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Dew wheezed as he turned himself over onto his back. The sky was awfully beautiful for what had occurred. His clothes slowly became more wet with every passing moment. Pain overwhelmed his senses from the wounds. He lifted up his hand towards the sky, towards the stars. A puddle of black blood slowly grew underneath him. It was difficult to breathe, but Dew found it difficult to move at all. His body felt paralysed, he was helpless. Stars shone brightly in contrast to the night sky. His hand fell.
At least he wasn’t alone, he thought as his eyes slowly closed.
His entire body felt warm. He opened his eyes, sitting up and looking around. It was familiar. The only difference was, he was surrounded by flames and not the black lake of Hell. Dew’s body had no burns even though he sat in a sea of flames. He moved his hand up to get his hair out of his face but paused, looking at his hand. The once webbed hands appeared to be normal, no webbing in sight. He still had his gray skin but he looked closer at the strands of hair in his face. It was blonde, and not silver.
Dew quickly shot up, patting down his body. There were no wounds, no blood or clothes.. Running a hand through his hair, he stood up and examined his surroundings. “No no no no-“ Dew clutched his head. It only made sense that he died and went back to hell, he was a damned soul anyways.
“Fuck.” He groaned, rubbing his face. The realisation of the lack of webbing finally caught up to him. A thin white line was drawn on the sides of his fingers. As far as he knew, an elemental change when a ghoul died was impossible. But at the same time, no ghoul ever made it back topside alive.
~~~~
“Where’s Dew?” Rain asked as they walked into the lounge room. The ghouls looked at each other. “You haven’t seen him?”
“He never came back to our room.” Rain frowned, thanking Swiss when he gave them a mug of coffee. “Has anyone seen him at all yesterday?”
There was a collective shaking of heads. “Let’s finish breakfast and then we’ll go find him, alright Rainy?” Swiss rubbed Rain’s back. The other ghoul nodded, smiling a bit.
Later on in the day, the ghouls started a search for Dew. Swiss and the ghoulettes were to look in the Abbey and Rain, Mountain and Aether looked in the forest. They all put on their masks before heading off, though it did nothing to lessen the stench of worry.
Aether walked through the forest, calling out Dew’s name every so often. After a while of endless wandering, he slipped on a puddle. He cursed slightly before using his hands to stand up. Aether went to wipe his hands on his pants before noticing the jet black substance. His heart dropped. He willed his eyes to look up and saw a large puddle of ghoul blood, surrounded by flowers. Only clothes remained.
Time seemed to stop for a moment before he cried out, falling onto his knees.
Rain was looking around the lake, hoping they’d find the water ghoul around the water. They were about to step into the water until a strong blast of sorrow hit their head.
“Aether?” They choked into their mental connection, rubbing their temples as a strong headache overcame them.
“It’s Dew- h-he’s gone- I don’t know where they went.” The quintessence ghoul cried into their head.
Rain felt like someone dumped a bucket of ice cold water all over their body.
A strong wave of sadness overcame the pack, feeling the quintessence wash over them. Only Aether could do that, which only meant something happened.
Mountain rushed towards Rain and Aether as soon as he felt the pull, long legs walking quickly. He was met with Aether kneeling on the grass, crying, as Rain stood behind in shock, tremors wracking their body. Mountain’s eyes wandered, noticing the black puddle.
He covered his mouth, frozen in shock.
The news hit the pack strong. It became quieter, less lively. Aether rarely came out of his room and Rain became more reserved with themselves. Swiss began smoking and drinking a lot more, Mountain was pretty sure Sisters were also coming in and out of his room. The ghoulettes were the only people keeping the pack together.
Copia walked into the office. He looked worse for wear, his face paint smudged in various places.
“Sister, a ghoul has died.” Copia said, voice hoarse. Sister Imperator only smiled, no hint of remorse.
“The old water ghoul, yes?” Her smile was almost proud and happy at the news. Copia could only nod.
“Good, good. It means the spell worked.” He gawked at the Sister.
“There is no need for two water ghouls. We are in need of a fire ghoul. It is a simple spell for the ghoul to be reborn with a different element.” She sat down at her table, fixing her desk and Copia felt weirdly relieved.
“He is not dead?”
She gave him an annoyed look. “Not dead. It will rise from its ashes.”