(matope) - 10 years of swamp - FINISHED!

[Tiarana]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: finn, donn

[Lirilei]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: finn, donn

[NymiiNym]

SPOOKY SCARY SWAMP STORIES!

Story: You remembered the stories as you stood at the graveyard, bones at your feet.

Never leave your dead unburied, the herd had whispered. It was the one ancient rule they always kept to, although it didn't stop the rain from sweeping everyone away. You might go mad with grief, they had warned. You never held much stock to the story. It was an ancient myth, you had assumed. Something parents told their young to frighten them for one reason or another.

Still, you remembered it — why wouldn't you? They repeated it so often it was almost a mantra at this point. You just... forgot how it started. Maybe if you thought on it a little longer you would remember.... maybe?

There once was a Zikwa. That sounded right. It'd do. There was a Zikwa who loved another more than anything. It was that kind of love that would bind you to that person forever — the kind you never understood. How could you love only one? Forever? Regardless, that wasn't the story. The Zikwa and their partner lived together, alone, for a long, long, long time. They never had kids, although some stories claim they did. You didn't care which version you heard.

Eventually, one passed, as nature goes. The Zikwa's mate perished naturally and the Zikwa was, obviously, heartbroken. They wailed and cried; pleaded and begged. Of course, the swamp didn't favor their pleas. Death was death, through and through. Most came to accept that, but the Zikwa didn't. Instead, they collected the body of their loved one and laid them in their den, waiting.

And wait they did. For days they laid next to the decaying body, reverently hoping and praying. Naturally, the body stayed in resting, but the Zikwa didn't lose hope. It maddened them, as each day they awoke to a scene they could have avoided. Madness was exactly what must have happened, as the story ends abruptly and, frankly, disgustingly.

When the grief grew to strong the Zikwa ended up consuming their mate. You would remember how, during this part of the story, bile would rise in your throat. They consumed their partner and wandered aimlessly from graveyard to graveyard, waiting for their beloved to return despite what they had themselves done. Some say they've seen this Zikwa, decayed in their grieving glory as they shamble through fog and murk. Others say if you had seen them you wouldn't return home, as the Zikwa has lost their mind.

You say it's either all hogwash or a twisted tale of something else that had happened.

Yet, after all these years of scoffing and denying your herds strange scare tale, you still keep it in mind when you pass the local graveyards. Mounds of dirt, both recently and previously dug, laid unceremoniously on the ground, marked by rocks and twigs. Your eyes lock on something in the distance — something stumbling. The story flickers in your mind, biles rises in your throat. You know it's silly; foolish, even. However, the something jerks their body a step in your direction and you feel your heart quicken.

.... Could it be?

Preference List: Ghoul, Will-o-Wisp, Kelpie, Shoggoth

AN OFFERING FOR THE MORRIGAN!

Proof of participation: ^

[Terrapin de amore]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: donn, finn

[Terrapin de amore]

I'LL TAKE THEM ALL DOWN!

Terrapin de amore: Name of participating kin: Blowing Embers
Short personality blurb: tends to accidentally cause chaos wherever she goes...

[Eevee Is Best]

I'LL TAKE THEM ALL DOWN!

Eevee Is Best: Name of participating kin: Collector
Short personality blurb: adventurous, risk taking, and willing to go to any lengths to get what it is he's looking for.

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: donn, finn

[So Long Gay Bowser]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: Finn, Donn

[Kickflipping Cow]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: finn, donn

I'LL TAKE THEM ALL DOWN!

Kickflipping Cow : Name of participating kin: Cayenne Pepper
Short personality blurb: Spicy, sassy doe

[sheepcakes]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: finn, donn

[Gl!tch~]

AN OFFERING FOR THE MORRIGAN!

Proof of participation: Snowflake

AN OFFERING FOR THE MORRIGAN!

Proof of participation: Snowflake

AN OFFERING FOR THE MORRIGAN!

Proof of participation: Periodic table

[Starrydance]

Edit: Wrong contest cuz Im smart.

[Starrydance]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: finn, donn

[prolixity]

SPOOKY SCARY SWAMP STORIES!

Story: You're not really sure how you got here. This isn't a place in the swamp that you normally frequent. It's distant and lonely, hung with dripping moss and dotted with deep pools of water, and here you met her. She didn't seem startled to see you; she only asked if you wanted to be guided back out. On the way back, as you follow her, she tells you a story.

Once, there was a kimeti, and he died. It's not important how, not really. He had been searching for something. It's not really important what that was, either. What's important is that he died, and he died angry. He died in a place where he would never be found, and his flesh and his bones sank slowly into the mud. His flesh and his bones decayed, but his anger did not. His blood seeped into the mud, red into black, and something of him lived on.

The anger that had once been a kimeti became the blood and the mud. It seeped into the earth where he had died, and it lurked there unmoving. It slept. It brooded. It bubbled up from time to time, red and black and formless. It waited.

In time, other kin came to the place where the anger that had once been a kimeti lurked. They, too, were searching for something. It's not really important what. What's important is that they came looking, and they disturbed the place where the anger lay, and the anger awoke. It heard the voices of the others who had come, and it roiled and swirled in the mud, awakening red from black once again. It became hungry.

The others who searched made a mistake. One of them stepped hoof into the mud where the anger waited. Disturbed, it boiled forth, engulfing her, and it pulled her down and down and down to join the anger that waited. But this was not enough. The mud and the blood bubbled up out of the swamp, and it went hunting.

In the night, the others heard voices, familiar voices. Voices calling, voices begging for help. Voices that could not be there, voices that should have been safe at home, and in among those voices sounded a soft fluting singing, weird and otherworldly. One by one, they went out into the dark in search of the voices they heard. One by one, they went to find the voices they could not resist, and one by one, they were eaten, eaten by the anger that had once been a kimeti.

Far out in the swamp, where there are deep pools of water and the moss hangs dripping from the branches, they lie deep down in the mud. The searchers did not find what they came to seek. They found only anger, anger and blood and mud, blood and mud and death. Somewhere far out in the swamp they lie in wait, sleeping, brooding. Perhaps, if someone comes searching, they will awaken, and once again the voices in t he dark will sound.

It would be wise not to disturb them.
Preference List: will-o-wisp, shoggoth, kelpie

AN OFFERING FOR THE MORRIGAN!

Proof of participation: Swamp story~

[As if I even care]

A BET FOR THE BULLS!

Preference List: finn, donn

[As if I even care]

I'LL TAKE THEM ALL DOWN!

Your username: As if I even care Name of participating kin: Outlasts
Short personality blurb: more than meets the eye.