Wild Dreams // [Cantara vs. Andal, Day 8]
Dec 10, 2022 23:22:05 GMT -5
Post by Baby Wessex d9b [earthling] on Dec 10, 2022 23:22:05 GMT -5
The moment she'd emerged from the cavernous tunnels Cantara had collasped onto the earth. It wasn't comfortable. The cliffs edging the lake had been overtaken by an abrasive sort of moss and it scratched her delicate skin, invading beyond the reach of her dark fur. It was made of pebbles and rocks and undulating hills. And yet still, once she collapsed, she slept.
Until a howl pierced her slumber and called to her soul. She could hear the hissing too, at a different frequency. It yearned. But not for her. It was easy enough to ignore that undertone as she gathered her strength. She came to standing, on two legs, knees bent irrevocably backwards. Eyes closed, she tilted her face to the moonlight.
The anthem beats, her heart surging to meet the rhythm. There are faces -- so many faces -- she knows. Their names, yes, but those names were given to them by someone she's never met. That's not important. She knows their scents, their fight style, their will to live --
And then Silver's face plays across the heavens.
Cantara draws a deep breath --
-- and exhales fog so thick it's a little cloud unto itself.
It hangs there, rotating of its own energy. Anika's face plays out last and Cantara finds that seeing her greyed out makes her heart twist. But if she thinks too hard about why -- that Anika saw her and Cash through a difficult strait, that Anika spoke confidently, that Anika knew Cash at all -- she can't continue thinking.
It's such a simple thing. To not think at all. Why hadn't she known that, all along?
Cheeks aflame, Cantara takes to all fours. She spends the night, the blissful, cool, shadowed time in the arena, hunting. She has only the call, the howl, the raising, to go on. But she knows that voice. She's heard it before, just not quite like that. Lucky for her, he's called the hounds of hell to him, never knowing that it's just her
Cantara
who has heeded the summoning.
The smell of rot greets her and she can't blame it. She left this cursed, sickening place behind days ago. Cash had carried her out, his soft hands holding her shattered bone together. Cantara takes a deep breath of the stale air, trying to find him.
Instead, she inhales a breath full of sour water. A spectre of herself crashes, bodily, over. A wave of the Lake's making and even as she recognizes the mass for what it is, Cantara nearly chokes --
She comes up sputtering.
But only for a moment. And the next - a deep breath - her exhale does not crystallize. She does not wheeze. The leg that Cash had held together feels remarkably whole. All of her feels... neutral. Base zero. Normal.
Cantara flexes her claws - yes, gleaming golden, once again - through the fur over the top of her head and around her jaw. Her fur still drips as she dars to open her yellowed eyes over the remains of the Gothic Castle. She's tracked him this far and even with the dousing, she knows someone else lurks nearby.
Spitting out the last of the tainted swamp water, Cantara rakes her claws down the torch. Friction ignites the flame, bringing the torch to life. Her upper lip twitches. "You called?" Cantara whispers. And then, with more conviction, "'Fraid I don't have the answer you were looking for."
Until a howl pierced her slumber and called to her soul. She could hear the hissing too, at a different frequency. It yearned. But not for her. It was easy enough to ignore that undertone as she gathered her strength. She came to standing, on two legs, knees bent irrevocably backwards. Eyes closed, she tilted her face to the moonlight.
The anthem beats, her heart surging to meet the rhythm. There are faces -- so many faces -- she knows. Their names, yes, but those names were given to them by someone she's never met. That's not important. She knows their scents, their fight style, their will to live --
And then Silver's face plays across the heavens.
Cantara draws a deep breath --
-- and exhales fog so thick it's a little cloud unto itself.
It hangs there, rotating of its own energy. Anika's face plays out last and Cantara finds that seeing her greyed out makes her heart twist. But if she thinks too hard about why -- that Anika saw her and Cash through a difficult strait, that Anika spoke confidently, that Anika knew Cash at all -- she can't continue thinking.
It's such a simple thing. To not think at all. Why hadn't she known that, all along?
Cheeks aflame, Cantara takes to all fours. She spends the night, the blissful, cool, shadowed time in the arena, hunting. She has only the call, the howl, the raising, to go on. But she knows that voice. She's heard it before, just not quite like that. Lucky for her, he's called the hounds of hell to him, never knowing that it's just her
Cantara
who has heeded the summoning.
The smell of rot greets her and she can't blame it. She left this cursed, sickening place behind days ago. Cash had carried her out, his soft hands holding her shattered bone together. Cantara takes a deep breath of the stale air, trying to find him.
Instead, she inhales a breath full of sour water. A spectre of herself crashes, bodily, over. A wave of the Lake's making and even as she recognizes the mass for what it is, Cantara nearly chokes --
She comes up sputtering.
But only for a moment. And the next - a deep breath - her exhale does not crystallize. She does not wheeze. The leg that Cash had held together feels remarkably whole. All of her feels... neutral. Base zero. Normal.
Cantara flexes her claws - yes, gleaming golden, once again - through the fur over the top of her head and around her jaw. Her fur still drips as she dars to open her yellowed eyes over the remains of the Gothic Castle. She's tracked him this far and even with the dousing, she knows someone else lurks nearby.
Spitting out the last of the tainted swamp water, Cantara rakes her claws down the torch. Friction ignites the flame, bringing the torch to life. Her upper lip twitches. "You called?" Cantara whispers. And then, with more conviction, "'Fraid I don't have the answer you were looking for."
[Cantara attacks Andal; torch + fire]
cKjCikgHAZblunt
[Gash/Bruised Left Arm -- 3.0 damage]
1-50
[Minor burn +2]
cKjCikgHAZblunt
[Gash/Bruised Left Arm -- 3.0 damage]
1-50
[Minor burn +2]
blunt·1-50