ORIGIN - [QUEST] K A K U H M [II]

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The lion didn't listen. Stupid creature. Instead, though, something else responded, demanding for him to leave. Kavi smirked.

"Make me, I dare you!" The pomeranian spat, his voice loud and unafraid. He was ready to fight, and win! He couldn't even think about losing. That was prposterous. Instead, he glared defiantly into the darkness, challenging whatever was there. 

Try me, I dare you!

"When I speak."

When I think.

The hyena probably arrived far later than everyone else--Kera had come to her shortly after the lights had turned on, and the moment she'd heard of Senka and the eyes, she'd been gripped by a maddening mixture of utter freezing terror and completely blinding rage.

Somehow, the idea that the creature that had dragged her into the void existed and was a living being that had tormented her enraged her more than anything--the fact it had chosen to harm her... and was not just an inexorable and impersonal darkness. And now she knew this thing was the cat--the naked cat? If it had a body, it could die, surely.

Giggle's loping, crooked, trembling gallop was jerking and uneven as she raced into Orion. She looked around, listening, and arrowed toward the dark corner of Orion, even with all its staring eyes.

She didn't slow down as she approached--to do so might be to lose her courage.

Instead, she sped up, her muscles surging, racing headlong into it.

Above, high above, her hallowed caller shadowed her in fearful silence.

She ran toward the shadowy cat from behind at full tilt, bursting into the darkness in utter silence and with bared fangs, her dark eyes mad with fury. Fungal dander spread and flooded around her, and she aimed to race right past the cat. To leave it inhaling her magic. To leave it choking on her terror. To leave it mad, even if only for a time... as she was mad forever.

Fear, as I have feared...

________________

ROLL THE BONES

Somehow, Kera thought that this was a very bad idea. The half-grown wolf raced alongside Giggle, though with her lame foreleg she was slightly behind the hyena. She had tried to stop the hyena-- albeit not very well --but now she didn't speak at all as she followed her into Orion.

She had intended to keep running with the hyena, but at the sight of Senka and the eyes she stopped, claws skidding along the cave floor. She saw, out the corner of her eye however, Giggle kept running.

Ahh, damn--

She had half-expected to see the hyena charge head-first straight into Senka, but instead she only saw her pass by. Confused, Kera stumbled and sat down unevenly onto her haunches, watching the loping Giggle run forward.

She wondered, briefly, if she should be helping. Senka was bad for everyone, surely, and the mass of gembounds here already were in danger-- but somehow, Kera didn't feel as if this was the right thing to do. Especially after the second goose incident.

So, instead, she watched, worriedly.

The shadows around her body thickened as her rage intensified. How dare they defy her! How dare they defy Him!? Would they! As they attacked her eyes, she felt her lips peel back over black teeth. She braced herself, preparing to enter the void and attack them from within, but a reunion she didn't expect occurred: the hyena from Canis. Senka did not see as others did any longer, but instead, her hallucination was perhaps worse.

A gaping maw, gargantuan claws that clutched her throat, and the rumbling voice that was dissatisfied with her failure. She struggled against Him, she pleaded—she knew better, she knew not to—but the vast darkness of Him engulfed her. He frightened her. He was the only thing that did. He threw her mind into disorder and she snarled, spat, and hissed. Her head thrashed and the shadows from her body reached further, thicker.

In Orion, where she stood, the blackness around her became too real. In a panic, she escaped into the shadow realm where felt safest, where she spent an eternity dying; where she brought Giggle in an attempt to test the Gembounds resolve against it, to see if she could transport them through it and how long they could spend there without losing their minds as she had, or their bodies. Or themselves. Giggle may very well have been the limit, but her friends had saved her.

Those in Senka's immediate proximity were sucked into her realm with her. There was nothing here. It was blackness, void; no sound traveled, no light, not even the sense of touch or smell. It was completely empty; they would not even see each other. It was banishment.

It was home.

Giggle, Kavish, Llamrei, and Faelan had been absorbed.

As Senka regained control of herself, she sought the hyena first.

"Over here," came a voice mimicking Giggle's. But it was only a voice, echoing, mimicking her own as it had done before. "Over here!" And again. "Over here!"

It continued, now ominously echoing around the ears of the others in the void realm; but still, they were all disconnected and alone.

Meanwhile in Orion, as if triggered by instinct or memory, the Hallowed Caller's unseeing red eye begins searching. It calls to Kera, who is closest, before taking off into the darkness, disappearing. Its calls carry through the shadow, trying to lead her in a certain direction, but they echo in the strange void.

@Giggle @Kavish @Llamrei and @Faelan are all in the void realm! (RIP - you can post reactions though!) It is up to @Kera @Black and @Zeno to save them (if they want to participate). They must find where Senka's body has gone. Giggle's Hallowed Caller was not absorbed, and will try to lead them to the correct destination.

Follow that bird!
Roll a barely successful or higher to follow in the correct direction and not get lost.

The filly made a strangled groaning sound as a rock went flying, striking one of her eyes. Ooh, that was only going to make it more made. She shook violently, flanks heaving, and fought desperately to catch her breath. This was bad. This was bad bad bad. This was very very bad bad bad.

The little dog that had used her as a mount pulled a fool move, challenging the thing into battle. She moaned quietly, shuddering, as she tried desperately to see through the shadows.

The filly reared, screaming in an utter panic as she felt herself be pulled into nothingness. She couldn't hear her own scream, and that only managed to make her panic further.

She went dead quiet at a sudden voice. She wasn't alone! But... but... what if it was dangerous? But what would happen if she stayed where she was? So, with little other choice, she began to follow the voice.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

The black dog stared. Many things had happened at once: a hyena bolted past. The shadow-cat seemed to reel, even as others cast their spells. And abruptly, it vanished.

The bird called out to Kera, and Black knew at once that she might not be able to see it. He knew the wolf, liked it even--together they had just been speaking to these strange storm- and shadow-cats. With a huff he exploded into action, charging forward toward the sound with ears pricked up.

He wasn't sure what sort of darkness it was which enveloped the room, but he knew he had the power to manipulate light and shadow. He drew on it, on his heart's magic and his knowledge of the dark, and he did his best to draw it all to a central point--to him. To allow the room's light to filter back in, even if just a little.

Perhaps Kera could then follow the bird--or add her own light to the search.

"Lightbringer," he bellow-barked, "Find it. I will follow."

________________

Kera wasn’t sure if she entirely understood what just happened, but her decision to hang back at a distance as Giggle went charging towards Senka turned out to be the smarter thing to do. As the room turned black, Kera felt raw panic filling her gut.

And then, a call. “Omen?” She called out in return, wide-eyed. She was hesitant to step out into the dark, to follow. She was not entirely sure if she herself was in the void or not; though once she heard a familiar voice she jolted.

The Dog? Her mouth opened and then shut, but she could not find further words to reply with. He had given orders. Orders were what Kera needed right now.

Omen had been ordered, too— in Canis, before she and Giggle had left. With a breath, Kera began moving forward. “I’ll find it,” she eventually replied to Black, concentrating quietly.

Her light would be needed more than ever, here. She began to concentrate for a moment as her eyes searched for Omen, summoning an orb of light to try and keep it near the bird so that she and others could see where it was and where it was going.

She charged past, and wheeled, mad savagery taking her. Her intent was to charge the cat--to rip into it, tear at its throat, to find out if it was nothing but flesh and blood and to punish it.

Some buzzing, blank corner of her mind was filled with terror at the risk she knew she was taking, and in an instant, as she started her charge back, her nightmare came true. The world fell away, and once again she was floating in a timeless, empty black, nothing there but herself.

For an instant she fought back panic, the blank terror screaming through her mind, and then abruptly she felt the strong grounding presence--or was it her own imagination?--of the Caller. She tried to call out to the bird along their link but she felt at once that it did not respond--either their bond was severed, or Omen was very busy with... something. What, she could not say, but she focused on this, trembling in her nonexistence.

She closed her eyes, and slipped into her own mind. She was here, at least. As were the fungi matted to her coat, or so she thought. Was it all in her mind..? It couldn't hurt to try.

Quiet, she focused, trying to grow Kera's gift--the glowing fungus--along her tangled, bristled fur. Even if there was nothing to illuminate around her--even if there were things in the darkness waiting--she might at least create some light to look upon, to focus on, to keep her mind from fragmenting all over again.

She thought she could hear a voice, in the distance--her own voice...? She growled and chittered, thick fangs bared, but she was unsure if she should respond. Unsure, even, if she wanted the voice to leave her even more alone, despite the fact that it might be a trick.

Been here before. Been here before. Before. Broken then, lost now. Perhaps they find me and perhaps they do not. Omen, do not lose me... Sister-daughter, bring them-...

She fought back the mounting panic, and again focused on her fungus... On something to keep her sane. They would only grow, if they grew at all, over her own fur... but it was something, at least. Proof that she yet existed.

Proof that she was not gone.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

From his perch a short distance away from the others Zeno watched. Concealed in anonymity, protected from this overwhelming power of darkness that consumed two thirds of the group. His heart raced and breathing shortened. He was safe... he was safe... but he was useless. All life came to an end, yes. The fragility of mortality was a subject that he'd rolled around in his mind on multiple occasions. He'd witnessed multiple hunting trips, seen the injured lessers bleed out at the hands of more sadistic greater gembounds. It seemed that all the mental preparation and negative visualization in the caves couldn't have possibly prepared him for the reality that had unfolded before him.

He wanted to panic, he wanted to run away, but something deep within forced him to stay. He was a gemless greater though, a cave bat weak in both physical prowess and magical aptitude. Even if he had been born a mighty lion or a stout horse, however, it wouldn't have made a difference. In this moment all greaters were equal in the face of this fearsome power.

Two remained, brave souls who leapt to action. Canines, of course- often among the most loyal and devoted of the greater gembound species. They followed a voice and brought their power to bear in seeking it out. They had this, they would save the others- surely a miracle would be wrought at their hands.

The small fruit bat let go of his perch and took to the air again, following the lights and sounds. Even if he was useless in the face of this catastrophe he still had anonymity. He was just one of dozens of cave bats in the area, but unlike the others he had a mind to help him survive, and a voice that could summon help should he have to escape.

'Know yourself'
"Before you try to influence others"
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Suddenly, everything was black. One minute, he was there, screaming at the dumb lion, and the next, there was nothing but darkness. A shadowy place, dark and cruel. He was gone. He wasn't in Canis. Panic slowly began to set in. The small Gembound yelled, angry and frightened. 

"Where the hell am I?! Why have I been taken here!? BRING ME BACK THIS INSTANT!" The small dog roared, his voice booming into the void. It echoed back, and it frightened him. Nothing was here. Nothing could save him. He was truly, utterly alone. He had to escape by himself. The small dog began to wander the void, looking for a way out. Looking for anything. 

"When I speak."

When I think.

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