THE SIREN OF THE AZURE

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[div style="background-color:#BG COLOR;width:90%; overflow: stretch;text-align: justify; font-size: 8pt;"] thump. thump. thump.

sound. sound. sound. quiet yet pounding, only darkness surrounding and pressing. repetition. thump. thump. thump. silence. gasp.

thump. thump. thump. silence. gasp. repeat again. twitch. twitch. twitch. ache. ache. ache.

brightness. blinding light, muffled voices. dirt. dirt everywhere. dirt on everything. water. water all over. water seeping in. gag.

twitching, blinking, rolling. gasping, breathing, heaving, coughing. scraping, digging, shrieking. loud, too loud. light too bright, bitter smell, horrible stench. creak and crack, stiff jaws sliding to reveal pink tongue untouched curling against dark teeth as pitch. flick of tail, jostle of muscles. thud, jaw on ground, tongue squirming.

everything moving, forming shapes to open green eyes. breath ragged and wet, coughing and suddenly movement. lurching, inhaling deep and coughing. life returned, light in green eyes watching figures run shrieking, lantern forgotten to the way side. crawling up and out. movement, stiff, aching. her mouth was dry, yet so ... wet. coughing a few times more, green gaze fixating on the burning wick of lantern, avoiding the tombstones wrapped around in a mockery.

flex of toes and claws, scratching peat across the ground. squelch of mud between toes, scent of swamp filling her nose. graveyard. cemetery. lifting her head that felt too heavy all of a sudden, the weight of the world crashing back in on her. tanglewood. the flood. arrow, elseweyr, lucinder, atticus. agony and grief flooded her at that moment, dark pelt dripping of muck from the grave. she was alive, and she didn't know if any of them were still here. hell she didn't know why she was alive, or how much time had passed. thanks to her demi-god blood, she assumed, that had to be the reason why she'd returned as if she'd only been asleep for a nap.

bending to pick up the lantern, fire illuminating the body of the former tangler, deep seated grief in her gaze as she walked forth in the darkness of night. her family. were any of them still alive and somewhere in the Beyond? what year even was it? pawsteps rang out as she left the cemetery under the guise of night, muck dripping off to reveal her recognizable scarred pelt. sound ahead of her as frantic voices raised in a screech, the low rumble of thunder overhead causing her to lift her head.

ahead the tavern doors swung as bodies entered, the sight of a brown tail catching her gaze as it slipped between doors. breath catching, moving to hurry her pace. she couldn't make out the voices, or the scents of those indoors. gasping as she stepped on unsteady legs, ankle rolling under her body's weight as the skies finally broke. cold rain lashed down on her body, sticking the bobcat's fur to her frame, her belly taking that chance to announce her hunger. hissing as she lifted her paw and continued her tread to the tavern, pushing the doors open with her head as thunder crashed again and lightning illuminated her soaked emaciated form, a voice screaming out from the suddenly silent tavern, "That's her! The body that moved! The zombie!" -

THE SIREN OF THE AZURE

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[div style="background-color:#BG COLOR;width:90%; overflow: stretch;text-align: justify; font-size: 8pt;"] eyes of citron-emerald held the doberman in her direct gaze, an exhausted, pain-filled breath leaving her lungs that felt on the verge of collapse, "Luminary. Who is the Luminary!?", she demanded, dark grays and electric greens of her soaked pelt diminished in the light of the tavern. A sob damn near wrenched from her lungs, "What time is it? What year? Oh, the dead ...", she couldn't even find the words to address what she felt inside her chest. Everything felt wrong, so very wrong and she just wanted things to find a pace of normal again. Why was she in the ground?

All that she could remember was the flood, the water crashing in over her head and sweeping into her lungs when her strength had finally left her so long ago when the flood had laid waste to the lands of Tanglewood and taken so many lives. Body shaking as she stood there, dripping wet as the storm continued, "My name is Mei. I've called this place home for so long ... I just woke up in th- the graveyard. Why was I in the graveyard? Was I dead?", she slumped into a messy sitting position, feeling her head with her paws and a look of distress. To depart in the waters and to return in the depths of a storm, oh how cruel her life!

As she sat there, trying to right herself and her racing mind alongside a pounding headache, her stomach announced itself once again. Looking down as her stomach snarled, feeling just how dry her throat was. Fucking shit. Of course her body had to remind her of how mortal she was. Inhaling sharply, looking around the tavern as she heard voices whispering. "I'm not a god-damn zombie! At least I don't think I am.", she muttered, glaring at the faces twisted in disgust at her disheveled appearance.  -