<blockquote>Instinct told her to curl up and die before whatever the water held could in any way hurt her, be it with claws or two Russian rifles, but she managed to fight the urge. Instead she staggered back, eyes ten times their original size behind tri-colored bangs. "Ah... Cipher, that thing out there seems creepy." She eyed Many once more, smiling softly. The adrenaline levels in her blood were dropping fast, and with it came her voice – albeit a weaker, shakier shadow of its former not-so-glorious glory. With both arms wrapped defensively around her labcoat, she cleared her throat to grace the daemon with a slightly more coherent response. "Many - do you have any idea what that thing is?"</blockquote>
“Don't trust him, Jude." Shriker's warning came out in a bit of a rush as she indicated Many with her crude ice dagger. Although Many had been with her for years, Kakos still didn't know whose side he was on. There were times when it seemed like he wanted to protect her... and then there were other times when he purposely led her into danger or tried to coax her into suicide. Many merely looked at Jude in response. His eyes not really saying much at all. If he knew what the water creature was, he certainly wasn't giving anyone any hints. Instead he took several slow steps toward the tentacle and frothing water. What was he playing at this time? Kakosenas held her ground, feeling a familiar knot in her stomach. She ought to just run away. Danger was danger. This was no exception. “Jude, we need to go. This isn't safe." She motioned to Jude who was still hunkered down and clutching herself.
Jude's fingers dug into her palms, curled into fists, leaving bloodied puncture wounds in her hands. Her blue eyes darted from Many to the water to Cipher and back again in a tortured cycle, and a low groan exited her tight-shut muzzle. "Cipher," she whimpered, rising shakily to her feet, her fists clenching and unclenching. "Where do we go? What do we do?" She looked off in Many's direction. "What... what is he?"
“Just... away from here," Kakosenas said plainly, her voice now filled with urgency. She didn't like where this was heading. She didn't know how to answer Jude's question either. What was Many? Shriker wasn't even sure herself. He'd simply appeared when she'd been exiled from her clan and unnamed. He was friendly sometimes... seething with hatred the next. Regardless, Shriker was saved from having to answer. Instead, Many projected his telepathic speech to the both of them. <span style="color:#EFB61D">[That teetering moment between life and death... that three second thrill... that lurch in your stomach as the once solid ground gives way beneath you. Power. Bloodlust. A gateway to so much, much more. A key to the place beyond the end of the path. A personal nightmare. Jude, it thinks you could learn to like us, yes. It does. We do. It would like to show you things.]</span> Like earlier, Many's voice seemed to burn inside of her head. Shriker visibly winced. If anything, Many was a parasite. Using her. It certainly didn't seem like a mutually beneficial relationship at all. “Don't trust him," Kakos repeated firmly. “He can hurt you. Even if he does look like some sort of weak, harmless mutant freak. He can make you... do things. See things." As she listened to her own words, Shriker blinked. Was the tentacle monster they were up against even real? Or was it just some sort of projection? Shriker stared hard at Many. She knew he could read her thoughts... yet he was choosing not to answer. Typical.
<blockquote>It had taken JudeÂ’s eyes a mere twenty seconds to evolve from groggily peering through her lashes at the water to staring, horror-struck, around the area as her ears clashed with CipherÂ’s words. Her breathing stopped, fingers instinctively curling into her palms as if she relied on the grip to keep from slipping into the ninth circle of hell. Reality was taking its precious time catching up, leaving Jude on the line between self-crafted hell and not-so-bad actuality. A bit like watching Purgatory through a glass window and knowing you have a 50% chance of falling through. Far too slowly, the ground beneath her gained some credibility as an actual existing object. Dread began to snake up her spine. The pessimist in her had already picked and highlighted the very worst option. "Many?" she whispered weakly, her eyes almost rolling back into her skull. "Go awayÂ…" </blockquote>
Shriker dropped the ice-dagger she'd made, figuring it now to be useless. Many was just being a prick. That's all there was to it. He must have gotten bored and was looking for some way to entertain himself. Kakos bit her tongue gently, trying to think. It was a little hard given her situation. Many made it so difficult for her to focus. Eventually she made up her mind. She was going to get out of here. With Jude. Even if she had to physically drag the other thill. She edged closer to Jude and caught the girl around the wrist with her taloned left hand. “C'mon Jude," she said as she tugged gently with some urgency in her voice. How alien it felt to touch another person. “We need to get away from here. Now."
<blockquote> Jude breathed a sigh of relief dizzily as Cipher grabbed her wrist, but watched as another week of potential life sprouted wings and sailed off into the distance. She made not to stop causing herself stress, realizing but refusing to admit that such a feat would involve zero contact with anything that moved unless it was safely behind a plasma screen. Hazily, she picked herself up and stumbled behind Cipher. "Where are we going?" she mumbled, her eyes skittering across the ground as they moved quickly. Thank Fromina for beautiful crazy-ass bitches. </blockquote>
The look that came into Shriker's eyes was one of exasperation. It wasn't very often that she herself was so mentally astute and on the ball. Perhaps she was clearer minded due to the fact that Many had momentarily left her side. He was always skewing her perception of reality. How odd it was to actually have her thoughts in order for once. Completely rational though? Nah. “Don't matter. Jus' s'long as it's aways from here, sirrah," she said to Jude who finally seemed to be realizing the danger that they were in. “Now come," Shriker waved her taloned hand in a come hither gesture. “Away from Many, away from that watery beast. Just quick, before it decides to..." Kakosenas' words trailed off into silence.
<blockquote>The shape of a shape dissasembled from the water right before her eyes as she ran. One long, puckered tentacle reached out to tear a tree into the water. This is what it feels like to really be afraid, she thought. Nothing could really approach the reality of that feeling there in the middle of all that bedlam, not even something like the sound of a heart or some other unholy blast. Desperate and dying, banging and slamming into the thin wall of her inner ear, attempting to shatter inside what had been shattered long ago. She picked up her pace and hurried along with strides that matched Cipher's. "Unnnnngh, Cipher, it's eating the tree," she whimpered, throwing back a glance at the water as they continued running away.</blockquote>
Shriker now wore a look of exasperation: her swamp yellow eyes narrowed, her jaw firmly clenched. She wasn't even sure why she was even bothering with Jude. At least now the other female was complying. Even as the creature behind them was making a ruckus and devouring trees, Jude was following close. However, if the other female were to become frozen by fear again... Shriker would leave her. Leave her and... what? No. Shriker had seen the way that Many had looked at Jude. He'd been extremely interested in the other thill. It'd be best to keep her as far as possible from Many and that horrible monster. “Don't worry about the tree," Shriker replied, her tone soothing and musical. “A tree's life is minute compared to what life we have. The creature though – worry about that. Keep your legs moving. Don't let them stiffen, sirrah. If you fall you may not get back up."
<blockquote>She was filled with a foreign uncertanity like opening her eyes in the dark and closing them and being blinded by the sparkling silver dots on the inside of her eyelids. She didn't know where they came from - perhaps they were created from pressure on her cornea, or maybe they were stored in the sockets or held in the iris or clung to the tips of the nerves and veins. Jude ran. She didn't know where she was running to, but she knew that the thill she knew only as Cipher would tell her when they got there. Oh, gods, that poor tree. "I'm... running as fast as I can," she said. Her blue eyes darted around the surrounding scenery as they ran: trees, dead tree, dead bird, grass, dirt, and OH HOLY FUCK THERE'S A GIANT MONSTER BEHIND US.</blockquote>
ooc -hits the fast-forward button- :P Hope it's okay. Let me know if it isn't. ic After what could only be called making a grand escape, Shriker was feeling quite exhausted. They'd left the monster and Many to eat their dust, although there had been more than a half dozen frightening and questionable moments. Thankfully neither of them had tripped and fallen to their doom as was typical of the usual cliché horror flicks. They had run until they had reached the nearest settlement. A small sub-division of the Terhesian Port, known through the local vernacular as “Little T." A few of the locals had given them questioning glances when they had burst upon the humble town, but no one spoke a word and simply left the strangers to their own devices. Now that Shriker had come to a stop, she was neatly doubled over. Her breath was coming in shaky gasps and she could feel a jagged pain in her stomach from running too much. At least – she spared a glance over her shoulder – they had left the thing behind. There would be no way it could get them in the town. That was a monster rule. Some sort of unwritten monster code. Many, on the other hand, seemed to be above that code. He went wherever he pleased. “Jude?" she asked hesitantly. “You gonna recover alright?"
