Completed Reckoning

[Lazule]

"Bayou Garramarisma," said the smuggler. A scoff and a laugh. As if he didn't believe her. "Now why, given all the hellholes Arethil has to offer, would a lady like you want to go there?"

"There hides a monster," Lazule said. Her brow narrowed. The look in her eye intense. "As it is said in the legend."

"Yes. My point exactly," said the smuggler. Throwing a hand up dismissively. Leaning back into his chair and looking back down at the parchments before him on the desk. The facade of being a legitimate Allirian harbormaster. The rough men who stood to either side of Lazule stepped forward. Closer to her. Their intent to escort her out of the office.

Undeterred, Lazule said to the smuggler, "The Bayou Bone Eater."

The smuggler flinched and looked about wildly as if some manner of ghost had slipped by before his eyes. He looked to Lazule then and snapped a finger to his lips and shushed loudly. "Not so fucking loud, woman! Godsdamn it, they say it's bad luck to even mention that name! I'll not have my men cursed on account of your recklessness. You wouldn't understand unless you yourself were a sailor, but I say to you that there is no such thing as superstition on the high seas. How can I put it?" The smuggler thought for a moment. "The seas are a place of respect. And respect must be rendered. To the natural and to the things beyond the natural. Lest you and all your crew are made to sail straight down to the ocean floor, joining the rest of the foolish seafarers who failed in paying their dues of proper respect."

"How much?"

"What?"

Lazule said again, "How much?"

"How much what?"

"How much is your price for providing fare for me to Bayou Garramarisma?"

The smuggler laughed and tossed his arms up and glanced to the two men next to Lazule and they too chuckled. But the smuggler facetiously named an exorbitant price. The confidence in his voice clear: that she would not raise such a sum.

* * * * *​

Alliria. The same harbor office. The same smuggler. The same two lackeys he had before. Some two weeks later.

Lazule pushed opened the door to his office. Two canvas sacks, one in each hand. She walked up to his desk even as the two rough men approached her apprehensively. The smuggler looked up from the manifest in his hands, his brow furrowed in bewilderment.

And Lazule tossed the bag in her right hand up onto his desk. The heavy clinking of coin inside. The bag sliding and sinking as the coin inside settled, its flaps open to reveal the crowns within.

Silence. Slack-jawed silence from the smuggler and from his two men.

"Woman," the smuggler said slowly, "I'm more than happy to take your money. I am. Trust me. But...and I can't believe I'm saying this...but I cannot in good conscience take you to--"

Lazule lifted the bag in her left hand and pulled something fleshy free from it and the stench became immediately potent as soon as the grim thing was freed from the confines of the canvas. She dropped the bag and tossed the green and reeking thing onto the desk next to the bag of coin.

The smuggler recoiled and brought his arm across his face to cover his nose. "Gods! What the hell is that?"

"The scalp of a troll. I've more, should you want to see."

The smuggler looked from the scalp to Lazule to the scalp and to Lazule again. He lowered his arm slightly. His voice hardly above a whisper. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Bayou Garramarisma," Lazule said. "I shall find the Bayou Bone Eater. And kill it. If the monster so exists, I shall bring you a piece of it. So you needn't pay homage to a false idol any longer."

* * * * *​

The smuggler, Dax, guided his ship close to the shore on the eastern side of the Great Bayou. Not too close. Hell no. Practically, he couldn't bring his large trade vessel close to the shallow shore, but spiritually, he wouldn't dare get so close to the Great Bayou. The days of refuge there were over. Yeah, sure, there were still plenty of fucking pirates and smugglers who lucked out. Hid there for many days and weeks and even months without incident. But that just made it even more godsdamned spooky, didn't it? Who knew if the...the thing would come for you? It was out there, of course it was. Hence the legend. But why even risk it? Why?

The woman was insane. He thought that of all Monster Slayers, sure, but this one especially. She was like a flower made of iron, or something much like that. Quiet and shy during the voyage, hardly making eye contact with any of the crew. Sitting by herself in the mess. Stuttering when she spoke. His first mate, Arthur, bumped into her once on accident and apologized and all that but he said the woman had the worst case of the shakes he'd seen. Trembling like some green soldier on the front line of his first battle or something.

But when she spoke of monsters. Like back in his office in Alliria or when he asked her during the voyage how she came about getting those troll scalps. She...well, she was different. Took on a whole new demeanor.

Dax almost felt bad for taking her money. The amount, anyhow. It was a short enough trip south to the Great Bayou, and he had even doubled up and decided to also make a 'trade' run to one of the port cities serving Belgrath off to the east after he was done dropping her off. He had toyed with the idea of refunding her a good portion of the coin so she would have paid a more reasonable rate.

He decided against it. Some small biting feeling that, somehow, this rare kindness welling up in him would not be received by her in the way he expected it to be from a more...normal person.

The deckhands had prepared the landing skiff to be lowered. And Dax watched as the woman boarded it, and a few of his bravest sailors boarded with her to row toward the Great Bayou shore. Insane. That woman. Surely. She'd even specifically asked to be dropped off near the last known sighting of the Night Runner. Infamous pirate ship. Storied history. Long line of notable captains helming her. Then, all within the last month, the Night Runner was found near to this very shore. Completely abandoned. No sign of the crew. Nothing at all. And then the Night Runner herself disappeared. The whole godsdamned ship. No sign of it either. Insane. That woman.

Dax watched the skiff being lowered out of sight. Watched as it reappeared smaller down in the waters over the edge of his vessel as it made way toward the distant shore.

And he had no idea how she was going to get back. She didn't ask for a pick-up from the Great Bayou, nor did Dax offer it.

Tempting fate once was one too many times to partake in such foolishness for him.

* * * * *​

Lazule walked.

By day she walked and by night she slept by the warmth and comfort of her campfire. The flora was thick in the swamp. The insects prolific. She held in her left hand as she walked a cantrip of Luminomancy, a condescended ball of coalesced daylight, brilliant and radiant like a tiny sun. It tempted the insects that otherwise would have bothered her to it. Burned them in little bursts and flashes once they touched the magic. A simple spell to maintain, though it left her sweating by the end of day.

A spell, perhaps, to make herself known to the monster or monsters that may yet lurk beyond the sagging branches of the trees and the hanging strands of moss and the like.

By the fifth day, she found a small settlement. Humans and some elves. All of the village spoke with a heavily accented Common. Some of the rare denizens of the Bayou. None knew of the Bayou Bone Eater, nor of the Night Runner. Being far enough inland, no one in the village had even seen a pirate or smuggler in ages, though they knew of the Bayou's reputation for them.

Lazule restocked on rations and water and thanked the villagers for their hospitality and moved on.

And Lazule walked.

The sound of many a strange animal about her during the day and the sounds of animals stranger still during the night. A plan. Failing to find any sign of an abnormal creature, she ought to perhaps seek out any pirates or smugglers using the Bayou as a hideaway. The inlets and channels of the Bayou were plenty, and likely to be housing some number of them.

This, if the legend was indeed true. If the misfortune of the Night Runner and other such vessels and their occupants weren't attributed to a thing of fiction instead of a thing of fact.

The dawn of the seventh day. A bright, sunny day. A good omen. The clouds and the rains of days past had gone, and she could bask in what light filtered down from the canopy above. Use it, should she be so lucky, to slay what monsters she may yet come to find. Whether they be of legend or not.

For they must all be destroyed.

And she was that which brought about the reckoning.

Her righteous task. So demanded of her.

And Lazule walked.


Rebecca Fourtuna

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

Rebecca had seen the ship. It reeked of smuggler. It mad her blood boil just thinking a crew would have the nerve to glance past her territory. Had they not learned? It was her land. Her paid for in her blood. But the woman that came to the shore...Rebbeca had watched her close. Followed her closely. She did not smell as the ship had. She smelled like blood and death. Her eyes had a steel in them that made Rebecca approach her task of dealing with her cautiously. A person that didnt smell like a pirate, act like a pirate, or look like a pirate wasnt a pirate...But she had been with pirates so Rebecca continued to watch from afar just to make certain.
It was on the seventh day watching her from up in the trees cloaked when she smelled it. Not from the woman, but from about 80 yards to the womans left. Pirate. Then she heard it. "Let me go please! Im begging you..." A young woman... Her eyes turned from pink to red as they seemed to fill with blood.
Her jaw unhinged with two sickening clicks to make room for the 3 inch Needle like teeth pushing up in front of her normal ones. Her tail grew a lone bone spine like a stinger dripping venom. Still cloaked she launched her self after the smell following it like a blood hound deeper into the bayou. It was a clearing in the cypress. Two mean had a young woman tied up. She looked pretty and was well dressed for someone of the bayou. The men were rough and bore a rusty cutlass each along with numerous tattoos.
"Now listen her girlie. Your dad gunna pay up or he aint never getting his daughter back understand?" He spat. "Our crew was wiped out and were all thats left Im sick of this hell hole. Im sick of that thing hunting us..."
He muttered glancing around before shrugging the sunlight making them feel bolder.
Like maybe the legend was just a legend.. I mean they got this far..
"We have no such money or a ship for that matter our village is mostly self sufficient, and what gold we do have is for what we cant grow on our own. We had our first customer in sometime nought but a week ago I cou-"
She began only to be cut off as the pirate on her left slapped her across the face and the other kicked her to her knees.
She teared up as they kicked her in the stomach knocking her to her back.
"Let me get this straight. Your telling us that your father. A merchant. Dont own a fucking ship." The one on the left said as he began pressing his boot down onto her throat.
She nodded vigorously trying to choke out a plea for mercy as he finally relented.

"Fine then. Guess we'll just get something out of you and then dump yah body to the alligators. get her back up on her knees Jackie."
He said as they shared a wicked grin and the girl paled still barely able to speak as they ripped the top of her dress from her and used it to bind her wrists to her ankles. she really was quite pretty. Rebecca arrived as the pirate Jackie was starting to gets his pants down.
"I aint been with a woman like you in sometime love. Just close your eyes. And if you bite me Im cutting you up piece by piece real slow like understand?"
He said with a dark chuckle. Standing in front of her as the other prate pushed her head forward towards him. She was still gasping for breath as her throat hadnt fully recovered and tears streamed down her face as she opened her mouth and closed her eyes.
Nothing entered it. She slowly opened her eyes as she felt the grip on the back of her head loosen. All she saw was blood covering the pirate in front of hers pants. He was staring down at it as well. Shock plainly etched into his face "Where did it...How..." He began as he turned pale for a moment in utter shock along with the girl and his partner in crime before a bone spine buried itself in the side of his neck ,and he collapsed onto the ground as his body began to stiffen and seemed to rot form the inside out as his skin melted away and gooey melting guts began slipping out of the wound like sour yogurt.


The partner Drew his sword.
His eyes darting as he turned in a slow circle.
"It's...it's real Isnt it! Oh sweet gods Above! Oh Gods! Take the girl! take the girl and leave me be!"
He screeched as suddenly a figure seemed to materialize behind him.
"But I dont want the girl. I want you."
It said in a voice that sounded more like a furious growl. She ducked the first wild swing of his cutlass and kicked him in the knee snapping it like a twig. He bellowed thrust at her. She side stepped and caught his wrist before pulling his arm off at the shoulder. He screamed falling on his back clutching his bloody stump trying to push away from her as Rebecca sank to all fours and ate a whole half of his arm. She licked her blood stained lips.

"No..No wait!"
He screeched as she pounced on him cutting off the rest of his pleas. Tearing him limb from limb she ate like a jungle cat tearing into him like he was a feast. While the girl rasped in horror eyes wide struggling to free herself from the bonds and flee. She squeaked as Rebecca noticed her and froze.
The Bone Eaters blood red eyes took her in as it raised its clawed right hand and once again the woman winced and braced for the unpleasantness only to...Feel the whoosh of the claws passing her and feeling her bonds fall away. Her hands instantly sprung to cover herself as she slowly rose.
The Bone Eater paid her no such mind occupied with finishing eating the two captives. Every fiber of the girls being told her to run, but the polite nature hardwired into her by her father and mother forbade her to.
"Maak nem Linghan Hanmah.."

She said slipping into a deep bow. She spoke the villages native tongue it was spoken only by those who lived on the island. If Anyone watching understood that tongue they would know it meant.
"Thank you. Eater of Bones."
Rebecca slowly nodded and replied in a voice a far cry from what she had spoken to the pirates. It was soft and calming.
"M-mencha mek v-vena lek nah." Meaning. "You are blessed child leave this place."
The girl nodded slowly with a small smile as she slowly turned and walked away. Rebecca sat back and began pulling the rib cage from the first pirate she had killed while eating a leg from the second.
The stench of death mixed with the air if someone was approaching chances are she wouldnt smell them at this point.

 

[Lazule]

Lazule didn't see them. Not at first. She walked along a well-trodden path on dry ground, shallow waters of the swamp to her right and down a slope. The orb of condescended light in her left hand flashing frequently as insects were irresistibly drawn to it and incinerated.

The path was the first of anything she had encountered that wasn't simply nature at its prime, save for the village. Animals and villagers alike probably trampled out this path. Some fresh boar tracks in the dirt, but nothing that drew the eye on account of being abnormal. Still, she resolved to follow it. See where it led. If this path had sizable enough traffic on it, it could be that she might find the remains of a kill. Some hint even to the existence of the monster.

Lazule glanced around. Observing her surroundings. First to the right and across the still waters of the swamp. Then to her left.

And she cocked her head. Flicked her left hand and banished the condescended orb of light and squinted. Through the screen of low-hanging branches and leaves she saw something. Tiny colors, unnatural to the palette of the swamp. Focusing, she noticed three people, made small and obscure by distance, but the colors of their clothing apparent. They were off in the clearing beyond the trees and branches. Their movements small and difficult to discern.

An opportunity. Especially so if they happened to be pirates.

Lazule departed from the path and pushed past the branches and stopped just on the edge of the clearing. Closer now, she could see that one of the three people was down on their knees. An apprehension. Something seemed amiss. She did not know the business of those people, whoever they were. But something felt wrong in the manner in which the one on their knees was being handled.

Lazule started then across the clearing, walking and making her way toward the three. She would need to intervene regardless to inquire about the Bayou Bone Eater. They seemed to be pirates, the two that stood. Abhorrent men. Human, some of them, even if they barely qualified. And Lazule would be remiss to turn a blind eye even to a monster that preyed solely on the most repugnant of men. For what would satiate the beast's hunger once all those men were no more? Let the navies of Arethil sort out the pirates; it was Lazule's duty to slay this monster of legend before it acquired a taste for the innocent.

One of the people collapsed. Straight back like a felled tree. One of the others drew a weapon. Shouted something made somewhat obscure by the remaining distance. Take the...take the girl...?

Then something seemed to appear from thin air next to the two that yet lived. Smaller than both, but of a much different profile. A tail and some spines, Lazule could make out. And the thing attacked the standing person.

There. The monster.

Lazule opened her right hand and a long Javelin forged from yellow light manifested in her grasp. And she ran. Sprinted across the clearing. Watching as the people and the thing grew larger as she approached and as one, a man, was pounced upon and viciously torn apart. And the thing seemed to turn its attention to the other, the mentioned girl, on her knees.

Lazule tried to sprint even faster. But she was going as fast as her legs could carry her. And she wasn't going to make it in time. Too dangerous to use her Javelin, too far to be accurate enough to use her Needles; both would imperil the girl.

But.

The worst didn't happen.

Lazule slowed. From a full sprint down to a cautious walk. Watched as the girl's apparent bindings were cut and as the girl rose and...bowed. They spoke. The human girl and the other--from what Lazule could see now--girl. The girl with the feline ears and tail, and the curious spikes, but who otherwise resembled a human.

The human girl walked away. Simply allowed the leave. Lazule did not know how she had come into the loathsome company of the two dead men, why they had her bound or what terrible fate they had in store for her, but she had been spared it by the efforts of the feline girl.

Some degree of lingering confusion as Lazule stopped and watched the feline girl. The sight of her eating the bodies of the slain men didn't bother her. Though it was abnormal behavior for one that, on the surface, looked very similar to a human. But monsters did not know or grant mercy as she had.

Thus the uncertainty. And so Lazule kept the Javelin of Light forged in her hand. Not held up and ready to throw, but forged nonetheless.

"H-Hello?" Lazule called out. Making herself known. Small and careful steps forward, though still an appreciable distance between them. "What is your n-name?"

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

Her tail frizzed in surprise and she instantly cloaked at the sound of the woman's voice.
The one she had been following was coming to avenge her dead friends!
With a bright weapon!
With inhuman speed she sprinted behind her before turning and pouncing on her tackling her to the ground hard. She then uncloaked as she had her pinned to the ground. He tail hovered over Lazule's head.
Then she smelled her. Really smelled her up close. Her nose tickled the nape of Lazule's neck as a mouth full of three inch fangs hovered over her face.

"Are you hear to save your friends? They are dead." She said growling dangerously.
It was a deep rumble in her chest like that of a jungle cat. She moved to sink her fangs into her throat but stopped...She couldnt...Everything told her she was a pirate but her heart told her no.
She stopped and almost nose to nose stared into the girls eyes.
There was steel there.
Good.
Rebecca understood that, but under that..She had the same hurt in her eyes Rebecca also knew well. She saw it every time she looked at her reflection.
Her eyes changed from red to a bright, glowing, pink.
Her jaw clicked back into place as her teeth sank away and her spine on the end of her tail disappeared. "I-Im s-sorry I th-th-thought you w-were one of them..You came on a boat that reeked of them but I can see you are not. You have no cruelty in your heart for those who have not earned it...Kill enough pi-pi-pirates and youll know what I mean." She said pointing to the two corpses and letting the woman up. Her tail curled down between her legs and her ears folded back in embarrassment.
"My n-name is Rebecca w-what brings you t-to my ter-rritory? Few come h-here on their o-own volition." She looked her up and down her head cocked to the side in a curious fashion indicating a true curiosity with this woman.
But she wouldnt meet her gaze instead looking down into the dirt.

 

[Lazule]

The feline girl disappeared. As if she were an apparition. There and gone. Some manner of illusion. Or worse. A manipulation of light, some method of distorting or reflecting it.

Lazule's eye darted about. Looking intently. The ends of the Javelin retracting until it disappeared entirely from her hand. The feline girl had to be somewhere. White light gathered into orbs in her hands as she prepared a Flashbang spell. A defensive measure. One not lethal.

But wasn't the feline girl capable of reason? She had spoken to the human girl. Let her live. Arethil was home to many varieties of monsters, but many kinds of people as well. The distinctions at times thin. For evil in all its forms clawed ceaselessly at the hearts of the good and the innocent, seeking to corrupt, to drag those with the sanctity of personhood down to the base pit of being wherein monsters dwelled. But the will to allow oneself to be corrupted was necessary; evil had to be invited in.

The question. Had the feline girl invited evil? Had she forsaken her personhood? A last vestige of acts humane in sparing the human girl?

A noise. Footsteps.

Front and side and behind. All in a near instant.

Lazule turned but it was too late. The feline girl had her. She fell and the feline girl had her pinned. The white Flashbang orbs dissipated. Yellow orbs taking their place in her hands as the feline girl smelled her. Needles prepped, the light magic humming. Her hands aimed to the sides of the feline girl's head.

The feline girl spoke. Growled. Her friends?

Fangs near Lazule's throat. The hum turned to a high-pitched whine as dozens of spiked protrusions surfaced on the orbs; only the will to fire the barrage of Needles was necessary. Lazule's eye narrowed with a firm resolution.

But the feline girl didn't bite. And Lazule didn't fire the Needles.

A silent standoff.

Then the feline girl's eyes changed color. Her jaw reattached in the manner of certain Komodi. And she spoke. Apologized.

The orbs of light disappeared from Lazule's hands and she let her arms fall to the ground. Taking a moment to simply breathe as the feline girl talked. A misunderstanding. An unmitigated tragedy, had either of them lost composure and allowed violence to erupt.

Lazule's hands, steady and precise while the feline girl--Rebecca--had her pinned, now quivered. Even as Rebecca got off of her and distanced herself.

Lazule stood. Brushing at her robe. And she said, "No. I am not a p-pirate or a smuggler. But I d-did have to pay them for fare to the Bayou. M-My name is Lazule."

A slight narrowing of her eye.

"I seek a monster that dwells here. A thing of legend. The Bayou Bone Eater. I mean to find it and slay it. Do you know these environs well?"

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

She nodded. "Y-yes I know this place. I have l-lived here since I was v-very young. Slave sh-ship wreck. I was the s-sole sur-survivor." She said.
Her own eyes narrowing as she heard the other stutter. Was she making fun of her? Her cheeks burned from embarrasment as her stutter worsened under the combination of perceived insult and the woman's narrowed gaze.

"A-and as f-for the monster... Smugglers and pirates call it by that name. The village c-calls it the Hanmah. The eater of bones. Guardian of the bayou and its shores. Sn-snatching away those that do evil be they of the bayou or not. A-a Judge if you w-will. I believe I am the source of such tales. So i-if you are lo-oo-oking for the cr-creature of legend they do not exist..If y-you are looking for wh-where it comes from I b-believe you have found m-me.. The legends are a f-far cry from w-who I am. I am no spirit nor monster...Im n-not sure w-what I am..." Her ears remained a back in a sad gesture and her shoulders slumped. Her gaze glassed over slightly. She looked lost and lonely.

Going from a viscous predator to the demeanor of an abandoned kitten in an alley. She seemed to shake this off as she turned slowly and sank back into a pouncing stance.

"But the village needs me. The people of this village need me. And if you seek to slay me I cannot allow that to happen. Our shores would be over run with in days...And it would be like the old times. "

A single tear went down her face and her eyes glazed over as if remembering a time long ago. They then began to turn red again. Her jaw slowly unhinging and her teeth pushing back into place. Her tail coming up as a spine began to grow yet again. "And I will not allow that. I CAN'T ALLOW THAT!" She was working herself into a frenzy fueled by past hurt and age old hatred. Either they would fight or Lazule would need to calm her. She began to growl deep in her chest. Her fangs bared dripping venom that smoked and sizzled the ground when it fell from her mouth in thick ropes like drool.

 

[Lazule]

Hanmah.

That could be the reason why the village did not know anything of the Bayou Bone Eater name. Uncertainty. Rebecca believed the name to be attributed to her. Still, doubt, spurred on by a mismatch of expectation. Many legends had the capacity to be warped into tales much grander than the truth from which they were inspired; words of caution in the Monster Slayer Academy. Such words of caution lent credence to Rebecca's account. The girl, a hybrid being the likes of which Lazule had not even read about before, had many a lethal gift bestowed upon her through virtue of her blood. It seemed...possible.

And yet, confusion had taken hold of Lazule's expression.

She had not the luxury of those who exclusively hunted vampires or trolls or some manner of foe that was so rigidly defined. A monster could be many things. Things obvious, things requiring acute perception and insight to uncover. The term monster being both clear and unclear at the same time. Discernment was necessary on occasions such as this. A variety of factors needed to be weighed.

Exhibitions of kindness, altruism, sacrifice, sorrow from Rebecca. Things humane. Things alien to a true monster.

Things the Bayou Bone Eater in the tales told from pirate to pirate and smuggler to smuggler would not exhibit.

Yet there. The girl in a deadly feline stance. Her jaw unhinging in a way manifestly horrific to witness on a face so human. Teeth rivaling those of the predators of the seas. The spines of bone, so common a trait among many a bloodthirsty beast.

The Bayou Bone Eater.

Clear. And unclear. At the same time.

Lazule prepared two orbs of white light in her palms. A flashbang spell once again. If all else failed, it would become necessary to defend herself. The girl was quick. Astonishingly so. She would need to be disoriented or deceived through Refraction if Lazule was to stand a chance at so close a distance.

Her gaze softened. A reluctance in her eye. Small steps backward.

"What h-happened to you?"

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

"I-I cant remember..." She said the soft stuttering voice slipping under the demonic growl.
"Just the pain..." The memory seemed to stir her up even more as her eyes lit with a blood red fire under them.
And she vanished.
A spine fired at her from no where as she went to flank left moving with incredible speed as another was already growing.
"They killed me, THEY BURIED ME!" She said as the voice seemed all around her. She was lining up for another pouncing tackle.

 

[Lazule]

The girl was troubled. Tortured.

And Lazule knew not what to do. A terrible, crushing feeling, harboring a desire to help another soul but not knowing how to go about it. For her trade was violence. Necessary, controlled violence. The means by which she could cease the wanton violence of monsters and those who had devolved into monsters. The most potent tools readily at her disposal of a certain lethality. And those cantrips and minor spells of utility providing none here, for they served only as supplement to the weaponized light at her command.

Rebecca's eyes turned red. As they had been earlier. Her vague misfortune, whatever curse had befallen her, taking over once more. Similiar to lycanthropy. And the only cure for lycanthropy was death.

What if it was so for the girl? Her ailment incurable and uncontrollable?

Lazule swallowed nervously.

And a spine hit her breastplate. The force of impact transferred into her chest and stealing some portion of the air from her lungs.

Lazule had no choice. She had to defend herself. Escalate her use of violence. It was all she could do.

With a flick of her hands she tossed the white orbs off to her left, where the girl had dashed. A blinding flash of light, bathing the whole of the clearing in its short lifespan. And the other orb burst at the same time, the light contained within rapidly heating the air around it, a snap increase in temperature in the tiny space the orb once occupied. And the superheated air expanded and pushed out in all directions. The shockwave producing piercing sound. The bang to accompany the prior flash.

A slight ringing in Lazule's own ears. She could protect herself from the flash, but not the bang. A consequence of using the spell so close.

Another precaution. Refraction. A quick weaving of her hands, and the light around Lazule bent excessively, as if she were encased a shell of rippling water. Her movements backward seemed highly erratic, her body appearing to shift and contort constantly, stretching and shrinking and bending and warping.

"Rebecca, l-listen to me," Lazule called out over the droning in her ears.

Hesitation. Her mind blank. At a pure and simple loss for what to say.

Still she backpedaled. The spell of Refraction making her true position unclear.

And nothing. Nothing to say.

She didn't want this to happen. But she didn't know how to stop it.

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

She launched herself into the air at Lazule with ferocity feeling her tackle connect with enough force to break ribs as the world turned white.
She let go and tumbled to the ground blinking her light sensitive eyes and clutching her sound sensitive ears like she couldnt decide which hurt more screaming in agony.
"I w-wont let y-y-you b-bury me...I-I wont d-die again.." She cried.

"I-It was so c-cold..so cold...Please..."
She whimpered as her jaw returned to normal along with her tail as it curled around her protectively. She weeped like a young girl.
She simply curled up with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Her eyes back to pink and were blood shot with a few burst blood vessels along with them filling the white with actual blood, and her ears were bleeding as well with the white fluff inside them stained red and a small trickle running down each side of her neck.
"Please...p-please..." She sobbed.
"I'll o-owe you my l-l-life...I'll s-stay by y-your side un-until the e-end.."

 

[Lazule]

Her Refraction wasn't enough; Rebecca's senses far too keen or Lazule's luck simply lacking. Again she was tackled and again she fell, her breastplate absorbing much of the ferocious impact but not all of it. Lazule's chest seized with tightness and her body stiffened and her eye opened wide and her mouth moved but no words came out and no air flowed in.

A small fortune that her Flashbang spell appeared to be quite effective. The girl rolled off of her, hands to her ears and eyes blinking madly. Her scream at once bloodcurdling and heartbreaking.

Slowly the tightness in Lazule's chest receded. Her lungs allowed precious sips of air. Yellow orbs of light forming in her hands as she turned over onto her side on the ground. Aiming her hands. A bead of sweat rolling down her forehead.

And she saw the girl. The state of her.

And the look of fervent concentration faded quickly. The orbs of light fading as she dismissed the gathering spell. Lazule carefully pushed herself up and sat on the ground. A measure of empathy apparent in her eye, at odds with the bewilderment also taking residence.

Slay the monsters. Give no mercy. For they know none.

Hunt. Kill. Pray.

They must all be destroyed.

A simple mantra. The guiding light of her life. It had never once led her astray. But she was lost and unsure when the mantra did not apply.

As it was now. There were many things Lazule did not know of this girl Rebecca. Myriad uncertainties concerning both her and the mythical Bayou Bone Eater. Whether she spoke the truth. Whether the legend existed before her and she had simply claimed the title. Whether there was an actual monster by that name, roaming the Bayou even now or having once existed and having since perished.

A clear thought. Emerging. Bringing quiet words along with it.

"I hunt monsters," Lazule said. "You are n-not the thing I seek. You are not a monster."

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

Her vision slowly returned as the piercing ringing in her ears dyed to a dull throbbing in her head. She tried to cloak but the throb in her head would cause her concentration to waver leaving her to seemingly fade and flicker in and out of existance.
She saw Lazule's mouth move but heard nothing.
Thinking she was being told her last rights she simply crawled to the girl dragging herself across the ground slowly as she sat up and laid her head in her lap closing her eyes and waiting for death. Blood smeared the woman's cloak as it pooled and mixed with Rebecca's tears flowing down her cheeks. It still flowed freely from her ears as they slowly regenerated and her eyes slowly healed further. Her tail remained curled around her protectively.
"P-please make i-it quick..." She whispered softly. Her shoulders shook with another sob. She had failed. Defeated, blind and deafened she felt even more lost than before.

The village would suffer but worse still she had failed in her final promise to Phillip. With her eyes closed she felt the woman's breathing normalize as she drew in breath.
This was it.. But it didn't come? She looked up into her would be executioners eyes. Empathy. Through the white light blasted fog of her vision she saw empathy there. Her eyes grew big with appreciation like a puppy, and her lip quivered as it seemed her death was not today. Slowly she wrapped her arms around Lazule's waist keeping her head in her lap.
Her tail rose and wrapped around Lazule's wrist gently. Its velvety fur snaking and coiling up her right arm.
"T-Thank you h-hunter.." She said with a sniffle as her arms remained around Lazule's wait but her grip loosend as her eyes closed and she passed out so her body could heal her injuries quickly. Already her eyes were becoming less blood shot and the blood flowing from her ears had ceased.
She would waken in 15 minutes fully healed. Then with out warning she began to purr. A deeply pleased purr as she had decided that whether Lazule wanted it or not..Her life was hers...No one had ever looked at her with empathy...fear? Loathing? A fearful sense of respect? Sure. But never empathy.

 

[Lazule]

Of course she couldn't hear her words. Lazule herself had hardly heard them over the ringing of her own ears. So her intent was misunderstood by the girl. Her eyes and ears had to be particularly sensitive, for the mere fact that the Flashbang spell had caused damage at all. An intense and painful spell, yes, but one not designed to inflict injury.

And Rebecca crawled to her and laid her head in her lap.

Lazule stiffened. A sharp intake of air through her nose. Uncomfortable. With the closeness. The contact. As it was for any and all who were not monsters. And this was different from the tackles. The pinning. Violence inherent in them. No mantra or ritual to guide her in this. A thing wholly unfamiliar to her and her normal way of being in the world. For she was a slayer. Her gifts born of violence righteous and necessary. Things given to those innocent were all things taken from those wicked.

And Rebecca whispered. Pleaded for her to make it quick. Lazule's trade. Another taking.

But she was not a monster. Not of Lazule's judgment. The misunderstanding. Rebecca had not and could not yet hear her say so.

All Lazule could do was look down at her. The girl with her head in her lap. She who had so ferociously slain the two men but also she who had shown mercy to the human girl. She who now asked for death, so great was her torment.

Sorrow. Shared between them.

A moment. Just Lazule and Rebecca, sitting and laying in the clearing. One awaiting death, one refusing to grant it. And as the moment passed the girl's demeanor changed. Eyes widening. Lip quivering. Her arms thrown about Lazule's waist and her tail wrapped about her arm. Mild shaking from Lazule. A manifestation of nervousness.

And Rebecca thanked her, losing consciousness shortly thereafter.

Again, Lazule was at a lack for what to do. She looked about the clearing, still keen on finding and slaying the Bayou Bone Eater. But. She couldn't leave. She needed the girl's help. The things she had said. They couldn't be true. Or could they? The legend had perhaps warped into something torn between fact and fiction. And the girl had the insight required to discern the truth.

So Lazule sat. Sat with the girl's head in her lap and her arms loosely about her waist. Lazule's own arms limp at her sides.

Rebecca was tormented. Some terrible fate had befallen her. Some woeful circumstance which had brought her into the long and ancient fold of violence, of battle, of war. She had been made a practitioner, and as the bodies of the slain men attested, she housed a frightful adeptness for it. And to trade in death was to taste it for oneself. To know it deeply. The tolling of the bell louder and louder with each life taken, monster or no.

Yes. Rebecca was tormented. And Lazule knew of no cure.

Some ten minutes after Rebecca had lost consciousness, Lazule's shaking abated. Still the girl lay there. Tentatively, Lazule raised her left hand. Hovered it over the girl's head. She hesitated. Unsure. A slow lowering. And she laid her hand upon Rebecca's head, between her feline ears. The softness of her hair a stark contrast to the bone spines on her back, the prior sight of her unhinged jaw and enlarged teeth.

Minutes later, Rebecca stirred. As if Lazule's hand had some effect. And she...purred. Lazule's hands shook, anxiety returning as the girl came to. But she left her hand on the girl's head.

"A-Are you alright? Rebecca? Can you h-hear me?"

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

Her eyes snapped open as she tensed and flinched.
Her eyes looking around wildly. Mind racing.
Then they met Lazule's gaze and she relaxed pressing against her hand as the purr seemed to grow louder as her arms tightened around her waist once again. Her life debt holder was close. Life was good.
"Y-Yes...I-I'm fine.."
Her ears twotched as she seemed to be testing them out. "And y-yes I can hear again."
She rose slowly and licked Lazule's cheek with a warm smile before settling back down and nudging her as if requesting some stroking. Her ears felt fine and her eyes were as keen as ever.
The tail remained curled around her arm as well like she was scared letting go would would mean losing her.

She pressed her nose into her lap and inhaled deeply.
Lazule's scent being locked into Rebecca's brain in a way where it would never be forgotten ever. Finally noticing the shaking all of this had undoubtedly evoked in her new master.
She jumped back looking saddened by the fact she had caused her discomfort.
"I-I'm sorry." She said bowing her head slowly. Of course she didnt want to touch her. She had just watched her dismember two men. Even if they were bad men..She then began to circle her closely with her tail curling around her before realizing seeming to be on alert. Like a guard dog. Before she laid down beside her close enough to be pet if Lezula got up the nerve or the want to. Her tail wrapping around her back protectively. "Y-you h-have qu-questions...What w-would y-you like to kn-know?.. How c-can I he-help?" She asked softly. Her eyes however were constantly watching the tree line of the clearing. Always on alert. Her brain was now only foucused on one thing.
Keep her master safe.

 

[Lazule]

An odd mixture. She had qualities feline and qualities human. Very much in the way of the Komodi or Kitsune or Birdfolk. All people with their own ways of being. All people who, like humans, had their own pariahs. Their own monsters who had forsaken the sanctity of their personhood. And there were perhaps communes of cat-people somewhere upon the face of Arethil, though Lazule was ignorant of them, for she had not met one of their number save perhaps now nor had she in all her reading learned of them.

But the strangeness wasn't in the girl's feline nature or her human nature. The mysterious third. The introduction of qualities reptilian mingling amongst the other two. Her jaw. Her spines. The curious look of her skin. All together it had produced an outcome unlikely to be replicated elsewhere on Arethil.

An honest thought. Had she been assembled?

The thought immediately in shambles as Rebecca...licked her. Lazule simply froze. As if the slayer in her had transformed in that moment into the prey of a predator whose vision acutely tracked movement. A slow exhale through her nose as the ice entrapping her body melted. The return of the shakes.

And Rebecca smelled her. A solitary blink in response. There had been many a person who thought Lazule strange, the smuggler Dax and the majority of his crew among them. People who found her way of being incomprehensible. People who didn't understand her mantras and why she said them, her rituals and why she performed them. These feelings were not born of any form of malice but rather a lack of insight.

And now Lazule shared that lack. Insight was required to understand Rebecca and her way of being.

The girl pivoted once again. From an intense and joyous closeness to a distant and apologetic recoiling. An observance of their surroundings, of such attentive vigilance that it prompted Lazule to glance about too. Her eye tracking the swaying movements of the hanging branches of the trees at the edges of the clearing. But there was nothing.

Questions. Yes, she had questions.

"I wish you no harm," Lazule said. "I s-seek only the truth. The Bayou Bone Eater. Is there such a creature? I know n-not if there is truth to the legend. F-Forgive me, but I..."

Don't believe it is you.

Words unspoken. Only a trailing quiet where they should have been.

Her hands she held in her lap. Squeezing her left with her right. Still, a tiny quivering.

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

Rebecca sighed.
Resting her head on her new master right leg from where she laid at he side.
Her tail wrapped around Lazule's back and up over her left shoulder diagonally and began to twitch tickling under Lazule's left ear absent mindedly. Like someone twiddling their thumbs.
"I-It was a legend before me. A f-f-faceless boogeyman. G-good for a story and a w-warning for young ch-children to never grow up to be pirates.. I think I simply made it more concrete. Gave it a face if you will. When I was...h-h-human..I was kn-known as the bone c-collector..." She said slowly.
"When I re-returned I more fit the look of a m-monster than a hero. S-so I feel the towns pe-people adopted me in-nto their tales...So yes in a way I am not Hanmah....But I f-f-fill the r-role..." She said softly.

Thoughts were swirling in her mind as she thought back to her human days. She didnt often. It pained her.
"When I re-returned I simply went back to doing the only thing I know to do. Pr-protect these shores. I had o-often hoped to fi-find a friend to help guide and show the ways of the bayou as Philip had for me..but after my transformation...Those hopes died. No one will walk within t-ten paces of me n-now. Th-They fear me.." She paused as if catching something's scent for a moment.
Her eyes tracking a bird as it flew over head before relaxing again.
"And I d-do not blame them..So I a-apologize, but if you came looking to k-kill The Bayou Bone Eater...Your journey w-was in vein master..." She said softy.

Feeling after she had given answers so freely she was entitled to one.
Noticing a tremor in her debt holder she asked quietly.
"Does my presence displease you? I could take to the trees. Many find me..."
She looked at the ground silently taking a break from her vigilant watch as she seemed painful to come up with a proper word.
"Off putting...un-unp-p-pleasant..." She said finally.
Removing her head from her leg and hanging it in shame as she waited for her questions to be answered and more to be asked of her.

 

[Lazule]

Lazule sat still. Still as could be, given the shakes. Hands held in her lap, the girl's head near them. Her neck became rigid and her back straightened just so as she felt the girl's tail under her left ear; earring dangling as the tail on occasion bumped into it. A minor relaxing as Rebecca spoke, but one far from complete.

There was truth in her words. Sense. There was not one tale of the Bayou Bone Eater attacking any person who was not a pirate. Not one. Only the ilk of baleful places like Cerak At'Thul. Those who had long since discarded the sanctity of personhood, and those who were well on the path to such. And there were no hard descriptions of the legendary beast, or conflicting descriptions told with such flair and exuberance so as to inspire doubt--either spoken or unspoken--on the part of all who listened.

If the Bayou Bone Eater was the unholy terror conveyed by the hushed stories sailing men of ill repute told one another at port, then the denizens of the village Lazule had passed through surely would have known of it. If not by the specific name, then by atrocities committed. Lazule had asked them very plainly of monsters, and she had been met with only various shades of puzzlement. A monster? No. Nothing more threatening than the occasional alligator, such animals cold as was their nature but far from sinister.

Perhaps this was the truth. Rebecca, for reasons all her own, taking on the mantle of legend, lending herself to the tangibility of the tale, elevating it beyond a simple idea which had previously manifested no more substantially than in the minds of rough and cruel men.

Odd details. In her story. In what she said.

When I was human. When I returned home. The look of a monster.

The use of the word 'master'.

All things requiring insight.

The girl asked her name.

"Lazule," she said. "My n-name is Lazule."

And Rebecca spoke again. The hurt evident in her look and in her voice, stemming from the shakes in Lazule's hands, in her body. A mild distress in her eye as she regarded the girl hanging her head. She did not mean to cause offense, and yet she had caused it.

"I-I'm sorry. It is something which occurs in-v-voluntarily. Around others. I...I cannot help it."

A glancing about as Lazule thought more on what to say and do. On how to make her intent clear.

"Your p-presence does not displease me. You are n-neither off-putting nor un-p-pleasant."

A thought. On what seemed to work positively before.

So Lazule reached her hand up and slowly over and placed it upon Rebecca's head. An attempt at a smile, though her general nervousness fought against it for a time and won out.

Still, she said with great care, "You are not a monster, Rebecca. Not to me."

She had more questions. But they would have to wait. She needed to make her intent clear, through what meager means she had to express herself.

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

The grip of her tail tightened as she pressed her face into her leg.
Some tears began to well up as she looked at Lazule with an admiration and gratefulness that seemed pure as well as quite intense.

"Thank you..Master L-Lazule.."

She flinched in surprise when she suddenly felt her hand on her head between her ears.

"And I-I understand..I-I used to shake when I was h-human..."

She purred, the saddened expression being replaced with one of contented happiness people fully human rarely achieved.
While human it seemed her simple upbringing, paired with her new simple animal tendencies meant it didnt seem much was needed or expected to please her. No large shows of affection, or fancy honeyed words of love. Simple touch, simple orders, and safety seemed to be all she desired.

"W-What more w-would you li-like to kn-know..."

She asked between purrs as her tail rubbed her cheek as it slid down her back and wrapped around her wrist guiding her hand to a part of her back under her shoulders in between her two back spines in a way that seemed to say "Scratch please." before releasing her wrist and wrapping around her waist pulling her as close as possible.
She wouldnt let go.
She had not felt this happy in a long time. She couldnt have pick a better holder of her life debt.

 

[Lazule]

A calming. Touch, something Lazule often shied away from. Conveyed in it and through it a message which words seemed insufficient to properly deliver. A language foreign. That which Lazule had only the faintest understanding of. And yet her attempt had been through fluke or rare fortune received as intended.

Used to shake when she was human. Intriguing, with some thought. A quality thought negative, made positive in its exclusivity. A signifier of personhood, this manner of shaking. A heartening. But some sorrow. In the recognition. That Rebecca had so lost this tiny, precious thing.

Invasive, perhaps, to pry too deeply. To ask for insight on the things the girl had said concerning her humanity, the loss thereof. The burying. The dying again. The returning. Details which lingered.

Details potentially harmful from mere elaboration on them.

Lazule understood. A connection, there. In things unspoken.

And Rebecca with her tail moved Lazule's hand from her head down to her back, careful to avoid the spines. No resistance on Lazule's part. But a stillness save the anxious quivering in her hand. She left it in place there. Not knowing why Rebecca preferred her hand there instead of her head but accepting her preference all the same.

"W-Why do you call me Master?"

A question she deemed light. Non-intrusive.

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

"Y-you spared me.You bare my life de-debt."
She said simply.
"Sc-scratch. please I can't reach that part of m-my back..I-it itches." She said quietly. She kept her head down.
"A li-life debt is to be fo-followed until de-death."
She was hoping that it would be accepted.
She really did.
And with that she remained silent waiting for her acceptance and more questions.
Her stomach tightened as she waited apprehensively. Rejection was not something she did well dealing with.

 

[Lazule]

A sparing. And in such a sparing the generation of something owed, an imbalancing of the scale. Lazule didn't see it that way. But it did not matter how she saw it, for it was not her way of being. There were many people, like Dax, who did not understand Lazule's own ways. The same applied. It was not their way of being, so their opinion mattered little, for it would change nothing.

A core value of Rebecca's expressed through this adamant payment of debt. Such did not conflict with or distract from Lazule's way of being, and so it was compatible. Acceptable.

"A life d-debt," Lazule said. "Alright. It...it is accepted."

Scratch. She couldn't reach that part her own back.

"O-Oh."

That was why. A preference made clear. She curled her fingers. Uncurled them. Curled. Uncurled. Nails gliding against Rebecca's clothing, gently pressing. Minor movements of her hand, scratching a slightly wider area, as she gradually became more comfortable with it.

A tiny cocking of her head. Her earrings and the long bangs which covered her right eye swaying in that moment.

"Have there b-been other hunters? Those who also sought the Bayou Bone Eater?"

A facet of legends, those fact and those fiction and those maintaining some gray status inbetween. The everpresent potential to attract people to them for any number of reasons: truth, adventure, riches. Even the failings of intermittent seekers to uncover anything of substance served to further propagate the tale and add yet more enigma. Yet another warning in the Monster Slayer Academy: that legends never truly died until there was no one willing to retell them. For a legend was not a thing tangible, but an idea. A story. A grand tale.

And Lazule had come to the Great Bayou all the same.

A certain persistence and visceral fear in the tellings of the Bayou Bone Eater. A certain credence. And thus Lazule had set out not necessarily to kill the legend and the tellings thereof, but the thing tangible. If it so existed.

And it did. But it was not a monster. Her name was Rebecca. And by all appearances she seemed to be the source of the recent fervent retellings of the legend, sparing being the inception of the entirety of the legend.

Likely then that others had come.

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

Her right leg jerked slightly as the itch was sated.
The purr deepened.
She seemed more relaxed now that the weight of acceptance was lifted.
The baited breath relaxed to normal breathing and her heart rate slowed. She reflected

"Y-yes o-others have c-come." She said simply.

"When I-it is of th-their own f-free will th-they leave, and do not re-return after our meetings...Not killed.."

She said quickly. "O-other hunters come for pirates. th-they did not want to talk..They wanted my he-head for money. And I could not let them have that."
She said quietly.
"S-so now they hang here...Along with those who hired them and all who have come here wishing harm.." She said looking in the trees. At first glance the tree line had seemed empty but on closer inspection it became apparent that hundreds of bodies in various states of decay hung at various heights in the trees. Some were only skeletons now.

Others had birds still picking at their flesh.

They seemed to continue even after the clearing's treeline even deeper in the bayou. How many had come...How much blood was on Rebecca's hands innocent or not?
To me honest even Rebecca herself had long since forgotten the number.

She used to keep tick marks on a wall in her cabin..
The wall had long since been filled some time ago...Suddenly she felt a drop fall on her. She looked up at the quickly clouding sky. The previous beauty and warmth from the sun was suddenly eclipsed as a storm began to brew and roll in.

"C-come master. I h-have a place to stay. These storms str-strike qu-quickly."

She said standing and reaching out to help her up.
"F-follow me...Many a-areas flood and I do not think y-you would l-last long in the rising water..I will an-answer more of your qu-questions when we a-a-are safe and dr-dry."
She said pulling her along. It was not forceful.
But urgent.
Suddenly the bottom fell out and the down pour was incredible and intense. It seemed to block everything but 2 feet in front of their face. Rebecca's eyes glowed pink as she seemed to never loose her footing. Finally she stopped for a moment as water began to rise and cover the clearing. It was already up to almost their knees as they made it to the clearings edge.

"M-master hold o-on ti-tightly."

She yelled over the raging water.
Her spines sunk into her back leaving it smooth as her tail wrapped around her waist.
She waited for Lazule to grab her shoulders as she launched her self into the air with incredible strength as she began to move through the trees from branch to branch.
Her glowing eyes cutting through the rain as she moved from branch to branch almost seeming to glide through the air.

She finally landed with a thunk on the deck of a cabin.
It had a small wrap around porch with a single lantern swaying in the raging wind. It was small and built in the branches of a massive cypress tree.

A small chimney stuck out just beyond the branches and she shouldered open the door gesturing her to come inside.

The inside of the cabin was simple. A queen size bed was placed in a corner next to a window. It had a small candle and a leather bound journal next to it along with blankets that seemed to be made from animal skins and sailcloth. Pillows made from sailcloth cut, sewn and stuffed with hay and bird feathers.

There was a trunk at the base of the bed and a large cupboard on the front wall and under it a wood table with two chairs.

There was a fire place on the right wall with a small wood rack next to it. She immediately began to set about starting a fire, and soon one was roaring in the fire place.

"S-sorry for g-grabbing you th-there was little ti-time.."

She said as she stripped off her wet clothes and shook like a dog drying themselves.

"I have a change of clothes until yours are dry."

She said not seeming to notice if her nakedness was uncomfortable for Lazule or not.
He body seemed completely covered in scales that seemed like a second layer of skin.
Her fur seemed to run down her her spine along her back while the rest was scaled skin.

 

[Lazule]

There were those innocent. There were those wicked.

But there were also those inbetween. Those who had through choice or necessity unsheathed their swords. For all the world was not at peace, nor would it ever be. The demand for warriors, soldiers, mercenaries, sailors, defenders, avengers, protectors, all of it. For in things finite came scarcity, and in scarcity disputes and desperation. Innocents on both sides, and those who fought on their behalf had forsworn their innocence upon grasping the handle of a sword and in the crossing of blades with another just like him or her on the opposite side of a battle, this foe so similar that they were separated merely by thin circumstance, for he or she too fought on behalf of innocents.

Yes. The innocent. The wicked.

And the practitioners.

And a reckoning for all those of this description.

That in so taking up violence for any cause, righteous or malevolent, thus made oneself further vulnerable to violence befalling upon one's person. A silent knowing, that to take up arms was also to invite arms taken up against you. For violence was at times indiscriminate, but it would in general force practitioners to face other practitioners. An attraction to itself. A coalescing. A drawing together.

Thus had it been for those hunters who had come here. Those who came explicitly for Rebecca and those who didn't, all having forced the right of defense from her. They knew, whether at the forefront of mind or in its dark recesses, that such a fate was possible.

"I see."

Lazule regarded the hanging bodies impassively. They sought violence, and violence found them. This was not a monster predating on the innocent. This was a domain that Lazule was aware of and suited for but consciously not a participant in.

War. And all its derivative names describing its various scopes and scales. When people fought other people. Lazule cared not for it. She wielded violence only against monsters and sparingly in defense. Hers was the domain of the Hunt. To seek the wicked wherever they may stalk and hide.

A drop of rain.

And suddenly, as it had been several times even during Lazule's short stay in the Great Bayou, clouds had rolled in and overtaken the sun and the sky. A flash rain, and a flash flood. The Bayou a land constantly in flux.

Lazule stood on Rebecca's prompting. Followed and allowed herself to be guided without resistance. Rebecca knew the territory and the environs well. Trust extended.

The downpour hit like an ocean's wave, immediately drenching the two of them. Visibility near vanished in the sudden intensity. Lazule sloshed her way through the rising water. Astounding, the speed at which land surrendered to water here. Perhaps unique in all of Arethil.

Hold on tightly. Lazule did. Grabbed hold Rebecca's shoulders and clutched firmly. Necessity had since banished the shakes, for they came in moments of calm, not in moments of peril.

Astonishing strength from the girl. Still surprising, even after seeing her dispatch the two men and having felt some portion of her strength for herself. She bounded with grace from the water-choked lands below into the towering and untamed trees of the Bayou.

And they landed on the deck of a cabin. In the trees. Yes, Rebecca had surely dwelled here for a long time to have constructed such a home. No small undertaking, this.

Lazule entered behind Rebecca. And it was clear that pirates had inadvertently provided many of the resources by which Rebecca had built her home. A repurposing of the tools once used by men who leaned toward or were perhaps wholly consumed by wickedness for the cause of something far more desirable: their further undoing.

Lazule shivered on account of the warmth being leeched from her body by the dampness. A slight hugging of herself. And she walked to and stood before the fire once Rebecca had it going. Gazing upon it as if seeing a long lost friend.

"You n-need not apologize," Lazule said. I trust you. Spoken perhaps in the amicable silence.

A glance to Rebecca, and a passive regarding of her body. The scales and the fur more evident now. The blending of qualities. Curious. But it was not Lazule's place to ask, but rather Rebecca's to tell. A choosing of her own volition.

A change of clothes.

"Oh. Yes. Of c-course."

And Lazule set about removing her armor and her garments without reservation or worry. Her tabard off. And undoing of the laces and straps which secured her plate spaulder, breastplate, cuisses, and greaves. An unwinding of her wristwraps, unbuckling of belts, and her blue robe removed and set down. Slipping out of her boots. And off with her brown shirt and pants.

There on her body. A tangle of chaotic dark red scars all along her legs where the cuisses and greaves had been, encircling her thighs and her shins like a baleful crimson netting. A jagged ring of a scar on her left arm, close to where it met the shoulder. And upon her chest in the very center deep red gashes of old, extending out like the twisted legs of a spider, an odd and circular metal plate literally bolted onto her body, the small thing, like the body of the aforementioned spider, covering the center and thereby the confluence of all the various red scars.

Naked, she sat before the fire. Legs tucked close to her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees. Gazing into the flame still.

"Thank you, Rebecca. F-For your hospitality."

 

[Rebecca Fourtuna]

Rebecca blushed.
"Th-There is no need to th-thank me. A holder of my life debt is more than deserving.."

She trailed off as she saw the scars. She then looked down with a shameful expression like she had been reading her life story without permission, and a saddness that spoke of her regret that her Mistress had experienced pain when she hadn't been there to help.

Marks of battles fought.

Marks woven by the spider of pain.

The firelight reflected from the metal plate causing it to shine dully. Rebecca turned away crossing the room she pulled a beaver skin and sail cloth blanket from her bed and placed it in front of the fire.
Gesturing for Lazule to sit on it she then busied herself with gathering her armor and clothes before laying the boots by the fire to dry and armor in one of the tables chairs. She then took both of their clothes and place them in a neat pile by an old wash tub. she then moved over to the trunk and selected an old white cotton shirt.

It was obviously meant for a man much larger than Lazule as it would trial past her waist. It had a single hole next to the heart with an old washed out blood stain. It felt soft with a worn comfort to it and smelled like lavender soap and cypress trees.
The way Rebecca handled it it seemed much more important to her than if it were a pirates previous garb.

She remained naked however as the pair of worn brown pants, brown cloak and black shirt seemed her only pair of clothing.

After handing her the shirt she then busied herself with something outside. The door shut as she stepped out on to the porch. The down pour was tremendous.
She didnt seem phased as she lept from the massive height and dove into the raging water below with a grace that many would have thought was beautiful had they witnessed it.

She was under for a few minutes before surfacing. She scaled the tree and stepped back into the cabin.

Shivering and dripping wet with a massive large mouth bass wriggling in her teeth. She then went to the table and pulled a massive hunting knife stuck into the table and filleted it. She took the two fillets and opened a small tin. It had a pungent spicy aroma and she sprinkled it on the fish and laid them on a wooden plank. She then placed it on a small metal rack above the fire and soon the sizzling smell of fish filled the cabin.

"I-it should be ready so-oon."

She said as she shook herself dry water seemed to slide off her skin clear scaled skin. She then waited for the fish to be done before pulling from the fire and setting it in front of Lazule along with a small metal fork and knife.
She then retrieved a cask of a wine undoubtedly liberated from a captains cabin.
She took a swig before giving it to Lazule as she walked in a circle around her a couple of times before her tail curled around Lazule's waist tightly, and she laid down beside her with a deep purr that only seemed to occur next to her. Her eyes remained open however.

"Y-you h-have more question do you not master?"

She asked between purrs.

 

[Lazule]

Lazule looked to Rebecca and nodded and shifted onto the blanket, it offering more comfort than the bare floor. And she sat as she had before in front of the fire, her feet and her shins drying some in its welcome glow. A harsh and unforgiving land, this Bayou. The storm that had come now one of more intensity than she had experienced in the days prior. She would have been ill-prepared to face it. An insight, then, on why the village she had visited had all its buildings constructed upon sturdy stilts and accessible via ladders.

A cautionary reminder. To respect Arethil. And to be aware of her environs.

Rebecca brought her a shirt, which Lazule accepted. A curious thing. Taken care of. Clean, save the persistent ghost of a bloodstain around the hole in the front. Lazule slipped it on, the small metal plate on her chest poking out of the hole in the shirt just so.

A small gift. Given to provide warmth and comfort.

Lazule was hardly used to such things. But found she appreciated the gesture all the same. Another attempt at smile, one that lived for slightly longer than previously before fluttering away. And she watched Rebecca go to the door and out into the ceaseless curtains of rains and she watched the door close before looking back to the fire. Calming. Just seeing it. Hearing it.

The constant muted beat of the rain against the wood of the cabin. The world outside submitted in whole to the elements, the wind and the rain and the sharp dip in temperature that accompanied them. And yet here she sat insulated from it, in a tiny shell of shelter, this on account of the unconditional kindness of another.

No. Rebecca was not a monster. A girl tormented, a girl of suffered misfortune, spurned by many of the world. A terrible truth, that cruelty needed not violence to inflict pain. She had found a way of being here in the Great Bayou, but was it something which brought her life, and a purpose thereof? A blessing, that Lazule herself had such a way of being, her purpose clear, mind untroubled.

And as Rebecca came back in with a fish caught between her teeth, Lazule resolved to ask her such. For the question she had previously in mind had already been answered. Lazule had seen back down on the ground the collection of her work, hanging from the trees, those very bodies surely swaying in the wind if not completely submerged now. There was no remaining doubt that Rebecca had assumed the title of the Bayou Bone Eater, her deeds prolific enough to leave little room for anything else to share in the infamy.

Lazule's hunt was over.

And she watched the fish being cooked alongside Rebecca. Rain in steady droves against the outside wood of the cabin.

"Thank you," Lazule said as the fish and the fork and the knife were all presented to her. Tiny and precise squares carved out of the meat. Little bites. She always ate like that. Mousy, someone had once said of it.

Wine offered. Alcohol. A curious thing. She had felt this inebriation many were infatuated with only a few times before. By her lights it seemed more a distraction than anything. A dulling of purpose. Effective, certainly, for those who had not found theirs, or who had lost their way.

But she didn't turn it down. She accepted the bottle and like Rebecca took a small drink and set the bottle down. Another bite of the fish as Rebecca's tail wrapped about her once more and she lay down and she spoke.

"Yes," Lazule said. Holding the fork and the knife in her lap. "Are...are you happy here? Does this life m-make you content? I mean n-no offense. You are very adept a-at protecting these lands. Killing those with ill intent. And yet..y-you are troubled. Does this way of b-being...does it suit you?"