Book of Beasts

The arctic fox stood by the tall arctic wolf as they padded down a dark hallway, their white pelts shimmering with dim light above them, the lanterns hanging. All over the dark walls were writings, scribbles and some drawings. The only drawings they could make out were a pack of small dogs with gaping jaws, having very sharp teeth, shadow hands, and some other horned creatures similar to wolves or deer.

"This is safe, right?" the arctic fox asked, her brown eyes fixing on the dark green-eyed wolf's face.

"Yes, Mythical. You've never been hurt, haven't you?" he replied calmly, slowing his pace for her to catch up, as she was slowly following. "You're just nervous. This will go smoothly, like always..."

''That's what I hope, he thought. I swear I thought I saw something earlier. Really, I hope it doesn't have to do with the book.''

"O-Okay then..." Mythical said. "I'm trusting you, General." She took a breath, ears twitching as they neared something.

It was a book that lay on a pedestal made of white marble, the light above it brighter than the others down the hall. The cover of it was a dull brick color, a symbol on the front covered by scratch marks, practically clawed off. It had two words on the front of it.

"SLUES SOL"

Slues Sol was the creator of this book. It was thought that he had died making a deal with a hellish- or, maybe heavenly, the odds are low- being from the galaxies. Legend spoke that he was the one with infinite knowledge. "Curiosity may have killed the cat, but infinite knowledge brought it back," the famous words said in Jamaa history. Other tales spoke that he violently turned on the being and tore his heart out. This lead to his soul being stolen- he would be forever soulless.

"Here it is," General barked. "The Book of Slues Sol."

"I never thought we'd find it," Mythical softly spoke. "Others have tried, but why was it placed here? Maybe Slues- I mean, people call him Sol- didn't want Jamaa to find the book?"

"It's because it contains forbidden knowledge," the arctic wolf slightly growled, expecting her to know this. "Knowledge that only the wisest can soak in. There's so much lore behind every word written, it may be impossible to crack the code of Sol."

"The.. code?" Mythical questioned. General sighed.

"The truth of Sol's past. This book is like the key to the truth- but it's got millions of questions and so many answers, but only one is right. It'd take years to find even the very core of this story. Jammers haven't even scratched the surface of this tale. Maybe Sol meant it to be this way. Maybe he left this for us to ponder about. Who knows?"

General slowly turned a page with a forepaw, as the pedestal had a stool below it. He scanned through the pages, looking at the drawings. Some of them couldn't be described, while some other ones were as obvious as ever. The most notable thing he was shocked him when he lay eyes on it.

It was a drawing of a humanoid... thing. It seemed to float, its legs crisscrossed. Its hands rest on its knees, back straight. It looked like it had a muzzle of some sort, long ears- similar to a goat's- below a pair of long, curving horns that stuck up. Two fangs poked out of its mouth below its nose, which was like a dog's. Two large wings stuck out, the tips of them awfully sharp. Hanging below its body were two tails with the heads of snakes at the end. It had no pattern and was drawn in a sketchy manner, and the circles and lines used to draw the figure of it was clear.

"Woah," Mythical said. She read the words above the drawing, which said "DOGMA TONE" in dark letters. Maybe the names had some sort of meaning behind them, as they didn't seem to make a ton of sense to her. She read the words beside the drawing, one of two paragraphs stating:

"All's hell has risen above the grand portal of death as creatures sprout into the world. Aperuit ianuam inferni coram oculis meis. Hellhounds raced ad praedam." The rest she could not make out, as it was in forbidden language.

General flipped the pages until he came across a spell of some sort. Contents were listed below, one of them being "Fresh, cold blood from a mammal, rabbits preferred, or from something that devours rabbits". He thought of himself for a moment, since he had indeed killed many rabbits and ate their flesh. Mythical did share rabbit with him, as she was his assistant when they did their shadowy tricks, summoning creatures from a book he had- a different one.

He read the list, sighing. General read the title, the first words "SUMMON THE" and the last one scratched out with a black marker and torn a bit. The claw marks on it were bright red, though. This sparked his curiosity- this could be a new trick to perform!

He looked above the book, and there were a few boxes. Mythical padded over to them, seeing that General nodded, which was a sign for her to check them out. She opened each one slowly. The contents in each box were separated. A bright red rose, a leaf, a rat skull, a very small bowl, and a large tuft of white fur. She beckoned him over with the flick of her ears.

"These are the items on the list," he said. "I don't think it'd be good to do what is asked, though. I feel that it's a bad idea to do this; we don't know what we'll be in for."

"I agree..." Mythical nervously said in response.

"But we can surely see. Maybe it will do good for another trick to show off."

"But General! Maybe it has something to do with the goat demon we saw... if it IS a goat, or whatever it is. What if we summon that? We'll be obliterated just like Sol may have been, if he did die like that!"

"Mythical, calm down, it will be ok. If ANYTHING happens, I will protect you."

''Maybe Sol is urging us to do this. Is he here with us? These boxes were definitely not here when we arrived. I don't recall seeing them. Someone put them out, but who?'' General thought for a moment.

Sighing, he read the paper. He noticed that a blade was there beside his paw now, which was basically a knife with no handle. The bowl was now on the page, also. Someone was urging him to follow the steps now, and he felt like he would do it, even against his own will. Unable to stand the feeling of being pressed on unwillingly, he picked up the blade with a paw shakily and glided it over his paw pads, wincing at the pain. Blood trickled into the bowl as Mythical set it down.

She took the other "ingredients" and set them on the floor. She placed the rat skull in the center, piling the other ingredients around it in a circle. What was notable was the rat skull. A blurry symbol of red was appearing between the eyes. She nodded to General as he chanted something surprisingly well- she couldn't even tell what words were being spoke.

The blood began to glow a shade of bright red. Almost instantly, another drop of blood fell into the bowl. It was Mythical's blood, and her nose was bleeding. She gasped, jumping back, the flow stopping. Two white dots appeared in the eye holes in the tiny skull, glowing brightly.

And General couldn't stop chanting, even trying to force his jaws shut. Even Mythical tried to close his mouth shut, but a force overcame him. It was trying to control him.

The ground around the bowl began to crack. A rumbling noise was faintly heard in the distance of the hall, echoing. A humming noise followed as the blood turned to black, and what looked to be tiny hands with large claws were rising. The rat skull was also changing, looking to have a shorter snout and a pair of curving horns growing into it. Bones from the spine- the neck, basically- were also forming.

It quickly shifted into a humanoid-animal skeleton. Its back was oddly straight, just like the one in the drawing. It was bigger, too, and had some wing-shaped flesh coming out of its back. A deep laughter shook the ground, some of it cracking. Mythical screamed, General hovering over her defensively, but still chanted. His voice cracked and seemed to go away.

He coughed as shadowy hands reached out and clawed at the ground, screeches echoing down the halls. The air seemed to grow tighter in a way, making it hard to breathe as dust was stirring. The book closed by itself, a loud clap silencing the noise.

General fell on his side, wheezing. Mythical looked at the demonic being, which now was a goat-like creature with long ears flopped down. It let out deep, distorted laughter. It was the exact same as the drawing. The snakes on the two long tails hissed, noses facing the ground.

"YOU FOOLS!" the demon cackled. "DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD GET SOMETHING GOOD OUT OF THIS?"

Before Mythical could speak, she was interrupted by a loud screech, her ears hurting and tightening.

"YOU IDIOTS SHOULD'VE KNOWN YOU'D GET SOMETHING BAD OUT OF THIS..."

General tried to speak, but he too was interrupted. Mythical screamed in pain as her ears throbbed badly.

"NOW BEGONE WITH YOU TWO!"

Hands reached out, their claws scraping their skin until it bled. The ground began to fade to black, the two screaming in fear and agony all at once. They gripped their limbs as they furiously attempted to wriggle away, but they were pulled into a void of black. Their last attempts were to claw at the slick ground as the shadows pulled them in, the demon cackling, watching their demise.

And it all went quiet.

The book sat there, undamaged, but the room was nearly going to topple over. The rock floor was cracked, the walls were broken and crumbling and the other lights were out. The bowl was broken, blood painting the walls and ground.

But the light above the book remained, casting heat over its cover. It would be there for a while. Even Slues Sol would've kept watch of it, and he probably saw everything himself.