Private Tales Whiskey Neat

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
"It was one death five minutes ago you dreadful little rodent. I'll give you mine, and you'll tell us where and how." Joseph growled. "Or I start ripping off limbs and we find another fae." He seized the clurlchaun's arm in an iron grip, glaring at him. He knew how he'd die. He'd always known. The clurlchaun would see very vague pictures. A flash of a far younger Joseph taking a lantern into the room where three children slept. Carrying four bodies out. Burying them himself on top of a pretty little hill, and alighting away as a stag into the darkness.

Then those same graves, now grown over with flowers and grasses, the house behind them fallen in with neglect and vegetation. Joseph returning there, with a very small bottle similar to the ones in Saturninus' shop. A simple drink, then curling up on those symmetrical little hills to take his last breaths. It was a quiet, sad death. One in the middle of nowhere, leaving Joseph's body to rot.

Joseph yanked his hand away and glared at the fae. "Now. Tell us." he snarled, viciously. "I am extremely close to breaking your arms at the elbow and your jaw in the middle and forcing you to pick out pieces of shit from the outhouse like a chicken."
 
The clurichaun didn't take his eyes away from her as Joseph seized his hand. His eyes went white, without pupils and irises, and his smile grew so wide she thought his face would split in two. It only lasted a moment, and when he blinked, his hand released Joseph's and his eyes were crimson rings once more.

"Interesting," he mused. Somehow he was still looking right at her, as if he'd never really looked away, and he raised his hand to her as well. "And yours?"

She had already sacrificed part of her life toward this end; allowing him a glimpse into that fate couldn't be much worse than that. She raised her paw without hesitation, and his hand immediately closed around it not unlike Saturninus' had just days before.

It startled her, the shift. She was in her body, and yet not. She could see lights dancing around her but her vision was swirling with darkness -- bits of herself she realized. The lights giggled in excitement, gleeful as something cold and heavy burned into her chest. The pain was overwhelming, dizzying, and her heart --

She gasped, and she was back. Disoriented, she hastily withdrew her paw from the clurichaun's open hand. She was going to die. The reality was somehow worse than realizing she had no name. Faeries weren't supposed to die; they lived forever, right? But she was going to. Her death was as certain as she stood there alive at that moment. Mortality was a foreign concept she had never learned to process, and it paralyzed her.

"So that's how it ends," the clurichaun said with a sigh. "A disappointment, really."

She panted, still breathless from the glimpse into her death, and Joseph demanded their payment. The clurichaun tsked, then shook a finger. "So impatient." He reached impossibly deep into a pouch at his belt and pulled out a fistful of rushes that should not have fit into a bag hardly the size of his hand. A wind blew hard in their faces, and the clurichaun's body became mist.

"Where to find the ones who took your name..." His voice was all around them, but had no one point of origin.

"In the hill on the hill,
In the dead tree of life,
Where order is spun from chaos
And hellfire is cold as ice."

The wind whistled as it passed through the cracks of the trap door, and his laughter filled the cellar. They both would feel a sharp pain in their temples, and a foreign image bore into their minds -- a map of the continent of Epressa with a path through the Allir Reach and up the Spine, with an end like a blob of ink pressed deep into paper by a violent jab of the quill.

"You're marked for death," the clurichaun's voice taunted her once more, then all traces of the wind vanished and she was left only with the pain in her head.

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph swore and rushed to the table, scribbling down the stupid poem before he could forget it. The fae was gone, as wind rushed up through the trapdoor. Of course the little shit could turn into mist. Joseph glared after him, waving the piece of paper so the poem would dry. They'd need it. It was their only clue, other than the throbbing pain in his skull. He'd been through enough hangovers to power through the agony. He put his hand on Shuck's shoulder reassuringly. "He let something slip. We didn't know if they only knew your name or had stolen it. Now we know it's the latter. Someone has stolen your name, and now we have the directions on where to find them. It's not just one man. It's several of them." he told her.

"There's a theory a philosopher once had. Once you observe something...you change it. Now that you know you're going to die, you might have already altered the course of your death or prevented it." Joseph knew that would be a cold comfort, but perhaps not. He went to the trap door and looked up at it. He'd ruined the stairs. "One thing's for sure. We need to steal a horse from this innkeeper and be gone before someone wakes up."

He looked up at the trapdoor again and became the snake once more, gently pushing the trapdoor up with his head while his broad tail rested against the edge of the door. Hopefully Shuck would be able to climb up it and out.
 
She was mentally exhausted, and simply nodded as Joseph tried to reassure her. She was a black shuck whose name had been stolen, and she was most certainly dying. His words were meant to comfort her, but she could still remember the pain, the burn of that thing pressing into her...

There was nothing to say and he was right, so she became shadows and slipped up the wall and toward the door. She ignored the damage to the cellar, ignored the impending doom that whispered in her ear, and slunk through the crack into the tavern above.

It was empty, and there were no lights on in the houses. It was easy enough to stay in the shadows to slip under the door and across the yard. Nothing stopped them from opening the barn from the inside and taking a horse. She didn't reform, curling herself into the shadows that hung around his chest. Her mind kept running through the images and feeling of her death, of the mystery of her missing name and identity.

She was silent for a long time, and only spoke from his shadows when they were hours from the village.

"You didn't get to sleep in the bed."

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph hated riding. It hurt like nothing else. He quietly saddled up a horse, stole a plentiful amount of food and a few bottles of whiskey from the tavern. If he was going to travel he was going to at least eat well. He rode quietly, not really speaking or moving much at all. He was deep in thought from telling the fae his death. He could see it happening. Bribing Oscar for poison, dying quietly on the graves of people he once loved and knew. He shoved the thoughts away and rode their stolen horse, lost in thought.

It was quiet for so long Joseph startled when Shuck finally spoke up. He sighed and ran his hand over his face, stopping the horse for a moment. "No, no I didn't." he said quietly. "But we found out a lot of things. Just remind me never to go near that inn again. That man will kill us for ruining a hundred gallons of whiskey and driving away his fae." He patted the horse and clicked for it to start walking again.

It would be a long journey. A long, long journey. He was exhausted, and it wasn't even close to morning. He kept biting his lip to stay awake while the rhythmic plodding of the horse was making him sleepy. He started urging it on in fits and starts. A trot for a mile or so, a few minutes of cantering, anything to stay awake. It was another hour before he heard hooves approaching from behind them. A lot of hooves. All marching in perfect order. "Shit, we have to get off the goddamn road." he muttered to the shadows on his chest. He steered the horse into some bushes, and stood stock still, staring at the road.

The company that marched past them was certainly an odd bunch. There were fifteen of them, three breast, horses groomed to a silky sheen under the moonlight. The middle man at the head of the columns carried a flag with a gold sunwheel sewn on black sack cloth. They moved quickly and quietly, each horse matching footsteps with the precision of a military march. Military they were not. The men were ragged, rough creatures. Highwaymen. The man behind them, mounted on a bay unicorn, looked like he would be more at home in a library than the leader of a bandit crew. He had bent wire-rimmed glasses on his aquiline nose, a weak chin, but a shockingly strong body. A thick set of arms settled on either shoulder of the unicorn; there were no reins and no saddle.

Joseph sighed and clicked to the horse. "We might sleep in a bed yet." he muttered to Shuck. "Appear beside me, and be friendly. He doesn't like surprises."
An arrow thunked into the tree surprisingly close to his cheek. He'd felt the whisper of feathers brush against his skin!

"That you, Joseph Meier?" Heinrich called out. A compound bow was in those strong arms, an arrow already nocked. Joseph kicked the horse with his one good leg and steered them back out onto the road, a tired glower on his face.
"Heinrich." he grunted.

"My lord tells me you freed him from the marketplace before they were able to cut off his horn. Where's the fae?"
 
She was content to sleep on his chest, comforted by the closeness of another living thing as she came to terms with that dreaded mortality. She did her best to help keep him awake, rising up in tendrils to tackle his nose and ears, or curling into rings around his neck and wrists. But he was getting tired. She surveyed their surroundings, thinking it might do to pull off into the woods and sleep in another hollow, but they heard the approach of hooves.

The troop was strange, to say the least. The men didn't seem to match their sleek horses, and to train the beasts to such precision must have taken years. Yet when she saw the bay stallion at the rear, she realized how such order was achieved.

The dog was curled around his neck and peering out from above his ear when the arrow whizzed by. It caught the corner of her shadow, and her whispy form broke apart slightly. Recoiling, she slid slowly down the horse as they moved toward the man Joseph called Heinrich. When she manifested, a patch of her shoulder wouldn't stay solid, smoke-like bits seeping out of the spot. It hurt quite badly, she realized.

But now wasn't a good time to be divulging more lesser known facts about her health and her forms to Joseph. They approached the man and unicorn. When he inquired of her, she slowly and calmly walked around the horse and looked up at him.

"Hello." Her voice lacked its normal pleasantly, neutral and flat. She was admittedly despirited, having learned some hard truths and depriving Joseph of a small human comfort in the process. She was wondering if it may have been better to live and die carelessly as a church grim.

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph looked down at her. What in...her shoulder. He blinked, exhausted though he was. "He hit you with that arrow?" he asked, giving Heinrich a surprisingly venomous look despite his exhaustion. The sharpshooter leaned over to look at her, and laughed.
"Maybe I'm losing touch in my old age. I could have sworn he was the only rider." Heinrich said with a shrug. "We're headed to camp. I'll have a look at it when we're there."

Joseph sighed and nodded to Shuck. "Come back to me, I don't want you walking with that." he told her. "We've had a long night, old friend. I haven't slept yet, and....well, she's learned fae can die."
Heinrich looked at her. "Even unicorns can die, old magic though they are. My lord is one of the few remaining. Fearing death is pointless, as is navel-gazing about it. You can cram as much life as you can into this one, or you can slink away quietly and rot. I choose the former." he told her. "But you're both tired, if you haven't slept all night. Neither have we."

"Raiding?" Joseph asked tiredly.
"Yes. We've got a rather good haul." Heinrich pushed his glasses up on his nose. "We're not too far from the barracks. Follow us, and don't worry. If you fall asleep and your horse strays, my lord will keep him on the straight and narrow."

With that, the sharpshooter moved up the column, the unicorn lifting his head high and prancing every step of the way. He seemed proud of the idea that he could outpace mere horses with a few strides. Joseph waited for Shuck to come up to him, and let himself rest a little bit. As Heinrich had reassured him, the horse followed behind the others, ears pricked forward and eyes focused on the unicorn.

The barracks was quite an amazing feat for a group of highwaymen. It truly did look like an old outpost that Heinrich had taken over. It had a small outer wall, and a fairly fortified building with a stable underneath it. Joseph watched the other horses file in to their respective stalls, and chose one of the empty ones for his own stolen mount. He dismounted, took the saddle from it, and settled it on the dividing wall. As he thought, the unicorn had run of the encampment. Heinrich made no move to hitch him or even try to restrain his movement. He smiply dismounted, and let the lord of the mountains do as he pleased.

Heinrich approached the pair. "We have a doctor that can see to the shuck." he said. "It pays to have someone who knows about fae as well as humans."

Joseph looked at the shadow. "Want to try?" he asked.
 
"Yes," she replied simply to his question. Was it so obvious? She glanced at her shoulder, smoldering as it was. She reckoned it looked rather frightening. When he suggested that she come back to ride with him as a shadow, she sighed but did so. It must not have worn him out too badly to change between shapes, but she grew weary with too much transition. Still, rising was preferable to walking. Perhaps this was what the clurichaun had meant? She couldn't hold this form on what little power she had?

The thought wasn't very reassuring, and she curled tightly against Joseph as they rode back. Little bits of her floated out of his shadow, likely quite concerning, and the longer they rode the more noticeably she struggled to keep to the confines of darkness. She mostly ignored their conversation for her own thoughts and was grateful when they arrived at their destination.

See to the shuck. It was strange, not being a grim, but even stranger hearing someone else say it out loud. Joseph asked her if she would be willing to try it, and a dark blob of shadow peered up at him from his chest.

"Do you think I should?" Her voice was as soft as a feather. "I'm very tired and... I hurt."

As she grew weary, the glamours that would have normally hidden her dark body from him faded. Vaguely humanoid, though more like a star, she consisted of four limbs and a head. She appeared to be curled under his arm, with her own arms clinging to his shoulders. She raised her wounded arm for him to see. Sure enough, little bits drifted away, dissolving into nothing.

"I'll have to be formed, won't I." It wasn't a question, but a reluctant observation. With a long sigh, she pried her limbs free and, in a column of smoke and shadows, manifested.

"I'm tired," she repeated, just to emphasize -- as if it wasn't obvious.

In just a few hours, she had gone from perfectly well to utterly exhausted from days of travel and constant shifting of forms. Her fur was dull and somewhat grayed, and the unstable patch on her shoulder was spreading. Her silver eyes were darkening, too, and she walked very slowly beside Joseph as they followed Heinrich. She hoped the doctor, whoever they were, wouldn't mind if she laid down.

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph grew more and more concerned for her as she weakened. Thankfully the doctor wasn't far, and Heinrich picked her up for the last few hundred yards of it. The man was as strong as an ox despite looking like a schoolteacher, and carried her effortlessly. Joseph followed Heinich into the medical tent, mulling over Shuck's condition. Gods, only one small graze with an arrow and her shadows were fading fast. She was weaker than he'd anticipated. How long had she spent rotting in that graveyard? How close was she to simply withering away? They had to find her name, and quickly. It could have also been the road. They were exhausted. Joseph was barely on his feet, tired from too much physical exertion in different forms. Becoming a snake and coiling around things had made his stomach muscles cramp. Trotting on all fours made his shoulders and back hurt. Everything hurt, he'd just never slowed down enough to realize it.

He wasn't tired enougn not to freeze when he saw exactly who the medic was. A bull troll stood up to greet them. Fifteen feet tall at the least, with a lanky form that made him look spidery in the enclosed space. Trolls had long limbs, and slender bodies, but made up for it in sheer wiry strength. The four-foot tusks sprouting from the troll's upper jaw, curved gently like that of a mammoth, more than made up for the lack of bulk. "This is your healer?"Joseph snarled at Heinrich, who laid Shuck down on a cot.

"I'm more than capable of healing." the troll boomed at him, and swung his head to look at Shuck. "She's very weak."

"This idiot hit her with an arrow." Joseph growled.

The troll snorted and began picking up things from around the room. A feather, tobacco, evergreen sprigs and rabbit fur wrapped in a leather thong. Joseph glared. That wasn't medicine. At least, not what he knew to be medicine. This was ridiculous, the girl needed a real doctor, not some shaman. He was about to say as such to Heinrich when his friend silently shook his head. "Fae medicine isn't the same as ours." Heinrich said quietly. "I trust him, Joseph, so trust me. Come on. You need a meal and a good bed." He put his hand meaningfully on Joseph's thin shoulder, and steered him out of the medical tent.

The troll placed the evergreen sprigs around Shuck's wound. "Your name would help this." he said in a soft baritone, lighting the sprigs with a little bit of ash wood from a lantern. He hung the lantern on his left tusk to keep the area lit while he worked. He swept the black smoke over her wound with the feather, in slow, meditative movements. "Sleep now."
 
She was grateful to be carried the rest of the way, and even more so when she was placed on a cot. Too tired to continue holding onto her canine form, she reverted back to a small humanoid shadow. She was about the size of a housecat in this shape, with no distinguishable features in her void-black shape except her eyes, which were pinpricks of light.

Taking a good long look at the creature who they called a healer, she surmised that she had no idea what he was. But he was gentle and seemed well versed in what was needed. Although, she had to admit he smelled funny. She stretched out flat and laid very still as he worked. Heinrich began to lead Joseph away and she lifted her little head to watch him go, somewhat reluctant to be left alone in the company of strangers, but was even more afraid to say something. He looked upset, and she wondered why. Was he upset at her? Was he upset for her? It was hard to tell.

The creature -- fae or some creature similar to her kind -- commented that having her name would have helped. He wasn't wrong. She hadn't seen any black shucks, didn't know much about them or how powerful they could be. Then again, she knew what she could do, even in her weakened state, so that was something. Right?

The healer instructed her to sleep and she didn't argue. Her shoulder was burning, but she had to trust that he would mend her. Like stars going out, her eyes closed and she fell asleep.


When she awoke, she had the strange sensation that she had been dreaming. Strange because she'd never dreamed before. She had imagined she was carried by something soft and cozy, swaying to and fro as she passed through light and shadow, day and night. It was an odd dream, to be her first.

Her twinkling eyes opened in the darkness of her little head and blinked, looking around her for the healer. Expecting to still be lying on the cot, she was surprised to find herself curled comfortably into a shadow beneath a blanket. Where was she? She crawled out from the end to see a small room. There wasn't anything besides the bed she had been snuggled deep into and Jospeh's bag near a small table.

"Joseph?" She was clearly alone, but she called out anyways. Wriggling out from under the blankets, she dangled from the edge of the bed and silently dropped to the floor. It felt nice to give her shadow body a more solid form, walking upright on her two little legs like a squat doll. In truth, she felt better than she could ever remember feeling. Something had shifted back in place while she slept, and the woes that had been weighing on her were lighter. She felt rejuvenated and stronger than ever before!

Renewed determination carried her toward the door, into the shadows beneath, and out into a hallway. She could hear voices, and she wandered the building toward the sound. Keeping her glamours tight around her to remain hidden, she made her way outside, always toward the sound of people.

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph had been worried about her, but the healer had stoutly prevented anyone from going in the room for the past few days. The troll claimed it was to help her rest, and being unable to do anything brought Joseph's self-destructive tendencies full circle. Normally Heinrich at least attempted to keep him sober, but with Joseph there was one of two places his moods could go. He could become despondent and sad with a hair trigger temper...or he could be like he was now. Drunk, happy, and making bad decisions. Heinrich smoked quietly in a corner, shaking his head as his men ate dinner and got fantastically blitzed on hard liquor.

The sharpshooter was making arrows, a cigarette in his teeth while he supervised. He'd prevent things from getting too out of hand, but the older members of the gang were eager to show the newer ones what Joseph could do. They were bribing him with a whiskey bottle, playfully keeping it away from the cripple until he shifted into a female, then plying him with messy shots of the stuff. Although Joseph couldn't change too drastically from the female form he'd crafted, he could change certain things. Bust size, for one, was a popular request.

When Shuck wandered out, Heinrich spotted her and gently stopped her from wandering further with a leg extended across her path. "Best just let him pass out when he's this far gone." he said. "I'm glad you're awake. He was worried sick about you. I have to confess I didn't know if Marahute could heal you or not."

Heinrich cocked an eyebrow when Joseph collapsed into the lap of one of the men, throwing his arms around the other's neck and messily kissing him. He shook his head at the cheers and whoops.
 
There was some sort of festivities happening among Heinrich's men, but she spotted the man himself first. She dropped her glamours as she approached and pulled her squat little body up onto the bench beside him.

From the new perspective she could see Joseph making an idiot of himself. She quirked her head. In her years as a grim, she had seen the townfolk cut loose a few times. Neither was she completely oblivious -- after all, every generation apparently thought they were reinventing daring romps in the cemetery.

Heinrich either noticed her watching him or presumed, advising she let him be. She looked up at the commander.

"Marahute is indeed a skilled healer. I feel quite renewed." Then she looked bath to Joseph as he landed in a man's lap. "He does not look worried," she observed, her voice tilting slightly towards chagrin.

"I am hungry," she declared suddenly. She could smell food, and accepted a bowl of stew when he offered it to her. Though she was small, she managed to put away a great deal of what was in the bowl. All the while she watched the human shenanigans. Heinrich sat beside her, making arrows, also watching. Neither intervened.

At least, not at first. The longer she sat watching him have fun, the more irritated she got. There she was, awake at last after what she assumed had been a long time, and he hadn't even seen her. She ate her food in mounting anger until she watched him fall, giggling and passing out smooches, into the last lap.

She set down her bowl neatly between her and Heineich before a swirl of glamour veiled her. She slipped into the many shadows of the evening and zipped across the ground to the tangle of legs -- tables and humans and chairs. Still hidden from mortal eye, she sped up to the bottle in Joseph's hand. Then, since he was so conveniently distracted, she dropped her glamours and formed her little black body between his palm and the whiskey. She rode the bottle to the ground and quickly shifted it into her arms before she sprinted away from the revelry.

Her little feet were quick, and she easily zigzagged out of the way of any attempt at grabbing her. Her delighted giggles rang clear above the cacophony as she made merry mischief.

// Joseph Meier //
 
"Worry doesn't always manifest like you think it does. He challenged Marahute a few times to try and get to your bedside, but as I'm sure you've noticed bullying around a bull troll isn't as easy as one might think. It was like watching a mink go after a moose. He eventually gave up, got broody, got angry, then started drinking and let his mood shift." Heinrich told her. "He was just as tired as you were. Transforming takes a toll on that leg of his too, you know."

He nodded in satisfaction as he watched her eat. "Interesting you chose this form rather than the dog."Heinrich noted quietly, nipping a bit of sinew off of a newly-made arrow and setting it to the side. He sighed when he saw Joseph begin kissing the other man. Hands were wandering and while he wasn't quite sure how far Joseph's biological capabilities went...he wasn't taking the chance. He began to stand up, but little Shuck beat him to it. He cocked an eyebrow and sat back down in his chair, watching her toddle toward the giggling group.

Angry roars erupted the second the liquor was taken away. Joseph made a mad grab for her, fell, and got up. The men were chasing after her, throwing bread hunks and empty bottles at her in an attempt to get her to let go of the whiskey. No one was coordinated. Two of the men crashed into one another and passed out where they lay. Others, like Joseph, were frantically trying to get ahold of her. Anger turned into maddening laughter as they chased her. Heinrich chuckled to himself. That was one way to break it up. With sex firmly off of their minds in the mad game of 'catch the shuck', Heinrich felt a lot better.

Joseph sloppily shifted into a weasel. He bounded after her drunkenly. Half the time his little paws got tangled and he ended up chin-first on the ground, but he didn't give up. He leapt madly after her in the gay little hops of a mustelid, chittering in excitement. He leapt on top of her and coiled his little furry body around her, purring madly. He nipped at the shadows playfully.
 
She was delighted. She ran over and under the men as they tripped and collided, her laughter intermittently malicious and playful. She could have taunted them for hours, her body filled with energy just begging to be let loose.

But where they lacked the coordination and tact of sobriety, Joseph cheated. She loosed a squeal like an ecstatic child when first his sleek, skinny form narrowly missed her. The game was no longer about keeping the whiskey away from the others, but about outfoxing him. She had forgotten that she was angry with him, and there was something right to the fun she was having.

He got lucky, leaping at just the right moment to catch her. She dropped the bottle and they went rolling, Joseph twisting his thin body around her. His sharp nibbles tickled, and she let out a shrill cry of laughter. Little arms stretched and looped around his lithe form, anchored in the shadows he cast. Her tiny feet came up to deliver a series of rapid kicks against his belly, and a surprisingly large maw opened to chomp down on his neck in return, probably a bit harder than she intended in her excitement.

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph squealed in delight at their tussle. He chittered and play-nipped at her. His bites were never more than feather light, and wouldn't have broken even weak human skin. Her bite, however, produced a loud yelp of pain from him. He kicked away from her and rubbed at the spot, blood staining his fur. Heinrich, half blind as he was, spotted it and stood up. "Alright, that's enough." he called across the yard. "You lot get up and get into your bunks, I won't have you soiling the yard with vomit." He went to his men and began hauling them to their feet. Marahute helped with a few of them, using his great tusks like shovels to pick up some of the well and truly passed out men.

Joseph shifted back to a human, dizzily holding the bite on the side of his neck. "Glad to see you're awake but what the fuck was that? That hurt." he protested to Shuck.
Heinrich came over and peeled his hand away from the wound. "Oh never mind, it's just a few cuts. You being in a smaller form made it worse than it would have been if you stayed large. Serves you right. Everyone to bed. Joseph, you're with me. Marahute, if you'd escort Shuck back to her bed."

The troll tossed another groaning bandit over his shoulder and looked at Shuck. "She is well enough without my care. She does as she pleases. I would rather she sleep in shadows for a few more days, but if she is feeling well enough to play, she is feeling well enough." Marahute told them. "I'd like to put something on that cut, Joseph."

"I'm fucking fine without you trying to paw at me, you walking ivory slab." Joseph spat venomously at the troll. He sighed and looked at Shuck.
 
His yelp was enough to snap her out of the playful bite, instantly unhinging her maw from his shoulder. He wriggled away from her loosening arms and Heinrich called an end to their games. Joseph raised a paw to his neck, then shifted back to his natural form. She felt warring emotions of surprise and anger when she saw Heinrich peel his hand away, revealing a little blood from where she had bitten him.

"You started it," she said defensively at first, then felt her gut twist up. She'd gotten to excited and accidentally bit a lot harder than she intended. Guilt was a new feeling. "It was an accident." Her amendment was said in a much smaller voice.

She stood there alone, unsure where to go or what to do. Their fun was over because she'd been careless. It made her sad, but she grabbed that petty anger back to her, unsure how to deal with the feeling of guilt.

She picked up the whiskey bottle, easily as large as she was, and plodded back toward the building. She wanted to bite him again for getting her so excited, but wanted to curl up in his shadow to make herself feel better, and also to be a dog to lick his neck to make up for biting him. She wrapped her little arms tighter around the bottle.

In the end, she harumphed indignantly and her white eyes winked out as she marched toward her room. He hadn't been sad at all; regardless of what Heinrich said, she had seen him having a grand time ignoring her. She wasn't sorry for biting him! She would go to her room and enjoy her shadows all by herself and he could have his fun elsewhere!

She got very nearly to the building when the idea of going to that little room, so big in that small form, all by herself sent her into an immediate panic. Heinrich and Joseph were almost out of her sight, but she was fast. She skittered after Joseph, dropping the bottle at his feet and vanishing into the shadows on the back of his leg. She gave no explanation, and remained hidden from both of them.

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph watched her pick up the bottle and march to her room. He forgave her. It was an accident, like she'd said. They'd gotten riled up and she'd bitten a little harder than anyone had meant for. He sighed and rubbed away the blood. It was already clotting up. He followed Heinrich back to his room, letting Marahute pick up the rest of the men.

Heinrich's room was spacious. A large queen-sized bed dominated most of the room, with an unusual combination of silk sheets (stolen, no doubt) and furs. A few indulgences of his position lay around the room; a tin of tobacco, rolling papers, an armchair, and a large trunk for his things. Joseph sat on the bed, having not noticed Shuck sneaking around to the back of his leg. There were plenty of shadows for her under the bed, or between the sheets if she chose.

Heinrich pushed a glass of water into Joseph's hands. "Brace off." he said simply.
"You don't need to baby me." Joseph complained, but took a sip of the water and set it on the nightstand. He knew better than to argue. He rolled up his pant leg and removed his brace, setting it with a plunk beside the bed. Heinrich sat next to him, let Joseph brace his back against the headboard, and massaged his leg. His powerful hands easily worked away cramps, scratched itches, and brought warmth to areas that needed it.

"So why are you in my neck of the woods?" Heinrich asked. "I thought you'd be travelling faster."

"We've been trying. Just....breadcrumbs. We visited Saturninus. He pointed us in this direction." Joseph mumbled, drinking his water. "She bounced back quickly."

Heinrich shrugged. "It wasn't that mortal of a wound." he pointed out. "And I never know why you insist upon using new magic. Old magic is far more reliable. Either way...you two need to learn how to cooperate better. She isn't the strongest fighter, and while you have spirit and your shapeshifting, I remember a time that wasn't the case."

Joseph winced when Heinrich hit a sensitive area. "Spare me the lecturing on my shapeshifting." he growled.

"It's an evil thing, and you should get rid of it. You know how I feel about it." Heinrich said sternly. "Perhaps you can ask the Unseelie Fae to take it from you, so you can atone properly. All this misery...rotting your liver out, putting your neck on the line for a girl who couldn't give a damn if you lived or died...I know what you're doing. You're hoping she'll get you killed, so you have some excuse to be a martyr and not a suicide."

Joseph glared at him and yanked his leg away. "I'm too drunk to have this argument." he snapped. "We won't intrude long. She's well. We'll be on our way."

Heinrich sighed and took his glasses off. "I don't mean to shove you out. Either of you. But are you sure this is what you want to be doing?" he asked quietly. Joseph nodded coldly at him. The two men looked at one another, Joseph seething and Heinrich seeming to struggle with his next sentence. He eventually gave up and sighed, taking his shirt off and getting ready for bed. Joseph did the same, curling up silently. One might have expected to have the two laying with their backs to one another. Instead it was the opposite, quietly resting not inches from one another's noses.

"...You ever think about settling down again?" Joseph asked quietly.
Heinrich chuckled. "I don't think they make child's bridal gowns for you."
Joseph punched him in the shoulder. "Asshole. I mean...finding someone you can stand to be around for more than a day without getting sick of them." he muttered.
Heinrich shrugged. "I think, if you're saying what I think you are, you might want to rethink courting fae with your condition." He lazily reached over and patted Joseph's cheek. "Sleep."
 
Cloaked in glamour the shuck stayed in the shadows on the back of Joseph's leg, swiveling to stay out of either of their sights. He carried her unwittingly to Heinrich's room, and she slipped into the darkness beneath the bed when he sat down, where she would be afforded the space and privacy to wait out her emotions. She didn't know what she was going to do, but she wasn't alone.

Their conversation began so casually, a simple question that she almost ignored. But what unfolded was hardly simple. The shuck didn't dare move, afraid they would innately know she was eavesdropping on something she was certain she wasn't supposed to hear. She didn't understand half of what she was hearing, but what she did understand didn't settle well.

She had heard enough. The conversation ended in a stalemate, and she took advantage of them preparing for bed to slip out beneath the door. She traced back their path to where she had dropped the whiskey bottle. She had planned on having it all to herself when she'd been frustrated, but now it made her angry because it reminded her of him. She left it in front of Heinrich's door before she went back to her room.

Burying herself deep into the folds of shadows and blankets, she settled into a pool of darkness. Her mind was too simple, too new -- she didn't understand what Heinrich had meant about the shapeshifting and new magic, having no prior knowledge of them from her limited village gossip. The rest she had understood well enough. Their deal with the clurichaun, the things Saturninus had said, and now this... She would have to be stupid not to see it all coming together.

The shuck curled into herself, not sure if she was angry at him or saddened by this knowledge.

What did it matter if he wanted to die? That was a choice he had a right to, wasn't it? If he was hoping to die while helping her find her name, she certainly wasn't going to stop him; after all, she needed all the help she could get. She owed him more than she'd thought for first putting her foot on the path out of that graveyard, and if he chose to meet his mortal end with that favor then she would oblige him.

And yet...

It was stupid, the strange twisting feeling in her gut. He was rough and sloppy, but he had been kind -- not just nice, but kind. It didn't seem fair to let him throw his life away. She thought back to what he had told the clurichaun. He had lost something and was still carrying that grief. If she truly wanted to replay him, perhaps then her purpose should have been to help him walk out of his own graveyard?

She didn't know, and her mind was too full of conflict to think it through right then. She didn't have to figure it all out right then; she would have time. With a sigh, she buried herself deeper and shut her eyes, turning to her inner darkness and reverie until sleep eventually took her.

// Joseph Meier //
 
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Joseph seemed much better in the morning. He and Heinrich had a friendship based off of mutual knowledge of the other's needs...and the complete refusal to put it in any sort of words. Sometime during the night Joseph had curled up against his friend, and Heinrich had tossed an arm around him. To save both their dignities Joseph quietly removed himself when he woke, dressed, strapped in his brace and went to go get breakfast. He grabbed two plates; one had to get up early to get food in a place like this. You also had to fight every other man scrapping for toast, bacon, eggs, or whatever was on offer. Joseph, despite his size, could throw elbows and bite wandering arms with the best of them.

He filled his and Shuck's plates with eggs, bacon, a roll, and a grilled mix of vegetables, mushrooms, and potatoes that seemed to be the primary diet Marahute stuck to. No one bothered the troll; his tusks gently shoved aside men to get what he wanted, and he moved on. Joseph had to elbow someone in the face with a roll in his mouth to get enough food for the pair of them. He grabbed two mugs of coffee, and disentangled himself from the mess.

He went to Shuck's room, leaving the rest of the men to fight over the food. He set her tray down and balanced his own in his lap, taking the roll out of his mouth and tucking in to his food. "Shuck?" he reached out to gently rustle the pile of blankets. "Better wake up and eat. Heinrich doesn't make me go on jog with the rest of them but with you there's no guarantees."

Heinrich ran his camp like a military general. His men were strong, muscled men with clean teeth. They were allowed to drink only once a week, and their sacrifice for their leader's wisdom and the barracks was to run with the man. That might not seem daunting at first, to men who didn't know Heinrich. A few minutes after he nudged her, one of the men stuck his head in. "Heinrich wants the shuck in line with the rest of us in fifteen." he barked, then removed himself.
 
She was pulled from the fathomless darkness of sleep by the sound of someone at her door. Still a shadow, and she stretched herself into the fold of a blanket and lay very still as the door opened and somebody entered. Almost immediately, she heard the familiar uneven gait and felt the previous night's petty anger rising. She was resting, she didn't need him to check on her.

He called her name and rustled the blankets and she let out a hiss of complaint. She couldn't even lie and say she didn't want the food. Damn fae tongue!

Moving through the shadows, she rose into shape at the edge as she glared out at him, the white lights of her eyes narrowed to slits. Then they observed the breakfast he had brought and mulled on her response.

"What is that meat?" she asked simply. Whatever it was, its divine scent tempted her since there were no sweets to be had for this meal. She was ravenous, having only the stew the night before in days.

The shuck was wriggling out from under the blanket when another man poked his head into the room, confirming Joseph's doubts. When he had gone, she plopped her shadowy butt beside the tray with her food.

"I think I like running," she reassured him. "I liked chasing the Lord and the cart very much. And I always liked chasing people out of the cemetery." Picking up the bacon in both hands, she opened her maw and gobbled up the first strip in a few seconds, then the other. It was good! She was very sad when it was all gone, but made quick work of most of what he had brought for her. Her little belly grew distended, but it was obvious the physics of this form were... off.

She was silent, not sure what to say to him and never having been the best conversationalists. A part of her still wanted to bite his hand for no reason other than because he had upset her, but he was the one who was sad so biting was not a viable approach.

// Joseph Meier //
 
"It's bacon. The men around here get up early and eat like animals. I wanted you to get some food before it was all gone." he pointed out to her. He couldn't really see her tumbling around with that lot fighting over coffee. He took a sip and was silent, eating his food and drinking his coffee. He ached for something to read. He reached out absentmindedly and petted her, enjoying the peace. The men were forming up in the yard, and Joseph soon nudged her out to go join them. He wanted to sleep in a little, maybe get another round of coffee and write in his journal.

The men had lined up just in the same way they'd ridden. This time they were stripped down to their trousers, shivering a bit in the cool air. They'd warm up soon enough. Heinrich was at the head of them, large and brawny. Any army in the world would have struggled to find a matching specimen, and the reason why was clear. "We're running fifteen miles around the forest, circling the camp and coming back down. I decided to combine patrol and excercise into one goal. You all have had your coffee so I'm expecting no stragglers. Anyone straggling will answer to me. I run at the back. Ensures everyone gets home safely. Just so you don't think we're leaving the rest of them to nap; Marahute is out restoring his herb stock and Joseph will be doing dishes." Heinrich briefed them.

Joseph glared at the voice. Dishes? For the entire camp? Heinrich could fuck right off with that.
"If he doesn't feel up to it, I'm sure Marahute would like to have a full physical done on him before he and the shuck are on their way." Heinrich said pointedly in Joseph's direction. With a sour look on his face, the shapeshifter slunk out of Shuck's room and started to gather dishes.

Heinrich nodded at him, and gestured. The pace was hard, but consistent. The men were clearly used to such a pace, and Heinrich made sure Shuck ran at the back with him. "Now that you two have had a few days of rest, I'm guessing you'll be heading off soon. Your form is...much different from when I first saw you."
 
Eating in a silence that was either companionable or tense (she wasn't sure), the shuck cleaned her food and little pink tongue peeked out to lick up the bacon grease on the plate and her mitts. Joseph didn't eat his nearly as quickly, and she allowed him to pet her absently. It felt different in this form, but not unpleasant. When at last it was time, she dropped off the side of the bed and waddled out to the yard.

Heinrich's men were already lined up, and she plodded up to the commander. A few of the men watched her pass, but she paid them no mind. In the sunshine she was an uncanny black void, swallowing up the light. It could be difficult to tell what side if her you were looking at if she closed her eyes.

Running in this form was pleasurable, but not nearly as much as when she was a dog. Her eyes were fixed on the men who were running in front of her, and she found a measure of difficulty in looking at Heinrich when he spoke to her.

"I feel different," she confessed. Then, without thinking about whether or not Marahute would be cross, she bounded forward onto all fours, and her body billowed and stretched until her shimmering canine form was complete. She trotted alongside him once more.

"Is this form preferable?" she asked. "My little body made humans uncomfortable when I first came into being, so I remained in the shadows or took this shape. To be honest, I have never kept my bodies as much as I have this last week. The change is refreshing, and in rather enjoy having them."

Her gaze had returned to the men jogging ahead of them, fixing them with her icy eyes as she spoke. They were somber as she thought back on the years she had been alone.

// Joseph Meier //
 
"Whatever form you're comfortable in. I don't judge Joseph for whatever he's feeling that day." Heinrich told her. "Is that what you truly look like? That little thing?" He kept up effortlessly with his men. Heinrich strode along like he'd been doing this all his life, and truly he had been for a majority of it. "You know, Joseph told me a little about where you'd come from. Met you piss drunk as he meets...well, everyone." Heinrich smiled at her. "You're lucky. When I met him he was in that cute girl form he likes to parade around. Propositioned me, I took him home, he knocked me over the skull and took a fortune in gold from me. I found him pulling the same trick again in the same damn bar. Grabbed him, had him turn into some sort of wildcat and almost scratched my eyes out. We've been friends ever since."

He chuckled to himself at the memory. He'd thought himself so clever for finding the little bitch who'd stolen from him. He'd often thought on it. Joseph had the element of surprise in almost any confrontation. If he'd have felt like it, he could have simply torn Heinrich apart. He looked down at Shuck. "He's a good friend. A troubled friend, but a good one. He'll be able to help you find your name. Just don't let him scare you off with that front he puts up. Just means you've hit on something he cares about. He'll open up to you." he told her, and then focused on running.

It was a long, long trail but one they'd clearly run a long time. The path was well-marked. It did have several false trails, double-switchbacks that could get a man lost in the woods, and many side trails that had been carefully cultivated to look identical. One wrong turn and a bounty hunter or aspiring lawman could walk himself halfway to the mountains without realizing it. Heinrich had his men run all of these trails. Every single man in that company knew it backwards and forwards. They had their own ways of keeping track. Here, a tree a man knew to turn left instead of right at. There, a memory of someone getting drunk and vomiting. Memories of getting lost after being first initiated.

Heinrich was proud of them. It was a veritable labyrinth around the barracks. When they steered back to the barracks, Joseph had finished the dishes and was angrily letting Marahute examine his leg. It wasn't like saying no to the troll would actually do anything; the creature had thirteen feet on him! "You really should get a better one made by a blacksmith." Marahute was in the middle of lecturing Joseph.

"I'm fine." Joseph growled. "There's no helping it, just leave it alone. Or give me some of those leaves from your homeland. The ones that numb your throat."

"Coca?" Marahute snorted. "Humans can't handle it. We use it for toothaches, you lot eat bushels of it then stay up for three days. I don't have any. What I do have is more epsom salts for you. I need you to start soaking it."

Joseph yanked his leg away when Shuck and Heinrich returned with the men. He hated being fussed over. He had two packs with him. One of them was a larger version of his own bag. Heinrich had given him a proper bedroll, several days of rations, a hunting knife, a pack of epsom salts, cigarettes, and bandages. There was a saddlebag for Shuck, designed to be worn for her dog form, with rations of her own, a comfortable bedroll, and a brass blade to protect herself with. "Heinrich, what the hell is all this?" Joseph shook his bag at him.

"I wanted you to stop roughing it. You're bad at it, and so is she." Heinrich chuckled. "There's some blankets on your horse, a tent, and I gave you a curry comb, hoof pick and some oats so you can actually take care of him. He's a decent horse."

"We stole him." Joseph muttered. "I'm not a charity case. Neither is she."

"Just doing myself the favor of not having to clear your corpse off the road a few weeks from now." Heinrich told him, and patted Shuck. "Good luck to the pair of you." He moved to hug Joseph, giving him a kiss on his cheek and a rough pat on the back. Joseph struggled up onto his horse, and looked at Shuck.

"Well....ready?" the shapeshifter asked her. Heinrich offered her the harness.
 
"I'm not sure," she confessed. Though this dog form was as comfortable and as natural as breathing, it had felt good to be on her two little legs with arms at her disposal. "I thought I was a church grim all these years, but now that I know I'm a black shuck, I don't really know what I'm supposed to be."

The obvious answer was a black shuck, but she didn't voice that. She was sure he knew what she meant, and was glad when the conversation turned toward meeting Joseph.

She cast a sidelong glance at the man as they jogged the winding trails. He was a peculiar sort, not unlike Joseph. It didn't surprise her that they got on so well, and she wondered why Joseph didn't stay there with him. It was a nice place and among friends, so the question instead became why didn't he want to stay? What was it about him that made him push these nice people away? She'd personaly seen his strange pushback to attempted kindness, and it baffled her. Human pride was confusing.

She didn't know, and she wasn't sure Heinrich was right when he told her that Joseph would eventually open up to her, so she said nothing at all and ran with the pack of men. What she had though at first to be a strange request soon made sense. The paths around the camp were complicated and tricky. As they traversed them, she began to recognize faint landmarks by which to navigate them. By the time they were headed back to the barracks, she had been on all sides of the area and had commit the trails to her memory. Should they need to return, she would know the way.

She could hear Joseph before she saw him, and as the group returned to the courtyard, she trotted away toward the sound. She immediately gave his leg a covert sniff, concerned that he was unwell. He seemed well enough, however, so she disguised it by shoving her face into his hand, demanding pets now that she was back in her canid form. The feel of his hand comforted her, and helped drive away her concerning thoughts. It didn't matter; so long as she could be with him for a little while, she would be fine.

He shook an unfamiliar pack at Heinrich, and she sniffed it. It smelled like the commander. Sitting on her haunches, she listened to their exchange with curiosity. She had seen charity work from the church, and this was indeed similar, it she wasn't sure she understood his offense. It seemed that Joseph's default response to any form of kindness was ire. The shuck shook her head.

Heinrich held out the strange harness to her, and she looked between him and Joseph. She allowed him to strap her into the contraption, then spent several moments sniffing it and looking at where it fit her. She thought she would be able to put herself back in by shifting forms inside of it, if Joseph's hands weren't available.

When she had finished her inspection, she looked up at the commander and sat, her pack shifting awkwardly but remaining fastened.

"You have been kind to me in my time of need, and your hospitality is most appreciated," she told him, then inclined her head in a humbling nod. "I would like to repay this kindness, it would please you."

The shuck offered a sleek black paw and sat patiently as she looked up at him, waiting. She was anxious to finally begin their quest now that they had direction, but this was important to her. There had been no dealings prior to the services he had given her but, just as with Joseph, she felt moved to repay this somehow -- especially after what she had overheard the night before. She did care. At least, she wanted to care.

// Joseph Meier //
 
Joseph sighed and rubbed Shuck's ears. She was back to the dog. He watched Heinrich help her into the harness, and the commander re-balanced it so the weight would rest evenly across her shoulders, asking her a question every few seconds to make sure she was balanced before he was satisfied. He patted Shuck and looked at her, pushing his glasses up his nose and smiling at the shuck. "One day I'm going to need you. All I ask, is that you be there." Heinrich told her, taking her paw and shaking it once. "Right now, if you're going to get any headway before dark you need to get on the road."
He knew better than to make a big deal of his kindness. Joseph was already lifting his chin and looking challengingly at the rest of the men to say anything. Daring them to give him a shred of pity. The next step was Joseph fighting someone to prove he didn't need any pity, then absolutely warranting that pity when he powered through a twinge in his leg. Heinrich knew his angry little friend. It was best they get on the road.

Joseph got up onto his horse with a pained grunt. He wasn't built for mounting horses. He probably should have been lifted or assisted on, but gods help the man who stepped forward with that idea. Heinrich shook his head. If there was one thing Heinrich respected him for, it was Joseph's self-sufficiency. He could have played up his leg and gotten half the world patting his back and sobbing on his shoulder. Instead he refused to show any sort of weakness until said weakness quite literally brought him to the ground.

"I'll see you, Heinrich." Joseph told him, and steered the horse out of the barracks. Heinrich chuckled.
"Well, I wasn't expecting a hug." he told Shuck with a smile. "Go catch up to him. He won't show any weakness around the men, and that includes waiting for you. If you lose him find the nearest crossroads. Good luck to you both. By the way...there are a few hairs the Lord gave you for rescuing him in the city. Burn them to find a man's true intentions."

With that, Heinrich turned and barked orders to the men. Life was determined to resume without the pair.
 
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