Dunes of Living Ash

The ash sunk beneath my feet as I crossed another dune, deformed and warped the eroded stand as pillars. The sounds of skin cracking and splitting told me that my presence was known. The eroded moved too slowly to perceive, their bodies sheading into fragments reduced to dust with every move. I continue onward, the symphony of statues follows closely behind.

 Spires of rust began to break through as my destination came into view. The skeletons of large buildings pierce through the ash, crystals cover and grow around them as moss used to do to trees. I continued walking while humming the tune to a song that no longer had lyrics, I would need to make my own someday. My focused dulled and the thoughts of where I will wander to next when I suddenly drew my weapon due to instinct. The gentle breeze that had been blowing changed its course, if only slightly. My ears perked up as I listened to the hollow world, the crackling was no longer just behind me but far in front something had caused a stir.

I carefully stepped forward listening for movement.

Crunch.

A single footstep, not my own. My body tensed in preparation for whatever aberration has crossed my path this time.

Crunch crunch…

 Whatever it was, it seems to have seen me.

Crunch cruNCH CRUNCh!

It was sprinting at me now; I prepared to cleave it in two and be done with it. But I could only hold still as something that had not happened to me in decades occurred.

I was approached.

“Hellow! Please speak my new name!”  

Its voice was filled with static, the smell of iron and oil faded but still present under the layers of ash the clung to its chassis.

“Are you…”

Its voice sounded less rehearsed this time.

“…able to speak?”

 I did not know I could make sound, sure I sung lullaby to myself often but I could nor quite remember the last time I had formed actual words.

“Ahgh...”

A broken squeak came out as I tried to calibrate my thoughts to sound.

“ayesh.”

That wasn’t a word…

I don’t know why but I was quite embarrassed at this blunder. I open my maw once more.

“Y-yesh.”

Close enough, I thought. My biology didn’t allow me to speak the human language, though I could understand it well. I can only hope this thing is able to translate my intentions.

“Input received! ZZZSSSSzzsszz…”

It buzzed with static as it processed something.

“Translation found! Calculated 85% match to yes. Please wait a moment as I load my dialect stores.”

Maybe I should just make a run for it; besides it would soon be scraps anyway. Curiosity quickly shook that thought from my head. How did it manage to survive this long? Did it adapt beyond its initial purposes? While trying to piece together my own story for how this came to be, it finished its processing.

“Hello!”

The thing circles me the cameras on its snout scanning for something. It stops and leans close to the satchel at my side, it seems interested in the strange relic I had claimed recently.

“a Key! No, THE Key!” It hopped around spinning.

“I must assist and am a companion, now your companion! My name is… zzzbtt”

“Hellow! Please speak my new name!”  

What do I call this thing? It smells of rust, oil and ash, sounds like static, is about half my height and is vaguely animal shaped. That’s all I have managed to gather so far, If I just combine those…          

Mikros skonisabi ta usagi. (Little Rust Rabbit)  

“Miskonabi Tusagi.” I stumbled over my words.

“Input Accepted!” It paused for a moment as if in thought.

“That seems too long for my storage settings, how about you call me Tusagi!”

I shook my head, not daring to risk speaking nonsense again.

“Hello! I am Tusagi, your new companion! What are you doing here.”

Its speech held a sudden coldness.

“Theh Spider.” I pointed toward the spire in the distance, its slow pulsating glow shifting as though it has a heartbeat.

“Then I will follow. I can no longer help anyone here anymore.” It seemed somber.

“I detected you are carrying blood, please take what little they have left. With you there is hope, if left here it will become ash as well.”

“o k.” I took my time to pronounce properly.

As we walked Tusagi scanned each of the eroded, they were no longer people just a means for a resource to be exploited for my gain. Blood was a currency for the poor few desperately clinging on. The eroded are what becomes of those whose blood has dried up, without it their bodies become statues and slowly turn to ash. But even then, they are not dead, if you stand still and listen to the statues move and creak, and the Ash beneath your feet wiggles at your touch. Such is the immortality they wished for without death there is not growth, their bodies no longer needed food or water. They no longer healed from injuries; all wounds eventually drained them dry. They cannot reproduce; their bodies are no longer capable of producing life. They could not die, first their voices fell silent as vocal cords broke down from use, then their lungs could no longer bare the dry air the feeling of suffocation unending as their instinct to breath drove them mad. The hands and feet wore away as they walked and worked. Their joints failed slowly and simply broke away.

I held some pity especially for those with eyes. I place my claws in the sockets of a nearby eroded and crush them to dust. The least I could do is stop the pain of watching the world dissolve. Their mind could find some rest in the darkness to believe it was dead, but the warmth of the sun would remind them anyway.

“I found some.” Tusagi called me over to one, a small trail behind it as it crawled slowly coming to a rest here.

I open my cloak and retrieve an extractor, plunging it into its chest. The tool spun up as it ripped what was left of this person into its vile. Two drops. Worth more than death itself to some.

“Thankesh.” I whisper into what’s left of the eroded’s ear, and we walk onward to the tower.