[center][img]https://txt.1001fonts.net/img/txt/dHRmLjE5OC5iOWFiYWIuVkdobElGWm9ZVzR0UzJFLjA/brother-tattoo.regular.png[/img][/center][h3][u][i]Among the Teeth[/i][/u][/h3]
[hr]
The revelry had lasted for quite some time, but joy waned; reason surged, and the Vhan-ka realized their shift in situation. The stone beneath their feet no longer remained utterly level and smooth. When they moved, they heard the edges of the cavern, and indeed, no longer was it lightless. While many of their ilk grew worried as their contentment faded and reality set in, their leader remained calm and resolute.

Once-Fein--Meae Natah-- looked with his trio of eyes about the room. Finally, he beheld once more the world in truth. Unlike his clansmen, who he had led for generations, Meae understood the gifts he'd been given, for it was not his first encounter with divinity. Patiently he watched the others--the man he'd come to know as a brother, the woman who he knew cared for him beyond a friend--as they reoriented themselves and began to panic. As he observed their faces, he [i]knew[/i] how they must feel. He knew that their every instinct told them that they'd left behind protection, that they were lost and would not be found again. Meae saw in the growing whites of their eyes an old fear, fostered by entities both ravenous and strange.

However, he knew something they could not: They had a second chance now.

[i]"What are we to do?!"[/i] One called out through the dim murk of the cave, his voice a frantic whisper.

[i]"I cannot run any longer,"[/i] another said, and there were tears in the child's eyes. Reborn or not, these people were tired.

[i]"...my belly yet aches, despite that being."[/i] A girl who might grow to be a woman in a year or three said, her voice a quiet plea, a somber echo of long-carried misery.

Meae let their words touch him; he let their emotions suffuse his skin. He let their worries briefly slide amongst his bones--eyes closed in contemplation--then he shed them. Silence cut off any further protest from his tribe, and they looked to him. There were no gasps, but something in them changed as they saw him. Before he had been an ageless figure, a symbol of survival and stability in a harsh and unforgiving world, a world tearing at every seam. Yet, he had been flawed as any of them, as if he too had barely held himself together. They had respected him, and he had been an ideal they could aspire to, but not out of reverence or awe as beyond all else, he had been one of them. Imperfect. Human. Beaten down. Exhausted. It had been his perseverance and his ageless nature that had struck a chord in them. Now? Now he was different. He was [i]more[/i].

Before, he'd been a living idol to perseverance--an old and weathered bulwark against a storm that might soon break him. Now it was as if he had been utterly renewed. There was no strangeness in him as they looked, for it was almost as if they'd known--somehow--that he'd always had three eyes and skin of shifting pearlescent black. They'd known he had power beyond their knowledge, but it had always seemed to drain him as if every time he used it, the magic aged him many years. Now, as Meae raised a hand, there was magic inherent in the movement, something otherworldly living alongside him in his skin, bound by his Will.

[color=#7bc6bf][b]"So we will not run,"[/b][/color] Meae said.

His flesh pulsed with unearthly light, and his eyes grew effervescent as burning stars.

[i]"But we cannot fight them--..."[/i] one said.

[color=#7bc6bf][b]"We can,"[/b][/color] he replied.

Meae's light filtered outwards through the dim-lit cavern and touched each of them in turn. With its caress across their skin, eyes drifted shut, and breaths caught or blew away. Their age-old tension left them, each and every one until there was only stillness. Then, where it had lived, hope appeared within them.

Meae smiled and strode out from the cavern. They followed, no longer daunted by the cold wind's bite or the beasts that lurked beyond.

They would not run any longer.

It was time to fight for what was theirs.

[hr][hr][center][h3][u][b]The Unheard Dirge[/b][/u][/h3]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/HaLsToS.png[/img][/center][hr]
Once, the world had been new, and upon its surface had lived an endless deluge of prey. Their minds had spread all across the globe and penetrated beyond its unseen seam. Then they'd had another name--those beasts--a name feared, reviled, cursed. Yet in those ages, they'd been little more than thought-forms bereft of bone or vicious flesh with which to thirst.

And yet...

Yet they'd known hunger.

Terrible, all-consuming need.

To be full, to be whole, but this power was not theirs, so endlessly they'd had to feed.

Then, in time, into vessel's they slipped, finding purchase 'pon that aging, forgotten land.

And yet...

Yet, they could not feed for the apocalypse had come.

Of course, worlds may tremble, men might fall, stone might crumble--the forgotten gods could flee--but their flesh, their minds, their hunger...these things could last an eternity.

So it was that those beings, the Unfulfilled, children of Dream's flesh, had survived unscathed throughout the dread apocalypse.

Yet now, though flesh they had to devour and predate, they found that so few lives remained to plunder and so once more their hunger they could not sate.

And yet...

They ate.

They ate.

[i]They ate.[/i]

[i][u]Too late.

Too late.[/u][/i][hr]
[h3][u][i]Among the Teeth[/i][/u][/h3]
[hr]A thing lurked upon a mountain’s peak but remained unseen. It hailed from a realm beyond the pale where seldom mortals tread. It knew their minds, those delicious treats. It knew desire and thought and emotion too. Now, it was more than these for flesh had it been gifted, yet even such a gracious gift could not leave its mind uplifted.

For it was a fire in the chest, seething, seeking to destroy. It was what might kindle fury or revenge. Red and black were its colors. Blood, fire, and decay. Its eyes they reviled, its talons twisted, and muscles gripped and tore. As it lusted after targets, it swore and swore and swore. Pure malice: Discontent. Vile, putrid mind-rot, and yet in this beast, it would not relent.

Head rising, wrought of black and silver bone, the beast sniffed the mountain air and smelled something it could not bear.

Joy. Contentment. Hope. [i]‘Disgusting pestilence,’[/i] it thought. Yet these things were held by living beings with minds that it still sought.

So it opened churning eyes, casting mind's gaze across mountains and snowing skies. With supernatural ease, the beast rose then before its talons tore the earth. In moments it vanished downwards, drilling through soil and stone, like knives cut at supple meat. With violence, it destroyed, ate, and expelled the shard's decaying peat.

Soon, it knew, soon…it would eat.

[hr][hr]
Up a rocky ridge, through snow and gale, they trod. It was a perilous path, but they struggled no more. Their steps were sure, their minds at peace, and in them burned the warmth of hope.

The tribe did not know precisely where they were headed, but they trusted Meae Natah; he’d never led them astray. To follow him was easier than to again consider the coward's path: To cower and to flee. No more, they thought as one—no more running.

Far ahead, just behind Meae's brother—if not by blood, then by bond—considered the changes in himself and in his kin. Vham Ane he had been, but now it did not fit. In his skin, he felt a strength beyond his own, beyond a normal man's. He knew that he could run farther than before, that he could leap farther, higher, and land as if with practiced ease. The cold bit at his skin, but it no longer felt like shearing claws that sought to tear away his vital heat. The world seemed brighter, but above all else, there was something in him that he did not understand.

[i][b]Power.[/b][/i]

[color=#7bc6bf][b]"Brother,"[/b][/color] Meae said, and his voice cut through the wind without great volume or any sign of strain. [color=#7bc6bf][b]"What shall I call you now?"[/b][/color]

[b]"I'm not sure,"[/b] he replied, and in his voice, he found strength he’d never known. He heard it clearly and knew that so too could his kin. [b]"This is all so strange; I don't understand what we've been given."[/b]

Meae did not respond, but his tattoos pulsed, and the light melted snow and warmed the air around him. [color=#7bc6bf][b]“In the time before,”[/b][/color] he began, and the wind carried his words to all, [color=#7bc6bf][b]“I could cast my Will upon the world and bend it to my desires.”[/b][/color] He let the words linger in the chill wind as it danced about them, creating intricate flurrying patterns from the snow.

[color=#7bc6bf][b]"They called us Willcasters, and I am the last of them. This power...what we've been given, it's different somehow, but similar."[/b][/color] Meae stopped then, turning to his brother. [color=#7bc6bf][b]"Open yourself to it,"[/b][/color] the Willcaster said, and his brother complied without thought.

A warmth rose in his chest, then a glow touched his flesh, and he felt a tingling in his feet, through his shoes. Somehow, then, he felt the earth beneath him, vast and without clear thought. Meae nodded then spoke, his words a command, [color=#7bc6bf][b]"Bind it!"[/b][/color]

Meae's brother gaped, unsure what he should do exactly, but nonetheless, he tried. He focused his mind, his awareness, and with a glacial slowness, the wind around him stilled. The glow of his flesh suffused the air, creating a glowing halo that increased in brilliance by the moment. Then the light flashed, winking out into oblivion.

[b]"I am Ka-Vhalen,"[/b] Meae's brother said, and as the words left his lips, he felt that the power had not vanished when the light had. No, it still built around him, and soon the air creaked with the force of his Will, begging to be released.

So he did.

Casting a hand to the side, he cast his power out. What followed was the rapid movement of wind and snow like a tearing gale that rose upwards in a pillar of force as if some titanic beast had erupted from the earth with great violence. Ka-Vhalen stared at the result of his actions before turning his gaze down to his own hands. When he looked up at his brother, he found Meae smiling.

[color=#7bc6bf][b]"My power was one of attunement. I believe yours is similar, but know this...it is not the same. I command the world with my Will, but you...you are doing something else,"[/b][/color] he said, then looked past Vhalen and to the rest of the tribe. [color=#7bc6bf][b]"Each of you has this strength within you. I know not its limits--not yet--but I know that it should come to you with ease. Often, the gifts of the gods desire to be used more than anything."[/b][/color]

Meae turned his gaze cast elsewhere. [color=#7bc6bf][b]"Today, we test those gifts. Brace yourselves; our enemy approaches."[/b][/color]

Rha Lia stepped up, putting a hand to Meae's shoulder, standing with him. For a moment, she regarded him before—with a worried caste to her features—she followed his gaze. "Who are they?" She asked, an old part of her dreading the answer, knowing the truth.

[color=#7bc6bf][b]"This one is Hatred,"[/b][/color] Natah responded.

Lia frowned.

Soon after, the earth shook beneath them; the tribe hardly stumbled. Far off, birds took off, fleeing from Hatred's gaze.

Then Hatred arrived.

Stone shattered, snow shot upwards towards the sky, and a terrible sound reached their ears. It was like a scream, a roar, like a rock being crushed. The snow cleared, and what lay behind it was unveiled to them. Some few among the tribe stepped back, but none ran.

What stood before them, pulling its jagged, jet black skeleton from the mountain's flesh, was indeed a horror to behold. It stood on four painfully thin limbs, its body devoid of any true meat. Instead, it possessed numerous stringy sinews that blew in the harsh mountain wind. Blood dripped from it and froze in the air before boiling away into steam from the incredible heat it expelled with every breath. Its head was like the skull of some long-abused creature that had long ago been slain and buried. It had long curving horns with spines that zigzagged every which way as they swept back from its skull as if they sought to cut away at the very air around it.

It stood atop not two or four limbs, but six, each ending in thin digits possessed each with eight talons. Spikes and frayed frills protruded from its spine, and though there was little-to-no flesh elsewhere, something grotesque protruded from its midsection, like a distended stomach or the overripe belly of a woman soon to give birth. Behind it whipped and twitched a sinuous tail that seemed composed of intertwined bones that wove and jutted out at strange unnatural angles. This creature prowled several meters off, knowing somehow that there was a difference in these beings, sensing the Power sleeping therein.

It snarled and snapped at the air, then it reared up, frills flaring out, spines bristling, and roared a thunderous melody, its voice rife with maladies unending.

[i][b]"Run, chattel; Flee or fight! I will subsume you all the same!"[/b][/i]

Then it lunged at Lia, who had stepped away from the others, terror in her eyes. The wind howled, the earth shook, her muscles grew taut as the beast hurtled through the air like a black flash of hateful lightning.

Ka-Vhalen met its charge, his body a blurring burst of movement as he pushed from the earth and slammed a fist of coiled Power into the beast, sending it careening off its course. Other members of the tribe stepped forwards, calling out. Some cheered.

Vhalen landed between his Lia and the vile beast, which reared up again and shrieked, its voice cutting at their nerves.

Lia's every breath was ragged, but she grew steadier by the moment, and before long, she took a step forward. Ka-Vhalan looked at her, and she nodded, then both smiled and joined hands. Meae simply watched as a gale stirred at the feet of the pair.

Sensing the disturbance, the beast's gaze turned to a glare, the churning orange of their unearthly glow somehow diminishing even the happiness in their hearts. Vhalen and Lia faltered as it touched upon their minds.

At this, Meae spoke.

[color=#7bc6bf][b]"Stand firm."[/b][/color]

So they did, steel creeping into their eyes as they fought against the monster's insidious psychic snare. The world began to warp and flicker in the space between their gazes; the snow melted and froze, the wind whipped about then died. Snow trembled at their feet, freezing in strange patterns even as some of it melted and flowed as water across the stone and dirt. A red haze crept across the pair's vision, and black overtook the natural hues of their eyes. The beast took a step towards them, then another.

Once more, the wind howled and whined, but now the tribe knew it for what it was: The laughter of the beast.

That knowledge was all it took to shatter the illusion. The pair needed their help, so they ran.

Yet none fled, for each and every one charged the beast, crossing the distance in mere moments. It roared, but the sound cut off as fists and blasts of Power beat upon its form, driving it back. It snarled in disgust, lashing out with tooth and claw and tail, but they fought on.

Unbidden, a voice pressed upon its mind. [color=#7bc6bf][i]'Too late,'[/i][/color] it said, and there was a smile in the sound. For a blessed moment, despite all the horrors it had wrought in its long existence, it felt at peace. Then hunger and pain tore through it, body and mind, and its form surged with a terrible blazing black. The flames scorched the earth and took several tribesmen by surprise, searing them to ash.

It roared, and the sound scattered clouds. It shrieked, and eardrums ruptured. It growled, and hearts stuttered in their rhythmic dance.

Only then did Meae move.

One step was all he took, but in that movement, there was a quiet ancient grace. As he shifted the position of his arms, opening his mouth, the world held still. In an exhaled breath, his voice blossomed outwards in a wordless song of pent-up righteous fury. It was the sound of one once deprived of beauty, a man who had persevered despite it, who had preserved others at the cost of himself. It harmonized with the heartsong of the hateful beast, but not for long.

Erupting into a rising note, the sound tore away at Hatred's flesh; it rent his spirit, it flayed his sinew and burned his mind. Black and silver bone was shaved away, flames of pitch were doused, and strength fled his every limb. He fell, collapsing to the earth as if a colossal weight had struck it down from far above.

The song stopped, replaced only by the soft crunching of snow beneath one man's feet. Hatred looked up with the last of its strength, its eyes only faintly burning. There it glimpsed the 'Caster's solemn smile.

[color=#7bc6bf][b][i]"I forgive you,"[/i][/b][/color] the man said, and those words they slew the beast.

In a blinding flash, its entire body decayed away to smoke and mist. What was left behind was but a vestige of the thing. Its orange gaze fell upon Meae before it too was turned to pure quintessence.

A long silence descended as the tribe looked then upon the bones of their ancient foe. It was naught but ash now, blown swiftly away by the wind. The beasts were no more remarkable than men, it seemed, just as fallible, just as flawed, and mortal in their way. Strangely, despite their victory, not one of them felt the need to celebrate or cheer. For, despite their age-old rivalry, those men--in that moment--had discovered an unexpected kinship. So, rather than joy, they felt only a displaced and disconcerting sadness.

Still, they had only a moment before Meae turned and continued on. As before, they followed, but now in utter silence, reflecting on that moment.

After all, without their notice...everything had changed.

[hider=Summaries][hider=Post Summary]The Vhan-ka realized that they are no longer within Malath Kaal’s divine sanctuary, and so they begin to fret, only to be reassured by their leader. He leads them out of their new cave in an effort to teach them of the strength they now possess.

Not too far off, a being of Dream and Hunger possessed of flesh catches wind of their delicious scent. Soon, the beast and those long hunted by his kind meet, and conflict ensues between them. After a struggle and some fatalities, Meae intervenes, and all come away from the encounter, having learned something new. Still, oddly, not all are entirely sure what that lesson was.[/hider][/hider]