pick yourself up

Having spent almost all of his time at the Dusk Light while being in the Grounds, despite all the valuable knowledge he'd been learning from Danta's staff, Ever found himself in need of a break from the dim red lighting, the heavy perfumed air, and the eyes constantly roving over him. Where he might normally have taken to the streets as a canine, even that form would like have attracted too much attention—and gods if someone threw a ball for him, he'd be helpless to resist—and so it was in a body not well-suited at all for the cold that Ever prowled out of the inner quarter and outward where he might find some wild game.

Though he wasn't an ancient, the kind of predator that he was possessed a not dissimilar interest in hunting, such that no sooner was he away from the city, than his mind was entirely focused on what sorts of prey might be around. No great scent-predator was he, Everest relied on his rational mind to aid in his search. Conveniently perhaps, he found the tracks of what seemed to be quite a large dog, though based on its pacing and stride length, he thought it likely was a wolf. With a flick of his tail, the darkly glowing feline slunk forward, tracking the canine as quietly as he could despite the way his pelt glowed as if he too were void-touched.

Which, in a way, he was.

everest

"If I could fly I would never come back", you said

It was not so easy to just pick up and leave as she wished. Over the weeks and months, this place had slowly turned back into a home. The winding rivers, the rolling hills, the deep forests and wild coast - it was nothing like she remembered it, and yet so enchantingly familiar that it took her breath away. Halfway to the port to catch a ship away from the galling reminders that she'd gained things too valuable to lose, she tossed her pack behind a rock by the roadside and took to the sky. Gore crows didn't cry, and out here there was no one around to hear the way she screamed her rage and pain against an uncaring sky. Fuck her. Fuck him. Fuck everyone, and herself too.
It wasn't that she cared about losing her job. She'd taken whatever was offered. It was how she'd done her best, and what she thought was right, and still fucked everything up. Again. Again. Again.

Careening across the sky, flying as fast as she could until a burn that wasn't anger started up in her muscles. Unwittingly she had come a long way into the brambles, and by the time she had calmed enough to take note of her surroundings, there was only snow-clad forest for miles in every direction. On the ground, half-covered by bushes and trees, something dark was moving through the gloam. Something that gleamed, in a hue she'd come to associate with void-fuckery.

Narrowing her beady sapphire eyes, the crow dipped a wing into the wind and circled slowly downward to follow the creature. On closer inspection it looked like nothing she'd ever seen in these parts before - though it vaguely sparked a recollection of a young companion whose bonded she'd rather not think about at all - and that only raised her suspicion further. Either it was an attuned, or it was trouble. Possibly both.

And fuck her, but whether employed by his highness the shitlord of the Grounds or not, Maea wasn't going to let Void roam freely. Not on her watch. She began to follow it from above, like the opportunistic bird she was supposed to be.

Maea

Carefully placing one paw in front of the other such that his tracks covered those of the creature he was hunting, Everest slunk forward with relative ease despite the snow. It was nothing he was used to, and while it didn't slide away the way that sand did, trudging through it required a lot of the same muscles and dexterity that walking on the beaches did such that he didn't find it too terribly difficult.

Pausing at one point at the sound of a snapping branch, the jaguar's ears twitch slightly. He'd not be able to rely on being able to ambush whatever was ahead for much longer, and though he might give up whatever advantage he currently had, Everest decided it was worth the cost.

With long leaping strides, the jaguar bolted forward, only to find that indeed he had absolutely alerted the wolf to his presence. Still, he was larger, and so long as it wasn't a fellow attuned in the body of the creature, likely smarter as well.

Behind the wolf, a few bumbling void-tangleweeds rolled lazily from the underbrush, before tottering toward the canine as if trying to help Everest by forcing it back toward him.

everest

"If I could fly I would never come back", you said

So far she had not drawn attention to herself. Whether because she was actually as stealthy as she thought or because the black creature below had not considered looking up was a moot point. More important was the clear view she was getting over the situation. For a moment she started doubting her own understanding of what was going on. Was it not just a simple hunt? Ballsy, for one single  feline - no matter how big - to take on a wolf, especially given the lack of proof that there was only one of them around, but hardly suspicious.

A thrill of excitement grasped her when the glowwy animal shot forward. Beating her own wings faster to keep up, from above she had a good vantage point and could see the wolf, the way it started running off - and then the strangest fucking thing started unfolding below. Since when did Void Tangleweeds hunt in packs? Why were they not going after the black cat, too? Something strange was definitely going on here and she didn't like it one bit.

Tucking her wings closer to the body, the gore crow dove in a sweeping arch towards the debacle. Letting out a raucous sound that may have sounded something like 'meat!' or 'food!', she tried to swipe at one of the void infested garbage piles with razor sharp talons. Between the wolf, the cat and the turds, she didn't have a hard time deciding who to mess with.

Maea

Pinning its ears back and snarling a warning, the wolf bristled defensively as the void tangleweeds edged closer behind it. Parting his own jaw to hiss back, Everest lowered his head and yowled a low warning before slinking forward and then lunging out at the canine.

Sentient though the tangleweeds were, they weren't the smartest creatures out there, even void touch as they were. Shaking several tentacles at the gore crow, should Maea strike one of the creature's she'd find a rather unpleasant numbness spreading out across her little body. Prolonged contact would have her vision growing hazy and violet such that the world would be overlayed with a horrific tableau of black void energy writhing over every surface.

everest

MAEA

Wide awake in bed, words in my brain
"Secretly you love this, do you even wanna go free?"

She did indeed set her talons into a shadowy vine, and promptly wished she hadn't. The numbness made it harder to control her wings and made flying a precarious thing indeed; after a second swipe she was forced to land, and shifted back to herself with nightmarish visions encroaching on her sight.

Reaching inward for a spark of fire was perhaps not the wisest thing she'd ever done. But only one person had ever accused her of wisdom lately and Maea had been quite offended, so it should come as no surprise that she chose to lash out a blast of white-hot flame towards the Tangleweeds. The yowling panther was given a sharp-toothed hiss over a shoulder, as if that would make it take off. There was just a lot of creatures to pay attention to at the moment, and with dread coiling through her thoughts like purple haze, her thinking was far from sound.

Let me in the ring
I'll show you what that big word means

Base by Skylark, Art by Midjourney

Caring little for the sudden appearance of the ancient but for the wolf in his jaws, the panther closed its teeth around the canine's throat even as it snarled and struggled to get away. Everest was not normally the most aggressive of hunters, but just now with blood suddenly singing to his tastebuds, he found himself almost feverishly enjoying being a predator.

Shifted as she was, the Void touched tangleweeds seemed even more interested in Maea. Rolling haphazardly in her direction, they waved limbs that might have been wooden tentacles in her direction as if they might scoop her up against their bodies and entangle her completely.

everest

MAEA

Wide awake in bed, words in my brain
"Secretly you love this, do you even wanna go free?"

Shadows reached for her. Not the calming, comforting dark of Dygra, but a denser, purple-edged absence of light that had her shuddering and snarling in defiance. A thought had fire blooming in her hands; if the foul Tangleweeds wanted to grab her they would burn for it.

Magic sang in her veins. Feeding the flames with it until her hands were enveloped by bluish white conflagration, she hurled them at the monsters with a snarling outcry of sheer vehemence. It felt good to have a target. Something to take out her frustration and rage on, that had it coming for daring to appear before her when by rights they shouldn't even exist. Not in this region. Not in this world.

With the jaguar temporarily forgotten, her focus bent solely to the problem before her. At least for now.

Let me in the ring
I'll show you what that big word means

Base by Skylark, Art by Midjourney