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 Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:43 am
It had been a warm day, and it looked like it was going to be a warm night. Larn's bruise-colored sky had sunk into star-flecked blackness. The moon was high and full enough to wash the world with watery silver light, giving everything the feeling of a fairy tale. An owl's distant hooting was replied by a nearer one. One almost expected to look up and see a character from legend stepping out of the shadows in unearthly splendor.
On nights like this, Hazel felt a strange combination of restlessness and peace. She could not sleep but did not want to do anything in particular -- except for go off on her own for a bit.
Quietly she slipped away from the other hinds and glided across a small field that shone as if it was made of ice, which was a strange image in the spring warmth. She meandered around the field with a careless grace. The trees around the field were a dull black against its silver. Her senses were alert to sounds coming from the ominous forest but her mind was not on keeping watch; her mind was bounding joyfully across the open sky as she star-gazed.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:07 am
On these endless of nights, when the moon was high in the sky and all manner of creatures where out and about.
Anything was possible to happen to the hind.
The distant howl of a wolf was enough the shake the silence along with the night filled symphony of owl's, crickets and scavenging badgers.
However, through the tree's, something else seemed to move, it's large bulk rubbing against the bark of the trees, making it let out a rough and aggrivated grumble.
Before it's figure came into sight.
It looked like a large, rogue stag...except...what was wrong with his eyes?
His eye's, they glowed such a bright, purple and...was he bleeding? His large sharp horns where splattered with blood and he had no fur on his muzzle.
He was one of the Fallen, killer of living deers and other animals.
But as he saw the hind, he didn't do anything at all, but just watch her for a few moments.
"You seem a bit far from home." He called out.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:34 am
Smoothly Hazel turned her head toward the voice. There was an odd purple glow in the trees. Her ears lifted and her skin prickled. That thing... What was it? The moonlight shone on the white of its face... but wait... there was no face... just bone.
Suddenly the night did not seem so warm. But Hazel stood her ground and did not allow herself to tremble or even lose her poise. If anything she lifted her head higher.
"It is a fine night for being away from home," she replied with a slight smile. Sure it's a good night, until some decaying wreck steps out of the trees and scares the spit out of you.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:11 pm
The figure stood there, what was left of his fur being caressed by the breeze, the deep purple glow of his eyes becoming like half moons, like his eye's had become half lidded at her attitude.
It was a look you'd expect of a stern father figure or an over protective mother.
However this was no mother or father and even if he had been in a parent at a past time, he surely wasn't now.
And as he stood there, he cocked his head and his great antlers, some of his eternally unclotting blood falling onto the ground as he walked towards her.
"You seem nervous girl, does my appearance frighten you as it has many before you?" He asked softly, his appearance didn't match his tone.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:32 pm
Its coming this way it's coming this way it's coming this way... Okay, pull yourself together Hazel, she thought. He's talking reasonably, not coming over to eat you or something. And it's not his fault that his head's all rotted. Probably. One would assume. So cut him some slack, will you?
"I am nervous, I admit." As tactfully as she could she said, "You are indeed somewhat... startling." Calmly she trotted toward him to meet him halfway, her gait as light as if she was made of air. Now she could see the blood and bone in all its gory detail, and his eerie eyes seemed so bright that the night was darker around her. Or was that just the fact that she was afraid? She wondered what had happened to this stag, and she wondered if she was perhaps caught in some strange dream, and she wondered why her legs had taken her so close... But she conquered her fear and looked him in the eye. Rotting or not, he'd done her no harm.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:51 pm
This female amused him.
Amused him greatly, although he neither showed it or was capable of showing it.
He had no lips, or muscle in his face...despite the fact his jaws moved as he spoke.
Her fear showed so much and it almost made him chuckle, instead there was a hoarse laugh that came from him, along with a spray of blood that he aimed away from her.
"Excuse me, that happens a lot." He said gently, yes, now it was for certain he had a much more different personality to his appearance.
All the while he stood there, staring at her with his forever glowing eye's that would keep on glowing till the end of time.
As she spoke, his ears flicked forward, one of his hooves pawing at the ground as he stared at her.
"Yes...most Herla and Lera are startled by my appearance." He said softly.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:26 pm
She blinked as he laughed blood. Well that was unusual. Yet somehow it didn't elevate her fear; somehow she found that it made her look at him a little more softly. She found herself asking quietly, "Does it hurt?" Still on the alert but now more curious than afraid, she began to relax her stance. He seemed all right, really, in spite of his appearance. Hazel had always believed in the idea that appearances can be deceiving.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:44 pm
The stag paused, like he'd been blindsided for a moment before he cocked his head curiously at her, only to give out a smaller chuckle, this time no blood came out.
Oh how amusing this female was.
He then shook his head slowly as he moved to circle her, till he stood shoulder to shoulder with her on the other side.
His size almost dwarfing her.
"No it dosen't...you're talking to a being that neither breathes or eats...nor can I feel pain." He said, his voice grumbling slightly against his chest as the glow in his eye's softened slightly.
It then returned as he gave a boney grin towards her, looking in her eyes with the endless glow of his eye sockets.
"May I ask the name of such a hind that would be concerned for a beast like me?" He asked, ears flattening back as the wind played with his purple grey, slightly rotten hair.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:08 pm
When he came up next to her she shivered, partially from a renewed tingle of fear and partly from... could it be... excitement? This night of star-gazing on her own had become considerably more adventurous than anticipated.
There was something sad about him, she thought, but she began to wonder whether he felt emotion since he did not feel pain. Maybe she was projecting her own emotion onto him. It was sad to imagine being stuck like that, slowly decomposing even while walking around, but maybe it didn't bother him. She tried not to let any of this be visible. After all, no one likes to be pitied.
"My name is Hazel." She smiled playfully. "And may I ask the name of such a stag that can feel no pain?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:31 pm
Amusement had turned to curiousity.
A large blob of blood falling from his mouth as his tongue writhed slightly within his boney and fleshy jaw, making it fall onto the fur of his leg and his chest.
Only to make him grumble slightly.
He wished it would stop doing that sometime.
However, as the female spoke he paused for a moment and gave a weak...it almost looked like another smile but you could never tell.
Looking at her with his endless eye's and taking a moment to look over her, muttering her name under his 'breath'.
"It suits you." He said softly, looking at her.
He then paused again, mouth opening slightly, like he had gasped...but no sound came before he gulped slightly.
He was regaining his composure.
He'd not been asked this question...in so long...he then smiled more, this time it was able to be seen.
"You may ask..." He started. "...my name is Vauhn."
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:06 pm
The hesitation before he replied made her tip her head with some more curiosity of her own. Did he not wish to tell her? Did he... not know it? But he did know it. What an intriguing creature, this Vauhn. Frightening. And all the more intriguing because of it.
A bear lumbered around in the forest, voraciously hungry as usual. After spending the winter hibernating it only made sense. So when he noticed a couple of deer standing in a field, he couldn't resist. Mmm... deer... There was something definitely strange about one of them but he didn't care at this point. It was a big one and so was his appetite. He picked up his pace and tore out of the forest into the open field, thundering straight toward the deer with a bellow intended to strike them stiff with terror so that they wouldn't run.
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:41 am
The Fallen stag watched her for a few moments, before the bellow ripped through the silence making him instinctively turn to look towards where the bear tore out from the trees.
If he where alive, he would've done exactly what the bear would want a deer to do in this situation.
Stand still, watch in fear and then finally get killed and eaten.
But Vauhn was already dead and he'd seen much worse then a bear in being dead, so after a few seconds of staring the living corpse instantly moved infront of the still living hind and let out a loud growl.
His throat rumbled as blood poured from his jaws, splattering on the ground.
His eternally sharp antlers glinting in the moonlight dangerously.
Was he...protecting her?
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:04 pm
Of course, being alive and young and maybe a little naive, Hazel could hardly think of anything scarier than a half-starved predator hurtling toward her. In the instant she would have had to react she shut down in terror. The very next instant she had regained control and bunched her muscles to dart away, using her agility and speed to her advantage. It would have been a dangerously close call... but Vauhn stepped in.
After only a few split-second bounds she was under the eaves of the forest and she circled back and watched the stag in astonishment as he confronted the bear.
He hadn't expected this, not in the least. Not only was the deer supposed to hold still and not turn its antlers on him, it was not supposed to growl and splatter blood. Nor was it supposed to glow. The madness of hunger and the pull of momentum battled against the bear's crude idea that this was simply not right. He hesitated, trying to swerve away from a head-on collision, simultaneously aiming a vicious swipe at the deer and digging his back claws into the ground to drag his great bulk to a halt, his roar twisting off into a yowl of anger and shock.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:53 am
As the bears claws ripped into his rotten flesh, he would've instinctively expected pain the rip through his form aswell, however it took him a brief second to realise the sad fact he was not alive.
So there was no pain, but it still caused discomfort as he saw the large predator's black claws sticking in the side of his neck.
He was glad Hazel had fled.
He didn't know how far she'd fled but atleast if worse came to worse, she could run away.
Run far away and back to the herd.
He couldn't smell or taste anything, but in his mind he thought of his training as an outrider, the play fights with other calves and young corps when he was still alive.
The lone wolves he'd fend off to protect younglings...as his glowing eye's looked onto the cascade of eternal brown fur of the bear, his jaws opened and tried to clamp down on the closest part of it's body that was there.
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:54 pm
The bear was hungry, but maybe not quite that hungry. Not hungry enough to hang around after being bitten by the bony jaws of an undead deer that didn't even seem to care when he gouged it with his claws. He pulled away sharply, stumbling, wet with blood from the stag and from where he'd been bitten, bewildered.
There was another deer a short distance away, one that wasn't glowing, and he started off in its direction with a clumsy rolling gait. Maybe he could still get a meal tonight. Of course he'd lost the element of surprise and he still had the eerie deer at his back, but these things apparently did not register clearly in his mind.
Seeing the bear coming toward her Hazel backed quickly into the forest. It was injured and confused so she knew she could escape it. She didn't want to run far, though, because she wanted to at least thank Vauhn. He was not an Outrider for her herd; he had no obligation to protect her. He could have run. Even if he was not in pain, his decision was an oddly noble one.
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