[ P ] Hellhound on My Trail

T

There were too many familiar faces behind these bars — some she had watched when they were wee babes, others from the College. She had never felt so small, so useless, so… disposable. Surely, her mothers would come to help her.


Or would they?


Willow had never quite agreed with her parents’ politics, though she had kept her differing views to herself. It had never really mattered before. But in the course of several hours, her entire world had been turned upside down. What would her family say?


Nothing could erase the actions of the protest. Why had she participated when she should have known that protests here tend to turn violent in a hurry? Her actions were shocking, even to herself, but Willow had her reasons. Women shouldn’t be attacked by soldiers sent to sow chaos in the crowded streets.


But there was one thing that keep repeating in her mind. The brute she had fought — had his intentions been good all along, and Willow had misinterpreted his actions as an attack? And it got worse: that brute had been sentenced to death. No matter what the circumstances, no one deserved execution. The thought was both infuriating and distressing.


Was it her fault he was now doomed to die? Her grass green eyes searched the cells opposite to her own for the fighter called Ardis.


@Ardis

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

His cell is dingy and dirty and dark, and unlike many others, he is alone. On death row, set for the morning. There are many who would be broken up about this--upset, shattered, sobbing and wailing and begging. ...But not him.

He had already spent so much time standing on the cliffside and staring down at the frothing waves below and wondering how it would feel to dash himself against the rocks. There was little reason for him not to, and yet he'd always turned and walked back. Maybe he was a coward? But here he was, meeting his fate with what appeared to be...bored indifference. He leaned back against the bars and sighed-- well. He had expected it to end differently, but in the end it was all the same, wasn't it?

...Oh. The youth he'd arrested earlier was in the cell across from him. "I'm sorry. I couldn't...stop them."

@Willow

T

he stranger’s words felt like ice running through the girl’s veins. ”They — they don’t really mean it, right? They only wanted us to stop , and they’re trying to scare us…” The lingering uncomfortable feeling in her gut suggested that they indeed were serious, and intended to take the life of this stranger when the sun rise again. ”You were just trying to—“ She had attacked him in the chaos of activity, and mistaken his attempts to protect her as a thread. Willow had only wanted to help. And apparently, so had he.

The brute seemed so calm, so… resigned to this fate bestowed upon him by his own compatriots. The more knowledge Willow gained regarded the Royalists, the more disgusted she became. But what mattered right now was this, this nameless stranger, an injustice unfolding before her eyes. She whispered loudly , hoping the guards were distracted by another of their victims. ”They can’t kill you, they just — it isn’t right!”

She fell silent as a guard glanced her direction. Her heart was racing for fear — not of her own sentence in that moment, but of the stranger’s impending execution. ”You just can’t let them do it. Okay? You don’t deserve that, and what right do they have to take your life…” Her words tapered off into stunned silence.

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

That was...sweet of her. He managed a soft, weak smile in her direction, and shook his head. "It was bound to happen." he admitted,"And it's fine. If my death is needed to prove the injustices that all of the people face, then I suppose I could find better reasons to die than being a martyr." All of them? All of them. Not just the Jacobites or the Voxi, but the Royalists too, who had been indoctrinated to believe all sorts of untrue rhetoric.

He leaned against the bars of the cage,"At least nobody else had to lose their life." He was certain the angry woman from before would find some way to break free of the shackles of the dungeon. "And you will be able to leave here, too."

T

he brute offered a soft, sad sort of smile that caused Willow’s heart to drop, as if she had just plummeted from a cliff. He spoke, resigned to his fate, it seemed. But Willow was not. She leaned her muzzle between the bars of her cage.”No! No, I refuse to believe the only way to show the truth is for you to be killed. Everything about this night – the need for protests in the first place, the arrest of so many who disagree – it’s all an injustice.”


"And you will be able to leave here, too." Willow stared at the man as he leaned against the bars of his prison cell, speaking of his own impending doom as if it were nothing much to worry about, and the girl began shaking her head frantically. ”But you! Don’t – don’t you have any family who might come looking for you? Friends?” Her question was hopeful, but Willow worried she already knew the answer to come. A Royalist guard cast her a warning look, and Willow fell quiet again.


@”ardis”

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

His somber smile spoke the words she was afraid to hear him say. But obviously, he was not one to shy away from the truth. "No." he answered simply,"I have been a royal guard longer than anybody has called me 'family'." Which was to say, his job ranked higher on the totem pole of his life than..well, his life. He did not consider it much of a loss, really. He didn't have much to him, in truth. It was a sad life and he knew that--he'd already pushed away the one person he'd felt close to, out of fear of course. He shrugged, and offered her a smile that was supposed to be comforting but likely came off as defeated.
"All the better for it, really. It'll cause less of a personal ruckus, I imagine." Would, it though? Of course... here was a stranger, rallying against it-- as if she had some stock in his life, or some reason he should live.
"It's a sad truth that everybody has their ideals shifted. Blame must be shifted to someone, I suppose. Best allow it to be someone everybody can agree on."

@Willow

”No."

The word was spoken so calmly that Willow felt her heart drop as if she had fallen from a great height. A sad sort of smile crossed the brute’s muzzle, and Willow shook her head. He had accepted his ending as inevitably lonely, unavoidable. Willow felt a renewed sense of powerlessness – she had no control over her own situation, and certainly had none when it came to a mutinous soldier


A dainty paw reached out between two cold metal bars, but the cells opposite her own were much too far away for her to offer any semblance of comfort beyond her words. She wasn’t sure if they meant much, but that wouldn’t dissuade the femme from attempting. ”I’ll be your friend! I’ll – I’d even be your family. It’s not blood that makes a family.”


”Best allow it to be someone everybody can agree on." This final statement earned a perplexed look from Willow as she stared through the darkness. ”What – what do you mean?”


@Ardis

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck