Phoenix Maplewood No more need for the old empire

He moved. Masquerade leaped away, nearly slipping and falling again. Caked with blood, every fur on their body nevertheless raised as Atreus let out an ursine groan and dragged himself toward the stream. Their jaw hung open, their eyes fixing on the trail of blood and viscera pouring out of him.

And then he tumbled into the water and began to drift. Belatedly, the Caru realized he was going to take any answers to his watery grave. They jumped in after him, trying to bite at any part of Atreus’s bobbing body they could reach. But he was too heavy. They had no choice but to let go and watch as he floated downstream a ways and then sank out of sight.

Masque stood in the shallows for a long time, trying to process what had happened. They waded out onto the bank and saw that the blood had washed away. There was still a great smear of it leading up to the water’s edge, the fetid smell still lingering.

They walked back upstream to get away from the scene, only to pause and linger for another indeterminable amount of time. In the end, Masquerade still had no answers regarding Avicus and so they did the only thing that made sense to them: they resumed their search.