The Traveller's Path

[KageOkami]

((Closed to Bandit Brother))

The road from nowhere was long, wet and miserable. There was no other way to describe it. The rain streaked down in heavy sheets, bathing everything in a dismal grey colour. Rainwater pooled over this one of many tracks through Brokenthorn Forest. The trees were mere shadows and the creatures that made their home in the forest were indistinguishable.

Along this road trudged two silhouettes. Both soaked to the skin, heads bowed, and truly miserable. The silhouettes were very different, one was small and unmistakeably canine, the other was taller and humanoid. The duo picked their way over to a dryer part of the track, to huddle in the trunk of a huge oak tree.

‘Well, Ragnor, at least it’s dry in here,’ the humanoid one said, shaking her head and sending a halo of raindroplets from her long blue-black hair. The dog, Ragnor, copied this movement, shaking the water and mud from his black and silver coat. He walked in a tight circle before flopping down on the soft bed of dried oak leaves that lined the base of the hollow trunk. He huffed, sending a cloud of steam from his nose, which disappeared quickly in the cold air.

The female smiled. As she did two silver-white, black tipped cat-like ears rose from their flattened position on her skull. She flicked them individually, sending another flurry of droplets from her. Leaning her ashandarei against the doorway to the interior of the tree, she shivered, and hunkered down beside Ragnor, rubbing at the goosebumps on her arms.

‘Sure is cold,’ she commented, wrapping her extremely bedraggled silver-white tail around her feet. She leaned back against the trunk and sighed, closing her eyes.

Suddenly, something warm and sticky dropped onto her face, and slid down her cheek. Her eyes snapped open, and she placed a hand on her neck, stopping the droplet's trek downwards. She pulled her hand away and clenched her fist experimentally, feeling the texture of the substance.
Liquid, but also kinda solid.....kinda like saliva.... she mused as she slowly tilted her head back to look up the trunk of the tree.

‘Ragnor. I think we should’ve knocked...’ she breathed, her eyes widening in fear. Fangs dripping with venom, a huge spider, the size of a Great Dane, was suspended a mere three feet from her head. It hissed, and began to lower itself toward its prey.

‘Go get help,' she commanded, as she slowly reached for her ashandarei.

Ragnor was barely out of the tree when the spider struck and his mistress screamed.

[Lady Blackwell]

Max looked toward the mouth of the cave, it was pouring outside and the cave smelt of mould. He was leaning against the cold rock wall with nothing but his leather pants and boots on. They were the driest items of his clothing. His white cape was drying off next to the fire he had managed to light, his leather vest was leaning up against the wall and his swords lay near the cave entrance.

Max stood up and walked to the mouth of the cave. He watched as the rain poured down and hit the forest floor. Max was about to turn around and go back to relaxing by the fire, when he saw a black figure shoot across the forest. Max hated the rain, but he also hated sitting around doing nothing. He walked over and grabbed his leather chest piece and put it on, shivering as the cold, wet leather touched his warm frame. He then clasped his backup sword to his hip and threw on his cloak, as he took off running, with his most favourite sword in hand, in case of trouble.

After a few minutes of jogging in the direction he saw the black figure go, he caught up to it. It was a large, silver and black dog sitting and facing him calmly, fur soaked from the rain. He walked over slowly, and put his sword down next to him as he bent down on one knee. Max offered his hand, showing he was no threat to the dog. To Max's surprise the dog walked over, sniffed his hand, then his leather leggings, then sniffed the sword on the ground. The dog quickly grabbed the sheathed sword in its jaws and took off sprinting in the opposite direction it had originally been running.

Max tried to catch the dog as soon as it took off, but he just fell face first into some mud. He got up wiped off his face and took off after the dog. After a few minutes of chasing he decided enough was enough, and unclasped the cloak from around his neck and took off faster then he was before. Slowly but surely he began to close the distance between him and the dog.

Just as Max was about to catch the dog, it stopped, dropped the sword, and moved closer to a hollowed out tree trunk, barking madly. Max slowly approached, picked up his sword, and unsheathed it. As he approached the trunk, he hit it lightly with the sheath, causing a low hiss to come from inside. The dog lowered itself to the ground, its hackles rising and growled at the sound of the hiss. Max looked inside carefully and saw what could be a small frame wrapped up in a web of some sort.

"Well, I'm thinking this is your master....and what we heard hiss was what did this." Max said as he slowly poked his head inside and looked up. His eyes grew wide and he quickly withdrew his head, springing back as a giant spider dropped down and left the tree, coming after him.

Max dropped his sheathe next to the dog and charged at the spider, sword first, impaling it through its sternum as it reared back, surprised by the direct attack. He quickly drew out his other sword from its sheath and followed through with a horizontal slash, cutting the spider's cephalothorax in half.

He withdrew his swords from the spider’s corpse and stuck them in the ground. He once again approached the tree and reached inside, carefully pulling out the webbed humanoid, as he did so he heard the dog whimper.

"Don't worry he should be fine," Max said as he grabbed one of his swords and carefully started cutting open the web. After a few minutes the web was clear and Max could see it was humanoid, and far from male. He shook his head in disbelief causing the water to fly from his hair and spray the female in his arms’ face, causing her to stir slightly.

"Well, hello there," Max said with a grin as they opened their eyes.

[KageOkami]

In the perpetual darkness, a single image remained.
A face.
A man’s face.
Shiny brown eyes, filled with disbelief.
Thick white hair framing an attractive face.
The words “Well, hello there” being uttered from a mischievous grin.
Her saviour.

She vaguely heard Ragnor barking and whining, and turned her head toward the sound before the darkness overwhelmed her once more, and dragged her into back into Oblivion.
*
The acrid smell of smoke filled her nostrils. Heat washed over her body like a caress. Her eyes opened a crack and the blinding light of a small campfire filled her vision. Panic shot through her body and she retracted her shadowy aura sharply, sending it pulsing through her body. She felt the muscles in her body writhing and shrinking. She had the sudden urge to scratch at the crawling feeling but she resisted, rolling onto her belly and propping herself up on her hands and knees. The heat from the fire dimmed as the temperature of her skin began to rise, and thick, black fur began to cover her body. Her bones snapped and cracked loudly. Her anatomy began to shrink painfully as she became more and more feline.

Crying out in agony, she fell on her side, the transformation reversing as she ceased to channel her aura. She turned her head slowly to look at the cause of her pain. Two new holes were in her threadbare sweater. She rolled up the wrist length sleeve to discover a pair of deep puncture wounds in her arm. She cursed under her breath.

Her head snapped up as she heard a scuffling somewhere behind her. Her ears swivelled toward the sound, and her tail lashed, showing her fear. The scuffling got closer and a familiar smell and clacking sound followed the presence.

‘Ragnor, you’re ok,’ she grinned, as the dog’s warm tongue licked at her face. He whined quietly when he spotted the wound on her arm. ‘It’s ok boy..... I just need to get a bandage...’

She rolled to her feet, swaying tiredly, and faced the other presence in the cave, her emerald green eyes seeming to glow.

‘Who the hell are you?!’ she cried, clutching her arm.

[Lady Blackwell]

The rain had stopped. The patter of raindrops from the drenched trees spattered onto Max’s bare back as he collected some extra firewood. He had taken advantage of the dryer weather. He really hated being cold and wet, so he had taken off his leather chest piece as soon as they had arrived back at the cave. It hadn’t been long since Max had returned to the cave with the unconscious female. The dog and he had been taking turns keeping watch over her and she hadn’t stirred since he’d rescued her.
Max was returning to the cave when he heard an agonised cry come from within.

“She’s awake,” he murmured to himself with a grin.
As Max stepped inside the cave, he heard the female utter the name Ragnor and the dog whine quietly. As his eyes adjusted to the lighting of the fire, he saw the female roll to her feet and sway tiredly, before crying “Who the hell are you?!”

Ragnor, as the dog’s name appeared to be, whined at the female, getting her attention, before trotting over to Max and sitting by his side.

“Hey boy,” Max greeted Ragnor, as he walked toward the back of the cave and dumped the armful of wood, so it could dry out a bit, “I’m the one who rescued you from the spider, Ragnor led me to you and has been keeping watch while I went to collect some more wood.” Max said as he brushed off the dirt that had accumulated on his chest from the wood he had collected.

[KageOkami]

Sorry about the late reply

She blinked. "Oh."

Her gaze traveled slowly over his tall frame, taking in the muscular build and the faint scars on his body. Her eyes narrowed and she strode forward, plucking a leech off his shoulder. She looked down at the wound on her bare arm and placed the leech next to the bloody punctures. The leech gripped onto her arm and as it began to feed hungrily, she looked up into her rescuer's face.

"Excuse my manners, but spiders have a nasty bite and having the tainted blood removed from my body was my priority," she explained. "I'm Shae. Shae Dow. And I believe you already know Ragnor. Now all that I must do is thank you properly. Thank you."
She beamed at Max and stepped forward and reached up to plant a kiss on his cheek.

"Now," she continued, reaching forward and placing a delicate hand on his bare chest, "what I am about to do may seem a little weird. But I must find...." Shae trailed off as she ran her hand deftly down Max's damp skin, trailing it down his stomach. She grinned at him as she pulled another leech off his body. She stepped back and waved the leech toward him, its head searching for somewhere to feed.

"Leeches love the damp, and seeings how you were carrying those branches close to your skin, I'm surprised that there were only two of these little guys," Shae commented as she placed the second leech by the other puncture wound in her arm, where it also latched on hungrily.

She turned on her heel smartly and walked to the other side of the fire, from where Max was standing ,with a small spring in her step. She sat facing the fire, legs crossed and her now dry tail in her lap. Ragnor trotted over to her and lay with his head on her knee.