Phoenix laughed at the thought, "I think I'll go crazy trying to explain everything to him...."

"That's nice..."

"Well...there's some emotions I don't know how to explain to you..."

"Isn't that...Jester? Do you see her too, Phoenix...Auburn?" the bird doe looked up at Auni's words, spotting the black doe standing several yards off, in the trees. There she was again, just watching, always watching and waiting. What did she want?! Jester had always been the emaciated sort, her thick black fur generally couldn't hide the skeleton underneath. The designs on her skull were as bright as always, though, and her overly large fangs were as menacing as ever. As the doe walked off, Phoenix noted something off about her...what was it?
" Auni...Auni did you notice the roses on her tines? The white one?" she felt panic flare in her heart.
"Hmmm.....?"
"The white rose is losing it's color...it's turning black, Auni."

Auni rolled onto his back, wiggling around and kicking his legs in the air. Phoenix watched him for a moment, completely taken aback, before answering Auburn, "That is Jester. She's a herd mate, and usually is just as scary as she looks. She can summon demons, confuse you, and she usually runs around and gives Auni and me Hell. I don't know what she wants...she never really says anything. She just unnerves you." The doe got to her feet, half thinking of taking Auni's happiness away. He needed to be serious with Jester around...at least...he should be.
The painted skull of the doe glimmered as she peered at them, her two sets of fangs playing off the light. The black roses dangled from her tines, the white one soon to join. Her thick fur hung off her frame, but that was nothing new. Phoenix couldn't remember a time when she witnessed the doe acting like a living thing, drinking or eating...

"If you want something, talk. Jester. We don't have time to play games."

Phoenix felt her heart flutter...the little doe was brave. Jester better behave. She got to her feet moving to Auni and laying her neck across him, "[=#bbbbdd]Okay, bud we need to be serious now.[/coor]" She got up, turning just in time to watch the doe turn and walk away. Auni got to his feet, the blue swirls gone and replaced with the stripes again.
Phoenix trotted after Auburn. She hated the idea of Jester getting to her...

Phoenix cringed, wondering how this insane demon thing would react.

"They're dead." The doe answered, though the skull face never moved. Her voice was deeper, rusty.

"What are you doing here, demon?" Auni stalked closer, his stripes thinning out and speckled with spots. Phoenix couldn't blame him, though she was more concerned than angry. She watched that impressive head turn to look at him.

"You speak, I thought you just ran...you spineless little runt. Ran and hid behind that doe."

"And we thought you just...I don't know, flitter about and torment everyone," Phoenix found her voice. Her feathers fluffing up.

"Yes."

"Then why are you here, why do you keep popping up? Where the Hell have you been anyway? Kerwin's been wondering."

"That stag can't rule a herd. He can barely face his own memories," the doe scoffed, her body shifting into a skull faced crow, "Come." the voice remained the same.

Auni stopped short, fear running across his pelt.
The bird doe stepped in front of him, trying to protect him with her bulk. The air tugged at her wings, threatening to carry her off. She had to plant her hooves against the ground to remain standing. "You can control the winds too? At least...please tell me that's you doing this, Auburn," she watched as Jester got blown blown into a tree trunk, not without trying to get out of it. She transformed into a wolf at the last second, but it didnt really help anything. The sound of her bones snapping was hard to ignore as she rammed face first into the tree. "Yeah...please tell me that is you."

Both stag and doe just stared at her.
"So...you can get angry," Auni blinked, "That's....I didn't know that could happen."
" Life would be boring if one never discovered anything new about themselves," Phoenix exclaimed softly, "Weird how it was Jester to bring that out in you, she wasn't as rude as she could have been."

The broken bird started to shift, transforming into her wolf form. The thin fur was replaced with thicker black fur, and the mask remained the same. She staggered away from the tree for a few feet, more shaken than harmed. Jester said nothing, raising her head to eye them with contempt.

*Drat, I mixed up on the color codes. The previous one was Kerwin's not Jester's.*

The doe gave a snort that could have been mistaken for a laugh, "If I wanted to do anything, I would have done it by now," she spoke flatly, no aggression in her voice. Her wolf body remained completely lax as well. It confused Auni. His pelt showed it, pocketed with fear. Jester had never backed down aggression before. She'd kill before she'd allow anyone to speak to her like that.
Phoenix shifted, her wings twitching. She didn't like this at all.

The demon looked away, calmly taking her anger, "I can't explain. Not here. Not now...." there was a pause as she took a rattling breath and brought her attention back to them, "Yet, I can show you."

"You're being serious," Phoenix took a step toward her, "You really do need something, if you're going this far. It's got to do with your rose, isn't it? The white one."

The doe's response was to bring herself out of her wolf form and into her doe form, confirming Phoenix's assumption.

"Look at the rose on the bottom tine of her antlers. Ever since I met her, that rose has been white. Pure white, and all the other roses around it are like they are, I guess. Dead, withered. See, it's changing, turning gray."

"It's dying...isn't it, Jester? It's dying and it's not supposed to." Auni stepped up beside his friend, watching the doe give a slow nod.

If the doe was surprised by Auburn's sudden kindness, she didn't show it, "No...not it is not Death. It is worse than that," she started to turn, "Let me show you..." she repeated. Auni glanced at Phoenix. Fear riddled his pelt, but it wasn't as much fear as it was unease. What was worse than death?
The doe returned his look, before brushing the side of her face against his shoulder, starting forward, following the demon.

"Where have you been fluttering about, Jester?" Phoenix asked, "Auni and I miss facing your demons."
The doe didn't respond right away, but when she did her answer was simple "I don't leave the forest."
"Then where do you go?"
""Places you should never wander."
She led them deeper into the forest, where the sky started to vanish under a veil of trees. "Stay close, there are demons here who have lost all hopes for sanity."
"What will become of your crow body? I know Auburn didn't mean to hurt you." the bird doe placed her wing over Auburn.

"Honey, we could beat you in the mental category. Besides, Jester can bring out that anger in someone."

"That form will heal eventually," Jester replied quietly, for once sounding distracted.

"Friends?" Phoenix scoffed. even Jester was taken off guard by that, she stumbled up in surprise. "We're not friends, more like herd-mates. We tolerate each other when we're on neutral ground. When we're not...it's every creature for themselves."
"Fear is nectar of a demon, child. Show no fear, and the average demon can do you no harm until they figure out another weakness. They have no way into your soul."
Auni pressed against Phoenix's side. He was terrified. Here was a place where demons were, everywhere. Here's where his own demons probably resided when they weren't tormenting him.

"Well, Kerwin took us in, technically we're in his herd." Phoenix answered.
"Where I can show you what I need to show you," Jester replied, "Don't fret your pretty little head, you're under my protection. No demon will harm you while I'm here."
"How do you expect us to believe that?" Auni challenged.
"Look at it this way. Have I done anything to you since I found you?"
"Well no, not yet."
"If I was going to do anything I would have done it by now."

Phoenix tried to comfort both of them, wrapping them up in her feathers as they walked. She didn't know what Jester was up to, but she seemed oddly distracted, "It'll be okay," she whispered to Auburn.

The skull doe led them down an embankment, full of tall grass with a pool of water at its center. The water was black, just as the grass was, as if it was permanently in shadow. Auni stalled at the top, his nostrils flaring, but Phoenix followed after Jester. She saw them as well, but she ignored them, half hoping Auni would do the same.

Around embankment demons stalked, the very same ones that tormented the stag.

Auni followed the little doe timidly.

"There's no use, nothing with a heart lives here, child." Jester murmured softly, watching the little doe try to grow something, "Not even the life within you can bloom in this place."

Phoenix looked at the pool, then the area around them, "So...what's the deal? Why did you bring us here?"

The doe brought her skulled head down to the water, just barely touching the surface. It rippled, like a feather's wispy vanes traveling across the surface. A white orb appeared, a somewhat spotty, gradual appearance. Phoenix took several steps closer, watching. The orb shone brightly, even though it was surrounded by darkness. Phoenix was intrigued, glancing over to see Auni watching nervously as well. It was like a beacon, sucking her in. The orb suddenly glowed brighter, before starting to die seconds later, the white becoming spotted with gray, ever so slowly becoming as black as the surrounding water. The bird doe looked up, seeing Jester watching her expectantly.
"I...I don't understand...is it related to your rose? Does it mean your soul is dying, your hope is dying? It's being taken over..." she shook her head, at a loss, "Why can't you just tell us?"

Jester just shook her head, actually looking disappointed, if a skull faced could do that.

She shook her head slowly, almost dilberately, "I can't tell you," her voice was somewhere between a hiss and a whisper, "Or he'll....he'll know." A petal fell from the rose, floating down to the water's surface. It floated there a moment, a beautiful radiating white, before it was burned into a black, withering husk.

"You've met someone more powerful than you, is that it? Someone who let you wander into their trap, and now you're their...their puppet. Is that it?"

"If that it's, then you better hide...'cause I'm about to rip your neck off for endangering us as well," the bird doe growled.

Darn, I had this whole thing written out and then I clicked the wrong button and it went away. It made me cry a little on the inside.




Jester slowly shook her head, "That cannot be done. He will kill you simply for existing, child. He is powerful and capable of destroying everything in his grasp. I...I only brought you here," she turned her attention completely to Phoenix, "to relay this back to Kerwin."

The spiral antlered stag snorted, "You know his name?"
The pond rippled softly, as if stirred by the breath of the wind. Jester glanced toward it, but looked back as Phoenix answered.
"Why would Kerwin want to know this?"
"Please, just tell him. You must go, he's sensed something's amiss, something's darker than normal in his eye. Go."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just go. Now. While you have a chance."

It would be perfectly fine!

And sorry I haven't answered the RP thing, I'll get on that.

((Sorry I hadn't gotten around to replying to this RP until now D: I had been getting headaches recently and I think it's because I spend too much time on the computer so I'm lessening the amount I'm on my laptop. So if I don't respond right away, now you know why. ))

Auburn's pelt frizzled in fear. Paranoid, she looked left and right, her eyes deceiving her of seeing demons.

"W-what do we do now?" she stuttered, looking up at Pheonix with worry.

I was wondering. Could Ursula meet Auni in the forest sometime?
(My bio is really boring and im in dire need to put something interesting in it )

Im online now if you want to meet up

Great. My doe Ursula will be near the crying idol.

Im having a great time

Hehehe!

Ursula is doing good too. At first she was a little shy and a bit aggressive but she is enjoying her day.