Ashes to Ashes - 8

The moon hung low in the sky as dusk rolled in, coloring and painting the clouds a spectrum of blue and purples, lightly glowing stars peeking as the sky shifted, and the days creatures turned to rest.

Bats zipped to and fro, from tree to tree, crafting dark winged silhouettes against the clouds.

She took her first breath, standing atop a dew-laden, grassy hilltop. Her dirtied, tangled hair whipped against her cheekbones, and against the air around her. The breeze was light, chilly even. Arreis let her hands stretch toward the sky, letting her chin and nose rise with them to praise the sky, and world around her, as she felt everything at once.

Arreis savored the first moments, her minion behind her, and enjoying the feeling of corporal existence again, herself. Anneth's wings spread, and flexed in the night air, snapping her tail back and forth in delight.

At last, a sharp gust of air rolled over the knolls of Hillsbrad, and shocked the two companions to their senses. The moon was bright enough, but the night was getting steadily darker, and both would require shelter at some point, from her memory. Arreis could gather that they were near the pass to the Plaguelands, and that was a place she would rather not be too near to, in the brightest hours of daylight.

“Southshore..is near.” She murmured to herself, though the Demoness nodded as well.

With her senses still heavily attuned to the activity of the natural night, she raked a hand through her hair, and straightened her robe. She still looked a fright, rather as if she'd dug her way out of a crypt. But nonetheless, she started down the hill toward Southshore, it was a few miles at best.

“Why don't you ride?” The demon muttered behind her. She was not built for walking down hill in such a manner. Her hooves caused her to stumble a few times, and curse in various tongues.

Arreis simply shook her head, she had a reason, but she would be damned if she were to speak of it. She admired their existence, and the power she had felt flowing through her veins. However, her mind was sacred, her methods were to remain private, even to them.

“Why don't you just, turn invisible or something?” She muttered to her minion, who promptly exhaled a resigning demonic sigh.

“Yes Mistress.”

The Succubus faded, though Arreis could still sense her, to the naked eye, she did not exist.

Arreis smiled, and looked down to her fists, feeling the fire that burned inside of her veins excited her. She took a moment to glance around before spotting a small, limping rabbit struggling to make it to it's home before the owls noticed it.

Blue-purple discoloration snuck down her arm and into her hand, and a volatile mist started to form around her fingers, slowly coalescing in to a powerful orb in-between her fingers, with a spontaneous jerk she flung the orb toward the gimpy rabbit, abolishing all life from within the creature nearly instantaneously.

The succubus rolled her cyan eyes at the display, maintaining her silence. Though she knew Arreis could feel her haughty behavior without having to look.

“It feels....good.” She whispered, apathetically regarding her destruction as she knelt beside it, a stick in her hand.

The rabbit appeared preserved nearly perfectly, despite the ailments he received in life. He looked as good as alive, except that his lungs no longer drew breath. His coat was immaculate, and his eyes had barely glazed over.

Arreis turned the varmint over with the stick, inspecting it for a long few moments before standing, and brushing her hands off on her knees.

“Are you done yet?” Anneth whispered.

The 'women' exchanged mutually disgusted glares before Arreis trudged on. She was sure she could feel the wetness of the grass through her boots now, and the sky above seemed to be threatening to pour rain down upon her, as it was.

They passed tree, by tree, making their way up and over occasional inclines. Soon, the distant lanterns of Southshore gleamed in the misty night, and the first of the raindrops fell, soaking the grass, and the trees.

With the rainfall, new sensations arose in the woman. The feeling of wetness on her cheeks caused her pause, and she stood atop another hill, looking over at misted yellow lights, letting the rain saturate her body as she tried to feel each raindrop.

Each passing second brought a new raindrop down upon the duo, soaking the strands of her tangled, silver hair, rinsing away a bit of the dirt, but not touching upon her desolate state of being.

It was not long before she felt the chill starting to set in her bones, and she picked up the sides of her robe to move more hastily toward Southshore, breaking into an all out run for the waterside city.

Arreis flung herself into the door of the inn, panting, and dripping upon the dry hardwood. The bar quieted at her entrance, though there were only a few patrons there, the season was off, most of the travelers were in drier parts of Azeroth, but there were a few regulars, sitting enchanted by the woman in the doorway.

An aged, graying maid approached her first, and spoke quietly. Though her voice carried through the room. She held her hand out to Arreis, trying to comfort her, and bring her inside.
To the woman, she looked young, too young to be in the state she was in.“Can I help you? Perhaps a room, some food, and some clothes?”

Her hands dug into her robes, feeling for pockets, gold, anything. With a defeated sigh, she murmured to the woman, and shrank back a bit. “I don't have..any money to pay for it.”