Meaty insides

Chapter 1: FISH, METAL AND A DESTINATION


The ocean thundered down, it's dark, blue And high tides hitting back and fort among themselves and whatever happened to be in the way, the sounds the tides made joining the thunder that lighted up the dark cloudy sky and the rain hitting and agitating the ocean, the only place near to calm was under the tides, where strange lifeforms reside among the coat of coldeness that enveloped the area.

A school of fish, blue to the eyes, slimy to the touch and weird to the ears, swam about, each having a different problem, some bones poking out maybe, a eye almost bursting out,a exposed skull dripping droplets of blood into the water, All swimming about together, the unlucky sins of evolution almost having no weight on them.

Then suddenly, a commotion, as the calm underwater was ripped away momentarily as the fish scattered, the dark hull of a mettalic ship moving, almost parting the sea as it groaned against the waves, barely reaching the deck  of the mettalic, groaning beast that was the dark ship, the lights  scattered among the sea almost looking like eyes in the distance, tall and tiny glowing eyes that overlooked the sea in they glory.

In the wet, rainy and metallic deck , footsteps from heavy steel toed boots, squeaking carts and indistictive murmuring filled the darkness, ocassionaly with   the strong smell of flesh and the light from one of the Windows nearby

The beings with the  heavy boots carrying the supplies were quite exquisitive, with the only defining features among them is  that they were small, almost the size of a doll, but with enough strenght together to pull a supply box, ash like skin to hide in the shadows, that they heads, big like a swollen football betrayed the purpose off, the few with veiny eyes looked around,.guiding the ones void of eyes, they always looked nervous, with the slit like openings that they called mouths always either muttering or twitching erratically, either as a result of natural anxiety (even with the various bony horns that gave them small protection) nerve damage around the face, or both,

A taller being was among them, standing at almost five of of them stacked, with silver  short hair wearing a transparent raincoat that If one would look clearly at would see a bloody apron that it did not bother to wash that day after being splashed with  bovine blood,  the same steel toed boots, but more importantly a mask

A white mask, with almost no discernible features other  than two dark eyeholes and finnaly  tall  goat-like curved horns that stood atop the head that wore the mask

Those were the most notable features that appeared in amelia weige, having finished her shift, was somewhat curious about the status of her friend lesquell

"HEY " shouted amelie, with a somewhat annoyed tone as she knocked on the hatch door leading to the  guard room "LET ME IN" shouted amelie a litlle bit more clear as to stand out among the thunderous thunder and the rain that hit around them, forming a loud chaotic syphomny that was hard to communicate in

The door, with a shiny silver metal lining that almost gave amelie frostbite and smelled of rainwater, opened slowly as something creeped in, suddenly it swung open

It had no eyes, its skin darker than the night, with the end of the round tube of darkness ending in bloody rows and rows of teeth, a funnel of mandibles that never seemed to end

Amelie weige stood still, the eyes in her mask showing her rather amused look


"Really lesquell?"

amelie weige looked up to  see a soft yet hardened arm  grabbed her and pulled her inside, the light of the lamp hanging by strings blinding weige, still feeling the coldeness of the arm pulling her she looked at lesquell

"You are no fun!" Said lesquell  jokingly

The source of the voice was taller than weige, standing two heads taller than her, wearing a long tall  buttoned up coat, with a small  hat to cover her short green hair, but Mostly important was her right arm, where an hand should be was slick, slimy dark  skin intersecting getting thicker and thicker as it went down, and at the end of the 'limb' where an there was a funnel of sharp bloodied teeth, compromised of almost endless rows and rows of teeth

Lesquell akari  liked to call  it jeev


"You know nobody else but the assistents get scared by that" Complained halfheartly amelie as she put down her raincoat on the old coathanger, it's wood already beggining to show signs of wear and angry itchy termites already crawling it's surface

"You have to admit that was kinda  funny" lesquell  remarked her opinion

"Still..." amelie said as she sat down on a nearby chair around  the watcher's table, being filled mostly with blood and meat samples That amelie had delivered to yuri's pet earlier, some  leather bound  hardbooks, a compass and a handgun, all pushed Aside to make way to amelie's tired arms, she breathed in the humid air inside the room before continuing "before i ask anything how are you?"

"Good! The supplies are ready to be delivered, saw nothing important, just a few islands, rocks, fat meaties on the rocks  that could not move and you know..just normal shit"

Amelie  gave a sigh  of  relief  at the  report, immobile meaties were a good sign in that rough weather, with them having not developed locomotion due to no working limbs or just plain old being too fat, it rendered them simply a poor amalgamated living mass of flesh, wasting away at the elements, being picked at  slowly by sealife and seagulls, the ones that mutated to have locomotion in some way were the opposite: amelie had heard stories, stories of fishing boats suddenly being pulled with they nets down the waters, smaller vessels suddenly  dissapearing in a explosion of wood, meaty remains and metal

She still had nightmares where the entire ship got slowly and surely dragged to a icy abbys, welcomed by a screaming maw of teeth and faces, she shaked her head at the thought before continuing

"Thats good" said amelie hesitantly "well..  my work hours are done..the assistants came in with a bunch of catches, i think it will be good for some six to seven months worth of meat"

"Thats a lot more than last time!" commented lesquell happyly, eager to see a fatter paycheck

"Well It gave me lots of work to do, some of the assistants gave me a hand.. finnaly finished with it just now..and yuri?"

"Yes?"

"Can i come with you on the supply delivery?, i really need a stretcher and i have some extra money to spare" amelie looked at her pockets,filled with trinckets and a handful of cash

"Well.. I do need to guard the supplies while they are delivered...I am sure the captain will not mind you just walking around in your work hours right?" Lesquell smilled as she caressed jeev,.who salivated some droplets of blood on the floor.

"Yeah!" Amelie smilled underneath her shiny, washed down mask "so when are we reaching it"

Lesquell scratched her chin almost jokingly with her left  arm as she tried to remember the  coordinates, landmarks and the map itself  "well i would say we will arrive very-"

A loud dragged out sound interrupted lesquell, amelie and a few assistants covered their ears, such as it was loud it dissapeared quickly, the blowhorn of the dark ship grew quiet again, a sign of land on sight

"About now apparently" said lesquell exasperatly as she looked on the telescope out in the window, jeev coiled itself around it as she looked down the scope

"I am seeing the lights, the docks are clearing, seeing some sailors, we are here, rostfle is here!" Cheered yuri as she held out her left hand for a high five, which amelie promptly high fived

Amelie could hear many sounds outside, the assistants carrying  off the supplies to be docked, the now calming rain, with the smell of wet wood and steel already reaching her nostrils, and mostly importantly lesquell excitedly grabbing her Essentials and handgun, and promptly  running to the door, her footsteps hitting against the wooden boards

Amelie quicly followed as she saw amelie twisting the lock of the  metal door to open it, already seeing better prosperity and profits to both the ship and her salary, if all went well, she might even get more helpers to help cut the meat!, she heard the screeching as both the lock and door protested with the sound of rust resultant to seawater esposure hitting and scratching against slick and  flat metal as yuri twisted it further and further Until it Then finnaly opened, basking them in the cloudy day

The tides were calmer, the rain was merely droplets, the smell of rainwater and wetness filled the air, it was almost as if the gods had smilled and calmed down upon  once seeing the enormous ship packing with food reaching the quainty fishing town sitting at the border where the land kissed the sea

Overall,  it seemed like a good night as lesuqell and amelie looked down to find the sailors Already setting up the ramp  to put the supplies and vessels down the land, with the city nearing it's peak market point and alongside the dark ship's notorious reputation, it was welcomed with open arms and docks

"MOVE THE RAMP!" Amelie heard a voice from a speaker attached to a small guard station shout, followed swiftly by the sound of  something heavy hitting the waters as the anchor  was lowered down to the warm waters of the shores, making  a huge whiplash as it landed


Amelie took a deep breath of air as she watched the sailors run to the ship, first, the  second ramp was lowered down, then the assistants came in small groups, carrying five wooden boxes  with tiny metal latchlocks covering the top sides, filled with supplies that amelie and yuri could already smell  already, yuri quickly pulled out a small list that amelie could quite not see before yuri called out to them

"hey let's go! The clients ain't going to supply themselves!" Yuri chuckled as she walked down the ramp, following close to the boxes and helpers, she held her handgun tight as amelie quickly followed close too, her body aching for a good stretch

She looked around, taking in the smells of the fish in barrels, the sounds of the seagulls, some that sounded like half chocking half spatting, and of nearby chatter, amelie looked at least happy as she stretched her arms as she walked alongside lesquell, closely guarding the supplies as she looked around for danger

The town was somewhat calm at it's begginings, with the smell of whatever the street vendors were bothering selling to whoever was in the street in the air, mostly children played around while  sailors and fishers went on break to buy things

It was a usual afternoon for rostfle, the bustling town, it's old  name cast Aside mostly to be forgotten as the immigrants filled the place of the abandoned houses so many years  ago, inside the town, which had  walls and trained guards on the most dangerous parts, the dangers and monsters of the world seemed almost far away

Amelie was glad by that protection from bigger threats
As she breathed in the air, the sound of  music From the radio and the sight of the first white colluns of smoke coming from the cooking all gave a signal that they were reaching the place that they clients resided, buyed and sold they wares in the  rostfle city market


What had started as a few  stands and a attempt at recovering the recently crashed economy só many years ago  was now pratically a economical tumour of stores, stands and vendors scattered around the city, fueling the parts of the economy that fishing alone simply could not fill it

The market started about a few stretches down the entrance to the city, with a few tightly packet stands marking the way

"So who is our first client?" Amelie cocked her head to the side as she looked at yuri

"Lets see.." lesquell pulled up a list from her pockets "First one is...runnie's leftovers, sells a bunch of organic trash or cheap things, we are dumping our leftovers over by..It says to go straight then Take a hard turn to the left.."

And so they did, after getting into two dead ends, one in which lesquell cursed at least once they arrived at the tiny building, there hang a sign  overhead that said:

                 *RUNNIE'S LEFTOVERS*

                *MEAT/REMAINS/EQUIPMENT*

The building was a concrete tumour, build right next to a rundown rotten cabin in the city build in a overgrown lot, making a unusual sight, as amelie and yuri entered
They were met with the soft breeze of a  fan welded tight to a high  corner of the wall, with its plastic case gone and One of its blades broken and on the floor gathering dust, and the smell of something fermenting, right in front of them alongside a few wood displays there was a large glass display, packed with miscellaneous bevarages  blocking a way to the backdooors of the tiny square store, and a tiny radio, telling news of tensions rising beeetwen rostfle and the  city turned country called antelasque

In front of them, amelie saw a  rotund vessel, wearing a similar, bigger and  cleaner apron, with the lower jaw sligtly moved up front, exposing some of the yellow-tinted teeth, his left glass eye slightly bulging out, he twitched is jaw a bit as he looked at amelie and yuri, then the helpers carrying the first supply box, with a fermented smell coming out of it

"welcome!" Said runnie as he made a akward attempt at a smile, sabotaged by his lower jaw "you are the ones they send to give me the leftovers?"

"Yep" said lesquell as she nudged the helpers in the back to move the box a bit more to the front "squid, shark bones,  salmon" she checked the box, seeing the merged mass of what once was a school of salmon, surrounded by ice "blue salmon and Thats it"

"Seems like it's good" runnie clapped his hands as he opened the box, overseeing it's contents, then seeing the price tag, then opening the cash register, a old machine that he himself had  buyed from the machinery and electronics store in a nearby city, he promply handed out the demanded breu

"That's good" said lesquell as she looked at the breu, putting it in her satchet, "hope you enjoyed the services  of the dark ship" she said as she walked away, leaving run with the supply box

"GoodBye!" Said runnie, already pushing the box in

"Bye!" Said both lesquell  and amelie out of politeness, lesquell already taking out the list to see the next batch of clients in that big and diverse market

The next ones went almost without a problem

The second one, a small old hardware store called bitware, in dire need of biological material for the biocomputing maintainence of a few repurpursed computers

The other two?, one a local butcher, led by a old vessel, who was a tad bit too sticky both physically wise and money wise, the second one a small child led by his adult brother, who insisted the two were ripping him off on the blood vials for his pet shop, he eventually paid, they all did, for good or for bad

Only the last one remained

"Lilly's meatflower bussiness?" Amelie looked at the last name


"Yeah, something to do with breeding plants, it's right up in one of the right corners of the Market"

Amelie and lesquell were positive, lesquell's satchell was filled to the brim with money, amelie had got a good stretch, it seemed like the day was getting better

They opened the quainty litlle door of the store, located one floor up a tiny fishing store, up there in the conter amid all the seed packs and samples was a litlle Young woman, with a  smile as big as her dress, her appearance would make it as thought she was not doing bussiness but rather going to a dance party

"Hi!" Said lilly excitedly "you are lesquell right? They said you were going to arrive soon!, i was about to ask why it took two weeks but i suppose a ship as big as the dark ship is quite busy!" She chuckled a bit as she worked closely on a red flower, intertwining some strange meat moss around it's stalk

"So two quilograms worth of meat moss right?" Lesquell looked at her, sniffing the place around


"So where is-" amelie started to

"right here!" Lilly said, pulling out the breu from the old cash register "i was hoping you could speed things up?, i am late for watering the flowers you see, and they get hungry when i don't water them well"


"It's alright maa'm" said amelie "we will just grab the cash and go-

A bright flash of light overtook the three vessels in the store

Amelie could not think, all she could feel was a sharp pain in her right hand

Then nothing