ArkraelOh stop your crying it'll be alright, Just take my hand..hold it tight

Silence had consumed the maddened beast. Flashes of fangs, of blood and screams, all floated through her minds as she lay there motionlessly. The darkness that now consumed her was no longer the darkness of a madness she had been cursed with. For many days she was lost to a world only she would know of. Sitting and watching what had transpired during her time of infection. Quietly she had wept in those dreams, not a single sound coming from her gruesome form that her mind has kept her appearance as. Her throat torn, blood pooling down from the wound and practically covering anything she saw. For the longest she had thought this to be what came after death. A slowly, unsettling torture that replayed the events that she had sowed upon the caves as she could just stand there and watch it over and over as the pain from her death gripping wound racked her entire body.

It was a punishment Arkrael only knew she deserved. She had killed. Multiple times she had taken another gembound's life, but for what reason? The insanity that had consumed her because the creature that had been assaulting her child had been corrupted by a darkness that had somehow spread to her. It was a plague to Arkrael, but she could not lay excuses upon that. She should have been able to overcome it. Though she knew it was wrong to have taken the life of some of them, there was still one that she did not regret.

The only regret she felt over HIS death was the shattering of what had been left of her own heart. There was no trying to reason with him any more. There as no...trying to help him overcome his own madness. She had failed to help him, and even though a part of her knew that was what the outcome would have been, she still felt responsible. And though in her madness with the death of those that most likely did not deserve their fate...Vazi Hasira's reign of terror was over. No longer could the stag harm those around him and for that she could not have regret over his death. She knew it would have been a perilous task, but...in just the smallest way she was glad to have fallen sick with insanity. It had helped her do something she probably wouldn't have been able to do.

In her slumber of what she assumed to be her death hold a sound came. A sound just barely audible, but long ears twitched and reacted. A voice so familiar, whispering words she could not understand. Yet, the emotions within them struck at her chest painfully. 'Salethyyrrrr....' The word whispered through her thoughts, repeating every so often. The distance crying was heard and within an instance Pure obsidian eyes snapped open. She took in a deep breath of shock, feeling the liquid of her chrysalis fill her lungs. A sensation she had not felt since she had first hatched from her gem.

She rolled instantly. A panic setting in as she pushed her paws into the walls of her chrysalis. Everything was quick to come rushing back, slamming into her thoughts until they were a blur. A snarl reverberated from her chest as she continued to struggle, but soon a bright flash of light came from her gem and the sensation of it vibrating and humming against her nearly knocked the breath out of her. A loud crack was heard and instantly small cuts into the gem began to spider web out from where her magic had struck the chrysalis. It wasn't enough to shatter it, but it was all she needed. She shifted, slamming her front paws into a certain area and just like that the chrysalis shattered.

Arkrael grunted as she instantly slid. She scrambled to rise to her paws, but there just wasn't enough strength in them as she crumbled and started hacking out the ooze from her lungs. It rolled out of her throat, splattering onto the ground with each cough as it also slid out from her nose. "Salethyr..." She breathed out, desperate to get oxygen into her lungs as the life giving ooze soon emptied itself from her. Eyes were opened wide, almost in disbelief as she stared at the foliage she was near. The thin grin circles in her colorless eyes focused only on the fern bush as she tried to regain her bearings. With her heart thudding in her chest she felt a new sensation wash through her. She wasn't dead. She had....she had survived that bite from Makyna.

Where was salethyr....

"Listen to me." | 'Thinking'

Deciding to spend a day to himself and work on his strength and to regain some muscle, he left his den in search of a place to train. He preferred someone to train with, but decided not to ask Cure. What if he hurt her? Besides, she probably wanted time with her sister anyway. Shrugging off their oddly close relationship, Xerxes wandered around Eridanus looking for a clearing until he heard a loud cracking sound and decided to investigate. If a new gembound was born inside Eridanus, he would take the child to Cure, where ever she was.

When he came upon a full grown gembound however hatching from her chrysalis, his eyes squinted. Lurking in the underbrush, he hopefully remained undetected. She breathed a word, a name? Xerxes wasn't sure. He remembered Cure telling him that Arkrael had survived an attack, however had succumed to her chrysalis to heal...but this couldn't be Arkrael could it? He remembered the wolf from when he hatched, and this wolf looked nothing like the wolf he remembered, but he wasn't sure. Why else would a full grown wolf come out of a chrysalis?

Uncertain, Xerxes emerged from the foliage in the ancient room and became visible to his leader. "...Arkrael?"

@arkrael

A terrible ache filled the mutant's chest, pulling hot tears to her strange colored eyes as the beast attempted to bring herself to her paws. Anguish. Denial. Horror. It consumed every ounce of her as memories flashed before her minds eye. She had done this. How could she...- For all the things she always stood for. To be the thing she fought the most against. Yet...she could not bring herself to deal with those things at the moment. Her son...she had to find her son. Her precious child that probably thought he was so alone right now. Her long, whip like tail thrashed, hit into the ground and left an indent in the moss. Long ears twitched, turning and twisting as the sounds filled them even more. Paws approached, nearly impossible to notice. Recognition of what kind of beast it was drew her eyes to open once more as her hackles bristled. The sense to protect herself quickly overwhelmed her as she now forced herself up on trembling legs. Makynaaaa... Her voice rumbled low in her thoughts as she quickly tried to find where the she-cat was.

Was she back? Did she wish to retaliate once more? Arkrael couldn't honestly blame her at all. In the madness she had fallen victim to she had nearly tried to kill the lioness herself and it was only in Makyna's right that she wanted to retaliate. Movement drew her attention, calmed her trembling limbs until she stood tall and proud. Her head lifted and her hard gaze searched for the tan face that belonged to a friend she once had. Though...when an obsidian form pulled itself free of the fern bushes and maroon eyes searched her own Arkrael furrowed her brows. "Xerxes...?" Her voice whisked out in a sigh of relief as she finally gave in and lowered herself to her haunches. Unaware of her own appearance changes just yet, Arkrael settled a questioning gaze upon the lion. "You have grown...since the last I saw you..." A ghost of a smile curled the edges of her features in the slightest of ways before she could no longer hold the expression any longer. She couldn't even remember the last time Xerxes was in Eridanus come to think of it...

Subconsciously, as Arkrael waited for a response from the lion, she reached out. Searching...looking for the bond that was surely there. Before long it fluttered into reach and she soon felt the emotions of her familiar. Pheo...I need you... Her voice reached for the dragonbat, tentatively asking for him to rejoin her.

There was a shift in the trees above, leaves fell from limbs and scattered about the two below, before a large dragonbat came swooping down. Opal eyes glanced to Xerxes, watching...waiting for him to do something as he glided his way down to his wolf. Finally he landed on the ground just before Arkrael and he turned his gaze up to her. A smile etched across his features as he reached his wings out as if to grasp onto her. Are...are you okay now? HIs voice nearly trembled in her mind, almost as if he were concerned that the madness had not fully left his companion.

Arkrael only smiled down at the bat, leaning to give a gentle nuzzle to the top of his head before she put her focus back on Xerxes.

---

words:
tagged: @Xerxes
ooc:
muse:

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...
Pheo