"Beast, Answer My Call!" V1 Chapter 5 - Prologue
"Don't look at me!"
But he watched anyway — or rather, he was paralyzed — unable to move. Standing at the entrance of the room, he just stared down at her.
The rooms were neat and tidy, with just the necessities of life pushed into the four corners. There was an old bed, a desk, a bookcase, shelves for clothes, and thick curtains that hung from the windows. Frayed carpet was covering the floor. Kneeling on the floor, with her hands covering her face, she cried out.
"Don't look! Please!"
But even after hearing her exclamation, he didn't move, as if he'd lost all conscious thought.
He was a small boy, about fifteen years of age. He had black hair and dark eyes, which barely showed the signs that he was maturing. Overall he was skinny. That didn't mean he was weak, thanks to combat training that he had received since childhood. His thin body stood straight as a knife.
He didn't seem to understand what was happening in front of him. All he knew was that she was crying, sitting on the floor, and again she screamed 'Don't look!'
"Azalie, are you crying?"
The boy asked, as if it were an incredibly strange sight to behold.
But, she didn't answer. Still keeping her face obscured by both hands, just shouting, never looking.
She wore a loose-fitting black robe — which was like a uniform in the Tower of Fang, the head black magic school on the continent, and was worn only by those of a certain rank. There were few who got to wear it as young as she did — about 20 years old. Her black hair, which had a tinge of waveyness to it, was kept short, probably for her combat training. Her face was hidden, so he couldn't see it, but a brownish pupil peeked out from between the tendons of her fingers. She wasn't much taller than a boy his age, but her limbs were well toned.
"Don't look! Please, get out."
She cried, and it wasn't the voice that the boy seemed to notice. Her tone, what she said seemed angry.
The boy took one step, before anxiously speaking up.
"Azalie, what's going on? No, wait, I'll call Master-"
"That's useless! No—"
She was screaming violently as she reiterated. It was hard to hear her muffled voice as she clutched her face with both hands.
"No — There's no point. Don't call Childman, don't call anyone, please."
"But—"
"It's fine, please get out! Hurry!"
She waved a hand, with which to instruct the boy, but he winced at the sight of her hand. Her thick-skinned fingers, built up through combat training, weren't the most delicate or beautiful, but then the boy thought he saw what looked like claws growing from them.
With doubt in his eyes the boy began to cry.
"Azalie? Your hands—"
"Please, just hurry and get out of here!"
She repeated again. At that moment, strands of her black hair rose to the top of her head. Then cracking, sounds like the tearing of flesh and the splattering of blood. What looked like tentacles covered in bodily fluids splashed against the floor, and a mass of flesh rising from within the parting hair, clearly not part of the human body, burst from her head. Snap! Something fell at her feet with the sound. It was her torn belt, her waist unnaturally distorted and distended — and the boy screamed.
It was only then that he seemed to understand. She had become some sort of inhuman creature.
Her swollen hips overflowed from her clothes, ripped through the soft fabric, and something slithered up her back — huge, bat-like leather wings. At the same time she began to tremble, lapping at what looked like bodily fluids flooding her mouth. She held down her face, blood mixed with pieces of meat dripping through her fingers to the floor. The cavity of her mouth hung so far opened that her jaw looked dislocated, which showed a red lizard-like tongue peeking out.
"Don't look at me!"
That cry was the only thing that hadn't changed since the last time he saw her. It was her voice.
"Azalie—"
The boy shouted, but soon shut up, as if he couldn't find the words to say anything else.
Meanwhile her transformation continued. The fabric of her robe was torn away, and as she stood the girl's shoulder, covered in green scales, showed through the torn cloth. She found herself with four arms, and a body that had grown to about three meters in length.
She — or rather, the grotesque form of what she had been just moments before — spun around in a circle as if chasing her long tail. She spun around again, muttering 'Don't look...' over and over. Then, the burned-up body was suddenly gone. With one call, the eyes that had been hidden by burnt eyelids suddenly flared up...
With a swift movement that belied her huge body, she leaned out of the window of the tower, beat her wings in the air, and with a roar, she flew off.
The boy rushed to the window, jumping over the pools of her blood. But, there was no sign of her from there. She was gone.
He stood speechless, and looked back into the room as he trembled. There was an object made of iron that he hadn't noticed until just now, sitting in the middle of the blood that she'd left behind. A single old-fashioned sword, stained and blackened by blood and rust.
After that night the boy didn't see her for a long time. Not for many years.
Table of Contents
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| (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) |
Business Day Call of Reminiscence The Revenge of Shrimp Man Baldanders 'Hunting' Night Demon Witch |
- Notes
- I'm sure that right off the bat some people might notice that the titles seem backwards. The consistency of the way the titles are written across the entire series is reminiscent of the way spells are written, often beginning with "boku" (I) followed by a command.
When writing out the spells I decided to write them in the syntax of "I #, Command!" For example, "I heal, the scars of the setting sun!" The spells were split into two key segments because they're often broken into two separate lines when cast, allowing for actions or descriptions between the two halves of the sentence. This read with better consistency then, say,
Since this is the syntax that I went with for spells, I decided to keep the book syntax in a similar vein. So instead of "Answer my call, Beast" the identifier (beast) is moved to the front to take the place of that first shorter part of the line. I think it's nice from an aesthetic consistency standpoint, even if it may not be spot on.