[Flashback]Burial Rites Reversed[Wrenmae and Corpus]

[Corpus Aeternum]

Releasing the shovel's handle and quickly batting at his robes from the lashing of hypnotism the Nuit managed to relax finally when he saw the source [The shovel] was gone with a gust of wind. Where did the wind come from?

The menacing blade was beginning to become a nuisance and an annoyance.

"They have mourners. They have people... blah blah blah. You are right, they do. They have everything you mentioned foolish child. That and the chance to become worm food. I am giving them a chance to become something better. To better the world to advanced science!"

The ancient Nuit grabbed hold of his hammer tightly and was hoping to catch the man off guard as he lunged forward quickly and brought the hammer first across the wrist attached to the hand holding the blade, if that connected he was going to again swing the hammer upward towards the man's jaw, this time slower in an attempt to force the man's pain to black him out. Otherwise the Nuit's blunt object was going to continue to make it's way downward in a rather clumsy mess allowing for a really bad shin bruise for the Nuit.

Rather have a living specimen than a dead one anyway.

"Wouldn't you rather see the bodies used for good? Then be destroyed and chewed on by eyeless creatures?"

[Wrenmae]

As the nuit’s hammer fell, Wrenmae moved. His young legs pumped across the ground as he wheeled away from the blow, watching the hammer pass him by and continue on its downward arc. He hissed, bringing up the blade again and circling his opponent, eyes narrowed and blood beginning to run over his face. “These bodies are mine, and I want them to go to dust beneath the ground. They wanted that and by Dira I’ll let them keep it.” He motioned out to the rest of the graveyard, hissing the next words quietly, hoping not to attract any more attention. “Plenty of other bodies for you to take, plenty of other coffins to defile. You won’t touch these…whatever you are.” The wind moaned haggardly around them, picking up an dusting over the ground, kicking up the grace dirt already turned over by the nuit. “I’ll help you dig up another,” Wrenmae promised, desperate, almost snarling, “Just leave my family alone.”

[Corpus Aeternum]

Hobbled by his botched attempted to render the mortal the Nuit growled and rubbed at his shin, the skin was bruising a blackish color, being dead and all, the blood that would've normally been red turning blue in the bruised location having long since lost it's oxygen.

"Another... Body?" The Nuit cringed, yes... Dead body, but the nerves still worked.

"I don't want just any body! I need a bloody fresh one just shoved underneath this dirt's surface! The skin will still be relatively supple, the muscles barely hitting rigor mortis, the tendons and most of the organs still intacted! Research dear child. Research!"

But a sigh came from the man, "Very well though, let's open another grave, one that was covered not long ago. I give you my word now, those two bodies will neigh be upturned by myself." Corpus let out a grinding groan as he straightened up and went to retrieve his spade.

With spade in hand he tossed it at Wren.

"You dig. I'll set the sled and prepare transportation."

I may have an underling in this man...

[Wrenmae]

Woozy from the encounter, Wrenmae tried to focus himself. The nuit, at last, had promised to leave the bodies of his adopted parents. Of course, it required a certain task out of the boy as well. It was his job to dig up the interred corpse of a dearly beloved. There wasn’t much he knew about graveyards, more the final resting place of carrion and memories. He could recognize fresh earth, but besides the ones his parents had gone under recently, there was little else in this immediate area.

Hefting the spade over his shoulder, Wrenmae winced and wobbled between monolithic tombstones and markers. Most of the ground was dried or covered in sparse vines and weeds. Nothing here suggested there would be anything but disappointment beneath the untilled ground.

Still, the nuit could easily return to claim his parents if he didn’t search for another body. So the boy pressed on, tirelessly, weaving between cryptic warnings and epitaphs till he settled on the dark loamy soil of a recently filled grave.

“Here,” he said quietly, placing the spade on top of it. “Jeremy Sander, died of illness two days ago.” Placing the blade in the earth, the slight boy strained to move it from the mound, sifting clumps of wet mud away from the grave. “How often do you have to do this?” he asked quietly, not looking at Corpus as he dug, “And are they always the dead?”

Pushing away the worst of the mud, Wrenmae could get to actually digging, working his abdomen, back, and biceps in the late gloom to shovel mound after mound of dirt away from the tombstone. Deeper and deeper he went, quiet, thinking. He hadn’t the strength to make a life of this. Halfway through and he was exhausted. Still, the thought of his adopted paretns resting in peace kept him working long after his body was burning for air and rest. He could only stop when the shovel thumped against a hard surface. The pine casket gleamed a different color on the darkness, and Wrenmae fell back against the wall of the hole he’d dug gasping.

He was to his limits.

[Corpus Aeternum]

Corpus returned with the sled and shrugged as he tossed down his coil of rope, holding on to one end.

"Enough times." Corpus said without specifing the actualy amount. "Now be quick and tie this rope around the casket in the middle at the foot and at the head. Leave about ten feet of rope on both ends."

"Do it from underneath the casket to the top, it makes it easier to lift up out of the grave. Once you have the loops tightly across the casket bring the tail end on the head of the casket over the top, so it looks like you just tied up the holiday roast."

Corpus looked around, "Hurry hurry. No dawdling. " He motioned for the remaining end of the rope. He was exhausted from the fight, his body felt like it was ready to fall apart. Something he didn't want to have to deal with currently in public eyes.

[Wrenmae]

Straining in the soft mud, his arms aching from the digging, the young hypnotist was close to simply smacking the nuit, tearing it asunder, and not helping it at all.


However, he couldn't be sure the thing wouldn't come back together...and then the graves of his loved ones would be in danger. Shaking his head, he did as was told. The robe was painstakingly tied around the coffin, between slipping, rope burn, and numb hands.

Man. This guy has really got you dancing a merry jig, doesn't he?

Not now Zan.

I don't get you fleshbags. Even when you're moldering, somehow there's value in bones. What's the value in bones, anyways? I mean, you can't exactly use them. I KNOW you won't eat them.

Shut up Zan.

Shut up? Shut up? I've been terrible patient this whole time while you got your ass handed to you.

You could have helped.

And done what? Gotten his face wet so you might easier give him a bath? Get real.

Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Fine. Baby.


Muttering, hissing, cursing, he secured the knot and gave a tug at the rope, scrabbling over the top of the coffin and then pushing it up as the nuit instructed. Leaping out of the hole, covered in mud, he lay on his back, panting.

"Do I have to pull it up as well?"

[Corpus Aeternum]

Corpus nodded to his inquiry, the Nuit was feeling much too old for the job. "Of course I want you to pull it up and place it on the sled." The ancient being pointed at the small and poor maintained wooden sled behind him. "Once it is on there and secured down, I will bid you good day and be on my merry way home." The Nuit nodded in silent thought after that.

Staring at the contents. [i]The man-child said the boy died just a couple of days ago, from an illness. Hm. More knowledge I assume. He smiled at the idea and could barely contain his glee as he rubbed his frail hands together before him. The exciting energy coursing through his being was intense.

"Hurry now. We don't have all night. You want to probably be somewhere warm and relaxing, and I... I need to return to my... My Laboratory..." The Nuit had to make a slight lie, and it was rather obvious of a lie. The Ancient being wasn't obviously a very good liar.

[Wrenmae]

Wrenmae struggled with the casket, throwing himself against the rope to raise it from the cold depths it had been laid to rest in. For a moment, he thought he might lose it. He thought that the rope would snap, or he’d slip in the wet mud and be hurled back into the hole, coffin and all. But as soon as the coffin slid over the hole, Wrenmae pushed his feet into the cold ground and grunted, pulling the coffin close enough to set it on the sled.

He fell, exhausted, beside the open grave, his chest rising and falling with steady, offending rhythm. The nuit looked over him with an unknowable expression. Whether he hated, was amused, or curious by the effort the mortal had put in, there was no answer.

"I have your face," the boy panted, looking up at Corpus with a half-snarl on his pale and striken visage, "If the graves of my parents are disturbed, I will find you...There is no hole in Alvadas deep enough that I won't track you down and dismember you, so just remember that."

Pushing himself to his feet, Wrenmae leaned against the grave to watch the Nuit go. He couldn't decide whether he was more enraged or curious...and it would take him some time to come to terms with that confusion.

For now, he let the nuit go, the rigors of combat still ravaging his thin frame.

He remained.

He learned.

[Corpus Aeternum]

“Yes... Yes... You have my face... Yes yes...” The ancient nuit waved the man-child's threats away as if they were gnats or flies bothering him.

“I think you for the body. I give you my word that I will not harm your family's graves. Deal” He turned towards the sled, grabbing a hold of it's lead rope and pulled it over his shoulder so the rope was taut. Once in that position, he paused, looked at Wrenmae for a few seconds. Then, without anymore pause, he started pulling hard on the rope, dragging the sled slowly away. Pausing only a few times to grab his trusty spade and again to adjust the rope against his shoulder.

As he got further away the Nuit forgot more and more about the man-child, his threat of death, and his promise to the poor guy. Hell, Corpus even forgot about the graves he was planning on digging up to take home, one casket at a time of course. It was a long walk home, dragging the casket laden old sled behind him.

I promised something to someone back there... What was it? He frowned, the promise and the person alluded him. He coughed a bit, wiping away the drooling mess that came with it. It seems this body is catching a cold.

OOC: Turning in for grading, I believe it has reached it's ending point.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Corpus XP Award: +2 Observation +3 Rhetoric +2 Interrogation +1 Shielding +1 Hammer Lore: Digging Up the Dead Arrangements Can Be Made Defiling Coffins Notes: Name:Wrenmae XP Award: +1 Intimidation +1 Unarmed +1 Dagger +1 Observation +2 Rhetoric +1 Negotiation +1 Persuasion +1 Familiary Lore: Desecrated Graves The Dead Have Mourners Digging for a Nuit Arguing with a Body Snatcher Notes: Just a small note here- there are no graveyards in Alvadas. All bodies are collected by Menna and Karash who take care of them in Divine Legacy (a Shop/Crematorium). The closest thing we have to a graveyard, which was Alvadas' graveyard once upon a time, is The Sealed Grounds which lay in the underground of Alvadas. If you want to visit a graveyard it would have to be somewhere outside the city. Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM