He wanted to block away her words, to wash them from his ears. They hurt... They hurt far too much. "He's gone..." The stag whispered bitterly. He was once a naive young hart, too foolish and ignorant about the carnivores to stand up against them. He was too ignorant until they took what he loved most and ripped it from the world. Now Clover's words hit him hard and he felt like he was choking on them. She was right. He wouldn't do a single thing to stop the doe if she was standing with a hoof on his newborn's head. He was too far gone... The plans too far in motion for him to stop them now. The light of the caves, his son, even though he loved him he would do nothing to protect him against his mother. Whatever she wished she received. Perhaps he had just given up but he saw no point in fighting when the Goddess could read him so well, could beat him down with hardly any effort. It hurt less to just let her take control and twist him around to her will. Just as she preached about love being a weakness, it was true, because she could use said love against him.

"It is for the good of the caves. We would cull the weak for the strong to survive... It is better this way. It might not seem like it but it is." A lament that he told himself over and over. He was too far gone on his plans to take them back now. It was full sail ahead no matter the consequences. If a few herbivores were sacrificed then so be it, in the end it meant that the caves would be safer when he held them under his hooves. The carnivores would be beaten down, he would be in power, everything would be better.

He told himself this, over and over until it became easier to do what he did every day. Until he could kill without remorse.

He closed off his ears, he didn't want to hear her hurtful words... the truth she was speaking. She just couldn't see... yes, that was it. The Goddess of Darkness' ways might seem terrible to outside eyes or those that were of pure light like Clover but in the end it would be better.

Another lament to keep him going.

"There is only one evil in these caves." To him that was not Belladonna.

______________________________________

"This is how I talk!"
This is how I think!

414
@Clover
---
7/10

She closed her eyes and shook her head. He wasn't listening, he was shutting his heart away from what she was saying, because he couldn't see the truth. He was too broken by Belladonna, and, at least at this point, there was nothing she could do.

The only thing she could was to leave him...leave with beast, so at least he'd be safe, and make sure that Belladonna was far far away from Vazi. Maybe then, without her poison in his ears, he could find his own truth. There was only one evil in the caves, he was right, and it was inside her chest, beating there, suffocating her heart. She would do her best to keep it away from him.

At that, Belladonna struggled to get out, and she choked then, she couldn't breathe, and the bubbling tar came from her throat and she spat it out, gasping and struggling for air. It splattered over the stone floor like some sick substance, and she stood there with shaking knees, fresh tears pricking her eye, panting. Belladonna was a sickness, a poison, and Clover could do nothing but to keep her at bay.

She stood there, shaking, swallowing down the last of the filth, her eye closed, with a trickle of the stuff down the side of her mouth. She would win, she would keep the poison at bay. She opened her eye slowly, then her head rose, giving him a half-lidded stare.

With a shaky voice she said, "Wynry was weak. Look into your heart and answer me this, really look. Don't listen to her, don't think about what she's said - listen to what you honestly, truly think; Did Wynry deserve to be culled?"

She paused for just a second, then she swallowed again, lifted her head high and proud, and left.

That wasn't Vazi anymore.

[exit Clover]

"This is how I speak."