Mantis Encounter

Mantis Encounter

Gerald stood absolutely still on the bare stone floor at the base of a steep bluff, surrounded by the steep walls of a dry gorge. Trees and other flora formed a thick canopy high above him, allowing only a few thin shafts of daylight to illuminate the surface. The marks in the stone were just as they had been described to him, a series of arcs and angles etched into the rock in the crude shape of a hut or some such dwelling. The gouges were black with the fungus that grew there, creating a stark contrast with the light gray color of the stone. Gerald stepped into the space outlined by the markings, as though stepping through a door into the hut that the marks resembled. Immediately he began to hear a sound, barely perceptable at first, but growing steadily in volume and intensity. It was a deep bass rumbling, rising and falling in pitch and tone. His inner ears began to ache, and his stomach started to feel queasy, but he stood his ground. Soon, his entire body was vibrating rapidly, and his teeth began to chatter. Gerald stuffed his tongue between his teeth to cushion them. They bit into the outer layer of muscle and blood flowed through his mouth spattering his chin and making a myriad of tiny crimson stains on the stone. Just as Gerald felt he must collapse from the strain, the world around him shattered into millions of triangular shards, leaving him standing on an endless gray plain, and the sound ceased. All of his pain was transformed into bliss in an instant.

A bright white light shone from overhead, as a great golden egg descended from the sky. The egg alighted gently on the plain, and a subtle crack formed in the surface of the shell. The crack formed a convex triangular shape which slid aside to reveal a cavity in the egg. A figure emerged, stepping gracefully out and onto the ground. It was much taller than Gerald, with translucent skin and large, ovoid, black eyes above a vertical slit of a mouth. It had hands with three very long fingers that had ten joints each, with one even longer finger in the center, which was serrated and blade like. It held these hands over it's chest, where they covered a second , much smaller, set of arms. It's legs seemed tube-like and oddly jointed, with knees that bent out at a dramatic angle and reached up to half the length of it's torso. If it had stood up like a man, it would have been over four meters tall. It had a rear appendage that seemed like a sort of fat tail that may have been held perpendicularly to the ground, but this was shrouded with some sort of glistening veil. The creature now reminded Gerald very much of a devil mantis.

The creature gesticulated toward a spot on the ground, and a large mound of earth piled up from underneath. The mound broke open and out climbed a large mole, of the star nosed variety.
The mole stood up on it's hind legs, growing and stretching as it did so, until it stood as tall as Gerald, and in a more humanoid shape. It bowed deeply to the mantis creature, and the mantis creature bowed to the mole man. Then in unison, they both bowed to Gerald. Gerald returned the bow, whereupon the creatures took him by the arms and placed him on a golden throne which grew up from the earth.
Gerald felt at peace, and allowed his body to relax fully. The mantis creature cradled Gerald's head with one of it's strange hands, while with the middle finger of the other hand it cut his head open and probed inside with a long proboscis that slid moistly from it's vertical mouth. At the same time, the mole man sliced open Gerald's abdomen with it's enormous claws, and felt around inside with it's nose tentacles. It pulled out long scarlet serpents and purple toads, tossing them into a large crystal jar.

A dark fog passed over the tableau, and the things Gerald saw began to be altered as his euphoria faded. The crystalline jar now appeared as a rusty metal pail, the handsome mole man as a scabby, warty, one eyed monstrosity. The towering mantis shifted into a tall man with a skull-like face and voodoo regalia. Gerald panicked and tried to rise from the throne, but found that his arms were chained to a heavy wooden chair. As he thrashed, he saw a piece of his own skull slide away from his head and crash bloodily to the cold gray stone in the gorge.

The pair of gruesome ghouls howled with laughter as Gerald twitched and writhed uselessly, until at last his heart stopped beating and his final breath escaped his lungs.