Chapter 9: The Beast that Dreams of Medicine

It was deep within a ominously misty basin. The spirit had told him that it had caught the sickness around the time it was checking out some nearby ruins. Or, at least, the spirit thought they were ruins. It fled as soon as it started to cough up roses.

Dr. Bones could see through the mist, and deep within it was a building like a box. A building that didn’t quite belong. Further, he could see that it was this building that was creating the mist. Yes, it was no ordinary mist that surrounded it. This mist was a kind of nousfog, it tampered with the mind, filling it and leading it astray.

The horn in Dr. Bones skull was ample protection from the fog’s effects. As he strode purposefully through the mist, he wished he could recall what the horn was, and how it came to be grafted to his very being.

There was a fog around his memories of life, but around the matter of the horn…

There was yawning void.

Hopefully the building before him would offer up some answers. Yet, as he drew closer to it, he stopped.

He had clearly seen the building before, through the mist, a ugly clinical box of a thing, but its dark form had been bare. Yet now, now that he was closer, he found that he was in a maze of bramble-like plants, and the building itself was covered with the same brambles.

He bent over to inspect the brambles. Hot pink. Curved thorns like the talons of an eagle. There were no flowers, but Dr. Bones could feel that these brambles were what the spirit caught the disease from.

-The nousfog must have made the spirit forget about them-

He pulled out a clear crystal jar and a pair of jade clippers. He was just about to take a cutting when he froze above the brambles.

-These… this is all one plant?-

Life flowed throughout the plant, all one life. The patterns were all of one piece too. Whatever the source of the brambles was, it was within the building, that much was clear. He returned the jar and clippers. It was unwise to take clippings from such a large organism. Until he found some isolated brambles, his hands were tied.

That being the case, Dr. Bones continued on, and shortly he stood before one of the doors of the building. It didn’t look like the main entrance. A grey circle with a black glassy window that could not be seen through. It was something more akin to the porthole of a ship, disturbingly though the brambles covered the walls, they did not grow over the porthole. Almost as if the brambles where inviting anyone who came by to come in.

What stood out most however was the pad with glowing runes. As Dr. Bones brought his hand to it, the hand moved almost by itself, tracing a pattern with the runes. Before Dr. Bones could register what happened there was a click, and the porthole slowly creaked open, dead air, thick with the coughing rose sickness poured out. Dr. Bones’ horn clearly thought this wave was of greater threat than the traces before, and with a flash a green barrier formed, and then snapped to Dr. Bones’ form, like some manner of bodysuit. With Dr. Bones being a winged skeleton, it made him look even creepier than normal.

For a moment, Dr. Bones entertained thoughts of returning to the coffin, travelling through the dimensions plying his trade as a doctor and forgetting about all the worrying questions. Then he stepped through the porthole.

Another world.

The dim mechanical vein of a beast, a vein like a tunnel.

-An isolated space?-

There was a slam and a click as the porthole closed behind him. He was not worried, but instead observed what was before him. It was another porthole.

-Hmm, of course this is a dimensional lock, the neutralization system must not be working, or perhaps the whole building is running on low power?- Dr. Bones thought to himself.

Lights flicked on the ceiling of the flesh-like metal. Pale light that kept flickering until it stabilized into a dull glow.

<Pleapleple Stay still, still, still, still. Proceeeddddddd aopfjkkkkkk *static*>

The static continued, becoming background noise, like the chitter of jungle denizens.

-Well, that is that question answered, next, time to see if I’m trapped here, joy-

He walked up to the second porthole and thankfully there was another panel. It however did not have runes on it. The panel flashed, and then a wave of light washed over Dr. Bones.

<Spirit registered, please enter MREAKGJDDG>

The porthole unlocked, and Dr. Bones had to manually pull it open.

More halls, more passages. Twisting veins, all leading to a heart. Dr. Bones felt familiarity with the place, but he did not head to the centre of the building. Instead he searched for something else he was sure was present.

Records.

As he walked by the walls that were mercifully still in spite of their organic appearance, Dr. Bones didn’t find a single trace of life. Not even the brambles of the mystery plant. Instead, his head was filled with the ghosts of white clothed scholars chattering.

Subordinates. He had people working beneath him in this place. Where had they gone? Where had he gone?

Why was this place abandoned?

The door of the records room was broken. The light was broken. Using light cast by his horn, Dr. Bones could see the ruin did not end there. It was as if several fierce beasts driven to madness had been loosed in the room.

Crystals, tablets, scrolls, tomes, these and more. All scattered and sundered.

Nothing was left untouched, intact.

Dr. Bones picked among the remains, hoping for some answers.