system overload

Awakened.

The ghastly woman shivered, her body recoiling like a snake as the tumultuous world melted all around her. She could not remember (for an abbreviated moment at least) who she was ... what she was ... where she was. Everything was oblivion. Everything was forgotten. All she could remember was a flash of ethereal silver ... a glimmer, a figment of her imagination that would forever catch her eye. There was a pause as her mind attempted to remember - Elysium. Valeska. Harper. Buckeye. But it all seemed to disappear as the earth swelled and quaked beneath her, erupting and spitting with as much frail animosity as the figments her mind offered her. Her world that was once so full of color faded to gray. Faded to black. Faded to ...

... nothing.

And then she awakened. 

A shudder. A gasp. A harrowing, gagging sound escaped her gullet as she came to ... lavender eyes pressing open quickly; as instantaneous as a blizzard with the warmth and intensity of a thousand summer suns. Her body roared to life, crawling awkwardly from a laying position as she struggled onto all fours, her chest heaving with the intensity of a forgotten dream. She looked crazed; frenzied, even. For that was all it was, wasn't it? A dream? The warmth of another ... the acceptance of a friend .. was she a dream? Was ... was everything ... was her life but a dream?

Lavender eyes scanned an unfamiliar horizon, a suspicious glint flickering deep from within as her chest burned in anticipation. But there was nothing ahead of her but the endless, boring abyss of a field. The auburn crusted edges of some average blades of grass. There was nothing ethereal about this place. Nothing familiar.

And perhaps that was how it was meant to be.

A huff escaped her pursed lips, lavender eyes darkening with dangerous intent ... for she wanted answers. And she wanted them. Now.

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It was a beautiful day.

She wanted to throw up.

With ragged breaths and shivering legs, Valeska trudged onward through the brush, following the only scent she dimly recognized as home. Dried blood stained the corner of her mouth where a stone had fallen haphazardly from the heights of their former abode and crashed against her, a cruel reminder of what they had once held in humble respite, now turned in anger against its inhabitants.
The throbbing ache in her head did not hurt nearly as much as her heart.

There was a point to all of this, she was certain - the earthquake, the crumbling of Elysium's stone temple in the sunlight-dappled glen they had called home - the sudden desecration of their quiet hideaway must have been a sign from the gods themselves, a herald for something new, something greater on the horizon for their small tribe. She had to believe. The mere idea of such an incomprehensible cataclysm such as that, without any meaning, would have broken her in pieces. If she did not believe, then all would be emptiness.

Gods bound by rules. A purpose to all things. Without purpose, there was no breath, no life; without meaning, there was no sanctuary, no comfort for the lonely and the lost.

She felt lost. The little wolf's breath hitched in her throat, but she had to keep going. If anyone survived... no, if anyone had died...

The scent grew stronger, and her nostrils flared, golden eyes widening in recognition. She grew manic, ears pricked forward. Her steps grew quicker, her breaths shallower, the need, the urgency, the desperation, Amaranth, Amara, my Amara...

Golden fur shone brilliant and beckoning in the sunlight; exhausted and troubled though the she felt, the shimmering shadow was as beautiful and comforting as ever it was. "Amara!" the little wolf cried out, stumbling over her own paws like a child in her hurry. "Amara!" It was all she could utter, her eyes clouded with tears, tail wagging furiously despite her all-consuming sorrow - to see her well, to know she lived, to know that at least she wasn't alone was enough for now.

"How did Amara end here?" she wept joyfully, falling to her forelimbs. "Valeska thought... thought everyone dead. Could not find; all vanish. Like leaves on wind."



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The plains expanded in front of her for what visually looked like miles. Miles of empty space, of waving blades of grass, of speckled sunlight that danced through the rolling clouds above her ... white and billowing against the azure sky. A bird crooned somewhere in the distance. The wind rippled through the grass with a gentle sway as the sea of golden blades licked at her ankles. It was all ... so normal, so simple.

And with that realization, her lavender eyes narrowed dangerously; ebony lips pulled back to reveal a set of alabaster fangs as her sudden snarl ripped into the silence, tearing it apart like a knife. A rare level of emotion rippled through the golden spectre as she unloaded that fatal scream into the wind ... angry with herself for believing her own lies for so long. Angry at her mind for offering her a life that felt so real, and then so brutally snatching it away again.

The wind sighed in response, a gentle kiss against her cheek.

The snarl faded, and so did the emotion; eyes emptying back to a pale purple enigma. And then ...

... "Amara!" The wind called her again, more than a sigh this time. It was speaking to her in such a gentle, familiar way. Amaranth's eyes closed as she listened to the wind beckon her. "Amara!" It sounded again, stronger this time ... and somehow more concrete. Eyes snapped open, searching for the wind that so cruelly called to her in that voice ... that sickeningly sweet voice; she swore she could taste the honey. And there, in the distance, came the Cloud Wolf. It took a far-too-familiar form, and the woman felt an unfamiliar heaviness in her chest that rose like hot fire into her throat. It burned with such intensity that she could have sworn could it would choke her.

'Valeska,' she crooned internally. Could the world be any crueler to her?

The Cloud Wolf approached her, collapsing at her paws and weeping ... as if to make fun of her plight. Amaranth's eyes remained oddly veiled, uncertain of how to entertain the demons of her own mind. Ears pressed forward as her eyes continued to stare, the heat in her throat never leaving; still burning. "How did Amara end here? Valeska thought... thought everyone dead. Could not find; all vanish. Like leaves on wind." The golden woman suddenly stepped closer, nose reaching out to gently place a nuzzle on the Cloud Wolf's cheek. Her scent was overwhelming - snow and pine. The softness of her fur so familiar. So real that she couldn't possibly be imagining it.

Her angel lived.

"You're real," she exhaled, finally speaking. Her words filtered through the delicate silvery furs that lined Valeska's cheek. "Valeska, my little cloud," she purred with a new-found delight, inhaling deeply before pulling her face away to behold Cloud Wolf Valeska, now. A gentle smile touched her lips, eyes glowing and glittering enigmatically as the sunlight touched her face. Valeska. She was just as Amaranth remembered, just in a different backdrop. In fact, they were both in a different place now ... somehow. Generally, Amaranth had an answer for everything - but this?

"Where are the rest?" She blinked, her voice quieting for a moment. She dared not continue her sentence, for she knew how sensitive Valeksa might be about this. To Amaranth, her angel was spared ... and that was all she could ask for. She would rebuild, and she would forget the past as easily as she had before. But Valeska held many more from their past life close to her heart.

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It was peculiar, she thought, in the small moments before Amaranth even registered disbelief at their reunion.

Valeska remembered running, trying desperately to find her packmates amid the chaos, but all she could visualize was the thunder of falling rubble, the splitting of the earth before her until - well, she blinked, and then she awakened in a place where the birds still sang and the grass wasn't littered with destruction. For a religious little wolf, she was fairly certain this wasn't the afterlife. She was even more certain because the taste of iron still lingered in her mouth, and a small, stinging gash ran along her shoulder, starkly red against the soft grey of her coat. No; the gods wouldn't have been this sloppy in their vision of the hereafter.

As she had staggered forward upon consciousness, she marveled at how normal everything smelled. The grass was itchy, the wind was heady, the sun was uncomfortably warm - was this purgatory, perhaps? The waiting room before judgment eternal?

Had she sinned so greatly that she could not go directly to see her family, her friends who had already passed on?

With a shudder, Valeska returned to the present moment, turning her attention back to her shining companion. As the golden wolf reached out with a gentle nuzzle against her cheek, a surge of emotion poured out from her like bile, and in a single, violent motion began showering Amaranth with a flurry of affectionate licks, forelimbs placed over her back as if she could somehow tie her to the earth. It seemed impossible that her friend was alive, much less here in this strange world with her, but the white wolf would have time to ponder these sorts of questions later. They had to get their bearings; the adrenaline was only now beginning to subside, along with the burning of her strained lungs, and as the panic drained from her mind she felt the cold fingers of dread grip her heart as she realized that it really was just... them.

'Where are the rest?'

She felt sick again.

"Харпер ... Кай. Гвин. Мое сердце болит," — "Harper... Kye. Gwyn. My heart hurts." she said faintly, lapsing into her mother tongue in her distress. She shook her head. "Do not know. Cannot smell, do not hear them. Did not even see escape. Escaping."

Valeska clenched her teeth, jaw muscles flexing faintly beneath her soft fur, and she swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Miss them. Aching. But glad Amaranth here, even if others... no. They live. Should... should look for them..." her voice trailed off again, a pitiful sound ending in a soft whine, so unlike her normal boisterous confidence. She had to have faith in the gods, but even so, she could not change that she herself was full of sin and despair. The former High Priestess lifted her eyes to Amara's. "Am selfish. Is Amara hurt? What - remember?"
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Valeska's realization took less time than Amaranth's. A gentle nuzzle became a cascade of relieved kisses, paws latching onto the golden woman and grounding her; holding her to the earth. There was a relief, but there was also fearful desperation in the way Valeska held her as if she feared that her golden wraith would vanish from her sight and leave her alone. Leave her falling again and tumbling into an abyss of black rock and rumbling earth ... through the fire and the flames and into that eternal darkness.

Amaranth held steady, a slender but stable rock. An oasis and a familiar face for her friend in these times of confusion. "I'm here," she confirmed gently, dark nose burrowing into the lush expanse of familiar silver fur. Lavender eyes closed for a moment, reveling in the sensation of the twining of their furs. Gold and silver. Shadow and serenity. Such polar opposites that had found comfort and stability in the presence of the other. Heat warmed in the golden woman's bosom, a possessive and passionate ensemble of emotion that escaped her in a purring exhale. My Valeska. Mine.

The smaller woman pulled away, then, a savage sorrow present behind her pale gold eyes. Foreign words escaped her jaws, a harrowing sorrow collecting upon her visage as she realized the gravity of the situation. "Do not know. Cannot smell, do not hear them. Did not even see escape. Escaping. Miss them. Aching." Amaranth blinked slowly, searching the depths of her own mind to search for a higher level of concern. But all she felt was that possessive desire to be with Valeska - to help her. "Do not fret. They're either here, or they're ... home," she offered, sincerity in her voice despite the obvious lie. Amaranth could not know if they were alive, dead, transported, home ... Golden head tilted slightly, back and forth like a metronome, those lavender eyes locked with heated gold.

"Am selfish. Is Amara hurt? What - remember?"

What did she remember, she wondered? She could not piece together what was real, and what part of the incident she'd imagined. Lips pursed for a moment as she evaluated her body and her memories. Physically, she was sore .. scratched, but overall unscathed. Emotionally, the wicked woman rarely felt scared ... but she had no memory of anything after the earth began to quake. "Stones were falling. The earth split open. And then ..." she paused, her eyes darkening, "... darkness."

The woman stood up, gently nudging Valeska ... "The earth swallowed us ... and spit us out, again. Perhaps our friends were just as poorly digested." She would have smiled, would have laughed at her own joke had she not had some minor ability to read the room. So her face remained pensive, her limbs moving forward a few steps before waiting for her companion. "Come, let's look."

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Releasing her friend at last, Valeska stood back. Sorrow hung over her head like a dark cloud, drenching her soul in its sopping embrace, but as her eyes welled with tears Amaranth was quick to soothe. Her soft, honeyed voice, ethereal and melodic, came over the little wolf in soft waves and gently blew away the fog of despair. She closed her eyes, savoring the sound, letting it draw her back from her misery - the familiarity reminded her of happier times, playing in the sunny woods and hunting for herbs.

It hurt again.

She couldn't allow herself to see their faces. It was still too fresh, and the sting of losing Harper after finally being reunited once more was almost too much to bear. Her eyes threatened to brim over, but she sniffled and blinked the tears back.

Here, or home, Amara had said. Home, like Elysium? Their temple? Or home, as in... passed on?
The idea still troubled her; this place wasn't quite right to be the Great Beyond, but she also couldn't explain how they both suddenly awoke with no memory of having journeyed here. The earthquake was still too recent to have displaced them so far away, where nothing smelled familiar and the land stretched for miles without a single feature she might recognize it by.
Her memory blurred. Was there an earthquake?

As Amaranth rose, she nudged her silver friend good-naturedly, slipping in a little remark about being digested - oh, gods; her stomach lurched, and she distantly felt the wobbling, panicked aftermath of one bad trip where they and her sister had partaken in herbs of... questionable properties. Valeska thought they would allow her to speak to the gods as (she assumed) Amara did, but all they gave her was a terrible case of paranoia and the mistaken impression that her friends were devouring each other in the mist. She winced, recalling how real it felt.

"Valeska hope not digested," she said, her voice laced with concern, "Did not like when Harper and Amaranth eat each other. Very scary. And messy. But herbs healed, and no marks after! So strange - hope they found herbs too, if so." Suddenly shaking out her pelt like a well-to-do woman adjusting her skirts before a brisk walk, she strode forward, exuding a confidence she did not entirely feel. They would either thrive here or die here, and the little wolf was already disappointed with this supposed Purgatory. "You are right. Maybe, even..." she paused, turning her head to look back coyly at her golden friend. "Maybe we find someplace with snow. Has been long time. Would also like... home again. If not there, find or make one here. If we find others. Worry there might be demons here instead though, father said were gatekeepers of Hell! Would be much dread."
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Amaranth realized, then, that her words may have been taken to the extreme literal. She noticed the way that Valeska's muscles tensed and her body coiled at the idea of the earth not only ingesting, but also subsequently digesting their friends. Bodies boiling in the hot lava of the planet's core. It was fantastical, wasn't it? A slender smile pulled at dark lips. Perhaps it was not a thought that was too obscure, after all. For what was an earthquake but the hungry pang of the earth's core? A threat to ingest? A threat to remind the smaller mortal beings of this plane that there was no control. It was, perhaps, an idea very similar to Valeska's belief in the greater powers ... in gods that held the fate of much more minor beings in their ethereal paws.

"Valeska hope not digested," her angel commented, and Amaranth's ethereal voice escaped her lips in a soft, rolling laugh. "Did not like when Harper and Amaranth eat each other. Very scary. And messy." Her shoulders shrugged gently, stretching her aching muscles for an abbreviated moment as she contemplated ... gently ... quietly ... until her body unraveled like a ribbon from a spool, spine uncoiling and moving her forward as she took an exaggerated, delicate step toward Valeska.

Her golden body coiled around the smaller, stockier frame of her friend like a protective, slithering viper. One might almost think they could hear that serpentine hiss as she exhaled a gentle breath; intoxicating, venemous. Delicious angel. "Don't worry. No one will be eating you while I'm around," (no one but me) she promised dangerously, lavender eyes glinting as a smile touched her lips. Her cheek rubbed against Valeska's as she uncoiled again, slinking forward into the grass again as Valeska moved forward with her.

Their search would start now.

As they moved forward, through the endless expanse of nowhere, Valeska mentioned the mountains. Snow. Home. A soft sigh escaped her; Amaranth could not say that she did not miss the boneyard. The eerie, ashen tree that covered their stony labyrinth that they'd called home. But the snow? The mountains? Amaranth had forgotten that Valeska hailed from the higher peaks ... that she enjoyed the frigid bite of arctic air. Eternal winter. She could vomit. "The snow?" She peeked over her shoulder, raising a brow. "I fear I'll freeze," she crooned dramatically. 

Movements continued mechanically. Looking for everything. Looking for nothing. The sun was beating down from directly overhead as the ghostly woman contemplated their next steps ... There were none, really. "But perhaps it would be easier to spot our friends from the peaks. Perhaps the ground has spit them out somewhere ... else?" Her head tilted, eyes questioning for a moment as she lost track of her logic. Her expression held question as she silently inquired and probed Valeska's train of thought. Did that make sense? For their friends to be somewhere else? What logic dictated that they all must be ... together?

A frown finally took hold of her expression, for none of this really made sense at all.

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The vision of her beloved sister Harper sliding into a gaping pit, never to be seen again, gnawed hungrily at her thoughts. What if Amaranth was right? What if the ground really had opened up and swallowed them all whole - and if only they two had awoken here, then would that mean their friends lay at the bottom of some forgotten chasm, broken and battered and helpless? If this was Purgatory, then they had to been the only ones to...

She swallowed the lump in her throat. There was no way they were dead. Surely, in the fever of the adrenaline rush, instinct had taken over and flown them far and away to these distant lands as an escape, and they had simply repressed the white-hot memory in the general panic. Besides, Valeska knew she would ascend to the heavens immediately when she perished; she had been very good about her swears lately, and had only thought about dancing* once in the last five hours, which was pretty good by her current standards.

The gentle laughter of her friend rolled into her thoughts, languidly pushing out all of the worry and mindless chatter she had filled her mind with. Like a lazy cat stretching in the sun, the golden aura of her airy voice expanded within its walls and overtook her attention completely, until the white wolf's forlorn gaze returned from the ground to meet amethyst eyes once more. As Amaranth flowed across the grass to slither around her, all she could think of was how warm and soft she was - her reassurance a salve, her words medicine, her scent oxygen itself. It was a heady cocktail to take in, and for a moment, Valeska's vision blurred. 'Don't worry. No one will be eating you while I'm around,' she promised, her tone a purr mingled with a serpentine hiss.

As quickly as the moment had come, it had gone once more, and so too had the lavender warmth that had wound itself around her cloudy form. The little wolf exhaled as her friend voiced concern over turning into a living popsicle in her preferred climate; it was such a shame, as this had been a problem in their pack back home. Valeska seemed to be the only one suited to arctic temperatures and rolling tundras with her thick, fluffy coat as a protective layer, but when it came to finding a permanent residence the majority vote had won, and so they made their den in the sweaty woods next to an abandoned boneyard in the middle of the strangest place they could find.
She missed it dearly.

"Oh, but Amaranth will make such beautiful frozen statue," she said, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. It was difficult feeling happy given the circumstances, but a little light teasing helped to alleviate some of her dark mood. Trotting forward to stand next to her, she paused. "Would like to think earth not spit, but let gently fall out, like regurgitate for pups. But maybe not as yuck. Would like to see friends without stink. Well, suppose shall not find standing here... find direction, gods-speaker!" Valeska still (wrongly) assumed that Amara held a connection to the gods that she herself did not possess, owing to her many cryptic messages that always seemed just vague enough to come true, as well as her penchant for collecting holy-shaped things and petting skulls she spoke to in a familiar sort of way.

Taking a deep breath, she steadied her nerves and looked to the horizon.


{Exit Valeska}


*intercourse, but she misheard a flirtatious descriptive for it and assumed it was the actual word
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The two continued in their flirtations, a slow-moving tango that tantalized the senses (or at least, for Amaranth it did). Whether it was just a deeper sort of friendship, or perhaps something more, Amaranth did know. At least, she didn't know yet. Labels did not grace her mind, for labels were but a trap of the mind. Amaranth did not need labels, for she knew what she wanted ... and when she wanted it. And right now Valeska fit that category, with her soft plumage, her airy grace, and her comforting familiarity. Amaranth would watch her, purple gaze locked deeply with those eyes that mirrored the sun; delicately delectable golden visages that were right now waging a war between resiliency and destitution.

Those golden eyes ... a mirror into a soul that was so temporarily broken in mourning the loss of a sister, a family, a pack. And yet, somehow perseverance prevailed. The will to survive and persevere outweighed the tragedy. The golden wraith knew that her presence provided some semblance of comfort to her stocky mountain friend. And her little angel provided the same in return. It was a rather lovely, symbiotic sort of relationship that the two individuals held. If only Valeska knew that Amaranth was not exactly the soothsayer that she envisioned ... would it ruin them? Thankfully, the ghastly woman would never unravel the enigma she'd so carefully built up around herself. It protected her like a veil; it drew others closer to her flame.

And inside of her was a roaring fire, ready to singe whoever ventured too close.

"Oh, but Amaranth will make such beautiful frozen statue," Valeska would mention, jest tickling the edges of her lips and drawing them into a sly smile. It looked good on her. And Amaranth considered the idea for a moment, imagining her glittering golden pelt adorned with shards of prismatic glass. Frozen tendrils would crawl up her limbs, rooting her to the snowy earth, and yet her eyes would blaze with that deep purple ... that fire never froze, despite her immobile body. It was truly a sight to consider. "I suppose I would," she confirmed, an exhaling chuckle pressing between her lips as her eyes glanced playfully toward the other. "And then you could use me to decorate your new den." Alas, even as a statue, she insisted on intrusion into Valska's life.

As their conversation drifted, Valeska began to make mention of their stinking friends and her ignited desire to find them. Amaranth supposed she should be pleased that the woman's mood was improved. "...find direction, gods-speaker!" And with that, Valeska fell into step behind the golden wraith, trusting in her effervescent wisdom. Wondering paws meandered forward, once again alone in a new and strange world that was littered with treasure and prizes (and the hungry dragon would find each and every one of those prizes). Amaranth followed what she envisioned was a path within the winding tendrils of grass; an imaginary road. She could swear that the way the long blades of vegetation bent opened the path for her ... for them. Like a parting sea, it guided her way.

And she would lead them everywhere. She would lead them nowhere.

Amaranth Exits

---

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