October had vanished yet again, isolating herself and retreating into the solitude of her own mind. Off to play with corpses whom she interacted with better than any living souls…save for her sire of course. October ambled gracefully into the Threshold, giving her an intense sense of déjà vu as she slipped nimbly through the trees. It reminded her of the Gateway in Anarore. However she knew this time Sinn would not be there to greet her, that Xenos Yaro was probably nothing more than a pile of bones yet again in some bog somewhere. These realizations aggrieved the wicked femme as she wandered silently through the forest yet no sign of the inner turmoil was present upon her jack-o-lantern façade. October felt as if she were destroying her father’s legacy with her lack of action towards attaining greatness in his name. Oblivion had been the Demon King, a dignified czar, and she had been nothing more than a deformed puppeteer quaking in his ominous shadow.

Oh how she missed that shadow.

The unanticipated snap of a petrified branch beneath October’s lithe piston triggered her immediate halt and caused her horns to lay flat against her somber crania as October lowered her dome to peruse through the breaks in the tree trunks for any sign of life. Everything is so much simpler when its dead. A lurid snort was expelled from the witch as she realized that she was indeed alone, much to her reprieve. The sun’s rays reflected unpleasantly upon her charcoal hide and October took notice, once the pools of perspiration began to coagulate precariously upon her skin, of how terribly hot it was. She loathed sweating, detested having to exert herself unless absolutely necessary. October craved a dark niche to find solace in from the heat and instantly began her hunt for shade. Even though the sun was going down, preparing itself to repose for the night, it was summer and the ferocity of the god star was at its peak. October was no fan of the dog days.

After a few minutes of questing for a decent haven from the sweltering sights of the ochre soleil October finally came upon a rather intriguing gnarling of vines, dead trees and other random debris that formed a citadel of darkness, it was perfect. Picking up her pace only moderately she made it to the sanctuary rather quickly and began to search it for some form of an entrance, hoping she wouldn’t have to force her way through. The last thing October sought was to mar her gorgeous physique on some silly, diminutive, bloodthirsty twigs. Auspiciously she came across a hole in the flank of the fort and, though it was not to her liking in size, managed to make her way into the belly of the heap with hardly a scratch on her. October’s grey tassel twitched at her haunches as she explored her new residence, for the time being that is, and watched a centipede weave itself in an out of a decrepit log. Her orange chasms traveled over the ground curiously as an intense odor invaded her nostrils, a familiar smell; it was the stench of death.

The sun shone through only a couple cracks in the ceiling but it provided enough light for October to make out the cadaver of an insignificant mammal that bizarrely enough still looked as if it were moving. Taking small steps forward it became apparent as she drew closer that the illusion of movement was only caused by a tremendous quantity of maggots as they ingested the remains of what seemed to have previously been a fox. Chuckling October concentrated for but a second to allow her magic to flow through the fox’s corpse before her marionette antics began. Compelling the little creature to stand and shake itself off October watched as maggots were flung in a variety of directions, much to her amusement. Forcing the fox to sit and regard her with cold, unseeing eyes October grinned as some of the remaining maggots crawled within its eye sockets and, now panting, mouth. It was a disgusting spectacle but one that brought comfort to October and so she spoke to it, with a motherly tone to her sensual voice.

“Well aren’t you cute? Did those mean old maggots eat you? Shame on them…”

Her smile grew wider as she talked to the bantam beast, her fondness for the deceased ever obvious. October could feel the relief of her flesh in this refuge and decided she would wait here, with her new friend, until the sun had fled to the other side of the earth. Then she would continue her journey to nowhere.