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 Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 1:44 pm
Crow raised herself slowly out of the dirt, breathing hard and silently sobbing. As Rabid spoke, all she could think of was Julian falling to his knees with a knife skewed through his heart. Her claws sprouted longer, slicing through the cloth-of-silver mesh of her gloves. She turned feral eyes on Rabid, and an animall-like growl rattled in her throat.
"You could've saved...you could've saved....GAAAAH!" She leapt on Rabid and raised a serrated-clawed hand, unthinking in her snarling rage. She wanted to take it out on Rabid, truly, but.... she remembered his expression as he sacrificed himself for her. He'd known he had to, he'd always known-
"He's gone, he's gone, he's gone!" she moaned, forgetting her fervent desire to hurt and savage, crying hysterically and hugging Rabid, wailing.
---
Back in the rough cut red stone room, Julian leaned over the blood pool and watched Crow, Rabid and Malachi quietly. The Amalgamated had all departed, as had We-Who-Watch, leaving him alone with Jeddeth. The brutalized creature donned its robe, sucking in air in a whistling gasp as the fabric stuck to its wounds. Julian turned to look at it in pity, and approached it as he would an injured animal. Jeddeth bowed and murmured a supplication, looking up at him with its blank mask.
"C'mon. Let's get you patched up 'fore you bleed to death," Julian said. Jeddeth cocked its head to one side as it regarded Julian, silently gliding out of the chamber and holding the door open for him. Julian hesitated only a moment, kneeling down to pick up the iron pendant left behind and stowing it safely in his pocket. With a sigh, he left the room with his hand in his pocket, fingers entwined in the iron chain.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 1:52 pm
Rabid sobbed hysterically into Crow's shoulder, hugging the girl as hard as she possibly could have.
"He made me promise...if they got him...if he tried to hurt you again...he loved you...I wasn't going to not," she tried to explain herself, "He's gone...just like...no..." Her sobbing strengthened and she began to look quite awful. Her entire face was red by this point, and the struggled to breathe, only hiccuping shallowly.
"Mummy," Ike sniffled and attempted in vain to force back a convulsive sob. He had to be strong, "Miss Crow. Is Len...is Len okay?" Bringing up someone's child could possibly change their thought patterns. He'd learned this with Mummy, and he only hoped it was the same with Miss Crow.
He wanted to find Len, and he didn't want Mummy and Miss Crow to cry. It hurt his chest.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:25 pm
Crow wiped her eyes roughly and coughed.
"Stupid noble jerkwad. Always looking out for the reject child," she muttered, a tiny smile quirking her lips involuntarily. Looking at Malachi in confusion, her brain tried to understand what he'd just said. Why wouldn't Lenore be okay?
...
Ah, dammit.
"She's here too?! God damn, this is just not my freakin' week." she said, standing and tearing at her uncharacteristiacally tame hair. "And look at what those freaks did to my hair! The took my helmet away - it was my grandfather's. D'you believe it? Vintage World War II RAF standard issue. How am I gonna hide this stupid hair cut now?"
Her mind taken off her brother's fate for a second, she cracked her knuckles and surveyed their surroundings. They had crash landed in a rainforest bordering a beach, and she thought she could hear Vehilii and car traffic a ways off.
"Well, come on, let's go. We're not gonna find Lenore just sittin' around, and I gotta get out of this foofy dress before someone sees half my cleavage hanging out."
She brushed the dirt off her inujury lightly, watching as the skin and flesh knit back together, leaving a scarless, clean patch amidst the blotch of dried blood over her heart. She sighed long and sadly, and shook her head.
Find Len first, then you can grieve, she said to herself silently. Beckoning for Rabid and Malachi to follow, she trudged through the trees and disappeared, humming out of tune to herself.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:31 pm
Rabid has almost completely forgotten about Lenore, and her face set in grim determination. She said nothing as she stood and looked around before following after Crow. She respected the girl's conviction, and was quite ashamed that she didn't have the same.
She was suddenly hit with a stunning thought, though, and ran up behind Crow.
"Are there any blood bars around here? Goth clubs? You know Len..."
Ike clung to Mummy's back, crying silently into her back and down her dress. He had been right. Things went very bad very quickly...
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:45 pm
Walking briskly through the undergrowth without pausing, Crow nodded and looked over her shoulder at Rabid.
"Yeah, there's a goth scene club towards the middle of Shillith - that's the beach vacation town I think we crash landed near. It's called Sanguine, or somethin' like that. With any luck, she probably made a nest in there and is havin' the time of her life scaring the crap out of everyone."
---
Lenore, in fact, was having the time of her life. What could be more fun than harrassing Talee Latero, gliding around the girl's apartment and terrorizing her roommate?
"Wheeee!"
Crash.
"Taleeeeeee!"
"I broke somethin' 'spensive, didn't I?"
"GYAAAAA!"
Talee Latero sat on her bed in her room, staring blankly at her slashed blankets and twirling a shed, dented metal feather in her fingers.
"Bugger."
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:52 pm
Rabid simply nodded and followed behind. Sanguine. Blood. She gave a convulsive, tearless sob and walked on silently. This was going to be a long day...
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:13 pm
__Part 31 (PoD1)
Part 1 of 4
Talee cranked the volume on her stereo and danced, the techno beats and droning vocals of She Wants Revenge shaking the windows and setting her ears to buzzing. She was willing to listen to anything to drown out Sunday's continuous whining.
"Dammit, Talee, the brat's gonna tear the dalvursting house down!"
Lenore giggled at the foreign bad word and danced along with Talee, copying the moshpit kicks and whirling joyfully.
"Watch your mouth in front of the kid, Deborah-Anne," Talee shouted over the music, picking Lenore up and doing an impromptu tango. The other girl turned an unpleasant purplish color, gritting her teeth.
"My name is SUNDAY, you brain-damaged moshpit psycho!" she shrieked indignantly.
Talee gave a one-fingered salute and stuck out her tongue insolently, throwing Len out of her arms so the girl could glide over to the couch, swooping over Sunday's head. Sunday shrieked and ran into her room, slamming the door hard enough to knock down a couple framed pictures hanging on the walls. Lenore gave a scream of laughter as she landed on the battered couch, clashing her metal wings together in an expression of extreme happiness. Talee chuckled and turned the volume down a few decibels, finishing tugging her boots on and grabbing her coat.
"C'mon, Lenore, it's time to go."
Lenore bounced off the couch and waggled her twiggy fingers conspiratorially.
"Where we gonna go?"
Talee smiled with good natured malevolence.
"I say we crash the party at Sanguine, after we meet Cannon and the gang at the Kava Shack. Up for another night of debauchery, my fine underage friend?"
Lenore cackled and flared her razor feathers, polishing her blood vial pendant with her shirt tail and smoothing down her wild hair.
"You bet." There was a brief pause."What's deh-botch-er-ee mean?"
Talee laughed.
"I'll tell you when you're older."
---
Crow ventured alone out into the cool drizzling evening. She'd left Rabid and Malachi at a rented motel room towards the fringes of the rougher side of town, waiting until they'd been distracted by gunshots down the street to make her escape. She felt pretty rotten leaving them behind, but the grief in her was still too fresh to stay in the same room with the woman who'd stabbed her brother.
Even though she'd told Crow everything.
Even though he'd made Rabid promise to get rid of him the minute he gave in to the forces trying to control him.
"Dammit," Crow muttered, wiping away the fresh tears that stung her eyes. She'd forgiven Rabid, she really had, but it was the principle of the thing.
Scratching at the patch of dried blood she hadn't bothered to wash off, she looked around for a decent clothing store to get rid of the hated spidersilk dress. A tourist trap junk shop was open, and she ducked into the crowded place silently. The woman behind the counter gave her a funny look as she showed off a foreign-made shirt to a couple amazed Rijani kids, yammering about the strange materials used to make it.
"Yes, yes, see how rough and strange they are made? Two travelers and their pet gave them to me, yes, very cheap, didn't even know they were getting screwed out of how much these things are worth!"
Crow gave a snort and started yanking things off the racks, looking for anything even vaguely soldier-like. The loss of her helmet had worsened her already terrible mood, not for the loss of the thing itself but for the memories of her grandfather attached to it. Jonothan Huntington would have been disappointed in his granddaughter indeed if he knew she'd lost such a piece of World War II history. Her inner war expert was berating her anyway - a lover of all things WWII historical just didn't lose things that valuable!
With another grumble, she seized a pair of decent-looking boots and fishnets and kicked open the door to the dressing room, ripping off the delicate dress with relish as she slammed the door shut.
---
Talee stood hand in hand with Lenore outside the clothing store, her Cheshire Cat smile creeping across her face.
"Whattya say, Len? Wanna give the place a good casing 'fore we go to meet Cannon and the others?"
Lenore cracked her knuckles and puffed out her skinny chest proudly, chin raised in deviant determination.
"Yeah. Let's."
Talee had been delighted to learn of Lenore's skill at shoplifting, a talent evidently picked up from her mother.
"Ayah, but I'd like to meet her," Talee had said the first time she had witnessed Lenore pick the pockets of no less then five people on the street in broad daylight. Now, she smiled and laughed evilly, picking Lenore up and twirling as she entered the store.
The woman behind the counter showing off a burned men's suit shirt took little notice of Talee or her strange-looking companion, too busy relating the story of how she'd swindled the sellers out of money for her prizes to her awestruck, slightly drunk audience. Lenore pelted into the store and began looting, snagging a fancy seed pearl-embroidered knapsack to better smuggle out her swag. Talee watched the child with pleasure, wishing not for the first time that she could meet the little klepto's mother. Perhaps, just perhaps, if Len's mother couldn't be found, Talee could keep her...
The woman behind the counter gave Talee a displeased look as the girl flicked her chewed-up toothpick into the bin of thongs, and leaned against the glass case to watch the child running around her precious store.
"Madam," she said, her lip curling as she took in both Talee and Lenore's unusual appearances, "Perhaps its time you and your little cuckoo's child left."
Talee shrugged indifferently and whistled for Lenore.
"C'mon, kiddo, there ain't nothing good in here anyway," she said in a mocking tone as she stared at the woman with icy eyes, making her shift uncomfortably.
"Coming!" Lenore piped, hiding the stuffed bag under the ragged trenchcoat Talee had given her, its hem trailing a good two feet behind her. Her razor feathers stuck out like daggers through the sleeves, making the already uncomfortable woman draw back in self-preserving anxiety.
As the pair left, they broke out into slightly malicious giggles as Lenore produced her loot, sauntering down the street and grinning.
---
"Madam, perhaps it's time you and your little cuckoo's child left,"
Crow rolled her eyes and snorted at the woman's eloquent insult. Shredding the rest of the dress until it was nothing but a pile of unravelled threads, she scratched at the dried blood and dragged the shirt over her head and donned the frock coat. Examining her gaunt reflection in satisfaction, she laced up the solider-style boots and saluted herself before kicking the door open again. The woman behind the counter gave a scandalized curse and ducked out from behind it, yammering in Rijani at the mess Crow had left in the dressing room. Crow gave an apathetic smile and walked towards the door, but the woman screeched and bolted, grabbing her by the hair and yowling.
"You haven't paid for what you're wearing, and I'll not be harrassed by another gutter-dwelling street punk tonight!"
Crow's apathetic smile merely grew wider, and the woman drew back uncertainly. She didn't see the cuff Crow aimed for the side of her head, nor had time to react as serrated claws pressed against her throat as she lay splayed on the floor.
"Madam, I've had me a hell of a bad week. I'm gonna walk out of this store with these clothes one way or another, but it's entirely up to you whether I leave you alive and shook up or dead and gutted. You dig?"
The woman stared at her in horror and clamped her mouth shut, quivering. Crow smirked and stood, watching as her claws shrank back down to their normal length. Picking at a tooth with one of the hooked black nails, she waved genially at the gawking customers and left the store, whistling cheerfully.
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Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 8:08 pm
__Part 32 (PoD1)
Part 2 of 4
Cole trudged through the crowded streets sadly, Sadako riding sidesaddle on his bony shoulders. Blowing acrid smoke from his nostrils, he sniffed at the air for the familiar scent of his mistress - a faint smell of moss and turned soil usually a bit overpowered by apple juice and popsicle drippings. Sadako murmured something in her usual backwards language, a fluid sound meant to be comforting but still sorta creepy. Cole growled in reply, a friendly sound that was still rather threatening.
Without Lenore, they simply didn't know what to do with themselves.
Sadako twisted a silken thatch of hair in her fingerless hands, blank eyes staring out aimlessly at the passerby giving them a wide berth. She gave a rattling hiss at a child who tried to approach, encouraging the child's mother to seize him by the wrist and drag him away. Cole gave an appreciative growl and spread his rotted wings, flapping and getting airborne to leave the annoying humans behind.
"Lost," Sadako said dolefully, clinging to Cole's horns against the strong breeze as he flew. Cole gave a snort and went lower, ember-like eyes sweeping across the town as he tried to sniff Lenore out.
---
The Kava Hut was a small, out of the way sort of place that collected wayward intellectuals like honey drew flies. Books lined the worn out shelves, and the scent of imported coffee and hirola, a somewhat nauseating Fiskan drink, permeated the air. Cannon and two of Talee's other friends sat in their usual booth in a darkened corner, discussing philosophy while listening to the latest imported music from overseas that blared over the well-aged stereo system.
Lenore and Talee twirled and danced through the close-set table to that night's musical selection, a melancholy band with lyrics depressing to the point where some of the patrons seemed to be trying to drown themselves in their drinks. Cannon watched the pair in mild fascination, budging over to make room in the booth as Talee fell in, laughing breathlessly as Lenore flapped her arms and sliced up the corner of the table and the seat.
"What've you got there, Talee, your illigitimate love-child?" the girl, Parula, asked lightly. Talee made a face that Lenore copied as she seized Cannon's cup of hirola and sniffed at it investigatively.
"You're all kinds o' funny, ya know that?" Talee responded, taking the cup out of Len's hands and giving it back to Cannon. "Don't drink that, sweet, it'll burn a hole right through your tummy."
Lenore gave an exaggerated gasp and slid off Talee's lap, settling onto the edge of the seat and carefully keeping her razor feathers out of anyone's reach. Parula and her boyfriend Hikagi stared at Lenore openly, not quite sure what to make of the child. Cannon merely sipped his drink and pulled a face as he struggled to swallow the bitter liquid, adding a liberal amount of sugar to the cup after he choked it down.
"So, Talee," he said in his slow, measured voice, "where'd you pick up the little critter? Doesn't exactly look like she's from around here, if you follow me."
Lenore looked at Cannon inquisitively before Talee could answer.
"My name's Lenore Ligeia Adyamaur, and I come from a place called Gaia. It's really, really far away from here, 'cause Talee showed me a map and it's like five hun'red million miles away from here. My mama comes from Ree-Jhan, her name's Crow but I know her real name 'cause she told me, it's Sarah Ab-E-Jah Haedermann, and my uncle Julian pushed her into a weird talking fire that ate me and dumped me out here."
There was silence in the booth as Lenore took a deep breath after her recitation and took Parula's cup of frothy steamed marshmallow and cream, taking a deep draught and wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. Parula took the cup back when the child offered it, setting it back on its saucer with difficulty as she stared at Lenore.
Hikagi broke the silence first, clearing his throat.
"Uh. Well. Okay then."
Lenore giggled and beamed up at Talee, who ruffled her hair affectionately. Parula signaled to a passing waiter for two more drinks, and leaned over the table to get a good look at Lenore.
"How old are you, sweetie?"
Lenore nibbled her bottom lip as she counted off on her fingers.
"One...two....seven...five...I am....um...oh, yeah - I'm three months old!"
Cannon spit his drink out almost comically, turning to look at Talee as he coughed and wiped the liquid off his chin. Talee shrugged and nodded.
"It's true. This kid is...something a bit different."
---
The line in front of Sanguine was short, because most of the clubbers had gone to wait elsewhere, lest their makeup get smudged and run in the drizzling rain. Crow leaned against the black-painted brick wall, head bowed and arms crossed over her chest. The crowd around her gave her space - not that she looked particularly threatening, but because of the chill that seemed to hang around her. Crow had long-since discovered that being an empath had its perks, and influencing the emotions and thoughts of others was an easy thing when you were in too bad a mood yourself to feel bad about it.
She hadn't used her power in a long time - to do so would be a very high-bred Rijani-like thing to do, but she was one of those rare few with morals.
Screw righteousness, she though bitterly, reaching her mind out an attuning it to the mass of minds surrounding her. She drew them in slowly so they wouldn't sense anything. The only evidence of her psychological influencing was a slow silence that grew in the crowd, everyone surrounding her slowly easing into a state of relaxed quiet.
I shouldn't be doing this, she thought, feeling the energy drain out of her as her mind struggled to keep the minds attuned. Disgusted with herself suddenly, she decided to take her foul mood out on the crowd. Drawing them in as far as she could without harming them, she concentrated and balled her hands into fists, her claws cutting into the soft flesh of her hands.
"Boo." she whispered.
"AAAAAAGH!"
"Oh my GOD!
"RUN!"
The calm crowd had exploded into a mob of terrified people, screaming and running in every direction except the open doors of the club. Only Crow remained, giving the utterly confused bouncer a slow, knowing look as she sauntered inside.
---
Cole heard screaming and looked down in curiosity, watching people scatter every which way in terror. Sadako gave a raspy giggle as she watched people tripping over one another in their desperation to flee, her eyes shining with malevolence.
"Maybe Len?" she asked Cole. The dragon gave a snuffling reply and flew on, out towards the less brightly lit and far less populated street lined with cafes and book shops.
---
"C'mon, guys, I wanna get some action in tonight."
Talee fidgeted in her seat like a hyperactive child, watching Lenore sip a cup of mint tea and debate with Parula about the existence of vampires. The child was being maddeningly patient as Parula raised a few clever contrary points, simply sticking to her own arguement that a dear friend of her mother's was a vampire, they were real, and Parula had a funny name.
"So, you gonna keep her?" Cannon asked in a low tone, watching Parula flail in exasperation as she tried to reason with the child.
"I've gotten attached to her, I'll admit it. But the girl knows where she belongs - she knew her bloody phone number, for heaven's sakes."
Cannon stroked the rough stubble on his chin thoughtfully.
"Anyone pick up?"
Talee sighed.
"Yeah - some bloke called "Widdershins", then some guy with named Coatl who kept talking in some weird language my LTJ couldn't understand," she said, toying with her eyebrow ring, watching Lenore politely and calmly tell Parula she was an idiot who didn't know the first thing about haemovores, which sent Hikagi into fits of laughter.
"She needs to get home, Canua."
Parula gave a snort at the sound of Cannon's real name - Canua meant "fool" in the Rijani tongue, something his Gurgan mother hadn't known when trying to give her son a noble name. Giving Parula a dirty look, he shooed Lenore and Talee out of the booth.
"C'mon, guys. Let's go before someone kills themselve's because of this music and we're stuck here for questioning."
Talee twirled and picked Lenore up excitedly.
"Best suggestion I heard all night."
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Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:23 am
__Part 33 (PoD1)
Part 3 of 4
"I'm looking for a kid."
The owner of the club sat behind his desk, toying idly with the steel bolt through the bridge of his nose. The girl who lounged with her boots up on his desk and clawing the arm of his Corinthian leather chair to shreds looked out at him through her curtain of black hair, yellow eyes shining when the moving lights outside his office window hit them.
"Don't got no kids here - I run a bar, not a sweatshop."
The girl merely continued to watch him, making him feel very uncomfortable despite himself. She took a photo from her pocket and tossed it over the desk to him, and he picked it up as though afraid it would bite him. It was a photo of a child, though it was by far the weirdest looking little runt he'd ever seen. She did look familiar, though...
"So, you seen her around or what?"
The owner handed the photo back and nodded.
"Yeah - the brat you lookin' for took off with one of my tender's the other night. Dumbass punk b***h by th' name of Talee Latero. You find her, you'll probably find your bird-kid."
The girl rose silently and left, slamming the door behind her. The owner gave a sigh of relief - he'd been in Rijan long enough to recognize a pure-bred when he saw one, and that was something he didn't want to be mixing with. As he sat in the calm semi-dark of his office for a few moments to collect himself, he started and swore as he heard screams in the club below. Yanking up the shades to the window that looked down on the three floors of the bar, he gaped and gave a groan. As the girl walked out the door, the club's patrons followed her, screaming and running as though pursued by devils.
"God damn pure-breds," he muttered to himself, yanking the shades down again and going off to fix himself a hard drink.
---
The drizzle had turned into a full-blown rainstorm, flooding the streets and soaking anyone without an umbrella to the bone withing minutes. Lenore played out in it happily, splashing in the streets-turned-rivers and laughing. Talee and the others watched her with apprehension, wanting to get her into the somewhat dry area underneath the Kava Hut's tattered awning but not really wanting to get wet. Lenore beckoned for the others to follow her to play, but they all shook their heads and huddled closer together. Lenore rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath about big kids being sissies when it came to getting wet, and continued her splashing.
---
Cole gave a startled, choked off growl as a thread of a familiar scent wafted through the thick rain.
Lenore.
Angling into a nosedive and folding his wings against his body, Cole melted into shadow and crashed downwards, landing heavily on the flooded street. The shadow reared itself up off the cobblestone and reformed back into Cole's rotted body, catching Sadako in midair as she fell cursing and shrieking towards him.
"Don't...do....that!" she rasped angrily, forcing out the words.
Cole gave a grunt and started galloping down the darkened street, sniffing Lenore out as best he could in the scent-hiding rain.
Lenore paused in her playing and looked down the dark street in curiosity. She could hear something galloping towards her, and could make out two curious ember-like eyes staring out of the dark, fixed on her.
Her eyes widened and she smiled uncertainly.
"...Cole?"
---
The dragon gave a shrieking roar and plowed into Lenore, knocking her off her feet. Talee swore and ran out to rescue the child from the rotted creature evidently trying to eat her, but was discouraged by both a rattling snarl from the creature and a backwards, whispering warning from the creepy doll that clung to its neck.
Lenore, however, looked absolutely elated.
"It's mah doggie and mah dollie!" she screamed happily, hugging Cole's bony neck and giggling as the doll jumped onto her shoulder and clung to her head.
The doll looked at Talee and the others haughtily before raising a sodden plush hand in greeting, too preoccupied in hugging Lenore's head to pay them any more attention.
"Missed," the doll said over and over until Lenore pried her off hugging her and smoothing back the doll's soaked hair.
"Where you been? Where Mama?" Lenore asked, leading Cole into the shelter of the awning by his nose ring and sitting on the wet sidewalk. Talee and the others looked at each other in apprehension - this was a bit too much to take in all at once.
The doll looked dolefully up at Lenore, blank eyes fixed in her face.
"Not here."
Lenore gave a sudden sniff and hugged the doll tightly again.
"What about Julian?"
The doll shook its head.
"Good. Gone."
Sighing, Lenore looked up a Talee sadly.
"I wanna go home, please."
---
Crow tried to make herself heard over the blaring music, which was hardly an easy task in such a crowded bar.
"You're lookin' for who?"
"TA-LEE LA-TER-O."
The bartender thought for a second, then brightened.
"Oooh, Talee? Yeah, she comes here a lot - black chick with the British accent and a mohawk. She lives on Tinter's Street - s'bout a couple blocks from here. Hey, YANNA!"
One of the waitresses looked up from her order pad and stuggled through the crowd, looking annoyed.
"What?"
The bartender pointed at Crow.
"She wanna know where Talee lives - says she's a friend of her roomies."
Yanna nodded and wrote down the address obligingly before disappearing back into the crowd. Crow pocketed it and smiled at the bartender and slipped away, ducking under kickiing legs and flailing arms as they moshed in a whirlpool-like circle.
After barhopping for hours, looking for someone that knew Talee Latero, her mood had grown even fouler. She was running out of patience and the one trail to Lenore was faint at best - she hoped for Talee's sake that the girl had her child, or else Crow was certain there was going to be a great deal of screaming and destruction of personal property in the very near future.
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Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 6:22 pm
__Part 34 (PoD1)
Part 4 of 4
The house was dingy at best. Its pale yellow paint was chipped and cracked in a thousand directions like an ancient spider web across the wooden panels, and the yard was littered with old trash and a rusted juvenile Vehilii skeleton. Crow couldn't help but wonder if this Talee chick was some kind of backwater hick who had taken her child in only because she thought the girl was some new kind of swamp chicken to be fattened up and eaten.
Strolling up the cracked cement walkway, Crow snaked through the dead Vehilii's oxodized bones before nearly falling onto the worn-out porch. The unpainted door loomed over her, and she could see lights and hear music coming through a crack on the side where the knob had been haphazardly screwed in.
A polite person would knock, she thought mildly to herself.
Screw that.
Taking a step back, she focused on the door and raised her hands slowly. The door rattled on its hinges, the knob twisting and shaking. She flared her fingers into hooked claws, and made a pulling motion towards her body. The door ripped off its loose hinges and crashed onto the porch, its cheap plywood frame cracking and splintering.
"Oops."
She heard a scandalized scream from the living room as she entered the house. A blonde girl lounging on a beat up old couch stared at Crow as though she had three sets of heads growing out of various parts of her body, her mouth wide open and eyes huge.
Crow shrugged and gave a smile.
"Yeah, didn't want to just drop in unannounced."
The girl gaped a second more before jumping up and trying to scramble away. Crow sprinted after her and tackled her, claws growing into jagged talons and her eyes narrowing to slits.
"Who the hell are you?" the girl squeaked as Crow loomed over her. Crow pushed her hair back out of her face and gave the girl a wide smile that showed off her fangs.
"A b***h with a lack of morality."
---
Lenore sniffled occasionally as she hugged her creepy doll tight to her chest. The weird rotten dragon had sort of melted into a shadow - Talee had watched it crawl across the ground and disappear into Len's own shadow. As she held the girl's hand, Talee glanced down at the lanky shadow Lenore cast. Two ember-like eyes stared back at her, making her shiver involuntarily. Jeez, but that was creepy.
As Lenore gave an extra-wet sniff, Talee picked her up and cuddled her close, though wary of the child's razorblade-like wings.
"Ah, abiswa. It'll be okay. We'll find your mum, I promise." she said soothingly, calling Len by the Rijani word for 'sweet'. Lenore gave a watery smile and hugged Talee tightly 'round the neck, squishing the doll tightly between them. The doll struggled and flailed for a second before giving up and awkwardly patting Lenore on the shoulder with her stumpy plush arm. Setting Lenore down again as they approached Tinter's Street, Talee paused for a second. She could hear faint screams from down the block...
---
The girl screamed again as Crow continued to menace her, serrated claws hovering over her eyes.
"Shut up."
The girl stopped screaming at once - Crow had spoken in her real voice, and the bizarre echoing tones that entwined with her own lowered into a whisper as she leaned in closer.
"I'm looking for my child. Where is she?"
The girl's look of fear transmuted instantly into a look of astonished surprise.
"You?"
---
Talee felt a bad feeling gnawing at her gut as she approached her house. Sunday usually blasted music and the television until early in the morning, but the street was unsettlingly silent. She knew Sunday rarely left the house except Wednesdays to purchase more shipping boxes for the things she sold on eBay, something that Talee had ridiculed her relentlessly about. Now, as much as she and Sunday clashed, Talee found herself extremely worried as she saw the door had been ripped off its hinges.
Lenore looked up at her, looking a bit scared.
"Why the door on the ground?"
---
Crow's hand tightened around the girl's throat. She felt no regret for the look of terror that blossomed in the girl's eyes, none at all.
I don't feel anything anymore.
"Where is she?"
---
The shadow that was Cole reared up and reformed, smoke curling out of his nostrils as he became corporeal again. Hackles raised and lips trembling over spittle-slickened fangs, he crept towards the house. Talee fidgeted for a second, and then followed, looking at Len over her shoulder and motioning for the child to stay put.
Lenore gave a silent nod and stood still and quiet on the sidewalk, Sadako hugged against her tight.
"Somethin' bad gonna happen," she whispered to the doll.
---
Cole gave the door a sniff before lookng back dolefully at Talee. Squirming around the dead Vehilii's bones, she stood on the porch nervously. Picking up a sizeable chunk of the splintered door, she gave Cole a brief nod before running inside, wailing like a banshee and waving her makeshift weapon around.
She was pinned to the floor with what felt like a knife pressed against her throat before she could blink twice.
"Hello, Talee."
---
Lenore gave a squeak as Talee stormed inside the house, falling suddenly and unnervingly silent fairly quickly. Cole had gone inside after her, and had not returned. Looking down at Sadako, she flared her razor-feathers in worry.
"What's to do, 'Dako? What's to do?"
Sadako gave a small shrug.
"Follow", she said simply.
Lenore gave a gulp and nodded. At least one of them knew what to do. Flaring out her razor-feathers further so they stuck out like knives through the tattered trenchcoat, she took up Talee's battle cry and ran clumsily through the yard into the house.
"Alright, stick 'em up!" she shouted, brandishing Sadako like a billyclub and rattling her razor-feathers so they rang like bells. Sadako gave an impressive hiss, but choked it off in a surprised squeak as Lenore suddenly dropped her.
"MAMA?"
---
Talee gave a gasping shriek of disbelief. The animal-eyed woman who'd broken into her house and was now choking the life out of her was Lenore's mother?
"Lady, please, get offa me!" she said, her voice a choked up rasp as she tried to breathe.
The woman released her instantly, jumping over with a disbelieving cry, a combination of grief, astonishment and absolute joy.
"Lenore....Songbird, my girl, my baby, you're alright!"
"MAMA! Mama, you's alive! Wha' happened? Where Julian? Why'd the fire eat you? Did you beat 'em up good?"
Talee sat up and look behind her. The woman was twirling Lenore and crying into the girls shoulder, and the child was clinging to her in a death grip. The girl's creepy doll was standing next to them, watching with something like approval, and Cole was standing on his back legs with his front paws resting firmly on the woman's back, his forked tongue desperately seeking out a bit of her face to lick with affection.
"So, um....nice to meet you, Lenore's mother," Talee ventured a bit lamely.
The woman looked at her in embarrasment, blushing.
"Uh, sorry about the whole semi-strangulation thing..."
Talee waved her hand airily, wincing as she rubbed at her aching throat.
"Don't worry about it." she paused. "You didn't kill Sunday, did you?"
Lenore's mother shook her head and pointed at the couch. The top of Sunday's blonde upsweep was visible behind the couch, along with a pair of wide green eyes. Talee gave a quick sigh of relief and got up off the floor.
"Well, I guess...I guess you'll be taking her back, then."
The woman nodded. Lenore looked at Talee with big, innocent eyes, clutching at her mother's shirt.
"Miss you," she said quietly. Talee gave a small smile and looked back at the woman.
"I can give you a lift to where ever you're staying, if you like."
The woman smiled and nodded eagerly.
"Thank you."
---
Half an hour later, Talee pulled into the driveway of the beaten down old motel. Preferring to ignore the yellow police tape streaming like ribbons all over the rickety wood structure, she looked back at Lenore for the tenth time. The child had succumbed to the shock of reunion and fallen asleep, Sadako clenched in a death grip in her odd-digited hands. The doll gave Talee a look full of tolerant affection for the girl and rolled her blank eyes, black hair entwined in twiggy fingers.
Crow noticed how Talee looked at Lenore and gave a smile.
"Thank you for looking after her. She wouldn't have survived it out here without you."
Talee gave a gruff mumble and looked away. Giving Lenore back was a lot harder than she'd expected. Crow exited the car without another sound, whistling for Cole. The dragon trundled out of the backseat and watched in alert paranoia for anyone suspicious in the vicinity. Talee gave a wince as the backseat door of her beat-up old El Dorado creaked open and slammed shut again.
"Goodbye, Len," she muttered. Staring at the steering wheel blankly, she gave a start as Crow tapped on her window. Rolling it down with difficulty, she blinked in confusion as Crow shoved a scrap of paper into her face. Scribbled on the back was an address and phone number.
Looking at Crow questioningly, she carefully folded the paper and stuck it in her billfold. Crow cleared her throat awkwardly as she held the sleeping child in her arms.
"Look us up sometime if you're ever in Gaia," she said. And without another word, she set off for one of the few doors not blocked by police tape, Cole jogging behind her and Sadako waving over Crow's shoulder.
Looking at the bit of paper, Talee smiled and restarted the ancient heap of a car, driving out into the silent Rijani night.
---
Crow opened the door quietly, not looking Rabid or Malachi in the eye as she and Cole entered, gingerly stepping over a chalk body outline badly washed away by a negligent chambermaid.
"It's time to go home." she said simply.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:34 am
__Part 35 (PoD1)
Crow steered the stolen Vehilii expertly, watching the ocean beneath zoom past. They were a good three hours into the journey at top speed, and already she could see the Gaian coast on the horizon. She'd elected to forgo jumping, not only because it made her violently nauseous, but because she'd just wanted to pilot again. Helnila was no where to be found, so the morning after finding Len she'd simply gone to the local Rent-A-Biomech lot and stolen the newly hatched Vehilii.
Glancing back at Rabid, Malachi, and the still-sleeping Lenore, she leaned back into the pilot's seat and propped her elbows up on the armrests.
"Everything alright back there?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:38 am
Rabid's head snapped up at Crow's voice. Her hand still mechanically pet her son as she replied.
"Yeah, everything's fine," she ran a blackened hand through her hair, which was already smeared with black goo. A finger thwacked the healing burn mark on the side of her head, and she flinched.
Never before had she felt more awkward.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:47 am
Crow made no comment about the burn nor the black goo on Rabid's hand, merely looking at it with what might have been faint curiosity through half-lidded eyes.
"We'll be landing in a couple minutes," she said in a monotone. Looking back at the holo-display, she pressed a couple buttons here and there. The Vehilii chirped and slowed, subtly changing directions as it gradually lost altitude.
After a minute or so, the Vehilii landed smoothly on its tripod legs. Unstrapping herself and stretching, Crow flinched at the sound of bones cracking back into place after siiting so long. The baby Vehilii was not a comfortable way to travel - the controls were still only half-grown, and most everything on the inside was still bone-like and unpleasantly damp. Unhooking Lenore from the passenger seat silently, she squeezed through the smallish portal and fell to her knees in exhaustion on the HQ lawn. A bit of her shadow ripped itself away and reared up, reforming back into Cole. The dragon gave a grunting growl and marched off resolutely towards the HQ building, head and wings drooping in exhaustion.
Pulling herself back up and cradling Lenore in her arms, she looked at Rabid and Malachi blankly.
"We're home."
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:52 am
Rabid unbuckled herself and quickly slid out of the little Vehilii, a sleeping Malachi in her arms. She stood and arched her back, causing it to pop and crack before moving in front of Crow.
"You have every reason to hate me," she said, her brow furrowed.
Her eyes dropped to the ground, and she began walking quickly toward the HQ, hoping nobody saw her tears.
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:15 am
Crow's blank expression flickered into a slight ripple of anger, but the change died away quickly.
"I don't hate you," she said. Her voice was flat - there was no emotion there at all, which made her reassurances a little less than convincing. Walking beside Rabid and leaving the Vehilii to hover around where it wanted, she kicked the front door open and walked towards her quarters.
Halfway down the hall, she turned and looked at Rabid with teary eyes.
"Why did he make you promise?" She'd heard the story a dozen times, but she needed, needed to hear it again.
"Tell the truth."
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