Aramora

Chapter 28: Trial of Courage

But aside from being uncertain of Nesosa's intentions, he also has an uneasy feeling that makes his stomach tingle. And it's a feeling he knows rather well but never likes. "Do you get the feeling we're being watched?" he asks and glances back over his shoulder only to see that nothing is behind him other than the cobweb-addled hallway.

Nesosa sighs and keeps her attention forward. "Lav, we are bein' watched. Through yer eyes," she deadpans and keeps marching onward.

He may have let that slip his mind for a moment, but even with that thought to reassure him, the feeling doesn't go away. As a Cle, knowing when he's being watched is almost like a sixth sense. He's learned to always trust his instinct above all else, so he doesn't let himself drop it completely from his mind.

He suddenly walks into her arm which snaps him out of his thoughts to see that she has halted at the edge of a nearly pitch-black room. Nesosa scans her eyes over the room but isn't able to make out much of anything.

Lavern isn't entirely sure what counts as 'assisting' for this test. He was specifically told to watch and observe - nothing more. So despite he himself being able to see just fine due to his werewolf sight, he has to simply stand and watch her do this on her own.

Nesosa contemplates how to go about this. The room is certainly larger than the others they have passed, otherwise the light from the dimly glowing torch sconces would bounce off of the walls from the other side of the room from where they're standing.

With the option of sight off the table, Nesosa closes her eyes and cautiously begins to walk forward, being careful of each step. If she feels a stone on the ground that seems slightly out of place, she makes sure to avoid stepping on it. If there's a string strung across the ground around the height of her ankles, she lifts her hooves to step higher. But oddly enough, she doesn't feel any pressure plates or tripwires.

She stops once she hears what might have been movement. The thought that it could have been Lavern doesn't even cross her mind. Another perk of bringing a Cle for something like this is that if she happens to hear something, she knows damn well it wasn't him.

Instead of turning her face towards the sound, she turns her head so her ear is directed to where she thinks it came from. It came from her immediate right. It didn't sound terribly close though, and there may have been a slight echo, so that gives her another hint of exactly how big this room might be.

She hears the movement again, and grimaces as it sounds rather... fleshy. And not in a good way. There's an odd rattling that sounds like bones, then a ringing noise that is unmistakably the sound of magic being cast in some way.

Through the blackness, she sees orange specks of light swirl up around a shadowy figure, then a few more to follow. They raise the figures up off the ground, bringing them to stand on their feet. But as she peers closer, she sees that the silhouettes resemble the shape of centaurs. Four to be precise. Two larger ones and two smaller.

Lavern also watches what's happening with something between fear and curiosity. With his ability to see in the dark, he can see the malformed flesh constructs make up what has the shape of centaurs but not the appearance. Like pieces of flesh woven together to make what an approximation of a centaur would look like. In summary, they are basically very poorly taxidermied centaurs.

But Nesosa is unable to see exactly what they look like. To her, they are just clouded silhouettes. She slowly approaches, her mind instantly piecing together who these figures are supposed to be. Two larger and two smaller. All of them with what are seemingly male builds. Her family.

She knows they aren't real, but a haze crosses over her mind and makes her believe they are in the moment. That everything in front of her is real in this moment. She stops herself from approaching them as she suddenly feels guilt in her heart that twists her stomach into knots, which she instantly wants to quell by doing what she always does and killing the first thing in sight.