Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tianara, who had glanced back at the window, started slightly when Joshua's hand covered hers for a second. She glanced back at him, and there was the slightest hint of a blush on her cheeks before she quickly looked back to the window. "Indeed," she said drily.

At his question - and Mac's words right after it - she opened her mouth to reply. Before she could, however, the entire cabin shook as if in a sudden strong wind. Tianara shuddered once, violently, but kept her gaze trained on the window. "Because," she nearly had to shout over the creaking and squealing of the cabin, "I think I know what's coming. If you don't know how to fight it, it'll find a way to make you let it inside of you. You too, Mac. Just don't look!" She meant mind control, but didn't know the words.

Beneath the creaking of wood, there was a low keening sound that was beginning to rise. Tianara's shivering had turned into a constant slight tremble, but she didn't look away. As long as she didn't let the emotions overwhelm her, she'd be okay. Without realizing it, she turned the hand under Joshua's and held on. She'd need a connection in the next few minutes.

The keening rose, and beneath it wails and shrieks seemed to come from just below the windows of the cabin. Tianara's breathing grew shallower, and she kept her eyes steady. Calm. Calm.

And it swamped the cabin. The entire room went dark as something massive covered the windows. A sense of dread, horror and regret seemed to fill the tiny room - all the negative emotions of the soul. Tianara had time for no more than a brief tightening of her hand on Joshua's before she was swept up in it. The others wouldn't feel it in the same strength she was - she had deliberately shielded them by looking out the window at it. A challenge.

"Positive thoughts," she said to Joshua and Mac, without even realizing she was speaking. "Please. Positive human emotion, damn it!" It was the only way to push it back, and Tianara didn't know if she could generate enough to make it back off on her own.

Tianara, too, was focusing on the happiest moments of her life. She could feel the darkness drawing back a little, as though confused, but then it was back in full force. Not just the emotions now - it had realized that someone in there knew how to counter it, and was bringing out the rest of it.

Images. Sensations. Sounds. No longer just feelings. All of horror.

Tianara felt her resolve beginning to slide. The pictures she was seeing in her mind, the shrieking of her loved ones in her head, were of the creature's construction. She knew that. It was just hard to remember, to lock onto, when she was seeing those she loved dying, being injured, turning her away, and on and on.

Trembling again, more violently this time, she focused harder on the positive memories of her life. She didn't know if this would work - it had taken the combined force of her clan to drive it away the last time such a thing had come. But...

No, damn it. No doubts. She pressed for a happier thought, a better part of the past. It could not win. If it got past her...

It would not get past her. Joshua and Mac would not feel the thing's full force. She just would not allow it.

Tianara was whimpering softly now as she stared blindly at the window, but the darkness was also beginning to recede. The shaking of the room was lessening, and some very dim light was starting to come back in. The efforts to help her actually seemed to be doing something, although she was still shaking like a leaf.

Suddenly, her body went ramrod straight and rigid against Joshua's side. Her eyes widened, and she gave voice to a low scream. At precisely the same moment, the darkness vanished from the room completely and the moonlight shone in once again.

Tianara slumped weakly against Joshua, breathing shallowly and shaking. There was something heartbreaking in the dark blue eyes when she opened them again and looked at Joshua. "We didn't win," she said wearily, not even questioning the fact that he was holding onto her. "It'll be back. It was a...a draw, I guess." She closed her eyes, still trembling and grateful for Joshua's warmth - she was so cold. "I'm tired," she admitted in a whisper. "I've never had to fight one of them before without the clan backing me. I almost lost it. I would have if you and Mac hadn't helped me."

Tianara let out a brief sigh, appreciating the gesture. Her eyes closed slowly. "Yes," she murmured, her eyes drifting closed as the trembling slowed to an occasional brief shudder. "You'll feel it coming at least half an hour before it gets here, but you might not realize it. You start to feel cold, and then you start to get nervous. As it gets closer, you get scareder and scareder." She seemed to have forgotten some of the basic grammar rules in her exhaustion. "By the time it actually gets there, you're so afraid that you're easy prey. The only way around it is to block it out as soon as you realize what you're feeling."

Almost asleep, she realized what was going on and shook her head once, firmly, trying to wake herself up. "They don't have a name," she murmured as she pushed her hair out of her face. "The merfolk call them the Dark Ones. I haven't seen one of them since I was...oh, a child. Just little. Maybe six, seven."

Tianara had already begun to drift again. At Joshua's words, however, she struggled to open her eyes once more. "Yeah," she mumbled. "They feed off the dark in souls. They'll take someone over if they can, and increase the darkness until it fills that person all the way." She gave up on opening her eyes, and rested contentedly beside Joshua - moving over felt like too much effort. "Once they're in someone, you can't get them out. So you have to be very careful to never ever let..." She trailed off for a second, and finished eventually, "...let them in."

Forcing herself to hold on just a minute or two longer, she added, "If you feel it comin' back, wake me up, 'kay? I dun care when." Her words were slurring together. "I haf...hafta hold back the worse of it..." Halfway through her sentence, she trailed off once again. This time, she didn't start up again. She was asleep.