Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2010 14:04:00 GMT -5
'They said the Barrens was split in two...' Each paw that hit the ground made a fleeting testament to its passage, the soft thud of the pads of large wolf's feet, a brief depression in healthy grass, grass that would soon regain its composure and leave no trace. Khazgral's eyes were to the south, as was the route her wolf carried her on. There was no conscious thought in her mind about her destination, but rather a hope that she refused to put to words. A hope that it remained untouched.
The wolf carried her through a lush oasis before coming to a rather sudden halt, a whine of protest sounding int its voice as they slid to the very brink of the split Xrith had been talking about. The scar ran down the earth, marring it's form in a jagged, angry crevice and a heart of molten lava. Blue eyes swept over the edge and Khaz swallowed. 'Is a long way down, mon. Yuh tinkin of jumpin?' Sora'jan's haunting voice sounded in her mind. She shook her head side to side, boar tails swaying behind her, scratching against her skin, and the haze that had started forming drew away, letting her really see the obstacle before her.
"Narr, I don't have time for this," Khaz grumbled, pressing her knees into the creature's side. It refused to walk so close to the edge, but did move along the length of it, far enough for Khaz to see a narrow passage up the other side of the angry earth-scar. 'F*ck. Fine then.' She slid from Narr's back, flesh fist tangled in the hair of the beast's scruff. "Fine. I'll cross it and call you back, you f*ckin coward." Narr whined again, as though she knew the tone Khaz addressed her in, but the half-orc's fingers had come loose from her hair as Khaz stalked along the edge of the chasm.
She saw another narrow ledge meeting down, but the molten liquid at the heart of the scar would still be a problem. She shook her head again, flesh finger circling around a small fixture on her belt where her Frag Bomb Dispenser had once been. With a deep breath and an appraising look the half-orc stepped back three paces, pressed the button, and launched herself forward at breakneck speeds. One foot connected after the other and all too quickly the distance had been closed. At the lip she pressed both feet into the ground hard and sprung forward into the open air above the crevice's jagged walls. A few seconds passed in what seemed like grievously slow time as her blue eyes swept down to the bottom of the earth-scar. 'Not going to end up there..' She told herself.
Fingers fumbled quickly with her cloak clasp and, unlike the last time she'd used the device, her parachute deployed successfully. The fabric opened and she felt a sudden pull upward as a warm draft of air filled the canvas. It was enough to land her on the narrow passage of the southern side of the scar. Not longer after she regained her footing she felt the canvas pull back, and looking over her shoulder she saw indeed that the parachute had returned. Beyond where the canvas had been the glaring red of the fire lay, occasional spews of it reaching up as though some sinister desire lie within, hungry to claim another beating heart.
Khaz moved forward, setting her feet and fingers to work in the side of the scar. She climbed carefully, not wanting to fall into those reaching spews of lava, but in the end it was not as difficult as she had expected. The top was a welcome transition as the relatively cool gusts of nearby air spilled over her, helping rid her of the heat from within the chasm. She took a moment to center herself, resting her hands on her knees and leaning forward to breathe. When her mind seemed clear she retrieved her riding wolf's horn and blew a gust of air through the magically attuned device. Narr appeared beside her, still whining. "Shut up," Khaz snapped softly, and the wolf did as half-orc fingers curled again in the scruff of her neck so that Khaz could pull herself into the saddle again.
As her rump slid into place her eyes were finally turned on the land beyond the scar. So caught up in finding away cross had she been that she'd given herself no time to even consider the span of lush green trees that she wasn't sure she remembered being in this area. "Ain't that a sight?" Khaz asked herself in a cautious, but empty voice. She squeezed her knees together in the wolf's sides, urging it forward slightly. They made a slow approach. At first Khaz attributed the difference to the time she had been away, but as the treeline came closer she began to realize this was not the heart of the matter.
The sound of something rustling in the the leaves and then a shout of, "Help! Help me!" broke her thoughts. The muscles in her back and shoulders grew tense as she slid from Narr's back again and pulled the shadows around her to creep closer for a better look. Moving past the initial line of trees and pushing some leaves aside, Khazgral saw the source of the shouting. A male Tauren, all three-hundred-something pounds of it, was held at the end of a thrashing vine-tentacle-thing. He waved helplessly through the air as he tried to free himself. 'What the fel?' Her eyes moved past him. Green liquid filled in pools on the ground and strange, tall flowers grew. They were nothing like any flower Khaz had ever seen before. 'Whole world's falling apart..'
She ran her gloved right hand through her boar tails and looked back at where Narr had been. The wolf had already wandered away, waiting again for the magical summons of Khaz's riding horn. 'This'll be fun...' Khaz thought, turning her eyes back on the strange plants before her. A sudden fling of the Tauren's vine sent the bull crashing into a nearby tree with a painful sounding THWACK. Khaz winced a little and crept from her vantage point, walking as though any blade of grass might turn into one of those things at any moment. When she neared the flailing Tauren she let one swift swipe of her blade sever the tip from the grasping thing and he fell to the earth shaking as it receded into the ground. 'It moved... but it's still there...' Khaz leaned down to inspect the soil where the vine had been, but it had closed completely. She couldn't even see evidence of freshly turned soil. 'Wouldn't even know.'
"Oh, th-thank you." The bull said.
Khaz turned her blue eyes on him and tilted her head. She raised one dark, violet brow and smiled at him, the disconcerting smile of a person not quite right in the mind. Her gold tooth glinted in the dappled light that reached them through the canopy of the trees and she lifted a mechanical finger to rest on her chin.
Clearly the Tauren was disquieted as he got to his feet, shifting his weight awkwardly. "Um. I'll just.. be going."
Khaz nodded once, the strange smile still on her lips baring her teeth and fangs. A single syllable she uttered through her closed teeth, "Good." And he was leaving. First he was walking, but she was pretty sure the semi-heavy thuds that started when he had broken the treeline were evidence of a change in his gait. 'Pitiful,' Khaz thought, dusting her hands off as she stood and looked deeper into the strange trees. 'F*ckin' pitiful.'
Her pace was leisurely as she pulled the shadows around her again, an occasional pause mingled in when she took a moment to note the size of some of the flowers or the nature of the strange new plants. Her eyes lingered for a time on a plainstrider who seemed rather... Energized. It appeared to have made its home near the now predominant tear in the earth, and she wondered if that had something to do with the odd glow of its feathers and the highly strung manner in which it moved. 'Fel, I ain't no f*ckin' Druid,' Khaz thought with a grumpy shake of her head. She continued through the trees until she broke the southern line of them.
Many other things in her travels through the Barrens gave her reason for pause. Perhaps none so much as what appeared to be a tense combat ground between the Alliance and the Horde. The temptation was strong to join in the battle, but Khaz resisted. She did, however, uncover an Alliance spy in the stronghold the Horde had constructed to the west of the battle. She did not linger much longer than was necessary to cut the spy down before continuing south, the wordless hope welling in her breast...
Goggled eyes fell over large coils of brown with sharp protrusions as Khazgral approached the southern end of the Barrens on what had been the main thoroughfare. 'Holy f*ck... the Quillboars vines have grown. Busy little f*ckers aren't they?' she asked herself as she passed into the shadow of the thorny canopy. The vines were not all to have grown, for many Quillboars occupied what had once been the road. Fortunately for them, Khaz's skill in passing unseen surpassed the senses of even their keenest hunters. Had anything else been the case the rogue might have left a trail of bodies in her wake.
Then she was there, before the wooden outcroppings of the Great Lift. Tortured did the remains appeared, sundered and splintered where they remained affixed to the cliff face. Khaz stepped onto the wood, and the feel of her boot heel against it resounded through her entire body like the clap of thunder might have. Her stomach turned as her other boot came down and she made her way forward step for step.
A strangled squeak died in her throat as she caught sight of the canyon below and a wave of dizziness came over her, 'It's... It's all under water...' Panic gripped her tightly by her throat, making breathing a difficult task as she moved to the edge of the walkway's remains, 'It's all under water!' Her mind spun as her stomach gave a nauseous heave, and then she was stepping back, one quaking movement following the next. 'It's all under water...' Her mind repeated.
The edge of the walkway came too soon, almost causing her to fall backwards on her ass in the Quillboars' home, but she caught herself somehow, and her trembling knees buckled beneath her. Her fingernails would have cut into her palms had one not been armored and the other made of metal, but as things were her fists simply seemed to come into hard, trembling balls against the wooden planks as she fell forward on it. Tears were brimming in her eyes. 'No.. no it can't.. It can't be gone..' She felt the panic growing stronger, spreading from her throat through her tense shoulders. Some part of her rational mind was kicking her, but it was so insignificant in the face of this. 'It's gone. It's all gone. It's all under water...'
Tear-filled, goggled eyes turned up toward the walkway's splintered edge and her shaking suddenly subsided. 'It's all underwater... It might.. not be gone...' She was on her feet and sprinting forward, all rationality left behind her, and then she was launching herself forward from the splintered edge, a scream catching in her throat and transforming there into a sudden, high-pitched whine. Her movements slowed as she loosed her parachute again, assuring she wouldn't break her legs on impact with the water. As she fell she took her goggles off and pushed them into her pack haphazardly, bringing out her diving helmet to replace them. She'd barely gotten it in place when the water greeted her with its cold embrace.
Salt, salt from the sea and from what had been the Shimmering Flats. She sank below the surface and turned her gaze. Foggy and distant was the scene before her eyes, like looking at the world through frosted glass. Khaz kicked her powerful legs, pushing herself forward through the water, though progress was slow with all of her equipment still on her. More than once she had to pause and retrieve some fallen bauble, more than once she let less important baubles sink to the watery floor. Turning through the stony pillars before her led her through a familiar scope of emotions, but now she was entrapped. Caged by the pressure of the sea that had washed over her torments.
Rounding one last corner brought her to it, to the place she'd broken. The frosted glass seemed to peel away, the water receded, and in her mind's eye she saw it as it once had been...
Steam rose from the water's surface, drawing strange squiggly lines in the air above, distorting the images of what lay across the distance. Bubbles rose and popped in the pool. The crunch of dirt sounded beneath her booted feet as they approached, and a the faintest hint of a smile tickled her brown lips as she saw Sora'jan, or a ghost of him, kneeling beside the pool.
'It's still here... but it's...' Her eyes blinked furiously, trying to stop the memory from running its course, trying to dispel the image, 'Why did I come here..?' But her voice was so small...
His hand shot out and caught her wrist, breaking the smile that had graced it. She desperately took her other blade in hand and stabbed forward with it, but he was too fast. He caught that wrist too, and squeezed them both until they hurt. Tears stung at her eyes as the weapons fell together with a heavy 'clink'.
'No... It's all under water...' It didn't matter. The pull of the currents that strangely wove their way between the pillars shifted her by inches, moving her idling form from where it had floated. She was sinking further, and teary eyes saw through the glass that her feet were settling in the soft, silt-covered floor of the new sea... What had once been the boiling water of the pond.. Her breathing came in little huffs, more exhaled than taken in, and she started feeling faint.
She felt his hands, his touch. His words burned her ears again.
The indistinct haze of reality was lost against the memory's vivid grasp. Khaz knew she was losing it again. Her head bobbed as she tried to focus and push the thoughts away, but she wasn't strong enough.
And then it was over and the Troll held a vial to her lips. Small and glass, the vial seemed to hold a healing potion, and it had been the last thing she wanted, but his voice washed over her, sounding in her mind time and time again like an echo, "G'awn an lick yuh wounds, Little Jen. It do yuh little good to keep dem."
"NOOOO," Khaz screamed into her helmet, making the sound reverberate in a chorus of tin-filled echos, "Why did I come?" Hot tears slipped down her cheeks as she suddenly remembered she was not alone, not like she had been years before. The words kept repeating, his words, her thoughts, the jumble of emotions.
The last echoed in her mind. 'Nothing left... nothing left but scars... but memories...' She wanted more than anything to crawl into herself right then, to crawl into herself and never see the sun again. Casting her gaze upward through the frosted glass tunnel of her breathing below the press of the sea gave her only a dim mockery of the day to stare at. Stone pillars barely visible above the water's surface, light spilling around them and filtering down as far as it could.
Flesh fingers traced the silt-strewn floor of the sea through her armored glove and she suddenly realized her left hand was not moving. Her gaze came down on it and she saw that it indeed seemed unresponsive. 'Nothing left but scars... and memories..' Khaz started to let herself go there, but she couldn't do the same where she was in the family Link.
There she tried to make her way to her room, but she didn't get far before the others awake took note of her strange appearance, of the frantic, semi-panicked despair in her face and countenance. She'd explained it in stammers, fingers twisting in the fabric of her clothes, caught like a deer between people who had shown her care and the safety and solitude of the forest. And as she lingered tenuously with her new-found kin they offered her comfort and support. They didn't let her alone to her suffering.
((This is a few days late, but it was inspired by a true in game occurrence. I just wanted to post it since it bore such significance to my girl and to say thank you to Sumi and Catastrokon, who didn't let Khaz fall. ^^))
The wolf carried her through a lush oasis before coming to a rather sudden halt, a whine of protest sounding int its voice as they slid to the very brink of the split Xrith had been talking about. The scar ran down the earth, marring it's form in a jagged, angry crevice and a heart of molten lava. Blue eyes swept over the edge and Khaz swallowed. 'Is a long way down, mon. Yuh tinkin of jumpin?' Sora'jan's haunting voice sounded in her mind. She shook her head side to side, boar tails swaying behind her, scratching against her skin, and the haze that had started forming drew away, letting her really see the obstacle before her.
"Narr, I don't have time for this," Khaz grumbled, pressing her knees into the creature's side. It refused to walk so close to the edge, but did move along the length of it, far enough for Khaz to see a narrow passage up the other side of the angry earth-scar. 'F*ck. Fine then.' She slid from Narr's back, flesh fist tangled in the hair of the beast's scruff. "Fine. I'll cross it and call you back, you f*ckin coward." Narr whined again, as though she knew the tone Khaz addressed her in, but the half-orc's fingers had come loose from her hair as Khaz stalked along the edge of the chasm.
She saw another narrow ledge meeting down, but the molten liquid at the heart of the scar would still be a problem. She shook her head again, flesh finger circling around a small fixture on her belt where her Frag Bomb Dispenser had once been. With a deep breath and an appraising look the half-orc stepped back three paces, pressed the button, and launched herself forward at breakneck speeds. One foot connected after the other and all too quickly the distance had been closed. At the lip she pressed both feet into the ground hard and sprung forward into the open air above the crevice's jagged walls. A few seconds passed in what seemed like grievously slow time as her blue eyes swept down to the bottom of the earth-scar. 'Not going to end up there..' She told herself.
Fingers fumbled quickly with her cloak clasp and, unlike the last time she'd used the device, her parachute deployed successfully. The fabric opened and she felt a sudden pull upward as a warm draft of air filled the canvas. It was enough to land her on the narrow passage of the southern side of the scar. Not longer after she regained her footing she felt the canvas pull back, and looking over her shoulder she saw indeed that the parachute had returned. Beyond where the canvas had been the glaring red of the fire lay, occasional spews of it reaching up as though some sinister desire lie within, hungry to claim another beating heart.
Khaz moved forward, setting her feet and fingers to work in the side of the scar. She climbed carefully, not wanting to fall into those reaching spews of lava, but in the end it was not as difficult as she had expected. The top was a welcome transition as the relatively cool gusts of nearby air spilled over her, helping rid her of the heat from within the chasm. She took a moment to center herself, resting her hands on her knees and leaning forward to breathe. When her mind seemed clear she retrieved her riding wolf's horn and blew a gust of air through the magically attuned device. Narr appeared beside her, still whining. "Shut up," Khaz snapped softly, and the wolf did as half-orc fingers curled again in the scruff of her neck so that Khaz could pull herself into the saddle again.
As her rump slid into place her eyes were finally turned on the land beyond the scar. So caught up in finding away cross had she been that she'd given herself no time to even consider the span of lush green trees that she wasn't sure she remembered being in this area. "Ain't that a sight?" Khaz asked herself in a cautious, but empty voice. She squeezed her knees together in the wolf's sides, urging it forward slightly. They made a slow approach. At first Khaz attributed the difference to the time she had been away, but as the treeline came closer she began to realize this was not the heart of the matter.
The sound of something rustling in the the leaves and then a shout of, "Help! Help me!" broke her thoughts. The muscles in her back and shoulders grew tense as she slid from Narr's back again and pulled the shadows around her to creep closer for a better look. Moving past the initial line of trees and pushing some leaves aside, Khazgral saw the source of the shouting. A male Tauren, all three-hundred-something pounds of it, was held at the end of a thrashing vine-tentacle-thing. He waved helplessly through the air as he tried to free himself. 'What the fel?' Her eyes moved past him. Green liquid filled in pools on the ground and strange, tall flowers grew. They were nothing like any flower Khaz had ever seen before. 'Whole world's falling apart..'
She ran her gloved right hand through her boar tails and looked back at where Narr had been. The wolf had already wandered away, waiting again for the magical summons of Khaz's riding horn. 'This'll be fun...' Khaz thought, turning her eyes back on the strange plants before her. A sudden fling of the Tauren's vine sent the bull crashing into a nearby tree with a painful sounding THWACK. Khaz winced a little and crept from her vantage point, walking as though any blade of grass might turn into one of those things at any moment. When she neared the flailing Tauren she let one swift swipe of her blade sever the tip from the grasping thing and he fell to the earth shaking as it receded into the ground. 'It moved... but it's still there...' Khaz leaned down to inspect the soil where the vine had been, but it had closed completely. She couldn't even see evidence of freshly turned soil. 'Wouldn't even know.'
"Oh, th-thank you." The bull said.
Khaz turned her blue eyes on him and tilted her head. She raised one dark, violet brow and smiled at him, the disconcerting smile of a person not quite right in the mind. Her gold tooth glinted in the dappled light that reached them through the canopy of the trees and she lifted a mechanical finger to rest on her chin.
Clearly the Tauren was disquieted as he got to his feet, shifting his weight awkwardly. "Um. I'll just.. be going."
Khaz nodded once, the strange smile still on her lips baring her teeth and fangs. A single syllable she uttered through her closed teeth, "Good." And he was leaving. First he was walking, but she was pretty sure the semi-heavy thuds that started when he had broken the treeline were evidence of a change in his gait. 'Pitiful,' Khaz thought, dusting her hands off as she stood and looked deeper into the strange trees. 'F*ckin' pitiful.'
Her pace was leisurely as she pulled the shadows around her again, an occasional pause mingled in when she took a moment to note the size of some of the flowers or the nature of the strange new plants. Her eyes lingered for a time on a plainstrider who seemed rather... Energized. It appeared to have made its home near the now predominant tear in the earth, and she wondered if that had something to do with the odd glow of its feathers and the highly strung manner in which it moved. 'Fel, I ain't no f*ckin' Druid,' Khaz thought with a grumpy shake of her head. She continued through the trees until she broke the southern line of them.
Many other things in her travels through the Barrens gave her reason for pause. Perhaps none so much as what appeared to be a tense combat ground between the Alliance and the Horde. The temptation was strong to join in the battle, but Khaz resisted. She did, however, uncover an Alliance spy in the stronghold the Horde had constructed to the west of the battle. She did not linger much longer than was necessary to cut the spy down before continuing south, the wordless hope welling in her breast...
Goggled eyes fell over large coils of brown with sharp protrusions as Khazgral approached the southern end of the Barrens on what had been the main thoroughfare. 'Holy f*ck... the Quillboars vines have grown. Busy little f*ckers aren't they?' she asked herself as she passed into the shadow of the thorny canopy. The vines were not all to have grown, for many Quillboars occupied what had once been the road. Fortunately for them, Khaz's skill in passing unseen surpassed the senses of even their keenest hunters. Had anything else been the case the rogue might have left a trail of bodies in her wake.
Then she was there, before the wooden outcroppings of the Great Lift. Tortured did the remains appeared, sundered and splintered where they remained affixed to the cliff face. Khaz stepped onto the wood, and the feel of her boot heel against it resounded through her entire body like the clap of thunder might have. Her stomach turned as her other boot came down and she made her way forward step for step.
A strangled squeak died in her throat as she caught sight of the canyon below and a wave of dizziness came over her, 'It's... It's all under water...' Panic gripped her tightly by her throat, making breathing a difficult task as she moved to the edge of the walkway's remains, 'It's all under water!' Her mind spun as her stomach gave a nauseous heave, and then she was stepping back, one quaking movement following the next. 'It's all under water...' Her mind repeated.
The edge of the walkway came too soon, almost causing her to fall backwards on her ass in the Quillboars' home, but she caught herself somehow, and her trembling knees buckled beneath her. Her fingernails would have cut into her palms had one not been armored and the other made of metal, but as things were her fists simply seemed to come into hard, trembling balls against the wooden planks as she fell forward on it. Tears were brimming in her eyes. 'No.. no it can't.. It can't be gone..' She felt the panic growing stronger, spreading from her throat through her tense shoulders. Some part of her rational mind was kicking her, but it was so insignificant in the face of this. 'It's gone. It's all gone. It's all under water...'
Tear-filled, goggled eyes turned up toward the walkway's splintered edge and her shaking suddenly subsided. 'It's all underwater... It might.. not be gone...' She was on her feet and sprinting forward, all rationality left behind her, and then she was launching herself forward from the splintered edge, a scream catching in her throat and transforming there into a sudden, high-pitched whine. Her movements slowed as she loosed her parachute again, assuring she wouldn't break her legs on impact with the water. As she fell she took her goggles off and pushed them into her pack haphazardly, bringing out her diving helmet to replace them. She'd barely gotten it in place when the water greeted her with its cold embrace.
Salt, salt from the sea and from what had been the Shimmering Flats. She sank below the surface and turned her gaze. Foggy and distant was the scene before her eyes, like looking at the world through frosted glass. Khaz kicked her powerful legs, pushing herself forward through the water, though progress was slow with all of her equipment still on her. More than once she had to pause and retrieve some fallen bauble, more than once she let less important baubles sink to the watery floor. Turning through the stony pillars before her led her through a familiar scope of emotions, but now she was entrapped. Caged by the pressure of the sea that had washed over her torments.
Rounding one last corner brought her to it, to the place she'd broken. The frosted glass seemed to peel away, the water receded, and in her mind's eye she saw it as it once had been...
Steam rose from the water's surface, drawing strange squiggly lines in the air above, distorting the images of what lay across the distance. Bubbles rose and popped in the pool. The crunch of dirt sounded beneath her booted feet as they approached, and a the faintest hint of a smile tickled her brown lips as she saw Sora'jan, or a ghost of him, kneeling beside the pool.
'It's still here... but it's...' Her eyes blinked furiously, trying to stop the memory from running its course, trying to dispel the image, 'Why did I come here..?' But her voice was so small...
His hand shot out and caught her wrist, breaking the smile that had graced it. She desperately took her other blade in hand and stabbed forward with it, but he was too fast. He caught that wrist too, and squeezed them both until they hurt. Tears stung at her eyes as the weapons fell together with a heavy 'clink'.
'No... It's all under water...' It didn't matter. The pull of the currents that strangely wove their way between the pillars shifted her by inches, moving her idling form from where it had floated. She was sinking further, and teary eyes saw through the glass that her feet were settling in the soft, silt-covered floor of the new sea... What had once been the boiling water of the pond.. Her breathing came in little huffs, more exhaled than taken in, and she started feeling faint.
She felt his hands, his touch. His words burned her ears again.
The indistinct haze of reality was lost against the memory's vivid grasp. Khaz knew she was losing it again. Her head bobbed as she tried to focus and push the thoughts away, but she wasn't strong enough.
And then it was over and the Troll held a vial to her lips. Small and glass, the vial seemed to hold a healing potion, and it had been the last thing she wanted, but his voice washed over her, sounding in her mind time and time again like an echo, "G'awn an lick yuh wounds, Little Jen. It do yuh little good to keep dem."
"NOOOO," Khaz screamed into her helmet, making the sound reverberate in a chorus of tin-filled echos, "Why did I come?" Hot tears slipped down her cheeks as she suddenly remembered she was not alone, not like she had been years before. The words kept repeating, his words, her thoughts, the jumble of emotions.
'Why does it hurt?'.....................
..'lick yuh wounds, Little Jen'.......
............'It's all under water'..
.....'G'awn... Little Jen'........
.'Why did I come?'....'water'..
..'under water'....'Jen'.....
...'nothing left'...
The last echoed in her mind. 'Nothing left... nothing left but scars... but memories...' She wanted more than anything to crawl into herself right then, to crawl into herself and never see the sun again. Casting her gaze upward through the frosted glass tunnel of her breathing below the press of the sea gave her only a dim mockery of the day to stare at. Stone pillars barely visible above the water's surface, light spilling around them and filtering down as far as it could.
Flesh fingers traced the silt-strewn floor of the sea through her armored glove and she suddenly realized her left hand was not moving. Her gaze came down on it and she saw that it indeed seemed unresponsive. 'Nothing left but scars... and memories..' Khaz started to let herself go there, but she couldn't do the same where she was in the family Link.
There she tried to make her way to her room, but she didn't get far before the others awake took note of her strange appearance, of the frantic, semi-panicked despair in her face and countenance. She'd explained it in stammers, fingers twisting in the fabric of her clothes, caught like a deer between people who had shown her care and the safety and solitude of the forest. And as she lingered tenuously with her new-found kin they offered her comfort and support. They didn't let her alone to her suffering.
~~~~~~~~~~
((This is a few days late, but it was inspired by a true in game occurrence. I just wanted to post it since it bore such significance to my girl and to say thank you to Sumi and Catastrokon, who didn't let Khaz fall. ^^))
Founded April 26, 2005