( Wei Wuxian finds himself caught and turned, hastening the lift and fall of his feet down the side passage Lan Zhan has selected, lips pursing for a moment that slides past as quickly as they do, child half tucked into his outer robe trembling and ducking his head down further still.
Two kinds of burning, he thinks, listening to Lan Zhan as they run; the one caused by fires, where wood or stone might burn or flow, and the heat carried by water. )
They didn't burn him in the same way. Those weren't blisters from water, those were burns from fire.
( Something is being chased here, other than them, with raspy footsteps and echoes of voices that aren't voices, shouts and screams from a time removed from their own. Similar and different to the ones from the day before, calling for blood, chasing down their rabbit boy.
Lan Zhan wards behind them, and pours over the facts, Wei Wuxian bouncing the child closer, fur tickling at his throat. Or was it hair? He doesn't glance down to check, feeling chubby fingers holding tight to his inner robes. )
Ash. Heat they couldn't breathe through. Waters boiling over and off, rivers running red.
( These tunnels around them now, striated lines from their hip level downward. Outflows of lava buried this deep, forming the tunnels below, a landscape where the mountain had been reshaped in the wake of what natural disaster had fallen. Or what triggered disaster? Had an earth dragon turned over, or something else? The mountain carries an echo of a roar and booming, and there is water beyond these walls: source of heat, source of scent, but cut off from direct access? )
The waters.
( Shifting the child, slowing down to reach out with one hand to touch the wall. )
The ones used for healing, they've been locked away. Lan Zhan, the shifts with what happened left them burnt and buried in ash and fire and heat. The waters—none of them have access to the waters anymore.
( But they want them. They crave them, the life's blood of this place, something thriving and close, close, but no matter how they summon, no matter what husks throwing themselves forward do, they can't find it. Can only find and steal and burn out the vitality in other hapless creatures who stray into their territory...
no subject
Two kinds of burning, he thinks, listening to Lan Zhan as they run; the one caused by fires, where wood or stone might burn or flow, and the heat carried by water. )
They didn't burn him in the same way. Those weren't blisters from water, those were burns from fire.
( Something is being chased here, other than them, with raspy footsteps and echoes of voices that aren't voices, shouts and screams from a time removed from their own. Similar and different to the ones from the day before, calling for blood, chasing down their rabbit boy.
Lan Zhan wards behind them, and pours over the facts, Wei Wuxian bouncing the child closer, fur tickling at his throat. Or was it hair? He doesn't glance down to check, feeling chubby fingers holding tight to his inner robes. )
Ash. Heat they couldn't breathe through. Waters boiling over and off, rivers running red.
( These tunnels around them now, striated lines from their hip level downward. Outflows of lava buried this deep, forming the tunnels below, a landscape where the mountain had been reshaped in the wake of what natural disaster had fallen. Or what triggered disaster? Had an earth dragon turned over, or something else? The mountain carries an echo of a roar and booming, and there is water beyond these walls: source of heat, source of scent, but cut off from direct access? )
The waters.
( Shifting the child, slowing down to reach out with one hand to touch the wall. )
The ones used for healing, they've been locked away. Lan Zhan, the shifts with what happened left them burnt and buried in ash and fire and heat. The waters—none of them have access to the waters anymore.
( But they want them. They crave them, the life's blood of this place, something thriving and close, close, but no matter how they summon, no matter what husks throwing themselves forward do, they can't find it. Can only find and steal and burn out the vitality in other hapless creatures who stray into their territory...
... or who are fed there. )