[Traveler]

TRIGGER WARNING:
slight suicidal thoughts and slight/suggestive gore

The world turned; Traveler screamed in his sleep, perhaps in real life too. At this point there was no telling what was real and what was fake, maybe this was all a horrific dream; or maybe he was dead.... The idea was almost appealing, and with each weary blink back into the world of the living it felt more and more like he'd rather be dead anyway. One by one and yet all at once he was aware of all the different pains eating at him down to his bones. Throat sore from screaming, from crying and coughing, choking down dirt and blood. It was dry now, and scratchy, from lack of water and the weakness in his body from the bloodloss, tongue rang across the roof and the friction made him wheeze."No," he tried to speak, but nothing but a crackling whine came forth from his weary vocal cords. Attempting to speak made him ache even more, now feeling the pain where Ki Tisa had torn away the flesh from his nape and where Lev Malakh had clamped down with the strength of all the mothers in the world on his jaw. Traveler tried to moan weakly, forcing the air through his nose, expelling dirt and realizing there was going to be no good way to move his head. I'd much rather be dead. The boy tried to curl up, and found his leg refusing to cooperate, listless eyes sought it, but the head fought the impulse to look and he remained unable to look back at where Francisca had torn his tendon. The red Fringe remembered how it felt then, that sensation of the snap and the muscle recoil... Of all his injuries, this was the one that seemed to hurt less with time, maybe he'd think the blue-haired woman for her mercy. Not near dead enough to not feel sarcasm. Aches and pains flooded in, bruises, bumps, where he'd been tackled from the giant wall, rode like a rodeo bull, dragged to the ground like a sacked quarterback. The yearling felt the sting at the base of his tail and for a moment did not recall the reason for it. Instead he realized he was laying in the mud, laying somewhere with a dirt wall in front of him. Trav had yet to turn his head to inspect anything, it had not yet dawned on him he was in a pit. It had not yet dawned on him that he was missing his tail, but it was coming, coming fast. Normally bright eyes blinked with the thousand yard stare, trying to recall the events. Even though he didn't really want to. A mess in his head, a boy, a cut foot, skulls, skulls, skulls, blue eyes, skulls and BLUE EYES; his stomach lurched. Barely anything was in it but what were there was no more, slipping up into this throat, stinging the damage with bile, out past his bloody lips into the mud. The giant wanted to move away from it, to not be near it, feeble legs fought to flail him away. This was not a happy story or a good fairy tale though, slipping in the mud and nothing more was his gift from the writer. Bitter smells and mud was seeping into his nose, the boy bared his fangs and flung himself, his back and wound smacking hard into the muck, landing belly up with a shout. He did his best to draw his front legs in against his chest, now muddy and dirtying up anything that had been spared previously by him being on his side. Languid, disoriented, staring now with unseeing eyes at his leg for a long time before it made sense. Wounds on his neck were stinging, perhaps bleeding again too but he couldn't tell for sure. The smell of blood was all around. Those golden eyes searched then, noticing a slight discrepancy in the physical appearance of himself; someone whose body he knew well. There was no tail stretched out between his back legs and to the best of his knowledge he did not feel it caught beneath it, just that horrible pain at it's base. Now that he thought of it, he only felt the base and nothing more. So he tried to move it and locate it that way, but as soon as he tried the memory hit him and took the breath out of his lungs. The red woman pulling one way, the boy with the long snake-like tail pulling the other. It was gone, gone, GONE! Traveler started gasping then, eyes wild, oh how he wished to be dead.

➷ TRAVELER ➷ |➷| captive |➷| mover and shaker "A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." -George A. Moore Profile #5C1310 lines © lilyote on dA

[Lev Malakh]

The situation had run through her head multiple times, wondering what could have happened, every possible outcome she feared. She could not imagine another situation like Tauro, where she was helpless and was not there to protect her son. The hair-line fracture within her leg ached, though Lev Malakh smoothed her face to her father as she took Century to make sure he was okay. Kol Nidre was sure that he was fine, that no blood had come from her son, but rather just the man who caused frenzy at the border. The more and more she thought about the situation, the more she thought of when Akki and her father came to Gemini —it was all a misunderstanding.

The skirmish was overboard, and although she agreed with Serrate to bring the stranger to the pit, she couldn’t help but feel pity. Century had not come to harm and the stranger was nearly killed by many who thought a murder was on the horizon. The Valkyr looked to the ocean, watching the white spray along the horizon as she sat under the weeping willow beside her mate. “They’re just like you, you know?” she says, glancing down at Tauro. “Such trouble makers and making me worried.” Lev sighs. She had hoped her children got the message when Skylar went across the border, the lesson she engrained in them had been to keep them safe, yet she knew that they had their father’s stubbornness and a sense of adventure. Maia and Skylar especially, the two stars who orbited in sync.

The Valkyr quickly gave her love a kiss on the forehead and left, swiftly moving to the healer’s den to pick up a few things. She took her father’s coconut bowls that were tied to a leather strap, and easier way to transport water. She then took a small bag full of herbs and asked her father if these were alright to take. He nodded and smiled weakly, his eyes so tired and dull. Lev Malakh thanked him, kissed him goodbye and left swiftly. She would take water from the faerie pools not too far off from the pits, dunking in the bowl and lifting it by the leather strap to capture a good amount of water, enough for a good drink. She carried it then to her destination, where she would carefully approach.

She heard the motions of slapping mud against a body, and she peeked slowly over the edge of the hole. Heavy breaths wracked his body, those ribs pumping quickly. “Hey.” she says finally, not sure what else to say to try to gain his attention. If he noticed her, then she would try to lower the bowl. “Here’s some water, you must be thirsty. You’ll… have to come get it.” She could not join him for it was too high for her to get back out. If he took the bowl, she would gently let it go. If he could not get up, she would bring it back to her side and keep it there for now. Either way, Lev Malakh would turn to the pouch of herbs and throw the dry plants into the pit. “I have some herbs for you. For pain and to help with bleeding.” Lev hoped soon that he could be properly treated, for Century had not been hurt and no crime had been committed.

The woman then lay down on the lip of the pit, looking down at Traveler and noting the injuries made by her and the others. Zeke had torn off his tail, which was unnecessarily violent. The feel of his teeth upon her throat — a memory she quickly waved off and tried to concentrate to talk to this stranger. “I apologize for the hostility. We lost a lot already, and I’m a protective mother. You didn’t hurt him though, did you? Please… explain what happened.”

She wanted to know.

✦ ✦ Speech Text ✦ ✦

[Traveler]

|➷| captive |➷| mover and shaker

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it."
-George A. Moore

#5C1310

ooc| I am so sorry I'm basically Satan and this thing has been waiting since like freakin' Sept that's awful ugh.

---

Tears streamed through his tired eyes but he had not the air in his lungs to cry out loud. Eyes fixed hard on the blood caked nub where his one and only tail had been located. What a horrible coincidence that it would be taken by a boy with a tail enough for twenty. Perhaps he had an obsession with tails; Trav secretly hoped he'd be around if the boy ever got his removed so he could laugh heartily at it. Right now, Traveler actually wished he could be the one to do it too! Violence was not in the heart of the giant, but anger was strong and his pain was a fueling force like he'd never felt in his life. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you are, the boy didn't know how else to process so much anger and pain than to lay and sob and wish he was put out of his misery. This suffering was not worth it, fighting to live seemed to not be worth it, but he was afraid to die. Terrified. There was so many unproven theories as to where they went when they died and Trav was mostly convinced that he wouldn't go anywhere, he'd just suffer and then fade to nothingness.

Nothingness mortified him. Almost to death.

The giant Fringe boy did not notice Lev's arrival, not that he would have acknowledged her in any way if he had. Saline rolled down his muddy, bloody cheeks and dripped into the wet goop that was the dirty, wet pit he laid in. Her soft voice drifted in on the wind and seemed to draw him back to a real consciousness, the kind genuinely aware of the world outside their bubble. His eyes fluttered weakly, shifting his head painfully as his face cringed in agony to look at Lev standing above him in the pit. It was her. Her. One of the attackers, she had hurt his face and nearly knocked him down; it did much better with Zin's help. A ruddy brown and red brow would furrow, lips would attempt to pull back weakly to show teeth still nearly white despite the bloodshed of the incident. What could she possibly want? What could any of these wolves possibly want? To watch him suffer? To criticize him? Antagonize him? Taunt him? Take something else from him? Traveler was scared and angry and his words were caught in his throat from emotion and pain. The Fringe boy snorted instead before trying to lay his head back down.

But she did not seem to be here to kill him or make him suffer, at least not on first glance. Wary eyes surveyed the coconut half as she lowered it down to him, offering him water but he attempted to crane his head back up to her. Orange eyes were desolate and weak, the faintest expression he could force was one of bewilderment. Not only that she was offering, but that she thought he could get it. If he had been feeling more like himself he might have exploded in bawdy laughter but the look would have to suffice for now. For a moment he would wiggle his legs, shaking violently with each attempt to force decimated muscles to use before he would eventually sink back down into his position dejectedly. Lev Malakh would draw the water back up for now, and his didn't seem to care. A blank stare out at the wall of the pits, head resting again back down on his paws. His eyes were starting to take a couple of long blinks when she spoke again. This time tossing down a packet of herbs near his face. A ragged ear would flick towards them and then angle to listen to Lev without moving his head.

Herbs? For pain? The weak scared boy wanted them to help with his misery but the weak scared boy was also worried it was a trick. After all these wolves had not been good to him and this woman had been part of his mauling. The rogue shook weakly, lip quivering at he looked at up her with harsh eyes."H-h-how do I k-know it's not.. not.. not.. poison? Al-already t-t-t-try-tr-tried to k-kill me on--one-once." Barely strong enough to speak a full sentence, his mind still reeling and disoriented from the pain. Tears came from his eyes again, this time in a flood, fear and agony were powerful motivators and the boy had so much repressed pain for them to feed of off.   "I-iff yo-you-your gonna k-kill me, j-jus-just do it!" Traveler coughed hard when he tried to shout at Lev, soaking wet eyes starting up at the Valkyrie. "O-only m-monster do t-t-this. I g-gu-gu-guss y-you are m-monsters t-though..." Large head would drop again, this time in defeat, they would make him suffer. There was no fight in him, not really, Trav resigned to death.

Perhaps though his mind was overreacting, Lev, this strange woman apologized. A real apology he imagined, though in his state he thought maybe he was just too delirious to know the difference. She wanted to know what happened and Trav let out an exasperated sigh, "Lady," irritation in his tone as if she didn't realize he was struggling having already forgotten the herbs since writing them off as violent poison. "No! I-I didn't h-hurt t-the kid. W-was uh, l-lookin' f-for a g-gift for m-muh Buhsslady," he slurred a moment and tried to regain his motor functions in his mouth before trying again. "Came up o-on t-the w-wall thing'n'stopped t-tuh l-look at'ta t-those s-s-skulls. N' k-kid came up'n' said 'h-hey, w-wanna play uh, h-h-h-hide-'n's-s-seek, nu-t-tagg. Yeah, t-tag." Trav shook his head as best he could to try and clear his thoughts trying to recall the events. "I-I-uh t-tagged 'im k-kind-a hard'n h-he f-fell but'uh, h-he was l-laughin'. I w-went'ta ch-check on h-him 'n g-got att-attacked..."