"So I'm basically looking for a giant cat?" Stiles muttered in disbelief into the walkie-talkie. He knew from the beginning he shouldn't have left the research to Scott, but after a rushed mandatory parent teacher conference with his dad and Ms. Larsen, followed by the urgent request for a preserve perimeter check from Scott, rigorous research wasn't necessarily an option.
"Well, you might be looking for a giant cat and you might be looking for a giant cat inside a dead corpse. It's kind of hard to tell." Stiles stopped walking completely, frustration written clearly on his face.
"You know you really suck at this." He breathed into the speaker and continued along the fence separating the preserve from a major highway.
"Deaton said that a Bakeneko may prowl in its human form, which is stolen, or in its natural form. Its natural form is in the shape of a huge cat walking on its hind legs. Do you see anything that might resemble something like that?" Scott sounded just as frustrated as Stiles felt. The moon was unusually bright for its thin, banana shape and the light was reflecting across every surface of the forest.
"Okay, dude, I'll beep if I see anything." Stiles concluded and pushed the walkie-talkie into his pocket. The trek through the reserve was utterly meaningless as it seemed when he was recruited to complete the job.
"Hey," Stiles nearly shed his skin in fright as he turned around to see an amused Isaac and Allison. The Argent had her usual defense while Isaac had his usual smolder. "Scott said you might need some help finding the Bakeneko." Isaac continued, adjusting his stupid scarf. Stiles finally let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding and gestured to the rest of the reserve.
"Thanks, but I've just about covered it."
Allison smiled and took Isaac's hand in hers. "Then we'll double check." The couple turned away when a noise was abruptly heard from just a couple hundred feet away. It sounded like the phony sound effect heard when a character in a sitcom throws something carelessly. A crush and then a cat meowing in protest.
The trio found themselves breaking out into a run toward the sound and found the sight quite shocking. The Bakeneko had a large wolf clamped on its neck. The wolf was being easily shaken off with growls and snarls curling from its lips during every brisk recovery. "I didn't know Peter came to help." Stiles managed to choke out.
Isaac shook his head as Allison's face changed from shock to horror. "That isn't Peter." As if on cue, all three of the teens immediately went to work. These were quite blurred lines that they were working with. They couldn't figure out which was the enemy; the Bakeneko, the wolf, or both. Allison had her arrow knocked, but was aiming it at both the animals according to which one looked the most harmful. Isaac had allowed to transform himself the best he could to assist with what he could. Stiles was trying to wake the dead walkie-talkie to work with no prevail.
Laying on the ground was a stunned blonde. She was cowering near a tree with her face tipped towards the battle that resembled that of a fairy tale. She had a look of complete and utter disbelief splayed out on her features. Trying to be useful, Stiles rushed to the girl and tried to comfort her. She didn't have any tears running down her face or anything, just a hollow expression.
"SHOOT THE THING ALLISON!" Isaac yelled trying to hold off the Bakeneko so the wolf could recover.
"ISAAC, I'M TRYING." She was trying to steady her shaking hands and focus on which target to hit. The Bakeneko had been deliberately attacking both Isaac and the wolf in a way that would manipulate Allison into shooting Isaac if she shot at all. Closing her eyes, she fired the arrow without looking. A technique she hadn't applied in a long, long time. There was a groan from Isaac and the crunch of dead leaves beneath the Bakeneko's paws as it scampered away.
Allison rushed over to her boyfriend, forgetting any of the other threats. She slung his arm around her shoulders and supported him to her car on the edge of the preserve. Stiles was still trying to comfort the girl who was now smiling at him. He began to smile back until he realized something. It came to him like a punch in the gut. Something was way off. He looked around on either side of him and saw nothing. His third eye for evil was flashing red lights and he just couldn't put his finger on the threat. Glancing back at the petite blonde beneath him, it dawned on him. Her smile was not friendly. That was the smile of a crocodile toying with its next meal. That smile was gushing malice.
A sharp pain caught Stiles as a large paw came tearing through his stomach. He cried out in pain and looked at the once vulnerable creature that had a blood stained paw where a human hand should have been. He felt his heart in his throat as he realized the blood was his. He felt himself go light headed and he stumbled to the ground, praying that the second Bakeneko's murderous smirk wouldn't be the last one he saw. As if on cue of his thoughts, the girl was swiped from his vision immediately. He tried counting the number of stars he could see through the openings of dark trees to distract from the sounds of pain and tearing flesh he heard next to him. Stiles didn't know what it was, and frankly, if these were his last moments, he didn't care to know.
The pleasing sight of stars just barely shining in the cloudy sky was quickly replaced with the face of a girl. She wasn't that pretty, but he could have mistaken her for the most beautiful woman alive if he were judging by the things coming out of her mouth.
"Hey. Hey, look at you! Most humans would just die from a cut that deep, but look at you! You're not even whining." Stiles didn't mention that it hurt when he breathed, swallowed, blinked, thought too hard, let alone talk. "What's your name? Can you remember your name?" He sucked in a sharp breath before hissing his name at her. She smiled. "That is a very pretty name... and you're bleeding out, okay. Well, I can fix this. I can definitely fix this." He could feel himself being picked up bridal style, but doing that immediately made everything feel numb. In his feet and hands it felt like when you put rubber bands on them and prod at your skin, not being able to feel anything. In his face and chest, it felt like it was waking up similarly to when your foot falls asleep. His vision was getting blurry around the edges until everything in sight was stolen from him as the darkness bled through.
Stiles felt warm when he woke up. He was warm on the inside and warm on the outside. He barely remembered what happened, but when he did, he jumped like he was startled. He wasn't expecting everything to come back all at once. Looking down, he was submerged in water. Thankfully, it was warm and looked like it had steam rising from the surface. It was tinted a translucent green and smelled like something was cooking. Oh dear God, please don't be cannibals, please don't be cannibals, please don't cannibals.
"You realize that if you squeeze your eyes shut any tighter, they are going to burst." He jumped again at the woman's voice. Looking at her in the dim light, she had a mug of something that smelled like tea in her hand and her hair was pulled up, with the pieces that were too short to be included in the ponytail hanging by her neck and ears. She had a big nose and lips that were not proportional to her tiny almond shaped eyes. What he could see of her irises were a dark violet that almost looked black. He looked down at himself. He found himself completely clothed, in a bathtub that was probably in the tackiest looking bathroom he'd ever seen. It looked like a mini 50s diner. There was a dull, throbbing pain in his stomach. Looking down, there were flowers growing out of him where the cut had been. They were small little blossoms that looked like baby tulips. He didn't know whether to be amazed and adoring of them or to be absolutely terrified of them.
"Stiles Stilinski, specialized in werewolf research. You're seventeen and you are from around here. Let's see what else? Very clumsy, sarcastic, cynical. Am I right so far? You have been legally dead for around 4 hours, but are how here. You know, I've dappled in Druid healing medicine, but it had a lot of sacrificial rituals and tying people down. I'm not really into the whole chains and blood thing, if you know what I mean. Hm. You seem to be pretty average to me." When she was finished speaking, she looked over to Stiles who was gaping at her. She lifted his chin to meet the rest of his mouth and smiled at him.
"So you're a kidnapper. You're probably boiling me and then you're going to skin me alive in that room back there." As if on cue, a tall brunette boy stepped through the door with a substance that looked like blood smeared all over his shirt. He grinned at Stiles and addressed the girl. "Hey, what do you want me to do with this?" He held up a lung that was slopping over the edges of his palms. Stiles felt like he was going to pass out again.
"Just set them next to the body, I'll take care of them later." The boy nodded and closed the door after turning back to Stiles. "Get better soon, little bro."
"Don't mind him, he's just a little eccentric. He doesn't know how to talk to people." She emptied her mug of tea into the water Stiles was soaking in and cupped some water and emptied it in his hair. "So you know a lot about creatures and things, right? Have you ever heard of a faoladh?" Stiles shook his head and tried not to think about the lung he had seen. The steam was still rising from the water and it made Stiles feel like he was weightless and everything was going to be cool despite the fact that he had been kidnapped by an unpredictable she-wolf.
"Well, that's what I am. A faoladh. It was known to be the guardian of children and healer of wounded men. Some even said that the kings would call upon them in a time of war. But things have changed lately and they don't really do that anymore. Now me and brother mostly just work on these really cool elaborate projects for his forensics classes and set design, hence, the bloody lung." She laughed a little bit and reached her hand under water. She was uprooting the flowers from his stomach with ease. It had a weird tugging sensation, but it didn't hurt. Not even a little bit.
"What do those things do?"
"Heal flesh. If I cant fix it myself, I look to these little guys. Insert them into the wound, and they occupy the space, healing fast, like regular werewolves do. The green stuff was to stop your bleeding under control and to get you to relax." Stiles admired the way the root of the plant was visibly working its way in spirals up her arm, making her look like some kind of really cool fairy thing.
She helping him out of the water and covered him with probably the softest towel he had ever felt in his life. As he walked to the front door, he stole a glance at the boy's crime scene and smiled. It had really nice art elements and he could see the gallon of Halloween blood off to the side of the scene.
"Thank you." He muttered. He saw that the girl he had been talking to still had bite marks on her shoulders and blood matted in her hair.
"Any day." She smiled and leaned against the pillar on her porch.
"What's your name again? We sure could use people like you when Deaton's not around." She smiled at his joke and looked at her bare feet that had bruises and cuts and puncture marks from sticks on them.
"Aisling Cleary." She shook his hand and let the pretty little Stiles walk away into the dimming glow of the street lamps.