Open Chronicles The Wolf and The Bat

[Rose]

"I don't knoooow," she huffed, exasperated. "Greenish. Or blueish. I can't tell it's all poorly lit. And they got drums. And big eye sockets that look like bugs, and teeth! I'm telling you it's not good we have to find somewhere else."

Tug, tug.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

He frowned for a moment. Greenish blueish? Big eyes and teeth...damn. That didn't actually narrow it down.

Definitely not trolls, that was something. "How big were they?"

Orcs generally tended to stand at the height of a very tall human. Ogres...twice that, sometimes three depending on where they hailed from. They were a fierce bunch, almost as big as giants and tending towards the consumption of...lesser species. Still smart though.

He supposed that was what made them so terrifying.

Ishar held firm, still rather wanting to die in battle than ending up a frozen corpse.

 

[Rose]

Rose 's exasperation only grew. She, on the other hand, much preferred risking the cold than getting her head bashed on. Blah. Skemish much.

"Like, three of you!" She exclaimed, exaggerating in hopes of kicking up his sense of self preservation. "And like. A bunch of them! They'll turn us into soup, they can't seeeee us." She had rounded him, instead resorting to pushing on his back with all her might to get him moving.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar still did not move. Much like a brick wall being pushed by the puffing of a wolf. "Ogres."

Had to be.

There was no chance it was anything else. Orcs were not that big, and trolls didn't tend to congregate in too many numbers. It had to be an Ogre tribe. The thought of that made him want to vomit, mostly because he'd seen what a single Ogre could do to a village when they wanted to.

They were fierce creatures.

"I can't go out into that blizzard." He told her. "I'll die."

Ishar chewed his lip, frowning. "We...could talk to them."

Ogre's weren't trolls, they weren't stupid. They could speak, reason, hell some could even read and write.

 

[Rose]

"What-- no! Did you just hear me? Big-- scary things. Monsters. They will kill us. We have to go back. Maybe we can hide if we hear them coming, there's no reason we have to turn ourselves iiiin," she complained, hitting at the unmovable boulder that was his back.

She paused, an idea creeping over her. "...Can we make you fuzzy?"

 

[Ishar Morrad]

"They're Ogres, not monsters." That wasn't exactly true...well, maybe it was. In truth Ishar didn't really know all that much about Ogres or their society. He'd heard some stories, seen entire villages slaughtered by them, but on the other hand he also knew of at least one Ogre Templar.

As silly as it seemed they were just another species. Unlike a blizzard.

"No." He gave her a hard stare. "I'd rather die."

That was the very least of the truth. Transforming into the beast was not pleasant, nor was it the best choice. He frowned, realizing that Rose likely needed a softer explanation. "If I turn, it likely won't chase you again but instead..."

He trailed off and gestured towards the deeper part of the cave.

 

[Rose]

“Good!” Rose declared. “Then we won’t have to worry about them.” Although she knew it was unlikely they could get him to shift at all. He didn’t seem to have the same sense of control about it like she did.

She shoved on his shoulders, trying to direct him back to the fire.

“Go. Shoo shoo. Before they hear.” Maybe they wouldn’t even notice them. It was a blizzard after all, what cause would they have to go to the exit?

 

[Ishar Morrad]

For a moment Ishar continued to lurk, then turned and took a few steps back in order to creep into the tunnel from where they'd come from.

Rose was right. If they stayed there and talked the Ogres would notice them eventually and decide to...do whatever they wanted to. It likely wouldn't go well no matter what they decided, the blizzard was in one direction and the Ogres in another.

Shifting wasn't an option.

"The wolf will attack them." Ishar explained to Rose as soon as they turned the corner.

The thing was aggressive, even to predators larger than it. He remembered only vague things about the time during the change, but more than once he remembered fighting something much larger than himself. It particularly enjoyed hunting trolls.

Likely his death wish carried over to the beast.

"Its either the Ogres or the blizzard." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Neither a good option."

Suddenly there was a loud CRUNCH behind him.

 

[Rose]

“Uuuuuh.” Rose whispered, giving off a little squeak.

“We can... hide? Quick quick!” She shoved him towards a shadowed device, her skin already shimmering.

“Duck!” She ordered, turning into a shadowed wisp. It buzzed around him, as if trying to figure out a way to mask him with its shimmer.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Ishar was about to speak when the crunch echoed out.

He felt Rose press on him, the odd shadowy wisp thay she was floating in front of him anc clearly trying to squish him into the corner of the cavern. His lips thinned, but he took three quick steps back and pressed himself against a wall.

There was another crunch, then the sound of rocks breaking.

A second later he appeared.

It was a massive ogre, twice the size of Ishar. His skin was a deep drab gray, metallic armor clung to his chest, and in his hand was a club the size of Rose. A deep rumble rose through the creatures chest, beady black eyes slowly folding over the inside of the cavern as it searched.

 

[Rose]

The wisp quaked... all light around him became swallowed by darkness.

The orcs eyes found nothing but a dark corner and an empty cavern.

The air grew colder around Ishar, his breath puffing out.

The orc grunted and turned back around, returning the direction he had come.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

His fingers curled for a moment, and there was a temptation to draw his blade.

A small part of Him thought that he may have been able to fight the beast, even kill it with Rose's help, but there was a stark reminder in the back of his head that this creature was not the only one of its kind in the cavern.

So he breathed slowly. Stayed himself.

Discovery would likely mean death, or at the very least a conversation he did not want to have. When the creature turned Ishar let out a heavy breath, his eyes closing for just a moment as he leaned his head back against the rock wall. "We need to go."

He said quietly.

 

[Rose]

The dim light returned to him in an instant, rose collapsing to the floor. She didn’t look up at him. She didn’t acknowledge him. She quaked there, hair covering her face, something not right about her.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

He perked an eyebrow. "You alright?"

This wasn't the time for something to go wrong with either of their...ailements.

The Ogres were a sensetive bunch to changes in their environment,knowing exactly where everything went and what was supposed to be what. Unlike trolls or some form of goblins they were actually intelligent.

Sentient even.

If either of them, or worse both, couldn't control the beasts within themselves it would not go well.

 

[Rose]

Rose shook her head back and forth in sharp, inhuman movements. She didn’t look up at him, she nearly curled into a ball and locked down before she thought better of it and managed to peel herself up and moving towards the exit. The moment he made a move to follow, he got a wild gesture to stay back.

She was hungry. Starving, even. It had smacked into her out of no where. No warning, no typical drop in stamina. Just sudden, unrelenting, demanding hunger. It frightened her so much it kept her from slipping into. She fell to her knees at the entrance, fingers outstretched for the snow.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

Well shit.

Ishar clutched his fingers tightly and glanced back towards the tunnel they had just come from. He could still hear the Ogres in that direction, lurking and moving about as they spoke with one another.

The creatures were terrifying. Their intelligence just made them more so.

If they made a wrong step here they would both end up dead and buried in a Ditch, or worse. He remembered what Ogre teeth could do to bones, the loud crunch of shattering limbs. A shiver ran up his spine and he motioned her towards the entrance of the cave.

"Go." He told her curtly.

They couldn't have her hunt here. They couldn't risk it. One ogre was enough of a challenge, three or four? There was no way they could fight.

 

[Rose]

The last shreds of her that remained fled, sparing Ishar from at least one monster tonight.

There was no saying how long it took her to find a food source. There was no way of knowing how far her curse had pulled her from the cave. When she came to the storm raged as strong as before. The winds howled, whipping snow into a haze around her. She could barely see the blood on her outstretched fingers. The cold didn’t reach her, but her curse did nothing to hold off the rest.The storm battered her small frame around, making steps and navigation impossible. She could use shadows, but to what end? She didn’t know where she was. She could end up traveling further away.

Then came the biting thought that she might not find him again at all. Or if she did, she’d find him dead to the ogres. Or the storm.

A small whimper caught in her throat, the taste of blood still flooding her mouth. Despair drove her into a ball, her head tucked into the security of her knees as the night passed by unmarked around her.

Please don’t die...

 

[Ishar Morrad]

The blizzard was raging, his cloak sat heavy on his shoulders but even that was not enough to keep out the rapidly spreading cold.

Ishar had followed Rose out of the cave, mostly because he had no other choice. She'd been faster than him or course, much faster. He'd lost track of her in the storm almost as soon as he had stepped outside.

Still, the biting cold was better than the maw of an ogre.

That was how he'd convinced himself. That was what he told himself again and again as he trudged through the snow. On his back were both his and Rose's things, the heavy weight of each pack pressing Into him as he took stel after step through the Expanse of the blizzard.

A part of himself wanted to scream, but he kept himself quiet.

He knew that in this storm there would be no hope in finding Rose. Any attempt at tracking her would be for naught. Yet he had her things, and that meant in the morning he could catch her scent. It would help them reunite at least.

If she didn't get herself killed.

And he didn't freeze to death.

 

[Rose]

Rose didn’t notice the change in the storm. She didn’t feel the change around her. She remained locked in a tight ball, thoughts caught in dark places as sleep came in foggy waves.

When she opened her eyes the sunlight was jarring. A single bird sang to her far left. How had it survived the storm? The thought floated through her, distant. It took a moment to realize she was no longer dreaming.

It took another for the significance of the morning to dawn on her. She gasped, jumping up. Her stuff limbs cracked in protest as she took off in an immediate run.

“Ishar??” She howled. “Ishar!” She pushed and brushed into everything possible, realizing that she wasn’t the only one with quirky tricks up her sleeves. Dogs had good noses right?

She ran straight— in circles— 90 degrees right for 5 minutes then 30 left for 10. Anything to cover ground and find a familiar limb. But they had arrived in the middle of the storm. There was little to recognize outside of snow.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

The sky was blue.

Almost unbelievably so. He would have guessed it was an affect of the mountain, but in his addled state he was barely able to comprehend where he was in the first place. Ishar had not slept the night before, in fact he'd barely managed to eek out a moment to sit still.

He'd known that If he stopped moving for even a second the storm would catch him in its grasp. So he'd pushed himself, always forwards, always marching and never stopping.

Now the storm had broken.

The sun cast down on him with its warmth, radiating all around him and sinking into his skin. He took long slow breaths as he pulled himself through the mountain snows.

He did not hear Rose in the distance, the overbearing walls of the mountains cutting off even the echoing yells.

Yet despite that he was not leaving her behind, no. He had picked up her scent an hour ago, now it was just a matter of following it.

 

[Rose]

~


“Ishar!” Rose screeched, seeing him through the trees. All pretenses of her physical form was dropped. She zipped forward, half shadow half girl as she collided into his with a solid thunk.

“Ishar,” she sobbed, melting into him in relief. She blubbered for a moment more, nonsensical words bubbling from her, before she descended into pure sobs.

Poor Ishar was hugged tightly, her form as cold as ice.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

He patted her.

Emotion had never been his strong suit, even when he'd been a young child. There was a disconnect there. perhaps because of his nomadic background, or perhaps because none of his upbringing had been particularly based on...feelings.

In the blight there was no space for such nonsense. One had to push feelings aside, press on and disregard anything that might get into the way.

It was how things were done. "I am glad you made it."

He was still chilled to the bone, he couldn't feel several of his fingers, but it seemed that they had both survived the night.

 

[Rose]

“M-m-me? Y-y-you!” She pulled back just enough to look over him. He didn’t looked smashed to death by orc bits. There was small mercies in that. She tackled him again, giving him another tight hug and steadying her own breathing.

“But-but how? I nearly ate you, and the orcs!” He should be dead.

 

[Ishar Morrad]

"Ogres." He corrected, frowning slightly.

The sun was thawing him out slowly, but despite that Ishar couldn't help but still feel cold. It was the blizzard the night before, it had eeked into his flesh like a virus and firmly planted itself there. He tried not to let that show.

"We got out of the cave." He told her. "I went into the blizzard."

It had not been pleasant. "Managed to stay warm enough, somehow."

He wouldn't bet on himself doing it a second time.

Not in this lifetime.

 

[Rose]

“Maybe-maybe it’s the thing in you,” Rose offered, weakly hopeful. She squirmed, unsure what to do with herself for a moment. “Fire, you need a fire. Stay here!” She buzzed away, literally. She jumped into a shadow only to reappear at the end of it two feet away. The ran- skipped- hopped into the next one, only to reappear further down and repeat the process.

She did this until she had gathered enough wood. And even if it wasn’t dried out, she went about piling it before him and trying to light it anyway.