Blitzed

The trip back to the castle had been mostly uneventful. Artorias and Gwynevere made their way across the plains, the salvia leaves tucked in Gwyn's satchel for further study. His sister's raven had made it seem like something should be happening to him along the walk home, but for the most part, Artorias didn't feel any different after consuming the salvia. Sure, there was maybe a bit of a bitter herby taste on the back of his tongue, but he didn't feel any different yet. Was Eilwen pulling a deeper prank on him by making him think something should be happening when really she'd just tricked him into eating a plant?

Just as Artorias was beginning to get suspicious that he had just eaten some random plant when all of a sudden Artorias felt a tingling start all over his skin. He paused, paw hovered in midair halfway through the gates of the castle courtyard, eyes going wide while he stared at his own paw. He said nothing at first, feeling like his whole body was going numb, swaying back and forth. No, wait, he wasn't actually swaying. His vision was swaying? The world was swaying? What the hell was swaying?! Artorias looked up and around the gatehouse he was standing in, eyes following the lines in the stones that all seemed to blend together, turning into a labyrinth of lines all around him. His head rotated with his gaze, following the lines back down to his paws, except now the lines were running over his paws. He was part of the gatehouse now. Part of the castle.

"Uhhh, Gwyn...?" he called out to his sister, watching as the gray of the stone began to bleed and blend with his blue paw, his other paw still held in midair like it were resting on an invisible step. He tried to move his paws, but his body didn't want to respond to his commands. Or maybe he wasn't giving the commands at all. Did he even want to move? Castles didn't move. He didn't need to move either then, right? He would be the gates now. None would pass. He looked up, searching for Gwyn as the world began to shift and blur again, as if he were looking at the world through a hazy lens. "Gwyn, I can't move," he said, not realizing he was shouting to her, a rising panic beginning to grow in his chest.

"Artorias" | "Corbin"