The Grind of Gears, the Screams of Beasts

[Atrina]

It was a beautiful summer day in the forests to the south of Alerar. Birds were chirping, and Fen was running about excitedly in the sunbeams coming through the trees. Atrina was milling about, collecting whatever plants she felt would make for a nice summer stew. A few tubers here and there, some edible mushrooms, and a chunk of venison from a doe not long dead from a pack of wolves. For a moment, Atrina was still, a blank look on her face.

"Oh. What was it?" She looked down at her arm, and written in deer blood was a single word, 'stew.' "Right, we're making stew tonight! C'mon Fen, we need a few more things before we need to start cooking."

Atrina began walking towards one of the smaller outlying villages, her simple tattered dress swishing in the breeze. She had forgotten what she needed, but a cook from town would probably know what to do with what she had. She failed to notice at first the sudden lack of sounds coming from behind her, or the words carried softly on the wind. Every few minutes she would stop in her tracks, mouth open, completely still, only to look down and read her arm again. She looked around inside her bag, and would continue on her way.

A low rumble carried through the forest now, something much larger than normal making its way through the dense trees. Atrina was finally aware of something being amiss when a terrifyingly loud roar rang through her ears. Not twenty yards to the left and behind her was a massive bear, perhaps three times the size of a normal black bear. It was angry, and ran towards the same little village Atrina was on her way to cook her meal. Her duty to protect all things kicked her legs into gear, and she ran at the beast in an attempt to calm it down, and perhaps understand what could have made it so large.

She was much slower, however, and only made slower by her full bag. There was no telling what an angry beast of such size could do to even a full grown man, or what those full grown men might try to do to subdue it. Every life deserved a chance once it was brought into being, and Atrina wanted to make sure of it. She chased it for nearly half a mile before the small market and residences of the village were in full view. The beast let out another massive roar before bounding into the town teeth first.

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent Cain was sitting in wait as he watched the large creature barrel down the hill. The swordsman had been informed by his very cryptic boss that he would need to save this village at exactly high noon on that hill. Of course he was not aware that it would be in fact, a big ass bear. The mongrel was slobbering and all sorts of angry, and the scholar did not know how to handle the fact.

On one hand, he was flattered Leona thought he could handle such a large bear. On the other, he was scared shitless of the unnaturally large bear. He hopped off his stump and whistled for a moment.

“You’re really fucking ugly.” He muttered to himself as he charged at the bear. Now an ordinary human would look rather silly charging at such a large creature, but Vincent could hit up to thirty miles an hour when he was spinting, and needless to say when he dove into the furry son of a bitch both him and the bear made it back up the hill and then some. A young woman watched in abject horror as the scholar proceeded to wrestle with the creature.

“Yeah eat this knuckle sandwich you furry asshole!” Vince spat as he brought both of his hands up in an upercutting motion, willing them to double their kinetic speed as he sent the seething mound of fur into the air. The mammal made a crying noise and took off into the forest in a flash of brown fur leaving the scholar with a young woman with a very large sack in her hands.

“Was that bear bothering you?”

[Atrina]

Atrina was left somewhat stunned as the man in front of her literally picked up the oversized bear, and then punched it right in the mouth. She kept running until he spoke to her, and her mind went blank. She still still a moment and then looked around. She looked down at her arm, reading once again, 'stew' written in blood. She was near the town, of course, so she must have gotten everything already. Perfect! Who was this man though, Atrina pondered while looking at Vince. Clues gave away that he was expecting some sort of response. Atrina wondered how far into a conversation they might be, and what did he mean by a bear bothering her?

"What's that mean? Like, is that a metaphor? I'm Atrina by the way." Atrina sort of half waved. Maybe he'd think she was crazy or something. Fen jumped around at Atrina's feet, less excited than usual, and hiding behind her a bit.

"This is Fen by the way. Say hi Fen!" She picked up the fox and held her out at arm's length. Fen yipped quietly and waved a paw at Vince. Again though, Atrina seemed to stare into the distance for a second, her arms drooping a bit without dropping her fox.

She looked about for a second. Fen was in her arms, and she had written 'Stew' on it. Was Fen going in a stew? Nonsense! There was a man looking at her, perhaps in a bit of disbelief or curiosity, she couldn't tell. Maybe he had asked a question? Oh well.

"Hi, I'm Atrina! Oh, and this is Fen! Say hi Fen." She picked her arms up for Fen to wave with her paw and yip quietly at Vince.

"Can I help you with something?" She asked, oblivious to anything that had previously happened.

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent paused for a moment as the air head spoke. He was debating her question, was the bear a metaphor? Was this some form of trial that Leona had cooked up? The scholar dove into a mini existential crisis, could this all be some form of game to some higher beings who sat around with nothing better to do than write short stories on the internet? Nah. The scholar shrugged as he listened to the young woman introduce herself and her fox. He opened his mouth to reply when she introduced herself once more.

That was odd, and the scholar was a fine connoisseur of odd. He lived in a glorified fallout shelter in the middle of a deadly forest with a bunch of freaks for Jormil’s sake. The only way to find anything odder was to go visit the Ixian Knights during their lunches featuring twice baked potatoes. His boss could see the future, his best friend was an angel who liked to shape change into little boys, and his roommate was an actual Star. Not like a famous actor, she was a star, or at least that’s how Vincent seemed to interpret it. This woman however, was odd even by that point. Who the fuck calls a bear a metaphor.

“Hello? Are you ok?” Vince asked cocking his head to one side.

[Atrina]

Atrina looked herself up and down. She didn't look injured, so she didn't really know why she wouldn't be ok.

"Hi," she waved at him, "I'm pretty sure I'm ok."

Fen wriggled her way out of Atrina's grip and scampered over to Vince to sniff all around him. Atrina sort of just rocked on her heels. She had no idea who this guy was or why she was talking to him. Had they already met or something? Maybe he was just weird, and liked to confuse young women for fun. "Fen doesn't bite by the way, unless she doesn't like you. But she usually likes everyone. Anyway, why wouldn't I be ok?"

Atrina did her best to crane her neck around and check everyone. Her arms and legs were still attached, and nothing was sore, or even bruised. There were certainly times in which Atrina was entirely unable to explain bruises, even without a patent-pending memory wipe. Oh! Maybe that was it.

"Oh sorry maybe I.." Atrina trailed off a bit, perhaps a bit longer this time. Her jaw hung in the air, eyes staring into dead space. She shook her head hard, wondering where she was. She felt a bit worse off than she usually would, coming out of an episode. There would definitely be enough time for Vince to respond in some way before Atrina would be aware enough to form a proper response.

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent paused for a moment as she checked over herself, thoroughly confused. This was beyond weird. She was spacing out as she spoke, her fox sniffed him carefully, licking at his unclenched fingers. Clearly there was something wrong with this woman. A warm breeze blew through the air as the two stood there observing each other. The sky above had cleared of all clouds and let the sun shine freely down on the two of them, glittering off the youth’s dirty mane of blonde hair.

“There was a bear…and I saved you from it and then we started having this conversation…” he sighed. “Did you hit your head on a rock nearby or something? You seem a little dazed.” The scholar stooped to eye level with her and frowned. “Do you mind if I like…examine you? I have a bit of training in this sort of thing…” his worried gaze scanned her body for any sign of injury. So far it had seemed she was not in any immediate need of treatment, but a head injury was hard to tell and could often kill someone before they realized they were injured.

The fox paused and sniffed the air before trotting back over to the young woman and sitting down next to her. “Maybe you..?” Vincent asked as she trailed off.

[Atrina]

Atrina finally snapped to attention again. She couldn't have known what would cause her episode to have taken so long, nor was she aware of that fact. Vince's words sounded a bit muffled at first, something about a bear attack or something.

"Thanks? Oh, I'm Atrina by the way. This is Fen," She said, in the same bouncy tone as before. "I don't think I hit my head on anything. Oh, have we already met? Sorry, I forget things a lot." She laughed, throwing her hands up in a way that said, 'oh well!'

"Sorry about that. Yea, you can go ahead and look. Though the trees never thought anything of it, so I don't either. What was your name, by the way?" Atrina was all smiles. It wasn't often people talked to her for more than a minute at a time. At least, she didn't think so. She couldn't really remember meeting any people that weren't actually just animals. She did remember a little bit about some mages studying her, but couldn't remember if they said what made her like this. Not that it mattered anyway, they obviously didn't do anything to fix it.

"I think it's probably some magic. I don't care too much though. What's this about a bear though? If a bear is attacking people I should probably find it and ask it not to. Do you know if it was male or female?"

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent stared flabbergasted by the woman in front of him. She literally had the memory of a goldfish. She introduced herself once more and he managed to get slightly further into the conversation. "You lose your memory that quickly?” the scholar asked frowning. The peered at her, scanning for any apparent injuries. Finding none he cleared his throat and brushed himself off. “The bear has been taken care of, he tried to attack the town and I chased him off.”

He ran a hand through his hair absentmindedly as he contemplated what to do. He had heard as much about her life as she could remember, and it was not in his nature to leave those in distress behind. “Is there anything I can help you with? Im loathe to leave someone in your situation alone to their own devices.”

[Atrina]

Fen yipped quietly, turning her head towards the forest. She was still, cautious even, as she walked around Atrina's legs. "It used to be worse, I think. After I little while I can tell when I've forgotten in the middle of something, but when dealing with mostly things that don't talk, it doesn't tend to matter. If something is really important I write it down on my arm and then try to figure our where I'm at from that."

Atrina paid a bit closer attention to Fen now, as she felt a strange imbalance in the air. The was a low rumbling in the distance, as if something massive were jumping up and down. "Uhh, I think you could help me with a bear. That might be a much larger bear than what they usually are."

Off in the woods, and angry roar sounded out, followed by a second. There was another now, a companion, and they wanted nothing but to kill. "Are you sure that was a bear," Atrina asked, looking behind in her in a state of disbelief, with a small amount of fear peppered on. Atrina did not fear death, in that she did not care whether or not her soul would remain conscious, but she did fear an inability to act in the way she had been trained. What would happen if she came to a problem she could not solve? Perhaps today, she would find out.

The rumbling grew louder quickly, and gave way to clearer sound of footsteps on the forest floor. The thick forest blocked the image of both bears was blocked until they were nearly upon Atrina and the strong-armed scholar Vince. Atrina's eyes fixated on them, and grew wide. She was terrified for a split second, as each of the bears came forward. They were a mere fifty yards away when Atrina looked up at Vince.

"Oh uh. I kind of did it again. What were we talking about?"

[Cards of Fate]

Vince gritted his teeth, “Oh for fucks sake, really Leona?” he sighed and reached into his robe to pull out a moderately sized mahogany cane. “Well at least I get to try out the beating stick.” He twirled the cane in his hand and pushed Atrina behind him. “My names Vincent, I saved you from that bear now it has its buddy for backup now.” He paused for a moment glancing from her to the bears. “On second thought you should go warn the people of…fuck you’ll just forget it again.”

He palmed his forehead with his free hand and turned back to the bear. “Bring it on! When I’m done with you you’re going to be BEARY scared of the man they call Vincent Cain.” He dashed forward and met the bears with a mighty swing of his cane. He felt the enchantment whirr as he pelted the larger of the two full force. The wooden cane collided with the give of Damascus and the force of six men into the bear’s skull, sending its head whipping away from the blow with a horrendous moan as a fang or two flew from its gaping maw.

The other had ignored its friend falling and lunged for Vince, murderous intent in its eyes. It would have been lacy gently wafting curtains for Vincent had he not suddenly blinked out of existence in a flash of blue light. The scholar reappeared above the bear and brought the cane down upon it with two hands with a savage crack. The bear howled in pain as it collapsed to the ground unconscious, the youth standing over it victoriously.

“Damn it’s a shame you’re going to forget all of that, because that was really fucking badass.”

[Atrina]

Atrina winced as Vincent went to town with his cane, sending one bear running for the hills and another into the ground. She always hated seeing anything getting injured, and it was just such a gruesome sight seeing actual violence. Though, the pun could have been better.

"I sort of hope I do, I can barely stand such poor quality punnery," she replied, raising an eyebrow momentarily. Without wasting much time, however, she examined the oversized beast that lay on the ground. It was certainly magical, she could tell with little need to actually examine the beast. It absolutely reeked of dryad magic, and not the fun kind that led to entire forests blooming or purifying lakes, but the kind that declared wars and claimed lands.

"Something is making these this way though. Bears don't travel with other bears." Atrina blinked hard, her eyelids feeling heavy.

"And I think that this magic is..." she dozed off for a second, mid thought. She fought through it, gaining a headache for her troubles. Magics conjured by some desires would set off her episodes artificially, typically anything angry or malcontent. But even this felt somewhat worse than usual, and fighting to remain in the present for now was going to take some serious effort.

Atrina shook her head, holding it with her hand. Fen sniffed around her, curious, and somewhat worried. "I think it's something evil, or at least really mad about something. I can't tell."

[Cards of Fate]

Vincent climbed down from the critter and glared at the young woman slightly. “You can sense that?” he asked looking to the forest. His brow furrowed slightly as he chewed his lips and ran a nervous hand through his hair. Over the horizon a faint boom of thunder echoed across the skyline. “A storm is coming, we should head back towards the town.”

Atrina let out a half nod and trotted behind the scholar as they made their way towards the village as Vincent let out a string of questions to no avail. The young woman had literally no idea about her past it seemed. When they arrived a confused looking butcher eyed the two.

“Who is he Girlie?” he inquired curiously.

“Who are you?” Vincent asked raising an eyebrow. “Do you know her?”

[Atrina]

"Of course we know her, this girl's the reason my wife isn't still lying in bed with a fever and a cough." The butcher stood defiantly in front of Vincent, his arms crossed over. The man was terribly protective of the village. With the strange sounds coming from the forest, he had good reason to be.

"Hi," Atrina spoke up, holding her hands to her ears. Even a quiet conversation would set her head to a piercing pressure that threatened to rock the druid from her cheery mood. "Um, I know him I think. He's fine, he helped me with a thing."

Giving up on walking anywhere else, Atrina simply sat on the ground. She was exhausted, her head hurt, and confusion was growing inside of her. What would cause a dryad to desecrate the natural beauty of animals, though? Dryads weren't supposed to be prone to anger, much less affect the wildlife around them because of it. Something must be going on.

"Vincent, I need to sleep or I won't be able to do anything. I'm probably going to forget all of this very shortly after I do, so I'm telling you: something is angering a dryad, or maybe a forest spirit. Something magical that would take days or weeks to track down. Whatever is doing it, we need to stop it."

Atrina looked up to her newfound companion and the butcher, both looking full of questions. Almost robotically, Atrina laid back in the grass and fell asleep. Someone trained in magic might have been able to sense a certain energy around her; but those who were not would simply feel that this is a normal occurrence, a side-effect of her strange nature that did not require interruption.

--

The butcher put his arm over Vincent and pulled him away from Atrina, just far enough to be out of earshot. "We best let her rest. Listen, we heard the sounds from earlier. We ain't heard anything like that, least not in my life."

He looked over as the girl slept, looking just the same as every time she came to the village to rest. "Now, I can tell you what might be eatin' her spirit or drya-whatever up. There's a logging village up a mile or two to the south, I hear they've been gettin' pretty deep into the forest with some new machine of theirs, cutting all day and night."

The butcher felt a little nervous about awakening the girl. His untrained mind and spirit could only feel that they should be giving Atrina more space. He motioned to Vince, turning back towards the town, "why don't you come with me to the shop, and I'll fix you a supper? I can have Tilly put together something the girl might like. She'll be out a few hours anyway."