Monster Party Book One: I hunt therefore I am!
Chapter Eight: Ever fallen in love, in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with?
Cal carefully removed the map that Doctor Fran had drawn of the island from its glass case.
"We're gonna need a copy of this sooner or later. Devi, my tools if you please?" He held one hand out while using his other to clear off a desk in the small library.
Devi produced another potion of some kind, though this one seemed to be far more solid than most of his tinctures. He twisted off the top and pulled out a lump of pink ooze which he began to spread across the map like a baker kneading dough.
Once that was done he returned the map to its container and flipped the stuff over revealing that it had left an imprint of the map on it.
"Ink?" There was nothing special at all about this bottle's contents and he spread it lavishly across the contents of his first bottle not caring if he defaced the desk a little in the process.
"Parchment?" Devi handed it to him and he pressed it firmly into the face of the ink soaked mass. He counted to ten and pulled it away revealing a close to perfect copy of the map.
"Science, it works." Cal declared proudly.
XX XXX XXX
"Lets see, how to begin..." Doctor Fran muttered as he began to mix paints and gazed out over his canvas at Mirri.
She shot him an appreciative glance back.
"Well do you wish me to hold a pose of some nature?" Mirri offered.
Doctor Fran grasped a brush in one of his thick hands.
"Do not feel pressured to do so by any means on my account! There is truth and purity in movement that is rarely found in stillness. Especially artificial stillness." He remarked.
Mirri nodded and began to pace about the room, examining Doctor Fran's other works of art that littered the room.
"The key to it is having the right shade of white, or should I say the selection of white shades. Tell me, were you sickly as a child? Your skin is rather more fair than most. I imagine some minor childhood malady might have that affect, but one that was obviously cast aside given your current grace." Doctor Fran reflected.
Mirri tore her eyes away from a painting of Delphi that didn't look quite right but she couldn't put her finger on why.
"My skin isn't fair, its pale. It comes with the entire being a vampire thing." Mirri deadpanned.
Doctor Fran dropped his brush to the floor and just sat there for a few moments, before breaking out in a deep rolling laugh.
"OHH HOO HOO AHH HA HA! A most excellent jest madam, I must admit that I was quite taken in!" Doctor Fran boomed.
Mirri sighed and shook out her hair.
"Kali bless you humans, you get so wrapped up in lying to yourselves that I don't even have to make the effort." Mirri reflected, a benediction that the doctor probably could have done without.
With a wave of her hands Mirri's form was suddenly surrounded by a cloud of white mist and when it passed she was gone. In her place stood a fully grown lioness, which opened its mouth and let loose with a mighty roar.
Doctor Fran now stomped his dropped blush flat in his sudden haste to put some distance between himself and his transformed model. The mist returned as quickly as it had come and Mirri once more stood in the center of the room.
"What's the matter doctor? Did you not believe me when I said I was a vampire?" She asked, her voice awash with playfulness and malice.
"I did..." Doctor Fran replied in a startled voice that suggested he very much had not.
"I was just expecting any transformations you undertook to yield something decidedly more... lupine in nature." He muttered in a most ungraceful attempted to cover up his disbelief.
"Contrary to popular belief not all vampires turn into wolves. We tend to take the shape of the apex predator available to us in our native homeland. Equally contrary to popular belief not all vampires come from Barovia." Mirri explained.
Doctor Fran slowly and carefully settled himself back onto his artist stool grateful that like any true artist he had more than one brush to work with.
"Well then, I suppose that you were probably from some decidedly dusty place like Har'Akir, though I can't image such a homeland would be very attractive for a vampire." Doctor Fran reflected.
"My homeland was indeed a much less hostile to someone of my nocturnal nature than someplace as sun-baked as Har'Akir. To be honest lions were a bit of an anachronism there even when I was young, but if I turned into what wasn't... well that would be far too on the nose for the Mists.
As for where that is, a gentlemen wouldn't ask and a lady wouldn't tell." Mirri pointed out, keeping secrets, sometimes even unnecessary secrets was one of the few human habits she had never got the hang of breaking despite her long years as a vampire.
Doctor Fran looked at the still blank canvas and then back at his subject.
"Much as I hate to forgo the possibility of further stimulating conversation... was the lion merely the most powerful predator nearby or do you actually feel some affiliation with the beast?" Doctor Fran inquired leaning forward slightly, as an idea began to percolate in the back of his mind.
Mirri looked her prospective painter up and down slowly before responding.
"How kind of you to notice. Yes, there's a reason I twisted my old family's name, and no I won't tell you what that was either, into 'Catwarrior', after all is the lioness not one of the fiercest huntresses in the world? The lion used to be my family's symbol, the male of the species of course, but what can you expect when it was a patriarch's decision?
Either way, you should be glad I am a vampire Francis. Why do you think I'm so interested in having my picture painted? I know I'm striking and truly a sight to behold, but when mirror's refuse to capture one's reflection, it becomes necessary to grow creative if you wish to bask in your own brilliance." Mirri pointed out.
Doctor Fran considered her point for a few moments dabbing a dry brush against his canvas.
"Ahh, I can understand your point of course. Sadly I feel my own meager skills may end up disappointing you.
While I was still in the Core before taking the ship voyage that sadly ended with me getting washed ashore on this island I heard stories of a strange device being created in my homeland.
Some sort of mechanical contraption that 'painted' images with shadow and light so as to perfectly reflect the state of how things were. I'm not sure if they ever successfully implemented the idea the thing or if their attempts tended to suddenly grew additional legs with which to hunt down those who it was used on as mere images would no longer be enough to sate its hunger or malfunctioned in some other equally spectacular manner as I'll admit Lamordian creations are wont to do.
The fact remains, that if such a device exists, then it could capture a 'perfect reflection' of sorts far better than any human hand. In which case why bother to have painters at all?
Because it is the task of the painter to reflect not how something looks, but the deeper truth of the object's nature! If I am to paint your picture I must capture you not as I see you, but as you see yourself, your inner..." Before the good doctor could go any further Mirri cut him off.
"Do not be so trite as to say 'soul' especially as I ceased to have one long ago as far as I can tell. I'll accept 'essence' or, 'spirit', though of course my personal favorite term is 'animus'." She paused for a moment and began to run her gloved hands along her lips in a rather feline gesture though her tongue stayed firmly between her teeth.
"It can refer to both the spirit that drives ones actions, but also a spiteful or malevolent will. The more you get to know me Doctor, the more obvious it will be that both definitions apply." Mirri concluded.
"I wouldn't dream to disagree with such a beautiful monster." Doctor Fran replied before dipping his brush in a jar of paint, finally feeling quite certain of how to go about his task now.
"Please, once again feel free to wander about the room and assume whatever form you wish to pass the time..." He intrusted her before getting down to work.
XXX XXX XXX
Alexander looked around the small woodland glen that he and Florence had staked out for themselves. They were outside the wooden palisade that ensured them safety but he was not especially worried. Florence used her magic in order to hollow out a large rotting tree (she said it was a pine and Alexander knew better than to argue with her on such matters) to make room for both of them inside it.
"So do you have a plan for how to deal with Akanga?" Florence asked politely.
"Do I have a plan? Don't I have a plan?" Alexander responded sardonically.
"Do, I have plan..." He muttered to himself a little bit more intensely.
"If getting rid of Darklords was as simple as finding a big and shiny enough sword and stabbing them half a dozen times with it then there wouldn't be any left." Alexander reminded him.
"If Akanga does have an army, or at least a mob of broken ones defending him, we'd probably need an army of our own to challenge him. I don't think Doctor Fran has one of those tucked away somewhere but just hasn't gotten around to telling us yet.
So, instead we're probably going to need to focus on a way to take away his army, and just slicing and dicing our way through all of them... well lets just call that 'plan B' for now.
Instead... Doctor Fran said that Akanga considers himself born to rule as the only broken one of lion stock on the entire island. Well, lets see if we can't give him some competition..." Alexander steepled his hands together deviously and stood up, being careful not to bump his head in the process.
"Yes, that's exactly what we'll do. Unless someone else hits me with a better idea, I'm going to go talk with Cal. He probably still has some blond dye and adhesive left on him, you can help me gather up some straw or vines or whatever we have on hand. Florence, how long has James been working with us?" Alexander asked casually.
"About a year give or take, why?" The Dryad answered without any hesitation.
"Excellent, in that case I think he's about due for a promotion. What do you think of taking him form official trap finder to something more dignified. Do you think he might fancy being a King of the Jungle?" Alexander suggested, his single eye filled to the brim with delight at his own brilliance.
XXX XXX XXX
"Finished!" Doctor Fran spun the canvas around at least revealing what several hours of hard worked had produced.
Mirri who had been napping lazily in her lioness form (in a position most unlike any housecat as she had selected one upon which no beam of sunlight was ever going to fall) roused herself from slumber and promptly returned to her human form to better gauge his work.
One look at it was all she needed to pronounce judgment. "Purrrffect." She trilled.
The picture was done in a rough and unsteady hand, but one whose owner refused to let lack of raw physical talent get in the way of a deep burning passion. It's setting was an almost nightmarish landscape, a nearly deserted savannah at night with illumination coming form unknown sources.
At the center of the image was the arresting figure of a pale lioness who had just finished feasting upon a fallen zebra or some other such animal the prey's nature was hardly important. There was no sign of other lioness, just this one lone solitary hunter, who had claimed the prey on its own and was now content to share the meal with none but her own gullet.
Such an image would doubtlessly have turned the stomach or at least given gooseflesh to most ladies of noble birth who would look upon but to Mirri, it was brilliance on canvas.
She even went so far as to plant a reserved kiss upon Doctor Fran's cheek.
"A most successful outcome my dear doctor. Though I would make sure to sleep with one eye open in case I feel the need to give you a catnip some night for the sheer malice of it. It is in my nature for my affection to come with many a barb after all." The words left Mirri's lips with an almost sensual flare to them.
XXX XXX XXX
Delphi slowly awoke at her normal hour in the middle of the night. Father wouldn't approve of her going out there and cavorting with the victims of the island's illness (doubtlessly afraid she would catch their disease if nothing else) but the dark haired girl had never felt anything but safe with her friends who swam among the waves.
She carefully draped herself in a heavy cloak and lit a candle to take with her. She began to descend down from her room and prepared to sneak out of the manor like she had so many times before.
Tonight was different however, tonight as she was making her way downstairs she heard sounds coming from the menagerie. They were not normal baying, bleating or growling either, it sounded as if the animals father's menagerie were quite disturbed!
Unable to resist curiosity's pull she headed in that direction, arriving outside it just in time to hear a voice that must have belonged to a creature neither man nor beast, for though she could make out the words they were growled by a voice ill-suited to the task of shaping them.
That didn't even take into account how little sense the words themselves made.
"Squeak, squeaker, squeakin, *****es." It declared.
Bracing herself for the horror that no doubt resided within she shifted her candle about and poked only it and her head into the menagerie itself.
What she was greeted with was the work of either the most fastidious animal or slovenly sentient she could image. The door to the giant rats cage lay open, and inside the cage there now resided only two living giant rats, both of which were huddled against the far walls of their cage clearly having no intention of trying to escape.
Not when between them and freedom lay a bloody furred monster. The creature as larger than any feline Delphi had ever seen, surely larger than the ill-fed leopardess that father had recently added to the menagerie.
That black pelted creature had its fur up and was obviously distressed by this presence of this unwanted visitor, but then every animal in the menagerie seemed to want to put as much distance between themselves and bloody pelted invader as possible.
Delphi didn't blame them in the slightest. She'd heard her father's horror stories of the monstrous Akanga, but could even the viscous lion man could rival the sheer savagery which glittered in this beasts brown eyes?
Brown?
Delphi looked close trying to make sure it was not simply a trick of the light, she'd never seen any sort of feline with eyes that color before. The creature perched itself defensively around the third giant rat, clearly having disposed of it with no more difficulty than a normal sized housecat would have dispatched a normal rat in a similarly enclosed environment.
For the moment the creature was busy eagerly devouring its kill with all possible haste. That gave Delphi time to examine the beast more closely, while it was down on all fours like any other wild animal she could tell that there was something wrong with its paws.
It's back ones looked correct but its front limbs had opposable digits, fur grew around the beast's neck with unnatural thickness, and if there was malicious glee in the things' eyes as it feasted, malice was not a trait to be found among ordinary animals.
There was only one possible explanation, that this was another pour soul that had recently been claimed by the island's bestial curse. Perhaps one of the sailors who James and his friends had been traveling with? She took a deep breath to steady herself and then stepped fully into the doorway trying to make placating gestures with her free hand showing that she had no weapons about her only a simple candle to light her way.
"Please, stay still... don't go anywhere. I'll get father, he can help you..." She whispered in the softest sweetest tone that she could manage.
It still wasn't enough, the beast looked up from its meal and hissed in anger its fur billowing out to make it look larger still and then picking its prey up in its jaw it charged. It moved fast, faster, than Delphi had ever seen anything move on dry land.
She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable knowing that even her heavy cloak would offer no protection against this beast's claws. But it didn't bury any of its score of razor sharp blades in her body, instead it simply used its weight to disrupt Delphi's (never very good) sense of balance and knock her to ground.
Then it was gone, doubtlessly tearing out of the manner and off into the jungle with its prize still clutched in its jaws.
Delphi responded to this shock as best she could, first she was quick to reestablish her grip on the dropped candle before it could burn the entire estate to the ground. Then she headed into the menagerie and examined the cage that held the rats more closely.
Yes the door was ajar, but while she had originally expected the lock would have been shattered by the beast's raw fury, instead it had been picked as neatly as you could please.
"Such great intelligence crafted for such base purpose." Delphi sniffed in disapproval.
If that creature still held enough wisdom to disarm even a rudimentary lock she expected it would have been able to find more effective ways to feed itself than slaying her father's test subjects.
A shiver ran through Delphi as a new thought struck her. Slaying her father's test subjects!
What if the true goal of that beast had not been feast but slaughter? Akanga hated her father's efforts to cure the disease which plagued this island, and as a lord of cats surely all manner of felines would follow his orders, even ones as naturally twisted as that red furred beast.
Was that what it had been sent here to do? To destroy some of the last true uninfected animals on the island to better stymie her father's hopes for a cure? Doubtlessly it would have been able to dispatch all the other rats had it not been overwhelmed by its own baser instincts or she caught it midway into the act.
Delphi shuddered at the prospect of Akanga being brash enough and possessing a servant capable enough to maneuver up and over the stockade. But that on its own still didn't explain how it could have made its way into the manner itself from the outside every night. Orson was sure to bar all the doors against invaders, she knew because she had to unbar them on her way out.
So how had this creature gotten in? Steeling herself against horror as best she could Delphi began to follow the trail of rat blood (after having been sure to lock the other two back in of course) hoping that she wouldn't be able to catch up to what was leaving it behind.
She was lucky once over that found the source of the creature's entrance into the building and lucky twice over that sure enough it had departed already by the time she did. In the main hall of the manner there was now moonlight beaming in through a hole in the roof, and the answers came all too readily to a mind as bright as Delphi's.
The thatch roof was soft and in theory a defense against attack from above as single misplaced foot could send someone plummeting downwards through it and guaranteeing them a nasty fall.
A nasty fall for a human.
But to a creature that always landed on its feet... such a creature might intentionally plunge itself in through the thatch, and land not the slightest bit discomforted from the experience!
Animal cunning and bestiality married to the sort of conniving intelligence lurking in the worst of men that she had only knew second hand from the stories her father had told of the mainland, this crimson cat was surely the worst of both worlds.
Even though he would be angry with her for disrupting his work Delphi had no choice, she had to go to her father's laboratory and warn him of this terrifying turn of events at once! That was for certain, and Delphi was equally certain that she would not be going swimming, not until Akanga had been dealt with, the jungle suddenly seemed much less welcoming tonight.
XXX XXXX XXX
While Delphi was busy examining the minimal trail that the 'crimson cat' had left behind James Firecat was returning back to the guest house. He'd made sure to unbar to the door on his way out and so he had no trouble slipping back inside.
His wonderful cherished prize still gripped tightly in his jaws he padded up to Mirri's coffin. His handpaws pushed aside the coffin's lid and even in his bestial form he still managed to fold his body in upon himself enough to squeeze inside.
He deposited the half eaten giant rat on Mirri's chest without a hint of hesitation.
"I brought you a gift." James announced proudly as he shifted back to his fully human (give or take a pair of cat ears) form.
Now that he'd made such a glutton of himself eating what he suspected was a touch over four pounds of rodent flesh James' brown eyes were once more open, warm, and inviting. The specter of hunger that had stalked them since he had arrived on the island had been banished and Mirri all too readily wrapped her arms around his throat pulling him in close.
"Yes you did." Mirri responded with delight. Then she leaned in and licked a few drops of blood from his face.
"It's funny, I hate the taste of rodent blood. It's like drinking from the most rancid, filth encrusted, befouled pool you can imagine. Yet when its on your lips..." Mirri could find no words with which to complete that sentence and so she watched in polite silence as James began to unbutton his jacket and bare his neck to her.
End Chapter.
FN: I am sorry if I'm off on how Cal's copying process works, unlike with the distilation my google fu was weak on this mater and I didn't feel confident when it came to trying to simply do a straight up search for something like "how to forge documents".
By the way those who are interested, the painting that Doctor Fran makes of Mirri is more or less in tune with what he should be capable of as described the base adventure book, though I sped up how quickly he made it significantly to keep the story moving along.
Mirri's interest in collecting pictures/paintings of herself is honestly something that I don't think I've ever seen any other vampire in any setting display, but honestly I think it fits perfectly with the general sense of vanity/superiority that most vampires project, she can't see her reflection in a mirror, so she gathers up other people's depictions of her and uses those instead if she wishes to feed her own ego.