ORIGIN - Epidemic: The Water

E P I D E M I C

Khloros stepped forward carefully, pus-smeared hooves clicking on the wet stone. His nostrils flared, taking in the fresh, clean odor of the water rushing down from the cave's roof. It was cold, here--perhaps too cold for what he had in mind. It might not take, here--it might die before it had a chance to spread.

He couldn't have that.

Instead he dipped his head, soft muzzle taking up a few gulps of icy water. Yes-... Too cold. He turned, lanky, diseased body glistening in the dim light, pacing back toward the smaller and dirtier ponds that lay here and there, dotted along the cave floor. There were fish, even; could fish carry his gift...?

He peered down with unblinking lamplight eyes, and then lowered his head. He drew upon the power within him, the buzzing sensation of a thousand thousand tiny lifeforms squirming and breaking free. His muzzle brushed over the filthy pond scum, and he felt his sickness part from him, at least a little--felt it spread.

Go. Go, and serve your purpose, as I serve yours.

The horse lifted his long, thin head, and made his way forward, to the next set of ponds nearly out of sight. Perhaps the rats would catch the fish, and spread his plague. Perhaps those coming to drink would find a few surviving germs to gulp down, to infest them.

Khloros did not know. All he know was that it was time.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

((Ooc note - see this link for details on this plot, or feel free to post 'blind'!))

Llamrei

She was so thirsty.

The filly was still young, and had been wandering. She was frightened, yes. Wherever she was, was very large. And she was small, at least, from what she could tell. So she was afraid; what lived here? There had to be something living here for it to be this big, right? To her, at least, she assumed so.

But her thirst had gotten to her. So she'd followed the scent of water, head up and ears perked. If anything tried to come her way, she was ready to run. But, thankfully, she didn't come to meet with anything.

There was water ahead, and she approached it warily. Finally, she spread long, knobby legs, and lowered her head to drink. However, her muzzle had barely touched the water before she was jumping, leaping away. It was cold! And she didn't like cold! Cold was bad! Cold caused sick, and she very much didn't want to be sick! How could she run if she was sick?

So she pranced away, towards some other ponds. They looked filthy, but at least they weren't cold. And so she leaned down, beginning to sip up water, unaware of the illness taking seed in the water.

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

Living off of Gabriel's blood helped Valeria grow stronger. Valeria had finally her own pelt of mousy brown fur, and it kept her relatively warm in chilled atmosphere of Pisces. Death would have been certain if the hairless dog had not come along when it did, and for that she was grateful. Under their care, they taught her about the prokaryotes, the good ones, the bad ones, and the magick used to tap into their power, magick she did not even known she had until Gabriel showed her. As it turned out, she was a natural.

Thanks to her fur and new found strength, Valeria could venture farther from Gabriel without freezing to death, though she would never risk wondering too far, her wings were still not ready for flight and she felt particularly vulnerable crawling on the ground.

The little vampire bat playfully bounded across the soft mossy ground with an insect in her mouth. She enjoyed visiting the ponds and watching the fish swim around and feeding them bugs. She loved how they would all swarm to eat her treats and their colors fascinated her. There were some there were some that were so unique looking that Valeria gave them names. Even though they were just fish, they were her friends.

Giddiness filled her and she skirted to the water's edge, expecting Bubbles to greet her like always. Instead, she was meet with a grisly sight that made her stomach drop. Valeria dropped the insect from her mouth and gasped in horror.

Her fish, they were all dead.

"Gabriel!" She cried out. Their bodies floated on the surface like morbid lily pads. She peer over into the water, it smelled awful and sick. Valeria remembered what Gabriel taught her about magick. She extended her reach into deathly waters and it wasn't long before she found the fishes' killers. Valeria was shaken, she had never seen bacteria this horrible. Everything about it reeked of pain and death. Horrified, she stumbled back.

She was about to run back to Gabriel and them tthem about her awful discovery when she noticed a black filly come up and dip her head towards the water. "No!!!" She squeaked, bounding around the pond towards her. "Don't drink this water it'll make you sick!!" Though she was shouting at the top of her lungs, her tiny voice must have been hard to hear as the filly took swigs of the contaminated water. It was too late, the contagion was already inside her, and it began to breed rapidily.

She slowed down as she approached the horse. There was a look of concern and fear plastered on her face as stared up at the filly and tried to catch her breath.

Valeria didn't know what to do.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Llamrei @Gabriel (if you want to join) // OOC:

Llamrei

The filly swallowed the water, glad to feel it sate her thirst. She had been so thirsty without realizing it, so she swallowed down the water greedily. Her pointed ears twitched, seeking out the sounds of predators, or any Gembound that might mean her arm.

As she swallowed again, she could hear... something. Something squeaky, and she couldn't make out what it was. Llamrei swallowed her mouthful, and lifted her head, nearly having a heart attack at the sight of the... thing in front of her. She leaped back, away from the water, and landed, legs akimbo, and eyes wide. "Whoa!" she gasped, fighting the urge to flee. "What are you!?" In her fear, she completely missed the look on the Gembound's face.

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

Some distance away, quiet in the dark, Khloros stood watching. The horse that drank was not unlike him, and in some vague, distant sense, he wondered about this.

Wondered if there were meanings to it, or purpose.

They hadn't noticed him--they had, however, noticed the sickness he had spread. Quiet, he turned, and paced his way away on skeletally thin legs, vanishing into the shadows, heading away from Pisces. Whether they managed to cure this sickness or not remained to be seen...

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

((exit Khloros--just so I have an exit post! @Llamrei ))

"No no no no no no!" Valeria stammered as she paced back and forth, her eyes wide with worry. She completely ignored the filly's question, or rather, it didn't register in her spinning head.

"H-how do you feel? Do you feel nauseous? Dizzy? Drowsy? Itchy??" Her words were very frantic, stressed, like the fate of caves rested on the filly's answer. "Hot?!--Cold?! Is you're throat sore????" She began to grow increasing distressed. "Do you feel like your dying??!!"

Valeria didn't realize how crazed she was acting. It seemed overreactive for just a little fussing over a Gembound who drank out of a pool with dead fish, but she'd seen the nature of the bacteria, and it was grave. In her own mind, this was absolutely necessary. She just.. didn't know how to handle it.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Llameri // OOC:

The filly's flanks quivered, as she fought the instinct to flee. What was this animal? It was small, yet terrifying. She wanted to run! To get away from this crazy beast! What had gotten into it?! With her legs spread wide, her head moved side to side, following the pacing of the winged critter. It seemed almost frantic, stuttered no-no-no-no-no-no over and over again.

And then it was changing its speech, rambling off a series of symptoms. What was wrong with it?! But it was seemingly scared, which was scaring her. She decided to simply go along with it in hopes of calming the creature down.

"Uh... fine? No? No? No? No? No? No? And no?" she took a moment, rolling the questions over in her head. Had she answered all of the questions? She thought she had, at the least.

However, at the bat's final question, she reached slightly, eyes widening. "Dying?! No!" she was quick to say, shaking her head.

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

@Valeria

"It hasn't set in yet." Valeria said to herself. She looked back up at the filly, concern on her face. "Maybe it's not to late." She tried to think optimistically. Yes, optimism is what fueled her. Without hope, what was she? A small, sad gemling?

Valeria didn't want to break the news to the filly, but it had to be done. "Um..." She began with a gulp. "I-I don't mean to startle you but..." She turned around to the putrid pound, sheepishly pointing to it with her wing. "But the water you were drinking well... it has um.. sickness in it."

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Llamrei // OOC:

The young filly stared at Valeria, wide eyed, and clearly startled. What was going on? Why did it think she felt like she was dying? She was just trying to get a drink! Was there something wrong with that? Sure there were dead fish (fishes? no, that didn't sound right either) in the water, but wasn't that normal? Fish died, after all, it was part and parcel of the water. "Set in yet? Too late? What do you mean?" she asked warily, ears flicking back as she bent her legs to widen her stance, bringing her face closer to the little bat so she could see it better.

The little creature seemed uncomfortable, almost wary, gulping before beginning to speak. Her words were not reassuring in the least, and saying that she didn't mean to startle her. That surely meant that whatever it was would scare her, didn't it? However, the little bat simply pointed at the water, and the horse tilted her head. "Sickness, what do you mean?"

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