spelled my name in finger bones
Faith
The cavern called to him with a gentle glow emanating from the yawning maw of stone, so he pulled his sister along for the adventure. The dark wraith slunk through the mouth of the cave with ears pulled back warily, two toned eyes scanning the walls and drinking it all in. Climbing up the slick walls of the cave were clusters of blue crystals, like the ones he'd collected from beneath the mushrooms with that man- Tempo. He still wasn't sure what exactly to think of that conversation, and he certainly wasn't looking to reminisce right now. When his gaze rose overhead, the stalactites were covered in them. Luminescent fangs of a great stone beast unable to close its jaws, lingering above them like an empty threat. He wove around a stalagmite in his path, only to have one of those glowing crystals catch in the thick fur of his right shoulder. As one of those fang-like tips caught the tender flesh beneath his coat, he cried out instinctively. It felt so much louder than it sounded, even echoing endlessly through the cavern. In the brief moments where the translucent gem cut into his skin, a shrill scream exploded within the confines of his own skull.
Shrinking away from the offending stalagmite, he sucked in a deep breath and tried to steady his racing heart. Wide eyes sought out the familiar features of his beloved sister, her own body giving off a faint light for him to latch onto. "Sorry, I..." his voice trailed off before he could finish the sentence. What was he apologizing for? The volume of his cry? It had seemed deafening, but her expression wasn't quite what he would expect in response to such a scream. The amaranth marked godling found himself fixating on the gem that had cut him, watching the sanguine blood decorating its crown turn slowly violet, sapphire, cerulean, until it matched the hues of the cluster itself, slowly flickering with light until it too, glowed softly. Was the ringing in his ears from the sound of his own voice bouncing endlessly off the walls and back into his ears?
"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"
Faith felt... Off. The way the nights had shifted and more and more things started to glow the voices had grown more insistent. Sometimes they were as they had always been but other times it was like something that wasn't the voice of God would reach into her mind and whisper things. But somehow the idea of false gods trying to lead her astray was less worrying to her than the crystal that glowed around them. Though the mushrooms also gave off a light something about the pulsing stones seemed to draw her in, and Faith hated that. She followed in close behind her brother as the pair of them went exploring. Her nervousness visible in her careful dainty steps. The girl kept her gaze on anything but the soft glowing crystals and therefore was startled when her brother called out. She spun around having taken a few steps away from him. "What is it?" She asked, eyes wide, then her gaze slid to the crystal he'd pierced himself on, his blood reacting to the stone. She took a step closer, entranced, and swallowed the lump forming in her throat. Her own glow, so like that of the rock before them... Started to pulse in time with the crystal... "Speech" |
While the gentle bioluminescence seemed to meld into the light given off by the crystals all around, the hues were just different enough that he could focus on Faith, trace the whorls of her coat with his eyes until he found her face. Reflecting the eerie glow of her markings, those wide eyes she was giving him seemed to entrance the boy, his riotous thoughts stuttering to an abrupt halt. Focus. God will protect you. the harsh voice that intoned the familiar sentiment amidst the fading echoes of a scream in his skull.. it sounded like his mother. "What is it?" his sister asked quietly, her voice betraying the anxiety that still lingered beneath the surface from their initial entrance. Drawing in a long, shaking breath, the godling blinked a few times to try and clear the tears that had welled up in his eyes. As her attention drifted away from him, he lost the focus he'd fought so hard to regain. Both yearlings were hypnotized by the glow of the crystals, and soon Faith's own light began to mirror the heartbeat rhythm of the translucent points clustered all around them.
The glowing blood was oozing slowly down the point of the longest crystal, a gentle glide that could easily be missed by an untrained eye. With two-toned gaze locked on the strange formation, he saw the slow progress of his transmuted blood as it touched the dark, slick stone of the stalagmite and paused there. Then, it moved slowly down the spire of charcoal rock, colour fading inch by treacherous inch, cerulean to sapphire to violet, and then crimson to dull rust as it dried in a streak down the length of the stalagmite. "Faith.." the words came out whisper quiet, voice hoarse as though he hadn't spoken for months. "We need to leave," he said. Dark shoulder bumped roughly against his sister's, a feeble attempt to free them both from the eerie captivation of the crystals before them. "this was a bad idea." he added, blinking a few times in an attempt to rid the unnatural magic from his eyes.
"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"
Faith felt like all she could hear was the pounding of blood in her ears, even the voices seemed to fade out as her gaze zeroed in on the crystal. She grit her teeth, somehow both wanting to step closer and also run away with her tail tucked and never come back again. Her brother's voice came to her as if through a fog and for a painful minute she managed to pull her gaze away, blinking at the suddenly shifting of light. It felt wrong somehow and she struggled to focus her gaze on her brother. Somewhere in her mind she knew her brother was right, that the pull of the glowing stones was wrong and she should probably turn tail and never come back again. But while she gave her brother a dazed nod and even managed to say: "Okay, I'll be right there." (Though her voice seemed distant even to her ears.) Faith was unable to move, her head snapping back to face the stone and feeling the pull take over her once more. "Speech" |
The uneven, quiet voice in which his sister replied to his pitiful pleas sounded almost like they were parroted by an entity that had taken up residence behind her two toned eyes. The way her attention instantly snapped back to stare at the glowing clusters with blank expression and empty eyes.. The boy whined anxiously, tail sweeping furtively against his heels while he fought against the stuttering machinations of his enthralled mind to force him into the same fate. He backpedalled, a few staggering steps to put distance between himself and the object of his sudden, unnatural infatuation. "Faith," he said again, more insistent this time. She was standing stock still, a statue that seemed to mirror the heartbeat rhythm of the pulsating crystals with her own bioluminescence. "Faith, come on!" he pleaded, knocking his paw against her hip with a tenuous swing of the unsteady forelimb. He was still hazy, his brain wasn't moving with its usual pace. Before he could think twice, and decide against it, he swung his skull low between his shoulders and aimed to grab hold of a clump of the thick fur at the end of Faith's tail. Either the pain would wake her up from the trance, or he would try and drag her out of here by her rump.
A soft growl built in his chest, punctuated by a keening whine as he struggled to ignore the compulsion to release his grip and get closer to the crystals again. He could hear a static buzzing in his head, closer now to the sharp spires of translucent, faceted gemstones that were growing on the damp stone floor. As his gaze caught the gentle glow, he hesitated, his grip faltered. His sister's cerulean tipped banner slipped from his jaws. Saliva pooled on his tongue, and he wondered how the little crystals might taste...
"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"
Faith couldn't help herself, she could hear her brother, she knew he was right. There was something very wrong here. But the part of her mind that could feel that simply could not seem to wrestle back control. Even the way her brother bit her tail... It seemed to come to her in a fog, her tail throbbed but it was a dull pain, a million miles away. Faith didn't move for a moment or two longer and then, without warning she reached forward and swiped her tongue along the crystal, running over where her brother's blood was still drying on the stone. "Speech" |
You keep staring, your paws drawing you forward and you slip and cut your paw a little... Not exactly having a good day for not bleeding all over the crystals. Speaking of your blood... Is it glowing? You manage to tear your gaze away to look down at your paws in horror, then blink... Wait... Nevermind. Okay absolutely time to get out!
Tasting the crystal just isn't enough. You feel the overwhelming urge to bite down, to consume it, but when you do you feel not just a crack but a searing pain spreading through your mouth. Guess you need to spit it out.
Maybe you shouldn't have done that...
The godling hadn't been aware of the siren song of the translucent crystals slowly pulling him closer, inch by treacherous inch with a slow dragging of his paws over the dark stone floor. Not until one of the sharp facets of a glowing gem sliced open the pad of his left forepaw, drawing blood just as easily as the first. He hissed a sharp breath through clenched teeth, and that now-familiar scream seemed to echo through his brain cavity. It pulled an unbidden groan from deep in his chest, which tapered off into a soft whimper. This cavern would be their tomb if the two of them didn't get out soon. He turned his paw over to inspect the damage, and felt a horrified gasp pulled from his throat as if by spectral claws. That pale blue light was trickling from the fresh wound on his paw.. or... was it? Almost as soon as he could identify the familiar sight, the glow seemed to turn to a shine, and when he tipped his paw another direction the light seemed to slide off the pooling blood on his dark pad and drip onto the floor. Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, and he was more affected by the thrum of adrenaline in his veins than he'd previously anticipated.
Lifting two toned eyes to his sister, a wave of fresh shock tripped up his spine. "Faith!" he yelped, lunging forward with little regard for the sharp pain in his paw as he stepped down. The spit slick crystal seemed to shine anew as his sister pulled her head back just a hair, the glassy surface of her hollow gaze seeming to drink in the blue glow. "Faith, stop!" the boy cried out, dark lips peeling away from his fangs as he sought to bump her shoulder with his own rather harshly. He needed to get her out of here, it seemed she was being enthralled by the strange crystals far more than he. Tucking his head beneath her neck, he tried to push her head up and away from the cluster of gems that was claiming the entirety of her focus. "We need to go, this place is cursed!" he grunted through his teeth, fighting to redirect his beloved sister before she did herself more harm by messing around with the crystals.
"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"