[ flashback solo ] no one lying next to me ( ala )

[its me debz]

Wreathed

The fire was getting closer. She reached out with stubby claws to embrace it, but it was gone in the blink of an eye. Ala raised her head and looked all around her in the dim, but just as she always was--

She was alone.

It had just been a dream. Wyrms grew up alone, the books said. They grew up alone and one day she'd understand.

(She didn't.)  

[its me debz]

Escape

Old webs caught at her face, a sign that the shack hadn't seen any use in years and years. The wind whistled through the gaps in the boards, embracing her in an icy grip. Ala shivered, curling in on herself. Worse than anything, being in her natural form in the cold was almost worse than the chill of her humanoid structure. She crawled closer to the decrepit fireplace, and spat acid at it, sparking her claws until a flame took hold.

She was free, but what now?  

[its me debz]

Wilderness
(tw: violence)

The horse came back alone, when it had possessed a rider before. The town of reapers nearby would be getting suspicious, soon-- this was the fourth time in the last month that they'd been ransacked, that the supplies had been taken. Mostly the metal goods-- shiny-- and the food.

Ala licked her lips, unaware of any consequences coming her way. She cradled a pom, still breathing, and gently snapped its neck, golden eyes alight with pleasure. She was going to eat well, tonight. Poms were her favourite.  

[its me debz]

Strangers

"And you left them there?" a voice asked, hushed but urgent, and Ala's eyes snapped open, her spines raised and alert.

"I thought they'd be safe!" another voice replied, mournful.

"There's been so many incidents, Maynard--"

Ala held her breath, a ferocious pout on her face. They were getting closer.

"I know, but listen, I thought it'd be okay if--"

"You thought it'd be okay? You didn't think to ask?" The voices were getting louder. The both of them.

Their feet crunched over the dead leaves just outside the log she was curled in, but as she turned her head to listen better, one of her many horns dragged against the wood.

"Listen, I know Verger, but-- wait. Did you hear that?"

"Don't try and change the subject, Maynard."

"Naw, I'm being serious, Verger. Came from over there, round that log."

Ala's tail lashed against the dead bark, furious. They were form the town. They had to be. And now they were going to want to take her in, and the books had warned her against that.

One of them pulled the log right up, a big pale reaper standing next to a very cross looking elk, one with monstrous horns, bigger than hers.

Ala snarled, shifting into her natural form more out of terror than anything.  

[its me debz]

Walk The Line

Barefoot, she walks the path from the village to her cave, dwarfed by her surroundings, by the gravity of who she is and who she could be. There was a life outside of stones and books and confinement, and to her it was still so strange. Ala now split her time between the shaman town of Theil and her own cave, a street rat and an urchin except she had a home-- it was just one she wasn't that keen on stay in.