Blackfeather Woods beware the darkness that will swallow the dawn

for @Wildfire :) SO sorry it took so long. is it cool to assume that wifi's leg is broken for this?

 

The whisper of a visitor in their midst finally caught his ear, and he could think of nothing else. The one before had been boring, insufficient to his needs. She had submitted too easily to the shadows of the dark forest and to the mind games of those within. Perhaps this time, he thought more than readily, their unfortunate victim would have a little more backbone, for it was more fun when there were more bones to break. Litte did he know that something beyond his power, beyond any ability he had ever encountered was destined to shape the course of his life, in a matter of moments. It is was merely fated that as he steps to enter the sanction where their new blood lies already broken, that should he be engulfed in darkness, an unfathomable cosmic anomaly and to his astound. He staggers back, eyes cast to the darkness illuminated by one ring of heavenly fire, a symbol of eternity. It is a sign, he is convinced, the second message he has received from their Gods on his path to find higher greatness. It is likely that this will not be the last.


"Well, well, well,"


The chill of his tone is enough to send a ripple down his own spine, a voice unrecognizable to his own ears as if embodied by a being other than Vaati Clavicus Melonii. "And who might you be?" His words, cunningly tempered, are not to be mistaken for empathy but curiosity as he enters the cavern and draws near the woman; Clavicus lacks any caring characteristic in his personality to save the captive from whatever pain he was bound to inflict upon her. He was simply not a man capable of shedding a tear for the sake of a stranger, but one that would readily pretend that he did. A snake in sheep's clothing is he, and a simple look upon the girl spoke only of one thing: opportunity, offering. He is blessed, he knows, and hence the acts that he commits under the sign of the God's is too. But he lingers in the shadows, paws settled upon the skulls engraved under the dirt floor, watching the other from a post she cannot yet see. There is something satisfying about it, like watching mouse struggle free from Vaati's hold of its tail underneath his paw; the desperation in others that he finds so impeccably amusing. It is this very sadistic outlook on the struggle of others that will lift him high in life to sit upon a throne built from other's suffering. The one the currently gazes his sylph-like eyes upon would be one of many in the years to come, building a legacy that is one to be feared and adored.

As agreed upon in Disco, this is prior to her injury. :)

When a new face appeared at the cave's mouth, Wildfire was dazed but still aware enough to instinctively stiffen. She watched as a pale figure walked toward her, his aquamarine eyes lustrous in the dim lighting. This wolf followed the same trope as the others before him; he loomed ominously and spoke like the villain in a campy horror film.

She made no reply, mostly because she wasn't all there at the moment. She couldn't even quite remember her name and she spent so long trying to concentrate that she forgot about the question—and the wolf who had posed it—in the first place.

Seconds, minutes go by without a single sound from the woman who looks up, staring blankly at his figure in the dark. He had not anticipated this, thinking that his dramatized entrance would have uttered something audible from her mouth. Perhaps not. But the silence did not carry on for much longer. A low, guttural snarl develops in his vocal chords, expressing rather tamely his frustration with her inability to answer his question. He demands it more roughly this time, running out of patience. "What is your name? Answer!" He doesn't consider the possibility of memory loss just yet, many before had used it as a mechanism to counteract to the reality of their captive state. The technique nearly always folded in the past once the subject was pushed far enough. and he ignores the utterly confused state she seems to be holding, for otherwise, simply being forgetful would not have saved her from his intentions.

A loud, echoing snarl startled her. She jumped like a frightened cat, her red fur puffing up all over her body. She turned an owlish stare upon the white wolf looming over her looking decidedly fearsome. Wildfire gulped audibly (not unlike a cartoon character) and weakly withered to the floor. Her mouth was dry as a dessert as she unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth to answer him.

"Wild..." she began when an alarm bell started ringing dully in the back of her mind, warning her against giving these terrible wolves any kind of information. She swallowed and said the the first random word that popped into her head: "Violet."

You're welcome to PP. :)

short post sorry!

Eventually, he gets a reaction out of her as she flinches noticeably at his tone. He jots this down in his mental notes of what makes strangers fear him, among the many other classifications on how to appear more dangerous than he, in reality, is.

Vaati narrows his eyes. "Alright, Wild Violet," He hesitates, unsure if that is truly her real name, but that doesn't concern him at the moment. "Where do you come from?" It is rather important he knows exactly from where their captive hails, and who might be looking for her if anyone was at all. She had been well-kept prior to her captivity, indicating she could not have roamed as a lone wolf when she was taken. If she had, he doubts she would have lasted as long as she has.

A violent shiver passed through her when he spoke again, demanding more answers from her. "I do-don't—" Wildfire began to say, only to stop short when a word surfaced from the murk of her mind and flashed, bright as lightning. "Drageda," she breathed, only to jolt when she realized she'd said that out loud.

But she ignored the warning bells. "They'll... come... for... me..." she insisted in a low, slow voice, blinking multiple times between each word as she struggled to concentrate. But it was really no use. Within a moment or two of revealing this information, her brain had sunk back into the muddy depths of oblivion and she found herself staring dumbly at the nasty-looking stranger.

Drageda. What a curious name. It is certainly nothing he had heard before, nor a place he has visited. She must have come a long way for him not to recall the name, and he wonders how great a distance lies between point A and point B, and where she had initially been taken. What had she been doing upon her kidnapping, and why had she come so far? Who would be looking for her while she faded away into the deepest corners of the skulled cave, and when would they come, if they ever did? He wants to know more about her, but she slips in and out of conscious state faster than he can formulate the right questions. "What makes you think they have not forgotten you already? You have spent weeks within the shadows withering away, who is to say they will rescue you before you turn to nothingness," Vaati shrugs nonchalantly, lacking the empathy to comprehend her pain. He has always been that way, desensitized to even the smallest amount of remorse, not even for his mother. It is something that he could not have changed about himself, rather a biological grain of what it meant to be him with no cure to its cause. He knows the likelihood of her recalling his words is minimal, and contemplates leaving a physical reminder than one she would sooner forget. He drags a claw against the underside of her check, not with enough pressure to draw blood but enough to instill some realization of the fate she was meant to face.

She stared for a bit before her eyes dropped and she suddenly took notice of a lump of meat nearby. Without thinking, she pounced atop it and began tearing it into bite-sized chunks and swallowing them. She forgot entirely about the other wolf until he spoke again, causing her to jump and scramble backward to crouch against the far wall.

His face and voice both terrified her and Wildfire trembled when he traced a claw threateningly along her cheekbone. "St-st—" she weakly protested, though she wasn't able to get even one entire word out before the latest poisoning—complements of the hunk of meat she'd just eaten—truly took hold. Her awareness dulled and went dark, Wildfire slumping into a useless heap at his feet.

This'll be my last post. Feel free to rough her up a bit while she's out of it. :)

She falters, gasping pathetically in a failing defiance against what she knows he plans to do. But it is perhaps her unsavory submission into unconsciousness that saves her. He couldn't very well torture her now. He isn't that complete of a monster to do that to a woman whilst she is completely helpless. In a way, he hoped she would fight back, to test the limits and capabilities of their species under the microscope of instinctive survival. She was no more than a test subject rather than to fulfill his own wicked pleasures or desires, but a rather useless one at that. Nudging her off his feet, he simply glances down at her once, before retreating from the cave. He needn't visit her again, if she was simply going to pass out every time he approached, there wasn't much use in trying to get anything out of her. He exits quietly and slips away under the cover of the night, and doesn't revisit her again.