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esp_dragonFandom: Original
Summary:
The world of Torpin is open, dragging in Others from different worlds. The majority of them are monsters, prone to violence. There are some, however, that are not, and are able to live amongst the human population, if allowed to. Marland should know; he's one of them. His job is to hunt and stop the Others that seek only to destroy what's around them. On one job, a human Other drops through a portal, an event which Marland has never heard of happening before. And that's not the only thing different about the human...
Rating: M
Notes: Contains swearing, fairly gory violence and death.
Any questions or clarifications, just ask. (Unless it’s, you know, plot-related. XD)
As for the italics thing, I'm going for if the word's in caps, then chances are, it's supposed to be in italics. Similarly, if there's words encompassed by -' '- , then whatever's in between them should be italicised.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 3,141
Total word count: 28, 534
Status: Work in Progress
There was already a notice out on him! Fucking - dammit! But -
"Yo, Marland." Female, older than him, on the same side as the male that had talked previously. But... A head peeked in to view; long, curly, black hair tied back, brown eyes, and he KNEW that scar that ran from her left cheek downwards. Kendal. She stepped out in the open, gun down, and hands away from it. Marland regarded her warily, stepping away, readying both his wings and his magic to defend and counterattack if he had to. He KNEW her, but he also knew that she was serious about her job, so she could just be using the fact that she knew him to get close to him.
She grinned at him, flashing her teeth. That didn't make him feel any more comfortable. "Don't worry; we're not going to attack you."
Behind them, muttered softly from the same person who Marland had heard cocking the gun before: "Yeah, right."
There was a small burst of noise from the other person on that side as they took three steps to cross the alley. Marland twitched, trying to keep the other person in view while also keeping his eye on Kendal, but it didn't work.
There was a slight scuffle, someone thumping up against a wall a few seconds later.
"You. Weren't. Listening. Were you?" a woman hissed. Hela. "No attacking him."
"But it's an Other!" the other protested, trying to keep his voice down but failing. Male, fairly young. Marland couldn't place his voice.
Another thump. "You LISTEN when we tell you something, all right? Marland's on our side."
"And he attacked those people!"
A frustrated sigh. "We KNOW him; he wouldn't do that."
"That's just-"
"Just what, huh? Just him finally going back to his baser instincts?" Marland could quite easily see her baring her teeth, her face no more than a centimetre away from the other human's face. She'd done that to Marland a few times, when she thought he was being 'ridiculously stupid', and he'd seen her do that to other people as well. Marland had mostly been intimidated by the fact that she was willing to get in to his personal space in the first place, before then freaking out about her getting that close.
"Yeah?"
"Tsh. Put. The gun away." Not a request, not exactly an order, because there was an unspoken 'before I ram it up your ass, you complete idiot' after it.
The other person complied, grumbling under his breath. He cut himself off, and Marland assumed that Hela had started glaring at him.
When he turned his attention back to Kendal, she was still there, hands not moved at all, waiting. So, unless that had been a very deliberate ploy (which seemed to be too much effort to go through to trick him), then they weren't thinking about taking him down. Not all of them anyway.
"He's new," Kendal offered as an explanation, eyeing the other side of the alley with narrowed eyes. "And we obviously didn't explain this very well to him." She shook her head, lips pursed.
Or, as Hela had said, he hadn't been listening in the first place. He might have just heard 'Other', his description, and then ignored everything else as 'unnecessary information'.
Marland eyed her warily, attention moving when the other person on her side came in to view. Male, red-haired, tall by human standards, heavily built. Gahn. One of Marland's ears flicked. Four people, and he hadn't heard a fifth, so where was Nillos? Unless there was a reason why they'd had to get a new person in their team.
"Huh," Gahn said again as he leaned back on the wall, arms crossed, peering at Shodin. "He doesn't LOOK very kidnapped."
Shodin blinked at them, head slightly tilted. "I wasn't."
Marland had taken him off the streets and then locked him up in his own home. ... Yeah, that did sound like he'd kidnapped him. But he wasn't going to attempt to explain that now, or else Shodin would have more questions - he probably had enough already just from these last five minutes.
Kendal's eyes flicked to their bandages, her lips twitching. "That's obvious."
Marland's ears flicked down at that before flicking up again. Just because they'd bandaged each other, that didn't mean that one wasn't kidnapped.
She glanced between them, before shaking her head. "I'd ask, but I know how tight-lipped Marland can be." Ask WHAT exactly?
Shodin blinked again at her statement, head tilting more. Probably surprised at her saying 'tight-lipped'. Maybe. He should really stop assuming. But if he was right, Marland could understand - Pai had pointed out that he'd been a lot more talkative since he'd first met Shodin, and Shodin probably thought that that was normal. It wasn't. It really, really wasn't.
Seeing that, Kendal's eyebrows rose. "Now you're making me REALLY curious. Hmm." She looked between them again, before saying, "There's a police investigation on you right now - they don't have anything on you apart from what you look like, but still, you should keep low in the meantime."
He tilted his head down, looking at her from the top of his eyes, ears flicked forward. It was his version of one raised eyebrow.
She winced, fingers to her forehead. "Yeah, I KNOW that's pretty hard for you, but there'll be another Other that they have to find and that'll take their attention away from you."
He hadn't DONE anything on purpose though the last couple of times he'd been out. The first one had been he'd been hunting when he got there too late and took Shodin home, and then for the second one, he'd been trying to get to another Other.
Straightening out from his defensive stance, Marland nodded, one ear going to the side before going up again. "Yeah, thanks." He wasn't on the noticeboard. Yet.
She flapped a dismissive hand at him. "No problem." She pulled back the cuff of her jacket to look at her watch. "We should get going now." She nodded to Shodin. "YOU need a hairband, and you'll also need a jacket. Go nag 'im to get them for you." With that, Kendal's team left, the two behind them sounding like Hela was DRAGGING the new guy away.
There was a brief silence after they left. Marland just wanted to squeeze his eyes shut and cover his face with a hand. It had definitely gone better than he'd expected it to, a gun fight and blood spilled, but he always felt drained after dealing with Kendal's team. They were sometimes like a force of nature that blew in, spun things around so nothing was in its proper place, before breezing out again. You never quite knew how things were going to go with them.
"Are they... friends?"
And if Kendal heard THAT question, she would have been laughing so hard at that. They weren't FRIENDS, but they didn't try to kill him, were friendly enough to him, so that was enough for Marland. Though... His eyes slid to Shodin. It HAD been enough for Marland, but now it seemed to be a bit different now. Not that he wanted friendship with Shodin, but it had been the expectancy of well, expecting more from him when he thought Shodin hadn't wanted the chocolate.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "They're other Hunters."
"Hmm." Shodin continued to look curiously down the alley. "So, they also hunt down Others, like you do?"
He nodded.
"In a team."
Marland's ears flicked down. Maybe he should have expected that. But if he had, then Shodin would have said something different anyway. "Yeah." He waited, expecting - no. Marland took a deep breath and just waited to see what Shodin would say.
And Shodin didn't say anything, just kept looking down the alley. He then shook his head and looked back at Marland. "So... I need a hairband and 'jackets'?" Shodin ran a hand through his hair. It didn't go through smoothly and he had to tug to get his hand out, wincing slightly. "I think I do, as well as a brush." He swept his hair behind his ears. "'Jackets'?"
Marland shrugged with his wings. "Warmer version of a shirt." It was the best thing he could come up at that point as he considered what else Shodin would need. His ears flicked down. It probably would have been good if he'd asked Kendal. She would have answered him - after she'd picked her jaw up from the floor.
"Ah, all right." There was a small pause. "Should we get going?"
Yeah, they should, but this time, Marland was going to pay more attention to his surroundings.
* * *
Shodin LOVED the shop. He picked a lot of the packets up, squinting at them and holding them at every single angle before asking Marland about them. And then they got to the sweets aisle. In hindsight, Marland REALLY should have avoided that. He was tempted to grab Shodin by the scruff of the shirt and drag him away, but they that would have brought attention to them, and he wouldn't have wanted that anyway, let alone right now.
Their basket currently had almost one of each chocolate bar, as well as a few other things that Shodin had liked the look of.
Marland was extremely glad he always brought a lot more money than what the shopping trip would need, out of habit.
They'd gotten everything else they needed, as far as Marland could think of, apart from shoes for Shodin, but the pair that he had would do him for a while anyway. They'd also gotten a bigger variety in meals, due to, obviously, Shodin's curiosity, but Marland wasn't going to try them - he knew what his body could ingest, and he wasn't going experiment and see what else he could POSSIBLY try and then end up killing himself because of that.
Shodin had been taken in by the self-service machine as well. Well, one of them found it enjoyable, and it made it interesting and not tedious for him. Even if the damned thing refused to recognise some of their items. Shodin just smiled guilelessly at the woman who came to sort it out. She always came in from Shodin's side, nearly hiding directly behind him. By the third time, she was starting to have eye-contact with Shodin and had actually flashed a nervous smile at Marland when he walked away. She had looked away before Marland really realised what had happened, and she was gone before he could react to that.
Not that he knew how he COULD react to that. His approximation of a human smile looked a lot like he was baring his teeth threateningly. If he smiled in the way that felt natural, it looked like he'd cocked his head to the side in confusion – and was baring his teeth threateningly. So he just didn't smile. It was easier that way; he didn't have to explain the action. Not that he'd felt the need to smile that recently either, so that didn't matter.
Arms laden with shopping, they headed back out of the shop. It was weird for Marland to have so many bags, but they surprisingly didn't grate on his nerves as he thought they would. It was probably because their combined weight dragged each other down, keeping the others around it in check.
Shodin had gotten the bag with the sweets in it. Marland wasn't sure if that had been a good idea on his part to let him carry it; Shodin had been continually peeking in the bag before they'd even left the shop, and he could see the intense curious look in his eyes again.
"Try them when you get home," Marland grumbled, as Shodin peeked again. They were spending too much time out in the open and Marland felt vulnerable, his wings bunched up close and his ears constantly on the move, on the lookout for anything that sounded out of place.
Shodin chuckled, ducking his head as he lowered the bag. "Apologies."
The crackle of the bags didn't completely cover the sound of scrabbling claws on the pavement. It was group of something, but how many, Marland couldn't tell. Not accurately anyway. There was at least more than... three, and whatever they were, they were heading straight for Marland and Shodin. Fucking hell, you had to be kidding. The last time he'd just finished shopping, he'd heard Others as well.
Growling, Marland glared at where the Others would come from if they did come straight for them. They could run, go straight back home, let another Hunter -or group of Hunters- deal with them. But Marland didn't know if there were any other Hunters in the area. Kendal's group, maybe, but they had a truck, so they could be anywhere by now. And it wasn't like he had anyone's contact details or a phone to call them with.
Fucking hell.
"Shodin," he said as he leaned the bags on the wall. The group was getting closer and closer to them very quickly. "Stay here and look after the bags - I'll be back in a bit." They sounded small, and hopefully they wouldn't have anything TOO unexpected about them.
"Marland...?" Shodin watched him put the bags down, his eyebrows drawn together as his lips pursed. "What is it?"
"Others." He'd made it two steps before Shodin's hand was clasped around his wrist.
"I'm coming-"
He bared his teeth, ears flattening and wings arching. "No, you're not." Dammit, every second he wasted-!
Shodin's eyes blazed. "You'll be hurt again!"
He snorted at that. "No-one'll care."
Shodin sighed harshly, yanking him back a step. "I would. And I know a few other people who would as well."
Marland blinked at him. How could he? Shodin barely knew anyone.
"I want to help."
And then it was too late. What skidded around the corner, Marland narrowed his eyes at and bared his teeth, his wings extending. It was the Others that he'd been hunting when he first found Shodin. It was small and cat-like, only about shin-level. It's short fur was completely black, but it would be easily seen even by Shodin because its eyes glowed blue, whether it was in the light or dark. It had three horns jutting out, pointing forwards, from its forehead and just below its ears.
And then five more padded in to view, long tails swishing.
Six. Six altogether. The last he'd seen, there were only three. Shit. Had they bred? Or did they have another way of duplicating themselves? There didn't seem to be that much size difference between them, and Marland couldn't really tell them apart either, other than one had a chewed up ear and another seemed to have longer hair than the rest.
Even if they COULD have ran, Marland wouldn't have wanted to. The Others were dangerous enough as it was when there had only been three of them, and they'd proven that their numbers could increase drastically in the space of a few short days. If he didn't get them now, they'd be harder to deal with later on.
Like last time, they started raising their front paws alternatively, all in sync with each other. Marland growled at them, flames bursting to his hand with a quick thought. It didn't deter them, but it did make their display falter. The Others backed up a few steps, heads switching between watching the flame and watching Marland properly. If they were distracted by it...
Marland flung the fireball above their heads.
Three watched it, while the other three continued to keep their eyes on Marland. No signal; maybe it was a heirarchy, or they were telepathic in some way.
And without another signal, three of them -two from the end of the line, and one from the centre- charged towards Marland and Shodin, their mouths wide, teeth glistening in the dim light.
Shit.
Marland took out one with a direct to the head, its brain and blood coating one wall in a thick spray. He missed the other, clipping its leg, making it stumble, but not enough to make it stop. The third -
Got taken out another blast of magic that definitely didn't come from him, the sudden change in light making him snarl and step back a pace.
Shaking his head, the bright spots in his vision making him move his head left and right to make sure he didn't have any blind spots, Marland kept one ear to the rest of the group, while one ear was turned behind him, just in case there was an ambush. He couldn't hear anything, but that still didn't make him feel more relaxed. It wasn't like he could hear EVERYTHING, especially in the middle of a fight.
There was another flash, this time not as bright as the one before it, and there was a shriek of pain and then a small wet thump. Marland could hear the paws of the other two as they tried to get away. He called the fire to his hands, and threw them. Marland heard one crash in to the ground, while he missed again with the other one. Guessing what would happen again, Marland shielded his head with his wings and heard another bark of pain before it stopped.
Peering through narrowed eyelids, Marland tested if he could see. His eyes had adjusted back again, so the world was still on the bright side, but it wasn't painful. The air stank of blood. His nose twitched at the smell.
Surveying the area around him, Marland could see that two of the Others were still alive, the ones that he'd missed initially. One was struggling to its feet, its three legs unable to support it well before it collapsed again, while the one that had been trying to run away and a large chunk of its haunch burned off.
Ears completely flat, Marland made his way over to the first one. The other growled, ears just as flat, its teeth bared as it tried to stand again. It once again didn't get very far before falling back down again. This time, Marland caught it by the horns before it hit the ground and twisted sharply. There was a loud crack and the Other stopped moving.
The last Other was on its feet, but it wasn't much better - as soon as a back leg touched the ground, it hopped, its tail whipping back and forth. Marland called to his fire and blasted right through it.
Turning away from the carnage, Marland looked at Shodin's wide eyes as he leaned heavily on the wall, panting hard and his hand clutched tightly on his shoulder.
Summary:
The world of Torpin is open, dragging in Others from different worlds. The majority of them are monsters, prone to violence. There are some, however, that are not, and are able to live amongst the human population, if allowed to. Marland should know; he's one of them. His job is to hunt and stop the Others that seek only to destroy what's around them. On one job, a human Other drops through a portal, an event which Marland has never heard of happening before. And that's not the only thing different about the human...
Rating: M
Notes: Contains swearing, fairly gory violence and death.
Any questions or clarifications, just ask. (Unless it’s, you know, plot-related. XD)
As for the italics thing, I'm going for if the word's in caps, then chances are, it's supposed to be in italics. Similarly, if there's words encompassed by -' '- , then whatever's in between them should be italicised.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 3,141
Total word count: 28, 534
Status: Work in Progress
There was already a notice out on him! Fucking - dammit! But -
"Yo, Marland." Female, older than him, on the same side as the male that had talked previously. But... A head peeked in to view; long, curly, black hair tied back, brown eyes, and he KNEW that scar that ran from her left cheek downwards. Kendal. She stepped out in the open, gun down, and hands away from it. Marland regarded her warily, stepping away, readying both his wings and his magic to defend and counterattack if he had to. He KNEW her, but he also knew that she was serious about her job, so she could just be using the fact that she knew him to get close to him.
She grinned at him, flashing her teeth. That didn't make him feel any more comfortable. "Don't worry; we're not going to attack you."
Behind them, muttered softly from the same person who Marland had heard cocking the gun before: "Yeah, right."
There was a small burst of noise from the other person on that side as they took three steps to cross the alley. Marland twitched, trying to keep the other person in view while also keeping his eye on Kendal, but it didn't work.
There was a slight scuffle, someone thumping up against a wall a few seconds later.
"You. Weren't. Listening. Were you?" a woman hissed. Hela. "No attacking him."
"But it's an Other!" the other protested, trying to keep his voice down but failing. Male, fairly young. Marland couldn't place his voice.
Another thump. "You LISTEN when we tell you something, all right? Marland's on our side."
"And he attacked those people!"
A frustrated sigh. "We KNOW him; he wouldn't do that."
"That's just-"
"Just what, huh? Just him finally going back to his baser instincts?" Marland could quite easily see her baring her teeth, her face no more than a centimetre away from the other human's face. She'd done that to Marland a few times, when she thought he was being 'ridiculously stupid', and he'd seen her do that to other people as well. Marland had mostly been intimidated by the fact that she was willing to get in to his personal space in the first place, before then freaking out about her getting that close.
"Yeah?"
"Tsh. Put. The gun away." Not a request, not exactly an order, because there was an unspoken 'before I ram it up your ass, you complete idiot' after it.
The other person complied, grumbling under his breath. He cut himself off, and Marland assumed that Hela had started glaring at him.
When he turned his attention back to Kendal, she was still there, hands not moved at all, waiting. So, unless that had been a very deliberate ploy (which seemed to be too much effort to go through to trick him), then they weren't thinking about taking him down. Not all of them anyway.
"He's new," Kendal offered as an explanation, eyeing the other side of the alley with narrowed eyes. "And we obviously didn't explain this very well to him." She shook her head, lips pursed.
Or, as Hela had said, he hadn't been listening in the first place. He might have just heard 'Other', his description, and then ignored everything else as 'unnecessary information'.
Marland eyed her warily, attention moving when the other person on her side came in to view. Male, red-haired, tall by human standards, heavily built. Gahn. One of Marland's ears flicked. Four people, and he hadn't heard a fifth, so where was Nillos? Unless there was a reason why they'd had to get a new person in their team.
"Huh," Gahn said again as he leaned back on the wall, arms crossed, peering at Shodin. "He doesn't LOOK very kidnapped."
Shodin blinked at them, head slightly tilted. "I wasn't."
Marland had taken him off the streets and then locked him up in his own home. ... Yeah, that did sound like he'd kidnapped him. But he wasn't going to attempt to explain that now, or else Shodin would have more questions - he probably had enough already just from these last five minutes.
Kendal's eyes flicked to their bandages, her lips twitching. "That's obvious."
Marland's ears flicked down at that before flicking up again. Just because they'd bandaged each other, that didn't mean that one wasn't kidnapped.
She glanced between them, before shaking her head. "I'd ask, but I know how tight-lipped Marland can be." Ask WHAT exactly?
Shodin blinked again at her statement, head tilting more. Probably surprised at her saying 'tight-lipped'. Maybe. He should really stop assuming. But if he was right, Marland could understand - Pai had pointed out that he'd been a lot more talkative since he'd first met Shodin, and Shodin probably thought that that was normal. It wasn't. It really, really wasn't.
Seeing that, Kendal's eyebrows rose. "Now you're making me REALLY curious. Hmm." She looked between them again, before saying, "There's a police investigation on you right now - they don't have anything on you apart from what you look like, but still, you should keep low in the meantime."
He tilted his head down, looking at her from the top of his eyes, ears flicked forward. It was his version of one raised eyebrow.
She winced, fingers to her forehead. "Yeah, I KNOW that's pretty hard for you, but there'll be another Other that they have to find and that'll take their attention away from you."
He hadn't DONE anything on purpose though the last couple of times he'd been out. The first one had been he'd been hunting when he got there too late and took Shodin home, and then for the second one, he'd been trying to get to another Other.
Straightening out from his defensive stance, Marland nodded, one ear going to the side before going up again. "Yeah, thanks." He wasn't on the noticeboard. Yet.
She flapped a dismissive hand at him. "No problem." She pulled back the cuff of her jacket to look at her watch. "We should get going now." She nodded to Shodin. "YOU need a hairband, and you'll also need a jacket. Go nag 'im to get them for you." With that, Kendal's team left, the two behind them sounding like Hela was DRAGGING the new guy away.
There was a brief silence after they left. Marland just wanted to squeeze his eyes shut and cover his face with a hand. It had definitely gone better than he'd expected it to, a gun fight and blood spilled, but he always felt drained after dealing with Kendal's team. They were sometimes like a force of nature that blew in, spun things around so nothing was in its proper place, before breezing out again. You never quite knew how things were going to go with them.
"Are they... friends?"
And if Kendal heard THAT question, she would have been laughing so hard at that. They weren't FRIENDS, but they didn't try to kill him, were friendly enough to him, so that was enough for Marland. Though... His eyes slid to Shodin. It HAD been enough for Marland, but now it seemed to be a bit different now. Not that he wanted friendship with Shodin, but it had been the expectancy of well, expecting more from him when he thought Shodin hadn't wanted the chocolate.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "They're other Hunters."
"Hmm." Shodin continued to look curiously down the alley. "So, they also hunt down Others, like you do?"
He nodded.
"In a team."
Marland's ears flicked down. Maybe he should have expected that. But if he had, then Shodin would have said something different anyway. "Yeah." He waited, expecting - no. Marland took a deep breath and just waited to see what Shodin would say.
And Shodin didn't say anything, just kept looking down the alley. He then shook his head and looked back at Marland. "So... I need a hairband and 'jackets'?" Shodin ran a hand through his hair. It didn't go through smoothly and he had to tug to get his hand out, wincing slightly. "I think I do, as well as a brush." He swept his hair behind his ears. "'Jackets'?"
Marland shrugged with his wings. "Warmer version of a shirt." It was the best thing he could come up at that point as he considered what else Shodin would need. His ears flicked down. It probably would have been good if he'd asked Kendal. She would have answered him - after she'd picked her jaw up from the floor.
"Ah, all right." There was a small pause. "Should we get going?"
Yeah, they should, but this time, Marland was going to pay more attention to his surroundings.
* * *
Shodin LOVED the shop. He picked a lot of the packets up, squinting at them and holding them at every single angle before asking Marland about them. And then they got to the sweets aisle. In hindsight, Marland REALLY should have avoided that. He was tempted to grab Shodin by the scruff of the shirt and drag him away, but they that would have brought attention to them, and he wouldn't have wanted that anyway, let alone right now.
Their basket currently had almost one of each chocolate bar, as well as a few other things that Shodin had liked the look of.
Marland was extremely glad he always brought a lot more money than what the shopping trip would need, out of habit.
They'd gotten everything else they needed, as far as Marland could think of, apart from shoes for Shodin, but the pair that he had would do him for a while anyway. They'd also gotten a bigger variety in meals, due to, obviously, Shodin's curiosity, but Marland wasn't going to try them - he knew what his body could ingest, and he wasn't going experiment and see what else he could POSSIBLY try and then end up killing himself because of that.
Shodin had been taken in by the self-service machine as well. Well, one of them found it enjoyable, and it made it interesting and not tedious for him. Even if the damned thing refused to recognise some of their items. Shodin just smiled guilelessly at the woman who came to sort it out. She always came in from Shodin's side, nearly hiding directly behind him. By the third time, she was starting to have eye-contact with Shodin and had actually flashed a nervous smile at Marland when he walked away. She had looked away before Marland really realised what had happened, and she was gone before he could react to that.
Not that he knew how he COULD react to that. His approximation of a human smile looked a lot like he was baring his teeth threateningly. If he smiled in the way that felt natural, it looked like he'd cocked his head to the side in confusion – and was baring his teeth threateningly. So he just didn't smile. It was easier that way; he didn't have to explain the action. Not that he'd felt the need to smile that recently either, so that didn't matter.
Arms laden with shopping, they headed back out of the shop. It was weird for Marland to have so many bags, but they surprisingly didn't grate on his nerves as he thought they would. It was probably because their combined weight dragged each other down, keeping the others around it in check.
Shodin had gotten the bag with the sweets in it. Marland wasn't sure if that had been a good idea on his part to let him carry it; Shodin had been continually peeking in the bag before they'd even left the shop, and he could see the intense curious look in his eyes again.
"Try them when you get home," Marland grumbled, as Shodin peeked again. They were spending too much time out in the open and Marland felt vulnerable, his wings bunched up close and his ears constantly on the move, on the lookout for anything that sounded out of place.
Shodin chuckled, ducking his head as he lowered the bag. "Apologies."
The crackle of the bags didn't completely cover the sound of scrabbling claws on the pavement. It was group of something, but how many, Marland couldn't tell. Not accurately anyway. There was at least more than... three, and whatever they were, they were heading straight for Marland and Shodin. Fucking hell, you had to be kidding. The last time he'd just finished shopping, he'd heard Others as well.
Growling, Marland glared at where the Others would come from if they did come straight for them. They could run, go straight back home, let another Hunter -or group of Hunters- deal with them. But Marland didn't know if there were any other Hunters in the area. Kendal's group, maybe, but they had a truck, so they could be anywhere by now. And it wasn't like he had anyone's contact details or a phone to call them with.
Fucking hell.
"Shodin," he said as he leaned the bags on the wall. The group was getting closer and closer to them very quickly. "Stay here and look after the bags - I'll be back in a bit." They sounded small, and hopefully they wouldn't have anything TOO unexpected about them.
"Marland...?" Shodin watched him put the bags down, his eyebrows drawn together as his lips pursed. "What is it?"
"Others." He'd made it two steps before Shodin's hand was clasped around his wrist.
"I'm coming-"
He bared his teeth, ears flattening and wings arching. "No, you're not." Dammit, every second he wasted-!
Shodin's eyes blazed. "You'll be hurt again!"
He snorted at that. "No-one'll care."
Shodin sighed harshly, yanking him back a step. "I would. And I know a few other people who would as well."
Marland blinked at him. How could he? Shodin barely knew anyone.
"I want to help."
And then it was too late. What skidded around the corner, Marland narrowed his eyes at and bared his teeth, his wings extending. It was the Others that he'd been hunting when he first found Shodin. It was small and cat-like, only about shin-level. It's short fur was completely black, but it would be easily seen even by Shodin because its eyes glowed blue, whether it was in the light or dark. It had three horns jutting out, pointing forwards, from its forehead and just below its ears.
And then five more padded in to view, long tails swishing.
Six. Six altogether. The last he'd seen, there were only three. Shit. Had they bred? Or did they have another way of duplicating themselves? There didn't seem to be that much size difference between them, and Marland couldn't really tell them apart either, other than one had a chewed up ear and another seemed to have longer hair than the rest.
Even if they COULD have ran, Marland wouldn't have wanted to. The Others were dangerous enough as it was when there had only been three of them, and they'd proven that their numbers could increase drastically in the space of a few short days. If he didn't get them now, they'd be harder to deal with later on.
Like last time, they started raising their front paws alternatively, all in sync with each other. Marland growled at them, flames bursting to his hand with a quick thought. It didn't deter them, but it did make their display falter. The Others backed up a few steps, heads switching between watching the flame and watching Marland properly. If they were distracted by it...
Marland flung the fireball above their heads.
Three watched it, while the other three continued to keep their eyes on Marland. No signal; maybe it was a heirarchy, or they were telepathic in some way.
And without another signal, three of them -two from the end of the line, and one from the centre- charged towards Marland and Shodin, their mouths wide, teeth glistening in the dim light.
Shit.
Marland took out one with a direct to the head, its brain and blood coating one wall in a thick spray. He missed the other, clipping its leg, making it stumble, but not enough to make it stop. The third -
Got taken out another blast of magic that definitely didn't come from him, the sudden change in light making him snarl and step back a pace.
Shaking his head, the bright spots in his vision making him move his head left and right to make sure he didn't have any blind spots, Marland kept one ear to the rest of the group, while one ear was turned behind him, just in case there was an ambush. He couldn't hear anything, but that still didn't make him feel more relaxed. It wasn't like he could hear EVERYTHING, especially in the middle of a fight.
There was another flash, this time not as bright as the one before it, and there was a shriek of pain and then a small wet thump. Marland could hear the paws of the other two as they tried to get away. He called the fire to his hands, and threw them. Marland heard one crash in to the ground, while he missed again with the other one. Guessing what would happen again, Marland shielded his head with his wings and heard another bark of pain before it stopped.
Peering through narrowed eyelids, Marland tested if he could see. His eyes had adjusted back again, so the world was still on the bright side, but it wasn't painful. The air stank of blood. His nose twitched at the smell.
Surveying the area around him, Marland could see that two of the Others were still alive, the ones that he'd missed initially. One was struggling to its feet, its three legs unable to support it well before it collapsed again, while the one that had been trying to run away and a large chunk of its haunch burned off.
Ears completely flat, Marland made his way over to the first one. The other growled, ears just as flat, its teeth bared as it tried to stand again. It once again didn't get very far before falling back down again. This time, Marland caught it by the horns before it hit the ground and twisted sharply. There was a loud crack and the Other stopped moving.
The last Other was on its feet, but it wasn't much better - as soon as a back leg touched the ground, it hopped, its tail whipping back and forth. Marland called to his fire and blasted right through it.
Turning away from the carnage, Marland looked at Shodin's wide eyes as he leaned heavily on the wall, panting hard and his hand clutched tightly on his shoulder.
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Date: Nov. 15th, 2010 11:02 am (UTC)Ahaha, here I thought things were going to be really bad for Marland, but it looks like it was another false call. Safe, for now. =P
New characters! \o/ Hm, I quite like the dynamics of this team. They all sound pretty unique. And eee, another character that's not scared of Marland and isn't scared of getting into his personal space.
I wonder if something happened to this Nillos person? =x
"Huh," Gahn said again as he leaned back on the wall, arms crossed, peering at Shodin. "He doesn't LOOK very kidnapped."
*grins* Hahahahaha.
"Are they... friends?"
Shodin's so cuuuuuute.
Fight!! Ah, those Others are back again. And ehhhh, did they really multiply just like that?
Is that Shodin doing magic? :3
no subject
Date: Nov. 18th, 2010 07:49 am (UTC)XD;; Yeah, with lots of pushing. Not doing that again unless the words are actually flowing for me.
XD
I really like them too. :3
^ ^ I'm not entirely sure what's happened to him, but I'm imagining a head injury - possibly broken or cracked bones too. He got injured fairly badly.
XD
Yep, fight! They either multiplied just like that (have a brood that grow up really quickly [haha, xenomorphs. Eek.], or there had been a lot of them in the background already.
Heeee. :3