(A/N: There are sexual references in this chapter. I warn younger readers of it's questionable content. Of course, this was gonna happen eventually so I guess it can't be helped. However, should you decide to sue me over it, all you would get is a few half-empty cans of Pepsi Max and a pile of yaoi manga, so give up now while you're ahead. Heh, enjoy! ^_^)
Hours later, the trail that he followed lead him to a small camp in the flatter areas of Dune Canyon, he was panting from the long run, but exhilarated by the adrenaline pumped in excess through his system. Clive climbed up a few tall rocks and looked down at the campsite below, wondering if the object of his hunt resided within that area. He had to find Kaitlyn soon, his time was running out. Carefully trying not to slip, he scaled down the pile of rocks and dropped onto the flatlands, keeping low to the ground to avoid being spotted. He could hear snoring and the intake of breath nearby in a steady rhythm, suggesting deep sleep, so he loosened the severity of his stealth mode and snuck into the edge of the camp, making no noise whatsoever.
A fire burned in the center of the area, he avoided it, abhorring bright lights and staying in the darkened shadows. But, people were ringed around that fire and he had no choice but to investigate, shyly creeping up to the fire and looking away from it as best as he could. He found two people sleeping peacefully, one was a young blonde-haired boy barely into his teens and the other was a middle-aged man with the weirdest fashion sense Clive had ever seen. He sniffed them both, checking to see if they matched the scent of Kaitlyn's kidnappers. Fortunately, they didn't, and Clive decided to let them go, not feeling particularly hungry or bloodthirsty enough to end their lives.
Not too far away was a small cat-like creature purring serenely and snoring, curled up into a little ball and oblivious to the world. Shady had tried his best to stay awake, but unsurprisingly, had failed. Hearing the cat make a soft meowing noise, Clive passed him over without a second glance, wanting to get away from the fire now that he knew nothing important lay there. He saw something different a little further away, something that may hold promise or clues to his hunt.
The tent, a light pale yellow, stuck out easily in the darkened shadows of the night, a short way away from the smouldering fire, looking strangely inviting and appealing. With a co-ordination belying his mismatched form, Clive crept over to it's shuttered entrance and noticed a faint light shining from within, probably from a candle left lit, most likely. He smelled the area out for intruders, detecting the unmistakable scent of humans, but mostly focussed on the female aspect of that species, because it was a female human child he was searching for. He could definitely smell a human female, very close by, but she would be much too old to fit Kaitlyn's description, Clive still could not find her.
He leaned back and sat on the dusty ground in a more or less human sitting arrangement, crossing his legs and remaining fixed on the yellow tent, a low canine whine conveying his crestfallen attitude to his hunt. Clive had been searching for hours and he still found himself wandering around in the dark. These humans, they were not the ones he was looking for. From the scent leads Clive had found, this place was nothing more than a miserable red herring. Whining again, he leant over and poked his nose into the tent, a little curious as to what lay on the inside. Maybe it bore a clue to Kaitlyn's whereabouts? He might as well find out. The air inside was a little warmer from incubation in a candlelit area, dimly illuminating and inviting. Clive cast a dark shadow over the yellow fabric walls, silhouette moving with him as he quietly entered the tent, finding the inside to be much smaller than he would have estimated from the outside.
Most of the space was taken up by personal belongings, a gatling ARM and a small revolver left huddled in the corner with tools spread around it, mixed with some feminine care products and spare clothes crumpled over and disregarded by it's owner. A small candle dribbled wax beside a pile of old-looking books, the covers dull, dreary and leaving no imagination to what lay inside. Thick and dog-eared, one such book still rested in the clasped hand of a sleeping human, having fallen asleep while reading, most likely. She was lying on a dark orange blanket that was spread like a carpet across the ground, creased from the motions she clumsily made in sleep, but fairly undisturbed. No second blanket covered her body, because the night was far too warm to require such a luxury. Sprawled out and utterly defenceless, Maya Schrodinger slept calmly with a werewolf leaning over her, unsure on what to do.
She was wearing a scanty nightgown made for high temperatures, coloured bright gold and fairly simple in design, it covered all the parts of her body that needed to be hidden and left everything else showing, the hem of her gown short and high above her knees, but still offering privacy. It didn't look like something an experienced drifter should wear, but Maya did have a noble bloodline and own expensive things, so it made a little sense. She snored softly, leaning slightly to her left and clutching the book still, her hair loosed from her blue ribbon and messed up after some tossing and turning. Clive just stared, transfixed like any other man would have been in his immediate predicament. There was a barely clothed woman lying asleep right in front of him, and nobody else was around to stop him from doing whatever he wanted.
Clive leaned over more, reinforcing his balance by pressing one claw to the ground near Maya's face, inhibited by the small dimensions of the tent to stand up properly. Emitting a low rumbling growl that was totally non-threatening, the lycan flicked an ear and tried to sense if other people were around, knowing that if a woman was left unguarded, men couldn't be too far away. Clive still had enough coherence left to know that he didn't want to be caught, because that would wreck his mission utterly, and… and…
He couldn't remember. What was he searching for again?
The entrance of the tent closed behind him as he shuffled entirely into the chamber, both claws planted a few inches away from both sides of her head and trying his hardest not to lose his balance and fall on her, still a tad uncoordinated in his new and more powerful form. But somehow, this didn't feel right, a distant memory bugged him though he didn't know what it was, like a nasty splinter that he couldn't get out. It felt wrong, amnesia combined with an indecent kind of desire burning through his system. The darker side of desire, lust.
"Remember these three things, no matter what… One, I love you…"
Clive all of a sudden felt like he had just been clubbed, the flash of a recent memory spearing through his mind. The voice in his head was memorable, unforgettable. He knew it like he knew his own soul, but the meaning of the words was like undecipherable static in his head, he just couldn't understand plain english anymore. But the voice was soothing and it made him feel better, though no memories returned to offer him direction. All Clive could do was rely on his instincts, and in his current form, it wasn't a very good action to take.
"…M- aaaate…" He growled with intense difficulty, stretching the word along the first vowel and stumbling over the consonant that came after. Some dark blood from his self-inflicted injury trickled sluggishly down his arm, ensnared in certain places from hindering strands of fur, making a little trail. Clive raised his arm and licked the blood off, noting that it was still warm and the small wound stung every time he touched it. Regarding Maya, he was still conflicted, knowing what he wanted but feeling reluctant to take it, because a force told him that it was bad, wrong. He already had a mate somewhere, he faintly remembered her face, but it was blurred and hard to make out. He loved someone else… someone…
"I think I understand why I married you!"
Growling again out of frustration for the things he could no longer remember, the lycan tensed suddenly as Maya made a little noise in her sleep and rolled over to her right side, dragging her old hard-cover novel with her and sighing, seeming to be a million times more helpless and ladylike asleep than she could ever act while awake. One loose thin strap of her golden nightgown slid off her shoulder and Clive simply couldn't take it anymore, moving down and licking the woman carefully on the cheek, noticing that she smelt like some kind of unusual perfume, vanilla, he thought absently, or maybe something else. He felt guilty over what he had just done, despite instinctual knowledge telling him that he was allowed to be as uninhibited as he wanted. And what he wanted right now was Maya Schrodinger herself. Besides, was it not customary for a dominant male to take a concubine if his mate was not readily present?
Forcing all of his weight onto his left arm, Clive removed one claw and fumbled with the button and zipper on his fly, fiercely aware that his dark coloured pants were far too constricting right now for his own personal comfort. The light flickered in the tent and he tried to remain quiet, focussing on Maya's deep breaths and trying to free himself, wishing that the tent was a little bit bigger so it could offer him more room. Yet, something small and overlooked remained in the back of his mind, alongside his memories and human reason, the moral aspect of himself that had been banished to the far reaches on consciousness by the presence of the full moon. It was horrified, and scared.
Stop this now! You love Catherine, do you hear me?! Catherine! No, stop it… I would never… do anything like this…
Catherine? The name rung a bell somewhere in his head, but Clive found he had no face or recognizable thought to connect it to, the word like a broken fragment in the stream of his mind. He forgot it quickly, it had no meaning for him, anyway. The small voice spoke more, but the lycan could not understand it, happy to ignore the nuisance and continue with what he was doing, sating his impure lust.
Try as he might, his clawed fingers were unable to manipulate his zipper in the way that he wanted it to, making Clive snarl quietly in lack of fulfillment and give up without much of a fight, content to lever himself down on top of the sleeping Maya and lick her face again, forming a noise that was almost close to a purr in it's frequency. The woman was very warm, and he was still freezing cold, much too cold to think of himself as alive. The werewolf rubbed himself up against her body, taking pleasure from the friction and panting in an almost perverted way, while the Clive on the inside turned away and vanished to places unknown, losing his own battle of morals against himself. The lycan barely noticed it's departure, and didn't not even remember it being there in the first place. Past and future did not exist to him anymore, his mind only capable of handling the present, stuck somewhere between wolf and man.
However, what Clive was now totally unaware of as he pleased himself, Maya was by now very much awake. She had woken up only a few seconds ago as she felt her toes being tickled by a long bushy tail being swept over them in a wagging motion, immediately snapping to reality and letting her body just go limp, suppressing the fury boiling up inside her. A pissed-off Maya Schrodinger was a force to be reckoned with, easily matching up to the demons in barbarity. Had she been any other type of girl, she would have screamed bloody murder and hoped that her comrades could hear, but Maya was no sobbing maiden to be rescued, no, she was a hardcore experienced drifter, and nothing left on this wasteland planet would ever force her to act so weak. The first thing she told herself to do was act calm and; 'Figure out how to get this fuckin' monster offa' me!'
Slowly so as to avoid detection, Maya's hand tensed a little and inched it's way along the possessions lined near her makeshift bed, identifying each one by touch and hoping to the Guardians that at least one of her ARMs were close by. She found a nail-file, a canteen of water, and a box of matches. Dammit! She cursed, Isn't there anything I can use? Taking a risk and carefully opening one eye a slit, Maya had to bite back a curse as she saw the beast in question, instantly aware that she couldn't win a fight of strengths against that creature, unless she found some way to surprise it.
She curled both her hands into fists, longing to beat the creature off with a huge piece of rusted metal for even thinking about touching her like this, wanting to call it every name under the sun and then finally kill it, the horrible licentious thing. Startled when she felt that two of her fingers were pressed between the pages of a book, Maya rapidly remembered what she was holding and fought back a grin, estimating the gross mass of her novel. It was written well over fifty years ago, so it was thick and clunky, heavy. It would be perfect to use, all she had to do was gain a better grip on it, she just needed a few more seconds…
Clive barked out a surprised yelp as he was suddenly knocked to one side by a sturdy novel smashing him in the face, his mind reeling from the abrupt shock and his resolutions scattered. Maya immediately jumped into action, grabbing him viciously by the shoulder and using her other arm to sweep Clive's out from under him, losing his balance and falling to the side. Taking this chance, she kicked him hard with a bare foot and struggled to her feet, forgetting that she was inside a small tent and hunching over because of it. The lycan's reflexes were too slow and inept as he tried to regain stability, hitting the weak cloth side of the tent and pulling out the support pegs holding the structure up, causing the shelter to collapse in on itself.
Now both of them were in trouble as the canvas covering tangled them up together, Maya desperately trying to beat the lycanthrope away, and Clive frantically attempting to get out and run away. It was a flurry of kicking and punching, furious screaming, howling, snarling and cursing. Eventually, Clive had the idea of shredding all the cloth that got in his way with his claws, rending a hole in the covering and squirming out, dropping down to all fours at once and growling at the person left inside, the right side of his face stinging from the unexpected blow. The fabric settled after a while, Maya emerging from one great hole in her practically indecent nightgown, hands on her hips and frowning in a way that would make Siegfried himself flinch and cower. Her fingers still in-between the bookmarked page, the disturbed drifter seemed to be ready to use her special power at any given time, like a ticking time bomb.
Hackles raised and tail puffed out in aggression, Clive took a few tentative steps backwards to add some space to the battlefield, not taking his glowing red eyes off Maya for an instant. As soon as he had discovered that the source of his facial pain came from her, she had promptly been dubbed an enemy, female or no. Clive would defend his dominance against anybody who threatened to take it away from him, he would kill if he had to. Actually, he would do it with pleasure. Raising himself up onto two legs again, Clive leaned forward and roared out an incoherent threat, baring a set of wickedly curved fangs.
Maya narrowed her eyes and raised her book, shaking her head slightly. "Alright, you perverted mongrel!" She cried, brushing away her mussed-up blonde hair and displaying her token smirk, "Have a taste of this and hope to the Guardians you don't choke!" With this intense threat, she opened the book, the area momentarily lighting up with a blinding flash of light, forcing Clive to turn away for a second, whining and disliking the sudden brightness that hurt his eyes. It died down after a moment and Maya stood proudly in a different outfit, a green and white ninja gi with her long hair pulled back into a ponytail. Clive had seen this before, but was unable to remember where. "Now I am the 'Fighting Artist', from the best selling book, 'A Plot To Kill'!" She yelled, twirling her quarter staff around and getting into a proper battle stance, "I'll show you for violating my privacy, bastard!"
The snarl Clive made seemed to be an agreement to the battle, flexing his clawed hands out and flicking his tail around wildly, he dove for her first, frenzied anger shifting him into an uncontrollable rage, eager to tear her limb from limb and splatter her young blood all over Dune Canyon's dusty soil. Bloodlust instilled itself in his heart once more, welcomed happily and absorbed into his demeanor, Clive's strength doubled and his speed tripled, throwing the chances of success well onto his side. Maya did not flinch as he approached her, the drifter's nerves of steel letting her look at death incarnate and not even batting an eyelid. Her grip on the quarter staff tightened, raised slightly, ready to attack…
STOP IT NOW! FREEZE!
Clive obeyed the order even before he knew where it came from, stumbling in his advance and diving to the side of Maya, narrowly missing being hit by the full brunt of her weapon and rolling to the side, skidding to a halt. Cursing the intrusion of his more human half, he didn't even see Maya as she approached him silently from behind, twirling her staff around nonchalantly in the air. Clive howled out a cry of pain as it was brought down on his back with all the strength Maya possessed, the woman smiling cruelly at the sound. Going perfectly still for a moment, the werewolf became limp after his howl had faded, lying placidly on his side. Curious of this, Maya walked around him and looked at his front, poking him lightly with her weapon.
He relied on a more human tactic this time, darting up and sweeping her legs out from under her with a well-placed kick, Maya hit the dirt audibly and the roles swiftly reversed, Clive now having the upper hand. Kneeling down and grabbing her by the throat, pinning her hands together with his free claw and casually knocking her staff away with his tail, he moved down and licked her again, knowing that he had won. Maya choked on the pressure he was placing on her windpipe, just enough to make it nearly impossible to breathe, but still allowing her to do so. Her blood ran cold as her special power faded, leaving her just in a flimsy nightgown and at the mercy of the monster who would claim his prize. She had lost, and now, she was most likely going to be raped and killed. "Fuck…" She whispered hoarsely, finally giving up.
Surprise overcame her as Clive pulled away suddenly, batting away sparks that caught on his exposed fur and burnt there, uttering a wounded; 'Yipe!' and moving away from her, frightened by the fire and smoke cloud that engulfed him from out of nowhere. Unsure of what to do, he jumped up to two feet and ran, leaving Maya behind. Freed from the lycan's clutches, Maya rubbed her sore neck that would undoubtedly be bruised in the morning and groaned, wondering what the hell was going on.
A pair of warm hands gently grasped both her shoulders and pulled her up into a sitting position, her head resting tiredly on a set of knees. The smoke began to subside, letting the darkness of night pierce through once more. She heard a voice. "Milady? Are you alright? You are not injured, are you?" Maya leaned back, comforted by the sound. Alfred appeared and fanned away most of the cloud, noticing that he had used a bit more smoke that what was needed. Seeing his older sister, he knelt down and looked worried, Shady hiding close behind him.
"Yeah… I'll be alright…" She moaned, pulling the hem of her shortened clothes down over her legs. "I'll be achin' in the morning, but I'm alright." After a few seconds on recuperation on Todd's lap, she carefully pushed herself up and stood, swaying slightly. Her wrists and neck hurt, but that was all, she would easily live. Rubbing her cheek and taking some deep breaths to get more air into her system, she looked sternly at everybody else, frowning. "Nice cavalry," She said sourly, "But you ought to put more work into your timing, it'll save me a whole lot 'o pain."
Alfred winced at her opinion, answering in his own overly timid voice. "Sorry Sis," He apologized, "I got out one of my smoke bombs as soon as possible, but none of us knew exactly what was going on anyway, it was too dark and we were all half-asleep." The boy shifted a little and Shady continued to cling to his leg, terrified of what Maya would do to him for falling asleep in the middle of his watchman duties. Alfred didn't mind the cat being stuck to him, as long as he wasn't using his claws, at least.
"S'okay." Maya replied, stretching. "I forgive ya, only because it wasn't your job to keep an eye out for intruders. Right, Shady?" She saw the orange furred creature hiding behind Alfred immediately, shivering like he was in the midst of sub-zero temperatures. Todd came back with his own blanket and draped it over Maya's shoulders so she could stay warm, the woman too focussed on their critter companion to notice the small act of courtesy. The swordsman yawned a little and slouched over, he was a person with inborn manners, but even he needed a certain amount of sleep each night. Taking a step back and remaining quiet, he waited to see what would transpire next.
Shady exploded into a floodtide of apologies, huddling even closer to Alfred's leg and knowing for sure that he would be severely punished for what he did. "I'm really sorry! I meant to stay up and make sure that no-one would come, but the fire was so warm and I had a little blanket to sleep on, and I only closed my eyes for a second and the next thing I knew there was screaming and things were happening and it was much later than it was supposed to be! I'm sorry!" He cried, fur standing on end.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Maya drawled, pulling Todd's blanket closer around her. "I've heard your excuses before, don't worry," She leaned forward, grinning, "I won't kill ya, just make it so you want to die. Shady, you're gonna be our night watchman for the next week or so, until you get the hang of it and it becomes second nature, you hear me?" Shady made a tragic sound of despair at her proclamation, letting go of Alfred's leg and falling flat on his back, mewling pitifully. It served him right.
Alfred sleepily rubbed his eyes, sighing. "Can we go back to sleep now?" He asked, "I'm tired, and it won't be morning for a long time yet." Maya nodded and patted him on the shoulder, acting strangely cheerful for someone who had been far too close to being raped and killed only a few minutes ago. She could recover fast from a shock like nobody else. Or could she?
As the two guys laid down on the makeshift beds to spend the rest of the night in gentle repose, hearing the weak cries of mourning from their feline companion as he made his sorry way back to his station, they were both startled by Maya as she plonked down between them, throwing her blanket over herself and the other two. She turned to Alfred, smiling a smile that hid apprehension. "You boys don't mind, do you? I mean-"
"I do not mind." Todd replied before she could finish, rolling over and closing his eyes. Alfred grunted and did the same, asleep within moments. Maya sighed as she looked up at the sky, accessible to her vision now that she was outdoors. Hopefully that wolf thing wouldn't come back, she shuddered, strangely anxious. It had been a long time since anything had ever unnerved her so.
Curling up so that the blanket went way over her head, Maya suppressed a peculiar emotion and wiped away some tears from a delayed reaction, feeling fear for the first time after a very long lapse. Goddamn horny monsters... She whimpered to herself before finally drifting off to sleep.