Wild Berry Meadow You're not gonna make it.

The last episode of his Ferryman arc; open to anyone from BFW (tagging @Shisu and @Relmyna and @Kove but don't feel pressured to reply if you don't wanna), but please let @Shardik reply first. Set around the beginning of September.

The dripping sounds and the dampness gave way to dryness again, but not for long. There were intermittent patches of dewy moss and a chilling dampness in the cave system, and at times Mou thought he was walking along the tongue of something ancient. Something that would swallow him up if he wasn't careful. The darkness yawned around him; there was a rushing sound behind a few of the walls which prompted him to increase his pace but it didn't seem like that helped at all either — he was lost, it was still dark, and there was nothing he could do but keep on moving.

However, he was weak. He was so, so weak now. The boy's steps were fleet when they made contact and yet his limbs quaked beneath his dwindling weight. The headaches had stopped in the past few hours and that scared him more than their constant drumming, because that told him that his body was truly giving up. He didn't want to die here in this hollow, so far from the sea and from his family. He didn't want to be caught by the beast either, but the monster was so far from Mou's mind now - any time he thought of Maegi or Undersea, he forgot for a while just what he was running from.

The darkness wasn't so bad, he would reason to himself. It was cold and damp and lonely, but it wasn't so bad.

As he rounded a bend in the stone, there came a jutting segment of pyrite, like a massive tooth set in to a clenched jaw. He tripped and fell swiftly enough, as if the blow was meant to wake him from his dreams and his wanting. His chin hit the dirt, and for a moment there was true stillness where even the wolf did not move. Perhaps he was dead?

But then, his eye slit open. It caught the greylight as the dust settled — and as Mou hoisted himself up, his dry tongue hanging from his face and his entire body slouching. It took him a few minutes to remember what he'd stumbled in to, and he cast a look behind himself to see the slab of stone. He thought it looked sort of pretty, with the way the light caught the surface, making it shimmer —

— the light.

His attention snapped back again, and he realized that the cave was leading towards a narrow band of light up ahead. Light meant an opening. Light meant freedom. Light was life — but then, he heard a roar.

onwards they went, grim shepherd, harried flock. shardik set his hateful eyes ahead, rounding each corner with bristling snarls. half expecting to see the dog that eluded him. half expecting to see nothing but darkness.

gradually the air was changing; shardik inhaled noisily through his fleshy nostrils, a guttural flap somewhere in his loose jowls fluttering. he knew that scent, fresh and clear and clean -- the scent of the overworld above them, chasing away the graft of rot that settled deep in these corridors bones, which stank of fetid and abominable things.

this was shardik's realm -- not the world above, but below -- he blinked slowly, those baleful eyes briefly shuttered. he knew soon the dog would come to whatever pathway the air sprung from, and hope would be born anew in his quarry.

round another bend he went, this time catching sight of the ethereal white of his prey laid flat on the ground. and then his prey rose, and then his prey was running.

he screamed in fury to see mou so close to escape, an abhorrent and offensive roar that shook the walls and sent dirt crumbling. in hysteric strides, shardik thundered towards the blade of stone, shouldered through it in a terrific crack of splintering rock, and then lunged towards that pale shaft of grey light and the cloud-white feist that flew towards it.

I'm giving myself a heart attack with this thread LOL. I'm so scared for Mou omfg. Anyone from BFW can reply at their whim from this point!

It came, that ceaseless bellowing — and he was running as fast as he could, faster than he'd ever run before, tapping in to the last vestiges of energy that filled a parched well. 

It didn't matter what he'd been thinking when he'd been trapped down here — he saw the light, ahead, even a dim thing like that, and while it indicated he had some ways to go he wasn't going to stop. He wasn't going to let up. He wasn't going to die here.

Mou was so intent on being free that he didn't notice the shifting of the cave floor, only the sharpness of the light as he got closer and closer. When he finally felt the warmth of the sunlight touch his face he thought he'd done it — but then there was a steep end to the path. He was blinded and had to shut his eye, and in that mad dash he managed to leap right in to a descending pit.

a spray of gravel and dust erupted around his rounded shoulders, pattering to the ground in tinny clatters that ceaselessly bounded down the slithering caverns. his paws thudded, each impact with stone an insult -- sounding at once like an entire host of armored beasts pounding out the hammer of doom;

boom, boom, boom.

the light grew stronger, larger. an iridescent sliver now a bright swath of grey sheen.

thirty meters, boom. twenty five. boom fifteen. boom --

five.

boom.

and then the concussions ended; a blackened pit opening up as if the fell mouth of a leviathan, jagged stone its teeth and a black, impenetrable void its maw -- shardik felt his paws fall through the ghost of a floor, and the cave air rifle ---

here the beast fell into obscured darkness, as if swallowed whole.

Shisu tended to wander around the territory; she wanted to try and gain a vague grasp on what her new home was like. A lot of times she ended up near the border of the forest, as she tended to simply go in a straight path. Her sense of direction, well, wasn't the best. There were a few instances she wandered too far out of the territory, ending up lost, "oh dear." Not wanting to have it happen again, the silver damsel was about to turn back into the forest, but a rather perticular sound rang in the air. The sound made her jump, she did not know what it was, but she felt her body tense in anxiety.

She had never heard of a bear, and had no idea these noises were a rather angry one. Shisu was, and still is a sheltered wolf who has not seen any dangers, neither of war, battle, or of any other predators. Foolishly, she called out in the thought it was perhaps a wolf in the area, "h-hello? Oh gosh... Anyone, uhm, there?" She didn't know there was a pit, but hesitated going forward in an unknown direction.

As he came tumbling in to the dark, he thought that was it. The void wasn't going to let him go free so easily. It was a split-second of empty floating, then the abrupt crash of his delicate body against the floor. He rolled without thinking, skid, hit the wall adjacent, and was left dazed. There came the thundering applause of his oncoming demise — then a sudden quiet, a deep boom as the creature did the same as himself, body meeting stone.

The world was drifting around him but Mou couldn't stagnate, wouldn't give in. It was pathetic really, this desperation. This need to outrun death as if it were possible to live forever if he just kept on moving.

The pit rose around him like the battlements of a great keep; the light was sharper now, brighter because of his proximity to the cavern's entryway but also painful to observe because of the blow to his head and the way he had become accustomed to the dark. He squinted at the light, yearning for it but also hurt by it.

The light was his salvation.

Before the bear could recover Mou made a mad dash for the lowest section of the pit's wall, rearing up on his hind legs and scrambling with his bloodied, weakend forelimbs for some method of escape. It was then that he heard the voice — different from the booming roar of the creature who had terrorized him for these past few days.  Not familiar exactly, but welcome. A blessed sound.

But he could not respond, save for the fervent scrambling of his claws against the dirt as he tried to climb his way to freedom. I am here! He wished he could shout, Help me help me help me!

shardik is skippable from this point on <3

darkness improbable wrapped its hands around him; he was pulled, sucked tetherless into a widening chasm. the rim was silent, but at some unknown depth a quiet thud sounded and shortly thereafter, an ominous host of dust rose from the mouth of the pit. the dust slunk ever upwards, choking light in a brown cloud of thick, unhealthy sheen.

shardik, felled by the merciless hands of gravity, was stilled.

he did not stir as mou scrabbled above him. he did not stir as earth clattered at his immense head, or loosened stones tumbled around his blonde fir. even the quiet, timid voice of an uncertain stranger did not rouse the great beast from his stupor.

what seemed minutes as mou desperately clambered along the basin passed as mere seconds. it was light - unwelcome, unbidden light - that pried open the leviathan's hateful gaze. he slouched, stunned but conscious -- his eyes fastened on the dim, blurry form of a spectre above. sithis -- his prey -- near escape.

a shrill shriek loosened from his terrible jaws, and in fury shardik leapt up along the embankment. each time his advances were met by the crumbling face of brittle earth and weakened stone -- he beat with brutal claws at the earth, rending it under his insensate might -- yet for all of his struggles, the monster's weight was too great for the rim to bear and he sagged ever downward as if being sucked by a malovent will to his own crypt.

She was not met with silence, but rather simple noises that were unlike someone's voice. Gingerly, Shisu started to go forward, she had this feeling that something was amiss, it gave her great anxiety with each step going forward. She was going beyond the forest territory, and into somewhere she did not know. Though the feeling something was wrong, urged her forward. The strange sounds were something she never heard before, she worried on what it was. 

She jumped again, Shisu worridly glanced around as a cry she never heard of rang out. It sounded like a shriek- not knowing what a bear was, she only assumed it could've been some strange wolf. The fear it was some beast like in lores, but she tried to shake the thought off remembering it was only a lore, they weren't real. The silver wolf could only come to a conclusion some wolf was out there, but where?

Her pace picked up out of fear that whoever was out there needed help. The shriek sounded irregular, that she couldn't tell what it was. Pain? Sadness? Anger? Shisu's paws kept going forward as she kept thinking what it was. Her soft blue gaze eventually came across an error in the terrian, as the grass disappeared into a strange abyss, 'a pit?'

Carefully coming closer, she stood at the edge and peeked in very slowly, almost scared to what she would see, "O-Oh no!"

Her soft blue eyes looked within and saw the wolf desperately scrambling to the side of the pit. Her gaze did not look further, and she seemingly not realized what he stood on. Her priority completely focused on him, Shisu immediately yelled out in surprise, "Oh dear! U-Um, stay there!" not like he'd be able to get somewhere else, "I'll get something to help!"

The silver damsel did not wait for his responds, she immedietly ducked out afterward to search for something to help pull out. A stick, a vine, or even another wolf could help the situation. She cared little to the fact Shisu might not have the strength to pull him out; all she cared about was helping.

hallelujah he's going to live!

It was as if the shadows were taking shape behind him. They were seeping out of their many crevices and filling the pit like the flooding of a river; it was all in his mind but Mou could hear it over the scraping of his claws. It happened quickly. He felt the chill of the shadows reaching for him — and a memory of the sea began to surface — together, the darkness washed over him like a great wave, and then it rolled back like the undulation of the tide as it condensed in to the shape of the bear.

It rose up behind him, ten times its size in reality. Mou's mind was playing tricks, his imagination running rampant as he struggled against the pit's crumbling wall.

The voice again — it grew distant and Mou felt his heart seize within his chest, thinking that he was being abandoned to the darkness and the beast. If he was a little bigger, a little stronger, maybe he could've climbed out without aid — but he was barely there, a ghost so desperate to return to the world of the living. And yet the living had abandoned him.

He had been so afraid throughout this entire ordeal but to have freedom so close, to have it dangled before him and then pulled away, brought tears to his eye and a new desperation to the rest of him.

Vine, stick, or another wolf, anything would work right now. She had no idea who to call- the unfamiliarty of her with her Pack wasn't something she could call to, she didn't know if she could call any of them... Shisu focused on a stick or a vine, preferably something big. Her strength was zilch, so when she did try to drag a log that was twice her size, she clearly had to go with something else. Something sturdy, and long! Her state of mind was rather frantic, as she kept trying to search for the perfect stick to help the gentlemen in the pit with, "oh gosh."

"Ah." When the agouti damsel did find it, she quickly rushed back with the stick in maw. It was as long as her tail, and thick enough where she felt it wouldn't break. For a moment she actually struggled to run with it back to the pit, but forced her unused muscles to continue forward. She would rather sacrifice sourness in her jaw then to let someone be stuck down there. She couldn't fathom how he felt... Her mood dampened being alone in the black hooded forest known as Blackfeather Woods, but being alone in a pit must feel even worse. Shisu's desire to help him strengthened even more.

Shisu tapped the stick against the edge, as she dipped her head inside the abyss. Surely he should be able to reach it, but she worried more if she had enough strength to actually drag another out, or even the other way around... She had no idea how long he's been in there, he could've fallen today, or days before. Her soft eyes looked at him desperately, hoping he'd grab onto the stick she presented.

The light was blurred. He tasted his tears at the corner of his mouth, dribbling across his cheek and making it slick. The craze of his attempted self-rescue streaked that line of wetness with dirt, setting the tear in to the white of his face with a tone similar to old rust. The ground was rich with clay here, he would realize later. It was hard-packed but otherwise not suited for climbing.

Then, a javelin struck the air above his head.

He scrambled for it without thinking, riding the wall with windmilling steps and reaching with his black-tipped snout — snapping and missing, snapping and missing, until finally his teeth were set in the mass. In the next moment he was floating, he was flying, moving so quickly — the boy might've been the size of an adult but he was nothing too, merely bones connected with tired sinew.

Mou felt the pit's edge with his elbows. He felt his chest connect, his hind paws catch, as he was pulled free of the darkness. The forest was all around them both but the boy didn't see it — he was on his belly, then slouching to his side, blinking furiously in the violent light.

Shisu pulled as soon as she felt the weight on the other end. It felt almost too easy, like it was a young one at the end. She couldn't believe she could actually pull someone out, until she saw his form. He was like a ghost, she almost dropped the stick in surprise, but kept going forward until he would completely come out of the whole. Though she kept her sight on him, looking at the numerous scars, and the faint coloring on his ghost-white pelt, 'oh my...' What has he gone through?

She panted slightly after successfully bringing him up, and dropped to a sitting position. Shisu waited a few moments to catch her breath before nervously speaking up, "Uhm... Are, you okay?"

He sucked in breath after breath, and the feeling of his terror didn't entirely abate but the adrenaline began to slowly ebb, enough to allow him a moment of unfettered calm before he rolled over again. As he did this, his body shuddered. He felt the sharp sensation of bruises forming. The hunger in him — for food and for life, for the safety that his rescuer represented.

She spoke, and he listened mostly because he was physically present and could not avoid it. Then he tried to stand up and, well, that wasn't destined to work out all that well — everything quaked, from his legs to his spine and back again, and he fell against her with a trembling weakness reserved for those that were new to the universe.

Perhaps he was new. Perhaps he had died and his body  lay within the earth, forever entombed, and the pit merely spit out what little soul was left.

She held a nervous smile during the moments of silence. There was no responds from the stranger, she presumed it was due to him being weak. She felt worried; should she call someone? should she get a Pack member? should she look for someone that was with him? However Shisu did not want to leave him in this state, he looked weakened, broken, overall like a walking corpse. She felt saddened for him.

"O-oh my." She whisped out as the ghostly pale wolf rocked onto her. Surprisingly enough she was able to stay up, but felt her insides shake from this anxious situation. Her heart pounded, but she dare not move. The thought to push him off never crossed the silver dame's thought, instead she gently put her soft head beside him and whispered, "it's okay... It's okay..."

She remembered just like how her mother used to do when she was afraid or injured. Her mother's sweet whispers brought nostalgic feelings to Shisu, she could feel her eyes warm from the crystals that started to pool. The memory of her mother, and scene of this pitiful wolf brought harm to her delicate soul. She could only whisper sweet memories from long ago, "it's okay... I'm here."