(Untitled)

[felinemystique]

Characters: Bastet (felinemystique), Blood, (pinkhairedchild), and Honor (healing_death)
Date/Time: Saturday, February 14, night
Location: upper branches of the tree
Rating: R for mention of body parts
Summary: Three Four guards go to investigate the reports of body parts in the upper branches.

Comments

[healing_death]

She was a slower climber by far, unable to keep up with Bastet's lithe form. But follow she did. It was a little longer until Honor's nose caught the coppery pang of blood. As she crested the last limb, sweating a bit, Honor's eyes widened. She reached out for something to grab.

Great Goddess, mother of us all... She gagged, barely keeping down her lunch. After the issue... This... It was amazing how many things could go wrong.

"Are these..." There was no mistaking it. Honor turned green, her eyes closing. She squatted to her knees. No, she couldn't look weak, but it was so gross. So awful. "What in the name of all that's sacred is this?"

[pinkhairedchild]

Blood had set out as soon as Bastet had given the orders, setting off to find the meeting place. She had been avoiding the upper branches of the tree ever since she mentioned finding the bodies before and Bastet mentioning that she should be careful. It wasn't that Blood was worried or scared by the bodies, more like she didn't want to cause Bastet any more grief considering how things had been going for her.

There was a definite feeling in the air as she pushed herself up through the branches, climbing higher and higher until she got to where she could see Bastet up ahead. She wasn't sure how far below she should stay, and also wanted to see what they were dealing with.

Poking her head up as she gripped the branch and pulled herself up, she heard Honor speak. "What am I missing?"

[felinemystique]

Bastet kept her hand raised, holding the ball of energy aloft to shine down on the grisly scene. She felt bad for Honor; she was obviously distressed...but this was part of the job they'd signed up for, and she was sure the girl wouldn't want Bastet to acknowledge her discomfort.

She sensed Blood approaching, and heard her speak a moment later. "It's pretty bad, kiddo," she said, turning to face her. "I don't want anyone to get too near this, since I want Phoenix to see if he can pick up any scents later."

She supposed she should be more concerned about Blood...but the girl was clearly unconcerned about viewing carnage, both in her dream and given the fact that she had been the first to view and report bodies in the trees to begin with. She'd send her off on lookout duty soon enough.

"Do you remember if the other bodies were like this, Blood?" This was insane; their best witness was a child who shouldn't even be involved in something like this in the first place. But...these people had been eaten. She needed all the

[pinkhairedchild]

Blood paused in the act of trying to get up to the same area that Honor and Bastet were, hanging from the branch with her feet dangling. She figured if Bastet didn't want anyone to get too near then keeping her distance would be best. Besides, she could talk to them both from where she was.

Shifting slightly so that she had a better grip on the branch, Blood thought for a moment. "When you say pretty bad what do you mean?" She wasn't sure if her idea of pretty bad matched.

Thinking back to the other bodies she had spotted before, Blood tried to remember details. "Well, some of the parts had chunks taken out of them, and the bodies were in pieces." She paused, remembering something she thought weird.

"Some of the bodies had big gashes in them and ropes were hanging out of them! Except they looked pink and weird!" Having never seen intestines before Blood couldn't say exactly what they were. "They looked slimy so's I didn't touch those!"

ten - twenty minutes later

[metalandashes]

In his first few days in the Sphere, Phoenix had discovered he wasn't built to climb trees. He had too little reach and too much weight. That wasn't to say it was impossible, but it was harder than he'd thought it'd be, and after the first couple of attempts he hadn't yet had the patience or the inclination to do it again. Investigating a murder seemed to be a pretty damn good reason to try.

He hauled himself up through the branches, snarling under his breath at each creak and rustle. The heavy metal stink of blood and offal wound through his senses, coating the inside of his nose and the back of his throat, guiding him through the tree towards Bastet.

"Just when I thought today wasn't gonna get any worse," he growled as he reached her, gazing up at the gory display with a grim expression on his face.

[felinemystique]

Bastet heard Phoenix before she saw him, and summoned that blue-white ball of energy in her hand once again in order to better illuminate the scene. "Yeah, this wasn't how I'd planned to spend my night," she murmured as he stood next to her.

He looked as unhappy as she felt; even though she'd been here a while, it wasn't any easier to deal with. "Thanks for getting here so fast," she said, facing him; she was glad to have something other than that horrible mess to look at. "I didn't let anyone get to close to anything; I only got as close as I needed to tell what they were."

[metalandashes]

Phoenix nodded a little at her comment, his attention, now that he was here, caught on the grisly remains above them. His nostrils flared with his breathing, and he bared his teeth a little at the cold night sky

[felinemystique]

At any other time Bastet would have raised an eyebrow or made some teasing remark about being called kitten...but it was hardly relevant right now