[Mkguild] "To Steal a Soul" -- Part 6

[Kendo Virmir]

*Extra* long part today!

I made some geographical assumptions in this part that may need to be
checked.  Special thanks to Charles for making a comment on the last
part that inspired a few lines of dialogue in this one. :)

----

"To Steal a Soul"
Part 6


Absolutely wonderful.

We wandered around aimlessly in the darkness for about an hour.  There
was no trace of Rufus anywhere and we were utterly lost.  And
freezing.

"Can't you cast some kinda heating spell on us or something, Virmir?"
the hyena man asked, rubbing his furry shoulders with his hands.

"Heating spell?"

"Yeah, so we're like... not cold?" he said sarcastically.

I folded my arms.  "I can light you on fire."  I turned to look him in
the eye and he flinched.

"Actually," Vale interrupted, "we should probably stop for the night.
We're not getting anywhere fast.  Virmir, could you build us a fire?"

"Are you sure that's wise?  If those things are following us, they'll
see it immediately."  I was actually more worried about the whatevers
in black robes, seeing as the plant creatures were quite immobilized
in the cold.

"We're gonna die out here if you don't do somethin', fire mage."
Vincent was almost hopping from foot to foot.  Who was he to complain?
 He was the only one wearing boots, blast it!  My toes felt like they
had fallen off.

"Not to mention Lutins," I retorted, rolling my eyes.  And he better
not go on that spiel about the Lutins being thin after last winter.
If it weren't for that rouge tribe, I would still be human.  Or an
adult, at least.

"Yes, but..." it was Vale who spoke up, "if we're anywhere near the
Keep, a scouting party will see it and rescue us."

My ears perked.  Rescue?  I liked the sound of that.

"Fair enough.  We'll take our chances."  I turned to the much larger
hyena morph. "I'll need some wood.  I'm afraid I don't have much
energy left to burn."

Vincent took a few steps back and placed a hand behind his head.
"Uh... my arm's really acting up.  Wounded, ya know."  He turned to
the dhole. "Lady Vale, could you take a look at it?"

Vale looked at him for a moment, her muzzle partially opened.  "...
Yeah, I'll take a look at that.  Come over here.  Virmir, could you
please get the firewood?"  The two proceeded to make their way to a
fallen tree.

What in blazes?  They want me to get the wood?  What kind of
ungrateful, helpless, rejects are they?  Seriously, send the man
cursed with child-stick-arms who can barely lift ten pounds to collect
logs and then beg him to cast the spell to save our lives while we do
nothing!  Idiots!  I swear I will not work with these buffoons again!

I grumbled and levitated a stick to my waiting hand.

----

"Now what is it that you want to keep so secret, Vincent?" Vale
whispered as she sat on the log.  Vincent had been acting so strange
since they'd rescued him.  Indeed one of his squad mates had been
killed and another likely running around lost in a dark forest as a
feral animal as they spoke, but there was obviously something else as
well.

Vincent turned to look at the cursed child fox mage as he went about
his task.  Virmir had summoned a witchlight, and the bright orange
glow erratically zipped around the trees like an angry wasp, as if the
caster were throwing a tantrum.  Occasionally a twig would fly from
the bushes to the fox's waiting hand.  The light cast a sheen on his
silver fur, making it seem golden.

"... What kind of a fox is Virmir?"

"I don't know.  Never asked... why?"  Vale cocked one ear up and one
halfway down, half expecting this to be some kind of a joke.

Vincent was dead serious.  "When I was in there... with Rufus... I
saw... I saw..."

Vale took his hand.  "What did you see?"  He was shivering.

"There was...  Me and Rufus got free at the last minute... Before they
put us in the cages."  He grinned slightly. Sadly.  "We took a few of
those monsters out.  Put up a good fight.  But then..."  He looked at
the ground.

"Then what?  It's okay, Vince, it's okay..."

He let out a long sigh.  "There was... there was another monster...
No, it was a daedra.  I swear it, Vale.  By Akkala, I swear it!" His
eyes burned with a wild intensity, and Vale found it hard to keep
looking into them.  "It was a daedra.  I could not touch it with my
sword.  It was so fast..."  He clenched his fists in to balls and
shuddered, slowly unclasping them.

Vale put her arm around his shoulder.  There were some horrible things
in that underground tower, she knew that.  She didn't quite believe he
had actually seen a daedra, but she wasn't about to second guess his
story.  "It's all right, Vincent.  You survived, that's all that
matters.  And we're going to find Rufus tomorrow."  'Daedra' was a
very vague term.  She had heard many stories of minor demons walking
the realms of man, each with wildly varying shapes and abilities.

He shook his head.  "No, no listen... The daedra... it... it..."  He
leaned in close and whispered, "it looked like Virmir."

"What?"

Vale's ears stood on end and her tail frazzled.

Vincent leaned back and spoke through clenched teeth.  "I think Virmir
is a daedra."

----

"That is absurd!"  I heard Vale shout.  The two morons were arguing
about something.  Wonderful.  With the pig man out of the picture, the
hyena had apparently decided to dig into our exalted squad leader for
his kicks.  Better than me, I suppose.

They ceased their bickering and jumped as soon as they noticed I had
returned.  They watched me with wide eyes as I stood there with the
witchlight bobbing around my head, weighed down with sticks under my
arms and several more floating in the air above my shoulders.  What
was their problem?  I tossed the offending wood down in a messy pile
and proceeded to indignantly wipe the wet, cold dirt off my robes.
"I'm afraid I'm no woodsman, so you'll have to arrange them."  Vincent
seemed to shrink back on the log while Vale stood, flashing him a
glance with her ears folded.  I could tell she was irritated about
something.

Not that I cared.  I plopped down and sat cross-legged in front of the
pile Vale was building, draping my tail into my lap and then wrapping
my robe tightly around my body.  Once the dhole was finished arranging
the wood into a pyramid shape I snapped my fingers and ignited the
blaze.

My own flame was certainly capable of keeping me warm, but a natural
fire did not draw on my reserves and wear me out.   I had to maintain
the blaze with a bit of my own energy for a few minutes as the wood
was wet, but after that it grew to a healthy fire quite capable of
living on its own.  I allowed myself to become lost in the dancing
flames as I thawed for a half hour or so.  Vale even got up and
collected more wood.  How considerate.

Thankfully both the hyena and dhole were not talkative, and it did not
take long for my eyes to grow heavy.  Vincent had volunteered to stay
up the whole night and keep watch, as he had been unconscious for
large portions of the day.  He still held that fearful, rattled look
in his eyes as he watched the blaze, and I doubted he would have been
able to sleep anyway.  It was fine by me.  I needed privacy though, so
I opted to step away from the circle of warmth and inspect the nearest
tree.

"Where are you going?"  Vale asked.

"To bed."

It was an old twisted oak, its brown dead leaves swaying gently in the
frigid night air.  I ran my claws over the bark and found they had
good purchase, so I climbed right up, wedging myself at the base of
two branches.  I loved climbing trees when I was young.  It was a
different world, with different rules.  I could sit up there for hours
and look down upon the world.  Worries from the surface could not
touch me up there.  No one could.

I had a good view of Vale and Vincent right below, and they shot the
occasional inquisitive glance in my direction.  But soon they began
murmuring to each other softly, and I had my privacy.  I knew was
going to regress into a normal fox when I fell asleep, so I figured I
might as well change then and get it over with.  I hung my pack on a
nearby branch and removed my grandfather's robe.  It was so silky and
its touch was almost electric.  It would make a wonderful blanket
during the night, along with my own cloak.  I disrobed and hung my
clothing on the same branch, then allowed the change to claim me.  It
was actually the first time I did it willingly, and was surprised at
how easy it was to shift.  In but a few moments my hands were gone,
and I was a four-legged animal once more.

I nosed my way under my two blankets and stuck my head out the other
end, curling up into a ball in the process.  Burying my nose in my
lush tail, I had no trouble falling asleep under those layers of
warmth.

----

I heard a 'plop' as I stretched the next morning and turned to find my
clothing had fallen off and landed in the bushes at the base of the
tree.  Blast it.  As I contemplated how to get down and dressed
without being seen by Vale or Vincent, I felt my covering slide off my
back and tail and then watched the black clock and white robe fall
right next to them. Ugh.  Not having hands was such a pain...

A dreary gray morning greeted me and the cold cut through my fur.
Shivering, I scampered down the trunk like a squirrel and pulled my
pants from the bush with my teeth.  The coast was clear, so I shifted
back to my bipedal form and slipped them on.

"Say, Virmir..."

Gah!  I nearly fell face first in the mud.  I really hate that hyena...

"... I was wondering," Vincent continued, "what kind of a fox are you,
anyway?" He was directly behind me.

Tying up my belt, I clenched my teeth and resisted the urge to burn
his facial fur off.  "... Gray fox?"

"Are you sure?"

I rolled my eyes,  removing my tunic from the bush. "I'm gray. And I'm a fox."

"Well, he does have the tree climbing down," Vale joined in.  Oh,
great.  Let's all gather around now.  I swear I will invent shifter
friendly clothing one day.

"You mean you never went to the library and looked yourself up?"  I
folded my ears at the word 'library'.  Ugh...  "It's like tradition.
All animal morphs do it.  Some of us turn into really wild things."
He pointed to the black and tan-gray stripes lacing his arm. "Striped
heyna," he said with forced dignity, emphasizing the word 'striped'.

Real genius, that one.

"Right..."

"I've seen gray foxes around, and they're half red and half gray.
You're all gray, and you've got some exotic fur patterns there on your
back,"  Vincent pressed.

Huh?  What in blazes was he talking about?  I tried to crane my neck
around to look, but was of course unable to see anything but my tail.
"What sort of... patterns?"

Both the hyena and dhole hovered behind me.  Blast it... "I dunno...
you've got some black splotches here.. and some curvy lines..."

Lines?  I turned around and tried to look the other way, without
success.  I flinched when I felt Vale run her claw through the fur
between my shoulder blades.  "That is kinda strange..." she said.

That's enough!  I pulled away and began putting my tunic on.  Blast
it!  "We do have the issue of wilderness survival to deal with
here..."  I said as I struggled to put the thing over my head.

"Do you need help with--"

"NO."

Vale shrunk away and returned to the log, Vincent following a moment
later.  After fully dressing and replacing my grandfather's robe in my
pack, I made my way toward them, trying to repress my growling
stomach.

"We're out of food, aren't we?"  I said it more as a statement.

Vale smiled and set a bloodied arrow next to her bow resting on the
log.  Vincent sat next to it and was busy skinning a rabbit with his
knife.  Huh.  Never mind then.

"Could you build us another fire?" she asked.

It was less disgusting than I would have imagined.  Perhaps it was
because I was starving, or perhaps because I was now half animal.
Ripping through the tough meat was considerably easy with my sharp
teeth, after all.  Split three ways it was not much food, but it was
even less to Vale and Vincent.  I suppose being stuck in a child-like
body had its advantages, few as they were.

"So, where are we?" Vincent asked after downing his share in one bite.
 I don't even think he bothered chewing it.

"We were north of the keep when we got separated, and we traveled
north before finding the portal that lead underground," Vale reasoned.
"I didn't have any sense of direction when we were in the tunnels, but
I'd be willing to bet that we're still north of the keep.  Giantdowns,
maybe?"

Vincent shook his head.  "Can't be that far north.  Too many trees."

"But they're fairly thin, so we must be farther than Glen Avery."

Vincent nodded.  I had no idea what they were talking about, so I just
kept chewing.

"So we'll head south," Vale continued. "If the forest gets thicker, we
know we're going in the right direction.  If not..."

"We're screwed," Vincent finished the comment for her.  I would have
rolled my eyes, but the dhole was making sense.  I had never heard of
this Glen Avery, but the trees did seem to grow thicker the farther
north we went from the keep.  The forest must reach a threshold at
this point, whatever it was, and then taper off from there.

"But what about Rufus?"

Vale sighed, her ears drooping.  "I don't think there's anything more
we can do...  These are less than ideal tracking conditions.  The
frost is burning off the ground, and I can't smell a thing... Can you,
Virmir?"

Yeah, right.  I shook my head.

She replaced the arrow into her quiver. "The faster we get back, the
faster a search can be sent out for him...  At least we know he's
alive."

"I would agree," I quickly interjected, "we are ill equipped and
unprepared.  Best call for help and leave his fate in more capable
hands."

Vincent looked at us both and then slowly nodded, his ears folding
back.  "Yeah, I guess you're right..."

I nearly didn't believe it.  We were headed back at last!  By the
gods, I was going to stay in bed for a whole week.  Confound anyone
who tried to make me do otherwise.

In but a few minutes we were off, heading southwards and hopefully
back to civilization.  We soon came to a wide clearing in which we
were able to see over the tree lines that surrounded us.  I hoped to
catch a glimpse of Metamor's majestic towers on the horizon, but of
course we couldn't have been that lucky.

"What's that?" Vincent pointed behind us and to the left.  A thick
black column of smoke cut into the gray sky...

"Something's on fire..." Vale said ominously.

I took a few steps forward on our course, trying to coax the two to
continue on.  "We'd best get moving..."

Vale turned and looked at me.  Not the Eyes of Urgency again...  "We
should check this out."

Oh, blast it!

I tagged behind the two as they trudged up an incline towards the
smoke.  We made it back into the forest again, sloughing through the
dead leaves, the smoke just barely visible through the trees ahead.
"We should be able to see what it is once we get over this ridge,"
Vincent guessed.

He had barely finished the sentence before the ground to his right
exploded and something jumped out, latching onto his arm.

"He he he he he!"

"GAH!"  Vincent kicked the plant creature off and it slammed into a
tree.  His sword was out in an instant.  "You little FREAK!" he
screamed as he slashed the blade.  The monster tried to dodge, but its
right arm was cleaved half way up.

Bounding backwards on three limbs, it hissed, but then stood upright
and laughed at the hyena, brown roots wiggling out of the stump of the
severed limbs like worms.  It then turned and charged straight at me.
My fireball was not ready, so I leapt sideways and it drove right
past.

"Kill it!!  It's gonna go get its friends!" Vincent yelled as he ran
after.  As if his incessant screaming wasn't enough to alert them...
I thrust my claws forward and let loose a thundering ball of flame.
Miss...  It went right over the monster's head, clipping several
bushes and tree limbs before exploding several hundred feet in the
wrong direction.  Blast it!

"Don't burn the forest down!" he said as we ran side-by-side.  I
really hate him...

The plant-and-earth creature disappeared into a thick grove of bushes.
 The hyena charged in madly, hacking away at the foliage with his
sword.  I simply crawled on my hands and knees under the bushes and
slipped out the other end.  Okay, so there were two advantages to
being small...

With Vincent left in the dust, the kill was mine... I spread my arms
and summoned crimson energy to my hands, feeling the warmth beneath my
skin.  Blast it, the thing was gaining ground on me, and I watched its
head disappear as it leapt down a small ridge.

Jumping down after it, I landed on two feet and my left hand and
froze, allowing my cloak to settle down on my back and raised tail.
Blast it, where did it go?  I perked my ears and listened, straining
to pick up any disturbance in the dead leaves or foliage around me...
There!  My ears swiveled and my hackles rose at the moving bush behind
the elm to my right.  I tiptoed to the base of the tree, then jumped
out, thrusting my hand forward as a brilliant sphere of orange
materialized before my palm, ready to blow the thing's head off.

"Eeeeeeeeee!!!!"

A... little girl?

She couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old.  The wind
shifted and the scent of raw fear smacked me in the face.  Her deep
brown eyes regarded me with terror at first, but then melted away to
child-like curiosity.

"He he he he he..."  It slowly rose from behind her...

"Get down!"

She dropped immediately and I blasted the monster's head clear off.
We were both covered with dust from the blast, and the creature's
lifeless body fell over backwards.

The girl rose to her knees, smoothing out her tan dress. "You... saved
me!"  Her eyes lit up in delight and wonderment. "Are you my
guardian?"

"What?"

"Mommy says everyone has a guardian.  You saved me, so you're my guardian!"

I took a step back.  "I'm no guardian, kid."  She ignored that, and
jumped up to embrace me in a tight hug, giggling.  Oh, blast it...
She stood an inch or two shorter than me, but she had a death grip.  I
could smell some sort of fruit in her hair as I tried to squirm away.
She released me suddenly and I fell on my rear.  Blast it!  My tail
escaped my robe and hung to the side, and she kneeled over me.

"Are you a doggie?  I love doggies!"

"I'm a fox."

"Nuh-uh.  Foxes are red."

"Well, I'm gray."

"You're a silly fox, then."  She giggled and gave me another hug.  By
the gods, she was going to smother me... "Thank you for saving me, Mr.
Fox."

"He he he he he...."  My ears turned... They were a good distance
away, but coming closer.

"What is your name?"  I whispered.

"Emile!" She shouted.

I brought a finger to the tip of my muzzle.  "Shhhh...  Emile, I need
you to be very quiet.  Can you do this for me?"

She gave an exaggerated nod.  I dragged her to the base of the tree
and pressed my back against it.  She latched onto my left hand and
would not let go.  I would have preferred having two free hands to
ready my spells, but I could not force her to release it.

Two or three creatures passed by a few hundred feet away, luckily not
in the direction I left Vincent and Vale.  Blast it, what was I to do
with the girl?  I couldn't just leave her...

"Come with me," I said as I stood, pulling her up.

She tugged back on my arm.  "Uh-uh.  Mommy says I should stay here."

"Those monsters will find you if you stay here."

She was torn.  "But... but Mommy says..."

More shrieking laughter.  Blast it, more were on the way... I let out
a long sigh.  I was going to pay for this... "Listen, Emile... I'm
your guardian, and your mother sent me to come get you."

Her eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Uh-huh, and if I'm going to protect you, you need to do everything I
say, okay?" I said through clenched teeth.

"Okay, Mr. Fox!"  She gave me another hug, and then started pulling on
my ears.  Blast it!

I pulled her along back the way I came and we met Vale half way.

"Virmir!"  She quietly scolded as she trotted over to us. "Don't run
off by yourself like that!"  She paused as she looked down at the
human girl clutching my side.  Emile shrunk away at the sight of the
larger dhole morph, wrapping my cloak around her body.  "Who is she?"
a perplexed Vale asked.

I pushed Emile off of me. "I found her hiding back there."  I turned
back to the frightened girl.  "Emile, this is Lady Vale.  She's a
friend."

Vale wagged her tail and smiled.  I groaned inwardly.  Teeth baring
canine grins don't exactly appear friendly to children, nimrod.

"Hello..." Emile managed, weakly.

Vale kneeled, trying to appear more pleasant.  "Hello, Emile.  Do you
live around here?"

"Uh-huh," she nodded.  "Mr. Fox saved me!"  She clutched my arm.

"Oh, he did?"  She flashed a smile at me this time.  I rolled my eyes.
 "Where do you live?"

The girl pointed.  Right at the column of smoke...

Vincent was running at us from that same direction.  "Hey, guys!"  he
bellowed before he caught up, hanging over his knees for a moment to
catch his breath.  He looked at Emile for a second but then ignored
her.  "There's a whole mess of them right over there!  They just
torched an entire freaking vil--"

I clenched my teeth and ran a nail back and forth across my neck in a
cutting motion.  He got the picture at the last moment.  "Oh... uh...
hello, there..."

She really shrunk back at his ugly mug.  Couldn't say I blamed her.

"There's a couple back there as well," I said, thumbing in the
direction Emile and I had come.

"We need to get out of here..."  Vale said, her eyes darting around.

"Right..." Vincent agreed.  The two began making their way southward
at a brisk pace.  I pulled Emile along.

"Where are we going, Mr. Fox?  I wanna see Mommy and Daddy..."

"Later, Emile... later..."


-- 
- Virmir
http://virmir.com