by Wolfan Terror » Fri Apr 26, 2019 11:09 am
Rite art!
which rite: Bravery
artist: Me
art: Feral had always been somewhat afraid of the dark, so when it came time to decide if he wanted to go through with the rite of courage, he had obviously been hesitant. Caves were dark, day or night, and having to survive a whole day within one all on his own was a terrifying concept. But clearly, that was the reason it was a rite because it wasn't an easy task to complete by any means. But he wanted to be strong, he wanted to prove to the elders of his pack that he was old enough, and mature enough, to breed.
So against all odds, he had decided to go through with it.
Now the lone chyros sat in the cave, listening to the drip of water from stalactite hanging from the ceiling. It was a good way to keep himself calm all alone here in the darkness. A single focus against all the odds. His tail swished from side to side as he listened to the drops. Drip. Drip. Drip. Soon enough, he'd found a rhythm and the brush of his tail against the rocky floor was soon completely synced to the drops.
But, alas, soon his calmness was interrupted by a sudden, loud noise. CRACK!
Feral jumped up with a start, eyes wide as he looked around for the source of the noise. His night vision wasn't the best, especially in a place so starved of sunlight, so he couldn't quite pinpoint where on earth the sound had come from, nor what had caused it. He didn't like the uncertainity of it, a small whined soon escaping him as his whole body shook. Normally if something unknown like that startled him, he could simply run home to Asio and curl up with them until he'd calm down. But not now. Now all he could do was try to bare through whatever had just happened and hopefully not run into whatever monster had caused that dreadful noise.
Picking up the courage, he finally managed to stop himself from shaking and padding a few steps forwards, ears perked up as he tried to listen for any other noises. None, apart from the constant dripping he'd become accustomed too thus far. That was slightly reassuring. Perhaps it meant whatever had made the noise had moved away and would leave him be. 'Maybe they're scared of me!' He thought with slight pride in himself. Yes! He must have scared off whatever manner of beast it was. And that thought certainly helped to steer him away from the fear he held while here.
Giving a wag of his tail at his own triumph, he soon began sniffing close to the ground to go about exploring a bit of the cave. There was no point in spending the whole day sitting and listening to drops of water. There had to be something to find down here, it couldn't all be nothing but darkness and rocks.
It wasn't long before he came upon a large pile of rubble some ways off from where he had originally been sitting. Concentrating more on the pile, and then looking up, it soon became clear to him that it was the remains of a fallen stalactite, shattering on impact. For a moment he wondered if this was the source of the loud noise from earlier, but he soon shrugged off that notion. It couldn't possibly of been that loud. The only thing responsible for such noise had to be a monster of some kind.
Feral kept walking, glancing around every now and then to see if he could find something of interest in the dark. However, as he walked, he soon realized how his surroundings seemed to be closing in around him. The cave was definitely getting smaller. He gave a soft whimper but was determined to see if there was anything of interest in this direction. It was moments like this that he was glad for his smaller frame, as it helped him to squeeze in tight spaces such as this.
Soon enough, the walls were closing in tighter and tighter, to a degree where he had to sit himself down on the floor and shuffling along. the tight space. There didn't seem to be any end to it, and it just kept getting tighter and tighter. It wasn't long before the chyros was starting to panic that perhaps he'd made a mistake. Maybe there was nothing down this way and he was going to end up getting trapped here forever.
There had to be an opening at some point, and Feral had a good idea to give a loud bark, perking up his ears in the small space to see if the sound echoed. Surprisingly, it did! Eyes widening, he began to speed up in his shuffling, and sure enough, the tunnel began to widen once more. Bigger, and wider, until he found himself able to stand up again. And then, he was free. Feral padded out quickly from the small space, giving himself a shake to get rid of any excess dirt or stones that had gotten in his fur, and then looked up to focus in the new area, and his eyes widened in awe.
It was bright, that was what he found first. The normal darkness of the cave was replaced with a calm green hue, and he soon noticed the reason. Reaching down from the roof of the cave was a cluster of large, sparkling emeralds. Feral couldn't quite understand where the light reflecting in the crystals was coming from, but it had to be some kind of magic. Either way, he felt enveloped by an overwhelming sense of calm just by watching the incredible display in front of him. 'This is amazing! I wonder if anyone else as ever found this?' He wondered curiously to himself. The tunnel was far too small for any chryos of a bigger size to squeeze through, so he was already interested to see if any others from his pack had found this place.
This place felt so nice, so peaceful among the darkness that normally surrounded the rest of the cave. Any of Ferals' earlier fears were forgotten now that he was in this new place. And so, he stayed, resting among the green glow of the crystals for the longest of times. It was such a nice feeling, but of course, he soon got bored, and he decided to search around this hidden chamber for anything else he could find. Sure enough, the emeralds weren't the only thing lurking within and sparkling. As down below in a hole, he saw the gilt of something new and found what appeared to be bright purple amethysts. The wonders held within this place only seemed to grow!
But soon enough, he knew that dawn would be approaching, and then his time in the cave would be done. He was almost sad to leave, but he knew that he'd certainly be returning here on his own time. But just so he remembered, and he had a gift to show Asio on his return, he picked up a broken off chunk of a blue sapphire that had laid waiting on the ground. It reminded him of his handler's fur, so he needed to take it back and show them.
Squeezing his way back through the tunnel hadn't been pleasant, but he wasn't worried anymore, he knew that there was a way out. And then, finally, he was back into the ordinary darkness of the cave. It was as if that chamber of crystals didn't even exist. A hidden treasure.
He made his way out to the exit of the cave, looking out towards the slow rising sunset which made him give a small bark. He'd did it. Against his own fears, the day and night had gone by and he'd lived through them, and he was ready to leave. And he couldn't have been more proud of himself.
[1,329 words]