"IF YOU LEANS YOUR EAR REALLY, REALLY CLOSE FROM HER BARK,
YOU CAN HEAR THE INSECTS WITHIN. I SWEAR! IT'S SO UNHEALTHY."
A rude apathetic person

HER NAME IS NIEV

She’s a young twig who awoke about ONE WEEK ago, at NIGHT. She had leaves, at first. Bright green leaves falling upon her shoulders like a rich tree, glowing of a soothing sun-like yellow. Her light-colored bark was pulsating with sap, fresh and wet on the touch who gave her a youngling, lively appearance.
   It withered quickly, though. Autumn fell on her, or did she fell in it? There was no winter awaiting, only DECAY, for she has little to nothing left. Her outer shell is DARK, SCORCHED. The veins underneath her bark are caught by ROT, a dark taint that creates little cavities against her body. Leaves, she doesn’t have any left, only BURNED EDGES and CRACKING bark that, sometimes, crumbles on touch.
   Of course, she makes her best to HIDE it. She doesn't know why. Something feels off, perhaps? Is it some kind of SHAME related to her condition? A sign of WEAKNESS?

   Why DEATH closed its claws on a newborn, the reasons are unknown. Is it the NIGHTMARE who, perhaps, found a way to creep darker thoughts in her pod, planting seeds that bloomed shortly after her awakening, corrupting her very core? Is it, simply, a DISEASE that she caught in one of her naive explorations of the new world who brought her to the edge of sudden death? An INSECT in the swamps that crawled under her bark and gave birth to several others eating her from within ever since? Did she simply fell into a FIRE PIT, and found herself too proud to admit such random failure?
   Who knows? She doesn’t. It’s one of the numerous mysteries of that whole new world that await nought but discoveries. And with so little time ahead before death claims its mark, there is not a single second to lose in despair and dark thoughts.


"SHE IS, FOR ME, A REMINDER OF HOW LIFE IS PRECIOUS AND SHOULD NOT BE
TAKEN FOR GRANTED. A REMINDER THAT, ABOVE ALL, LIFE IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR."
A brother of awakening

THE NAMES OF THOSE
WHO WALK ALONG
GAIUS SHADOWREND
"It’s my job to pay attention to details, cub.
Your job is to enjoy the ride."



If a Charr is not the best company around, his knowledge of the world is a richness that doesn’t cease to amaze her. Sent to help her grow, or so does he claims, he stalks her around since they met at a cross-road. She never asked anybody about the truth or lies of his statement, secretly too happy of not being alone to roams.


"FEW MINUTES AFTER SHE SAT ON MY TABLE, SHE SAID SHE HAD TO GO.
SHE HAD HER DREAM TO FULFIL, AND LITTLE TIME TO DO IT. WHAT COULD I SAY?"
A Grove's mender

THE PATH THEY WALK
HORNED SHEEP

She told him I’m going to go say hi to the sheep, you stay here, yes. and started climbing to the hilltop. Up there she made sure he was not looking, and since indeed he was not, too busy to listens instead, she went along with her shameful little routine. The girl said hi to remains honest, rooted herself on the ground, rooted the sheep there too then soon enough roots were everywhere — in — the sheep as well. They pierced everything up to its very core and drained it whole until it was wrinkled like an old lady, stumbling on the spot and wailing his suffering to the sky — and the Charr’s ears, of course.
   When she came back to sit by her companion’s side she never looked so well in days. And perhaps did he knows the turmoil inside the dying dreamer, for he remained silent as they stood there, staring idly at the sky.

12/06/18
 
 
PUDDLE

It was a smelly mix of thick sap and threads of nectar with a red taint from the (too) strong alcoholic beverage. With all of it came also a black goo, oily substance that produced the smell all by itself, for in it was crawling slugs searching for freedom.
   Another thing searching for freedom too was the drunk girl, caught in the arms of the Charr who forced her to keep walking along. She could feel him laughs silently while she tried to follow him. However, with her short twigs and the puddles she kept adding to the city’s streets, it wasn’t easy.

14/06/18

ROOTS

The dedicated oven was peppering the battlefield, every canon-ball shrieking in the air and landing in a cloud of smoke and, sometimes, screams. They stood next to it in silence, nibbling at the meat that the engineer was roasting on the overheated iron of his machine.
— I bet they’re jealous of you, she begun to break their silence. Forced to team up with a mouse while you, you have me.
— I wonder why they ain’t killing each other yet…
— … they do, look at that pair.
— Here we go, natural order re-established, snickered the Charr.

10/07/18
MOUSE TRAP

She was laying on some patch of grass, enjoying the landscape, the light shafts, the flight of birds with an innocent glee. By her side, the Charr was doing the same… in his own way. She was humming a throaty song she had heard in another life, a complex rhyme with clacks of roots and failed to rustle leaves she had not when he spoke. In a smug disbelief, he asked if she saw how humans chose a bad spot to settles? So easy to siege and starve them… Under such words her song died, her brow perked and she launched a perplexed look toward the warrior.
   She answered you should really look at the world properly, Gaius. Not just through potentials battlefields… as he only shrugged back, giving her an unwilling side-glance. And so the newborn stared at the landscape once again, now seeing only fire and wars in the distance. She huffed.

12/06/18
 
 
NIGHTMARE

She woke up in a ditch with woodpeckers biting her ears off. Their beaks went in until they destroyed delicates threads inside. Suddenly, all sounds vanished around. The world became gray and cold, for the embrace of the Pale Tree and it soothing whispers were no more.
   She jerked awake, disoriented and tearing up from panic. He said don’t get all sappy on me, cub, but all she could do was whimpering I don’t want to. I hurt the Dream, I keep doing it. I… I can’t stop, I don’t want to…

14/06/18

SCARS

For once, she was the one keeping watch while he was whining his nightmares. Before falling to sleep he told her will you be alright? and she said how could I grow bored with all of it? All of it in one breath. One breath and thousands of fates worse than death. One breath and the treacherous beauty of millions of crystals, scarring his homeland and mind in one strike.
   Unmoving, barely blinking, her mind flying miles in contemplation, she was staring at it during hours. Every now and then, at the turn of a thought, a slug wiggled it way out of her eye socket, bringing in it trail a glimmering drop of water.

10/07/18

New character which will develop with time. Also new to GW in general !... and I love making backgrounds so. Here we go. <3