Clown Wyrm - 27. Chapter 27 - EarthWyrm

The Mechanic and Periwinkle rushed to Norjia and fell to their knees, but Mercury stood where she was. Her hand-lamp’s beam was on Norjia, who was bleeding from multiple wounds, but she was grinning.

“That was a good fight,” she managed, but she coughed and winced.

“Don’t speak, my love,” the Mechanic whispered.

“Oh, no,” Periwinkle breathed as he looked over her.

Norjia chuckled. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

It looked worse, but no one said anything.

Norjia focused past her wife and Periwinkle. “Mercury, I’ve got something for you.”

The clown approached, but as she got closer, tears began to fill her eyes. “Oh, Norjia.”

“Enough of that,” Norjia insisted. “This has been better than Furthen gave it credit for, and you need to take it.” She extended the Planet Smasher in Mercury’s direction. “Go kill that god with a blade made from a meteorite.”

Mercury tried to ignore the catastrophic damage Norjia had suffered as she replied. “We know what it is now. The earth wyrm… is an earthworm.”

She shined her light upwards, and a vast stretch of the so-called dragon was visible, coiled around itself above them.

Norjia took a sharp breath, and Mercury flashed her light back down to her. She was gritting her teeth, and her eyes were squeezed shut. Her arms and legs were pulled tight to her body in an intense flex, but she was getting weaker. Norjia opened her eyes.

“You have to kill it,” she stated. “You’re the one.”

Mercury knelt beside Norjia and took the Planet Smasher from the warrior’s powerful hand, and Norjia grabbed Mercury’s wrist as she repeated herself.

“You’re the one. You’re the pure one. I don’t know how, but it’s you. You’re the one in the prophesy. You have to kill the dragon.” Norjia focused on her wife. “Dizriolith, you have to take them the rest of the way. Get them to the head, and protect them so they can kill it.” Norjia looked at the corpse beside her. “Take his sword. Be strong, like on your poacher-hunting expeditions. My love, you have always been my hero.” She pulled the Mechanic’s hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles. “I love you, Dizriolith.”

Tears were running down the Mechanic’s cheeks. “I love you, Norjia.” She leaned forward, and the wives shared a kiss. “I’ll help them finish this madness. You’ve done enough. Rest now, my love. I love you,” the Mechanic repeated in a choked voice as she wrapped her arms around Norjia. “You’ve always been perfect.”

The two cried together on the floor of that dark, dank cavern, but after only a moment, the Mechanic let out a wail and cried out in anguish, “Nooo!”

Norjia was dead.

Mercury and Periwinkle were standing off to one side, and both of them were weeping as the Mechanic sobbed.

The minutes slipped away, but eventually, the Mechanic rose and stood above the body of the woman she loved.

“Norjia,” she whispered, “for you, my love.” She looked away from her wife’s corpse and focused on the two clowns. “Let’s finish this.” The Mechanic glanced back at Norjia more than once as the trio continued deeper into the darkness until Norjia’s body was no longer visible behind them.

“I’m so sorry,” Mercury whispered to the Mechanic.

She nodded but did not say anything.

All three of their hand-lamps were shining the way in front of them, but each could not help but keep pointing their lights up at the dragon, until eventually the smooth portion of the giant lumbricus terrestris above them ended, and more of the pockmarked and uneven flesh continued into the darkness before them.

“We’re getting closer to R’Kathlug’s head,” Mercury stated.

Mud coated every surface as they progressed lower in the core of the extinct volcano.

“How do you kill a worm?” Periwinkle asked. “Salt dissolves slugs. Is there an equivalent chemical compound that has a similar effect on worms?”

“I have no idea,” Mercury replied. “Wait, is that it? Have we made it to the head?” She shined her light up and ahead, and the tapered end of the worm was before them.

The thing twitched, and its fleshy mouth shifted in the air above the trio with its light-sensitive cells focused on the source of illumination. The hideous mouth expanded, and the dragon’s head came down upon the three of them with the might of an avalanche.

Mercury, Periwinkle, and the Mechanic were vacuumed into the worm toward its pharynx, and their horror was not appeased by the fact that R’Kathlug did not in fact possess razor-sharp teeth in its mouth, as the clowns had been told, and the three of them were in no pain. However, as more of the beast’s mucous covered them, they struggled to breathe. Their heads and faces were coated, and it covered their mouths and nostrils. They each fought for air and flailed through the thick slime, but suddenly, they entered an open chamber several stories high, and they fell to the fleshy floor, scraping the mucous from their faces and coughing as they caught their breath.

The three hand-lamps were still functional, and their glowing illuminated a shocking sight. Mercury, Periwinkle, and the Mechanic looked up. Above their heads was a man. His eyes and mouth were open wide, but he was unresponsive. He was naked, and his arms and legs were stretched out in four opposing directions, but instead of hands and feet at the ends of the man’s limbs, his flesh extended, reaching out to the inner walls of the cavernous interior of the dragon’s mouth. He was fused with the great beast.

There was also a large crystalline structure protruding up from the floor of the wide chamber beneath the man, and there were objects trapped within it that Mercury and Periwinkle immediately recognized.

She squawked, “My tutu!” as he cried out, “My hat!”

Their handmade articles of clown clothing, along with their cell phones and wallets, were encased in the crystal.

Then a voice spoke inside each of the clowns’ heads, and a light above them flashed in time with the voice. The illumination came from the dragon’s cerebral ganglia, and although the Mechanic was not privy to the words being spoken, she was mesmerized by the preternatural blinking.

Sacrifices, I am R’Kathlug. Your predecessor’s time is at an end.

The voice sounded like a swarm of insects inside Mercury and Periwinkle’s minds.

Domino has ruled well with me over the millennia, but it is time for the one to be replaced by two. Your time to rise is at hand, sacrifices, and you will be exalted. Join me.

Mercury and Periwinkle focused on the man above them, and they realized they recognized him as the voice of R’Kathlug continued.

You will live forever. You will be all-powerful. None will be able to stand against you. You will rule over the whole of the earth. Your legacy will remain until the world dies. Become more than you are. Embrace and unleash your true potential. The world is your audience; give them a show.

The man suspended in the middle of the open space within the dragon was Mercury and Periwinkle’s clown daddy, who had opened Unholy Mead back in their hometown. It was Domino.

Witness the choices of your predecessor.

Mercury and Periwinkle’s consciousnesses were suddenly thrust through space and time to witness a deal made with the dragon.