Disasters. All other gems only brought disaster. The angel and her demon cub she so vehemently protected, that coyote that set itself on fire, every female he'd ever met, all the way back to the devil wolf that howled at his birthing- all were demons, set to make his life a hell. His curse made him fear the sound of other gems, even lesser ones, fearing losing his mind to the blithering idiot in him.
Thus far, he'd learned that it was far safer to have this ragged piece of cloth over his eyes. All of his problems with meeting others originated from his eyes, so, he would just have to get used to not seeing anything. He couldn't trust his vision anymore.
On the other hand, walking around a bloody forest with no eyesight was as much of a terror as not. He tripped, he fell, he was muddy and soaked, tired, and bruised and scratched from various things he'd collided with. He was glad he'd escaped from Cetus, with is disturbing mist that almost seemed to clutch at you when one was so low to the ground, and the whispering hum of life under the water.
He also smelled horrible from Cetus. He couldn't be happier he was away from that horrible place, the figurehead of all his problems.
He didn't know where he was going, he just wanted to get away. To fill the silence while he did so, he reached for his magic instead of his voice like he always did, but it alluded him like it sometimes did. It almost had a will of its own on whether or not to work, and he learned long ago to not put any pride in it.
He crashed through the underbrush, busy fighting with murdering the bubbling pride that kept coming up when he thought of his magic - he remembered when he had created this booming echo around the coyote, scaring them into awe - but he had to suffocate it before it could get the better of him and become another curse to bear. One was enough, and he had to take his pride and drown it before it could grow.
So focused on this that it wasn't until he heard the soft, pleasant female voice until it was almost right next to him, wondering if he was lost. He immediately and violently crashed and scattered away, skittering with all four paws till his spine and the back of his head hit a solid tree. His claws raked the ground, and he heard the crunching leaves - that, and the
female was all that his world essentially contained.
"Ge-get away from me!" He snarled with his dry, cracked voice, ill from major disuse over his life.
Again, in his haste and fear and initial flash of undeserved hatred, he ripped at his magic, and the gem over his heart flashed and reacted violently in response, and instead of sound, it caused a horrible
CLAP just like it had before with Fallah. He cried out, unable to hear his own sound, and stumbled around the area deaf and blind. The painful ringing in his ears laughed at him, calling him a failure, mocking him for remembering his pride.
"Must you take everything from me!?" He yelled at the ground, the only target he was sure of.
@Dovefeather
Through the ringing, he could hear that same female voice, and it was - above him?? He snapped his head around, but the sound was too short to follow and pinpoint. He remembered that Fallah kept climbing trees just to pounce on him and aggravate him, before he had his safety blindfold, and he had seen her on accident.
That wouldn't happen again. This other gem that he couldn't see, this ghost that moved into ridiculous places to speak at him, he would either run or
make them go away. He had enough demons to deal with.
"I will not wait," He growled, a low and torn sound, and he coughed and hacked, as if his throat had cobwebs in it. It almost hurt to speak. "Devil up above me, you will leave me be or I shall---" Again, he coughed, and it
hurt. "I shall erase your auditory uses permanently, rather than temporarily."
@Dovefeather
He sneered at nothing.
'What has happened to you?' The woman asked, like it was something that could be solved, something that could be fixed. He'd never heard of the All Mother, but if it was possible he had someone or something to
blame for this curse, he would go to this all Mother and rip her apart, if only for this to end.
"You blind yourself. There is something which you don't want to see." She said.
He just laughed, a cruel, hacking sound, mirthless and miserable. "Yes! There is a monster in me, a demon that arises whenever I spy a-" He skipped over the word lady, since that only led down a horrible path, "A woman."
He took in a shuddering breath, and even the air felt painful to his throat. "I can't control the poison that drips out of my mouth when I see one of you devils, you temptresses that steal my mind away from me. I want nothing to do wi-"
The ghost-like devil continued to speak up above him, and he was speechless for a moment. "You...want to trade your hearing for my eyes?
Why? It is nothing but a burden to lose something so vital - "
He heard a branch crack, and his fur bristled instantly, and without thinking, something spurred him to race towards the sound of her crying out as she fell. But without his sight, his speed only caused him to trip over a divet in the ground, and his chin skidded across the dirt and grass.
@Dovefeather
His curse flared in him, hearing her land and hurt herself, and he was unable to help her - he had the insane urge to rip off his blindfold to help her, and he shuddered with complete revulsion - the curse was finding a way to influence him even with his vision taken away, whispering its influence as if they were his own desires and wants.
But that was how he became a blithering idiot, and he couldn't have that, so he rose from the ground and shook off the dirt. He listened to her, and kept his stupid tendencies to himself. "I'm fine. And if I must choose my burdens," He rasped. "I would rather be blind than be a monster."
He heard her step towards him softly, and the muscles in his shoulders tensed, ready to run. But at her words, he scoffed and sneered.
"I do not seek to become better," He snarled, "I seek to survive. When I see a woman, I am no better than her puppet, and her will overrides my own, and I am on my knees begging for her attentions. I have no mind of my own, and no control over my body. Do you know how that feels? To see yourself acting in such a way that you hate vehemently and with a passion? A creature possessed? I have no other way to live but blind and alone."
The last words of that little speech were by far the bitterest words he'd ever uttered, so bitter they stained his tongue. He grimaced at the taste of them as they left his mouth. But he softened a little as she continued.
"I...appreciate that, Dovefeather." He said softly. "My name is Basil. Feel free to scream it at me if I start losing my mind."
@Dovefeather
