The mist enshrines the trees as if it were alive, this endlessly spreading web that causes a chill to sink effortlessly through flesh. It is humid here, but not at all warm or inviting, and yet the creature has made his home among the highest points of the trees. They sway sometimes. The tree tops are strong and hold the light-weight body of the creature easily, even supporting the occasional leap from point to point - they sway, they snap, but never to pieces. The creature is a black mark within the mist; too far up to be noticed on any usual day.

This was just as usual a day as any, and yet... It was not the top of the tree that swayed this time. The creature scurried and clawed it's way between branches, grappled with its tail to swing for a new point of contact, leveraged itself or fell to the leisure of gravity in equal measure, and hit the ground with a soft crunch. It was a dark blot among the shadows of Cetus - just a mound of shadow at first that quieted the frog-song, sent a solemnity through the otherwise incessant bugs of the water.

Everything was still.
The creature took a moment to gather its wits, and then hastened for the shadows.

The phantom lay half-dead curled up in the roots of the Divine when the creature fell to the earth a few feet from her. She did not even lift her head to look at it, barely aware of its presence at all. Her vision was clouded over, and not only because of the fog that shrouded Cetus. Her slow starvation was getting to her finally, and she had been lying here, in this same place, for some time. All around her were available nutrients — in the muddy water and the green plants — if only she could absorb them properly. This spell was her only chance.

And it failed her. A weak, faltering glacier-blue light emanated from her gem, and then went out, like a candle blown out by the wind. It had not been enough. She did not have the energy to cast it. Perhaps if she could only try again… But she was not even sure she had enough energy for that. Somewhere nearby, a strange creature moved in the shadows. Her eyes roved its dark form, without really seeing it, and then she attempted to gather the strength to try her spell again.

Something moved upon the loam and the creature hesitated. It sensed something was there - saw a frail shifting movement out of the corner of an eye - but that did not hook Teyouma's interest. He was silent, eyes wide and watching, until he sensed a tingling of magicka in the air. It was a weak sensation but it was there, the beast was sure of it, and stronger than his own magicka. With one reaching arm he grabbed at the prone neonate's face in order to get a good look at it (although Teyouma was far from gentle with those long talon-tipped fingers). What did he intend to do with this seemingly dead creature they had found?

The sudden sharp, squeezing feeling of something attached to the ghost’s face made her scream — the loudest sound she had ever made in her short life. It sounded like a banshee’s scream, like a true wraith of winter, a sound that was high and sharp and sounded like it was coming from some feminine monster in the middle of a snowstorm. It sounded angry and desperate and vengeful. Someone had invaded her body space. Someone had touched her, and not lightly. What. Was. Happening?

The wraith tried and tried to shake free, imagining herself to be much bigger and more violent in these attempts than she really was. In truth, she was hardly moving, so starving and weary that she could barely shake her head from side to side, let alone kick out with her legs. The scream was about the only strength she had in her, and even that was now dying. Eventually, she lay still, now unaware even of whether or not anything was still touching her. The creature could have been far away, or even closer to her, and she would not have known the difference.

In another moment, she let out a huff of air, and passed out.

Note: Short of killing or permanently maiming her, Alaska is now at the complete mercy of Teyouma.

The pale creature struggled against the shadow as it grabbed, pulled, and inspected. Teyouma did not notice, for the efforts put forth by Alaska were so weak and indescribable. As she exhaled so too went her spirit - or so it seemed - and the beast was left with this mass of white, this useless body. Probing fingers and roaming eyes soon caught sight of a dull thing upon the deer's chest - a stone! The creature had to reposition the deer's body in order to see it, but when he did, those red eyes lit with a strange cacophony of expressions.

He reached out with those talons and touched a claw to the stone. It was intricate in it's design; a layout that could've been beautiful had anyone else been there to witness it. But Teyouma did not see the beauty in the world. He saw that stone, touched it, and then touched his other hand to his own chest - where beneath the flesh sat his own stone. Ruined. Corrupted by hybridization. He almost looked like a practitioner visiting the grave of someone most esteemed - solemn.

The target then screamed, ruining whatever mood had settled upon the beast. It wasn't an act of retaliation that came next - he was perplexed for a split second by that sound, but not repentant in the slightest - rather, Teyouma was reminded of something. The creature seemed to give pause and think, maybe to reconsider...

Then something gripped him. Something tore his thoughts away from that which lay beneath his breast, and Teyouma lunged for the stone set within Alaska; he climbed atop her prone body and began to claw at that design, chip at the skin with those talons, and excavate it from her still living body.

The wraith remained incapacitated as she was moved around by the creature. Her head flopped to one side, and her legs bent at odd angles as he shoved her into position to get at her gem. But the moment the monkey-thing started clawing at her blue topaz stone, she gasped for breath as if she had been drowning, dark eyes opening wide. She kicked out of instinct, heard and felt her hoof connect with something, though she wasn’t sure what, and the weight left her body. She forced her eyes to focus on what was in front of her and saw the strange creature that had been attempting to pry the gem from her body. The skin around it stung like mad, and though she couldn’t see it, she was bleeding from numerous scratches from the monkey-hybrid’s claws. She breathed heavily, adrenaline fueling her body, ready to bolt if this thing made any sudden movements.

Something came straight at his face and the creature tried to duck, but his lust for that stone overpowered it's survival instincts; the limb smacked cleanly against his clavicle with a surprising amount of force and Teyouma was briefly airborne, flung back by the insistence of the white creature. The claws which had been set in the creature's skin were torn free, leaving Alaska to sit and bleed while Teyouma recovered.

He landed abruptly on his back and whacked his head against something - a stone maybe, or some debris. With a shriek he was rolling backwards until his feet hit the ground. The beast propped itself up with the ruined scythes of his wings as he caught his breath, rubbing at his sore chest with one bird-hand and his head with the other -- and then he staggered forwards, making a beeline for Alaska.

The creature threw itself towards the white doe with more insistence this time - clearly infuriated. It's red eyes were wide and bright, its face contorted into an expression of shock, rage, and desire. Teyouma set upon assailing the other creature with haste, this time using its extra limbs as tools to stab (as if that would keep the doe in place). It barely worked - and at this point Teyouma tried to grab at a flailing limb in order to pull, eager to rip the limbs from this pest.

The wraith lay transfixed by this strange creature who had been so dead-set on attacking her. She did not understand. Why… Why would anyone attack her? All creatures she had met so far had been, if not kind, then at least neutral towards her. Why was this one different? She hissed in pain as her heartbeat caused a particularly painful throbbing to occur in her scratches. She did not understand or have an inkling of the idea that someone would attack her to acquire her gem. She was still new to the world, and until now, had been uncorrupted and innocent to its more cruel ways.

Her breathing rate increased dramatically when she saw it start to come towards her. She scrambled to her hooves and turned to attempt to flee on wobbly legs, but it came after her. It felt stabbing in its rear and yelped in fear more than pain. She managed to get another few feet from it, hoping to hide somewhere in the fog, but then it pulled at one of her back legs and she stumbled. She let out a desperate scream once more, that strange screech bouncing around in the thick fog. What did it want?

The creature almost escaped from him, but Teyouma clutched with his talons and raked the flesh from the piece that he'd held. He pulled, hoping the doe would fall to the momentum or to the stabbing arcs of his extra limbs; those broken wings had become good for something after all. He shrieked and grunted, hooted and hissed, trying to climb atop the doe and scramble for its chest - he was a flailing mess of limbs while his tail snaked a hold around whatever it could. He wanted that gem even if he'd have to dig it out of her.

Now the wraith was desperate, crying, hyperventilating. She couldn’t see straight, but she could feel it crawling onto her back. Pain clawed at her, more blood running down her sides from the monster’s talons. More screams left her mouth, sounding like something out of a nightmare, a high screech that sounded throughout Cetus. Insects, birds, frogs, all went quiet and hid at the noise of this struggle. The wraith could not keep this monster at bay for long. She was quickly running out of whatever little energy she had left. With as much strength and force as she could muster, she bucked and kicked and jumped around, like an angry bull dismounting a rider. Get off, Get Off, GET OFF!