Open Chronicles The Wolf and The Bat

[Ishar Morrad]

"I imagine so." Ishar commented quietly, glancing around the small cavern before his eyes settled on her. A slight frown pulled at his lips, but his head shook a moment later.

Hunger was a terrible thing, even for a normal human. In the Blightlands people often starved, and before they did they became little more than animals. For a Vampire it was even worse, especially given what they were capable of doing if truly pushed to their very edge.

Not something he wanted here.

"I brought a sheep." He commented. "It's not exactly pleasant but..."

Well, better than some kid, wasn't it?

 

[Rose]

She grimaced, tensing at the thought.

Could she do something like that? Actively take a life-- eat-eat it alive and have it die in her hands while she- she sucked its blood?

She shuddered, cringing back into the rock. "On second thought, I'd prefer not to be conscious," she grumbled, not commenting any further.

She tried to ignore the situation, it was as good as running and as best she could do tied up in a cave. She had the flickering thought to escape into the shadows and- no.

She kept herself put. But she also didn't acknowledge him any further, a slight tremor in her body.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

For a moment he stayed quiet, wondering how best to put his next few words. The last thing he wanted to do was make it seem like he was accusing Rose of something. Rather he wanted her to understand the reality of this.

"Your hunger won't go away." He stated bluntly. "Not until you eat."

Ishar guessed that the last time she had been 'unconscious' had been during a frenzy. She had likely fed, and simply didn't remember it. That was...well, bad to say the least. There was no telling what she had fed on or who she had killed in order to do so. A sheep was better than a kid.

He sighed. "Put it off now and it will get worse. To the point where you can't stand it and you'll end up killing someone instead of something."

 

[Rose]

He was right, about it all. And she was so terribly hungry. Between the fear and distress, she trembled harder. Silent tears started to slid down her face. She managed to get herself as far as sitting up before her willpower fled her and she froze again, staring at the sheep tied up at the entrance.

"What is it like?" She finally asked, her voice small. "Your change."

 

[Ishar Morrad]

"Painful." He stated plainly. "Primal."

The specifics he forgot every time, just the overwhelming senses that stuck with him remained. "Every bone in my body breaks and reforms. My skin shreds itself. Everything about me changes in an instant."

Though it hardly felt like an instant.

"There's anger." He said with a frown. "An overwhelming need to...lash out. Not to feed, or eat, but to kill."

 

[Rose]

She shuddered in sympathy, her posture turning edgy as she allowed her thoughts to drift towards her own change. It was much more subtle than Ishar's and it contained much less pain, but she would lose herself none the less. As her thoughts lingered there, drifting over the concept of her... giving into the primal and letting blood sooth its way down her throat...

The haze overtook her again.

There was a cracking sound, like a broken pinky bone. Blood dripped off the two incisors the grew to protrude between her lips. She moved to stand, her attention still on the sheep, but only staggered and struggled against the rope instead.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar slowly picked up the sheep, moving it in front of Rose.

The creature made a quiet "ba'h" but Ishar ignored it. Livestock was made for this sort of thing, and in truth he was somewhat worried about what would happen if instead of the sheep, Rose went for him.

He had heard rumors, though did not know the actual truth, that Werewolf blood and Vampire did not mix. He had no idea why, perhaps an odd twist of the two afflictions, but Ishar did not want to test it. Plus, he didn't really want to be eaten either.

There were more pleasant ways to die.

 

[Rose]

At the sudden movement of Ishar, Rose flipped. Or rather flopped, because that was all she could do tied up as she was. She flopped and struggled, the rope strained but strong enough to contain either of them when tied up as so.

This only left her spazzing more, hissing like a cage animal as she attempted to dissipate into the shadows. Yet she barely began to dissipate before reforming back into a solid lump. Each attempt after that was met with less and less success, until the shadows didn't respond to her at all and she was left coiled and tight on the ground as Ishar eased the sheep over.

Her attention did fall to him them. Noteworthy enough-- she barely considered him for a moment before turning back to the sheep.

And then back to him.

She almost seemed confused. In fact, instinctually she was. Vampires were known to target all life forms when in a blood frenzy, animals included. But it was not what they reached for to feed.

This wasn't a blood frenzy and he might of well have been a goat. Strange. She struggled vhelmentally in an attempt to stand.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar pushed the sheep a little closer, then glanced at Rose for a reaction.

She struggled against the bonds, a frown touching his face. Then an idea popped into his head. Lips thinned for a few seconds, his fingers tightened, and then he reached towards the small of his back. He drew a short knife, leaned forward and patted the sheep on the back. "Sorry."

The beast was fated for this no matter what, but...well this wasn't exactly the most pleasant way to die was it? Without any further hesitation Ishar cur the creature at it's neck, not enough to kill it, not yet anyway, but enough for it to begin to bleed.

Would it be enough?

Would the thing even satisfy Rose?

Ishar had absolutely no idea. He didn't know how it worked, this was simply a small hope. A compromise.

 

[Rose]

And then the frenzy took over.

Spilling the animal blood was like bringing a tree leaf to a starving man's mouth. She sprang for the source-- a flopping, undignified mess that squirmed and inched and flailed until those elongated teeth found their way to the sheep's throat.

There was nothing graceful about it. The sheep had to be held there by Ishar, even brought down to Rose's level as her hands behind her back left her with no mobility. Horrific squelching sounds came from the feeding, even as the sheep's cries of panic gurgled into silence.

Ishar was left unmolested, the vampire unaware of anything outside the blood flowing freely into its mouth. Rose laid vulnerable to the Templar hovering over.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

He'd seen worse.

Hard not to in the Blightlands where the Orcs roamed around like animals and consumed entire caravans for sport. Still, the sight wasn't exactly a pleasant one, and he couldn't help but feel a small amount of pity for the Sheep that he had brought here to it's end.

Still, the idea that he had saved a life placated him on that.

It was a good deed in a way, though he would have to find a way to repay the farmer. Likely they would just assume that a Wolf had gotten away with the beast, but he wanted to make sure they were paid fairly for what they lost. Even if they would have no idea normally.

Shaking his head the Werewolf stepped away from Rose. Waiting for her to leave her feeding frenzy.

 

[Rose]

The cavern grew quiet once the vampire fell still. She panted softly into its wool, laying there on it, her eyes closed. It seemed she might actually drift off like that, but the first sound of his presence had her jolting. Once more, she couldn't bring herself to sit up. A noise of confused was made as she tried to collect her bearings, but once she realized what she was propped on...

She screamed.

She disintegrated immediately into the shadows, rope and all.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar turned around just in time to see Rose poof out of existence.

Eyebrows immediately shot up, his expression shifted, and suddenly a heavy frown settled on his face. A grumble escaped him, and briefly he wondered if it wouldn't have been nice to know some anti-magic just about now. "Hello?'

He called out.

The former Templar still wasn't entirely sure how Rose's magic worked. If she actually disappeared and moved or if she just stayed around. It wasn't exactly his subject.

"Hello?" He called again.

 

[Rose]

That little shimmering whisp he had identified back in that hallway buzzed chaotically overhead in the shadows of the wall and ceiling. It was practically impossible to differentiate if one did not know what to look for, but it remained there none the less. Rose screamed her pain out into the shadows.

The only thing as maddening as being hungry was waking up after she wasn't.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

"It's fine." He called out, though he already knew that for her it very likely wasn't.

She wasn't the type to do violence, that much was clear, but well...he wondered just how she'd come this far without facing the reality of her condition.

Perhaps it was simple willful ignorance, ignoring every little bit of what she was until she simply couldn't anymore. Pitiful, but the only way that she could keep going. Ishar had never been able to do it, knowing from the first moment that he was cursed to walk away.

"It had to happen." He reminded her. "It was a sheep."

That probably wouldn't make her feel better. "Rather that than hurting someone."

 

[Rose]

She had wanted him to do this and he had done his part, but she hadn't thought this far in plan. She hadn't thought about the after, only the preventing. She never thought about the after, she couldn't handle it. Just like she couldn't handle this moment.

She didn't know what was worse-- that she had done it or that she'd have to eventually return to him... covered in the messy remains of a life she took so he could untie her.

She would have to face what she had done, but even the concept of bringing herself to a stream to wash it all brought her deeper into a wave of tears that tore through her body.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Time passed, and Rose did not reappear. "I'll be here."

Ishar stated simply.

He knew that she would have to eventually, if only because magic was not limitless. That was something he knew at least. She could run away of course, but...well he couldn't chase after her. There was signs of her shadow, but the less light there was the more difficult it was to spot, and the cave was only a few steps from a world of dark.

All Ishar could really do was wait.

Luckily there was still things for him to do, and whats more there was food. Although he had to not think about it, the sheep was still mostly there. It's blood was entirely gone and well the body was somewhat mangled, but most of it was still there.

Thus he went to work. Skinning, cleaning, and butchering the creature in an expert manner. It would have been a shame to let it go to waste, especially when the thing could feed him...them, for at least a week.

That was how Ishar occupied himself as he waited.

 

[Rose]

It wasn't until the sheep was no longer a sheep and the muscles had become cooked food that she reemerged. She dropped with a soft thud into the darkest shadow of the cave, a grunt held back to not attract attention. Even though she was returning for that explicate purpose. She struggled once more to try and get herself up, folding into a frustrated whimper.

"Ishar," came the unwilling plea.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar poked his head up, half busy with stick some of the meat from the sheep onto a skewer in order to cook over the fire. It would make for a good meal, even without the seasonings from the borderlands he was used to.

For a moment he struggled to find where the noise had come from, but after a second he spotted Rose's form within the shadowed section of the cave.

It took him only two steps to make his way over towards her, putting down the food where it wouldn't get dirt on it and closing the distance between the two of them in near an instant. "Here."

The former Templar said as he gently grasped Rose and propped her up.

 

[Rose]

Her panic dimmed once he helped her up, some sense of control regained. Her mouth worked to say something to him. Instead her eyes watered and looked away.

"I'm not hungry anymore," she informed him, voice barely audible. "P-Please." She struggled to gain her wrists back, striving for all signs of what had happened to be eradicated.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

He frowned for a brief moment, and then nodded.

There was a chance she was lying of course, there was always a chance of that, but the tone of her voice and the fact that she had voraciously devoured the sheep made him believe her.

As silly as that was. "Here."

Ishar said as he pulled yet another knife from his boot and used it to cut the rope. In truth he should have simply undone the knots, but he guessed from he disposition that the extra time to do so would have caused the poor girl to have a mental break down.

Not something he wanted...or really could deal with.

 

[Rose]

Well, that had been sort of a lie. She was still hungry. In a very strange way. But that wasn't something she was going to explain in that moment, not when all she wanted was out.

it wasn't as if deep conversations were their forte, either.

She gasped as the rope broke, blood flooding back to her wrists. She brought the around and hugged herself, pulling away enough that she hoped the shadows masked the state she was in. It wasn't pretty.

A thanks hung on the tip of her tongue, unexpressed.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar flung the now useless cord to the other side of the cave, not wanting to deal with it at the moment. The knife was also quickly returned to his boot, hidden and tucked away out of sight.

He wasn't worried about Rose hurting him, not really, though it was clear she was still in distress. "It's alright."

The former Templar did his best to find soothing words, but...well they didn't exactly come easily to him. The blightlands had hardly been the type of place to teach him such a thing.

This was as much a learning experience for him as anything else.

 

[Rose]

She rubbed at her face fiercely, shaking her head back and forth as she did so in wordless disagreement. It wasn't alright. It wasn't alright! Didn't he see her? She was a monster! A monster!

A sob hitched in her throat, held back as she bit into her knee. Her shoulders shook silently as she tried to squash her grief, but it was a force of nature that overrode all self control.

"How can you say that?"

 

[Ishar Morrad]

"There are monsters in this world." Ishar said calmly.

He knew that well, he was one of them.

"But." How did he put this? It was hard. "Not all of them need to be killed."

The language was harsh, as it always was with him, but the message was still there. "In the blightlands there are trolls. Some serve Molthal, but others...others just roam the blight. They are monsters, there's no doubt about that. They eat people, livestock, all of that but..."

He paused.

"They're not bad." The Templar frowned. "Not really."