[Cursed Crone] Two Challengers Approach

SPITE [WC: 402]

Somehow, Spite had never really imagined returning home. Yet, as she and Marius followed the winding, twisted path south towards the Sunless Jungle, there was a familiarity in the dense shadow of trees overhead that settled in her chest like a long-lost memory.

Her gaze followed the edges of their route, peering around the trunks of trees and hanging vines for any signs of threat around them, though their travel had been quiet thus far. To most, she appeared vigilant; perhaps intense, but no more than what was normal for the venomhex mage. To one familiar with her ways, it was clear she was on edge. There was a subtle flare of her nostril and a tension in her wings that betrayed emotions she rarely let surface. For all she tried to hide her fear, she was nervous. Word of a monster in her homeland had spread across the lands of Namarast; of a beast so sorrowful and brooding and dark that it threatened to ebb away the very lifeforce in anyone misfortune enough to cross it. Moreover, there were reports that it was violent, and wreaking havoc on the locals. For all the conflicting emotions Spite felt about the lands of her birth, she could not let a monstrous force destroy it. She had to protect her homelands, even if they had ceased to be her home.

In a rare moment of distraction, Spite's eye caught Marius's, his shocking pale coat a rare moment of bright against such a dim backdrop. It was easy to forget that she had met him here, a mere day's travel from where they now walked. When they had first met, they had been enemies on opposite sides of a battlefield. Now, they returned as allies. She was glad he was there; her pace keeping her close at his side for her own security. Though they traveled into danger, she was comforted by his presence, his own solidarity on this mission pushing her to face the past she wished she could forget. Though she longed to pause and breathe in his scent, a desperate attempt to remind herself all would be okay, she tore her gaze forward after a lingering moment. "We can't be too far now," she spoke, more for herself than for any true prediction of their travel. An assurance that, though they had barely begun, this had to be over soon.

MARIUS [wc: 216 ] 

The anxiety, for Marius, had been building ever since the Sunless Jungle had risen up before them in the distance. It was visible in the telltale nervous tail-flicking that he'd started a little over an hour ago, and if one looked too closely they'd notice his gaze wider than usual. Despite all of this, he pushed through the feelings of heaviness, insecurity, fear. Rage. He allowed them their moment, then kept walking. Though the feelings didn't stay banished for long, they resurfaced more often than he was willing to admit. Needling into his mind, reminding him of his sorrows and the life he'd ruined: here, upon these lands. He had to be strong, though: not only for himself, but for Spite. She was relying on him to have her back, and he was here to prove he always would.

Her voice was a welcome break from the silence they'd been sharing. "It feels," He swallowed thickly and shuffled a few paces closer. "It feels different, doesn't it? Heavier." He cast a long, slow look around them. The jungle itself was its own brand of darkness, but now something else seems to have made its home here. Stronger, sadder. Frankly, he just hoped this venture didn't end in more lives lost.

SPITE [wc: 334]

Wallowing so deep in her own melancholic memories, Spite had noted but not fully processed her companion's mental state. Her own mind was so overwhelmed with repressed thoughts and emotions threatening to bubble to the surface that keeping herself in check had been a challenge enough, but she couldn't dare forget that she was not the only one haunted by these woods. She saw the hesitation in his step, a barely detectable pause in his gait, accompanied by the guarded expression of one trying to rapidly work through a difficult sentiment, and was reminded that his past was just as raw of a wound as her own.

Her footsteps mirrored his own as he shuffled nearer to him and she bridged the gap, their shoulders just brushing as they paced ever onward. "The air feels stale here, somehow. Like nothing has changed since we left yet so much is lost—" She paused mid-sentence, searching Marius's expression for what, she did not know. The strength she lacked, now that she was here in her old lands? Comfort she had no right to ask of him with the heavy emotions he too was wrestling? She sighed lowly, more to release the tension she had built in the moment than anything else. "Whatever is out there…we need to be careful. We've already suffered enough." It felt odd to say it out loud, voice the past she longed so desperately to shove down. Yet, she feared their trauma would only compound whatever threat they were here to face. The crushing, visceral, dark sadness that seemed to ebb in the air stank of corrupted magic and threatened to compound all the complicated emotions she felt simply to be back in these jungles. Still, she moved to gently nuzzle into Marius's neck, breathing in his familiar scent to ground herself in this moment. His presence was enough to bring her comfort. In him, in them, she had something to fight for greater than the lands that had exiled her. 

MARIUS [wc: 324 ]

Spite would only find warmth when she searched his gaze, he made sure of it. Marius intentionally pushed only the fondest memories to the forefront of his mind: all the quiet moments, rare shared jokes, and the general feelings of affection he held for his best friend. It was all he could do, especially when he caught the look in her eyes. He wanted to wipe that clean, so he offered all the comfort he could possibly muster in that moment. Words escaped him as nothing felt like it even touched on the gravity of their shared situation. But they were here. Together.

He arched his neck into Spite and brushed his tail along hers, keeping their steps in relative time. They could do this, they had to, and they'd survived far worse. However, the needling sensation in his mind continued: flashes of horror, desperation, and terror. Marius worked through them as they came, pressing ever closer to Spite - whose very existence seemed to ease the sensations - or slowing down to correct his breathing when they overwhelmed him. They could do this. Pushing that mantra through his mind, he willed it to be true. It needed to be true, damnit.

The darkness was definitely growing around them, tightening its grip. It felt like someone was pouring water down his back: sometimes it was lukewarm, and other times it turned to ice. The sorrow was almost palpable and the thought that maybe it wasn't them, their shared trauma and fears, and that it was something else. Marius peered through the gloom, and then stopped very abruptly so he could listen. It was eerily quiet, where one would expect the sounds of nature and the cry of birds there was nothing but deafening silence.

He swallowed, the sound far too loud in the silence of the jungle. "I have a feeling we're very close now, please be careful."

SPITE [wc: 470]

Ever in sync with Marius, Spite kept her muzzle to her fur for a few steps longer, letting the peace of him wash over her, feeling him press almost imperceptibly into her touch. They had shared many long silences, countless comforting touches; sometimes, she felt their conversations happened as much in the spaces between than in the words they said. She could not see the memories flashing in his mind's eye, she could feel the way they hit. Though they shared defining moments of their history, she knew he felt his trauma differently than she did; the way he flinched, as though his very vision flashed with what he longed to forget. Her pain ached like the sting of a wound, ever-fresh and bleeding, refusing to mend or clot. His was like being cut by his past over and over again, resurfaced each time in a pain that flashed across his face. Yet, for the differences in how they experienced their pasts, they bonded over the ache.

For a moment, she felt as though her eyes were playing tricks on her as the sky above seemed to dim ever-gradually. However, there was something wrong about it, something unnatural. The sounds of the jungles, an ever-present ambiance through most of her life, were gone. Silenced. She could tell Marius noticed it too, in the swivel of his ear as he stopped and listened. When she peered through the canopy in search of the sun, she found only shadow, as though night itself was swallowing the landscape. She tasted the acrid metallic of her own venom, instinctively  seeping into her mouth as her adrenaline began to kick in; she quickly distanced her muzzle from Marius's coat, already missing the comforting softness of his fur.

This was wrong. A threat great enough to eat the very light of the sun had settled upon these lands, a magic so great that she could scarcely imagine fighting it. Yet here they were, seeking out whatever monstrosity awaited them. "You as well," she replied when he wished her to be careful, for once resisting the urge to have some retort or otherwise indirect response. This simply was not the time—though the stakes were yet unclear, the crushing weight on her chest was reason enough to believe the threat was great. Before them, she could see the path beginning the curve and change in texture, from the packed dirt of the forest floor to darker soil like that of a rich farming valley. She longed to nudge her companion again, as much to reassure herself as him, but with her venom now flowing, she was far too cautious to near him and risk injury. Instead, she met his gaze with her own, trying to communicate all her dedication in a mere look. "We've got this." 

MARIUS [wc: 393]

‘We've got this.'

Marius offered his partner a tight smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and turned down the path, stepping out into the fertile valley right as a strange, unearthly cry pierced the air. It was more of wail than anything else, and it rooted him to the spot. Dread punched through Marius, leaving him breathless as the intrusion he'd been feeling for the past little while surged over his mind. Fear and sorrow, unbridled, raced through his body, anchoring his body where it stood. He was locked in total despair and couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't even inhale without great effort.

Crushing, it was crushing. His breathing labored, eyes wide and staring at nothing before the pressure suddenly subsided. Surprised, Marius stumbled forward slightly. He caught himself, barely, before he ended up in a pile of fertilizer. He looked at Spite, eyes wide. "What the hell…" He shook his mane, as if to clear his head. It was then that he saw it.

Strange black tentacles made of pure malice gently pulling and writhing through the trees across the valley. Above the canopy opposite them, however, was a strange, sparkling rip in what looked to be the sky itself. It oozed an inky blackness that darkened above them, making what was once day into a strange, artificial night. It chilled Marius to his very core, and he took an instinctive step closer to Spite.

The cry rang out for a second time, and Marius swallowed. He could feel this entity's icy fingers carding through his mane, trailing down his spine - triggering his flight response in their wake. He wanted nothing more than to run - and if he couldn't run, he wanted to curl up into a ball and simply succumb to his own sorrows. But, Marius knew he couldn't do either of those things: he'd come to banish this bitch back to the hole she'd crawled out of, and with Spite's aid he was damn sure gonna help out. 

Maybe he couldn't beat this thing alone, but he wasn't alone. No matter what the darkness assaulting his mind told him: he was here with Spite, he was not alone. Just knowing she was near, ready to defend him, filled him with a brief rush of certainty. So, he swallowed down his fear and he stepped towards the monster.

SPITE [wc: 429]

Spite was not a scholarly individual. Though she possessed the knowledge needed to get through the world, she had never been one to diligently study much of anything. Why read some supposedly important text—if it were so essential to know what it said, wouldn't someone just tell her what she needed to know? No, she was trained for battle, not for the library. She did not consider herself wise or knowledgeable, except in one very small domain of expertise: reading the expressions of her pale-furred companion. She could see that his smile to her words was, in its own way, unconvincing even to himself. That he felt the same foreboding dread as she did as they neared the edge of the river valley.

Then, the misery hit her at full force.

Deep, oppressive, weight, choking sadness, crashing into her like a wave and washing all other thoughts from her mind. In that moment, she found herself struggling to breath, struggling to steady herself, momentarily flooded with the worst memories of her past. But, where her companion froze in his terror, she was not one to still; Spite's flanks heaved as she spun where she stood, whipping open her wings and rearing back as though she could manage to physically fight off the biting sadness. By the time the feeling passed, not even a minute later, venom dripped from her mouth and her pupils were dilated in rage and fear. She pawed at the ground as she looked to Marius, seeing him stumble but forcing herself to keep distance as he righted himself. Noting his expression, she knew better than to ask if he was okay.

Nor would it be helpful to ask if he saw the horror in front of them, as she followed his gaze towards the spot above the valley where the sky split in two and shadow seeped into daytime. In the shadow, illuminated only by the empty stars of night, writhed a beast she hesitated to commit to memory. Tentacles grasped at nothing, and claws tore at the air itself. A monster. The monster. Their enemy in this tale.

With frenzy already pulsing through her veins, she saw ahead of her their target, their duty. Any fear she felt was abated by her friend standing firm beside her, his steadfast determination bolstering her own. They had each other in this fight, and she could not imagine a more worthy ally. Together. They came here to kick ass, and they damn well were going to follow through. In stride with Marius, she stepped onto the battlefield.