Morgan (Friend of Lilith)

Morgan

"Greetings, To each what did he call you? Madlings? Yes, Madlings," Lilith said, smoothing the lines in the long sleeves of her dress.

"Who are you talking to?" A quiet tone, calm and feminine.

"We are currently standing in the main settlement of The Obsidian Wail," Lilith continued ignoring the voice.

"This is why people think you are weird." The voice continues to talk to Lilith.

"My father, Cayn, came to this forest when it was wild and lawless," Lilith started staring off into the distance, her eyes unblinking.

"Lilith, dear? Is anything inside that grey matter still functional?" Lilith again ignored the voice.

"Twenty years have passed since my father found me in the woods." A growing chill in her neck causes Lilith to jolt her head to the side, uncontrollably colliding her cheek with her shoulder. Her expression did not change, still a blank stare into the distance.

"Lilith?" She vaguely heard the voice, nothing more than a whisper now. A figure had stepped before Lilith snapping a thin pair of fingers. Lilith couldn't see who the blurry form before her was.

"Over those twenty years, he has steadily settled this paradise into a base of power." Lilith remained still.

"Paradise? A jest surely!" The voice couldn't help but chuckle audibly.

"Madlings, soon the rebirth of Ult..." Kneeling on the damp red earth, Lilith grabs her face with both hands as thick globs of black blood seep through her fingers. Lilith's eyes bulged wide as the skull of a girl a whole foot shorter became very intimate with the bridge of her nose.

"I said I would watch over you while you had your little cocktail. You never told me I would have to listen to you ramble idiocy again. What by the name of Gaia is a Madling?" The voice was booming as a dull throb radiated in Lilith's skull.

"Madling? What?" Lilith asked, confused and needing clarification on what was going on. "Morgan, why are we in the Undercroft?" standing again, red moss clung desperately to her thin dress. Lilith brushes the red fluffs off her hips simultaneously, smearing blood across the skirt of her dress.

"Because my best friend is as looney as they come!" Morgan huffed once again, shorter than Lilith by a good measure. "Because she came to me and begged me to watch her be stupid." Growled Morgan rubbing her forehead with two slender fingers. "That lady has completely fucked you up, and your head is hard!" Morgan's voice was calm again, if not cold.

"But we were just in my room?" Lilith looked down at Morgan, taking in the view for the first time. Morgan prided herself in being the most well-kept woman in the room. To see Morgan in a simple pair of trousers and a none frilly blouse was surprising enough. For those clothes to also be filthy with what she assumed was (mud?) well, that was a rare sight.

"Your room? That was hours ago! Before the tunnels, before you drank. Whatever that lady gave you." Morgan had difficulty keeping the calm demeanor she usually used to scold Lilith. Over their lifelong friendship Morgan had scolded Lilith many times, usually when she was dragging her on some crazy errand. "I have spent hours now following behind you. An exhausting tedious task, might I add." Had it been hours? Lilith had no memory active memory of any of that.

"We went into the tunnels?" Lilith asked, astonished. Entrances to the mountain appeared and vanished with no apparent pattern. No one that her father had ever sent into the tunnels returned. Her father had spent over a decade trying to discover how to safely enter and explore the mountain depths.

"...Yes" Was that hesitation or fear? Lilith couldn't tell.

Morgan always had a way of keeping a cool head. She admired that about her friend. Lilith had often found herself pulled by powerful emotions. Those moments often led to her doing things Morgan liked to remind her were pointless. "Parents die, Lilith. Mine have been dead for years. Get over it, dear there are worst hells." Lilith could always count on Morgan to tell her familial connections were for "sappy children." Morgan had been her best friend since they were sappy children. She should understand Lilith owes everything to her father.

"And?" Lilith couldn't help but be excited about entering the mountain tunnels. The older woman said all it took was faith. If she drank the elixir, everything would be made clear to her. Yet here she was, asking Morgan to recount their experiences because she had no memory past chugging that disgusting fluid. Morgan did say hours, right?

"Nothing," Morgan shrugged, her voice gripping Lilith's heart.

"...Nothing?" Lilith asked, confused. That couldn't be right. The red leaves upon trees of pure Obsidian. Shallow pools of crimson fluid sprinkled about the moss-covered ground. There was no mistaking that they were within the Undercroft. Indeed there was some exciting way that they found this area of the Obsidian Wail. She had helped her father search for the Undercroft most of her life. There is no way she just stumbled across it now no big deal.

"Yes! Nothing!" Morgan's voice had become deeper by a few tones. "After you drank your crazy juice, you went insane. Started spouting nonsense. Next thing I know, I am chasing you into the forest." Morgan jabs her painted nail into Lilith's still-aching nose. "I barely caught up to you near the mountain. Then you walked in, you insane twit, you walked in!" Squinting her nose as she furrows her eyebrows together, Morgan shakes black globs off her finger. "I didn't know watching you meant following you into unknown tunnels people say are cursed."

"Yes, but what was it like in the tunnels!" Lilith's heart was beating a million beats a minute. For years she had visions of a palace carved into the rock. A wondrous place with a waterfall running from its entrance. She had heard stories of a "Sacred Glade" deep within the mountain tunnels. Her teacher had once told her a great being called the Glade their home. Yet the knowledge or name of this so-called being illuded her teacher completely.

"Nothing! Absolutely Nothing! We walked for what felt like forever. Endlessly walking through pitch black NOTHING!" Little beads of sweat had begun to form on Morgan's brow. "I held on to that cheap fabric you call a dress as tight as possible." Morgan pulls on Lilith's long wool dress sleeve. "After forever.."

"Awe, you were scared and held me," Lilith couldn't help but interrupt.

"After FOREVER, I closed my eyes and let you lead the dance. Not that it mattered; I couldn't see a damned thing." Morgan closed her eyes slowly. Gripping Lilith's collar Morgan pulled her down to match their height. "Then poof" Morgan opened her eyes to stare into Lilith's swirling black eyes. "I was here with you in this disgusting place." Morgan released Lilith and scoffed. "What is this place anyway?" Morgan asked, exasperated.

"It's the Undercroft!" Lilith said in the key of "duh" minor.

"Yes. You said that, dear." Morgan folds her arms across her midsection before lifting one hand to twist her hair around her finger. The boys thought this a cute shy quirk. Lilith knew it as a compulsive habit Morgan made when nervous. "Humor me?" Morgan again looked as if she wanted to smack Lilith.

"The locals have never been very fond of my father. You know that, right?" Lilith steps away from her friend and peers into endless black obsidian trees. She couldn't help but feel extremely sad, surrounded by the crimson leaves. However, the leaves upon the trees outside the Undercroft were always a shimmering sea of silver. What caused these leaves to change color, and why was the water so red here? These questions had burned into Lilith's brain from a young age.

"Intimately.." Morgan replied, more tight curls around her finger. Of course, Morgan knows the native locals don't like them. It was, after all, why her parents were dead.

"Well, the initial conflict led to a ton of bloodshed. Enough blood that my teacher claims stained the trees in a section of the forest." Lilith waved her arm outward, presenting her view to Morgan. She had never personally stood in the Undercroft. To her knowledge, no one had. It was only a place Lilith saw in her visions.

"Just who put that fantasy in your head? That shriveled hag?" Morgan huffed, moving forward to stand next to her childhood friend. "They are just trees, Lilith. No amount of blood is going to stain a whole forest." Morgan didn't believe in curses or fairy tales. She had seen enough "evil" in her life to know humans did it plenty, no fairy tale required. "So what now? Are your Madlings going to get us unlost?"

"How would I know what a Madling is?" Lilith asked, thinking she had never heard that term before.

"You said it!" Shouted Morgan, "Incessant ramblings about the rebirth of some fairy tale god. I don't know what a Madling is, but they have got to be tired of listening to your repetitive drivel." The curling of Morgan's hair had begun with renewed enthusiasm. "I got tired of listening to your voice, and I listen to it daily."

"Fairy tale god? What was its name?" Lilith again asked her friend for clarifying details. Looking once again at her friend Morgan began to tug on her fresh-formed curl.

"Some dragon named Ultima, complete nonsense to scare children. Dragons are a myth, or did you not know?" Morgan answered, rolling her eye as she took in a deep breath. "Winged creatures the size of four longboats? Utter nonsense."

"Never heard of such a creature." Lilith retorted back. This statement was the truth. When Lilith was a child, a woman appeared before her father, claiming to know the origins of her black eyes of swirling blood. The woman had convinced him so much that she gained access to Cayn's inner circle. This circle included Lilith, who had been drinking an elixir the woman had prepared since she was a girl.

"What now, genius?" Morgan muttered, chewing on her lip as a sapphire hair curled free from her finger. That was the question currently running through Lilith's brain.

Lilith had no idea what was going to happen now. She didn't remember leaving her room. Nor did she remember anything that Morgan was claiming happened. Morgan was by her side each time Lilith attempted to trigger a vision by drinking the elixir. She wouldn't lie about what happened or the journey. Often Lilith would fall into slumber when consuming the murky liquid. Sometimes she would have vivid dreams about various places. Now Lilith and Morgan were alone in one such place in her visions, the place her teacher called the Undercroft.

Her teacher hadn't prepared her for the majesty of everything before her. There were the jagged crystal walls of the mountains behind them. There was no visible entry if they had come through the tunnels. That was not how they were returning. So their only actual path was to trudge through the murky red swampland before them. In all seriousness, they were alone in an unknown part of the Obsidian Wail. Her visions had shown her this beautiful landscape of crimson and Obsidian. Those same visions also showed her some of the dangers as well.

"We walk?" Lilith's head again jolted to the right as she began to scan everything around them. This motion was a nervous twitch she had whenever a chill would creep up her neck.

"Excuse me!?" Morgan scoffed as she had already begun to walk forward. There was little point arguing here if they were to figure out where they were. Lilith is sure Morgan had also come to the same conclusions she had. "You're exhausting. I should have let you drown in the sea." Morgan sighed as Lilith caught up to her in a few straightforward strides.

"You believe that?" Lilith asks earnestly. She wasn't a very emotional being. Even from her youth, Lilith had a very logical and goal-driven mind.

"Of course not!" Sighs Morgan as they continue to weave their way through the trees. Lilith was now leading the way but never moved more than a tree or two away from her friend. She thought they would eventually find something if they kept walking away from the mountain fading behind them.

"Good, I couldn't imagine a life where I never saw you in such a stunning ensemble." Lilith jabbed, stepping behind a tree so her friend couldn't see her grin.

"Very funny. I had minimal time to respond to your stroll in the woods." Countered Morgan.

"Were you not in an ornate dress when you came over?" Lilith retorted back at her friend.

"I may have been trying on those peasant clothes you make for yourself." Responded Morgan. "You should be honored I found your garments acceptable."

"Of course, truly honored." Lilith quipped back one final time before the silence set in.

Hours of walking passed in silence as Morgan followed close behind Lilith. Once, they had to detour around a rather large pool of swamp water. Within the Undercroft, the further they got from the mountain, the darker the forest became. Usually, a dim silver light bathed the Obsidian Wail even at night. As the darkness grew around them, Lilith stopped suddenly, causing Morgan to bump into her back.

"What is the point of your long legs?" Mocked Morgan as she made her way forward. They had walked into a thin clearing when Morgan turned to face her companion. Lilith had not moved since Morgan had collided with her. A whisper had begun to burrow its way into Lilith's head.

"Do you hear them?" Lilith's eyes slammed shut as a cascade of howling screams violated her senses from every direction. Ceaseless cries of so many souls howling in pain overloaded Lilith's brain. Lilith's attempt at composure crumbled as fast as the voices began.

"Lilith?" Morgan called out to her in the distance.

As another wave of screams rang within, Lilith raised her head, looking into the canopies. A faint glow had begun to illuminate the clearing before her. As the cries around her grew in intensity, so did the crimson light surrounding them. Lilith felt nothing as her body slumped backward, slamming her head against the ground. Another vicious wave of pain-induced screams forces Lilith's eyes open. She hadn't even noticed that Morgan was shaking her. She hadn't been aware Morgans' terrified voice added to the chorus of the damned. Raising to her feet unblinking, Lilith effortlessly brushed Morgan aside. Lilith took two steps into the clearing before a torrent of a thick crimson fluid descended from the canopies.

"The FUCK!" Morgan howled as her normal sapphire hair turned a vibrant shade of purple. The simple white tunic she hastily threw on soaked from the mystery red fluid.

"Madlings, this is the first time I ever saw the Obsidian Wail cry." Lilith again twitched her head to the right in a sudden cracking motion.

"You are not.." Morgan cried out, barely able to stand under her clothes, now waiting with the liquid spewing from the trees.

"This will not be the last time, Madlings." Lilith's hair was soaked and sticking to her face as she turned to fixate her vision on Morgan.

"Fuck you and your Madlings! You insane bitch" Morgan was struggling to see through the thick globs of red sap now coating her body.

"She won't be my last victim." Lilith again took two steps.

"What?" No scream came from Morgan's lips. Only a faint gurgle as eight razor-edged fangs puncture the right side of her neck. Morgan's body convulsed in Lilith's arms as she lifted Morgan a foot off the ground to feed off her neck. A primal scream escapes Lilith's mouth as she tears her mouth from Morgan's neck. Another cry from Lilith as Morgan slams her forehead against Lilith's nose again.

"I am not a fucking victim!" Morgan screamed as she again slammed her skull against Lilith's face. Wiggling her left hand free, Morgan grips her best friend by the throat. Lilith howled in mindless rage as the flesh on her throat began to burn away from Morgan's touch. Lilith finally released Morgan from her crushing embrace.

Several inches of red liquid growing deeper every minute cushioned Morgan's fall. Heat swells in Morgan's right palm. Thick clouds of steam rise from Morgan's hand as the crimson water evaporates. Morgan narrows her vision upon Lilith floundering in the rain as Lilith's throat begins to stitch itself closed. There was no scream as Morgan lifted her molten hot palm to her neck, cauterizing the puncture wounds as best she could.

"I'm not some punk kid that needs a guardian angel to save her. Hope your Madlings are ready to see you get your ass kicked." Morgan screamed defiantly as her best friend lunged towards her, lost to blood lust. "My turn to lead this dance."