Crisp dawn air flowed through Horst's lungs in rapid gales. It streamed through his nose, pelted his throat and tongue as they belted out one horrified scream among many that stuffed the brightening sky, where the sun swiftly rose and shone in Horst's eyes. At which he turned his face away from it's blinding light and that's when a familiar shade of reddish brown flashed across his sight, bringing his flying feet to a screeching stop. It was a fossa stalking around the base of a nearby tree. He couldn't see their face, as they were looking up into the jungle canopy, but their fur was the same gorgeous color as...and the way that it swayed like radiant ruby waves as she paced back and forth…that most beautiful creature of whom had haunted him day and night. Whose name had not flowed from his tongue since...could it really be!?
"Mary Ann!?" Horst exclaimed incredulously, his words brimming with the hope that he had dared not speak for what had felt like an eternity, his heart ready to burst as he stepped and reached out a tender paw towards the object of his elation. Who stiffened and whipped around to face him and as soon as their eyes met, Horst's hammering heart stopped.
It wasn't her.
But before his shattered dreams could swallow him whole, the very real and present fossa before him got over their own shock and with a swift furrow of their brow and blood curling growl, charged forth. At which Horst yowled in terror once more as he sprung in the opposite direction but only managed to sprint for a pawful of strides before powerful jaws clamped down into his back, sending searing jolts of pain coursing through his entire body. That, within the same snatched breath, was swept up and swung around violently and went limp as the world around it bolted on by promptly. As the horrified cries of his fellow lemurs were swarmed by the heinous howling of his captor's kind. Who sprinted to their brethren's side while belting out a name that rang loud and clear amid their hysteric gibberish.
Clover
And with that, the paralyzing pain coursing through Horst's veins was all but forgotten and even amidst his present company, he still considered refusing any and all rescue attempts from the former head of security. Who no doubt would only want to save him to make herself out to be the noble hero who everyone should forgive for stabbing them all in the back. For killing Kate, Mitch, Laura and...
No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
What was he thinking!? How could he…!? He didn't know what had happened to Mary Ann! No one did! And everyone who was so damn sure that she was...had their heads so far up their asses that they couldn't see the truth even if it bit them there! The other fossa could have forgiven her! They could have taken her back, if not as their queen, then as a servant or slave who couldn't leave their kingdom until she earned their trust back and that was why no lemurs had seen her since...or because she didn't want to be seen. Didn't want to face her former allies after betraying them. To face Horst after swearing that she would never leave him again. That as long as she was still breathing, that no fossa would harm him or his friends.
Horst was then suddenly thrust from these thoughts when he felt his captor's jaws lift from his back a split second before he was pulled into a spine snapping hug. Said captor had sat down and switched to holding Horst in an iron clad embrace and when he looked around, Horst found that the other fossa had stopped running as well, with all either sitting and laying on the ground as they huffed and puffed for air. That's when Horst realized that he couldn't hear so much as a whisper of a wail amid this collective catching of breath and a quick resurveying of his surroundings confirmed that he didn't recognize the patch of jungle he was currently occupying and suddenly the thought of Clover saving him suddenly didn't seem so bad after all.
But wait. What about Dr. S? Of course! How could he forget about the snake doctor turned savior!? … That's when it dawned on Horst that, while the fossa had gone on and on about Clover earlier, he couldn't recall any of them saying anything about Dr. S whatsoever but before he could ponder the matter any farther...
"Fossa!"
...every fossa's head turned towards a sharp gruff bark that came from close by and his captor's strong arms pulled away a split second before their jaws clamped down around Horst's torso once more. At which Horst sealed his own jaws shut and bit down on his tongue to cage the wail wrenched from his lungs, humming a miserable melody that was muffled all the more by the crowd's anxious chattering as another one of their own arrived on the scene. Who, with their particularly scarred face and missing ear, stood out all the more as they strolled towards Horst while staring at him with an expression that the petrified prisoner couldn't read.
"We sorry we only catch one lemur, Porcia!" One fossa anxiously apologized to the newcomer. "Clover…!"
"Porcia know! Bitch kick Porcia's ass too!" Said newcomer snapped and moved as if to lunge at their brethren, causing them to recoil from her brusque bark, then gave an exasperated growl as she turned back to Horst. "Speak lemur!" She barked in his face. To which Horst could only give a long croaky squeal in reply, as if mimicking a rusty door hinge caught in the wind, as he stared into this Porcia's now feral eyes until she shrieked, "Speak!"
"O-O-Okay! Okay! I'm speaking! I'm speaking, see!?" Horst obeyed frantically and pointed to his mouth while giving the widest spurious smile he could muster until it crumbled like sand between his fingers at the wicked grin that Porcia gave him and suddenly a scorching scowl seemed preferable in comparison.
"Porcia knew she recognize you." She said, with an ominous mirth to her softly spoken words that drummed ice cold claws of dread down Horst's spine. Froze his hammering heart when she then triumphantly declared to his captor, "Congratulations, my friend! You catch Mary Ann's chew toy!"
"I did!?" They incredulously exclaimed through a mouthful of Horst while a collective gasp rippled through the crowd.
"It true! He have same fur. Same eyes. Same pathetic whimpering as when fossa catch him and Mary Ann!" Porcia earnestly argued, looking all around before settling her gaze on Horst, with her firm furrow switching to a smug sneer as she spoke, her words oozing with merry mocking as she flashed her fangs at her frozen foe. Who gulped down a great big lump in his throat as murmurs of agreement sounded all around. To which Porcia smiled all the wider as she said to the crowd, "Good. Glad we in agreement."
From there, she ordered everyone to accompany her back to the fossa's kingdom. To which all complied and as he was carried towards that den of death, one of it's residents filled Horst's mind.
At least, he hoped that she still lived there. Prayed that when he arrived, she would be there, waiting for him. That he may gaze upon her gorgeous form and it not be a cruel shadow. That her voice may ring in his ears like the loveliest bells and drive out the hollow echos that plagued his heart. That he may press his face into her soft fur and inhale it's sweet scent instead of a soul shattering imitation even for just one moment. Just one more moment with that most beautiful and terrible angel of whom had haunted him ever since that most horrible night.
When he realized that he was a stupid, selfish, spineless bastard who couldn't be bothered to check up on the love of his life after she saved him along with a fuck ton of other lemurs from a gang of fucking furious fossa who had rebelled against her in the first place because they had found out about Clover leaving because of his fat fucking mouth! Which he had ran plenty in between said 'botched' rebellion and the wedding reception from hell! Going on and on about how amazing Mary Ann was! How brave she was! How proud he was to be with her! And yet, he had not said a word, not a single solitary word about wanting to make sure that she was alright! That she really was alive and well and not taken prisoner or...After everything she had done for him, everything she had done out of love, he had failed to show her that same love in return! She had every right to never want to see his useless, brainless…!
"We're here!"
Horst was suddenly thrust from these thoughts by Porcia's practically sung announcement. That's when he saw that the two of them, his captor and the rest of the fossa had made it to their kingdom, with it's stone walls looming over Horst's head as tall and jagged enough to keep him caged within their cruel clutches even if he did manage to escape his unwanted entourage's as he remembered. Only he had doubts that anyone was coming to his rescue this time, with Dr. S's earlier absence in mind as he was soon thrown into a cage and it's door was locked up tight and Porcia's scarred face once again swarmed his sight.
"At last! Porcia finally have you!" She said barely above an ecstatic, manic whisper as she knelt before her petrified prey with matching vigor.
Until another fossa came to stand beside her as she too stared at Horst and said in awe, "It really is him!" Then, a sinister grin curled across her own lips as she turned to her brethren and asked in ominous anticipation, "What we do with him?"
"Porcia know just the thing." Porcia answered in kind as she briefly smirked at Horst one more time before turning to a fossa on her other side, who had also come to gawk at their people's prisoner with pride, and gaily ordered, "Bring out Mary Ann!"
Which wrenched out a sharp gasp from Horst's lungs as he leapt to the door of his cage and pressed his face up against it's bars to watch as the faithful follower happily trotted away to carry out their orders. To which Porcia's wicked grin grew all the wider and a ghoulish giggle bubbled up from her lungs as she sneered down upon her anxiously awaiting prisoner. "You ready to see her, lover boy?" She said snidely as her subject disappeared behind a corner, with Horst's heart practically pounding in her ears as a thousand thoughts shone in his eyes as bright as the sky above.
"She's alive!" Horst uttered, his breathless words brimming with immeasurable, almost unbearable love.
"Not so fast, Romeo." Porcia's playful chiding snapped Horst out of his awed state with a startled start and he whipped around as she told him, "Before you see her, you must close your eyes."
To which Horst swallowed a lump in his throat, then obliged and even without his eyes, he still saw the ear to ear grin with which Porcia continued to mock him. For he knew that she wasn't planning on a heartfelt reunion that ended in him and Mary Ann running off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Would his beloved be ordered to kill him? Would she be more then happy to? Would he even blame her?
"Wait! Before you or Mary Ann or somebody kills me, please, please let me talk to her one last time!" Horst pleaded earnestly and bowed his head in kind.
To which Porcia purred, "Of course.", her words like the sweetest poison that Horst gulped down all the same and so, he waited. As paws scurried across dirt and stone. As fossa prattled on all around him. As their excitement rose along side his own to where it erupted in a roaring wave of voices that blared in his ears along side his hammering heart. Then, Porcia's voice cut through the clamor and just like that, all fell silent save for soft footsteps that stopped before Horst. Who then heard what sounded like something hollow being placed on the ground, followed promptly by Porcia practically, giddily singing, "Get on your knees and open your eyes! Surprise!", betting out the last word as Horst obliged and found himself staring into two gaping eyes. Eyes housed within a skull about the same size as his whole body, it's once smooth white surface cracked and dulled including it's long snout which flashed fangs that were no doubt once powerful enough to snap him in half, laying at Porcia's feet and no one else's.
"Wha-what is this? Who is this? Why are you showing me this!? Where's Mary Ann!?" Were Horst's anxious demands, unable to hide the tremor to his tone as he looked this way and that for even a glimpse of his lover.
At which wicked merriment danced all the madder in Porcia's eyes as she placed her paw upon the skull and said with a sardonic sneer, "Why, she right here! Don't you recognize your 'precious peony'?", and with that, Horst's heart stopped. Peonies were Mary Ann's favorite flower, so he sometimes called her his...no. He looked once more at the skull. Once more into eyes devoid of life, warmth and love forever more. No. No, it couldn't be...no!
"Don't you fucking dare lie to me! Where is she!?" Horst snarled, then shrieked as he lunged at the cage door, with teeth bared as if ready to sink them into Porcia's face as the smug smirk was scorched off of it.
Then, after a moment in which she could only gape into Horst's searing scowl, Porcia furrowed her own brow and bared her teeth into a snarl, with eyes blazing as she clenched the skull ever tighter and snapped, "She here, you dumbass! This is her!"
"You're lying!"
"Why I lie!?" Porcia screeched as she rammed her head against the cage door, jolting it to where Horst was slammed into the opposite side. Where he yowled out a curse as he slid to the floor, then clenched the back of his throbbing skull as he cursed once more, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain as Porcia's voice blared in his brain, "Why I or any fossa let that traitor live after what she did!? After she turn her back on everything that make fossa fossa!? After she kill Bone-Fossa!?" At which Horst's eyes flew open and were greeted by feral infernos ready to tear him limb by limb as their master told him, "Yeah, remember him!? Fossa with skull hat!? Your 'precious peony' killed him! After she chase fossa away, fossa remember we outnumber her! So fossa attack! She fight back! She killed Bone-Fossa! So fossa kill her and this all that left of that back stabbing bitch!", with teeth and bitterness ever more bared with each scathing syllable as she clenched her enemy's skull ever tighter until she paused, picked up the macabre reminder and slammed it's snout against the cage bars and kept it there as she finished with, "Believe me now!?", then waited for a reply with patience as thin as spider's silk, ready to snap at the slightest resistance.
But Horst said not a word as he stared into the skull's eyes as he breathed ever harder. To which his head grew ever lighter and as he dug his nails into his scalp ever deeper and the world blurred and shifted all the faster, as his body quivered and his legs buckled, as he fell to his knees and hide his face from their grisly gaze, those eyes still stared back at him, unyielding, unfeeling, their once radiant light extinguished forever more.
And as Porcia watched this unfold, her lips curled into a vile grin once more, through which she purred, "Much better."
.
.
.
Time ceased for Horst after that. Lost amid a fog of fleeting forms and smothered murmurs. Amid all that remained of his beloved being shoved into his prison cell. Amid throwing himself onto her and wretched sobs bellowed from the deepest, darkest depths of his soul and yet, stroked his ears as softly as butterflies wings, drowned out by the million memories that flooded them. A million promises and praises. A million arguments and grievances. A million I love yous and I never to see you agains. All leaving him as still as stone save for squeezing his beloved ever tighter as he oh so faintly felt himself being moved and placed upon a surface as cold and smooth as that wretched and wonderful idle that he held onto all the while.
It wasn't until a wave of howling, yipping and yowling roared it's way through the haze did Horst slowly lift his head, his shimmering gaze taking a moment to focus on the scene before him. When it did, he saw fossa after fossa sprinting past him as Porcia shrieked about them, "Get them!" At which Horst bolted up right and that's when a bright orange shape flashed across his sight. Clover, but a few stone throws away, leaping and dodging, punching and kicking fossa after fossa left and right. Then, another familiar voice pierced through the hullabaloo and he turned to see Dr. S bobbing and weaving amidst his own batch of enemies, his own fangs bared for blood. The cavalry had finally arrived and yet, this brought no joy to Horst as Mary Ann's skull continued to press upon his chest, numbing him to all else.
That was until he felt powerful jaws plunge into his back, reigniting searing pain through his veins as he was hoisted into the air, gripping his terrible and beautiful lifeline ever tighter so that it too was lifted as well. Which was followed by his captor saying something that was muffled by Horst's screeching muscles, though he could feel their aggravation rattling his bones. That only grew as Horst was then violently shaken and shrill yowling escaped his lips until the shaking stopped and his captor sprung from the spot.
But only sprinted for a pawful of strides before both predator and prey came to a swinging, screeching stop, simultaneous with the former's fangs lifting from the latter's back as a high pitched yelp rose above the surrounding hubbub. Ringing in Horst's ears as he and Mary Ann's remains were flung to the ground, with the landing briskly knocking the wind from his lungs. When it returned, Horst ceased his beloved's skull as he sat up swiftly and saw Dr. S hunched as if mid-strike with a fossa dangling from his jaws, the former hunter breathing heavily around the latter's limp body. Which was now streaked with streams of blood, including those that flowed around the fossa's mouth as it hung mid-snarl as well as their wide jungle eyes, frozen forever more. While Dr. S's were akin to blazing infernos ready to scorch anything and anyone in their way and in those moments, Horst was glad to be neither.
Then, just as quickly as it had ignited, the serpent's searing gaze simmered and his breathing evened and he dropped his kill onto the ground, careful not to crush Horst with the once powerful predator. He then lowered himself down so that the two of them was almost eye to eye as he anxiously asked, "Are you alright!?" To which Horst could only continue to silently stare at his savior, eyes wide and lips parted for words that would not come. "Hello? Hellooo?" Dr. S said, in confusion as well as concern, and waved his tail in front of the frozen lemur. "Earth to Horst, are you there?" It was then that he noticed the fossa skull in Horst's arms. "Why are you holding that skull?" He asked as he pointed his tail at the macabre idle.
Which wrenched out a sharp gasp from Horst, startling the snake doctor. Who grew ever more confused and concerned as Horst looked down upon aforementioned skull and uttered, "I...", then looked back at Dr. S as he clenched the death's head ever tighter. "I..." He croaked as his lips began to quiver and his vision started to shimmer. Which uneased Dr. S all the more and he started to say,
"H-hey, wha..."
"There you are!"
...Before Clover's harsh bark cut him short.
At which both men whipped around with a startled start and saw the lemur queen sprinting towards them. "What are you two doing!? We have to move!" She demanded to know as she stopped before the duo. That's when she finally got a good look at what Horst held to his person. "What the...is that a fossa skull? What the hell are you holding that for!? The last thing we need is dead weight, Horst!" She stated sternly as she started towards him with paws ready to snatch the grisly object from his arms.
"Nnnnnno!" Horst snapped, taking Clover aback with his shrill shriek. With how he shielded the skull from her with his body. How his fur bristled from head to lashing tail. How he bared his teeth while glaring feral daggers at her throat, looking ready to tear her limb by limb if she came any closer.
"What the fuck!? What's the matter with you!?" Clover demanded, dumbfounded by this dramatic shift.
But any reply that Horst had in mind died on his tongue when Dr. S let out a wailing yowl that caused him and Clover to whip around to see the snake doctor towering above them, his head thrown back to the sky.
"You bastard!" A voice shrieked from behind him, one that Horst instantly recognized as Porcia's and was proven right when her head reared over Dr. S's shoulder and she sank her fangs into his scaly flesh once more, wrenching it out another sky splitting cry from the snake doctor.
"Dr. S!" Clover called out and took a step towards her comrade.
"No!" Dr. S snapped, stopping Clover in her tracks. "Get Horst out of here! I'll be fine!" He beseeched, then lunged at Porcia with fangs open wide. To which Porcia dodged the deadly instruments with a split second to spare and Dr. S clomped down into thin air as she landed on her feet beside him, then sprung for his neck. Though Dr. S fortunately saw her coming and weaved out of the way in time and watched as she landed on his other side without so much as a scratch to his person. Where she let out another blood curling battle cry before lunging at him once more.
While Clover and Horst watched on until the former snapped out of her frozen confliction, hoisted Horst over her head, skull and all, and bolted. To which Horst clenched his beloved ever tighter as Clover made swift work in carrying her precious cargo from the scene, with a slew of screams snapping at her heels long after leaving. Long after the last lingering murmurs of battle no longer grazed her ears, she kept running. She ran and ran and ran and ran some more. She ran until it felt like she had ran half way across the island before she finally allowed herself to stop in a quiet patch of jungle. Where she sat Horst up against a tree and flopped her weary body down beside him.
"Okay." Inhale. Exhale. "Okay." She said when her ragged breathing just about evened and her heart stopped beating like hummingbird wings. "Now can you tell me what's so damn special about that skull!?" She critically inquired of Horst. Who said not a word as he gently laid his beloved's remains before them, then looked at Clover with eyes like skies before a storm.
"Well? Aren't you going to explain yourself?" She said as she sneered at the death's head and Horst, his words were like looming thunder as he snarled,
"You know exactly why!"
"I know that you could have dropped this stupid thing and tripped me while I was saving your ass!" Clover snapped as she stood up and lifted her foot to kick Mary Ann's skull.
"No!" Horst shrieked as he threw himself onto the macabre idle.
"Oh gods, not this again!" Clover caviled as she rolled her eyes and stomped her foot back down.
"Oh yes, cause I'm the guy who cares too much! Who loves too much! Who everyone knows loves a fossa more then life itself! The same fossa who was last seen doing your job with her subjects! One of who gave me this'stupid thing'!" Horst retorted with teeth and bitterness ever more bared as he picked himself off of his beloved's remains and turned them around so that Clover could look into their grisly gaze, his own like twin oceans wanting nothing more then to drown the queen in their dark depths as the meaning behind his venom drenched statement came down upon her like a tidal wave.
"No." She uttered in a whisper that was oh so feeble, so small, but that Horst heard all the same.
"Yes!"
"No!" Clover desperately countered. "H-how do you know for sure that's…!?"
"Because the fossa told me!" Horst snapped, with Porcia's sadistic mirth ringing in his ears as his hands rested on her handiwork.
While his words squeezed Clover's heart ever more like a snake ensnaring their prey but that didn't stop her from anxiously saying, "You...y-you believe what that brute told you!?"
To which Horst stared at her as if she had struck him, then screeched, "Why would she lie!?"
"Because Mary Ann told her to!? Because she's too much of a spineless skank to face you herself!? Because she can't face the consequences of what she's done!?" Clover countered furiously.
And in those moments, Horst could have killed her but instead, replied, "What and turn down the chance to gloat about how she tricked us all into trusting her!? Tricked me into believing that she loved me!? That we could finally be together!? Or chew me out for leaving her for dead with the same demons who had already stabbed her in the back once and couldhaveeasily done it again while I was too busy being a brain dead bastard over your's and Sage's 'love'!? Don't you fucking dare tell me that she can't face what she's done when you can't admit that she's dead!", his withering words screamed from scorched lungs as they killed any and all retorts on Clover's tongue. Which remained as still as stone as Horst then paused and tears sprung forth as his face twisted in rage and soul shattered sorrow. "Mary Ann's dead...she's dead! She's dead! She's dead! She's dead! She's deaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!" He croaked as if being strangled before screeching at the top of his lungs. Wailed from the darkest depths of his soul as he fell to his knees before his beloved's skull and laid himself upon that most terrible and beautiful idle.
As Clover watched his forlorn form, her own frozen, the blaze in her wide eyed gaze stomped out until it reignited at the sound of snapping wood coming from close by. At which she whipped around, ready in an instant to fight the source of said sound until none other then Dr. S slithered onto the scene.
"Dr. S!?" Clover incredulously exclaimed.
"I...heard you and Horst and-and I was going to tell you guys that I was here sooner but..." The snake sheepishly tried to explain himself before trailing off and averting his gaze. Which landed on Horst and the somber shrine on which he laid upon and the way that Dr. S's expression softened at the sight told Clover that he knew exactly who the dearly departed was before he turned back to her and solemnly confirmed, "I know that's Mary Ann."
At which Horst threw his head back as he let out another soul shattered cry to the sky, recapturing his audience's attention as he buried his face and sobbed into what remained of his beloved once more. "Horst..." Dr. S said in tender sorrow as he felt his own heart break in time with the widower's wretched wails. Which coiled around Clover's heart ever tighter, dug their despondent claws ever deeper, ripped out ever more embittered blood that smothered her lungs to where her breathing grew ever more labored to where Dr. S must have surely heard her. But her companion paid her no mind, too focused on the grave scene before him even as Clover managed to croak,
"We can't stay here."
When that didn't get his attention, Clover took a quivering breath and straightened herself up before stating, firmer and louder, "We can't stay here", but still, Dr. S's shimmering sunrise eyes remained on Horst and his terrible, beautiful idle. To which Clover stepped out in front of the doctor as she repeated ever louder, "We can't stay here!"
"Huh?" Dr. S said and looked to her with a startled start, finally snapped out of his stunned state, his companion's commanding stance piquing his interest even farther.
"I said that we can't stay here! We need to get Horst home before dark!" Clover rattily reiterated, taking Dr. S even more aback. At which the former became conscious of her brusque barking and anxiously looked to Horst. Whose wailing had waned into softer but no less heart wrenching weeping with no end in sight nor sign that he was even aware of the conversation concerning him. "There's...there's no way we're going to get him to walk anytime soon. You'll have to carry him." Clover solemnly concluded as she turned back to Dr. S, with a choked up edge to her firm words that wasn't lost on him.
To which he said in gentle concern, "Clover…"
"He's not going to let me do it!" She snapped, then immediately regretted it when Dr. S winced in reply. "You know he won't." She croaked as she avoided her companion's eyes, the pained hitch with which she spoke sending searing pangs pulsing through his own heart.
And so, after allowing Horst to get a good grip on his bride, Dr. S oh so gently picked him up with his jaws, taking grave care not to inject deadly venom into his precious cargo, then headed for home with Clover at his side.