Snippet #2623280

Something indeed was coming.
Something deadly and ancient that was simply awaiting a chance to break free of certain bonds; an opportunity granted by the mis-step of one ill-fated man.

The ground around the group began to rumble, trees groaning in anguish as the ground in the circle began to buckle, as if being sucked into a hole. This force radiated outwards, growing to consume a radius of, roughly, twenty-some feet, in a miniature earthquake. If the inhabitants did not move quickly, they may well have been consumed by what came next.

Roiling flames licked up from the cracks torn in the earth. A deep, rumbling laughter began to sound, as one immense, clawed hand jutted forth from the center of what used to be the circle. It extended to the edge of the mass of flame and crippled ground, one impossibly long limb, and another broke free of its earthy prison to go towards the other side.

"Freedom," murmured a deep, menacing voice; it sounded as if it came from all sides, below, and yet another place entirely, muffled and all-too clear at the same time. "At long last... FREEDOM!"

Finally the soil and stone relented, trees were toppled and the immense form began to heave itself from the detritus. And an immense creature it was, covered in black, chitinous scales. Its eyes and teeth were a bloody, deep red, burning with fury as if made of molten steel.

It fixed its gaze on Nikita, the foul visage spreading into a most unsettling grin. "Little thing," it said, its tone impossible to recognize as mocking or coddling. "You are to blame, to praise... to sacrifice."

With these words it broke free massive wings from the earth, spreading them to a truly immense span, and starting to heave itself even further from the chasm it had torn on arrival to this plane. And it laughed, deeply and darkly, echoing in the night as if walls were closing around to forsake them all.