Riful's Heart.

[dramatispersonae]

[everything goes away.]

[sight, sound, taste, touch, smell - you lose yourself to the nothing that waits through the doorway. do you have a body? a mind? what is such a thing? for a dizzying moment, you might not even be sure you have a "you" to identify these concepts with.]

[then, wrenching and violent, the confusion of the senses pummels itself back inside you like seasoning pounded into raw meat, and you're left, painfully sensate, on an open plain.]

Comments

[amivoringyou]

[the mountainside is sharply inclined but craggy; with enough arm strength and/or careful footing, a quarter-hour's work might see you to the nearest house.]

[medpacksapunch]

[Keeps at it, slow but steady, making sure to place her steps as securely as possible before taking another; is well aware that sliding down this hill would probably hurt quite a lot. In the meantime, starts trying to work out how she's going to get into the house]

[amivoringyou]

[it doesn't appear to have any entrances. there looks like a house further up has a caved-in roof; that one might be easier to get to.]

[medpacksapunch]

[...gonna go with that, then. Doesn't feel like trying to wriggle through a window or anything, especially when there are unidentified scuttly things out here.

changes course for house number two.]

[amivoringyou]

[someone above you - in that house's general direction - lets off a scream that chokes off, wetly.]

[youhadmefromhello]

[o hai]

[medpacksapunch]

[jerks her head up, stumbling a little-- startling violently when she realizes she is not alone]

--Ah! You're-- do you know who--?

[just points in the direction of the house]

[youhadmefromhello]

[looks up at the house with a face that clearly says DO NOT WANT]

Uh, no, I don't. Sorry for scarin' ya.

[medpacksapunch]

[shakes her head, crouched low against the hill]

Mn, it's-- less scary together, anyway. Do you... do you think we should go check it out. Someone might-- might need our help...

[youhadmefromhello]

Prob'ly . . .

['kay, summoning up a staff from his hand] Just in case.

[medpacksapunch]

[oh neat]

Um... sorry, but you should probably go first.

[youhadmefromhello]

'Sokay. Just stay behind me.

[medpacksapunch]

Yeah.

[waits for him to move ahead of her then falls in behind him, tense, not sure at all what they're going to find up there]

[amivoringyou]

[you may say that, but something about the voice ... maybe you're imagining things.]

[the house has caved in near a sheared-off part of the cliffside, and rubble has created an unsteady pathway down into the house.]

[be careful you don't slip.]

[youhadmefromhello]

[WE GOIN']

[amivoringyou]

[you descend into the house ...]