Cinthesis
Part One
"Alright, I've seen the wall-paintings and they're very pretty. Can we got to the lake now, Cindy?" her friend Beverly Haller complained. Cinderella Mason sighed. What her mother had been thinking when she'd given her daughter that name, she would never understand. Her mother must have liked it, but she personally detested it and went by Cindy whenever she could.
Cindy turned away from the cave opening and the pictograms adorning the entrance to address her friend. She liked Beverly, she was Cindy's best friend, but the blonde had no appreciation for history or art. They'd been doing these little vacations for eight years now, ever since they met in college, and this little argument about what constituted fun had been ongoing just as long. Sometimes she won them, sometimes Beverly won. And though she wouldn't admit it out loud, Cindy enjoyed her friend's victories as much as her own.
They were spending this vacation up in the woods where Cindy had rented a cabin. She was in no mood to party after her break-up with Dave and if it had been left solely up to her Cindy would spend the weekend reading and visiting places like this. The site of some very interesting pre-Columbian art.
Beverly, however, was in it for the hiking and the sunbathing and she wanted to get on with the latter part while the weather held. "They're not wall-paintings, they're carvings. The colors are just moss and weathered rocks. Come on Bev, you have to admit they look fantastical. Makes you wonder what the artist was on when he made them."
"Unless there's still a stash of it here, not really," Beverly quipped undeterred.
"Alright, alright, we'll go. I want to take a swim anyway, cool off a little." Beverly shot her a smile and turned around. Cindy gave the carvings one last look, still wondering what they meant when it became hideously clear.
The carvings were old, far older than any archeologist had guessed. Through migrations, famines and wars, different tribes and nations had maintained the warnings some ancient people had left behind. The why had been kept alive for just as long, minus a couple of hundred years. The carvings were a warning, and what they warned about came through it right now.
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With a triumphant hiss like a boiling kettle, the eldritch horror made the transition from its own dimension into this one. The window of opportunity had been so small/short/thin even on its side, let alone this one. But it had made it. Now he was in a race against what the creatures of this reality experienced as time to make his stay permanent.
It wasn't a demon, who had no need to jump through such hoops. Ch'Nothoglys' reality was far more remote and alien, as were its inhabitants. Reality itself rebelled against Ch'Nothoglys, pressing down in an attempt to remove it entirely. All but a miniscule amount of its power had to be devoted to postponing that event long enough for it to find a solution. It already knew what that solution was, but the creature needed the correct specimen.
And fortuitously, two of the local sentient species were right in front of it. Both female too, though Ch'Nothoglys had some trouble determining that. Apparently there had been a few changes since its broodmate's attempt. It did not matter, they had figured out what had gone wrong and this time, it would succeed.
Gurgling in contentment, it began to amble towards his target.
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Cindy's eyes refused to focus on the thing coming towards them, or maybe it was her brain that couldn't wrap itself around what her eyes were telling it. There were eyes, tentacles and lots of slimey, naked flesh coming towards her, air shimmering and wobbling around the thing.
Besides her, she could hear Beverly whimper but it was so hard to move, even the simple act of turning her head was too much. It felt like gravity had grown a hundred-fold, like the air had become a liquid that she had to work down her throat just so she could breathe.
The monstrous thing was close now, close enough to smell except there was nothing to smell. The natural scents of the forest were gone, displaced by some not-smell that didn't become more even when the monster's wet, sticky tentacles started to slide over her shirt, her shorts and even her shoes and socks got bathed in slime.
Her clothing started to hiss, a moment before the straps of her small backpack gave way and it dropped to the forest-floor. Slightly embarrassed, she seemed to be incapable of feeling more than that, Cindy felt more and more of her clothing and then underwear dissolve; exposing increasing amounts of her skin to the wind, sun and those disgusting appendages.
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At last the female was ready. Ch'Nothoglys did not know from what dead creature those skins had come from, but now they were no longer in the way. At last his secretions could begin their work on her, which was why there was now a need to restrain the female. The horrid spawn needed her essence unmuffled for this part of the preparations.
Ch'Nothoglys turned some of its attention to the other one to make sure that female wouldn't try to escape. A single tentacle detached itself to slither over the ground towards her. Somehow, even though Ch'Nothoglys' presence should make it impossible, she managed to react to it.
The female tried to force the tentacle away with one appendage only to fail miserably. The tentacle dodged the blow, then wrapped itself around the limb before moving on to secure the rest of her body in a similar bind.
Still the female didn't cease her resistance. Her essence was smothered, yes, but there still remained a spark that would not let itself be snuffed out. Pressed for time, Ch'Nothoglys gave the tentacle a command. It would drain the power that remained in the manipulator faster, and it couldn't be replenished while it was detached, but it should be finished with the other female long before then.
Responding instantly, the end of the tentacle slapped itself onto the female's forehead. Tiny manipulators sprouted from it, sliding through flesh and bone like it was water to create a direct connection between her thought node and Ch'Nothoglys' manipulator. It would now do the thinking for her.
At last she lay still. Her features grew slack as her eyes stared into nothing. That would do for now.
Turning his attention back to the female caught in his manipulators he found her struggling as well. She was also making piercing sounds that grated at its feelers interspersed with gasps as the secretions finally bended her thought node into the direction Ch'Nothoglys wanted it to go. Most of her emotions were too alien to grasp, but a few weren't. The fear was lessening as arousal gripped the female.
