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| Hopelessly Lost... |
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Whilst walking in the woods, you chance upon a path, long forgotten to all but one, twisting and winding it's way into
denser foliage. Stumbling a bit in the dark, wincing as thorns scrape against, you continue down this new way, and find yourself
in a small clearing. It looks rather dismal, but after the claustrophobic experience behind, it seems like a spot of heaven
come to earth. In the middle of this clearing stands a tree, burned black by repeated lightning-strikes. It's leafless
limbs are covered with a gray moss, which hangs almost to the bare ground. Leaning against it's frail trunk is a small feline
figure, body riddled with scars of various size, the most notable ones being the two streaks running down each shoulder,
almost symmetrical. You call out a rather cautious greeting, or, if you are the silent type, you simply sit and wait.
Either way, she turns her head because of your voice or because of...you're not quite sure. You are in turn greeted with a strange,
perhaps grisly,(depending on your way of thinking) sight. Three eyes stare at you, a pair of almond shaped crimson and one a single
eye, milky white, set in the middle of her forehead, like some absurd blinking jewel. | "Good even," she says mildly,"You're not here because you want to know about me. You're here because you were stupid enough to follow a random path to the middle of nowhere," after a moment, she adds, "And I'm afraid you may have a spot of trouble getting back," her two dark red eyes fix upon something behind you. You turn your head to follow her gaze, and find that the way back has been closed in, the same thorns that had scratched at you leering in some sort of teasing grin. A trifle annoyed, you turn back to the Kougress, but she is gone. Hearing a small clearing of the throat, you look down to see her. "There, I've gotten a better look at you," she continued simply, clicking her talons against the earth absent-mindedly, "The trees often do that in the Haunted Wood." At your look of surprise, she elaborates, "A reason why the exact perimeters of the Haunted Wood are unknown. The trees tend to shift, moving where they will. My name is Nadiesco, but to the few that know me, I also go by Diesco, or maybe even Nadie. You are #USERNAME, although your nickname is hidden from me. How do I know your name?," she continues with a glint in her two "seeing" eyes, "Unlike those Lupes who simply smile and remain mysterious, I have a reason. This." she gestures at her third eye. For a moment, you forget about being lost, and look strangely at the cloudy white ball which stared back, blinking. "Curious, are you? Disgusted, perhaps? I frankly don't care; you wouldn't be the first." Diesco went on, "Like to know more, maybe? I suppose I could tell the story yet again. One more time couldn't possibly hurt, although I'm beginning to think taking a recording with me would be best. Anyway, here is my tale, how it has been so far..." |
| An Eye for an Eye |
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I was born with this eye, inherited it genetically from my mother's side of the family.
Well, what I am trying to say by this is that my eye is not a silly mutation, nor is it an . My mother was
of a unique kind, as I suppose you've already inferred. She also had the third eye, except it was clear, and almost seemed a
normal eye. Almost. Her kind, my kind, used that third eye to look not into this world, but into different dimensions,
dimensions that gave information. In other words, they could predict the future, although many times things would not be clear
until the actual occurrence of what had been "seen". The ability wasn't limited to my species, either. Any species could inherit
the "sight"; I myself have run into a Lupe with the ability, although he was very old,and this was a while back,so I do not know whether he still lives.
My mother fell in love with one not like her, a "normal" Kougra if you will. I was the product of their love. And because I had only half the with the "sight", my eye was clouded, and my vision through it limited. Half the , half the power; my ability at the sight was only half that of my mother's. Which is perhaps what saved me. Being able to see into the future is not considered a gift. There is a legend that may be familiar to you. Many versions of it are told, but it goes like this: Once there was a man who commited the worst ever deed on the earth, so awful that he stood before the gods themselves for trial. After careful consideration, they decided on his punishment: he was to be given the ability to see everything in the future. At first, the man was elated, thinking he had gotten off easy. But within a day of returning to earth, he . Just as my mother did. My mother saw something the day she took her life, and years later, when I look back, I wonder if what she saw has already happened. My father's depression leading to . My imprisonment. But I am getting ahead of myself, so I will start with my father's reaction. I was young, and took my mother's hard, but my father took it harder. Day after day I would watch him grieve, acting an age even younger than mine at that time, which was barely more than a cub. Inexperience at the art of the hunt was a crippling effect, and oftentimes we were without food. After a year of living like this, I received sudden insight. I don't know whether it came through my eye or it was simply through common sense, but I knew he was never going to recover from this emotional cancer, knew that it was going to eat away at him until his . And I was right. Years later, I would come back to be greeted by his skull lying there, overgrown with grass, grinning at me in the moonlight. After that, I didn't really have a sense of where to go, wandering aimlessly through the woods, and found that the Haunted Wood, however gloomy, was best, offering a sort of privacy that no other wood could give. For the first time in my life, my third eye failed me. I was captured. Captured by humans wearing lab coats in the middle of a damn forest. Why did they capture me? The eye. I was taken back to their lab to be examined, and luckily I wasn't killed to be examined further, as I later discovered many creatures often were. They ID'd me by a hole in my ear and attaching a tag through it. I heard them babbling stupidly over my eye, over how it could be a "missing link", that I was an evolving creature. What a load of crap. I was moved from laboratory to laboratory, and each asked me that same batch of questions. One I especially liked answering was "What can you see through the eye?" My answers varied greatly, as I enjoyed playing with their minds, and they seemed to believe everything, from "I see people," to various others of my own invention. It was amusing how gullible they were. But that was the only good side to the situation. I was kept in a cage where I couldn't stand without suffering a bump to the head, and my eye was regularly poked; it's a miracle it works now. I was fed once a week, which wasn't so bad, since it was a miracle I was fed at all. It wasn't because the "scientists" were being abusive purposely, it was because the one who was responsible for feeding all the creatures penned in the lab, the caretaker, spent the money meant to feed us for his starving family. No matter how thin we appeared, the scientists never knew. But it doesn't matter now. The caretaker is , and although it has long washed off, I still see his staining my claws. All during this time, my eye refused to work; I was as blind to the sight as my pathetic humans. But even with that factor, I got my chance to escape. It was Christmas, two years after I had been captured. The scientists were roaring drunk. Trying to show off to their friends, they took them to gloat over me. All the s stared at me like I was some gutless half-wit, while the scientists told the tale of my capture blown extensively out of proportion. The scientist in the story seemed a daring adventurer and me myself a cunning ferocious creature, with the ability to shoot laser beams from my eye. They reassured the s, saying that my eye couldn't do that any longer, since they had (place long made-up scientific term here) it. Rather entertaining, I must say. But as I listened, I also noted the drunken state of the men, and the admiration of the s. Seizing my chance, I began to purr, and rub against the bars, as best as I could in such small space, and asked to be petted. Their impaired judgement freed me. One scientist opened the cage, letting the s pet me. They aren't very attractive anymore. I was immediately among them, slashing away with bird-like talons. Everyone immediately began screaming in fear (and pain, for those nearest to me), and one scientist grabbed....a mop. He whirled and began thrashing about like some badly designed kitchen implement. In his drunken stupor, the only one he managed to hit was himself. Hands grabbed weakly at me, and failed, although my claws grabbed them. Bowling over the woman in the doorway, I was out, and, not surprisingly, had only suffered minor scratches. But that was just the easy part. Getting out of the perimeter was hardest, I must say. No humans blocked my way once I was outside; they had all gone for Christmas. But there was a fence. Hard metal posts, hard metal spikes, jutting out dangerously above and beneath. I suppose you can tell what happened. I had to get out somehow, and despite the humans' slow, bumbling actions, time was slipping away, freedom screaming at me from across the fence. After a couple of minutes trying to find another way out, I was forced to squeeze myself under, letting the spikes dig a pair of y trenches into both my shoulders. I didn't really care by then; in fact, I don't remember much pain at all, my entire body was numb, the only pain feeling like a faint scratch. Either way, I was free, and that was all that mattered. Not sure at what to do after my escape, I once again took up wandering, letting my wounds, both emotional and physical, heal into scars. And far I wandered. Along the way I met my first human since the laboratory, Forge(forg0ten), a rather interesting human, and she offered to find a home for me. Having not much else to do, and without any relatives in this world, I went with her, and she took me to meet several prospective humans. But each wanted me to live with them, to stay with them in a house. A house. I had never been in one, and d it, d it's clustered, closed in feel. And so I rejected each one of them, and I suppose I annoyed Forge to no end. Finally, she took me to see forsworn, better known as Ate. Ate was the first one who didn't frankly care whether I stayed in her house or no, since she already had several pets addicted to that habit. I took up with her gladly, and have been with her ever since, even if most of the time it's only in my mind that I'm with her. |
| The Present |
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I sometimes visit Ate in her home, and talk with her quite a bit. She has never really asked about my past, but I told her
anyway. To ensure that I would never be lonely in my ventures, she presented me with Embyr, a little ball of fur with plenty
of claw and tooth. I have never really talked to my siblings, although I know who and what they are. I still keep my place in
the Haunted Wood, as you know. Whenever my eye bothers me, when I begin to feel it overwhelming, I go back to Ate's house,
not to think, but to refrain from thinking, as thinking is what led to my mother's . Not like I'd ki1l myself anyway. Life is hard, and you'd best get used to it. |
| Afterword |
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With the tale finished, she twitches an ear idly and looks at you pointedly, saying, "And that's that." You nod, although the nod is rather slow; you seem to be in a dreamlike state. Finally, you remember that you are still lost, and open your mouth to ask for directions, but Diesco cuts you off. "Asking for directions?" She says in a rhetorical manner. A grin spreads across her face, truth being that she looked slightly insane when smiling, but it is a relief to know that she can smile at all. "Go wander some more and find that mysterious lupe who already knows your name to get help. They'd probably tell you their life story as well. You won't find help from me." with that, she lightly bounds away, her harsh chuckle able to be heard hanging among the mist. With an irked sigh, you wander away in the opposite direction, shaking your head. |
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