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- In a forest somewhere in the southern portion of the former Niflheim Empire- near the Tenebrae Kingdom border -
‘ How long has it been since you left that smoldering place? ’ The question creeped into the young winter leopardus cub, Estelleos’s, head as he padded through the snow covered trail, pack on his shoulders, his torch providing some mild comfort and light to the dark, cold, and leafless forest. He’d been on the trail for likely weeks… and it’s been months since he last saw the sun. And what felt like ages since he last saw his parents. The lingering thought of his parents, he tried not to think of them too hard- he had to keep going, stay alive and find the ocean shore- eyes and ears focused on his surroundings.
Estelleos shook his head as he tried to keep moving, enduring the cold that bit at his young pink nose- briefly looking up at the darkness-stained sky for any hints of any guiding stars…
No luck, it must be ‘day’ then- How long has he been walking since he woke up? Another thought that Estelleos couldn’t answer himself. Though any focus on his thoughts broke when he heard the now familiar shriek of a nocturne shrike, followed by the ranting croak of ravens.
With haste and no hesitation, Estelleos clambered up a nearby tree, the torch’s handle clamped between his teeth as he climbed, and climbed up the tree, only daring in looking down when he was on a sturdy bough some meters over the ground. And keeping completely still and the light of his torch dimmed (but not completely snuffed out), Estelleos watched as someone shambled out of the shadows of the darkness, vaguely humanoid, but Estelleos’s young nose could smell the familiar stench of permeating decay.
Another lost to the disease of darkness- the smell of starscourge he could even smell from up in his hiding place. Estelleos tried not to make a noise as he watched it shamble off, he had to keep moving- moving east ward, as his own parents promised- east, beyond the horizon, across the ocean . That’s what his mother and father had told him before they left. They wouldn’t lie to him, right?
Shaking his head, he looked around, spotting another tree just a strong leap away. He didn’t hesitate- with a running start. He jumped, and landed true on the next bough, claws digging into the bark. Nothing but a bit of shaken snow left in his wake as he kept going. Leaving the daemonized wandering soul behind, Estelleos kept moving across the branches, and from what he could sense and smell, he wasn’t being followed, yet , so he kept jumping from bough to bough, tree to tree…
Until a branch gave way from underneath him.
“Mrah!” Estelleos yelped then braced himself for a hard landing- and he did,and then the ground suddenly gave way underneath, and Estelleos fell hard onto his arm and side after a further drop. Ohhh the pain, Estelleos tried to power through it, despite seeing and feeling a dark ring in his vision as he tried, then managed to sit up, despite the pain- hisses and whines around the torch’s loop in his mouth filling the pit he was in… Wait, just where was he?
Still keeping the torch dimmed to allow his night-vision to take everything in. Looks like he fell into a badger’s set or something… though then noticed something off as his eyes adjusted to the new level of darkness- the walls were covered in a weird white substance, like… threads , said white threads that seemed to make a mat all around the burrow he was now sitting in. Then the realization hit him like a rock to the snout. Badgers do not make threads …!
He knew he had to leave- like, seconds ago. Estelleos managed to get to his feet, hissing as he did, looking up the way he came from, he could climb up, but his right arm and hand felt like it was on fire … maybe with the help of the bran-
Shhfff shhfff
Estelleos turned, then froze, ears back, tail bushed , all while backing away as two great, long, black and white legs probed out of the darkness. The dim torch light reflected on eight, black, marble sized eyes as whatever it was stepped forward. Estelleos felt his entire body chill in realization upon noticing a skull-like marking right over the eyes- a boneweaver .
Massive, opportunistic, highly venomous spiders- normally a webspinner: the females tended to endure the cold of winter in burrows… And Estelleos had landed right into one’s lair. And her body was about as big as he was, at least from what he could manage see in the dark, but her full size was obscured in further shadow of her den. Now, if anything- she was likely curious more than hungry … At least, that’s the hope he was clinging to as he tried to climb back up the branch and stay just out of her reach. Until one leg had just brushed up against his leg and tail.
It was all a blur of motion, but Estelleos found himself fighting for his life against the boneweaver, the pain in his arm briefly disappearing as he clawed and kicked at the beast. It let out wounded hissing as it kept trying to wrap him up in a veil of sticky web. In the struggle, Estelleos managed to at least shove the hungry boneweaver backwards into her lair. The motion of which had jostled out one of the three precious canisters of torch oil out of his bag and dropped onto the silk covered ground. In the fall, the lid had popped open and the pungent smell of kerosene hit Estelleos’s young nose, and it seemed to make the boneweaver hesitate from going after him, for a moment.
Taking advantage of her stalling, Estelleos then grabbed the canister, before quickly retreating and starting to climb out of the burrow, fighting the new pain in his arm and sore hand clutching the spilling canister, and a familiar dull ache in his back as he managed to keep climbing. His precious torch still carried precariously by its loop in his mouth. By the Six and other Gods of Mythos, he was hurting , his body begging for rest now.
And yet, through the pain, Estelleos’s young instincts kept driving him forward and to keep climbing, especially as his keen ears heard the boneweaver beginning to move after him again. If he stopped now, he’d be a dead cub!
Finally- he made it to the edge of the hole, and pulled himself out, a strangled noise passing his lips as near blinding sparks of pain shot through his arm. But he tried to endure it. He was now out of the burrow, back into the familiar and open cold of the forest. Taking a moment to try and get the oil off of his paws, Estelleos glanced back down. The boneweaver was still blindly reaching around with her forelegs, but he’s bought himself some precious time.
Looking at the oil canister- the lid was gone and the spout had gotten a crack, likely from the struggle. Yeah, Estelleos can’t keep this with him anymore, not wanting to be sniffed out by a keen predator or daemon, and with a bit of a shake, there was only a little less than half left. No use keeping it around then. Sticking a dry and shaved out twig from his tinder-box attached to his pack into the opening of the canister, clicking his flint and steel to spark it alight… and Estelleos tossed the sputtering and sparking canister down into the burrow… and then bolted in the opposite direction a few feet away.
First thing that hit his ears was the huge ‘ woosh ’ of the spilled oil in the burrow setting on fire, then the loud crackling of the silk of the burrow catching… Then followed by the sickening squeal of a dying spider. Estelleos wisely stayed back, not wanting to be burned, but a peculiar smell hit his nose, it was sweet, and enticing …
Estelleos’s stomach rumbled uncomfortably, reminding him of the harsher truth out there since he’s set off on his own. Small game, birds, rodents and the like, were getting scarce the deeper he went into these woods… He has to take what fresh food he can get.
After a time of waiting, what felt like forever, Estelleos plucked up his courage to return to the now smoking burrow. Cautiously peering down into its charred remains with a long and freshly fallen branch in his good hand, Estelleos carefully poked and finally speared what he wanted. The death-curled, charred up boneweaver, all his to cautiously try.
He tried the charred legs first, though as ashy and crunchy as they were, as he tried closer to the body- he found the sweet flesh he was looking for, a bit bitter in places where the flesh didn’t cook completely, but it got him to eat most of the legs and the creature’s thorax. Something bitter from the bulbous abdomen kept him from giving whatever was inside a taste. Once full- Estelleos shoved the remains of the spider into the burrow, and took off into the darkness, carrying his torch in his good hand.
‘Brat… Brat… Brat. Bratbratbrat-BRAT! Timewaster! Lazy!’ Estelleos harshly scolded himself as he made his way back onto the right path. He’d spent so much time being still, he almost lost track of the time of day, hard to do so anyway with the great black veil that was all across the night sky. The pain in his arm and wrist were back, achingly reminding him that he needed to find a place to rest, if for a moment. Tears pricked the edge of his eyes as he kept moving, despite the pain, the urge to cry aching in his throat. ‘No… No, no, no, don’t cry- not… not yet at least’ Estelleos quickly brushed the tears with his sleeve. As he kept moving through the snow on the trail, there were darker thoughts he couldn’t immediately brush away that started closing in.
‘ No one will come for you if you keep moving. They won’t find you if you die out here ’
‘And w hat if they’re not there… What if they're gone? ’
Estelleos then shuddered as thoughts one after another that reminded him of his situation, but he had to remind himself of another fact-
‘Yet, I can’t go back… I must keep going… No matter what…! After all... There's nothing for me to return to...!’
And keep going he does… deep into the dark, cold, and barren woodlands. The future for him completely uncertain.