The boy was spending the first full moon of his sixth year with his favorite werewolf; however, due to reasons given, Roxas could only play with Jester in Mortica's courtyard. The woman seemed to have fallen ill, and the alien sickness had presented itself quite a while ago, shortly after the first attack with the Hounds. Zexion, who had come to the mansion upon hearing the news, could find no physical ailment; he had decreed the sudden fall as a psychosomatic illness.
"There's nothing I can really do," the Schemer had said, appearing solemn to Jester. "She has to pull herself out of this one."
Now, Jester lay on the ground, his large head resting on his paws; heaving a downcast sigh, the werewolf watched as Roxas ran over to him.
"What's wrong, Jester?" the boy asked, that child-like innocence still in his voice. "Why are you so sad?" The red-headed boy ran a small hand along Jester's furry head, scratching the ears.
Unable to speak, Jester simply gave a whistled whimper and nuzzled under Roxas's chin.
"Oh yeah," Roxas murmured. "You can't talk right now..." Furrowing his brow, Roxas straightened into a standing position; looking toward the mansion, the boy shivered from the unsettling air about the premises. "I always feel weird here....," the child mumbled, half to himself.
At that, Jester lifted his head, nose quivering lightly at the boy. Golden eyes locked with green, and Jester seemed guiltily aware of why Roxas felt the way he does around this establishment. As the creature stared at those slits of blue, Jester felt the moon's influence waning away from his being. His bones began to move within his frame, and Jester painfully rose and backed away from Roxas, allowing the change to reverse. Fur began to itch, while the skin began to warm underneath; Jester managed himself by drawing deep, long breaths. He could hear his bones popping and rearranging themselves into a more two-legged skeleton. As Jester's long muzzle began retracting into his face, his eyes blurrily spotted Roxas waiting patiently a few paces away, head tilted expectantly. Finally, a hiss escaped Jester's mouth, and he was now lying exhausted on the floor; he could hear Roxas walking over to him.
Roxas bent down in front of the older man. "Does that hurt?" he asked softly.
"You bet, kiddo," Jester answered quietly. "But not all the time; sometimes it's more bearable. Just not tonight; I've been stressed and disoriented lately."
"What's 'disoriented'?"
"Erm... Out of sorts, so to speak.... Hasn't your godfather been teaching you vocabulary?"
Roxas nodded eagerly. "Yeah, but I haven't heard that word before!"
Jester sighed quietly as he sat up.
"But I know 'asinine'!" Roxas piped up. "Zexion likes to use that word with Demyx and Xigbar a lot!"
Despite himself, Jester laughed. Rising, he looked down at the boy. "Well, have your parents told you when they're coming?"
Nodding, Roxas replied, "They're coming tomorrow morning, remember?"
Blinking, Jester said, "Oh yeah. Yeah, of course. Well, come on so I can get you something to eat, eh?"
"Okay," Roxas agreed. Still, before he budged, he looked to the side, at an entrance to the dead forest separating Mortica's territory and the city. As his green eyes roved through the bushes, he heard Jester walking slowly toward him. Before turning to the man, Roxas continued peering through the leafy barrier at something unseen to Jester at the moment.
"What are you staring at, little guy?" Jester asked, crouching to Roxas's height level.
Instantly, Roxas pointed at the spot he had been so keenly staring at. "There's a dog!" Roxas exclaimed curiously.
"A what...?" Jester sniffed the air, and indeed, the man picked up a scent. Cleverly masked, but it still couldn't escape Jester's keen sense of smell; a warm scent muddled with earthy scents of dirt and plant-life. Something it had rolled in, perhaps...? Nevertheless, Jester felt the hair along the back of his neck rising; this dog that Roxas had pointed out also smelt -very faintly- of blood and a previous kill it had made.
Suddenly Roxas made a move to bolt forward toward the spot, and Jester immediately grabbed the boy by his shoulders. "Never leap before you look!" Jester told the boy sternly, giving him a brief shake.
Shaken, Roxas stared with wide eyes at the man. Nodding uncertainly, he mumbled "Okay...."
Jester heaved a sigh. "Look, it's just that that dog over there hiding, doesn't smell very friendly, okay?"
"How come?"
"Because...," Jester searched for the right words. "Because I can smell it on him, kiddo. So in the future, don't go running to strange animals if you don't really know what they can do."
Nodding lighter now, Roxas gave one last look back at the spot, then followed Jester back to Mortica's mansion. "I wanna see Mortica," the boy said innocently. "I like her; she's nice."
He growled to himself, the sound low and dangerous. If only that man had just let the boy run over to him; he could have slain them both. But that man had been a canine with a keen sense of smell; he had detected him. Black claws scraping the soft dirt, his yellow eyes burned with a twisted passion, the tendrils of his vendetta swirling through his veins and stirring his blood. As his nose quivered, his eyes were even more intent as he watched the two walk away toward the rather foreboding residence that served as the werewolf's living place.
How long do we have, brother?
Wrath slowly turned his head toward Envy, his confidante in scheming. We have until dawn, he relayed. The parents of that child will arrive then. By then the child will be in my jaws, and the two watching over him right now will be having their blood running through our paws. He licked his lips in anticipation.
Slowly swaying her tail side to side, Envy's green eyes glittered. Perfect, she hissed.
Wrath looked to his other side, where he heard the leaves crunch underpaw. Are you ready, Greed?
The Pharaoh Hound's golden eyes shone with an expectant light as she revealed herself. Of course, Greed said quietly, white-tipped tail deliberately thumping the ground as she sat.
Wrath nodded slowly as he slowly crept his way through the bushes, on toward the clearing, and closer to the mansion.
In the darkest time, just before dawn, the three sinful hounds crept like demonic shadows toward the residence.
As Roxas peeked out the window, Mortica sat up on the other side of the bed, watching the boy. Jester had retired to bed in his spare quarters, exhausted and wrung dry from so much fretting and worrying. Now, her ice-blue eyes remained fixated on the boy as he continued staring out the window, his green eyes supposedly fixed on something in the gardens. "What are you looking at, Roxas?" Mortica asked quietly, ignoring the dull ache in her chest.
"The doggy eating the little kitty-cat," Roxas answered, near toneless.
Startled, Mortica lifted her sheets and quickly crawled over to look outside beside Roxas. However, the woman saw nothing in the courtyard that connected her home to her gardens, only the stones and the small pond, though even the leaves floating on the surface looked dead all of a sudden, for the water was undisturbed and still. "I don't see anything, Roxas," Mortica breathed, feeling her skin prickle all the same. "I don't even see a cat...."
"That's cuz the doggy took it and went to your door down there."
Upon hearing this, Mortica's breath hitched painfully in her throat. Opening the window, Mortica cast her gaze down to where she could clearly see the mentioned threshold. When she saw nothing, dead or alive, she retreated back into the warm atmosphere of her room. "Roxas, I don't see anything..."
Tilting his head, Roxas looked out the same way Mortica had. "But he was there! The doggy was there! And he killed a cat and started eating it! Then he went to your door down there!"
Mortica was unnerved by the boy's words, particularly because Roxas was not known for lying.
Frustrated, and fixated on being believed, Roxas hopped off of the bed and rushed out the room, a startled Mortica at his heels.
"Roxas, I don't think there's a dog down there!" Mortica reasoned. "I didn't see anything, and it doesn't even look like it was there!"
"He was!" Roxas shot back, still running to Mortica's kitchen, where the door was on the inside.
"See?" Roxas pleaded, pointing to the door, and Mortica was shocked to see that a large hole had been made, possibly by method of teeth. What also surprised the woman was that the hole had not been there a few minutes ago when she had looked down at it from her bedroom. She could see the empty night outside and feel the chill air coming from the new draft. Placing a protective hand on Roxas's shoulder, Mortica used her other hand to open a certain dresser near her side. Fishing inside, she found one of her pistol cases hidden inside. Unlocking it from memory, Mortica held the pistol in her hand at the ready, as it was already loaded beforehand.
Mortica guided Roxas and herself to a corner in the kitchen, unaware of where the dog may be; be it outside or inside, she would surely see which direction it would come from now. "Roxas," Mortica whispered hoarsely, "let me know if you see any movement anywhere, okay?" Her eyes wavered while her spine pricked with ice; somehow she sensed the dangerous tension thickening the air like fog, and her top priority was the boy at her side, with only her free arm to shield him. "We'll get that dog out of here."
"I think there's more than one," Roxas said quietly, holding Mortica's arm.
"What?" Mortica said tightly, feeling as if her heart had shocked itself.
Roxas pointed to the floor, near the hole in the door. "Look," he said, and Mortica looked in the direction of his index finger. "There's three pawstep trails," his young voice reported. "So there's three dogs, right?"
Mortica swore and groaned to herself, feeling her heart thump wildly, like a rabbit warning of peril. "Okay," she sighed shakily, sweat collecting on her forehead and near her neck. "We just have to turn on the light over here," she said to herself, reaching to flick on the switch.
Light simultaneously flooded the room, and when Mortica saw no other being in the space, she took a sigh of relief and turned around toward the counter.
She screamed when she saw a silver-and-black hound on the said counter, staring her right in the face, fresh blood on his muzzle.
This, of course, caused her to drop her weapon.
Roxas cried out in astonishment, and bolted for the door. He stopped and turned instinctively, however, when he heard the hound snarl and leap at Mortica, jaws at the ready. "NO!!" Roxas screamed, yet his cry was cut short when he felt something bowl into his back. Accidentally biting his tongue, Roxas twisted under the new weight while Envy, sitting atop the boy, communicated loudly, Greed! Get the werewolf!
From the hole in the door, Roxas saw a majestic light-brown hound dart across the kitchen and dive deeper into the mansion. "Get off!" Roxas cried hoarsely, squirming violently. "Get off!"
Envy swatted the boy's head and hopped off to snarl in the his face, making the boy scramble up and whimper loudly.
Meanwhile, Mortica fought desperately to knock off Wrath, but the creature only snarled and clamped his jaws onto her arms, which were blocking her face. Despite herself, Mortica screamed in pain and wriggled from the agony of it.
Roxas felt hot tears flooding down his cheeks, and he wailed out the name of his mother. Disgusted, Envy took her paw to his face, claws raking the boy's chest. Silence, little boy, she hissed, though she knew he could not understand her. Roxas felt his chest, and covered the light-red spot there; his green eyes sparked with fear as he stared into those deep light-green pools of envious sin.
Sweat nearly bathing his red hair, Roxas spotted the gun, inches from Mortica's reach. Not thinking, only wanting to help the woman, Roxas ran over to the weapon.
Envy snarled and clamped her jaws around the boy's leg, making Mortica scream his name and making Roxas fall over. Shouting loudly, Roxas managed to turn a bit; the boy then attempted to smash his fist on the vixen's head, the other hand supporting him up. "Let GO!" Roxas screamed, the last word amplified due to a new kind of energy within the child. He felt a knife-like pulse rampage through his chest and arms to channel out through his fingers. So the next time Roxas slammed his fist on Envy's head, the vixen yelped loudly in surprise and hurt, causing her to reel back.
Roxas, somewhat unaware of what he had just done, rushed at Envy and continued battering her with his clenched hands, making the she-fox scream loudly, though still not catching Wrath's attention. Envy continued yelping as more volts rained down on her from the child's fists. Since she had been caught unaware from this, Envy was finding it rather hard to retaliate.
Finally, Roxas sucker-punched Envy on the side of her face, near her eye, and the hound was knocked on her side, a twitch escaping her limbs. She lay on the kitchen floor now, gasping.
Without hesitation, Roxas scrambled toward Mortica's gun and slid it toward her hand. Trying to give Mortica an opening to make a grab for the gun, Roxas rushed toward Wrath's side and began punching the hounds side, subconsciously using the very power that had helped him overpower Envy.
Wrath yelped in indignation and pain; if he wasn't mistaken, the boy had just... somehow shocked him.
Wrath's release on her arm allowed Mortica to reach for her gun, and the next thing the hound knew he had a pistol in his face once again. The fight-or-flight reflex kicked in, and the hyena-hybrid leaped out of the way of the weapon. However, he heard an ear-splitting rip of sound, and the next instant Wrath felt an iron-hot pain sear through his back leg, which coupled with a spill of icy water through his blood.
The hound yelped loudly and realized, as he slid to the ground, that he had been shot in the back leg.
Wrath!
Wrath looked up frantically to see Envy rush toward him, nosing him to his three good legs. The two hounds looked to the other door upon hearing it bang open, and their eyes widened when they saw their sister tossed through it savagely. The hound lay there in the middle of the kitchen, unconscious but alive; the one who had thrown her remained in the middle of the threshold, fists clenched at his side.
"Jester!" Mortica exclaimed, weakly scrambling toward Roxas. Holding the boy with her free arm, the woman motioned toward the hounds. "It's them again!"
Without a word, Jester aimed a savage kick to Envy's side, and Wrath heard a crack from her body.
Enraged anew, Wrath flew at Jester's foot, but Mortica pulled the trigger of her gun again, and the angry hybrid felt his right foreleg sear open with blood and pain. Another bullet ripped into his shoulder, and Wrath realized that the woman was aiming for his head. Frantic with fear now, Wrath dove underneath the large oak table, scuttling around the chairs to avoid another bullet, which splintered the chair leg where his neck had just been.
Roxas, afraid for himself as well as his caretakers, clutched a waking Greed's neck, and the boy sent forth further small bolts to the creature. The Pharaoh Hound was startled into full wakefulness, and she began scrambling violently to her paws, yet the boy was still shocking her. Finally, Greed managed to twist her neck to successfully bite down on Roxas's left forearm.
Upon hearing the child shriek in agony, Mortica and Jester turned as one toward the hound. Jester, furious, took a nearby kitchen knife and stabbed the dog in the leg, wrenching his weapon to dig out a small amount of flesh. Mortica, meanwhile, fired two frantic shots at Greed; one missed and hit the wall, while the other grazed Greed's left ear. The two respective attacks were enough for Greed to removed her jaws from Roxas's now-bleeding arm; Jester took that open opportunity to seize Greed by the neck and slam her down near Envy, who had been whimpering angrily by the open-holed door.
Finally, the vixen barked, quick and high. The two other hounds immediately rushed over to her as quick as they could, coming on either side of her. Envy's green eyes seemed to glow, and black tendrils slithered around her body; soon a portal materialized behind her, and Greed limped heavily into it, followed by Envy herself.
Wrath was last to retreat, and before he did, he shot an angry yellow gaze at Jester, knowing the man could understand him. Know this, hybrid! the hound snarled. I am a creature of vengeance, and I will not stop until every-single-one-of-you are dead at my paws!
Jester's tri-colored eyes flashed with rage, but Wrath was already gone, the portal swallowing him from thin air. Spitting at the spot of the portal, Jester turned to Mortica.
The woman had rushed over to where Roxas was crying, in a small puddle of his own blood. Pushing back her mid-length black hair, Mortica's eyes quivered with worry as the boy kept on crying and howling for his mother and father. "It's pretty deep," she reported gravely to Jester. "Look." She gently held Roxas's hand for Jester to inspect: Greed had not had enough time to maul his arm, thankfully; there were only four holes -two on each side of his arm- where Greed's teeth had punctured the flesh. Blood oozed out of the wound, and Mortica knew the boy was still in shock from the pain. "He's in shock," she said aloud, "so don't move him just yet. You need to go and get Axel and Larxene. Fetch Zexion, too; these'll definitely need stitches.... And we'll need to know if Greed's infected him in any way...."
Roxas was still wailing, despite hearing Mortica's further coos and soft consoling voice to him. He only continued his sobbing, wailing occasional demands for his parents. "Where's Larxene?!?!" "Axel!!!"
By now Jester had gone for help, leaving Mortica alone with the boy. She held him carefully now with her good arm, using her wounded one to locate paper towels on the nearby counter above their sitting forms. "It's okay, little one," she crooned soothingly, helping to calm the boy. "You were very brave; your mother would be very proud of you.... Your father as well.... Especially since you've now discovered your element...."
Not bothering to hear that last part, Roxas continued to sob and shake in Mortica's gentle hold as she wiped up his blood.
A/N: Holy cArp, I didn't think it'd be that long: 3,390 words exactly! Anyway, sorry it's been taking me so long to put up chapters. Because of our horrible nation-wide economy, we couldn't keep our house. Luckily, the neighbors two houses down decided to go travelling, so they're giving us their house to rent. Lucky us, huh? Though because of the close proximities, we've been moving nearly non-stop for a whole week, balancing school and work. It's been tiring, but please, I hope you all bear with me; I have no intention of dropping any of my writings.
Thanks to all.