Skeletal Hill The Eagle and the Bull

@Nova

There had been a familiar scent in these forests. Familiar and yet so foreign. Dark rimmed eyes drew down, only emphasising the elder's confused expression as she tried to place that scent, but oh, so much had changed about it. There was still a pull to it, something primal uncoiling in her belly -  and it was that pull that led her to abandon the borders of Oak Tree Bend and head out here...


Oh the memories were enough to make her wretch.

The ferns were still stained with blood, and though she was losing her ability to hear, her eyes quite clearly took in the small skulls that adorned low lying branches here, and there. The hair along her back was standing on end as her movements became stiff. Lips drawn tight as she breathed through clenched teeth and still the scent beckoned her forth. Just a little further, she could have sworn she heard a whisper. Almost there now.

As the skulls and vertebrae increased in frequency, her heart rate increased, finally discerning a clearing ahead from the light that began to filter through the towering trees. Perhaps if she could just make it to that clearing, (oh, she could imagine it now, just like the wildflower glade of the thickets), then perhaps she could regain her courage, bask in the sun and gather her nerve to push on...

A final burst of speed pushed her forward, but she found herself skidding to a halt, toes not daring to press past the line of the forest shade into the open clearing. Her mouth was agape in horror as wide eyes took in the shrine of gathered bones. Breaths came in short sharp gasps as finally she gave in to the nauseau this whole place induced in her.

She never should have come here.

NOVA
Cause our memories have a breath

The trilling songs of birds and chattering of small creatures quickly faded, the forest dampened by a thick shroud of silence, an unnerving calm leaving only the sound of rustling as Nova's paws pressed over fallen leaves and her flanks brushed the blood-red ferns. The bones and skulls that sat boldly within her line of sight were clearly a warning.

Nova ignored the skeletal signposts, pressing on into the unknown as a heavy feeling settled in her chest with each breath of the stale and cloying air. The scent of rot, damp, and decay, with the acrid tinge of bile made her shudder. She remembered all too well the feeling of dry brittle bones crackling underfoot. Cors Ossum, she could almost hear his voice whisper in her ear. Her hackles bristled, yellow eyes sweeping the graveyard that lay before her.

No, that was far from here, all the way across the mountains. What was this, then? It couldn't be a coincidence. Coincidences did not exist, only fate. Her unfocused gaze settled on the center of the clearing, looking towards the pinnacle of the skeletal midden. And then, past it. "Mother," She gasped. Understanding hit her. She stepped forward, head lowered. "You shouldn't be here." She whispered.

There is a rabbit's nest nearby. +1 Health