falling apart now
11-11-2021, 09:44 PM
Unfortunately, Laeta was so deeply submerged in her delusion, as the ooze continued leaking from her facial features, she didn’t even comprehend the consequences. Which, if she wasn’t infected, she would have done the wise thing and turned back to the castle immediately, and back to safety. However, her fate was sealed the moment she followed the suggestions of her addled brain and clutched the coat hanger in her tiny paw. A deep, foreboding unease leeched into her bones, and the woman felt the atmosphere darken significantly like a dense fog. The hooded figure was displeased, and perhaps rightfully so. What had he done to be threatened by her? There was no provocation on his part, but she didn’t realize that, and it’d only be the beginning of her downfall. Her "mission" was about to take a very terrifying spiral into the darkest depths she could not yet fathom. "Your mother is no longer of this world, wolf, and you are too old to deny otherwise," The cloaked thing said. Lae froze, unable to move. What was happening? She could only watch with the most helpless feeling wrenched in her gut as the voice surrounded her in every direction. It continued, causing her to shiver from the chill she detected in his words. "However..I may help you join her, if you wish." He gently took the coat hanger from her unmoving paw, and she had no way of reacting in this state. What..did he mean? Did that mean he really..had her? A sudden realization hit her as the cloaked figure fell silent, as if in pensive thought. You messed upyoumessedupyoumessedup The fireflies chanted about her ears, almost mockingly. Their whispering phrases darkened as much as the atmosphere had, the churning in her gut worsening as her breath hitched in her throat, the ooze only letting her utter a faint gurgle in fear. Was he going to kill her? No, if he wanted to, he would’ve already done that. All she knew was, whatever he was planning, it wasn’t of a benevolent purpose. No, his pause foretold what was to happen. Everything within her wanted to flee. The instinct that had been about as submerged in ooze as the rest of her mind and features found itself in action again, perceiving a life-threatening situation. Run! Get out! It’s a trap! Her own voice, her true self, cried within her, but to no avail. It was too late for eetribution. The fireflies got what they seemingly asked for, robbing her not only of her health but of her ability to rationalize when her life was at stake. What a stupid, stupid decision, even if it was out of her control. To her horror, the figure drifted to face her, looming like a massive, gnarled tree that dwarfed her small form in comparison. Her ruby glazed eyes widened, even with the gunk that made them difficult to open. This was bad. Real bad. He didn’t have her mother, after all. It was all a lie - had the gunk poisoned her brain that badly? How desperate it was to give her that hope that her mother was out there. How sad. There was nothing left for her but to resign to her own fate. The figure’s hands hovered on both sides of her face, the fireflies tickling her cheek fur as they burrowed. Her breaths were short, gasping. She was going to die. He was going to kill her. Scratch everything she thought before - she wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. She was a dead woman the moment this horrible thing appeared in front of her. The buzzing intensified to the point where she almost drowned out the figure’s voice, but it was impossible to escape from. His powers were not of this world, and she had born witness to them in the worst way this could have occurred. "Tell your mother you love her." She barely registered that his hands moved and his fingers snapped when the world went dark. The soft whisper of a breeze stirred Laeta to awaken. She peeled open her eyes, and found her face was surprisingly clear. She then rose to her feet, utterly confused. It was light outside. The spring air tousled her silky, youthful fur. Her facial features were clear, she breathed easy, and her eyes were as bright as they were before..before..she blinked. Wait, what happened? Right..she fell asleep again. She always did that when pack duties were slow. She turned towards the forest of her childhood, a thick segment of tall evergreens and bursting green foliage that covered the earth. Her parents had to be here somewhere - they’d scold her if they knew she had fallen asleep when there were always patrols to do, pups to watch over, and prey to hunt. What a strange dream, she thought to herself, padding towards the main clearing where the pack congregated. I can’t even remember what it was about, but it gave me the chills. Sure enough, her whole family was out and about. Everybody had a purpose to the pack - even the pups were likely led away by her sisters to learn about herbs and hunting. Still, she padded towards the center of the clearing, the sunlight filtering through the tree branches and pooling on her figure. It was warm, comforting. It felt like home. She never left, did she? It was just a very long dream she had. If only she could recall some of it. She sighed. Maybe her mother would know. She knew everything. "Laeta, my dear," A voice made itself known to her before its source. The smooth, kind tone belonged to an equally kind she-wolf that approached from the woodlands, ruby eyes twinkling. Sophia was her name, kind and soft as she was. She smiled brightly as her daughter did the same. Her mother’s smile was always so infectious. Lae padded closer to touch her nose to her mother’s cheek in greeting. "Hi mom." Her mother wasn’t auite the carbon copy one would expect from two very similar creatures, in size and in character. They were both quite slim, the same slender, tapered legs the pack had that were peefect for running auickly and turning in agile, almost unnatural manners, but rather poor for fighting and combat. That was best left to her father and uncles. Their coats were both a clean, crisp charcoal, but unlike Laeta, her mother’s coat was free of any white patterning. Instead, a darker obsidian shade reach from her paws up to her elbows and knees in an uninteruppted gradient, and that same shade created a subtle dark mask around her slender face. This was the pack’s inherited pattern - virtually all of her mother’s children had it, just in varying colors. Her sisters, for example, had that pattern but in shades of tawny. Her brothers, on the other hand, received it in deep browns or rich charcoals, like wet earth and stones. Laeta stood out from the rest with a mysterious pattern that was difficult to determine the origin of - as such, rumors began to spread around the pack that she was an illegitimate child. Lae shook herself away from her drifting thoughts. No matter. She belonged, and her mother loved her all the same. "You’re always elsewhere, dear," Her mother observed, still maintaining a smile upon her soft features. "I wonder what goes on in your head." Lae sighed, her own smile widening. Nothing could escape the sharp wits of her mother. Though she lacked the confidence to say herself, she, too, had the mind of someone beyond her years. Where there was a lack of physical brute strength, they both received the gift of observance and intelligence that that could stir a scholastic rivalry. Together, the two of them did their duties. Mother and daughter, side by side - the matriarch and her princess. They sprinted through the rich evergreens they called home, in pursuit of deer and rabbits for meals. They bathed in the babbling creek on the outskirts of their territory, then basked in the golden sunlight that warmed their bones. Hours passed, so did days, which crept into weeks and months. Perhaps even a year or two had gone by, the seasons of Boreas frosting the vegetation and creek in winter, only to thaw it out in the spring for summer. They were inseperable, and when they weren’t busy running about, they just sat and talked. Talked about anything and everything on their minds. Laeta’s words flowed out like ink on paper, each statement was valuable as the past. That was another gift with which the pack, particularly the females were blessed with - though they spoke very little on their own, when they did open their mouths, the pack listened intently, for their words held such strength they could shake the very ground upon which they stood. One particular night, the heat of the summer still sticking to their pelts despite it being sundown, Lae and her mother conversed softly as the rest of the pack slept. Time seemed fragmented, for some reason. It was going quite quickly - then again, life had a way of speeding up or slowing the expanse of time as it wished. She paid it no mind. "Mom?" Lae inquired, as they reclined against a moss-laden tree. The roots created a padded alcove for the two to sit in comfortably, like a couch. A couch? What was that? What a strange word, much like the other words that occasionally drifted into her skull. "Yes, dear?" Her mother inquired, shifting slightly against the tree, barely concealing a wince. Lae frowned softly. Her mother wasn’t as young as she acted - her smooth and ever beautiful form was beginning to betray her true age with the white speckles on her snout and around her eyes. "The pack..do they really accept me?" She blurted out, furrowing her brow. "I mean, the rumors spread like a fire. They think you..er.." Her sentence trailed out, leaving her mother to fill in the gaps. To her surprise, her mother simply smiled, her expression melting its way through Lae’s anxiousness about the rumors. "Of course they accept you, my dear. You are my daughter, nothing can change that. No matter how you look, I love you all the same. Rumors can spread like fire, of course, but only if you provide tinder. If you let it simmer down, it will die out," She looked at her monochromatic daughter with the same ruby gaze, always shimmering with hope for the future and a zest for knowledge and life. "You belong here. You have purpose. You have strength." Lae began to smile herself, relieved. Her mother always knew just what to say. Soon, small beads of yellow light flooded the forest, twinkling like the stars above. "Oh, Laeta!" Her mother whispered in awe, gazing up at the bugs. "Fireflies! Aren’t they beautiful?" They collected in bunches, circling the two in a warm, soothing glow. Suddenly, something within Lae clenched her stomach uneasily. The magic of the moment stopped in its tracks as a rush of memories filled her head. Memories of her leaving the pack. Wait, leaving? Angry words thrown about, her running away as a foolish, headstrong yearling that cursed the world when deep inside she was insecure and terrified. Years of wandering Boreas alone, barely stepping off the edge of death and destruction each day. Another pack..another life..a castle..and then..him. "Lae? Lae, my dear, what’s wrong?" Her mother murmured softly, her tone lowered in concern. Laeta snapped back to the clearing, the fireflies scattered but still twinkling above. She shook her head, breathing quickened. "N-Nothing," she said, wondering what triggered her memories so. She left this place? Her almost perfect life? Her mother? Why? Why.. She didn’t know what was real anymore. Was this even real? The realization of the time fragments, and her memories swirled in her brain like a dangerous whirlpool. Standing up, she faced her mother with a pained expression. She realized she left the pack..because they force her mother to banish her. The rumors became wildfires that raged the pack and threatened its hierarchy, claiming her mother was a whore that slept with a loner and had a cursed child. The cursed child, of course, being Laeta herself. Tears bubbled her ruby gaze as Lae looked at her mother. No, the memory of her mother. The life they once had that was no more. "I’m sorry, mom," she croaked. It was painful. Too painful. Somehow, even without words, she knew her mother didn’t want her to leave. The rest of the pack manipulated her, tore her apart. So painful. So fucking painful. No wonder she hated herself so badly. As her mother protested, the woman ran into the woods, away from the pack. Running and running and never stopping, until she was miles away. Her legs unable to run anymore, she collapsed where she stopped, exhaustion filling every part of her body. As she lay there, glancing up at the normal night sky, a firefly sat on her nose. And soon enough, her eyes closed, leaving the memory of what she once had. With a start, Laeta’s ooze-laden eyes peeled open, and she gasped as if she had been doused with cold water. She was..by the falls again. She frowned. She didn’t remember laying here. Come to think of it, where was she? What had happened? Though it appeared her addled brain had healed itself somewhat, and she was no longer out of touch with reality, she couldn’t recall what had brought her here. Whatever delusions she had suffered had blown away, leaving her here in this bitter, dark, glowing reality. Only the memories of her dream with her mother remained, clutched with her heart with a dull pang of grief. Her mother was dead, that’s all she could remember. She was gone from this world, her birth pack likely nonexistant. Her eyes wished to spill tears, but only some more ooze trickled down her crusted face. At least the flow of the stuff slowed down, if only a little. She began to rise - no, attempted to - when she realized she couldn’t move at all. Panic set in, realizing she could only crane her neck and maybe the slightest bit of her shoulders and haunches, but her legs wouldn’t move. No matter how hard her brain screamed at them to MOVE! MOVE!, they remained still. Horror set in as she received a flicker of a memory. What the hell was she yelling at that cloaked firefly entity for? And why so aggressively insisting he had her mother? It only made sense, though, that for her foolishness, he likely made her like this. The paralyzed woman’s eyes brimmed with tears - actually, ooze- at the hopelessness of her situation before a small figure rose next to her. She blinked. Who was this creature? She recognized him as a badger, a creature with a grey pelt, a charcoal face, and white markings stretching down his back. He had ruby claws, the same color as her eyes, and he nudged a dead mouse towards her as she could only stare. The creature, realizing she wasn’t eating, bowed to her in a polite manner. What was going on? "Hello, my lady," The badger said, his voice smooth and even, and soothing in some way, "I was waiting for you to awaken."Wait a minute - badgers could talk? She had to be dreaming. But no, this was reality - her mother was a dream and no longer here. The reality of her situation, unable to move no matter how hard she tried, set in. She lifted her face to get a better look at him, still reeling in shock from the snowballing of events she had to endure since awakening. This couldn’t be real..but it was. She knew it was. The badger’s face seemed to soften in..sympathy? For her? Could badgers even do that? She knew less about them than she felt she should. Carefully, to her surprise, the badger took one claw, and gently wiped the ooze from her eyes. Helplessly, the woman let him, seeing as she couldn’t move, much less stand. "I know this must be quite a shock, my lady, but fret not - I am here to help. I am humbly at your service, for however long you choose." Lae barely had time to think of a response before the badger added, "It’s cold in these woods, my dear lady. I shall fetch you something to warm you up. Perhaps some water, as well." She nodded, not having the strength to protest. Before the badger turned towards the falls, he turned to her and asked, "My lady, if I may ask, what is your name? You have a name bestowed upon you, if I may assume?" He was..so polite. Perhaps she could make the best out of this situation. He was eager to serve, and highly respectful. With a pause, she said, "Laeta." She almost smiled softly, as if feeling her mother’s presence closer than ever. Something about this badger made her feel as if they had a bond of true friendship. She could swear she heard something of her mother’s generosity and kindness within him, too. She said it again as the badger nodded with a "Lady Laeta, splendid!" and headed off to find water. Her eyes drifted closed again. "Yes..it’s Laeta." |
comin' up for air in the deepest of the deep ends
i thought i learned it all, but boom, the plot thickens
laeta has a european badger companion named melis. he can speak and is assumed to be with her at all times.