Set after Jinx eventually wanders out of OS, but before she encounters Ptarmigan.
The mad female had lost her way back to her territory. It was for the best, a lucid little voice in her head said. She was following the winding trail of a rainbow on the ground, her eyes trained on it, even though only she could see it. Around her, wolverines frolicked and followed, led by the spectral one. She had long resigned to the belief that that wolverine would guide her to the underworld, but her spirit could never be released. She was stuck in this tortured body, unable to so much as swallow without feeling her whole body heave, with no escape.
It was her punishment, she knew. Jinx had lost sight of Sos in the midst of her power and glory, and He was punishing her now. She knew this, but of course, only the part of her locked inside could acknowledge it. The rest of her was a stumbling beast that hacked up foam and wandered with errant motion, unseeing and consumed with hallucinations and fear. It was a wonder that as she travelled, she didn't fall into the river that rushed beside her.
Saēna was perched at the edge of the plateau, staring down at the river that had taken Junior away that fateful day a few weeks ago. She was no longer permitted to go down near it, yet she was inexorably pulled toward it... Like a moth to a flame. The danger presented itself and yet she ignored the possibility of consequence, at least in her own mind. But the child was obedient, and therefore she remained within the boundaries of her home, even though she was reluctant to go any closer to the territory's heart.
That is... Until a pale shape appeared along the river's edge, getting very close to where the plateau sloped down to the riverlands. Knowing that her father was injured and knowing that Junior was no longer able to be the Warrior, Saēna swallowed thickly, look around herself, and then began to pick her way down to the river.
The other wolf had a number of worrying signs, and a sickly sweet smell help the patched pup at bay... But there was also a river between them, and she knew she could run if needbe. As though to catch the other wolf's attention, she chuffed lightly, standing rigidly and awaiting any sign of trouble. “Are you okay?” she asked, noting the way the monster drooled on herself and wondering if she should call Blue Willow for help.
But she had yelled at Blue recently and was too ashamed to show her face to the Alpha female, and so she buried that idea as quickly as it sprung up.
She should have recognized the plateau up ahead, but she didn't. She could hardly remember those who lived there—the devil dog, Hawkeye, and Kisu were all but fragmented memories. They came up in her lucid moments, but while Jinx was wild and unpredictable, they were names she would not have known from Joe or Bob.
No, she didn't recognize the plateau... But when something small, white, and uniquely marked called to her from across the water, something in her memory triggered. Something small and seemingly insignificant, but then, it hadn't been to her. It had been a frenemy to end all frenemies. “P... iiee?” she croaked, turning her head to wretch foam on the ground. No, Pied hadn't looked like that... Or had she?
“What?” Saēna queried, though she flinched back when the monster across the river began to heave and shake. A splatter of bubbles hit the ground at the other wolf's feet, and the pup grimaced, lashing her tail in a clear sign of discomfort. She had barely heard what the ill wolf had said, but it had been something along the lines of pie... Which she definitely had never heard of before.
“I'm sorry, I don't know what that is,” she squeaked, taking a step back toward the plateau's path as the monster turned a sharp gaze on her. The other's eyes were a smoldering orange-red, but they were glazed with misunderstanding and, the youth noticed with a pang in her chest, something that could only be sadness. She had seen that same look in her family's eyes whenever Junior was brought up.
She began to pant as the other stepped away, her hackles lifting and falling uncertainly. The world seemed to be tumbling before her eyes, but she fought not to succumb to fear and anxiety. She coughed deep in her throat, closed her eyes, and shivered as her balance began to shift. All the while, she listened to "Pied", straining to hear and comprehend.
The other didn't seem to know who she was, though. When Jinx reopened her eyes, she nearly lost her footing at how bright the world was. Her vision finally focused back on Saēna and, having taken another look, she realized it wasn't Pied. But the female looked very similar... Enough that the Kesuk, in one brief moment of thought, came up with a single memory from her time in Horizon Ridge.
“N... na... ame?” she croaked, gagging with every laboured letter.
Saēna's lips closed into a thin line that signalled her worry and doubt. The monster across the river didn't seem to be any easier to understand now than she had been before, even though now it was saying things that were less nonsensical. The Redleaf-DiSarinno youth got a strong sense of foreboding from the stranger, but as she didn't have the word for what she was feeling, she remained rooted to the spot. One move on the monster's part would send her skittering back up the plateau's side, but there was morbid curiosity there, as well.
“Saēna,” she said strongly, conjuring every last scrap of defiance into that one word. Whoever this monster was or had been, Saēna saw no threat in her so long as she was across the river. Even knowing her name could not harm her, at least in her mind. She knew nothing of witches and warlocks who could use names to cast curses and spells, but somehow, she wasn't fearful.
A wicked smile curved Jinx's spittle-stained lips when the child spoke. Although imagined bats were whizzing around her head and the crackling sound in her ears was louder than ever, sending shivers up her spine and making her skittish, she smiled, but it was eerie and wrong. This became apparent when she began to cast around herself and fidget on the spot, jerking as though she was going to cross the river, and then leaping back as though she was afraid of it. She could see the pup shrinking back into the shadow of the plateau, but the fear in her eyes seemed to transfix the Plateau wolf (little did she know it was just fascination).
“Yooou,” she said in a broken, cracking voice, lifting herself higher on her feet and swaying unsteadily. Jinx had a memory of that name, that specific name, spoken to the tune of sea lions barking. She didn't recall much about it, having had her mind infiltrated and broken down into insanity by the neurovirus already, but she remembered the most important thing.
“Atka,” she said pleadingly, twisting back her ears and falling prone to the ground in fearful worship, shaking and sputtering and coughing through foamy lips. “At... ka. Save... M-m-me...”
The monster stood higher, shaking more violently and even seeming to take a step forward for every shifting step back. Saēna shrunk back toward the plateau, putting a little more distance between herself and the sick wolf. Jinx was saying things that made no sense to her, and she was beginning to feel urgent alarum rather than morbid fascination. Ears shifted uncertainly on her head, yet she still remained there near the river, locked in a battle between her interest and her fear.
“I don't know what you're talking 'bout,” she squeaked tremulously, lashing her tail agitatedly and letting her hair prickle to show her discomfort. She jerked back when Jinx threw herself to the ground, moaning to be saved, and at this point Saēna grew tired of it. She slowly backed away, then turned and quickly and choppily began to climb the path back up to her home, looking back over her shoulder only to make sure the infected beast wasn't following her.
The avatar of Atka, the very prophesied child of Pied's womb who would carry the Mother within her, turned from Jinx and beat a hasty retreat. The mad dog flung herself at the ground, beating her snout against the floor until she tasted blood. She dragged herself to the water, shakily forcing herself to drink from it, but she could only manage a few pitiful laps before her throat constricted painfully and expelled it all.
She would die in a matter of days, and her Goddess had forsaken her. “Nooo,” Jinx screamed in a rattling, haunting cry that would send the retreating Saēna's hairs standing straight up her back. The addled beast continued to beat her face on the ground, jerking and losing control of her muscles as panic and rabid terror overwhelmed her, all the while wheezing out pleas for Atka to save her.
Eventually, she would lose herself to the hallucinations again and begin to drunkenly weave her way back toward Ouroboros Spine, though she would remember none of the scenery that she passed by. It was like going somewhere entirely new, accompanied by grinning, toothsome dolphins that leapt from the grass as she walked by and snapped at her ears, driving her insane.