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Post by Opti on Jan 20, 2011 7:44:51 GMT -5
A thousand thorns carved through her side as she blazed through the tight, cramped corners of the forest. She was a dark comet of fur, her trail left in the bark and nettles behind her - scraps of fur left carelessly, an unwanted trail in a world of chaos.
Why was there chaos? She didn't remember. All she remembered was that she was afraid.
But, why was she afraid? The black kitsune stopped short, seven tails flailing all around. That was the real question, yes. She growled to herself, rusted brown fur above her lips prickling as her face contorted into a snarl.
She couldn't remember. Was there anything she remember? Nothing from this day. It was all a vague blur now, she could barely even remember that she had been racing through the forest just a moment ago. Her name was... no, she didn't have a name, but she called herself Corbae. That was easy enough to remember. She was a kitsune - of course she was a kitsune, she was mad, not stupid. She had no family, she knew a gray kitsune, and she remembered this section of forest.
And something had happened today.
Yes, that was all that she remembered. It'd all come back soon enough. It always did.
Keep running or they'll find you.
Yes, that was what had happened today. She had a thought just like that, and-
The black kitsune's thoughts cut short. Something had just rustled through the brush.
Just like it had before.
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Post by Pokeapache on Jan 22, 2011 20:26:22 GMT -5
The scent of fear. Black fur. Brambles broken. Claw marks on the ground.
Someone was in a hurry. The trail was so prominent, so perceptible, that danger flooded the senses. No creature moved like this through the thick forest without reason, and the only tangible reason was... this something was being chased.
There was absolutely no evidence of the thing that must have been after it, which led the shadowed, slick figure's curiosity to a point of no return. Nothing ran through the thickets around here, not with their sharp thorns jabbing one's sides.
The figure made it through like a shadow, the thorns recoiling away from its sides, as if somehow the plants could be fearful of it. Its catlike ears pricked as the smell became stronger, listening for any sound that could hint that it had found what it longed to find amongst the thickening chaparral.
Female. Definitely vulpine. The closer it got, the more its nose spoke, its eyes tracking the path like hounds. Its ears searched, reaching out for the subtle sound of stressed breathing. Fear was pungent in the air.
Stepping out of the brush, having it rustle out of its way, then reform how it had been previously, the shape took color in the absence of shadows.
Black. Kitsune. Female. Seven tail. Fear. Seven tail.
He paused, his paws halting in the ground. Seven tails... She would notice the sound. She would turn, and then she would see him. He waited, baited breath, the sparse grass struggling to grow in the dim light curling over his paws.
The male did not hold any fear, perhaps because he refused to allow the terror to take him there... But the nagging, demanding, clamorous question hammered his thoughts.
What sort of horrors did a seven tail run from?
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Post by Opti on Jan 22, 2011 20:50:46 GMT -5
"I know you're there again," She growled at the air, rusted hackles standing on end. "You've come back to take me."
Her voice was harsh and raspy, almost beast-like with rage and fear, but softening ever so slightly by the second. Her body was starting to relax more now that the fit had passed, but she still couldn't remember what she had been running from. She wasn't even sure it was a thing anymore, at least not a tangible thing.
The air smelled somewhat of male. Another kitsune... was this what she was running from? Why would she run from a kitsune? They usually left her alone for the most part, and she had no memories of why is it killing them papa mama where are you going who is this ma-- ever being hurt by another of her own species.
Corbae blinked and stumbled backwards a step as the sudden flashback beat like a dying heart in her head. It took mere seconds for her breathing to start up again, but her eyes still lay frozen and wide, now locked on the kitsune that had entered the area. She choked on her words for a minute before managing to speak, stunned at the arrival of this intruder.
"Why the hell are you following me?"
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Post by Pokeapache on Jan 22, 2011 22:03:26 GMT -5
What was she talking about? Take...? Take her where? In what context?
His senses swarmed with new information. Sharp, vicious words, piercing his ears. A changing of mood: relaxing, slightly. Discovery, and then pain, freezing. Her eyes were wide, open depths of mist that he could let himself get lost in if he stared into them too long. A cliche he never quite believed in, yet he could feel it now.
His ears recoiled at the accusations, his hackles raising at the empty voids that his eyes stumbled into, his tails shrunk towards his legs at the strength that hit him in waves. She was much more voluminous than his lithe shape, and he knew his position forthwith.
Protection. Grass. Weeds. Brambles. Bushes.
He quickly sized up the situation, his instinct channeling energy into the flora around him through his paw pads. The female had been startled by his sudden appearance, and he didn't know how long it would take her to assess and decide what to do to him. How much time he had.
He offered up a small, subtle look of embarrassment, balancing humility out in front of him by poking his nose down in a shameful affect of: 'no real reason.' "What were you running from?" He asked, carefully placing his words on the ground before him, being delicate not to trample on being disrespectful. Not to a Seven tail... but considering whatever he imagined her circumstances to be, she would likely prefer his help to... whatever was chasing her.
He lifted his nose slightly, although dipped his head so as not to appear recklessly dominant, and sniffed the air, trying to discern the scent of fear for whatever threat might be around.
Female. Lingering Fear. Himself. Plants. Dirt. Sky. Some passing prey: old scent... Nothing else.
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Post by Opti on Jan 22, 2011 22:30:59 GMT -5
What was she running from? ...It was a good question. She wished he could answer it for her.
Corbae closed her eyes, trying to remember. There was a hunter... but that was years before. Focus. If you spend an hour without panic, you get a hundred years back. She doubted this male would wait long enough for her to respond without presuming her to be stupid, though. She began to snarl in embarrassment. What right did he have to come in and make her look like a fool?
What right did he have to be so polite while he was doing so?
Corbae opened her eyes, breathing out slowly. What could she say to make this make sense?
"I... can't quite remember anymore," The truth seemed even stupider coming out of her mouth. "It seemed so far away, yet I felt it on me for miles. ...Perhaps I shall... remember later its face. Right now, it... is a blur."
It sounded ridiculous, but it was out. No way to take it back now. The black kitsune sighed and shook her head, refusing to make eye contact with the male, more out of embarrassment than to maintain any sort of show of power. No, she had lost any perceived strength back when she left a trail of herself back in the woods and gave her reason as a memory.
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Post by Pokeapache on Jan 24, 2011 13:44:02 GMT -5
In the drawn out silence that seemingly engulfed the two of them, the lithe male focused more and more energies into the ground. While every passing second begged for him to relax, his tense muscles almost shaking, he refused. This was not the time to take chances. No. He had to stay alert.
Vines. Moss. Earth. Leaves. Stems. Strength. Snarling.
The plant life around him twitched, grass tangling around his paws. The brambles behind him awoke once more, shifting and rustling gently. He would be ready.
When her eyes opened once more, the liquid milky saucers tempting him to get lost again, she seemed more… composed. Her answer puzzled him, and she seemed embarrassed to have said it. She was avoiding looking back at him, back into his eyes.
His ears pricking, he cocked his head to one side. He sniffed the air again- nothing- and reassuringly spoke out, “I doubt it is following you anymore, regardless.” His ears twitched and he reabsorbed his energies, relaxing.
“Sorry to intrude.” He poked a clover at his paws with his nose. “I was… Ah, curious?” He lifted his head again, blinked, and glanced over his shoulder.
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Post by Opti on Jan 24, 2011 17:48:33 GMT -5
Calm began to flood Corbae like a cold river's waves over her body. The black kitsune shuddered softly, letting it take her back. She still could barely meet the male's eyes, but... at least he seemed understanding. Perhaps she could trust him, at least for now.
"No.. no, it's not following me," Corbae sighed calmly, swallowing her pride. "Honestly, I thank you for your... intrusion. It has... set my mind straight about the ordeal. Forgive my rudeness. My name is Corbae. Yourself?"
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Post by Pokeapache on Aug 25, 2011 14:15:22 GMT -5
With her answers drawing sanity in the air, the male twitched his muzzle up, ever so slightly, with curiousity. She seemed... Better, now. She had withdrawn into a state of calmness, although he felt not a single bit safe. Perhaps-- he dared to throw out the idea into his mind-- it was a trap. He was quivering, his whole pelt vibrating as if his hair was being plucked from his pelt, or herd of fleas had latched onto him suddenly. The smaller kitsune-- if he could be called such-- felt very ill from his worry.
Corbae. Black. Corbae. Seven tail. Corbae.
Perhaps he was sick from using so much magic, so quickly. Suddenly the brush around him shook, and then he felt himself lose control, felt the energy break off of him like a branch of a tree snapping. He could have collapsed at the sudden exaugstion that crashed over him.
"Um..." She had asked him something, but his ears hard already lost the question. He pulled again and again at his mind, unable to locate some sort of clue as to what she had asked, but it made his head spin... Spin round.. and round... He really didn't feel well now. He sat down and tried to draw the magic he had lost in the foliage back to his own body, but he couldn't find it. Where had it gone, all so suddenly?
Corbae. A name. Right. He looked up into her eyes for a moment, but tore the glance back away and bore his vision into his own, dusty-red-brown paws. What was his name? His brain was scrambled to pieces, and he felt completely, absolutely vunerable. "... Horax." Yes, that was what he had been called. Horax.
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Post by Opti on Aug 25, 2011 15:35:29 GMT -5
"Horax," The seven-tail nodded, rising to her feet. She was definitely feeling calmer now. Whatever it was that had attacked her was a distant memory now, almost forgotten. It would seem that the other kitsune hadn't recovered from the ordeal, however.
How cute. He hadn't even been the one living it.
"You hesitated," Corbae circled the male slowly, gaze darting up and down his body. He was shaking. It wasn't really right to toy with him, not after he had helped her, but she wanted to know how he handled his own fear. If he was to be around her for any extended amount of time, she wanted to know what he was like deep down. She circled closer, smirking, voice sickly-sweet as she continued. "Is something wrong? You seem... afraid."
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Post by Pokeapache on Aug 26, 2011 11:33:40 GMT -5
The delicate black vixen of seven tails had repeated his name before she stood up, and soon she was circling him. It made it easier on his senses to just stare at his paws, doppled grey, white and black... Rather than to look up at her, and follow her pacing. It made him feel less like a bit of prey she was toying with, to just ignore her movements. However, he could feel them, each pawstep crushing a small blade of grass, claws pricking into their sweet, crispy flesh.
Crushing. Wet. Dew?.. Corbae. Circle. Spinning. Round and round. Corbae. Fear.
He felt these things as he looked for energy, for his magic, to get them back. He could sense her magic, all of her power, as he looked. He had decided that, if she so choosed to kill him-- and he hoped that her display so far wasn't just a trap-- that he likely had intruded on something he shouldn't have.
Perhaps he would be given the option to run. He didn't dare shift his weight and feel how heavy his paws were. They were likely rocks clung to his legs at this point. He stared at them, willing them to run, but too afraid to actually make them run, afraid that they wouldn't move.
Maybe she wouldn't kill him. His ears tensed for just a moment, then twitched sharply, angling back as she spoke to follow the sound of her voice, wrapping around him like chains as she circled him. Her question, the voice of a charming snake, gripped his pelt and choked him.
He didn't dare show fear much more than the shaking-- he wished he would stop shaking-- hoping that perhaps a show of bravery would be much more honorable and his trespassing forgivable, as such. Instead, the young fox lifted his muzzle again and set his eyes in hers. It took him a moment to realize he stared too long, his exaugstion drawing him into her deep, drowning pools, and he forced himself to look at a tree's roots, not too far behind her.
"I..." He thought about it rather hard, his tail twitching with each calculation. "My energy has escaped me, Corbae." Would it be rude to address her simply by her name, and not by something more formal? He didn't know, but that was the only name he had for her. The only name she had given him.
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Post by Opti on Aug 27, 2011 17:20:33 GMT -5
"Fair enough," The black kitsune chuckled, still circling.
He was strong. It impressed her somewhat, to be honest. She didn't know if he was being formal, respectful, or just confident in his own ability to survive, but she liked it.
She circled slower now. Slower, but closer. She scented the air around Horax discreetly, whiskers practically brushing his pelt as she passed. He was afraid, yes, and he dared not meet her eye for long, but he did not run. If she hadn't tormented him into losing his wits, then perhaps he could be of some use. Though the phantom had been left behind, Corbae still had no intention to backtrack and risk finding it again.
All she needed was a direction, and there could only be one wrong answer.
"Before your... energy had left you," Her voice was soft, yet confident. "Where were you headed?"
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Post by Pokeapache on Sept 1, 2011 10:00:44 GMT -5
The strange question made him feel all the more like he had been trespasing. He could feel the soft, trace feeling of whiskers brushing the air around his fur, and surpressed an involentary shiver. He repeated the question over and over again in his head, trying to decipher what exactly she had meant. Obviously he had been following her before he lost his energy-- unless she meant, perhaps, before that. He dug through his mind, trying to recall what he actually had been doing before he had started to follow her.
Fear. Corbae. Snarling. Bushes- Protection. Seven tail. Fear. Curiousity. Disturbance. Sound. Exploring...
His single tail swished, brushing the grass around him before curling in around the outside of his flank. "I was... Exploring." He sniffed the air, and looked around, spinning around in a circle in place, hoping to find the hints of what he was exploring.
There was... Stone. Vines and moss had grown around a large outcropping of unnatural stone. He had heard stories, had heard rumors of the unusual place. He knew that he had been travelling to the North, which was to the left side of the rising sun... And that, when he had his magic, he could have sensed the place that he was so determined to find. He couldn't quite remember why he had decided to go explore-- although that was likely because he had found a Seven Tail, and was now fairly certain that exploring was a terrible idea.
"I was heading North," he answered after a moment, letting the words slip slowly from his muzzle as he glanced at her, allowing his eyes to linger in hers for a moment before looking around himself again, trying to figure out exactly what way it was. She had been running... west... So... It must have been in that sort of direction, he thought, turning what was the closest to the North that he could manage. Without his energy, though, he doubted he could--
Oh jeez, he was dizzy now. He stumbled slightly until he caught himself, and sat down since he clearly wasn't in any position to be standing anymore, staring off in the direction he thought he had been going.
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Post by Opti on Sept 1, 2011 19:21:42 GMT -5
North.
Corbae continued circling, though she no longer paid much attention to the kitsune caught in the ring. No, now she paced, and she watched the ground, and she thought. She knew several things to the north - or, at least, she had traveled there several times before, though she couldn't say it had ever been a particularly memorable experience. She knew not what Horax wanted with the north, but she did know one thing - whatever was chasing her wouldn't be there. Not yet.
Something started to fall over in the corner of her eye, and Corbae turned her head back to Horax just in time to watch him stumble and sit. Poor dear seemed incredibly dizzy. Had she done that? She hadn't accidentally thrown her magic at another kitsune in hundreds of years, but try as she might, she could never keep it completely stable...
Go north. That sounds like a good idea.
The idea had taken root in her head, and now it refused to let go. The black kitsune paused mid-step, standing just to Horax's left, and watched the male for a minute more. No, he didn't seem all that steady on his feet, but Corbae wasn't really sure she cared at the moment.
"I asked because I wanted to venture away from here, myself," Corbae sat down as well, glancing in the direction that Horax was pointing. "I wanted to continue moving, for hopefully obvious reasons, and I suppose I'd like to accompany you for part of your journey."
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~love Pokeapache
