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 Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 3:34 am
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 4:28 am
Chessa, Peregrine and Durama had left the lion to his own devices following his unusual response towards the trinket he had been given. There didn't seem to be any immediate risk, he simply seemed overwhelmed by the familiarity of the item and wasn't prepared to converse with anyone, or anything, while he attempted to process the information. Thus, Chessa had left him to his own devices for a time and elected to locate food, water and some light conversation while her patient had time to himself. It wasn't often that he even had the freedom to be independent; he had simply been too unpredictable up until this point to risk it, yet in those moments instinct had told her that for once...it would be perfectly safe to leave the lion to his own thoughts.
However when she returned she hadn't expected to find him in the very same spot, in the very same pose she had left him. If lions had been capable of crafting life like statues, he would have been the very definition of one; had he not been breathing she might have believed he had already turned to stone by the power of the gods themselves. She'd seen a lot of individuals in shock before, but on this occasion, it seemed like Spectre had taken it to the next level. Just as Peregrine had predicted this seemed to have jump started something in the lion, but what it was, wasn't something that she understood at this point in time.
...Should she interrupt him?
She should.
"Spectre?" she hazarded as she closed the distance between herself and him, though at first it didn't seem like he would be inclined to respond to her. If he was to be stuck in this stupor then she might need to have a further discussion with her son regarding what his next step would be. Suffice it to say that even he wouldn't have anticipated that this would shut an individual down quite as dramatically as it had done to this male. Fortunately for her, it seemed that Spectre wasn't entirely lost, and his ears did seem to flick in acknowledgement of her presence...or at least to confirm that he had heard her.
"Are you all right?" she added as she took a seat. She took care not to close the gap too much, instead providing the lion with ample space. He had always been the sort who seemed to need it, he needed to know he had the capacity to escape if he felt threatened, and in this state, it was probably appreciated.
"They're all dead," Spectre remarked softly as he finally turned the necklace over in his paws to examine it. "But you already knew that, the hare told you as much," he murmured. While those who had treated him hadn't necessarily realised it, they had always suspected his hearing had been unusually good. "Everything gone, swept away by the unseen," he added and shook his head. "It's not there anymore, but you already knew that as well..."
"I did, yes," Chessa confirmed and pursed her lips.
"They didn't stand a chance, no one ever does..." Spectre set the necklace down on the sands in front of him and closed his eyes. "They shouldn't have fought back; it was their greatest failing," he continued gently and released a sigh. Chessa could do nothing more than narrow her eyes and observe the lion, a lion whose demeanour seemed to be changing drastically before her very eyes. She couldn't quite put her paw on it, he wasn't there just yet... But it was almost as though he was on a journey into a world she had never been.
In times like these she had no other option but to listen and act as the sounding board he might need in order to navigate whatever train of thought he was attempting to follow to its conclusion.
"Notions of courage, selflessness and sacrifice are very common in this world," He paused and shook his head. "In your world," he corrected.
Chessa raised her eyebrow.
"The life of one is far less important than the lives of many; one should not fight a war over a single being," he grimaced and opened his eyes again, his gaze hardening. "They forgot that and they paid the ultimate price."
"Your family?" Chessa hazarded.
"Everyone," Spectre corrected the lioness and turned his gaze to regard her with yet another expression she had never seen before. "You see the most fascinating thing about the monsters in the night is that they have no desire to pursue those who are unworthy, they are not inherently violent against those who are unworthy," he turned his gaze back towards the shoreline and grimaced. "So long as the unworthy stand to one side they will not be harmed, the lives of many in exchange for a small few."
"To do... what with?"
"The fate of the hunted is no secret, they will die. However, is it not logical to permit them to fall, as opposed to losing the lives of hundreds?" he asked quietly, it was a question that Chessa wasn't entirely certain how to answer. Logically speaking, she could see that this would make sense, but morally...?
"They forgot this, and so they fell. It started off so quietly, they came as they always do and none would have realised they had even been if it hadn't been for those who had slept poorly that eve," he snorted. "What should have been silent soon turned into something much more bloody and violent."
"They tried to stop it, didn't they?" Chessa asked quietly, though she already knew the answer.
"They did," he confirmed. "They forgot how such things worked, the exchange and its cost...and ultimately what it would secure them in the future," he replied. "In those hours they found their courage and they also met their end," his frown turned more bitter. "It was all for nothing, the fatalities were absolute, one can only hope -"
"They weren't absolute," Chessa corrected him and lifted her paw to point at him. "To be absolute, you would need to be included in those numbers," she explained; it was a simple reply, but enough for him to pause and lower his gaze. For a short while he seemed to search for an answer as to how it had not been absolute, though she wasn't entirely sure why. Had she missed something? To this day, Chessa and Peregrine still didn't know the full circumstances behind everything that had currently happened in this pride and how closely connected to the Stormborn's visit Spectre really was...
"It should have been," he struggled to get the words out. "There is nothing known to our kind that can provide a resistance to..."
"Apparently there is," Chessa half smiled. Was the possibility that he was alive such a difficult concept for him to grasp? He was certainly living up to his namesake at the moment.
"Then their hunt has not ended," his shoulders slumped just a touch as he swept up the necklace and examined it again, his expression somber. "And it will not end until it is absolute," he remarked.
"Whose?"
"The scourge," Spectre stated and pressed the larger stones of the necklace into the pads of his paw. "It seems I'm not the only one who is very far from home," he said finally as he turned his gaze back to Chessa. "And they do not accept defeat easily," he added with a shake of his head. "We may be in very grave danger," he confessed with a shake of his head. "My dreams are not dreams, they are warnings..."
"Which you haven't had in quite some time," Chessa had long ago realised these episodes were courtesy of divine vision. "You are safe here, these are sacred lands."
"So were mine," Spectre responded and finally draped the fragile pendant around his neck. "The problem with sacred land, is that its meaningless when those who would invade it don't acknowledge its significance," he pointed out calmly and examined his own paw once more.
"We are all on borrowed time," he warned. "And in a world filled with such courage, I am not naive to assume that surrender will be an option." He added.
"You know who you are, don't you?" Chessa breathed.
"To a degree," Spectre replied with considerably more confidence than he had ever possessed before. "But it's a start..." he concluded.Words: 1415
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