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[Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 8:05 am
by Arkash
73rd of Ash, 120
The winding trunks of foreign trees lay scattered along the hillside that Arkash had taken his long rest upon. He hadn't seen the likes of them anywhere in Lorien and thought them to be unique to the country's arid climate. He did enjoy the hot and the dry, at least in his True form, but as well-kept a secret as that was, Arkash rarely got to experience the sun on his basalt scales.
The sun was warm on his bare, lightly worn scales. The darker shade of basalt that framed his beige underbelly was perfect for soaking up the sun's heat and supplying his otherwise cold blood with the flexibility to move unhindered. After all, he'd spent most of his life in Lorien slow and sluggish from the cold. His muscles didn't work right after a certain point. The sun? All he had to do to regulate his internal temperature was open his mouth, and filter out the hotter air.
He was made for Daravin, it felt. Well, for the land. He hated the people of the country he currently sunbathed in, but the weather and the foliage were wonderfully cozy to the young Rathor. It must have been where his species as an ice-blood originated from, he could think of no other innate reason for his taking to the environment around him. If he'd been born there, initiated in magic young, survived, and had been able to spend the first dozen or so years of his life outside, with others like him, how would he have turned out in the present? How different could his life have been if Liu and Cojack had decided to settle in Daravin instead of that frozen wasteland?
Liu and Cojack, his beloved mother and father. Cojack had passed just the year prior, overdosed in some Inn after being separated from Arkash. Though the thought of his Father's hopelessness and despair in his last moments wrenched his heart from his chest and often brought him to tears, he'd learned to make peace with what happened. Cojack had been ill, so very ill, for so long. In his last months, he was naught but a withered shell of what he had once been. His suffering disrupted Arkash's nights with groans of pain, coughing fits, and pitiful sobbing. There was no way Cojack could have gotten better, his condition only declined over the years that he and Liu had been buying him medicine; Cojack was doomed to die, sooner or later. The fact that he wasn't suffering anymore helped settle Arkash's weary mind, his only regret was that Cojack had taken his life because he thought his son was gone. If the withered horse had passed naturally, with Arkash there, or even if he'd been at work at the time, it wouldn't have driven him to take his own life some few months after.
He couldn't change what happened, and ultimately, Cojack was better off now than he had been. It hurt to admit, but he'd wished that the horse would slip away in the night for many nights while he slept on that wooden floor. It was better now, even if he didn't have closure.
Liu, on the other hand. She'd been taken far too quickly from him. There was no build-up or long-drawn-out process. She just stopped coming home one day, and he found her discarded, broken body, partly frozen in some dank Lower Nivenhain alley the next day. They surmised that she was killed by hollows for stealing from the Savant she worked for, and the only reason she'd had to steal from the Savant was that Arkash didn't work, and he'd told her not to traffic contraband in the underworld of those slums for money. They were declining as a result, and she'd been desperate. She couldn't feed three mouths while buying medicine for her sick husband, all while trying to save up for their new life far away. So, she cut corners on the food part. it worked for the best part of a week, and then she was killed without question; bludgeoned by those lifeless things.
Arkash opened his yellow eyes where he laid on that slope, and his eyes cast to the open blue sky and the odd cloud that drifted by. The smell of decay filled his nostrils as a gust of wind blew by. Similar hallucinations of her death often plagued him; the light tricked his eyes and he sometimes saw her mangled body cast in dark corners of whatever room he was in at the time, only to find a pile of discarded cloth or hay in its place. He closed his mouth then; it was becoming dry. His claws moved to support his head from the hardness of the packed earth while he continued to bathe in the warming glow the sun provided.
Would she still love him as she had if she could see him now? Would she understand the animal he had become in her absence? His heart sank when he considered that she might turn away from him, blame herself for his actions. It wasn't her fault that the world was broken. She'd tried to protect him from its evils, but they were too loud to ignore. No one else worked to make it right, no one even knew how broken the world was except those who'd suffered at the hands of the oppressive elite. Though he wanted to tell her he didn't fight the world because it had taken her from him, he couldn't bring himself to lie to her, not to her.
The smell of decay clung to his nostrils well, it seemed. No doubt if he looked around, he'd see her body somewhere, and the panic would set in shortly after. So, the rathor didn't. He kept his eyes shut and opened his mouth to breathe, even if he could almost taste the death that clung to the air on his forked tongue.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:21 am
by Mallory Reiss
Fruit was pissed. He'd been stomping all morning now, and his pouting was further hinted at when he'd reared back and thrown her things into the dirt, following the outburst with a short tug on the lead that kept him tied to his owner. They'd known each other plenty by now, but he still insisted on acting up here and there for what she could only assume was for no reason. And now her things had a layer of dust. Mallory kept a hold on few rags- bundled up into a makeshift bag to hold the more important things to keep at least her tail safe from his tantrums. Mallory was defeated, sulking as she practically dragging her paws along the sand as they continued along. She wished she'd known more about animals, or horses, but at the most she could point out their vital organs and thickest parts of their hide (and despite her intrusive thoughts, none of that knowledge would help). For now ignored it, and figured if it was water he was after she'd fix up a pan of it for him later. It was at times like this, when they were just going without turns or detours, that Mallory could just think about things. She dug into her makeshift pouch to feel along the short stubby bone that had fallen off of her tail, and wondered how it hadn't gotten lost quite yet. The scenarios her mind came up with had her drifting off and Fruit grunted in disapproval. He made a sound and pulled, claiming Mal's attention. Her eyes flickered down to the horse, then at her feet, which she realized had stopped.
"Did it again." The words flew from her mouth, and Mallory took a step forward to continue their slow pace. The world around them was.. Well she knew it was hot, but she wasn't as if she could feel the sun anymore. The wildlife was dry to reflect the weather, and Mallory bent down to pick up a stick and toss it as far as she could behind her. This time, she thought heard a small animal scuttle away from the scene of the crime, and held back a smile as she watched a tail disappear in the scenery. Again Fruit pulled on her, and Mallory turned to get back on track. Most of the trip had been like this, the Rathor had to find something to keep herself busy through all the walking. As much as she hated to admit it, there wasn't much value in talking to a horse that couldn't understand her, even if it had been the sole reason they were making as much progress as they did.
Mallory spotted a small hill, decorated in trees and a bit of grass that sprouted up, some of it dead, some of it thriving, and she nearly though maybe one was taking from the other. Shaking herself from those thoughts, she took a few paces in front of the beast that'd been dragging her around, the first few steps easy for both her and Fruit, but as it got a bit steeper and they got a bit higher, Mallory paused. A shape lay in the sand, scaled and considerably smaller then even Fruit. Considering the Rathor had done everything in her power to avoid most people, it'd been a while since she'd seen anyone this close. Was he dead? The two got a bit closer, audible to a human, though she'd be surprised if he hadn't noticed her already.
"You doin' alright darlin'?" Fruit responded with another pull, but she kept put, slighting leaning over the stranger.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 2:06 pm
by Arkash
For most of the young Rath's life, his sense of smell had been his strongest sense by far. His eyes lagged behind in their development but improved some when he began target practice. Imagining smells was particularly troubling for him for that reason; he depended on it more than most others did in compensation for his poor eyesight.
The bridge of his nose curled a little as the smell of decay grew stronger. He began to worry while he lay there because the smell of horse also accompanied that deathly rotting stench. His jaws began to run with viscous, clear yellow fluid. His venom glands activated in response to the stress on his mind. The mixed smells were so surreal with his eyes closed, he couldn't help but think he was hallucinating.
He heard the steps of padded feet, the trot of hooves on the packed earth that surrounded him. What was happening? Was he entering a full psychosis? Had his sanity really deteriorated that far to stress? Was he finally going crazy? Would he even know if he was? Maybe he'd been crazy for a while, he didn't know.
It was okay if he was going crazy, he decided. His whole body felt soft under the radiant heat of the sun, or was that just part of his newfound psychosis? It didn't feel as though he was the lethal, coil-like lash that sprung at foes at incredible speed and severed heads with just one swing of his blade. No, the murder lizard was no more. He had become the butter lizard, melting away in his consciousness and body both.
That was until something blocked the sun, and Arkash raised both brows to flex his non-existent ears. There was only one heartbeat in his vicinity, but he'd heard the footsteps of at least three people. The butter lizard had neglected to open his eyes in wonderment of what he might find in his new reality, of what his sun-induced psychosis might look like. Part of him was excited, another was afraid. Did it matter how he felt? What of Dorn-?
A voice called to him before he could think more of those Rathor, his Rathor. The voice was clear, not at all surreal or echoed as he might have expected. if anything, the crisp detail of her voice roused him from his self-induced hallucinations, and the feeling in his scales returned. Arkash opened his eyes and last, only to be blinded by a bright light. It was the sun. His eyes fluttered as they adjusted to the light, which shined behind the shape of someone who stood over him. She was dark in contrast to the brightness of the sky, blurry from behind his squinted eyelids. He could scarcely make out any of her lupine features. "What?" he asked, somewhat confused.
How long had he been there? The sun had moved so far. Did the sun still work the same? Perhaps he was the one that had moved, not the sun? He couldn't be sure. Uncertain, he tested one of his claws, then pulled at the elbow and lifted his hand to provide shade for his eyes. Blocking some of the light helped his eyes just a bit more, and he focused on her features. Liu was there, still rotting, still stinky. "Mom..?" He spoke from his venom-dried lips. The rampant and irregular beat of his heart didn't carry the soul-crushing fear that normally accompanied her image this time. It was strange, he recognized.
What in Bell was going on? A deep breath lifted his chest a little, and he took the opportunity to press both hands to the packed earth to sit up. Vertigo overtook him in seconds, and he began to wobble and waver while sitting upright. The world spun around him, his mouth was like chalk. He supported himself with both arms fully extended behind him, propping his form up while he hung his head at a degree that pressed his chin to his chest. He hadn't moved, but couldn't recall where he was. He tested his mouth a little, opening and closing his jaws in a futile effort to spread non-existent spit about with his tongue.
"Water..?" he asked, then covered both his eyes with his claws as he leaned forward. Was he dehydrated? How long had he been out there? Didn't he have excellent water retention? What happened? If he had the strength or the energy, the pressure of his skull squeezing his brain would make him scream. "...Please." he pleaded, out of his mind, still covering his eyes.
Spoiler:
Arkash's superior sense of smell detected Mallory from some distance away downwind, and brought on an anxiety attack that put him asleep in the sun. Because of his Loaded Veins mutation, he's much more prone to heatstroke and dehydration and is suffering the effects of said conditions due to prolonged exposure to the sun.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:47 am
by Mallory Reiss
The Rathor below her looked to be a lizard, a gecko maybe by his size, but she'd glance at the skinny tail to prove herself wrong. It wasn't the right face shape either, but it was hard to guess when it was scrunched up and warped. Admittedly she hadn't met as many lizards. Plenty of snakes, mammals, the occasional insect- both through her travels and when she'd been alive. The mass below her began to squirm and react to her presence; she was sure she noticed the slight flare of his nostrils and his grimace, probably reacting to her.. less than pleasant smell and hopefully just the sun. Instead of dwelling on it anymore, lips parted to defend herself near instantly for the smell, before she'd already forgotten what her excuse was. How do you tell somebody you were just rotting in the sunlight anyway?
Mallory stood up straight again as he spoke up. Her brows move to relay her confusion, did he not hear her? Mallory came to the conclusion she might've just woken him up, and the whole interaction suddenly made her feel a tad awkward. He was just a lizard in the sun, and she strode in with her temperamental horse to bother him. Despite her social awkwardness Mallory responded softly, maybe an attempt to soften the blow of his anger. Y'shendra knows she hated being woken up. Or she did.
"Askin' if your alright, honey." The wolf would shift and sit back up to stand at her full height, repeating the question. She wrapped Fruit's lead around her wrist a few times and let go of it all together to tend to the stranger who'd suddenly looked worse for wear. It was when she knelt to his height did she pause to take in what he'd said. "Pardon?" Her voice cracked and Mallory cleared her throat to correct herself. She nearly fell back from the shock, and a plot full of memories like polaroid's flickered through her head. It'd been a while since anyone had called her that. As a Dunash, she didn't think could cry; she never had before. It was a hell of a time to find out.
The undead took a risk and flicked off her makeshift hood while moving closer, maybe trying to prove to him this ragged she-wolf was not at all his mother. Not with the way the dark fur shaped the hole in her cheek or the chunk out of her ear was so prominent when one compared it to the other. If he still thought of her as his 'mother' she'd know he was a drunk. The reptile wobbled to drag Mallory out of her thoughts, and she nearly shot forward. Instead, Mal cleared her throat once more and turn back to Fruit to grab the waterskin hanging from his side. It was nearly full, considering the one who needed it more was Fruit, and he'd been too pissy to sit still lately enough to drink it.
His pleading wasn't ignored. The Dunash had moved to his side and reached for his comparatively small hands, sloshing around the waterskin in her hand to hint at him she had what he asked. Her arm drew closer to her chest, hopefully pulling one of his own with it enough to press the lid against his scaly cheek.
"Can't-- get 'ta you when you're all curled like that, c'mon." Mal would feel her awkward position on the balls of her feet falter so she widened her stance a bit. Damn short people. "Head up, nothin' helping till you listen to me."
Thankfully Fruit had been quiet. Maybe he was done with his tantrum. Nothing but the wind and her voice, and the few and far between scuttle of an animal as Mallory tilt the container and pour a bit warm water off his lips and into the dirt. A waste, but she'd hoped feeling it would bring him back to reality.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 5:17 pm
by Arkash
Moore words, an unfamiliar voice. Arkash didn't try to understand, though he was aware of the presence near him. How could he not be? She was fairly huge, obvious. If Arkash was really so deep in his self-induced insanity that he didn't notice the illusion of his own mother's cadaver, then things were definitely taking a turn or the worse. Thankfully, he wasn't that crazy yet, not yet.
All in all, the younger Rathor was largely unresponsive. He hadn't said or done much since the stranger arrived, but he had sat up and wobbled some before begging for water. His dry lips parted to sigh a dry breath and he lifted his light head skyward to peer at the vast blue that encircled their world through the cracks in his eyelids. He wondered what it might be like to taste the sky. Was it made of water, like the sea? He hoped so.
His mutation, once again, had brought him within an inch of his life. He wasn't fully aware of the consequences of his etheric alteration, but the sensations he experienced in all his senses weren't all too alien bar nausea and confusion. It had happened once before, some thirty days prior. he was traveling with some mercenaries as Derek, but that human wasn't good for much. His nails were particularly repulsive to the rathor, who spun endlessly in lost thoughts that almost never seemed to tie together, unlike the lace of his raven-feather mantle.
From the sky, he lowered his gaze to his side, where that wolf's grim features peered at him. Why was she still there? He didn't mind too much, but it was a bit strange that she was following him. Then again, Liu's image did have a habit of appearing wherever it pleased. Though he wished she'd appear less mangled, it was still nice to see her. Why was he complaining?
"I'm sorry," he spoke from his dry palette. "I don' mean t' san' ungretful.." The obstruction of his chalk-like tongue made it hard to talk properly, though the feeling of the dry, forked muscle in his maw was sort of entertaining. He began to open and close his mouth quickly, pressing his rough tongue to the roof of his mouth repeatedly while he tasted the awkward dryness of his jaws... At least until the nozzle of a waterskin bumped his cheek. Arkash's eyes fluttered, and he turned his head in an attempt to take the nozzle with a relatively soft bite, only to end up spilling water on himself. Still, some of it had made it past his lips, and those few drops alone were enough to wet his maw and reactivate his dormant saliva glands. He began to spread the moisture about his mouth with little pause and made another attempt for the water.
His claws had been otherwise dormant in her decaying paws but tightened some sort of grip on her as he regained some level of awareness. Strained yellow eyes opened below her, peering up at the decaying wolf without fear or perturbation. All that lined his gaze was need; a will to survive. She was the key, the only one that could prolong his life. His look at her knew only that, and the rest was just background noise. "More-" he cleared his throat hard, then lurched forward, away from the wolf that held him in some volatile cough. "-Pl-ease," he sputtered.
It wasn't much, but some sense of urgency had awoken in him. He wasn't fully aware, but he knew he needed more of that water. Precious hydration was all that could restore him; such was plain to see.
If he did care that an unknown, rotting lupine had taken to holding him close to herself while he wavered on the brink of consciousness, it didn't show. At least not while Arkash struggled for his own preservation. Did he even realize she was rotting? Perhaps not. he made no effort to escape her but did tense his legs in random kicking motions like it would somehow get him close to the water she offered. It didn't, but it didn't stop him from trying.
Whether she obliged his request or not, he lifted one of his smaller hands from hers and tried to take hold of the waterskin before he opened his mouth wide. Weakly, he tried to guide the nozzle to his maw.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:45 pm
by Mallory Reiss
The Dunash wanted to say she felt her chest fluttering, but without a beating heart it just sounded off. It was the right expression though. Mallory was nervous, she wasn't quite sure how to rouse him from his obvious delirious state, and while she thought of taking him by the shoulders and shaking him to the gates and back, she doubted it was just a wake up call that he'd needed. That much is obvious, he's about damn begging for water. The better question was how long this reptile had actually been out here, splayed out on the sand like he was-- Was he sunbathing out here? Seriously? It made sense, but he must have fallen asleep to get this bad. She started to stare again, looking over his jaw the pattern of his scales- and back to the boney tail attached to his backside. Mallory had it on the damn near tip of her tongue, but the name just wasn't coming, something wasn't clicking with her. Was her brain finally fried?
His voice brought her back to reality, the twitching of her tattered ears somehow feeling foreign atop her head, while the reptile had been entertaining himself with his tongue. Her eyes glanced to his teeth but Mallory didn't respond. She tried to focus on tilting his head, a few more drops of water meeting his lap or the dirt, whichever was in the way. Why was it so hard to focus on him suddenly? Was his life in her hands right now? If Mallory had chosen to leave, how long would it take for the small thing to die and start his return back to the earth. He'd smell terrible, just as terrible as her, and after a while he'd smell even worse. Within a few hours he'd be cold, within four days he'd start to bloat, and his scales would dull in color. He'd look just as terrible as she did amongst the landscape Daravin. At some point he could rupture entirely.
A sharp cough tore through the stranger, terrifying the woman that was nearly twice his size. In her shock, Mallory pulled the container to her chest for a half second before she realized what her mistake. The Dunash frantically pushed it towards him again as Mallory stumbled around in her own head. She'd help him to tilt his head a bit more to control the flow, while the hand he held shook against the shoddy work of the tarp she'd kept around her. Her previously firm hold had loosened. The fuck was that? Mal couldn't remember the last time her thoughts had gone so morbid.
It was the first time someone had gotten this close in a while, and she thought of leaving him in the dirt. Though she didn't want to admit it, he was only that close because he was out of his mind, and she had something he quite literally needed.
"Alright, steady now." When his hand had moved from hers Mallory took advantage of it, supporting his back and partially keeping him still as the water fell to gravity and pour through his teeth, washing over his tongue and, hopefully, down his damned through at last. It was an urgent situation but the thoughts wouldn't stop, the guilt had already started to rouse in her stomach; she was touching him right now, when he was barely conscious. Her patchy fur had met his warm scales, and her cold undead skin couldn't even feel it.
Not the time to get depressed.
She watched him, less to figure out what he was and more to make sure he was taking it now. Enough had fallen on the ground and the lupine had a feeling he was going to want everything she had, much to her horse's displeasure.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 2:58 am
by Arkash
In some sense, one could say that the lizard was baked; left to cook under the sun to a degree that was severe enough to mess with his perceptions. The heat of the sun was easily caught by his darker scales, and his blood drank the bountiful heat as he was meant to. Some measure of heat was good as it loosened his muscles for movement and gave him the energy he needed to remain conscious. Too much heat meant that he'd dehydrate and his various internal bits would literally begin to cook. As his blood thickened, it became harder to deliver oxygen to his brain through his bloodstream, and that had all sorts of effects on his perception.
Without influence from his mutated blood, which was twice as effective at retaining heat, Arkash would have been fine to bask in the sun's glow for many more hours before he began to feel the effects of over-indulgence. The only thing that could really help Arkash begin to undo the damage to his insides was his dranoch healing factor. But in order for it to start, he had to cool down. just as he couldn't regenerate a knife wound while the knife was still buried in his flesh, he couldn't undo baked organs while his body was still overheating.
Thankfully, his savior was dead and rotting. She'd made an effort with her tarps to stay out of the sun's heat so that she might be able to slow her decay. Because she was cold, her body eagerly drank the rathor's heat. Whenever something hot and something cold were in contact, the colder of the two would gradually drink the warmth of the hotter object until the hotter had cooled enough and the cold had warmed enough for both to be at the same temperature. They would form a temperate equilibrium. Even if the wolf thought herself wrong to hold him while he was out of his mind, she actually did him a great service, both by feeding him her water and bearing the burden of his excessive warmth.
Maybe the one good thing about having something Raphael wanted was that he was treated rather well. He never went hungry, and Raphael had no shortage of experiments to discard and feed the dranoch.
Quite quickly, the living flesh he'd recently eaten began to repair the light baking of his organs as he was cooled by the introduction of water, and the heat-thief sentient cadaver, who he steadily began to recognize while he drank. His hazy gaze began to waver while he stared up at her, and his palette was washed in her horse's water. Eagerly, he drank the fluid and didn't pause for breath. His comparably small claws squeezed the waterskin quite selfishly; he wanted all of it. If he could get away with drinking it all, he'd simply reimburse the stranger afterward, if not, well he'd have to make do.
The tension in his legs, which had kicked through the dirt just moments ago went lax, and his whole body began to relax against her. When he couldn't bear to drink anymore and needed to breathe, he pulled down on the waterskin, swallowed, and released his spent lungful with a sigh. He pursed his lips and sniffled hard through his congested nostrils. His lips parted again to allow him breath, and he began to recover in silence while he breathed.
Arkash then held her arm while it supported him around his front, then looked up at the wolf from where he sat. He fully saw her, and how closely she resembled Liu. Arkash had never tripped hard enough to see, feel, and smell her all at once, though. It wasn't a hallucination, was it? She was real, wasn't she? He might as well ask her, but if she was a hallucination, she'd tell him she was real, wouldn't she?
"Sorry miss," he started, sort of casual in his tone. "Are you real?" He began to think about it more closely. Dead, check. Rotting, check. Wolf, check. His eyes squinted in suspicion at the stranger... or was she a stranger? "Raphael?" He spoke somewhat irritated. had he really taken the time to build a rotting wolf thrall to mess with him? It wasn't funny. But he almost found it flattering that the mage had taken so much time to not only investigate his history from gods-only-knew how many sources, but to actually take the time to stitch together who knew how many wolves into a close-enough image of his late mother's corpse, animate her with necromancy, then send her to him while he was close to death.
Arkash's squint lowered to her hands while he thought. That was all a little farfetched, actually. He hadn't told Raphael about his mother or father, he barely told Raphael anything at all. No one in Lorien knew anything about him or where he came from. Not one soul knew both him and his mother, Raphael would have had to be a mind-reader to accomplish something of this scale, and for what?
Still, she must have been a necromancer's thrall. How else could a corpse be walking around? He listened for her heartbeat and found nothing. The wolf was literally dead. Arkash pressed his thumb to her decaying wrist then, felt for a moment then shook his head. "...You're dead." he declared, getting his foot in the door on the elephant in the room. "Dead people aren't supposed to move on their own so how are you doing this?" He continued.
His eyes fell on the waterskin again and he opened his mouth to test the dryness of his mouth. Saliva was the lowest of his body's priorities it seemed; he didn't have enough water. "Also..." he started, then looked back up at the wolf. "...I really appreciate your help, and I hate to ask, but can I have some more water?" It wasn't as though she needed it, he thought. He'd feel worse if he was asking a lone traveler for their water.
He'd thought he was being very courteous and polite, but it struck that he hadn't introduced himself. Those pale yellow eyes widened at the realization, and he pulled his lips in a cringe. "Fuck, shit," he exclaimed. "I'm sorry, my name is Arkash. Thank you for saving my life, Miss..." He would either learn the name of the necromancer that controlled her or the name that her master had bestowed upon her... That's if she was even real. He could still be tripping, talking to a tree or something.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 1:33 pm
by Mallory Reiss
Without moving the lid from his mouth too much, Mallory settled on her knees to retain better balance. She was glad he'd been conscious enough to drink it. His jittery kicking had stopped as well, she didn't notice it until the movement in the corner of her vision ceased. He was greedy about it, desperate was more the word, taking a bit more than half of her water before he needed to take a breath and let the water settle. The Dunash pulled the water away, strategically putting it in her lap so she could bring her wrist up to her teeth to unknot the leash. It was more so she could keep the equine from tugging on her so much, and even if Fruit was a complete brat, she knew he wouldn't run from the one that fed him. Hopefully?
It came loose and dropped, and Fruit clambered up the hill completely, then wandered to the corner of her vision and out of the lizard's. The silence didn't last long, at least not between the two of them. Thick claws gripped the water and held it by the lid tightly, ready to offer more when the time came. She'd briefly noted his grip on her fur and wondered she actively kept herself from a breath she didn't have to hold. Or take for that matter, even with the relief washing over her mangled body.
Mallory's ears flicked and reacted to his voice but her mind took a second too long to register the philosophical question. The Dunash thought the term real could be used a few different ways,, but in this case it was like he was asking if she was stuffed toy or a living thing, to which she'd have to say neither to with a bit of doubt on both ends.
"Real?" Mallory repeated, her tone offering it as more of a question. "I assume so. 'Mean.. I'm not a mirage if that's what your askin' of me. Neither is the horse. Or the water your guzzling down." The Dunash curled her lips up in a sort of smile, and the yellowed jagged teeth in her mouth appeared less comforting then she thought. Her expression dropped and her head turned away to direct her eyes to wear the blue sky met the warm colors of Valtoria's dirt. It might've been a mistake to give him anything more then her waterskin, maybe she should've left quickly. She wasn't sure he would've been able to hold himself up on his own though.
Mallory didn't look back to him even when he'd asked another question, simply ignoring him until the time came when he'd asked for something she could actually give him.
"Here, you can have much as you need." While one hand held the waterskin out to him, the other gently moved from his back. Mallory under the impression he could sit up by himself now, but kept her hand just behind him for the worst case scenario. She was absolutely avoiding the question, but she'd give him one thing. As the crude language left his mouth and a frown settled on her lips, she introduced herself as her family name.
"Reiss. It's a bit personal to ask about my circumstance so early on into our relationship, don't you think?" It was more of a joke. Shhe doubted after all this they'd even meet again, but her tone betrayed false hope, "It's nice to meet you Arkash; I only wish it was under better circumstances." And after a moment or two, another question appeared her mind. "Do I look like your mother?"
Her maw was left open, smacking her lips as if it would relieve some of her own social awkwardness. Maybe she should start drinking water again, when she wasn't keeping a Rathor from dehydrating.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 7:09 pm
by Arkash
Addressing the elephant failed. It continued about the room, unnoticed. Arkash squinted. It was quite the thing not to address, how did she expect not to explain that she was dead? Hell, he could see straight through her cheek to those yellowed teeth. What reason could a necromancer have for designing their thrall that way...? Why did the Necromancer skirt around the fact that its thrall was dead? A lot of the situation didn't make sense to the younger Rath, but for the time being, he went along with it.
"...Thank you," he returned when she obliged his ask for more water. It really was a lifesaver, that she'd happened upon him when she had. Who knew what would have become of him all dried up in the sun, out of his mind? He might have started wrinkling or something. Gratefully, the rathor continued to drink from the provided water, and his vitality quickly returned by the minute. His dizziness wouldn't last too much longer, he hoped.
When at last, he'd drank his fill, he pulled down on her wrist a little, and leaned back a little more to break contact with the nozzle. He swallowed hard and breathed a sigh of relief. Briefly, he felt his stomach swell with the water, but it all-too-quickly dissipated as the hunger ripped it from his body. He didn't linger on the fact that he would never be satisfied, knowing so only brought grief.
"Sorry, Reiss," Arkash returned. He couldn't tell if she was serious or not, but thought it best to apologize anyway. At least she'd acknowledged his question, perhaps there was room to develop on that? Maybe if he didn't dive into the deep end, she'd be more comfortable talking about it? How did he start small on the topic?
Arkash blinked then. He was referring to the thrall as if it was an actual person, like she had a personality and a mind of her own. Why? Why had he suddenly developed that notion? Was it that the necromancer's acting was really that good? Curious, the rathor pinched himself. It hurt, but he wasn't sure if it felt real. It didn't feel like a dream, however. And it wasn't often that he didn't dream of dying.
"So... Your name is Reiss," he started, and looked up at her again from where she knelt. "You're traveling with a horse that's too small for you to ride," he observed with a glance to the freed animal before he returned his eyes to her mangled visage. "You're wearing a tent and some tarp," the younger rath continued his list so matter-of-factly. "You're really quite fond of the ocean, I sense," yes well who couldn't sense that? She seemed to reek of seawater. "And you're definitely, one-hundred-percent real? I'm not hallucinating or dying?" He asked. Maybe she'd somehow indicate that he was or not? It was worth a shot he supposed, still not at his fullest.
"There could always be worse circumstances," he offered with a slight grin. "Always," he added. Indeed. Just when one thought things were at their worst, they were made comatose, crippled, and orphaned all in one fell swoop. "As far as most of my meetings go, this isn't bad... I'm sorry about all your water though," he added again, pursing his lips.
When she asked her next question, however, Arkash furrowed his brow. "My... Mom?" he seemed to space for a moment, thinking somewhere behind his eyes before he shook his head a little, then looked up at her. He watches as her visage remained utterly still, devoid of breath or any real movement that would herald life. She was totally, utterly dead. "...Yeah," He answered briefly. "I mean, she was a wolf, just like you, but you probably-" he paused mid-sentence, and his features turned grim. "Ah... Nevermind."
With a soft exhale from his nose, he inspected her arm again, and found plenty of patches where the skin had decayed to a point that it tore off or opened in parts. "...Does it hurt?" He quizzed as he looked up at her from where he sat contently. "Do you need a doctor? I think I know one who'd probably repay you if I told him you helped me."
Raphael, that gargantuan prick. Arkash had neglected to mention that he was one such prick, but also a necromancer. If she was truly dead, perhaps he could do something about her state? But that rose the question - if she was a thrall, why had her master allowed her to fall into such a state of disrepair? The more he thought about it, the less it made sense for her to be a product of necromancy. Something else had to be able to reasonably explain her state.
Re: [Valtoria] Ghost
Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 11:06 pm
by Mallory Reiss
An apology? What for? She imagined it was for the intrusive question but was Mallory actually doing to blame him for asking? Maybe her joke had come across too serious, but she'd face that later. The Dunash just didn't feel that discussing her current state was much a conversational piece; it wasn't pleasant to explain and she hadn't the energy for telling a long story. A short one would probably get her a look.
She pulled her free hand into her lap, her claws fidgeting with the tarp while the lizard looked preoccupied in his own noggin'. Not like Mallory could blame him, she was twice as bad as he was if they wanted to talk about getting lost in there.
"It's fine, really." Mallory leaned back, physically and metaphorically leaning away from any further prodding about it, the hand on her wrist keeping her from going too far. The apology took her by surprise but a part of her appreciated it.
"Reiss, right.. Well! It's easier to carry things with Fruit around." She got the skepticism about the horse, but he was a good companion and pack mule! "Haven't had the chance to get clothes my size, or the materials to make some. Do you know anyone who'd sell to a mess like me?" And most people in Daravin especially had been regarding her as a simple thrall! It was rude even if Mallory understood why they said it.
"I can explain the smell!" Her brows drew together. She fully intended on defending herself at first, but claiming that she walked across the seafloor would only bring more questions. "Saltwater.. sticks to fur awfully well. I've been trying to get it off a while now." It wasn't all a lie. A disgusting fact just occurred to her. There could very well still be saltwater somewhere inside of her cadaver, she did have a few deeper gaps in her body and while she'd taken care to shake the water from her ears, ocean water very well may still be sloshing around. Who knows, she could have a pet fish, but Mallory wasn't one to cut herself open on a whim without a necromancer to bring her back together.
Well, she wasn't totally still. It'd be hard to notice the occasional jolt of her broken tail, the tensing of her jaw and the way her pinky would twitch All sensations and motions she'd gotten use to so completely Mallory didn't know when she made them anymore. Nerves misfiring she'd always call it, but the undead had yet to pick up a book and really figure it out yet. Otherwise he wasn't all that wrong; there was no breath in her lungs unless it was to speak and that was just a habit the Dunash kept.
"Probably?" Mallory hadn't noticed she'd begun to lean in again, completely interested in a story he hadn't told about his mother who had been referred to in past tense. Her back straightened up and Mal took to her previous position of giving him plenty of space. Still, he hadn't let go of her. If she did look like this lizards mother, well. Couldn't imagine what he was thinking while he was hallucinating.
"It doesn't hurt. At all actually, it's mostly just.. inconvenience that it causes." Mallory reached over, claws poised to pick at what he'd looked for as if there was an itch to be had, but she didn't. "A doctor?" She nearly laughed. "Yeah? Sort of. I don't call 'em doctors."
There wasn't any harm in telling him what she needed, right? He was a Rathor, and she'd just saved his life; the worst thing that would happen was that he didn't know one.
"I'm looking for a necromancer. They should be able to put me back together, it's been my goal for a while now." Mallory glanced up then back down to a particularly large wound on the side of her wrist. It looked like a tear, something growing larger the more she moved it like it was wearing down. "Technically it is. No- Sorry, talking to myself that time." Gently, she'd try to pry her limb away.
"I didn't answer your other question though. But if I wasn't real, don't you think I'd go away after you had some water? Or do you believe in the afterlife having a horse and a massive stranger to greet you at the gates?"