Closed [Memory] Time to Hunt

[Khain]

˗ˋˏ ◜ ♡ ◝ ˎ´˗
ꘜ‿︵‿ꘜ
Day 25 of Summer, Year 123
︶꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶꒦

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The night had fallen, with the sun setting half an hour earlier, and Khain had recently awoken from a deep slumber. Earlier that morning, seeking refuge from the harsh morning light that left her instantly exhausted and scorched her light-sensitive eyeballs, she had sought shelter within an abandoned burrow that most likely belonged to a large creature at one point. All she had wanted was to retreat into the deepest, darkest hole she could find, away from the reach of light, and slumber until nightfall swept over the land.

Khain emerged from the burrow, her clawed hands pulling her up from the earthy hole. Dirt and soot from the scorched ground stuck to her fur. She knew she needed a bath urgently to avoid being scented by prey for miles around. She shook out her fur, causing her thick, mane-like fur to billow and sway with each motion, scattering dust and dirt.

She stretched, extending her arms high above her head. She yawned, her black lips peeling back to reveal glistening pink gums and elongated, razor-sharp fangs. And stretched out, thick and furry muscled arms raised above her head. Hand on the hilt of her greatsword, she hunched forward, cracking her neck from right to left.

Her stomach rumbled, signling to her brain that she was starving. She exhaled through her nose in a snort-like fashion and groaned, a whine-like sound coming out.

Time to hunt.

Khain laughed.

 

[Khafra]

Veiðrbrand. The only forsaken place the Aelves didn't give a flying ball of dung about. There were dragons that patrolled the area, and elementals in the wastes, but plenty of beasts to hunt leaked their way out of the bogs and forests, coming down from the mountains and perking up out of the Ur'Duun.

Lakali was here to make a name for himself, having been ousted by his prior Warband. Or so he thought. Whether he knew it or not, they were looking for him, to bring him back, but he hadn't given them the chance to say his fuck-up wasn't a fuck-up. But no matter, he'd be a Warlord, they'd all rally under his power! They would see!

So here he was in this sooty shit-hole scorned by Aarda above. Amid burnt trees, not hungry, but alone.

Imagine his surprise when out in the remote wilderness, he found himself hearing a laugh beyond the black brush. He advanced down the trailhead with caution, choking back a smaller laugh of his own.

Lakali saw the biggest Gnoll he had ever seen as he turned the corner, and the bloodlust in her eyes made him feel like a doe staring down some great predator.

He froze.

"Warlord Lakali-wishes-glory-upon-her!" the smaller, runtier Gnoll croaked. His hands sparked with fire, a gentle, chilling breeze rolling forth from him, carrying the soot up to her eyes. A bit of water jumbled in the air, all of these little elemental motifs gathering around the pair in case this standoff turned violent.

Lakali didn't know if Inermanteia could hold something like her. He smiled, a sharp giggle piercing the air, snorting to hold it back. No, he would have to give her everything he had if he was to survive.

 

[Khain]

˗ˋˏ ◜ ♡ ◝ ˎ´˗
ꘜ‿︵‿ꘜ
Day 25 of Summer, Year 123
︶꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶꒦

▲‿▲

She felt the gnawing hunger, a relentless reminder of her dual afflictions; Nightwalker and Devorare. Despite her mental instability, she clung to the hope of improvement. It would get better eventually, with enough practice, she could only hope. Day by day, night by night, she fought against the wrathful beast within her own mind. She had to consume enough meat and blood to appease both blights.

And it was hard... sometimes. Sometimes it was hard, expecially in the middle of nowhere. She was a Hunter of beasts. She ate many of the non-magical verity over the last three years. She had to eat a lot of them, and with no humanoid's in sight; she'd have to find some soon or risk going completely mad—

Devorare and Nightwalker Blights... how did others cope with both?

"Warlord Lakali-wishes-glory-upon-her!"

What?

Khain didn't speak that nor did she think that, and it wasn't her voice.

She blinked, gaze shifting upwards, then downwards, large round ears pinned back— untill her eyes landed on... he was a runt, she was sure of that at least. Much smaller than she was. No armor... just wearing a harness and mage robes. She towered over him by... a lot. The large Gnoll let out a guttural sound, something between a stifled laugh and a menacing growl as she tilted her head to the side.

"Warlord?" She growled out the word after assessing him from head to toe. "If you are a Warlord then Khain is a runt!"

Khain instinctively recoiled from the flickering spark of fire emanating from his hand. The thought of being burned alive, especially after all she had endured in the previous year... It would have been easy, she was quite flammable nowadays. Despite the irritation caused by the soot that clouded her vision, she made no attempt to clear it from her eyes. She knew she needed her sight, but she could could endure without it for a time... And so—

"No fire!" Khain shook her head from side to side, reminiscent of a rabid beast — a comparison uncomfortably close to the truth. Bringing her hands up to her face, she rubbed the soot from her sore and irritated eyes, blinking rapidly to clear her vision. "Khain does not like fire! Fire does not like Khain!"

It was settled.

She'd eat him.

If he put out the fire first.

Khain does not like fire.

And at that moment, she does not like him either.

A large clawed hand went to the hilt of a very large greatsword.

She laughed, high pitched and bolsterous.

 

[Khafra]

Well, this was going about as well for Lakali as his initiation into any Warband, but the Gnoll before him he doubted had been claimed by any other.

Gaze upturned towards her looming, red eyes as they worked him over, Lakali wasn't sure if he would piss himself or not when she growled, but luckily his knees were able to calm themselves.

He shrugged, to her assertion. "Lakali is runt, no less powerful," he spoke plainly, letting the sparks of flame dance upon his paws.

The way she was looking at him, it was very clear she didn't-

Well, she was afraid of something at least. His confidence returned, and he knew he had the upper hand. It was all he needed to be sure of himself. "Lakali would like if Khain did not attack him, or Khain will see the fire!"

She drew her Greatsword.

And then, behind him, a huge pillar of fire suddenly erupted from the ground as he laughed, its white hot, burning light as bright as the sun, shaped like the behemoth of a laughing hyena bursting forward from the ground. He laughed, and cackled, his mirthful noise drowned out by the roaring flame spreading around him.

"Khain is the runt!" Lakali gloated. "Khain will submit to Lakali or burn! She will!" The fire surrounding Lakali was more than just fire. It was hot. Well over 1,800 degrees Celsius. It baked the skin when one got too close, glaring white like a portal to Aarda itself.

But after a moment, the smoke got to Lakali and he began to gag, choking as the fire wavered. "HEUGH. HUGH. HUHK. HH-AAHAHA-HUGHK!"

Coughing hoarsely, he had to pull in a bit of wind just to breathe, but the fire encroached upon it, and things were getting out of hand as his own fire began to burn him even though he could push it away. It was just too close, too hot, and eating too much air.

Dispersing it outward, he spread the flames like the great wings of a colossal bird, his own fur smoking, robes catching alight until they were visibly on fire.

"Does Khain get on her hands and knees to grovel for Lakali to spare her!?" croaked the hoarse-voiced runt. He was trying to laugh, but he was wheezing, barely having any breath left.

It burns.

Sssss.

 

[Khain]

˗ˋˏ ◜ ♡ ◝ ˎ´˗
ꘜ‿︵‿ꘜ
Day 25 of Summer, Year 123
︶꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶꒦

▲‿▲

"Khain will eat Lakali." She declared, lips curling back in into a snarl. "Khain is hungry."

As fire erupted from behind Lakali, a surge of primal fear gripped Khain, freezing her in place. In that moment, a battle raged within her, the insatiable hunger inherent to her vampiric and beastly nature clashed violently with the overwhelming terror caused by the raging flames. Every instinct urged her to flee, to escape the impending inferno that threatened to consume her. Yet, the gnawing hunger within her gnashed its teeth, torn between the urgency of self-preservation and the primal drive to feed.

Khain's whine pierced the air, her ears flattening against her skull. She released her greatsword, a heavy clang reverberating through the scorched lands as it hit the ground. The thought of submitting to Lakali never crossed her mind; instead, an overwhelming urge to escape consumed her thoughts. Panic surged through her as she whimpered once more, her trembling hands clawing at her face in a futile attempt to dispel the rising terror.

"Khain is not runt!" Khain snapped, gnashing her jaws at him, clawed hands still gripping at her face, despite her induced terror because of the flames. "Lakali is runt and Lakali can't control own fire."

Nightwalker versus Devorare ragged within her. She wanted to rip Lakali limb from limb and consume his flesh to appease her beastly side, and flee from the flames to appease her vampiric side.

But... the beastly side wasn't going to work out in this situation.

Then, without hesitation, she turned and fled. She blinked fifteen feet further away from the flames, the space where she had been standing previously, left in flames and dust. Exodus was use for the hunt, and it too would be useful for fleeing. She didn't want to flee, but Khain was highly flammable. In her panic (and defence). She abandoned her greatsword, it hult slipping from her grasp. She left it behind, she'd retrieve it later, once the fire was out. If Lakali couldn't keep his own fire from burning himself, then he couldn't keep fire from burning Khain. So, submitting to Lakali was of no use to seeing another night.

As panic and fear consumed the large Gnoll. Khain's control over her Nightwalker side began to slip. With each passing moment of stress and terror caused by the fire and that pyromaniac, her form grew taut and rigid. Her muscles swelled and rippled beneath her fur as she gained a few inches in height. A struggle for control warring within her own mind.

"Khain is fucked." Khain laughed, and it was a nervous laugh. "Lakali is fucked."

The scorching heat seared her senses. Irritating her eyes and filled her ears with crackling flames, and the smell of burning filled her nostrils (although, she didnt have to breathe). Her fur had singed singed and the heat beaded down on her, even fifteern feet away, it was sweltering and she was sweating from the heat as she made her escape. Sharp claws and padded paws thudding onto the scorched earth as she ran. She was fast, her long and strong legs propelling her forward, her body hunched over so much that she was almost running on all fours.

She laughed again, loud and boisterous, all thought leaving her mind. So loud that it drowned out the roaring flames; her laughter sounded monsterous and menacing. She tried to keep a hold on herself, not wanting to out herself as Blighted before she could eat him. Too much fire surrounded him, and so it wasn't worth the hassle or the pain and death. But, the hold she did have, had slipped through her clawed fingers.

 

[Khafra]

Lakali did not want to be eaten, although he instantly felt bad that one of his kind was so very hungry that she thought to eat her own kind. He hoped she would submit.

Instead what he saw of her surprised him.

Lakali looked upon Khain, and saw not a gnoll, but a scared beast. It took him aback, drawing his maniacal laugh to a quiet edge, a wincing stare in its place.

"Lakali is in control! Submit to him!" he shouted at her, patting the flames from his shoulders as the wings of fire crashed forward into the ground around them, kept loosely at bay. He did not want to kill her. She was far more valuable to him alive.

Then, she Blinked.

"Hhch!" Lakali twisted in shock, one paw rising. "Don't run! Lakali will help Khain hunt!" he shouted again. But she was fleeing, bounding, like an animal.

Were her muscles somehow bigger than before?

Lakali didn't think much about it, crouching over her greatsword as he heard her psychotic laugh far in the distance. The fires dimmed, and eventually subsided, leaving glassed earth in its place. Crickets of the badlands resumed their loud droning, but Lakali remained.

"Lakali overdid it again," he sighed, picking over the part of his robe where he'd burnt holes. He hadn't burnt himself too badly, either. Good. Eyes falling low, he thought to all the times he'd failed to assert himself as a Warlord to his fellow gnoll.

"Lakali is stupid gnoll..." he murmured to the earth, then stared out across the wastes, waiting for Khain yet weary of her trying to ambush him with her Exodus.

 

[Khain]

˗ˋˏ ◜ ♡ ◝ ˎ´˗
ꘜ‿︵‿ꘜ
Day 25 of Summer, Year 123
︶꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒷꒦︶꒦

▲‿▲

Khain had fled so far that she couldn't see Lakali anymore, only a desolate, scorched wasteland stretched out before her. She needed to calm down; she was far enough away from the flames, so there was no reason to remain like this. But, one could not control the Nightwalker Blight after high emotion. And she desperately needed to hunt too. After all, she was hungry. And a hungry Nightwalker was a deadly Nightstalker.

She stalked around the wastelands, no movement of prey, no heartbeats sounded, while she calmed herself. Eventually, she shrank back down to 10ft. She was already a large Gnoll, even more so while transformed.

"Khain left sword." Khain grumbled under her breath as she stalked back, 45 minutes later, to retrieve her Greatsword. Fleeing felt more important than keeping hold of her sword at the time. She regretted it. "Khain is a fool."

The Greatsword once belonged to her mother, until she ate her mother. So it held sentimental value to the Blighted Gnoll. A reminder that she ate her father too, infact...

Khain hadn't ment to.

Back then, she just couldn't control herself as good. Still can't, but there is improvement.

"Khain wishes Lakali be gone to retrieve her sword." She scratched behind her ear and picked at the strap of her harness. If he was still there, perhaps she'd try not to eat him this time.

Khain didn't like talking before eating, especially in the mornings after sleeping. Too hungry and too sleepy to think straight.

"No fire," she muttered to herself, nodding, and sniffed. She could smell the lingering scent of it, but no fiery noise to confirm.