In the Darkness (Kytania)

[Colt]

Spring 2nd, 512 AV Dark. No light. Couldn’t see. It was chaos. Khasr was quite sure that every animal within twenty miles had hidden in this cave, and the truce that had held when they had fled the storm had broken, sending the place into anarchy. Everything battled everything else, predators out of hunger and prey out of fear, and he wondered if any of them would come out alive. The cavern was very large, but so was its host. Khasr and Akaidras were on a balcony-like ledge that encircled the entire cave as far as they could tell, but as soon as they had come into the cave they had lost the tunnel to get out, and the thunder of noise did little to help. Noise. Hunting cries. Battle cries. Death cries. Khasr paced anxiously, eyes fixed on the darkness that produced the cacophony. He needed to get out. The ledge they were on was relatively safe as long as they killed any other predators before they were killed by them. As it had for a season past, there was only one things that occupied his mind: survival. Akaidras wasn’t much different. The strider was still, tensed and ears perked, carefully listening for any approaching threat. Dark. No light. Couldn’t see.

[Kytania]

Kytntania was out of breath, in the cave with all those other animals. Her pack was right next to her, containing her fur dress. She was her least favorite form, a black panther with bright eyes as blue as the ocean. She was crouched in the corner, when suddenly she saw a strong man walk into the cave. Being a sly thinker, she waltz right out o the pile of animals to make him think she was a regular panther.

She pushed her way out of the crowd, and when behind him, sniffed his leg. It smelled of war, and dirt, just like every other living thing in the cave. She looked up at the stranger.

She avoided the horse, not trusting it just yet. All she could think about was the war until this man appeared. She was curious about him.

[Colt]

Akaidras shied and bellowed, causing Khasr to wheel. Oh shyke. He could hear its breathing, knew the shape of the black on black. A panther. Khasr groped behind him, searching for anything he could use as a weapon, but there was nothing there. A snarl rose from his throat, low and feral and bearing uncanny resemblance to the real thing. He wasn’t really expecting to escape unscathed, but he certainly wasn’t intending to die, not today, not so soon after his emancipation. He crouched and his snarl intensified. He began to sway, rocking from one side to the other slowly and gently, trying to throw the panther off of the fact that, inch by painful inch, he was moving towards it.

[Kytania]

When the human moved it startled Kytania. She didn't think it would see her, though her whiskers might of given it away. She scrambled away from him with a meow and dropped low to the ground. She looked at him with huge eyes. Maybe if she showed him she was no threat he wouldn't be so scared.

She tried even harder to look cute, by rolling over onto her back and looking at him with even bigger eyes. This always worked when it came to begging. She let out a little meow to intensify the cuteness.

The human looked very threatened, though she meant no harm. She was simply checking to see if he was friend or foe. He was even growling, but she tried to ignore it.

[Colt]

The panther retreated in a flash, and Khasr took two steps forward, trying to crowd it away. The feline gave him a long look, then… … rolled over? He blinked, not that it made any difference in his sight. The panther, this feared stalker of the night, had rolled over. Like a dog. Unsure how to handle such an unexpected approach, Khasr backed up. He hadn’t realized that his growling had stopped, but it started up again, fueled more by confusion and the fear of an unknown situation than fear of the situation itself. He didn’t like unknown situations.

[Kytania]

Kytania felt a little irritated. How dare he still be threatened? She really thought looking cute would make her okay. But the coward still stood there, shaking in fear. At least he stopped growling. Wait, growling? Was he Kelvic too? No, wait, he was human. She sniffed the air to check his scent. Definitely human.

She went back behind the wall of quivering animals. She reached her pack, and shifted. She took out her fur dress, and slipped it on. She then came back out, all dressed. Did he see her shift? Hopefully not. She didn't need anyone knowing that she was Kelvic.

"Who are you?" she asked.

[Colt]

The panther seemed to back down, then walked off. Khasr breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the creature’s instincts had been addled by the storm in some way, but if that was the case then it would make it even more unpredictable than he had already thought. But if that was the case, could it have happened to other animals? Would any of them go insane and unpredictable? There was a small disturbance in the fray and Akaidras swiveled his head to look. Khasr didn’t bother. He needed a weapon, and he needed a weapon soon. Kneeling, he moved his hands over the ground, scanning by touch for anything that he could use to injure other living creatures. He heard a few cries of alarm from animals behind him, but paid little mind. He needed to find something to defend himself. “Who are you?” He wheeled so quickly that even Akaidras was startled. Tall. Arms, legs, eyes. Clothed in darkness. Female. For a single, terrifying moment, Khasr thought that it was Malady come for him. He froze. His shoulders were forward and his back was tensed, fully prepared for a fight. His eyes were wide, not only with fear, but hatred and desperation of a wounded animal. He would fight to his last. Death was much better than going back to Malady. With a choked bellow he leaped, throwing his body at hers in an attempt to bring them both to the ground.

[Kytania]

Everything was fine, going exactly according to plan. She didn't look threatening at all. At least up until the point where he tried tackling her to the ground. She was thrown onto the ground.

How dare he? And she didn't show any signs of attack? What was wrong with this brute? Her first thought was he was mad, but then she realized it was because she had come out of the wood work. She guessed she would be scared too if someone just appeared out of nowhere.

She came back to the real world, where the man had tackled her. She looked him in his eyes, her own full of fear, before she said, "Hey, get off me..."

She blacked out for a moment, the world going dark. Her head had hit the solid rock floor, so that it rattled her head. She felt very hazy, and the world spun around her. Her eyes lazily closed a little, but then opened up again. She couldn't hear at all, and her vision got foggy. She silently hoped she wouldn't die.

[Colt]

He grunted as their bodies collided. They fell and rolled once, but the stone jabbing into his back barely registered. All pain was superficial; Malady had taught him that, and now she was here. He couldn’t see the humanoid woman with pale skin and short black hair, all he could see was the dark fur and flashing teeth that his mind summoned over her. All he could see, hear, feel, everything he knew was Malady. There was nothing but her and him, here in Semele’s gut. Everything else, the cave, the animals, even Akaidras, it was all gone. It didn’t matter. He moved with the speed of a snake striking to poison a predator, flipping onto his stomach and then rolling on to hers. He held her down with his knees and found her wrists, pinning them to the floor of the ledge as well. “Hey, get off me…” The words were meaningless, but they struck something in him. A chord, long forgotten that had grown frail with dust. For a single, pristine heartbeat, Malady disappeared. There was a woman beneath him, a human woman. No, impossible. Human women did not live in the middle of the grasslands. But it wasn’t anything else… was it? The woman’s head lolled, half-unconscious and weak, and something, maybe a stray glowstone, maybe a faraway strider’s luminescence, something glinted off one unnaturally long canine tooth. Fear and pain flooded over him, memories of what had become his life, memories of the one who had tortured him, memories of the one who had broken him and turned him into an animal. He knew what would end this. He knew what he needed to do. The woman blinked up at him, head still swaying back and forth. Her arms remained relaxed beneath his hands, and her only movement was ragged breathing. Her eyes unfocused with something, probably a concussion, and she steadied slowly. As her cheek turned upwards the tiniest amount, Khasr leaned down and closed his jaw around her neck. Snapping. Ripping. Warmth flooded his mouth as he pierced the jugular. An ember that had fallen dark flared within him, feeding his hatred and his fear to his body and creating strength. His grip tightened on her wrists and he twisted his teeth. Muscles parting. Windpipe crushing. Arteries severing. Blinding bloodlust. The fierce, burning sense of conclusion. The fierce, burning joy of the kill.

[Kytania]

Kytania's head was spinning, she was surely dying. Her breathing slowed, and so did her heart. She was dying. Was it really happening? She never thought the day would come. Tears poured out of her eyes, as her neck bled, almost as if it had been bitten by a snake. She looked up into the eyes of the man, now even more blurry with the mix of tears and unconsciousness. She choked out, seconds before her life ended, "Bye."

She took a one last heave of air before, she ended her journey. The world went away, disappeared.