Merzost had backfired horribly, once upon a time. There were tales that circulated the land, of course, gossip passed between housewives and farmers in taverns, but none of them really touched on the truth of the matter.
Hundreds of years ago, the Shadow Fold had chewed its way across half of Ravka, but it had consumed its maker, too: the hungry volcra transforming within it and then, uncontrolled, setting themselves upon their shadow summoner.
Days ago, a young man had trespassed too far in hunting his quarry, following the deer into the forbidden grounds, walking too close to the crumbling palace at the heart of the wood.
Tonight, a young woman walked into the forest, unknowing.
As she kept moving further, she could tell there were slithering shadows moving from tree-to-tree, following her path. Volcra. An eerie chittering came from their maws, their blind eyes questing the distant small light cradled in her palm, their noses sniffing for the scent of warm flesh, blood.
She had gone too far. Walked past the lopsided, broken gates that marked the beginning of this cursed territory, into the land that had once belonged to some nameless general, some unknown prince. There was another hiss from the trees, and then the pack of volcra started clawing their way forward, braving that small light, heading for the girl.
(In the distance, another presence turned his head, ears cocked, listening to the sounds of the forest descending on new prey. Scarred black veins were scrawled along his hands and arms and face: this demon in the woods with its coal-black eyes, his hands which turned to talons when the transformation came upon him. Two disturbances in a week. This was more than he was accustomed to.)
Going to the ends of the earth might have been a joke in their youth but it truly seemed like it the further she moved into the woods. Had she imagined it or were the trees closer together here? Taller and more menacing. "Stop it," she muttered to herself but as she rounded a corner, something else rustled and it did not sound like leaves at all. It sounded like teeth. She froze and the light went out completely around her, the shadows closing in, hungry and unforgiving. Swallowing down any noises she may have made otherwise, she walked quicker to attempt to move away from the noises.
Could it just be the woods? Similar to an old house just settling?
No. It seemed alive and she could have sworn she felt eyes on her.
Walking faster still, Alina tried to slip the knife out of her bag and not make too much noise while she did so. Please, please, please. Shifting her gaze around, she tried to see in the darkness, resisting the urge to call forth the light again. She could not risk it when she didn't know what or WHO had found her location. There were rumors of more than just the demon in the woods and becoming a late night meal had never been one of her objectives.
Should she leave? No. No. She would not leave Mal out here, she just needed to get a sense of her surroundings and figure out where to go. She continued to stumble backwards, only stopping when her back hit a - gate? A wall? Something. She turned around, fingers gripping to and try and open it. Maybe she could hide there until she figured out what to do next.
In trying to backtrack, Alina had just run into a crumbling brick wall, the mortar loose beneath her hands. In daylight, it would be possible to scale it and climb back out of the grounds (sometimes brave boys from the village had done exactly that, climbing the wall just to say that they had done so, before they turned and climbed back and fled to more well-lit pastures). But it wasn't a task worth trying in the darkness, not where the wrong twist of an ankle might lead to a broken neck.
In the darkness, however, there was another hiss. One of the volcra leapt— the girl happened to move at the last second, however, and so the monster's claws ripped open her arm, but not her heart. It collided with the wall, sending dust and bricks skittering downwards while her blood splattered on the ground, and the rest of the pack set loose an ululating cry.
That cry sent the demon right to them.
The pitch-black forest was his home, and the volcra his... not his pets, but perhaps his grimly-tolerated monstrous neighbours. When the scarred man (or what had once been a man) went barreling through the trees, they instinctively glanced in his direction, like recognising like.
A black figure collided with one of the ghostly-white creatures; black talons ripping into its sun-starved skin, and then they were rolling over the ground. The new arrival looked animal, at first, before it turned out to be wearing dark clothing and a furred cape as its limbs tangled with the volcra, as their claws dug into each other, as the volcra screamed and the demon roared its defiance back. One of the other volcra tried to skitter into the fight only to have to back away — but their attention was off the girl now, more drawn to their unruly and hostile cousin.
It was an ugly fight; brutish, undisciplined. When the first volcra fell, the demon set on the second, although he was bleeding now, too: black blood spilled in the leaves, not red.
The sudden flare of pain almost knocked Alina to the ground but she managed to stay standing to attempt to fight the thing off her. Oh, she knew the tales and whispers about what lived in the woods but never knew what to trust. The truth mattered very little at the moment, however, with her blood seeping out and the pain pulsing through her like a second heartbeat. With a muffled gasp, she tried to think of what to do but what COULD she possibly do? The thing had a hold on her until it didn't. What? Another shadow emerged and Alina couldn't figure out what this could be either. Again, there were tales and stories around campfires but she knew better than to give actual belief to any of it.
Edging out of the way, Alina ripped up her cloak to tie around the wound to stop the worst of the blood loss. Her fingers moving along the crumbling wall when she finished. The scraps and cuts were barely felt with her questing fingertips. She could attempt to climb it but what if she lost her footing and snapped her neck? Becoming food for those creatures roiled her stomach and she decided against the plan.
Coming to the edging of the wall, Alina tried to count the amount of steps she took to reach it from where she stood previously. Her eyes moved back to the figures and the flying ones seemed immobile, which left the other blurred figured. It seemed more stationary now and while everything screamed in her to keep going, she couldn't help the prickling curiosity to see what happened. Had it not saved her?
Cautiously, she moved back to her former location, eyes adjusting to the shadows. "Hello?" she offered. "Are you - are you okay?" A stupid question and she bit her lip in annoyance at herself. "Um - thank you for -" She broke off with a slight shudder. The creature looked like a man? Sort of as the figure came more into her view. "You're hurt!" The wounds appeared far worse than her own and without really much more thought, she tore more at her cloak to get strips to bandage the wounds. It? His? She didn't really know.
The person — beast, being, shape, figure — looming over the volcra corpses moved closer, out of the dark tree-line and into the light emanating from her hands. And as he drew closer, she could tell that he was, indeed, a man: but he was pale from years spent in these pitch-black woods, and his eyes were coal-black, and the veins in his throat stood out like ink. Blood dripped on the leaves and the cloak whispered across the forest floor as he limped closer to her. He flexed his hands and the claws retracted.
(A man, but not entirely human, then.)
When the demon spoke, his voice sounded cracked and dusty, raw like he hadn't used it for a long, long time.
"You are not meant to be here." He didn't sound angry, just stating a flat fact. He wavered on his feet, watching Alina's movement as she tore her own cloak into bandages. "The woods— they're dangerous."
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Hundreds of years ago, the Shadow Fold had chewed its way across half of Ravka, but it had consumed its maker, too: the hungry volcra transforming within it and then, uncontrolled, setting themselves upon their shadow summoner.
Days ago, a young man had trespassed too far in hunting his quarry, following the deer into the forbidden grounds, walking too close to the crumbling palace at the heart of the wood.
Tonight, a young woman walked into the forest, unknowing.
As she kept moving further, she could tell there were slithering shadows moving from tree-to-tree, following her path. Volcra. An eerie chittering came from their maws, their blind eyes questing the distant small light cradled in her palm, their noses sniffing for the scent of warm flesh, blood.
She had gone too far. Walked past the lopsided, broken gates that marked the beginning of this cursed territory, into the land that had once belonged to some nameless general, some unknown prince. There was another hiss from the trees, and then the pack of volcra started clawing their way forward, braving that small light, heading for the girl.
(In the distance, another presence turned his head, ears cocked, listening to the sounds of the forest descending on new prey. Scarred black veins were scrawled along his hands and arms and face: this demon in the woods with its coal-black eyes, his hands which turned to talons when the transformation came upon him. Two disturbances in a week. This was more than he was accustomed to.)
no subject
Could it just be the woods? Similar to an old house just settling?
No. It seemed alive and she could have sworn she felt eyes on her.
Walking faster still, Alina tried to slip the knife out of her bag and not make too much noise while she did so. Please, please, please. Shifting her gaze around, she tried to see in the darkness, resisting the urge to call forth the light again. She could not risk it when she didn't know what or WHO had found her location. There were rumors of more than just the demon in the woods and becoming a late night meal had never been one of her objectives.
Should she leave? No. No. She would not leave Mal out here, she just needed to get a sense of her surroundings and figure out where to go. She continued to stumble backwards, only stopping when her back hit a - gate? A wall? Something. She turned around, fingers gripping to and try and open it. Maybe she could hide there until she figured out what to do next.
no subject
In the darkness, however, there was another hiss. One of the volcra leapt— the girl happened to move at the last second, however, and so the monster's claws ripped open her arm, but not her heart. It collided with the wall, sending dust and bricks skittering downwards while her blood splattered on the ground, and the rest of the pack set loose an ululating cry.
That cry sent the demon right to them.
The pitch-black forest was his home, and the volcra his... not his pets, but perhaps his grimly-tolerated monstrous neighbours. When the scarred man (or what had once been a man) went barreling through the trees, they instinctively glanced in his direction, like recognising like.
A black figure collided with one of the ghostly-white creatures; black talons ripping into its sun-starved skin, and then they were rolling over the ground. The new arrival looked animal, at first, before it turned out to be wearing dark clothing and a furred cape as its limbs tangled with the volcra, as their claws dug into each other, as the volcra screamed and the demon roared its defiance back. One of the other volcra tried to skitter into the fight only to have to back away — but their attention was off the girl now, more drawn to their unruly and hostile cousin.
It was an ugly fight; brutish, undisciplined. When the first volcra fell, the demon set on the second, although he was bleeding now, too: black blood spilled in the leaves, not red.
no subject
Edging out of the way, Alina ripped up her cloak to tie around the wound to stop the worst of the blood loss. Her fingers moving along the crumbling wall when she finished. The scraps and cuts were barely felt with her questing fingertips. She could attempt to climb it but what if she lost her footing and snapped her neck? Becoming food for those creatures roiled her stomach and she decided against the plan.
Coming to the edging of the wall, Alina tried to count the amount of steps she took to reach it from where she stood previously. Her eyes moved back to the figures and the flying ones seemed immobile, which left the other blurred figured. It seemed more stationary now and while everything screamed in her to keep going, she couldn't help the prickling curiosity to see what happened. Had it not saved her?
Cautiously, she moved back to her former location, eyes adjusting to the shadows. "Hello?" she offered. "Are you - are you okay?" A stupid question and she bit her lip in annoyance at herself. "Um - thank you for -" She broke off with a slight shudder. The creature looked like a man? Sort of as the figure came more into her view. "You're hurt!" The wounds appeared far worse than her own and without really much more thought, she tore more at her cloak to get strips to bandage the wounds. It? His? She didn't really know.
no subject
(A man, but not entirely human, then.)
When the demon spoke, his voice sounded cracked and dusty, raw like he hadn't used it for a long, long time.
"You are not meant to be here." He didn't sound angry, just stating a flat fact. He wavered on his feet, watching Alina's movement as she tore her own cloak into bandages. "The woods— they're dangerous."