Blackfeather Woods [m] you don't want to hurt yourself by looking too closely
a determination so powerful it could turn the sky storm black
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Ooc — Athena
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All Welcome 



“ Life turns on a dime. Sometimes towards us, but more often it spins away, flirting and flashing as it goes: so long, honey, it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it? 








The cold pulls Ceara from the dark ditch of sleep. She does not know how long she has been out, but she can't recall even falling asleep. Disoriented, she opens her bleary eyes and is met with darkness. The threat of nighttime encompasses her, settling around her like an old friend making himself at home. Her pulse quickens.

The silence is vaucuous, spectral, only occasionally broken by the firm punctuations of crow-call and the branches scraping in the expansive inkstained canopy overhead. The ground is damp and frozen.

It takes time for her eyes to adjust. For some time the only thing she can percieve is the shivering that wracks her body, and the musty smell of freshly overturned earth.

Then from somewhere out of reach comes the stealthy crackle of dead leaves underfoot. Coming closer. She gathers her quaking limbs from beneath her and shuffles into an upright position just as a
SHADOW emerges from the twisted black trees.

Demon.

The creature does not walk. It seems to glide, each powerful stride of its rawboned legs bringing it closer. Its eyes, once the same gunmetal grey that Ceara herself boasts, have succumbed to expressionless milky cataracts. Its blackened tongue smooths across its whiskers. The shuffle of wings echo around them as the crows flee skyward from their nests.


YOU, it commands as it ghosts closer, a wave of stench rattles from the demon's rotting intestines as it rasps. The leaves shift overhead, and the moonlight that filters from above offers Ceara a glimpse of the fat, shining bodies of wriggling maggots protruding from the hollow of the creature's rotting throat. "Oh god," she thinks, "I'm dead."

She has to pull her attention to the ground to keep from spilling her guts. A sharp, unwanted metallic taste fills her mouth.

The (woman it was a woman and you killed her) demon's bloodied lips wrinkle back from her teeth in soundless jest before it launches at the girl with wildfire fur. Its teeth rake against the top of the firebrand's muzzle and sink into the fleshy part between the bones of her bottom jaw as it yanks her to the ground.


The girl's limbs strike out against its withering form, parts of its bulging flesh slogging onto the girl, the ground. It forces her head back into the dirt, and holds it there until she stops struggling. As it pulls back, one of its rotten guests falls from the cavern of its throat and onto the girl's heaving chest.

Somewhere in her terror, she has begun to weep. Her voice catches as a pain-soaked cry in her throat. Please— she slurs, the word coming out more like blease in her desperation.

The creature does not listen. Moonlight shines off of the rounded edge of its pearly incisors before it buries its fangs deep into her throat.


BLOOD FOR BLOOD.





On the outside, her limp body finishes convulsing. She remains unconscious for some time, but when she comes to, it is too dark to see. Tears prick at the corners of her eyes as her chest tightens and heaves. Any moment now, the rotting corpse will come from the shadows; and she's sure she'd prefer that over whatever these Blackfeathers will do to her.



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Tags for visibility (or it's AW so I guess you can hop in too?)

Gods, what a terrible thing they had done. She'd been gripped by fear, its icy claws digging into her flesh, since @Mou and @Kalganov had brought the woman here. Against her arguments! This was Blackfeather Woods, and a Melonii's word was sacred--their command was binding. Apparently, that didn't apply in this scenario. She was fearful and livid.

When Maegi came to check on their prisoner her patient, she was awake, staring into the darkness. She approached slowly, head turned so the stranger could only see the unblemished side of her face (she was afraid the wound would be much too traumatic of a sight). Carefully, cautiously, she drew near, nostrils flaring as she took in her scent.

She had almost brought opiates, noticing how the red girl twitched in her sleep, but--you do not give poppy to those who have ingested poison, had said @Relmyna, and she heeded the Listener's words now.

"How do you feel?" Maegi whispered, keeping her body low and still. She didn't think the patient had enough energy to strike. . .but she was prepared to defend herself, if need be.

Ludicrous, that she had to defend herself from Mou's mistake.
a determination so powerful it could turn the sky storm black
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She came creeping from the shadows, just as Ceara had predicted.  Her leg was twisted — but wait — that wasn't right.  She dared her gaze to rise to the girl's (unblemished!) throat, then to her heterochromatic eyes.  Maegi is lucky that her glasglow is hidden from the Redhawk girl.

"How do you feel?"  She almost speaks, then wills herself not to.  Whatever response she had dissolved before it even reached her throat, and only a whispered sigh comes out instead.

There is a chance that this woman does not know what she has taken and so long as she isn't called out on it Ceara means to take full advantage of that.  She closes her mouth and offers a wobbly nod, ears flattening as she draws her head forward to sniff at the Delta's chin.

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Maegi shrank back, disliking the closeness. There was no answer, only a nod; the girl looked like she still was in the land of fitful dreams. The Melonii kept steady, her indigo orb coolly surveying the patient. Awake, but not out of the woods yet. Yarrow? Perhaps. But how to get her to take it, lest she think she was being poisoned again. . .

"I can't give you anything to help, at this point," she reasoned softly. "Whatever you ate is working its way out of you; throwing it up with yarrow wouldn't help, I don't think. I'm sorry, if you're feeling hurt or scared. I can help you."

The pack-scent clung to the girl's pelt, and it scared the shit out of Maegi. She had been too young to remember the Redhawk smell--if she had, and caught a whiff of it now, her panic would have been through the trees. But the presence of pack-scent was enough. They had made another enemy, and it wouldn't be long before they were on the border, looking for their lost little lamb.
a determination so powerful it could turn the sky storm black
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Her eyes narrow, muzzle wrinkling at the girl's explanation.  I was a medic once, too, you know.  She knows she just has to ride the waves as they come.  But the nightmares, oh god, she doesn't know if she can handle those.  Not if they're like this.

"I'm sorry, if you're feeling hurt or scared.  I can help you."

Ceara draws her head back and snorts, ears flattening to the side.  You kidnapped me, you crazy bitch, she wants to scream, but instead she watches with a glare and a countenance that reeks of disbelief.

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She understood, gods, she understood where this woman was coming from. But the scorn didn't help alleviate her worry; it added irritation into the mix instead, and Maegi flattened her ears, glaring at the patient. "This isn't my fault, okay?" she snapped. "This is because my friend decided to give you something to, oh, I don't even know. I don't know what's even going on. All I know is that you're here, and you shouldn't be, and I want to make sure that you feel better."

She turned fully, then, exposing the ruined side of her face -- all that exposed ivory. "Look, I've been taken to places against my will before, too," Maegi explained, her voice growing calmer. "And they hurt me. Do you think I would do the same thing to you?" Her bicolored eyes held a glint even in the darkness, especially the orange, the fiery legacy of Cicero.

"I want to help," Maegi said, her jaw set stubbornly. "I'm not leaving your side until you're well again."
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Feel free to ignore him ~

He arrived with the sad remains of an old hare hanging from his jaws, ears limply hanging from one side of his mouth and the half-eaten body from the other. The dark of the wood paled in comparison to the dark of the cave; so much so that Mou didn't feel comfortable stepping in to it at first. He heard voices mixing in the dark but couldn't make out the words. He'd have to get closer. Wolfskull gave him an otherworldly feeling of apprehension, like he was scared of something inside, and attributed that to his trip through the caverns with the bear. It was so dark inside — he found himself slinking through the corridor and brushing one wall or another as he gathered his bearings.

Once he spotted the ghostly figure of Maegi he stopped, but just for an instant. Mou carried the hare over to her and placed it by her feet. An offering to both the doctor and the patient, although it likely wouldn't solve any problems or alleviate the tension between Maegi and himself. He couldn't help but look at the fire-coated girl; but this too was fleeting, and he turned away from both of them as if to depart from their company again, unwilling to disturb them or to make things worse. Mou knew he'd made a judgement call and it could very easily backfire on all of them.
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She bristles as Maegi lashes out, but her withers lower the longer she speaks.  Ceara knew the wolves of Blackfeather to be liars.. but her words sounded genuine.

When the girl turns to reveal the hollow of her skull, her limbs scramble back furiously.  She presses herself against a stalagmite and makes herself as small as possible, ears flat and fear in her eyes.

I've been taken to places against my will before, too.

Blood for blood.

Slowly, she shakes her head and moves forward.  She wants to explain, I thought you were the demon, but Maegi wouldn't understand.  She gestures to her head, then crosses her wrist over her eyes and shivers in an attempt to convey nightmares.  When she moves back to all fours the smell of fresh meat causes her stomach to rumble, and she catches the retreating form of her kidnapper.

Yeah, you'd better fucking leave.

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mobile post, will format later

Mou's scent wafted through the tunnel, accompanied by the smell of meat, and it was not long before the wrath revealed himself, quickly setting down the hare before turning to leave. Maegi shook her head, lips curling upward in a snarl. "You're not going anywhere," she commanded, tone brooking no opposition. "Sit down and tell me what we're going to do about this."

As far as she knew, Relmyna and Kove were not aware of the ruddy girl's presence here. Gods, they would be so angry! The only way to mend this would be to send the patient on her way before leadership noticed, but then, there was still the very likely chance that the girl would run her mouth upon leaving. . .

"Why, Mou?" Maegi exclaimed, voice echoing slightly off the cavern walls. "Why not just leave her be? You HAD to know this would be a bad idea."
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You're not going anywhere.
Her voice slices the air sharper than anything he's ever heard before. He stops in his tracks.

Maegi's demands are justified and he wilts to the sound of her voice. The echo dies out and he doesn't know what to say. He shrugs at first, but knows that's not enough. Mou has been thinking about this ever since finding their patient and he's not sure what to do next.

Why not just leave her be? Maegi wants to know.

No! Mou snaps back and his voice, usually so unclear, fills the space and rebounds off the walls. He winces back from it like a cannon blast and tries to explain himself. Its dark in here, so he can't exactly mouth the words this time.


Wash try to finks her! She caw me Screeh, she sah — fren, we fren! I wan hell her an — an Sithis say — purple flowa, he was getting flustered, but he did his best. All the same, Mou couldn't look at Maegi while he spoke to her and found his eyes trailing along the dirt floor.

M'gee, pees, I dedden mean et.
a determination so powerful it could turn the sky storm black
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If she didn't believe Maegi before, she believed her now.  The woman's fury was shocking, and Ceara recoiled from it and Mou's defiant response that echoes around them — No!

But his explanation is not good enough for her.  I dedden mean et, I dedded mean it, poor pitiful fucking boy.  It is not wise to act out here as much as she wants to rend the flesh from his bones, so instead a throaty snarl rips over the trio, excaberated by the walls of Wolfskull.

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The sudden loudness of his voice frightened her, too, and she shrank back, the ghosts of her own trauma rising--

Molag Bal--

And then he was talking, a rambling explanation--"Scree?" she echoed, stupefied--purple flower, Sithis--gods, this must be a dream--her eyes wandered to the other girl, brows drawing together--then a plea, which both annoyed her and utterly broke her heart. Maegi lifted her head, eyes closed, a sudden sob of frustration, fear, and fury all at once escaping her.

"Just go, Mou," she whimpered, losing her composure. Tears leaked through the slits of her eyelids, arcing down her cheekbones. "Please, just go. I'll take care of this."

But how?
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Just go. Her voice broke and Mou didn't need to see her face to know she's started to cry, in fact he avoids looking, but that doesn't stop the sadness from seeping in to him. She's beyond disappointed, she's scared, and it was his fault. Mou cannot think of anything else he can do in the moment, and so he obeys - slipping out of the cave with some haste, his own eye beginning to sting.