one word to the past [open]

[emil]

Before her, illuminated only by a single ray of cold sunlight, grazed her prey.

The ancient pine forest was deep, deeper than any Rykjudo had ever seen or recalled seeing in this part of the world. The trees were giants, enough to dwarf the eight-foot frame of the tense female easily. The grasses licked up her limbs as she stood, a very unfamiliar sensation for the Ancient Druin, and the careful swishing of her tail through the verdant sea took some effort to prevent it from getting tangled in the bizarrely thick underbrush. The sun only barely penetrated the thick canopy and deep haze of the untouched chamber of green, a place that oozed a cloistered magic. The scent of it was cloyingly earthy, and she cursed it for protecting all of the small, soft things that were good to eat. Only through much effort had Rykjudo made it accept her, rolling in the dust and fragrant oils of the herbs and earth, and now she had finally been presented with a potential catch. A trial. And so, her coat still glittering and wet with morning's sweet dew, she stood still as the beast before her.

The massive elk was one that only could have stayed hidden through the forest's power; her russet coat and powerful frame nearly melted into the deep darkness of the enchanted forest, even now, and Rykjudo had to strain to hear the normally heavy hoofsteps. She held her breath 'till her heartbeat starting roaring in her ears, creeping closer and closer as she willed her mind to be still.

I am light, she told the forest, I am nothing.

But her gut squalled, and images of red blood splattering the ferns poured from her mind like a river of ill intent.
Her prey fairly shot out from the brush, springing over and down a hill, nearly disappearing from sight.
She cursed her hunger, tearing after it, the world streaming past like an ocean of wood, the grass now a sludge she had to pour through like an avalanche; hungry, all-consuming, winter winds roaring in her lungs. Her tail slammed against the heavy pines in several places, earning a summary wince from the Druin, but her will to survive pushed her to spear through the dark.
She needed to clear the distance of nearly too many paces between them; she bunched up to leap from the base of the hill, lunging blindly into the maddening undergrowth.

Her fangs met flesh, and she heard a satisfyingly wet crunch.

And the wild Druin rose, victorious, as the birds screamed above, the forest voicing its momentary displeasure at her [relatively] swift success. She carried her hard-won catch back to the base of the hill, settling in a soft, dark patch of luxurious plant life, the blood clinging to her maw glinting dully as she began consuming the creature that had fallen to her tenacity.

So, this was the new world.

[Relairah]

It had been a long time since he had found himself this far north. Though his life had been a constant wandering, especially since the fall of Tartarus and the execution of Endymion... he had stuck to places as far from his home territories as possible. Still... in all of his wanderings he had yet to find his purpose or even anything remotely interesting. Now that Endymion was gone, Kratos was gone... well he couldn't help thinking now and again of the temptress who had so drawn his brothers' attention... even his own, as he recalled... in a nasty sort of way. He had heard that she had settled with the other remnants of what was once Giaku, content to be a part of the new empire. He was curious about this fact. But he was not yet ready to set foot upon the actual Imperii territories.

And so it was that he now ventured into the surrounding areas.

The light that did manage to creep through the canopy above created well separated beams downward and glistened off of his white scales as he trekked forward through the shadow and light. There wasn't much wind, perhaps unsurprisingly, so his glorious teal mane simply shifted about his figure with his movements. That was one thing that was distinguishing about him. One might easily be mistaken about his true age by the mere length of his twin tails... made to look far longer still by the long tresses that flowed far beyond even the scales. Erebus stopped, long ears erect and shifting forward as he heard disturbance in the underbrush and the rest of the forest afterward. Eyes as blue as Tartarus' has been searched for the source of the disturbance.

He only managed to see a flash of varying colors. It could have been anything. But the sickening crunch of a captured prey was all too familiar. Erebus found he was curious. Did he bother discovering who the other was? Or did he continue on his path and in his thoughts as if he hadn't noticed anything.

At last, he stepped forward once more in the direction of the other. The air was thick with the scents of the forest, so he couldn't quite make out the other's. But he had a feeling in the pit of his gut that something was about to happen...

Then, he was approaching the base of the hill and he stopped once more, his gaze falling on the Druiness. It didn't take him long to take in her appearance. He sat back, not really being one to enthusiastically start some conversation. Instead, he waited for her to finish. He had no doubt she would notice his presence. Even with the thickness of the plant life, his movements would have made their own sort of disturbance.

[emil]

Through the haze of the feasting predator, her ravenous hunger, she hardly noticed a thing. Once the heaviness of satiation began to set in, she slowed, still drunken on the heady scent of fresh blood; but more awake to her surroundings. She had become a wild thing, at that moment, her grace only now delicately easing back into her mind. So she soon caught herself, after being so deep in hunger and need, and began the insistent drawing of tongue over muzzle. Her owl's eyes, still hooded and vibrant with a mixture of elk's blood and her own markings, turned with her twitching ears to some place behind. The sea rippled.

And there, despite all expectation and knowledge, was a Druin.

The careless color of seafoam tossed with his movements; an ocean within an ocean, was his flowing mane, and his scales glinted even in the low light like a shell in the shallows of a clear pool. She had no recollection of having ever met this Druin; the number of Ancients was already low, and they were far apart. Wanderers now, her people.
Ghosts, whether we're living or dead, she mused wryly.
She rose, still wild and full of blood and the scent of the earth, and gave her own mane a toss. It rippled down her body, down her tail, moving out of sight like a wave at night. Her movements were careful, measured, but still fluid and easy; the contradictory nature of water, ready to burst its confines at the first sign of a threat. Though, she felt no danger in the reserved approach of the fellow Druin; had he wanted a fight, he would've sprang upon her during her bloodlust, and [likely] been a corpse at her feet when the predator's haze finally cleared.

"I thank you", she spoke as her wild eyes finally rose to meet his own, "for your courtesy."

Her voice was a storm in repose, her secondary vocal cords rolling and rumbling underneath her female's voice ever so slightly. Her red-stained lips drew up into a slight smile as the filtered sunlight played along her pale coat.

"You know, you remind me of someone..."

She looked a moment longer, but soon shook her head, horns glinting dangerously.

"But, that's neither here nor there. Tell me, stranger, if you will, what strange place I have gotten myself into? This is as much a tomb as a forest. I recall something like it, but still, it is... different."

She rumbled, a sighing growl of slight frustration; a reference to the cloistered nature of the magic in this part of the new forest, and the difficulty it presented when she was hunting. Old, but new. The trees were so tall, but everything was so young...

"Like yourself. But, I do not wish to pry, or overstep."

She chuckled. Yes, she'd probably figure it out herself, gazing into those strange blue eyes for just a little longer. She'd glimpsed something like that, once, someone, and his name, his very concept, was on the tip of her tongue.

[Relairah]

Erebus remained where he was, his movements negligible as he glanced toward the Druiness, and then about them to the foliage and the trees and the landscape. He quirked a slight brow at her when she said he reminded her of someone. It was ironic, perhaps. That was something he had both heard before and yet always found to be untrue. He was very distinct, and took almost too much pride in his individuality. And his appearance. But he could neither help nor control others' perceptions.

She spoke of their surroundings. In fact, he knew little of the details himself. Her description was interested. A tomb? Yes, he could also sense it. The death that had ravaged these lands now buried somewhere beneath the soil that gave way to the current life. So glorious and yet so new. Like himself, she said? Did she mean that he was strange? Different? Or like a tomb? Or perhaps something else? A wry smile graced his lips briefly and he shook his head, resulting in the billowing mane about his neck taking part in a dance of sorts.

"Only those who birthed this place from what it once was could give you the answer you seek. They reside not far south, in what is now a united empire. From what I hear, we have kin accepted there now." He only meant if she were to stroll into the territory, the hostility that once greeted Druins upon entrance would not be so prominent as it had been. Though he hardly thought she was the type that would do so. Perhaps indeed a wandering soul can sense when another's soul is similar.

[emil]

"Ah, I apologize!" She exclaimed at his reaction, voice punctuated still with gentle laughter. "It was your eyes. I'd merely seen them somewhere before, in the old world." As, aside from his eyes, he was a bit unusual looking, even for a Druin. She'd not seen kin with a body so heavy with scales before now.

Yes, the dark figure that had once commanded a massive and ancient empire. Though there were others - kin, perhaps, of this stranger?- that she had seen with the same regal countenance and indescribable expression. The bloody crucifixion of a pale moon that bled and bled and bled. Perhaps that memory had been taken from her as well.

"Only those who birthed this place from what it once was could give you the answer you seek. They reside not far south, in what is now a united empire. From what I hear, we have kin accepted there now."

Her ears pricked up at this.

"I'd had suspicions..."

For no longer had there been whispers about the divided packs, and the titans of the past colored her strange wolf's-hour visions; things that still carried banners of war with them, charging blindly into the night as their spectral blood bled behind them. Though she, too, was just a restless relic of the past. Planes mattered not; she was just as likely to be someone else's illusion, screaming into the dark when their own world opened up to them, as those things she saw in the hour most heavy with magic. Something that has so quickly lost its purpose, and comes back to a much emptier [and different] world, is much like a phantom; and, like her personal ghosts, often bleeds through into the new era.

"My curiosity has certainly been piqued, then, but I shan't rush to meet them. Thank you."

She dipped her head; in her dealings with madmen and demons and things she very much suspected were gods, in the strangest groves of the world, she had learned very quickly to show a special reverence to any and all mysterious strangers during their initial interactions. Especially so if they offered information of any sort. The fair folk, especially, would take offense to anything. Though, she was pretty sure this Druin was as he seemed.

[Relairah]

She apologized? As she explained, he understood. It was the only part of him that was unmistakable. His eyes. The only indication of his lineage. Erebus couldn't help a wry smile, the first sign of true expression on his face. "Tartarus... perhaps?" he asked, watching her carefully. He was curious. Had she been a friend of his father's in days long past? If so, it must have been far before his birth. He took no offense and felt no ill will toward being related to Tartarus. The Druin had been a legacy, after all. But after he had fallen, Erebus simply hadn't been able to bring himself to submit under the rule of Endymion's and that witch's spawn. And now... well, packlife seemed a far off thing of the past.

Erebus didn't respond to her gratitude. He felt he really hadn't offered much. However, his own curiosity was piqued by this Druiness before him.

"Perhaps I might offer you a name," he said after a moment. It was not often Erebus shared such information. But there was something about her. She had spoken of the old world. He felt he had only been a part of it near its ending. Those days had been fleeting. And he knew that he had only glimpsed a part. Perhaps she could offer him more than what he knew. He knew the tales and the legends and the history. But surely, there was more. Perhaps she might even lead him to what it was he was seeking. Or perhaps he was getting ahead of himself. In either case, he glanced away again, his gaze settling on the various plant life around them.

[emil]

"Tartarus... perhaps?"

"...yes. There was another, but he was an enemy of that state, wasn't he?"

She spoke as though asleep, as if inspecting something idly in her paws while they spoke. That name had called up memories that had nearly slipped from her; what she had seen of the Giaku Empire, and the execution of the enemy of the world.

"Endymion." She muttered, absent-mindedly.

These were names that had marked the backslide of the Shinkou lands into a demonic hellpit, before someone - or something - pulled them back out. Names had power; the power to protect, the power to destroy. They had changed the earth's true name, through radical ceremony, saving it and its inhabitants from certain death. She was surprised that, in the aftermath of this, there was actually less bias against demons; though, she suspected, it likely had something to do with how beautifully the world had been restored. In their elation, they must have forgotten that there was someone to blame. She noted that she would, at one point, have to visit the new civilization that had come of this new brotherhood between demons and wolves. What had prevented the typical finger-pointing that usually came after an apocalyptic event like that?

"To give your name to another is to give them power over you. If you offer yours, I will offer mine."

She smiled a little wider than the pale, reserved expressions she had offered prior. They were equals, she felt, even if he was [possibly, given the resemblance] from a deposed royal family, and she [likely] his elder.

[Relairah]

Erebus' gaze turned quickly once more to her figure as his half-brother's name escaped her lips, but he glanced away once more after a moment. How quickly she had pieced that together. Yes. He supposed in some manner he and Endymion shared similarities. Though he fancied himself nothing like Endymion. Perhaps he was in more ways than he knew. In some ways, he had silently looked up to him. But he had never quite become his ally, and further... he couldn't imagine what fate might lie before him if even one who remembered Endymion thought he might follow in his footsteps. He certainly did not desire the world as Endymion had... nor did he desire a cruel execution.

He smiled faintly at her response, and met her gaze once more. He debated if he should offer the full extent, though he had long since left it behind. "I am Erebus Tartarus Apollo... but please, Erebus is all that I am known by." After all, his heritage really had no power in it anymore. And even when it had... he had left that territory to find his own way.

[emil]

"I am Erebus Tartarus Apollo... but please, Erebus is all that I am known by."

So, they really were still around. He was unlike enough that it'd taken that confirmation to cement her conviction. Well, now she knew for sure how to handle future conversation without treading on any tails; she'd had no real motive but that. She was not a seeker of power, but of time. She would pull close anything that might help her remember, even dead royalty. She would have embraced even that bloodied Endymion, had he held the words she needed. It was quite possibly the most bizarre quest she'd ever been forced to take on [by herself].

"I am..."

Who am I?

"Rykjudo Hypnos Pasithea."

For now, she was begotten of spirits. For all intents and purposes, they were the same. Her reflective owl's-eyes paled a bit as her facial expression fell ever so slightly. It wasn't a pleasant thought; the damage it had prevented her in some circumstances was simply reflected onto other parts of her being. The beings that lurked in the forests of man's mind found her difficult to hold onto, to possess. But, she had no possessions of her own.
Goodness, she chided inwardly, with tenderness. She was letting herself get too caught up in the unconscious emotional triggers of this land. She was here to find something, not get lost in it.

"Well. Now, we are equals."

She punctuated a statement that would be bizarre in any other context with a small, casual toss of the head. The grown ocean behind her rippled in response.

[Relairah]

It was odd. As she spoke the name it triggered both thoughts of familiarity and confusion. But there was no way he would have been able to piece anything together, after all. Only his father might have offered more and he was long gone. Besides, Erebus had spent too much time away from what was once his home to know much. Still... he did remember long past tales from before the Druins had inhabited Giaku. Though he wasn't sure why her name would have suggested such tales into his mind. And at the same time had offered no details whatsoever. As a Druin prince, he had been told much about their heritage and history. Details he probably had forgotten more of than he knew. Though nothing pertaining to her particularly. At least at that moment.

They were equals. Yes. Perhaps. Sharing names did indeed share power. Particularly in a world where a name could hold so much. History. Meaning. Reputation. And yet it seemed neither of them held any of that here. Was a life of wandering really so beneficial? Or perhaps it had saved them from tragedy.

Erebus rose, his teal mane swaying with his figure as he stepped forward then, closer towards her. His long tail dragged in the earth behind him. He felt no need to lift it or to use it for any purpose. In the distance, time was passing. The sun following its daily path through the heavens and giving way to what would soon be the moon's domain. "Do you wish to venture to the packlands beyond the mountains?" he asked her after a moment.

[emil]

Ah, a voice deep in her bosom sighed, the moon.

Indeed, the sun was a flickering flame, a thin and shivering chrysalis that would soon burst and bleed pale moonlight. Had her hunt truly been so long, that their relatively short conversation had already invited the blessing of the merciful night? The air was beginning to saturate with magic, and she breathed in deeply. Under the moon, she was at the height of her power. Night was the time where the well of the mind deepened, and emotions were heightened. Night blotted out one's physical eyes and asked those caught in its snare to open their hearts to see. Her power was one of the heart, the font of the mind from which all thoughts and consciousness sprang. Her owl's-eyes glinted dangerously in the dying light.

Her mysterious visitor came closer, and she let herself linger a little while over his scales, tinged with gold by the setting sun. She tried not to stare at others, but she'd simply never seen a Druin with so many scales, all glittering.
When she looked up to maintain a more appropriate level of eye contact, he had already begun to speak. She was a little embarrassed.

"Do you wish to venture to the packlands beyond the mountains?"

She felt a stirring.

"...yes. Is it your wish, as well?"

Her expression was unreadable. What was this feeling of tension, light and fluttering? Would she find something there? Having only just entered the general area of those purportedly redrawn territories, she was still far enough from them that she couldn't verify their existence. Always, when traveling, Rykjudo felt a tiny fear; what if it's not there any more? She had seen enough packlands and empires razed to ashes, places once known only to legend as cities of eternal dawn. Cities that were once bustling with people, in her mind and the minds of others, only days ago.

But, she reasoned, this is a new civilization. Young, strong. This is after the fall.
My fall, and theirs.

[Relairah]

Erebus' ears shifted slightly at her response. Once more his blue gaze drifted toward her, though only for a moment. At last, he released his breath in a soft sigh. For himself, he had conflicting feelings. Perhaps fate had drawn his paws here and now to this Druiness' side. Or perhaps curiosity for what lay beyond the mountains and what had become of the lands after the war. Perhaps even to see what remained of the land of his birth. And yet he knew that it was not simply good things that awaited him. But he had to face things sooner or later. And after all, he was not merely content to stay away forever.

He was a seeker of answers. And this was one he had put off too long. And besides... he had made the suggestion in the first place. What was this desire to aid the one beside him?

At last, he faced her, even letting a soft smile grace his pale lips. "Yes. Shall we, then?" he asked, rising on his hind legs to offer her a bow and a sweeping gesture that both seemed unlike him and yet somehow fitting.