Table of ContentsChapters One-Four (You are here!)
Chapter FiveChapter SixMoving this outta the sketchbook cuz like, what was I thinking, there's no way this is a short story.
I know I have two other fics and that one is in limbo, oh well, I DO WHAT I WANT. Plus it's werewolves and magic and an art major's take on science (read: BS)
Chapter one is basically the three parts I had in the one-shot thread all smushed together. Next chapter coming, like, soon. Maybe tonight.
Enjoy~
Crimson, Chapter OneSteel boots crunched through snow and brush as their wearer tramped sluggishly through the forest, her steps shaky and unstable. The armor had done the woman little good against razor sharp fangs and claws, and with every move she made, blood oozed from the wounds at her shoulder and at her hip, leaving behind a trail of crimson stark against the frozen earth. She knew very well that she wouldn't get far in this condition, but the woman pressed on, desperate to escape the borders of the wood before she succumbed to unconsciousness... perhaps even death.
With her good arm she gripped her shoulder tightly, attempting to stem the flow of blood a bit, and in her injured one was her sword, dark and slick with the life of her more unfortunate opponents. She was having great trouble keeping hold of it, and thus the tip dragged along the ground, scraping roughly against every rock and root it encountered.
The woman lurched suddenly, swaying dangerously into a tree, her sword falling to the ground with a clang. She slid down against the trunk until she was seated, grunting as her wounds complained in waves of pain.
This was it. She could not will her aching muscles to move any farther, and the blood loss clouded her ability to think. Even if she had the strength to stand, at this point she no longer knew where she was going. As the snow chilled her body, she drew her red cloak tight around herself for what little comfort it would provide.
As she lay there waiting for the darkness to take her, the woman's thoughts were of the people she loved: her best friend, torn to pieces while defending her home, her parents, likely dead as well, and her sister, whom she hoped was faring better than she. Hot tears burned trails down her cheeks, and she leaned her head back against the tree, silently mourning all that had been lost.
And then anger washed away the sorrow, and she gritted her teeth hard to hold back the bile that burned in her throat.
The attack had come with no warning at all, no provocation, not even a glimpse of suspicious activity around the borders of the city. Instead, the wolves had descended upon them in the night like deadly shadows, destroying everything in sight, everything she had held dear. There was simply no time to react; her years of training to slay the beasts were useless in the face of an ambush so carefully calculated. And with them being so easily outnumbered...
She did not deserve to be a knight after such failure. It would have been better that she died alongside the others than to suffer the cruel fate of lingering here. The woman coughed weakly as she allowed fresh tears to fall for herself.
A branch snapped somewhere nearby, and she lifted her head slightly, unable to discern if the sound was real or hallucination. Even now with death breathing down her neck, her instinct was to reach for her sword, and she pulled the weapon towards her, propping it up against her knee as best she could.
Her eyes had begun to flutter shut as a large shape emerged from the trees in front of her, and though black spots were taking over her vision, the low rumble that followed told her all she needed to know.
Of course... I've left a trail so thick even a cub would be able to find me here..."Well, well..." A voice, sounding much more like a constant growl than anything else, brusquely interrupted the silence, "Never in my life did I expect to see a Red in these parts... And never in a thousand lifetimes one so near her final breath..."
The woman coughed out a laugh, smirking as best she could.
"Have you come to kill me, wolf? I spilled the blood of at least three of your brothers before I came to be here..."
The figure loomed closer to the woman, to where she could now fully make out the details even as her vision was fading. It was a giant wolf, standing a good six feet from massive paw to shoulder, light brown fur easily contrasting with the snow. The woman noted that the beast was a bit more slender and much less wild-looking than the wolves that had laid siege to her home, almost like a dog, and she thought this was peculiar until her eyes landed on something secured around the wolf's neck.
A collar, fashioned of a length of leather and pieces of metal--the knight knew from experience this was silver--was fastened tightly around the beast's neck, obviously much too small as it was embedded into fur and skin.
A slave..."My brothers?" The wolf questioned, something akin to amusement coloring its' growl, "I have no brothers here. And neither do you, it would seem..."
The knight feebly lifted the tip of her sword, pointing it towards the wolf's neck as it padded closer.
"I have some bite left in me." She warned, having no intention of going down without a struggle.
But the wolf stopped moving, settling down on its hind legs in front of the knight and lowering its head so that the woman could look into piercing golden eyes.
"Indeed. What is your name, Red?"
Never once lowering her sword, the woman used her good arm to prop herself up against the tree as best she could.
"Niigaki Risa." Came the labored response, "What do you intend to do with me, wolf?"
"I intend for you to rest."
Those golden eyes began to blur in the knight's vision, and were the last thing Risa saw before she faded, a peaceful haze overtaking her.
----------
The dark-haired woman was staring quietly out of one of the castle's large glass windows, her expression neutral as she scanned the forest below for signs of life. It had been over a day now since her partner sent out her... "pet" on a retrieval mission, and there had been no word of the wolf's return yet. Not that she was worried, of course; she cared little about what happened to the beast. But if Aika didn't come back alive, their research would be sure to grind to a halt, perhaps even cease altogether;
that was a thought she refused to entertain, particularly now as she and her partner were entering their fifth year of working on this project.
She was Michishige Sayumi and she was known simply as, in laymen's terms, a witch. Her affinity for magic began developing at a very early age, and was realized one day when she accidentally turned her younger brother into a toad. Fortunately, a traveling wizard happened to be passing through her hometown at the time and managed to rectify the problem before any real permanent damage was done, though afterwards on occasion she had caught her brother eyeing houseflies with rapt attention. The wizard had lectured her parents on how obvious it was that she needed training to gain control over her abilities, and within a month she was shipped off to the capital city to study magic at the Academy.
She easily surpassed her peers in skill and ability, and every year she ranked top of her class. Before long she was the one teaching others, and was frequently called upon by the royal family to aid in magical disputes, despite her young age.
That was where her partner came in. Tanaka Reina was a spitfire and recent graduate of one of the kingdom's most prestigious medical schools; a surgeon by trade, the girl was ambitious and fancied herself a scientist of sorts. Their first meeting ended in a shouting match that nearly evolved into a full-blown fist fight, simply because their ideologies were so wholly different from each other. Sayumi believed that magic was the solution to most of the world's problems while Reina put her stock in science.
An alliance between them would have never occurred naturally, but the two were referred by higher-ups in their respective fields and brought together for a very specific task: they were to use their talents to develop a cure for lycanthropy.
They set up their base of operations in the castle; an abandoned military fortress that had been converted into a trading outpost over the last several years. Reina had the dungeons converted into a laboratory of sorts, and together they spent countless hours of research and testing in it. Of course, finding specimens to use was the difficult part, as no werewolf would voluntarily offer themselves up, and neither she or Reina had the skills to capture the beasts. Primarily they relied on the service of the Red Knights, whose entire existence was based on slaying and enslaving the lycans, but even then it was rare that the Reds managed to bring a wolf back alive.
With Aika, they had been extraordinarily lucky. The kid had survived a lycan raid while sustaining major wounds,
and managed to live through the painful process of the venom turning her into something less-than-human. Though Sayumi carried a distaste for the wolves in general, she had to admit that Aika's cooperation and willingness to submit to their trials was impressive--and she had no doubt many of the treatments were excruciatingly painful. The girl adored Reina more anyway, and followed the young scientist around the grounds like a puppy, probably because the woman treated her... well, like a human being.
But she's not.Sayumi sighed, narrowing her eyes. Reina's bleeding heart was sure to cause them trouble someday...
"Have you seen her yet?"
A voice broke into her thoughts and Sayumi turned to see her partner standing at the doorway, looking as though she was trying hard not to be too hopeful. The elder of the two shook her head, turning back to glance outside as the other woman joined her at her side.
"I haven't seen the dog yet, no. It's still not been too incredibly long, though..."
"I told you, she's not 'dog' or 'pet' or 'slave,'" Reina replied with a huff as she bristled next to the witch, "Her name is Aika. And maybe you don't care, but it hurts her when you call her things like that. It's not like she chose this... It's a terrible curse and burden for her to bear."
Sayumi shrugged, tossing raven-colored locks back over her shoulders. Reina could scold all she wanted to, but it wouldn't change how she felt; a wolf was a wolf.
Suddenly the scientist jumped and pointed at something in the distance, and the witch followed her finger to spot what had been seen. A flash of crimson was racing against the snow, a tiny pinprick in the distance, and as it neared Sayumi realized it was a cloak; specifically, the signature trademark of a Red. The cloak's wearer was slung limply over Aika's back, and even from the tower the witch could tell the knight was badly injured.
Perhaps they'd be lucky again a second time.
In an instant, Reina darted out of the room with Sayumi on her heels, the duo descending from the tower as fast as their legs would carry. When they reached the main hall, the servants were already opening the giant wooden entrance, and Aika burst inside, scattering snow and dirt all over the floor. The exhausted girl was already returning to her human form, and Reina was there with a warm fluffy cloak to drape around the werewolf's shoulders, while Sayumi and the servants eased the unconscious knight to the ground.
"I... ran as fast as I could..." Aika panted, drawing the cloak tight around her bare skin. "She's still holding on to life, but she was horribly weak to begin with when I found her..."
"How ironic that it should be a knight..." Reina murmured to herself, allowing the younger girl to lean on her for support. Her eyes briefly settled on the knight's face, observing her features. The woman couldn't have been much older than herself, even.
"Are you sure she was bitten?" Sayumi asked from her knees, glancing up at the werewolf with an eyebrow raised.
"Positive. The venom is all over those wounds. And she was the only survivor for miles..."
"Either way..." Reina cut in quietly, "She's hurt and we need to treat her now or she won't make it through the night whether she's infected or not."
The scientist motioned to the servants to carry the knight, and then she made her way towards the dungeons, Sayumi and Aika trailing behind. She could only hope the girl was as much a fighter on the inside as she looked.
----------
"Put her on the table there," Reina motioned to the servants, who laid Risa out on a raised stone slab in the center of the room. The main area of the laboratory had once been the dungeon's torture chamber, a fact that never failed to set the scientist on edge whenever she set foot inside. Though it had been completely gutted and refashioned with the proper equipment and looked nothing like its previous incarnation, the atmosphere always seemed a bit oppressive, and Aika complained of hearing faint screams now and then. Reina attributed this to the unending mysteries behind lycanthropy, and had long since ceased to doubt the younger girl's claims...
Impatiently dismissing the servants with her hand, the impulsive young woman hovered over the table, able to see her patient more clearly now under the lights--strange orbs that were some trick of Sayumi's, intended to hover around anyone who entered the room.
"Help me get her armor and clothing off."
Aika obediently moved to begin undoing the knight's boots, and Reina shot a pointed glance at Sayumi, who stood off to the side with her arms crossed.
"She's bleeding all over the place," The witch stated dryly, making it obvious she wasn't about to lift a finger. "I don't do blood."
Reina snorted, biting back the urge to comment that there wasn't much Sayumi
did do other than make her life difficult. Soon she and the werewolf had rid the knight of all barriers, and the scientist winced at the sight of the deep wounds on the woman's shoulder. Lycan fangs could crush metal like dead autumn leaves, and the venom they transmitted was extremely potent and nine times out of ten, fatal. If a human wasn't ripped to shreds during an attack, the poison was sure to kill them. Rarely was a person fortunate enough to be consumed by the curse instead.
"She's got a great body, though~"
The scientist scowled at her partner's words, quickly draping a white sheet over Risa's body.
"Pervert," She hissed, though she couldn't control the way her face heated up at the words, "Make yourself useful and conjure up some water, will ya?"
Sayumi smirked devilishly, but complied nevertheless, murmuring words in an ancient tongue, drawing water from the air to coalesce into a sphere that hovered in between her hands. This Reina passed pieces of cloth through and used them to clean Risa's wounds. As she worked, she realized Aika was shifting uncomfortably at her side, and the scientist looked to see that the werewolf was fidgeting with the collar about her neck, fingers recoiling in pain each time they accidentally brushed against the silver bits.
"It's about time we built you a new one, I think," Reina commented, nodding at the device, "You've outgrown the last three so fast..."
"I don't like it," Aika whimpered, "It burns and it chokes me when I transform..."
"It's a symbol of your rightful place," Sayumi cut in, shooting Reina a sharp glare before the scientist could attempt to comfort the younger girl, "Without that collar, the knights would cut you down on sight. You should be grateful you've been afforded the distinction."
The scientist whirled to face the witch, prepared to give her a sharp tongue-lashing, when the girl on the table moved, a light groan escaping her lips. The trio gathered closer around the knight, each with varying degrees of shock on their faces.
"Impossible- an attack like that..." Reina's eyes shot to the wound on Risa's shoulder, and watched in bewilderment as the edges of skin began to slowly stitch themselves back together of their own accord.
"Proves your theory that the venom affects everyone differently." Sayumi replied, curiously watching the wound as well.
So focused were the two that they realized too late that Risa's eyes were beginning to open, the irises colored a deep amber-gold. But Aika's focus never left the knight, and as soon as the woman lunged for Reina, the werewolf shifted, snarling and pinning Risa to the table with her massive paws.
The knight struggled against Aika, a growl of her own escaping her mouth as she stared the wolf down. Reina watched in a mixture of horror and fascination as the woman spit blood and teeth from her mouth, sharp canines quickly moving to fill in the gaps. She'd watched Aika transform many times, but this was the first time for her to witness the venom taking hold of a victim.
"Sayu!" Her worried shout snapped the witch out of her own fear, and Sayumi uttered a spell that caused the chains dangling at the corners of the table to spring to life. The chains wound themselves tightly around Risa's limbs, binding her to the stone slab. But soon they would be completely ineffective, and Aika was not exactly the strongest representative for her kind.
As the knight convulsed and writhed against the chains, Reina darted to the other side of the room, fumbling with a pouch attached to her waist. Eventually she managed to produce a key from it, and the scientist knelt down beside a small wooden chest, quickly unlocking it. Inside lay a single item: an intricately carved amulet with a blood-red stone set into it, attached to a delicate golden chain. The stone glowed faintly when she reached in to grab it, the result of some ten months of magical endowment by Sayumi.
When she returned to the table, prepared to slip the amulet around Risa's neck, the witch's hand shot out to stop her.
"It's not safe." Sayumi hissed, "The incantations aren't yet complete- we have no way of knowing what it'll do to her."
"We don't have time to test it," Reina replied firmly, yanking her arm free, "And in minutes we're going to have a very angry newborn lycan on our hands. Unless you have a better idea, we have little choice."
The witch relented, stepping out of her partner's way as she moved forward again, pulling the amulet over Risa's head. As soon as the stone touched the knight's skin, it shone more fiercely, and the woman fell limp against the table, unconscious once more.
A heavy silence fell on the room, neither the witch or the scientist able to speak, and a few moments passed before Aika relaxed enough to shift back into human form. The young werewolf peered curiously at the amulet, its crimson glow reflecting in her eyes.
"Is she dead?" Aika questioned, reaching a hand out tentatively as if to touch the stone. Reina quickly pushed her away.
"No. Not dead. But you might be if you touch that." The scientist warned, still tense from what could have happened.
"What... is it?"
"Think of it as an inhibitor of sorts..." Sayumi offered lazily, her demeanor the polar opposite to Reina's edge, "It's meant to keep the venom from spreading throughout her body. I assumed it would need much more preparation than this but even I surprise myself with how good I am at magic sometimes~"
"I don't think it's stopped it completely," The scientist started, hovering over Risa once again, "Her wounds are still regenerating, and her body temperature definitely exceeds that of a normal human being."
It wasn't even close to a cure, but perhaps it would buy them some time. Working with Aika had been all but fruitless, as the curse had overtaken her system so completely that it was completely resistant to anything she and Sayumi tried. But the knight was in a limbo stage of sorts now, and there was a chance they could cure her before she turned. It gave Reina hope that their research hadn't been in vain.
"So what do we do now?" Sayumi asked, growing impatient.
"We wait until she wakes up. I don't feel comfortable doing anything until we've at least asked her about it first..."
The witch rolled her eyes.
"You know we have to carry out the experiments whether she agrees or not."
"I don't care, I still want a chance to explain everything first."
Sayumi threw up her hands, shaking her head as she turned on her heel to exit the room.
"Fine, but I'm having a collar made in the meantime. ...I'll get another one made for you as well, dog."
Reina scowled as the witch insulted the young werewolf yet again, but Aika simply smiled and nodded her head.
"Thank you, Michishige-san..."
"Whatever."
And then she was gone, much to Reina's relief. Sayumi was intelligent and extraordinarily talented but they'd never once ceased to get under the other's skin. How Aika managed to greet her with a smile everyday was beyond the scientist's understanding. Reina sighed, running a hand through her hair as she gathered her thoughts.
"I need you to watch her. And let me know as soon as she wakes up." Reina turned to Aika, earning a nod from her companion, "I don't know if the amulet will suppress her emotions, and though she hasn't turned, I want you there with me just in case."
"Of course." She didn't need to ask. There was simply no way Aika was about to leave the person she considered as good as blood alone with a potential threat.
It would be another three days before Risa finally woke up.
Topic: Crimson [Chapter Six, 7/9] (Read 9760 times)