Eylderfell || ONC 2024

1-10

Tavor leapt to his feet. The air around him had chilled to ice, and suddenly the forest was dead silent. The trees stood still, the breeze dropped, as if the entire forest was too afraid to move. He glanced around the clearing, searching for the source of the noise. Nothing.

Just the darkness, creeping in from all around, a little thicker than before. Tavor felt the presence shift, moving from behind him across the clearing.

"You're very far from home, little bird," the voice murmured.

The crow hopped away, feathers ruffled up. "Show yourself!"

Tavor felt the presence slink behind him, circling like a cat. "And I see you've brought me a gift. A peace offering? How thoughtful. I haven't tasted fresh blood in some time."

Tavor swallowed. "D-don't touch me," he warned. He shuffled away, no clue as to what he was trying to escape from. This must be what prey felt like, he thought, crouching wide-eyed and terrified in the dirt, waiting for the end.

"Ah, but the Eylderfell is my domain." Tavor felt a cold, sharp sensation needle his neck. "Anything within it belongs to me."

Tavor heard the voice in his ear, felt a hand on his shoulder, claws in his skin. Thick shadows surrounded him, deep and heavy. His heart hammered in his chest. Tavor tried to back away, but found he couldn't move.

Fear rose up in him and broke like a wave. His skin tingled. A high-pitched buzzing stung his ears. He tried to block it out, but pain and panic muddled his thoughts. Some dark energy rose up within him.

The ground around his feet withered away immediately. The grass shrivelled and crumbled to blackened dust.

It's happening again. Tavor desperately tried to rein it in, but the power seeped relentlessly out of him. The grip on his body loosened enough for him to wriggle away, a little further into the light.

The presence leaned forward, and now Tavor could make out features hidden amongst the shadows. Keen eyes gleamed from the darkness, bright with hunger.

"Boy!" the crow said. "Don't let the Elder have what it wants. Use that power and fight!"

The eyes sharpened. "My, my. You do like to interfere."

Shadows seized the crow and pinned him back against the bark of a nearby tree, constricting his voice into a strangled squawk. The bird flapped fruitlessly, pinned against the bark of the tree.

"L-leave him alone," Tavor said, but there was no conviction in his voice.

"Ah, you'll have to try a little harder than that."

It was no use. Tavor tried again to focus on the power he felt churning within him. But the moment he touched onto it, everything came back to him in a vivid burst. The sound of screaming, the shaken horror on the faces of the people around him. And the sick scent of blood, following him long after he fled the village.

He backed away, dread and fear rising as bile in his throat. No, no, no. Not again.

He was aware of the Elder watching him, keen interest in its eyes.

"Terrible, isn't it?" The Elder murmured. "Burdened with such cruel power."

Tavor's breath stilled in his throat. The Elder's words, soft and gentle, lit a warm light of longing deep inside him. The past few days had been a long cycle of fear, pain, bitterness, anger. But not once had he been understood. And now suddenly, hearing a voice of sympathy, of compassion, caught him off-guard.

"It's not..."

"It must have been awful for you," the voice continued. "Turned away by the people you loved and trusted. Afraid of the darkness within you. Such hatred. Such bitterness."

Tavor wriggled away, but he felt a gentle touch against his cheek, soft and cold like moonlight on the water.

"Shhh," the voice soothed. "I see you. You have suffered for so long. But there is no need to be afraid, now."

The creature leaned forward. The buzzing noise in his ears dropped away, like he'd been dipped in water. A pleasant warmth bubbled up through his chest until it simmered to the surface of his skin like a pool of molten metal between his collarbones.

Light sheared the shadows away and at last Tavor could make out a figure in the darkness - an amorphous, four-legged creature, back arched steeply and eyes wide and hungry.

"Boy!" the crow shouted. "Don't listen! You must resist!"

But he couldn't move. Didn't want to. The Elder tugged gently and the light at his chest lifted away from his body. The sensation was almost pleasant. He felt light, ethereal, like he was floating—

"Leave him alone!"

The cat leapt from the canopy above, claws flashing in the light. They raked across the creature's face and it recoiled back with a screech.

"Tavor!" the cat said. "You can take care of him. Just focus on that power!"

But the Elder's words scared him. Day after day, it grows stronger. If he tried to use the power now, . It would consume him before he left the forest.

He backed away, shaking his head. "I can't," he whispered.

"You must," the crow croaked. "It means to kill us all—"

"Oh, he understands perfectly." The Elder knocked the familiars to the ground and grabbed Tavor by the neck, dragging him across the clearing. It stared straight into his eyes, gaze reaching far beyond, down to the depths of his soul. "Better to die as yourself than become a monster. Isn't that right?"

That's right. The thought came before he could stop it, a deep conviction at the back of his mind.

The Elder smiled. Its mouth opened wide and it lunged. Pain stabbed through Tavor's chest. He heard the crow shout out in alarm, but everything was already slipping away. His body went limp like a ragdoll in the Elder's grasp, and the world crashed down into nothing.

‧₊˚ ☾. ⋅