Blackfoot Forest Otherside

This one is also open to anyone in the pack! Still probably within that 2-4 days of being discovered.

--

She was dreaming that dream again.

They skittered with legs too long and picked at the slickness of his tongue as they rallied from the pitch black of his throat. She wanted to scream but could look only at him and his summoning of the damned...it was not until a single insect fell that she could scarcely look away from the yellow lamps of his eyes. But look away she did, her averted glance a trigger of some sort that made gossamer wings snap open while the horde took flight and she was deafened by the rising tide of her ascension.

Wake up, Em. Wake up.
 
"You loved me once," he spoke. His words were far too tender for the horrors that spilled from his maw. Their bodies, some trapped in the gleam of his teeth, broke apart and stuck in the corners of his mouth. "Once," he said again. Bitterness. She felt it in the stinging accusations behind his rising tone.

I swear if you don't wake up he's going to scream and all that fury is going to rise and all of hell will rise with him and then you KNOW what's going to happen you know so why can't you just -
 
"ONCE!"

WAKE UP!
 
She jerked and gathered her feet as fast as she could in order to stagger off toward the bushes outside. There her tender sides heaved and she discarded a frothing nothingness into the foliage; the act of vomiting on an empty stomach was as dissatisfying as it was uncomfortable. She moaned, trying to keep the volume down for the sake of privacy, and leaned her unmarred shoulder heavily on a tree bordering her small mess of bile.
 
"Never," she said with venomous ferocity to herself as she shook her head to try and clear the vapors of her nightmare from her distracted mind.

she was not keen on having yet another mouth to feed, even if it was a relative of their leader. another mouth required more hunting, and the land already held so little for them; no wonder their numbers had begun to dwindle. hosannah was eager to investigate this woman despite the rejection she had presented upon finding her - such kindness had been extended to this stranger, a kindness that aaron had once bestowed upon herself, and perhaps that similarity bothered her the most - but hosannah was not pleased. it was not her place to decide what the leaders did, but she would not let this foreign woman out of her sight; the priestess was determined to keep tabs upon her, tend to her if that kept up appearances, but in the long run she was determined to separate this hungry belly from the rest.

so once the woman had been tended to and sequestered for sleep, hosannah prowled. she found no herbs with which to aid the stranger (but did not look too hard in the dark corners of the forest), and was returning empty-handed to where she slept, when she heard it. a rustle, a gurgling as if someone was being choked, and a hissed word - and from the dark hosannah slunk, eerily silent, watchful, her hungry eyes deviating from the woman's features to the warm pile of sick that soaked the forest floor. hosannah did not get too close, but it was easy enough to see her red-furred figure among the naked trees, glowing like an altar candle.

Of all the wolves under Aaron's command one in particular stood apart from the rest. When Emily needed escorting she was there. When she needed medicine she was there. She was always there...though never so close that they could become acquainted. No. She lingered in the outskirts of the she wolf's senses, hidden and yet accessible, and for a brief period of time Emily wondered if perhaps the petite girl has a crush on her.
 
This changed quickly after the thought took root. The 'there but not there' stalking easily tweaked the starved girl's frayed nerves and she found herself soon disliking the very scent of the Eta upon the springtime breeze. But that was okay because she figured the little russet snake didn't much favor her either. Hosannah looked upon her with the same eyes of the many women whose lovers Em herself had stolen, if only for a brief moment, and against that tide of disproval the Odolf Princess was well prepared to stand firm. Hosannah didn't like her? That was fine.
 
She righted herself and stared boldly into the dried husk of foliage where her attendant was lurking. "Can't a lady have a moment to puke in private?" she called with a voice lowed by the thickening of her throat.

having been admonished by the bulk of the pack for her words, hosannah did not know what to expect from the lot of them if they learned of her frequent visits to the newcomer. she sulked out of their reach for the most part, and came around when there were no others to watch over the pale waif; that, and she kept tabs on who else frequented the area. as long as someone was there to keep an eye on aaron's darling sister, hosannah was happy. in these moments though, it was hosannah who was left alone with her — and she had been noticed. i bothered her little.

when the pale woman spoke, hosannah turned her head away in the manner of a bored feline, breathing in the sweet smell of sick upon the airway, and squinted her eyes. this white woman was no threat to her. perhaps the sickness she carried was dire, perhaps it was contagious - but hosannah believed her lord would protect her. raas would not let his devoted priestess falter now, of all moments. one ear pivoted regardless, listening, but she did not initially respond.

hosannah was not worried about the integrity of the person. her fears were placed upon the impurity in their body, in their mind, and she worried about all the resources that would go towards fixing them. she knew of aaron's kindness as it had been extended to herself, and she knew he would expend an even greater amount of energy to make sure a relative survived this awful situation. no, it was not emily that was disliked, but her circumstances.

the red woman lifted herself from her position and pranced a crescent around where the pale woman rested, and then soundlessly reclined among the shadows of some trees. the copse wrought jagged patches of darkness across hosannah's face, and as she turned her golden eyes upon the stranger, they flashed dangerously. how long have you been ill? she questioned, her tone oddly bland, and she waited impatiently for an answer.

Her shoulder was still a bit too stiff to bother trailing the red wolf as she stalked momentarily out of view; the arrogance of her status was clear in the way she followed Hosannah's movements only with the backward tilt of her ears. "How long have you been ill?" 
 
She mulled over the knee-jerk sarcasm that tingled at the tip of her tongue before deciding that joking about sickness, especially in a place such as this, would likely turn the odds against her. Presently it was time to speak the truth and only the truth; terms and conditions applied in the sly lilts of her tones. "Ever since I woke from a terrible nightmare," she answered with a wry curl of her lips. "Or...10 minutes ago. My stomach has no tolerance for the things dancing around in my head." She snorted and turned her head to finally stare directly at the scarlet she wolf. "I'm fine now," she spoke. "Thanks for asking."
 
Scattered as her brains were there was something gnawing at the back of Emily's thoughts: the curious stalker-like behavior that had kept Hosannah near and yet persistently out of sight. Not out of mind though.
 
"The world's a bit barren for you to be ostracizing yourself," came the blunt observation. Emily was not a wolf that pulled words in order to spare feelings. She'd noticed Hosannah's lingering distance from the group and wondered if it was due to the scolding she'd received from Aaron upon his sister's entry into the territory. "Are you worried about what they'll say if they find you here alone with me?" 

she did not recieve the answer she had anticipated. the woman spoke of the here and now, but hosannah's mind had been upon the past. whatever had led the pale woman away from her previous life, whatever had struck her so strangely as to corrupt her eternal soul, these were the details hosannah sought. she chuffed softly to herself when she heard the given answer, and could not resist the sensation of her ears falling back across her head in slick formation when the white woman thanked her. it was not kindness which brought the question. hosannah desired knowledge, and with that knowledge she would judge if this newcomer was worth saving - as aaron so desperately, stupidly wished - or if hosannah was meant to purge her from this life by order of her lord.

there was time, though. hosannah would study her - in the guise of caring for her - and the truth would reveal itself. are you worried - the woman was speaking and hosannah, caught by her unending thoughts of holy things, almost didn't hear her. -about what they'll say if they find you here alone with me?

to this the woman smiled, assuming an expression of pleasant calm. hardly, she drawled as she turned her head, peering upon the girl's white hide as if she were a lamb meant for sacrifice. i am adept with herbs, and my time spent with the healer of the pack would confirm this. in other words, should she be caught, hosannah had an explanation. she drifted closer with a few quick steps, hugging the trees, and her round eyes glowed fervently through the dark. from where did you come? the woman intoned curiously.

She reasoned with herself that a well-studied medic could be a blessing or a curse; surely Hosannah knew as much about herbs that would heal as she did herbs that would hurt. Emily's spidey-sense was tingling and the eyed the she wolf with a touch more caution than before...surmising that it would not bode well to make quick enemies with the nurse.
 
Where did she come from? "From hell I think," she bounced back with a hard little hiss lodged in the back of her throat. "He led me there and I followed him...until he was no longer himself and then I crawled my way out of there and found myself here." She'd never been stronger than she'd been in those final moments; when the dying crows of a madman fell upon the back of her neck like a wet blanket. She did not break then...and she would not break now.
 
"I will not tolerate treachery in the reign of my brother," came a fair warning. Em's steadfast temperament was returning; it was thanks to utter ambiguity of the other's intent. "But until such foolishness is seen," she continued, "I don't see why we can't at least establish familiarity with one another. I'm Emily. Who are you?"

hell. there were many terms for it, although calling the place by its name outright like that urged hosannah to pause, at least momentarily. her eyes flinched at the sound of it, narrowing with brief hostility, but her features softened considerably as she listened to the woman's tale. if she had indeed come from hell - and her description of the fiends within were accurate - then she was not as corrupted as hosannah had initially believed. surely she had a purity of spirit. at least enough sanctity to ease her passage from one realm to the next? perhaps this was a test from raas, and the holiest of messengers had been brought unto hosannah for safe-keeping? she had too many questions, and so fell silent with them, muting herself before she could expound her faith before this woman.

when next she spoke, she changed the topic: no longer focusing on answering, but rather, telling, and hosannah listened with rapt interest. the red woman had no desire to thwart aaron's reign, nor to come between himself and his sister. hosannah's duty was to her god first and her alpha last, though. should the daystar give her the order, she would do whatever was necessary.

for now that meant playing nice.

hosannah, she drawled as casually as she could, although her tone was mildly dimmed by a subtle awe, as she was still recovering from the mention of the demon realm. she could not let it fade from the conversation so soon — was it the plague? the locusts, they swept through this place within a day or so, and i imagine the world is entirely stripped by now. she assumed this outsider - emily - had been affected by this. perhaps that led to the madness in the man she spoke of. a light went off inside her mind, and she abruptly added: you were led astray by a demon, surely. and in to the open arms of destruction. yes she was here, alive and well, as if protected by something divine.

"They came from the moon," she began with an awed inflection trailing on the fringe of her voice. "Though they did not stay for a mere day...maybe it wouldn't have been so bad then. They came with the moon and brought it's darkness with them; we thought surely they would move...that they would grow tired-"   She broke off as she caught her voice rising with hysteria.
 
One. Two. Her eyes shut and she counted with a slow, steadying breath through her nose. "Five days," she said quietly. "Five full days where the sun and the moon looked the same because we stumbled in their shadows and choked on their fury. He called it the Exodus." Whatever that meant. "And he wasn't a demon...not at first. Not until we got tangled up in that spider's web in the long night. He was kind and just and everything I'd been looking for but," and her she gave her head an irritated toss, "I suppose those things I'm looking for aren't everlasting."
 
Marcus had been so damn excited about the anomaly. They'd heard rumors, varying degrees of madness recollected in tales of refugees, but until they'd seen that black edge blipping out the very shine of the stars they hadn't quite believed in it.
 
"There's never going to be anything like it!" he cried out in that geekish way that made her toes tingle. A retort came...laced with the blasé lilt of a teenage girl. "Like what?" She'd been a bit jealous. Wasn't she supposed to be the thing that there was nothing like in the world?
 
But all that jealousy was satiated when his eyes DID finally turn to her in that black night beneath the locusts' shadows. "You can look at them all you'd like!" she'd begged as her stumbling feet crunched on a bed of bugs. "Just don't - don't look at me with those eyes!" But he couldn't hear her. Marcus, or at least the thing that bore his name, would never hear her again.
 
"He was the devil himself in the end though," she murmured quietly as her cheek turned to brush against the scabbed wound of her shoulder.

it was a strange tale, but she listened. the moon had never played a part in her faith, even to oppose the sun, but now with this knowledge granted to her, hosannah looked to the sky and briefly traced its faint outline against the blue of summer. her ears stayed pivoted towards emily as she spoke, and gradually hosannah's gaze drifted back to match.

he was the devil himself in the end though, the woman spoke with a somber inflection, and as she turned her head hosannah turned her own, and looked upon her with more care than before. the rose-wolves were lucky then. lucky that no such taint had spread throughout their own ranks, to cause anyone to lose themselves to demons and to sin in such a way. she thought of gotham then. of the body that lay broken somewhere.

the ghosted memory of his blood on her tongue, of his cheek-meat between her teeth, made her lick her lips. whether it was due to the story and her frayed nerves or her great hunger, she could not tell. perhaps in time they would all succumb to the madness of demons — at least she had her lord to keep her safe.

then it is fortunate you found us, she finally responded, her mind a mess of complications. after a beat she turned her worried gaze away from emily and watched the sky again, as if the darkness of the swarm would return at any moment. her voice rose again, this time a touch louder so that she wouldn't have to move: or perhaps you carry his corruption with you. the woman stiffened a bit at this thought once she had voiced it, and had she a tail, it would have tucked against her haunch.

"Mmm," she noted in unarticulated agreement when her good fortune was brought to light. Those last few minutes before her discovery had certainly been the beginning of the end for the young Odolf. She'd won the war but lost the battle so to speak...though it was lucky that the cavalry arrived when it did. With the Rosing's intervention she was bound to prosper and, given enough time, return to her natural state of being.
 
She followed Hosannah's eyes to the sky and surmised that the anxiousness of the other's gaze was due to a pending peek of wings back upon the horizon. "They will not come," she said dismissively. "I would not have continued to walk among them...I was going in the opposite direction." Hell was to her back and limbo was to her front; it was obvious which of the two she preferred.     
 
But toward the comment of her potential hosting of the plagues terrors she raised one brow and grinned despite herself. "Then I would hope you're as strong as I was to endure it," she spoke in return.

fade with your post? :D this was fun

it should not have chilled her so much to hear the woman's words, but those words shot through her like ice. for a brief moment the summer heat did not affect her. her gaze never left the pale and distant moon, and waited until the feeling passed before she returned to the earth with her thoughts.

i have endured many things, hosannah's voice carried despite her facing away from emily, and i imagine i will endure much more, given time. here she turned her ignited gaze upon the white woman once more; she thought of enlightening the poor woman of the meal she had made of her husband, of the sweetness of his flesh. it was not the union she had anticipated from their marriage, but it rooted gotham to her in a manner that made her skin crawl and stomach churn. 

in the end she said nothing of it — turning instead for the shadows in order to whisk herself out of emily's company. she would linger close, but her interest in conversation had waned.

Yes indeed we'll have to thread again ^_^

--

Her advice had been made haphazardly and possibly in poor taste. Em's emotions bordered on guilt as she caught a touch of flustered dismay in the other's scent...she parted her lips as though to apologize but in the end swallowed the peace offering with the rise of her company's voice. So bad mojo has happened here, she surmised with a hefty reminder not to speak so freely in a place where she knew not the history. But before much more could be made of the moment Hosannah turned and slipped into the dried up foliage with a clear indication that their time together was finished; the she wolf sighed with a sudden sense of being entirely worn out. She turned herself then to hobble back into the den...determined not to let the nightmares of Marcus keep her from precious sleep.