Private Tales A hunter in the streets

[Wren]

She drank until the well went dry and then threw the husk to the waters. Warmth suffused her entire body, spreading like lava through her veins to churn a heat within the muscles presently pulled so taught along her figure it was a wonder she hadn't snapped her own bones. Wren breathed deeply, filling her lungs with the scent of fresh blood and released the steam of hunger pangs through her lips.

Hazel eyes snapped across the cistern to Rain, a jolt of the mind catching her off guard.

A voice in her thoughts.

The elven sword lifted to the ready, gaze casting deeper into the tunnels.

"Rain-" she shifted with a growl, moving further inwards to encroach upon the space of the other vampires still lingering, "what the fuck was that?"

 

[Rainer]

He didn't immediately look towards Wren, instead studying the vampire. His retreating steps had multiplied, moving from a horrendous image in the shadow of the sconce to nothing more than a fading outline in the deep tunnels of the Cistern. And then, he was gone.

Letting the vampire fall from his bite, Rainer left the remains on the sidewalk of the cistern as he extracted the sword and sheathed it on his shoulder. The scent of the vampires, with the feral ick that came with their presence, had drifted into the likeness of sewer and brackish waters.

RUN....RUUUUUNNN...Ruuuuunnnnnnnn

Like hearing the voice of someone close by, drifting away on a speeding carriage, the voice tapered off into nothing. He could only assume that Wren had heard the very same thing.

"I don't know..." He shook his head as he approached the woman, tilting his own head to inspect her face. He didn't have time to concern himself with unknowns and while hearing mutual voices was strange, he had dealt with stranger. "I'm sorry about your nose." He admitted, knowing full well that the consumption of blood would set her healing factor back into motion. "We'll need to reset it or it won't re-align properly." His crooked ring finger spoke volumes on that very subject.

 

[Wren]

Suspicion of this disembodied voice formed wrinkles at the sides of her eyes. I don't know wasn't exactly reassuring, especially not when it came from the man responsible for making her what she was. Wasn't he supposed to know everything?

All things vampiric?

That narrowed gaze slowly shifted to him, the wrinkles forming along the bridge of her nose. Wren lifted her free hand to stop him in his tracks and promptly flipped him off.

"Stay away from my nose."

With a sniveling sniff she pivoted away from him, leaned over, grabbed her own nose and wrenched it back into a straight line. The snarling howl she attempted to keep to herself through grit teeth likely announced their presence to anything else down here that wasn't already aware.

Fresh blood filtered down from her nostrils and over her lips. She licked it away and reasserted herself with a roll of her shoulders and a crack of her neck, pointing off towards the area where the last vampire disappeared to.

"You let one get away."

 

[Rainer]

They were well beyond the concern of noise now. The smell of blood was enough cajolery to drag out any blood consuming beast from the crevices of the cistern. Even now, even as she broke new blood vessels to set her nose right, the smell of blood was a powerful ambrosia against the backdrop of shit and decay.

He eyed her with a hint of a smirk on his face, crossing his hands over his broad chest. "As I recall, you started feeding first. And you were closer, I think we might share a bit in that blame." The need to feed had overcome the desire to chase that straggler back through the dark tunnels. He had already felt his nights vision fading, the taint of famine was more than enough to convince him to stay his feet and drink just a bit deeper.

"Besides..." He tilted his gaze away from the woman and down the hallway. "I'm getting the feeling that I might know where he went." Rainer paused. "I have some suspicions about that voice, but nothing definitive. Not yet."

 

[Wren]

She would have snorted derisively if her nose wasn't plugged with blood. Instead she spat and turned a leery eye back to the man.

"Suspicions..." she parroted, waiting a beat for him to elucidate on this peculiar mystery before rolling her eyes and pivoting, "right, just roll that up and stuff it in your pocket next to your city map."

With a huff and a blink, she pushed into the darkness ahead.

 

[Rainer]

He stifled an incredulous laugh as she walked off, surprised she was still sore over that matter. The euphoria of the feast after a long famine was often enough to wash away any mire or misery that had preceded it. He wasn't sure if that was the elf or the human in her, but he wondered just how long she'd carry that around.

By the look of things, an eternity didn't seem too far off.

He walked quickly to catch up with her, cutting through the dark tunnel with a new found confidence. Like cleaning the muck and stains from a window pane, suddenly things were a good deal more clear. And the world felt a bit more comfortable and a tad bit less aggravating and somber. All things considered, he was in a fairly good mood.

The dark tunnel led to a span bridge overlooking a shallow ravine, rushing against virgin stone as it moved along natural pathways to the Cairou in the unseen distance. For how boisterous such things could be, he was surprised by not only the placement, but the reticence of the moving water. Algae and scum collected on the high water marks of the stone and Rainer came to the conclusion that it was engineered. Either by common means or something magical.

"Hmm..." His pace slowed as he moved to gaze over the parapet at the water below. They had gone further than he anticipated. This sort of construction would not have been put into place for the common city. This had the Maesters touch written all over it.

 

[Wren]

Wren's foul mood persisted, if only because it was her default as of late. She lead the way through the bleak corridor, pausing as they crossed into what not only looked but felt like a wholly different realm of the underground. She took several strides towards the height of the bridge's arc, coming to a still as she heard Rainer's ponderance.

The woman slowly turned on her heel, taking in the ravine around them in a loose sense of awe. Some part of her, whatever may have been left of her mother's bloodline, seemed to recognize the presence of magic.

"Cities beneath cities..." she muttered, deciding not to linger. Whatever it was she felt had nothing to do with what they were after. Wren set back on her path to continue across the bridge. Nearly to the other side she stagger as a wave of fresh, rotten stench hit her senses.

"Auff-" not as bad with dried blood coating her nose, but still enough to offend, "son of a - Rain, stop fucking around. We're getting closer."

 

[Rainer]

Rain, stop fucking around...he was suddenly nostalgic for those quiet walks through the beast nests. Nothing but the whistle of his hammer, the slide of a metal sword against sheath, and one less nose that needed breaking on a fairly persistent basis.

"We're gonna have get you something for that nos-" He paused as he stood next to her. They were deep in the cistern now and with so much stone, it should have only been getting colder as they moved. But it was at least ten degrees warmer through the next archway and far more humid. That likely wasn't helping Wren and her olfactory woes.

Heeeeereee....come hereeeeee....

The voice grew loud and firm at the back of his mind, an inward dialogue that came with an alien and totally separate thirst. Like he was being forced to empathize with something he couldn't see or rightfully hear.

The archway lead into a vacated cistern that seemed to no longer hold water. It was multi-tiered with sconces spanning from breast height up into the ceiling. Rainer shook his head as he surveyed the room. "Who the fuck comes around and keeps the lights on?"

 

[Wren]

"If you put one fucking finger on my nose-"

That voice was back again, carving across her mind like nails across a chalkboard. Wren's eyes rolled, head twisting sideways at the sensation. Geeeh. Felt stronger this time, louder. She shook it off with a shiver and followed him in, wincing into the illumination above.

She grimaced. Finding the entire thing moderately disturbing.

"Feel free to unroll that suspicion of yours at any time."

A shadow moved across the far end of the cistern, causing her grimace to turn to a scowl, "We've come far enough. How about you meet us half way, eh?" It was only polite.

 

[Rainer]

"Why tether yourself to suspicions? Would you not be free of doubt?" A voice rang out through the empty cistern, echoing across rounded columns of granite and limestone. Rainer's gaze drifted upwards, as if he were following the veritable bouncing of the words throughout the room.

The words gave off a sense of refinement, as if spoken from the lips of a scholar who had put in significant effort to mask their accent. "You haven't fought anything like this, Wren..." He whispered, watching the shadow move about the room, absent a source.

"And neither have you, Mr. Venandi." Rainer blanched at the sound of his own surname, having only relearned it in the past few years. It was still foreign to him. "You see..." A small man proceeded out from the columns. He was just barely over 5 feet in height with black hair slicked back, a sharp nose, and eyes of deep blue. He wore a tradesmen wardrobe, not unlike those who cleaned chimneys. But he was himself clean, from head to toe.

"You ate my children. So I could speak to you. Ah, the curse of the Vedymin..."

Rainer grimace as he reached over his shoulder, pulling the bloodied blade from the sheath. There was only one species of Vampire he knew of that took to such form, speaking with other turned vampires. He had likely used the tradesmen persona to draw others into this place, changing them to then do his bidding.

"You are very fortunate, Wren of the Loriden. Very few get to make the acquaintance of an Alukrah..." Rainer's mood had shifted and he looked towards Wren. Then the change began as the room growled, shaking the pillars. The metamorphosis would be quick as this small figure grew to over 8 feet in height. Pale skin shifting to gray leather with eyes of blood red and razor sharp teeth filling a wide opened mouth.

 

[Wren]

The grip on her sword hilt could not have been any tighter as Wren felt the hair along the back of her neck stand on end. The small man embodied something many people could only dream of fearing: the terror of the night in a most unassuming form. She'd encountered only one other thing of such nature in her life (that she could presently remember) and that had been a larkspur geist.

Rain's hushed words drew a short glance, but she dare not take her eyes off their quarry for any longer. One that apparently called upon the powers of omniscience.

"I don't care," her words left over a low growl as she watched the Alukrah changed form, "just tell me how to kill the fucker."

 

[Rainer]

What he had that might arm him against an Alukrah was simply written lore and dusty manuscripts. Nights spent, amidst the twilight between feast and famine, to learn of the various breeds of vampire. Weaknesses, strengths, habits, and means of killing.

Originating from the Steppes, the Alukrah were a primordial and ancient species of Vampire. They were thoughtful and followed ancient rituals which included fear of all things holy, a weakness to silver, and an aversion to crossing moving bodies of water. But he couldn't recall anything about killing an Alukrah, the manuscripts were silent on such things.

Most of the facts he knew were hardly that and very little would help her. But then the ravine crossed his mind, the bridge constructed by the Maesters, and things started to come together.

"He's weak against silver, against your armor..." Rainer growled, pulling the demijohn from his back and laying it near the entrance of the cistern. "We'll divide him and cut him down, sort out the pieces later..." Death didn't always come in such easy fashion. But before he could elaborate more, the Alukrah was in their proximity and swiped hard towards Rainer. It was all he could do to lift his sword and block the blow, sending him crashing into the nearby stone wall.

Vedymin talk too much...

 

[Wren]

Silver, right. Thus far that had been a given for every sort of vampire short of themselves. Cut him down and -

She blinked, throwing a glare at him, "Sort out the pieces later?" she hissed, "You don't fucking know do you."

He didn't have a chance to answer once he was flying through the air. Sort out the pieces later. Wren looked up to the hulking vampire and promptly made to plunge her silver sword, currently glowing with exceptional ferocity, into its side. Its distraction was only enough to buy her a keen slice, eliciting a shrill screech of pain and the pungent stench of burnt skin. Didn't last long - another swipe from him saw her sailing through the air in the other direction and into a support pillar.

Wren wasn't down for long - kicking her feet into the air and flipping back into a stand. This thing was big, strong, and fast, but it was only one thing. They'd have to go at it at the same time.

Which required Rain to get back on his own feet.

"Sure, just take your sweet fucking time over the-" another shriek from behind her found Wren set upon by a thrall.

 

[Rainer]

He let out something between a cough and a growl, coming to a stand after a moments daze. The beasts claws were razor sharp and apparently easily ejected. He felt at the pit of his arm and with a bit of effort, retracted a claw that was nearly two inches in length. He tapped the bloodied nail against his metal armor before tossing it against the ground.

It was all the time he needed, with Wren's cursing to serve as proper distraction, for Rainer to make a quick move towards the large vampire. Bringing the sword upwards, he drove it deep into the limestone, temporarily pinning the creatures foot and calf to the floor of the cistern. The insult was repaid with a scream and another swipe, sending the dizzied Vedymin into a nearby column.

Rainer figured the pinning would at least halt the Alukrahs progressions for a moment. Such an assumption was confirmed as not only did Rain have a moment to wipe the blood from his mouth, but to get up and extract the meteor hammer from his hip.

"Water! He can't pass running water!"

The Alukrah, who was attempting to lunge towards Wren, stopped and snapped an expression back towards Rainer. "You're trapped here, aren't you. The Maesters? Did they build their home around you as you slept?" With a twirl of the hammer, he smacked the tall Vampire across his shoulder, nearly knocking him to the ground.

 

[Wren]

The shrieking of the thrall only grew louder as Wren grabbed its arms with her free hand and hoisted it against the backside of her armor. An ungodly scream erupted from it as smoke began rising between them while ash poured onto the ground at her feet. Within seconds the silver armor had scalded the creature to the point of disintegration - a true mark of just how effective it was against them.

They could only hope it was the same for its master.

Broad shoulders shook the remnants of decay free, allowing the half-elf vedymin to dislodge herself and regain her footing. She turned to Rain and the alpha, seeing it pinned and struggling, then took her chance after it stumbled prone to the ground following the hit from the hammer.

Wren lunged forward, sweeping her sword down with the intent to cleave its head clean off its neck, but it twitched. Instead the silver blade sheared through its arm.

"Haaa-" Wren grinned, open-mouthed and bore her own fangs at the thing, "piece by piece then. Hold still -" she raised her sword, "or don't," and swung it down again.

 

[Rainer]

In the time it took her to reel back and aim another blow, the Alukrah had used what arm it had left to pull out the pinning sword and launch it towards Rainer. As the blade lodged itself deep in the spot of the column where the vampire hunter had once been, it moved clear of the attack and clear away from both of the Vedymin.

He breathed heavy, holding the dismembered stub of his arm and opened his mouth wide - screaming.

Kill THEM!!!!

The words spoke did not originate from the mouth, but from the minds of those enthralled and those tapped into the hivemind. For Rainer and Wren, it was like a snare drum rattling against grey matter behind the eyes.

Rainer grabbed the sword and placed his foot on the column, yanking it free and sheathing it for the moment. He began to twirl the hammer and chain. As the Alukrah backed into the center of the cistern, movement was spied along the back walls. Holes, formerly carved to allow discharge of water from many sources, seemed to grow alive as creatures crawled out.

It was too dark to count the enthralled but in the moments, Rainer felt both the itch of hunger and irritation that these obstacles presented.

"Could be as few as five...could be as many as twenty." He repeated, remembering his estimations of the original prospects of the nest. Shrugging, he looked towards Wren as he licked the blood from his lips. "I was close..."

 

[Wren]

CLANK.

Wren's sword struck stone with such force it sliced into it like butter. A growl sounded, followed by a sharper snarl as the master Alukrah bellowed for its hive. Rain yanked his sword free while Wren pulled up her own, turned to the discarded arm on the ground and picked it up. Livid eyes tracked her partner and his swinging hammer while she lifted the limb to her face and sunk her teeth into it, draining what blood remained.

Already going cold, but potentially worth it.

A few steps brought her to stand next to Rainer, casual gaze shifting across the tunnels now crawling with thralls. Wren slowly lowered the arm from her lips, tongue passing over the blood.

"Don't hog them all this time, eh?"

She swung the arm back, then heaved it in a swinging arc forwards to royally uppercut the first of the horde to leap their way, knocking it clear out of the air. The arm hung limply in her hand, now smashed on top of being dismembered, and so was discarded without ceremony.

"Next."

 

[Rainer]

Once again, in the moments between entering the cave and fighting an ancient vampire, Rainer was beset by a concoction of emotions. Equal parts envy and admiration, stemming from the lack of forethought in draining the arm and then using it as a weapon.

He imagined she'd probably be feeling pretty good after that bit of blood. It was likely a safe assumption that mixing the blood of the creator and the enthralled would not be problematic for digestion and with the way she was carrying on, the assumption seemed correct.

How was it hogging if we both had one vampire, he mused as she discarded the arm. Swinging the meteor hammer, he stepped to the side and separated from Wren - as to avoid her being collateral for a sometimes unpredictable weapon. Skittering across the ceiling, a feral vampire dropped down on to the spot where Rainer once stood. The ball and chain twirled and jumped out from beneath Rainer's leg, caving in the vampires chest.

Another jumped from a nearby column, knocked out of the air by the heavy weight of the silver meteor hammer. Rainer danced, almost gracefully, between blows. Circling one of the feral vampires, he wrapped the chain of the hammer around head - just at mouth level - and pulled it taut until the head cracked like a walnut. Biting down into still pumping neck, he grabbed a quick pick-me-up before moving into the next group of Vampires.

Scanning the room quickly, he looked to make sure that Wren was still having her way with the enthralled.

 

[Wren]

"Ffff-uck off-" while Rainer was busy playing wack-a-pire with his hammer, Wren had been dogpiled.

The screaming was really the worst of it - she could take the slicing claws and biting fangs, but the screaming as they made contact with her armor would split her skull before too long. Tearing them off one by one wasn't doing very much. Seemed for every one she threw, three more appeared.

Before long she was flat and kissing the floor, something biting into the back of her skull.

So she did what any self-respecting woman in armor would do. She raged.

FUCK. OFF.

An explosion of thralls sent the mindless beasts flying. By the time Wren managed to get back to her feet she had one in her clutches by the head, fingers digging into its skull and crushing it like a melon to the squelchy, squealy delight of her ears. Those that had been en route to add to the pile suddenly stopped in their tracks, hissing in confusion.

Wren promptly bit into her flailing snack and tore out its windpipe before spitting it off to the side.

"Fuck off-" she stated again, nigh drunkenly, and lifted a hand to point at Rainer, "I lopped that arm off fair and square. You get your own fucking arm." Tossed the limp thral aside, too, and turned back to the stunned horde.

"The rest of you, bring your pisser Master to me so I can show my friend here the true meaning of hogging."

NOW.

 

[Rainer]

Much to his surprise, the thralls allowed Rainer a moment of peace as he supped on their fallen brethren. As far as he could tell, they were either flabbergasted with Wren or outright enraged by her presence. Perhaps it was the way she consumed of their master, he thought. Or maybe it was the way her pants clung to her thighs.

His moment of reprieve was short lived as a trio of feral vampires came at him with hungry eyes. It was a tall female and two short men, each with markings upon their forehead. It was clear that they were laborers, formally of the criminal variety, that had been condemned to a life of toil.

That must be how he does it. He disguises himself and draws them in, to do his bidding through them. He is trapped by the ravine.

Stepping back as the first jumped towards him, his free hand opened widely as he cast lux against the silver hammer. Catching violently in a rolling flame, like a star captured by chain, he flung it at the first vampire and sent him flying in a shower of soaring ash. Twirling, he hit the next two by surprise and knocked through them like they were brittle statues of coal.

There weren't many, if any, that were left now to defend their master. Rainer let the hammer come to a rolling stop as he breathed in, watching it burn at the cistern foundation.

"Oh, I have intent for far more than his arm..." He stated confidently, moving his gold gaze from Wren to the Alukrah - still standing boldly at the center of the cistern.

 

[Wren]

Well, it was worth a shot.

With a shit-eating sneer the woman leaned to take up her dropped sword, swinging it once through the air with a WHOOM WHOOM while Rain performed his magic fire mallet trick. A casual turn about, a roll of her shoulders to loosen them up, she motioned to Rain to keep his eyes on the prize.

"You can think about my thighs later when they're wrapped around your skull."

What's the plan?

Funny how a few bites to eat could really turn her mood around.

 

[Rainer]

He could think about her thighs now and he could think about them later. It occurred to him that her consuming the blood of the Alukrah was likely giving her the unexpected ability to read his mind. Hence the comment regarding hogging and her thighs wrapping around a certain skull. Just for fun, he visualized that for a moment before preceding to answer her.

"Well..." I'm going to hit him with this thing and go from there...

He gestured with the burning hammer, shaking the chains a bit, before he side stepped another vampire. The creature fell to the ground and was clearly starved for either blood or attention. Rainer paid him both with a solid smack of the hammer, cracking his head in two and sending the ashes floating about.

AhhhhhhHHHHHHhhhhhHH

The Alukrah screamed loudly as he charged, holding up what arm remained and swiping at one of the columns of the cistern. It shattered into pieces and the whole room howled and rumbled, shaking as large boulders were loosed from the ceiling.

 

[Wren]

"Right, well-" rumble rumble, the ceiling rained dust and stone upon them as the raging Alukrah made his bid to cave them all in to an unexpected grave, "get on with it then."

Wren took point in keeping the other thralls off his ass so he could do his hammer thing. Her sword cleanly plunged through the chest of one and heaved it to the side to let it fly off the blade and through the air, sizzling, smoking, screeching, into an oncoming second.

What she did with a sword was nothing like the graceful dance of her mother's people, but it had a certain sweeping stride to it that allowed her to move from one advance to another seamlessly.

 

[Rainer]

Perhaps her movements may not have seemed as graceful as her clans and forefathers, but the potency couldn't be questioned. Particularly because it gave Rainer the proper space to move and work his tactic. It seemed significant to him considering that despite his longevity and long life, time was no longer on his side.

Charging forward, the Alukrah met him head on. For a moment, he wondered if this were a trap set by the beast. The foundations of the cistern were sound, likely built by the Maesters hundreds of years ago and were easily standing the test of time. What better way to convince a Vedymin towards engagement than to present them with risk and force their hand?

The Alukrah swung towards Rainer, who had ducked and slid across the floor on his knee caps - aided by the slick residue of grime and blood. The burning meteor hammer jumped out from his body and smacked the back of the Alukrah's knee, blowing out the appendage and sending the monster toppling to the ground. And despite Rainer's advancement, the thralls were still forming a formidable threat against Wren - and the cistern was still rumbling.

He got to his feet and quickly moved towards the immobile primordial beast. "Call off your beasts..." He stated firmly, threateningly twirling the silver hammer.

 

[Wren]

Somehow there were more. Wren had a cocky disposition on her good days, and she walked into this horde knowing of the potential to get completely overwhelmed, but here she was cleaving away at the oncoming beasts and hacking them apart with vigor.

But they kept. On. Coming.

Her armor and face was covered in a layer of decay and blood, dampening the damage of the silver with far more significance than expected. They weren't burning on contact anymore, which made them all the more confident in their approach. One of them got off a lucky hit to the back of her head and the woman dropped to her knees with stars in her eyes.

Her sword was wrenched from her hand and her arms claimed.

Lungs burning, head pounding, vision spinning, Wren winced as she heard the Alukrah's voice in her mind again.