WIP: "Reap the Wild Wind," post three
This one is a true cliffhanger; my apologies, but it was getting long. I'll have the next post soon since I know what's going to happen. I also have a proper summary. To the few of you reading along, thank you so much! These hara are really captivating my imagination, doubtless only to be exacerbated when I go back to Alba Sulh the U.K. next month. So! A next post. These are all OCs with the exception of Cobweb, back in his early, early years as a har. This is a story set in the misty early years of the Sulh.
Summary: Níl gach uile fhánaí caillte- Not all who wander are lost. (J.R.R. Tolkien) Kelp, a newly-incepted har and his companion, Blackspur, journey from an outer island of Alba Sulh to find others of their kind. Adult. Adventures, aruna, and a warning for violence.
Warning for this post in particular: violence, pelki/rape
Several days later they stopped for the night beside a large lake, a disintegrating castle perched bravely at its head. The ground shimmered with unseen magic; Kelp felt drunk on it, and in looking at Ferngarn and Petrichor as they gazed at the wind-whipped surface of the lake, they were similarly affected. The day had been sunny but with powerful winds blowing against them, so Cairn had suggested an earlier stopping time in a place with true shelter, both for them and to let their horses rest. Kelp brushed down his horse, which he had yet to give a proper name, and then took off for a solo walk around the lake, which he found irresistible. The others were more interested in exploring the ruins of the ancient human castle which, despite crumbling upper walls and towers, was solid at its base. Missing chunks of stone and archer's windows gaped open, allowing the glow of the setting sun to blaze through, the walls riddled with the fierce orange of the gloaming.
A low murmuring sound seemed to come from the lake, but Kelp wasn't afraid of the sounds. Maybe the others couldn't hear them; perhaps whatever she or they were, the message was solely for him. As he walked, pulling his cloak tightly against the prying fingers of the wind, he went into a trance-like state. He stayed close to the shore, making his way toward a forest edge that clung to the side of the lake opposite the castle. Through his enhanced vision and perception, mists of mysterious shapes spun and swayed above the waters and crept out over the surrounding land. Kelp was dazzled, swaying himself when he saw it, a stunning, powerful horse, and yet- not.
The kelpie walked toward him, and with soundless singsong, told Kelp he was welcome, but this was her lake. Kelp found her both compelling and malevolent, despite her reassurances that she had no issues with him or his kind. The singing in his head grew louder; a crazed thought tumbled through Kelp's mind at the watery music. As a human child he'd been told all sorts of stories and myths; was the kelpie protecting mer-people who lived at the bottom of the lake? Anything seemed possible as the kelpie's lips curled back from her teeth to give him an unfriendly, horsey smile.
We're not alone, she said, the sound a coltish snicker.
I know! There are other hara-
Kelp's arms were grabbed from behind, a knife pressed to his throat. The kelpie was gone. He thrashed against his attackers until there was a pain of icy glass tearing at his stomach as one of them stabbed across his middle.
"He's one of those freaks!" the one in front of him said, his baritone voice cracking with hostile fear.
"You're not even human, are you?" the other crooned in his ear, handing the blood-slicked knife to the skinny youth, his brown hair matted and revulsion gleaming in his eyes.
Kelp's thoughts were a maelstrom of panic, muddled by the meditative state he'd been in mere seconds ago and doubtless further troubled by the kelpie's influence. His gut ached where the knife had jabbed into his flesh; his leather pants were undone with an annoyed growl by the human behind him; they were tugged down just far enough for the predictable deed to be done.
"Gonna have some fun with you first before we kill you, alien freak," he breathed against Kelp's neck, yanking on his hair. Kelp heard a rustle of clothes and a spitting sound; the human was tall and wiry, stroking himself in his palm to get himself ready.
Oh God.
This he remembered from before; he yelled in pain as he was breached with no preparation, split in two by a sizeable cock, his arse burning at the terrible friction as he tried to resist his attacker. Were it another har, he knew it would be considered pelki, but this was something quite human and it revolted his harish senses even more.
"So fucking tight," the human said, pulling back on Kelp's head.
"Fuck, Ian!" the brown-haired human yelped, pointing to Kelp's groin as horror branded itself on his face. "His cock's gone!"
Kelp finally gained control of his wild anguish, sending a clear call to Blackspur and Cairn. I'm being attacked, two humans, at the woods. They have knives, he mustered, his teeth gritted against the raw pain in his arse. He had the dawning realisation that, thankfully, though he was bleeding profusely from the knife wounds at his belly, they'd not gutted him. Yet.
"What'd they do to you?" the young man in front of him babbled, protecting his own crotch with his hand as the other one, Ian, grunted, ramming himself into Kelp's body, fast and brutal.
"I'm a freak," Kelp ground out, tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth. "Unlike you," he gasped, then cried out as Ian yanked his torso back. Kelp felt a tearing of muscle, searing, red pain flashing as though a hot poker had been dragged across his abdomen. "Aaaaaaaagh! Fuck!"
Kelp had to stay within himself, to draw on his superior harish qualities, but he was being battered. Furious and writhing with what he desperately hoped was temporary agony, he yelled, "I'm Wraeththu! My body's protecting my ouana-lim."
And then he felt it: he sensed his attackers had seen his rescuers. The humans' fear rose around them like a cloud of sulfur, pungent and choking.
"We've got to get the fuck out of here!" the one in front of Kelp screamed, but Cairn, Ferngarn and Petrichor were there on horseback, rifles leveled at them. There would be no escape. The human, Ian, who'd been raping Kelp, had savagely pulled away and Kelp fell forward, crashing to the ground, his pants trapped partway down his thighs.
"Get dressed!" Cairn roared at Ian. "You two are coming with us."
Kelp moaned on the ground, covering his stomach as he gazed at Ferngarn, who'd practically jumped off of his horse to kneel by his side. Through the grinding maw of pain and relief, Kelp tried to smile. Wraeththu had such terrible beauty, especially compared to the brutish fragility he could now see in the two humans. Cairn could snap them to pieces like twigs for a fire.
"I need to get you to the castle," Ferngarn said urgently. "Do you think you can ride?"
Kelp nodded. "It looks worse than it is."
"I hope so. I'll examine you as soon as we get back. I want to get you out of here and cleaned up."
There had been shouting and some scuffling; Kelp assumed the humans had been subdued, and he really didn't care what measures Cairn and Petrichor had used. Gingerly Kelp let himself be lifted from the ground, his leathers eased up enough so he could ride Ferngarn's horse. Petrichor helped him until he was in front of Ferngarn, leaning back dazedly against his chest as his healer held the reins.
"I saw a kelpie," Kelp said, the words thick on his tongue. His body throbbed with the abuse he'd suffered; he couldn't imagine what Ferngarn could possibly to do repair his torn flesh out in the middle of such dangerous and isolated lands.
"Did you?" Ferngarn said, obviously distracted. "Maybe that explains why Cobweb didn't pick up on the presence of these two."
The sensation of barbed wire grating on his stomach made Kelp moan. He drew on his anger to stay conscious until he'd been carried inside and a draught of something powerful had been poured slowly but insistently into his mouth. The last thing he heard was Petrichor chanting him to a place of rest and Thistle's dark comments.
"They can stew for two days. Then they're being incepted. They deserve death, but Cairn's insistent. I hope they suffer."
* * * * *
"It's not right," Blackspur growled, his face glowering with righteous anger as he paced the room.
"They'll change once they're har," Kelp insisted. He was sitting up in bed, drinking the hot chicken broth Cobweb had brought. The beautiful har stood against the wall closest to Kelp, watching Blackspur's path from one side of the room to the other and back again.
"I could kill them," Cobweb said dispassionately. Blackspur stopped and stared. "Well, I could find out how," he continued. "I can read Ferngarn's thoughts without his realising it, but more importantly, I know where his book on poisons and remedies is."
With wide, gleaming eyes, Blackspur's expression took on a hungry look. "You would do that?"
"I said I could. Not that I'm willing to sacrifice myself to get revenge. That would be your business." He took to cleaning his nails with his white, even teeth.
"They're being punished now," Kelp said, drinking down the last of his broth from the bowl. "They'll act differently once they're Wraeththu. Probably be apologising for weeks, and grateful to be alive, and given such a gift-"
"Quit being a fucking martyr!" Blackspur seethed, picking up Kelp's bowl and throwing it against the far wall with a howl of rage. It shattered into pieces. "They hurt you!" he yelled before hurling himself onto the bed at Kelp's side, his anger morphing into dry heaves and sobs. "I saw you all bloodied, and how the one had violated you by force."
He laid his tear-stained face in Kelp's lap. Kelp gently carded his fingers through his dear friend's auburn hair, wishing he could console him. "I was roughed up," he admitted. "For a while I wanted to kill them, too, in self-defense. It wasn't smart of me to have just gone out on my own like that, either. I have to believe the Warloch has a reason for incepting them."
"Some kind of bizarre plan?" Cobweb suggested blithely, though Kelp could tell he questionned Cairn's decision. "Maybe it goes along with not having you punished for your potential murder, Blackspur."
Kelp's hand gripped the hair he was holding. "What did you do?"
"Nothing permanent," Blackspur grumbled against Kelp's thigh.
Kelp gave Cobweb a searching look.
"He went in to where they're being kept, beat up on the one, Ian, and told him what would happen, the liquefying of his internal organs, if and when he did the same thing to him that Ian had been doing to you. He told them how an ouana-lim would be a deadly weapon, and was pretty intent on an actual demonstration when Sanweryn walked in."
Kelp was shocked, even though he felt a warmth bloom in his chest at Blackspur's loyalty. "Liquefy how?" he asked, baffled that Blackspur had learned something like that that he himself didn't know about.
"Well, you've experienced how powerful aruna can be," Cobweb noted. "But even a quick tryst would kill a human, so I've been told. Our blood either makes a young human male har, or if they're not strong enough, it kills them. And what comes out from our ouana-lim at the climax of pleasure, that would erode their body, and they would die, for sure."
Kelp couldn't imagine any har wanting to try having sex with a human after his transformation, but evidently somehar had, with disastrous results. The thought filled him with revulsion, so he turned his thoughts back to his comrade and the situation with the two humans held captive.
"Look. I'm not going to take aruna with them or anything after they're incepted; I don't like them, believe me. But I'll be the first to make the cuts and force my blood in them," Kelp said. "They'll be useful hara. If they'd done what they did to me and were Wraeththu, I'm sure Cairn would have shot them on sight. I don't know what it takes to kill a har," he said more thoughtfully. He knew his knife wounds had been healed and the other, inner tears had also mended themselves by the time he'd awoken from his two-day stasis.
"I don't want you to find out," Blackspur murmured. "But I also don't want those two in our clan. They don't deserve it."
"They'll have to endure a trial and succeed like we did, I'd assume." Kelp looked to Cobweb for affirmation, and he looked down his elegant nose before nodding.
"The standing stones may be different where we're going, but I'm certain Cairn won't simply bring them into the fold. Especially after their initial abuse of you."
"I'm feeling well enough to get up and go see them," Kelp said, patting Blackspur so he'd move out of his lap.
"I still don't understand why you don't want to take a knife and cut their throats, not give them our gift!" Blackspur's voice quaked as he spoke. He'd obviously been very traumatised in seeing Kelp in the state he'd been in when returned to their shelter.
"I don't know!" Kelp said helplessly, pulling his cloak off of a chair and cocooning himself in its warmth. "They don't seem like a threat now. I've done cruel things in my past I'm not proud of," he said, staring at his hands as they clutched the dark grey of his woolen cloak.
"As humans, in those black, tumultuous days, I think we all did," Cobweb said after a time.
His comment eased Kelp out of his reverie of forcing a youth not much older than himself. They'd not had sex; Kelp had forced him to do other things he'd known the other boy hadn't wanted to do. The boy had run away afterwards; Kelp had never seen him again.
"Guess I'll clean up the mess I made," Blackspur said, chagrinned. "I sure as hell don't want to go see those two."
Cobweb stayed close to Kelp's side, but he really did feel much better and he didn't falter as they walked down a set of crumbling stone stairs to the main floor, which had been reclaimed aeons ago by grass.
"You should see Ferngarn first and get his approval," Cobweb said, guiding Kelp by the arm past a makeshift divider of a hanging saddlecloth.
"Where is everyone?" Kelp asked as they ducked past the fabric to see Ferngarn puttering around a small fire.
Much of the ceiling was open, so the room wasn't at all smoky. Ferngarn looked over at them and Kelp presented himself to the pale har's scrutiny.
"Lift your shirt," Ferngarn said briskly and Kelp did, seeing the rosy scars and feeling an internal twinge where the skin had been knitted together. "Not bad," the healer said, tracing the jagged lines with his fingers. To himself, Kelp thought with a smile, Ferngarn was admiring his own work. With his nearly white hair pulled back in a rare plait that went down his back, Ferngarn's features stood out. To Kelp's eyes he seemed aristocratic more than haughty anymore, perhaps because they'd developed a rapport in addition to their new experience of healer and patient.
"You'll want to bathe," he suggested. "Not in the Kelpie's lake, but there's a small stream over the rise. Petrichor can take you. I think we're incepting the humans this evening," he said, his voice taking on a harsher tone. "You'll pick the one you wish to change. They'll go through althaia out in the woods, so we don't have to listen to their cries day and night. At least not as loudly."
"Won't someone need to watch them?" Kelp asked, holding his hands over the small fire to warm his fingers.
Cobweb arched a delicately shaped eyebrow. "When you were in that place between human and har, were you thinking about anything other than the pain, and wishing to God it was over?" He pursed his lips; Kelp had the distinct feeling he was trying to keep from making an undignified laugh.
"Good point," Kelp said, his thoughts dour. "Still, given how aggressive they were, if my input has any value, I'd suggest that they not be left completely alone for three days or however long it takes."
"Thistle will go and check up on them, not to worry," Ferngarn said, running his hand tenderly down the side of Kelp's face to rest on the cage of bones above Kelp's heart. "Go get cleaned up. You can borrow some leggings and a tunic from me so you can wash your clothes. I think we're close enough in size."
The rest of the day passed in haste and Kelp gratefully was welcomed back into the tribe. Sanweryn had made a delicious lamb stew which Kelp ate with great zeal. At last it was time to confront his abusers and to give one of them his Wraeththu gift. Only the Warloch accompanied him, but he was mostly silent.
"I know you have questions, wondering why I'm allowing this," he said, his voice low and solid like the standing stones themselves. His viridian markings were muted in the murky dark of this part of the castle ruins where he'd kept the humans, giving them only water and a few strips of dried meat in preparation for their inception. "The reasons are shadowy, even to me, but I had a dream and I trust the vision as my guide."
Kelp nodded; of course he wondered why in Alba they hadn't just maimed the two and left them to die or survive on their own, even though he wasn't nearly as full of bloodlust for vengeance as Blackspur seemed to be. Kelp had more of a forgiving nature, perhaps. He hoped for more information from Cairn, but apparently he'd offered up all he cared to.
There was no noise as they approached what had obviously been a small gaol or keep, even in ancient times.
"Are they dead?" Kelp whispered despite himself.
"No. They're just weakened."
With a wave of his hand, Cairn caused a torch to spring to life with flame. He took it from its sconce on the damp wall, and unbolted an old, rusty latch to open the heavy door. Kelp wasn't ashamed to fall behind; he let Cairn lead into the dank room where his attacker and accomplice were shackled to the wall by their ankles. The one who had knifed Kelp in the gut lay on his side, a skinny arm droped over his head. Ian, the one who'd felt Kelp was sport, was curled against the wall in a seated position, his forehead plastered to his knees. Cairn swept the torch in front of him, moving it closer and closer until the one on his side whimpered, shooing vaguely at it as though to make it go away, like it was part of a dream, or nightmare.
"Him," Kelp said, dropping to his knees. "I want him."
.:~ to be continued, soon! ~:.
Summary: Níl gach uile fhánaí caillte- Not all who wander are lost. (J.R.R. Tolkien) Kelp, a newly-incepted har and his companion, Blackspur, journey from an outer island of Alba Sulh to find others of their kind. Adult. Adventures, aruna, and a warning for violence.
Warning for this post in particular: violence, pelki/rape
Several days later they stopped for the night beside a large lake, a disintegrating castle perched bravely at its head. The ground shimmered with unseen magic; Kelp felt drunk on it, and in looking at Ferngarn and Petrichor as they gazed at the wind-whipped surface of the lake, they were similarly affected. The day had been sunny but with powerful winds blowing against them, so Cairn had suggested an earlier stopping time in a place with true shelter, both for them and to let their horses rest. Kelp brushed down his horse, which he had yet to give a proper name, and then took off for a solo walk around the lake, which he found irresistible. The others were more interested in exploring the ruins of the ancient human castle which, despite crumbling upper walls and towers, was solid at its base. Missing chunks of stone and archer's windows gaped open, allowing the glow of the setting sun to blaze through, the walls riddled with the fierce orange of the gloaming.
A low murmuring sound seemed to come from the lake, but Kelp wasn't afraid of the sounds. Maybe the others couldn't hear them; perhaps whatever she or they were, the message was solely for him. As he walked, pulling his cloak tightly against the prying fingers of the wind, he went into a trance-like state. He stayed close to the shore, making his way toward a forest edge that clung to the side of the lake opposite the castle. Through his enhanced vision and perception, mists of mysterious shapes spun and swayed above the waters and crept out over the surrounding land. Kelp was dazzled, swaying himself when he saw it, a stunning, powerful horse, and yet- not.
The kelpie walked toward him, and with soundless singsong, told Kelp he was welcome, but this was her lake. Kelp found her both compelling and malevolent, despite her reassurances that she had no issues with him or his kind. The singing in his head grew louder; a crazed thought tumbled through Kelp's mind at the watery music. As a human child he'd been told all sorts of stories and myths; was the kelpie protecting mer-people who lived at the bottom of the lake? Anything seemed possible as the kelpie's lips curled back from her teeth to give him an unfriendly, horsey smile.
We're not alone, she said, the sound a coltish snicker.
I know! There are other hara-
Kelp's arms were grabbed from behind, a knife pressed to his throat. The kelpie was gone. He thrashed against his attackers until there was a pain of icy glass tearing at his stomach as one of them stabbed across his middle.
"He's one of those freaks!" the one in front of him said, his baritone voice cracking with hostile fear.
"You're not even human, are you?" the other crooned in his ear, handing the blood-slicked knife to the skinny youth, his brown hair matted and revulsion gleaming in his eyes.
Kelp's thoughts were a maelstrom of panic, muddled by the meditative state he'd been in mere seconds ago and doubtless further troubled by the kelpie's influence. His gut ached where the knife had jabbed into his flesh; his leather pants were undone with an annoyed growl by the human behind him; they were tugged down just far enough for the predictable deed to be done.
"Gonna have some fun with you first before we kill you, alien freak," he breathed against Kelp's neck, yanking on his hair. Kelp heard a rustle of clothes and a spitting sound; the human was tall and wiry, stroking himself in his palm to get himself ready.
Oh God.
This he remembered from before; he yelled in pain as he was breached with no preparation, split in two by a sizeable cock, his arse burning at the terrible friction as he tried to resist his attacker. Were it another har, he knew it would be considered pelki, but this was something quite human and it revolted his harish senses even more.
"So fucking tight," the human said, pulling back on Kelp's head.
"Fuck, Ian!" the brown-haired human yelped, pointing to Kelp's groin as horror branded itself on his face. "His cock's gone!"
Kelp finally gained control of his wild anguish, sending a clear call to Blackspur and Cairn. I'm being attacked, two humans, at the woods. They have knives, he mustered, his teeth gritted against the raw pain in his arse. He had the dawning realisation that, thankfully, though he was bleeding profusely from the knife wounds at his belly, they'd not gutted him. Yet.
"What'd they do to you?" the young man in front of him babbled, protecting his own crotch with his hand as the other one, Ian, grunted, ramming himself into Kelp's body, fast and brutal.
"I'm a freak," Kelp ground out, tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth. "Unlike you," he gasped, then cried out as Ian yanked his torso back. Kelp felt a tearing of muscle, searing, red pain flashing as though a hot poker had been dragged across his abdomen. "Aaaaaaaagh! Fuck!"
Kelp had to stay within himself, to draw on his superior harish qualities, but he was being battered. Furious and writhing with what he desperately hoped was temporary agony, he yelled, "I'm Wraeththu! My body's protecting my ouana-lim."
And then he felt it: he sensed his attackers had seen his rescuers. The humans' fear rose around them like a cloud of sulfur, pungent and choking.
"We've got to get the fuck out of here!" the one in front of Kelp screamed, but Cairn, Ferngarn and Petrichor were there on horseback, rifles leveled at them. There would be no escape. The human, Ian, who'd been raping Kelp, had savagely pulled away and Kelp fell forward, crashing to the ground, his pants trapped partway down his thighs.
"Get dressed!" Cairn roared at Ian. "You two are coming with us."
Kelp moaned on the ground, covering his stomach as he gazed at Ferngarn, who'd practically jumped off of his horse to kneel by his side. Through the grinding maw of pain and relief, Kelp tried to smile. Wraeththu had such terrible beauty, especially compared to the brutish fragility he could now see in the two humans. Cairn could snap them to pieces like twigs for a fire.
"I need to get you to the castle," Ferngarn said urgently. "Do you think you can ride?"
Kelp nodded. "It looks worse than it is."
"I hope so. I'll examine you as soon as we get back. I want to get you out of here and cleaned up."
There had been shouting and some scuffling; Kelp assumed the humans had been subdued, and he really didn't care what measures Cairn and Petrichor had used. Gingerly Kelp let himself be lifted from the ground, his leathers eased up enough so he could ride Ferngarn's horse. Petrichor helped him until he was in front of Ferngarn, leaning back dazedly against his chest as his healer held the reins.
"I saw a kelpie," Kelp said, the words thick on his tongue. His body throbbed with the abuse he'd suffered; he couldn't imagine what Ferngarn could possibly to do repair his torn flesh out in the middle of such dangerous and isolated lands.
"Did you?" Ferngarn said, obviously distracted. "Maybe that explains why Cobweb didn't pick up on the presence of these two."
The sensation of barbed wire grating on his stomach made Kelp moan. He drew on his anger to stay conscious until he'd been carried inside and a draught of something powerful had been poured slowly but insistently into his mouth. The last thing he heard was Petrichor chanting him to a place of rest and Thistle's dark comments.
"They can stew for two days. Then they're being incepted. They deserve death, but Cairn's insistent. I hope they suffer."
* * * * *
"It's not right," Blackspur growled, his face glowering with righteous anger as he paced the room.
"They'll change once they're har," Kelp insisted. He was sitting up in bed, drinking the hot chicken broth Cobweb had brought. The beautiful har stood against the wall closest to Kelp, watching Blackspur's path from one side of the room to the other and back again.
"I could kill them," Cobweb said dispassionately. Blackspur stopped and stared. "Well, I could find out how," he continued. "I can read Ferngarn's thoughts without his realising it, but more importantly, I know where his book on poisons and remedies is."
With wide, gleaming eyes, Blackspur's expression took on a hungry look. "You would do that?"
"I said I could. Not that I'm willing to sacrifice myself to get revenge. That would be your business." He took to cleaning his nails with his white, even teeth.
"They're being punished now," Kelp said, drinking down the last of his broth from the bowl. "They'll act differently once they're Wraeththu. Probably be apologising for weeks, and grateful to be alive, and given such a gift-"
"Quit being a fucking martyr!" Blackspur seethed, picking up Kelp's bowl and throwing it against the far wall with a howl of rage. It shattered into pieces. "They hurt you!" he yelled before hurling himself onto the bed at Kelp's side, his anger morphing into dry heaves and sobs. "I saw you all bloodied, and how the one had violated you by force."
He laid his tear-stained face in Kelp's lap. Kelp gently carded his fingers through his dear friend's auburn hair, wishing he could console him. "I was roughed up," he admitted. "For a while I wanted to kill them, too, in self-defense. It wasn't smart of me to have just gone out on my own like that, either. I have to believe the Warloch has a reason for incepting them."
"Some kind of bizarre plan?" Cobweb suggested blithely, though Kelp could tell he questionned Cairn's decision. "Maybe it goes along with not having you punished for your potential murder, Blackspur."
Kelp's hand gripped the hair he was holding. "What did you do?"
"Nothing permanent," Blackspur grumbled against Kelp's thigh.
Kelp gave Cobweb a searching look.
"He went in to where they're being kept, beat up on the one, Ian, and told him what would happen, the liquefying of his internal organs, if and when he did the same thing to him that Ian had been doing to you. He told them how an ouana-lim would be a deadly weapon, and was pretty intent on an actual demonstration when Sanweryn walked in."
Kelp was shocked, even though he felt a warmth bloom in his chest at Blackspur's loyalty. "Liquefy how?" he asked, baffled that Blackspur had learned something like that that he himself didn't know about.
"Well, you've experienced how powerful aruna can be," Cobweb noted. "But even a quick tryst would kill a human, so I've been told. Our blood either makes a young human male har, or if they're not strong enough, it kills them. And what comes out from our ouana-lim at the climax of pleasure, that would erode their body, and they would die, for sure."
Kelp couldn't imagine any har wanting to try having sex with a human after his transformation, but evidently somehar had, with disastrous results. The thought filled him with revulsion, so he turned his thoughts back to his comrade and the situation with the two humans held captive.
"Look. I'm not going to take aruna with them or anything after they're incepted; I don't like them, believe me. But I'll be the first to make the cuts and force my blood in them," Kelp said. "They'll be useful hara. If they'd done what they did to me and were Wraeththu, I'm sure Cairn would have shot them on sight. I don't know what it takes to kill a har," he said more thoughtfully. He knew his knife wounds had been healed and the other, inner tears had also mended themselves by the time he'd awoken from his two-day stasis.
"I don't want you to find out," Blackspur murmured. "But I also don't want those two in our clan. They don't deserve it."
"They'll have to endure a trial and succeed like we did, I'd assume." Kelp looked to Cobweb for affirmation, and he looked down his elegant nose before nodding.
"The standing stones may be different where we're going, but I'm certain Cairn won't simply bring them into the fold. Especially after their initial abuse of you."
"I'm feeling well enough to get up and go see them," Kelp said, patting Blackspur so he'd move out of his lap.
"I still don't understand why you don't want to take a knife and cut their throats, not give them our gift!" Blackspur's voice quaked as he spoke. He'd obviously been very traumatised in seeing Kelp in the state he'd been in when returned to their shelter.
"I don't know!" Kelp said helplessly, pulling his cloak off of a chair and cocooning himself in its warmth. "They don't seem like a threat now. I've done cruel things in my past I'm not proud of," he said, staring at his hands as they clutched the dark grey of his woolen cloak.
"As humans, in those black, tumultuous days, I think we all did," Cobweb said after a time.
His comment eased Kelp out of his reverie of forcing a youth not much older than himself. They'd not had sex; Kelp had forced him to do other things he'd known the other boy hadn't wanted to do. The boy had run away afterwards; Kelp had never seen him again.
"Guess I'll clean up the mess I made," Blackspur said, chagrinned. "I sure as hell don't want to go see those two."
Cobweb stayed close to Kelp's side, but he really did feel much better and he didn't falter as they walked down a set of crumbling stone stairs to the main floor, which had been reclaimed aeons ago by grass.
"You should see Ferngarn first and get his approval," Cobweb said, guiding Kelp by the arm past a makeshift divider of a hanging saddlecloth.
"Where is everyone?" Kelp asked as they ducked past the fabric to see Ferngarn puttering around a small fire.
Much of the ceiling was open, so the room wasn't at all smoky. Ferngarn looked over at them and Kelp presented himself to the pale har's scrutiny.
"Lift your shirt," Ferngarn said briskly and Kelp did, seeing the rosy scars and feeling an internal twinge where the skin had been knitted together. "Not bad," the healer said, tracing the jagged lines with his fingers. To himself, Kelp thought with a smile, Ferngarn was admiring his own work. With his nearly white hair pulled back in a rare plait that went down his back, Ferngarn's features stood out. To Kelp's eyes he seemed aristocratic more than haughty anymore, perhaps because they'd developed a rapport in addition to their new experience of healer and patient.
"You'll want to bathe," he suggested. "Not in the Kelpie's lake, but there's a small stream over the rise. Petrichor can take you. I think we're incepting the humans this evening," he said, his voice taking on a harsher tone. "You'll pick the one you wish to change. They'll go through althaia out in the woods, so we don't have to listen to their cries day and night. At least not as loudly."
"Won't someone need to watch them?" Kelp asked, holding his hands over the small fire to warm his fingers.
Cobweb arched a delicately shaped eyebrow. "When you were in that place between human and har, were you thinking about anything other than the pain, and wishing to God it was over?" He pursed his lips; Kelp had the distinct feeling he was trying to keep from making an undignified laugh.
"Good point," Kelp said, his thoughts dour. "Still, given how aggressive they were, if my input has any value, I'd suggest that they not be left completely alone for three days or however long it takes."
"Thistle will go and check up on them, not to worry," Ferngarn said, running his hand tenderly down the side of Kelp's face to rest on the cage of bones above Kelp's heart. "Go get cleaned up. You can borrow some leggings and a tunic from me so you can wash your clothes. I think we're close enough in size."
The rest of the day passed in haste and Kelp gratefully was welcomed back into the tribe. Sanweryn had made a delicious lamb stew which Kelp ate with great zeal. At last it was time to confront his abusers and to give one of them his Wraeththu gift. Only the Warloch accompanied him, but he was mostly silent.
"I know you have questions, wondering why I'm allowing this," he said, his voice low and solid like the standing stones themselves. His viridian markings were muted in the murky dark of this part of the castle ruins where he'd kept the humans, giving them only water and a few strips of dried meat in preparation for their inception. "The reasons are shadowy, even to me, but I had a dream and I trust the vision as my guide."
Kelp nodded; of course he wondered why in Alba they hadn't just maimed the two and left them to die or survive on their own, even though he wasn't nearly as full of bloodlust for vengeance as Blackspur seemed to be. Kelp had more of a forgiving nature, perhaps. He hoped for more information from Cairn, but apparently he'd offered up all he cared to.
There was no noise as they approached what had obviously been a small gaol or keep, even in ancient times.
"Are they dead?" Kelp whispered despite himself.
"No. They're just weakened."
With a wave of his hand, Cairn caused a torch to spring to life with flame. He took it from its sconce on the damp wall, and unbolted an old, rusty latch to open the heavy door. Kelp wasn't ashamed to fall behind; he let Cairn lead into the dank room where his attacker and accomplice were shackled to the wall by their ankles. The one who had knifed Kelp in the gut lay on his side, a skinny arm droped over his head. Ian, the one who'd felt Kelp was sport, was curled against the wall in a seated position, his forehead plastered to his knees. Cairn swept the torch in front of him, moving it closer and closer until the one on his side whimpered, shooing vaguely at it as though to make it go away, like it was part of a dream, or nightmare.
"Him," Kelp said, dropping to his knees. "I want him."
.:~ to be continued, soon! ~:.