[V] Heartbeat

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
[V] Heartbeat

For months the darkness had caged the fallen cripple, being joyous for his victory, then facing the strenght of simple souls that lived in this forest, defending what belonged to them, what belonged to the forest.

Tired from the continuous attacks of care the residents had shown towards the small buck, he had finally given in, deciding the body was not worth it anymore.
With cracked limbs it had gone back to where it had originally stolen the cripple from, and dropped the lifeless body onto the ground, next to the sheepskin that still laid there.

The dark brown stag stood in front of the aperture, blowing out hot steam towards the creature, who indeed did look like someone from a nightmare.
The beast wasn't afraid of the creature, as he haven't been afraid of anyone since his youthhood.
There he would stand, blocking the nightmare's path, scraping his enormous antlers onto the entry's ceiling slowly, waiting for an answer, pure intimidation flowing out from the every cell of his existence.

The last word was pronounced like there would have been a grin on his face, and truly did his jaws open a bit, flashing out his already visible teeth.

The grin of the Nightmare soon faded.
A moment followed where he was lost for words, staring at the one that now pulled out a threat to shove at him. It was nothing to make him scared, as touch had never hurt him.
A chuckle formed behind the closed mouth.

He muttered to himself, taking a step forward to hide the buck's body behind him,
flicking his head upwards as his voice was raised.

There was the familiar unpleasant feeling inside him as the final words made his gaze to rise back on the dark stag, only having time to open his mouth before he was slammed against the back of the Oak's wall.
A loud, echoing sound came from the stag's antlers as they hit the wood, the Nightmare pinned in between them.

Shock covered his pitch black face. He could be... touched?
The body made of smoke... was broken?

Silence filled the air as the creature looked down, seeing the tines of the other having gone straight through him.
Slowly, the cracks on him spread, more white appearing on his body, mist and vines suppressing and pulling back, some of them still wriggling around and desperately trying to move the beast away from him.

With the final words the rest of the shadow entity fell down, the darkness swallowed by the ground and several pieces laying on the ground with a white halo curled around them.
They were all things brought to Nidhem, that had caused the first cracks to appear.

Little did the Nightmare know that there was someone who could touch him.
This kind of love was a force he could not take.

The small buck was now freed from his captor, his heart beating for the first time in months.

The heartbeats slowly pumped blood into the veins of the small body, warmth starting to return into his limbs.
Soon enough he began to breathe, his sides rising and descending, some small huffs being heard from his bony nostril.
A twitch of a backleg, and suddenly his tail curved between his legs, body pulling itself into the fawn-like position as a small whiny groan came out, as if asking for more time to sleep.

The stag wouldn't force it. He sat down next to the body after he had collected all the things laying around the ground and placed them in front of the small one.
He would sit there as long as the buck would need him, if he was even needed in the end.

He would stay anyway, for now.

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Oh look, an ending?

After problems with a huge artblock monster I told it to step aside for a moment since I really needed my boy back.
This was something like a collab with Tuoho, as we roleplayed the whole thing, and I just went and modified the rp into this.

Thanks to everyone who took part in this plot, since the thing that defeated the Nightmare was all the help that your characters provided.
Morgül was the final thing to seal to deal kinda. As cheesy as it may sound, love that's deep enough is a force I think no one can beat :I

Ahhhh so happy to get my boy back sdafklsdagfksdlg ♥

Also, I decided to not put any music in this mostly because none really fit perfectly, and it gives the reader room to interpret things the way they want to.