[WP-001] Tidal Terror

[Gl!tch~]

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Tidal Terror did not consider herself much of a vivid dreamer. Often, she went out like a splashed fire, and awoke refreshed after a night of no dreams at all.

It alarmed her, then, after curling up near the beach, listening to the waves crash one moment, and after she slipped into her first snore, to open her eyes to a completely different scene. The air smelled different, and the ground beneath her was much more swamp than dune grass.

The sound of voices and flashes of kin flanks moving about the area brought her quick to her hooves. She looked to what they all seemed to wandering near: a tall stone, covered in glowing symbols.

Even as she called out to the others there, no one paid her any mind. Such a thing had never happened before. Or, not while she was awake. Once before, she had a dream where she watched kin, including a visage of her own self, while she could not interact with any of it. It was an odd dream, and she was quick to see this would be the same.

Still, nothing stopped her from wandering and wondering. She watched the other kin (including some with strange forms and the ability to shift from other creatures) as they explored and discussed. Without them able to pay attention to her, she looked at stones sitting around the Obelisk, marked in ways she did not usually see. Tidal Terror considered stepping on one, but worried that she would be too heavy and break part of it. It seemed important, and she wasn't sure if the dream would do something...weird...if she messed with what stood out from the world as she knew it. Instead, she watched as kin stepped on stones and made the obelisk light up further.

She was drawn more to the thing with every passing moment. Something so strange, so foreboding, so...tied to something beyond what she could understand. Touching stones did something to the obelisk, she knew that much. But her previous vivid dream also had something to do with her past, present, and future. Tidal Terror could understand little things about her dreams, but any greater meanings were beyond her. It was an uncomfortable thing. So many kin had meaningful dreams, enough so to define them, and Tidal Terror was not trained for that at all.

And one totoma's hoof would not break the obelisk, much like how no other kin's hoof seemed to do so. It appeared harmless, so while the kin present focused on the task they found themselves with, she put her hoof on the obelisk. Unlike her other dream, where everything went through her, she managed to touch the obelisk proper. As she realized that, she felt a shudder run up her back. Tidal Terror removed her hoof, and started backing away.

While the other kin were making connections between their actions with the stones and the obelisk, Tidal Terror was concerned about being there for a moment, with the strangest thing in the area. She did not want to touch the stones, or the obelisk anymore. She did not want to be here at all.

Brave as she tended to be, Tidal Terror was out of her element, and something seemed wrong. So she turned and ran until she entered the darkness beyond the glow's reach, and eventually, she woke again to the beach she knew.

[Gl!tch~]

The night on the beach was quiet and dark. Nothing glowed beyond the moon and faint markings on kin sleeping farther up where the sand turned to more-solid earth.

Patient was in the mud somewhere, and Snapjaw was out likely on a hunt, both far from the rest of the kin as well as each other. Sunshine was up nested in a tree with her mate, and Headstrong snuggled closer to Tidal Terror's flank.

No monoliths stood anywhere as far as the eye could see. She was home. Safe, and secure. Curling up closer to her otter, the totoma soon fell into slumber again, this time without any dreams following suit.

[Gl!tch~]

With the new day, Tidal Terror shook off the dream from the night before. She had too much to do to really think about it again. Like most days, she had her pets to mind and train as well as keep watch over the surf. When away from her post as the sun began to sink below the horizon, she fished to contribute to the night's meal.

Everything might as well have been back to normal. When it was time to call it a night, she yawned and laid down with her otter once more, thinking a little bit about the day to follow before she fell asleep.

It felt like she awoke earlier than usual; Tidal Terror preferred sunlight on her flank, but instead she squinted in the early dawn where there was very little color or light in the sky.

She could hear the surf, and could feel her otter next to her. Headstrong was breathing, though in odd pulls of breath. Too hard, and ragged, compared to the usual. Worried, she nudged at the otter, but quickly reeled back at the smell. That, and the wet stickiness she felt on her nose. Tidal Terror reeled back. When she looked down at her pet, she couldn't believe what she saw. Without a second thought, she galloped off to get help.

Up on the hill, she could see many of the usual kin, seeming to still be asleep. But as she approached, she heared a cacophony of moans. Among them, too, was the stench, but worse. Without the sad noises coming from deep in their throats, she would have thought them all dead.

Some she still thought were lost, with how their flanks seemed to sink much too far in. And yet, they still breathed.

Tidal Terror looked upon her tribe, her friends, in shock and horror. She knew suffering; she had escaped some of it when she left the mountains. She had seen starvation, war-madness, what happens if one didn't mind where they stepped in a blizzard. But she had never seen anything like this.

Only one option remained: call for the leader she trusted, and worried for most. "Parrot Head? Parrot Head!"

As she searched among the once-colorful flanks now dimmed by illness, blood, and worse, she could not find the familiar blue and yellow among them.

"Parrot Head!"

The acha always claimed that she wasn't suited for leadership, but she wouldn't run from her tribe when they were in need. And, surely, she would have looked for Tidal Terror during a time like this?

And now, left entirely on her own, Tidal Terror had no idea what to do. She couldn't leave them, but she couldn't help them, either. No one should move, or be moved... But the more the bodies groaned in pain, the more Tidal Terror's hooves ached to run. Away from the sickness, the moaning, the helplessness of it all. She wasn't a leader. She couldn't save them. She didn't deserve her name.

[Gl!tch~]

She gasped awake. Tidal Terror took deep, shaking breaths, as if she had just surfaced after nearly drowning.

The totoma still lay among the dune grass, and Headstrong nosed at her in sleepy confusion at her noises and movements.

The air smelled of salt.

Early birds chirped in their merry ways.

Tidal Terror couldn't stop shaking. It took all her might to not start crying out, moaning herself, loud and afraid of the dreams that kept plaguing her.

Even as she tried to process the previous night, thoughts of the obelisk kept returning to her. She needed to see it herself, wherever it was. If there was anything Tidal Terror knew, it was that she never dreamed of places that did not exist. Maybe if she went to it, her mind would stop troubling itself. Maybe she would see that she was spooked over nothing, or she could perform some kind of rite. Either way, her stomach churned.

But she felt like she had to do it, though she had never felt such a way before. There were gut feelings, and personal feelings, but this was more like someone continued to bother her with an idea whether she wanted to pursue it or not. And the only way to make it stop was to do it.

All that was left was getting everything in order before she went on her way. She would speak to a few of the beach regulars, some with gumption and not too many other daily tasks. They could likely take on her duties for a short while. And maybe some of the kimeti would know of this obelisk. She had dreamed of kimeti, so it made sense to her that they might have some information. And Parrot Head... Maybe she was back. But if not, Tidal Terror would have to leave a message. It troubled her, leaving like this while she couldn't touch base with her leader. Hopefully, Parrot Head would understand.

And hopefully her own hooves would be swift and carry her well to whatever was ahead of her.