Ever since he got better, Cerberus had come down to the prison of the island to see both his siblings and Viper. But Viper was no where near herself though, not that that was really saying much. Even though Viper was pretty standoffish and quiet, she was still his mother and they had shared special moments together even though it was few compared to Siren or Chimera.

He often just went down to her cell and laid there in front of it, her delirious behavior was much more savage than anything else. He couldn't see her any different compared to a tiny vicious bear.

Today though as he came across the cell that held her, she wasn't inside. He knew it wasn't a good sign because if she had been better and let out, then he would have seen her by now. Upon a closer look, the bars on the front of the cell hadn't looked mangled, but there was a gruesome scene of blood, skin, and fur telling him that Viper had slipped out of the bars.

"Cerberus Klein"

She was... nothing. She wasn't even outside of her body looking down on her. She had no control over anything she did and had no idea what was happening to her. Not even a tiny voice in the back of her mind told her to stop or that everything would be okay. The savage shell that was Viper had paced along the cell walls for weeks, the voices and ooze had driven her completely to the point she was at now. She had torn apart the meals she was given, but had certainly worked off all the food and more. Her mind wasn't even there as she scraped between the bars with really agonizing pain though not that anyone would have been able to see in the state she was in. She threw more growls than yelps. When she launched herself at Cerberus, she couldn't remember who he was, who she was. None of that mattered to her. She was completely gone out of her mind. "Chimera" -- "Viper"

You'd think the sound of Viper's ungentle paws against the floors would have had him spinning, but somehow she was completely silent as she toppled him and pushed him against the cell bars in the hallway. It even took Cerberus a moment to understand what was happening, but it was so blatantly obvious that his escapee mother was the one attacking him.

It took him a moment to spin around between her and the wedge of the cell bars and the floor. He was challenging her own height at this age, so it wasn't like he was completely outmatched to her. But he hadn't learned any type of offensive skills. Moccasin had taught him some defense, but that was as far as his knowledge on fighting had reached.

"Stop, Viper!" He called out as his paws pushed forward on her body to keep her away from him, his back curled in an odd position with her on top of him. "Mom!" He had hoped that somewhere inside her would hear him, would snap out of her rave. But he couldn't know how wrong he was.

Viper's jaws flung forward, snapping above his eye and under his jaw, almost threatening to blind him. She was on tight enough. He thought that the commotion could have attracted someone's attention outside, but he couldn't know for sure. With a tight grip, Viper released him and latched down again around his muzzle. He took many deep breaths through his nose, the ooze from his mother's face and mouth falling around his own eyes and into his nose, he almost felt like he was drowning.

In a quick life or death motion, his head pushed forward, ripping viper's teeth almost to the bone over his muzzle. His jaw opened wide over her throat as his teeth fell down. He hadn't intended to hurt her so badly, just strangle her enough to pass out. But once she had gone nearly limp in his own grasp, he pushed her off of his body and looked down at her. His paw ran across her shoulder as she struggled to breathe. His eyes widened to what he had done, but he was certain he hadn't bit down enough on her throat to damage it so badly, "Mom?" His paw pushed against her as he rolled her more comfortably on her side while the ooze from her mouth spilled out almost in clots. "Mom?!" He shouted as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"Cerberus Klein"

As the boy bit down around her throat, she thrashed around and tried hard to get him off of her so that she could come back down and end him. Though, maybe all of her moving around is what caused the slight blockage around her throat. If she didn't have the ooze running out of everywhere in her, it probably would have just been a healing process and she would have been fine. But once that little nick hit her in her panicked thrashing, she quickly went from fighting for her life to struggling the breathe. Her eye looked up to the young boy as he had released her and tried to fix her in the ways he knew how. But she still didn't recognize him even when her eyes looked into his. Her body coughed up a lot of thick ooze, causing more trauma to her throat as it tried to fix itself but it was too late now. The living Viper would never know that she made her son do this to her, and that she died while he tried to help her. Only in death would she know. "Chimera" -- "Viper"

Siren was looking after Albion and Scylla when she heard the commotion. All she heard was Cerberus’ frantic voice calling out to his mother and Siren had to get up. She didn’t even kiss Albion’s head as she ran towards where Viper’s cell was. As she ran she called for Chimera, it was all that she really could do. She didn’t have the strength to stand up to Viper.

By the time she arrived Viper was struggling for breath, that was easy to see. Likely choking on the ooze within her. Siren’s dual toned eyes widened frightfully. She raced to Viper’s side, unaware the danger the woman really was, or the danger she was really in. "Try and aim her head downhill,” Siren tried to think quickly as Viper’s life drained before her eyes. "Maybe we can dislodge the ooze with compressions.” Siren would fight until there wasn’t any left, but part of her already knew the outcome.

"Siren Primrose Klein"

She didn't understand what was happening as Siren jumped in, she was too focused on struggling to breathe to worry about the wolves around her. Cerberus helped Siren as much as he could, putting his body underneath Viper to get her at a downward angle while Siren started compressions hoping to break up the ooze that lodged itself in clots in and around her throat. It was not a peaceful death as she choked and drowned on the thick fluid that was made from the illness that plagued her and the children of Fenmyre. Had she brought the plague here? It wasn't a thought as her body twitched in cough and ooze bubbled from her nose and lungs. Soon she was limp and free of the subtly brutal death that overtook her. Still she didn't remember Cerberus, or Siren, or even Chimera. She couldn't even remember who she was herself. Not until her ghost was back in the shadows of the prisons, watching the wolves who had tried to save her. -Exit Viper Via Death- "Chimera" -- "Viper"

A call of panic railed through the air and the two-toned king dropped everything to race across the island. The call had come from the cells where both the slaves and the infected were kept. If something had happened to his children... No, he wouldn't think about it. Heavy paws beat across the sand, sending a cloud of debris in his wake. The fires were still well lit and he could see forms illuminated in the orange glow. Two were standing and one... one was not.

Skidding to a halt, Chimera instantly pulled Cerberus towards him, inspecting the boy for injuries and noting the raking wounds on his muzzle. He didn't seem to be permanently injured, though the fact that he had been was enough to incense the man. "What happened?" He demanded of his sister before he could finally remove his gaze from his son's face. It was only then that he note the prone form was that of Viper.

Now... one might think that Chimera would be terribly unfeeling, having felt mostly animosity towards the woman for the longest time, but he was struck with sorrow as he saw her laying there in a pool of blood and ooze, her body stiff and unmoving. He knew that she had been the one to injure their son by the blood that stained her lips. Whatever madness that came with this disease, it had taken over her completely. He had seen that every day that he came to check on her.

"Siren, see to Cerberus' wounds, please." He almost moved to take Viper away on his own, but at the last moment, he turned to the boy and offered, "Do you need to help me bury her?" Not want. Need.

"Chimera"

He backed up at first as Siren arrived, but quickly went into action when she had mentioned the steps to get her better, at least in his mind she would get better especially with Siren here. He pushed his body under Viper's so she was slopped down while Siren did what was necessary, and when the time came he couldn't really accept it. But he also didn't know to express it.

When Chimera arrived and pulled him aside, Cerberus couldn't look at either of the three wolves aside from just a starting glance to his father's face. It broke him, "I- I didn't mean to." He nearly cried out in sobs before he sought to find Siren for comfort. She had seen more than Chimera but also without saying out loud, Cerberus was closer to her than Chimera.

The large boy pushed his head carefully into Siren and his eyes looked up to Chimera wiping tears away under his eye with his paw as his father asked if he needed to be there to bury her, "Bury her?" he questioned, simply because he could barely understand the concept of death or really how he should be feeling. But more so because he had never experienced loss before ever in his short life. He wasn't sure what was expected, for Viper or for himself.

"Cerberus Klein"

"Viper!” She cried as she started pressing against the woman’s form, trying to help dislodge the sludge in her throat. If she could just clear the airway… And then Viper went limp. Her heart plummeted but she continued working, if she worked fast enough. There was no resuscitating the woman, and as Siren finally accepted that fact Cerberus was pulled from her side. Siren felt numb, like her mind had to catch up with what just happened, what was before her, and her gaze immediately went to Cerberus, who didn’t look like he realized what just happened.

"She suffocated,” Siren whispered softly, to herself and also to Chimera as her gaze shifted to the boy, who answered his father dutifully but then went straight to her arms. Siren held him, tears fell from his eyes but he spoke as if he didn’t know the truth of the matter. Caramel ears fell to her skull as her own eyes welled with tears. She hadn’t ever been close to Viper, from the moment they met she felt at odds with her. But Siren loved her son, and the boy’s reaction filled her with sadness.

Siren could see to his physical wounds, but what would this do to him in a deeper sense. "Oh, Cerberus.” She whispered to him softly. There wasn’t much she could say, but she’d hold onto him for as long as he needed her to. The lacerations to his nose were probably just superficial, his heart needed more mending than little cuts.

"Siren Primrose Klein"

Viper

You are dead...



You gain:

• Ethereal Somnium Pass (player-bound)- One time use. Allows a Somnium character to return to thread freely for 1 in-character season (2 months) after event is concluded. Restricted to only threads where you have permission to enter, no trespassing, pass will be revoked if abused. Post in Maintenance when ready to use this pass.
  
• Elixir of agility (player-bound)- This bottle of milky blue liquid has a shoe etched onto it… whatever that means.