[P] Eulogy

[Emersyn]

Tell Us How You Aren't Afraid to Die

Viride forest, like most forests, holds its audience captive by the usual beauty of it all.  Jungle greens, marsh yellows, earthy reds, browns, and greens, these are the colors of most flora and fauna.  Exotic in its own way that no plain field, or even a mountain range can boast.  Emersyn has never seen a forest outside of winter's grasp.  Oldwood, the forest of her childhood, never recovered after the terrible winter storm that happened during the season she had been born..  She thinks to herself now about how mysterious something so revealing can be afterall.

Standing in the heart of the Viride forest takes her back four years, a young girl at twelve months old seeing Oldwood for the first time since she had been born.  The trees looked quite similar to the rusks and barks of these which stand before her now, but now they teem with life, not death.  Emersyn remembers that the ground was soft and moist beneath her tender feet, but only because it was fresh snow. Nicolai ordered one of his cruel endurance trainings for the girl in the dead of winter. 

'This is a hunting exercise, Emersyn.   You will not hunt the wolves.' 

These woods echo with the sounds of singing birds and rushing fresh water, but her memory seems keen on recalling her father's second-in-command briefing the young soldier on the layout of the land that she was to be left alone in overnight.  Nicolai gave her five minutes to ask questions before they would leave her alone. Nicolai strapped the knife to her with a thick fur to use for the seventy-two hours that she would need it. 

The wolves will be hunting you.  Your job is to survive them, soldier.  

Instantly, hair bristles at the very base of her neck.  Emersyn realizes now that she has been standing in the clearing of the forest for too long.  Birds have come back to their shrubs after realizing that the gray horse in the wood will cause them no harm nor trouble.  The soldier, remembering that day as if it were here, now, centers herself quietly, calmly. 

Emersyn moves carefully, every measure still calculative and predetermined of its outcome.  Her breath is shallow, ears tuned to the environment rather than the tick-tick-ticking of her steady heart. Shapes move overhead, shadows slink through wood stalks and brush, and as always, the steady avian orchestra plays on.

Although the woman knows that Oldwood is not trying to kill her with its savage hounds (nor Viride with its birdsong), she still cannot help but feel as though one of them is following her here, now.


@Mateo  Woo, please have fun with this.  I think they can discover something in the forest together?  
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