Prompt - very short story

This time, it's a visual prompt; a friend drew me as an anime character, complete with saber and gauntlets and what she called "flowing chi." I was telling her that I often wish I could draw myself as an anime character and recount the adventures anime!me would have, and she took about ten minutes to just sit there and draw me. It was pretty neat.

I'm also inspired by another friend (one of my two loyal followers) thinking about his own writing and wanting to write a very dense piece, one where every word is crucial to the story. So I won't flatter myself that I'll get something like that achieved, but I'll just see where it takes me. Yes, it will be very purple.

*****
All she could smell was the creature's bitter tang. All she could see was the rotting pestulance it left as it slithered across the earth. As she tracked it, its slime sunk into her flesh so that her fingers were always slightly oily. She had forgotten sunshine and cool breezes as the trail led her deeper into shadowed places so completely that moonlight burned her eyes when the jungle glowed silver at night.

She worried that her fingers would slip when time came to wield her blade. She wielded no other weapon, but she would tear it apart with her teeth if steel failed her. Her strength was slipping since she had penetrated into a place where no wholesome plants or animals dwelled, but she had foreseen this and hoarded a reserve for her moment of need. Her limbs throbbed, and she could not remember what it felt like not to ache. This was for the better, she thought.

Her pupils were huge and black in the jungle, but her skin was shriveled and pale, ever damp. In her dreams she morphed into one of the clusters of fungus she crawled over every day, and she awoke from those vomiting and shaking. Barely visible things wriggled under her darkened fingernails, no matter how bloody she scratched them. Desparate for nourishment, she sucked greedily at them instead and found herself strengthened.

Her stomach clenched, not at the food but at the idea. She needed to find the creature and kill it. She needed to flee this place before she acclimated any further. It was drowning her alive.

Then one day she stopped worrying. Her scabbard drooped from its perch on her back and dragged a shallow trench in the soil, and she did not hoist it back. The insects that had swarmed her upon entering the jungle lost interest, as if she had become another dead fixture in this dead place. Her arms pulled her as her legs propelled her, but no glint touched her eyes when the trail warmed.

In the silver glow, the creature was blind. More recently in the world than it, she yet saw. She stared. Her slick fingers did not twitch. Her breath did not quicken. Her tongue flicked out to lick something wet that landed on her cheek. The saber creaked. The creature jerked at the sound and howled, but she did not wince.

The smile that stretched her lips did not meet her eyes.

*****

Ooh well, that was unexpected. The story idea I had changed as I was writing it, and even as I was in the flow I knew there were a few small contradictions in there. But overall I'm pretty happy with the passage, if surprised. Prompts are fun.

In case it's not completely obvious, this is very much inspired by HP Lovecraft. I have a such a love affair with his works, even when they're laughable.

And another realization I had; my post for the writing group's prompt ended with a fairly similar closing line - something about an unsettling sort of smile. I think this just means I am as fond of purple closing lines as I am of purple prose. Such is the fun of a UFPE.