[Flashback] Tears in the snow (Darren)

[Aleath]

10th of Winter 510 AV, Late evening As much as Aleath liked Syliras, she wanted to travel a lot. She always wanted to travel. She often dreamed about seeing the whole world someday with bunch of friends. Well, her only friend was now Shade, but he was worth ten. He was more like a pet, then a guard dog, but his size was enough to scare some ordinary thieves and he had decent hunting skills. And now she was here. In the Northern Reaches, Taldera region. This wasn’t a safe place to be, from what she had heard, but her curious nature simply forced her to go here. It was a dark place and nothing like Cobalt Mountains, where she was used to be wandering without worry. This was different. She could sense it. The silence everywhere around her was unnatural. Maybe it was simply because she wasn’t used to this place, but to her it felt like somebody would jump on her at this very moment. She was currently in a forest. It was already after sunset and she was looking for some safe place to stay for the night. It wasn’t the cold that bothered her, but the snow. It was almost reaching her knees so it was difficult for her to walk. Her legs hurt and she was quite tired. She jumped up, when she heard some unknown sound and turned her head sharply in the direction of the noise. It sounded like cracking of a twig. She stood in the snow quietly for a while to listen. The surroundings were calm, but still sinister to her. When nothing moved, she resumed walking, slowly and quietly though the snow. Shade was walking beside her. He was carefully looking around so that he could protect his friend if some danger appeared. After several minutes, she found convenient place to stay for the night. It was some kind of a small cave so she and her friend crawled inside, preparing for sleep.

[Darren]

Darren spent most of that day hunting small game in the forest, today's hunt consisting mostly of over sized turkey and the occasional jack rabbit. He was mostly finished with his hunt when a dire fox intervened ripping his final target apart. Darren stood back at the predator stunned as a blood lust came upon the fox as it saw the man. Darren chasing the same animal was breathing raggedly out of breathe and most importantly alone in front of the predator. Luckily, the thing was small enough so that he was able to fight it but big enough that he'd have to result in using flux, and as it would turn out he ended up using a whole lot of it. The fight lasted from noon up to the late evening, with him finally slamming his fist down the beast's skull. He shouted out a bloodthirsty scream that resonated along the ice cold tundra, as he finally realized that the fight was over. The fight took quite a bit out of him, his body bruised and scratched suffering a nearly half dozen wounds from the fox. Sitting there his hands over his head crying, he was pretty desperate in this situation knowing that his life has been threatened once again by the wildlife of Taldera. He slowly regained his fervor and strength as he stood up over the beast, kicking it contempt. "Good riddance" he muttered under his breathe. Soon Darren realized that he found himself at odds with what to do, here he was standing in front of a more or less death dire fox and no way to make the most of it. He took a look at his remaining supplies, and sighed. Anything that would have been otherwise been useful to cut or carve parts that would be useful to him weren't even in the backpack to begin with. It only held the minimal supplies and whatever amount of creatures he could stuff into it. Opting to just leave the beast along and letting nature figure out what to do with it he trudged his way back to Avanthal. His body was feeling ragged, constant spasms running randomly through his body causing him immense pain as he tried to make headway back to town. Slowly as he saw a nearby cave he looked at it with a sadness as he realized that he had to stay there for the night. His breathing finally regained he made his way to the entrance of the cave tossing his bag aside before getting ready to enter. oocThough he doesn't realize it just yet he's still suffering from medium overgiving so he'll look at anything and be aggressive towards it. He's also still covered up in a mix of the foxes blood and his own for the whole scary appearance

[Aleath]

When Aleath crawled through the gap in the cave, she looked around. It was small, but they would fit in just fine. She rummaged through her bag and took out her tools for lighting up the fire. She saw small stones laying on the ground and she made small circle with them. Making the fire took her some time, because of her cold hands, but in the end she succeeded. She went out of the cave to gather small pieces of wood and went back to put them in the fire. As the two, the woman and her dog, were huddled contentedly together in their small hiding place, nearly asleep, they were both startled by something that was tossed into the entrance. Someone was trying to get in the cave. The Vantha pressed herself more tightly against her dog who was lying next to her with his eyes fixed at the entrance. It wasn't entirely dark yet. There was still a dim light coming from outside and Aleath could see a figure, ready to crawl in. Shade bared his teeth and growled slightly. He was trying to get up to see who was the intruder, but Aleath shushed him and held him tightly so he calmed down and they watched the figure siletly. The small woman gasped and put her hand on her mouth to stifle back a scream when the figure came into the light of the fire. A tall dark haired man came into view. He looked like he got in some fight and he was bloodied and shaking. At the sight of the man covered in blood, the big dog finally succeeded in wrenching himself from her grip and faced the man. He was growling at him warningly, showing his teeth. Aleath was still sitting on the ground, looking fearfully at the man, unable to move.

[Darren]

His mind still racing off of the adrenaline he moved to his backpack to pull out the flint and steel he packed. Darren was just about to pull it out of his bag as suddenly he thought he saw something out of his peripheral vision. As his eyes focused in on the cave he saw another flicker of light in around the bend of the cave. Not really in control of his actions he moved to investigate what was causing the flickers of light. For some reason it felt as if he wanted something to be there, for some reason he really wanted to blow off some steam. Luckily there was something, two somethings to be exact. A woman and her dog, thankfully just a normal sized one. "You look lost...and scared" he managed to say. His face curled up into a cruel smile, unknown to him. "Perhaps I can help you..." he said regaining a bit of his composure, as he stepped forward. His eyes glowing an almost feral yellow as he advanced, his gauntlets still dripping slightly from blood. He looked at it with a confused expression, he couldn't tell if it was the fox's blood or some of his own. He clutched his side as he felt a pang of sudden pain grip him, he shrieked as he dropped on all fours. Breathing heavily he directed his flux to fluctuate around the wound around the wound, leaving only enough to keep it working. Sensing the worst of it was over he directed his gaze back at the woman, only to him she wasn't there. Rather it looked as if a banshee suddenly materialized in her stead, and the dog snarling at him looking as if it really was intending to attack him. The scene both startled him and put him on edge, he really wasn't expecting this. The scene finally did it for him, his eyes popping open at the woman in with a look of rage in his eyes. He assumed a sprinting position before running full speed at the woman yelling out bloody murder.

[Aleath]

Aleath watched terrified as the man came in the cave and looked at her with such rage she hasn’t seen before. Shade was standing in front of her protectively and he was snarling at the man, daring him to come closer. But the man clearly didn’t know what he was doing. For a moment he seemed to wake up from his state and said something about helping her, but still he had a cruel smile on his face. Then he stopped and his eyes searched his gauntlets, which were dripping blood and he looked confused for a moment, like he didn’t know where all the blood came from. The woman quietly hoped that he would leave them alone and watched shocked as the man suddenly yelled in pain and dropped to all fours. He was silent for a while in which Aleath chanced to slowly stand up and she was quietly observing the man’s reactions. She didn’t expect him to launch forward at her. Aleath stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, while she was trying to keep the man off her, but he was stronger than her . She caught a glimpse of his eyes and gasped. They were yellow. Shade jumped on the man’s back and was trying to direct his attention to himself by trying to bite him and claw on his back. While fighting to get the man of her and failing miserably, she tried to talk some sense into him. "Let me go, please. I haven’t done anything to you. Why are you doing this?" she hated herself for pleading for he life. She didn't want to show weakness, but she desperately hoped that he would wake up from his state.

[Darren]

As Darren fought the girl down he felt a feeling of pleasure as he overpowered the young woman to the ground. A metallic taste started creeping his mouth as he tried to get the better of the woman, a ominous feeling of ecstasy creeping into his mind. As Darren felt the dog climb on his back trying to distract him away from it's master, he was caught in a quandary with what to do. He can try to finish with Aleath but the dog was still on his back or possibly detain the dog to finish the woman. Darren opted with the second option and threw the dog off of his back striking at it fiercely. He then turned and moved back to the woman, and saw she was back to her old self. Not to be fooled by the disguise he breathed in heavily as he approached her, "I'm not buying that disguise for a second banshee. Your going to die, here and now. There's nothing you can do about it. Sure you can run, but how deep do these caves go? In the end I will hunt you down and end you" he replied with a shortness of breathe. His breathing became labored as he trudged towards her, he obviously was in no hurry to end her life. He looked at her with a malicious calm, he was still shaking uncontrollably but he his senses came back to him. "I'm sorry it had to be like this, maybe we could have been friends in different circumstances. ...Enough talk, we end this." he replied with a stolid stare. He stopped all signs of communication as he started talking, possibly to himself, in hushed tones. They were barely decipherable, but amongst his ramblings he spoke words there were words that were easier for her to understand. He spoke barely above a whisper "death". And "suffering, darkness and terror" then more meaningless, wordless whispering. oocErm how badly traumatized you wanted her? Was hoping they can be friendly at the end so Darren can sleep soundly at night.

[Aleath]

Aleath was still struggling to get away from the man. He seemed to be out of his mind. Surely he went mad. He was looking at her siletly for a while, like he was contemplating what to do next. As Shade climbed on his back, Darren threw him away. The big dog hit a wall of the cave and dropped to the ground. He wasn’t moving. The woman watched her friend, to see if he was still breathing, but she didn’t see any sign that the dog was still alive. She looked back at Darren, when he started to talk to her. Banshee? He thought she was Banshee? He was certainly influenced by some drug or he was under some spell or something. Now she knew that it wasn’t possible for him to come to his senses. She was going to die here. There was nothing she could do about it. But immediately after she accepted her fate, he started to apologize. He seemed to be almost sad that he had to kill her. For a fleeting moment she thought he was going to let her go, but the moment was destroyed by his whispering about death and suffering. She took a breath and spoke firmly in coarse voice. "If you’re going to kill me, at least do it quickly." She hoped that her sudden courage wouldn’t anger him more and he wouldn't torture her much before he would kill her. OOC : I PMed you about it

[Darren]

Darren's knew his mind wasn't quite right as he heard the mumbles suddenly appear from out of nowhere. The location inside of the cave amplified the alien sounds, echoing throughout the entirety of the cave. He paused as the sound sounded vaguely familiar, yet somehow distant to what he was used to hearing. He gazed down as he saw the smaller Vantha below him in a somewhat precarious position as if shielding him from her. "Hmm? Kill you? I wouldn't never thought about that." he said, assuming a somewhat aloof and uninterested demeanor. He suddenly found himself wondering why he was dealing with a Vantha he never met in the first place. Darren looked curiously at the new addition and his new environment, where was he? He then turned back to Aleath taking her form in and somewhat accepting the Vantha philosophically. "Erm, I'm sorry do I know you?" he asked raising his hand over the back of his neck. He felt sharp pangs of pain course throughout his body before he quickly pulled it back close to himself. "I'm Darren by the way, and you must be....the person I was about to kill?" he said in a mocking, light tone. "No I won't kill you" he explained with a reassuring smile aimed at her. "I would have you entertain me first" he said without changing the look on his face. He kept a straight face as he took in the Vantha's reaction before he continued. "There are ...all types of ways to entertain me. If you need help I can probably figure something out for the both of us." he commented. He viciously tore out two good amount of cloth from his sleeves before he took a step back to see what her answer would be. He then moved fast to try to close off the pressure to his wounds while waiting, the multiple wounds in his body left him white faced from the loss of blood. It would be all too easy to notice and take advantage of this in a variety of ways.

[Aleath]

Aleath watched, awaiting reaction of the man advancing on her. He went still for a moment and she took the opportunity to crawl back away from him a bit. It was useless, because his figure was standing in a way of the entrance, so she couldn’t run anyway, but it gave her small, tiny hope that maybe she could outsmart him somehow. He woke up from the trance and he looked at her like he had never seen her before. He seemed very confused about her, lying on the ground in front of him. At his question she looked at him incredulously and she became suddenly angry, all shyness and fear gone and she replied. "You are asking me who I am? Are you serious? You attack me and try to kill me and you are asking who I am?" Then she fell silent and watched as the pain overcame him again like before and his personality seemed to change again. 'What is wrong with him?' she wondered. He talked calmly, but mockingly to her. She shivered when he said something about entertaining him. 'No chance.' she thought to herself and looked at him in disgust. She was certain that he was a good man when he was in normal state of mind, but now she almost hated him. She looked at him as he started to tend to his wounds and suddenly she was decided. She had to get out of there. Taking advantage of his distraction she looked apologizingly at Shade, still lying on the ground, and launched for the entrance of the cave. She didn’t expect to be successful, but she had to try.

[Darren]

Darren looked at Aleath incredulously, his eyes giving her a half glare after she spoke her piece. In truth this hasn't been the first time Darren found himself in a unfamiliar area with a stranger that looked to be in fear of him. As if it was a dream, he didn't know how he came to the situation in the first place but he quickly got used to it. Well this is a first, he thought as he regarded her anger towards him, anger wasn't the usual response he received when he found himself in this situation. Usually it was all "Oh no don't hurt me" or "Please I'll give you anything just don't blah blah blah", he rolled his eyes as he remembered the past experiences. Again he didn't remember how most of those situations ended but he remembered he was very entertained at the end of them, at the very least. He looked back at the angry Vantha, You might be the first to show any signs of fighting back. But you won't be the last he thought. In truth whenever this happened he just went along with the situation. He didn't really question it at all or found any feelings of being disturbed by the random scenes. Darren merely took it as it is and occasionally benefited from the situations. He watched as she looked at him in disgust, looking as if he just suggested her to do something awful. At this he gave a look of chagrin at the smaller Vantha's demeanor "Yea I admit, cards aren't TOO fun after awhile. But I suppose it can pass the time." he said to no one in particular. But it doesn't mean you have to show such distain for it he thought silently to himself. This time the situation really was different from the others Darren noted as Aleath made a dash to the entrance of the cave. "Yea, I really wouldn't do that if I were you." He muttered loud enough for her to hear. In most cases this he was speaking as most who would try to run usually ended up dead in any case. "It's going to snow up something fierce in a bit, I can just tell. " he explained as he listened to the howling wind forming outside. "Come on back in, god forbid you might get lost out in Morwen's tundra in a storm. Even worse you'd probably attract wild animals that would tear you limb from limb," He paused as he said this. It was as if he remembered something, yet it wasn't important enough to warrant immediate attention. He sighed as he looked back at her belongings that she left behind, realizing her situation if she were to run out on him. "You know...I have seen the end results for BOTH of those situations. And they aren't pretty." he shared. He knew the lay of the land well enough to know his way back home after awhile but was pretty sure that the woman wasn't so well orientated with the area. He poked the dog nearby as it whimpered slightly much to his displeasure. He was an avid animal lover, even though he hunted them, and the sight of one in pain agitated him. He slowly took something out of his bag, a first aid of sorts that his father packed for him on these types of trips. "Just incase" he would remember his father always saying while helping him prepare. Usually Darren would just give the kit back ruefully when he came back from a trip but finally it had a valid use today. Taking out an herbal remedy he first applied the balm on his body where the cuts that miraculously appeared on him. It was a healing agent that stopped any further bacteria to enter his body and helped close his wounds. He applied an amount generously on himself before wrapping himself up in bandages quickly before taking a look at the dog. "Hey girlie, you still there?" he asked, pausing to hear a response. "You might want to also consider your little doggie here. It seems to be in some pain" he finished, letting the silence drag on a bit. In any case all pretenses of going along with the situation ended as he thought of a way to wrap up the odd predicament given to him. Hmm, and she is pretty cute. Even though she's giving me such deathly looks he thought. He mentally laughed at himself, of course he would think something like that in a time like this. He sighed as he drove his conversation home. "Hey if you want I can probably show you around to Avanthal if you decide to stay. I promise I won't do anything out there again. ...Whatever it was I did," he said rolling his eyes at the thought his possible behavior was, "and we can probably do something about your pet here." He finally stood up fully and looked back to see if she was still there, "So... you still didn't tell me your name beautiful" he said smoothly as he turned.