She returned just over an hour later with a basket full of various items she thought would be useful on a journey to the summit of Olympus. When she tapped on the door three times she got no answer and felt a stab of anxiety. She shoved the door open and looked round but only found Tracey's cloak sitting on the bed in a pile, she set the basket down and pulled out a long dagger that she'd picked up along with the spell supplies she'd found. "Tracey?" She called softly.
There was no answer to the call of Tracey's name, but there was movement on the bed beneath the cloak. Slowly whatever it was made a quick motion as if the thing beneath the cloak was stretching and then slowly moved to the edge of the cloak and stopped there. Whatever it could have been seemed to have made itself comfortable again and refused to move. Artemis carefully lifted the cloak and sighed seeing the tiny orange cat curled up under the cloak. She sighed and shook her head scooping the cat up and scratching under her chin. "Oh Tracey…"
Tracey began to purr happily with every stroke of her finger under her chin and blinked up at her before looking around. She meowed softly and then looked at her reflection in the mirror and her ears stood up higher.
'Ah man!' Tracey thought, meowing louder and then jumped out of Artemis's arms and onto the bet again. 'Well don't I look adorable.'
Vanishing under the cloak again there was a soft glow from beneath it and then Tracey's head emerged from beneath it.
"Well I guess you could say I got a bit of a cat nap, but now I'm ready to go." She said with a smirk and tied off the last bandage and getting up. "Shopping was a success I see."
Artemis groaned and walked over to the basket and started packing things making sure nothing would break in transit. She pulled a long sturdy leather belt out of the basket and started modifying the basket until it had a pair of straps like a backpack and she shouldered it easily. "I picked up some spell components and totems. And a few other useful items." She handed Tracey a short dagger with a sturdy leather belt.
Looking at the sheathed dagger, Tracey's heart plummeted and her blood suddenly ran cold. She shook her head in confusion and grimaced at the hefty metal in her grasp.
"Why would you hand me this Artemis!?" She asked, looking at her in utter disbelief. "You know what I'm going through right now. This doesn't help me in the least to get any more comfortable with knives."
Artemis moved towards her and folded Tracey's fingers around the dagger, She held her fingers closed around it and pressed them tightly. "This is not a scalpel. This is a tool, a weapon and if you are threatened you will by the Gods use it to protect yourself because if I'm not there I cannot go through losing you again." Her voice was pitched low and she stared Tracey in the eyes. "Be afraid of it, that's healthy and natural but please, please don't let your fear make you a victim."
Tracey searched Artemis's face before looking down at the dagger and it's sheath in her hand and sighed, her shoulders wilting a bit.
"Only if I absolutely have to..." She replied, strapping it to her thigh and hiding it beneath her cloak. "I'm not planning on letting you out of my sight."
She picked up her satchel and looped it diagonally over her shoulder before pulling the cloak over it to hide it from view. Giving Artemis a slight smile, Tracey went to stand by the door to show that she was ready to go. All the while she tried to forget the fact that she had a knife strapped to her thigh and she wasn't comfortable with it at all.
Artemis looked around the room checking to make sure nothing was missing and nodded following her out. "I don't plan on being separated from you but we all know how well our plans go."
"Oh believe me I know it all too well." Tracey replied, shutting the door behind them and carefully making her way downstairs to the main floor.
Her bare feet made no noise on the wood floor and she pulled her cloak's hood up after finding the innkeeper and thanking him for their comfortable room. Slipping a few silver coins into his hand and then left with Artemis, picking their way through the crowds of people walking about the streets. Tracey's eye immediately picked out Hercules and his group waiting by their chariots and then Amphiaraus came forward when he saw them and smiled kindly.
Tracey noticed on their way out of town that the festivities had declined into an air of anxiety and worried anticipation. Like people who had been told that a huge storm was on its way and there was no way to evacuate. Amphiaraus had Tracey in his Chariot while Artemis rode with Atalanta. For the most part their travel that day was quiet, no one could talk much over the rattle and noise of the chariot wheel and the horses but as it grew closer to nightfall Tracey started to feel a crawling sensation up her spine and the urge to run on all fours started to get stronger.
Looking up to the rising silvery moon so far above them in the darkening velvet sky, she seemed to be drawn to its radiant light and was completely captivated by it. It's light shown brightly through the tree branches as they made camp and it wasn't until Amphiaraus touched her hand to help her down from his chariot that she realized she had completely spaced and apologized.
"I'm sorry... I didn't realized we had stopped for the night." She said quietly, clasping his hand lightly and allowing him to help her down. "Is there anything I can do to help set up camp?"
He shook his head. "I get the feeling you need more help than we do. Some demon haunts you."
"We all have our demons and we must deal with them in our own way and in our own time... I won't deny that something torments me in my dreams." Tracey said quietly after a moment, studying Amphiaraus's face before looking into his eyes. "But that is something that I am dealing with on my own and it's what I want, it's my business."
She gave his hand a gently squeeze before letting go hastily and grabbing her satchel from her side of the chariot and carrying it in hand to a fallen log where she put it down. Measuring a pace and a half from the log with her eyes, Tracey started to dig a shallow pit and lined it with stones while Hercules and his companions tended to their horses and chariots. In silence she surveyed her work before nodding her approval to it and got up to start for the tree line to gather dried wood and kindling for their fire tonight. As Tracey picked up pieces of kindling and carried back armfuls of wood to their campsite, moon light started to peek through the trees and dance over her skin. It illuminated it with a dull shine and the urge to run became stronger than ever. It almost brought Tracey to her knees upon her return, but she struggled to stay upright as she stepped back into camp and dropped the wood into an organized pile alongside the fire pit.
"Artemis, it's happening again and I can't stop it." She whispered hastily, grabbing her head as a headache started to throb in her temples and her eyes started to glow yellow and dilate. "I need to run around... I want to run for a while. Please help me."
Artemis touched Traceys face gently and looked into her face searchingly. "I can't stop it, and we shouldn't stop it. You could tear yourself apart trying to stop it." She pressed her fingers firmly against the marks on Traceys arm to bring her a little more fully to herself as she leaned in and whispered. "Let it go and when you're ready to come back think about Legolas, imagine him, every detail, his eyes, his hair, the way he smells, the feel of his skin. His lips against yours. Build him in your mind until you're sure he's here. When you can hear his heartbeat remember that he cannot hold you until you're human."
She let Tracey go and pushed her away kindly. "Now run."
"Thank you... Don't worry about feeding me, I'm pretty sure I'll find something." Tracey said softly and grimaced at the but then figured it wouldn't matter if she was in a predatory form, food would be food no matter how she looked at it. "Make sure they don't try to kill me if I come back with lord knows what stuck to me... and we'll change my bandages and take the antibiotics later too."
Glancing over at Hercules, Amphiaraus, Iolaus, Atalanta, and lastly at Autolycus before blinking owlishly at them, eyes glowing softly. She turned back to the forest and felt a sharp shiver up her spine before jumping into a run, heading for the shadows. As she got through the first line of trees and darkness, Tracey shifted to her speckled gray wolf form, her cloak, bandages, and sheathed dagger lying discarded on the forest floor. She or Artemis would return for them later, but for now the moonlight glinted off her fur as she headed deeper into the woods. The night wind rippled over her fur as her new keen yellow eyes picked out the tiniest of details. Finding a rocky outcrop pretty close to their campsite, Tracey could see the flames glowing and flickering now. There was a buildup of pressure in her chest and she stood up straighter on her massive Timber wolf paws and threw back her head, howling longingly at the brilliant orb above her.
'At least now Arty will know what I've changed into and hopefully my pelt won't get penetrated by Atalanta's arrows or Autolycus knives.'
Artemis folded the cloak and rolled up the linen wraps as she sat by the fire, everyone stared at her. "So what was that?" Autolycus asked eventually.
Artemis set the wrapping down and gave him a level look, the firelight glinted in her eyes the red light reflecting off her brown irises making them look bloody and he barely managed not to flinch. "I warned you that Tracey has had a bad few days. She's a shapeshifter. The Gods saw fit to give her the ability to slip her skin and run as an animal."
"That's just old wives tales!" Iolaus exclaimed. "Tall tales told to scare children."
"Like Hercules and his 12 labors?" She asked sweetly and he flushed. "Take it from someone who's actually met a God; they do the damnedest things with next to no reason for it."
"Is she dangerous?" Atalanta asked.
"Are you?" Artemis asked.
Atalanta shifted a little. "Point taken."
"I'm sorry if I'm being rude, we've been at the Mercy of the Gods for a long time now and I'm tired." Artemis rubbed her face with one hand.
"If Tracey has been… gifted… with shapeshifting what is your gift?" Hercules asked his hands working around a piece of rawhide.
"You saw me at the Inn. I'm a witch." She replied.
A shrill scream broke the silence and Artemis's head whipped around. Amphiaraus put a hand on her arm. "Just a rabbit, it sounds like Tracey found her supper."
He looked down at the leather encased cast around her arm and frowned. "What is this anyway?"
"Armor." She replied and started rummaging around in her satchel for food.
By the time Tracey came back from her run everyone except Autolycus had fallen asleep. Autolycus watched a massive wolf trot out of the dark into their campsite and had a knife drawn before he realized that it was no natural wolf and carefully put it back watching. Walking into the camp slowly on her massive paws from the darkness, Tracey's eyes scanned her surroundings and glanced at everyone's sleeping forms. She counted them, her ears flicking forward and backwards at the slightest sounds before she saw that she herself was being watched. Tracey looked at him for a long time before stepping around Artemis's sleeping form carefully and watching him the entire time.
'That's right... just sit there like a good little human and you won't get hurt...' Tracey thought, happy with the fact that she could still retain her human thoughts now that she was learning a few new tricks.
Tracey slowly opened her mouth, her white fangs visible as she moved closer to Artemis. The grey cloak and body wrappings Artemis had folded and placed beside next to her pallet was what she was going for and Tracey proceeded with caution, expecting Autolycus to draw out his knife again. She was greatly surprise when he didn't and just continued to watch her with his darker eyes as she clamped the items she required and dragged them off into the trees. Closing her yellow eyes and concentrating on being human and holding onto Legolas with her human hands again, Tracey's bones and muscles stretched and painfully they returned to normal. She watched as her hands shook a little when the body bandages were wrapped around her body and her cloak was fastened around her body again.
"I'm surprised at you Autolycus..." Tracey said quietly, not wishing to disturb the others and pushing her hair back out of her face, her eyes returning to their normal hazel color.. "I would have thought you would be asleep like the others..."
"We always post a watch at night, in shifts." He replied quietly. "Never know when something… dangerous… might come creeping out of the woods."
"And you'd be right." She answered softly.
Tracey looked at him and gave him a smirk before calmly opening Artemis's bag and pulling out her antibiotics, the scar reducing ointment, and new gauze for her arms. Unstopping a water skin carefully, she popped the top off the orange container and took out a pill to swallow with the water before putting the container back and sitting back on the heels of her feet. She applied the ointment to her arms carefully and Autolycus could see the scars that littered her skin just before she wrapped the gauze around her limbs and sighed in frustration when the knots wouldn't stayed secured.
"Why does this always need four hands to finish?" She growled quietly, nearly wanting to give up and put everything away in her pack again. "Pieces of crap..."
He came closer and took the ends and secured them deftly before leaning back on his heels and gave her a curious look. "With all the mystery surrounding you two I'm amazed we're this comfortable with you. It all seems a little strange, Hades the pair of you are the strangest women I've ever met and I've been trying to get in bed with Atalanta for years."
"Good luck with that little adventure. You should trust Amphiaraus and his visions, after all you all got through Hercules's twelve labors with the help of his visions so you should trust him now." Tracey said, raising an eyebrow and her smirk growing ever wider. "Thank you for helping me here."
She pointed to her arms before settling back against the fallen log and watching the fire burn for a while, her own thoughts consuming her for a while.
