[Vfw-times] Story - Figment, Part 17

[Hedonism]

Figment, Part 17

Tally-Ho

By Hedonism

Background - It would be a good idea (though not essential) to read the
chapters leading up to this episode first. They can be found at
http://users.transfur.com/hedonism/stories.htm .

This story contains some violence and death, though nothing worse than in a
PG action movie.

No Critter Man this time. Maybe later :)

-------------

The forest was only five miles wide at its thickest point. But to Rebecca it
filled her world. And that of the monsters pursuing her.

It's impolite to say the least to call Werebeasts monsters. Some didn't even
like the term Werebeast. But the lycanthropes of this wood had minds to
match their bodies. These Were were monsters not only because they had fur,
fangs and claws, but because they enjoyed using them on people.

As Rebecca tore a path through the briars, a vividly striped badger entity
crept from behind a tree and snarled at her from behind, goading the fearful
girl onwards in the opposite direction. The barbed bushes tore into her
clothes and lashed her skin to illustrate that they were supposed to
avoided, not walked over. But the thorns barely touched the thick skin and
fur of her pursuers, so it wasn't a place of safety either.

They're chasing me in a certain direction, she realised. They're herding me.

Rebecca broke into a clearing, scratches covering her body completely, fear
leaving every pore as cold sweat and mixing with the mud that splattered
her. Here was the rest of the hunting party.

"You're here to die," rasped the most evil looking creature of the bunch. He
was squat and massive, the animal part of him from a normally small,
ferocious animal, maybe a wolverine. Whatever it was, this monster could
eagerly take on and kill a full-sized tiger. Speaking of which, there was a
lycanthrope version of that animal as well, and what could only be a hyena.
The badger and wolf that chased her strode free of the undergrowth, and a
gnarled, mud-covered alligator man joined them from the side.

The monsters lounged around her, naked but for the forest dirt. Their
expressions were pretty much the same, human looks of cruel, indulgent
pleasure superimposed on wildly varied animal muzzles. They didn't go out of
their way to terrify their hapless prey, the novelty of that presumably wore
thin many hunts ago.

"I'm sure you know what to do," said the tiger with a definite upper class
accent. "Run, scream, and soforth. Best get on with it, girl. We'll give you
a minute."

"Why're you doing this?!" asked Rebecca in a tearful scream.

"Why does it matter?" replied the wolverine. "If you wanna know, you burned
down my forest, destroyed my habitat. Now we have to kill you because there'
s no other animals left to hunt."

This brought up chuckles from the others. Rebecca guessed it was a lie. They
all looked healthy, didn't particularly smell and the mud on them was only
from today. They had no signs of being the sort to live out in the woods
permanently. They enjoyed a life in human form as much as any other Were.

Ohh, with exception to the Werewolf. He stank like an animal. He looked
ferocious but deranged, as if struck down with BSE and rabies at the same
time. He was only playing their game reluctantly. He was here to feed.

"Just thirty seconds now," said the tiger, after about fifteen.

"You'll never let me escape," wailed Rebecca. "Th, there's more of you,
waiting around just in case, isn't there."

"No-oo, we're all here," said the tiger. "We're a pack. We're a team." He
smiled fondly, even lovingly, at the rest of his people. Of course... Of
course they could be nice to each other. A brotherhood who had only
friendship for each other, because all their enemies were everyone else.

:: I think he's telling the truth, :: Rebecca thought to Figment. But there
was no reply.

:: Fig? Figment? Hedonism? Are you there? ::

Rebecca paced backwards quickly from the group of monsters, fear
increasingly apparent in her every move. That icy chill of despair the Were
expected clouded her mind. Figment _had_ to be there!

:: Busy, :: came a hurried response inside her mind, and indeed Rebecca
could feel the changes starting.

:: Run! :: the voice hissed. Rebecca almost leapt horizontally into the
nearest bush and started to gallop in a total frenzy.

The werewolf snarled and leapt more-or-less instinctively after her, tired
of playing and anxious to feed its belly. The fanged menagerie howled and
snarled and bit the air with glee as they commenced their bonding and
feasting ritual.

The tiger-man's senses were on fire, his mind a joyous blank. This was how
the Werewolf felt all the time, he knew. How wonderful it must be. His
sensitive nose hauled in Rebecca's scent of terror and his ears picked out
the sound of her running.

Only the scent no longer held so much fear, and from the sound of it, she
was running towards them...

Rebecca appeared in the undergrowth, pools of green spreading out over her
skin as she sprang over the loose formation of killers. The Weretiger leapt
upwards with instinctive response and met her elbow coming the other way.
His world exploded in white and red, and he collapsed into a lame, furry
pile.

Figment calculated the exact force and location of the strike. He wouldn't
be permanently harmed. He would be unconscious for thirty minutes. He would
have an incredible headache for a day's duration.

The pack saw their quarry overhead and turned hastily when she landed. Their
minds were on automatic; no need to think during a run, just feel. Things
were going wrong, but they could still get a kill Only now Rebecca was seven
foot tall and covered in scales. Her hair writhed unpleasantly, serpents
venturing from within, absorbing the follicles into themselves. She
sidestepped the Hyena's lunging, bone-snapping bite and nudged him to the
side with a foot that burst free of its trainers. As the hyena was airborne,
her gentle push changed his flightpath to make a tree his next stop.

The werewolf bit into her newly growing tail. Rebecca snarled through her
expanding snout and lifted him into the air with its bulky, lizardine
length, then slammed him into the badger who up until that point had been
the only one to hang back and wonder what the hell was happening.

Although unused to such effective prey, the monsters were still a team.
Alligator bodyslammed the new lizard into the ground, his enormous maw
closing around a developing wing and snapping it casually. The wolverine
joined him and pierced the girl's tough back scales with every claw.

The monsters set upon Rebecca's grounded form, the badger next to reach her.
Nearly six hundred pounds of flesh crushed her into the ground, much of that
the 'gator's. But it wasn't enough. Rebecca grunted lightly and powered
herself to her feet, tumbling the monsters like rolls of duvet from an
awakening  sleeper. The lizard pulled the alligator up with her and
headbutted him into temporary oblivion.

Figment, the reptilian creature living inside Rebecca, was now completely
merged with her host, and her powers were fed very well by their enemy's
uncontrolled emotional energy. She flapped her mangled wing back into shape,
bones and muscle untangling and fixing smoothly. Her shapechanging powers
granted weapons and defences that could change from fight to the next, which
is why Rebecca took for granted the sensation of her fangs hollowing out and
venom sacs developing under her eyes. Her claws also sharpened and pores
surrounding them leaked a sticky liquid.

A furry fist slammed into Rebecca's face and snapped her head back. She
instinctively raked the offender's arm and rolled away. The wolverine
bunched his legs to leap after her, then looked down with puzzlement at his
cut up arm, which now hung lifelessly from Rebecca's paralysing poison.

:: Uhhh, Rebs. I'm unsure... ::

The punch filled Rebecca's vision with red flashes and clouds until she
simply closed her eyes and borrowed the sight of her headsnakes instead.

:: Rebs. Something's wrong. If you want 'em to live - ::

The hyena laughed with utter fury as he saw the reason for his sore head.
The prey's eyes were shut, she must be helpless, he thought. He aimed for
her throat but, as she moved suddenly, he settled for her right arm instead.

:: - don't use - ::

Rebecca opened her mouth, teeth flashing, holes in her canines dripping.

:: - the fangs! - ::

The lizardwoman pulled backwards hastily, but already there were two little
circles of blood-matted fur on the hyena's shoulder.

:: What do you mean something's wrong? What have you done? ::

There was no time for an answer. Rebecca was learning first-hand the
crushing power of a hyena's jaws. The werehyena learned that Rebecca had
seven times his strength when he was picked up casually and thrown at the
wolverine.

The badger had run off. Rebecca looked around desperately for him. Mustn't
let any get away! She flicked the air with her forked tongue, sprang into
the undergrowth and, a few seconds later, dumped the errant carnivore next
to the still-gone tiger. Screaming and curling up promptly into a foetal
position to protect a kicked groin that would definitely need hospital
treatment, the badger looked at his unconscious packmate with great envy.

The wolverine fell half-way through his own attempt to escape by Rebecca
cutting and paralyzing his legs. Filled with terror at what the lizard woman
planned to do with him, he had a desperate one-handed attempt to crawl to
safety.

The wolf leapt at Rebecca from behind, but to a woman surrounded by
attentive snakes, he had hardly caught her by surprise. She plucked the
deranged thing out of the air and held him out at arms length by the scruff
of his neck. Suspended in the air, he tried squirming, transforming,
snapping, and finally whining. He wheeled around with all limbs and scored
some blood from her arm before the reptile simply reinforced her scales.
During that time the lizard's eyes were elsewhere. Watching the hyena dying.

:: Why can't you heal him? Can't you at least try? :: thought Rebecca
desperately.

:: I am! :: responded the second mind. :: That venom you... we, injected. I
didn't make it, I swear! I've still analysing it, but it's a spiritual
venom, not a chemical one. I just can't work out a cure! ::

:: But... you cured a lift full of people, and they were already dead! ::

::  I'm sorry... :: whined the inner voice. :: It's just too powerful!. ::

:: You said you didn't make the poison... who did?! ::

There was a pause in the internal dialogue. Then, :: I'm sorry. I made a
mistake. I did make it, I was just too... enthusiastic. ::

:: You know, your personality's pretty much the same as mine. And I know
when I'm lying. Need I say more? ::

The wolf's squirming lessened as Rebecca and her inner voice argued. But the
cessation of all movement snapped them both out of their quarrel. The
foliage underneath him changed to a deeply unpleasant red, to match much of
the creature's chest leg fur, and two claws of his right hand. Rebecca
dropped him and looked down.

The beast had cut his own throat, and quite expertly as well. Rebecca's
natural sense of disgust and squeamishness was turned down by Figment so she
could fight effectively, and this was a good thing indeed at the moment.

:: We could heal him, :: said the parasite. The fact she wasn't simply going
ahead with this was the same reason Rebecca didn't demand her to get on with
it. The animal preferred to die than be captured. And he was an animal
permanently, not like these part-time Were.

He was a murderer, or a killer animal. If he wanted to die, who are we to
argue?

Nahhh.

"I'm not going to be a frightened little girl forever," she mumbled to
herself as she collected the crawling wolverine and dumped him back in the
center of the clearing, then hunched over the wolf and started doing some
very unconventional yet effective surgery.

* * * * *

It was a week since the situation with Dr. Jagar and the other Yuan-ti, or
Ophidians, or whatever they liked to be called. Rebecca had spent a lot of
time hanging around the Union courts and police offices, getting her
application to be an aware supernatural entity (or something like that),
giving statements and generally sorting out the very large mess that had
developed. During this, John the Lesser serpent mentioned something offhand
about an investigation into humans dissapearing in a forest.

The Union reckoned there was a Hunt Club there, or the activity of Beasts.
Both went after humans, the former for sport, the latter for food and some
obscure act of vengeance.  The Union needed someone to investigate, someone
who would preferably be female and appear completely human, even to scent,
something very few Ophidians or Were could do. And they needed someone who
would be genuinely frightened, again so those that preyed on her would know
that they were looking upon and smelling terror.

Rebecca was a human. And when asked if the appearance of several furry,
clawed monsters would make her afraid, she felt she could manage that. Oh
yes. It had only been a little over a week since she had encountered real
danger, and realised she could take it on.

Figment played her part by being quiet and not reassuring her host that they
would be safe. The parasite didn't like doing that. The only problem was,
Figment was getting good at staying quiet, she had been like this only a few
days since being reunited with her friend. And she was getting better at it.
The human was afraid for her.

Rebecca returned to her human form anxiously. Figment losing control of her
teeth was making her worried. She pulled on her ragged, torn clothing and
called the cops with the Union mobile they had given her.

Within two minutes, a helicopter whirred over the treetops. She did tell
them that the situation was fine, but troops fired those strange rounds at
the ground all around her, vanished with electrical crackles and reappeared
where their teleportation bullets lay. Heavily armed and armoured Yuan-ti
and Werecreatures of the Union secured the area in an anxiously professional
way, protecting the apparently vulnerable little human from the dangers of t
he big bad forest. Or vice versa.

Speaking of which, Rebecca looked at the Were that had attacked her. Apart
from looking terrified, they had expressions of great regret. Regret at
being caught. The world was so unfair, sending them a girl who would stop
all their fun and get them into so much trouble.

The hyena's expression was rather more peaceful. And permanent.

A snake fell upon Rebecca and constricted her tightly in his coils.

"I'm ssso glad you're ssafe!" he rasped happily. Despite showing a little
distaste in Rebecca's human form, John was being very... clingy.
Affectionate. Loving. Uh-oh.

"Yes," replied Rebecca professionally, knowing the remnants of her
fear-scent remained on her skin.

"There were a Hunt Club," said John.

"It's worrying that there's so many of that sort around, there's actually a
name for them."

"You could have killed them. You were defending yourssself."

Rebecca shrugged.

"Before there wasss the Union, the Were would have exxecuted them
immediately."

"Good job there's the Union now, then. Right?"

John's weight nearly had Rebecca on her knees, and she had no way of getting
him off her.

"I'll hug you until you no longer sssmell afraid."

"Ahh, yes, errr... Okay, take your tentacles off there, I know _you_ don't
think they're off-limits but I do. It's a mammal thing."

"Mammal thing?" he asked innocently. "What hass that got to do with ussss?"

"With us?" asked Rebecca. The words came out a little spluttered. Her
canines were a little too long. And there were little holes in the tip.
Dripping holes.

The human called desperately for Figment, but she was asleep.

By Hedonism

My Story And Stuff Archive : http://users.transfur.com/hedonism/