"Wake up."
Brinella woke with a start, her claws gripping and tearing holes into the sheets, driving deep into her palms. Her hiss of pain become something akin to a growl, her heart thumping madly in her chest while senses reached out, further than she would have believed possible. "Something is wrong," her mind screamed, "something is very wrong..."
"Get up."
Shivering as her claws withdrew from her now bloody palms, her ears perked. The voice she swore she heard was the only noise in the room aside the pop of the firewood that Adeline had lit before retiring herself, but it was a quiet voice. There was power behind it, seemingly as if it were yelled, but the person or thing speaking must have been miles away to be that quiet. Uncertainty flashed in her features, but the voice was tugging something else inside of her. Instinct, pushing hard and fast.
Without a sound, the woman dressed quickly and grabbed the pack Mr. Avery had given her. Her day had been spent gathering additional flowers and herbs if they were close to the town, the gold and gems tucked safely away so they would not be forgotten. Forgotten in a moment like this, where frantic urges were all but screaming at her in a language she understood despite it being foreign.
The heavy pack thrown over her shoulders, she wrapped the thick cloak Adeline had gifted her around her shoulders, squirming slightly to make it all settle. When she had returned from Mr. Avery's, Adeline had said nothing more about her friend staying. Her mind, like Brinella's, was made up. If her friend would not remain with her, then she would make sure she had all she needed.
Brinella made her way out of the room, softly at first, and then more quickly as moments passed. For a brief moment, she considered checking on her friend, but something else seemed to assure her that the woman was not in the home. No one was, and it was at that moment that she realized the city was far more quiet than it should have been. It was that, and that alone, that sent the worgen to the stairs and then the door, throwing it open.
Mist swarmed around her paws, slipping past her to vanish in the warm room. Some licked up her leather-clad legs, swirling about her cloak in an idle dance that made her bad feeling only grow worse. Stepping forward, she closed the door behind her, listening for that voice that seemed to speak to her from deep inside. Where it had been urging her to escape the building, it now told her to wait.
For what, she wasn't sure. The eerie calm reminded her too much of the storms that Gilneas frequently had to weather, and the quiet moments before the true force hit. She had become good at knowing when such things would happen, and this was akin to those events. Her amber eyes went upwards, seeking out the moon only to find thick clouds, the faint lacing of mist becoming a thicker fog that made looking anywhere difficult.
Time slowed, and she heard only her shaky breath for a time, and then something else. Her ears flicked and swiveled, struggling to catch exactly where the sound was coming from, but in the swirling mist, it seemed to echo. Despite all of her desires to run and flee, instinct told her to stay still, and she did.
A shape formed within the fog, walking on four strong paws rather than the hulking walk of a male worgen. It was graceful, even with how large it was, the thickly muscled shoulders reaching Brinella's own if she stood straight. The mist broke around it, slipping through jaws that made Brinella's seem like toys, the sharp teeth slicked with saliva. It was a frightening thing, yet as it padded closer and closer, she felt no fear. A comfort, perhaps, bestowed to her in the sharp blue eyes that watched her as eagerly as she watched them.
"It's time to leave, child."
Her reverie was broken, the wide muzzle of the creature touching her bloody claws before moving past her, and she realized that in this land of worgen, foxes, and horses... she was being led by a feline that could make any of them cower in fear. The white-furred tail flicked briefly, swishing through the fog like a knife through butter, and Brinella was left to watch it depart as easily as it had come. Whatever momentary spell had been cast on her, it faded and fear raced back into her heart, her mind screaming for her to follow the beast that touched her.
"H-hey! Wait!" An hour had passed, she was sure of it. The fog had lifted as they walked, the enormous feline guiding her up mountains she should have known herself, and yet the unfamiliarity of it all made her question if she was truly awake or asleep. She stumbled like a child over rocks, hissing in pain when sharp twigs would lance her fur, or a bed of particularly pointy rocks would greet the pads of her feet like an angered porcupine would greet a hunting dog. No matter how she yelped or fell, the guide she had followed would wait only long enough for her to stand, and then it would walk again.
Twice she had lost sight of it in the thick fog in the town, her muzzle meeting the sudden corner of a home, or a briar patch that she could have sworn was not present there just hours before. Each time, a low growl would sound and she would follow it, rubbing her wounds with a disgruntled whimper. There was no concern shown in those ice-blue eyes that watched her, and it infuriated her as much as the incessant voice that pleaded with her to follow the aloof animal.
Bare wisps of mist curled and then dispersed around the massive paws of the beast, and only after reaching the crest of the hill did it stop. It did not sit, a light wind ruffling the thick white mane while its gaze was cast out over the city they had just left. It looked back only when Brinella caught up, panting and grunting in a mixture of pain and weakness. Her hand pressed to her side, she held the other one up in a gesture for the beast to wait for a moment as she caught her breath.
"We don't have time to waste. Mend your pin-pricks, and let us keep moving."
"Like hell." The retort was growled beneath her breath, bringing a laugh within her mind from the beast she followed. It watched, almost curious, as she moved to dig in the bag that she had been given. When she pulled forth a vial of precious elixir, it was the frustrated grunt as she attempted to remove the stopper that sounded just before the surprised yelp and crash of glass. Brinella glared at the white-furred feline, who met her gaze with the calm demeanor of a parent staring down a spoiled child.
"A waste of time, girl. Time we are already very short on. Use what nature has blessed you with, not shoddy elixirs that are too far aged to be of much use."
For a long time, they sat motionless. It was the woman who broke first, growling beneath her breath as she shuffled her feet guiltily. "Nature hasn't blessed me with anything. I'm just good with plants and animals. I need those elixirs, and if you're going to bat every single one of them out of my hands, then I'll just deal with it now, and do somethi -" Her voice, quickly raising as her temper soared, sharpened in a soft scream as the world shuddered softly, and then shook with such force that even her companion braced himself, crouching and releasing a low growl.
Brinella curled herself up around her priceless pack, eyes shut tight until the world stopped moving. A loud roar filled her ears, and her eyes shot wide as she felt something grab the scruff of her neck and drag her back and away. Before she could retort or even scream, she realized why and suddenly felt thankful. Just inches from her paws, the land had become a void of nothingness. Rounded hill had been split in half, showing the dark and rich earth that hid beneath soil. "Th-thanks."
There was no response, but she hadn't expected one. While the large cat moved away to stalk along the new cliff-top, Brinella gazed out over the cliff, and then drew a sharp breath. "Addy!" Like before, knowing that something horrible was going to happen, that something was very wrong, the young woman knew without a doubt that her friend was still down there. Her friend... her eyes shot over the area, and without thinking, she was running towards the crevice that now lingered in the earth. She ignored the call in her mind, not of her instinct but of the white feline, grunting in pain as her body flew through the air, claws gripping and scrabbling at soft earth, and suddenly she was back on the other side.
It was only when she looked up and realized that the feline was slowly shrinking in size that she fully understood what was happening. Shooting a pleading look up at the cat, she turned on her heel and fled back to the town, dreading what she might find.
The town had turned up nothing. Buildings had fallen apart, and the few corpses she found were not those of her friend, but of the livestock that had been kept and raised to feed the infected. It did nothing to calm her, her voice now ragged and painful from her screaming of her friend's name, though no answer came no matter where she looked. Fear had swallowed her, making her choke on tears on top of biting back the pain. When the town had been of no use, she had fled to the farms nearby, the small houses where some lived on their own, and finally to the last farm where she drew up short.
What had once been land, open and good farmland, was now nothing but water. Debris bobbed in the water, and further out she could see the overturned hulls of large boats that were not familiar in any way to her. Even trees, the tips of oaks and cedars that had stood hundreds of feet tall, now nothing more than ocean fauna. It was only then, after moments of standing where it was dry, and now feeling the cool lick of salty water against her feet, that she realized her danger was not stopping. That she didn't, as the white feline had said, have time.
"Addy!" Her scream echoed over the silence, mingling with the lapping of water on new shore. "Adeline!" Her scream died to a whimper, her hands clapped over her eyes. "Just one whimper. Just one whimper, Addy. If you're alive, give me that much." Her whispers died, the tears flowing between her fingers.
And like a blessing, like some horrible cliché from stories she had read as a child, the moon broke through the fog and lit on a tangle of debris from a fallen house, and she heard it; a soft, wounded whimper that she knew without a doubt. Cliché or not, nothing stopped Brinella from tearing to that pile, gently moving planks and beams until her goal was reached. Bloody, bruised, and breathing far more shallowly than any person had a right to, Adeline smiled weakly up at her friend. "W-was... was that g-good enough?"
From between words came a wheeze, and pain lanced Brinella's heart. She had found her friend, but her friend was dying. "Yes..." Her tone was soft though her voice was not, her hands scooping gently beneath her friend and cradling her fragile human form against her leather-clad chest.
"Did the sh-shaking wake you up?" Adeline let her blue eyes watch her friend as the worgen started off jogging. Breathing was hard, and she couldn't help the soft whimpers that left her as her friend moved. The loping movements were not gentle, no matter how Brinella tried to move.
"No." She didn't bother to explain just what she had woken up to, or what she had seen. There wasn't any use. It was hard enough to navigate around broken buildings, stepping daintily over items that had shattered and sometimes cut her paws, making the slowly rising sea-water sting like nothing else she knew. Back up to the town, and it was then that Brinella realized that her friend had been deathly silent. "Just... hold on, okay?"
There was a small sound, a heaving cough as blood spattered Brin's tunic, and the golden-haired woman spoke again. "You know I'm not gonna go." Her eyes opened again, a glassy gaze fixed on her would-be heroine. "Not with you." Brinella froze, her eyes going up to the cliffs where the white guide waited for her even now. There was no way to go but up, and the earth shuddered again beneath her feet, dropping quicker into the embrace of the sea. "When you... find them, tell them... tell... love them."
The last breath left her, those crystal-blue eyes falling closed once more, and Brinella held her friend close. "I will, Addy. I promise I will." Tears dropped down the long muzzle to meet with the sea now quickly rising above her knees, and for the first time, Brinella felt no real desire to go with instinct. It told her to drop her friend, and to climb to safety, but that wasn't fair. This all... it all wasn't fair. A whimper left her, and then her head was thrown back, letting the mournful howl spill from her hoarse throat.
Caught up in her mourning, she didn't see the earth before her split and crack. Fine roots wriggled forth, touching her fur and the soft, battered skin of the friend she carried. Thicker roots followed, both curling around Adeline and lifting her gently from Brinella's arms, and intertwining along the cliff-face in a living ladder. Brinella's sobs became convoluted hiccups, struggling briefly with the vines before realizing they were helping her and not hindering. Up and up, as if a gathering of friends were bearing a dearly departed to her grave, Adeline's body was lifted up the cliff while Brinella watched. A moment passed, the cool water sweeping around her waist urging her to climb the strange ladder, and she felt the vines retract beneath her feet as she did.
When she pulled herself over the top, scrambling to her hands and knees, it was amidst a carpet of roots and vines. They writhed around her, their undulating movements bearing her friend to a hole that had been dug, and recently so. Confusion sparked in her mind, and she looked for who could have possibly such a thing, and her eyes fell on that massive a muscle-bound form that was her guide.
His head was bowed low, eyes closed, but the pulsing aura around his paws was a power far stronger than anything she had ever felt. Beneath her hands, she felt as if the earth was speaking, talking to itself and to everything within it as it followed the lead given to them by the feline. The roots around her moved like snakes, leaving her behind as they followed Adeline's body into the hole, and Brinella followed as well, dropping to her knees in time to see the vines lay her friend gently down, and then recede once more into the earth like a burrowing worm.
"There must be balance in the world, for life to flourish. With each pain, we feel some measure of happiness. For every life, there must be death. These are the things we must learn in the hardest ways of all."
The great beast padded quietly over, his massive paw lifting and then dropping over her own hand, pushing it firmly to the earth. Again, the green glow pulsed around him, and then into her own hand and arm, and Brinella realized with a jolt that it was not an aura of magic, but the very grass beneath him. Reaching for him, and now for her, it glimmered with the green of life and youth, sparkling beneath the coating of dew left behind from the mist that had bathed it recently. They were living gemstones, emitting a life all their own, and it took her breath away.
"Finish it. Finish your grave for your friend, child."
With a soft sob, Brinella let go. The gentle coaxing she had always used for the simple roses and corn on her family's farm was gone, her very heart and soul reaching and crying out for anything to hear her. For anything to answer, and help her mourn. Beneath her hand, bolstered by the white-furred guardian, the earth answered. It shook and shifted gently beneath her, roots pushing dirt to cover Adeline a little bit at a time, the dirt mixing with Brinella's tears as her eyes closed. She felt, as if they were whispering directly into her ear, the plants answer her, reaching out to her with long roots that intertwined beneath the ground inside the rich soil that had been newly turned.
They swept together, and broke free from the earth to surge upwards and weave together. The wood twisted and shaped, a headstone of living wood that allowed small vines to grow up along it until the small grave was overshadowed by an oak headstone framed by roses of a dark scarlet, bobbing in the gentle breeze. When Brinella at last opened her eyes, feeling the pressure of the paw leave her hand, it was to see the final touch; the oakwood darkened in a design, the figure of a wolf howling against a full moon showing up as if carved by an invisible hand. The wind made the deep green leaves rustle beneath heavy roses, and her tears stopped entirely.
"Is this a proper grave for a friend?"
"No." Brinella, despite her heartache, smiled. "It's the perfect grave for a sister." Her fingers reached out, touching velvet petals and sweeping along the wood headstone. Smooth, perfect, as if crafted by an artisan and yet no mortal could ever hope to compete with the quality. She knew, as easily as she knew this marker would never fade, that she could not have done it without the feline. "Thank you."
There was a long pause before he spoke, and already he had turned away to begin walking. "She has found her balance, and her life has given birth to more life. So it is, so it will always be." His massive head turned back, blue eyes looking to her. "Now, youngling, let us find your own balance."
Brinella nodded, casting one more look at the gravestone, and another at the land that was now sea, the water having stopped halfway up the cliff she had just scaled. After a few moments, with a deep breath taken, she collected her things and loped off to follow the feline, wincing slightly as stray stones jabbed into wounded paws. "You... think I could use a potion now?"