01-04-2021, 04:31 PM
The murk is thick, and teeming. Not with life. I wouldn't dare call it life, not here. Not now. But there is an awareness in the dark. I glance back to the midnight figure of my champion, the vague outline where his voice had emitted. Can he feel it too? Or is this simply my own shadows, playing in the corners of my vision but not truly seen.
I think we are being watched, here on the edge of the forest. My skin crawls with the certainty of it. The scar tissue along my body illuminates the scene for half a moment, a strike of lightning that casts a ghostly pall on all our faces.
Calavera looks startled, Balto grim as ever. I smile harshly, once the electric after image fades. "You won?" I ask, so gently. How is it that my eyes refuse to adjust to the darkness? I would see his face when he explains, one way or another, his return. There is victory and there is failure, and he is very aware of this truth. So I wait, my patience brittle.
Calavera stays near my side. Clever girl. It is better to stay with the danger you know, than the one you only suspect. I toy with the idea of letting Balto take the girl. She is very nearly useless, but she has stayed longer than many of her siblings did, and she is not so impertinent as the last few. I hold the hope that she may one day be molded into something that will make up for her existence. If not... I smile into the nothing.
"We will not linger here," I state, and turn my back on him to return to the forest's depths. Even in the unnatural night, this air feels too exposed for comfort. There remains the sense of being hunted, and I chuckle at the thought. These woods are already haunted. They had better try harder than that to scare us.
Calavera is a moment behind me, scurries to catch up when she realizes I have begun to move. Her feet are not so familiar with the path, and I scoff in the back of my throat to hear her stumble on her way. Inelegant creature. I do not wait. She will find her way, or she will be easy prey for whatever loiters out there. I throb with light again, more stinging hindrance than any kind of help to the eyes.
The spear in my breast is a guidance now, clacking loudly when it swings into a tree. Rustling the dry bones of undergrowth. There is much to discuss, now that my wolf has returned to me.
@[Balto]
I think we are being watched, here on the edge of the forest. My skin crawls with the certainty of it. The scar tissue along my body illuminates the scene for half a moment, a strike of lightning that casts a ghostly pall on all our faces.
Calavera looks startled, Balto grim as ever. I smile harshly, once the electric after image fades. "You won?" I ask, so gently. How is it that my eyes refuse to adjust to the darkness? I would see his face when he explains, one way or another, his return. There is victory and there is failure, and he is very aware of this truth. So I wait, my patience brittle.
Calavera stays near my side. Clever girl. It is better to stay with the danger you know, than the one you only suspect. I toy with the idea of letting Balto take the girl. She is very nearly useless, but she has stayed longer than many of her siblings did, and she is not so impertinent as the last few. I hold the hope that she may one day be molded into something that will make up for her existence. If not... I smile into the nothing.
"We will not linger here," I state, and turn my back on him to return to the forest's depths. Even in the unnatural night, this air feels too exposed for comfort. There remains the sense of being hunted, and I chuckle at the thought. These woods are already haunted. They had better try harder than that to scare us.
Calavera is a moment behind me, scurries to catch up when she realizes I have begun to move. Her feet are not so familiar with the path, and I scoff in the back of my throat to hear her stumble on her way. Inelegant creature. I do not wait. She will find her way, or she will be easy prey for whatever loiters out there. I throb with light again, more stinging hindrance than any kind of help to the eyes.
The spear in my breast is a guidance now, clacking loudly when it swings into a tree. Rustling the dry bones of undergrowth. There is much to discuss, now that my wolf has returned to me.
@[Balto]