@Wrathwyrm
"I'm telling you, we should have taken that turn half a mile back!"
The wolf padding along beside Aiden gave him a very dry look and curled his lips back in a half-snarl. He tossed his head, sniffing dramatically to get his point across. Liam was quite convinced that he knew
exactly where they were going. It may have been some years since the brothers had been home, but he remembered the place like the back of his hand.
Well, paw.
"I know we'll get there eventually," Aiden snapped at his brother. "But we'd be there two hours sooner if we'd taken the damn turn!"
Though the day had been relatively cloudy, what little sun there was was enough to make the vampire irritable. Unlike a lot of his kind, the rays didn't immediately burn his skin, but it
was uncomfortable, and if left unattended for too long he
would start to burn. Their parents had attributed this unusual reaction to fae blood- honestly he didn't care
why, he just cared that he got indoors soon.
Assuming Cara even let them in.
He winced thinking about the baby sister he and Liam had more or less abandoned- to protect her, they both vehemently believed, but he knew she hadn't seen it that way. He doubted she'd changed her mind in the last five years.
Liam, quite done with his older brother's brooding and snipping, shoulder checked the vampire, sending him staggering off the narrow path they'd been trekking along. He gave a wolfy grin when Aiden yelped and had to spin to regain his balance.
"You
ass," Aiden snarled at him, and Liam replied with a growl of his own.
While the brothers hadn't been traveling together, it seemed they'd both had the urge to return home at the same time, and had come across one another on their way to the house where they'd grown up. It also seemed that five years on their own had left them both a little...prickly, as they'd spent the last two days doing little but arguing. Both were sick of it, though neither seemed to know how to put an end to it.
Aiden started shouting, waving his arms expressively as he cursed Liam out for his childishness and lack of responsibility. Unable to reply eloquently in his current form, Liam settled for responded with growls and snarls that increasingly grew in volume with every passing moment.
In a matter of minutes, they were loud enough to send flocks of starlings scattering into the air, and smaller animals like mink and rabbits scurried for their burrows. The brothers didn't notice.
It was such a pain. With about half of his team of vigilantes pulling out of the plan to rid Connlaoth of its hidden vampire overlord, he couldn't ask the other half to hang around and wait for him to get more people. Nashya had to go back to her group and deal with situations there, anyway, if she wasn't needed right then. So, she and the other member of the group - Rena Goldswith - could go back to their normal routine until he found some more people to handle this.
Nashya...
He wanted to go back to Jadenshine and live with her for the rest of their lives. If only he could deal with this one thing - that vampiric monstrosity - before making longterm plans. He just needed more people to replace the ones that left, people who could pound relentlessly on the nosferatu until there was nothing left. In that though, though, he had to wonder...how resilient were vampires. The one he was after was definitely powerful. Was destructive power and deadly skill enough? Or was there more?
So, while he was searching for more people, he was also looking for information, maybe even some work, vampire hunting. There had to be lesser vampires he could handle. For now, though, he was asleep against a tree, enough distance from the road to go without notice. Well, right up until there was the noise. Birds and woodland creatures were running and flying in fear - and this had to be the weird part, in that the birds were running and the squirrels were flying - due to some shouting that was happening, back at the road.
Sano was in his torso armor, his shin-guards, his wrist-bracers, and had a sword at his side while wearing this nice dark mantle-cloak for travel. He didn't exactly need the armor, per se. He could alter and manipulate metal through magic. Right now, grumbling to himself, he headed on over to the road, flipped a coin high into the air, and...a medium-sized anvil slammed down near the two that were carrying on.
"Good gods, you two could wake up the dead, and I'm among the living. What is so fricking important that you have to disturb both me and a...sort-of-nice day like this?"
Arguing though they may have been, when Liam sensed the danger he snapped into action, tackling his brother out of the way- though in retrospect the miraculously appearing anvil hadn't landed all that close to them.
"What the hell- get off, Liam!"
Both brothers started and glanced up at the sound of a stranger's voice, a massive black wolf crouch over a pale, almost frail looking young man who both tilted their heads in an almost identical motion at the newcomer.
"Ah..." Aiden had the grace to blush a littler. "Er, sorry about that. We were, um..." He looked up at Liam- an abruptly realized how crazy he might look for shouting at a wolf.
He could swear his brother was smirking at him.
"Get off," he grumbled again, shoving at the wolf's chest, and Liam pranced back a few steps to let him up. "Look, sorry," he muttered as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. "We...seem to have gotten a bit turned around, is all. Didn't mean to disturb- well we are turned around!" he snapped at Liam when his brother growled in irritation.
Sano was not entirely rested. You know damn-well what happens to your body when it doesn't receive the full rest that it was promised. Jolted awake, it goes through a cold start by using whatever reserves it has on hand to bring cognizance to the brain of the person in question, regardless of the fact of whether it's ready for that yet. As a result, sufferers of this act are literally awake by sheer willpower and require time to stabilize, or just go back to sleep. Sano had that look about him as he continued on to the anvil and sat on it, facing the two.
Now, he didn't really know - at a glance - what was about these two. He could guess that the wolf wasn't just a wolf, and maybe think he was a werewolf, but he wouldn't assume. He knew more about beastkin than werewolves. He knew nothing of these two, only that they were self-aware and argumentative. And even as one of them seemed to apologize for the noise, they appeared to be getting into another argument.
I don't need this.
He decided to talk over their current bicker now, if only to keep them focused.
"So, you were on your way to somewhere and there was some argument about your being lost, and the two of you didn't mean to be as loud as gunshot, but you were."
Guns might've been way more popular in Connlaoth, but there's no way that they and their noise wasn't common knowledge. Even so, referencing it might be a giveaway as to his general origins...kind of. Sano let out a sigh of exasperation.
"Not that I know the area particularly well, but where are you going?"
Liam snarled. That's none of your damn business- His internal tirade was cut short as Aiden looped an arm around his neck and dug his fingers into his ruff warningly.
"Again, we're sorry to disturb you," the elder brother said, polite but cool. He may be friendly, but he was hardly overly trusting. "We're just...heading home after a long while, that's all."
A though suddenly struck both brothers at the same moment, a thought that they'd both been so determined to push from their minds that they hadn't considered the very real possibility of it. They exchanged a look, and each knew the other had had the same realization, worry.
As one, they turned their heads back to the stranger. Aiden cleared his throat. "You, ah, say you don't know the area, but..." He glanced down the path they'd been following, then back. "I don't suppose you've heard if a witch named Cara still lives down the way?" He pointed. "Maybe quarter of a mile?"
She couldn't have moved, really...right?
There seemed to be some issue with actually explaining their situation, beyond some matter of their going home. Sano supposed that getting lost after being away for so long would be a problem. Sad to say, he had been lost in his youth, but in a different way. His true home, he could not forget. No one who ever lived in La'Marri could forget such a place. Still...there was a change in tune that caught him by surprised when the speaker for the two - the non-wolfy - asked about a particular shop.
It's a matter of fact that he DID stop there. Why? Because it was a magic shop, and one thing he tried to gain the resources of was magic and potions to give him and his compatriots an edge in combat. No luck, though. It wasn't particularly special, as a shop. He'd have more luck with Allaeya, the alchemist who transforms into a dragon. Still, he did kind of know who they were talking about, in that he'd been a potential customer who did not really find much, but a health recovery potion for alleviating wounds was still a useful asset.
"Half a mile, I think."
Liam shot his brother a very smug look. Aiden resisted the urge to kick him. "Thanks," he told the young man with a smile and a nod. "You stop by?" His tone was suddenly a bit more than just curious or friendly. There was a protective sort of glint to his eye and a tension both to his stance and the wolf's.
But then again...
Maybe Cara would be willing to hear them out if they brought her a customer.
"It's a great shop," he said with a quick grin, leaning lazily into Liam's flank. "'Course, sometimes you gotta have someone with you who knows what they're looking for in a place like that, if you take my meaning."
"Well, yeah, I did."
He stood up, pulling out a small flask of a healing tincture.
"And while a potion of healing is always useful, I was looking for something that would be even more useful in a dangerous fight. I have a foe who is powerful in magic and dangerous even without it. He laughs at the threat of Mordecai. In fact, he preserves their sorry lot because they put anyone capable of harming him at a disadvantage."
The young man was a red-eyed, dark-haired fellow he seemed very knowledgeable of Connlaoth and not so much of the area, yet he hated it. Since he also demonstrated some kind of a power by dropping that anvil out of the sky, it would be safe to say that he was some kind of an outcast if he came from there.
"So, when the people I work with and I go after him, we will need anything unexpected and powerful we can lay hands on. And that is why, sadly, I didn't find much."
Aiden smirked and leaned further back against Liam. "See, that's why you have to know what to ask for." He quirked an eyebrow. "We know the place. If you wanted to take another look, I bet my brother and I could help you find something useful."
The young man looked at them for a moment. He had a feeling that they weren't exactly playing this straight, but there was no reason not to humor them, for now. Sighing, he spoke.
"Well, it's at least kind of an apology for waking me up. I don't have a direction to go, exactly, so why not?"
He pointed his hand at the anvil on the ground and...it began to shrink before their very eyes, until it floated up into the palm of his hand and he pocketed it. He pointed back down the road, where he'd come from previously.
"It IS down that way, so let's go."
Liam and Aiden exchanged a look, then started walking. "Alright, keep up then," the vampire called cheerfully.
The wolf huffed to himself and rolled his eyes, padding alongside his brother down the trail.
Keep up, they said. Right, what were they going to do? Start running and the pale guy gets on the wolf's back to make their daring getaway? Little did they know that with his magic, he could fly. But they didn't make any special efforts to leave him in the dust, and the three of them started walking down that road. It was at this time - with Sano finally starting to awaken - that he began to realize there was something off about these two. No, it wasn't about one of them being a wolf, dammit. They just seemed to be in on something he wasn't. He just hoped it didn't bite him in the ass later. He took out some jerky to chew on while he went along with these two.
Quite without meaning to, both Aiden and Liam found their steps slowing as they grew ever closer to the little cottage that sat at the base of the hill, the path leading right by the front door in a cheery bend. Thin streams of smoke puffed up from the chimney, and the thatched roof had obviously seen better days.
But it was a homey place, obviously a house before it was a shop. And much too big for one young woman to be living in alone.
Wolf and vampire stopped and exchanged a worried glance. "Ah..." Aiden turned to their companion. "Well, you should probably knock. She might remember you from before, right?"
So, they arrived at the place - essentially, a quaint little house-ish kind of shop - and...the other two seemed reluctant to knock themselves. This...made Sano narrow his gaze a bit, as they suggested he go first. It was like they expected boobytraps to spring out or something. Sighing, the young swordsman approached and knocked. He called out, as well.
"Hello, it's me again. The guy that was looking for strong potions and stuff."
This had better be worth it...
Millie scampered to the door when the knock came, chittering. Sighing to herself, Cara came bustling out of the workroom, a smudge of powdered moonstone across her cheek and a dock leaf stuck in her hair.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming," she called. She wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying, but the voice was familiar. "Millie, move, I need to get the door open." She scooped the mink up to curl around her neck and flung the door outward.
"Right, I'm sorry, but as I told you earlier I really don't have anything-" Her eyes flickered past Sano to the two behind him and went wide. Her voice cut off in a sharp gasp.
Aiden shifted nervously from foot to foot, then raised a hand and offered a sheepish smile. "Hey, Wynnie."
Cara's eyes narrowed. "Go to hell," she spat, and slammed the door closed again.
SLAM!
Okay, that happened. So, these two had gotten him to lead them back to what must be their old home, knocked on the door, got the lady of the house to open the door, and then after a moment got it slammed in his face, since he was the one who was knocking. Sano stood there for a moment, not entirely surprised by this, but still stunned for just a few seconds. He then turned around and leaned on the doorway, facing the two now.
"Is there something you two would like to tell me?"
It was hard for a wolf to look sheepish, but Liam managed it. Aiden rubbed at the back of his neck, cheeks dusted pink. "Er...it's sort of a long story-"
"Not that long!" Cara's voice shouted through the door. She was leaned up against the other side of it, ordering her racing heart to calm and trying to force back tears. "Once upon a time there were three siblings. Then their parents died and the two brothers decided it was best for everyone if they just abandoned their little sister to get by on her own. The end!"
Both Aiden and Liam winced, looking at their feet.
So, the pale one was about to give a long-winded explanation, but the shop's proprieter surprisingly spoke up - startling Sano for a moment as he moved away from the door - and gave a very quick account of things. If this was how she saw things, then frankly the young Ferromancer could sympathize. Back to looking over at the two brother, he mused...
"I remember family. People obsessed with personal appearances and adherence to the law on almost a fanatical level, completely in denial of the magic that must be in their blood, and mine. Now, what was it they did? Ah yes... Disowned me and threw me out of the house, even before there was any proof of magical heritage."
If there was any - ANY - doubts to the young man's country of origin, this was the stab through the heart. Sano began to pace now, back and forth before the door. Cara could hear this just as easily as the other two.
"Forced to live on the streets as a pariah because I don't look right, scavenging and stealing whatever I could to survive, my first real family was someone almost as hairy as you."
He was indicating Liam, there. He put his hands together now, his expression somewhere between irritation and mockery right now.
"The point I'm making here is...you two are both assholes."
Liam and Aiden seemed to shrink a bit with every word, guilt obviously heavy on their shoulders- though the wolf was growling low in his throat.
The door cracked open, and a teary Cara poked her head out. "You." She pointed at Sano. "You can come in. They stay outside." She glared at her brothers over his shoulder, then looked back to him and offered a disarmingly pleasant smile. "I might actually have something along the lines of what you're looking for- don't sell these products to just anyone though, have to be careful. But you seem like a decent sort."
"Wynnie-" Aiden started forward again.
With a click of her fingers and a shouted word in Old Serenian, the vampire was suddenly rooted to the spot- quite literally, as the grass around his feet rose up to tangle his legs and hold him in place.
"Do. Not. Call. Me. That." She glared, making him shrink back even more, then opened the door a little wider for Sano. "C'mon in."
He turned at the opening of the door, and was a bit surprised that the store owner had relented on allowing his passage inside. Of course, he'd explained - much to the shock of the strange brothers - that he'd had it hard, as well, and therefore sympathized with the girl on the inside. Once she offered that she might have something for him to use, after all, he smiled.
"I try to be, for the most part."
She had cast something to root the pale guy on the spot, and presumably she had a similar move for the wolfish one, if he tried anything. Frankly, the two of them probably deserved a little harsh treatment for what they did. Sano sometimes considered going off and killing his own father, but somehow it just didn't seem like it would be satisfying. Still, he came in and waited for the door to close before speaking.
"I take it he won't be stuck paralyzed forever. I'd hate for someone to be stuck outside my place for all eternity."
Cara sighed as she shut the door, deliberately not looking at either of her brothers. "No. I'll let them in eventually, just..." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Millie chirped and scrambled up to perch on her shoulder, tilting her head and eyeing her mistress with concern. "Not right now."
Another sigh, then she forced a smile and looked the man over. "Right then. What is it exactly that you're looking for?"
So, it was a temporary hold, indeed, leaving them with a few minutes before he might try to speak up again. Well, they would deal with that when it came about, or ignore him. Whichever worked. Now, the lady shopkeeper wished to know what exactly he was looking for. He hadn't explained iin detail when he was here last, but since he was getting a bit more deeply involved here, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with a proper answer.
"Well, there's a dangerous creature lurking in Connlaoth, one that's pretty much using the Mordecai to its advantage, by making it harder for any magical foe to cross him and live. The truth is, I don't care about the country. I don't live there anymore, but my friend was injured by this thing. Given that she taught me everything I know, that's grounds for a killing. Or rather, a slaying."
He actually smirked at the last part, as it was all about to become more clear.
"The thing's a vampire, very strong, and I'm working to get a group of dangerous people to help me deal with it. Meantime, I've been looking into finding a lesser vampire to figure out my approach, and any sort of other advantage I can find. So, if you have something that'll definitely affect a vampire, or strengthen us, it would help out a great deal."
"Hm." Cara frowned and brushed passed him so she could make for the door in the back of her little shop. "I might have something... Come this way, then, I keep more...volatile products in the back." She beckoned for Sano to follow her, Millie wrapped peaceably around her neck for the moment.
"Volitile as in poison, or volitile as in 'Boom'?"
A fair question. Sano was no medicinal or potion expert, but he had a familiarity around them. He knew that the same people who made really good medicine could also create poison and, in fact, things that light on fire and uhh...explode. So, he followed - giving Cara her space - when he noticed... Wait, that was a live animal around her neck? Okay, that was unexpected...
Not the weirdest thing I've ever seen, but definitely new for me.
Gotta remember that Sano's an ex-Connlaothian, still learning about things in the world.
Cara smirked over her shoulder as she slipped into the back room. "Both."
She slid easily into the small space between a cluttered work table and a large display case that held a variety of softly glowing, smoking, or sparking jars and vials. Twitching two fingers at Sano in a "come here" gesture, she cocked a hip and tilted her head at him.
“So. You need a weapon of some kind. I’m afraid I’m not well versed in vampire lore- typically blessed objects work, right?" She frowned, thinking.
"Some say", was Sano's reply, in reference to the question of blessed opposition. He honestly hadn't heard much more than general information in regard to vampires, themselves. This one...according to Keefe...had all the trappings of a dread warrior of darkness and viceral destruction. Blessings would probably work on HIM. However, the young man had to follow up on that.
"Here's the problem: I could use something with blessings - something of a light-in-the-darkness kind of thing - but I'd have to be careful around one of my friends. She uses shadow power like I use metal, which is often and in great quantity. If avoidable, I'd rather not have something go off that could hamper her, as well. Or if I do, it's singular enough that it harms just the recipient, not the people around."
So, looking over the various bottles, continued.
"Now, what do we have here? I can guarantee payment. I have money, but if it's a little steep, I'd rather generate the funds than leave it behind, if it's effective."
He meant generate literally. Sano did in magic what was taboo in alchemy: Producing gold, currency. It was mind over matter, to change steel and iron to the luster of gold, taking probably a whole day to make a decent amount of the valuable stuff. The more something is worth or the more powerful something was, the harder it could be.
"Hmm." Cara swayed slightly from side to side as she considered. "I'm not sure I really have anything like that in stock...I have a few enchantments for blessing weapons, or simply strengthening them, but..." She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "Maybe I could make something? It would take a while though."
"Something selective to a weapon would certainly help, especially me. Lemme show you."
He pulled out a small piece of metal. It sat there, in the palm of his hand...and then it became a dagger, then a steel rod, and then went back into becoming a ball. And then, he made it levitate around a bit. After that, he shoved it back into his pocket.
"If I can get something relatively small blessed...then suddenly change it to a lance, or something like that, it'll be sudden for him, unexpected. And I can do worse than a lance."
It was just a thought. He really didn't know how blessings worked, or if that much would help. Hell, he didn't know how well aware the vampire would BE of such a power. Still...it was something.
"What did you mean about something that you could make?"
Cara watched with interest, then flicked her eyes up to her face. "Well, I'm no priestess, so I can't really bless anything. But I can...tailor enchantments to fit certain needs. I'm actually quite good at it."
She shrugged. "I could try to come up with something that might give similar results to a proper blessing."
"You could do that, if you can get something close. Or..."
He snapped his fingers.
"Magic disruption! We could- Wait, no. That's a terrible idea. Half the group'll be using magic, at least, including me. Hmmm..."
He needed to re-think this. What were the most well-known weaknesses of a vampire? Light, of course, and blessed power of any sort. It was actually kind of unfortunate that Nashya had shadow power, with those in mind. Can't complain, since she was good at it, but still.. Well, there was always fire, which favored explosions. Lightning was already in their corner if Goldswith was still on board. Hang on...
"Isn't pure silver kind of a weakness to vampires? Serendipity's full of the stuff, you maybe enhance the power of a silver weapon, right?"
Might be something she could do. Might not be.