Thread: Across the Veil (NornSavant x Strangefate)

As Violet moved away from the carriage, it seemed to tremble behind her, possessed with a nervous energy, a current in its panels. The whips attached to the seat waved idly and the horse sensed that something was wrong, eyes rolling in terror, feet stomping. The little creature flitted up behind her making a tiny-throated yodel as she called out. Spying the open door she snapped a finger in the manner of aww shucks but she stayed close to Violet all the same. Clearly unable to wait a moment more, the carriage unfolded insecticide legs ridged along their backs with wicked barbs. They pulled from the existing carapace with a rending shriek like nails from old boarding. The wheels became pods of tentacle-like legs and the whips snapped at the poor creature of the horse already caught in its viney clutches. The dark beetle creature threw itself forward and impaled the horse, piercing its flesh with the claws and pincers that seemed to mold and mesh in the dark form of the horror. Crimson geysered and splattered on the panels, now become dark armored plates, only to get sucked up and drawn away into the huge insect's shadowy presence. The horse quickly disappeared but less merciful were the sounds of tendons tearing and bones breaking, the hard popping sounds escaping the hidden maw that devoured the once familiar creature. A portent perhaps, everything known slipping away into the gullet of one monster or another. The feast on the lawn, the blood offering, or just a bit of lunch for some unearthly denizen. Oh, you are here. I am so glad to finally meet you. said a voice very like the wind in the leaves. It was a whisper just for Violet and it reached out to her, the sound of it stroking her cheek. The being standing just outside the door was mournfully beautiful. She had powerfully red hair with strands of gold and her face was a collection of angles and smoothness, tilted eyes filled with pitch black like the night sky full of clouds and stars hidden somewhere deep within. He pale bare shoulders shone like ivory and the gown she wore started out a brilliant red like her hair but as it molded over her form it became a more subdued orange until it cast into brown and shadows around her hidden feet. The gown drifted away into a train of fall leaves that lifted away from her on a wind Violet could not feel. Her curves were sensual without being voluptuous. He breasts were slight enough to be undemanding, her hips slim enough to let her gown fall easily around them. But in her shape there burned something darkly passionate and sexual, a sudden desire like might grasp at one in the last days of autumn, the sense that time was passing and these perfect days might soon be gone. That mournful sense that kisses had gone unknown and caresses had lived through summer only in dreams while now here stood the final moments before bitter winter and what to do but want desperately for them to be real. She smelled of the deep woods, of ferns and rain and fresh earth. Her smile spread pale lips to reveal all too white teeth. How nice of you to come. The creature feasted on the remains of the horse, hunkering its round bulk over the scarlet pile. The little creature from the carriage hung partly behind Violet's right shoulder and peeped a word of undecipherable wisdom. But language barrier or not, Violet knew a warning when she heard one. Chapter 2 The Lady of Hours