Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 14

Chapter 14

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 20:46

The first thing I did when I saw this town was to run screaming and giggling to the nearest brothel!

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 20:57

Did you buy it?

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 20:57

Really?

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 20:58

In fact, despite all your doubts, I am far from the idiot you might think I am. And I didn't just jump into an a priori environment that was aggressive toward me, so I sat down and thought about it. Yes, yes, I can think too, and not just with one ass, no matter what my boss and my neighbors say. Seriously, I had a few problems that had to be solved before I would risk going out to people.

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 20:59

And the very first point on the list, without which I should not even have approached the others, was to resolve the issue of Ygra, which was not going anywhere. Apparently, this particular section of the swamp - this one near the city - is not nearly as dangerous as the central regions. At least, nothing more dangerous than a big toad the size of a sheep hadn't come across for twenty-four hours. In an instant, as if a switch or a faucet had been turned, the swamp stopped releasing its magical power. Or rather, it stopped releasing it in such huge quantities, turning into an almost normal biome, albeit with some small-caliber predatory stuff still occurring. The ogre, by the way, was not very happy to wander in such places, but she did not dare to disobey a direct order to go in the direction I wanted.

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:02

To summarize, I can say with high probability that no one is waiting here for an epic monster of Ygra's level. This will allow her to remain unnoticed and unheard like a shadow... If she wants to do that shit herself. There's a purely physiological hitch: a swamp ogre in the prime of life needs to eat regularly. A lot, a lot of food, and only meat. No, they eat all sorts of roots and fruits, too, but meat is a must.

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:04

There isn't much prey in the area, and pretty soon the Ygra will take it. If she even goes fishing for snakes and frogs and birds, instead of going and wringing the neck of some straggler in the crowd. But suppose I persuade her to be stealthy, give her a chance to eat normally, and tell her not to eat people. What should I do with her next?

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:05

Even though Ygra herself is uncomfortable without the support of her native element, she still shines with childishly naive interest and admiration, like a resident of the village of Small Kukuyevo who saw the capital for the first time. And somehow humanly it is a pity for me to get rid of her after the swamp dweller outlived its usefulness. The native tribe won't take her back - she's changed too much, too different, too wrong for their eyes and ears. If she is not killed by her former tribesmen, I will condemn her to eternal loneliness and wandering. She may be too dumb to fully feel it, but she can feel longing and sadness. What will it be like for her to live day after day, remembering the man who subjugated her, and hoping every morning that he will return?

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:07

As evil and vile as the power of my ring may be, it implants loyalty. And loyalty, all loyalty, is always worthy of reciprocal care. If I have to, I'll take it on my pretty battered conscience, but I don't want to. I only hope that I will be able to convey to her the need to return to her native element without direct orders or insults. And that I won't have to disappear into the shadows one night, because she won't find me outside the swamp.

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:09

After almost an hour of trying, I just gave up.

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:10

I couldn't kill her with my own hands, though I wanted to for her stupidity, and she refused to just walk away. I bet that she understood the basic message of my attempts to order her around, she just didn't want to listen to me. Maybe it was my own insecurity about my decision.

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:11

In the end, like any procrastinator, I decided that morning would be wiser than evening, and went to bed. Despite the proximity of the city, no one wanted to spend the night in the still dangerous swamp forest, so no one would interfere with my thoughts. I did not make a fire, though - the leftovers of previously cooked food and stored water were enough.

Camrad_RIP 18.12.21 в 21:12

I closed my eyes and instantly fell asleep.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 06:43

Since I can't get anything into this stupid head with words because its skull is too thick, I'll try to compel it from inside the solid bone that replaces its brain.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 06:44

It was time to make up dreams.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 06:45

The world of endless dreams greeted me with the familiar purple fog, which began to slowly form into something tangible. It was too slow for my accelerated consciousness, which was already ready to work. A full reserve allowed me to approach the problems of dreamwalking with more creativity and more freedom.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 06:46

I listened to my senses and, not without difficulty, sensed the dream of the ogre next to me, and then began to gradually invest the reserve in the surrounding space as if pushing my way to someone else's dreams. To be honest, the sensations are not at all like those experienced when controlling shadows. The shadows feel like something extremely cold, hungry, and evil, literally sucking the life out of you for every attempt to control them.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 07:03

The Matter of Dreams.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 07:04

It felt a little like trying to swim through a viscous, murky stream of something. Only it constantly felt as if you were trying to lean on the bare air, holding on to it. I had to make an enormous effort just to avoid falling into the middle of nowhere. Intuitively, I know that I haven't gone deep enough yet and that the result of my failure will be a headache at most. But the further away I get from my dreams, the harder the consequences of my mistakes will be.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 07:07

A systemic understanding, nothing more. It's also pretty incomplete, but even that is enough to make me careful and reluctant to risk my brains for the sake of who knows what. I stop being greedy and add more energy, reinforcing the path I'm creating and getting closer to my sweet-sleeping goal.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 07:08

Another investment of reserve, literally materializing my will for this place, and the seemingly insurmountable wall of will, protecting Ygra's dreams from my interference, gives way and lets me into her subconscious. I feel myself, who has lost all materiality and has become light, like a gust of wind, undermined and dragged to the very depths of the ogre-formed dream realm.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 07:12

Feeling myself without a body is somewhat strange and even unsettling. It is only the clear awareness that I can use my powers at any moment and create any body for myself, a little calming. My own, or the body of a little loli assassin with a three-meter ax. The same intuitive understanding of what is going on, sewn into my subcortex by systemic ability. The fact that there's only one point in the skill I'm developing certainly limits my options, especially when I'm in other people's dreams, but I can do some things even with just one point.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 07:26

I should start acting now because my energy is gradually melting away, even though I'm not doing anything. Apparently, they charge for watching, too, even if it's at a gentle rate. Despite my desire to finish as soon as possible, I still decide to look at Ygra's dreams first, to at least understand how exactly I can put into her head the understanding of the need not to follow me around.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 07:27

Sighing with lungs that do not exist at this moment, I looked at the landscape around me...

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 13:59

Ygra's dreams, despite her primitive nature, were incredibly colorful. It seemed that every blade of grass, every leaf, every rustle and splash was drawn with incredible clarity and a kind of meaningfulness. For her, all these little things, which I myself would not even pay attention to, seemed like an open book, which she read with unprecedented skill.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:00

And then there was the hunt. Inaudible, invisible, intangible, it blew in the wind, merging with the swamp around it. Not a single cry was heard, not a single blow. Only the crunch of vertebrae and the faint sound of prey being thrown on her back. A true hunter does not fight, nor clash, nor roar. A hunter simply kills. Quickly, quietly and painlessly.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:01

The swamp ogres were alien to questions of morality, they did not pray to any gods or ask for their good, they did not think about the concept of good and evil - they simply hunted. They never tormented their prey, for the hunter needs only food; they were never angry and furious when they failed - it's silly to be angry at the prey.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:02

The swamp ogres were truly the children of nature, incapable of hatred, something many of the locals would have learned from. Their lives were lived in a series of endless nightly battles in which not a single battle cry was heard. They killed a future dinner and died from the claws and fangs of a stronger foe with equal indifference.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:05

You can't call them animals, because they did have a consciousness, albeit an extremely weak one.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:05

The main reason for Ygra's stupidity is that she has never had a chance to think or have a conversation about anything. The very structure of her brain doesn't allow her to properly perceive any type of social interaction. Swamp ogres are chronic loners, even going in pairs rarely. Their tribes are the real gatherings of complete introverts. Their only social interactions were when they sang their songs without words and danced around the generations-old campfire...

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:06

He dreamed of hunting one prey after another.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:07

She dreamed of many different creatures that she killed and ate, or those from which she had to run away to avoid being eaten by someone else.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:08

She dreamed of long nights and the pursuit of the quick and cunning prey, who did not want to make a fatal mistake, fighting for life to the last, not even seeing the one who was following her trail.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:08

She dreamed of colossal storms and thunderstorms as dozens of branching lightning bolts struck the treetops, literally scorching the retinas of her rapidly regenerating damaged eyes.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:09

She also dreamt about me, and in such scenarios that if I had a body right now, I would have blushed. The thirtieth in one skill she had been gifted with made it possible for her to fantasize about subjects she would not otherwise have had the brains for. Even so, however, these scenarios were not very varied, boiling down to rather banal, but very passionate, classic poses.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:17

Luckily, her sticking in my sleep did not affect me, so I avert my eyes... not even my eyes, but rather my perception of the scene of my face being sandwiched between two watermelons, combined with riding on an unresisting body, and get down to why I was here in the first place. Just a thought flashed through my head that my hip joints couldn't take the strain.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:19

Or could.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:19

I heroically put that last thought aside, not wanting to give myself any reason for temptation. I was a few kilometers away from the human city, where I planned to have a good time. If I had a body, I would have sworn at the situation, and then I would have a spat.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:20

Creating a dream required me to exert tremendous effort. I was the only one who wanted to change the dream, but the high-pitched ogre was only enjoying the debauchery that was going on. I had to put in an obscene amount of effort, considering her higher level.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:26

The high concentration was of particular help, which made it possible to create even very complex images, and not only visual, but also auditory, tactile, and olfactory. Only each image consumed energy, even one that was perfectly known to the sleeper. And it would take every possible effort for me to bring something to the dream that Ygra herself had never encountered.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:29

Without my increased concentration, I wouldn't have risked this kind of thing at all - it would have been a waste of energy. But now I had at least enough power to try, so I set about making a fun educational film, with pictures.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:30

Almost half of my reserve is poured into the dreams, turning into ready-made material, clay, from which I can create something that other sculptors would never dream of (pun intended!). All that remains is to create a believable and, most importantly, understandable wrapper for the main message.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:31

In fact, I was just showing my goofball the consequences of her actions if she didn't listen to me. It all seemed very simple, but in fact, it was a hell of a job, after which you could easily go to design and film directors. You can get in without a competition, just show your skills.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:32

Now, for example, Ygra can see how she followed me into town, and the guards at the gate couldn't help but notice the huge monster. Even taking into account her stealth skills, which have weakened since leaving the swamp. Here we are, attacked, surrounded, and killed by teleporting Heroes in shining armor. I made the latter only in my imagination, but they turned out to be rather pathetic and dangerous.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:34

Naturally, this is nonsense. If we happen to get caught, we'll just walk away without too much trouble. I doubt they would send even one Hero to save this city from total destruction. Well, maybe they'd send one, but I'm not so sure.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:35

What matters to me is not the truthfulness and realism of the situation, but the message that should reach even the interstitial ganglion of the dumb as a cork ogre. The spectator silently tries to save me, silently makes her way to the enemy units surrounding the puppet that plays my role, and even tears several apart (this is her dream, after all, and her confidence in victory allows her to win). But it's too late, I'm already dead and there's no saving me. Despite all her speed, I artificially slow down her spurt, making her run in place as if bogged down in some nastiness - a typical situation in all kinds of nightmares. And she watches me get "killed".

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:36

Swamp ogres aren't good at feeling emotion, but she's feeling it right now - rage, resentment, a hint of despair. It's a cocktail that's hardly pleasant. I feel like fucking Freddy Krueger, but I can't help it - if words don't get it, they'll get it through the ass. That's what my grandfather used to say.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:37

Without waiting for Ygra to tear up all my dolls, I disperse the dream and immediately begin to create a new one, even more unpleasant and hard to perceive.

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:37

Ygra hunts humans passing by the city, silently wringing their necks. Men and women, small groups and singles - for a monster of her level and rank, it doesn't really matter. But now the death toll had peaked and the same Heroes were coming for her (another delusion, but not for her to check for truthfulness).

Camrad_RIP 19.12.21 в 14:38