The Lord of Rot

The thing which he saw before his eyes was unbelievable... It was happening right in front of him, clear as day, but his senses refused it. He sat awestruck. 

He held his hands closer, he could see all of the little details. One moment his hand had been normal, the same hand he had been born with. But as soon as his thoughts flooded towards something difficult...

Suddenly veins would approach his hands, something beneath moving under his skin. Then in an instant the fleshy surface would have been turned inside out. It was as though his skin had fallen off. 

He could not believe this hand was his own. Rather, he refused to believe it was. 

Konrad shook his head in disbelief, trying to distract himself. Not knowing with what, he continued to look around the valley for something else to bring his attention to. With that he began to monologue. 

'That cliff over there is very, very cliffy.' 

Then he would look at his hand again. It went back to normal. There would not be a single trace of the rot, not at all. 

It was a strange throbbing feeling, something pulsing beneath his skin. This would happen each and every time he thought of doing something with his left hand.

With the feeling, suddenly his hand would begin to feel incredibly warm. With the warmth, intense weight soon followed. 

Depending on where on his hand he focused. Different contortions of his flesh would happen. He would sit on the ground in the middle of the valley, trying to practice each of the moves in his head, and then apply it to his hand. 

He found it entertaining to move the focus, thus the contortion to different spots in his hand. And after a little while he felt proficient at doing it. 

In the end he didn't even feel the pain in the back of his neck. 

*** 

When Konrad would focus on the palm of his hand--a fleshy skin like substance would cover the entirety of the hand. It would become fleshy, incredibly heavy. But not much else. 

Then he would slowly draw the focus outwards, pointing the attention towards the tips of his fingers. As though it followed his attention perfectly, the flesh would slowly contort around the attention given.

By the time it reached the tips of the fingers, the fleshy carnage would turn into something alike to keratin, the same substance as the nails. These bony protrusions would stick out of his fingers. 

This was beyond fascinating for Konrad, he felt rather capable at the moment.

He looked at the bony protrusions of his left hand, and tried to feel them with his right. They were blunt for the most part, but as his right hand approached the point he was cut by it. 

It started bleeding. But it wasn't anything dangerous. Only a bit sharper than the dull knife. 

Then Konrad would fold up the legs of his pants, trying to find some remnants of the same pattern in the left hand. He knew that the rotting flesh had entered his right leg in the same way it had done his left arm. 

In his head he thought of the fleshy mass slowly entering the lower part of his body, and he shivered thinking about it. 

But his leg seemed unremarkable. He tried to focus his attention to the leg in the same way he did his arm. But nothing happened. 

Instead he continued playing around with his hand. 

His stomach would growl after not eating for half a day. He wondered when the next time he could eat something less beastly came. But he knew that would be far from now. 

Then Konrad saw some hopping creatures approaching in the background. 

He wasn't assured he could take any creature on. But this group of ferocious hare-like beasts wouldn't pose that much of a threat. 

They couldn't after all. And with the incredible hunger he felt? Well, there was nothing else to do... 

***

There were perhaps eight or more of the hare-like creatures. They had no coordinations and acted on pure instinct. 

Their behaviour was strange, they didn't look hungry, nor did they look like they wanted to kill him. There was no ill intent from the ferocious animals. 

So why did they attack? 

Konrad dodged from one of the hares. But another came from behind him too. His body twisted and got out of the way. 

'Close call!' 

These were less hare-like than the one he had seen before. Their long ears must have fallen of, and the fur must have done the same.

These hare-like creatures looked more like frogs than hares. Their long legs slowly building up tension, then snapping with a terrible sound. 

Konrad kept dodging these things. Simultaneously three or four of the creatures would jump at him. Their mouths wouldn't be open, it almost seemed like the hares were playing with him.

Though this was not the truth. He had felt the weight of the previous hare, and knew that if these fast hopping creatures flew into him at that speed he would fall to the ground and allow easy access for these hungry beasts as well.

So Konrad wanted to end their battle without difficulty. He focused his attention to his hand, wishing to use the bony protrusions to cut apart of hares. 

The focus shifted to the tips of the fingers, and in an instant, the substance beneath his skin would start moving. His whole hand would turn red in a pinkish fleshy hue. His hand would pulse and a bony protrusion would form at the end. 

However, this time the protrusion was rather sharp. It looked like a long blade, far different than the pointy spears from before. 

He looked at the hare now jumping towards him with a smile on his face. Then he raised his hand, aiming at the rabbit.

It flew at intense speeds, so he followed it the best he could. Giving all his attention to hitting the hare. 

Then he smacked the hare with all his force and an empty hand. The hare made a weird noise, fell to the ground and got back up again.

'Damn!' 

...