Fire Eyes

DARWIN

His grin was halfway a smile

HOW

D A R E

YOU

LEAVE ME H E R E!

The furious S N A R L of echoed frenzy that would never be heard. Lost, trapped in a mind that barely recalled its own name.

Darkness dreams nightmares freedom H U N G E R an ACHE in bones set in stone. The scent of it there just beyond nares of rock, vibrations that bled around a form trapped and unaware. Locked within stasis for so LONG no portrayal of time could be applied to it.

A prison set beneath the roil and thunder of scarlet liquid just beneath the falls. A corkscrew horn twisted and melded with igneous rock protruding from the bed of the river, hardly seen through the glaze of red unless one knew what they were looking at. Erosion over time revealing it just enough. Its point sharpened like a blade that curved backward instead of forward, one that sank into the dark depths and into rock like a fossil.

A second horn barely discerned on the shore itself. Splintered, broken just before its backward curve, it could be assumed that it was a less perfect twin of the first. Its true color unknown, coated in deep grey rock to match the rest of the cavern floor.

And, oh, the L U S T for blood. The want of it a tyrant, a frenzied cataclysm that offered no relief. Even asleep, even paralyzed by time and fate, it ruled the Ancient's thoughts. Galvanized into the very core of DARWIN. The build of volcanic gasses and pressure against stone, pushing, pushing, the gradual spread of power that would not enter the world gently but with VIOLENCE.

No knowledge of what was happening in the world. No way to know it, only knew blood and hunger, only understood the natural laws of what it meant to be a predator. The goddess Dygra a constant whisper, a presence never shied from or resented. The only source of chaotic calm Darwin would always turn to.

The cavern itself seemed gentle as compared to the feral rage that howled without sound so close to its surface. The warm trickle of blood, the constant, white-noise rush of the falls. The soft lull of liquid that reverberated against the enclosed stone caverns. So easy for one to enter and believe how alone they were.To never know what slumbered directly under their feet.

Halfway a threat

MAEA

There were no lilies here. Sighing, Maea wiped sticky blood off her hands and pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes with the back of her hand. She could feel it smear onto her forehead, and sighed again; she would need a bath after this. The plain shift was not so clean anymore either. After wading through the river with crimson up to her knees it was more red than white and the hem dragged heavily after her as she sloshed her way back towards the bank. Motes of fire danced around her, casting her shadow wide across the rough cavern walls and offering just enough light to see by. Perhaps that should be something to consider, when she searched the next cavern. Rae's lilies might be enchanted enough to grow without light, but she felt like there ought to be some, at least. And fresh water. Whatever managed to grow in here... would probably be dedicated to Dygra, not Rae.

She was scrabbling her way up the steep bank when a sharp pain stabbed into the bare sole of her foot. Dropping to hands and knees she felt the skin break against jagged stones and let out a low whimper in agony. Her foot - whatever she had stepped on was still in her foot, sharp and painful. Sucking in breath through gritted teeth she gingerly sat up, feeding the fire with a breath of magic so she could see what the hell she had stepped on. And more importantly, to see so that she could get it out of her sole.

Fortunately for her, it was only a rock. A very sharp, jagged, protruding rock, that slipped clean out of her flesh as she raised the foot with both hands. Cradling her foot to examine it more closely, as she guided the flames around, a peculiar shadow made it look like there was a face in the rock. A snarling, fanged, too perfect looking face. Huh, strange. Blinking, she looked again. And again. Thoroughly distracted from her pain as the details in the stone surface became easier for her eyes to pick up, Maea's mouth fell open when she realized what she'd stumbled upon. A statue, a person, an Ancient trapped in stone, just like she had been only a year prior.

Shifting around so she could see them better, the expression on the face - male, she thought, or something adjacent - made her shudder. She should... free them, right? But what if this was one of the cruel lords Danta had told her about? What if they regained their senses only to wreak havoc on the world? More importantly, what if they hurt anyone she cared about?

Ah, but what if it was someone just like her?

Biting her cheek, she picked up that jagged piece of rock, still red from her own blood, and tried to chip at the stone surrounding the statue. It came away easily enough, crumbling like sandstone or shale at her touch; it took a long time to free even half of them. Even longer before she could pry off a final layer of stone, to reveal the entire figure. The rage on the face remained unsettling. Deciding that it might be best not to stay too close to this person when they woke up, she dug her hands in beneath rocky shoulder and rockier hip, and heaved them over and into the blood, thick and warm and abundant; if that wasn't enough to wake 'em up, nothing would word.

And then Maea scrambled off out of arm's reach, into a shallow alcove in the cavern wall. Extinguishing the flame she hoped to remain undetected, prayed that she wasn't making a terrible mistake here... forgetting, alas, that her black velvet dress still lay on the shore beside her shoes, betraying the presence of someone there in the darkness.

Bleeding out for you

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

His Grin Was Halfway A Smile

That first heat of blood. Not even the taste of it but the FEEL of it. Comforting, deeply warm, fire all its own. Primordial HUNGER seeping through the stone of stasis. Peeling it away slowly at first and then faster. Chunks tumbling down the river of red. Pale skin revealed little by little, smooth and pristine. Unmarred and unmarked, as though the fires themselves had burned them away during creation.

A form barely discerned beneath the tides of red, heat and blood caused the first movements since the day of imprisonment. Digits stretched, each one extended slowly. Muscles ached, felt wobbly and heavy. Everything was PAIN and TOO MUCH. Overwhelming sensation, a breath drawn in not of air but of BLOOD.

Choking. Gagging. A body lurching upward, just enough in a seated position to breathe in air. And then a B I T E at the surface of the flowing river that bled, maw open to slurp at it, to gulp it down. Famished, the senseless feral kind where no thought was present. And yet still, no matter how much was swallowed and gorged upon, there was no lifting of that ancient beat of

K I L L

Weak. A struggle to rise from knees to feet. Falling once, twice. Swept down the river a short ways. Clawing for the bank for the purchase of anything, BITING even with fangs that flashed in the firelight. Those horns that swept backward above his head shining ruby-like, drenched and dripping with blood that dribbled and spattered across cheeks and throat. No clothes to speak of, pulled apart and scraped away across time and this sudden, unexpected freedom.

A forearm finally found solid purchase and PULLED. Dragged the rest of that slender, flawless body forward, upward over the stone. Cutting skin open, blood mixing with that of the stream unnoticed because there was only

K I L L

Shaky legs, lungs still choking on blood. Breathless. A carnivore's senses could scent blood DIFFERENT from anywhere else, noted the dress there, all in black with nobody in it. Still, the shape of a person was there, enough to trigger a reaction of the most vicious sort.

A LUNGE, a POUNCE upon the dress, greedily biting tearing ripping ANNIHILATING until only flutters of cloth darkness remained.

Halfway A Threat

D A R W I N

MAEA

There was a lot of sloshing and splashing going on in the dark. With her breath caught in the throat Maea listened to what sounded like a battle against gravity, slurping, coughing, hissing breaths that made her grateful for the dark alcove and the decision to hide.

The tearing of cloth sent shudders down her spine. Imagining what could have happened had she lingered on the bank to help this person up did not bear thinking. The mindless savagery, blind hunger - gods, what a nightmare she had set loose upon the world. Anything and anyone was in danger while this bloodlust raged. She was in danger.

She had to do something.

Thinking furiously, eventually the only thing she could come up with was to lead the ancient off, out of this cave and into another where there was something around to hunt. Her stomach swarmed with razor winged moths as she quietly, gently eased herself out of the crag... and let a pale gasp of flame light up over her head, to illuminate her pale, blood-stained form.

Only a moment she lingered, long enough to ensure that she had been seen. Then her delicate form shimmered and changed, twisting into a gore crow's wings and deadly beak, only her plumage was pale too, white as bone, white as the moon; and with a haunting caw it darted off across the cavern, in the direction of the far exit.

Bleeding out for you

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Darwin

H U N G ER

D E V O U R

Darwin only knew KILL. Hunger a famished, mindless need. No blood to be tasted on that cloth, no flesh torn between teeth. Only cloth, strips of it shredded and pulled until barely string was left. Fluttering like obsidian snow all around him, BLOOD ever constant in flared nares. So close, so much, it could be tasted. And yet that bloodlust never ceased, didn't calm.

Grew WORSE.


A flicker of motion behind torchlight. Just enough of a glimpse to know something was THERE. There was no time between the sight, the sound, and Darwin's movement. A lunge in that direction even as the flutter of wings replaced it. Bare feet unflinching against rocks and sharp stone, only one thing there in the Ancient's mind:

E A T

The pale shade of wings was enough, kept the Ancient's attention. Pupils expanded due to the low light, long legs extended their stride. Arms pumped or stretched ahead or sideways so that digits could grip stone and PULL, jaws open wide. Fangs eerily visible, spears of bone with bits of black cloth still attached to them, snapping, biting even though there was nothing there to feast upon. Snarls rising, deep within the chest of the monster. Horns scraped against the side of the cavern, a sound like stone cutting stone.

Each breath the huff of HUNGER, Darwin's focus upon BLOOD so mighty there was no true sense of direction. Only the attempt to get closer, to launch and REACH, trying to snatch the white crow from the air despite that she was far too high.

D E V O U R

table base by Skylark

MAEA

The crow left a trail of blood in its wake, dripping from a gash in one foot. It ducked and swerved around stalagmites and rock formations in blind faith that her memory would be reliable. As the thrum and rush of the blood fall grew fainter, a dull red light grew somewhere ahead of her. A tunnel exited out of the cavern, riddled with lava flows that caused the air to shimmer with heat.

More importantly, that path led to the surface. Winding serpentine bends angled up and up, sometimes so narrow that she could feel the draft of the clawlike hands swiping after her tail feathers. The sounds this creature made - it would haunt her nightmares for decades to come. There was no time to breathe, to think, no leeway to slow down or catch her bearings,  because the moment she did Maea knew that she would die. 

Beating her wings with terrified determination, the moment she caught sight of graying light the crow put on a burst of speed. Shooting out into the night beyond the tunnel, she sped high into the air, far out of reach - but rather than take off, she began to circle, watching the landscape for a sign of movement. There was always something edible in the Climb, and she was perfectly willing to let something else take her place at the dining table.

Perhaps some of those sheep she had found together with Danta?

Glancing down to make sure that her new companion was keeping up, Maea veered off and began to follow a long ridge, up to higher elevation like those she'd seen those black sheep before.

Bleeding out for you

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Darwin

H U N G ER

Each stride delayed by her BLOOD. At once dropping to all fours where it was scented. Pridelessly devoured what little there was off the stone in her wake. Like following a trail of breadcrumbs, mindless. Only in the moment and nowhere else, bloodlust a possession that would not be shaken until it had its fill.

Some gaps too narrow to fit through, and so another way was found. These tunnels vastly unknown, only BLOOD and the smell of it providing a set goal. Go where there is blood. Follow its smell, devour it when you can. Tiny puddles slurped up in taut fingers curved like claws. Running, running. Bounding forward in whatever way was possible. Delays in motion, a body needing to pause and turn and twist to slide through narrowed crevices.

And then there was freedom.

Into the open air, cooler, even slightly, than the depths of the crimson falls.

An abrupt halt. Bare feet skiing across the hard, sharp-edge surface as golden eyes searched for the crow. Or ANYTHING that moved. Anything alive that would offer a KILL.

Movement, then, on high. Circling above, the same white crow that had led a deadly chase through tunne;s and into the open. And then it was off again, darting too high to catch… for now. A calculating gleam in bloodthirsty eyes, seeking the advantage a constant for this predator. Crocodile-like, viciously intelligent.

Up the ridge the crow went, and the Ancient was sure to follow. No hesitation, climbing where possible. Slow and weak for now, so HUNGRY, muscles already aching from eternal stillness to sudden motion. And yet hunger forced the body onward, would not, could not, let it stop. No time for rest, no opportunity to sleep when the ONLY important thing now was

FOOD

More than once there were slips, slides. A snarling bellow down below, FRUSTRATION as the crow remained well beyond reach and only offered the smallest patters and droplets of blood. All of which were now ignored. Honed on the small creature with even greater focus, higher and higher Darwin climbed. Nares flared wide as the top of the ridge was reached.

And the pace went from slow and stumbling to a chaotic jog, another snarl tearing thunder-like toward the white crow.

D E V O U R

table base by Skylark

MAEA

If his gaze was on her, then her eyes was on the horizon. Safe up high where nothing could touch her, a calculating pace was set so that her white wings would not inadvertently take her so far and fast away that the creature below couldn't follow. She thought of it as a creature, by now. There was no semblance of intelligent thought in the haunting cries that echoed against rock and cliff-face, only hunger. A craving so ravenous and single-minded that it gave her chills. It was... sad, really. To be left so hungry, so blinded by need - she thought of what had been done to the Maverick, and wanted to weep at the cruelty he'd had to endure.

It was alright, though. She wasn't going to lead this poor soul on much longer. From her elevated position, she could see them now. Dark specks grazing on the other side of this ridge, their woolly bodies insulated against the heat; pyrina. Wild sheep, and plenty of them; even in his clumsy, thoughtless frenzy, even the creature stumbling along in her wake should be able to snag one. And she would help him, as best she was able. Then, once he'd sated his hunger, she'd be able to find out what kind of being it was that she had unleashed.

Diving low over the feral man's head, Maea let out a caw of encouragement, only to swoop out of reach again. This time she led him up the slope, along the best path she could find; over the ridge, and down again to the other side. And then she took off, straight towards the flock where she began to circle over their heads, cawing and distracting them from the wrath that would soon be set upon them.

Bleeding out for you

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3