"They will be alright, they will survive." Even as she spoke the words she realized they were foolish. Of course they were fine, her gut would have told her otherwise. Of course knowing these things was likely an old wives tale, but it just wasn't those cubs she was concerned for. She left more family behind with the choices she made, and the actions she had taken. Ushindi could have made an example of any one of them. Her eyes welled up with tears at the thought, but she bit her lip til the coppery tang of blood filled her mouth.
"The world hasn't defeated me yet."
She had gotten as far as she could and upon uttering those words she collapsed. The woods surrounded her now in a chilling form of embrace. The limbs of trees seemed to reach out to her, branches extended well past a normal length and leaves almost pulled taut. The scene would have had the forcibly retired Warlord question what she was seeing, but instead she welcomed the embrace. More or less accepting that this was the end. Darkness lingered at the edges of her weary eyes and she began to lose sight of the peaceful scene. A single, sorrowful tear dropped from her eyes as she closed them.
---
"Young Warlord..."
Opening her eyes she found the world to be in a weird haze. The edges of everything seemed to take on a ghostly hue, the image was quite the opposite of the previously serene setting she recalled before closing her eyes. "Who's there?" She began, her voice sounding just as out of place here. The simple question seemed to echo around her and if she squinted just so... she thought she could see the way those very words impacted the air around her. "These woods really are haunted." She whispered this realization, but her pink eyes widened slightly at the reality. Growing up within the Stormborn Stronghold she was often told whimsical stories about the ghosts that wandered the woods - faceless. It occurred to her that maybe this was her life now? Or death, as it were.
Rather than ask another follow up question she decided to pull herself up only to find that instead of the heap she had been in, she was in fact standing already. "You're alive." The words didn't seem to be spoken, rather whispered into her ears which twitched uncontrollably for a brief moment. Still she couldn't find a question to ask. Instead her existence became that much more confusing. How was it that she stood, while 'moments' before she had been collapsed? Another reality struck her as she wondered about that - where is the pain?
She found herself peering down at her paws, giving a playful wiggle of her toes to show they were connected. They did indeed work for her and she nearly dared to smile, only nearly. Unfortunately she didn't get that extra moment for smiles, reactions would have to wait as a sudden urging pushed her forward. The urgency came from both within and outside of her, she couldn't pin point it, much like the voice that seemed to fade in and out.
Blink.
The action was fleeting and shouldn't have made such a huge impact, but in that smooth swoop of her eye lids the scenery changed. Around her was still the same trees, leaves, and shadows. The difference was in the shape it all took, instead of being some section of the forest it became a brilliant grove. She gazed upward at the canopy of tree tops, it was like the trees swayed purposely to allow rays of beautiful sunshine to enter it's otherwise protected domain. Still everything had that ghostly hue with no end in sight. The urge pushed her forward now, along a neat, undisturbed path towards a darkness. Along the way she spied a couple of glinting items strew about the bases of a couple trees.
"What are those?" As she spoke her question she witnessed a similar effect as earlier. Though she spoke in a low whisper the words seemed to play with the air around her and she found herself briefly distracted by the way the air danced. That was until her eyes caught the glinting items once again, the sunshine could very well have been playing with her eyes, but that didn't seem to be the case. She kept pressing forward, now curious about these items.
The first she found were engraved bracelets. She reached forward intrigued by such a random article, but was shocked to find the item was hot to the touch. She drew back her paw when a very small hiss was made and she breathed deeply through the searing pain. It faded quickly and she abandoned the item for the time being... to see what the next one was. A necklace littering the forest floor, was the next thing she found. This article was covered in a staggering amount of glistening blood which appeared to form a trail all it's own leading into the darkness.
The lioness left the piece be, it would likely be as hot as the other anyway, and now she was consumed with the darkness before her. In that moment she was feeling a variety of emotions, but one was heralding far louder than the others. Her brows furrowed and she fought off the urging long enough to consider turning away. What ever was in the darkness held her captive though and she pushed onwards against her best attempts not too.
"Hello?"
"Come closer."
Finally an answer came, but she wasn't sure if that was what she had hoped for. It seemed like the things of nightmares at this rate and regret pooled in the pit of her stomach, turning it over violently. Entering the darkness became her final task and after a final murmuring to herself and took those final few steps towards the figure in the darkness. As she drew nearer it was apparent the speaker was terribly injured, but still she didn't rush.
---
Before she could address the figure in the shadows she awoke. The pain hit her almost immediately and she bit down on her lip hard to keep from crying out. Zjarri'fol kept her eyes wide open though, fearful that if she closed them the dark shape might return, of course she couldn't maintain that for long... and soon as her body gave up she was asleep, back in that dream world - within his grasp.