Chapter 10
Disclaimer: Okay… I was going to give a long speech about something, and I forgot what about, and now I'm just going to say that I don't own, I never will, I don't want to (Actually, that's a lie) and most importantly, if I did own (which I don't) the show would probably have a ton of romance in it, and it would really suck.
AN: Wow… "Scarlet" is in the double digits! Thanks again to my wonderful reviewers, and all of you who are following this story silently!
When Alicia woke up, the sun was setting again, and Scarlet was gone. Do you see what I mean? Isis asked, Dranzer abandoned us at the first chance. Think of what might have happened if it had been just the two of you.
Just then, a hawk flew in, with a rabbit clutched in its talons. The poor thing was still kicking feebly, and the hawk set it down and drove its beak into the rabbit's neck. Alicia and Tala both heard the spine snap.
"Come on Scarlet," Tala said, "That's disgusting. Couldn't you kill it outside?" The hawk turned back into Scarlet, who was grinning.
"This isn't for you," she said, "I thought Wolborg might like a treat. If you'd let him out, that is."
Wolborg, Tala thought. Of course she'd bring something for a bit-beast before she takes care of us.
Please master? Wolborg thought, I'll behave! Tala couldn't help but smiling at that.
"Alright, I release you, Wolborg." The wolf appeared in a shimmer of gray light, the spikes of ice that sprouted from his shoulders when he was in his spirit form reduced to white spots on his shoulders. He tore into the rabbit eagerly when Scarlet tossed it to him.
"I didn't think you two would like raw meat," Scarlet explained, "And Wolborg, remember who caught that for you." The wolf tore a leg off the rabbit and dropped it by Scarlet's leg.
Alicia made a face. "You aren't really going to eat that, are you?" She asked. Scarlet drew her ripcord out of her pocket, and it changed into a knife. She began skinning the leg, the fur and skin coming off of the meat like she was peeling an apple.
"I've developed a tolerance to raw meat," she answered, "Or it could just be Dranzer, but there was one time, she released herself from me, temporarily, and snuck me out of the abbey. First time I'd killed. She changed me into a hawk and taught me how to hunt, almost as if she knew this would happen." She looked at Alicia and Tala and the still disgusted looks on their faces, tossed the leg backwards at Wolborg, who caught it before it hit the ground, and said, "What would you guys like though? You must forgive me for attending to Wolborg first, even though he doesn't really need food to sustain him, but Alicia, you were asleep, and Tala… you looked like you were sorta in a trance, like when you were thinking about something and would snap at me if I interrupted," She smiled faintly, her eyes glimmering in the dying light. "There's a town not too far from here, I can go shopping for us… well, I can get us some food, I wouldn't really call it shopping… maybe shoplifting would be the better word." Wolborg, finished with the rabbit, padded gently over to her and whined. She laughed.
"Can you understand him?" Tala asked.
"A bit," Scarlet admitted, "He wants to know if he can go hunting," then, as if exasperated, she turned to the wolf. "Wolborg, I know you have a human form, use it please!" The wolf uttered a short bark, almost like a laugh, then shifted into the form of a boy.
He looked about fifteen, with light gray hair that was loosely spiked and looked like it was covered in frost, skin that looked like it had been tan at one point but had begun to lose its color, and extremely light blue eyes. He was dressed in gray, a bit darker then his hair, and when he smiled at Scarlet, his grin was wolfish and his teeth had blood on them, which he rubbed off with his tongue. "How's that?" He asked, "Any better?" Scarlet smiled.
"Much," she replied, "Now keep an eye on these three while I go… shopping." She laughed, and turned into a hawk; then flew off.
"How did her shoulder heal so quickly?" Alicia asked.
"Dranzer has always been a fast healer," Wolborg replied, "She and I were friends when I was still known as Fenris, though never as close as her and Driger." He stood, and the cave's ceiling seemed to rise to allow him to stand fully. He walked over to the cave's mouth, and sat down cross legged, staring out at the snow covered landscape. "And you must forgive me, but I only see two of you."
"I suppose she was talking about me," a soft voice said, and Wolborg tensed. Isis had appeared.
"Isis, I was one who was against you. I would put my knives through your worthless heart if I hadn't given my word to Dranzer that it would be her who killed you." Despite his words, Alicia and Tala both saw a knife in his hands, easily a foot long and made of frosted silver. Engraved on it was something that Tala and Alicia couldn't make out. Isis, however, hissed from deep in her throat, a noise no normal human should be able to make.
"Get that out of my sight!" She snarled, her blue eyes, a few shades darker than Wolborg's, glittering with hatred and…
Is that fear? Alicia thought, amazed. In all the years she had known her, she had never known Isis to be afraid of anyone or anything. But she seemed terrified of that knife.
"Then leave," Wolborg snarled, his canines lengthening and his lips drawing back into a feral snarl.
"I will," Isis snapped, "Come Alicia." She stood, and Alicia felt herself rise.
"What are you doing?" Tala asked, "Alicia, what are you doing?" Isis drew a sword from thin air, and brandished it against Wolborg's knife.
"We are leaving," Isis stated flatly, "And if you try to stop us, I will personally see to sticking that precious knife of yours between your eyes."
"I'd like to see you try it!" Wolborg snarled, "Tala, go as far back from here as you can, don't come back, no matter what you hear."
"Alicia," Isis said, "I'm going to give you a hawk's form, fly outside and hide." And in Alicia's place, stood a tawny feathered hawk. The hawk hopped over to the mouth of the cave and spread its wings, then took off.
Wolborg returned to his wolf form, while Isis seemed to melt away. She reappeared a second later though, in the form of a leopard, sleek and beautiful and thin, and twice Wolborg's size. The wolf crouched against the cave wall, showing off sharp teeth. The leopard lunged at him, and he simply stepped under the big cat, causing it to crash against the stone. With her face bleeding, Isis whirled around and lunged at Wolborg again. This time the wolf met her attack with his teeth, tearing a gash in her shoulder. But Isis shook him off, throwing him outside. He landed on the snow and she lunged after him, blood flowing from her face and shoulder. The wolf didn't even move when 110 pounds of muscle, fur and blind fury tore his shoulder open to the bone and lunged away, leaving Wolborg to bleed in the snow. But Isis wasn't done, not by a long shot. She switched back to her human form.
"Come, come now," she said, "The great warrior Fenris can't be defeated that easily. I wanted a challenge." She pouted, but pulled her sword again from the air. "Oh well. I can't believe you could protect anything, foolish Fenris." Her sword changed into Wolborg's frosted silver knife, and Isis knelt down in the snow. "Goodbye," she said brightly, turning the wolf's muzzle so that the point of the knife rested directly between his eyes. "I hope you don't mind that no one will mourn for you."
"Tala will mourn for me," Wolborg's wolf form rasped. "But no one, not even Alicia, will lose sleep over your death." And heedless of the knife at his head, he lunged upward, straight at Isis's throat.
At the abbey
Boris looked up at the ginger haired blader, wondering why he was here. Bryan was probably around too, but with the new experiments, he would probably be even less approachable than usual.
"Sit," he said. Brooklyn stayed standing.
"Sir," he said, "I think Mystel may hold the key to freeing Scarlet."
"And your point?" Boris asked.
"Well sir," Brooklyn said, "I thought you had been looking for something of the sort."
"You may leave now," Boris said. Brooklyn decided it would probably be safest to do as he asked. He had a strange gleam in his eyes, or what looked like his eyes in that mask of his. He walked out of the door, Bryan falling into step beside him. True to Boris's thoughts, Bryan was unapproachable.
"Why do you care?" He snapped at Brooklyn as they walked back out of the abbey.
Brooklyn shook his head. "I don't know."
You're an idiot, you know that? Zeus asked. A true idiot.
Shut up. Brooklyn thought. Who are you to say that to me?
I am practically a part of you! Zeus yelled, making Brooklyn wince. Bryan glanced at him, but said nothing.
Falborg, I will let you hunt when we get outside. He thought to the falcon. He could practically hear Falborg sharpening his talons with glee.
It has been simply too long since we have spoken, he thought wickedly. I wonder if she still has those twin swords. She will see just how effective my talons are though, now. Bryan almost sighed, but caught himself. Falborg had the worst habit of talking to himself, which drove Bryan insane. Oh how I will enjoy ripping that mortal of hers to shreds… of course, Isis might want that honor. Bryan couldn't help smiling slightly at that. But it was a smile that was forced, because for a second, just a second, he remembered a small scarlet haired girl running after her brother, laughing for the sake of doing so.
"Brooklyn," he said, "Should we release him now?" They had just stepped outside, the cold biting their skin. Brooklyn, though he knew exactly what Bryan was talking about, nodded. In a flash of bright light that blinded them both, Falborg stood. For a moment he was an automaton hawk; then he became a boy who appeared to be vaguely human.
Falborg's human form, to say it simply, wasn't truly human. He looked like a human, again about fifteen, but unlike Wolborg, his left arm appeared to be made of metal, and the right side of his face wore a mask that seemed to mesh with the rest of his skin. His eyes were golden, they looked exactly like a hawks. Or maybe a falcons. He was dressed in black, and was wearing a golden sword across his back. His hair was bright silver, not frosty gray like Wolborg's or the gray of Kai's hair. He bowed his strange head respectfully.
"Shall I go, master?" When he looked up, Bryan saw his eyes were murderous.
"Yes," he replied. Forget about Scarlet, he told himself. She isn't there anymore. "Remember, only Isis and Alicia are to leave alive." Brooklyn almost said something, but stopped himself.
She is only an experiment, he told himself. An experiment that has gotten out of control and must be stopped.
Exactly, Zeus thought. Exactly what I said before, you're an idiot.
"As you wish," Falborg said, and turned back into a hawk, then rose into the sky.
With Wolborg…
Wolborg lunged at Isis's throat, heedless of the knife at his eyes. But Isis leapt up, pulling the knife up with her. "No," she said, "No, no, no. That just won't do at all, will it? I can't die, you see," she sighed, as though saddened, "And I certainly don't feel like letting you kill yourself. I think you still have some fight left in you, Fenris." She turned back into a leopard and extended her claws. Wolborg tried to come to his feet, but his leg betrayed him. Isis lunged, and he changed into his human form, kicking her over him. He then got to his feet, blood running down his arm.
"I don't die that easily," he said, "But you can be killed, stupid hummingbird!" Isis switched back to her human form. With some satisfaction, Wolborg noticed that one of her arms was limp. His knife appeared in his good hand, and Isis pulled her sword out of the air. "How hard was it to kill a target that held still?" He asked furiously, "And what about her?" Wolborg had his own history with the hummingbird spirit. A history of death, nearly his own. "What about Tor?" He spat, "You remember her, I'm sure. She died so that I didn't have to give my own life for her!" He threw his knife, and it thudded into Isis's shoulder, her bad one. She screamed and wrenched it out of her shoulder, and threw it back at Wolborg. He caught it easily, to her apparent surprise.
"I remember Tor," Isis said, "She was the white she-wolf, correct? It took two days for her to die, and she was in such pain the whole time… shame." And Wolborg snapped.
Again the knife whistled through the air, and this time it missed Isis completely. "Don't you ever speak her name!" He spat at her, "You filthy, dirty," the knife flew back to his hand as he tried to find a word vile enough to describe her. But he was spared doing so when a hawk flew down from the sky.
It was Scarlet. She was back in her human form before she hit the ground, her ripcord becoming a huge sword in her hands. "Isis," she said, "I suggest you go wherever you planning to go, before I kill you." Her voice was low and dangerous, and even Wolborg stepped back.
"I suppose you are right," Isis admitted, "Come Alicia! Dranzer truly doesn't care about us!" A tawny hawk lifted out of a treetop some ways distant, and hovered expectantly. (Alicia didn't see what happened.) Isis turned into a hummingbird, swift and small and ruby-throated.
"You had better watch your back!" Scarlet screamed after her, "Or one day you will have a red throat! Red with your blood!" Then her sword vanished and she turned to Wolborg. "I asked you to watch them," she whispered. "Why didn't you…?" She never finished her sentence though, because just then, another hawk swooped down from the skies.
An automaton one.
AN: Well… I have nothing to say except R&R!