Glacialis-Quasar

(Content Warning - uh... Miscarriage? Small dead calves? Not... detailed in either case. Bodies are mentioned. Bodies are carried. Bodies are laid to rest on a shrine. Still putting a warning up here just in case?) I am sore when I awaken. Every inch of me feels as if I have been tossed this way and that by the ruthless pounding of the waves. But I do not have much time to consider this thing - because there is an outcry. Blearily, I open my eyes. "Oh poor, poor Suzume!" one of the rukaan that I managed to rescue is shouting. Wailing - voice echoing across the barren landscape that we have taken shelter in. Goose is hissing, however, and my ears flick back. It does not take long to assess what has happened. Suzume has given birth. That is something that has been a matter of time since I encountered the rag-tag herd the first time. So the shouts do not make sense at first. Why are they shouting in despair if she has- Ah. The small bodies are still and cold, and the various

Suzume counts the dead while Prazenvoi succumbs to sleep at last. She does so quickly, quietly, impassively. They'll need to be on the move sooner, not later, and she wants to have the part that others oft cite as the hardest taken care of while one of the others is bustling around and trying to wrap up injuries and the like. This is a task that Suzume has no hoof in, healing, so she takes on the task that rips up the hearts of others and leaves naught but sharp shards of grief in its wake. The elder is among the dead. So too is the sire. She hadn't expected the sire to be among those that Prazenvoi was able to rescue, but there had been a brief reunion in which the ruk had expected her to be far sadder than she was about her state and then they hadn't spoken. Names. Faces. Counting. This isn't the first time Suzume has had to do this because she couldn't contribute otherwise. --- The sand under her hooves is strange. All her life, Suzume - though that wasn't the name she

My legs wobble, and then buckle. Immediately, I can hear the angry tones of a figure from my past. A figure I will not address by the title they bear by blood. Useless. Not good enough. I start to struggle to my hooves, but a lighter form shoves me to the ground with an irritated snort. "Stay down." Suzume demands, as Goose hops from her back to me. My feline companion rubs up against me, purring loudly and repeatedly - enough so that I cannot help but crack the most gentle of smiles. "Everyone's out of the floodzone, even the corpses." I lift my head at that, wanting to take stock. How many of the herd have I failed...? It has been some time since I tried to play the part of a hero, but I- Suzume steps in my way, glaring down at me. "No." she says, and her tone brooks no argument. "I'll not have any of the 'oh I should have-' shite right now. You did what you could. You got more injured than any of us have ever seen you for it. That's damn well good enough." Suzume takes a long

I lose track of how long I stay in Brekkathorpe. It's easy to do so, with so many flowers around me. I let life and the small nugget of hope and the weight lifted of that confession buoy me and I float for some time. And I only really notice it when it feels like I've blinked and the energy of Brekkathorpe has changed. That's not the case, I know it isn't. I was just so lost in Brekkathorpe, in the feeling of the plant life, and just... not thinking. Existing instead of thinking. The plants directly under me have wilted, so long have I stood right here and blocked their access to sunlight and rain. My pelt is disgusting feeling. I shake myself, and I take a look around. There's something... what have I missed? Nothing has come at me, charging and yelling Jasper loud enough to echo around the place. I've just been allowed to exist in this timeless manner, where nothing else exists. I'm still left with a feeling like I've missed something important. A chance to do something about...

(Content warning: uh... so a rukaan's skull gets crushed? it's not super described but like...) She guides the young rukaan to safety and makes the small one swear to stay put. This is the kind of emergency drill that Suzume put the herd through not long after she was first sent to infiltrate it, and she's more than a little gratified to see that the young one tucks into the safe space and settles down to wait with the same seriousness as ever. "I'm going back to help Prazenvoi, you stay right here okay? And move to the second spot if bipeds try to come after you." Suzume waits for confirmation from the little calf, and then she stands up properly to start making her way back. She's already seen one or two of the bipeds who sabotaged the dam, and rage beats with every thrum of her hooves against the ground. Suzume had given some of the bipeds from the village down below a chance to run and preserve their lives. Give them a thrice damned chance of fucking mercy, and what had the

If I had left before now - would the area be flooding? Already, some of the rukaan I am trying to save are dead - the rocks that came from above with the rush of water have claimed their lives, and the sole solace in this is that they likely died quickly. They did not suffer. Some of them I do not realize are dead until I am dragging their corpses to high ground, and setting them down - and realizing that I have dragged a blood trail, and that there is no breathing. No movement. I know emergency first aid - but not in this form. I do not know how to use these hooves to restart breathing if that is possible in this situation at all. And I still do not know where Goose is. Perhaps I have made a mistake, in trying to be wild. I know there is a town down at the bottom - in the direction that Suzume went earlier this night. I considered going there and trying the tame rukaan thing whilst this herd needs supplies, whilst I am still not wise in this form. I considered--- and turned away

There is one thing Firebrand realizes he hasn't quite planned for handling. Moving through the sands of Northern Djama with the box in his mouth and having to take breaks now and again in order to put it down and catch his breath. It's not that the sand under his paws has gotten any hotter, or that the sun is beating down any harder. In fact - the situation is the same as it was before. The sun is beating down and Firebrand remains thankful for the sheer existence of his trusty hat. The sand shifts under his paws with every single step he takes just like it did before. Even the tattered remnants of tents - spots of bright, if sometimes faded - colors against the otherwise bland tan of the desert are the same as they were before. Nothing about the sands of northern Djama has changed. The only significant change is that now Firebrand has a box he needs to carry, and the black and orange nir keeps needing to pause and put it down. Not that the box is heavy. No. The box is light. All

It's a rumor that's brought Firebrand inland, and being away from his ship has only worsened the black and orange niravar's grouchiness. If this rumor doesn't pan out, the one who bleated about it - still ensconced in the brig, back aboard his ship - will face the consequences for lying to him. For now, though, his paws leave imprints in the sand of northern Djama. High above, the sun beats down upon his back mercilessly, leaving Firebrand beyond glad for the presence of his hat and the shade it offers to his eyes. Dunes weave back and forth like the mark of the passage of a giant sidewinder serpent, and only the occasional crumbling bricks or ruined tent mark the faint grasp of life that had been here once before. None of that is why Firebrand has come inland though. All of that is simply a matter of how Djama is, and nothing about it has changed. Well - one of them has. Like the bleating human on Firebrand's ship had said, one of the ruined tents has newer fabric than it

My deal does not come into effect the very first night. This is why I wake when Suzume returns. I know the look in her eyes - I have seen it in the mirror. I have seen it in that of many soldiers. She has done something Important to her - and she will speak of it in time if she needs to, otherwise, I will not ask. Asking now may do more harm than good. I watch as she settles uneasily and goes back to sleep, and I look over this scant herd one more time. I should have left them before now. They are stocked up for the next few seasons, and I have what information the elder had about those who were taken. I have retrieved some of them already. There are still a few gone, however. So I will set out across the Howling Mountain Range and bring to them the rest of their missing, assess the supplies I have gathered for them, and then leave. There is a good chance that the reason tragedy will strike this herd is because of my presence - moreso than it already has. And I do not wish to be

(Content Warning - implied/discussed miscarriage. not specifically named as such. also other death) She sneaks away under cover of night, the day Prazenvoi talks to the flock of birds. They had talked to her - to them - to him - to--- Suzume still hasn't decided what feels right just yet, and that decision is one that she's going to deal with another time. Right now she has a different one to handle. One that she's finally well enough to walk to deal with, thanks to Prazenvoi. And that means - while everyone is asleep, even Goose curled up atop Prazenvoi and both of them snoring quietly... Suzume climbs to her hooves and takes a steadying breath. Not because she's scared - oh no. Fear is not something she feels in this particular instance. Golden eyes flecked with drops of crimson shift, and Suzume manages an unsteady trot down one of the paths. There's a little village down at the base of some of the hills near here. Suzume has never mentioned its existence to the remnants of