Chapter 8: Chapter Eight: Better living through agony.

The arrow now sat firm in Marl’s neck, it was an interesting sensation as it didn’t tear or move no matter how he bent his neck or moved his head. A pleasant surprise had also accompanied Marl and his new assistant. “Woden” wasn’t much changed by becoming a spirit, he appeared as a naked version of the same man, the parts of his body burned away by lead now appeared as smooth metal poured into scarred gouges and he possessed a smoke like constitution...Wilma however was greatly changed. Yes, it seemed the spirit of the dog was unwilling to pass without her beloved master and chose to stay with him. The little bloodhound was now a horse, the mighty horse of “Woden” was of course “Sleipnir.”

It had had the look of someone stuffing a six legged horse skeleton into a bloodhound skin, never the less the apparitions rode together as they had in life and legend. The Fey were very angry at this development and murmured incomprehensible things in his ear that frightened Marl to his core. However, a voice screamed out “I LIKE CATS.” The Fey were instantly silenced. Marl supposed he had a supporter among the Fey as long as he could save the life of the little cat named Noir. This however would be no easy task, for starters he was a human doctor and medicine concerning humans was often horrifically barbaric anyway, he decided to start with some willow bark medicine. The flavinoids and acetylsalicylic acid should get it’s inflammation and at least let it calm down so he can get it’s wound clean. The hardest part was keeping his own hands from chipping in little bits of deadly, deadly lead. The dosage may have been too high and given the cat an ulcer or two, but those would heal with time and proper care while it’s eye socket infection was an immediate danger. When it was all said and done the stitches had come out great, but he’d needed to remove a lot more flesh than he’s hoped. The cat’s eye socket was very sunken in with a scar that looked like a downward crescent moon, it was also very, very tired. So was Marl since doing delicate experimental cross-species surgery with candle wax covered poisonous claws to please Fey folk was stressful to say the least. He collapsed into his Marl pit.

He was thankful to see that while bound to the arrow “Woden” and “Sleipnir” as they seemed to be called now were able to work very interdependently. As spirits they could only seem to inflict very minor wounds, but with their excellent herding skills they corralled many animal into either falling into or dying near Marl’s pit. Still it was very welcome and Marl had gained three templates this way from badgers to a snake and a vulture even. A rare creature in Anglia. The most important however was a stray bull they managed to slip away from Manderson’s farm though doing so exhausted them so completely the returned to the arrow which seemed to wreath itself in fog. Actually, as a day passed and Marl’s emerged from the pit, he began to notice it was getting rather misty, the trees as well seemed to have become more gnarled than usual. Marl began to wonder if he was having an effect on the environment.

Still, there was little time to consider such things as he readied himself by re-submerging into the lake before striking himself in the groin. There was silence. If something like that happened he could usually hear the laughter of the Fey. It seemed when submerged in the brackish water of this underground marl pit lake they could not see him. He knew first hand that darkness had no bearing on the Fey, perhaps it was the particles of the pit’s water or perhaps The Fey simply thought he only rested in the water and weren’t paying attention. At any rate, they’d left a window closed on their panopticon.

Marl pretended to be looking for a pen, throwing a number of vials, rubber bands and cheese cloth pieces into the water as he searched which elicited a few laughs from The Fey, then after he found the pen he made some notes before slipping back into the water. The notes were things like “The Fey are fucking idiots.” That got no response so either they couldn’t read English or they didn’t care about what he was writing. Once in the water he began to cut himself open in various locations, going so far as to open holes in his bones. He found his tolerance for pain was becoming higher the more he suffered. Into the holes he loaded the vials covered by cheese cloth held in place by rubber bands, even though he expects the water of the marl pit and his own blood to contaminate it he hopes he can collect a sample of that Golden liquid. The system of curses appears to operate semi-independently of The Fey, but the alterations appear completely dependent on the lanceoloid Fey. If he could figure out how to produce it or it’s qualities the potential was unlimited.

Finally feeling ready he entered the alcove and applied a new web before applying himself to it. He had 2500 meat and had wanted to wait until he’d caught a hero shrew, but he didn’t want to be caught flat footed by the deadline to take Dillion Rathbone’s eye. Speaking of eyes, he closed his and began to hum until his eye lids were pried apart by those awful legs, still he managed to keep humming the tune of “Down in the Willow Garden.” As the lanceoloid Fey appeared from out of the darkness he spoke.

“~Good tune. Good body. You are becoming a very fun project. No rejection, your mind is flexible and strong! You would feel crippled if you were human again.~”

That thought made Marl very, very uncomfortable because it was true even in spite of the pain the curses cause he much preferred his body now.

One of the spider legs in Marl’s eye flicked the arrow protruding from his neck with a notable twang.

“~Ooooh, you know I like familiars. Novel idea with the legends, for a hundred meat I’ll touch them up, though. ‘Woden’ I can give him armour, a bow and sword that will be basic but grow with him. It will look ‘gnarly’ but that’s on you. ‘Sleipnir’ will just look like a horse.~”

Marl gave as best of a nod as he could while humming with his head stuck on a web. A razor sharp spider leg traveled the length of the bolt, scraping as it did and leaving a long circular peel of the bolt with the indentation filled by the golden shining substance. He cut the entire side of Marl’s neck open doing it in one stroke. The bolt began taking on a corkscrew like appearance of gnarled wood. The formerly neat and circular tip expanded into a jagged, ragged looking rune covered flat arrow head. The light blue nearly white feathers on end of it seemed to softly glow now. Marl had stopped humming after nearly being decapitated, but as his throat closed back around the bolt turned arrow and he simply resumed humming.

The lanceoloid Fey made an incomprehensibly vile noise that made Marl feel like the insides of his ears had turned into vicious centipedes.

“~Maybe to adaptable. Not human seeming. No protests at my cruelty. No begging. Pretty body, but you are no fun. Heh, lets try this.~”

“~I will worsen your curse of vermin for only one hundred meat. The worms will be covered in teeth inside and out, be combustible and do not resolve after time away from your body. Constant burning and throat pain for drastically more powerful worms. Will you take it? I like familiars.~”

Again Marl assented, rather than a slash the leg pierced straight into his throat pouch and began pumping it full of the golden material to the point it was far beyond any capacity it could hold, then the worms in his jowel began to frenzy. They had become a hundred swimming straight razors that combusted intermittently. The pain was agonizing and always would be. Marl tried to continue humming as his broken sobs occasionally interrupted the tune and tears flowed from his face.

Booming laughter that made Marl’s heavily damaged skin still prickle somehow.

“~I take it back, I take it back. Soooo veeeeery interesting! Okay enough games, my examinations are over. Make your choices, my mother needs her feet cleaned tonight and if I were you I wouldn’t want me to tell her you kept me waiting.~” There was only silence as Golden letters filled Marl’s mind and he tried his best to ignore the implications in the horrors barely veiled threat.

Crow: Feathered wings. 15000 meat.

Fox: Enhanced ears will drastically improve hearing. 350 meat.

Snake & Owl: Three hundred and sixty degree movement of all body parts. Bones slightly easier to break or dislocate. 1100 meat. (illuminated)

Snake: Greater body movement. Bones slightly easier to break or dislocate. 500 meat. Alternate, sensor pits and tongue elongation. 350 meat. (illuminated)

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Owl: Three hundred and sixty degree neck movement. Bones slightly easier to break or dislocate. 500 meat. Alternate, Feathered wings 15000 meat. (illuminated)

Eel: Skin gains greater water traversal speed and blunt force trauma resistance. 600 meat. (illuminated)

Fish: Grow gills and fins allowing breathing in water and faster movement in and out of water. 1500 meat. (illuminated)

Dog: Greatly increased sense of smell. 350 meat. (illuminated)

Vulture: Balded limbs, increase re-tractability of fatal implements decrease ability to be infected, possibility to gain templates from the dead as well as meat gained from synergy with crow digestion and past action. 150 meat. (illuminated)

Cow: Horns drastically improve thermoregulation, digestion and blood flow. Musculature will be drastically increased as well as height. 2500 meat. (illuminated)

Badger: Burrowing claws allow underground movement. 1500 meat. (illuminated)

Mosquitoes: Grow a proboscis from the back of the limbs. Allows blood drinking of blood or administration of numbing saliva. 350 meat. (illuminated)

Spawn spectral beings: One spectral being for 100 meat each. Total six. (illuminated)

Resilience, flexibility and awareness. These were Marl’s goals, the offerings were tempting, but he had to stay focused. It was much harder with the burning razor blade like worms in his throat. The combined Owl and Snake surgery seemed to perfectly cover flexibility so he chose it. He could no longer hum. Only scream. Time seemed to slow to eternity as the Fey surgeon dug each of his bones out and smashed them apart in the void somehow. It applied the golden liquid and the bones knitted back together looking more like spinal bones than whichever part he was currently working on.

Somehow, Marl could see his own skull ripped out and smashed.

The Fey surgeon simply laughing and sating “~Sorry, I got carried away...~” His tone suddenly shifted to be far more malicious “~...WANT SOME TAIL BONES!? HA HA HA HA!~” A vial sat on the end of one of his lanceoloid gem legs.

As Marl gradually calmed down he responded in a weak voice. “If they will make it stronger or faster then yes, please.” Marl could feel the anger of the Fey in his eyes in a prickly, searing pain brought on by The Fey’s wrath at his resilience and scheme. He injected a new spine into the tail which Marl was elated with the strength of, his surgeon having grumbled at the fact he was so angry he didn’t ensure Marl was conscious for the extremely painful procedure. Marl had blacked out twice.

Now, Marl focused on improving his awareness while ignoring the irate Fey who he silenced simply by ceasing his humming. His choices then were between dog and fox, to be honest his hearing seemed to be the same to him as being a human and while human he never had much of a sense of smell so it seemed the better of the options. He chose it and the Spidery legs began to pierce through his nose and all the way into his brain. His ceaseless screams allowed the creature to speak.

“~What good is the nose without a brain that can process the new information. Oops, forgot to tell you! God I hate people like you so much. You pretend it doesn’t hurt after I hear all your screaming.~”

After the legs retracted from his nose Marl felt no large physical difference, but was immediately overcome which a smell he could only describe as vinegar, blood and cinnamon. It was so incredibly strong as to be nauseating. Marl wanted to move on to resilience, but he was facing a problem...it was too much. Too physically painful, continuing filled him with dread and agony. Tears began to flow freely from his face as his Fey torturer giggled like a child. Still, after a number of hours Marl found his resolve and regained rational thought. His choices seemed to be between cow and eel, but since Cow was hopelessly expensive Marl went with Eel. The second he did one of the legs comprised of lanceoloid gems in his vision shattered and fell onto his body. They swarmed his flesh like a storm of scalpels.

Soon it was over, Marl sobbed brokenly unable to form words as the impatient Fey surgeon stabbed him pointlessly in annoyance. Marl jerked his head up staring into the Spider-like cluster of gems and spoke as defiantly as he could. “Vulture, please.”

The spider legs pulled out his intestines and passed them from leg to leg, each stabbing a different length of bowel and injecting the golden liquid and turning a repulsive green before haphazardly shoving the whole thing back inside his torso and sealing it back up.

Then it scrapped his limbs painfully, but it felt like barely a deep tissue massage compared to what he’d experience so far. His claws and spines seemed to be able to retract better now. He was eager to see himself, but he had one last thing to do. “One spectral being please.” He continued humming while he braced himself and waited for a response, but was shocked The Fey was also humming.

His claws began to produce some mist which the Fey gathered in a ball and inserted in the central hole on the centre of Marl’s left shoulder. It then spoke very softly saying “~I’ll give you an instruction manual on it! Take good care of it and come see me soon!~” Then he was gone and Marl was alone in the dark alcove with a broken spider web all over his body.

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