Quest 296

[primrosella]

[Voice Post]

I, er...yes, hello again, everyone, it's so very nice to see you again! My, it's that time of the year again, isn't it? This must be our visit for the winter season, since the last one we had was, er, in the fall. It's, um, been quite some time since then, hasn't it?

...Yes, well, um. Yes. Er...

...Oh, honestly, this is ridiculous, I've never had such trouble with the visitors before--er, mostly, anyway, since there was that one time when--well, but that's beside the point. Um. It's just that there's someone here and I think he's been following me and I can't for the life of me puzzle out why, since every time I turn around he just up and disappears again! Honestly, I've never seen anything like it; normally the people who come to call are so eager to say hello. They don't usually sneak around in the shadows and turn up in nothing but glimpses wherever I go.

But, er, in any case, I am eager to say hello to people, and so please do stop by if you have a moment, since I'd like very much to visit with you if you have the time. And, er, I suppose if the person following me--or even if you aren't following me, but simply happening to turn up wherever I go on coincidence--can see this, too, then please do come out and say hello, yourself? I can't imagine why you wouldn't...

I'll be looking forward to it, very much so!


[OOC: As per usual, she's canonically from just after the end of Perils of Rosella, and with some very disjointed and vague knowledge of Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder. Not that that really means anything to anyone, but. If something comes up that I don't want her to know, I'll just have her forget it, so have a party--anything goes! HIT HER WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT. Troll, threadjack, have a ball!

And of course, I am totally okay with backdating. ♥]

Comments

[chases]

[ The woman sneers at Rosella and where the Black Dog's glare is an infernal smolder, hers is ice and glacier blue. ]

Why does Brother Death cut you loose from the White Dog's snare?

[primrosella]

[She wrenches it out, just the same--a magic wand, curled tight in her fingers--and raises her chin to stare the woman down, just as she's stared down her own demise so many times before.]

Because...

[How can she answer a question when she hasn't the slightest idea of the answer?

Or does she?]

Because he loves me. Doesn't he?

[chases]

[ The White Dog snarls, much more animal than woman, even moreso than the Black Dog. She does not understand concepts like love, only the thrill of the hunt, the burble of blood between her gnashing teeth, the blessing of her brother the Black Dog, who comes and harvests the souls of those her hunting fells.

Rosella's willfulness does not move her. The White Dog is proud. ]

Lies. Death loves none.

[primrosella]

Then ask him yourself, if you want to know!

[She snaps, and her hand snaps out with her, the wand still clasped in her shaking fingers. She thinks of a sigil she long since memorized, thrumming with magic and darkness, and something clicks--and in an instant she is no longer a trapped princess, but a tiger, all snarling jaws and diamond claws.]

[chases]

[ The White Dog howls and bounds forward, no longer lithe limb and pale skin but a beast of inordinate proportion — white fur, white fangs, white on white on white. ]

Holy Brother does not come from the White, foolish leg-walker. Rend at my flesh, tear me asunder, but the White shall not fold. Never to you.

[primrosella]

[The truth is, she has never fought like this, and never had occasion to until now. But this is dark magic, and she can feel the power coiled within the tiger's frame, and she is no longer afraid, not the way Rosella the girl was. The tiger fears nothing. It only puts forth its claws.

She snarls and swipes--outmatched, outweighed, outclassed, perhaps. But not afraid. Not anymore.]

[chases]

[ Yes, outmatched. Yes, outweight. Arguably outclassed (perhaps). But the tiger who was once a princess fights without fear and that makes the White Dog heal with delight.

Teeth bite and claws scratch. ]

[primrosella]

[She won't stay for long this way; this is battle magic, fast and frantic and meant to dispatch quickly, before the limit runs out. Her fur does well to blunt the wounds she incurs, jaws snapping as she seeks to leave some of her own.

But it doesn't last, and when she feels it fading, she leaps away, putting distance between herself and the white as fur fades to fabric, and she becomes a ragged, panting princess once more.]

1/2

[portends]

[ A familiar voice in the shadows. The smolder of two hooded eyes as they glow in the darkness. ]

Are you two quite finished?

[chases]

[ At the sound of his voice, the White Dog kneels, a woman once more, her face hidden by her white blond hair. ]

Blessed brother.

[ The Black Dog moves and places his hand on her head and only then does the woman straighten, still set upon her knees, attentive. ]

[primrosella]

[Her hands are shaking and she's wobbling on her feet, but she never takes her eyes off the two of them. Using that variety of magic takes it out of her, quite literally straight out of her, and in truth, she doesn't think she could manage that transformation again.

But of course, if she had to, she would. What does she have to lose?]

There you are. You're two of a kind when it comes to manners.

[portends]

[ And then the Black Dog does something he has not done in a very long time. He kneels, heeling the way an obedient dog would to a master. His head bowed: ]

Forgive my sister's intrusion, princess. Her eagerness to see my will done has driven her to act out of turn. [ A glance sideways at the white figure beside him, her sneers, showing his sister his teeth.

She ducks her head low, much lower than his. ]

[primrosella]

I...

[She wobbles again, the color mostly drained from her face, but keeps her feet. She wouldn't know what this means under normal circumstances, in full possession of her senses; as it is, she's still just staring from one to the other.]

You're...you're quite finished, then...?

[portends]

[ There are certain rules by which the Dogs must live, the first and foremost of which is that the eldest, the first, the Black, is always to be abided. When a man or beast or monster must fall then it is to the White to catch it and see that it is felled. And when a man or beast or monster must go free then, by the same rights, they must go free. ]

Her trespass has earned you respite. A day, no longer, then I will come yet again.

[primrosella]

And you'll keep coming. Every day. You'll never leave me alone.

[She takes a step back, her arm beginning to fall from the exertion of keeping it aloft.]

My old friend.

[portends]

[ His lips curl upwards and instead of a sneer it is, for once, yes a smile. He would seem just a boy, a young man charming and perhaps quite smitten, if it were not for the way his eyes continued to gleam. ]

And we are friends, Rosella, you and I. When we have our time together, I will make sure it is nothing short of lovely.

[primrosella]

[Her shoulders come down, her arms falling to rest at her sides, and for a minute she simply looks at him, that smile, those eyes, and lets the grim realization sink in that he's right, that someday he will come for her and there will be a day when she'll not slip free, that someday, someday, they will do this again because this is what will be waiting when her time finally comes.

But it's not today.

Not today.]

You'll have to catch me, first.

[Not the way the White Dog hunts. It's something deeper, those words, that weary defiance. It speaks of their history, her thousand narrow escapes, and promises her intent to try for a thousand more.]

[portends]

[ Somethings are inevitable. None know this better than the Black Dog, for in the end, everyone knows him. But none know him so well and so eludingly as Rosella does. His smile lingers; it is no longer hungry and his lips pull down over his teeth, making him seem that much more human. ]

You're so very determined to live. Even now.

[ The Black Dog lifts his head towards her, but the gesture is not proud but curious. ] You make me wonder what that's like.

[primrosella]

I have people I have to live for.

[She is always strongest, her determination most enduring, when she has to be for someone else's sake. On her own, she would grow weary, lie down, surrender long before this. But when someone is counting on her to live, then she'll live.

And when her kingdom asks her to die, then she'll die.]

It'd be different if it were only you and me.