KASSANDRA,
Kassandra remembered reading somewhere, perhaps in a book brought to her by one of the slaves minding her ivory tower back in Furae, the idea of modern researchers believing all forests to be one single organism, woven together at the roots, coming together in one giant heart of life deep, deep beneath the green canopies so thick above her head. The concept of something being so large aboveground and growing equally as massive below the earth made her head spin. It was a simplistic meter of measurement, to be sure— take a distance along the ground and simply flip it up— but something about it made her dizzy when she tried to picture it.
It was a small blessing, she figured, the jungle was filled with beauty; there was still something dreadful about it, like blackness at the edge of her vision, a hot closeness which pressed harder and harder against her sides, but looking at the greenery and the thick trunks wrapped in climbing, flowering vines and the blooms in all colors of the spectrum offered her a distraction, if a momentary one. Even the nasty rot-flowers Oculos had rolled himself in were beautiful to look at, from a very, very, very great distance (one as long as the jungle was tall, perhaps).
(‘Kass,’) her Bonded companion, Oculos, called from a bit further up the path while she herself was busy taking in the minute details of a flourishing plant of multi-colored flowers with zebra-like stripes. Kass snorted the kaleidoscopic pollen off the edge of her nose, now gently stained with red, yellow, green, and purple, and stepped off to find the canine. He was perched, front paws up, on a ridge created where a gnarled root appeared to be bursting free of its earthly confines. His ears were up (one standing at full attention, the other, which never seemed to reach the height of its twin, flopped over at the halfway point) and he was looking down his long nose at something in the dirt.
Kass came round the edge of the root-ridge, where the whitened, twisted end of the thing had been forced to stop by the unyielding power of the ground, to see what was so interesting. “Ah!” she nickered, as there, before them, were a clear set of hoofprints. It was both comforting and concerning. “There are so many others here,” Kass thought aloud, swinging her body around to stand parallel with the track. “Like— like flies to a sweet smell.” She shuddered, and the stars painted on her pelt shivered in place, like a cold snap on a frozen winter’s night.
(‘You alright?’) Oculos questioned, sniffing at her cheek with mild concern. If she was to have one of her terrible visions, fall over and become catatonic (or worse, scream and flail) right here, he didn’t know what they would do. He, too, was unnerved by the forest for reasons he could little describe more than his equine companion.
“I— yes, I think so,” Kass soothed, swishing her tail. “I’ve not felt the dreams for some time now. Maybe they’re gone for good.”
(‘Maybe,’) Oculos agreed, but he was not convinced.
“In any case,” Kass was itching to change the subject, “let’s see where these lead.” She tossed her head, gesturing for him to take point on their quarry’s trail, which he did without question, his long, lithe body trotting along through the path, tongue lolling. Kassandra brought up the rear.
The path went in a slightly moon-shaped arc, indicating the subject was traveling in a circle. After a bit of walking, Kass began to get worried.
(‘If we don’t run into them soon,’) Oculos said, voicing her concerns, (‘we should turn back and head the other way. Else we might be walking around each other all damn day.’)
“Oh, Oculos— look out—,”
So caught up in his complaints, Oculos did not see the horrific, gnarled tree before him, and as he turned his head to see what Kass was staring at, he crashed into its terrible trunk with a solid thunk and an (‘Oof,’).
Kassandra sized the horrendous thing up, and all at once began to tremble and shake. There were mangled skulls staring at her, with hollowed, rotting teeth, and all at once the air was the smell from a breathing tomb. There was a terrible grinding, stone on immovable stone, and she had the vision of time— she did not know how she knew it was time, but it was— grinding to a halt, and the ground beneath her was pushed up by some unseen force and in its throw were the remains of mangled bodies, corpses, legs and heads and dangling, rotting organs, all tossed into the air with the smell of hot, damp earth.
These sights were not seen to anyone else, of course, because Kassandra was trapped in one of her gods-cursed visions, and was standing stock still and eyes-wide. Oculos was nervously calling her name, a whimper-yelp as he snapped at the air around her, trying to draw her back to herself, but from past experience he knew there was little he could do save wait for the vision to play out. At least she was still standing--
Thump. She pitched to her side without warning, mouth frothing, legs flailing, and Oculos had to dodge and weave to avoid being struck by her flashing hooves. He launched himself over the mare and whirled round, catching sight of another horse on the opposite side of the terrible tree; he paid them no mind, and instead continued to whine and lick at Kassandra’s face and mane as the vision passed through her.
“Bones,” she rasped, in an unearthly voice not her own, "bones and time is a crushing gear with gnashing teeth and all we are, are bones in its path, and in its way, and soon we are dust, we are dust, we are dust…”
(‘It’s okay, Kass,’) Oculos whimpered, laying his long, slender head atop her crown as she repeated this last bit, the rasping, terrifying stranger’s voice began to fade to Kass’ own, gentle whisper, and her movements became stiff and staggering, and soon she became still save from the heaving of her sides. (‘It’ll be okay, it’s just a vision, it’ll be over soon.’)
kassandra oculos | 1,049 | @Locust | Hope you don't mind me throwing down here!!
kass is having one of her visionsthat i still need to set up a quest for, rip so at the moment they're rather useless and just kind of like, uhh, night terrors but EVENTUALLY they'll be prophetic in novus land... hopefully.
It was a small blessing, she figured, the jungle was filled with beauty; there was still something dreadful about it, like blackness at the edge of her vision, a hot closeness which pressed harder and harder against her sides, but looking at the greenery and the thick trunks wrapped in climbing, flowering vines and the blooms in all colors of the spectrum offered her a distraction, if a momentary one. Even the nasty rot-flowers Oculos had rolled himself in were beautiful to look at, from a very, very, very great distance (one as long as the jungle was tall, perhaps).
(‘Kass,’) her Bonded companion, Oculos, called from a bit further up the path while she herself was busy taking in the minute details of a flourishing plant of multi-colored flowers with zebra-like stripes. Kass snorted the kaleidoscopic pollen off the edge of her nose, now gently stained with red, yellow, green, and purple, and stepped off to find the canine. He was perched, front paws up, on a ridge created where a gnarled root appeared to be bursting free of its earthly confines. His ears were up (one standing at full attention, the other, which never seemed to reach the height of its twin, flopped over at the halfway point) and he was looking down his long nose at something in the dirt.
Kass came round the edge of the root-ridge, where the whitened, twisted end of the thing had been forced to stop by the unyielding power of the ground, to see what was so interesting. “Ah!” she nickered, as there, before them, were a clear set of hoofprints. It was both comforting and concerning. “There are so many others here,” Kass thought aloud, swinging her body around to stand parallel with the track. “Like— like flies to a sweet smell.” She shuddered, and the stars painted on her pelt shivered in place, like a cold snap on a frozen winter’s night.
(‘You alright?’) Oculos questioned, sniffing at her cheek with mild concern. If she was to have one of her terrible visions, fall over and become catatonic (or worse, scream and flail) right here, he didn’t know what they would do. He, too, was unnerved by the forest for reasons he could little describe more than his equine companion.
“I— yes, I think so,” Kass soothed, swishing her tail. “I’ve not felt the dreams for some time now. Maybe they’re gone for good.”
(‘Maybe,’) Oculos agreed, but he was not convinced.
“In any case,” Kass was itching to change the subject, “let’s see where these lead.” She tossed her head, gesturing for him to take point on their quarry’s trail, which he did without question, his long, lithe body trotting along through the path, tongue lolling. Kassandra brought up the rear.
The path went in a slightly moon-shaped arc, indicating the subject was traveling in a circle. After a bit of walking, Kass began to get worried.
(‘If we don’t run into them soon,’) Oculos said, voicing her concerns, (‘we should turn back and head the other way. Else we might be walking around each other all damn day.’)
“Oh, Oculos— look out—,”
So caught up in his complaints, Oculos did not see the horrific, gnarled tree before him, and as he turned his head to see what Kass was staring at, he crashed into its terrible trunk with a solid thunk and an (‘Oof,’).
Kassandra sized the horrendous thing up, and all at once began to tremble and shake. There were mangled skulls staring at her, with hollowed, rotting teeth, and all at once the air was the smell from a breathing tomb. There was a terrible grinding, stone on immovable stone, and she had the vision of time— she did not know how she knew it was time, but it was— grinding to a halt, and the ground beneath her was pushed up by some unseen force and in its throw were the remains of mangled bodies, corpses, legs and heads and dangling, rotting organs, all tossed into the air with the smell of hot, damp earth.
These sights were not seen to anyone else, of course, because Kassandra was trapped in one of her gods-cursed visions, and was standing stock still and eyes-wide. Oculos was nervously calling her name, a whimper-yelp as he snapped at the air around her, trying to draw her back to herself, but from past experience he knew there was little he could do save wait for the vision to play out. At least she was still standing--
Thump. She pitched to her side without warning, mouth frothing, legs flailing, and Oculos had to dodge and weave to avoid being struck by her flashing hooves. He launched himself over the mare and whirled round, catching sight of another horse on the opposite side of the terrible tree; he paid them no mind, and instead continued to whine and lick at Kassandra’s face and mane as the vision passed through her.
“Bones,” she rasped, in an unearthly voice not her own, "bones and time is a crushing gear with gnashing teeth and all we are, are bones in its path, and in its way, and soon we are dust, we are dust, we are dust…”
(‘It’s okay, Kass,’) Oculos whimpered, laying his long, slender head atop her crown as she repeated this last bit, the rasping, terrifying stranger’s voice began to fade to Kass’ own, gentle whisper, and her movements became stiff and staggering, and soon she became still save from the heaving of her sides. (‘It’ll be okay, it’s just a vision, it’ll be over soon.’)
kassandra oculos | 1,049 | @Locust | Hope you don't mind me throwing down here!!
kass is having one of her visions
I DON'T WANT A GARDEN OF EDEN, I JUST WANT TO BRING YOU TO LIFE
