#The antlers jut out of my head at random

[sergeantnarwhalwrites]

Hopping on the open tag from @jezifster to make myself in this picrew. Also hope you're doing well jezifster!

I tag: @fearofahumanplanet @outpost51 @liv-is @the-void-writes @aether-wasteland-s @cryptid-s-wips (Only if you want of course! Open tag too!)

[maple-writes]

Another random writing scrap featuring Moraine and a rare moment where Day comes to his aid instead of chewing him out

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The demon wouldn’t give up. Round after round it returned on black outstretched wings, only leaving just long enough to catch it’s breath before turning it’s talons back to the helpless town. Helpless with only me to try and save them.

But the sun set hours ago and my legs shook and my body ached. Blood seeped from wounds cut through my skin since the dusk, clotting and drying dark on my clothes. I braced myself on my sword, driving the tip into the soft earth as I caught my breath. The demon, it would be back. This couldn’t be over not this easily. Not after all it’s done.

Torchlight cast flickering, tall versions of me in shadow across what walls remained in the town, hunched shoulders and branching antlers dancing in the dark. Rocks jutted from the ground, angled and unnatural where I’d called them from the soil, bloodstained and chipped and waiting, just waiting for the demon to return.

I swallowed, throat dry and raw. Maybe, maybe I shouldn’t have come alone but I couldn’t leave now. The townspeople who could flee had already fled but not everyone could. Huddled in cellars and stone basements children too young and vulnerable to risk the woods and valleys, those too old to walk far enough to safety, the sick, and the ones who refused to leave them, for them I was their only hope.

A shriek, long and drawn and taunting echoed through the valley. It was coming back. Gritting my teeth I gripped my sword and stood as tall as I could.

Mangled and bleeding and swaying on my feet I panted through the iron in my mouth as the winged silhouette came around the cliffs. Some god I was. If it were any of the others it would be dead by now. I glanced back at the center of town, full of fallen buildings but cellars that stood barricaded by heavy doors.

I was all they had.

The demon glided closer, shrieking with sharp teeth bared. Black-scaled wings spread wide on it’s descent, the blade of Its tail lashing out behind it like a war flag. I took a breath, raised my sword and braced for the worst.

It lunged talon first. I doubled back out of the way, thrusting my arm up to draw a sheet of rock. Headfirst it crashed into the granite, cracking  the stone and laying splayed on the ground. I swung my sword at it’s head but it snapped and pushed forward, scrambling on thin legs towards me. Snapping at the air it came closer and closer until my back hit a wall and I dropped just before it’s jaws snapped where my head would have been. It snarled and bit but with a breathless flash of my hand the ground shifted sideways and it slid down the fresh crevice.

I twisted and gripped the air, urging the crevice to close, trapping the demon in a vice of the earth and—

Pain shot through my back and I gagged, stumbling forward, eyes widening at the tip of the demon’s tail cut through my stomach. Blood dripped from the blade, a single razor-sharp scale, as the demon laughed.

“Stupid god you are.”

It pulled it’s tail back and I stumbled, falling to my side as it burst out from the stone grip of the crevice, soaring up high with a cackle-like shriek. I gasped but my lungs burned and my hand shook on it’s way to try and grip my sword. Heavy, so heavy, it scrapped against the ground as I tried and failed to stand. My vision started to blur. I pulled myself to my knees, braced on foot on the ground.

The demon swooped.

Before I could react the hard side of a claw knocked me back to the ground. Stars spun over what was left of my sight. Sharp, wet pain erupted from my leg as talons tore through the muscle, picking me up and tossing me to the dirt.

My back hit what was left of a house and my head lay on the rubble, sword gone. Not that… that it would do me any good now. My heart beat haphazard, the ground shifted whenever I tried feebly to move.

A blurred shape of the winged demon stalked toward me but I couldn’t… I couldn’t move. Weakly I tried to push myself up but my arms gave out and my heart skipped and…

The demon lunged.

Light flashed through my pressed-closed eyes.

The demon pulled itself to its feet, shaking the stone and dust from the rubble off its scales, eyes locked now on Day standing over me.

He spun his spear, points at either end sharp and gleaming in the firelight. “How dare you harm my god.” He snarled, shoulders tight and stalking towards the demon. “You’ll regret what you’ve done to him by the time I’m done with you.”

The demon lowered its head, glaring. “I’ve bested him, I can best you too.”

It leapt and Day leapt to meet it, shifting and sinking dragon’s teeth into it’s leg to tear it from it’s trajectory. With a jerk of his head, massive and shimmering in golden scales he threw the demon to the ground. A low growl rose in his throat, shaking the ground and the dust from my hair.

The demon tried to limp away, further than my blurred and dying vision would reach. Day’s golden-white shape converged on the demon and high-pitched shrieks and wails filled the night air, strained and sharper until they faded into silence.

“Moraine?”

I opened my eyes, not realizing I’d had them closed as Day crouched by my head. A smear of bright red blood stained his mouth, and he offered a small smile. I swallowed, bracing myself for the verbal lashing all the same. He wouldn’t take well to this.

“You’ve done well, Moraine.”

I blinked, head swimming. I… I?

He dismissed his spear and reached for me, gently lifting me up off the ground and into his arms. I winced at the jostling that sent pain shooting through from my stomach, my legs, and chilled my skin where the night wind hit skin wet with blood.

“Easy,” He steadied me against his chest. “Darren will take care of everything soon enough. You won’t die tonight.”

I wouldn’t? I swallowed again, coughing as blood dripped down my throat. My head lolled against his shoulder as he started to walk, then paused. I turned to see what had stopped him, squinting until I could barely make out the outlines of the surviving townspeople.

Day dipped his head towards them. “Moraine will recover. You should have nothing to fear from the demon now.”

Some of the nodded, some ducked their heads, but most only stared still shaken from the long night. Some gave a mumbled thank you, but I couldn’t hear much else as Day took me away.