Pitch darkness surrounded her.
The sound of shackles on stone echoed in the impenetrable black.
In the distance... a bellowing roar.
Alira felt her beast rise at the sound from the unseen challenger that reverberated against her skin. Her upper lip curled upward, revealing her fangs as she felt the rumble in her chest. A crimson aura clung to her, pulsing gently as if it held a life all its own. The carnal light penetrated the darkness as she turned slowly, attempting to pinpoint the direction of the call. The animal side of her was waking up. Logic and reason broke the surface of her thoughts, pushing past the beast as if gasping for life. Her brain screamed at her desperately. "Run."
The rage was tangible in the sound that came from the darkness
The sound of metal clanging loudly against stone.
Talons scraping against stone.
In the blackness she could hear the faint cries of agony...
Echos of her own past... Memories.
She took a step back away from the sound, snarling as logic and beast struggled against each other. "It remembers... " She could feel the tightening in her spine as if it bristled from within at the challenge issued to her. "It is a fight you can not win..." The beast cared nothing for odds. It wanted to rip out the throat of the challenger and feel the life blood flow over her as it died by her hands. "It is death... you will never win this confrontation..."
Time seemed to pass slowly as she turned in a circle, listening. Her chest rumbled low and deep as she extended her hands to each side. Her nails grew longer, curving into slender scythes capable of ripping flesh from bone. She growled her return challenge into the impenetrable curtain of darkness that seemed to press upon the light surrounding her.
Her ice blue eyes scanned the blackness. She could feel her brain begin to shift. The logic pushed back against the feral onslaught of need that saturated her very core. The crimson aura intensified like a beacon into the ebony blanket. The roar that answered was near deafening. The sounds of the thick iron chains amplified around her, threatening to break her resolve.
It was as Alira remembered. The sounds of chains on stone filled her ears, threatening to feed her fear. The creature was monstrous, bipedal with two large straight horns out of its brow, large raking claws on its hands and feet and a sweeping tail. The creature billowed at them with its dripping jaws and intimidating teeth, its claws splayed to each side at it approached. The vision of It was different for each who met it, bringing to reality all the fears of the person rolled into one. A flicker of recognition in its baneful yellow eyes as it looked on Alira, once again returning her challenge she had given so many years ago the first time they had met as her body lay dead in her sire's arms.
Her lip curled as if to snarl and then she hesitated for a moment before growling at it in warning. The head tilted ever so slightly as it looked down at Alira. It maw opened as if it were grinning. The hesitation had not gone unnoticed.
It took a step forward and then Alira took a step back. She hissed, but it was quieter now. It bellowed and the ground shook. The sound shattered her resolve and she turned to run. A set of talons came down and raked her back....
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Alira woke up with a loud, agonizing scream that shattered the tranquility of her haven. Her hands were gripping the sheets as she sat up with a start and a frantic wild-eyed look around. Sharp feral looking claws were sunk deep into her mattress where once human nails stood. The tendons in her hands were flexed taut, the lethal claws gripping involuntarily. Her eyes were unseeing and unfocused as if she were still trapped in-between being awake and being asleep. She screamed again, the sound was torturous in its intensity as it reverberated against the stone walls. She cringed visibly, arching her back as if she could still feel the pain of the strike. Her eyes looked around and blinked a few times as she snarled, her fangs snapped at the air. She blinked a few more times and sat there for a long moment. It took a few minutes as if she needed to reassure herself of where she was.
She was alone in her room with a very dead mattress.
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