"So, there are lots of legends about the Wild Hunt," Hakeber tells Tasha once they've passed back through the water to Ylem again. "I haven't checked, but I wouldn't bet against other worlds having similar legends at this point."
"There does seem to be a lot of overlap, probably due to the multi-spactiality of the actors. The same with dragons, I think." Tasha wrings her hair out, then steps to walk beside Gabriel and waves Hake along. She glances at Gabriel a long moment, then to Hakeber and adds, "And Hake? Don't mention what I said earlier, okay? I need to ... To see how things stand."
"So, what debauchery have you two been up to?" Gabriel asks, camped out next to the air taxi.
"Nothing that some antacids won't fix," Hakeber claims.
"Oh you know, witch stuff." Tasha drops down to sit beside Gabriel, gaze lingering, eyes reflecting the stars and something deeper. She blinks a few times, then she suddenly tucks herself under his arm and lays against him.
"Sounds exhausting," Gabriel suggests, pulling Tasha in closer. "Everything alright?"
"Just a little tired," Tasha replies, her eyes closing. She feels so much lighter now, as if death took actual mass along with less tangible things. Lighter in body, and lighter fire. She hesitates, then adds, "Back when we talked ... Did you really mean it when you said you wanted to protect me? Are you happy out here?"
"I've always wanted adventure," Gabriel says. "Not necessarily glory, but exploration and challenges. I'm pretty happy right now. And of course I'll protect you, however that may be done."
"Maybe I'm a little more tired than I thought. Do you think the others need me?" Tasha rolls over to lay her head on Gabriel's leg, reaching for Hakeber to join them and so she'll have something to hug. "Do you think I did it all for glory, you aggrandize myself?"
"At first you were definitely a bit glory-obsessed, I think," Gabriel says. "That didn't last long. I think it had passed once we got to Sheol."
"You don't really have to prove yourself anymore," the big wolf says.
"You don't think I am?" Tasha's ears flick at not having to prove herself; she even looks mildly confused for a moment, not having comprehended a time when the burden to prove herself would cease. It's a few blinks and a somewhat scrunched up face later before she admits, "I don't think I was ever prepared fro what came after that. Not that, not peace, not finding what I chased after."
"It's all Melchior's fault," Gabriel claims with a grin, giving Tasha's shoulder a squeeze.
This causes more confusion, but she does laugh, even giggle, and and grabs his hand. "Don't be so hard on him, he really does give good advice. I miss him often, I should talk to his maker and see what we can do. But enough about them," and so Tasha leans back, takes Gabriel's hand, and holds it in both of her's. "I thought of retiring, on the other side. My mentor showed me all the shadows of my heart, told me of all her bad decisions, what it cost her to be away fighting. I thought Mariel needs me, and my children won't be safe out here. Do you think the others need me? Do they like this, doing what we're doing?"
"Well, Katie wants adventure, Yue is an explorer, Jonas.. I think is just hiding," Gabriel notes. "I don't think the Phins could just go back to being 'pirates'. But none of them could make the decision to go pursue this stuff. Only you can. You're the one who can talk to these things."
"Who knew it'd be me talking to things that would be so key. I remember when people wanted me to talk less." But Tasha chuckles. She rubs Gabriel's hand in her's, and then says, "Well, letting everyone down here wouldn't be a good way to return home. I am tired, but I'll find a way to make it work. I don't think I should be fighting things with swords and valor anymore, but I'll find some way to still be useful."
"Well, you're still young," Gabriel says. "Time enough to plan things out."
"I think I like magic. I like Titans, too. Together maybe I'll come up with something. We'll need a bigger ship though." Tasha sits up, then scootches against Gabriel's arm. "But that's for later. Ever wnat to be a wolf?"
"Umm, I am a wolf, if you hadn't noticed," Gabriel chuckles.
"A wolfier wolf. Ancestral, all fours, no clothes." The young woman nods back to the water. "My mentor has an idea to help us learn, to teach us about the fey. It looks like the wolf-part of me gets to go hunting. Want to join us?"
"And we'd be put back to normal afterwards?" Gabriel asks with raised eyebrows. "Or would we be split like you were before. I'd be a human and a wolf separately, or just a wolf?"
"We'd all be wolves, and we'd all be put back the way we were. Except Lacci. Lacci will be a bird." Tasha says the last part as if the fact were obvious. "So far you, me, Hake, Katie, and Lacci are invited. Want to go tell her? She's going to puff so much we can use her as a pillow."
"What are we hunting exactly?" Gabriel asks. "How feral are we going to be?"
"I have no idea. It's not what but with who. The Wild Hunt. The Wild Hunt. Fae huntsman, we'll be part of mythology," the red woman explains. She lets go of the hand and sits up, pulling her knees in so she can look at Gabriel more face-to-face. "I assume we'll be hunting and sniffing."
"I suppose it does have a deep sort of draw," Gabriel says. "As a people, the Karnors didn't have any mythology of our own. That's something important, you know?"
"Humans have lots of wolf mythology," Hakeber says. "But.. yeah, it wasn't ours."
Tasha lays a hand over her chest, indicatingly. "As a people who is also just one people, I know how you feel. All my mythology can be counted in a few months." She turns to Hakeber and nods. "I suppose I never thought about that. I grew up with Vartans, and we -- they -- are chalk full of mythology and legends. Spirits everywhere. I just assumed everyone had that."
"You've got Nora as your mythology, and probably Blackwings," Gabriel suggests. "But I have issues with Nora as a deity."
"Also Sinai-Vartans really don;t like magic, so I guess I'm a huge disappointment there." Tasha nods gravely about Nora. "Well she did pull it off somehow, but she's very vengeful, you know. And angry. I suppose I was created through her lingering wish. That's really very mythological."
"That is a twist on things I don't recall from any myths," Hakeber notes. "I mean, there are curses, and stuff, but they don't work the same."
"Katie won't be hard to convince," Gabriel says. "Lacci I'm not sure about. She tends to be a bit uncertain about the supernatural."
Tasha nods to Hakeber. "Myths do tend to be bleak, don't they? Or wildly positive in a somewhat bleak way. There's not a lot of wishes being granted, except for some desert spirits I read about." And back to Gabriel. "Katie will be so ready for this we'd have a hard time getting her to not go. Did you know she's off naked in the woods somewhere with a knife? I come from a wild planet, and I never did that. As for Lacci, well, she needs exposure to these things, and we're in, um, mostly safe hands. Probably. You'll see."
"That's right, Katie is possibly stalking Lacci," Hakeber realizes. "Let's get back and see who is available come morning. Over breakfast."
"That's fine with me. I need to do some painting before bed, then I'm going to be out." Tasha snatches Gabriel's hand, then snatches Hake's, and stands. "Did you know there's around seven pregnant shadows of me? It's true ... " And so she leads them back towards the air cab pickup zone.
Come morning, the pack is all in attendance, event Lacci and Shojo (although it's not clear if he left his trainees out in the wilderness or not). Kaitie is in high spirits as well, and has an unlit cigar tucked behind her ear as she piles her plate high.
Tasha is likewise attending her plate, anticipating a heavy workout. She's dressed in shorts and a billowy, loose top with ruffled arms and a questionably modest neckline. She smells a little like paint. "So, have I an adventure offer some of you," she begins, dumping a pancake on her plate via fork. "Katie, Lacci, would you like to meet my mentor and take part in a actual magic adventure?"
"Your mentor isn't going to ask for our souls or anything through right?" Katie asks. "What sort of adventure?"
"Who is this mysterious.. uh.. entity?" Lacci asks with her usual trepidation.
"Not all of my mentors want souls," Tasha insists, waving a fork at Katie disapprovingly. "In fact only the one. And a wild adventure. As in wild animals. We'd be them. The animals I mean. Part of a hunt. As for who my mentor is, that's a secret I can't tell unless you agree. You'll see who it is when we arrive."
"Am I one of your mentors?" Sam asks.. from under the table for some reason.
"Animals? You mean.. feral?" Katie asks. "I want to be able to think and all at least."
"Yes, Sam." Tasha tries to pat Samael with a hand; failing that, a hoof. "And I don't know how it will be. We're supposed to be learning about the fae by doing it, joining the fae in a hunt. A wild hunt. In fact the Wild Hunt."
"The Wild Hunt?" Katie asks, and looks to Lacci. Lacci looks to Hakeber.
Tasha also looks at Hakeber, since she knows scarcely more about it than Lacci and Katherine. Her knowledge comes from Hakeber, her mentor, or Nora's old memories.
"Ancient Terran folklore," Hakeber says. "With too many variations to go through. But it's a hunt for a monster, usually, led by a god mostly, and with wolves and hounds and sometimes birds."
"Sometimes it's full of ghosts, and sometimes full of faeries," she continues. "So, I assume from the context this is going to be a faerie based one. So there will probably be a monster as the prey. And a king or god or something leading the hunt. And.. faerie-wolves or dogs maybe?"
"Oh, and sometimes there's treasure or some other reward for those who join in," the Karnor adds. "And sometimes it's cursed too."
"Monster hunting?" Katie asks, her eyes getting big and her grin bigger.
"The closest analogue I can think of is a noble's hunting back on Sinai. Important person, less important people, sometimes vehicles, hunting animals, and something hunted. It's supposedly very refined, but I still don't really know why." And so Tasha shrugs, then pops some pancake in her muzzle. Some time later she points a fork. "We'll decide who gets the treasure after."
"It's called the 'Wild' Hunt so I don't imagine it'll be that refined," Katie says.
"I'm not a wolf," Lacci points out. "I've never hunted anything. I don't know if I have hunting instincts.."
"Nobles like to call things this and that, but you know, it's always refined," Tasha insists. She then pulls over the coffee put, pours, sips, and raises her brows. "You'll be a bird. You can spot things, maybe claw them. I can't really help people with wolves or birds since I don't remember those sides of myself when they were split off."
"I prefer the naked human version over the wolf or bird or whatever had hooves versions," Katie claims. "More fun to play with!"
"Yes," Gabriel agrees.
"I didn't see the big deal about that," Lacci offers.
"Hmph," goes ex-naked Human Tasha. She takes anotehr, longer, sip of coffee and then shakes her head. "If you really miss it that much, ask our guide. But you'd better carry me."
"Naked warrior girl riding on a wolf?" Gabriel asks, still grinning behind his own mug of coffee.
"With warpaint," Katie suggests.
"Feathers and a headband too," Hakeber offers.
"Terrans are all weird," Lacci claims.
"As a Human I'm not much of a warrior, have you felt thorns as a Human? Everything is too sharp and too touchy-feely. Why do they even need to feel under their feat?" There's more head shaking from Tasha, who is glad she's back to being red furred and therefore unable to be seen blushing.
"That was just incentive for them to wear the skin of other animals, I think," Katie claims. "Anyway, when is this hunt, and what do we have to do? And of course Lacci will come. She needs to get in touch with nature."
"Since when are faeries natural?" the Vartan argues.
"If you really miss it that much beg my mentor to teach me how to change back -- temp-or-rar-i-ly." The emphasis shakes Tasha's coffee. As for the Hunt, she explains, "I think they're manifestations of nature, somehow. And being obnoxious and tricky. Whimsical. You know what? I don't know either, but they are. Why is Sam 'unnatural' when he's his own little universe and so , really, he's natural within himself. The point here is," and she taps the table with a nail pointed down, "is that they are spiritual manifestations of something deeply tied to nature, and we are going to learn things."
"And maybe get to bite them!" Hakeber chimes in, raising a fist.
"Well, bite a monster anyway," Gabriel offers. "And see Tasha as a dainty wolf."
"And maybe get to bite them," Tasha agrees nodding slowly and sagely. "Just so you know, my wolf form is white and not red." She gives Gabriel such a look, then shakes her mug at him. "Lets all tease Tasha about how cute and dainty she is now, you don't see Lacci teasing me."
"You were always cute and dainty to me," Lacci claims.
"Well, that was before you were put back together, so who knows what your magical spirit-wolf whatever is going to look like," Gabriel points out.
Tasha turns rather sharply to look at Lacci, then she smiles a little, perhaps, fae-like herself. "So you do think I'm cute."
"Mighty and towering surely," the dainty and cute one insists.
"What have you been painting?" Katie asks, changing the subject. "I can smell it on you, even over the spicy sausages."
"My shadows. My mentor thinks I can use things I hold to invoke magic. These will invoke the shadows of my soul, for things like stabbing people, and, um, worrying about things in a large group of me. Pregnancy advice?" Tasha then realizes maybe not all her shadows will be first-choice tactical or strategic elements.
"It's really freaky," Hakeber adds, and shudders. "Like if all your past selves were actually still lurking around in you soul."
"Ugh, Past Katie was terrible," Katie says.
"Yeah, but seeing them really brings home that you are going to be a terrible past self eventually," Hakeber notes.
"One even tried to beat me up," Tasha says, brows arching. "I stabbed her. Past Tashas are all bad, but there was even disassembled me, that was hard to look at."
"You mean dead you or split-up you?" Katie asks.
"That's not part of the hunt is it?" Lacci asks.
"Pile of guts dead me," Tasha replies, then she eats a sausage proving once again canines will favor food over revulsion and regret. "I'm glad that happened fast." She then turns to Lacci and shakes her head. "No, that's magic training stuff. Only Hake and I, and maybe Katie, have to do that."
"Wait, why me?" Katie asks.
"Well, Tasha and I have.. otherworldly add-ons," Hakeber says.
"I'm normal, no spirit bits that aren't my own," Katie declares. "I barfed up all of the Sam bits!"
"I could still feel that," Sam remarks from under the table.
"I do believe I was told that someone had an interest in magic, or maybe not this magic and this teacher?" Tasha's head tilts. "Hake and I ahve extras, but maybe you could do it, too. My mentor said there's many kinds of magic, and some people seem to lean more heavily towards one style over another. Maybe it's not your style?"
"Isn't that what the Hunt is supposed to be for, to see if we hit it off with.. uh.. whatever?" Katie asks. "Being magically transformed has to leave a mark, I mean."
"It is supposed to teach us about the fae, so maybe. And if we're stuck as wolves and birds forever, we'll just have to keep going. Get some wolf-seats for the Bridge, maybe some of those Silent-Ones translators set to wolf," Tasha insists, smiling.
"Time in the faerie world is supposed to pass differently," Hakeber notes. "Lots of stories say it passes slower, so years can have passed by after a mortal returns from a day spent with faeries."
"I guess we'd better not leave anything on before we go, and make sure the others know what to do if we're, um, dimensionally indisposed." And so Tasha shrugs a little. "No risk, no reward?"
"Well, if your mentor is so capable, they should be able to ensure we get back in reasonable time and body," Katie says. "I'm sure that faerie gateways work on quantum principles, so as long as nobody uses it before we get back the time frame should be negotiable."
"That's a pretty big assumption," Lacci notes.
"That's actually exactly how they work," Tasha admits, sounding both surprised and a little stunned. She sips her coffee with the raised brows of surprise.
"I didn't expect you all to come," Mollymauk notes when the group comes out of the pool. "Wet wolf smell.. go shake off at least while I conjure extra towels," the legendary purple devil says.
"You're kind of disappointing too," Katie notes to the faerie.
"None of this is possible," Lacci mutters. "That pool is just laced with hallucinogenic substances I bet."
Gabriel looks around as well. "It looks like a forest," he notes. "The devil is the only thing that seems fantastical."
Tasha, who never had never been told she wolf-smells bbefore, makes a 'hmph' noise before walking a ways from the group and shaking herself out. This starts as core body, rolls out to her limbs and wings, and ends with wing shaking. "Don't mind Molly, he acts fussy, but that's because faeries like to seem lazy and difficult but are actually obnoxious and difficult. He is a magical spirit though, that part is true."
Thinking it might give her loved ones a thrill as well as demonstrate Molly's fae nature, Tasha walks over to said fairy and points at her nose. "Do the nose thing, where I turn in to a Human," she whispers, "It'll excite the wolves and make the bird puff out."
"Oh really?" Molly says, goes 'boop' on Tasha's nose. But Tasha doesn't change. Everyone else does. Hakeber is a slightly chubby brunette, Katie is a leggy redhead, Gabriel is still a huge man, with a salt-and-pepper beard and gray-at-the-temples dark hair. Lacci becomes a somewhat skinny girl with lots of freckles and light brown hair, and she is squawking.
Tasha blinks at herself she sees nothing change, and is about to say something when she hears all the squawking. Spinning around, the red-furred woman takes one long, wide-eyed look at her companions -- and even gasps! -- before doubling over from her own laugher. She laughs so hard, she even drools a bit. "Oh gods, oh-- I'm going to d-die, hahaha--"
And so the laughter continues.
Gabriel flex and rubs his tummy. "I can see my abs," he notes. Hakeber complains that she needs a bra now. Katie tries to catch her reflection in the pool. And Lacci.. just flaps her arms and runs around in a panic. "I'm missing a pair of limbs!" she cries.
"It's very annoying isn't it!" And so Tasha chases after Lacci, sneaking a kiss on Katie and Gabriel when she passes by them. "Now you know how I felt! You look like Riddle Katie! Still handsome, Gabriel -- for a Human anyway!"
"I feel like Zeus," Gabriel says. Hakeber seems the only one of the Karnors not completely enamored of her transformation, and she can't stop blushing. Lacci eventually stops when she falls over after trying to run on her toes. "Oww!"
Tasha is there to help Lacci up, or rather, pick her up and place her on her feet. "You might want to try taking it slowly at first, Lacci. I started with walking and getting used to the limbs and feeling the bottom of my hooves, which are feet. Feet are weird."The ex-Vartan gets a encouraging pat on her shoulder, and a nudge to rejoin the group, before Tasha walks back to the others. Specifically, she narrows in on Hakeber.
"It's like having my own baby Human!" Tasha's exclamation comes with picking Hakeber up and giving her a very throughout, not to mention exaggerated, hugging.
"Aghhh!" Hakeber squeals. "I feel squishier than usual! Is this what beer does to a human body?"
"A Karnor body too," Tasha carries Hakeber off with her as she makes her way over to get a better look at Katie and Gabriel. "I bet Miss Riddle would give me a lot of money for a picture of this."
Katie cocks her hips, and says, "I can do this.. but I miss the tail. You never really think of it until it's gone."
"I felt that way about my wings, hooves, tail, muzzle, height, and muscle mass," Tasha agrees, nodding while hugging her friend like a stuffed animal. She turns to Gabriel and asks, "Is this weird for you? I'd think out of everyone this could be harder for you to deal with. Of course, now you only have to impress yourself."
"This is very affirming," Gabriel says. "I have never seen a human male in this sort of condition at my age."
"Clearly you are a superior Karnor and a superior Human. Now both Humans and Karnor will have to listen to you. You should run for president of Terra. Or king? Emperor? I don't know how Terragens politics work, actually." Tasha turns back to Katie and inspects her now. "Still taller and more imposing than me by a lot. Hake here is just cute as a button." 'Cute as a button' being decidely Terran slang, and likely Nora's.
"A shiny button?" Lacci asks from where she's decided to just sit on the ground until this all goes away.
"The shiniest button," Hakeber claims. "I could pass out in this body not have to get the previous night's pizza cheese out of my fur! It'd just be in my cleavage, making me sexier!"
"You haven't started sweating yet," Molly points out. "You will change your tunes then."
"Either way, this Hake is mine for now." Tasha walk over and sits beside Lacci, leaning over to get a good look at her now. "Well, Lacci is pretty cute. What do you think Hake? I bet she's the first Vartan to be a Human; this must be great for her studies."
"She looks waifish," Hakeber claims. "I'm pretty sure that's a word. And now her boobs are smaller than mine. Wait.. so these bodies can't be based on any kind of genetics, but what then? Personality?"
"Just the impressions I got from you," Mollymauk claims. "It's magic after all. But I'm disappointed you weren't all embarrassed. That was the whole point!"
"You can't really embarrass Katie and Gabriel, and embarrassing Lacci is way too easy to count for any points. Hake and I are probably the best you'll get. And if Shojo was here, well, good luck there." Tasha reaches over and pets Lacci's head. "Heehee, so cute."
"If I were a mother, I'd want Lacci for a babysitter because she obviously doesn't have a boyfriend she'd sneak over to make out with," Hakeber says.
"I don't understand any of what you just said," Lacci claims. And pouts. Vartans are incapable of pouting with their beaks.
"Well, it's been a lot of giggles and all, but if I take you to the staging area like this you'll probably get eaten," Molly says.
"I'd make a joke about making out and sneaking over and Lacci now, but I'm supposed to be a leader and above such things." And so Hakeber gets put down -- and Lacci gets picked up. "I'll save you the hassle of walking until you turn back." But she glances then at Molly, and asks, "Unless you're going to undo it now?"
"Poob," Molly says, and everyone turns back, including Lacci while Tasha is holding her up.
This results in a very sudden 'hrrk' from Tasha, who bows at the legs until she begins to buckle, forced to put Lacci down. She then rubs her arms, "mph"s, and shakes her head. "You'll always be a cute little Human to me, Lacci. Now, uh, ouch, where was I? Oh, lets get going!" And so she walks away, hands waving everyone after. "Come along now, and no straying!"
"This is the Enchanted Forest, which is the bases for all other.. uh.. enchanted forests across realities," Molly narrates. "That's because we're on the board of Faerie and the Dreamlands, where things sort of bleed out into the dreaming minds of sapients. It's also the source of fears about why you should stay out of the forest. Well, probably not for any of you but in general."
The trees are very tall and there's a fog, but other than that it doesn't seem so very out of the ordinary.
"It doesn't seem very out of the ordinary," Hakeber notes.
"This is the night of the Wild Hunt, so everyone is hiding," Molly explains. "Plus He is out there."
"That's the thing with Faerie, it's always dangerous -- especially if all seems calm. I mean, obvious dangers can be dangerous, but those usually pop out after calm stretches like this. It's a world of deception, trickery, emotions and archetypes. Don't take it lightly," Tasha further narrates, having been here several times now. "And it can change quickly."
Giving in to the obvious baiting, Tasha asks, "And who is He?"
"The one I'm taking to of course," Molly replies.
"A monster?" Lacci asks.
"Not always," Molly replies.
"Well, of course," Tasha insists. She blows some fog away for no other reason than it seemed fun at the time, arms swinging. "Well, this will be fun. I never did get a chance to talk to any other fae, nor the gods in the dream city. I did pet a few cats, though. That was nice. There were a lot of cats to pet."
"Not to chase?" Gabriel asks. "Sometimes the ship cats make want to chase them, or else they try to get me to chase them, like it's a game."
"No, I mostly like petting them. I think they get me. I chase other sorts of things." For some reason Lacci gets a big, over-done wink. "Cats are my buddies. Besides, you really shouldn't chase any cat in that place."
"Sometimes Ratatosker is in the woods," Molly says. "Sort of the god of squirrels. You would not want to chase it. I think we're close now." The air begins to smell a bit.. deathy. Like approaching the lair of a large carnivore that leaves the remains of its kills around.
"Wow I haven't smelled this in a while," Tasha admits, rubbing her arms against the cold fog. "Someone hasn't been cleaning up their work, or their meals. It's a little like a battlefield."
"Alright, this is as far as I go," Molly announces. "Just follow your noses from here."
"Why can't you go on with us?" Katie asks.
"I'm not part of the Hunt," Molly says, smiling.
"Humans have bad noses, too," Tasha notes, helpfully. Molly gets a little wave, but Tasha doesn't stop walking. "He also doesn't want to get eaten. Have fun spying on people, Molly!"
"And we aren't going to be eaten, right?" Katie asks.
"Not if we're part of the hunt," Hakeber says. "And it depends a bit on who the hunt-master is too, which varies in the various traditions."
Up ahead is definitely the lair of a carnivore, or else an open pit of rotting corpses from the smell. The air even starts to feel warmer.
"And if they do want to eat us, we just hunt them instead," Tasha insists, smiling and wagging her tail. She does smile somewhat less as she ventures further, however, and rubs her nose. "Someone is definitely a messy eater. Do you think it's another dragon?"
"I'm not familiar with the eating habits of dragons," Katie notes.
"This doesn't smell dragony," Hakeber says.
"Some like pizza, others like people." Tasha sniffs around, but doesn't stop walking. "Hello? Is anyone home?"
There's a clicking sound from high up in the trees, where the canopy is covered in mist. But up ahead there is a small valley, which is littered with bones. Some of them quite large.
"That is a lot of bones. I am not hungry," goes Tasha . As she nears the massive pile of bones she leans down to pick one up, hesitates, then decides against it and straightens. "No free samples, this might be someone's collection. Like gold. But, well, bones. Bone-trophies. A avid hunter might prefer a more natural sort of keepsake."
"They shouldn't be just piled up then," Gabriel says.
The small valley leads to a dark opening, such as a cave or burrow ahead. "Do we want to be down here?" Katie asks. "I do not want to go into that hole."
"Maybe they're really casual about it?" Tasha turns to shrug at Gabriel; who knows. "It is the Fae after all." She does take a moment to look around, frowning, then nudges a bone with a foot as she peers at the hole. "Well, we did come here for a reason, and I for one have long since worn down my fear of strange holes and stranger gods, so if you want you all can stay out here and hide behind bones while I go walk in there."
"Do not walk in there," a deep voice growls from above the entrance to the lair. There's a large blob of darkness there that begins to rise up, and two burning red eyes appear in its midst, so at least it's possible to follow the rise of its head.
Tasha turns around, but not before ensuring she's not directly in front of the hole, but rather off to the side so whatever is inside can't leap out at her and she can keep the entrance in the corner of her eye. "Oh? And why not? Is it treasure? I bet it's treasure. The huge pile of dead things and obvious stench of death always means treasure."
"Because it's my lair and you aren't invited in," the voice growls. It's not really speaking, just growling, but it's clearly understood." You are here for the Hunt," it states.
"Oh," goes Tasha, who lays her ears up even as she leans back to look at the looming shadow. "I suppose that would be rude of me, wouldn't it? Our guide wasn't very descriptive of the process of meeting, uh, you." She then nods. "Yes. Myself, and the people behind me -- assuming they're still back there behind em and not hiding somewhere right now."
"Still here," Gabriel says, but the others are behind him now. "To whom are we speaking?" he asks.
"I am The Wolf," the dark shape replies. "I have many names, but they always end in Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf. Even.. the Fenris Wolf."
Tasha puts her hands on her hips, head tilted and brow arched. "I'm afraid I reserve the title of 'Big Bad Wolf' for my mate behind me, so I won't be using that one for you. You understand." She tilts her head the other way. "And Fenris wolf. There's a name I haven't heard in a while, and a weighty one. Then, you're the archetypal wolf-entity? The 'Wolf-God'?"
"There are no gods that a proper wolf would follow," the Wolf growls. "I am the archetype for the fear of wolves. Of being stalked and hunted. I need no other name than Wolf."
"Wouldn't a proper wolf do what it willed, in accordance with its pack?" Tasha sniffs, then sniffs at the shadow to see if it has a scent. "You know some people enjoy the fear of being chased. But we're not here for philosophy or semantics, are we?"
"You are here to join the Hunt," the Wolf says. "And I am to send you to it." The night sky begins to brighten a bit in places, as if streamers of aurora were flickering into existence.
"Yes, that's so. Thank you." Tasha inclines her head, but doesn't lose eye contact. "I guess we'll be going now, then?"
"Not yet," the Wolf claims. "My howl will release you when the time if right." More things are happening in the sky about, as the mist clears away. Streamers of light, and now the sound of a storm approaching, with peals of thunder that sound a bit like horns. "Nodens and his Hunt approach."
"Nodens?" Hakeber asks. "Not Odin?"
"Nodens," the Wolf repeats.
Now Tasha does break eye contact, but keeps the presence of the Wolf in the corner of her eye. She looks up as the wind stirs her hair around her, reaching to restrain it as she gazes up in to the auroral lights. "I've not heard the name 'Nodens' before."
"He is an old god, the source of many like him," the Wolf claims.
"I think I see how that works. Thoth has many incarnations, and many echos in the Dreamlands, probably elsewhere." Tasha considers mantling her wings against the wind, but decides displaying weakness now would be a bad idea, and so stands before the crackling storm and colorful, doomsome wind. "Well, it will be interesting meeting him."
"That is a given," Hakeber squeaks, as the storm worsens. The streamers of ghostly light above begin to look more like actual shapes. But ill-defined enough to be uncertain. And the horn-thunder gets closer and louder.
"Now," the Wolf says, and howls. It feels like a wind that goes right through the flesh and bone and forces Tasha out from.. herself. She sees their bodies collapse below, while still feeling like she's being drawn upwards towards the storm.
"Do you think some day I could show up to a location with thunder, lights, and a gale?" The question doesn't seem to be addressed to anyone in particular as Tasha watches the strange display before her. She's about to say more when the Wolf howls.
Whatever she was going to say fades on her collapsing body as the rest of her is drawn up. To where, she doesn't know, except that it is with The Hunt.
There are flashes of lightning, and the thundering horns.. and then running. Running on all fours with the storm itself. There are mounted riders, some on horse-like creatures, or on wolf-like or dragon-like creatures. They are men, women, skeletons, ghosts and demons. An eight-legged horse pulls a chariot - though sometimes it's a sled - through the middle of it, with a large, white-bearded human figure in it, flanked by giant ravens (or possibly dragons), and lashing out with a whip that turns into lightning.
There a cry as a large eagle flies alongside Tasha, which must be Lacci. Gabriel is leading the charge of the wolves. And there are wolf-like, hound-like creatures running along as well.
And then there is Tasha, not quite like the wolves, nor like the hounds, and no bird in the sky. She is perhaps most like a maned wolf, lanky, long-legged, winged in the manner of flying quadrupeds, with feathers instead of fetlocks, and white nstead of a maned wolf's black; upon her head is the star burst black sun. Faintly seen are the shadows that rise from her own, briefly made visible when the lightning strikes. They are other wolves like her, a bird, and a ghostly spirit. Trails of light follow after her like faeries, blue and yellow. She stands with but apart from the others at the forefront with Gabriel.
Gabriel is more clearly a wolf. A Terran arctic timber wolf with his grey coat and white limbs and underside. And massive size. Both Katie and Hakeber are more southern types, smaller and with more color to them, including reds, browns, tans and even black in places - much more mixed-breed sorts, but six-thousand years and a small starting population can do that. They have bigger ears, used to the windy desert conditions of Abbadon. Lacci is more clearly a bird of prey like an eagle, with certain Vartan features - like actual ears and longer streaming tail, making her look more like a phoenix.
If Katie and Hakeber are the results of long interbreeding, and Gabriel is the original, powerful wolf that gave birth to all future Karnor, Tasha is more like the fae themselves -- a fanciful interpretation of wolf, bird, and something unlike them, wrought by her memory of herself and a deification being's love of cuter things. A fabricated wolf made from the tatters of a kludged together hybrid.
Some of the other 'hounds' are creatures that have only passing resemblance to canines, being scaled, skeletal or made of fire or mist. There are also the shaggy, wolf-sized black dogs with red eyes that seem to trail black smoke. Flying ahead are other strange creatures: black, winged figures with featureless faces and nearly triangular heads with horns.
But Tasha is not so intimidating, at least visually. For all the shadows and ominous lights, for all her canine and avain features, she still has her mane, her delicate long legs, her big eyes and that too-long tail that lashes behind her with too much dexterity to really wag properly. She certainly wouldn't draw eyes from the hounds of smoke or fire, less imitating than the true wolves if for the energies around her.
Beneath their feet, the terrain below begins to change. The heavy forest is becoming sparse, with more skeletal trees spread across a wasteland. The Northern Wastes, a voice seems to inform her. It isn't coming from the bearded god, but from one of the dark flying creatures. The prey is ahead.
Tasha does not know where the Northern Wastes are; they could be anywhere, on any world, or just the idea of a northern waste given shape; the original frozen waste that bled out in to countless realities. It matters little to her save for her desire to know, to explore and soak up information -- the Hunt is afoot and the prey is near. She knows little of the prey, too, save that it's her target, and to hunt and slay another being by some volition is a sentiment that has remained awake in her being for years now.
The flying creatures begins to split off, each pulling some of the drovers with them. The one for Tasha's pack does the same, diving downwards. There a distinct urge to follow.
The red canid being does follow, seeing no reason not to and curious where it all leads, to what they hunt. There is also strength in numbers, in the pack, and so running off on her own would avail her little. She dives downward.
It isn't just her pack. One of the black dogs joins them as well, with Lacci flying above as a spotter. It's her that screeches when she spots something. The lead creature changes course slightly, and soon they're all running across the wet, cold ground that is some sort of frozen swamp.
Part of Tasha wonders at being able to feel the cold ground, the swamp mist, the frozen wind of this cold barren landscape, the same part that always wonders about the things she does and where she is when she's trying to focus on a task. It gives her perspective and a sense of both observing and being in a place, and it is a strange feeling here and now as she flies like a ghost across some alien world, more spirit than flesh, a ghost of a ghost reflecting on itself as it races on.
There are no scents in this dead place, or sounds. It seems like only sight is reliable. And then there are the howls. The other hunting packs. And the Gabriel howls back, and Hakeber and Katie join in. Even the black dog does.
But Tasha doesn't howl, because that's not what she does anymore. Entity and species of one, she is not as noisy as she once was. The impulse doesn't come to her, but she remains no less alert and awaits the change in path that comes from the communication.
Something like a group of trees is moving up ahead, and it must be the prey. It looks at times like a goat, or a shaggy lump, and it is difficult to tell how many legs it has. But it keeps getting bigger as they run it down. It's shaggy coat is writhing. There are curled horns like a ramp. It has a tail of sorts, and it has.. legs. Sometimes they end in hooves, other times in claws, but they are constantly being extruded at the front and then retracted at the back, like some bizarre conveyor belt of appendages. It does not call out or bleat, but its body makes a constant wet rustling sound as it moves. It seems too big. The trees barely reach where a shoulder might be on a less random sort of creature.
The Spawn of the Black Goat of the Woods is the prey, the lead flying thing makes clear. But how are canines (and an eagle-phoenix-thing) supposed to bring it to bay?
And Tasha though she was a weird combination of things; whatever she may be, whatever they're after has her beat in size, number of limbs, strangeness, and horns. It feels more like chasing a vehicle than a living, breathing thing, and she's not even sure it lives or breathes. The way it writhes recalls memories of men and women with hands in puppets or under sewn costumes, of something wearing something else. She hears what it is, but it means nothing to her unless the goat is Nyarlathotep.
For now, Tasha decides to hang back. She nudges in to Gabriel to get him to stay with her, and keeps her distance deciding the others of the Hunt must have experience beyond their own -- perhaps they will have something in mind. Or, perhaps a vulnerability will reveal itself. The canny hunter waits for weakness, and she is done throwing herself to doom recklessly.
As they begin to overtake the behemoth, the other packs close in as well. Their own black dog shows them the procedure though, but streaking ahead and biting at one of the ephemeral legs midway through its stride. This causes the beast to move away towards the other packs, which also begin to harry it.
As their own group gets closer, Hakeber seems to.. change. Maybe it's just that she seems more focused, but her posture and overall attitude seem to become more aggressive looking.
Tasha pursues, but her demeanor does not change. Even in this dream -- or perhaps nightmare -- hunt, she retains an echo of self, a lingering presence of mind learned through hard won knowledge and instinct after having been repeatedly exposed to such circumstance sin the past. She is dogged, intractable, but she does not bare her teeth or raise her hackles. Her mixed paws and cloven hoofed legs carry her down, down towards the beast -- their prey.
Yet the fae wolf has cause to wonder, as they rapidly approach.
Why?
According to Hakeber, the Wild Hunt chased down monsters.. or sometimes people that had caused some offense, with the most serious one being failure to join the Hunt when called. This thing definitely falls into the monster category. When Hakeber pulls out ahead, Katie and Gabriel seem to draw closer and follow her. Probably because they don't what to do either in this situation.
Tasha hunts monsters. But sometimes, too, she is hunted. And she has wondered, in the back of her mind where secret thoughts fester, if she is a monster, too. Unwanted beings, strange things, the other, the enemy -- all have been monsters. Shw wonders if the label is good enough. And so she moves forward to join Hakeber, but on the outside. Considering.
Who are you? It's not sound, but thought and projection from one beast to another.
The only reply seems to be a growing sense of unease and revulsion the closer she gets to it. It smells like death, and every motion it makes (and ALL of it is moving, or squirming) causes a disturbing sound. The black dog that joined them is keeping pace with Tasha, it's glowing red eyes fixed on Hakeber.
Just a beast? Tasha keeps her distance, used to such encounters as this, even if this is but a haze. You should speak if you can. She watches the beast for some time, until the red-eyed dog nears. Like any protective canine, the fae wolf takes this approach with suspicion; the black dog is not part of the pack. But it is also not an enemy, presumably an ally. But still.
And Hakeber, Hakeber is vicious now, and it feels familiar. It feels like that hard, shrunken coal of rage that sleeps within her, so quiet now, but still there. Still there and sleeping, harder to wake, harder to put out.
Now Hakeber's eyes seem to be glowing red as well, as she leaps up seems to burrow her way through the mass of tentacles (or whatever they are) that makes up the monsters 'hair', right behind its neck.
The fey wolf takes this with a glances and a sense of concern born too late. She briefly considers jumping in as well, but then the new fear grasps her heart and she is reminded of death, and worse than even death itself, the death of her line and family, of her pack in mourning. She has hurled herself in such a way before, and so met her end. She will not do it again so soon, not while she can watch and know.
Gabriel and Katie seem uncertain as well, and so go for the constant conveyor-belt of feet the creature produces, like the others are. If it's slowed down, the hunters will be able to deal with it. But the black hound leaps and seems to fly again, following after Hakeber, who has vanished into the squirming mass already.
The attack leaves the fae wolf with a conundrum. She could bite, and she could let loose the roar-bark that sleeps in her chest, but she has greater weapons than these. Terrible, dark weapons, and a nascent power of shadow and memory. All these should could array against this beast, this thing, who will not speak to her. And so the time for decision comes to her mind.
Watch and wait, and let Hakeber who is their small omega attack with this stranger, or attack herself with her terrible weapons and clinging shadows.
A compromise, then. Tasha is a pack leader, yes; but she is also a pack unto herself. One of many and many of one, the first manifestation of her nature. The shadows bleed from her wake, spreading in reverse and forward as other Tashas bleed in to existence around her. And there, a bird, too, unlike her, a soul lost in her darkness, and her's to call -- not that it needs be called, not here, not now.
Attack.
Once they've moved from the cold, white wastes of the ground, the shadows seem lost against the squirming hide of the beast, since it's also black. But the beast is faltering, turning away from the side that Hakeber and Tasha have attacked. The black dog is still visible due to the glow from its eyes, where it seems to just hold position where Hakeber dug in. The horn of the hunt master blares out again, a peal of thunder.
The Blue and the Yellow light circle Tasha, waiting, watching, like knights in the wings, eager but disciplined. And Tasha, who is at the center, keeps pace and watches. It is then she remembers her eyes are not her only eyes, for she is akin to this beast in a way: her third eye remains unused. And so she opens it, a gold eye, and then two, more, all across her body, at the junctures of her wings, ever looking, ever remembering, seeing what mortal eyes can and will not. And so she watches and searches for their lost omega.
Hakeber appears clearly in the cloud that the creature appears as. A bright red blotch burrowing towards the denser area of black mist, where something seems to pulsate. None of the other wolves or hands display anything unusual to her vision, but a few shiny glimmers behind her might mean there are entities in the hunting party that have bits of shadow within or carried on their persons.
The eyes finish their search, darting here and there, each to their own task, each with its own items of interest until they complete their task. All at once those eyes that can snap to the beast that rampages through the forest, and all at once the shadows of self change their focus, diving each and every one towards this pulsating heart. And then comes a question:
To steal the glory, the kill of the hunt out of a sense of protecting? Or to wait and see and leave it for their smallest, for her small courage, knowing what foulness beats in that heart might poison Hakeber?
In that moment, the Wild Hunt comes into range. Those glimmers of darkness reveal themselves as arrows strike the beast and actually hurt it. It gives out a cry that emerges from hundreds of mouths and throats, most of them appearing just then for that singular purpose. It begins to lurch about, almost drunkenly. The hunters may not even realize that Hakeber is in there as well, although the arrows fall on the rearmost parts of the creature, not near where Hakeber is worrying its heart.
The question changes. The fight is not theirs; it is not worth the loss to the pack. Yet, the fey wolf does not think her blood-frenzied pack member will relent; she would not, in her death frenzies. And so she orders her shadow in the best way she can, and having seen the beast and its ways, prepares herself to leap on as well.
With wing beat and tearing claw the fey wolf climbs up, blood making the ascend treacherous, her shadows arrayed to guard her and make way for her. She moves herself between the hunt and it's hunters, and Hakeber and her target, and as she does the orb of Blue light ceases its endless circle to drift behind and between, and so flicker to life as a shield.
The hunt falls in force upon the prey now, with long spears and hooks. They avoid the shield, since it's obvious to them what it's for. But their weapons are tipped with the same matter that the creature is made of, apparently. They must make them out of their prey somehow.
And a shield is but unidirectional; the fey wolf knows not how to make it greater than it is. It is a borrowed power, a channeled power, and she does not mean to be ungrateful for it. And so the red wolf-like being takes it upon herself to be where she needs be, borrowing deeper and flanked by her biting, rending selves, all to move the shield behind Hakeber and her progress so that victory need not come at her expense.
The monster staggers more from the onslaught. When Tasha reaches Hakeber, she finds here at a standstill. Hakeber has found the critical weakness, but can't seem to get her jaws around it. That doesn't stop her from trying though.
Some packs lead from top to bottom, with strong dictators for whom obedience is all. Tasha's pack is different, for each is valued and each is protected, all for their worth. Even though she leads, she can follow, and she can help. The fey wolf uses her shadows to shield herself and provide room, and so, she bites, and they bite, collapsing as a tide of tooth and claw.
It's like trying to bite water, or an odor. It's there.. she can sense it, but it's hard to feel it. Even the shadows have difficulty making contact. But there must be some effect on the beast from it. It stumbles even more, and may be slowing down. The horn sounds again, but this time is sounds different. It's not the same as the 'drive down the prey' signal from before. It feels like a call to retreat.
To retreat. But they have come so far, and they are committed. But still, Tasha knows some small wisdom in the need for retreat, to pull away before a greater tragedy can be cast. She has fought too long, too hard, never retreating, and it had cost her so much -- it had almost cost her everything.
The shadows pull away from the heart. Some scramble to keep the mass of flesh at bay, others, including Tasha herself, seek out Hakeber and attempt to pull her away.
Retreat, retreat. There is what we do not know. We must retreat.
Hakeber is not following the call. She's still trying to get her jaws around the beasts core, as if nothing else matters.
The so gentle tugs and calls give way to more urgent pulls and shoving, and then, to soft mouthed bites and force. Leave it leave it, run away. We can fight again; it is not worth it.
It takes a few of these more direct efforts to tear Hakeber away, and she seems dazed. But even if she's acting groggy, she finally responds and turns around to leave the beast.
Tasha lingers but only a moment; she could strike, she could level her power and it might well sunder this creature -- but this creature is no enemy of her's. It is prey, and such prey is plentiful enough. Pack members are not so replaceable, nor is she.
The fey wolf withdraws with Hakeber and the shadows, piling out like a wave and readying for flight.
No sooner have they escaped the squirming mass, than a lightning bolt strikes the creature, which was already slowed to a stumble. The hounds and wolves are baying or howling, and the mounted members of the hunt are circling the prey. But it the master of the hunt, the god Nodens that is throwing down the lightning.
Sensing her work is done, the fey wolf settles on to her haunches with her shadows milling about. Some circle, some bay, others see to their wounds and their cleanliness. her eyes watch them all, and everything else, yellow and avain and menacing in their own passive, staring way. Meanwhile Tasha marvels at the thunder, the light. What it must be like to call such things, perhaps it is like her shadows.
More lightning strikes, until the beast stops moving altogether. Then the hunting party dismounts (save for the centaurs) and draw long knives edged with the darkness to hack apart the creature and recover weapons.
It's only now Tasha's shadows stop escorting Hakeber's own form enough to not block her way, should she so chose to approach. Wishing to see more herself, the fey wolf rises pads, or perhaps prances, forward on those long legs beset in eyes, and feathers, fur and claws, and hooves. She wonders what of this being is so valuable; perhaps there is value in knowing the answer.
Apparently (now, anyway) the creature had bones. Or at least has something like them upon death. And these are what the hunters are cutting free or excavating from the behemoth. There are also the chaotic rams horns. It isn't clear yet if there's a skull or not in there.
The black hound returns to Tasha's side as well.
The black hound gets a low, howling roar of a greeting, about the best she can offer being what she is. She wonders at this stranger, and she thinks to ask. Who are you? It's said as he fey wolf noses through the remains, searching for a bone or two for herself. She does not know what to do with the horns, but she sniffs and paws at them all the same when she comes near them.
Church Grim, the hound seems to reply. It doesn't sound like a name so much as a function. It isn't very clear in that regard either though. There are few small 'bones' that aren't being collected by the hunters. They look more like pieces of black wood than bone however.
The fey wolf does like trophies, or perhaps more accurately, keepsakes. It snatches the largest bone it can find up and takes it back a ways, where she sits with it and puts it under her cross forelegs. Tasha, she greets the black hound at last. She then looks to each of her pack in turn and names them in kind.
Katie seems tired, while Gabriel is still watching everything that's going on. Hakeber still seems slightly confused, since she doesn't seem to be paying attention to anything at all for the moment.
Odd Names, Church Grim notes, and doesn't go for any bone fragments himself.
The fey wolf tests her friend's and pack mate's focus by reaching around with her tail and swatting at her. This is made more ominous by the eyes, which all rotate to track Hakeber even as several of them are swung in to her. They at least seem to have the sense to blink in time.
Yes, the accosting fairy wolf agrees. There was something about her name. She had considered changing it. New beginnings. Later, maybe.
Hakeber yelps at the swat, then turns to Tasha and gives her a 'did I do something bad?' look.
The fairy wolf looks off to the soon-to-be-gone monster indicatively, then makes a biting motion. Hunger for the heart; bloodlust. Why?
It takes a moment for Hakeber to catch on, but she still looks confused. I don't remember. She also didn't remember reacting to Urgo-hem's appearance in the Dark Horse.
The dark spirit, it directs you. Why, I wonder. Will you speak for yourself? Tasha's batting tail hovers above her, and all eyes snap to focus on Hakeber's lupine form. We have spoken before, and here we are, far from conscious fancy. Account for yourself.
Church Grim is also watching Hakeber closely. The wolf shakes her head as if to clear it first, then replies, There's nothing else there. It's just... me... She doesn't look happy about that.
Then what part of you was there, biting and clawing and hungering for heart's blood? Tasha rises, but not before picking her bone up in her mouth. She circles Hakeber and her eyes turn with her. What kind and where for lurks the the darkness, long hidden, something more than the riddle? Straight for the heart; even I did not see it at first.
I just knew where to strike, Hakeber claims. That's the last I remember, before you were biting me.
So it is. Something hidden, or something known, but ominous and useful. The fae wolf sniffs, offended by this mystery that routinely claims her pack member. Nothing should claim her pack members save her pack and what they might give themselves to. It is an old mystery by the standards of her existence, but no less vexing. It's hunt will come soon, that she has planned. For later, then. And that seems to be that.
It is next that Tasha decides to see about this god, this Nodens. She sniffs after him, eyes searching, but a god in their power is not subtle and so finds him quickly. Along the way she takes up another bone as a gift, and then sits there behind Nodens watching, waiting, expecting a god to notice for they always seem to be.
It isn't that hard to find him. This sleigh isn't that far off, and the old man is terribly robust, as he tears free one of the fallen monster's horns with his bare hands. It shrinks down to become another hunting horn, which he hangs on his course belt. For a god, he looks rather barbaric in his red furs. Two other entities attend him, switching between forms of ravens, eagles, gryphons and dragons, seemingly at random as they circle above him.
Tasha maintains a respectful distance, knowing better than to barge in and ruin ritual and bounty of the hunt through interruption. And not merely disruption; disrespect. Though she is but a strange and multi-parted wolf, old instincts tell her to let superior eat first. And while Nodens is not eating, she knows he sups a different sort of nourishment from this affair. She waits.
Not unlike the god's own attendants, the lights of Blue and Yellow lights that follow Tasha circle above her head. Unlike the attendants they do not change, content, for now, to play at being an imperfect aureole.
"Tis not often I find runners of the mortal realms in my hunt," the god says, turning to Tasha. "Not for a very long time, since I left those realms myself."
It is a strange road that leads us here, but we are no worse for it. I say, perhaps some are better. The fae wolf's many eyes shift to track a particular hunting hawk, so unlike the beast it has become. Her first taste of participation; perhaps, too, of blood, one way or another. The wolf's head remains fixed on the god, neither dominant nor submissive, but attentive. These realms you speak, you mean from whence we come? For we travel farther these days, and what is here or there, less so.
"You have not been in the fae wilds long, having only passed through them before," Nodens says. "I am a god of humans. And you have some of that essence within you, if not so much as your packmates. What did you think of this hunt, Shadow Eyes?"
It did not answer me. I wonder at it, this Child of a being I do not know, unless it is that I do. I am not fond of attacking children, but I felt no sentience, no will beyond what it was. It is not ideal, but it is also enough for opposition, and for a lack it's lack. Tasha settles down now that she's being paid attention to, crossing her paws atop her bone pile and looking, if not for those eyes and the lights, delicate and dainty for beast of the hunt. What may be of it, it is something new that I have seen, and smelled, and tasted. I wonder, too, at its heart.
"It is an abomination, spawned from the Mother of Abominations and Goddess of Foul Fertility, with no more care or effort than you would have in urinating," Nodens claims. "Its existence is only to spread the foulness of its parent. You hunt similar, do you not?"
Familiarity abounds. Yes, it is a type of existence known to me, and with as much doubt and consideration. The wolf shakes itself out, then paws at its neck, ensuring its ruff is sufficiently fluffed now that it need fight no further. And indecision, though little and less now. Have you advice then, O Human Lord of the Hunt?
"Know your end goal," Nodens offers. "Do not worry about the costs until afterwards, lest guilt or indecision weigh down your resolve. That which weighs you down will eventually drown you, and your crusade will have been for naught. You need not be ruthless, or dispassionate. You need not hate the enemy. But you must always keep to mind that the enemy does not consider such things, or follow the same rules."
And so the wolf bows its head to good advice given, and to the god. These words I will try to remember. And then she picks up her bones and walks forward, head ducking. The deity may pet her, if he so wishes.
If there's one things humans are good for, it's petting things. Nodens does pat Tasha's head, causing the hair and fur to floof out with static electricity though.
This makes rather a lot of the fae wolf's eyes blink, and one ear to go decidedly askew, bu the tail wags and Tasha enjoys this momentary and electric divine approval. It's so rare the gods she deals with come out and just show their affection that the wolf finds the whole experience satisfying on many levels.
Once the petting is done, Tasha wolf -- or Shadow Eyes -- bows its head again in respect, then returns to her pack in anticipation of departure.
I will take you back to the Wolf, Church Grim communicates to Tasha when she returns. Katie looks ready to go, certainly. Hakeber looks uncomfortable around the monster corpse, and Gabriel.. just seems like Gabriel, as if nothing has really changed about him.
Gabriel gets bumped in to as Tasha takes her place within her pack, several eyes watching him, and him alone. Others settle on Katie, fewer on Hakeber, and what may pass for normal eyes watch the Church Grim. We are ready, Grim of the Church.
The black hound leaps up into the sky, the rear half of him seeming to trail like smoke. Leap and fly, it says.
Tasha mouthes at the bones a bit, biting them back and again to ensure they are well-grasped before backing up in to a hunch. For a moment she considers racing forward, leaping to catch some phantom wind, but the experience has opened her eyes -- both figuratively and literally -- and so instead she simply wigg;es a little, pads the ground, and then gives a dainty hop. A the apex of the modest ascent she flies by the most simple of methods and most elsuive of: by refusing to fall. And so she hovers a moment, wagging, pleased, before floating away in to the sky.
The others join them, and Tasha feels a sort of pull. Church Grim leads the way, but even if it didn't they'd all know the route anyway as they run through the sky. Their bodies are their destination after all.
Despite her body laying elsewhere, Tasha has found her time as a spirit very refreshing. Bipedalisim and overt sentience have their perks, but she's decided there's something of value in this form of existence, too. She can see why her mentor remains in her dragon form so long, though she claim its strength the rest she does find pleasing.
Soon the bone-filled cleft is visible, along with their apparently sleeping bodies, plus one other. It feels like flowing or falling when Tasha reenters her body. And she still has the bone fragment in her jaws as well. The others also stir, with the human standing in wait remains quiet. It's Kainudy's old human remote, this time wearing some odd clothing that reminds Tasha a bit of Sinai, in that it isn't that far off from her own 'bar wench' outfit.
The first thing Tasha does, is stretch out across the bones. The second thing she does is sit up, and the third, deposit the bones in her mouth right in to her hand. One bone then gets tucked away, while the other is kept in hand. She rises.
After looking around a moment, Tasha then turns to Kainudy and smilies. "Well that was fun. We hunted a spawn with an old god named Nodens. He gave me advice and then petted my head." But she then frowns. "And Hake went murderously berserk and tried to eat the Spawn's heart. Usually she doens't do that, unless it's pizza. I suppose it's unlikely it's heart was made of pizza?" She arches a brow.
It was not something separate within her, Church Grim reports while the Karnors are still getting themselves together. It was carried by something deep down inside of her. Anger, fear, violence. Buried deep. Like a human.
"Thanks, Grim," Kainudy says, and does not pet the dark hound on the head. "You may return to guarding your cemetery now."
"You know I had suspected it was something li--" Tasha turns to peer at the Church Grim, frowns in surprise, then walks over and looks down to inspect it. "I wasn't sure we'd still see you. Where was I? Oh, I had suspected it, but I thought we ruled it out after we investigated her. Oh, are you going?"
Church Grim doesn't nod or bow or doing any other gesture of acknowledgement, but sinks away into its own shadow, and then that vanishes as well.
Tasha straightens. "I'll take that as 'yes'."
"Grim is the expert I wanted to look at Hakeber, and that meant trying a test to see what might trigger her," Kainudy explains. "So, the Wild Hunt. I hope it wasn't too bad for the rest of you?"
"I.. didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would," Katie admits. "And who are you?"
"I am a fancy wolf with eyeballs," Tasha says by way of an answer, even wagging her tail. She does frown Katie-ward though, then between her and Kainudy. "Oh, that's my mentor piloting a Human like a Human-puppet."
Kainudy frowns at Tasha's explanation. "I would not have given such a straight answer," she notes. "Magical mentors are supposed to be mysterious and ineffable. Otherwise tax collectors and others will show up."
"So.. not a Human then?" Gabriel asks.
Crossing her arms, the remote says, "I'm Terran, originally. From a Terra, anyway. Probably not yours. Almost certain of that."
"That'd just make you more important and therefore more attractive to them than I," Tasha insists. Then she asks, "Can I turn in to that wolf any time or is that just a spirit thing? Because I want to." A glances to Gabriel and a quick shake of her head; no. She even holds her hands in the air making clawing gestures, then opens her mouth like she's breathing fire all over the bones. Dragon.
"Astral spirit projection is.. possible," Kainudy admits. "What's that in your hand?"
"Can I ... body project? You can turn in to things." Tasha then holds out her hand. "I snagged two pieces of bone from the Spawn as souvenirs. I figured they'd be useful for enchanting since they're, well, Spawn bones and they were struck by deific lightning in," she drops her voice a few octaves, "THE FROZEN NORTH."
"Hmm, and you aren't going to chew on them or bury them somewhere?" Kainudy asks, hands on hips and leaning forward as if suspicious of a claim of innocence.
"Karnors don't do those sort of things," Gabriel points out. "But Tasha does have Vartan in her.."
"We drop stuff from great heights," Lacci claims.
Tasha responds the only way that seems to make sense given her lack of options. Her recent experience with a mostly canine body has taught her something about herself and why she doens't howl; no, instead she can ...
Roar-bark. Kainudy is treated to a carrying wave of roar barkery that ends with Tasha stepping forward to try and hug the Human.
"Ack! What's this now?" the remote says, arms spreading out of the way. "Do not lick me! It would bring back uncomfortable associations with foxes."
"I thought you didn't go in for Humans, Tash," Katie notes.
"I am showing my appreciation for all my mentor's hard work and assistance," Tasha says, hugging on to the Human and going 'mmm' and swaying her left and right. There's even some side-of-muzzle affection rubbing before she steps back. "I can't rely on Molly to do it after all."
"I'm going to have to bleach my brain after that image, you realize," Kainudy complains. "Is she like this with her other mentors?" she asks the wolves. "Or where they just that disappointing?"
"Well.. do you mean the ones she's killed or the ones she hasn't killed?" Katie asks.
Tasha turns to the other and spreads her hands in a palms up gesture that could either be it's not my fault or what can you do.
"Well, usually the ones I try to mentor hate me, so that's fair enough, I suppose," Kainudy says. "Now.. uh.. what was I going to do next? Oh, right, I need to talk to the Skipper, Ginger and Mary-Ann to see if I need to erase your memory or not," she notes, pointing to Gabriel, Katie and Lacci in turn.
Tasha blinks at the nicknames, but senses that she is no longer needed, at least. "I will ring our host while enjoying the local color," she insists, dismissing herself. This is followed by a hoof-turn as she wings around and makes her way back towards the cave entrance.
The smell of wolf musk is nearly overpowering at the entrance, and large yellow eyes seem to glow deeper within. "You have something for me?" the Wolf growls.
"I brought you a souvenir!" Tasha holds out the bone, charred and black, like wood but not. "From the Hunt. We participated and were successful. I thiught you'd like it considering, uh," she thumbs back behind herself at the enormous pile of bones, "You seem fond of them." Meanwhile, she can't stop sniffing. Every new sniff is an alert that seems to need a new one to further alert her.
The great head appears, lips curled back in a snarl, and then the bone fragment is snapped up. And crunched. "Very good, an appropriate offering," the Big Bad Wolf notes.
"I'm glad you like it." Tasha smiles, but the smile wavers in the face of so big a wolf and so many teeth. She's met worse, but that worse is an ineffable, unknowable level of true horror. Wolf is close to heart, for better and for worse. "So, uh, can we ... Talk? Further, I mean. Beyond this."
"The wolves of today seem to talk incessantly," the Wolf claims. "But we may converse, so long as I do not grow bored."
"I know that feeling." Tasha plops herself down on a pile of bones, wraps her arms around her knees, and settles in. "I do have to talk a lot in my work, but the other major aspect is hunting. Except ever since I died it's like the fury and anger drained out of me. I think this must be okay, because I'm a it more cautious now, and I think things through more, but sometimes it's like the, um, inner fire just sputters out for a while. I know I can still get mad, really mad, but it's a lot harder to get there and I can be a bit crazy when it happens. But I still need to hunt, and it's harder without the ... The thrill of it."
"Life is sometimes sweeter after one has died," the Wolf says. "That acute awareness of mortality that may have been absent before tends to temper things. What is thrill, but the near avoidance of doom? Having seen that doom, though.. where is thrill to be found, eh? An important part of that is fear. But do you fear what you know, or what you do not? Anger often comes from fear. Did this hunt seem lacking to you then?"
"I enjoyed the chase, and seeing something new, and meeting everyone, but I felt no malice toward the Spawn, no hunger to destroy it. It was just there, and while I may have condemned it in time, it was more of a duty than a hunt. An often sad duty." Tasha rubs her nose, looks around, then picks up a few bones and looks at them. "And so there was no fire. It's like with my enemies, I know they're dangerous and will be so, but they have lingered for eons and some scarcely move at all. They can be difficult to comprehend. It's like biting air, or stabbing a sleeper. Empty in two ways. But I think the absence of that fire may make me more effective, but less motivated. And with all else that has happen the urge to step down has come; that never happened before. Maybe because before all I had was racing forward, or so I thought."
"The thrill of hunting isn't always a good thing for someone," the Wolf says. "For animals, it isn't a thrill so much as survival. Same for the prey. For something higher up, feeling that thrill can lead to dark places. Have you cubs?"
"No. And I couldn't, until after I died. Now I can but it, uh," Tasha glances up at Wolf, "it scares me a little. More than I expected; a lot more. But only yesterday I nearly retired to do just that, and for Mariel, and Nora. I don't think I've quite found a, um, balance yet."
"That is the fear of an adult," the Wolf says. "And the thrill. Having cubs is to fill you with both, but of very different flavors. You would no longer be just yourself, but spread. Part of something bigger, as the mortals might put it. There is thrill and fear in many things. Beyond the primitive, there is creation. And not just of children, but it is not so different. Things bigger than yourself, that you can believe in more than you might believe in any other selfish goal of your youth."
"I see, so it's like when I rebuilt the Expedition in to the modern JEF. Maybe that's why I keep feeling like I left so much behind." Tasha looks at the bones in her hands, frowning, then picks up two new ones and looks them over in turn. "I'm trying to create an organization now, something that will hunt the Ogdoad. I can have kids. I'd like to learn more about magic, build a Titan, see Mariel and Nora and the others again. I want the Ogdoad to fall. I want to explore our reality, and others." She chews her lip, then nods. "I guess I should stop being a coward and just do those things."
"What good is a hunt where you haven't fought and risked everything to win?" the Wolf asks. "But you aren't a wild predator. Beasts always fall prey to traps and wiles and tricks. Even your new mentor is dangerously unstable. A hunt with a trap at every turn, essentially, even if that hunt is for skill or knowledge."
"That does seem to be the case. I do like hunting for knowledge, though! And magic, which is a bit like knowledge, but also, sometimes more or less." The bones get put back where Tasha got them, and so she lifts a hand. "There's joy in that, anyway, traps be damned. And for the Ogdoad, there's appreciation each victory is a step forward, and some day, I hope to end them all." The young woman pauses to think, tail flicking, then she adds, "Maybe I should think about how I fight. I used to go all-in, using what might availed me. But my might isn't in physicality and raw skill, and maybe never was. And now, that's much too dangerous; it always was too dangerous. I guess I should take all I've learned and am I make something of it."
"Never forget the nature of your prey, whether it be knowledge or creature," the Wolf warns. "Because prey are always ready to fight for their lives at a moment's notice. Their arsenal is sprint and evade, slip, duck, bolt, break, dodge and maneuver, and those weapons are not meager. For me it is simple. The eternal chess match played between two old enemies, Flight and Fury. The frantic chase. The final pounce. The snap of my jaws. You will find that thrill in different sorts of hunts, but they really all come down to that in the end, I think."
"I should remember those traits of the Prey for when it is my turn to be hunted, as well. I am not so lucky as to always be the Hunter, or to be alone in fury. Even less so, now." Tasha wrinkles her muzzle. "Gods of endless hunger are surely not without their own sense of the Hunt, paralyzed though they may be. I will be wary. Speaking of which ... "
Tasha glances over her shoulder and asks, "I fury of sorts sleeps within my friend, the small K-- wolf, my sized. But we don't know what it is; even she doesn't. Does it seem familiar to you? Prey or Predator, can you catch the smell that eludes us?"
"Pain," the Wolf says. "Fear of helplessness, fear of disappearing, the pain of betrayal, of leaving.. of emptiness. It is common enough. For her.. there was anger entangled into it. And that is all the darkness needed. And now, that anger is a sword, tipped with a very specific sort of poison. She wanted to be able to strike out, even if the target was nebulous. So, she was given a target and the means to lash out at it."
"That sounds a little too familiar, minus the given a target part. I used to just pick someone. Sometimes, anyone, later something I thought deserved it. It just became less and less an excuse to fight and more of a duty over time." But that doesn't help Tasha figure out an answer to Hakeber's problems. She taps her chin and rocks a little thinking, then posits, "For me, overcoming it came with acceptance, achievement, a positive direction for my rage, something to fight and fight for. A place to belong. People who wanted and needed me. Love. Oh. I think I see."
Glancing back again, Tasha nods towards Hakeber. "Hake doesn't fight, she mostly runs away. Or avoids. Or buries. Defers, escapes. A lot like Prey, come to think of it. But the Predator is in her own mind, and and she turns inward. She must learn to fight, to let it out, as I did. Then, she can learn to control it, and then to find a way to fight back. It's not possible to escape a Predator when that Predator is you."
"She is very suppressed, or has been suppressed so much it has become her nature," the Wolf suggests. "I know the hearts of wolves. But a wolf that is too human is a dog. She is close to that tipping point. Her wild nature expresses itself in ways she thinks are harmless. So as you say, she can learn to embrace and master the predator. But she will not be rid of it. Wanting to be rid of it is why she does not remember when it is released. She is likely ashamed of it. Ashamed of many things, perhaps."
"But how to help," Tasha says, frustrated. She lays her head on her knees and stares in to the darkness, that it might provide some answer. "Not everything she does is harmless. She engages in self-destructive behavior, and I know that's hypocritical of me to say, but I know it because I do it.Dancing with cruel faeries, drinking in to a stupor, eating too much, maybe even her presence on the ship. She never struck me as the type to do these things, but she came along. Got swept along. Now I worry we've only contributed to the problem." A sigh. "And such a weakness is bad enough just for her, but with what she has, and our enemies? It's deadly -- or worse."
"Tell her what she is then, so that she does not wonder at her own purpose," the Wolf suggests. "She is a fang, to bring down giants. Not a weapon, or some forged thing. A wolf, not a hunting hound. It's her own bite."
Tasha nods. "I will." And so she begins to rise, sensing an end to the talk and not wanting to press Wolf's patience. "Thank you, Wolf. Oh and if you would?" She risks another glance back. "Feel like Gabriel would very much value speaking with you too. Alone. There are things he needs to work out himself, as a man who once stood for all Wolves, and as the Captain of the Fenris. I can wait nearby, as long as you two need."
"The big wolf, the one that is closest to a true wolf," the Wolf says, and.. grins. "Yes, I am curious. Send him my invitation."
Tasha grins as well, but knows better than to ask what will happen, or where it will lead. This is a matter between two Big Bad Wolves; it is not for her to know. She bows her head respectfully, as wolves do to superiors -- in this case that of superior wisdom -- and with a promise of, "I will," departs.
"So, that's the tale," Kainudy is telling the others, and Lacci in particular looks very lost. "Now, you must have a Professor, and a Millionaire. That's just the way things work, so.. Oh, never mind, Tasha is back."
"I sense a dark and ominous story," Tasha intones, looking very dubious. She takes a moment to account for everyone and their expressions, and then turns to Gabriel. She considers making a joke of it, folding her hands and giving the invitation like s stewardess, but that would be disrespectful to Wolf. So instead she splits her muzzle in a tooth smile, eyes wide, and says in, "Wolf," she tilts her head towards the cavern entrance, "extends an invitation. Please, join him."
"I'll try not to get lost," Gabriel says, and heads towards the cave. "The Skipper, my ass.."
It takes effort, but Tasha assures herself that she should pay what happens next no mind. It is not her business, unless she is called. Gabriel needs to face some problems himself. And so she turns to the others. "Well, I may need to linger a while. Anyone getting a mind wipe?" She looks very expectabtly at Lacci.
"I.. is that what happened?" Lacci asks. "I feel utterly confused to the point that I don't know what to think anymore."
"It's just mythology," Hakeber claims.
"Seemed straightforward enough to me," Katie says. "I mean, I'm not a movie star but.. pretty close."
"I did not grow up on a farm!" Lacci argues. "I've never seen a farm!"
"Tasha will answer any questions you have later, Lacci," Kainudy promises.
Tasha considers his, then notes, "I will respond to any questions about whatever that is by roar-barking at you until you stop asking."
Katie laughs at that, and Hakeber grins. "I've had professors like that," she claims.
"So, did the Big Bad Wolf sniff your butt?" Katie teases Tasha.
"Just call me Professor Tasha. Now," she steps over and grabs Hakeber in to a one armed hug. "We should have a talk when we get back. Kainudy, I'd like to continue our lessons. Katie ... uh ... " She peers at the woman, one ear going askew. "What did you want to do? And why are you always naked with a knife?"
"If I have a knife then I'm not really naked," Katie claims. "And that was to try and tap into my wolfy heritage, but now I'm not as keen on that. It was to psych myself up. I have lots of little rituals like that depending on what I'm going to be doing."
"I've dealt with a lot of wolves, and honestly the less wolfy you are the more we'll get along," Kainudy says.
"How witchly." Tasha's mock-contempt is intense. "Well Miss Too Good For Wolfiness, what's your plan for the future, then?"
"A proper meal, since I'm told we shouldn't eat any fairy food," Katie notes. "Maybe I'll sleep all day too. Then see if the fairies see me differently after all this."
"Naked with a knife," Kainudy mutters. "Do not start wearing features in your hair though."
"If not, tell them how boring they are and then ignore them and play a game on your eye lenses. Make it seem really fun, but not for them. Also, sing, but really low so they can't make it out. Pretend to stretch and bean them in the chops," Tasha suggests, meanwhile hugging on to Hakeber extra-tight for reasons she has not yet revealed. I'll have to think on how to get through to her. It can't be me. Maybe Kainudy can help.
"That seems like good advice," Kainudy agrees. "Also don't bring any small colored marshmallows with you."
"I mean, who doesn't love those. I kind of want some now," Tasha agrees, nodding slowly and sagely.
"Bring me some on your next visit," Kainudy says. And then she stares at Lacci, who gets nervous.
"She's awfully pushy, even for a Human," the Vartan finally blurts to Tasha.
"You can't eat her," Tasha insists, but then turns to Lacci, "I want to eat her."
As for her pushiness, Tasha merely nods, as if Lacci had stated the sky was blue on some worlds, or space is hard to breath in.
"Since when do Vartans eat Humans?" Katie asks, and then looks at Tasha with narrowed eyes. "Is this some not-so-euphemistic euphemism then, Tasha?" She grins as well. Her kink about Humans is already known to Tasha.
"I have been told to be vague and mysterious," Tasha notes in a deadpan voice. "Also, perhaps I was referring to Lacci."
"I'd never eat a Human," Lacci says, looking disturbed and ill at the thought. "It's just that she doesn't have any military discipline that I can see, and it was always officers that were ever that pushy."
"Clearly you've never had a mother-in-law," Kainudy notes. "But you're not my student."
"Some beings are trained to be pushy, and some are born to be pushy. Like Kainudy -- and Katie." Tasha holds her arms around Hakeber to gesture at the two. "And if you wnat to do things to my mentor's meat puppet, I won't get in the way. This is a learning expedition after all."
"I will get in the way then," Kainudy claims. "Or else I'll summon Molly to escort you all back. I've been flirted with by beings to whom flirting is considered a basic form of communication. You'd have better luck trying with a rock."
"Katie only likes certain kinds of rocks," Tasha insists. he then thumbs to herself, "I prefer metal giants. Hakeber loves pizza in every way."
"Metal giants have their charms," Katie says.
"I'm fine with Shojo," Lacci says. She doesn't mention his rock-like qualities though.
"So, aside from Lacci, the rest of you are all.. together?" Kainudy asks.
"We do need to find those Apocalypse Titans. It's not going to be easy, though." Tasha's ears wilt. She then turns to focus on Lacci and asks, "How is Shojo? We haven't talked in forever."
"We are of one mind," Tasha monotones, by way of an answer.
"He's been very serious about training his troops," Lacci says. "He's always serious about everything he does."
"So which one of you has the one mind then?" Kainudy asks.
"I am the one true leader," Tasha answers, puffing herself up, which includes actual feather puffing and ruffling up her mane. "You should see my brain in my Titan. I can do so many complex things at once I almost melted my brain." As for Lacci, Tasha says, "He is very serious, isn't he. I'm never sure if he's mad at me or not. He hasn't stormed in and told me to stop teaisng you, so that's probably good, right? You tell him I'd like to chat some time."
"He tells me stories I have trouble believing," Lacci says. "Full of magic boats and stepping between worlds and giant monsters."
"I've ridden in mechanical spacecraft," Kainudy says. "I hardly believe that. Deathtraps, the lot of them. Always about to explode or something."
"Wow those were the days, back when I'd end up on another world, or weird dimension, and then there'd be a dragon but it wouldn't really be a dragon but a plant, or maybe a ghost, and then I'd have to fight giant monsters. I'm glad that's over." Tasha lets out a sharp sigh of relief. But then she insists, "There are no bad ships, just bad crews and bad engineers."
"I usually said it to make the race of engineers I was with feel affronted," Kainudy admits. "But I do have issues with machines. Have any of you had to ride a horse or similar beast?"
"I've seen pictures of people riding horses," Hakeber claims.
"Katie took me riding," Tasha replies, nodding. "And I've ridden a number of other beasts on Sinai. Mel's a giant robot. I love him." And so the red woman hugs Hakeber in place of a giant robot to hug.
"I don't like riding on creatures that don't talk," Kainudy claims. "Looks like your man is returning from the den of the Wolf," she then points out.
Tasha can feel her inward mental exhale, it's even more powerful than her actual exhale. She lets Hakeber go and turns to meet Gabriel, hands out. This should be interesting, if he tells me anything at all!