Word count: 195

Kuroki couldn't put his paw on it, but something was off about the woods. A tingle rippled down his spine as a sigh met the cup of his ear, only for him to whip around and find that he was very much alone. Not a stranger in sight. Even his companions had made themselves scarce, though try as he might, he couldn't remember where they had wandered off to or when he saw them last.

"Shit." He hissed beneath his breath, his calm and cool demeanour cracking like an eggshell. He took a deep and steadying breath, he'd heard all sorts of stories about supernatural shit in Nippon. Why was it such a big deal here?

Common sense told him to back off and head back home, the unknown wasn't always supposed to be ventured into and...What the ever living FUCK! Kuroki was forced to do a double take, his eyes snapping wide as he realised the long tendril shadows of the willows were moving. Curling like beckoning fingers, inviting him to come on in, the shadows were great! What uh- Come on man...did it really have to do that? He was just a kid.

She felt like she'd been wandering all night. Dawn should have come by now. Fable considered herself a pretty smart cookie - she didn't often get turned around easily, and once she set her mind to something, she completed it. But it felt like as soon as she'd left Abaven's borders, all thoughts had fled her head. Every now and then she paused and looked over her shoulder. Despite her senses telling her otherwise, it felt like someone was following her. Fable's eyes narrowed. How strange... The yearling turned to head back home towards Abaven (at least, that's where she was sure she was headed) but wound up meandering deeper into the Weeping Woods. Soft tendrils reached out to stroke her back and Fable nearly leaped out of her skin. Just the trees, just the trees... Trying to stamp back the fear that was surely taking root, Fable barreled through the branches and ran straight into Oki. Unable to stop her momentum, she flipped nose over and tail before landing on her back. Darkness clouded her vision. "Oh my god. Are you a ghost? Did you kill me?" she wheezed, all of the air knocked out of her lungs.

wc: 202
twc: 397

Word count: 206
total:603

Kuroki let out an undignified yelp as something barged into him, not quite enough to knock him off his paws but it scared him shitless all the same. His dark eyes snapped wide as he stumbled back, talons at the ready and sabred teeth bared-only to pause when he realised it was Fable and not some evil creature of shadows. Good thing too since...he wasn't sure what good his attacks would do against something he couldn't physically touch.

"Shh keep it down." Kuroki hushed her, waving a paw with fervent urgency. "You ain't dead, it's just me. I ain't going crazy though am I? You heard it right? Saw those shadows moving?" Man he really hoped he wasn't losing his mind, he quite liked it, it was one of his better features.

Hooking one leg over her side, he gave her a tug, rolling her up onto her belly so she could clamber onto her paws. This wasn't the place to take a quick rest. It just wasn't safe.

"Look we gotta..." Do what? he was completely out of his element here and unless his eyes were playing more tricks on him there seemed to be a shape in the distance, attempting to slip away unseen.

Shh... keep it down. Did this ghost just tell her to shut up? For a ghost, he had a wheedling tone. Not scary at all. In fact, it reminded her of... "Kuroki!" She croaked in surprise as he rolled her over. It was nice to see a familiar face in these dark woods. Wraithlike shapes still shimmered in the shadows just beyond the willow branches. Her ears flattened against her head as she felt her skin crawl with goosebumps. "I saw something. But I don't know. It's awfully dark out. Hasn't it been a very, very long night?" Fable stopped herself from stammering, but her words still sounded pathetic. When they came out of her mouth, she sounded like a sniveling baby. Vewy, vewy long night, indeed. But she was the older of the pair! If nothing else, she had to lead by example. She had to be brave. Fable rocked slowly to her paws, blinking in the darkness as she regained her balance. Everything topsy turvy. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a shape slip further into the forest. "There!" A scent floated back between the trees, passing through the shadows between branches, warping into something entirely different as it went. "It smells like Abaven. Maybe someone got lost on patrol? I got turned around when I went out to..." What had she been doing again? Hunting! "When I went out to hunt. Let's track that smell!" Even if the whole world stopped making sense, she could fall back on her skills as a huntress. After all, she wanted to be the very best.

wc: 275
twc: 878

Word count: 236
total:1114

So she did see something? Right, good, great. Except actually no, none of that sounded good to him at all! It was awfully dark out and he couldn't blame her for getting turned about but-he raised a brow at her, head tipping slightly to the side. How lost had she gotten? Enough to lose track of the time, it seemed.

"What are you talking about? The sun just set." Or at least he thought it did. Now he was starting to doubt himself, worry about the gaps in his memory.

Shit shit shit. For now it didn't really matter, not when Kuroki followed her line of sight and indeed caught wind of what had caught Fable's attention. One thing he couldn't agree with was her stating it smelled like Abaven cause...he'd had a good sniff around their borders and it didn't smell anything like that. At all. She took off after the scent and Kuroki hurried to her side, his nose twitching as he did a double take. And then a triple, then a quadruple.

"Faaable. I ain't one to be a joy kill but really I don't think this is a good idea. It don't smell like Abaven to me."

The shadows shuddered, as though protesting against his words. And ahead the figured waited, close enough to barely remain in sight but not near enough they'd be able to make out who-or what- it was.

She ignored him. Clearly, he hadn't been in the pack lands for long. This smelled exactly like Abaven. In fact, it almost smelled like her den. Just like it. Warm, crushed moss that was still threaded with some of her mother and father's fur. A half smile graced Fable's face as she trailed the lumbering creature deeper into the woods. Lumbering? That was strange. Fable blinked and the shape before them seemed to ripple and then disappear. "Hey! Stop hiding!" She shouted, her voice cracking in frustration. Had they side-stepped behind a curtain of willow branches? Suddenly it appeared again, except closer now. It was beyond the closest curtain of wraith-like branches. They billowed in the breeze almost rhythmically, as if there was some music that only they could hear. But trees didn't have ears. Fable gulped and stopped short. "Oki? It smells like... my den. It might be my mother. Or my father. They," her voice broke, small and pathetic, "they left to travel back to my father's homeland last season. Maybe they're back!" Fable looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes shining as if lit from within. "Please. Let's look just a little bit longer." Without waiting for a response, she nosed her way past the curtain of branches.

Her mouth dropped open in a silent scream, her pupils dilating to black saucers. A creature shambled before them. At first glance it looked to be a massive elk with a huge crown of antlers. Ribbons of bloody velvet hung in tatters from its antlers. The creature's head was bowed as if the weight of them was impossible to bear. Fable made a strangled noise deep in her throat. She'd heard that noise before, the one that came from within her - it had been the last gurgle that badger she'd driven over the edge of the Moontouched Cliffs had made before it let go and fell to its death.

Slowly the elk turned to regard her. Where the face of a noble buck should lie was a bloody, wretched stump and sewn crudely on top of its neck was her father's head. His eyes glowed queerly in the night-that-was-not-night. Although she knew this to be impossible, that everything about this was wrong (her body was drawn taut, quivering with energy, begging her to flee), Fable took one step closer. It was almost painful to move toward the creature. Every instinct rebelled against it. "Daddy?" she said softly, her voice breaking. His eyes began to flicker and crawl about his face. She blinked again and his eyes took flight, soaring out of his head in slow, lazy spirals. They were fireflies. A cold sweat broke out along her hackles and she knew without a doubt that she was going to be sick. "Oki," she mewled, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes, "what do you see?" The elk that was not an elk, the beast that was not her father, seemed to break its connection with Fable and solely regard the young shinobi warrior behind her.

wc: 519
total:1633

Word count: 326
total:1959

Kuroki made a displeased noise in the back of his throat. What the fuck was he supposed to do? As tempting as it was, he wasn't gonna grab a hold of Fable and shake some sense into her. The fervent, almost frenzied look in her eyes told him she wouldn't listen, let alone actually hear him out. She was long gone, wandering down a path he wasn't sure she'd be able to return from. With his focus set so squarely on her, Kuroki hadn't really taken a good look at the creature, the shadows blurred around them as Kuroki did his best to ignore. To shove it all down to deal with one thing at a time. Despite the hopeful words he knew Fable was wrong, refused to drag his eyes away from her till she made him, asked him a question he could not deny.

Slowly his dark gaze settled on the beast and what lay ahead of them certainly wasn't Fable's father.

Kuroki smelled nothing but the reek of burning fur and melting skin. It sloughed off, wet and slick like blazing slugs, landing with a splat at its paws. Inhaling deep, the creature's breathing was pained and raspy, totally reasonable for a man who was being burnt alive. Kuroki had never met him but deep in his gut, awful and instinctual, he knew exactly who it was. His Grandfather, Archon, tossed in a volcano and left to burn. Or drown, perhaps both.

Heat and light radiated from it so fiercely it felt as though the pale of Kuroki's nose would catch afire too, like it would spread, vicious and unstoppable till all the Willows caught ablaze. Blazing white-hot, the skeletal remains stumbled forward, lighting up the darkness as its eyes popped from the heat, spraying juice all over Kuroki's face. It wasn't a matter of if he was going to be sick, only when.

"I don't- I can't." He was just a boy.

The world had narrowed to a single, dark point. The elk-that-was-not-elk lumbered towards them and Fable backed slowly away, stumbling over her own paws until she was sliding backwards on her rear end with her front paws propelling her. She was gasping for breath. No matter how hard she tried to suck air into her lungs, she couldn't get enough in. It felt like her throat was closing up. "Okiokiokiokiokiokioki - " She babbled, skittering backwards until she slammed into him. At some point she had closed her eyes. It took her a while to work up the courage to look again. Oki could barely speak. What was he seeing? Were they alright? "We have to kill it," she whispered. "This isn't right!" Her tail was tucked so tight and close to her underbelly that it felt like she was straining her muscles. Gathering up any remaining ounce of bravery, Fable opened her eyes to slits. Sparhawk's face was gone. The elk's head had been smashed by something else, blunt and hard, into lumps of gore and sinew and bone. It was barely recognizable as any sort of creature at all.

Gulping down air, her lungs on pins and needles, Fable launched at the creature - and passed straight through it. She landed on the other side of it, her head spinning. Still the elk stood, wavering on its hooves. Any moment now it would finally die. It had to. Nothing could keep living with a wound like that. Fable let out a noise that was half scream of terror and half battle cry as she launched herself at it again, aiming to latch her jaws around the creature's leg closest to her. With a sick, wet pop the entire limb tore off in her grasp. It was as if it had been rotting from the inside that whole time. Fable blinked, backing up. It tasted horrible. Like bile and pus and days old blood.

tc: 327
twc: 2286

Word count: 226
total: 2512

Kuroki had long since forgotten Fable was there, nothing but the sizzling of corroding bone filled his ears and despite the horror of it all he simply couldn't look away. Stared till his eyes began to water. Surprisingly, his breathing was slow, almost too calm, as if everything but foreboding dread was being smothered down within him. Pillow across its face till it fell limp. He couldn't even feel the earth beneath his paws, didn't notice the shadows lurching closer, reaching out as though they wanted to steal his for their own.

It was only when Fable stumbled into him that reality hit him hard, enough that he shook his head so violently his vision span. Right yes, Fable had a point. He knew what they were seeing wasn't real, that they had to do whatever they could to drive it back and make it leave them the hell alone. Whatever it took.

Lurching into the fray, Kuroki shouldered her aside. Fable wasn't a fighter, he had to do this. To protect her sappy little ass if nothing else. Sabres clamped on tight, bone snapping into an elks limb as he clenched his jaw so tight the muscles in his face SCREAMED in protest. He thrashed his head, ripping and tearing as something wet, almost tarish rolled over his tongue. Whatever it was, it wasn't blood.

Kuroki & Fable

Ghost, or vision or whatever it is that Fable and Kuroki fought, it thrashed in their grasps, letting loose a cry of death so unnatural it jarred the pair to their core. Finally, it slowed its fight and fell limp to the ground. For a moment nothing happens, the limb in Fable's mouth tastes of rotting, and her mouth fills with something too thick to be blood. Then a glow starts to illuminate the area, the thing, whatever it was, looks like a normal elk now, except for one thing: Every wound inflicted upon it is glowing, the blood oozing from its body giving off an unnatural color. The blood coats the pair's muzzles and a deep sense of dread settles over the them... Probably best not to hold onto the now glowing leg too much longer.