Grrr!
"Fuck I'm hungry...." Bast whispered as he stepped through rubble and meandered around rocks. He had stayed, watching the outskirts of Greyfair -- somewhat hesitant, before it was time to move. It was his first time outside the border, outside the 'sanctuary' that walled city held.
His hand rummaged down to his stomach as it screamed out again.
Grrr!
It had been a while since he last ate -- a singular loaf the only sustenance he could steal. He ruffled his hair as his eyes blurred slightly. "Hmph," he exhaled.
"If I knew this would've happened, I would have stolen Smarl's stash the other day," the thought of hidden supplies watering his tongue itself.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It was a straight walk, that wound down a rocky slope. His knees buckled under every stride -- his eyes scanning every little thing that shone under the star light. Would the Veilguards search him out here? It was unlikely... but that didn't mean there wasn't anything else that could threaten his survival way out here, away from those walls.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Daecans... Grottlings... Mirelurks...
Words that meant nothing by themselves, but spoke of creatures and apparitions that haunted the thoughts of travellers and kids at night. Whispered like curses -- half myth, half warning -- they were all different, and those were just a few names of the corruption Varrow held.
He'd never seen any of them, for those experiences were mentioned out only from drunk ramblings around the centre square and those slumped against the decaying walls of the Warrens.
He may have not shown his apprehension clearly, but there was a reason those dull amber eyes darted through the dark. Knowledge. He had a lack of it. Were those things real? Was everything as vicious as described?
That was hard to say.
And it was harder not to think about them now.
As if calming himself, Bast snorted under his breath, the sound stilling a few swaying leaves. 'Probably just rats...' he thought, thinking back to that tunnel, the charge that filled his chest once he gazed at those beady red eyes floating back. '...big ones.'
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Still... knowing his luck, this would be the night one decided to make an appearance. "Let's just hope I find that damned road soon..." he muttered, the hole filling his stomach widening. If he was lucky, he'd find a few passing merchants, a kind heart willing to offer a street rat like himself a piece of bread.
If he was unlucky, he'd meet the kind of relic users the Warren's called legends.
More stories whispered in the Warrens that had graced his ears.
Wielders that weren't scavengers or beggars like him, but were more monstrous than monsters themselves.
People who could crush stone with a glance.
People who could freeze over the Endless Sea if they'd wished -- a place too big to exist, and somehow too dangerous not to.
People who could alter minds miles away, bend metal, summon storms, or carve the air with a sway of their fingers.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Hff..." another scoff graced the air.
'Legends,' he told his racing heart. These were all just tales for travellers, drunk tales to scare the gullible.
But the longer that Coin warmed his front pocket...
The more he kept thinking about how sound itself had disappeared in that moment of vulnerability...
The lightness he felt course through his whole body...
Thump!
His heart pounded. For that was when he really began to wonder if those stories... were they really just so?
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The passing slanted rocks, the dust filling the air -- everything seemed to twitch a little differently out here. The wind curled along the slope, brushing past him in thin, cold streaks. The grass here was different too--sparse, pale, soft under the light.
By now he'd walked too far ahead to see any kind of glimpse of Greyfair.
By now his Achilles throbbed with each step -- his heel in more ways than one.
By now he truly wondered if this was the only option he had.
WOOOOOOOOOH!
"Shit--" he instinctively muttered.
The wind screamed across the rocks, and he twitched at the sudden cold biting his spine. The layers he was dressed under couldn't keep away the threat of chill. The wind tugged at the wrappings dressed across his forearm, peeling them back just enough for the marks beneath to surface -- faint, pale and wrong.
He shoved the cloth back into place. There was no hesitation. No one needed to see those. Not even him. At all.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
His eyes wandered to the sky once more -- the stars brightening as he turned. Something in him believed they were mocking him. So high up there, shining their brilliance...
His lips opened slightly, before closing moments later -- his dull amber eyes squinting. "...Too bright."
Grrr!