All Hail the Shifter King
Title: Holiday Travels (Part II)
Word Count: 1825
Author's Note: Oh look at me, ruining moments again. Is Kat being a bitch, or is Ryder just too sensitive? And aren't Thaddeus and Crispin the cutest (and most bizarre) little beasts ever? Side note: I should not be writing after I've been drinking.
"This is being reasonable?" Katrina exclaimed as she stepped into a lavish suite on the twenty-first floor of the Fairmont Regency Waterfront. Standing in the middle of the huge living room - and huge it was, easily bigger than her entire first apartment - she clapped a hand to her forehead and looked around in shock. "Ryder, what..."
"If you think I'm sharing some cramped room with these fleabags," he commented, thumping his hand on the top of Thaddeus' kennel as he wheeled it into the room, "you've got another thing coming." He shrugged out of his jacket and threw it onto the couch, stretching his long arms over his head as he made his way to the sliding doors that led out onto the balcony. "Besides," he added, peering out into the night sky, "I thought you would like it."
"Jordan is going to kill me," she muttered, dropping into a plush arm chair and covering her face with her hands. "See, this is why he keeps telling me not to leave you unattended."
"What? Did he really say that?"
"I think it's just kind of inferred."
"It's not even Jordan's money," Ryder defended. "And if you ask me -"
"I'm not asking you," she sighed.
"- this is entirely justified. Atiris owes us, you know."
"Owes me," she corrected. "You don't even exist, remember?"
"Is that official opinion?" he asked as he brushed past her, heading for the bathroom, "or yours?" Katrina opened her mouth to issue some sort of smart retort, then realized that it was exactly what Ryder wanted - he spent most of his free time trying to bait her into argument. Setting her jaw, she shoved herself out of the chair and set about unlocking the two kennels, listening to the hiss of water as Ryder turned the shower on.
"Not falling for it this time," she murmured, and pulled the kennel doors open. "And I guess it's not so bad..." she mused, looking around the room. "It'll be nice to have the space for one -" Her words ended in a yelp as she was bowled over by two fuzzy, mottled bodies - Thaddeus and Crispin came crashing out of their kennels like miniature freight trains, wiggling and excited bodies climbing all over her as they chirruped in their odd, warbling voices. Giggling, Katrina collapsed onto her back and allowed herself to be snuggled, stopping them only when the playful bites were catching in her jacket.
Calling them "show dogs" was grossly inaccurate, but then again, anything in current usage would be would be incorrect. The Fel'danai called them the keesin, dog-like creatures with the physical build of cats, six legs, and two tails. Their pelts were an uneven pattern of spots and splotches, in a wide range of colors - Thaddeus was black and a shimmering silver, and Crispin was white and a deep burgundy. A ridge of odd spines ran from the center of their forehead to the middle of their back, and they had the lolling grin of a hyena with a long, thinly forked tongue that both of them seemed to have trouble keeping in their mouths. Their ears were enormous, wide and round at the base and tapering to a thin tuft of hair, making them seem constantly curious and alert. But it was their eyes that Katrina loved - like mood rings, they changed color depending on how the creatures felt, and glowed with a faint light that was even brighter at night.
Typically they were not pets in Rion Fell - the locals viewed them as bad omens, harbingers of disaster. Katrina had found them imprisoned in one of the Taggart labs, and at the time they'd been three pound kits, hardly aware of their surroundings and barely able to open their eyes. Her heart had broken for the defenseless little beasts, and though Ryder and Eli had insisted that it was a bad idea to take them in, she couldn't bear the thought of leaving them behind. Since then, she'd taken advantage of their remarkable intelligence and had trained them to share their living space in Eli's home, even when their rapid growth had made it difficult at best. Eventually the others had warmed to them, though, even Ryder, and when Jordan had decided that it was time to move away from Rion Fell for their own safety, it wasn't even up for debate what would happen to her boys.
"Hey sweeties," she said, wrapping her arms around their thick necks and hugging them close to her body. "I'm sorry you were stuck in there so long." She kissed their long snouts and was rewarded with their grunting, purr-like noises of contentment. "Let's see if we can't find you something to eat, huh?" she asked, and reached up to grab the room service menu from the desk beside her.
Fortunately, the keesin were able to eat just about anything - their digestive systems were so advanced and adaptive that they could live on rocks, if necessary. So as Katrina paged through the many pages of the menu, it wasn't so much a question of what they could eat, but what she could order without putting their room charges through the roof. As she skimmed over a list of ten dollar bottles of water, however, she realized there was no getting around it, especially when her own stomach started to growl when she read the selections.
The water had turned off in the bathroom by the time she finished ordering, and she pushed open the french doors to the enormous bedroom - also bigger than her first apartment, she was fairly certain - so she could change out of her traveling clothes. Shedding the layers felt absolutely divine after being cooped up on a plane for so long, and climbing into her favorite pair of flannel pants and a ribbed tank top was like an utter luxury. Sighing with contentment she returned to the living room, where Thaddeus and Crispin were wrestling in the middle of the floor, and collapsed on the sofa.
"Are you almost done in there?" she called to the closed bathroom door. "I'm about ready to sell my soul for a shower."
"You'd be lucky to get a bucket of cold water," Ryder replied, but she heard the latch click and saw the door swing halfway open. Rolling off the couch, she grabbed her bag of toiletries and padded into the bathroom. Ryder was standing in the middle of the room in a pair of black linen pants, scruffing his hair with a towel, and she smiled briefly at him before spotting movement from the corner of her eye. She only saw him for a second - the olive-skinned, dark-haired man standing only a few feet away - before she shrieked and flung her bag of shampoo and body scrub.
The room exploded in movement. Ryder grabbed her by the arm and yanked her across the steam-wet tile so that she was behind him - her feet slipped out from beneath her in the process and she careened into the side of the tub, nearly falling into it. Thaddeus and Crispin came bounding into the room, ears flattened and backs arched, their eyes glowing a hellish red as they snarled and searched the room for whatever had scared their adoptive mother. And Katrina, as she scrambled to her feet behind Ryder, needed only a moment to realize that her bag of bathroom supplies had struck not an intruder but the long mirror over the vanity.
"What are you going on about?" Ryder demanded. He was clearly doing his best to look indignant, but every muscle in his body was tensed and he looked about ready to kill someone. Katrina stared at him, then jabbed a finger over his shoulder to point at his reflection.
"What the hell is that?" she demanded. He twisted to look at himself, and rolled his eyes.
"It's a mirror," he said pointedly.
"What the hell is wrong with your reflection?" She was trying her best not to look at it - seeing Ryder in front of her and a reflection that only bore the slightest of resemblance to him was just too much for her travel-exhausted brain to wrap around. "I thought we agreed, no magic?"
"It's just a glamour," he said, rolling his eyes as he picked his towel up off the floor. "It hardly counts as magic."
"What if it slips?" she asked. "What if something goes wrong? Too much of a risk, remember?"
"I've used this spell every day for over four hundred years." He was staring at her as if she'd gone mad, or perhaps just stupid. "I don't think there's any worry of that."
"But we agreed -"
"We agreed that I wasn't going to do anything to draw attention to myself," he interrupted. "That -" he pointed at the reflection "- is far less likely to be noticed or remembered than this." He pointed at his own face, then balled up the towel and tossed it on the counter. "It's for the best. Not like I pull it with you, anyway," he said. "Just strangers."
He turned away from her and had just walked through the doorway when she called, "But you do." He paused and glared at her over his shoulder.
"I do, what?" he asked.
"You do pull it with me," she said, gesturing at his back. "Otherwise I'd be able to see your scars."
He stared at her, long and hard, and for a moment she felt a tiny twinge of satisfaction - the fact she'd finally been able to catch him when he made such a show of always being smarter than her. But then she saw his fingers brush against the coin around his neck, and a faint golden glow spread from the surface, then up and over his shoulders like small sheets of lightning. Where they streaked across his back, welted scar tissue rose from his skin until the horrific scars she'd mentioned - the thick, ugly arcs that spread from the cusps of his shoulders in wicked curves around his shoulderblades - were in full view, twisted red marks against his tanned skin. They were worse than she remembered, but then, she'd only really seen them when they were fresh, back when the resident doctor at Taggart's lab had thought it prudent to tear Ryder's wings off for the sole purpose of seeing if they would grow back.
"Is that better?" he asked, his words little more than a growl.
"I... I didn't mean it would be better," she said, struggling to find words. "Just that... you don't have to hide them from me." She forced a smile and gestured at herself. "It's just me, Ryder. I'm not that big a deal, am I?"
He stared at her a moment longer, his face unreadable, before he finally turned away.
"Have your shower," he said quietly. "I'm going to bed."
Word Count: 1825
Author's Note: Oh look at me, ruining moments again. Is Kat being a bitch, or is Ryder just too sensitive? And aren't Thaddeus and Crispin the cutest (and most bizarre) little beasts ever? Side note: I should not be writing after I've been drinking.
"This is being reasonable?" Katrina exclaimed as she stepped into a lavish suite on the twenty-first floor of the Fairmont Regency Waterfront. Standing in the middle of the huge living room - and huge it was, easily bigger than her entire first apartment - she clapped a hand to her forehead and looked around in shock. "Ryder, what..."
"If you think I'm sharing some cramped room with these fleabags," he commented, thumping his hand on the top of Thaddeus' kennel as he wheeled it into the room, "you've got another thing coming." He shrugged out of his jacket and threw it onto the couch, stretching his long arms over his head as he made his way to the sliding doors that led out onto the balcony. "Besides," he added, peering out into the night sky, "I thought you would like it."
"Jordan is going to kill me," she muttered, dropping into a plush arm chair and covering her face with her hands. "See, this is why he keeps telling me not to leave you unattended."
"What? Did he really say that?"
"I think it's just kind of inferred."
"It's not even Jordan's money," Ryder defended. "And if you ask me -"
"I'm not asking you," she sighed.
"- this is entirely justified. Atiris owes us, you know."
"Owes me," she corrected. "You don't even exist, remember?"
"Is that official opinion?" he asked as he brushed past her, heading for the bathroom, "or yours?" Katrina opened her mouth to issue some sort of smart retort, then realized that it was exactly what Ryder wanted - he spent most of his free time trying to bait her into argument. Setting her jaw, she shoved herself out of the chair and set about unlocking the two kennels, listening to the hiss of water as Ryder turned the shower on.
"Not falling for it this time," she murmured, and pulled the kennel doors open. "And I guess it's not so bad..." she mused, looking around the room. "It'll be nice to have the space for one -" Her words ended in a yelp as she was bowled over by two fuzzy, mottled bodies - Thaddeus and Crispin came crashing out of their kennels like miniature freight trains, wiggling and excited bodies climbing all over her as they chirruped in their odd, warbling voices. Giggling, Katrina collapsed onto her back and allowed herself to be snuggled, stopping them only when the playful bites were catching in her jacket.
Calling them "show dogs" was grossly inaccurate, but then again, anything in current usage would be would be incorrect. The Fel'danai called them the keesin, dog-like creatures with the physical build of cats, six legs, and two tails. Their pelts were an uneven pattern of spots and splotches, in a wide range of colors - Thaddeus was black and a shimmering silver, and Crispin was white and a deep burgundy. A ridge of odd spines ran from the center of their forehead to the middle of their back, and they had the lolling grin of a hyena with a long, thinly forked tongue that both of them seemed to have trouble keeping in their mouths. Their ears were enormous, wide and round at the base and tapering to a thin tuft of hair, making them seem constantly curious and alert. But it was their eyes that Katrina loved - like mood rings, they changed color depending on how the creatures felt, and glowed with a faint light that was even brighter at night.
Typically they were not pets in Rion Fell - the locals viewed them as bad omens, harbingers of disaster. Katrina had found them imprisoned in one of the Taggart labs, and at the time they'd been three pound kits, hardly aware of their surroundings and barely able to open their eyes. Her heart had broken for the defenseless little beasts, and though Ryder and Eli had insisted that it was a bad idea to take them in, she couldn't bear the thought of leaving them behind. Since then, she'd taken advantage of their remarkable intelligence and had trained them to share their living space in Eli's home, even when their rapid growth had made it difficult at best. Eventually the others had warmed to them, though, even Ryder, and when Jordan had decided that it was time to move away from Rion Fell for their own safety, it wasn't even up for debate what would happen to her boys.
"Hey sweeties," she said, wrapping her arms around their thick necks and hugging them close to her body. "I'm sorry you were stuck in there so long." She kissed their long snouts and was rewarded with their grunting, purr-like noises of contentment. "Let's see if we can't find you something to eat, huh?" she asked, and reached up to grab the room service menu from the desk beside her.
Fortunately, the keesin were able to eat just about anything - their digestive systems were so advanced and adaptive that they could live on rocks, if necessary. So as Katrina paged through the many pages of the menu, it wasn't so much a question of what they could eat, but what she could order without putting their room charges through the roof. As she skimmed over a list of ten dollar bottles of water, however, she realized there was no getting around it, especially when her own stomach started to growl when she read the selections.
The water had turned off in the bathroom by the time she finished ordering, and she pushed open the french doors to the enormous bedroom - also bigger than her first apartment, she was fairly certain - so she could change out of her traveling clothes. Shedding the layers felt absolutely divine after being cooped up on a plane for so long, and climbing into her favorite pair of flannel pants and a ribbed tank top was like an utter luxury. Sighing with contentment she returned to the living room, where Thaddeus and Crispin were wrestling in the middle of the floor, and collapsed on the sofa.
"Are you almost done in there?" she called to the closed bathroom door. "I'm about ready to sell my soul for a shower."
"You'd be lucky to get a bucket of cold water," Ryder replied, but she heard the latch click and saw the door swing halfway open. Rolling off the couch, she grabbed her bag of toiletries and padded into the bathroom. Ryder was standing in the middle of the room in a pair of black linen pants, scruffing his hair with a towel, and she smiled briefly at him before spotting movement from the corner of her eye. She only saw him for a second - the olive-skinned, dark-haired man standing only a few feet away - before she shrieked and flung her bag of shampoo and body scrub.
The room exploded in movement. Ryder grabbed her by the arm and yanked her across the steam-wet tile so that she was behind him - her feet slipped out from beneath her in the process and she careened into the side of the tub, nearly falling into it. Thaddeus and Crispin came bounding into the room, ears flattened and backs arched, their eyes glowing a hellish red as they snarled and searched the room for whatever had scared their adoptive mother. And Katrina, as she scrambled to her feet behind Ryder, needed only a moment to realize that her bag of bathroom supplies had struck not an intruder but the long mirror over the vanity.
"What are you going on about?" Ryder demanded. He was clearly doing his best to look indignant, but every muscle in his body was tensed and he looked about ready to kill someone. Katrina stared at him, then jabbed a finger over his shoulder to point at his reflection.
"What the hell is that?" she demanded. He twisted to look at himself, and rolled his eyes.
"It's a mirror," he said pointedly.
"What the hell is wrong with your reflection?" She was trying her best not to look at it - seeing Ryder in front of her and a reflection that only bore the slightest of resemblance to him was just too much for her travel-exhausted brain to wrap around. "I thought we agreed, no magic?"
"It's just a glamour," he said, rolling his eyes as he picked his towel up off the floor. "It hardly counts as magic."
"What if it slips?" she asked. "What if something goes wrong? Too much of a risk, remember?"
"I've used this spell every day for over four hundred years." He was staring at her as if she'd gone mad, or perhaps just stupid. "I don't think there's any worry of that."
"But we agreed -"
"We agreed that I wasn't going to do anything to draw attention to myself," he interrupted. "That -" he pointed at the reflection "- is far less likely to be noticed or remembered than this." He pointed at his own face, then balled up the towel and tossed it on the counter. "It's for the best. Not like I pull it with you, anyway," he said. "Just strangers."
He turned away from her and had just walked through the doorway when she called, "But you do." He paused and glared at her over his shoulder.
"I do, what?" he asked.
"You do pull it with me," she said, gesturing at his back. "Otherwise I'd be able to see your scars."
He stared at her, long and hard, and for a moment she felt a tiny twinge of satisfaction - the fact she'd finally been able to catch him when he made such a show of always being smarter than her. But then she saw his fingers brush against the coin around his neck, and a faint golden glow spread from the surface, then up and over his shoulders like small sheets of lightning. Where they streaked across his back, welted scar tissue rose from his skin until the horrific scars she'd mentioned - the thick, ugly arcs that spread from the cusps of his shoulders in wicked curves around his shoulderblades - were in full view, twisted red marks against his tanned skin. They were worse than she remembered, but then, she'd only really seen them when they were fresh, back when the resident doctor at Taggart's lab had thought it prudent to tear Ryder's wings off for the sole purpose of seeing if they would grow back.
"Is that better?" he asked, his words little more than a growl.
"I... I didn't mean it would be better," she said, struggling to find words. "Just that... you don't have to hide them from me." She forced a smile and gestured at herself. "It's just me, Ryder. I'm not that big a deal, am I?"
He stared at her a moment longer, his face unreadable, before he finally turned away.
"Have your shower," he said quietly. "I'm going to bed."