarre circumstances had concocted this monster, she refused to believe it was beyond her. Green eyes flicked down as the vibrations grew more intense; directly beneath her! Morrigan leapt into the air, but between the uneven footing and creature’s speed, its grip managed to latch onto her ankle. Recognizing the danger, she drew in a breath just as she was yanked into the rolling sands. Not that she could fault it, but that was a dirty trick.

Suffocation was none too pleasant a way to go. Flailing forcefully against the beast, beyond making its job more difficult, was sending the sand scattering away from her face. If she had the luxury not to concentrate on staying alive, Morrigan would have been disgusted at her sloppiness. Reaching one hand in the direction she was being pulled, a burst of yellow ki blasts launched from her palm, weak individually but bright and stinging should they hit the carapace.

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Whether from injury or inconvenience, Morrigan’s struggle had some kind of effect, causing the creature to release her. Unfortunately, she was released with a rather high vertical velocity. The woman burst from the surface disoriented and breathless. She spent her few seconds of hangtime to regain her bearings and drink in the air, but shortly after impacted against the ground and cast up another cloud of dust. Pushing herself up onto her knees, Morrigan hastily brushed the sand off of her face as the vibrations and screeches continued beneath her. The grit had gotten very nearly everywhere, but she could easily have been much worse off.

Morrigan staggered onto her feet, mostly recovered from the shock of being pulled violently through the earth. Shortly after, she shifted back into her stance in reaction to the monster rocketing out of the ground itself. Now seeing the full form of the beast, a shiver ran across her sandy skin. It most definitely didn’t look like any Earth animal she knew. Even comparing it to a worm or caterpillar felt wrong looking at the size of it.

Despite the truly horrifying appearance it bore… It had stopped attacking? It had obviously wanted to scrape the tar off of its outer skin, grating against the rocky cliff for such a purpose, but its following actions perplexed Morrigan. Though eye contact didn’t seem possible, she stared daggers back at the creature as it faced her, expecting a renewed attack. The aggression was curiously one-sided now, which was hardly a situation she usually found herself in.

Burying her anxiety, Morrigan took in a deep breath and began to walk towards the monster. She hadn’t the faintest idea if intimidation was the wisest move, potentially frightening the monster off or further provoking it in the worst case, but being in range to strike before it could bury itself was a start. Regardless of reception to her approach, Morrigan stopped a short distance away, perhaps only half of the beast’s length remaining between it and herself. “Go on then,” She raised her generally quiet voice, firm but otherwise still inexpressive as she looked up at the creature. “Make your decision.”

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Right, expecting the giant creature to understand her words was… naive at best. Morrigan immediately felt ridiculous for even bothering, but at least the monster didn’t seem like the type to judge. Though it was certainly doing something. Those peculiar, pincer-like tongues trailed out, almost as if seeking her. Tension returned to Morrigan’s frame as they approached, watching carefully for just one wrong move. With very little distance between them, the tendrils lashed out as a shriek tore from the monster’s throat! Quickly, Morrigan leapt back from where she stood, curling her fingers into fists, but… That wouldn’t have struck either way. And it didn’t continue attacking, at least not right away.

Her taut muscles loosened slightly, a curiosity overwriting the seriousness of her face as the creature wormed slightly into the sand. She was no genius of ethology, but she had certainly been attacked by enough animals to interpret a warning. Could it be that it was scared of her after the earlier attack? It would hardly be different from a wolf in that sense. Experimentally, Morrigan tentatively lowered her guard, and with it, her power. Her heart rate slowed to a crawl, putting up a front of weakness as she observed the beast’s reaction.

A most unusual creature indeed. It seemed like she had the chance to leave it be, but something compelled her to stay. A nagging in the back of her head, a cluelessness that needed to be dispelled. She was certain it wasn’t any ordinary animal, so what then? Was it responsible to let something so massive be, to disrupt the ecosystem? What if Sith ran into it? Her blood cooled, and her gaze sharpened.

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Interestingly, the creature’s movements came to a halt with Morrigan’s drastically reduced strength. It wasn’t primed to strike as far as she could tell, which likely meant… Of course! It had no eyes, it relied on something else to find its prey, be that her movement, breath or heartbeat. Morrigan never thought to question its ability to sense energy itself, but she wasn’t terribly far off. So long as she stayed still, would it be unable to even find her?

Though attempting to keep as calm and still as possible, the human couldn’t help but move back as the monster appeared to enter a violent rage. Whether in the path of its thrashing or not, she moved a few meters back as it expressed its outrage, shattering stone and worse, throwing more damned sand on her. It punctuated its tantrum with a screech that forced the human to clamp her hands over her ears. Unluckily for her, that meant she couldn’t cover her eyes as a flash of light discharged from the animal, an even more unpleasant sensation for the martial artist.

She could hear it begin to move, burrowing too quickly into the earth for her to do a thing that would impede it. Still, she managed to keep her energy low, having faith that it was acting out over losing her. While her eyes slowly recovered from the unexpected searing, she stood with baited breath, feeling the vibrations beneath her. Were they getting further and further? Rubbing at her eyes, Morrigan took a few steps forward to where the worm had been just seconds prior. Her vision returned blurrily, but she could still make out the chasmous route it had taken to escape. Earlier worries of what destruction the creature could wreak returned with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

As the sand poured into the void left in its wake, Morrigan realized she’d rather not literally sink and took a few hasty steps back. The tremors had subsided entirely by now. With nothing left to do, Morrigan shook some of the sand out of her hair and heaved a great sigh. Night had fallen, and with it a brisk breeze that swept across the arid land. Turning in the loose direction of West City, she started the trek, hoping if nothing else for a hot shower before morning.

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