Falls of the Hinterlands [NaWOWriMo] Sirens come calling It won't be long Until you're running
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All Welcome 
Your toon encounters a supernatural creature. A new take on Sirens! Perhaps @Phex?

The haunting voices had started off harmless but nonetheless entrancing. First it was his mother's voice singing to him her made up lullabies, her voice drifting in and out like honeyed vapor amongst the Misty forest. He blinked away the sleep in his eyes and stood up, careful not to disturb Phex. It picked up again, so close his mouth opened to call for her "Mom!" his shouts came out silently, lost to anyone but himself as the fog drowned it out. He stumbled after the already fading lullaby and before he knew it was wandering away from the Shadewood, the haunting voices wrapping their invisible vines around his mind. 


Next came the sounds of crackling wood, the fog turned to smoke that choked him. Coughing he followed the cries and screams of his home, hearing his father shouting his name, begging for help. "I'm coming!" he shouted, voice ragged from smoke. The silence that met his desperate reply was heart breaking and he screamed with agony, knowing he would arrive far too late once more and all would be lost. He quickened his pace, a glazed look in his eyes that to others would signal he was lost inside his mind. 


Then came the laughter, the throaty feminine giggling of a love who had betrayed him. She teased him and he could feel how close she was. "Ailova...you wretch" he growled and then closed his eyes, a shiver running down his spine as he almost felt the responding laughter brushing against him in a sultry manner. He groaned and wandered forward until his paws touched the edges of water, the cold shocking him out of his trance. The roaring of the falls startled him and he jumped back until all at once the voices screamed at him, a mixture of accusations and pleas for help and beckoning flirtations causing him to sink to the ground. "Go away! Leave me be, I was at peace till now!" he shouted and in all the voices of those he had loved a reply came "The pain will stop as soon as you beg for us to end it" he whimpered and writhed on the ground, a mixture of physical and emotional torment driving him mad.
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Meets a supernatural creatures - the same sirens.

Wraen was awoken by the sound of her parents' voices. They were talking about something, laughing and joking. Much like she remembered from her childhood and she reveled in this memory for a while, believing it to be a vivid reminiscence, nothing more. 

But it did not stop or fade, and finally driven by her own curiousity, she got up and went out to see, where was the source. She was prefectly aware that both Dante and Osprey were walking the Elysian Fields together, they could not be here for real. But the voices tried to convince her otherwise. 

So, she followed them for a while, then they changed to something different. There were accusing notes, sneering and harsh words that made her heart sink and stop in her tracks. Again she knew that they could not be real, never had any of her family members even used such expressions, even during the most heated arguments, and yet there was this tiny seed of doubt, what if... what if they thought these things about her. 

She moved on, working hard to shut the voices out of her head and almost succeeded, when all of a sudden she had entered a realm that definitely did not belong to her. While the voices Laroche heard felt very real to him, Wraen heard dim and muffled echoes of them. However, his desperate voice, when he pleaded with the invisible force to leave him be, was clear cut and perceptible. 

She soon found the whimpering and trembling man, still fighting with the clamour of sounds. "Hey, can I help you in any way?" she asked him, gently touching his shoulder, worry in her eyes.
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They taunted, they teased, they tortured him but he didn't give in. He refused to do so, he absolutely would not be so weak. He could tell they grew frustrated with him as their cruel words and the agonized screams became worse, they became more realistic, more believable. He put his forelegs over his ears, trying to muffle the sounds but it did nothing to muffle his own thoughts. 

If he hadnt taken so long, his mother and father would be fine.


If he hadn't trusted that wretched when of a woman he wouldn't be such a twisted mess...


And then the voices stopped. There was a moment of silence before one voice broke it, a sharp cry of pain, a plea for help, sobbing, the cry of his name. His eyes flew wide open and he choked out her name "Phex?" she couldn't have followed him here could she? He resumed his position on the floor trying to ignore the cries of his mate knowing if she were here he would have smelled her. It was another stretch of time and he almost said yes, almost said they could take him before someone nudged him. He leaped up and instinctively bared his teeth before seeing it was a stranger, one who offered help. He looked at the water and then back, eyes dull and empty "If you could distract me so i can focus" he got cut off by a particularly desperate wave of Phex's cries and he cringed, ears going back "I do believe they want me to drown myself" he whispered.
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Wraen sprang back to avoid a possible aggressive outburst, when the man awoke from his frozen state. She tilted her head to the side and eyed him inquisitively, listening to, what he was saying, and hearing the voices in the background. Some were screaming, but for her it felt like it came from far away. Now and then she would turn to look around, when she thought she heard a familiar tune, but never finding a solid proof of the source, she ignored it. 

"Who is after you?" Wraen asked. "There is no one around here."
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His eyes flew wide as she asked who it was as if she couldn't hear them. He took a shaky breath and looked around, wondering if he had finally gone mad "The voices. You don't hear?" he asked shaking visibly. He swallowed thickly and pushed himself to his paws ears flattened as he stared back at the water "Its in my head" he murmured and then remembered the stranger was there "I hate to ask such a strange thing but please trail behind me so I don't jump in" could he sound any crazier? The voices grew more frantic as if his words encouraged them to try harder. He growled and shook his head trying to ignore them.
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"There is some talking, now that you mention it," Wraen agreed, pausing to focus on the source-less sounds around her and for a moment she could hear her mother's voice clearly. Her eyes grew wide, she held her breath and there was a sudden strong urge to obey her summons, to find, where she was hiding. But the reason was stronger - Osprey was dead and there was no possible way for her to be here, now. 

She shook her head and turned her attention to the man. "If they are the voices of your head only, they are pretty loud," she joked, feeling somewhat awkward doing this. Because it was clear that the mystical force had a way more potent power over the guy than herself. "Jump in?" she furrowed her brow. "But - why? The voices - they are not real," she offered, but there was some doubt in her words. What did she really know?
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He could tell the moment she heard it though by her reaction it was something different. He didn't know her, he had never seen her around so she couldn't know his parents or his mate, nor his ex lover. It distracted him enough that for a moment he tuned out the voices and it was then his head cleared. By the time she joked with him and asked why he would jump in the falls he realised that while they were real they weren't natural and absolutely not who they pretended to be. "I may not be right in the head but I'm not that nuts. Definitely not having auditory hallucinations, those voices are something i don't want to hang around for" he said back to his normal self. He swept his gaze around feeling watched and shook his fur "I think its best i head off" he said looking to her.
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Either Wraen had misunderstood him or - on the contrary - leaving on his own was, what he had implied, she bristled and countered: "Well, now that you have warned me about a possibility of cliff-diving, I will tag along. Do not want to have your soul on my conscience."

She walked with him in silence, watching him warily and listening to the voices that were still speaking, laughing, singing and alluring around them. You do know that I never really liked you... Someone said, mimicking Maia's voice perfectly, but Wraen brushed this off easily. Just like a reflection is not a real, so did this near-perfect impersonation remained just that. It lacked something important.

You are worthless. What good are you with your head in the clouds, always? You do not belong here. A different (or the same creature) tried it's luck at being Sarah. Been on that road, already. Wraen replied, smiling. I do not believe you. If it is true, I do not care. After this everything around her became quiet - she looked over at the fellow she was supposed to guard, whether he was doing better. 

"I never learned your name, by the way," Wraen said to distract him, in case he needed that. "I am Wraen."

[And she did not get any further than that, because Maia kicked her in the sleep and Wraen woke up in the middle of the night with echoes of the voices still resonating in her head.]

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