ORIGIN - With Eyes Unclouded

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When Sorrel hit the water and he broke eye contact with Dove, he gave up control to Basil, and Basil had one second of gaining the reigns again before the water swallowed them both up, his mind screaming, WHAT- DID YOU- and then everything was black, everything was molten ice that sucked at his veins like leeches attaching themselves and taking every shred of body heat he ever called his. Basil felt his energy being taken, his breath, his eyes, everything was black and drowning and the Eyes were coming into his open screaming mouth. He didn't even have the chance to thrash around to try and reach the surface again before he felt his mind going - he has already been so long in the cold that he just winked out.

He sank into the depths of the Eyes, his eyes glassy and unseeing, and his mind was slowly giving up with the lack of oxygen, the light, the warmth. It was an aeonian void that he fell into slowly before Dove came running in, taking his unconscious body by the scruff of the neck and swimming with a desperation towards the shore again.

He fell with a wet thump onto shore, and he wasn't awake, his eyes weren't open, he wasn't shivering, and he wasn't breathing.

"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"

@Dovefeather

Wherever the small cat had found the strength to haul Basil out of the water, it certainly left her limbs rapidly. Her body collapsed next to the too-still body of Basil, trembling from the freezing cold. She wanted to cry out for her sisters, but she could only cough. Perhaps that was a blessing in itself: the poison had gotten into her lungs. She expelled the liquid from her chest and nearly heaved at the violence of her own body's effort to survive.

Her pale eyes focused on Basil as she started to breathe once more. Her skin crawled as she searched desperately for a sign of life in him. Hadn't she done enough, she thought, nearly considering this another trick by Sorrel... But no, the All Mother had given her a miracle but Basil was practically dead before her if she didn't do anything.

The cat was scared, frankly. She hoped that her sisters had heard her yowl and would come running, but if not, she was alone. It took so much effort just to rise to her haunches, but she put her paws against the stomach of the canine. He had probably swallowed the toxin liquid, she thought, and she didn't know what to do. His insides would be as icy as his paws-- which she didn't dare look at.

The cat pushed her weight into the soft part of Basil's stomach, desperate to get him moving-- to get him breathing, coughing, choking, anything. She wasn't a medical expert by any stretch of the imagination, she was simply doing what she thought she could do until help arrived. No one had ever drowned before; no one that her sisters knew.

"All Mother, please,"

She begged, knowing she was asking so much for just one more miracle. She was so close to fixing everything-- would the All Mother really let her save Basil, only to take him away again? Surely not. Surely.

"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"

@Basil
@Cayenne
@Blackfeather

She was always walking through Eridanus, and she was towards the end of her herb-collecting path. She was quiet, her eyes towards the path she'd made in the snow. Cayenne's heart was quiet and somber now, deep in thought.

She was so afraid of hurting others. She was paranoid about it, half expecting it to happen, that she tried to help someone on the verge of death and end up being the cause of their demise. She'd seen too many gems dying that wouldn't have made it without her help by this point, her childhood consumed with the threat of death that only she could stop. It was too heavy a burden on her shoulders. Sooner or later she would fail, and someone would die on her account.

And after what happened with that jaguar....
She didn't want to think about it.

She was rounding the bend that allowed her to view the Eyes now, the lake as black as ever she remembered it to be. She never saw it when it was clear - it was only by others speaking of it to her that she knew it to have been like that that, once. It wasn't out of the ordinary to see its ink, but a voice caught her ears.

Dove-? Was that her sister? Why was she-

Cayenne crashed through the snow covered ferns and saw Dove covered in the filth from the Eyes, dripping and soaking wet, and she saw her leaning over someone that wasn't moving. Her mouth set in a fine line, her young face focusing on the dying creature with an age that didn't fit her. The sight of them lying as still as death didn't shock her, not after the things she'd seen, and she immediately set down her satchel next to him, pressing a tiny ear to his chest, her veins filled with an icy calm.

"Not breathing...." She said absently, and she focused on getting his heart started. She set her gem hand to his chest, her face set with a seriousness a child shouldn't have, and she sent a shock to the part of his heart that normally sent electrical impulses to the heart to beat it, and she commanded his heart to beat.

It did, weakly, starting with a jolt, and his body convulsed, but he still wasn't breathing. Was water trapped inside him? She'd encountered a lesser gem that drowned before, a little rabbit. The method she was thinking of proposed a problem though- the rabbit was easy to lift up, this big cat-dog thing was not.

She shrugged her shoulders anyway, cracking her fingers. He would be heavy, but she had to do it. She got to his head and pushed his shoulders up, his dead weight making her grunt. She pushed at him under her hands were locked around his chest, and she heaved, making him throw up the water. His big body was stubborn, and he was small and weak, so it took a good amount of time till he hacked up water and coughed with a sudden violence, leaning over to the side and pushing Cayenne down, throwing up water, stomach acid trailing from his lips.

Cayenne sat there in the snow, her arms and legs burning, panting with the effort of the revival, and the only sound around the lake was the now alive thing hacking and spitting out that poisonous water and shivering absolutely violently.

"....You should get warm...." She said quietly, her voice punctuated by his chattering teeth.

The last thing he remembered was drowning, of the Eyes taking everything from him till he couldn't breathe anymore, couldn't live, and now he came to and everything in him rejected the Eyes from his system, throwing up with every inch of life he had in him, and when he was done and there was nothing left, he lay down on the ground, his mind solely on his body hating everything in the world.

A sound came to his ears, and he suddenly realized where he was, and he looked around frantically. Who was this ugly cat who stared at him with such a serious look? And- and-

Dove.

He was shivering but he was looking at her, Dove, the most beautiful thing in the world. He- he could see her, he could drink deep of her without resorting to backwards mirror tactics, because for some reason, his demon was quiet.

He started crying now, sobbing and shivering, laying there on the ground just looking at Dove, happy to be alive and looking at her. His feet that had been so numb to the point of nonexistance were starting to come to life now out of the water, shooting with intense pain as the nerves starting to wake up. But the pain didn't matter, his rattling breath didn't matter, his lack of dignity and self respect and his shivering didn't matter - he could look at her.

"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"

The All Mother, reluctantly, lead a sibling down the path to them. Never before had Dovefeather been so happy to see Cayenne, with her messy fur and awkward limbs, bulging eyes-- oh, Cayenne was a freakish girl, but she was the perfect Daughter. So much better than Dovefeather had ever been, of this she was sure. Her words caught in her throat as the ugly cat came bounding over, grabbing her satchel with a strangely dexterous hand to put it down off to the side.

With wide eyes, Dovefeather watched her Sister put her paw to Basil's lifeless body and kick start something inside of him. Her heart lurched as Cayenne shifted around her Basil with a stern, adult manner that was so much more in control than Dovefeather remembered her having. How much growing up had her Sister done without her? Her claws sunk into the earth as she watched, too afraid to even speak.

Basil was coughing up the deadly toxins now, but Dovefeather didn't breath until his eyes opened-- and then, her pale eyes broke from his body and she lurched at Cayenne, throwing a paw around the black almost-cat.

"Cayenne, All Mother bless you! Thank you, thank you!"

She wailed, running her rough tongue over Cayenne's face again and again. She did this furiously for a great moment-- though she shrunk away when she remembered how cold Basil probably was. He needed warmth. Immediately she ducked her head and shied from her sister, laying herself against Basil as she started to lick furiously at the fur in his paws, trying to get some warmth back into his body with her rough, ragged tongue.
"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"

Cayenne sat, stunned, her fur sticking up at all ends and edges, and she looked vaguely the same as she did when she first emerged from her chrysalis. Wet and crazy looking and slightly mad, with her too-wide eyes. If she had anything nearby that had any reflective qualities, she would've hated herself, but she sat there, feeling loved and appreciated and very strange.

No one had....given her physical appreciation for her work. No one but Tenn; and then, Tenn was a little mad himself. He thought she was pretty. He was a little nutty in the head, he had to be, if he thought that way, but before now it was only him that hugged her and kept her close. Having her sister kiss her and lick her fur with such happiness and breathless joy was....well, it warmed her bitter heart. Fermented it and stirred it like a warm coffee.

She didn't even mind when her sister moved from her to the shivering thing on the ground, because it was important that the thing be warmed up if he didn't want to lose those paws of his, which were looking very cold and numb.

And as she sat there, blinking, she saw...something between them. In how the thing looked at her sister, at how her sister desperately tried to keep him warm, of how her cry for help had pierced Cayenne's ears. Did Dove find someone for her like she did with Tenn? Did she save Dove's Tenn?

Her happiness deflated.
Ah.
That was it then, the reason for Dove's affection.
It was her happiness in saving her Tenn, not from her.
It figured. Only Tenn with his deluded eyes loved her or thought the world of her.
Who was she kidding? Dove knew, she'd seen her from the first. Dove of all creatures knew how ugly she was, how unlovable she was.

Cayenne stood up now, patting down her fur and dusting off her hands on her knees. She picked up her satchel and said calmly and seriously, "Keep him warm, Dove. Give him water, give him something warm, but not hot, to eat. Get him dry. Don't make him move too much at first, or he will go into shock."

She looked at her sister, then at the dog-thing, feeling scathing for the first time. "And don't jump into the Eyes. That should've been obvious."

Then she left, feeling just as bitter, if not more so, than she had to begin with.

[exit Cayenne]

Basil's vision was starting to swim, and his vision was fading, and he could hear voices, but they didn't make sense. He was shivering so hard he couldn't control his muscles, and his chest felt like it was on fire but now. The longer he was awake, the more and more everything hurt, and as much as he wanted to just give up and sleep, he couldn't let himself, because no matter what, no matter the consequences, he was going to drink in Dove's image as much as he possibly could until his eyes gave out or he died, one or the other.

She was more beautiful than her image of light, she was gorgeous and vivid and real, and she was worried about him, that much he could tell through the fog. He was slipping, and his face was relaxing into his dream-like smile as things lost their edges in his vision except for her. She was standing over him with hazy beauty, licking at his numb paws with a furious tenacity, and he just watched her with this misty look on his face, happy to be alive and looking at her.

"'Luuthhe yew," He murmured, his tongue thick and heavy in his mouth.

"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"

Dovefeather's ear pricked as Cayenne spoke again, her golden eyes lifting to cast a curious glance at her sister. She drank eagerly at the words of wisdom, seeing that still same compressed, cold apathy in her sister's gaze. The feline could hardly shake the feeling like somehow she had done something wrong, but she didn't dare speak up about it. No. It could wait, surely-- and more likely, Cayenne was just in some sort of mood. Dovefeather had more important things to worry about, regretfully.

"Thank you, Cayenne... May the All Mother guide your path,"

The cat mewled after the lemur as her black fur disappeared through the brush. Silence drifted over her and despite wanting to be defensive for Basil and even Sorrel, she couldn't manage to work up the vicious protection. Her sister was still her sister after all, even if she basically was calling out Sorrel for being an idiot. She didn't understand... That was fine.

She would have to get him water and food, but first she wanted to get him dry. She knew she could collect clean water with moss, hopefully, and perhaps she could even catch something for once in her noisy life-- but for now, she wanted to make sure he rested...

"'Luuthhe yew."

Dovefeather's ear twitched.

"What?"

She blinked down at him, feeling her skin crawl. Was it Sorrel again, or truly her Basil this time? She couldn't tell-- he looked just awful, half frozen to death. Had she looked like that after her first dip? No wonder Giggle had snapped at her and Barnett had kept such a close eye on her.

"You'll be alright, just take it easy,"

She breathed the words on his cheek and brushed the fur on the bridge of his nose with her tongue. Basil or Sorrel it didn't truly matter. In the end, they shared the same body, and she would do whatever she could to keep him alive.
"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"

He didn't hear anything she said; his ears only heard the rush of blood, the pumping of his heart, telling him he was alive, and his vision was getting hazier by the second. He fought half-heartedly to keep awake, because he never knew when he would get this chance to ever see her again in his right state of mind. But he was just so tired. Every cell in his body told him to sleep because, hey he just took a dive into the coldest pit of hell he'd ever encountered and almost died because of it.

Why did the demon almost kill them both? Was the demon just suicidal? What did they talk about when he wrested control from Basil? What did he hope to gain? Did...ahh...it didn't really matter. He was too tired.

He closed his eyes now, forgetting what was going on, his thoughts drifting off in that powerful compulsion to sleep. What was important was that Dove was here, licking his cheek, her breath on his ear. His tired mind liked to think she said 'I love you too,' back at him, and who was to say she didn't? He smiled to himself, his head turning to the ground. I'm glad I got to finally see her, he thought, finally, such a beautiful sight. I could die happily, seeing that.

He might or might not've said such thoughts aloud, with his slurred tongue and his thoughts drifting away. He drifted off to sleep, knowing she was close.

[exit Basil]

"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"

Basil was drifting off, so Dovefeather did her best to get him as warm as she could. She licked at his cheek again, feeling the warmth in her own legs again. He wasn't freezing to the bone, anymore, at least... So now she had to fetch him water. Ears laying back against her skull, she let her eyes wander over his fur one last time.

It was a moment in which Dovefeather did not allow any other thoughts than what she was doing. A worry flickered through her mind and she brushed it away, stepping around the boy. Delicately she reached down and grabbed his scruff again, hauling him away from the edge of the eyes and towards her nest. The mossy gathering was hardly big enough for him, but it would be warmer than the cold, damp stone by the Eyes.

"Basil... Basil, listen,"

She purred in his ear, prodding at a shoulder with her paw.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to go get some water and food for you... You and... And... Sorrel. Sorrel, If you're listening... I did what you asked. You'll See my faith is stronger than anything you could do to us."

"You will give him back to me, Sorrel. We can live in harmony, or I can crush you. Demons don't do well in the Light of the All Mother, and I am her vessel."

"So listen, Sorrel. Play nice, boy, and don't you dare pull that again. You have to live. For all of us. The All Mother gave me the strength to save you, brought my sister to our side to save you, and you will take this blessing from Her and you will learn to become a better soul."

"Understand me?"

The words died from her throat, and she watched his chest rise and fall thrice more. Her purr dimmed to a gentle hum as she rose, half-tail flicking. She would take care of him now-- the All Mother had blessed her path. Somehow. Turning her back to him, she started towards the forest, towards the rivers of clean water that would help Basil survive. Towards the mice that raced through the underbrush that she could never catch.

Today she would, though. Today she would catch them for Basil, for Sorrel, and she would break his legs if it meant saving his life. She was his now, didn't they see? The All Mother willed it. There was no turning back now.

"Basil Speech" "Dovefeather Speech"