Barrow Fields my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly

✹☾❂

 

The last time Eleuthera had been in these fields, @Kincaid had told her of the witch who had read his future in his whiskeydark eyes. 

It was really all she thought about as she returned nearly a month later, this time alone. Her mother had believed she could scry the future from the stars. This witch, from eyes. Scarab had believed the future lay in the mouths of the dead. Were any of these hypotheses anything even close to right, or were they just the murmurings of different various madmen? Who could really tell the future, after all? 

I mean, who could have foretold all this rain? Eleuthera was convinced that in the entire history of the planet’s meteorological events, nothing like this had ever happened before. Weeks upon weeks of rain? Eleuthera was a logical and discerning creature, and she understood the cycles of nature to a certain degree, but this defied all logic. Defied all sense of happiness and enjoyment, too.

Perhaps Eleuthera came to the fields hoping that she might find her own witch. One who could read her future — or at least give her a story to believe in. With the vestiges of Elysium all around her, she was well in the mood to believe in anything. everything. nothing, at all.

yoo hoo, @Yunxu :)

for my own timeline sanity ill slide this in closer to this date if thats ok? but tbf yunxu's timeline is already a mess 8)

he was too afraid to stop.

the day bled into night. darkness gathered over him, and his entire leg had locked up, forcing him to walk slowly and with painful stiffness, but he kept moving. stopping risked the leviathan catching up to him.

more than that, stopping risked him remembering exactly what had happened on that cliff, in more vivid detail than colorless flashes of teeth and crumbling earth.

the coast led him through thick seaside woods, along a drop perhaps even more inadvisable than the last. when he peered over the edge – too curious to do anything but, despite it all – the only thing beneath was jagged rocks and seaspray. then through rolling green fields, pockmarked with odd mounds that made the fur on the back of his neck prickle despite his fur being nearly cemented to his skin with blood and water and salt.

and the rain didn’t stop. it came heavier, it came lighter, but the horizon was permanently masked in a veil of grey.

he concentrated on keeping his breath even, staring intently at the ground. he’d passed the point of too exhausted to keep looking over his shoulder a long time ago; now it was just a steady march, his thoughts completely disconnected from the mechanical motions of his body.

✹☾❂

 

She noticed the man as soon as he entered her field of vision. He looked sickly — hurt. Limping along hurriedly. Faster than any wolf in his condition should be traveling. Almost immediately, Eleuthera felt uneasy and moved her head from side to side in big sweeping motions, searching for an assailant — or really, any sign or indication that she needed to get out of there, fast. Things with the Saints had been quiet recently, but it didn’t mean another infraction was impossible. 

Eleuthera really didn’t see any other creature in hot pursuit, and her better nature could not leave a wounded animal alone. She was no healer, but she was close to her home where healers lived, if one needed to be called upon. If this man were to die, well, then at least he wouldn’t have to die alone and in fear. Either way, Eleuthera felt it was now upon her destined shoulders to intercept him.

“Hey, wait!” she called out, taking off in a sprint, not wanting to surprise him with any amount of stealth. “You’re hurt!" As if he didn’t know.

yunxu had not tried to be quiet. he knows this, and it has seemed like the least of his worries, fleeing. if anyone from the cliff came after him, they would find the scent of his blood immediately; he can smell it now, heavy and metallic.

he doesn't hide either, though that's no means a product of bravery. simply a lack of skill.

the people he is expecting will come from the cliff, or they will come from the coast. he's not expecting them to come from the field. the scream startles him; he snaps around, less like a shark than its injured prey. his muzzle wrinkles to bare his teeth, tail tucking against his legs as his ears slide back, but the pain grounds him, enough to hold in the fear one wrong move away from sending him after this stranger as well.

breathing heavily, yunxu stares at her. it could be rain or exhaustion that makes her swim in front of his eyes, like a fish beneath the water.

✹☾❂

 

Not surprisingly, the injured male didn’t react well to being happened upon and pursued by another vagrant wolf, no matter how diminutive her form might be in the near-constant rain. He flashed his teeth and unleashed a snarl, and Eleuthera furled back, as if she had happened upon an adder which threatened to strike — and she had. The lilac woman knew she must tread carefully.

“I can help you," she beseeched him, a sodden damsel in the deluge. She no longer approached him, rather she shied away from him, but her heart of hearts called out to this injured and lost creature. This man, so afraid. Eleuthera would leave no wolf alone and afraid, not while the bones of her mothers lay in the ethereal lands, just over yonder.

yunxu stares at her for a long moment before his mind catches up. then he flinches away and sets his lips back over his teeth. his sides heave with the weight of his breath, but in the aftermath everything clears. it's just him in the rain, and this smoky brown-black woman who doesn't at all smell of the sea. she isn't nearly large enough to be the one who jumped from the cliff.

part of him insists he keep moving, tugs at his limbs. aimi is waiting at the bay – and oh, she will not be pleased to see this. he holds back a wince. inland, huāzhēn. but no matter the nervous suspicion that rises at anyone not of his family approaching him, he remains where he stands.

"my sister waiting up the coast." his voice cracks, rubbed raw from salt and the echo of the long moments spent with a snarl on his lips. she might not be one of them, but she's just as much a foreigner as they are. "you not know me. why you want to help?"