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Open, but special shout out to Periwinkle

First there had been everything. Then, nothing. No weight. No warmth or cold. No silence. Not even knowing.

Was this, Athella thought, what it was like not to exist?

Surely not, for if so, such an echo wouldn't even have formed in this dormant part of her mind.
Warm air beckoned her, sucked into her lungs and spat out in a hacking of blood.

Her fractured form slowly pieced itself back together. Reformed on new soil, under new sky. Baptized by a cold, skin pricking rain.

An entrance as unremarkable as she was. No great cries to non- existent gods. No grand display or rush of out pouring emotion.
She simply accepted her new reality for what it was. Squinting against the rain that beat against her eyelids, she peered into the fading light. Tried to find any clue of anything vaguely familiar. But there was none. Her valley was gone.

skill: soothsayer

Doubt and decay threatened almost every inch of the Highlands. Flora and fauna wilting away, the water sources noxious, the once lively Howling River had become nothing more than a bubbling ooze that beckoned anyone nearby to sip from its tainted hydration. That's why the rain that broke free from the sky was heaven-sent — rather, a gift sent by The Five.

Aelia dipped out from the shadows of an old rock outcrop, a temporary home, for she usually stayed within the safety of what she knew. But these were desperate times. She was still as golden as ever, but the spark in the Daystar had dimmed. There was a pride about her in the way she presented herself, but right now, it had been drained; her usually clean, brushed down fur was now sticking up in different ways like she'd been licked by several cows, dirt and grime muting her blonde tones, dark circles under her eyes accompanied by the bloodshot nature of them. She resembled more of her sister, Amaya, than her own self. But she had no time to care about these things. No, only finding the Runes. They would fix it. They would fix everything.

'Oh sacred wolf mother, please fix things...'

It isn't much, but the light droplets of rain hit her nonetheless. Small pools of rain gathering, but not enough to drink from yet. She waited, hungrily, her blank stare fixated on a dip in a rock; an example of the age-old saying 'a watched pot never boils.' The rain spattered, leaking outside the cracks, not filling quickly enough that she almost just said — 'fuck it' and went for it, but something catches her eye, a distant figure. She froze for a moment, wondering... But that feeling of overwhelming fear never came.

Drink before it's too late... Her voice cracked with rust, she wondered if the stranger even heard her, before she dipped her maw into the rock, her tongue noisily lapping at any water that she could get. She wasn't going the offering the Five had sent.

Athella