[Battle of the Tribes] Daily Drabbles

[fluorescein]

5/5: Glossbones- So Far Away

His chest heaved and threatened to boycott further exertion. His back fell with a harsh rhythm. He was straining just to keep up with the murderous pace. He finally lucked out in hunting. It just happened to be a boar. A very old one. Who probably was on his way out. It didn't matter. They were in the here and the now, and this brute weighed a ton. Life was very good to it. He was only a short distance away but it felt like a small eternity. It was worth it to preen and present to his sister the boar. They hadn't eaten for days.

 

[Amorpheous]

Rush of Wind: 4/5

18. So Far Away

The Swamp had seemed so close in his mind. It had been a place of color in his dreams, a gift or perhaps a mockery of his sight, but it had been honey drawing him towards the Swamp all the same. He dreamed in the same grey blurs that he saw during the day, all except for his naming dream and his dreams of the Swamp.

He hadn't wanted to leave the desert for it was in a world of sand and sweeping blue skies that his naming dream took place. It was across a blue sky that went on forever without a tree in sight that the slash of red that dominated his dreams had cut. The desert had birthed him, killed him, stolen the salvation of death, and left him blind and it was here that he wanted to see that red just once more.

But instead, neither his waking eyes nor dreaming ones could give him color except of his haunting and a world so far away that he had only heard of in song and legend, a place that he had not be sure existed.

He went there now and perhaps it would save him.

199 words  

[Tiarana]

6/27 - Over the Rainbow - Wasp V - 116 words (Dogrot I, Hollyhock II, Murkcrow IV)

An odd rock glinting in the sunlight caught his eye. Wasp trotted over to investigate. What he found was far too pretty to be called just a rock. It glittered with all the colors of the rainbow, a breathtaking light show trapped inside a little stone. Wasp nudged it with his hoof and admired the way the rainbows flickered and shifted deep inside. If he brought it home, his sister would hare off with it immediately, he suspected. Still, he didn't want to just leave it there. That kin, Never Idle...Wasp helped him once. Perhaps Never Idle could create something nice with the stone, he thought. Wasp tucked it carefully into his bundle of forage.  

[Chrystali]

Kiss
Bones of the Forgotten | 3 of 5 | 129 words




He watched his familiars play, his expression as impassive and unimpressed as always. They'd buried a few animals that day and he wondered what would happen to his familiars as time marched on. Would they pass away under his watch? Could Figment even die? Would they live to see him depart, and lay with him?

Perhaps he'd gather more. Perhaps they'd return to the Swamp and make their own lives and pass unbeknownst to him. He didn't own them, but they chose to follow and heed him, to help in his ways. Did that make them friends?

As the sun pressed its dappled kiss through the boughs of the trees, the buck contemplated the idea of the death of those he relied on, and felt a touch of discontent.

 

[Amorpheous]

Rush of Wind: 5/5

1. Kiss

Kisses are feeling, not sight, so they are simple. They are comforting in the way that simple things are.

There is the kiss of sun on his back when he races through a clearing unobscured by trees, warm but not searing like the sun of the desert.

There is a kiss in the brush of Omen’s hair against his neck when he is able to quiet himself enough to be still.

There is a kiss when his cheek brushes gently against another’s, a moment of clarity against the din of unachievable dreams.

He finds them in small, quiet places, quick and small, but significant against the largeness of everything else that consumes his soul.

114 words  

[fluorescein]

1/5: Glossbones- Flowers

She came with the scented wind. Roses and lotus permeated the air. Jasmine slipped its indolic fingers and tickled the underside of his mouth. Buttercups all but wafted from her steps. So the fair Maiden graced her with his presence and he was in awe of this stumbling, clumsy and near-blind kin. She tossed her heavy hair and the slight muscles of her slim neck bunched out ever so gently. This is what he worked for. There was beauty in death as much as there was in life. He sought to recreate that with each skull he and his sister decorated. The kin turned her milky gaze to him and smiled. He was vanquished.

 

[Tiarana]

6/28 - Blue - Dogrot II - 144 words (Wasp V, Hollyhock II, Murkcrow IV)

Dogrot generally avoided anything that looked like a bath, though it enjoyed swimming in several stinking watering holes scattered around the swamp. So it was with great awe that Dogrot discovered the ocean for the first time. The endless blue-green waters stretched from horizon to horizon in front of it, reeking of salt and sand and faintly fish and death. For a moment, all Dogrot could do was stare, until a seabird swooped near it and it gave chase. It managed to find no less than three dead fish on the beach, and rolled in all of them. It kicked at driftwood and knocked barnacles off rocks. It approached the water, but never quite went in; tried to drink, and backed up several feet in surprise at the salty taste. This water was less trustworthy than usual. Dogrot soon wandered back into the swamp.  

[Amorpheous]

Rush of Wind: 1/5

23. Sweet Dreams

He often dreamed the dream that gave him his name. It was the most vivid one after all, and the one he thought of most of his days as he ran and ran, in search of something to satisfy it.

He dreamed other dreams though, quiet, muted ones filled with shifting greys, soft and lifeless in comparison to the sharp blues, reds, and golds of his naming. They are sweeter, though, than his naming dream. They do not bring a clamoring desperation to his limbs. Sometimes, he is allowed dreams of the few who have found their way into his heart, settled around and against the blood that flies across his eyes.

Those are the sweetest dreams because they feature the only who have ever managed to offer him some solace.

131 words  

[Chrystali]

Forever and a Day
Bones of the Forgotten | 4 of 5 | 131 words





It felt like it'd been forever and a day since he'd slept. If the dreams of the beyond weren't haunting him, sleep evaded him entirely, leaving him among those awake to count the chirp of wild life for the stretch of night. Often, he'd work when he couldn't sleep, though it was more fruitless than not and terribly dirty; he couldn't see that well in the dark, especially when he settled 'neath the heavy boughs of the swamp. It gave him something to do, and took his mind off of its unsated need for sleep.

Such was one of those nights. Nosing through the mire and the muck, he idly hoped that he'd not meet his own end by tripping or careening down an unseen cliff. Wouldn't that be his luck?

 

[Tiarana]

6/29 - Over the Rainbow - Dogrot III - 113 words (Wasp V, Hollyhock II, Murkcrow IV)

A toad perched on top of a log croaked. Dogrot snuck up on it quietly and pounced. The toad croaked and flailed, but Dogrot had it in its mouth now and there was no escape. Dogrot bit down with a satisfying crunch and the toad went slack.

Dogrot carried the toad around in its mouth without eating it for a while. Dogrot enjoyed the effects of toad slime. The swamp bent and warped around it while it rolled in the mud. Every sound and movement drew its attention. Eventually the effects wore off, Dogrot ate the toad, and continued on in search of the next one.

So, in short, Dogrot liked getting high.  

[fluorescein]

2/5: Glossbones- Starving

Hello Hunger, my old friend. I've come to talk to you again. Or barter, or plead, and possibly outright threaten. It never mattered. Glossbones even tried believing hunger was a demon, but the attempted exorcism only left him more vexed, drained and ravenous. A constant pain, winter was especially worse. He grumbled, but did not dare open his mouth. RIver-Swollen never complained of the pains. She was slighter than he was and just as active. On a steady diet of desire, imagination and sense of righteousness, they pressed on. They had something to prove.