[ALDUIN, BANE OF KINGS, ANCIENT SHADOW UNBOUND... ...WITH A HUNGER TO SWALLOW THE WORLD.]

Spinning, spinning, spinning…then darkness. His weightlessness gone, born anew with what feels to be an entire galaxy crushing bone and muscle alike.

The cursed one’s body, once again, no longer has a shapeless form — something misty and incomplete, incomprehensible. Lying on the shore with the frigid waters at his hocks, the numbness of weightlessness is still there, but now it feels as if a rock sinks him down into the soft granules of pale sand beneath.

Gone, gone, gone. He was gone, a ritual, blood letting, gone. Now, blood moon orbs shoot open to be met with the surreal image of the coast.

No.

Everything must’ve failed — he must’ve failed.

Sprawled out, half lucid, eyes wide like saucers but no expression but sheer and utter emptiness — something is missing. What is missing? He feels the weight of a rough rock churning and shredding the roof of his mouth and the surface of his tongue. He has his stone, but what else is missing is beyond him.

Cursed and alone, gone then back again, the beast lies upon the shore, waves whipping at his fur, body so cold and numb it no longer shivers.

The cursed is not dead…but dammit he should be…wants to be…needs to be…

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Elizesyn can be assorted to any rating

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The moon hung heavy in the night sky.The silvered light spilled across the shore in fractured patterns. A gentle breeze carried the salt-kissed chill of an ocean. Rhythmic sounds of waves crashed into the sand.

Elize pondered. Moved like a shadow under a shadow. Her fur patch worked with the sun and moon to guide her through the land. Multicolored eyes darted across the lands as she wandered an unfamiliar land. The woman didn't come here often. Not much at all, she preferred the land she called home on the island. But, alas, she decided for one night to take a new spot to watch the night sky.

Then she saw him.

A dark beast sprawled out upon the sand. Nearly ate up by the shadows. Waters licked at his body, icy fingers seemed to mock the rise of his chest and fall. He was still –too still– but Elize, she saw a faint glimpse of a breath. A fragile grip of life hanging onto him. Despite whatever he might have been through, it was holding on.

Her breath caught, not from fear– but for the weight of his suffering. Pain. It wasn't the first time she had seen that. This.. This might've been more. Part of her screamed to leave, to go away and let nature take its course.

But in her good nature she couldn't.

Slowly and deliberately she pawed herself forward. A soft crunch of her paws against the sand, making no effort to hide her approach. Then she stopped a pace away. You're hurt. Elizesyn's voice was tender, soft. A tint of concern laced in a sweet voice of honey. Let me help you.

Had she truly not learned anything from her husband? Sorry, her ex husband.

[ALDUIN, BANE OF KINGS, ANCIENT SHADOW UNBOUND... ...WITH A HUNGER TO SWALLOW THE WORLD.]

There was nothing here for him. There’s nothing even inside of him that wants to live any longer. Why, why, why? Why is he back? His eyes are open, wide and unblinking. There’s nothing behind his eyes empty and dry — dead on the inside, but not on the outside.

He hears things, but he doesn’t see.

What-

A voice.

Kill me. He thinks to whoever it is. Kill me. Leave me.

The sprawling darkness — the voice of Banesteppe — the hand that claws and rakes down his back. He wants it back. Where is it.

Where is it.

He doesn’t know how long he has been laying there. He’s completely, beautifully numb. But whoever has stumbled upon him has forced him out of his trace — he was content to lay here until hypothermia took him, until the birds picked at his corpse, until the sea swept up his bones.

A long rush of shaky breath puffs misty from his wet nose, his chest does not rise for a long time after until it does. His dry eyes finally blink. He tried to remember what the voice said to him…

Help.

No.

No, doesn’t need help — they want to help him.

“Leave me…” The cursed finally croaks in such a rasping and rough tone.

Let me die.

Coward.

Another rush of breath falls from his nose, fast and frustrated. Despite his words, his shoulders twitch — an attempt to move. His limbs are numb, his whole body feels like dead weight.

Lowly, his head drags up, tilted down as if he is having a hard time holding it up. Blood blooms on his tongue, the stone in his mouth rips over the sensitive flesh as he clenches his jaw. Limply one of his paws flop further in front of him, the other falls further back — he’s trying to get up.

Stop-

Stop. Just lay down. Just die.

He could.

Yet, when he tries to pull himself up, his hind legs, still being hugged by freezing waters, drag behind limply — pathetic, he looks like a paralyzed animal.

A growl rumbles in his chest, a wispy, rasping sound falls from his lips as he flops back into the sand. Mists of air fall fast and heavy from his nose, his eyes still wide and unblinking.

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Elizesyn can be assorted to any rating

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Her heart ached at the pitiful and broken voice that came from his voice. A broken remnant of whatever he once had. His words echoed through the air. Even though her eyes softened, she didn't flinch at the venom in his tone. Nor the growl in his chest. You can thank Krait for that.

No. Her voice was soft but firm. Not meant as a challenge to him. I do not know what you've been through, but no one deserves to be alone.

No matter how much he denied it, she was going to stay there. Her multicolored eyes watched as he tried to stand up for himself. Watching as his legs dragged. She didn't move to stop him. She understood it — the whole reason she left Krait. To feel something herself. Elize wasn't about to wipe that slate clean with another.

It's okay to fall. But you're not staying down. Her paw crunched in the sand, another step forward. A gentle breeze between her cream and gray colored fur. Not while I'm here. The Guardian stood, tall and strong. For someone who was once in his position, he had to be the one to stand.

But he surely wasn't going to be alone when he did it.

[ALDUIN, BANE OF KINGS, ANCIENT SHADOW UNBOUND... ...WITH A HUNGER TO SWALLOW THE WORLD.]

His attempts to move are pathetic at best and pointless at worst. He wants to just play there, crawl into the ocean and drown. Not only that, but he wants to scoff at whoever this wolf is beside him. He hasn’t even looked over, but their voice is feminine. So as he lies on the ground after his weak attempt at moving, he finally blinks once more, shifting his empty gaze over to the stranger.

She steps closer, denying his request to be left alone — to die in peace or whatever semblance of peace he has. Her words of encouragement do nothing to encourage the ink souled beast. What is a small she-wolf like her going to do for him? Had he not been in such a foul mood he would’ve maybe given her more credit.

Once more, his gaze falls away from her.

Try again…

Or don’t.

His muscles coil as he pushes his upper body up, whiskered lip curling up into half-snarl. He growls from the effort, only managing to drag his hind legs from the water’s yearning waves.

He falls again. His elbows meet the sand, sinking, convincing him further to just stop trying. His head stays up this time.

He tries again, pathetically trying to drag his numb hind paws under his body.

Stop trying.

Just lay down.

Paws skid and sink into the sand multiple times before — finally — he stands on all four paws, head hung low. A body so full of muscle, yet so weak.

Weak, weak, weak.

He growls low in his throat, widening his stance in an attempt to stay upright. His jaw aches, finally unhinges, the lava rock falls from his cold, water soaked lips onto the sand. Lips smack, a black, forked tongue rasps over his whiskers.

He still has the rock.

Good.

Bloody gaze shifts back over to the she-wolf, his eyes sharper, yet still devoid of life, his head still hung between his forepaws. He doesn’t speak though, the silent question of his gaze on her. Has she come to watch him suffer? A witness to his weakness. She can do nothing for him, yet why is she here?

To help. The obvious voice in his head says.

She can’t. No one can help him.

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Elizesyn can be assorted to any rating

---

She sighed in annoyance. He was trying. But not enough to stand up on his own. Thinking quickly on her paws. Was he weak from not eating? Was his mind weak? Part of her thought about letting nature take it's course, but she feared leaving him to die like this.


Pieces of her heart kept breaking seeing his body betray him. His mind.. Was the one thing she couldn't understand. Was he really trying or did he want to die?

Nature knew what it was doing but he was still alive. She wasn't about to give up on another and risk losing another in her care..

Come on, I know you can do it. She put on a forced smile. One that felt hard to do. Often she felt like she herself might succumb that low. But she was always weak and stayed. Why? Because she had a job to do. Missed her family and friends she made here. I could bring you food if you think that would suffice you to stand up.

Where would she even begin to find anything?