Jellyfish - Chapter 4 The Outsider

Nobody knew from where the Outsider came.

They say her hair was whiter than the ribs that surrounded the Valley. Many even thought that the Outsider was a new type of monster. Everyone gazed in wonder at the girl on top of a terrifying being. It was the king among beasts, a Dire Rex, whose teeth could have crushed any bone into powder. The Outsider held an arm in front of its nose and led the monster past the Skull and the Bloody Stream. It was unclear to the locals whether they should run away or not.

A considerable number of oddities segregated the Outsider from the others. While they covered themselves in cloth from head to toe, she bore her head in rebellion against the heat of the Sun. The villagers shared the same dark scales while the outsider blinded others with her pale skin. The sharp and pointed frills near ears had no presence upon the head of this stranger. Indeed to them, the outsider was unlike any oddity they’d ever seen.

While most of the locals stood by, out of fear or curiosity, only a young Nomad named Moss stepped in the path of the Outsider.

Of the Serpentine, she was also a stranger among their flock.

Born without a tail and smaller than the other children, the elders had marked her early on. They told her she was a symbol of their people’s future; one of the children meant to form the next tribe. As a baby, she cried when they gazed at her with joy.

But here she was now, no longer an infant.

Unfortunately, before she as the representative of the current tribe could welcome the stranger, it seemed that the Dire Rex had thrown its head up and swallowed the Outsider whole.

That put an amused smile on her face, to see a fool die in such a way.

What happened next was perhaps even more confusing than the outsider’s entrance. The Dire Rex suddenly collapsed under its weight and fell, like a tree, in front of Moss’s feet. Clumsy as ever, Moss slipped and fell backward in an attempt to get away from the monster. The villagers gasped and panicked as they saw their Nomad vanish in clouds of dust. When the dust settled, Moss crawled away with haste and got back on her feet. Hiding her fear behind a mask, the young child raised a single hand and ushered in a wave of harvesters.

Various individuals of all shapes and sizes approached, and they began to cut away meat and bone. With saws and knives made of monsters, they meticulously chipped away at the Dire Rex’s body until only its torso remained. One of the harvesters handed Moss a long spear, and she took it from the end and split open the monster’s gut.

The contents that spilled out shocked the villagers and brought a foul stench. Many retched and a few harvesters lost their lunches. The Outsider slipped out, with a terrible slimy noise, while covered in yellow fluids. A few more corpses of varying digested states had also gotten squeezed out from the stomach.

“Thank you for the help!” the Outsider would shout after wiping acid off her hand. The villagers didn’t quite understand her, but they all backed away as fast as they could.

It was at that moment that Moss had perhaps had enough and shared the same disgusted face as all her people.