Verdigris Ravine Revenant

Candle was learning. This time she brought @Zoug one of the pale rats, but there was something else on her mind. Saw woman, She managed clumsily, abruptly stopping short as she realized she had no way to describe the woman or what she had been doing.

Dark magic, Candle still believed.

She did not think Zoug would recognize it, but nonetheless scratched into the dirt the old symbol for evil things. Her sisters would have known it. But they were not here, and Candle suddenly felt very lonely.

since the ceremony, zoug had grown more confident in his abilities.

candle was near him often, and so she saw more details of the man than the others.

he grunted when she brought him a meal, and stared intently at her marking.

"what woman?" he communicated back to her, glancing into her eyes with his single-sided gaze.

The way he studied it, Candle almost thought he knew what it meant. Hope stirred in her even as she paused in search of a way to describe her with the words she knew. Light woman, She settled on after a moment.

Candle wished she had the words to tell him of the danger, or to tell him of her own past as a priestess. Zoug was like her in some way, and she had known this ever since tasting the strange drink he'd offered all of The Tribe, but how could she convey it?

light woman.

zoug was contemplative.

"bad woman?" he asked, trying to make sense of what he felt was trepidation emanating from her.

She let her paw hover over the markings in the dirt for a moment. Bad, Candle echoed, and then rose, beckoning for Zoug to follow.

The vine; it was connected somehow, she knew it was, and so she would take him to it. It was hidden somewhere, tucked away by the woman she'd seen, and she didn't know what that meant. When she found the spot, Candle shoved her muzzle into the dirt without hesitation, ignorant to plants; ignorant to the fact that what she finally grasped after a few moments, that darkly-flowered vine, was poison. Some of it was crushed between her teeth as she yanked it from its place, unearthing much more of it than she had anticipated. Candle dropped it with a gasp, and stepped back.

normally, zoug led and candle followed. it was unlike her to be so insistent, so naturally the man skulked behind her in thorough interest.

what she revealed provoked and enthralled zoug, and frightened him also.

he sniffed pointedly at the vines and then stepped away. "does s'ari know what you have found?" he gestured, grunting the title of the one who led them.

Candle grimaced at the bitter taste of the plant, tongue swiping over her muzzle several times to banish it from her mouth. Yet it lingered and burned, and the priestess was unsettled. She too stepped away from the vines.

When Zoug asked if S'ari knew, she shrugged. Again she carved into the dirt the symbol for evil. Bad, She told him, pointing to the symbol and then to the vines. Dark magic.

And there was only one thing to be done for it.

She began to dig furiously, making a deep hole in the ground to deposit the vines. Whether Zoug aided her in the effort or not, Candle moved without waiting to push the vines into the hole. She covered them quickly and began to mark the dirt around them in intricate runes of protection; a ward.

Finally she lifted a foreleg to her mouth and tore a wound into her own flesh, scattering blood over the symbols. The ward would be bound to her, to her life-force. In this way Candle meant to protect The Tribe.

But she was afraid; unsure that she was strong enough for this burden. Candle had always been the least among her sisters. How could she hope now to step into the role of protector?

bad.

with his large paws he assisted in their removal. though he did not fully understand, zoug saw the tension in the lines of her body.

but when she bit her own flesh, he grunted in consternation, and when she spilled it on the ground, his guard hairs rose.

still he did not move to stop candle.

this was only a magick he did not understand, and he would not come back to this place.

Zoug's unease halted her; she looked up at him, surprised that he was not comfortable or familiar with such practices. Priestess, Candle explained quietly, one of the few words which had been forced upon her again and again at the House until she could utter it without stammering.

She stepped back from her work and studied it in silence for a moment. Then she looked up, taken by a sudden urge to voice her full title. Candle had told no one, not even S'ari.

Candle... She began, voice tremulous but unbroken. It was an effort for her to speak even these words so familiar to her. The Candlekeeper. Watcher of the Eternal Flame.

candle spoke.

his single eye widened, for she had never said so many words before. he could not hope to know half of them, a string of syllables he could not say.

but he heard their importance.

he saw her struggle.

zoug nodded once, slowly. important. spirit-woman. that much candle had conveyed. "hurt?" he asked, of the burden one of them must shoulder at all times.

Fading so we can have an updated one <3

Zoug seemed to understand. Candle crept closer to him, tucking her head against his flank. S-so - ometi- mes, Her answer, when it finally came, was soft. She went quiet after that.

But she stayed by Zoug's side for some time after, taking comfort in their kinship. They were so different, but they were the same, too. She'd never thought she would find that in a coyote not of the House.