Meadowlark Prairie Vita brevis
super-adorable little shrimp
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@Maegi

World was full of pain. Walls closing in. Shrinking space. Breathe, breathe, keep breathing! Dancing lights before eyes. Dream sequences, shattered by shrieks of horror. No air, no air, no air! Torment. Tears of desperation. Exhaustion. I will close my eyes just for a moment. Just for a moment. Just for a... Sigh. Wake with a start. Struggle. Time slows. Time stops. I can't. I can't. No more tears. Sobs. 

Warm brown eyes looking down at him kindly. No face. Someone familiar he does not know. Name. Name. Name. Somebody warm. Smells of flowers, grass, earth and late summer evenings. Smile that makes his heart sing. Don't go. Don't leave me. Don't... I can't. Wait!  Sadness like a mist engulfing him. Taking away the colours. Jade green in eternal sorrow, worry and disappointment. One after another. Please. 

A gust of fresh, cold air. Final fight, rocks give way and he drags himself outside and slumps in a miserable heap nearby. It is freezing outside, but it feels nice against his bruised and battered body. He lies on his side for a very long time, looking at the overcast sky and watching, how one by one small, white flowers fall on his fur and around him. It feels almost like home. He thinks about a smile and with tears welling up in his eyes, he smiles as well. She loves flowers. It must be her doing. 

He wakes up from extreme cold that feels as if it has seeped through his skin straight into his bones. He gets up, clumsily rearranging his limbs. Snow has made his pain a little more bearable, though it seems that one of his paws are not working properly and his back and neck is so stiff, he is able only to stagger. Falls are frequent, his head hurts very much, there is horrible ringing in his ears and he stops to vomit. I can't. I can't. I can't.

He cries until he cannot do it anymore, gets up and moves again. No sense of direction or destination. Just to get away from his hell as far as possible. He has no idea of the passage of time. There is just him and the path to nowhere that he has to walk. One step, two steps, three steps, four steps, five... He counts and it feels as if this montonous row of numbers is the only thing that keeps him alive. Keeps him here. Keeps him going.

When there are no numbers he knows, he says all the words he knows. Then the words end. He remains silent. Numb to the roaring winds, snowstorms, pain, everything. So much pain. So much pain. The morning sun tears through the thick blanket of grey clouds and looks down at a small bundle of emaciated body under the reddish fur, made dull and lustless by the dust and mud.

He has come to the end of the road. Or given up somewhere along the way. Breathing is very slow and even, the warmth has almost all left him. His heart is racing feverishly against the passage of time, which slips away like sand through fingers. He watches this from a distance. Tired. Indifferent. Calm. Nothing left to fight for. This will be easy, easy, easy... they whisper in his ears. 

She has the most beautiful smile. He would hate to see it fade away. She cannot hurt. She is his everything. She is his world. He made a promise. Always and forever.

She has a name. 

I am sorry, sister. I am sorry.
Ghost
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At first, she thought she was seeing things. A splotch of red-orange on the horizon. . . It couldn't be. Not her, come back from wherever she'd gone. Not close to here, not again. The Redhawk girl.

Her worry disappeared—no, it changed, when she came closer and saw instead a shivering boy. An injured boy. Maegi gasped in alarm and hobbled quickly toward him, going down to her belly to draw herself near. So cold. . . She remembered Sobek and shuddered, encircling the still, ruddy form and hoping to give him as much of her heat as possible.

She drew her tongue along the crown of his head, like a mother warming a squalling newborn. She murmured wordless things, prayers to Jaes in some tongue she'd never understand again. She considered crying for help, but only when the boy could stand again would that do any good.

All the while, she scanned his body for injury, wondering what in hell to do next.
super-adorable little shrimp
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Voices singing, voices wailing, voices unified in smothering silence. 

He is torn between this world and the next. Walking the edge. Roaring winds, water crashing, smell of grass, tell-tale tremors, rock crashes against a rock. Dust. "No, no, no..." he whispers in a barely audible protest, unable to move, run away, scream. There he is. Burried alive. Air, air, air.

They come again. Rows and rows. Furs of agouti, furs of black, fur of orange. There she is, there she stands. Empty sockets, where her eyes should have been. Smelling of earth and decay. Her breath is ice cold as the winter day. She sits, she watches. She waits. You are not real, you do not exist. Her lips peel back from rows of yellowing teeth and rotting gums, she grins tauntingly.

He recoils in disgust. No escape. He watches from the distance. She attacks. Others come. They howl and yip, they tear him apart strip by strip, sliver by sliver. Their hunger insatiable, they do not stop even, when there is nothing left. It hurts so much. World loses colour. It cracks around the edges. It shatters. He is thrown in the void. He screams. 

It starts with a warm glow and smell. Somebody caresses him tenderly. Murmurs words in a tongue he does not understand. You won't die. I am here. Whether it is her or is it him thinking the thought goes straight to his heart. An anchor in a world of chaos. I will try. He says, he thinks, he does not know the difference anymore. It does not matter. 

Warmth finds it way in his fragile body. He opens his eyes and blinks in the world of white. He attempts to move, but has no control of his limbs. He manages to turn his head, he looks up at the white next to him. She is warm. She is alive. An angel. He buries his muzzle in the tresses of the silky white fur and sighs, before fading out into nothingness again.
Ghost
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It's okay, Maegi whispered, taken by emotion as he sighed against her pelt. Her son, her son. . . She hadn't been able to warm him properly, but she could for this boy. She must!

But how to get him back to the woods? He seemed to be asleep now, drifting away into dreams. She was loath to wake him, and yet she knew that if he did not rouse, his chances of survival would diminish bit by bit.

The Nona gave him a gentle nudge, trying to stir him back to reality. Hey, you've got to wake up for a little bit, she told him softly, muzzle close to his ear. I'm gonna take you back to my forest and we're going to get warm there. Okay?
super-adorable little shrimp
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Her words are like music to his ears. Her warm breath tickles his ears. The boy feels the emotion and responds to it in his slumber. He smiles and sighs. Content and happy. How long has it been, since he had felt like this? He forces his eyes open, lifts his head feebly and meets her gaze. His heard fills with warmth and appreciation. He feels as if he sees the most beautiful face in the whole world. 

He has fallen in love at a first glance. For her he will try. Slowly and with many failed attempts he uncurls and raises to his feet groggily. His body is shaking and trembling, it is still bitterly cold. But he has made a promise. He made a promise to someone. Somebody. Her. He will try. There is not enough strength in him to smile, but his eyes are full of innocent trust. 

His guardain angel. Forever and Always. 

Last one from me. You can fade out in your next post. Thanks! :)
Ghost
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If Maegi knew what the boy was thinking, she would be bowled over. As it was, she recognized the warmth and trust in his eyes and it gave her strength—enough to get him safely home. She stood firmly by, ready to jump in and steady him should he stumble.

It was nice to help a child. . .as if Jaes had recognized the yawning void in her heart left by her dead sons. It was a blessing. Just as he saw Maegi as a guardian angel, Maegi saw him as some sort of cherub—and her mind wouldn't be easily changed on the topic.

She pressed her slight weight against his even smaller frame,

and step by step, the two of them made their way back to the forest, ice and flame.