[Zehava]

It was news delivered with an upbeat voice, expecting that it would be a miracle amidst her personal tragedy, rather than deepening it further. From there, things moved at a pace so swift it felt the small hellion hardly had a moment to feel, to truly anticipate her situation in full. It wasn't real to her, until it was. They arrived on a cold early morning, with the help of a healer who Zehava wasn't sure she even knew, but she would take any guidance in that moment, at such a loss, unprepared to welcome the tiny creatures into her life. They didn't derserve this. She didn't deserve this.

They were here, nonetheless. In short time, she was alone again, alone with the small bodies, squirming and crying. She felt nothing, not even fear as she looked at them, seeing the hints of that very distinct hue that made her stomach turn. There was only one whose soft little body was colored in faint gold. She'd drawn it near, uncertain when its cries sounded far more troubling than the others'. Zehava held the child between her paws as it struggled to draw breath. It was only when the poor soul lost its fight that she began to feel. Tears streamed down her face, cold stinging her eyes until exhaustion took her, drifting into a restless sleep.

Most of her days to follow were similar, watching the surviving children growing slowly, feeling them press close to her for warmth, and her unable to deny them, though at times she certainly wanted to. She felt trapped in that den with them, knowing yet that she had to stay, and at times, she wanted to, maybe just because it was right. Maybe she just hadn't the energy to go, still healing and just too emotionally broken down to make such a choice.

Beyond the check-ins of a kind acolyte, one of whom had taken from her the small body that had so reflected her own, it was just her and the children. In time they became more than just ambiguous wiggling babies, quickly become their own selves, developing personalities of their own. She spoke so little to them, it was likely they would be more influenced by visitors, the family that their father had left behind. Surely they felt more of a responsibility to them, to see to it that they survived. Someone who knew what it meant to nurture and to love them.

It was only upon the suggestion of another in Gemini that Zehava would finally venture out with them, somehow who knew better. Were it up to her perhaps they all would have stayed in that hole in the ground, herself included, until they faded away. The thought made her stomach turn with guilt, the mother pressing out into the open day, quietly welcoming her children into the world of melting snow. They were born to an awful season, she thought, an awful everything.

Zehava would just watch them, unsure of how to introduce them to their world beyond letting them discover it themselves. It would be better that way.

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welcoming fallow, cryptid, alu, bhradain, zen and (maybe?)luzio into the awful world!
thread is open to anyone, zeke's family, acolytes, shepherds, etc!

[Corrosion]

The news had come to him through whispers on the wind, and it had made him feel an indescribable amount of anger.  Not at Zehava of course, but at his brother-  excuse him- Step brother.  The two had not made amends since their large falling out ages ago, Corrosion had been angry, he had been grieving and confused for the longest time.  It wasn't until recently that he realized there were bigger things in life, things that were bigger than Zeke's anger, and his vendetta.  The burning rage that Corrosion felt now overshot whatever feelings he had before.  It was one thing to call him a bastard- it was something completely different to up and do the same thing to your own children.  Children that had not even sen the light of day yet, and from a woman that had trusted him- given herself completely to him.  It made his stomach turn.

Corrosion had made the decision earlier that to atone for what he had done to Zeke, and Lev, he would raise these kids, or help Zehava to raise them.  He had made an acquaintance with the golden hellion, and they were on good terms.  If his brother wouldn't be man enough to face his actions, Corrosion would go above and beyond- and it would be without ill intent.  There were too many children in Gemini now that were running around without a father- not that it could have been helped- and he was sure Tauro would love his children dearly- but he would not leave these kids to the same fate.  Not only was it the right thing to do, but... it was family.  They needed to be protected and-  loved.  

He had caught a rabbit earlier in the day, thinking that Zehava would be hungry, not knowing the last time she ate, he carried it to her den.  Soft paw steps crunched the snow, until he saw her, and the small children running about, exploring their new world.  Not knowing the guilt, and hate, and contempt that ate away at both Zehava, and Corrosion.  He would make sure they never found out the truth about their father, about how he abandoned them for greener pastures, he would love them as best he could.  That he would promise.  

Walking forward slowly, he approached the very exhausted looking Zehava, and place the rabbit down at her feet.

"They are very beautiful Zehava.  You should be proud."  He would say to her, his tone calm and comforting.  He nudged the rabbit over to her, "Eat.  Rest.  I will.. entertain them for a while."  He would smile warmly at her, hoping she would take his advice.  After all, she was his only friend, and he was sure he was hers.  Friends support each other through thick and thin-

-  Like family.

[Witch.]

(Alu is coming I promise!!! I’ll try to get one up tonight”

[Fallow]

Fallow's first steps into the world took place with a scowl upon their face.

Her day, and most days prior had began filled with envy- specifically of her siblings' tails. One of the first things she'd come to notice in their early life was that each of the others seemed to have these glorious and flowing tails, and Fallow had just a simple nub. Even mother's tail was better than hers though it was short as well. Fallow didn't understand where their siblings had gotten their tails from and left her with the short end of the deal, it wasn't fair! They all even seemed to be able to use them, while Fallow's did nothing at all.

So, the little violet pup would wait at the entrance to the fresh new world, waiting to bombard the next pup to follow, very much aiming for their tail. If Fallow could not have one so lovely as theirs, they should not have one either!

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[Arcas]

 

⚜  A R C A S ⚜
Played by Nadia

Darkness will always be the first thing he remembered.

It was all he had known so far... even after his eyes had opened, the dark of the den remained and continued to contain his family as well as himself. It always pressed at him, settling into a special part in the back of his still developing mind. Only one other figure had ever entered their home, but Arcas paid this stranger no mind - for they seemed more focused on his mother and held no name that was of importance to him. 

His siblings were also varied and ... strange. Then again, so was he. He had not seen his reflection and so did not yet know his own appearance. Yet, he could see that a few of his freak siblings came with extra eyes - eyes that seemed to always follow and stare directly into his soul while they all slept soundly around him. During this time he hardly rested. Whenever he tried to sleep nothing but nightmares invaded his mind, thousands upon thousands of eyes following him no matter where he ran or how he tried to hide. So sleep eluded him until he was left with nothing but the pressing darkness, interacting very little with what he had come to know as 'family'. One time, in secret, he had sat in the far corner by himself and checked his forehead to make sure he didn't share this freakish curse. Thankfully he had felt nothing but two tiny nubs on his head - too hard to be extra eyes.

Socializing was certainly not his forte. His mother spoke very little to them and this was all he had come to know, so his vocabulary and social skills were.. lacking to say the least. Yet this was life, his life. And he had grown accustomed to it. So when a new stranger appeared, barreling through the entrance and advising his mother that they should leave, he was apprehensive about what lay beyond the den to say the least. The lack of sleep had left the pup moody and more than a little bit twitchy. Yet his mother beckoned to them all as she herself began to leave the den entrance, her soft words of encouragement left him little choice and so he slowly took his first steps towards the entrance of the den. 

He was met with a blast of chill air and the sight of melting white powder, the frown on his face increased and a small growl escaped his lips. This world felt.. cold, and somehow darker than the hole they had just emerged from. What was the point in this place? Why couldn't they stay in the warmth of the den? Yet his mother continued to encourage them, and he could feel his freak siblings getting too close to him for comfort, so he pushed on. Arcas was one of the first to leave, he slipped past his sister Fallow - flicking his pup-sized tail well out of her way as he went. His tail had not grown in yet and was an un-remarkably normal size at this stage of his life - so he paid her little mind as the others had always made an easier target for her games. His soft paw pads gingerly felt their way onto the fresh earth before him and he shivered. A slushy, muddy paste laid around them. Nasty stuff. Arcas crinkled his nose, forced a half smile for the sake of his mother and took a step into the icy slush puddle. His shivering increased and his fur fluffed up in response to the cold. Is this what life outside the darkness was like? Disgusting.

He did his best for his mothers sake and continued to wander around a small area close to where she was. It was the first time he had really been able to stretch his legs, there was certainly no room to run or pick up speed in the den. So the hellion pup began to test the abilities of his little body. Moving from a walk, to a trot, to a steady paced run - all within the safety of mothers watchful gaze. The wind in his fur felt pretty good - refreshing even. Maybe this larger, colder land wasn't too bad.. At least he could get further away from his freakish siblings. Arcas threw a withering glare their way, hoping that they would steer clear of him while he explored this new land in his own way.

Eventually little white clouds began appearing in front of him, his hot breaths billowing as he started to pant for the first time. The cold air was stinging his lungs now and his exhausted body shivered in a new way, tiny muscles burning from exertion and lack of rest. He needed nourishment and so returned to mother, nuzzling in under her soft belly fur - searching for her teat so he could have a well deserved milky meal. The warm liquid soothed his stinging throat instantly and warmed his body from the inside out - giving him a much needed burst of energy. As he finished suckling and pulled away from her breast, licking the last of the milk from his lips, he noticed a new comer approaching. He hadn't seen this creature before and so ignored it to start with. Yet it continued it's approach which set Arcas' hair on edge. Who was this that dared come so close to them? The hellion pup got his first whiff of death as the newly arrived male dropped a lifeless fur ball in front of mother.

"They are very beautiful Zehava.  You should be proud. Eat.  Rest.  I will.. entertain them for a while." 

Arcas tilted his head and looked around at his freakish three-eyed siblings. Beautiful? This new comer was surely blind. The rest of the sentence Arcas struggled to understand - these were words that mother had not spoken before. What was a proud or an entertain? Was it the corpse he had just laid at mothers feet? Did this new creature intend to harm them? The hellion pup puffed up his fur and gave a growl, tilting his little horn nubs in the newcomers direction. Arcas muttered something incomprehensible under his breath, the pup did not know proper words but gibbered as aggressively as he could in an attempt to make this new male leave. It didn't seem to work. So the hellhound barreled towards the newcomer, trying out his new found speed - he threw himself forward - headbutting his tiny nubs into the large creatures leg before being sent tumbling backwards from the force. 

Arcas immediately felt dizzy and shook his head to clear the new and unfamiliar sensation - he certainly wouldn't be trying that again any time soon. He tried nipping at the other male's fur instead but quickly had hairs stuck in between his teeth - an unpleasant sensation in itself. Frustrated with his failed attempts, Arcas sat back - ears flattened and fur still puffy, he began working the hairs out of the teeth with his tongue and watched the new male tentatively while he planned his next move.

[Bhradain]

B h r a d a i n

#461B7E * profile

His entry into the world wasn't the most welcoming one. In fact, it was very wet. It seemed that every hour of every day, every orifice of his face was leaking. His liquid blue eyes constantly felt like waterfalls, his nose like a gushing river. His tiny body shook with every sneeze issued and every cough he hacked. Oftentimes, his throat burned and scratched from the constant onslaught of sneezes and coughs. It was like a never ending cold, although he had yet to know what that was. At first, he thought his condition was normal, albeit a not-so-pleasant kind of normal, until one day he realized his siblings did not share the same ailment.

Why.

It was the only emotion he could feel toward his predicament, that sense of puzzlement and confusion. Why just him? He couldn't understand it, not yet anyway, and he was still too young to feel any sort of resentment toward his siblings. All he could think for now was...why.

Days passed with him and his siblings curled up against their mother, huddling together for warmth, the occasional stranger poking their head in now and again, which never failed to raise the hairs on the boy's withers. The day finally came however, when he would be forced to leave his comfort zone and journey forth with his family to the den entrance, something he never once thought to do. Sure, he wondered what that source of light could be that illuminated the entry way, but nothing could be better than the warmth and comfort of his family. That was about to change though...drastically.

On shaky legs, the small boy pushed himself to his feet and hesitantly followed his mother. Blue eyes squinted shut as pain seized his retinas, long ears pinned back at the increasing brightness of the outside world. Suddenly, his paws touched something cold and wet, and he quickly recoiled with a yelp. This only seemed to make things worse for him, for his long tail now waved in the air from his shock, enticingly, which inevitably caught the attention of his sister. At the next sudden unpleasant sensation, this time felt from his other end, another yelp escaped his maw as he lurched forward head first into the foreign wetness. The poor boy face-planted into the freezing snow, his small, developing antlers sticking up above the surface momentarily before he burst from the powder, shaking himself vigorously. He sat there, hunched in the snow as he shivered and sniffled, snot running down from his nostrils to his lips. He gave his sister a look of indignation, which didn't last long before sneezes racked his body, sending snot flying in every direction.

Ah, what a pleasant place this was, full of bunnies, rainbows, flowers, wet, cold, snot, coughs, snot, sneezes, mean sisters...did I mention snot?

Suddenly, his large ears caught the sound of crunching footfalls. Turning to look, he jumped a little to see a big stranger approaching them. Before, when a stranger came to see them in the den, he felt safer being so closely huddled against his mother and siblings, but here, he was exposed, out in the open in a foreign land. He felt vulnerable, unsafe, and he didn't like that feeling one bit. Instinctively, he ran to his mother and hid behind her, peeking around her side a tad to keep an eye on this strange male. His brother was braver, and actually had the nerve to run up and head-butt the male. Bhradain didn't think he'd have the courage to do something like that.

"They are very beautiful Zehava.  You should be proud. Eat.  Rest.  I will.. entertain them for a while."

The male's words were foreign to the boy, and the lump of fur at his paws even more so. He still felt wary of this large and, quite frankly, very intimidating male, but the curiosity in his very young mind got the best of him. Creeping out from behind his mother, he slunk toward the pile of fur slowly, still keeping an eye on the stranger. Any sudden movement, and he would turn tail and flee back to the safety of his mother, or perhaps the den. Either one would work. As he steadily approached the bundle of fur, he sniffed. It smelled...unlike he and his family. Different, an overpowering scent of...what was it? It was unlike this large male as well, unlike all of them. It was almost like the cold that surrounded them, not warm, not comforting. Yet, it almost smelled...enticing, poking ever so gently at the edges of his stomach. It wasn't enough to make him salivate or lick his lips. He was still very much used to the taste of milk.

He had yet to learn the difference between life and death, and that one day, he would come to relish the taste of this body of fur.

ooc: ~

[cryptid]

He didn’t know he was blind because he didn’t know that one could see. You cannot miss what you never knew, and in the dark of the den his blindness passed without much notice. Perhaps his mother knew, could see it in the white of his eyes, but she did not speak to her children unless she had to. A quiet den, a cold one - But you cannot miss what you never knew, and so it was in the childs world. And when the world cracked open like an eggshell, the soft fur of his mother shifting against his cheek to stand and walk away, Cryptid froze. His siblings moved and shuffled, huffing quietly amongst themselves, passing him by to follow after. A soft, quiet rattle began to echo in the emptying den, a pale face carefully sniffing and shifting in the darkness, the lightest shade of blue in his eyes carefully tracking invisible specters. The rattling grew in intensity as the sounds of his family departed to the muffled activity outside of the den, bat eats twitching at the sound. Cryptid shifted, tail wrapped protectively about himself, twisting like a snake as the fear rose. “m-m-momma?” he whispered, a rasp of a word he knew, carefully shifting in place. No response. He stepped forward, only to yelp as his feet got caught in his tail, eyes roaming wildly as he struggled to right himself. ”s-sorry! i’m sorry i’m sorry,” he whispered frantically, moving forward only to bump hard into a wall. ”oh, oh, i’m sorry,” he whimpered and, pushing his cheek to the wall, began to clumsily follow the wall up into the world. And at a lash of wind, a step of a baby fresh paw into wet snow, his third eye flew open with a stab of pain into his head. His tail came tighter about him as he curled up in the mouth, rattling viciously, third eye roaming about in its socket, absorbing the harsh white light and colors for the first time. A whimper escaped through his chattering teeth as he curled up as small as he could - what was this? What was it? Where was the black, the black was safe, his head hurt- There was no safety in ignorance, and tears filled his eyes as he quietly called for Zehava, fear and anxiety constricting his throat like a boa. “m-m-m-mom-m-ma,” and he saw her, golden in the light, her antlers a crown above her head, and he saw and sniffled in his fear. Please?

[Zehava]

She watched them filter out after her, stumbling out into the world, no longer tucked safe and suffocating into the earthen den. There was a certain feeling of freedom, though she'd left the den a number of times before, this time was a little different now that the children could follow. It was still a limited freedom, released from a cage but kept on a rope, though in reality nothing physically stopped her from turning tail and running. She was good at that, as she'd found when she'd first found Gemini. It wasn't the first time the thought had crossed her mind when she'd stepped out for fresh air before today, to just take off, leave every part of Zeke behind.

Struggle though she may, there was still at least an ounce of responsibility toward these children, a guilt flooded her each time she'd thought of leaving them. She couldn't. They needed her- or rather, they needed someone. Someone better, surely.

And Corrosion arrived, as he did, with timing so perfect he surely could not have planned it. Someone better, Zehava thought, feeling some of the weight lifted from her sagging shoulders. Were it not for his support, the support of a brother to her Monster, she may very well have followed her that desire to flee. His opinion may say otherwise but she saw him so opposite of his brother, a light in dark. Her attention turned to him as he approached, peering up with weary blue eyes, so thankful he was here, she needed help, so very much of it.

"They are very beautiful Zehava.  You should be proud. Eat.  Rest.  I will.. entertain them for a while."

"Thank you," She rasped in reply, curbing her desire to go to him, to collapse into his thick fur, to sink in to it and, ideally, disappear. It was hardly appropriate, likely never would be, and instead she followed his offer, tearing into the rabbit's flesh, letting her frustrations out onto the meal.

For a time, brief though it was, she let herself forget, to think only of herself and not of the pups now beginning their exploration, but one would not let her go so easily. “m-m-m-mom-m-ma,” Was all she heard breaking her from a sort of day dream that had consisted of... nothingness. Lifting her gaze, her brows knit tight together, she swept a look across the landscape, trying to figure out whose voice cried for their mother. For her. Zehava found him, Cryptid, the tiny mass of cream and brown, looking over him and very quickly over to Corrosion, as if he could have the answers. Not even a parent himself, she wanted more out of him than she knew he could offer, and was quick to let go of the thought of passing this off onto him. Standing straight, she edged awkwardly over to the child's side, genuine concern written on her face, and a total uncertainty of what to do. She was near as helpless as the pup who looked to her, looking for a guidance she wished she could offer.

"...what is it?" Zehava murmured, not cold, but hardly soothing, almost fearful in her questioning. I can't help, I can't.

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