Fantasy Pulse: A Redemptive End (RP)

[Rhaine]

"In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost." - Dante Alighieri

This RP takes place in a realm inhabited by those who have passed on, yet have not reached absolution. Not all met a peaceful transcendence. They linger in their own personal cages, falling into traps they set for themselves. Even in this redundancy, there is potential for deliverance.

This story follows Diane Lilith Mayon and Ulysse Valentin Brisbois.

HuntedFox


☾ ☽

Spoiler: Setting

This realm is mainly composed of a dense, low forest with no real end in sight. There are daylight hours, when the fog creeps thick yet the shadows are thin and sparse. When night comes, the woods are more treacherous and beasts linger in the corner of one's eye. There are breaks and clearings in the forest that shift and seem to move - Reflections of places that were significant in one's life. They're not quite right - illusions, mirages, and most often - traps. The shadows are more numerous there. They speak in almost familiar voices.

Spoiler: Main Reflections

The House

The Graveyard

The Church

The Playground

The Lake

The Subway

The Tree

CS Thread


☾ ☽​

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane couldn’t tell you much.
If she was being honest, she’d say she barely remembered a thing. How she got here, what this place was. The only thing she could confidently say is that she found her new surroundings to be quite strange. Well, she was in a forest. By the place just radiated strange. The way the thick branches of trees splayed out from the base and twisted upward into foggy oblivion, or how the trees looked quite dead, yet the ground was covered in leaves that seemed just old enough to crunch underfoot as they were walked upon. Soft rustling could be heard even though wind was very nonexistent at the time. It was eerie... mysterious.
And if she was lucky, dangerous.
~•~
Even though it was a bit confusing waking up in an entirely different place than she remembered, it wasn’t completely surprising. For just as the demons of old took delight in toying with the lives of mere humans, so the greater beings of the universe did with the mischievous black creatures.
All she had to do was find a gateway back to where she wanted to be. Should be fairly easy. Any world, dimension or universe has several little anomalies that would transport you to a different place. You just had to know how, and where to look. Doorways were actually quite common if you believe it. ...or if you don’t. It’s really your choice what you believe. Doesn’t quite change the reality of it though.

After a whim of not-so-careful thought, Diane decided the first thing to do would to go find some form of life, preferably with speech and thought processes. Surprisingly enough, she didn’t speak animal. Best to leave that to those crazy shapeshifters.

Rhaine

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

As what light managed to reach him began to draw low, close and tight in sparse patches through the underbrush, something in Val's chest rose to attention. He shivered. There was sudden clarity to his dark eyes that had previously been dull. Lucidness abruptly drew through his form as if he were a string on a guitar that had just been plucked after years of stagnancy, and he was wound tight - there was no flexibility in the new sensation.

He was sitting at the base of a tree, looking much the part of a gaunt statue where the earth had taken root, and only now did the falseness of the woods even faintly strike him. He pressed a heavy, long-fingered hand to the tree adjacent to him. It was thin and gnarled, rough against his smooth palm. His thick brow drew. He couldn't recall how long he had been sitting, or where exactly he had ended up. The area was recognizable to him, yet entirely foreign. Its otherworldliness was never lost, no matter the passage of time. There wasn't any real familiarity to be found no matter where he looked. He hugged himself, feeling a bit cold, a bit confused, and a bit cross.

Val stood with surprising stability. Tremors were second nature - a hitch, a catch, a sway, and it was only worse here. Something in the ground-crawling fog seemed to always pull and trip his steps with grasping hands, and he had enough trouble balance-wise on his own. Yet now there was stillness. The dark, musky, strange smell of the woods filled him up and left little space for wondering.

He heard something. It was almost a flutter - the sound of a bird beating its wings hard against a far-off gust of wind. Val couldn't decide if it had really sounded, or if it had been something of a daydream - a glimpse of a memory. Somewhere he thought a child called his name. He shook it away.

Val moved slow, recognizing in his heart that as the light drew away, something was left in its stead, and it was far less than friendly. He could never bear the night hours. Voices called out - shrill-cadenced pleas and well-meaning coos of security. Hunkering, quiet things with sharp teeth. Val was at the mercy of all, yet there wasn't a particular night that he could conjure to mind. It all slipped together so easily. Had he known a night before? There was nothing he was quite sure of.

He grasped the ring that bumped gently against his collarbone as he crept forward, swaying on the chain around his neck. Something in the air was different, though he couldn't say how. It gnawed at him, and he ached to fidget - to run his hands through his coal-worn crop of hair, to trace imaginary indentations against his arms. Change never rested well with him, even here - where nothing was certain. It was a miracle that the thought even came to him with such clarity. The fog tugged gently on his pant leg as he continued on, unsure of his destination, yet knowing that he couldn't remain where he was.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard approaching steps - their gait crushing the leaves beneath their feet. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears - a memory, a reflex. A brief picture came to mind - a great, lumbering cat with its eyes ablaze and its claws marking the ground, and with that thought, Val let out a small, startled sound, and then shifted. His throat ached with the sound from disuse, or something he couldn't quite grasp. He stood stock still, unmoving, yet he had slipped out of sight, his body turning completely invisible. It was, too, a reflex, like so many of his actions these days. Nothing could be planned - it was only another of the countless reasons for his unrest. Being alone was very high on that particular list. Solitude didn't suit him, and he felt faint in its wake.

He waited, and this was something he was used to, at least.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

As Diane trudged in through the bleak and dreary surroundings, she was beginning to think that she wasn’t going to find anyone anytime soon. It would help if she could find her way out of this cursed forest... she didn’t quite get what was up. As seconds passed the misty forest felt less and less strange, and more and more... wrong. She found herself glancing behind her shoulder every few minutes when her progress lulled, quickly reprimanding herself and continuing on with newfound determination. ...for a couple minutes, at least.

It was when Diane was beginning to consider whipping around and hunting down whatever she thought was following her when she heard an unusual sound diagonally to her left.
Her eyes instantly narrowed, she slowly creeped forward. “Hello~?” She inquired in a singsong voice that managed to sound more suspicious rather than... sing-song-y.
She wasn’t even sure what to make of the sound but she felt as if it might have been from a human mouth... or something resembling a human at the very least. You know it wasn’t every day you suddenly found yourself in a peculiar forest with plentiful of strange feelings about it. She wouldn’t be surprised if the creatures here weren’t exactly what you’d call human.

Diane moved around a tree, systematically sweeping her gaze back and forth. There wasn’t anything in the poor sight she had. She frowned. There was nothing there. Was she going crazy? “Hello...?” Diane slowly walked in a circle, examining her surroundings. There has got to be something around here... she groaned, tilting her head back. “This forest is driving me crazy...” she murmured quietly, then scoffed. “Talking to myself. First sign of insanity.” She paused, momentarily sidetracked. “I always talk to myself.” She tilted her head as things processed, and suddenly let out a triumphant, “Aha! Eat that, forest! Can’t make someone insane if they already are.” then again... would driving an insane person ‘insane’ have the opposite effect than on a regular person, so instead of making them more insane, it made them sane? If so... she was back at square one, being driven sane and walking around in a circle where there was supposed to be something but wasn’t.

Rhaine

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Val stood as straight as a needle, his left hand still clasped around the ring resting against his collarbone. He fought the strong urge to close his eyes. He didn't want to see the creature that was indisputably heading his way, that had most definitely heard the noise that had slipped unbidden from his throat. The picture of that great, black cat still rested at the forefront of his mind, and it was certainly counterproductive to the process of finding some sort of stability. His thoughts ran wild as the creature crept closer, and he pictured the beast ripping his heart from his chest. He trembled.

The forest almost seemed to draw silent, and then he heard a voice.

"Hello?"

Val bit back a sound. English - an english word. The voice seemed to almost mock a saccharine quality, yet it was firm - not a whisper on the wind. His dark eyes were wide. He didn't dare let hope claw its way up through his chest. Somehow he knew that the beasts could speak too, and sometimes their voices were even so familiar that they were comforting. He didn't know how he knew, couldn't draw a specific memory to mind. The fog still parted around his legs, gaps in the faint white blanket. His knuckles were white with how tightly he held the ring in his fist.

It was a girl that came around the bend of a tree, and Val didn't move an inch. His trembling ceased, and he felt his heart in his throat. He could have sworn that she looked right at him, yet there was no recognition in the cool, cerulean tone of her gaze. She couldn't see him. Her words confirmed it well enough.

"..Talking to myself."

Val didn't know if he was relieved or not. In a strange, strong sort of sense, he wanted her to see him, to be recognized - for his existence to have some sort of validation. He had been drifting for too long. Yet, his fear overpowered the want for the moment, and he remained hidden.

There was an abrasive hint to the cadence of her voice and the way she carried herself as she drew closer, not stopping in her path. She was searching for something - searching for the source of the sound, he knew. Searching for him. He panicked silently as she came so close that for a moment he thought she would collide with him, but she didn't. So close, he inspected her sharp features - though what he was looking for, he couldn't rightly say. She didn't look like a beast, nor a shadow, though there was an air of something that he couldn't quite place, something that made him want to shrink below the earth. The brief moment stretched out for longer than the true second it lasted.

She was real, and human from what he could tell - speaking and moving and thinking. She was close enough that he could have touched her if he only extended his hand out a bit. The scent of something floral clung to the air around her, and an image of a passion flower briefly passed through Val. Without thought, he reached forward an inch, tentatively, as if he intended to catch one of her dark strands of hair between his fingertips.

"Aha! Eat that, forest!"

Startled out of his lapse in thought by her sudden exclamation, his hand drew back as if he was almost burned, and it clamped over his mouth, catching a startled sound before it could reach the air. Her inexplicable appearance and her sudden closeness had lulled him out of his usually methodical manner of thinking. He wasn't apt to let it happen again, though he was almost certain it was a conviction that wouldn't last long.

He found her words a bit peculiar, though he wasn't one to judge. If anything, what she said only convinced him further that she was in the same boat as he. He desperately wished it were so, and this feeling drowned out any more sensible, frightened part of himself. He couldn't bear the thought of him waiting too long and losing her in the fog, when night fell. They didn't have much time before the light would slip away entirely.

He straightened his collar, and softly cleared his throat, translating what he meant to say before he did, hoping he wouldn't frighten her too badly.

"Pardon me."

He let himself shift back into visibility, his apprehensive gaze fixed on her where she stood.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane lifted her right hand. lightly touching her fingertips to her head. She swore she heard a sound... taking a step forward in a random direction, she moved her hand from her forehead and placed it upon a nearby tree trunk. ...or branch. It was hard to tell. She stared into the eerie floating fog, just waiting for something, anything to appear. At this point seeing something would almost be comforting.
She would know if there wasn’t something around her. She should know, but.. for some uneasy reason, she couldn’t. She would literally feel guilty for lying if someone asked her if there was a creature nearby and she said ‘no’.

That was another thing. Diane didn’t know how she knew it had to be living. She just sensed it in the way the fog swirled around the nearby trees and crawled across her bare skin. She felt it in the soft yet uncanny background rustlings, and in ways even she could not imagine.

Diane shivered, rubbing her hands across her cold arms. Even though she couldn’t quite see past the fog that hung above her in lieu of a forest canopy, she could tell it was beginning to get darker, the fog thickening and begining to become heavier as time ticked by.
It was something that’s Diane could only assume it would be night soon. In all honesty she had thought it was night by apparently this forest had the ability to grow much darker.

She had to go. She knew there was a change of something being nearby but she had never had such senses before and had no knowledge of they were trustworthy or not. Plus she still had to get out of the forest before it became to dark to navigate.

Diane was just about to take that step forward when she heard something. Again. Only this time it was different. It was more like a sort of, cough. Like the sound one would make when... when clearing... one’s throat...
Diane slowly furrowed her brow in concern. In all he experience she had never heard a dog clear it’s throat.

There it was. One word- no, two. Two very simple words, yet the only ones she had heard besides her own in the time she had been walking.
Diane flinched, instantly turning on her heel and swiftly extending her arm out in a sort of punch movement in the direction the sound came from. No sooner had she done this than a single tendril of concentrated black ‘smoke’ appeared from behind her, imitating the exact movement of her arm as it extended. But instead of stopping, it flung much farther than the arm, eventually colliding with its intended target.

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Val didn't have much time to react - to speak, to think, or do much of anything. Yet, once more, the moment stretched by as if it were several. She had heard him. That was something. His own recognition of the fact worked its way through his chest pleasantly, though it still inspired fear. She had heard him. He had spoken and she had heard. It was such a little thing, but it felt like the world. He watched as she turned swiftly on her heel, her body twisting and extending in a practiced manner - yet still retaining an air of reaction, of almost surprise, though it was buried a bit underneath her surface, under a guise of indifference. There was a cold sheen to her eyes.

Val felt sudden dismay, even disappointment. He realized a second later that it wasn't because she was sending a blow his way, but because she hardly seemed to be looking at him at all.

A bloom, a tendril of smoke manifested in the air behind her, following the path her fist had directed - a path that lead to him. Val had the faint sense that this was part of the edge he had felt in her, the sinking feeling. A sliver of it, perhaps. A glimpse. Everyone had their hidden strengths - secrets that they exhibited only when the moment asked for them. She gave. He took.

Val had only a moment, yet his hands shot up, as if to show he was unarmed, as if to present his intentions. "I -"

He what? What had he meant to say?

I didn't mean to frighten you. I don't want to hurt you. I'm sorry. It's my fault.

It's my fault.

He felt surprisingly calm as the smoke sped closer. He was afraid, of course, above all. There was no knowing what exactly would happen when she found her mark. Would the smoke drain the life from him? His body wanted to shift at the thought - harden, turn invulnerable, shield him. Yet, a small, quiet part of him spoke.

Would that be so terrible?

The question swallowed him whole, and everything felt clear, translucent. Of all the beasts that tore or slid through the underbrush, he would rather she be the one to do it. He would rather let her.

He felt so certain that that in itself frightened him, but he remained still. He recalled the image of the cat clawing his heart from his chest, and it didn't seem so imposing. The cat's eyes were blue now, and perhaps that was why.

The solitude, or maybe the forest itself, had turned him sentimental. He had already been terribly so, yet now it was almost crippling. She was meant to find him. He believed that. Maybe this was why.

The smoke hurtled through the air, and the rising fog parted for it - he did not. He remained stock still, and it collided with him without pause.

The blow was a hard one, yet his descent to the ground felt harder. It was a long way to fall. His head met the forest floor, and the world careened away from him. He was still.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane didn’t see what had spoken, but in a sense, she didn’t want to. If she had turned around simply to gather a look at what had made the sound, she might have come face to face with something as gruesome as she was, or simply something unexpected. She would have froze for a second, processing her shock before being able to relay a suitable reaction. And in her line of work, just one second could be the difference between life or death.
She was afraid she didn’t have the luxury of being able to determine whether the creature that spoke was a threat or not. Not until she looked up, that is.

Really, she wasn’t planning to look up until she heard some sort of thud but only seconds after she sent the aura to attack did she hear another sound.

“I-...”

Her brows furrowed. ‘You..’? You what? Her head shot up just in time to see a human-looking man get blown back to the ground by her shadow.
Diane opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, relaxing into a more comfortable position and dropping her hand.

She moved forward until she was close enough to crouch next to the man’s left side. Her aura, her natural weapon, disappeared when it connected with it’s intended target just as fast as it had appeared in the first place. It fizzled, dissipating into the fog like it had never been there to start with, leaving her with an unconscious young man that surprisingly resembled a skeleton.

Well... not exactly a skeleton. He was just so... twiggy. And lanky as hell. Diane tilted her head, peering at the human. Well... it looked like a human. Smelled like one too.
“Ew...” Diane wrinkled up her nose, sitting a couple feet back. Of course this wasn’t the smell. The smell was just barely noticeable, if at all. But it seemed the closer she examined him the more he gave off a sort of... tiny ‘ew’ vibe.

“Why are you ew...?” She murmured confusedly, her brows still furrowed. She couldn’t see any outside damage, but figured she’d have to check for a concussion.

As she sat there, staring, the seconds ticked on and the silence grew, she began to reflect against the few events had occurred. She had heard a sound. A scared sound. That led her into the specific area she was in now...
Diane frowned, there was no one here. How did he get here without alerting her... the ground was practically covered in crunchy leaves.

She stood, crossing her arms.
“Scared...” She murmured, deep in thought as she continued to stare at the young man.

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☽Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☾
HuntedFox

Val was embraced by the current. It was slow, but steady. It didn't drag or catch. Its hands were soft. Its salt was almost sweet. The breath of winter clung to the crest of the foam. He was soaked through - right to the bone. It was carrying him somewhere - somewhere where kind hands rested on his shoulders and he didn't have to carry someone else's ring.

He never fell below the surface - not once, even though he wanted to, even though he could hear her. She was calling to him down there, right from the very bottom. Her cloying cadence bent over his first name. It was loving - shrill, faint.

His chest rose and fell where he lay on the forest floor - just another reflex. The fog threatened to make its way down his throat. He shifted. There was tension in his body again. The muscles in his shoulders flexed, his wide hands outstretching. Val coughed. His head pounded, and he winced, sitting up, pain echoing from the back of his head. He attempted to touch it, yet pulled back with a wince. He hadn't felt any blood, at least. He couldn't remember the cause.

Confused, he opened his eyes. It was dim enough to soothe his senses. He looked up at the girl peering down at him, blinking at her through the fog.

"Penélope? Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

His brow was drawn, but his eyes were soft and almost distant, as if he wasn't quite seeing.

A shroud was suddenly pulled from before his eyes, and recollection broke through him like a wave against the shore. It had been the shade of her gaze, the lack of recognition. She didn't know him.

He remembered the moments before, the blow. The weight of the woods came crashing down on him, and there wasn't any dullness to the blow. He held his hands out again, as he had before she had struck, to show that they were empty. He shook his head, yet stopped quickly as the movement pained him. His eyes were wide as he came to a shaky standing position, rising to his full height.

"I am.. terribly s-sorry."

Fear might as well have been etched out in block letters against the pallor of his skin. Was it fear that made him apologize? He couldn't say. She stood resolute, with stability that he did not have. How long had he been down?

He swayed slightly in his place, righting himself with a shift in his step. Part of him still felt asleep - somewhere he couldn't reach. Still, his dark eyes were more alight than they had been a moment ago, and they were able to meet hers with some sense of clarity.

It briefly crossed Val's mind that to speak was futile. Perhaps she was just another shadow after all, and she was only biding her time. Yet, why hadn't she finished him while he was knocked from his wits? He recalled faintly that he had wanted her to. Now? He might have to give it more thought.

Val waited with bated breath. His balance was fickle. His constitution was faint. He hoped he wouldn't loose his footing.

The light slipped even farther away, and he was painfully aware of it, growing more paranoid by the moment.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

It didn’t make sense... Diane wasn’t so old that her senses would start to dull.
Diane glared at the unconscious man on the ground. There’s no way she’d let something sneak up on him? He must’ve done some trick... tricksy... very tricksy and scared.
...maybe not scared. Did he really let out a fake cry of terror? What was he up too? She sighed exasperatedly. He needed to wake up soon because there was a somewhat large amount of questions adding up and the longer he stayed asleep, the longer they would go unanswered!

Diane looked around, narrowing her eyes. Since when did the fog become so thick...? She waved a hand in front of her with a frown. It curled about in the air, as if shielding their eyes from things that crept silently along the forest floor. It masked whole trees as though it wanted to hide the very things that wound themselves along the trunks, yearning to reach out through the dim light an-

Diane’s vision snapped back towards the man when she heard a cough.
She tilted her head, taking a step forward and watching him sit up.

She said nothing as he peered up at her with a a gaze that would’ve been blank if he hadn’t been so confused.

“Pene-...” She half repeated, her eyebrows slowly furrowing. She seemed slightly confused yet irritated at his actions, not to mention what he greeted her with. The man was obviously delusional.
He must have hit his head pretty hard to have the nerve to ask her ‘what is it’. She crossed her arms stubbornly, as a child would when confronted.

Diane let out a soft sigh as he held out his hands in a sort of dazed fashion before attempting to stand. He was almost making her feel guilty for hitting him. ...she may have propelled her aura too fast.

She looked up at him, somewhat dismayed out how freakishly tall he ended up being. Diane gave a small nod, as if to accept his apology. It made her uneasy about how strange the transaction of, word and motions felt. Usually in these sorts of situations, she was the one apologizing. Though in a more suave way, mind you. She had to give him credit though... no one usually stood up so quickly. Not even if they didn’t pass out.

As she was pulled from her thought and took the time to fully look at the stranger who, finally, was almost right of mind, it didn’t take her long to notice those certain features he possessed.
When you were what she was, for as long as she had walked the earth, you would’ve memorized a specific set of facial features that distinctly set themselves apart from the rest.
No, these weren’t natural features like a pointy nose, or sharp cheekbones. These were emotions. Or, rather, one emotion.

He was afraid.

The way his brows were drawn showed more than just a state of confusion, but one of wariness. But it wasn’t just the eyebrows. She could see it in the way he moved, in how he moved his mouth when he talked, and his eyes... as soon as she saw them it was more than evident and she tilted her head down, casually examining the way the fog moved instead.

She stared down as the silence grew yet again in the space between them.
“You should sit back down.”
She started, glancing up at him with a newfound neutral expression.
“That way you can answer my questions without worrying about keeping balance on those stilts of yours.” She raised her eyebrows, as if waiting for him.
“Then... maybe if I’m okay with what I hear, I’ll let you ask a few of your own.”
People were usually more willing to give out information if they thought they would get some in return.

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Val stared at the girl, hands still raised - whether it was defensively or reassuringly, he wasn't sure. She looked up at him, and he caught a shred of consternation in her gaze, before her eyes dropped to the ground. The thought of stooping in order to catch her eye again briefly crossed his mind, but he quickly shook it off. He didn't look away.

She had seen him, heard him. What was more, she didn't seem to want to hurt him anymore, at least for the moment. He knew he had frightened her. He thought her actions had been justifiable. He felt a marvelous sense of validation, a fleeting sense of being grounded, though with every dizzied shift, the ground didn't feel quite as solid as he knew it was meant to.

Thankfully, she spoke, taking his thoughts from the treacherous path they had been headed down. Her mouth bent over a suggestion, a request that felt more like a command, though he hardly processed her tone as she peered up to meet his eye once more. With her next words, he furrowed his brow in confusion.

"S-Stilts?"

He murmured the question as she continued on. It seemed that his childhood stutter was rearing its ugly face once more, and Val tried to ease the tremble in his form, to take his time. His, albeit pathetic, effort was derailed as she finished and he fully comprehended her words.

A dawning, black fear gripped his jaw as he began to speak. He wondered if she had known a night here, if she knew what came as the light dispersed. He shook his head slightly, taking one shaky step towards her, yet thinking better of it and taking two steps back.

"Oh - n-no we can't - there's... there's no time - we can't st-stay - ow!"

A sharp throb bloomed from the back of his head, and he stilled, forcing himself to freeze. His right hand pressed against his forehead, his left gripping the ring around his neck, his eyes momentarily shut. The roar in his mind came to a hush. He felt an odd sort of warmth against his face - like a flush, though there was no shift in the pallor of his skin. Embarrassment curled through him despite this.

When he opened his eyes, looking down to catch her in his gaze again, there was a newfound resolve to his expression.

She was a great change, and no matter how thrilled he was to no longer be alone, it was startling. He would adapt. He always managed to, at least from what he could remember.

It was almost as if he had forgotten his panic and the reason for it entirely. As if he suddenly stood in the eye of the storm, a thin sort of calm took his sharp features. Tension remained in the muscles of his shoulders.

His head still ached, though it was as if his change in disposition had dulled the pain as well. He held her eye as he nodded, stooping and coming to a sitting position. He squinted his eyes to see her properly through the fog as it thickened. The light continued to disperse. They could have been anyone in the dimness.

"I would be happy to answer any questions you have."

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane tried to brushed off the fact that the stuttering man didn’t seem to comprehend her comment about his height. Honestly, with the look he was giving her it was as if she was speaking in tongues.
He seemed to revert to Italian... would she really have to spell it out for him to understand anything?

Diane raised an eyebrow curiously as the man seemed to become slightly more afraid than he was a moment ago. Her eyes widened as he took a panicked step towards her, and stepped back with one foot.
Her hands instantly rose to shoulder level, ready to send a strike if needed.

The man seemed to change his mind, taking two steps back. Perhaps it was because he was in a panic. People’s movements tended to be sporadic.
Diane slowly let her hands fall, her brow furrowing in concern as he yelped.
She took a hesitant step forward with a frown. She swore, choosing to spend her time with people on earth was making her go soft. Humans broke so easily, one could barely blame her. She needed to find out if he had a concussion, but people tended to be very wary around strangers. Especially ones who attacked them. Of course it didn’t help that the man seemed spooked.

Diane’s gaze flicked back to the mans face, and in just a few seconds the stranger’s demeanor seemed to wholly change. He met and held her gaze with a newfound sense of clarity that seemed to calm their surroundings if only for a few seconds.

She gave a small nod, watching as his figure grew more and more hampered by the second.
In order to see him better, she stepped forward and sat down cross-legged in front of the man.

She stayed silent for a moment as she carefully constructed her first question.
“Are you human?” She paused. “And can I check for a concussion?”

...granted it didn’t come out as delicately as some may hope but it was to the point and she couldn’t waste time with extra words.

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Val's dark eyes widened slightly with her question.

"Am I... ?"

The weight of it laid out over his shoulders, demure and imposing at once. He didn't know why it struck him so. Certainly, in a forest where there dwelled beasts and spirits beyond count, the question was a necessity. Still, it sharpened an awareness in him, something that he had been naive of.

For a moment, he swore he could see out from her eyes, and knew that truly, he could have been anything. The shadows here liked to mimic - to steal voices, scents, faces. Could they not take a human form? Even as he continued to be cautious of her, he was made aware that she, herself, was being cautious of him. The possibility of his own subterfuge briefly washed over him. He could be one of those things, he knew, and a soft whisper in his voice rose to the front of his mind.

Who's to say we aren't?

He gave a small shake of his head, as if to dispel it. He had found a thin sort of calm, and he wasn't going to lose it so easily. His lips came to a still line before they parted with an answer.

"Yes. Yes, I am human." His voice didn't shake, and he was almost surprised. The words felt clumsy and all too real in his mouth. He wondered if she would believe him. An ever-present fear stayed stock still in his chest as he beheld her, his eyes searching her face through the fog for some tell, some oddity that would betray a mask. The fog threatened to distort her gaze, and for a moment he couldn't hold it. Val looked down, and couldn't even see the ground on which he rested. Frightened, her inquiry returned to him.

Are you?

He didn't voice the returning question. For some reason, for now, he didn't want to know.

There had been other words that came after her question, another one to follow, and he had to think back to recall it. He had been distracted by the first, lost in the promises it bade.

He kept his head slightly bent down, eyes blinking down, seemingly blind in the fog.

"Yes, thank you. I would be glad of it."

He spoke politely, as he had been taught. At least his manners hardly failed him, unlike everything else. He was a bit taken aback by this request. Why should she care if she had given him a concussion? Had her objective not been to hurt him?

Yet, the more he thought, the more he remembered some hint of consternation in her gaze. It was possible that she regretted the blow now. Either way, he didn't blame her. She had the power to dispel beasts from her path. Why should she not use it?

Again, he was faintly aware of himself as other, as a stranger, as she no doubt must see him as, and he felt troubled by it. There was no familiarity anywhere. He recalled the brief daze he had risen with, how the girl before him had fleetingly worn another face, one terrible in its familiarity.

Perhaps it was well that she should be a stranger. It was almost comforting, in a strange way that he was hardly used to.

Val retained his posture, a submissive tilt of his head. He didn't want to seem threatening, if there was any chance of that to begin with. Certainly, he was the one that should fear her touch, not the other way around. Yet, he couldn't help wanting to put her at ease, if he could manage it in some small way.

He didn't speak anymore, though there were many questions he wished to ask. She had said he should keep silent, save for answering what questions she asked, in so many words.

Val planted his hands firmly into the earth, and for a moment it felt as if it gripped him back. The fog tugged at his pant legs with a child's grasp and cadence.

He refrained from gritting his teeth.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane might have not believed him if it weren’t for the way he seemed so confused at first. There was always the chance that he truly didn’t comprehend the question, but he seemed to have recollected himself fine.
It shouldn’t have been hard, but something gave him pause. It wasn’t just the hesitance of, ‘duh of course’. There was something more. Something had made that young man stop and think.

Diane brushed it off, closing her eyes for a moment. She was overthinking this. He was simply a strange, overly cautious yet crazy man. She didn’t really want to know why he was wandering a forest near dark. She just wanted to know if he could point the way out.

When she opened her eyes she had to admit she was slightly perturbed to find him staring straight at her. Diane swallowed, trying to find contact with his eyes through the fog. Though they were sitting right infornt of each other, the misty gray substance hovered between them like a curtain, taunting her flimsy surety of the situation.

But just moments later he casted his gaze downward. That much she could tell.
All of the years she had walked the many planes and dimensions of earth, it had gotten harde and harder to count how many times she wished she knew how to read minds.
Diane had always envied those wise ol’ telepaths. But she had often been reminded of the burden that came with the ability, finally deciding not to seek it out.
But at times like this, she was bound to cave.

She tilted her head as he calmly consented to her checking for a concussion.
As she observed the young man she wasn’t sure what was bothering her more, how he was acting so polite towards her, or the fact that she was hesitant to engage the man at all.
Nothing felt right in this forest and it was putting her off.

She gave a small nod in response to his consent but made no move to closely examine his eyes, partly because he kept his head down. She only mustered up the drive to reach forward when he tilted his head.

She raised a hand, trying to dispel some of the fog between them before extending both hands and grabbing ahold of both sides of his face, her thumbs just in front of his ears and her fingers curling towards the back of his head. She gently tilted his head forward with a frown, trying to see his pupils through the fog. She narrowed her eyes in concentration before letting go of his head and leaning back.
“I can’t see well. I think you might be okay, but for now no sudden movement. And you should probably take time to chill if you feel like throwing up later.”

Diane sighed, folding her hands and setting them in her lap.
“I suppose the floor is yours.”

She could ask how he was able to sneak up on her later. Right now he seemed uncomfortable to say the least and it probably wasn’t wise to continue her ‘interrogation’ without giving him a chance to speak. Perhaps he would mention his name so she would have to refer to him as ‘the strange man’.

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Val was lost in thought for a moment, or in fact, he was always lost in thought and it was the moments of engagement and awareness that were scattered between - reefs blooming up in the sea.

He thought he heard a sound, a high-pitched, still sort of sound, yet when he raised his gaze a bit, he saw only that the girl was reaching forward. He tensed, as if he didn't expect it, though he had given her his consent. He watched her quick gesture, as if she meant to clear the fog between them. It made him shiver. Even that veil was to be pulled away. It stirred something in him.

As she pressed her hands to either side of his face, holding it there, he let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been keeping. Contact. His eyes slipped closed for a brief moment. Not a force or a fog, but real contact - simple and terrible and true. Her hands were firm, there wasn't a catch or a drag - smooth, but firm. He felt himself threatening to unravel with it, yet he remained as still as possible. Stillness was always his handle on things, the best he could suffice. The world would go on turning around him. He needed time.

He couldn't remember the last time he had felt real contact from someone he could pretend was human, at least for now. Pretending was fine enough with him, in small doses.

He focused on not trembling. Stillness. He resisted the ridiculous, childish urge to reach up and hold her hands there, so they would remain. He pressed his hands hard into the loose earth beneath.

She brought him forward, tilting his head up a bit, and Val saw her lean close, narrowing her eyes in order to better see his pupils, he knew, yet he couldn't help but feel a bit frightened by it. Certainly, it wasn't eye contact he was afraid of, at least not entirely. His dark eyes looked forward as she focused, trying not to look directly at her, yet in the space between, as if she might steal his soul through his gaze.

He let out a second breath as she brought her hands away, leaning back. Val found himself looking at her hands where they were folded in her lap. Was there something he wanted? He wasn't sure.

She was speaking, and he listened, his gaze not rising just yet.

"Thank you."

He said, a quiet, hard-pressed utterance. The words had caught in his throat just before he had been able to let them out. He didn't know why his childhood stutter was holding that familiar knife to his throat now - what it was about the circumstance. Perhaps it was the sudden change. He didn't know, yet it wasn't so bad as it might have been.

As a child, it had been so difficult that at times he couldn't utter a word. He would sit, his nails digging into his palms, stuttering a single sound, trying to pry the rest of the word from his throat. Most times it came. Other times it wouldn't budge.

She was waiting for him. It was his turn to pose a question.

His head swam with what he might ask.

Are you human? Why are you here? How did you come here?

What is this place? Do you know? Do you know me?

What are you capable of?

Yet he found himself uttering none of those inquiries.

"Might I know your name?"

This came without a struggle, as easy as breathing. His dark eyes found her face at last, as if he had recovered the courage necessary.

He could hardly make out her features clearly now. The dimness and the fog distorted all.

He wondered if she would answer. In some places, names had true power. Names were a real gift, one of some semblance of control, of advantage. The shadows seemed to hoard names like coins, currency.

Val shivered again.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

It was surprising.

In the few scenes that had happened, and the first impression she had given, Diane was expecting a little more than a simple ‘Might I know your name?’.
Considering his expression and the long pause before he spoke, one would think that a man was going to ask a more serious question. In all honesty, one of the more popular ones was ‘what are you’.

Diane blinked, slightly taken aback. She stared at him like she was wondering if that was really all he could come up with. Or if that was genuinely all he wanted to know.
After a few seconds, she seemed to recomposure and give her head a little shake to bring herself fully to her senses.
“Diane.” She introduced herself. “Diane Mayon, since you wanted to know.” She shrugged nonchalantly, allowing a few seconds of silence before looking up to catch his gaze and speak.

“Since I’ve so graciously allowed you my name, it seems only fitting you allow me yours.”
She spoke in a manner that could most easily be described as silky, the way she slowly made the words roll and almost blend. Unfortunately it was only one of the two tones she normally used, the other being a straightforward and no nonsense tone she took earlier while berating the man with questions.

Diane crossed her arms, lifting her shoulders for a moment as if she were cold. It was strange how the temperature seemed to drop with a peculiar sense of unease and tension. While she tried her best to keep contact with the eye son front of her, but couldn’t help but feel a sudden urge to scan the surrounding area for new gazes.

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Diane

Val stared unabashedly. He had a name to the face now, and it was a perfectly normal, perfectly respectable sort of name. It threatened to stir memories, lazy afternoons with his grandmother as she read stories, mythology, and he dug his small fingers into the soft carpet beneath his cheek. It had smelled of wilted roses.

Yet, this was a more succinct name. Not Diana, with her bow and arrow, the crescent moon of the maiden on her back, and the heavy diadem upon her brow - this was a far less imposing thing, wasn't it?

He held back a wince as the blow at the back of his head acted up again, yet it did cause his dark eyes to fall from her face. Once more he stared into the swirling mass of fog below, and could have sworn it looked like a sea.

"It's a-a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mayon. Even under such...grim circumstances."

Which were? He couldn't rightly recall, hardly knowing what it was he meant. He remembered his pleasantries, as always. The forest couldn't take everything from him. Yet, even as he thought this, a chill slid down his spine, and all rational thought seemed to depart from him. He had the distinct feeling that someone was watching him - and their eyes certainly were not an enticing shade of blue.

Diane's smooth, sugared cadence seemed to pull him back to her, the intense fear he had experienced just a moment ago all but forgotten. What had it been that had made his blood run cold? He was trembling, and now he couldn't say why.

He met her gaze, forcing himself to at least seem calm. She was asking for his name, and it was almost a tangible, potent relief when it came to mind without difficulty.

Ulysse, he thought. My name is Ulysse.

"Most people... most people call me Val."

It was an act of cowardice, like all the rest, yet this at least, seemed a small one. He still feared that if he did give her his name, her form would twist, her eyes turn cold and greedy, and her then sharp-toothed maw would hold the syllables as a means of control. Yet, she had given her name, and for that measure of trust, he had been able to give a part of himself.

Val's eyes flickered over her change in posture, and once more that same chill slid down his spine, yet this time he ignored it.

"Are you cold? Oh - I'm sorry." He grasped the ring resting at his collarbone, the concern in his voice sinking. "I wasn't meant to ask a question, was I?" His brow was drawn, and the muscles in his shoulders were taut. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane took a deep breath, dismissing the momentary weakness of doubt and caution. It seemed illogical that anyone else would be out in these woods so late.

She furrowed her brows as the man tentatively spoke.
She forgot to reprimand him for calling her miss, the second part of his sentence calling louder for her attention.

‘grim circumstances.’

So this man knew something about the place they were in, and apparently it was bad. That was good. Even if he didn’t know how to get out, know-how was good to have on hand.
...which made it imperative he stayed in one piece.

She once again turned her attention to the man in front of her, who seemed momentarily lost in thought himself until she spoke asking for his name.

After just a moment of silence longer he managed to utter out another sentence, introducing himself as-...
‘Val’???
Diane narrowed her eyes for a split-second, resisting the urge to lean back. So that was why he felt so ew? She honestly wasn’t sure how she knew what the name meant, but she could barely keep her thoughts anchored long enough to think about it.
“Say that’s short for some weird baby name like Valley.” Diane muttered before sighing. “A saint... you’ve got to be kidding me.”
It’s as if his strangely courteous behavior wasn’t enough.
Well... that, name, certainly wouldn’t do. She’d just have to come up with something else to call him since he got it wrong the first time. Her new ‘friend’ here would just have to deal with it.

Diane blinked, focusing on Val as he spoke for the third time, morphing into an anxious state. For a moment she was taken aback at his comment, and her expression clearly showed it. It took nearly all her strength to not whack him over the head in an effort to knock some sense into his deranged mind.
However... she reminded herself that she had already made him experience head trauma once that night. If she wanted for his brain functions to continue to work properly-or as properly as they could- she would have to refrain from inflicting further damage.

Taking a deep breath, she calmed her features and composed herself enough to speak.
“Your mouth and words are your own. You may state or inquire whatever you like. It’s not like I have the authority to tell you to shut up.”

...Diane would have to admit, she let her self-control slip a bit near the end, but she was sure that he would be able to grasp her point.
Since that was out of the way, she would be able to comfortable answer him without irritation.

“Ah... to answer your question: it is a bit chilly but it’s nothing truly uncomfortable. I’ve been in worse.”

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Val watched her steadily, his thick brow drawing, quite confused with Diane's reaction to his name.

Valley? Not quite.

He shook his head relatively stiffly, his left hand still grasping the ring that hung from around his neck.

"No - I'm n-not kidding you...?" It was intended as a statement of sincerity, yet on the tip of his tongue it arrived as if it were a question, as if he was uncertain of whether he were kidding her. Before he could put much thought into his words, he was speaking again, made more anxious by her odd reaction.

"It's short for Valentin. M-my m-middle name."

A brief rumination, a glimpse of something slipped through him with the voicing of the name. There came a different voice.

"Valentin, Valentin, mon petit amor, où es tu allé?"

The cloying scent of wilted roses filled him up again. How long had it been since he had spoken his name aloud? The urge to stand, to go and search for the voice possessed him, though the better part of him knew that it had arisen from his own mind. Still, he looked away from the girl before him, into the darkness, the swirling, inescapable mass that surrounded them. Clarity cut him through. He wanted to shout, or perhaps to cry. He had the distinct feeling that he was missing something.

In his form, something threatened to shift, to change, to illuminate. Yet, nothing transpired.

It was only after he had spoken thus, after the brief panicked episode passed, that a new jolt of fear came upon him. What if she had acted so oddly with the hopes that he would betray more of his name to her? If it was so, he had played right into her hands, and Val turned back to her with a fearful, restless gaze, listening as she spoke.

"Auth-...authority? Then you....you are not one of those..."

Those what? Shadows? Beasts? Monsters?

"Things?"

His lean, slender form was taut, wide, dark eyes locked on to her face. A bit of her temper had slipped into her words, that much he could tell, even in his state of mind. Had he angered her? He resisted the urge to cower - the resolute, swift desire to become invisible.

Even her eyes could turn hateful, he knew, and for her to look at him thus was another terrifying possibility among the others, perhaps more so than the rest.

"I've been in worse."

Then this hadn't been all she had known. She had existed before the forest, before the fog, and so, he must have had as well.

The thought was there, and then gone again, as if it had never existed or made a mark upon his mind.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane’s frown seemed to deepen slightly as the young man spoke the full version of his name. At least it was his middle... might have been more irritating if it were one of the other two.

She couldn’t seem to catch a break... maybe... for once... she wanted to just stumble across nobody. Or at least someone who didn’t obviously have mental issues.
...she paused. Perhaps ‘mental issues’ were a bit harsh in this case. Not that she care in particular, but if anyone asked her to be logical about at least she could say she somewhat understood. The boy was timid. Unusually so.
It would most likely prove difficult to deal with on her own part, especially when she preferred things to point... in most cases.

As Diane looked at V-...
...as Diane, uh, looked at the young man in thought, she started to notice his eyes lost what semblance of coherency they had. It was almost as if they had glazed over as he sat in front of her.
Just a moment later, he look away from her and scanned their surroundings.
Had he heard something...? Saw something? It didn’t make sense if he had... Surely she would have as well.

Even as he turned back to her, his tense demeanor seemed to remain. Their eyes connect and she saw a newfound sense of fear in those darkly colored windows.

His new words caught her like a deer in the headlights, and though there was no fear in her form, she took on a tense, concerned air.
She became rigid, her brows drawn ever so slightly as she gazed rather intensely into the boy’s eyes, though it was barely of her own accord.

Her racing mind ran along two tracks. One being short and simple, holding the reasoning that he had been present long enough to witness creatures in the woods. ...and that those creatures were just unnatural enough to rightly be given the title of ‘things’, his fear most likely indicated that these, ‘things’ were at least slightly dangerous.

The second track... the one that caused her rigidity. The very one that seemed to stretch and twist forever inside her mind yet still have the end so near in sight.
And it was simply the question.
Was she a ‘thing’..?

And it all depended on what he meant.
She had not been given a chance to see or even hear tell of what the creatures he spoke of are. For all she knows she may very well fit into his classification.
Time and time again she had been called a ‘thing’, and rightfully so in the eyes of humans. She was not of their plane.
Unnatural. Abnormal. Strange.
Whatever the name, she knew it to be true.
It was a truth she told herself to be excellent. Yet... one word. One ‘yes’ and that man’s world would go crashing. The fear in his eyes would morph, twist into something deeper, a soul-wrenching pit as he discovered his new fate.
She had seen such fear.
She had been the cause of it.

“No.”

She swallowed, having resisted the urge to choke the word out. It barely came. A lie...? She did not know...

Diane closed her eyes, taking a breath and steadying herself. She knew that she couldn’t deal with his fear right now. He needed him to be able to work properly so he could get her out of there and that meant she needed him to trust her.
Lies or no lies.
Even if she did have to lie she had been given decades to master the art of deceit.

Inhaling another breath, she opened her eyes and looked upon him with a more level-headed gaze.
“How long have you been here..?” She paused, reminding herself to keep her voice calm and level. It was just an inquiry. “...and what are these, ‘things’ you speak of?”

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

"No."

It had been the answer he was hoping for, and yet there was no real change in him. Though that may have been the best outcome possible, even prolonged, stagnant tension managed to look somewhat manic over Val's sharp features. He knew that the creatures would most likely have responded just the same to the very question he had posed, and yet, he also knew that it was the answer he had desired, the one he could swallow sweetly - the one he wouldn't fight, if there was still fight in him.

He watched her close her eyes and take a breath, and he marveled for a moment at how young she could look, and simultaneously how ancient, in the turn of the moment. He wondered at her age, sure that she couldn't be much older nor younger than he, yet there was a fundamental wear to her eyes - a sense of almost exhaustion, of one who knew better from experience. Someone who could see right through him. He was frightened of what she might think, what she might see. Val was only free of it when her eyes slipped closed, and he was struck again with the youth in her face.

The feeling that he had borne when he first beheld her, the lapse in thought when he had almost reached out to touch her hair returned, and was gradually shattered as she drew a breath and opened her eyes again. There was something more guarded to her gaze, and Val despaired in it, almost desiring that she grow angry again - that at least would be unveiled, and he would be regarded with the full force of her. It was terrible conflict to endure, fearing that he should be torn open by her eyes and all at once hoping for it.

With her inquiry, he looked shaken, though something seemed to happen that brought him from the brink of sudden panic.

"How.. l-long...?"

His hands trembled, and he let go of the ring resting on the chain at his neck. At the brink of something, a glaze came over his eyes, and the slight tremble in his form faded. It might've only been a shiver.

"Not long." He spoke absently, almost as if he weren't aware that he had spoken at all. He did not stutter once within the distant syllables.

He looked back at her, the moment forgotten. He shifted with her next question, new fear, sharp, aware, came upon his features.

She hadn't seen the creatures. He had known that she was new to the woods, yet he hadn't thought that she was so new that she wouldn't have come across its most numerous inhabitants. Hadn't they been the reason she had been so quick to strike him down? The reason she had wanted to know whether he was human?

Still, he hoped she never had to encounter them.

He drew just a bit closer to her, his voice coming to a hush, as if he feared that speaking of them would conjure them from the air.

"Shadows. There are shadows in the woods, and they speak-" He swallowed, looking to the side, knowing that the dimness that encroached upon them might very well have been the things he was speaking of.

Val's words came to quick whisper. His eyes never rested on her completely as he spoke. "They speak in voices - voices I know and they...they can wear different faces and-" He grew more frightened as he continued, his own words solidifying what only passed through his mind in fleeting, uncertain thoughts. At a point where his voice rose slightly in thinness, and the phantom sound of his heart thudding sharply startled him, he became invisible where he sat.

A small, low sound left him, and it wasn't very long before he came back into visibility.

"I'm sorry," He said, startled now from his display before her, and still by the effect his own speech had had on him. He held his hands spread out before him once more. "I didn't mean to do that, it just happens sometimes." He gave a small shake of his head. His voice had come calmer, leveling out, his previous fear falling from him like rain.

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane watched the young man as she inquired yet another thing of him. She slowly blinked, taking account of his eyes, his stuttering breath and the slight quiver of his hands, as if they were cold.

Her face had resumed a neutral expression, quite contrasting to the person in front of her. As she watched him, she took notice of how he resembled quite that of a frightened rabbit.

As he processed her question he seemed to... lose something. A quality of, awareness, almost. His eyes seemed to dull and his gaze slowly lose track of where it had been directed. It seemed as though he was in another place in his mind’s eye, or simply lost in a sea of images or thoughts.
Whatever it truly was... it had taken ahold of him and he was lost to her in that moment. Even upon his answer he continued to echo his entrapment in the lull he had created for himself.

It ticked on a few seconds before his eyes flicked back to her and his entire demeanor regained it’s clarity. But it only lasted a split second, for her second question washed over him with the same sense of fear he had earlier been fixed in.

Her brow furrowed as he leaned towards her, as in an effort to let let his voice carry through the fog. But the words he spoke were such she didn’t expect. Time for her seemed to freeze even as he continued her description. The words resonated sharply within her mind, like nails on a chalkboard they scored ragged streaks through her thoughts.

Her breath faltered, and a single tremor traveled throughout her body. As she stared at him his words quickened and he steadily grew more and more panicked, much like the very feeling that flared within her chest, threatening to tear itself out with all the force of a lion.

The moment he disappeared she exhaled a quick, sharp breath as if she wanted to make a sound but couldn’t. Her wide, eyes flickered and she leaned back, and hand slapping onto the ground behind her so she wouldn’t fall.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly, raggedly, and the second he was gone seemed to stretch into an eternity. The sense of being alone with the worst sort of creatures lurking in the darkness had never hit her harder than it had in that moment. And even his return wasn’t enough to consol her silent, screaming mind.

Her panicked eyes found his and threatened to bore holes through the man’s head she was staring so intensely. She couldn’t even hear what he had spoken next.
“S-shadows.”
She whispered in a nearly silent, wavering voice.
She had been right. They were here...

She raised a trembling hand, pressing it to her mouth to stop herself from further confirming her anxiety.
Her mind was on a rampage and it became almost overwhelming as her very own questions rose up in fright, so many she couldn’t keep track.

Finally she dropped her hand, shaking her head and swiftly standing.
“We-... we have to- to go. Do you know-, do you know a way out??”
She sharply whispered, unable to stand still.
She whipped her gaze around as she shifted her weight from foot to foot, scanning the area in a panic. They had to get out. They had to get out immediately.

In the entire history of her kind, the constant millennia’s of mischief, pain, and trickery, there was one single thing that could frighten the silent, monstrous creatures of blackness that she called her species.

Other Demons.

Rhaine​

 

[Rhaine]

☼Ulysse Valentin Brisbois☼
HuntedFox

Val hadn't meant to frighten her. He hadn't meant to allow his own fear to swallow him, to take him below into its depths and force him to shift, to change. He gently shook his head, startled to see the fear in her face, in the tide of her eyes. A few very striking feelings occurred to him at once. He felt guilty for having thought she might be like them. They weren't afraid. They had no reason for it. He could see the truth of it in her gaze - the real, heart-racing, breath-quickening, dread-inducing sort of fear that couldn't be faked. He knew that sort intimately. For a moment he felt an intense sort of kinship with the girl before him, seeing himself reflected in the wide breadth of her eyes. She was like him deep down, and it was clear to him then, fleetingly, that that's what the forest was meant to do: to peel back the rest and bare the truth, among the lies and the phantoms and the beasts.

There was something more. He was driven to the edge of a great chasm, balancing on the edge of a knife. For a moment, seeing her so panicked threatened to plunge him deeper into his own sickening cowardice. Yet, he experienced a hesitance, followed by a small surge of strength, something like protectiveness. He watched as she stood, and he quickly did the same, briefly wincing as the sudden movement sent pain splintering though his head. He gingerly held his head in his hands until the pain swiftly departed.

Val only glanced briefly to their surroundings, too frightened of what he might find to look very long into the darkness. His dark brow knit as he came closer to her, the surrounding absence feeling like presence, pinning them in.

Words rested on his lips, but he was impeded as she spoke, a sharp question cutting through the stillness.

It shook him through. His words were a delirious hush when they appeared. "A way... a way out? I..." He almost seemed to look through her, unseeing. There was a lost, hurt sort of expression on his face. "I'm sure... I'm sure there must be- I-I'm sure I know... but I... oh I can't - I can't remember-"

"Valentin."

A chill ran down his spine, the moment passing. Ulysse's dark eyes seemed to return with new clarity, new awareness, new fire in his form.

"Diane- Ms. Mayon, please listen to me." His hands rested gently on her shoulders as he peered down at her, wanting her eyes to fix on him as he spoke, wanting his words to reach her and make a mark.

He spoke in whispers. Sound travelled oddly in the queer fog. "You must stay quiet, or they will hear us, and they will find us." There wasn't a pause, tremor, or stutter as he spoke. It was even and measured. There was more solidity to him in that moment than there had been in a very long time. It was almost a glimpse of a Ulysse from a time before. Different, but more him than before. There was no way to tell how long it would last. His accent smoothed every word to an ease, though the tension in it was palpable.

"There is more. More than the woods. Places, with doors and ... perhaps, I think, an exit."

From then he deteriorated, wincing, as if he might've been struck, shivering. He spoke through it in his whisper tone, strained, his words trailing away, beginning to shake his head.

"B-B-But there's... more of them there. Too... too dangerous."

 

[HuntedFox]

Diane Lilith Mayon
~•~

Diane choked back a hiss as the human seemed to take his time to answer. Every second of silence seemed to stretch on like a millennia. She had considered leaving him until he spoke.
But it wasn’t quite what she was expecting. He was still trying to catch up.

The crippling fear that had swam in her eyes morphed into a desperate sense of irritation.
“Yes!”
She snapped, her gleaming eyes narrow. “Out! Like-” she raised her hands to help describe, but motions and words were lost on her. She simply repeated, “just-, out!” Tilting her head back, she inhaled and exhaled several trembling breaths. The small notion of keeping her composure remained just slightly out of reach, chiefly of the fact that the human before her continuously had a troublesome time processing things at an acceptable rate. Nothing she could do would make him understand that they needed to leave immediately. For all he knew, he was the expert here.

Diane blinked as hands were set upon her shoulders. Her gaze flicked upwards to meet his, the same desperation as before filling her eyes. Every second spent standing still was a second of security wasted.
In her distracted state, she didn’t even notice that for one of the few times since their encounter, the man’s hands weren’t trembling.

She would have snapped back an irritated retort if she wasn’t so taken aback. Since when did he have such a grasp of reality..? Diane swore she could see a steadiness in his eyes through the thick fog that hadn’t been there a moment before. His voice just as silk looked to calm their surroundings in a way she wasn’t quite sure was possible. Perhaps the misty substance was playing with her eyes... blurring the truth.

There were too many ‘I thinks’... but they were all she had. If this boy ‘thought’ there was an exit it was the best chance they had at escaping this forest they had. Even at the prospect of being able to flee, Diane felt a sinking disappointment. If he had known nothing she could have simply left... but that was not the case. And now it didn’t matter whether or not she had convinced herself that he was a waste of time. She was stuck.

Diane sucked in a breath as he finished, raising both her arms and knocking the young man’s hands off her shoulders.
“Now you listen.” She started a bit too coldly. “If they are what you described to me, it won’t matter.” She places a finger in the man’s chest, finding his eyes once more with her own.
“It won’t matter where we are, or how loud we talk. Because if they are what I think, they already know we’re here. And the only reason we’re not dead yet is because they, want to play with us first.” She dropped her hand. “So start walking. The longer we stay stil, the more we resemble dead meat.”

Rhaine​