ORIGIN - Death, Decay, Despair

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She had been grinding her antlers down against a tree trunk. It helped with the pain of the growing appendages, and had become a rather frequent ritual to her daily life - but today, something had interrupted her from her task.

A scream.

For a moment, she wanted to ignore it - Cetus was filled with strange noises that lingered in the thick mist, but this sound was different. She recognized it. She lifted her head, ears flickering, before she sprinted into a run.

She wasn't sure what she'd find. She wasn't sure if she'd find it, but she knew what she wanted to find. She didn't know many creatures - she spoke to the plants and she was content enough with that, but out of everything she had seen and listened to, nothing made a noise like that.

"Daaaaaaaad?" the stag called out into the mist, ignoring the mud splashing up her white legs, staining them brown and green. The screams didn't stop - lowering and rising in agony. This however, meant that it would be easier to find the source of the screaming.

And then it stopped. She was sure she was close - but now it had stopped. The stag panicked, hobbling on the spot, wide-eyed. The words, 'no, no, no, no, no, no' began to shriek inside her head before she continued to charge on forwards.

And there he was.

Still. There was something over him.

Was it help? Was it enemy? She didn't know.

The only thing she could do was keep moving forward to the black figures in the mist, and before she knew it her nose found it's way into the boar's neck. "Dad," whined Isi, perhaps ignoring the protrusions coming out of her 'father's' flesh.

The giant had muttered that she was their friend just as she started to pour the pain-inducing, cleaning liquid, and she had never felt so raw before. This giant trusted her, even though they'd only met just a little while ago, and laid down so close to her, snuffling into her fur like they'd been friends for ages. it only made it all worse when the pain seeped in, making the giant thrash and scream.

She stumbled on the rock after they bumped into it. Cayenne had expected noise and movement in reaction to the pain, but not this. They were running away and squealing like their whole back was on fire, and then - then it all went wrong. All of her insides turned to ice and her voice caught in her throat, watching bone come through their skin, the sickening splitting sound of tearing flesh gone horribly wrong making her want to vomit and cry at the same time.

And then she saw bone split from the giant's chest, and saw it go still, and she screamed, running down from the rock to the giant, touching its face, crying at the top of her lungs, her whole mind blank. She was screeching some animal sounds in grief, thinking she'd murdered her new friend with her burning liquid.

Then this new gem came up with this soft voice, another giant like Amalthea and Clover, and was touching the pig's neck, crying, "Dad? Dad?" like they were afraid to hear the answer, and all Cayenne could say was I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, over and over, barely a cobweb whisper to fall away in the wind.

She had failed before with Vazi, but never this horribly, never this soon. This was her fault, she'd killed this peaceful and hurting giant with her lack of knowledge.

@Czernobog

Darkness. The kind that tingled, made you feel floaty and not-quite-there. It was different from what he'd felt on the battlefield, trapped beneath the earth and a good two tons of dragon. That had been a pressing stillness, stealing his breath entirely, suffocating and terrifying. This was almost peaceful, as if his body had simply done what it'd needed to - even if the spell had gone just about as badly as it could've.

So he floated.

And then there was light.

Czernobog slowly woke, one eyelid flickering up, hearing and vision fading in and out. There was someone screaming - his friend, the voice was his friend. Was she hurt? No, he'd gotten away in enough time... but he had to make sure. He could picture her speared on one of the things sticking out of him, shifting whenever he breathed, and he couldn't have, he couldn't have hurt one of his friends.

It was impossible.

So he wrenched one eye open, the eyelid slowly sliding down again, the glance enough to get an eyeful of Cayenne, whispering something, looking terrified and frantic. Czernobog tried to draw in a deeper breath than a pant and winced as the shard of bone that had grown up and out through his chest shifted, moving too close to his lungs for comfort. He grimaced, trapped for now in his own head, eye slipping shut to think.

It was a spell, he knew, had felt the surge of tainted magic that had spawned from his broken tusk like a virus, determined to protect him against some imagined danger. He had to figure out how to reverse it, and fast - had to tell the cat-rat it wasn't her fault, had to tell the... the... oh.

There was someone else.

Someone's muzzle was pressed into the side of his neck, and his hearing flickered in long enough to catch a single Dad? before it faded again. His eyes seared, and Czernobog moved just enough to lean into the touch. An exhausted whisper escaped his maw, complete with a tiny hint of a smile. "Baaaaaby." It had to be her; he might have been a guard to some and a friend to others, but he was only the father of one. "Saaaaaafe."

Another breath, and the massive boar focused back on the spears of calcified magic that had decided to tear through skin and fur instead of being in any way helpful. Useless, just like all of his magic was now - but it was a small price to pay for the injury of the dragon. Slowly, panting, the downed pig let out a yelp, and the spike towering out of his spinal column creaked ominously, before cracking and slowly falling from its attachment point, purpose served.

The chest took more effort, but slowly, with a sickening sucking noise, the bone began to reverse, shrinking as his body reabsorbed the calcium, the magic core draining back into his tusks. The three peaks on his shoulder stayed, energy depleted, and Czernobog breathed a little deeper - but only a little, considering he now had a brand new hole in his chest, deep enough to peer at his lungs through.

But he had to make sure his baby and his friend were okay, so he clung to conciousness a little while longer, leaning forward into the searching hands that were skittering over his face. "Caaaaayenne," the monster rattled out, one eye lazily drifting open to stare at her, mouth twitching up into a grin. "Fiiiiixed."

And, well, he wasn't exactly wrong. The infected wounds that had littered his back had drained, the liquid lancing away rotting flesh and bacteria, leaving a pink and bloody set of trenches in its wake, ready to heal correctly. If you left out the whole spikes thing, the healing had worked perfectly.

Duty done, the pig's eye slipped closed, and he fell to the call of sleep, exhausted, relaxing forward enough to press a wide, flat nose to Cayenne's chest fluff, breath ruffling it in a weak version of his own hug.

[exit Czernobog ]

@Cayenne @Isi

She didn't notice the big giant's eye open just a little, as she was blinded by her own misery. She killed them, she'd tried to help and she'd killed them with something she hardly knew anything about - she'd only tired it on herself, and she should know by now that one reaction with one creature was not universal; any creature could have an adverse effect to one thing she'd used. Just look at Amalthea - when she'd tried to use the Dormire flowers on her to make her sleepy, she'd woken up sneezing from them for days onward, and it didn't stop until she'd taken a bath.

No, this...this was a complete and utter disaster.

She almost didn't hear the giant speak because she was crying, her sobs loud and messy, with a little bit of snot running down from her nose. She wiped it all away with her hands, hardly caring, only thinking about the child she'd now left fatherless. But she'd heard the word 'safe', long and weak and drawn out, and she stopped her sniveling and looked, wide-eyed.

She watched as the giant took an effort to get rid of the thing coming out of their back, and she backed away out of a thought to give them room, and of shock. What was going on?! The one that went through their chest slowly shrunk back into them, and she just shook her head slowly, her mouth a little open. She thought that that spear had gone through their entire body! Why were they not dead?

She hiccuped, then came back to the giant, tears flowing freely down her face, obscuring her vision. They weren't dead. The gentle giant wasn't dead, she didn't kill them, they were alive. She touched their face, and they leaned into her touch with a small huff, telling her that they fixed the problem. With a mix of laughter, tears and snot, she said, "Fixed. Good Bog."

They smiled and she hugged them as their nose ruffled against her chest, and she leaned her head against their nose, weakly chuckling, feeling her tense muscles relax.

They...controlled the spikes, she thought, letting the warm sleeping breath of the giant relax her further. It was a spell they'd used and failed at, just like when she'd made plants rip apart Vazi's face on accident. It was havoc, it was awful, it was powerful, and wrong. But it wasn't her fault. The giant had used a spell to protect themselves from the searing burn and it had gone wrong.

@Czernobog @Isi

Relief shuddered through her. This, this she knew how to take care of. And now that the giant was sleeping peacefully, she could work on covering the now pink trenches on their back and the hole in their chest.

That one....she wished she could weave it back together, but she was unlucky as it is. An unlucky black cat. She wouldn't risk it, not when they'd gone through all of that. Her confidence was torn and tattered, and she deserved it.

Slowly she worked on them, covering up the trenches with her herbs and poultices and her soothing hands, but she left the cavern of their chest hole alone. If she could weave it closed, she would, but her poultices shouldn't be put on...a hole. Neither should her leaves. She couldn't do anything for it but let it heal on its own.

She nodded to the quiet and crying giant who shook over their dad, and she entrusted Bog to them and quietly left. She'd had enough of hurting other gems for today.

[exit Cayenne]

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