Just what the doctor ordered. [M] (Shizzy)

[Xphy]

Ah yes, the thrill of the hunt!

And what a glorious hunt it was. Over the last couple of days the team of three had been tracking a creature that was proving to be quite troublesome for some the local villages. According to the reports they were given it had been responsible for more than its fair share of murders and it even had been seen carrying off a few young maidens for Inima knows what. However neither of those was anywhere near as surprising to the hunters as who had actually put out the request for its capture.

The request had actually come from the Mat-joo-Raat herself, and judging by the fact that she wanted it alive the short woman probably had some plans in mind for this particular creature. Not that it was any of their concern though. The three were far more interested in the reward they would receive if they were successful in capturing it. And it was a pretty sizeable one at that; certainly worth the risks that came with live capture.

For now though they waited, each crouched at their various stations alongside a narrow dirt road and using the natural brush for cover. The trap they had set was a simple one, at least in concept anyway. A rune of entrapment had been buried underneath the path to hold the creature long enough for them to covered it with a net that was enchanted to drain it of its stamina. A simple trap indeed, but when executed properly it was a pretty effective one as well.

All that was left for the team of hunters to do was to wait for the monster to take the bait they had set, and if its actions so far were indication it probably would. Hell, any of them would have if they were in its position.

-------

Not too far from where the hunters were stationed the 'bait', a rather attractive young woman, was slowly making her way down the road. She was visibly nervous about her role in the plan, but the offer they had given her was too good for her to just ignore. Her family really could have used to money, and the men had 'guaranteed her safety.' All she had to do was lead the creature into the trap and they would pay her; simple as that.

Highly dangerous... but still very simple.

What really worried her about her situation was that the men hadn't really shared much about the creature they were after with her. All they had told her was that it was about the size of a male from the mainland, and that it would definitely find her appealing. They never told her what it had done or what it might do to her, and that really terrified her.

[Anonymous]

When the hunter becomes the hunted.

It wasn't as if it didn't realize that people had been following the sporadic trail it left behind. It didn't understand why they would bother following, it wasn't as if they could stop the rampage after all. It was a toss up between the mentality of the creature, whether it was insane, chaotic, or just...simple. It displayed some level of intelligence, but at the same time...it seemed to have such simple motives. Baser instincts, to feed, to breed, to rest, and to release all that anger and rage. Most villages were quite lucky that they had been able to drive the creature off with nothing more than having to sacrificing a few of the villagers.

Once it's hunger or desires had been quelled, it moved on. It was harmless that way. Of course, it wasn't so harmless if you were one of the people who had to deal with it. Leaving the creature unchecked, it would just continue making its rounds, taking and killing as it went, until everything was dead on Thanatos. That of course would take some time, but even still...it was time that most of the people of Thanatos didn't want to wait for. Rightly so, self preservation was always on the minds of any sentient creature after all. This one was including...it was just keeping itself alive. For the most part. Maybe it was indulging just a little TOO much, but when there was weak resistance, the creature couldn't help itself.

The hunters knew their prey well though.

Attractive young women. A fertile little field for him to play in. It was a him, the creature. Those who didn't get captured by the creature probably had a lot harder time figuring gender...but those captured knew quite well. The creature was an odd one, dressed in strange foreign clothes. It didn't even appear to be from the mainland, but from much further than that, if that were even possible. It was one long strip of cloth that wrapped from the torso up, around the arms and hands. He wore a strange cowl that only showed his eyes, those deep red...burning eyes. Simple pants to cover his modesty, and thick leather boots to give him a loud approach. The heavy footfalls could be heard even on the dirt road.

It's deadly eyes were set upon the woman, beneath that cowl that hid his face, a cruel grin. Fresh meat! Fresh body! Fresh fresh fresh. "What a DELICIOUS looking specimen THIS is." The voice was wavered and strange, a dark growling sound with strange emphasis on almost random words. The creature wore strange metal gauntlets that resembled dangerous claws. Indeed each of them were quite sharp, and travelled to his elbows. They had strange runes engraved into them, however, it didn't appear as if any tool had been used...but they had been scratched in with something sharp.

For something so apparently dangerous, it plodded after the woman slowly. Apparently it was in no hurry, or perhaps it couldn't travel too fast. The answer was apparent when the woman looked toward him. That's when he bolted toward her. His speed was amazing, but even he wasn't fast enough as he came to a crashing halt in the middle of the road. The rune had done what it was supposed to for the most part. It had stopped him from moving. Well. This feet at least. His clawed gauntlets still reached for the woman, and he snarled like a foul beast at her as he tried to pull his feet free.

From his body was a strange black smoke, it smelled of rage and hate, which was not a particularly good smell for that matter. It tried to still to move, more of that black smoke poured from along his arms, his back, his legs, his face. It was apparent now that the creature had a few tricks up it's sleeve. It was going to try and transform to a more bestial sort, as of now it resembled a human...but as bones cracked within his body, he was turning. All of his rage at being trapped, all of his hatred for those unseen forces that had done this...it was not going well.

Then came the raging howl from his mouth. So primal, so bestial, it was a sound that could wake the dead, and cause the living to shudder.

It was still trapped, but for how long remained to be seen.

[Xphy]

The woman's scream was all the hunters had needed to know that their target had been spotted, and like a fish to a worm it had bit the hook. Also like a fish it was struggling to free itself from the hook, and the hunters were not surprised by this. They didn't know what the creature was doing with the odd black smog being emitted from its body, but they weren't about to let it do it if they could.

While their bait fled the three men exploded from the surrounding brush and went straight to fulfilling their own specific tasks. The first was a short Thanati male dressed in a full red robe that placed his hands on the path to the right of Thinker and began chanting. His role was the most important as it was his job to prevent their prey from escaping before they could bag him, and that was exactly what he was doing by strengthening the runes power with his own magic.

The second hunter, a lanky man with a wide variety of decorative scars etched into his face, was the bagger. As soon as he was free from the bushes he quickly went to work prepping the enchanted net and threw it over the creature, pulling on it to make sure it wrapped around it tightly.

The third hunter was easily the oddest of the bunch. He was a big man, easily the tallest of the three by at least a foot, with an exceptionally toned body home to a number of different tattoos. However it was his arms that made him unique. Even for a man his size they were abnormally large and apelike, hanging mere inches from the floor when he stood up straight.

Clearly a necromancer had had some 'fun' with him at one point in his life.

Once the net was fixed he ran up behind Thinker and wrapped his unnatural arms around him, his job being to hold the creature in place while the net did its work.

[Anonymous]

And the girl was getting away!

All his rage, all his anger, all his hatred and lust were at the surface, and he was struggling to break free. That was HIS! That pretty thing that was running away was HIS! Already there was a transformation in progress, he was truly giving in to the beast within him. It never occurred to Thinker that this was a trap, that he was stuck in a trap, and that had been bait. With the three men bursting from the brush however, he was a little more aware that he was probably in the midst of a trap. So the island dwellers had decided to fight back?

How quaint.

The man in the full red robe was an obvious target, but not close enough to him. Thinker continued to try and swipe at him though, his form becoming a bit more bulky, and looking a lot more animalistic. His clothes seemed to be...transforming with him, becoming skin to cover himself. A deep black sort of leather, though one could still see that they were his clothes. Sharp teeth filled his mouth, and those burning red eyes of his were just the start. Those gauntlets merged and melted into him, and oh how dangerous did they look. He struggled, thrashed as best he could, but his feet would not move. They had become black and clawed, gaining the appearance of a large lizard crossed with a dog of some sorts.

The net just caused that unearthly howl again, and the struggling began. It was wild thrashing, it was bestial, truly a cornered animal. "YOU WILL ALL DIE! I WILL FEED UPON YOU. YOUR FLESH WILL SUSTAIN ME." An odd characteristic now, all things considered. Usually Thinker never yelled in this extreme, but it was a desperate measure. He tried to gnash at the net, to cut it with his teeth, and he tried to turn to bite the bastard that was holding him, but there was no such luck. He couldn't move.

This went on for a surprisingly long time, despite the enchanted net. There was quite a bit of stamina within the creature, but slowly he reverted back to that human form, out of the bestial creature form. Still he struggled, even as his arms felt so heavy, and his mind so foggy. He tried anything, but he couldn't move his feet, and his arms had been trapped, there wasn't enough room to cut the rope with the gauntlets he wore. He gave a few more twisting jerks of his body, trying to escape...and then found there was no more energy.

There was no more fuel for him...and so he slumped, his mind shutting down for the time being. He had been bested, and while that would have usually fed his rage, he found it didn't. There was no burst of power, no increase of rage. His last act was tilting his head back, and letting out an earth shattering roar of both frustration, and perhaps of worry. It was long, drawn out, like a wolf's howl...when it was over, his body went limp and he drifted into the fog of his mind.

[Xphy]

All three men, especially the one with the enormous arms, held on for dear life while the creature struggled to free itself from their trap. They weren't about to let it go, even...no, especially after it had made its declaration about devouring them. There was little doubted in their minds that it probably would have if it managed to get free, and well none of them planned to die in a place like this or to something they were trying to capture.

Though it had taken longer than they originally thought it would the creature would eventually relent to the net's mystical properties. The damned thing had had a lot more stamina than they had expected it to. The short mage would be the first to relax, sitting down on the floor and exhaling while his partners went to work securing the net around their quarry. The others were tired as well but he was easily the most exhausted, having spent the greater majority of his mana on reinforcing the rune.

Once their prey was secured the largest man hoisted its unconscious body over its shoulder, and signaled for the others to head back toward their wagon. Once there they secured it and set out toward the drop off point. The girl hadn't returned just yet and honestly they had no intentions of waiting on her. It was more money for them. Besides it wasn't like she had done much other than stand there and look pretty anyway. If she had really wanted her share she would've at least stuck around instead of running off to who knows where.

------

The Mat-joo-Raat's own personal lab was one she had put a great deal of effort into designing and spent a great deal of money into building. The massive room was lined from wall to wall with bookcases housing all her records and notes, and shelves and tables storing all of the concoctions and tools a necromancer would need for studying. The entire thing was well lit by an elaborate array of candles and motes of light hanging from the roof, along with a large furnace build into its southern wall. There were very few places where one couldn't see, after all a person needed to see properly if they were going to operate.

Not too far from the furnace A'elyrh was sprawled out across one of her experimenting tables, her own personal tattoo artist stitching a complex circuit just below the cleft of her chest. She was dressed in a bright red and gold skirt with a matching top that left her abdomen completely exposed. On her arms were covered in detached sleeves with golden bracelets on her wrists, and on her head she wore a decorative headscarf tied to let her long white braids hang loose. Of course with the location the artist was working on her top had been pulled up to expose her chest, but she showed no signs of shame.

Only the prudish mainlanders were ashamed of their bodies.

The rune being tattooed onto her body had been specifically chosen from one of her books to act as a ward just in case her latest test subject managed to free itself before she was done with it. Of course there were other things she would need to make it work, but she would have to wait until the subject actually arrived to get them.

Once the artist was done he pulled away to allow her to sit up and handed her mirror to inspect his work, which she did. She was quite pleased with the man's accuracy. The marking had actually turned out quite well, much better than she expected it to. There was little doubt in her mind that it would work as she intended it to.

After she dismissed the man there was a knock on the door, no doubt her latest acquisition had arrived. Truthfully she had expected the hunters to have taken a little longer to capture their target, but she wasn't displeased. If anything she was quite happy with the turn of events.

"You may enter."

Shortly after she spoke a Thanati male dressed in uniform of her family guard opened the door and knelt down before her.

"Your holiness, the guest you were expected have arrived."

"Very good. Show them in."

The man bowed his head reverently and then left, only to be replaced by the team of hunters she had hired. The two large flesh golems standing in the corner stirred at the new arrival, but were quickly calmed by their mistress. They were of no threat to her after all. The fact that largest of them was carrying the netted creature brought a smile to her lips. It was surprisingly more humanoid than she had expected. How interesting indeed.

"Place him on the table over there, and remove his clothing." While the men did as she asked she walked over toward the furnace and signaled for one of her zombie assistants to join her. Once it had she had him remove a branding prod from it and walked over to the table, being sure to grab a knife from a nearby table. The sleeping creature was truly fascinating. It looked very much like an elf should. Naturally its naked form was shackled to the table to restrict its movements for when it awakened, cuffs having been placed on its arms, legs, and neck.

"Thank you. Speak with my assistant outside. She will see to it that you are paid for your troubles," she said finally, the men bowing to her words before leaving. Once they were gone she ran her knife along the creature's left arm, cutting just deep enough to draw its blood, which she rubbed on her latest tattoo causing it to glow briefly. While she did this the zombie pressed the branding tool against the creature's abdomen, the glowing end searing in her personal mark to signify that it was now hers.

She couldn't wait to have a look inside, but she decided it probably best to. If this creature had some method of communicating she might be able to extract some useful information from it.

[Anonymous]

Monsters aren't often supposed to dream. It makes them seem more human, more normal, as if they are misunderstood in some way, and that they are actually people. If a monster dreamt, a person could see themselves as one too, as being so close to them. Of course, if a monster dreamt of nothing but rape, murder, and torture, one was able to...see it still as a monster.

As his strength was sapped, his rage was gone, and his mind feel asleep, Thinker began to dream.

Dream was such a simple word though. Most people would call it a nightmare. He saw people being torn apart, blood and gore everywhere, hapless men and women with varying degrees of wounds in their body. Some were already dead, throats or chests ripped open, one was even still alive, and you could see her beating heart as it slowed down. Amongst the chaos and the carnage, of this unknown city, were figures still moving. More to the point, they were...all Thinker. Each of them a different manifestation perhaps, a different monster, a different version, but he could recognize himself so well. Some were chewing off the faces of great knights and warriors, others were...tenderizing prey. Some were performing unspeakable acts of rape toward faceless men and women. There were even a few who played with the dead bodies of children like they were dolls or toys, forever silenced.

Oh...this was heaven...to Thinker at least. That's all he saw it as of course. Heaven. And it was. Though he didn't recognize the people that were being slaughtered, he recognized the places. These were definitely places he had been, and these might have been people that he had killed before. Of course, after living for so long, after existing and killing so many people, they no longer had faces. Why should they either, he cared very little for his victims...his work showed that.

Things were blurred, and the bodies were gone...he stood in some strange feel, where the grass wept tears of blood, and the sky above was nothing more than a great swirling vortex of red and black clouds, forever being sucked into nothingness. Home. Save for the weeping bloody grass. That was not at home, but if it had been, he probably would never leave. Before him stood...himself. Various versions. Each of them talking, their eyes listless and forever empty. Some were in the form of great beasts that he could become, others were just in various states of transformation, or just stood in his disguised form, the one he took when not a great abyssal monster.

Then...came the scream. The terrible...and great scream from all of them as if they had been attacked. Indeed, they were being attacked. With a sudden guttural growl Thinker's eyes opened just as the glowing branding iron left his abdomen. "I smell THE scent of FOOD in this place." His voice was so...grating to some, it sounded so dark, so primal, as if someone had given voice to a shark. Wild eyes darted to and fro, looking within the room. It wasn't until now did he try to move, and found that...he could not. At least not properly. Shackled to a table. Immediately he tried to look down to them, but he could not move his head.

That's when he began to struggle in earnest. What a sight it must have been, as he pulled and shifted, as he growled and tried to shake himself free. The shackles might have been good, but a caged animal rarely...rarely...likes to stay that way. They would not break, not yet, but he was pulling in earnest, and the table which he lay, was not going to last too long. He would pull the shackles from it, and would be free.

"You taunt ME so with flesh AND blood so close! You dare to BRING the wrath within me TO you? I will have my MEAL and then I will have YOUR soul!" He growled angrily as he continued to struggle and stare at the ceiling. He didn't think till now to look left or right, being able to move his head. So he did...and he could see something.

A flesh golem.

"My FOOD!" He cried, licking his lips with a long tongue, running it over his sharpened teeth. "You KEEP my food just out of MY reach!" He groaned, as if the golem being so close was hurting him. Indeed it was, as Thinker was not used to being restrained, to not being able to do as he pleased. Yet here he was now, being held back. He looked to the other side, to see a woman standing before him. She held no special recognition in his mind. Who she was, he could not say, he had certainly never seen her before. If he had, she would be dead. That was how it worked...though dimly, as he remembered, a woman had gotten away from him...the one on the road...as did those three men.

That mistake would be corrected.

"You! You will FEEL wrath upon your head! You will feel AS I twist your guts from TORSO and devour them BEFORE you! I will PLUCK your eyes from your HEAD...and I will TAKE your soul! I will take YOUR soul and you will make a FITTING toy! Just as the rest of this ISLAND will!" Again, he struggled, and now black smoke seemed to rise from his body as he struggled to try and attack her. He twisted his body as much as he could, one could even hear the joints popping in and out of place as he dislocated them at will, a look of hatred, anger, and animal pleasure upon his face. Curiously enough, the cut on his arm was healed, and now the brand looked as if it had been there for many years, though the scar was staying put it seemed.

A very curious creature.

[Xphy]

There wasn't a bit of fear in A'elyrh's eyes. Not one iota... No true believer in Inima was afraid of death. It was simply a part of the cycle of life granted to them by the goddess. Plus she was sure that its threat to steal her soul and enslave her where little more than bravado. She highly doubted it could make good on that promise. Heck even if he could she doubted her would even get the opportunity. As things were now he was of little threat to her; she'd seen to it personally.

She did find the creature's struggles and boasting to be quite amusing, however. It was quite humanlike to make threats while being helpless. Unfortunately for him that level of intimidation wouldn't work on her. She also found the characteristics he was displaying to be rather interesting as well, especially his limb movements. The cracking of bones from them bending at all those weird angles was like music to her ears. His healing potential was another trait she had taken an interest in. The wound she had given him earlier had already healed and so had the skin where he had been branded. And then there was the smoke...

Oh, this one would make an excellent test subject indeed.

If his vigor was any indication of his health and if he could heal that quickly normally there was a pretty good chance he could survive more than just one operation, which was always a good thing. Live subjects were always much more interesting to study than dead ones. There was much more you could learn from them; much less guess work too. She simply couldn't wait to cut him open and have a peak at his innards.

But for now she couldn't allow him to continue with his struggling for much longer. She would need her table to be in good shape if she was going to conduct tests on him, and she didn't particularly feel like moving him to another one. So it was time to show him who was really in charge of their current situation and that person was her, not him.

Calmly she walked over to the table, her tattered wings slowly folding behind her body, and looked down at the creature with a smirk across her lips. "You will stop all of your struggling immediately." The words were coolly spoken, lacking any sort of urgency or intimidation, and of course his mind was completely free to ignore them if he so pleased. His body on the other hand was a completely different story.

Thanks to her latest tattoo, which was now glowing brightly through her top, and the blood she had smeared upon it his body was now linked to her. It could not bring harm to her in any way, shape or form, nor could it defy her. Until she got bored with him he would be her plaything, not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

No fear.

A good, but smart tactic for one to have. If you knew exactly what you were dealing with. Small wonder that in a land full of necromancers, no one noticed that the souls could not be contacted. His victims were left...as if they had never been born, never brought back into creation. For good reasons, they fed his appetite of course, and the appetite of the abyss. Before her lay a monster of truly horrible connotations. A creature linked to the ever devouring Abyss, the place where souls went to be destroyed...permanently. Of course, right now, more on his mind was her humiliation, her weeping, her sanity destroyed...because she had no fear.

He continued to just get angrier though however. To let his body break before him and heal, to have his muscles tear and his bones snap and pop from place. He was not accustomed to anyone doing something like this. Never before had he actually ended up this way...against his will. There had been a time or two, to gain access to places like this, had he allowed himself to become captured...but he had walked into what he now knew was her trap.

Her will.

When she spoke again...his body stopped. He could still move his head, but only to look at his body. It didn't react to his commands, to his desire to struggle and break the bonds! It just stopped! What has she done to him? The light from under her top, indicated that could be the reason. His mind put the connection together as best he could. Oh he understood magic, and that's all this must have been. He seethed. He breathed heavy. That smoke grew thicker from his body. Until...there was movement. Cracking. The right manacle that held him in place snapped as if it were made of ice. She had been lucky to choose the side she was on, perhaps she was lucky that the iron of the table was a bit stronger on that side. It didn't stop him from trying to grab her with his right hand. It had become...somewhat twisted looking, darker, with rather sharp looking claws. His mouth had become more like a wolf, with a snout of sorts, filled with razor sharp teeth. Those eyes...those burning...smoldering eyes of his...

"I will HAVE your soul!" He screamed, his voice now so deep, as if the devil himself were speaking. Of course, slowly...the smoke was disappearing...and slowly...he looked more like a normal person again...though his hand still reached for her, trying his best grab her but hindered by the other metal clamps. He was hungry. He had to act fast. The question was...what was there to eat within distance? Nothing that he could grab. It was obvious the creature wasn't afraid, wasn't worried, didn't even try to pull or tear the other binds from him.

The creature had no fear.

Just anger...so much anger.

"Thinker will HAVE what he sees. He will TAKE from you his BLOOD and then...your soul will FEED him." His hand returned back to his side, and he growled. That's all he could do. He realized his mistake. Waking too early...blood loss...wound recovery...it was too early to transform...much too early. The insane mind saw some reason and sanity, if only just barely. For now...he would lay there...he would growl...her would make guttural noises from the back of his throat in anger, and curse her in an ancient language he doubt they knew, the language of the Abyss. But why not escape? He knew a language that could be used on this world, he had used it here before to his advantage...he knew the runes, he could scrape with his free hand, to melt this table to molten slag in which he could then use to push her face into.

Curiosity held him at full bay. That...and lust. He was after all, a simple creature. Felled by things like food, comfort, and sex.

The rational of chaos came to a consensus, and he would stay, if only till his curiosity or lust was satisfied. Then...the land would once more run red with blood.