Domari Xanilov

Dómari's illness fluctuated day by day. Some days were good, some days were bad, and then came the ooze. He lay outside his den, close to a fire his fox companions had started. He couldn't stand the horrid dark of his den. If felt suffocating. Even if logic told him he'd be warmer and safer in his den, snuggled up in the hides that had been left there he couldn't bring himself to do so. No, he would be out with the fire and the light of the moon. They alone could protect him from the darkness that was determined to destroy him, the shadows that edged ever closer and were only kept at bay by the fire. He could here them, shuffling about, circling him. Every so often one would sneak to close to the light and be sent groaning and gurgling back into the darkness that spawned it. Dómari could feel each breath becoming more and more labored, every other breath pulling a coughing fit full of glowing blue ooze. Walk ---- "Speak" ----  "Hear" ---- Think

Justice had holed up when the disease had first struck, not wanting to infect her remaining son or any of the other Valhallans with the painful fungi and nasty ooze that afflicted her. At first she had continued to patrol and take sentry duty, but as the sickness worsened she'd had to give that up too. She was afraid more and more of running into someone on her circuits and not being able to keep her distance far enough to keep from infecting them. She finally had hidden herself in her den, locking the "door" by stuffing it with a heavy plug that all but sealed it off, leaving only enough open that she wouldn't suffocate. She wasn't hungry enough to bother going out to hunt - little did she know that showed that even her digestive organs were being slowly choked by mushrooms. Tonight though - wheezing thickly with the fungal growths that rattled in her lungs and were slowly drowning her with the ooze they brought with them - tonight she had had to claw her way out of the plugged den, hacking and drooling viscous ooze and bleeding from her paws and mouth from wounds caused by her desperate labors. She felt weaker than she'd ever felt in her life, and alone, and the desperate need to get out and to be with someone had smashed through the resistance raised by her worries of infecting someone else. No, she needed... needed... she didn't know what she needed, or how to articulate the driving, all consuming fear that controlled her mind. Staggering nearly mindlessly she found herself drawn to a light in the distance, in the plains. She finally staggered into the circle of brightness around a fire and stumbled and fell to her elbows, barely managing to drag herself back to her paws to stand swaying and coughing ooze-speckling wheezes, blinking half blind around her.

Domari Xanilov

Dómari shivered violently and crawled closer to the fire, ignoring the singeing of his own fur for need of the warmth and the light. Something was moving out there. He tensed, swallowing a large clump of ooze that had caught in the back of his throat. He expected a monster to emerge from the other side of the fire but instead it was Justice. He stared in horror at her form, plagued not only by the ooze but it seemed she had mushrooms growing from her. "Justice? It's Dómari." He paused, taking a sharp rattling breath and wincing at the pain in his lungs before his voice slipped from his mouth once more, cracking and dry. "We're dying aren't we?" He didn't even know how to process what was happening. In truth he didn't have the energy to think beyond just taking one breath after another. Walk ---- "Speak" ----  "Hear" ---- Think

Justice swung her fungus-ridden head towards the cracked voice that spoke up. Swaying, blinking, she finally made out Domari's form practically on top of the fire on the other side of it. She stumbled forward towards him, but came to a faintly confused stop as pain engulfed her, staring down to realize she'd walked straight into the fire. Yes... right... she'd forgotten. She set her burned paw to the ground again, this time in front of the fire. Still pain, but what was the pain of a badly burned paw to the pain of her body shutting down? She limped around the fire and collapsed against Domari's side, pressing into him as strongly as she could. She realized again that he'd spoken, and slowly brought the words back into her mind. "Does it matter?" she asked gutturally, her voice thick with ooze. "Isn't dying better than living like this?" She thought of dying slowly, her son at her side helplessly as she had been trapped at her own dying mother's side. She coughed wetly, spitting out mushroom-spore-coated ooze. "I hope we are dying." She dropped her head to his shoulders, eyes closing as she panted for breath. If there was a god of some sort... "Just let me die," she whispered, in agony.

Domari Xanilov

Dómari didn't pull away as Justice collapsed into him. He pushed back, fiercely snuggling, eager for the bit of extra warmth she provided as well as the comfort of having her close. He didn't care about the mushroom spores that infected his nose nor the ooze and blood that further stained his coat. He was already a matted, sticky mess and her presence helped steel him against the shadows that continued to close in on them, the whispers that stabbed at the back of his mind. "Fair point." He started to chuckle but it swiftly ended in a choking cough. He hacked up a pile of ooze followed in short order by blood which was dripping from his nostrils as well. He felt her head rest on his shoulder and he moved to place his head on top of hers. "Only if we… can go… together." He spoke between labored breaths. Struggling more and more until his final breath shivered from his body. -exit via death- Walk ---- "Speak" ----  "Hear" ---- Think

Domari

You have died of dysentery.



You gain:

• Tantalizing Treat (player-bound)- Some surprisingly appetizing snacks though it’s hard to tell exactly what’s in them.
  

"You idiot," she gasped affectionately. "Like I'd... let you leave me behind... again." Domari's labored breathing stilled beneath her, and Justice closed half-blinded eyes under a wave of grief, and relief. Even if she could have, she'd not have moved for fear of dislodging his stilled head from atop hers. She simply kept her eyes closed against the loss, and the pain as it built. And, for the first time in her life, Justice... surrendered. She let herself go, and as the pain receded she slipped into darkness, and stillness.


She stood, leaving her own crumpled and battered body behind to leap with a joyful shout after her best friend, cavorting with him through the moonlit plain before fading from sight.

Justice

Continue? Just kidding, you're dead for real.



You gain:

• Deer Dad's Blessing (player-bound)- Use this to become more like your favorite deer dad!