+- Vivarium (https://vivariumrpg.com)
+-- Forum: Vivarium (https://vivariumrpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Great Woodlands (https://vivariumrpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=26)
+--- Thread: AW In the stillness of unmaking (/showthread.php?tid=11680)
In the stillness of unmaking - Elspeth - 5/17/2026
Blood had been warm when it left her..
That, somehow, was the thing she had remembered most. Not the screaming, neither the tearing pain nor the impossible, wet sound of her own body coming apart beneath hands she couldn’t quite remember the face to. Just warmth. Rivers of it, thick between her fingers, heavy on her skin, drowning her lungs in the copper taste of dying. She was slipping away.. and she was no longer warm.
Something had been awaiting her. Perhaps it was something kinder, the peace of an eternity of rest she’d never known, but she had plenty of time too now.. At least.. well at least that’s what she thought.
Cold earth. Sharp air. Breath. She was.. breathing..? Elspeth would lurch forward, a strangled set of words that didn’t quite make it out sizzling within her throat. Her body immediately tottered to a stand, an attempt to make herself upright.. or maybe not? Four legs.. she had four legs.
Too many limbs. Wrong height. Off centered and beyond unaware, her body pitched sideways into a damp gathering of grass. Was this normal..?
It was an odd thing, her body didn’t quite feel right and yet it had slowly begun turning into something not so wrong. Perhaps panic should’ve been setting in. There was certainly something settling in her chest, pulling at her heart as if it had been important.. She could feel it resurfacing, that dread she had nearly forgotten, what was going on- 'CAW'
Her thoughts froze at the sound, a loud, unwavering bark of a.. well it looked like a crow? Ears twitching towards them instinctively.. instinctively? Before she could question herself- 'CAW CAW' again, from elsewhere up above, and then again not too far off.. before long there was a horde of them, screaming at her. The sound pierced through her skull like summons, or a warning..?
Sharp and hurried they continued on, were they mad at her? Did they want something?? Heart hammering against ribs that felt too narrow, too quick, like it might just burst out from within her.
There calls.. these crows would not stop. Calling to her. Mocking her. Welcoming her. Casting her out just like.. just like… a beat. Something slipped from her grasp before she could catch it. A memory, a feeling, a face perhaps. Gone.
She swallowed hard around the strange shape of her own breath… huh? There was a voice, too. Not from the sky, neither from the trees swallowed in crows.. but from within. As faint as a dying ember beneath snow. She could not yet hear words from it.. no, simply a presence.
The careful measured clicking of claws pacing through the corridors of her thoughts. Patient.. Unhurried.. as if it had always lived there.
Louder did the thudding of her chest become, surely the crows could hear it even over their own voice. Elspeth pressed low against the earth, eyes squeezed tightly, trying so desperately hard to hold together the unraveling scraps of what had came before.. what led her to here. There had been pain enough to split the world but the details.. they seemed to only bleed away the harder she reached for them, dissolving like mist between trembling paws.
There was so many questions and yet.. the answers were becoming strangely difficult to care about. And the crows.. these damned crows!! They went on and on.. minutes, hours..? She couldn’t tell, they just kept going and going and GOING.. until suddenly.. Silence.
Deafening.. the crows stared down at her, but they were silent.. she couldn’t decided which was worse.. their screams.. or the weight of their gaze.
The horde had quieted. The entity behind her mind had clicked its claws.. once.. twice between the grooves of her psyche. And Elspeth.. the girl sat still.. unmoving beneath a foreign sky in a world that smelled of pine rot, rain and something ancient she had no name for. She could not tell whether she’d been granted something so precious as a second chance.. or simply wandering into the jaws of something that had been waiting for her all along.
RE: In the stillness of unmaking - Cyril - 5/19/2026
Sunlight cast dramatic shadows, obscuring and blinding observers of the dense woodlands. The darkness beyond was ambiguous, but held a strong unnerving presence. Finally, the silhouette came into view, first appearing as just another tree, but the prongs of a fool’s hat were unmistakably unnatural.
His eyes penetrated through the darkness, catching what little light touched the shadows and illuminating them like two glowing lanterns… Peering right at the writing creature below the perch of the jester as crows swarmed like heralds of death.
The wolf actually appeared physically well, just…
You look like shit,he commented, tilting his head with a mocking grin that slowly spread across his face, his white teeth catching the sunlight,
Did you awaken from death as I have, stranger?
If that were the case, then maybe this was the afterlife, although Cyril was beginning to doubt it was hell, because it felt like heaven. Honestly, his experience hadn’t been anything other than pleasant thus far; who knew dogs were so blessed with freedom? His senses were keener, he could run faster, and he now understood the appeal of chasing random critters through the brush.
Although it was a little annoying that he couldn’t scratch his own back anymore… Or reach his rear end.
Cyril studied the creature curiously, wondering if she spoke his language. He had yet to run into another wolflike being, but he presumed communication was obvious. If he had the same sense as one, surely he’d have the same tongue, right?
Do you speak? Cat got your tongue?he asked, then giggled hysterically,
Or rather wolf?