𝕦𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕒𝕞𝕖: hazilnut
𝕟𝕒𝕞𝕖: Raenne
𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣: female
lyrics © Bastille
𝕕𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕠𝕟 𝕪𝕠𝕦'𝕧𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕖
Personality: 100/100
Raenne relished in youth and life, eager to learn and most of all eager
to run. She always possessed a child-like exuberance but was forever
denied innocence. Raenne was forced into responsibility without the
chance to mature She became stubborn and determined as she grew,
intent on a survival that was in constant battle with the morals
ingrained in her. After she ran, Raenne shut out her thoughts and fears
for others, focusing entirely on herself and outrunning her death. Her
small attempts to rectify her actions, not stealing, giving warnings,
were finally abandoned and she became a fearful husk.
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𝕚𝕥 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕡𝕥 𝕦𝕡 𝕠𝕟 𝕪𝕠𝕦, 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕚𝕥 𝕘𝕠𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦
Escape: 654/700
A dress woven of silk and fit for the bride of
a king lay across her bed. Not the same as the one her
sister had worn, for it would never have fit. She too
muscled, too solid, too real. Lahela had been a waif, a
ghost from the moment she was born, but though Raenne
had lived under the same shadow she never looked like
she was going to die.
Downstairs smelled of her mother's cooking, which she
had been for the last two nights. Heavily pregnant with
the birth of a child the village both hoped for and dreaded.
Birch-white and river-blue, their family curse to bear.
The stairs creaked mightily, stopping Raenne mid descent.
If someone woke and caught her, would she be bound until
the time came? Back and forth in her bed the girl had debated
with herself. She wished she could have followed in her sister's
pawsteps. She wished even a shred of her quiet dignity had split
from Lahela's soul and graced her. They said she hadn't even
screamed.
Raenne was expected to be the same. Raenne wanted to be
the same.
But she had wanted to live, she had wanted to live so badly
it hurt even to think of not growing up past nineteen.
She had wanted to live so badly she was willing to let everyone
die, and let her sister's sacrifice go in vain.
It hadn't been planned, the escape. She had whole-heartedly
intended to go through with the party and the fake smiles and
the death. But then she didn't. She found herself wide awake
that night, just staring up at the ceiling and thinking about how
useless it would all be if she just died. What would have been the
point to anything? To learning to sew, to learning to fish? To
beating all the other children in the races? If she was just going
to die; then why?
Her paws had decided for her, forcing her down the stairs that
cried betrayal with every step. Through the cabin all decorated
as if for a celebration and through the clearing bedecked all the
same. She slipped through shadows, hiding from the sliver of moon
until her feet had taken her beyond her home and deep into the
woods.
And then she was tearing through the forest before she had blinked,
racing the sun and racing her future. She had almost reached the
edge of the trees when she ran into him.
The great forest god, the very one who had taken her sister and
her aunt and many kalons before that. The one who was to take
her too. The forest god towered over every tree and yet fit into
a single shadow. His voice shook the earth but not a leaf stirred.
"You would run?"
Raenne fought the urge to cower, or to try and dodge around
the beast and sprint to safety. She would never make it. She
faced the beast head on. If she would die, she would die like
her sister.
"I would try."
x
𝕤𝕙𝕣𝕦𝕘𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕗𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕕𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕪
Extra #1: 100/100
"Our village angered a forest god. We had cut down the trees
for our clearing. Taken his children for our houses and fires.
He could hear their screams. We begged for him to be merciful-
we hadn't known. Listening to our wails he was satisfied,
promising peace if we cared for his children. But the forest god's
warning was forgotten as our village grew. Soon men with saws
returned- hacking and sawing down birches. And this time the
forest god's anger was insatiable. He demanded a kalon child,
birch-white and river-blue, every fifteen years or he would destroy
the town."
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𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝕕𝕒𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕡𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕤, 𝕗𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕕𝕚𝕕
Extra #2: 100/100
Death shadows the ghost girl, fate trails her steps. Don't let her
into your village, keep her far from your home. She is supposed
to be dead, the rumors say, she is supposed to be dead but instead
she runs. If ever a city so unlucky as to not know let the ghost through
their gates, two days later she would be gone and three days later the
beast would arrive. She'll offer to you what she's able; a message run,
a song. But heed not her words and don't let her near or you will die in
her stead.
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"Then go."
"What?"
Raenne took a step back, all thoughts of dignified death flying
from her mind. She wanted to live, but why was this monster
offering her freedom when it could so easily take her now? But
he made no move to lunge at her and she began to pick her way
across the remaining stretch of forest.
The forest god watched her, a sneer touching his blazing eyes.
"Go knowing it was you who killed them all. Your parents, your
friends, you neighbors. All condemned to death because of you.
And anywhere you go, death will follow as I come."
His laughter drowned out the girl's thoughts as she raced for the
tree line. The undergrowth thinned and the moonlight grew
brighter until Raenne found herself at the edge of the river. Only
then did the screams begin.
She kept running.