Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable in this story. They are owned by Kore Yamazaki. I just play with her characters.
Author's Notes: It's time for some bit of plot. Thank you for continuing to read this story! :)
Chapter 7: Dogs and their Masters
Elias sat on his bed propped up by his big pillow behind him and against his headboard. He was now in his pajamas, calmly replaying in his mind tonight's events. He met with Ms. Hatori—no, she was Chise to him now—at the hill in the gardens again. As a gesture of trust for the Sleigh Beggy and because he felt that they were kindred spirits, he already had planned telling her about his situation in the College after the night she told him that she was bought from an auction. But he didn't know what prompted him to do it in his wolf-skull form. He just knew that he too felt free to be himself around her and he wanted to show it to her. He was glad he did though, and it didn't turn out bad at all, unlike he worried about. After everything, she accepted him, smiling at him in a carefree manner as if there was nothing wrong with his appearance nor with the reason why he was at the College.
He placed a hand on his torso, still feeling the remnants of her warm embraces. She hugged him twice now. The first time, he thought himself too far gone to have lived without physical affection that he flinched at the first few seconds of contact. Yet she held on to him tightly, and soon after, he felt that the iceberg long built around his heart began to thaw. This night, her embrace was even better than he had hoped for. He had anticipated her being afraid of him and even cutting ties with him after his confession, but it didn't happen. Instead, she reached out her hand and declared him her friend and that she was his too. He didn't know what to make of it, but it had been the first time in his long sorry life in the College that someone saw him as a friend and not a criminal monster. He was sure now that he would do everything in his power to keep it that way.
Something tapped on Elias's window that interrupted his train of thought. He looked at its direction and sighed. It was already 1:02 am, and he was certain that he knew what would be bothering him at this ungodly hour. For a split second, he thought about being a rebel and ignoring it, yet he knew that that it wouldn't matter. Renfred would just surely find another way to disturb him. He reluctantly got up from his bed, headed to the window, and opened it. A messenger bird immediately entered his room and perched on his desk.
"Ah, Ainsworth. It's good that you're still awake." The bird spoke with Renfred's voice. Elias fought the urge not to remind the clearly dense Sorcery professor about what time it is.
"How can I help you, Renfred?" He managed to say through gritted teeth instead, knowing that it would be a lost cause. Renfred would do whatever he wanted to anyway.
"We have a mission. Meet me at the College entrance tomorrow at 3 pm."
"Can you tell me what it is about now?"
There was static heard from the messenger bird for a few seconds, and then Renfred's voice came out again. "A town in Lancashire reported unusual successive cases of missing persons. They've requested the College to sort it out."
"I see."
"Anyway, if anything, it will be the usual. I will be relying on you for teleportation since the place is not on my transportation database yet."
"Alright."
"That is all. See you tomorrow. Good night, Ainsworth." Then Renfred's messenger bird flew out of Elias' window. He shut it a little forcefully due to his irritation and sat down on his bed.
The usual? Yes, it had been this way for seventy-five years now. Why did he hope that circumstances would change for him just because he gained a friend? Who was he kidding? He was still a criminal Mage who ate a human after all. And his punishment was the usual: to be the College's dog. There were times when he blindly accepted his fate, when he thought that he deserved it and that his sin was far too great to be atoned. But there were also times when he felt tired from it all, from all the fighting, from being a mere slave.
These were the times when he just longed to be free.
xxxx
Punctual as always, Renfred was already at the entrance of the College by the time Elias arrived there in his human form at 3 pm the next day. He was enjoying a cigarette and took a long drag as Elias came near. Puffs of white smoke came out of his nostrils and mouth, and Elias waved his hand and shooed at the air to prevent them from going to his direction.
"That can kill you, you do know that, right?" Elias clicked his tongue and looked at his companion disapprovingly. He just didn't understand what made Renfred take up this new habit.
After all, it wasn't there after they fought the Chimera at the churchyard around two months ago.
Renfred only chuckled heartily and threw one stick of his cigarette at the Magus. Elias caught it and sniffed at it curiously. It was a mixture of skullcap, mugwort, rosemary, and sage. It smelled good, except for its shabby wrapping that gave way to the fact that it was handmade.
"Herbs for the nervous system. You don't strike me as someone suffering from anxiety attacks." Elias commented dryly, stuffing the cigarette stick to his pocket.
"Shut up. I'm experimenting. You can try it, and then tell me if I've got the dosage right." Renfred answered back, and then he threw his spent cigarette to the floor and stubbed its remaining cinders with his foot.
"Why, are you planning on quitting and striking out on your own by starting a cigarette company?"
"Now, wouldn't that be a great idea? No more 9 to 5. Most certainly no more dealings with a shadowy and thorny creature of a Magus. But no, I just want to see you smoke in your wolf-skull form. I've always wondered if the smoke will come out from the hollow on your snout or from your open jaws. Then again, you might need one in a colossal size. That one's too little and flimsy."
Elias scowled at Renfred's teasing. It wasn't bullying or a show of dominance, unlike what Renfred's predecessors did before him. Elias wasn't hurt one bit by being the butt of the joke, but that didn't mean he liked it when the Sorcery professor did so. "You are such an evil man. Why other people do not see it is beyond me."
"Only to you, and it is because you are my dirty little secret." Renfred laughed again, and Elias could only shake his head as he put up with it. After a few seconds, the Sorcery professor fished out of his pocket two pictures and handed them to the Magus. On a now serious tone, he began to explain the situation at hand. "Our destination is a town called Haslingden, located in Rossendale Valley in Lancashire. They've reported successive cases of missing persons for the past two weeks and asked for help. We'll first talk to the police once we get there, and then we'll survey the area and see what we find."
"You think something will show up at night?" Elias asked, studying the picture of Haslingden. The first one was of a town, and it just looked like any other ordinary town in the countryside of England—dainty, quaint, and surrounded by high moorlands. The other was its distinguished landmark, the Halo Panopticon, a circular architectural structure that looked like a spaceship of a UFO. It was something unique to help him in his teleportation and to ensure that they arrive at the right place.
"Doesn't it always?" Renfred remarked knowingly, giving him a raised eyebrow. "Anyway, can you make it at one leap at Level 2? I'll save the place's coordinates in my transportation device when we get there. So on the way back you don't have to do it again." Renfred said, and then with a little magic, he flicked his hand. Various locks on Elias's magical bindings unclicked and realigned, and the Magus felt a small stream of magic flow back to his system again. He nodded to the Sorcery professor who stood close to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Then the Magus concentrated, picturing in his mind the place they have to go to.
"Nettles in the shadows, a wheel of hollies. Ten-folds and twenty-folds, weaves the spider's thread of the nest to the branch." Elias chanted his incantation, vines and thorns spreading out of him and engulfing him and his Sorcerer companion. He kept the image of the Halo Panopticon on his mind, willing them both to appear whole and intact at the site. Then after a few seconds of floating, darkness, and nothingness, they stood on solid ground, feeling the warmth of countryside sunshine on their skin and Haslingden's halo landmark behind them.
xxxx
"Groups of tourists are always abundant this time of the year, and they often go to the Haslingden Grane west of here. It is mostly abandoned ruins now, but there are three reservoirs in it. These are Calf Hey, Ogden, and Holden Wood. It's mostly a popular trail for walkers." Mr. Richard Woods, Haslingden's Chief of Police, explained. He was a stocky man around in his fifties with a little bit of receding brown hair. He pointed to a section of the map of Haslingden and its surrounding vicinity. Renfred and Elias looked at the area closely and silently. Then the Chief of Police continued, "For the past two weeks, we received reports of these visitors missing. Some of them in groups of three or four. We now have around eleven cases."
"You closed down the area from the public, of course?" Renfred asked while tracing the map with his fingers.
"Of course, but you must know how this is costing us. Tourism is one of our town's bread and butters. We have no choice but to ask for help." Mr. Woods answered, worry marring his face regarding the economy of his town.
"Were there traces left behind by the missing people?" Elias asked, examining the pictures of the missing persons that were laid out on the conference table before them. "Some article or item of theirs left behind that were found in a rescue search?"
"That's the thing. There were no traces. So short of deducing that they were abducted by aliens or Fae, we really have no clue on what and how it happened."
"Do not worry. That's what we're here to uncover. All the cases center on this area here, the Calf Hey Reservoir?" Renfred enquired, hoping he'd get a somehow favorable answer. Haslingden Grane was a large area after all, as it was composed of three reservoirs.
Mr. Woods shook his head. "Majority of it. Around eight cases. There are now two in Ogden and one in Holden Wood though."
"Hmm." Elias pondered out loud unintentionally. Yet it was times like these that Renfred learned to listen. He valued the Magus's instincts, and all throughout their association with each other, there were instances when Ainsworth's intuition was right.
"What is it, Ainsworth?" The Sorcery professor asked his charge.
"It is prowling." Elias concluded with certainty.
"You're sure it's an 'it'? Not a 'he' or a 'she'?"
"I am certain. If it's by human means, there would have been signs of struggle. And three or four persons wouldn't have been taken so easily. Whatever being this is, it is highly intelligent, powerful, and dangerous. I'm sorry, Chief Woods, but I don't think your missing people are still alive." Elias surmised, and his two listeners could only nod their head in a silent assent. "Anyway, it is much better to check the area out and see for ourselves, Renfred."
"You're right." Renfred agreed, and then he turned to Woods to conclude their meeting. "We'll have a look around first, and then we'll let you know what we find."
"Alright. I know you don't need me to tell you this, but be careful, you two." Woods advised, folding the map of Haslingden Grane and handing it to Renfred. The Sorcery professor took it without another word, and he and the Magus headed outside of the police station.
"I'll check the area around Calf Hey since it has the highest number of cases. You can do the other two, but I suggest you go to Ogden first." Renfred said, as they were walking out of the station's gates.
"Are you sure? Wouldn't it be better if we both check Calf Hey first?"
"If you said it is prowling then it wouldn't matter where we start. Besides since tourists are no longer allowed to visit, its number of potential prey decreased. It is likely restless and moving about."
"If it were me, I would still hunt at the area where I had most success in."
Renfred let out a sigh. This was turning out to be a headache in his opinion. Ainsworth had two conflicting but possible ideas. He had wanted both of them to look at the reservoirs individually to save time because Haslingden Grane was around sixteen kilometers in diameter after all. But what would happen should one of them encounter the mysterious creature? Fighting it alone would be too much of a risk. "Alright. We'll check Calf Hey together first. I would need your help in interacting with the Fae there anyway. If we find nothing there, let's split up and then we'll go to the other two reservoirs. You'll go to Ogden, and I will go to Holden Wood."
"Alright." Elias agreed, finding that that idea made more sense.
Renfred fiddled with his transportation device and Elias placed his hand on the Sorcery professor's shoulder. In an instant, they were transported to Calf Hey, the reservoir itself in front of them. It was already well into the evening, the sky dark and peppered with twinkling stars and a crescent moon. The still waters and the flatlands around the reservoir provided nothing unfamiliar, but further east was a section of dense thicket and woods. Deciding that they might find something unusual there, the two headed to that area, following a footpath that was alongside a small stream and leading to the entrance of the woodlands. When they took the off-beaten path and ventured further deeper into the woods, that was when they felt a strange sensation in the air.
"There is no fae here." Elias stated to his companion, tilting his head and pointing his human nose upwards, sniffing the peculiar ambience. He could feel something ominous lurking around the area they were in, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where.
"Or you mean there was, but they all left." Renfred added to the Magus's observation. He could also feel something foreboding. Without the help of a fae to point them to the right direction, things had just gotten tougher. "Now just what could make that happen?"
They kept walking and they passed by shrubs of bluebells and grasses that are knee-high. Due to the autumn rain, the ground was muddy and boggy, yet they paid no mind to it, giving more attention to their surroundings instead. Then finally they reached a small wooden bridge over a fairly large stream. Renfred stopped, checked his map, and concluded that it was the same stream that they saw before, snaking through the woodlands from the reservoir. He stared off far into the distance where the water was flowing continuously and saw reeds growing around a meter and a half on both sides of the stream banks. He didn't find anything out of the ordinary, until he strained his eyes and saw what seemed to be a head of a man amidst the reeds. Knowing that it might be a potential victim, he quickly rushed to it, leaving behind a confused Magus.
"Renfred, where are you—"
"I saw something!" He ran at full speed, down to the direction of the flowing stream and to the reeds covering its bank. "It's a human, Ainsworth!"
Elias followed Renfred immediately, but by the time he reached him, it was already too late. An anguished scream ripped through the Sorcery professor, piercing the silence of the woods they were in. Elias's eyes widened in shock. Before them was a Manticore, a magical creature with a head of a man with a long beard and a body of a lion. Its fur was scarlet, and a scorpion tail with long and thick poisonous stings was wagging on its rear. On its mouth, between its jaws with three rows of sharp teeth, was Renfred's left arm, torn all the way from the shoulder.
Elias immediately walked to Renfred's side, placing himself between the Manticore and the Sorcery professor, his stance guarded and ready to defend as he monitored the Manticore's movements. Renfred was bleeding badly, blood rushing from his open wound down to the left side of his body, marring the length of his gray trench coat. As none of them had any emergency medical kits, the Magus took off his robe and made a makeshift bandage by tearing it and wrapping it tightly on the Sorcery professor's wound to stem the bleeding. Satisfied that it did the job for the meantime and aware of the Manticore's seemingly growing interest for them as prey, Elias turned to Renfred with determined eyes.
"Renfred, release my magical bindings up to Level 5." He firmly demanded.
"But—" Renfred hesitated, knowing full well what that meant. That was the maximum level of release his bindings could go, almost akin to giving him freedom as a criminal Mage. It was also the level, Renfred knew, that allowed him to transform to his most fearsome Chimera form.
"Renfred, you've been my warden for twenty years. Have I ever attempted an escape from you?" Elias answered back, while being wary of the Manticore. It was now chomping on Renfred's torn arm with a sickening crunch, devouring the flesh, bone, and even the clothing along with it.
"No, but…"
"You can't do anything with that injury. Leave this to me, and return to the College. You are in need of immediate medical attention." Elias reasoned again, wanting the Sorcery professor to give in to his request. It was after all, he deemed, the only way for both of them to survive this encounter.
Renfred looked at him square in the eye. Finding no hint of deception there, the Sorcery professor finally consented. "Alright, but you have to promise me one thing, Ainsworth. Don't lose." There was far too much at stake in keeping a magical creature like a Manticore alive.
"Don't worry. I have no intention of letting this Manticore live." Elias assured Renfred, his crimson eyes burning with resolution.
The Sorcery professor then exhaled a breath and flicked his wrist to release the Magus's magical bindings to Level 5. Elias immediately felt a great surge of magic return to his system, and he wasted no time in transforming into his fiercest Chimera form. Shadows and black vines with thorns danced around him, bones cracking sounds as he changed his physiology into something gargantuan. His wolf-skull and ochre horns lengthened, with another skeletal pair growing behind his jaws. Bony ribs adorned his torso, and he stood at his full height of thirteen feet. Then he growled at the Manticore and bared his fangs, but the creature only wagged it scorpion tail as if unimpressed by the Magus's inhuman transformation.
Despite his gruesome features, Elias still regarded his warden who was still seated on the ground, bleeding even through the makeshift bandage he had made earlier. "You should leave now, Renfred." He said with the softest voice he could muster in his current form, though it still sounded several pitches deep and raspy. He then eyed the Manticore who was circling around them, seemingly noticing how much of an easy prey Renfred was right now.
"Be careful, Ainsworth." The Sorcery professor advised his charge, and Elias nodded his great wolf-skull head in acknowledgement. Without another word, Renfred pushed the button on his transportation device and disappeared.
Elias exhaled through the hollow of his snout. At least Renfred was safe now. He looked at the Manticore who now snarled dangerously at him, baring the three rows of sharp teeth in its mouth. It seemed like it became angry, now that its human prey disappeared. Then with lightning speed, it charged at him, claws bared and mouth open and ready to bite. Elias created a wall of sharp thorns to defend himself, but as he did, the Manticore recoiled and fired its foot-long, bulrush-thick poisonous stings at him. Two hit his abdomen and one his right shoulder, all lodged very deep into his body like an arrow fired from a crossbow at close range.
Elias knew that it would only be a matter of moments before the paralysis from the Manticore's poison kicked in. So he launched an all out attack, trapping it with his many thorny vines by coiling them around it. When it finally became unable to move, he opened his jaws wide and bit its body hard, his white large fangs sinking into the impenetrable skin. The Manticore let out a pained wail, and Elias dug deeper, drawing a substantial amount of blood until he heard his fangs crack and he hesitated and let go. It was at this moment that the Manticore went wild and started devouring his thorny vines.
"No, you won't!" Elias exclaimed through gritted teeth. Even though he knew it would be suicidal, he inched closer to the Manticore and it bit the nearest thing it could reach, his abdomen. Knowing that it wouldn't let go, he then wrapped more and more thorny vines to constrict it. Unable to move again, the Manticore fired more poisonous stings at him through its scorpion tail, three hitting him square in the chest. But Elias was relentless and never gave in. He had one last resort, and he was determined to see it through. This time, large purple tendrils came out of his Chimera form and enveloped the Manticore. Then he began his incantation.
"Nettles in the shadows… a wheel of hollies…" He recited with labored breaths. He could already feel the paralysis crawling in his veins, but he fought hard to keep his mind and body awake. "A knife to part the sea of blood… Weigh, weigh a flesh for a pound…" The Manticore struggled from his deathly grip and bit his abdomen even harder. Elias gasped in pain, blood spilling out of his wolf-skull mouth. "Swallow thy breath… into mine!" He screamed the last part of his incantation—whether because of the intense agony he was already feeling or because of his fervent desire to kill the Manticore, he didn't know, but his magic in his Chimera form did its work.
Slowly by slowly the Manticore started to shrivel as its life force was sucked out by Elias. Because of this, he felt a stream of magical energy flowing into him, and he continued to use it to pull and pull even further, a self-sustaining cycle in itself. After a few moments, the Manticore stopped struggling and loosened its bite on his abdomen. Still, Elias didn't stop his siphoning, not until the Manticore was nothing more than a lifeless husk of skin, dried muscle, and bone. Assured that the ferocious magical beast was dead, then and only then did he retract his purple tendrils and the hold of his thorny vines, dropping the creature unceremoniously to the ground. He too collapsed beside it, no longer able to ignore the wide extent of his injuries.
Will he die here? He didn't know, but with his current condition, it seemed like that was the inevitable. He could no longer feel his limbs due to the poison of the Manticore, and he was already bleeding profusely because of the bite in his abdomen. His lungs too were punctured, and he didn't have any strength left to move. And though he had sucked the life force out of the Manticore, he had used it to kill it and the remainder was not enough to heal himself. He closed his eyes, finally feeling the urge to succumb to his impending fate. Maybe Renfred would come back here the morning after. The Sorcery professor would find his body and give him a proper burial. Elias would like to rest somewhere quiet and peaceful, like the hill in the gardens. Then his mind floated to the one person he wanted to see the most before his passing. Chise. He wanted to see her smile sweetly at him one more time. He wanted to gaze at her tender green eyes again. Most of all, he wanted her to embrace him and tell him that he was her friend once more.
Chise. He thought of her face and her strawberry-colored hair, of her laughter and their nighttime conversations. He had just become her friend, and he didn't want to lose it—to lose her. He didn't know if there would be peace in the afterlife, but he didn't want it yet. Chise. His crimson eyes went wide open with further resolve. He would live; he had to, for her sake. "Chi…se. Must… return. Chise…" He uttered her name as if it was a mantra that would keep him alive. With sheer will power, he shifted to his refined humanoid form to conserve magical energy. Then with all the concentration he could muster despite his serious injuries, he closed his eyes and once again chanted his incantation.
"Nettles in the shadows… a wheel of hollies…" He thought of the one place he would like to be in at that moment, and he willed the last remainder of his magic to transport him there.
xxxx
"Aah. Pilum Murialis sure did steal the show, didn't he? Just look at what he did to my little puppy."
Joseph muttered to himself as he surveyed the remaining carcass of his Manticore Elias left behind in his wake. He had been there up in the trees, cloaked and hidden by Sorcery, observing how the Magus killed his magical beast. And much to his surprise and amazement, it had been quite a show to him. It made him realize just how strong the Magus was, and he had no intention of crossing his path again as he deemed it extremely bothersome. "And I even took the effort of bringing it here right from Persia. Well, what the heck, it can't be helped. Now let me see if you do have what I'm looking for."
He took out a dagger from his coat and cut the body of the Manticore open, starting vertically from the upper part of its belly down to its very end. He observed it with curiosity, noticing how even the internal organs dried up due to the life force being sucked out. Then he stuck his hand inside of the open cut he did and pulled out its stomach, a trail of intestines also slipping through unintentionally. He prodded the stomach before opening it too and rummaged through its various contents of dismembered body parts. When he found pieces of a human arm that were clothed in a gray sleeve, he chuckled in dark delight.
"Mission success."
xxxx
Additional Notes: This must be the toughest chapter I had written in this story so far, with the amount of research I had to do for it. Haslingden is a real town in Lancashire. I've never been, and my description of the place just came from various sources in the Internet. I hope I did it justice, and now that I've written about it though, I fancy a visit someday.
A Manticore is also a real mythological creature. You can read more about it from any mythology website you can find on the Internet.
AL-AB93: Thank you for reading and for your wonderful review. I sent you a message in return. I hope you are able to read it. :)
BlueNachturne: Many thanks for continuing to read and review and for saying Chapter 6 made you smile. Your kind words never cease to amaze me. :)