Lessaly, the Bearer of Plague
http://i.imgur.com/yXzUndC.jpg
This is just a character concept of mine, felt like drawing her and sharing her. I don't really like doing a hard full kit for a concept, just a base drawing and a short story.
The citizens of Devon's Hollow bustled to and fro beneath the sweltering summer sun, bearing the burdens of farmers craftsmen and other laborers all moving about their day. Lessaly watched the commotion from her perch on the hills above, ignoring the pain in her bare feet from hot stones and open weeping sores.
The slow creep of pestilence, thick wet and pulsing, crawled along her left arm as she leaned on the sheltering rocks. Quiet wet pops as boils and sores burst open across Lessaly's corrupted body accompanied the song of birds and insects as Lessaly watched the crowd below. Searching. Hunting.
_Trying is hopeless_
The whispered insistence of Plague flitted across the back of Lessaly's mind, a buzzing of flies and locusts. She looked across the crowd of villagers. A cobbler berating his assistant. A tavern owner beating dirt from the rugs. Lessaly shut her good eye, following the hungers of Plague, it's desperate cravings for prey.
...The south. By the wharfs. Lessaly looked to the decrepit and shuddering houses of the wharf. Saw fishermen, sailors... housewives browsing the market... and in the corner, wearing blue rags, a street urchin. Gasping for breath, retching and coughing.
_You will not save her. I will feed._
Lessaly grimaced, spitting pus and saliva onto the ground. She spoke aloud to Plague, gurgling and wet as she forced words past the choking sores and swollen flesh that filled her throat and mouth.
"Like hell."
Warm night air hung heavy and lazy across the rundown houses of the wharf district. Creaking boards of old piers and deteriorating buildings groaned beneath the soft splash of tides and the chitter of night insects. Lessaly shuffled along the piers, following the ravenous hunger of Plague. She had lost the use of her legs long ago to massive bloated layers of sores and swelling. By force of will, Lessaly glided across the piers on undulating waves of sickened and necrotic flesh.
_Mine! MINE!_
The fevered hunger of Plague gnawed at the back of her mind. Lessaly ignored the words, following the sense of craving and hunger. Around a corner, past a locksmith, into an alley...
There. A small frail form, wearing blue, sleeping in a crate. Shivers racked her tiny body as wet coughs heaved. Lessaly moved quietly beside her, laying her swollen left hand lightly on the girl's cheek. The street urchin shivered at Lessaly's touch, but did not wake.
_She is mine. You will not save this one. I will feed!_
Shoving back, stuffing Plague into a small corner of her mind. Kicking, screaming, clawing its way out as Lessaly fought to bind its will.
_No! NO! SHE IS MINE! Plague howled in lunatic fury. YOU WILL RELEASE HER TO ME!_
Lessaly held firm against the manic rage of Plague. She gently rolled the girl over, laying her swollen and bloated left hand on the girl's chest. Followed the coughing, followed the sickness, tracked it to the root.
A knot, a twisted black lump dripping with wetness and rot, rose out from the girl's chest. She shuddered and moaned as it rose upward from within her flesh, separating with a sickly wet plop. Lessaly took the black knot into her hand, absorbing it. She hissed in pain as the black knot sank into the swelling and pus-filled sores of her hand. Gritting her teeth, trying not to cry for fear of waking the urchin, Lessaly endured the burning pain in her hand, watched as the swelling increased and new fresh sores broke out across her arm.
Weeping pus and blood, Lessaly moved her rotted left arm away from the urchin, where it would not leak onto her. With her intact and clean right arm, Lessaly brushed thin brown hair out of the girl's sleeping face. Her fever had broken. Her breathing was more regular. The sickness was gone.
Plague howled in rage, _Her life was mine! MINE! How DARE you defy me, vessel!_
Lessaly shuffled away from the girl, beneath the creaking piers. Shadows, stillness broken only by the pulse of waves. Lessaly moved under cover of darkness, out of the village, back to the wilds. She knew better than to allow the townspeople to witness her. “Her life is her own.” Lessaly gurgled.
_She had the sickness! She belonged to me!_
Lessaly chose not to reply, for Plague would respond only with futile blather. The new sores on her left arm broke open, the new swelling burning with inflammation. Lessaly clutched her left arm, hissing in pain. She growled, causing the sores in her mouth to break open. She spat, feeling a hardness slid out along with the saliva. Another tooth had fallen loose.
_You pull the sickness into yourself instead of allowing me to feed upon their lives! Why?!_
Lessaly said nothing, standing up, shuffling along the plains to climb the hills where she could rest undetected. A trail of blood from broken sores trailed behind her.
_Why?! Why deny me what is mine by rights?! Why steal their pain?! All it does is hurt you!!_
Lessaly glowered ahead, determined to reach a place of safety before the sun rose. She did not wish to spend the energy arguing with Plague. She had only one answer for it, the same answer she had given countless times before.
“It would hurt them more.”