KASSANDRA,
She begins to have nightmares of the desert, those long, unending days of torment and heat, of splitting lips and seared flesh and eyes blinded with whiteness so harsh and painful it seemed permanent. She remembers the painful touch of Oculos’ dark fur when he would brush against her, the overblack spots of his brindled, star-painted coat heated to almost boiling. He would dig them holes in the sand, down to the cool grit below, until his footpads bled; and then he would flop in his grave-sized hole and the sides of his body would heave with exertion and exhaustion.
It is not quite so bad under the trees; there are spots of shade and occasionally a breeze ruffles through the foliage, making a sound like flayed skin being sloughed from living flesh. Kassandra fights the dreams, fights them as they try and weasel their way into her brain; she squeezes her eyes tight shut and focuses on the here, and the now. Oculos sits worriedly beside her, watching the sun that behaves erratically, like ethereal beings in the sky are playing a ball game with the celestial orb that so strongly dictates their lives.
She does not know, exactly, when it happens, but eventually a restless energy, like a ghost in her own bones, filters its way through her flesh into her legs. She rises with labored breathing, form and hooves scuffling the detritus and litter beneath her mass, and slowly plods outwards from beneath the shadows into the sun, the sun, the sun that will not set.
Kassandra moves from the jungle to the beach, somehow, in her sleep-deprived, night-terror haunted stupor stumbling less than she does at full consciousness. She sinks to her ankles in the soft sand, lifting her head up to the gods-forsaken sky. She remembers a dream she had, once, of a world where Life and Death fought; Life won, and all things lived, and grew, until the world was swallowed, but there was no escape. She wondered if this was it, wondered if the dichotomy of sun and moon, day and night, light and dark, Life and Death, was finally thrown off it’s scales, the delicate balance, usually so unseen, unappreciated, knocked away forever with the same errant nonchalance as a child kicks a ball.
The sun beams down on her face, warming the dark spots on her pelt to an uncomfortable level. Her whole world was silence, the stillness of the ocean, the deadness of the air. Oculos paced and whined at her side, nipping her gently, imploring her to come back to the relative safety of the shadows. He was ignored.
For all her life Kassandra had felt some connection with the stars, however distant, however… muddled and confusing the true spectrum of their relationship. It was a damning, heavy darkness on her mind to realize now, with the sudden realization of perhaps never seeing them again, that she missed them.
kass doesn't do too hot on no sleep lmao
It is not quite so bad under the trees; there are spots of shade and occasionally a breeze ruffles through the foliage, making a sound like flayed skin being sloughed from living flesh. Kassandra fights the dreams, fights them as they try and weasel their way into her brain; she squeezes her eyes tight shut and focuses on the here, and the now. Oculos sits worriedly beside her, watching the sun that behaves erratically, like ethereal beings in the sky are playing a ball game with the celestial orb that so strongly dictates their lives.
She does not know, exactly, when it happens, but eventually a restless energy, like a ghost in her own bones, filters its way through her flesh into her legs. She rises with labored breathing, form and hooves scuffling the detritus and litter beneath her mass, and slowly plods outwards from beneath the shadows into the sun, the sun, the sun that will not set.
Kassandra moves from the jungle to the beach, somehow, in her sleep-deprived, night-terror haunted stupor stumbling less than she does at full consciousness. She sinks to her ankles in the soft sand, lifting her head up to the gods-forsaken sky. She remembers a dream she had, once, of a world where Life and Death fought; Life won, and all things lived, and grew, until the world was swallowed, but there was no escape. She wondered if this was it, wondered if the dichotomy of sun and moon, day and night, light and dark, Life and Death, was finally thrown off it’s scales, the delicate balance, usually so unseen, unappreciated, knocked away forever with the same errant nonchalance as a child kicks a ball.
The sun beams down on her face, warming the dark spots on her pelt to an uncomfortable level. Her whole world was silence, the stillness of the ocean, the deadness of the air. Oculos paced and whined at her side, nipping her gently, imploring her to come back to the relative safety of the shadows. He was ignored.
For all her life Kassandra had felt some connection with the stars, however distant, however… muddled and confusing the true spectrum of their relationship. It was a damning, heavy darkness on her mind to realize now, with the sudden realization of perhaps never seeing them again, that she missed them.
kass doesn't do too hot on no sleep lmao
THE NIGHT SO BLACK THAT THE DARKNESS HUMMED
STAFF EDIT***
@kassandra has rolled a 2! She has been awarded +125 signos.
