Post by Nakia on Feb 2, 2023 0:25:08 GMT
As the party of bedraggled and battle weary adventurers emerge from the shimmering portal at the centre of the plaza, the tall figure of be-speckled, dirt spattered fur and robes falls in behind them.
This figure, this feline, is beyond spent. His once bright amber eyes that once rippled with a warm glow akin to freshly pouring honey are now muted and dull.
The tall proud alert ears that sit upon its head like pieces of some elegant crown are now lank and still.
The dull pounding of the heart in its chest feels like the unrelenting beat of a war drum, void of emotion or empathy,
just solely focused on its duty to keep the cat bound to this cold cruel existence.
Without a word he wonders away from the members of the group and into the streets, unaware and nor of care where his feet lead him. The small pouch of gold clutched tightly, the monetary rewards of today's sufferings in one limp hand feeling like an unwelcome leaden weight.
More gold than he has earned than in all his work during the winter months shut away in the storeroom of Fort Ettin after his fiery rage at that Leocanto's frivolous restaurant, after his encounter with those undead people which denied their souls the gift of external rest that had been bestowed upon them.
More gold than any earned from those beautiful dream-like summer months spent working upon a Daring Heights market fruit stall alongside..her.
The most beautiful tabaxi girl he had ever seen.
Her fur like rippled water upon an oasis.
Her strong purring laugh like ocean water rushing up against the sand.
Waves.
He could have been happy, could have made his life worth living with her.
And yet he could not deny himself of what his heart truly desired.
That which time and time again was denied to him.
And so, he'd pushed her away.
He had seen them, as he felt the burning attacks of those creatures, when mindless defilers had ravaged his body as his party had attempted to make their retreat from the tunnels bored deep into the earth.
Their shadowy forms against the golden sands, rippling like a heat wave mirage before him as the poison racked his body with pain, as the blood poured from his wounds to the cool dirt floor. This was it, it was his time.
And then he'd been pulled back, the sound of weapons and shrieks of those creatures becoming loud once more as he felt control of his pain wracked body return with a glimmer of warmth.
Before suddenly it was cut short by another stabbing flash of pain and he was back, back before the rippling veil behind which the obscured and yet so familiar figures stood.
They were so near, so close. He reached out one desperate paw, reaching out to grasp the veil, to pull it back, to reveal them, join them. And yet, the smallest figure at the front of the group, her black fur and white robes just barely distinguishable beyond the constantly shifting surface of the veil before him had turned as if to face him.
She began to move towards him, the surface of the veil billowing as a strong hard breeze blew against it, warm tendrils reaching their way past it's invisible frame, forcing their way down his throat, filling his reluctant lungs with breath once more, pushing his still cooling heart into beating submission once again to surge blood around his stiffening limbs.
Two large white eyes flare open as the small female feline figure's face break through the veil to speak to him, the lips still, the face empty of any emotion.
"It is not your time. The Great prowler has need of you yet."
Once more he was forced back onto this plane. The cold drips of the far too often recurring rain damping his fur as he made his way as if led by fate to Dusk Yard of Graveside, falling to his knees as the heavens open and unleash their torrential unrelenting downpour upon him, as he lets out his cries of anguish to the dark sky above.
"Why won't you let me go to them?!
WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME?!"
