remember when you wanted my last name (m)

She was right, her voice simultaneously distinct and very, very far away. Chan squinted as the ground ahead of him appeared to fall away, showing nothing but arctic lights and the inky black beyond them. He put some effort into the last few strides, ones that might have winded him but the burning in his lungs was pleasant and he felt pretty certain that if he stopped breathing altogether, he'd be perfectly fine. What if needing air was all just a lie?

Stay on track, the vision at his side reminded him sternly. They needed to touch the river to rescue the ghost's friend, but the ground had gone as high as it would and the current was just out of reach still. Mount Dire could not even be seen, it was so far in the darkened, obscured distance. This little 'peak' here was their best bet.

Chan realized he'd been holding his breath, and let it out in a loud gasp. His lungs insisted they did need oxygen, after all.

"Can you, reach from my back?" he asked through lungfuls of air, crouching slightly to allow her to climb up. She was small enough, he should be able to lift her easily, right?

lift me up above this

the flames & the ashes

She felt as though she could float away off the shelf they had found themselves on. As if she might go become one with spirit river they had chased after.

Although he had a much more logical plan. He planned to have her climb up onto his back and surely she would be able to grab hold of the river. Maybe she could bring down a piece for him. So her tail wiggled with delight as she felt easily compelled to climb up as he had instructed.

"Mmm, I think....so. Lemme..."

And she tried, she really did. Except coordination was not exactly her best friend right now. Which meant she hardly made it onto his back before she took a tumble. Which was not something one wanted to do when they stood high on a rocky platform. So her tumble became more than just the general misstep that it might have been. She tumbled over a ledge in a lack of coordination and for a few moments she was positive she really had become a cloud. That falling felt a lot like flying.

Until she smacked into another ledge below and suddenly she felt much more like stone than cloud.

Unfortunately she was blissfully unaware of the danger she had suddenly cradled herself in.

(This post was last modified: Dec 28, 2021, 05:56 PM by Nightingale.)

The paws that climbed atop him trembled and shifted, pulling at his fur and skin - clearly, he didn't make for the sturdiest of perches. Her weight wasn't on him for long, however, and as it unexpectedly left as swiftly as she'd hefted herself up, Chan's first thought was that she had fallen not downward, but up into the sky water. He bent his head back to look at the aurora, expecting to see her there, splashing while the river swept her away. It registered that he saw nothing, and then he heard the whumpf of something landing below.

His heart stopped, stuttered, pumped adrenaline. It cut through the drug-induced haze mercilessly. He didn't even know her name to call out for her. Fuck.

"... g-ghost?" Chan was suddenly shivering in the cold, paws glued to the spot. He didn't want to look, and it took a massive amount of effort to combat that. A full minute elapsed before he moved, the courage finally mustered to peer down over the edge of what he payed was not as steep a drop as it first appeared.

"Ghost?!"

(This post was last modified: Jan 12, 2022, 04:51 AM by Chan.)

She heard him, but it was more like an echo against her thoughts.

Ghost.

Yeah, that's what they had been after, right? And she tried to laugh for the ridiculousness of it all. Only instead to find herself barely able to do much more than wheeze. Not to mention the awful ache in her sides. Thankfully she did not roll off the ledge she was on. Not yet, at least.

Not that it mattered because she was clearly out of commission either way. Unable to utter words up to him and out of reach of the ledge she had fallen off of. Wearily her head rolled to look away from above and instead stare out into the rocky abyss below her. Maybe the earth was just layers.

Earth, sky, water. Rinse and repeat...

There was no answer, but at least she moved. Chan gritted his fangs, and pushed away from the ledge. His eyes frantically sought a way down, and while there was certainly no clear path, it looked doable. Getting back up would be another story, but at least he would be right there, with her instead of watching her fade away from afar.

His heart thundered in his chest as he descended from ledge to haphazard ledge. The snow gave in spots and his weight would shift and try to pull him down. It was luck alone that kept him from falling as she had, a rather strong dose at that as the drugs in his system fought to liquify his mind and muscles alike.

He reached the stoney safety net she'd fallen to, and eased his own weight onto it. With a paw he attempted to gently pull her closer to him, away from the precipice as he hugged the steep wall at his flank.

"Hey... Please..."

Say something.

you can PP her as needed and fade it out to get chan out of this awful timeline? ;)

A ragdoll, easily moved by the pull of his touch.

Except even as her eyes were moved from earth to the soft touch of his features and his voice was a pleading lull, she was not all there. A beautiful disaster of the snack she had been fed mixed with the sudden drop to stone. Her eyes squeezed tight as her head spun around with vertigo unlike anything she had ever felt.

"Punkly, s'not gonna believe..."

A half-baked thought as she felt some type of pull to just relax, to find peace in the disorientation. Nightingale was out like a light.

At least the forest princess had not died.

She was so limp, he was sure she was dead. It was a sudden certainty, and rather than his heart stopping all at once, he felt it slow with every single beat, until it was so agonizingly stalled he was certain it was not death but merely the torture he deserved for doing this to the young woman. It was the movement of her eyes that released the pressure and let him breathe once more, shuddering gasps of relief.

He had not a clue what she was saying, most of the words familiar but still doubtful if it was one or another. What mattered was that he was hearing her voice, blurred but present, rather than a death rattle.

"Oh thank god," he repeated to himself, not a believer yet unable to express his relief with any other statement.

It would take time, but he could do this. He could get her down from here, safely, and get her to @Aquene.

And he did do it. Hours later, frozen and disheveled but at the least, not a murderer.