Larr
rising dæmian
~ otter ~
Posts: 48
|
Post by Larr on Jan 22, 2005 17:23:15 GMT -5
She kept waiting for the spasms in her stomach to go away. Still clutching Gavidian tightly with her clean hand, the other ran obsessively against her thigh, but no amount of rubbing would wash away the stain left there, that horrible memory that made her gag, made her head throb. She had forgotten how horrible the feeling was. Somehow, she'd managed to forget, but the touch had renewed the memories that burned fresh and clear in her mind, the ones that made hot tears spring to her eyes. She closed her eyes, tightening on Gavidian until he squeaked softly, reminding her he was there. She held him now with both hands, sitting up enough to get to her knees and hold her daemon close, the tears falling more and more. She felt like she couldn't stop. She could see spotted fur, brown eyes rolling madly. She remembered those long, long claws, remembered crushing down with all of her weight. She remembered Gavidian sprawled somewhere, and the hyena daemon's agonized breathing, remembered her arms, remembered choking it...remembered both of them struggling, her body felt like it was on fire--- She stood suddenly, staggering by Julian without answering. She couldn't stop the crying, and she didn't even stop to retrieve the dragon-handled dagger still imbedded in the mantle to its hilt. She lurched out into the alley and slammed into the wall across from it, turned to its mouth and started running. She ran like she was drunk, stumbling, falling, she even stopped to vomit again. She ran straight by Metrean without even seeing him, but as she passed she tripped and fell again, blooding her knees through her jeans and clutching for her daemon. He had swooned as she left her home, which was affecting her judgement. She had dropped him and he lay where he'd fallen. She couldn't see through the tears, though, and her stomach ached with the pain of memory. "Gavi.."
|
|
|
Post by Cat on Jan 23, 2005 12:16:15 GMT -5
"What --" Julian had started, but Shay was digging into him with her claws. He fought to hold her in place but she was frantically clawing her way up to his chest, where she felt safer. He kept both his hands on her, but couldn't pull her down. Finally he released her and she cuddled her head under his chin, still weeping softly.
The feeling of shock was leaving Julian, replaced by the most confusing tangle of emotions he'd ever felt. He hated Fossil for touching Shay - and yet felt strangely connected to her now. He wanted to hurt her, cause her pain for what she'd done ... and he wanted to talk to her about her reaction. It bewildered him. With a hot wave of rage he muttered, "She doesn't have the right to act that way."
Shay said nothing. Julian wrapped his arms around her and stared at the flap in the wall where Fossil had vanished. Finally the silence was broken by Shay.
"You're going after her." She pulled away and looked into his eyes. "Aren't you?"
He walked to the mantle and, shifting Shay to one arm, grasped the finely-crafted hilt of the dagger Fossil had thrown. After a few futile tugs he managed to wrench it free, and slid it inside his jacket sleeve. "Yeah," he answered Shay. He glanced at Lindy. Hopefully she wouldn't breathe a word of what she'd seen to anybody. Without speaking to her, Julian brushed past her into the alley, Shay still tight in his grasp.
"Where'd she go?" he murmured. Stepping into the crowded streets of the Slums, he looked around. "How am I going to find her? I don't even know her name!"
"Just look. She can't be that hard to find." Shay wasn't helping him look; she had her face pressed to his jacket. Julian stroked her ears in the way she liked. He took a deep breath and joined the crowd, fighting down fear. This place scared him. It was nothing like the part of Oxford he lived in and couldn't believe they were the same city. His focus was staying on the good side of everyone in the crowd, as hard as that was. Passing dog dæmons would growl at Shay, curled up in her boy's arms. She paid them no attention, but Julian's fear was growing.
'We're never going to find her in this.'
'Don't be pessimistic,' Shay thought to him, 'but personally I never want to see her again.'
Julian sped up, then broke into a run, avoiding contact with anybody as best he could. Someone suddenly moved in front of him, and he leapt to one side, losing his balance and stumbling sideways into a girl. Instantly he straightened up, Shay tense in his arms - contact with her had fortunetely been avoided. "Sorry," Julian muttered, but then his gaze dropped to the girl's hand.
The golden compass.
Julian froze. 'That's the girl with the compass!' he hissed mentally to Shay.
'I see. Going to take it?' she asked coolly.
'I'm going to try.' His eyes were fixed on Adrienne. Would she recall him from the fight? Trying to gain her trust a little, he repeated, "I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you?"
|
|
|
Post by Tyrannus et Callida on Jan 23, 2005 20:30:24 GMT -5
Not long afterwards, a girl emerged. She was not well at all. She looked hurt, not just physically, but in other, unseen ways. She ran right past him, but fell before she could get much farther.
Immediately after the girl fell, Metrean sheathed his sword and began to try to find out what had happened.
"Hey, what's wrong? What happened?" He began, in a hushed voice filled with anxiety, "Can you hear me?"
He thought he heard her say something, but he couldn't be sure.
Thayndriar then said to him, "She might not last. She needs help."
"What? Help around here?"
"There's got to be someone who can help. If not here, then maybe somewhere else..."
"But where?"
"I don't know. For now I think it's best to try to get her to respond."
Metrean spoke to the fallen girl again, "Can you hear me?"
|
|
Larr
rising dæmian
~ otter ~
Posts: 48
|
Post by Larr on Jan 23, 2005 21:12:48 GMT -5
Her body hurt all over. There were voices, clear voices that chased some of the memory out of her. She shifted and groaned, turning her face towards that voice. "Who are you?" she asked, voice hoarse and gravelly. "I didn't mean it...I didn't mean to..it just happened...where's Gavidian? Where'd he go? He was sick.." Her daemon lay just out of arm's reach opposite the direction she was looking, but she didn't know to look there, staring up at the stranger, expression one of fright and uncertainty. "Don't hurt me, please...where's Gavi?" Under normal circumstances, Fossil would never be this pathetic. She was badly shaken.
|
|
|
Post by Tyrannus et Callida on Jan 23, 2005 21:24:55 GMT -5
"Who are you? I didn't mean it...I didn't mean to..it just happened...where's Gavidian? Where'd he go? He was sick.."
She was obviously not yet fully aware of her surrounding.
"Call me Metrean. It's okay. Everything's okay." It took him a minute to figure out who Gavidian was. "Gavidian's here too. Right there. Everything's alright. I want to help." He decided to try to push a question on her. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Mentally, he told his dæmon, Keep an eye out for anyone else.
"Just tell me what happened."
|
|
Larr
rising dæmian
~ otter ~
Posts: 48
|
Post by Larr on Jan 23, 2005 21:40:21 GMT -5
She wouldn't answer until she'd located her daemon, turning her head and struggling up enough to spot him. He was still out cold, but she gathered him to her, tucking him into her jacket to keep him warm. She sat up then, a painful process that left her facing him with a look somewhere between sickness and emptiness. There wasn't much personality in her eyes, as if she were lost somewhere inside herself. She flinched before she answered. "We were fighting...and I kicked..Gavidian got mad, and attacked her. He attacked her...I had to get him off, he'd kill her...and.." She swallowed visibly, blinking once, sucked in air. "I touched her. I didn't mean to, it happened...he was gonna.." She shuddered, body trembling violently. "It was his fault!" For a moment she looked defiant, angry, as angry as she'd been to first see Julian in her home, but then it was gone, leaving her empty and hollow again. "It was a mistake.."
|
|
|
Post by Tyrannus et Callida on Jan 23, 2005 21:49:11 GMT -5
He had to think a moment to be able to process the words into meaning, but eventually Metrean understood.
"It's okay. Relax. There's not much you can do. What's done is done. All you can do is make up for it. Just relax."
He paused. It would be pointless to ask, 'are you hurt', so he asked the next best thing.
"How bad are you hurt?"
|
|
Larr
rising dæmian
~ otter ~
Posts: 48
|
Post by Larr on Jan 23, 2005 21:58:00 GMT -5
Was she hurt? Fossil blinked, head tilted to one side as she considered it. There was a visible bruise on her right cheek from where she'd been initially struck, and her back ached. She figured it was probably scratched by the chair leg that she'd fallen against. Both knees were leaking sluggish blood. Her head was pounding. "Not bad," she said, her heart starting to slow to a normal rate. Bits and pieces of calm were coming to her now, and the question seemed so mundane, it cooled some of her heartache. "Why do you have a sword?" She shifted a little and winced, but the pain was mostly superficial. Her jaw was getting stiff; that was really the worst physical injury. She felt lucky that he hadn't gotten her properly or he'd have broken her jaw. "I've never seen you around here before..."
|
|
|
Post by Tyrannus et Callida on Jan 23, 2005 22:04:17 GMT -5
"Not bad."
She seemed to be more aware now.
"Why do you have a sword?"
He smiled. "I stole it from a knight. I've gotten pretty good, if I do say so myself."
"I've never seen you around here before..."
"I'm not really anywhere for too long. I wander around, and sleep wherever I end up by night."
Then he realized that he didn't even know who she was.
"What's your name?"
(OOC: I've gotta go. Right in the middle of a whole bunch of stuff, too...)
|
|
Larr
rising dæmian
~ otter ~
Posts: 48
|
Post by Larr on Jan 23, 2005 22:09:13 GMT -5
She returned the smile, taking stock of him. Short...that surprised her. Very few guys were almost as short as he was, and he only topped her by..she figured maybe an inch or two. She pushed back a strand of silver-grey hair, answering, "My name is Fossil. I'm more a dagger-type myself.." In her coat, Gavidian stirred just a little, and she drew her daemon out to cuddle and pet, trying to get him to stir. "This is my daemon, Gavidian. We live around here...I've never been traveling abroad before."
|
|
|
Post by Tyrannus et Callida on Jan 24, 2005 15:43:05 GMT -5
"This is my daemon, Gavidian. We live around here...I've never been traveling abroad before."
"Really? never? Well, it does have it's good sides. But then again, it does have it's bad sides."
Thayn, anything?
Someone else came from the same place, but he went a different way.
Get a good look at him?
Of course, what do you take me for? I knew you'd want to go after him. But instead, how about getting her somewhere safer?
She was right, they were too vulnerable here. "Maybe we should get you somewhere safer than this."
|
|
Larr
rising dæmian
~ otter ~
Posts: 48
|
Post by Larr on Jan 24, 2005 19:03:44 GMT -5
Fossil scowled at this, face twisting into one of distaste. "Safer?" she asked, sounding insulted. "I can take care of myself, alright?" She felt at her ankle, and remembered the dagger she'd thrown into the mantle. She shrugged, and went to the other ankle, drawing a long match for her other dagger. Its hilt was carved elegantly into the likeness of a dragon's head, with a narrow, winding body etched into the blade itself. Its edge was razor sharp, cleaned beautifully. "I have no need for 'safer' places. I can handle myself alright."
|
|
|
Post by Tyrannus et Callida on Jan 24, 2005 19:55:08 GMT -5
"I have no need for 'safer' places. I can handle myself alright."
"Okay. Suit yourself. I just thought that this would be a bad place to end up in a fight. I chose it for stealth, not a fighting advantage. Besides, I know my limits, but not yours. You're obviously not at your best."
Neither am I, he thought, memory drawing to the strangeness of the knife, and the void that its sight had left in him.
"Well, is there anything else you'd like to tell me? Or have we covered everything we need to?"
|
|
Larr
rising dæmian
~ otter ~
Posts: 48
|
Post by Larr on Jan 24, 2005 21:13:54 GMT -5
Fossil stared for a moment, blinking once or twice in confusion. "Am I being interviewed?" she asked, puzzled. "I haven't fixed my hair or anything...are you a reporter? Is it about the milk man?" She looked down at herself and her dirty clothes, at her daemon peering up at her. "Are you with the paper?"
|
|
|
Post by Tyrannus et Callida on Jan 25, 2005 12:33:32 GMT -5
"...are you a reporter? Are you with the paper?"
"What? No! I just heard something going on, and I decided to sit here and wait to see what happened. They'd want to interview me first. I apprehended the criminal. Without a reward, mind you. Can't do anything for anyone without them turning it against you. They said that I was the one who should be arrested, just because I pointed my sword at his throat. They turned it around. I'm not the one who went around killing... did you say the milk man?"
|
|