Welcome to Gaia! ::

To say that Ronan regretted his decision to walk home would be a gross understatement. The violence of the wind and snow whipping around him only served to underscore that fact. While he generally enjoyed his habit of making the relatively short trip on foot every other day, none of the winter clothes he’d donned beforehand were currently serving their purpose in protecting him from the vicious cold. He would have to get a new winter coat.

This one was incompetent. Rude.

He sighed.

There was nothing to do but push forward.

A sharp sound derailed his indignant train of thought and for a moment he almost thought it was the howl of a wolf. Of course, it was just the wind. Idiots had long since hunted Virginia’s wolves to extinction. Irresponsible. Cruel. He scowled, almost wishing that it was a wolf.

Within moments, Ronan regretted that half wish. s**t. s**t.

Before he could run the wolf was upon him, easily forcing him to the ground. Doing the best he could to keep it away from his various organs and arteries, he already felt his legs beginning to give out.

Hopefully he lived to exercise more.

eldritch stardust

The sudden rush of motion as a scantily clad stranger crashed into the scene sent Ronan hurtling further into a state of confused panic shot through with something resembling relief as the weight of the wolf shifted on top of him. Filled with a desire to run screaming into the night with undeniable poise and dignity but frozen from both terror and cold, the young man lay stunned on the ground for several seconds before managing to squirm out from under the beast, trying to take comfort in the fact that only the monster’s claws made contact with the bare skin exposed as his coat sleeve slid upward. Taking advantage of his newfound freedom, he rolled as far as his chilled limbs would allow before lying spent in the snow. A horrified gasp escaped him as he moved to press a hand to his baffled visage.

Ice.

Ice growing across his skin.
Why was ice growing on his arm?
Why did this city have to be so damned weird?
Now he might lose a limb.

Forcing down the drowning horror at this realization Ronan attempted to haul himself backward with his uninjured arm, progress limited by the snow.

He might lose the other one to frostbite at this rate.

With Ronan all but forgotten in the face of this new challenger, the icy wolf turned its attention to the knight striking so violently at its face. Snarling and snapping in a blind fury despite its injuries, it attempted to seize his throat between its jaws.

Why did these things keep happening?

Why did so many things want to eat him lately?

Why was finding a drunk alien eating knockout apples (AND REFUSING TO STOP) the most normal thing that had happened to him lately?

Oh, the wolf was mad. Madder.

He should probably help with that. This man had a lot of exposed skin and the thing looked bloodthirsty. Or bloodhungry. Or whatever it was that horrible supernatural ice wolves got. Ronan harbored no illusions about his ability to do any actual damage, but with luck he might be able to do something.

The snow was too thick to make the task easy, and even on a good day it still wouldn’t have been pleasant, but after a few seconds of miserable digging with his unfrozen arm the civilian came up with a handful of mud. Struggling to his feet, he slung it toward the wolf’s eyes before rushing back to what seemed like a safe distance. What he hoped was a safe distance.

Ronan tried not to focus on the sensation of mud covering his hand and making its way into the sleeve of his coat. He could scrub thoroughly and have the thing cleaned, but this reassurance didn’t prevent him from rolling up his sleeve to get the offending texture of muddy fabric away from his wrist.

“No, I don’t.”

Rocks sounded like a good idea, though he wasn’t sure if he could throw one hard enough to get through that icy fur. Continuing to grope around in the snow, Ronan’s fingers finally made contact with a small cluster of rocks. None of them were exceptionally large, though he couldn’t quite close his hand around the heaviest one. That would have to do.

Hoping that he didn’t hit the stranger, Ronan threw the rock as hard as he could toward the wolf’s face.

Ronan watched in baffled disbelief as the rock he threw seemed to genuinely injure the monster.

OK, that looked painful. His stomach turned violently at the horrifying sound that greeted the stone.

As much as he didn’t want to get eaten, he wasn’t looking to kill anything. Or maim anything. He’d probably feel the cold seeping through his clothes once the adrenaline wore off. Would definitely take a shower or ten before he went to bed. If he could go to bed.

Ugh.

He’d never killed anything before, never even thought about killing anything. Now it definitely looked like he’d contributed to a death. It was self-defense, right? It did try to eat him.

The stranger’s instruction was an easy one to follow. Ronan had no desire to get any closer to that thing than he needed to.

Packmates?

Packmates?

So this wasn’t an isolated incident? There were more of these things traipsing around like they owned the place? And they were probably coming? Maybe he should suspend walking home for the foreseeable future. At least until it was too warm to snow. Probably a while afterward too, just to be safe.

“Yes. Yes I’d like to go home now please.” Ronan was painfully aware of the pitch of his voice rising slightly as he spoke. Attempting to modulate it with mixed success he continued, “Thank you for your help. I really do prefer days where I don’t get eaten.”