Dark Currents II: Foggy Shores [open]

[DragonSong]

"What're you-" Maka barely had time to protest being given the blanket before Grian was unconscious again. With a sigh she shucked the fabric and spread it out over her, muttering halfhearted insults under her breath.

She took up a guard stance, still sitting but ever watchful. Her eyes kept flicking to Leon as he started to fidget, but she didn't say a word when he got up an left. She was mercenary herself, when it suited her; she figured he'd weighed the pros and cons of possibly taking this job and decided against it. she couldn't, and wouldn't, blame him for that.

She shifted a little closer to the fire. Her back to Grian as he slept, she propped her staff on the ground and leaned absently against it, alternating between watching the flames and scanning their surroundings.

[KingTyrant]

Leon ran into the woods, stumbling to his knees after a while. He trembled, grunting and growling painfully as his bones snapped and reshaped into something inhuman. He began to shout in obvious agony, fur sprouting from his tan skin and his mouth extending forward into a long muzzle. His ears stretched to the top of his head, pointed and erect as claws shot from his fingertips, with soon morphed into huge paws.

In only a couple of minutes, he had taken the form of a colossal wolf, his mouth salivating as he stalked aimlessly through the woods, rage and bloodlust in his eyes. Any trace of man had left Leon's body, and all that remained now was a wild, uncontrollable animal. A beast with no sense of logic and reasoning.

A wolf on the prowl...

[DragonSong]

A long, strange, and rather stressful day was catching up with her in spite of herself. Yawning, Maka forced herself to stand and began pacing around the little campsite in an effort to ward off sleep. She twirled her staff absently from hand to hand as she moved, shaking her head every once in a while.

But, finally, the exhaustion won out. Just for a minute, she decided firmly, letting her body sink down next to the now dying fire. I'll just...rest my eyes for a minute...

And she was out.

[KingTyrant]

Screams pierced the night air, all of pure terror. Leon, in his wolf form, had stalked through the woods until he came upon a village drunk that had strayed too far from the tavern. The man sprinted for his life, panting and stumbling over roots that stuck out of the ground, looking back at the charging, snarling, jagged-toothed Lycan with wide eyes.

Leon had done this many times before... At the first sight of a human, he would attack and kill. This time was no different. After only a few short minutes, Leon had caught up with the drunk, biting onto his shirt. The drunk turned, punching and kicking at Leon's face, only to have a set of claws get raked across his chest. Blood sprayed into the air, a few strained screams escaping his throat as Leon's muzzle dived down to tear into his throat.

It seemed to be right at that moment that Leon's eyes shot open, the light of day greeting him as he sat up. He looked around. A dream...? No... The blood covering his mouth and hands ensured that it wasn't anything of the sort. He was also very much naked, his armor laying where he had taken it off before transforming the night before. He turned, wincing at what he saw... The drunk's mutilated body hanging from a tree by his intestines, his face gnawed off and his ribcage opened up. Leon had seen this image many times before. He sumply turned and walked off to find his clothes.

[DragonSong]

A few beams of sunlight slanting across her eyes woke Maka and she grumbled, blinking back to consciousness. Then, suddenly, she was wide awake.

She'd slept until morning? Gods, that wasn't like her. Groaning, she sat up, looking around. Well, no one had tried to kill them in their sleep, luckily, and it seemed that Leon person hadn't returned. Cursing herself under her breath, she stood and glanced over at Grian.

He should probably have some more water, maybe something to eat. "Hey." She knelt and shook his shoulder lightly. "Come on, get up. Let's take a look at your side, yeah?"

[TreeFolk]

Grian didn't have much in the way of dreams, and morning came too soon for him. Blinking blearily up, he was confused for a moment about the woman leaning over him. He was accustomed to being woken by one of his men, the old head maid, and on occasion his cousin or uncle. But being woken by a beautiful woman?

The events of the past day or so came flooding back as the wound in his side throbbed, hot with what he knew was infection setting in. He was also made more aware of his near-nakedness, laying as he was beneath his cloak with only his underwear on and the bandages around his abdomen. And again he was noticing the attractive young woman with her hand on his shoulder, looking at him with anticipation.

It took him a moment to process what she was saying, and he wondered if he had a fever. Pulling his hand down his face tiredly, he then ran it through his black hair to push it out of his face. At least he didn't feel like a vampire victim, no longer bleeding out and having some of his blood replenished. It would take at least two weeks for him to get completely back to normal, blood wise.

Slowly sitting up, he cringed and gave her a pained smile, taking care to at least keep his lower body covered with his cloak. He'd dress once she tended his wound, which felt like it needed to be cleaned and drained of any pus. He could do that himself, though he wasn't looking forward to it. "Morning... I hope you were able to sleep some?" He looked around at their surroundings, the fog having lifted overnight. The lake he had been washed in on looked cold and still in the morning, surrounded by dense forests. He looked around, noticed the man from the other night absent. "Has he gone?"

[KingTyrant]

It didn't take long for Leon to gather his clothing from where he had left it the night before. He grunted painfully, getting his trousers, chainmail, vest, and armor plating on before strapping on his belt and sheathe, his sword still locked neatly inside. He then grabbed his shield, holding the handle tightly in his left hand. He did this before every transformation. He'd strip out of his clothes, making sure they wouldn't tear and snap as he doubled in size and changed in shape. After all, he only had one set of armor to spare.

He then began walking through the woods, using his smell to guide him to animals that he could bring back to Maka and Grian for food. Rabbits, squirrels... Things like that. His body was killing him, no doubt from being punched and kicked by the drunk from last night's... 'Hunt.' He walked off the pain, however, at least long enough to catch a few small animals. As soon as he caught scent of a rabbit, he pursued it, hiding behind shrubs and bushes and waiting for the right moment to strike. When that moment came, he leaped from his hiding spot, stabbing his blade into the tiny creature's body just as it began to dart. He repeated this process once more, bringing the two killed rabbits back to the camp.

As he returned, sweat rolling down his face and panting, he overheard Grian's question. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He asked, dropping the creatures before sitting down somewhere to take a breather. A small gash above his eye was clearly noticable, dried blood caked to it and highlighted by a faint bruise. His mouth was also covered in faint traces of human blood, but Leon hoped they wouldn't notice. His hands had this same feature, but they were covered by his gauntlets, fortunately.

[DragonSong]

Opening her mouth to reply to Grian, Maka was cut off by Leon's sudden arrival. She glanced up with an arch look, taking in his rather battered appearance- and suddenly she froze.

Her eyes widened and blood drained from her face at the figure hanging behind him, a mutilated corpse with its insides more outside than anything else. A small, instinctive cry rose up in her throat and she whipped her staff off her back, sinking into a defensive crouch as she fell back a step.

Then she blinked and the image was gone. A ghost. It was just a ghost. Obviously haunting Leonnfor some reason, but that really wasn't her business. Letting out a shaky breath she dragged one hand down her face and forced herself to relax, her staff hanging limply in her hand.

"You hunted," she said briskly, nodding at the game he'd brought. "Thanks." Taking another deep breath, she knelt back at Grian's side. "How do you feel?"

[TreeFolk]

The man was incredibly defensive, a trait that made Grian untrusting of the man. Usually the level of defensiveness the man had  been displaying meant one of two things. One, that the man had been betrayed badly, and probably on several different occasions. But were those betrayals caused by something the man had done? Or two, that the man had something to hide. Something dark, given the way the man carried himself. In the light of a new day, Grian took his time in appraising the man, though he was not conspicuous with his appraisal as Maka's quick defensiveness distracted the man. Faint traces of blood could be found on Leon's mouth, hands, and various other places... Though Grian saw the rabbits, something made his stomach clench.

Ignoring Makani's outburst so he could try and smooth things over quickly, though he certainly felt it had been appropriate given the other man's demeanor, Grian shook his head. "I don't know where you got that impression, I was only thinking you might decided on hunting down a better job with a more certain promise of adequate coin."

He looked at the rabbits. "Those rabbits look nice and healthy. Now, I don't recall, but do we have a name for you?"

Glancing back at Makani, he offered her a smile. "Not unlike a man with a hangover from the blood loss, but also less like I'm being bled dry." He cringed and bit the inside of his cheek as he peeled back the bandages. Carefully he picked off the poulstice, revealing the puffy red burn scar. Where he'd missed the opening of the stab wound was oozing a bit, and he squeezed at it with his fingers. It didn't take long for fresh blood to come through with the pus, which was a good sign that it was still a minor infection. Sweat beading his forehead, he favored her with another, albeit strained, smile. "I should be back on my feet in no time."

He didn't mention how much his body ached from his journey down the river, nor that he still felt as if he was weaker than a newborn kitten. Deciding to let the wound breathe, Grian pulled his dried breeches on with some difficulty as he tried to stay covered. The cold air felt good on his bare chest and back, though, and he pressed the back of his hand against his forehead. A mild fever had set in, but nothing as bad as he thought. He felt fortunate enough just to have woken up. All his time being washed her in the rivers and lakes must have kept his wound cleaner than he imagined.

[DragonSong]

"Leon, right?" Maka said, throwing a quick glance in the other mercenary's direction. Giving Grian a dry look, she muttered, "No time, right." Shaking her head, she reached out to touch his forehead.

A frown furrowed her brow and she pulled her hand away. "You're hot." With a sigh she stood, gathering her flask and moving toward the water. "If you can manage to stoke the fire, I'll biol some water so you can clean out that wound properly."

[KingTyrant]

Leon ignored Maka's jumpiness, walking towards the stream whilst wincing in pain. He kneeled, cupping the fresh water in his hands and splashing it onto his dirtied face. He took off his gauntlets, dipping his reddened hands into the water and cleaning them off. His nails were grayish in color, tapered to sharp points and each about a half an inch long. He brought one up to his teeth, digging around and getting a piece of hair out. Human hair. He dropped it in the water, standing and dragging his tongue over his teeth. It was noticeable that his canines were much larger than most humans.

He glanced over at the two, hoping that they weren't too suspicious. But for all he knew, they had already figured it out. He put his gauntlets back on, sighing heavily. "I can get some more firewood to roast those two rabbits. We'll need to gut and skin them, first." He told them, cracking his neck and jaw. "It was quite the hastle to get a hold of them... Especially when some drunk decided to pick a fight with me. Had to beat the living hell out of him if I wanted to get anything done. Gave me a few nice scrapes and bruises."

The lie rolled off his tongue easily, even though it was right on the spot and out of pure desperation to save his image. Hopefully they wouldn't decide to venture into the woods... After all, that body was still there.

[TreeFolk]

He must have been too delirious the previous night to recall the man's name, and felt grateful that he at least remembered the woman's name. She, he felt, was somebody he might potentially be spending a good deal of time with. The gods must have sent her to his aid, though where they had been when he was stabbed and tossed into the river was questionable. The woman had been going out of her way to help him, a stranger, and his gratitude for her grew with every hour. He already felt he could rely upon her, and his trust in her fostered his loyalty to her.

Leon, on the other hand, was a different story. The man was definitely behaving questionably, still overly defensive. He'd been gone all night and returned with cuts and scrapes, though that didn't explain the amount of blood. Now he was explaining himself to them without their asking him any questions, trying to make excuses before they had the opportunity to ask him anything. While Grian was trusting and loyal, he did not give it without good reason. And if anything, this man was digging a hole for himself.

The sooner Grian healed and he could distance himself, and hopefully Makani, from this man, the better.

Standing slowly, Grian suppressed a limp on his approach to Leon. "I'll take care of the rabbits, then." He took the rabbits from the man and watched him walk off, waiting until he was a good distance before taking up one of his daggers and making quick work of the rabbits. Laying them on the rock he'd leaned against earlier, he sat to pull his socks and boots on. He felt a chill from the fever, grabbing up his undershirt, vest, and cloak and dressing himself. The weight of the material against his wound felt unpleasant.

Working on sharpening two heavy sticks to roast the rabbits on, Grian made sure to keep a close eye on Makani and the direction the man had walked off in, grateful that he had a clear view of the lake from where he sat working.

[DragonSong]

Maka returned with a full flask and rummaged in her traveling back for a moment, pulling out a small, carved wooden bowl. She didn't address Leon's story, simply giving him a considering look as he walked away. She didn't know what to make of him.

The image of that ghost flashed in her mind's eye and she shuddered briefly before moving closer to the fire, setting the bowl over it and pouring the water from her flask into it. "that should be safe to use to clean your wound in a few minutes," she said briskly to Grian, glancing at him as he cleaned the rabbits.

"So you really don't know what happened, huh?" she said after a moment, letting her head tilt slightly to the side as she looked at him

[KingTyrant]

Leon paced back-and-forth a few feet away from the camp, his eyes trained to the ground and his hands behind his back. After a little while, he walked back over to them, kneeling down as he gazed at Grian's wound. He sniffed, trying to keep himself from gagging. Infected... Definately infected.

He looked at Maka. "How bad do you think the infection is?" He asked out of curiosity, honestly not able to tell very well, as he wound had been burned closed and was appearing to scab after being wrapped in bandages for so long.

[TreeFolk]

Leon's behavior was becoming increasingly worrisome. Instead of going to fetch more firewood, the man paced back and forth within site of the camp. Grian kept glancing between his work with the sticks, Makani, and the man, spending more time with his attention to Leon than anything.

Briefly glancing at Makani, his voice measured, he responded, "I have some theories and I can recall nearly everything up until the moment, but exactly who, what, or why is unclear to me. I need to return to investigate before making any accusations." He dug more aggressively into the stick he was working on, frustrated with the mental fog still blocking his memory of the event. "And perhaps my lazy brain will catch up and start doing its job again." 

Since he had regained consciousness in the morning his brain had been running background checks of the last few weeks and months, searching for any clues. The closest thing he had was how he'd discovered some irregularities in the trade books, and had begun to ask questions around the docks over the past few weeks.

Grian watched Leon approaching, clenching his knuckles around the hilt of his dagger reflexively when he knelt down in front of him, stared at his wound, and noticeably sniffed. Grian watched as Leon's face puckered in something that could only be described as disgust before the man turned to ask Maka about his wound.

Keeping as neutral of a face as he could, Grian spoke instead. "I am conscious at the moment..." He stopped himself before he became truly snarky. Blood loss and fever often made men irritable, and at the moment he felt strained from skinning and gutting the rabbits. His skin felt clammy and pale, but he forced himself to remain alert. "Infection is mild, just need to reopen it a bit to flush it out." Gods forbid it got so bad that he'd have to resort to using maggots to clean it out. He'd heard tales of men being forced to do that when far from civilization and its medicine.

[DragonSong]

Maka let Grian answer the man's question, simply keeping her eye on the water. When it started to bubble, she fished the bowl out of the fire with the end of her staff and placed it aside to let it cool.

"Do you want some help with cleaning it out?" she asked mildly, not looking up from her task. She couldn't imagine it would be a pleasant experience- he might actually need someone to do part of it for him. She knew how hard it was to force yourself through pain.

[KingTyrant]

"Well... At least it isn't life-threatening. Not yet, anyways..." Leon stood, stretching his arms before looking off towards the woods. "Ah... Firewood... Nearly forgot." He walked off towards the woods, collecting small branches, sticks, twigs, and even dried leaves to use as kindling. He came back in no time, setting the collected materials on the now smoldering embers of last night's fire, using his flint to light the dried leaves. In no time, the fire was up and running again.

He looked down at the rabbits, then at Grian. "You don't need to be wasting valuable strength on preparing food. Let me set them up to roast. Conserve whatever energy you have left." He urged. Leon didn't know this man very well, but he could relate to his situation. A wound such as his wasn't a fun experience. Especially when infection sets in... Then it becomes utter Hell to even stay awake.

He reached down, taking the butchered rabbits in one hand. "I'll give you one thing, you've got quite the resiliency. Most men wouldn't even be able to form full sentences at your state." He remarked, walking to the fire. He picked up a longer branch that he didn't throw in the fire, shoving it through one of the rabbits, stabbing the other end into the soil, the raw meat hanging just over the flames. He'd cook the second one next.

[TreeFolk]

"Stubbornness. It's a family trait." He didn't mention his father's fight for his life, how he remembered hearing about how his father had been fatally wounded in the battle and then fought for his life for several days. Awake and chatting one minute, gone the next. Grian had witnessed his paternal grandfather do the same, giving their family hope for his survival during an illness before dying quickly when nobody was watching. Like faithful dogs, it appeared that the men of Grian's family held onto life just long enough until others would not be witness to their deaths.

Grian could recall his father bragging that his grandfather would never die because he was just too stubborn. It seemed likely, because his grandfather nearly broke the record for oldest man alive in the region. The Aros family did not welcome death easily.

Grian did wonder, though, if it was the remnants of the water nymph blood in their line that had saved him, perhaps healed him a bit on his way upriver. He dimly recalled the wound being much more severe than the one he had now. And at this point he was certain that it must have been nymphs or some similar water fae that had carried his body this distance upstream.

The man was right, though. He should conserve his energy, because he was beginning to feel the effects of his activity. He didn't bother to tell Leon about the sticks he had carved just for the purpose of spicketing the rabbits after he watched the man use the blunt end of a stick to shove into the first rabbit.

Rolling his undershirt and vest out of the way, he looked between his wound and the bowl of hot water. Taking his other dagger which was clean, he held the flat of the blade and offered the handle to Makani. He didn't know if he could handle opening the wound a bit to squeeze the  beginning of the infection out. "If you wouldn't mind... I would be grateful, Makani." 

[DragonSong]

She nodded and took the blade, moving forward slightly as she looked at the wound. Reaching out to lay the tip of the knife against the edge of his healing skin, Maka paused and suddenly drew back.

"Here." She fished around in her pack until her fingers closed around a cloth- an extra shirt- and she passed it over to him. "Bite down on this," she said briskly, hardly pausing for him to do so before she dug the tip of the blade into the wound to open it up just less than an inch.

She was good with a knife, and she did her best to make it as quick and painless as possible, but she knew it still had to hurt like a sonnovabitch.

[TreeFolk]

Grian was more than grateful to bite down on the offered shirt, and Makani took his momentary distraction to reopen the wound. With the shirt just barely between his teeth, Grian's hands fisted into the grass at his sides, pulling up clumps out of reflex as he yelled and grit his teeth against the cloth.

Though she made quick and effective work of it, the pain still made his vision swim. Chest heaving, Grian's head rolled to the side as he fought to remain conscious. Swallowing heavily, he stared hard down at the ground, voice strained, "Go ahead... Clean it..." His manners left him, just wanting to be over with it. He almost felt nauseous from the pain, hot spit filling his mouth as he wondered if he would puke. Not that he'd have anything but bile to throw up.