<span style="font-family: 'Didact Gothic', 'sans-serif'"><span style="font-size: 15px"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#b35900">While this horrific scene had played out right in front of her, she remained there and remained seemingly unharmed in it's aftermath. Although one might tell simply by looking at her that despite the lack of physical injuries, she was not okay. Nothing about this looked okay. Blood decorated the cave now; walls painted in streaks and splatters. Perhaps a clean bite through some large artery formed the long, dirty red bands that had run dripping down the walls. The flecks that now adorned the majority of the main chamber’s west wall appeared as though flung with some force, distinctly indicating the direction where this utter shit show originated. This violent spackled effect, in contrast to the long swathes, was likely to have been caused by the vigorous ripping and tearing of the skin from muscle and the muscle from bone. It was an utterly unholy sight that would have left anyone with wits intact shivering with fear as their sanity drained away, like the blood now flowing into the cracks and crevices of the cave floor.<br/>
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Although, from a certain perspective it was awe inspiring, magnificently beautiful in a way that only chaos, madness, and the naked cruelty of reality can be. Certainly not a thing that everyone could appreciate – or perhaps it is. Humans go about their lives being willfully ignorant of our true nature. We hide the monsters that we are. We smile and laugh, all the while full of those deep dark things that itch inside of us. Those very real thoughts and feelings that frighten us so much we spend years pushing them down and locking them away, until that one moment arrives when we cannot deny ourselves any longer. That moment in our tiny lives when we stop lying to ourselves to become who we truly were all along; reborn and emboldened by the freedom of this newfound honesty.<br/>
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For Ashel, however, there was nothing to witness. He was no longer unconscious, but neither was he sentient or aware. He just was, in some vast emptiness. Only the briefest sudden flashes came to him, where Ashel knew he was still alive in some form, but he could exert no control in these moments. It just went on infinitely, as it does when you are both nothing and nowhere. There were no thoughts. There were no feelings. No ego. Then, though, as if he was being born for the first time, there was just the id. Very slowly, some sense of awareness returned, as he found himself looking out through eyes that saw things unlike he had ever seen. Then there was the perception of infinite darkness again. It halted suddenly this time, everything coming into sharp focus; looking out again through unfamiliar eyes. He could hear now, too, things that he had never heard before. He began to feel the cool wind as he observed himself sprinting through the forest outside the cave, though it was as if he was flying just feet above the ground. As his mind began to break, the darkness returned one last time.<br/>
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Ashel awoke in the fetal position on the cold, dirty stone floor of the cave. His hair was matted with dirt and hardened blood. His clothes now just shreds of crusty, blood covered fabric, barely clinging to his body. He struggled to move at first, but as he slowly regained consciousness, he regained control of his body. Weakness overtook him, though, and he was still unable to stand or even crawl, so he laid there and looked around. First, looking around the cave and seeing his masterpiece, though at the time he had no clue that he was the dark artist here, he began to feel a wave of terror. Blood coagulated in pools around him, where it had dripped down from the walls and the jaggy formations that hung down like bloody claws from the top of the cave. He looked down at himself next, fearing that he had been attacked and would die cold and alone on the floor of this cave. He looked at the blood that covered nearly every inch of his body. He could not see any visible injuries as he looked down to his body, and although he felt weak, there was no pain. He brought his hands up closer to his face, fingers curled slightly inward. He could see clearly that they had been scraped and scratched, covered with dirt and blood, but most disturbingly was what appeared to be flesh beneath his fingernails.<br/>
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Ashel’s mind began to reel as he tried to wrap his fractured mind around everything. The events of the night before that had led him to the cave; the fire, that shadow in the smoke, and the wolf. He tried to recall what happened next, but it he began to feel a pulsing pressure inside his head and he couldn’t concentrate. It was just a void in his memory. He tried to make any sense he could from what he could see now, and as he pored over the cave again, he saw her sitting there staring at him. Although she looked young to him, somehow she also appeared as if she had weathered a million years. Her clothes were tattered and blood soaked, though his were worse. Her hair hung down limply, covering most of her face. Her eyes were wild and unflinching as she stared straight at him, her gaze piercing him in a way that he couldn’t describe. He stared back, unable to look away now. She looked terrified, as she sat there shaking. She was dirty and thin and frail, but God damn it if he didn’t find himself intensely drawn to her, seeing a beauty that betrayed almost everything about her. Of course, he could not be sure he was in his right mind anymore. In fact, he was fairly certain that he was going insane and had a troubling feeling that things were about to spiral down further. He wanted to know, though… No, he felt like he needed to know more than anything in his life who she was and what happened. The feeling in his gut persisted, but he parted his bloody lips and inquired with a dry, rasping voice, “Who are you?” He choked for a moment, before coughing up some blood, which he spat it on the floor in front of him. It had small pieces of flesh in it. Ashel stared at them, momentarily stunned by the sight of this. He tried to clear his throat and spoke again with fear and urgency in his voice, “What…happened?”</span></span></span>