a ceremony made of desperation
The twilight comes with a storm. The autumn winds are cooler than usual and the forest below the mountain is alive with sighing trees and crackling dead leaves. Each whip of wind through the thick shadows makes the shadows sway like bodies bumping against each other in a crowd. When the moon starts to rise, each blot of darkness glows as if it's no longer a shadow but some beast of a world between.
Rain starts to join the wind. It starts slow at first, a tinkling of water that makes each leaf still hanging on to life sound like a bell. Whenever the wind howls through the trees each plant turns belly-up towards the rain, like flowers blooming for the moon and the water instead of the sun. The copse feels fuller then, with the rain and the wind howling and increasing by minutes instead of hours.
But through all that rain, bell-tolling leaves and the wind howling like a wolves there is a cry. It started out slow and sad, but when the storm turns its heavy eyes towards they cry it rises in pitch. Soon it's shrill and fearful. Everything about that cry scream heartache and death. It's a cry that could curdle the bones.
And when the wind pauses and inhales a great, big breath the cry sounds a little like help chanted in a language that horses are not taught to speak.
- - - - - - -
Deep in the forest through the rain and the wind, where the leaves are so thick the rain has to fight to reach the dirt, there is a young mother bobcat circling a fragile, dead tree. Each of her steps has a frantic flavor to it. Underneath the darkness and the moonlight (that barely can reach this place) her dark, brown eyes are wild with fear and hopelessness. Her fur is matted and bloody and she looks as if she's come straight from some war where she might have lost.
She's pacing back and forth, back and forth and the ground already has a small trench in it from how long she's been pacing. She didn't mean to be gone for so long, she didn't think the cougar would have been quite so determined to have her or her child. The storm took her by surprise and when the tree below which is she pacing cracked like a thunderclap she came running back as quick as she could.
The tree was supposed to protect her child, not bring death and destruction to her heart.
But it did, it was far more unsteady and dead than she thought it. Now her small cub is clinging to a cracked branch that's swinging in the wind. Soon it will crack and fall to the ground and she's not sure her baby can survive the fall.
The storm increases in pitch and she yowls and it still sounds like help, help, help through the wind and the rain. Her screaming only stops when she hears another sound in the storm, it's the whisper of wings and the steady thrum of a horse breaking through the forest.
Her eyes look desperate when she looks to the stallion and his dragon. Gone is the predator, the reaper of voles and mice. Tonight in the twilight and the raging wind she's only a mother. Desperation knows no difference between species. And oh she's desperate for anything to save her cub hanging on the dead branch.
All desperation wants to know is hope.
Rain starts to join the wind. It starts slow at first, a tinkling of water that makes each leaf still hanging on to life sound like a bell. Whenever the wind howls through the trees each plant turns belly-up towards the rain, like flowers blooming for the moon and the water instead of the sun. The copse feels fuller then, with the rain and the wind howling and increasing by minutes instead of hours.
But through all that rain, bell-tolling leaves and the wind howling like a wolves there is a cry. It started out slow and sad, but when the storm turns its heavy eyes towards they cry it rises in pitch. Soon it's shrill and fearful. Everything about that cry scream heartache and death. It's a cry that could curdle the bones.
And when the wind pauses and inhales a great, big breath the cry sounds a little like help chanted in a language that horses are not taught to speak.
- - - - - - -
Deep in the forest through the rain and the wind, where the leaves are so thick the rain has to fight to reach the dirt, there is a young mother bobcat circling a fragile, dead tree. Each of her steps has a frantic flavor to it. Underneath the darkness and the moonlight (that barely can reach this place) her dark, brown eyes are wild with fear and hopelessness. Her fur is matted and bloody and she looks as if she's come straight from some war where she might have lost.
She's pacing back and forth, back and forth and the ground already has a small trench in it from how long she's been pacing. She didn't mean to be gone for so long, she didn't think the cougar would have been quite so determined to have her or her child. The storm took her by surprise and when the tree below which is she pacing cracked like a thunderclap she came running back as quick as she could.
The tree was supposed to protect her child, not bring death and destruction to her heart.
But it did, it was far more unsteady and dead than she thought it. Now her small cub is clinging to a cracked branch that's swinging in the wind. Soon it will crack and fall to the ground and she's not sure her baby can survive the fall.
The storm increases in pitch and she yowls and it still sounds like help, help, help through the wind and the rain. Her screaming only stops when she hears another sound in the storm, it's the whisper of wings and the steady thrum of a horse breaking through the forest.
Her eyes look desperate when she looks to the stallion and his dragon. Gone is the predator, the reaper of voles and mice. Tonight in the twilight and the raging wind she's only a mother. Desperation knows no difference between species. And oh she's desperate for anything to save her cub hanging on the dead branch.
All desperation wants to know is hope.
@Kratos will find himself in the mountains as the night starts to arrive. With it comes a storm that quickly increases in violence, what started as a slow rain turns to a torrential downpour. Underneath the sound of the rain in the forest is a cry, that's haunting and sad. Following it will reveal a mother bobcat (on the small side appx 15 lbs) pacing wildly below a dead tree. On a branch of that dead tree a very young cub is crying softly. The branch he's hanging on is about to fall. But the wind is still increasing in speed and it's clear that if he's not rescued he will fall to his death.
Will Kratos help the mother bobcat and her baby? Or will he turn and walk back into the forest and let fate choose the outcome?
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The team quest was so refreshing to write
Enjoy! -nestle
Will Kratos help the mother bobcat and her baby? Or will he turn and walk back into the forest and let fate choose the outcome?
How to tag this account: @*'Random Events' without the asterisk!
Once you respond, you may post to claim the quest EXP
Enjoy! -nestle
Please be advised, tagging the Random Event account does not guarantee a response!
