Private Tales Bare Skies

[Varo]

The Wolf took a step forward in tandem with her once more.

It seemed almost to synchronize, moving exactly with her even as she raised her hand. Beady yellow eyes peered down at her, watching her expression, the shift of her emotions. It seemed to take a breath, snout shifting ever so slightly.

Then it stopped.

The beast seemed to freeze for a moment, ears flicking violently, claws stilling at it's side. It's lips drew back, teeth pulling back in a low growl again.

For just a brief moment, for a second, it seemed almost paralyzed.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Perhaps Varo could hear her? Perhaps he still had some element of control over this wolf this, monstrosity that had torn it's way free of his skin.

She could smell the coppery taint of blood on the air, on it's fur and breath, on her. She tried not to gag, and instead she swallowed as she took another step back, and then another, keeping her hands up and her eyes pinned on him whilst she backed away.

Staaay, she thought. Please, please just fucking stay.

She let out the shaky breath she had been holding, her heart now a painful thrum of noise in her ears. "It's alright.." she whispered before a twig snapped under her heel and she froze.

 

[Varo]

The sound echoed through the forest, and with the broken twig so every chain upon the Wolf break.

It was as if every tension inside of the beast was suddenly released. Like a rubber band that had been pulled near to it's breaking the beast snapped forward. The movement was so fast, so quick, it was almost impossible to see.

The great beasts claw reached out and in one quick swipe slashed towards Wren.

His jaw fell open, reaching as it lashed out and pounced on her.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Wren had tried to shield herself. She'd taken a half-step back when she felt his claws rake through her face, her eye, and she'd felt the roasting hot blood pour from the wounds before the pain had even registered in her mind. When it did, she screamed, but the sound was cut short as she was barrelled to the ground and crushed there, all breath thrown from her lungs as she slammed into the hard floor.

She wasn't entirely sure whether it was his claws, his teeth, or both that she felt ripping into her flesh. She managed to scream out his name, the word a choked sob laced with an agonising plea for him to stop. He was going to kill her.

The pain was searing, setting every nerve in her body aflame as he tore through her flesh so easily as though she were nothing at all. She thought of her sisters and squeezed her eyes tight shut as she thrashed back, and curled her fists in attempt to drag the air from the beast's lungs.

 

[Varo]

It was hard to tell what it was.

Impossible.

Whether it was the scream of his name. The drag of air from his lungs.

As he fell upon her, as his jaws reached down to crush into her throat and put an end to her life something stopped him. His claws dug into her side, piercing, grasping, holding his prey still so she did not wriggle and writhe away.

Then he suddenly stopped.

His teeth halted a milimeter from her throat, spittle and blood dripping onto her skin.

It was only a moment, a second of hesitation, of pain, but it was enough. The wolf seemed to rebound from her, lurching backward and falling clear of Wren with a tumbling step. It attempted to howl, coming up empty as it struggled to breath.

The beast fell, clawing at it's own throat, digging into it's own flesh in desperation as it crashed to the ground wheezing.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

She felt his hot breath on her throat, her body rigid as she braced herself for death. She couldn't watch. Her fists shook as she put every bit of energy she possessed into calling the air out of the beast's lungs and stopping him from drawing another breath. When the last bite never came and she felt the weight lift from her, Wren gulped in a hungry breath of air and coughed up a sound of desperate agony.

She couldn't hold it for longer than another few seconds. Not as her vision blurred and the darkness of the forest enveloped her, closing in and all consuming. She felt every wound, every tear in her flesh, every trickle of blood. Her breathing shallowed out, and whether or not she wanted to or not, Wren closed her eyes and passed out, leaving her life in fate's hands.

 

[Varo]

Varo woke.

Every inch of his body hurt. Every little tendon, muscle, and bone. It was a searing aching hurt that clung to him the moment he moved. It was not an unfamiliar pain, but one that he would never get used to. A groan escaped him, eyes squeezing shut as a hand came to take through his coppery hair.

As he took a deep breath he noticed a new hurt, an ache in his chest. A searing lance of pain in his lu-

Varo's eyes shot open.

Wren. The thought pulsed through his mind, his body sitting up despite the pain that wrakt it. He couldn't always remember the Wolf nights, they were a haze, like a cloudy dream. Yet he remembered her pleas well enough, the sobbing, the way she had ripped the air from his lungs and brought the beast down.

His head searched through the dark of night, desperately looking, not even questioning the fact that the moon's still hung over head.

He spotted her within the light of them, falling on her form. Instantly he scrambled over towards her, rushing to her side and putting his hands on her face. "Wren...Wren, Wren."

Shit.

Varo could see the wounds on her face, the cuts on her side, the blood over her flesh. A series of curses rang from his lips, his head turning to peer around him.

"Alright alright hang on." Varo said as he slipped his arms beneath her and scooped her up. "You're going to be okay. You'll be alright."[/color

He claimed a she began to walk, moving over the screaming objection of his body.

Quickly he made a b-line back toward where he thought the road was, heading as fast as he could back towards the village they had left behind earlier in the night.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

The blood was stark against her ghastly pale skin, dark pools of it glistening on the forest floor underneath her. She hadn't moved an inch since she'd passed out, the slow, shallow breaths the only sign that there was any life left in her at all. She didn't react to her name, her unconsciousness far too deep to hear anything, though as she was lifted and carried, the sensation that she was moving was enough for something somewhere to stir.

Her brow furrowed, but she groaned as she tried to open her eyes and couldn't. Her face was half shrouded in blood, deep claw marks marring one side of it. As her mind slowly started to wake, the pain came at her all at once, pain and panic and flashes of the last thing she'd seen before she'd succumbed to the darkness.

She dragged in a wheeze of a breath and squirmed, ignoring the excruciating pain that seemed to ensnare her entire body to shove at him.

"N-no, no! Get off! Get.. G-get away from me!" she whined, her breath catching in her throat with a grimace as she thrashed.

 

[Varo]

Varo half tumbled as Wren struggled against him, his fingers grasping her a bit more tightly as he held onto her.

One knee fell against the ground, the impact sending a shock of pain through him. "Stop, stop."

He told her in his struggle, fingers clutching her so that she did not fall onto the ground and get dirt into the wounds that were already seeing her slowly bleed out. He looked down at her in desperation, his voice half dying in his throat.

"We-we need to get you back to town." Varo insisted. "Please."

The words came in desperation.

He had already marred her, mauled her. He needed to save her life, needed to make sure he didn't kill her.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

"NO!" she cried out, still shoving at him, but the attempt was feeble. "We can't, Varo, stop!" she rasped out, choking on the words. "Th-the guards." she pleaded.

If they went back to that town, they'd be caught. The guards that had run were no doubt hauled up there, and she'd rather die than be thrown into a cell and left to rot. Wren ground her teeth and growled through them as her body seized up with pain and she let out a sharp cry, her hand gingerly pressing to her side. "Fuck.." she winced, but even the wince hurt. Her fingers trembled as they reached to her face, wincing at the initial touch before they felt at the deep wounds and swollen flesh.

"FUCK!!" she screamed, and her fists flew at him, regardless of how much it hurt. "YOU TORE MY FUCKING FACE OFF!!"

 

[Varo]

"I-it wasn't me!" Varo contended as he felt her fists pummel him. They knocked into his stomach, his arm, his shoulders, but he stood there like a willow. Pain already wracked him, and given what he had done a few more bruises was the least of what he deserved.

He stammered. "I-it-"

Fuck.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly. "I ca-can't control it. I don't know what happened."

It still didn't make sense. Every time it had come at the zenith. They'd had hours yet. His head turned, glancing up at the sky where the moon was just passed it's apex. "It shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have."

Varo pleaded desperately.

The village was forgotten, the thought of it gone, but he knew that he still had to save her life. That if they didn't go somewhere she would bleed out and die. So he continued to stumble, even as he begged, as he began to cry, he walked towards the road.

Not towards the village though, no, back towards the carts that would undoubtedly be abandoned. Back towards where he had turned, where he could at least lay Wren down and get her back somewhere safe faster.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

It hurt to open her eyes, as though they allowed too much light in when she did and it made her head pound. She squeezed them tight shut, frowning against the pain and more fresh blood seeping from the wounds.

"Sorry isn't g-going to c-cut it, Varo.." she croaked at him. She was scarred for life, and only alive because of her own magic. He'd have killed her and she knew it, he still very nearly had. She didn't even want to know what she looked like.

She stilled, and was silent as her body failed her. She had no fight left, and she tried to keep breathing through the pain as she slumped in his arms.

"Why .. didn't you tell us? W-why would you r-risk our lives like that?.." she growled after a while, her eyes squinting as she tried her best to open them. The smell of blood was overpowering, each time she breathed it in her stomach churned over. She tried not to think about what she'd witnessed, the sounds of his body changing, how he'd killed the mage, how he'd raked at her flesh and the feeling of his breath on her throat.

"You're a fucking..idiot."

 

[Varo]

J

"I-I-" How did he answer that?

There wasn't any real excuse. Not if he wanted any semblance of honesty. It had been selfish, undeniably so, but Varo had always felt that his reason had been a good one.

He was a monster. A beast. A thing.

Yet in Alliria he had managed to escape that label. In the gang no one had looked at him like something to be strung up and slaughtered. He had taken measures to ensure that, to make sure that no one ever found out and had a reason to question it.

Even tonight he had made sure to time things right. He had known when the change would happen, had known when the Moon's would force him to turn. He should have had hours when he and Wren moved on the caravan. Plenty of time to take their prize and get away.

He still did not understand what went wrong.

"I was scared." Varo said quietly as he found the road, trudging onto the dirt and back towards the wagons. "I already lost one home."

Ivladrin. "I didn't want to lose another."

Varo said quietly, his lips thinning for a moment.

"I shouldn't have changed when I did." It wasn't an excuse, at least not to his mind. He had done what he'd done and there was no escaping that. Varo already knew that he would have to leave Alliria, that his fate was sealed even if Wren didn't kill him in her vengeance. "I don't know what happened."

He sounded almost desperate. "I shouldn't have changed when I did."

It was clear he either did not remember the mage or simply didn't know.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Wren ignored all the self pity about his fears and woes, she had no room for that right now, rage and pain and exhaustion consumed her, and if she had any energy at all she'd spend it beating him for what he'd done to her.

"But you'd have ch-changed tonight regardless, y-you knew that and, and you s-still came here with me." She was shaking profusely now, shivering with the shock and icy cold that had settled in her bones, her body having lost too much blood to keep her warm.

"He knew, h-he made you change." she frowned, wondering why. Either way, she was sure the last thing he'd felt had been regret.

 

[Varo]

There wasn't any argument for those words, no excuse.

He could have said it would have been hours, tried to tell her about the calendar, about the way Irari had worked it out with Math. Varo could have told her that he wouldn't have changed until just a few minutes ago. None of it mattered though.

She was right.

"I...don't remember." Varo admittedly softly. "I just remember the pain. Hours before I should have."

His lips thinned as he spoke, his head bowing as they continued down the road until they finally reached the cart. Varo didn't try to argue more, didn't try to excuse himself. He just focused on the one good thing he could do today; keeping her alive.

The first was half broken from the fight, the second, the one where the mage had been was almost completely untouched. He ignored the Corpse that lay against the tree.

Slowly he wandered over to it, shifting and dragging the curtain away to gently lay Wren down on what appeared to be a bed of pillows and some sort of meditative shrine.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

"Yes well I remember." she cut in venomously. It had sounded horrendous. Wren wasn't sure it was a sound she would ever forget, how she'd heard his bones snap like twigs and his muscles and skin stretch and tear, the sound of his cries.

Wren half expected the carts to have been swarming with people by now, guards or a town mob here to hunt the wolf, but an eerie silence hung in the air, and she could smell the blood and death on the air. She frowned for a moment, her eyes still half closed.

She let out an involuntary whimper of pain as Varo set her down inside the carriage.

"Check if it's still here." she barked at him, her whole body shuddering as she curled up and held her sides, burying the mauled side of her face into a cushion. They might as well take home what they'd come here for, regardless.

 

[Varo]

Varo hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should follow her command or keep her alive. He seemed almost paralyzed for a moment, then answered. "No."

It was the first time he had denied her since...well since ever, as far as he could recall, but he knew that he was right.

He wasn't a medic, or a doctor, not anything close. Yet his mother had taught him enough to know that Wren was in a dire state. Every moment that passed was another tick she was closer to death. Every second that went by she lost more blood.

"I need to see to your wounds first." Varo wouldn't let her die. "Shut up."

He said before she could speak up in protest. "Please."

The word came in tandem with tearing cloth and him quickly bucking away. He quickly fashioned bandages, softly glowing eyes quickly flickering across the clearing as he searched for herbs and everything else he would need.

Before she could object Varo ducked away, running to the woods and disappearing for what seemed like minutes.

He appeared as the haze fell over her, his teeth gnashing on something.

"This will hurt." Varo said as he spat out a strange green substance into his palm, fingers softly molding it before he reached out and applied it to the wounds upon her face.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

No?...Shut up?...

Had she had the energy to she'd have punched him in the face, or at least yelled at him for talking to her like that, but the urge to sleep was crashing into her like tenacious waves trying their best to drag her under. Her eyes rolled as she fought it, fearing that if she let her eyes close they might never open again.

Where did he go?

"Varo?.." she whispered out, and then a little louder in panic. "Varo??" She didn't want to die, not here and not alone. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks, stinging at her wounds as her mind honed in on every ounce of pain she felt. Her fingers curled into the cushions beside her and squeezed, seeking some sort of anchor to tether her to life.

By the time he returned, her lids were drifting closed, her mind shutting down to spare her any more pain. His words caused her brow to furrow, but before she could ask what he was doing, he pressed the paste against her face and she barked out in protest, her fingers clasping around his wrist as she growled with a feeble attempt to pull it away.

Slowly, the sting started to ease, her grip loosened, and she gave in to sleep.

 

[Varo]

Varo was no doctor, but he had grown up an Elf.

His mother had researched dozens upon dozens of different herbs and remedies, and his father had always made sure he could keep his allies alive if it was necessary. He bound Wren's wounds, applied the healing pastes his mother had taught him to make, and then he made sure that she was comfortable in the cart.

As her bleeding stopped Varo covered her in a blanket, tucking a pillow beneath her head and ensuring she wouldn't be jostled too much. "I'm sorry."

The young man pleaded quietly as he closed the curtain for the cart and pulled himself up into the drivers seat.

Her words about the village rang in his mind, and he knew that going there would be an option. So instead of heading the way they had come he turned around, taking the cart towards the west and using a northern road when he reached a fork.

By the time Wren awoke it would be well past dawn and into the next day.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

She didn't hear his apology. She didn't hear anything for the next few hours as she slept in blissful oblivion until the bright light of the sun pushed past the curtain in a light breeze and roused her. Her head pounded and she groaned quietly to herself as she lifted a hand to her brow and felt at the dressing on her face.

"Varo?.." she grumbled. They were moving, and she hit at the wall of the carriage. "Varo!!" she growled.

 

[Varo]

"Sorry!" The young man barked as he shifted the reigns of the horse.

The way he had seen it there weren't really many options left open to them. The Village had been closed to them with the Guards there and he figured there wasn't really much else that he could do but travel until he found the next.

"It's..." He cut himself off. "Sorry."

The cart shifted to move a bit more straight, but he turned back and pulled the curtain to the side. "Just try not to move too much, the roads aren't very good this way."

But there had been no other way to go.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Wren tried to sit up as the curtain was shifted aside, tries to get a look at where they were, but her muscles failed her and she flopped back down with a frustrated growl. She felt weaker than she had done in a very long time, a time when she'd been locked in a cell for months, and the feeling conjured a panic in her that caused her heart to pitch and those little carriage walls start to close in.

"Where are y-- Where are we? I.. I need to get up. I need to get out." she hit at the wall again. "Stop - Varo.." she whined. She couldn't breathe. She grabbed at the pillows and threw them away from her, kicked at the blanket coiled around her feet.

"Let me out, Varo!! Please! I can't breathe." she wheezed, her mouth open wide as she tried to pull in deep, hungry breaths, panic constricting her chest and causing her to breathe back out too quickly. Cold sweat flushed over her skin, and she let out a quiet whimper as she tried to sit up again, her hands tearing at the bandages he'd covered her with.

 

[Varo]

Varo pulled the cart to a stop, slipping off the drivers seat as he heard Wren begin to panic.

"Stop!" The word was not quite a yell, more of an insistent call. He slid into the ground and pulled back the curtain, the sun striking against Wren as he drew her out Into the open. His hands came down gently o to her, not forcing her back down but easing her against the plush pillow.

"It's alright." He told her hastily. "You're alright."

Varo repeated. "You're in a wagon, just curtains, no walls."

The frown on his face deepened as she thrashed, his hands gently slipping beneath her to help prop her up so she could at least get a breath of fresh air. It would no doubt be painful,but perhaps it would stop her hurting herself.

"You need to take it easy." He said softly. "Your wounds…"

The ones he had caused.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Wren shoved at him the moment he propped her up, pulling herself to the side of the wagon to feel the air on her face and drag as much of it as she could into her lungs. Her heart thrashed inside her chest and her hands trembled as she reached to her clammy face, pulling away the dressing that covered half of it and squinting as she opened her eyes.

She didn't look at him, her gaze downcast as she pressed her fingertips against the three deep scars. Scars. Not wounds. Her jaw clenched tightly as she processed this new reality, what she must have looked like now. She was damned fucking lucky she was widowed and had no interest in taking another husband, she was certain that none would have taken her.

"What the fuck did you put on my face?.." she asked in a cold growl.

 

[Varo]

Varo took a few stumbling steps back, deciding that it was probably best to keep his distance from her when she was angry.

He still had bruises on his chest and shoulder from where she'd punched him. The Wolf helped him heal faster, but it didn't wipe away all memories of the thrashing she had done the night before. "It's a salve, helps with healing."

Varo said as though it would be enough to explain. Though he should have noticed it then. Even with the Salve she shouldn't have healed that fast.

"My mother taught me how to make it." She had spent much of her time in the Gardens of Ivladrin, and althought Varo had never been much of a student she had forced some things into his head. A fact he was glad for now, Wren very likely would have been dead without it.

He frowned a moment, opening his mouth to speak before closing it.

It was best to keep his mouth shut.