Teeth click with a snap, fangs bared in another threat.
Fur up, hackles raised.
She's growling at ghosts now, mountain song and cracking boulders.
Hisses slice the silence up, sharped knife against paper thin.
Those eyes are wide, ruby death staring into the abyss.
Pupils so wide they hide the red, now they're sinking into slits.
That red glows, that red speaks deep.
The things that she's seen. The things that she's seen.
Lips pulled back, ears battened down.
Shoulders hunched, head lowered.
Lethal crown ready as the flowers fall one by one.
She is a monster.
She is a god.
And what are Gods if not monsters?
Those black hooves strike the ground, one single drumbeat.
Death dealers.
Scars bristle under shining fur.
Nightmare no longer monochrome.
Those teeth snap again, sharp click.
Angry sound.
Bitter beast.
Lost potential.
Lost past.
Lost soul.
She is the remainder.
The One That Endures.
The One Who Stands Still.
Remember who she once was.
She is the devourer.
She is the creator.
The waning light and the shock of lighting.
Remember what she is now.
Outsider.
Shell.
Imperfect space.
Mother.
Wanderer.
The Lost One.
The Broken Thing.
She breaks, she mends.
Trys to get better then slips again.
You can't escape the red.
Can't leave the dead.
She sees all their skeletons.
Their blood is on her hands.
In her heart.
Their voices sound in her head.
Screaming their damnation.
Screaming their pleas.
She is a nobody
And you just made a mistake

The stag swayed, his head held high as he floated through the forest. In all ideals, the black and white beast would be a wonderful competitor in the season of autumn and her rutting games, but he chose against partaking out of principle. No, Moss didn't think himself the better when compared to the participants. In fact, just one year ago, he felt himself inferior to those who could take up their tines and fight for the females. Now, though, he just watched them do what they were born and bred for.

Bugling echoed back and forth. Each white ear picked up the sound of another pair of potential knights. I hope they find what it is they desire. The silent prayer was sent out through thin lips shaped in a mild grin. Any further prayer was cut short by the deafening sound of bones upon bones. It made the stag's blood run cold and muscles burn with heat at the same exact moment. His ears pinned but yearned to hear it again. Black eyes closed, he fought to keep them from opening to go and watch the deer partake in their battle, whether it be mock or not. From the sounds of it, maybe two gargantuan beasts were brawling. If so, he would find large swathes of tilled earth and broken trees to mark their arena later. The forest was already dotted with a few such spaces, and would be peppered by the time they finished.

Silently, the stag marched on. The mannerisms of the moose were apparent, though he was nowhere near such a size. The plod at which he held his gait was slow and meandering, as if he were unaware that war raged on around him. It was then that he crested a small hill and found a gathering of does below. They surrounded the giants that were fighting for their maidenhoods. The scents of musk and estrus mingled on the wind. It only seemed to drive them harder at their goals.

It behooved Moss to take a moment to share the does' respect. These stags sweat and bled as they tested the other's strength.

I woke up with flowers in my antlers, neat-o! What a great way to start the day! I'm still getting the ropes here and met some wonderful bucks today. One gave me a pelt (I'm now brown!!) and another stayed and hanged out with me. I'm still pretty new to the woods here and really enjoyed meeting you guys! It surprised me seeing so many fighting today, I hear a "rut" is going on? That is interesting. Take care guys, have fun. Again thanks to the buck who gave me a pelt and the buck who hanged out with me, thank you for your patience! Hope you have a nice day.

- Avery

this is for testing!

I'm late to this LOL

Twist eye had not noticed until recently that some of the deer were different from the others. Sure, there had been the obvious differences in color, antlers, and behaviors, but to the genderless mistchild there had never been much of a distinction between male and female.

The season of the rut was a time in which such things became much more important. The deer she had seen sticking in large groups with fawns were seeking out the larger, somewhat more solitary ones. The does were looking for stags to sire the next generation, and prospective fathers were ready to fight for the opportunity to mate. It was a fact of life, a fact that had never occurred to the lone fawn, born of the air. Not until recently.

Twist eye had been watching stags fight. They weren't fighting over it; the mistchild was too young, and lacked a doe's gift to bear life, but she watched with an artist's eye, listened to every clack of antler and every step, smelled the emotion in the air- Twist eye was inspired. They only barely seemed to notice it watching, but by the end of it, Twist eye had been as exhausted as the stags, having tried to imitate all their best lunges and parries with invisible opponents.

Now back beside the pond, Twist eye looked down at it's- no, his reflection. The mistchild's shifting abilities had morphed it's previously ambiguous form into that of a youthful buckling, widening his frame, thickening his neck and slimming down his underbelly. There were even two false buttons where horns or antlers might be on a full-grown buck. It was a temporary change, yes, but the mistchild was proud of it. It wouldn't be long, it thought while it's form returned to normal, before Twist eye would be able to fight like the big stags.

So sometimes when I go on to play the game, it connects and says that it connected, but nobody appears! It even says the right number of them in the menu. At the moment the number is 70. I've tried running as administrator and checking to see that in the Display menu it's set to see all other players, but it still doesn't work. What do? Is there any easy way to fix this rather than to simply wait until it works again?

note: new bio, new character, semi-noobish player. Design by Tuhka.



set: fan/hands/antelope
species: gemsbok antelope