Now that the initial trauma of what had happened to her eye was settling in, Audra knew she had to help others. Crystals surroundings her eye sockets and lining her ears were increasingly painful, but nothing beat the horror she felt when those damned fireflies had ripped her eye out. Giving her head a gentle shake, the small wolf knew it was futile to dwell on the past. Determined to leave it be, knowing that the crystals would just grow back each time she pulled one off, Audra ignored the ooze that also filtered out from her dead eye. Occasionally, a drip would land on the grass beneath her, leaving a trail of glowing ooze behind her. There had to be a way to fix all of this. To cure this plague that enveloped the wolves of her home. Fury blistered through her as she traveled north of Auster and into Boreas. Seasons slowly began to change as frost turned to dew and while the sun refused to rise, the chill of winter was receding. Finally, her bones didn't feel so stiff each morning when she got up. With half the world gone from her view, her paws stumbled more than usual. Being cautious was more important than ever. To Audra, though, she wasn't the one that needed fixing. She wanted to help others, to find the fix, a cure, something to make the pain go away. If not for her, but for them. Double checking that her satchel was still tied neatly around her neck, she set off deeper into Faller's Fjord, hoping she'd come across someone. word count: 268/1500

The situation in the world had gone from odd to horrendous in a matter of just a few weeks. The wolves around her had slowly begun to show strange symptoms mimicking the glowing crystals and mushrooms that had started to appear over the past month. Strange, neon colored ooze dripped from their body and through open orifices, such as their eyes, mouth and nose. The very same crystals and mushrooms had started growing from their bodies as well, affecting even her very own loved ones. In addition to that, an almost sightless illness had affected her son and grandson, Takeshi.

She often saw them talking to themselves, or at least seemingly to themselves. If she stayed long enough, it often startled her to see that the conversations almost didn’t seem one sided. It was as if they were replying to something or someone only they could hear, a whisper on the wind only meant for their ears. What frightened her even more what was they seemed to be telling them to do. She’d almost had to fish Takeshi out of the shrine pool more than once after he’d suddenly thrown himself in, staying under water long enough that her poor old heart had begun thundering in her chest and she’d rushed forward, panic in her silver eyes. But then, he would resurface, a moment of clarity in those bright, glowing red eyes as he paddled himself to shore and laid there panting, staring at the sky in a panic. She’d hold his wet body, hushing his whimpers as he told her he wasn’t okay.

She could see that plainly.

Her son, Hanzo, had turned the opposite of his son. Instead of threatening to take his own life, he seemed content to take the lives of others. He killed prey more often than before, almost as if in a frenzy, and would yell at their corpses asking them what they wanted from him. He uttered names that shocked her, knowing there was no way they could respond. The wolves he called to were very much dead. She worried for his leadership, knowing that if she was seeing it, the other wolves of Ashen were seeing it too. It seemed Venom was untouched, thank the Gods, but Kiyo worried that wouldn’t last very long. She needed to find a cure somehow, somewhere, or she knew that she risked losing all that she held so very dear.

The woman had woken up and shouldered her own medical pack, bringing along her companions who, as of yet, were not infected. How the trio had managed to be unscathed despite the amount of inspection they’d done on the glowing mushrooms and crystals was beyond her, but she didn’t want to count her blessings just yet. Every day seemed to hold too much unknown to allow herself to lose her edge, to let her guard down. She ventured toward the Fjord, unsure just yet what she was looking for, but knowing she would find it when she saw it. And, she saw it.

Just beyond her, she could make out the form of a woman, perhaps around the age of her son and daughter-in-law, cloaked in a pelt of mottled blacks, greys, tans and russets. Crystals poked out of her body in various places, some in thicker bundles than the rest, and she seemed to be noticeably stumbling, shying away from one side in a way that she’d seen many times before. It was the wariness of a newly blind wolf, one whose senses had not yet adjusted to the partial loss of one of them. Surely they would, in time, become used to it, but she’d heard it be described as like losing a limb. She thought momentarily of Magnus but shook her head, removing thoughts of him from her mind, no matter how charming they may be. She had a job to do.

She let out a chuff of greeting, staying back a good distance in case she happened to be wrong and it wasn’t the meander of a wolf newly wounded, but of a wolf with no sense. She’d yet to see the craze accompany the crystals or the mushrooms, but with the way that the illnesses seemed to be progressing, she wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d suddenly morph together into some sort of...super ooze.

WC: 1004/2500?

"Speech"

Time would pass. Pain would ebb and flow. Like the waves upon that blackened shore. Storm clouds rolling in as thunder and lightning strike the watery surface. Fear ripples through her body as she shudders away thoughts of torment. That feeling of fireflies enveloping her oculus and ripping it out as if plucking a flower from its stem. Watching her orbital slowly fade from honey to tar. Succumbing to the torture of having it shoved back into its socket and being ridiculed. Greedy. So much greed. But what if she wasn't trying to be greedy? What if she had merely been trying to play the game? A game that only one could win. One that was not herself. It would be fate. Good luck was not in the cards for the small russeted wolf as her chin lifts to look out upon the land below. Placed neatly in a small alcove of deciduous trees, her one good eye can see the carving river spread out through the fjord. Oh, the beauty that the land could hold. Beauty that she would never know. Others would think her weak. Useless. How could she have been so stupid to believe that the cloaked figure would help her? She wasn't worthy of such things. Ever. Good things didn't come to Audra. Loneliness soaked into her chest as she tried to hold back the sobs of depression that racked inside of her. Her gut bottomed out, empty from lack of hunger and her throat dry from lack of speech. Why would anyone waste their time with her anymore? It was then that the chuff of someone caught her attention and an ear turned toward the ivory female. Curling her chin so that she could see the older figure better, Audra nearly trips over a rock. Straightening herself out, a shiver runs down her spine. Why did this wolf appear so ghostly? Coated in white. Eyes soft as a dove lighting upon a tree. Was this her savior come to send her to the other side? At a loss for words, Audra stares. One honey-gold and the other a deadened black. What was she to say? She does notice then that the other woman is wearing a medical pack. Larger than the satchel around her own neck, Audra wonders if possibly this one may know of healing. "Are you here to save me?" Her words are a chiming bell of a whisper as a paw steps forward. "I have tried searching for a cure," the crystals lining her lips make it painful to speak, but she insists on getting the words out. "But I have yet to have any hope," she ends there with a look cast out to the valley below them. word count: 1448/2500

The woman’s body seemed to be quaking as she got closer, shivers raking down her spine as she seemed to be holding back something that Kiyo wasn’t privy to. Was she sick as well, trying to hold back her vomit? She wasn’t quite sure. The other heard her, twisting her neck to try and turn to see and, in that moment, the ghostly woman watched as the younger woman stumbled over a rock. A frown twisted onto her lips, her heart skipping a beat as she quickened her pace to try and keep her from going down completely. Thankfully, the other seemed to catch herself. It was as she straightened that the Apothaker could see the full extent of her suspicions.

One eye was a vibrant, healthy, beautiful honey gold, while the other was…dead.

It wasn’t dead in a way she’d ever seen before, however. Most sightless eyes were clouded to an extent, whether by a malformation of the cornea or by age related casualties, such as glaucoma or cataracts. Sometimes they appeared fine, but there was a noticeable lack of dilation in the affected eye, hinting at its lack of sight. But this eye…it was as if there was a void there, a black hole leading right into her head. Kiyo fought back a flinch, her immediate worry being infection. If the eye were to be infected, it would be in one of the worst spots. She’d seen infections that had meandered into the brain before and it was horrendous. The wolf convulsed from high fevers, often slipped into a coma, and worst off, typically didn’t wake up. If they did, they were struck deaf, dumb and blind, or at least some variation of those if not all three at once. One thing was to be sure, they were never the same again. It didn’t help that the girl was also affected by one of the ooze strains, the one that pushed crystals from what she’d deduced to be her very bones. She’d tried to pluck them from her grandchildren, but their horrendous screams of pain had quickly denied her any further attempts. Just the thought of the sound made her want to vomit.

The russet woman spoke, her words mumbled around the crystals that lined her lips like sugar. She spoke of a cure, of the hope that Kiyo possessed one, and the healer’s heart leapt into her throat when the other looked to the valley. She knew the desperation of the situation in front of her, and she couldn’t blame the woman for such thoughts. This horrible sickness had been kind to no wolf and she’d seemed to take a full force blow from it if Kiyo’s thoughts were correct. Still, she couldn’t allow her to make the mistake of ending it when there was a possibility of a future beyond their current situation.

“I will certainly try, if you’ll allow me, dear,” she replied gently, a coaxing smile of her pale lips. She slid the bag from her shoulders, the item landing on the ground with a thud. “May I take a look at your eye first?” she asked, remaining in place instead of immediately going to the woman’s side. She didn’t want to startle her, she already felt badly enough as it was most likely. They would go at her pace.

WC: 2018/2500

"Speech"

Expressions were not lost to Audra as she noticed the ghostly woman's frown. In truth, she was still getting accustomed to the loss of her sight. While not fully blind, it was still with some difficulty that she had crossing over certain terrains. It wouldn't do her any good to stay locked away in the castle for eternity for the sake of being safe. Exploring was her second favorite hobby as it allowed her to see the land for what it was. She wasn't going to let her trauma stop her. Mulling over her actions, an ear turned toward the healer as their encounter began to unfold. There is a softness around her features that Audra can't help but feel drawn toward. The ethereal presence of the white-coated woman standing before her was almost ghostly. How could she have been so lucky to cross paths with one such as her? She can tell by the twinging expression on the woman's face that the sight of her dead eye wasn't common. How could it be? That coated figured she'd come across hadn't been heard of before - at least to her. She had been the only one so far she had seen with such a deformity as herself. Inhaling sharply as her slim face turned back to look at Kiyo, Audra attempted to smile gently. Truth be told, it was hard as her body trembled with anticipation and fear. Was there really a cure? Did this other woman have an idea on how to fix it? Even with the crystals coating her lips and ears, the pain felt dull in comparison to her hope of feeling relief. When Kiyo did ask to take a look at her eye, Audra nodded lightly as she closed her good eye briefly. "I haven't allowed anyone to yet, but if you perhaps can help, I won't deny you the chance," her soft voice trembles like her body does as she takes a few steps closer to Kiyo. Tilting her face so that Kiyo could attempt a better look at her face, Audra almost flinched herself. "I have tried to examine it myself, but the surface of the water is not very helpful," she tried to keep the conversation light. Smiling in an awkward fashion, she scooted closer so that she was within inches of the other wolf. A warm sensation of calming scents flowed from their packs, mingling together as her body relaxed. Surely, she wouldn't be in harm's way if she allowed this woman to examine it. "My name is Audra, by the way. I reside within the Hallows, but they are mostly filled with fighters and scouts," Audra admits with an uneasy sigh. Of course, she was more than grateful that Artorias and the Hallows welcomed her with open warms, but how was she to learn if no one was there to help teach her? "If you have any suggestions on what I can do to help my sight, please," the desperation returns now as she closes her lips and prevents any blood to be spilled from her skin. word count: 2530ish/1500