Ch. 4

Vlad growled in frustration as the great beast's paw swiped once more through his 'body'. This is fantastic! the old wraith thought sardonically And of all nights to have it happen on, too!

You'd think that after nearly four years of passing by this way in order to get back to his own territory, the pack of Behemoths that frequented this particular mountain pass would have become accustomed to at least his presence here. Apparently not.

It wasn't like Vlad had been TRYING to provoke the wolf-snake monsters; he had simply been traveling back home through the mountain pass, had been pounced upon by one of the pack's many puppies, no doubt trying to 'play' with him or something, and then on instinct done what any self respecting wraith would do: retaliated, quite viciously.

The near-by parents had NOT liked that one bit. ESPECIALLY when they'd seen exactly what is was causing their offspring pain.

Make no mistake, Vlad was fully aware of how the ghost zone saw him and his kind, most of the time as vile, dark, and at times cruel creatures that skulked around in darkness because they hated the 'pure' light of day.

Well...to some degree it was true. Yes wraiths, Vlad being no exception, lived in darkness, but not because they hated light or whatever nonsense people used to explain this behavior. They needed the dark to hunt properly, to hide, to LIVE. Hell, their natural form practically WAS the shadows they inhabited. As for being vile or cruel... well, most of that was left up for interpretation, who you asked and the wraith itself. Take Vlad for example; unless he was hunting, he wouldn't go seeking out something to kill just because he felt like it. However, that didn't mean he'd just let anyone waltz into his territory, or, gods help whoever might attempt something so idiotic, harm Daniel. Being defined as a spirit eater DID have a certain macabre connotation, Vlad supposed, near enough to be compared with cannable or something equally disgusting. But then, following the same logic, without specters like he or Daniel, the world they lived in would become infested with the small non-sentient ghosts that many saw, and over-run by them. Rest assured, just because this world 'lived' by it's own terms didn't mean it was exempt it from certain inflexible laws of nature.

Now, take all the information given, and combine it with the situation of the Behemoth parents realizing a puppy was under attack, and you have the scenario at hand.

Here he was; backed up against the underside of a rock shelf, where he had been for the past, oh, hour or so, cornered in the heavily curved rock both above and to his left, creating a near literal stone box. In all honesty, the wraith had been hoping that by returning to his true shadowy form, the giants would leave him alone when they could no longer see any threat, his body blending in well with the natural shadows and near impossible to discern in the half-light of dusk. Vlad snorted at the thought now. He may not be truly visible anymore, but that didn't mean they couldn't still smell him, feel his aura. And oh, what he wouldn't give to be a simple ghost right now and just phase through the rock. Vlad felt his frustration whell up again as the monster trapping him left, only to be replaced by another. Shifts! The ever-cursed creatures were taking keeping him pinned in terms! Well, he supposed with a simmering mind that he should know by now not to judge ANYthing's intelligence based simply on what it looked or acted like. Yet again, take him for example. A forty-odd year old wraith with more practical knowledge of dealing with ghosts and their ilk then most humans he'd observed in the zone (which to be fair to the humans, wasn't many.)

Getting back to the situation at hand, Vlad felt another deep snarl building up from within him as the second great creature made a half-hearted attempt to claw at him, like a cat trying to bat at something just out of its reach. One may have suggested that he should have run the moment the beasts changed guard, just make a break for it, but, (and this wasn't just Vlad or his age talking, it was with all wraiths) he simply wasn't capable of reaching the speed needed. Truly, Vlad had thought of many ways to get out of this quickly for the hour he had been trapped, and in no way was it possible to get out of this with out SOMEthing ending up dead. ( he felt little remorse for the plans conceived where the behemoth was the one dead, but it would cost him precious time and energy, neither of which he felt like giving away.)

Vlad inwardly scowled as the monster breathed out loudly ,directly at him, it's foul carrion-scented breath filling the already suffocatingly small space. This was getting annoying, and even if the beasts were doing this to protect their offspring, the wraith reminded himself that he had a little one as well to take care of, to feed and protect. And, despite Vlad being quite a bit more self-aware and knowledgeable then others of his kind...if he must, he must.

He waited until he saw the behemoth's paw coming to strike again before making his move. As the monster's blunt talons swept through the area to his left, really the only area it could come from in a sweep, Vlad let his 'body' go lax, let it drift and disengage from his core like smoke from a fire; lazily tumbling in the air, and coming to curl around the behemoth's paw. Really, Vlad didn't like doing it this way, but now he had very little choice; if he tried to think of something else to do, there was little chance it would work, or it would take to long. This way, in his opinion, left him vulnerable in the worst sort of way. His core was out in the open, the fist-sized orb of dark light surrounded by the barest hints of smokey shadows revolving about it like an oily drape of obscurity, the ONLY thing keeping it hidden from it's demise at the teeth of the beasts. However, this way was also the fastest and possibly neatest form of attack a wraith might use, which was no doubt why so many chose to use it.

There is a reason, after all, why so many feared he and all like him. Yes, wraiths were for the most part, very misunderstood creatures, vilified more so then anything else, but there is always some truth behind every rumor. Always some real life events woven into the backdrop of any legend or myth.

As the behemoth drew back it's paw from the space previously occupied by the wraith, it noticed something...funny..with it's arm. It looked like something black and wavering had wrapped around it and was seeping into it's skin and fur. Rumbling to itself at the prospect of having to clean it's pretty rust colored pelt, the monster gave his arm a few experimental shakes, trying to dislodge the stuff, but it did not come free; instead it seemed to...move. With almost a dazed gaze, the behemoth warbled softly to itself, watching as the black smoke crawled up it's arm and before it could react, ensnared it's neck and other shoulder. A shiver ran through the great beast when something akin to ice water was trickled down it's spine...but from the inside, like whatever this was, was beginning to invade it's body from the inside out; coating it's bones, muscles and guts, strangling the behemoth's heart and mind... a parasite feeding off of everything and anything the unwilling host had to offer...A long groan echoed softly around the air as the behemoth suddenly found it didn't have the strength to stand, it's front legs giving up mobility, frozen and stiff, like they had been dead and cold for days. As it lay upon the ground, it's eyes could no longer keep themselves working, choosing to stare sightless into space. It's long snake-like tail, once thrashing now fell limp to the ground and curled in upon itself like a dried leaf in an autumn wind. For the first time, a thought to call to it's comrades passed the dying beast's mind, but it had no strength to call out to them, nor even voice to make known it's pain. A moment later, a chill, colder then anything in the ghost zone or nature for that matter spread from it's chest to all it's body, leaving it numb and useless.

The world swam, colors blurred and thoughts scrambled. The shivering stopped, and with a final shuddering breath that rattled the vivid green plants all about, the behemoth was gone, replaced with a just pile of bones and meat waiting to be picked clean by the smaller scavengers of the zone. Like the mist over a pond in the early morning, the beast's aura melted off it's body in a great cloud, drifting higher and mingling with the ambient ectoplasm atmosphere of the Zone, becoming naught more then what it had started out life as.

A good warning, "Always fear the Shadow Beings. With a wraith, you are dead before your heart stops beating."

After a time, a black viscous liquid pushed itself out of the orifices of the monster, with hisses and fizzles, bubbling and evaporating to become an airborne gaseous matter. Floating gently over the rocks and through the grasses, Vlad rejoined with his core, the tendrils of his body entwining and interweaving amongst themselves all about the lightless globe of unlife to form his natural shape once more.

Pausing a moment before he made his getaway, Vlad cast his gaze over the behemoth's dead body, a slight smirk coloring his thoughts.

Hm. Pitiful. The great lump of a being hadn't even offered resistance to his attack. And they said behemoths were a force to be reconded with. Ah well, it made his work all the quicker, and the mess smaller. Musing a bit over the dead thing, Vlad thought for a moment whether he should do something with it, like hide the body. Although they weren't exactly sentient creatures, the monsters WOULD recognize one of their own had been killed by a wraith; specifically, HIM and they might decide to hunt down what had killed it, thus putting both his and Daniel's life in danger. He pushed the notion aside though. By the time the beasts had realized it had been him, he and his son would be farther away then the monsters would care to travel. It was time they moved on from the territory anyhow, this was just a push to do it sooner.

There was a reason Vlad had been so tense after hearing the news spreading through the zone, making he extra wary of his son's safety and snapping at the boy for getting himself hurt; said news also making him anxious to get Daniel to a more secluded location for the same reason.

Humans were patrolling the borders apparently. While this was not necessarily an uncommon occurrence, there was something different about the circumstances this time. From what he had heard, these weren't just the average run-of-the-mill hunters or explorers, but a different sort of human then what normally came to their part of the zone. No one Vlad had communicated with had quite been sure what to make of them. It seemed everyone had something different to say about what they had heard or seen. Really, the only piece of information Vlad was willing to believe the most was that one hunter was female, the other male and they had come here to trap ghosts, or something. It was odd, Vlad thought. He had actually heard through the grape vine, as it were, that some ghosts had been caught...but then let go again! Vlad didn't like it. Usually when a human caught a ghost the ghost didn't 'live' to see the next day, or they were simply taken away and never seen again. Such erratic and inconsistent behavior from humans or ANY creature for that matter was in his book dangerous, and should be left alone. It was why he had been scoping out different parts of his canyons for a suitable living space for Daniel and himself.

It wasn't like Vlad feared a human hunter; he could easily scare or fight them off if worse came to worse, which Vlad honestly didn't think it would; but more then anything, it was his son he was worried about.

Daniel had never seen humans before, not up close and in detail at least. The closest he'd come was when Vlad had taken him to the human world about two human years ago to...ah...explain some things. (the living deer in the area had been most helpful in demonstrating his point to the boy.) It had been night time on the Earth plane; no one about in the middle of the woods at that time of night, so Vlad figured he might as well explain about the human world to Daniel as well since the boy seemed quite interested in everything around him, especially the stars. ( Unfortunately, Vlad didn't know everything about the human world, so his explanations were short, and rather incomplete, possibly even wrong, but that didn't matter now.) What Vlad had not expected was for a pack human beings to be out and about in the woods. Weren't they supposed to be diurnal creatures, humans? At any rate, Vlad had been to busy sating his son's curiosity to keep a lookout for the living ones, and barely made it to the collapsing natural portal before the pack had gotten within a hundred feet of them. Danny had been disappointed that they had to leave so soon and wanted to know what those people were, so Vlad told him. He wasn't sure if Danny fully understood or not, but, as said before, it didn't matter now. What mattered was Daniel understanding THIS world, and being able to live without Vlad in THIS place. Vlad would tell Danny about the human hunters in the zone when the two of them had moved and gotten out of range, but would make absolutely certain that the boy would NOT go looking for them. He would never forgive himself if something happened to Daniel, nor find it within him to spare the humans that hurt him.

Taking to the darkened sky, his form only discernible to the naked eye by the winking out of the blocked starlight as he passed, Vlad hoped Danny would be able to cope without him for a few more hours. The killing had taken a lot out of him, more then he thought it would, and the flight home would take longer then previously anticipated. Vlad wasn't worried though. Daniel was a smart lad, if not so adept at steering clear of trouble. Honestly, Vlad thought with an inward smile, it was more like trouble had a tendency to steer towards the boy instead. But, for now, he could handle himself, and when Vlad returned, they would begin preparations for the move, and all would be well.

Danny's mind and body slowly returned to contentiousness, the world turning from inky black and obscure to...well...blotchy green and...obscure. And naturally, three seconds afterwards, Danny's body subsequently started HATING HIM!

The ringing wouldn't leave...ooohhhhhh, his poor head... Trying to lick his parched lips, Danny soon realized the effort was futile when his tongue turned out to be just as dry, the texture reminding him of the dried riverbed to the canyon floor. ( the dusty, iky taste not helping with the accuracy of the comparison.) Shifting a bit to try and get more comfortable, the phantom allowed himself a small groan of mild pain. Gods bellow, what WAS he lying on, bare stone? A bed of dragon spines? He heard something shifting around him, a most odd crinkling sound accompanied by voices, but it was muffled and since he was half asleep anyway, they didn't register. Whatever, the phantom thought. If it's just some ghosts passing through, let 'em. However, getting back to sleep proved useless when the ringing got worse, almost painful. Gods, can a person BE anymore uncomfortable Why don't I just, I don't know, swallow a cracked bone while I'm at it, huh? A scowl started working it's way onto the phantom's face before abandoning the idea when the movement caused the skin to burn highly unpleasantly. Man, his bruises never hurt like that before; it was most disconcerting. For a small moment, Danny considered getting up to see if there was a more comfortable place to lay,but disregarded the idea.

Danny's nose wrinkled when it was invaded suddenly with a most unpleasant oder. Harsh and cloying; tickling the back of his nose and throat at first, then burning the more he breathed in, making him breath through his mouth, ( something he detested) and totally drowning out anything that smelled like home. Goodness, Vlad wouldn't like a scent like THAT taking hold in his home...

A gasp. Oh, Great Ones of the Underearth! His father! Oh no... The humans..last night..Gah! The day's previous events fell upon him like a two ton boulder, and were possibly just as crushing.

Without even caring to look about him as his eyelids felt utterly too heavy to bother lifting and deal with the pain of light shining into them, Danny reached up with sore arms and stinging hands to clutch his abused head, trying to make sense of all that had happened within the last day.

He...there had been...Breathing deep, trying to ignore the nasty smell around him ( what was that?) Danny started at the beginning, like his father had taught him. Ok. It had been night. True. Next, his father had not been home. Ok, good. Danny sort of mechanically nodded to himself with each fact marked off in his head, still not willing to open his slightly burning eyes. (gods he felt in a bad way, but, that could easily be attributed to what had happened after he began recalling the bits and pieces of the last night...)

Humans. He was sure of it. Everything was still so confused and jumbled, but, he remembered blazing down to the canyon floor, where the false-Vlad's voice was coming from, and...uh...and... the scent. Yes, the scent...he had smelled it before, a long time ago when he was younger, but he remembered it well-it was just so unnatural. There had been...shapes...of..human things all around. He wasn't quite sure HOW exactly he had managed to miss all of this earlier as they must have put it there while he had been in the cave that was his home, but he had. The sudden fear that had filled him still made him shiver, but a sort of curiosity fueled by the remaining anger had overridden it. And he remembered with a growing feeling of nausea in the pit of his stomach, how he, still in somewhat of a rage, had gone looking for the human-thing making the false-Vlad noise, to destroy it. On the way, he ran into many different human-things, scattered about, almost haphazardly. Some glowing, some beeping or flashing, some doing nothing at all but sit there, dead and in all manner of shapes and sizes and scents he'd never come across, let alone understand. One thing , a little circle shaped gray thing he had accidentally kicked with the toe of his boot, sending a big green pulse through the area, momentarily frightening Danny into actually making those embarrassing hatchling squeals and dousing his aura with the instinct to hide himself, but after it hadn't attacked him, he left it were it lay.

Knitting his brows together and grunting a bit in heavy concentration, Danny struggled to remember what had happened next. The best he could figure was seeing a big black stone...or something... calling him with Vlad's voice. He remembered charging it in a blind fit, the newness and oddness of it driving him to a stress induced panic then... nothing. The smell of burning, a big bloom of heat...more ringing, louder though (the ringing in his ears had not quieted, damn it all,) and pain. Yeah, Danny thought with a final nod. Lots of that, as if he had needed more...

Oh...what had happened then? Danny felt the nausea growing, becoming real sickness instead of just a feeling of heaviness in his chest. Gritting his teeth, Danny felt just about ready to sit up and take a look about to try and figure out what DID happen. Hopefully the humans hadn't risen yet and he could get away to his father...Vlad wasn't going to like this, Danny thought with a grimace. Not one bit. Vlad had always expressed a dislike for anyone else but they two in the canyons ( Hey, maybe Danny would get lucky and get to see his father deal with the invading humans, huh? Might be fun.)

Upon opening his eyes, however, Danny was met with a sight he could never conceive in his wildest daydreams, as inch thick, anti-ecto coated steel greeted the phantom, not two inches in front of his face, comically wide eyes. Reacting solely on instinct, the phantom boy leaped up...only to meet the same painful metal resistance as when he backed up in a wheezing terror. A...web? Of metal? No, no no nonononono! Whipping his head from side to side so fast one might think he would surely get whiplash, Danny's mind desperately to see a way out, but there was none. It was dark, the spaces between the metal webbing, so he couldn't see out of it. It didn't matter. The darkness didn't calm him in the least. No way out...no way through...no chance, no light no escape, SO SMALL!

Confusion mingled with the sharp bite of instant surprise, followed by the dragging pull of horror when any being, natural or otherwise realizes it is trapped within a small enclosed space without a way out. The phantom boy let out a shrill screech, not caring if he was resorting to baser sounds. He was frightened! Pressing mysteriously bandaged palms up above him, not caring that it made them hurt more, Danny feverishly felt about for an opening...a crack, a loose bar, SOMETHING! Doing the same for the floors and walls, he felt his hope drain away with each gesture halted by the metal bars, drowning a tide of deeper, darker sensations.

Overriding ANY form of logical thought left in the boy's brain, instincts took a strong hold, and even if it helped none, the phantom scrambled back, trying to make himself small as possible, finding a corner and curling into it, whimpering between clenched teeth and tears threatening to spill over from unblinking eyes. Humans...the unknown...humans... that alien scent...human scent, human web, humans EVERYWHERE! His body heaved, the overload of stress sending his stomach into harsh convulsions. Whatever had been in his stomach hours ago was no longer on the inside, the stench of spilled bile weaving into the disgusting human-scent, causing the teen to cough up more, until there was nothing more to be rid of.

With out his consent, Danny felt something big whell up inside him. A heaviness that must have weighed more then one of the Zone's floating islands slamming into his chest, stopping his breath cold for a moment. A gasp and a few more labored ones later as the boy struggled to take in air-essentially hyperventilating-, the Phantom started doing the only thing his juvenile, aching, terrified body could make itself, shivering and crammed in the corner of the metal trap:

Screaming.

Hey, guys! Very fist Auther note, yay! Uh... so, first off, sorry about the wait on this chapter. I can't make any promises, but I'll try my darndest to get a chapter out at the beginning of each month, hopefully. Thanks for reading and the awesome reviews!