#im very glad we were slow enough to not kill the deer and also not hurt it bloody bc i am still thinking about how it tumbled across | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

trail-of-harts · 4 years

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My little love, why not tell us all a story to pass the time? Or would that be too distracting?

...you know what? yeah, sure.

I could recite this one backwards so Im sure it wont distract me to much

Back before our wilds were shrinking and our elders were dug up with the roots there was and old and mighty bear that was not a bear who resided within the earth of a forest of ash trees. The bear had taken many childer from those who past through her woods and, once they’d proven themselves, allowed them shelter among the dirt and the dark alongside her. The woods were plentiful with blood and hunts and the bear was very proud of her territory, she was sure that only the best and the blessed of Ennoia should be allowed to run beneath its canopy and provided little guidance to her progeny. She deemed that if they were weak enough to die then so be it, she would not intervene.

The bear however was an avid story teller, and loved to hide lesson in swathes of metaphor and symbolism so that only those with the sharpest minds and instincts could receive her wisdom.

One night she called to her children, told them to sit in the moss and moonlight with her, that she had a tale to tell them. So, eager to please, they flocked to her, and curled around her hulking, blood-warm form, wondering what special occasion had blessed them with her attention.

She spoke like a crack of thunder, sudden, rumbling, all consuming.

“one of your brothers has perished this night-” she rasped, and like a sudden frost the clearing of wriggling bodies slowed to a halt under the weight of her words“-a danger roams our woods children, and we must fell it”

“we shall fell it for you mother” clamored the bears cubs, each desperate for her favor.

“pray you do” warned the bear “for if you do not, it will devour you” the brood shivered, and their fear fueled their eagerness for the hunt.

“tell us mother, what form does it take” they crowed in unison and her smile grew wide, long teeth, the length of a man’s forearm, glinting with delight.

“it has the hooked claws of the cat to grip its prey, the enduring chase of the wolf to run it down, a song as pretty as the blackbird to lure you into its maw” the bear leaned in close to her brood, they pressed their ears to her lips so that she may whisper to them “and most importantly my children, the flint sharp teeth, for eating you from the inside out.”

With a whimper the childer crumbled into fearful mutterings, the bear, irked by her broods sniveling rose and returned to haven, leaving her childer unsure of what to do.

Now among the crowd there were three Gangrel of note in our tale you would do well to remember: Aife the strongest, Finnobar the swiftest and Baird the youngest. Aife was the first to rise above her brethren to speak.

she climbed a boulder to rise above the rest, hushing her sibling so that she may speak.

“my siblings! surely this beast is of the gaurou to the east!” spoke Aife. “What other beast that is not wolf or of our blood could have such a skill in the chase!” The kin present, glad to have a direction to go in, murmured their agreement “we shall take our mighty in body and show them our strength!”

And so Aife took a pack of the strongest kindred to travel east where they found their quarry, a lupine pack resting beside the forests river. Aife rallied her party and as one they sprang to attack. As the strongest locked jaws with their leader and the two packs met each other in battle her foe spoke with a voice like tumbling rocks.

“why have you walked into our maw, little beast?”

“you have killed my brother and I shall fight with my strength to make this forest safe from you and gain the favor of our mother” spoke Aife her feet struggling to gain purchase in the river sand, slick with her siblings vitae.

“we did not kill your brother” spoke the unyielding jaws “ but we shall take the lives of your pack”

And so that night, the rest of childer waited with Finnobar and Baird on the river bank eager for news of their sisters victory. When the river ran red with vitae not unlike their own they knew with certainty they had met their end.

The gaggle threatened to fall back into their frightened whispering until another rose from the clamor, fliting to sit up high in the bow of a tree was Finnobar, the swiftest.

“though I am troubled by our sisters defeat, perhaps this is a boon, my blood, for I had suspicions that the mighty Aife was wrong from the start” Finnobar spoke, murmurs rising from the brood, they too had had their doubts. “though the lupines may have the wolfs chase, they lack the black birds song and the cats cloying claws. I say our blight takes the form of the human hunter! For what else hides sharp daggers behind disarming tricks.” Once again a chorus of agreeing voices rose into the night.

And so Finnobar took the remaining kin and they rose on racing wings against the wind to the human settlement to the west. Finnobar, being the nimble beast he was, arrived first, as his brethren were just soaring into view of the corpse of little houses. He slunk slowly around the stone visage of the church and It wasn’t long before he pounced upon a priest who smelled of more than wine and scripture.

“why have you entered our home deamon” he croaked from beneath the swifts claws, with a voice like the rasp of turning pages.

“you have killed my brother and I shall strike you from the heavens like your gods fury to make this forest safe from you and gain the favor of our mother” spoke Finnobar, feeling the mans flesh open beneath his steady pressing, watching the dark shaped of his brethren crest the horizon from the corner of his eye.

“we did not kill your brother” spoke the holy man “ but we shall take the lives of your flock”

As the words left his mouth Finnobar turned his muzzle towards a cutting sound, something flying fast through the air. He only had moments to look on in horror as flaming arrows flew from the arrow slits of the church and struck into the hearts of his just arriving siblings. As he gawked, a furious light shone out from his prey and spread his ashes upon the consecrated ground.

And so that night, as the moon sank Baird sat, alone in the bough of an ash to watch for the returning shapes of his bretherin on the horizon. When the westerly wind blew his face full of foul ashes he knew they had met their end.

Baird, no longer the youngest for he was the only, now saddened and alone finally voiced his own opinion to the trees of his mother’s forest.

“I am young and left abandoned by this hunt for monsters, what have I now but the chance at mothers favor. I am young and weak of blood so I must be strong of mind, I shall start my search where the ashes of my first fallen brother lay”.

And so Baird roamed the territory, looking where he knew kindred liked to linger, and along deer trails ripe for hunting. Eventually he came across some earth saturated with vitae and the greasy dust of final death, but this was not all, among the disintegrated corpse of his brother lay a mighty stag, dead from desperate clawmarks gouged across its front. Its antlers still shone, christened with kin blood and dusted with ashes like the catkins of a willow in spring. Within the beast’s sifted entrails Baird seemed to see some previously hidden truth, and flew into a righteous and utter rage, the first of his unlife.

It was not hard for Baird to find the great bear among her ash trees, for she rarely left her grove except to hunt. He met her unsuspecting human visage with claws and teeth, though to her thick hide the blows were merely that of hailstones falling in a strong wind.

“Insolent child! Why have you thrown yourself into my jaws so? What has made you come to take your death?” she yowled with ancient rage.

“you have killed my all brothers and sisters, I am the last. It was naught but a stag that felled my reckless,first gone sibling, he was headless in the hunt and met with its frantic antlers but you told your tale and sent us looking for monsters, and so monsters we found ” spoke Baird, spitting the words through the redness of his rage and his steadily growing fangs.

“I did not kill your brothers and sisters!” roared the bear “it was the clawing, chasing, sweet voice of their own pride that lured them to their deaths, for they were not cunning enough to head the moral of my tale”

“No!” cried the last child, barley able to speak in any tongue for much longer “we were arrogant and brash and brazen but it was your own pride that drove your actions, you want us to play your games instead of guiding us, you’d rather be some riddle maker than a teacher”

“Enough you impudent whelp! I see pride has its teeth in you as well, you weaken this line of blood” she roared, raising her mighty claws, as long as tree roots, and well edged as the finest sword. Baird, despite his anger simply gazed into her eyes.

“and because it is in your heart also, that line will run dry here” And she could take in his words his head was sloughing off his shoulders, bursting into ash like a late summer dandelion as it hit the ground.

And with that her progeny went extinct. Her last child, dust, as all things shall be.

To this day we still do not know the name of the Bear, only that of the brave and reckless childer she neglected and toyed with. It is rumoured however, that the ash forest still grows, even in these nights, unaffected and unafflicted by the dying cries of its brethren, as their roots have been watered and dusted with the old vitae of the bears brood.

#(( lol no one has to read all pf this its just something i already had going and figured this would be a good time to post it))#ic #mar #story #long post #(( thanks for the ask! ))#cw #cw blood #cw animal harm #gangrel #vtm rp #gangrel rp

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