It was the first thing Teru had done in - too long. Months. He'd told himself that nothing was wrong, that in a school full of demonic psychopaths it was only sensible to keep to himself. But that wasn't why he isolated himself, and he knew it
(
Read more... )
But this place was riddled with passages and trails that put Thendulla Lypella, the Earth Spires of New Kelvin which was practically a city unto itself, to shame. Even Blind Seer's nose was eventually confused and lost, though he would not admit it.
"Pride, sweet hunter, does not become you," said Firekeeper, padding lightly down yet another hall.
Blind Seer growled in response, increasing his speed. It did him no good; Firekeeper could usually pace him. They turned another corner, and his nose twitched violently, causing him to sneeze.
"I smell it too," Firekeeper said. Even her dead nose could discern something that strong and rancid, and she wrinkled it in response.
"Like heavily salted butter, and yet none that I have smelled in our travels," Blind Seer said, trying to catalogue the heavy stench. "An oily smell. It is... oddly compelling."
"I thought butter did not agree with you," she said, chasing after the suddenly hurrying wolf.
"A scent this strong must have an interesting source," he replied.
The source was interesting indeed. Blind Seer ignored the man, going straight for a puddle on the floor, to sniff, inspect, and (in a most undignified but perfectly practical manner) get some of the substance on his own coat. Firekeeper ignored the wolf, cocking her head at the man. "You roll in it, too?"
Reply
Shivering, trying to get himself under control, he looked up at - at the woman. Whose name he didn't know. He'd spent so long with the shinigami eyes, grown so used to them, that now the space over her head seemed empty, unnatural, and he had to look away again.
"It - it happens when you come back, the butter," he heard himself try to explain. "I just came here again, I don't - this isn't normal."
Reply
Firekeeper's brown ones rolled in good humor. "He not hurt," she said. "Unless threatened." She examined the man inquisitively, moving in to look closer. Her nostrils flared out of habit, though nose-dead as she was she caught no scent other than the reek of butter. "No door out, then?" she asked, plainly disappointed and almost physically wilting. She didn't want to have to get covered in butter just to get out of this stone prison.
Reply
Reply
Suitably perfumed, Blind Seer stood and shook, spattering small flecks of oily butter around him where it did not cling to his thick coat. Firekeeper did not share his enthusiasm for its scent and tried to wipe off where some landed, but only smeared it further into her battered clothing. "Perhaps he speaks more of gates," Blind Seer suggested. "He speaks of worlds, after all, and not simply indoors and out."
"Ah," she said, nodding to the wolf. "Yes. Is like gate?" she asked the man. "Old world, new world, this world, that world?"
Reply
"You - you want the way out of the castle. I might be able to -" He tried to stand up, slipped, and fell back again, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the wall. "Aah! ...sorry. I - it's hard to stand."
Reply
"Yes," she said, with evident relief. She paused and chose her words more carefully. "We have been in here for longer than we would like. Wolves are meant for ground and sky, not stone." With some reluctance, she added, "Though it is good shelter from snow and rain."
Reply
Reply
"Thank you," she said. She agreed him in regards to getting clean--while her human friends thought her a dirt-coated savage on occasion, she was fastidious, inasmuch as a life outdoors would allow her to be. "Is..." She searched for the right word, taking her time. "Is inconvenient way to go between worlds. Better or worse than blood magic, I cannot say."
Blind Seer snorted from where he brought up the rear. "Ask the one who participates in the ritual rather than the one who benefits."
She reached a hand back at him, and he shoved his nose into it before falling back into pace. "Do you control, or does someone else?"
Reply
Reply
"So you do not know how it is done?" Firekeeper mused on this. The Hat, if it was responsible, must be a powerful spirit indeed if it could pull beings from other worlds into this place and send them home, all on its own, with no blood magic in evidence. She shook her head. "Is a strange place."
Reply
"Strange. ...yes." At the moment, Teru couldn't think of a better word. It was harder to concentrate on finding the exit than he was making it look. "Nothing ever made sense here."
Reply
Blind Seer was having an easier time of it. His trotting pace was downright relaxed, his earlier frustration cheered by the experience of adorning himself with the scent of butter. He increased his pace somewhat until he was just behind and beside the man and started sniffing noisily, wondering what manner of person was leading them around. Had he been thinking more clearly, he would have done so immediately.
Reply
"I - I apologise for my... my state," he found himself saying, not quite sure which of them he was addressing. Did desperation have a smell? "The place I was in, before, it was - unpleasant."
Reply
Leave a comment