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+---- Thread: Fool's Gold Chasm wide awake but it just feels wrong (/showthread.php?tid=22453)
wide awake but it just feels wrong - Riven - Apr 05, 2024
Riven’s return! Please note that any interactions with humans were outside of the Lore
He couldn’t really remember much of it, now. Teeth and claws and being chased, searing pain in his head and his back and everywhere fangs could reach. He’d run as long as he could, winded and unsure of where he was going, until the ground had dropped out from under his feet and he’d fallen. He couldn’t recall the impact that followed.
What happened after that came in bits and pieces. Legs that wouldn’t function, dragging himself in a direction and hoping it was the right one. And then he was lifted, placed into something that rumbled and moved and made him sick to his stomach.
And then, in and out. Awake and asleep. Strange pink faces looking at him, touching him with strange paws. A comfortable place to lay down. Chest infections and swelling in his back, a ringing in his ear. It was hellish, not understanding what was going on or where he was. It was strange to be the patient, instead of the healer.
But as scary as it was, the strange pink creatures seemed to be helping him. Over time - a lot of it - he was able to walk again, his infections cleared up, and he was placed into an area with other wolves nearby. He would howl to them, learn their names, but they were separated. Trapped, like him.
He was fed and had room to run around, and eventually, they introduced other wolves to him. It was nice, to have that companionship, but Riven needed out. Needed to get back home, now that he was better.
It took some time, but eventually he managed to slip by one of the pink creature’s legs when they opened the weird mesh wall that separated him from the outside world.
And then, Riven ran.
As far and as fast as he could. The environment here was warmer than it’d been in the home he’d made with his friends, so he knew he had to go north. He just wasn’t sure how far north.
It turned out to be very far north.
Months and months of travel, of encountering new wolves and lending a hand where he could - never staying in one place more than a few days - he had begun to come across familiar landmarks. Riven could’ve cried in relief the first time he’d recognized his surroundings, and pushed his tired body to go a little faster, run a little farther.
Straight to Fool’s Gold Chasm.
He wasn’t quite sure what to expect once he got there. To tackle Rhaegara, to be tackled by Enera. For Woya to say something snarky. To press up next to Adelard. To be welcomed home, warm and safe and reunited with the wolves he cared about more than anything else in the world.
Not… this. Not silence and sterility, lacking in the familiar scents of his pack. Devastation washed over Riven’s entire being, his chest sinking to his stomach and his throat tightening in panic.
Where were they? What had happened?
For a while, Riven raced around what used to be their territory, tipping his head back to howl near desperately for his companions, hoping against hope that this was some kind of nightmare, some kind of joke, that any one of them would come out from behind a bush at some point and reassure him that they weren’t gone - that he was wrong.
But nothing happened.
Eventually, with his legs aching and body trembling in disbelief and horror, Riven froze in front of what used to be the communal den, long since abandoned.