Jay just wanted to relax his eyes, if only for a moment. After spending a few hours at the stream his energy had recovered, but mentally he felt quite drained. The stress had built up, and not knowing what lied ahead only added to it.
He had only fled from Losla for a little under two days, but to him, it felt like it was never going to end.
Now there was an itch on his arm, a nagging feeling holding him back from truly relaxing, stopping himself from feeling at ease. It would have been akin to sleeping in a bed filled with sand - an impossible task.
"Dammit. Fuck. This fucking itch!" He thought, scratching his arm.
Finally, he took off his molodus coat, ready to give his arm the scratch of its life, however...
"What the fuck?" His eyes widened, staring at his arm.
On his arm was a large sore, a bubble of flesh which had some green lifeforms in it, each of them looked like pieces of grass, about as long as his fingers.
Gazing at it closely, he prodded it.
This only made him panic further as the little green slithers inside began swimming around, responding to the light poking.
"Oh fuck, oh shit oh fuck," he quickly pulled out his sword and was about to pierce the bubble of fluid filled flesh, but at this very moment he was forced to stop.
As if responding to the threat, the little green things turned towards his flesh and attempted to burrow into it, causing great pain and trembling in the rest of Jays arm which quickly spread to his body.
Gritting his teeth, he lowered his sword.
"They sensed me? Maybe I could just cut my arm off?" he thought, “besides, I've healed from more threatening injuries.”
Somehow though, the thought of carrying out the task brought even more pain with it, another wave of pain travelling across his body.
The pain was not just from his imagination, but a response from the creatures living in his arm. Somehow, they sensed that he meant them harm, and as his body shivered again he almost fell off his throne.
The pain was so great that time seemed to slow down and in that moment he wished for nothing but death, and after giving up the idea to harm them, the pain suddenly stopped as if a switch was flicked off.
Jay gripped his chair, his nails digging into it, “Fuck...” he had a cold sweat.
While he had been stabbed right through his chest before, the pain from these tiny parasites was otherworldly, incomparable.
It made being pierced through the chest with a giant stone sword seem like nothing but an ant bite. Somehow the parasites in his arm ramped up the levels of pain as they responded to the second time he threatened them.
After some time, Jay got back to his senses, and knew he still had to take them out of his arm. Somehow.
"Okay. Amputation is not an option." he breathed for a moment, then continued to stare at the bubble of liquid on his arm.
“Stop.” he commanded his skeletons as his throne came to a stop under a more lighted area; he stuck his arm into one of the endless shafts of light peaking through the trees.
Under the beam of sunlight, Jay watched it for a while.
The little green things inside went back so sitting calmly under his flesh. Dormant. Inactive again.
“It's like they're waiting for something... it's like they can sense what I'm thinking. Maybe I can sense what they're thinking. They at least can sense the outside world, outside of the flesh boil they're living in. Somehow.”
For a moment, Jay even wanted to learn from them, to take some time to copy their abilities, but he pushed that thought away quickly - in his list of priorities his life came first, then research followed afterwards.
“...but what are they waiting for?” he made a thoughtful look at them.
They didn't appear to be feeding on him, or growing, or reproducing.
They were just strangely dormant. For now they weren't harming Jay - as long as he didn't harm them anyway.
It was only part of his skin around it which was slightly inflamed and red that made it itch, but after removing the molodus coat it was beginning to stop being red.
It was almost like the molodus coat sensed a threat and was trying to attack it, to consume it in whatever way it could, but also couldn't hurt its master.
After calming himself down, Jay decided to lovingly stash his poisonous coat away in his inventory. He knew it meant him no harm after all.
Next, he planned for a future operation. One which would be more barbaric rauther than surgical or clinically clean.
If these things were going to attempt to consume him, his arm would need to be cut off - but he wouldn't be able to do it, and neither would he be able to command the skeletons to.
Not the skeletons without minds, anyway.
If he did command them to cut his arm off, then the creatures in his arm would cause him excruciating pain, and he would be forced to command them to stop.
The ones with minds could be a different case though, as they could think for themselves. At least to some degree.
His plan? Give one of the larger skeletons a mind, have it learn of his parasite, and eventually he would command it to chop off his infested arm no matter what he said afterwards.
Perhaps not directly to chop off his arm, but along the lines of 'protect me from any and all threats'.
He also thought to give it a command to ignore his commands if his life was in danger if it meant saving his life.
That way, hopefully, the skeleton would carry out his orders even after he asked it to stop.
Even if he screamed at it to stop.
Then, when he asked it to stop, the squirming creatures may not react and cause him pain.
Meanwhile, the skeleton would carry out its task and remove them. Along with his arm.
Possibly. It was all just a theory anyway.
Plus, in Jay's weird and curious mind it would be an interesting experiment. Would his skeletons override new commands in favour of an older one? Or vice versa?
As Jay thought about it, he wondered where he could have even acquired this little parasite from in the first place.
He remembered it was itching as he walked along the desert, but even before that there was a slight itch.
There was no itch before he fought with the perreton wolves in the dead of night though.
“... Perhaps, while I was sleeping?” he guessed.
For a while, he was asleep while perreton wolves descended from the skies around him, being chopped to pieces by his merciless skeletons.
Thinking about these little green worm-like parasites crawling out of a disemboweled corpse of one of those flying underground wolves and crawling into his skin made him shudder in disgust.
“Hmm, in the desert it burned... perhaps it hates dry air?” he thought.
“Perhaps... it loves moisture...?”
Jay made a thoughtful look at the stream. He was being carried along it, as it too flowed south, and he figured it would be good to have a water source.
Jumping off the throne, he leant down and placed his arm in the cool gentle waters.
“Ahh,” he smiled.
As soon as he dipped the boil in, a wave of relaxed pleasure washed across his mind.
It felt good. Too good. Way too good.
The little green things in his arms curled into little balls as if responding to the cold - though it seemed like they were now releasing something into Jay's blood to make him feel warm and dazed and completely euphoric.
He waited for a while to see if anything else would happen, but there was nothing - nothing except the nice feeling of warmth wrapping around his mind somehow getting stronger.
“Perhaps I can cut them out now...” he thought.
But just as he brought his blade closer, he stopped.
Strangely, there was no pain as he thought about harming them, but he stopped.
"But if I cut it out, the nice feeling will go away...” he smiled dumbly, “maybe just a little longer.” he nodded.
Jay slowly dropped from his knee to a more comfortable position, and was soon lying on his stomach.
“Maybe I'll just... wait a bit longer” he smiled.
Soon enough he was lying down next to the water, looking at the little green worms in his arm.
“I guess they aren't so bad. Once you get to know them.” he smiled, his eye lids starting to close.
The little green worms were still curled up into balls, within the large boil on Jay's arm. Each of them releasing something into Jay's blood which was making him feel amazing.
Better than amazing - it was intoxicating.
The colours of the forest somehow seemed more colourful, the mushrooms especially which seemed to almost glow.
It was like his eyes had pulled back a layer of reality and was looking at a more vibrant world; each of the ancient interweaving tree roots he was lying on seemed like a grand puzzle made by some renowned architect. A divine tapestry woven for a wood-eldritch lord.
His eyes were seeing patterns he had never seen before, and somehow he felt like a piece of the puzzle.
“Amazing...” he smiled.
Suddenly, he heard what sounded like a glass smashing somewhere nearby - looking around for a moment he was startled, and thought it must have been the skeletons, but there was no glass anywhere.
“Did I imagine that?” he wondered.
Then another thought popped into his head, “No. It's fine. Everything is fine... just rest.”
He agreed with his own thought, “Yes. Just rest” he smiled, nodding, agreeing with himself.
Confused, he told the skeletons to defend him and went back to lazily relaxing on the edge of the stream.
The skeletons left the throne and formed a defensive circle around their master as they stared into the forest.
Slowly, his blinks became more slower. His eyes opening less than they used to.
Soon, his eyelids grew much too heavy. Heavier than they had ever been.
Finally they closed.
“I'll just... mmm” he released one last satisfied hum.
“Sleep. You're safe. I'm safe.” he thought to himself.
One last nudge was all it took, and in utter euphoria, he finally fell asleep.
His arm still floating lightly in the river, bobbing up and down gently as he lay there on a bed of roots in hollow forest.
