The Dark Covenant (Wrenmae)

by **Ana Sol Starris** on May 4th, 2012, 4:07 am

Staring into the black of Shrouds eyes, to the facial features he had taken from her. It was as if she had been looking into a mirror, one made into a reality and not a dream. Shivers crawled up her spine as images of a creature of nightmare flashed her, choosing different stances, poses, blood spatters and blackness of beyond. Breathing through her nose, slowly, remaining calm even though she wanted to scream and huddle. The tremors in her arms were visible as she stared into the black of his eyes, the same as the creatures black holes for eyes, just as black. Shroud had her head, but not her whole body.. Yet. The thought was eeryily disturbing but there wasn't really anything she could do about it besides wait. Interest, the whole theft of her identity.. When the price was paid, this was interest. Bound by an ever present honor she held to herself, stubborness flared up, causing her nostrils to flare and her face to become strict. Running his hands over her skin, her arms, shoulders, it was hard not to become timid. Flicking her eyes away, then back, she watched as his body morphed so slowly into hers. Tedious, the task was a long process that required concentration it seemed. The magic he performed was too much of an attraction to her curiousity to be ignored. Wishing to learn by example, she couldn't help but keep looking at him. Shroud couldn't possibly be doing this to freak her out! All of this petching touch! Ana wondered insecurely and annoyedly.

To Ana, morphing was the theft of an identity and she related quite well to larceny being a little thief. Was it only restricted to a persons profile? The magic required Djed, the body, a mind; possibly to imagine, and then.. It clicked! Why else would there be touching needed? Ana didn't know the effects that could happen if there was no touching involved, but it was probably to get a feel of things, litterally, why not? If it helped in the realism of the morphing then touch was certainly an attribute needed to do so. Ana quailed under this realization, if touch was needed then she would have to become rather touchy to aquire shapes and the such for better morphings.. But, she was squeemish with touch as is. Breaking her out of her distant thoughts, Shroud took Anas crossed arms and uncrossed them; she resisted ever so lightly against it but gave in. Blinking quickly to hide her fear, breathing deeper, her nostrils flared from the pressure on her mind. The whispers lay on the edges of her conscience thought process, ready to push her back into submission. Gazing at him, her eyes seemed to water as she counted the senses being used; touch, sight, and.. Well it stopped there to her suprise. Only those two had been demonstrated by Shroud so far as he continued to steal her body, the warping of his chest into her own, one she had experience looking upon as the years passed in scrunity of her lack of feminism. It wasn't any wonder when men had targetted her, it wasn't for her non-existant curves.

The slowly Shroud becoming Ana's eyes twinkled with a sick joy in this, he was enjoying her fear, her insecurity. Ana shut her eyes for a brief moment tightly, had he been playing on her sympathies? She could only ponder though as he turned her around quickly, she made a light squeek and hunched her shoulders and began to twiddle with her fingers as he ran a hand down her back. Curling her chin inwards, she seemed to shake even more, she couldn't see what he was doing this time and it worried her as she remained obediant. Tightness latched itself in her chest, constricting it as his hand stopped at her tailbone and took his hand away. Anas shoulders had been shivering visibly by now, they stopped doing so when he had stopped. Shroud and his petching touch, though he had stopped at a certain place he had continued with her hips and legs. Over the season, and even seasons past, they seemed to be lithe and lean due to the ammount of running she performed as danger made its way towards her, but they could be still considered sticks in anothers regard. In a higher pitched voice, she asked "why is there so much touching involved..?" Ana pondered freely as she stared down to the ground, her mind lingered on the feelings before she shook them away. Rubbing her eyes with a small hand, did she want more? No, no, that couldn't possibly be it.. Frowning, Ana was peturbed at the desirable touch that kept flashing through her mind, it wasn't like she liked him in that way.. Or anything..

So why was her mind flashbacking to such sensations? Did she really like it? No.. Ana thought vainly and tried to grope for a reason within her mind. It was possibly just her.. Just her body reacting. There was no real desire to continue anything further, he scared her enough as is, she didn't need her.. Well.. Shroud Ana seducing her. That would just be freaky! Ana thought silently, nervously, then gigglishly.. Ones self seducing themself, why, it was just plain crazy. Wishing to chuckle at the thoughts, she did not and focused back on the presence behind her, albeit a bit blindly, he seemed to have stopped now but for what? Gripping her fingers she fiddled with her hands as a nervous twitch, he was handsome, attractive but a complete and utter bastard asshole to her. What had seemed like bells then, Ana finally turned her head around to peek over her shoulder at him, her feet hurt and her legs wished to rest or at least have her sit on her butt. Wait, she had just thought him.. Attractive.. Ana stared at him, a now.. a now Ana. Tensing up, she stared at him, her, him, her.. Ana couldn't tell. When he/she began putting her own clothes on, Ana began to protest, clasping her arms around her upper half tightly and turning to the side to hide the lower half. Eyes tilting into a sharp glare at him/her for having of done that. It was when she heard the quiet mumbles, she hadn't heard very clearly but she could discern from what she had "at least it kept men from targetting me for my looks, gods know what happens to a pretty woman here.." It was harsh, a very cruel truth.. Ana could care less if someone lusted for curves, she was glad how she looked now, scrawny, but non-imposing.

Gauging by the appearence of the Shroud/Ana, real Ana couldn't tell from where she was standing if there was anything to improve on. Shroud/Ana's question seemed to be misplaced to her, he didn't make a convincing Ana though. Chuckling, she felt some of the insecurity leave as she flashed him a cheeky smile and began to put on his shirt as well as his pants he had been wearing beforehand. Double whammied. Afterwards, she would sit next to him and motion for him to lean fowards, she whispered very lightly "you need to work on being timid and weak, you'd never make a convincing Ana if you keep acting like yourself.." Smirking at him, she raised an eyebrow, it was just a smidgeon of a moment where Motif had offered her advice before retreating back into the depths of the subconscience. The voice had remained the same, but the context of what she had said was a large indicator of whom had said it if Shroud had the talent for noting fluxation in mannerisms. She had remained true to what she had said, though Ana was on the outside, Motif seemed to hold the real power on the inside, coming out when she wished to or needed to. Ana stared at him/her softly then, unaware of what she had said moments before, amazed and in awe at what had happened, what Shroud had done to himself in appearence "for physical appearence.. I'm not sure.. You put my clothes on, so I can only guess if you have or not stolen my identity perfectly.." Ana placed empathasis on 'my' for a reason, she tugged Shrouds clothes that were around her body as she said so, her eyes seemed to twinkle mischieviously at him/her.

by **Wrenmae** on May 5th, 2012, 9:01 am

Not-Ana checked the way the clothes settled along her collarbone, dipping over her skin. They felt softer than the rough clothes he was used to wearing, better over her smooth skin. She giggled, the laughter almost infectious. Was that his voice? No...hers. It sounded so ludicrous in his ears, so high pitched. Ana was smiling, blushing with a hint of mischief in her. Had he not been so drunk on accomplishment, he may have fancied her in that light.

But not-Ana was a difficult transformation to continue, all the Djed being supplied to all the different places and her body practically buzzed with energy. In time, these transformations may be easier, but for now it was all he/she could do to hold all the pieces in.

"Thanks," Not-Ana said with another giggle, running her long thief fingers through blond hair, "I couldn't have done it if we hadn't spent so much time together. Sleeping in the same tent, fighting together, I've had time to study how your body looks and moves...that itself is key to understanding morphing." Not Ana laid back felt the clothes on her back and butt, then kicked them off. At first Shroud was going to leave them in a crumpled heap, but some instinct drove him to pick them up and fold them...strange

"Well, well, look at you Shroudana," Zan commented wryly, "All prissied up and now you're playing housewife...err, tentwife. Girly girl is rubbing off on ya." He didn't seem pleased, but not Ana ignored him, "I don't mean to be jealous of course, I mean its great you're getting in touch with your feminine side. It means we can have more gossip talks about the cute fleshbags strutting around Sunberth...but don't you think you're taking this whole morphing thing a little far? I mean, I'm wierded out when you giggle...like, a hundred and ten percent wierded out."

Petch off, Not Anna thought back, a smile still on her face, Can't you be supportive?

"Oh? Now I'm the unsupportive one? Ok. Ok. Where was this generous master when a little someone called Zan suggested we take on three guys at once? Huh? HUH?"

Shaking his head, brown began to sneak back in, coloring the blonde away into darker hues as the hair shortened to the skull. Shroud's body bucked in the throes of morphing, his lean muscles pushing outward, his breasts flattening out, his entire form re-embracing what it had been that made him Shroud, made him who he really was.

The transformation back was much faster than to her, his body almost bouncing back to the place it was.

Running a hand through his hair, her eyes were the last to go, replaced with his dark and inquisitive shadow, the only change to his body he maintained while Shroud.

Taking a deep breath he fell back against the furs, pulling them over himself.

"Morphing lesson taught, my side of the arrangement is complete."

by **Ana Sol Starris** on May 5th, 2012, 10:18 am

Listening to him, she stared, watched and observed everything he did in admiration. From the clothes to his/her skin, the greasy blonde hair that fell messily in locks around his face. Tilting her head, she reached to push some hair away from his face and looked at his eyes, the giggling, the laughter, how eery it seemed to Ana. Softer still she looked at him, smiling lightly, then to his eyes. Golden, like wheat and honey, amber, luminesent almost. How beautiful, if these were her brothers eyes.. Her fathers and grandfathers, well, it was amazing. Beautiful. The one gift her parent had ever given her unintentionally and it was through the genetics of the family, frowning at the thoughts, she was grateful for Gerron to have these eyes? Crazy! She despised him for what he was worth, but the eyes still drew her in, blinking, Shroud had moved away to take his clothes off of him. Ana watched, saw the crumpled heap of them and then gasped, shocked, he was actually being tidy for once! Was she really that much of a neat freak? Ana stared at her clothes, then to her one backpack which was neatly packed up for the oncoming trip to the Spires. Tidy, organized seeming, though to be honest there wasn't much in there to begin with.

His form came suddenly, bouncing back, reverberating into his true form as Shroud, as Wrenmae. Remaining sitting, she watched him change and realized she had been staring at him after his male form returned. Jerking her gaze away and blushing, Ana scooted away from the furs and kept his clothes on herself, too embarresed to get undressed again right away, "thankyou for teaching me.. Even though you weren't feeling well." From her clothes to his, then to Shroud himself, and then back to his clothes, how silly she had been! She was wearing his clothes! Gripping the shirt lightly by the heads opening, she brought it to her nose and sniffed, inhaled the scent, it smelled very much like how Shroud and Wrenmae did. Facepalming, Ana rubbed her forehead slowly and seemed to be in a very deep thought. To take the clothes off, or not to? That was the question. Running the same hand through her hair and keeping her chin inwards to her chest, what to do, what to do she wondered as she said lightly "you know.. Even though you're an arse to me all the petching time, I'm going to miss your presence.." Ana commented blankly, looking out the flap of the tent. Sleep would not come for her for some time now, perhaps not for days even, sighing, Ana didn't look at him.

What was she to do, could she really be all that independent without him? It just seemed too big of a sudden leap for her now, but there was certainly no going back. Ana liked to remain true to what she said, and would follow through with the decision no matter the cost. Bouncing her knee up and down at the thoughts, she was restless, a good nights sleep would do well for her and maybe even dreamless slumber perhaps. Though that last bit wasn't going to happen any time soon. Sleeping together.. There would be no more sleeping together on this road trip, this 'reclamation' of the Spires, they would be far apart. Very far apart. Glancing over at him and then her clothes, her body moved mechanically and began to undress, first the pants and then the shirt. Placing her own clothes back on herself and then folding up Shrouds clothing, first his pants, neatly, and then his shirt.. Stopping at his shirt, she looked back at him then the shirt, she folded it neatly also. Pursing her lips, the tempation to steal his shirt was too great, one could almost say it was unavoidable. Setting the clothes aside she watched Shroud and waited for the moment she could pack one of his shirts into her backpack, she would leave him something in exchange and hope he didn't toss it out in a fit of anger. Maybe that sash she owned?

Twiddling with her fingers as her legs crossed, appearing to be in a hunched sitting position she stared at her fingers then thought back to how Shroud had changed. What her body looked like in anothers eyes, honestly, she wasn't as bad looking as he made her out to be. Then the eyes, such golden illuminance, it was stunning to the little thief that she held such beautiful eyes. For a few moments, then finally it hit her; Ana did not look like the creature of the mirror in her nightmares. Snapping her gaze at Shroud, shock and what was it.. Gratefulness? Yes, graditude had crossed her demeanor "I don't look like that thing in my dreams!" Ana started, a flicker of feverishness passed through her voice as she turned to face him "thankyou, thankyou, thankyou for showing me what I look like.." Toning her audio levels down a few notches, realizing she had been just a tad loud the first time. It was true! She looked nothing like the creature beyond the glass of a destructive mirror that whispered curses and serenades of revenge, death as its tune, and blood as its chorus. Pausing, it took her a moment to realize.. She had never told Shroud, nor Wren about what she actually dreamed about.. "er.." she shut up immeaditly, looking dejected or rather paranoid about letting such info slip. Though, knowing Shroud he probably didn't care.

by **Wrenmae** on May 6th, 2012, 7:08 am

He was tired, so very tired. The change had worn heavily on him, nothing more than the mimicry of a female form, he doubted anything worked as it should. At his level of competancy, morphing was only in shape, never in ability...he had yet to make the connection of how to make those changes a reality for him...and why he even wanted to.

Ana was speaking, babbling, her voice a distant din against the shore of his thoughts. Why embrace hypnotism? Morphing? Now reimancy and voiding? What was he looking for? All the arts promised power in their own obscure ways, the drawing whisper of madness ever muttering in their collective ears. Wrenmae was mostly unaware of the others, at least most of them. Sometimes it seemed crowded, like Shroud might be swallowed up by the other voices growing, the mind collapsing.

Yet even in crisis, his will tore his body to pieces, his mind the sacrificial victim to his greater abilities. To what end did he pursue magic? What was it within Djed that promised release? Wrenmae, the fool, he only shackled himself closer to becoming the monster he feared.

Was it that then?

When the dust cleared, if he was more monster than man...perhaps his sins could be put to rest in his own heart. Maybe Wrenmae sought that, sought his own undoing.

Maybe he felt that changing reality was the only way to remove Vayt's presence.

Was he even doing that anymore?

The new memories of his past life from the forest, the way they rose and fell in crescendo...it reminded him of waves, of the white-tipped breakers washing over Sable's casinor...seemed so long ago.

"We are never who we really are...never." He muttered to Ana, pulling the blanket around him and away from her. She'd be gone in the morning, what did it matter? She had her lesson, had her purpose, now it was to her in order to achieve it. Her and her make-believe friend. Why should he care?

Why did he?

Gritting his own teeth, he waited for sleep to take him, finished with Ana and her gratitude, the way it felt on his soul, warm and wrapping, like arms. He wanted none of it, none of her distractions.

"It was a mimicry, nothing more. Try not to fall apart over it," he muttered, "You have traveling to do, get some rest and stop babbling."

He bit back the next insult.

"Get some sleep."

There was silence for a moment, then the burble of Zan within him, sloshing in his stomach.

"Ok, Ok, Shroudy, gotta bare with me a second. Been nursing an ulcer the size of a suspicion for a bit now...or wait, the other way around. Anyways, I know I don't usually sit back to think about stuff...but do you...like her?"

Petch off, Shroud thought, I'm trying to rest.

"Yeah, sure, sure, slee, you humans do it. Fascinating and stuff, but do you like her? I mean. No beatings for minimal progress, not so much in the pain department...you got a real shine for this kid, don't you?"

Shroud didn't answer Zan.

He didn't have an answer...not even for himself.

by **Ana Sol Starris** on May 9th, 2012, 5:15 am

Shroud seemed to be out of it, maybe he had fallen asleep with his eyes open? Or possibly just in deep thought, she stared at him for a moment waiting for an answer and thought of making a lil noise to get him to reply. Wilting under the thought, she looked away and brought her knees to her chest and stared at the tents flap looking dejected. Did such a transformation really take out such a great ammount of energy? His skills appeared to be far greater, he had taught her the basics.. Of well.. Mimicry in its highest form. Burying her head in her crossed arms, she sighed tiredly, feeling sleep at the edges yet out of reach of her grasp. Lifting her chin, she held her hand close to her face and stared harder at it.. Conjuring the feelings she had once felt, under the moonlight she saw the finger tips turn slightly back before warbling away to pink once more. Concentrating, she felt for the djed under her skin and began to push it up with as much willpower as she could, what about another color? How bout blue... Midnight blue. Somberly she stared further into her fingers, seeing the blue fade through the pink of her fingers and then become real on her physical fingers.

Twinging, she felt a sharp pain shoot through her forehead and ceased trying, shaking ever so lightly under the pressure, feeling as if she had plunged herself into ice cold water. The blue in her fingers dissapeared as quick as it had appeared. Sniffing, she let her forehead fall against her knees, turning her head to look back at Shroud silently. Brightening up as she heard him speak, but only to fail at hearing him, her face faltered as he was once more quiet. Shutting her eyes, she thought to the clothes she had folded.. Then to her backpack. Could she really take his shirt? Ana would make sure nothing happened to it.. It wasn't like she had ever stolen anything from him before. So maybe this one time he would over look such a theft.. Maybe she should leave a note? He certainly had enough paper and ink to go about. Lifting her eyelids heavily as he spoke once more, smiling lightly at his voice, she was in such a daze.. She could possibly just fall asleep right there and he wouldn't care, nor would she. At first, Shrouds words confused her massively as she sat up a bit. Feeling a surge of energy well up, did he care? Actually want her to be well for the oncoming trip? Blinking, she said nothing to Shroud and left it at that feeling a bit warmer. She could be utterly wrong, but she could hope, right?

"I won't, I'll show you I'm something more than a..a.." Ana yawned involuntary, was she about to fall asleep? Oh no, no, no, noo... The act only served to awaken her heavy limbs in an odd embrace of loss of energy and regain of energy. Though her mind was fogged, she finished what she wanted to say "a useless girl." Her comments were lack of energy driven, and yet she felt awake. Shaking her head as she rubbed her eyes, stretching, feeling pops within her spine as she did so and sighed lightly. Watching him still, he seemed to have fallen asleep.. But she sat there for possibly a few bells more before finally moving from her position, picking up the shirt and crawling silently to her bag and stowing it inside. Then she moved to some of his bags, having of seen many times where he had taken quills, paper, as well as ink out of them and set about writing as quietly as she could.

' As a momento I'm borrowing one of your shirts, I promise I'll take good care of it. ' - Neille Catrabuch

Ana's handwriting was sloppy, poor, she had never liked applying it as much as she had loved to read books. If at all was it legible, she made sure to work on keeping her signature readable. Something she would have never done for anyone, only him, she trusted him.. As much of an ass he was. Ana figured maybe this would be a good enough compensation for her name, a piece of Wrenmae to bring with her. Honestly, she hoped he wouldn't think too poorly of her for this, if he did, she'd do double as much to win back his approval as well as trust. Shroud was smart, arrogant, but intelligent.. He would understand whos the signature was, hopefully. Taking the sash next to her on the ground, she wrapped the note up in it, set everything back where she had found it and then stowed the midnight blue and pink tie-dye sash into his many packs. Awaiting him to find it, read, and realize her real name had been given to him in the highest acts of trust she could display towards him. Gazing back over to Shroud in his furs and blankets, Ana contemplated whether sleeping next to him was a good idea or not.. Sighing for what had seemed to be the umpteenth time already she was silent as a mouse, laying next to him, turning so her back was facing him.

Ana attempted to sleep and would fail for the first time in what had seemed like a long time, the next morning, only to swiftly leave with the packing group at dawn. Leaving the sloppy note inside his bags to find.

by **Archelon** on May 22nd, 2012, 7:21 am

Thread Award

"..."

And the Results!!!!:

Wrenmae :

Ana :

Would you like some extra turtle sauce ? :