Jade Fern Grove valar dohaeris

This is meant to take place some ambiguous amount of time after this.

Tapping @Skaigona and @Ezra for reference, especially because I made some assumptions (that I would be happy to tweak as needed!).

This is for @Sobeille, if you want it, and anybody else who’s feeling perilous! On that note...

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: suicide.

Druid left Rivenwood through the western arches, numbly splashing across the river into the neighboring grove. She paused there to catch her breath and gather her bearings. When something brushed her ear, she whirled with a snarl and a snap. She snatched the butterfly out of midair, destroying its wings, then spat out its broken body with a splutter of horror.

Forward she went, looking now for the place. Her heart hammered in her chest, almost as intensely as her brain hammered against her skull. Druid thought she found the spot where she’d buried her insurance policy, though she soon realized she wasn’t in the right place. She pushed her nose through the dirt.

Finally, she unearthed it, red peeking through the soil. Druid planned to immediately stuff everything in her mouth, though she froze. Her vision grew dim at the edges as she stared at the garish colors in her shaking paw. Once she swallowed them, she would be past the point of no return. She would be a dead woman walking.

You already are, she reminded herself, then shoved everything in her mouth all at once.

Still chewing, she stumbled back toward the water. She slumped down on the bank, muzzle dipping toward the surface. It felt like forever before she could swallow. Druid tried to wash it down with a drink, though the instant her tongue touched the water, she screamed and sprang backward as if she’d licked a live wire.