![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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 lots of swearing. Also contains torture, and gory death.
Any questions or clarifications, just ask. (Unless it’s, you know, plot-related. XD)
I don't know if the ending of this part works or makes sense, but I'm getting too pumped about the other writing projects that I'm getting far too distracted from characterisation. DD:
This is now on hold until I've done all my other writing tasks. Hopefully I'll start back up again in the New Year.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 9,564
Total word count: 75,073
Status: Work in Progress
Marland froze, feeling like the floor had just disappeared from under him and his stomach was hanging somewhere above his head.
Shod – Ronthar had his memories back. Marland stared at him, absolutely no idea what to do or say.
Ronthar's eyebrow was still up. "And you are…?"
Marland looked away, feeling even worse than he had been two seconds ago. Ronthar had his memories back – and his memories of when he was Shodin was gone.
"It's…" He clenched his teeth, feeling so incredibly alone, and he hadn't realised that he no longer felt that. "It's Marland," he said quietly.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Marland."
He glanced at Sh – Ronthar from the corner of his eyes. Ronthar wasn't smiling, wasn't even looking at him. He'd said that out of a habit of being polite than anything else.
Marland got up and walked to the other side of the room. He lay down slowly, his ears feeling like they would never come back up again. His mind felt dead, broken; it kept repeating the fact that Shodin no longer existed, that there was a complete stranger in the room with him.
He angled himself so that he was facing Ronthar, just in case. With his arms pillowing his head, Marland closed his eyes and tried to ignore everything.
* * *
He must have dozed off at some point, or just ignored things too well, because Sho – Ronthar was making his way quietly over, when Marland was sure he hadn't heard him getting up.
Ronthar stopped a few short feet away from him and then sat down. Marland waited, not opening his eyes, wondering what he would do or say.
"How long have you been here for?"
Marland hunched over, and was just able to stop his wings from covering his head. It would have been obvious to S – Ronthar that he was awake, so he could either ignore him, or talk with him. Marland… wanted to do both. He didn't want to talk with Ronthar – he wanted to talk with Shodin. And… he wilted.
Sighing, he looked up at Ronthar, who was sitting cross-legged in front of him. He looked away again immediately, not sure if he was able to suppress the flinch at seeing an echo of Shodin.
"Dunno," he muttered mostly to the ground.
"Ah, all right."
They sat there in awkward silence, Marland feeling like he was partially sinking through the floor with how much he wanted to be out of the situation.
Ronthar sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I apologise for snapping at you earlier."
Marland grunted, one ear twitching. Then he blinked, staring and studying Ronthar. Ronthar looked back at him for a few seconds before deliberately turning his head away. If Marland's ears weren't already flat, they would be now after seeing that; he could easily recognise Shodin in Ronthar's movements and he didn't want to, not when Ronthar didn't know him.
Taking a deep breath and shoving away the feeling of loss, Marland considered Ronthar's speech patterns and compared them to Shodin's. They were almost exactly the same, Shodin's being more normal of how people talked on Torpin. But that didn't make any sense. If Ronthar grew up on Torpin, then shouldn't it be the other way around? The only reason why their speech patterns were different was because Shodin had picked up phrases from the TV.
"Do you always talk like that?"
Ronthar turned his head enough to look at him from the corner of his eyes. "Yes."
But… no-one talked Torpin like that, not that formally.
Ronthar sighed, raising a knee to drape an arm around it. "I'm not from around here."
'Here' as in Culsay (but they weren't in the city anymore, were they? Maybe), or 'here' as in Torpin?
Ronthar smiled quietly at him; it was muted compared to Shodin's ones. "Torpin."
Marland hadn't realised that his ears had been going up in curiosity until they flattened again. He could not be that transparent in his thoughts. How did Shodin and Ronthar always seem to be able to read him so easily?
"Wait." Marland's ears slowly went up and faced forward. "You're an Other?"
Ronthar nodded.
But – Then – Argh, what the hell? "But Balt had a picture of you and-" fuck, he'd forgotten her name "-a woman with red hair!"
Ronthar blinked at him, both his eyebrows going up. "Saisha?" He then frowned at Marland. "How do you know about her?"
Marland growled at himself. "Balt showed us-" fuck! "…a picture."
"Showed… 'us'." His voice was flat and he was regarding Marland closely, eyes narrowed and untrusting.
Fucking hell, he couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut. Marland looked away, wings wanting to cover him. He sighed, claws scratching the floor. "I'd found you in an alley, and you'd lost your memory," he began slowly, taking long breaks between the words. "I took you home and you'd been staying with me for about," -he blew air through his teeth- "a month, I guess. We'd bumped in to Balt at some point and he pretended to be a friend of Saisha's. After… you told him that you weren't going to meet with him any more, we ended up here a couple of days later."
There was a small pause and then Ronthar snorted, an eyebrow raised. "And you expect me to believe that?"
Marland's claws created more furrows in the floor. Right, he thought bitterly, heart sinking. Because that was how normal people reacted to a story like that. Marland clenched his teeth and didn't say anything else. Ronthar moved back to the other side of the room.
Silence enveloped them.
* * *
When Balt came for Marland, Ronthar charged at him, a battle roar in his throat. He hit the ground after one step, Balt smirking over him.
Balt tsked at him. "Really, Shodin, you'd been on such good behaviour before; don't waste all that good work, hm?"
Balt nodded at Marland, and Marland walked out of the room, eyes flicking back and forth over to Ronthar's twitching body.
* * *
Marland was dumped, shuddering, on the ground, the door closing behind him after a few seconds. He gasped for breath, feeling the emptiness that the loss of magic left him. He was glad that his magic wasn't taken from him every time they brought him back, but it hurt. Marland knew that he was clutching at something he didn't really understand but he didn't want to lose it. He didn't want to lose anything else.
He lay there for a while, trying to just regulate his breathing, waiting for the warmth to start spreading again, waiting to be able to control his body better. One of his ears flicked towards the sound of Ronthar approaching before flattening again.
"Hey."
What.
"Asking how you're feeling is redundant so…" A deep breath. "If there's anything that I can do to help…"
"'m fine," he muttered, unable to muster up the strength to turn his head away.
"And I know what…" Ronthar trailed off at the sight of Marland's glare.
"Said I'm fine." So just go back to the other side of the room already.
Ronthar sighed irritably, crossing his arms. "Has anyone told you that you're a bad liar?"
Marland bared his teeth at him. He really didn't want to talk with Ronthar right now.
Ronthar merely raised an eyebrow at him, completely unaffected. Was anyone affected by him doing that anymore? It didn't seem like it. "All right." Ronthar went back to the other side of the room.
* * *
Marland lost track of how many times he'd been taken through after Ronthar had gotten his memories back. There seemed to be a bigger break between each time he was taken through now. Balt was also getting frustrated, or better, the circle spell completing faster, and so much more of Marland's magic being scooped out of him every time. It was starting to make him feel close to throwing up now. He had mostly recovered from the most recent draining when he heard Ronthar coming over. Marland hunched his shoulders and looked in the opposite direction.
"I doubt you'd know the answer to this, but do you know why I'm still here?" There was a small pause. "They have my 'magic' so I'm no longer useful to them. I don't know why I'm still alive." Ronthar snorted. "Not that I'm glad to be, but… I don't understand their actions."
Marland clenched his teeth, resolutely trying to ignore the pang of loneliness in his heart again. There wasn't any point in talking with Ronthar; he wouldn't believe him, no matter what he said.
"Marland…?"
He whirled his head around, seeing the world tip for a second, but he ignored that in favour of baring his teeth and glaring at Ronthar. "It's t' keep me 'n check, okay?" He'd fucking said it, so go fucking not believe him, and leave him the fuck alone. He turned his head away again, vibrating with frustration.
There was a small pause, where all Marland could hear was their breathing, his ragged and Ronthar's deep. "All right, thank you."
Right, whatever. Marland ignored him.
* * *
"I don't understand it," Balt muttered as he walked beside the guards as they dragged Marland through. "Why did it work with Shodin, but not with this?" Fuck you asshole.
They dropped him to the ground and left quickly, Marland curling up on himself as soon as they did. Again, it was when Marland was nearly mostly recovered that Ronthar came quietly over.
"Marland… may I ask what name I went under when I didn't have my memories?"
He curled up on himself more. What, for some magical (ha) reason he believed him now, or was he just trying to make conversation? Or did he want more information so that he could poke holes in to that too? "Shodin," he mumbled to the wall.
"The… tree?"
"Yes, the fucking tree," he snapped, still not turning around. "I'm shit with names, I know." He blinked. Wait, how the hell did Ronthar know about what one of their trees was called here? He shook his head and ruthlessly quashed that spark of hope. He wouldn't be that lucky; there'd be another, more logical reason for how Ronthar knew that, that had nothing to do with him getting his memories back.
"So, you were the one who named me?"
"Yeah." Fuck off and stop talking with him.
He heard Ronthar sit down, and Marland turned his head towards him. He was too close for his comfort, so he eased himself on to all fours and edged away until his wing hit the wall. It… probably wasn't enough to satisfy his comfort levels fully, but there was enough distance between them anyway to at least mollify them a bit.
"Thank you."
They were just words. Words that he'd been told to say when the situation demanded it. He didn't really mean them.
There was a soft exhalation from Ronthar. "I'm sorry… for not believing you."
"'s fine. 's not like it matters or anything at the moment." Because having your memories or not meant fuck all when you were trapped who knew where and you had your magic stripped from you. Or already had your magic taken from you. And what, Ronthar believed him now? Why?
"But it does to you."
He flinched, claws scoring the floor. "No, it doesn't."
"You're still a bad liar."
"Fuck off," he muttered quietly, turning his head further away.
"I… All right."
Marland got back to ignoring how miserable he felt.
* * *
The hours were spent with Ronthar cautiously trying to talk with him, and Marland rebuffing him every time. It got easier to do, just turn his head away and not say anything (unless Ronthar said something that just broke Marland's control like a piece of string trying to support the weight of a car).
Ronthar wasn't as stubborn as Shodin, Marland eventually realised and he didn't know what to make of that. He could see Shodin's mannerisms in Ronthar's actions –or whatever direction that was supposed to be- in how he tilted his head when he wanted to know something, or the fact that he fiddled with his hair when he wanted to do something to distract himself, or that he started tapping his fingers when he was thinking about something. He spent a lot of time with a hand wrapped around the top of his arm.
But Marland could also see where he was different. His actions were faster, more conscious, and he sometimes seemed to thrum with energy, where Shodin had been the opposite, able to just sit there, his movements flowing and smooth.
He hated it. In some cases, he did want to talk with Ronthar, because fuck, who else could he talk to here? He didn't want the awkwardness, but every time Ronthar opened his mouth, it just drove it in further that Shodin was no longer there.
"Marland…"
He twitched an ear towards him before turning it away.
Ronthar sighed, and Marland could hear him tapping his fingers on his arm. "Right," he muttered, but there was something in his tone that made Marland wary, and it only increased when he heard Ronthar stride towards him. And kept coming towards him until he was only a foot away.
Marland jerked his head up, staring at him with his eyes wide for a second, before he started skittering away. What the hell? Ronthar backed him in a corner and before Marland could attempt futilely snarling at him, he sat down so their heads were more equal in height. It didn't help, and fuck, the way Marland was now, the only way he could even get up would involve him moving closer to Ronthar. Shit. His stifled the whine in his throat, his ears going flat as they could go. What did he want?
"I am not going to leave until we've talked properly."
Marland growled at him; he couldn't turn his head away – he'd still be able to see him one way or another. The tips of his wings were up against the wall too, so he couldn't move them either. So much for Ronthar not being as stubborn as Shodin; it just took him longer before he dug his heels in.
Ronthar sighed again, brushing his hair away from his face, and Marland looked away at that. They were silent, Ronthar with a hand on the top of his arm, a finger stroking the area. Marland tried to not notice the downcast look on his face.
Ronthar took a deep breath and began talking. "I know that you were telling the truth now, that I really did forget my memories."
Marland looked at him suspiciously. Right. "Yeah? Why do you think that now?"
"There's a couple of things," Ronthar said, playing with a part of his hair. He then rolled them between his fingers before waving them at Marland. "This, for a start; my hair's a little longer than I remember it being. For another, that man, the leader-"
"Balt," Marland supplied listlessly, realising afterwards that Ronthar wouldn't know him – Marland had never called him by name when he was there, and it wasn't like they talked about him when they were alone.
"Oh." Ronthar looked away, down at his hands. "I see." He shook his head, his hair waving slowly, before he looked up again. "Balt keeps referring to a 'Shodin' and that was the name you gave me."
Marland shrugged, trying with his wings first but when that failed, he shrugged with his shoulders. "Could easily set that up."
Ronthar blinked at him, his head tilting to the side. "… I suppose." He hummed, looking less certain now. "My wounds have healed and I have new ones that I don't remember receiving."
One of Marland's ears twitched down. "So?" he replied dully. "They coulda, dunno, drugged you for a month and added new scars to make you think you'd been out."
"Marland," Ronthar said slowly, a confused set to his eyebrows, "are you trying to make me not trust you?"
Marland flinched and stopped breathing for a second, remembering that that had been the exact same words Shodin had said to him, when they'd first met. "You didn't before, and there's problems with your proof."
"…And if I want to trust you?" Ronthar asked cautiously.
"Why would you want to?"
"Well, we're in a similar situation, so the best thing we could do right now is team up together," Ronthar said frankly. One part of Marland began to point out that since Ronthar didn't have magic, then he would want to work together with him, but he stopped that thought before it was fully realised.
"And what if that was the entire point? What if all this-" he indicated the room with a jerk of his head "-was set up so you could trust me?"
Ronthar crossed his arms, an eyebrow raised, a small smile on his face. "Then you wouldn't be trying to persuade me to not trust you." He paused, eyes drifting away before he turned back to him, his smile now touched with teasing. "You're also a bad liar, so it would have been obvious from the start."
Marland looked away, ears not going flat, but moving, not really sure on what direction they were supposed to go. So, again (sort of), Ronthar was adamant that he wanted to trust Marland. He sighed, loosening stiff muscles. "All right, fine." Now what?
Ronthar sighed too, in relief, his smile widening. "Then-"
He was interrupted by two sharp knocks on the door. When Balt entered and saw then, his eyebrows rose. "So you two are talking with each other again."
Marland's ears sank down as he got up slowly. Ronthar was regarding Balt warily and moving away.
Balt gestured to the door with a sweep of his hand.
He nodded and walked out the room with Balt and the guards. He didn't know how to feel about the interruption. He and Ronthar were maybe finally able to talk with each other, but Marland knew that it was going to be awkward anyway. Going straight in to an easy, casual conversation after all that silence just wasn't going to happen.
The stuff inside the bowls this time seemed a little different from usual, more watery and the colour was off too, lighter. Balt must be trying something new, Marland realised uneasily.
When the circle formed though, it didn't seem to be any different from what it was normally like, but that didn't mean anything. What it did was something different from what it looked like.
Balt waved a hand, indicating for Marland to start. Taking a deep breath, bracing himself for the impact, Marland began casting magic.
It hit him like a punch to the stomach, and that was when Marland knew something was wrong. He fell to his knees, one hand braced on the floor. The sucking magic usually felt like it had snatched his insides and whatever else it could reach away and this, this was a whole lot weaker. It wasn't as concentrated, and it felt like it was tugging at his magic, rather than grabbing it in a tight hold and pulling with all its might. Marland pretended to gasp for breath, his mind working furiously. He normally only lasted two drainings now, so he just had to stand up once more.
"Again."
Marland nodded shakily, desperately hoping that even if he was a bad liar, he might be a decent actor. He flattened his ears, hoping they hadn't been up for too long. He slowly got to his feet, taking deep breaths, making sure to not stand like he had before, more hunched over.
He called the fire to him again, and when he felt the impact, he fell to the ground completely, arms splayed and wings limp. This would be the hard part, because when he'd been shocked, he normally only recovered enough to be able to do anything after he was back in the cell.
The shock came, Marland scratching the floor when he clenched his hands in to fists. It was over when he'd just curled in on himself, and he held himself there, not understanding, not believing what was happening.
"And again, nothing." Balt sighed irritably. "No point punishing it if it can't do any more," he muttered. "It's trained anyway."
Marland kept himself as still as he could, barring the twitching. This couldn't be happening. Since when did something work out so well for him? … Okay, the original situation was really bad, so he couldn't really think of this as amazing luck. Something had to go wrong though, so Marland waited, cautious to see what would happen next.
"Take him back."
Balt had already left the room by the time the guards had reached him. Good.
The guards hefted him up, the brown-haired one taking his left shoulder and arm, and the black-haired one taking his right. Marland nearly gave himself away when he braced his arms before the guards pulled him up.
The brown-haired one snickered, shaking his head. "Do you think it's trying to help?"
"Could just be it doesn't want its arm to be ripped out the socket," the other one grunted. "It's still heavy though."
A bark of laughter. "Yeah. You'd think we'd've gotten used to lugging its weight by now."
He didn't attack straight away; he waited until they were about to leave the room, before the door had been opened, so they'd tire themselves out a little. It meant feeling his shoulders supporting his entire weight but his arms weren't the only things he could use as weapons. Marland flexed his fingers, bringing his claws out in his left hand. He was stronger with his right, but the angle was better with his left.
Marland brought his feet up and shoved to the left, raking his claws in and then pushing them across the man's body.
"Shit!"
"What - Fuck!"
Hoping that would be enough to kill him (he wasn't sure; he didn't think it was deep enough), Marland whirled his attention on to the black-haired guard, who was fumbling for the controller attached to his belt, his face white and staring at the blood splatter on the ground. He still had an arm hooked under Marland's armpit.
Snarling and baring his teeth, Marland tried to do the same to the other one, but it didn't work, the guard letting go of him with a high-pitched cry as soon as he tensed his arm. The guard hastily backed up a few steps, fingers still groping for the right button.
Marland smacked his hand away with a backhand, but he was only able to scratch him when he lunged, the guard quick on his feet. He snapped his wing out; the guard hadn't been expecting that, and fell to the ground from the impact. The guard had landed on top of the controller, so Marland considered himself lucky he didn't end up getting shocked from that.
The guard was still intent on the controller; didn't they have any other weapons, or were they that reliant on them?
Marland grabbed the guard's wrists in one hand, using his claws to make sure he had a proper grip on them. The guard winced and began shaking, his breathing uneven, and his eyes were as wide as they could go. Marland looked away for a second, and the guard seemed to take that as a sign because he started babbling, pleading to be let go.
"Wait, please, don't – I don't want to die; I was just doing my job. Please…"
Marland's ears flattened and he flicked his eyes back to the man for a second before he ripped his throat out with a sweep of his arm.
He was sprayed by the man's blood, the guard twitching and gargling in his throat before he stopped moving. Marland gingerly let go of the man's wrist and as soon as he did, the arms flopped down to the ground. He tried to wipe the blood away, but all he was able to do was smear it across him instead. The only thing he could hear was his own harsh breathing.
Glancing around the room revealed nothing that he could use to clean himself with, but maybe there was something in the boxed-off area? If he and Ronthar were to get out somewhat easily, they'd have to draw the least amount of attention to themselves; having blood splattered on you wasn't a good way to stay inconspicuous.
Marland quickly made his way over to it, his ears twisted around towards the door, just in case someone came in. When he poked his head in, the first thing he saw was a softly glowing, translucent cube on a simple square table, one face about twice the size of Marland's palm. So that was how Balt was doing the magic: something had come through a portal and it eventually ended up in Balt's hands.
Making sure that he didn't get too close to it, in case he knocked it over, he looked elsewhere. The rest of the room was bare though, and he couldn't see anything else.
Shaking his head, Marland left the room and padded over to the second guard he'd killed. He took his cardkey and then glanced at the other guard, wondering if he should take his cardkey as well, just in case he lost or broke the one he had. As he made his way over, Marland realised that the rasping breath he'd been hearing wasn't his own: it was the guard's. And his hand was on his controller.
Marland dived at him, but he was too late and pain slammed in to him while he was in the air. Snarling, his dive still carried to the guard and he barrelled in to him, knocking the guard's hand away. Marland shuddered on top of him, unable to do anything else. But… the guard wasn't doing anything either. Ears moving, Marland couldn't hear the guard breathing any more.
It took agonisingly long seconds before Marland was able to move properly again. The air stank of blood. When he was able to move, Marland lifted himself off the man. His right wing was stuck on something, and when the guard moved again, he realised why.
Marland turned his head to see the claw on the top of his wing buried in the man's throat, the curved part being caught under his chin. He slid his hand under the junction of where the claw and his wing met and pushed up, the claw something free with a squelching sound. It dripped with a steady stream of blood and Marland got as much of it off as he could with his twitching fingers.
He took the guard's cardkey and then checked for any weapons. None. A quick search of the brown-haired guard revealed nothing as well.
He deliberated taking the controllers with him for a second but he decided against it. They could use them to maybe get the collars off, but there were too many unmarked buttons, so who knew what would happen if they pressed the wrong one. One could cause instant death or something. He passed on destroying them for the same reason.
That no longer concerning him, Marland considered the guards' clothes in a different light. They weren't going to need them anymore…
Marland unsheathed his claws and ripped an uneven strip of cloth from the brown-haired guard, using that to clean himself up.
He then left the room, one of the cardkeys tucked safely in a pocket, the other getting blood spread across it. Hopefully it would still work with that on.
He stumbled down the corridor, his legs not fully supporting him yet. The card, thankfully, worked, and Marland poked his head through the open door, one hand on the doorframe to keep him upright.
"Ronthar?"
Ronthar was staring at him, eyes flicking to where Marland couldn't quite clean the blood away from, he was sure. "Marland…?"
"We're getting out of here." Hopefully. He really fucking hoped so.
Ronthar got to his feet, eyeing the door warily, but still coming towards him. "What about Fion?"
Shit. Marland's ears flattened. "I don't know where he is but we have to go now."
Ronthar hesitated, looking away and shit, there wasn't anything Marland could say to him that could get him moving. The hesitation didn't last long, and Ronthar nodded at him, resolve in his eyes. "We're coming back later to get Fion."
Marland wasn't sure if he could really agree to that, not when he didn't know where he was, but they could try, when Marland had his magic. He nodded back. Now for the simple task of getting out of here.
They headed down the corridor, Marland's ears pricked towards any sounds.
"How did you – never mind. Later."
Ha. And there was Sho – Ronth – his? their? his curiosity coming through already.
They were able to get around without bumping in to anyone for a few minutes before Marland heard someone walking along the corridor they were about to go in to. He shoved Ronthar back around the corner and they waited on their toes just in case they'd have to move quickly to get out the way. They didn't have to, the person continuing on straight.
The place really needed a map stuck on the wall. But how were they going to get out? The front door? Ha. Windows wouldn't work that well with Marland either, not with his wings getting in the way again.
Ronthar had gone down to the other side of the corridor they were in and was waving him over. When Marland got there, Ronthar whispered, "What does a green light mean?"
He was asking a question now? Marland couldn't really be that surprised though. "What's it for?" he whispered back, ears constantly on the move. Ronthar knew the situation, so he couldn't be asking a question unless it was something important.
"There's one above a door over there, and it seems significant." He pointed around the corner.
Marland peered around the corner and then breathed a sigh of relief. A fire door. An exit. A noisy exit, but it was one nonetheless, and maybe it would mask their exit while everyone else got out the building too. Good. "It's a way out," he told Ronthar as he went over to it. "It'll set off a loud alarm when I open it so-"
"Is that wise?" Ronthar asked, eyebrows high.
"It'll create a distraction, so yeah." He waited, and Ronthar nodded. Marland's ears went flat just before he shoved the bar down. It didn't help, but he was outside just as the alarm went in to full swing.
And it was daytime, maybe about midday, going by how much the sunlight was searing his eyeballs. "Fuck!" He stumbled in to something and whatever it was crashed to the ground.
"Marland! What's wrong?" Ronthar was beside him, a hand on his arm. He shied away from the touch.
"I can't fucking see in sunlight," he growled. It had to be during the day when they finally got out!
"It's all right," Ronthar soothed, voice calm. "Come on; we need to get away." He took his arm again, tugging him in one direction.
They did need to get moving; there was probably people heading towards that fire exit already – no, there was people heading there; Marland could hear them coming down the stairs, their shoes and chatter echoing through the door. Shit.
Fuck, his eyes weren't that bad, but he let Ronthar guide him until his eyesight cleared up. He was able to see fairly decently, but most things seemed washed out in colour, and his headache from having the lights on constantly got a whole lot worse. It didn't matter that they were in the shade; it was still brighter than the artificial light he'd sort of gotten used to. It was also louder than Marland was used to; too many cars moving, too many people talking and walking around. It heighted his paranoia of getting caught and the world just seemed to close in on him, like there was only a certain distance he could walk before he was caught.
The roads weren't familiar, not that he could see the names, but Marland couldn't place where the hell they were. Shit, shit, shit. And that was what Marland heard the gun cock. He shoved Ronthar away, ears trying to find where the hell the person was. In front of them, maybe.
There was a hiss of static. "Requesting back-up," a man said softly, but urgently. Marland span around, but the empty street they'd been walking down suddenly had people in it. Fuck! "There's an Other on Kretsin Street with a human. Over six-foot, bipedal, green scales with gold markings, and big wings." The static stopped.
The person who came around the corner, gun aimed and ready was wearing a dark grey uniform, some parts coloured with blue. He wore a stiff hat with a rim on his head with the same colouring. Dammit, police.
"Sir?" the man called over, glancing at Ronthar –who was no longer as far away as he should have been- gun trained on Marland the whole time. "Are you okay?"
Ronthar's eyebrows went together in confusion. "Yes? What are you–" The confusion cleared up, his eyes widening. He held up a hand and started walking towards the man. "Wait. Don't shoot him."
Marland considered the options. Ronthar had the best chance of getting out of here with the police; he wasn't sure about them protecting him if Balt worked for the government, but for the moment, it was the best thing for him right now. Marland didn't have that option; he was going to get shot as soon as Ronthar got close enough to the policeman to not get accidentally hit. There wasn't anything he could hide behind, and while the exit looked clear, he could hear people moving around. He got another burst of adrenaline, making his heart beat so much faster, but he didn't want to deal with screaming humans, and he'd probably trip over something if he tried to run anyway. Not to mention, those humans might be carrying their own weapons to protect themselves against Others.
He was right. As soon as Ronthar got far enough away from Marland, the policeman opened fire on him. One bullet went straight through his wing, while the others impacted above his head as he fell. After the who knew how many days they'd spent with Balt, getting their magic sucked out over and over again, never quite recovering fully from it by the next time rolled around, getting electrocuted after every session, not exactly getting the best food there, having what felt like his eyeballs being stabbed because of the daylight and then getting shot, it was what tipped the scales of Marland's endurance. He fell in to unconsciousness; the last thing he could hear was the echoes of Ronthar's shouting.
"Stop shooting him! He hasn't - Marland!"
* * *
Wherever the hell Marland was, it was cold, his wings reacting to it. The next thing he noticed was the stabbing pain in one of his wings, the membrane throbbing, feeling sensitive and hot. He was also up against a wall, his right wing semi-crushed there. The room stank of stale sweat. What…?
Ears pricked, Marland listened for any clues.
"I know you're awake Marland, it's… okay."
Ronthar. He peeked through slitted eyelids; Ronthar was sitting cross-legged across from him, on a bed that looked like it was made from the wall. The room that they were in was about half the size, if not less, than the cell they'd just left. You had to be fucking kidding. Marland would have suspected that they'd been dragged back to Balt again if it wasn't for the fact that the walls were a dark grey and… there was a breeze coming in from somewhere? He opened his eyes fully and looked up. There was a door that was obviously a door and not hidden in to the wall, as well as having a slot about eye-level.
He'd been patched up too, if the fact that there was a plaster on top of where there should have been a hole in his wing. It felt tight there; he pulled the plaster back and saw that he'd been stitched up. Huh. He drew the wing back and settled back in place, a little further away from the wall; he really didn't want to stand up at the moment.
Marland looked at Ronthar, who shrugged, eyes not on him. "I don't know what happened. Terrek –the man who shot you- got a message after he shot you and he stopped. He brought us back here." He took a deep breath, his crossed arms tightening. "I'm sorry."
One of Marland's ears flicked at him, the other pointed towards the door. "What for?"
"You were shot because of me."
Marland turned his head towards Ronthar. What?
"I hadn't thought that he would actually shoot." His teeth were clenched, his shoulders bowed. "If I'd known, I would have stayed in the way."
Marland tried to shrug, but his left wing flinched back before it got away from his back and his other wing couldn't move properly. Marland had known what would have happened, and if Ronthar had done anything, it would have just made things worse. But why was he alive now? Unless they were just waiting to get shipped back to Balt.
"Marland… How do you react to medicine?"
He froze, his eyes wide and staring at Ronthar. His ears sank down slowly. Shit, dammit, no. If he'd been stitched up, they'd probably put drugs in his system, or had at least given him painkillers. Marland swallowed, head lowering. "It can kill me," he said quietly, barely above a whisper. He didn't feel any different, but maybe he didn't react to it straight away, or it numbed him first.
Ronthar exhaled deeply, eyes closing and leaning back on the wall. "Oh, thank you."
Marland jerked back at the sheer relief in Ronthar's voice. He was happy that – Marland's thought stuttered to a stop, his hands clenching in to fists.
"I wasn't sure exactly what they were trying to give you," Ronthar continued, not noticing Marland's reaction, "but I was able to stop them before they could make you ingest it."
Marland stared at him, hands unclenching and ears coming up again. What?
Ronthar opened his eyes, smiling softly at him. "I couldn't remember why it was bad if you had human medicine; I just knew that it was." He took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "I'm glad that they were willing to listen to me," he murmured.
Marland gaped at him, eyes wide and ears pointed at him. Ronthar remembered something that had happened when he was Shodin, and he wasn't going to die some painful death.
There was a pair of footsteps bouncing off the walls before Marland could say or think anything else, and he struggled to get to his feet, wincing when he flicked his wings out for balance out of instinct. He could at least stand semi-steadily at least. Ronthar slid off his bed as well and prepared himself for whatever came next. A pair of eyes peered through the slot. "Someone's here to pick you up."
Who? He couldn't think of anyone that he'd want to see. Marland's ears went to the wary half-way point as the door unlocked and swung open.
"Yo."
His ears lifted in disbelief, and he relaxed from the guarded stance he was in. "Kendal?" It couldn't be, but it was. The only thing that she didn't have was the large gun she normally carried. Were they still in Culsay? They hadn't left the city?
She smirked at him, one hand giving him a quick wave. "Yep." How the hell…? She turned away. "C'mon, you two need to get a shower."
"Marland…?"
He looked back at Ronther, who was looking at where Kendal had been standing, a careful look in his eyes. "It's okay," Marland reassured him. "She's a… friend." He felt the irony of using the word Shodin had asked after the first time he met her, but compared to Balt, she definitely was one. Ronthar nodded, his wary stance loosening.
Kendal peered at Ronthar as they walked out and down the corridor. "Forgotten me already?" An eyebrow was raised, but her eyes weren't narrowed.
Ronthar tilted his head at her before shaking his head, sighing. "I've lost all my memories of when I was Shodin."
Kendal studied him, before glancing at Marland. "Shodin was his name when I met him?"
Marland blinked, then went over the conversations he'd had with Kendal when Shodin was with him. He'd never actually said what Shodin's name was. "Yeah."
She turned back to Ronthar. "So you are now…?"
"Ronthar."
"All right. Kendal," she introduced herself, nodding to him.
"Nice to meet you," Ronthar said, a hesitant smile on his face.
Kendal raised an eyebrow again. She shook his head, snorting, and then gestured down a corridor. "We'll be going out the back route, for obvious reasons." She waved to the police guy who had opened their cell. He walked away after throwing Marland a doubtful look. Marland and Ronthar followed Kendal out as she pushed open a door.
It was dark outside, the stars bright and clear. Marland could feel his eyes adjust to the darkness, and his headache faded a bit immediately. He sighed at that, relishing the feeling. The only things Marland could hear was the passing of a few cars in a far road and the purr of an engine nearby. Kendal led them in the direction of the engine. He kept his ears in constant motion, just in case what he was hearing was wrong, and he kept looking towards anything that seemed out of place.
Marland extended his wings as he walked, moving slower so that he wouldn't hit Ronthar. He stretched his right wing out as far as it could go, and his left as far as was comfortable for it. Ronthar turned his head to watch him, curiosity in his eyes and the tilt of his head, but he didn't say or ask anything.
It felt amazing to have that much space around him again. He held his wings in position for a few seconds before folding them back in.
Gahn was sitting behind the wheel of the van, and he nodded to them once he saw them. The light inside the back of the van was weak enough that Marland wouldn't be too bothered by it, and the light that was coming from the dashboard through the gap in the wall was nothing, but there was another problem to be considered. Kendal seemed to realise it too, looking back and forth between the interior of the van and Marland, her eyes assessing him.
"How the hell do you sit down?"
Marland's ears slanted, and he sighed, rolling his eyes. "With chairs that don't have backs." He waited to see if she had any other comments.
Her lips curled in to a smile, her eyes lighting up. "Hmm, you're not going to fit if you stand," she mused.
No, he wasn't. His head wasn't exactly brushing the roof while he was standing on the ground, but his wings were already past it. "I'll just lie down."
Kendal peered at the seat lining the wall before looking back at his wings. "You gonna fit?"
"If you don't mind having holes in your seat." And if he lay completely on his front. It'd be a definite squeeze but… "Just don't sit where my wing could hit you if it extended."
"Right," Kendal said wryly, eyeing the length of them. "So in the corner or just duck all the time?"
He sent her a dry look. It wasn't his fault they so were so huge. It'd probably be best if he lay down with his left wing on the outside – the pain would stop it from going out too far. Or possibly even moving, the way it was feeling right now.
Marland turned to glance at Ronthar when he remembered something. "You okay with cars?" Did Ronthar have cars where he came from? If he went by Shodin's reactions, it was probably no.
Ronthar nodded slowly. "Yes. I've been in a few."
Marland decided not to ask what for. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know, and not just because it could be tied to whatever the hell Balt was involved in, but just, it was Ronthar's life before he was Shodin.
Marland ducked his head and shoulders, the claw on his wing still scraping the roof with a screech as he got in to the van. He lay on top of the row of seats, and punctured the cover with the claws in his hands and feet. He tested if he could be dislodged that easily by tugging with his hands; he'd be fine, so long as he didn't have to clench his hands. He and Ronthar seemed to be getting in to smaller and smaller places, he thought inanely.
Ronthar followed after him, sitting down opposite his head, his hands braced on the edge of the seat. Kendal went in last, closing the door behind her and sat down next to Ronthar after checking the angles of where Marland's wing could go.
The van started up straight away, sounding smooth. It still set Marland's teeth on edge, because he could feel the vehicle moving, the entire place vibrating, and the engine was still on the border of being too loud to his ears. It went at a slow pace at least, so it didn't move them around too much when it went around corners.
"So I thought I told you to keep a low profile?"
Marland's ears flattened, not looking at her. "We did." Now that they were getting away, now that Marland didn't have to think about escape, his body just wanted sleep and food and to be clean. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to stay awake for the whole ride. "We only left the flat…" He tried to think of how many times they left the flat after being told by Kendal, then gave up. It was too long ago, with the memories of Balt and everything else after taking up his attention. "We didn't leave it much." He yawned widely, before shaking his head.
"And the reason why you two have matching collars? Well," she added, without much pause, grinning, "unless there's one that I'm not aware of."
Marland was too damn weary to even try to understand what the hell that comment meant. "We got kidnapped by a guy who wants to steal Others' magic so he can what, help the humans here defend themselves against Others with it."
The grin faded, and her eyes hardened. "You can't take it off?"
He looked at her, ears forward. "You think," -we? I?- "we didn't try? My claws can't get through it and it blocks our… my magic."
Kendal looked at him closely before she turned her attention to Ronthar. "…You had magic?"
Ronthar nodded slowly, his hair waving, then took a deep breath. "It's complicated."
Marland blinked. What? He either had magic, or he didn't, and Balt was sure he'd taken it – and Ronthar had confirmed it, so what did that mean?
When Ronthar didn't give any more information about what he'd said, Marland asked Kendal, "How the hell did you find us?" Because he couldn't have been out for that long, and it didn't explain why she'd come anyway.
Her lips tilted up to one side, her eyes softening slightly. "I told ya I'd talk to the police about you."
Marland stared at her. "What did you say to them to get them to not kill me?"
The lopsided smile turned back in to a grin with teeth, but she didn't answer.
He probably wasn't going to get an answer from her either, if she didn't want to give one. Marland closed his eyes, feeling so completely exhausted, and fell asleep straight away.
* * *
Marland jolted awake to the sound of whispering. The car had stopped moving and his wing was throbbing incessantly.
"So how do you wake him up without him attacking you?" Kendal. There was an amused tone to her voice, and she sounded a little too curious.
"I don't know." There was a small pause. "And I don't think I ever did. But…"
"Buut…?" Marland should probably 'wake up' before this conversation went further.
"He was absolutely devastated when I… when my memories came back." Marland's ears flattened at that. He… okay, he had been, but he didn't think he'd been that obvious. He thought over what he'd done when Ronthar got his memories back. He hunched over. Yes, he'd been that obvious.
"I'm not surprised – Marland doesn't have a lot of people who he's close to." Kendal moved, her clothes rustling. "You're – Shod-" She stopped, sighing. "This is getting confusing." She shook her head. "I've never seen Marland let anyone get that close to him, let alone that fast."
Marland tried to push down the churning empty feeling in him, just tried to not think about anything.
Ronthar cleared his throat. "Marland's awake now."
He opened his eyes then, because there wasn't any point in pretending anymore. Kendal grinned at him. "Good. C'mon, we're home."
Marland twisted his head to look at the door behind him, then back at Kendal and Ronthar. "You're gonna have to get out first." When he turned around –which he wasn't sure about doing as he thought about it- his wingtips were going to be hitting both sides of the van. It was a good thing that none of Kendal's team was overly protective of the van, other than in a nostalgic way, because he was adding far too many scratches to it at once. He could try going out backwards, but he wrinkled his nose at that option. Too awkward.
After the two had gotten out, Marland lurched to his feet. He did feel a little better after the nap, a bit more relaxed, and the constant headache he'd had for the however many days he'd had it was nearly fully gone too. His jaw felt slightly numb and his wing hadn't gotten any better though. Marland stretched his right wing out, so it was out at an angle rather than being parallel to the position of his body. He tried with his left wing, but he couldn't move it that far before protesting. Moving them where they were helped a bit when he turned, though they did scrape the ceiling, and he tucked them back in when he was facing the door.
Ronthar, Kendal and Gahn were waiting for him when he got out. Kendal closed the door as soon as he stepped away from it, the slam making him twitch towards it, just in case. The street was a line of houses that pretty much all looked the same apart from the front gardens. The only lights that were on were the streetlights. Marland and Ronthar were led up to one of the houses, Kendal opening it and walking straight in, flicking on the lights as she did. Grumbling and wanting to cover his head with his wings, Marland followed her. The smell of fresh food wafted over as soon as he stepped in to the house, making Marland realise just how hungry he was. He'd been lucky that he was able to eat the food when they were captured, but it wasn't exactly nourishing or filling.
There were two doors on their right, the one furthest away looking like it was the toilet, a small table on their left when they entered. Directly in front of them was another door. Kendal led them down the hall and around the corner, towards the smell. The kitchen door was open, light spilling out of it, and Marland counted four more doors in addition that. There were a couple of steaming pots on the cooker and Marland eyed them. Shoved in the corner was a decently sized table, alongside extra chairs not lined up against it.
Kendal gestured to the pots. "Help yourself – I'm sure there's something left."
Gahn snorted behind them. "I told them to, before we left."
Kendal sent him a dry look. "Since when does that mean anything?"
Marland over to the pots and peered down one. He could see meat and vegetables, but he couldn't really identify much past that. "Do you have any microwave food?" he asked, looking back up.
Gahn raised his eyebrows. "Poor Nillos'll be hurt, after all the effort he put in to cooking that."
He was able to tell that Gahn was teasing him. Just. His ears still flattened though. "I can't eat some human food, and I don't know what ones exactly I can't eat, so I just avoid most of them." He shrugged slightly with his wings.
"Hmm." Kendal glanced over to the fridge. "We've got a couple of packs – anything else we should know?"
"Do you have any chocolate?"
Kendal and Gahn looked at him, like they were wanting to ask him if he was thinking clearly. He looked away, hunching his shoulders, his ears lowering. "Can't eat human painkillers either – I use chocolate."
"Huh. Makes sense," Gahn said, rubbing his chin with the heel of a hand. "Hold on – I've got a stash in my room." He walked out of the kitchen.
Marland waited awkwardly as he heard Gahn go in to one of the rooms and rummage about, while Kendal stuck his food in the microwave and Ronthar got out the plates and cutlery after being directed to them by Kendal.
There was a squeak of a different door opening and Marland saw a purple head poke in around the corner of the door. -'Where have you been?'- Pai stalked up at him, glaring all the while.
"Fion?" Ronthar yelped and whirled around, wide-eyed. He visibly deflated when he saw Pai, eyes lowering and head turning away. "Ah… I thought…" He shook his head, turning back to the plates.
Shit.
-'Okay, and that's another reaction that I don't normally get from you,'- Pai teased, her head cocked to the side.
Marland winced. Gahn, at that point, re-entered the kitchen, a bar of chocolate in his hands. Gahn lobbed the bar at him, and Marland caught it easily. "Pai…" Marland said quietly, not really sure how to continue. "This is Ronthar."
-'Ronth – Oh.'- Pai ducked her head. She was quiet for a second, looking back and forth between Marland and Ronthar. –'Do you remember…?'-
Ronthar shook his head. "I don't remember being Shodin."
-'Oh…'- She glanced back at Marland, before sighing. -'So, what happened?'-
Was he going to have to repeat himself every single time he met someone? "We got kidnapped by someone who wanted our magic and… somehow Ronthar got his memory back." He had no idea how, and he hadn't exactly been wondering how it happened, more focused on the fact that Shodin was no longer there. But Shodin was; Ronthar had shown that he still had some sort of residual memories of their time together.
The microwave dinged and Marland went over to get his food. The kitchen seemed pretty crowded by now, and his wings really weren't helping. Ronthar had finished scooping out the food that he'd wanted and made his way over to the table, Kendal following after him.
"And I'm just going to go collapse in my bed now," Gahn announced, waving at them before leaving. Kendal waved back at him before turning back to her food.
Ronthar wasn't really eating though, more poking at his food a couple of times before putting it in his mouth. With nowhere to sit, the chairs all having backs to them, Marland stayed standing. The rest of the time was spent quietly, the relatively relaxed mood broken, neither Marland or Ronthar willing to really talk, both exhaustion and far too much stuff unsaid keeping their mouths closed.
After they were finished, Kendal waved them away from the dirty plates and led them to the room that Pai had assumedly come from. In it were two single beds and a small nest of blankets in the corner.
"You all okay sharing a room?" Kendal asked, glancing between them all.
Marland really didn't care at the moment, just so long as he could sleep and Balt wasn't anywhere nearby. He grunted, while Ronthar smiled tiredly at her.
"It’s okay with me."
Marland eyed the blanket on one of the beds before he folded it up and stuck that and the pillow at the foot of the bed. He would have taken away the linen too, but he was just too damn tired. He curled up on the bed, hearing Ronthar slide in to the bed next to him, several 'night's and fell right in to blissful sleep.
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 lots of swearing. Also contains torture, and gory death.
Any questions or clarifications, just ask. (Unless it’s, you know, plot-related. XD)
I don't know if the ending of this part works or makes sense, but I'm getting too pumped about the other writing projects that I'm getting far too distracted from characterisation. DD:
This is now on hold until I've done all my other writing tasks. Hopefully I'll start back up again in the New Year.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 9,564
Total word count: 75,073
Status: Work in Progress
Marland froze, feeling like the floor had just disappeared from under him and his stomach was hanging somewhere above his head.
Shod – Ronthar had his memories back. Marland stared at him, absolutely no idea what to do or say.
Ronthar's eyebrow was still up. "And you are…?"
Marland looked away, feeling even worse than he had been two seconds ago. Ronthar had his memories back – and his memories of when he was Shodin was gone.
"It's…" He clenched his teeth, feeling so incredibly alone, and he hadn't realised that he no longer felt that. "It's Marland," he said quietly.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Marland."
He glanced at Sh – Ronthar from the corner of his eyes. Ronthar wasn't smiling, wasn't even looking at him. He'd said that out of a habit of being polite than anything else.
Marland got up and walked to the other side of the room. He lay down slowly, his ears feeling like they would never come back up again. His mind felt dead, broken; it kept repeating the fact that Shodin no longer existed, that there was a complete stranger in the room with him.
He angled himself so that he was facing Ronthar, just in case. With his arms pillowing his head, Marland closed his eyes and tried to ignore everything.
He must have dozed off at some point, or just ignored things too well, because Sho – Ronthar was making his way quietly over, when Marland was sure he hadn't heard him getting up.
Ronthar stopped a few short feet away from him and then sat down. Marland waited, not opening his eyes, wondering what he would do or say.
"How long have you been here for?"
Marland hunched over, and was just able to stop his wings from covering his head. It would have been obvious to S – Ronthar that he was awake, so he could either ignore him, or talk with him. Marland… wanted to do both. He didn't want to talk with Ronthar – he wanted to talk with Shodin. And… he wilted.
Sighing, he looked up at Ronthar, who was sitting cross-legged in front of him. He looked away again immediately, not sure if he was able to suppress the flinch at seeing an echo of Shodin.
"Dunno," he muttered mostly to the ground.
"Ah, all right."
They sat there in awkward silence, Marland feeling like he was partially sinking through the floor with how much he wanted to be out of the situation.
Ronthar sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I apologise for snapping at you earlier."
Marland grunted, one ear twitching. Then he blinked, staring and studying Ronthar. Ronthar looked back at him for a few seconds before deliberately turning his head away. If Marland's ears weren't already flat, they would be now after seeing that; he could easily recognise Shodin in Ronthar's movements and he didn't want to, not when Ronthar didn't know him.
Taking a deep breath and shoving away the feeling of loss, Marland considered Ronthar's speech patterns and compared them to Shodin's. They were almost exactly the same, Shodin's being more normal of how people talked on Torpin. But that didn't make any sense. If Ronthar grew up on Torpin, then shouldn't it be the other way around? The only reason why their speech patterns were different was because Shodin had picked up phrases from the TV.
"Do you always talk like that?"
Ronthar turned his head enough to look at him from the corner of his eyes. "Yes."
But… no-one talked Torpin like that, not that formally.
Ronthar sighed, raising a knee to drape an arm around it. "I'm not from around here."
'Here' as in Culsay (but they weren't in the city anymore, were they? Maybe), or 'here' as in Torpin?
Ronthar smiled quietly at him; it was muted compared to Shodin's ones. "Torpin."
Marland hadn't realised that his ears had been going up in curiosity until they flattened again. He could not be that transparent in his thoughts. How did Shodin and Ronthar always seem to be able to read him so easily?
"Wait." Marland's ears slowly went up and faced forward. "You're an Other?"
Ronthar nodded.
But – Then – Argh, what the hell? "But Balt had a picture of you and-" fuck, he'd forgotten her name "-a woman with red hair!"
Ronthar blinked at him, both his eyebrows going up. "Saisha?" He then frowned at Marland. "How do you know about her?"
Marland growled at himself. "Balt showed us-" fuck! "…a picture."
"Showed… 'us'." His voice was flat and he was regarding Marland closely, eyes narrowed and untrusting.
Fucking hell, he couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut. Marland looked away, wings wanting to cover him. He sighed, claws scratching the floor. "I'd found you in an alley, and you'd lost your memory," he began slowly, taking long breaks between the words. "I took you home and you'd been staying with me for about," -he blew air through his teeth- "a month, I guess. We'd bumped in to Balt at some point and he pretended to be a friend of Saisha's. After… you told him that you weren't going to meet with him any more, we ended up here a couple of days later."
There was a small pause and then Ronthar snorted, an eyebrow raised. "And you expect me to believe that?"
Marland's claws created more furrows in the floor. Right, he thought bitterly, heart sinking. Because that was how normal people reacted to a story like that. Marland clenched his teeth and didn't say anything else. Ronthar moved back to the other side of the room.
Silence enveloped them.
When Balt came for Marland, Ronthar charged at him, a battle roar in his throat. He hit the ground after one step, Balt smirking over him.
Balt tsked at him. "Really, Shodin, you'd been on such good behaviour before; don't waste all that good work, hm?"
Balt nodded at Marland, and Marland walked out of the room, eyes flicking back and forth over to Ronthar's twitching body.
Marland was dumped, shuddering, on the ground, the door closing behind him after a few seconds. He gasped for breath, feeling the emptiness that the loss of magic left him. He was glad that his magic wasn't taken from him every time they brought him back, but it hurt. Marland knew that he was clutching at something he didn't really understand but he didn't want to lose it. He didn't want to lose anything else.
He lay there for a while, trying to just regulate his breathing, waiting for the warmth to start spreading again, waiting to be able to control his body better. One of his ears flicked towards the sound of Ronthar approaching before flattening again.
"Hey."
What.
"Asking how you're feeling is redundant so…" A deep breath. "If there's anything that I can do to help…"
"'m fine," he muttered, unable to muster up the strength to turn his head away.
"And I know what…" Ronthar trailed off at the sight of Marland's glare.
"Said I'm fine." So just go back to the other side of the room already.
Ronthar sighed irritably, crossing his arms. "Has anyone told you that you're a bad liar?"
Marland bared his teeth at him. He really didn't want to talk with Ronthar right now.
Ronthar merely raised an eyebrow at him, completely unaffected. Was anyone affected by him doing that anymore? It didn't seem like it. "All right." Ronthar went back to the other side of the room.
Marland lost track of how many times he'd been taken through after Ronthar had gotten his memories back. There seemed to be a bigger break between each time he was taken through now. Balt was also getting frustrated, or better, the circle spell completing faster, and so much more of Marland's magic being scooped out of him every time. It was starting to make him feel close to throwing up now. He had mostly recovered from the most recent draining when he heard Ronthar coming over. Marland hunched his shoulders and looked in the opposite direction.
"I doubt you'd know the answer to this, but do you know why I'm still here?" There was a small pause. "They have my 'magic' so I'm no longer useful to them. I don't know why I'm still alive." Ronthar snorted. "Not that I'm glad to be, but… I don't understand their actions."
Marland clenched his teeth, resolutely trying to ignore the pang of loneliness in his heart again. There wasn't any point in talking with Ronthar; he wouldn't believe him, no matter what he said.
"Marland…?"
He whirled his head around, seeing the world tip for a second, but he ignored that in favour of baring his teeth and glaring at Ronthar. "It's t' keep me 'n check, okay?" He'd fucking said it, so go fucking not believe him, and leave him the fuck alone. He turned his head away again, vibrating with frustration.
There was a small pause, where all Marland could hear was their breathing, his ragged and Ronthar's deep. "All right, thank you."
Right, whatever. Marland ignored him.
"I don't understand it," Balt muttered as he walked beside the guards as they dragged Marland through. "Why did it work with Shodin, but not with this?" Fuck you asshole.
They dropped him to the ground and left quickly, Marland curling up on himself as soon as they did. Again, it was when Marland was nearly mostly recovered that Ronthar came quietly over.
"Marland… may I ask what name I went under when I didn't have my memories?"
He curled up on himself more. What, for some magical (ha) reason he believed him now, or was he just trying to make conversation? Or did he want more information so that he could poke holes in to that too? "Shodin," he mumbled to the wall.
"The… tree?"
"Yes, the fucking tree," he snapped, still not turning around. "I'm shit with names, I know." He blinked. Wait, how the hell did Ronthar know about what one of their trees was called here? He shook his head and ruthlessly quashed that spark of hope. He wouldn't be that lucky; there'd be another, more logical reason for how Ronthar knew that, that had nothing to do with him getting his memories back.
"So, you were the one who named me?"
"Yeah." Fuck off and stop talking with him.
He heard Ronthar sit down, and Marland turned his head towards him. He was too close for his comfort, so he eased himself on to all fours and edged away until his wing hit the wall. It… probably wasn't enough to satisfy his comfort levels fully, but there was enough distance between them anyway to at least mollify them a bit.
"Thank you."
They were just words. Words that he'd been told to say when the situation demanded it. He didn't really mean them.
There was a soft exhalation from Ronthar. "I'm sorry… for not believing you."
"'s fine. 's not like it matters or anything at the moment." Because having your memories or not meant fuck all when you were trapped who knew where and you had your magic stripped from you. Or already had your magic taken from you. And what, Ronthar believed him now? Why?
"But it does to you."
He flinched, claws scoring the floor. "No, it doesn't."
"You're still a bad liar."
"Fuck off," he muttered quietly, turning his head further away.
"I… All right."
Marland got back to ignoring how miserable he felt.
The hours were spent with Ronthar cautiously trying to talk with him, and Marland rebuffing him every time. It got easier to do, just turn his head away and not say anything (unless Ronthar said something that just broke Marland's control like a piece of string trying to support the weight of a car).
Ronthar wasn't as stubborn as Shodin, Marland eventually realised and he didn't know what to make of that. He could see Shodin's mannerisms in Ronthar's actions –or whatever direction that was supposed to be- in how he tilted his head when he wanted to know something, or the fact that he fiddled with his hair when he wanted to do something to distract himself, or that he started tapping his fingers when he was thinking about something. He spent a lot of time with a hand wrapped around the top of his arm.
But Marland could also see where he was different. His actions were faster, more conscious, and he sometimes seemed to thrum with energy, where Shodin had been the opposite, able to just sit there, his movements flowing and smooth.
He hated it. In some cases, he did want to talk with Ronthar, because fuck, who else could he talk to here? He didn't want the awkwardness, but every time Ronthar opened his mouth, it just drove it in further that Shodin was no longer there.
"Marland…"
He twitched an ear towards him before turning it away.
Ronthar sighed, and Marland could hear him tapping his fingers on his arm. "Right," he muttered, but there was something in his tone that made Marland wary, and it only increased when he heard Ronthar stride towards him. And kept coming towards him until he was only a foot away.
Marland jerked his head up, staring at him with his eyes wide for a second, before he started skittering away. What the hell? Ronthar backed him in a corner and before Marland could attempt futilely snarling at him, he sat down so their heads were more equal in height. It didn't help, and fuck, the way Marland was now, the only way he could even get up would involve him moving closer to Ronthar. Shit. His stifled the whine in his throat, his ears going flat as they could go. What did he want?
"I am not going to leave until we've talked properly."
Marland growled at him; he couldn't turn his head away – he'd still be able to see him one way or another. The tips of his wings were up against the wall too, so he couldn't move them either. So much for Ronthar not being as stubborn as Shodin; it just took him longer before he dug his heels in.
Ronthar sighed again, brushing his hair away from his face, and Marland looked away at that. They were silent, Ronthar with a hand on the top of his arm, a finger stroking the area. Marland tried to not notice the downcast look on his face.
Ronthar took a deep breath and began talking. "I know that you were telling the truth now, that I really did forget my memories."
Marland looked at him suspiciously. Right. "Yeah? Why do you think that now?"
"There's a couple of things," Ronthar said, playing with a part of his hair. He then rolled them between his fingers before waving them at Marland. "This, for a start; my hair's a little longer than I remember it being. For another, that man, the leader-"
"Balt," Marland supplied listlessly, realising afterwards that Ronthar wouldn't know him – Marland had never called him by name when he was there, and it wasn't like they talked about him when they were alone.
"Oh." Ronthar looked away, down at his hands. "I see." He shook his head, his hair waving slowly, before he looked up again. "Balt keeps referring to a 'Shodin' and that was the name you gave me."
Marland shrugged, trying with his wings first but when that failed, he shrugged with his shoulders. "Could easily set that up."
Ronthar blinked at him, his head tilting to the side. "… I suppose." He hummed, looking less certain now. "My wounds have healed and I have new ones that I don't remember receiving."
One of Marland's ears twitched down. "So?" he replied dully. "They coulda, dunno, drugged you for a month and added new scars to make you think you'd been out."
"Marland," Ronthar said slowly, a confused set to his eyebrows, "are you trying to make me not trust you?"
Marland flinched and stopped breathing for a second, remembering that that had been the exact same words Shodin had said to him, when they'd first met. "You didn't before, and there's problems with your proof."
"…And if I want to trust you?" Ronthar asked cautiously.
"Why would you want to?"
"Well, we're in a similar situation, so the best thing we could do right now is team up together," Ronthar said frankly. One part of Marland began to point out that since Ronthar didn't have magic, then he would want to work together with him, but he stopped that thought before it was fully realised.
"And what if that was the entire point? What if all this-" he indicated the room with a jerk of his head "-was set up so you could trust me?"
Ronthar crossed his arms, an eyebrow raised, a small smile on his face. "Then you wouldn't be trying to persuade me to not trust you." He paused, eyes drifting away before he turned back to him, his smile now touched with teasing. "You're also a bad liar, so it would have been obvious from the start."
Marland looked away, ears not going flat, but moving, not really sure on what direction they were supposed to go. So, again (sort of), Ronthar was adamant that he wanted to trust Marland. He sighed, loosening stiff muscles. "All right, fine." Now what?
Ronthar sighed too, in relief, his smile widening. "Then-"
He was interrupted by two sharp knocks on the door. When Balt entered and saw then, his eyebrows rose. "So you two are talking with each other again."
Marland's ears sank down as he got up slowly. Ronthar was regarding Balt warily and moving away.
Balt gestured to the door with a sweep of his hand.
He nodded and walked out the room with Balt and the guards. He didn't know how to feel about the interruption. He and Ronthar were maybe finally able to talk with each other, but Marland knew that it was going to be awkward anyway. Going straight in to an easy, casual conversation after all that silence just wasn't going to happen.
The stuff inside the bowls this time seemed a little different from usual, more watery and the colour was off too, lighter. Balt must be trying something new, Marland realised uneasily.
When the circle formed though, it didn't seem to be any different from what it was normally like, but that didn't mean anything. What it did was something different from what it looked like.
Balt waved a hand, indicating for Marland to start. Taking a deep breath, bracing himself for the impact, Marland began casting magic.
It hit him like a punch to the stomach, and that was when Marland knew something was wrong. He fell to his knees, one hand braced on the floor. The sucking magic usually felt like it had snatched his insides and whatever else it could reach away and this, this was a whole lot weaker. It wasn't as concentrated, and it felt like it was tugging at his magic, rather than grabbing it in a tight hold and pulling with all its might. Marland pretended to gasp for breath, his mind working furiously. He normally only lasted two drainings now, so he just had to stand up once more.
"Again."
Marland nodded shakily, desperately hoping that even if he was a bad liar, he might be a decent actor. He flattened his ears, hoping they hadn't been up for too long. He slowly got to his feet, taking deep breaths, making sure to not stand like he had before, more hunched over.
He called the fire to him again, and when he felt the impact, he fell to the ground completely, arms splayed and wings limp. This would be the hard part, because when he'd been shocked, he normally only recovered enough to be able to do anything after he was back in the cell.
The shock came, Marland scratching the floor when he clenched his hands in to fists. It was over when he'd just curled in on himself, and he held himself there, not understanding, not believing what was happening.
"And again, nothing." Balt sighed irritably. "No point punishing it if it can't do any more," he muttered. "It's trained anyway."
Marland kept himself as still as he could, barring the twitching. This couldn't be happening. Since when did something work out so well for him? … Okay, the original situation was really bad, so he couldn't really think of this as amazing luck. Something had to go wrong though, so Marland waited, cautious to see what would happen next.
"Take him back."
Balt had already left the room by the time the guards had reached him. Good.
The guards hefted him up, the brown-haired one taking his left shoulder and arm, and the black-haired one taking his right. Marland nearly gave himself away when he braced his arms before the guards pulled him up.
The brown-haired one snickered, shaking his head. "Do you think it's trying to help?"
"Could just be it doesn't want its arm to be ripped out the socket," the other one grunted. "It's still heavy though."
A bark of laughter. "Yeah. You'd think we'd've gotten used to lugging its weight by now."
He didn't attack straight away; he waited until they were about to leave the room, before the door had been opened, so they'd tire themselves out a little. It meant feeling his shoulders supporting his entire weight but his arms weren't the only things he could use as weapons. Marland flexed his fingers, bringing his claws out in his left hand. He was stronger with his right, but the angle was better with his left.
Marland brought his feet up and shoved to the left, raking his claws in and then pushing them across the man's body.
"Shit!"
"What - Fuck!"
Hoping that would be enough to kill him (he wasn't sure; he didn't think it was deep enough), Marland whirled his attention on to the black-haired guard, who was fumbling for the controller attached to his belt, his face white and staring at the blood splatter on the ground. He still had an arm hooked under Marland's armpit.
Snarling and baring his teeth, Marland tried to do the same to the other one, but it didn't work, the guard letting go of him with a high-pitched cry as soon as he tensed his arm. The guard hastily backed up a few steps, fingers still groping for the right button.
Marland smacked his hand away with a backhand, but he was only able to scratch him when he lunged, the guard quick on his feet. He snapped his wing out; the guard hadn't been expecting that, and fell to the ground from the impact. The guard had landed on top of the controller, so Marland considered himself lucky he didn't end up getting shocked from that.
The guard was still intent on the controller; didn't they have any other weapons, or were they that reliant on them?
Marland grabbed the guard's wrists in one hand, using his claws to make sure he had a proper grip on them. The guard winced and began shaking, his breathing uneven, and his eyes were as wide as they could go. Marland looked away for a second, and the guard seemed to take that as a sign because he started babbling, pleading to be let go.
"Wait, please, don't – I don't want to die; I was just doing my job. Please…"
Marland's ears flattened and he flicked his eyes back to the man for a second before he ripped his throat out with a sweep of his arm.
He was sprayed by the man's blood, the guard twitching and gargling in his throat before he stopped moving. Marland gingerly let go of the man's wrist and as soon as he did, the arms flopped down to the ground. He tried to wipe the blood away, but all he was able to do was smear it across him instead. The only thing he could hear was his own harsh breathing.
Glancing around the room revealed nothing that he could use to clean himself with, but maybe there was something in the boxed-off area? If he and Ronthar were to get out somewhat easily, they'd have to draw the least amount of attention to themselves; having blood splattered on you wasn't a good way to stay inconspicuous.
Marland quickly made his way over to it, his ears twisted around towards the door, just in case someone came in. When he poked his head in, the first thing he saw was a softly glowing, translucent cube on a simple square table, one face about twice the size of Marland's palm. So that was how Balt was doing the magic: something had come through a portal and it eventually ended up in Balt's hands.
Making sure that he didn't get too close to it, in case he knocked it over, he looked elsewhere. The rest of the room was bare though, and he couldn't see anything else.
Shaking his head, Marland left the room and padded over to the second guard he'd killed. He took his cardkey and then glanced at the other guard, wondering if he should take his cardkey as well, just in case he lost or broke the one he had. As he made his way over, Marland realised that the rasping breath he'd been hearing wasn't his own: it was the guard's. And his hand was on his controller.
Marland dived at him, but he was too late and pain slammed in to him while he was in the air. Snarling, his dive still carried to the guard and he barrelled in to him, knocking the guard's hand away. Marland shuddered on top of him, unable to do anything else. But… the guard wasn't doing anything either. Ears moving, Marland couldn't hear the guard breathing any more.
It took agonisingly long seconds before Marland was able to move properly again. The air stank of blood. When he was able to move, Marland lifted himself off the man. His right wing was stuck on something, and when the guard moved again, he realised why.
Marland turned his head to see the claw on the top of his wing buried in the man's throat, the curved part being caught under his chin. He slid his hand under the junction of where the claw and his wing met and pushed up, the claw something free with a squelching sound. It dripped with a steady stream of blood and Marland got as much of it off as he could with his twitching fingers.
He took the guard's cardkey and then checked for any weapons. None. A quick search of the brown-haired guard revealed nothing as well.
He deliberated taking the controllers with him for a second but he decided against it. They could use them to maybe get the collars off, but there were too many unmarked buttons, so who knew what would happen if they pressed the wrong one. One could cause instant death or something. He passed on destroying them for the same reason.
That no longer concerning him, Marland considered the guards' clothes in a different light. They weren't going to need them anymore…
Marland unsheathed his claws and ripped an uneven strip of cloth from the brown-haired guard, using that to clean himself up.
He then left the room, one of the cardkeys tucked safely in a pocket, the other getting blood spread across it. Hopefully it would still work with that on.
He stumbled down the corridor, his legs not fully supporting him yet. The card, thankfully, worked, and Marland poked his head through the open door, one hand on the doorframe to keep him upright.
"Ronthar?"
Ronthar was staring at him, eyes flicking to where Marland couldn't quite clean the blood away from, he was sure. "Marland…?"
"We're getting out of here." Hopefully. He really fucking hoped so.
Ronthar got to his feet, eyeing the door warily, but still coming towards him. "What about Fion?"
Shit. Marland's ears flattened. "I don't know where he is but we have to go now."
Ronthar hesitated, looking away and shit, there wasn't anything Marland could say to him that could get him moving. The hesitation didn't last long, and Ronthar nodded at him, resolve in his eyes. "We're coming back later to get Fion."
Marland wasn't sure if he could really agree to that, not when he didn't know where he was, but they could try, when Marland had his magic. He nodded back. Now for the simple task of getting out of here.
They headed down the corridor, Marland's ears pricked towards any sounds.
"How did you – never mind. Later."
Ha. And there was Sho – Ronth – his? their? his curiosity coming through already.
They were able to get around without bumping in to anyone for a few minutes before Marland heard someone walking along the corridor they were about to go in to. He shoved Ronthar back around the corner and they waited on their toes just in case they'd have to move quickly to get out the way. They didn't have to, the person continuing on straight.
The place really needed a map stuck on the wall. But how were they going to get out? The front door? Ha. Windows wouldn't work that well with Marland either, not with his wings getting in the way again.
Ronthar had gone down to the other side of the corridor they were in and was waving him over. When Marland got there, Ronthar whispered, "What does a green light mean?"
He was asking a question now? Marland couldn't really be that surprised though. "What's it for?" he whispered back, ears constantly on the move. Ronthar knew the situation, so he couldn't be asking a question unless it was something important.
"There's one above a door over there, and it seems significant." He pointed around the corner.
Marland peered around the corner and then breathed a sigh of relief. A fire door. An exit. A noisy exit, but it was one nonetheless, and maybe it would mask their exit while everyone else got out the building too. Good. "It's a way out," he told Ronthar as he went over to it. "It'll set off a loud alarm when I open it so-"
"Is that wise?" Ronthar asked, eyebrows high.
"It'll create a distraction, so yeah." He waited, and Ronthar nodded. Marland's ears went flat just before he shoved the bar down. It didn't help, but he was outside just as the alarm went in to full swing.
And it was daytime, maybe about midday, going by how much the sunlight was searing his eyeballs. "Fuck!" He stumbled in to something and whatever it was crashed to the ground.
"Marland! What's wrong?" Ronthar was beside him, a hand on his arm. He shied away from the touch.
"I can't fucking see in sunlight," he growled. It had to be during the day when they finally got out!
"It's all right," Ronthar soothed, voice calm. "Come on; we need to get away." He took his arm again, tugging him in one direction.
They did need to get moving; there was probably people heading towards that fire exit already – no, there was people heading there; Marland could hear them coming down the stairs, their shoes and chatter echoing through the door. Shit.
Fuck, his eyes weren't that bad, but he let Ronthar guide him until his eyesight cleared up. He was able to see fairly decently, but most things seemed washed out in colour, and his headache from having the lights on constantly got a whole lot worse. It didn't matter that they were in the shade; it was still brighter than the artificial light he'd sort of gotten used to. It was also louder than Marland was used to; too many cars moving, too many people talking and walking around. It heighted his paranoia of getting caught and the world just seemed to close in on him, like there was only a certain distance he could walk before he was caught.
The roads weren't familiar, not that he could see the names, but Marland couldn't place where the hell they were. Shit, shit, shit. And that was what Marland heard the gun cock. He shoved Ronthar away, ears trying to find where the hell the person was. In front of them, maybe.
There was a hiss of static. "Requesting back-up," a man said softly, but urgently. Marland span around, but the empty street they'd been walking down suddenly had people in it. Fuck! "There's an Other on Kretsin Street with a human. Over six-foot, bipedal, green scales with gold markings, and big wings." The static stopped.
The person who came around the corner, gun aimed and ready was wearing a dark grey uniform, some parts coloured with blue. He wore a stiff hat with a rim on his head with the same colouring. Dammit, police.
"Sir?" the man called over, glancing at Ronthar –who was no longer as far away as he should have been- gun trained on Marland the whole time. "Are you okay?"
Ronthar's eyebrows went together in confusion. "Yes? What are you–" The confusion cleared up, his eyes widening. He held up a hand and started walking towards the man. "Wait. Don't shoot him."
Marland considered the options. Ronthar had the best chance of getting out of here with the police; he wasn't sure about them protecting him if Balt worked for the government, but for the moment, it was the best thing for him right now. Marland didn't have that option; he was going to get shot as soon as Ronthar got close enough to the policeman to not get accidentally hit. There wasn't anything he could hide behind, and while the exit looked clear, he could hear people moving around. He got another burst of adrenaline, making his heart beat so much faster, but he didn't want to deal with screaming humans, and he'd probably trip over something if he tried to run anyway. Not to mention, those humans might be carrying their own weapons to protect themselves against Others.
He was right. As soon as Ronthar got far enough away from Marland, the policeman opened fire on him. One bullet went straight through his wing, while the others impacted above his head as he fell. After the who knew how many days they'd spent with Balt, getting their magic sucked out over and over again, never quite recovering fully from it by the next time rolled around, getting electrocuted after every session, not exactly getting the best food there, having what felt like his eyeballs being stabbed because of the daylight and then getting shot, it was what tipped the scales of Marland's endurance. He fell in to unconsciousness; the last thing he could hear was the echoes of Ronthar's shouting.
"Stop shooting him! He hasn't - Marland!"
Wherever the hell Marland was, it was cold, his wings reacting to it. The next thing he noticed was the stabbing pain in one of his wings, the membrane throbbing, feeling sensitive and hot. He was also up against a wall, his right wing semi-crushed there. The room stank of stale sweat. What…?
Ears pricked, Marland listened for any clues.
"I know you're awake Marland, it's… okay."
Ronthar. He peeked through slitted eyelids; Ronthar was sitting cross-legged across from him, on a bed that looked like it was made from the wall. The room that they were in was about half the size, if not less, than the cell they'd just left. You had to be fucking kidding. Marland would have suspected that they'd been dragged back to Balt again if it wasn't for the fact that the walls were a dark grey and… there was a breeze coming in from somewhere? He opened his eyes fully and looked up. There was a door that was obviously a door and not hidden in to the wall, as well as having a slot about eye-level.
He'd been patched up too, if the fact that there was a plaster on top of where there should have been a hole in his wing. It felt tight there; he pulled the plaster back and saw that he'd been stitched up. Huh. He drew the wing back and settled back in place, a little further away from the wall; he really didn't want to stand up at the moment.
Marland looked at Ronthar, who shrugged, eyes not on him. "I don't know what happened. Terrek –the man who shot you- got a message after he shot you and he stopped. He brought us back here." He took a deep breath, his crossed arms tightening. "I'm sorry."
One of Marland's ears flicked at him, the other pointed towards the door. "What for?"
"You were shot because of me."
Marland turned his head towards Ronthar. What?
"I hadn't thought that he would actually shoot." His teeth were clenched, his shoulders bowed. "If I'd known, I would have stayed in the way."
Marland tried to shrug, but his left wing flinched back before it got away from his back and his other wing couldn't move properly. Marland had known what would have happened, and if Ronthar had done anything, it would have just made things worse. But why was he alive now? Unless they were just waiting to get shipped back to Balt.
"Marland… How do you react to medicine?"
He froze, his eyes wide and staring at Ronthar. His ears sank down slowly. Shit, dammit, no. If he'd been stitched up, they'd probably put drugs in his system, or had at least given him painkillers. Marland swallowed, head lowering. "It can kill me," he said quietly, barely above a whisper. He didn't feel any different, but maybe he didn't react to it straight away, or it numbed him first.
Ronthar exhaled deeply, eyes closing and leaning back on the wall. "Oh, thank you."
Marland jerked back at the sheer relief in Ronthar's voice. He was happy that – Marland's thought stuttered to a stop, his hands clenching in to fists.
"I wasn't sure exactly what they were trying to give you," Ronthar continued, not noticing Marland's reaction, "but I was able to stop them before they could make you ingest it."
Marland stared at him, hands unclenching and ears coming up again. What?
Ronthar opened his eyes, smiling softly at him. "I couldn't remember why it was bad if you had human medicine; I just knew that it was." He took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "I'm glad that they were willing to listen to me," he murmured.
Marland gaped at him, eyes wide and ears pointed at him. Ronthar remembered something that had happened when he was Shodin, and he wasn't going to die some painful death.
There was a pair of footsteps bouncing off the walls before Marland could say or think anything else, and he struggled to get to his feet, wincing when he flicked his wings out for balance out of instinct. He could at least stand semi-steadily at least. Ronthar slid off his bed as well and prepared himself for whatever came next. A pair of eyes peered through the slot. "Someone's here to pick you up."
Who? He couldn't think of anyone that he'd want to see. Marland's ears went to the wary half-way point as the door unlocked and swung open.
"Yo."
His ears lifted in disbelief, and he relaxed from the guarded stance he was in. "Kendal?" It couldn't be, but it was. The only thing that she didn't have was the large gun she normally carried. Were they still in Culsay? They hadn't left the city?
She smirked at him, one hand giving him a quick wave. "Yep." How the hell…? She turned away. "C'mon, you two need to get a shower."
"Marland…?"
He looked back at Ronther, who was looking at where Kendal had been standing, a careful look in his eyes. "It's okay," Marland reassured him. "She's a… friend." He felt the irony of using the word Shodin had asked after the first time he met her, but compared to Balt, she definitely was one. Ronthar nodded, his wary stance loosening.
Kendal peered at Ronthar as they walked out and down the corridor. "Forgotten me already?" An eyebrow was raised, but her eyes weren't narrowed.
Ronthar tilted his head at her before shaking his head, sighing. "I've lost all my memories of when I was Shodin."
Kendal studied him, before glancing at Marland. "Shodin was his name when I met him?"
Marland blinked, then went over the conversations he'd had with Kendal when Shodin was with him. He'd never actually said what Shodin's name was. "Yeah."
She turned back to Ronthar. "So you are now…?"
"Ronthar."
"All right. Kendal," she introduced herself, nodding to him.
"Nice to meet you," Ronthar said, a hesitant smile on his face.
Kendal raised an eyebrow again. She shook his head, snorting, and then gestured down a corridor. "We'll be going out the back route, for obvious reasons." She waved to the police guy who had opened their cell. He walked away after throwing Marland a doubtful look. Marland and Ronthar followed Kendal out as she pushed open a door.
It was dark outside, the stars bright and clear. Marland could feel his eyes adjust to the darkness, and his headache faded a bit immediately. He sighed at that, relishing the feeling. The only things Marland could hear was the passing of a few cars in a far road and the purr of an engine nearby. Kendal led them in the direction of the engine. He kept his ears in constant motion, just in case what he was hearing was wrong, and he kept looking towards anything that seemed out of place.
Marland extended his wings as he walked, moving slower so that he wouldn't hit Ronthar. He stretched his right wing out as far as it could go, and his left as far as was comfortable for it. Ronthar turned his head to watch him, curiosity in his eyes and the tilt of his head, but he didn't say or ask anything.
It felt amazing to have that much space around him again. He held his wings in position for a few seconds before folding them back in.
Gahn was sitting behind the wheel of the van, and he nodded to them once he saw them. The light inside the back of the van was weak enough that Marland wouldn't be too bothered by it, and the light that was coming from the dashboard through the gap in the wall was nothing, but there was another problem to be considered. Kendal seemed to realise it too, looking back and forth between the interior of the van and Marland, her eyes assessing him.
"How the hell do you sit down?"
Marland's ears slanted, and he sighed, rolling his eyes. "With chairs that don't have backs." He waited to see if she had any other comments.
Her lips curled in to a smile, her eyes lighting up. "Hmm, you're not going to fit if you stand," she mused.
No, he wasn't. His head wasn't exactly brushing the roof while he was standing on the ground, but his wings were already past it. "I'll just lie down."
Kendal peered at the seat lining the wall before looking back at his wings. "You gonna fit?"
"If you don't mind having holes in your seat." And if he lay completely on his front. It'd be a definite squeeze but… "Just don't sit where my wing could hit you if it extended."
"Right," Kendal said wryly, eyeing the length of them. "So in the corner or just duck all the time?"
He sent her a dry look. It wasn't his fault they so were so huge. It'd probably be best if he lay down with his left wing on the outside – the pain would stop it from going out too far. Or possibly even moving, the way it was feeling right now.
Marland turned to glance at Ronthar when he remembered something. "You okay with cars?" Did Ronthar have cars where he came from? If he went by Shodin's reactions, it was probably no.
Ronthar nodded slowly. "Yes. I've been in a few."
Marland decided not to ask what for. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know, and not just because it could be tied to whatever the hell Balt was involved in, but just, it was Ronthar's life before he was Shodin.
Marland ducked his head and shoulders, the claw on his wing still scraping the roof with a screech as he got in to the van. He lay on top of the row of seats, and punctured the cover with the claws in his hands and feet. He tested if he could be dislodged that easily by tugging with his hands; he'd be fine, so long as he didn't have to clench his hands. He and Ronthar seemed to be getting in to smaller and smaller places, he thought inanely.
Ronthar followed after him, sitting down opposite his head, his hands braced on the edge of the seat. Kendal went in last, closing the door behind her and sat down next to Ronthar after checking the angles of where Marland's wing could go.
The van started up straight away, sounding smooth. It still set Marland's teeth on edge, because he could feel the vehicle moving, the entire place vibrating, and the engine was still on the border of being too loud to his ears. It went at a slow pace at least, so it didn't move them around too much when it went around corners.
"So I thought I told you to keep a low profile?"
Marland's ears flattened, not looking at her. "We did." Now that they were getting away, now that Marland didn't have to think about escape, his body just wanted sleep and food and to be clean. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to stay awake for the whole ride. "We only left the flat…" He tried to think of how many times they left the flat after being told by Kendal, then gave up. It was too long ago, with the memories of Balt and everything else after taking up his attention. "We didn't leave it much." He yawned widely, before shaking his head.
"And the reason why you two have matching collars? Well," she added, without much pause, grinning, "unless there's one that I'm not aware of."
Marland was too damn weary to even try to understand what the hell that comment meant. "We got kidnapped by a guy who wants to steal Others' magic so he can what, help the humans here defend themselves against Others with it."
The grin faded, and her eyes hardened. "You can't take it off?"
He looked at her, ears forward. "You think," -we? I?- "we didn't try? My claws can't get through it and it blocks our… my magic."
Kendal looked at him closely before she turned her attention to Ronthar. "…You had magic?"
Ronthar nodded slowly, his hair waving, then took a deep breath. "It's complicated."
Marland blinked. What? He either had magic, or he didn't, and Balt was sure he'd taken it – and Ronthar had confirmed it, so what did that mean?
When Ronthar didn't give any more information about what he'd said, Marland asked Kendal, "How the hell did you find us?" Because he couldn't have been out for that long, and it didn't explain why she'd come anyway.
Her lips tilted up to one side, her eyes softening slightly. "I told ya I'd talk to the police about you."
Marland stared at her. "What did you say to them to get them to not kill me?"
The lopsided smile turned back in to a grin with teeth, but she didn't answer.
He probably wasn't going to get an answer from her either, if she didn't want to give one. Marland closed his eyes, feeling so completely exhausted, and fell asleep straight away.
Marland jolted awake to the sound of whispering. The car had stopped moving and his wing was throbbing incessantly.
"So how do you wake him up without him attacking you?" Kendal. There was an amused tone to her voice, and she sounded a little too curious.
"I don't know." There was a small pause. "And I don't think I ever did. But…"
"Buut…?" Marland should probably 'wake up' before this conversation went further.
"He was absolutely devastated when I… when my memories came back." Marland's ears flattened at that. He… okay, he had been, but he didn't think he'd been that obvious. He thought over what he'd done when Ronthar got his memories back. He hunched over. Yes, he'd been that obvious.
"I'm not surprised – Marland doesn't have a lot of people who he's close to." Kendal moved, her clothes rustling. "You're – Shod-" She stopped, sighing. "This is getting confusing." She shook her head. "I've never seen Marland let anyone get that close to him, let alone that fast."
Marland tried to push down the churning empty feeling in him, just tried to not think about anything.
Ronthar cleared his throat. "Marland's awake now."
He opened his eyes then, because there wasn't any point in pretending anymore. Kendal grinned at him. "Good. C'mon, we're home."
Marland twisted his head to look at the door behind him, then back at Kendal and Ronthar. "You're gonna have to get out first." When he turned around –which he wasn't sure about doing as he thought about it- his wingtips were going to be hitting both sides of the van. It was a good thing that none of Kendal's team was overly protective of the van, other than in a nostalgic way, because he was adding far too many scratches to it at once. He could try going out backwards, but he wrinkled his nose at that option. Too awkward.
After the two had gotten out, Marland lurched to his feet. He did feel a little better after the nap, a bit more relaxed, and the constant headache he'd had for the however many days he'd had it was nearly fully gone too. His jaw felt slightly numb and his wing hadn't gotten any better though. Marland stretched his right wing out, so it was out at an angle rather than being parallel to the position of his body. He tried with his left wing, but he couldn't move it that far before protesting. Moving them where they were helped a bit when he turned, though they did scrape the ceiling, and he tucked them back in when he was facing the door.
Ronthar, Kendal and Gahn were waiting for him when he got out. Kendal closed the door as soon as he stepped away from it, the slam making him twitch towards it, just in case. The street was a line of houses that pretty much all looked the same apart from the front gardens. The only lights that were on were the streetlights. Marland and Ronthar were led up to one of the houses, Kendal opening it and walking straight in, flicking on the lights as she did. Grumbling and wanting to cover his head with his wings, Marland followed her. The smell of fresh food wafted over as soon as he stepped in to the house, making Marland realise just how hungry he was. He'd been lucky that he was able to eat the food when they were captured, but it wasn't exactly nourishing or filling.
There were two doors on their right, the one furthest away looking like it was the toilet, a small table on their left when they entered. Directly in front of them was another door. Kendal led them down the hall and around the corner, towards the smell. The kitchen door was open, light spilling out of it, and Marland counted four more doors in addition that. There were a couple of steaming pots on the cooker and Marland eyed them. Shoved in the corner was a decently sized table, alongside extra chairs not lined up against it.
Kendal gestured to the pots. "Help yourself – I'm sure there's something left."
Gahn snorted behind them. "I told them to, before we left."
Kendal sent him a dry look. "Since when does that mean anything?"
Marland over to the pots and peered down one. He could see meat and vegetables, but he couldn't really identify much past that. "Do you have any microwave food?" he asked, looking back up.
Gahn raised his eyebrows. "Poor Nillos'll be hurt, after all the effort he put in to cooking that."
He was able to tell that Gahn was teasing him. Just. His ears still flattened though. "I can't eat some human food, and I don't know what ones exactly I can't eat, so I just avoid most of them." He shrugged slightly with his wings.
"Hmm." Kendal glanced over to the fridge. "We've got a couple of packs – anything else we should know?"
"Do you have any chocolate?"
Kendal and Gahn looked at him, like they were wanting to ask him if he was thinking clearly. He looked away, hunching his shoulders, his ears lowering. "Can't eat human painkillers either – I use chocolate."
"Huh. Makes sense," Gahn said, rubbing his chin with the heel of a hand. "Hold on – I've got a stash in my room." He walked out of the kitchen.
Marland waited awkwardly as he heard Gahn go in to one of the rooms and rummage about, while Kendal stuck his food in the microwave and Ronthar got out the plates and cutlery after being directed to them by Kendal.
There was a squeak of a different door opening and Marland saw a purple head poke in around the corner of the door. -'Where have you been?'- Pai stalked up at him, glaring all the while.
"Fion?" Ronthar yelped and whirled around, wide-eyed. He visibly deflated when he saw Pai, eyes lowering and head turning away. "Ah… I thought…" He shook his head, turning back to the plates.
Shit.
-'Okay, and that's another reaction that I don't normally get from you,'- Pai teased, her head cocked to the side.
Marland winced. Gahn, at that point, re-entered the kitchen, a bar of chocolate in his hands. Gahn lobbed the bar at him, and Marland caught it easily. "Pai…" Marland said quietly, not really sure how to continue. "This is Ronthar."
-'Ronth – Oh.'- Pai ducked her head. She was quiet for a second, looking back and forth between Marland and Ronthar. –'Do you remember…?'-
Ronthar shook his head. "I don't remember being Shodin."
-'Oh…'- She glanced back at Marland, before sighing. -'So, what happened?'-
Was he going to have to repeat himself every single time he met someone? "We got kidnapped by someone who wanted our magic and… somehow Ronthar got his memory back." He had no idea how, and he hadn't exactly been wondering how it happened, more focused on the fact that Shodin was no longer there. But Shodin was; Ronthar had shown that he still had some sort of residual memories of their time together.
The microwave dinged and Marland went over to get his food. The kitchen seemed pretty crowded by now, and his wings really weren't helping. Ronthar had finished scooping out the food that he'd wanted and made his way over to the table, Kendal following after him.
"And I'm just going to go collapse in my bed now," Gahn announced, waving at them before leaving. Kendal waved back at him before turning back to her food.
Ronthar wasn't really eating though, more poking at his food a couple of times before putting it in his mouth. With nowhere to sit, the chairs all having backs to them, Marland stayed standing. The rest of the time was spent quietly, the relatively relaxed mood broken, neither Marland or Ronthar willing to really talk, both exhaustion and far too much stuff unsaid keeping their mouths closed.
After they were finished, Kendal waved them away from the dirty plates and led them to the room that Pai had assumedly come from. In it were two single beds and a small nest of blankets in the corner.
"You all okay sharing a room?" Kendal asked, glancing between them all.
Marland really didn't care at the moment, just so long as he could sleep and Balt wasn't anywhere nearby. He grunted, while Ronthar smiled tiredly at her.
"It’s okay with me."
Marland eyed the blanket on one of the beds before he folded it up and stuck that and the pillow at the foot of the bed. He would have taken away the linen too, but he was just too damn tired. He curled up on the bed, hearing Ronthar slide in to the bed next to him, several 'night's and fell right in to blissful sleep.