Jackson's POV
"It's a bright moon out, you surely don't need me to see for you. Right Jackson?" Irene calls to me, briefly extending her hand before retracting it after seeing me shake my head in response to her. Watching as her figure phases in and out between the moonlight that drips through the leaves of trees, walking backwards with a wide grin slapped across her face.
"You're good over there too right, being a wolf and what not right? Or am I giving your kind too much credit?" She smirks harder, turning her body forward so that she's walking normally.
Hearing a grunt before a response we pause to confirm Keyon's still with us, "I'm fine, we've been walking enough to where I'm sure we're not too far from it-" He cuts himself off, the footsteps from his side coming to a thud alongside an audible kiss to his teeth.
"Speaking of that, are we all good to keep going or is anyone feeling a little bit sleepy? Cause I'm good to keep going!" She continues facing forward, now skipping every other step with her hands to her sides as if containing a dance. I watch as her winter coated hair jumps up and down with her, pushed to side every now and then from the wind.
Stepping forward I hold my weight on my other leg, remaining hesitant to take another one as the texture of the ground changes alongside the rotten scent carried within the air. "Ooo, why'd ya pause? You remember this area or something?" Irene backpedals to me.
"Remember?"
"Yeahhhh time hasn't been too kind on this place, has it? Be careful of the biters!" She giggles to herself, jumping onto what I can barely make out to be thrashing plant. She jumps off it after the splatter of its figure satisfies her, leaving it to dry up and become drained of its colour.
"No, what do you mean remember?" I reach for her arm, unable to catch up as she jumps onto another one.
Twirling back on the spot to face me, "I mean, we were here sure. But damn this place was a lot more lively so to be honest I can't blame you for not even remembering this! Oh and we came from a different angle...there?" She spins a bit, pointing towards what seems to be a random direction to my lack of sight.
"Irene I can barely see what's in front of me, what's all the way over there?" I question after feeling a little bit fed up.
"Oh right." She laughs, pulling me forward and locking our heads together. "Some dead as hell trees, sand and shadows that some say were able to sing! Ain't that great? Okay let's keep going" She continues to stomp the barely living plants, only stopping occasionally to walk around something.
"Key-" She goes to call out, only to be interrupted by his very scream
"FUCK THIS!" He throws a miniature tantrum, wiping his foot off on the dirt and continuing to power through the rest of the zone...zone. "I know where I am...but-these-aren't-" My head tries to fill the gaps of static within memory, nothing but pain and and overwhelming feeling of sickness filling me up as I sway my body back and forth. Hearing a burst of a soft material followed by a dripping of liquid down my leg.
Releasing a yelp and catching the attention of the other two I raise my leg only to cover my nose in disgust from the potent smell slapping me across the face. "Jackson, want a hand or are you gonna stay starstruck like that?" She laughs at me, kicking away whatever I stepped in and pulling me up to my feet.
"What...did I step in?"
"Do you really wanna kn-"
Keyon cuts her off, sounding overwhelmed already by her personality. "Can you stop asking questions for a whole damn second? It was a fucking corpse Jackson, that's what you stepped in"
"But-it was soft"
"And that's what happens to bodies when they're left out to rot and become consumed by the environment, I've been barely stepping past them this entire time. Now keep moving" His impatience sounding clear in his tone as he continues striding forward without us.
"Let's go" She encourages me, trying to take my attention away from the corpse.
But I ignore her and instead lean closer to examine it from the moonlight she kicked it into, I can't help but stare at it. "Shouldn't I feel something...?" I question to myself, feeling a little bit hollow to the experience.
"It's just a human...well it was. I guess it just got broken down by all the plants for nutrients, survival of the fittest am I right?" She smiles a bit before venturing forth back into the dark.
Noticing I was being left behind I force myself stand up from my crouched position to catch up to them.
-
"Now...we can either go through the cave of spooky wonders" Irene claps her hands, tilting her body to the right. "Or take the scenic route full of...absolutely nothing!" She claps to the left. "So what do you say?" She questions to us, making me give off a shrug as an uncaring response.
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Leaving Keyon's deep sigh to fill the silence, "Here" He deadpans, leading us towards what I assume to be the cave considering the lit up torches acting as a guide.
"Hey wait up!" She hurriedly runs after him, once again leaving me behind to enter alone.
I watch the details of their bodies blend with the dark as they walk further and further from me, giving glimpses of them with the swaying light of flames.
"...And again" A voice states, feeling like a whisper up through my ears as I look back and forth between the light. Noticing one blown out I walk up to it, reaching my hand out in curiosity but flailing back when it ignites itself blue. "What...are you?" it states, turning my attention to the figure with white eyes towering over me.
A sudden appearance but one that doesn't make me scared, if anything bringing comfort to me for some reason. Recognising the outlines of its body I call out the first thing that comes to my mind, "Weren't you at the place with that beast?"
"That was me. But what are you?" It asks again, sounding just as monotone as the first.
Clenching my fist in an attempt of fighting the hesitation, I give in and tell it my name, "Jackson?" I watch as it stares at me, its entire form almost like scribbles within reality that bends to the way the flames flicker. Feeling a need to break the tension I respond with another question, "What are you?"
Without a pause this time it immediately speaks with a heightened pace compared to before, "You answered by name, which is not what I sought. Did I miss-understand something?"
Realising the mistake I caused I throw my hands up in desperation, trying to explain myself, "No-I-" only to be cut off by its new comment.
"Saint-" It looks over at the flame, bowing down a little and releasing a breath that extinguishes it. I stare back and forth trying to catch it forming in a different light but it doesn't reappear. Leaving me baffled and a little hurt for not giving me the chance to talk more.
The empty feeling immediately being washed away by Irene's call, "Jackson hurry up!" I stare off far within the cave, watching her figure jump up and down with arms swaying in the air to signal to me. Picking up my pace I begin running towards her, finding something soothing within the echoed footsteps that bounce around the cave. Briefly eyeing the torches beside me as the lights become nothing but blurs, closing my eyes and feeling myself smile at the newly found fondness to my legs preforming such a rushed action.
"Wait-wait-" I hear her repeat in desperation, opening my eyes to see her trying to avoid my advances so I don't crash into her. "JACKSON I SAID WAIT-" A clear panic fills her when she realises I'm not stopping despite my efforts to slow down, grabbing an oblivious Keyon to act as a shield for herself and causing me to headbutt his stomach.
Cringing at an obvious cracking to his bone followed by our bodies skidding across the floor. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" I repeat, lifting my head from his chest and dusting myself off to avoid eye contact.
"Whatever" He states, getting himself back up but not without wincing a little bit when his hand grazes over his stomach. Looking away from himself as if trying to distract his mind from something, forcing his hand deeper within his belly and seemingly pulling something back into place.
"Woah, is that Alpha specific or can all you fur balls do that!?" Irene jumps to him, lifting up his shirt in curiosity and taking in...everything he has to offer. "Is...that alpha specific too...?" She smiles, going to run her hand down his hardened chest only to be swatted away by his hand.
"This body is my own and I don't know where you've been putting your hands, move along" He dusts himself off from her touch, grabbing a torch to spread the fire to an unlit one.
"My touch is that of divinity, you should be thanking me for wanting to even be in the same room as you." She sarcastically comments, flicking her hair away from her face and revealing her smirking expression as she comes up with another remark, "Speaking of Alpha, you can shift for us right?" She impatiently asks, again disregarding his aggravated feelings toward her.
"Be quiet and watch!" He silences her, burning a line of torches that appear to be built into the cave walls. Spiralling up and bringing a statue into view. The head of a man but limbs of a wolf, made way by the chisels of stone and rock left lying by its flooring as if newly carved.
"Hey is that-" Irene jumps up to the statue, interrupting her own train of thought as she jumps to the pedestal in the middle.
"Stop...her" The same whisper of the shadow fills my ear, feeling my body pulse forward to catch her.
"Irene wait!" I frantically grab her wrist, earning a rough gaze from her eyes that quickly clears up after she realises it's me.
"How come? I know who's sword this is, it'll be wrong not to return it" She continues stretching for it but I smack her hand away.
"I said don't touch it" I firmly plant my body in front of it.
"Jackson you don't seriously think you could stop me, do you?" She grins, extending her arm past me as if ignoring my existence. A blank space in my memory filling out like a clicking sound to a puzzle box filling the gaps between something...not a picture or person, instead an overwhelming emptiness that makes me sick to my stomach...being alone.
The imagery painting itself within my mind so vividly, carving itself into every layer of my consciousness. I won't let myself feel like that...again, "Irene" I whisper under my chilled breath that visibly flows from my mouth. "You...will not touch it".
She pauses in frame, only able to move her mouth and eyes, "So that's how it is, hilarious!" Keyon begins to laugh through the weight of the room.
"Jackso-" Her words sounding like nothing more than an annoyance to my ears. I reach my hand over to her, watching as she backs to the floor with her hair spiralled out of place across her face. "JACKSON!" She calls out again, this time completing her sentence and reaching whatever reasoning was left within me.
Staring from my discoloured hands to her distraught face I cup my eyes, becoming sensitive to a tingling sensation that's sparking within them. "Iren-" I reach to help her up but we all freeze in motion from the resonating sound within the dark.
Footsteps tapping and making itself known, heels trotting down the stoned path and kicking away the pebbles that may stop its approach. "The human made into a beast through his own wicked fate, that beast who embraced the spirits of others, that human who made them whole and gifting them with a reason to fight." Her voice sounding mature but soft, giving an accurate image to her appearance that becomes unmasked by the shadows.
The black hair that trailed her body and a scent that reeked of lavender. "And what would you all be doing here?"