Chapter 5-

Hunters of the Damned

Despite the serious issue at hand, the following month was rather pleasant. Jenny's leg healed up nicely with no repercussions. The pair would spend a good portion of the afternoons in Vastra's extensive library, shoulder to shoulder, poring over mythological theorems and documented reports. If one of them found anything they deemed useful, they'd gently nudge the other, point out the information and discuss its use in action. If it was potentially useful, Jenny would write it down. She'd need a new notebook soon.

29 days later, they were stood together in the foyer, looking like a convincing pair of Spear Men. Jenny had managed to find clothes, similar to the ones worn by the men, being sold at the market. Vastra already had some spears in her collection of weaponry. Well, they looked like spears, but concealed inside were katanas. Jenny never knew sheathes could be so deceiving.

"Ready?" asked Jenny, jittering with anxiety and excitement. Their month of research hadn't reaped much; it thoroughly covered how to keep a werewolf away, not draw it in. Madame Vastra had checked that the katanas weren't made of silver. They wanted to capture the werewolf, not kill it.

"Wait," Vastra replied, and did something rather unexpected. She flicked her tongue out and waved it up and down the length of her maid. Frowning a little, she drew it back in.

"You need a little more gunpowder on your left shoulder."

Jenny did so obediently, and Vastra repeated the tongue-scenting process, which ended with a nod of satisfaction this time.

"There, you smell like a proper Spear Man," she proclaimed proudly.

"Now, let us go catch a werewolf!"

Vastra selected the corner of two empty streets to stand guard on, which enabled them to be simultaneously unnoticeable and noticeable. The entire area was pitch-black apart from one lamp post on that one corner, which casted out dim, wide beams of over-yellowed light.

Their wait had barely reached 10 minutes when Jenny spied a large, furry shadow dart past.

"T'be 'onest, I thought it'd take longer t' show up," she whispered.

"As did I," the Silurian replied quietly, tracking the beast in the shadows. "Just remember, stay back. This thing is capable of tearing you clean in half."

Jenny was about to comment on how Madame Vastra had just planted a rather charming image in her head, when a huge clawed paw flew through the air, straight at the lizard's head. With reactions considered superhuman (which they, effectively, were), Vastra blocked the heavy attack. From that point, a fierce battle ensued. The lycanthrope only attacked, ignoring any form of defensive tactics. Eventually, Vastra was forced to follow suit if she wanted to actually finish the battle. Attack was parried with attack as the two blurred around each other, snarling and feral. In fact, at one point, Vastra decided to all together abandon her katana, and fly in all teeth-and-claws.

The battle continued for a good 10 minutes before Vastra decided that she needed to change her tactics. Launching all her weight forward, she dove under the creature's arms and got back on her feet. Mustering up one of her most potent neurotoxins, she lashed her tongue at the werewolf's back.

For the first time in her life, something blocked her attack. Not because she missed, not because her target dodged it, but because they blocked it. With an attack.

The werewolf had whirled around, claws readied, and its left paw had struck the Silurian tongue in mid-air. Stunned and reeling in pain, Vastra was off-guard, so she couldn't react in time as the werewolf pinned her down.

"Over my dead body," Jenny growled, before charging. Her shoulder collided with the side of the beast, the impact throwing it off Madame Vastra. Recovering quickly, the werewolf leapt at Jenny, who narrowly dodged whilst drawing her katana, which hit the floor almost a second later. The werewolf was astonishingly fast; Jenny didn't even have time to see it disarm her. Nor did she have time to see it leap again, as the next thing she knew, she was pinned on the floor, a sharp pain echoing through her shoulder blades. It seemed the beast had a thing for disarming and pinning the human.

Jenny was having none of it. Grunting with effort, she launched a powerful kick at her attacker's lower stomach, sending it reeling backwards in pain, which Vastra was still doing (imagine if someone launched a scared porcupine at your tongue—which happened to be about 1 metre long at the time—with a cannon).

Not letting it recover, the humble maid-turned-warrior followed up with several more sideways kicks to its chest and a punch to each eye. In a fluid movement, Jenny turned her back to the werewolf, grabbed its left arm (coincidentally, the one that caused Vastra's pain), and flipped it over her shoulder, making sure it landed on its head. 'Maybe I should try that on Ma'am sometime in training. It's not actually that heavy when it's not on top of me' Jenny murmured mentally as a rather casual after-thought.

Wasting no time, Jenny unravelled the rope around her waist and started binding the creature's limbs. Vastra, now recovered, was just stood there, stunned.

"Where did you learn to kick like that?" she asked, staring at the pile of limbs that Jenny was currently tying up.

Her maid didn't look up, but still responded.

"I just...well, picked it up. I was thinkin', y'see, if your legs can carry your body weight around all day, surely they could pack quite a punch, right?" Jenny looked up just as she finished securing the last knot to see Vastra nodding in agreement.

They stood side by side next to the bound beast for a while, satisfied with their work. Finally, Jenny broke the silence.

"Well, 'ow about that then, Ma'am? I beat up a werewolf!"

"Yes, yes you did," replied Vastra rather quietly, thinking. Thinking that she'd have to be more wary of Jenny's capabilities in hand-to-hand combat training. That, and the fact that she had now well and truly fallen for her maid.

Jenny thanked the stars above that Strax was asleep when they arrived home. If the Sontaran ever came down and saw the huge mound of fur they'd brought home, what with all the major disagreements they'd already had today, Jenny would have been lucky to make it alive out of that argument.

With their joint efforts, they managed to get the werewolf securely tied up in the cellar, which also served as their training room. The women watched the pile of fur rise and sink for a while before Jenny spoke.

"So, do we wait down 'ere for it to turn back, or can we leave it down 'ere for the ni—?"

"We leave it down here."

Vastra answered so quickly and sharply it made Jenny look up at her mistress.

"'S'ev'rythin' alright, Ma'am?"

Vastra drew in a deep breath, as if the subject was painful.

"Old warriors used to tell us ancient stories of battles and creatures when we were hatchlings. The very old veterans spoke of weresnakes, the Silurian equivalent of your mammal werewolf. They were Silurians cursed with lycanthropy, but the mix of reptile blood and mammal blood created those abominations. However, one didn't become infected by bites, as described in many of your werewolf tales. You were cursed to transform into a weresnake if you witnessed a transformation." Vastra looked into Jenny's eyes. "I don't know if the same applies to werewolves, but tradition is woven into our blood. I'd rather not defy our old ways and discover they were speaking the truth the hard way."

Jenny nodded.

"'Course Ma'am."

"I'm glad you understand," said Vastra, visibly sighing with relief.

A/N: I quite liked this chapter, even if the fighting sequence was a bit short, but I'm not the judge here.