Searching [Chapter 9]

[esp_dragon]

Fandom: Original
Summary: The world of Torpin is open, dragging in xeni from other 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 xeni that seek only to destroy what's around them. On one job, a human xeno 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: R
Notes: Contains swearing, bloody violence and death.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 6,696
Total word count: 62,405
Status: Work in Progress (reposting, but is complete)



Marland's ears went down at the sound of the phone. Who the hell was phoning here? He ignored it in favour of cleaning the dishes. It rang out, and then started ringing again straight after. It happened a third time, and Marland rolled his eyes, dumping the plate back in the water.

He picked it up. "Yeah?"

"Marland?"

He blinked, then stared at the receiver. "Yeah?" Who the hell knew this number to call him?

"It's Balt here-"

"Shodin's sleeping." Had gone to bed probably half-an-hour ago, his inner clock completely screwed up.

"Oh, no, I wasn't wanting to speak to him right now. It's you I want to talk to - I was just wondering if you were okay."

Marland stared at the receiver some more. What the hell? "I'm fine," he said bluntly, wanting to just put the phone down. One of the other reasons why he hadn't been interested in going with Shodin was because he hadn't felt like talking.

"Ah, that's good. I was worried when you weren't with Shodin this afternoon."

…Huh. Maybe it wasn't just Shodin that could make him stare incredulously so much. It had been a while since he'd done that to something Shodin had said or done though. "I'm fine," he said again, one ear flicking back.

"You…haven't been hurt then?"

What? Marland's other ear went back in confusion. "No." What the hell was this conversation about? It didn't sound like Balt was asking about him fighting xeni.

"Oh, good. It was just – Shodin, and I wasn't sure if he was still the same and-"

"What?" What the hell did he mean 'still the same'?

There was a pause and all Marland could hear was Balt breathing. "So, he hasn't shown…?"

"Hasn't. Shown. What?" This entire conversation was getting really fucking frustrating. Marland suddenly appreciated Shodin being extremely direct when they talked. How the hell had those two had a conversation without it being five hours long? …It probably had been, knowing Shodin.

"Shodin – ah, Ronthar…" Balt trailed off. Marland growled, not caring if he scared him. Maybe if he did, Balt would stop talking and hang up. Balt cleared his throat. "Ronthar… He, um…" There was a sigh and some more silence. "He hates xeni," Balt finally said, his voice soft.

Marland froze, his mind blanking. "He what?"

"Ronthar does; I guess Shodin is okay with you?" Balt said in a rush. "I mean, I just thought that he might have been hurting you and–"

Marland snarled at the phone, his ears pinned back and he bared his teeth at the phone. "Shodin? Hurting me?" The idiot chased after him with bandages and plasters whenever he got a scratch! He was more likely to hurt Shodin while he patched him up than Shodin doing it deliberately!

"Well, not Shodin, but if he were to remember more about his life… Like about Saisha... I'm not-"

He cut him off with a growl. Balt shut up immediately. "What about ‘Saisha’?" And why the hell was he asking? He should just slam the phone down already.

"She… ah, she was…"

Balt probably wouldn’t notice seeing how long he took to say anything. Marland could hear a faint rustling down the line as Balt fiddled with something.

"She was killed by a xeno," Balt said quietly. "I heard Ronthar didn't take it too well."

Shit. Shitting – fucking - ! That was just fucking great. Just. Fucking - Marland snarled again.

"So that was why I wanted to make sure," Balt continued quickly, "what with him now having magic and, well, you can't really defend-"

"I've got my own magic, so fuck off!" Marland slammed the phone down and stalked over to the sink. What the fucking hell? Just what. The. Fucking. Hell.

The phone didn't ring again.

The water sloshed violently in the sink as Marland ripped the plate he'd been cleaning out. He scrubbed at it, his hearting beating wildly in his chest, his head buzzing with blood and fury, and also with the words that Balt had said. He couldn't block them out. Whenever he tried to, they came back, or something else that Balt had said would make itself known, being so completely obvious is his blank mind.

He could hear and feel his claws clinking against the plate and he tried to use that as a distraction, to bring his claws back in. It worked, to an extent. He'd retract his claws, they'd come out again, and the cycle of concentration would start up again. But whenever he paused long enough, whenever he was successful, a torrent of Balt's words would come flooding back, louder than before.

Somehow he was able to finish with the washing up, and hadn't woken up Shodin either in the process, which Marland supposed he shouldn't be too surprised about, seeing as he hadn't woken up right after the phone call either.

But after doing that, Marland was left alone with his thoughts. There wasn't anything else he could do. He wouldn't go out – look at what had happened the last time he'd stormed off and been so completely distracted. Staying inside was pointless as well; the only thing he could do was sleep. But he knew that he wouldn't be able to accomplish that, not with the way he feeling was right then.

It didn't make any sense. Shodin didn't have any sort of problems with him, didn't understand that it would have been completely normal to avoid him. But that was Shodin. Shodin, who didn't have any memories of xeni. Ronthar on the other hand…

Marland paced the main area, whirling around when he neared the wall, his ears pinned back, his wings outstretched around him, his claws gripping the ground. He didn't know if the fact that his claws catching on the ground was a welcome distraction or if it was pissing him off more. Not that he really could be.

So what the fuck was going to happen now? Was he just going to wait until Shodin recovered his memories and then he'd try to kill him? If Shodin got his memories back. He hadn't seemed that interested in getting them back, but he hadn't known what he'd lost.

Marland paused when another thought hit him.

…Was that how Shodin had gotten all those injuries? From being attacked by a xeno?

Fucking hell.

The room was filled with the unbroken sound of Marland growling as he began pacing again, but not as heatedly as before.

There…wasn't much Marland could do. If Shodin got his memories back, there wasn't anything Marland could do about that; if Shodin didn't get his memories back, Marland would just be waiting for when Shodin would get his memory back. But, again, Marland knew nothing about memory problems and how they were fixed.

Shoulders slumped, wings drooping, Marland knew that he could only wait. Shodin hadn't said anything about having any solid memories come to him, apart from the flashes of feelings he sometimes got but… Marland's mind trailed off and then inspected that thought.

The only times Shodin really got pissed off at him was when he thought Marland was going to attempt to do something stupid that would result in him getting hurt more. So, maybe…

Marland shook his head and sighed. He sat down on the closest chair, his wings' flapping slowing him just enough that it was at least a little controlled. He was thinking about this too much – but there wasn't anything to do but think about this. All of Balt's words were repeating themselves in Marland's mind, echoing over each other and making each other indistinct, so that at least helped. It didn't stop the dread growing in Marland's stomach at every word, even if he didn't quite know what he was hearing.

Maybe he could try knocking himself out with…something. He couldn't really think about anything though. And it was a stupid thing to think about, but it was better than thinking about the phone call.

His ears twitching, Marland started poking at the chair with a claw. He'd already shredded one of the others, so he may as well start on the others. It was an inane thought but he welcomed it anyway, trying to concentrate his focus solely on that. He failed, still hearing the whispering faintly in his mind like it never completely stopped, but it was easier to ignore with his head down like that. In some ways, his mind was blank, but as he thought of how else he could make the hole bigger, it at least stopped him from caring so much.

When he'd ripped a line from one corner to the next, Marland gave up on trying to distract himself. Balt's voice was still in his head, but it had faded, wasn't as powerful. He wasn't paying as much attention and he'd figured out how to change track when it did come up, how to rip himself away from that.

He did feel numb though, wrung out.

But, he did know that Shodin always surprised him, always acted differently from what he expected him to. So, maybe Shodin would do that now this time as well if he did get his memories back.

* * *
Marland woke up feeling pretty crap the next day. He had about a second's peace before he was reminded why he felt so crap. Somehow he felt slightly better that it was dark outside the window, but then, how long had he been sleeping for?

He could hear Shodin moving around outside his room, humming to himself, the smell of cooking beef thick in the air. Marland was tempted to dig himself further into the bed, hoping that he’d be able to fall back asleep.

But that was useless, and he knew it was futile to even try.

Marland dragged himself out of bed, his ears at a wary midpoint between up and down, his wings lower than usual as well. There wasn't any point in pretending he was feeling okay, because he'd slip one way or another, and Shodin would probably notice straight away anyway.

And Shodin did, as soon as he looked away from the cooker.

"Marland…? What's wrong?"

Marland looked away, his ears flat. What the hell could he say? He couldn't tell him that he knew that Ronthar hated xeni and argh-! He probably should have just hid away in his room or something.

Shodin glanced at the simmering pot, and then switched off the heat before he came over.

"Marland…?"

He growled, more at himself than trying to warn Shodin away. That would never work, and it just made Shodin try harder if he did that.

"Balt phoned when you were asleep," he muttered.

Shodin blinked. "He did?" He then frowned, looking away and brushing a finger over his cheek. "That's strange; I don't know the phone number for here."

Marland stared at him. That was right; Shodin couldn't have known the number to tell Balt – hell, he didn't know the number of the flat and he'd been staying in it for over a decade! He thought about it, his ears twitching. "You told him where we lived?"

Shodin shook his head slowly. "I don't think I did, and" –he shrugged, looking back to him- "I wouldn't be able to tell anyone where we lived; not without leading them here."

Marland's stomach started to twist further as another level of dread enveloped him. What the hell? How the hell had Balt gotten his number? Okay, fine, Marland was listed as living here, and he had no idea what you had to do to find out where a person lived, but as Marland thought about it, it seemed like it was a lot of effort to find him. Just to find out if he was okay? That seemed a little over the top.

Shodin crossed his arms, his right index finger tapping a steady beat. "Is it hard to find out someone's phone number?"

"It depends on what information you have of the person you're looking for. Name's the best thing to know, and their address after that." But, maybe… Marland considered a stray thought. "I might be able to be found because I'm a xeno, but I dunno how you'd do that."

Shodin bowed his head, his shoulders slumping. "Either way, it doesn't sound good that Balt has this number."

"No, it doesn't," he said quietly. Maybe Balt really was worried about him –if Shodin knew how to work technology, he'd probably do the same- but it just seemed weird to Marland for someone to put that much effort in finding him. He hunched his shoulders. Why was it okay for Shodin to be worried about him, but not Balt? Because he didn't know him?

Balt had already shown that he didn't mind Marland, and had worried about him as well. Like Shodin – and not like Ronthar. Marland shoved that thought away. So, maybe there was a good reason how Balt got his number. Marland couldn't think of one, but Shodin always acted outside of his expectations.

Marland shook his head. "Let's just go eat," he mumbled. He'd overreacted to things before, so this could be another time where he was overthinking things and jumping to conclusions.

If he was right though, he'd have to start thinking about the best ways out of the building again.

* * *
The next day, the phone rang again.

It was Shodin who picked it up, Marland barely awake and out of his room. Shodin held the receiver up to his face, like he was supposed to, one hand cradling the bottom. "Hello? … Ah, good evening, Balt." Most of Marland's sleepiness had gone when the phone rang; as soon as Shodin said 'Balt', he was completely awake, and he padded forward, his ears pricked forward.

"Oh, I'm fine," Shodin said, watching him come closer. He lifted the receiver away from his head and turned it towards Marland.

He shook his head, flicking his ears back and forward. Shodin looked up at them, and then nodded, bringing the receiver back to his ear.

"That's good to hear. I'm just sorry that we had to cut our conversation short last time." The voice was tinny but Marland could still hear him clearly.

Shodin shook his head, a small wary smile on his face. "We had talked for a long time, and the café closed."

Balt laughed at that. "Mmm. I had some more work to do anyway."

There was a brief beat of silence. "Balt, I was wondering, how did you know this number?"

"Hmm? I dialled 2582."

Shodin glanced at him, and Marland shrugged, lifting his wings, his head tilted at the receiver.

"Oh-!" Balt chuckled. "Um, I guess you wouldn't know that is; it's a number you call to find out the number of the person who called you last."

They both blinked, and Marland's ears went down as he huffed. So he had been overthinking things about the phone number. Shodin smiled at him, his shoulders relaxing. "Ah, okay; we had wondered."

"It must have seemed really weird how I knew your number…"

Marland wandered away over to the kitchen, not interested in hearing the rest of the conversation. He could still hear Balt's voice, but he couldn't really distinguish the words so that was all right. He poked at the smoking pot, making sure that nothing was sticking to the bottom. There wasn't, but he stirred it anyway, the grate helping to cover Balt's voice.

After that he started making his own meal. Shodin came over when it was nearly done.

Huh. That was quick.

Shodin raised an eyebrow at him, his eyes twinkling and tried to hide a smile. "I am capable of keeping a conversation short."

He snorted at that, turning away. He was aware of that; it was just that it didn't happen very often.

* * *
Over the next week, Shodin met with Balt a few more times as he tried to find out more about his previous life. Marland hadn't seen a change in him over that time either so his initial wariness about Shodin suddenly gaining his memories and then attacking him faded. It was still there, a niggling worry, but it definitely wasn't as bad as before.

"He does still want to meet with you, you know," Shodin said as they walked down to the shop.

He wrinkled his snout, his wings shrugging for him. After that phone call, he really didn't feel like talking with Balt. He didn't want to be studied to make sure that he really was all right or something. And they always met during the day anyway, so there was no way that he would be able to go out without something happening. The place where they met was in the centre of Lahstron, with large windows and seemed to be busy whenever Shodin went. So, really, no.

He didn't exactly want to just be sitting there while the other two chattered on about stuff he didn't care about, just waiting for the screaming or shooting to start.

Shodin twitched his lips at him, chuckling softly. "I guess this would be a bad time to say that I think Balt can be very stubborn as well?"

Marland eyed him. He couldn't be serious. But, he could ignore Balt easier since he wasn't actually talking to him face-to-face.

"Ah well," Shodin sighed, looking up at the sprinkling of stars in the clear sky.

They continued on like that for a little longer, Shodin humming as they went along. The humming trailed off at one point and it wasn't long after that that Shodin spoke up again.

"I don't think I'll talk with Balt again, after this."

Marland's head snapped to him, startled, his ears pinned on Shodin. "What?"

Shodin shrugged, a finger playing with a few strands of hair that had escaped his hair tie. "I know what I did before and…I'm not interested, really," he said, his tone wistful, his eyes still skyward.

"You're not?" Why didn't he want to go back?

Shodin breathed in deeply, and breathed out just as deeply. "I prefer this life," he said simply, a small smile curling his lips.

The hell? "That makes no sense!" Marland spluttered, his ears going back in confusion. Shodin preferred living a life where he came out in the dead of night, when he was normally diurnal, and getting attacked by xeni or going after xeni on a semi-regular basis? Not to mention, why wouldn't he want to live with other humans again?

His smile just grew, eyes shining. "You also need someone to keep you out of trouble," he said, his voice light.

Marland's ears went to the side. Did not, his mind went mulishly. He huffed, turning away. Shodin chuckled, bringing his head down.

"You told him?" Marland didn't exactly know Balt very well, but he seemed pretty enthusiastic. He'd probably be disappointed that he wouldn't be seeing Shodin again.

Shodin shook his head. "Not yet; I will at the next chance I get."

So, probably in the next day or so. He flicked an ear at Shodin. Marland wasn't sure what to call the swirl of emotions that was swelling in him. It was largely relief, and there was also a lightening feeling around his chest.

They continued on to the shops.

* * *
Fucking hell. Marland ducked the –what? tentacle? whip? It was still attached to the xeno, so it was probably a tentacle- tentacle and brought up a hand swathed in his magic, trying to grab it. He missed, but his flames got it; the xeno snatched its tentacle back with a high-pitched howl.

Marland's ears flattened. He really hated this xeno; it was a brightly coloured, almost neon, red. Its body wasn't fixed, where it seemed to be able to control and mould its body into whatever shape it wanted. It was vaguely humanoid at the moment, but as Marland watched, its body shifted, growing a pair of leathery wings on its back.

When Marland and Shodin had come across it, it looked nearly exactly like the human man that it had been standing next to, apart from being red all over. Now, after the man had ran away, it had a mix of Shodin's hands and height, while it seemed to be trying to copy Marland's scales and horns.

The other thing that Marland hated about it was that it didn't stop screeching. It screeched when it attacked, when it defended, when it was hurt, when it moved. Marland couldn't tell if there was a difference between them all. Maybe his hearing range was too low to hear it or something.

The xeno screeched again when Marland's sight flashed white. At least he wouldn't have to worry about wondering if it had moved while he was blinded. His hand engulfed in flames, Marland threw a fireball at it, his ears clamped to his skull in preparation.

It didn't make a difference; the scream still felt like it was piercing his skull.

It didn't seem to be move as well as before though. Its movements weren't as fluid, and the time it took to change its shape was becoming sluggish too.

Good. Because otherwise, Marland had no idea how to kill it. Its head didn't exactly stay in position, and he wasn't sure if it even had a heart. It probably did, but that probably wouldn't stay in a fixed place either.

Marland lunged to the side from another wildly aimed attack, and struck it low in the torso, causing it to thrash some more. The tentacles drooped, and then fell, slapping onto the pavement.

His breath coming in deep gulps, Marland continued to watch it, in case it wasn't completely dead. They didn't have any way of telling though – it didn't breathe unless it was to screech, and Marland wasn't really sure what would happen if they took off the part that looked like a head. Maybe it'd grow into another xeno, or it would rejoin with the main body without any problems. Marland wasn't interested in experimenting.

The tentacles twitched as Shodin approached it, a pipe in hand. He poked at the main body, then hastily scrabbled back as the tentacles whirled towards him. There was another white-out, lasting longer than the previous ones; Marland only heard the crackling sound afterwards, and then he heard the thump of something hitting the ground heavily, the smell of cooked meat hitting him shortly after.

Blinking and waiting for his eyesight to clear, Marland kept an ear out for any sounds that weren't supposed to be there, but apart from the wind whistling through the street, he couldn't hear anything else.

Shodin was leaning on a nearby wall, but not as badly as he used to, and he waved at Marland weakly, a small smile on his face. Not panicking. Not badly, anyway.

Marland eyed the xeno, where it lay smoking, and threw a fireball at it, just in case. This time, there wasn't a twitch when it got hit.

Really, it did seem like they'd be attacked at least once every two trips they went out. Or at least have some sort of encounter with a xeno, even if they didn't actually fight it.

They didn't have to wait long for Laris and Nav to arrive; Nav's eyebrows were somewhere in the sky when he got out of the van as he stared at the xeno.

Laris, on the other hand, was looking at Marland. "Shit, Marland," he said as he came over, "we thought you'd died."

Marland blinked at him, his ears slowly going back in confusion. What? Why would they think – oh. They hadn't waited for Laris and Nav to pick the xeni up when they’d last called it in. "I'm not."

Laris snorted, shaking his head. "Yeah, I can see that." He glanced over at Nav, who looked like he was considering using the pole to poke the xeno. He rolled his eyes at his antics. "Anything about this one?"

Marland shrugged. "A sort of shapeshifter. Nothing else apart from that."

Laris nodded slowly, as he took a closer look at the xeno. "All right – here," he said after he had rummaged around in a pocket.

Huh. Two envelopes. "Thanks."

They waved goodbye to each other and continued making their way to the shop. If nothing else happened, they might actually make it before the sun rose.

He glanced at Shodin, who, other than looking a little pale, didn't seem that bad. Shodin threw him a smile when he saw him looking.

"I think my body's mostly learned it's okay to use magic now."

It also seemed like he was getting used to using it offensively as well, and not just calling it. "Yeah," he agreed. He still had the problem of being briefly blinded every single time Shodin used his magic, but he could still hear things coming at him, so he wasn't completely defenceless during then.

A blustery wind blew by, and Marland brought his wings in close to him. The temperature had been dropping quickly and steadily the longer they stayed out; it had already been pretty cold when they'd first stepped out, and he grumbled, trying to make sure his wings could be as warm as possible. Which wasn't much, since they seemed to be made to let cold slip in easily through the folds.

"Marland?" Shodin was looking curiously at him as he pulled in his wings. "What's wrong?"

"'S getting cold." It was the start of autumn; it shouldn't be like this already! But the weather was never that constant in Lahstron, having some really warm days in the last month of the year, and having flurries of snow in the middle. Still, there was usually a vaguely followable pattern to the weather.

Shodin had his hands deep inside jacket pockets, his shoulders hunched over when the second wind blew around them. Marland blinked when he saw a bit of white float down from the sky.

He glanced up, not entirely believing what he saw.

But he'd seen it correctly – it was beginning to snow. It was light, tiny little pieces so far, but that could change far too quickly.

His ears flattened and he stifled a whine at the back of his throat. Fuck. Marland hated the cold. He couldn't do anything to warm his wings and at some points it just felt like he was carrying giant blocks of ice attached to his back. Ugh. At least they were close to the shop now. They'd be inside for a while, and maybe the weather change would be over by the time they came out again. Doubtful, but it could happen.

"Snow…?" Shodin had his head tilted back up at the sky, a hand outstretched.

"Yeah." Well, at least he didn't have to explain it to him.

Shodin sighed, his breath curling in front of him, and then turned away, glancing at his wings. His eyes then widened. "Oh. Your wings-"

"'ll be fine," he completed grumpily, bringing them in further. He really didn't want to give Shodin something else to fuss over.

Shodin's mouth twitched, his eyes curving as he smiled. "We should probably hurry anyway," he said as he dug his hand back into its pocket and started moving again.

Marland rolled his eyes. Shodin had something else to fuss over. Great. He moved to catch up with him, keeping an eye on the weather. It didn't look that bad, not yet; he just hoped that it would stay like that until they got home.

* * *
Ugh. Marland shook his head, and then started stiffly beating his wings as soon as he stepped into the flat, dumping the shopping on the floor. His wings were shivering, each movement an effort to make. No, the weather hadn't stayed light, and it seemed like it had waited for them to step out of the shop before it started to unload every bit of available snow the clouds had on their heads. He was wet, frickin' freezing, and he could feel the water in his ears. Growling, he shook his head again. It didn't help. It felt like it moved, but that was probably his imagination.

And because the flat was that much warmer than outside, he could feel his wings reacting painfully to the sudden change in temperature. Fuckin' great. He could hear the wind and snow through the window as it blustered around, even with the water in his ears.

Shodin had hung up his jacket and pulled out his hair tie, running a hand through his hair and shaking it. Water went flying with every shake. Sighing, Shodin headed off somewhere while Marland was still grumbling and trying to get the water out his ears.

"Here."

Turning his attention away from clearing his ears, Marland saw that Shodin had brought over a pair of towels.

"Thanks," he grunted, taking one. He flapped his wings a couple more times, getting rid of as much excess water as he could. After sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs, Marland extended his right wing around him and began drying it properly.

The membrane was sensitive at the contact, but not enough to make it flinch away. Marland would hear Shodin scrubbing at his hair.

His wings were just too big. Most of the snow had melted into water, so it ran off fairly easily. It didn't help with the cold though. Their size was the reason why he didn't bother drying them when he got out the shower, because it took so damn long and it was awkward to do.

"Need help?" Shodin asked when he was finished with his hair.

Marland looked across the table at him, his ears forward. Shodin was walking towards him, his towel still in hand, his hair looking messy, but mostly dry. "What with?"

"The back of your wings."

He'd forgotten about that. Normally he'd throw over part of the towel to get that side, but that didn't have any finesse to it; most of the time, he ended up missing the spot that he'd wanted to hit, or he just couldn't reach into the crevices.

"…Yeah, okay."

Shodin grinned at him.

Marland watched Shodin get closer, turning a little more in his chair to give Shodin better access. Shodin paused only for a second before he began drying Marland's wing. He did it gently, without any rush to it, almost like when Shodin brushed his own hair.

Marland waited a few seconds, just in case Shodin changed the way he was doing it, but he didn't, so he started working on his side again. After a short while, Shodin started humming. Marland glared darkly at him when he recognised the tune: the annoying quiz show about general knowledge with the host who had a grating voice.

The tune trailed off slowly when Shodin noticed him. He chuckled.

"Do you want another song?"

Marland rolled his eyes, snorting and focused back at the task on hand. Shodin would end up humming again soon anyway even if he stopped right then, and it would end up morphing into the same damn tune anyway.

Eventually, Marland's wing wasn't as wet or as cold any more (at least on his side) so he started on his other wing.

"Marland?"

He grunted, an ear turned towards Shodin.

"Could you turn around please?"

Right. His left wing was facing the table. Marland turned to let Shodin dry his other wing.

His wings had mostly stopped tingling by then and his right wing definitely felt better.

Marland finished first, so with nothing else to do, he listened to the snow hitting the window and Shodin's humming. He was amused when he realised that Shodin was merging two tunes together, starting with one, and ending with another, before he started it all over again.

"There," Shodin said finally, stepping away. "Done."

Marland brought in his wing before he flapped both of them. They moved a lot easier, and he could feel the blood pumping through them.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Shodin said as he headed to the shopping bags and started to unpack them. "So," he said, holding up food packs, "time to eat?"

Marland nodded, his head tilted to the side, one ear twitching down. "Yeah."

He didn't get why Shodin suddenly beamed at him when he did that, but he shrugged it off. He hardly ever got Shodin's drives and motivations, so this was nothing new.

* * *
The snow went on and off for the rest of the night, and Shodin spent most of it at the window, a chair pulled up beside it, watching the fat flakes drift down in strings of white. Marland watched them too, further away, on the far side of the table, but he lost interest eventually, not quite as captivated as Shodin was.

He'd also watched Shodin at the same time, wondering about his memory problems again. If Shodin had grown up in Lahstron, then he'd know about snow, but then again, he'd pretty much had to relearn everything, so maybe apart from moving and talking, everything else had been wiped clean.

The snow also carried on for the next few days, mostly starting in the mornings and stopping by the evening, as far as Marland could tell.

Marland had refused to go out during that time, and the only reason why they had decided to leave the flat was because they had run out of things to eat and drink. Unfortunately, the snow hadn't melted in the streets that much, and Marland eyed the ice with distaste.

Drawing his wings in, for what little use that would do in the long run, Marland began trudging through it, his claws out for extra grip. Shodin followed him carefully, his shoes crunching with every step. He was wearing the new jacket he'd gotten the last time they'd been out, just in case. Marland wished it had been a whole lot later before Shodin had needed to use it.

Marland's breath froze in front of him every single time he breathed, and his ears were down in a vain attempt to keep them warm.

At least it wasn't snowing.

Shodin had learned very quickly to not rush going through the snow after he'd slipped and nearly fell when he'd stood in a pile of snow that covered a large stretch of ice, so followed after him at a sedate pace.

Of course, they were only a few minutes away from the shop when Marland heard something running through the snow, too fast to be a human, and it sounded like it had more than four legs, so it probably wasn't native to Torpin either. Was there a new portal opening every hour or something? It was starting to feel like it was every single time they went out they stumbled across a xeno. Before, Marland had to actively search to find one; it used to take him hours before he got on the track of one. He wasn't going out as often as he used to before he'd met Shodin – which made that worse in some cases, when Marland thought about it.

Unwillingly, Marland lifted his ears and listened for what direction it was going in.

It was moving away from them. Obviously. Bringing his ears back down again, Marland said, "There's a xeno over there," as he pointed with a jerk of his head. He began half-stomping in that direction, partially to make sure he had proper grip and partially to take his frustration out on the snow. He did not want to be out in the cold any more than he had to.

The sound of them approaching it must have attracted the xeno's attention, because Marland could hear it change direction and start bounding towards them. It didn't seem like it was affected by the snow, Marland noted sourly.

They hadn't gone very far before something jumped into view. Fuck. It looked mostly like a horse, but hairier and bigger; it had six legs, two wide horns on its head that were curved forward and were about the length of his forearm. It was also completely white.

It took one look at them, and then threw its head back, snorting and pawing the ground. When it did that, shadows started to coaleasce in the space between its horns, growing quickly.

Marland dived out of the way, just as the xeno waved its head again and the shadow ball sped towards him. It missed, screaming past his wings, and Marland could already see that he and Shodin were at a disadvantage: they had problems balancing on the ice and moving through the snow, while the xeno didn't seem to even notice it.

Pawing the ground again, the xeno then reared back and started charging at Marland. He quickly summoned a small flame and aimed for the xeno's face. He got a direct hit, right between the eyes; the attack was too small though, and was only good enough as a distraction, which was what he'd intended it to be. It did its job, stopping the xeno in its tracks as it reared back again, baying in pain.

Everything was brightening slowly, and Marland could hear a crinkling sound in the air, almost like slow hissing static. Forewarned, he covered his eyes with an arm, not wanting to bring out his wings.

A few seconds later, the xeno bellowed in pain and Marland wrinkled his snout at the burnt smell that wafted over to him. It wasn't enough though; Marland had heard it stumble a few steps, but not fall.

He called the fire to his hands and threw as soon as he opened his eyes.

"Marl-!"

He was then thrown back by another blast of the xeno's magic. It was a wild toss and hit him directly on the shoulder, rather than the torso. He hit the ground with his hands and knees, his claws digging in, but his momentum carried him further. He hissed as his fingers went over his claws before yanking his claws out before he did any more damage.

And that was the sound of the xeno charging at him again.

The world flashed again and the back end of the xeno crumpled, the ground shaking when it fell. Snorting, it tried to pull itself up.

Getting up quickly, Marland summoned his fire and threw it. He got it in the back, where its fur caught fire and the xeno thrashed. Fuck. His job was to kill xeni, but he didn't want to torture them. It was already shrieking in pain, and Marland began walking towards it, calling his flame to him again. He stood next to it, close, but not close enough to be gorged by its wickedly-sharp horns.

When it bellowed again, he lunged and drove his burning fist in its mouth. It stopped moving instantly, slumping and nearly dragging him down.

Removing his hand grimly from its mouth, Marland shook his hand to get rid of the blood and whatever else was on it.

"Marland, do you think we should put out-"

That was when the world burned white, a tremendous bang surrounding them, and Marland was both blinded and deaf, a hollow ringing in his ears that seemed to echo in his head as well.

What the fuck just happened? Marland twisted left and right, snarling, but he couldn't see anything, couldn't hear himself, no matter how loud he was. He extended his wings, ignored the chill he felt instantly, in case he was attacked while he was vulnerable.

What-

Something grabbed hold of his wings, little pinpricks on the back of them. Shit. The cat xeni ag-

He howled in pain, something coursing through him in a flash. He fell, the snow cushioning him slightly, though it didn't matter. It felt like his skin was buzzing, and he convulsed again as another shock ran through his body.

Just as his vision began to clear, Marland lost consciousness.


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