Chapter 4: Into the Silence
Disclaimer: Though the plotline is mine, the rest isn't. I don't own anything belonging within the Inuyasha, Hellsing, Twilight, or Samurai Deeper universes.
The cave was quiet and its silence hovered heavily in the darkness that surrounded the two inside it, a dragon and a young man. Seras laid still as the light of the boy's flashlight seemed to peel off the thick heavy layers of darkness that covered her. The light's weight was tangible, its beam blinding. Seras blinked. Her eyes closed slowly in time with her heartbeat, the only sound that pierced the quiet air around the two of them. She swallowed and he took a step forward.
In the limited light, Seras allowed herself to gaze at the boy's form half illuminated, half cast in shadow. He was bulky and tall. His eyes and short cut hair appeared dark in color. Although he wore a t-shirt, jeans, and a short jacket, Seras quickly recognized how the outside appearance seemed to clash violently with the voice she had heard only moments before; the threat of the body, the arrogant clown of the heart. Then, she thought of his name. Emmett. Did the name suit him? She pondered this silently.
When the boy moved his flashlight beam to aim it straight into her eyes, Seras tensed. She tried to flex her claws and twitch her tail. They were natural reactions, which made the reminder that she couldn't move anything all the more alarming. Quickly, her mind raced trying to come up with an escape route, but the minutes, no seconds, she had to think was not enough. Her ki didn't rise. Her fangs didn't coat in poison. Her flame did not spark before that all too familiar voice broke through the stillness of the moment.
The girl, the one she helped, sighed loud enough for the whole forest to hear. "Emmett, I know you don't believe my story," she all but huffed. "You made that point perfectly clear nearly every minute of those 'three whole hours' that you, quote, 'suffered under [my] crazy talk', end quote."
Emmet answered with a gruff grunt. The action caused the flashlight in his hands to quiver. "Come on, we've been over this. It was two hours and I'm not joking this time. It looks like it's going to eat me. Really! Honest to God!" The boy cracked a sly smile before saying under his breath, "I hope it tries to. I always wanted to slay a dragon."
This guy isn't a clown, Seras thought annoyed. He was a complete idiot.
She pulled in her thoughts as the voice of the girl (Bella?) once again broke the silence. "Emmett," she huffed. "This isn't funny." The flashlight she was carrying flickered as she stomped towards the entrance. It bounced to and fro to the rhythm of her steps outlining the entrance's threshold, the ground outside, the ceiling, the opposite wall, Seras's tail, her back, and then finally her face. The girl's voice trailed off abruptly. "Oh my god," she whispered.
"Bella, what is it," the other female asked. In the slightly lit cave, Seras could make out a very dim silhouette of a taller girl as she entered the cave to stand next to Bella. She gasped and put what looked to be a small hand in front of her mouth. "That's her isn't it." The other girl's voice also descended to a whisper.
Before Bella could answer, two bigger forms completely covered them both nearly dousing the light in Bella's hand. "Does it look like it's attacking?"
"We should kill it where it stands."
"Edward!" Bella's voice was now frantic with panic. "No! Don't! It's not dangerous! It helped me!" The way her voice continued to get louder and louder and was accompanied by the sound of feet shuffling randomly, Seras could tell she was being physically pushed away from the entrance.
"It's a beast," the boy yelled.
"No!"
"It could hurt you!"
"Stop it," Bella yelled back. "Let – let me go! It's not going to-"
"Guys?" The tone of Emmett's voice broke up the argument. It was still, less excited than before. Silence filled the cave in answer. "It's not moving. I mean, her eyes are and her lips. And… she's ticked off as hell, but the rest of her isn't. Are they supposed to do that? Carlisle?"
Seras's eyes scanned the darkness as fast as they would allow her looking for any sign of the other vampire. Suddenly the sound of a match lighting up crackled in the cave. Then almost as quickly, the warm orange glow of a fire resting on a log began to grow in the darkness. It started small in the center of the cave's floor, and then it grew. The shadowed figure that stood before the flame threw more logs on it adding yellows and whites to the colors illuminated in the darkness. It made the cave smell of old pine and smoke. Soon, Seras could see the welcome sight of small white streams rise steadily towards the low ceiling. Though that alone was welcoming enough, the thing that she felt her comfort rise from the most was the warmth the little flame gave off. It, like the fire, was small, not enough for her to revive her strength, but still, like a drop of water to a man dying of thirst, Seras relished in what little warmth she could gain.
Opening her eyes, for she had closed them in relief, she quickly eyed the group. She looked to the left. Bella, the girl she had helped, was crowded into a corner by a boy that looked to be relatively her age in appearance. He was lean . His hair was short-medium length and it was wet from the snow. It was bronze in color. His eyes were a golden, topaz color, not quite yellow, but not quite brown either. Currently, those were narrowed and glared pointedly in Seras's direction. Seras unfazed let her gaze drift to the right.
Near the entrance stood another pair standing similarly to the previous couple, yet differently. The guy's stance was alert and cautious, not hostile as the other boy's was. The girl was curious and careful, not nervous and desperate as Bella was. Seras quickly noted her short, spiky black hair, pale pixie features, and golden eyes. Then she took in the appearance of her lover. He had not quite shoulder length brown hair and steady golden eyes, not unlike those that stared at her from behind him. These were simple things that she noticed, background details. What quickly drew her attention was his body. Though it was lean and muscled, it was absolutely drenched in scars; marks that were prominent to her predator eyes. He had seen battle.
Reluctantly, she turned away to check on Emmett's current position next to her to make sure he didn't do anything suspicious, which he wasn't (Thank God!). Seras, then, finally allowed herself to gaze over at the last vampire who was currently attending to the fire. His speed was faster than any human could follow, yet his hands were steady. His golden eyes, the same color as the rest, were serious. He was of medium toned build. His hair a golden blonde that shimmered in the fire light, like his skin. He looked… Seras stopped. She swallowed.
"Alice," he said eventually after a moment. "Come help with this."
The girl, the other female, snapped from her obvious staring and quickly moved to do the man's bidding. As she drew near, he stood from his crouched stance before the flame and turned to regard the dragon in front of him. For a second, he turned to Edward behind him and said in a low voice. "Son, I'm going to need you to release your wife for me." He rubbed his hands together.
Edward's gaze grew stubborn and he grimaced at his father. "Why," he bit out.
"Because," the man answered with patience that Seras did not share, "The creature knows the girl and she might be able to keep her calm while I examine her."
Just as Edward made to verbally refuse the request, Bella moved to push her husband away from her. When he made to grab her elbow, she jerked it away from his grasp. "It's not your decision, Edward," she ground out through two rows for perfectly white teeth. "She helped me, I owe her this much at least."
"YOU don't owe her anything."
"Why can't you-"
"Bella, this is unwise. You don't know-"
"LOOK," the girl said turning her back to him. "If you are so worried, why don't you just stand guard and if something happens, which I'm sure it won't, you can just intervene as you always do." She walked up to Seras and placed a cold hand on the side of her snout.
Seras quietly watched her. Her eyes were wide! She, then, turned to look at the boy who was staring at his wife with hard, unreadable eyes. When his lowered to meet Seras's, he grimaced, raising his handsome lips in a snarl. Abruptly, he turned and left. Awkward silence was his wake.
The quiet gave time for Seras to scan the others. They each looked ragged in their own way. The father looked more worried than the others. It was a sure sign that the fighting between the two wasn't a recent development. Seras tried to tilt her head and failed. She whimpered.
"I'm sorry," Bella muttered. Her voice was at odds with the flickering light of the campfire.
Alice, the girl attending it, stood up slowly and walked to stand by her burly brother. "I'm sure he'll come around eventually, Bella."
"Yeah, probably during the next ice age," Emmett muttered. Though all immortals in the room could hear him, none commented.
"Carlisle," Bella asked after a moment.
The man who had been looking at the entrance lowered his head and gazed at his daughter –in-law questioningly.
Bella half-heartedly gestured toward the dragon, who rested silently under her hand. "What now?"
The uncertainty in her voice snapped everyone back to the problem at hand. Carlisle sighed and rolled up the sleeves of his jacket with quick practiced movements. "Jasper," he said, his tone of voice just shy of a command. "I need you to monitor her; what she is feeling, sudden changes, anything."
Jasper nodded. He knew what he was asking.
Alice and Emmett took a step back as Carlisle moved to get closer. Noticing the lack of light, he gestured for Emmett to come closer. "A light please," he asked softly. Emmett obeyed.
Seras, still unable to move due to the cold, watched Carlisle's movement as he got closer. His hand was out stretched and his steps were slow and cautious. She raised her lip slightly higher exposing more fang. Immediately, Bella's hand began to rub circles on the dragon's rough snout. She tried to make soothing sounds. Although Seras understood the sentiment, she didn't like being treated like a mindless animal. It made her feel…
Jasper furrowed his eyebrows as he scanned the emotions around the room. His family's he could point out easily. Carlisle was calm, determined, curious, and possessed an extremely high level of fascination. Jasper raised an eyebrow and mentally shrugged. Bella's was concern with a depressed sort of hope and confidence. She was worried. Alice, who was standing off to the side like he was, was focused and also worried. She was, in a word, apprehensive. Emmett was curious, excited and greedy. Jasper rolled his eyes at the desire beginning to grow in his brother's heart. He really did not want to know. Jasper nodded in a self-assuring kind of way. They were easy to read, because he was used to them.
As for the dragon's emotions, however, they were more complicated than he expected. Since his arrival into the cave, and if he truly admitted it to himself, a little bit before that, he had felt multiple mixtures of emotions from the animal. Fear, curiosity, shock, concern, anxiousness, wonder, relief, the list went on. It was almost too long… well too long for any dumb animal anyway. Unlike Emmett and Edward, Jasper had taken the time to at least listen to his sister-in-law's claims on the beast. Although she hadn't flat out said it due to the number of arguments that interrupted each of her attempts to tell her story, she had let out enough information that he could tell that the girl had found some intelligence in it. It could communicate and understand human speech to some extent. As a result, Jasper found himself seriously wondering whether if she was some kind of shape shifter, or not. He took a subtle sniff. She didn't smell bad, maybe a little smoky, but she certainly didn't smell like the wolves. Maybe he was wrong.
Jasper let himself focus on the beast's current emotions. His eyes took in the narrowed, yellow irises surrounded by the red sclera of the dragon's own. At the moment, she was a mixture of anxiousness and anger. He shifted his weight. There was something more. Was she offended?
A growl suddenly ripped through the air. It was soft and barely audible, even for the vampires. Carlisle paused in his advance. He looked over the dragon then to Bella and then to Emmett. "Emmett," he asked after a quick thought. "Do you have your phone on you?"
At what seemed to be an out of place question, the young man nodded dumbly.
"I need you to look up hypothermia in lizards for me. Can you do that," Carlisle asked.
Emmett nodded and started to dig one hand into his jeans. Automatically, Alice came over and quickly took his place holding the small flashlight. Carlisle muttered a quick thank you before he took another slow step forward. Seras's growl grew louder.
Alice's pixie like face scrunched as she watched her mentor take another step into Seras's strike zone. Although she saw and accepted to some extent Bella's ability to get so close to the animal, her doubt still lingered over Carlisle's ability to perform the same action. The dragon was cornered and possibly injured. She must be feeling incredibly…
… Frightened? Was that what the dragon was feeling? Jasper focused on the emotion. He wanted to accurately identify it before he reacted. If he knew and told Carlisle correctly, then maybe he would be able to react to her better. Jasper licked his lips. He could taste the answer. It was right in front of him.
Emmett had long since found the website on reptilian hypothermia. He had three of them. Actually, it was more three and a half. He tilted his phone and watched the screen rotate into landscape. With his thumb, he scrolled over the webpage eyeing the picture of a dragon. It was a large hand drawn portrait, one of several on the site. The dragon had red scales all over its body and it was walking calmly spewing flames as a human ran in front of it.
He looked up quickly and eyed his father figure, the brave man took another step, then he went back to surfing the web. He pressed the back button and found the link on black dragons. He quickly scanned the description. Abusive, he read. Evil tempered, forward curved horns, he looked up at the dragon. Her horns weren't curved and as he eyed Bella's hand on its face, he thought about her tale. Though he had teased the stuffing out of the little spit fire, he had listened to it. The dragon had fed her and found her companions. It was definitely not evil-tempered and abusive.
He moved to gaze at the picture of the artist's idea of a black dragon. He scrunched his nose, the real thing didn't look anything like it. Quickly, he navigated back to the picture of the red dragon. The thing in front of him looked more like that than the other one and it breathed fire to boot.
Emmett huffed silently. Apparently, the guy who wrote the website didn't know anything. With a quick swipe of his thumb, Emmett brought up the phone's camera feature. He let a sly smile slide effortlessly across his faced as he raised the mock camera, which was now set to video. He would just have to get proof that the guy was wrong. True, he may never post the actual video, but that still didn't mean he couldn't take it for his own records. The smile quickly turned into a full-fledged grin.
Emmett pressed record and let the camera pan the length of Seras's body. Man, he thought. Look at all those…
…Scars. Jasper had given a sneer in Emmett's direction as he noticed his brother raise his phone to take a picture. With a side glance, he watched him as he zoomed in on the beast's many scars. At first glance, one could easily see the large ones that rested mainly on the dragon's neck and wings. The wings specifically looked as if someone took a shredder to them. He winced. It was clear the thing had seen many battles. Those scars were obvious. Being a war veteran himself and having a number of his own battle scars, he could identify those easily. The blade cuts were long and clean, the gunshots circular, the bite marks crescent-shaped, but there were others. Burn marks, acid burn marks, cuts that seemed to come from unidentifiable objects, scales that looked like they had been purposely pulled out leaving her skin open to view, which was dark with bruises that never really healed. These scars were everywhere. Most of them were light enough and in places that you couldn't necessarily see right away. He wondered if the thing's thick skin helped to keep them less noticeable. It was lucky.
Jasper sighed. No wonder the thing was so apprehensive. After being attacked so many times, anybody would be distrustful of...
His thoughts slowed, paused, and backed up. Distrustful. He focused on the word and re-evaluated the dragon. Yes, that was the mysterious emotion she was feeling. The thing wasn't afraid, just highly distrustful of them. It was uncertain of what they would do. Having found an answer, Jasper felt confidence rise in his chest. Sure of himself, he also let his manipulative gift rise to the surface. If I could just calm it down a bit, he reasoned. Carlisle may be able to help it. It was a good plan, too bad it back fired.
Seras had spent the last few seconds watching the oldest vampire edge slowly towards her. Purposely, she let her growl rise steadily in volume in warning. The man didn't frighten her. She was a seasoned soldier, little frightened her anymore, but he did make her nervous. No one was supposed to see her in this form, vampire or not. She did not like being caught in such a vulnerable position in it, either, especially with five strangers surrounding her. Her growl grew even deeper. As she caught his eyes with hers, she focused on Bella's hand rubbing gently over the thick hide of her snout. The girl's touch was cold and calm. For her sake, Seras tried to stay calm. She tried not to react to all those possibilities of what could happen as they raced through her mind. That, however, all but flew out the window once she felt the change in the atmosphere. The third male, the one in the back who had stayed silent since entering the cave, let something expand out towards her. Though she was severely weakened by the cold, she was still able to feel some things, strong auras being one of those.
His aura stretched out and touched everything; the fire, the floor, the ceiling. When it finally reached Seras, her growl deepened. His aura melded against her, playing with her own, slowly changing it. When she started to feel a foreign calmness and a sense of confidence grow in her heart, Seras panicked. He was manipulating her emotions. She didn't like it. She tried to shake her hand, snap her tail, and back away, but her body won't move.
Carlisle took another step.
Then, she tried raising her aura against the manipulator. It quivered, a sign that the fire had started to heal her, but nonetheless it didn't budge. She bared her fangs more.
He took another step.
Seras, if she was human would have been sweating. With wide frightened eyes, she watched the eldest male and in desperation she pushed at her aura to flare it, to give a clear warning, to make the manipulator stop. Then, like a broken dam, it gave way unexpectedly in a way that neither Carlisle nor Seras was prepared for.
Carlisle Cullen, the leader of the Olympic Coven, doctor, father, mentor, had just let the tips of his fingers graze the freezing cold scales of the incredible creature in front of him when he felt the warm abrupt sensation of a force break through the silent barriers of his mind. In less than a second, he felt his thoughts plunge through the sticky emotions of uncertainty and fear before a voice screamed loudly into them three words. "Don't Touch Me!"
