My Life is Different Ch. 12

"If the Gauntlets are not returned to their rightful owner," Elisedd insisted, "It will mean war between the Court of Queen Titania and the FBI."

"Elisedd, no," Giles snapped, "Don't be stupid!"

"Mister Elisedd," Mulder said calmly as he turned and looked Elisedd directly in the eye, "threatening a U.S. government official is a federal offence. You could be arrested for what you just said. Did you know that?"

"And as a guest in my home," Giles said angrily, "You are bound by certain Sidhe protocols and traditions. As long as you are a guest in my home, you cannot offer violence to myself, or to anyone I allow into my home."

"And I'm pretty sure that threatening to go to war, counts as offering violence," Buffy added.

Elisedd seemed at a loss for words for several seconds. I'm not sure if it was Agent Mulder or Giles who had had the larger impact on his mindset, however, he eventually decided to back down.

"Special Agent Mulder, I withdraw my threat," Elisedd said at last, "I was being rash and passionate, and I made a poor choice. I hope that you will accept my apology."

Agent Mulder's mask of stony-eyed emotional detachment cracked just a bit. His eyes widened ever so slightly, and his eyebrows went up about a sixteenth of an inch. In his thirteen years at the FBI, he had probably never had someone give him such a polished and sincere-sounding apology just moments after threatening him.

"Okay," Agent Mulder replied, with as much emotional inflection in his voice as a HAL 900 computer, "Apology accepted. I'm glad we got that settled."

"Where do you intend to keep the Gauntlets, in the meantime," Giles asked, "while you are trying to determine their rightful owner?"

"There's a high security building in Southern California the FBI sometimes uses for securing evidence, or items of high value," Mulder replied, "The gauntlets should be safe there. I prefer not to divulge the building's exact location."

"I can see the logic in that," Giles replied, "The fewer people that know where the Gauntlets are going, the less chance of one of our enemies breaking in and stealing them."

Mulder nodded his head in seeming agreement and then said, "Miss Rosenberg, I'll take those now."

Things seemed to be going a little too easy. I mean, this is the Hellmouth. In this town, just when everything seems to be going fine, one of your best friends turns into a werewolf and tries to eat you or something. I braced myself for something terrifying, and handed the Gauntlets over to Agent Mulder.

And then I waited.

Agent Mulder placed the Gauntlets underneath his left arm and said, "Miss Rosenberg, you and Miss Summers should be safe here for the time being. I'm going to make sure these are safe, and then I'll come back for you right afterwards."

It looked like nothing terrible was going to happen after all. I let some of the tension drain out of my body, and started to get optimistic about this Gauntlets thing. It looked like we were going to end this situation without a lot of drama.

So, Agent Mulder opened the door to Giles's apartment, and started to leave, and of course, all hell broke loose.

Something very large and fast-moving slammed Agent Mulder in the chest almost as soon as the door was opened. The thing that slammed into him had large and multi-segmented antennae growing out of its hideous head, and massive mandibles instead of a mouth. It had dozens of legs, and its entire body was armored with a segmented exoskeleton that resembled plates of polished bronze. Its eyes were black and resembled polished glass.

It took a split second for this thing to knock Agent Mulder to the ground, and trap him under its weight. Its mandibles clacked loud and threateningly, and I could see Agent Mulder struggling to reach for his gun. Those mandibles had serrated edges and looked like they could cut through human flesh quite easily.

"Scuttleomorph," shouted Elisedd and produced his pistol crossbow from nowhere. One second he was unarmed, and the next second his pistol crossbow was in his hand, loaded and pointed at the centipede thing that was attacking Agent Mulder.

He fired a crossbow bolt at the creature, however the thing had an exoskeleton that wasn't easy to penetrate. Elisedd's crossbow bolt bounced off without doing any damage.

"Weapons," Buffy called out, and Giles acted without hesitation. He popped open a secret compartment, concealed in his bookcase and pulled out a battle axe. He tossed the axe to Buffy, and Buffy caught it gracefully, and sprang into action.

The centipede-thing was far too fast and graceful for something that large and armor-plated. This thing moved like a Black-Mamba, and when Buffy tried to chop it open with her battle axe, it swerved out of the way with astounding swiftness and agility.

Within seconds, both Buffy and Giles had the thing flanked, with Buffy on one side, Giles on the other. They were both armed, and they had it outnumbered, but it moved with frightening speed, and ran deeper into the apartment, knocking down both Buffy and Giles as it flicked its long tail-like body and galloped away.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Agent Mulder shouted, sounding both incredulous and disgusted at the sight of the giant centipede thing.

He aimed his handgun at the thing and fired off two shots, but they both missed. The thing kept moving inhumanly fast, and it didn't move in any predictable pattern. It twisted, swerved, swished and darted in ways that didn't make any sense.

Agent Mulder fired off a third shot, with surprising results. He completely missed the creature's large, armored body, but hit one of its long antennae.

Getting its antennae cut off apparently outraged the creature. It raised its upper-body up off the ground and let out an evil shriek, like a million angry cicadas all buzzing at the same time. And then, it focused its rage on Mulder. Mulder aimed his weapon at the creature and prepared to fire another shot, however Buffy took advantage of the fact that the creature was distracted and hurled her battle axe at the creature's face.

There was a loud Ka-chunk as the blade of the battle axe sank deep into the creature's face and destroyed one of its eyes. There was an explosion of some sort of black, oily liquid when the centipede-thing's eye was destroyed, and it got all over the two people, standing closest to it.

"Well, that was just gross," I complained, trying to wipe the black, oily goo off my face and out of my hair.

"This town is really starting to get to me," Agent Mulder complained, keeping his handgun trained on the centipede thing, apparently not trusting that it was really dead.

"Elisedd, what was that thing?" Asked Giles.

"Scuttleomorph," Elisedd explained, "They're very nearly brainless, however, if you raise them from a larva, they can be trained to do simple tasks, such as attack your foes, or to guard treasure."

"Really?" Agent Mulder asked, his weapon still drawn, "And who trains them?"

"There are any number of trusted individuals in the faerie realms that specialize in such things," Elisedd replied, "Some can be found in the Court of Queen Titania, other's in the Court of Queen Mab. Even King Dovregubben has- "

In mid-sentence, Elisedd realized the significance of Agent Mulder's question. If this thing was an attack dog, sent to attack us, it's trainer would probably be very nearby.

Giles also figured it out and said, "Bloody hell! The trainer!"

"Most likely right outside," Mulder responded in agreement.

Elisedd sprinted towards the front door, with Mulder and Giles close on his heels. The three men in front of me obscured my view of what was ahead of them, and I strained my neck to get a look at what was outside.

It was not good.

In Sunnydale, you get used to seeing weird things, however, this was weirder than normal weird. The woman who looked like Professor Walsh was there, however, she was almost hidden in the back of her scary-looking friends.

The scary-looking antagonists that were closest to the door looked very goat-like. I mean, they were bipeds, and they stood upright, and they were all about my height, so I guess you could say they were humanoid, however, they were humanoid with a strong goat influence. Their bodies were covered in short, white fur, they had hooved feet, tightly-curled horns coming out of their skull and goat-like ears. Four of them were naked, however there were two that wore leather loincloths and leather belts. They were all carrying primitive weapons, like sledge hammers, clubs or staffs.

Behind them were creatures that were very bull-like. That is, they had had humanoid bodies, although they were covered in short, creamy, white hair, had hooved feet and heads like they came off of some very angry Charolais bulls. The bull-like creatures were much taller than the goat-things. I would say somewhere between seven and eight feet tall. And to make matters even worse, the bull things were all carrying primitive weapons that looked like spears or javelins.

The Walsh-imposter was standing in the back, behind these scary-looking foes.

"Elisedd," the Walsh-imposter called out, "I had no idea I would find you here."

"Have we met?" Elisedd replied, "I do not recognize you."

There was a short burst of laughter, and then the Walsh-thing said, "We met two scores years ago in the Great Hall of the Summer Court. When Lady Agrona came to negotiate a peace between the Summer and the Winter Kingdoms, I was Agrona's loyal assistant."

There was a pause, and then Elisedd called out, "Anexeana?"

"Ah, you do remember me," the Walsh-thing said, sounding quite pleased with herself.

"You looked far more attractive when you came to court," Elisedd replied, "A number of courtiers were quite smitten with you. I myself, was very nearly intoxicated by your sublime beauty. You were a captivating delight once. What a pity that your visual appeal has faded."

I was standing near Agent Mulder and Giles while all this was going on, and I heard Mulder turn to Giles and whisper, "Seriously? She tries to kill us, and now he's flirting with her?"

"Oh, I am still an exceptional beauty," the Walsh imposter insisted, "However, my true visage is currently hidden by a glamour. I had been advised that I would be more accepted by the humans if I took on this appearance."

"You were given bad advice," Mulder shouted out to her, "You've taken on the appearance of a nefarious criminal. By wearing that face, you've called the worst sort of attention to yourself."

"So it would seem," the Walsh imposter called back, "however, this is a Geas Glamour, and the magic that stuck me with this face will not fade until I deliver the Gauntlets of the Huntsman to Queen Mab."

Then Buffy pushed her way past Giles and me, and addressed the imposter, saying, "Gee, that's too bad. I guess you're stuck with that face forever."

One of the bull-things snorted in what might have been amusement, and then Anexeana took a few steps closer to Buffy, and said, "Ah, this must be the right place. It's the college student who foiled Dovregubben's thugs when they attempted to steal the Gauntlets from the Administration Building."

"I'm the Slayer," Buffy said defiantly, "I protect the people of this town. And when strangers come into my town, and start endangering my people, they usually end up dismembered. You should return home, while you still can."

"The Slayer," Anexeana said melodramatically, "So, you're this town's champion."

"That's right," Buffy said gravely.

"I had always assumed that you would be taller," Anexeana said disdainfully.

"I was tall enough to kill Olvikan," Buffy countered, "and he was about eighty times bigger than you. You should really go home before I get cranky."

"Oh yes, Olvikan," Anexeana replied, "the snake demon. I was led to understand you used trickery against him."

"I won, he lost," Buffy insisted, "The methods I used aren't important. Get into it with me, you'll end up just as dead as the snake demon."

"Little-girl, I am Sidhe," Anexeana said arrogantly, "My kind had mastered the art of pretense, trickery and deceit while your kind was still in the process of creating a written language. You will not take me unawares the same way you took a dull-witted snake demon."

"You're on my turf," Buffy warned, "and I'm starting to get cranky."

"You are outnumbered, Slayer," Anexeana said firmly, "And I will not leave this town until I have what I came for. Hinder me, and I will kill everyone you care about. And then, I will have Fathach crush your skull."

Apparently Fathach was one of her half-man, half-bull things. At the mention of the name Fathach, one of them lifted his spear up into the air, and made a sound that was sort of halfway between a bellow and a howl.

"Gee, if that's the way you feel about it," Buffy said sounding sheepish and non-threatening, and then she held up the Gauntlets that she had been concealing somewhere, and continued, "I guess Fathach will have to die first."

Buffy slipped the Gauntlets of the Huntsman onto her hands before anyone had a chance to stop her. I felt a sense of panic as soon as I realized what she was about to do. The Gauntlets of the Huntsman is one of those truly powerful magical items that can do a lot of damage to the people who try to use them. I've read up on mystical items like this, and if you're not strong enough to handle it, you can be driven permanently insane, or maybe something even worse.

There's an ancient and mystical sword that was unearthed in an archeological dig in Ireland about a hundred years ago. Mystic scholars have dubbed it as the Sword of the Mórrígan, and everyone who has tried to pick it up with their bare hands has ended up dead. Three of them were young men that died when they aged approximately eighty years in the span of a few seconds. Then there was a mystic scholar who picked up the sword, and suddenly began to bleed for scores of lacerations and deep puncture wounds that sprang up spontaneously all over his body.

The Gauntlets of the Huntsman were rumored to be even more ancient and more powerful than the Sword of the Mórrígan. I was almost certain that placing those Gauntlets on her hands would kill Buffy instantly.

They didn't.

Instead, they caused Buffy to change. My girlfriend changed from a beautiful woman that was a few inches shorter than me, and dressed in blue jeans and a t-shirt, into a frightening humanoid creature that was more than eight-feet tall and, had shoulders more than three-feet wide and wore a chainmail shirt over close-fitting leathers. It wore a bucker-shaped helmet that covered most of its face, and the slit in the helmet's visor revealed eyes that glowed like red-hot coals. And the horns of an enormous stag rose up out of the helmet, making the menacing creature look even taller.

Then the massive, humanoid creature reached for the weapon's belt on her hip, and drew a black sword from its scabbard, and a voice came out from somewhere near the vicinity of the huntsman's helmet, and it said, "You assumed that I would be taller?"

"It's not possible," Anexeana protested loudly, "Buffy Summers is human! The lord of the Wild Hunt is a creature of the faerie! No mere human can be the lord of the Wild Hunt!"

"The lord of the Wild Hunt is a predator," came back the response from the massive creature with the enormous sword, "and Buffy Summers has slain more prey in three years, than most Sidhe slay in three decades."

What happened next, happened so quickly it didn't even seem real. There was a blur of motion, and Agent Mulder was knocked off his feet. Elisedd, and several of those goat-creatures were knocked off their feet as well. And when it was all over, the man-bull creature was lying dead on the ground, his head was lying on the ground several feet away from his body. There was blood splatter everywhere, and the lord of the Wild Hunt was holding a blood-stained sword and standing over the bull-creature's corpse.

She decapitated that massive man-bull creature in the blink of an eye, and I didn't even see her move.

"What did I say?" the lord of the Wild Hunt demanded of Anexeana, as she pointed the tip of her blade at Anexeana's throat, "I told you, you should leave town before I get cranky."

"Buffy?" I asked. The voice that came from the lord of the Wild Hunt sounded sort of like Buffy, but it sounded deeper, stronger, and thrumming with mystic power.

The lord of the Wild Hunt looked over her shoulder and gave me a look. Her eyes looked like red-hot burning coals, yet somehow those red-hot burning coals somehow managed to convey a look of confusion.

"Yes, I am Buffy," the lord of the Wild Hunt said, and then she amended that with, "No, I can't be. I am the lord of the Wild Hunt. I was ancient, long before Buffy Summers was ever born."

"It's the Gauntlets of the Huntsman," Elisedd insisted, "When Buffy Summers placed them on her hands, her body, her personality, everything that was Buffy merged with the mantle of the lord of the Wild Hunt. As long as they're merged, both Buffy Summers and the lord of the Wild Hunt will exist within the same body."

"For the time being, this is my town," the lord of the Wild Hunt insisted, "The people who live here are under my protection. I will kill anyone who tries to hurt my people."

Then she turned to the Walsh-imposter and said, "Shall I kill you now, Anexeana? You threatened to kill my people. Should I not kill you for that?"

"No! Wait," Anexeana shouted, "You need me alive! I can be useful! I have information! There are others in Sunnydale who are a greater threat to your people than I ever was! I can tell you where to find them!"

"You would use this information to bargain for your life?" the lord of the Wild Hunt asked.

"According to my spies, King Dovregubben has sent reinforcements to this town," Anexeana insisted, "Scores of troops, enough to overwhelm my own people! That is why I was so quick to launch an assault on this place! I had been told the Gauntlets were here, and I needed to claim the Gauntlets first, before Dovregubben's troops had a chance to launch an attack and grab the Gauntlets for themselves."

"Dovregubben would likely send trolls," Giles warned, "Scores of trolls in Sunnydale could cause a great deal of bloodshed and property damage."

"One troll in a city populated by humans, could kill hundreds before he's stopped," Anexeana said, "Scores of trolls could destroy the entire town. I can lead you straight to them, before they have a chance to get started. You could stage an ambush."

"I still do not trust you, Anexeana," the Lord of the Wild Hunt said, "but lead me to where I can find Dovregubben's ruffians, and assist me in destroying them, and I will allow you to return home with your head still attached to your body."

Buffy being merged with the lord of the Wild Hunt made a huge difference. When Buffy was just regular Buffy, Anexeana seemed to only have contempt for her, however, now that Buffy was the lord of the Wild Hunt, Anexeana was filled with both fear and respect. She agreed with Buffy's terms and agreed to take Buffy to where Dovregubben's troops were, in exchange for her life.

Then Buffy turned to Agent Mulder, Elisedd, Giles and me, and said, "Sir Fox, Sir Elisedd, Sir Rupert and Lady Willow, the four of you are predators! Join the Wild Hunt and ride with me! We shall slay our foes together!"

I stared at my girlfriend (who was now more than eight-feet tall) with my emotions in a turmoil of confusion, pride and fear. Buffy seemed so much more powerful now, but what else was she? And why did she call me a predator? I was a college freshman with a 146 IQ, and no criminal record! I was friendly, polite and amicable!