#in an all out fight with poisons and summons and all that we’d be closer matched

[whotookmysenbon]

Anko vs genma Who would win and why?

@idreamofdango wanna weigh in on this? I think it depends on who gets hit first. I’ve got her in physical strength, stamina, and poison resistance. She’s got me beat in agility and out right creativity. We’re pretty evenly matched for speed when we’re fresh, and she has summons.

[sirenprincess15]

Please Don't Leave Me Chapter 9

Title: Please Don’t Leave Me

Author: SirenPrincess

Description: What if Aleksander hadn’t answered the door when Ivan interrupted the war room kissing? What if Aleksander and Alina had a bit more time to get to know each other before Baghra told her his true identity? Alina is the only one who can comfort Aleksander through his nightmares. Will she leave once she knows who he is?

This story is based on the show version and features a soft on the inside, hard on the outside Aleksander with an emphasis on emotional hurt/comfort and angst. If you are looking for lots of hurt!Aleksander thoughts, then this story is for you. Mal exists but pretty much solely to cause Aleksander some angst. Don’t worry. It will be a Darklina ending.

Chapter 1 is a missing scene at the end of Ep 4, and Chapter 2 takes place alongside Ep 5 and then diverges from canon there.

Pairings: Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov, bits of Ivan/Fedyor

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Grisha are oppressed in this universe, and I don’t shy away from showing the horrors of that. There may eventually be mentions of canon-typical torture (Fjerdan pyres), death of family members, and cruelty to Grisha children. It’s not the focus, but that backdrop is definitely there and comes up as characters discuss their past.

In this chapter: After centuries of being alone, Aleksander struggles to share his problems.

Chapter 9

Aleksander was busy working in his office. The roaring fire warmed him as he poured over ship manifests and army documentation on this Dmitry. If they could find who Dmitry traveled with, who was likely to be loyal to him, then perhaps they could identify any threats before they even came to the Little Palace.

When Inessa and Fedyor delivered Alina, Aleksander rushed to her side. “Thank you,” he said, dismissing them. He pulled her into his arms, rested his chin on top of her head, and deeply inhaled the scent of her. She was safe. “How was your day?”

“Boring. Fedyor and Inessa wouldn’t even let me go outside, not even for training. I’m never going to get stronger if I don’t train.”

“It’s just a precaution.”

“A precaution for what?”

He ignored her. She didn’t need the stress of knowing how anxious their enemies were to kill her. “I thought we’d take dinner in here tonight, if that’s okay with you.” His emotions were a mess. As haunted as he had been since Marie’s death, it was even worse now that the continued active threat was confirmed. He was relieved to be with her because he could see she was safe, but he was also still deeply ashamed of his panic attack from the nightmare the night before. He feared she would bring it up. He couldn’t talk about it. Eating in the main hall would stop her from doing so, but he was worried about security and didn’t want her with a large crowd. Her food would be easier to poison there, even with her taster. Truthfully, though, Aleksander wasn’t sure he had it in him to perform the intimidating General Kirigan act tonight, and he wanted her nearby for safety. Then he worried about what would happen when it was time for sleep. He had unleashed shadows last night, and they could have hurt her. He would never be able to forgive himself if he harmed her. That morning he had decided they’d have to sleep apart, but that was before he’d known of this new threat, of spies sneaking into the palace to check her routines. There was no way to know if the man he’d killed had been the first or the last. He couldn’t risk letting her sleep without someone strong guarding over her, and she’d never agree to let someone like Ivan stand over her bed. She had to stay here. Selfishly, he was grateful to have the excuse to keep her in his bed.

“Of course.” Her expression begged him to answer her previous question, but he didn’t. He well remembered what it was like to be afraid everywhere you went at all times. He could protect her from that.

“I do have quite a bit of work to complete, though. I’m afraid I’ll be quite busy. I did take the liberty of having Genya select some books from the library for you.”

She raised an eyebrow, as if signaling to him that she saw right through his attempts to distract her, but all she said was, “That was kind of you.”

He sat back at his desk and tried to focus on the lists in front of him. Something wasn’t adding up. Dmitry would appear on a ship crossing into West Ravka, but not on a return, and then somehow a time later be on a manifest for a ship crossing the wrong way. How was that possible? Was he missing manifests or was Dmitry paying someone off to keep his name off the lists?

Alina stepped behind him and started rubbing his shoulders. “Alek, you’re so tense. The stress coming off you is nearly unbearable. What happened today?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

She sighed. “Are we really going to do this thing tonight?”

He lifted his eyes to take in the annoyed look on her face. “Thing?”

“You know, where you pretend to be the oh so busy and important General Kirigan who uses his sense of authority to push people away? And then acts like he couldn’t possibly have any feelings or needs of his own? He’s fine. Everything is fine. He doesn’t need any help.”

He hadn’t even realized he was doing it, but she had. “Accurate,” he admitted.

“I’m going to let you in on a secret. The act doesn’t work with girls who have shared your bed.”

He laughed. Only she could call him on his behavior like this without irritating him. Only she could make him smile when he was otherwise so miserable. “I can assure you it worked fine on girls who have shared my bed. Apparently, it doesn’t work on the one girl I have let into my heart.”

“You’ve let me into your heart? So … let me help you.”

“Alina, it’s not that simple …”

“You can’t bear this burden alone, Aleksander. I won’t let you. Whatever is happening, it is crushing you. If not me, then get Ivan in here and talk to him. ”

“You want me to summon Ivan in here? This must be serious.”

“He is a good friend to you, and I know you trust him. I just want you to let someone help. You are not alone. This,” she said, putting her hand over the papers, “is not yours alone to figure out. Stop trying to solve everything with no support.”

“I’m not … used to having support.”

She nodded, took his hand, and squeezed it. “I know. I’m not really either. We’ve learned to do things alone, to hide pain and keep it to ourselves, but I know that problems are better solved together. Together, Aleksander. Stop trying to protect me from scary truths. Fedyor scanned every room we went into before he’d let me enter. I’m not stupid, Aleksander. If I can handle you cutting a Druskelle in half on top of me, I can handle whatever is threatening us now. Stop trying to push me away when it comes to important things. Let me help.”

He sighed. She was frightened already; she might as well know the truth. “Zoya caught a man trying to break in today. I have her guarding the palace exterior since she can’t seem to behave herself around you. He is working for Zlatan and was sent to spy on you. They’re making a plan for a better attempt on your life.”

Her shoulders slumped and her gaze fell to the floor as she took that in. “Hunted wherever I go. Still not used to that.”

He stood and wrapped his arms around her. “I will not let them succeed. I promise you that you will come to no harm.”

She looked into his eyes, stared there for a while, then found her strength. “Tell me about the papers.”

He quickly filled her in on what he had discovered about Dmitry and the mystery of the paperwork. It did actually feel good to have someone to discuss his findings with and not keep the thoughts spinning in his head. He talked through all of his ideas, no matter if they led nowhere. She indulged him and asked appropriate questions at all the right times. Finally, he arrived out loud at the stuck place he was in his head. He had so many theories, but how did he figure out if any of them were right?

She was quiet as she turned from page to page. Dinner arrived, and they ate in silence as they continued to try to find a pattern among the papers--the same captain, the same record keeper, accomplices that might travel with him. All ideas led nowhere, but they continued to look.

Hours later, Alina stood and walked into the war room.

“Alina?” He trailed after her. She was staring at the map. After a long time, he prompted her. “What is it?”

“I’m sure it’s stupid.” She shook her head and hugged herself.

He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her. “I don’t like it when you put yourself down like that. That’s not you. Those are words from your past.”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Hmm, well then, let’s hear it. I’m frustrated. Maybe if it’s really stupid we can have a good laugh about it.”

“I used to stare at the map and dream of finding a way around. I was told there is no around, but … is there? Any secret path or …”

Aleksander felt his stomach twist as the implications became clear. “There are reports of Fjerdans in West Ravka, rumors that Zlatan is aligning with them, letting Druseklle ...” A vision of Nina being tortured popped into his head. He had to fight his jaw from trembling so she couldn’t see how upset this made him. “There is an around if you’re in bed with the enemy. He’s going through Fjerda.”

She gasped as it came together in her head. “He sends his emissary to Fjerda with messages, who then gets a free pass into our country to deliver orders to his spies, but then he needs the quick return across to do it again. How long would it take to travel through Fjerda? Check the dates. Do they match?”

“Fjerdans. It’s worse than I thought.” He could feel the Fjerdan fires licking at his skin.

They spent another hour pouring over records and checking their theory. Finally, Alina yawned. “We should get some sleep.”

He wanted to tell her to go on ahead, but he didn’t want her sleeping in a room away from him. He almost offered to just watch over her, but he feared he would accidentally fall asleep and end up as he had the night before. His chest tightened with worry as he considered possibilities, none of which were acceptable.

“I tell you to come to bed, and that sense of dread is what I get? I might think you don’t want to …” she tried to lightly tease.

“You know why,” he whispered, still not wanting to talk about it.

“Which is all the more reason to get you to sleep soon. Your nightmares are worse the longer you try to keep yourself awake. Have you noticed?”

He sighed. “This morning I was trying to work myself up to telling you that it’s not safe to sleep with me anymore, but now with this information on this potential attack, it’s not safe to sleep away from me either.”

“Don’t you dare do that to me!”

“What?” To her?

“Don’t you realize what you do for me? For years I cried myself to sleep every night, Aleksander. For years! I used to lie there and wonder what was wrong with me that no one could want me, how it was possible for me to not belong anywhere. I slept with a weapon under my pillow to fend off anyone who might come to hurt me. And now I sleep in your arms. Desired. Loved. Don’t you dare take that away from me.”

His heart ached for her. Was it possible she needed him as much as he needed her? “I hadn’t realized …”

“No matter how bad our nightmares get, we stay together. You make sure I can sleep, and I will do the same for you. Just promise to wake me up tonight. You can’t get yourself overtired like that again.”

“And you will wake me if the shadows start again?”

“I promise. Right away.”

“Okay,” he agreed, feeling less selfish about allowing it if it benefited her too. It was better than the alternative of some spy finding her room in the night or her lying awake with a knife under her pillow wondering if someone was coming to kill her. He would have to take care of himself more for her--get an adequate amount of sleep, actually stop and eat meals instead of working through every waking hour, maybe even share some of his stresses with her. He would do those things if it meant he could be there to protect her.

“Now,” she said, kissing him gently. “What do I have to do to get you out of that kefta so I can kiss away all those battle scars?”

[dovveling]

I've been summoned

🙄 - Write your character explaining a topic to someone they’re frustrated with :3

(Oh this should be fun— maybe Iolas trying to explain to Lucio that he can’t simply do whatever he wants at an upcoming party)

He’s late. Again. Tiresome was the feeling Iolas was trying to shake off as he sat within the count chambers. The silver-haired magician had once again been summoned to help with the upcoming summer masquerade and once again the magician’s already short patience was dwindling. This had been the third time the blonde bobblehead summoned him and the third time the moron couldn’t show up on time.

The first two times Iolas simply gave up. Waiting longer than ten minutes for anything was beyond the easily distractible court magician. Iolas figured if his time was worth anything to Lucio then it was also worth showing up on time for. This already put the silver-haired man in a mood— as if he wasn’t always constantly in one. Unfortunately, Lucio already acknowledges this, which is why Iolas stays this time. He knows when Lucio is trying to get under his skin and he’s never been one to let others get what they want. That and it will just be more annoying the further they push this meeting along.

Annoying. That’s exactly how Lucio enters and that’s exactly the expression Iolas gives him when the pristine gilded doors fly open.

“Ah— there you are my pet!” Lucio more than comically struts over to the sitting magician knowing full well his untimely entrance has ruffled his lover's feathers. This does not deter the count however from placing a very dramatic kiss on the silver-haired man’s hand. Now, now. What do you always tell me when I pout?” Lucio’s grin cracks wider as he pinches the shorter man's cheeks together. “Be careful or you might just get stuck that way—“ the blonde’s voice was sing-song before abruptly being cut off by Iolas’ physical interruption.

“Would you kindly stop talking for once in your life?” An eye roll and a full breathed huff leaves the magician as he stands, shoving the count to the side as Iolas’ heels click past him. Rubbing the headache away Iolas claps his hands together. “You summoned me. I’m here. Are we going to talk about it or do I have to sit around here all day?” Iolas fixes himself in the full-length mirror trying to keep his annoyance at bay. Just as Lucio is about to rebuttal, Iolas quickly stops him w a signal of his hand and answers his question.

“Never mind. You wanted me to help you pick out an outfit, isn’t that what you said?” Iolas sneers, but it’s met with Lucios own smug look. The taller man’s wicked smile barely wavers at the sight of his disappointed lover. Slowly Lucio walks behind the shorter man to hold them against his chest. Begrudgingly Iolas melts, but the embers of his anger still simmer just below. Lucio seems to sense this as he speaks now carefully into the other's neck. “What’s got you so pissed huh— I promised we’d be matching this time that way you don’t have to change in case we clash like last time.” The smile against Iolas' neck feels like an eye dropper to a wildfire.

“That’s not it.” The Magician huffs out another breath and turns to face his lover his time. Slowly he traces over the sleek design of the blonde's face. Imagining how lovely a kiss would be if he wasn’t so ready to fight this man. Still, Iolas takes Lucio's chin in between his fingers and inspects him. He wants to chuckle at the way Lucio lets him. He’s like a show dog. “When are you going to learn you can’t keep acting like you own this place. Huh?” The words hiss out of him with the hope that they seep into Lucio like poison. As Iolas relents Lucio physically groans and pulls away from the embrace.

“I caaaan do whatever I want!” Lucio whines with more voice of a child than a man. “I’m back in the saddle we’ve apologized and everything’s all good! Ya know like how you said after you explained it all to Noddy—“ Iolas cuts him off there with a curt wave of his hand but before he can speak he has to brace himself to not just lock Lucio away in his room and leave the man to his own devices.

“That is the exact opposite of what happened. We agreed under my watchful eye that you are under strict— and temporary— terms of service to the palace.” As Iolas explains this he watches Lucio crawl into a red and gold adorned love seat. The taller man looking for an escape tries his best to give his court magician the best fireside eyes he can muster. If anything Iolas’ glare only sharpens. “Are you even listening to me? if you fuck this up there are no second chances mister—”

But Lucio is already pouring wine and handing one over to Iolas with a particular eye. 

“Right. Yes! Okaaaay— A better question is when are you going to trust me my pet, hmm?” Lucio takes a sip and eggs Iolas closer with the drink knowing all too well what the other man is thinking. Iolas only peers at the drink with disdain. Something in him finally has had it for today and with three loud steps, Iolas looms over the sitting count and grabs the distracted man by his collar.

An auditable gulp is heard from the blonde as Iolas cinches the collar flush against Lucio’s neck. Slowly the taller man is starting to sweat at the idea of his lover being angry with him. “H-hey— now Pet, come on you know I—” Iolas stopped him with one firm shake and a deadly look in his eye. Iolas simply stares him down as he tightens his hold on the other man relishing as he watches the other man loses face as he chokes. “Ah— kay I promise I promise!” Lucio huffs out his grip on the wine glasses deadly close to being limp but he catches himself right as his lover releases him and when Iolas lets go Lucio isn’t sure if his blush is from his lack of air or not.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Iolas smiles his mood suddenly lifting as he sits on Lucio's lap and watches him slowly gather himself. While the count collects himself Iolas happily takes the second glass from the other man and sips it with a new found sense of calm. Then with a deep adjustment in his throat, Lucio opens his mouth dumbly for a second only to shut it as he takes in his lover so high up on his lap. This causes his blush to spread further down his neck as he looks at the man in front of him.

“You know I love getting bullied by you but if your gonna start something you could at least finish it too ya know.” Now Lucio is pouting and Iolas can’t help but laugh wholeheartedly. Iolas gives him a knowing look before kissing the other's face. The blonde stops him before he can say exactly what he knows Iolas wants to say.

“Really though— I swear no funny business or tricks or funny business tricks.” The wine passes Iolas' lips and He snickers as he looks over how fidgety Lucio’s has gotten. A good sign, seeing as now the blonde knows this is business.

Iolas' can’t help but smile at Lucio's still redden face, he wasn’t expecting this it seems.

 “Well, we can maybe have one little game just between us.” Iolas speaks as if he’s considering it but he’s already aware it’s impossible to have Lucio perform completely without error. ‘It’s best to shoot for the lowest amount possible’ the magician admits to himself. Lucio however looks as if he’s the cat who got the crème. “HA! I knew you wouldn’t dry up on me you always pull pranks— come on then tell me what you have planned.” Iolas laughs at the wording, all frustration gone. This party certainly was going to be an interesting one.

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 44- Monstrous Memories

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

The hermits discover the secret Magistrate Dolios has hidden within the forest.

____________________________________

Zed reminded them it was probably best they don’t stay in the Forest of Memories overnight. Mumbo’s power surge spooked the shleep, and if they fall asleep in the forest, they’ll be fraught with nightmares, which will only give the Forest an in to their fears once more. As much as he hates having to force Mumbo, fresh from a surge, into walking again, they don’t really have a choice. Guess Zed just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. 

Thankfully, TFC and Xisuma agree with him. The hermits defend themselves with potions and amulets, though their greatest defense is just knowing they have one another. Mumbo stays close to Iskall and Grian, who both do their best to distract his worries about hurting Grian with their favorite stories. Like the time Grian nearly dropped Mumbo into the ocean from the sky, or Iskall almost blew away the cloud that Grian’s home perches upon. 

Ren casts his spell again, following the veins of red back to the main leyline. It’s massive, so much magic and power that it scares Ren. Who, or what, needs all this magic? All this energy, stolen from all over Lairyon. What could Dolios need all this for?

BDubs gets a shiver, as if someone just dropped ice down his back. He turns to see if Stress is pulling a prank on him again, opening his mouth to make some smarmy quip, when he sees the leaves above him. 

They look like they’re burning, blackened to the stem, grey embers frozen at the edges of the leaf. It looks so much like the husk magic, and yet at the same time completely different. BDubs reaches up, fingers shaking as he plucks the leaf off the tree. “I think we’re going in the right direction.” 

He shows the once green leaf to the others. It’s as if the ground was saturated with dark magic, poisoning the trees rather than draining them. It’s impossible to distinguish the leyline from the rest of the earth around them. They've made it to the center of the Forest. They’ve made it to what Dolios is hiding. 

The canopy is thick, impossible to see even the crown of the trees. Grian wonders if he flew above the Forest of Memories, would he be able to see this black spot from the sky? Or has Dolios even thought of that? 

“Whatever Dolios is hiding, it’s here somewhere.” Xisuma states, pulling out a torch and lighting it using Tango’s hair. Tango objects at first, but when a distant rustle causes him to leap into Impulse’s arms, he allows the torches to be lit. 

“But where? We don’t even know what we’re looking for.” Doc snarls. He wanders deeper into the darkness, holding his torch high before turning and looking at the other hermits. Both his mechanic and mortal eye narrow at the guild. “It could be as small as a pebble, or so mundane we’d never pick it out!” 

Etho notices a shift in the darkness behind Doc, the swirling mist of grey and black cresting over an angled oval, creased down the equator. And he realizes he’s not looking at mist, he’s looking at slime. “Uh,” He whispers, “Doc, maybe tone it down?” 

But Doc wasn’t listening. “We’ve gone on some wild goose chase, when we need to cut the head off the beast while we can!” 

“Maybe don’t talk about killing beasts, Doc.” Hypno squeaks, realizing what Etho is seeing as well, He sees a grey tentacle, wrapping through the ashen ground like a sticky tree root, more creases all over the body. 

“Why? It’s clear there’s nothing to find here! We’ve searched through the most dangerous place in all of Lairyon, for jack shit!” Doc raises his torch to prove what he means, eyes wild as he stares down the hermits. With the increased light, the entire guild can see the monster behind Doc. Mumbo nearly faints, Stress feels sick, and all the hermits can feel the pressure of dark magic weighing on their chest. It’s like Gildara, but worse. 

“Doc….” Scar whispers, shaking as he creeps closer to the hybrid, trying to pull Doc away from the slumbering monster. They both trip over a slimy black tentacle, head over heels and the torch left behind. “Doc we found it!” 

Slumbering in the trees, a monster beyond anything the hermit’s have ever seen looms. It’s larger than a dragon, made of ebbing and flowing grey and black slime- which takes a moment for the hermits to realize is pure dark energy, pouring over the creature like an overcoat. Citizens’ lifeforce, their magic drained to create this multi eyed, multi-mouthed eldritch horror. Tentacles, dug into the ground, sap the energy fed by the leylines. 

This monstrosity, this manifestation of darkness, is still growing. Slowly, but surely, as it feeds off the leylines. This is but an infant, not yet born. And already it has done so much damage. 

“Oh my word.” Zedaph wipes away a few tears with the heel of his hand . “This thing has no soul. It’s just...pure hatred, pure catastrophe. Why would Dolios bring such a dangerous thing to life?” 

“What does it matter?” Beef shrugs, rolling his neck and preparing to cast his magic. “With this gone, Dolios will crumble.” 

“Hold on.” xB grabs Beef by the horns, holding him back. “We have no clue what this thing will do if it wakes up. What could it do if we attack it right now.” 

“xB is right.” TFC hums. “We would be foolish to fight a monster we know nothing of. Just like going in blind to Gildara, we won’t win that battle without knowledge.”

“So what do we do?” False makes the war hammer she summoned disappear, a bit disappointed. 

Xisuma looks at the ashen ground, following it back to the edge of the monster’s meadow. He sees the four leylines, in four cardinal directions. “This thing is being fed by the leylines. The leylines are set by the obelisks, which are powered by crystals. If we starve the beast before it can awaken, we can take away whatever Dolios plans to do with this.” 

“So...what? We just leave this thing here? Go back to breaking crystals?” Iskall shrugs.

“We came here for more information, and that’s what we’ve gotten. Information is more valuable than action sometimes.” Cub of all people would know. He looks at the others, then continues to speak. “We have all the pieces put together, we can finally see the whole picture of Dolios and his insane plan. With all this, we can fight back better. We know what to do. We starve the beast, and turn all of Lairyon against Dolios.” 

-----------------------------------------

“Hmm.” A low silky voice dances in the dark office, gold trimmed sleeve blinding the wizard to his crystal ball. Curly brown hair rests on the other hand, elbow perched on a plush arm of his office chair. A chair fit for a king- no, a god. Soon enough. 

The single eye of the unborn beast closes. Eurynomos is far from ready, just a fetus at this point, but every day it grows stronger. The more stolen magic Dolios feeds the creature, the stronger it will be. The stronger they will be. Dolios is a patient man, he can bear to wait a little bit longer. 

What he can’t bear is the infuriating interference of these hermits. Dolios knew that Mumbo was powerful- how he drools for all that magic stored in one vessel. And the angel, he’s yet to add such divine magic to his ever growing collection. The rest? Fodder. Or so he thought. They’ve been persistent, and they’ve gained too much knowledge. Just when Dolios thinks he’s caught up in making new corrupted crystals, those damn hermits destroy another. Just when Dolios has destroyed a guild or village no one will miss, they swoop in and stop him. He should’ve killed them in the dungeons that day, so long ago. But now, they’re a problem. 

“Pen an order.” Dolios’s words cause an enchanted quill to stand at attention, tip poised over a blank piece of paper. Dolios doesn’t turn around, his eyes trained to the south. To the Forest of Memories. “The Council hereby declares the Order of Hermits enemies of the state, threats to Lairyon’s future, and a danger to the public. All known whereabouts are to be reported to the Arcane guard, and the Hermits face capital punishment for their crimes.”

[khalliys]

Undyne has zero competence in providing emotional support, but her elbows are as dangerous as ever.

* Fan-fiction about: Empress Undyne Ending - Post-Undertale Neutral Route * Tags: except for Undyne and Sans all major characters are dead, depression, PTSD, guilt, implied suicide, nihilistic thoughts, everyone tries to cope, Undyne works really hard to fill in Asgore’s footsteps, hurt & not much comfort, figuring out how to go on, POV Undyne, characters trying to look out for each other, ANGST in all caps, lots of self-loathing, surprisingly little rage * Rating: Teen And Up Audiences - mind the tags. This is dark but there won't be anything graphic or explicit in this. Read the story on AO3: [Link]

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Chapter 6: Too Much To Chew On

Spears shot up from the ground like a wall. 

A round Monster almost stumbled over its feet, trying to avoid bumping into the electric blue barrier with it's back, while also dodging another spear that was slashing at it from the front. It hastily summoned a couple of triple orbs at it's attacker, who evaded them with a jump to the side. The cornered Monster released another flurry of bullets in her direction and attempted to bring more distance between them, but she wouldn't let it.

Astigmatism put all its effort into staying out of reach of the spear in her hand and attacking her at the same time, but because she was much faster and more agile, it constantly failed at both.

Undyne felt like a cat going after a mouse, or more specifically… like a human going after a Monster. 

One could probably call that being fully immersed in a role. But even after months of employing this training method, she still felt disgust at herself for playing 'a human'. No matter how much she considered it to be more effective than just fighting the Monster way. 

Because humans didn't. 

Undyne let herself take a couple of hits to inch even closer and maybe because she felt like she should. It was apparent in the way the bullets stung that Astigmatism was very frustrated by now. It's switching between defending and charging became increasingly uncoordinated and rash, which only led to more stumbling and it getting even more worked up. 

Undyne swung her spear again. Her opponent chose the same moment to blast another round of triple orbs in her direction. She used the momentum to turn out of the line of fire instead.

Her hair whipped around. And then, completely unexpected, she felt hands grabbing and tugging it forcefully. Pain shot from her scalp through her body like an electric shock and the warrior's defense reaction was immediate. 

She rammed her elbow right into Astigmatism’s face.

Her recruit fell to the ground with a yelp and Undyne turned, the burning sensation at the base of her ponytail fueling an explosive kind of fury.

"YOU!"

The Monster flinched before her looming figure, trying to rub it's head under the protective helmet it was wearing.

"Don't… pick on me", it mumbled while shuffling backwards.

Undyne growled, but allowed herself the second to acknowledge that her trainee was utterly floored and holding its head in pain. That already did enough to snuff out a considerable amount of anger. Instead she ground her teeth together to refrain from yelling at the recruit for using such a dishonorable and also grossly negligent way of attacking. She glanced to the side where the other five recruits of her current training session waited. Or rather huddled. They looked sympathetically uncomfortable, as if they all had just been caught doing something very unwise and dumb.

Undyne breathed out slowly, retaking control of her temper. 

“You know what? Right. You are right. Humans don’t bother to fight fair, we'd be stupid to try. There's no place for honor in a life and death scenario.”

Those words tasted bitter, like chewing on something while knowing it was poisonous. After all, it had been her own stupid pride that had resulted in her losing the only important battle she had ever tried to fight. 

Emphasis on tried, because in reality all she had managed to do was to chase after a cowardly murderer who had mocked her from the very beginning. Only fleeing and pretending to be oh so scared, even though at this point she had known just too well what they were capable of.

Astigmatism peeked at Undyne through a narrow eye, undoubtedly not trusting her shift in demeanor. 

"But if you're gonna fight dirty at least be SMART about it, you fool! If it hadn't been for that visor you'd be BLIND now, at the very least!"

It drew its shoulders up again. “I get it, I get it.”

Undyne leaned forward “Do you?” and extended a hand towards her trainee. 

Again Astigmatism considered her for two more eye-blinks, but then it took her hand. “Yes, Captain!”

She helped the Monster back onto its feet and proceeded to tap a knuckle against its dented helmet. 

"Good. Take an energy bar and then demonstrate being smart to me with your training partner. BUT let me just say ONE THING." 

Undyne's eye scanned back to the other recruits who had just relaxed their postures and now snapped to attention again. 

"As for your task in the Royal Guard - we don't EVER use such foul tactics when a confrontation with a fellow habitant is unavoidable. I won't have anyone not able to treat others with decency be a member of my guard. Am I being clear?!" 

Everyone hastily saluted and Astigmatism scurried to join them, while unsuccessfully trying to get off the helmet. 

 ***

 After she had dismissed her trainees for the day and was on her way back to Old Home, Undyne for some reason felt weirdly aware of the weight of her ponytail, and how it swayed with every step she took. 

When she got to the western end of Waterfall she stopped and reached up. With a sigh she removed the cap that hid the hair on the top of her head. She had it charmed in a way that made it imitate the look of her skin and concealed her hair perfectly, when she wore it in a tight ponytail. The ponytail needed to stick out however, because it wouldn't work with the volume of all of her hair up without looking ridiculous. 

Her long hair had always been some kind of trade mark to her, epicly windswept in the drafty air of Waterfall. Now it felt like an inconvenience (and honestly kinda had before too - on some occasions - hence the cap), a weak point and keeping it that way seemed more vain and unreasonable the more she kept thinking about it. 

Undyne stored the cap in her dimensional box and let her hair down for a moment, to comb her fingers through it. Every knot and tangle only reminded her of the sensation of being pulled by her hair.

She would have to do something about it. She couldn’t afford any vulnerability.

With her ponytail fixed Undyne started walking again, soon engulfed by the perpetual fog that was caused by the sudden climate-shift between Waterfall and Snowdin.

Her heart stumbled and clenched for a moment when she caught the outline of somebody in the mist. She had to stop again and shivered involuntarily. But the figure was too small.

“...San...”

Before Undyne could even finish saying his name she saw the shadow jolting and heard a little gasp. It moved quickly - away she assumed - but then it tumbled with a dull “oompf”. 

Undyne’s tense posture slacked a little. Slowly she approached the figure that turned out to be a familiar yellow-scaled monster child.

“Are you alright?”, she asked, going down on one knee and moved her hand tentatively towards Monster Kid, who was currently occupied with trying to shake the snow out of their face. But upon hearing her voice they froze and stared up at her wide-eyed. 

With surprising speed they scrambled back onto their feet and took several steps back. They turned their head away and avoided looking at her. Just like they had been doing for the past four months. It still felt like a punch to her gut every time. 

A well deserved one.

“It’s cool, you don’t need to help me,” they said flatly and looked down at where their feet were stuck in the snow.

Undyne lowered her hand to her knee, held it there for a moment, then balled it into a fist to push herself back up again.

“I see. You’re a pretty tough punk.”

She saw their facial features strain a little at her comment. Memories of their mother’s funeral, two weeks after she had fallen down, crawled up to the back of her mind unbidden. Monster Kid had stood at the side of their remaining parent with their sister, both of them holding the jittery scowls of children trying too hard not to cry and failing at it.

She didn't want to listen to the little voice telling her that their mother’s death was a result of her incompetence and turned in the direction of Snowdin Town.

“So. You’re good, right?”

Yeah, they totally weren’t and Undyne wanted to smack herself for not choosing her words better. 

“Yup.”

“Okay. Take care.”

She started walking again and breathed out a long sigh when she deemed herself far away enough. That kid had all the right and reasons in the world to forever be angry at her. It was oka-

“YO, UNDYNE!” 

Startled, Undyne turned her head and saw Monster Kid running after her. They almost stumbled again but managed to keep upright when they stopped a few feet away. They wore that same watery frown again - 

and then it cracked. 

“Yo, I’m … I’m not t-tough.” They inhaled sharply. “I’m, I’m just a d-dumb pushover and… and…!!” 

Tears welled up in their eyes and they tried biting back a sob. “I’m really sorry!”

Undyne didn’t even notice that she had fully turned around and with what kind of horrified expression she now stared at the crying child.

“I know th-this is all my f-f-fault! I've… I’ve been so so ash-ashamed, because- because if it weren’t for me, or, or like ifyoujusthadn’th-helpedm-”

“No.” Something clicked in Undyne’s brain just then. She was on her knees and had her hands firmly on their narrow shoulders before the sobbing child could even look up. “No no no no, don’t think that. That’s not true-”

“BUT IT TOTALLY IS!!! I got you hurt and, AND THEN you couldn’t beat the human! If I’d just listened to you...”

Undyne desperately fumbled for words, for something to say that could immediately disperse this kid’s poisoned thoughts, but she could barely think through her own rising feeling of shame. They had trusted her to handle this. And it was disturbing how Monster Kid’s admission of guilt and regret hit way too close to home.

The child held their head lower and lower and if they had hands they would surely try to cover their face at this point.

“...if you hadn’t jumped after me... I’m sure you could have… like… beat them up, right then and there...” 

Trying to ignore the stab that wrenched like a knife in her stomach, Undyne just held their shoulders a little tighter. “Your life is more important.”

But they just shook their head violently. 

“NO!! It’s not more important than ALL of the others! Like King Asgore, or my … or my m-mom…”

And Undyne really just didn’t know what to do or say. She was bad at dealing with her own emotions at best, but trying to console an inconsolable child with growing self-resentment, stuck in a situation no child should ever be stuck in? She felt like the least qualified person in the whole Underground for that.

“Kid, listen to yourself. You can’t seriously think your mom would have been okay with you being dead.”

“But… if I just hadn’t followed that human…”

Loosening her grip she rubbed at the back of her neck with one hand and curled her fingers tightly around some wispy strands of hair that were too short to fit into her ponytail. 

“... It’s no use to get hung up on what ifs. All it does is make everything feel even worse.”

She knew them all. The What if I hadn’t tried to give the human a fair chance, the What if I had been more ruthless, and yes, the What if I hadn’t sprained my ankle after jumping off a cliff. And the What if I had been quicker, could I have been quicker when-, what if I had been more honest, would she- and it was no use. It only made you spiral downwards faster.

But Undyne didn’t tell them how much she could relate and how much she felt the same way. She wasn’t going to burden a child with that. “It’s okay, I hate myself, too” was certainly not an appropriate thing to say to anyone, especially not a Monster still in stripes. She had an exemplary function to fulfill after all. 

“...And it’s really not your fault that I failed the landing.”

Now Monster Kid looked back up at her, still sniffing and eyebrows drawn in what seemed to be disagreement. Undyne tried a very awkward version of an encouraging smile.

“Yeah! That little jump? I... include that in my daily morning routine. I should have managed it just fine… So... it’s no one’s fault but my own.”

“But …”, Monster Kid started again, but Undyne lifted her hand in a motion to stop them. 

“I’m not infallible. Neither was King Asgore. I too was so very sure that the human wouldn’t be able to get past him… but they did. And we can’t change it. We can’t go back."

No matter how much she wished for that reset button every day. No matter how much she actually really could not come to terms with her own fallibility. 

"All we can do is... try to learn from what happend, so that we can make better decisions in the future. You didn’t recognise they were a human. You can’t be blamed for that. But it also won't happen to you again.”

Undyne knew what cold of a comfort that was. And how in the face of what had happened, it really didn't seem like any future decision could ever matter, because the worst had already come to pass. This kid had lost its mother. There was no consolation. 

And therefore her words did nothing. They might have stopped Monster Kid's objections, but they certainly still thought the same way and tears still kept rolling down their cheeks. They had averted their eyes again.

Undyne felt helpless. Did they need a hug? This wasn't something one could hug away, she was aware of that. She also wasn't someone close to them, they had specifically avoided her for months, so it might even make them uncomfortable and they had no arms, so-

"I wanna join the Royal Guard."

Undyne's train of thought immediately screeched to a halt. 

"What?" 

Monster Kid took a step back, snuffled heavily and licked over their snout in lack of a sleeved arm. Now they scowled at her as if they wanted to burn a hole through her forehead. 

"Yeah!! I wanna become a guard. I wanna be strong and not a burden." 

With that one hand still at the back of her neck Undyne was now tugging at her own hair. Why did this situation have to become even more stressful. 

"I'm sorry, but no. You're too young."

She braced for impact by staring back at them as sternly as possible. 

"Yo, I know that, but I wanna start training NOW… so I'll be ready when I'm old enough!" 

Monster Kid's eyes shimmered with tears and grave determination and Undyne felt trapped. She didn't want them to cry any more, she didn't want them to feel like a nuisance she was just trying to wave off, she didn't want to disappoint them and make them even more miserable. She had told their parent she'd be there to help, for goddamn's sake. 

But would this be right? It wouldn't be, would it? 

They continued, faltering a bit. "Like… Like, um… I heard King Asgore trained you too, when you were young… so… please." 

Undyne sucked in a deep breath and got back to her feet at the same time to cover up the noise. Though she didn't bother to hide the long exhale that released it. 

"Kid I…" another sigh. That wasn't a fair card they were playing. Also not really comparable. Her situation had been different and Asgore's, too. First and foremost, he'd had the time to indulge her. Looking back at it now she'd probably made a pretty good distraction for him. Kept him busy. 

“P-please let me…”

However, Undyne now in his position had already taken care of keeping herself and others busy and distracted. She had kept her duty as the Captain of the Royal Guard in addition to trying to fulfil Asgore's role. She'd made sure to have as little free time as possible. 

"I need to think about this."

Something defiant passed over Monster Kid's face and they opened their mouth in protest, but then their expression hardened and they glanced down. 

"Yeah, sure."

Undyne pressed her mouth into a thin line for a second, but went on. "There are things to consider." 

"Uh-huh."

Why did children have to be like this. Releasing a defeated sigh she rubbed two fingers down her left temple. She couldn’t just make a decision about this while being put on the spot like that.

When she had finished recruitment training earlier, there had been two hours to spare until she was needed at a meeting with construction workers and residents in the Ruins. Time Undyne had planned on spending with getting changed, going through some reports and a quick meal alongside. She had promised her old guards to keep track of the latter to stop them from mothering her so much. But it seemed like this situation required a change of plans.

"...How about we grab something from Grillby's and then discuss more? My treat."

Monster Kid looked up at her in surprise, although immediately hesitant. They kicked at the snow in front of them.

“You don’t need to do that. I’m sure you’re like... busy and such.”

Undyne shrugged.

“I know. I’m still offering it to you.”

When they continued to look conflicted and fidgeted with their feet Undyne recognised that maybe… their aloof behaviour had never been directed towards her. That it was directed at themselves. She put her hand on their head.

“You are not a burden.”

She couldn’t really see it from her point of view, but she felt a tiny shiver under her palm and heard them sniffing. Her shoulders stiffened slightly. It definitely hadn’t been her intention to make them cry again.

But they just snuffled once more and nodded. “Okay.” Disbelievingly, but it was better than nothing. “Thank you.”

 ***

 Undyne hadn’t really been to Grillby’s just for food since the human had gone through the Underground. Her feelings about resuming life like before hadn’t changed. It had just gotten the tiniest bit easier to be rational about it. She had visited the restaurant to check up on Grillby and make sure he had everything he needed in the past, though (and of course hadn’t been let go without taking food along then).

When she opened the door she saw that the establishment was pretty empty.

“Oh, your majesty!”

The Monster who immediately greeted her from their seat was a venus flytrap kind of type towards whom Undyne inclined her head respectfully. In the booth next to the door sat a lone bunny with their face down on the table. Right in front of the counter, with his back towards her… was of course Sans.

“Any interesting news regarding Home’s reconstruction?”

Undyne, who had been leveling a slightly concerned look at the local drunkard, was about to turn towards the talking Monster she knew was nicknamed Big Mouth, when the bunny shot up.

“Hhhhha! H-h-h-h-home! Will it have a bar? Or a d-d-d-disco! I’ll totally move there.”

She assumed she should feel some sort of relief that his life priorities still seemed to be the same as ever. As questionable as they might be. Her eye switched back to Big Mouth.

“I’ll be discussing progress with the workers later today. Facade repairs of the occupied buildings are coming along well. Most work is currently put into digging to connect the waterways and recycling material from the old buildings we had to tear down.”

“So it’s still a looong way to go.”

Undyne motioned for Monster Kid, who was awkwardly standing in the doorway, to follow her to the bar. 

“I know. Process is slow. Unfortunately there's only very limited access to electricity and what's there doesn't have much power.”

“Oh, right. Ah, I remember the times before the CORE provided us all with electricity.”

“Yeah… hooking the Ruins up to the CORE will be a whole 'nother business…” 

One she had been dreading for a number of reasons that she tried very hard not to think about until necessary.

"Right, without our Royal Scientist…" 

"Hey. Are… are there any… h-h-h-hot guys at work?”

Undyne, who just felt herself going rather stiff, almost jumped at the opportunity to change the subject and shot a look back towards the bunny. 

“You gotta see for yourself. I’m pretty sure they’d be grateful for someone to bring them lunch from Grillby���s.”

The bunny punched his fists down onto the table in front of him.

“I’ll do that! Sansy’s gotten so b-b-b-boring… always telling the same jokes…”

Said skeleton was currently taking a swig from a ketchup bottle.

“what. ya got a bone to pick with me?”

The bunny’s only response was a sigh and he put his chin back down onto the table.

Undyne took the chance to remove herself from the small talk and turned to Grillby.

“Hey Grillby. Everything alright here?”

“... ... ...Same as always.”

Undyne nodded slowly and panned her gaze over the empty seats at the bar and the booths behind. It must have been about noon, so she knew the dogs were on patrol and the other regulars probably at work, too. At least she hoped so.

“...Same faces as always, too?”

His response was a short nod. She couldn't refrain from also nodding again, though it was more to herself. She supposed that ‘same as always’ was good enough, even when it wasn’t really true. At least it meant no one had fallen down in Snowdin recently. 

Undyne lightly touched Monster Kid on the back of their head to get their attention, as they seemed to be lost in focusing on the wood grain of the counter and kept nudging one foot against the other heel to busy themselves.

“What should I get you?”

“Uhh… just fries.”

“Good. I’ll take the same.”

While Grillby went into the back room, Undyne took a sideway glance at Sans. She didn’t bother to ask him why he was currently here, or what kind of break he was on right now. He wasn’t doing his sentry job anymore - all she knew was that he still sold Hot Dogs in Hotland and also in Waterfall. 

Meanwhile Sans had turned to face Monster Kid and leaned in their direction.

“psst, hey kiddo. want some ketchup?”

Acting as if he was offering something illegal, he held one side of his hoody jacket open to reveal rows of ketchup packets that appeared to have been sewn into the fabric. Undyne rolled her eye and Monster Kid’s expression was bewildered at first, then changed to what could be considered mildly amused. 

“Uuuuuh, no, but thanks.”

Sans stuffed his hands back in his pockets and shrugged. His movements were accompanied by a plastic-y rustling noise.

“it makes for pretty good padding.”

The kid blinked and then they actually let out a little snort.

“Oh. Hehe, that… maybe could be useful??”

“if you’re ever in need of ketchup armor, i’ll give you a discount.”

Sans winked and Undyne decided there was no need for her to chime in. He had managed to make the somber child smile with just one nonsensical statement. That was a lot more than she had accomplished in 10 minutes of talking to them. 

Just then Grillby came back with their orders. 

“So… you have any preference for a place where we could eat and talk?”, she asked them while he put their fries into a paper bag and Undyne placed gold coins in front of the fire elemental. The young Monster just shrugged to the degree they were capable of, which had Sans doing another winky face at them.

“what, you can’t think of a cool place in snowdin?"

Undyne felt another little tug in her chest. Hearing him joking and making puns these days still made her uncomfortable. The silence that now followed a bad pun filled her with a sense of dread, when before it had been Papyrus, reacting with any sort of annoyed exclamation. It was almost like Sans was still waiting for it. And she found herself expecting it so much that she could almost hear it. But all that was left was anxiety inducing silence. 

Monster Kid looked between her and Sans a little helplessly, catching the mood. Sans was the first to break eye-contact from Undyne’s blank stare.

“wow. tough crowd.”

There was this invisible wall between him and her. Despite living in the same house, their only interactions - whether he was sitting in “his” armchair for hours on end, or she randomly passed by him somewhere in the Underground - were awkward non-conversations. Sans would continue his comedy with decreasing effort day by day, like he was waiting for everything to finally return back to how things used to be. Or maybe he was just waiting for her to snap. Sometimes Undyne wasn’t so sure. But she never gave him the annoyed groans or irritated chiding. She wasn’t Papyrus. She wasn’t gonna fill in for him. She could never do that. No one could ever replace Papyrus.

So all she could actually do was ignore it… or participate in the game.

"Just gave you the opportunity to call it a ‘chilly reaction’, but you missed it."

Sans didn’t look up again, just continued to nurse his bottle.

“heh, you caught me cold there.”

Undyne wasn’t sure if that was even an actual expression, but it didn’t matter.

“I caught you slacking off. Don’t bother Grillby all day and stop depleting his ketchup supply.”

Okay, maybe she did some chiding. But hey, it was still nicer than she could have been, if she'd had enough irate energy left for him.

“hey, i’m just consuming my salary. grillbyz and i have an arrangement here. i sell the hotdogs and since i don’t pay rent anymore, i choose edibles for compensation.”

Undyne stared at him for a few seconds, several sarcastic comments or honestly indignant responses to that flickering through her brain, but once she opened her mouth she found she did not care enough and immediately shut it again. She just huffed.

“You- … Okay, whatever. Good. Good for you.”

She grabbed their food and left the restaurant with a polite “have a nice day” towards no one specifically. Monster Kid scrambled after her. Since they hadn't voiced any suggestion, Undyne simply chose to head in the direction of the Ruins. She had to be there sooner than later anyway. 

When the two of them reached the bridge, Undyne decided this was as good a place as they could get to, if they wanted their fries to stay warm and be away from any prying ears. And on the plus side, this bridge actually had a damn safety rope. As she sat down at the edge, the hint of a frown passed across her face, as it occurred to her that choosing a bridge for this talk was kind of … hm, the right word wouldn’t come to her, but it’s taste was on the tip of her tongue. 

Monster Kid sat with their knees drawn back into their chest, so that they could just clamp the bag of fries between them and reach the food with their mouth. 

For a while they just ate in what really couldn’t be described as companionable silence, but she distracted herself from feeling awkward by putting her thoughts and the things she wanted to say in the right order. She hoped that the child had used the time to calm down enough as well.

“So,” Undyne began hesitantly, “do you still mean it? Royal Guard Training - is that really what you want?”

The young Monster nodded immediately and strongly, almost spilling their fries. “Yo… Of course.”

Undyne tried to keep her sigh quiet enough so that they wouldn’t recognize it as such and rubbed her temple. 

“You said you want to become strong and not be a burden. Being a Royal Guard isn’t just about being strong and let me stress this again, you are not a burden.”

She saw them draw their eyebrows together and stare daggers at the fries in disagreement.

“I am. I am such a weenie, you got hurt because I can barely even walk.”

Again she just wanted to respond that the only reason she got hurt was because she herself had been a boastful idiot, but shifting blame back and forth, trying to be the one who got to keep it, didn’t solve anything. 

“Listen, there is so much we have no control of. If everyone were in perfect control of anything… well, then that human wouldn’t even have gotten to the bridge, because my spears wouldn’t have missed them before. And it doesn’t matter if that was because my aim was off, or if there were things in the way I couldn’t account for, or if they were just too good at dodging. The end result is the same.”

She couldn’t help but make a face as she reached the last sentence and realised that this… definitely wasn’t as comforting a thing to hear as she intended it to be. Like, at all. And not really true on top of that. Undyne chewed on her bottom lip and decided it was better to return to the topic at hand, because she really just didn’t know how to comfort the kid in a successful way.

“How about this. I can train you, but I have a condition. And we also put that Royal Guard goal on the back burner for the time being. You don’t have to decide NOW what you want to do in a couple of years.”

They looked up at her and their face was quite hard to read, like they weren’t sure if they should be glad or disappointed about her final offer.

“What condition?”

“Well, obviously your parent has to give their permission.”

Their eyes immediately grew wide. 

"What?? N-no! Don't tell them, please!" 

"Of course not. YOU will." 

Monster Kid stared at her, mouth open, as if she had just demanded the most obviously preposterous thing. They let out a whine. "Noooo." 

But this was not something Undyne was going to argue about. She pointedly turned her head forward and bit into a frie.

“I will not teach you anything without your parent’s permission. It’s up to you to convince them that this is a good idea,” she said and didn’t look back at them. Whatever pleading face they were making, she wouldn't let herself be manipulated by it.

Eventually she just heard them grumble. “Fine.”

That’s when she mercifully turned her face back to them.

“...Thank you,” they muttered, as if they had just reminded themselves that it would be impolite to not show any gratefulness. Undyne wasn’t sure if they should really thank her yet, but gave a small nod.

“Sooo, like… if my pa agrees, when will you train me?”

They were no longer eating, even though she could see that their serving wasn’t empty yet. They just kind of fidgeted with their feet. Undyne took a moment to think about her schedule.

“I could probably make time on Sundays.”

“Only Sundays?”

Now they sounded disappointed. But Undyne had fully expected that.

“You know, I’m currently training a lot of people and on top of that I have a bunch of other duties and obligations to fulfil. And you also have school and school stuff to do.”

They grimaced at the latter part and Undyne responded with a head-tilt and sternly risen eyebrow that allowed no argument. They put their chin down on one knee sulkingly.

At this point Undyne decided that it was time to part from the kid, before the awkward - and certainly emotionally draining on both sides - encounter turned plain uncomfortable. She wasn’t qualified to deal with this child’s trauma, she wasn’t even sure if she wouldn’t regret agreeing to training them later at night, when she was staring at the ceiling and struggled to make her brain finally shut down, so that sleep could find her.

“Okay. So, now that we’ve discussed all this - I think you have a parent to convince. I have to head back now.”

Monster Kid let out a quiet sigh that she couldn’t discern the nature of. Then they scooted backwards and shuffled back to their feet. “Right.” For a moment they just stared over the edge of the bridge into the cavern, but eventually lifted their eyes back towards her. “Thank you, Undyne.”

Undyne nodded in acknowledgement, but couldn’t find any more words to say to them. 'You'll be alright' was stuck in the back of her mouth, but wouldn't leave it. It might turn out to be a lie. 

She waited until they were off the bridge before she gathered their food and paper bags and stood up again. Now it was her turn to take in a deep breath and let it out in a long exhale. 

She had just turned around and placed the first step towards Snowdin Forest, when another voice reached her ears.

“aren’t you taking on more than you can chew?”

Her shoulders tensed and then slacked. She turned around with a sigh to the view of Sans holding a burger with a bite-mark in it. She glared at him for a good moment, mentally working out the decision to either ignore him, express annoyance, or humor him. Undyne wasn’t particularly in the mood for the latter, but tried it anyway and showed her teeth with a strained grin.

“What about these makes you think I can’t chew through anything?” Her expression dropped into a frown just as quickly. “Also, why are you eavesdropping on me.”

Taking his time, Sans just lazily lifted the burger back to his face and continued ingesting it in however magical way his body enabled him to, without having to actually open his mouth. Nothing Undyne had ever found the need to puzzle over, considering the various types of Monsters living in the Underground. Some did not even have any kind of facial features.

Sans shrugged. “i’m not, coincidentally i just have the same way home.”

One of her eyebrows lifted incredulously.  “You have shortcuts.”

“too lazy.”

She dragged a hand over her face and just walked off, back onto the snowy path that would lead back to the Ruins. However, despite her show of irritation, her pace was rather slow, only quick enough for a lazy skeleton to keep pace - which he did. Undyne regarded him from the corner of her eye.

“So lazy you’re also skipping work, huh?”

“nah, i’m very legally taking the day off.”

Instead of verbal response, Undyne wordlessly inclined her head and now raised both eyebrows.

“yup. it’s pretty important to use your vacation days. i heard that taking a break once in a while is good for your mental health.”

She blinked, processing what this pinnacle of mental health just told her and couldn’t refrain from barking out a short laugh.

“Hah! Now that’s a good one.”

Since Sans was now right beside her she elbowed at him - and stopped in her tracks when her elbow actually connected with the skeleton and sent him tumbling into the snow. Undyne, frozen in her motion, stared at him in surprise and he stared back, mirroring her expression. 

Sans hadn’t dodged her. 

But Sans always dodged. That’s the whole reason she had even let him be a sentry, because despite being physically weak, he was able to demonstrate that, if anything, he was a master of keeping out of harm's way. And it’s not like she hadn't flung her elbow, her fist, or a spear at him countless times before. Because while she knew he couldn’t take much, she used to trust that he would avoid what he could not take. 

For some reason, she found her success at elbowing him now more worrying than anything else Sans had done or not done in the past months. And he still looked like he was as caught off guard about it as she was. Sans slowly patted down on his jacket and there was a squelching noise. He dug his hands under his jacket and after a little rummaging he shot two finger guns back out at her. Completely stained red, spattering ketchup in the process.

“yup, ketchup armor passed with flying colors.”

Undyne found that her jaw hung a bit open. Pushing down every urge to send the skeleton flying, too, her teeth audibly clicked back together, squeezing out a deadpan “Amazing.” from between them. She became aware of her tight grip around the paper bag in her hand and proceeded to grab a fist full of the fries they had left over. She unceremoniously threw them at the skeleton. “Have some fries to go along with it.”

Sans didn’t move a bone aside from wiggling his pointed index fingers. “i can see you grinning.”

And yeah? Maybe she was. Because this was just ridiculous. 

“Go take a shortcut, Sans.”

She had considered helping him back up again, she really did, but not when he was oozing that disgusting stuff. It helped assure her that he was alright enough, though. Shaking her head lightly, one corner of her mouth maybe still slightly curled upwards, Undyne turned away from him and marched on. 

For some reason the smell of ketchup wouldn’t quite leave her and when she found some sticking to a few strands of her hair she groaned. She glowered ahead to where - as expected - a skeleton leaned casually against one of the trees that lined her path.

“Have you ever seen scissors lying around the house?”

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

* Chapter-Index

[s-trawberryv-eins]

A Poorly Kept Secret

NOT MY GIF

Prompt: Fake not dating for @lets-hargrooves writing challenge!

Summary: The plan was to keep it secret a little longer. Sam has other ideas.

Warnings: Violence, injury, angst.

A/N: My terrible and LATE entry for the Valentines Day Writing Challenge. My prompt was fake not dating. I kinda strayed but I think (?) it still counts! It’s absolute trash, it’s sh*t, don’t waste your time! Hasn’t been proofread, try not to throw up when you read it!

Bucky Barnes x reader

Avengers x reader

Word count: 2839

Masterlist

“Good evening Agent, Sergeant.” As Y/N and Bucky strolled into the empty common room hand in hand, the were immediately greeted by FRIDAY. “You’re both required upstairs straight away.”

Sharing a look of confusion, the pair headed straight to the elevator with a shrug. As they waited, Barnes realised he really didn’t want to let go of the girls hand. Tonight had been their third date, and his feelings for his teammate had grown quickly.

“I wish we coulda stayed out longer.” Y/N smiled at his confession, a faint blush staining her cheeks.

“Me too. But I’m gonna run the risk of assuming we’d both be up for another date, so I’m not gonna cry too hard about it.” The smile on her face made her cheeks ache, but she relished in the feeling. Taking a step closer to the soldier, she kept her eyes on his, staring up through thick black lashes.

“I would 100%, most definitely be up for another date, Miss Y/L/N. In fact, I insist upon it.” Barnes’ words had her blushing again, and she subconsciously scolded herself for falling for the man so quickly.

“I’ll make the reservations.” Bucky left no room for disagreement but found she didn’t mind so long as they were going out again.

“Where?”

“I’m not telling.” And then her lips were on his and she swore she’d never felt anything like it before. Soft and hot, seared into her brain for the rest of time and thank god because to forget this would be to commit a crime punishable by death. Bucky’s hand that held her own was pressed against her back, holding her ever closer. His other hand rested at the base of her neck as he ran his thumb over her flushed cheek.

It wasn’t their first kiss, but it was most definitely their first kiss. And as they separated, breathless and surprised by Y/N sudden initiation of the intimacy, they stayed close; foreheads resting against each other, hands still entwined. As if the universe had been looking down on them, the elevator doors opened not a second too soon, allowing them to have their moment in peace.

-

After no less than fifteen minutes in the board room, the team was fully briefed and boarding the Quinjet, headed for the Appalachian Mountains. Tasks and objectives had been delegated, and everybody knew their roles.

“Hey Y/N? Where were you tonight?” Natasha and Y/N had planned to train together, but the latter had bailed after making plans with Bucky.

“Oh. I was on a date, actually. Some loser I met on my run this morning. Definitely won’t be seeing him again.” Scrunching her nose up in faux disgust, Natasha laughed and went to sit with the girl to press for details. The lie came easily enough; she was rather gifted in the field of espionage after all.

Something in Bucky’s chest sank a little at her words. It’d been his idea to keep it between the two of them, but it wasn’t pleasant. When Sam approached, it only made matters worse.

“Why the sour face? You mad cos people here can actually get dates? Ha. I’ll set you up Barnes!” Trying his best to tune his friend out, Bucky made himself comfortable. It was going to be a long flight.

-

After three days, the Winter Solider was becoming increasingly frustrated with the current state of affairs. Barnes and Barton had been paired up and given the job of the eyes in the sky. The site they were aiming to infiltrate and take down was located on the east side of the mountain range. Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier were to keep an eye out, and slowly dispose of the guards who stood around the perimeter.

The facility was expecting two ‘specialists’ to arrive from England. After the team had located the expected, they grabbed them before they’d made their presence known. Upon learning that the facility did not know what they looked like, only their names, Y/N and Sam had volunteered to go under cover; Bucky wasn’t happy, but he was even more unhappy that he couldn’t really protest.

The rest of the team were to infiltrate the site and free the hostages being held there for human experimentation, before taking the whole thing to pieces.

The only problem was, this couldn’t be an in and out mission. It relied heavily on Falcon and Y/C/N disabling the surprisingly high-tech security system.  In order to stand a chance, they had to be trusted enough to be left alone - an unlikely feat.

“Romanoff,” Barnes’ watchful eye spotted two guards approaching from the right, a blind spot the redheaded assassin was working around. “3 ‘o’ clock.” With his eye trained perfectly on the scope of his weapon, he offered a countdown for Black Widow to position herself accordingly.

“In 3...2…” In the space of a second, Natasha had cleared the space, Bucky had fired, and his targets were down. Clockwork.

A thankyou from Natasha and she was back to work. 

“If everything’s gone to schedule, we should be clear for entry in 3 minutes. If not, we’ve got trouble and we need to get those two out of here.” 

An arrow fired, narrowly missing the Captain as it soared through the air and pierced the jugular of an approaching target. Steve’s eyes tracked the path of the arrow, scowling when they landed on the man who let it fly.

“Nearly had my eye out, Barton.”

But with a soft smirk and a tilt of the head, the marksman replied “no chance, Cap. I never miss!”

“If you’ve done flirting, shall we?” Tony’s voice rang out, summoning those on ground level to the rendezvous point. As they approached, Steve stood forward, waiting for Tony’s signal to attempt entrance. The blond reached for the door but jumped back into a defensive stance when the buzzer sounded, and the door seemed to open by itself.

Everyone readied for a fight, unsure of what they’d find waiting for them behind the large steel contraption when a voice crackled through.

“I’m sorry guys. We were made.”

-

The doors peeled open, loud and creaking, adding to the tension that stood in the moment. Two guards stepped into the light, one gripping Y/N by her neck and the other Sam. It was clear that they’d not lasted long in the facility by the way the bruising had coloured on their faces. Yellowing already, it was proof that their friends had been suffering several days.

Bucky stood breathless; unsure of how to respond to the threat in front of him, he did the only thing he felt he could. Shouldering his weapon once again, he trained it on the face of the man who held the girl he was falling for, unsure of whether she was even still breathing.

Upon watching Barnes take aim, Barton followed suit, waiting for instructions from his Captain.

“We’ve got a lock.”

“Negative! Y/L/N and Wilson could be dead before you’ve even released. Stand down.” Drawing a shaky breath, Bucky was set to follow orders when a gravelly feminine voice broke through the comms tech. 

“Do it, Bucky.” Panic bloomed in his chest, a feeling he’d never felt before.

“Do it or he will. You don’t really think they’ll let us leave alive, do you? We saw too much.” As the words left her mouth, the grip on her throat increased. Bucky couldn’t breathe. Her words were true, he knew that much. But was he really capable of shooting his teammate, of shooting Y/N?

“Stop talking or your friend dies.” Sam was hanging onto consciousness by a thread, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.

“South east wing has an elevator-“ Sam screwed his eyes shut as he felt the gun press into his back, and he readied himself for death.

“Bottom floor-“ the gunshots fired before anybody could blink. Y/Ns body crumpled to the ground, as did the men holding the two Avengers captive, but Sam stayed on his feet. Spinning around to assess the damage, the team snapped back into action immediately. Steve called for a medical evacuation whilst Sam located the shot the girl had suffered.

“GSW to the shoulder. She’s losing too much, she’s been...she’s been bleeding for-“ A hand came to sit on Wilson’s shoulder, gently prying him from the girl.

“Sam? Hey! You’re in shock. Let Tony take a look.” Natasha pulled Falcon along, barely flinching when he threw himself into her arms.

“Good shot, Barnes. In one side, out the other. And into that guys chest by the looks of things. You too, Hawkeye.” Tony assessed the damage before coating the bullet wound in an antibacterial spray.

The men simply nodded, but Bucky barely heard a thing for the sound of his blood thundering through his veins. 

-

“Sam, please. You’ve got to stop doing this to yourself. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I’m the one who shot her, for crying out loud.” Bucky tried to reason with his friend, who, since returning home from the mission, had buried himself in a ditch of guilt, shame, and helplessness as Y/N remained unconscious, hooked up to a range of machines in the med bay.

“You weren’t in there, Barnes! You weren’t…I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t make it.” Sam’s confession had Bucky’s heart jump up and land in his throat. He’d been gripping on to the hope the doctors had given them, and he’d been remaining laughably optimistic since they returned. But if she didn’t pull through? What would any of them do?

The Winter Soldier looked his friend up and down; Sam had been in bad shape when they wheeled him from the Quinjet, but the wounds were mostly superficial. After a round of antibiotics, a good nights sleep and a day of bed rest, he was feeling better – physically, at least. The same couldn’t be said for Y/N.

An angry infection had spread from a wound on her leg, poisoning her bloodstream and preventing her healing. Surprising, but much to Bucky’s relief, the gunshot wound had been the least of her problems when she’d returned. The infection had rendered her entirely out of action, consciousness only coming in fleeting moments before the girl slipped back into a sleepy state again.

“It’s been three days. She should be awake.” Sam’s words loomed over, hanging in the air like a threat. It had crossed Bucky’s mind, but he refused to allow himself to go there.

“Sam! Bucky! Tony wants us there; he’s got an update.” Wanda appeared out of nowhere, and vanished just as quickly, but the boys took no notice as they made their way to the med bay.

-

Upon arriving, Steve, Natasha, Clint and Tony were already there.

“Well?” Wilson took to demanding answers instantly. “Tony?”

Stark’s eyes were clouded over, seeming darker than they ever had before. “Y/N’s awake for now but-“ sucking in a breath before continuing, the team didn’t waste a second.

“I’m sorry.” Tony’s voice rang out after them, but they never heard it. Grief hit in a tidal wave, and every second felt more precious than the last.

Joining the rest of the team in Y/Ns room, Bucky felt sick to his stomach. A thousand ‘what if’s rang through his brain, a million questions that would never get answered. It seemed that the universe would never again smile down upon him, as if he’d been testing his luck even taking more than a glimpse at the girl.

“Why do you all look so miserable?” With a voice weak from dehydration, Y/N reached out to grab Sam’s hands, tugging him closer with the little strength she had. When nobody responded, she grew nervous.

“Seriously?”

“Y/N/N, we spoke to Tony…” Confusion crossed her face, brows furrowing as she tried to decipher why on earth the superheroes in front of her looked shaken to their cores. It was only after a second of thought that it clicked.

Pushing herself up into an upright position, the girl rolled her eyes before shouting the man guilty of the long faces in the room.

“TONY STOP TELLING PEOPLE I’M DYING!” A second later, it seemed to click. An exasperated sigh from Natasha and she and Clint left the room, promising to come back later on after they’d found and killed Tony. Steve pressed a kiss to the side of her head, and also took his leave to go and stop Nat from killing Tony.

“So you’re okay?” The look of shock on Wilson’s face never left, despite the sudden reassurance that she wasn’t in fact dying.

“Bucky, help me up a sec?” Pushing the covers away from her body, she used the super soldier as leverage to pull herself to her feet. Turning away from him, the girl leaned on him for support, her back pressed against his chest as if to reassure them both at the same time. Bucky sighed as she leaned into him, grateful to be close to her again, even if it wasn’t quite as close as he wanted to be.

Dressed only in cotton shorts and a hoodie, her legs were bare.

“Look, Sammy. It’s a little sore, but it’s better. See?” Gesturing to the hot pink jagged scar that trailed down her thigh, she waited for Sam to settle.

“And-…and the bullet wound?” A smile danced on her lips as he slowly started to believe her.

“Bucky’s a real good shot, Sam. Didn’t hit anything important, and it’s healing real good. Just a few bruises.” Sam stayed silent; arms unsettled at his sides, gaze stuck on the floor. Y/N sensed his unease, and after squeezing Bucky’s hand firmly, she let go of him. On wobbly legs, she made her way over to her shaken friend, and pulled him in for a firm hug.

“I’m okay. You’re okay. Tony did a mean thing and I’m sorry. You protected me, Sam. They’d have done so much worse if you hadn’t stopped them. You saved me, Sammy.” As if a light bulb came on, the hug was suddenly returned tenfold.

After almost a full minute, Wilson pulled away, a determined look in his eye.

“You’re okay. I’m gonna go kill Tony too. Just in case he isn’t dead enough already.” With a sad smile and a reassuring nod, Sam left the room, leaving Y/N and Bucky alone.

“You promise? You swear to me right now that you’re okay?” The soldiers resolve melted away entirely, and with too large strides forward the girl was in his arms again.

“Y/N? I mean it!” The fear in his voice was prominent, and it took Y/N by surprise. Nodding despite herself, she fought to reassure another one of her teammates that she was healing well.

“Bucky? Look at me, Buck.” Taking his face in her hands, the look in his eyes broke her heart completely. The icy blue was clouded with fear, with the sadness that he was struggling to let go of.

“Bucky, darling? I’m alright. I’m worn out, and I’m in a bit of pain, but I am okay. I swear to you-“

He was the one kissing her this time, and it frightened her how good it felt. Urgent and wanted for far too long, Bucky seemed to pour everything he had into the kiss. But then he pulled away frantically, as if something had burned him.

“I SHOT YOU! What the fuck?” The shock on Y/Ns face dissolved into a fit of giggles as the Winter Soldier stood wide eyed before her.

“We’ve been on three dates, and then I shot you. Oh God.” The giggling continued until a loud gasp sounded from the doorway. Spinning around, her jaw dropped open to see that Sam had returned midway through their conversation.

“YOU’VE BEEN ON THREE WHAT”

“Sam…” The warning tone in Bucky’s voice did nothing to still the obvious excitement ready to bubble over and out them both to the team.

“Sammy, we need you to keep it a secret okay? Please, please don’t tell anyone yet?” With a suspicious eye, Sam looked the pair up and down.

“Okay! I hate you! Fine!” Storming out of the room, Falcon marched off down the hallway, a string of curses leaving his mouth as he did so, earning a belly laugh from Barnes.

Grabbing Bucky’s hands in her own, Y/N looked up to meet his eyes. “Will you sit with me a while? It gets kinda-“

“EVERYONE! BARNES AND Y/N ARE DATING.”

Fear quickly filled the girls bones, she was entirely unsure of what this meant. Would Bucky run and hide? Would he want to call it quits? Was it over?

As if sensing her unease, Barnes raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

“I guess that’s that then.”

Reaching forward, he grabbed her hips and pulled her forward with a gentle force. Lips collided, a warm passion wanting to be explored. The sergeant held the girl ever closer, but the kiss softened.

No urgency, now they had all the time in the world.

[walker-journal]

Mages and Mortasheen (Adam+ Luce)

Location: White Crest beach after a Nucklavee attack. 

Participants: Adam Walker (Hunter), Lucinda Vural (Spellcaster)

Premise: In the aftermath of a Nucklavee attack Adam is tasked with clearing away the poisonous Mortasheen left in its wake. He and Luce cooperate to try and dispel the miasma before the powerful demon can return.  

Content Warnings: Mass Poisoning, Animal Death, Contagious Disease (Mortasheen)

Adam leafed through the yellowed pages of ancestral journals, creasing back their leather-bound spines to peer closer at anatomical drawings, chemical formulas, and to compare eyewitness accounts side by side to wrap his head around the discrepancies. He explained the situation to Lucinda as books, journals, and scrolls were spread across the table like an occult study date. Hunter lore and witchcraft intermingled in a menagerie of diagrams that contrasted Adam’s materialistic legacy of biology with the higher mysteries that Vurals practiced.

The purpose of this research meeting concerned a Nucklavee, an incredibly powerful aquatic demon that was infamous in the Orkney islands. The creature was gone for now. Nucklavee were dangerous not just for their raw might, but also the demonic plague they breathed. The coast where the Nucklavee had emerged was now coated with the taint of this ‘Mortasheen’ plague. Even with the Nucklavee absent, this biohazard needed to be removed before it started  killing beachcombers.

“Hey stop it!” Adam slammed his hand down on a certain demoniac grimoire that an ancestor had taken from an annihilated cult. The skin-bound book recoiled like a viper struck on the head, letting out a low hiss as the veins of its pages pulsed briefly in anger before calming down. “We can ward off the Nucklavee by burning seaweed on the coast,” Adam continued after squirting a for a while another vein-branched page. “But there’s so much Mortasheen there...this can’t be ordinary fire,” the Hunter concluded, lifting his eyes from the book to the pyromancer across from him.

When Adam had reached out to her, looking for some help with a situation, Luce hadn’t expected it. For one, she couldn’t remember the last time she and Adam had actually talked-- the blender she’d sent his way didn’t count. Just as a general rule, Luce didn’t spend much time talking with frat guys. She saw them enough at Ink as herds of snap-back wearing college students came in and got the dude-bro equivalent of friendship bracelets tattooed around their biceps. But, Adam was a Hunter. And he was dating Nell, which was a trip and a half to think about. As she scanned the documents that Adam had brought with him, she nodded as she scrutinized the words. It seemed like a straightforward enough ritual. Get rid of the Nucklavee bullshit before it could spread by burning away the muck it had left behind.

Raising an eyebrow at the quivering book that growled and hissed on the table, Luce let out a snort. “Someone seems pissy.” She said, tapping the book with the end of her pencil. The grimoire shuddered in response, but she ignored it, listening to Adam instead. “Which is where I come in. Sounds straightforward enough to me. It probably wouldn’t hurt to burn some herbs around the area either.” She said, rubbing her leg absently. Protecting the town, fucking with some monsters? Sure. She could do that. This was easy and normal and something that wouldn’t keep her up at night. Everything she’d done lately kept her up at night. “Anything else I need to know about these knuckle things?”

“Uuuuh if it comes back before we’re done we’re totally fucked,” Adam confessed, scratching the back of his neck with one hand while turning another of the tome’s soft organic pages with the other. “We’d need a whole squad and an arsenal to take a Nucklavee on and there’d still be casualties,” the Hunter said with the grim practicality of someone born into war where humanity was vastly outgunned. “But if the Mortasheen can be purified, the burning seaweed should keep it from coming back to shore...if the texts are right anyway.”

Adam hesitated. “Hey uh, Luce I can't pay you for this right now.” The ebbing of Adam’s abilities also meant money from bounties wasn’t a thing at the moment. “But I swear I’ll figure something out. This thing just can’t wait.”

Totally fucked. That tracked Luce thought as she nodded in understanding. But, at least this seemed like something good. Something that wouldn’t involve killing and murder. Something that could actually help this fucked town. “In that case, I’ll get the good sage.” She said with a nod before rummaging around in the drawers of the room. They’d hardly be able to call themselves a house full of witches without bundles of herbs crammed in every other room. Nell’s garden supplied them with an abundance of magical herbs that were used to power the various rituals the girls performed. “Sage and lavender should work, but thyme never hurts either.” She said, grabbing a handful of corded bundles of herbs. Tossing one to Adam, she shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. Nell won’t mind a few of these going missing, we have a bunch in the greenhouse drying.” She said, keenly aware of how he’d let her beat the shit out of him in the wake of Bea’s death. “But yeah, we’re square once this is done.”

The truck that Adam piled their equipment into was a tough and utilitarian vehicle, its worn sides sporting plenty of nicks, dents, and few perforations with a suspicious resemblance to bullet holes. The Daemonic tome snarled in protest as Adam bound it back in blessed silver chains and chucked it back into the recesses of a military footlocker full of ‘deer’ hunting paraphernalia.

The path from the Outskirts to the beach was a long one, wandering through the caution zone after caution zone as they passed through the proximity of the high school, and the endless construction projects or rather ‘reconstruction’ projects that seemed a constant fixture in this town.

“How are you doing Luce,” Adam asked after a time, keeping his hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. “I don’t mean in the sexy exiled witch is always great sorta way.”

Under normal circumstances, Luce would have preferred to drive. But, the driver's seat of her Jeep was still covered in blood and she hadn’t found the time to get it cleaned. And besides, Adam’s truck probably had some useful hunter gear crammed in it. Riding shotgun, Luce kept her eyes trained on the landscape as it flew by them. She and Adam didn’t really talk under normal circumstances-- why would they? He was just some Hunter dude who was presumably doing shit to keep the town safe. Outside of the few times their lives intersected, she really didn’t feel the need to reach out to him. But, as they kept driving and the silence continued, it was eventually broken. Eyes still focused outside the window, she shrugged. “Oh you know,” Murdering a woman. Stabbing her with the same iron spear that had been taken from her attacker months ago. Lighting her corpse on fire and burning it to ash. “Just taking it one day at a time in this fucking town. You know how it is. What about you?” She asked, deflecting the question. She wasn’t interested in opening up to Adam Frat-Bro Walker of all people.

“Aw trying to figure out if I should stop killing people and just try and be a stable guy for your hot sister,” Adam said with the same brusque plainness with which he shared everything in life, though this afternoon of relationship choices and demonology had an uncharacteristic lack of sexual innuendo, perhaps showing things were truly dire without even a single dick reference. “Otherwise living the dream y’know?”

Pavement became gravel as they neared the shore, apartment blocks shrinking to beach houses and harbor piers. Traffic became sparser until the gravel paths became sand under the truck’s wheels and trees gave way to whispering beach grass. “Alright this is as close as we can drive,” Adam said, noting the sickly green-blue fog over the next dune.

Adam’s nonchalance, the easy way he talked about killing people--because that’s who they were, people-- it caught Luce off guard. “I mean, you shouldn’t do something just because you’re dating Nell.” She said, as though they were talking about something like kicking a smoking habit or eating clean. “That sort of thing should be like… because you want to. Or don’t want to, I guess.” Luce muttered, watching as the beach rolled up into view. “I get that.” She said though, not bothering to clarify which part of his words she agreed with. Adam didn’t need to know what she’d done, or the misgivings she was having about it. She could deal with that just fine without him. As they continued to drive, Luce could see that there was something wrong with the area just right off the bat. Nasty, discolored fog didn’t usually hang around the ocean. Slipping out of the truck, she led the way, a bundle of herbs in each hand. Balance. This was a small act, but hopefully it would bring her back to where she should be. Away from death and murder and delivering justice by her own hands. But was it really even justice?

Swallowing, Luce looked over at Adam. “So… you want me to just light it up? This shit, it won’t fight back, right?” She asked. Not that she couldn’t handle it if it did, she just wanted to know specifics before she let it on fire.

“Dunno honestly,” Adam admitted. “Pretty much everyone who's tried to study Knucklavee has died horribly and this info was taken from diabolists who wanted to summon one, not stop it.” However Adam was used to working around threats that were steeped in hearsay and had come prepared to deal with the factors he knew for certain. “But Mortasheen causes a sorta necrosis in anyone who breaths it, so we can’t risk it even at a distance”  

Adam vaulted into the back of the truck and began producing various military surplus accruements. “Eli sent these and says they’ll keep out pretty much anything,” Adam noted, trusting an older brother’s judgement as he handed down an Avon M50 gas mask, breathing canisters, and combat haz-suits designed to be used on battlefields were both bullets and chemical weapons were being employed.

Luce nodded, folding her arms over her chest as she regarded the hills that lay before them with increased trepidation. “Fun, fun. Good thing that fucker isn’t hanging around, huh?” She said as she scanned the area around them, just to make sure that the creature wasn’t lurking around. The last thing she wanted was another run in with some new terror that was literally plaguing the town. As he tossed her a pile of random ass military gear, Luce’s eyes shot up. She wanted to ask if this was a bit much, but the whole necrosis business sounded like serious shit. “You hunters really don’t fuck around.” She said as she eyed the haz-mat suit critically before stepping into the suit. She really didn’t like the idea of shoving herself into a giant sauna suit, but it was better than the alternative of breathing in literal lung-rotting fumes. Zipping it up over her clothes, Luce could already feel her natural body heat warming the suit to uncomfortable temperatures. If she got heat stroke from this fucking thing… “Who’s Eli? Some other hunter chilling in White Crest I don’t know about?”

Adam’s reply was distorted through the mask as he snapped on the last pressurized straps. “Eli’s one of my brothers and nah he’s stationed in the Middle East right now.” The Hunter did a quick inspection of his gear and Luce’s if she let him, keeping an eye out for any misalignments or gaps that could let toxins in. “Conflict zones tend to create lots of monsters from all the death, violence, fear and whannot,” he explained, referring perhaps to the many demons and undead that are literally born from bloodshed and psychic trauma. “But to Hunt in those conditions you gotta double down on gear.”

When Luce was ready Adam began the trudge towards the green-blue clouds of steam fog, boots leaving a line of impressions in the sand. The miasma soundlessly enveloped them in its own deathly silent world, blotting out the sun and sounds of the tide. The dunes were covered with a tainted greasy patina as the Mortasheen seemed to soak into the very ground itself. The desiccated corpses of poisoned fish and seagulls were barely recognizable husks squelching beneath Adam’s footsteps.

“A brother? I didn’t know you had siblings.” Luce said as she let him look over the straps and zippers-- for one thing, she doubted he was gonna objectify the fire witch sister of his demon summoning girlfriend. For another, she wasn’t about getting necrosis-ified just because she didn’t like the idea of a frat guy checking out her hazmat suit. As he explained why his brother was in the Middle East, Luce’s mind went to Remmy. They’d served in Afghanistan, been turned there. But, they weren’t a monster, not in the way that Adam was talking about things. They were just… a person. Someone who constantly had the world bearing down on them, forcing their hand. By that token, though, then Lydia--

Forcing that particular train of thought from her mind, Luce nodded. “Makes sense. Let’s roll.” She said and followed him out into the hazy sand dunes. The air was thick with rolling, sickly green fog that clung to the suit like grease. Her boot sunk into the rotting corpse of a seagull, the chest cavity offering no resistance as her foot came down. Shuddering, Luce was suddenly real fucking glad that Adam was kitted out like an apocalypse prepper. Because fuck, if this didn’t look like the goddamn apocalypse… “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.” She called out through the plastic and filters of the mask. “Be sure to save some of the classy joints for Nell.” She joked drily before turning to one of the large piles of seaweed that had amassed on the beach. “Light it up.” She muttered to herself, reaching into grasp the familiar magic that lived within her.

Her hands were outstretched, pointed at the seaweed. But nothing happened. The magic, the fire, the heat that lived within her… It remained stubbornly, willfully unmoved.

It took a minute or two before Adam looked back at Luce, eyes questioning behind the goggles of his gas mask. Adam’s knowledge of magic was generally limited to demonology and what magical critters had useful parts. Luce could’ve started doing the Macarena across the beach while ominously chanting Tik-Tok memes and Adam really wouldn’t have been the wiser.

But eventually even a muggle like Adam noticed that there was a distinct lack of burninating going on here.

“You alright Luce?” Adam asked, glad that the muffling of the suit helped disguise the tension in his voice. It was hard not to have a countdown in his head at the Knuclavee’s possible return. “If you need like matches or whatnot I can go grab em.”

Fire. The energy within her, magic, part of life itself-- “Fuck! What the fuck?” Luce swore as she tried to tap into the magic within her. She didn’t have the words to describe what it felt like, being unable to conjure her flame. From the time she was a child, fire had always leaped to her finger tips, a constant presence that lived inside her. It was always there, always waiting for her to let it run wild and free. And now… It was like a wall had been placed between her and the flames. Lowering her hands, she stared at her gloved fingers, wishing she could see her skin. Was there something wrong with her? Had Lydia placed some kind of final Fae curse on her, taking away the magic that had been used to wipe her from the face of the earth? “I’m fine! I’ve got this!” Luce snapped at Adam’s question, the sound of her fear dampened by the layers of plastic that separated the two of them. “I’ve got it, just, just give me a second!”

“Focus on your breathing, girls. Fire rises and falls, fed by the air we breathe.” Luce’s teeth grit as she remembered the words her mother had told her when she was a child. But, they were right. In, out. Calm and centered breathing, it would fuel her magic, give it what it needed to spark and grow. Holding her hand out once more, she reached out for the flames. In the tangle of seaweed, the barest hint of a smoldering spark appeared. It was nowhere near the inferno that they needed.

The truth was that Adam didn’t need just any old fire here. If that was all then he could’ve just gone at this place with a flamethrower and incendiaries. The Mortasheen had seeped into the land and some of his coworkers were rightly concerned about the possibility of a place so near town becoming permanently infused with demonic poison.

No, Adam needed something that was more than just fire. It would have to be a truly pure energy that was just as partially spiritual as the hellish miasma swirling around them both like a living thing.

Which is why all the ‘oh shit’ bells started going off in Adam’s head when Luce turned out to be more Zippo lighter than mighty she-dragon.

Aw shit ok, well Adam would’ve really preferred the all-consuming firey pillar right about now but he’d work with this.

“Alright, lets try and light the ones nearest the coast first,” said Adam as he tried to fan the seaweed flames and light some dry kindling he brought.

This was fucking pathetic. That was the biggest thought going through Luce’s mind as she watched Adam try to feed the fire oxygen and coax it to life with kindling. She was a goddamn fire witch! This was her element, this was her magic, this was all she had! She should be better than this! Rage boiled within her and she tried to channel it through her the way she always had. It had always felt like a roaring fire that built within her until it spilled over into the world, a mass of flames that consumed all within their paths. “I’ve fucking got this!” Luce yelled, the words coming out in a strangled growl as she strained. Fire, real, billowing torrents of flame emerged from her hands. But, the blue flames were sputtering, biting, and flickering in ways they never had for her before. Her fire had always been steady and obeyed her command. Now, though? They fought her at every turn, as though they were trying to be extinguished. “C’mon, c’mon, come ON!” She yelled and directed the sluggish lines of blue flame that consumed the seaweed beneath them.

It had seemed to be the illumination of a distant lighthouse far beyond the harbor at first, a sickly green light that seemed both distant yet somehow burned so intensely that Adam could see it even through thick obscuring clouds of Mortasheen. The Hunter occasionally glimpsed the distant light through the poisoned fog, but initially pushed it from his mind, focusing on trying to get wood lit and carry the feeble blue fire to other clumps of seaweed along the shore. The Mortasheen around the sapphire witchfire did seem to be burning away, the corroded grease stains boiling off the sand in a way that looked promising. But it was like candles in a coal mine, and steaming fog backs of putrefaction were still roiling around them in waves thick enough to block the sun….but not that green light weirdly enough.

But eventually that light drew close enough to become two sets of burning eyes approaching through the far-off water, set just above each other in a vague silhouette that brought to mind a horse and rider.

“Fuck fu--,” Adam’s ensuing steam of profanity almost broke the sound barrier before he managed to get a hold on his thoughts. “Hey Lucinda!” Yup screw it, this was full name time. “We’ve got company! Shit needs to burn!” .

Why the fuck was this happening? What even was going-- Luce’s head whipped violently around and she stared at Adam. “LUCINDA?” She yelled, the fire around her leaping up into a massive wall of flame. “You did not just “Lucinda” me, you shitty fucking dickhole!” She shouted, the hazmat suit doing little to muffle the sheer outrage in her voice. The seaweed around them crackled and withered away under the heat of the blue flames that were finally behaving like she’d wanted them to. With wave of her hand, the all consuming heat rushed forward, charring the sand as it burned away at the toxic mass that covered the beach. “Fucking Lucinda.” She muttered, not paying attention to the figure in the distance that had Adam on edge. Of course, she was the one with the shitty fairy godmother sounding name. Beatrice and Penelope sucked too, but fucking Lucinda? Fuck. Their. Mother.

Her rage fueled the flames and as they continued to burn, Luce pulled out several of the herb bundles she’d brought and chucked them at Adam. “Burn these.” She grunted shortly before lighting the remaining ones herself.

Adam was doubly grateful for the protective layers of the tactical environment suit as blue witchfire consumed the Mortasheen. Clouds of demonic miasma ignited in mushrooming chain reactions until it felt like Adam felt was in the middle of a napalm bombing. Sickly green and aquamarine vapors yielded to waves of shining flame whose sapphire incandescence grew so intense that the Hunter had to shield his eyes even with goggles’ light filters.

The putrescent film that coated the beach’s sand and rocks boiled up in the supernatural inferno. Adam stepped away from the noxious tarry masses that’d seeped up beneath his boots like toxins being sweated out. Remembering Luce’s instructions, Adam began scattering the herbs in the larger conflagrations, discoloring the flames with occasional tinges of violet and gold as the purifying steam began to circulate through the superheated currents swirling across the beach.

Adam looked to see that two sets of smoldering demonic eyes had halted in their approach through the water. The shore was now lined with blue bonfires of burning seaweed, rising into the clearing sky like the bars of an intangible gate slamming shut. The Hunter tensed as the dark shadow of the immense aquatic centaur-thing brooded the water, hoping that the translations upon translations within journals and scrolls hadn’t distorted some crucial piece of information that was about to get them both butchered.

The eyes winked out as quickly as they’d appeared and the equine shadow abruptly gone, leaving Adam nervously scanning the horizon for a few breathless minutes before he finally let himself exhale in relief.

“Luce you did it,” Adam hollered through the mask’s distortion, holding two gloved thumbs up. “Your fucking legend! It’s gone!”

Her magic was back, but as her anger began to recede, it took every ounce of Luce’s concentration to maintain the fire until the beach was wiped clean. The herbs helped dispel the sickly mist that shrouded the beach, doing most of the dirty work for them while her flames took care of the source of their troubles. She was glad that it was working, glad that she could do something… good, that would help the town. But, the thoughts and worries creeped in the back of her mind as she herded the flames around, fighting for control. Why was this happening? What was going on with her magic? She’d felt weak ever since that day, the fucking day she’d helped Winston and Athena wipe Lydia from the face of the earth. But, she hadn’t thought it would affect her magic.

Letting the last of the flames sputter out in the remains of crackling seaweed, Luce looked over to Adam, who was giving her a big thumbs up. Turning to the skyline, she glanced out and saw nothing but the ocean and the moon shining brightly down upon the scene. The Knucklefuck must have figured out it wasn’t going to find an easy town to plague. Good for it. Walking back to Adam, Luce pulled off her mask and chucked it at him, with a bit more force than necessary. “If I hear you call me Lucinda ever again...” Luce let the words hang in the air before smacking him lightly on the shoulder. “Come on. We have drinks at the house. We should celebrate saving this place from its latest brush with hell.”

[darkredehmption]

Take Hold Part One

#SL #TakeHold #PartOne 

@DamagedBrother and @OfFeatherNFang 

*~*~*

Mal:

These were the nights that reminded me of hunting. The rush. The adrenaline. The balls to the wall fucking chaos that changed every second. 

My feet pounded the pavement, Rhage at my left, as we pursued three Lessers. The stink of them alone was enough to track them through the streets, but one was wearing an obnoxious orange hoodie, making him a beacon as we raced down the back alleys and side streets. 

We weren’t the only ones on the hunt. I could sense Zsadist and Tohr getting closer, hunting their own prey, and I realised a few streets before it happened that we were coming to a head. Were the Lessers grouping together? Maybe they’d planned it. The thought earned a growl as I cast my angelic senses wider, trying to detect more of that oily darkness. 

“I’m going airborne,” I called to Rhage, who only grunted his agreement as I summoned my wings and launched into the air. Unlike dematerialising, I didn’t need to concentrate anymore to get my wings - they were right there, always, ready to appear the second I thought of them. I also wasn’t limited by steel or things like other vampires, so I had that going for me too. 

Hitting the rooftop, I sprinted across to bisect the alleys. Tohr and Z with their Lessers were about to merge with Rhage and ours, and I knew, without knowing ‘how’ I knew, that it was a trap. 

As the two Lesser groups came together at a junction they pivoted, forming one group as one black blooded fuck at the centre drew out an assault rifle. The gun pointed toward Zsadist, and there was no other thought. I tasted my heart in my throat as I leapt off the building. Slamming into the Lesser from above, I took the one with the rifle to the ground, vanishing my wings as we rolled across the pavement. 

Whatever else the Lessers had been expecting, it hadn’t been an aerial assault, and the others shouted their confusion at the game change. The rifle went off a couple of times, at least one bullet hitting one of the Lessers and perfuming the air with the stench of sweetened roadkill. But I didn’t feel pain, and Zsadist wasn’t hit, so that was all that registered as I wrenched the weapon free and went to town on the fucker beneath me. 

Zsadist:

 I could smell my mate. He was too far from Tohr and I. I couldn’t help but wonder how things were going for him and Rhage. My male was strong, a warrior just like my Brothers, but I still worried about him getting hurt. Fuck. If his wings were out, and a lesser laid their hands on them, I would gut them like a fish.

“We got em!”

Tohr hollers as we speed up. My shitkickers pushed into the pavement as we ran after the trail of baby powder. It felt nice to be out and chasing after the enemy. So much has been going on that has left me in a funk lately. The whole Hadrian thing was a mess. I cared for the male, but ever since we became bonded it all changed. He kept his distance from me, and Mal wanted nothing to do with him. At least Wrath was smart enough to keep them off rotation together. I couldn’t imagine how well that would go.

Suddenly I’m brought to a halt.  Here came the group of lessers, followed by not only Rhage but another batch of the enemy. They trapped us. Fuckers weren’t as always dumb as we thought. Before I can ask Hollywood where Mal was, I watch as a lesser raises an assault rifle at me. Then suddenly he was crashing down as my mate fell from the sky and tackled him to the ground. 

I didn’t know whether or not I should be impressed or upset that he took the fall like that. My golden eyes flash black as my body takes over. The warrior coming out in me as my Brothers and I leap forward to take on the rest of the lessers. Lunging towards one that tries to grab Mal from behind. Don’t get me wrong, it bothered me when someone came after my Brothers, but when someone touched my mate, it awoke an animal in me. 

I growled loudly as my fist connected with his jaw, having the satisfaction of watching the fucker’s pale head snap back. I took him down, my fangs latching onto its throat as I roughly tore it open with a violent shake to my head. Black blood splattered over my face, the sounds of him screaming was like music to my ears. 

Pulling back I spit out a piece of his flesh, letting out a low laugh before I brought out my blade and finished him. The bright light flashes in my face, but I ignore it as I shift up, my eyes searching for Mal.

Mal:

There was chaos, but it was a familiar sort. The kind that adrenaline recognised because it mainlined it through your system and got you moving at just the right speed with just the right strength to break bones, spines and jaws. 

I delved into that chaos and let the adrenaline guide my hand, my blades, and I minced my way through the Lessers if they remained standing. Without Butch here, there was no disabling them for a final vacuum moment. It was straight up massacre, pop flash and buh-bye fuckers. Catch you later.

With every Brother and my lover around me engaged, and Lessers bleeding out at our feet, I inhaled sharply and looked around. A chill traced down my spine and I paused a second longer, frowning as I tried to get a fix on it. Was it just the Lessers? The lingering essence of the Omega as one of its denizens was stabbed back into the dark ether? 

Scowling, I pivoted as another of the fuckers came at me, brandishing my black slick blades and pretending I was a sushi chef as I carved him up. The darkness had to be them… and soon there’d be none of them left to poison the night.

Getting to meet Zsadist’s gaze for a split second, I grinned at the black, the furious protective nature in that gaze, and drove my dagger straight into a chest cavity. His eyes were lost to me in the burst of light that followed.

Zsadist:

I kept my gaze on my mate’s until I felt the presence of another behind me. Quickly I turned, dagger held high, ready to strike, only to see the enemy wasn’t behind me. 

What?

Looking around to see each of my Brothers and Mal squared off with the remanding lessers. I almost thought it was the demons inside my head messing with me until I felt something creep up on me once again. But before I could turn I’m surrounded by darkness. My golden eyes go wide, lips parting as I back myself up into a wall. Pressing into the bricks as I try to shake off this feeling. My vision seems hazy as I tried to focus on Mal, who had a lesser down on the ground. 

I screamed internally, then suddenly it felt like I was looking out as an outsider. As if something else was controlling me, taking over my body. I wanted to be sick and purge out whatever was brewing inside of me.

[Get the angel.] 

A voice whispered in my head. 

What? Shaking my head to rid the thoughts, but it didn’t stop. Soon I was pushing off the wall and heading straight for Mal. It was like my legs were moving on their own accord. Like I wasn’t controlling my body. I wanted to scream, I tried too, but nothing came out of my mouth. 

[Shh. Get the angel.] 

Before I reach my male, my head turns to watch the Escalade pull up. Butch appears and exits the vechile to play vacuum. Inhaling any lesser left over from the fight. I just stood there watching. Even if I wanted to move I couldn’t. All I could do was watch the scene unfold in front of me. 

[Watch the angel. Watch him.]

Mal:

As the final Lesser went down, I brandished my blade, the black blood slicking off to make a dark line against the pavement. I was panting, but everyone was standing, and so I was grinning. The adrenaline rush was real. 

Glancing up, I took in Z, his powerful body stock still and spattered with gore. I did a sweep, checking for red, but there was no blood I could see. He looked whole. Yet I felt… unease. My smile faded.

“...Nallum?” I wiped my blade on a Lesser’s shirt, right before Butch staggered over and went blackhole on his ass. Sheathing the blade, I approached Zsadist, frowning. “You okay? Sorry if my aerial manoeuvre didn’t go over well,” I add, suddenly worried the somewhat reckless move had inspired his bonded male side. 

“Hey!” A quick glance over my shoulder at Vishous, supporting a green looking Cop, and I gave a hasty nod. This probably wasn’t the best place for a relationship themed chat, and the stink eye V was giving me said as much. 

“M’ coming. I can drive. You guys can finish checking shit out here and head back,” I offered, moving to hold Cop’s other side as I look back toward Zsadist. He sheathed his blade, the action almost mechanical as his still vacant expression stared out at the world. “You wanna ride with us?” I offer hesitantly, feeling my heart skip a little with concern I couldn’t voice yet. 

Every part of me that adored the male wanted to drop Butch in a heap and rush to Zsadist’s side, wrap him in my wings and stroke his face as I figured out what was wrong. What had upset him. Yet this was the deal we’d made, out fighting together. We loved one another, but we were warriors. That was how this shit went.

“C’mon,” I said, my tone firm. “You’re comin’ with us.”

Zsadist:

[Yes. Follow the angel. Get the angel. Go.]

My body moved automatically towards the SUV. Following Mal as he moves into the driver seat. I practically pushed Vishous out of the way to get to the passenger side. Sliding in and turning my head to gaze at the angel. My angel. 

[My angel.]

Once Butch was in car, it started to move. My eyes stayed trained on the angel. Watching his every move. When he lifted a hand, my eyes followed it. Watching as he messed with the ac, or turned the dial on the radio.

[Get the angel. My angel.]

I wanted to scream again. To tell Mal that something was wrong. That I wasn’t myself and I needed help. If I could only move my hand, touch him, and alert him about the situation. But I couldn’t. I was trapped and all I could do was watch. 

[Shh. My angel.]

The voice was like no other. A voice that would cause nightmares even from the strongest warrior. It made me cringe, turned my stomach upside down every time it spoke. 

Mal! Please Mal!

I screamed in my head over and over again. Hoping that one of the times my lips would part and he would hear me. But he didn’t. He just focused on driving us home. He was too distracted checking on Butch who was groaning in the back seat of the Escalade. 

Mal:

I set the tunes to a reasonable volume and pulled out of the alley, leaving Vishous and the others to finish the clean up routine. The irony was they’d still beat us back to the manse, but neither Butch or I could do the disappearing act, so the SUV was where it was at.

Eminem was interspersed with Butch’s occasional groaning and moaning, and I checked the rearview whenever I could. 

“You need to hurl you lemme know,” I called out, getting only a muttered curse and ‘fuck off’ for my trouble. I shrugged and grinned, letting the amusement bleed into my voice. “I mean, it’s your car man so however fucked up you like it is entirely up to you.”

Another curse. This one came with the bird being flipped. I chuckled and glanced to Zsadist in the passenger seat, hoping the interaction would’ve provoked some kind of relaxing to his intensity. But no…

The smile faded from my face, and I reached across the space, wanting to put a hand to his knee. It was the most I could allow myself in this moment, still being out and watching the streets. Nevermind if I let anything happen to Butch - V would fuckin ash me in seconds…

The second my hand touched his knee though, my Divinity sparked down my spine. It was a rush of energy, a burst of power totally undetectable to any creature other than myself. But it was there. And it was a warning.

My eyes widened as I looked around, trying to cast that power out and find the problem, the threat. But all I got was a nauseating punch to the gut. As if it was right there, in front of my face, and I was missing it. Looking back to Zsadist as we pulled onto the highway, I squeezed his knee.

“Talk to me. Are you okay? You’re… really quiet. Even for you.”

Hopefully once we were at the manse, I could figure this out. Maybe even ask V to run a city sweep for weird things that might trigger my holy side. But Zsadist had to come first. Something was definitely up with mine male. 

Zsadist:

It was so hard to just stare at my male and not be able to talk to him, especially when he spoke up. I didn’t even feel his touch as he placed a hand on my leg. Nothing. Everything around me felt dark and cold. Almost like I was back in the dungeon once again.

“Yes, my angel.”

The demon replied in a voice that sounded exactly like my own. When I saw relief on Mal’s face I lost it. No! Don’t believe a thing it says! Fuck, please help me. 

My hand lifted automatically and landed on Mal’s shoulder, fingers clenching as it gave my mate a squeeze. “We better get Brian home then we can head to our bedroom.” 

Butch snorts loudly from the back. “First of all, Brian? And can you keep your dick in your pants until I’m far away from you two. Damn.” He groans, rolling on his side. “Like I’m happy for y’all, but that doesn’t mean that I wanna know how anxious you are to get down and dirty.” 

My chest rumbles as laughter erupts from me. But it wasn’t me. No. It was something sick that was playing the role of me. And doing a shitty job, if I may add. “Just relax, we will be back soon.” 

The mansion comes into view moments later as we pass the mhis. I watched as Fritz buzzed us in, the car pulling around the fountain in the front, and as soon as it stopped I was getting out. 

[Follow the angel. Follow wherever he goes. My angel.]

[lichlairs]

Checkout our new post over at https://lichlair.com/daily-monster-46-leshen-witcher-week

Daily Monster #46: Leshen (Witcher Week)

This has got to be hands down my favorite monster for the Witcher series… Not only is it fun to fight and has compelling lore behind it, but it also gives me the creeps. I think these alone are great reasons why the Leshen deserves a place in our home campaigns, so let’s take a closer look at today’s monster:

The Leshen

The basics

As you hopefully learned from our first Witcher inspired Daily Monster, we’re going to be using Regerem’s Book of Beautiful Horrors for the Leshen’s stats.

This awesome book presents us with not one, but three different stat Leshen stat blocks depending on your needs and the level of your party. Similarly to the Drowner article, the plan is to go over all of them, so you might want to click that link and take a look at the numbers yourself.

To start things off, the standard Leshen has a STR of +7 which, if you’ve played the games you know that to be pretty accurate. Even outside of the video games your best bet is going to be relying on its slow speed (-1 DEX) unless you want to end up half dead in seconds like this guy:

Even the standard version of this creature has some insane saves and pluses to its skills, not to mention their wide list of immunities and their super high passive perception of 18. With fire being their only vulnerability, a trigger-happy Fireball casting wizard sounds pretty good about now. You know, if they can get pass the Leshen’s Magic Resistance.

Today’s monster also gets a few spells thanks to their Innate Spellcasting, though some are certainly more useful than others (looking at you Speak with Plants). Considering how there will most likely be a small swarm of animals to aid your boss Leshen in combat, I think it could be fun to use the Polymorph spell on a couple of them and make them that much lethal. Likewise, Insect Plague is bound to add even more mayhem to the already chaotic battlefield.

Just like in the video game, if you decide to run this creature you’ll have access to its Root Strike (Recharge 5-6) and a small army of forest minions though the Leshen’s Call Primal Beast action (2/day), but what really sets this encounter apart is the Leshen’s Totem Stride, which basically allows it to teleport from totem to totem at the cost of 10ft of movement.

No more hiding in the back, squishy casters.

As mentioned before, the book offers us two other variants; the first one being a Black Root, which is basically a corrupted version of the Leshen. The main changes for this variant is a switch from Wisdom to Charisma (probably because they’re really spooky), a couple of changes in resistances and vulnerabilities, and a different spell list. While the Black Root won’t be able to summon creatures at will or make roots attack their foes, they gain access to Life Drain (Recharge 5-6) and are basically indestructible thanks to their Rejuvenation feature. Your party’s only hope lies on them having done some research on how to permanently get rid of these creatures.

Last but not least, the third and final version of this creature is its Ancient form. Apparently being a very old tree trunk means your hit points increase almost by a third of the max and so does pretty much everything else. Thankfully for your party, the Ancient Leshen’s DEX is still at a -1 so at least there’s hope of running away.

Other than getting the pay to play version of the features a standard Leshen gets, the Ancient variant gets access to a couple more fun spells like Eternalness and Storm of Vengeance.

Oh yeah, and Legendary Actions.

The lore

Can I just say? It’s really refreshing to look up the lore of a creature and actually be able to find tons of information on it rather than just write bad jokes about wooden donkeys and giant crabs. Step up your lore game, WotC!

To common folk in the Witcherverse, Leshens are often venerated almost as Gods. Many consider them to be Nature’s way of protecting itself (the name Leshen comes from the Slavic word for forest). Witchers, however, are aware of their status as monsters, Relicts to be exact.

Leshens can only be found in the most primal and deepest of forests where some of them have lived for hundreds and thousands of years undisturbed by mankind. They have incredibly strong bonds with the land and its natural beast inhabitants, going as far as being able to call upon them for combat situations.

Although there are still Ancient Leshens that live undisturbed in forest areas that haven’t seen and travelers in eons, there are some others who almost preside over small villages on the outskirts of their territory. This, of course, can be a double edge sword, since despite rejuvenating the local wildlife for hunters and foragers alike, Leshens can still wreak havoc on the nearby populations if their territory isn’t treated with respect.

On a similar note, expect for these very rare occasions in which villagers are able to strike some sort of pact with the ancient woodland beings, Leshens tend to be extremely territorial and aggressive. Those who venture into the deepest part of forest might just come across dead bodies that have been impaled by massive roots, their face still contorted in terror as a warning for future trespassers.

For those unfortunate enough to find themselves in the Leshen’s lair, they’ll often find monuments, totems really, that have been erected throughout the area. In the video game, the only way to truly kill a Leshen involves destroying its totems first. In the Book of Beautiful Horrors, however, they are used as means teleportation. But truly it’s up to which version you want to use for your encounter.

While the only thing separating the standard version of that creature and the ancient one is age, Black Roots are a little different. The one way to make a Black Root is for a Hag to steal a child and trap them inside a tree trunk within a Leshen’s territory. Once the child dies, the tree grows and turns black in color, becoming the point of respawn for the now corrupted Leshen. Once this has been done, the forest in the Leshen’s territory starts to corrupt as well, animals turn sickly and infected, plants blighted.

The execution

At this point I think it’s pretty clear that the Leshen most definitely has all the markings of a great boss for your party to fight. Even if you choose the standard version of the creature you still have a powerful creature able to summon minions at will to keep the battle going for a respectable amount of time.

Now, how are we getting our party of intrepid heroes into trouble this time? As far as forests are concerned, adventuring groups go near them frequently enough but I feel like there should be something stronger to motivate our heroes to tread Leshen territory. Maybe they hear rumors about a magical weapon that is imbued with the power of nature itself, or perhaps a local group of halfling boy scouts go missing and our heroes must rescue them, up to you really. Whichever choice you end up making, we should probably talk about the Leshen’s lair.

If you end up pitting your party against a Black Root I’d definitely recommend having the fight take place near the blackened tree so you could maybe hint at it being the key for destroying the corrupted Leshen. If, on the other hand, you’re hoping to have them fight a regular Leshen or even an Ancient one (I hope your party has life insurance), they definitely come with a preferred terrain; i.e. the area near their totems. Let’s take a look at what the Book of Beautiful Horrors has to say about this:

Other than a few interesting regional effects including stronger beasts in the area, and being able to control the weather, our Leshen is also able to use its totems as means of scrying similar to the arcane eye spell, expect limited to six miles around its lair. In terms of combat, there’s a small list of lair actions that we can take advantage of:

Roots and plants burst out of the ground, grappling and lashing at creatures. The area within 60 feet around the Leshen becomes difficult terrain until initiative count 20 on the next round. Huge or larger creatures are not affected.

The Leshen and allied creatures within 60 feet of it heal 4d8 hit points.

A green mist fill the lair. All creatures within 60 feet of the Leshen must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, taking 13 (4d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

One of the most important things to keep in mind with running this encounter is the idea of using the environment to keep the player characters away from the Leshen and distracted fighting what’s around them. As a Dungeon Master you are free to use tree roots and vines, and crows and wolves, or whatever it takes to make this encounter a memorable one.

Oh, how time flies! We’re already halfway through Witcher Week! How are you guys enjoying it so far? We’d love to hear about your favorite article and what you hope will be the last Witcher inspired Daily Monster for the week. Make sure to follow us on our social media so you won’t miss out on any of our content. We post new articles every day of the week.

[naomiknight-17]

My Party Almost Wiped Investigating a Dead Whale

Ok, let me lay out the scenario for you a bit.

We have an unusual adventuring group. Myself, the simple-minded and kindhearted Dandylion - a goliath bard. Gimble Murnig the Badger - a gnome barbarian with a serious chip on his shoulder. Jezebel - dwarven Paladin of the Everlight, and an archaeologist. Jeff - yes, JEFF - a human wizard anthropologist who seems to talk to himself a lot and may have a dark secret. Finally, Luna, a half-elf/Kitsune druid who has spent most of her life sheltered by her mother in the woods and is on her first adventure.

So. 

We were called to help a town where people were going missing. Mostly young people, halflings and humans. Always at night. They started going missing shortly after a whale carcass washed up on a nearby shore. Not really unusual, a carcass washing up from the ocean, but something wasn’t right with this one. So we met with the town council and agreed to go investigate.

Most of the party was like "Night is falling, and people always go missing at night, so let's go look now" and I was like "Uhm, can we please wait until morning when it may be less dangerous? And maybe we can get the jump on who or whatever is responsible?" But I was outvoted. So we went down to the shore, which meant walking down jagged slippery shale steps. Dandylion fell. Twice. One time he tried to catch himself and ended up dragging Jezebel down with him! Luckily the paladin forgave and healed him - but of course that took up some of her available power, not good when we're about to face the unknown! We get down to the carcass. Everyone rolls perception checks - some of us on the surrounding area, some of us on the whale. Gimble and Jez take note that the beach is dark and empty, no big surprise there. Dandylion, Jeff and Luna walked right up to the whale and observed that it had strange green goo coming out of its wounds, and that it really wasn't rotted enough to have been sitting there 2 months like we'd been told. So of course something was up. Then, I had to quickly dodge out of the way as a GELATINOUS CUBE OF DEATH emerged from the whale and tried to engulf me!!I just BARELY got out of the way in time. And boom, we were in battle 

The cube summoned 4 reanimated corpses/skeletons from within it, so suddenly we're fighting a whole pack of monsters. Dandy's never seen undead or monsters like this so he is freaked RIGHT out. He's a pacifist. A bard who usually hangs back and bolsters his team with song and poem, but he was face-to-face with a skeletal undead thing.

So he pulled his big harp off his back and smashed the thing in the head! But it’s still coming after him. Meanwhile, Jeff the Wizard is met with his own skeleton foe, and, cleverly, uses Move Earth to dig a hole directly under the skeleton, then drop the dirt back on top of it. Problem solved, right? Buried where it should be! Except the skeleton responds by popping right back out of the earth on its next turn - right BEHIND Jeff! So he took some damage from a surprise strike. Turns go by, our barbarian gnome Gimble was really taking a beating, Even though he had good AC and HP, he was in trouble, as both the cube and a skeleton were on his butt. Dandy was too far away to help him, and kept missing when he tried to hit the damn skeleton blocking his way. Our paladin - who, remember, had also fallen down the steps earlier - went over to heal Gimble and our Druid, Luna, with healing touch - but that put her in the cube's path Jezebel KNEW her HP was low. She KNEW she'd attract the thing's attention by going near it to heal the others. She did it anyway. It got her. Engulfed her. Did so much poison damage she was instantly unconscious. And because she was now INSIDE the cube, when we attacked it, it meant we were also bringing Jezebel the Paladin CLOSER to death!! It was a bad situation!!! I planned to have Dandy run over and try to pull her out on his next turn, but before I could do that, Gimble the gnome barbarian rushed over and split the cube with his axe - and it FINALLY DIED and Jez came spilling out! The druid and I immediately went over and healed her. After that, it was a small thing to crush the remaining skeletons, and we all took a brief rest to heal up... but it wasn't over. The human wizard, Jeff, sensed a powerful arcane magic coming from within the whale. Gimble, being a fucking genius, was like "Hey, there's big wounds in the side of the whale, right? I'LL CLIMB INTO ONE!" and he just fucking DID IT before we could stop him. A few poorly-rolled athletics checks later, and he's STUCK INSIDE THE WHALE, suffocating and being poisoned by its putrid rotting flesh.

Our poor, just-escaped-death-herself Paladin JUST BARELY managed to pull the gnome out of there and revive him to 1 HP so he wouldn't die. So Gimble's on the ground, acid-burned and dazed and just... a mess. And Dandylion casts Healing Word to help the little guy out... except he does so by shaking Gimble by the shoulders and screaming, “STUPID GNOME!! DUMB DUMB GNOME! WHY YOU DO THAT!?” Dandy uh, doesn’t speak common as his first language. But in any case, there’s still something magic inside that whale. And my Dandylion, he figures the easiest way inside the whale to find the magic thing is to just open its damn mouth and walk in. So Luna the half-elf/kitsune druid agrees to help open the mouth. We both heave, the mouth opens annnnnd -We both fall back, unconscious. The mouth was full of poison gas. Of course it was. At this point, the paladin is nearly out of healing spells. She manages to heal Luna the druid, but not my Dandy. Dandy she can only stabilize. That means he gets to spend the night passed out on the beach beside the dead whale until he recovers a couple HP, because the whole party’s too fucked up to make it back to town in the dark, especially if they have to carry an unconscious 8′2″ 300+ lb goliath up the slippery wet shale steps. Can’t wait til next session.

[wazafam]

Netflix's Shadow & Bone series, based on the bestselling books by Leigh Bardugo, has a rich mythology and vibrant characters; here it all is explained. The gritty, dark fantasy Netflix series was first announced in January 2019 with Eric Heisserer (Arrival) serving as showrunner, creator and executive producer, with Bardugo herself also serving as EP on the series, guaranteeing it will stay faithful to the spirit of the books.

Bardugo's series of novels has earned itself a large and faithful following thanks to their intricate world-building, an interesting system of magic, and unforgettable characters. The scope of the new upcoming Netflix TV show is ambitious; thus far Bardugo's "Grishaverse" consists of six books: the original trilogy, a mostly unrelated duology set in the same universe, and a direct sequel to the original trilogy meant to pick up where the events of it left off. Rather than adapt them all exactly in order or cut the duology out completely, the approach Heisserer is taking is to weave both stories and sets of characters together in an intertwining narrative.

Related: Everything We Know So Far About Netflix's Shadow & Bone

With the crossing A plot, B plot approach of both stories being adapted simultaneously, that means the series will introduce an awful lot of characters into a universe that's brand-new for many viewers. In order to prep for Shadow & Bone's anticipated release in April, here's a handy breakdown of the books and how the series differs from them, the characters, and the world of the Grishaverse.

The original Grishaverse trilogy consists of three books, Shadow and Bone, Storm and Siege, and Ruin and Rising. They tell the story of teenage orphan, Alina Starkov, who grows up in an orphanage in the kingdom of Ravka with her best friend and fellow orphan, Malyen Oretsev, or Mal. Both Alina and Mal are conscripted into the Ravkan army but Alina, who has never been good at anything, doesn't take to it the way Mal does.

They're sent on a mission to cross the Shadow Fold, otherwise known as the Unsea, an unnatural tear of absolute darkness full of monsters that has split the once-great kingdom of Ravka in two. During the dangerous crossing, their regiment is attacked by the monsters, called volcra, and Mal is brutally injured. In her fear and panic, Alina exhibits a rare and to-that-point dormant power that saves his life while changing hers forever, for it's revealed Alina's power may be the key to saving their war-ravaged nation.

Soon, Alina is whisked away to the capital Os Alta, to be trained as a Grisha, the magic users of the world. Her greatest champion, and source of confusion, is General Kirigan, a.k.a. the Darkling, the ultra-powerful leader of the Grisha and head of their magical armed forces. As Alina's power grows, she learns more about it – and that someone may be using her as a pawn for their own ends. Suddenly, Alina has to learn how to carry the burden of being the country's great hope while navigating the pitfalls of royal intrigue and betrayal, all the while fighting her attraction to her mentor, the Darkling, and worrying about Mal and how he fares on the front lines.

Related: How Shadow & Bone Is Avoiding The Witcher's Timeline Confusion

Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse is a rich tapestry of magical fantasy and gritty, realistic conflict. It's set in a fictional world that mirrors ours, with the various countries in the world being based on real-world countries and cultures. Ravka, where the majority of the action of Shadow & Bone takes place, is modeled after 18th-century Tsarist Russia, with its capital Os Alta, serving as a stand-in for Moscow. But other countries are visited in the book series, including Kerch and its capital, Ketterdam (the Netherlands and Amsterdam), Fjerda (Scandinavia), Shu Han (Mongolia & China), Novyi Zem (American & Australian colonies), and the Wandering Isles (Ireland).

When the story opens, Ravka has been embroiled in a long civil war after the rebellious Darkling's first attempts to depose Ravka's weak-willed king, Alexander III. As a result, the people of Ravka are no strangers to military service, but Ravka's has two separate militaries: those who practice the Small Science - what we'd call magic - known as the Grisha, and who serve in the Second Army, and the non-magical people (referred to as otkazat'sya by the Grisha) who serve in the First Army. The two Ravkan armies sit uneasy with each other, with the First Army fearing the Grisha's magical power and influence, and the Grisha often having a disdainful disregard for non-magical people, fueled in part by the fact magic users used to be persecuted. Understandably, the kingdom of Ravka is tired and impoverished due to its constant state of war with itself and hostile nations that would seek to take advantage of the inner turmoil, with the royal Lantsov family ruling over it all.

The Grisha are separated into three magical groups: Corporalki, Etherealki, and Materialki, each with their own subgroups and uniforms. Of the three, the Corporalki are the highest tier in the Second Army and the most feared magic users, as their magic is the kind that manipulates the body at the smallest molecular level, bringing either death (Heartrenders) or life (Healers). The Corporalki are identified by their crimson red kefta uniforms.

Etherealki are also powerful and an important part of the Second Army as they deal with the elements, manipulating air (Squallers), controlling and creating fire with a flint focus (Inferni), and those who can control water (Tidemakers). Squallers and Tidemakers are especially important to the Navy and a pair are found on every Ravkan ship, their blue keftas denoting them as Etherealki.

Related: Cursed Season 2 Theory: How Nimue Could Be Saved From Death

Lastly, the Materialki may not have skills that are as flashy as the first two branches, but without their magic, the Ravkan armies, and Ravka itself, would fall apart, for Materialkis, also known as Fabrikators, are able to manipulate inorganic material to create incredible weapons and inventions. The Durasts can manipulate any solid object, whether it be glass, metal, stone, wood, and more, while Alkemi deal in more alchemical matters, such as poisons and blasting powders. The Fabrikators are known by their purple kefta.

Then there are the extremely rare kind of Grisha known as Summoners. Though technically Etherealki, they get their own name as their powers are so unique among their kind. In the world of Shadow & Bone, only two known summoners exist: The Darkling, a.k.a. the Shadow Summoner, who can summon the dark, and Alina Starkov, a.k.a. the Sun Summoner, who can summon the light.

There are many characters across the six books published so far, and Netflix's Shadow & Bone series is using characters from both the original Grishaverse trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. Here are the main characters in the Netflix series.

The Darkling, a.k.a. General Kirigan - The Darkling (Ben Barnes) is the leader of the Grisha Second Army. He is mysterious and powerful, the only person on Earth known to be able to summon darkness. Thus, his abilities and the pressures of leading the army have isolated him from the rest of humanity and while he is not to be trusted, he's possibly to be pitied. When he meets Alina Starkov and realizes what she is, it creates an instant connection as he believes he's found someone who can finally understand him.

Related: Why Netflix's Shadow & Bone Is Hiding Ben Barnes Being The Darkling

Alina Starkov - The Sun Summoner, Alina (Jessie Mei Li) is a teenaged orphan who discovers she has a rare and world-changing power during a mission through the Shadow Fold. Suddenly, Alina's life is turned upside-down as she goes from a quiet life in a small village to the center of the capital city of Os Alta as the one who can perhaps destroy the Shadow Fold for good. Alina tries her best to live up to everyone's expectations, but the weight of it is lot to bear and it draws her closer to the Darkling in their shared loneliness.

Malyen "Mal" Oretsev - Mal (Archie Renaux) is Alina's best friend; they grew up together in the same orphanage. Mal gets drafted into the First Army where he proves himself to be an exceptionally gifted tracker and soldier. As their lives head in different directions after the revelation of Alina's powers, the distance and conflicting objectives put a strain on their friendship, even as their connection forged from childhood refuses to break.

Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker - Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) is the de facto leader of the Dregs, also known as the Crows, one of Ketterdam's street gangs, and one of the most ambitious thanks to Kaz being a criminal mastermind and bolder than the rest. Kaz is only a teenager, but his legend has grown in Ketterdam's back alleys and nighttime shadows. Kaz is known for being willing to do any job, no matter how violent or dangerous, without showing an ounce of fear, thus earning him the nickname Dirtyhands.

Inej "The Wraith" Ghafa - As Kaz Brekker's right-hand woman, Inej (Amita Suman) is as feared as Kaz himself. Of Suli background and raised as an acrobat, Inej uses her catlike reflexes and incredible grace to be the Dregs' spy. She can get into any room, scale any wall, infiltrate any building, thus earning the nickname The Wraith in Ketterdam's criminal circles. Despite this, Inej has a strong moral code, and though she always has at least half a dozen knives somewhere on her body, all named for a saint, there are some lines she won't cross, not even for Kaz.

Related: Cursed: The Original Lady Of The Lake Legend Explained

Jesper Fahey - The Dregs' sharpshooter, at first glance, Jesper (Kit Young) doesn't seem like someone you can trust in a fight: He's a gambler, cocky, and always quick with a joke no matter the situation. But Jesper is a cool head in a fight and has a near-perfect aim no matter what. Unknown to many, Jesper is also a Durast, but won't use his power thanks a childhood trauma. Due to his powers not being released, Jesper is often fidgety and impulsive, the excess magical energy making him constantly restless.

Nina Zenik - Nina (Danielle Galligan) is a Heartrender from Ravka who also works with the Dregs from time to time. She's beautiful and curvaceous, and her boisterous personality and forward manner belies a compassionate person. Nina is a big personality, who feels everything and loves fiercely, whether it's food, people, or laughter. Despite this, Nina is loyal to her country and often puts Ravka's needs above her own.

Matthias Helvar - Matthias (Calahan Skogman) is a Fjerdan Drüskelle soldier who captures Nina when she's on a mission. The Fjerdans are suspicious people with a hatred of witchcraft, immediately viewing all Grisha as devils to be destroyed. Matthias is uptight, bullheaded, and unfriendly, but there's also a softer, more open person struggling to break out from the years of brutal living that have made him so cold.

  The big difference between the books and the new Netflix series is that the series will be weaving together characters from both the original Grishaverse trilogy and the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology at the same time. In order to keep the timeline intact, this means the storyline with the Dregs will be a prequel story to those familiar with the books, with the events involving the Dregs in the series happening before the events in the books. This leaves open the possibility that Six of Crows may be adapted in later seasons. Likewise, there are two major characters already confirmed to not be appearing in Shadow & Bone season 1: Nikolai Lantsov, the prince of Ravka, and Wylan Van Eck, a member of the Dregs. They'll likely appear in a second season provided Netflix orders one.

Shadow & Bone premieres on Netflix on Friday, April 23.

More: Every New Show Releasing On Netflix In 2021

  What Is Shadow & Bone? Books, Characters & Netflix Show Explained from https://ift.tt/308iHHv

[tennesonrhames]

Sea Wolf, Part 7

I don't know how long we'd been running through the forest, but my lungs ached as ragged breath after ragged breath filled them over and over. My legs burned, pain shooting up every single time my feet touched the soft earth. I'd never run so far for so long in all my life, but as I heard the branches cracking somewhere behind me as the beast gave chase I swore I'd run a hundred more miles if it got us to safety. The trees ahead grew dense, and I hoped we'd find some bit of reprieve among them as we carried on. Though I loathed to take my eyes from the path ahead I forced myself to glance aside to see where Nicholas was, finding him side by side as we ran for our very lives. Behind me, somewhere far closer than the creature had any right to be, I could almost hear the salivating growl as though it were right at my ear.

"Keep going Nicholas!"

The command was unnecessary, I don't think either of us had any intention of stopping, but I felt the need to say something if only to drown out the sounds at our back. The beast had leapt clear of the burning mess it left in its wake, and bounded after us before we'd even turned to run. I couldn't fathom how something that size could move so swiftly, but I hoped there would be time to think on that later. Right now the only thing that mattered was getting my boy and me to safety. My eyes flashed back and forth, searching for a way out when I spotted a lamp somewhere in the distance. This far out it was hard to tell exactly where we were, but when I saw the wall of the tiny shack it struck me that we'd crossed into the Kurdin's land when we passed the massive oak what seemed an eternity ago. I'd completely missed the sign posted near the trunk.

"Nicholas the cabin! Go there. Don't stop for anything."

"What about y-"

"Just go!"

I didn't wait to see if he followed my words, but I turned and dug my foot into the earth as my rifle levelled with the monstrosity that was only a hundred yards away. There was a light in the thing's eyes that chilled my blood to the core. Everything in me screamed to run, for a brief second my muscles refused to do what I bid them to, unwilling to do anything but escape until the shot rang out. The sound split my mind from its frozen state and back to reality as I could almost watch the bullet tearing through the air. Whether dumb luck, or the creature not expecting me to turn and fight it didn't veer away. The round tore into the meat just above and to the right of its eye, and I watched the skin tear away in a spray of blood. A harsh yowl pierced the air, and it teetered briefly before darting off to the side. I didn't wait for another moment.

The cabin was barely fifty yards away, and my feet tore the ground up as I summoned another burst of energy from somewhere inside me. If we made it through this I know I'd be sitting in a tub for near a week at least, pruned and lazy as ever. I had to banish that thought, and tell myself it wasn't an if we made it, but that we surely were. Doubt had no place in a moment like this when your own life was at stake. As I grew closer to the cabin, and the lantern that had become a beacon I saw my son standing by the open doorway. Odd, I thought, that he hadn't gone in like I told him. He wasn't holding the door waiting for me, but standings till as he looked within. There was a momentary dread that siezed my thoughts as I felt my boot catch the edge of the wooden deck to join him.

"Nicholas what're you doing, you have to get in.....side....."

And then I saw what he did, and the thought that we might make it away from this was chased away in an instant. It was the Kurdin boys, or rather what was left of them, strewn across the ruins of their cabin. I'd hunted beasts for years, tended to preparing them for a meal, made a clean work of their bodies before, but this was nothing like that. Pieces of them lay scattered around the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling. I felt bile in my throat as I realized that one of them, Jessie, had been torn near in half, one near the door we stood beside and the other against the far wall. I swallowed the want to retch, and took a step inside. My boot landed in something wet, but I did everything I could not to think on it.

"Just...get inside Nicholas, put it out of your thoughts. We need a moment, and I don't know how long that thing's going to stay away."

We moved inside, and for a second I glanced at my son. I wanted to go to him, to take him under my arm and tell him it would be okay. His face was ashen pale, sweat lining every part of his brow, and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. I regretted bringing him here, wished for the first time that I'd let him choose another path. If I hadn't insisted he take up my...I couldn't dwell on that. Steel forced its way in my veins, however false it might really have been and I moved to clap a hand on his shoulder. The startled expression when he felt his body shake knocked his senses clear for a moment.

"We'll be okay. Just...look around th'cabin, try t'find anythin' we can use. Oil lantern we could throw, blades, a heavy rifle. Anythin'. And see if you can't find some water. I don't know 'bout you, but I think I'd even drink out th'horse trough back in town right?"

The smile that touched his face, however faint it might have been, centered the world back into focus for me. It was the greatest thing I'd seen all day, and I kissed the top of that damned hat he'd somehow managed to keep a hold of. As that moment passed we started moving about the gorey scene, fighting the tumbling in our stomaches as we tried to find something that might help us against the, what even was it. It could walk upright like a man, but the creature had the face and claws of a wolf. I'd heard rumors about some sort of thing outside the walls, a curse brought on by that scheming wizard that'd taken up in Shadowfang, but they never got inside. The wall was too tall, and the gates were five feet of solid wood and iron.

"Wolfsbane."

I blinked away my recollection when I heard Nicholas' voice. He was holding a jar with the herb locked inside, one of several arrayed on one of the few shelves still standing. Some of the jars were filled with a paste the color of the petals, but I wondered at that until I saw what Jamie still had clenched in his hand. A hunting knife dabbed in the goo, like he'd tried to make some sort of last stand with it.

"So...'tis some kind's Wolf. Sorry I doubted you son, I wonder if maybe they were gearin' up t'try and kill it, or at least keep it away. Take a bit of it, stow it in your pack, and...coat your knife in th'sludge there. Bane's poisonous to a wolf, so maybe...it'll do somethin' in a pinch."

I regretted the words at once when he looked my way, terror in his eyes that I'd suggest getting so close to the thing. A wave of my hand dismissed it, and I pointed at the jars again to get him moving. I kept going on my search, opening a door to what must have been one of the boy's rooms and what I saw didn't make sense. There were bloody bandages strewn across the floor, and the sheets were soaked in red. Yet there wasn't a body in sight. The air smelled foul, from the bodies in the front room to be sure, but something else seemed off. Like wet fur almost. I neared the bed and saw a note on the nightstand next to another knife, coated in the same goo as Jamie’s. The writing was shaky, and a few drops of blood stained the paper.

"I couldn't do it. I'm sorry. I have to get away. Goodbye."

I felt a light breeze, and peered to an open window. It wouldn't have been so odd save for the markings on either side of the panel. Nail marks dug into the wood, shallow at first, but then deeper towards the outside. Had one of them been pulled out of the window when he tried to run away from the thing? I looked outside, worried I might see the creature when I noticed something even worse. The ground outside was tossed up. Leaves, dirt, and bandages were strewn around the outside, and as I looked farther out I could see what could only be claw marks in the bark of the trees. As I picked up the knife, that was when it all came full circle.

"My god...th'thing is Mik-"

The cabin shook, the floor reverberated, and in the front room I heard the door we'd just come through obliterated in what had to be our time cut short. I moved without thinking, and before I'd even cleared the door back to him I had the rifle up. Three things became clear immediately. The ripped and bloody bandages I hadn't seen before hung from bits of the creature's body, it was turned away and standing between me and Nicholas, and I wouldn't make it to him in time if I didn't act. I saw my boy's eyes turn away from the hulking nightmare that filled the room, catching mine and I felt sorrow.

"No."

The second I saw the razor-sharp claws, still stained red I fired. The lever on my rifle swung as round after round spilled out from the muzzle of the rifle.

"No..."

Another shot.

"NO..."

Another.

"NO!"

And another.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!"

It jerked with every round fired, and for a moment I thought I'd had it. It's claw paused at the zenith of its strike, and it hobbled over like it might fall. I made the mistake of taking a step forward when it turned suddenly, and the full breadth of its other arm swat me against the wall like I weighed nothing. My back struck the wood, my head hitting it too with a faint crack. My vision blurred, and again I had to fight the urge to revisit my morning meal. My rifle fell, and I had to steady myself against the frame of the door with my elbow. I didn't want to look but then I heard the thunder from Nicholas' rifle and I had to. The wolf-beast turned back around toward him, and somewhere in me I felt pride when I saw the look of determination on his face. Until the last round was spent, and the thing stayed standing despite the blood gushing down its fur.

"Nicholas..."

My voice was so weak from the blow I'd suffered, it was hard to form the word.

"Run."

But it was useless. Again I watched the thing move, and all I could see was its back. But I could hear it. Hear the leather tearing, the stitches ripped apart as its claws did its bloody work. I heard the whimper from my boy, and then I heard myself yelling as I clumsily charged toward the thing that dared hurt my son. I tasted blood in my mouth, could hardly keep a straight path as I stepped through the remains of the other Kurdin boys, knife at the ready when the thing turned. It lunged at me, mouth closing around my arm as we both went sailing back. I felt the window behind me crunch beneath the weight of the two of us, and glass shattered all around me as I went airborn. The thing carried me outside until I felt it crush me against the dirt. Everything hurt, and I screamed as bits of glass that had stuck into my back were driven deeper.

I wanted to shout, to wake up from the nightmare, and find my son outside playing with some of his friends from town. I waited for the feeling of its claws raking into my side, but it never came. The front of me felt warm, and I realized that it was from the blood pouring over me from the beast's neck. In the chaos of its lunge I'd managed to do something right, and sank the knife into its throat, piercing the artery. I shook my hand as it struggled to regain its senses. The knife cut through veins and muscle, the thick hide making it difficult but I wasn't going to let it get away with what it had done. I kept rotating the blade even as its teeth sank deeper into my other arm. I cried out in pain, it whimpered like a dog might, and rolled over trying to shake me free.

The teeth pulled free of me, and then it simply slumped there on its back, me on top of it as I kept stabbing. Again, and again, and again I plunged the knife into its thick neck. When I finally realized that it was dead my arm was numb, and I vaguely remembered getting to my feet. I could feel the blood slipping from the punctures in my arm but I was already moving back towards the cabin. My feet shuffled through the dirt, and blood as I got closer to the ruined doorway.

"Nicholas..."

I made it up, stumbling against the last plank on the steps and slamming my shoulder against one of the edges of the frame.

"Nicho-"

"Papa.."

I'll never forget the way his voice choked on the word. He hadn't called me that since he was little, playing around in the mud and causing a ruckus. The sound broke me out of my stupor, the adrenaline that'd fueled me until now giving me just a single, lingering burst as I went to him. His coat was shredded, bits of leather hanging off him like ribbons in the wind, and his chest was in tatters. It was hard to tell how much of the blood under him was his, and how much was from the others but I could tell he was going to die. His face was so pale and cold as I got to the floor beside him, and set my palm to his brow. His eyes were glossy, and unfocuse when he looked at me.

"Did you, get him?"

My face twisted, but I managed to nod and his lips curled into a weak smile.

"That's g-ood...don't have to...run anymore. Can we go home now? I want to t-tell mom ab-out, our hunt. We got it."

I rubbed my hands against my own coat, wiping away the blood before I brushed some hair off his face. He'd grown it out lately, said he wanted to be like me, but I always gave him a hard time about it.

"We did, y'saved yer old man, Nicholas. Y'did fine work, son."

His arm moved, a hand rising up to touch his chest but I softly batted it away, shaking my head.

"It doesn't hurt, papa. I'll be okay.."

I thought he might try to touch the wound again, forcing myself not to look at it when he pointed at the hat nearby. It'd been knocked off when that vile thing had struck him, and now it stood upside down on the floor, blood soaking into the black leather. A rip had been torn into the brim, but I noticed the inside of it had a slip of paper.

"'fore we go back, th-though, that's for ya, pa. I know ya think it sil-"

I shook my head as my eyes grew cloudy, and I felt a tear running down the side of my cheek. Somewhere in my mind I should have noticed the bleeding in my arm had slowed, and the pain was gone but I couldn't think of anything but him.

"Nah, not at all, Nicholas. 'tis a fine gift, boy, it's right perfect. Y'don't worry bout that none, we'll be gettin' home soon'n'I'll try it on, alright? Just...just hold on a bit longer."

My mind raced, trying to find any chance I could think of. The hopelessness of it all washed over me like a cold blanket, and I felt the weight of it all sinking in when I looked back down at his face. He was so pale, but there was a smile on his lips.

"Glad ya like it...worried ya wouldn't. Happy bir-"

I watched him slip away. Heard the breath leave him, and felt the way his body sagged against me. I brushed my hand against his cheek, slipped his hair back behind his ear and sat there for what felt an eternity.

I'd never cried so much in my life.