| Subject: tension |
Author:
Anwex, et al
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Date Posted: 11:33:39 10/18/05 Tue
In reply to:
Raziel/Monet/Azrael
's message, "Running and Staying" on 21:58:52 09/12/05 Mon
The Silent Paw kitten trembled as she ran up to the strangers. She did not know their scents, but she had been raised to trust and obey her elders, and though the silver female who had spoken was hardly out of kittenhood herself, the golden male with strange markings was a full adult, seasoned and wise. He had to be wise - all adults were wise, weren't they? The kitten glanced back as Raziel, clothed in Paw fur, came up through the stones.
"Please," she said to the strangers in the language of their people, and it felt good to speak again. "I'm Anwex LeBareni and this one is human, she's a Cheysuli-shapeshifter and her sister is trapped in the tower with a tiger-lir, I didn't see him but I smelled him, and the bad man is there too and he's their brother but he killed my family, he came from the sky riding a shadow and he killed them and took their skins...."
She paused for a breath and another roar came, louder and nearer this time, and Anwex cringed. "It's after us! It's coming, it'll kill us!" she squealed. "The bad man's lir, the black cat, and he's as big as you and he's coming!" Terror-stricken, she darted through Macphisto's legs and crouched there trembling. "What do we do?"
::Raziel!:: called Michael, and twin shadows crossed over the little group of Silent Paw - a pair of eagles in flight. ::Neva, Phisto! Damien is on the path, he'll be upon you in a moment. You have to run! Get down the path. If you can reach the hills, he'll never outrun you, you'll be able to lose him. But if he catches you on the slope, he will kill you. We'll hold him off - go, run!::
Two eagles screamed a brazen warning and dove side-by-side, wings folded tight and talons extended, and hit Damien's back and shoulders not half a second apart. The mountain lion hissed and spat, and his claws passed through Evan's wingfeathers as the eagles sped away, leaving red wounds in the lir's black coat.
::Here, kitty kitty,:: Mike crooned, taunting, and alighted upon a boulder to look the lir in the eye. Damien's tail lashed. He could smell his quarry moving away, but how pleased Azrael would be if one of his brothers were killed! Evan circled above, waiting for his moment to strike.
- - -
Cassiel tried to appear calm as she regarded her brother pacing back and forth, raving about death and salvation. With her Silent Paw nose she could smell the sweat upon him, the sour stench of rage, the acrid overtone of arrogance. He is mad, she realized. Or very close to it.
Azrael paused, meeting her eyes boldly, and there was a wild glint in his eye. He truly did not believe that there was any way he could lose, either now or ultimately; and perhaps that was true, Cassiel admitted. Perhaps, in the end, Azrael would exterminate his siblings and raise up a new race of monsters, founded by whatever was in her belly, and the world would be laid waste by his insane whims. But Cassiel was wise enough to know that the possibility of loss never negates the value of effort. Perhaps he will win...but then, perhaps not. For my family, I must try.
She lowered her head slowly, gazing off to one side in thought, and her ears slicked back. Azrael leaned forward, waiting for her reply. "You," she said at last in a slow, dreamy voice. "You are right. You are...my only hope. Please," she burst out, and looked up at him pleadingly. "Azrael, I do not want to die!"
His face lit up, and Cassiel knew that she had won. By touching on her brother's deepest fear - death - she had connected with him. If she was careful, she knew, she could turn this situation any way she chose. The Scout is smarter than the Hunter, she reminded herself.
"There is no need for your death," Azrael said in a voice meant to be soothing, but the effect was ruined by the tremor of excitement. "Indeed, I would be most inconvenienced were you to die. You will live, Cassiel - by my word."
"Yes," she agreed in a whisper. Behind her, the tiger shifted, and she could smell his despair. Hoping against hope to reassure him, she twitched the very tip of her tail, which was behind her, three times. It was a conscious, deliberate action and she hoped that it would convince him that her words were of the same spirit, carefully chosen.
"What will you do, Cass?" Azrael asked in a sudden false pretense of warm brotherhood. He came forward and knelt before her and she prayed silently that he would not touch her. Her skin screamed at his nearness.
But her eyes were pools of abjection and misery as she looked at him. "I am yours, brother," she whispered. "I beg of you, let me run. Let me live in the free air for a little while longer. Let me sit in the sunlight and watch the clouds race across the sky...give me my family for this short time. Let me go to them, and I will be strong and healthy...and so will your future. Do this for me, grant me this boon, and I swear upon my honor as a Cheysuli that when you call to me, I will come, no matter the distance or my occupation. Call me, and I will come."
Azrael pursed his lips, thoughtful, never moving his eyes from hers. "And when I make my war against our brothers, Cass?"
Her heart wrenched, but she did not flinch. "I will not stand in your way."
His eyes seemed to glow. "Then stand before me as a woman and swear it to me as your chief."
Cassiel could not keep the tears from her eyes as her fur and tail melted away and she rose to her knees in her human body, but Azrael only smirked when he saw them, standing before her with arms folded across his broad but gaunt chest. A poor copy of the brother he could never live up to, Cassiel thought sadly, and bowed her head, and spoke the sacred words that would bind her to her promise, words that acknowledged this mad brother as her chief, commander of her life.
"Rise," Azrael said when it was done, sounding almost disinterested now. "I suppose you'll want to take the tiger with you."
"I could not go without him, my lord," she said meekly. "My conscience would torment me."
"And then you'd never eat properly, and so on." He produced a key from some hidden pocket and tossed it at her feet. "Very well - take him. And no more shifting, sister, it's bad for the baby." With that he turned away and walked to the window, standing there brooding.
As quickly as she could, her heart racing, Cassiel removed the chains that had been binding Monet. She could not meet his eyes. They were in the doorway when she turned again. "My lord - you will recall Damien?"
"I think not. He gets so grumpy when I ask him not to kill. No, I think the head of our darling Raziel will be a lovely decoration for this room. It needs a little something, don't you think?"
Cassiel whirled and began to run down the stairs, followed closely by Monet.
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