Haunted Wood Plate tectonic

@Hashut Dated: 17/1/20

Turbulent events had shaken the Nightwalkers, but not the woods.
The landscape was ever-changing, yet so stoic.
Like if you dared to question changes, it would wipe you from existence.

She was looking for Venny's corpse. She wanted to know how the child managed to do it. Killing the warlord didn't make her an adult. In fact, she pitied the youth. Having to lead this band of devils who would take her place if they were inclined to do so.

She moved towards the borders, knowing it was where she'd called him from. She could've gone to them, stopped the fire-screamer and calmed the raging buffalo. She should move the body too. It wouldn't look good having the warlord dead on the borders.

Soon, she found the lump of his corpse, bloated and swollen. The soft tissues gone, holes in his flesh already where parasites and scavengers had eaten away at him.
"Guerrero caido."
She looked at it for a while, watching the parasites feeding on his rotting flesh squirm.

He's not my dad so what does it matter? 


The thought circled around his mind while he followed the scent of rot, mixed with Vanity's so Valour expected to see her when he got there. He didn't approach but stared at the hideous thing that reeked even worse than the man had in life. The bugs wriggling in the flesh made his stomach curl and he glanced away swallowing his spit as he edged closer. He  made himself look at the man's face,  looking into his dead eyes that had also begun to be eaten away. He wasnt sure how to feel, he had ended up not caring much about Vengeance except for his power. "Hela wasn't the only one thinking about it. I had plans to challenge and take the woods one day too. " he said in a voice so quiet that it almost sounded like he was whispering to the corpse rather than Vanity. "It's not surprising she did it first though" he mused and looked to her wondering what she would think of the fact that two children had been plotting to murder the warlord behind his back.

The youth came close, speaking to the corpse rather than her she could tell. But the difference between her and Venny was that she was still alive.
Maybe she should've taught him to run faster.
And she could reply.

"It's not. You respected him and wouldn't have been so brash to strike him down in his prime."
He was a good leader. A good man. Maybe Hela shouldn't lead.
One wrong move and Vanity would strike her down. And take her place.
Time would tell if Venny lives on through Serem.

She had to commit to the task at hand before someone found out.
"Tell me how she did it." He must know something, or at least guess how. It would distract her.
The Hispanic took a mouthful of his scruff and started to drag the dead-weight into the borders. There, no one could find him. And he would rest where he'd decided to make home. Vanity herself would take her kin to the mountain. He wasn't her kin.

Valour could have pointed out how he had actually lost the respect he had for their deceased Warlord, that the way he had been treated by the man who was supposed to teach him was the main reason he had in fact been planning to kill Vengeance at his earliest convenience. Instead he just gave Vanity a silent and empty stare watching as she stood to start moving the body. He stood and followed though he made no move to aid in the process of moving the carcass, his ears back as the movement caused the stench to grow stronger. He swallowed a gag down and looked back up surprised as Vanity asked him how Hela had done it. "Her signature is to take out the legs but...I've made note of how if she sees a chance to kill she takes it. She's done it to me too. Vengeance probably made a single mistake and it was the last one" he didn't know much else, especially since it baffled him how Vengeance could be defeated by someone even as good as Hela was. "She's impressive. Hela. What do you think of her?" he asked curiously.

She tried to not breathe in the time she had the rancid flesh in her mouth. The worst thing that could happen in the moment: the flesh she had in her mouth parted ways with the body and she'd have to pick up each chunk that ripped off.

She listened to the boy, methodically moving her legs and doing her best not to retch. If she started, she wouldn't stop.
One mistake and she'd take it. Hela was quick and had the possibility to make rash decisions.
She dropped the body, needing to take a breath and console herself.

"I think it's only a matter of time until she makes her fatal mistake."
She shivered, wrinkling her nose, before again taking up the body to take it the rest of the way. Hopefully the boy would keep talking.

Her struggling went unnoticed except for a moment before she dropped the carcass and sucked a breath Valour wondered if perhaps he should help her as he noticed the lack of breathing she had been doing. Choosing to say nothing about helping move the body or what had been said about Hela's potential future he instead circled closer and began to study the rotted, reeking corpse for real. He eyed the all the places where the rotten flesh was the worst and swallowed down Bile that rose in his throat moving away as she picked the dead man up again. "If she does I want to be there" he said coldly though as the words left his maw they didn't feel entirely correct. Yeah he wanted Hela out of his way and the fact that she had killed Vengeance before he had the chance to pissed him off. Even so there were times when interactions with Hela had him feeling more content than angry and it was those moments that made the idea of killing her feel like something not worth the prize. "At least to see who takes advantage of it" he added too abruptly after the pause, eyes moving away from her because he didn't want to know if she had noticed his slip of composure. Sighing he moved in and grabbed where he could, holding his breath as he did his best to help Vanity move the corpse without breathing in the disgusting stench wafting from it.

Some may wonder why Serem, his Consort, wasn't trying to bury the dethroned. But that was either because there was no love, she didn't care, or didn't think anything untoward would come from a rotting corpse on the borders in the midst of winter.
Either way, it would be only the last reason why Vanity was doing it.
It had been days. Just days and already, even with the frozen winter, he was being eaten.
Did Serem care?

The load became easier with the boys help. He said he hated the man and he was helping to move. Not Serem. Soon with the increased pace, they made it the rest of the way. She dropped the hunk of flesh abruptly and spat out fur and blood that had crept into her mouth, desperately fighting against the urge to retch. The tick wall building in her throat that made her want to.
A few deep, controlled breaths and she could compose herself.

Her attention turned to his words. She'd thought about it. 
"I don't care if you kill her, just be smarter." Because if he wasn't, he'd be her lunch.
She held affection towards both youths but had no favorite.
The Fire-screamer and the Knight.

With a harsh toss of his head he slammed the body to the ground and stood over it licking his teeth clean and spitting out what he could over the corpse. He turned to Vanity and stared at her wondering what went on in the pretty woman's head. Finally she spoke and he didn't reply, stunned by the response. It wasn't support exactly but it was safety, the woman wouldn't go after him if he took the rank of Warlord. He nodded slowly and without looking at the body again turned to head back toward his den to think.