MachinationsOF

Some very short stories about Leviathan and his plans

With a pop the battle ended and the beast's head was ripped free from what use to be it's shoudlers. Almost immediately bio-luminescent scavengers flocked into the bleeding corpse and began to peck at it's still warm flesh. Spitting out the disgusting mutant tidbit the great whale turned his bulk upwards and slowly, ponderously began the ascent back to the surface.

Halfway up subsonic pulses began to greet him happily playing over his sensory organs like caresses from a close friend. Then the beings who sent such joyful praise to the ancient mariner appeared. They were a perect cross between man and orca almost resembling the great whale in shape if not in size. AS thier lord came up from the stygian darkness they gamboled and played about him transmitting signals of happiness at his safe return.

But the great orca was not happy, no not at all. For in his many battles in the abyss he had seen many things that wouold've driven lesser minds to despair and madness. He had also seen the growing forces of dissolution that threatened to tear at the ocean he so loved.

Continuing to the surface he slowly almost painfully dredged up memories of the past as he began to plot. It was like going back in time for the mariner of Luna. He recalled the vast fleets that he hda once commanded, the great floating city he had called home, and lastly he remembered the unity his kind had once shared. In addition he remembered the final horrible days of what he recalled as being the first age.

Playfully nudging one of his offspring out of the way he breached the surface his moonsilver tattoos glinting under the sun. Shaking droplets of water off his back he gave his beloved children final instructions and di something he hadn't done for millenia. He changed shape and took flight as a great bird winging east towards his city.

If he could have he might have smiled with the feelings of the wind under his wings after so long but such sentiments had long since been burned from his mind. His wings beat tirelessly for days as he flew across the surface of his beloved ocean until finally with a simple act of will he took on the form he had worn for so long and plunged beneath the surface once again.

Deeper and deeper he went until he was forced to rely on senses a non aquatic creature could never imagine until finally he saw a light. At first it was a mere speck in the darkness so small that were he not so old and so sure of himself he would have sworn it was not there. But following his instincts he continued toward it watching it grow in size until it became apparent to his eye what it was.

A city made out of crystal and glass shining in the darkness. Down here it seemed an impossibility for suhc a delicate thing to exist but not only did it exist but, if the moving lights were any indication, it prospered. Once again his ancient mind surpressed a moment of humor as he dove in closer to the city searching for the ancient entrance he had made many centuries ago should he decide to return.

Now all he had to do was let his children do the task of carrying his message to the babes he had sent away so long ago and then he could put his plan into effect

PT.2

the hole in the floor was just where he remembered leaving it though he did not recall it being suhc a tight fit to his form. Giving the whale equivalent of a shirk he shifted, much more easily this time, into a shark and slipped upwards into the cavernous receiving chamber he had designed before sinking the city.

Now he took on a shape he had never wished to wear again, that of human being and stepped naked and dripping from the water and stood shivering for a second as lights approached him from out of a side corridor. Three beings which resembled men for the most part emerged from the opening to the lit tunnel and with monkeyish burbles of delight that the great mariner recalled as language they rushed towards him before falling prostrate on the ground. He looked down at the humans he had modified to live underneath the waves for so long and he was glad to see that time had changed them little.

Minutes passed as the ancient one dredged up from his vast memories what exactly these children of his used to communicate and finally he spoke.

"Rise my children and bring me the clothes I need to drape about this form for we have much to do and little time to do it in."

Immediately the three elders, for that is what he recalled such elderly creatures as being, rose and presented him with a fine robe made of silvery silk like material. Donning it he strode form the pool chamber and made his way down familiar corridors like he had just been there yesterday. He strode with a single minded purpose past the humanoid offspring undersea dwellers he had plcaed in charge of this refuge ignoring their stares and thier worship as he made his ever forward.

After an hour of picking his way through the massive underwater metropolis he came upon a two great jade doors. To mortal men such doors would've been enough to deter even a siege team but to the ancient of Luna's children it was mere child's play to assume his most holy of forms and with a simple push the way was opened.

Inside it was almost as he had left it nearly two millenia ago. though dust and moisture had covered everything in sight he saw that as to his decree that nothing in the throne room had been touched. Without stopping for more than a curosry glance and to close the doors behind him he stomped forward in his war fomr to the massive throne that had once been his. Adn above it resting in a tank of water from the elemental pole itself lay a memory that brought a tear to his eyes for just a moment before he regained his composure and made his way out of the room.

The three elders and several others of obvious age had gathered around the door awaiting his return and immediately burst into questions as he slowly, but much more naturally now, assumed his human form. Knowing that the proper ceremonies had yet to take place yet knowing he had to assuage these children lest they panic he quieted them with rasied arms and spoke to them for a second time.

"In a years time my comrades and the newborns will arrive here for a grand conference. All efforts must be made to preapre for their arrival. we must also preapre for the war I granted you life to fight in. for soon our ancient foes will discover this place and when they do they will attack...and we will drink of their blood and feed their remains to the bottom feeders of the abyss. Now go and make the proper ceremonies of my return ready. For I hunger after my long journey and Luna must also be properly appeased for blessing us with my joyous return to our city."

The elders and their followers scurried away then leaving the once grand admiral to his thoughts. For a moment he considered slumping against the door and resting for the journey had been hard and he needed the sleep. Yet he knew that to show weakness in front of these people might spell disater for all creation and that he could not allow. So he assumed the form of a small wharf rat he had devoured millenia ago and set off for a quiet place to dream and to rest.

PT.3

The admiral of Luna dreamed for what seemed like an eternity. In his vast mind memories collided like icerbergs shattering and capsizing each other as they fought for coherency in a mind so ancient and complex even the gods had toruble comprehending it now. In his dreams he saw visions of himslef standing proudly on the bow of his flaghsip leading his navy to victory after victory over foes to numerous to count. Then his dream shifted and he looked down on the world below him as if from a great height and what he saw almost terrified him.

A great black and red substance oozed it's wy across his beloved ocean covering it torally before crawling up the landmasses he had only ocassionally deigned to visit since his exaltation. A noise reached his ears and it took him a while to recognise it as that of humans scremaing in terror as they were drowned in this new ocean. Reaching downwards he found his arm long enough to stretch into this new oddity and he broguth a hadnful back to his lips for a taste. It was unmistakably blood, an entire ocean of it drowning the entire west in it's never ending press.

Then he fell from his lofty perch and with a scream he plunged into the morass. He flailed like a child taking his first swimming lesson and a great feeling of helplessness welled up inside him. As the blood finally began to drown him he prepared hismelf for his inevitable demise, until he saw her standing above him.

It was a vision of utter beausty he beheld and he knew it to be his chosen goddess Luna who had come to him in his time of trouble. Her face was almost ephereal. So brightly did she glow with the light of a full moon that her delicate feminine features were almost shrouded in the glory of soft light. She held out an impossibly long and slender hand to him and he took it suddenly finding himself back in his throne room with no visible signs of the ichor that he had been drowning in moments before. He scrabbled to a stadning position as he searched for the only thing he loved more than the sea and he saw the glow of her prescencee in full majesty now. So bright did it shine that he could no longer make out any humanoid features in the ever shifting enigma.

Softly it floated towards him and engulfed him in it's soothing caress easing the aches and pains that millenia of battle had brought to his weary body. Then in a chorus of voices the moon spoke to him. "Fear not brave leviathan master and commander of the ocean depths. The vision you see may not yet be if you act with a single minded purpose. Take up your mantle as king of the oceans again and reunite your fellows so that they may yet save Gaia my lover."

It was then that he awoke and was startled to find he had returned to his throne room without knowing it. He looked down at the form he wore. It was the same human form he had been born with so long ago that it was the only thing he remembered of his old life. Scarred, tanned, with long unkempt hair, yet even now his tattoos glowed with an intensity he had never seen before. But what was most surprising was what he held in his hands.

pt.4

The tattooed hag now known to her people as "the crone" stood upon the icy shore of her homeland and cast her bones one more time. Harumphing to herself she picked them back up into her leathery palms from where they had fallen in the snow. The ancient hag had sought their advice thirteen times in the last day and each time they told her the same story "wait upon the beach for a message comes soon". Then there had been her tattoos which had begun to glow even during the day forcing her to leave her warm village whether she liked it or not. So she had spent a week on this desolate shore awaiting Luna's messenger

with barely a ripple the broad back of an orca broke the surface near to her and slowly almost respectfully approached. When it had gotte to close to the shore for its bulk to allow it to continue swimming it shifted one blink saying it was a whale and then the next telling you it was both whale and human.

"S'bout time you got here. Keeping a lady of my age waiting and all that. Now tell me why I've been summoned from my duties and warm hearth and be quick." spat the hag letting her frustration and anger out on this lesser of creatures.

The man beast fell before her prostrate in a sign of abject worhsip as he delivered his message. He said "Oh chosen of Luna my master eldest of the pact demands the prescence of all those who still follow Luna's path. In a few Moons cycles he will hold a lavish ceremony where upon he will announce his glorious plan for this direction of creation. Those who attend will be honored for he is chosen by Luna. For those who do not attend they will be cast from the grace of the one true mistress and seen as enemies to her vision."

Withered hands clenched in rage for a second before dropping limp as she considered the hybrid things words. Should she throw her lot in with a people she only knew of through the scant messages she received from her oracular ability? Or should she show her contempt for this ancient one and simply tell him to come in person? Leaving the groveling beastman to wait she walked up and down the rocky shoreline for minutes considering her options. Finally she spoke.

"Very well get of an elder who's wisdom is beyond mine I will come. Return to your master and tell him the crone who sees beyond stars is coming to his....ceremony. Oh and tell him he had best have a warm room ready for me when I get there."

immediately the beastperson leapt up and almsot dashed off back into the water. Then he pulled up short and with a childish grin upon his muzzle he said one more thing.

"Excuse me my lady but I do beleive I forogt to give you the directions. Perchance would you need them?"

The crone sighed. It was going to be a long year.