Fate - First Reply Hunting the Wild Hunt

[Joseph Meier]

“Dear I really don’t think this is productive..” Rosebury’s gentle words fell on deaf ears as they moved through the forests. Finding the Sluagh wouldn’t be difficult. Joseph had spent enough time with them when his wife was alive, and this was the time of year they emerged in force. To dispense what they called justice. Rosebury had come to talk him out of administering a little of his. Or he wanted to place bets on what an old, drunk fae would do against the Sluagh.

Joseph suspected the latter.

He lunged through the forest as an imperious coal black elk, threatening to outpace the neatly dressed fae alongside him. Rosebury kept up, his little slippered feet jumping over limbs and tree roots without a glance.

They found them. Slinking black shucks. Like great sleek wolves gliding around the trees, made of shadow and teeth. They were great warriors, and grand creatures. They were fleet footed, and Rosebury hung back to watch them in their slender, shaggy glory. Three of them, all running in a pack in the night seeking their targets. Ah, what a pity it didn’t last long.

Joseph hit them from the side.

A creature of rage, sound and fury, he didn’t even attempt subtlety. When the elk leapt at them, it’s mouth opened and teeth grew. Those powerful front legs became terrible claws and tendrils of shadow. The first had the fortune of getting Joseph’s maw full in the face. Joseph crushed his head, rendering the Sluagh warrior limp. The others, confused, howled and turned to face him. The first was seized in a nest of shadowy tendrils. His limbs were seized, and Joseph pulled.

Screaming reverberated through the fae wilds. Terrible, horrific screaming as tendons snapped, bones popped and fur ripped open like spoiled fruit. Joseph dropped him, letting him whimper out his last gasps. The third he simply picked up, and bashed against a tree.

The crack of bone against wood sounded. A few yelps that died off into whimpers, then Joseph was just slamming an empty sack of bone and meat against a cedar tree.

When he finally dropped the dead shuck, Joseph was alone. He released the form, standing in the middle of the chaos as a bloody, angry man who wanted nothing more than to drink himself in a hole. He looked at the blood, black in the night, and the torn apart Sluagh. Three more agents of the fae who wouldn’t be allowed to be judge, jury and executioner.

He was panting from the exertion, and wiped blood out of his eyes angrily. “Damn the fae to hell.” He growled under his breath.

 

[Sivan]

Cas was no fighter, his job was not to hunt but rather to scout ahead and keep alert of what was going on. He often ran ahead or was behind whichever group he was placed in, his only great attribute being that he was incredibly fast, even among cwn annwn standards. Looking like a much larger borzoi in his canine form, the moment Cas heard the howl from a group of black shucks that had separated from the main team, he couldn’t help but whimper. Tail in between his legs, the main group made their way back to him.

“What’s going on?” A black shuck asked him.

“I don’t know,” Cas admitted sheepishly, he had stood there and looked around, ears straining to hear any sort of movement but was too afraid to check anything out.

“Then what are you doing, standing here?” It snarled at him, “you’re the scout, go check it out!” The black shuck snapped its sharp jaws towards him, causing the slightest yelp to escape Casimir’s mouth. The rest of the black shucks snarled at him as well, one even stamping his foot in impatience.

“Y-Yessir!” With a dash to the direction of the warning howl, Cas zipped through the forest, nimble and fast like a flash of lightening zipping through undergrowth and trees with ease. His cream-colored coat looked silver in the moonlight, before catching sight of Joseph. Cas slowed his pace, curious as to why such a short man was just standing there in the middle— and then the stench of blood reached his nose. And the scent of other black shucks.

Frozen in fear, Cas wanted to run away, but his pink harness glowed slightly with the power of magick preventing him from doing such a thing. Well, he may as well do something, right? A high pitched, trembling howl left Cas’s mouth, trying to warn his teammates that there was something in the forest that most definitely shouldn’t be there. His ears were pushed back and his tail was between his legs once again… which was the only reason why Cas had stopped himself from pissing himself right now.

Joseph Meier

 

[Joseph Meier]

Joseph heard the rush of paws and turned, his brows furrowing together. Not a shuck, but a cwn? Something with a pink harness on that was trembling and practically pissing itself in terror. Joseph’s expression softened. He had never held any hatred in his heart for cwn; they generally weren’t violent creatures and like himself were family oriented. At one point he’d made a great friendship between his own house and a pack of them.

This boy in front of him was going to cause a hell of a lot of problems if he opened that mouth of his. Open it he did, and a whimpering howl eked from his throat. Joseph held out a hand toward him.

“Listen to me.” He spoke clear faerie. After so many years in the faelands he spoke it as though he were born to it, albeit with the twang of a Floimish accent. “I do not want to kill you. I do not want to hurt you. But you do not need to call down the others. Be still.” He winced, and sat down on a nearby log. He touched his pant leg, massaging the malformed muscles, and took a deep breath.

“I suppose it goes without saying attacking me right now is a very bad idea.” He added, his voice strained.

Casimir Bielke

 

[Sivan]

Cas tilted his head when he heard the Iza tongue. He could send the magick radiating from Joseph, but he couldn’t comprehend what this appearance was. Too large to be sidhe but most definitely too small to be a duanann. And then the way he seemed to be in pain… against his better judgement, and maybe with the hope that he might be proving something to himself and others, Cas slowly began stepping closer to Joseph, with a lower head and curious looking eyes.

They were still a good amount away from each other but Cas was no longer hiding in the shadows of the trees. He did look around at the three shucks that had been killed with a fierce brutality and if it weren’t from Joseph’s words, Cas most definitely would have bolted or howled. He must definitely would not have attacked, as a sight hound, he wasn’t created for that, lacking a stronger physique for something more lean and nimble.

“If you don’t want t-to hurt us,” Cas said slowly, his voice carrying only a meekness to it, and along with his stutter that he disliked so much, “then why d-did you k-kill them?” He once again looked at the limp forms and couldn’t understand how something so strong, especially three of them, were done in by one person. He also questioned if this fae before him was on a list and was trying to escape his sentence. But then why in the world would he be here of all places? Oh, all the questions Cas wanted to ask.

Joseph Meier