Here in the Darkness/Archive Two

Archive two for the cyoa game *Here in the Darkness*.

vi
--

You set off along her trail. Valissa has weaker stealth than you, you can be pretty sure of that, even though she is still pretty good. You've been together ever since you were about three or four months old, with Valissa being one month older. How did she come into your tribe, anyway? She wasn't born here...

The memory hangs in your mind for a moment, and fades away. You shake your head. It wasn't important.

You step through the woods, a second shadow slipping through the forest, hiding between trees and under bushes, moving with the same calm and reassurance of a gentle breeze. Perhaps Valissa senses you unconsciously, perhaps not; she is tense and apprehensive, but never once does she spy your form among the branches.

The sun is darkening. It will soon be midnight.

Valissa stops when she reaches the Swallow's border, looking around to check. Satisfied that no one was there, she sits down to wait.

A figure appears from the bushes on the other side. You can't see well from your perspective, but you can recognise the faint scent of weeds and nervousness anywhere. The one who called himself Haleer, isn't it?

So it is that. The beginning for everyone blasted forbidden romance, two creatures from different sides sneaking out, ignoring strong rules, and mooning over each other under the moon, which was what the moon was for. Of course, there weren't rules against these relationships, and there was no moon, but still. Very unimaginative.

A small seed of jealousy stirs. It is hard to watch.

They talk, there in the dark. It seems to be a normal romantic talk at first, said in hushed whispers and much body language. Haleer, though not as enthusiastic as Valissa, seems to be nevertheless drawn in, and the two seemed to be quite close

And then you notice something. There was never a period in which they introduce themselves and get used to each other. They chatted, whispered, and joked like they had known each other for some time, and... yes. There is too much whispering, and both seemed tenser than usual. Valissa seemed more apprehensive, anyway. You can't tell with Haleer.

Haleer swerves his head around in a wide arc, and his eyes seem to fix on you for a split second. You are sure that he has seen you, but he dips his head again and chatters with Val in a sincere manner, after which they both burst out laughing.

Definitely something weird going on there. But it is also evident that you are not going to learn more by just watching.

You...

1) Head back to camp like nothing's happened, careful to keep an eye on Valissa

2) Head back to camp, and then tell Lianswick what you saw

3) Wait until they part, and then walk up to Valissa and ask what the heck she thinks she is doing

4) Confront and blackmail (custom choice by Ginger)

5) Wait until they part and follow Valissa to see if she is up to anything else. After making sure she isn’t, confront her (custom choice by Golden)

6) Barge into the middle of their conversation (custom choice by Cecilia)

***The players chose option four.***

## vii

*Finally, some plot >:)*

Their talk ends after a while, and you watch as Haleer scrambles back into Swallow land, ensuring he has left before walking out from the trees.

She turns around at the sound of your footsteps, teeth bared, bristling. "*You.*"

"Yes, Valissa, it's me."

"I knew there was someone around. Never thought you would lower yourself to spying, Sia."

You swish your tail. "That doesn't matter. I've seen it from the start, and there's something going on between you and that Swallow."

"Yeah? And what will you do about it, tell the Witch?" She scoffs. "It isn't against the rules. We don't even *have* rules."

"No, but I'll tell her that both of you were acting weird, and that there's more to your relationship than just romantic love. She probably won't believe me, but I will have planted the seed of doubt in her mind, and it grows fast in fertile soil. She'll always be looking at you, scanning you for every sign of betrayal or subterfuge, and you'll know that you'll never be trusted for a long time to come. How will you like that, to have her watch your every move and know that every action will be weighed in her heart? And if she ever finds proof, which I doubt will be difficult... you know what Lianswick will do."

You see the expression on her face, and decide to rub it in a little bit deeper. "I imagine Master Rlorrck will hear also, once the news gets out. You know how strict the Swallows are with their discipline."

Valissa colours. "No, don't. Please. You can't do that to him."

"I can. And I will be."

"Name your price. Anything."

"You know what, I haven't decided yet. Consider it as a... favour of mine. One that needs repaying one day."

She grimaces. "I can kill you right now, Sionora. You know I'm stronger than you. I can disguise my scent, and no one would ever suspect. To the rest of the world, I'll just be a young lenix grieving for her friend, who has died due to an unknown attacker. It would not make a difference, not to me."

"Perhaps. But I'll put up a fight, and even with your magic you won't be able to hide your scars for long enough. There'll be inquiries, investigations, and one day someone will link it all up. You know that we don't have exile as a punishment. Only the death penalty."

"Fine," she shrugs, lowering her eyes. "But Sionora - if I ever get the chance, I will slash your neck like a butterfly."

You smirk. "Watch your words. You don't want Lians to hear that, do you? Oh, and by the way, Valissa -"

"Yes?"

"If you ever repeat any of this to anyone, including Haleer, I'll make sure to transfer the compliments from both of you to the Wick herself."

Valissa bites her tongue.

The next morning, just as you are settling down to sleep, you see Lianswick beckoning you to come over with her tail, looking slightly annoyed.

"Sionora? Come. We need to talk."

There is uncertainty in your step as you get up and follow her. She is staring into your eyes intently, and her voice had a malicious edge to it.

The other members of the tribe don't even look up as you walk past.

When you have trekked some way into the forest, Lianswick turns to you.

"Sionora, tell me... are you loyal to the tribe? Tell me the truth."

What sort of question was this? "Uh... yes?" you venture.

"Stupid. No one is loyal to the tribe. I'm asking for the truth, and I would like to hear it."

"Well," you lower your head, your cheeks burning, "not really, I guess. I look out for myself. But I've lived here since my birth, and I know the others here."

"Good. And how good would you say you're at stealth?"

"Third in the tribe, and about top ten in the forest. Pretty good."

"You're a stalker, Sionora."

"I'm sorry about yesterday, Mistress, I truly am -"

"I mean to refer to the fact that you crept after Valissa a few hours ago. Why did you do that, I wonder?"

You freeze, trying to think of something to say.

Lianswick appears to see this as a reluctance to answer. "No, it's fine if you don't want to. It's business between friends, after all."

It is impossible to tell whether that last sentence was sarcastic or not.

She straightens up, and starts to walk slowly. "Sionora, I have heard there are certain... organisations in the forest who are planning an upheaval, of sorts. And one, at this point, is far from enough. So tell me: will you be my eyes and ears? To go where I cannot go, and to see what I cannot see?"

"You mean as a spy?"

"You cannot be spying in your own territory, Sionora. No. Instead, call it... a contract about information."

You...

1) Agree, but secretly work against her (from Cecilia)

2) Disagree, and tell Lians about Val (from Minty)

3) Agree, though play literally all sides- work for Lians, though also feed her false information mixed in, spy on the organizations and see what they are, and just collect information on all parties involved (from Ginger)

4) Agree, and tell Lianswick about Valissa (from Fire)

***The players chose option three.***

## viii

*Look guys the most amazing thing happened*

*Tilan is actually still hosting this*

--

"Yes, I will do it," you nod.

Lianswick smiles, sweeping her tail across your pelt. "Of course you will. It's not as if you have any choice in the matter, is it?"

You pad back to camp. It is still morning with the sun on its rotation to the bright half, and most of the tribe do not care enough to notice your absence.

For the rest of the day you keep your eyes peeled, but nothing seems to be off. There is certainly no sign of any hidden secret societies lurking around the forest. This whole thing... it is just so cliche, isn't it? The classic spy story, "you are intelligent so spy on someone for me". Well, in this case, you don't even know who or indeed *what* to look for.

It is like being told to sail a ship in the middle of a forest.

Was Lianswick being paranoid? That was possible, but it simply didn't sound like what she would do. She is careful, yes; but she was at the same time intelligent and rational. She hears everything that goes on in this forest, and she has not yet made one mistake about which rumours to trust and which to discard.

...Perhaps, just perhaps, she is fooling you on purpose. That sounds like exactly what the Witch would do. But if so, why you? Are you the only one?

It is all extremely frustrating.

You doze, deep in thought, an afternoon breeze whispering through your fur. It is a nice day, and from the woods you can hear the chip-chip of the rats as they clambered over the trees.

A *lot* of rats.

Something furry lands on your head with a thump, scrambling over your ears with tiny paws; more follow, seeming to regard you as a safe landing place, their tiny hurried paws pattering on your fur.

You look up. Rat-squirrels are leaping down from the tree branches in a huge grey swarm, chittering out loud. Several are carrying their young in their mouths or on their backs, and they move as one, flowing over twigs and flying from tree to ground.

A large rat lands on your muzzle and screams at you unintelligibly, punching you on the forehead with a tiny paw before hurrying away like the rest of its tribe.

Confused and slightly dazed, you look towards your fellow Night-Swifts, some of whom have already gone from the camp.

"Earthsplit!" calls Lianswick, her voice sharp as that of an eagle. "Head for the prairies!"

You understand. It is the most crucial information a lenix cub can ever learn, one that is repeated and reminded again and again through the ages: what to do during an earthsplit.

"It is a flat land," the mothers will say, as they feed their cubs, "and the ground... it only goes so deep, you know? No bedrock to keep it all together. And the continents, they shift and they crash. When they come together, they can form a mountain in heartbeats; and when they break apart... that is what we call an earthsplit. A crack."

There is nothing underneath the soil of the world - if you fall through a crack, you fall forever.

This is why cracks were once used as one of the cruellest ways of execution and massacre among the lenix tribes. Those ages were long over, but still...

You run through the forest breathlessly, your form skidding between the knarled roots and the overhanging vines. Around you you can hear the sounds of many more canines, but you take no notice. All that matters is that you have to get out, as soon as possible. Already, the ground is beginning to quake, the tree creaking with alarming sounds. Every creature in the Darkling Woods is headed toward the moors, and the air was filled with screeches and howls of beasts as they try to stampede through the undergrowth.

There is a sharp moment of impact as the earth crashes with a neighbouring continent, the roar echoing across the skies. You are sent flying through the air, your body slamming into a tree trunk as pain bursts in your lungs. It is impossible to breathe.

Losing control of your body, you slide downwards and try to regain your balance on a square patch of land; but what looked like dirt turns out to be an old tree root, and your paw twists under your weight, agony shooting through your left foreleg.

It will be hard to run with your paw like that. You can still see other lenixes and creatures heading your way, with no sign of either Lians or Val. What do you do?

1) Attempt to limp your way to the moor, and get as close as you can without further damaging the injured limb. And attempt to call on a lenix, (Blu)

2) Check leg over as fast as we can, then find a safe place so we don’t have to run far (Ginger)

3) Glance at your leg then just limp away as if nothing happened :) (Minty)

4) Just run for your life, damaging the leg even more (Fire)

5) Curse the ground for doing this to you and try to hop away without using that paw (Onyx)

***The players chose option four***

ix
--

*My schedule is so irregular, i know... ;-;*

--

You try to stand up again, gasping in pain. Surely a twisted foot shouldn't hurt so much? Whatever the case, you know that you have to keep running.

You manage a limp which soon speeds up to a trot, using all of your mental energy to ignore the blazing agony of your paw. *The pain is happening to someone else. I am outside of my body, and I do not feel a thing,* you tell yourself*. I am but an impartial observer; it's not me who feels it, and I do not care.*

The thing is, it is rather difficult to convince your brain of this fact when your nervous system is screaming out *painpainpainpainpainpainpainpain* -

Just a few dozen more steps and you'll be out. You can do this.

You stumble as another quake hits the ground, falling head over tail. This time, however, your whole body feels on fire, the impact of the soil seizing you in burning claws.

You lie there for a few moments, trying to ease breath back into your lungs. This is only one of the smaller warning shivers; the big one will be coming along sometime soon, and it will be huge. You have to get out before the major collisions, but... how?

Kicking your hindlegs against the tree behind you, you manage to gain enough balance to heave yourself into an upright position. Your left forepaw brings out a spasm every time you move the limb, and the rest seem unwilling to budge. You are hurting all over - lungs, legs, stomach, even your muzzle, which scraped a hard rock during the last stumble.

Another shiver of the ground, and you are sent sprawling onto the forest floor again.

A loosely-organised tribe's good in normal times, but it also means that on occasions like this no one will come looking for you. Valissa would, if this happened a week ago, when you were still on good terms, but now...

Wait.

Valissa.

She *can* be looking for you. Just yesterday night, she swore to kill you... You managed to talk your way out because you were still on normal tribe territory, but now...

You are in the middle of a geological disaster, and heavily injured. It is normal for a few unlucky lenixes to die in every earthsplit, is it not? Another death would not make a major difference to the tribes. If Valissa comes here and finds you, it will go without question that you died from natural causes.

And you, with your injured paw, are practically as easy to kill as a shrew.

*Darn*.

Still, Valissa will not risk so much, will she? If she does not judge the time right, she could very much die here with you. She probably will not risk that, but you know with a sinking heart that Valissa is a risk-taker. She was the sort who called Lianswick "The Witch" just for the fun of it, the sort who would prod her foot into a serpent's nest just to flirt with danger. And she holds grudges *extremely* well.

Why does this screaming earthquake have to happen today, of all times?!

A jaw closes on your scruff.

*She's here. She's here to get me. And my left paw has been broken and I can't even sit up. I'm dead meat, and I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn't even notice her approach.*

You close your eyes, waiting for the fangs.

And then you realise that the scent is not Valissa's. It isn't even Night-Swift.

It's *Swallow.*

What do you do?

1) Flinch at the impact with the Swallow, and try to keep still. After all, they're helping. Ask why they're helping. (Blu)

2) No begging. Just wait and see what happens. (Golden)

3) React immediately by jerking my head away and looking at them. Try to see what they’re doing, and if they’re a friend or foe (Ginger)

4) Cry (Cecilia)

5) Resist against their grip (Fire)

***The players chose option four***

x

*My wifi went bad and deleted the whole thing as i was adding the links*

*:sob:*

*Anyway, welcome to here in the darkness - firey bday special! :D*

--

At that moment exactly, you break down sobbing, gushing out giant wails and letting them erupt into the air.

The jaw hauls you into a sitting position, and you look up - into the face of a giant wolf.

But wolves only exist in the mountains, don't they? They've been driven away by the competition and all that by your species...

You refocus. It is a lenix who looked remarkably like a wolf. His pelt is coloured silver, his mane long and magnificent, and he holds his neck in the same way that the more primordial canines did, sloping gently upwards instead of straight-up erect.

Incredibly muscular, too. His fur gleams.

"Quiet, young one," he says, and there is something in his voice that tells you that not quieting down is not an option.

You calm down a bit.

"Now, can you walk?"

Well, he seems to be friendly, even if he is rather abrupt.

"I don't think so. T-there was this huge shudder and I crashed into a tree, and then -"

"Can you ride?"

"I don't know. No one's ever tried it before. We're not sort of tribe."

"It would be extremely beneficial if you could talk less, " he says, helping you onto his back. "Hold tight. It's going to be bumpy."

You half-lie, half-slump across his back, and he breaks into a run even before you have shifted yourself into a comfortable position.

It is, as he said, a bumpy ride. The quakes and shakes are getting bigger now, and he leaps among shaking trees with amazing ease, adjusting his stride and centre with every incoming shake. You, however, do not have his powers of prediction, and you are jerked and yanked with every tremor of the earth.

But his steps are firm and quick as lightning, and you do not fall.

About a dozen seconds later, you break out onto the fields outside. The grass here is taller than both of you, and he slows slightly at the stalks before taking a sharp turn to the left.

"The tribes will be waiting there."

You nod, despite knowing that he will not be able to see it.

He glances upward. "Say, what's your name?"

Well, no harm in telling, right? "Sionora. I'm a Night-Swift."

"Pleased to meet you, Sionora," he pauses. "Rlorrck of the Swallows."

You freeze.

Recollection flows back. The leader of the Swallows, who they say has a grey wolf as his father, who they say could snap the neck of a running deer in his jaws, who they say could kill a bird in midflight -

No need to panic. There is absolutely no need to panic. It's just that the most powerful lenix in the forest is talking to you, and you are on his back...

"Is something the matter?" he says, and you know without looking that there is a thin smile etched across his face.

Thankfully, you are saved from this embarrassment. He slows to a trot, lowering his form. "Your tribe should be somewhere near. I'd hurry to find them, if I were you."

You mutter some quick thanks.

He looks back over his shoulder. "Oh, and -" the thin smile again. "Please do send Mistress Lianswick my best regards. I wish her success in the days to come."

And then he is gone, a sleek grey shadow flying over the grass.

Being on a prairie does not mean that the ground doesn't shake anymore. It's even more turbulent, but at least you feel better now. Certainly able to walk, or at least able to manage a decent limp.

You scent your own tribe a few steps away. And other tribes, too; you distinguish the smells of the Shadowhunters, the Blades, The Darkest Amaranths, the Forest Keepers, the Fireous, and so many more smaller tribes and individuals that you cannot name. A few Anre and Swallow scents drift on the air, too, and you know that they will not be far away.

The whole forest's here.

And not just the forest. Because mixed in with the fragrance of leaves and old wood, there is also a thinner, slimmer smell - that of the savannah and the prairie, of tall green blades of grass and long loping days spreading out beyond the sun.

There is not much chatter. Most lie or crouch on the ground, their muscles tense, readying for any collision that might come. You also do the same, lowering yourself between two lenixes you've never met before.

The earth goes still.

Time waits.

And then you hit a neighbouring continent, and pandemonium breaks out. The land lurches sickeningly, throwing you off to one side of the earth. Paws, muzzles, and tails seem to be everywhere at once, the tall grass blinding your vision until all that is left in front of your eyes is a screen of green and yellow. Yelps and shrieks surround you from all sides as everyone rolled on the ground, but above that there is the far mightier sound of the whole forest slapping the ground, and what appears to be a landslide in the mountains faraway.

And then... somehow, it is over. The ground is a messed-up tangle of limbs and groans, but at least things are quiet. The quake is over.

You stagger back up. You must have rolled over fifty metres in during that collision...

And then you see the horizon.

Perhaps, if anyone looked up during the time of chaos, there would have been a mighty screen of fire and sparks. But even now you can see the wall of dust on the horizon, rising a dozen miles high in the air, curling in on itself like smoke from hell.

Most have sorted themselves out by now - many of them bruised, but with few injuries. The prairie is definitely safer than the forest in these times.

There is a stunned silence for a moment.

And then... things relax. The quake is evidently over, and there is a feeling of relief in the air. *We* *survived* *this*. *It's* *all* *fine* *now*.

It's all fine now.

The grass is by now mostly torn, thus allowing you to see Lianswick standing up and walking off towards another group of lenixes. You spot a few others doing the same.

Socialising, perhaps? It certainly is rare for all the tribes to be gathered together like this, and for once no one seems to be fighting or squabbling. A very good chance to talk to lenixes from other tribes.

You...

1) Meet with swallows/anres, the opposing tribes, to make friends within. The aim would be to acquire information that might help in finding the secret organization. (Fire)

2) Meet a few other groups' members, try to get to know them, and analyze every single thing about them. (Blu)

3) Nurse your wounds, you don’t have the time or energy to socialize with other lenixes. (Travesty)

***The players chose option one***