How long had passed?
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
His head lolled against the bark, warm and heavy.
"...h.."
Breaths rasped from his lips in shallow bursts.
"..h...."
Every exhale misted against the putrid air.
His legs were caked in blood; a thick mass that clung like cement.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
The heat shot through his fabric, but his eyes remained closed; the slightest twitches running along their surface.
Whilst he rested, the faint movements of life stirred all around.
Insects...
Trr...trrr...trrr.
They crawled in clusters around his skin.
Ants in dark lines ran across his calves.
A beetle gnawed at the tip of his boot.
Trr...trrr...trrr.
Something many-legged scattered across his neck....
He still did not wake.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
The forest had nearly buried him; a pool of blood seemingly ready to submerge his whole being.
His long coat was slick, and clotted with patches of red; less clothing and more of a rag.
Trr...trrr...trrr.
Whilst the forest shuffled with the faint breaths of life, a mist pressed into Riven's skull.
He sat there frozen as a suffocating cloud resided; it wasn't just air...
It was memory.
It was the voices...
Fragments of whispers coiled around his ears even as he was unconscious.
Suffocating they pressed as he groaned in his sleep:
"..h...hel..."
His fingers twitched.
Trr...trrr...trrr.
The insects still walked across his flesh.
A moment of silence washed over...
Then...
"...Haaa!"
His eyes shot open, wide, bloodshot.
Trr...trrr...trrr!
The swarm scattered in a frenzy. Ants chased up the bark behind him, beetles spilled from his chest. Tiny legs scraped as the mass fled, the burst of life surprising them.
But not all of them.
Trr!
A few stubborn black ants lingered, marching towards his ear.
A centipede spread tight along his jaw.
Another paused on his check, its antenna brushing close to his eye; defiant and unafraid.
"h...."
A breath surged harsh through his teeth, before his hand lashed out. He swiped across his face and neck, scattering the remnants.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
The bubbling filled his ears as the smell of metal ran heavy.
His hand shot to his side....
Mael's Fang was still there.
"...ha...."
His breaths came hyper as he gripped it tight.
The silence that flowed was more suffocating than the blood mist that floated.
Those bloodshot grey eyes shot up. Darting from side to side he looked delirious.
'...Where!'
He was shaking....
And then?
A rope. Black and coarse, it swayed in the corner of his vision.
His body jolted as he stared.
"...ha..."
His neck twitched as if the memory itself tugged at it.
The whispers twisted back sharper:
"She's dead because of you..."
'...no.'
"How many more corpses...?"
'...no.'
"He only chose you... because no one else would."
'...no.'
The words repeated....and so did his pleading.
His teeth clenched so hard his skull throbbed.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
The rope was still there...
"How many...."
The whispers crowded, louder....closer.
"You never stop..."
"You run..."
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
Have you ever felt everything crashing at once?
Every sound piercing you at once, as your thoughts pound you internally?
His jaw ached.
The rope swayed.
The sounds converged...
His hands clawed at his scalp, as his eyes mimicked the colour shown all around...
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
"Worthless..."
He turned his head, before his forehead crashed against the bark.
Thud.
Again.
Thud.
The rope still swayed in his vision.
The sounds still crashed.
The only difference was the warmth running down his temple, dripping into the soil already covered with blood.
It wasn't release.
It wasn't relief.
It was just noise against noise.
Thud!
"Even Death doesn't want you."
"Stop..." His voice broke. "Just stop..."
But they didn't.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
His skull struck bark countless times. Blood dripped, running down to join the bubbling red below.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
The ground rippled as though the forest had took a breath.
Drip.
His body sagged, spine arching forward, almost uncontrollably like a mannequin.
Thud!
His grip had completely loosened, Mael's Fang tasting the red, as his knees bit hot against the floor. Lips parted with no sound but ragged breath.
Thud!
His vision tunnelled completely, black eating away the edges until all that remained was the weight of sound.
"You still run..."
Thud!
"Pathetic."
Thud!
Sound after sound.
Hit after hit.
His skull ran cloudy and hot, as his blood oozed down; a sharp gash forming against his forehead.
Was he reaching his end?
His mind was breaking down....it was reaching its crescendo.
Thud!
"....leave me...."
The words whispered out, groggy and faint, as his body swayed.
His skull had grown too heavy. Each strike was slowly losing force.
Thud...
Bark scraped instead of breaking...
It was then his head came to a slow stop, resting atop the bark; his blood flowed down, intertwined with the forest's.
Drip.
His shoulders sagged as his head rested.
Did you think the whispers stopped?
"You still run."
"Worthless."
They didn't.
"....h...."
His breaths, if they could even be called such, were slower and weaker; too shallow to even rise against the whispers that flowed.
He just sagged there, eyes hollow, vision dark, as the blood streaked down.
Drip.
The forest hissed:
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
But he couldn't fight it anymore...
He didn't have the strength.
He didn't have voice left to beg...
So the whispers went on.
And Riven... endured them.
Trr...trrr...trrr.
"Even Death doesn't want you."