Solo Your Biggest Fear is Yourself

[Zasantha]

27th Summer

Lips twitched with subconscious joy, eyes flickered in the abyss of slumber. Fingers grasped at nothing, but in her mind’s eye she grasped for the branch. Don't let me fall! she shouted to her friend, giddy with excitement and childish bravery.
Of course, she fell.

Opaque threads seemed to shake to life as a form sat upright in a simple bed. The threads slowly seemed to take form as strands of pitch-like hair; dark and absorbing, a thing to capture the eye. The young woman stared around wildly, her emerald eyes skipping about the room in shock and horror. No matter how many times the dream appeared, every time it caused her very muscles to clench in fear. It was a memory, of that she was sure, but it only came in her dreams, and upon awakening she rarely remembered the details; terror, debilitating fear, was all that remained.

It wasn't a great start to the day, but regardless she couldn't remain cooped up in her apartment all day, the feline within cringed at the thought. No, she would have to go out. Where, she had no idea. Perhaps to the store?
Shrugging off the dissipating feeling of uneasiness she donned her simplistic clothes, pulling her cloaks hood low over her forehead, shielding her eyes. Exiting her home she headed for the general store, head low but eyes alert and constantly shifting, watching.

She found the store relatively easy, but something stopped her from entering. There was a smell on the air that she couldn't quite pinpoint, and it was coming from not far away. She briskly made her way towards the corner of East Street, and look down a nearby housing area. It didn't take long to find the culprit of the smell; a large, very dead rat was rotting away beside one of the buildings. Zas nearly gagged; there was nothing worse than rotting meat.
The stench will never leave you, child the memory of her mother's voice came unbidden into her mind. Some things were best left forgotten.

[Zasantha]

The memory voices came often, usually at time when they were least needed, and almost always after nightmares. They'd plagued her much of her young life, and she'd not figured out a way to prevent them yet, for they were unbidden and unwelcome. She shook off that memory. Her mother's voice often brought nothing but anger and sadness, which was foolishness.

She dashed back around the corner and entered the general store, smiling warmly at the storekeeper. He was always ready with a smile for her, and it was one of the few times in the week where she felt genuinly liked and welcomed somewhere in this port of call. Usually she was looked at with suspicion. Her height was abnormal for a woman, that much she had learnt early on, and it seemed others looked at her as if she was someone else.

She wasn't entirely sure why she'd even bothered to wander into the shop, she didn't need to buy anything today. Her mind was scattered, she realised. Those dreams did that to her, tumbling her brain around inside her skull, causing issues usually for the whole day. Well this won't do she stated to herself, giving the shopkeeper an apologetic smile as she turned on her heel and a marched back out the door. From here she could see the docks and smell the bitter salt of the ocean. It was both an unwelcome and warming smell, reminding her of moments as a child, fishing with her mother's bondmate.