Ravensblood Forest you're by my side, but are you still with me?

@Merrick <3

the trio of them (traveling in three, to astara's dismay) had left neverwinter, making slow progress north. astara shared no love for the crone that led them now; more than once the blistering heat of her gaze was set to caiaphas' spine, in rightful fury.

he was hers, and never once would she let the witch forget it. astara had more trust for leaping in a shark's mouth, than all the trust she had for caiaphas. she watched merrick possessively, often staring -- her sharp eyes passing from crone to boy as they conversed in that blasphemous tongue that spitefully eluded her.

she, the constant shadow, was left behind in these soft-spoken meetings -- having never spoken, given there was little use for it.

and now there was a use -- that bitch was going to steal her boy, her man, her merrick. an ugly hatefulness grew in astara as jealousy overtook her. it lingered in her stare, in the sneering purse of her lips. it emanated from her heart, as corrupt and as foul as rot.

it overtook her senses like mold; growing dark and insidious and fast -- until all her thoughts were a network of woven paranoia she could no longer keep at bay.

he would grow tired of her and think this woman better, astara was sure of it. he would leave her, finding favor in a woman that could converse when she could not; astara's heart fell and then roared, her blood pounding -- suddenly she found herself coursing after her beloved, envisioning darkly the horrible things she would do if she found him intimate with that hateful witch.