The Displacer Beast VS. The Beholder Eye of Flames

["Unfettered"]

SPOILER: Click to show

(This was a requested piece by my players from my D&D session... and I know it isn't perfect. However, people really wanted to see these two bastards fight each other. This is only the first part, but if ya'll have any pointers, I'd gladly listen.

3rd Person, this is written primarily from the perspective of the displacer beast and focuses more on smells... If any of you have DMed with a displacer beast, I'd love to hear how you describe them. -_-)

Beholding The Beholder
~Part 1~

It had been weeks. Weeks since it had been stolen off the mountains of its home, its kin killed. Weeks since it had been stowed, in spite of all its protesting, aboard the gigantic slaver ship. The beast stared through the bars angrily, its emerald eyes filled with hate. His shrunken stomach failed to growl anymore, as the creature veered close to the levels of starvation. Its once healthy, vibrant coat had faded from the brilliant midnight gloss down to a dirty dark. The creatures that trapped it, boxed it, and imprisoned it learned early on not to feed it, but the beast discovered that its meals had become far and between, leaving it starving for days.

Six days had passed since it had even a scrap of meat. Since it only had about an area of sixteen feet with which to exercise itself, it had come to drag its between legs to conserve energy, saving its growls for the singule-numbered guards that taunted it with their vibrant flesh. It did not get to eat often in part because of the gigantic, furry creatures that horded about in a giant pack in the neighboring cage. Though both were prisoners, the displacer beast held no sympathy or love for the thralled bugbears and bears. They bickered unintelligibly, pining for home in their own small roars and consumed most of the meat that the humanoids threw away, leaving the beast with scraps on the irregular "feeding days" if lucky.

Competition.

It would almost be tempting to try and bait one of the large creatures if it didn't seem like it was absolutely dangerous. Because the large ones weren't even a real pack, individuals that competed with, to a lesser degree, each other. In the earlier weeks, they offered threatening growls at the guards and at the beast, in the attempts to establish a pecking order for the domain they were all caged in, demanding by numerical superiority, more to consume. The weeks had slowed them down to a crawl's worth of their former energy.

Days without sun. Nights without moon. The only sense of time and pattern were the periodic evening change of the guards, marking the passing of twenty-four hours. It would be greeted with roars of awakening and renewed anger, only to settle into quiet growling, the beasts, the bears, all of them taking this moment to stand and perhaps beat upon their containers in futility. The wearing of the cages showed the wear, alongside bits of blood from where the creatures bled themselves on in their struggle.

The only thing that did not stir was the petrified one. Its flame was extinguished, its eyes frozen, its voracious maw sealed shut, the beholder lay on the ground on its side, swaying slightly with the ship. Covered in a grayish, rocky seal, there was no telling what dwelled on inside, but the dark power that managed to drip through was enough to confirm: It still dwelled.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The vault door flew open to allow for a giant wagon of weapons and treasure as three Cutlasses led the way in. The one leading the way in was a normal face to see whenever cargo was to be delievered and stored, the one known as Klodd, but the two that came in with him were new initiates, both towering about in their own way.

One was a man who stood over seven feet. He was plainly dressed, but had a gigantic curved sword sheathed at his side that the inhabitants had never seen before.

The other was an equally magnificent specimen, guarded by a full set of armor, a threatening battleaxe at his disposal, and an evil glow that popped from its eyes, if only for a moment.

An earthy, rocky smell of sulfur seemed to waft its way from the wagon. Aside from the freshly smithed armor and weapons, the minerals of the earth and the Feyside seemed to flow through. Nostalgic memory and anger was the response.

To top it off... there was another scent in the room. A softer one that seemed to elicit imagery of flowers and fresh gardens. The aroma of the outside was maddening.

There was so much that was seen and unseen. Natural fear seemed to curdle in their stomachs, making the bears blanch out with roars in defense. A low growl throated the way up the displacer's neck, as it stared.

In response to the new group, the guards sitting at the middle table got up, and one began to verbally assail the newcomers. However, in his drunken state, he was no match for Carl and was summarily dragged off to be beaten. The other chose to help with the storing of the wagon's contents while the others left, taking their strange, masculine, evangelical musk with them.

Yet the rocks and the flowers remained.

The next few minutes were filled with insanity. The flowers moved about the room, while the guard at the middle summarily began to talk to the scents. Sweat, nervousness, and fear began to grow on his composure and the beasts became riled up with such easy prey so close. It was antagonizing.

Soon, however, the beasts blanched as the guard evidently went into heat and began to mate with itself, while it opened up its dredges... and a faint, but far more earthy, organic soil tickled the air.

The displacer beast recoiled, stalking back to furthest side of its cage, but staring observantly at the origin of the flower scent as it began to speak... and as pink earth manifested itself.

Bears lunged at their sides of the cage, seeing and confirming the prey as the guard was knocked out, but the two soon went to the far corner of the room... and shot up, with chains raced after them, letting them disappear in the elevator. Below the elevator was simply brass, crossed bars and the unmistakably strong smell of oceanic salt.

The beasts, left to their own devices, were left to sleep uncomfortably in the atmosphere of alcohol, heat, and rust.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hours passed.

The elevator had mechanically been reset, leaving the guard to lay, unconscious in its broken mind, mostly unmoving, its virility spent. And just like that, the cycle was broken as the vault door was opened and again the creatures were assailed by the outer world's aromas.

Returned was the dark man that exuded a darkening of heaven, looking no less threatening... and at his side, a new, but recognizable scent. A softer figure with sharp ears and the look of nature's touch. The flower scent. Hungrily, angrily, the bears rallied at their cage as the displacer beast stood quickly, its tentacles aching but whirling threateningly above it.

Moments passed as the two scents bickered between one another. Abruptly, blood was spilled and fresh death licked over them. The displacer's emerald eyes stared, open and wide as peaches, as an involuntary amount of saliva spilled out of the bottom of its maw. The bears too grew vengeful in their want for food, desperate for any form of nourishment.

Flowers then took a blade to the fallen and sliced off a piece. And of all things... approached the displacer beast's cage. Offering.

It was all too much.

At once, the barbed-ended tentacles shot out from between the thick bars and wrapped itself around the flower's tiny arms and waist. His long teeth tore the arm away from her violently, sucking down the bone and flesh hungrily as it held her against the bars, as though trying to push her through. Its hunger was renewed and it carved at the beast's stomach in such a violent way, the fresh blood that dripped from its lapel paling to the shining, hateful green eyes that quickly turned its attention to the flowers.

But then, fresher, already spilt blood wafted again in the air. Shifting its head at almost breckneck speed, the beast turned to see another piece of meat offered by the darkener. Without a second thought, it released the flowers and the tentacles sliced through the air, grabbing violently at the meat and flinging it into its own cage, where the beast jumped on top of it, tearing away into it. Lost in bloodlust, rediscovering its starvation, the creature lamented with a horrifying growl in its frustration.

And nothing more. The armored darkener and the flowers merely watched. Its maw still decorated with blood, the displacer stared back... looking at their figures. There was no sign of spite or lords. There was none in the way of want to hurt or use. They just watched as the beast was often forced to.

...

...The beast, licking its lips, shot them a glare as it stalked back to its favorite corner, recoiling its tentacles closer to its strong shoulders, where it would adjust itself three times. Then, it would rest.

And there, the beast would enjoy the jealousy of its neighbors as it stared on, observing in kind.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The beast “slept,” tail swishing overhead. Its large neighbors growled in envy, but there was nothing to be done. While it was not enough to satiate the beast’s hunger, it gave the stomach the sting of life as it convulsed ravenously over its contents as it curled up in its corner of the room, conserving its newfound strength. It stared warily at its feeders, sniffing the air in loud grunts. It began to ignore the two irregulars inside the room, seeming to pay them no further head as it closed its bright emeralds from them.

Minutes passed along with the intensified scent of… dozens of pieces of meat. Unconsciously, the beast’s ears perked up and its tail swished eagerly, curiously. Its long, stretched tentacles were recoiled, wrapped around its body. Suddenly, the room was flooded with bodies, humans, clamoring, muttering, talking, reeking… delicious. Evidentially he was not the only one who thought so as the gigantic, furry monsters in the adjacent cage had become unnervingly quiet, observing this sudden influx of food.

The food muttered in their useless words to one another, marching in a disorganized mess for the sharp, metal objects. From the clumsy way with which they held themselves, it was obvious that these food had no idea what they were doing, inspiring themselves purely off of hot air. Essentially, there was a feast waiting outside. A cautious, anxious feast. It was not, of course, as though the humanoids were blind to their predicament, much to the displacer’s chagrin. No sooner had the first group armed themselves then that spears and swords were aimed and jabbed through the bars at the monsters.

“Best we kill them now!”

“Aye, don’t want them suddenly breaking out on us!”

Sitting at the very corner and very out of reach, the beast was no less angry, snapping its tentacles as it pushed itself up onto its haunches with its thick, strong paws. He watched as darkener and flowers exited, abandoning him to its fate. Its frustration was not aided by the escapees din.

The rank of fear and uncertainty spilled over without stop.

Suddenly, the dormant one erupted in flames. With their pitiful emotions feeding into it, nourishing it with their terror, the shell of the dormant cracked, fire bursting through. Alive, alive, the beholder began to float.

For once, all grew truly silent, beholding the beholder in its evil. It floated, staring unblnkingly at its petty entrapment. Its many eyes stared at all angles, some believing the beholder to behold their very souls. Slowly, the mouth beneath its main eye grizzled itself into ugliest of smiles, its tongue slithering as it expelled restless flames from within.

It spoke with malcontent, as the escaped prisoners confirmed their doom.

"DID YOU THINK TO HOLD ME? TO POSSESS ME?

"DID YOU THINK TO OWN ME?

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"FOOLS!"

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