Pontifex Ursa – Part 7
Some days, you feel like progress has been made in leaps and bounds.
Other days, you feel like this morning.
I wanted so very badly to throw up my hands and leave all this trouble and anxiety behind me. I wanted to escape from feeling like I would never do anything of note or relevance. I wanted to set aside the burden of trying to improve myself and my talents.
I can’t though. I can’t quit. I can’t stop moving. To stop now would be to ensure that I am correct. I definitely cannot produce anything noteworthy if I produce nothing. I cannot improve my writing if I refuse to improve myself. So I’ll keep struggling. I’ll keep bleeding. I’ll keep writing.
If anything, just to prove to myself that I can.
It might not be the best writing motivation that has ever existed, but it’s something that I can cling to this morning to keep my fingers moving across the keyboard. Flotsam it may be, but it will keep me from drowning until I can find something sturdier.
One day at a time isn’t a horrible mindset, either.
Onward with bears fighting robots!
Pontifex Ursa – Part 7
By the wrath of Its arms, we are saved. By the might of Its mercy, we are uplifted. In Its arms we are kept warm. In Its heart we are numbered. Blessed is the Pontifex. Blessed are the People. Amen.
– Opening prayer, New Orthodox Church of the Living God
I had nothing, sitting on the scrubby floor of the small valley where nightmares had become real. Where Lilith had tried to protect me. Where she lay in my arms, still and lifeless. Lights and noise were buffeting me as I sat, yet I was unmoved by the peril or spectacle. I was numb at having lost a treasure so recently gained. I had been denied happiness and comfort from the only woman I had ever loved. Close to half my life was gone now, and I had lost the only person I’d ever met worth spending the rest of it with. The howling gale caused by the enormous metal construct landing near me wiped away my tears, at least.
I stared up as the gusting subsided, idly curious to know the form of my destroyer. A huge, rounded form met my eyes. It stood on four legs like our bison, yet had four arms much as the previous abomination did. It advanced, whatever machinations allowing it movement did so almost silently. Only the enormous thuds of the ‘feet’ hitting the dirt heralded my death.
I looked on, passively observing as I turned my body to shelter Lilith’s corpse from the thing. It wouldn’t make any difference in the end, but it was a motion I could not have stopped even if I had wanted to.
Months later, I would have the ability to ask the questions necessary to understand everything that happened that night. So much of it was a blur, so much lost in the haze of loss and numbing terror. What I witnessed at the time was an enormous shadow, moving too fast to be real, advancing across the hills towards me as I knelt. It was huge, this non-creature. Easily dwarfing the enormous bear Lilith had been. And it moved in silence, no noise betraying its position.
To my blanked mind, that was the part that stood out most. Not the enormous nature of the beast. Not the fantastic fight which ensued upon its arrival. No. What shocked me most was that until it raked two enormous claws across the back of the bulbous creature, I hadn’t heard a thing. The thumping advance of the eight-limbed thing had been loud, yes. But a creature almost eleven meters tall while standing should’ve made some noise.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t hear anything when it arrived. The smooth advance turned into a furious melee of light and explosions. Even taken by surprise and raked by the titanic claws, the creature still managed to turn its body in place and begin assaulting this new foe.
A wave of sound slammed into me, and I had to cradle Lilith against me as the noise blew me bodily away from the fighters. It had to have been the loudest animal roar imaginable, and my ears buckled under the sheer weight of the raw, primal fury. I fetched up against a small rock with an inaudible whumpf ten meters from where I had sat before. Liliths lifeless form had added its weight to the landing, and I felt at least three of my ribs break.
It was becoming harder and harder to keep my eyes open. I crawled to where Liliths body lay sprawled, and sheltered her as best I could while still keeping my half-lidded eyes on the technicolor brawl playing itself out. Under any other circumstances , the two foes would’ve been evenly matched. The surprise assault by the newcomer had clearly been the deciding factor, however, and the gargantuan bear had taken full advantage of the initial blow. The metal creatures four arms had been reduced to two. The hands on the remaining arms looked damaged, and flaring lights spewed from multiple points along its entire body.
Brilliant lights flared, and a thumping vibration began rattling around my innards as the creature began to lift from the valley floor. It was attempting to beat a hasty retreat. The newcomer, undaunted by the rapidly rising form, swatted two enormous paws at the nearest points of fire spouting out of each of the four legs.
A huge fireball of light engulfed the legs, and the remaining flares sent the creature into a crazed spin. It spiraled sickeningly through the air until its momentum shot it directly into the ground a few hundred meters from the reeling bear. The large ursine was busy furiously digging up the ground in front of it to throw across its right paw. The paw had been ignited in the furious explosion, and although I couldn’t hear anything, I could tell it was in enormous pain from the blaze.
To be continued….
Roarfully,
Justin
I
