girls in dresses made of bone
♕
Her heart was a wild thing. It beat like a frightened sparrow's, quick and shallow and dreadfully mortal. Her attempts at slowing it with shuddering breaths only convinced the foolish thing to tremble harder. Her chest began to hurt.
The slip of a hoof through grass echoed towards Messalina's swiveling ears, and she swallowed. More are here. Her curiosity — a dangerous creature that she had only recently begun to obey — got the better of her, and delicately, the girl unfolded herself from the shadows of the oak and crept forwards.
Voices drifted over the gurgles of the tame autumn river, and she listened.
“Sloane.” She did not recognize the name, but the voice that uttered it — “Look at them: no blood, their hooves do not match the marks in the ground. Think.” Eulalie. Lady Eulalie was here.
A wave of guilt rippled through her and settled maliciously upon her shoulders. She had fled. A tenuous look at the carnage strewn before her and a stray hoofbeat was all it had taken to frighten her into the dark of the trees, cowering like a beaten mutt. The beast was still on the loose. No one was safe, despite the airs they were all putting on. (Even Sloane, the woman with the harsh voice whom Eulalie had addressed — even she must be unnerved. And if she isn't — Messalina's gaze darkened — then I will not let her slip away into the night as silently as she arrived.)
Her limbs ached from the exertion of fear when she pushed herself to her feet, rising from the shadows like a summoned specter. She did not care for the others. But if anything happened to Lady Eulalie, Messalina would never forgive herself.
Cerulean eyes chilled into chips of winter ice as she moved stiffly, steadily towards them. If one looked carefully enough, though, they would see that the tremble had not truly left her shoulders.
"Lady Eulalie. You are here." She lowered into a shallow bow when she reached the golden haired woman's side. She did not look at the others. She did not look at the remains, either, because she feared that all of her hastily gathered nerve would abandon her the moment she did.
"Whoever — whatever — did this, it is still somewhere in these forests. You are not safe," she murmured, her voice steady; but in her eyes there shone a panic she could not conceal. "We must send for guards immediately, ones that are armed." Her brow creased in an unspoken question when she noticed the absence of her lady's griffin, Tabbris, though her answer arrived moments later.
Somnus! There was no time for the girl to offer more than another hasty bow towards her king, before a flurry of words erupted from the mouths of everyone gathered. She caught snatches of each, her ice-shard eyes traveling from one stranger to another, her frustration only growing when she did not know whether to trust their words or not.
At the very least, Messalina knew that none of them were capable of performing such.... violence akin to what had been done this night. A shiver tingled down her spine. She winced when she shifted from leg to leg, feeling at last the gashes trailing down them both, blood still leaking out.
"King Somnus," she whispered, soft enough so that only he could hear. "You and Lady Eulalie cannot stay here unguarded. Please, let me return to the castle and bring reinforcements back to keep the both of you safe while you search for answers." Her eyes shuttered when they drifted haltingly to the blood, to the desecrated flesh of the pages'.
"I will not leave my king and his wife to meet the same fate."
Her breath, when it came, shook where her voice had not.
@Eulalie @Somnus @
