1: Jane sat on the bed; a layer of blood soaked into the sheets and stained them red. It ran into her clothes and her hair and gathered in a pool around her apart from the few drops that got though the mattress and dripped onto the floor. The blood was caused by her but the reason behind it was her father, a small pudgy man who was scared of the world and made himself feel big by beating up his daughters and his wife. He did not tell anyone about this however because it was not exactly a thing you bragged about, but it still gave him the satisfaction.
Jane shivered, she felt cold as the blood from her wrists ran out in a plentiful amount but it was not just the loss of blood that made her feel cold. An unnaturally cold bite was in the air, one that belonged to the heart of winter, not the eve of summer as it was. Jane thought it was an important point-if summer didn’t come, the plants would die and the bees would not come and if there were no plants and then there would be less oxygen and more Carbon in the air, which would be bad for people as a whole. She laughed softly and then cringed in pain as her wrists protested against the movement by shooting fiery pain all across her body, it was amazing what things she thought of when lying half dead on her bed, but then she had had more abstract thought patterns.
Tears escaped her deep green eyes, not that she wanted them to, they simply appeared and ran down her face, like small, salty drops of water. Which, thinking about it for a second, was exactly what they were. Not that Jane could think properly right now, she didn’t have enough blood to think properly and so things that were meant to be obvious where not really such.
The reason she had cut her wrists-again, it was a regular thing for her- was a result of her father’s actions and Jane knew he was going to punish her for trying to kill herself but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. She was too busy bleeding and worrying about the weather. It annoyed her that no matter how she cut her wrists or how much blood came out she never passed on, there was several times when she bled so much that a normal person would not have a drop left in their body but she still awoke the next day. She would still collapse from blood loss and still feel the great amount of pain that was associated with slashing any part of your body open with a sharp Implement, but never die, a fact that irked her a lot-what was the point of not dying if you where still going to collapse and shiver from the other side effects of slashing your wrists wide open and watching the red river run out onto whatever you happened to be around at the time?
She never knew why she had such a thin frame either, it was not like she was underfed-her father tried but she always got plenty of food to eat, mainly though Eliot’s adventures in the kitchen- but no matter how much she ate she always stayed thin and weak, it was like the world was taunting her with a combination of weakness and an inability to die and she did not like being taunted in the slightest, it was one of her peeves, along with her dad’s continued existence and broccoli, whoever invented broccoli must have really hated everyone with a taste-bud. But then, Mr Broccoli Inventor might not have had taste buds.
The things the unconscious mind thinks of when laid in a pool of blood and nearly in its grasp are far beyond the control of the person whose mind it belongs to, not that Jane had much control over her mind to begin with. She just had to go along with the ride and hope it is not too bad. This time she thought of her second father-not an official father but one who had adopted the mantle none the less- and his Familiar. She thought of the times when Eliot and Silverfang messed around with each other, she thought of times when Eliot cooked a plethora of different foods, she thought of times when she watched a movie using Silverfang or Eliot as a cushion to lay her head on, she remembered times when her sisters, Beth and Nehvna, would come round and they would have a party, she remembered playing card games with her sisters and Eliot. She remembered happy days. It was better than thinking about where she was. She also remembered-too much lesser delight, not that she had the energy to complain about it now, being so far into the grip of unconsciousness- days with her mother, they were nice but she had left Jane all alone with her father and for that Jane eternally disliked her mother.
The blood had managed to get though the mattress in a much larger amount and was now pooling on the ground, despite her strange inability to die she was in no way immune to unconsciousness, something that happened to her in the middle of her memory of happy days.
2: Jane woke up and immediately saw that she was not in her own room, the room she was in was nowhere in her house which meant that she was in someone else’s house. Jane tried to run though the options of who would be able to get her out of her house and into their own when she saw bandages across her wrists. They looked fresh and they were tied in a way that kept them tight but did not hurt the cuts on her wrist. Feeling extremely confused she laid back on her bed, the way the bandages where wrapped around her wrists looked professionally done.
While thinking about her location she spotted a glass of water. Jane was feeling very thirsty from the blood loss so she stepped off the bed to grab it, her foot landed on something soft and warm as if it was a living rug of some kind.
“Ahhhh! I’m getting crushed!” The rug shouted, causing Jane to quickly pull her foot back onto the bed, the rug then stood up and revealed that it was not a rug but actually a person with an abundance of fur. “Ohh, I seem to have been sleep-changing” he spoke generally to no one in particular. The fur then reseeded until it was all gone, the man that was left standing was tall and had broad shoulders that looked like they could carry a lot of weight without much trouble, he also had a goofy smile that never seemed to waver.
“Silver!” She shouted in surprise as he clutched his side, Silver’s appearance had told her whose house it was without ever speaking.
“I think your dainty feet broke my ribs” he told Jane, breathing deeply before stretching his other hand out. “I can see the light, I must go towards the light” he said before looking like he was electrified, he then collapsed and spoke softly “It was a bug zapper” Jane had since realized that she did not actually do anything to him so she laughed, Silverfang was forever the comedian. This caused Silverfang to stand up and bow. “Thank you. Thank you” he said as he blew kisses to an imaginary crowd before turning to Jane with a suddenly serious look to him. “Now, to the serious business” he told Jane.
”....And then I woke up here” Jane told Silverfang as she finished recounting the events of the night.
“Want me to kill him?” Silverfang asked. He made this question a lot and every time he did he was totally serious about it.
“No because even if you could get past his Familiar-which you can’t by the way, so don’t give me any macho talk- what would his death bring? Eliot is too young to make an adoption without a partner I would go to my closest living relative which is my mum and since she did not take any of us with her when she ran away I don’t want to go to her now and I would never be able to see you again which would totally suck” She told him, it was a good and rational argument but Silver still grumbled.
“Thanks by the way” she said to Silver with a shy smile.
“Thanks for what?” He asked. “Bringing me here, bandaging my wrists, getting me out of that bloody t-shirt” She said, reeling off each reason for thanks before she smiled and moved up close but just as she got to him he heard Eliot shout “Im home” so Jane quickly recoiled with shock but Silverfang caught her hand pulled her back, kissing her as she reached him. It was a warm kiss, different from anything she had ever had before. With a hint of dog breath.
She could feel her heart pounding against her chest as they locked their lips together. This was one of the best feelings she had ever felt and knew it must be that strange emotion she never thought she would feel. Love.
“Anyone home?” Eliot shouted again and Silver broke off the kiss to shout back.
“Yea I’m up here and we have a plus one” he told Eliot, who laughed.
“Plus one wouldn’t happen to be my baby sister at all would it?” Beth asked as Jane and Silver headed out of the room, Jane was transfixed on the feeling of Silvers lips on hers so Silverfang guided her down the stairs.
Eliot stood at an average height with an average build and average length hair. He was very average to look at but it was his heart that set him aside from everyone else, he never turned down anyone who needed help and never hesitated extend his hand to any who needed it. Beth, however, was physically Eliot’s opposite; she stood a foot taller than most people in the street and had a wide chest-with equally big breasts- and broader shoulders than most girls had, they were nowhere near as big as Silver’s shoulders but they were still big for a girl.
“Hello Beth, how are you?” Silver asked, as Jane managed to snap out of her trance and smile, hugging Beth tightly.
“I’ve been good thanks, work has been rather nice lately as we are fully staffed” She told him, hugging Jane back; she hugged her just as tightly but tried not to crush her with her arms. As much as Jane tried to hide it Beth always knew how her baby sister was feeling without her ever saying a word and right now there was something seriously bothering her but she decided not to press the point just yet.
“Where are Nehvna and Satyr?” Silverfang asked Beth as they followed Eliot into the kitchen as standby in case something he was cooking blew up, it was not easy cooking for seven people on your own especially when Eliot had a habit of experimenting with the cooking ingredients.
“Nehvna is trying to convince her little angel to come outside when we left, she told us she would catch up but she hasn’t yet. Satyr is somewhere else, probably reading a book or something” Beth told Silverfang as Eliot started telling them what he was going to cook and read out the ingredients needed for the dish, he always liked help in the kitchen.
3:
“Sorry I was a pain to everyone I really didn’t mean to be” Avrion said with a sad face that looked like it was about to cry, but then every face Avrion pulled looked like it was going to cry. That and the fact that her frame was more akin to a stick than an actual person made Avrion look very weedy but that was not the case. For the most part, Nehvna would usually tell Avrion-in several different ways- to stop being so depressive and smile more. Then she would follow it with a compliment about how nice Avrion’s smile was and how she would love to see it more often. However, this particular time, she was more interested in-and worried about- the large bandages running all the way up Jane’s arms.
“What the hell happened to your arms?!” Nehvna demanded, nearly screaming as she saw how far they went up her arms, to the elbow.
“Oh nothing to worry about it” Jane said with a nervous smile, Nehvna was always kicking off about every little scrape or bruise so the bandages winding all the way up her arms would not put her in a good mood and that mood would be ruined even more when she saw what was underneath the bandages.
“That is some serious bandages Jane, what do you mean there is nothing to worry about?!” she screeched again before grabbing Jane by the hand and dragging her upstairs.
“Ow, that hurts you know” Jane said, being yanked upstairs.
Once upstairs Nevhna sat Jane down on a stool-despite her protests- and was unwrapping the bandages that Silverfang had tied up, Jane took a breath and braced herself for the bomb-shell that was going to drop when Nevhna saw the uncovered state of her arms. Nevhna-for her part- was very restrained, by her standards anyway, when she had finished unwrapping. She simply stared wide-eyed at the cuts for a few seconds before muttering to herself and turning to a box labelled ‘Jane’s Box’. Something that Eliot had been keeping around since she often came-or was brought by Silver- sporting a myriad of wounds. She picked out some disinfectant and poured it onto a cotton bud, then began to dap at the cut, ignoring Jane’s sharp intake of breath that signalled it was hurting.
“First I need to get you some clothes while you get a shower” She told Jane and for the first time Jane looked down and found out that she was in her bra and panties, both where stained in blood. She then blushed as she realized that Silverfang must have saw her since he took off that destroyed wreck of a shirt, she looked very embarrassed and tried to cover it up by speaking in a nonchalant manner, in an attempt to appear indifferent about her state of dress.
“I have been a bit preoccupied to notice my clothing” she told Nehvna, the blood has started to dry around her back and it was not doing anything for her beauty. She thought she had done a very good tone and Nehvna must have believed her as well, or decided not to press the point, because she did not bring it up.
“Into the shower with you, I’ll pick something out” she told Jane, walking into the bathroom and fiddling with the shower before getting it to a good temperature.
“I’m showering already, you are so pushy sometimes Nevy” she said as the water coming off her turned red with the blood while brown tried to make an appearance, it had been a long time since she last had a shower and the events of tonight just made her even dirtier than she was before.
She let the water run on her body for a while before turning to the shampoo. She reached out for the bottle and squeezed some onto her hand before working it into her hair and washing it off, the soap came off the same red-with-brown as the water had, causing her to sigh. “Dam I’m such a mess” she complained to herself as she lathered up the soap again and worked it into her hair before washing it out again, the soap coming away more brown than red this time which was a good sign that the blood was getting washed from her hair. It took her a while to actually get some semblance of cleanliness due to her lack of being able to have a shower at her own house, her father didn’t like her having any sort of luxuries that might make her life in the slightest bit easier. She repeated the lathering a few more times, cleaning her back in the process, until the water returned to its natural colour, she then grabbed the conditioner from the shelf and began to rub it into her mass of now pink hair.
When she was finished Jane turned the shower off and stepped out, rubbing herself dry with a towel before wrapping one round all the hair she could manage to fit in it. It was a good feeling to be clean and she did not get the feeling very often so every time she did she cherished it because it would be a long time before she got another chance. Jane then headed into the bedroom to check what Nehvna was pulling out of the wardrobe.
“You are one serious mess” Nehvna said as she took off Jane’s towel and began to blow dry her hair, Nehvna was not bothered in the slightest by the total lack of clothes that Jane was currently showing since she had been around her and other naked women a lot so she was comfortable with female nakedness. “Come here, your arms need bandaging again” She told Jane, who sat down on a stool-the same stool she had sat down on before- and waited patiently while Nehvna rubbed a cream into both cuts and all the way up her arm before wrapping the entire length up in bandage once again. When it came to knowing Jane, everyone had a certain amount of skill in First-aid, it was required when you lived around a girl such as her.
After that was done, Nehvna ran a comb though Jane’s hair as she dried it, making sure that each part was properly dried and combed before moving onto the next part and working on that. “You could definatly be a hair dresser or something to that extent you know” Jane told Nehvna who blushed at the complement.
“I am not that good Jane” She told her, it was not true since Nehvna was amazing with all things hair, Jane’s hair was originally brown but it was Nehvna who dyed the whole length of it pink.
It was extremely hard work considering how much there was but Nehvna managed to do it perfectly.
“You are better than good Nehvna, you are amazing” she said as Nehvna finished combing though Jane’s hair and switched the blow dryer off, she then picked up two sets of clothes from the bed and held them up so that Jane could see them, Jane picked the plainer set of clothes-a simple t-shirt and jeans- and put them on. Nehvna preferred the brighter, flashier style of clothes and so she always wore a long dress that complimented her tall frame. After Jane had finished putting the new clothes on, being careful of her wrist and-with the help of Nehvna- gotten all her hair out of the back of her t-shirt she and Nehvna headed down the stairs, Jane’s layered mass of hair swaying slightly as she walked.
4. Back at Jane’s house, her father-being rather drunk and therefore feeling the urge to flaunt his superiority on some one that did not have the ability to fight back against him- of which there were few, luckily for him one of them few was locked in a room upstairs- had gone up to Jane’s room and discovered that she had vanished from her bed, a feat that would be impossible on her on in the state she was currently in, he had left her in bad shape but the state she had left herself in was even worse, Mark took enjoyment in the fact that he had such dominance over his daughter’s life. It made him feel important and strong. Shadow however needed no illusions about his strength, he was a very powerful Familiar and had kept Mark out of a lot of trouble, some that Mark knew about, other bits he was completely oblivious about. Shadow sniffed around the room a few times as he was trying to pin down a particular smell and had obviously succeeded since he turned back to Mark with a grim look, knowing the eruption of anger that was going to come as soon as he revealed what he knew. A few seconds of deliberation made Shadow decide that he was not going to tell what he knew, rather keep it for himself. It was time after all. “I can’t detect anything around this room, she must not have been in that bad of a condition, either that or she has fallen though a wormhole and ceased to exist” he said casually, but Mark still growled.
“There is no way someone can leave that puddle-“ he angrily gestured to the blood-soaked bed, a mess that he would make Jane clean up, when she was brought back from wherever she was “ and then get up and walk out. Someone must have helped her” He stated obviously, angrily pacing the room. Shadow sighed, there was something not right about lying to Mark like this, it was like killing a wounded puppy.
“Well you can always try the Library, she seems to frequent that place a lot. Failing that, I don’t really know for certain where she could be, there are a lot of places around for her to be. She could even be hiding in one of the houses” He explained, sighing slightly as he spun such a tale that even someone that was not a complete idiot like Mark was might believe him. Mark grumbled for a bit about not having a definite address then headed downstairs to get his coat and shoes. His mind was filled will all the nasty things he would do when he finally got his ungrateful daughter back. He thought them just punishment for running away rather than spiteful-and pointless- violence. Even Shadow was getting bored of it and he loved to fight things. But what Mark did to Jane was not fighting and as such, he was glad that the time had finally come. It had taken a while, but it was here, at last and was well worth the wait.
Shadow nodded as Mark headed out of the door and down the road, waking at a pace that was brisk but not hurried. Shadow then left though the back door and headed down the opposite road, he knew exactly where he was going and his pace was casual. He arrived when he wanted to arrive, even if he did not want to arrive at that time he changed the time he wanted to arrive to the time he had arrived. It was a principle thing and he wouldn’t let anyone change it, not even Mark, whose hold over Shadow was a lot lesser than what he thought it was, as was his brain and his remaining life span. Shadow couldn’t help smiling as he walked down the road, he was about to do all the things he enjoyed, all in one day. It was a good day. But then, all days when he got to break into somewhere, beat people up, kidnap someone, break stuff and even bring much needed pain and subsequent death to the obnoxious, nasty dislikeable man he had been forced to spent a good deal of time with was a good day. Little could ruin this day. Except the weather, Shadow’s smile disappeared in a grumble and he wished it would hurry up and warm up, all this cold was not something he liked, but then he cheered himself up again by realizing he didn’t have to put up with it for much longer. He didn’t have to put up with much more here for much longer. Shadow’s smile returned as he continued down the street. Today was going to be the best of days.
5. Jane sniffed the air as she walked down the stairs, Eliot had obviously gone to the kitchen and was adding the finishing touches to his cooking as it made the air smell rather nice, this does not mean the actual food was nice however, simply that it smelt good. “What you got cooking Eliot?” Nehvna asked as she walked into the Kitchen, leaving Jane to go to the front room where she quickly snuggled up against Silverfang, feeling very close to him now. She was still a bit embarrassed but tried not to make it show.
“Food. It will be done soon” Eliot said, he never gave a definite answer of what he was cooking before it was done.
“Well I hope you are not going to try that puke flavoured risotto again.” Nehvna joked as she got out a collection of glasses and began filling them up with different drinks.
“Don’t worry about that, I am making meat this time” he said, throwing a few more herbs in to the pan.
“Ahhhh, it has been a rough today” Jane said, not caring about proper speech as she snuggled into Silverfang who starred at her.
“Rough today? I think you need speaking lessons” Silverfang joked, earning him a punch in the arm from Jane.
“I am allowed to have crappy speaking.” She told him as Eliot came into the room with a massive plate piled high with nose-caressing meat.
“Grubs up” he said setting the large plate down and putting some smaller plates next to it.
Everyone attacked the pile of meat and piled their plates high with it before sitting back, despite the large amount everyone had taken there was still a fair bit left. Jane bit into one of the chicken pieces and the flavour exploded in her mouth, the herbs went perfectly with the meat and made the whole thing beautiful.
“This is great Eliot, you really can cook well sometimes cant you?” Jane announced loudly, backed by agreements from everyone else.
“Well I just got lucky that’s all. I threw a load of leftover meat into a pot and chucked in a ton of herbs. The result was not too bad” he said with a big head, popping a piece of beef into his mouth before there was a knock at the door.
“Who are we missing?” Eliot asked himself, heading to the door and opening it. As he opened it, however, he was greeted by the sight of a fist, which quickly connected with Eliot’s face, knocking him back from the door and sprawling him out on the carpet. His tattered, pitch black overcoat swaying slightly in the breeze and his one eye-the other had a large scar over it and the eyelid was shut- scanned the room, taking in each person in it calmly. Shadow then shut the door as if he had just entered a room full of friends rather than a room full of people trying to cause him serious harm.
“Hello” He said casually actually greeting the room like he wasn’t about to fight half the room’s inhabitants as Silverfang growled. He had gotten up from his seat and his fists where clenched, ready to fight. Nehvna, Jane and Beth had all gotten off the couch and backed against the wall, as if it would do anything when Shadow took out the Familiars and walked over as he obviously would.
Silverfang had sprouted fur and his fingers grew into claws, his teeth grew longer and sharper, till they resembled a set of wolf teeth rather than human teeth. “Sit down, pup, I have just come for Jane, you don’t need to get involved” He told Silver, obviously highly confident of his skills and the inevitable victory he would have if Silver tried to fight him. However, before Silverfang could so much as growl, an arrow penetrated Shadow’s shoulder and forced him back a step, Shadow himself let out a grunt of pain as Silverfang moved in to take advantage of the long-shafted distraction. However, Shadow was not going to let himself get beaten by some gutter Familiars and so he drove his fist into Silver’s gut, knocking the air out of him. Next, Shadow swung a vicious hook to Silver’s jaw which, combine with his earlier hit, was enough to know the Wolf-Familiar to the floor.
He then turned to see who had shot an arrow at him as a second arrow-obviously waiting for a clear shot- grazed his cheek. Avrion hastily drew a third arrow but Shadow had already closed the gap, delivering a punch into her side and feeling several ribs crack under the impact. Avrion’s face contorted in pain as she collapsed, her bow clattering to the ground, now useless. With both Familiars out of action Shadow sighed and gripped the arrow shaft, he then pulled it out with something that was a mix between a growl and a cry of pain as he realized the arrow was barbed and had caused more damage coming out than going in.
“Dam, that is sore” he muttered casually, not hurrying since the other two that could do anything against him where on the floor in rather large amounts of pain. He rolled his shoulder a few times and wiped away the blood before turning on the three girls. Nehvna was looking at Avrion with a look of concern and fear, but she couldn’t move with Shadow in front of her. Beth seemed distracted, cursing silently for some reason but Shadow didn’t bother finding out what. She also seemed to have a small look of fear, as if unsure what Shadow was going to do now, but not nearly as much as Nehvna, who seemed on the verge of tears. Jane, in contrast to her two sisters, was glaring at Shadow determinedly, as if she could stop his advance with a glare.
“Well, you’re coming with me now Jane” Shadow said, equally as casual as he had been since entering the house and fighting the two Familiars.
“Like hell I am” she growled, swinging a rather inexperienced punch at Shadow who, a lot more experienced that Jane, dropped his shoulder and punched her the same way he had punched Silver. The effects were also similar, as Jane creased up, gasping for air. Shadow did not deliver a second punch though, instead he picked Jane up and there her over his shoulder before heading for the door.
“Good day” He said generally to the house hold as he reached the door, his tone was polite and had no trace of sarcasm in it. Shadow then opened the door and stepped though it, still remaining as casual as the moment he had walked in.
6. Jane thrashed, kicking and punching and screaming as Shadow carried her down the road, Shadow however, seemed rather bored at the fact that she was still resisting. After several minutes he decided to say something about it, not that what he said was very nice, but then he had just kidnapped her from the house and carried her over his shoulder like a package down the road-the few cars that passed ignored him, which he was grateful for- and that was not very nice, so he was not going to start being nice now.
“Please stop them butterfly farts you call punches, it’s getting slightly annoying now.” He said, huffing at the effort it required to kidnap one girl. Not that it was a very tactful kidnapping, but then he was not a very tactful person. As he walked down the pavement-Jane did not give up her punches despite how ineffective they were- he saw someone, stood in the middle of the pavement, clearly waiting for Shadow. The most peculiar thing was that he had a sword in his hand, but from this distance he could not make much of the sword’s details out. Nor . He huffed again, wondering who this person was and he seemed serious however, so he dropped Jane-she let out a short scream before she hit the pavement and was knocked breathless- and dropped down next to her.
“Don’t move, I got to deal with this” he said, clipping some pitch black handcuffs, the same the same colour as his coat, that he had pulled from under his coat, or at least that is what Jane saw from her vantage point. He then stood up and faced the man, who was closer now and walking towards him slowly. From this distance Shadow could make out the blade was sheathed, the man had not drawn it yet, which was odd. With a sigh this time rather than a huff, he drew his own sword, its blade so black it seemed to steal light from the surroundings and it made his coat seem a much lighter colour in comparison.
The man seemed rather powerful and his stance showed that he was obviously experienced with the blade despite not drawing it yet, so Shadow adopted his Familiar Form, the tattered overcoat he wore grew darker, till it matched his sword in contrast and the frayed edges of it turned into a pristine, fully buttoned version of itself. His face changed as well, the area where his eye was scared and shut turned skeletal, which made his calm look all the more menacing.
“Such hassle” he muttered to himself, striding towards the man who seemed completely unfazed by the sudden change and-from what he could see- was wearing a fox mask.
Beth slammed the floor in anger, Nehvna was trying to take care of Avrion and had diagnosed that Shadow had broken three ribs with his punch.
“He didn’t even switch, Two Familiar in their forms and he took them both out while still in his Human form.” She growled, slapping Silverfang again to get him to wake up, a method a lot less refined than what Nehvna would have done, but then Beth was a lot less refined than Nehvna when it came to medical stuff. Silverfang woke up with a groan and stood up, stumbling for the door.
“Got….to save…Jane” he said, opening the door and stumbling out of it, despite Nehvna’s protests-and Beth’s, but less enthusiastically- which caused Beth to simply sigh and move on, slapping Eliot now rather than Silverfang.
Silverfang stumbled down the road, clutching his side from the pain, his jaw also hurt, but he would have looked rather stupid clutching his jaw and Silver didn’t want to look any more stupid. He already did that enough as it was. Silver stumbled down the road, holding onto a garden wall at one point and taking a breather for several seconds, he hadn’t been in this much pain for a while, that Shadow really packed a punch, he saw now what Jane meant by he couldn’t get past her father’s Familiar.
After several minutes of stumbling and leaning on wall to keep himself standing he reached Jane, who was lying in the middle of the road, he quickened his pace from amble to quick stumble, gritting his teeth at the increase in pain. He arrived and got down on his knees next to her. She was shivering from the cold and so he took off his jacket and wrapped around her, hoping to warm her up slightly. With that done, he scouted the surrounding area and found a few, rather interesting things. Half an immensely black blade-so black it made darkness seem light- was laying on the ground, scrap marks leading up to it showed that it had landed at an angle and at some speed as well. Oddly, there was no blood around, but then Jane’s whole body shivered quite violently and Silverfang was beginning to feel the bite of winter as well, so he put the questions to the back of his mind and picked Jane up, immediately putting him down again as his side roared in pain.
He had ignored it before but it had now come back with a vengeance. He clutched it and cursed a few times, then looked down at Jane again. There were some shards scattered around Jane, black as the blade shard but in many, finer pieces. However, Jane herself was more important at the moment. She must have been frozen, the clothing she was wearing was thin enough, made for comfort not warmth and even with Silver’s coat it was cold enough out to cut though that will little effort, making Silverfang worried about Jane’s health.
He growled in vexation and he was so fixated on Jane and her predicament that he did not notice the man with the Fox mask approach until the man spoke.
“Do you need a hand?” He asked, causing Silverfang to jump, let out a strangled yelp of surprise and then take a sharp intake of breath as pain ran though his body again. The Fox-mask hid the man’s features and his emotions, but that didn’t stop Silverfang glaring suspiciously. Masked people didn’t simply appear next to a fur lined man standing in front of an unconscious girl and offer to help without so much as a question of the situation.
Things like that just did not happen; the man’s sudden arrival was too precise to be Happenstance, or even coincidence. It had to be planned. The man must have read Silverfang’s wariness as he offered an explanation.
“I came here at the request of his Sister, it was quite a rush, but I managed to get here on time, however, I could not see to the girl as I had to make sure Shadow was properly gone and not just hiding somewhere close by” He explained, his voice seemed odd, as if the mask had a voice-box in it that changed the tone of his voice. However odd that was and the phrase ‘his sister’ was also rather odd, but Silverfang was more interested with the fact that the fox-mask man had fought Shadow.
“You fought Shadow? How, he is like, seriously strong” Silver said in disbelief, trying to save his own ego.
“Yes, he is quite a monster in strength, but there is always a bigger fish” the Fox masked man told Silver and though the voice-box distorted it slightly, the tone sounded as casual as when Shadow had broken into the house. “Now, we should see to that side of yours” he said, pulling his scabbard out of its resting place in his belt. For some reason, Silverfang knew he wasn’t going to try anything with the sword and so didn’t move to stop him. The man then tapped the handle against Silver’s side and he suddenly felt an indescribable feeling. After a few seconds he was left with a mild case of pins-and-needles but his side felt as if Shadow caused a large amount of pain there barely half an hour previously, his jaw felt a lot better as well.
“Err, thank….” Silver started, but the fox-masked man was no longer there, Silver frowned but then realized that Jane was shivering and so picked her up and headed back to the house at a much greater speed than he had headed out at.
7: For the second time in so many hours Jane found herself resting in bed, the key difference this time was that everyone was in the room rather than just Silverfang and everyone looked worried. Also, Beth’s beautiful, perfectly curvy-bodied Familiar Satyr was also there, looking on with a slightly worried look. Avrion looked as if she was a bit doped and so when she opened her eyes the first thing she asked was if Avrion was feeling alright.
“Im fine, Shadow broke a few ribs, but Satyr managed to fix me up.” Avrion replied rather slowly, but her smile never faded. Jane nodded and then turned to Silverfang, who seemed the most relieved that she had woken up.
“Thank you for finding me Silver” Jane said, blushing slightly as she looked at him. His fur had retracted and his face-and the rest of his body- was now smooth. “I’m sure your all curious as to what happened, so gather round and I will recite it the best I can” Jane said, everyone then moved around, sitting on the bed at different angles so they where in a semi-circle around Jane, who cleared her throat and began.
“As Shadow was carrying me down the road, a guy stood in the way, he was an odd sort of guy, with a strange, fox mask on” She told them before Silverfang piped up.
“I met him, he seemed to be using a voice box to hide his real voice for some reason and his sword thing was really odd. He tapped my side with the handle and the pain just vanished, I tried to thank him but he had vanished as quickly as the pain did” Silverfang told everyone, before nodding towards Jane, signalling her to continue.
“He was definitely an odd guy. He even made Shadow go into his Familiar form just by standing there with this sheathed sword. Anyway, Shadow dropped me from his shoulder-which really hurt by the way- and then clipped these things on my wrists and as soon as they locked, my arms went dead. All the feeling vanished in that moment and they flopped uselessly. I think I’ll call them the Arm-Deadeners” Jane mused, going off on a tangent before Beth coughed, causing Jane to snap back, if slightly slowly.
“What? Ohh yes, Shadow. Anyway, after those Arm-Deadeners got clipped on, Shadow moved towards the Fox-mask guy and I pulled my legs up and rolled to try and get a better vantage point of the battle. However, in mid-roll I heard this clang, but I couldn’t stop so I finished the roll before looking up. When I did, Shadow’s sword had been severed and he had a narrow, but long opening caused by a sword on his coat. The odd thing was that despite the wound underneath the coat there was no blood and the fox guy’s sword was still sheathed. Shadow then backed up and fell into the shadow he was casting on the ground and as he did that the Arm-Deadeners felt..weird, I can’t describe it, but the feeling was really odd. Then I collapsed, I think the Arm-Deadeners did it. That is about it really” Jane finished. Beth-and pretty much anyone who wasn’t Satyr- seemed rather enthralled by the story, as if they were getting into it.
Satyr, however, seemed thinking-as usual, she was always the smartest person of the group and always the thinker- about the story.
“To be able to stand toe to toe with Shadow you would need a Powerful Familiar at the very least, but from Jane’s story the man didn’t have a Familiar with him, just a sword that remained sheathed for the parts Jane saw. And the time-frame for drawing his sword, severing Shadow’s and delivering a blow to his chest, then replacing the sword is not big, only a few seconds at most. Combine that with what seems like a blood-drinking sword and I can think of only one person that would do that. The only man to ever win the Master and Familiar Fighting Championships without even summoning a Familiar and owner of Balance of Twilight, easily the most powerful Familiar in the world. Sean Woodhouse.” Satyr said, speaking her thoughts to the group.
“But why the hell would he be around here? Isn’t he busy being rich and famous?” Silverfang asked, the town they were in was far away from any kind of famous place so it was not like he was simply going slightly out of his way.
“Why don’t we ask him?” Jane said to everyone, smiling at them as if she had not just woken up from being dragged down the road by a far-to-calm familiar for what he was doing then saved by one of the most famous people on the planet, a man with a name no one would not immediately recognize. However, with the looks she was getting Jane quickly continued. “I mean, he has to still be in the area right? So we could contact him” She tried to explain, but Satyr shook her head.
“No, there are only a few Teleporting tricks, but most of them have quite a long range. Shadow’s shadow trick is known as one of the shorter ones and even that has a maximum range of 40 miles” Satyr told Jane. Silverfang snapped his fingers as if he had just remembered something.
“The Fox-mask man said that he had come at the request of ‘his Sister’ not ‘my Sister’ which means it was someone else’s Sister that had called him here, to this exactly spot, at this exact time to rescue Jane.” Silverfang told everyone.
“Going off the assumption that the man is Sean Woodhouse-“Satyr started, but Silverfang stopped her.
“No, I don’t think it is Sean. For one, he has a reputation for completely lacking any amount of seriousness despite the situation and an obsession with making as many people know that it is him doing the thing in question and not someone else. I don’t think Sean would have worn a mask, or kept such a level head. You know, I would not be surprised if the fox-masked man was Balance, he had the build for it and from what I have heard he had the skill as well” Silverfang told Satyr, putting his point across. Satyr looked vexed at being interrupted but took a breath to start again; however before she even got anything out Eliot spoke out.
“Still does not explain why he is here, he is meant to be somewhere else, doing famous things” this caused Satyr to look really rather annoyed. Jane picked up on this mood and moved to get out of the bed.
“Well while you are doing the smart stuff I am hungry” She announced. Silverfang-also picking up on Satyr’s vexation and decided that-being one of the reasons- he would remove himself as well.
“There is some meat left in the kitchen” he said, helping Jane out of the bed and following her downstairs.
When they reached the kitchen Silverfang reached out to the microwave and opened it, a plate of meat was sat in the middle and so he took it out and handing it to Jane, who pouted.
“I can take food out of the microwave you know” she snapped, putting her fists on her hips. Silverfang hated it when girls did that, it made them seem scary.
“I was just trying to help” he told Jane with a half cheeky, half loving smile, holding the plate of meat out for her. Jane laughed and took the plate.
“I know, but I’m stressed, with good reason. Sorry I snapped.” She apologized.
“Don’t worry about it, if I was in your shoes I’d be stressed as well. And my snapping hurts a lot more, sharp teeth and all” Silver said, doing what he did best and making a joke to ease the tension that was building up. His ploy worked and he was rewarded by the soft giggle from Jane.
She and Silverfang stood in the kitchen for the next minute, eat meat and complaining about how it was going to give them bad wind the next day. Then Beth and Satyr came down the stairs and headed straight for the coat rack, pulling on their shoes and coats rather quickly and heading for the door.
“We are going out, we won’t be long, just need to pick something up” She said before exiting the house without another word.
“Err, I feel like I missed something” Jane said, Silverfang-who had taken a piece of meat from Jane’s plate and was now chewing it-nodded in agreement. Fortunately, Eliot and the two remaining girls came down the stairs at a slower rate. They saw the bemused looks on Silverfang and Jane’s faces and decided to explain.
“Satyr and Beth started to talk about a book when you left; we quickly got left begin in the dust. I have no idea where they are going, only that they won’t be long” Eliot explained as best he could, not that it was much of an explanation. But then, not many people could explain the winding, Labyrinth-like train of thought that Beth and Satyr seemed to follow nearly every day. Jane simply shrugged and returned to get plate of meat.
“Well, if they are not going to be long then maybe we should do what we were planning on doing in the first place.” Silverfang suggested, but Avrion yawned, quickly followed by Nehvna, then everyone else caught up in the infectious wave that yawning always brought. It was odd how one yawn could make a whole room yawn, but then-Jane thought abstractly- it was like a smile, if you smiled then chances where someone else would start smiling and that would make another person smile. She liked to share her smile with as many people as she could when her father let her out, which was not often and nearly all the situations that he dragged her to where no places for smiles, most where a place for the complete opposite of smiling, which crashed Jane’s happy train of thought. Avrion brought Jane back to reality by speaking to the group, which was a nice distraction.
“I’m tired, I’m going to catch some Zs while they are out, I’ll come back down later” She told everyone, Nehvna nodded and sleepily followed her Familiar up the stairs.
“Fair enough, just don’t break anything” Eliot told them with a playful smile.
8: Satyr looked at Beth as they walked down the road. She couldn’t believe that, after all this waiting, it was finally time. The shackles would be thrown off and they would ascend, away from here, something Satyr had been waiting to do for quite a while now.
“It is glorious that it is finally time, don’t you think?” Satyr asked Beth, who shook her head.
“It is simply the first step on a long road, Satyr; plenty of work is required before we can bear fruit” Beth replied, Satyr sighed and nodded.
“I know, I know. But still, we are setting out on the long road after such a time of waiting, there is just something about that start that..just..mmm” Satyr ended with a noise, rather than a word since she didn’t have a word for it.
“That is true dear and I am rather ecstatic, but it is not like anything we have faced before. Three walls-that we know of-and there might be more. The first has already been broken and the second as a plan in place, but the third…” Beth trailed off, staring at the sky. After a while she shook her head. “But, we are at the start and that is something. Better than what was before” She finished. Satyr nodded in agreement. The two girls then began to speak about more mundane things, like the weather and how much they liked Eliot’s newest Kitchen experiment, until they arrived at a rather large house. It stood out from all the others with its ornately carved statues of a woman wearing a dress made from leaves and holding a globe that, on further inspection, looked very similar to the Earth. The way the statue’s eyes where carved made it seem as if the holder owned, or had created the orb. Satyr had seen it a few times and knew what it represented, but little other people did. The rest of the house was made from equally large- both in length and width- quarry stones that looked distinctively fresher than the rest of the street, which made it stand out from the rest of the red-brick houses even more. There was a feeling that this house had not existed for very long, or at least not as long as the other houses on the street.
“Never could blend in, could he?” Satyr asked rhetorically as they opened the gate and walked up to the door, pushing it open without so much as a knock.
The Inside of the house was devoid of practically everything, there were no tables, or clocks, or chandeliers that someone would have expected, seeing the outside. There was not even any boxes that would explain the bareness, it was simply an empty hallway, stretching on until it reached a set of stairs, the stairs then went up to another bare hallway, this one dotted with several, unpainted doors. Beth had seen it before, it was obvious considering the owners favourite pass-time. As she walked though the hallway, her footfalls light and hard to hear, she heard a thudding sound, as if something very heavy was moving on the second floor. She smiled and looked up as a bare-chested mountain of a man-easily thirty stone and topping six and a half foot- his muscles where so large that his bare-chested appearance was justified, since there was no shirt or jacket he could wear without his monstrous girth ripping it in half. His muscles where mainly around the top half of his body, but his leg muscles where well developed as well, if not to a clothes-ripping extent. To most people, the man would be terrifying to an extent that they would probably run and hide from him. Beth, however, had grown used to the bulk of the man and was not bothered by it, much. There was still a wariness of him, but it was suppressed.
“Hello Glee, is Niall in?” She asked, Satyr stayed close to Beth’s side, she was considerably more wary of Glee, as she was to everyone or everything that could crush her skull with a single hand and little effort.
“It’s Mr. Glee, not just Glee. And yes, he is in, what do you want with him?” Mr. Glee asked.
“I want a book” She replied, obviously not planning on giving much-if any-more than that.
“Fine, follow me” Mr. Glee said with a sigh. Beth and Satyr headed up the stairs and followed Mr. Glee along the hallway and into a room, as bare as the rest. Niall was sat on the floor with two women who were standing, the man was tall, six foot easily and has well toned muscles, or though they were nowhere near the size of Mr. Glee’s. Beth explained it to Satyr the first time she asked as concentrated strength, the muscles could exert as much strength as Mr. Glee’s, but where a lot smaller. Niall wore a t-shirt and had hair that reached the middle of his back which was the opposite of Mr. Glee’s bald, bare-chested look.
The two standing women were vastly different to Mr. Glee and Niall, one of them had blonde hair that was in two ponytails at either side of her head and each tail was platted, however both tails where so long that the sprawled down to the bottom of the girl’s back. The dress that the girl with the extremely long hair was wearing was one of amazing detail and Beth couldn’t help smiling as she saw it.
The long haired girl had a ribbon wrapped around her neck and the top part of her chest was bare, it also had very short arms, not even coming down to her elbows before cutting off with a frilly pattern. The top of her breasts had a frilly fabric look to it but this just made the dress all the better. It then carried on down to the stomach area where it was plain and fitted tightly to her, it looked to be offering support for the rest of the dress by the way it hugged her. The actual light brown dress started around her waist and the sides had the same light brown fabric that with overlapping layers that the rest of the dress was made out of but the front seemed to be a separate part of the dress and was made of silk rather the taffeta the rest of the dress was made out of. Roughly ten tiers of this pink silk ran down her waist part of the dress, each tier getting wider until it reached the floor. The dress was so long it covered her feet but from the sound she made when the girl came in she was probably wearing some sort of flat shoes with the small but wide heel on them. Such work must have gone into the making of that dress that Beth wondered how much it would have cost. It looked very expensive, the extensive use of silk alone would have made the dress expensive, but the rest of the material, the design and the needlework that was required would make the dress something with such a large price tag that most people could not even think to afford it. Beth smiled, she had seen this girl before, her name was Chiyo and she had lived in this house with Niall since it was built, but what she never knew was why.
The second girl however was significantly taller that Chiyo, possibly a foot taller and her hair was a lot shorter as well, while Chiyo’s hair ran down her back and stopped at the edge of her spine the girls hair barely reached her shoulders.
The clothing she was wearing was not as flashy as Chiyo’s dress but it was still rather grand. The headdress she wore was a dark black and it, like the rest of her uniform, seemed to mesmerize the observer with the sheer depth of the darkness. She had a frilly collar that ran from her chin to her collarbone. The bare opening was a lot smaller than Chiyo’s dress as it was only a short a small portion of the chest area as opposed to Chiyo’s completely naked upper chest area. The opening was decorated in a frilly pattern and just below it was the same look as Chiyo’s dress, a crinkly look to the uniform made it look good but it did not seem to offer much support, that came from the two dozen laces that kept a corset like thing closed. The arm sleeves where plain and short, cutting off just above the elbow, but they ended in the same frilly pattern the chest opening was made from. She was also wearing frilly cuffs tied with a single lace to keep them from falling off, one of the laces was pointing outwards but the other one was pointing inwards. She had a pure white apron over the bottom half of her uniform that ended in the same frilly pattern that seemed to be predominant in the rest of the uniform.
“Well now, I have seen you wear some fancy things before, Lady Chiyo, but that one has to be the most fancy” Beth told Chiyo, the use of the honorific made Mr. Glee rather annoyed.
“So you get hers perfectly good on the first try, but you miss out mine completely?” Mr. Glee looked like he was going to saw more and it looked like it was going to be rather unfriendly as well, but the woman in the maid’s uniform looked over and spoke softly.
“Do not insult my Mistress, Mr. Glee” She told him, Mr. Glee looked as wary of the maid as Beth did of him, which was slightly confusing for Beth. She had not seen him wary of anything.
“Sorry, Lilly, I just was annoyed” he said, straightening himself up as much as a person of his size could. Niall seemed to take advantage of the lull and speak, in a very strong, but not bass-deep, voice.
“Beth, what brings you here?” He asked, it seemed to have settled the situation somewhat, but there was still a tense atmosphere.
“I need a book. A very specific book. It is time” She told him and Niall needed no more. Mr. Glee looked more alert than he had before and even Lilly seemed to have a rather pleased look on her face. The only one that was confused was Chiyo, but she didn’t let anyone see it, because she didn’t like someone knowing that she didn’t know something.
“Finally. Been a while, eh?” Niall asked, getting up and heading for the door. “Sorry Lady Chiyo, this is immensely important, I will assist you further when I am finished with this” he apologized, before exiting the room, followed closely by Beth and Satyr, leaving Mr. Glee to explain.
“It is part of his religion, the one they have been waiting for is finally here and now they must prepare against the ones that would not want her to reach her full potential. It’s all very complicated and I stay out of it as much as I can, so that is really all I know” Mr. Glee explained, to the best of his knowledge at least.
“I never knew Niall was religious, he doesn’t seem the type” Chiyo said, before shrugging. “Well then, Lilly and I shall retire to my room until Niall returns. Thank you for the explanation Mr. Glee” Chiyo said, before heading to the door herself, Lilly followed with an odd smile, the same smile that a child has on Christmas when he knows presents wait for him downstairs.
Mr. Glee sat in the room for a few more minutes, not really sure what to do until Beth and Satyr returned, Satyr had a large book under her arm and Niall seemed rather more hyped than he had been for a long time, it was rather odd to see Niall being so…cheery.
“Goodbye Niall, I will see you later” Beth told him, waving and heading down the stairs.
“Goodbye, Beth.” He replied, smiling and then heading back to Chiyo’s room to continue their rather interesting discussion.
MCWC II - SUBMISSIONS
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