Chapter 214
Tanith's POV
"Where's Fletcher?" Tanith asked quietly. The hallway was dim despite it being midday – it was a cloudy day and Corrival's manor, while grand and beautiful in its own way, was also furnished darkly and let in little natural light. She was packed and ready, as was Erskine. Dexter was just finishing eating and needed to clean his teeth.
Erskine shrugged. "Sleeping, I think. He's overworked and overusing his magic."
"Someone needs to convince Peregrine to join us," she muttered, looking at the ground. If she had realised Dexter was going to take so long, she'd have stayed in bed with Laila and Nadia. There was no cot at Corrival's house, and Tanith didn't much mind co-sleeping with her daughter, plus it made her life easier. She suspected Laila would be able to start picking herself up enough to nurse from Tanith while she was asleep soon. If Tanith's milk didn't dry up before that happened. She wasn't sure it was the best parenting move, but considering everything, she didn't care if she made some mistakes making her daughter happy. She immediately stopped thinking about that. She didn't have the luxury of pitying herself.
Erskine snorted a laugh, unaware of her sudden drop in mood. "Yeah, like that'll ever happen. We should be glad Peregrine is such an anti-violence person. He won't join anyone if he can help it, and the Spider's would kill him because he's more likely of morally siding with the Sanctuary. You know what you should do? Wake Fletcher up. What I wouldn't give to see his face. He'll think he's in a dream."
Tanith rolled her eyes. "Don't be disgusting."
"I bet he won't even question it, he'll just invite you into bed with him."
"I will throw you out the window," Tanith threatened with a smirk.
Erskine was saved, or perhaps Tanith was saved from Erskine, when Dexter appeared at the top of the stairs. "Let's go fuckers!" Dexter shouted down at them. "We've got a plane to catch!"
They left, Erskine driving them to a private airport in a tiny little patch of grass with a slim little strip of tarmac, a picturesque small plane, and fields of sheep and their lambs beyond. Tanith vaguely recognised the pilot from some old memory, while Dexter and Erskine seemed to know her better. They were in the air before she knew it and speeding off towards Europe.
Although it was small, rickety and likely older than herself, the plane was steady enough for Tanith to close her eyes and attempt to get some sleep. She was woken several hours later by Dexter who put a hand on her arm. She instantly shuddered from the cold. Even her Bespoke coat wasn't enough to keep it out. She nodded to Dexter and sat up, taking her coat off so she could strap her sword to her back, awkwardly put her padded coat back on, zipped and poppered it up, and put on her gloves. She really needed a balaclava or goggles, or maybe both, but she figured she'd be alright with just what she had. Dexter had a harness in his hands.
"What's that for?" She shouted over the racket.
"So we don't get separated. Do you want to hold hands or be strapped in?"
"Hands!" She shouted with a grin. Why would she want to be trapped when she could fly free? "Where's my parachute?"
Dexter looked at her blankly for a moment and then his face split into a giant grin. "There are none, Tan. Erskine's going to guide us!"
Tanith laughed excitedly and bounced in her seat. She looked out of the window at the incredible view, the snowy mountains that glistened in the sun, the horizon never ending. Devastatingly beautiful.
She helped strap Dexter and Erskine together, Erskine standing in the front. Dexter was in control of the coordinate's device. Erskine would manipulate the air to keep them safe. She just needed to grab only Dexter when they got closer to the ground to make Erskine's job easier.
A trap door in the floor was opened and Tanith experienced some tantalising vertigo at the sight of the ground thousands of miles below. The hole was barely big enough for Erskine and Dexter to get through, and they had to wiggle a little before their bodies suddenly slipped down and they disappeared from her sight as if they'd never been there at all. She grinned excitedly, sat on the edge, held the door, and swung it in as she jumped down to close it after her.
The wind caught her and she fell, her body twisting and turning insanely fast through the air. It was gorgeous, what little she saw around the spinning, the sun just starting to set over the high peaks, the curves and angles of the landscape – it was a once in a lifetime view. She struggled but managed to level herself off and controlled her angle to shoot towards Dexter and Erskine who were angling towards a mountain peak. The experience was almost too much to let go of, and she almost thought it would be worth it to see if Erskine could guide her to a safe stop without her hanging onto Dexter, but then she grabbed him. She couldn't take that risk anymore. She'd never take those risks now she had someone to look after.
Feeling almost shamed at her moment of freedom, she looked out over the peaks but it was too late. The sun was hidden and with it, its golden glow. She tried to look behind her but her movement threw Erskine off and she didn't dare ruin it any further.
Erskine got them down to the edge of the cliff with incredible skill, and they all fell to the snowy floor. Snow went into Tanith's mouth and her sword prevented her moving naturally, but at least they hadn't been separated. She wouldn't have been able to help with the mission if she was off trying to find them from miles away. She opened her eyes and looked left and right, unsure of which way was up and down for a moment, before realising she was on a cliff edge staring out over a thousand mile drop into a snowy hell. Swallowing, she shuffled back away from death.
"Tanith!" She heard. She turned and saw Erskine and Dexter already standing, separated from each other, and grinning madly. She grinned in response and picked herself up. She jogged over to them and they didn't say anything due to the high winds that wouldn't have let anyone hear them anyway. She pulled her coat off, hating the frozen winds, and switched her coat and sword so she could actually get to it if she needed. The men helped her, and then Dexter pointed and they started walking.
"Look!" Erskine shouted against the current of the air. He pointed a bloodless, cold finger at a mountain beyond. Tanith looked. She saw nothing but snow and mountain. "See the black thing? Moving?"
She squinted. The air was so cold it was giving her a headache and her eyeballs desperately wanted her to close them entirely. She concentrated and after a moment, saw movement. She thought, for a second, it was a person, and then realised it was no such thing. "Is that a Yeti?!"
"Looks like it!" Erskine shouted with a laugh.
"I thought they were only in the Himalayas?" She asked.
"So did I!" He laughed.
"I've always wanted to fight one!" Tanith shouted madly. "Do you think we'll run into one? I want to take its body home and keep it! I want a Yeti rug! I could get Ghastly to make a Yeti scarf for me!"
Erskine seemed to laugh but his voice was taken by a loud wail of wind. Dexter spoke when it passed. "It's a sign!" He shouted at them seriously. "Tyren Lament could have brought them here to keep people away!"
Tanith nodded as that sounded reasonable, smart and like something Valkyrie or Skulduggery would say. "Do you think I could kill one?"
"What?"
"I said," she shouted louder, "do you think I could kill one?"
"They're endangered!" Dexter replied.
"But they're an invasive species so it's okay!"
He didn't seem to hear her and after a moment looking between her, the somewhat thin trail they were on, and his coordinates device, he gave her a smile and nod. She knew he hadn't heard what she said, but that was agreeance to her. She desperately wanted to kill a Yeti and take it home. She could only imagine how cool it would look as a fur coat or a rug. It wasn't like a bear or a fox anyway, they were cute and intelligent creatures that deserved not to be hunted. Not that a Yeti wasn't massively smart. It was actually very intelligent from what she knew. Not quite as smart as Bigfoot, but still close. She wanted a Bigfoot rug too. She'd gone hunting for one once, but hadn't been successful, and then hunting season for them ended. But Yeti were notoriously smelly, slobbery and all around unappealing to look at. But their fur was thicker than anything imaginable, and soft after being washed and brushed out. She'd felt a pair of Yeti fur lined gloves before. It was like nothing else, not even the softest rabbit fur could compare. And because they were impossible to breed and keep in captivity, they were prized possessions. She could gift it to Valkyrie as thanks for all she'd done for her. Or they could co-keep it, if Valkyrie was willing to pay for the skinning and general handling of turning the Yeti into a rug. And she'd never had Yeti meat before!
Tanith's fantasies of meeting a Yeti overtook her mind for a full thirty minutes of travel. They were going down an incline when Dexter suddenly stopped and broke her from her thoughts. He pointed and they all crouched.
"Markings!" He shouted. After a moment, she noticed the indents of almost circle like markings in the snow, since brushed over from the wind and snow being pushed by them. Dexter stood and nudged a snowy rock with his foot, and it broke apart to reveal it was actually droppings. "There must be more Yeti!"
Tanith whooped excitedly and stood, bouncing on her feet. They continued and she gasped with happiness when she saw ahead of them, on a straight, flat path, a Yeti ahead. It was facing them.
She drew her sword and blocked Erskine and Dexter from getting closer. "Come and have a go, rug!"
The beast roared over the winds and ran at her with incredible speed, its fur barely swaying from the speed of its run and the force of the wind. Tanith laughed loudly and prepared for the fight of her life.
I have done a wonderful thing with this chapter hah!
I've published a few mini chapters unrelated to this if you want to check them out, no need to if they don't interest you. You can click on my name at the top to go to my profile and see my works :)
Remus Crux: thankfully, I am merciful and the God of Vore chapter is the only vore I will write. Unless you ever forget to review again, in which case I might write it specifically for you as a punishment. I won't like it, but I'll do it. Thank you for serotonin, now keep it coming.
