Project, MalfunctionChapter Nine,Hate Them, Love Them, Understand Them
Demons where horrible. Sin could smell their blood all over the place…he grimaced and trotted around the scene slowly, his feline friend close behind. It was horrible. He smelt the dragon remnants, and smelt the fear, the anger, and the hostility; but mostly, he smelt the pain. Where did that demon boy go? Where did the girl go? He paused, catching another smell. He looked towards Abhorrence as he narrowed her eyes, tail flickering. This, was a new scent altogether. Neither demon, or any other species.
"What do you make of this…Sin?" She questioned, looking down a steep, rocky cliff, as she caught the smell of something that she'd never smelt before. "It smells like, almost like a highbred. Like the griffon! But very different. He smelt…horrible…" She shivered and looked away.
The great wolf huffed and trotted to her, roughly nuzzling her head with his own in a comforting way. "He was a demon. His scent is there…but then it moves. It gets heavier, then lighter, then heavy again."
Abhorrence sneered. "How does a thing like that happen, Sin sweetie? Ya, ya…it don't happen like that! It takes time, much time."
Sin's ears flattened a little as he listened to her doubtful words. One of these days, she'd trust him. "Something must have triggered the rapid change. The dragon blood should have killed him…but instead…something else…how very strange. We shall not alert the humans to this. Nor anyone else just yet. I suggest we wait a while, see what happens…first and foremost, it is time to leave the tribe."
Flickering her tail, the large panther with spots chuckled, pawing at his face gently to make him relax. Always so tense, they both where, but he was worse then she was.
"Ya, ya, but if we leave the humans, we will be at great risk again. I would rather stay and gather some information from the elder, then go off on a limb and get hunted like filthy animals." Abhorrence replied, looking him right in the eyes.
Sin sighed heavily as he took that thought into consideration, and shook his head. "It is time we learned how to take on a more…human skin. The tribal leaders already think we are great dangers to them…staying much longer also has the possibility that we will be slaughtered. You and I must find out who killed of the golden dragon clan…and we must find out what this new creature is."
Abhorrence nodded a little, and turned away from the cliffs. Sin was at her heels, before he leapt over her body with one, swift movement of muscles, and tore across the land at great speeds. The leopard was at his tail by the time he'd started trotting, having worn himself out far sooner then he'd originally expected. The air was heavy here…heavy everywhere. It was a darkening air, one that only happened before a great sadness swept across the land. It was a deep darkness that curled around his face and into his nose to toy with his mind…scents where scattered, thoughts where lost.
Despite this, Sin kept about his way, having lived long enough to know that such a overpowering feeling would consume his very soul if he dwelled on it. These fierce fighters, protectors, and survivors knew many things lost in time, and that was just something man forgot a long time ago.
"He is ahead…Abhorrence?" Sin glanced over at her as she panted, slowing her trot a little. "The old one, he is near. Right over there. I smell him quite clearly now…"
The leopard nodded her head and let out a small yawn, her aching muscles crinkling under her odd colored fur as she now walked, each step growing heavier and more difficult to bare. "Ya, ya…he is in the wind very clearly. Like colors…"
Sin scoffed at her ridiculous statement, and shook out his fur, not nearly as tired as she was. Such a easily worn down creature she was…Sin didn't dare make a comment. Tired or not, he knew just how her fury effected her movement. Like adrenaline in her blood, she boiled and spewed allover the ground, dripping blood of an enemy. No, Sin wouldn't dare stand in her way, or upset her.
The cold soil was soft under his paws as he walked slowly, his gray, sightless eyes never straying from his caged line if vision. His nose was reassurance enough for him, as was the aura that dripped form his mouth and underbelly onto the ground, feeling around, seeing for him. Such a leakage of power was unheard of before Sin made it useful…after all, for most creatures who fought with their aura it was a lifeline to possess as much as they possible could. Sin was practically being wasteful in their eyes!
A low growl rumbled against the two bodies as it was made audible, a small, black and orange fox trotting up slowly, his fur shimmering in what little light there was to be held in such fog. "'Ello hinney…coom too see th' Greet Spirit, eh? Are ye bark'n mad? Lost yer heed? Ye aint so canny, are ye?"
The little fox smacked his chops dangerously as his fur stood on end, looking towards Abhorrence now, as he started up his strange talk. "Ay, ye a greet look' bonny lass…weel, not reet noo! Goo, off w'th ye!"
Snarling now, Sin lunged at the fox, and right as he went to sink his teeth into it, the orange blood vanished, its barking laughter echoing in his ears.
"Ye got soom greet nervve…bit'n me face!" The fox twirled in the air, his body clearly half dead, half alive. "Ay, ye goot it now? This is a plaace for th' souls…hannin aboot here makes ye'r hear fill w'th death; an' ween neet com's aboot. Th' Greet Spirit 's 'op 'head…if ye daar goo meet yer ma'kr!" Said fox let out another crackling laughter, before running off swinishly as a cat, down to the marshes and swam pools. Sin scoffed and slowly snarled, his lips curling up to show his teeth.
Abhorrence looked at the fox as he ran, slowly following after, hesitating before she stepped into the marshes. Sin sat down and shivered, sniffing the air before letting out a solid, sound bark. "Something about that animal doesn't smell right."
The leopard snickered, carefully stepping as he tried to cross, head held over the muck. "Ya, ya! It was a little fox, sweetie! Now come on…I cant keep up with it well!"
Sin shook his head, then shivered once more, taking a ingle leap up and into the marshy waters, easily bounding past his cat like companion. He knew it was foolish, to follow such a odd smelling thing…but if Abhorrence thought it was okay, then he had no choice but to follow her into his sure doomed fate. At least this way, he'd get bit before she would. Better him, then her, right?
"Sin! Sin! I cant smell!" Gargling and spitting out muck, Abhorrence gasped and leapt up, sinking her claws into Sin's backside on a desperate attempt not to sink any deeper. He yelped and bucked, his rear now bleeding as she sank her claws deeper. "Its gone! He's abandoned us to out fate! That damned fox…I'll kill you! I'll rip your throat out, you hear me?!" If he, himself, hadn't been sinking in the swamps, he'd have gladly bit her, or snapped, telling her to shut up…but the truth was, he couldn't smell either.
The marsh overtook them, and crackling was the fox's laugh as he dove in after them, paws extending before clashing with the ground under them. It was a thick dome which incased the three of them, bright and full of air.
"Follo' me ya great ninny's…ye n't goin' oot th't waay." He chimed, flicking her tail up, before taking off in the direction the dome lights lead, abhorrence right at his heels. Sin sneezed and tried to follow, but his nose wasn't working still, and his aura was, well, it seemed to be shivering every each direction trying to get out.
In short…he was clueless as to where to go. Thankfully, Abhorrence's snarls and hisses, and the sound of her loud paws drew him in the direction she was in. "Spirit! Coom out!" The fox screamed, darting out of the dome.
Naturally, Abhorrence slammed right into the side of the dome, not being able to stop in time to avoid slipping. She groaned and pawed at her head, hissing with her nose wrinkled up when Sin came trotting over. "You okay?" He asked, sniffing her over in attempt to catch her scent. Nothing. This was all far to strange for him, and all he could do after that was huff, pouting with both his ears pinned flat.
"Come closer…" Perking his ears slowly, Sin heard the voice of what sounded like a dragon, very old, raspy, and deep. Though he could not see it, Abhorrence could, very well. "…I know what you ask of me, and I'm afraid I cannot help you."
Sin sighed at that statement and inched closer, his paws making loud, echoing sounds in this cave under the marsh. "Then you know of the odd one? The new creature?"
The voice seemed to pause, as if it was thinking long and hard about something. "Yes, and no. The creature is neither new, nor old…but something that has lived and died many times. He is a great sea serpent, demon blood feeds his desire and hunger. He cannot he killed, cannot be slain by any weapon you can produce. Only his starvation will lead to his demise…and only by eating others and consuming their bloodline will he live. He will never stop. He will never quit his hunt."
"Then how can we stop him? Is there no way at all?" Sin pleaded with the voice, his ears perked and had held high. Again, the voice hesitated, but then it started humming deeply for no real reason.
Just as Sin was beginning to loose his patience, the voice spoke up again. "There is one way…but it is not a grantee. I have seen it in the stars, I have heard it on the wind…the great Leviathan hungers for the blood of an immortal."
Growling, the wolf immortal snapped his fangs, enraged by the spirit's comment about the horrible creature. "What are you saying?! Feed one of my own kind to that…that…thing?! That monster?! No! Will not have it!" He snarled more, fur standing on end as he bared his fangs at the unseen creature, who only chuckled.
"I shall give you a gift, my wayward friend…come back to me, when you have met a creature who has no name. This creature will be a beast of humans sins, a monster of stupidity and arrogance. Bring this nameless creature to me…and I shall show you how to destroy the Leviathan. Now, be gone! Before I loose my temper!"
