Phantom Hollow i know you must know it now -- my organs have stoned

@Buffalo

cold dawn brought with it a rise of thick fog, drab and stifling as it shuffled through the fir-studded copse. it looked more like endless midwinter than spring here. trees stripped bare of anything but shriveled moss. grey snow, grey boughs, grey sky. around him life seemed halted -- no flutter of wings overhead, nor the sound of lesser creatures underfoot. iliksis liked the quiet. it seeped around him with icy fingers of isolation; captivating and liberating at once.

he was hungry but no meal would be found here; fortune had abandoned this place, and he seemed the only living thing to desecrate it. he meandered without purpose through the hollow, dull eyes trained forward with nothing for company save his thoughts.

on the way to an easter egg hunt so have a phone post okay sorry

the winter was beginning to sear the madman with boredom. aware that the long cold would end, that the sun would bring with it fawns and flowers, buffalo found his trudge weary all the same.
he would not admit it, but the wraith had grown lonely these months, without the Sos-touched presence of his twin. ”byll,” the blood-bone witch breathed into the chilled air, as he did whenever her name swam to the forefront of his consciousness.
she would not be forgotten; buffalo would know immediately who it was that returned to his arms, to the emotion of his tightening throat. ”you’ll come back. you will.”
he was not alone; in the next moment, the bedlamite had lifted his ears from their torpor and fixed two-toned eyes on the dark figure trekking in the opposite direction. never a creature to turn away the opportunity to hold another’s attention, buffalo whooped loudly, trotting with an affable gait toward the sharp-edged shadow. ”i see winter is still being a worthless whore. what do you think about that, friend?”

a whoop broke the relative still of the forest: iliksis paused, feeling a chill along his spin as he brought himself about and turned to face the creature responsible for the noise. a white wolf, cut lean and cold -- despite the normal warmth one would associate with the firelight that licked buffalo's eye, iliksis could detect no heat in it -- and the other seemed as flat and as dangerous as a frozen lake.

he stiffened in the presence of the male. not for the blood that garnished his pale features, nor the gregarious nature in which he seemed to approach him, but for the fact iliksis was still at large, and wanted for his crimes. the man spoke and iliksis thought for a moment he had misheard him. "a whore?" he repeated, finding the comparison somewhat humorous. "a whore sleeps with you and leaves you in the morning. this winter is the sore she leaves with you."

the man turned, and buffalo gave a low growl of approval. that he had been recognized was paramount; the madman prowled closer beneath the scrutiny of the other's goldcoin stare. at the tension that thrummed suddenly in the other's limbs gave his own pale legs pause; he arched a brow and aimed a snicker in the stranger's direction.
buffalo, enthused by his predilection for discovering the more interesting denziens of the damned land, buffalo passed a languid tongue along his jaws and smirked. "your mother's got to feel so blessed you kiss her with that smooth mouth," the pale heathen crooned, lashing his tail. "where are you off to on this sore day?"

he fell silent after his quip, studying the brand of dried blood that clotted the male's white forehead. idly, he wondered -- no, hoped -- if it was wolf blood. any other creature's mark upon the stranger was somehow less exciting.

he licked his lips at the mention of his mother, his gaze flickering darkly away. he was not fond of thinking of her anymore, and added no comment to buffalo's mention of her. he supplied an answer to the male's query, however - his voice as dull and flat of affect as his eyes: "looking for food." a boring answer, but iliksis was still trying to figure out this male; whether he was dangerous, whether he was a potential victim, or whether he was better off leaving this male's company entirely.

pleased to have gotten a rise from the emo-looking thing, despite the overall boiled-chicken attitude of the stranger, buffalo dragged mismatched gaze over his fellow. "food, huh? looks like a last fuckin' meal," came his racuous crow. the sable newcomer was wounded, dripping with blood from teeth-slices in his flesh. whatever meat grinder this dude had climbed out of was probably worse for the wear, in the madman's humble opinion.
"sooo, what did you dooo?" buffalo crooned, craning his neck toward the other in the manner of an intern hunting down juicy office gossip. the difference was that the pale wolf was not an intern; he was a boss ass bitch who would take that salacious little tidbit and use it to strangle its own maker. tongue lolling delightedly, buffalo waited for the ragged man to weave the tale of his recent ass-beating.

iliksis was coming to the realization this male, arguably as dangerous as him, was likely better left alone -- he calculated ways to depart from his presence, to slip off without altercation. in his present state he needed no further trouble, and the erratic, almost garrulous nature of this bloodsmeared stranger did not bode well for iliksis' future survival.

his eyes, flat and weary, seemed to flicker indiscriminately across buffalo's bloodspewn face. "visited an old friend." he answered, not enough information to not be incriminating -- yet enough information that he could not be misconstrued as flippant. "she didn't care for my visit." he limped past the wiry creature, nose to the ground as he continued his search for a meal. he kept one eye and ear trained on the madman, though he kept his studying of the bent male subtle.

profane, profane — buffalo heard the whispers of the loa and bit the inside of his cheek as he stared with an open and dawning horror at the dark male. surely byll had only been crazed; no, buffalo had believed her. and now — now they had come for him also. passing a pink tongue along his bloodstained jaws, the madman forgot all the dybbuk had said and moved after the sable hound.
"you won't get far cut to ribbons like that," buffalo observed in a tone that held something close to warmth. "lemme doctor you a little; whatever bastard wanted to chew your ass is gone." he pranced and chortled, if the other continued on, a sight made unsettling by the bright flingings of blood along his pale coat. "wife me up, dude — i'll feed you too."

iliksis' rifling along the snow-covered stones was halted by the arcane prancing of the pale wolf: he looked up, his dull eyes on the abomination that was buffalo's pale coat stricken by startling red. he seemed to consider the male's unorthodox proposal a moment before a twitch of his tail was given and those flat eyes filled with some alien light.

"fine." iliksis conceded blandly, resuming his hunched trailing along the ground for scents of prey. "but i'm not staying here." he announced, striking up a winding path that sheared through the sloping meadow. "got business to attend to."

"i'll find you," buffalo promised in tones that begged to be pleasant, but from his throat only darted like threats. turning in the opposite direction, the madman glanced back only once watch the path the other took.

*

in time, buffalo found his way to the empty place he had parted ways with the fellow, some foliage and the limp body of a fat squirrel held neatly in his jaws. humming tunelessly, the bedlamite lowered muzzle to earth and began a long lope along the sable wolf's tracks, expecting that with some passage of the skies, he would relocate the wounded person of interest once more.