* 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ" i am not! " she exclaims. " look. tracks. not that you would know, brother. perhaps if you did less talking and more observing, you'd learn a thing or two. " with an air of smugness, vex carefully trots on ahead, bow in hand. " it went this way. quickly, vax! " if they were successful in tracking her prey, they'd be set with at least a week's worth of food — maybe they could even barter with the leftovers. filled with a renewed vigor, vex'ahlia grins as she disappears into the dark of the woods.

ease away my grateful skin, and i will rejoice at skin reshaped in silt, and my fragments will swim in the currents of the abyss. fill my eyes and mouth with thick and choking mud, and i will exult in the death of sight, sensation, and noise. bear me away into black depths, and i will forget my pain and the name i once wore.

❝ tisa, ❞ she offers in turn. if she'd had a name before, this will have to suffice ; someone had crowned her in yew once ⸻ red and green against the white of her hair. berries staining her hands red. like everything else, it slips through her fingers, but there is no use in dwelling. ❝ so you weren't on the ship. that's really good, honestly. i mean, they put worms in our heads. i was with two other women, and this brain thing when ... well. ❞ she winces, rubbing at her ribs, bruises that should be there and aren't. ❝ you're not a healer, are you ?? ❞

he'd only encountered one mindflayer before, back in kraghammer. what limited knowledge he had, had shown him that they are cunning, manipulative creatures, with a hivemind. vax brings out one of his daggers, inspecting it, gliding his thumb along its sharp edge — only to flip it up into the air. he catches it with ease, " aaaand if i know one thing about mindflayers, and tadpoles, is that you don't have a lot of time before ... you know. we should start our search first thing in the morning. "

Dalen’s Closet