I stare ahead of me. My vision feels blurry but familiar. There is a form there, one small and smooth, unidentifiable. The body turns around but I can tell the head turns to look back at me. They’re waiting for me- I follow.
My nubs patter as fast as they can on the ground to chase them- my body feels a tingling of joy as we frolic. The more fun I begin to have the more my vision seems to clear up. I am able to see the Pacapillar ahead of me clearly, I can see the trees and the afternoon glow. I smile under the bathing light of the sun.
As I get closer I hold up a nub to tap them so I could then turn around and be chased. However, a small tap to their side makes them scream out in pain. They turn to look at me with this contorted look of pain and betrayal. I don’t understand what I did, I thought we were playing!
Their body starts to contort until they explode into a puff of smoke. I flinch and back away, all that’s left behind is the core.
My rear hits a wall- tree?- preventing me from continuing to back away. I can feel myself shaking, my vision is becoming blurry again.
“I… I didn’t mean to…! I didn’t know…!” I call out, voice shaking.
Whatever I backed into moves and pushes me forward, closer to that vulnerable core.
“Break it,” comes an almost soothing tone. It sounds… wrong.
I whip around, trying to look in the direction of the voice. I can see another form. I thought the voice came from higher above but were nearly on the same eye level. The blurriness in my vision makes it hard to see details but I can see the dark color with accents of red and gold.
“…what?”
“Break the core,” he repeats. His voice is still eerily soothing but the tone doesn’t make me feel any calmer.
“No… no why would I do that?”
“Don’t you want to know what it’s like? Don’t you want to feel the raw magic yourself?” He’s getting closer to me. I feel frozen.
“What if I told you they deserved it?”
I shake my head, “No one deserves that!”
I can’t see him very well but something is giving me the vibe that he is running out of patience.
I feel like I blinked and suddenly he felt towering like the trees around us.
“Break it,” he said, voice still smooth; terrifying.
A long pincer reaches behind me and drags the core forward. It’s between us now, I’m being forced to look at the heart of someone I hurt.
“Break it, aren’t you hungry?”
I can feel myself salivating… I feel like I’m starving! The core feels like it starts to get further away, like I’m now growing just as large as the looming trees around me.
It sparkles… tantalizing… I look around- I’m alone. No one else is here- no one else will know. I bring forward my pincer and rest it on top of the core. I’ve practiced this. I press down and the surface cracks.
My chin feels gross and wet with the amount of drool escaping my mouth. I press down harder and the core busts open and screaming voices come barreling out.
I stagger back, forced to live with the torment of overlaying screams of every core I’ve ever destroyed. I feel so much guilt but I’m so, so hungry.
“How obedient, Grimm,” that voice says, somehow able to be heard through the echoing screams in my feelers but no Pacapillar is visible in my vision.
“Is Grimm your real name?” The voice sounds cocky.
My real name…?
“Grimm.”
Did I have a real name?
“Grimm…!”
I did… what was it?
“Grimm!”
What was my name?!
“Grimm!”
Stop.
“GRIMM!”
Please… please stop!
“GRIMM!”
“GRIMM…!”
“Grimm…?”
“Grimm?”
I jolt awake, the sound of another voice startling me. I’m breathing heavily, my chest heaves as I look around my burrow.
There stands a familiar figure, small and feathery. I started getting used to seeing them around- it brought a sense of… comfort.
I groan and shuffle my position to try and roll away from the smaller Pacapillar.
“Are you okay?” The ever so quiet voice asks.
“‘M fine…” I grumble in response, my head still feels groggy from my sleep.
Why would they ask that? I was obviously just asleep.
There’s a bit of silence and I feel the feathery figure move to lay next to me- a silent way of saying ‘okay’.
I can respect him enough for that, never prying too much. Hell, if he had he probably would’ve gotten on my nerves too much and I would have…
I don’t want to think about that, actually.
I can feel myself getting tired again, so I let myself drift.
I can never remember my dreams but when I wake up later, Skye still next to my side and Dagger at my rear- I actually feel rested for the first time in a while.