7 Spring AV 511
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It was a night that the world was almost too much for her to handle.
There was no specific incident that triggered the feeling she harbored deep within her chest; the hot, fiery pulsing of the unknown pressure that had no way of being released. Xerxes awakened from her slumber, breathing heavily and drenched in cold sweat. The dream itself was vague, mostly indistinguishable shapes running rampant in confusing multi-colored swirls. It was not the first time that the girl had awakened in such a manner, but it had to have been the worst one of them all.
No matter how much Xerxes willed her heart to slow, it refused to acquiesce to her strong yet silent pleas. As the seconds slowly trickled by, her condition worsened. Her chest was tight, her eyes were unbearably hot and restless. Her entire body began to quake uncontrollably, and she found herself closing her eyes to try and suppress the violent reactions that she had undergone.
Nothing seemed to work. Xerxes had a thought to splash some cool water against her face and possibly get something equally cool if not colder down her throat. However, upon opening her sea green orbs, she was no longer in her home, but somewhere along the very edges of the endlessly flowing grassy terrain she called home. Once Xerxes came to realize her abrupt change in surroundings, she suddenly became truly aware of it. She could feel it. The soft whispering of the cool, crisp air through the tall blades well before it even reached to caress her skin. The many different forms of life, conscious and otherwise, that was also part of the niche of this land. The heavy weight of darkness that seemed to press down on her from the night sky.
This all encompassing awareness struck a chord within her so deeply that it was enough to pull her consciousness from within the depths of the random bout of inner madness. She inhaled deeply, exhaling much the same, and continued to repeat the process as she held on to that feeling that kept her tethered to sanity. A small patch of cool wetness pressed against the base of her elbow. It was somewhat of a distant feeling, yet she didn’t so much as twitch at the presence of it, already knowing that it belonged to her beloved hunting cat, Oura, who had come to check on his mistress after having very clearly sensed her distress. Within moments, her body returned back to normal, and Xerxes heaved a small sigh of relief, her eyes sliding shut once again as she came back to herself.
By this point, Xerxes was completely awake, with no hopes of going back to sleep any time soon. As quietly as she could so as not to disturb the other residents of the pavilion, she pushed herself off of her bedroll, collecting her longbow and quiver from their customary place at her bedside. After donning her cloak and footgear to help stave off the chill of the night air, Xerxes made her way outside with Oura padding dutifully behind her. Together, they made their way to the nearest border of Endrykas. Xerxes knew she had to be careful not to go too far into the vast expanses of the Grasslands, even though she had two forms of veritable protection with her. It was nevertheless unwise to go traipsing through the grassy terrain alone, especially in the latest hours of the night, and she kept this well in mind as she stopped several meters away from the edge of the outside-most pavilion.
Xerxes shivered visibly as a frigid wind blew its way across the sea of grass, causing a whispered chorus of the shifting of countless blades to saturate the atmosphere. She placed a reassuring hand at the crown of her faithful companions head, turning her gaze skyward as she allowed her mind to empty, simply enjoying the feeling of the infinite existence afforded to her by the star-speckled sky.