"Do you actually have any sort of plan?" Kouzo asked, "...or are we just wandering?"
"Wandering, of course. That's the only way we can get anyplace here," Haru said brightly.
"Yeah, but we've been going several hours now with absolutely nothing to show for it," Kaoru pointed out, "I mean, it's a nice day and all, but damn this is boring."
"At least the trees are growing nicely," May said.
"What?" Kaoru asked.
"The trees, they're growing quite nicely," May repeated.
Kaoru raised an eyebrow, "You are fucking insane, aren't you? Last I checked we've been walking through a boring-as-hell open field under a sun that for some reason isn't causing us to burn away."
"Fuck you!" May snapped, "Look!"
Kouzo looked and realized she was right. All over the place small shoots were springing up. They didn't remain shoots for long, quickly growing upward until several were taller than the group of travelers. "Um, guys, perhaps we should arf-arf-arf..."
"What?" Natalie said, looking towards where Kouzo was standing.
A very confused looking wolf now sat where Kouzo was just a second before. Natalie's brow knotted in confusion, "Did he just change in the middle of a sentence?"
"It's the energy of the Wyld," Haru said, her voice deepening as she spontaneously grew into her own crinos war-form, "It's causing our bodies to react in different ways!"
May pointed at the helplessly changing werewolves and laughed. Natalie turned on her, "I wouldn't laugh if I were you, you don't seem to be doing too well y-" her voice turned into an inarticulate snarl as she transformed into a huge dire wolf in the middle of her own sentence.
"What the hell was that supposed to mean?" May taunted, "I'm afraid I don't understand stupid doggy-speak!"
"Your nose is bleeding," Kaoru said flatly.
May looked back at him, "Well, so's yours."
Kaoru reached up in confusion and scratched just below his nostril. His finger came away red. "...the hell?"
The ground beneath everyone began shifting. "Guys..." May said nervously as she was thrown off balance, "What the hell is happening?"
"Arf arf -ing to do with the Wyld," Kouzo said, once again resuming a more human shape, "It's the creative energy, fucking with everytharf arf arf!"
May wiped the blood from her own nose and was promptly knocked over as a truck-sized tree root exploded from the ground beneath her. Even as she collapsed to her knees, May was still laughing at the predicament the others were in. The ground dropped away as the tree-root continued to grow in height and girth, itself dwarfed by the massive forest now springing far overhead. The ground once again became unsteady as the individual variations in the bark increased to their own gargantuan size. The group as a whole fell into a deep crevasse formed by the expanding bark.
Haru, once again in human form, pointed towards an opening in the bark of the tree root, a tree root which the group was now little more than insects upon, "In there! I see a light in there!"
Natalie was about to ask if it was a good idea to go off chasing lights in a place like this, but Haru was already gone. Reluctantly, the rest of the group followed. Kaoru was the last to make it through the door, biting back a comment about how much of a grand improvement this place was over Malfeas. He looked up just in time to see an axe heading quite rapidly for his skull. A hollow clang echoed through the strange room as he dived out of the way. "What the hell?" Kaoru looked back to see who was attacking him.
A large man in a suit of armor hopped around to face the vampire again. It took a second for Kaoru to realize the man's legs were securely tied to a large block of wood beneath him. Blinking in confusion, he delivered a swift kick to the man's ankles. With a loud clatter the hapless knight fell over, the axe skidding well beyond his reach. Kaoru quickly turned, katana describing a fatal arc through the air. The man's head rolled away, but Kaoru had already shifted attention to the rest of the room, quickly scanning for threats.
"Why... um... why is there a life-sized chess set in here?" He asked, eye twitching.
The floor consisted of marble flagstones, a meter to a side, in a checkered black and white pattern. Like the knight he had just slain, there were over two dozen other people in the room, all similarly tied to wooden blocks. Several were wearing crowns. May wasted no time, running up to a distinguished looking female and unceremoniously yanking the crown off her head. The woman didn't respond as the vampire put the crown on and announced joyfully, "Look at me! I am now Princess May, future ruler of everything!"
Haru raised a bushy eyebrow and growled quizzically. Natalie, for a moment back in human form, gave a confused, "Ooookay then..."
One of the living chess pieces disappeared, falling rapidly into the air and disappearing through the open roof of the wooden cavern. "What the hell was-" Kaoru asked before suddenly falling away himself.
Kouzo howled in surprise as he and the remaining members of the pack quickly followed suit. The gigantic tree disappeared beneath them... or above them, depending on the perspective, and they fell into an endless gray mist. For several more seconds they fell this way before falling out of the bottom of an endless gray cloud-cover. Natalie yipped in fright as she noticed the ground moving up to greet them. The yips ended in a puzzled note, the ground was moving much too slowly.
Kouzo, Haru, May, Kaoru and Natalie struck the packed earth incredibly softly. The land around them rippled, sinking inward like a massive waterbed. "Okay, this is getting fucking ridicu-ow!" Kaoru said as something struck him in the head. He reached down into the dirt and picked up the object that had hit him.
It was a chess piece.
Moments later the group was pelted by two dozen more. Haru, back in human form, sighed as she picked a bishop out of her lap, "How ironically appropriate."
May fished a rook out of her hair, and realized the crown was still on her head. "Fuck yeah! So... um... what's going on here?"
"This is the Flux Realm," Haru explained while still in human form, "It's the home of the Wyld and reflects its raw creative energy. At least that's what I've been told. That energy is obviously infecting us too, forcing us to change, and forcing the blood of the living inside you leeches to boil over in energy."
"How do you know all this?" Kouzo asked.
"I paid attention during the moots," Haru replied smugly, "Can you say th-arf arf arf?"
Kouzo shook his head, "This is just getting annoying. I can see why there's need for balance, I wonder if whatever realm the Weaver exists in is just as bad."
Kaoru raised an eyebrow, "The Weaver? More of your bullshit religion?"
"Does this look like bullshit to you?" Kouzo asked, indicating the surrounding landscape, "Did Malfeas look like bullshit to you?"
"Whatever," Kaoru muttered, looking away, "How long am I going to have to deal with only being able to talk to one of you at a time? Not that I'd mind your inability to speak under most circumstances, but you fucktards know more about this place than I do."
"Yeah, why don't you just piss off, leech?" Haru snapped, once again back in human form.
"Because you dumbfucks owe me your lives," Kaoru grinned sadistically.
Haru opened her mouth to say something in reply when Natalie, now in the shape of a sleek gray wolf, began yelping excitedly. "What's that twit on about?" May asked, rolling her eyes.
"Dunno," Kouzo said, "They say we're supposed to understand each other no matter what form we're in, but I've never gotten the hang of it."
Haru, meanwhile, was leaning forward, interested. "She's saying... she's saying she's picked up a scent."
"A scent? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Kaoru grumbled, growing sick of the whole affair.
"Whose scent?" Kouzo asked, ignoring the vampire.
Haru looked up, her face betraying her own disbelief of what she was hearing, "She says it's... it's Hunter."
"H...Hun..." Kouzo started, stopping as the ground erupted around them.
"Oh what the fuck is going on now?" May cried out as tall, pale mountains burst out from all sides of the group. The mountains were curved, and quickly closed overhead. "Oh shi-" May said, realizing that they were actually the teeth of something gigantic half a second before the group was once again falling, this time down the creature's throat.
Darkness engulfed everyone as they fell down a soft, moist hillside. Once again they impacted dirt. Kouzo yipped as he rolled across the ground, the streamers of drool on his pelt picking up a coating of gravel. "My dress!" Natalie cried out angrily, "My brand new dress!"
Kouzo barked again. They were at the bottom of a small cavern. The way they had come in, a tunnel fifteen feet overhead, was now sealed shut in a sphincter-like fashion. The only way out was a stone doorway. A bluish-gray glow came from the door. Kouzo barked a third time then ran out of the doorway, snuffling the ground. "I guess we should follow," Haru said, standing up and running out the door after him.
The doorway led to a stone bridge, nearly half a mile across. It crossed a massive trench, extending into a gray mist both above and below. As May ran she concentrated on looking straight ahead, feeling rather dizzy if she made the mistake of looking up or down. Haru glance back at the way they just came from. The doorway had shrank to almost nothingness. The cave itself, from the outside, looked somewhat like a huge blister. It even had mountainous hairs growing from it.
Natalie's eyes were locked straight ahead as they ran. When they had exited the cave, the far end of the bridge looked like nothing but a blue-gray expanse. Now, as they got closer, finer details began resolving themselves. Pipes and wiring, lots of it, endless miles of it. "We're nearing the edge!" She called out happily, "That's the Weaver-wall!"
As they got closer to the end of the bridge, they say an inviting, open doorway in the wall. Kouzo, still in wolf-form, was the first to reach it. He jumped through excitedly, and was stopped dead by the nearly invisible wire netting covering the doorway. Sparks flew from the wires and the wolf cried out in electrified pain. The two vampires and Natalie slowed to a stop, staring in numbed shock at the thrashing wolf. "You idiots!" Haru yelled, shouldering angrily past them and running towards the agonized Kouzo.
Taking a deep breath Haru reached out and grabbed the shuddering wolf. The electrical current immediately extended to her as well, causing her muscles to lock up. Haru bit off the cry of pain that danced on the end of her tongue. She couldn't even move, let alone work up the strength to yank Kouzo off the wires. Haru ground her teeth together, she hadn't come this far just to get beaten by a glorified electric fence. With nothing but willpower, the werewolf dug her feet in and yanked the other one off the wires, both collapsing in a smoking pile on the ground.
Haru looked up just in time to notice the group had been surrounded. "Spiders... why did it have to be spiders?" Kouzo muttered from the ground.
Nearly a dozen of them, the smallest of which towered over even Kouzo. All of them a hideous collection of pipes, steel framework and haphazard wiring. There was a strange organization to it, but it made no sense to Haru's eyes. What did make sense, though, was the large number of weapons, from scythe-like blades to emplaced gatling guns attached to each spider. Obviously Kouzo had set off some sort of alarm and they had come to investigate whomever had violated their border. Haru shifted slightly as Kouzo tried to stand up only to half-collapse into her, once again back in human form. She watched in disbelief as Kouzo unsheathed his blade, apparently ready to do battle. "Hunter went through the way," he said through clenched teeth in an obviously pained voice, "These fuckers aren't going to stop me."
"Hold on!"
Kouzo and Haru looked at Natalie in shock. She took a step towards the spiders, her hands held palm outward. "Um... no offense Natalie," Haru said worriedly, "But what the hell are you doing, newbie?"
"Saving your asses," Natalie hissed, never once taking her eyes off the spiders.
One took several steps forward, standing in front of the diminutive teenager, towering over her. A clawed appendage reached out and grabbed her by the neck, easily lifting her off the ground. "Natalie!" Kouzo shouted, moving forward.
He was stopped by Haru's arm. He looked at her in disbelief. She looked back at him, "Give her a chance."
Natalie's dress, a sleek black sundress, exceeding comfortable and a perfect fit, found in the pile of 'gifts' left by Number Two, ruffled slightly in a sudden breeze. She reached up and over her back, into the Hello Kitty pack on her shoulders. Several of the spiders raised their weapons threateningly at the motion. Natalie withdrew her hand from the sack and offered it forward. Kouzo forced himself not to move, though the pained, restricted breathing of the girl demanded he do otherwise.
The spider holding her raised another claw and took the object from her hand. It was a PDA. It examined the object for a few moments, apparently incredibly interested in whatever was on the screen. Several other spiders moved forward and with incredibly delicacy began rummaging through the girl's backpack. Several hard-drives and circuit boards were pulled out. The spider holding Natalie returned the PDA to her hands and unceremoniously dropped her to the ground. As one the spiders turned and left, holding onto the various electronic gear like cherished prizes. Kouzo and Haru watched in numb shock as the spiders melted back into the wall, their forms shifting and breaking up to become part of the pipes, wires and steel structuring.
Natalie coughed, trying to regain her breath, "Weaver spirits. They recognize an ally when they see one."
Kouzo picked up her PDA and looked at it. An eight-bit cockroach stood in one corner of the screen, waving at him in a friendly manner with one foreclaw. He was forced to smile, "An ally, eh? Lucky break for us."
"I'm not done yet," Natalie said, moving forward to the technological wall and running her hands along it.
If anyone had said anything in reply, she didn't hear it. This was like before, at The Node, only on a much grander scale. She could feel the way the technology worked here. It was a wonderful feeling, so unlike everything else around here. So ordered, so predictable. Within a few seconds she found the right flow of energy and manipulated it. The wires in the doorway sizzled angrily, then snapped out of their sockets, falling harmlessly to the ground. "Well holy shit," May said, trying to keep her voice unimpressed, "The twit has her uses after all."
"Piss off," Natalie said distractedly, continuing to paw her way through the local network, "Apparently this doorway leads to a place called 'Wolfshome'. No other information on it though."
"Wolfshome?" Kouzo asked, looking at Haru.
"Don't ask me," Haru said, looking back at Natalie.
Natalie shrugged, "What are you looking at me for? I'm the newbie, remember?"
Kaoru rolled his eyes and stepped through the doorway, "Only one way to find out you indecisive assholes..."
May groaned as she watched him step into the darkness. Already she could feel the blood-bond pulling her, demanding that she not let him go off into an unknown darkness alone. "Son of a bitch," she sighed, walking through after him.
Once again the sensation of falling, once again with no visual references. May was growing rather sick of this and simply waited for it to end. Soon enough it did, once again with the ungraceful rolling across and unknown surface. May pushed herself to her feet and gave her honest opinion on this trip so far, "Arf arf arf!"
That didn't sound right. She tried again, "Arf arf!"
She looked at Kaoru, "Arf?"
Kaoru was no longer there. In his place a pale-looking, emaciated wolf stood. May looked down at her own body. Ruffled gray fur. She crossed her eyes, looking down her own extended snout and the whiskers on the end. It slowly dawned on her exactly what had happened. She swore, "... *rf!"
Natalie growled in frustration and tried again. The concentration, simply allowing her body to resume its normal shape. It didn't work, she still remained in the shape of a wolf. For the past ten minutes she had been trying to shift into something, anything other than this useless form. How was she suppose to reach her bag now? It was still strapped securely to her back, but she lacked the manual dexterity to even get the damned thing off. How were you supposed to accomplish anything useful in this form? And what the hell was up with this area? She had walked... well... loped out of the darkness and found herself with the others in this rather foreboding forest.
It didn't have the same sense of malignancy, hidden or overt, as the forest in Malfeas, Natalie had at least that to be thankful for. It wasn't much better here though. The weak daylight petered out twenty feet above, no real sunlight making it to the leaf-littered, bramble-ridden forest floor. This wasn't how forests were supposed to look, there was barely any room to move! Natalie's vision came to an end six feet in front of her, restricted on all ends except directly above by the omnipresent shrubbery. Where were the open forest paths? The clearings around the trees? She knew the TV wasn't exactly a bastion of truth, but she assumed there would be at least a little visibility in your average temperate forest, right?
Natalie sat on her haunches and looked around at what were literally her packmates now. A lean wolf, bordering on bony, with a shaggy black coat panted next to her. It had a red scarf tied loosely around its neck and a thin scar could be seen on one side of its face. So that was Kouzo. Snuffling around the bushes was a larger, far more muscular wolf. Its pelt wasn't so much gray as it was a regal silver. That had to be Haru. The other two wolves were a bit harder to tell apart. One had a jet black coating of fur while the other had a splotchy gray and black coat. They must have been the vampires, the fur was matted and lifeless, even completely missing in several areas. There was something about the way they sat and stared that creeped the hell out of Natalie, but she couldn't quite place it.
Kouzo had leaned over and was sniffing the ground in the same fashion Haru was. Natalie refused to have anything to do with that, trying to rear up on her hind legs to see over the undergrowth. Her body shape confused her, as did the more limited surface area of her paws. She was barely in the air before she overbalanced and fell back to the ground. She made two more half-hearted attempts before giving up.
May watched all of this with distaste. Yeah, maybe this wasn't as bad as that Malfeas place, or as headachey as that other place, the Flux Realm. But as far as pure annoyance went, this place was taking the cake so far. She couldn't talk! She was stuck inside the body of a goddamn dog! This wasn't fun at all. And the fact that the werewolves seemed to have no trouble getting used to this just rubbed it in that much more. She wanted to go back home. She thought about Mallory. Yeah, a cat's body would be so much better that this. At any moment she knew she was going to start drooling, because that's what dogs did. They drooled, and they smelled, and they made far too much noise, and they were clumsy, and they-
The former-vampire let out a loud surprised yip. May fell forward in surprise and shock as she had a sudden sensation quite unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was equatable to someone taking an ice cube and trying to work it into her nether regions. She picked herself off the dirty ground, shaking of leaves and other various detritus, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Kaoru... well, the Kaoru-doggy sat there, panting and grinning. He had sniffed her butt. He had... sniffed her... in the butt...
May lunged forward angrily and snapped at him. Kaoru jumped backwards, barely avoiding the flying teeth. Natalie sighed, or did the closest canine equivalent she could find and turned her attention back to the other two wolves. One of her ears perked up. Above the sound of birds overhead she could hear something else, the sound of distant traffic. Natalie yelped excitedly, trying to communicate this to others. Traffic meant people, and people meant they must be back home! Haru looked at her, questioning. Kouzo ignored her, apparently finding something interesting on the ground. He gave his own yip and quickly ran off into the underbrush, in the other direction. Natalie growled angrily and tried to bite on to him to hold him back, but he was already gone. Haru gave a canine shrug and followed. The two undead wolves followed suit, figuring there was nothing better to do at the time.
Natalie stayed where she was for a second, wracked with indecision. They were going the wrong way! Safety was in the other direction, not further into this filthy little forest! Natalie's ears pricked again, a sound was separating itself from the traffic and heading her way. Was that a helicopter? Maybe if she caught up with the rest and led them to an open space they could flag it down! Natalie turned and raced off through the underbrush after them.
The movement took some getting used to. Running on four paws came almost naturally to her, it felt kind of invigorating actually. The perspective was a bit weird though, her vision was always somewhere between one and three feet off the ground. For a while she felt a strange vertigo because of this, as if she were constantly about to fall over forward. The biggest thing that got to her, though, was the speed. Humans simply could not run this fast. Leaves and branches flew by her in a distorted blur as she dashed back and forth easily through the undergrowth.
She couldn't see where the hell she was going, but it didn't matter. Subconsciously Natalie had switched to relying on another set of senses and sheer luck not to run into any trees. She could hear the pants of those ahead clearly. The sound of their paws hitting the earth sounded mere feet away, even though she knew they were still a good thirty feet ahead. Even without the sound, she could smell them. Their body odour was rather fowl, yet it didn't bother her as much now. It was as if, with a stronger nose, she had a greater ability to concentrate on tracking the smell without being distracted by how bad it was.
They were slowing down, Natalie could hear several confused yips and barks. It sounded like one of them was calling out to another, warning them about something. How the hell had Natalie figured that out? She wasn't exactly given a guidebook on wolf behaviour and communication. Instinct? Was this how it was supposed to feel?
She was thinking too hard about things. Natalie burst out of the underbrush, colliding harshly with one of the undead wolves. She blinked, nearly blinded by the light out here. It wasn't as bad in the dark forest, but now it looked like they had found their way into a clearing of some sort. The bright sunlight caused everything to appear washed out and almost monochrome. The clearing was literally roaring with noise. As she blinked away the brightness, Natalie saw at two helicopters and a number of small vehicles, ATVs.
And she saw Kouzo. He was nosing around a pile of crates, apparently oblivious to all that was going on around him. There were people in the clearing as well, several pointing at Kouzo and a few heading towards where Natalie and the rest were standing. Natalie finally noticed the unmoving, furred shapes inside the barred crates. In slow motion she watched one of the people raise a shiny, chrome rifle at Kouzo. A loud, air-filled bang cracked above the sound of the helicopters and Kouzo was knocked to the side. She watched him get up and turn angrily on his attackers. He had made it several meters forward before his legs simply gave out from underneath him. Natalie watched in shock as Kouzo dizzily staggered to the side, then fell over. He was still breathing though. And something bright was sticking out from his side.
Natalie's attention was drawn by another gunshot. She heard a surprised yip and saw one of the mottled gray wolves shudder as if struck by something. It must have been May, the wolf was wearing a crown. She reached back and wrench an object from her side with her jaws. It was a dart, with bright day-glow feathers sticking out the end. May spat the object on the ground and turned to growl at the approaching people.
Several of them held rifles. They were backed by a few carrying collars-on-sticks and other various restraints. Already a few were gathered around Kouzo, affixing steel manacles around his neck and feet. It finally dawned on Natalie that a bunch of wolves trying to grab the attention of people probably wasn't going to work out that well. Something nipped at her side. Natalie turned and saw Haru growling at her. The larger black wolf jerked its muzzle towards the woods and ran into the trees. Natalie turned to give one last glance at Kouzo, now being loaded onto the helicopter. She realized there was nothing she could really do for him at the moment.
May and Kaoru ran past her, following Haru into the woods as more people ran up and took aim. For a second Natalie wondered how May was still conscious. She then realized May was dead. No circulation or respiration meant the tranquilizers would have no effect on her. Natalie wouldn't be nearly as fortunate if she were shot. She turned and ran as more shots were fired, missing her by scant inches.
This was the exact opposite of the chase that had happened before. ATVs tore into the undergrowth after them, cutting the wolves off from each other. Natalie tried to listen for the footfalls of her packmates, but it was drowned out by the roar of engines, the calling of people. Their scents were clouded by gasoline fumes. Natalie tried to run in the general direction the rest of the pack had gone, and found herself cut off by several people on ATVs. She turned and ran in another direction, trying to find herself around them and get back to the tracks her packmates followed. Each time she thought she was getting closer, the coughing growl of ATVs dissuaded her.
Some part of her realized that not only was she being forced farther and farther away from her packmates, but she was also being herded in a certain direction. The feeling infuriated her, yet she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't keep track of the direction she was going anymore, and this was getting simply ridiculous. The rage was building up inside of her, she was ready to outright attack the next asshole who went by on an ATV, tranquilizer gun or not. Within a few minutes her wish was granted as the sound of another four-wheeler reached her ears. This time she didn't try to angle her flight away from it. She turned and headed directly for the noise. Her trip took her to a small hill that overlooked a gully with a trail snaking through it. The perfect spot for an ambush.
The four-wheeler careened around the corner, a figure in a heavy coat and goggles sitting upon it. It was moving far too fast, Natalie wouldn't be able to judge the jump well enough to knock the fucker off. If only there was a way to slow the asshole... wait, what was that? Natalie could feel it, sitting at the back of her mind like a tingling itch. She could feel the technology that had gone into the vehicle's construction, the energy and design behind it. The Weaver's influence. Did that mean... she could still access some of the powers within her, even if she were stuck in this form?
Natalie concentrated, staring intently at the four-wheeler's engine. She could see the various parts working in concert, a delicately assembled machine that required the simultaneous operation of several thousand different parts. If only one of those parts were to suddenly go out of alignment...
Natalie's furred form shivered with energy. At the same time a resounding bang came from the four-wheeler's engine, and the vehicle died with a coughing groan. Speed was shed amazingly fast. Natalie crouched further down in the tall grass that dotted the hillside. The man brought the vehicle to a stop right in the deepest part of the gully, getting out a radio and babbling into it. It was now or never, Natalie jumped from her hiding spot.
The man was so surprised he barely had time to even reach for his own rifled before the wolf was on top of it. A sleek creature, its splotchy brown coat dyed a bright red in various locations. The man screamed as Natalie bore him to the ground. Instinct took over as her jaws quickly found their way around his neck. Natalie's shoulders shuddered as she wrenched the man's body back and forth, she delighted in the sounds of bones snapping in his neck and his own body growing limp in her jaws. With one final jerk, she tore off a good deal of flesh from his neck and moved to examine the ATV.
The radio crackled madly from the mud it had been flung into. Voices came on the radio, worried, cautious. They were speaking English, Natalie knew it. Yet she couldn't understand a word they were saying. Something inside of her head refused to connect the words with actual meaning. What the hell was this? Not only was she stuck in the body of a wolf, but now she couldn't even understand the very language she had grown up with?
The tone of the voices she could understand well enough. They were worried, questioning, almost panicked. Everyone else on this network probably already knew of their fallen comrade, which meant they were coming to investigate. Natalie wouldn't have much time. Yet there was still so much anger within her desperately wanting to be expressed. The radio was the first to go, sparking and fizzling as it was crushed between her jaws. She then went after the rifle, enjoying the sinewy strength of this form. It may not be much bigger than human, but holy shit was it stronger. She clenched the weapon in her teeth and repeatedly bashed it into the nearest tree, howling in victory as the weapon splintered, bent, and snapped in half.
In the far distance, her highly sensitive ears picked up the approaching sound of more ATVs. She could at least guarantee this one wasn't going anywhere. A few more minutes and the vehicle had four shredded tires, and most of its exposed piping ripped open and yanked out of place. Natalie raced off into the undergrowth as the first of the 'rescuers' raced around the corner. Her movements were slower now, far more cautiously taken and thought out. The forest, already dark, was losing much of its remaining light as night slowly marched across the hidden sky. Natalie found herself unconsciously relying on her hearing and her nose more and more.
The first thing she found was a pool of water, part of a small creek. It was cold, refreshing. It washed the taste of blood and gasoline out of her mouth. With that taken care of Natalie trekked further into the undergrowth, deeper into the forest. She could smell the presence of others here. These weren't members of her own pack, but they were definitely wolves. She past a point, a line of particularly pungent odors. They had marked their territory here. It didn't matter, maybe she could get them to help her find her own.
A growl to her left attracted Natalie's attention. There was no friendliness at all in that sound. More sounds to her right distracted her. A large black wolf came out of the undergrowth, never once taking its eyes off of her. The creature wasn't the sleek, shiny, majestic predator she had seen in nature documentaries. This thing was wretched. The rotted stench of a hundred kills clung to its tangled fur like the clumps of burrs that dangled from its flanks. Gouges and scars dotted the beast's body, one of its eyes was no more than a milky-white cataract. Natalie could smell the thing's breath from where she crouched. Foul and fetid. Teeth that were dangerously sharp despite the black infection that spread through them nestled a red and green slavering tongue. The body was a single wall of battered muscles, coated in matted, mangy fur.
The wolf growled again. Natalie began to understand the tones of its body-language. It was telling her she wasn't the dominant one here. She decided to play along, crouching further down and lowering her head. The next growl wasn't as outwardly hostile, yet didn't contain even a hint of friendliness it it. Natalie was to remain still, to not move at all. Perhaps this was a test of some sort? Natalie remained still, hoping this would work out in the end.
Several more wolves emerged from the undergrowth. These weren't quite the muscular monster the first one was, but still just as tattered and battle-scarred. The largest began to circle behind her. Natalie realized exactly what they were going to attempt. Her head lifted and she turned and snarled at the larger wolf. In response the creature lunged at her, snapping viciously. Natalie jumped away, only to have her flanks painfully nipped by another one of the pack. She turned and fled, back in the direction she came. The beasts followed hot on her heels, snarling and biting. She passed by the border of their territory and still they pursued, only breaking off when she was over half a mile away.
Natalie sat down, panting and shivering. They were going to... her mind refused to accept it. This is what wolves did?! It that what they had to deal with? Eventually the girl got up and continued to move, always deeper into the woods. Several hours of travel passed by. Occasionally she would come up to another territorial boundary. She began to recognize the different scents of each urine marking, eventually coming to the realization that there were four main packs dominating this area of the woods, leaving practically no open land between them.
This wasn't what she was expecting. The wild was supposed to be a wide open place, full of freedom. These woods were a hellhole. Claustrophobic and dark. Territory was carved out by force, and the strongest ruled with tooth and claw. There was no freedom here unless you had the strength or numbers to take it.
Exhaustion slowed Natalie's movements as she found her way into the bush-choked valley. It was when she was nearly half an hour inside her tired consciousness realized that she hadn't caught even the slightest whiff of other wolves here. Was this... unclaimed territory? Her nose was picking up other scents though, strange alien scents in this dark, foreboding place. They were living and vibrant, yet at the same time deadly. Rot, sweat and blood mixed together from a thousand different sources. And on top of that was... Natalie sniffed again. Salt water?
She backtracked, following the scent to its source. Her nose eventually led her to a small hillock with a massive, almost prehistoric-looking tree growing from it. Beneath the titanic, twisting roots of this tree was a cave, and from this cave came the scent of the ocean. Natalie peered into the cave. The darkness inside was complete, she couldn't see a thing in there. Yet the air in front of the cave shimmered with energy. Natalie could feel it, rushing back and forth, in and out. She had felt this sort of energy before, each time she had entered the Umbra before.
So this place wasn't Earth at all? The Tellurian, as the other Garou called it? They hadn't found their way back home then, they were still deep in the spirit wilds. But... what about the people here? What were they supposed to be if they were still in a place without people? Natalie remembered the sign on the wall in front of the gateway here.
Wolfshome.
Realization dawned in her mind. She began to form a slight understanding of what this place actually was. As shocking as the revelation was, exhaustion all pulled at her. She had found a crossroads of sorts here. As inexperienced as the girl was, her instincts told her that this cave was a gateway, a way out of this dangerous place. She was realizing that it was unlikely to lead her home, but perhaps it would go to a place where she wasn't restricted to the body of a wolf.
Natalie lay down beneath the roots of the tree. She didn't want to sleep, not in this place, but exhaustion tugged on her eyelids and she knew she didn't have a choice. She wanted to leave here, to go through that gateway, but her friends, her pack was still out there somewhere, and she knew she didn't have a choice. She would leave the valley once she had gotten some sleep, she would find them and lead them back here, then they could all leave together.
The raucous cries of things that sounded too large to be birds accompanied Natalie into unconsciousness.
The door opened slowly, the steel double-barrel of a shotgun poking cautiously through. The face that warily peered out after it was grizzled and drawn. The glint of fear and hatred sparkled in his eyes as they darted over the dark lawn. From behind him, deeper in the entryway came a growl. He reached down and tussled the mastiff's hair gently, it could smell something out there and wanted to fight, to protect its territory. Across the street the forest lay, dark and brooding. Moonlight reflected dully off of a pair of green eyes. The man raised his weapon and fired, the eyes disappeared.
Haru dived back into the undergrowth as buckshot perforated the leaves above her. She heard the babble of voices coming from across the street as more people came out, wondering what the noise was. She gave a growl to Kaoru and May, time to try again, a mile or two further up the road. The first time the three had simply come out of the forest, just around sundown. Several people on the street had pointed and screamed. A mother frantically grabbed her child and dragged the boy inside. A few seconds later several people emerged from households, armed. This time the trip into civilization was more cautious, yet equally fruitless. Several dogs up and down the street had caught their scent and began barking madly. Then the man with the gun had come out.
Why couldn't Haru understand a word anyone was saying? That wasn't right at all, normally when she took the form of the wolf she could still understand english well enough. And these people were speaking English, she could tell that. Yet there was some block in her mind, something blocking comprehension, turning what should be understandable words and sentences into mere babble.
Where were they, anyways? Haru had thought they had finally found their way back to earth, to the Tellurian. She figured all she had to do was find the nearest Caern, introduce herself properly, and find some way to shift back into a more human form. She thought that it was nothing more than the aftereffects of an extended trip into the Umbra, or maybe some lasting influence from the Flux Realm. Now her priority was finding Kouzo and getting him out. What if this weird curse decided to lift when he was in the middle of being studied by a group of scientists? Best of luck covering up that sort of breach of the Veil.
These fears only partially covered the darker thoughts that occasionally surfaced in her mind. Haru had heard stories of companies and human institutions that knew about the Garou. Aside from Pentex, that is. They went out of their way to capture them, study them. She shuddered to think of what might happen to Kouzo if he had been captured by one of them. And even below those thoughts came another: They hadn't found their way home at all. They were still trapped in some Umbral realm that mimicked the earth.
Haru found she couldn't read the street signs either. She recognized the letters, knew she had seen them before, but her mind refused to attach any sort of sound or meaning to them. What the hell was going on here? She was effectively lost until she could find some sort of landmark, any sort, that she recognized. The two with her weren't helping much. In fact they were giving her the creeps something horrible. It was in the way the moved. The few minutes Haru had spent with Kouzo and Natalie before the pack split up just highlighted those differences. She could understand those two almost instinctively. The twitching of their whiskers, the angle of their tails, how perky their ears were. It communicated more than a speech by either ever could.
These two were absolutely no good, though. They didn't pant, they didn't sniff. On a conscious level, Haru knew it was because they were no longer living, but on a subconscious level, it disturbed her to no end. Humans depended on nonverbal communication to an extent. It was, even if inefficient, a way to tell those that weren't properly alive. All those non-verbal cues, the things that the living did without even thinking about it, the dead didn't do. If they did, they had to think about it, remember the way they acted in their living days, and the actions stood out as fake and forced. Either of these, the lack of non-verbal communication, or the forced facsimile of it, put people on edge, created a subtle aversion to the undead even if the person in question couldn't explain why.
Now, as wolves, the things that created such a subtle sense of wrongness before stood out as glaring beacons. Pretty much all of a wolf's communication was non-verbal, howling aside. These two... they weren't wolves. They were the dead bodies of wolves, animated by something that did not know how to properly mimic life. They did not stiff, their tails didn't wag, their whiskers didn't twitch. Their posture showed nothing of dominance, submission, fear or hunger. If they growled, whined, snarled or howled, it was obvious, to Haru at least, that it was a forced, conscious action, rather than an instinctual response. And it irked her.
Haru jerked her head towards an open street leading further into town. It was an awkward, uncomfortable movement, something that wasn't supposed to be made in this form. But the two undead wolves had shown no recognition or acknowledgment of the brief growl she gave, indicating they should follow her. Before heading out of the cover of the forest, Haru gave the air one more sniff. No dogs in this area, none that she could smell anyways. Three quadruped figures raced off down the street, keeping as far away from the streetlights as possible.
Haru found herself sniffing the ground, the cars, whatever was there every thirty feet or so. She had no idea what she was looking for, what scent she was hoping to pick up, she just felt the need to. Isolated houses were now becoming a cookie-cutter-clutter of suburbia. Occasionally dogs would howl and snarl at the pack from behind closed doors or imprisoned behind picket fences. Haru, Kaoru and May would skitter frantically in the other direction, hoping to vacate the area before more attention was called to them.
Eventually Haru caught a whiff of something that immediately caught her attention. Was that... cooked meat? Haru beat paws around the next corner, then skidded to a halt and dived back into the safety of the bushes as a car came dangerously close to hitting her. She saw her goal across the street though, recognizable even if she was unable to read or understand what people were saying. The red and gold outlines of O'Tolley's Burgers lit up the night like the welcome arches of heaven. The smell of highly processed meat byproducts and heavily packaged vegetable substances flowed through the air, a siren song of scent.
Cars honked angrily and swerved to avoid the three shadows that ran across the street, ducking into an alley behind the restaurant. Once they had reached the darkness, Kaoru turned and looked back into the street. Despite the angry drivers, it looked as if no one had recognized the pack for what they truly were, assuming them to be mongrels. Haru didn't wait, she jumped happily into the dumpster, rooting out several cases of discarded meat. Dinner located, she dragged the kill out and began to feast on the random cow bits. May gave the banquet a distasteful sniff and turned away, finding nothing appealing about it.
Voices and lights drew the pack's attention. It looked like their presence hadn't gone completely unnoticed, the voices were hurried, organized. Even without understanding the words, it was easy to tell these people were hunting something, Haru didn't have to work hard to guess what.
The first rounded the corner of the alley and shone a light on the three wolves. He was wearing a set of dark coveralls and carrying a long metal pole with a noose on the end. Two more came in behind him, one carrying another noose, the other carrying a rifle, quite similar to the ones they had seen in the clearing. One of the men raised the rifle, pointing it at the feeding Haru. He fired, Haru watched the dart leave the barrel at far too great a speed to dodge. There was a blur of mottled gray fur. Haru blinked, trying to work out what had just happened. May stood in front of her, a dart hanging from her flesh, she had moved too fast for the eye to follow, impossibly fast, even if she had a wolf's speed.
May growled and ripped the useless dart from her undead flesh. Despite the anger, there was something approaching glee within her. Her disciplines, the supernatural abilities she had gained and trained in ever since becoming undead, still worked! Kaoru gave her a quick look and realized he could access his own undead powers as well. He growled and jumped into one of the many nearby shadows. Confused shouts came from the suited figures as he disappeared entirely from view.
A second later a pale wolf with dead eyes melted out of the shadows, right in the middle of the clustered figures. May jumped at the people, snarling with joy. Her flight was halted as a noose was looped around her neck and she was yanked to the ground with a harsh, jarring slam. Haru now leaped forward, getting between the entangled May and the animal-control officers. The air in front of her shimmered, and to the humans' surprise, a bright bolt of fire shot forward, striking the one holding May down in the neck. Kaoru bit into the calf of another and twisted his head, causing a gratifying snap and eliciting a scream from the person.
Haru turned and bit into the noose, deftly working it off of May's neck. May shook her head and jumped at one of the fallen officers, burying a set of oversized fangs into his neck. Her furred form shuddered in pleasure as her mouth filled with his blood. Kaoru had done the same with the second officer. May's victim had already stopped moving, his heart beating its last, when she realized just how hungry she was. At least she could still properly feed in this form.
Retreating feet and scurrying paws caught the undeads' attention. The last of the animal control officers had run back to the black van idling in the street and slammed the door behind him, Haru had jumped ineffectually into the window. The van tore off down the street, and three wolves, fully indulging in their frenzied rage, nipped at its back bumper.
Soon the van managed to accelerate to the point that Haru was unable to keep up. May and Kaoru slowed down, despite the fact that they could have used their own supernatural speed to keep pace with the van. May growled at Haru, making a show of sniffing the air before continuing to run in the same direction the van had gone. Haru got the hint, she had the van's scent and could follow it. Why she wanted to, Haru had no real idea. Shouldn't they be trying to stay away from these people? Sure, they had gotten the upper hand this time, but their luck could only get pushed so far before they all got captured by these people. What would happen to the Veil if some vet discovered that wolf thrashing and growling on the table had no pulse?
Haru had her doubts, but didn't question the others... well, she couldn't really question the others, not in any way that was understandable. They followed May, her already sensitive lupine nose even more enhanced with supernatural discipline leading the way. The going was slow as they were forced to keep well to the shadows, preventing more attention from being drawn to them. The van had apparently going onto a raised freeway, and the scent was beginning to grow patchy. Three wolves jumped over the barbed wire fence and slunk beside the huge interstate, shying away from the speeding traffic.
Finally May came to a stop, sniffing the ground, then the air, and finally growling in frustration. She had lost the trail. Haru looked around them, they had found temporary shelter in a clump of trees beside the edge of the freeway. To the east the horizon was turning purple. She growled at the other two wolves and turned and forced her way deeper into the undergrowth. Eventually they understood her point. They were all exhausted, day was coming and hiding would be just that much harder. Haru watched as the two undead wolves curled up in the small, well hidden clearing at the center of the grove of trees and shrubs. As the sky grew brighter, their heads nodded towards the dirt. It would have been a touching scene if they both didn't look completely and utterly dead, just waiting for the caress of the worm.
Haru found herself yawning. Some small part of her wondered what the hell she was doing out here, why she was trusting these two Wyrm-touched leeches. Without really thinking about it, she shut that voice up. Survival came first, getting back home to try and fix what had went wrong. Too take out that white-haired asshole. To rescue Matthew.
Gravel crunched and snapped as the black van drove down the dirt road. It was only a quarter mile off the freeway, situated in a long expanse of empty lots and overgrown tenements. No one, it appeared, wanted to live anywhere near these laboratories. A pair of golden eyes peered out from underneath the bushes as the van stopped at the gates, a security guard coming out and checking IDs.
A twanging metal whine rent the night air as the gates opened and the van pulled through. Haru gave the other two wolves a look and skittered out of cover, bolting for the now closing gates. There was no time to be subtle or stealthy now. Kaoru's tail narrowly missed being severed by the chain-link sections as they slammed back together. The pack dived into the nearest bushes and waited, alert for any sign of discovery. Haru looked back and saw that the security guard had settled back into his booth, reading a magazine.
She growled and slunk towards the largest of the three buildings. The questions still echoed around her head. Where the hell were they? Why couldn't she transform back? Why couldn't the other two do the same? A few new questions were tacked on to the end of that: Why could she not sense any other Garou? Why couldn't she find any of their markings? Most of all: Aside from Kaoru, why couldn't she catch even the slightest trace of Wyrm-taint on anything? In a city, no matter how small, she had been forced to get used to the feeling of a slight taint over everything.
It had come as a rather discomforting shock when she first encountered it. It was the day after she had gone through her first ritual of acceptance. That night remained as little more than a blur in her mind. The only thing she could remember with any certainty was the howling, the incredible howling, and above it, the piercing shriek of a falcon. No... not a falcon, but Falcon itself, the patron spirit of her own tribe. Her blood was well established, and the great spirit had approved, marking her with its beak and talons as one of its own. The next day confused half-memories battled for dominance. A new set of scars had already mostly healed, but their marks would remain forever upon her skin. She had known then that a great pride and responsibility lay on her shoulders.
She had pledged to defend what they called Gaia. She came to more fully accept that name later, at the time she knew it as a powerful burning energy in the core of her being, the source of who she was. She had learned a little about something called the Wyrm, a great spirit of corruption which sought to destroy Gaia and strangle the life out of her within its coils. During the ritual, Haru had asked Falcon how she would be able to recognize the Wyrm or its agents, so that she could better combat them. Falcon had replied merely by flapping its wings and screeching. She had looked to Eyes of Fire, the elder who had taken charge of her and her training. He told her that she would know the signs of the Wyrm when she saw them.
The next morning, at breakfast with Matthew, she had seen her first sign. She was chewing her cornflakes when she felt a sudden squirming inside her mouth. She spat out the mouthful of half-chewed bran with a disgusted shriek and looked at it in confusion. On the one hand, she saw the cornflakes sitting in a rather sad, sodden pile on the table. On the other hand, she saw the rot, the corruption sitting on them. They looked more like twisted scabs with writhing ends, the faint smell of something infinitely evil and perverse on a level she had never experienced before wafting off of them.
Then she saw the sickly vapours coming from the bowl Matthew was eating out of.
Since then she had seen far too many signs of the Wyrm. It was everywhere, clinging to nearly everything, even herself on many occasions. It was then that Haru began to get a faint idea of how truly omnipresent and insidious the thing she had pledged to fight was. More experience taught her to see the subtle variations in sight, feel, and scent the various forms of Wyrm-taint gave off. She began to become more knowledgeable in telling the difference between the faint taint left behind by someone unknowingly using or consuming a Wyrm-infested object, and the pulsating stench created by those who actively advanced the Wyrm's own interests. She even began to see the repulsive squirming trails left behind by Wyrm spirits as they traveled through the Penumbra.
But here in this strange place? The taint, so common everywhere else on earth, was almost non-existent here. There was the faint scent given off by Kaoru. From the way it wafted from him, Haru guessed that he was the type that, while hideously corrupt in his own way, didn't knowingly serve the Wyrm. There was a much lesser extent coming from May. Hers looked more like she had spent years unwilling bathed in Wyrm taint, rather than being a producer of it herself. Haru found herself wondering about the history between those two, since one obviously knew the other.
Part of Haru questioned why she was even bothering with this. They were leeches, undead abominations that were perversions of the laws of nature and the will of Gaia. To consider them worthy of examination for any purpose other than discovering their weaknesses is to invite their corruption on yourself. Another part of Haru saw this reasoning for the bullshit that it was. They were human... well... used to be human. From what Kaoru and May said, Haru realized that most leeches probably didn't even know what the Wyrm was, hadn't ever heard of it. If they did sick and depraved acts, it wasn't because they were actively serving the great corrupter. It was because they just happened to be truly disturbed individuals.
Garou didn't exactly have a history of sitting down and debating the finer differences of philosophy and theology with the leeches, Haru admitted to herself. It was more along the lines of 'See leech, rip leech apart, burn little pieces of leech'. From their point of view, the Garou probably looked like a bunch of vicious monsters hell-bent on killing every last one of them... which wasn't too far from the truth. The only reason Haru was tolerating the presence of these leeches was because there was a far greater evil that needed to be addressed.
May was sniffing around the corners of the building when she picked up something. She ran forward and pawed frantically at a metal grating. Haru came up and gave the warm air coming from the grate a deep sniff. Chemicals and drugs. Alcohol and sterilized scrubs. And above it all the smell of animals. Dogs, cats, rats, but above everything else, the smell of other wolves. These were obviously animal testing labs of some sort. Haru tried to get a grip on the grate to rip it off and failed miserably. She realized it was built into the wall specifically to prevent a wolf's jaws from prying it off.
Too bad they weren't dealing with ordinary wolves here.
Haru closed her eyes and concentrated. It was a trick she had learned several cycles of the moon ago, and she had found so little use for it she had nearly forgotten about it. Now, though, it might just be the only thing that could get them inside so that they could raise some hell. Her own spiritual energy began to gather in front of her, mixing with the base particles in the air and surrounding earth. What she was doing would be physically impossible without a massive release of nuclear energy, as it involved breaking apart massive amounts of atoms into their component parts and re-organizing them to her own whims. Her own spiritual energy served as both a stop-gap and a shield to this presumably massive release of energy. She drew down the power of the spirit realm and temporarily superimposed its laws of that of the normal universe, allowing her to create a long, flat, wedge shaped piece of steel out of thin air.
The long piece of steel was lodged firmly in between the metal slates of the grate. Haru grabbed one edge of the wedge and wrenched downward. Metal screamed and bent sideways, forming a hole in the slats. Kaoru jumped up and bit onto the grate, using the newly created hole as a leverage point to yank the whole frame out, leaving a much larger square hole in the wall. All three figures jumped in and crawled deeper into the shadows, ready to raise some hell.Kouzo's eyes fluttered open. He was on a cold plastic floor, in a container of some sort. Dizzily, he pushed himself to his feet, trying to remember what had happened and how he got here. He remembered coming to this weird place, being stuck in the form of the wolf. He remembered, dimly, finding other wolves... trying to free them... then a sharp pain in his side. After that? Movement, lights, more pain, lots more, and darkness again.
He looked down at his paws. He was still stuck in this form then. His body still ached horribly. He could feel the marks of many needles in his body. But even as he stood there, dumbly trying to get a sense of where he was, the pain faded. He was still Garou then, or at least still had the Gaia-given gift of health. In a few minutes the last of the dizziness and pain faded as wounds sealed up, bruises healed, and drugs were pumped out of his system.
He was in a container. A barred door prevented his exit. Looking out the door, he was that he was over six feet from the ground. Two more rows of similar containers were beneath him, and another three rows across the aisle from him. Most were occupied by furred forms. Some were sleeping, some regarded him with dulled eyes, a few just ignored him. His attention was drawn by a loud whining from one of the cages.
Kouzo looked towards the sound. Across the aisles from him, down one row and over about four columns was another wolf staring at him intently and whining. Kouzo tried to figure out what message it was trying to get across. He realized that they were in some sort of animal control center, or possibly testing labs, maybe worse. They weren't on earth, obviously. Being stuck in one form was evidence enough. The inability to understand the babble of people outside, despite the fact that they were obviously speaking in english, and the meaningless scibbles of words on the cages were more evidence.
He had heard tales of Umbral realms that mimicked Earth, the Tellurian, to varying degrees of success. The sign on the wall in the Flux Realm had read 'Wolfshome', obviously this was one of those places. The name, coupled with the form he was stuck in, led Kouzo to a few conclusions about this place. So would he be able to recognize another Garou here, able to tell it apart from a regular wolf? Kouzo gave the wolf whining at him another look. He then realized that other wolf had antlers.
The name 'Hunter' was just starting its long trek across Kouzo's already cluttered mind when another growl caught his attention. This one came from above. The wolf looked up to see a small streamer of drool coming from the ventilation grate set into the ceiling. He was still trying to comprehend the import of this when something slammed into the grate from the other side, knocking one side of it out of the ceiling. This was followed by another two slams, and the grate fell out of its frame, along with a mottled gray wolf with a rather patchy coat. Kouzo watched in wonder as two more snouts poked out of the hole in the ceiling. The sound of skittering paws came from the floor below, it was quickly becoming drowned out by a massive howling and barking coming from all the cages.
Kouzo fell over backwards as a fanged muzzle suddenly appeared right in front of him. The fangs latched into the barred door of his cage, and Kaoru dragged Kouzo's enclosure off the shelf it rested on and let it drop to the floor below. Kouzo yipped in a blind panic as gravity took a quick break. The air was driven from his as the cage stopped its descent, courtesy of a hard tiled floor. Quickly shaking himself off, Kouzo noticed the door of his enclosure had been knocked open by the fall. Yipping happily, he jumped out of the cage and turned to look at the other cages. Haru fell to the floor beside him, missing him by mere inches. Kouzo barely noticed, quickly running to a certain cage four columns down and two rows up.
On his back paws, Kouzo could reach the door of the cage. He wrestled with it for a moment with his jaws. After a little work, he was able to worm his teeth around the opening mechanism of the door and squeezed. The door popped open and an antlered wolf jumped out of the cage and to the floor below. Kouzo and Hunter rubbed noses. Kouzo jumped on the female wolf in a clumsy and half-thought attempt to hug her. His efforts were rewarded by an antler inadvertently jabbed into his eye. He yipped in pain.
Hunter gave his face a small lick and without a second glance, turned and began sniffing the floor. Kouzo tilted his head in confused. By this time Haru and May had began to open up most of the other cages in the room while Kouzo worked the door to one of the kennels. Kouzo and Hunter worked together to operate the handle of the door leading out of the room. Hunter pulled the door open to reveal several very startle lab workers, coming to investigate what all the sound was. They barely had time to scream as four wolves ran through the open doorway and jumped them, bearing them to the floor.
Kouzo, Hunter, Haru, Kaoru and May looked at each other in confusion as the screams outside turned to gurgles, and were quickly overshadowed by the sounds of snarls and flesh ripping. The pack went out of the door and into a scene of pure chaos. Most of the the personnel here were lab workers, with pitifully few security guards to go between them. The wolves that had escaped so far were ripping through them like... well... wolves through labcoat-wearing sheep. Kouzo's attention was drawn by a certain black-coated wolf fumbling with the door-handle leading into another room that looked just like the one they had left. The wolf's coat was patchy and mangy, and the wolf itself looked rather hideously deformed.
As the wolf got the door open and disappeared into the room beyond, Kouzo realized it was a Black Spiral Dancer. So there were other Garou here. Haru let out a low growl, looking as if she were about to chase it into the room. Kouzo snapped at her and gave her a quick look before heading to one of the other doors to work on the handle. For the moment they were all on the same side here.
More doors were opened, more cages pulled down and dismantled, and more animals escaped to add to the general chaos. Kouzo caught sight of Hunter, ignoring all of it. Her nose was to the ground and she carefully followed some scent only she recognized. Kouzo also noticed one of the security personnel bearing down on her with a noose on a metal pole. He tried howling at her, knowing there was no way he could reach her on time. The security guard was knocked to the side by an enraged Haru. Kouzo ducked low and followed the antlered wolf deeper into the labs.
He had to chase her through several winding halls before she finally stopped at a certain door. Several more seconds of fumbling and they were inside another room much like the ones they had come from. More barking and howling greeted their entrance. But these yips and cries were much higher pitched than before. Kouzo went to work opening up the first cage as Hunter sniffed her way down the aisle. He looked inside the cage and was greeted by a lick on the nose, right through the bars. On the other side of the door sat several cubs, shivering and whining.
Kouzo had most of the cages open when Hunter found what she was looking for. Kouzo finished releasing the last of the cubs when Hunter finally managed to wrestle her own cage open. The cub that came out of this one was different from the rest. It wobbled slightly as it walked, in the same unsteady fashion as the other cubs, not quite certain how to use its legs yet. Even so, it moved with a purpose and decisiveness that belied its tiny frame. It knew exactly what it was doing, even if it didn't quite fully know how to operate its own body yet. The white-furred cub, tiny even by a baby wolf's standards, marched out and sat between Hunter's legs, looking up at her expectantly with eyes blacker than anything Kouzo had ever seen before.
Hunter leaned down and gently grasped the cub by the scruff of its neck. Kouzo began to understand what was going on. Resolutely he turned and led the way into the hall, making sure that he would be the first to face any threat that came their way. The chaos was had mostly moved outside, the way out of the labs had been paved for them and it was time to escape this sickly, antiseptic place.
Steel toed boots clicked in perfect lockstep as the patrol continued down the street. Traffic was minimal, the dull patter of a few essential vehicles and squad cars. There was some pedestrian traffic, all on foot or bicycle. A very nervous looking cop directed traffic at a four-lane intersection, standing directly below the dark traffic lights.
Several figures huddled beneath several layers of blankets in the alley. The homeless and the mad, unwilling to trust the new authority even after the announcement was made that anyone who wished could report to local pantries and receive food and shelter. There weren't many of them in the alleyway, ever since these chaotic times had started, more and more people who couldn't find adequate shelter at night never made it until the next morning.
Even in the newly established 'protected zones' it was a really bad idea to go out at night. During the day, the constant patrols of the newly formed 'Humanity Defense League' kept things mostly in order. By night, with the general loss of power, what little remained being mostly diverted to essential and emergency services, the darkness caused most sensible people to retreat indoors. Gas, also, was at a premium now. Most vehicles had already had their tanks siphoned or otherwise emptied. The few vehicles that still remained on the road were emergency vehicles, supply trucks, or the unmarked white trucks of the HDL, responding to reports of supernatural activity.
Shadows lengthened across the street, it was nearly nightfall. What little pedestrian traffic there was petered out to nearly nothing, despite the fact that this was what used to be one of the busier intersections in downtown Milwaukee. The traffic cop looked far more nervous than before, glancing around as if expecting the shadows to come out and attack her. A white pick-up stopped at the intersection and a single figure in a black kevlar bodysuit got out. The figure gave the cop a single nod, then returned to its vehicle. The cop didn't wait for a second chance, and ran quickly to her patrol car, parked halfway up the block.
As both cars pulled away, one of the bums, little more than a mobile mass of rags and layered clothes, separated itself from the others. As it moved out of the alley, it shed much of the pseudo-clothes it was wearing, until a rather shapely black female in vinyl and lace was revealed beneath. She walked calmly across the empty street, though her eyes darted back and forth, watching for movement. She took a leisurely stroll around several blocks, seeming to choose her way at random, until she quickly and surreptitiously ducked into a shadowy doorway.
“What do you have for us?” a tall black man said as she came inside.
“They haven't given any sign that they know,” the woman replied, “Most of them are just cattle, only a few warlocks among them. Even then, they only come out in response to emergencies.”
“How soon before we can strike back?” called a male voice from another room.
The black man turned his head back, “We're not doing anything until Joseph gets back! They've taken out the Node Runner's caern and they'll do the same for us if they find out about us.”
The sound of running footsteps outside interrupted the conversation. The woman immediately went to the peephole of the door. “Who is it, Jasmine?” the large black man asked.
“Joseph!” she shouted, yanking the door open, “Good god, Joseph, what hap-”
“He's coming!” Joseph cried, staggering into the doorway, “Seal up the Hive, he's coming!”
If the black man was large, this one was a mountain. Nearly seven feet of gruesomely knotted muscle. Several deep gashes showed through the shredded remains of a white t-shirt. “Shit, Joseph, what the hell happened?” Jasmine asked, examining the wounds.
“No time!” Joseph roared, forcing himself back to his feet, “Him... the white one, he's-”
Joseph's voice ended with a gurgle. Jasmine looked up in shock to see a rubbery, veined tentacle wrapped tightly around the huge man's throat. She was knocked off her feet as Joseph was yanked bodily out of the doorway. “Joseph!”
Jasmine's mouth dropped open in shock as she saw what waited outside. The man's reputation had preceded him, despite what little was known about him. Over the past several weeks, all that was known was that a white-haired figure was moving through the city and doing... something with every spiritual nexus. Anyone that tried to stand against him had died, the only ones who could spread the story were those who fled.
He was hovering motionless in the air. He wasn't nearly as big as Jasmine was first led to believe, actually he looked more on the lean side of things. Despite this, he effortlessly held the feebly struggling Joseph aloft with the tentacle that took the place of his right arm. Jasmine tried to speak, but could only stare up in awe. He was practically glowing with the Wyrm's spirit, she could sense it coming off of him in waves.
The man twisted and casually flung Joseph into a second story window across the street. Glass shattered, a large shard of it piercing cleanly into Joseph's stomach before he tumbled back to the street below. He didn't get up. “Joseph!”
The man spoke. His voice was dry, emotionless. “This nexus... this Hive. I must make use of it, do not get in my way.”
“Jasmine,” the black man said, looking down at her. He was now joined by a shorter man, this one clad in a slightly worn looking armani suit, “get out of here. Get to the Hive in the north 'burbs. No one's been there since the war, but now that the Node Runners are gone, it's unguarded...”
“No... Samuel... I'll stay and fight...” Jasmine started.
“You can't fight this!” Samuel shouted, “Now get the fuck out of here before I kick your sorry ass out of here!”
Jasmine was on her feet and running out the back end of the alley before she realized what was happening. The last thing she heard was Samuel and his companion giving out a howl of war before charging the white-haired man in the street. Jasmine was so intent on fleeing she didn't even see the armed people on the other side of the street until one of them said, “She's one, tag her.”
The Black Spiral Dancer turned to face the figures with a frightened snarl. A single gun went off and she was knocked back into the building behind her. Jasmine gasped as what felt like a hundred fists went through her. She looked down to see a pair of wires extending from a dart embedded in her chest before a second shock went through her, sending her into unconsciousness.
Had the trip really been this long on the way in? Haru was panting, beginning to slow down. She hoped she was leading the group in the right direction, she was running off of little more than memory at this point. What was worse was that she couldn't even read any of the street signs, so she didn't know for certain which was the right way. They had escaped the chaos of the laboratories and now were running along the side of the freeway as fast as the slowest among them could go.
In this case the slowest was Hunter, who absolutely refused to let go of that little pup she was carrying, which was seriously affecting her speed. Haru wanted to sympathize with her, it was a really cute pup, but exhaustion and fear were beginning to crowd sympathy out. Several times now the pack had to duck down beneath the shrubs and trees that spotted the side of the freeway as black vans passed slowly by, shining spotlights into the thin foliage that surrounded the road. Haru guessed that they were trying to catch and contain the 'prison break' she, May and Kaoru had orchestrated.
This was the reason she set the manic pace that she did. Morning would be here in an hour or so, and daylight would pretty much obliterate any chance they had at hiding. And if they stayed in any location long enough to sleep, they would likely find themselves waking back up in the labs, judging by the number of black vans that passed back and forth. Haru needed to get them past the city limits before dawn. It was the only way she could be sure they were safe.
Haru gave a warning growl and ducked into the tall grass as yet another van passed by, flashing a spotlight into the weeds. A moment later and the van was gone, they hadn't been spotted yet. Haru looked back and saw Kouzo whining in concern and doting carefully over Hunter. Goddamnit, the stupid boy finds his love interest and all of a sudden he's useless for anything else. Haru saw the rapidly heaving sides on the wolf's flank, didn't that idiot realize he was just about to fall over from exhaustion? He should be worrying a little more about himself before he gets his stupid self killed. Haru's tongue lolled out, instinctively releasing built of up heat from a body that could not sweat. She wasn't doing too well herself, but that a secondary concern. Getting everyone out was the first concern. Even the undead dogs didn't look too well. They didn't need to breathe, but May was carefully standing on one set of feet, then the other. Apparently their muscles could get tired just like any living beings'.
Haru gave a harsh yip and painfully continued running forward, leading the way, hopefully, out of the city.A sleek, mottled brown wolf bolted through the forest. Leaping nimbly over fallen tree-trunks and ducking agilely under dense shrubbery, the lupine figure carved a gently zig-zagging path out of the deeper forest closer to civilization. From a small distance to the wolf's left came a warning growl. The wolf didn't reply and instead simply bounded on. A larger black figure detached itself from the deep, moon-pierced shadows of the forest and bounded after the brown wolf.
Natalie could hear the crack of twigs and the panting breath of the wolf behind her. Just like before, the smell of entering another pack's territory had hit her like an anvil. It seemed the longer she was stuck in this form, the more control its instincts had over her. The urge to stop and take the long way around the territory had been almost unbearable. But Natalie wasn't a wolf, even if she were shaped like one. She was hu... well, Garou actually, and wasn't subject to the territorial laws of wolves.
That was what she kept telling herself, anyways. The black wolf behind her was joined by two more, giving chase to the interloper. Natalie beat back the urge to whine in fear and bent all her energy towards simply running. She had a good deal of distance to cover, and that would only be the start of things tonight. She was still cursing herself over the fact that she had slept for so long. Just what the hell had happened there? She was nervous as hell, yet once sleep hit, it hit like a ton of rocks. When she woke up, the sun was already setting, she had slept, oh, probably sixteen hours or so.
That was assuming, of course, that days lasted twenty four hours here, with twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness, more or less. Natalie reminded herself that this wasn't Earth. It was a tough concept to swallow. While in that nightmarish Malfeas, Natalie simply didn't have time to really think about things, she was too busy just trying to survive and remain sane. In the Flux Realm... well, that spoke for itself, there was no room for rational thought in that nasty place. Here though, in a place that looked and felt so much like Earth. The fact that it wasn't the planet that she grew up on was all that much harder to accept. Yet because of that, it hit her that much worse. This place looked like a picture-perfect representation of any forest on Earth, bordering a nice town... yet it wasn't. A conflicting mish-mash of feelings of unreality and feelings of near-rapture slowly forced their way through Natalie's heart. If only mommy could see her now.
Would mommy be proud? Natalie truly hoped she would be, it was one of the few things that kept her going at this point. She felt like she was in danger of losing herself. She had woken up so ravenously hungry, she couldn't even think straight. Her nose had caught the scent of something edible, though, and her body seemed to take over. She was repulsed by the idea of eating raw flesh, yet she found herself chasing down the cat-sized lizard and sinking her fangs into its flesh. After most of the thing had been consumed, the haze of instinct began to clear. Natalie had wanted to vomit so badly, but refused to let herself. She knew that she would need the energy.
She had to make mother proud of her. She had managed to stay alive up until this point. Her, a city-bred little techno-phile, and now a Glasswalker, surviving in the wild with absolutely no technological aid? Natalie was beginning to identify herself with the tribe she had been taken into more and more. She began to understand the bindings that tied the Garou together. She wasn't human anymore... no, she never was. But could she ever truly leave all that behind? Her dad was human, so she obviously had human blood in her, was there any way to reconcile those two things? How many before her had tried?
A dark shadow snapped at her heels, inspiring Natalie to greater speed. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about those things, she had something else she needed to do. She was nearing a familiar area. This was close to where the pack had been dropped into this horrible realm. Natalie began to slow down. The shadows chasing her had given up after she left their territory, which was good. Natalie began to catch her breath and started sniffing the ground. It wasn't long before she picked up the scent of the others. Wolves, yet so much more layered on top of it. Natalie had to admit, as worthless as this form was for actually handling any sort of technology, the sensations it gave were simply amazing.
Soon the trees began to peter out and Natalie found herself on the edge of civilization. She followed the scent, it smelled several days old now, along the edge of a road that seemed to split nature from civilization. A orderly row of houses on one side, a disordered line of tangled trees and bushes on the other. The scent gave out, heading across the street into town. Natalie stopped here. She was at the crest of a small hill on her side of the road. She ran near to the top of the hill, it gave her a commanding view of the surrounding land, and would help her voice carry as well.
Natalie lifted her snout and began to howl. Long and high pitched. She didn't know how she knew, but somehow she was certain this was a summoning howl. A call to arms and a desperate plea for aid. But that wasn't the most important thing to her. She was hoping her voice would be recognized.
From deep within the city came a responding howl.Haru could hardly believe her ears. Was that actually that twit Natalie? The howl echoed softly over the houses a second time. There was no doubting it this time, it was that bloody little girl! The boost of energy giving Haru her second wind, she lifted her own nose and howled in reply, putting on even more speed. How had she found them? How had she even stayed alive? Haru would be the first to admit she wasn't the best at surviving in the wild, but compared to Natalie she was Jacques-fucking-Cousteau.
Only a few more blocks to go. Haru managed a second howl before ducking her head and continuing to run. Even with a second wind, she was nearest the last portion of her energy. Her own laboured panting nearly drowned out the panting of the other two living wolves behind her. Just one more block to go...
Haru skittered to a halt as three black vans pulled to a stop directly in front of her, blocking off the last street before the town gave way to wilderness. The back doors opened and a small army of men in black suits, armed with rifles, nets, and nooses, poured out. Haru tried to bark, tried to snarl, tried to do anything. All that came out was a coughing wheeze. How the hell was she supposed to get through this?! She turned to run back into the tangle of suburbia only to see another two vans heading up the road they had just come down.
They were surrounded and far too exhausted to fight back this time.
Goddamnit, Natalie, we were doing so well too. Haru could see her on top of a small hill. In the darkness she couldn't exactly tell what colour the wolf's coat was, but that voice was unmistakable. Haru's night vision washed most of the colour out of everything. She could see better now that she would if she were human, but it was a monochrome vision. Right now her vision told her they were all royally screwed, and if Natalie didn't bugger off soon, she'd be joining them.
Yet that idiotic girl simply kept howling. And strangely enough her howls were answered. The advancing animal control officers stopped and looked around nervously as a chorus of howls erupted all around them. From the forest behind Natalie burst several dozen wolves, all streaking towards the group of vans at the bottom of the hill. At almost the same time wolves of all sizes and colours began streaming out from streets and yards. Haru stared in disbelief, she recognized several of the wolves as the same ones they had rescued from the laboratory.
By now the men in the suits had fallen into disarray, not knowing how to deal with the literal army of lupines that bore down on them. Several were taken down immediately before the rest began to react. Rifles went off and nets were thrown, several wolves fell to the ground, drugged or entangled, then the mass came over their fallen brethren to rip into the humans. Haru howled encouragement as the wolves quickly overpowered their oppressors with numbers and strength. She looked back at her own pack and gave them the signal to run forward.
With the animal control officers as tied up as they were, no one offered any resistance as Haru, Kouzo, Hunter, May and Kaoru ran in between the parked vans and up the hill to meet Natalie. Natalie yipped joyfully as they reached her, the pack fully re-united once again. She didn't care if she were stuck in a wolf's body and stranded far away from a home she knew and loved. She was with her packmates, and at the moment, that felt better than anything else.
For a few seconds they did nothing but charge each other gleefully and roll on the grass together. Then Natalie regained her senses. She issued a quick bark, grabbing everyone's attention. She turned towards the forest, they had to follow inside. Deep inside.This place was different. It smelled strange, there was a wet, almost fetid scent layered on top of everything. And while the sluggishly rising sun was quickly warming everything to a steamy wetness, the animal life here smelled cold, very cold. It looked weird as well. The plants were twisted, gigantic parodies of natural life. It wasn't the sickly deformities of Malfeas, it was rather a riotous explosion of simplified, yet gigantic life. The sounds were all wrong too. Birds could be heard overhead, but no bird should ever sound that loud, or that deep toned.
But it was far more than just the individual sensory impressions. The whole area was different, and while sight, smell and hearing gave individual reasons why it felt different, it was the combination of all three that fully unsettled anyone who experienced it. The entire area was... primitive. The world they had just come from was dangerous, yet so was this one, in a completely different, almost alien way.
Natalie lead the way, threading a path between enormous tree trunks. Kouzo's attention was drawn to a large, quivering leaf. He sniffed it experimentally, and leaped backwards with a surprise yip as a meter-long centipede crawled out from beneath it and snapped a set of poisonous mandibles at him. Whatever this place was, it did not feel at all like the earth Kouzo knew.
Natalie had stopped, sniffing around the base of a tree trunk that dwarfed even the giants around it. The curling roots of this tree had formed a small cave of sorts, a cave that Natalie now entered. Hesitantly the rest of the pack followed her. Kouzo was the last to go, watching as Hunter entered the darkness, still clutching the pup carefully in her jaws. The scarf-wearing wolf turned and gave the world around him one last look.
He finally understood the nature of Wolfshome. Garou had the blood of humans and the blood of wolves within them. Gaia had created them to be so much more, greater than the sum of their parts, but those base parts could not be ignored. Even if he were born from human parents, he had the blood of the wolf inside him. This place, this Umbral realm, existed to point this out, to force those who entered it to come to terms with that part of them that wasn't human and accept it.
Kouzo turned and walked into the darkness beneath the giant tree, wondering what lay beyond.
Water lapped softly over May's hand. It was rather cold, transforming the fine sand beneath it to a thick, clay-like substance. "N...no, just five more minutes Kaoru, please?"
The vampire reached up and rubbed her tired eyes, only succeeding in getting more sand in them. Her hands were covered in the substance. May groaned, trying to blink the gritty substance out of her vision before the itching became unbearable. The only real sound was the steady crash of waves and the faint cries of things that may have been the mutant offspring of particularly large seagulls. May found she was staring at the imprint of her face in a light brown sand. The cool breeze brought the smell of seawater to her nostrils.
May shook her head, trying to clear her head and get some semblance of her bearings. She was missing something drastically important, she knew that. Something had just happened that meant a lot to her, though she still couldn't think of what it was. May regained her feet, trying to remember whatever it was that was so important. "What the hell was it?"
She stopped and lifted a cautious hand to her lips. She tried again, "I'm ...talking?"
May carefully felt her face, "I'm... I'm the proper shape again," she experimentally jumped back and forth from foot to foot, running a hand along the vinyl and lace that made up her outfit, "...and I can talk again. Hahahaha!"
Natalie grumbled, rolling away from the maniacally giggling vampire, "...and don't we all wish you couldn't?"
"I can talk I can talk I can talk! Hey, Kaoru, I can talk!" May ran to the man standing a little further up the beach, looking over the endless waters.
"That's nice, now shut up," came the reply.
May blinked and looked at Kaoru. That was the usual reply he gave to this sort of statement, but the tone of voice was all wrong. Instead of a tone of dangerous annoyance, it was merely a tone of vague distraction. "What are you doing?"
"Watching the sunrise," the vampire stated matter-of-factly.
"Watching the..." May's brow furrowed in confusion, "...but we've already seen the sunrise."
"Not like this. Malfeas was far too shitty, that flux place, the sun wasn't real there. And that place we just came from? It's not the same if you're in the wrong body. Here though... here if feels real, it actually feels warm."
"Kaoru, you're beginning to scare me."
"Shut up and listen," Kaoru turned and gave her a sour glance, "Can't you hear it?"
"Hear what?" May rolled her eyes, "I can hear seagulls, I can hear you being as short tempered and bitchy as ever-"
"Quit talking and listen to the sound of your own breathing."
May humoured him and stopped talking. It lasted all of ten seconds, "So what's so great about it?"
"You heard the sound of it, right?" Kaoru asked, "Think about it."
"I am thinking about it, and I'm thinking that you're a creepy little f-" May stopped mid-sentence. In a state of disbelief, she put her hand up to her mouth. Warm, moist air rushed over it. "K...Kaoru, why am I breathing?"
"Hell if I know. I found I was doing the same thing when I woke up. Did you fail to notice that too? We weren't in torpor, we actually woke up, which means that we were sleeping before."
"We're... alive," May said, still having trouble believing those words were coming from her mouth.
"Exactly, and while this place sure as hell doesn't look like earth, that sun over there does look mostly the same. I'm taking advantage of it and watching the only sunrise I'll probably get the chance to see. Want to join me?"
May looked at the vampire, then at the brightening horizon over the sea. He was right, she could already feel the warmth coming from that direction, and the sun hadn't even broken the waterline yet. "Yeah... sure."
Natalie joined Haru, who was already further up the beach, "I'm going to take a wild guess and assume we're not back on earth yet."
Haru looked into the forest that lay at the end of several hundred feet of sand. Strange palms towered overhead like redwoods. Beneath a strange collection of wide-brushed ferns and even stranger short, barrel-shaped trees. From deep within the jungle came the cries of something that didn't quite sound like anything either Garou had heard of before. "Doesn't look like it," Haru ventured.
Natalie's eyes narrowed at the foliage, "Wait just a damned minute... I've seen those somewhere before. They're... what's the name... cycads?"
"So what?" Haru asked.
"The place I saw the picture of a cycad was in a book about dinosaurs, they've been extinct for millions of years," Natalie said matter-of-factly, hands on her hips. She gave her hips and experimental shake, smiling at how easily the sundress moved over them. It had come from the collection of things the Wyrm-spirits had given them at the border of the Flux realm, and it fit more than perfectly.
"So you're saying we're going to run into a dinosaur next?" Haru asked. Her tone wasn't mocking, it was a genuine question.
"Hell if I know," Natalie replied, "I figured you'd know more about the Umbra than me."
Haru turned and walked back towards the rest of the group, "I'm not a moon-dancer, I don't know every nook and cranny of the spirit wilds. I hadn't even been in the Penumbra that much before we ended up in this mess."
"Penumbra?"
"The near-Umbra," Haru explained, "The reflection of Earth, you've seen it."
"Oh yeah, that," Natalie said, "So where should we go from here?"
Haru hung her head, "Weren't you listening? I have no fucking idea. I'm as lost as you are."
Kouzo looked up from where he was sitting on the beach with Hunter, "We should probably go along the beach for a while, see if we run across a river."
"River, why?" Natalie asked.
"Because it doesn't look like there are any settlements here, and we're going to need some fresh water soon, especially for the kid."
Haru looked down at Hunter with concern, "That was my next question. Hunter... you're alive, that is amazing, so please don't take this the wrong way: Where the hell did you get that kid?"
The baby in Hunter's arms was asleep at the moment. A few wisps of wavy black hair adorned its head. Hunter looked back at Haru, "She's mine."
"I'm not going to try and take it away from you," Haru replied quickly, "I was just wondering where you found her, that's all."
"She's mine," Hunter repeated, "I didn't 'find' her, she's my child. I gave birth to her."
Natalie raised her hand, "Umm... no offense Hunter, but aren't you supposed to be sterile or something? At least that's what I was told," she shot Haru a glare, as if blaming her for this.
"You're right, I wasn't supposed to," Hunter replied, "Gremlin and I... how were we supposed to know?"
"Know what?" Natalie asked, really confused now.
Hunter looked at Haru and Kouzo, "The prophecy."
Haru shook her head, disbelieving, "No way in hell, not that prophecy."
"You mean," Kouzo gave a start, "But... how is that possible?"
"It shouldn't be," Hunter replied, "Metis are sterile from birth. Whether it's due to the severe genetic clusterfuck of two Garou mating, too much of Gaia's touch in the offspring, or as some would claim, too much influence from the Wyrm, this isn't supposed to happen. I'm not even supposed to get pregnant if I fuck a perfectly fertile male... I'm not making any presumptions about you," she looked at Kouzo, who blushed furiously at the thought of it.
"Wait a minute," Natalie said, "How had you been pregnant? We've been separated... what, a few days? Either you were the best-shaped pregnant lady I had ever seen, or you weren't very far along when we got split up."
"I had found out about it... we had, the day before we-I met you guys," Hunter explained.
Haru had a slightly better grasp of the situation, "What happened to you in the Flux Realm?"
"You've already figured it out. The energy there, the sheer creative power, it accelerated what was being created inside me. By the time I found my way out of there and snuck into Wolfshome, I had gone through in a few hours what usually takes nine months or so in most people. 'Course, I was in no real position to run when the emanations went after me there. I ended up giving birth in that laboratory, and they tried taking my kid from me."
"What's her name?" Kouzo asked.
"I think I'll call her 'Rose'," Hunter said, "She looks like a Rose kind of kid to me. Thankfully, if worst comes to worst, we can eat her without worrying about thorns."
"W...what?" Kouzo's mouth hung open.
Hunter gave a tired smile and punched him in the shoulder, "I'm kidding you idiot. I wasn't expecting this kid... but she's a part of me, and I'll give my life for her."
"Wait a minute," Natalie was still trying to catch up, "What's this about a prophecy?"
"I'll tell you about it on the way," Haru said before turning her head and raising her voice to a shout, "Hey, love-leeches, we're heading out!""So what you're saying is that this kid is going to lead the final battle against the Wyrm?" Natalie asked.
The sun was well above the horizon now. May was grumbling more than a little as she walked. Yes, it was all beautiful and magical when it rose. Now it was hanging in the sky like the world's biggest heat-lamp and raising her vinyl corset's temperature just shy of melting. Yeah, suddenly finding yourself alive again was absolutely wonderful and all, and she was experiencing feelings and emotions she hadn't felt in ages, her body was doing things it hadn't done in years. One of those feelings was heat-exhaustion, and one of the bodily-functions was several pints of sweat stuck between her skin and the interior of her clothes.
"You know, you could just peel off a few layers," Kaoru suggested with a sneer.
"I wasn't exactly packing for an extended fucking vacation and I'm not getting naked in front of these virgins!" May snapped back, "Goddamnit, it's going to warp!"
"That's the problem with prophecy," Haru said, ignoring the bitching going on behind her, "It's vague as all hell. I heard that the perfect Metis was supposed to be a great and powerful general in the war of the Apocalypse. Now what the hell is that supposed to mean? General as in actual military position, or just in a position of great influence? And exactly what side is this perfect Metis supposed to be on? And what do they mean by 'perfect'? Do they mean it's not going to be deformed like other Metis, or that it will be 'perfect' in some other way?"
"So you're saying you don't have any real idea what's going on," Natalie said.
"Hey guys," Kouzo called back from a dozen meters ahead, "I found a river!""Effing hell, could it possibly get anymore humid? I thought we had already gone through hell," May protested.
"Oh dear, if this keeps up for much longer, I'm going to have to kill her," Kaoru said to Kouzo.
"Hey, great master Kaoru," May shouted, "Why don't you actually be a provider and get us some food! I just discovered another great thing about being alive again, I'm hungry!"
Kouzo grabbed Kaoru's arm as the latter turned and began drawing his katana, "Come on, I don't think that's a good idea."
Kaoru sniffed and turned, stalking off into the forest ahead, "Yeah, well thinking was never exactly one of your strong areas, was it?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kouzo asked, but the ex-vampire had already gone out of sight, around a bend in the river they were following inland.
"Natalie? Are you okay?" Hunter looked with concern at the younger girl who had suddenly come to a stop in front of her.
"I'm... I'm not certain," Natalie said, her voice full of wonder, "I just had this sudden... feeling."
"What kind of feeling?"
"Like I should head off... this way," Natalie turned and pushed her way through the undergrowth.
"Natalie! What the hell?!" Hunter tried to follow, but found her path well blocked by the thick ferns the smaller woman had easily pushed through.
"Stay with the others, keep your kid safe," Kouzo said, "I'll see if I can find her."
He managed to get all of five meters into the undergrowth before it got too thick for him to go any further. "Natalie! Natalie!!"
"Don't worry..." a muffled voice said, "I'm here."
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I found us some eggs."
"Eggs? What the hell are you talking about?"
"We can cook them and have ourselves a meal, May was bitching about being hungry and all."
The two rejoined the rest. Natalie had carefully placed the eggs, perfectly spherical leathery things, nearly the size of softballs, by the riverbed. She was now rummaging through her bag. Her eyes widened in surprise, "What the hell?"
"What?" Kouzo asked.
"I... I don't remember packing this," Natalie said, drawing a large pot from the recesses of her Hello Kitty backpack.
"Lucky thing it was there, does that bag have anything that can make a fire in there as well?" Hunter asked.
"No," Natalie said despondently.
"Wait a minute, hey Haru," May said, "Do that trick you did earlier, with the fire and stuff!"
Within a few minutes the eggs were in the pot and cooking. The smell was just a bit different from the eggs Natalie was used to, but her rumbling stomach told her that was an acceptable margin of difference. She wondered how she knew were to find the eggs, and where the pot to cook them in had come from. That wasn't the only thing that confused her. She had had no trouble at all pushing her way through the undergrowth to find the large nest. The branches and thick leaves had slid easily off her sundress, leaving no marks behind them and failed to impede her progress at all.
It was a really nice dress, and it fit her so perfectly well. She decided she would keep this dress, even after she got other clothes. It was just such a nice dress.
“I think it might be a good idea to find a way out of this jungle before sundown,” Kouzo said.
The river had continued steadily uphill for several hours, and now the sun was slowly making the long descent to the horizon. Of course, it was much harder to determine underneath the opaque canopy, but the few openings the group managed to find in the leaves above told them as much. Thankfully the trees seemed to be thinning out. Growing thicker, though, was a certain unpleasant smell. It seemed like the further upriver they went, the stronger the smell got. Kaoru was the first to realize that it was the smell of decaying flesh and relayed as much to the rest of the group.
There wasn't much that could be done at this point. Even though the jungle was visibly thinning out ahead, it still hemmed the pack in on all sides, preventing any visibility further than a couple feet. Sunlight was visible ahead, and looked like the jungle was breaking up into a long series of plains. From an indeterminate distance ahead came the sounds of snarls and growls, accompanied by a strange ripping noise. Cautiously the group pressed onward, until they finally they came out of the trees and into a seemingly endless expanse of long grass and weeds. Kouzo was the first to see what was creating the snarling noises.
“Oh wow... that doesn't look good at all.”
Haru stared, mouth open. Eventually she managed to work out a whisper, “Okay Natalie, what did your book have to say about these?”
“They're... dilophosaurs,” Natalie managed, “See the crests on their heads?”
“I thought they were smaller than that,” May said sourly.
Natalie rolled her eyes, “This isn't Jurassic park, they usually grow to be fifteen feet long,” she hissed.
“Shouldn't we be running?” Kaoru muttered, “I'm not exactly eager to lose the life I just regained.”
“They look like they're rather busy,” Hunter replied.
She wasn't lying, other than a few cold, reptilian glances in the group's direction, the dinosaurs seemed completely absorbed in continuing to rip and swallow chunks of the fly-specked corpse between the four of them. Their movements couldn't be described as 'graceful'. But they were brutally efficient and suggested a wealth of unexpressed strength. It wasn't quite mammalian, reptilian, or birdlike, but something completely different.
“That's so... awesome,” Natalie breathed as the others tried to drag her away, “I mean, look at them, it's different from any form of life people have encountered... it's a world that was gone millions of years before humans were even there, it's...”
“It's a bunch of lizards with big teeth who will eventually want some fresher meat,” Kaoru growled, continuing to pull the girl away from the scene."We're being followed," the shirtless man said.
"I know that, the big ones aren't exactly subtle," the leader replied, indicating the large, growling shadow in the clump of trees several hundred meters away. He had long, tangled black hair.
"Not them," the other man said, re-adjusting the load on his back, "Others are coming. Newcomers here."
The woman who was holding up the other end of the load looked up, "About damn time, we could use some company."
"Is that them over there?" the leader asked, squinting at a group of objects on the distant horizon making their way across the plains, "Looks like a decent sized group.""No, really!" May said, beginning to run, "I can see people up ahead!"
"Why the hell are you so eager?" Kaoru asked, "How do you know they're not going to kill you and rape you?"
"It's preferable to spending more time stuck with you dysfunctional twits!" May shouted.The bonfire crackled and danced up the sides of the canyon walls. Shadows of people and wolves danced on the flat rock surfaces, as if twitching to get away from their possessors. "So... how long have you been stuck here?" Kouzo asked Raymond.
Raymond Spurclaw grinned, picking errant pieces of meat from his teeth. He was a giant even among Garou, well over six feet tall and incredibly broad shouldered to boot. Though he was the only one of the group who was black, the other two had apparently spent so much time in the sun, their heavily tanned skin wasn't much lighter. "We have several more weeks to go before we're allowed back."
"Allowed back?" Hunter asked, "Were you banished here or something?"
"Were you?" Firebrand, the female, tall and strong with deep red hair asked, offering her own toothy grin. True to her namesake, a series of burn-scars ran up and down her left side, disfiguring an otherwise beautiful, muscular frame.
"We're just lost," Hunter said, ripping off a chunk of well-cooked meat and chewing, "And you never answered the question, how long have you been here?"
"Two and a half months," Raymond said, "Of course, some of us will be spending eternity here, in a way."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kouzo asked.
"There were six of us when we started here, not all of us were lucky enough to make it this far," Raymond said.
"Don't sell yourself short," Firebrand replied, "Luck had nothing to do with it. We were the only ones skilled enough to make it this far. Two weeks from now we'll know which among us was strong enough to deserve life. I intend to be one of those."
Raymond offered a small growl, "Luck has more to do with it than you'd think. These whelps shouldn't have survived an hour here, yet they're still around," he turned to Kouzo, "So how many did you lose before you got here?"
"We didn't..." Kouzo started, then realized there was nothing to be gained from lying, "...We lost one."
"Only one?" Raymond laughed uproariously, "That proves that luck has more to do with it than anything else! If only we'd been that lucky."
"If we had, we'd still be stuck with those too weak to survive when luck isn't on our side," Firebrand point out, "Do you really want those types weighing us down when things turn bad?"
"We were sent here as part of an ordeal, a test of strength in the face of growing adversity. When I return, successful, and present the trophies I gained, I'll be able to challenge for the right of Hive Warden. Something I've fought a long time for."
"Hive Warden?" Hunter sputtered, nearly choking on her own food, "That mean's you're... you're..." she stopped, confused, looking for words.
"He's what?" Firebrand asked innocently, "Cat got your tongue?"
"You're... he's..." Hunter turned to Kouzo making frantic gestures. Kouzo looked confused.
"So you haven't been in Pangaea long enough to learn the rules," Raymond said.
"What rules?" Kouzo asked.
"Pangaea?" Hunter asked.
"What tribe do you belong to?" Firebrand shot at him.
"I belong to... I... ," Kouzo closed his mouth, looking thoughtful.
"Rule number one, Pangaea preserves a primal time period, before the creation of tribes. Thus, while you are here, tribes effectively do not exist," Raymond explained."Food?" Stephen Blackeye asked, offering a chunk of meat.
"No thanks," Natalie said, "I'll wait until I can get something less... icky."
"So then you prefer to starve," Stephen said, "Y'know, if you're that suicidal, I can just give you a knife to slit your wrists with."
Natalie glared at him. It was hard to meet his stare for long though. Part of it was the fact that he gave no real reaction, positive or negative to it. Part of it was she kept getting distracted by the exceptionally long black hair he had. Even if it was filthy and tangled, Natalie found her gaze continuously drifting towards it. But most of it was the fact that his left eye was nothing more than a jagged, black scar. "So how'd you get the nickname?" Natalie asked sarcastically.
"Nickname?" Stephen asked, confused.
"Blackeye?" Natalie rolled her eyes.
"That's not a... you're a newb, aren't you?" Stephen replied.
"Newb? What the hell are you talking about?" Natalie asked.
"That isn't a nickname. It's a deed-name, you haven't gotten one of your own because you haven't earned it yet, but if you actually manage to survive, you will. It's more important than the name your parents gave you because it is your own. Your birthname is kind of pointless because it is something given by your parents at birth, it symbolizes them, not you. Your deed-name, on the other hand, is given to you in acknowledgment of who you are and what you've done. It is far more a part of you than your birthname could ever be."
Natalie turned away, "I don't really want to talk about anything having to do with parents right now."
Stephen rolled around and ended up in a crouch, staying directly in her view. The firelight, distant as Natalie was feeling less than sociable and wanted to put some space between her and the others, played over his exposed, scarred flesh. "Hold on a minute, I never got the chance to answer your question. I didn't get the name because of this," he pointed at the empty void where his left eye used to be, "A couple years back my pack got into a tussle with another. In revenge, one of them tried to get the jump on me, shoot me in the back. I managed to see'em coming and dived out of the way. They didn't kill me, but the bullet took out my eye.
"After that... well, things just went downhill. Soon enough, is was pretty much a war between our two packs, and we got into a brawl at the Sanctuary."
"The what?" Natalie asked, looking up.
"Oh, it's nightclub we used to hang out at, used to be part of our territory."
Natalie recognized the name, "You're from Milwaukee? I heard the Sanctuary got shut down because of building-code violations."
"Heh, yeah, that's what the papers'll tell you," Stephen chuckled, "Delirium can be a wonderful thing, can't it? The Veil's a lot easier to preserve when the headline reads 'Club shut down because of structural damage' rather than 'War between man-beasts results in bloodbath at club'. Yeah, we brawled, weapons got pulled, and we killed. I was the only survivor, taking out the last three members of the other pack with nothing but myself and our pack's totem, Raven, to help. In thanks for helping me survive long enough to kill of the last of those fucks, I dug out all their eyes and turned them into a burned offering to Raven. That's how I got the nickname."
"That's fucking disgusting," Natalie said, shrinking back against the rock.
"Disgusting? Where the hell have you been your whole life? Did you not notice there's a war going on? The shit I've done is goddamn child's play compared to most of what goes on out there, or are you really as stupid as you look? Did your mother keep you locked in a bedroom full of fluffy pink pillows after your first change?" Stephen taunted.
"Don't talk about my mother," Natalie growled leaning forward and baring her teeth.
Stephen gave a small laugh, then grabbed the girl's throat and slammed her back against the rock she was leaning against. "Or you'll what?" he hissed, leaning close enough to share breathing space, "Kill me? I've killed dozens in defense of my own life, in defense of my packmates, can you claim the same? I've spent the last several years fighting for my life day in and day out, I've seen almost everyone I've cared about ripped apart while I stood beside them and I've still fought on. Can you claim the same? Do you think a little girl with a mommy-complex could do anything to stop me from doing what I want with you, if I really wanted to?"
He ran his other hand up her leg, still keeping one hand firmly around her throat. Natalie's attempts to struggle were rather weak and ineffectual due to the combined shock and her inability to breathe, "I've gone through more than you could ever dream of. I could do anything I want with you and you wouldn't be able to stop me. In fact, from the look of your eyes, you're not sure you'd want to stop me, are you?"
The hand around her throat loosened slightly, allowing wheezing breaths to be taken. The hand on her leg, though, continued moving upward. Natalie gasped for breath, unable to look anywhere but the muddy brown eyes that hovered inches above her own. Hot breath spread across her lips, his own lips were close enough to bite. Natalie tried to strain upward, not certain what she would do if she actually came into contact with his lips, she didn't try to move his hand away.
"She might not be able to stop you," Haru's voice said, "but if you don't back off, I will fucking skewer you."
Stephen's movements froze. The freezing cold point of Haru's new sword dug into his back. Slowly he stood back up, "Sleep well, momma's girl, and remember that your pack is the only thing you've got now.""Do you know what's really fascinating about the stars, what compels me to continue staring at what, from here, appears to be little more than a bunch of random points of light in a black sky?" Kaoru asked.
May looked at him from her own position, reclining on the massive rock, "...No?"
"Absolutely nothing," he replied, sitting up to begin cleaning his nails with a knife.
May sighed, "Seriously, what the hell is your problem?"
"What are you talking about?" Kaoru muttered, continuing to clean.
"Why are you such a fucking asshole? What do you get out of it?"
Kaoru finished with one hand, using the reflection of moonlight to examine his handiwork. He ignored May's question, "So what do you know about me?"
"What?"
"You know me from somewhere. After seeing that my head was truly fucked with, I can believe your claims about it, and the fact that somehow you've got my ring. This is kind of the first chance I've had to really talk about it with you, so what do you know about me?"
"I know enough to know that leaving you was the best decision I've ever made," May growled, realizing with dull amazement that it had actually only been a few days since Kaoru had shown up at her apartment, complaining about a computer-chip in his head.
"And yet you're here with me now, a whole lot of good that did," Kaoru pointed out.
"That's because you followed me to Milwaukee and broke into my apartment, you creepy little stalker," May said, "It wasn't enough that you beat me, tortured me, raped me and killed me, now you have to remind me about it every fucking time I see you. Fuck you."
Kaoru looked thoughtful, "That does sound like me, but funny thing is, though I can remember your name, I can't remember how you fit into my own life. I have to wonder how much of what you're claiming is true."
"Oh geeze, aren't you just the paranoid clown," May mocked, "You know, I'm the one who spent so long looking over my shoulder, waiting for you to come and try to reclaim me, and you're accusing me of lying?"
May gasped as Kaoru spun and pressed the knife against her throat, "And why should I believe anything you say? You're playing around with these doggies, and for all I know, all of this could be nothing but a really bad LSD trip, sent out by whatever the fuck was put into my head. How could I believe you're the poor, battered thing you claim to be if I can't remember it? How do I know you're not the one who's fucking with my head?"
"You're fucking insane," May whimpered as the tip of the knife dug into her throat and blood beaded around the edges.
Kaoru looked at the blood in fascination, "Of course, I did feel the bond of blood between us... but how can I be certain that also isn't just an illusion? I feel alive right now, I'm breathing, I'm warm, you're warm, you're bleeding. If I kill you, will the illusion end?"
May was now too scared to reply. She could feel her own heart beating in fear, something she hadn't felt in years. She could feel the pain in her throat as the knife-tip pressed inward, she could feel the warmth pooling around it. Kaoru pulled the knife away slightly, "...but I don't want to kill you."
He sat up, still looking at the knife-blade, "I ...don't want to kill you. I feel an... aversion to it? What the hell, I haven't felt that in... in..."
May reacted quickly while she had the chance, jumping up and forcing Kaoru to the ground. A moment's fumbling and she had the knife placed against his throat. The wound she left there was much bigger than the one in her own throat. "How does it feel now, asshole?" she grinned madly, "To not be in control? How's it feel to be on the receiving end for a change? Does it feel as good for you to be alive as it does for me? I'm not stuck under the blood-bond anymore, I can't feel it in the slightest!"
May dragged the knife further along his throat, beginning to dig deeper, "I'm going to kill you right now, here in this prehistoric world, and there's nothing you can do about it! You'll die alone, long before your brother, the better brother, ever will!"
Kaoru's eyes widened as his teeth bared, "Hikaru..."
His hand wrapped around May's wrist. Kaoru grunted, forcing the knife away and sitting up to face May. The two faced each other, less than an inch apart. Kaoru's hand turned, slowly forcing the tip of the knife closer to May's throat, "That... worthless... little... shit... He didn't deserve any of it... he didn't deserve... you..."
There was a moment of doubt in Kaoru's eyes. May took advantage of it and slammed him back against the rock, "Shut the fuck up, asshole! He was the better brother, and I always loved him more!"
Kaoru's eyes were wide in shock, "No... wait, you, May, and Hikaru, I remember more!"
"Oh don't try and weasel out of it," May rolled her eyes, "At least die with a little dignity."
Kaoru wasn't listening, his eyes were distant, "No... I remember. May... I... I love you..."
May froze, knife half an inch away from his windpipe. A single tear began to work its way down her cheek. The knife clattered to the rock surface. "Oh you fucking asshole," was all she managed to get out before their lips locked together."What about the Wyrm?" Kouzo asked suspiciously.
Raymond grinned again, "I serve the Wyrm, you don't. Yet here, it doesn't matter, does it? This is a place of preserved time, when the Triat as we know it doesn't exist yet... they sound like they're having fun," a quick glance up to the rock May and Kaoru had retreated to.
Hunter cocked her head, "So if the Triat as we know it isn't here, what is?"
"Something that's changed my view on things," Raymond said, "The Wyrm is here, but not the Wyrm that exists on the Tellerian, or in Malfeas. This is the Wyrm as it originally was, the last surviving echo of the Wyrm of Balance."
Kouzo sat back, "I... I think I understand now."
Hunter looked at him, "What?"
"We'll have to see it with our own eyes. Malfeas, Wolfshome, the Flux Realm, here, we have to see the Wyrm."
“No, really, shut the fuck up, I heard something!”
“There's nothing worth noticing here except for us,” Kaoru repeated, “What would want to live in a place like this?”
“Gotta admit, it is pretty lame here,” Haru said.
Kouzo gave the barren rocks a glance, “Hey now... some people might like this sort of thing.”
“Yeah, but they're all stupid crazy fucks who live in places like Nevada or Arizona,” Natalie replied, “the kind of psychotic losers who think that lifeless deserts and empty mountains are actually cool. In other words, pretty much the exact opposite of awesome.”
“Wow, you really don't like them, do you?” Kouzo asked.
“She's just pointing out that desert twits are a bunch of failures and losers,” Kaoru said.
May nodded, “Well... that is true... but shut up, I know something's following us!”
“No one's following us,” Kaoru repeated, “Why would there be anyone following us? Why would there be anything here in the first place? What would they have to eat?”
“Well... there's...” Kouzo began.
“Why are we going this way anyways?” Haru interrupted, “Did we, like, decide just to go in a straight direction until we hit something?”
“That was sort of the plan at the beginning, but-” Kouzo started.
“Well we've run into something,” Haru interrupted again, “It's a fucking mountain. I think it's safe to say we can use that as a safe land marker and go looking for something more useful to us than a pile of rocks.”
Kouzo tried again, “But what I'm trying to say is-”
“I mean what, exactly, is there up here?” Haru continued, “Those folk back there weren't exactly the best of company, but they weren't too bad as long as we kept both eyes on 'em. What do we have up here? Absolutely nothing.”
“She does talk an awful lot, doesn't she?” Hunter muttered to Kouzo.
“I don't mind too much,” Kouzo replied, “sometimes it comes in handy.”
“Guys, will you please... shut... up...” May said again.
No one said a word after that. It wasn't because of May's demands, but rather because the entire ground shook. The group froze as one, looking around the wide, rock-filled canyon. The ground rumbled a second time, causing a fine layer of dust to fall off of the surrounding rocks. “Hey guys,” Natalie started, “I'd hate to make another reference to Jura-”
A loud roar cut through the air, stopping Natalie mid-sentence. Kouzo's mouth dropped open in shock as not one, but two dinosaurs charged around the corner. Each looked like they were a twenty foot tall pair of legs with teeth attached to the end of them. “Oh shit... I think they're tyrannosaurs,” Kouzo said numbly.
Kaoru had already drawn a pistol and was taking aim when May ran face first into him, knocking the weapon from his grasp. “You fucking idiot!” she screamed, “Run!”
Horse-sized jaws bore down on the group, who promptly split up and scattered. “Oh shit oh shit oh shit!” Natalie yelled as she ran. They weren't supposed to go that fast, were they?
“Over here!” Haru shouted, reaching out and yanking Kouzo into a cleft in the rock walls, pulling him back to the relative safety deeper in the rocks.
Hunter, Natalie and Kaoru found their way to another cleft on the opposite wall. May ran screaming from the pursuing predators, “Okay! Okay!! I don't want to be alive anymore! Hear me god?! I'm okay with being undead!!”
A hand reached out from a cleft in the rock wall and yanked her inside. She joined Haru and Kouzo inside. “Oh... thanks.”
Five minutes later Kaoru was still looking outside of his own 'safe' spot. “Well, this is absolute shit.”
“Oh, what is it this time?” Natalie asked, exasperated. In reply came another roar from the dinosaur that stood just outside the cave, waiting for anyone to come out.
“That stupid bitch knocked my gun away,” Kaoru muttered, “I can see it from here. If I could reach it, I'd be just fine.”
“Well whoopty fucking doo” Natalie said, spinning a finger in the air, “And if you had your magic gun, what exactly would you do with it? Bring down a fifty-foot long monster with a single clip?”
“I could shoot it in the eyes,” Kaoru said.
“Yeah, sure you could,” Natalie said back.
Hunter rolled her eyes, “This isn't getting us anywhere guys.”
Kaoru smiled grimly, “Well it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere for a while anyways. Might as well enjoy it.”
“How long are they going to wait out there?” Natalie asked, peering out at the pair of tree-trunk legs.
“Probably as long as it takes,” Hunter replied, “They don't have anything better to do, they know we have to come out some time.”
“Well that just fucking sucks,” Natalie said.
“Welcome to my world,” Kaoru sneered."So, great leader, what's your plan for this one?" Haru asked.
"Great leader?" Kouzo asked, "...and what's that supposed to mean?"
Haru rolled her eyes, "You're the idiot that got us into this mess. I make the mistake of leaving you in charge and look what happens."
There was a dangerous pause, "You... left me... in charge?"
"Well yeah, if you haven't noticed, I haven't been in charge the entire time, so during the times I wasn't, I left you in charge."
Kouzo nodded, carefully putting aside the rock he was playing with, as if fearful he might accidentally hit someone in the back of the head really hard with it. "So... since when were you the arbiter of who's in charge and who isn't?"
"What do you mean since when?" Haru asked, "Who's been leading this... well... pack from the start? Out of you, Natalie, me and, well, Hunter, who's the best qualified to lead? Who has the most drive to? Who's been making most of the important decisions?"
Kouzo smiled, though there was no humour in it, "I don't know, Haru, why don't you tell me?"
"Oh don't joke around, it's been me the entire time. Who else was even willing to step up and take responsibility?"
"I'll take a wild shot in the dark here," Kouzo said quietly, "And say... I don't know, me?"
"Don't make me laugh," Haru smirked, "You've been too busy being obsessed over your Hunter to do any actual leading."
Kouzo moved. One moment he was sitting, idly drawing lines through the dirt. The next minute he had jumped to his feet and delivered a punch across Haru's face. Haru massaged her jaw, wiping the blood away and grinning. She lunged forward, delivering a quick jab to Kouzo's throat, following it up with a lightning kick to the gut. "I know you've been gunning for my position, Kouzo, I could see it in your eyes."
Kouzo fell to the floor, gasping for breath. Haru walked forward until she was standing directly over him, "Do you really think I'm that blind?"
A leg shot out and swept underneath Haru, knocking her feet out and dragging her to the floor. Kouzo jumped on top of her, slamming the back of her head onto the dirt floor of the cave, "You're a stuck up little brat! You were never made the leader of the pack, can't you see that? We've passed it back and forth depending on who was most fit!"
Haru gave a strong grunt and rolled on top of Kouzo, slugging him across the face in the process, "Don't be an idiot! Packs don't work that way. Packs never worked that way! Packs have an alpha, they need an alpha, and I'm the one who filled that position!"
Kouzo spat a mouthful of blood out, then kneed Haru in the gut, "Oh yeah? Then how come I've been the one making the decisions? You're spoiled, you bitch! You want to be called the leader, yet can't actually lead. What decisions have you made? Who among us have you inspired to follow you? When have you ever truly lead us?"
"I'm a better leader than you!" Haru gasped, leaning far enough back to give Kouzo a headbutt, "At least I'm not the idiot who leads us to certain death following your stupid little fancies!"
Kouzo shook his head, trying to clear his vision. He glared up at Haru, "At least I'm actually trying to lead, which is more than can be said about you, you self-centered bitch!"
"Oh my god, will you two dick-waving twits just shut the fuck up?!" May screeched.
In reply, the tyrannosaur waiting outside gave a roar, causing May to give a small shriek and shrink further back into the cave. Haru sat back, allowing Kouzo room to sit back up. She turned and spat out her own mouthful of blood. "You want to see me lead, you slow talking idiot? Fine! I'll show you, maybe you can learn something from it!"
Kouzo tried to protest as Haru grabbed the cold blade and Kageneko and stood up. Brushing off his objections, she walked out of the front of the cave, directly confronting the dinosaur outside. Rage simmered in her veins, causing her to literally vibrate with fury. The tyrannosaur, who had up until now been walking back and forth in front of the cave it was too large to fit into, much like its mate on the other end, looked genuinely surprised to see someone simply marching out of the cave. "Come on you cold-blooded fucker!" Haru shouted up at it, unsheathing Kageneko, "Let's see what you got!"
"Haru! No!" Kouzo shouted, trying to find his way to his feet, still in shock at what she had done.
There was no way he'd be able to reach her in time. The dinosaur was surprised, but that passed quickly enough. Now it lunged forward, jaws open to engulf Haru in one bite. The second tyrannosaurus was also approaching, leaving its former position above the canyon. Kouzo watched in shock as Haru's arm disappeared inside the first one's mouth, and she was picked up, bodily shook, and flung into the side of a rock.
The dinosaur reared its head back and roared in surprise and pain. Kouzo saw that while Haru's arm was bent at an impossible angle, the creature's severed tongue lay on the ground next to her. "Run you idiots!" she shouted as the first tyrannosaur lunged at her again, blood dripping from its maw.
Haru looked up to see two rows of enormous teeth rushing at her. The pain from the shattered arm slowed her thoughts, threatening to send her into shock. She tried to maintain her wits and bring up a sword to defend herself. She looked up and realized the hand she brought up was empty. Shit. She closed her eyes, waiting for the teeth to dig into her flesh.
A gust of hot air slammed into Haru, literally knocking her to the side. She heard an ear splitting roar, only for a split second. It was as such a close range both eardrums ruptured at the sound. Shaking her head, Haru felt hands on her shoulders. There was a faint, tinny rushing sound in the distance. Layered almost imperceptibly on top of that was someone's voice, far too quiet and distorted to hear. Haru forced herself to her feet and dizzily stumbled to the side as her abused inner-ear sent a dozen conflicting instructions to her brain regarding the best way to maintain balance.
Kouzo was with her, holding her up. His mouth was moving frantically and his eyes were wide with fright. She stared back at him, unable to hear, not comprehending. Kouzo pointed at something above and behind her. She spun slowly, dizzily, wondering vaguely what the hell happened to the monster that was about to eat her.
The dim sloshing sound in her ears grew louder for a moment, Haru faintly heard the noise of a far-away roar. Even though it barely registered to her, the entire canyon seemed to vibrate with it. Haru looked up and saw what had caused it. She said something that she couldn't hear, but was pretty certain was quite unkosher.
The second tyrannosaur had already disappeared around a corner of the canyon, not wishing to stay around to greet the newcomer. The first one, totally focused on devouring Haru, hadn't seen the dragon until it was too late. The dinosaurs had dwarfed the werewolves, towering over them. What had just joined the fray dwarfed the tyrannosaurs. A dragon, hundreds of feet long at the very least, with scales that looked like they were made from pure ivory, had simply plucked the inattentive dinosaur up and slammed it into the side of the canyon wall. Now the gargantuan creature sat atop the dinosaur's corpse, roaring in victory.
Haru cringed in pain as her eardrums began sealing themselves shut, popping her ears several times in the process. Kouzo's voice gradually came to her, "Perhaps we should run?"
She couldn't find anything wrong with that idea. She nodded vigorously, stumbling backwards. The group in the other cave seemed to have the same idea, making a run back in the direction they had come from. The dragon's head, itself at least twenty feet long, snapped up and stared at them. "Oh shit!" Kouzo said, urging everyone to run faster.
Haru knew that was probably the best idea at this point. There was nowhere they could hide that that thing couldn't simply bash apart. She didn't even want to think about whether or not it could breath fire like most dragons were supposed to be able to. Her footsteps faltered as a second gust of hot hair struck her. Haru found herself lifted off the ground, then slammed unceremoniously back down as something absolutely huge flew by overhead. Haru was the first to pick herself up as the dragon winged away, checking to see if everyone else was okay.
She realized not everyone was okay. Kouzo was no longer with them.
“Okay, okay, I'm kinda ready to go back home now. I've learned I'd rather keep dinosaurs and dragons as make-believe and things that have been dead for millions of years, not trying to eat me... is that too much to ask?”
“Shut up Natalie.”
Haru leaned against a house-sized boulder, trying to catch her breath. Haru looked much the worse for wear, on her hands and knees, desperately attempting to suck air into her aching lungs. A dusky brown-coated wolf looked forlornly back up the way they had just came. May had sagged against a wall and was listlessly trying to get her platform boots off. She had just re-discovered another unhappy part about being alive, she could lose her breath. Not only that, but these boots were not made for excessive running. She had come down on one ankle hard sometime during their panicked flight, and now she could feel it swelling angrily inside the expensive leather.
Kaoru was busy checking his weapons. Frustrated, he wiped the sweat away from his face, “Two clips left... I'm pretty certain I can take out a dragon the size of an aircraft carrier with that.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Natalie asked incredulously.
“Yes, of course I was,” Kaoru rolled his eyes, practically spitting the sarcasm out, “I intend to go marching back up there right now to have an epic showdown with that thing.”
“So then...” Haru swallowed, still trying to catch her breath, “So then I'm not going back up there alone?”
“Wait, what?” Kaoru gave her a sour look, trying to determine just how serious she was.
“Haru?” Natalie asked, also looking back at her.
The Chinese girl looked back up the path, her face stained with sweat and grit, her chest heaving as her lungs strove for more air. “He's a part of the pack, of my pack. I'm not going to leave him behind. I'll understand if you guys don't w-”
“Shut up, I'm coming with,” Natalie said, standing back up.
“Oh wow, look who wants to play hero,” muttered Kaoru.
“You... why?” Haru asked, surprised.
“I... I don't really have any snappy, witty reason for it,” Natalie admitted, waving a hand vaguely for emphasis, “I just... well... pack, y'know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Haru let out an exhausted, wheezing giggle, “Alright, Hunter, I guess you're coming along too, right?”
Hunter's tail wagged slightly.
“And what about you guys?”
Kaoru gave her a dry look. “No.”
A shrug was given in reply as Haru turned to walk away. Natalie gave him a sour look, “What about you, May? He's saved your life before.”
“Good for him,” May said, going to Kaoru's side, “Tell him I said 'Thanks a bunch'.”
“How about you repay the favour?” Natalie prodded.
“How about I make it so you stupid wolfies are the only ones who die instead of all of us?” May shot back.
“She's got a point,” Kaoru said, “The sentimentality between you guys is cringe-worthy, but it doesn't change the fact that he's already dead, you're all about to follow him, and neither of us have any burning desire to go through that a second time.”
“You guys are fucking assholes,” Natalie spat as she turned away.
“Yeah? By the end of today, we'll also still be alive to maybe feel bad about it for a few seconds,” Kaoru said, “Look, I'm not saying that I give enough of a shit about you guys to join you even in less extreme circumstances, just remember that if you go up after that thing, your deaths will be completely pointless and solve nothing.”
Natalie's only response was a raised middle finger as she jogged to catch up with the others.
“Well... I'll miss them,” May said, watching Natalie disappear around the corner, “Not enough to go running off after them... but I'll miss them.”
“Can't say I will,” Kaoru muttered, turning to walk away without a backwards glance.
“So... um... where are we going?” May said, limping slightly as she struggled to keep up.
Kaoru pointed ahead, not bothering with a reply. May tried again, “Ooookay... so what are we doing once we -owie- get there?”
“We're asking those other doggies how they got in here, because I want to get out. I'm sick of this place, I'm sick of being alive, and I'm sick of being forced to depend on others.” "Yeah, we know of a way back," Raymond said with a lopsided smile, "Why? Not enjoying your time here, human?"
"I'm not human," Kaoru said, then paused, "Well... alright, I am human, but that was only due to bad luck. I don't want to be anymore, and to do that, I have to get out of here."
"WE have to get out of here," May corrected, "I'll fucking tear you a new asshole if you try to leave here without me."
"Yeah, whatever," Kaoru sighed, "Look, where's this way back, and what do you want for it? I'll give you free dibs on the woman's body for as long as she'll hold out, she's a little bitchy, but you could just stick a-"
"KAORU!"
"See? I think a nice leather gag would-"
"FUCK YOU!"
Raymond examined his nails pointedly as he waited for the two to stop trying to claw each others' throats out. They continued fighting, apparently having lost all interest in talking to him. "Alright," he said with an exasperated sigh, "Go about four miles south of here, you'll find a cave in a clearing. In that cave is an underground river, and that will lead you out of here. It should connect, unless things have changed, to a waterway in Chicago."
Kaoru stopped fighting, choking May so that he could talk over her screams, "Chicago?"
Raymond smiled, "Yeah, Chicago."
The hints of a smirk played at the edges of Kaoru's lips, "'Bout time something went right for a change."Dusty, cool air, a very slight breeze that smelled ancient and stale. Kouzo coughed and groaned, feeling like every part of his body had been hit by a two-by-four. He opened his eyes and found it was nearly as dark as when they were shut. Sunlight filtered down from far above, lancing through hanging clouds of dust and other particles. Necking cracking in protest, the boy lifted his his and looked around. He was on some sort of uneven rocky platform inside a structure of some sort. More like a cave, actually, a second glance confirmed.
Kouzo pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. One of the rocks crunched under his feet as he staggered dizzily about. Rocks weren't supposed to crunch, were they? Kouzo looked down and with a lack of surprise, noticed he was standing on a now broken rib-bone. He now saw that what he originally thought were strangely-shaped rocks were actually bones of a multitude of creatures. There were a few that looked vaguely like some of the dinosaurs he had seen in the plains and jungles, others he could not figure out where they came from.
A dull terror was seated deep in his gut. He was still too tired to be truly terrified, it was more like a slight nausea. He was still surprised that he was actually alive. He vaguely remembered running, feeling a primal terror beyond anything he had ever felt before. The sheer enormity of the thing, and when it focused its attention on them. It could have killed them all without even thinking about it, Kouzo had known the fear of one who realizes just how close they are to death. Then there was something that had hit him hard on the back of the head, and a crushing, suffocating embrace, and then nothing.
Now, apparently he was still alive despite the quite obvious death that was about to happen to him moments before. Mountains of bones inside a... Kouzo looked around again... inside a mountain, a hollow mountain apparently, it didn't have quite the paralyzing effect it normally would have. He turned and with another dose of non-surprise, found himself staring into a pale blue eye taller than he was. His body still hurt all over, his movements were slowed. Even if he were all good to go, he probably wouldn't have made it far. As it was, he had barely turned and taken several steps before he was snatched off his feet, held securely in a colossal, reptilian claw.
Stomach leaping dizzily, Kouzo was taken into the air as the monstrosity easily winged its hundred-tonned frame towards the roof of the mountain-sized cavern. Boulders the size of cars separated and fell for what looked like a mile into the darkness below as the dragon gripped the rocks and hauled its frame through an enormous opening, a caldera of a massive, long-extinct volcano.
Strangely enough, he was once again not killed as the dragon dumped him not wholly ungently on the rocks underneath the setting sun. There was a strange smell in the air here, it seemed to be coming from the weird coloured lichens growing on the underside of the rocks here. Kouzo shook his head, trying to remove the fogginess from his brain. The scent was annoying, fetid yet not completely grotesque, and it clouded his mind, almost like a drug. He watched in dim amazement as the dragon carefully licked the underside of one of the rocks, removing a majority of the fungus there and all but swallowing the rock itself. The dragon then looked down at him pointedly.
Kouzo was confused. He was also tired and hurting an awful lot. It was probably because of this, and the strange, drug-like scent the fungous growths gave off, that he found himself mimicking the thing's actions and licking the foul tasting substance. For a moment there was nothing more that the sound of the dragon breathing. Then, once more with that resigned lack of surprise, Kouzo found himself falling unconscious as the toxins from the fungus made his mind feel like it had been set on fire.A clawed hand gripped the ledge, scrabbling slightly for purchase on the dusty rock. Grimy sweat made getting a good grip difficult for a moment. There was an angry grunt as another claw found it's way over the edge. Wiry muscles strained as Haru pulled herself up, finally rolling over onto her back and staring at the sky for a few seconds, gasping for air and drenched in sweat.
"I'm so... sick of having... to rescue... his sorry ass..." Haru grunted as she painfully turned over and helped Natalie up, who in turn helped Hunter.
Natalie collapsed against the wall, "How... how..." she gasped again, "How... much... further...?"
"We... it looks... oh, only another mile or so..." Hunter heaved, "... and over stuff that's a whole lot steeper..."
"It's a... nice view..." Natalie offered.
There was no denying that. From here they could see for miles. Forests of broccoli-sized trees assaulted the base of the mountain fruitlessly. Plains of light green stretched further away. Above a sky of deepening purple contrasted, split from the greenery below by a thick line of blue, the ocean, miles away.
Natalie breathed in the early evening air, and caught a whiff of something other than stones and dust in the thin atmosphere. Haru had turned to Hunter and was talking to her about how they intended to get further up, especially with Rose to think about. Natalie couldn't help but smile at that. Everything Haru said up until now gave the impression that these 'metis' should consider themselves lucky to be alive, much less actually cared about. And now here she was, worrying over a metis and her kid. She was a little curious about that too. She remembered vaguely, back in Milwaukee, seemingly a thousand years ago, being told that metis were sterile, that they couldn't have children. Was that not true then?
She looked at the child, Rose. Pale skin that had completely failed to show the slightest bit of a burn, despite having been exposed to the sun for the entire excruciating climb. Eyes that were dark to the point that they seemed to lack any irises at all still were open wide, taking in all around them in silent observation, showing no pain or aversion to the bright sunlight. It was weird.
So was that scent.
Natalie found herself carefully making her way further down the ledge, she could almost pick out the direction the scent was coming from. It was strange, complex, and not unattractive. Almost like some sort of perfume. Yet that couldn't be right, they were out here in the middle of a prehistoric fucking wonderland, perfume really didn't have a place here. Neither did computers, Natalie thought with a frown.
"Where's Natalie?" Haru asked.
Hunter turned just in time to see a brightly coloured sandal disappeared around the corner. "Oh for fuck's sake, can we please just have some sort of break?!"
Natalie stared in awe at the flowers. How could they possibly survive this far up? Attached to a dry, windswept cliff-face, the only rain being that which viciously lashed it from the occasional storm. What birds or insects could possibly come this high to pollinate these bright orange and purple flowers? Natalie noticed something interesting about the plant. The flowers were arranged over the large, cup-shaped leaf, nearly four feet wide, with dozens of small stalks radiating outward from it.
But, wow, those flowers smelled incredible. Natalie leaned forward, inhaling the scent with delight and closing her eyes. She couldn't quite place it, yet it evoked memories of the few happy times in her life. Times with mother. Times when she wasn't running or fighting for her life with the pack. Hell, even some of the times she was, because she was with them, and it was fun. She leaned further forward, her nose brushing lightly against the petals of one of the flowers.
There was a small sighing noise, almost like an exhausted lover stretching and relaxing, and all the flowers released a puff of sweet smelling mist. Natalie sniffed, touching her cheek with one finger and looking at the glistening substance that clung to it. What was that supposed to be? With surprise, she suddenly realized she was overbalancing and fell into the soft, cup-shaped leaf. For a moment she lay still, amazed at how soft and comfortable it was. A slight rustling drew her attention, she noticed that the multiple stalks were beginning to curl inward, towards the leaf.
Natalie tried to push herself up, and promptly fell back into the relaxing, cup-shaped leaf. She was incredibly relaxed, so much so that she couldn't seem to work up the strength to push herself back out of the giant leaf. The girl looked at the curling stalks with confusion as they began to cross over each other, almost seeming to form a blanket. As she breathed in again, more of that sweet scent filled her lungs, and she began to feel another wave of dizziness. She tried to push the stalks away, to pull herself out of that giant leaf, but found she was now too weak to do even that. Natalie began to realize the trap she had fallen into. She tried to call for help, but succeeded only in letting out a half-hearted moan.
Haru was the first around the corner. "Oh son of a bitch!" she shouted, seeing the pair of sunburned legs sticking out from a tangle of stalks, overseen by a group of the nicest looking flowers she had ever seen. There was a slightly sweet scent in the air as Haru grabbed one of the legs and started hauling a very confused looking Natalie out from the flower. She looked down and saw that beneath the stalks was a cup-shaped leaf which was slowly beginning to fill with some sort of liquid. Curious, Haru dipped a finger in the substance. Her fingertip tingled as she gave it a small sniff.
Acid of some sort.
"You fucking idiot, don't go smelling the goddamned roses!" she shouted, trying to shake some sense into the obviously drugged girl.
"Hey, she may have found something useful after all," Hunter said, point.
Haru looked. The flower-trap was situated in a cleft in the mountain face. Beyond the thick, sturdy vines was darkness, a cave, leading upward. "Even if it doesn't lead all the way up, we can at least shelter here for the night."
Moisture dripped on exposed flesh, spattering lightly across pale skin.
“Goddamnit!” May shrieked, all but crying in the sweltering heat.
“Shut up, we'll be through it soon,” Kaoru muttered.
“Why didn't they tell us about this?”
“Probably because they figured you'd react just like this.”
“And just what's that supposed to mean?!”
“That you're a short-tempered prima-donna.”
“Yeah? Well you're an abusive asshole, so I wouldn't talk if I were you.”
“If only you'd do the same.”
Mud was streaked across both of them. The thick jungle canopy above prevented sunlight from directly hitting them, but also locked in all the heat and moisture, causing an eternal light drizzle of accumulated condensation. It wasn't a cool, refreshing drizzle either. The water was hot and sticky, plastering itself across the skin like wet plastic, mixing with sweat from within and grime from without to form a layer of heat-absorbing, uncomfortable, itchy slime.
On one level, Kaoru couldn't blame them for not warning them that the way to this supposed 'way out' lay through several miles of what was apparently the hottest goddamn jungle in any alternate dimension. On another level, he had several weeks worth of inventive torture planned for them if they ever crossed paths again. They knew damn well what they were sending Kaoru and May into, the knowing glances and smirks gave that away easily enough.
The next step forward brought Kaoru nearly up to his knees in warm mud. Several large insects darted away, while a leech the size of a rolled-up sock began moving sluggishly towards his flesh. Okay, make that several months of torture, then.
For once, May had stopped complaining about the situation they were in. Kaoru couldn't draw much consolation from that, though. The fact was both of them were far too exhausted to waste energy arguing anymore. Life had become nothing but an extended and agonized exercise in trudging forward, vision limited to the shifting walls of green practically in their faces at all times. The smell of things fucking, shitting, birthing, killing each other, and then rotting away combined with the heat and humidity to form a smothering blanket of unappealing torture.
“Life is so fucking overrated,” Kaoru muttered as he pulled his foot out of yet another mud-puddle, nearly losing a shoe in the process, “When I get back, I don't think I'll miss any of it.”
“Not even the sex?” May asked, panting in the heat.
“If it involves more digging up of those memories... no,” Kaoru replied.
“You... you really don't remember it, do you?”
Kaoru rolled his eyes, “No, I remember everything perfectly, I'm just pretending not to because there's nothing I enjoy more than being pestered constantly about it.”
“You killed me, brought me back to life, and then put me through hell,” May hissed, “I have every fucking right to pester you about it you sadistic fuck.”
“Did I? I still don't remember that. Why would I do that?”
“Because you're fucking insane? What the hell, do you expect me to tell you what the fuck is wrong with you because I still don't know. You're a psychotic, murderous asshole.”
“And yet you're still here with me,” Kaoru said pointedly.
“Yeah, well sometimes I'm not very bright, hey, look, a clearing!”
The ground was firmer here. Even the trees gave out slightly, releasing the trapped humidity and making the temperature seem just a bit lower. Without hesitation, the two made their way to the center and sat down, trying to catch their breath. An angry twitch was growing in Kaoru's right side. He didn't think he had exerted himself that much, but now that he was resting, he began to realize just how exhausted he was. Dizziness began to play at the edges of his vision. His lungs ached, desperate for oxygen, yet still wanting to reject the detestable swirling of the scents of life and death.
May looked away, trying not to cry. For once it was not because of any emotions stirred up by the conversation, but rather because her ankle had gone from 'pained' to 'horrid agony'. She had to agree with Kaoru there: At the moment she was sick of being alive. Yeah, perhaps when you're undead you still have to deal with the occasional broken bone and other injuries. But at least then you didn't have to worry about it swelling up to all hell and making things downright excruciating.
“It's getting dark out,” Kaoru noted.
“Yeah, well, I think we should still head on. Is that the mountain they were talking about?” she pointed to a large forested hill, poking up above the treeline, several miles away.
“Yeah, think we'll make it there before night?”
“What difference does it make?”
“It's annoying enough walking through this crap, I'd rather not do it in the dark as well.”
“This is awful.”
The conversation was interrupted by the sound of running feet. Kaoru and May twisted around to look. There was something streaking towards them across the clearing, the size of a large dog. In the second May had to see it before it was on them, she saw a lean, low reptilian creature. Bipedal, with mottled brown and green skin and a long, stiff tail behind it, bolting across the clearing at an unbelievable speed, fanged jaws open and claws extended with predatory intent. Kaoru reacted first. Even as the thing ran towards him, he calmly and quickly drew a pistol and fired, a perfect aim.
There was a loud, empty click.
Kaoru had just enough time to begin staring at the weapon in shock before the dromeosaur was on him, tackling him to the ground. The jaws darted forward, seeking to grip onto his neck, while back claws raked viciously down the former-vampire's side. May noticed that the dinosaur had a single, very large, wickedly hooked claw on each foot. She shrieked and with a burst of pained strength, kicked the snarling creature off of Kaoru. Ignoring the lance of burning pain in her ankle, she jump forward, burying a sai in the dinosaur's neck.
It screamed and wrenched itself away, tearing off into the undergrowth. “Yeah, and don't fucking come back you asshole!”
Kaoru grunted in pain. May's heart froze for a second, she'd never heard that sound from him before. She turned to look at him. There was a long, deep gash down his midsection and upper thigh, and his right sleeve was nearly torn off, two rows of teeth-marks bleeding freely. Kaoru cradled his arm, gritting his teeth, “Fucker... broke it...”
“Shit! Shit shit shit,” May said, trying to help Kaoru up to his feet, causing another pained grunt from him, “Come on! We have to get you back now!”
“Yeah... shut up... I know,” Kaoru muttered, limping badly and leaning on the smaller woman.
The jungle closed back in, but May hardly noticed. Her entire world revolved around the man leaning heavily on her, and dragging him through the mud and grime. The leaves wiped by her face, leaving behind deposits of moisture and filth. The sodden, permeable ground sucked at her boots. Her ankle, now having been used to kick what felt like rock hard muscles and iron bones under a hard leather skin as well as several miles of marching after being sprained, had now retreated into a burning, numbing coldness. Things cried and called overhead, and she was pretty certain that thing that attacked them was still following them, waiting for another opening as the dusk turned the emerald curtains about them into a dark, slimy green waterfall.
She didn't care about any of it. All that matter was forcing herself onward, dragging her dimly muttering load with her. She wanted to drag her mind away from everything, whatever it took to get him out of this place, back home. She held onto one dim hope: If they returned to earth, perhaps whatever fucked up magic this place put on them would be undone, they would return to undeath, and then Kaoru wouldn't die from his injuries. The price that living death put upon her was worth that.
It wasn't until half an hour later that May noticed the weight on her shoulder was steadily increasing, and the mutterings coming from her load were becoming more disjointed. She found a cracked and broken tree stump and set Kaoru down on it, before collapsing to the jungle floor herself, crying in pain and gasping for breath. Kaoru sagged downward. In her own daze, May saw that he was sweating with far more than jungle heat, his breath coming in ragged wheezes. The bite-mark on his arm was much worse now. Where the skin didn't burn an angry red, there were spreading blotches of sickly mottled purples and blacks. A foul-smelling, yellowish pus leaked from the wounds, mixing with blood to form a vile, sticky orange glue.
Poison? May prodded the wound carefully, resisting the urge to vomit. Kaoru was running a severe fever. No, that was disease. What the hell was in that thing's mouth? May remember reading, a long time ago during her living days, about the giant lizards, Komodo dragons. How their mouths had some of the nastiest bacteria in the world festering in them. How they hunted by simply taking a bite out of the side of a deer, letting it run off, and then seeking it out after it had died a mere hour later from the absolutely vile diseases lurking in its mouth.
“M...May...”
“Shut up,” she cried, forcing herself to her feet and giving a moan of pain as she shouldered Kaoru again, “Just shut up and live, we're getting the fuck out of here now!”
“May... I love you...”
“Oh god, would you please just shut the fuck up?!” she moaned, “Please... please shut up!”
“Nnnnnooo... if... if I'm going, and I'm going while mortal... stuck with these... emotions... I'm letting you know before I d-”
“SHUT UP!” she screamed, forcing herself further ahead, “You're not dying!”
She began crying even as she marched, repeating it to herself, “You're not dying, for fuck's sake.”
“Why are... you do... ing this for... me?” he muttered quietly on her shoulder.
“Because I'm not letting you die before I put you through what you put me through you asshole!” she cried out.
After a minute of further trudging, she added under her breath, “...and because I love you.”
“You fucking tortured me. You killed me. You took me from the one I loved. You murdered your own family out of jealous madness. You're an insane, sociopathic fuck and you deserve to die in agony! But...” May continued gasping, talking partially to keep herself going, “...But I'm not letting you die. Not here. Not in this shitty, hot, piece of shit jungle, goddamnit! You're not dying here, you asshole. I've wished for you to die! I begged for some god to smite your insane ass with lightning while you lashed me and I bled and screamed on the ground! But you're not dying here, you hear me you fucking ass?! You're going back to earth, and I'm going to torture the everloving shit out of you until you understand just what you put me through! And THEN I'll kill you!”
May cried out, half from pain, and half from relief, as she saw the opening of a cave up ahead. It was cooler in there, she noted as she dragged the now completely limp Kaoru inside. The path was simple enough. Thirty feet in, she simply collapsed, unable to take the weight and the pain in her ankle any longer. The girl lay sprawled on the ground, crying in joy and desperation as she looked at the boat sitting in the shallow, underground river in front of her.
Rocks fell down from the roof of the cave behind her. May turned to see several vaguely crab-shaped things, each the size of a basketball, crawling over the shivering, fevered Kaoru and nipping pieces of his flesh off with their pincers.
“GODDAMNIT NO!” she screamed as she collapsed on top of him, pretty much the only sort of protective movement she could work up the energy for.
The crabs skittered out of the way, then immediately closed back in, now nipping at May as well. She sagged as the slicing pain grew over her body. It was over. She had done all she could, but her sad, pathetic mortal body had failed. She couldn't move any more, it wasn't even a question of pain anymore. She simply could not respond, her muscles refused to acknowledge the commands of her mind.
May began crying as more wounds opened up in her flesh. She was going to die here, torn apart and eaten by giant crabs, while Kaoru died of disease and fever right next to her.
And he was okay with that?
May stopped crying, “No... it's not alright.”
She screamed as she forced herself to her hands and knees. “You're... you're not dictating how we die... you're not giving permission... fucker...”
She took the collar of his shirt in her teeth. Tears flowed freely as she slowly dragged him forward, towards the boat. Consciousness was fleeting, and several times she collapsed. Things had taken on a downright dreamlike state. She dimly saw herself waving a sai vaguely in the direction of giant crabs, driving them off over and over again. She remembered a splitting agony rending her back open as she slowly forced Kaoru into the boat, and pushed it off the shoreline. She remembered a layer of skin peeling away on the hard edge of the boat as she dragged herself onto it.
After that things became even more broken. Kaoru muttering something and wrapping a cold, sweating arm around her. The cave ceiling going by faster, as if they were heading through a faster flow. A sudden floating sensation in her stomach as the boat dropped away from beneath them, over the edge of a waterfall. The strange change in the cave roof, going from smooth, stalagtite-ridden limestone to bricks and piping.
And then they hit the muddy water with bone-breaking force. The coldness closed around her, liquid death beginning to fill her lungs. So this was how she was going to die? Drowning in a muddy pool with Kaoru because she was too weak to swim to shore, her own poor choice of clothes filling with water and dragging her to the bottom?
"Well, this is... unexpected," Natalie said, looking around in awe.
"I thought things like this weren't allowed here," Hunter mused, cradling Rose, "Then again, maybe that's why it's abandoned."
"...and hidden inside a mountain," Haru finished.
The buildings had a south-American feel to them, like what one would find in Mayan or Aztec ruins. The city was vast, covering several miles easily. A combination of minute cracks in the mountain face, and some sort of phosphorescent fungi made the going difficult, but not completely blind. The general architecture of nearby buildings was plainly visible, and further away the outlines of other buildings in the miles-wide city could be seen. Clusters of fungus growing on the 'roof' of the cavern, miles overhead, gave the illusion of a night sky, lit with a million cold, blue stars.
Haru pointed at one of the nearby buildings. Mostly collapsed into itself, a single wall was left standing. It was far from the only building like this here. More buildings had partially or completely fallen into rubble than stood whole. What drew Haru's attention though, was the four large gouges in the wall, as if something with a hand the size of a dump truck had taken a swipe at the side of the building. "At least we know the thing that took Kouzo has been in here."
"The dragon?" Natalie asked.
"Yeah, I'm still trying to pretend that was just a trick my eyes were pulling on me. Accepting the dinosaurs is already a stretch for me."
They walked on in the silence for a half hour which felt like half a day. Time here had little meaning anyways. The fungi on the roof of the cavern didn't care what time of day or night it was in the outside world. In this place, this city of silent ghosts, it was perpetual night. Lit only in the dimmest sense by the pallid, watery glow of a million phosphorescent fungi. The silence was all-consuming, almost as if it were a living thing. Even the sounds of their walking, shoes and sandals striking the rubble and dust, were muted and quick to dissipate. As if the darkness and the silence of ages had conglomerated into a living being that hungered greatly for life, light and noise. Conversation faded to nothing, echoing a mute fear that any more words uttered in this desolate place would be taken, consumed and lost forever.
Unconsciously they had set a path towards the large, dark mound near the center of the city. Even in the all-consuming darkness, it stood out clearly against the rest of the shattered and decrepit buildings. Unlike the surrounding geography, this was on an object of sharp angles and broken corners. Instead it rose smoothly, a juggernaut among the ruins, a mountain within a mountain, at least a mile and a half tall, yet still far from brushing the ceiling of the cavern. The clustered, dead buildings echoed the pack's silence with the greater silence of the city they trekked through.
Natalie had to resist the urge to check her PDA every few seconds, it didn't matter here anyways. Most of the stuff she had brought with her was completely useless in this place. A land without the presence or need of technology. Part of her felt distinctly out of place. But another part, a part that didn't think, only wishing to feel, to experience and revel in the sensations, was howling in pleasure at her time here. Even in this city of stillness, it gloried in the scent of dust undisturbed for centuries, of the feel of rocks and detritus under her feet. Of the stale stillness of the air, and its own texture. Just to completely give up the burden of thinking, reasoning, unnecessarily complicating things, and enjoy the purity of raw emotion.
"Hey guys," Natalie couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't just an unthinking creature, goddamnit! She needed a distraction, anything to pull her out of this, "I don't mean to sound cliche or anything, but I kinda feel like we're being watched."
"That's because we are being watched, you dolt," Haru said, pointing upward.
Natalie looked up. For a moment she couldn't see what Haru was talking about. All that was up there was an infinite number of blue pinpricks, adrift on a sea of inky blackness. Then she noticed one of the patches of black was moving. It glided easily around the immense cavern on vast wings, "Is... is that..." Natalie stammered, blood running cold at the sight of the thing.
"It is," Haru said, "It's been watching us for a while now, and I'm getting sick of it."
Natalie caught the tone in Haru's voice and ran to catch up with her, “You're... you're not going to do anything stupid, are you? I mean, Kaoru's an ass, but he's got a point, let's not get ourselves killed pointlessly, right?”
“Hey! Hey you!” Haru screamed, ignoring Natalie, “Hey! Get the fuck down here you pasty scaled creep!”
Her voice echoed hollowly among the gravestone-like buildings, petering out after a couple dozens of yards as the mortuary stillness greedily devoured it.
Hunter discreetly found herself a nice, hard-to-see spot in the rubble which would provide good shelter. Natalie's sense of self-preservation, on the other hand, hadn't activated yet, and she simply stood there gawking as Haru shouted threats and challenges. The roving patch of black circled and began to descend. Natalie was now backing up a few steps, survival instinct finally beginning to take priority over stupefied awe.
“Umm, Haru? We should run now.”
“No, I'm not running again. I lost Kouzo the last time that happened.”
Natalie looked at Haru in a brief moment of admiration. Stupid or not, it took a hell of a lot of guts to stand up for something like that, against something as large as that. Fine, Natalie thought, I'll stand by her. It's the least she could do as a packmate. Face the peril together. She was still trying to tell herself this as she fled in terror from the growing shape. She joined Hunter in the ruins. Several more buildings collapsed merely from downdraft of the gargantuan creature's wings. The dragon landed, sending out shockwaves which pulverized even more buildings. Natalie realized that Haru, in the middle of a decent sized clearing, the only one large enough to contain the dragon's massive girth, was the least at risk of being crushed by falling rubble.
Haru herself had been forced back several steps as hurricane force winds surrounded her, threatening to lift her up and swat her aside like an errant scrap of paper. Despite this she managed to stand her ground. Even when the three-story dragon reared up in front of her and gave a roar which deafened both Natalie and Hunter, several hundred feet away, Haru remained standing. Blood dribbled from her ears, but she still remained standing. Some small part of her, a part which had grown quite a bit as the dragon landed, agreed with Natalie's plan of not dying. Like she did with Natalie, Haru ignored the voice.
“You!” She addressed the dragon, her own voice little more than a dim ringing in her ruptured eardrums, “You took our packmate from us. Give him back now or I swear I will see just how far into you I can carve before you take me out!”
The dragon peered quizzically down at the tiny figure squeaking at it. The creature's mouth, easily capable of swallowing a Buick whole, opened up. For a second it looked ready to dart down and snap Haru up like a brief, forgettable snack. Instead, with a flap of its wings that sent Haru tumbling across the ground, the dragon took off. The pale outline of the creature quickly turned to dark, disappearing among the many pinpricks of light in the immense cavern.
Haru forced herself to her feet. “H...Hey!” she stammered to empty space, her voice hollow and tinny in her partially healed ears, “Don't you fucking just ignore me! Hey! Get the hell back down here you fucker! We got something to settle!”
“God, I sound like May,” she sunk to the ground dejectedly.
“Haru,” Natalie said, emerging from cover.
“This... this is worse than simply getting killed. At least then I could pretend I was fighting for his life.”
“Haru,” Hunter said as the two jogged across the open space, which now looked like a tornado had hit it.
“It just ignored me! And it got away with it too! I... I failed, I couldn't do anything to save him.”
“Haru!” Natalie and Hunter shouted at the same time. They had jogged right past the mourning Garou to a patch of rubble where the dragon had been standing a moment before.
“What?”
“It's Kouzo... he's here.”
Haru practically scrambled between them, “You fucking idiot! Don't you ever do something like that again you dipshit! I'll fucking kill you if you die on me!”
Hunter gently held Natalie back, “Don't worry, they're having a moment.”
“But... but Kouzo's unconscious.”
“Yeah, but nothing looks broken, and she's not going to leave him any worse than normal.”Cording was pulled tighter. The lashed-together wooden logs protested, but failed to move. “Help me out here, damnit!” Haru grunted at Natalie.
“I'll help,” Kouzo said, standing up.
“You sit the fuck back down!” Haru yelled, “You just got molested by a dragon, you're taking a break!”
“But I didn't get molested,” Kouzo said in confusion as he sat down.
Natalie and Haru began trying to haul the raft into the river together. Their slight frames still weren't enough to shift the heavy construction. With a little concentration, both grew ever so slightly larger and more muscular. It proved to be enough, and with one final reproachful groan, the ancient looking raft plunged into the warm water. The rest of the group clambered aboard as the gentle current immediately grabbed hold of the contraption.
Haru rolled over on the deck and glared at Kouzo, “Alright, you were right about the raft being here. You might even be right about this being a way out of here. But, so help me Gaia... you're going to tell us just what the hell happened up there or I'll... I'll...” she waved a hand vaguely in exhaustion, “I'll do something, really bad. Fuck it, I'm too tired to make threats.”
“You should take this moment to relax,” Kouzo said, concerned.
“Fuck you,” Haru muttered back, “I just hiked halfway across a goddamned continent and shoved a ten-ton raft across a beach. I want to know why I'm doing this.”
“To get us home,” Kouzo said dreamily, now lying back himself and staring into the cloudless, azure sky. Winged things that were neither bird nor insect circled miles overhead. “It's beautiful, isn't it?”
“What?” Haru sputtered, trying to will herself the energy to get up and throttle the asshole next to her, “Look Kouzo, I'm going to-”
“No, look at it. The balance between order and chaos. It's beautiful. Things living and dying. Savagely tearing each other to pieces. Starving to death, riddled with diseases, dragging broken limbs through the mud in unspeakable agony. And yet, they live, they breed and spread. Producing more of their own, growing ever more complex, producing us. We're the product of directed chaos and willful destruction, and destined to fall back into chaos again.”
“Wow, that's deep,” Natalie muttered, morosely playing with her PDA. It didn't work. Nothing here that relied on technology more advanced than rubbing two sticks together worked. She wouldn't miss this place. She wasn't certain she believed Kouzo's claim that they were going home. Her hope fluttered, but she kept it tightly leashed so that it wouldn't fall to far when shot down.
Even so, this was kind of relaxing. Between more or less constant running and fighting for her life and virginity, simply sitting back and going with the flow was a welcome change. She shook her head as her eyes grew heavy. This was a special time, damnit! It was nice and peaceful and relaxing... aside from the never ending background of hostility between Kouzo and Haru that is... and she'd be damned if she squandered this special moment of doing nothing by sleeping through it.
Haru propped herself up, “In a second, you had better be praying that I'm choking you to death, Kouzo. Because of all the things I'm planning to do to you if you don't start answering questions, that's the least painful and humiliating.”
“So,” Kouzo gave her a placid, confused look, “What you're trying to say is that you want to know what happened up there?”
Haru flopped back down, covering her face with her hands, “No, just... no. Fuck it, fuck you and everything else. Forget all of it, I just want to be out of here, back home and not worrying about dinosaurs or dragons or getting out of fucking hell. Just go back home, and take a vacation from all of this, most of all from you, you annoying shithead.”
“It's not going to happen,” Kouzo said, “We're stuck together.”
Haru laughed. It was a strained sound. Her fingers were twitching, some lengthening into claws, “That's... that's really not the kind of answer I want to be hearing.”
“It's the truth,” Kouzo said, his voice flat but firm, “I was told... well... more shown, actually. Apparently there is some things we need to do, to find out, then we'd come back here, and be shown exactly how to fix things.”
“Okay, that's a little better, but you're still not making any sense,” Haru said.
“That thing, that dragon,” Kouzo said, “That was the Wyrm.”
“And we bravely venture into the realm of bull and shit,” Haru smirked, “That thing was one clean smelling Wyrm if you ask me. Now that I think about it, I didn't catch the slightest whiff of Wyrm-taint on it. Funny thing for the Wyrm to have... or not have, now isn't it?”
“The reason you can't smell any taint on it is because 'Wyrm taint' only comes from the corrupt portions of the Wyrm.”
Kouzo looked around him. Nothing but blank stares met his profound statement. He sighed, “Alright, look, you all know the story, right? About the Wyld, Weaver, and Wyrm? The Weaver, creator of order, goes and manages to catch the Wyrm in its webs. The Wyrm, trapped, begins to go a little insane. This is where the stories fuck up, though.”
Kouzo looked down at the dark water gently lapping at the side of the raft. The river's current was increasing, almost imperceptibly. “The Wyrm could not extricate its body from the pattern-web, and it knew that it would completely lose its mind if it could not get out. So it did the only thing it could do, it tore itself to pieces. Most of it remained trapped in the web, but several pieces escaped. Most of these, unfortunately, were already corrupted and insane. Only one piece, one portion of the being's psyche, escaped sanity intact. That was the Wyrm of Balance.
“Of the other pieces, the two largest, the two which quickly incorporated most of the smaller portions of the Wyrm's fragmented psyche into themselves, were Destruction and Consumption. Between them, they formed Malfeas, and their own particular... resonance... is what causes 'Wyrm taint'.”
Haru snorted, “Well, I'm not saying I actually believe a word of that, though I'm sure that a lizard the size of a fucking oil-tanker who kidnaps you and takes you on what was apparently an acid trip is completely trustworthy. But what does all this have to do with us? With the whole 'being ready' thing? Are we supposed to be taking on these cosmic powers of corruption after a helpful training montage?”
The drowsy river was emptying out into a larger lake. The far shores were a barely visible line on the horizon. The current should have slowed down, but instead, the raft sped up a little more, heading towards the center of the lake. Kouzo tried to make a stoic, determined face as he looked boldly ahead, but succeeded only in looking slightly constipated, “Yes.”
“Bullshit,” Haru said, spitting over the side of the raft, “And knock that off, you just look constipated.”
“Fine,” Kouzo smiled, “Believe what you want, this is what I was told. The aspects of the Wyrm seek to reunify. It feels that the time is right for it, and so now the individual portions of its psyche are seeking each other out. The catch is that which aspect succeeds in devouring all the others will be the dominating force in the reunified Wyrm.”
“So,” Natalie thought, “what we want to do is make sure this Wyrm that lives here is the last one standing? The good Wyrm?”
“Oh don't encourage him,” Haru said, rolling her eyes.
“There is no 'good' or 'evil' Wyrm,” Kouzo said, “It has no choice but to follow its nature. Unfortunately, for portions of it, that nature's become warped and insane, and causes it to seek the corruption and destruction of everything on earth. That's why we need to make sure this portion, the Wyrm of Balance, is the one that is being the full power of that entity.”
“You're right about one thing,” Haru said, “There is no good Wyrm. Just parts that aren't quite so obviously evil.”
Hunter laughed, “This coming from someone who agreed to help out the Wyrm's second in command.”
“That agreement was made under duress. I only agreed so I could get out of Malfeas alive, dying pointlessly in the middle of that hellhole wouldn't have helped anyone, least of all Gaia.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, hon. Though it is nice to see that you have some practicality under the religious bigotry, it's refresh-oh SHIT!”
Natalie jumped. Despite her resolution, she had nearly drifted off into a light sleep anyways, and the shout brought her back to startled wakefulness, “What? What? ...oh shit, what the hell is that?”
“A whirlpool,” Kouzo said, still in that flat tone of voice, “Just like I was shown.”
“We've gotta get out of here!” Haru shouted, heading to the edge of the raft.
Kouzo put a hand on her shoulder, “No, that's the way out of here.”
Haru glared at Kouzo. She looked with trepidation at the dark funnel in front of her. The last few seconds she could have safely jumped off the raft and beat the current back to shore faded. She sat down, getting as firm a grip on the raft as she could, “If you're wrong about this, you bastard, I will track you down and kill you for at least half a dozen reincarnations.”
Kouzo nodded, “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
The raft began to tilt, one corner dipping into the now rushing waters. Kouzo was now the only one standing. Trying to keep his footing on the rapidly tilting surface, he shouted over the roar, “It's time for us to save the w-”