[Iaera]

Ever since Akira had made the announcement about the wall and Serrate had made the decree about children not going past it, Iaera had been in her head about it.  She'd explored it previously, but she had left one thing untouched, unquestioned despite her clear disgust of it. The skulls, the skulls of the Kingslayers, the skulls the child stuck flowers in. Her violet eyes had taken it in and spoke praises to the King's work but in the back of her head she was concerned. Gemini didn't seem like a violent place, certainly not a place that would just casually hang two random skulls at the entrance to their sanctuary.  They had a meaning, Iaera knew it but she was afraid to ask what it was. What if Gemini was not the place she thought it was? What if her home was much darker than she thought? What if that was a threat? She knew not everyone was friendly to people on the borders or people accidentally trespassing. They were ornate, yes, but they were still the remains of two wolves; hopefully the skull had been removed from the body after death. They haunted her sleep, her dreams raced to them. She could feel herself practically flying to them, the flowers burning away. They practically screamed at her, they practically called to her. She wheezed herself awake everytime she had that nightmare, choking on her fear, fur bristling. It ate at her often lately and she wasn't sure why, perhaps someone on the other side was pulling strings to lead her there? Iaera certainly wouldn't believe it, she wasn't the sort of allow herself too much fantasy; didn't mean it wasn't true. Tonight was another night she'd wake short of breath and feeling wild. The Ranger sighed, stretching out in her den, eyes looking through the willow branches at the stars up in the sky. The soft scent of flowers danced in on an night breeze and Iaera rolled onto her feet. She didn't particularly want to, but it was beginning to be clear that she needed to figure those skulls out to get a good night's rest. She already had sleeping trouble as is and these nightmares weren't helping at all. So she pushed out of her den and began the trek to the great wall, the moon hung up above lighting her way. Half asleep for some long time as she moved until she finally came to the wall's entrance. The choke point. The moonlight dancing across the intricate carvings on Cancer and Lilith's skulls sent a chill down her spine. If she had been tired, she certainly wasn't now as the chill brought shudders. It was cold, the wind was brisk and she sat, violet eyes staring up at the pair. Why?

✬ IAERA ✬ |✬| gemini |✬| the nymph whisper & ranger "Get over your hill and see what you find there, with grace in your heart and flowers in your hair." -Mumford and Sons Profile lines © lilyote on dA

[Francisca]

franky

i have seen what the darkness does

actions - “speech”

Nightmares were not something particularly new to Franky. Even as a puppy, they'd stolen many of her nights away. Maybe it was fitting that her life had given her plenty of things to replace the vague monsters in her dreams with something real. Sometimes it was her uncle's red eyes, sometimes it was her mother's hulking frame standing over her, sometimes it was the smell of blood on the border. But it was always the jungle. Always.

Tonight the nightmares had pulled her from her sleep and out of her den. Her cure for these things was to go on a patrol, because that was kind of her solution to everything. Still, her den was not far from the new Wall, so it wasn't that hard to just get up and go. The chill of the night air calmed her, and the rhythmic pounding of her feet on the ground relaxed her. Moreover, the wide open sky reminded her she wasn't in the jungle anymore.

As she approached the skulls, she noticed a figure. Her pace slowed for a moment until she realized she recognized the other figure as the Ranger she kept seeing. For a moment Franky hesitated, gripped by the same fear of interaction that lead her to self-isolation. So instead she slowly and carefully approached the other figure. Then she noticed Iaera was staring at the skulls.

"Where I came from, they put skulls along the borders to warn anyone who approached that their life was forfeit," She said quietly as she fell in beside Iaera to look up at the skulls. In truth, she barely remembered what those two had looked like. She only remembered Tauro, bleeding. "Here, we put them near the heartland. It warns anyone who makes it this far that we won't let anyone hurt us. But-" And here she turned her head to look at Iaera slightly, "It's still kind of grim, isn't it?"

There was a beat, and then Franky flicked her ears back in embarrassment. "Sorry. I'm rambling." She tried to give Iaera a little bit of a smile, under the hopes that would be less creepy and weird. "Trouble sleeping?"

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