Shadows 2.3
You've seen the opening of this bit before - I used it in response to one of the daily challenges. But this is what I have been working on since then! I got a large chunk of it done today, and almost nothing the day before, so it all even out. I am a painfully slow writer, though :o I any case, I hope those who are following along at home are enjoying the show :D
Shadows 2.3
“He will be alright.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, Lord Osana.”
“What happened?”
“I…. I am no certain.”
“What did you give him?”
“A strong sedative tea.”]
“A sedative? Why?”
“He has a weak liver.”
“You are sure of that?”
“It is easy to observe.”
“And this tea?”
“Should not have done this!”
“Then why?”
“Perhaps, if he’d taken something...”
“I‘m not interested in suppositions.”
“Apologies, my lord.”
“Is he one of them?”
“It does seem likely.”
“When he wakes, tell me.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
Teah moved back from the branch as it creaked ominously under her weight. She could hear but not see into the room. Ishitaka and his lord. It sounded as though, if they had meant Hadyn any harm, it hadn’t been this. She knew he wasn’t awake - she could feel his dreaming mind racing through unpleasant memories and equally nightmarish imaginings: his dead parents, betrayal by his extended family, capture, death. Worse. Ever since she’d consented to be his familiar, she’d been able to sense his emotions. They were always frantic, and more so when he dreamed. She often found it difficult to rest herself during the worst of his nightmares, and preferred to hunt. Let the little deaths she caused count towards his revenge. Ahhh, if only.
She’d come as soon as she could once she’d known there was a problem. She’d gone to Volaris when she’d received his first message. It hadn’t taken him long to understand that she had something important to convey. Figuring out how he could understand her was a different matter. There were no druids around, nor any others who could easily speak with animals. The girl one who helped Hadyn with the lab suggested a spell, but it was not one either she or the head wizard had memorized. They’d gone to find a scroll while Teah’d paced impatiently. She’d felt everything go wrong then, had called out, and lost him. It could have been worse - she’d felt the demon there, struggling to gain control in his moment of mental weakness.
She hadn’t waited. Her news was important, but not as much as her master. A growl of frustration, and she’d been off. She’d seen armed guards as she tore through the back alleys - they would learn their plight soon enough without her.
She’d never accompanied Hadyn to the stranger’s den, but she had tracked him part way previously. Once she’d reached the area, she searched more carefully for his scent. Hadyn kept to better used streets than she preferred, and in the full light of the afternoon, they were well populated and devoid of convenient shadows. She’d ignored the frightened shrieks and done her best to sling along surreptitiously, but it was impossible. She’d shrugged off a few tossed stones and bricks, and warned off anyone more determined with a growl or hiss. She’d slowed some when she’d felt the dreams begin, but Hadyn’s anxiety was her own as well. At least she’d known that his dangers were not immediate. She’d slipped into the gardens of another estate, then made her way over the walls until she arrived at the palace where she’d determined her master had went. She’d scouted around, and wound up here.
Teah leaped down from her perch, claws leaving deep gouges in the ornamental tree. In the distance, she could still hear heightened voices of some of the humans who’d accosted her in the street, arguing with the guard at the estate she had just left. It would be difficult to hide here, but harder to gain entry into the high-walled mansion, with its strong outer doors. So what to do? Hadyn would need her when he awoke, whenever that was. At the moment, she was hungry, and she smelled prey. Surely she could think and hunt at the same time.
She was aware that hunting game in the cultured gardens of powerful humans could potentially be very dangerous, but to feed when she hungered and to kill in times of rage or fear or frustration were powerful instincts. She couldn’t reach Hadyn, but she didn’t have to stray far. The garden was permeated with the scent of deer - urine, sweat and musk. There were maybe twenty, all in good health as far as she could tell. None stood out in terms of dominance - the humans were the masters here. They’d built the walls, planted the trees, shrubs and grasses, and they walked the trails and left pans of mixed grains and fruit to supplement the herd’s grazing.
Teah knew that her earlier searching would have spread her scent though the whole enclosed area. She hadn’t been concerned then, and wasn’t now. She could smells fear as she approached, keeping to the shadows of the trees - fear and confusion. Instinct warned them of a threat, that death had come for them, but they had nowhere to flee or hide. They’d arranged themselves in a circle, the antlered males facing outward, rolling their eyes and snorting at the air for further signs of danger.
They were smaller than she expected - half the size of the normal deer she encountered in the area. Humans. Always tampering with nature, as she well knew. Perhaps she would need more than one kill here. She listened in her mind again, assuring herself that if her master was not well, he was at lest only dreaming. She committed herself to the hunt. She crouched and watched in her downwind position, satisfying herself that she knew what they would do. They would scatter. She could kill one easily enough, then chase down a second. Feeding would take the extra edge off her nerves. Yes. Teah charged forward, leaping at her prey.
As soon as she broke cover, they broke formation. She was too big, too much predator for their docile miniature brains to contemplate. One stood a fatal second longer than the others, lowering its antlers and pawing the ground. It managed to gore her shoulder as she barreled over it, knocking it off its feel. She tore into its soft belly with her back claws, her jaw closing around its throat and savoring briefly the salty tang of fresh blood. She left it dying on the ground to chase down the rest of her meal. The pain in her shoulder didn’t slow her any more than the earlier stones - she could already feel the flesh repairing itself, and forced herself to move faster. These deer were small, but quick.
But they truly had no place to where they could escape, and they were not clever creatures. They fled instinctively in all directions. Teah had been paying closer attention and made a sharp turn to the west and the direction of the closest wall. She could hear panicked snorts and calls as the animals unfortunate enough to have fled in that direction came up against the obstacle. Her second deer, driven by terror, fought harder than the first, but just as futilely. She took a hoof to the face, and it bit one of her ears. For that, she let it die slowly, ensuring that it knew no brief moment of triumph as it passed. She raked open its belly and dragged it back to the initial kill site so it could watch her consume its brother during its final moments.
She feasted. Forst on the warm internal organs, and then the tender grain-fatted flesh. She tried not to think, but to enjoy the moment. The arrow caught her completely by surprise, taking her in the chest and glancing off one of her ribs. She spun around and roared, only now smelling the hunter who had approached her from downwind when she was distracted. Of course. Something stirred in her mind.
There were three of them. The one who’d shot her was flanked by a large man wielding a weighted net and an armored woman with a blade drawn. Behind this trio was an inconsequential unarmed other, nervously eyeing her from his perceived safety.
“Five thousand apiece, my lord…. And twenty-one was an auspicious number, but nineteen, no, no… It killed two of them! Two!”
The archer nodded as he reloaded casually. “She, Hikaru. And she… is magnificent.” Teah knew that voice. “I want her alive.” Osana stepped back.
“Yes, my lord,” the woman answered. The man with the net stepped forward, appraising her. They all smelled of fear. Even the lord only masked it well for his underlings. He kept his bow drawn on her.
“What is it… is she?”
Osana frowned, not taking his eyes off Teah to look back. “You are the gamekeeper. You tell me. All I know is that she will greatly impress the court in Shiroeki. Take her.”
His warriors hesitated.
“Why does she not flee, or fight,” asked the one with the net.
“It is like she is listening to us,” the female added.
“Has all of my house been replaced with simpletons today? She is just an animal.”
She could take them all. The lord first, then the woman. She feared not the net - she was stronger than it, she knew. But did she want to win? They would bring her closer to Hadyn and she’d not need to hide. His dreams were becoming shallower, and he might be close to waking. She needed to stir these fools into action, then. She charged at Osana, cried out when the sword struck her twice in the flank, and howled when the net closed in around her. She lashed out beyond it, raking its wielder in the leg. He stumbled back. The woman cut her again. There was another arrow.
Enough.
She lunged forward once more, catching the woman this time and sending her sword flying. It was difficult to hold back so much, but it would be over soon. The net came again, and she let it take her. The heavy stones fell to the ground around her. The woman recovered her weapon and struck her across the back of the head. Her vision swam briefly, and she allowed herself to swoon in order to better feign unconsciousness.
They kept her netted, and the gamekeeper bound her forelegs clumsily. He still reeked of fear, though he stroked her fur cautiously through the netting. She felt defiled at the touch of such a lesser creature, and tried to think instead of Hadyn. She would not suffer such humiliation for any other. The warriors were dragging her now, the large one bearing the pain of his leg with no complaints. Someone had stopped his bleeding, but she didn’t dare open her eyes to learn more. She was lucky that the netting covered her healing wounds, else they might think twice about bringing her inside to the dungeons as Osana had ordered.
They wouldn’t get that far. The pair pulled her through a gate in the inner wall towards the palace proper. She could smell all this, and remembered the layout from her earlier reconnaissance. The priest, Ishitaka, met them in the courtyard to heal the wounded. So close! The lord departed, leaving his underlings to tend to their captive.
The priest approached and knelt beside her. He too deigned to touch her, but with more care. He was probing for wounds she no longer had.
“You fought the beast?”
“She was a mighty foe.”
“Miyaki almost lost his leg.”
“You dealt her many blows?”
“Yes, with sword and arrow.”
“I can find none.”
“What? I do not lie.”
“No, Haruta-san. She has healed.”
“Impossible!”
The priest was already backing away. The other two stared in astonishment as Teah’s eyes snapped open, but the woman was already reaching again for her sword.
Now.
She snapped her bonds. It took seconds to right herself and shake of the remnants of the net. She ignored the humans, seeking a more familiar scent as she bounded through the open doorway and into the twisted passageways of Osana’s palace. Up, she knew that much. Servants scattered before her. He would wake up soon, and he would need her. He would feel safer, calmer, for her presence.
She slowed upon reaching the third floor. Hadyn had visited several of these rooms recently. She sniffed at several doorways before latching onto the freshest scent. She simply batted away any obstacles until she came to the darkened room where he lay. The palace was in chaos, but she hunkered down beside her master, friend, and the only father she could remember, and watched. Let them try and harm him now.
Shadows 2.3
“He will be alright.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, Lord Osana.”
“What happened?”
“I…. I am no certain.”
“What did you give him?”
“A strong sedative tea.”]
“A sedative? Why?”
“He has a weak liver.”
“You are sure of that?”
“It is easy to observe.”
“And this tea?”
“Should not have done this!”
“Then why?”
“Perhaps, if he’d taken something...”
“I‘m not interested in suppositions.”
“Apologies, my lord.”
“Is he one of them?”
“It does seem likely.”
“When he wakes, tell me.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
Teah moved back from the branch as it creaked ominously under her weight. She could hear but not see into the room. Ishitaka and his lord. It sounded as though, if they had meant Hadyn any harm, it hadn’t been this. She knew he wasn’t awake - she could feel his dreaming mind racing through unpleasant memories and equally nightmarish imaginings: his dead parents, betrayal by his extended family, capture, death. Worse. Ever since she’d consented to be his familiar, she’d been able to sense his emotions. They were always frantic, and more so when he dreamed. She often found it difficult to rest herself during the worst of his nightmares, and preferred to hunt. Let the little deaths she caused count towards his revenge. Ahhh, if only.
She’d come as soon as she could once she’d known there was a problem. She’d gone to Volaris when she’d received his first message. It hadn’t taken him long to understand that she had something important to convey. Figuring out how he could understand her was a different matter. There were no druids around, nor any others who could easily speak with animals. The girl one who helped Hadyn with the lab suggested a spell, but it was not one either she or the head wizard had memorized. They’d gone to find a scroll while Teah’d paced impatiently. She’d felt everything go wrong then, had called out, and lost him. It could have been worse - she’d felt the demon there, struggling to gain control in his moment of mental weakness.
She hadn’t waited. Her news was important, but not as much as her master. A growl of frustration, and she’d been off. She’d seen armed guards as she tore through the back alleys - they would learn their plight soon enough without her.
She’d never accompanied Hadyn to the stranger’s den, but she had tracked him part way previously. Once she’d reached the area, she searched more carefully for his scent. Hadyn kept to better used streets than she preferred, and in the full light of the afternoon, they were well populated and devoid of convenient shadows. She’d ignored the frightened shrieks and done her best to sling along surreptitiously, but it was impossible. She’d shrugged off a few tossed stones and bricks, and warned off anyone more determined with a growl or hiss. She’d slowed some when she’d felt the dreams begin, but Hadyn’s anxiety was her own as well. At least she’d known that his dangers were not immediate. She’d slipped into the gardens of another estate, then made her way over the walls until she arrived at the palace where she’d determined her master had went. She’d scouted around, and wound up here.
Teah leaped down from her perch, claws leaving deep gouges in the ornamental tree. In the distance, she could still hear heightened voices of some of the humans who’d accosted her in the street, arguing with the guard at the estate she had just left. It would be difficult to hide here, but harder to gain entry into the high-walled mansion, with its strong outer doors. So what to do? Hadyn would need her when he awoke, whenever that was. At the moment, she was hungry, and she smelled prey. Surely she could think and hunt at the same time.
She was aware that hunting game in the cultured gardens of powerful humans could potentially be very dangerous, but to feed when she hungered and to kill in times of rage or fear or frustration were powerful instincts. She couldn’t reach Hadyn, but she didn’t have to stray far. The garden was permeated with the scent of deer - urine, sweat and musk. There were maybe twenty, all in good health as far as she could tell. None stood out in terms of dominance - the humans were the masters here. They’d built the walls, planted the trees, shrubs and grasses, and they walked the trails and left pans of mixed grains and fruit to supplement the herd’s grazing.
Teah knew that her earlier searching would have spread her scent though the whole enclosed area. She hadn’t been concerned then, and wasn’t now. She could smells fear as she approached, keeping to the shadows of the trees - fear and confusion. Instinct warned them of a threat, that death had come for them, but they had nowhere to flee or hide. They’d arranged themselves in a circle, the antlered males facing outward, rolling their eyes and snorting at the air for further signs of danger.
They were smaller than she expected - half the size of the normal deer she encountered in the area. Humans. Always tampering with nature, as she well knew. Perhaps she would need more than one kill here. She listened in her mind again, assuring herself that if her master was not well, he was at lest only dreaming. She committed herself to the hunt. She crouched and watched in her downwind position, satisfying herself that she knew what they would do. They would scatter. She could kill one easily enough, then chase down a second. Feeding would take the extra edge off her nerves. Yes. Teah charged forward, leaping at her prey.
As soon as she broke cover, they broke formation. She was too big, too much predator for their docile miniature brains to contemplate. One stood a fatal second longer than the others, lowering its antlers and pawing the ground. It managed to gore her shoulder as she barreled over it, knocking it off its feel. She tore into its soft belly with her back claws, her jaw closing around its throat and savoring briefly the salty tang of fresh blood. She left it dying on the ground to chase down the rest of her meal. The pain in her shoulder didn’t slow her any more than the earlier stones - she could already feel the flesh repairing itself, and forced herself to move faster. These deer were small, but quick.
But they truly had no place to where they could escape, and they were not clever creatures. They fled instinctively in all directions. Teah had been paying closer attention and made a sharp turn to the west and the direction of the closest wall. She could hear panicked snorts and calls as the animals unfortunate enough to have fled in that direction came up against the obstacle. Her second deer, driven by terror, fought harder than the first, but just as futilely. She took a hoof to the face, and it bit one of her ears. For that, she let it die slowly, ensuring that it knew no brief moment of triumph as it passed. She raked open its belly and dragged it back to the initial kill site so it could watch her consume its brother during its final moments.
She feasted. Forst on the warm internal organs, and then the tender grain-fatted flesh. She tried not to think, but to enjoy the moment. The arrow caught her completely by surprise, taking her in the chest and glancing off one of her ribs. She spun around and roared, only now smelling the hunter who had approached her from downwind when she was distracted. Of course. Something stirred in her mind.
There were three of them. The one who’d shot her was flanked by a large man wielding a weighted net and an armored woman with a blade drawn. Behind this trio was an inconsequential unarmed other, nervously eyeing her from his perceived safety.
“Five thousand apiece, my lord…. And twenty-one was an auspicious number, but nineteen, no, no… It killed two of them! Two!”
The archer nodded as he reloaded casually. “She, Hikaru. And she… is magnificent.” Teah knew that voice. “I want her alive.” Osana stepped back.
“Yes, my lord,” the woman answered. The man with the net stepped forward, appraising her. They all smelled of fear. Even the lord only masked it well for his underlings. He kept his bow drawn on her.
“What is it… is she?”
Osana frowned, not taking his eyes off Teah to look back. “You are the gamekeeper. You tell me. All I know is that she will greatly impress the court in Shiroeki. Take her.”
His warriors hesitated.
“Why does she not flee, or fight,” asked the one with the net.
“It is like she is listening to us,” the female added.
“Has all of my house been replaced with simpletons today? She is just an animal.”
She could take them all. The lord first, then the woman. She feared not the net - she was stronger than it, she knew. But did she want to win? They would bring her closer to Hadyn and she’d not need to hide. His dreams were becoming shallower, and he might be close to waking. She needed to stir these fools into action, then. She charged at Osana, cried out when the sword struck her twice in the flank, and howled when the net closed in around her. She lashed out beyond it, raking its wielder in the leg. He stumbled back. The woman cut her again. There was another arrow.
Enough.
She lunged forward once more, catching the woman this time and sending her sword flying. It was difficult to hold back so much, but it would be over soon. The net came again, and she let it take her. The heavy stones fell to the ground around her. The woman recovered her weapon and struck her across the back of the head. Her vision swam briefly, and she allowed herself to swoon in order to better feign unconsciousness.
They kept her netted, and the gamekeeper bound her forelegs clumsily. He still reeked of fear, though he stroked her fur cautiously through the netting. She felt defiled at the touch of such a lesser creature, and tried to think instead of Hadyn. She would not suffer such humiliation for any other. The warriors were dragging her now, the large one bearing the pain of his leg with no complaints. Someone had stopped his bleeding, but she didn’t dare open her eyes to learn more. She was lucky that the netting covered her healing wounds, else they might think twice about bringing her inside to the dungeons as Osana had ordered.
They wouldn’t get that far. The pair pulled her through a gate in the inner wall towards the palace proper. She could smell all this, and remembered the layout from her earlier reconnaissance. The priest, Ishitaka, met them in the courtyard to heal the wounded. So close! The lord departed, leaving his underlings to tend to their captive.
The priest approached and knelt beside her. He too deigned to touch her, but with more care. He was probing for wounds she no longer had.
“You fought the beast?”
“She was a mighty foe.”
“Miyaki almost lost his leg.”
“You dealt her many blows?”
“Yes, with sword and arrow.”
“I can find none.”
“What? I do not lie.”
“No, Haruta-san. She has healed.”
“Impossible!”
The priest was already backing away. The other two stared in astonishment as Teah’s eyes snapped open, but the woman was already reaching again for her sword.
Now.
She snapped her bonds. It took seconds to right herself and shake of the remnants of the net. She ignored the humans, seeking a more familiar scent as she bounded through the open doorway and into the twisted passageways of Osana’s palace. Up, she knew that much. Servants scattered before her. He would wake up soon, and he would need her. He would feel safer, calmer, for her presence.
She slowed upon reaching the third floor. Hadyn had visited several of these rooms recently. She sniffed at several doorways before latching onto the freshest scent. She simply batted away any obstacles until she came to the darkened room where he lay. The palace was in chaos, but she hunkered down beside her master, friend, and the only father she could remember, and watched. Let them try and harm him now.