#i fear the leopards have begun to eat faces

[reggiecristal]

Calls that staff's behavior here is totally unprecedented while I saw people perpetuating the Russian infiltration psyop myth used to ban dozens of Black bloggers just yesterday...

[darkwoods-darkdreams]

Imagine you’ve found work in the country (IV)

The time had finally come. You had been terrified of this moment ever since you had realized the gravity of your situation. It was the middle of dinner when you felt a dull pain in your back. You continued eating like nothing was wrong. You refused to let yourself become a spectacle. Well, any more of a spectacle than your swollen belly created.

Just as you glanced down at your stomach, a familiar hand was placed on it. The palm rubbed in large circles.

“You’re being awfully shy tonight,” The worker’s free arm wrapped around your shoulders.

You glared at him, but said nothing. You would have pushed him away, but your womb was so large that you feared the smallest shift would cause your water to break.

His hand slipped beneath your dress, stroking your thigh, “I thought you said that you were overdue. How long are you going to keep me waiting?”

“Shut up,” You hissed. You could feel your abdomen twitching, preparing for real contractions. As everyone else finished their meals and headed to their rooms, you and the worker stayed. You would have to clean up, but it seemed that he was intent on being next to you.

He sighed, letting you go and walking to the stairs, “Maybe tomorrow, then.”

You listened as the floorboards creaked above you. As soon as they stopped, you whimpered softly. You looked down to see your belly visibly shifting beneath your dress. You carefully stood. The sooner you cleaned up, the sooner you would be able to find a quiet place and give birth without anyone finding out. You could dispose of the evidence and deal with the consequences later.

The moment you stood, warm fluid spilled down your legs. You cursed under your breath, grabbing a rag from the table.

By the time you finished, you were sweating. Your vision was blurred by your tears as you slowly ascended the stairs. One hand gripped the railing while the other was clamped over your mouth. If you made a sound, the worker might come into the hallway.

You opened the door to your room. You just wanted to grab a blanket to keep your warm. Maybe another to lie down on. You doubled over in pain, groaning as quietly as you could as another contraction hit.

“I was wondering when you would come.”

You tensed. In the darkness, you hadn’t seen the worker sitting near the window. His arms were crossed, one leg over the other. You could still barely see him in the faint light of the moon and stars, “Why are you in here?”

He stood, glancing to your stomach, “You were making quite a bit of noise downstairs.”

You wilted. You had hoped that no one had heard. Then again, he was probably listening for even the slightest sound. You backed away from him, “I don’t want to do this.”

He laughed, “How cute. You still think you have a choice. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, you know. The father deserves to watch his children be brought into the world,” He pushed you down onto your cot. The weight of your womb alone kept you pinned to the floor. You couldn’t reach his hands as he pulled up your skirt to reveal your stomach as the muscles clamped down on its contents. He spread your legs.

“Stop, please,” You begged. Your tears spilled over as he stuffed you with his cock.

“I hope it takes hours,” He smirked, “I hope that you pray to every god you know for it to end. I want you to beg me to let you give birth to our children. I can’t wait to see the look on your face when our first brat starts crying and you can’t help but look after it. Instincts are a powerful thing, after all.”

You still hadn’t told him that they weren’t human. You didn’t even know what exactly was inside of you. You tried not to think about it. But things were moving too quickly. You wouldn’t have time to explain. You weren’t sure if you could even find the words. You were afraid of what his reaction might be.

You cried out as he dragged you to release again and again. By the time you finally felt something move against your opened cervix, you were oversensitive and quivering.

He must have felt something, too, because he withdrew with a grin, “Don’t try to fight it. Your body knows what it wants.”

Your nails dug into the fabric of your cot, nearly tearing it. The pain was too much. You wanted to scream. You could feel it descending inch by inch. Even when you refused to push, your womb did half of the work on its own. But it was taking too long. You exhaled shakily. The longer you protested, the more you would suffer. You pushed.

The worker sat back down in the chair, grabbing a bottle of ale from the windowsill, “There we go. You’re a natural.”

You gasped, falling back against the bed. You were already exhausted. You didn’t know how you could keep going. It was stuck inside of you. You felt unbearably full. You couldn’t hold back anymore. You screamed, a prolonged howl of pain.

You opened your eyes when you heard the bottle shatter. The worker was sitting, his jaw hanging open and eyes wide. Your throat tightened. You had begun to crown and he had seen that you weren’t carrying anything close to human.

“What the fuck…” He stood, knocking the chair over, “What is that?! What happened? What did you do?!”

You sobbed. It wasn’t out of guilt, but out of shame. It would have been easier if you gave birth to human children. When the entire homestead found out about the monster from the sky, you would only suffer more. The owner could kick you out for carrying such abominations. Or maybe you would die from the complications.

The door opened to reveal the owner, “Would the two of you shut the fuck up?! I’m trying to sleep and all I can hear is-“

Your legs twitched as the object finally slid from your body. You whimpered as the second pressed into your birth canal. You couldn’t hide it anymore. You were doomed.

The owner knelt down beside you. You tried to crawl away from him, but he grabbed your hair, “Do you realize what you’ve just done?”

You didn’t answer, another moan escaping you.

He smirked, “You just made me one of the richest men in this region,” He smoothed your hair away from your face, “I know several collectors who would pay me a vault full of coin for just one of these eggs,” He touched your stomach, “And you’re giving me...two? Maybe three? I could buy a title with that much money.”

“Please,” You shook your head, “I don’t- I can’t-“

He grabbed your chin, “You no longer work for me as a cook. You’re going to be my broodmare.”

Within a year, your life had changed.

After he sold the three eggs to the highest bidders, he brought you to one of the largest cities in the kingdom. He bought himself a title and an expensive suit at one of the finest inns the city had to offer. He kept you in a small bedroom, a satin collar around your neck attached to a golden chain. Jenn was abandoned. You had become his entertainment. You learned quickly that saying no to him wasn’t an option. He wasn’t as strong as the field workers, but the chain gave him an advantage.

Once he found some other wealthy men and lords that shared his depravity, he invited them to his penthouse and introduced you to them. You sat on your bed, your hands trying to cover your body. You were never given clothes. They each paid handsomely for your services, laughing and drinking as they waited their turn.

Eventually, one of them hosted a private party and invited you and the owner to attend. You were given a dress. The corset was tight and you wore nothing beneath the skirt. You were paraded around by your chain like some pet. When enough coin was slipped into his pocket, the owner let random men take you by the collar and drag you to someplace quiet. Once the first payment was made, you ended up stuck on that one bench for hours as men stumbled across you and paid the ludicrous fee.

This party was no different. You tried to walk as closely to the owner as possible in order to hide the chain he held. You kept your eyes glued to the floor in front of you. Making eye contact was the easiest way for men to approach you.

“Someone special invited us,” The owner smiled, “He’s very thrilled to meet you.”

He brought you in front of a fat man in lavish clothing reclined on an expensive looking chaise. He was eating and drinking sloppily. You withheld your look of disgust. Surely you weren’t going to be forced to climb on top of him and-

“Ah, this must be your golden goose,” The man spoke between mouthfuls, “That egg you gave me is a hit at every party I’ve thrown.”

“I trust you’ve been doing well?” The owner made small talk, tugging at your chain to keep you from backing away.

A low growl made your gaze fall to the floor. In front of the chaise was the largest cat you had ever seen. A panther? A dark leopard? You couldn’t tell. It was eying you from its spot on the rug. You flinched a bit as it growled again.

“So, I’m sure that there’s a reason you invited us to this party?”

“Ah, yes,” The man sat up, “I want to propose a bit of a business deal.”

“Go on.”

“Is she pregnant?”

“No,” The owner explained, “I’ve been saving that for only those that can pay the fee. I’ve had a witch make her some potions that keep her from conceiving, but she also made me a potion that makes her pregnancy guaranteed.”

“You have a woman that has been bred by a monster. I host the most luxurious parties this kingdom has to offer. Why don’t we both make a bit of money? We could hold auctions at every birth. I know many exotic pet owners that are looking for breeding opportunities.”

The owner bowed, “What a lovely suggestion. I’m more than happy to oblige.”

“Good,” The man set down his cup, “Then let’s start with my panther. Beast.”

The animal lifted its head, growling softly.

You took a step back, only for the owner to grab your arm. He pushed you forward. You stopped just short of stepping on the creature in front of you. You froze, terrified as it hissed at you.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” The fat man shouted to the rest of the party, “Feast your eyes on the rarest of events! A beautiful lady is about to be ravaged by an animal. But that’s not all! As the moons pass, you will see her grow round with the animal’s young!

Tears filled your eyes as many partygoers began whispering to each other. Within minutes, the area was crowded. A small, corked bottle was held in front of you. The potion that would make you fertile. Before you could even reach out to throw it into the nearby fountain, your jaw was pried open and the liquid poured into your mouth. By the time you pushed him away, only a few drops spilled from your lips. The rest settled in your stomach. You felt dizzy.

“On your hand and knees,” The owner’s demand was a harsh whisper in your ear, “Now.”

You complied with a whimper, staggering a bit as you sank to the ground and got into position. The other guests laughed. You could see some of them stroking themselves through their trousers and skirts.

With a flourish, your skirt was pulled up. The panther sniffed at your legs for a moment, then mounted you, causing the crowd to cheer. You remained still as the panther growled, its cock prodding between your legs. The potion made your body feel hot, desperate to have something inside of you. You spread your legs a bit more and angled your hips. Another round of applause erupted in the crowd as its cock slipped inside of you. You gripped the stone tiles beneath you and moaned as the panther thrusted into you mercilessly. The barbs raking against your walls reminded you of the first time you had been bred.

Sure enough, a familiar heat poured into your cervix. The panther withdrew, its seed spilling down your thighs. You remained on the ground, still dizzy from your own release.

After a mere moon had passed, you were already showing.

[twilightprince101]

Why I love Yan-Shu Chi/Leopard Cat: A Character Analysis

While I am fully aware that I don’t need to have a reason to love an F/O and self ship, I still want to explain why exactly I love this boy so much. I still love Likulau and Lin Hu just as much-refer to my carrd, we’re in a poly relationship-but I feel like Shu Chi overall is in a different bag than them.

 I absolutely adore his antics and how cute he looks (I mean look at that face. How can you say no to that face), but what I want to focus on is his actions throughout the game, more specifically: Shu Chi’s self perception and his actions surrounding that. For a while I didn’t know why I loved him so much, but after playing through the game three times now and seeing his actions with full context, I believe I now know where my affection comes from.

(Spoilers for all of Nekojishi. Also to clarify, I’m solely referring to the SFW version, I like to pretend the NSFW version doesn’t exist)

So for anyone who doesn’t care about going through and playing Nekojishi themselves or it’s been a while since you’ve played, here’s the general gist for Shu Chi: From the beginning you are introduced to Leopard Cat as a spirit that is possessing Liao/MC/Your classmate, Yan Shu Chi, doing so in order to try to convince you to help him with repairing his spirit temple. However he does insist that since he is possessing Shu Chi’s body, he has all his memories and should be treated as one and the same, and throughout the game you do.

But if you stick to his route until the end, the truth is revealed: The real Yan Shu Chi is dead, killed by the Leopard Cat spirit you’ve grown to know.

Apparently Leopard Cat is not actually a god, but a devilish yaoguai, born at first like a natural predator, eating people’s souls to survive. With each soul he consumed he gained that one’s intelligence and memories, slowly becoming more intelligent until eating human Shu Chi and quite literally becoming him. The entire time he tried to get close to you was to eat your soul since it was special *obvious hand waving* and needed to eat to survive.

At the end of the game though, you’re able to talk him down and through help from Lin Hu, transform him into a half-god, no longer needing to prey on others in order to live normally, in exchange for continuing to pretend to be Shu Chi for the sake of his friends and family. Blah blah blah, happy ending for everyone!

So now that his actions have been explained, let’s get into the real meat of this whole thing: Shu Chi’s self perception and overall growth in his ability to trust (for simplicity and epilogue’s sake, I’m going to continue referring to him as Yan Shu Chi).

Now knowing that Shu Chi was putting up an act in order to deceive you, it’s easy to realize that his actions early in the story were just attempts to get close and trick you. His moving in with you, constantly pestering to go on dates, his quirky and pretty boy attitude: all of those are a part of his facade. But as the story progresses, the line between act and true feelings becomes blurry as he is shown true, unconditional kindness.

Around the mid-point in the story, Shu Chi has to move out and go back home to his family, as they don’t agree with his lifestyle and sexuality. Since Shu Chi is still putting up an act, he needs to leave in order to preserve it. But if you bought him the husky hat in his first date, making sure to clean it while keeping his stuff laid out during his absence, you give it to him as he is about to leave, and he’s shocked by this.

Let it be known that, growing up, it was quite literally in his nature to prey on others. He had to in order to survive and it was all he knew, so he couldn’t even fathom the idea of doing things for others and was-in all senses of the word-unable to change. He was never shown kindness as a yaoguai, always hunting and being hunted, hurting others because it was the only thing he knew. Even through the first half of the game he doesn’t see the stuff you do for him as acts of kindness, as he was the one that prompted them in the first place like going to hot springs and having a picnic.

You keeping the husky hat for him is the first time Shu Chi has ever been shown unprompted, unconditional affection. Because of this, self doubt had begun to form and as he turns to leave, he needs to actively hold back tears.

It’s at this point the cracks begin to show in Shu Chi’s act. For the first time he has been shown kindness and affection, entirely unprompted, without asking for anything in return. He begins to doubt not only his actions, but himself, wondering if any of this is worth it, or if he is even worth it. For a while, he distances himself from you, in hopes of trying to rid himself of these feelings. But those feelings don’t go away, the guilt grows into self-loathing and only gets worse.

Later on during a date in the arcade, Shu Chi says that he will soon have to stop possessing your friend’s body, as his spirit power is slowly fading away to nothing due to his loss of followers and his temple. This is still a lie in his act as Shu Chi, but it isn’t done to prey on you, it’s done to distance himself from you even more, out of fear that he’ll just go on to hurt you down the line. 

But once again Liao does something he doesn’t expect: offers to build him a temple in his room. The underlying rules for gods in this game is that their life force is tied to spirit power, which comes from worship. This worship doesn’t have to be at a temple, but it is stronger there, and as long as one person worships him he will have enough power to stick around. So by Liao/you offering this, you’re giving Shu Chi a chance to live on.

This moment, this moment right here, is the moment that absolutely breaks him. In an attempt to distance himself from you, to get away in an attempt to keep you safe, he is offered a true act of kindness without asking for anything in return. This person he has lied to and plotted against for so long, under the pretense of yet another lie, is willing to help purely for the sake of helping. 

It’s at this point he realizes: He truly does love you, and to him, that is hell.

His self-loathing spikes as he struggles with all of the guilt that has piled up, and just for a moment his act drops, admitting to you that he does in fact want to stay and be with you. But the fact that he is a yaoguai, that he has to prey on others in order to survive, plagues him. It is unknown if at the start he was comfortable with what he was, but for the rest of the game he is disgusted with himself. “I want to be with you, I want to stay with you, I don’t deserve you, I am a monster.”

Of course, if I’m talking about Shu Chi, there’s one thing I know I have to mention: the bad endings. Throughout Nekojishi there are a handful of bad ends, but for Shu Chi there are mainly two, both following the same order of events. Liao gets hit by a truck, and as he slowly dies, Shu Chi pulls you into a dream where he is your guardian tiger, putting him at ease in his last moments. But while they follow the same events, the context of both of these scenes are drastically different.

For the first one, it is a little before he moves out. Shu Chi lures you into the street on purpose to be hit, pulling you into the dream as a way to lower your guard so he can consume your soul. For the second one though, it is immediately after the arcade scene, after Shu Chi realizes that he wants to be with you, wants your affection. He still lures you into the street to get hit, but he immediately regrets it after, mourning the loss of the only one that cared for him.

When he pulls you into the dream this time though, it isn’t so he can consume your soul. It’s so he can continue to be with you. He realizes that, through all of this, he still does want to be with you, but he feels like he can only do so through lies. So as you’re on your death bed, he creates a dream where he can be with and comfort you in your last moments, paying back the affection you’ve given him. He wants to love you, he wants to be loved. But in his eyes, this is the only way that can happen: through lies.

From the arcade date onward, the self loathing and self hatred grows even more, with his perception of “I am a monster” lingering throughout. After enough time, eventually, he begins to truly believe that. “I am a heartless monster, that is all I will ever be.” Because of this self-perception, in the climax of the game, he leaves in the most messy and destructive way possible: tricking Likulau into trying to kill you and running away.

But through the help of Lin Hu and Likulau, you track him down and talk to him. Through all of his self-hatred over being a Yaoguai, he’s fully convinced himself that he is a monster, and it is in his nature to hurt others. Not a choice, but an inevitability. So instead of staying with the threat of hurting you down the line, he burned the bridge with gasoline and napalm.

As the conversation progresses though, it’s clear that through all of this, Shu Chi is just afraid. Not just of losing you, but through everything. As a yaoguai who was raised to prey on others, he was-in a way-born evil. So those that were “good” hunted him to protect others. Gods treated Yaoguai as a menace, so they had to become more devious to survive. Shu Chi isn’t evil, he was raised to believe he was. 

So now that both Lin Hu and Likulau have him cornered, with his actions being brought to light, he thinks that he’s going to die. If he runs, he’ll be hunted. If he stays, he’ll likely be killed. There’s no way out. He’s nearly entirely committed to this act he put on to fool himself. But one final act of kindness makes that act completely crumble: being spared and turned into a half-god, freed from having to hurt others.

It’s important to clarify that Shu Chi wasn’t forced to come back to negotiate. He chose to do it himself. In his mind he feels like he’s going to die no matter what he does. So when he was presented a choice, he came back. The act of being presented a choice alone broke the act he built up for himself. Even if either ended in his own death, he came back, because he wanted a reason to live.

These final moments truly show Yan Shu Chi’s character. He’s not a monster, he was raised to believe he was. He’s not evil, he’s just scared of affection. Then, finally given a chance to live on without hurting others, he is brought to tears.

All of this is why I love Shu Chi. Throughout his entire life he believed himself to be a monster, but over the course of the game through acts of kindness, he slowly transformed from a being who’s sole purpose was to hurt others into a human longing for affection and a reason to live.

This isn’t a quick fix ending either, it still takes a long time for Shu Chi to accept who he is and he still feels immense guilt for what he’s done. This can even be seen in the epilogue, where he puts others’ happiness over his own, doing something that could potentially get him killed in the process. But in the end, he still wants affection, and compared to how he started out, he is an entirely different spirit.

That is why I love Yan Shu Chi. Not because he’s cute, not because he’s playful. I love him because he is flawed. I love him because of how much he’s grown over the course of the story. I love him because of him trying to protect others from himself, even if they hurt others in the end. I love him because in the end he isn’t evil, just unlucky. I love him because in the end he just wants affection.I love him because of how he realized he has just enough potential to be good as other people.

I love Yan Shu Chi because despite everything, despite the way he was raised, despite what he has done, despite everyone else and even himself saying otherwise, 

Yan Shu Chi is human.

[prissyhalliwell]

Author’s Note: It’s been 84 years…or maybe just a year. Still, too long. If you’re reading this epilogue, I love you forever <3 There’s a fair amount of exposition early on, but I promise there’s some really cute stuff after that ;) 

P.S. There was smut published yesterday in this verse as a oneshot. It happens canonically before this chapter, but can be read whenever. Enjoy!

~ Winner of Best Mr. Gold in the 2016 TEA Awards ~  Read on AO3

Chapter Fourteen: Epilogue One Year Later

Belle stood alone on the stage of the Enchanted Forest, enjoying the unusual quiet for a few moments. 

The stage was mostly dark, the overhead lights giving off only enough light for her to make her way around the set without tripping on anything. She had expected to find Gold waiting for her after she received his cryptic text to meet him there, but she didn’t see any sign of him. 

Or anyone else for that matter. 

“Hello?” she asked, warily. At this point in the evening, at least a few people should be around. “Is anyone there?”

Someone was obviously around as the lights were still on. If everyone had gone home, only the ghost light would have been on. Perhaps Gold had just stepped out for a moment. 

Belle blushed when she remembered the last time she’d met him here when the theatre was deserted. If that’s what he was hinting at when he’d asked, he really should have been more specific. 

She would have been happy to grab her princess costume from wardrobe if she’d known. 

It certainly would have been a memorable way for them to celebrate their one year anniversary. Today was one year to the day that she and Gold had finally admitted their feelings for each other and had their first real kiss - an intimate moment that they had happened to share with an auditorium full of strangers. 

Just the memory was enough to bring a goofy smile to her face. In the days following their kiss, she had been so happy that her face had actually begun to hurt from grinning so much. 

The show had been a complete success that night. The crowd ate up the changes and tickets for upcoming shows had begun selling faster than ever, thanks to word of mouth and the glowing review Merlin had given them in the newspaper the next day.  

Her and Gold’s date with Cruella and Ursula had also been a success, but not necessarily as a double date. They’d barely made it through one drink before the costume designer’s patience had worn thin. 

“Alright, that’s it,” Cruella finally said, setting her glass of mostly gin and less tonic down on the table rather loudly. “While I am overjoyed that you two have stopped being idiots, you should probably just get a room already, because I am tired of getting kicked while you pretend you’re not playing footsie.” She shot Belle a dry look. “Also, Granny’s is a family establishment, Belle. If you could keep your hands above the table, that would probably be best for everyone.” 

She and Gold had left pretty quickly after that, giggling loudly as they exited Granny’s, leaving behind a laughing Ursula and an amused, if rather exasperated, Cruella.

Despite Cruella’s suggestion, they hadn’t gotten a room or gone back to either of their places. As well as things were going, they had both felt it was too soon for that step. Though from the way they had spent the rest of the evening making out as they wandered around Storybrooke, Belle had known it wouldn’t be too long before they stumbled their way towards a bed. Or a sofa. Or anything that had a horizontal surface. 

Once Gold had finally gotten over his fear of kissing her, he couldn’t get enough. It was like a dam had broken. Every chance he got, he’d sneak a kiss or wrap her in his arms for a quick makeout session when no one else was around. 

Not that she had complained. In fact, Belle hadn’t known if it was possible to be any happier than she was at that moment. 

But as the weeks and months rolled by, Belle realized she couldn’t have been more wrong. Life was only getting better by the day. 

The theatre’s business flourished under the new script, bringing in steady customers week after week. Sidney had been the first to admit that he had been wrong not to embrace a change before now, and had to frequently be reigned in by Tiana from making unnecessary changes to the script, menu, stage, seating arrangements, interior and exterior of the building, and literally anything else that could be changed in any way, shape, or form. 

Their workshop classes had also taken off, providing an excellent space to experiment with the show’s script and giving Belle a chance to strengthen her improv skills. The students, especially a few of the girls, never grew tired of setting her and Gold up to perform romantic scenes between the princess and chancellor. For the most part, the two of them were happy to indulge the paying customers, especially if it involved an excuse to flirt unashamedly. 

Despite its rather rocky start, her relationship with Gold had been free of the drama that had plagued their earlier interactions. They spent most of their free time together, despite seeing each other every day at work. Their free nights often found them cuddled up on Gold’s sofa, watching old movies and eating popcorn that they’d made in Belle’s air popper, which had somehow taken up permanent residence in Gold’s house, along with half a dozen of Belle’s dresses, a handful of her favorite books, and one or two medium-sized boxes full of shoes. 

Gold was also teaching her to ride one of the theatre’s horses, a small Appaloosa mare named Chip. The horse had a white coat with leopard-like black spots and blue eyes that Gold said reminded him of Belle’s. Chip had gotten her name a year ago from Henry, who had observed that she looked just like a chocolate chip cookie. 

They’d been slightly worried about how the rest of the cast would react to their dating, but they needn’t have worried. Everyone - including Regina - was just relieved that they’d finally figured it out. Tiana had given them a wink the first time she’d seen them holding hands. Leopold had given them an awkward thumbs up while Jefferson and Killian had made some rather inappropriate hand gestures that August had immediately chewed them out for. 

Emma had just rolled her eyes and murmured, “Thank god” into her coffee. 

But surprisingly enough, it wasn’t only their relationship that had flourished. Despite Cruella’s assertion that marriage was not for her, she and Ursula had ended up eloping to Paris six months after their double date. They were now happily living in Cruella’s townhouse with two dalmatians and a large aquarium full of tropical fish. Belle and Gold were invited over for dinner frequently, and always showed up to work the next morning with a hangover while Cruella cheerfully walked by them with a smirk. 

A sudden creak up above her head brought Belle back to the present. She craned her neck towards the lights but couldn’t see anything, though she could swear she heard a muffled laugh. 

She shivered. Perhaps this was why actors didn’t hang out in empty theatres by themselves. It was too easy to imagine they were haunted. 

Beginning to grow impatient, Belle wondered again where Gold was. His text had made it seem urgent, so she had rushed over. Her brain automatically leapt to the worse-case scenarios. Could he be hurt? Could his new job offer have fallen through? 

Gold had finally confessed to her that he had been planning to put in his two weeks’ notice the day she had first joined The Enchanted Forest. The fact that meeting her had convinced him to stay was a great boost to her ego, even as her heart had raced at the idea that they had almost missed working with each other and, consequently, falling in love.   

But thankfully that had not been the case and they had gotten an amazing year and a half to work together. Things had only gotten better in the past year as the theatre had become financially stable and even begun to make plans for expansions. As much as Gold loved his castmates and the character of the Chancellor, it was a good time for him to move on. When the theatre had been in trouble, it had felt like a betrayal to leave, but now that it was a success, Gold could leave with an easy conscience.  

He’d finally accepted Zozo’s offer to join the company at the Dagger Theatre, where he’d be able to perform in a variety of shows throughout the year. His first play with them would be Macbeth and she knew he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into Shakespeare again. 

Belle would miss performing with him every week, but she knew it was time for him to try something new. She was pretty sure any lingering guilt he might have felt about leaving evaporated when August announced the new script and her leading role in it.

Not only would Belle’s part be expanded, but she was being promoted to queen. Both she and Regina would be queens of warring nations who put aside their rivalry to unite against their true enemy, Killian, after they discovered his plot to play them against one another. 

Having seen Regina in fight mode in real life, she knew the other woman was up for the task. Belle only hoped she could match her onstage.

The fact that she got to stab Killian each night was an added perk. Even if it was only a fake sword that -

Belle froze, hearing something moving in the dark. She paused, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from.

A click echoed overhead, loud in the otherwise silent auditorium. Immediately, the dim lights brightened, bathing the stage in a warm glow. 

Belle spun around, gasping as she saw the giant pink heart projected onto the castle wall behind her. 

Gold appeared from behind the set, dressed in full armor, and carrying a rose exactly like those the knights gave away during the show. 

Belle blinked, wondering if she had fallen asleep on stage while waiting. Surely this wasn’t actually happening? 

He extended the rose to her with a slight bow. “Belle, you’re the only one I want to give roses to for the rest of my life. I am head over heels in love with you and want nothing more than to spend forever by your side. Would you make an honest knight out of me and be my -”

“Yes!” She leapt into his arms, causing him to drop the rose, and kissed him soundly. 

After a moment or two, he pulled back. “I wasn’t finished yet. I had an entire speech prepared!” he said, trying to sound sulky but failing miserably as a broad grin spread across his face. 

Belle laughed. “You can tell me later,” she whispered suggestively, grabbing his collar and raising her face for another kiss.

“You forgot the ring!” yelled a voice from up on the lights. 

Belle’s head swung upward. “Is that Ursula?” 

Before Gold could answer, a second voice chimed in. “Of course, it is! You didn’t think we could let this moron try and pull this off by himself, did you?” 

Gold grimaced. “Thanks, Cruella.” 

Belle stifled a giggle. “Ursula’s right, you did forget the ring.” 

“No, I didn’t! It’s on the rose.” Gold bent over and grabbed the flower. Sure enough, a ring was tied around the stem with a red ribbon. “If you’ll have it?” he asked, the corner of his mouth quirking into a shy smile. 

“She already said yes!” Cruella yelled. “Just put it on her finger already.” 

“Drink your vodka and give the man a second,” Ursula chided. “Honestly, he’s probably a nervous wreck after how long it took you to figure out the lights.”

“I am a costume designer, darling, not a stagehand. These hands were made for art, not working lights!”

Gold ignored them, pulling the ring from the ribbon and holding it up for Belle’s approval. A sparkling blue sapphire with a halo of small diamonds adorned a simple rose gold band. It was perfect. 

She nodded emphatically, letting out a giggle as he slipped it onto her finger. 

“I rather thought it matched your eyes,” he said, soft enough so only she could hear. 

Tears sprang into her eyes. As he pulled her close for another kiss, a cry of excitement went up on the lights.

They both laughed as they kissed, too overjoyed to care about their audience. As always, everything fell away but the two of them when they were on stage together. 

They broke for air, grinning at each other and probably looking like a pair of love-struck fools. Belle couldn’t have cared less. 

A feeling of contentment washed over her, as if her life had come full circle at last. The Enchanted Forest’s stage was where she had first seen Gold, where she’d gotten to know the man behind the Chancellor, and where they had fallen in love. It seemed only right that it had become the setting where they began the next chapter of their lives together.

With a goofy grin still on his face, Gold offered her his arm. “May I escort you to dinner, my queen?”

Belle took his arm, ignoring the catcalls from up above. “Oh, I think dinner can wait a while, don’t you, Chancellor? I can think of a few other ways to celebrate.” 

He smirked. “As you wish, your highness.” 

As they walked out of the theatre’s entrance into the parking lot, they both glanced back at the building. No matter what paths life took them down from here, the large stone building with its giant banner would always be their real home. 

Snuggled up against Gold with the comforting weight of her engagement ring against her skin, Belle smiled up at the old theatre. Perhaps The Enchanted Forest had its own magic, after all. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author’s note: Shout-out to @beastlycheese for prompting an onstage wedding proposal and @rumpledspinster-art for sending me a video about Medieval Time’s current script which inspired Belle’s new role as queen - thank you both! (Sorry it’s been sooooo long in coming!)  

Also, a big thanks to everyone who has loved on this story over the past four years! I really enjoyed writing this zany bunch of characters. 

[geminimoonbeamx]

Bucky Barnes x Plus size reader Confessions

Word Count: 3K +

Warnings: Smut. Oral(male receiving) Mentions of violence and trauma. Mentions of Anxiety. Lotssss of cursing

Bucky wasn’t feeling so hot, the run in with the Hydra agents a few days ago was still taking it’s toll on his body. Being a super solider, genetically enhanced to be able to take a beating, was the only reason he was still alive. His three cracked ribs we’re all but mended and most of the superficial bruises and cuts we’re healed, leaving in their wake little scars and lumps. The gash that had been sliced into his head, the one that Bruce had said would have been his doing in, if not for the “super healing”, was all stitched up and still throbbed, but had begun to scab up and was reacting to the stiches well. He still had to wear the bandage that annoyed the shit out of him and itched something awful, but it was a small bargin to make.

The whole group that had gone on the mission; Tony, Steve, Bucky, Thor and Nat were all recuperating from the blood bath that had went down were all still hurting for the most part.

Bucky had been forced to bed rest, to let his body be idle so it could recover fully, and hadn’t left your room in over 48 hours. He liked your room a lot better then he liked his, even though it was identical to his lay out wise. Being the S.H.E.I.L.D appointed “Baby Sitter” to the Avengers meant you had moved into the tower, Tony giving you a “bunk”.

It was like being back in college, and at first you’d been annoyed. For you, who had lived on your own for years, the idea being forced to share your space with other people was daunting. But the so called “bunk” Tony gave you was one of the large, modern rooms. You’d made the best of it. Made it your own. Your large bed was adorned with soft bedding; littered with soft faux fur blankets and piled high with decorative, throw pillows.

Bucky liked to tease you about them because “who in their right mind needs this many pillows?” but in secret, he loved your bed. Loved how comfy and homey you we’re able to make the space. He felt the whole building was a little to clean, too hospital like with Tony’s mod decoration, but not your room.

It smelled warm and sweet from the littering of candles. Just like you.

He’d all but moved in to it with you since you two had started “going steady”.

He never knew how much he hated sleeping alone til’ he’d started sleeping with you, your plush body reassuring next to him. Your soft arms and doughy thighs wrapping around him, welcoming him to cling to you. The nightmares that had plagued him nightly now came in far lest frequent bursts, something about being lulled to sleep by the sound of your muted breathing, was like an all natural sleep aid…what he didn’t realize is that you, and your sleeping habits had become dependent on him too.

On the warmth he seemed to generate, on his small wheezing snores, on his arms protectively thrown over you.

You hated when he went on missions, dreaded them like you dreaded nothing else. Waited for him desperately, throwing yourself into whatever work you could find to keep your mind occupied, until he came home to you. It was a little pathetic really. You, a (Y/A) year old woman, not being able to sleep. Or eat. Or think right with out this man.

You always imagined the worst while he was gone, tied yourself into knots, had to take more of your anti-anxiety medication then normal. What if he was taken by Hydra again? What if they killed him this time? They only consolation you had in those panic laden moments was the absolute knowledge that Steve loved Bucky as much as you did. Maybe even more. And that he would NEVER let any of that shit happen.

The latest mission had brought your fears to life, you knew it was bad from the news reports. From the frantic coms back to base. They’d been ambushed by a group of Hydra agents who had some weird, deadly alien weapon; a bomb. Twelve civilians had been killed. The group almost been killed. Watching them hobble into the tower was like watching a scene from a war movie. Slow motion, all of them bloody. Like something out of a fucking nightmare. You’d almost hysterically sobbed at the sight of him, limping- his hair matted with grit and gore. Even though Bruce and the other medical’s had assured you both that he was fine you was still pretty shaken up.

You were more happy to have your beat up soldier in your bed, where you could see him. Where he was tangible and breathing. You weren’t very sure you ever wanted to let him out on another fucking mission again…

You walk into your room and see Bucky sitting propped up against the headboard and a white furry blanket pulled around him as he watches the TV. His eyebrows are knitted together, and it would almost look comical paired with the bandage on his head(major grumpy cat vibes) but the TV flashes with News images from the battle that had ensued in Japan. That had left him bruised and battered and bed ridden.

You shut the door behind you, loud enough so that it catches his attention and his blue eyes snap over to your entering frame and he gives you a half grin as you kick off the pair of leopard print heels, eager to get into bed with him.

“Hey kitten” He gruffs out his special name, just for you, as you climb cautiously onto your side of the bed. He’d told you that he wasn’t hurting much anymore, that you didn’t have to be so carful but you weren’t listening.

“Hi baby” You reach over kiss his scruffy cheek, nosing the indent below his cheekbone for a moment. Just breathing him in. You’d had, had to leave for a few hours, go do your job and work on cleaning up the aftermath.

Why had the hours felt like an eternity?

He looks you over, frowning a little bit as his metal hand comes up to stroke your cheek. You look tired, not even the concealer could hide the bags you were sporting.

“You look ’s bad as I feel” He mutters, not liking the state of his girl. You huff a laugh. A sweet little sound.

“That’s not very nice, asshole” Your words hold no venom, only teasing as you pull away so that you can get a better look at him. He doesn’t look so great himself. You finger the edges of the bandage on his forehead feather lightly.

“You know I think your a dime piece” Bucky reassures and you roll your eyes “You look exhausted though”

“That’s because I am. I didn’t really sleep that much last week. And now you’re a cripple and I’ve got to be your nurse, you’re never going to give me a break, are you? Being with you is my second full time job now” You tease and he pokes your shoulder in retaliation, but it’s made him chuckle. Which was your goal.

You could always make him laugh. You we’re such a little shit.

“Why didn’t you sleep last week?” He thinks he knows why, but he wants to make sure. Wants to hear you say it.

“You know I cant sleep with out you” You admit to him, gnawing on your bottom lip for just a moment “Which is fucked up because I used to love sleeping alone. Did you take your pain killers?” You quickly switch the subject, leaning up on your arm to look down at him with a crooked brow.

Bucky sighs. He knows that you’re not very comfortable talking about your feelings like this, not even with him. In the four months that you’d been together, he’d learned that for as affectionate you could be, you weren’t good at voicing what you felt.

And he loved your voice.

“Yeah, I took some almost an hour ago- you know I cant sleep without you either right?” He pulls on your arm, trying to make your rigid posture loosen.

You’re unyielding, your mouth quirking and nose scrunching. He knows that’s your thinking face, you’re I’m unsure of how to feel face. So he goes on with how he feels instead.

“I had nightmares almost every night…I don’t remember them being so damn vivid, you know? Since I haven’t been having them as much lately. Steve didn’t really know what to do. I could tell he was real worried though. I felt like crap, I tried to suck it up but all I wanted to do was be here with you. In your arms. That’s all I ever really want, if we’re being honest here”

Hearing his confession makes you drop your head to his chest and wrap your arm around him, tighter then you’d let yourself in days.

“I thought you we’re dead, Buck. When Tony commed in- it was so fucking fucked up. And then you we’re all covered in blood and I was- I was just…so scared. I cant sleep when your gone. I cant eat. All I can do is freak out and be a total spazzy mess until your back” Your own confession comes in a fast woosh. Your words tumbling over themselves.

He rubs your back in soothing circles through your shirt. I’m here, it says. I’m alive.

“I’ll always try my hardest to come back to you. I’ll find a way back” Bucky vows and you just shake your head.

“You cant promise that. The shit that goes on out there is out of your control” it’s mumbled into his chest. Your voice cracks and it breaks his fucking heart, seeing you all torn up the way you are. Over him.

“Hey, Y/N, look at me. Please, kitten” He nudges your head with his chin “Please?”

Your eyes rise to meet his. (y/e/c) meeting baby blue.

“I know I cant promise that, but what I can promise is that you’re all I’m thinking about when I’m out there. And it…makes me fight harder. Because I just want to come back and see your face, one more time” he squeezes your dimpled cheek in affection and your big teary eyes roll “plus, I’ve survived a hell of a lot. You repeat that to yourself when ever you get scared, kay? I do”

You nod, taking mental note.

Your man had survived an a hundred foot drop. The war. Hydra, multiple times. He’d survived being an experimental plaything, he’d survived being a prisoner. He’d survived Nat’s pancakes(which had almost killed you all).

“I love you” It’s not the first time you’ve said it to him, but the look in your eyes…the complete and utter devotion. Like you were admitting, to both yourself and him, that you were his. That you’re whole fucking world crumbled when he wasn’t around. That you needed him more then you’d ever needed anything.

It makes the pit of his stomach tighten and stir because no ones looked at him like that…ever. Not even before he was a murder, before he was tainted by all the shit he had been forced to do. To have you, giving yourself to him. You, who shown like sunshine. Who demanded attention and respect, who was the most quick witted woman he’d ever met- truly had the compacts to love a man like him.

It boggled his mind. It set him on fire.

He reaches so that he can press his lips to yours, kissing you with all the things he cant say. He doesn’t ever feel more like himself, James Barnes, then he does when he’s kissing you. Like if you could see something in him, then maybe it was really there.

“I love you. I love you. I love you” you chant it like a prayer between his kisses. All that pent up emotion coming out in pure, raw endearment. He goes to roll over on to you but hisses at the strain, at the pang in his ribs.

“Hey” You soothe, pushing him back lightly into his positon against the headboard “You’re still hurt, broken ribs don’t heal over night, not even for super soldiers”

You laugh but he groans.

“Come here then” He pulls at your waist a little, wanting the intimacy of your bodies being pushed together back and you’re more then happily to comply.

You drive him nuts, he’s so attracted to you it kills him sometimes, he’s in a constant state of love goggled want when it comes to you. And when you praise him, with your words and your lips the way you are now, he melts. He’d give you anything you asked for He’d do fucking anything for you.

“Kitten” Bucky sighs as you kiss the expanse of his bristley neck, nipping at his jaw, nosing his collar bone. He couldn’t really move right now, which you knew meant sex was off the table. But his groans and moans, his needy hands. The thought of him having nightmares without you. It all spurred you on.

You just wanted to take care of him. Wanted him to feel better. Wanted how much you loved him to surround him.

And you’d always been a very…physical lover. People who think big girls don’t care to have sex lives are wrong. You need that connection. Especially with him. And it had been missing for a week.

Bucky feels your hand slink lower on his chest, still careful for the remaining bruising. Running over every nook, every muscle that was taught with excitement. You let draw circles on the apex of his hips, just above where the ‘V’ of his hips meets his sweat pants and his lower stomach contracts, beautifully.

“Y/N” he hisses as you tug at the hem of the sweat pants, enough to allow his cock to release from it’s confines, stand tall, and slap against his stomach.

You don’t think you’ll ever get over that view.

“Going commando, are we?” You whisper in his ear as you stroke the underside of him with just your fingernails.

“Please don’t tease me” Bucky begs. He knows how you are. Has been edged for hours before “Not tonight”

You nod against his jaw and begin to move your hand “Okay, baby, okay”

There’s so much pre-cum already, you use the palm of your hand to rub at his tip and the strangled little moans you get in return are fucking heaven.

Then, your moving down him, not putting any of your weight his healing abdomen as you go eye level with his cock. It’s dangerously plump, red and swollen as you hold him by the base.

“Poor baby” you coo as you press a loving kiss to the tip, running it over your lips in an attempt to soothe the engorgement “I’m going to take care of you, Buck. Don’t worry”

Bucky’s head snaps back hard onto your many pillows as he lets out a long breath tough his nose as you proceed to leave open mouth kisses all over him, sucking the sides of his hard dick, giving him all of your attention. Wanting to get every inch of him before you take him into your mouth.

You’d never had that great of a gag reflux, but god damn it, your try for him. Take as much as him into your mouth, down your throat as you can. Your body rejects it, your tight little esophagus tightening in protest and the gags you let out loud as you fight to take more.

Bucky’s eyes roll because holy shit, you’ve never taken this much of him in your mouth before. He has to see, he lifts his head enough so that he can see down his body, to where his cock is burred in your mouth. Your (y/c/h) is tumbling around your head, falling onto his stomach so he runs his metal hand trough it in order to collect it, to get it out of your face, to help his good little baby doll.

You look up at him, your eyes teary, the makeup around them smudged and messy. His cock in stretching your mouth wide, your pretty lips bursting at the seams with him and he fucking loses it. His hips roll, even through the pain from his ribs, and he lets out a screeching moan neither of you had ever heard.

Maybe it’s because he hasn’t cum in a week. Maybe its seeing you, willing suffer to take him like you were, he doesn’t know.

“I’m cumming. I’m cumming, Y/N” He warns but you don’t pull away. You continue to gag around him, sucking and bobbing.

He cums harder then he thinks he ever has. The long milky spurts fill your throat and you breathe through your nose as you attempt to take it all. Bucky cant even form a complete thought, his mind has gone white hot, his ears are ringing and his whole body keeps shaking uncontrollably. You reach up and grab his hand, in an attempt to wordlessly support him, to anchor him.

I’m here, Buck. I’m here.

It’s impossible to catch it all in your mouth and it seeps from the corners of your lips, dribbling down your chin, your neck, into your shirt and cleavage. You don’t give up though, taking it until the spurts stop and he’s ran himself dry.

“Y/N” Bucky whimpers as he pulls on you hair, he’s too sensitive. Your mouth on him feels searing and near painful and you slowly release him with a little ‘pop’ and then look up at him through your eyelashes, your eyes cartoon like. Bashful and soft and young looking. Your lips were swollen and raw and glistening, your chin still dripping with traces of his cum. Your hair messy and wild from his fingers.

You’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Haunting.

His fingers stroke across your forehead, pushing tendrils of hair away as his chest swells with fondness.

“Oh Christ, Y/N” His strong arms pull you up to him “Come here, baby”

“Your ribs!” Your protest but he doesn’t listen, he just holds you tight on top of him, cradling your face with his flesh hand, his metal one holing your soft waist.

“I’m sorry- I know you don’t like- you didn’t have to swallow” He whispers as he wipes at your damp chin. You’d never been a swallower, always begging him to tell you when he was close so that you could pull away.

You shake your head, hard.

“No, I wanted to” You insist, and he smiles at the fire in your voice.

He really was in trouble. Was in deep, when it came to you.

“I love you, Y/N” His tone…sounds something like worship “I love you so much. I cant- your-I need you more then I-” He still cant think completely straight, not after that orgasm and you press a small peck to his lips.

“I know, Bucky. I love you too”

Raise your hand if you’d suck Sebastian’s dick in a second *throws both my hands in the air* I got a lot of Bucky oral requests so here you all go! So I’m kind of thinking about doing a collection of these? With this certain reader who works PR an psychology for the Avengers? Maybe?😬

[fenneckitsune]

Marina.

Marina was obtained through an auction from the forum game thread ‘dungeons and a dragon’ where the object was essentially like twitch plays pokemon, where multiple people controlled the actions of one dragon. Below the read more is her story from the thread itself.

There comes a time in every young dragon's life where they must set out on their own. After all, few dragons remain in the lair they were hatched in. So, after receiving gifts from her parents and taking her own personal affects, she set out. As she walked down a dirt path, she saw before her a fork in the road. Her parents had told her she'd find someone who could open the gifted box for her somewhere, but she forgot where... Which way should she go? After several moments' consideration, she decides to go straight, to the little town. The town is cute, with little dragonmade structures lining streets in which dragons go about their business. Some stand behind booths, harping their wares, others drag wagons full of unique wares, others still converse with one another in the streets. Marina's attention is first drawn to a stall containing a variety of fish and shells, and then to one with something shiny resting on the counter. Next she notices what seemed to once be a gnarled tree that's been shaped into a structure of some sort, and hanging above the doorway is a sign upon which a picture of a cat is sloppily painted. Finally, she notices a colorful tent with designs embroidered on the thick cloth. She pays little mind to the fish stall, and gives the one with shiny objects and the tent only a passing glance as she heads to the structure with the cat on the sign. Cats were good. Clearly that was the most important place to go. Inside the structure was surprisingly well lit by what seemed to be some bioluminescent fungus, and a variety of creatures played in pens. There sat a desk off to the right, but it seemed unmanned. Marina's attention is drawn to the pen full of creatures. Inside are a variety of small animals, and though she has to think for a moment, she recognizes each from her studies and what she's seen around her first lair. Inside the pen she sees a Leopard Coralclimber, a Coral Basilisk, an Emerald Cave Jewel, and a Brush Dodo. It's a strange grouping but a wide variety of animals. Still, the owner is nowhere in sight. Marina takes a moment to glance around for an owner, but these creatures are just too cute! She cannot resist the urge to stick her paw into the pen, just to touch one animal. Her fingertips brush the Coral Basilisk's feathered back and it shies away, wings fluttering and making a clucking and squawking fuss. Immediately from a doorway (if the hole in the upper wall could be called that) a little Fae sticks her head out. "Spot, shh-- oh. What are you doing?" "I just wanted to pet one..." Marina answers the fae, looking just a bit guilty. "Hm. Well. You are just a hatchling. I suppose I'll let it slide." The fae says before climbing from her hiding spot. Marina can see that she's a fairly plain, amber and brown colored fae, but carries a number of bags on her. The fae continues, "Were you looking for work or to buy something?" "What jobs do you have?" Marina asks of the fae. The fae seems to size up Marina for a moment. "Well, familiars always need food and I can hardly go out hunting it myself, so I could use someone to go out and catch bugs and maybe a couple of small animals for me. I could also use a courier to take familiars to dragons in other places. Beyond that, well, you'd have to look elsewhere for work." The fae adds that she would pay 100 treasure for every food point brought back, or 1,000 treasure for each familiar delivered if taking a courier job. Marina decides that she'd do the hunting job for the fae. The fae explains that she's got four familiars in the shop, and each of those need at least one food point, but three is ideal. She then hands Marina a map with a couple areas circled, indicating good hunting spots. On the map are mostly areas Marina has at least looked at before. There's the woods visible from the fork in the road, the base of the cliff, and a field just on the other side of the town. It's a hard decision to make. Every region surely has its benefits and appeal. However, after staring at the map for a good long while, Marina finally decides to head to the woods. She bids the fae farewell, and makes her way out of town and down the road to the edge of the woods. The woods are lovely. Sunlight peers through leaves, speckling the ground, and the trees stand tall and straight and strong. Marina hears birds sing and sees the occasional bug skitter across the ground, and she swears she even saw the tail of something small as it pranced off through the bushes. It's no contest what Marina should do. She hasn't the strength to take on anything directly - even large beetles are scary to such a little dragon! She sets about digging a hole, moving rocks and twigs aside (and finding the occasional bug, which she quickly catches) before covering the hole with leaves. She retreats into some bushes to watch her trap, waiting for anything to come along. She'd nearly dozed off, her eyes having just closed when she heard a sudden commotion! She rushed to the now uncovered pit and looked inside. She had caught a cottontail rabbit! Even though by now the light of day is fading, Marina finds herself pondering her choices. While in town, her choices seemed easy, her path clear. Now that she had ventured out into the wilderness some, though, she wanted more. The rabbit and bugs would be fine in her bag until she needed them. What was the hurry? Though, now that she thought about it, she was starting to feel a bit hungry, too. Maybe she'd eat some of the rations she was given by her parents. Once she decided what to eat, she pulled out her map and peered at it in the fading light as she debated on where to explore. She sat down with her dried jerky for a quick dinner and looked her map over. The cliffs other places were tempting, but she already was in the woods. It might be easier to just stay here to explore more. Once she had finished eating, Marina put away her things and began following what seemed to be a path carved by other feet passing through in the past. As the light faded further, she began to realize just how dark nighttime could be when a canopy of leaves blocked out the stars and moon and she found herself slowing so as to avoid tripping over exposed roots and rocks. Marina had come this far into the woods already, and doubted that she could find her way back even if she tried. And even though the thought of just sitting and waiting for another to pass by crossed her mind, she decided against it. She continued walking, her pace little better than a crawl as she made her way along, trying to keep to the barely visible path that lied ahead of her. Around her she could hear the night coming to life with the hoots of owls, croaks of frogs, and chirps of crickets. Somewhere off in the distance, she swore she could hear the burbling of a stream. If it weren't so dark and creepy, it might almost be relaxing to just listen to the sounds of the woods. Then she heard a twig snap. At the sound of a twig snapping, Marina turned to face whatever it was that stepped on it. She breathed a sigh of relief when standing before her, apparently frozen in fear as it gazed up at her, was a little Glowing Pocket Mouse. She dismissed it with a small laugh, but then something occurred to her: this mouse certainly was a long way from home, out here in the woods. She leant in closer to study it, wondering if maybe she'd found some woodland variety, but she barely got the chance to really inspect it before it skittered off into the undergrowth. She turned to resume her travels, but in that next instant found herself face to face with a Serpenta. Oops. She turned and ran without a second thought from the Serpenta, paying little heed to where she was going and trying just to put as much distance between herself and the creature. Suddenly the ground beneath her feet seemed to vanish and an instant later she found herself sprawled out on smooth stones, with water splashing against her. She stood and shook, for whatever good it would do while she remained in the apparent creek. She looked around. It was so dark. She didn't know where she was. She thought she saw a light out in the distance, but it was a tiny floating thing. It could be the Pocket Mouse again, but then again it could be a traveler with a lantern... She stood in the cool water for a few moments, watching the light bobbing along in the distance as she considered her options. Eventually she decided that she would follow the creek. It seemed the safest of her options. Marina plodded along through the water, letting the pull of the current and the slivers of moonlight glinting off the surface guide her. Now and then she would stumble on slippery stones, but as she carried on she began to get a feel for how to move. She didn't know for how long she'd walked, but the sky had begun to turn purple as the sun rose somewhere off in the distance. It was as the sky lightened further that she saw ahead of her a spring, the origin of the creek. She slowed to a stop to take in her surroundings in the improved light, and finally noticed the growling of her stomach and ache of fatigue in her legs. She waded through the creek towards the edge of the spring where she finally climbed out of the water. The grass was soft beneath her feet. She took her recently caught rabbit out, deciding that it really was worth more to her to eat now than it was to return to the fae for a reward. With her belly full and soft morning light peering through the trees to warm her, Marina felt herself quickly drifting off. When she woke, a strange dragon was peering down at her with curious pale eyes. "Hello." Marina greeted the little dragon standing above her. Immediately the dragon twittered, a sound between surprise and delight, as she pranced away without a word. She stood about twenty feet away, near the other side of the spring, looking at Marina. Marina climbed to her feet and shook off her sleepiness and the grass and looked at the other dragon. "Please don't run away! Come back!" Marina called out to the other dragon, whilst remaining standing where she was. She was wary. What if following the other dragon led her into a trap...? The strange dragon trotted back to Marina, stopping just a few feet away before wiggling playfully, spinning, and bounding away again. Perhaps she wanted to play? Marina took off after her. Once the strange dragon saw that Marina was giving chase, she took off running. She was quick, but stopped now and then to allow Marina to catch up. She ran up a small hill, darted around trees, and through bushes until finally coming to a stop upon a boulder. Upon the boulder were scratched symbols. It looked like the drawing of someone young. Quite possibly the strange dragon's work. Marina stepped closer to peer at the boulder, when suddenly a light from beneath her caught her eye. She stepped back and the light faded. She looked down, noticing for the first time that there was a line of symbols in the dirt as well.

Marina pressed her paw onto the pawprint, and it lit up. It was the same soft light as had caught her eye before, but when she looked up to the strange dragon she saw her shaking her head. Apparently that was not the right symbol. When she removed her paw again, the light faded once again. She looked at the symbols a moment, her attention torn briefly between the flower and the drop. Well, water was her element so what could it hurt to step on the raindrop? She lifted her paw and pressed it onto the raindrop symbol. It lit up like the paw print, just a faint light that faded once she removed her paw. Again, the strange dragon shook her head. The dragon sat and watched her curiously. Marina confidently pressed her paw onto the flower, almost certain that this was surely the correct one! Again, however, it lit up faintly only to fade when her paw was removed. The strange dragon seemed to sigh, shaking her head again before leaning down to repeatedly tap the carvings on the rock's face. "Hey! Look there! Look more closely!" her actions seemed to say. There really was one more choice now, though. And yet, Marina was determined that the paw was what she should step on. So again she placed her paw there, a look of determination in her eye as she stared up at the strange dragon as if to say "HA! I KNOW this is the one!" The strange dragon smacks her own paw to her face and drags it down with a look of exasperation. She sighs, and just stares at Marina. Like before, the paw lights up with just a faint light that fades when her paw is removed. Weird. That really should've worked. Well, what hasn't she tried yet? The sun, of course! She planted her paw onto it, and finally there was a different result. The light beneath her paw had a pleasant green tone and glowed brighter than any of the previous illuminations. When she removed her paw, the light remained.

After having the sun light up differently, Marina took a look at the stone carvings again. She had it! She was sure she understood how this puzzle worked! With confidence she pressed her paw onto the pawprint now. Like the sun, when she removed her foot the pawprint was lit with a green light. The strange dragon smiled down at her, pleased that she had apparently realized what to do now.

Lo and behold, after the paw print came the flower! When she pressed her paw to the flower symbol and removed it, it too retained a green glow. It seemed that there was only one real decision left, then!

The strange dragon remained on the rock, but sitting beside her now was the box Marina's parents had given her at the start of her adventure, the lock on it now clearly undone. Had she taken it while Marina was sleeping? Was it magic? Was it really the same box? Who cared that the strange dragon seemed to have unlocked the box? It was unlocked! Marina could finally see what was inside! She clambered up onto the rock beside the other dragon and lifted the lid of the box. The first thing that catches her sight is a letter that reads "Dear Marina, if you are reading this it means that you have managed to pass the trial of a guardian! Congratulations! We're so proud of you! Inside this chest are a few items we thought would help you as you go off to explore even more exotic locales and discover more about the world. Good luck out there! Mom and Dad" Inside the box were a number of items: Field Manual, Scholar, Discipline, Aid, Hydro Bolt, Major Health Potion, and a Cleansing Elixir.

[kalon12]

Message of Change

Raising my muzzle to the air I catch the strong scent of grease, metal, humans, and huisdiers. My hackles rising as I crouch next to a sabre-toothed cat, a pack mate, waiting for the signal. Unable to resist my mouth pulls back in what humans call a ‘sneer’, really humans are conceited and hateful, the quietest of growls mixing with the panting and breathing of the others. My ears turn as I hear the roar of the Velus, a Barbary lion and alpha of the pack, in the wild language, unmixed with human taint that invaded when they forced these vertaler collars around our necks.

Shuddering briefly with the pleasure of that wild sound I leap up and race down the ridge we had been waiting upon, a howl leaving my muzzle, filled with the joy of the hunt and a call for my group. A giant Teratorn glides down to my shoulder, his wings ruffling my grey and brown fur as he speaks a message from Velus, a slight croak in his voice, “Botolf, my lieutenant, you are to take the northern quarter for your mates are the fastest and can reach there before any human dares to leave.” A nod of understanding and the Teratorn leaves to inform Velus of my acceptance. A wild glee and hunting rage again enters me as I howl, sadly with the human taint, “We go north!”

The sabre from earlier falls at my right shoulder and a fellow dire wolf, though smaller than I, at my left, the rest my quarter falling behind in a typical vanguard style. Mammoths, aurochs, sabre-toothed, barbourofelis, cave hyenas, homotherium, and others, pound the short, cropped grass that’s tipped with frost. Cries of the hunt, of anger, and of rage, fill the air from all corners.

We race around the city towards the farthest edge, steadily pulling away from the crowd of the pack. The sabre-tooth next to me cries out, his fangs glistening in the late afternoon sunlight, his collar creaking in the cooling air against his hot body. Soon the cries of human terror fill the air around us and a red glaze falls over my amber eyes, my thick, grey, winter fur streaming behind me as we cut off the final route of the humans escape.

A twitch of my ear, a flick of my tail, and my hackles rising spreads my quarter out around me. I race forward with a silent command for my fellow dire and for the sabre to stay behind and guard the exit in the shadows as I go forth, hungry for the blood of humans upon my fangs.

I hear the low growl of a huisdier to my left, a zanzibar leopard with a clean vertaler collar wrapped around its spotted fur. My ears whip about as another sound follows underneath that low growl. Pinpointing it I stare into the shadows behind the zanzibar to see a rich mistress pressed against the wall in fear.

My eyes return to meet with the deep brown eyes of her obvious huisdier. That despicable domestication of that which once was, and still should be, purely wild. In those eyes I can find emotions swirling in their depths. Obviously there’s anger, because hey!, I invaded her, yes her, territory, I find fear, well why shouldn’t she fear? I’m far more powerful than her, and then I find some unnameable emotion. Is it that thing called ‘protective’? Towards whom? That cowering human dressed in frills and a sickly sweet scent?

Unable to hold the question back I speak, my words coming through my vertaler collar, a simple black strip of leather and steel that quivers as my vocal chords shape ideas into being, “What is a proud zanzibar leopard such as you feeling so protective of? This territory? There’s so much better than here.” My deep bass is calming from the earlier blood lust and rage and falling into simple query.

  Her response is a rumbling alto, obviously forced through that continuous growl, “I would never expect you to understand. You, who does not understand the gift that the Dutch have given us you Woesteling! You may call us huisdiers, but you have not learned, you have not seen, you have not understood those gifts that the humans gave us!.”

Snarling my vision is again tinged with red, my hackles rising at the insult that a meager human could possibly give us anything, “What ‘gifts’? All they have done that I could consider a gift at all is returning us to life! For giving us enough intelligence to overthrow their overbearing fist. That is all! Even those are flawed though. Our lives are, at most, ten years even for the hardiest of us. Most only live until they are, maybe, six years. I’m a pup of one year and considered to be in my prime! The intelligence they gave us is eroding our own knowledge of our inherent instincts, our very lives!”

As I spoke I noticed her lips pulling back into a vicious snarl. Slowly her brown eyes narrowed at me and when I stopped she could barely speak, “You ignorant little pup. That ‘flawed’ knowledge that is ‘eroding’ our instincts is merely because you yourself are choosing to ignore them, not because of the added knowledge. Our thousands of years of existence cannot be erased in a mere 200. That shortened life span is simply because the older generations had yet to adapt to this new world. Now that they have begun adapting you, who are but a pup, and others likely you will soon begin to far outlive even our ancestors!”

Growling I give my name, as is proper for a fight that was to begin, “I am Botolf. You have angered me and in the name of pack and freedom I shall fight you and then kill your mistress!” Charging forward I swung out a great, grey speckled paw, catching the zanzibar off guard and leaving great, bloody gashes in her left shoulder.

Her recovery is swift. Even as she limps off of her left front leg she charges at me, her claws unsheathed, her fangs bared. It becomes a blur. Charge, swipe, leap, snap, grapple, fall, wrestle, scratch, nick, and bite. Minutes later, though it feels like so much longer, I rise, blood coating my grey and black coat. Mine and hers. She was little of a match, barely able to scrape through my winter pelt, but she left an impression, and, now that I can take stock, some scratches that drip steadily, slowly, on the fresh snow. When had the snow started to fall? I don’t know anymore. Shaking my head I turn to pounce on the little human, only to find her running towards the zanzibar and I. Shocked I can only stay still as she falls to her knees and hugs the great, once proud, head. The iron scent cooling on its fur, on her hands, and on her clothes, fills my nose. The little human female’s tears fill my nose with the added scent of salt while her sobs manage to block out the crazed sounds of the battle that had always been a constant background. My mind, locking onto the scene of a human truly mourning for a huisdier. A lowly pet.

Backing away I turn back to the north. Through my quarter pack even as howls, growls, and cries follow my race. All I can really hear is the pounding of my heart, the pounding of my paws, my heavy breathing, and my own overwhelming thoughts that are all jumbled and nonsensical. The cracking as my world slowly tries to shatter. Suddenly I hear a howl. It sounds like mourning. Mourning for what? Why is it following me? Then I realize, even as I collapse in a hollow tree, the snow falling heavily outside, my breath pluming in the air, that it was my howl. A howl of mourning for those that I never thought I would kill. A mourning for my own comfortable world dying.

As night falls I try to run from my own thoughts even as they pursue me. But some never leave. Memories of my old bezitters. Memories of screaming humans as I ripped their throats. The fresh, blood stained, the memory of that little human mistress, crying over a cooling, bleeding, huisdier body. None of them leave me alone. Yet somehow I sleep. A deep sleep, pitted with memories revisiting me even in my sleep. A small redhead young woman running with me as a pup, her hair pulled back in a ponytail even as it tries to escape. Her laughter, pulling my face into the closest I could come to a smile. Tumbling through the grass and water with her small hands always close to my fur. A young man, black haired and serious, but with a boisterous laugh and a small smile, never far behind. Days spent napping in the sun. The young woman curled tight against me, the young man just to the side, a tail sweep away.

Waking I blink my eyes and shake my head of the fuzzy memories that fade as I stand and walk out into the fresh layer of sparkling snow. The occasional track of a deer or some other creature running through it. I shake my body, ridding myself of the last vestiges of sleep and put my nose to the snow, hoping to find a scent for some food. Nine months of no hunting is making the search for the food a little difficult, but not horrible. Soon enough the chase is done and I have breakfast steaming in my mouth. The blood, a sharp, metallic tang in my mouth, the blood ringing my muzzle and my paws.

After I eat I find a river and wash off the blood. Once all of that’s done I race through the forest towards what I roughly recall as being northern Maine. My mind fuzzy and ignoring my thoughts until I hear a scream and I register the normal scents and sounds that are accompanied by a human residence.

Curiously I move cautiously towards the scream, my ears pricked forward, the sound of paws crunching the snow, and the sound of cloth scraping against uneven snow. I come upon the scene undetected, but still myself behind a thick, evergreen, bush, my eyes peering through a small break. What meets my eyes is an obviously mated pair of normal wolves, collared, pushing a small human female against the trunk of a tree. The human female is what, somehow, manages to catch my attention.

Even after the changes that time and change has wrought, I still recognize her. The red hair messily pulled back in that ponytail. I can’t help it, I growl. At that growl the male of the pair twists towards me, his eyes narrowing. Seeing no way out I stand, my size augmented through genetic engineering making my species closer to the old human ideas of a dire wolf.

Stepping around the bush I face the mated pair and growl, no thoughts of using the human language in my mind. All I can remember are sunlight afternoon naps and laughter. My mind focused on the protection of this human I ran away from so many moons ago. The smaller female circles behind me, her breathing harsh, her paws breaking the snow. Her mate stays in front of me, crouched, ready to leap at my throat.

A howl claws up my throat. An intense call for blood bursts from my lips and the fight begins.

It’s a blur. Grey blobs of fur fly at me as I rip, tear, claw, bite, and shake. Blood flies from wounds ripped open. The heat of the fresh steaming in the cold winter air. A sting on my side alerts me to an annoyance. I reach around and rip out the throat of it and hear a call of rage from my other side and I feel a sharp dig into my gut, a fall of blood from the wound. I bark at the nuisance and a spray of blood flies from my mouth, onto the matted fur of the male wolf.

The wolf comes to face me, its eyes livid with anger. Blood bubbles up my throat and I swallow the heat back down. Time slows and I see the bunching leg muscles, the leap, and my paw reaching out to send him flying into a far tree, breaking his neck and spine. Stepping over the female I reach a paw down and rip out his throat, at least giving him a quick death.

Then I collapse and the world turns to black as blood joins foam and turns it pink. The last memory before sound leaves and and I fall into exhaustion is broken snow and a soft voice yelling out, “Botolf! Henrick! Come quickly!”

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When I wake the first thing I notice is the scents and sounds that are invading my ears and nose. I hear laughter, playful growls, calm snoring, gentle breathing, pawing hooves, shifting snow, and voices. I smell sweat, fur, meat, grazing land, straw, and other unnameable scents that I can’t recognize.

Slowly I manage to blink my eyes open to be greeted with a dimly lit stable like area. Light wood planks make up the walls and an open door leads to what I can hear. Below me I can see that I was laying upon clean straw and near to the door is a pile of fresh meat. I slowly stand and notice a tugging around my ribs. My eyes slide over the the sensation to find white linen wrappings, slightly stained with blood. I huff and ignore it, moving towards the food and clear water sitting next to it.

Once done I slowly, for while I might ignore the injuries I’m not stupid enough to aggravate them, I move out of the stable area and down a dirt packed hall to the light at the end that makes my eyes squint as they adjust. As I enter the area I am greeted by the happy cries of a human somewhere to my left. Turning my head I notice the wild red hair and snort, she certainly hadn’t changed. I walk slowly towards her, my disdain and hatred of humans not diminished. But it was likely that she was the one to have wrapped my wounds, therefore she deserved some sort of respect.

Surrounding her was a herd of aurochs, their horns wickedly sharp and gleaming in the winter sunlight as they grazed. A little farther off the the black haired man, Henrick as I recall, is surrounded by various dozing big and small cats, a book in his hand as he glances up, nods, and returns to his reading. As I reach the herd the girl moves through them so that I need not try odd contortions to get through. Once she reaches me I speak, “I thank you for caring for my injuries, however once they are healed I must return to my duties outside of this place.” Her bright smile dims just a little bit her voice a gentle soprano, “I suppose I can’t argue against that.” Suddenly her smile brightens once more, “You do remember me, right Botolf?”

I huff out a breath, slightly painful in my current state, but no problem. “How could I not remember you, Angelien? After all your Father was my bezitter for some time.”

Her already bright smile somehow manages to brighten even more. “I’m so glad! I was worried that you would have forgotten me what with how you seem to have changed.” I shake my head and walk off towards some other dire wolves, Angelien skipping next to me, humming quietly.

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Weeks then months pass. I’ve grown used to the atmosphere of this place called Het Heiligdom. Sometimes I lay next to Henrick as he reads, I’ve even been learning how to read the human language of ‘English’. Sometimes I run, wrestle, and hunt with some of the others. It means I’ve kept in shape even as my wounds were healing. Most of the time though I’m helping Angelien. The child of my old bezitter. I should be bitter, but I no longer seem to hate humans. On the day I turned two I met many more of the humans that help run Het Heiligdom. That was when I realized that I couldn’t truly hate them any more. I was learning what that zanzibar leopard was trying to say.

Other things have changed as well. Before, in the pack, I was apparently kept undernourished, so since I now have steady and healthy food stream I have grown much larger than most of the dire wolves I have seen in the pack and even some here. At my shoulder I now stand at the height of a bull auroch with full grown horns. Apparently the dires I was bred from had stronger ties to the original genetic mutation that allowed us to be larger than our ancestors.

So I’m laying in the sun, Spring air ruffling my fur, surrounded by others that I once would have called huisdiers, calmer than I have been in months. When my ears swivel to a crash in the direction of the entrance. Near where I woke up months ago. I’m on my feet in moments as my paws pound towards the sound. I recall hearing Angelien and Henrick telling us that they would be coming back today with some new trustworthy people and their revived ones. From the shouts I can now hear I’m pretty sure that we’ve been betrayed. On my next step I can feel myself stretch my legs to their full limit, pulling me far ahead of the rest of the residents of Het Heiligdom.

As I see Angelien’s red hair flying as she runs towards the center, towards safety, I can feel a new desire rise in my barrel chest. My hackles rising and a protective howl of my heart’s home bursts forth. Bursting into the fray my paw sweeps one of the attacking humans away from a stable with a young oribi and its mother. Once more my mind reaches inside and easily rediscovers that bloodlust that’s never too far from the surface as I charge the attackers.

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I stand still, my lungs pulling in great heaving breaths as the last of the attackers leaves Het Heiligdom. As the door shuts behind them I turn to face Angelien and Hendrick and all of the others that had joined the fight. Pulling in a great breath I speak, “As soon as Het Heiligdom is repaired I must leave. My duty is calling to me.”

Angelien’s bright eyes close and then open as she looks into my eyes, “I can’t stop you can I?”

I nod my head in a gentle acquiescence as Hendrick looks at me more determined than I have ever seen him. His voice rings out, a pleasing stream that can calm anybody down, “I am going with you, Botolf.”

I can’t help but smile at that, “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Hendrick.” With Hendrick’s statement many others of Heiligdom state their claim to come with me, as if they somehow know my purpose without speaking. Perhaps they do. 

  After the week of chaos and laughter that was repairing Het Heiligdom I and my fellows stand at the gate that leads into the bright sunshine. Hendrick is sitting on my back, a réunion kestrel, a friend he raised from its birth, sits on his shoulder. More birds circle the sky above us and a wilder variety of revived and common ones file around us. Facing Angelien I bow and utter a simple sentence, “The world shall change.” She smiles and shooes me away with a laugh. With a smile I comply and turn around. With a howl I race, my pack behind me.

[nelllraiser]

sealed in | dave & nell

TIMING: before nell was yoinked into the hellscape. PARTIES: @seizethecarpe & @nelllraiser. SUMMARY: nell ‘abducts’ dave with ‘space magic’. CONTAINS: very brief allusion to sibling death (vague reference to the bea plot).

Nell didn’t know when a fucking seal had become her biggest problem. No, that wasn’t true. The murderous party seal wasn’t the most pressing issue in her life. It was simply one of the only issues she felt like she might actually be able to fix. Bex wouldn’t talk to her, and it wasn’t as if Nell could force the other witch to speak. Frank was still out there, and now Nell couldn’t effectively stand between them. She couldn’t help but feel as if she were waiting for the next bad news to fall, and that it would include Frank, Bex, and a knife. But the seal problem was something she could make into a win. And she desperately needed a win. If she’d actually summoned the seal to her birthday party, it’d be easy enough to do it again. She wanted something she could feel successful at, and her summoning had rarely failed her before. Of course the biggest failing had been that of the shark demon, and even though she knew the fluke could be chalked up to Kevin’s interferences, the weight of the victims' lives still hung on her shoulders. And then there was everything that had come after with Dave.

It was perhaps a little too coincidental that Nell had been attacked by him while others close to her had weathered similar selkie run-ins, but there was no way of truly knowing whether Dave was the proud owner of the names party seal, hell seal, and murder seal. Hopefully this summoning would answer more questions. Wiping her hands of the fish blood she’d used to draw the circle, Nell took up position at the edge of, readying her magic. Seal blood would have been better, but it seemed like asking for trouble to summon a selkie with the life force of their kin. She’d decided to do this in her greenhouse, a favorite workspace of her’s, and one where she knew they wouldn’t be disturbed. A string of Latin later, and the circle began to glow bright enough to force her eyes away from it— and when she looked back…

Dave. Fucking Dave? Nell had begun to suspect as much, but it was still a kick in the gut to realize that the seal she’d been looking for had been right under her nose. God- she’d even shown him the fucking posters. Her momentary shock was plain on her features, and then she remembered the very important fact that the last time she’d seen Dave and how he’d left her for dead beneath a weighted net. In another blink of an eye she’d commanded her next spell, chains appearing from seemingly thin air to clap themselves around Dave where he’d appeared in the center of the circle. 

Great. Now what? Her stomach was already turning with emotions that were battling for dominance. Anger for the hurt he’d caused, the regular guilt that surfaced as she remembered what he’d witnessed of her, a sense of betrayal after they’d shared said guilt with one another, and once again even more anger and frustration at being unable to distinguish which sensation was the one to act on. She didn’t know what to say. What was she supposed to say?

“Are you fucking shitting me?” Her eyes landed on the pile of skin that was also lying in the center of the circle with Dave. His selkie pelt? That was somewhat unexpected, though she supposed it made sense. Why would a proper summoning only procure part of a person when their whole form was a seal? 

It felt like someone calling Dave's name, guilt prickling in his spine as he ignored it, counting out recent magnet fishing finds outside his van, parked at one of the best views in town. No one was looking for him, he hadn’t told anyone he was parked here, and his phone was at his side. There were all manners of monsters in the world that could beckon you somewhere without a sound, and Dave knew better than to follow a siren song. He looked around suspiciously, but all he could see was the quiet of the forest and the churning of the sea. The air tasted like salt and fish and the first budding flowers of fruiting trees, but not like anything animal nearby. 

Still, something beckoned. Then it grabbed him, a million hands wrapping their fingers around every inch of him. Dave’s eyes bulged as all the air was sucked out of his lungs and the phantom hands covered his nose and his mouth. He tried to say something, do anything, as the hands smothered his sight last of all. They pushed him inwards, like a potter remoulding clay, and then pulled. 

Dave gasped for air as the hands disappeared, the world spinning in his ears. Salt had vanished from the air, replaced with the pungent stench of filleted fish and aromatic herbs. He blinked, suddenly indoors, under light filtered through glass and he was surrounded with what Dave knew was supposed to be greenery. He looked down as his stomach threatened to heave, looking at the large dark stains on the floor, a circle with a dozen unrecognisable symbols, and his pelt, which should have been tucked far from reach, resting against his leg. 

He looked up, his shock mirrored in Nell’s expression as he realised she was the only other one there. A spellcaster with the ability to summon demons, who he had helped make summoning circles out of blood before. His stomach dropped, but before he could even move, chains from seemingly nowhere wrapped around him as tight as a vibe, pinching the still healing injuries in his arm. Had he been thinking, he might have flexed to give him space, but the chains bit into his skin when he tested his movement, trapping him all the way down his thighs. If he tried to charge her, he'd lose his balance and crash into the ground.

Dave, all of Dave, was at the mercy of a deadly witch. Icy, spiking terror spread through him like frost. With what the chains allowed, he stepped in front of his pelt, like that would make any difference.

“Where am I?” He asked, his voice stone. The last thing he wanted was to tell her how frightened he was.

So here he was. The seal she’d drunkenly offered a drink to, the man who’d watched her summon a shark-jellyfish demon, and the selkie that had attacked her and left her for dead beneath a weighted net all wrapped into one. “My greenhouse,” was Nell’s simple answer, seeing no reason to deny him the question. “So it was fucking you that was at my birthday party.” To think she wanted to apologize to the selkie she’d foolishly dropped a drink on. 

Despite his calm she knew he’d be looking for an out, some way to ensure that he didn’t end up dying at the hands of a witch today. It was simply a matter of preservation, something she understood perhaps a little too intimately, and had the feeling Dave did as well. He stepped in front of his pelt, and her lips instantly parted to tell him that she wasn’t that much of a disgusting excuse for a human being. She wasn’t like the hunters that preyed on the generally harmless selkies. But she stopped midway through, realizing that if Dave was scared for his pelt, he’d be more fearful of her, and less likely to act on any potentially murderous plans he might have in the future. Even as she thought it, the realization left a sour feeling in her gut, an unwelcome guilt trying to make a home there. She shouldn’t feel guilty. Not after he’d attacked her.

But didn’t he have reason to worry? That was the smaller voice reminding herself of the liability she posed, the lives she was responsible for taking. “Heard you weren’t feeling well.” The words dropped slowly from Nell’s lips, thinking of the explanation Adam had given when it came to Dave’s violent streak. “Someone bit you and made you a little hungry. That’s the reason you’re giving for attacking me, my friends, and more specifically my boyfriend?” 

This was about that? That was why she’d been holding up a random stock photo of a leopard seal at the docks. This was revenge for her birthday party? Dave stared at her dumbfounded, his pulse pounding against the chains. “You’re the one that had the ice made,” he replied, and made himself as hard and solid as the ice had been, so that when she spoke again, his face didn’t betray him this time.

Boyfriend. The word was thrown at him like a dagger. Like he was just supposed to know who that was. A tiny crinkle formed between his thick brows. There’d only been three men that Dave had attacked. Rio? No, Rio was the least likely, considering his apologies on the phone for hitting him on the phone, considering he hadn’t been hurt by Dave at all, considering how Dave had shared Winston’s brain last summer. Ollie? That smacked closer to the truth, but still, no. Which left Adam, bleeding heavily as he put himself in harm’s way over and over. In reach of sharp teeth, in reach of unforgiving waters. Under his goofy laugh, there was a darkness to that one too.

For a small moment, Dave wondered if Adam wanted this. If the all goods and don’t mention it’s had been as much a mask of his anger as his bizarre jokes were of his fear. That maybe the camaraderie at the portal edge had been a means to an end, nothing more and nothing less. As soon as the thought filled his head, Dave snuffed it out before it could catch. Adam was forthright and honest. He’d deal with his issues himself rather than letting his girlfriend play god from behind the shadows. If Adam wanted Dave dead, Dave wouldn’t have been alive long enough to realise it. 

“Versipellis,” Dave nodded, his voice still steady and hard. “Would have been a bad time to succeed in eating anyone.” On land. There were seal corpses that haunted his dreams, but no landwalker would care as much about those. He nodded pointedly down to his arm, to the still healing bite, where the debridement had been done to remove infected and dying skin because while he had hunted, he hadn’t cared for himself. While he had hunted, he had let him lose himself. Still might. Might lose the use of his arm too, and the ability to swim as a seal with it. Her chains dug into the healing would, pain shooting like fireworks all the way down the bone of his arm. He looked her in the eye, a small flicker of contrition. “I’m sorry about your arm, and leaving you to drown, about all of it, for what it’s worth.”

Not much, he suspected. What apology offered at gunpoint ever was?

A frown found it’s way to Nell as Dave mentioned the ice, and she was lost as to why he was choosing this battle while he was tied up in chains in the middle of her greenhouse, pressed under her thumb. “How the hell were we supposed to know there was a seal in a freshwater pond?” Again she was reminded of why she’d been looking for him in the first place. To apologize for the drink she’d tipped over him in offering, to explain that she hadn’t meant it to burn him. But how the hell was she supposed to say sorry with the elephant of their past encounters in the room? She didn’t want to apologize to the man she was interrogating. That would simply steal away form the power she held. 

Dave didn’t see fit to address the fact he’d hurt the people she cared about, and that in itself made a fire ignite in Nell’s belly. Her people were all she had, the thing that was most important to her in this world, and she’d demand they get their justice even if it was simply an addressing of the wrongness they’d endured. “You could have killed him,” she hissed. “Dani, too. And I had to basically peel Mina off the ground.” It was something of an exaggeration, but Dave didn’t need to know that. She would have fought for Rio if she’d known his part in it, too. Something about this felt familiar, and it took her a moment to land on the scene of her and Dave marooned in a boat at sea, with Dave hurling accusations of culpability.

The cracks of her careful calmness were slipping, unable to keep her ice-like anger in place when she felt rubbed raw after all the recent trials of her life. “I don’t care about your apology!” She didn’t want one from Dave. Didn’t want to forgive him when she’d already begun to make that choice after they’d talked of guilt, only for it to be thrown back in her face in the form of his attack. But still, Nell was angry to find her words didn’t match the need for validation in her chest. “If you wanna kill me for what you saw on the water-” She bit off the edge of a threat, knowing that would only make things worse in a moment like this. “That’s our business.” She still couldn’t blame him, knowing that she would also be closely watching a person who’d so easily snuffed out the life of two people.

All Nell knew of Versipellis was what Adam had told her, not nearly as familiar with the strange breed of werewolf as someone like Kaden might have been. Clenching her fist, Nell did her best to regain her control. “Someone said it was like rabies. Are you gonna tell me you were as out of your mind as a rabid dog is?” 

As Nell’s voice dropped threateningly, it also dropped closer to the edge of what Dave could figure out from sound and lip movement alone, the anger twisting her syllables. Some parts of it

A sickening terror that he couldn’t ask her to speak up while wrapped in chains, and couldn’t respond to her words if he pieced them together wrong. 

Killed him, at least, was legible. So was Mina. “Walker took an enormous risk to keep me safe, that day. I’ve expressed my apologies and my gratitude. I know what he risked, and what it cost.” Every other hunt in those awful ten days had lead to new scars. Gouges in his arms, a deep gash running along his nose. From Adam, all Dave had was muscle aches and bruises. In turn, he’d almost torn Adam’s arm out of his socket. It could have just as easily been his throat. Dave still didn’t know if he’d gone for the arm out of some tiny instinct not to kill the kid, or if his shoulder had just looked tastier. Just like he wondered if he’d tried to air out of Mina’s lungs because some tiny part of him remembered that she couldn’t drown. Had he let the girl in the river go because he was injured or because it was the right thing to do? Dave didn’t know. He never would. But he knew there were corpses of those he’d cared about just as much, seals left to the carrion birds and karkinoids, and a hungry zombie with an offer to help. “I owe all of them apologies, just like I owe you. ”

His life, in the hands of a child. Not a child but a tempest. He didn’t need to hear her to know her facade was cracking as her voice raised. He swallowed, thick slime trickled down his arms, coating the chains like motor oil. The air was coppery thick with the blood spilled between them, not just that that she’d used to bring him here. “This had nothing to do with that. I swear.” He’d lied to her face more time than he could count. Sweat ran down one of the gnarled scars of his forehead and into his eye, prickling his fraying nerves.

“No. Do you want to know? Because I’d rather save my breath if this is an execution, if it’s all the same to you.” Dave shifted his arms slightly, but the slime only afforded him a few more inches of wriggle room, and it wouldn’t seep through his clothes fast enough to let him pull a Houdini. 

Despite everything, after their last conversation Nell had found herself nearly liking Dave— or at least sympathizing with him. After all, could she be enough of a hypocrite to hate someone that practiced that same reasoning as herself? Eliminate threats. She was well aware the title applied to her after what he’d seen on the water, had always thought as much since she’d started diving in the darker parts of the supernatural world even before she’d turned people into collateral. Again she questioned whether the coven had been right to do away with her, citing the fact that they’d been protecting themselves from an unknowable and unpredictable danger. 

Nell felt more like Taki than she had in a long moment, stalking back and forth with narrowed eyes and crossed arms in a way that made it seem as if an angry and dark tail might angrily swish out from behind her in warning. Speaking of her familiar, he’d sensed her heightened emotions and invited himself into the greenhouse despite Nell’s previous instructions to stay away. If Dave got loose and turned violent she hadn’t wanted Taki caught in the midst of it. Now the Ovinikk sat in front of the line she was pacing into the ground, fiery eyes blinking slowly while he considered the man before him. Across their bond, Nell could feel Taki’s curiosity, the way the Ovinikk wanted to know if Dave’s slime tasted like the sea. “No,” she told the pseudo-cat firmly, figuring the last thing she needed was Taki trying to lick Dave to death. 

She repeated the word to herself, angry that Dave had admitted to already taking responsibility in a way that made this feel less justified by the moment. “No.” Nell wasn’t sure if she was saying it to herself or the selkie before her, whether it was a reminder that she shouldn’t let her anger control her, or another denial of Dave’s apology. “And you’ll give them apologies.” She hated that he’d keep true to that word, hated that she still knew Dave was a good person despite the incident with the Versipellis. He was a victim as well, wasn’t he? But did that really make the attacks any better? She growled in frustration as she wrestled with her mind, thinking of how she wished this was someone else’s problem. But she’d always taken it upon herself to be the fixer, even more so after the events of Bea and the last year. 

“I’m not stupid. I know you look at me and-” And see all the things that could go wrong. She knew because that’s what she saw when she looked at Kyle. He was a fuse waiting to be lit, a stick of dynamite that was waiting to explode in a fan of flames that hurt anyone close enough as well as himself. They couldn’t separate the deeds, and risk from the person even if they’d wanted to. Doing so would be foolish after a lifetime of watching things go south. “I don’t care if you think I’m a risk.” It was a lie, but she didn’t want to admit that there was still a part of her that wanted Dave to change his mind, to have the validation that she was more than that. 

Nell wasn’t sure if he’d chosen the word ‘execution’ simply as a method of guilting her or because he truly thought that’s what he’d been summoned for. Either way she didn’t appreciate the way the word left a sour taste in her mouth. It wasn't that she had a problem with striking down those that needed to die, even if it was in cold blood. “I want to know so it won’t be an execution.” Maybe she’d shown her hand a little too much with that admission, and there’d be little reason to believe anything Dave said when he was defending his life, but she was tired of making this choice when her most recent one with Frank had potentially lost her a friend.

Had Dave had an inch of leverage, he might have pointed out that thinking she was a threat wasn’t wrong. He’d have said it wrily, looking down at the chains cutting off blood flow to his extremities, his pelt lying limply behind his ankles. That greenhouses were made to imprison nature and bend it to the glass’s will. He might have even raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly at the bloody circle that had pulled him away from safety without so much as a blink. But even though some tiny part of his mind parsed the irony, he kept silent. 

A trial, then. Dave blinked the sweat out of his eyes as he slowly pulled at his good arm, feeling the chains bite his skin with every fractional inch he moved it. In other words, she wanted him to beg. Dave jutted forward his jaw. “I was bitten by a wolf after a hunt in the woods.” He began haltingly, not normally one for a whole lot of words. “I told the being that saved me that I would call back up to deal with it. I had watched it kill before, and I did nothing. I never made the call to Walker or anyone else, because I became hungry. Didn’t even realise I wanted to eat Mina until after she’d gotten away.” Dave looked at a point above Nell’s head, at a single joining weld between the panels of greenhouse glass behind her. He might not beg, but that didn’t make the retelling easy. “I told myself it was just the adrenaline. I told myself they were threats. That it was reasonable. That there was nothing wrong with me. As I attacked people, as I killed seals I cared about. Let the injury in my arm rot.” He looked down at his injured arm, at the chains digging into the slowly healing injury. 

“I damn near killed a young man that I hold in the highest regard because he got between me and becoming a versipellis. Nearly killed the man I asked to save my life. I wasn’t rabid. But it was like trying to stop the tide itself.” Dave shook his head, watching her intently. “If selkies were as common as humans, I would have never stood a chance.”

Taki was bored with all the talking, apparently not all that concerned about the fact that the man who smelled like the sea was the reason for Nell’s tumultuous emotions. He took a few confident steps forward, apparently quite interested with the pelt that was hidden behind Dave. It smelled even more enticing than the man himself. Nell could sense the familiar’s interest, and chided the Ovinikk. “Taki, stop it.” The words were perhaps a little sharper than she’d intended, but she didn’t much appreciate the familiar seeing fit to turn this interrogation into a taste test. And she could only assume that Dave wouldn’t be thrilled to have a fire-breathing cat poking around his most treasured possession. The oversized cat fixed her with an unimpressed stare before flicking his ears back towards the pelt. 

Nell didn’t need her familiar giving herself more to worry about, not when she was doing her best to carefully weigh Dave’s words. By the way Dave told it, it could have happened to anyone, and from what she’d gleaned from Adam’s words it was truly a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn’t begging for his life, just as she’d refused to do so while Montgomery had wielded his machete above her, ready to make the killing blow. But a comparison such as that would place her in the shoes of Montgomery. The thought was enough to make her recoil in disgust, and as Taki took another step towards Dave’s pelt she remembered the sea of selkie skins that she’d found in the hunter’s home. The ones she’d returned to Ricky. She wasn’t like him...right? This was entirely different. Unfortunately the idea had already been drawn, setting her stomach to roll as she continued to listen. 

Perhaps she’d turned too soft in these moments, let herself be lured in by the words of someone who desperately wanted to live and a man she couldn’t help but respect when it came to his drive to be a protective force— even if that force was turned in her direction. Or maybe she was tired. Tired of making decisions that came back to bite, and tired of running herself into the ground by making every problem her own. She muffled a sigh instead of letting it fall loose, and let her eyes settle on his arm. “You’ve gotten it looked at?” Nell could already guess at the herbs that would help clear it up, the tinctures her mother had taught her within arms reach. She’d been right in thinking that Dave was also a victim. But she knew from years of travelling the world that the victim didn’t always get a happy close when they couldn't control themselves, even at the end of her own hand. But Dave shouldn’t be dangerous anymore if Adam’d been right. And he usually was. 

The kind words about Adam were the last straw, and Nell knew that killing Dave here and now wasn’t something she was ready to act on. If Adam and Dave respected each other as much as it seemed, certainly their goals and natures would be decently aligned. And if he was anything like Adam...she wasn’t sure how she could kill him in good conscience. Hadn’t she done her best to coax Adam back to forgiveness or something of that like after the hunter moon had turned him wild? How was this any different? “He’s a good man,” was Nell’s only answer to the story, knowing her mind had been settled. But that wasn’t the only matter that needed settling.

“So are you planning on trying to kill me anytime soon?” Nell asked in the same tone as if she were asking his opinion on the weather. “-unrelated to the bite and everything. If you do, just leave other people out of it, alright?” She didn’t need someone dying for her again. 

Dave’s attention had been on the biggest threat in the room, but as her cat prowled closer, his gaze dropped to it, eyes widening slightly as he shifted his stance, pulled his good arm free of two of the four chains holding it pinned against his body. It wasn’t enough to free him, or even mitigate the threat of falling over, but if the cat made a jump for him or his pelt, it gave him one option more to protect himself if the cat became an issue. At once, his finger joints began to tingle as the blood rushed back into them, while his other, injured arm became more numb by the moment. “I’ve had it looked after. Close enough to a human to risk the doctor’s when I need it,” Dave replied, his eyes narrowing. Maybe he was old and cynical, but he didn’t like the taste of being abducted only to be offered help now. 

But Nell’s mood evened, along with her voice. Maybe it was a mite fucked to use her obvious affection for her boyfriend against her, but Dave hadn’t been lying, and she had every other advantage. Dave nodded once, curtly, at her assessment, waiting for the rest with closely baited breath. The tide had turned, the winds shifted. “I’m not a monster. I don’t hurt folks because of who they know,” Dave replied, and cocked his eyebrows. “It depends. Are you gonna threaten my life again?”

He’d queried the same question she asked of him to begin with, and her answer was what she’d only just finished asking him. “That depends- are you gonna threaten my life again?” Nell echoed in an almost childish manner, knowing they could work their way around the circle of violence for hours if they wanted, but realizing they were at something of an impasse. He wouldn’t act on her life if she didn’t act on his, and she wouldn’t act on his unless he acted on her’s. Barring there were a few more stipulations on her end when it came to whether or not he’d attack the people she loved in the future, but the with the way he’d spoken about his grief while returning her jacket...she knew relatively decent people didn’t sound like that when they were thinking of their sins, and relatively decent people didn’t usually attack unprovoked. “But good. It wouldn’t end well if you brought other people into it.” It was the closest to a threat she’d gotten, spurred on by her unwillingness to risk the lives of those she cared about. Then again it wasn’t so much a threat as a warning. “Just so you know,” she finished the sentiment with a shrug, no heat to be found in the words.

Her eyes rolled with his words about his injury, not knowing why he felt the need to assert his human similarities. Did he think her the kind of person that judged someone by how physically human they were? “I know that,” she replied defensively. She chewed lightly on her bottom lip, toying with the idea of dropping her mother’s name as a healer. No doubt it was near offensive to offer assistance after kidnapping him, and she expected his pride would prevent him from taking it anyway. Plus...she didn’t particularly want to give her mother’s information to a recently murderous seal. Just because their relationship was complicated, didn’t mean she wanted to see her mother injured or worse. But this meant there was only one thing left to do if there was nothing more to talk about. She’d have to release Dave soon enough. 

Dave didn’t reply to her defensive response, her anxious lip chewing making a sharp contrast to the power she had here. But when she turned his question around, Dave balked at it, stopping his attempts at getting his arm free from the rest of the chains that held it against him. She had him in chains, unsure of where he was, with his pelt unprotected at his feet. He was a great many things, but not a fool. If she walked over to take his pelt, the most he could do was fall on her and hope he could get in a bite. If she wanted, she could have control over him for the rest of her life. Her churlish repetition only highlighted how easy this was for her. How inconsequential. Dave looked down. “No,” He replied firmly.  His eyes flicked back up to her when she spoke again, to catch the tail end of her threat. Sweat ran tracks down the scars of his cheek, dripped off his chin and onto his damp shirt. He swallowed, and nodded once. Her message was perfectly clear to him - when he could just be brought to heel at her whim, there was no escaping her wrath. Next time, the chains would tighten until they shattered his ribs. 

It would be child’s play. 

At first, he did not hear the large cat plodding closer, focused intently on not missing any important words from Nell. But the cat’s tail flicked in the corner of his eye, calmly and confidently as Taki circled, ears pointed at the pelt behind his legs. Dave turned to watch it too, his pulse racing. In this skin, he couldn’t watch both. He took a small step to keep his pelt behind him, out of reach, but overshot, and the metal chains bit into his muscle, pinching on some nerve that had his whole leg give way. He tried to catch his balance, but with his arms still pinned there was nothing Dave could do, barreling to the ground and managing to put just enough of a rolls into it that he didn’t crack open his shoulder. His teeth rattled as he hit the floor, every bone jarring. Dave cursed as he tried to push himself upright with his hand, skin flushing with fresh fear, what limited composure he had slipped away. With the chains pinning his thighs and torso, it was a near miracle he could push himself onto his knees. 

Again Nell knew that an answer given while one was wrapped in chains didn’t mean much of anything. She was well-acquainted with what it was to give whatever promises you thought would save your life while it was at risk, had done it enough in her own time. But she hadn’t meant the question as sincerely the second time around, so she could handle his reply being unable to be taken at face value.

Taki, unfortunately, was taking advantage of Nell’s distraction with the selkie in front of her as well as the way her brow had drawn together in concentration. Before she’d realized that the Ovinikk was getting too close for comfort, Dave was tumbling to the ground, and Nell was giving another stern command to her familiar. “Taki, I said no!” But the overgrown pseudo-cat was like a dog with bone now that he saw his opportunity to find out if the pelt tasted as nice as it smelled. In a flash he’d darted forward on nimble paws to seize the pelt between his teeth, already dragging it back towards his bed in the greenhouse. “Taki!” Nell demanded in a louder tone, realizing the situation was quickly getting out of hand. A selkie pelt being taken. Hadn’t she just finished talking to Dani about how she’d never be so disgusting as to do such a thing? “Drop it, now!” The familiar fixed her with a long stare, as if weighing his options while doing his best to stay out of Dave’s limited reach. Finally— he dropped the pelt into Nell’s waiting hands, as if that had been his intention all along, and the decision to relinquish it was his and his alone. 

Turning back to Dave, guilt had finally begun to pool into her features, a ugly feeling blooming in her stomach. “I didn’t mean to- Taki- he has a mind of his own sometimes.” This had officially gone too far. She looked onto Dave with his chains and injury, the most important thing in his life clutched between her hands that she’d been an accomplice to stealing...it was hard not to wonder if this was how she’d looked in her cage beneath the Ring, trapped but refusing to break. It was her past experiences with losing her power that drove her to seek to reclaim it however she could, but didn’t stealing it from someone else make her just as revolting as the people who’d done such a thing to her? 

“I didn’t mean-” Nell repeated again, knowing an apology most likely wouldn’t be welcome. With a flick of her wrist the chains had disappeared from around Dave’s body, freeing him as she offered the pelt to the selkie in front of her, waiting for him to reclaim it. “I don’t want-” your pelt. But how could she admit to not wanting to hurt Dave without dissolving all the warnings she’d given of how she wouldn’t show mercy should he cross the lines she’d set? “Here- this is your’s.”

“No, no no NO!” Dave barked, twisting to try to push away the cat as it lunged for his pelt. Taki dodged around his falling body, Dave’s teeth snapped around thin air, and his fingers couldn’t catch his pelt as it was dragged away from him. “Don’t!” Like any well behaved familiar, it brought its prize to its owner, and Dave didn’t believe any of her insistences that this wasn’t her plan. 

Dave’s terror was naked on his face as she hefted his pelt between her hands. At over seven foot long, one side dragging on the floor, it was comically large in her hands, but she held it, held him. Was this the last he’d see of it? Dave’s voice cracked roughly. 

“Please.” Suddenly, he was no long above begging. There was a tiny smear of blood where the creature had bitten it, a smear that he knew would be matched on the back of his hip. The chains dissipated and Dave scrabbled to his feet, but he didn’t dare lunge at her while his pelt was draped over her arms. He found himself frozen, eyes fixed on the pelt and nothing else.

When offered, he snatched the pelt from her hands. Carefully, he ran his fingers over the lightly bleeding bite mark, not looking at her at all as his blood pounded in his ears. Not his, but him. Dave mustered every last lick of composure in him, carefully folding his pelt, his second soul, into his arms and held carefully against his chest so that none of it would drag against the floor. “I’m going to leave now,” he told her, as if he had any real say in the matter. It was meant to be a statement, but his feet stayed rooted in the ground. He was waiting for her permission. 

Nell’s own face was stricken with revulsion as a piece of Dave’s bravery and pride chipped away with disgust climbing up her throat. She felt unclean at having been the root of the man’s desperation. This wasn’t what she’d wanted. None of this was what she’d wanted. Her desire to make sure she wasn’t next on Dave’s kill list had certainly lead them here, as well as feeling that a little show of power had been in order in case he got any murderous ideas along those lines— but maybe the problem with exerting your power was that you couldn't always control how far it went, couldn’t anticipate exactly how it might affect the person on the other side of it. 

The blood on his pelt wiped away the harshness in her features, an apology in Nell’s eyes and dangling on the edge of her lips. She was certain he hadn’t wanted her help, the sureness coming from the knowledge that she’d never accept an olive branch if the positions were reversed. But she needed to do something to try and prevent the guilt from infecting her chest, the overflow from her gut attempting to find a place to drain into. “I can fix it,” she finally said, already angry at herself for offering, but also mad that she’d been the cause of the red droplets in the first place. Frustration was next on the docket while she was caught between the two places, her desire to fix and desire to be safe and protect those she cared about caught on the edges of one another. “Or even just...put a tincture on it.” She shifted uncomfortably as he spoke again, hating the way it felt like he was asking for permission. Normally she would have reveled in it had this been someone who was the worst of the supernatural, but Dave wasn’t that in the least. “There’s a river not that far,” she mumbled, suddenly a far cry from the hellbent interrogator that had summoned him here. Was that enough to give him back a granule of power in the imbalance she’d created? As if she were giving him the choice to go to it or not? This hadn’t been a win. Not in the least.

Dave shook his head at the offer, holding the pelt closer to his chest. He eyed her warily. The last thing he wanted was more magic touching him. She couldn’t fix this. There wasn’t anything to fix. She had made herself perfectly clear. A pint size murderess not to be messed with. If she needed to, she could destroy him or control him in a minute or less. Message received, loud and clear. Clear as a fucking foghorn. 

She mumbled something that sounded like permission to leave, her features deflated and horrified. He didn’t know what that meant, and stalled even longer, trying to decipher her mood, but any answers jarred so much with what Dave now understood of her that he stopped trying. Absent of any attempt to stop his departure, he tentatively took a step towards the door, and then strode out, like he had never been there for anything other than a simple meeting. It wasn’t until he’d turned the corner and her eyes could no longer see him. His legs carried from a walk into a sprint. It didn’t matter whether it was a mile or five, but Dave didn’t stop until he plunged into the the river water. Here, the water held him more kindly than any spell could, and he could pretend, just for a little while, that she couldn’t pull him out of even this safe haven. 

[pettify]

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

The animal kingdom is incredibly massive and varied, with thousands, if not more, species of animals throughout the world. However, an animal doesn’t have to be the biggest or the strongest to become one of the greatest living specimens on the planet. No, instead, the reptile has become a dominant force throughout the animal kingdom, both for their unique coloring and for how great of a pet they tend to make. While not all reptiles can be pets, most have a knack for entering our lives and becoming a force of pure brilliance. The following 15 reptiles are all the proof anyone should ever need to own a reptile of any kind.

Take My Hand, Boss

Not all lizards were made to live within captivity. In fact, most probably weren’t, though they adapt incredibly well to living within a home with humans. Lizards are animals, though, and do require a natural habitat where they can explore their surroundings, interact with their own kind, and recreate scenes from famous movies with their pals while resting comfortable on twigs. It happens more often than you may think. Take, for example, the above, where one lizard is hoping to reach out and simply touch his fellow partner in crime, enabling an emotional bond to cultivate between the two before he slips.

To Narnia!

Humans have horses to ride around on, and cars, both of which are far bigger modes of transportation when compared against our tiny human bodies. So, what does a lizard in need of long distance travel have? Easy, a T-Rex, of course. The mighty king of the dinosaurs is a mere child’s toy now, but this lizard decided to make him his own, riding on his back to find the mystical land of Narnia. However, even a lizard could have dreams of grandeur, and the thoughts of world domination have surely crept into the midst of his mind as he eyes his human owner down atop his mighty steed.

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

Dreams of Flight

We all want to be something when we grow up, whether it’s a writer, a firefighter, or even an astronaut. However, what does a lizard grow up wanting to be? Well, a bigger lizard is the obvious answer. This bearded dragon has thought long and hard of what he wants to do with his life, and with the help of some scientific books and plaques, the ideas of soaring through the air with a wing span to make an eagle jealous have surely come to mind more than once. Its owner should be wary of when it learns to strap leaves to its back and jump off stacks of books, though.

Hearts All Around

Animals can show love in their own way, even to a human owner. So, when you find a lizard creeping up a long bit of flora, splitting it down the center to form a perfectly created green heart, you had better reciprocate the feelings to the little guy. Should you choose not to remind him of how epic he is, you may find yourself awaking to an army of tiny lizards surrounding your bed in the midst of the night. They probably won’t bring heart-shaped plants, though, so be warned. A simple pat on the back should suffice when he shows you some love, though.

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

Hear Me Roar!

We’ve all seen the new Godzilla film in theaters, and it was pretty awesome for a giant monster movie full of talking. However, when Godzilla finally appeared on-screen in all his massive glory, someone else was watching over your shoulder in the living room. Your pet turtle thought it would be interesting to see what he could grow up to be, so he has begun practicing his mighty roar throughout the entire house. It may not make much, if any, noise yet, but you can bet it will be fearsome in the end. Take a step back and enjoy the roar of the mighty turtle pet.

Healthy Living

Everyone wants to eat as healthy as possible these days, so we’re picking up different types of fruits, vegetables, and things made out of soy (gross). However, you’re not the only person in the house looking to eat a bit better, as that pet turtle you love to hear roar after watching Godzilla tends to love having himself a little bit of strawberry for a snack, or even an entire meal, he’s not that picky. If you’re interested in seeing him chomp down on the glorious red fruit while sitting comfortable on the carpet, make sure to buy the fruit fresh and get it to him quickly to ensure the most amount of happiness.

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

See What I Can Do?

Lizards are quite weird, we must admit. They tend to have the odd habit of licking their own eyeball when they want to clear it of anything, but it’s still something to behold. So, when you find yourself having a staring contest, and then suddenly your pet decides to creep you out and lick its own eye, you can bet she’s already won the entire match. You may as well concede defeat for any future rematches, too. Watching her lick her own makes us want to try it on ourselves, but it won’t work, we promise you that. Go ahead and try if you don’t believe us.

Is This Seat Taken?

Lizards come in all shapes and sizes, with some being incredibly small, and others being the size of a small dog. However, it’s the small ones that tend to be the cutest, as they find themselves sitting in all types of odd places, like at the tip of your finger while you’re trying to focus on something else. Of course, when you feel something that tiny creeping up your hand, your first instinct may be to shake it off. Please don’t do that, as you will enjoy the surprise peeking over the tip of your pointer finger in the end. Let him ride around, feeling like the king of the land, for as long as possible.

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

Smiles Are Worth A Thousand Words

Pictures may be worth a thousand words, and there is one right there offering a smiling leopard-spotted gecko, so the smile is worth the thousand words now. It’s a nice feeling knowing that when you look down upon your little pet lizard that she is looking back up in happiness, too. Pets love their owners if treated right, so you know when one is literally smiling at you that you’ve done something right. Continue this behavior, and you may end up with a pet to defend your home in the odd case of invading bugs in the summer months.

Ride Forth!

A plastic T-Rex for a mount may have been fearsome enough, but combine the need for a ride through the swamp with a living, breathing reptile, and you may have found your match. Crawling up the back of its mother, a young reptile may find himself in the position of what could be thought of as a throne to some, and to others it will be a battle horse, decked out in armor and teeth. This one’s Napoleon Complex may come off a little strong, so we suggest avoiding the water for…;ever. You could be brave and try to pet him, but we suggest against it.

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

Paint Me, Baby!

Yeah, lizards enjoy relaxing in a comfortable hand, have something to say about it? This little guy knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s putting all the moves on that hand, coming off incredibly interesting, and probably has plenty of great topics to bring up later on in the night. Of course, that can all be skipped if you’re into painting and want to make a work of art in the form of a portrait of him. If you ask nicely, this little lizard may even make a sexy pose to ensure you capture him in his best possible form.

The Right One is Special

Finding the right person to spend your life with is a difficult task, but you know almost immediately when you’ve located that special person. Well, it appears the same applies for lizards, as that special significant other is out there, waiting on the end of a blossoming flower for the perfect mate to climb up and share nose with. Chances are this union is going to end well, but they may want to find a different place to spend their time for fear of one of them falling off the flower to the ground below. Someone should probably make spaghetti.

15 Reasons Why Reptiles Make Great Pets

Oh, Yeah, Right There

Having a crocodile for a pet instantly makes the owner a badass. Having a baby crocodile for a pet makes him marriage material. Of course, the owner is nothing without the pet in question, and when you find yourself with a baby crocodile sitting atop your knee, head tilted back in pure ecstasy, as you pet it, then you know you’re doing something right. Ensuring that baby loves you now will be key to keeping it as a pet within the backyard’s underground swimming pool when it grows older, as it will protect you from any intruder foolish enough to break into your backyard for gardening supplies.

Smaller Is Sometimes Better

The problem with having a pet the size of the tip of your finger comes in the form of losing it, as one wrong step could be the last, unfortunately. However, when you have a lizard as small as this one, you’re going to keep a careful eye on it, and, perhaps, even carry it around within the palm of your hand most days. It will look weird, that is for certain, but once other people see the guy carrying a tiny lizard, they’re going to want to know more about this mysterious individual and his fantastic pet. Just wait until it grows up.

Turtles Do Smile

Who would have thought that a turtle could produce such a heart-warming smile as this one. The face alone makes it worth the cost of all the food, the tank, and everything else that went into ensuring this little guy had the perfect home away from home. If you’re lucky enough to capture this smile on camera, you probably want to ensure that memory is kept forever. However, if you’re a good owner to entice a smile like that from your pet, chances are it will happen again in the future. Keep that camera close by the tank for some future snapshots.

Source

http://www.lolwot.com/15-reasons-why-reptiles-make-great-pets/