i’ve been both a saint & a viper
She panics, maybe. Whatever the reason it may be, she falters, falling away with the taste of his blood on his mouth, her eyes becoming somewhat clearer as she becomes more aware of what is unfolding before her. His own demons still chant in his own ears, malicious and hungry, desperate for blood whether it be Balto’s or the gemstone woman before him. Their breath is on his neck, hot and putrid, slobbering jowls that click like a crocodile and insectile pincers that prick against his blue skin as they rove along his body. He shudders beneath their touch, anger festering deep within his chest as he is once again failed by a stranger that could have easily sent him to his doom.
She swings away from him, throwing herself against the tree as flames begin to crack around them, furiously eating up the dried pine needles that dampen the forest floor. The stallion jumps at the sound of her skull against the tree, the smell of blood filling the smoky night air. He snorts sharply, silently watching her as shadowed bodies clamor around him, writhing like beetles across his skin. He barely notices them at this point.
Her voice then - a desperate, fragile sound - calls him forward. The stallion’s brow furrows and the rage begins to dissipate, clarity once again filling the crystal blue of his eyes. Stepping towards her is so hard, as he has to drag their terrible bodies with him, but he does and for a moment he merely watches the fireglow radiate against her, the heat awakening him and bringing him out of his reverie. And he asks, like had at the very beginning when he thought he was alone, the same question with a voice that is but a whisper, only now it directed purposely for her:
“Do you hear them, too?”
Balto
@[Sabra]