Dream Chasers:2017-09-03: Trade One Corpse for Another

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  • Log: Trade One Corpse for Another
  • Cast: Lan Lilac, Fenrir
  • Where: Great Aveh Desert
  • Date: 2017-09-03 (ICly, 2017-08-25)
  • Summary: Fenrir comes across a grievously wounded human and decides to help. Lan thinks she has met a Beastwoman.

===============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>===============================

The heart of the Republic of Aveh is its great desert. The rolling dones and blistering heat here are infamous, and all but the most foolhardy would ever dare to cross it on foot. Most do so via the great rail lines running north to south, east to west, leading as far as Krosse and Adlehyde. The ones who do cross it on foot will find the heat isn't the only danger. Mirages can lead men astray, oases are few, and great and terrible beasts sink beneath the sands until they find their prey.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddOSJ8571M
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.


It's edging from sunset toward evening, the sun slipping below the horizon. It casts everything in red-orange light, and soon the scorching heat of the day will give way to cooler temperatures.

Lan has to hurry. The desert at night is even more deadly than it is during the day. Nocturnal predators, hypothermia... strangers with knives and terrible, terrible eyes.

If the Guardians had given her one blessing today, it was that she hadn't strayed far from the road. If only she hadn't left the safety of the town to practice by herself...! But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Lan has to walk it. A hand pressed to the makeshift bandage around her middle, she stumbles along the packed-earth trail, feet planted firmly between the worn wagon tracks. She can't get lost if night falls and the moon doesn't come out... or if that horrible black sun peeks over her shoulder when she's not looking.

Anyone happening across this stretch of road is going to find a heavily wounded Baskar girl, her stomach and legs sticky with dried blood, one of her arms held tight against her side by a strip of cloth, and her other arm practically holding her guts in place.

She doesn't look too great.

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

There's one way to get stronger. And that's to traverse to places unknown. Deadly places that'd chew you up and spit you up. Fenrir's came out to 'hunt', as she's heard of it, and has some sort of catch in a sling on her back. The 'Beastman' has silvery hair that almost looks like a mane, with wolf-like fluff on her ears and a set of fangy teeth, though she's also very notcably missing an arm...strange shapes pressing against her right side on her coat where the arm would be, as well as weird jagged shapes in the flesh of the right side of her face. Fenrir moves across the trail, trying to find a bigger, better challenge. Better prey.

And as she's moving across the path, she gets sidetracked in her thoughts, whatever they are, and Fenrir almost bumps straight into Lan as she stumbles across. It's only that close scent of blood and quick reflexes that stop the wolflike woman from barreling straight into her, before taking a look at the other person in the fading light. A human woman. Wounded, and it's bad. Critical location for a human - she'd die if not dealt with, and humans don't regenerate like she does. Could this girl even make it all the way there without collapsing?

It's not Fenrir's problem. An inch of her even considers striking Lan down, but for several reasons, she pushes that back. It's dishonorable, a fight without worth, is the one she explains to herself instead of the one she'd never tell any of her bretheren. But despite wanting to continue forward...a human would ask another human why they're wounded, wouldn't they? Fenrir pauses after walking past Lan for a moment, tilts her head back, and says the thing that seems most fitting for such a situation.

"The hell happened to you, human? You look like a corpse."

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

She's closer to death than she strictly enjoys being. Lan had thought she would die in that place that was lit from below, with the ocean of ... when she tries to think of it, she gets sick. She knows she can't afford to stop, even to nausea - and if she gets ill, her belly is empty. The cramps would dislodge whatever fragile clotting is keeping her from bleeding out.

Better to think of anything else. Her mom's carrot soup. The shine of lamplight through the windows in her hometown. The sky in the morning. The way Vin had patted her shoulder to comfort her when she cried in the bottom of the temple. She lists things in her mind, savoring the memories and the way they make her feel. Little scraps of warmth...

Which is how she nearly misses the approach of the last person she might ever see. Only the scuff of a foot in the dust makes her look up from the ground beneath her feet, blonde head wrenching around to follow the sound of a strange voice.

A corpse. Lan looks down at herself, and back up at the strange woman. Her skin is ashen underneath her tanned skin. The Beastwoman is scarred, carrying what looks like the carcass of an animal. Huh. Do Beastmen eat humans? Lan can't remember. She wonders if it would be okay to ask for a ride back to Lacour in the sling, next to the other corpse.

"I..." Her mouth is dry. Isn't there water in her jug? "Please, can you help me," she rasps. "The world turned inside out."

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

As Fenrir sees how bad of shape the girl is in, part of her can't help but bite down on her tongue. This woman looks like several of those Fenrir has seen before, among humans: those who don't fight, who don't defend themselves. She can't be sure if that's accurate, seeing humans she's fought before, but Lan has no weapons, and looks pretty young. Another victim of war? That's what her words make it sound like, but there's something curious about them. Fenrir makes another step, though, as if to leave. This isn't her responsibility. She has no responsibility for some human who cannot fight. It's not even in her honor code.

But. But those words. 'Please, can you help me'. They're pleading. They're desperate. If Fenrir ignored her and walked off, even she can rationalize, despite her little experience in the world, that she'd be dooming this woman. So, with a heavy sigh, she reaches up to the sling on her back and pulls it off, dropping it to the ground. The thud is rather heavy, but it doesn't seem to have been slowing the woman down at all, as she turns over. "You can barely even talk. You ran out of water or something?" Fenrir moves to grab Lan's flask and check it herself, before moving it either up to her or into her pouch again, depending on if it's empty or not. Then, the wolf woman moves up and crouches to check Lan's wound. The blood is dry, so it's been a while, not immediate. From the way she's posturing her arms, it must have been a pretty bad injury...possibly a blade wound? She's no researcher, but she's dealt her own fair share. "The hell happened to you? How are you still alive with a wound like that? No one would go that far to leave someone alive."

And then, Fenrir takes a look down the two sides of the path. Which would be faster to medical aid? "Bet you can't even walk on that. Pitiful thing. Fine. But I'm not doing this for you. Only because you said those words am I even giving you the time of day." A coarseness to her voice, as Fenrir moves over to her catch, and kicks it open. It's...some sort of desert elk?! She was carrying this entire thing on her back, one-armed, without it bothering her, as she kicks the animal aside carelessly and grabs the sling. "I can either carry you in this or another way where you could position yourself better. I don't care which. If you think you can walk, you can try, but if you decide that, I'm not picking you up halfway through. You need to stick to your commitments."

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

If someone doesn't carry weapons openly, they may have them hidden. But there's not really anywhere for Lan to hide one that would be easy to access in an emergency - her clothes leave a lot of her skin bare. It looks like whatever she used to bind her wounds might've been a cloak of some sort once...

The water flask at her hip has a heavy slosh of water left inside of it - not nearly enough for a journey, but plenty to wet parched lips. Lan makes a brief noise of protest, though if all this woman wants in exchange for her help is water, Lan will let her have all of it. But Fenrir helps her drink instead, and Lan lifts her good arm away from her belly to hold the bottom of the jug. Maybe she's met someone kind, after all.

Holding the flask in clumsy fingers, Lan replaces the cap and holds as still as she can for the woman to inspect her wound. When the crude bandage is tugged away, what's revealed beneath is grave. It would be a knife wound - but someone has worried at it, the edges no longer quite so clean. That Lan has lived, and walked, nearly a mile with this... "He was a monster," Lan says, after moments of trying to find her voice. "He reached inside me. He... I fell through the world..."

The thud of the elk's body falling seems distant, but she still has the reflex to wince a little. Oh, she's made the woman leave her food... that's an awful lot of meat to abandon, too. "He said that it would follow me... that black sun. That I would have to kill him..." She thought she had. "I crushed his throat, I felt it, but he didn't-- he was just like new. He kept starting over, and I..." She kept taking injuries. She reaches out towards Fenrir's shoulder, or maybe the sling. Pride makes her want to walk, but she knows that it's stupid to try. "I'm sorry. About your catch, I mean. I'll make it up to you, somehow... but for now, can you..." Carry her.

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

As Lan drinks, Fenrir makes sure she doesn't spill it all. It'd be a waste and probably make sure the woman died. Looking at the wound, Fenrir tsks, before grabbing the sling, and wrapping it tightly around Lan's stomach, using it to hold the bandages (and her internal organs) in. Her knotting is messy, but should be enough for transport. And then, there's the story. Regenerated? One of her own? No, the woman's too alive for that, and the terms make no sense. A black sun is gibberish to her. And even if it was...that wasn't her business either. The other one was sloppy.

As the elk is dropped, Fenrir tilts her head at Lan's wince and apology. "It's just a trophy. I can catch another. But if you're offering to make it up to me, then...no, first, I need to ask."

"Why are you trusting me? I could carry you off to die somewhere. You don't know who I am. You could easily be bigger game that I've sought upon." Beastmen eat people, right? It seems fitting, apparently they're weirdos, from Fenrir's experiences. Her glimmering eyes stare at Lan for a second, waiting for her response.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

"N-nnngh." She manages to not make too much noise, despite the fresh pain of new pressure being put on her wound. Lan may be holding on by sheer determination and the remains of her last heal berry, but she was willing to die like a Baskar when it seemed that the stranger would behead her for a second time. Now she's willing to continue to live as one - with her pride wounded, but limping along beside her.

She stares at Fenrir plainly despite the fog of blood loss. "...You could," she allows. "But I'm going to die one way or another if you don't help me. If you take me away and I die, then I was going to die anyway. I..." Lan's eye stray over to the last slice of the sun as it slips below the horizon. "I don't... feel like I have too much to lose. You know?"

"Besides... you don't seem too bad to me. But then," Lan laughs suddenly, a little sadly. "I might've thought that he was nice too, if I hadn't seen..."

She turns back to look at Fenrir. Her eyes are lavender and clouded with pain, but she smiles after a moment. "Your eyes. They're pretty."

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

'I'd die anyways'. That's the response Fenrir was expecting, even if she didn't agree with it. During the entire time Lan speaks, Fenrir's eyes are staring at her like a predator's, the gold sparklingly strangely as the light fades from the sky. But it's Lan's second response that causes the woman to stop. To freeze. And...

To laugh. It's spontaneous laughter, not mocking. The type that comes from confusion, though the tone she takes afterwards is trying to be mocking. However, even so...there's a hint of...less roughness to her tone, as she speaks. As if Fenrir appreciated that. "Some of the worst monsters appear to be nice. Fine. You want to repay me for the catch? Two conditions. One, I have questions for you. As much as you can, I want you to talk with me as we travel." Fenrir begins to move over to allow Lan to support onto her good left shoulder, but before moving her arm to support her, it...does something. It begins to shift, glimmery silver. It's inhuman. Unnatural. If Lan's seen Fenrir's kind transform, it also makes it apparent exactly what she is.

The arm grows a bit larger, fur and claws, an arm of a wolf. It's certainly bulkier and sturdier, as Fenrir wraps it around Lan, using it to support her. The woman's almost her height, and she's at a disadvantage arm-wise, so she's going to need a bit more oomph. "And two, if you see me again, and I'm in disguise, you don't reveal this or what I am. Does that sound fair?" Whether or not Lan's agreeing, through, Fenrir's moving to get her to get a move on. She's taking her to safety anyways, with a remark as they begin moving down the path. "I don't know the area. Where the hell are you trying to get to?"

And once they have a destination in mind, or atleast a path...Fenrir asks her question, agreed to or not. "Humans. What is it like being one? What do you do?"

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

Hey, she'll take laughter. It beats a lot of other responses.

"Yeah," she agrees simply. "Sometimes they do." She nods, head bobbling a bit as the Beastwoman makes her terms known. Those... are really reasonable, actually? "I'll try," the blonde nods. "The questions. I dunno how smart I am, but... She can try, right? She doesn't have any real idea what Fenrir's talking about, with the 'in disguise' and 'reveal my secrets' bit, and it shows on her face.

Maybe Lan's just dumb?! But when Fenrir's remaining arm begins to shift, Lan's eyes open a bit wider. That's...!

Oh, so that's what it's about. "I didn't know Beastmen could do that," she notes, sighing as some of the weight is taken off of her tired legs. "Don't worry... I won't tell."

She gets them oriented without too much trouble and they start off. Thank goodness the sun's setting so she knows which way is west! "Lacour. I've been staying there... mmf, a couple of weeks. It should be close now. Maybe half a mile." She would never have made it on her own...

The question makes her smile a little, despite how much her body is protesting the walk. "Humans? Huh..." She thinks about it for a moment. What's different about being human? What makes a human... well, human? "Dunno much about Beastmen, so I can't compare. But we just... we work, and we have families, and we try to get by even though the world's harsh. Some of us are really smart, and some are good at singing or art or stuff, and, uh..." She falls silent again for a moment.

"A lot of us are Diggers. I'm a shaman. I want to help people. ...So far, I'm the one who needs the help," she laughs again, though it's tinged with something like regret.

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

Supporting Lan, Fenrir just shakes her head as Lan responds incorrectly, muttering to herself. "Are most of them really this slow?" Nonetheless, it makes things easier, and the Pufferwolf defense will work for longer. "Lacour. What's it like? A human town?" If a Beastman, Fenrir must be one that hasn't seen many humans.

As they travel, Fenrir begins to make pace slightly more. Bring up her speed above the human standard. "But why do you work? What are you trying to accomplish? Just going through? Where's the thrill? Where's the fight?" A glance back at Lan, a snarl to that voice that makes it sound as if the woman can't even really understand anything else. "Art? That's...colors, I think. Singing is weird things with your voice, I know that much." Fenrir tries to muse out loud, clearly unfamiliar with both, but pauses the musing when Lan's reply rings into her ears. Wants to help people? Shaman?

"Why? What do you get out of it? What do They give you for it?" The tone of the woman's voice...she seems genuine, but it makes no sense, and there's almost anger in Fenrir's voice. As if it hits close to home. "Were you trying to help someone when you got stabbed? Did it lead you to this?"

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

Well, nobody ever said Lan was a genius. She's never even seen a Metal Demon before, and precious few Beastmen.

"Yeah. A small town, not too many people." She does better with Fenrir's support, though as the pace increases, she leans on the Beastwoman more and more. "We... we work because we need to survive. We need food. We need houses. We... I can't go so fast, slow down," she pants, thanking her lucky star for the myriad of bandages around her middle. "It's... we want thrills, a lot of us. It's why we dig. Why we explore. But to do those, we need things. Humans..." Lan trails off.

"I guess we're really fragile," she sighs. Lan looks up at Fenrir in muted surprise. "Huh? Because..." She tries to think. "Because I felt bad, to think of people suffering. Helping people... it makes me feel good, even if it's hard. Even if it hurts me too. It's worth it when I see someone happy." What kind of question is that, anyway? Why help someone? Why wouldn't she? "It's," she pauses, swallowing hard when she remembers the stranger's last words to her. "It's in my nature?"

The air's starting to cool. It's a blessing for now, and maybe they'll make it to the town before the temperature drops enough to be troublesome. "Was I-- no," She shakes her head. "I was just exercising. Training. And he found me."

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

When Fenrir realizes the human can't keep up, she slows back down, grunting. It's going to be a longer trip than she'd had hoped, being used to running far faster than anyone should. "Seeing other people happy? That's what it's about?" The very concept is...weird to Fenrir. But this girl's pretty earnest about it, this stranger she's met. Someone selfless like that? It's not something she would have believed in. "What a weird girl. Risking yourself for others, not for your own glory? I can't understand it." A brief pause on the road.

"But I can respect the guts you have to be willing to fight for such silly reasons. What was his name? What did he look like? He seems like a powerful opponent, someone to be wary of." Or kill. To challenge, to destroy, to prove she's better than him. Fenrir nods. He sounds like a worthy opponent. "We're getting close. If you were faster, we'd be there by now." She begins moving again, and then asks a question that feels important. One she forgot this whole time.

"What's your name, human?"

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

Are all Beastmen like this? It's a bit alien to Lan - the preoccupation with glory, with fighting. Maybe it's just their way. The slower pace agrees with her more, makes her feel less like she's going to pass out, but she's still got that awful gray color underneath her skin. "Sorry. Like I said... we're fragile." She wonders muzzily if that nice country doctor would be in town again. If not...

Is she really weird? S-sure, people had told her she was silly for wanting to go out with no other goal than 'helping others', but those were her people! They had just wanted her to be sensible and safe. Lan stumbles along, and tries to remember. "He was... he was just a boy. His eyes were blue, and terrible. Like... the kind of eyes that... could freeze you from inside. I don't even remember much else... but he was young. Younger than me, maybe? He wore a hood but... he had pale skin," she recalls. "And the grass died just by being near him." There are still stalks of it crusted in the dried blood on her ankles.

She's not sure, but she thinks she can see the lights of the town. "Huh...?" Her name? "I'm Lan. Who're you?"

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

"Then you need to stop being fragile." Spoken as if it was simple logic. "Grass dies near him? Sounds like an easy tell." Definitely not one of her own, Fenrir decides. As the lights of the town are noticeable in the distance, Fenrir quiets a bit, not immediately replying to Lan's question. When they get close enough to truly see the town itself, Fenrir stops, letting go of Lan slowly. "You'll need to go the rest of the way yourself, but it should be no sweat. Now, to answer your question..."

A fangy grin. "I'm Fenrir. And if you're a shaman, then one day, we'll have to fight, 'Lan'. When that day comes, don't be toting a stab wound. I want to see you at your prime. You got that? Because I'm not going to destroy an injured person." The way Fenrir says it, it's almost definitely a challenge. A threat, that she'll kill Lan some day. But...the way she says it doesn't match the words. There's joy to it. As if she's saying 'I like you', saying it in the same way a person says 'Will you be my friend?'. "Don't forget my name. And don't die. You want to help people, right? Then you need to not get stabbed. Not yet, atleast." Fenrir makes a turn on her heels, one last glimmer of those gilded eyes, as she speaks aloud to herself.

"Perhaps humans are interesting after all."

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

Despite herself, Lan chuffs out a laugh. Stop being fragile? "There are humans who spend their whole lives trying," is all she can say. "Some of them even manage it." Lan... Lan's still working on it.

When she feels Fenrir's arm slipping away from her, the shaman looks over questioningly. She's not coming? --But, it makes sense. If she doesn't know anything at all about humans, she hasn't been going into villages, and vice versa. Lan can make it the rest of the way. She's so close--

Her head bobs up at 'Fenrir'. Wha- but- she just got done being destroyed!!!

But.. she sees it. Something that isn't pure 'kill kill kill'. It's a different kind of will than the one the stranger carried. Is it...?

Huh.

She breaks into a slow smile. "Okay. I promise. I'll get better, and we'll have a real fight, okay?"

And if she's wrong, well. At least she likes Fenrir better than the stranger. It'd be okay, dying to someone you like. Lan watches the Beastwoman turn away, lifting her good arm in a little wave before turning to trudge the last hundred yards into town.

<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.

"Hah. I knew this was worth it." Fenrir doesn't turn her head back as Lan replies and waves. She just walks off, and then escapes into the night.