Moving through the Dungeon during a wave wasn't sothing Goszi ever expected he'd have to do again. It certainly wasn't sothing he'd had to do since he was a much younger slug.
His first problem had been getting off the fortress at all. Being able to access the outside wasn't the sa thing as being ho free, oh no. The gap between the fortress wall and the rest of the fifth was substantial, much too far for a neat jump. He'd been forced to do sothing he really hadn't wanted to, which was climb high up the wall, then throw himself off. With enough forward montum, he was able to reach the other side… eventually.
It wasn't a journey that he liked to rember. If it weren't for the thick layer of mucus coating the wall, he never would have survived. As it was, he nearly died. Not enough to keep a good Krath down. After climbing back up, he'd managed to find a likely crack in the wall and sneak away, making it deeper into the tunnels and further from the cursed ants and their delicious snacks.
As much as he would like to credit his incredible wiles and experience, Goszi was just lucky. Incredibly lucky. After the third ti a monster had simply stepped over him, not bothering to lean down and inspect his compressed and camouflaged form, he was beginning to think sothing strange was going on.
After all, what were the odds that he'd been able to escape from the ants at all? Not good. Not good in the slightest. It felt as though soone or sothing was tipping the scales in Goszi's favour, and he had so suspicions as to who.
Was Theorazzn really able to influence events on the fifth stratum from all the way down, wherever it was that Ancients lived? If soone had asked him a few days ago, the old Krath would have said of course not. Now? He wasn't so sure.
Regardless, he was no longer quite so shocked when he managed to find the Krath outpost without being eaten a dozen tis over.
And, of course, Chozth was extrely pleased to see him.
After being thrown down to the floor, much as he'd expected, it took a few monts to realise that the powerful Krath'lath, sliding towards him, mouth open and flesh sizzling, intended to eat him without a word being exchanged. If he was going to live, he was going to have to speak up for himself.
"The singing," he burbled, face still pressed into the ground. "I found the singing."
For a terrifying second, he thought that Chozth wasn't going to stop. The red rage in her eyes was all-consuming, and he could feel the acrid sting of her breath on his skin before she finally paused.
"The what?" she rasped, still too consud by anger and hatred to process his words properly.
"The Ancient commanded and Goszi has listened. I found the singing."
Her arms lashed out, painfully squishing him down to the rocky floor of the chamber as her loyal followers watched on.
"And you're a loyal servant of the Ancient, are you, Goszi? You're barely a Krath."
"I am as I was born," he forced out.
"No," she hissed, "you're not. You weren't born a traitor."
The acid in her burned so fiercely that her saliva, dripping down onto his skin, ate into him.
To be a traitor amongst the Krath, who didn't have much of a sense of loyalty, was almost an accomplishnt in Goszi's eyes. He'd betrayed the tribe of his birth, his siblings, betrayed many of his fellow Krath, ti and ti again, cheated, lied, stole and sched to keep himself alive, as all of them did. He was unique in one regard only: he had betrayed the Krath as a whole. Betrayed what it ant to be Krath.
There was only one thing the Krath hated more than each other: everything else.
The old slug was starting to believe even the benediction of the Ancient may not be enough to save him anymore. Well, he'd lived a long life for a slug of the tribes. At least if he saw Theorazzn in the Decaying World, he would be able to say he did as he was asked.
"The singing is coming from sowhere inside the fortress of the invaders," he said. "I was locked in a cell and I could hear it day and night. Maddening, haunting, enraging. I would have done anything to get away from it."
"Inside the fortress? Inside the fortress?! You're sure?"
"Would an old slug like have been able to make it back here if there wasn't sothing important for to say? I saw a vision of Theorazzn, of the Maker, and I knew the second I heard that song that it was… wrong."
"Who or what is doing the singing, traitor?" Chozth burbled so deep in her throat it sounded as if she were speaking from her stomach.
"I don't know," he replied, then allowed himself to go limp on the stone floor. Imdiately he was squashed down painfully flat. After a few monts, Chozth relented, withdrawing her limbs.
"Go ahead then," Goszi muttered. "Eat and be done with it. I did what I set out to do."
"Sell us out to the enemy? Give away the secrets of the Krath to invaders? Was that what you set out to do?!"
She spat on him.
"You will be consud, Goszi, but not by . Your flesh and your acid belong to your tribe. When your Krath'lath returns, he will administer your final fate. Until then, we will throw you in a hole."
Goszi was roughly seized on both sides by large, overbearing slugs.
"What ti will you be serving tea?" he grinned.
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