Grim Grinning Ghosts

Grim Grinning Ghosts was always a bit of an odd kin, preferring the macabre and dark to anything worldly. He longed to join the spirits in the afterlife, his dream haunting his waking hours. It turned the zikwa's interest into an obsession, scouring the swamp for spectral familiars and answers to previously unanswered questions. When he discusses his passions, Grim can be eloquent and charming, putting on a show to horrify passerbys and entertain the young. Left to be social on normal things, however, he is left stammering and self-conscious. Grim has been on a journey to learn that there are other worthwhile endeavors beyond horror, and is  learning to enjoy life in the swamp before he joins the ghastly parade of his dreams. He would be an interesting legendary because he's not particularly smart, and still has plenty left to learn about enjoying the moment, and would certainly take the opportunity to practice his tricks on a captive audience.

Naming Dream

In death, there is a joyous party. It is not one that the spirit can know while bound to flesh: only in death are they invited to the celebration. It is revelrous and terrible- the music has no beat, changing before he can learn the steps. The dance shifts, the spirits writhe.

And they laugh.

He does not understand the joke. Nobody does.

They laugh.

All around him they smile, all around him they rejoice. It is wonderful and terrible.

He sees them dance through the trees, away from the living. Laughing and hideous. The kin around him turn, they run, they try so hard to hide. But he does not want to. He stands on shaky hooves, and stumbles after them. They laugh, flitting through the trees. He cannot run fast enough, as his hooves bleed. He cannot move quick enough, as the branches catch his flesh. They laugh and laugh as he is torn apart, until there is nothing left, and he is free.

Grim looks down to the body that might once have been his, mangled and bloody.

He laughs.