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 Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:13 pm
There was no distinct recognition from her, no sign of surprise to find herself in this grey gloom of nothingness. It was a very dreamlike response from her... unable to realize, in her unconscious state, that this place wasn't perfectly normal. Maybe a little depressing...
She heard that sound, and it drew her attention, even in her hazy awareness. It was like shining a light through a deep fog... it went through but couldn't quite penetrate the overwhelming thickness.
Almost drawn to the morbid gate against her will, she walked forward, slowly, toward it. With each step, her unconscious mind heightened in awareness, and she laid a paw upon the gate as she meant to go through it. She very specifically laid her paw upon it, to ascertain its existence, to form a stability to her situation. She then looked beyond, eyes narrowing as if to try to see, beyond the gate, what was making that sound.
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:27 pm
::It definitely FELT real... but here, there seemed to be an echo, a background to everything at the same time that seemed less real... if it was just a dream, it was a very strange dream, as she laid her paws upon the gate, and instantly, the metal crumbled beneath her paw, as the gate and fencing gave way, rotting at an incredible speed, until all that was left was a pile of dust before her... and beyond that, the gate now gone, there lay a graveyard::
::Tombstones left and right were her welcome to this scene... and once again, that beckoning, incessant dripping noise was calling for her, as a rumble sounded and unseen clouds overhead rumbled their call as raindrops began to fall around her, but never one to touch her::
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:52 pm
The sudden and rapid disintegration startled Eula into full awareness, her eyes widening as she watched the gate turn to dust and decay under her. She frowned. A dream. With that realization, she turned about in slow circles a couple times as if to see if someone was here. Anyone.
She turned back to look at what lay beyond the now non-existent gate, taking a few calming breaths as she walked carefully forward. A graveyard? That was never a good sign of things to come. Shaking her head, she trained her eyes up, avoiding looking down at the tombstones all around her. She braced herself, as if expecting the wet and cold as the rain began to fall around her. It took her a few moments to realize she was still dry.
Frowning, she crossed her arms and huddled them to herself, as if she was cold. A defensive stance. Thinking there was not much else for it, she continued on... toward that sound.
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:43 am
::As Eula progressed, the noise grew, until as she got closer and closer... every drip was loud enough to make a beast flinch, and their ears curl, as the sound drowned out the rain, that no matter how heavy, would never touch her::
::The gravestones around her, unmarked, indistinct it seemed... but earth freshly turned, and smells around seemed to highlight something horrible... until there it was::
::It was like a macabre fountain, filled not with water, but with blood, as a single, twisted arm had broken through the surface as if to escape, a limb so twisted and horrible its paw didn't even look like a paw, but a collection of thin, long claws, all reaching upward towards it::
::Another drip, and the source of all that hideous noise showed itself: a red ruby, glistening even in this storm, JUST out of reach of those beckoning claws that sought not escape it seemed, but to grab it!::
::And now, every few seconds...::
: biggrin rip::
::A red drip, the precious red gem was bleeding, a splash of blood into the open paw's palm, that dribbled down slowly, into the collection below...::
::And one drip sent splashes, splashes that were making things so loud, and horrible echoes that seemed to touch the farthest edges of this graveyard, and back, to Eula's only ears that could bear it...::
::There was no kind or familiar spirit here to help her, or speak to her...::
::There was only the graveyard, the arm in the blood, and the bleeding gem...::
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:19 pm
Eula did all she could to tred around the swirls of turned soil, avoiding the graves and gravemarkers. She also breathed through her mouth to stave off the stench of blood and death. The whole scene was a sensory overload... too much on the eyes, ears, nose...
When she came upon the scene of the blood fountain, the gem, the wasted hand, she froze, staring in confusion and disgust. She was in a lucid nightmare! A nightmare she dearly hoped wuold be forgotten come morning. After all, how could she derive any meaning from this? It was a vision of horror, a mixed up and perverted twist of all the terrible things imaginable. For a few moments, her eyes blankly followed the dripping of the blood from the gem, drip... drip... drip... as the rest of the scene blurred from her overwhelmed mind.
Finally, she looked away, tearing her eyes from everything before her. She turned her back, arms still crossed and huddled against her body. She shook her head, willed herself to wake... it was just a nightmare... it would go away... morning would come soon and she wouldn't remember any of this...
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:29 pm
::But the more she tried to close it out, the louder the dripping seemed to get, with every splash, every trickle that slid down the arm a booming noise that demanded her attention, until finally, there was something, hiding underneath it all, that began to edge at her, eat at her... a voice, a familiar voice... hard to say...::
::The gem that bled, was speaking to her?::
::Was THIS the spirit who'd chosen to appear before her this time?::
::Still it hung there, waiting for her attention, begging to be noticed, to be taken as it waited for her...::
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:50 pm
Eula stayed like that for a few minutes, eyes shut tight, deep breaths, holding her shaking paws against herself. It would go away...
But the drip-dripping continued, each drop loud and unnatural, feeling like physical, intrusive taps on her back. Her ears perked a little... what was that? Was there a voice? Was someone finally here to explain everything? Maybe she really wasn't alone.
With a breath, she opened her eyes again, turning about slowly to look at the gem again. She fell into a momentary trance again, watching the dripping blood. She gave several hard blinks, shaking her head as she forced herself to walk over.
She stood there before the gem, ignoring the pool of the blood and the clawing paw. She lifted her paw, hesitated as if afraid that if she moved, she'd be harmed. Finally, throwing caution to the winds, she reached out to grab the gem.
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:05 pm
::And in an instant, that was it, as her paw reached for the gem, and suddenly the arm snapped close like a vice upon her wrist, so tight that a beast could swear they'd hear the noise of the bones in her arm straining against the force, but there was no doubt, any beast could hear the new voice that echoed in booming laughter around the graveyard::
I wondered when you would come for me...
::And as had the gates, all around her, the graveyard began to crumble and disappear, as black nothingness began to slowly reach its way from all corners, trapping her with no place to retreat, as the gem simply vanished... and there she was with the arm, as a rumbling sounded, and the arm began to rise up, its grip so tight and strong it could have lifted the hare in the air bodily, so dark it was, but so cold and hard... metal, like the body that rose from the ground and blood after it, the face of a twisted, black fox, whose eyes were as red as the ruby, as red as the blood, leered upward victoriously at her...::
::There was no escape, nothing short of tearing her arm off, but now, like all dreams, there came a time where you weren't in control... and the leering beast rose and rose, its breath a ragged decay as it laughed at her sight... and now, only now, as the dripping returned...::
::The beast lunged for her throat!!!::
~~~~~
::And she was allowed to wake::
::An incessant dripping noise seemed the culprit... as the metal holder of her candle let out a metallic 'ping' with each contact, from a tiny drip in the ceiling...::
::And all outside... the heavens seemed to be raining down...::
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:28 pm
Eula woke with a startled cry, jolting up, heart racing, her breathing rapid, as if she had just run a mile. Her paws were gripping her blanket so tightly she was nearly cutting into her own palms through the cloth. She looked down, then threw the blanket off herself as if her nightmare was its fault.
Her blanket being back on the edge of the bed now, she pulled her uncovered legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs as she pressed her forehead to her knees. She stayed like that for a few moments, swallowing back the stinging tears in her throat... it had just been a dream! It didn't mean anything... but it was hard to convince her heart that refused to slow and allow her to calm and WHAT WAS THAT SOUND?
She looked up and saw the dripping water. She reached out and angrily batted at the candle holder, letting it fly across the room and hit the wall.
She finally pushed herself out of bed and got dressed. She grabbed a hooded cloak and attached it around her neck. Another sleepless night for Eula. Oh well. She'd done it before. Many times before. Leaving the wet candle holder and the now broken candle laying on the floor, she left her room.
She walked aimlessly, slowly down the hallway, her mind racing through images of her dream even though she tried to block them out... forget them.
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:37 pm
::The corridors seemed dark, dank and alone, so even Redwall had times like these, where silence gave over everything, and the abbey slept, apart from the odd crack of window, where moonlight slatted through, and offered glimpses of the guards on duty on the walltops despite the downpour...::
::At least she wasn't the only beast awake::
::Which beast knew whatever dreadful hour it was, it was hard to tell, but it couldn't have been THAT late, could it?::
::Not when light would peek at the edges of an Abbess' door, would it?::
::It was hard to miss when the rest of the abbey was blacked out, the slightly decorated door had a habit of letting slip a crack of light beneath it, but inside, only the smallest of whispers could be heard...::
::It was almost like the dream again, a sound so small, so innocent drawing her, trying to entice her perhaps... but at least here, she had normality, and she had a choice::
::After all, it was probably Faith in the middle of some meeting with her mother... or one of the bats, or somebeast else, right?::
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 2:07 pm
Eula nearly walked right by the room without noticing the light. She was clearly caught up in her own thoughts. She was trying to walk off these images... distract herself from the nightmare.
She walked past Faith's door, then she stopped, blinked, then turned and noticed the light spilling underneath the door. The abbey was so quiet, dark... asleep. It had to be late, so she was curious why Faith was up and still chatting. Obviously she would have a lot on her mind... but she was a child and DEFINITELY would not function properly without sleep.
Deciding she herself could use the distraction, she doubled back and went up to the door, knocking lightly on it. "Faith?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:36 am
::The door creaked open without any invitation, as Eula knocked, it opened a little more, as light and sound flooded out a little more, and Faith was very audible... doing nothing MORE than whispering it seemed...::
::An errant scroll of parchment unravelled and rolled out of the space in the door, and Eula was offered a glimpse inside, a mess of various abbey records of old, and a collection of scrolls with writing so illegible, it was like a dibbun had been offered the quill to write::
::If she just took a pawstep aside, she'd see the abbess there, slumped upon the desk before her, quill on the floor, as well as one of the long rolls of parch, and, what appeared to be one of Faith's ever-unravelling bandages, which the young Abbess appeared to have started writing on by mistake as it trailed away with the rest of it...::
::She was fast asleep, and the candle seemed near its end as a mess of wax surrounded the dish, and the abbess herself?::
Eye'saneye.... ::She spoke in her sleep, whispering over and over, lines from the riddle, her expression quite passive, but her voice and her slight shifting troubled in her slumber...:: Abbey's...abbey...
::It seemed the Abbess had been burning the candle from both ends there::
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:21 pm
Eula tilted her head, glancing into the door. She quietly opened the door and slipped in, lifting the parchment off the floor. She glanced at if briefly, then went over and quietly started rolled up some of the records, laying them back into a neat pile.
She looked at the young fox and it didn't take her long to realize what Faith was mumbling. Well, clearly Eula was not the only one with sleep haunted by the poem and current events.
She contemplated moving Faith, but waking the fox would probably just cause her to try and do some more work. Instead Eula went over to douse the candle.
She'd let the abbess get her sleep... she would go annoy any guards who napped on their watch,
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:49 pm
::As Eula went towards the candle, from the shadows of a corner, two gleaming eyes opened suddenly:: Could you please leave the light intact?
::It didn't take too long to know who it was, not especially when a pair of wings were seen stretching slowly outward, as Kusaa took just one step, to show herself a little better from the tight shadows of the room cast over the flickering candle...::
If she doesn't see the candle used up by morning, she'll think it a wasted night's work.
::And after a moments thought, the bat decided to test the situation:: Couldn't sleep? ::She asked simply::
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:10 pm
Eula was uncharacteristically startled by the nearby voice, jumping in surprise and nearly burning herself on the flame she had had her paw cupped around. She whirled around, eyes fixed wide on Kusaa. It took a moment, but she calmed upon seeing the familiar bat. "Oh, it's just you..."
She sighed, keeping her voice low. "She's only a child, she really ought to sleep, not be poring all night over..." Eula shook her head, vaguely indicating the stack of parchment.
"No," she replied to Kusaa's question. She wasn't feeling much up to providing an explanation. "I figured I'd just go take a night watch with some of the guards. Half of them are probably asleep by now anyway."
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