Mourning One's Self (Open)

[Sei]

The mountains had been treacherous, and the foothills left her gasping for breath, but before long she had reached the grassland, and it was there she drew to a stop.

Those who may have glimpsed her running would have seen a woman in a cloak of greenery. A red-haired female giant, clad in a cloak bearing hundreds of fruits and vegetables, with a wreath of game birds swaying from within her hair. Not a human by any means, with an immortal's sense of stamina. It wasn't until she hit the flat land when she faltered.

Harvest staggered a few more steps before sagging to her knees, her cloak wrapped tightly around her. The wind was still chilly, but she didn't have to face the snow anymore. For now she could rest.

What had happened the last several days brought her the cold stab of fear. She had awakened inside of a cave, lost and confused. How she'd arrived there was a blur, but there were reminders all around her. The only other being in the room was a fire pit, thin wisps of smoke still coiling in the air. Next to her had been... something dead. It had looked an awful lot like her. Identical, if not for the veins visible under its skin, and the glazed over eyes that stared into her own, never seeing. With that gruesome face in mind, she fled.

Now Harvest was alone, the mountains behind her. The goddess drew a small, shallow breath, fighting tears. She hadn't known that corpse version of her, but she mourned it. Much like mourning a family member, a sister she'd never been able to meet. Her body shook with quiet sobs, as she buried herself into her garden cloak. The large birds in her hair coiled their necks around her, as if trying to soothe her.

However, they soon twisted away, alerting her to the sound of something approaching.

[WallyD]

Kathy walked slowly, her feet dragging. She just tried to burn herself alive again. Again, it didn't work. She now smelt like smoke, and her fingers and toes were charcoaled black but still intact. Kathy peekes from behind her hair. She saw a tall woman, creatures in her hair, a cloak of food on her back. Kathy never seen someone of such statue.

Kathy has seen a lot of unnatural beings, both of living and dead. Demons, Angles, even the gods had touched Kathy, though their thouch was poison. Kathy could hear her sobs, though Kathy could not see why. This woman had more beauty than Kathy, who had not bathed properly, she mostly just sinks to the bottom and breath in the water, hoping if she swallowed enough she could drown.

Kathy walked forward, and the woman's creatures looking at her. She tilted her head, trying to see the woman's face.

"One who crys must be in pain."

[Sei]

Harvest's hands dropped away from her face, suddenly aware of the person's arrival. One of the bird-heads cried out, and she turned towards its call. What she saw made her still, fresh tears beginning to form.

Harvest stared up, not something she was used to doing, at a head of stringy, dark hair. Beyond that hair was a human figure, a woman who seemed small and frail. She could barely see one of her eyes, barely... Following her gaze, she noticed the woman's hands were charred. Had she been caught in a blaze? The thought was enough to draw another strangled sob, but Harvest fought to control it. Staring felt rude, so she averted her eyes. Whoever had hurt this woman... she could do something terrible to them.

With cautious movements, Harvest withdrew her cloak, rubbing a fist at her eyes. Her many pheasants continued to observe the stranger curiously, while she nodded, slowly beginning to stand. Although she regarded her pain, she couldn't help but care for another before herself. She didn't understand why, but it was so.

"Do you feel pain?" She asked the woman, her own voice still shaky from sobbing. The goddess looked back to the woman's hands, unsure what to make of it.

[WallyD]

Kathy followed the woman's movements.

"Pain. It has become a friend. I have felt my skin burn twice over, my insides have become mush, only to regrow and melt again. I felt swords and arrows peirce my body. I now just embrace it." Kathy stumbles forward rasing her hands. She moved them across each other. The charcoaled skin fell off, leaving her fingers a pale pink.

"But my pain is greater than most, so tell me. What pain must make you cry so?"

[Sei]

Reluctantly, Harvest replied, "I have seen my own body rotting before me." It felt so insufficient an answer, compared to the other woman's ordeal. She chose her words carefully, hoping the other woman would understand. "It was as if I had expired before I lived. There was a cave, and the body, staring back at me with such lifelessness in its gaze I..." She felt her eyes burning, water rising up, and she shook her head.

"I ran away from it. Perhaps I thought it would chase after me." She chuckled a little, "I know it sounds absurd. But the body was my own, and I was dead." She looked back at the woman, feeling somewhat better to say something. It hurt to burden someone who suffered with her own trouble. She watched the flakes of charred flesh peeling off, heart heavy.

"How did this happen?"

[WallyD]

Kathy listened to the woman's pain. Oh how luckly she was to have been met with death, how unluckly Kathy cant meet her's. Kathy thought if she should lie to this fragle woman, if it was best to tell a fantasy then reality. But this woman had seen reality right in front of her, and nothing might never be as real.

"I've done it to myself. Oh, how I wish for death, but the gods have punished me. I can not die, nor can I feel anything but pain. I am to forever be alone and the gods wish it so."

[Sei]

Listening to the woman's yearning for death struck Harvest hard. She withheld saying anything, deciding not to further the other's suffering more. Instead, she simply stared at her hands, with the knowledge she had done that to herself making them seem more terrifying than before. The birds on Harvest's hair weren't quiet though. They seemed to chatter to each other, almost like they were gossiping.

"I am sorry for what you must be going through. But I did not know death in that moment. I don't remember what it was like." She exhaled, looking back at where she assumed the woman's face would be hidden behind her hair. "I don't understand why the gods would abuse such power on you. You don't seem cruel. I would never suspect anything that would justify a curse like that. For anyone."

[WallyD]

Kathy smiled at the woman's words. The women seemed to be a kind creature, important.

"Cruel, that is ones opinion. I broke a law, it is only just to punish one who is cruel. The gods will let me go, when they see fit, but we're not here to tell of our pain. Death has thouched you, and yet you live, for that there is a purpose. Where do you plan to go?"

[Sei]

A purpose? Harvest didn't know, not yet, what that purpose was. The other woman's words stirred something within her, yet she was too afraid to question it. Instead, she turned away, her long cloak swaying across the grass underfoot with each movement.

"I'm not sure." She murmured, "It's all new to me." There were miles and miles of forest, grassland in all directions. Perhaps a town, but further away than any of her eyes could see. The wind felt cold on her bare, tear-stained face.

She knew she wouldn't go back to the mountain, not after what she'd witnessed. "South."

[WallyD]

Kathy thought of her time apon the land. If she were to travel with the woman, they would go far. Of all the places she has been has not been so far south that the people started to be filled with superstition. There could be new ways to die or perhaps, though Kathy feels as though the gods oppose, find a way to help this woman.

"You wish to go through the provenances, to see those with magic and knowledge, or past them and into Adela." She asked, her head tilting to the other side, hair following like dark waters.