March 22, 2012 - 6:27pm — Apeldille
Private RP for Apel, Sight, and Mis. Feel free to track, but please don't join! :>
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Deep within the birch forest, in the sun-dappled shadow a large sycamore tree, the raven stag sat, patiently waiting, thinking. It is a good place, he thought. There was both soft grass, softer than most in the Birch, and warm sandy spot. Gehirn would like that. And perhaps best of all, the bushes, tall grass, and scrawny birch trees all around them made the place hard to find. He didn't want any disturbances or intruders for this.
He had suggested it lightly, not sure she would take up his offer: a Dreamwalk to the past, into dreams and sceneries unknown, old magic at work. Now, later, he hesitated. Was this really a wise thing to do? He did not fear for himself; slipping back and forth through reality's cracks was something he had mastered a long time ago.
She had worried about her strange dreams, wondering what they meant, afraid she would get caught in them; to never wake up. He had thought that maybe a controlled experience would let her explore them freely, to embrace them instead of fear them. He still thought it could work... but fervently hoped it wouldn't end in any mental traumas. Gehirn was going too, and for that he was grateful; Herla would likely feel safer with her mate beside her.
In his mind he went through the steps. Nothing extraordinary, a dreamwalk like any other. It would go well.
He closed his eyes, trying to relax. Birds sang in the distance, newly awakened butterflies fluttered silently around the bushes, and the glittering birch forest dust dance slowed down as the morning breeze disappeared. The day grew warmer in the spring sunlight.
Now, he just had to wait for the others.
Ephire can only shrug at
"See you", he says absentmindedly when the guard gets up to leave. Right. Time for rest. As Gehirn had said, the knowledge of where the priest Epaphos lives is there in his mind. A white house, surrounded by a garden, beside a temple. When he elaborates on the thought, he can almost see the way there, too. How convenient. As he readies himself to leave too, he suddenly hears soft, heavy steps behind him, where Gehirn went just moments ago. He turns his head just in time to see a large leopard jump on his friend.
"What...", he manages to say, completely surprised, and quickly rises from the chair. Herla comes running after the animal only a moment later, grabbing its collar and rebuking it.
Bewilderment is apparent in the tall man's face as he walks over to the pair, keeping his eyes on the leopard while Herla talks to Garai. The large cat turns his head towards him, eyes narrow and a deep growl in its throat. Ephiré squats down, meeting the cat's gaze silently at first, then a deep, humming, almost-a-growl slips out of his mouth. The cat, suddenly wide-eyed, goes silent. Then a deep purring can be heard, and the cat stretches its head as far as possible -- with Herla still holding its collar -- to rub its head against Ephiré's hand. The man looks up, turning to Garai.
"Did it hurt you?", he says, and there is worry in his voice. There's no telling how an injury in this universe will affect their deer bodies back in the Forest.
Gehirn glances outside for a
Turning his head to look in front of him once more, the man stopped in his tracks immediately. In front of him, almost in slow-motion, an enormous cat jumped at him. The creature seemed to pull daylight with it, changing the environment immediately. He was outside? Gehirn had no time to wonder though, no time to be confused. In a split second, the animal was on top of him. With a loud thud, he fell back. The man was too confused to call out for help, or let out anything else than a yelp.
Only when he heard a familiar voice call out to the cat, seemingly pulling it back, did he slowly come to realization what had happened. He realized, he didn’t know.
This was all too vague.
As Herla pulled the leopard away, Gehirn stumbled back, trying to get away from the monster as far as he could. The fear was apparent in his eyes. Right now was an unlucky moment to not wear much armor, so it seemed. A bloody, but luckily undeep scratch had been made right across the man’s chest. He looked down to the blood dripping towards the ground, staining the grass. In bewilderment, Gehirn led his hand slip over the wound, watching the blood drip from his fingers. In seconds, he’d realize that was his, and it’d start to hurt.
“Ah, damn!” He cursed out, the pain becoming apparent. “What? Why on earth did this just happen?” Whatever ‘this’ was. Realising the awkward position he was in, the man got up, still taking a step back from the leopard. And how was a small woman like Herla keeping it back? Even Ephapos seemed to befriend the thing! Gehirn frowned. “That thing is evil.” He pointed towards the leopard, who growled at him in return. It seemed the man made a little, wide-eyed jump at this. “See!”
The small woman had an iron
This all happened in an instant, and her attention was quickly drawn back to the guard, the bleeding guard, scrambling to his feet and back from the big cat, his hand going to the wound upon his chest and coming back covered in blood, shouting at the cat and looking extremely confused and rattled. All that red upon his chest, it dripped onto the garden ground and she had a vision of another red chest. Looking up into his alarmed face, she saw Gehirn standing before her and not the man. Clearing her head of the double vision, she had enough sense to know to get the bleeding man away from Atun. Taking his arm, she led him out of the garden and into a sitting room, sitting him down an ornate silk covered chaise sofa, unheeding of the blood that dripped upon it, tearing her own fine linen shift and pressing the cloth upon the bleeding wound. Her heart was racing, how bad was it? How deep? There was so much blood and it saturated the cloth quickly, she couldn’t see it well, so she just held the cloth there instead, hoping it would stop, her own face going paler at the sight of it. She would need another cloth soon. The continued double vision of seeing the face of Garai and that of Gehirn juxtaposed before her eyes compounded her disorientation though, and a question formed upon her lips ”Who are you?” not are you alright, or what happened? No. Who are you? And who was she?