ETERNAL ADVERSARY | RAID

[DIRT]

Something was terribly wrong. Something had gone sour.

The last few days fell back into a blur, his spawn arriving to the depths from which he called. Wading into that deep dark water and letting the current of blood and war pull them under. Something strange and bloomed within him, a foaming at the corners of his mouth, a horrible convulsing at the back of his throat if he tried to drink. He had been aimlessly wandering, even into the desert did he carry himself, and back, towards his charred, rotten wood. No sense or meaning to his direction, his jaws snapping at everything close to him. Mindless. Endless.

Eternally parched, but he damned the well from which water sprung.

When Silent called for raid, for war, he was there. Curious, towards the back. Unspeaking. Perhaps he had nothing to say. Perhaps he'd been too far gone to bother voicing his own drivel.

But he was here now, managed to stick with the pack, even in oppressive heat, even as they traversed towards the heart of Tanglewood. He'd been here days prior, perhaps that was the root of this evil seed within. Or had it only been the start, with his tearing into the wolfdog with blind fervour. A tremble rolling through his stinking hide.

And so he stood at this precipice, edging ever slowly away from something resembling sanity. As Silent tore into those unnamed, as a yellow serval pounced at his tail with the heart and guts of a lion, Worm slunk away.

Weaving between buildings like water come the tide, he finds his prey. Pale fur, dark mask, something out of a strange dream. He lunges without thought, without aim beyond the simple natural instinct to maul. His teeth meet cloth and tear it from the smaller wolf's face, and their eyes meet, if only for a moment.

He can feel his movements growing stuff. Sluggish, or was it the next stage of something he was left unawares? His jaws find their shoulder, closing on flesh, as saliva froths and his eyes are wild. Blood soaks his tongue and his jaw locks, something wrong, ssome...thing...

It's like time is frozen. They know more than he does, staring at his maw, at the bleeding slobbery mess he'd made. Trying to peel away, to save themself from something they could not defend against. His jaws finally loosen, after an eternity, and they shove him off, away. His muscles lock, in his legs and his throat constricting

He couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. His tongue was jammed deep into his throat and his face was twisted into something vile and painful. Death came slow, enveloping him as he could only scream and fight something beyond his control. Beyond any of them. And his mouth foamed, even as he stiffened. Mixing with the blood and dew.

The pale wolf was long gone.

And the beast died alone.