Had anyone heard her final scream? Did anyone actually notice her limp corpse beside the crying idol? Covered in her own blood and the stray water droplets of the idol. Could they smell the young blood spilled in the air? Did they even care? She wondered how they would have felt to wake up, nothing more than a mindless ghost. Repeating the last moments of her life. For over a decade she went on like this. Screaming bloody murder, but never getting noticed the least. Koysta could remember how helpless she felt. She was tethered to the spot, though while she screamed and screamed she never acknowledged this. She didn't have a full consciousness, which meant she never thought about her situation. She wasn't sure how or when she began to notice herself, her surroundings, everything. But once she did the screaming grew less and less. She could soon sit up, than stand up. Eventually she could walk or rather float.

But once again, none of the inhabitants of the forest noticed her. For over a century she tried to show them she still walked among them, but it was always fruitless. The best she managed to do was create a small breeze. She couldn't even enter the dreams of the residents and show herself. She was trapped in some sort of limbo. Eventually she took to spending most of her time in the shadowed parts of the the pond, or up high in the ruins, feeling sorry for herself. She had learned quickly sunlight wasn't something she could enjoy anymore. It chilled her to her very core, so did simple warmth. She wondered what sort of horrible crime she must have caused to be stuck like this. Her mind drew a blank when she tried to figure it out. Soon she gave up trying to figure out the reason and simply prayed to the gods, only asking to go to the afterlife. For she refused to believe this was the true one.

When Koysta had lived, she had been a shape shifter. Her original shape was a humanoid female, which deer features. Like antlers with festive feathers and hooves. Her other shape was that of a silver doe with streaks of brown though the fur. When she had died she wore a mask, day of the day she was told once. By who, she couldn't remember. It had bright blues and purples around the mouth and eyes, the rest was white, with lines of black. It was now a part of her, she had never been able to take it off, for a reason unknown to her. The mask was the only color on her. Her once oak colored hair had become a misty silver, her skin like china, and her once colorful feathers had turned a dark gray and were sagging. Not that she cared anymore. She never saw her reflection, for even the water failed to notice her.

When she wasn't pitying herself she was wandering the forest. Looking for familiar faces. She rarely found them, for the faces of the living were blurred. Save for the skulled ones. But she didn't care about those ones. She may have continued this routine forever if she hadn't been up in the ruins one day, Pitying. She sat with her knees under her chin, her eyes staring at nothing. Birds chattered and various deer mooed. Koysta had come to dislike that sound. It was annoying. She watched two deer, a mother and child walk past the ruins. There was nothing special about them that interest Koysta so she ignored them. It wasn't until she heard talking that she looked at them again. The child, or fawn if you may was looking up at her with big brown eyes. It was speaking to its mother in a curious voice.
“Mama, what's that ones name?”, she couldn't tell the gender, for it looked like every other fawn. Koysta looked around her, the ruins were pretty empty today. Not even a crow sat in them. So she ignored it again until the fawn spoke again. It was starting to get on her nerves.
“Mama, don't you see em? Look way up high.” Still nothing but Koysta. By now the fawn was rearing, trying to show the mother where it was looking. The mother had a puzzled look on her face, as if she was trying to decide if her child's behavior was a game or insanity . Unable to decide the mother bit her young's ear and pulled it away. Mumbling something Koysta couldn't catch.

She pondered these words for the rest of the day. She began to notice more fawns would look her direction, even some of the bird would fly away when she moved. A few months later, she found herself at the pond. She was about to go down into the murky depths when she noticed something white in the water. At first she thought it was the bones of some kind of creature. But when she leaned into get a better look she realized it was her mask. The colors still as bright as the day she got it. Her fingers trailed the mask's smooth surface. The rest of her reflection was a blurry humanoid shape. After that every day she returned to looked at herself. Most of the time nothing changed but soon her reflection grew solder. She finally got the courage to take off the mask. It came off with a hard tug. She was shocked for over a century, give or take a few years she hadn't been able to take it off. Her spirits rose. Maybe this wasn't hell after all. She threw the mask on the ground, watching it shatter into many pieces. She felt happy for the first time, until she turned around and saw the mask sitting in the water. She threw it far into the pond, than looked down at her hooves and saw it sitting at them. She couldn't figure out why so she just put up with it. Nothing could get her down again. Maybe this wasn't hell after all.

In the passing years she took less time to pity herself and more time trying to become noticed. This time it seemed the others were starting to see her. Her hair had returned to its oak color, but had silver stripes in it. Her feathers had even began to return to their previous color. She figured the whole experience had been a test of will power from the gods, but she was never sure. But she liked to think it was, which kept her going every day. For a while she kept to herself, but she found she enjoyed company more. The sun still chilled her, but she simply stayed in the coolest parts of the forest. Keeping herself busy so she wouldn't have to reflect on her stay in hell.


*I think the ending is pretty cheesy. But I'm happy with it.