I'm Fine
Mephistopheles
Relm had still traveled alone but had found more comfort around the pack that her uncle had claimed to. She wasn't quite sure what exactly she wanted for her own life yet, and didn't want to tie down anywhere at this moment. The threat of her father seemed to fade as the days went on. Maybe she wasn't so important to him after all.
She came to stop by the sunset falls, coming along the bank and taking a drink from the freezing water. The changes of the world around her she had grown used to, but didn't find it so inviting. The fireflies annoyed her as they seemed to have some sort of intellectual minds and pester her just for the fun of it. Or at least that's what she believed.
As her head rose from the drink of water, her mind on where she would lay down for the night, she was only greeted with a number of different animals. A small doe, a raccoon, a squirrel up in a tree, they all seemed to gather in one general area and stare back at her with some sort of possessed glow in their eyes. She tensed up and started to back away, she wasn't sure what was happening but she knew she wanted to get out of here.
thinking "speech" "others" Russet form slid easily through the night, trailing after the fresh scent of his niece. Sister? No, he still refused to acknowledge that. He'd been so busy in his new home that he hadn't given the girl as much attention as she deserved, and he intended to change that. When he did manage to catch up to her, he found the young girl facing off with a number of the winter's latest creations. Each of the small animals was dappled or shrouded in shades of blue and purple, and their eyes glowed eerily. He drew quietly up alongside his niece, leaning closer so he could murmur into her left ear. "Don't worry, it's your uncle." he began softly, hoping he wouldn't frighten her too much with his sudden approach and close proximity. "I think if we take down the doe, the others will lose their nerve and scatter. I wouldn't mind getting a better look at what's been happening to these animals, either." he explained quietly, already dropping his stance so his weight was distributed more evenly over his legs. Then, he looked over their prospects. The squirrel would really be no issue at all, and likely skitter into the tree as soon as they got too close. Raccoons were always a bit of a wild card, and there was no telling if they would choose to fight or flee when approached. The doe, with her razor sharp hooves and notable glare, she would be a problem if left to her own devices. It would be best to kill her and examine her innards- maybe the strange, never-waning moon had done something to the animals beyond just the change in their pelts. "I'm going to try and move around to flank them from the right, you go left, and we should be able to drive her into the open." he said, cerulean gaze flitting to the lean form of his young niece. She was almost certainly skilled enough to hold her own, but he wanted to help. Perhaps he was also being a bit selfish, using her strange encounter to fuel his own interests in the strange occurrences of late. Regardless, there was a chance they could also eat well tonight. Provided mutant deer were not poisonous. |
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She couldn't help the tiny jolt she felt leaving her nerves twinge as she calmed to the vision of her uncle, but her eyes were still watching the moon possessed animals before them. She only nodded in agreement to his plan but wasn't quite sure if it would work. On a side note, she wasn't expecting him to want to examine the doe's insides though it wasn't like they weren't going to tear it apart anyway. Eat it though? Relm wasn't quite sure if that was the best idea.
Following her uncle's instructions quietly, she moved around to the left side of the animals, her head and body turned at an odd angle while she tried to look through her working eye. She wasn't aware truly of her blindness because Kefka had never taught her about it and instead ignored the ailment but also she had grown accustomed as the seasons went on. The doe was now focused on Meph, while the other creatures had their gaze following her. They seemed to not fear them as they stalked around them, and it put Relm on edge. Regardless, she jumped forward when her uncle was ready, but it seemed none of then animals ran from their death until the commotion arose, possibly being snapped back into their own reality. The doe was an easy grab, but not so much an easy kill as it realized it was no longer in the moon trance and began to struggle.
thinking "speech" "others" If there was one thing he could appreciate about his niece, she was more than capable of taking orders. As the pair moved carefully to flank the odd trio of hypnotized animals, he paid attention to the pink furred girl with a few quick glances. She moved quite oddly, with her skull tipped to one side ever so slightly as she observed their quarry. Without the time to dwell on it, the phoenix waited for her to be in position to strike. He offered a small nod to the silver eyed yearling, a short downward jerk of his chin to signal the start of their final move. Then, the pair leapt into action. What alarmed Mephistopheles the most was the unsettling stillness of the animals as the wolves closed in with fangs glinting in the moonlight. It was only when his fangs nicked the flesh of the doe's lower neck that she moved. While Relm secured the struggling, crying doe, he sunk his fangs into her neck and snapped his head up to tear away the tender flesh of her throat. As the mottled violet doe crumpled to the ground, the other animals that had lurked nearby fled into the undergrowth. Bracing the deer on the ground with his own bulk, forepaws pinning her shoulder down while she kicked frantically and gurgled through the mess of her trachea, he looked to his niece. With a small tip of his head, he offered her a sanguine stained grin. "Let us take a look at what we have," he crooned, plush banner sweeping back and forth over his hips. When the final death throes of their quarry had subsided into the occasional spasm, he stepped off of the doe's carcass and leaned in close. He certainly hadn't imagined the strange flecks of pale fur along her flanks, though he hadn't been granted the best look at them from his vantage point on the other side of the clearing. However, the dim glow that might have been woven through the strands of hair was so faint now that he couldn't say for certain that it was not simply the pale moonlight playing tricks on his eyes. "What do you think, my dear?" sky blue gaze lifted to fix upon the familiar features of his niece, auds perked curiously. |
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Her uncle finished off the deer and they waited until the doe was finally eased from the suffering they brought on it. Relm didn't shy away from the blood or death, not even under the unusual circumstances. She couldn't help but feel the dense chill in the air though as her uncle took a closer look. Though it seemed that whatever had the doe and other creatures under a spell was gone as the glowing quickly faded with the death of the deer. Meph asked her what she thought, "It seems to me they are possessed." Her voice was blunt and edging on a sarcastic side but she was well serious. "The moon or something I think." The fading glow could have just been a result of the doe bleeding out, but she felt more that they were being controlled by something or just turned crazy. Either way, she was uninterested in being around them long enough to find out. Quite simply it was her or them, and she would always protect herself.
thinking "speech" "others" He was not left wanting for a response from his niece, who readily supplied her own explanation of events. Sky blue eyes remained fixed on her ivory marked face, patiently drinking in what she had to say about the matter. "It seems to me they are possessed." she said simply, with a tone that implied she was already bored with his investigation. There was no helping the impulsiveness of youth, and part of him missed being a chaotic, energetic yearling. "The moon or something I think." she added, drawing his attention upward to the bright celestial body whose light seemed to mirror that which had briefly seemed to flicker through the pale markings over the doe's flanks prior to her untimely demise. The ever-full moon had enchanted them, or possessed their minds somehow. It seemed feasible. Even he felt the strange pull at times while he looked up at its strange blue face during the long nights of this bizarre winter. "A plausible option, certainly.." he muttered, stooping yet again in the hopes he could get a glimpse of that strange shimmer-glow again. No such luck, the dappled markings along the carcass seemed to be growing duller still with each passing moment. Disappointing, for sure, but it couldn't be helped. After all, how could one preserve the magic of life after death? Even if they did not rot, a carcass could never fully encapsulate the beauty it bore in life. He'd seen his fair share of bodies in battle, and fallen comrades hardly looked the same when spattered in their own gore. Almost unrecognizable as the quirks of their immortal souls abandoned the carcasses for good. "I don't suppose your bastard father ever told you about the Fallen God? This could easily be His doing, He is an agent of chaos, and these new occurrences definitely fall into that category." he mused with a wry grin, lifting his eyes back to his niece curiously. He never bothered to ask about her upbringing in all this time, had he? |
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