16 October 2017 - “Fat”

Eido blinked, opened her eyes, and saw nothing but blackness above her.  At first, she thought she was dead... but no, this was just whatever counted as sky in this place.

She looked around.  She had never been here before but had heard it recounted by Sycora in countless stories.  The featureless landscape leeched of color, no sky but a starless void – she was in the land of the dead.

But she was not dead.  She hugged herself and found her body warm and solid.  She looked down at the her dress, stained reddish-brown with dried blood around a hole the size of her thumb, burned ragged around the edges.  Eido probed with her fingers underneath her dress and discovered a patch of scar tissue dry and tough like leather, but the pain was gone.

Eido looked up and saw the face of a woman, its features diaphanous and swirling, regarding her with curiosity.

Too panicked to stand, Eido scuttled away from her like a crab on her elbows and feet.  The spirit lifted her hands in a calming gesture and said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m not sure if I should believe you,” Eido replied.

The woman smiled.  “I don’t blame you.  Most of the spirits in this realm would kill you just to enjoy the warmth of your corpse, but Pippin seems to care a great deal for you.”

Pippin?  Pip!  The human boy.

“Did he bring me here?  Where is he?”  But as Eido looked around, she saw a figure sprawled on the ground a few feet away.  She scrambled to her feet and ran to him.

His breathing was quick and shallow.  He looked even paler than after he had almost drowned.  Eido inspected Pip’s body and found a long gash across one palm, the blood caked dry into a scab.  

Pip’s other hand held a knife.

Then Eido heard a belch.  She looked up and saw a squat round figure cover his mouth with embarrassment.  He was the fattest creature Eido had ever seen, an immense belly bulging out of his toga like a filled wineskin.  Legs tottering beneath him, clearly taxed by supporting the man’s improbable bulk.  He also looked solid, though he had the gray flesh of someone not quite alive.

The man looked afraid to meet Eido’s eyes as he explained, “It’s not entirely my fault.  He didn’t bring a bowl, you see.”

The spirit-woman spoke with an anger that shocked Eido, “You didn’t have to suck him dry!”

“I confess I got carried away.  To have human blood flowing inside me again, it’s intoxicating, irresistible really.  And I upheld my half of the bargain.”  The men held up a hand and gestured toward Eido.

Eido looked the spirit for confirmation.  She nodded.  “Spirits will do anything for a taste of human blood.”

This woman was a spirit.  What was she doing there, helping them?  What did she get in return?  

“Did you...?”  Eido asked.  Her unfinished question hung in the air like an accusation.

The spirit looked disgusted, “I would never harm my son.”

Her son?  So, Pip’s illusory life in Sycora’s nest, finding his mother alive and well.  That had been just a fantasy.  Their actual reunion had probably not been as joyful as Pip had once fantasized.

Eido pointed at the man, “So he didn’t used to be...”

“Fat?  No, no, my usual form is the picture of health.”

“I meant, you used to be a spirit.”

“Oh, yes, I’m afraid I’m not myself today in many respects.”

“What did you do?” Eido demanded.

“I’m not completely bereft of self-control.  He will recover.  I assure you.   Though if he had died in the land the dead, it raises some interesting questions, medically speaking...”

“How long?”

“Well, he tasted young, and healthy.  Should be a matter of... hours.”  But the man shrugged, showing he had no confidence in his prediction.

Eido felt a chill as the spirit of Pip’s mother placed an ethereal hand by her shoulder.  “Humans aren’t safe in this realm.  Once more spirits discover he’s here.”  She looked around them.  Eido had the impression that the landscape did not look so empty to her, and she was scared by what she saw.

“We have to hurry,” she told Eido in a whisper.