[center][u][h2]Back at the College[/h2][/u][/center]

[H3][COLOR=lightsalmon]Mar[/color][/h3]

Bump...ba-bump...ba-bump. Each beat was rapid and soft, the sound echoing in Mar’s water logged head each time. Her skin was cold and clammy, sweat trickling off the pale coloring while her fingers wrapped tightly about the hilt. It was hard but unnatural when she managed to pull the thing away. Shock was drowning her while she looked up to see one of Lyn’s playmates hold a blade to Ellys’ throat, the other Naga glaring at her with enough venom, it might’ve killed the vampire if such a thing existed.  Blood, warm and wet, glided from her wound, oozing across the surface down to the ground. The blade soon followed the same path when it slipped from her grasp and landed into the gray grass below. 

Something hot and moving ripped through her chest, cracking through the bone and into the heart. The silver surged like an electrical current reaching into each nerve within her body and pulsed through the arcanite. First, her ribs were the first to be affected. Bones made a loud crack with each movement and the ribs extended outward as someone was peeling them outward, the skin gave away like thin paper and blood the ink.  Pain burned up her torso causing Mar’s mouth to open and scream in a blood curling tone. Her torso hunched forward causing the organs to dangle as she crumbled to her hands, spattering more blood upon the dull grass. Her intestines started to unravel and push out, coiling onto the ground like some flesh colored, wrinkled snake itself. 

Just as quickly, she felt her intestines crawl back inside, dirt and grass covering them while they replaced themselves. The ribs folded back into place and skin quickly melted back over, her front covered in blood being the only evidence. 

Next, her tail began to split, dividing into two piece then melted like wax. Their masses became gooey and misshaped, the skin seeming unable to hold anything while it exposed the bones that rapidly cracked to form something new. Mar screamed again, her body twisted in pain onto her back. She arched in reply feeling the bones rip themselves feel and sending her mind into throes of pain. She was trembling, covered in blood, sweat and dirt, she was feeling every inch ripping her bones and flesh into something else. Her hands turned to face the ground then gripped onto the clumps of grass. Fingers threaded into the turfs and jerked up, threatening to rip them from the root. 

Slowly the ribs knitted themselves as they folded back, a pause while she tried to catch her breath. When Althalus touched her, Mar tried to shove him back feeling the pain seized on her again.  Her mouth was coughing up blood. It trickled down and soon and  it poured down her chin in rivlets, her lungs filling with blood. Her windpipe was shrinking then sealed briefly, only to open again. Her skull started to indent, pushed in by some invisible force, like a tin can.   

Then her eyes were filled with darkness when a shadow swallowed them both up. Althalus’ arms held fast to her body, pinning her to his front as they moved through the Nox. Nerve ending in her eyes abruptly cut off and were severed, leaving her blind. Her fingers curled in the only thing she found security in: Althalus. Her head pressed into his chest and quietly mumbled words she barely heard herself. [color=lightsalmon] “Kill me… please Althalus. Stop the pain…”[/color] 

Her voice was voided of strength. Voided of pride or any trait of Mar, her pleads begging him to end her suffering even when her words became garbled. Now her brain was pressing to her skull bone. Fresh blood was vomiting on his tunic and what was left of hers,  staining them red while she faded into unconsciousness.  However, her was still ripping her to pieces then healing, over and over. 

[h3]Lidda & Sam[/h3]

Sam was chuckling at the younger vitamancer teacher. Currently Lidda, who was scolding a healing novice, held a claw wiggling in the novice’s direction while being in an anthro badger form.  Her long hair braided like dwarven fighters and placed in a tunic and pants, her feet bare since no boots would fit her. Her voice was loud enough it echoed through the infirmary causing the student endless embarrassment. It shown easily in his white skin turning  a tomato red and head bent down in shame. Sam almost felt pity for the lad but knew Lidda’s methods would prevent a recurrence from happening. 

His thoughts were interrupted when suddenly Althalus appeared from the shadows. In his hands was a woman, her hair a mess and flipped over her face pressed against his chest. The man  then gently laid a bleeding woman down upon the floor, vanishing quickly again. Promptly both himself and Lidda moved into action, their figures dropping their current tasks as the old man reached the injured, bloody woman first. His fingers moved the hair and revealed an unexpected surprise. It was Mar. 

On the touch, thin and bony spikes shot out of her skin. When one impaled Sam’s hand, the old man jumped back in surprise and pain cradling his bleeding palm. He whipped his head about screaming at Lidda. “Lidda, I need your help. Someone else, get Lucilia and Uicle, NOW!”