[crow]

It rose like a meteor, spiraling up and up, and as it traveled, the water brightened around it gradually. Only when it could see the pale, striated ice that marked the surface boundary did the entity slow at last, and turn itself around to examine the pillar again.

It was still there, though some of its shape was different. Moreover, it extended up beyond the ice, past the point where the entity could make out anything. Just how far up did it go? All the way to the sky?

[crow]

The entity didn't know, but as it pondered the problem, the idea occurred to it that maybe it didn't matter how far up the pillar went. A structure that was long and narrow like this was more vulnerable in the middle, after all, and it had already traveled a considerable distance to reach this point.

Much better to attack it here--- though even then, perhaps it could not finish its task in one fell strike, much as it might have liked the idea of doing so.

[crow]

Still, having existed as long as it had, the entity was no stranger to patience. It could do this. Before the eons that it had spent here beneath the ocean, what could a year, a month, a day mean to it?

Gathering its sickly black liquid entourage around itself, the entity let it surge this way and that, building momentum with its serpentine movements. The waters around the pillar surged, and the ice creaked under the sudden strain. Then, with a rush, the entity sent the whole of it forward at the pillar once more.

[crow]

This time the effect was more immediate. The structure didn't break, but the entity could hear it groaning, the first signs of weakening. It had been right to change its tactics and direct its efforts here. This first sign of progress heartened it greatly, and it sent another wave at the pillar, and then another. Slowly, the groaning grew louder, sometimes shrill, and occasionally, when the entity stopped to examine its handiwork, it could see places where the structure had warped. Bit by bit, it was weakening.

[crow]

A little more... A little more and it would be freed. For the entity was not driven by wrath now, but pain--- the piercing ache, and something else, which it now recognized as the sensation of its strength slowly being sapped away. It was still powerful, but not as strong as it had been, the last time it had been well and truly awake. And now it feared that it might get weaker still.

Patience, patience. The entity struck and struck again. Soon it would be freed of this.

[Wild Pet Found]