SnowFall

[PoliteEquation7 195]

SnowFall

 

. ₊⊹ ₊ ݁ ˗ˏˋ ✧ ˎˊ˗ ݁ ₊⊹ ₊ ݁.

“They don’t need you.”

In an instant he awoke, collapsed upon the snow covered forest floor. Adrian rolled onto his back, gasping for air as the nightmare faded back into memory, only for reality to take its place. There, in that crimson forest, the nightmare only continued. He tried to lift himself to his feet, but his body had grown weak, failing him completely. Having lost too much blood to stand, the Greyehound crawled. He dragged himself through the freezing wastes, desperate to put distance between himself and the place he had been broken. Far away from the woods. Far away from her.

As he neared the ridge overlooking the valley, the winter light finally met his eye. Adrian basked in it, praying the sun’s warmth would drive out the glacial chill slowly consuming him. But the light offered no comfort. It felt distant, hollow, and mocking. In that fleeting moment of distraction, his numb fingers lost their grip on the frost covered stone. He tumbled down the cliffside. A breathless gasp was torn from his throat as a jagged rock pierced his leg at the bottom, the dark ichor staining the snowfallen ground like a disease. The Greyehound screamed into the empty waste, pulling his ruined leg free from the stone. The ichor pooled further and further out from the wound as he quickly clutched it, trying to stifle the flow. But the world began to sway. Colors bled and faded from his vision. His fingertips felt like stone, unresponsive and heavy. Panic flared in his mind, he began to crawl again, driven by a primal terror. The scent of his blood would attract the beasts of the woods. Or worse, it would attract her.

But his strength waned. Consciousness ebbed, slipping away in jagged fragments, until his head finally fell heavy into the snow.

“It’s your fault.”

He awoke hours later amidst the heavy snowfall that sought to bury him, the Greye sinking further and further beneath its depths. The cold stabbed like a dagger, driving deeper beneath his flesh with every passing breath. He wondered if there was no point. He had prayed for death, believing he would find solace in the end, but there was nothing here. No peace, no release. Only the silent passing of time and the whipping of the wind. The gusts yelled within his ear, urging him to keep moving, but there was nowhere to go.

That was when he heard the faint echo of a whistle.

His solitary eye traced the horizon, searching the forest, but it was filled with nothing but those same endless, mocking crimson trees. Yet the whistling grew at the edge of the tree line, beckoning him forth. So once more, the Greyehound began to crawl, tracing a desperate blood soaked path behind himself in the snow. A track quickly covered by the unrelenting winds. After what felt like hours of agonizing torment, where his skin began to take on a deathly, blue hue, he finally discovered the source of the sound. It was no savior. No person, no beast, no divine entity offering salvation. It was merely the noise the wind made as it howled through the mouth of a cavern. Dragging himself inside, it became clear someone had once called the shelter home. There was scattered straw upon the ground, a pit covered with ancient ash, and a stack of rotted logs resting in the corner. With the final reserve of his wavering strength, Adrian managed to light a flame before collapsing beside the rising golden fire, allowing the heat to sear against his flesh.

Days passed, then weeks. His strength did not return. Instead, an all encompassing, ravenous hunger began to creep in, clouding all reason from his mind until only one thought remained: the paralyzing fear of her finding him like this. As the emptiness within him grew more insatiable and feral, he lost his control. He sunk his tooth into the tip of his own finger, holding it high above his open mouth to let the crimson droplets fall within. His hunger subsided for only a moment before a violent sickness overcame him. His body rejected it entirely. But the agonizing pain of starvation was too powerful to bear, and he lacked the strength to fight against it, so the cycle continued.

 

Outside, the wind grew stronger, and the snow fell like thunder. The true blizzard had arrived, and Adrian knew that once it passed, it would take him with it. He curled into a tight ball in the corner of the cave, hoping the dying fire and his fur cloak would drive back the frost a little longer. It wasn’t enough. He trembled violently as the numbness that had claimed his feet began to creep up his legs, stealing their mobility and freezing his arms.

“You won’t have me,” he whispered into the dark, his own words echoing within his mind.

“I stayed for them.”

. . . . .

“Is it him?”

 

. ₊⊹ ₊ ݁ ˗ˏˋ ✧ ˎˊ˗ ݁ ₊⊹ ₊ ݁.

 

 

Spoiler

A lil narrative post referencing recent rp. Don't metagame pls. Shoutout everyone involved in the storyline, its been really fun! Bless

 

[Ambitious 72]

Spoiler

Ambitious pondered.