Elae111: *way up north, the uncharted lands, the snow blows fiercly, covering shallow pawprints that lead in no direction at all, scattered over the snow blown ground with no certain path, only random direction, but always going north, where the wind bites through heavy coats, chilling any who dare enter. the fierce howl of the wind is unnatural, coming from nothing living, more coming from death itself. and the pawprints go forth, ever northward*

ShyaraChan: *A form, a dark shape blindly stumbles through the snow, eyes open but seeing nothing.. No more, no less important than his surroundings, nothing but a pale grey shape struggling to move, a black shadow faded by the snow. His movements are sluggish, erratic - he staggers like a drunk, like a madman, but his eyes and demeanor are newborn, innocent, and terribly, yet blankly, alarmed. He follows something, something he can't smell or hear or see, but something that pulls him, dragged him already through portal after portal, and continues to drag him through the storm..*

Elae111: *windblown snow forms blockades, but the pawprints trail through them, around them, alway north. they circle, twist, turn, and stop. they dissapear from sight, dimmed and covered by the falling snow, an invisible trail in the snow. they go forward as if hunted, hurried steps heavy with the exhaustion of too long stepping. no signs of life, or of death, they walk on with no show of any support. no nurishment, only the hunted feeling pushing them onward, northbound. each snowflake falls, covering them up, but still they are there, hidden. still going*

ShyaraChan: *He watches his own paws moving, one in front of the other, one in front of the other.. the movement is mechanical and stiff, but it seems miraculous, a phenomenon that he can keep himself moving without any feeling in his legs.. utterly fascinating.. with an equally mechanical movement, and without even a sound, his paw hits a rock buried in the snow.. frozen stiff, he falls forward, expression fixed.. lands with a sickening crack, forepaw bent exactly wrong. A flick of pain burrows in his veins.. It will hurt more later.*

Elae111: *a flash of movement from behind him, black, eyes fixed on the Bryar, wondering. the dark shadow, small, creeps forward on silent paws, leaving scarcely a pawprint*

ShyaraChan: *he struggles to his paws, driven on by the mad force that he can't put a name on.. He shakes with the effort, standing straight only to falls forward again, the pain shooting up and down his leg this time.. he gasps in agony, once, and doesn't move again.*

Elae111: *and suddenly the shadow is right in front of him, a small lit, black, white underbelly. she stares at him, then at his paw, and a stubborn look crosses her young face*

ShyaraChan: *he doesn't even notice her, though his eyes cross her form..*

Elae111: *she watches him, blue eyes narrowed in deep thought, and she concentrates, bringing his eyes to focus, then stops, meeting those eyes*

ShyaraChan: *looks at her dully, seeing now, but simply not caring*

Elae111: *she stares him in the eye, then quietly orders* lie down.

ShyaraChan: I can't.

Elae111: yes you can. now lie down.

ShyaraChan: *rises again, trembling* I'm going. *he limps forward, staggering, but balancing on his three good legs, and lowers his head to the wind*

Elae111: *she follows him, eyes narrowing* i said lie down. *she whirls to stand in front of him, blocking his way*

ShyaraChan: *looks at her dully* Move.

Elae111: *stubbornly* no.

ShyaraChan: *watches her for a moment, the wind whipping his fur, then finally folds his legs, lowering himself to the ground*

Elae111: *she nods and flicks her white striped tail, her black coat dark in this white, snowy world. her gold streaked bangs fall over her eyes as she watches him, then pads slowly over to his paw, eyeing it. she closes her eyes, trying to think, before saying* this will only take away the pain. i cant do anything to fix it. *she says nothing more, not even glancing away from the paw, then stands, focusing all of her attention on the break. there is silence a moment, then she takes a step back, shaken, now looking back towards him, questioningly*

ShyaraChan: *his head remains on the ground, his gaze fixed forward, not blinking or moving.*

Elae111: *she eyes him distastefully, then turns and stares upwards towards the stars. evidentally finding something there, she takes off in that direction, shivering*

ShyaraChan: *snow builds up around him, a soft blanket that burns with cold. He barely notices that she leaves, barely notices when nothing but his face isn't blanketed, one thought dominating his entire mind, his heart - Failed..destroyed..*

Elae111: *she looks back, eyes narrowed, and concentrates once more, using what strength she has to send a small orb at him, which lights the area momentarily before setting off, startling him into awareness. her voice is soft but carries* i didnt do that so you could lie there and do nothing. i did that because she needs help. and you're the only one who will ever give her that help.

ShyaraChan: *his voice is emotionless, dull on the ears, falling like a feather, barely there and holding no weight* I've killed what was left.

Elae111: *glares* you have no idea. you arnt familiar with this land, you have no idea where she went.

ShyaraChan: *he remains silent at that, staring past her*

Elae111: there might still be a chance. *she falls silent*

ShyaraChan: I've made it worse.

Elae111: *she eyes him* i was wrong. you can't help her. *shivers* she was right.

ShyaraChan: *this brings about movement - his eyes flicker to hers, wondering at the change*

Elae111: *she looks troubled as she stares north, the direction she was heading, but says nothing more*

ShyaraChan: *something harsh rasps from his throat, something like a laugh* A sudden opinion change..

Elae111: *she stares back at him, shivering still* maybe i believed in something. *sad eyes, too old, too full of memories unknown, for her youth*

ShyaraChan: I'd thought I could bring her back.. All I did was push her farther.. *lowers his head once more* I should be shot.

Elae111: *watches him, saddened even farther* she told you.

ShyaraChan: She told me...?

Elae111: she told you... just like she told anyone else who tried to help her.

ShyaraChan: Then why did you say I could? *his eyes are cleared, conscious now, but deeply, inconceivably sad.*

Elae111: *she shrugs* because no one else tries....

ShyaraChan: Many others have tried..

Elae111: *eyes him* and have given up.

ShyaraChan: *drags himself to his three paws, neck arched and lowered* Where is she.

Elae111: *she turns her head back to where she had been heading* ...north

ShyaraChan: *limps behind the lit, stopping and following her gaze* I.. I'm frightened of her now, she's something I can break.. I hadn't known..

Elae111: *she eyes him, her expression blank* i should hate you for that.

ShyaraChan: *numbly* I hate me for that.

Elae111: then stop. *turns back* there's not much time.

ShyaraChan: *softly* I don't know what to do anymore.

Elae111: *quietly* you think you're the only one?

ShyaraChan: It often feels that way. *raises his chin to the horizon, eyes threatening cloudiness again* North..

Elae111: *nods*

ShyaraChan: *pushes himself forward and limps off without a word*

Elae111: *watches him go and sighs, staring past him, murmering something quietly to herself, then disapears into the snowstorm*

ShyaraChan: *he hesitates, turning his head back to look, then takes a deep breath, facing forward with a new intent, and quietly makes his way north.*

Elae111: *far north, a cavern opens, pitchblack in the snow, no light entering, save a thin, slow shadow, disapearing into the depths*

ShyaraChan: *Rowrr closes his eyes a moment, willing himself to believe it an illusion, leaving a jagged, erratic trail in the snow, streaked in think lines of crimson on one side.. The cavern looks sheltered and at least semi-dry, he tells himself, and that's his reason for the draw of the place..*

Elae111: *each sound an echo, the walls drip with melted snow, heat surfacing from far below, reaching the opening. hotsprings bubble farther back, the end no where in sight, the darkness unopening, uninviting. tunnels branch off, nothing to give a hint about what is at their ends.*

ShyaraChan: *Rowrr stumbles into the entrance, exhausted, and wincing with the pain, covered, but there. He flops at the entrance, struggling to stay awake, promising himself to move soon, just a moment.. just a moment..*

Elae111: *far deep in the tunnels, an echo rumbles through, a scraping, tearing of claws on stone, then there is silence again.*

ShyaraChan: *eyes snap open violently at the sound*

Elae111: *the silence resounds lounder, a silence so prefound it is one which one will begin to imagine sounds of their own...*

ShyaraChan: *shifts painfully to stand, though the pain is more what he knows is there than what he feels.. left paw scraping along the ground, he lurchs forward, catching himself, and stops again, listening*

Elae111: *nothing but the steady dripping of water now, the walls glimmer with each drop, holding the thin light momentarily, then plunging back into darkness*

ShyaraChan: *whispers, his words swallowed by the silence before they can even echo* 'Lo..

ShyaraChan: *A rustle of fur echoes through the death-silence as he struggles to stand, heavily favoring his left paw. The shoulder of his right leg twitches beyond his control, obviously knowing more of the damage than is masked. He struggles to see past the shadows, eyes squinting into pale blue slits.. but he can see no more than he could when he first walked in.*

Elae111: *her white shadow steps into the wide cavern beneath the ground, where the tunnels were leading her, keeping close to the walls. inhuman howls rise around her, as she stares around her, head low, tail hung, single wing tight against her back. each pawstep brings another shriek, snarl, inhuman voices screaming. her ears are back, tight against her head, trying to block out the noise, but like the memories.. they stay, filling her with rage, but more, dispair. she knows that feeling, and her eyes close slightly at that though, as sheconcentrates on each slow step, each howl of rage that fills the dark air around her*

ShyaraChan: *flinches once, a small gasp escaping him, as a shock of pain flicks through the shield Dreaym set up against it. He leans against a case wall, eyes narrowed in an echo of the pain, and tries to tesst the air, to get a whiff of something, anything..*

Elae111: *she takes another step, leaning against the cavern wall for support, the screechings louder, wailings echoing in her ears. and as her paw goes down, she knows there is nothing beneath it but empty air. she stares downbeneath her, a small cut in the stone, barely large enough for her to fit, the darkness stretched out below. no bottom visible. unable to stop she falls through, almost forgetting for one horrible moment, her left wing outstretched, then with a cry of dispair, she folds it tight against her, eyes closed tight, legs braced for the impact to come...*

ShyaraChan: *moves carefully along the wall, head almost to the floor, eyes closing more with each step. He glances up once, taking a step and trying it again. A quick feeling, not painful but frightening, flashing through his mind like an electric shock, giving the distinct feeling that something, somewhere, is very wrong..*

Elae111: *finally she opens her eyes, still in free fall, and stares around her, eyes taking in everything... from the reddish glow, with no source visible, of the cracked stone walls around her to the darkness where no light penetrates, not even the red tint of the rock. right beneath her looms the darkness, the walls looking shadowed and dark, her own self paled in the dark.. and still she falls*

ShyaraChan: *stands up straight now, eyes glassing, growing wider - everything around him seems to fade for a moment, the cold, the sterile grey walls, the vacant echo of a drip of water.. And for a split second, it disappears. Gone. Replaced by an overwhelming, terrifying sensation of no ground beneath, of air rushing past his ears, stomach-in-mouth fear of heights... as quickly as it began, it stops. And Rowrr is standing in the cave, leaning against the wall, panting.*

Elae111: *strangely calm, she glances around once more, then down,to see solid blackness, spikes driven up, taller than she is long, and she is falling straight at them. she closes her eyes for a second, and can feel each individual spike being driven into her, pain seering from her shoulders, legs, wing, can almost see through her closed eyes the spikes driven up through her right hind leg, left foreleg, right forepaw, in three seperate places through her wing, and up through her chin. the pain burns on, and she cries out, loud and clear, the tunnels reverbarating with the howl of pain, almost strangely similiar to the unliving screams of the cavern she had previously been in.... then she slowly opens her eyes, both about to spill over from the pain, the seering pain. then as suddenly as the pain was, there is none. she opens her eyes wider, then blinks. the ground on which she stands is smooth marble, no spikes pretruding from it, nothing to show the spikes had been or ever were... she gives one convulsive shudder, and stares down at her paw, where the spike had been. she can still feel it, the endless pain, but..now it seems a distant memory, like those of her past. shaking, she looked around once more, searching for any sign of what happened, and her eyes fall on the marble again... the marble, streaked and swirled in the common patterns..only this time, swirled with a deep red, the color of blood. at this her eyes widen then narrow, and she stands there, staring at the endless floor of marble, bloodstained, smooth, marble... and imagines those who did not survive those spikes*

ShyaraChan: *The pain's mask is steadily sliding off, the nature of the wound more and more apparent. Rowrr, gritting his teeth, manages a mode of transportation, shoving one shoulder against the wall and leaning all his weight on it, then inching forward on it, little by little, leaving a wake of crumbling stone. Finding it nearly impossible to see, he hesitates, reluctant to move on, doubtful if he'll make it back out.. but knowing what he heard.. The darkness form shapes, things that escape his gaze but linger at the corner of his eye, things he can't pick out a shape or meaning for, things he tries his hardest to ignore.. whether they're imaginary or not, he doesn't want to know.. His shoulder, raw from the stone, begins to leave a trail of rust color that he can't see, but he can smell. The blood adds adrenaline, does nothing good for his fear. He tries to swallow it, but it doesn't make it past a lump in his throat.. *

Elae111: *she takes one last shakey breath, then raises her head to stare around her. a wide circle, with her in the center. above her, the red glowing walls loom. she snaps her wing tight, and takes a caustious step in no certain direction, each step echoing silently around her in this dark sphere*

ShyaraChan: *word run through his mind, vaguely, those of the female lit.. they're detached and garbled, meaning nothing alone, but they refuse to leave him alone, no matter how many times he shakes his head to clear it.*

Elae111: *she extends her claws, the tips scratching the marble surface, but as soon as they are there, they are gone, leaving a smooth, bloodstained marble surface. shivering, she looks farther to the wall around her, openings hidden in the shadows, then steps into the darkest one, eyes dark as well*

ShyaraChan: *the little sun there was is gone now, leaving the bryar in total darkness. There is no difference, anymore, to whether his eyes are closed or open.. he can't tell which is which, not anymore. He can give more attention to his other senses, now, smell and touch and sound. A scent lingers here, something very familiar that seemed to have always been there, only now making itself apparent. It teases him, seems bent on driving him mad, something he can't place. But it's there, it's very much there..*

Elae111: *she shivers in the sudden frozen atmosphere, trudging on through the tunnel, her delicate nose and ears feeling frozen, as well as her paws, even through her thick ivory fur. complete darkness surrounds her, to an extent it seems as though the sun has gone dark... complete darkness such as this is never seen, even on a new moon.... there was the company of stars, then. as she walks, her breathing becomes drumming in her ears, hoarse, loud, every intake echoing, til she is sure it must be more than just her own ears... something in this tunnel is doing this*

Elae111: *she takes a step forward, and it is sudden silence as she steps into a small cavern room, glowing with a eerie blue tint. the walls seem to be ice, and as she exhales, her breath blows white, freezing in the air, before fading from view*

ShyaraChan: *An uncomfortably abrupt end is made to Rowrr's progress as his nose, lifted to search for traces of the lingering scent, meets with rough, cold rock. His eyes snap open, though they meet nothing but dark, nearly crossing in an effort to see.* Huh.... *He sidesteps, leaning weight on his bad leg and stumbling, but regains his balance with no incident. Leaning his face forward again, hesitantly this time, he feels his breath reflected off the stone before he touches it. He turns his face, moving slowly, inch my inch, along the wall.. and comes to an edge. It's a division in the tunnel.*

Elae111: *the blue light flickers, glowing on the walls, brightening, and the walls around her reflect that light, even the low ceiling doing such, the blue glow reflected at her, standing in the center of it. as it grows lighter, the walls seem ice, chilling, and as her eyes run over the blue ice, they grow in horror. trapped in that ice is death, faces in shock, horror, a scream that will never be heard. trapped are the faces, bodies, souls of those who have entered, and lost in this place. a snarl on one face, a silent shock in the glazed eyes of another. each expression holding at the moment of death. a death.. not easy. the expressions prove such. she shivered, least from the icy chill in the air, and stares straight down between her spread forepaws. and a face of mixed horror and loss stares up at her from the blue eyes beneath her paws. she starts, almost hitting her head on the low ceiling, and stares, eyes wide, at the form beneath the ice. the form, a mere shadow, but the eyes... are a haunting thing. they glow the same icy blue as the cavern, all of the reflected light seemed to be aimed straight at those blue eyes. but what chills her the most is that it is a frozen reflection of herself... and she stands, staring straight down at those familiar eyes, and her breath comes shaking*

ShyaraChan: *Something brushes by him, harsh as the stone he breathes against, silent as the dark itself. He stiffens, freezing stock-still, eyes opening painfully wide. His pupils dialate even more, added with the hollow thrill of fear. The silence falls hard on his ears. Rowrr's limbs burn, slightly but with growing insistance. He twitches his head to face away from the wall, nothing but a quick, innocent movement. Something crashes. The ground shakes with the level of sound, it vibrates his very bones. He bristles, giving a sharp intake of breath, and leaps, feet nimble with adrenaline, landing crouched with his back half up against the wall, lips curled well above sharp teeth. But nothing attacks. There is no sound. Slowly, slowly, his fur smoothes, his snarl fades. He pulls himself with sudden exhaustion from his position, landing at first in a heap on the ground, but scrambling up with a sudden threat of panic.
The sound hadn't been there.
Nothing had been.
Nothing makes sense..*

Elae111: *she stands, frozen without movement, barely breathing, but what breath she does take comes shakily, torn from her, each intake and exhale coming slower...colder. her eyes cannot be torn from the eyes of her shadow, beneath her, a reflection of what to come..or what might have been. the icy beneath her paws seems to grow around her, each of her four paws seeming to sink into the ice, sink to where the shadow hovers in the ice, the horror filled expression glazed with death... and she can do nothing to stop it, even if she so wished it. a shakey breath...seconds pass, then the slow, wavering exhale comes. and she stands, staring down, unable to move*

ShyaraChan: *Rowrr takes one step, the paw he extends shaking almost to where he can no longer control it.. He places it on the cold stone, the soft sound resonating deeply within the tunnels around him. He leans onto it, gradually taking his weight off the wall.
A sharp, tiny crack, like ice with water poured into it..
And the world falls apart.*

Elae111: *as her eyes meet her eyes, she sees other things... she sees the shadow of herself, the horror in the eyes, but she sees more... she is whole once more, both wings spread as if in flight, escape, but caught.... and her own eyes fill with a distant longing, then pain as a memory sweeps over that distant feeling, hard emotion. as she stares at the eyes, those around her seem to stare at her as well, and she knows that this has happened many times before... not to her but to others. the forms in the ice, they were no shadows... but she, she is a shadow, standing over herself, staring at herself. and the feeling that each shadow, each soul, that lives, is trapped in this icy...grave. her emotions war, is this death better than what could have been? is it even death? or just a prison, no escape, that bars all from the prisoner, all from the captured, numbing them from everything? or to live with the deaths of everyone else...the broken heart, the mind warped with each powerful emotion, threatening to spill over at every moment, and doing so when least expected? as she stares down, the eyes glazed over, she sees a glint, a wisdom hidden in those depths.... a wisdom of death, of acceptance, of everything, forgotten and remember, unknown. and her yearning for that overcomes her, sweeping all other emotions aside, filling her with the same blue glow as the icy walls around her... and the shadow seems to grow lighter, fuller, as she sinks farther down, the ice now almost halfway up her legs*

ShyaraChan: *There is nothing but air under his paws, nothing in his mind but the sick horror of a total lack of control. Then, sharply, with more cracks within him then around him, the ground reforms itself with no warning. His body falls faster than his legs can support; he buckles without a sound, without even an attempt to land standing. A dead silence, broken only by an occasional small rattle of stone on stone. There is a single drip of water. Breaking the silence, Rowrr violently jerks his head up, gasping, forcing himself to inhale and exhale, swallowing, and gasping for air again. shaking now, no longer trembling, he tries to move, testing the damage.
He can feel nothing through the mask of adrenaline, can't do a decent check. But nothing seems to be obeying his commands. His left leg wobbles like a rubber band, his neck refuses to hold his head up.. The least of his worries being where he is..*

Elae111: *she shivers, the icy chill touching her, but does no more than that, her head lowered til it almost touches the ice*

ShyaraChan: *he forces himself to stretch his neck out, testing his new boundries.. almost immediately, his nose touches rock. He flicks his tail in shock at how close he came to being scraped sidelong on it during his fall.. and with the flick, his tail touches rock. Stopping dead, he hesitates, then slowly touches the wall with a forepaw, still on his side, trailing around, turning to continue.. But there's not even a depression, not a break in the smooth stone.. and no way out.*
*It's nothing but a tomb.*

Elae111: *each second, every moment, barely a breath, shakey in the air. as her breath fogs the ice below her, she seems free-er of the icy prison, but the ice clears, and she is once more captured by her own horror stricken eyes*

ShyaraChan: *Rowrr breathes a soft string of profanity, not having a clue as to how far down he is. He attempts to roll off his side, arching his neck with the effort, but once more, nothing obeys his commands..*

Elae111: *she can not tear her eyes away, her blinks only lasting a short moment before she is staring at those eyes once more. she can not close her eyes, cannot move away, she is held in place, sinking toward those eyes*

ShyaraChan: *tilts his head back, slowly, and gives a single howl for help, expecting, KNOWING there will be no reply. He moves his head back, sighing softly. This is the end, isn't it.. this is where he's going to stop. The numbness is moving like a wave, pins and needles when it isn't. A sort of horrified calm washes over him, resolute. He asked for this, this is his fate. Attempting to help for selfish purposes, to make himself feel whole, and merely torturing another soul.. that's all he did. That's all. Helped no one.. did no good.. he asked for this. And he accepts it in the dark, the near silence, a drop of water's echo mingling with the remnants of his howl. There's no way out of this, the fate or the hole..*

Elae111: *she hears nothing but her own ragged breathing, and sees nothing but those eyes, feels nothing but the coming loss, the coming numbess, and she welcomes it all, waiting, frozen*

ShyaraChan: *leans back against the rock, his heartbeat conducting through it, he can feel it against his paws. He closes his eyes subconsciously, as there was no difference between, forcing breath in and out of his lungs, which don't seem to want to work on their own anymore...*

Elae111: *quiet pawsteps across the tunnel, and a pair of eyes peer down into the tomb, reflecting a dim light that grows. the eyes narrow, deep in concentration, and then a small flare of light hangs in the air, above the tomb, and the eyes edge back from the tomb edge, disapearing before the light can hit them. the flare hangs there, a sphere of light, a few sparks flying off down into the tomb*

ShyaraChan: *rasps a breath through his teeth, scrunching his eyes at the sudden light..though he notices, even unscrunched, that he can't see out of one eye. It barely registers.. he lifts his head with burning muscles that protest on every move, bent on seeing his savior or assailant.*

Elae111: *the light burns into the darkness, filling the area with a harsh glow, but no heat radiates from it, it is as cold as ever. but the light seems to follow his gaze, and the eyes blink and edge farther back, beyond sight of the edge, waiting*

ShyaraChan: *whispers, hoarse* Who is it.

Elae111: *the light flickers, dimming some, as the eyes travel even farther back, on silent pawsteps*

ShyaraChan: *closes his eyes again, just refusing to care.* Kill me or leave me, do what you came to do.

Elae111: *the eyes narrow, and a voice travels out, echoing, the same voice that came before, cold* stand up.

ShyaraChan: *snarls, all dullness gone from his voice* Leave me. *The metallic smell of blood is all around him, almost choking him*

Elae111: *calmly* and what good will that do?

ShyaraChan: It'll rid the world of someone who shouldn't have survived this long.

Elae111: *coldly* i can not believe you followed her here to die.

ShyaraChan: You weren't to follow me.

Elae111: *she watches him, her voice ice, as is their cold surroundings. her eyes seem to glow with an icy fire, deep, harsh* so she will say the same thing to you....

ShyaraChan: *miserably* Not that same, I could only hope for the same. I should've died so long ago.

Elae111: *she walks around the tomb edge, always staring down at him, and shakes her head, mostly to herself, before saying quietly* deja vu... *she sits on the edge, watching him coldly* she said that to you so many times, and you never believed her... why do you believe that about yourself.

ShyaraChan: There was something left in her, you knew that. I just wanted to bring her back.

Elae111: *simply* perhaps... but trying to save a life by killing yourself is no excuse. in a way, that is what you are stopping her from doing, to save you. *watches him* for all you know, she could be dead now... or alive. or one of the soulless ones... *the last option comes quieter, grimmer*

ShyaraChan: *gestures his prison limply, on his side, wet with blood from an unidentifiable source* I'm here for a reason. How could this have been an accident?

Elae111: *motions as well* how much of this could have been an accident? you brought her here, its your job to get her out. *she narrows her eyes and the light dims lower*

ShyaraChan: *sharply* And if she refuses? I can force no one.

Elae111: *flicks one ear* you lie.

ShyaraChan: *is silent, eyes closed*

Elae111: you have forced her this far.... and now you decide to leave her? in her worst moments? that you caused? *she falls silent* no.. not her worst. to her. *she almost snarls, but closes her eyes and composes herself* to her... this is the best.

ShyaraChan: *bleakly* She enjoys being miserable..

Elae111: *she stays with her eyes closed* she enjoys nothing.... even now, she is fearful...but she will not back down, though she will from you. to her, it is her destiny. *her eyes flash open and focus on his* it must be the same to you then, if you believe such.

ShyaraChan: *keeps his eyes shut, still forcing air in and out of his lungs, and slowly opens them* I can't get out..

Elae111: *her narrowed eyes show disbelief, deniance, but nothing more* there is nothing save death that you can be trapped into without release.

ShyaraChan: Why do you insist on trying to convince me to stay alive?

Elae111: *she stares at the light in thought* same reason you had. *she stares back down at him, almost contempt, though not quite* had.

ShyaraChan: *with a bleak honestly* I can't get out of here.

Elae111: you have more than she does. be thankful for what you have. *watches him, voice cold* figure out how to use those to your need.

Elae111: i cant help you. its you that can help you.

ShyaraChan: *silence*

Elae111: *the light dims farther, and she speaks without looking at him* try lighting your own path for once... see what lies ahead, and prepare yourself. *and the light goes out*

ShyaraChan: *with a jerk, he arches his neck, pausing a moment to catch his breath.. in a sudden, fluid movement, he pulls himself upright, something cracking. He tears his attention from it, from the stickiness under his three good paws, from the flame that seems to be licking at his wing, the one crumpled beneath him when he fell.. and he twists his head up.*

Elae111: *in the shadows above him, only her eyes stare down at him, waiting, watching, silent*

ShyaraChan: *takes a deep breath, and braces his backlegs against the edge of the chasm.. then his forepaws - both of them, on the other. Moving up, slowly, by centimeters, he edges himself up by the back, putting all his weight on his front. Then he does the same with the back, suspended five feet above the ground, leaving a trail of blackred that he can't see.*

Elae111: *takes a step back, to make room, waiting expectantly, her eyes are on his face*

ShyaraChan: *His blue paint is worn away, face streaked instead with sticky dark brown and traces of real tears. But his expression is blank, having been contorted for far too long to keep it up till now. The chasm wasn't quite as high as he'd thought, but high enough to keep him from expecting to reach the top. He falters once, his body just giving out, going limp, but he stiffens immdiately, scraping to a halt just in time..*

Elae111: *her voice comes quietly* light your own path....

ShyaraChan: *his forepaws reach over the edge, scritching wildly on the edge, reaching with the one that still works to pull himself to the ledge, having lost all ability with the other, panting and gasping for breath, but free.*

Elae111: *backs another step away from him, running her gaze over him, and nodding* welcome back to the living. *she turns to dissapear into the shadows, her words echoing after her* light your own way...only you can.

ShyaraChan: *The darkness has been shifting colors for a while now in Rowrr's eyes, but always somehow shades of black. Reds and oranges and greens - but always, he knew, they were nothing but dark. This is ice blue, and the little bit of light it gives hurts his eyes, though from here it couldn't be any more than a candle's light. He takes an incredulous step forward, the pain no longer reaching his brain. Please let it be light.. please..*

Elae111: *she trembles, the howling reaching her ears, magnified, deafening, but seeming distant, a chilling numbness climbing over her, starting at her paws, slowly moving up with the blue ice beneath her, as she sinks down*

ShyaraChan: *The light isn't daylight, or anything close, but it is, indeed, light. His heart begins to pound in his ears with something that wants to be ecstatic, but can't..

ShyaraChan: *he crawls forward, nearly dragging his chest and stomach on the ground, to look down.
Something is wrong down there.
The attempt at happiness fades as quickly as it began, replaced by the panic which has by now lost meaning. The pulling is back. Something wants him to go down there, and something equally strong would rather die.*

Elae111: *her breath is shallow, the ice nearly up to her chest, sinking her down into its chilly depths. she barely breathes, and when she does, it is shaky, drawn, tired....and something more. she blinks once, still focusing on those eyes, far below her...and now, not so far*

ShyaraChan: *There's no clean way down, to where the light emits from. None from any angle, though he's dragged himself around and around searching for one. The emotion pulling at his mind has grown stronger, more agitated, and harder to push away -
The lit.
She couldn't have gone far - and she seems to have answers for so much. Gritting his teeth for a moment in a silent fury at nothing, he tilts back his head and gives a call-howl, asking without words if she's near, perched at the edge of the tunnel.*

Elae111: *only silence answers*

ShyaraChan: *he waits, staying as still as he can, for a few minutes longer, before taking a deep shuddering breath and looking back down. He hesitates, setting his jaw and closing his eyes in preperation, opens the one good wing he has - and steps off the edge.*

Elae111: *the walls around her are growing brighter, but at the same time, it seems like a dark shadow is crossing the space, hovering there, casting a dark shine on the blue glow*

ShyaraChan: *the fall is softer than the last. Or maybe he's just used to it by now. In any case, it's only a moment or two before he can rise, too mangled to care anymore. The glow is so much stronger, a beautiful, frightening ice blue, the walls awash in it. It's almost as hypnotizing as the dark, dragging his attention away from the crimson covering him in patches, looking black in this light..*

Elae111: *her breath come shallow, her eyes are glazed as they stare down, straight down, meeting her own gaze, no questioning thoughts reaching her, only the tense air, seeming to push at her from all sides, save her legs, deep in the ice, free from the pressure of life*

ShyaraChan: *The ground underfoot is ice. He'd not even noticed how numb they were.. till he sees, now, that he's walking on a sheet of ice without being cold. Irrelevent. He shakes his head. There's something down here that he's got to find. And the fact that there's an element repelling him from it only pushes his further.*

Elae111: *she stands, numb to the cold around her, surrounding her in this icy chamber, wrapping its frozen grasp around her, and pulling her down, farther into it. she does not shiver, and no longer does her shallow breath come in warm clouds in the air. it is frozen, as she is, chilling her inside and out*

ShyaraChan: *He keeps moving, at a rhythm now, a steady pace. Through the same tunnels, the faint smell of something lingering stronger here, the thing he can't place and has stopped trying to. The faces are nothing to him, he offers no reaction - doesn't seem to see them at all.*

Elae111: *the ice seems to climb higher as she sinks lower, the frozen, light blue ice almost to her heart...almost to where it can chill her, at her core*

ShyaraChan: *He almost doesn't see her at first, as he turns the corner, eyes scanning the area in a sudden calm induced by the cool light. He almost passes right by, into a cutout from the tunnel on the other side.
Almost.
He freezes, eyes not even on her anymore, and just doesn't move. His breath barely shows in the frost, too taken aback to even have a shocked expression. Slowly, slowly, he turns his head back to look.* An illusion, an illusion, an irrelevent illusion -

Elae111: *she stares down, unaware, trapped, and waiting*

ShyaraChan: *All that he sees is Angel, standing stock still atop the ice.*

Elae111: *her breath is slow, shaking, but she does not move, frozen in the eyes she sees*

ShyaraChan: *he watches her in silence, staring at herself in the ice. His expression is calm, but inside he's panicked and hid already, ran away and scrambled out and wandered in the dark, which has begun to seem relxing and inviting*

Elae111: *the ice around her seems to shift, the walls changing, flickering, picking up speed, but the reflection beneath her stays the same. faces come and go, each the same, each a person lost in this place, this single trap of the maze of thousands. the icy glow is the same, but the shadows change, growing into a blur, faces flickering, horror filled eyes, then gone again, replaced by another and another. and she notices nothing of this, save her reflection*

ShyaraChan: *He sees nothing, but a stock-still Angel and a room with an almost blinding reflection. He takes a small step forward, heart suddenly leaping. He found her. In one piece.*

ShyaraChan: *In a quiet, calm voice, he speaks, breaking the deafening silence* Angel?

Elae111: *the wailing and howling of the air still in her ears, and her ears alone, one voice suddenly screams, louder than all of the others, forceful, shouting, deafening. all others fall silent, almost, to a quiet murmer, but she hears them, they repeat something different now....Angel. she tenses, but nothing more, the ice creeping closer to her heart*

ShyaraChan: *at her lack of response, something cold runs through his veins. He swallows, stepping forward and speaking again, not sure what he's saying, but speaking to hear a sound in the death-like quiet.* Angel, let's go. We gotta leave..

Elae111: *and the voices start again, this time laughter, horrible horrible laughter, ripping and tearing at her. she twists and turns, fighting them, but in appearence is frozen, staring down. and those eyes seem to laugh at her too.... laugh at the lies, laugh at the false truth. and her own eyes are hurt, tears falling, but empty, blank, caught by the others. and she does not react to his words*

ShyaraChan: *He ferociously pushes aside the tremors that threaten his limbs, forces one paw before the other to her side, giving her a small push on the shoulder, refusing to acknowledge the tears* Come with me. You can't stay here -

Elae111: *she does nothing, staring straight down, eyes trapped*

ShyaraChan: *his eyes flicker from her to her reflection, growing wide* Angel. ANGEL! Wake up. Wake up.

Elae111: *the voices taunt her, growing strong* wake up angel. wake up angel. wake up angel, wake up angel! *and the laughter continues, fierce. she hears the words, not realizing the source of this new pain, these harsh words and laughter. and the ice creeps farther up*

ShyaraChan: *yelling now, shouting her name in a panic* ANGEL! ANGEL! It's me!

Elae111: *nothing*

ShyaraChan: *bristles out of fear* It's ME! It's ROWRR!

ShyaraChan: *he peers into her face, eyes searching, blocking the reflection*

Elae111: *her eyes clear momentarily, then fog once more, seeming to stare through him to the reflection, closer than ever*

ShyaraChan: *he stops, thinking for a split second, breathing hard, and slowly, carefully, sits in front of her, blocking her entire view* Angel, wake up..

Elae111: *does nothing but stare down, straight down, not too far as her head is lowered, and the ice is almost to her heart... her head is low, less than a foot above the ice*

------sadly,we lost part...but during that time, Rowrr began digging his claws into the ice, hitting it, cracking it..andfinally realised that he needed to crack the image of the eyes, so he does. and she comes out of the trance, but the ice reached her heart, and the mask is back, stronger than ever. the ice that had been holding her down is shards now, cutting into her numb legs, but she doesnt notice it. -----

ShyaraChan: *Carefully, without another choice worth taking, he firmly takes the scruff of her neck, bracing his three good legs. He's done this before, he knows what kind of weight to expect. He pulls her, an inch at a time, from the deathtrap, trying his hardest not to catch her on the jagged ice that surrounds her. His paws slip more than once, but the cracks in the ice give him more of a foothold.*

Elae111: *she shakes him off, and turns, to walk towards a thin opening in the ice, through which a thin beam of light seems to enter the blue ice cavern. her eyes are masked, the light not even reflecting off of them, and steps through*

ShyaraChan: *follows in silence, head lowered. He hesitates once at the entrance, a black silohuette against bright blue light, but steps in, claws extended*

Elae111: *the snow stretches out, far across the horizon, only the bleak white field of snow.... the cavern entrance is no where near, and as she steps out, paws silent on the snow, she shivers once, and begins to walk away from the cavern of blue ice, a few splatters of blood on the snow from where the ice pierced her, the only trail*

ShyaraChan: *shies away from the outside, heart beating quickly. His legs are shaking, his head is swimming. But she's outside.. He remembers the pain, suddenly. It'd faded, but now it comes back with a vengeance, so sharply that he hisses through his teeth and leans against the mouth of the cavern. The trail is easy to see, but the snow is already covering the blood..*

Elae111: *she walks on, endlessly, showing no sign of suffering from the cold, or from where the ice pierced her. in fact, those cuts seem to be vanishing, healing faster than they should*