Chapter 26

Author's note: My Feral Lady is now available on amazon! I did the same as I did with Fur and Fangs! Just a change in character names. It has 39 chapters. You can go pick it up to read those chapters early, but in the meantime, I will be posting one or two chapters a week. The book is really just for those who have enjoyed and want to support what I have been doing here. I have put a lot of energy and love into this story, and getting a couple of extra bucks through publishing the book means a lot, and helps ensure that I can continue writing like this! Link is on my tumblr : hopefulbadgerjunara of course.

Markings of Communication

"You said your mom had it on her hip right?" Kriss grimaced down at her sister's near-naked body, hating herself for even considering it.

"I mean. Yes? But It stretched a good way down her leg. Almost to the knee." Alex pondered, attempting to conjure the image back up in her memory,

"Won't the hip be kinda hard to see?" Sam's mouth scrunched doubtfully to one side as she arched her back in an inhuman angle to look down at her hip.

"You got any better ideas?" Kriss snapped.

"I mean, why not-" Sam raised her arms and looked over the backs of them with a shrug.

"I'd rather not give my sister any more overt scars than are necessary."

"I think the reason my mom used her hip was that it could be hidden easily with clothes. Even then, she still ended up getting it tattooed over shortly after I was born. I don't remember ever seeing her without the tattoo in person. Just in pictures. So it must have been as soon as she was able to get it after I had been born."

"If she has a bunch of writing carved into her arm, no matter what it is, it will be a problem. Even more so if it is about how to escape an alternate dimension or something. I prefer my sister not get hospitalized for delusions after all this is done.

"Ok, ok, sure. No arms. Whatever. Hip is good."

"Thigh maybe? Upper thigh?" Alex suggested somewhat of a compromise, first pointing out the spot she thought would be best on herself over her clothes and then on Freya's nearly naked body.

"Works for me. Easy enough to hide and to read." Kriss softened slightly, clearly finding some level of comfort in the dawn of a plan. "But what do we say? Well, write."

"Hi?" Sam suggested.

"That seems a tad short of eloquently phrased." Kriss denied as diplomatically as she could.

"Eloquent might not be the best option. We are working with only so much square footage here. So terse might be the way to go with this one." Alex countered.

"I guess you aren't wrong." Kriss shivered at the thought that this might not be so simple as one or two back and forths; this could take a lot longer, tens, hundreds of interactions before they either found a suitable answer or another way out. What if it really did take up all of the space they had? What if- another shiver interrupted her spiraling mind.

"So, she's your sister. What do you want to start off with?" Sam gestured for Alex to pass her the knife.

"I… short is best." Kriss stammered. "Hi -K."

"That's it?" Sam affixed her hand around the handle for the utmost control of the blade.

"Yeah, just hi, then a dash and then a K."

"Ok, I'll start high and small so that we have room." Sam angled herself, prepping to cut.

"No! I'll do it. She's my sister."

"Go got it." Sam passed off the blade. "Just remember, shallow and small.

Kriss's hand shook violently as she took the knife and approached her sister's flesh, but she willed her hand steady the moment it made contact. She was quick. Shallow at first, but quick. A once over on the h fixed her shallowness issue. "Done. I think?" She looked around for second opinions to check if the other women thought anything else was necessary.

"Yup. Looks good." Alex nodded reassuringly as she picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a washcloth they had set out earlier.

"You don't think there's a chance just using that on an open wound will wake her up do you?" Kriss winced hopeful even though she knew there was absolutely no chance that it could be that simple at all.

"No, I don't, but we might get a reaction. This stuff will certainly alert her to something going on at her leg, it's not a pleasant thing to feel on a brand new cut like this." Alex poured some straight onto the cut, wiping it up only to rub it deeper in.

Freya's face scrunched up. Her body was clearly in pain whether or not it was being inhabited at the moment.

"Is pain face and groans a good or bad sign?" Sam questioned the necromancers.

"I don't have the slightest clue. The whole magic stuff was never my forte."

"Once upon a time, it was mine. And if I had to guess, it can't be bad. I mean aside from that your sister is in pain. But, ya know, in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't seem all too bad right now." Alex offered what comfort she could.

"Thanks." Kriss forced a scared smile in an effort of niceties for her cousin.

"Uugh, guys? Should it be bleeding that much?" Sam pointed out the sudden overflow of blood from under the rubbing alcohol-soaked washcloth.

"Fuck, that is way more than it should be for those tiny cuts." Alex patted the cloth down in an effort to soak up what she could before removing the cloth to take a closer look at the injury.

It now read Hi -Kriss? The added section sloppy, deeper than was necessary, much deeper.

"It worked! She got the message and responded!"

"Freya…" Kriss whispered worriedly for her sister. It was stupid, but she knew Freya's beautiful, unnecessarily ornate in an nearing vain way, and to see her writing so sloppily, even considering the painful medium. It worried her, worried her much more than she had expected in any way at all. "W! What do we say back!" She stammered.

"Omega."

"What about omega?"

"Just try it. Just write Omega. Leave some room above and below so we can clarify if it doesn't work. But that was the answer I got that let me come back. So maybe it will work for her too?" Alex expounded.

"Ok then." Kriss nodded. Her hands moved once more, shaking worse and worse as she approached, but this time she couldn't quite calm them entirely as she began carving an o.

"It's going to be ok." Alex stopped her cousin with a calming hand wrapping around hers.

Kriss was still shaking even as Alex gently coaxed the blade away from her.

"I've got it. Don't worry."

"I! But!" Kriss went to protest but quickly forfeited, relinquishing the knife over to her cousin. "You're right."

"It's going to be ok. We can do this." Alex tried again as she moved to be cutting in the right direction and not accidentally put it upside down. Her hand was gentler, she had more than enough experience cutting into flesh from all that the vampires had forced her to do over the years. It was at least kind of nice that for once it paid off in one way or another.

"Ok! Ok." Kriss had begun hyperventilating. "So, she'll wake up any second now? Right? Right! Right?" Her head bounced between the wolves.

Sam's eyes rolled up with a dismissive yet empathetic expression. She wasn't quite harsh enough to remind Kriss how unlikely such an easy result would be, but also not quite patient enough just to let it slip without even a look of doubt.

"It is certainly possible." Alex offered politely albeit rather unconvincingly.

"Wake up Freya. Come on. Just wake up!"

"Even if she doesn't wake up immediately, it will be ok." Alex soothed as she wiped down the new marking.

A question mark. That was all the reply Freya gave. Just a simple sloppy question mark following right after the word omega.

"Fuck!" Kriss turned away to hide her shamed face.

"Here. Reply with answer under it." Alex passed off the knife.

Sam nodded with an encouraging hand pressing at the small of Alex's back.

"Hey. It's gonna be ok. I know this is rough. I know it is a bit gory, but we will get her back soon. Ok?"

"Maybe I should take a break? You two don't need me."

"I don't know whether we need you or not, but if I were there, I would want Kara by my side." Alex's hand landed on Kriss's shoulder. "I wouldn't want her to force herself to watch this type of thing if she couldn't handle it. Well, I mean, if you can face it. I can only assume she would want you there at her side."

"Uugh guys." Sam's voice drew their attention back to Freya's responses.

"What's it say?" Kriss replied before Alex could.

"She's asking about Cat. She just said Cat and a question mark. Probably hoping that the person who asked might be able to give some extra hints?" Sam relayed.

Alex's heart hung heavy, still trying to process the loss herself but knowing that she had to keep herself together for the sake of her cousin. "I think you know what to reply to that one. She is gone, can't help us anymore."

"Sorry love." Sam whispered back hollow and mournful as she began on her reply, carving just a dash and then the four simple letters dead.

"I… I know what you mean Alex, just… I'm not sure I can handle this all. I, that is my sister. I'm sure you understand. Your sister doesn't seem like the type to keep herself out of trouble."

Alex gave a pained chuckle, astounded at how quickly Kris had not only acquainted herself with Kara but seemingly nailed her personality and general pattern in life choices. "Yeah, yup. I love her, but she always seems to find a new angle to kick the hornet's nest."

"I'm sorry."

"But that's why I am there for her. She is my sister, and I'm not letting her stupid get the best of her any time soon."

"Yeah, I get tha-"

"Another response!" Sam alerted.

"What's it say now?" Kriss's anxious mind kept her on her toes and just a moment ahead of Alex.

"She added what about in front of omega and is the answer."

"Don't know, find out. Reply with that." Kriss decided, seemingly almost on a whim.

"That's it?" Sam checked before beginning, it wasn't like she could erase if there was a mistake or anything.

"Yeah."

"Ok, if you say so."

"That gives her something solid to start with at the very least."

"Yeah." Kriss faked a smile of strength she didn't have.

"We'll get her out in no time." Alex's actual authentic cheery smile lightened the weight on Kriss's shoulders just enough that she felt ready to turn back to her sister.

"Ideas how?" The necromancer's sister read aloud, half pondering as she did.

"That is completely out of my area of expertise." Sam shook her head, awaiting a potential answer from either of the two who knew at least a little about the whole necromancy thing.

Alex was clearly racking her brain, but it wasn't like she had encountered oh so much luck in the category of uncovering the secrets of how wolves work. She spent a good two months dedicating her every moment to trying to find anything that could help Kara with her alpha and pack related problems. All to find absolutely nothing.

"Say mom." Kriss was finally finding a standing, mostly thanks to Alex's support.

"Just mom?" Sam prepared to carve once more.

"No! Mom's library."

"Mom's library?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"If there is a library that might hold the answer, then maybe we should go check it out? Eight eyes are better than two when searching for something like this." Alex suggested.

"I would already be there if I could." Kriss shook her head.

"I don't quite understand."

"It burned down with our home outside of town a year or so before she died. She never let me in it while she was alive, and even Freya was only allowed in to train her magic."

Alex and Sam nodded patiently as they followed along.

"We never really went back in after she died. Just kinda felt wrong. But, if there are any hidden texts or books on werewolves, that is my best bet for where to find it."

"Am I missing something about all this, or does it feel like finding a burned up library in another dimension is a little far fetched?" Sam was cautious of being too negative, but that didn't make it an easy task.

"I've been there. It is different, but I am not quite sure that this will work either. That said, I don't see why it wouldn't be worth a try."

"My mom wasn't very verbose about the topic of that other world, but she did say that it can toy with time, that things lost could be found there. So I think that it is a good bet."

"Ok, mom's library it is." Sam shrugged before getting to work.

"And someone thought that she wouldn't be useful, that we wouldn't need her." Alex teased in the kindest, supportive, and lighthearted way.

"Thanks, Alex. Thanks." Kriss hugged her cousin.

"What the hell's that mean?" Sam turned her head, wiping away what blood was left as she began to care for all of the wounds on Freya's thigh.

End of Chapter 26

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