In Dire Straits - Samsara: The Rebirth [PRP: Nhu, Tibet]

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INDRA

Indra felt restless and exhausted at the same time.

It felt as though electricity crackled and burned beneath her skin, building up energy until it seemed like all she had to do was open her mouth and scream to feel any sort of relief. Over the last two days a headache had gradually morphed into a splitting migraine, and Indra really wasn't certain whether it was due to: 1. The pressure in the atmosphere as a storm brewed on the horizon; or, 2. The annoyingly endless chattering of gossip amongst the pack (and priests, particularly) about the newly descended Rosa Chinensis; or even, 3. The sudden disappearance of Rosa Gigantea, the order in which she served.

Mostly she just wanted to curl up and tell everyone else to Kindly fuck off, thank you very much. But that might be a bit counterproductive to her priestly duty of guiding the masses... so off to work she went.

Indra's nose had barely breached the entrance to her den when the first few drops of rain fell. Resigning herself to being soaking wet and cold in addition to having a pounding migraine and a weird case of anxiety, Indra's ears lay flat against her head and she grudgingly stepped outside. The rainy season in the desert wasn't so much of a "rainy season" as it was periods of clear skies that gave way to sudden downpours that were as short as they were intense. The rain increased steadily as she walked, and by the time she was passing the Pitts it was coming down so hard Indra could barely see 20 feet in front of her. The sound of the rain drowned out anything else, and the rumble of thunder sounded like echoes of a thousand screaming voices coming closer and closer.

Indra shook her head, trying to find any sort of relief as her head buzzed and her temple throbbed as the pain of her migraine increased.

This is how I'm going to die, she thought miserably, stumbling in the slick mud. She stood at the edge of the largest fighting pit, white eyes half lidded as she blearily looked across the expanse of what was essentially a hole with raised sides. A figure caught her attention, but in the rain she couldn't make out a damn thing. Was it a rock? Was it someone else idiotic enough to be out in this downpour?

"HELLO?" she shouted, but the sound of her voice was drowned out by the pounding of the rain and the rumble of thunder.

The sky lit up WHITE as lightning struck one of the few trees within eyesight, and Indra screamed as the sudden bright light seared into her eyes. It felt like being stabbed in the brain through her eyes, and Indra choked down a sob as the pain seemed to lance down her spine.

Maybeeeee she should have stayed in her den this morning.

Breathing in for a moment to gather herself, Indra ground her teeth as she turned away from the pits, looking for any sort of shelter to get out of this madness. The rain was already lessening, but she mused to herself that she didn't really want to get stru-

Everything went dark.

OOC: For Maybe also and too, if y'all want to join?

The priest, the martyr, the dragon boy didn't scream when it happened. His horror was not voiced, but stayed inside his chest like an omen so terrible it must not be witnessed

It had been difficult at first to apply his faith to these incidental expressions of nature. He could not conceive of rain being anything beyond rain, or fire beyond fire, all of it merely another striking feature of this wild and wonderful world, a world that often seemed not to make a great deal of sense. To know now that everything happened at the whim of the Rosa (or its antithesis) was comforting, and his brainwashed acceptance of this even more so. Tibet had been born in anarchy. Now there was a purpose in all that he did.

He didn't care for storms. His eyes adjusted well enough, but the constant noise and movement sometimes gave him a headache, like someone overstimulated. But he'd been surprised by it as well, trapped far from his usual den, peering out into the deluge from beneath the shelter of an outcropping of rock. His long body flexed, lizard-like, and he struggled several times to work his tail into the cramped lean-to with the rest of him, but finally gave up and let it be rained upon. He could see his breath, a humid fog, when he breathed evenly out.

Hello? a voice had called rather furiously, and when Tibet looked up to deduce where it had come from, there was a bolt of light, painfully radiant, that stunned him badly and stunned Indra... much worse.

To leave the body of a revered sister to be battered by the storm for hours would be sinful; this was his reasoning for braving it, body held low to the ground as he slunk and seized her and rushed back to safety with her neck in his mouth. Poor girl, he lamented somewhere quiet and soft in his mind. He would pray for her soul before she was buried --

There. On his tongue, a thready pulse. The high priest blinked in surprise. Set her down, oh so gently, and nudged her into his lean-to.

"You've been stricken by a terrible foe..."

He was whispering to her, his needle-sharp teeth close to her face as he spoke, sounding awed.

"But she could not kill you."

Tibet bowed his head and begin to murmur a hymn.

A sudden rush of bliss caught the war chief off guard. She turned to her seour and smiled, the rain started to steadily fall. It was a sign of rebirth, and rejuvenation, especially to witness now after the war, after that blasphemous ragnarok farce. The holy trinity had been broken and pieces had fallen away with rosa leaving their posts. As spirits die, others are reborn. And there were whispers of a child, watched over by the priests, who one day she may rise and become the White Rose. The Yellow Rose had asked her Seour to accompany her tonight to muse over these findings, but found herself getting lost in the rain.

She frolicked in the rain, kicking her feet up high as she could, bounding through the puddles. Somewhat too far away to hear Indra screaming in the dark, but head snapped upward at the flash of white across the skies, aggressive whitening for the harshest of moments. Suddenly, a c r a c k and the lightning struck the earth… Nhu let her eyes fall to the site of destruction and gasped, seeing the blurred image of two wolves.

The Yellow Rose winced, recoiling back with raised paw. "Oou, that's gonna leave a mark, eh… Achilles?" assuming he had just witnessed everything she had.

She narrowed her eyes, squinting through the onslaught of rain. She turned to Achilles, and he was already raring to go, despite the downpour. She cocked her head to the side and took off at a run, feeling the rain slick against her drenched fur. There was a smell in the air, burnt electricity, smoke and soot, and wet dog.

The Yellow Rose and seour see the high priest pulling Indra's body aside, praying over her form. Nhu suspects the worst, but holds her breath and staggers over to the priest to examine the unconscious girl. "Is she…?" the yellow rose leans over Indra and presses her head to her neck to feel her pulse, it's there. "…she's alive," Nhu exhaled her held breath, and then smiled. The priest was going off with the hymns, but the Yellow Rose would not interrupt him.

"This girl has been blessed^*, let us we rejoice. We have found our new White Rose. She shall be the divine, and a driving force for the fractured white faction," Nhu said this aloud, a proclamation to be taken into account and be marked as history.

She looked down at the high priest, her face tensed as he continued his prayers. "I hope that the red rose comes soon, might be that she can heal the white rose, or at least aid her in this moment," she said to Achilles.

^*#blessed.

_{ft. void's coding.}

Seldom did she ask him to accompany her for reasons as simple as to mend their bond but having been away at war, her spirit tested and put at risk. It was important, she needed this as much as he did. They were a duo like no other, not lovers of course but he loved her all the same. They were True Bonded, blood shared, like minded. When she called, he answered without question, and so they were out in the rain. The downpour brought a smile to the golden wolf's face, a smile that had been rare as of late, after his son had returned to break the news he hoped he'd never have to hear in his lifetime.

This rain was a healing rain, his Goddess was happy, his life would get better.

Her joy was intoxicating, even rarer than her asking for his time was her playfulness. He couldn't help but grin while he trotted a little bit behind her, enjoying the jovial play of Divinity.

At least until the lightning struck sacred ground. He blinked, blue eyes glinting in the darkness as they focused on the point of impact. "A mark indeed," He agreed, humming thoughtfully. His eyes locking on the distant forms in the distance, "I feel no malice in the air though, the rain is too strong, the omen is good." The Red Dragon didn't plague them tonight, they were safe and the Valley was clean.

As soon as she looked his way, he'd nod and they'd be off, he was always ready if she was.

Upon arrival, Nhu went to the unconscious Citizen first, clearly concerned for one of her people. Achilles took up a spot not too far from Tibet, offering a slight incline of his head to the Hellion in greeting. Nhu declares the wolf to be still among them and Achilles smiles faintly, it truly is a good omen, and so he whispers a short prayer of his own before glancing at Tibet, "Good work High Priest, she is lucky you happened upon her to bring her to shelter." Maybe it was luck? Maybe it was divine providence. Achilles wasn't certain but he felt an electricity in the air and it wasn't from the lightning earlier.

Then Foetida dropped the bombshell. Achilles' eyes widened as he stared first at his Goddess then down to the unconscious wolf, slumbering Goddess before him. "Gigantea," he breathed out quietly, barely over the patter of the rain beyond their shelter. She wasn't a child, she wasn't even some blood relative of the former Gigantea. He'd never met this Citizen before and yet he felt worlds better with Foetida's declaration than when he'd learned some brat raised with entitlement was to be Divine. He nodded slowly, accepting this truth far more readily than before.

"She is Gigantea, you are Foetida, the Valley has rain, Chinensis will surely come."

It truly was a good omen...

Sphinx entered his mind's eye, her beautiful face. If Sphinx felt the spirit, His spirit in this wolf then he would know beyond a shadow of any possible doubt.

"Gigantea has finally returned."

And his beloved could finally begin to heal.

INDRA

She awoke to the familiar murmuring sound of the Head Priest who had raised her in prayer.

As she opened her eyes, her mind felt fuzzy, like she'd completely overslept and her brain hadn't had the chance to turn on yet. Indra slowly registered that she was soaking wet, half sheltered beneath a stone outcropping as a steady rain came down. Indra furrowed her brows as she thought. What was the last thing she remembered?

Had she really just been struck by lightning of all things?

"This girl has been blessed."

What?

Indra's eyes snapped over to a wolf she couldn't remember meeting, but one glance at her and Indra knew who she was. White fur flecked with black ticking, and vivid green eyes... Indra only knew one wolf in Oukoku Kai with that description.

What is Rosa Foetida doing here?

"Let us we rejoice. We have found our new White Rose. She shall be the divine, and a driving force for the fractured white faction."

.........

WHAT??

"I hope that the red rose comes soon, might be that she can heal the white rose, or at least aid her in this moment," the yellow rose said to the darker wolf at her side. He was black and gold, with blue eyes only for the rosa next to whom he stood.

"She is Gigantea, you are Foetida, the Valley has rain, Chinensis will surely come," said the wolf who must be Foetida's seour. "Gigantea has finally returned."

Indra remained frozen for a moment as the reality of their words sunk into her brain. They think... I'm Rosa Gigantea? She gave a groan as she raised her head, temples throbbing as the world spun for a moment. Grinding her teeth, she stood to her feet, swaying for a moment before the small timber girl steadied herself.

White eyes tracked over each of the wolves gathered around her- first the serpentine form of Tibet, the broadly built seour who looked as though he could lift a boulder in his sleep, and finally rested on the imposing form- and let's be honest, Indra knew exactly why Nhu had a following of worshipers- of Rosa Foetida.

Pale white eyes sought acidic green as she asked curiously, "Am I really?"

Skip Tibet for now! He finishes his prayer, bows to Nhu/Ach, and awaits their judgment or command from here.