Open Chronicles The Wolf and The Bat

[Rose]

Silence filled the clearing, her breathing coming down and slowing as she regained control over the moment and the scent of her own blood lost its sway. She was still, equally unsure of how to move forward. So she did the easiest thing.

She slipped back into the shadows and... ran.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar blinked as the girl pulled away, and then suddenly disappeared into nothingness.

The Templar stood almost immediately, as if she was about to attack him. The idea was preposterous of course, Rose wouldn't do such a thing, not now but...well it was surprising. After a moment his muscles relaxes, and for the first time he noticed he'd raised a hand to stop her.

It was silly of course. Ishar was no more magical than the rock he had been sitting on. He imagined that someone could pull her out of those shadows, but it wasn't him.

Perhaps it shouldn't have been.

A frown touched his lips as his hand lowered to his side.

Ishar knew that he wasn't meant for this. He wasn't a teacher, he wasn't a parents. He was a monster, and a weak one at that.

 

[Rose]

He was left to his own the whole night. It wasn't until he gave way to his need for sleep that that changed. And by the time he would wake next, he would find Rose leaning against a tree across from him--- legs pulled up and head leaning back. A soft snore pulled from her throat.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Night had risen once more when Ishar awoke, his lips thinning almost immediately as he out of reaction grabbed his sword.

It took him only a few seconds to recognize the figure at the other end of the clearing, his eyes wandering over Rose for a moment as his head shook.

"I'll never understand." The wolf said quietly.

Without another word he pulled himself up off the ground, dragging his cloak off his shoulders and sweeping it over the girl so that she would not be cold.

His head shook once more, and Ishar found he was not quite sure what else to do.

 

[Rose]

Morning came. Rose stirred at the sound of wildlife greeting the dusky dawn. She grunted as she rolled out her stiff neck, sitting up to escape the stabbing pain of bark into her shoulder blade.

"Ouch," she complained, her voice thick with sleep. She sniffled and rubbed at her face, turning abruptly alert as she looked around the clearing for Ishar or any sign of change.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar stood on the root of a tree not too far out of the clearing, it's curled and poised form having given him a slight overlook into the valley beneath where they had slept.

He of course remembered coming this way just a few days ago, though unfortunately he did not yet see the village in the distance. Still, the trees had formed from jungle into temperate forest, and that meant they were at the very least getting closer to their destination.

After another watchful moment Ishar turned, jumping off the root and landing with a muted thump in the clearing.

"You're awake." The werewolf commented, pointing out the obvious.

He wasn't quite sure what else to say.

 

[Rose]

Rose carefully stretched out, her cheeks aflame in embarrassment.

"You're still here," she commented back, voice soft and almost abashed. She glanced up at him quickly before looking back down, the gesture every bit submissive and subdued as you would expect from palace-raised girl. It was actually a bit of a rare expression from her, but in this moment she kept her chin and gaze trained apologetically down.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

”I was never leaving.” Ishar commented dryly, though that wasn’t exactly true.

He had planned on going, they had planned on going together in fact. Just because she’d run hadn’t meant that he would go without her.

Though he’d thought about it. The truth of it was though that he felt...guilty? Ishar wasn’t exactly sure if that was the right word for it. Rose to him was almost like...almost like one of the idiotic recruits that they’d gotten within the blightlands. Eager, idealistic, wanting to survive in a world they were unfit for.

Ishar had never been able to leave any of them behind. Why start now.

”Nothings changed.” He said quietly. ”So get ready to walk.”

Again.

 

[Rose]

Rose glanced up at him in no small bit of shock.

That... was it? No yelling? No more chastising? Moments like this gave way to so much reprimanding back at home, the lack of it nearly had her braced for something worse.

She scrambled up, catching his cloak as it fell off her body and neatly folding it for him. Likewise she scrambled around the camp, stomping out the fire and neatly gathering what things they had used and left out. She came to a stop in front of him, curls wild and frame small as she shrugged the last of her pack straps on.

"O-Ok. Ready."

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar nodded, though it was more to himself than her. "The village isn't too far now."

They had not come by the same path, but the trees were changing and that was enough. They would reach the village by nightfall, then they could at least stay there. If only for a single day.

It was what he had done before, though he supposed it would be changed now with Rose around. A frown touched his lips for a moment, and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about his new circumstances. It wasn't bad...just not...just not what he was used to.

He stared off into the forest for a moment, then shook his head.

"Come on." Ishar said as he began to walk. "We'll make it there before nightfall."

 

[Rose]

Rose watched him for a moment, overwhelmed by a wave of... gratitude. He wasn't leaving her. She wasn't alone. Her eyes glistened, tears threatening to break.

She rubbed at her face and scrambled after him, giving a new meaning to the term 'shadow'.

The walk was long and she did not complain, but by the end of it she was practically staggering in his wake-- struggling desperately to match the strides and pace of a well worn solider. She knew at once that among the past few days her body had crossed the invisible threshold between 'sustained' and 'not'.

The burn in her throat had slipped to her mind, creating a buzzing hunger that no amount of milk could sooth now.

She should have asked him to take her elsewhere, but she didn't. She had entered a haze, her forehead feverish and her hands ice cold. She moved towards the light of the village with renewed vigor, nearly bumping into Ishar's back when he slowed or paused to glance back at her.

"Oomph," she complained.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

He frowned for a moment, glancing at Rose as she nearly bumbled into him. An eyebrow raised, if only for a few seconds.

Was she tired?

The girl had shown almost no sign of ordinary wear and tear, not having slowed down for nearly the entire time of the two of them being together. Yet now it seemed things were beginning to pull at her. Perhaps it simply took her longer. Ishar had no real idea how it worked with Vampires.

He knew that they were stronger, faster, held more endurance, but had no idea how long that really stretched. For all he knew it was only as far as their feedings went, or maybe a day or two longer than a regular human.

"Are you alright?" The former Templar asked, pausing for a second as the village lay in sight.

 

[Rose]

"What?" She looked from the village to him. "Huh- Yeah. I'm- I'm just hungry."

She moved to step around him and press forward, no other words to give or thoughts to have. It was true, she was hungry.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

In an instant Ishar reached out and grabbed her shoulder, grip not tight enough to hurt her. "Hungry?"

He echoed the word.

"Hungry hungry?" Ishar wasn't exactly sure how else to put it. He suspected that was indeed the problem though, and realized that if they now walked into a village full of innocent people...well, a lot of people would start looking like convenient snacks.

Not something he wanted.

 

[Rose]

Her attention snapped to the hand that grabbed her, a wild edge to her eyes as they trailed up to the face that hovered over her. She stared him down for a moment ... then blinked.

She pulled back, muscles uncoiling from the tense posture she hadn't felt her body take against him. She looked around herself, disoriented. Understanding trickled in, her expression melting to horror as she turned back to him.

"...Yes."

 

[Ishar Morrad]

A frown touched his lips, head shaking. "Okay."

That was trouble and a half. A vampire and a werewolf walk into a village, ones hungry, how does this story end?

Not well.

Ishar glanced at the village for a brief moment, his gaze wandering across the lantern lights and towards the fields that sat on the mountain side. He considered a few options, fingers scrunching for a brief moment as he thought about just how they were going to solve this. If they moved passed the village Rose would only get hungrier, and if they stayed...

He frowned.

"How much do you need to...eat." He asked quietly. "Can it be from an animal?"

 

[Rose]

"I don't know," she answered, quickly descending into rapid breath and shaky hands. She paced in place, terrified. "I don't know, I never remember." And that was true, she had never been present a moment like this before. She had always slipped into it and emerged from the other side with any conscious choice.

"But I'm remembering this!" She offered, confused over it but desperate for it to mean something. She stepped closer to him, hands outstretched.

"G-G-grab me."

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Okay.

He'd seen something like this before, albeit it hadn't been exactly the same. Hunger drove Vampires just as it drove Werewolves. It was a different sort of ache, but it was the same feral instinct. In the Blightlands he had hunted Vampires, seen them decimate entire villages.

A blood frenzy, that was what the Templar had called it. Ishar wasn't entirely sure of the science behind it, he doubted anyone but those at Elbion did, but he remembered well the result.

Without a second of hesitation Ishar reached out and grasped Rose.

This time his grip was tight, not enough to wound, but too hard to escape from.

 

[Rose]

She didn't resist, even relaxing a little as she knew he'd be able to keep here now-- controlled and separated from the shadows.

"Whatever you do, don't stop touching my skin." She squirmed and shifted in place, more anxious than even hungry right now. She would have found it refreshing to be so present in a moment of hunger, but said hunger was taking up more than its fair share of space in her thoughts.

"Oh gods. What are we gonna do? Are you gonna kill me? I-I-I- understand- I mean if you have to- just a little bite?- ouch this hurts, Ishar-- We should walk away." It was safe to say she not in so desperate of a state that she was lost to reason like the ones that he had fought, but surely give her a few days and she would become every bit of the monster he was familiar with.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

"I'm not going to kill you." That would have been pointless after all of this, but he knew that this wasn't going to pass easily.

Rose had an affliction, and unfortunately that affliction wasn't going to go away any time soon. The hunger would always be with her, even if she fed tonight it would still appear days or weeks from now again. Just as the wolf did with him.

"Relax." He told her as his arms suddenly moved, one wrapping around her throat and the other bracing it. "Go to sleep."

The former Templar said as he suddenly applied pressure.

Within half a second Rose would find she was unable to breath, Ishar pinning his arm against her windpipe in an attempt to force her into unconsciousness.

 

[Rose]

Rose's eyes widened, her body thrashing against him in instinctual panic. But for all her newfound strength, his larger frame matched it and kept her stable inside the hold.

She knew what he was doing. She was grateful, even relieved to see him stand up to her like this. But despite her awareness she could not make herself surrender to it. Her fingers clawed desperately at the flesh around her neck. Pain flashed through her jaw as incisors grew out to the edge of her lips. Primal noises grated against the crushed windpipe, gurgling into silence as she went limp against him.

Her hands dropped, her eyes rolled back. He was in the clear. This time.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar didn't have much of a solution for this problem. He was no scholar, and thus didn't really understand the intricacies of Vampirism. He knew how to kill a Vampire, knew how they were made, even a few other things. Other than that though?

He knew next to nothing.

Still, the girl had saved his life, and thus it seemed only fitting that he would do the same. After Rose passed out he threw her over his shoulder, passing north of the village and heading into the mountains. There he found a cave, and using some rope from his pack tied her up.

After that he went back down to the village, or rather, to one of the surrounding farms. In the dead of night Ishar stole a sheep, an act that went almost comically awry, but he still somehow managed.

Eventually Ishar found his way back to the cavern, placing the sheep down and tying off a lead so that it would not wander away before Rose woke up. He had no idea if the sheep would be able to sate her hunger, had no idea if it would even help, but it was the only idea he had.

 

[Rose]

Rose stirred, swallowing hard against the dryness of her throat.

"Ishar?" She asked immediately, abruptly aware of the holes in her memory. How did she get here? What did she do? Fear soured in her gut, stronger than the hunger that sat heavily in her. She tried to sit up but found the task difficult. She flailed against the ground, trying to see around her. "Ishar!"

 

[Ishar Morrad]

"I'm here." He told her. "It's fine."

His voice was calming, accented by the sound of the snap of flames behind him. He had made sure that they were both comfortable. The cave was a small one, and in the mountains it grew colder and colder as the night went on.

"I thought it best I bring you away from danger." Of course, she had been the danger, but he wasn't about to say it out loud.

The same thing went for himself, and it was never a nice thing to hear. Even when it was the truth.

 

[Rose]

"You did?" She scanned the moment, reason returning to her. "Oh, you did." She deflated in relief, no longer struggling against the rope. She took deep breathes, trying to calm and collect herself in the moment. The panic lessened, utter trust placed in Ishar's hands to keep her handled in a moment like this. It left her more space to deal with her current alignment-- to try and piece out the effects and maybe get a hold on them for the first time.


"I've never stayed awake during a moment like this before," she confessed, not looking at him. "It's maddening."