[ Cain's body was distant to himself, like the buzzing of a gnat in his own ear. He could feel, in a dim way, almost like a memory, Aymeric's fingers on his shoulder, and a dull, throbbing pain radiating through his skull, traveling down his bones.
At the forefront was exertion and hunger, a greater sense of self that crawled over the burnt wood and thickets and bodies and dry grass, feeding a mouthless body that hungered with maddening persistency, roared and groaned for more in an alien tongue.
And he could... sense it. How easy it would be to leap across the distance in defiance of wind and nature, to feed on his own flesh and live longer, live on, flow over the forest, to eat and eat and eat...
With will going shaky, he reeled himself in, like a cat coming back from a coiled crouch. Made himself small, and smaller, trying to bank himself, even while the thought of growing made his mouth water and his stomach cramp. Under Aymeric's hand, his flesh was sheeting sweat, and he panted raggedly, fighting to remember how to speak.
Something else tugged and pulled and warred with him, something beyond the fire. Some other magic, some other mind, even stranger, with a control both more complete and more refined. He bared his teeth and fought it, rambled madly between panting breaths. He looked around like a blind man startled by a noise he couldn't place, and his hands tugged urgently at the knight. ]
Four-and-twenty dragons' eyes... I can't see it, I can't...
Started the fire, started it, something... something else, it sees us...
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At the forefront was exertion and hunger, a greater sense of self that crawled over the burnt wood and thickets and bodies and dry grass, feeding a mouthless body that hungered with maddening persistency, roared and groaned for more in an alien tongue.
And he could... sense it. How easy it would be to leap across the distance in defiance of wind and nature, to feed on his own flesh and live longer, live on, flow over the forest, to eat and eat and eat...
With will going shaky, he reeled himself in, like a cat coming back from a coiled crouch. Made himself small, and smaller, trying to bank himself, even while the thought of growing made his mouth water and his stomach cramp. Under Aymeric's hand, his flesh was sheeting sweat, and he panted raggedly, fighting to remember how to speak.
Something else tugged and pulled and warred with him, something beyond the fire. Some other magic, some other mind, even stranger, with a control both more complete and more refined. He bared his teeth and fought it, rambled madly between panting breaths. He looked around like a blind man startled by a noise he couldn't place, and his hands tugged urgently at the knight. ]
Four-and-twenty dragons' eyes... I can't see it, I can't...
Started the fire, started it, something... something else, it sees us...