Dead Empress Backwater am i the king of nothing at all?

Random Event: Dead Empress Backwater, members of your pack seem to be catching a mysterious illness, it's spreading rapidly! @Vayko @Viorel @Clover @Vasco @Sage @Isla @Jacynth @Mira

Dacian's world wasn't the only thing that kept changing. His body did too. Maybe he might not have noticed it so much, if it weren't for on shift in particular; his eye color. The darker, rustier they turned the more they reminded him of what he'd lost. Each time he saw his reflection, he just saw his mother's eyes staring back at him.

There was something else as well, but from what Aunt Clover had told them, he figured it to be from the smoke. His breathing was becoming noisier, day by day, and his voice was growing raspier, like his throat had changed from smooth to rough. Even in his sleep he could be heard, a softy but steady wheezing.

He set out for water without caring who was or wasn't keeping tabs. They couldn't hold him hostage no matter how bad the air was.

(This post was last modified: Aug 15, 2023, 04:10 AM by Dacian.)

The leader himself had survived the drought last summer unscathed, but was not as lucky this summer with the smoke. It was to be expected to have a smoky day or two on the hottest days of the year, but this was growing unbearable. Constant, thick, heavy plumes hung around the lowest areas and showed no signs of letting up. As of now he had yet to see signs of actual flames, but where there was smoke there was fire and he was growing increasingly concerned as the days went on. Not only that, he had developed a deep, rasping cough that seemed to come and go at random.

He wasn’t the only one, Dacian, the one who seemed to be taking Sharlee’s absence the hardest had also been wheezing as of late. The Valle man took to keeping a closer eye on the boy, and had abandoned the efforts of staying hidden when doing so. When the dark child emerged from the den the man lifted his head from his paws to watch closely, but he said nothing for now. It seemed harmless to let him get out and stretch his legs a little, and he was only headed towards the backwater. It was well within his right to do so, Viorel wouldn’t interfere unless needed.

At first Clover had not been too worried about the rasping cough not only her but others amongst the Backwater had developed, figuring it to be the result of the smoke that seemed intent on sticking around long term. But some members' symptoms were becoming worse, breathing itself becoming a wheeze, at which point she started to become concerned.

Her own throat felt as if she had tripped and scraped some of the fur and skin off an elbow, all chafed and sensitive whenever she so much as cleared her throat. Whatever was causing it, be it simply the smog in the air, or some sort of illness, Clover had no quick fix she could hand out to those affected, as much as she wished there was.

She heard Dacian's wheezing before she saw him, her eyes softening with sadness as she silently watched him trudging along away from the den. The boy was taking Sharlee's disappearance the worst out of the trio, and she still could not quite figure out what, if anything, there was she could say to ease the pain a bit.

Instead she merely watched him from where she stood, having glanced briefly at Viorel and offering a nod of acknowledgement, undecided of whether she should stop and talk with the boy, or continue on with her duties.

He made it to the water's edge unimpeded, and frowned at what he saw. Still marsh already meant brackish-tasting water, which he was accustomed to, but the ash steadily collecting upon the surface was exacerbating this, skewing the balance the habitat normally maintained. It looked and smelled disgusting, and he could only stick out his tongue in disgust and wrinkle his nose. His throat still ached, but in his mind he was no longer thirsty.

He plopped his haunches down upon the ground and scowled down at his paws. Dacian wasn't happy, and he couldn't think of a single thing to do about it at this moment. He missed his mom, missed that brief window of time where nothing changed and everything was good. It didn't take long for him to get bored of moping, though. If this water wasn't clean, he'd find other water.

Dacian abruptly stood and marched onward, toward the parts of their forest he'd never seen before.

Viorel had had no intention of interrupting the boy until Clover had also appeared in the night, worried expression on her face. He slowly closed the gap between them and murmured, ”I see he’s got more than one stalker in the night.” It was kind of a joke, but the humor didn’t have quite the same cadence as usual as anxiety laced the words. He just wanted things to get a little bit easier and with fall and winter just around the corner that wasn’t likely to happen.

He glanced at the woman before following silently behind the child, noticing they were headed directly towards a nearby border. One side of his mouth turned up and he quickened his pace, trying to ignore the way it made his throat and lungs burn to do so. Calling out to Dacian he tried to keep things light, ”Hey now, I hope you weren’t trying to go out and about without me, looks like you got the Nocturnal Valle gene.” Viorel cleared his throat, trying to smother a cough and being mostly successful at doing so.

He didn’t care if the kid wanted to go for a jaunt over the borders, but knew better than to try to let him go alone.

Normally she would have smiled, perhaps even laughed, at Viorel's joking words, but the situation was too tense for her to do more than hum softly in response, gently bumping her nose into the fur of his cheek. Even his own words didn't have as much lightheartedness as she would have expected. "I'm worried about him," she rasped out quietly.

Clover watched as the boy sat glumly by the water's edge, internally warring with wanting to simply watch him, and ask him how he was doing - of course she knew the answer to that, but sometimes it was nice to express it aloud. She trailed behind Viorel as he followed the boy who had begun marching in a straight line away from them, taking her time in catching up to the pair.

It was good to see Viorel trying to lift the mood, she was glad he seemed to be improving emotionally himself after each subsequent disaster they had faced in recent times. But she herself kept quiet as she walked behind them, merely accompanying to provide any physical comfort that her presence may or may not offer Dacian. Clover knew she was a reminder of the mother he had lost, but that didn't mean she would stop trying to do anything she could to make things just a bit better.

Dace could hear the steps following after him, but he didn't look to see who it was. It didn't much matter. His ears had already been down, but Viorel's voice caused them to lower further, giving him the broad forehead of wolfish annoyance. There were a lot of reasons why, and none of them were really unique to the salt-and-pepper alpha. Pretty much everyone got under his skin these days.

"I want water," he answered firmly, frown etched deeply onto his small muzzle. His orange eyes had blazed in Viorel's direction briefly then, before returning forward as he muttered under his breath, "water that isn't shit."

The things he'd learned from his uncle and cousins would likely have his mother spitting with outrage, but Dacian hadn't gotten the chance to know such things about Sharlee. Anyways, it didn't matter. Small little acts of rebellion felt good.

Clover remained somber, but the leader leaned gently into her physical greeting. It just felt nice to be able to accept such niceties at all after so many months of pushing everyone away. Nodding once to her comment he murmured, ”Me too,” he paused for a moment before adding, ”There’s nothing we can do for the cough?” He knew the answer, she had already told him that they could help relieve the symptoms somewhat but there was nothing they could really do. They all just had to ride it out. The dark wolf’s throat burned at the very thought of it.

Dacian’s reaction was so unexpected that the Valle man couldn’t help but laugh. Sharlee would have lost her mind but Viorel couldn’t have cared any less. Unfortunately, the laughter brought on another bout of thick, wet, coughs that wracked his frame. Spitting out some mucus that had been brought up from his lungs, he sniffed, as if none of that had ever happened. Looking at the dark boy he agreed, ”The ash does make the water taste pretty shitty.” Gesturing he continued, ”The water of the creek is a little better since it’s moving, go ahead and lead the way.” He wasn’t going to stop him, but Viorel could use a drink himself.