10-29-2021, 07:21 PM
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Somewhat unsteadily, Etojo managed to heave himself to his hooves. He felt old and battered, his joints already stiffening. His chest, legs and sides a cobweb of scratches and cuts as his blood oozed onto his hide and began to congeal, finally, thanks to the fine red dust of this place. His own pulse, deep and reverberating like a drum felt relentless and achy in his head. An ache mirrored in his stiffening shoulder, the one that had ended his fall. There were no ice monsters here, he'd left them on that peak. But still, even down here, there seemed no end to this darkness. Save for the burning pinpricks of light which began to dance to and fro in pairs, surrounding him. Uurgh. It all looked rather nauseating. His head spun. Instinctively he squeezed his eyes shut as if doing so would right the world and he'd gain some perspective of where the hell he was. But that wasn't to be, it never was, he thought sourly as he tried to steady himself upright, for when he reopened his eyes he, of course, was met with the same. Except those dancing pinpricks of light had come closer. Too close and too real to be filaments of an achy, throbbing head. And with a jolt of horror, Etojo realised the truth was far more gruesome, his lips peeling away from teeth in disgust as he wobbled unsteadily backwards. Those pairs of bobbing lights belonged to bodies. Their shapes taking form as they emerged through the dark and foggy gloom. They surrounded him from all angles. Rows of dead creatures of all sorts though they hardly resembled whatever they’d once been now. All ugly and mangled beyond recognition, their burning pricks of eyes embedded in haggard faces sinewed to skeletal bodies. Some big like giants, others as tiny as mice. They smelt like dead things too, a horrid rancid smell tinged with a dampness that would be impossible to shake just as it was impossible to escape them now. It all felt rather inevitable. Somewhere inside of him there was a semblance of fear. He should feel afraid, and he did. But his head throbbed like something wild and his eyelids felt incredibly heavy. He felt shaky, burdened to stillness with muscles too sore and weak to work. Too exhausted to run and too zapped of anything left within to fight. He’d had a long life, a long and lonely one. Was it so bad if it ended now? None would mourn him, he’d leave this place as if he’d never been. The dead trudged closer… Close enough he could feel their cold rattly gurgles against his hide. Did the dead really try to breath? And swarming like ants who had found something tasty on the forest floor, the dead huddled to him, pushing and clambering and crushing. Grabbing at his flesh with teeth and claws which oddly was not accompanied with pain. No, it felt good. Perhaps even soothing. The icy chill of their touches numbing his wounds as they stroked and caressed his body in their strange dead way. Gobbling up his pain, satiating their hungry bellies with his sufferings. Their claws and teeth biting into the little emotion he had, drinking the good but mostly bad memories. Take it all! And they did, until he was left numb and a husk. Once full, those that could climb scuttled over their brethren, reaching for him, curling their bony fingers around his twigged mane. Latching and hoisting themselves up around his neck, shoulders and back. They dug their feet into his sides, they urged him on. Etojo hadn't the strength himself, but as part of the great dead mob, he was pushed and part carried along. They steered him onwards through fog and darkness, until as one, they halted suddenly at a patch of dark fogginess that looked much the same as all the others - to him. The dead creatures dispersed, his hooves sinking into the sand as he was forced to once again bear his own weight. The creatures perched on his back leaping away. He felt a zing of vulnerability and a nakedness in this dark unseeing night. But something saw him, plastered with a jagged smile and big burning eyes. Etojo stared dumbly back. |