A/N:- I kept debating over posting this... But I figure you guys deserve some more after my disappearing act over the summer. As a slight disclaimer... I'm still without Beta, so unfortunately the edits are all down to me... which generally means the chapter is worse (at least grammatically) than usual... sorry. I do try... and I always think it makes perfect sense until someone proves me wrong.
A reason I was thinking of delaying this post is that I might not be able to get anything more out quickly. Please note that big chunk of this chapter has been written for months... which is the main reason it came out so fast. For the next chapter this is not the case... and it has some scenes that I know are likely to be hard to write. I'm also doing a degree part time after work... which leaves me little time for anything at all! So please be patient with me.
Having said that... all of the lovely reviews I got in the last week had a huge part in spurring me on in my writing, getting this finished oh so much faster than I thought I might!
Allen Pitt - you are right that what happens as a routine in sunnydale would be a big event here…
wolf-that-faces-north - this will never become a full ensemble fic as I'm not sure I could write well enough to pull that off (I barely cope with the characters I do have). However the scobies will be putting in appearances later… and I haven't decided if/who might stick around.
Chooser of the Slain - I know what you mean… my inability to keep up a good posting schedule prevents me from ever complaining about those of other authors. I never intend to leave you guys hanging though… it just seems to happen… repeatedly… sorry.
General Mac, enchantedlight - thanks for your encouragement.
I don't think the response this story has had over the years will ever cease to amaze and thrill me (it really shocks me sometimes that it's getting it still... it has been a while after all).
Big Trouble in the Forest
Buffy stared blankly at the parchment in her hands.
She had been feeling so good that morning, despite waking with the bitter taste of fear on her tongue, for the first time that week her sleep had been undisturbed. Fully rested, Buffy had bounded down to breakfast, and even the stares directed at her from the Gryffindor table hadn't been able to dampen her spirits.
She had slept well and, best of all; it was Saturday. The Forbidden Forest beckoned.
Then the post arrived, and for once one of the owls broke from the group to settle on her shoulder. Neil's pygmy owl passed her a slim letter before helping itself to a slice of bacon from Buffy's plate. When he finally ate his fill she was still there, frozen in position while all about her ripped at paper to get into their correspondence.
She kept half expecting it to change, to become something more, something closer to what she had hoped for. But it didn't, and like the final words her mother had spoken to her, the sight before her circled through her brain, the meaning behind it.
An arm reaching across her to grab a rack of toast finally broke Buffy's emotionless gaze. "Aren't you going to open it?" Michael asked, already munching on a dry slice as he buttered another.
"No… not right now."
She couldn't read Neil's words and feel anything but sorrow. Because in a letter this thin there wouldn't be anything from Joyce, and that absence was a response in itself. She couldn't fool herself any longer, there was no plausible reason that her letter wouldn't have reached Sunnydale yet. Buffy knew the hopes that it had somehow been lost in the mail, that her mom had moved without leaving a forwarding address were just daydreams.
An attempt to justify in any, every, way but the one that was undoubtedly true why there hadn't been a response to her letter with Neil's. Because even with the proof before her, Buffy refused to believe that the woman who had taken her in could now abandon her. Believe that she would stand by those final words; eliminate her adopted daughter from her life.
The dream! A part of her exclaimed, fighting against the rising sense of despair. She wanted me back.
It had all felt so real at the time, Buffy hadn't thought to doubt what she saw but now, now that everything she thought she knew had suddenly been proved lies, even her memories were becoming suspect. Had it even happened or was it actually only a fantasy, something her subconscious concocted to ease her worries about her family.
Buffy stood abruptly, leaving her breakfast uneaten and thrusting the letter deep into her bag; getting it out of sight but not as easily banished from her mind. She needed to be doing something, to drown out the thoughts circling her mind like vultures nearing a dying beast, waiting for misery to enshroud her. All that was needed was to get through the day, to endure the hours until she could escape this place and let loose her emotions on the creatures of the night.
She had wanted to vent her frustrations, to let off some steam, but she ended up running full pelt towards the one place, the one being in the wood that had really harmed her.
In her excursions to the forest since her first encounter with the giant, Buffy had kept away from his clearing, not keen for another encounter with the creature. The choice was taken away when she heard shrieks coming from where the giant was held captive. Unable to ignore the fearful cries, Buffy took a steadying breath, priming herself for the encounter, before sprinting in the direction of the clearing.
When she got there, Buffy quickly found out what all the noise was about; a young centaur was trapped, caught beneath one of the giant's hands. A mature stallion was desperately trying to extract the foal, but couldn't maintain a sustained attack without being captured himself by the empty hand which was freely moving, its broken restraint trailing on the ground.
She edged along the outskirts of the clearing, not eager to reveal her presence to the giant without some plan, but unable to think of any actions that might help the situation. Finally she relented, swallowing the fears left over from her last encounter with the creature and doing what she usually did, what she had done before here with such dire consequences; run in without any idea how she would exit alive. She drew the long silver knife that she had taken to carrying in the forest as she ran and stabbed at the giant's free hand, effectively thwarting an attack on the centaur.
He let out a sharp noise of surprise and pulled away, the ropes still attached to his wrists whipping out as he recoiled. He rounded on Buffy with a low growl, snatching at her as she came closer to use her blade on the hand restraining the young centaur. Before he could get her the stallion intercepted his attack, charging at his legs and unsteadying him enough that he had to use the hand for support.
And so the fight began in earnest; the pair alternating their attempts to free the foal with retreats and distracting attacks. Without the giant's focus entirely upon her it was easier to avoid him but, although his attention now had to be split between her and the male centaur, he seemed unwilling to relinquish his prize. Despite roaring in pain at the kicks from the centaur's hooves and Buffy's attacks with her weapon, he refused to release the young centaur from his battered grasp. His swipes at them with the other hand getting steadily more vicious, he managed to knock the blade from Buffy's hand, hitting her right arm with the blow and driving all sensation from it.
They couldn't keep this up much longer, Buffy could feel her reactions slowing as she tired and her companion was at least as, if not more, battered than she was. The giant might be tiring too, his blows slightly less fast, but he was also getting angrier, and the hand trapping the foal was beginning to tighten its grip. At this rate captive would be crushed before they got close to defeating the creature.
Catching the centaur's attention during one of their retreats, Buffy yelled "I'll distract him" she waited the moment it took for him to nod in understanding before running in, picking up a sizeable branch as she did. Scrambling up the giant's back, she narrowly avoided his free arm, with which he tried to knock her off, and leapt up onto his head. Grabbing onto coarse hair for a moment to stabilise herself, she took the branch into both hands and hit him as hard as she could on the weak point of his skull, directly between the eyes, causing the makeshift club to crack.
This time she was expecting the blow that knocked her from her precarious position and sent her flying across the clearing. Buffy rolled as she landed, lowering the impact and quickly regained her footing, turning to see if the information on giants had been correct. Praying that this worked.
The huge creature stumbled back confused by the blow. A hard two-hooved kick to an ankle further unsteadied the dazed giant who was forced to use both hands in an attempt to remain upright. The centaur immediately grabbed hold of the youngster and quickly exited the clearing. Buffy edged backwards, worried that the giant's attention would now be focussed on her, but her research seemed to be valid; this giant at least was severely disorientated by a strike to the head. He took a few more shaky steps backwards and then sat down heavily, nursing his head in his hands.
Collecting her blade from by the oblivious giant, Buffy headed off to find the centaur and check that he and the foal had survived the encounter. She saw the stallion just outside the clearing with the foal laid before him and began to approach, but as she drew closer noticed that he was not alone. She drew back, hoping to avoid the attention of the large figure that the centaur was in an increasingly heated discussion with. Before she could complete her escape the centaur spoke, alerting his companion to her presence.
"Thank you for your help, child. I, Arno, am indebted to you." He bowed towards her, apparently blind to the wide-eyed fear his acknowledgement had caused.
"Who are…?" Hagrid inspected her closer, looking beneath the mud that now soiled her clothes "Yer a student. What're yeh doing outta Hogwarts?"
"You should also be thanking this girl" Arno said in his firm even tone, easily cutting through Hagrid's agitation, "If one of us, especially a foal, had been harmed by the giant we would not suffer its presence any longer."
"What yeh mean… "
"He's right Hagrid" from behind the tall man came one of the two dark centaurs that had flanked their chieftain on the night she had first encountered vampires in the forest. The quiet menace of the black centaur's voice did not have the regal air of Arno's, but it's coarse undertones only served to make it more chilling, "But the time for us to endure it occupying our land is over."
As he spoke Buffy made out the shadowy shapes of more centaurs in the trees behind him, and the rustles in the undergrowth indicated there were more all around them. Those she could see carried notched bows comfortably in powerful arms, their expressions grim and sharp eyes ready to locate a target.
"Now Bane yeh got no righ' ter…" Hagrid broke off mid sentence, halting his aggressive movements towards the centaur at the audible drawing of bowstrings. Having finally spotted the danger they were in he moved in front of Buffy in an attempt to shield the student from the centaurs' dark-tipped arrows.
Poison, Buffy realised; one arrow, even hundreds of arrows, would not harm a giant, but the nicks they made could be used to inject something else into its bloodstream, something fatal. Bane made a gesture and the centaurs behind him began to move towards the clearing, bows at the ready.
"Halt." The archers paused at Arno's word, but Bane quickly rounded on him, an angry fire glinting in dark eyes.
"Would you allow it to…"
"I will not blame the creature for the faults of our young." That stopped Bane's angry retort "The foals were taunting it, running in and out of the clearing, just beyond reach. It is no surprise it sought to harm them when it broke the restraint."
"Is this true?" Bane growled, turning to where two more foals were nervously shuffling from hoof to hoof, repeating his question with a bellow when they failed to respond. "Is it?"
"Y-yes." One stuttered nervously, flinching back from the angered glare that the admission received.
"Your actions shall be judged on our return." He turned away having dismissed the youngsters "We will not harm the giant this night" he intoned, glaring narrow eyed at Hagrid " however you must control it or we will be forced to act." With a wave he dismissed the armed centaurs, but even with them gone the threat they posed wasn't something Buffy would quickly forget.
"Yeh can' decide who gets ter live…"
"We will protect the herd." Bane interrupted in clipped tones that brooked no argument "How is she?" his voice, though still hard softened perceptibly as he looked down at the young centaur lying on the grass.
"Only bruised, thanks to The S-" Arno luckily turned her way as he spoke and noticed the widening of Buffy's eyes "-child over there." He finished, his voice for the first time losing its smooth quality. Perhaps he had not been so oblivious of her earlier reaction, or the repeat of it had made him recognise it, for there seemed to be some apology in his tone. Buffy glanced warily at Hagrid, but he was still glaring at Bane and seemed to have missed the slip.
"I offer you my thanks, and the protection of the herd, should you require it." The dark, bearded face inclined in a slight bow before focusing on the irate man "Do not give me reason to defend her from you, Hagrid."
"Me?" the tall man exploded at the insinuation and muttered angrily as Bane, signalling Arno to follow, collected the foal in his arms and cantered away. Luckily the centaurs didn't hear his utterances, as she doubted Bane would have appreciated being called an 'overgrown nag'.
The pair watched in silence as the centaurs disappeared into the foliage, Arno pausing to dip his head respectfully towards Buffy before he went out of sight. Once they were gone, Hagrid sighed and shifted on his feet.
"I suppose tha' was meant ter stop me askin' what yeh're doin' out here?" Buffy shrugged, wary of how to react without any clues of what the man's plans were.
"Well then" he continued when she didn't respond "I'd better get yeh back ter Hogwarts"
She could feel his gaze upon her but didn't dare meet it, her head filled with potential outcomes of this meeting, and all of them seemed to be bad.
"Name's Hagrid"
An arm appeared in her line of vision, hand outstretched. Finally risking a glance up at his face she found none of the anger or suspicion she had expected, there was an understandable level of interest, but no blame. She took his hand, surprised that the shake she received, though firm, did not reflect his bulk.
"Buffy"
Bushy eyebrows rose on hearing her accent "Didn' think I recognised you – yeh're tha new kid from across the pond"
"That's me"
He turned back towards the school, about to lead them back but stopped and looked back towards the clearing before leaving "D'you mind if I check on Grawp first? I gotta see how badly yeh hurt 'im this time"
It shouldn't have been a surprise that he knew, or figured it out; she must have left footprints all over the clearing and she hadn't been in a state where she could disguise her trail leading back to the school. What had he thought, she wondered, when he discovered that someone had so quickly uncovered his secret? Was Hagrid as terrified of it being revealed as she was of her own?
The clearing was the most peaceful Buffy had seen it. The giant, Grawp, had seemingly just lain down and gone to sleep after they left. A swelling on his forehead marked the place that Buffy had hit him, and the surrounding area was quickly becoming a deep purple bruise. All that could be heard was his surprisingly shallow.
Do giants get concussion, Buffy wondered. She didn't want to advocate waking him, so it was probably best not to mention the possibility.
"He looks alright I guess. 'Spect he'll be down for some time yet, given the size o' tha' bruise"
"Sorry" Buffy couldn't help but apologise for causing pain to someone this man cared for enough to sound like that. "The last time I didn't know he was there, anything I did was to get away, but this time we had to…" The giant rolled over, revealing the new injuries on his hands, marked with multiple hoof sized bruises and cuts from her knife.
"Nah they're righ'; better this than the centaurs bein' angry at 'im." He glanced speculatively between the sleeping giant and the petite girl as they retied the restraints, "You gonna tell me how yeh knocked out a giant? Tha's a feat even though he is a runt"
"Are you going to tell me why you brought one home?" she countered.
"Heh" Hagrid let out a deep chuckle "Fair enough. Seems like we both have something to hide." The giant fully bound once more, the pair began to make their way back to the school.
"Are you going to tell them?" Buffy had been expecting a quick decisive answer, not the thoughtful pause that followed her question.
"Well… it's not like yeh can't take care of yerself" He said with an audible shrug "Anyhow, I reckon there's not much goin' on at his school that Dumbledore doesn' know about. If he's lettin' you come out here, there's bound to be a reason."
He wasn't going to say anything. Buffy didn't really care how he decided to justify the decision to himself. However she couldn't help but worry at his tone, still not completely convinced. Buffy could feel weight of his eyes upon her back as he followed her, looking for some sign to prove that his decision was right.
"Yer not going to explain are you?" He asked, finally breaking the silence as they approached his hut on the outskirts of the forest.
"Are you?"
He caught her arm before she could start away from him across the lawn "Listen, jus' leave him alone. We don' mean any harm." Looking into those deep brown eyes you couldn't help but believe the sincerity of what he was saying. But Buffy had also heard students' tales of other dangerous creatures this man deemed harmless.
Despite her misgivings she nodded. She had never sought to harm the creature, had avoided it where possible, so it was no difficulty to ignore the giant. Hagrid's worry wasn't entirely eased by the weak smile she gave before heading across the expanse of snow-covered lawn towards the school, but then her eyes had contained the same warnings as the centaurs; that the peace was conditional.
It came back to her slowly, awareness returning in disjointed trickles. The sensation of the manacles came first, of heavy metal weighing down on her wrists and ankles as it held her in place. She tugged at the chains that attached her arms to the rock of the wall, turning her head to look with bleary eyes at the result of her efforts. The metal didn't strain, even after having her full force pulling at the chains, but then she did feel weak, surprisingly so; pain coursing through her veins.
She closed her eyes, fighting against this return of sensation, every ache making itself known. When she reopened her eyes she could see better, further into the dark space she would once have been able to view as clear as daylight, male out the blurred outlines of dark figures before her.
Her reaction was instinctual, an immediate recoiling away from these men. That they made no attempt to free the girl bound to the wall would have been enough to prompt fear, anger but not the strength of loathing which rose up within her. Something in her mind, a part of the memories that were as hazy as her sight, told her that there was something more than mere cruelty in their intentions. They spoke but the sound too was muffled, incomprehensible, echoing through her skull.
She shook her head, trying to clear it, straining to concentrate on something, anything other than the fire in her organs. The men took her movements as an answer, angrily coming closer to gesture at her with sharp movements. The harsh glow of energy illuminated dark hair bringing into harsh focus the stained and sodden strands that hung limply around her face. She focussed on that, on her matted mane, on anything but the way her nerves seemed to burn as she fought to reject the darkness they were forcing into her; that was threatening to take over her body and soul.
Pain wracked through her very essence as it battled against them and then, as suddenly as it had arrived, the force she had been combating was gone. Her entire body, which had been tensely coiled in reaction to her anguish, relaxed and she slumped forwards, supported only by the chains that bound her to the rock that imprisoned her, struggling to force breath into lungs exhausted from screaming.
It was getting harder to resist, taking longer to recover each time it happened. This she knew without a memory of this being done to her before, not needing the pictures in her mind when somehow a part of her soul remembered. But this knowing was a fickle thing, she knew they would keep going with no knowledge of how long it might last, of how many times this had happened before. She lifted her head just in time to see the next wave come.
"Do we even have to? She can just sleep in and…"
"I think she's waking up."
The insistent rocking motion that the world had been making paused for a moment before resuming with renewed vigour as a different voice murmured, "Finally!"
"Come on, you need to get up. Breakfast is nearly over."
As the sounds became sharper the pain dulled and Buffy opened her eyes to find two of her dorm mates standing by her bed.
"We've got to run. You should hurry if you want any food."
The sound of the door shutting behind them echoed through a mind that still bore the wounds of the dream. Despite oversleeping she felt exhausted, having spent the night battling demons hidden within heavy cloaks. Trapped within a nightmare which no longer seemed content to leave her sleepless, this time the fear, the pain hadn't forced her out of the dream but held her in the moment as firmly as the chains which had bound her to the rocks.
It had been so vivid; the sights and sounds distorted by circumstance but the pain, every second of the torture was burnt onto Buffy's memory. She winced as she got up, body aching with sympathetic pains of those she had felt in her dream. Buffy couldn't help but think that it had to mean something, be trying to tell her something.
The pain, the waves of energy that had caused it to spread throughout her body had been familiar. It had echoes of the sensations she had felt when she was first captured by wizards, of the night in Knockturn Alley when magic had flooded over her transformed state. The ones who in her dream had bound and tortured her had been wizards, twisting their magic to cause pain. On autopilot, she moved about the room, slowly getting ready to face the world.
Was this a prophecy, a warning of what was to come? Had her secret already been divulged by the huge man? Were they coming even now to take her, away to some dark forgotten place where none would ever find her? It had felt so real, but Giles had told her that these dreams weren't always of the near future, they might be warning of something she could prevent, or against repeating the actions of the past.
When she reached for her hairbrush her eyes caught sight of a letter lying unopened on her bedside table and all thought stopped. Could she believe in this dream, trust that what she saw was real when the last time a dream had felt so achingly tangible, it had shown her mother; shown something that couldn't have happened. With a couple of quick swipes at her hair, Buffy rushed out of the dorm, hoping to grab some breakfast.
As she sped down the stairs to the forth floor, she nearly crashed into another student in as much as a hurry as her. His muttered, "Sorry." overlaid her own and the boy looked up upon hearing her voice.
She expected one of the defiant glares that had become customary in the last few days; an instinctive reaction to the flash of fear the sight of her caused. Instead Harry merely nodded at her and continued on his way to the great hall. Buffy wasn't sure that this could be chalked up to any lessening of hostility, or was more to do with an inability to generate the anger needed. He seemed to be as exhausted as she was; his speed down the stairs seemingly more to do with the momentum granted by gravity than by any effort on his part.
When they reached the landing above the entrance hall, Buffy stopped for an entirely different reason. Headmaster, his deputy and Hagrid were deep in conversation as they headed out of the front door. Professors meeting like this; in corridors or one another's classrooms, their quiet whispers quickly dying when students came near, wasn't anything new. Ever since the Christmas break the staff had been on edge, and it didn't take a genius to realise why they chose to avoid the staff room.
It wasn't only the teachers who notably avoided discussing misgivings anywhere that it might get back to the Hogwart's High Inquisitor, but this conversation between the heads of the school and the only one who knew anything concrete about her sent a chill down Buffy's spine. Had the huge man changed his mind, was everything she sought to hide about to be revealed?
Buffy glanced warily out of the open door. There were no wizards gathering ready to take her away, nothing but the retreating figure of Hagrid as he ambled across the lawn, blocking all view of his companion's before him. It could be nothing. She tried to remember previous occasions when this group had met secretively but nothing came to mind, she hadn't been watching for it before.
In any case, what could she do? If she attempted to cover up her actions now it would probably turn out like every cop drama on TV – the efforts to remain anonymous causing her discovery. With a resolution to ignore the nagging worries, Buffy turned from the doorway and nearly bumped into the Head Girl.
"Buffy. I was just coming to look for you."
"Oh?" was all Buffy could get out, her hopes that the dream was just that cracking, crumbling.
"Professor Flitwick wanted to see you after breakfast." Angela continued, barely noticing Buffy's strange reaction, "I waited in the hall for you…" she suddenly paused, taking in Buffy's white countenance, "Are you okay?"
Buffy smiled weakly at the girl's real concern. This was why, despite her overbearing attitude and occasional lack of sensitivity, she had been made a prefect in the first place why she was promoted to Head Girl; she honestly cared about her peers, "I just didn't sleep well. I'll be fine after some food."
"Well hurry before they stop serving. It didn't sound urgent so I'm sure the Professor won't mind when you come." She frowned slightly when this didn't seem to remove any of Buffy's concern but began to turn away, "Oh and…" Angela started, beginning to turn back before stopping herself mid thought and smiling softly, "Nevermind. I hope you feel better."
Buffy watched as she sped off up the stairs, the picture of efficiency with a straight back and unhurried movements. What was that all about? Had they for some reason decided not to tell the Ministry about her? What did that mean about the dream, somehow she couldn't picture her Professors as the wizards torturing her, but that they hadn't said anything yet didn't mean they never would, and what had Angela been about to say?
That at least was revealed when she saw the Ravenclaw table, along with another thing she hadn't thought to question; why she had been woken on a Sunday morning when there was no real reason to rise. With thoughts of discovery and endless torture foremost in her mind it wasn't until she saw the cake surrounded by the grinning faces of most of the fifth years that Buffy remembered what day it was. That she had turned 18 while lost in a sea of pain.
~ to be continued... ~
So... recently I've been trying to plan how to destroy and/or take over the world... it's an enlightening experience and, annoyingly, more difficult than you'd think. Getting into an evil wizards mind and figuring out just how he would go about a certain course of action is bizarre to say the least. The worst part is trying to reason out the actions of both him and those he's interacting with.
So... question... since I'm looking for inspiration for some DA scenes which are coming up... out of all the characters in DA who would you most like to see Buffy interact with (and if possible why)?
