>>>>I apologize if I have missed anyone here and if this
little bit of Baal's story seems strange and difficult to understand. I
have sadly let his story rest far too long and have forgotten many
important things. I am sorry for this as there are a great many deer I
wished to add here, but sadly I have failed in that. If you do remember
a pertinent point to Baal's story that you think I should add, by all
means tell me. I would like to place more of the amazing characters of
the forest into his tale.
>>>>Only mild violence
follows. This is a strange and convoluted dream sequence. Did not leave
much room for gratuitous gore and violence. XD
The
mist is growing...Drawing ever closer to my unwilling form. I have run
from it, hidden within the open hills of the land they call playground.
I have ducked beneath dark waters but still it haunts me. There seems
little I can do to stop it. I have begun to wonder if there is even a
point to my trying.
I am certainly a fool to think I can.
I
lay upon the icy earth, feeling the needles of grass blade their
malicious way into bruised flesh. My own fault. I have no right to feel
sorrows for my pains. I deserve every spearing burn, every stinging rip.
A
great sigh tears through me, drawing a soft whistle from the face that
is not mine. A face I grow weary of. A pity I do not have the means to
remove it. Let them all see what rests beneath still waters. I am no
longer afraid.
No. No longer. I can only crave them. Crave their
warmth, their...companionship. Need them in ways they will never need
me. Alone in my sorrows and pains.
So alone...
Curling
upon the hardened earth I can barely restrain the bitter cold of
loneliness cutting through me. Tearing me apart slowly, a vicious child
taking joy in my misery. This pain...so great that it is, plays only a
mere shadow to the agony of my own failure. A failure I can stand no
longer!
But what point is there in caring any longer? I will not
be trusted again, not by any of them. No matter how blind they are to
what lays within the dank reaches of my mind. I will never have my
chance again. I will be left to merely rot away. Murdered from within
by the darkly growing procession of it's need.
A shudder cuts
through me, drawing red from wounds long healed. I care not. I am far
too weary for all of this. I have been here to long. The dark things
are calling and it is my name dripping from their bloodstained lips.
The
world is silent, only the pale ghosts of cervine forms flit through the
trees. They are far from me and I am tired. So tired. I cast not even a
shadow of concern upon the mists creeping presence, slowly drawing me
from this place and into the dark world of dreams.
A thunder of hooves. I am awake, torn body aching but resting no longer. They are coming!
Hooves pounding, earth tearing, I run. Only moments whip past before a realization that something is very wrong cuts through me.
Why
am I running? There should be none chasing me now... I slow, hooves
thudding softly in the loamy earth. I do not understand. The mists are
darker, deeper. I am alone.
I am wrong.
Red eyed demons
ripping through. The mists flashing in ragged tatters about bladed
hooves. My heart thunders in time with those hooves and I am off!
I run. This is wrong...
I run faster. This is terribly wrong!
They
have caught me! From every corner, from every darkling shadow they come
and I know. I know them all. Their faces are a familiar pain to me. I
have played this game before.
One, the great stag that had
hunted me, tearing into me at every chance his violent minions all
about, he is one I shall not forget. One who turned on his own fellows
for the chance to win against a threat that never was.
And I am there...
I
stumble, bewildered at the shock of change. No longer am I running. No.
Now I stand tall, deadly comrades about me and we are on the hunt. This
is wrong, all wrong. But I can not stop my hooves as they lead me
forward, into darker mists than before. Into pale shapes and deadly
spears.
Another face I know. Another stag, one who holds a
darker place in my heart than any other. My rage is quick, molten hot.
I leap for him, surging through the panicked throng. I want only him
and he is there! Hooves flash, red splashes the earth and I am alone...
Again
my hooves betray me, casting me into quicksilver waters. I am again
within the company of the deadly stag and one other. A darker fellow
than even I would claim to be... I am confused, I know them both. They
have wreaked havoc and misery by my very side, but they are ones who
stand by me no longer. Why am I back here?
The great stag
stands. There is a doe. I know well what shall follow his betraying
steps. I know it even as my own hooves draw me forward and into
violence. We are three and she can not escape us. We kick at her, ram
her. Tear the very flesh from her bones. Our mercy has faltered, failed
her. I strike again upon her hide, quivering with the bitter agonies we
dealt her...and again I stand alone.
I do not falter now. I know
what has become of me. I roam deep within the dark corners of my own
mind and there is no beauty here.
None. Until I see her...
A
doe of light, of brilliance. How she pleads with me to stop this, to
step away. I do not understand until I see them, paler forms upon
misted earth. I know this too and I do not fight it. I do as the gentle
beauty pleads. I run.
Shame fills me. A doe? A DOE!? What has become of me that I let something of so little cause lead me from my wants...
And
again I find myself at the gentle mercies of a doe. A delicate beauty
of vast plumage. Again I am led away. Away from my intentions.
Only
to be dropped to the lowest of the groveling worms as I find myself,
battered and beaten within the mighty oak with only a doe to protect
me. The shame is great but I will not deny my need of her, not here in
this terrible place. Not within the inky confines of my own mind.
But
a doe... Why a doe? I longed greatly for the presence of the mighty
rotten beast of a stag who had stood nobly by my side not too long
before. Anything but these does! I am a monster yes, but even I have
pride.
A doe...
Perhaps it is not shame that is being brought upon me, but truth. Reason, a thing long gone from this cold twisted soul.
A doe...
It was a doe who brought me crumbling to my knees. A doe who cast me before enemies. A doe who began it all...
Perhaps it is a doe that shall save me?
A
thundering of hooves draws me leaping from the abyss. I no longer feel
the sting of my injuries. No. I have purpose again. Dark deeds shall
return to this place, and it is I who shall bring them.
>>>I
tend to never re-read these once I start writing so if points do not
make sense or seem out of place, my apologies. ><
