Into the Abyss

Tom then picked up the head in both heads and proceeded to carry it to his entrance. When he reached the cave mouth, he looked over the edge. Now, where to put it? He could toss it over, but that was likely to draw scavengers that he really didn’t want to deal with, so perhaps it was best to take it away someplace. He glanced up, and around the valley. Nowhere here, Tom decided. As he’d been taught, Tom began walking towards the center of the valley. When he reached the edge of ledge he kept on going. He then reoriented himself, and flew up and over his mountain. He’d decided that his best bet would probably be to dump it a few valleys over. He flew down the backside of his mountain and then up the next mountain and into the next valley. When he got to a likely spot, he simply let go of the head and watched it fall. He then returned to his cave.

As he landed on the ledge, he realized that he hadn’t marked the cave yet. Thinking that marking would be the best way to keep unwanted visitors away, Tom imagined himself walking up a ladder to the top of the cave mouth. His wings complied, and there he was. Now, what would he use as a mark? Tom really didn’t feel too creative today, so he finally decided on a cursive ‘T’ with a flourish of a circle around it. True, it was imitative of the other demon who had used a circled ‘Y,’ but who was to know. Using the nail of his index finger, Tom carved his symbol in a relatively smooth space above the mouth.

He descended and started back down the cave. As he was walking back to the cavern, Tom suddenly realized that the dragon, when it was alive would have had to twist and constrict itself to get through the passageways. It was dead now, and Tom would have to carry it out somehow. Fun, Tom thought, this is going to be messy.

Tom was just pulling the last of the dragon’s legs out of the cave when a voice hailed him from above. “Ho, Tom, what you got there? A giant drumstick?”

Tom turned around and saw Boggy descending from the sky.

“No, just doing a little house cleaning.” Tom was actually glad to see the little demon. It was nice to have someone to talk to, after dragging random dragon parts out of the cave and dumping them, for the last hour.

“Nasty looking termites you’ve got,” Boggy commented as he landed on the ledge.

“Actually, not only nasty looking, but just plain nasty.”

“I can see. Must have been a great fight.” Boggy was eyeing Tom’s wound’s with an appraising eye. “How long ago did you kill it?”

“I don’t know, I slept for a long time after. The fight was probably about eight hours after I woke up beneath the ledge.”

Boggy raised both his eyebrows, which of course were hairless. “Then definitely a nasty fight. That would have been two Astlanian days ago. If that’s all the more healed you are, then you were in bad shape.”

“Yeah, he sunk a fang clear through me.” Tom pointed to his chest wound, and to the smaller scar he’d discovered, where the fang had come out. “And his acid breath squirted me all over.”

“Well how did you finally kill it then? Those things are mean S.O.B.’s.”

“I spotted a weak spot, under its neck, and jumped with both feet for it. When they got in, well, I just kicked its guts until it died.” Tom felt a small glow of pride in telling his tale.

“Lucky you spotted that weak area. I don’t know what plane those fellows originally came from, but their anatomy sure makes them hard to locate a vital area.”

“Plane they came from?. This isn’t another demon is it?” Tom got nervous, he’d thought he’d just killed some stupid monster. Not another human being in demon form.

“Yep it is, but don’t worry,” Boggy hastened to add, seeing Tom’s stricken look. “They were never humans, like you or I. They belong to some sort of warm blooded technological reptile race out on the edge of some distant galaxy, in god knows what universe. They hate humans and human demons. They always do their best to kill us, so we either try to kill them too, or avoid them if they’re stronger than us.”

“Oh,” Tom said, somewhat relieved. He still didn’t like killing another intelligent being. He wondered why though, it hadn’t bothered him until Boggy had mentioned the possibility of it being another demon. Of course, it wasn’t like he’d had much choice, the thing was trying to kill him. But, his conscience nagged him, Tom had invaded its cave.

“I guess Tizzy didn’t mention the fact that just because a cave isn’t marked, doesn’t mean it’s empty.”

“No, he didn’t,” Tom replied hesitantly.

“Well, all human demons mark their caves, but some of the alien ones don’t. That dragon living there was also probably the reason you don’t see many other demons out this way.”

Curious, Tom asked, “Boggy how did you find me?”

“Wasn’t too hard. When I finally got back, I found Tizzy and he showed me where he’d left you. I simply went towards the mountains looking. It took me quite a while, but eventually I spotted this cave and saw the ‘T’ on it.”

“You saw that mark from way up high?”