[ti]6[/ti] - save me, take me home )

one x one for Kleo & Hal

    Vale had so much to say to her. So much time had been ripped away from them. Days and nights worth of whispers under blankets and adventures they'd someday come to forget were far out of reach. Instead, replaced by dabs of a cold rag, or solid arms battling writhing limbs as another fit held her hostage. In her constant stupor, Vale was not unaware of her sister's presence and faith. Even in the belly of the dark, she left a light burning on. Words unheard by her spiteful mind still touched her heart each and every day. The good and bad days came and went - but her sister, she was always there. If only on those good days Vale had the strength to profess her gratitude. Instead, they were mostly spent doing whatever it was normal sisters were meant to do.
    Sisters that didn't have less than a month to live.
    First a nurse, then the doctor, a priest fetched from a city with a name Vale could not pronounce. Each had their hope nestled in the bed of blind faith; each equally met with the same fruitless faith. Father Terrace had pulled Mama into the stuffy kitchen, whispering words that were not quiet at all.
    "It is hopeless. The child is far too ill to be healed. She will perish. I am sorry. I have done all I can."
    Perhaps hopelessness was not only a state of mind, but a place.
    So, on that dreadful night as Vale against the legs of an achy piano that sang both their pain, she decided it mattered not. Priest, doctor, or even sister - they had no say in who lived, who died - who told the story. As cold wood pressed into her cheek while her body slumped to the floor and the shadows rushed in, Vale expected to wake up in Hopelessness. 
    But she did not wake up anywhere close to such a place. A startled gasp left Vale as she was jolted by some unearthly surge. Wild brown eyes looked in every direction. She was no longer in her bed - but a rather large patch of.... dirt? Vale drew her cheek from the earth, surprised to find herself in control of her motion. Blinking, the girl tilted her head, peering at the rather large clumps she sat upon. Were they rocks? Raising a hand toward her face, Vale tried to shield her eyes from the brutal light of the sun.
    The sun! Frightened, she took her paw down, staring at a vast expanse of greenery. She was outside. But how? She looked around once more, finally piecing together her surroundings. The brown was not rock - but the ground. Dirt, as she'd first suspected. The greenery was grass - large stalks of it.
    Sluggish, she got to shaky feet, windmilling her arms until she was able to steady herself. It was when she took a step that she realized something was wrong. She felt individual toes - no, claws... - sink into the dirt. Horrified, Vale looked down. And then she screamed.
    Vale fell on her rear, scrambling away from her own feet - paws. What happened to her? Had she died? Had she been reborn as a... something?
    "H-Help!" She cried out, her voice cracking from months of abuse. "Hello? Please, someone? Anyone?" Then, softer and to no one. "Where I am I...?"





 

Briar Thorne

Her last memory was falling asleep in an embroidered chair at her sister's bedside. The chair had been a gift from a local woman; an antique, her mother had said. From a young age it had been her favorite chair. She knew every curl of polished wood, every snag in the threads as if they were the back of her own hand. She was not surprised to find herself stirring in the early light of dawn; she was, however, surprised to feel damp soil beneath her. Brows wrinkled in confusion before eyes were opened. Weariness clouded her vision, but the chill of dew clung to her bones. Briar was convinced she was dreaming, though she could not remember the last time she had slept deep enough to do so. A high-pitched outcry startled her from her daze, leaving her to scramble to her feet. "Vale?" She cried, recognizing her sister's distress. Running on adrenaline she bolted towards the sound, only to trip and further disorient herself with a face full of moss. Groaning, Briar blinked and pushed herself up, eyes struggling to focus on the ground beneath her. Was she... Outside? Before she could process this information a wood louse the size of her head wriggled from the moss. With a yelp, she staggered back, eyes wide and chest heaving. She shuddered and wiped her hands on her chest in disgust, her motions slowing as something began to seem... Wrong. She paused and felt her chest again. That was not the feel of her father's torn tunic that she remembered. It was fur, warm and soft. She looked down at her hands--no, paws. Panic rose in her belly when she heard a cry once more. "Vale!" She shouted breathlessly, scrambling up and over every small pebble that now seemed like a mountain. Her ears and nose twitched involuntarily, but nothing she picked up was familiar. "Don't worry, I'm coming!" She huffed, searching desperately for her sister, but not entirely sure what she was looking for.

    Her sisters voice did little to pierce the panic in her belly. Still shaking and trapped in a confused haze, Vale staggered on unsteady and mistreated legs. She took a wide circle, her wide set eyes nowhere large enough to take in this brave new world. Her muzzle parted with a silent breath while she craned her head toward the sky. One pitiful cloud swallowed swallowed the entire patch of heavens overhead. Whatever she had become - it was smaller than she thought she could ever feel. Feeling cold and exposed, Vale stroked the unruly tufts of fur ruffled by the wind. Her tiny claws snagged through to her tender skin. 
    Her feet shifted across the shaky dirt. What once felt cold and harsh on her bare feet filled the spaces between her toes. She tested the way her paws burred within the earth. Whatever creature she'd embodied was made for this soil. The gentle flow of wind between her sensitive ears brought a chilly tickle along her spine. It made her anxious at first, but as the gust wrapped around her like a blanket, Vale smiled. Perhaps she was hearing the echoes of her sister's dismay on the call of the wind. Had she perished and become an animal close to her nature? It would make sense; she had always been the shy and quiet girl.
    Taking a few more steps led to a breathless sensation suddenly colliding with her chest. She hunched, releasing a wretched cough. She felt the spiral begin at the base of her skull - an ugly shadow that had tentacles capped with daggers. Her knees fell under the weight of a sickness that had waited for a perfect time to pounce. Bleary eyed, Vale bowed her head, enduring the chaotic shivers wracking her body.
    Disappointment coupled her pain. How foolish of her to believe she could escape it.
    Feeling cold and scared, Vale sank into the ground on her side, stretching her front paws across the earth. She rode the waves of cruelty one by one, her eyes fluttering to a close with a wheeze.
    "Why won't you just let me die?" She asked the wind. It had no answer.