see—

I’ve already waited

too long

and all my hope is gone.

Darkness. It was all the blood-red brute envisaged in his pools, they felt useless and drained of the light. It had been a quick process, painless but imminently disorientating for him. It pained his mind to be unaware of what was going on except for the sounds and smells of the terraria, hearing what must be the birds that came out early for Birdsong, just as Frostfall was coming to close. But it was hard to concentrate on these things when his mind was dancing with the prospect of what would happen to him now. He heard a dark voice, definitely a male voice that called to him, demanding that he take something to regain his sight.

But that was just it, it was how he had lost his sight that caused him to feel so much more paranoid than his original demeanor. The stag's attention spun back to the moment he had lost it, a fleeting glimpse as he was wandering through the unknown territories, trees hanging by the side of his bodice and his daggers delicately missing the rocks that scattered through the long grass that kept them well hidden. Until suddenly he had lost everything. The trees immediately ceased to exist, as did the rocks, the grass, the light. It had all gone dark and suddenly Lotherarius was that poor little colt that had wandered too far from his mother: helpless. Hitting into the trees that had acted as his camoflage, the brute staggered and clanked against everything, smacking his skull against a large branch. Dazed, it felt like he had blacked out but he remained silent. The chief was not going to cry out like that helpless colt, he was going to stand and wait for his ambusher to attack before he could strike a blow...

***

"Take this and you will see again."

Lotherarius snapped back to attention once more as he remembered the words his captor spoke to him, the threatening tone causing large cold sweats to course around his tapered bodice. It was not from the cold of Frostfall, it was the thought of what he would face when he took whatever it was that he was being forced to have in order to regain his sight. It could be poison, he thought silently, his heartbeat beating faster and faster as his stomach dropped at the thought of dying. But he decided to just take it, reaching out and grabbing it to find a long soft stick, eating it with his pulse deeply lodged in his throat as it slithered down. What was he doing?

Eventually, the cloud of black de-misted and he was able to see once more. The process was quick in real time but in his own paranoid mind it felt like eternity. It went from blurry to clear as he attempted to focus on who it was that had both taken and given him back his sight. The beautiful azure orbs could see once more but the light of day seered away and pierced his pools. His captor's appearance swayed the poor stag further, his cranium shaking from the disbelief at who had managed to take his sight away. The other brute did not give off the impression that he was in any way able to do such a thing. With his heart still racing he took in the appearance of quite a heavily built creature, mahogany pelt with slight rose tinted points and strikingly pink pools with a distinctive red tint of the mane. His words, accompanied with a smile, beckoned for him in a welcoming way that struck another sense of disbelief into Lotherarius.

"Stay calm. I am Huric, and these are the Hidden Falls."

It was hard to even attempt to stay calm, the patchwork of his intricate bodice quivering with both fright and anger at the thought of being blinded and now in a territory he had not even known. What was going on? With a gruff sound of anger he spoke, his voice raised,
"It is hard to stay calm to the creature who blinded me!" Lotherarius opened his velveteens to speak once more but then the terraria caught his eye. He let them glance over but for a moment before tearing them back to the brute that dared cross him. He was stood amongst more trees, nothing like where he had been blinded as these were covering hills that slightly masked the sound of waterfalls or the like. It was an incredibly beautiful place, but Lotherarius did not feel comfortable in the presence of someone who seemed so eager to switch their stance to him from threatening to welcome. What else was he going to expect? But without his items of clothing that made him feel like a war lord, there was no use in attempting to sound menacing. Without them he was nothing, so he continued to exchange words with this Huric. Yet his tone remained the same, angry and confused, "This is the Hidden Falls you say? If I give my name to you, Huric, will you explain to me why you have brought me here...?"

Huric's last words eminated from his red velveteens, determining Lotherarius' safety here. What was safe?

" . "

[OOC: Sorry if this seems so patchy, just thought it was necessary to show his confusion and what had happened before!

THIS IS SO EXCITING AHHH]

Lotherarius