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 Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:58 pm
((Note: The following is essentially pre-writing for Phaedra's journal, once she arrives, and will all be cross-posted there, possibly with revisions depending. You have been warned, all ye who read [this means you, Thabby ;D].))
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:04 am
Crunch.
The rat's back snapped in half in Nebula's paws, and she heard it squeal its death agony... felt it writhe as the nerve endings fired off panicked, garbled signals, felt it fall still and lifeless... felt its warm blood on her tongue as she tore into it savagely.
Felt its hot, wet flesh slide down her throat.
Her eyes glinted as she licked away gore from her lips and claws. Surely this would be the last time... surely...
A high-pitched squeak rang-out across the abandoned warehouse from where she crouched, half-eaten rat on the floor in front of her.
No!
It was impossible. Absolutely impossible... but even as Nebula watched, incredulous, a rat tore across the warehouse, moving between two splintered crates. Though the size, markings, and features were different, the squeak and the movements were the same. Absolutely the same!
Maybe she was going insane. Maybe she always HAD been insane, from the moment the plush cat had turned inside out and birthed her.
But right now, Nebula was willing to swear on Tien Lung himself that the same rat, killed over and over a dozen times at least, was both filling her stomach and running away. Again. And here it rose again in her mind, unbidden - the urge to run, to chase, to kill. Her tail began to lash back and forth, slowly, without her meaning to.
What is happening to me?!
Driven by a savagery she did not understand, she took a step forward towards the fleeing rat, and gathered her power to leap at it. Leap again, as she had so many times over the past week. How far away had she gone? She had no idea. The rat had been in the walls of the Pantheon at first, and Toki had been fretting about it. Then one day she had seen it, and felt the bloodlust...
Ever since then, it had been madness.
Nebula leapt, and missed the rat. Her exhausted legs simply did not have the energy for a great leap, and she fell flat onto the dust-covered concrete and lay there, still, her eyes wide. Every instict was telling her to run, chase, kill... run, chase, kill...
I'm tired of doing this! Why can't I stop?! "WHY?" she yowled aloud, her voice echoing among the splintered rafters. The corrugated tin roof of the warehouse had deteriorated in places, and her cry sent a few spindly-looking bats spiraling up and through the holes. "Why...?"
She could hear the rat leaving, but she could still feel it in a way she couldn't explain, couldn't understand. She would know exactly where it was in the morning, or however long it took for her to recover, and the bloodlust would begin again.
Nebula had no idea where she was, nor truly of how much time she had spent on the chase. How many times had she killed that rat? A dozen times? A hundred? How many of the last rats she had devoured had been that one? How much of the meat in her belly was its flesh? All of it?
But that isn't possible...
The Aoide curled in on herself, drawing her knees up to her chest, twining her tail tightly around her body, and shivered herself to an uneasy sleep.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:26 am
Nebula slept, curled tightly into a fetal positon on the hard concrete.
And Nebula dreamed...
Mist. Endless mist... and a voice?
"A banquet, yes - and those I invite into my halls are to come." The words were spoken with a rich joy that made the Aoide shiver slightly. She knew that voice.
My lord Tien Lung...
The dream sideslipped.
"I'll wake you up in time for the banquet, my dear." Another voice, this one high-pitched and cheerful. A low growl escaped from Nebula's throat, and she swatted vainly at the mist with her claws, trying to hit the source. Rat. Rat. I know you. I know you...
Traitor.
Sideslip.
A frantic run, leaping from roof to roof in desperation; they were leaving, the sky-boat was leaving! She had overslept, she was late, there was no sign of the Rat she had trusted -
The Cat skidded to a stop at the end of the last roof. There above, mounting on the River of Stars, was the sky-boat, lit brightly, moving upwards to the banquet.
And she was lost.
The Cat threw back her head and screamed, one long yowl of pure pain.
Sideslip.
"It was an oversight, I assure you." The Rat, clad incongruously in silk, bearing the sigil of their Lord. Her Lord... once. She had no place among the favored now. "An oversight. My apologies, my dear."
"You lie," Cat hissed, tail stiff and puffed out like a bottlebrush. "You lie!"
"I have no time to lie to you," the Rat replied, with an affected yawn.
"You lie!" Cat screamed, crouching, leaping - but a guard jumped in front of her claws, knocked her away, and she had to retreat. "One day! One day, Rat!" she shrieked as they dragged her off by the tail.
One day...
Sideslip.
What is this...?
Mist again, but this time, there were eyes. She whirled and barely saw them before they vanished; they flickered at her again from the other side. Whirl, vanish, whirl, whirl, whirl - and then suddenly they were there, huge and terrifying, and she screamed and slashed at them with her claws.
The right eye burst in a flower of blood and, strangely, gold, but the staring left eye held a glint of obscene joy in it. For a long moment she was caught in its gaze, staring into the blue-green depths, nearly iridescent...
It'sonlyadream...
Nebula shuddered convulsively and woke up.
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