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clickerflight · 6 months ago

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Clove: Part 20 - Trapped, Trapped, Run

The new and improved version of duck duck goose.

Masterlist - Part 19

Content: (Heavy one today) Werewolf whumpee, human whumper, cuts and bruising, tormented, side character death, (somewhat graphic and definitely gross) creepy whumper, vampire whumpee, fae whumper, angst, emotional manipulation, implied noncon/dubcon

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“Voicebox, heart, liver….. Just have to be patient, Jack. You can be patient. Eyes, skin….. It will all be yours. All of it.”

Jack shifted where he crouched, invisible in the mists as he watched Hyrum. The werewolf pup started circling the ritual place, looking for a weakness to escape through. As if Jack would allow that. Years of preparation would not be wasted here.

“Voicebox, heart, liver,” Jack murmured, fingers twitching as he cast a wind to buffet Hyrum. His lips twitched as the pup stumbled, arms curled around his bare and bleeding torso. His eyes were so wide that Jack could see the whites from here. It made him hungry. “Eyes and skin. You can’t keep them much longer pup. They’re mine. They’re all mine. This land will be mine. That queen will be mine.”

He flicked a finger again, the gravel rising in waves and sending Hyrum to the ground, struggling to get back up.

Jack laughed lowly, entertained for now by tormenting the werewolf until he was too exhausted to keep defending himself. His concentration was broken by the sound of wings above.

He let the gravel fall still again as he looked up, seeing the shape above him. It appeared to be a fae with a hawk-like outline above him.

Jack gritted his teeth. He could hide himself from the pup in the ritual circle, but he couldn't keep hidden from the fae above him.

The fae whirled around, flying quickly away. Jack hissed to himself, standing up and dashing after the fae, gathering his energy and concentration as his ragged coat flew about behind him. He lifted his hand, growling ancient words of power, ill gotten and hard won, and the fae screeched, falling out of the sky.

To the fae’s credit, he rolled smoothly as he hit the ground, bouncing back up to his feet and running across the hills.

“No you don’t, pest,” Jack hissed. “I am the ruler of these lands? Don’t you understand that!?”

He threw his hand out, mushroom flesh enveloping the bird man’s legs. He screeched as he fell to the blue grass and thrashed as Jack caught up, straddling him.

Jack laughed maniacally as he tore the fae apart with long, jagged nails, blood and ichor welling up under his fingers as he ripped and shredded flesh and feathers alike, the dying sounds of the fae singing to him like a siren’s song.

When he was done, the pile of flesh, blood, and feathers was still, killed by the dark magic that infused every inch of Jack’s body. He panted, licking scraps of ribboned flesh off his fingers.

“A scout,” he said thoughtfully to himself. “From the queen? She will know what I intend to do. Not much time, then. Not much time at all.”

He stood up, stalking back through the mists towards the ritual place.

“The pup is mine. No more games. No more waiting.”

He stopped in place when he could see the ritual place again. It seemed there would be more waiting. The pup sat at the top of one of the tall obelisks, shrouded with the magic there, unintentionally finding the best place to be protected from Jack’s magic, even if he couldn’t get down the other side.

Jack snarled, stalking up to the obelisk. “Get down here!”

Hyrum looked down, face set in a hard, fierce expression.

“We’ll do this the hard way, then,” Jack said in a low tone.

…………………………………………………

Ephraim had been in the bathroom a long time after Benny had given him new clothing and showed him the way silently. Ephraim had been fuming the whole way, so Benny decided to stay quiet, but he couldn’t take it anymore.

He knocked on the door and cleared his throat. “Hey, Ephraim? Can we talk?”

There was silence for a long moment on the other side.

“Eef?”

“Oh, you want to talk to me now?” Ephraim replied, sulkily on the other side over the sound of the shower.

“Well…. Yeah,” Benny said nervously. “I’m sorry, really. I know I made a mistake now…. Are you done? Can you come out here to talk?”

“No.”

“Ephraim! Come on. I don’t remember you being so sulky-”

“I have had a very bad day today, Benny. I don’t want to talk about this.”

‘Benny.’ So he wasn’t too mad… hopefully.

“I-I know. You were here for another kid, right?”

“..... Goldenrod. His name is Goldenrod. He’s a werewolf pup I’ve kind of adopted.”

Benny tapped his fingers gently against the door. “What’s he like?” Who did Ephraim choose to have live in his house after Benny was taken?

“Quiet. He’s been coming out of his shell lately. He’s a very sweet pup. Why do you want to know?”

“Just… cause. I missed you.”

Ephraim hummed. “Not enough, apparently.”

“Oh, come on, Eef!” Benny said, exasperated now. “You know the fae are complicated! Living with them is complicated! Being married to one even more so!”

“You’re smart, Benny. You could have figured it out.”

Benny felt something he hadn’t experienced in a while. Something he had been ignoring, rather. Guilt curled in his stomach. There wasn’t much to feel guilty about living in the fae courts. Everyone acted according to their nature and everyone expected as such. No need for guilt here. He’d forgotten how unpleasant it felt. He could have found a way. The courts had made him lazy. His wife had made him feel whole and complete, like there was nothing to worry about or work on. It was the way of the courts. He was a little startled to remember how much he had hated that at first, being stuck on such a plateau of growth, but he’d just gotten used to it after a while.

“I’ll message Margie as soon as we find your pup,” Benny said, more of a promise to himself than to Ephraim. “I promise.”

“Was your wife keeping you from coming back? From sending anything?”

“In the beginning, yeah,” Benny said, another uncomfortable twinge in his stomach. He didn’t like being reminded of the time he spent as her pet rather than as her beloved husband. He didn’t like being reminded that his wife didn’t treat everyone well all of the time.

“You never thought of escaping?”

“I can’t escape. I ate their food. It’s-”

“You never tried?”

Benny felt another sinking sensation in his guts. No. He never had. He’d assumed that to be the truth and made the best of the situation.

Ephraim seemed to sense the answer. “I’m done with this conversation. Leave me be, Benny.”

“Come on, Eef. I’m sorry, okay? This place has an effect on a person! Okay, I admit I might not have been strong enough to fight the effect, but you can’t seriously blame me, can you?”

The silence stretched on, grating on Benjamin’s ears. “I did miss you, really…. Time moves really weird here… like it does in those books you liked to get from the merchants. The fantasy ones. I still remember all of the books you read to me when I was a fledgling. That really helped, you know. You’d think you’d had a fledgling before me with how well you took care of me.”

He hoped the nostalgia would draw Ephraim back into the conversation, but the shower sounds continued on regardless.

“I think I’ll be able to convince my wife to send you home before you need anything to eat,” Benny said. “And I’ll see about visiting, I probably have been here for too long.”

He waited for a response, even an angry one. He just wanted Ephraim to say something.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Benny said, suddenly feeling lonely and scared, like when he first arrived in this place. “Talk to me, please?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin when cool arms wrapped around his torso from behind. His wife rested her chin on his shoulder, humming softly as her antlers brushed up against his cheek. She was wearing her smaller form for him. He’d mentioned once that he’d always thought he’d marry someone shorter than him and she started wearing this form whenever they were alone after that. Her horns were much simpler and her body just a bit plumper, like the healthy women back in his village rather than the sickly stick-thin figure she presented to the courts.

“Hello love. Why are you talking to an empty room?” she purred.

“What?”

He pushed the door open, no regards for privacy anymore only to see Ephraim’s tattered clothing on the ground, the shower still running, and the window open and swaying guiltily in the breeze.

“I think he’s gone to find his pup,” she hummed. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. We should go have dinner, my love.”

“I have to go after him,” Benny said, trying to gently peel Inermis’s arms off of himself.

“Come now, stay, Benny. He can take care of himself. I can send more fae to help him,” she said, pouting and refusing to let go. “Come to the bedroom with me? We can have some fun.”

But Benny wasn’t listening to her, the worry and guilt growing in his stomach as he tried to free himself from her grasp. “Let me go! I need to go help him! There’s a sorcerer out there. Why aren’t you worried?”

“Oh, come on, sweetheart,” she said, moving like a snake to grab each of his wrists in an unbreakable grasp. “He’ll be fine. Come with me, please?”

Benny felt some of that pain in his stomach drift away, a comfortable mollifying mist falling over him despite the bruising grip she had on him. He nodded faintly, taking one last look at the open window before she dragged him off towards their bedroom.

………………………………..

The escape down the jagged side of the castle had been somewhat arduous and painful, but Ephraim had landed at the bottom, clean though cut up and aching. Still, he rolled up his sleeves, made sure his hair was pulled back after that slide and tumble down and took off across the landscape towards the smell of the vampire pit. If he could find that, he could find his way back to the entrance to the fae wilds and then go the direction Jack had taken Goldenrod.

“I’m coming,” Ephraim panted, running faster as he left the silent cobbled courtyard and got into the soft grass. “I’m coming!”

Part 21

Clove Taglist: @wolfeyedwitch @the-blind-one-speaks @whumpsday @extrabitterbrain @inkkswhumpandstuff

@honeycollectswhump @whump-blog-reblogs @pigeonwhumps @mj-or-say10 @percy-frayer

@currentlyinthesprial @scoundrelwithboba

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