...sits in a semi-circle. They are widely varied, pelts of rainbow hues and antlers in all shapes and sizes-or none at all. Upon looking closer, one can see that some sit just a little further away, or in peculiar manners. Some have taken to the shadows, others to the light. All of them are waiting...

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[Some loud and very loud music. You've been warned.]

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It was getting late. Bones looked over her shoulder at the piles of paper on a table lurking in a dark far corner of the room. Information, scribbled notes, leads, connections, phone numbers they were all there. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.
I'm getting too old for this shit. Just a few years ago I could track down a lost cat without a collar in New York City. she sighed again and took a long sip of wine. Nothing had given her any trail of Masque's lost kid. Des Rameux. This was the last day she had given herself. A week of research as always, and then she'd be "booking flights". Brooklyn was where all the clues were leading her, Masque told her the same... Suspiciously she glanced up at the pale calendar roughly nailed to the wall. November the 22nd. It would be a miracle if she could find this kid in time for Thanksgiving...

Des Rameux...
Des Rameux...

She ripped the phone from the wall, with a melody of numbers following soon after.
"Masque, I need to know everything." a mumbled and irritated reply came seconds later.
"Shit Bones, it's 2 in the goddamned morning, what the hell could you possibly want?"
Bones tapped a pencil on the desk and bit her lip.
"Is there anything you've left out about what you know about your kid?"
"No, I told you everyting." Pause. "Look, babe I never asked you to do this."
"Shut up. Are you positive there's nothing else I should know?"
"No." the stern reply came and with it Bones hung up.

She swept the papers up from the desk and stuffed them in a leather suitcase, various corners and pieces stuck out on all sides. "No time like the present." she mumbled to herself as she swept her coat onto her shoulders and set out on her search for Des Rameux.




[i]I slept on the train ride to New York, walked the familiar streets as an x-resident. How long it had been?...

It is here where we are born, in the mists of the wood. The air is thick, heavy, and visions are blurred. All around us our shadows, enigmas who wrap around their newest affectionately. In the distance the sounds of water crashing into an ancient creek bed can be heard, ears afloat to all that they can capture. However, it is that sound that becomes the memorable tune that reminds us that we could just as easily been drowned beneath its waters. Though we never do drown, do we? All these forces keep us away from any death. Even in the depths of the darkness we succumb to as we slumber we live, never knowing why the flames never snuff out.

I knew such a birth for a moment. I awoke to strange sensations, sensations I knew when I first experienced life as one of them, but today I was not young. My legs were stout and my antlers long. I could feel the magic grasp onto me, always making this place aware of my presence. Things were not the same, though. My antlers no longer flickered with the flames of candles, my face no longer was hidden by the thickened callous of a skull, and my pelt could blow in the breeze as the wind whipped between the trees. Things were not right, and I was panicked.

With each leap I tried to get away from this strange body, and each time I fell with my hooves sinking deeper into the ground to remind me that escape was not so easy. It was through a shake of my head as I fought that I caught the glimmer of an ethereal stone. I could hear its trickle, and I remembered such sounds meaning water. Perhaps it was the solution to changing me back. As I crept forward I found the waters shallow, too shallow to throw myself into. As I looked down into it, I could see reflections of the sky…and of myself. It was the image of a sickening creature, one I had chosen to forget. In that reflection I was nothing.

[=Sylfaen][=15]The sun was bright, golden rays that slipped past the protective canopy above. There was a slight chill to the air, it was late October so that was to be expected. Or maybe it was the forest preparing itself for the coming of the Dark Lord.

However, I luckily had yet to encounter any darkness on this fine day, though I did not know it was going to follow soon...

I pranced through the forest, chasing the butterflies and the squirrels, letting the bright sunlight warm my white pelt. The air was crisp and my breath left a smokey fog as I called out across the forest, to tell all where I was. I lifted my head high, ears pricked forward, strained against my pole as I listened for any returned calls. There was only one. It came from closer to the large old oak.

I trembled and shook myself off, moving toward the tree slowly. The shadows cast lay long over the forest floor, beating away the warmth and comfort of the sun above. I slowed, then finally stopped, gazing ahead at the base of the tree where an old stag stood. I lowered my head slowly, breathing out again before my nares flared, taking in a deep breath. He did not seem to be a foe. I crept forward, lowering my head and bowing down to him in greeting. I did not know how he would respond, so I stepped back, waiting.

He turned toward me, eyes red, or so they appeared. I felt my body tremble, and I cringed back away from him in fright. He roared, lowering the great set that adorned his scalp. I quickly backed away, almost falling over my own hooves in my desperate attempt to get away. He did not pursue, merely turned back to where he stood over a sleeping deer that I could now see hidden half behind one of the edges of the dead oak.

I lowered my head sadly, the memories flickering through my mind of running alone, hooves flailing behind me as the large stag had attacked. I turned away.

The forest surrounded me, keeping me in the darkness of the leaves.