Page 38 of Eat Me Alive
Destroyer of moments, yeah. This is starting to sound oddly like foreshadowing. “You know a lot of human stuff?”
“Too much.”Datu doesn’t elaborate, but the succinct response is enough.
Datu
The promised land exists.
It’s an endless pit of unhinged appetite. A ravine of tongue and mouth, a trip down the gullet, and a boiling hot bath in acid. Wailing trumpets of silence. When you linger close enough, you hear, feel it in your gut. They may think it is their own body’s call, but it’s the promised land. It’s how it calls. How it lures you to feed its own infinite void.
There are no conditions to get in. Good or bad, naughty or nice. One must walk into the jaws of this obscure, divine place that is a god’s sharpest teeth.
I know the way into the promised land all too well. All I need to do is open my mouth.
“Is that some sort of deity the Terra worship?” Xiaoyu points at the shrine where the form of the Void is crudely cut. “I saw they had something like that on the coast, but it’s not the same shape.”
“It does not have a form. It is the god guarding Esoterra.”
Her eyes glaze over from memory or thought. “Strange, right? People always need an image of a god to worship it. I guess that’s what Terra and humans have in common.”
Stroking her short hair, I say,“Of all the centuries I have lived, nobody has perfected the image of him.”
Raising a doubtful brow at me, she counters, “How do you even know it’s male? Pretty sure a god is not put into boxes.”
“Boxes are necessary for organizing. And I know for a fact, the god has a cock.”
SHe gives me a bewildered look. “For a fact?”
“For fucking real.”
She bursts out laughing and smacks my arm. She thinks I’m jesting.
“Youdoknow a lot about us humans. You even know the lingo.”
“Occassionaly, I participate in the ever-evolving human-speak.”It is my way of contending my silence. I am mute, I have no voice, but I know languages very well.
The females have begun to gather around the sacred shrine, setting up candles and whatever offerings they could gather. It is a necessary ritual, one that keeps the island afloat. As they begin to kneel and pray, Xiaoyu tugs at my arm.
“Shit, should we kneel?”
“I would rather you kneel to me in private.”
Rolling her eyes, she scratches her head. “They are quite obviously having a religious mass. We should take our leave if we aren’t participating.”
She is right, and as we exit, she catches sight of something afar. A sparkle, a glimmer. Like a crow, she stalks it while I wordlessly follow her. I know what captured her attention. It’s what the humans call a greenhouse.
Gasping, putting her hand over her mouth in awe. “Oh, my god, is that a mountain made out of quartz?”
I chuckle and urge her closer.“It is the nursery. We found that the rocks keep the sprouts safe in warm temperatures.”Safe from the drought.
“Baby Terra? Can we go inside?”
“Now, now, they are still in their sacs, so if we go inside, you need to be quiet.”
She makes a zipping motion over her lips and excitedly drags me toward the nursery.
Xiaoyu
Holy shit.
