“I can see it!” Aisha cried out, deep in the back of Terragolem’s throat. Sure enough, the Scarab of Earth was jammed into the opening of his esophagus, just beyond her reach. She dropped to her knees, wet in the saliva from the turtle’s gaping mouth, and crawled across his wormy black tongue. Heavy, repressed breathing echoed in the cavern around her.
“I still don’t like this,” Siarra said from outside of the turtle’s mouth.
“Almost…there…” Aisha grunted. She lowered her head, ducking under the turtle’s razor-sharp back teeth, and stretched her arm into the nook of his throat. Her fingertips brushed against the scarab a few times, slipping from the coating of saliva on her skin. With one final push, she managed to wrap his fingers around the beetle emblem and yank it free. “Got it!”
“HAHAHA!” Terragolem roared, springing his head off the ground. “Now you’re all going to die!”
But lifting his head only caused Aisha to topple forward, forcing the scarab beetle back into place. Terragolem gasped again, slamming his head back into the earth.
“Help…me…” he gasped.
Once more, Aisha pulled out the scarab and Terragolem sprang into action, ready to bite Siarra in half, before Aisha’s arm was forced back down and the beetle once again cut off his air supply.
“You’re making this really hard!” Aisha yelled.
“Um…” Adam said. “Aisha, I don’t think we can trust him.”
“Nonsense, he’s a poor creature in distress! We have to help…” She snatched the scarab again. “Now don’t raise your head again!”
Terragolem glared at Siarra and the tiny men with a wicked grin. “You’re all going to die, mwahaha! I’m going to chew you up nice and slow and use your bones to pick my teeth.” Then his eyes rolled up and he gasped again as Aisha shoved the scarab back into his throat.
“That wasn’t nice, Mr. Turtle!” she called out from inside his mouth.
“I’m s-sorry…” he gasped. “Please…help…”
She pulled out the scarab.
“DIE, FOOLS!”
She shoved the scarab back into place.
“Help…”
Out. “DIE!”
In. “Help…”
Out. “DIE!”
“Enough!” Aisha cried. She reached back into his throat one last time and walked out of his mouth with the Scarab of Earth cupped against her breasts.
“No!” screamed Siarra, Adam, Malkav, and Grandpa.
Terragolem threw back his head in laughter when Aisha at last stepped off his tongue. “Haha! You may have the scarab, but now you’re all going to…to…” He stumbled back, or tried to, but his left hind leg caved in followed by the other one. Then he gasped, raising his front leg as if attempting to crush Aisha under it, but it was no use. He collapsed into the dirt, his bloodshot eyes rolling to the back of his head, and died.
Siarra stared at him and then looked at Aisha, who was drenched in turtle saliva. “What…did you do?”
Aisha slowly pried her arms away from her chest, revealing not only the scarab beetle but also the turtle’s throbbing heart in her grasp. Her hands trembled. As if from a dream, the heart plummeted to the earth, its severed and wriggled arteries spraying blood against the grass and Aisha’s wet legs. One by one, the veins of life began to sink to the ground until at last they were all shriveled and dead like its master. Aisha looked up, her eyes wide in frozen horror, as the gold chain of the scarab necklace slipped through her fingertips and landed on the soft belly of the heart. She collapsed to her knees next to it.
Malkav, Adam, and Grandpa stood around the heart, motionless and lifeless as it now was, and slowly followed Aisha’s bloody legs up to her face. She had the same expression of terror and petrifaction drawn over her.
“I…” Her gaze was downward, towards the dripping crimson hands that she held over the heart, flexing the fingertips that no longer felt part of her. “Dai Celesta, what…what have I done?” Her breaths, frozen and forgotten in time, now began to quicken until she slapped her hands to her chest again and stumbled back like a madwoman. Her head shook. She tried to stand up, but she fell, twice, and landed in blood and tears.
Siarra rushed over and slid one arm under Aisha’s back, helping her to sit up straight. “Aisha… Aisha… It’s okay.”
“No…” she said, her voice shaky and distant. Then the look of horror turned to insanity in her face as she locked eyes with Siarra. “NO! Don’t touch me!”
“Aisha, it’s over now! He’s dead.”
“No, no, no, NO!” she cried, burying her face into the warm cloth of Siarra’s robe. “I’m no murderer…”
“No, you’re not… You didn’t have a choice. He was going to kill us all.”
“I took his life,” she said with wild, violent, and bleeding eyes. “I took it away, right from him… How… I… Dai Celesta, no…” Her words drowned in the next wave of tears.
Malkav had been watching the girls, but now his gaze returned to the heart and the Scarab of Earth resting atop it. He stepped closer, carefully unlatching the piece of the beetle from the gold chain and stood back in amazement as the beetle began to glow. The blood instantly dispersed in the rays of light, which gave way to a jade green scarab body. Malkav stepped back again, but the beetle seemed to be watching him. It hovered in the air, fluttering around him on invisible wings as if studying him to see if he was worthy. Then it dove straight towards his chest. Before he could react, the beetle had latched itself into one of the corners of his necklace, glittering in its bright green hue before the light finally faded and the two pieces became one forever.
Malkav looked around to see if anybody had noticed, but Aisha was still in tears and Siarra and Adam were trying to comfort her. That’s when Malkav felt a cold hand on his shoulder and jumped.
“Life is a precious thing,” a voice whispered into his ear. Malkav turned around to see Grandpa looking down at him, a pipe in his mouth and a wise twinkle in his eye. “You should be careful what you take and never take something for granted. There is no reset button on life and you don’t always get second chances. Remember that and you may live to see many good years ahead.” He blew a smoke cloud, which turned into a heart in the air before at last scattering to nothing. “And I’m not just blowing hot air.”
Malkav stared at him.
Giantess World
