Sleep finally came, and when it did I fell into its warm embrace eagerly. I’d not taken rest longer than a few hours in many a week; to many things to accomplish in the few hours of daylight we had. Frostfall was coming, it would certainly be here before we knew it—and with it the darkness would likely swarm. Fina heard Hectors cries, she had been returning from a hunt and came screeching in. “Midas! Midas!” she called over and over, panicked. Groggily my red rimmed eyes shot wide open, jerkingly searching for her flaming frame. She fluttered in front of me, flashing gold, crimson and burnt orange. Her glowing frame made me squint and turn away, “Hector….”

That’s all she had to say. The shock of being awake quickly vanished behind a trail of gold as I cantered toward the entrance, slowing only to lean ahead and climb up the slippery slope leading down to the caves. Another beast had come to our doorstep. Another attempt to cure this ragging illness. Earth trembled as I sprang from the entrance into hoard of soldiers that Hector had called forth. Armor slipped across my chest and clattered loudly as it sliced down each limb plate by plate. Lips rolled back to reveal yellow ivory and opened into a bitter snarl more befitting a wolf. Plated head swung right to see Fina emerging from the depths, lunging for heaven to offer her aid. She didn’t scream as I expected and was instead watching the wraith closely, intently.

Her gaze widened with restrained power still young and unpracticed. Little did I know, she was reading the monsters heart, the mind, diving into it's deepest fears and fashioning a vision that would befit a demon spat from the underworld. Heels planted themselves and earth shivered below, chains of solid gold rose from the ground—painfully crafted weeks ago. I’d hidden them beneath the lava rock and ash—hidden from even my warriors. They rose high, and lunged for the beast. Seeking to wrap around legs, neck, barrel and every inch of flesh. Each link was well crafted and not easily broken. Sand pooled from the scattered earth which had held my chains. A dozen small sand spears formed, eager for blood and the light of submission—they flung toward her, aimed at the rotting flesh she bore.

OOC: Fina has the ability to Terrorize: another by knowing one of their fears and creating an illusion of that for 30 seconds.

You crash up from the depths just behind Midas, having heard Hector's call. You're not usually one to follow orders, especially not orders you didn't command yourself, but you're a little bit tired of all this darkness crap, so anything to get you out. Your body is sore from all the fighting you've been doing with your herdmates... yeah, your priorities have been a little off. Big deal. Anyways, you were close to the entrance so you figured you might as well come. See, you've been stalking the herb box that you raided, trying to find another opportunity to dig through it and pull out something that might help you, but it's been guarded day and night since your last attempt and finding anything good in there. No luck so far.

As you barrel up from the depths, you see a lot of things. First, you see a stallion even larger than yourself, bite wounds visible on his shins. Next, you see the wraith bundled up on the ground, bound in some sort of chains. Last, you see the barely visible black wisp that is your companion rushing past your head. You roll your eyes. But your warriors mind, working surprisingly quickly with the drugs not there to slow you down, quickly decides on a course of action.

You pick up a canter, although a little stiff from your various bruises, and make a wide circle, giving you plenty of room. And then, angling back towards the opening into the caves, you begin to move faster, limping on your front left limb but ignoring the pain. The only thing between you and caves... is Hector. Your companion seems to sense your intention without you telling her and, despite you not asking for her help, she goes to work anyway. Neither of you know for certain that Hector is infected, you can't know, having not seen him bitten or changed, but you're not stupid. They said in the meeting that bites cause infections and well... You think its better to play it on the safe side. Just in case. Because it would be shame to lose the massive beast to the darkness.

In front of Hector's face, your boggart morphs into the only thing she thinks the wraiths might fear. She doesn't know for certain, being so young and the wraiths being so hard to read, but she tries nevertheless. Her wisp of a body becomes a sun shaped orb, perhaps the size of a grapefruit, glowing with a bright yellow light. A distraction, you hope. You come towards him, lifting your head and turning your right shoulder out, hoping to ram into him, to send him unceremoniously tumbling down the entrance of the caves, back underground where you can force him to drink from the waters that the Earth God blessed. If he needs it, that is. And you know he's bigger than you but... you think you could probably take him.

You hope only two things. One, that Hector has actually been turned to a wraith. It wouldn't do to attack your fellow warriors for no reason. Although you think he'd understand. Two, you hope that Midas has had the good sense to get out of the way. You didn't really think to check for his location before you started this odd maneuver. The last thing you think is... this going to hurt.

It took ample concentration to hold those chains in place. Each link tightened until it stripped the rotting flesh from her ghastly alabaster bones. The sound of brittle limbs crackling beneath the weighty pull of my power. I snorted, finding complete distaste and very little pleasure from this task. Earth cradled my feet as I tugged the living snakes toward their master—with a she beast tangled inside. Those flaming soulless eyes do nothing to break past the steel covered reserve that was closed off from emotion. Hector straightened and Fina chirped overhead. A seemingly easy victory for the cave band today.

I spare a glance at my comrades, and before so much as a breath can be drawn for words. A pillar of a man comes charging from behind, his face contorted and eyes flashing not toward the wraith as expected—but Hector as their aim. Quickened by years of agility training, my steps glide body out of his ragging path, straining against the golden chains that hold yon girl captive. The warrior roars toward Hector, teeth wide and limbs aiming to strike. My own ivories clashed upon themselves and armor clattered, “What in the hell has possessed ye!?” voice bellowed at him with sudden shock and rage. I hadn’t seen Hector get bit, nor would it have mattered greatly even if he had been infected. Didn’t this illness take at least a few hours to develop? Concentrating on the captive wraith I pulled her closer to the entrance and down into the hole that was slowly becoming a prison—frantic gaze tilted toward Hector and the raging bull of a soldier. “Come to your senses!” Fina snarled from above, making tight circles. Unsure of what to do.

Bellowing sounds, clearly from the golden stallion beyond, catch your ears and cause you to falter in your step, to look sideways where you should have looked forward, to eb when you should have flowed. And in the confusion you're not sure exactly what happens. What Midas knows about the infection, you do not. You were told one thing. Bites mean infection. No time frame was given, no information on whether or not the infection was immediate or slow-growing. But perhaps it is not only your brain driving you forward, it's your anger, your aggression. You've been locked up in this useless hole of a place too long and now you've broken through to the surface. You're mad with rage, perhaps. They didn't shove you into the Asylum for no reason, after all.

And so perhaps your madness is why it surprises you when Midas shouts, when your little wisp of nothing becomes a brilliant sun, and when you actually crash into him like you planned. Still, hitting him is not like hitting something you're used to. It's like hitting a brick wall, a solid mass that has no intentions of moving at all, and for once you know what it's like for your opponents to hit you.

But as dumbfounded as you are, you can feel the surprise from your companion even more, as her sunny brilliance is drowned out by an invisible force that can only be another of her kind. So while you're busy regaining your footing, trying to gather your composure and make yourself stand on your own, unbeknownst to you the little wisp woman is trying in her childish way to communicate with the blackness that had enveloped her. She tried to express her indignance to him, the immediate feeling she got that she was superior to him and that he had attacked her when he should have bowed. And if her mind felt somewhat foreign to Veci's, perhaps it was because she lived with a madman and had begun to think of him as savior rather than captor.

As for you, you find yourself finally steadied and yet, it seems that your efforts have not been wanted or welcomed. More shouting, from the beast himself this time, followed by.... snapping teeth. Did he just catch you with his teeth? Bite you, scrape your flesh, make you vulnerable to the same infection you fear he has contracted? You grumble at first, but it turns into a bellow and you try to shove forward, though this time a movement around the stallion rather than attack. “GO!” you shout over top of his words to Midas. The water. You must have it too.

And so you follow him to the mouth of the cave, dipping down it after him as your boggart tries to escape the grasp of the invisible underling that has enslaved her, killed the only sunlight available in these dark times.

OOC| It's fine, I don't really know what's going on and Oxy's obviously a massive moron. Babysitting shall commence- though they should probably babysit each other, lol. So sorry for holding this tread up!!

I pulled the wretched creature along, all the while trying to keep eye contact with Hector and his attacker. He handled himself as expected, thrusting the oversized brute aside. Our simply raid had twisted so fast, my straining pelt rippled beneath plated steel as the two pulled apart and gasped at each other. Ebony lips sealed shut when Hector testified that he needed a drink—it took a moment for the full weight of those words to sink in. The ashy warrior who had charged him, motioned roughly toward the cave. I nodded hard, bumping my chin against the metal strung across chest, “Head in.” Reason would guess that such an infection would at least take more than a few seconds to develop, the strange warrior had overstepped and certainly overreacted. But…then again… perhaps I was wrong, maybe the illness had a short incubation? Each time he rasped, lungs struggling to draw breath in these spare moments I began to wonder if perhaps an overreaction was what we needed right now.

With the two of them already sinking down into the pit of our salvation my gaze turned back to the chained beast that had gone past the point of reasoning. “Our turn,” voice hissed softly, backing toward the entrance and drawing her with me. Chains certainly weren’t the easiest method of transpiration, but it was safe. She didn’t seem to mind how their dull points sliced through poorly held muscle. The stench of her frame was horrific, and despite wanting to gag upon each breath we made it down into the hole.

Water, the sweet sound of life trickled to my ears. By the time I’d reached our fountain room, said prisoner was likely missing a few spare slices of flesh and I’d about hit my limit of repulsion. Circling the fountainhead my chains tightened their hold and drifted toward the ceiling, carefully I carried her over the ledge and into saving water. Liquid spilled like a wave over breaching, cascading on the floor as her abused frame was lowered into its purifying depth.


OOC: Midas dumped her in the water <3

The concern of the bite drives you forward, down the slope leading into the cavern, following after the pair that probably don't really want you following. Is there blood from the cut, could you be infected? It seems reasonable, maybe even probable, that you could be turning wraith-like at this very moment. Not that anyone would really be able to tell the different. Aren't you a monster normally? Doesn't your body sway and stumble with the effects of your drugs. And yet, you'd rather be high than ill, so you carry on, not quite as quick as Hector, but you ample quick enough.

Your companion follows after you, still a little miffed by Veci's general lack of interest in her obvious superiority, but otherwise content to follow after you. For a moment, you wonder if you can make her go with Veci- for though you did not see him you got the feeling of his presence from your bond. That would be much better than having her here... with you... all the time... never leaving. You sigh in joy just thinking about her going away. Stealing her might have been the worst idea you ever had... except that time you made Ampere explode. That was actually kind of worth it. Even the electric burns you got that second time around.

So anyways, you make it to that room with the well and the brutish beast you attacked, for his own good you might add, drinks greedily before Midas manages to toss the chained creature into the water. The next flurry of motion that occurs is sort of lost on you as you slip your way across the damp, stony floor to the pools edge and drink some yourself, taking a hint from Hector and guzzling far more than your fair share. Of course, since you don't know if you were feeling weird or not you're not sure if you feel better, but it's close enough.

“Sor-,” you start to say, before falling into a series of somewhat fake sounding coughs and choking sounds. Saying sorry? What the hell were you thinking. You haven't said sorry since you've been here, don't think you're going to start now. You rack your brain for something new to say, coming up kind of short, just sort of mumbling out some general nonsense in your best attempt at a recovery. “Good water,” is about as far as you get before you just sort of lay down on the ground near the pool. Just in case. Yeah, nobody said you were socially able. But you're trying.