***AS SEEN IN*** PLANET SCUMM EVERYTHING: VOL. 2

**Written by Stefan Sokoloski**
*Illustrations by* Maura McGonagle

KATU AND THE EYE OF FLESH

Stefan Sokoloski

A pale orb marked with a slight ring of pink was adrift along the ocean of infinity. Underneath the shallow rose of the skyline, gray landmasses of dried skin and bone were all that were. The wasted lands were the remains of countless creatures laid to rest by entropy.

Transfused skin peelings of these ancient ones formed hills in the landscape. In a forest of discarded rib-cages along the rolling grounds, dark, bumpy shells lay half-submerged in the ash.

Something from the craggy rocks had awakened amidst the never-ending death. White jelly pooled together from nothing into large, singular eyeballs that filled the jagged stones. The iris of each shone cascading yellow, with a pit of darkness in the center.

They gazed out the open end of their shells with unsatisfied curiosity until their sides cracked. The white of their eyes convulsed outwards, molding into six darkened legs.

From beneath the piles of sandy gray, they rose to their feet. The spider-like beings shook the sand from the crevices of their shells and scuttled to explore the great dead lands.

A rocky arachnid wandered to their feet from a pit they had dug themselves in the gray. The first to rise from slumber, they scampered in between the other motionless spiders along the ground, ending the reckless sprint at the foot of another member of the clan.

The spider pushed on their hind legs to give the other one a gentle nudge. The sleeping rock quickly jutted from the pit and jumped onto their feet. They locked eyes with each other for only a second before running off as fast as they could.

They raced past pillars made from aged corpses and out onto a vast field. One grappled their legs across the shell of the other with no warning. Together they tumbled through the stretch, hurling each other around until one got on top. Neither of them stayed atop the other for long. No victory was ever claimed in their battles.

The others eventually joined them in the empty field. Over the course of the day the rest of the tribe would stop their playful wrestles and horde around these two. When the inseparable pair would fight it would become more than just that. Their movements progressed into a deep yet crude dance where nothing else mattered.

When the darkness turned the bubblegum sky to a near black they would all return to their pits. When they got back the two would separate, but they always only rolled with each other.

Time continued to flow alongside the clan’s pilgrimage. That flow brought many things into their lives, some savory, some rather un. As time passed their shells would grow to peel at nearly the same time, eventually shedding an entire coat of paper-thin skin. When the peeling came they picked up and traveled into the unknown. They were searching for something, they just didn’t know what.

One plague that came with the coming skins was a hunger. A weakness which dulled their wills to keep treading forward. This was a sign for them. It was time to begin the hunt.

The two were jammed in a stampede of their own. Raging shrouds of dust trailed behind the clan as they claimed the wastes with their numbers.

The ground trembled slightly between their legs. Worms popped through the exterior layer of the ground, spinning their spiraled fins along their bodies in a drill-like motion. They dived back into the planet as if it were liquid. These were the others that inhabited the lands, beings made from centuries of compressed death in the far reaches of the underground.

The crowd of spiders broke, scattering throughout the hilly land. The shelled ones leapt through the air and drove their pointy sticks into the worms’ dry bodies.

The ground exploded under the belly of a solitary arachnid. A worm rammed itself into the spider’s shell. The stone split in multiple places. The pair of friends both sprang into action. A jolting leap sent both of their attacking legs through different sides of the monster’s body, tearing it to pieces.

The clan fixated on the pulsating body of their downed member. They were on their back, all six legs squirming in a state past frantic. White began to trickle through the cracks and down the black stone. The eye burst into what seemed like trillions of liquid particles. All that was left was soaked ground and broken rock.

They had no clue that something like this was even a possibility. Together they sat in a circle around the shell until the day became night, all their eyes pointed towards the ground.

Their next hunt came after the coming skin. The shades of death were still fresh in the palette of their memories.

When the clan sensed the rumbling of nearby prey they stopped. One of the infamous pair dragged a pointed leg along the ground, drawing arrows, directions to where the worms could be. They then beckoned the shortest of them all to center stage.

The small one darted into a valley in the ground. Coarse worms stuck from the crumbles of steep inclines. They bolted past every creature and ran out the other end. The worms dove after them.

Along the outskirts the spiders rushed in, led by the two. Their numbers were much greater than the worms that remained.

When the rest circled back, led by the small one, it was only a pile of dead worms. The spiders plucked through with ease.

Back at their sleeping digs, the shelled ones wrestled around and fed on the fresh catch by absorbing them into their gelatinous eye sacks. The two raised their worms in the air with a glorious pump that prompted the rest of the spiders to join in. A joyous melody of movement puppeteered the clan far into the night time.

One of the two headbutted the other awake on another day beneath the pinkened wisps. The friends fought into the plains with their feet moving in a competitive unison. When one would attack, the other would always counter in deft fashion.

In the middle of a roll the two shot off a cliffside. They continued their display, plummeting through pillows of thick air as if they had no idea that they were falling at all. Their bodies bounced off something soft and were roughly cushioned by patches of flakes around them.

The two rose from the ground with shaky legs. A gray layer of smooth skin in the ground peeled back, revealing an eye of white bigger than them both put together. In the core of the eye was a loud red which beckoned their utmost attention.

“You there, who stands before me.” A thick voice trembled as they shuffled their legs in surprise. “Lost kin of mine, I am Ahma. My duty shall be fulfilled, you will be named Katu, and the other Aetu.” Every syllable shook through the ground. “Bring your kin to me.”

The two stood completely still, staring into the giant pupil in a trance. The newly named Katu nudged Aetu to get a move on.

Katu and Aetu ran with haste as the rest of their clan eagerly followed. Together they brimmed with curiosity around the giant eye.

“Time propels every animate reality to sunder.” Ahma spoke as the clan surrounded him, as if he were a bonfire. “Together we are kin from the same reality. To that, I will aid in conducting your gale. Your passing.”

Over the course of the next skin, Ahma’s influence began to take effect. He named every single one of them. Every night he spoke to them after their hunts and wrestles.

"Deep within one's inner forge lies an ability forgotten by the world itself," Ahma declared. "A light which proliferates through the dark, an eye open in a dimension of things that remain closed."

Ahma would breathe these vague messages into the shelled creatures to their utmost delight. "The eye is but a construct to house stray light from the depths, the purpose of the eye itself. Those who do not hold the eye are beholden to flow against it." His rich voice bellowed.

One violet-skied morning, Ahma stopped Katu from waking up Aetu. “Katu, come hither.” The voice vibrated through the ground. Katu scurried up. “As the clan continually stokes the flame within the inner forge, there will be a day when the wind shall bring you to the most unexpected of pathways. When that day comes, you will know. It will be your task to sacrifice the gift which the wind has bestowed unto you, for the passing commands it so.” These words were an eternal commandment to Katu, sticking to the deepest depths of his soul like glue.

The hunts were a different animal with Ahma playing a part. He was somehow able to guide them in the direction of the nearest worm patch, even telling them how many were lingering and the formation of the land itself.

This was a long hunt indeed. A crater in the ground filled with terrors. The spiders surrounded them and drew them from the center of their pit, picking them off with a widespread formation and barrages of cautious jabs. After the hunt some nearly collapsed from fatigue. They decided to sleep within the confines of the emptied pit.

The next morning was consumed by the struggle of carrying worms back to their pits. Katu lugged the fattest worm over to Ahma. A prize for the guidance, and for the mystical words that they were about to consume.

All that was left of Ahma was a chasm filled with collapsed slag where his eye used to protrude. Katu was lost in a gaze as the worm shook from between his legs and fell to the ground. Shortly others joined him. Together they nestled around the hole for an entire skin.

Skins had come and gone since the disappearance of Ahma. The spiders did what they had always done, the only thing that made sense; they pushed onwards.

They traveled far into the wastes. Gray mountains broke through the clouds. The spiders lolloped across the sandy sides of one, until a tense vibration almost shook them into the pits below. Together they slid down the ashy ridges and to the base.

The ground began quivering. The arachnids stumbled upon a gaping hole in the side of the mountain. Katu could see movement through the shadows.

The clan moved into the cavern, lunging at the worms one by one through the darkness of the tunnels. Total decimation ensued in the smothering black. Katu and Aetu pressed through the unknown and lashed at the monsters with pure instinct.

After their infiltration the clan gathered with a gaggle of worms in tow. Upon their exit, the land quaked around them. A colossal monstrosity emerged from a blow of smoke in the ground. The cave-in smashed some to death between slabs of broken rock, while the monster swallowed several others into its unfathomably large body.

Unlike the other worms, this one was many times the size of their entire clan. It was birthed from the deepest depths of the ash with a fin so hard it was almost made of stone. The calamity’s obsidian skin was devoid of any light whatsoever. The beast which plagued them was known from then on as the Great Worm.

Every day was another attempt to adapt to the beast’s presence. They began to hunt in the Great Worm’s shadow. Some of the clan was devoured by the beast as the skins turned. The prospect of finding meals decreased, and the eyes within some burst from starvation.

Katu and Aetu kept rolling together, focusing on the magnificence of their beings. These days it became the only reason for them to be; the dance was the only light that came from their hearts. Ahma had made them see this truth, and so it became the most important thing to them. Eventually the truth was that they were the only two left.

The last of their kind began a series of hunts throughout the wastes. They battled through ugly slugs, only to flee because the Great Worm ripped through the planet towards them. Even facing such adversity, the two had taken solace by pushing onwards together. They slept next to each other, shared meals, and survived back to back during impossible fights.

The spiders managed to salvage a thick worm from their prowl. Scrambling into a wrestle after devouring their prize wasn’t even a question.

The spiders vied for control, using their pointy legs to latch into a curled state against each other while ricocheting across a forest. The two cannon-balled each other around. They tumbled into a field where they were brought to a stand-still.

The two collided with one another in a leaping tackle. A crack whipped the air in two, blowing them in separate directions. Aetu's shell fractured, and all the white splashed in one half. Their legs turned to pure mush while the rest of Aetu’s eye dried into the resinous ground.

Katu's eye sharpened so tightly that it shook. They rushed up to Aetu's shell and tapped it. Katu did it again, and again, and again, nudging the remains over and over until the vibration turned the spider’s eye numb. Their heart twisted into a knot of disbelief.

Katu remained as skins passed, nudging Aetu's shell without fail. Katu held no matter what, because they still hadn’t found a victor.

Katu had leaned in for another headbutt when violent ripples began to tear the ground apart. A colossal black pillar ravaged the field from the pits of hell. Katu flew into the air and only barely caught themselves with their front feet on the side of a broken rock. The Great Worm was so high in the air that it eclipsed the area with its shadow.

Aetu’s shell was pinched in a corner of the demon’s black teeth. The arachnid kicked off and pounced through the smog of the dead without any hesitation. They leapt from the ruins of ash to the side of the pillar’s body.

The last spider was repeatedly battered by the passing fins. Clapping two legs together they grasped the spiral ridge with a desperate hold. Their white, slimy eye jiggled in waves against the force emitted by the worm’s path.

The worm drilled through the air and back down into the monochromatic spectrum of graves. Katu shielded themselves from the debris by pressing their body under the fin.

The Great Worm eventually broke through to a grand, hollow cavern illuminated by dust-filled beams of light that poked from holes in the roof. The monstrosity plunged towards an oily black lake covered with bones. The stillness of the lake was broken when the demon erupted face-first from the ectoplasm.

Katu held on by a slippery strand. The slime bathing their eye stung, while the darkness left them unable to see. Katu grasped with all six legs against the liquid fire.

Katu clung on while the worm tunneled through layers of the underground. The lake waterfalled, and it was here that the worm finally slowed. The walls were a glossy red and caverns angled like sinew. Layers of tissue throbbed and moved along the walls.

Katu scuttled up the Great Worm’s fin to its head. The rocky spider could then see exactly what was keeping the demon; it was consuming the walls of flesh. The tissue seized all around them at the chomp of its teeth.

Katu slammed their feet down on its head to no avail. With each strike Katu seized up, but they continued regardless.

The Great Worm’s tubular body began to tremble. It threw the small spider back with an upward thrash. Katu grabbed hold of the fin once again and clenched themselves behind it as the worm broke through the flesh. Together they traveled farther into the organic abyss.

Skins passed as the worm shot through more anatomical structures. Massive pillars of deep purples and blues pulsed with an unknown liquid in these caverns. The only thing the worm avoided was pure white bone; everything else was smashed into oblivion. This battle of wills rocketed through the deepest pockets of the planet.

Katu kept trying to travel to the head, but each time the worm catapulted them backwards. During an attempt to reach its head the spider tripped over one of the spirals. The demon seized, severing one of Katu’s legs with a trail of white goo along its back. All the arachnid could do was tremble.

After all these beatings, Katu had developed deeper cracks in their shell. They quivered back into hiding behind the fin.

The worm then stopped, followed by sounds of cartilage being mangled between hundreds of mincing teeth. The spider bounced with their remaining five legs towards the head.

Continually they bashed with no other plan available. Finally, one leg snapped in half. Katu flailed in an eruption of pain.

The worm’s body rumbled as Katu struggled to retain balance. Something clicked in the back of Katu’s mind.

With a quick jolt, Katu hastily wrapped their remaining legs around two of the Great Worm’s black fangs. The arachnid pulled upwards so firmly that it sent shivers of pain through their eye. The crooked teeth began to push up into the worm’s skin.

Whichever way Katu yanked, the Great Worm charged. The cheeky arachnid used this to their advantage, directing the worm further into the planet. The red of the caverns became darker, as the air thickened into a moist smog of heat.

The monster volleyed sporadically. It tore off another one of Katu’s legs, which erupted in a spray of white fluid. The spider shook wildly yet pushed through. Katu held steady using one of their limbs to keep anchored and the other two to guide the fangs.

The horribly hot air of the innermost ring of the planet sizzled at Katu’s eye and the mouth of the Great Worm. A wall of bone revealed itself before them and the spider pulled towards it with all their remaining strength. Katu strained with all their might, their limbs threatening to give out.
A shockwave pulverized everything around them, followed by a trail of thunderous booms. Force echoed into the wall, cracking and collapsing it whole. The Great Worm shriveled into itself. The bone shattered and Katu fell into the darkness with the remains of the worm following suit.

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The broken spider dragged themselves through the darkness with only two legs left. A trail of their internal jelly leaked from behind while their pupil dripped with fatigue. Bringing themselves towards the worm’s mouth, they could see a tiny sliver of black rock between two hard teeth. It was all that remained of Aetu. The spider pried the piece of shell away and brought it down into the darkness.

Katu nudged at the shell with an impassioned headbutt. Something had happened to Katu in that moment that never had before; tears of clear liquid leaked from their eye, for Aetu.

The will which drove Katu began to dry up. Their iris was losing color, fading to silver. Darkness smothered Katu from every angle, and they gave themselves to it.

“Katu.” A deep voice trembled so loud it shook through their eye, reanimating them. The walls began to come alive with deep scarlet. Darkness faded, as Katu noticed a gigantic heart in the center of the room. A furious beating enigma webbed to the center of the cavern with veins of all colors running through to the outer world. All along the cavern flaps began to peel, and eyes of ruby looked upon Katu. It was Ahma.

“Katu, the gales bring you at last,” Ahma said as Katu’s tears overtook them. “It has been a perilous journey, but your flame has kept you along the venerated path.” The spider pushed and used their head to gesture towards the shell of Aetu.

“Aetu is no more in this plane, lost from the winds of time,” Ahma announced. Katu’s pupil hung low in a pool of its own tears. “However, Aetu will forever be within the essence of the forge. Your own eye carries the blaze of Aetu’s heart.”

Katu looked up at Ahma, his pupil relaxed.

“I am the heart of this world. I am Ahma. As the world keeps drifting, the forces that act against our eyes grow. That collection of dead that you have relinquished is but one eyeless one. It is the nature of the great contrast, but because of that nature, I was forced to leave the clan to await this day. Katu, once more in this cycle we must rekindle our flames, and our eyes must close to be reopened anew. Give me your eye, as the flame of which your inner forge has gathered is to be the new ember of the world.”

Katu pulled up to the heart. Ahma peeled back a layer of tissue to reveal a crystalline puddle of liquid resting in the fleshy ventricle. The spider dragged their failing body into the pool as the muscle closed. It was almost as if Aetu was there resting beside them after another exuberant wrestle.

The heart of the planet contracted and released a pulse of energy through the gray wastes. Time and space rippled from the pink orb, separating all matter. The discombobulated energy twisted inwards into the black pool. Only the great sea of infinity existed; the pale dot was missing from the planes of existence.

A pale orb marked with a slight ring of pink was adrift along the ocean of infinity. Into the heart of the globe, Ahmakatu watched as a generation of shelled arachnids came into existence. Hundreds of them built a vast civilization within the barrens. A tear trickled down from their eye when they spotted two of them wrestling with each other.

Memory did not serve them, but at that moment their heart was filled with a meaning that tugged at their innermost heartstrings. Ahmakatu continued to watch new life spring forth upon the world. Tears flowed from their many eyes. Their own being was suffused with the warmth of forges past, the light that sits behind the eyes of flesh.

"KATU AND THE EYE OF FLESH" by Stefan Sokoloski [Issue 10 Full Story]

KATU AND THE EYE OF FLESH

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