Mosi's eyes glared down at him as a horrible grin stretched across the Naissain'Yo's wolfish face. Septiezal felt the canine's claws dig into his flesh, crushing him into the dirt. He couldn't move, not even thrash. It was hard to breathe. He felt himself slipping away. Septiezal began to panic.

Mosi's wicked grin stretched wider, and a thick, disgusting, green slime oozed from his menacing teeth. His eyes were black voids. Septiezal stared at them. They were sucking him in. He knew if they took him, he would die.

"Will thou surrender?" The creature hissed.

No! not yet, his mind screamed. Then, Septiezal ripped himself away.

"Never."

----------------------------

Septiezal gasped.

He was in pain, so much pain. Then the horrid memories came back and fear flooded him. Where they still here? The blind serpent whimpered quietly. Everything hurt, even the mere act of flicking his tongue. All he tasted was blood, his own blood.

This was no nightmare, it was real.

The serpent was lucky to have his eyes plucked out, for he could not see what the brutality inflicted upon his broken body. Septiezal was mangled beyond hope. He was smashed, and crushed, his flesh, shredded and torn. It hung off the bones. His soft entrails spilled from the deep gashes in his gut, strewn carelessly about from where he was thrown. The snake's spine was snapped in many places, kinking unnaturally in many places along his tattered, bloodied coils. Lacerated by cruel talons, Septiezal's face was barely recognizable.

It was a miracle he was even still alive. To have a slow metabolism was both a blessing and a curse. However, to Septiezal, it felt more like a curse.

He wheezed and sputtered, coughing up blood. Septiezal felt cold, so, so cold. He wanted nothing more than to slither to a sunning rock, but he could not feel his body. Septiezal wondered if it was still there or if those awful creatures tore it off and dragged it somewhere to eat. That thought scared him.

Septiezal was in so much agony, he could barely think. It was hard for him to even comprehend. He attempted to taste the air one more time, and through the stench of his own, hot sticky blood, he found his attackers to be nowhere near. However, Septiezal could not relax. There was too much pain, too much fear. Every breath was excruciating. Septiezal didn't want to breath anymore.

He just wanted the pain to go away.

He wanted to die.

"speak"

@Equinox

Equinox wandered through Cetus, when the scent of blood changed her course. Partially out of instinctual hunger, and partially sentient worry, the great, slimy creature pressed on until she found what... at a distance could easily be mistaken for a torn-up log, virtually unrecognizable as it was, as a Gembound. Cetus was her home, and she knew that its ecosystem could be unforgiving, but never had she encountered something like this.

As she neared, muddy water welling in her pawprints, she took a while to regain focus, her long neck stretching out over the near-corpse. But she heard it wheezing and sputtering. Whatever it was wasn't dead yet. The creature let out a soft rumble, like a deep and reverberating cat's purr.

On the end of its long and stretchy neck, her head approached its face, and there she could just make out the gem.

A greater Gembound.

She could also see that it wouldn't be able to see her. The stench of blood was overpowering, and hunger gnawed at her belly, but she couldn't leave this creature here. something nearing sympathy caused her skin to contort into shapes like a thousand maggots crawling. Slowly, she lowered herself into the mud, and let a warble reverberate through the earth. Carefully, she nosed at the serpent's mangled face, for the first time allowing touch. Cool slime dripped, soothing.

"Not long," the being uttered quietly, her throat struggling as it contorted to whisper the first words she'd uttered in many cycles. "Not long."

_______________________________________________________
"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Septiezal
notes: here

A presence crept towards him. Septiezal cowered. Had the beasts return to torture him some more? He braced himself. Then, something cool touched his face. Septiezal heart jumped, instinctively he tried to lurch back and hiss, but all he could manage was a gurgle. He could barely sense it through his jaw, but there was what felt like purring. Strangely, it soothed him.

A gentle whisper stroked the battered serpent. It was too soft to make out the words, but it brought Septiezal some relief. Whoever this was, if they wanted to harm him, they would have done so by now. Septiezal slid his tongue out. And they smell of Cetus and slime.

"Are..are they gone?"He croaked, his voice sounded frantic, full of worry, yet weak. "Who are you?" Septiezal paused and sputtered painfully, coughing up more blood.
"speak"

@Equinox

Equinox was quiet, listening to the gentle sounds of cetus, keening through the mist. Lesser gembounds went about their daily lives elsewhere, unaware of the broken snake, or, if they were, probably considered eating him when Nox had gone. Until the serpent's very last breath, she decided, she would remain. Her gaze dropped slightly as he tried to move, only to sink once more into agony. "Sssstay," she murmured, in a soft and gurgling hiss, before falling once again into silence.

A shudder passed through her skin as a strangled whisper reached her. "We are alone," she confirmed gently. Just to be safe, though, she sniffed at the air, listening closely, and raising her head from the bloodied creature lying by her. "Peaceful." She let out a comforting rumble, almost a purr, that trembled through the mist.

They questioned her then, and the draconian being didn't hesitate, the word coming easily from deep in her gullet.

"Nox."

"Speech."

Labored breaths escaped from the struggling python as he searched for Nox's touch once more. "D-don't go," He pleaded weakly. "Please..." For the first time in Septiezal life, he did not want to be alone. He wanted to feel the company of another gembound, a comfort he took granted in his youth. It was ironic that only now he realized this. Would anyone miss him? He never allowed anyone to grow close, not even with the Children of Rot. Looking back, Septiezal regretted this deeply. Nox, a total stranger, was his only solace now.

I don't want to die, not like this. He thought ruefully.

There was still so much he needed to do! He had to live, to survive so he could find the find the cave's hidden truths, so he could share it with future generations. But... how could he continue when he was nothing but a head? A lump grew in the wounded serpent's sore throat.

I failed...

Nox said it was peaceful, and that they were alone. Septiezal allowed his guard to drop. It was a huge weight taken off his coils, though it did not dull the pain or relieve the thoughts of anguish. He felt ice course through his veins, seizing his scales. Septiezal tried to call his fire, but he was too weak."Ssso... c-cold..." He breathed. Miserably, Septiezal sank down into the mud, feeling himself grow lighter.

Just let go.

"speak"

@Equinox

Nox felt a shudder of emotion; guilt, perhaps, or pity, rippling throughout her skin, causing her to tremble all over. She rumbled, a deep and throbbing sound reverberating from deep inside. "I'm here," she gurgled, lowering her head once more so that her slimy chin rested gently against the serpent's side, gradually oozing the slick fluid onto him.

Keeping the majority of her weight off of his battered form, she raised her neck in a long arc over him, covering as much of his coils as possible with her soothing slime.

Nox, again, felt the ripple of emotion, cold and constricting, through her skin. Her jaws were closed, and she felt her gullet constricting around her eye, so full of a sorrow, the likes of which she'd not felt in many cycles. but this was a different kind of sorrow. This was not a bitter parting, as she barely knew the snake. It was something tender and intimate the likes of which she'd never felt before. And somehow, that made it hurt so much more.

She knew that she couldn't warm him for fear of hurting him. Fear of herself tightened her chest, with a degree of sentience that was new, and frightening. But he was dying anyway. If the snake was to die here, beneath her, then he might as well die comfortingly. Equinox rumbled, using the sound to drown the fear, and for the first time in her long life, inhaled deeply to summon the heat within her breast. Warmth radiated from her chest in that moment.

A few drops of slime dripping from the tip of her beak caught alight, but crumbled into ashes before they reached the ground near the serpent. She leaned away from him, blowing heat into the air over the serpent, not close enough for her slime to catch alight.

Her fur thrashed like a multitude of worms, every inch of her betraying fear, but at the same time, it was as though she was releasing something that had been pent up for a long, long time. She forced down the fear until it was a dully present throb, kept on blowing heat into the shimmering air. The warmth chased away threads of cold fog lingering around them, and when she was done, Nox returned her head to its place over the snake.

"Warm now..."

she rumbled, a coil of steam drifting around her muzzle.


"Speech."

@Septiezal

The presence had not left, it returned, bringing him warmth and comfort. "Warm now." It said. Septiezal smiled weakly, but it was sincere. He was not alone, and in this moment, that meant more to him than anything else.

Thank you... The serpent said to the stranger through the fog of a dream, unaware that his consciousness had slipped away.

Shrouded in serenity, his agony and anguish melted away. He was free, free from worry, free from fear. Nothing burdened him, as all the weight had lifted. Like air, he grew lighter and lighter, floating away though the caves. When he let go, there nothing but true peace.

Then, there was nothing at all.

------------------

Septiezal's broken body laid limp at last, his faint smile had faded, along with his awareness. For a few moments, it seemed like the serpent had finally passed, but then, a surge of magicka filled the air, sparking a tingling sensation. It had come from Septiezal's gem. The onyx, had stirred to life. A cracking noise broke the swamp's silence as the black stone crystalized and spread over his dying body in a desperate quest to preserve it. Eventually, it encased Septiezal in a chrysalis of the blackest onyx, with a gentle rhythm of magicka pulsating within, a heartbeat.

"speak"

@Equinox
-Septiezal exits through chrysalis-

Equinox' quiet rumbles fell silent, and she raised her head as she heard a gentle crackling sound, opening her jaws to watch as their gem encased them. She remained for a while, silent as the grave save for the occasional drip of her slime meeting cool onyx. Seeing the crystal laying before her, obedience and loyalty the likes of which she had not felt since childhood swelled in her chest.

Their words lingered within her, stirring a melancholy feeling that set her skin trembling.

don't go... the words echoed inside her, and she couldn't, not whilst there was a chance they would break out again as she had, so many times before.

Steam still coiling around her beak, she curled her hind legs beneath her wings and lowered her long, serpentine neck. She nibbled forlornly at the grass beneath her, preparing for a long wait.


"Speech."

-Exit Nox-