*MATURE THREAD. TRIGGERING THEMES. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.*

It had been snowing for days, and the accumulation that had built up in the mountains had been enough to drive her out of them- for fear of avalanche or being buried in cover. Though, that hadn’t been the only reason. With the skies pretty well staying overcast, it had been easy for her to lose track of the time that had passed. But she knew the full moon had to be close to rising- she could feel it in every fiber of her being. In the days leading up to the ceremony, she had begun her descent down the western face of the range- she rarely traveled this far east. However, due to recent events, she had to leave her normal range. As she had eased down to a lower elevation- closer to the ocean, the sky had managed to clear up. An open window to the celestial body above, Aurelia was relieved to discover she was just on time. Though she was certain it was the goddess to be thanked for that.

She had counted out the location just a few days prior, and it was everything she had remembered it to be layered in snow with the occasional rock formation stuck out here and there in an otherwise open plain of existence. On her descent to the ritual grounds, she accumulated all the supplies she needed- some she always carried with her- others she had to improvise. Everything she had with her was rolled into a white mountain goat fur she had harvested specifically for the occasion, and as the Cold Moon neared its apex, she set to work. While the blocks of stone lay scattered haphazardly around the immediate area, there was a specific spot that called to her. It may as well have been home. Aurelia was very careful to avoid ruining the pristine canvas of the interior of her circle before she had the perimeter traced out and clearly stamped into the layer of snow. Then she went around and even distributed five small stacks of kindling around the circle’s edge in preparation to be lit. They weren’t going to cause huge fires- just enough to burn for a few minutes- but that’s all she needed.

From there, Aurelia declared an entrance to her circle, taking as few carefully placed, long-strided steps as she could to get herself to the center. Then she dumped out the rest of her kindling, a concoction of herbs, a piece of flint, and a small blade from the last fold of the white fur- before gently placing the fur aside. She gathered the makings of her central fire together, before taking the small knife and flint in her jaws only to leave the circle the way she came in.

Igniting the spark was always the hardest, but after a few attempts a small breath of flame burst forward against the first collection of dried grass and twigs. She nursed it for several moments. Poking at it with one of the loose sticks. Once she felt it was strong enough to leave, she picked up one of the actively burning pieces and carried it on to the next stacks. The girl repeated her process four times more until she lit the last perimeter fire with herself on the inside- closing herself off to the outside world. She could almost immediately feel the change in the atmosphere. Aurelia returned down her initial path to the center of the circle to light it as well. With more fuel, its blazed brighter- though that was her intention. She could smell the floral scent of the herbs burning for a variety of purposes. To clear her mind, to strengthen her soul. As she settled near its dancing inferno, she draped the white fur over her shoulders. Sheltering herself from everything except for the alter fire.

Aurelia set there for several silent moments before she drew her voice to speak. “In profundis animae tuae clavem invenies; Ut vires recludam quae in te decepta est.” The girl said aloud. It was with considerable volume, though she was meant to be alone. “Ignis intus ardet, vim negare non potes; Surgat et luceat, spiritus tuus coelum tangat.” It was easy for herself to become lost in the flickering flames before her- though that was the point. “Hoc sume signum sinceritatis. Pignus fidei, amoris, et claritatis.” Aurelia continued, while slowly raising her wrist to her lips. "Suscipe sanguinem meum in gratiarum tuarum miserationum tuarum.” She finished, followed by a brief hesitance. However there was very little thought put into the following act. With clear intention, Aurelia bit herself just behind the mend in her paw with enough force to break skin, and allow her blood to flow freely. Once she tasted it on her own tongue, she quickly held it out over the fire. It hissed with each drop as it landed in the burning coals. Her eyes watered a bit at the throbbing pain of her self-inflicted injury. Though the sacrifice was necessary. Now, it was a waiting game.


"Aurelia Veratti"

As Sephiran walked along the banks of the Polar Sound, snow from the neighboring mountains trickled down from their peaks, casting the territory in a continuous swirl of snowflake flurries. The night sky was clear despite this, which meant Sephiran was able to navigate using the constellations should he need to. But tonight, he had no intentions of leaving this frigid wasteland. Not until he obtained what he came looking for. On most nights, there was only one thing plaguing his mind.

A small girl, swathed in an array of charcoal tones, accented in blues and greens that resembled the northern lights. A girl who evaded him, mocked him, dared to laugh in the face of his superiority. A girl who needed to be broken. Aurelia consumed his thoughts, her presence - or disappearance rather- serving as a constant reminder that he had failed to obtain her. It drove him to the point of madness, and spiraled him into days of binging and ravaging the forests in the pursuit of agony and death, just to satiate his disdain for her. Did she even know how manic she made him?

It had been nearly an entire season since their last encounter, which ended with Sephiran alone in the volcanic labyrinth while the ghost of her vanished into thin air. Whether that was a real interaction or not, Sephiran still didn’t know. And since then, he hadn’t been able to trace her scent in any of the northern territories. Until now. He caught the herbal aroma that accompanied her pelt lingering near the remains of a mountain goat, and had been following it through the mountain passes ever since. It led him down the ridge and into the Polar Sound, where it slowly became stronger with each mile he traveled. Tonight it was the strongest it had been thus far, indicating she was in the area.

Like a buzzard drawn to a carcass, Sephiran hunted Aurelia down until he arrived in time to witness a rather unusual scene. Five piles of kindling material that created a shape of some sort were alit with a flame, casting a glow that resonated for several yards in each direction. In the middle was a larger flame, and beside that was a figure draped in the pristine hide of a white mountain goat.

Beyond the smell of herbs, kindling materials, and Aurelia’s general perfume, Sephiran picked up the scent of blood. Words were being spoken in an unknown language, the voice belonging to none-other than the girl he was looking for. Sephiran couldn’t help himself; empowered by his grandiosity, he strode forward, making sure to trample through one of her dwindling fires to extinguish it entirely. “Well now,” He crooned, attempting to walk directly into her and collide their bodies hard enough to shove her forward. Whether she fell into her beloved fire or not, Sephiran didn’t care. He just wanted to hurt her. “I can help you with that.” He was referring to the blood he smelt, though he couldn’t initially tell where it was coming from. With a guttural snarl, his jaws splayed and he attempted to grab her from behind, where her shoulder met her neck on her right side.


"Sephiran Saxe"

As the blood leaked from her self-inflicted wound- she was careful to adopt a concentrated breathing routine. She would take a deep inhale of the herbal smoke, hold it in her lungs for a few moments, and release it in an exhale that spanned several quiet moments. The night of the Cold Moon was near silent, making it easy to get lost in the pattern of her own respiration. However, she didn’t hear him until it was too late. Upon hearing him trample through one of the perimeter fires, she immediately became enraged. “GET OUT!” Aurelia screamed at the uninvited party, casting a quick glance to her wrist as she maintained its position over the alter fire. Though, by the time she realigned her attention to the approaching threat, she had very little room to react. He was on top of her. Sephiran muttered some meant to antagonize her- he didn’t really have to. Her sacrifice was in the process of being ruined and she was livid.

Aurelia was forced to drop her arm to maintain balance as she felt snaggle-tooth sink his fangs into her scruff. God that hurt like a bitch. She was quick to find any hold she could get on him, swinging her hindquarters away as she aimed low. She was much smaller than him after all. With her own jaws, she tried to catch his closest limb with as much force as she could put into it. He ruined her full moon. She was going to leave him with as much as he could remember her by before slipping away. That was their game after all.


"Aurelia Veratti"

As expected, Aurelia became enraged by his interruption of her… what in the hell was she even doing? It didn’t matter. Even as she screamed at him to get out, holding her tiny forearm over the fire to allow blood to drip into it, Sephiran did not falter in his advance. He used his weight to shove himself into her, forcing her to topple over so he could descend upon her. As he grabbed the base of her neck and upper shoulder, he felt pain ignite across one of his forelimbs. She had bit him. His excitement for the hunt morphed into something far more sinister now that she had dared to retaliate.

Sephiran was infuriated.

With another bellowing snarl, Sephiran violently thrashed his head, trying to tear deeper into her flesh with his elongated fangs. It was also meant to disorient her, force her to let go of his limb, and cause pain. And, after a few rounds of shaking, he would attempt to throw her body towards the perimeter of her alter, so he could destroy her beloved work.

“You little bitch,” He hissed after attempting to remove her from the inner circle, if only for a moment. With her blood dripping from his jaws, and his own weeping from the bite on his forearm, Sephiran moved towards the inner fire. With a single, swift swipe of his paw, he destroyed the kindling material at the bottom, scattering it across the ground to rid the fire of its life source. As he did so, the blood from his forearm splattered, falling into the fire with an audible hiss.  

"Sephiran Saxe"

While she had landed her own retaliation- the bone of his forearm tightly ground between her teeth, she had not been prepared for his ability to shake her entire body with his hold. With each back-and-forth movement- she felt the flesh of her scruff further tearing- the puncture deepening as bone scraped bone. Her own hold loosened as he ripped her away. Aurelia cried out in pain, but mostly rage, as it felt like her brain was rattling around in her own head. And as she made a desperate attempt to curl around, and aim a blow at his own neck with her splayed jaws, he suddenly released her- and she immediately felt nothing at all.

The girl hadn’t realized she had been falling until she hit the snow in a heap of herself- rolling a time or two with the momentum of his throw. She was disoriented, but somewhere in the back of her mind knew that this was her opportunity to run- but that would mean abandoning the altar. In a slow, uncoordinated effort to gather herself up, the girl propped herself up on an elbow to look for the centerfire- and what he was doing to it. She watched as he raised a single paw over the blaze- the one that she had damaged herself. “NOOO!” She screamed as she attempted to launch herself forward- though she simply couldn’t get her own tangled limbs underneath her. All she could do was watch helplessly as he raked his wounded appendage through the alter contaminating her sacrifice with one of his own- intentional or not.

In that moment, she grieved as the pure terror and anguish overwhelmed her. She no longer had words- the cry that escaped her lips was unintelligible paired with the flow of tears streaming down her face. As Sephiran scattered the altar, a sudden gust of wind raged around them- kicking up snow flurries across the clearing. The remaining four perimeter fires were extinguished at once, leaving them bathed in the light of the Cold Moon with only the warm glow of recently burnt embers to indicate there had been a fire there at all. What had he done!? “What have you done!?!” Aurelia attempted to launch herself up off the ground to make another attempt at fighting him. She wanted to keep fighting him. Though her legs buckled underneath her once more. But instead of attempting to force herself upright again, she lay there. Curling into herself as her mind raced to process what had just happened. Soulbound. How could she have possibly been soulbound?


"Aurelia Veratti"

Her horrified screams resonated from behind him, beckoning to the bloodlust storming inside the labyrinth of his mind. The main fire had been extinguished, along with the smaller ones that made the perimeter of her altar, which plunged the clearing into darkness. As the kicked-up snow flurries fell around them, they created an other-worldly veil of white similar to mist. He stood there for several moments, ears pinned back and dialed in on her though he did not immediately turn to face her. His head was hanging low, as he withdrew and exhaled deep, staggered breaths.

His mind was racing, overwhelmed with emotion. Rage. Frustration. Resentment. Lust. Warmth spread across his flesh in waves, bringing goosebumps to the surface and causing his pelt to bristle higher. He heard her shifting behind him, likely trying to pull herself up. “You…” He growled, still staring down at the embers he had just destroyed. “….you don’t understand…” He slowly turned around, glaring at her with eyes overtaken with insanity. They were glowing beneath the cold moon, as it's light reflected off the inner structures behind his retina. “…how fucking crazy you make me.”  As she curled into herself he sauntered towards her, closing in like a predator descending upon prey. “Get up.” It was a command, one accompanied by a vicious snarl that splattered the blood from his jaws across the snow. “Get up and show me that fighting spirit of yours.” So I can break you.  If she wanted to escape she would have to fight her way through it. But if she chose to finally submit after all this time… Sephiran would still mutilate her.

"Sephiran Saxe"

At first she didn’t hear him clearly over the blood rushing in her ears- over the thoughts racing through her mind. However, his voice became more distinguished against the whistling wind as she was certain that he turned to face her direction. Sephiran slowly closed the distance. The charge in the air made every single strand of her own fur stand on end though she made no move to defend herself. There was no point. They were trapped.

As he completed his initial thought, how crazy she made him. She made no effort to offer him one of her usual snarky replies. None of her spirit remained in that moment. It was too overwhelmed by the shock and jarring realization of what had happened. She felt like she was drowning- but not the panicked kind. The cold and silent resignation of fate. There was nothing to be done now. The only separation would be the embrace of death. Which prompted her next address. “Kill me,” Aurelia answered softly, only vaguely aware of what he had said. Sephiran had demanded that she get up, but she made no movement to do so. Instead, she made her own demand, echoing the way he had phrased his. Looking up at the purple brute with narrowed eyes, she cried out. “Kill me! That’s the only escape you or I will have.” In the shroud of the full moon, he had united them by fire and blood- unfortunately, the context did not matter. Just like that, her soul had been stolen from her, only to be reclaimed when she left this plain of existence behind. How could it be possible?


"Aurelia Veratti"

As he closed the distance between them, commanding that she stand her ground and give him the final battle he craved so deeply… she didn’t. In fact, she didn’t move at all. Her gaze shifted up and aligned with his, before she retorted with a demand of her own. Kill me! The rest fell upon deaf ears, as he replayed the phrase over, and over, and over again inside of his mind. Kill her? Kill her!? After all of the effort he had put into pursuing her? The nights of stalking through the north, tormenting her, chasing her until some force of nature separated them. No, he wasn’t about to let her take the easy way out. He wasn’t going to let her give him demands or allow her to slip through his fingers by ending her life. Unfortunately for Aurelia, if she hadn’t requested to be killed, Sephiran may have done it on his own. But now he had far better schemes in mind. He wanted to make her life a living hell.  

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t have his fun with her, and make her think he was going to oblige. Without warning he descended upon her, jaws splayed and attempting to grab the side of her throat, while his paws shifted to roll her onto her back. Should he be successful in obtaining a hold on her, Sephiran would pull his head back to lift her up by her neck, before thrusting her back down to slam her head against the ground. His body collapsed on top of her, smothering her with his weight and mass. Keep trying to escape. He pressed into her, hard, wanting her to feel his excitement poking against her abdomen, ready to rid her of whatever sense of self she had left. Keep trying to avoid me. It was the chase that got Sephiran high, but above all else, it was the gluttonous act of ravaging the helpless that kept him elated.  

"Sephiran Saxe"

After she requested her demise, it didn’t take long for Sephiran to act. She could see something being mulled over behind his dual-toned gaze. As she met his hardened stare, she remained still, convincing herself that this was the correct course of action. If her soul had to be fused to his on this plain, all she could hope for was a brief existence. When he descended upon her, she certainly felt fear. However, her outlook was mostly dominated by relief- until he had actually made contact. She blinked rapidly as she felt the impact of the fangs that had sunk into her flesh. She gasped in the sudden pain, but she was still certainly aware of herself and her surroundings. He missed! Before she could register anything else, she felt her body being shifted- rolled to her back. Her tail clenched against her abdomen out of reflex, though her gaze remained fixed on the brilliant expanse of stars above.

It was then she realized that he may intend to kill her, but she came to understand he wasn’t going to make it quick. She felt him drop the weight of his body on top of hers, forcing all the air from her lungs at once. How could she make him kill her faster? “What’s … the matter … snaggle-tooth?” Aurelia asked, trying to give him more of a reason to be angry. She knew pleading wouldn’t be effective- even on the threshold of death, she wouldn’t bring herself to beg. With any luck, she could enrage him to the point of being careless. “Don’t .. disappoint … me now.”  She wheezed, fighting the urge to struggle away from him with every ounce of strength she had left.


"Aurelia Veratti"

**warning: triggering content in this post

Her gasps, shudders, outcries, and the sudden exhalation of air from her lungs were all fuel Sephiran needed to continue this act of deflowerment. Their bodies were pressed against one another, his shoving hers against the earth and deeper into the snow, crushing her beneath his weight in hopes he would hear the crack of bone beneath the pressure. What’s the matter snaggletooth? He hated that fucking word. His jaws tightened out of reflex, a snarl escaping through the flesh in his mouth. Blood spilled onto his tongue, hot and sticky from a venous vessel. His fangs were undoubtedly close to puncturing through an artery, which would seal her fate if successful. But that wasn’t Sephiran’s intention- not yet at least.

He lifted her again, wanting to force her head back down to hit it against the ground and disorient her further. In sync, his jaws tightened again and he started sucking, as he intended to cut off her airway and drink the blood from her wound. Don’t disappoint me now. He waited until she was close to losing consciousness, wanted her to feel like the curtains of death were about to close around her. Because that’s when he would enter her. He positioned his hips to align them more accurately with hers, and with a single, barbaric thrust, Sephiran took what was his. He would continue this pattern of bringing her onto the brink of unconsciousness, before releasing the reigns just enough to force her to relive these moments of agony and despair.

-fade-

"Sephiran Saxe"

His nickname ilicited the response she was looking for. Though, his grip fell just shy of the mark she needed him to hit. The muscles in her neck were already clenched so tightly around his hold. Sephiran’s fangs had to be so close to the fatal injury she craved. Unfortunately, the girl was simply paralyzed in his grasp, though if she could just wiggle enough to nick the vessel of life, there would be nothing that could be done. Bleeding out seemed like a fairly decent way to go. From what she knew, the individual just felt weaker and weaker until they lost consciousness. It had to have been like falling asleep. Alas, the weight of his body kept her fixed in place. That, matched with the loss of blood and restricted oxygen … her vision had begun folding in around her. She was vaguely aware of her head being bashed into the ground again- though it didn’t hurt so bad anymore. She couldn’t really feel much of anything.

Aurelia’s eyes dimmed, as they fell into a narrowed half-closed state. Not totally unconsciousness, but nowhere near present either. She felt numb, her limbs tingled with phantom sensation. Or maybe it was real. Maybe she died after all. She simply could not tell.
- exit via fade -

"Aurelia Veratti"