Hunting the Hunter Ch. 08

"Anyway, you see my dilemma? I would have made for the front door, but the atronach is so big it blocked the passage. I managed to hide behind an altar...because these things are dangerous but not terribly smart or observant, and on the altar is an inscription written in some kind of Daedric. I recognized enough to know it was talking about blessings and doorways and protection...and underneath the inscription was a round suspicious looking stone. So I pressed it, and voila! A Dunmer size escape hatch for one. The creature heard it, but too late, and it was way too big to get through after me."

Of course getting out of the sub-catacombs was another adventure and a half, but-"

"Ina!" A shrill voice cut her off, and they both jumped to their feet, Mori shifting as she moved, almost instinctively, and they scrambled toward the sound. Her heart was in her throat as she came around the corner and found the cubs gathered around a panicked Lucas and an unconscious Aina.

"What the hell happened?"

"I-I don't know...I was taking a look around...I didn't smell anything...nothing at all. Then I heard a sound like someone was surprised ...and she was like this." He looked up at her, his dark eyes wild and beseeching. She dropped to her knees and felt the girl's neck, casting life detect at the same time. Her pulse was weak...but her life force looked just fine.

"I thought I saw something...a glowy thing." Little Sonja offered meekly. Her brother nodded from behind her shoulder.

"Crap. Ok, everyone shift, now!"

She looked up to see Ambrose beginning to nod his agreement, then freezing with a shocked look.

"Oh!" was all he got out before something nasty and fizzling and just plain awful hit Inanna between the shoulder blades.

"Get...down!" she managed hoarsely as her knees buckled. She cursed silently as she tried to pull up her fire. It came slow...sludge like.

Goddamn, fetching fay s'wit!

She stumbled to her feet, her vision a blur and launched her body at the twinkly 'glowy' thing now hovering directly ahead of her. She felt another nasty fizzle...but also heard an unearthly screech as her hand made contact and the heat flowed into her attacker.

"Stay down," she croaked again, her voice dry and throat worn. She pulled an arrow, feeling around for something enchanted and hoping to Azura above that she grabbed something useful. She twisted around just in time to see something blindingly white hit the tree next to her, and to see the willow-wisp vanish once more.

She narrowed her eyes and searched the clearing. Luckily all the cubs were playing nice and keeping their heads below her sight line...but so was the squidgy bit of fay dust she was trying to hit.

There it was! Her fingers released the moment her senses had picked it up, and the thing was down before she had a chance to inhale. Just a shivering pile of eerily green gloop splattered in the dust. Well...that was ok then.

Blearily...still feeling the drain from the attack, she hobbled over to the others. "Izs ok," she muttered, "She's just drained." She blinked to keep her own eyes open and fought the enervation spell. She faltered and knelt carefully down next to Aina, taking a deep breath. She closed her eyes and felt out the spell twisting away under her skin, draining her. Powerful little critters those wisps were...for insubstantial non-entities anyway. She winced and forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand, using her will to push at the foreign energy, subduing it, compressing it...until it popped like an overripe berry. She started at the sensation and blinked her eyes open. It hadn't undone the damage...but at least the spell wasn't still chipping away at her.

Now to Aina...

The girl was still unconscious, and Inanna could feel she was suffering from the same enervation spell. It was harder to dispel another person...but she would. Of course at that point she was in no condition to anything more than sleep. Neither of them were. "Ambrose, give me your hand, I need to borrow some mojo."

"Pardon?"

She closed her eyes and shook her hand impatiently at him. He gave in and placed it in her. "It'll feel strange, but it won't hurt. Try to keep yourself open, like when I was reading you guys. I'm going to pull power from you. Mages call it chaining." She reached out with what she had left and hooked into his magica. Once she hooked it, she pulled it into herself. He gasped softly but didn't resist. Or even falter really. Kid had some potential. He was gonna be right scary one day. She'd see to it herself.

She placed a hand on Aina's shoulder and repeated the process she'd performed on herself. It was harder with some one else, but she had Ambrose singing back up.

She looked up at Lucas who had been kneeling nearby and watching Aina carefully, his hand cradling the back of her head. He met Ina's glance. "She'll recover in a bit, but she's going to have to sleep it off, and so am I. We need to find shelter and a good place to hide out for a few hours. Neither of us will be any use for a fair while." He took a deep breath and nodded.

"Ok...do you think it's safe if you stay here and I go look for a place?"

She was about to answer when a light tinkling sound...like a high pitch laugh sounded out to their right, and they both turned to look. The right side of this particular clearing was spotted with a few large rocks...common in this rugged terrain...and inconvenient in that they hid all sorts of nasty annoying things apparently. In this case it was hiding one of her worst case scenarios.

A bloody Spriggan. Why...why me? Seriously...why? If this was Kynareth's idea of being helpful she could take her help and shove it way the fuck up her uppity Aedric ass.

Lucas looked suitably horrified. She could tell right away that it was more from his not having spotted the danger than from any actual fear of it.

"It's ok Shadow...they don't smell, right?" He nodded dumbly. "You couldn't have known. I didn't spot her either...so she might have been out of range before."

"I...I've never seen one before." He whispered.

She got slowly to her feet and reached for her arrows, choosing more carefully this time. It felt like a silence enchantment as her fingers brushed the smooth shaft of the arrow...but she was still fuzzy around the edges so it was an educated guess at best. "Alright bitch...I've got a silenced arrow and a fire ball with your name on it. So I suggest you just turn around and walk away."

She didn't expect that to work, and wasn't surprised when the creature made some ungodly and wholly discouraging sound at her, it's arms rearing back and raising into the air in an all too familiar way. But then she froze...which made Inanna freeze. Why were they freezing? The spriggan hissed and jumped forward and Inanna was about to reply with an arrow to the face when a soft voice pipped up behind her.

"Wait..." Ina flicked her eyes over her shoulder and caught a movement in the grass as Aina struggled to her knees, then became a flash of gold in the corner of her eye. The spriggan hopped again, and seemed confused and distraught...but wasn't doing its usual 'kill the mortal!' thing. In fact it was letting out strange squealing meeps and holding its arms like it didn't know what to do with them. She could almost imagine it saying something like, 'well, this is awkward...'

Inanna allowed herself to glance around and noticed the cubs had all changed and were watching Aina as she made her way toward Inanna. She paused near her and swerved, rubbing her head and shoulder against her hip and side. Ina lowered her bow and dropped her hand to brush Aina's back as she passed by her, purring.

She kept going, still purring, and Ina watched with fascinated trepidation as she approached the twitchy little wood nymph. Aina let out a plaintive yowl and stopped a couple of feet in front of the Spriggan. The creature glanced between the lioness and the armed Dunmer and stepped forward with obvious hesitance. Ina's whole body went wire taunt as the Spriggan reached out toward Aina...but Lucas, now a lion, bumped her as well, glancing up at her as he passed. Warning her?

Aina made a sound like a soft roar, and the smaller cubs started forward. The Spriggan didn't seemed bothered by the roar and in fact seemed to become less twitchy and ran a hand over the lion's head, with a tinkling laugh. At that the smallest of the cubs bounded forward, suddenly gleeful, and the nymph thing seemed keen to respond in kind until they were literally romping around in the long grass like long lost litter-mates.

Anyone want to let me in on what's happening here? She thought wryly, then shrugged to herself. If it worked it worked. The gesture must have caught the Spriggan's eye and her head shot up. She was close enough that Ina could see her eyes narrow. Screw it, if twiggy wasn't going to hurt the cubs...then what did she care, she'd take her chances with her own life. She was too damn tired to do anything about it anyway. She stalked over the nearest tree, dropped her bow indecorously then sat down where she was and took up a meditative posture. Defeated but still watchful.

On the other side of the clearing the spriggan had turned her attention back to the cubs and was making delighted sounds once more, only casting occasional glances toward Inanna, who for her part was watching through slitted eyes, and doing her damnedest to take this apparent lull in 'the crap life throws at you' to recharge before the weird creature changed its mind.

But really it seemed happy enough with the cats and unlikely to do anything rash. Made sense in a way, all things considered. If these really were the children of Kyn, and the spriggan was the servant of Kyn, then they should by all rights be best-est buddies. And if fortune had decided to stop screwing with her for five fetching seconds, so much the better.

It was interesting to look at though. She'd never had the chance to watch one...usually there was a lot of fighting for ones life and running like hell when one had a spriggan encounter.

They actually looked harmless enough at first glance...like a half-septim stripper covered in some kind of may-queen get up...all leaves and flowers and whatnot. Only their skin was obviously green and sort of shiny...as if it too were made of leaves...or vines...and large patches were covered in something which definitely looked like bark. And they didn't have feet so much as they had strange root like...things. As she watched they actually seemed to dig into the dirt where they landed, as if she were rooting and uprooting herself with every step. Weird.

They were damned tough though...Ina had the scars to prove it...and Talon was illustrating the fact by clawing and gnawing at her ankle playfully and getting nothing but creepy giggles in response. She swatted him away, and then seemed game to let him do it all over again. Plus they could regenerate...a lot. You couldn't kill the damn things...nothing short of a full out forest fire worth of incendiary spells could knock one of those suckers out.

She paused to consider that. The healing thing...it must be part of belonging to Kynareth. Everyone knew the Spriggans belonged to Kyn...and clearly there was some bond between them and the cats, so they must recognize that they're on the same team. Though that was in no small part due to Aina. She had no idea what the girl had said, if she'd said anything at all, but it had worked.

She thought of what she'd said to Lachance before they'd left. "They're special." They were...and not just because of the lion thing. She suddenly felt more than a little blessed to have landed so squarely in the middle of their lives. It was a little humbling to her that in less than a century she should already have been witness to as much as she had...to know the remarkable people she'd had the luck and pleasure to know. It was kinda crazy really.

Ina and the nymph continued to watch each other out of the corner of their eyes until Aina left the little ones frolicking under the watchful eyes Lucas. "Hey." Ina murmured as the lioness approached her.

"That was pretty impressive luv. Did you know what she'd do or were you just taking a shot in the dark?" Aina didn't bother shifting to reply but cast a look at her that Inanna decided to interpret as 'shot in the dark.' She smiled and sighed as the young lion stretched out next to her, resting her head on her paws and watching the cubs with heavy eyes.

Inanna felt the urge to pat the nearby shoulder but hesitated. She wasn't as comfortable with Aina as she was with the cubs...perhaps because she wasn't a child...or perhaps because of her own relationship with girl's father...whatever the hell that was. Gods, but there was still that to deal with wasn't there. Bloody murder. Maybe she wasn't so blessed after all, seeing as how the epically amazing seemed to bring with it the completely awful as well. Must be one of those glass half full/empty things.

She let out an even heavier sigh and then an unlady like "ack" as a large, warm body rolled over next to her, nearly knocking her over. She righted herself then looked down at the prostrate lion, who yowled softly and then flopped her head into her lap.

She chuckled and gave in, having been given a sort of permission, reaching out and scratching her up beneath her chin. Aina let out throaty growl and closed her eyes. Inanna gave her shoulder a rough pat and looked up to find the Spriggan only two feet away and watching her intently.

Crap. She'd let her guard down and now that twiggy bitch was going to have her eaten by black bears...or worse turn her own lions on her...could they do that?

But twiggy just stared. Inanna stared back. Aina appeared to be comfortably dozing, her head pinning one of Ina's legs rather inconveniently.

Inanna couldn't think of anything to do in this situation, so she smiled, and waved. "Hi....So...how about those oak trees? Nice big branches...great for a climb."

Still more staring.

"If you're going to kill me, would you kindly get it over with, the wait is driving me nuts."

Little Serus shifted back to his human form and trotted over, only to throw his bare-assed self into her lap, knocking the air out of her with a well placed knee. He seemed to think this was intensely amusing. He grinned and patted her cheek in a way which would have been condescending had it come from anything other than a plump little imp-child.

"She's not going to kill us silly. She likes us."

Inanna smiled tolerantly and shifted the child so that his heel wasn't digging into her thigh quite so painfully, and gave Aina a doleful look. The lioness in question just kept right on sleeping...or at least feigning sleep...shocked she would not be if that were the case.

"That's you sweet heart." Inanna corrected. "She likes you folk since you're her people...me, not so much."

"But you're ours too now aren't you? "

Inanna sighed. "Yes, guess I am, and you're mine. I claimed you too...but just because I claimed you doesn't mean all my people will be quick to accept that fact...same goes for your people. Spriggans protect the creatures of the wild...and that seems to include you—and thank Kyn for that— but that doesn't mean she's going to accept me as well."

The creature made some sort of sound which might have been speech, but was all incomprehensible tittering as far as she was concerned.

"She says you're tired and should go to sleep."

"You can understand her?"

He shrugged and yawned. "Yeah... like how we tell each other stuff when we're lions. You know?" He shifted, right there in her lap to demonstrate. It was an odd experience as his skin literally shifted beneath her hands into fur. Plus he didn't get any lighter as a cat, far from it.

"I guess so." She grunted, once again shifting him so that his joints weren't—once again—trying to put a hole through her leg.

Lucas walked up. "It's ok. I'll keep an eye out...and she'll keep anything I can't handle at bay." He stood beside the creature as casual as you please.

"You're sure?"

"Definitely. She says they know about us, and had been watching for us. She thought you might be a hunter at first and was confused."

"Told you all that, huh?" He nodded. Well, maybe Kynareth wasn't such an uppity bitch after all.

"I thought you said you'd never seen one before? You seem awfully comfortable with it now."

He looked at her and smiled. "I hadn't. They're really beautiful aren't they?" the Spriggan seemed to understand him and made a cooing sound, patting his shoulder with her twig like fingers. It wasn't the word she'd use, more like 'freaky looking' but she wasn't about to insult the dangerous woodland creature by saying so.

"There's certainly nothing like them." She agreed. "But don't forget how powerful and dangerous they are. They aren't to be trifled with, so don't get too comfortable...and watch your back."

Lucas blinked then looked down at her in shock. "Seriously? This coming from you?"

"What? I'm very serious." Lucas scoffed and rolled his eyes before turning away and shifting, stalking off to his post once more. "What?" she asked the retreating cat again. Nothing. She looked at the Spriggan who tilted her head at her curiously. "What?" She asked it...it tweeted at her, then turned and trotted away after Lucas.

The cub sprawled in her lap adjusted itself and looked up at her with a huge, toothy yawn, stretching his forelegs so that his sharp little claws spread and retracted against her thigh. "Well you look comfortable." She muttered. She cast a sidelong look at the much larger cat spread out next to her. "So do you."

Neither deigned to respond. On the plus side they were toasty warm, and there was a definite chill in air. It was tolerable, but Dunmer don't do cold very well. And it was clear the extended summer they'd enjoyed was at an end. Even the leaves had been changing on her. Funny the things that slip your notice when you're preoccupied. And preoccupied she was.

Screw it, this day wasn't going to get any less weird any time soon. She did the only thing she could do. She took off her arrows and leaned back again the tree behind her and closed her eyes. If she had to sleep though it to make this day end...then so be it.

**

Inanna awoke to a nudging against her arm. She grumbled and ignored it, imagining it was probably a cub trying to get comfortable. She tried to focus back on the lovely Feric shaped dream she'd managed to slip into...or rather, had managed to slip into her, she considered dreamily. Besides, no one was screaming in terror so it couldn't be that important.

There was a pat against her cheek and she begrudgingly opened her eyes as the dream had already faded and eluded the grasp of her mind.

It didn't take long to shake herself free of her sleepiness when she saw the face hovering over hers.

"Bella!" She scrambled to her knees and threw her arms around the woman's neck, nearly knocking her over. Bella chuckled and hugged her back, but began shushing her at the same time. "Thank Azura," she rasped out in a harsh voice. "I was so worried you'd go to the house. It's been compromised"

"I did."

"And?"

"There were city guard everywhere, so I went else where. I was worried at first that something had happened...but I caught your scent moving away from town and followed. I would have caught up sooner, but I had to double back a few times to be sure I'd lost the last of them."

Inanna nodded knowingly, recalling her own attempts at the same. Bella nodded over to a nearby tree where twiggy was sitting cross-legged tittering happily at them. "That's unexpected."

"Tell me about it. She seems taken with the ankle-biters though, so I'm not going to make a fuss if she wants to baby-sit. Better her ankle then mine." Inanna looked around. It seemed like she was the only one not awake. In her defense she had gotten blasted by the wisp, and that was while still recovering from earlier adventures. Going by the sun it didn't look like she'd been asleep all that long though. Maybe two hours. She was still pretty tired, but seeing Bella alive and well was probably enough to keep her going until they could find a proper place to rest.