Cold Poison (Closed)

[miss_sanguine]

He stretched, forcing the muscles in his body to obey. "Well enough," he replied. "The furs were very nice, thank you."

Once he was up and moving, the pain ebbed from his body. He was able to roll up his bed without any trouble, hanging it over his back with the rest of his stuff. At this point he realized he hadn't eaten anything, but that was normal. Sometimes he just wasn't hungry, and his body was forced against its will to move as he wanted it to. As an extra act of feigned courtesy, he folded Zurn'a furs for her and handed them over with a smile at the same time she handed to him a flask of something.

His eyes flicked to it, smile faltering. When he took it, he stared at it, suspicions aroused to an alarming level. Poison?

But he drove himself to calm down. There was no reason for Zurna to want to poison him.

He took a slow sip, the drink burning as it went down his throat. The moment it hit his stomach, a warmth spread from his middle all the way out to the end of his fingers and toes. His mind seemed to clear a little and his aches vanished.

"Thank you," he said, taking more sips of the drink before handing it back to her. "What is that, if you don't mind my asking?"

[GoblinFae]

"It's tea made from the bark of the salix arctica. While the berries have the ability to take life, the bark has the capability to preserve life. It is the only antidote to the poison. We traditionally drink the bark tea as a cure-all for ills."

She noticed that he had not eaten but did not comment. 'The tea will help with that too. Manaia if he dies on me, I am not going to be pleased,' she thought critically taking in his sickly pallor. In the snow and the cold it was much more obvious how unwell he was. 'Maybe that is why he wants to go there. Maybe he hopes to heal and become healthy again.'

The sun's movement through the sky was the only way to see that time was indeed passing. The wind blew hard cutting to the bone, making even Zurna wince and pull her furs tighter about her. It seemed that Ryuu was not much of a talker so she did not push for conversation. She had bigger concerns than a silent traveling companion.

Zurna kept a wary out for trouble. Occasionally she would stop and examine tracks mapping in her mind what they were and their routes. The matukyu were one of the greatest predators on the tundra. Only humans were foolish enough to try and disturb them. The tracks were a sign to her of whether to expect trouble or not.

She froze looking down at the sight before her. The snow had been dug up in several places. Broken eggshells haphazardly littered the ground and a small trail of blood led off the right. A little foot standing on a crushed pile of fragile periwinkle eggshells. Her eyes followed the crimson trail until it fell on a still bulk in the distance.

"Don't move!" she called urgently to Ryuu. Not checking to see if he listened she carefully worked her way over the bloody bulk. At one point Zurna had spotted some human and horse tracks, now she knew what had happened to them. Both beast and man had been horribly gored. Blood saturated the ground, turning white snow to pink slush beneath her boots. In the man's hand was a blue egg.

Ignoring the dead man, Zurna reached forward and gently took the egg from him. Nervously she looked around her before burying it deep in the snow. Looking over to Ryuu she nodded slightly. "Welcome to matukyu territory. Watch your step or we'll bth end up like him," she informed him, pointing to the dead man. She briefly knelt down trying to wipe the blood on her arms and hands off. Unbeknownst to her, at some point she had wiped her bloody hand across her face and now sported bright red tattoos on her forehead and cheek.

[miss_sanguine]

Ah, yes. The bark. He should have recognized the flavor. Interesting that a plant with such fatal fruit also had the means by which to cure the ailment.

Now able to move without his body protesting, Ryuu helped with the rest of packing up their little settlement. Once they were on the move again, he made a point of following Zurna this time. She'd clearly not liked his having led the day before, and it was too early in the journey to have her grow suspicious of him.

The cold continued to cut through his thick furs, enveloping his skin with an uncomfortable blanket of icy air. Only a year had gone by since he'd been here, and still he found himself unhappy with the unexpected chill. No fat to speak of, his body was no built for extreme temperatures, particularly cold ones.

Zurna would stop on occasion and check something in the snow which he couldn't see. It grew bothersome after a while, but he stood by and waited each time, wrapping his arms about his body more closely and watching.

It was when they came across the patch of broken eggshells that he gained avid interest. The sight of the dark mark leading off into the snow lit his senses like nothing else could.

Blood.

He ignored her warning, pursuing her through the snow until they both stopped at the bloodied mess before them.

Something sparked in his mind, a mess of images all stained with crimson. Bodies lying before him, pools of red at his feet, screams filling his ears like hymns. This man had suffered, suffered terribly. The snow had turned into a bath of blood, marking the dead's last resting place.

Zurna was saying something to him, but it didn't matter. He found himself smiling. Here lay a beautiful sight, something to be appreciated. Just looking at it made his blood burn with fervent enchantment. He was no longer cold. How could he be, with this sight before him? It was as if the dead man's warmth, no longer existent in his cold, frozen body, was seeping into Ryuu's own veins, transferring over to him.

When he finally turned to look at Zurna, his heart skipped several beats upon seeing the paint of life smeared on her face. For a moment he saw himself reaching out to touch it, to feel its radiating warmth, but the vision passed.

Blinking, he said, "You've blood on your face."

[GoblinFae]

Zurna found herself somewhat disturbed by his smile. The situation did not warrant one, and yet he smiled as if he were extremely amused by something. "Blood?" she repeated startled. Quickly she began trying to wipe it off. For the most part she succeeded but, in some places light dried smears of crimson stained pale white flesh.

"The nest is bigger than I expected. We better get moving or we'll be camping the night in the middle of it. That's something even I'm not crazy enough to do," she informed him. Zurna looked ahead of them trying to determine the safest path through the nest. The little egg domes were everywhere. It was as if the egg clutches were increasing. 'I thought thinks are supposed to appear larger when you are younger. This is for more extensive than my memory serves.' Some areas were so heavily populated that Zurna did not think they would even be able to jump over the nests.

"Watch your step. We break the eggs, we end up like him," she told Ryuu distractedly. "We need to find the quickest and safest route through here. We can worry about where we are and backtracking once we get out of this mess. If the matukyuu have already been here for him, then they will return soon. They are already on alert because he invaded and destroyed the nest."

Zurna did not tell him that their chances of survival were slimming rapidly. 'It might not even take destroying the nest to provoke them now. Just being here should be enough to get us killed. Manaia protect us!' Carefully, she began to pick her way through the snow. Each step was slow and meticulously taken. Her heart thumped heavily against her ribcage and her breath caught in her throat. The sound of the snow crunching underfoot was like an explosion in her ears. 'It sounds too much like crunching eggs. Oh Ansgar, help us! I am not going to survive the fear alone of this.' A faint rustling sound blew on the wind. Looking around, Zurna prayed it was just her imagination.

[miss_sanguine]

Funny, how the once warm, life-sustaining liquid that had flowed through the veins of the dead man now mottled a young girl's face, cold and dry. Moving with life and now forever still, wiped away carelessly with a sleeve. And not well, either, some of its crusty self still apparent. But he said nothing, merely nodding at her attempt and turning to face the nesting grounds they were to walk across.

He felt no fear for being close to what might cause his own death. Death held power over the weak, held power over him only when he faced it dead-on. This was nothing.

The clutches intrigued him. Such a cold place to raise young, to leave eggs unattended. How did the eggs survive without the warmth of their parent? Warm-blooded creatures needed warmth to live, needed warm blood.

Let the beasts come. Let them try to rip the life out of him like they had the man in the snow. They would find the situation considerably different.

Zurna's walk suggested tenseness, fear. As if walking on eggshells—a thought that made him smile for the irony. Hadn't even seen one of the beasts and already she would jump at any out-of-place sound.

"Why would that man invade these nests in the first place?" he asked. "The way you speak of these creatures, no one would venture so near. Are they valuable?"

[GoblinFae]

Zurna froze, every muscle tensing as if to spring. Slowly like a hawk eying its prey she turned her head to face him. "Why, looking to steal some yourself?" she bit out at him. After a moment she was able to better collect herself.

"I'm sorry. I do not mean to snap. Yes the eggs are valuable, as is the matukyuu pelt. But, most highly prized of them all is the honor and fame granted to those who succeed in taming or killing an adult matukyuu. As I said before, there is only one who still lives today."

She shook her head, angrily pursing her lips. "I have no patience for people like him. I have seen firsthand the damage they can cause. " Zurna sighed, licking her chapped lips. "Listen, if you want to get yourself killed, fine. Go do it on your own time. I am not going to let you get me killed too. I have already been through this once, I am not doing it again." She took a step forward, coming very close to unknowingly crushing an egg underfoot. "Am I understood?"

[miss_sanguine]

Ryuu waited for Zurna to finish her rude accusations before speaking. While his smile lessened considerably, he kept a small one on his face. The girl couldn't help that she was an idiot—many stories had been told of lesser people hallucinating or losing their nerve in the vast tundra.

"I have no intention of taking any of the eggs," he told her, staring deep into her warm eyes with his cold ones. "And I find it terribly uncouth for you, Zurna, to accuse me of such a thing when I was merely curious about them. Do I look equipped to go around stealing the eggs of creatures that could kill the both of us in seconds?" He removed his hands from his pockets to gesture at his meagerly-stocked self. With just a bed roll and a small bag of trifle things for gathering berries from the salix artica, he thought his point quite clear.

Point settled and still smiling, he directed her attention to her feet where he had come to recognize signs of another nest. "And you might want to be careful where you step, else you'll be the one getting us killed."

Glory for killing an animal? The idea sickened him to the core. Inside he seethed. The man behind them had deserved to die had that been his intention.

A small black form, lifeless, eyes staring into another world. Dead. For nothing. Murdered.

"Let's keep going," he said brusquely, shoving past her into the snow, not caring at this point if she followed. He made sure to watch every step he made.

[GoblinFae]

'I offended him,' she realized with surprise. 'I shouldn't have accused him. He is right, that was beyond rude. I should apologize, even if he won't listen to me now.' Picking her way quickly through the snow she fell into stride with her companion. For a while she kept silent, trying desperately to find the right words to say.

"I was wrong to accuse you," she began, at last breaking the silence. "I lashed out at you but, my hatred was not meant or you. Too mnay come here seeking the improbable, and far less equipped. I know firsthand the brutality of the matukyuu. I also find it no differnt than any human defending their homeland and their family. I do noot condone the slaughter that humans seek. I am sorry." Zurna lowered her head in shame and guilt.

Her mind flooded with memories of the matukyuu. Every story she had been told as a chold, every bod she had seen dragged into town, every footprint she had ever found, made itself known with great detail. On and on the tide went until that day played before her eyes. Even after all this time, her ears still rang with children's high-pitched shrieks and screams which not that long before had been sounds of laughter.

So deeply entrenched in memory lane, Zurna failed to notice the moving and breathing snowbanks. Slowly the pair was being surronded by the very beasts they were trying to avoid. She never noticed until she had been knocked to the ground that she was in trouble. Rolling she came to land in a push-up position over a large nest. She could not raise herself up, nor could she lower herself.

Cautiously, Zurna raised her head, brown eyes meeting firece yellow. ' The matukyuu!' The beast before her was a juvenile. He snuffed in her facebefore sweeping an arm back and knocing her over onto her side. Quickly she moved so that her knees were underneath her again. But, when she tried to raise up it growled at her. She lowered back down onto her knees and forearms.

From her current position she could not see Ryuu, but she could see the way the pack was circling them. A large ring circled the nest while three circled a smaller section to her right. 'Ryuu must be there. I hope he doesn't do something stupid. They haven't killed us yet. Something isn't right.'

The young male continued to headbutt her in the side and head. She refused to react, allowing herself to be pushed around. An elder male move a huge scar running across his face and side moved to attack Zurna but, the youngling placed a paw on her back and stood over her. 'He's protecting me? I know that face,' she thought recognizing the pack leader. 'I gave him that scar. Seems like he remembers that too.' If the situation had not been so serious she would have laughed. For now she tried to find a way to either get to Ryuu or warn him not to attack. 'As long as we do not provoke them, they will not harm us. They wouldn't keep us alive like this for no reason. Would they?'

[miss_sanguine]

He heard her come up beside him but did not acknowledge it, keeping his pace the same and his eyes ahead on the ground. It wasn't hard to notice the nests if one really concentrated, and he easily avoided stepping on them by going over or around.

Zurna's apology fell on deaf ears. He did not care if she was sorry, nor why she'd accused him. He doubted any person on the planet could have cared less than he did. She could go on thinking that he was upset by her accusations, go on feeling guilty, go on worrying over petty emotions. The only thing that had made him sour was . . . well, something he tried to block from his mind.

Why did it always have to crop up in unlikely places? The feeling of emptiness, of loss, of absolute hatred. Just because people decided to kill these matukyuu for glory.

A deep silence surrounded them, punctuated only by the sounds of the crunching snow beneath their feet. But then another noise, out-of-place in its shuffling, caught his attention. Still walking, his eyes darted around, taking in the moving white shapes amid the falling white element, like living hills of snow.

So. They'd been discovered despite their efforts.

Ryuu stopped. Zurna continued past him, apparently oblivious to her surroundings. Then she was on the ground, knocked down by one of the beasts that had loomed up out of its protective surroundings. More were appearing, three of them moving to surround him, others moving to surround his travel companion.

He stood there, frowning. His hand moved over the poisoned blade tucked within a hidden flap in his pocket. Not enough, really, but it would do if the need came. He had no want of hurting these animals. He and Zurna were, after all, on their territory. Something he could understand.

Moving slowly, Ryuu sat himself down in the snow, keeping his eyes on the biggest of those surrounding him, though making sure to not look it directly in the eye—just a little below. These creatures lived in a pack, and he knew more than many about the behavior required in a pack. Unless tundra animals lived by other rules.

[GoblinFae]

Zurna felt the weight on her back shift away right before she had a furry face thrust in front of her own. A cold nose nudged her under the chin and throat, forcing her to raise her head and eventually her upper torso. Vibrant yellow eyes stared into her own muddy pair.

Then in her mind a series of blurry images and feelings began to form. First, she felt like she was drowning and gasping lungfuls of water. Her paws frantically flailed about trying to grab purchase in the freezing waters. 'Paws? I don't have paws.' From there she saw an image of herself, except it was a much younger her, diving in the water and reaching out to her "current" self. 'What is this? What is going on?' A feeling of fear blind-sided Zurna, making her wish to run. Small human hands picked her up and at last she broke the water's surface, coughing up the dreadful water. Moving as quickly as she could, she slid her way across the slick ice and curled up under her father's belly. Guiltily, she licked at the blood marring his side. Somehow she felt it was her fault.

Zurna blinked, once more seeing sulphureous eyes staring into her own. "It's you!" she exclaimed aloud. "These are your memories, your feelings I am experiencing." The male gave a snuffling bark and a sensation of warmth rushed through her.

She slowly looked over towards Ryuu to see what was happening with him. 'I wonder if he feels it too. Or is it just me. Manaia, he must think I am crazy!' The longer she stared at his kneeling form and was overcome with a primal hunger. The desire to attack him, to spill his blood, the devour him screamed in her mind. She inhaled sharply, trying to regain her control.

'This is not me. I do not wish to kill; this is not me. Get out of my head! This is not me!' Zurna struggled mentally with the age-old instincts that were overtaking her.

[miss_sanguine]

It took a few minutes for Ryuu to realize that the large animal he was facing was not the leader. It was big, yes. Much larger than he, with paws that could no doubt swat him across the snow feet away without so much as an effort, but not the leader. There were obvious signs pointing to this, what with the way the animal did not hold the attention of its other pack-mates.

Realizing this, Ryuu lifted his gaze to stare right into the creature's brown eyes—and was immediately flooded with a sense of anticipatory impatience. It made him shift where he sat, made him want to spring. But Ryuu resisted it, resisted the feeling of waiting for a command, a feeling he didn't understand.

Then it dawned on him. The matukyuu were empathetic beasts, capable of relaying feelings—if not more—to each other, and, in this case, to others able to pick up on those feelings and messages. This surprised him. He hadn't thought the matukyuu any more than simple tundra carnivores, common animals. He hadn't expected them to have intelligence such as this.

The particular one he now looked at seemed just as startled by his daring to look directly at it as he was by its intriguing ability. It snuffed loudly, its warm breath visible on the air, then growled at him, ears pulling back. Apparently it wasn't used to its prey showing signs of dominance. But there was no way Ryuu was going to show submission to a beast that wasn't even the pack leader.

Knowing that the creatures surrounding him would not attack without an order to do so, he turned his attention to Zurna, who, while enclosed by the matukyuu as well, did not seem to be having as much of an unwelcome as he would have expected. One of the animals, young by its smaller appearance, even seemed to be showing her signs of affection. Then she was looking at him at the same time as the juvenile, and a distant, fierce look crossed her features, a look that nearly mirrored the creature's.

Ha. Interesting. So she could pick up on their empathic abilities as well. And wasn't as good at controlling them by the looks of it.

Soon a new pair of eyes was on him, and these were eyes he immediately recognized as ones of power and authority: the pack leader, or alpha as some would call him. A jagged scar ran down one side of the animal's face.

Having made the mistake of looking the creature in the eye, Ryuu watched as it made its way toward him. A great male of a beast up close, the smell of its breath souring the air as it put its face near his. Ryuu did not make the mistake of making eye contact again, instead staring in a bored fashion down at the male's paws. He really wished something would happen—the animals go away or just kill him—he had business to be doing.

Stand! The voice was so loud, so unexpected, booming through his head like thunder, that Ryuu instantly did as it said. It was only as he stood on his two feet that he realized what had just happened.

The link through which the voice had come was much like the dusty, broken link of . . . of him, but not wholly the same, right next to it. The corridor he had shared in his mind with another was blocked, filled with air; an empty hall he would never tread through again. But it had been so much like it, so similar, that he had . . .

The alpha, in his own shock that Ryuu could sense, shook his head in surprise and growled again. Understand . . . me? he asked.

But Ryuu was through with his astonishment, now more silent than ever for having hard memories brought forward unexpectedly. Before he knew it, a large paw had him sprawling on his back in the snow. A furious furry face loomed over his, roaring its anger at his defiance. He frowned at its foul breath, making no other move.

Not scared? the beast asked, still growling, though its head was tilting to the side in hard-to-cover curiosity.

Ryuu glared at it. No. Never scared.

The animal sniffed him, its big, wet nose chilling the skin on his face. When it pulled back, a strange look on its face appeared, resembling a smile. Kill your friend. Then scared? It was hard deciphering its language, his mind automatically translating what it could of the primitive communication, but he thought he understood what it meant.

Not a friend. Not scared. What did he care if Zurna were killed, except that he'd be down an escort? She mattered little to him, if at all. Why attack us? he finally asked.

[GoblinFae]

Zurna was able to snap herself back to attention as the pup's focus shifted from her to the pack alpha. With the brief reprieve from the battering of the savage desire to rip and tear tender flesh, she tried to quickly form some sort of mental barrier. In truth, she was not very well trained in the art but something was better than nothing.

When the next flash of feelings came, she was able to corral them into a separate place of her mind. This worked on everything but the underlying pack urges and instincts. The desire to kill Ryuu was still there, but lessened, muted. If these stronger emotions flared up strongly again, she would be in serious danger of losing herself to them.

Fear blazed through Zurna as she watched the alpha stare up at Ryuu. 'It is almost as if they are communicating.' She looked curiously down at her own matukyuu companion. 'Perhaps I am not the only one who understands?' Tentatively, she reached her hand out to the creature beside her. Her approach was very much akin to how one reaches out for an injured animal, slow and wary. Impatient, the juvenile made a snuffling sound and slammed his head up into the palm of her hand.

As soon as the pair touched, she was drowned in more images and senses. 'Stop!' she screamed both mentally and verbally. Looking the young creature in the eye, she stared him down. "Control," she spoke softer now. Whimpering slightly the pup rubbed his head against her hand and leg, lowering his gaze. Ahead of her the alpha gave a low growl.

Zurna laced her fingers gently but firmly, in the soft fur of her new companion's neck. Not resisting the grasp, the young matukyuu pulled her over to Ryuu and the alpha, always ensuring that he was between her and the alpha. As she carefully tread, Zurna began to observe her human travel companion. He seemed to have a confused and distant expression cross his face. 'This must be so disturbing for him. Manaia, it's disturbing enough for me!'

The partition in her mind gave a feeling of confusion and comfort. She smiled and patted the fur in her hand. "I remember you," she said addressing the alpha. Her eyes stared down at the snow by her feet, resisting the temptation to look up and meet the challenging stare. She knew well enough she would lose. Unconsciously, her hand raised to touch the scar that lay across her neck and collarbone. A sense of rage blistered flames of heat into her mind, causing her to stagger slightly where she stood. A youthful bark from beside her, helped to steady her again.

Projected in her mind was the image of her younger self covered in blood, a dagger buried in the chest of a dead matukyuu. The fact that this image was so much more controlled and clear led her to believe it was the elder pack leader and not the pup that was communicating with her now.

Guilt crept into Zurna's heart. 'That was not my fault. That was not my doing. I would not have killed her. That was never my intention. I was a child. I was afraid. My friend was dead and I was alone.' She raised her eyes to meet the alpha's in challenge. "Kill," she spoke lowly. "You want to, so what stops you?" Zurna dropped to her knees before the mammoth beast. "It is me that you hate. Kill!" She threw her arms out to her sides, throwing the cursed and familiar dagger to the side. Enraged by the familiar weapon and goaded by the easy prey, the alpha went to lunge at her but stopped short at the pup's intervention.

Standing between the two was juvenile. No matter what either the alpha or Zurna tried to do, he would not be moved. He bristled and growled, snapping his teeth warningly. Mine! he growled projecting images of a young human saving and protecting him. "Move!" she grumbled trying to shove the creature away. 'Let me die! Ryuu may live if they kill me. Better my life than his. Let a decade of regret fade and be healed. Let this end, Manaia please!'

[miss_sanguine]

The great animal seemed about to answer him, but then it turned its head, and so did Ryuu, to see Zurna approaching them with the younger matukyuu. While she might have made a friend of the juvenile for some unseen reason, she was not as lucky with the pack leader, whose rage at the sight of her was apparent without the need of empathetic communication.

Ryuu thought she might have been done for, the way the pack leader leaped at her. He felt bemusement upon seeing her furry friend jump in to help. Usually a traitorous act such as that against the alpha would lead to the death of the offending one by all of the pack, but there it stood, unchallenged. Close family, a son, perhaps?

Then he watched, expression chilling to cold, annoyed disbelief as Zurna prostrated herself before the pack leader and practically begged it to kill her. For one that had held such coolness most of their journey, she was showing considerable stupidity and drama. Unnecessary drama. He felt like he was watching a woman's romantic novel be played out, only he was not Zurna's lover and could care less if she died.

With everyone so distracted, Ryuu got back to his feet, brushing the snow from his clothes with his mittened hands. He had a plant to find, and if the pack was more interested in seeing Zurna dead, then fine by him.

But the pack leader, upon hearing his movement, turned to him and let out a terrible snarl of fury. Do not move! the matukyuu said, and Ryuu didn't really have a choice but to obey.

You want kill her, he responded indifferently. Then do. Won't stop you. Besides, she looked more than willing for it, kneeling out there in the snow like a ridiculous, over-dramatic actress, arms opened invitingly. He might even stay to watch if he could. Let me pass. Not here to bother you. Going to the sacred plant. Again he was avoiding eye contact, but he was feeling bolder, his gaze set on the beast's shoulders instead of its feet.

[GoblinFae]

Zurna was getting angry. She was not afraid to die but, she could not stand the not knowing, the back and forth. 'Live or die, kill me or let me go! End this!' her mind raged, unknowingly let her thoughts project outward to reverberate in the minds of her captors.

The alpha's attention was diverted to Ryuu, providing her with the perfect opportunity to save them. Cautiously moving her hand back, she slipped it up her back and into the lowest pouch of her rucksack. She barely dared to breathe as her hand closed around the small cloth balls she was seeking. A single one of these homemade packets was enough to quickstart a fire. Zurna kept them as emergenciy precautions, should she ever get trappped away from home in a storm.

Loosely clutching six of these bundles, she slowly manuevered herself into a position poised for springing away if she needed to. As soon as the juvenile took a step away from her she raised her hand and slammed its contents into the ground. An high-pitched whining crack piggybacked a bright flash of light that temporily disorientated the matukyuu. Without the necessary fuel, the fire burned out quickly, leaving black ash in its place.

All around her the creatures surrounding her and Ryuu were shaking their heads and weaving on their feet. Some whimpered, pawing at their ears and snouts. Zurna could sympathsize. Her own head pounded from the other subconscious sharing her mind. 'Poor thing,' she pitied looking toward the young pup.

Kicking off the ground, Zurna was jerked back to her knees by a searing pain and a crushing pressure in her forearm. The alpha had latched onto her, threatening to break her arm in his giant maw. Without thinking, she slipped her other hand into his mouth, pressing her first two fingers onto the roof of his mouth and her thumb down on the bridge of his nose.

For a long moment she was sure she was about to lose her arm but, she refused to back down or release the pressure. At last he roughly let go, yowling indignantly. Warm blood coursed down her arm, dripping off her fingers, staining trampled white snow. Zurna was reminded of another time when a smaller self stood before a matukyuu. She was also drenched in blood that time too.

Retrieving her blade, she made her way through the nest. It would be a while before they would be up and moving as a pack again. She doubted they would follow her now, but she was not willing to gamble on that and stay to find out.

As she walked she could feel more than hear, the sorrow washing over the young male behind her. It tried to follow her, flopping about like a landed fish. Taking pity she turned back to it and knelt down. "I saved your life, now you have saved mine," she spoke, soothingly petting its head. Closeby the alpha growled menacingly in warning.

Zurna nodded her head to the alpha and moved away. "Stay!," she commanded. "You're going to get us both in trouble again." A smile and a giggle escaped her lips. 'We always get in trouble together don't we?' Sobering, she trudged back through the snow and out of the nest. 'We were closer than I thought. We almost made it without problems,' she mused, looking around for Ryuu.

[miss_sanguine]

He didn't quite know what had happened. One minute he'd been standing before the matukyuu leader, waiting for him to step aside or do something, and the next, there was a loud bang and a flash and all the creatures were writhing around, whimpering amongst themselves, some pawing at their faces and ears.

Puzzled, he glanced toward where the noise had come from and saw Zurna fighting off the alpha, who looked about ready to rip her arm off in its mouth.

So. She'd used a distraction. Maybe not completely necessary, seeing as he'd been about to get by anyway, but effective nonetheless.

Instead of going to help her, Ryuu started forward along the path they'd been traveling before having been ambushed, walking around the whining forms of the matukyuu as if they were mere rocks in his way.

He heard a yowl from the alpha behind him, but did not stop. His thoughts were on other things now that he was clear of danger, like how after so many years, a creature had pierced his thoughts with its own.

It was some few minutes of walking before he heard Zurna coming up behind him. While he didn't slow down, he didn't speed up, either, allowing her to come up beside him without interference.

"So," he said bluntly. "You're alive."

[GoblinFae]

Spotting Ryuu up ahead, Zurna picked her way slowly through the snow. What strength she had gained early from her adrenaline rush was all but gone. She was cold, she was tired, and she was hurt. 'Maybe sacrificing sleep wasn't such a good idea.'

Her gaze did not leave the horizon as she pulled into stride with her companion. "So it would seem," she replied. "Although no thanks to you." Zurna motioned with her head towards her arm. She hissed as another flare of pain shot through it. "That's twice now," she muttered to herself, rolling up her sleeve to examine the wound.

Zurna's left arm was coated in blood. The skin was torn and jaggedly sliced from just above her elbow down to her wrist. Using her right hand, she pulled her sleeve up higher revealing the skin of her shoulder and part of her collarbone. Her fingers traced the pearly scar that ran up further across her neck juncture. 'Why is it always the left side?' She let off a quiet snort, letting the sleeve go and firmly gripping her forearm.

'I feel so tired. Maybe I can convince him to stop now. Although, I'm not sure I want to spend a night with him at my fire, not ever he left me like that. Maybe my brothers were right. Maybe I shouldn't trust him. Bah! They're dunderheads anyway, what do they know?' Zurna's eyes blinked slowly as exhaustion weighed her down. She looked down at her arm, watching the rivulets of blood seep through her fingers and bead their way down her arm onto the snow. 'Red snow. Blood snow. Dead snow,' she thought disjointedly.

[miss_sanguine]

Yes. No thanks to him. He'd been half-hoping that she'd die. And he wasn't a fool to give up an escape opportunity when he saw one.

Now clear of the nests of the matukyuu, Ryuu stopped treading on the snow as if it were made of glass. He knew where he was; somehow they had brought themselves to the old trail he'd used the past couple of years. Only a few days more and they would find themselves at the sacred ground of the salix artica. Then he could rid himself of the girl. The annoyance.

A familiar streak of crimson flashed to his left and his eyes were drawn to it without his even being aware of it. Blood painted Zurna's arm, flesh parted at rugged angles.

Before he could stop himself, Ryuu reached out and snatched the wounded limb with his hand, grip tight. It--the blood!--welled up by his hand, dripping down into the snow, warm as it breached his fingertips.

This was the relief that he'd needed! Upon having thoughts he preferred to have deep and hidden brought forward by his conversation with the matukyuu leader, Ryuu had found himself feeling that shadow looming up behind him, ready to grab him and drag him down into the place he never liked to visit, the place of shadows. He'd not recognized it, but now that he saw this, felt the heat of life in his hands as he watched it spill out, now he felt the release.

More. This wasn't enough. His fingers tightened, knuckles turning white from the strength in his grip. He slowly tipped the arm and its wound toward the ground so that the blood could freely fall into the snow, steam from its warmth rising in the air. A sick smile twisted his face.

Yes. Maybe this girl would serve a useful purpose after all.

[GoblinFae]

Soft, pained cry tumbled past her chapped lips at Ryuu's cruel treatment of her wounded arm. Another bleating whimper escaped her as he tightened his grip and tears welled up in her eyes. Zurna made to shout angrily at him until she watched what he was doing. 'He's rolling the blood around? What in the name of of Manaia is he doing? He can't treat me like this. I won't let him get away with this.'

But, just as she gained up her courage and opened her mouth to speak, she caught the manic grin sliding across his face. 'I should have listened to my brothers.' Frightened now, Zurna tried to jerk her arm back from him. However, exhaustion, blood loss, and fear made her weak, she could no more pull her arm away from him then make the effort to bat away a fly. She clenched her fist tightly, causing more blood to pump out of the wound.

The accelerating beat of her heart only served to make the clotting blood flow more steadily once again. "You can let go of me," she stated more than demanded. "I can take care of it on my own, now." Zurna made attempts to let it go again. Her right came up to clutch desperately at her pendant 'Ansgar, give me strength!' she fervently prayed. "We should keep moving," she tried to distract. There is still some daylight left, we should take advantage of that."

'Foolish girl! How can you be so simple-minded to think about that when he looks like he wants to eat you alive? If you take him to the sacred grounds you will not be safe. If I don't take him I'm in a even more dangerous position. He needs me to get in and out of there. He can't kill me before that. Besides, look at him,' Zurna glared at him, feeling absolutely disgusted. 'He looks like he could keel over any second. I can take him. Right?'

[miss_sanguine]

Zurna's whimpers of pain only made the act more satisfying, more livening. He felt his own tensions leaving his body, channeled through the living trickle that continued to blot and steam in the snow. Though weakened from lack of food, the sight before him gave him such strength that his grip was like an iron shackle, her attempts to jerk her arm away useless. It helped that she was apparently weakened.

Her words were lost to him in those few seconds, until something in his mind pulled back sharply on the loosened reins. A voice, louder than usual, perked its head up once again. *Don't,* it said bluntly, and, feeling as if he'd been burned, he jerked his hand away . He stared at it, covered in another's blood, slightly confused—almost horrified.

It had been so much clearer than before. As if he had been right there, not just the hallucinations he usually had.

He looked to Zurna, noticing the look on her face.

All of this confusion was the blasted matukyuu's fault, reminding him of what he'd once had more vividly than anything else ever had.

Her arm was in his hand again, though this time he held it with less force. Instead, he allowed his powers to take hold of it, numbing the nerves to ease the pain she felt. It wouldn't do for her to die before they got to the salix artica, he now realized.

"You should wrap it to stop the bleeding," he said, voice tight with restriction.

[GoblinFae]

As soon as he released her arm she pulled it in close, looking up at him in fear. Reluctantly, she allowed him to take her arm back, seeing the madness dim within his eyes. 'It's still there though. I see what really lies beneath your cold exterior. I wish I never had.'

Zurna gasped as she felt her arm take on a pins and needles deadweight feeling as the pain lessened. "What did you do? she asked not unkindly but in confused awe. Rubbing her arm, she noticed that she really could not stimulate the blood into getting rid of the feeling.

"Would you rather push-on or stop now?" Zurna still eyed him warily, as she removed a roll of bandages from her bag. 'Thank you mother!' With more haste than efficiency, she haphazardly wrapped herself up. While she would not admit it, not even to herself, she was terrified of causing another manic episode from her strange companion.