White noise

Turns out, there hadn't been much left of Event Horizon to merge in the first place; what few members remained generally chose to scatter to the four winds, if they had even showed up for the meeting at all, but it was for the best. The decision to join the two was not meant to create a prison. Hawking had slipped away - as much as he loved his 'mother' (Valeska still felt a little uncomfortable about her sister choosing to mother a snack), something else called to him in the wilderness, and so he had left with a polite but tearful goodbye.

It was the three of them, after all - Valeska, Harper, and Mordecai, the large, stalwart, excitable last straggler of those who had lived and loved in the Ichorwood.

After a few lingering days, waiting to see if any others might heed the summons, they had finally decided to return home.

Snow fell lightly from the grey sky above them in great, fat flakes, drifting lazily down and swirling away from the path of the three wolves. The ground held only a light dusting, being closer to the more temperate climate further south than Fate's Respite, and dead leaves crunched beneath their paws as they continued in relative silence.

Well, except for Mordecai.

Valeska had thought to take the scenic route in an effort to see more of the surrounding lands - she did not often venture from her home territory these days, choosing to spend time with Amaranth over other new wonderments - but she suddenly found it difficult to appreciate the variety of nature when it was backed by a constant stream of questions.

“No, Mordecai, we are not tribe of husky voluptuous warrior women,” she replied to his latest query, not needing to turn around to see the disappointment that had no doubt spread across his features. “And no, we do not have...” The silver she-wolf struggled to remember the word he had used. It was a short word, one that started with an O and ended in a Y, but she just couldn't remember what the bit in the middle was. She didn't even know what it meant, but she was confident they did not have them back home.

“Anyway,” she continued, “Does any of this look familiar to you?”

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^^It had not surprised the now ex-queen of Event Horizon to see that none others had come to join them at Harper’s summoning. Folks hadn’t liked change, and what had Crux given them? A new queen from another pack, and now, a merge. They didn’t like change, and outside of Mordecai, they hadn’t given her the time of day.

And then, heartbreakingly, as if everything with Crux had not been enough, the universe took another stab at her, and decided that her adopted son, Hawking, would find another calling. She had known that this day would come; he was not a wolf, and did not belong in a wolf pack, but alas, it still hurt all the same. She had quickly become attached to the little deer, despite having eaten so many of them as her favorite meal.

The only one of them that remained was Mordecai. This, of course, did not come as a surprise. He’d been the only one of Event Horizon to get to know her and Harper found that she was thankful that he had remained, even if he was super silly, all the time.

It made for a nice excuse not to think about everything else. A smirk rolled amongst her features, shaking her head. “Only husky warrior woman in Ev- Elysium be me, and am not... vulture. ” Or.. whatever that word was, that Valeska had said.

Thinking back to Amarath’s singing, of how she didn’t want to make this another honeymoon, Harper smirked and nodded her head. “Sure, it looks familiar. Let’s keep going.” But, it didn't look familiar. Not even a little bit.

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 It was kinda sad but also kinda happy? It was strange, the events surrounding their leaving. He'd thought more of them would be coming along but it was just him. Only him out of all of those members. He hadn't wanted to leave them behind but he didn't have much of a choice. He was loyal to Harper and Crux, wanted to stay with them, wanted to learn with them. Wanted to taste all the yummy things that the new territory would have!

 In his happy-sadness. Tasty-sour? Was that the word? Watermelon-holly? Was that it? Happy but sad feeling... hmm... He screwed his face up, shaking his head as he tried to think of the correct term. Although it was temporarily washed away --by his bajillion questions-- and by his asking about the husky warrior women. What was the question again?

 Now he frowned all over again as he tried to remember the word, he'd brought up... but then he started to think about the other word. He looked like he was sucking on a lemon instead of pondering something quite deeply. They were talking about something being familiar and he felt like there wasn't anything familiar about it.

 "Are you sure? It don't look familiar to me none. Shouldn't we investigate or somethin'?" Sure, they were headed to their new home but it couldn't hurt to look around a bit, right? What if there was food here? He looked his way and that as he pulled to a stop, all of a sudden aware that something smelled tasty around here. He tried to get back on track to his previous thoughts. "So, uh, if there ain't no warrior-women in Elysium. Am I the only warrior, then, besides Harper? Do I get to make a guard and stuff?" He was real good at making guards! Okay, not really but he was good at guarding. "Do you wanna build a guard, Harper?" Sniff sniff. It was far too tantalizing now.

 He began trying to sniff around, nose twitching as it was --quite literally-- to the floor as something tasty tickled his it. He couldn't quite figure it out as he sniffed around a bush. By Mordi standards, this was him calling a break.

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Although she bore it well in this instance, Valeska knew her sister too well not to see the pain behind her vivid eyes. While she could not understand the depth of any relationship a wolf could ever share with a deer beyond dinner, she could imagine the sorrow of being parted from family - it had happened to her, after all - and her heart ached at the thought.

Hawking had been nice enough for what he was, and she had done her best to humor the strange little creature and his attempts at howling (may Houtu make his inevitable doom swift and painless), but Harper seemed to have a special connection with the snack bordering on motherly.

Valeska stumbled over a root and gently swore.

“Ah! I do not like places that are not covered in snow and dead things. The earth is better when it is asleep,” she complained bitterly. “Well, husky warrior, let us play a game to pass the time. I spy, with my eye, something...”

She paused, scanning their surroundings quickly. Everything was so gods-damned brown and green, they were still too far south to make this fun and especially torturous by trying to get anyone to guess which minuscule snowflake she was focusing on.

“Yellowish-beige.”

Before Harper could even make a first pass, Mordecai had jumped with far too much enthusiasm onto the subject of warriors and guards, though Valeska conceded that perhaps such a thing might be useful. They were a peaceful pack, but it would be prudent to have someone on standby lest they encounter any strangers with ill intent - and to chase off riffraff like Alastor and his friends. “You know, it is not bad idea. Could use warrior - but maybe with fancy name, like Shadowsbane. Who knows, maybe I will see if you can best Harper in spar for enjoyment!” Valeska grinned, relishing the thought. She rarely got to see her sister whoop ass on anyone but herself; it would be a nice change of pace.

Suddenly, he veered off-course.

“Mordecai? What... ah... I do not think the yellowish-beige thing I was spying for game was not that deep in bush... what do you have? Is that... drat. Harper, can you see so he does not die?”

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^^Was Harper foolish enough to think that she could fool her sister into believing that she was not hurting, between the loss of husband and the loss of her son? Why yes, yes she most certainly was, because she did not handle emotions well; not in public, anyway.

So she would not speak of it and would act like everything was just dandy, because she knew she’d get over it. Eventually, with time, she assumed and that was that. Life would carry on, no matter the pain she endured.

So they traveled into the unknown, that was, until Mordecai mentioned investigating and poking holes in Harper’s plans of distracting them a little longer. Though, thank goodness he seemed to get distracted with something, because Valeska didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe she did and just chose to keep it to herself, like Harper was doing with her emotions that were all out of whack. That was likely the case.

“Building a guard would be nice. Must be ready in case of… stuff. ” Harper mused thoughtfully, though she smirked at the idea of besting someone that wasn’t her sister in a spar. “Sparring sounds nice. Has not done in while..”

Her eyes drifted towards her sister with a smirk as she was tripping on roots. “Best be careful. Amaranth will never forgive if I has to return you with broken ankle. Though would be fun to carry you over shoulder.” Harper barked a laugh, and then smirked again with the nod of her head despite bitterly thinking that there was no point in checking - they would all die eventually, wouldn’t they?

Going over to check on the food lover, who was - very clearly, at this point - a bear in the previous life, Harper nudged her face into whatever the hell he’d gotten into and smirked. It seemed that Mordecai had found an array of mulberry bushes.

“Ah, he fine. Just some tasty mulberry. It’s snack time, dear heart, why not give taste?” Harper grabbed a stick full of them and brought them over to Valeska with the wag of her tail. The berries themselves were unripe, not that Valeska would know much difference, or the effects that they would cause.

“Is very tasty. Right, Mordecai?” Harper called, glancing over to him. Or was it too late? Had the trip already begun?

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 Poor poor, Mordecai. He had a bit of tunnel-vision after he made eyes on the delicious-looking fruits. His mouth was watering, his brown eyes practically had hearts in them as he wandered right up to the bush. He gave a luxurious sniff and then began to snack... and snack.... and snack...

 He stuffed his face full of mulberries, letting the sisters' voices fade out to --heh-- white noise in the background. All that was here was him and the sweet berries.

 Munch. Munch. Munch.

 How many had he eaten? He didn't know but he could feel his belly tightening and the next thing he knew, he had gone through all of the berries on that bush. He let out a content sigh as he moved to the next--

 And then collapsed.

 He let out a groan, his head felt like it was spinning and he closed his eyes.

 "Guuuyyyzzz.... I don't feel too good..." He whimpered out, feeling his stomach gurgling and his head swimming.

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Harper was always a point of concern for her sibling, who spent an inordinate amount of time worrying over her happiness as much as her wellbeing; sometimes it felt a little bit like throwing gold coins into an abyss, but she wouldn't be so easily deterred from her prayers. The dark wolf was good at hiding her feelings, but not good enough to hide from Valeska. What was not immediately visible lay simmering beneath the surface, and she didn't have to see the hurt in her eyes to know.

But they could, at least, pretend.

“Mulberries?” Valeska queried, eyeing the proferred morsel with suspicion. Well, it's not like Harper would ever intentionally poison them, and she seemed confident that it was safe and apparently already known - but something gave her pause, and as she waited, Mordecai began making some very unpleasant noises.

The Priestess glanced back toward her sibling.

“You know, Harper...” she began, eyes narrowed as a playfully-concerned tone colored her words, “I am thinking mulberry so tasty, perhaps we should share. It is no good only to give fun to Mordecai and I. Come, sister. Let us both partake.”

The little wolf squinted so hard, her eyes were slits.

“Or are you too chicken?”

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^^When Harper had suggested giving a taste, she had not meant for Mordecai to eat the majority of the berries! A taste meant a smol nibble, or a few at most and the next thing she knew, Mordecai had collapsed, groaning.

Harper wondered how long it would take before the special stuff happened. She eyed him softly, making mental notes as she did. Her sister’s playful tone caught her attention, and Harper smirked as Valeska was literally challenging her.

Calling her chimkin!

Harper snorted, grabbing a branch full of mulberries and placing it down by Valeska’s side, gently, with an almost angelic smile. “How abouts you give try first, see if you like, yes?? Mulberry taste might not be for everyone… like dragon fruit.” Harper stuck out her tongue, shaking her head, recalling the bitter taste of dragon fruit that others seemed to enjoy.

Horrible stuff, really.

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 Gurgle... GURGLE!

 His stomach felt weird... and then his head started to feel weird...

 He had closed his eyes at some point but then they opened again. Everything seemed sharp. Like, all of the colors were very bright and very pretty. That helped take his mind off of the weirdness in his gut. But that feeling in his head? He felt so floaty, like he could just drift off into the sky.

 There were voices. Oh, he'd forgotten for a moment that he was with Valeska and Harper with the strangeness of the world around him.

 He turned his head, noting how all the colors and things seemed to mesh and blend together as he turned his head.

 What he saw standing near him weren't the two she-wolves. Oh no, these were instead monsters. His eyes seemed to bug out of his head as he stared at them. They were huuuuge, bigger than anything he'd ever seen in his life. Their colors seemed morph and change with the scenery. As they moved it seemed like they were going entirely too fast for his brain to keep up with them. Normally he didn't fear anything but this. Those things? Yeah, he feared them.

 He couldn't move though, he could just stare, bug-eyed and terrified as they made plans... about chickens? Who was a chicken? Was there a chicken?

 He looked behind them and he could swear that there was a chicken fluttering behind them in the trees, plump and fat. Ripe for the taking. They were tall enough to grab it, he was sure.

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Harper brought the branch over with such grace and poise, she hardly seemed like herself. Traditionally gruff and almost tomboyish, Valeska did not know her sister to be capable of such elegant motor skills - but she wasn't fooled. Her eyes darted over to Mordecai, who lay anguished and suffering not too far from the pair. She winced. The noises coming from his stomach were truly vile, as if some alien life form might suddenly burst out and attack them all.

Valeska soon found the branch delicately placed at her side, innocently, beckoning to her; Harper smiled sweetly and purred something about mulberries possibly not being for everyone, warranting another concerned glance at their miserable companion, who now seemed gripped by an unseen terror (that also seemed to be in their direction).

She had tried many things, but mulberries did not appeal.

“No, sister,” she returned politely, “I insist.”

The pale wolf allowed a lingering moment of silence between them, and then grabbed the branch as quickly as she could and swung, smashing the mulberry-rich end directly toward Harper's mouth in an attempt to smash a few down her throat by force.

If she was lucky, perhaps a few made it in...

She chucked the branch in a hurry and moved to try and hide behind Mordecai for safety, the latter quite possibly finding this act the most traumatizing yet.

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^^The sounds coming from the hostile alien takeover of Mordecai’s stomach was concerning, yes - but he’d eaten a great number of them! A few would not harm - but what about this did Valeska truly know? Likely, she didn't; as far as Harper knew, Valeska did not care for the plant life that Harper did.

It was time to put that to the test - but before Harper could dare move, Valeska was quick like a fox, grabbing the branch and flinging the berries towards her and dying parts of her face and neck red while others landed in her mouth. This would have been a death sentence, if Harper had been allergic..

The rest landed on the ground, and Harper stared at them for a moment, her brows slowly arching, as she came to glance at her sister, who was hiding behind Mordecai. Oh, it’s like that?

Her eyes narrowed, and silently swore an apology to her stomach, as she ate a few more, storing some in her mouth for good measure…

… and then she collapsed to the ground, rolling her body over the rest and coating herself in ruby mulberry juices that her sister or someone else would have to bathe from her coat, as she certainly couldn’t reach the spots on her back and sides.

Once that was done, Harper rolled back over and stood, glancing at her sister with wide eyes and a silly, teeth (though red from the berries in her mouth) exposed grin as she charged right towards her sister.

Here comes Johnny Harper.

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 He was captivated by the chicken --which was really just a cardinal in the tree behind them-- because of its bold colors... or was that blood? Was... Was it a bloody chicken?! Was it going to eat them? Or was it in cahoots with the two monster-packmates?! He began to tremble as he watched it then the sudden movement of one of the large creatures. They were throwing things back and forth and then she ran over to him! He stared at her, terrified that it was now so close as to touch him! He didn't move though, he just looked with his heart beating wildly. Mordecai, well, he never really became scared of anything. If he had to fight then he fought, if he had to kill then he killed, if he was going to die to protect someone else? Well, he never really thought about it so it didn't bother him. It was a far off, abstract concept.

 But this?

 He'd never encountered anyone who had him absolutely too petrified to move. He just instinctively knew that these monsters would eat him. Plus, even if he wasn't rooted to the spot... his legs felt like mush! Were they even still legs anymore?

 He didn't dare look.

 He did look at the splattering sound and the noise of someone rolling around. His head turned sharply, nearly overbalancing him. What he saw, spurred him into action.

 Mordecai let out a high-pitched shriek, probably higher than anyone would ever assume could come out of his mouth. What he saw was not Harper, nor was it the monster. It was the most horrifying thing he'd ever seen in his life. It fangs twice the size of its body, blood-stained fur from eating... the other monster? It didn't matter but it was covered in blood! It had a wicked smile and he knew that he was going to be eaten next.

 "WAAAHAAEKAAAKDEAOIEA!" He shrieked and then fell backwards, flailing his legs in the air. Oh wait, those weren't legs! Those were tree limbs! HIS LEGS HAD TURNED TO TREE LIMBS! THEY'D CURSED HIM! "PLEASE GOD NO! PLEASE PLEASE DON'T EAT ME! TURN MY LEGS BACK PLEASE!" He wailed and flailed, not realizing that the "tree limbs" were still perfectly functional legs nor did he realize that he could have fallen back on Valeska.

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Peering out from behind Mordecai's substantial, shaking mass, Valeska squinted as she tried to understand what, exactly, her sister was up to.

It was a gruesome sight; rolling wantonly upon piles of red berries, mashing them into her thick coat in wads of goop that would no doubt take hours to clean up, the dark she-wolf appeared a terrifying apparition - a harbinger of death. Hell, she might as well have called herself the Grim Reaper with how macabre the scene was.

Just like a switch, something flipped in Harper's visage, and she went from plant nerd to Holy Fuck in an instant.

She charged.

The woman moved fast, much faster than she had any right to at her height and weight, cutting through the underbrush that separated them like a frenzied bolt of lightning. Valeska screamed; Mordecai screamed; the cacophony of their voices rose up past the treetops and burst out into the surrounding territories, likely frightening all of the wildlife within a five-mile radius. So fully in the grip of terror was their large companion, that he could not stop himself from hallucinating something wrong with his limbs and fell back upon his leader with a crushing thud; Valeska scrabbled beneath him trying to find purchase, but it was too late. Harper was coming.

“MORDECAI! PROTECT ME! MY SISTER IS RABID!” she cried before ducking down, hoping Harper might collide with his great bulk instead.

She did not, however, consider her death beneath the weight of a three-wolf dogpile.

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^^Harper had actually not considered how terrifying that she might look with smashed red mulberry juices on her coat. The goal had been to prove that they weren’t nearly as bad as Valeska was making them out to be, and of course, to force the High Priestess to clean here and therefore experience a good time in doing so.

But they were screaming as if it were a life and death situation, and had it not been for Valeska, Harper might have thought something was chasing them, such as a bear, or badger, or whatever else liked to feast on berries.

Wouldn’t that have just been fun? Good thing it was only a rabid Harper. Mordecai scrambled to get away from her, falling on Valeska, and almost causing her to go into full on Protective Mode, until she was called rabid, and of course, she had to play the part, right?

Right?!

So she charged and was about to pounce on them when a bear showed up behind them and oh - oh, it was the most beautiful bear she had ever seen. It was a bear made out of flowers and twigs, and little bird nests for eyes.

So she came to a skidded halt, eyes wide as she glanced up at her hallucination, and then down at her sister and Mordecai, who now both sported beautiful butterfly wings and ant-like faces. Oh, well that’s new.

It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen - minus the creepy ant faces. She didn’t know what to do, so she went the very first thing she could think of and began to very aggressively bathe them.

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 Sister? Rabid? What on earth was going on? There was no sister here. Just a huge beast of blood and multiple heads that was bearing down on them! Until... it wasn't? It skidded to a stop right before them. Mordecai's eyes went wide as it slowed... and then began to groom them. Was this not death then? Was this creature... good?

 He liked being groomed. He felt more content now, put at ease by the calm machinations of the beast. How it felt wonderful and beautiful. It felt like sheer bliss all over his body. He would have purred if he could have... but instead, he reached up to embrace the monster with his tree trunk legs. Pulling it in to groom it as well. "I don't think we're going to get eaten!" He said to Valeska... wherever she was. He couldn't really tell that he was on her, all he felt was the sheer bliss that the berries and the monster's grooming was putting him through.

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She screamed, a surprisingly high-pitched sound in light of her traditionally lower register - yet death did not come, and in its place, the warm, wet, sloppy monster tongue of a she-demon.

It smelled shockingly like her sister.

Rising up from the hazy fog that had overtaken her, she blinked through the mists of her self-induced hallucinations and could have absolutely sworn she saw Harper sporting a wolf-sized pair of wings in complementary shades of dark browns like her own fur - but that was impossible. She blinked again, and the image dissipated.

Insane. Absurd.

Mordecai had shifted gears entirely at this point and was currently reveling in her sister's methodical, impromptu bath, and Valeska just barely managed to wriggle out from beneath the pair as she shook snow and debris from her pelt. The lingering effects of the berries cast a warm glow to their surroundings, and she sat off to the side of the two wolves to stop and quietly admire the view.

“Well, when you have finished,” she said, more to herself than the enraptured creatures next to her, “We should perhaps think of setting forward again. It is not too long now, and then you may collapse in drooling pile at home.”

... Not that she didn't enjoy the current spectacle.

Life in general was made up of a series of small, happy moments, and maybe this was one of them.


{Exit Valeska}

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