Monster Party Side Story: I was lost and I was gone, I was almost dead inside. You and me against the world, its a beautiful night!
Dryads did not dream, at least not the way that humans did. They did not experience strange fragments of lives that were never truly their own, of events that might yet happen, or had never actually happened.
Dryads "dreamed" instead of memories with perfect precision. Their minds recalled events that had happened to them in the past of such great importance that they left an unshakable imprint behind.
Their subconscious mind could no more shake such moments than the rings of a tree could avoid telling the tale of feast and famine alike.
In the dream that truly a memory rather than a 'dream' Florence stood at the edge of her glade.
She stood there and stared into the face of evil.
The grass did not turn brown and wither away in his wake nor did trees prematurely shed their leaves. It didn't mater, such fanciful events would have been unecessary. There was nothing 'unecessary' about him though... there was only a dreadful coldness, and a soul colder still.
He was the first visitor to her grove that Florence would have turned away if given a choice
Except that she did not have a choice… and they both knew it.
"So, you are the newest dryad to grace my land." He declared, his voice dry and uncaring.
"You are not the first, you will not be the last." He added before she had a chance to say anything, almost sounding as if he would have been perfect content to carry on the entire conversation by himself.
"What shall I call you?" It was likely the only thing about Florence that he could not determine on his own.
"Florence Bastien." She answered, knowing it would be folly to try and deny him anything, folly that she was sure to commit sooner or later.
"Very well. So long as you understand this about me dryad there shall be no strife between us; I am never quick to destroy that which can be controlled." He announced, in a voice that was chilly enough to freeze water.
"What… what do you intend me do if you are indeed able to 'control' me?" Florence whimpered, dreading the answer.
"I am not some savage who believes in requesting more than his subjects can possibly give. Each of my subjects is to have their skills determined and put to some use for which they are well suited. Everything having a place, and everything in its place.
Any kingdom worthy of the name is a clockwork contraption of tremendous size, except made up of people instead of gears. It functions properly only so long as all its component parts turn in perfect alignment." He explained.
Florence said nothing, because he in turn had said nothing about how she was to "turn" in his service. yet.
Sure enough, faced only with silence, her visitor explained himself still further.
"This place is very beautiful I have been told. Beauty is of no interest to me in and of itself… but it is of interest to others. Others will come here in time. You will simply do what comes naturally to you, greet them warmly, listen to them. Listen to them, to the trees, to the flowers, and whatever other parts of nature you can commune with. You will listen… and you will pass this information along to me." He insisted.
"If I refuse?" It was a foolish question, but Florence could not prevent herself from at least the childish pretense that she might be capable of refusal.
Speckles of beautiful and deadly crystal blue began to edge out across the green grass at his feet.
"The frosty chill of winter, a period of lying fallow, and then a new harvest. Is that not the way of nature which you so adore?" He answered.
Somehow the words were all the more awful for how passionless they were, as even in the face her utmost resistance, he would still not even bother to hate her.
"I will not refuse." She admitted, for the brilliantly clear crystal had continued to creep ever closer to her until she finally submitted to the inevitable.
"Kneel." He insisted.
She knelt.
XXX XXX XXX
Florence Bastien awoke with a gasp, her always slightly green face now turning a pale lime color.
That single soft sound was enough to wake her companion from his sleep, and his mismatched eyes looked tenderly into her green ones.
"Thinking about him?" Alexander Diamondclaw inquired, knowing that there was only one being in the entire world who had ever managed to truly frighten Florence.
"Yes." The dryad admitted in between taking deep breaths as her face slowly returned to a more normal color, or at least what she would call normal.
"But you're going to kill him someday, aren't you?" Florence asked, a touch timidly.
"I'll crush his skull beneath my paws, or simply smash his arms instead so you can finish him yourself. It is just a mater of waiting until the time is right. When we're both strong enough or when he is weak enough." Alexander promised her, leaning in to kiss Florence gently on her forehead.
"We are getting stronger aren't we?" The dryad murmured in surprise.
Alexander took a moment to flex his arm, and for a brief moment it bristled with massive muscles and silver fur before returning to its human but still impressively toned state.
"You magic is getting better. As for me, the more the Wolf and I agree with each other the better the results. Thank you, for helping me improve myself, in so many different ways." Alexander praised her.
"His magic will always be stronger than mine, but you… he will try, but I doubt even he could truly prepare for you." Florence insisted, cradling Alexander's face in her hands and kissing him on the lips.
"That's just a nice way to say I'm too stubborn to realize when I should give up." Alexander insisted, blushing slightly.
"No. I've never met anyone like you before. You are Mac Tíre Cáiliúil, and every child in every corner of the Core will know your name when you slay him." The dryad insisted.
"Even between the two of us… it still might not be enough." Alexander couldn't help but wonder.
"Be a wolf. Let that be your guiding star, and you will never have reason to feel shame again love. If you do not think that we alone are enough to do it even now, then be a wolf, and build a pack." Florence offered.
"A pack?" Alexander rolled the idea around in his head for only a moment before he came to the obvious conclusion.
"You have the best ideas. You are my true guiding star." He declared before wrapping his arms tightly around Florence in a loving embrace.
"You are a hunter with no equal. You are the firm soil upon which all my hopes and dreams are planted." Florence replied back.
"Then I suppose my kills are your fertilizer." Alexander stretched the metaphor a little further with a chuckle.
Then his body began to grow larger and hairier as he transformed.
Florence Bastien buried herself in his soft silver fur and this time her sleep was pure untroubled.
End Chapter.
AN: What a difference time and character development can make. If you couldn't guess this story takes place a significant amount of time after "I feel like a monster" and is obviously intended as a companion piece of sorts to it.
If you didn't realize it already, that side story's song lyric comes from the song "Monster" by Skillet a harrowing song about the singer trying (and feeling distinctly like they are failing) to deal with their own inner daemons.
This story's song lyric also comes from Skillet, but the lyric is from "Good to be Alive" a song about how amazing it is to be with someone you love and come what may life is great so long you face it together.
The journey from one to the other is marked by a trio of "redemption checks" (the rolls you make to recover from Dark Powers Checks you failed and thus take steps to make sure you don't wind up becoming a creature of Ravenloft or worse yet a darklord) on Alex's part. As you may recall he failed four of them before meeting Florence, but didn't realize the enormity of his mistakes until after he'd successfully made his first redemption check.
Yes, before he met Florence, Alex was hanging from the bottom run of the ladder of morality and it took some very drastic events to turn himself around.
Needless to say. since they repeatedly warn authors about show don't tell (though granted they only seem to "tell" us this, I've never seen anyone show me that particular lesson….) I don't want you to have to just take my word for it.
So I plan to sprinkle some more side stories here and there showing how Alex went from using his wolf shape to hide from his human sins to effectively using his hybrid shape as a gigantic fuzzy teddy bear for Florence to snuggle with.
You guys are interested in that stuff even if James, Mirri, Cal and Devi don't show up right?
Expect the first one of those to show up next week. It'll be called "I've told a million lies" and deal with some more of the direct fallout of Alex vowing live as a wolf.
Also, see if you can guess who Florence was talking to in her dream/memories. I feel like I'm being more than obvious enough (IE it is a character that exists in Ravenloft cannon) all things considered..
If you can guess who it is, then you should be able to guess a lot more about Florence and to a certain degree Alex's back story. How much of It can you piece together at this point?
This was the final corner piece of that particular puzzle and while there's an important middle piece (just what exactly happened with Alex's right eye?) you should now be able to figure out a rough outline of his life prior to meeting Florence.
