Fic: Souls, Slayers... and a Scythe???
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
========================
Chapter 3a:
They departed the jeep and the four of them made their way across the sand.
As they approached the group, Shote stopped when they were about twenty feet away, and knelt in the sand. The others shared a look that just screamed 'Are we supposed to be doing that too?'
Roger whispered gently, "Shote, Shote."
Recieving no response he turned to face the others, shrugging his shoulders to indicate he didn't know.
Xander looked around and then came to a decision, he made a 'get down' gesture with both of his hands, and then knelt directly behind Shote.
Unsure of what else to do Roger and Amy knelt on either side of Xander, all three of them a few feet behind Shote.
They remained like this until they heard a noise. Seeing Shote rise to his feet, the others quickly followed suit. Shote raised one hand in the air, one of the men in the group mimicked his action. Another sound was made, this time Xander could tell it was made by the man holding his hand high.
Shote raised his other hand. Suddenly the rest of the group facing them all began to make noises too.
Xander thought to himself 'What the hell is going on?', he was about to ask when Shote spoke first.
"We've been invited to join them. They'll decide if we get to see the elders, let me do the talking."
Roger commented, "This is definitely your party. This, I got no clue about."
Amy asked "Will they let us visit the demon?"
"I don't know. We got invited to join them, now we have to speak to the elders, only they can talk about the demon and not be cursed."
Roger was in disbelief, "Cursed?" Turning to Xander, "You never mentioned we might get cursed."
Xander stopped in his tracks, "I didn't know about the curse." The other two paused near him.
"Erm," Amy stuttered, "We've been talking about this demon for weeks, I think if a curse is due we've pretty much earned it by now."
Roger was getting irritable, "Great, that's just fan-fucking-tastic. What does this curse do to people? You know, specifically people who didn't even know about the curse." He turned to face Xander angrily.
Xander tried to ease theor minds, "We're aren't sure this is the demon we've been talking about."
"But," Amy began, "we definitely have been talking about this one since Shote found it for us. So that's almost a day."
Roger began to pace worriedly. "Maybe, a day isn't enough... maybe it's like radiation..."
Xander found his thought processes stumped in their tracks. "What?"
"You know."
"Obviously I don't."
"It's okay for you to get an X-Ray, but the doctor stands behind the lead shield."
Amy figured it out first, "You're saying maybe they can't speak about the demon cos they're either too close or they may be tempted to speak about it too often."
"Exactly!"
Xander found himself speaking before he could stop himself, "What about the elders? They're just as close and they speak about it just as often."
"Dammit... I was making myself feel better. Great... I'm cursed."
Shote returned to them, "Please continue following me. These are a proud people and we have been invited to join them, do not offend them by making them wait."
They began walking again, "Okay, so what can you tell us about the curse?" Roger asked.
"I was not aware of it. Now please be quiet; I must apologise for your behaviour."
"For our be..." Roger was cut off as he found Xander's hand clamped around his mouth.
As they arrived at the group, Shote spoke a few short words. Both Xander and Amy immediately glanced towards Roger looking for any confirmation that he recognised the language, he quietly shook his head to indicate he didn't.
The conversation went on for several minutes, and Xander was struggling to keep his attention on the two men talking. 'We've already offended them once. Don't need to do it again by looking bored. Hope the others are doing the same.'
Shortly the conversation was over and they were led to a large tent. Shote went in first, Xander went to follow but was stopped by a large warrior. "Follow my friend." He tried to indicate walking after someone by getting two fingers from each hand to imitate the walking motion, the warrior didn't respond. "Ermm... Roger do you know any words that this guy might understand?"
"Does he look like he's the talkative type?" Roger muttered cynically.
The man in question was dressed in animal furs and stood at the entrance brandishing his spear. 'His arms are thicker than my legs.' Xander realised. 'Definitely not the guy to tangle with.'
Shote shortly reappeared dressed in a similar outfit. As he came out Xander was ushered into the tent.
Xander looked around the tent. There were three sets of animal furs. On the far left where there would have been a fourth set were Shote's clothes. Xander quickly inspected them and realised it was all of his clothing, a further check confirmed it was all of them. 'So... commando then.'
Xander quickly changed into the pile next to Shote's, and left his clothes there. As he walked out he saw Roger's questioning look, he mouthed the word 'Strip'.
Roger silently mouthed back, 'All the way?'
Xander nodded.
Roger walked in, Xander heard him mutter about not only being cursed but now having to go bloody starkers once he got in there.
Roger quickly stripped and returned dressed in furs. Amy seemed reluctant to go in.
"What?" Xander whispered in her ear.
"I'm..."
"You're not afraid of stripping all the way are you?"
"I've got to take everything off?" She asked a little louder than she intended, they both quickly looked into the eyes of the warrior who hadn't moved at all.
"Look, just do it."
"I'm against fur."
"Amy, get changed or wait by the jeep. Your choice..." Xander commanded.
Amy went in and returned after a few mintues. "Sorry about that," Xandered offered, "but we can't offend these people any further."
Satisfied that all were changed the warrior began to walk away. Shote quickly followed. He tried asking questions, but still got no response.
The others followed behind Shote, all walking in single file as they navigated the camp. Amy was playing with the fur draped over her torso, she was trying to make sure it covered everything she wanted to keep covered.
The warrior led them to a larger tent and held it open for them to enter, they did so.
The first thing Xander realised as he entered the tent was it was extremely smokey.
=====
Amy followed the others into the smokey tent. She could feel her eyes getting irritated by the smoke, 'Can't see a thing... and this smoke is definitely affecting me... don't know whether to cough, sneeze or anything really.'
She continued to rub her eyes, 'God it's itchy.' She was having to concentrate far too much on her breathing.
She looked across at Xander, his remaining eye was streaming with water. 'This must be really bad for him, my eye hurts, and I'm taking it in turns as to which one I use.'
Roger sneezed violently next to her. She was trying to resist doing so herself. Shote looked uncomfortable but he was definitely dealing with it better than they were.
As they all tried to regain control of their reactions, she finally noticed the old men sitting opposite watching them without expression.
One of the men, passed a bowl to Shote, and gestured the drinking motion. Shote was the first to drink from it. He passed the bowl to Xander, who also drank, then passed it onto Roger. They all made some strange expression after drinking it.
When the bowl was passed to her, she looked at it, unsure as to whether she wanted to drink the unidentified liquid. She took a sniff but was unable to recognise anything, it smelled vaguely soup-like, she assumed they were asking them to partake in a meal. Remembering Xander's comments about going along or going back, she lifted the bowl to her mouth and took a large gulp.
Her mouth felt on fire, as the liquid poured down she could feel her throat heating up. It was like the strongest shot of whisky she could have imagined. There had been nothing in the smell to warn of such an event. Eventually it seemed to be working its way back out in the form of a burp. 'There is no way I'm burping in front of these people.' as it reached her throat she tried to close it down and stop it being released, as she did that she realised that it was overpowering enough that she might actually vomit. Deciding she could take it no longer she opened up her throat and relaxed.
She felt the gas hit her mouth and nose at the same time. It also seemed to hit her in the sinuses, the pressure between her eyes was painful, she could actually feel her brain aching in her frontal lobes. It shortly became too much to bear, she opened her mouth to release the painful gas out into the open.
The pain was instantly gone, her nose felt like it'd been running for a few hours but beyond that there was no sign that anything had happened to her. Reluctantly she opened her eyes to look around the tent.
The others all seemed to be in varying degrees of the same realisation. That by fighting it, they'd been the one to cause themselves pain. The men across from them smiled and gestured for the return of the bowl. She passed it back along the line, she watched as it went around the circle until it reached a thinner man who placed it behind him. It was then that she realised that the smoke no longer hurt her eyes.
One of the men opposite her began to speak. "So children, what have you come here for?"
Amy watched as Xander was the first to react. "You speak English?"
"No child, and nor do you speak Inafey."
"Inafey?" Shote asked.
"You will not recognise it, it is the language that came before all others."
"The first human language?" Roger asked in awe.
"No my child. It is not a human language at all."
"A demon language then?"
The old man smiled, and a different one answered "No."
Amy looked confused, "I don't underst..."
"It is merely the language which enables us to communicate with one another."
Xander ventured, "So this isn't your langauge either?"
The second to speak looked pleased, "Correct."
The first smiled, "The Inafey may be in the Muutla, or maybe the Muutla is in the Inafey."
Roger worked it out first. "The Muutla, that's what we drank."
They smiled.
"So what have you come here for?"
Xander spoke for the group, "We came to speak to the demon."
"No."
Amy was pleading, "We've come a long way. We need to speak to the demon."
"No."
Roger tried a different tactic, "Okay, so we're cursed but we get nothing out of it."
The old man smiled, "Cursed child? Why do you think you are cursed?"
"They told us that by speaking about the demon we would be cursed."
"That is only if you use the demon's name."
"Cool. That's cool, really happy about that here." When the old man went to open his mouth, Roger quickly clamped his hands over his ears and interrupted. "No, unh-unh, don't need to hear the demon's name... quite happy not knowing it."
"You are wise. Amusing but wise."
Xander couldn't leave it there. "We need to speak to the demon." At their looks, "We need to know if a vampire came through here."
"'No' is the answer you seek child."
"A vampire didn't come through here?" Staring between Shote and Amy, Xander asked. "I thought I definitely wanted it confirmed that a vampire had been to see the demon."
"I gave Shote the list of questions."
"I was unable to speak to them directly until I drive down here. I haven't spoken to the elders til you did." Shote turned to face the elders, "The people outside told my contact that a vampire came here to make a wish."
Roger watched neither react, "Great, we risked being cursed and it's not even the correct demon."
The second that had spoken clarified, "The vampire didn't see the demon, it came and requested aid, but we did not allow it through."
"So you didn't let Spike through."
"No... what it requested could not be given. A prophecy must be fulfilled, and that vampire must help to ensure the prophecy occurs."
Roger looked lost, "Prophecy, what prophecy?"
Xander looked pissed, "Angel's prophecy? The one Cordelia talked about? No fucking way Spike gets to earn that."
Amy looked confused. "There's nothing in the watcher files that mention a prophecy regarding Angel."
"Angel isn't mentioned by name, it mentions a vampire with a soul. Fuck!!! I can't believe Spike gets to be human."
Roger looked confused, "Spike gets to be human. I thought you said humans could be turned into a vampire, you never mentioned them being turned back."
Amy answered for him, "There's no mention of any turning back, this must be why it's worthy of a prophecy."
Xander stood up and kicked various pots and bowls around. At their look, "Sorry, I'm just pissed. I think I really need to leave."
The man pointed to the entrance they came in. "You are free to go. You have provided some information that we weren't aware of. For that we are most grateful."
Shote bowed to the older men and left the tent, Roger did the same. Xander couldn't stop his fists from clenching, Amy put her hand on his arm to try and calm him down, he stormed out to the others. Amy turned and bowed and left the tent herself.
After they had left, the first speaker turned to the group and said. "So her name was Spike."
=====
End chapter 3a:
========================
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
========================
Chapter 3a:
They departed the jeep and the four of them made their way across the sand.
As they approached the group, Shote stopped when they were about twenty feet away, and knelt in the sand. The others shared a look that just screamed 'Are we supposed to be doing that too?'
Roger whispered gently, "Shote, Shote."
Recieving no response he turned to face the others, shrugging his shoulders to indicate he didn't know.
Xander looked around and then came to a decision, he made a 'get down' gesture with both of his hands, and then knelt directly behind Shote.
Unsure of what else to do Roger and Amy knelt on either side of Xander, all three of them a few feet behind Shote.
They remained like this until they heard a noise. Seeing Shote rise to his feet, the others quickly followed suit. Shote raised one hand in the air, one of the men in the group mimicked his action. Another sound was made, this time Xander could tell it was made by the man holding his hand high.
Shote raised his other hand. Suddenly the rest of the group facing them all began to make noises too.
Xander thought to himself 'What the hell is going on?', he was about to ask when Shote spoke first.
"We've been invited to join them. They'll decide if we get to see the elders, let me do the talking."
Roger commented, "This is definitely your party. This, I got no clue about."
Amy asked "Will they let us visit the demon?"
"I don't know. We got invited to join them, now we have to speak to the elders, only they can talk about the demon and not be cursed."
Roger was in disbelief, "Cursed?" Turning to Xander, "You never mentioned we might get cursed."
Xander stopped in his tracks, "I didn't know about the curse." The other two paused near him.
"Erm," Amy stuttered, "We've been talking about this demon for weeks, I think if a curse is due we've pretty much earned it by now."
Roger was getting irritable, "Great, that's just fan-fucking-tastic. What does this curse do to people? You know, specifically people who didn't even know about the curse." He turned to face Xander angrily.
Xander tried to ease theor minds, "We're aren't sure this is the demon we've been talking about."
"But," Amy began, "we definitely have been talking about this one since Shote found it for us. So that's almost a day."
Roger began to pace worriedly. "Maybe, a day isn't enough... maybe it's like radiation..."
Xander found his thought processes stumped in their tracks. "What?"
"You know."
"Obviously I don't."
"It's okay for you to get an X-Ray, but the doctor stands behind the lead shield."
Amy figured it out first, "You're saying maybe they can't speak about the demon cos they're either too close or they may be tempted to speak about it too often."
"Exactly!"
Xander found himself speaking before he could stop himself, "What about the elders? They're just as close and they speak about it just as often."
"Dammit... I was making myself feel better. Great... I'm cursed."
Shote returned to them, "Please continue following me. These are a proud people and we have been invited to join them, do not offend them by making them wait."
They began walking again, "Okay, so what can you tell us about the curse?" Roger asked.
"I was not aware of it. Now please be quiet; I must apologise for your behaviour."
"For our be..." Roger was cut off as he found Xander's hand clamped around his mouth.
As they arrived at the group, Shote spoke a few short words. Both Xander and Amy immediately glanced towards Roger looking for any confirmation that he recognised the language, he quietly shook his head to indicate he didn't.
The conversation went on for several minutes, and Xander was struggling to keep his attention on the two men talking. 'We've already offended them once. Don't need to do it again by looking bored. Hope the others are doing the same.'
Shortly the conversation was over and they were led to a large tent. Shote went in first, Xander went to follow but was stopped by a large warrior. "Follow my friend." He tried to indicate walking after someone by getting two fingers from each hand to imitate the walking motion, the warrior didn't respond. "Ermm... Roger do you know any words that this guy might understand?"
"Does he look like he's the talkative type?" Roger muttered cynically.
The man in question was dressed in animal furs and stood at the entrance brandishing his spear. 'His arms are thicker than my legs.' Xander realised. 'Definitely not the guy to tangle with.'
Shote shortly reappeared dressed in a similar outfit. As he came out Xander was ushered into the tent.
Xander looked around the tent. There were three sets of animal furs. On the far left where there would have been a fourth set were Shote's clothes. Xander quickly inspected them and realised it was all of his clothing, a further check confirmed it was all of them. 'So... commando then.'
Xander quickly changed into the pile next to Shote's, and left his clothes there. As he walked out he saw Roger's questioning look, he mouthed the word 'Strip'.
Roger silently mouthed back, 'All the way?'
Xander nodded.
Roger walked in, Xander heard him mutter about not only being cursed but now having to go bloody starkers once he got in there.
Roger quickly stripped and returned dressed in furs. Amy seemed reluctant to go in.
"What?" Xander whispered in her ear.
"I'm..."
"You're not afraid of stripping all the way are you?"
"I've got to take everything off?" She asked a little louder than she intended, they both quickly looked into the eyes of the warrior who hadn't moved at all.
"Look, just do it."
"I'm against fur."
"Amy, get changed or wait by the jeep. Your choice..." Xander commanded.
Amy went in and returned after a few mintues. "Sorry about that," Xandered offered, "but we can't offend these people any further."
Satisfied that all were changed the warrior began to walk away. Shote quickly followed. He tried asking questions, but still got no response.
The others followed behind Shote, all walking in single file as they navigated the camp. Amy was playing with the fur draped over her torso, she was trying to make sure it covered everything she wanted to keep covered.
The warrior led them to a larger tent and held it open for them to enter, they did so.
The first thing Xander realised as he entered the tent was it was extremely smokey.
=====
Amy followed the others into the smokey tent. She could feel her eyes getting irritated by the smoke, 'Can't see a thing... and this smoke is definitely affecting me... don't know whether to cough, sneeze or anything really.'
She continued to rub her eyes, 'God it's itchy.' She was having to concentrate far too much on her breathing.
She looked across at Xander, his remaining eye was streaming with water. 'This must be really bad for him, my eye hurts, and I'm taking it in turns as to which one I use.'
Roger sneezed violently next to her. She was trying to resist doing so herself. Shote looked uncomfortable but he was definitely dealing with it better than they were.
As they all tried to regain control of their reactions, she finally noticed the old men sitting opposite watching them without expression.
One of the men, passed a bowl to Shote, and gestured the drinking motion. Shote was the first to drink from it. He passed the bowl to Xander, who also drank, then passed it onto Roger. They all made some strange expression after drinking it.
When the bowl was passed to her, she looked at it, unsure as to whether she wanted to drink the unidentified liquid. She took a sniff but was unable to recognise anything, it smelled vaguely soup-like, she assumed they were asking them to partake in a meal. Remembering Xander's comments about going along or going back, she lifted the bowl to her mouth and took a large gulp.
Her mouth felt on fire, as the liquid poured down she could feel her throat heating up. It was like the strongest shot of whisky she could have imagined. There had been nothing in the smell to warn of such an event. Eventually it seemed to be working its way back out in the form of a burp. 'There is no way I'm burping in front of these people.' as it reached her throat she tried to close it down and stop it being released, as she did that she realised that it was overpowering enough that she might actually vomit. Deciding she could take it no longer she opened up her throat and relaxed.
She felt the gas hit her mouth and nose at the same time. It also seemed to hit her in the sinuses, the pressure between her eyes was painful, she could actually feel her brain aching in her frontal lobes. It shortly became too much to bear, she opened her mouth to release the painful gas out into the open.
The pain was instantly gone, her nose felt like it'd been running for a few hours but beyond that there was no sign that anything had happened to her. Reluctantly she opened her eyes to look around the tent.
The others all seemed to be in varying degrees of the same realisation. That by fighting it, they'd been the one to cause themselves pain. The men across from them smiled and gestured for the return of the bowl. She passed it back along the line, she watched as it went around the circle until it reached a thinner man who placed it behind him. It was then that she realised that the smoke no longer hurt her eyes.
One of the men opposite her began to speak. "So children, what have you come here for?"
Amy watched as Xander was the first to react. "You speak English?"
"No child, and nor do you speak Inafey."
"Inafey?" Shote asked.
"You will not recognise it, it is the language that came before all others."
"The first human language?" Roger asked in awe.
"No my child. It is not a human language at all."
"A demon language then?"
The old man smiled, and a different one answered "No."
Amy looked confused, "I don't underst..."
"It is merely the language which enables us to communicate with one another."
Xander ventured, "So this isn't your langauge either?"
The second to speak looked pleased, "Correct."
The first smiled, "The Inafey may be in the Muutla, or maybe the Muutla is in the Inafey."
Roger worked it out first. "The Muutla, that's what we drank."
They smiled.
"So what have you come here for?"
Xander spoke for the group, "We came to speak to the demon."
"No."
Amy was pleading, "We've come a long way. We need to speak to the demon."
"No."
Roger tried a different tactic, "Okay, so we're cursed but we get nothing out of it."
The old man smiled, "Cursed child? Why do you think you are cursed?"
"They told us that by speaking about the demon we would be cursed."
"That is only if you use the demon's name."
"Cool. That's cool, really happy about that here." When the old man went to open his mouth, Roger quickly clamped his hands over his ears and interrupted. "No, unh-unh, don't need to hear the demon's name... quite happy not knowing it."
"You are wise. Amusing but wise."
Xander couldn't leave it there. "We need to speak to the demon." At their looks, "We need to know if a vampire came through here."
"'No' is the answer you seek child."
"A vampire didn't come through here?" Staring between Shote and Amy, Xander asked. "I thought I definitely wanted it confirmed that a vampire had been to see the demon."
"I gave Shote the list of questions."
"I was unable to speak to them directly until I drive down here. I haven't spoken to the elders til you did." Shote turned to face the elders, "The people outside told my contact that a vampire came here to make a wish."
Roger watched neither react, "Great, we risked being cursed and it's not even the correct demon."
The second that had spoken clarified, "The vampire didn't see the demon, it came and requested aid, but we did not allow it through."
"So you didn't let Spike through."
"No... what it requested could not be given. A prophecy must be fulfilled, and that vampire must help to ensure the prophecy occurs."
Roger looked lost, "Prophecy, what prophecy?"
Xander looked pissed, "Angel's prophecy? The one Cordelia talked about? No fucking way Spike gets to earn that."
Amy looked confused. "There's nothing in the watcher files that mention a prophecy regarding Angel."
"Angel isn't mentioned by name, it mentions a vampire with a soul. Fuck!!! I can't believe Spike gets to be human."
Roger looked confused, "Spike gets to be human. I thought you said humans could be turned into a vampire, you never mentioned them being turned back."
Amy answered for him, "There's no mention of any turning back, this must be why it's worthy of a prophecy."
Xander stood up and kicked various pots and bowls around. At their look, "Sorry, I'm just pissed. I think I really need to leave."
The man pointed to the entrance they came in. "You are free to go. You have provided some information that we weren't aware of. For that we are most grateful."
Shote bowed to the older men and left the tent, Roger did the same. Xander couldn't stop his fists from clenching, Amy put her hand on his arm to try and calm him down, he stormed out to the others. Amy turned and bowed and left the tent herself.
After they had left, the first speaker turned to the group and said. "So her name was Spike."
=====
End chapter 3a:
========================