• Solo • An Audience of Rats

Seated on the shores of Lake Lovalus, Rharne serves as the home of the Lighting Knights, the Thunder Priestesses, and the Merchant's guild. This beautiful trade city is filled with a happy and contented people who rarely need an excuse to party.

Moderators: Pig Boy , Basilisk Snek

User avatar
Obriviyanah
Approved Character
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 7:45 pm
Race: Yludih
Profession: Actor
Renown: 50
Character Sheet
Character Wiki
Wealth Tier: Tier 5

Milestones

Miscellaneous

An Audience of Rats

Image
It was after sunset that the door swung open, allowing a shadow to step through. Throughout the abandoned mill, the rats froze, listened, and watched. When they realized it was Aiden, they didn’t bother to hide. He was a friend of theirs.

Leaning against the door, Aiden sighed. His bowed head was shrouded in a heavy hood, and his hands were both buried in his elbows. For a long quiet moment, he just focused on the sound of his breathing, attempting to still the chaos brimming in his mind. Trying to quiet the voice in his head that got worse every time he used his magic.

Reluctantly, Aiden lifted one hand and allowed the oversized sleeve to roll back, revealing his glowing fingertips. White cracks in his skin, like frozen lightning, reached all the way down to his palms. The glow illuminated his face, and matched the same white hot light burning in his eyes and cracks tearing across his forehead and cheeks. A bluish halo filled his hood, framing his head as if it were a haunting piece of art.

“Huh,” Aiden breathed as he turned his hand over.

Despite the jarring appearance of the cracks of light, they didn’t hurt. It felt more like there was energy coiled within his limbs, waiting to be released. Like being possessed of a powerful need to jump and run when there was no need.

The ruptured witchmark was… terrifying. It was as though he was beginning to transform into something. Not in the way an Yludih transforms into a human, but the way a mortal transforms into a god. Or a demon. Apotheosis. Or damnation. He wasn’t certain which.

“Well.” Aiden dug his hand back into the pit of his elbow. “Enough of that.”

Although the rats did not hide away, they did give the false human a cautiously wide berth as he walked across the warped wooden floor. His shadow manifested at his feet as he neared the window–well, not so much a window as a jagged hole in the rotted wall where moonlight crept into the room.

Aiden turned and stared down at the shadow, studying it. As if it were a tool to be used. After all, since his encounter with Tobias, now it was.

Drawn by curiosity, one of the rats ventured a little closer to Aiden than the rest. This one had a severed tail and a white hind leg. It wandered up and sat in the middle of Aiden’s shadow, then reared up and twitched his nose at him.

“Oh. You again.” Aiden dug his glowing fingers into a pocket, then tossed bread crumbs into his shadow. He always saved a little more for this particular rat. The waiting rodent gratefully nibbled them up. “Hello. I’m surprised you’re still alive.” He scratched his chest. “I’m surprised I’m still alive.”

Aiden lowered himself and sat against the broken wall. The rat was bold enough to climb onto his boot, and then up his knee. The false human dug a few more crumbs from his pocket, then offered up his palm. The rat stepped onto his hand with two tiny paws and ate happily.

“I never finished my story about Wanderer,” Aiden mused as the rat’s whiskers tickled his facsimile of skin. “I did promise I’d tell you more.”
word count: 563
User avatar
Obriviyanah
Approved Character
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 7:45 pm
Race: Yludih
Profession: Actor
Renown: 50
Character Sheet
Character Wiki
Wealth Tier: Tier 5

Milestones

Miscellaneous

Re: An Audience of Rats

Image

I came back the next day.

The dog was still there, lying placidly on the cobblestones with his chin on the ground. The body of his owner was still there too, though someone had gone to the trouble of laying down a heavy sheet of canvas over the top of it. Presumably, that would keep the streets relatively clean in the interim until someone came by with a funeral cart and a shovel to pick it up.

I noticed the smell of decay had thinned, and so had the birds. A few determined crows were still there, trying to rip holes through the canvas to get at the rotting flesh. The dog, however, had stopped fighting them. He just watched them now, with melancholy acceptance.

With my hands in my pockets, I stood there awhile and stared at the dog. For a few passing moments, I thought perhaps he had died too.

“Hey. Are you still alive?” I asked out loud.

When I got no response, I cautiously stepped closer until I was well in range of being bitten. I knelt, placing my knee next to the dog’s head, and then I bent down to peer into his face. The dog lived–I could tell from the minute movements of his eyes. And then I felt something, right here in my chest. And here, in my throat.

You see, rat thing, I don’t like to feel things unless I choose to feel them. That’s why I like to act. When I become someone else, I can feel what he feels. Whether it’s jubilance, sorrow, or rage–I feel it like it’s happening to me. And that’s fun, because it passes. I know it’s going to end as soon as I choose. But right then, I could feel what that dog was feeling. And I couldn’t turn it off.

I hate that.

I don’t really care much for animals, but right at that moment, I cared about that dog. Before I realized what I was doing, I was stroking his face and ears. He didn’t respond much. I knew he was dead inside, and wishing he could be dead on the outside, like his owner.

Not knowing what else to do, I sat down cross-legged and continued petting the animal. Whiffs of decay kept hitting me, but I’m a necromancer. That smell doesn’t bother me.

“You can’t stay here, you know.” I knew the dog couldn’t understand me, but it was nice to pretend it could. “Eventually they’re going to come for the body. Then they’ll probably toss it in the pits outside the city walls. What will you do then?”

Perhaps comforted by the company, the dog rolled onto his side. He placed his giant head in my lap. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.

“Oh. Okay. Look, I don’t want a pet, alright? I can barely feed myself.” Still, I continued petting him. “Do you have a name? I’m sure you do. Mine is… mine is Obri. Obriviyanah.”

I had never told anyone my real name before. Not outside the Uleuda.

“Don’t tell anyone, alright?” The dog’s rough, warm fur felt nice between my fingers. “I wish you could tell me yours, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. What about… Wanderer?”

I looked down at the dog.

“Are you alright with that?” The dog’s eyes closed as I reached down and rubbed his chin. “Kind of stupid, I know. It’s just for now, alright? Wanderer. I’ll bring something for you to eat tomorrow, if you’re still here. Deal?”

Don’t ever give an animal free food, rat thing. That was something I learned from all this.
word count: 638
Post Reply Request an XP Review Claim Wealth Thread

Return to “Rharne”