11-12-2019, 05:55 PM
<div style="background:linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(0,0,0,0) 150px, rgba(0,0,0,1)450px),url('https://i.postimg.cc/SRdjs889/okay.png') top center no-repeat;background-size:620px auto;width:600px;margin:auto;padding:150px 10px 0px 10px;border:1px solid #000;"><div style="color:#eee;padding-bottom:250px;text-align:center;letter-spacing:5px;">i will be brutal</div><div style="color:#B73F1C;font:16px times new roman;border:3px solid #eee;border-bottom:0px;border-top:0px;border-radius:35%/35px 35px 0px 0px;padding:30px 10px 10px 10px;"> He opens his eyes and the river runs its course before him. Those tired green eyes watch Nikkai as she observes them each before she is pulled under. When she surfaces, she is coughing and sputtering in two. Curiously, he tilts his head and observes with slightly narrowed eyes. This place is strange in a way that he despises but he makes quick note of the way some magic disrupts everything here. He imagines he must be cunning to overcome this trial if he is to return to the living and protect his brood from whatever forces may be.
But then Nikkai is speaking and his ears swivel forward to catch her voice clearly. His person? There is only Dillan, he thinks as he turns his head to search across to the opposite river bank. His death was violent and bitter, however, and only one who suffered a peaceful death could await him on the other side. He does not know this, however, and he half expects to see one of his children he cut down waiting for him on the other side.
His breath catches in his throat when he sees her, standing there with a smile woven from starshine and summer rains. Of course a death for her would be a peaceful one. Darling never knew how to be angry a day in her life, never raised a hand in the name of violence or bloodshed. His firstborn by Dillan was his antithesis and he has always loved her for it. But why is she here? How could two of his children be in the land of the dead already? These thoughts summon a deep rooted ache within him and he bites down sharply on the edge of his tongue to keep from spiraling into more grim questions such as these. Darling needs him to take her home, and he cannot fail her.
He takes in his surroundings for a moment and chews the inside of his lip as he thinks. The river is too swift to simply wade and he has no wings to simply fly over it. He will simply have to gamble, then, he decides.
Larva takes a trembling breath and steps forward, into the river where smoothed rocks jut out in defiance of the current. “<I>I’m coming, Darling!</i>” he calls above the noise. “<I>Don’t move from there!</i>” Larva isn’t entirely certain this will work but he is desperate to reach her, to hug her close and keep her safe. He has done so much wrong in his life but he would spend the rest of eternity doing right by her. It feels like his third death when his head slips under the water, pushed over by the steady rush of the river, but he reminds himself that it will all be worth it. The world goes black for a flickering moment before he opens his eyes again. Like Nikkai, the river has made a perfect copy of him, but his other half remains caught on the river rocks. Quickly, the Larva pressed against the rocks sinks his teeth into the other’s mane and locks their legs together.
He repeats this again, letting the river tear him under near the massive rocks, logs, and debris caught along the river’s edge. Each time, Death creates another curious copy of him and leaves his former self behind. His lungs burn and his joints ache but he continues in this way as his many bodies begin to build a chain, anchored to one another in a tangle of legs and teeth roughly gripping flesh. Each version of Larva struggles against the current but all their sage green eyes remain trained on Darling’s worried face as she paces along the river’s edge.
He has no idea if the chain will break or if they can even fight the current enough for one of them to reach the other side. And still, he floods his lungs with water and lets each copy sink its teeth into his mane. He would die a hundred deaths and live a thousand different lives to keep his Darling safe.</div></div>
But then Nikkai is speaking and his ears swivel forward to catch her voice clearly. His person? There is only Dillan, he thinks as he turns his head to search across to the opposite river bank. His death was violent and bitter, however, and only one who suffered a peaceful death could await him on the other side. He does not know this, however, and he half expects to see one of his children he cut down waiting for him on the other side.
His breath catches in his throat when he sees her, standing there with a smile woven from starshine and summer rains. Of course a death for her would be a peaceful one. Darling never knew how to be angry a day in her life, never raised a hand in the name of violence or bloodshed. His firstborn by Dillan was his antithesis and he has always loved her for it. But why is she here? How could two of his children be in the land of the dead already? These thoughts summon a deep rooted ache within him and he bites down sharply on the edge of his tongue to keep from spiraling into more grim questions such as these. Darling needs him to take her home, and he cannot fail her.
He takes in his surroundings for a moment and chews the inside of his lip as he thinks. The river is too swift to simply wade and he has no wings to simply fly over it. He will simply have to gamble, then, he decides.
Larva takes a trembling breath and steps forward, into the river where smoothed rocks jut out in defiance of the current. “<I>I’m coming, Darling!</i>” he calls above the noise. “<I>Don’t move from there!</i>” Larva isn’t entirely certain this will work but he is desperate to reach her, to hug her close and keep her safe. He has done so much wrong in his life but he would spend the rest of eternity doing right by her. It feels like his third death when his head slips under the water, pushed over by the steady rush of the river, but he reminds himself that it will all be worth it. The world goes black for a flickering moment before he opens his eyes again. Like Nikkai, the river has made a perfect copy of him, but his other half remains caught on the river rocks. Quickly, the Larva pressed against the rocks sinks his teeth into the other’s mane and locks their legs together.
He repeats this again, letting the river tear him under near the massive rocks, logs, and debris caught along the river’s edge. Each time, Death creates another curious copy of him and leaves his former self behind. His lungs burn and his joints ache but he continues in this way as his many bodies begin to build a chain, anchored to one another in a tangle of legs and teeth roughly gripping flesh. Each version of Larva struggles against the current but all their sage green eyes remain trained on Darling’s worried face as she paces along the river’s edge.
He has no idea if the chain will break or if they can even fight the current enough for one of them to reach the other side. And still, he floods his lungs with water and lets each copy sink its teeth into his mane. He would die a hundred deaths and live a thousand different lives to keep his Darling safe.</div></div>