Fable - Ask Vice

[Nathanael McCallister]

A gull lands near Nate's leg and he swats it away with the sheath of his sword listening to Jane, "That's actually quite interesting Jane. It doesn't bug me you were in a cult really. In a way, my family is a cult, well my whole bloody kingdom for the matter since we go hunting monsters and whatever for our Gods."

The hunter shrugs, "We do it for our Gods and that's the end of that. No idea where they end up or where we will end up, we just do it. Because of some contract with them that has implications to keep it short. Don't know all the details really."

He'd look up at the cloudy sky obviously not bothered by the chilly air but covers up his leg with a cloth he had borrowed from the dining area since everything else was quite dirty after they traveled for so long in the hold of a ship.

He'd look up and smile, "Ah there's the apothecary! Please let us get this bloody fever worked on before I say more then I should from sleep deprivation." He grumbles stifling a yawn, "And your hand."

-----

The apothecary was a small dainty place. Kind of dark except for the use of light magic in little orbs to bring the place some much-needed light. The smell of dried herbs and other materials was very prevalent and almost overpowering for Nate. Jars and pots lined the wall behind the counter and plants growing in pots lined the rest of the wall. A few books laid on top of the counter and a ragity old gnome with a good few ear-piercing and a balding head looks up and says,

"Ahhhh... new faces!" He chews his gums some examining the pair, "What can Uncle Mason help yah with?" He asks them chuckling adjusting his monocle some to get a better view of the two newcomers.

"However! I will look after the woman first since from that naaassty limp hers will be a simple fix will it young lady?"

Jane

 

[Jane]

An approving smile played across Jane's face. So Nate's family was something of a cult. Not fully like the Sisters of the Citadel, but something close. He knew. He could understand. His family had their Gods, the Sisters and Jane had had Alarak and the Dark Ones, and that was the way it was.

Maybe Nate felt the same about his faith. The same as how Jane felt. When she freed herself of her servitude to the Eunuch and found the Sisters and had embraced the whole-hearted belief in Alarak, it was like a vast empty chasm being filled--finally being filled. There was a completeness that had come with it. Devotion was the missing piece in the simple puzzle that was Jane, and she gave herself over to it--heart and soul.

(and then The Redeemer came)

Ah. There. The apothecary.

* * * * *​

They stepped inside--Nate's limp pronounced and readily apparent. Nice place, this apothecary, certainly when compared to the same in Cerak.

Jane rested her good hand on her hip. Held up her broken right hand for emphasis. Said to the old gnome, "Name's Jane. And yeah, this'll be the easier fix."

She smirked. Cast some scandalous eyes to Nate, and then back to Uncle Mason.

"Mine's a wound inflicted lovingly. His wasn't."

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

Nate doesnt really seem to be listening more like dozing to their exchange but heard what Jane said and facepalms.

The gnome gives a chuckle and adjusts his monocle jumping off his chair and motioning the two of them in. “Wonder what sort of things could possibly do such things. This may hurt Miss Jane.” He tells Jane taking her injured hand, putting a few drops of what looks like oil onto it and then wraps it up in a bandage and gauze to make it extremely hard to move. The pain would fade away some in a few minutes due to the oil.

The gnome puts the gauze down in the table and walks to the door and puts up a sign, “Gotta keep people out for this for business.” He tells Jane feeling Nate’s forehead after getting him down in a chair with a good few cursed from the hunter.

He’d take Nates like who gave him a deadly glare, “Nasty smelly leg yah got.” The gnome tells them going to get some leaves and hands them to Nate telling him to eat them which he does. “Now where the bloody hells did you two come from, what happened to get his leg like that and your hand like that?”

Nate opens his mouth but the gnomes lifts his finger, “You are feverish, don’t answer, fever might jumble your mind.” So once again Nate sighs and crosses his arms with a thinking look before he dozes off again and the gnome just gets him a blanket to wrap around his shoulders.

Jane

 

[Jane]

Jane let the gnome apothecary take her broken hand--this with a minor wince. But no more wincing need follow after the gnome had applied that oil and wrapped her hand until it was as secure as a sword in a sheath. That was...oh...ohhh...ahhhh...that was actually pretty nice, coming down off of the dull throbbing pain like that and landing into smooth comfort thanks to that oil.

Ha ha, it was a good thing that all Jane needed to do to heal someone was slap her hand on them and say some words. There was no way she'd be able to wrap her head around the business of being an apothecary. Sailor, yes. Devoted servant, yes. Apothecary, no. Too involved, not intuitive enough to her, and frankly she didn't care so much. Her bestowed power suited her just fine. Simple. Straightforward. No need to worry about grabbing the wrong herb or oil or what have you. And, the only one her Blessing had ever fucked up was Nate, and he just looked lovely and gorgeous writhing about in pain and sweating in agony. Was he ticklish, by chance? Hmmm...

Jane watched as gnome attended Nate. See, see, right there, Jane would've absolutely grabbed the wrong herbs for Nate to eat--good thing she wasn't an apothecary.

Now where the bloody hells did you two come from, what happened to get his leg like that and your hand like that?

Jane gave a nonchalant twirl of her uninjured hand as she explained, "Just some dragon city. Thagretis? Heard of it? I haven't, but I haven't heard of a lot of Mainlander cities. So Nate and I were having a great time in a brothel there when the local guards caught up to us. One of them--" (she almost said fucked up, but caught herself) "--messed up Nate's leg."

She held up her bandaged and gauzed hand. "And this is because Nate's got a good grip and because I don't know when to stop."

She eyed the pots and jars of the shop. Then looked back to Uncle Mason. Said, "You see a lot of injuries like ours around here?"

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

Uncle Mason puts his hand in his chin listening to Jane, “Hmmmmm... Can’t say I have heard of this city.” He chuckles with a bit of red on his nose, “Other then the fact you two spend a lot of time together.”

Nate just looks at the ceiling, “It isn’t like that Mason we are friends. And Thagretis is not on this continent. They are on their own continent of sorts or island or something. Jane stop trying to make it seem like we -.” He swears as Uncle Mason took out a scalpel and as Nate started to say something to Jane he started to run the blade into and around the dead and dying parts of his wounds. He also took out a pitcher of clean warm water with some more leaves in it and pours it all over his leg multiple times. He cleaned it until fresh blood formed over all the open areas of wound.

“No, I do not see a lot of injuries like his around here Miss Jane.” The gnome pats Nate’s leg who gives Mason a deadly glare, “Your hand and maybe a few stab wounds or a broken bottle over the head usually.” With another splash of water he pours some more into his wounds and sticks a finger into it and starts to get rid if the gunk, dirt and puss that piled up over the weeks. Nate still didn’t like the experience obviously but by now he was almost completely asleep. From a combo of the plants he ate and the shock from the pain.

The last wash was quick and he’d finally wrap it up in gauze, “It’s always going to look worse before it gets better. Just try to make him use his muscles in that leg here and there to keep his blood flowing down there. And if it starts stinking up again, clean it.”

Jane

 

[Jane]

Jane stop trying to make it seem like we--

"Seem like we what?" she said, though this was spoken in a near dream-like trance as her gaze found the scalpel in Mason's hand and followed it as the sweet, sweet blade glided through the air and the motion of his hand brought it to Nate's leg. Jane raised up her good hand to her cheek, eyes half-closed with salacious delight, her bottom lip rocking gently against her upper row of teeth as she watched. She drew in a shuddering breath. Wished desperately that she was the one holding that scalpel, carving up Nate's flesh with that beautiful, razor-sharp blade. Her cheeks--all the while--blazed red.

She was panting to a noticeable degree when Mason replied: No, I do not see a lot of injuries like his around here Miss Jane.

"Well that's...a shame...ha ha..."

Stab wounds. Hrng. Broken bottles over the head! Hrng~ahhhh! Ah! Why didn't she just suck it up and learn to be an apothecary?? Then people would be coming to her, wounded, begging her for her help, and she could root around in their wound with her fingers and slice away what needed slicing away with scalpels and let her eyes and her ears feast on their shivers and moans and those tiny little involuntary jerks of the body when something painful touches sensitive flesh. Oh, if it wasn't so involved with the intricate learning! Ah!

When Mason said his last bit, one could easily imagine stars appearing before Jane's eyes, so enamored was she by what he told her.

And she leaned toward him. Asked him, perhaps with a level of excitement that he might find perturbing, "Oh I will! I will! I'll make sure he uses that leg. Tell me, Uncle Mason, will it be painful? Will it hurt him to do that? Is he just going to have to grit his teeth and get through it?"

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

“Stop making it seem like we fucked.” The hunter grumbles when Uncle mason finished up tying up the gauze. Finally that treatment was bloody done but it still ached like someone took a beat-stick to his leg. Until... he had to say it.

Nate’s eyes snap open at the offering from Uncle Mason, the gnome looks at Jane with curious look. Nate felt the impending doom of pain looming over him now. Why did he always get the crazy friends, why couldn’t he have the saner ones... as a matter of fact Jane was the preferred friend since she still had yet to catch on to what he was for some reason.

At least she mostly meant good things for him.

“Now Miss Jane, calm down. It all depends on your friend here, you are just going to be there to make sure he doesn’t blast anything else up and he atleast does his exercise. Now please, get out of my store so I can keep my business open.”

Yeah he was royaly fucked by his gods and her gods. Once they both finally left, more like got kicked out, of the establishment he turns to Jane, “Please tell me you’ll be merciful Jane. Right?”

Jane

 

[Jane]

"What's merciful mean?" she asked.

And waited.

And waited.

Then a grin crossed her face. "I'm kidding."

So they had been seen to and ejected from the apothecary's store quickly enough. The pain in Jane's hand was alleviated, though time would still be needed to let the bones set back. Nate's leg was more or less the same way, needing time to be righted. And he still had his fever left to burn out. But they'd both come out of the store better than how they went in.

Better. Talk about better. The gnome had given Jane the oh so perfect task for her.

"But I do need to make sure you use that leg," she said, with a sly slant to her eyes and a smirk. "Don't I?"

She gave a little twirl of her uninjured hand. "We'll be stuck in Minaris for a little while anyway, it seems. Between my hand and your leg. But we'll get back out onto the hunt soon enough."

Jane glanced down to Nate's leg. Back up at him. Said, "Want to give it a try? Walking on that? You can lean on me if you need."

Oh yes. And then she could feel the strain in his tightening fingers about her shoulders, her arm, whatever he takes hold of. The language of pain, communicated through touch, and ohhh~ did she love it.

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

"When we get back to hunting that'll be one of the best days of my fucking life. After when I get to use this leg without the pain." Her grumbles rubbing his face before begrudgingly wrapping an arm around Jane's shoulder as he put some weight on his leg.

It hurt like the dickens but supposedly the pain was a good pain, though he felt as though Uncle Mason's task was misguided. Still, he gripped Jane's shoulder as some pain shot up his leg as they took a few steps.

"You really are going to be enjoying this aren't you?" He asks Jane sighing as he lifts his leg back up off the ground. "Anyways, what should we try to go hunt after this? Maybe some inland monster and nothing from the sea, if I step foot onto another ship I will throw myself off of it."

Nate was hoping for a challenge, maybe a high and all might vampire lord or the alpha of a rogue werewolf pack. That would be fun. Or perhaps a dragon, not a fully grown one but one that was old enough to prove at least some heart-pumping challenge to bring down and harvest.

Jane

 

[Jane]

Nate gripped her shoulder, and Jane laid her hand on top of his. To hold his hand there. But also to feel the emergence of the bones in the back of his hand, just beneath the skin, when he gripped tighter. It was always the little things. The little things just like that. Tiny things that the body did when it was suffering some level of pain--they were always the sweetest.

You really are going to be enjoying this aren't you?

"Already there," she said, letting out a husky breath. Honestly, Nate was incredible for her--she'd never had a friend quite like this. That adventuring party she had arrived in Guillotine with those months ago? Jane tried a few things with their stubbly faced leader. Handsome man. Gruff. What was she to think? She thought he was a rough and tumble sort of man. Turned out he wasn't so fond of Jane. She offered to shave his face once, he agreed, some things happened, and...then he didn't want anything else to do with her. Shame, that. It was something of a blessing in disguise that the demons showed up in Guillotine, or else she might still be with a party that had come to not really like or trust her.

Nate's question. Where to go and what to hunt. Hmmmm...

"Shore leave it is then, sailor," Jane said, playfully tapping his ribs with her elbow. "Let's see."

And she thought for precisely a second.

"Ah! Maybe we can go see your family. They're a bunch of hunters too, you said. Bet you a half-pint they'd have something for us."

Jane walked along the street of Minaris at Nate's pace. Savoring what little twitches from twinges of pain in his leg came flowing to his hand and his fingers.

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

The hunter grumbles some as Jane gently elbowed him in the ribs. Thank the gods it wasn’t his leg. “If anything you’re the sailor.” He says shaking his head wondering how someone can stand not being on solid earth for so long. He could swim, but the waves and sharks and no shade or trees just made him sad. He loved his woods.

Then Jane brought up his family to which he thinks for a moment, “It has been a few years since I seen them. But they will probably not like you because of your holy affinity to the celestials. Besides my kingdom is far in the mainland on the coast in the savannah. Thats a few months journey and a dangerous one by foot.”

Nate chuckles, “You know what sure, lets go see the good old lord and lady of a keep somewhere. Then maybe we could get some answers out of those fuckers as to why your holy magic hates me.”

Jane

 

[Jane]

She called everyone she liked "sailor." They didn't have to like the sea or like ships. Heh, sometimes she thought the sea and whatever ship she was on to be a bitch each. Her fellow Sisters of the Citadel when she was in the cult thought it to be odd, but none had ever said anything directly to her about it. Jane went on doing it, because, ah yes, the sea just symbolized freedom to her, didn't it? Killing the Eunuch and leaving Cerak behind and setting out into the Black Bay and eventually stumbling across the Sisters, she only really had her first true taste of it once her feet were permitted through her own actions to leave the dreary land of her illegitimate and unwanted birth behind.

But they will probably not like you because of your holy affinity to the celestials.

Jane smiled devilishly. Well, at least that would be new. Mostly it was because of incidents like the one with Stubbly Leader in that adventurer's group. It was only a few little nicks--they weren't even that deep.

Nate came around on the idea after a chuckle.

Then maybe we could get some answers out of those fuckers as to why your holy magic hates me.

Jane tilted her head back and belted out a laugh. "Ha, ha! Yes! I'd like to hear that too. Astra's got to feel dejected that I can't bless you properly."

Easy steps. Easy steps through the street. Ah, what a give and take. She wanted Nate to get better, but she also wanted it to hurt like hell. These two urges fighting in her heart like a couple of hungry dogs tugging a scrap of meat back and forth.

Jane's good hand left Nate's for a moment as she tapped her chin contemplatively with a finger. Said, "Well, if we can scrounge a Portal Stone Key from a mage here in Minaris, that should cut our travel time. There's probably a Portal Stone somewhere close to here, right?"

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

"I mean either my family is hiding something from me or they know nothing and we going to have to go digging through the family book or the history of the kingdom." Nate shrugs, "I don't fucking know."

The thought of another portal stone key made the hunter feel sick. He gets even paler and feels a bit sick. "So long as long as we do not end up in a mysterious city again that no one knows of then we can." He points in the rough direction of the portal stone.

"It should be somewhere over there roughly. We could go to Allir's reach and spend maybe a few days' journeys to the keep and bam, you meet my mom, dad, and siblings maybe. Be careful mom might smother you in hugs and food." He rubs his belly remembering the good food. She made the best pies and soups. Definitely good with a nice toasted cheese sandwich.

Jane

 

[Jane]

So long as long as we do not end up in a mysterious city again...

"Heh heh, right," Jane said, hitting the r in right with extra emphasis. "I can do without pressing that rune again."

It had been an adventure, that much was for certain. Plenty of wonderful sights. Aivrid, Tir'Coatl, the splatterings they made of the locals and this all for Jane's eyes to feast on. Lovely, lovely, as Jane had once heard a woman far more eloquent than her say. Maybe they were elsewhere, doing what they did best, either adding to their fearsome reputation or honing that delicious blood magic.

But she digressed. Thagretis was a place best left well enough alone. Jane had her share of adventure on the seas of the Cortosi Coast gathering sacrifices for Dark One Alarak, but the Anirian Navy? Land close to Vel Anir itself? Best left well enough alone, just like Thagretis.

Well.

It was a plan then, for Nate to have something of a homecoming. Jane smiled. Outstanding. She was as keen as he was to figure out the (reason? or secret? Oh ho, intrigue...) behind his body's flat aversion to her Blessings. He didn't fucking know. She didn't fucking know. They were going to find out.

Hugs. Hugs were awkward. Normal hugs were awkward. She liked to at least break the skin a little with her fingernails if she was going to hug someone. Nothing wrong with the offer of food though.

"Hmm." Jane ran her tongue across her teeth. "I'll have to keep you entertained. Until your leg's better and my hand's better and we can set sail. Figuratively set sail."

She canted her head toward him as they walked. "Too bad you have a hard time getting drunk."

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

“Yah know, sometimes I wish it wasn’t that way. But bright side is I get to see a remember all the silly shit people get up to when they are drunk. Need I remind you of that dress you stolen from that woman in that village somewhere?”

Nate tells Jane with a slight tease in his voice as they walked. “Funny thing is you never saw me in a fancy outfit yet. Either just undershirt and the pants or the armor that needs cleaned and repaired.” It was actually incredibly true. That was the funny part considering their jobs. Somehow they avoided the social interaction contracts and kept on getting the hunt down the beasts in the woods.

“I think that going home might be the perfect occasion to that. Wanna go find a portal stone now or later? Before we get back to the hotel and I just crash.”

Jane

 

[Jane]

"It was a nice dress. Just the wrong color," Jane said. Tight in certain areas, but a nice dress nonetheless. Marked the second-best time she got drunk and blacked out and woke up in someone else's clothes.

Yeah. Nate was right. She hadn't seen him in any fancy threads yet. He wore that wolf pelt nicely enough, but other than that it was...heh, it was like Jane after the Redeemer had come along: armor day in and day out.

And, also, Jane did have a dancing little spark of curiosity brightening up the back of her mind. She never had an actual family herself. Nope. That was something for better off people--people born into luckier circumstances. She didn't feel any kind of hard way about it, just got through her life as best she could with a smile--if not on her face then in her heart. A cavalier smile at times, a malicious smile at times, but a smile. But she was curious to see just how Nate and his family got along. Curious to see what it was like to have a mother and a father instead of a Master, to have siblings instead of fellow slaves.

Yeah. She was curious.

Nate mentioned the Portal Stone Key. Implicitly offering to go walking around more on his recovering leg. And so Jane flashed another grin. Brought her good hand back up on top of his on her shoulder.

"Now that's the enthusiasm I like to hear!" she said. A quick hmm hmm type of laugh followed. "We can absolutely go trawling around Minaris for a mage who needs some extra coin in their pocket. We'll put that leg to use, and then you can tell me allll~ about it."

Through words. Through those sharp little intakes of breath when a dash of pain lights up your nerves. Through the way the tips of your fingers curl into my shoulder. Through those brief limping stumbles when the pain is too much and you have to quickly shift your weight back to your good leg. Ahhhhh...the little things.

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

Nate shakes his head, “Im not sure Mason would like us walking about willynilly. You can I can’t, and probably shouldn’t really walk around for miles. Besides I feel like I already walked twenty miles today.”

He’d look up as see a carage driver approaching then smiles, “And Im sure your shoulders would start hurting if you are suppoting me like this for the gods know how long.” He’d wave down the carrage driver and hop into the back.

“Take us to the nearest magic stop with portal stone keys potentally.” He’d say sighing as he finally rested his leg. He had been on it for a while now it felt. How long ago was it? He lost track, though he did feel like an eighty year old grandpa with arthritis in his leg.

“Jane know any other magic then holy magic? Might be a but more beneficial then just relying on a sword or punching out something’s heart. Kind of can’t do too much if we somehow get chained up or something along those lines.”

Jane

 

[Jane]

There was always tomorrow. Tomorrow and the next day for the leg. And that was all small tidings if he let her Bless the leg some more. Now that was quite savory. Ah, but it did remind her that she had worked up a tally that needed to be flogged out of her--she didn't get around to it last night, nor the nights before. For every spot of fun, a price.

Nate summoned a carriage passing by in the Minaris street. And Jane was mutely amazed at the sight. She'd never seen anything other than utilitarian wagons around Cerak, and half of the time those weren't even pulled by horses.

They hadn't been riding along in the carriage for long before Nate asked her about magic. Any other kind of magic than holy magic. And at this Jane grinned fiercely. She had her response clear as day in her head, dancing wonderfully on the tip of her tongue ready to be said, the words Yes I do know some other magic right there.

Then--

The memory of the Redeemer's hand, smothering her face, that white light, smothering her thoughts then and smothering her thoughts now.

Jane blinked. Once. Twice. Her grin, genuine a second ago, gained a very slight veneer of being false.

"No. Just what Astra has given me. It will just have to do." She gave an amused laugh. "Chained up, huh. That'd be different, me not being the one doing the chaining."

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

With a squint in his eyes Nate descides not to press for more details. Jane never really gave such a look before when he asked her something. “You do know we been together for a long time now, you going to be in for a few surprises if we continue traveling together.” He chuckles, “We might have ended up in chains back in that weird desert foreign city. I would’ve been miserable if that happened. I hate prisons and jail cells.”

They pass a few people with kids running around and before they knew it they were outside a shop. A few little nick-knacks decorated the outside with wind-chimes. The masonry of the building rather complimented the items decorating it.

However, there was a stall with the words, Portal Keys. Nate tosses them a bag of coins and they tosses him a portal key in the same back. He hands it to Jane and the cart starts heading off again back towards the hotel.

“What would you have done if we did end up in chains?”

Jane

 

[Jane]

Ohhh, surprises. Jane liked surprises. Except when she didn't. Who didn't feel that way?

Yeah, they did come close to being caught in Thagretis. What a welcome. Nothing like showing up to a new place and taking people captive--Jane ought to know. Granted that deal was reversed in Thagretis, but it was thrilling nonetheless. Thrilling, of course, because Jane and Nate and presumably the Scaled King (and certainly Aivrid) didn't get caught. That would have turned it from bloody good fun into something of a slog. Who knew what those dragon-obsessed people would want to do with them? Like Nate said, shame Jane only (only?) knew the holy magic bestowed upon her by Astra--would've been of little use against foes who weren't part of her Favored Enemies.

Nate took care of the Portal Key transaction with an efficient timeliness. Pitch some coin, catch a Key. Wasn't it startling? How easily those things could be obtained and then how rough the destinations could be? Heh, maybe it was nothing, maybe Thagretis was a hell of an outlier, but Portal Stones and travel through them was all still relatively new to Jane. Could well be a convenient way to get oneself into trouble quicker, depending on how shit transpired at the destination.

All's well that ends well, though. That adage having a delightfully cynical twist to it in Cerak compared to the Mainland, Jane recalled.

Their carriage ride started back toward The Minaris Respite. And Nate had a curious question that she had no problem answering--already knew it.

"Bitched and moaned about it. In my head. And probably started scheming on how to kill everyone involved," Jane said, laughing about it as if the idea was all in good fun. "I would have been right there with you, Nate. Miserable. I was too busy working in Cerak to be kept in literal chains, but it was all the same. Locked in one spot, being made to do something you fucking hate."

(One added to the flogging tally, but she didn't care.)

She glanced over to him. The carriage hit a small bump in the road and Jane bounced along with it, a minuscule motion that hardly even disturbed her hair.

"Ask you something, Nate?" she said.

Her thoughts were careful. Simple memories of the open sea, of sailing with the Sisters whose faces she consciously refused to imagine, so as to make the old memory as plain and generic as possible. She was on the deck, leaning forward on the railing and tasting the fresh ocean air. That very smell the smell of freedom to her. And she had been free. After the Eunuch and before the Redeemer, there in that too small and fleeting period of time, she had been free.

Her voice was level, but, unbeknownst to her and despite the playful smirk, her eyes betrayed the forlorn and bygone happiness she was thinking of--the very thing which inspired her to ask this question.

"What would you do if someone took the hunt away from you?"

And made you do something you fucking hate.

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

Nate sucks in a breath. He did not know how he would be if someone took away the hunt from him. It was all he could do really to keep living sane. “I don’t want to think about what I would do, mostly because I wouldn’t really be me then.” He gives a slight chuckle. It seemed like Jane seemed lost in her own mind to him, but he did not press on her past. Her past was her own and she would maybe reveal it more when she was ready. He did not mind. “Besides life would be boring then.”

But her question made him realize one thing.

It has been weeks since he last went on a hunt. Something that was so important to his family and his own mental and physical safety was taken away for weeks. Not to mention both of his bloods were probably working double time to keep him alive for so long. And he felt, hungry. Not a normal hunger one would get from not eating breakfast. Nate felt his stomach clenching some.

It was more the appetite of a starved hunter. Why did Jane have to ask, that question?

His vision started to comfuse the colors of normal every day things. Blue went to green, green went to blue. Red became yellow. Some things became rainbow while others went grey. He would rub his eyes the fingers of one of his hands shaking his head. When he opened them again all he could see was red. Jane’s blonde hair became red, the cart was red, they sky was red. He saw a light glow coming from everything around him that was living. It was a bright blue color. Some brighter then others.

Not now, please not in the middle of a populated city. I don’t want this to be like Thagertis.

He would look up towards Jane and try to say something when he couldnt the pain in his stomach and back forces him to his knees from the chair. He started to get sick again but this time a gold stream of liquid stream from his eyes. It only took a few seconds for his own flesh to essentially melt off his very self and his bones broke into new joints and part. Just to reveal a white furred long necked wolf-like creature. Its eyes golden with large fangs sticking out his top jaw. Multiple orange eyes stared at Jane unblinking with the gold still streaming from them.

Spikes rested on its shoulders and its long claws were on human/wolf feet. The end of its tail was bladed.

The cart driver would look around yelling, “Whats all the commo-“ And as he was speaking the creature’s ears flick and it opens its mouth. Of which its sides were almost like torn muscle and a glow came from within its throat. The cart driver was not able to finish what he was saying as Nate grabs him with his front legs and rips into his chest with his teeth. Blood sprays from the man as Nate drags him back and the life is drained from his eyes almost as fast as it has started. He would then start to tear into the once alive man, snapping bones into pieces and eating up the meat.

People started to scream and ran for shelter, those who had tried to intercept beast-Nate were met with a grizzly end.

Jane

 

[Jane]

I wouldn't really be me then.

Jane blinked.

Said simply, "Yeah."

And she spared a thought for bygone times. The smell of the sea that permeated Minaris aiding much in this. She watched the ground go by as the carriage rolled on, and this she did with a tiny smile. She was elsewhere, in another when.

Lost as she was in her momentary reverie, Jane missed a good half of Nate's transformation. But some unconscious tingle, some silent question mark raised by a sound she at last registered or sight likewise registered from the corner of her eye, brought her back to the present. She glanced over in a curious way to her comrade.

And the mild expression of "Hmm?" slid down effortlessly into a kind of intensely confused, excited, and aroused conglomeration of emotion as Jane beheld what was happening so suddenly with Nate. She didn't understand any of it--not at first--but the strangeness and dangerousness (and sinfulness) of it all had her transfixed. An enthralling kind of terror had her enraptured, much like being in the presence of Aivrid when he had become a dragon.

"Nate...?" she said, a certain huskiness to her voice.

But the driver of the cart was louder, yelling back at them. And what happened next was blindingly fast, cutting off the driver before he could even finish his question.

Jane leaped out of the cart and onto the street, yet at the same time watched with lurid fascination. She gasped and held both her hands to the apex of her chest, just beneath her neck. The sight of the man's blood, the sheer amount of it, the rending of his flesh and limbs...all of it made Jane weak in the knees, and inspired a flare of warmth from between her legs of which Astra would surely disapprove. Her teeth sank into the skin beneath her bottom lip for a moment, edging in little pink grooves that served as marks of the sadistic pleasure pulsing through her from witnessing this.

She was frightened. Confused. But she couldn't stop smiling.

Somehow the sound of people screaming and scattering got through to her, and she let out a few hot and bothered breaths and blinked rapidly. Matters of practicality could now state their case in her mind. And this? This was going to go down like Thagretis. And Jane was neither armed nor armored. And worse, she didn't even know if Nate could understand her in this (werewolf he's a werewolf by the immortal hells and the dark one alarak he's a werewolf look at those teeth and those claws and all that--hhhhhhrrrrrnnngg!--blood and astra isn't going to forgive me but fuck astra add that to the tally oh shit he's a werewolf) form.

"Nate!" Jane called out, holding up both hands in a universal gesture for peace. "Nate, Nate, Nate! Hey! Hey. Do...you recognize me?"

She didn't know much about how werewolves worked. This was a crossbow shot in the dark if anything.

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

Someone was grabbed by the wolf form and was snapped in half, only to go down its throat with the crunching of bones. With a deep his it licks it lips clean of blood with drool dripping from it’s mouth it’s multi-eyed head snaps toward Jane as he called out a name and held up her hands. It doesn’t blink as it limps towards her.

It appears to be calm but its neck hair bristles as it shows its teeth and lunges at Jane trying to bite into her torso. He was so so hungry.

Jane

 

[Jane]

It wasn't working. It wasn't working. Alright, it definitely was not working.

Nate didn't seem to recognize his own name. He sure as the immortal hells looked at Jane as if he recognized it. But there was no indication of anything other than an intent to kill in his now bestial eyes. Hey. Did you hear that? Practicality was calling Jane's name. Just like in Thagretis when the Masked Man and the soldiers suddenly turned on her and all the newcomers.

She started backing up. Well thank Astra Nate still had that limp, even in his werewolf form.

"Nate. It's me. It's Jane. It's Jane, alright? Nate. No, no, no!"

Jane had to fling herself to her right and into the facade of a storefront. And even so, Nate's lunge still clipped her during her sidestep, making her spin around and ruining whatever grace she might have had if left unimpeded. Jane spun, nearly lost her footing, and the bracing of her palms against the storefront's glass couldn't save her forehead from smacking roughly into it. The glass was spiderwebbed with cracks, but did not break.

Jane pushed herself from the window to the shop door, leaving a spatter of blood at the epicenter of the cracks. She tried the door. Shit! The damn shopkeep was too smart for Jane's own good--locked! Why couldn't she just Bless the damn doorknob and unlock it? How about that for a Blessing? Come on!

Fuck. This was just going to get worse and worse. Especially when the guards and fighting men started showing up. But first, Jane needed to live that long.

A thin red line of blood rolling down her forehead and down the right side of her nose and touched the right corner of her mouth.

Jane abandoned the shop door and ran for the cart. Thinking that she hadn't much time and that she'd best put something between herself and Nate right now.

Nathanael McCallister

 

[Nathanael McCallister]

The smell of blood enticed the creature as it started to drool even more. Having missed Jane it lets out a roar and smashes in the window, the shopkeep lets out a yell as the glass shattered everywhere. People were starting to arrive with their own weapons.

Within moments there was a sufficient amount of them for the beast. Jane managed to get behind the cart when it had broken the glass into many small pieces. Some men loaded their arrows while others stood back waiting to see what would happen next.

The arrows fired and hit their mark, but the beast made no attempt to dodge them. Instead blood dripped onto the earth and it started to seep into the cracks and ran towards the people confronting it. When it reached their feet they would start to cough up even more blood until what appears to be light is expelled from the body. It would disappear quickly as they collapsed to the ground as lifeless husks.

Some were put off by the spells while others simply seeing their comrades falling charged at the creature but were dealt a swift end as he swat them into a wall. Their human and mortal bodies shattering with blood under their bodies had landed. A gut wrenching shriek fills the air as the beast lets out a roar but it beastial side covers up what was the true meaning behind the shriek.

Now the beast was sniffing around for more prey until its head looked around hovering just above Jane’s hiding spot. Blood splattered onto the ground next to her and disappeared in a black puff of smoke.

Jane