Luvena
She didn't remember much about getting back from the creek to the hospital. She had stumbled through the swamp in a daze, picking up Picoro somewhere along the way, who followed behind her in the trees, not wanting to burden her further with his weight. Upon arriving at the hospital she hadn't even bothered to ascend the stairs to her usual resting place, instead of stumbling into the lower level and promptly collapsing onto her side. Picoro left her and came back moments later with sprigs of feverfew, which she chewed up without a word, before closing her eyes, in pain and exhausted.
She slept fitfully. Whenever her illness made it's presence so strongly known she was plagued by nightmares. At the beginning, it was always about her last day in Herstial, she had that one earlier, before meeting the lavender mare. This one was different.
Her eyes opened to bars in front of her. Not bars, roots, huge branching arms of wood, that stretched into the earth. Behind them, she could see tall trees stretching up beyond all belief. The shadow of an impossibly large deer leaped across the background. The eternal woods. She remembered this night. Where she had cowered beneath the roots as a storm raged on around her. She crawled out from under them, leaving bits of hair stuck to the rough bark. As she stood up fully the rain stopped.
She spun around as a shadow flickered at the corner of her vision. And again. it flashed in front of her, and she could feel wings beating against her face. Hot breath washed over her and she recoiled. Turning around once again she fled. In her dreams her legs carried her swiftly, though not swiftly enough. Flames burst up around her, searing off the ends of her tail as they chased her. As they died away she felt her head grow heavy, and heavier still. She looked down at a puddle, her reflection looming in front of her face. A crown grew from her head, sending trickles of blood down from behind her ears. Suddenly the flames were back, and this time with screams. Tears beginning to form in her eyes she fled once again, to wear the trees grew thinner, until they stopped altogether. She turned to look. Before her stood the woods, it's entirety up in flames. three shadows danced around the tops of the trees. The Wolf Queen, The Heretic, and The Traitor. The three people who had taken her life from her over and over again. She watched, powerless, and their shadows loomed larger, everything beneath them withering away.
It was then she saw them. Marching in a line one by one into the woods. Thanantos, the one who had first welcomed her to Elysium, who had then disappeared. Orchid, Oberon, Kodarki. Syrilth, the one who had given her refuge, who, though seemed hard and unbending, was far kinder and more giving than she ever imagined. Even the firstborns, Vega and Acrux marched in one by one, and with them, the stars left the sky. Her own constellation was the last to fade. Io Kairavi began to walk in.... but instead dropped to the ground and sunk into it, as if being swallowed by the earth. Her heart had always been to give, and one day it had killed her. It wasn't until the last three that the tears began to start streaming down her face. Cavalier and Eremurus walked in side by side. Her mate, her son... They had left her before she even had the chance to show them she was no longer ill... Not a single goodbye... not a word... They were there and then they weren't "Stop!" she cried, for once her voice loud and harsh. No longer soft and forgiving.
Her heart stopped as she saw the last of the line. A grey form, with charcoal splashes. His black and blonde hair loosen woven into braided buns. Liatris, the one she had birthed. Her son, her baby. He was her miracle, something she was never supposed to have, and she had lost him when she left Elysium. "No!" she screamed as he walked into the woods "Liatris! Don't!" she cried out over and over. Sobbing she dropped to her knees. How many times could she relive this nightmare? She was no longer in Elysium, she hadn't been for a long time. She was starting a new life, in a new time. Yet she didn't wake up, and was forced to watch, as the dream began to rewind around her, as if it was about to begin again, and make her watch, over and over.
@
Sorry, I wrote a novel!
Table © Camy
