“In that time, word spread through the elemental plane — or community if you want to put it in human terms and excited the interests of a very rare and dangerous type of earth elemental, called a scraithinth. It looks like this.”
Kevin made a few passes in the air and muttered several words that Sam couldn’t make out, and an image solidified out of thin air. It was life sized. It was in full color. It was 3-D. And it felt as malign and forbidding as the real thing. Kevin was quite proud of it, actually.
Sam’s mouth snapped shut and he jumped up and back away from the desk. The damn thing appeared to stare at him and the shifting of the gray ooze over the body intensified. Its mouth whirred, the teeth, so sharp and many, blurred as it leaned toward Dawson and the look on his face was truly amazing. He cast an appealing look toward Kevin who merely shrugged and added, “This isn’t it, Sam. Just what it looks like. This is what you attracted with that doping process. And this is what you’re going to have to contend with in the future if you continue to use it.”
Dawson looked sick.
“Yeah, I know. But there should be something you can do. If it works with the materials you’ve got, it will work with others and perhaps all you need is a different mix. But it’s going to be a danger and you’d better be aware of it. You’ve got some work cut out for you I’m afraid, before you can get into production. Sorry, but that’s the way things appear now.”
Dawson look minutely relieved but then his expression fell when he realized exactly what Kevin what saying. “Damn it to hell.”
“Sorry, not a place that would accept such a beast, I’m afraid. The demonic and elemental planes are totally separate and not on what I’d call on friendly terms.” Kevin grinned back at Dawson. He intended to keep Sam aware of the realities he faced. That meant rubbing his nose in it. Possibly frequently.
Dawson looked surprised for a moment and then actually smiled ruefully. Kevin took that as acceptance and continued, leaving the image of the scraithinth frozen now. “Moving on. Apparently, once word got back to others on the earthly elemental plane this critter came into the picture. The scraithinth is a very rare and very powerful earth elemental. It’s also uncontrollable as far as I know and pretty much hates everything. It doesn’t even get along well with other earth elementals.
“Possibly that’s because they see damn near everything as food.” Kevin watched for a reaction from Dawson and wasn’t disappointed. What color that had remained after Kev had invoked the image began to drain away from Sam’s face. If he had looked chagrinned and afraid before, he now long heartsick and terrified. “Even other earth elementals though I doubt that it gets an opportunity for such food very often. In any event, one or two of these elementals surfaced, so to speak and more or less coerced a second break-in last night. My guess is that the threats they posed to the consortium were severe enough that they were forced to agree to bring one of them along on their next visit. That particular visit was last night and Pam and I were here when it went down.
“There’s not a lot to be gained by going into details of what happened last night, but the long and the short of it is that I killed the scraithinth, which is something of a feat, let me clue you, and Pam took out the gunmen that had come with it. There was a third man involved, one of the consortium’s better magicians. I took him out before I took on the elemental. During the fight between myself and the scraithinth, Pam made her way through the portal back to their base, wherever the hell that is.”
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