Fractals of light hummed around her vision, rustling the fog that was weighing her head down as Dagmær tried to figure out how she went from so unbearably hot to so terribly cold. The girl whimpered. Where was she? How did she get here? Emerald eyes blinked a few more times to clear her vision and reveal a tiny den. "Mo--" The word was barely out of her mouth as she started to cough, phelgm slipping from her mouth as she shook her head in disgust. Ewwww….
Dagmær slowly got to her paws, stuffed little nose sniffing for any sign of her mother, siblings or the wolves they'd been traveling with. Her stomach growled. Noooo… she shut her eyes, willing her memory to wind back as she caught snippets of words, the smell of the strange herbs the healer gave her. Something about not making it… something about leaving…. something about her… her, Dagmær, dying? Her eyes snapped open as she sniffed at her paws. Huh… she didn't smell dead and she didn't look dead and she was pretty sure if death had a feeling this wasn't it. Had… had she just been abandoned? No!
Stumbling toward the entrance she dove out of the den, scrambling through the snow and crying out for her mother only to be answered by a chilling breeze.
Dag sat heavily, eyes wide as her young mind tried to process what exactly she was going to do now. Her mother never left her by herself before, even when hunting her siblings were always there and the old healer often watched them. This just… this couldn't be happening.
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Treachery! The mighty warrior Dagger had been abandoned by her companions Bandit and Cloak and the wise woman, She Who Brings Food. On top of that she'd been poisoned by the wise woman's enemy turned ally the Man Who Smells Funny. What dire straights indeed! But there was no mess that the mighty Dagger could not over-come! She would survive the poison that was making her cough and stumble and then she would get revenge on those who betrayed her and fulfill her mission to rescue her father from the evil clutches of Wormguts the Horrible.
In her mind she was unstoppable but in reality Dagmær's body begged to differ. She was moving slowly, sluggishly, her jaws parted wide and panting heavily as she flopped down part-way on top of a fallen tree branch. She was so tired…
Dagger went as far as she could that night, through toad infested swamps and treacherous landscape. It was getting dark, she'd have to stop for the night.
There were still a few hours til sunset but the sky was quickly clouding up as snow began to fall lightly onto her mottled coat. Slowly Dagmær shut her eyes.
Skidding around trees and under low hanging branches Rhys darted through the forest as if her life depended on it. Her heart hammered away in her chest and felt like it was on the verge of breaking free and galloping off into the sunset. Every once in awhile she glanced over her shoulder, but every time she did so the girl always lurched to the side so for fear of running into something she saved such a move for when she thought she heard pursuit. She was free! Free, free, freefree, FREE!
Uh oh, were those pawsteps behind her? Had mommy or daddy discovered she was missing already? Quickly Rhys' head snapped around and her eyes briefly darted across the landscape behind her in search of a pursuer. No more than a second later and she was facing forward again, but it took a second for the sudden blur of colors to solidify into discernible shapes and in that instant Rhys suddenly found herself on a crash course with a stranger. She had just enough time for her breath to catch in surprise before she had to slam on the brakes to avoid faceplanting into the wolf/branch combo. What little distance there was between them was easily crossed with an uncontrollable skid across the slick ground and in a matter of heartbeats Rhys found herself almost smooching the face of the stranger. Not just any stranger, no, but what looked like a D-E-A-D stranger.
After a few rapid blinks Rhys took a small step backwards so she didn't have to stare at the body all cross-eyed-like. Huh. So this was what dead wolves looked like, huh? Looked an awful lot like any ole dead thing, really. She'd been expecting something a little more spectacular. Still, it was pretty cool. She kinda wanted to poke it. "Whoa!" Oh, wait, was it breathing? She squinted. Well, it didn't hurt to ask, now did it? "Are you dead?" If she got no response then there was no harm done. But if she got one she might have to say sorry or something. Was asking if someone was dead a faux pas like asking why someone had such ugly teeth? Rhys wasn't sure but she'd hate to make the same kind of mistake twice. It was just so hard to know what she could ask and what she couldn't.
Say it wasn't so! How could this be happening? Dagger was cornered, she had no where to go as the Devourer's slowly approached, their inky flesh twining and writhing excitedy around the skeletons that made up their frame. They knew the situation was hopeless… well hopeless for any regular wolf but not for Dagger! Her emerald eyes narrowed, hackles raising as she sized them up… it was now or never… a patch of ice stretched out between her and the Devourers. All she had to do was time it just right…
Dagger froze at the sound of something moving outside the cave… something big. The Devourers suddenly began to shift nervously, screeching like frightened screech owls before they fled into the shadows, the bones that had housed them falling to the cave floor in a clacking cacaphony. A shadow fell across her. Dagger quickly recoiled, playing dead and backing into the shadows as the creature entered the cave…. closer…. closer….
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Dagmær remained frozen, eyes shut as she listened to the breathing of something in front of her. She did her best to try and stop her breathing but it was hard, she was already so starved for air and she could feel her throat itching, thick with mucus. Shit… hold it Dagmær come on don't give yourself away. It'll go away, the big thing will leave.
"Whoa!"
Dag flinched and cautiously cracked an emerald green eye, just barely to see another girl staring at her. Oh! Well… that wasn't a Giant Bonebreaker or a Frozen Beareater.
"Are you dead?"
Both eyes snapped open and she frizzed up, trying to look as big and intimidating as she could to scare off the other girl. "No! I-" Dagmær immediately broke into a coughing fit. "I…just…. one… sec…." She fought and struggled and swallowed a big glob of mucus down her throat before making a face. "Yuck! I hate being sick! I'm not dead, I was just pretending I thought you were a Giant Bonebreaker come to eat me." She started coughing again, her frustration growing at her inability to ask questions. "So… who are you?"
Oh, darn. Not dead. Oh well, almost dead was still pretty cool.The bout of coughing grossed her out a little. The girl clearly had cooties. She had to have touched a boy or something. It was her own fault, really. Everyone knew that boys were dirty and had awful cooties. Brothers were okay, but others weren't. Rhys studied her while the girl coughed. Maybe this girl didn't know the rules. She was pretty little. Maybe she didn't have older siblings to explain everything to her.
"Being sick doesn't sound like any fun." She'd never been sick, but if it involved such a nasty cough it was an experience she didn't want. "I don't eat sick puppies. You're really good at pretending. What's a bonebreaker?" And why did it eat sick puppies? They didn't sound very tasty.
So much coughing! It was gross. Who was she? "Who are you?" Proudly, she stated, "I'm Rhys, Imperium's princess warrior."
"Being sick sucks!" Dagmær agreed so much and she wanted to get well already but she wasn't sure how to do that. Maybe she needed to sacrifice some field mice to the spirit of this haunted forest. Though she didn't know if they were good spirits. She knew sacrificing to bad spirits usually meant something worse would happen farther down the line. Dag eyed the older girl, taking in her pretty brown coat and blue eyes as she asked about bonebreakers. Dag's tail wagged. "Oh they're awful! Huge, mean beasts with bones covering their skulls and spines all down their body. They just love to squash unsuspecting pups because they like the feel of the jelly between their toes." She stuck out her tongue and made a 'yuck' face. She grinned. "I'm Dagmær Thyre! Also known as 'Dagger' fearless explorer of unnatural phenoma-phemomsen….phemom things." She coughed again, face scrunching up as she tried to control it.
The other girl introduced herself as Rhys and Dag's coughing stopped sharply as she stared in wonder and awe of the older girl. A warrior princess of Imperium? "You're a warrior princess?! That's so cool! You must be really amazing! My dad taught me to fight, I want to be a warrior like my grandma, can you show me some moves? I bet-" She broke out in a coughing fit again, tears forming at the corner of her eyes in frustration. "…are there any nice healers in Imperium? I want to not be sick anymore. I'll trade some half-eaten field mice!"
Rhys' eyes narrowed as the girl explained what bonebreakers were. They sounded like just her kind of villain. If she ever saw one she'd bite it to pieces! Starting with their toes since they were keen on using them to squish puppies. As she tried to picture one Rhys imagined it with impressive bony protrusions on its skull; the kind of adornments that Hati would be impressed by when she came home wearing it on her head.
"You're a warrior princess?! That's so cool! You must be really amazing!" At these words Rhys' chest swelled with pride. My dad taught me to fight- Unable to contain herself, Rhys interrupted, "My dad's teaching me to fight too!" She nodded emphatically as Dagmaer asked if she'd show her some moves. "Yeah, we could..." The girl started coughing and Rhys trailed off with a frown.
Once the coughing subsided the girl managed a question and Rhys nodded fiercely. "My momma is a healer. She'll make you feel better." Rhys bounced back a step, her tail held behind her in a loose curl. "Follow me, I'll take you to her!"
Dagmær was so entranced by the other girl that she didn't loose a beat when the other girl tried to interrupt her. She was excited to have someone else to train her and a princess to! She wanted to see what this other girl was made of but first she had to get her lungs clear of all that poisonous gunk. Her ears perked up at attention as Rhys mentioned that her mother was a healer and could make her feel better. Dag started to follow her but then paused. What about her own mother? The girl looked back at the empty den and frowned. Part of her wanted to stay and wait for her mom to return… but another part of her, a larger part knew that her mother would not be returning. "Ok! As long as she's not the smelly kind."
