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"Mommy! Requiem!" starts Gabriel, roused from his sleep by the sudden heat which has infused his father’s tiger mask. No sooner does his head pop up, bleating with fear, than it begins to wobble, seeming to lunge out towards the heart of the jungle. "What’s happening?!" He’s on his hooves, soon, literally forced there by the incessant movement of the mask. Gabriel’s heart thuds with fear in his chest, his legs tremble, and his cheeks are already wet with tears, born almost no sooner than he’d opened his eyes, and realized what was happening. Distraught and unsure what to do, he looks from his sister to his mother in terror, that expression becoming all the more so when the mask seemingly drags him across the terrain by several inches. A sharp scream ushers out of his mouth, his tiny legs driving down into the earth, attempting to be like trees, or mountains, steady and unmoving, but nothing worked. The mask was still hot and restless, and every now and again, it drags his tiny, weak body a little bit further. "I’m scared!" he bleats and cries, his head craning out towards his twin and dam, eyes clenched shut, and lower lip trembling pitifully, "I… I don’t wanna go away!" But, go away, he does; inch by inch, foot by foot, no matter how his family tries to stop the progression, they eventually find themselves before the horrible God that had brought them here to begin with. Though the bone cools and calms down, settling against the boy’s shoulder again as he comes to a frightened halt and peers at long last from his shuttered eyes (they’ve been shut almost all the while, you see), he finds no comfort in it. A cold sensation begins to pool up in his belly, his heart erratically beating in his chest. He takes in the frightening Gods words, somehow managing to become more afraid. Though his crying has become quiet sniffles and silent leakage, he unleashes a rather sorrowful sound as the scary divine mentions getting to know the old Gods of this place. My mask… he thinks, looking at it, feeling his heart fall into a pit of himself he didn’t know he had. What if it was taken away from him? My father gave me this! He painfully thinks, looking back at the lying God, afraid for the future. Gabriel You, of course, are a rose – But were always a rose.

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