She woke early the next morning, staying tightly close to her dear friend in these scary times. He was somehow well and whole, while mushrooms clung to her ears and cuts. She knew she was safe in her arms, and found leaving them a rather difficult thing of late. Claiming a call of nature, she moved away to do her business, before she made her way to the stream just outside the packs borders.

She splashed water on her face, and looked up at the dark skies. She knew it should be morning. Or at least, she thought so. It was getting harder and harder to tell in his endless darkness…

Her reflection caught her eye, and she looked down with a scowl, before rubbing hopelessly at a mushroom growing from her sore ears. Look at herself! She was a monster.


"Kitsune"

Askan didn't intend to roam around. It wasn't as if he intentionally put his paws to the earth and set out in a direction, he just sort of...appeared here. As if something had dragged him out this way, like unfinished business needed tending to. He'd never been here before, didn't recognise the tangled vines and slick mud but just ahead there was a wolf with a coat of fire. Familiar not in life, but certainly in death. She was a lot bigger than he remembered....also riddled with mushrooms like she'd somehow turned into an upturned log. He didn't walk closer, just sort of...got there. Became nearby as she stared down at her reflection, understandably not keen on what she saw.

"Ew. What's wrong with you?" He asked, none too kindly. Like he wasn't a ghost looming right there, as out of place as the weird streaky nightsky.

She squealed in surprise when a voice spoke. She hadn’t heard anyone approach! Her eyes flew up to find him - and then she shrieked in surprise. He was floating! Hovering there, as incophreal as a ghost. She scrambled backwards, looking at him in astonishment… and then she screamed. “No! No!” she gasped, scrambling back further still. She knew this man, but that wasn’t possible. She barely recognised him, standing, eyes upon, whole and unbleeding.

“Your dead, I killed you, your dead!’ she clutched the grass beneath her paws, thinking this could only be a dream. Surely, surely no more horror could come her way. Tears trickled at the corner of her eyes. She didn’t even know his name.


"Kitsune"

Askan stared, brow arched as the pup-or rather yearling now, by the looks of it- started to freak out. Sure, he couldn't really blame her given that he was dead and she wasn't. He'd never considered that his violent death might have been traumatic for her...cause why would he? She was just a blurred face he saw at the end, amongst a couple of others he also didn't recognise or know the name of.  Still, what was the use in denying what he was? She was being overly dramatic and it left a sour taste on his tongue...or it would have if he could even taste any more. Annoying.

So naturally of course she started to cry. Ugh. Shouldn't he be the one sad he'd fucking died after all. Except he just didn't care any more, all of life's bullshit just sort of faded away. Like it was the oldest of news, hard to hold onto when he'd never left his mark in these lands. Not unlike his homeland, his true family who didn't and would never learn of what happened to him. Now that was some sad shit, something he'd cry over...if he could.

"All right, don't rub it in. I know, I was there." He told her with a fierce scowl, none too pleased and unsure what to do in a situation like this. "I am dead, yeah. Always will be. Sometimes think it's better this way. Anyway, you didn't answer my question. That's fucking rude."

She sniffed, and rubbed a paw across her cheek, the fear fading away with the realization of who he was. Perhaps it should have frightened her more, that he was here as a vengeful ghost. Come for revenge for the death she had dealt him. Instead she only felt a great well of sadness inside of her. Grief for the life cut short.

“I… I accidentally swallowed his glowing mushroom.” she explained, rubbing at her damp cheek again. Her answer was distracted, but she could not deny his simple wish. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I don’t even know your name. I wanted to save you.”


"Kitsune"

"Accidentally?" Remind him not to eat any mushrooms around here, not that it mattered. Nothing in the here or now was relevant, it was why it was so easy to be so nonplussed about it all. If the world was coming to an end as it looked like it might, then it wasn't his problem. Not when he knew being dead wasn't so bad, not as awful as he'd once thought. "You're sorry? Psssh, please. Don't hit me with that guilt shit, don't want it. Won't do either of us any good. I was gonna die anyway, you just made it... Quicker. Hate it when stuff is dragged out for no reason. Ain't patient, never have been. "

He guessed some good might come of this meeting, put her worries to rest. How generous of him.

"Name's Askan Selwyn. Not a name anyone remembers in these parts, I reckon." Which was...he didn't like it, but he guessed it was his own fault. For not making an impact, for not mattering till his very end.

"I don't blame anyone but those bastard cats. Hope they died real slow and painful, if not you gotta avenge me. Make sure. "

She flushed, embarrassed and angry and respectful, and could not say if it was embarrassment or anger that pooled in her cheeks. She opened her mouth to explain, but he was already moving on. Admonishing her for her sorrow and apologies. At first, she was indignant, though she couldn’t say why, but then he was explaining himself further. Explaining how he was grateful that she had quickened it. It eased something that had been sitting inside her chest since the day she had first seen him. It did not dissolve it, but it eased it, just a little.

“Askan Selwyn” she said softly, repeating his name. “You will not be forgotten. Is there…” she drew a paw through the dirt “anyone you would wish me to speak to, about your passing?” she asked softly. “I believe at least one escaped, but my father killed the rest.” She explained.

"Kitsune"

Askan

You are allowed to temporarily exist again, that in itself should be enough for you...