Thunder booms through the Forest.

Torrential rain pours from the skies, pelting everything in sight, the Forest floor running off in mud and the trees and brush bending to the weight of the downpour.

Shanirin cannot believe this. He'd just about made it to morning, wanted to get his bearings like he'd planned, when this storm broke out from the crimson sunrisen skies. He'd been so close to hopefully making some solid progress.

Instead now he must shelter beneath a sloped incline, shuddering from the sudden drop in temperature as the storm rages, only partially dry and concealed. He can barely see through the thick stream of water hailing down.

All the Soulbiter tracks, barely useful though they may have been, will be lost now. And he's had to break from his path to find shelter, veering off course. He isn't sure he trusts himself to find his way back after, and he cannot progress through the thick mud and heavy wet brush, so now he's probably lost. He would get sick out there too, and with no medicine, likely succumb.

Dammit. Dammit!

And then something grim would definitely become of Umi. If it hasn't already. Shanirin closes his eyes as he sits curled up in his damp little shelter, his knees hugged to his chest while he rocks back and forth. Oh his poor Umi. Shanirin viscerally revolts from the fact he doesn't know what is happening to his husband right now.

How long has this storm being going on for? An hour? More? He cannot see the sky clearly enough to make any sort of judgments on the passage of time.

The little curled up ball of his being pulses with despair at the awful turn things have taken just as he'd somewhat pulled himself together. This time he cannot stop the tears, too overwhelmed to even try.

He cries, his voice lost to the howling wind and roaring rain. Why is everything falling apart? Oh Heart, he will never get anywhere at this rate. By the time he finds Umi he will most likely be a corpse. Like Sairin had said.

Lightning strikes the skies, he feels it strike his heart. How can he possibly overcome all this?

Shanirin's crying grows more violent as all these thoughts swarm and roil around his mind like a disturbed wasp hive, until his form is finally lurching with full sobs, his chest burning so fiercely he feels the fire crawl into his throat, consume his voice in a flaming flurry of agony that bursts past his teeth—he screams. No one can hear him over the storm. He can't take this anymore.

"Please!" he wails into the weather, into the Forest, into thin air, shaking and gasping between sobs, "Please g-give me something!" he begs, voice broken and stuttering, uncurling from his position to shuffle onto his knees and bow down to the cold, damp earth, pressing his forehead to it as he sobs more, overcome by the stress and panic. This tide is determined to drown him and he's far too helpless to keep it at bay, "Please h-help me save m-my little one, o D-Divine Land," he stutters out prayers, shaking with new sobs and whimpers that rend his meek voice, "please l-let me see h-him once more b-before I die," he pleads, skin feeling feverish.

Thunder bursts through the sky again, loud and mighty.

Shanirin prays louder, the only thing he's got left, "T-Take me if you must, make me i-into whatever you w-want, I will g-give you everything I a-am f-for his life," his hands splay out into the soft earth, feeling it out as he stays bowed, prostrated before all he believes in, the only thing that can save him now.

A freezing wind rattles through his bones but it does not sway him, "P-Please, S-Sacred O-One, help m-me," he whimpers out the last of his prayers, his voice so spent it gives out on him.

He remains crying for a bit more, his tears soaking into the earth beneath him.

Eventually, all fight drains from his exhausted being, and he just collapses onto his side, limp. He stares sight unseeing above him, breathing slowly for a while as he settles his shattered pieces back into their places. The Forest will not show pity to the likes of a sinner. All his heaving and resisting will have been for nothing.

He curls up on his side, wishing to sink into the Forest's soil and never emerge.

The rain still batters beyond his shelter.

He knows he can't give up, though. Even still, having failed as much as he has, he has to make himself continue regardless. If there is even a sliver of a chance Umi can be saved remaining, Shanirin must take it.

No matter the fact he doesn't know how, nor where to start. Everything feels so different now, though it's only been a day or two since he lost his husband. He's burned up so brightly, now left to lay among his own ashes. There has to still be something tangible he can do. Prayer, as earnestly desperate as his had been in the moment, will likely not get him far. Everything else he'd believed in has let him down so far.

Why should this be any different?

Slowly, he heaves himself up to sit, his body feeling like lead from how he had broken and begged. But no one will come, and he knows this. His emotions just had to take their toll.

The rain has slowed somewhat, no longer a merciless downpour. Shanirin leans out a bit to take a look. Everything is gleaming wet that he can see. The sun, peeking through the gray skies seems to be at about noon. Right. It...could be worse, he tries to comfort himself, even though he really doesn't know how at this point.

He climbs to his feet and gets out into the drizzle, feeling the raindrops come down his face and hair. He surveys his situation further.

As suspected, all semblance of tracks is gone now, only muddy, soft soil left behind. As he looks around to puzzle out where he'd come to this shelter from at least, so he may try to get himself back on track, he finds himself completely turned around.

Too beaten down by now to even react appropriately, Shanirin just sighs at how useless he is. This is why he'd tried so hard to get help from his people. He doesn't even know how he'd return to them now, even if he wanted to.

He stands where he is for a while, soaking in the rain, in his awful guilt at failing to do his job. He vowed to Umi during their marital ceremony that he would always protect him, and now, six years later, he's failing to keep that promise. Heart, when he finally figures out how to find him, he shall have a lot of apologizing to do. Umi will forgive him, of course, Shanirin knows that, even if slightly undeserved.

He just yearns to be by his love again.

Shanirin wipes his face to dry it off from the muck and tears, feeling so awful about everything. The storm had truly been the last straw. He needs to recoup somehow, make a better plan. Just following the direction the Elder went on its own won't be good enough, and it's a lost venture now that he's fallen off it anyways.

He starts walking again, his body too antsy to keep still, and thinks. Eventually, he loses himself in his thoughts, rotating any and all ideas that comes to him for how to overcome this situation. Loses himself so much in fact, that he fails to hear the quiet rustling of foliage following in his wake, fails to pick up on the faint rumbling of earth being plowed through, fails notice that he is being stalked.

He walks on and on, a little aimless as he schemes, pushing his way through the brush. The rumbling still follows. Keeps pace.

By the time Shanirin snaps out of his ruminating when a shadow falls over him, it's too late. He whirls around and takes rapid steps backward as he comes face to face with a Soulbiter. An Elder, judging by the many stripes. His back hits a tree as he scrambles away and he tenses up, staring at the beast with wide eyes. Oh no. Oh, how could he have stopped paying attention? Foolish.

Although, Umi had managed to speak to one. To bargain with one, even. Something no one thought possible until then. Perhaps, Shanirin could have the same luck. He hopes, anyways, because he cannot fight it off nor outrun it, and if it isn't amenable to peace then his life will end here and now.

"Uhm, b-blessings," he meekly greets the beast, unsure of where to even begin.

It hasn't moved yet, merely stands there regarding him. After a moment its maw splits, and it speaks, "Y-Youuuu c-calledddd to u-us," it rasps.

Shanirin frowns, his mind stricken by such blindsiding words. He...he did? When would he have—

A gasp lodges in his throat. He prayed. And...the Forest heard? It listened?

"Erm, y-yes, I...I did," Shanirin replies, voice shaky, still tense with fear despite this new revelation, unsure yet if he can trust this. Of all the ways he imagined the Forest granting his prayers for help, sending him an Elder was not among them.

He had not believed it would take mercy on him at all.

"C-Comee," the Elder Soulbiter tells him.

Shanirin shivers at those ominous words, but he unsticks himself from the tree, and slowly walks towards the beast.