I am the lethal enemy of your light My maw calls you into the abyss

Two toned gaze fluttered open, trickles of sunlight beginning to invade her families temporary den a confusing and blurry sight. Her body clock had been set to always wake her up at sunset at the earliest. Quickly, the way her body felt explained everything. It.... it was time, wasn't it?

Arachnae could not pull herself from where she lay, her breathing shallow and weak, her degraded form finally giving up. There was a pain in her chest, a deep ache that gripped its claws around her heart and squeezed. Her vision gad never looked as it did before, like everything around her was behind a silk curtain. Despite the heaviness keeping her against the ground, she had never felt so light, like any moment she could float away.

Forcefully, a groan left her lips, and then a gasp. Ugh.... u.... D... Dua? She would manage, her eyes searching desperately in their peripherals for where she and their present children lay. She needed them, needed to say goodbye...

@Dua @Adira @Darcy @Saelem @Hero @Virgil @Pasha

art by Rabbit - code by loki

Here, la, Dua whispered back, her paws draped grasping over her wife's own. Darcy is here, too, she's here. Golden eyes glanced over their makeshift home, searching for their children, for their wife, for some semblance of normalcy in the grief that threatened to spill over into reality. She had known - for some time - that she would be the last of the mothers to go. She knew she would be here (again), holding another set of fading hands into a gentle rest.

She wished she hadn't been so prepared.

Her body felt slow, too slow - out of sync, really - with her intended motions. I need... I need salts or... sand. Sand, bebe. Dua gestured to one of her daughters, ushering for the rushed ingredients. The gods must know that she is ready. I will not have your mother lost in the Duat because I did not prepare her properly.

@Arachnae

reoccurring visions of such sweet days

He had just found her and now he was losing her. His ears twisted in his multi-colored mane, it was tipped with the growing age of gray, as he moved closer to the pale tiger and his sister. The stench of death was near and Drakon knew what it meant. @Arachnae.. his voice broke. Hoarse even as his flamed hued jewels locked onto his sisters dying form. He didn't know who the tiger was but that didn't matter as he moved closer to Arachnae's form and aim to crouch near her in comfort. He had lost her once. Now he was losing her again.

code by corvus

Saelem

The sun rose quietly on the sunrise, an eerie feeling setting deep within Saelem's chest. Something felt wrong, so wrong, but the scent that lingered in he air was unfamiliar to her, unknown. She felt she should fear this unknown. A very large sunrise colored pixie frog sat at her side, emotionless and silent, but his presence did nothing to ease her anxiety. And then she heard her mama.

@Dua's voice wrenched the tiny witch to their den within moments, leaving the frog where he sat. The towering white form of an unknown lion was a surprise, but.... not the problem. Both he and her mama hung their head over mother, her peach form weak and reeking of that unknown smell. No, she knew now. Death.

Nausea made its appearance, swallowing bile as she began to frantically think of the closest place to aquire sand. And then she remembered; half a clam shel, filled with sand from the tide pools when she and mother had met miss Dio, stashed away in the hollow of a tree right outside.

She made haste, snatching the shell and carefully taking it back to where mama and Mother lay, setting it at Dua's golden paws, tears rapidly filling her gaze. M-mama..... She choked, Why is this happening? It was all she could manage to ask. She knew Arachnae hadn't been as healthy as she once was.... but she didn't know this would happen, even knowing mum Darcy had also withered away.

Red and silver eyes raised themselves to peer at the pale stranger filled with tears, sniffing hard to prevent mucus from dripping out of her nose, but would refrain from asking who he was as her mother's weak form began to speak.

@Adira @Dua @Drakon @Virgil @Pasha @Hero

Code by Sunny | Art by Drifter

I am the lethal enemy of your light My maw calls you into the abyss

@Dua would arrive swiftly, the weight of her small form a comfort, the sound of her commands towards wherever their daughters lay as if outside of a bubble. Shadows flickered, and while her sense of smell was dulled to nearly nothing, she could feel it when he arrived. Amber eyes locked into hers, and tears began steaming down her cheeks. She regretted not telling him that day on the beach that this was happening, but she couldn't take away the first joyous moment they had shared in years. Was she selfish for that? She didn't necessarily have the time to think about it.

@Drakon.... brother... her voice was but a strained whisper as she struggled to make herself heard, I want you.. to meet my... family.... She said, taking a gasp of air, eyes shifting to her wife and closest child, m-y... wife Dua.... daughter Saelem... She wheezed, eyes looking around for her lilac child. My... other daughter.... @Adira? She would ask, unable to turn and pinpoint where she was. More... I have more.... seven total.... The witch would state, a weak smile finding its place of her maw. You... still have me beat... there.... I supp-ose. She said, a tiny chuckle managing itself from her maw. She had always hoped to have as many children as he, but in the end she didn't quite make it to that many. She didn't have any regrets about that, though. Birthing her five had been quite enough.

Quietly, a few moments would pass, the missing form of her companion coming to mind. R-Rawkshi? Where.... it's was unusual for him to not be at her side before day fully broke, and a heavy feeling weighed upon her already aching heart. Where was he?

art by Rabbit - code by loki

OOC: Please let me know if anything needs changing.

Something was off that morning. Like a crawling sensation on her skin, Adira could not ignore it. She expelled a breath, scattering the feathers she had been given days earlier. The trinkets had lost their appeal as she shifted uneasily into a state of unease. The world beyond their den was bathed in a soft glow, significative of dawn. Her nose twitched at the familiar scent of Rawkshi, her mother’s companion, but her breath hitched at another smell. The sickening sensation grew as she searched frantically for the snake.

Adira froze when she found the serpent lying still. “Rawkshi?” She drew closer, and noticed that the once glossy scales were dull. Slowly, reverently, she stroked a paw along Rawkshi’s back as she whimpered, “no, no, no!” He couldn’t be… gone. For as long as she had lived, the snake had never been far away. Fond memories of sleeping in his warm coils sent tears to pool down Adira’s cheeks. She needed to tell Mother, but oh Gods, what would she going to tell her? The lilac girl crouched beside the body of the great serpent, and carried him from the lair to be reunited with Arachnae.

She broke into a run as she heard her mother call out to her – the sound an echo of the despair she felt. There was a hush over the gathering, and at that moment she knew something awful was about to happen. Her violet eyes darted from @Dua, @Saelem and Mother to the tall stranger. “I’m here, Mother,” she whispered, coming closer and trying not to struggle under the weight of the python she was carrying. Carefully, she placed the body of the serpent body beside @Arachnae, where he belonged. Adira stared at them wordlessly. Her head bowed, as her ears folded back. “Rawkshi… He was cold when I found him. I’m s-sorry.”

bg x art x code