Request Series

The Matriarch (Metro: Katya/Demihumans)

Banished from the cult, Katya is damned to wander the Volga alone and ill equipped while her daughter is left to the mercy of the cult. With so many beasts around, Katya is sure to die, isn't she? If she is to survive, Katya swears to herself that never again will she relinquish control, even if she has to lose her humanity in the progress...

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Katya's throat was still raw from screaming her daughter, Nastya's, name at the top of her lungs as they were separated for the last time. One too many times had she spurned the advances of their captor, Silantius, and one too many times had he swallowed his anger towards his so-called 'bride-to-be'. Now she is banished for rejecting his courtship and her daughter is left helpless and at his and his technophobic cult's mercy and it's all her fault. 

Tears did nothing but cause her eyes to dry out and ache in rhythm of her racing heart. Katya coughed and wheezed as she trudged through the wet marshland that surrounded the Volga. Irradiated water and mud seeped into her hole-filled boots. She pulled her thread bear shawl tightly over her shoulders and choked back another sob. She had nothing. Literally nothing other than the clothes on her back. No food, no water, no weapons-

Looking over her shoulder, Katya notices three humanoid figures off in the distance, so far away they could nearly be mistaken as a trick of the eye. But she knows better. Katya picks up her feet and trudges through the mud, huffing and struggling against the mud that sucks and pulls against her boots.

"N-No-! FUCK!" She hissed as she tripped face-first into the muddy ground. Her ankle twisted at an awkward angle, causing her to nearly cry out in surprised pain. Katya bit the inside of her cheek as she slipped her feet out of her mud encased shoes.

It's no good... She doesn't even attempt to free them as she leaves them behind. There's no time! She can hear the sloshing of staggered footfalls behind her, slowly getting closer and closer as she struggles to walk away-

"AHH-!" Her ankle gives way as she puts her weight on her right foot. Again she falls, soaking wet and cold. It fucking hurts! Is it broken? Unlikely- Sprained, maybe- Shit, she doesn't have time! There's no time she has to move or- o-or-

Katya stumbles to a stop, gasping softly in horror. There's more...? She- She took a wrong turn-! She's lost, got turned around and now she's in the heart of the beastmen's territory. The Terminal is near- it must be! How could she be so foolish?! Now- Now she will never see her daughter again... She will never save her and it's her own fault-

One of the beastmen took a step towards her, grunting and sniffing the air. Katya took a step back, then looked over her shoulder. They are getting closer-! She looked to the left. Deep water, no good. The right- More?! She never knew there could be so many of these creatures in an area! S-So... Is this it, then...? Is this really how she dies? Torn to shreds by beastmen, never to see her Nastya ever again...?

Her vision began to split into doubles. Is- Is she about to faint...? The edges of Katya's vision darken and she felt disoriented and confused. Fear, stress- the realization that it was the end of everything made her weak. No, she was already weak... Instead of fighting the overwhelming panic and terror she felt, Katya allowed it to consume her. One more step. One more step forward was all it took for her knees to give out on her and for her entire consciousness to slip away into something more... accommodating.

Blank nothingness was so- so much better than being awake for the goring she was about to receive. No pain from sharp nails slicing into her thin skin, no fangs ripping out chunks of her delicate flesh- Nothing. Katya didn't know what happens when a person dies. She's seen so much death in the past few years that the thought always filled her with dread and fear. She had to be strong for her daughter but... she could never hide what she felt. Nothing might be better than the possibility that fear would be the only thing she would feel for eternity. Nothing didn't last, though. Something else began to take form in her unconscious mind.