Back in the Canyon

[Azira]

4th-5th Winter 513AV

She stood in the canyon. It seemed the same as the day that she shot the blue elk. She couldn't look behind her but she knew that there was no crowd of Inarta there. She didn't have to look and it wasn't anything that she was very concerned about. Azira's bow was missing as well but she hardly noticed it, mesmerised by the sight of the blue elk instead.

It stood cresting the rise by the water as it had the day she'd shot it. She was closer to it than she had been that day, close enough that its antlers hung above her head casting a shadow across her. The huntress could see it more clearly than anything else around her. The landscape seemed fuzzy, almost as if it wasn't real but the elk was in sharp contrast to it. It was all she could see really, the centre of her world and for some reason that seemed to make her see it in finer detail then she had that day.

Its pelt seemed to shine with iridescent light, its antlers were tangled with vines and hanging velvet and she could even smell it. Its scent was earthy yet sweaty as well, a stronger and headier scent than a human's but there was something else as well, some smell that was unplaceable. Overall it was intoxicating and she found herself stretching a hand out towards it, desperate to be closer to it. She felt compelled to touch it, to go with it somewhere but she could not. For some reason she could not reach it and as she tried to reach for her, it turned its head to fix its gaze upon her.

[Azira]

Large eyes, black or brown she couldn't tell which. They held an intelligence that couldn't belong to such a beast. Its gaze was somehow knowing as it regarded her, placing her under such scrutiny that Azira knew that it was looking beyond her exterior and seeing deeper into both mind and soul. She excited it to speak, its gaze seeming to give credence for such and action but it merely lowed. It was a mournful sound the beast groaning a dying breath before it shattered in slow motion, its blue hide shredded into thousands of tiny pieces that separated and seemed to break apart from the outside inwards. It blew in her face the pieces of it caught in its makeshift wind and began to whirl around her and clinging to her skin.

The huntress made a feeble attempt to claw the pieces off her but when she met the eyes of the animal - that still somehow remained even as its head disintegrated - she couldn't bring herself to really try. As its head disappeared and the Avora was left gazing into its dark orbs she found that she could actually see something. The image wasn't a reflection as it wasn't distorted. It was more like the teen was gazing through a window at something that was coming towards her. The eyes seemed to grow bigger or maybe she was drawn into them but either way the blackness - for that's what it was - expanded and the image grew larger and came more and more into focus with each passing tick. It was a field. She wasn't moving and yet she felt that she was drawing closer and closer to a tall structure that was in the place, blades of grass seeming to move past at a rate that was far faster than she could walk.

Her eyes became glued to the structure as it came into view. The details were vague to her gaze but yet she knew what she was seeing. She was now at the base of tower, the tall structure broken and crumbling but still imposing and awe inspiring to the huntress. A longing seized her to enter the place but when she stretched out a hand to caress the stone she found herself flying backwards. As fast as she'd approached the tower before was the speed with which she retreated from it. Somehow it happened without her actually physically moving but yet she knew that she did so.

The image shrank, the blackness shrinking with it until she was left with the sight of two disembodied eyes of the moose gazing at her. They ran together like black ink, two black puddles becoming one shiny surface. This time it was reflective and within it she could see... an elk. They were her own eyes though. Golden eyes staring out of the face of the blue bull. She screamed but it came out as the mournful low that she'd heard the moose make before. The single black eye moved abruptly, a streak of movement headed for her chest. It struck her, penetrating deep into the flesh. She gasped, a human sound now and stared downwards.

Her body had returned to its normal shape yet now an arrow protruded from her chest. It was fletched with black feathers, the arrowhead piercing the area that her heart was situated in. Shaking fingers reached up to it, twisting it and pulling it free. There was no blood and so she could see the arrow in its entirety. Black fletching and a clear arrowhead. It was enough to make her close her eyes and try to scream her way out of this place. It was a dream but yet it felt so real!