Tiny Dungeon

POV The Matriarch

The Matriarch read the artificial tide as she and her pod homed in on the Heart. The tide had taken them some time to set up but a couple of rounds around the pond had solidified its structure. Now little waves frothed at the surface and she and her pod were feeling more at home than they ever had down in the subterranean depths The Singer had prepared for them. She hoped that when this place was secure in The Singer’s Song he would allow her people to remain.

A strain of song from one of her pod mates had her adjusting course. They had found the dwelling place of the Heart. It was deep at the bottom of the pond and there were guardians aplenty with flashing scales and gleaming teeth. The stone itself gleamed darkly and the pressure it exuded prodded at her ancestral memories of deep places where the light faded under crushing depths.

The pod moved in and battle was joined. The defenders of the pond were not as powerful as the whales of her pod but they were numerous and quick. The power of the stone was obvious in that it tried to wrestle control of the water from the whales’ minds and aided in the swiftness and savagery of the defenders. Despite all of that though, the tyranny of evolution was undeniable. There were perhaps over half a dozen whales to fight a darting mass of fish and other aquatic life and the whales weren’t losing in that confrontation.

They were being wounded for sure but their extremely high water affinity and greater size meant that they were eating well for the first time in a long time. It was during another engagement that the Matriarch felt a shift in the water below them. The dark stone pulsed as something moved beneath it. Rising from the muddy bottom like an ancient fossil unearthed was a shell followed by four great limbs and a large head with bony protrusions.

The stone, now mobile, pulsed more rapidly, and the creature it was attached to let out a reverberating noise that was smothered by the water. The other creatures rallied and began attacking with abandon, throwing themselves at the whales in a fervor of snapping teeth. Many of them didn’t have what it took to pierce the whales’ blubber but some did and blood quickly filled the water.

The Matriarch took it upon herself to confront the giant creature approaching from below as it rose ponderously, its thick strong legs powering it through the water. She maneuvered around it, her strong affinity allowing her to shift with more agility than her large body seemed capable of. With a muted bellow the creature followed, slowly turning its bulk to follow. It was over half her body length in size and yet was so much slower than her. She continued to circle it and probed its defenses at the same time, sending churning vortexes of water to collide with the creature’s shell to little or no effect.

It was when the creature turned to face one of her pod mates that she learned it wasn’t going to fight on her terms. A dark blue force seemed to pool in its jaws before something jagged and swift, leaped from it. The power had no regard for the surrounding water even as it tore a hole through it. Her pod mate faired no better. There was a keening cry that pierced the Matriarch’s soul as the whale in question was struck, his body going rigid and his song thick with pain.

He retreated from the fight, fighting hard to retreat with the grievous energy continuing to wrack his body while fending off attackers. It wasn’t enough to secure victory for the opposing side but it was a devastating blow to a pod that had never had one of their own so wounded before. Anger flooded the Matriarch’s song and the remaining pod members joined in singing a new song. The tide shifted, and above the pond, miniature cloud formations began to form in defiance of natural weather.

The waters of the pond began to buck and roil as underneath the waves the pod of whales got serious. They flexed their water affinity to its maximum potential as they focused their powers on ending the threat to their pod. The fish caught in the ripping tides died until the remainder either fled or were killed off. The target of their wrath bellowed its defiance as it sought to unleash its weapon once more. Destructive beams lanced outward into the maelstrom only to deal glancing blows as the whales actively dodged away.

The pod closed in, the whales' large frames forming shadows in the flashing lights of the maelstrom above. The miniature storm intensified forming a whirlpool focused on the creature at the center. Its bellow was heard clearly for the first time as the whales sucked the water from around its body. It spat its beams but it was clear that whatever reserves were fueling the dangerous display was fading.

The Matriarch continued the song as the whales climbed higher the water building in volume and rising unnaturally above the banks of the pond in a column. With a final note, the whales reversed the tide, and gallons of water slammed into the creature that was stuck in the silt and muck of the pond floor.

As the whales recovered from the exertion of controlling that much water they felt The Singer arrive like a gale upon Aetheric winds. The creature, still alive, managed a weak bellow, trying vainly to free itself from the sunken prison of mud it had been forced into. The dark stone gleamed in the dark, its vibrancy undiminished by the conflict. The Singer sank into the water following the song of the pod until he reached the stone.

“Enough.” The Singer’s melodic voice cut through the creature’s weakening bellows. There was a flash of power and a pulling sensation as The Singer’s presence flooded the area like a song from the deep. There was a pressure to it and the pod instinctively sang a refrain as they let their wild song of wrath die out.

“I lay claim to this place of power.” There was another pulse of his presence as something unknowable and unseen snapped into place and the Matriarch felt a piece of herself return that she hadn’t known was missing. She felt The Singer’s gaze turn towards her and her pod and she felt his gratitude. His voice reverberated with power as he sang over them.

“You have done me a great service, my children. May you be blessed.” He turned to The Matriarch and spoke to her in particular. “Thank you, Great Singer, for leading your people well. I Name you Oma Unok’Vaina, The Matriarch of the Pod.” A chorus rose around her and The Matriarch felt the shift in her soul, as if the notes of a distant song were becoming clearer. There was a pulse and the song crystalized for one beautiful moment before fading leaving the whale irrevocably changed.

The Singer remained for another moment before his gaze moved on and the whale was left with an old enemy, now also changed. The injuries it had sustained were gone, healed by the working of The Singer and there was an instinctive knowledge that it had been performing a duty of its own in defending the Heart of the Pond. The Matriarch moved forward and released a calming note over the creature before she felt weariness steal over her.

She notified her people before she headed to the surface where she would remain asleep until the changes wrought upon her were finished. Her people would watch over the pond until she awoke. Her great eyelids closed even as she breathed deeply through her blowhole. This place would make a fine home for her pod and she would guard it with everything she had.