Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hallow was tired of being herded. So tired. The woods the noulicorns lived in were lush and full of life. But her kind had been driven out, split apart. Hallow's belly ached, for food, for her pack, for a home. None of those things seemed forthcoming. For days she'd been driven out into the Barrens, where there was nothing but heat and dust, and rocks, as far as she could tell. Each step they drove her further away the fire in her chest burned hotter, brighter. She wouldn't allow her kind to be banished like this, destroyed like this. The noulicorns had made a choice to bring them back, and they were going to be forced to accept it. Hallow would see to it first hand. She refused to be treated this way, toss out into the nothingness.

The previous day the nouls who had herded her out here had finally left her, judging her to be far enough away. She'd snarled as they had gone. Before they'd left her here, they reminded her of the agreement that her kind had made. It made her snarl again. No eating those who lived in Homewood, no matter how desperate the situation. They hadn't brought any food for her, so it had been days since she'd last eaten. The hunger gnawed at her, constantly. During the night she'd sheltered by a rock, to keep off the intense cold that set in. It had done little. Now the new day had dawned, blazing hot.

As she stood in the shadow of the rock, she noticed a smudge on the horizon. Something other than just desert? Perhaps that was where she was headed then. Perhaps there would be something to eat, perhaps others of her kind would drift there. She could only hope, for now. As she set off in the direction of the smudge something in the barren ground caught her eye - something blue.

She padded closer to check. It glittered. Using her teeth, she pulled it free. A blue crystal. She looked around. It was the only one. One single relic, from something past. ... Just like her. She seized it firmly in her teeth, determined that this little trinket had been put in her path for a reason.

Hallow padded through the metallic hall way. Her claws made a clip clip clip against the grated flooring. Everything in here smelled strange. Like things she'd never smelled before. Not that that was saying much. She was only newly alive again. She wondered briefly if before she'd known more. Who had this body been before it was hers? Such thoughts bothered her sometimes. She wrinkled her nose as a new smell assaulted her. It had a tinge of damp and dust. Musty. She followed this scent down the hallway, and through a battered down door. She found herself in a small room, walls covered in strange things.

She padded forward, sniffing as she went. As she got closer to the walls, them smell became more intense. Whatever these things were, they were what smelled. Rearing onto her hind legs she casually knocked some of them down. A few came apart on contact, flat dry sheets flying out and into the air, dust scattering everywhere. She watched them as they drifted down. The sheets were covered in strange squiggles. The noulicorns in Homewood had mentioned the others. How they had been the demise of her kind. She wasn't too sure if she believe that. But maybe. They'd said these others had left ruins. Were these sheets from them?

An anger bubbled up in here. Were these sheets a relic of what had wiped her kind out? Made them submit? Forced them to extinction? She reared up again, and with all her force slashed the sheets out of the air. They shredded beneath her claws. Feeling slightly vindicated she turned to the wall and ripped the objects out of the shelves, tearing into them, destroying them as the others had destroyed her kind. It was a small victory, but still something.

As she knocked down more and more of the relic, and ripped into them, the actions began to feel more and more hollow. What was this accomplishing? As she knocked down a particularly large one it fell open on the floor. Hallow goggled. It was a picture of a Bone Crusher. She put her nose to the page, and inhaled. It only smelled like dust and decay. For long moments she stared at the picture. Her kind. As they had been. Did this relic hold the story of her kind? The story of what the others had done to them? Did all the squiggles on the page have higher meaning? Her heart wrenched. She couldn't decipher the squiggles, and she was here alone, without a pack. She stared for a moment longer, committing the picture to her mind. Then she flipped the thing closed, and carefully picked it up in her jaws.

She would find her pack. Form her pack. They would learn their own history, and reclaim their place here. No one would subjugate them again. Hallow would make sure of that.