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Chapter 7
Soul Scourge
The letter was written in Uncle Roderick's neat, spiky style and was blotted with drops of ink and occasional scribbles and crossings out as Roderick sought for the right words to say.
Dear Jane:
If you are reading this, then I am surely dead. I'm sorry I never had the time to talk to you when you were younger, but there was so little time, and so much to do.
Your parents didn't die of heart attacks as it said on their death certificates, but the truth is that they gave their lives fighting humanity's enemies.
I will not tell you how they died, for that is too disturbing for even me to recollect.
Another thing I didn't tell you is that the entire family line of Palmers, every Palmer to have been born is or has been a primal.
I am not sure if you know this or not, I was unable to ascertain your time or emergence with my close friend Manitou. But I am assured by your apparently growing interest in this furry subculture that I am certain you will continue the 'family tradition.'
I am sorry I wasn't around to see your awakening (if of course it has happened before you read this).
I was instructed by my brother Edward, your father, to tell you as you get older, but I couldn't, I didn't want to give you the burden. I'm sorry for this and I hope you can forgive me.
Upon the event of my death, you will inherit the family savings and Manitou will become your legal guardian.
Jane, I wish I could have said this to you in person, but I fear I am too late. Already I can hear them crawling around my psychic defences.
You are NOT alone. Don't ever lose hope.
If you have not awakened yet, Manitou can help you when you come close to it.
You will undoubtedly have questions, and Manitou has assured me he can and will answer them. He is the person to turn to should you find yourself lost.
You can make a difference, Jane. The future of life on Earth depends on you and your fellow primals.
Your loving uncle,
Roderick
PS: Enclosed in the envelope are two pictures, taken before you were born. One is of us; me, your father Edward and your mother Chastity, as humans, and the other of me, Edward, Chastity and Manitou in our true forms.
Jane paused after finishing it. There was a last block of scrawl covering the rest of the page that chilled her, but she couldn't help smiling as her fur stood on end. She re-read it twice, the words filling her with hope and, at last, a sense of purpose.
Jane tipped the envelope and two dog-eared pictures fell out. The first she picked up showed Roderick, Edward and Chastity standing next to each other as humans.
Edward was tall, lean and imposing, holding a thick book under one arm and had a chin covered with the starting stubble of a beard. He had lime green eyes like Jane. Her mother Chastity stood next to him, slightly shorter and looking at least five months pregnant. Jane had inherited from her mother her long black hair and the two dimples that appeared when she smiled. She was smiling in the photo. Roderick was leaning into the frame on the right side, dressed like a hippy, all long hair, peace signs, flared trousers and those little circular glasses.
The other photo was larger. Manitou stood in the centre, wings unfolded and hanging over the other three primals. Jane's heart leapt when she saw them. Roderick, still with his glasses on and still making peace signs, was a large, sleek ferret. Edward was even taller, and covered in the thick orange fur of the fox. He was still holding that book. Jane could see more of the cover, but it was just black leather. Jane smiled widely when she saw her mother as a primal, for she was a bat too.
"Thanks, mom," Jane sighed. "I wish you were still alive today…"
"No… don't…"
Jane whipped her head around at the voice. It was Lulu, tossing and turning in her bed. Jane got out of her own bed and was about to wrap the blanked around herself until she decided not to, on account of the fur.
"Lulu?" Jane said, shaking the mumbling girl by the shoulders.
"Aaaah!" Lulu yelped, blasting the ceiling with a shot of manna, narrowly missing Jane, and sat bolt upright.
"Don't shoot! She's okay!" Manitou said to the two agents standing guard by the door, who were reaching into their suit pockets for their guns. It must be an automatic response, or something, Manitou thought. The commotion had woken Nina as well, and she got out of bed, realised she was in her underwear and still primal and dragged the curtains around her bed shut. Jane heard Nina's sudden shocked intake of breath as she started changing back to human.
Lulu stared at Jane, tears welling in her eyes.
"Jane?" Lulu whispered. Manitou appeared at her side, but she ignored him.
"…Yes?" Jane said, leaning back. That stare was disconcerting.
"Ohthankyouthankyouthankyou!" Lulu cried, pulling Jane into a firm hug. Jane looked questioningly at Manitou over Lulu's shaking shoulder, but he was lost for words.
"You saved us!" Lulu said, letting go. "I could feel myself disappearing; I was forgetting things from when I was younger. You saved me…" Lulu said, quietening down and sniffing.
"Where am I?" she asked as Nina appeared from behind her curtain, fully dressed and flattening down her hair.
"You're in a ward in L.P. Hospital," Jane said, ignoring Nina's muttered correction of the town's name.
"Only the head doctor knows we're here," Manitou reassured them. "The FBI made sure of that." He pointed over his shoulder at the two agents guarding the door. They saluted stiffly. Nina visibly tensed at the sight of them.
Lulu leaned back on her cushion, flexing her fingers while staring at them intently. "It felt so weird… having only hooves… weird, until a voice told me it wasn't, and I believed it…"
Lulu closed her eyes and sighed. Then snapped them open again.
"Where's Adrian?!" she shouted, scrambling out of her bed.
"He's… He's in a secured intensive care room," Manitou said, stumbling over his words.
"So he's not dead?" Lulu yelped.
"No, but-"
"Where is he?" Lulu shouted, grabbing the lapels of Manitou's jacket in her hysterical excitement.
The FBI, true to their job of hushing things up, had secured almost the entire top floor of the hospital. All the patients had been moved to the lower floors, and the ones that couldn't be moved weren't likely to get up and wander around any time soon. What doctors and nurses that were allowed upstairs were accompanied by a duo of agents.
Despite the high security, Jane refused to become human again, saying she'd prefer to spend as much time as she could in her 'true form'" before she had to go outside.
Their agent double act took them to an even more protected room, in which a trio of frazzled doctors tried to do his job with at least five agents standing in the room. In the centre of the room was a bed, on which lay Adrian. He was still in his primal form, and wasn't moving. Lulu moaned when she saw each of the doctor's gloves had Adrian dark red blood on it, and one was feverishly closing an enormous stab wound in Adrian's stomach.
They were forced to wait outside the room for a tense half hour until the doctor's emerged.
"How is he?" Lulu asked, jolting to her feet an instant after the doors closed behind the doctors.
"We've done all we can," the oldest said. "I'm no expert on primal physiology, but his was luckily still close enough to a human's for us to clean and stitch the wounds."
"So I can see him now?"
"I'm… not sure. He won't wake up, and he's rejecting all the nutrients we give him. There was something… weird with the weapon that injured him. There's still a chance he could-"
But Lulu had barged past him and into the room.
The three primals followed and found her sitting on a plastic chair next to Adrian's bed. Lulu had tears in her eyes again and her hand in Adrian's paw, which dwarfed hers entirely.
Adrian was taking slow, shallow breaths through a clear plastic mask, and the monitor showed weak heartbeats. Manitou sensed a faint discharge of manna from Lulu's other hand, its glow invisible in the harsh light of the strip lighting, feeding into the gash in Adrian's stomach.
Lulu looked up at them, her face set in stony determination. "He will wake up," she said, like the statement would change the way the world was. She then turned back to her lover, running her slender hands through his mane.
"Come on, we'd best leave her," Manitou said solemnly, walking back into the corridor. "She needs to be alone with him."
Manitou stepped back to let a troupe of soldiers past, not really noticing them. Jane was leaning on a window sill, staring at the birds outside and occasionally shaking a ruffle out of her wings. Nina slumped down on a chair and started to take out a packet of cigarettes before she remembered where she was.
Troupe of soldiers?
Manitou decided to follow the rifle carrying men when he heard a familiar voice bark out an order, followed by protests from nurses about the noise. Seconds later Sergeant John Hunningan rounded the corner, the empty right sleeve of his flak jacket pinned across his chest.
"John!" Manitou said in surprise.
"Hey, Manny. I hear you and your people had a lucky escape in New York."
"Yeah, thanks to Jane here," Manitou gestured to Jane, who had rested her elbows on the sill and was humming a tuneless hum and flicking her tail absently.
"Is she… okay?" John asked, inclining his head at Jane's behaviour as she straightened up and stretched slowly.
"Long story."
"Doesn't matter. Manny, we've received some serious intelligence from our guys in the field, and from HQ. Very bad news."
"What?"
"You might want to sit down…"
"What is it?" Manitou said, tensing up.
John hesitated, before ploughing on. "You're it. You five."
"What do you mean?"
"You, Adrian, Lulu, Nina and Jane are all that's left. The others… the Wests, Boris in Russia, all of the other free ones… they're gone. Even Vicky, who was taken from her bunk at base and Jack Hill. He's in a wheelchair, for Christ's sake," he added to himself as Manitou stood gawking. Jane and Nina's eyes switched between them.
"Manny?" Jane said tentatively.
"DAMNIT!" Manitou shouted, punching the wall next to him so hard the plaster cracked. Nina jumped at the outburst.
"What do you mean 'taken?'" she asked John.
"That's what he meant…" Manitou whispered.
"What?" Nina asked.
"Insanity. He said he was a distraction. He was making a barrier so I couldn't sense Ganas take the other primals. I've been such a fool…" he said, sitting down and putting his head in his hands.
"Manny, you did what any of us would have done. You didn't know," John said. A soldier shouted to him from down the corridor. "Sorry, I have to go. I'm needed securing this room down there."
Jane sat on the other side of Manitou, putting her left wing over his shoulders.
"Manny?" Jane said. "What's wrong?"
Nina was far more insistent. "Who was taken and where were they taken? What was that guy talking about?"
Jane was about to scold Nina when Manitou sat up and looked from one of them to the other.
"I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything. Lulu and… and Adrian already know."
Manitou had taken the girls back to the room they had woken up in. Jane sat curled up on her bed, sucking the very tip of her tail and keeping her wings folded inwards, and Nina sat with one leg cross over the other on one of the hospital's plastic blue chairs. Manitou sat opposite the both of them, slouched forwards.
"It started thousands of years ago, when human civilization was just starting. At that time, humans lived in small tribes that moved from place to place as the seasons and food changed around them. There were nightmares back then, but they were small, merely shadows at the ends of caves and noises in the night. They were banished by the shamans or witch doctors of each tribe.
"The problems started when humanity grew and grew, and instead of being changed by nature, changed nature to suit them. Over time, the nightmares grew stronger as plague and wars ravaged humanity.
"But the nightmares could still be fought, as the so called witches and wizards of the time grew in power and joined their souls to animal spirits. They became, in the 1600s, the very first primals, and simultaneously gave birth to the myths of the werewolf.
"Using their new powers, they fought the nightmares and won. No new nightmares appeared for centuries, though primals were still created in a combination of purposeful magick and sheer blind luck. It seemed the spells cast back in the seventeenth century had affected something in humanity that called back to the animal spirits, who became our spirit guides of today. Some humans seem to be naturally inclined to be primals, such as you two."
Jane smiled at this point, but Nina nodded for Manitou to continue.
"Then, in the 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution that changed the world, the nightmares returned, and they were more numerous and stronger than before and lead by a massive entity also called the Nightmare. Masquerading as the sicknesses of the time, they grew in even more power as humans corrupted nature's bounty.
"As human greed grew worse, the Incarnations were called into being, in the Nightmare's own, separate dimension. There exists a cult whose name is unknown; it possibly doesn't even have a name, and its members worship the Nightmare. Ganas de Velierious is its last surviving member."
Manitou held up a hand as Nina started to ask who Ganas was.
"In the last one hundred years, Ganas has sacrificed many to gain an extended lifespan, a small portion of the Nightmare's power and a servant in the form of the walking corpse Lulu fried. In turn, Ganas has promised to summon the Nightmare into our world, and this would mean the end for everything."
"How do you mean everything?" Nina asked.
"Imagine using a steamroller to scramble eggs. You'd get the same effect.
"Anyway, in the last fifty years Ganas has accumulated enough power to give the Incarnations corporeal, physical forms. Ganas believed himself unstoppable.
"He was wrong. The Incarnations took him over subconsciously, and now they drive his actions. They've been systematically collecting primals, killing those too strong to capture."
"Why?" Jane asked in a whimper.
"Ganas would need thousands of humans to sacrifice to summon the Nightmare, but not as many primals. Each primal carried the spirit of the one before them who previously took their animal's form. He would only need nearly a hundred, a number he is near to achieving. When he has enough, he'll sacrifice them all to his 'god' and the world as we know it will cease to exist."
"How does he keep all those primals in one place? I mean, me and Jane took out Incarnations with our bare hands," Nina figured aloud.
"Two reasons," Manitou answered. "Ganas has cursed each primal he captures into becoming a total animal, which a human mind trapped inside."
Jane gasped, her hands flying to her snout. "That's horrible. They'd go crazy like that…"
"I think some have. I've seen the curse placed on my friends…" Manitou said quietly.
"At least tell me they get fed. They do get fed, right?" Jane added anxiously from the look on Manitou's face.
"No. They go hungry, but they don't die from it…"
Nina sat in shocked silence. "So those primals that army guy mentioned are like that now? Trapped?"
"…Yes."
"And it's just us five, four if Adrian's comatose, against this psycho Ganas?"
"…Yes," Manitou repeated.
"What the hell, Manny?" Nina shouted. "None of us except you have been 'primal' for more than a week, and you think we can take these guys on? What the hell's wrong with you?"
Manitou sat still for a moment. "That's reason two. I think we have a chance now. You two, Lulu and Adrian… you four seem to have more… power than other primals, me included."
"Really?" Nina said, cooling down.
"Yes. The Ancient, the guiding spirit of shamans, has told me that you four have spiritual levels equal to the founding primals, while the rest of us have had the powers that have been worn down over the years they've been passed on.
"Your powers are pure and completely new. That's why you two, and Adrian, have managed to banish an Incarnation. It was something I never thought possible until I saw it happen to Agony…"
"Yeah, but where are they?"
"On an island. Reaching that island is… difficult. You have to enter a trance and let the Ancient guide your spirit there. Once your spirit reaches the island, your bodies somehow end up there too. I'm not sure how it works. I'm sure the place exists in this world, and I've tried to get co-ordinates to John, but maps and compasses just mess up there…" Manitou sat back and thought until Jane said something.
"What about a tracking device?" she said.
"Hm?" Manitou looked up at her.
"Will a tracker work?"
"I've… not tried. It might work, it might not… I'll borrow one of John next time I go there."
"I suppose that next time you'll be taking us with you?" Nina said. Manitou detected a hint of fear in her voice.
"Yes… I can't go alone. I need you by my side."
"I… I really… I really need to think about this…" Nina gasped, eyes darting about the room.
"I have," Jane said bravely. "I want to go. For the captured primals. I want to save them."
The doors opened. A nurse hovered nervously in the doorway, shrinking away from Jane.
"Um… T-the doctors say you three and Ms Grant are w-well enough to leave… s-so they'd like you t-to so we can move your patients back up here, p-please?" she stuttered.
An agent appeared behind the nurse, startling her. "Ms Palmer, I'm afraid we can't let you exit the top floor until you have returned to your human shape," he said grimly.
Jane groaned and looked at Manitou. "Do I have to?"
"Yes, Ms Palmer. If you do not comply I will have to arrest you until you do." The agent twitched slightly, as if to suggest he could reach for any number of hidden weapons. Manitou coughed a warning.
"Okay, okay," Jane said, waving her arms in the air and morphing back to her human shape. Her fur disappeared last, and she stroked it one last time, sighing sadly.
"Jane, you'll be able to go all furry or whatever when you get home," Nina said as they walked down the corridor to the ward Lulu and Adrian were in. "Where is that, by the way?"
"It's… it's nothing special, just a-hey!"
"What?"
"Manitou, my letter from Uncle said you were my guardian now; can I move in with you?" Jane excitedly asked him.
"At Haverton's boarding house? There's no room in my apartment-"
"But there's a first floor room that Arnold guy suddenly left, his stuff's still there actually, and there's Adrian's old room," Nina butted in. "And there's the attic room. I think you'd have to clean it up a bit…"
"Are you inviting me in?" Jane said playfully.
"No! No, just, ah, helping a fellow primal!" Nina said quickly.
Jane stopped grinning at Nina when Lulu joined the group from the other end of the corridor, head hung low.
"He's not any better. I sensed a horrible black aura inside him… It was moving away from my mana, like its alive…"
Manitou gasped. "Soul Scourge…"
"What?" Lulu looked up.
"Now I know what's in Dead's sword. It's an incorporeal nightmare called a Soul Scourge."
"Yeah?"
"Nightmares will put them in their weapons, and when such a weapon harms but doesn't kill another, the Soul Scourge moves from the weapon into the victim."
"What do we do?" Lulu said loudly, clasping her hands together. "My mana won't work!"
"Soul Scourges are immune to mana. Only the infected can fight one off. Adrian's soul will battle the Scourge until one is… destroyed."
"Will he be okay if he kills it?"
"He'll be fine, if a little sickly and confused."
"And… if he doesn't?"
Manitou didn't answer, instead staring grimly out of the nearest window at the swallows swooping outside in the setting sun. Jane and Nina glanced at each other then back at Lulu.
"What will happen?" Lulu demanded.
Manitou sighed, clearly not wanting to answer. "The Scourge… will take the place of his soul and… steal his body…"
"No!" Lulu shrieked and started running back to the ward. She was stopped by two agents who had appeared as if from nowhere when they grabbed her under the arms. Lulu growled and pushed them away, sending them slamming back into the walls next to them and leaving sparks of mana coursing over their suits.
Manitou ran up and grabbed her wrist, only to receive a solid punch from Lulu's other hand. Lulu gasped and stopped struggling, realising who she had struck. She looked down and saw Nina standing on one of the agent's arms. She saw the agent had his readied pistol in his hand.
"I'm so sorry, Manny! I didn't mean… I… I'm so scared for him!" Lulu cried, falling in Manitou's arms. Manitou hadn't flinched at the punch, though his cheek had swollen.
"I understand… I knew someone once who was taken from me like that…" he said sadly. "But I know Adrian will survive. The Soul Scourge won't have met a primal like him before."
More commotion was raised when Sergeant John rounded a corner and saw the agents on the floor, and one with his pistol out. Nodding an apology and farewell to Manitou and the primals he proceeded to bawl in a typical sergeant fashion until the agents had stood to attention via a pre-programmed action.
"Your mother," John said to Lulu, "is downstairs waiting for you with your brother," he added to Nina.
Nina gasped her thanks and hurried off to Jamie. Manitou caught a section of muttered speech from her; "-little tyke's probably worried sick-" Nina spun on her heels. "Anyone want a lift?" she asked, brandishing her car keys. She nodded and left when everyone shook their heads at her.
"I… I'll be fine…" Lulu stuttered. "I'm… I'm going home now… bye Manny, Jane…" she said quietly, waving limply at them as she walked away.
"Do… do you think she'll be okay?" Jane asked Manitou.
"Yes. She's strong, and so is Adrian. They'll see it through."
Manitou and Jane walked side by side along Magnus Avenue, the sun setting behind them, carrying Jane's few possessions in two carrier bags between them. Manitou held a small cheap laptop in one bag, and the rest of his load was thick pads of picture covered paper. Jane was carrying her clothes, all bundled up in balls in her bags.
A moment ago Jane had checked her bank account, and had made an odd strangled yelp when she had seen exactly how much her Uncle had left her.
"Will Haverton let me have a room?"
"I'm pretty sure. She's a bit nuts when it comes to rent, though."
"I can pay. Uncle left me everything…" Jane said as they neared the boarding house.
"Jane?" Manitou looked sideways at the goth walking beside him. She looked upset that she had to be human again. Manitou continued when she looked up at him. "How do you feel about your uncle?"
"I'm not sad, if that's what you mean… Should I be? Um… I don't know, I guess I feel… relieved that he's at peace now… Is that wrong?"
"I honestly couldn't say, Jane. I knew him at least five years before you were born, and he introduced me to your parents… They saved my life a few times, and I returned the favour."
"Where you fighting the Incarnations back then?"
"No. That long ago, there were more free primals. Ganas kept us tied up with lesser Nightmares while he stole those he could. It was how he gained favour with the Nightmare."
"Manny? How did my mum and dad die?" Jane whispered, looking down at the photo of her parents as primals. Jane fell behind slightly as she resumed her stumbling walk. "Damnit, I was graceful as a primal… Now look at me," she growled at herself.
"Are you sure you're ready?" Manitou said, waiting for Jane to catch up as she stowed the photo in her trench coat. "It's… it's not pleasant."
"I know it won't be, but I have to know."
"Okay. Insanity and… and an Incarnation that's still active were fighting your parents and uncle, with another primal called Magnus. He was a lynx, I think."
"What was the other monster's name?"
"I can't say it, that might bring him here… We primals call him Landfill. Insanity fought Roderick and Magnus and Edward and Chastity took on Landfill…"
Jane stopped, staring up at Manitou's face. "That's how Roderick went funny? And… and Landfill killed my parents?"
"Yes. Ganas managed to take Magnus in the middle of the fight, and since Insanity was recently summoned back then, he could only give Roderick a shock that would return later on…as you know… Edward and Chastity were powerful, both of them knowing some counter magic to Ganas. That was why Ganas had them killed instead of capturing them… it was Landfill that did it."
"What is Landfill?" Jane asked, voice shaking. They'd reached the boarding house porch.
"He's… a manifestation representing all the pollution humanity made over the centuries… he's very old and cunning and the second summoned after the one we call Mask…"
"He… he sounds horrible… he killed them?"
"Yes… I got there to help them, but I was too late… I saw everything…"
"No, don't tell me," Jane said hurriedly, seeing Manitou's face pale at the past.
Manitou smiled warmly at her. "All you need to know is that they were great friends… They loved you very much," he said, opening the door. "Now let's see if Haverton will let you have a room."
"Sure there's a room free, but the problem I have with current tenants is that they never pay up!" Mrs. Haverton said in gravely tones in her office/drinking room, shooting a look at Manitou and Nina, who was lurking in the doorway. She was sat behind her battered desk with a scotch, with Jane in front of her on the other side of the scratched wood and Manitou standing behind Jane.
"What guarantee will I get that you'll pay rent on time?"
"I can pay my first three months due now," Jane said with a steely, defiant face. Haverton almost spat her scotch across the room. Manitou smiled.
"Well, but how do I know you ain't one of them Wiccans? I'll not have you summoning Satan in my attic!"
Jane sighed. "Fine, I could pay my first month's rate now, and help Manny and Nina pay theirs for a bit."
Nina stepped into the room. "Jane, you don't have to-"
"No, its okay, Nina," Jane said, looking around at her, then at Manitou.
Haverton stared at them, her iron gaze passing over them as if she could see any hidden weapons.
"All three?" she asked Jane.
"Yes, up front, in advance," Jane nodded
"Jane, please I can get-" Nina protested.
"I said it's ok, don't be so stubborn," Jane smiled.
"Well... fine, any funny business though and you're out of here. Got it?"
Jane nodded, picking a little chequebook out of one of her bags. Haverton instantly calmed down, the scent of money nearby.
"Its $150 for you, and $344 for the both of them," Haverton said. Nina blushed and cringed.
After Jane finished writing the cheque out she picked up her bags, smiled at Haverton and left the room, Manitou following.
"Whoa, you were brave!" Jamie said from the upstairs landing. "Nobody stands up to the H and gets away with it!"
"Jane, this is my room. Just knock if you need me, okay?"
Nina helped Jane get the unfolding ladder of steps down from the top floor ceiling because it had jammed somehow on a rusty joint.
"Anytime you want to talk or whatever, just come around, okay?" Nina said, lifting Jane her bags through the hole the ladder left behind it.
"Thanks!" Jane shouted after Nina as she followed Jamie back to her apartment.
Jane stood up and looked around the dark attic. It was empty, with a solid wooden floor, save for a single bed next to a window so caked in grime it looked like it let very little sunlight in. Spiders scurried for cover against the invasion of their webs as Jane walked around, smiling. There were a few sturdy beams in amongst the rafters, she found after she hung off a few. There was one that took her weight quite well.
"Perfect," she sighed happily. "After I clean it up a bit."
Lulu stared out of her bedroom window, Tigsy purring on her bed, the mug of coffee on the sill gone cold long ago. She couldn't sleep.
"Adrian…" she whispered. "I know you can do it…"
Three days passed, Lulu visiting Adrian each day for as long as she could, but there was no difference to his condition. Jane adjusted to life in the boarding house, becoming her full primal form whenever Haverton was out of the house, and spending time either meditating with Manitou or just spending time with Nina and Jamie. Though Nina liked having Jane around to talk to, Nina still couldn't fathom Jane's fascination with 'animal people,' as Nina called it, or Jane's stubbornness for becoming primal at every opportunity. Also, the fact that Jane seemed to be trying to flirt with Nina was getting on her nerves, and on the third day this tension finally snapped.
'Why're you doing that?" Jamie asked; momentarily distracted from the wonders of shooting alien invaders.
"To make my wings fit," Jane answered simply, cutting another large hole down the back of her beloved trench coat. She sat cross-legged on Nina's couch, vaguely aware of Jamie flipping his headphones back on and returning to his game. She was very much aware of how restricted and small she felt in her human shape.
Both Lulu and Adrian have half primal forms, so I should to, she reasoned to herself. Plus they can make parts of themselves change without the rest.
Jane closed her eyes in concentration. She felt her ears change shape first, almost of their own accord, into pointed bat ears and her face pull forward ever so slightly, now covered in a light coat of fur.
Sighing pleasurably, she tugged her shorter but no less bushy grey tail from the back of her jeans, and smiled when she felt much smaller wings grow under her t-shirt.
She quickly took of her shirt, making sure Jamie was fully endorsed in his game (he wasn't, he was fully endorsed in the reflection of the room on the television screen) and relaxed when she saw the fluffy V shaped growth of fur hiding her chest. Giving her single foot long wings a stretch, she set about cutting a pair of holes in her shirt to match her coat.
Tucking her ears and wings in as she did so she pulled her shirt back on, unfolding her wings through the gashes in the fabric. The trench coat went on next and she slid her wings through the holes in that too.
At that moment Nina burst in the room, followed by shouts from the landlady Haverton below.
"Now you're sharing the rent, can you explain the time you keep spending in the shower?" Nina asked, ignoring the way Jane sat cuddling her tail to her face.
"Um… I was taking the time to… uh, explore my new, um, body,"
"You do realise we can hear you 'exploring' through the walls? It's a good job Jamie listens to music when he goes to bed." Jamie grinned secretively, still facing the screen. Little did either of them know he wore headphones in bed to keep his ears warm instead of listening to his music. "Why in the shower anyway?" Nina continued.
"…I like the… feeling of the water on my wings and fur… It's the closest I can get to going outside in the rain in my true shape," Jane finished defensively.
Nina sat down on the other end of the couch. "Let me ask you something," Nina said. "Are you attracted to me?"
Jane visibly jumped with shock. "I, uh, I… yes."
"To me as a person, or 'cos I'm a primal?"
"'cos you're a primal."
"Any ideas why?"
"dunno," Jane seemed to think a bit. "I am the way I am, I can't help it."
Nina noticed Jane had been edging steadily towards her since she had sat down. "Can I ask you a question?"
Nina nodded, watching Jane's eyes dart around the room. Nina had been around Jane long enough to know this meant that the subject was intensely personal to Jane.
"Can I see you transform?"
Taken aback, Nina took a while to think of an answer which didn't involve running from the room. "I… I don't know, Jane. I'm still nervous about it, and…"
"And what?" Jane asked after a pause, leaning forwards and stretching her wings again.
Nina breathed heavily. "And I know you… get off on this kind of thing and the thought of you… you know, about… me, makes me nervous. I just find the whole, um, furry culture you're in a little disturbing, to say the truth."
"Disturbing? Why?" Jane asked, leaning back from Nina.
"I don't know. I just don't see what it is about animals that make you like them that way."
"Furries aren't animals," Jane said stubbornly. "There's a difference."
"Yeah, furries are just talking animals that walk on two feet."
"No, most people make that-" Jane started, stung by Nina's sarcasm, but she was cut off.
"And what's with that sex in those costumes? That's just weird as well."
"Are you suggesting I do that? 'Cos I don't."
"But isn't that what makes a person a furry?"
"No, I don't do fursuiting. There's different aspects of it."
"Whatever," Nina waved a hand dismissively. "Just don't get me involved in this weird crap."
"It's not crap!" Jane said, wailing slightly. "It's what I am!"
"What you are, huh?"
"Yes! I'm a primal! And so are you!"
Nina visibly flinched, and glared at Jane. "I. Am. A. Human," she growled.
"But… you're not… You're like me… and Adrian and Lulu…"
"No I ain't! I don't change 'cos it turns me on like you and those other two!" she shouted, jabbing a finger in Jane's direction. "I change when I need to, not just because I can! What the hell made you the way you are anyway?"
"I… I… I thought we were supposed to be… friends…" Jane sobbed, running from the room with her wings and hair trailing behind her and slamming the door.
Nina sat back, arms folded, huffing an errant strand of hair out of her face.
"What're you lookin' at?" she snarled at Jamie, who had been watching his sister and Jane argue. He sighed and turned back to his game.
"Whatever," Nina said, stomping off to the kitchen.
Adrian opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't, because all he could see was a blinding white light.
"Ugh… where am I?" he said, getting to his feet. It was like waking up after a particularly raucous night on the town.
The light looked to be coming from the end of a long, deep blue tunnel.
Adrian started walking towards the light when a young boy's voice with a strange accent called to him. At the same time a small hand tugged his tail, making him realise he was still in primal form.
He spun on the cold floor and found a primal about half his height. He was dressed in odd, drab cotton clothes in shades of brown and grey and had a cloth peaked cap on, through which pointed a pair of triangular black ears. The boy had a skunk's face and an accompanying tail that was several inches taller than its owner.
"Alright, guv'ner?" he squeaked in that odd accent. "This way!"
The skunk primal tugged on Adrian's tail again.
"Who are you?" Adrian asked, following the boy. He noticed the boy had a tiny pair of sooty black feather wings on his back.
"Arfur Stevenson, at'cher service, guv'ner! Born 1874, died 1886!"
Adrian's head fell. "So I'm really dead then…" He thought longingly of Lulu.
"Ah, don't be too sure! Us guys get a chance at gettin' reincarnated!"
Adrian saw they were approaching an old, battered wooden desk piled high with sheaves of paper. Behind it were a stool and a ten foot tall set of pitch back robes. A pair of bony hands that stuck out of the robes about halfway down rested on a scythe and a cigarette poked out of the hood.
"That's Grim, there. Mr. Grim Reaper," Arthur chirped.
"The Grim Reaper?"
"No, just Mr. Grim Reaper now. He got bored of all the la-di-dah ceremony ages ago. Now he helps me do the paperwork," Arthur said, wagging his tail, sitting down on the stool and putting a pair of wire framed glasses on.
"Where are you from?" Adrian asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"London, me old mukka! I fort you got round to learnin' in schools now! What's yer name?"
"Sorry, I've never met anyone English before…"
"Don't matter. I 'spect Cockney's changed a bit since I died."
Adrian was about to asked what Cockney was when something caught him. "Why aren't you, y'know, reincarnated?"
"You're fulla questions, you are," Arthur said, smiling at Adrian and nudging Death in the side with his elbow. "Didn't fancy it. It was a right mess round 'ere, an' a Stevenson won't shy away from sortin' a mess out. Anyways, I gots these spiffy wings. It's an afterliving, I guess. Now, what's the name, guv?"
"Adrian Davidson."
"Nah, yer real real name, guv. You can trust us, guv."
"Um…" Adrian looked at the Grim Reaper, who finished his dog end and started rolling another, holding his scythe in the crook of his elbow. Adrian was fixated on the bony fingers working at the rollup. "Tigermane," he said at last.
Adrian watched the Reaper put the rollup into his hooded mouth and lit it by touching the end with a stark white finger. He then reached into the folds of his cloak and took out an hourglass framed in orange decorated with black stripes. There seemed to be a lot more sand in the top bulb than there should be for a dead person.
"Oops, no reincarnating for you, guv, looks like somebody got their lines crossed," Arthur said as Grim lazily used the tip of his scythe to scrape a thin line, the start of a picket fence, on the top bulb.
"Right, guv, that's one down. You've got eight left, don't waste them," Arthur said, shuffling some of the paperwork on the desk about.
"Umm… Eight what?"
Arthur looked at him in amusement. "Are you a cat or not? Eight lives, you muggins!"
The desk and its two accompanying figures started pulling away from Adrian as he returned back the way he came down the tunnel, away from the light as well. When they were far away and starting to fade, Adrian thought the Reaper waved goodbye to him.
Adrian woke up again, only this time it was a slow drift to awareness rather than a sudden jolt to wide awake.
He slowly acknowledged limbs as they came to his attention. Everything seemed to be present and in the right place. Yes, those are my paws… paws? Oh yes, primal… of course, he thought through the stupor.
Adrian groggily realised he was in a hospital bed. The room was dark, the blinds on the window to his right pulled shut. The clock on the wall opposite his bed said midnight exactly. He could smell Lulu's scent vaguely on the chair next to him. It was several hours old but he could still detect her signature scent of lilacs. Through his muzzy haze Adrian started to sit up, then lay back and growled as his stomach scrunched up in pain.
"Nnngh…" Adrian groaned, lifting the bandage on his stomach to see a long ragged scar held together with meticulous stitching, surrounded by bare flesh where his fur had been shaved off. The sight of it brought back a torrent of memories. The asylum, the illusions… Dead the zombie. Jane as a… bat? Getting stabbed by Dead… He must have killed me, Adrian thought, cos Arthur said I lost a life.
Adrian slowly got out of the bed, flinching whenever the wound burned with pain. It felt deep.
He stood stock still, only his pointed ears moving, trying to pick out any sounds. Nothing. A hospital, Adrian reasoned, shouldn't be this quite, even at this time of night.
Adrian crept to the window blinds, pulling them aside, their little chains making a strangely loud rattling in the silence. Outside the window was… nothing. It looked like someone had painted over the glass in black on the outside. Pushing the blinds so they were out of his way, Adrian fiddled with the clasp that held the window closed, finding it securely locked. He was about to turn away to try the door when a thing flitted past the window. Adrian peered, his claws slowly folding out of his fingers. The thing flitted past again, and this time it was joined by another. They glowed a dull blood red. Adrian backed away from the window.
The two red things reappeared, and Adrian saw they were actually two pairs of slanted red ovals. Eyes. One pair hung back while the other pressed close to the glass, staring inside at Adrian. Adrian backed up to the door when another pair appeared above the other two pairs of eyes.
The primal fumbled at the door handle, his eyes still fixed on the six opposite him. Adrian got the door open after an unbearable handful of seconds where his hands seemed uncooperative and slipped outside.
Onto soft, spongy forest mulch.
Adrian looked around the jungle. There was no trace of the hospital anywhere.
"So I'm dreaming, then," Adrian said in realisation. He sensed movement behind him, and he spun around.
"Fth'tagn," the thing facing Adrian said. It had a vaguely rectangular body with ridiculous stumpy arms and legs at each corner. The claws that tipped each limb were almost as long as the limbs themselves. Its head sat on the chest with no visible neck, and the head was shaped like that of a hammerhead shark, with three of the red eyes at the end of each stalk. In between the sets of eyes was a mouth that was a vertical slit filled with serrated teeth. The whole creature was covered in thick pointed scales the colour of a starless, midnight sky.
"Gt'rak," it said again. The sound grated into Adrian's ears like a bandsaw.
Adrian surprised himself with a backflip as he instinctively dodged one of the creature's arms. The creature's six-eyed glare hadn't left his face and its body hadn't moved an inch, but its right arm had telescoped out of its shoulder to at least six feet, slashed at him and then returned. No sooner had Adrian landed on his hind paws had the left arm done the same, snaking through the air in a raking uppercut. Adrian wasn't ready for this one and the claws sliced a thin, deep scar across his ribcage.
Adrian growled and pounced, but quickly discovered that the creature's legs were as extendable as its arms. They pushed the black thing up into the air as if they were springs and Adrian managed to turn his attack into a landing before he landed face first into the jungle floor.
The creature landed claws down, on his back. Adrian screamed as the sharp, needle-like claws of the thing's feet stabbed into his lower back, and he tried to scrabble to his feet but the creature pushed him down by jabbing his shoulders with its pointed arms.
With a roar of anger and pain, Adrian pushed himself up with the scratching monster still on his back. He quickly reached around, grabbed one of its eye-stalks and pulled it over his shoulder. The thing landed on its back but was upright nearly instantly, its flailing limbs bouncing it to its tiny feet.
"Thr'kkta!" it grumbled, spinning an awkward pirouette which made its arms whip out in a wide circle. Adrian ducked just in time, feeling one of the claws shave away some of his mane. He scurried forwards leapt up and pummelled the creature's stomach with remarkably little effect to its shiny hide.
"Grk," the thing snorted, and flopped onto its back, kicking its legs out. Its foot claws stabbed into Adrian's legs and he was lifted off his feet and was pinned to a tree behind him.
Adrian coughed, trying to pull the claws from his chest, looking up when he felt the muscles tighten under the scabby flesh of the creature's extended legs. He looked up to see the rest of the monster flying towards him, pulling itself to him incredibly fast by reeling in its legs. Adrian saw the arm claws pointed to his head. He ducked.
Adrian slowly opened his eyes after two thunk noises had passed. They sounded very close to his head. He saw his head was framed by the creature's long claws. The rest of his view was blocked by a snapping, vertical jaw. The creature was trying to bite his face off, but could not get close enough due to the length of its claws. Adrian laughed deliriously, not believing his luck. He stopped when the thing managed to scrape a layer of skin of his nose.
Growling deep in his throat, Adrian punched the creature while it was stuck. Sure, its feet claws were still embedded in his chest, but he'd stopped feeling pain as the animal's rage took over. The creature started trying to pull its claws out of the tree after one of Adrian's punches sent hairline cracks running over some of its scales. Adrian's growled reached a roar, and he grasped one of the creature's eye clusters and squeezed. The thing shrieked as the cluster splattered, dribbling red ooze through the gaps between Adrian's fingers. Now the creature pulled its claws out in shock and pain, scurrying up the tree truck away from Adrian, who fell to the ground as the thing wasn't pinning him to the tree anymore.
Adrian coughed again, looking up. He could feel the creature's remaining eyes one him, but he couldn't see it in the canopy above. Adrian suddenly noticed his paw was burning. He held it up to the shafts of light that broke through gaps in the leaves above and saw the red gunk from the things eyes was sizzling and burning his skin. Thin plumes of smoke wafted up.
Then the pain hit him. The burning of his hand, his cut up flesh and the large ragged gash in his stomach all ganged up and hit him, and he doubled over, groaning.
"I thought… dreams weren't supposed to… hurt," he gasped.
"Osboira te'getha tegethos!" the thing screamed, diving from the canopy and landing on his back, driving all four of its claws inside him. Adrian howled in pain. The creature leapt back up to the treetops with another singeing battle cry, leaving another blob of eye ooze to land on Adrian's shoulder, where it burned away a patch in his fur.
Adrian growled, his anger pushing the pain back until it occupied only a small part of him. He would not let this… this freakishly constructed thing kill him. He'd survived several angry Incarnations, most of their disciples and a sword-wielding, undead maniac. This thing's not gonna best me, he thought, bounding to the nearest tree and scaling it easily with his claws.
Coming to a stop on a thick branch, digging his claws in for grip, he searched for the black invader. He found it when it found him, and one of its claws hit the wood beside his head, making an arrow noise as it passed, narrowly missing his ear.
Adrian grabbed the arm and pulled before the creature could retract it. He was rewarded with a cry of alarm and the black thing smashing into the tree below. The tree shook, a few leaves fell, but Adrian remained on his branch. He yanked the arm up to him and the creature was swung up the tree. At the top of its arc Adrian swung it back down again. When he was sure it's ugly face had left a sizable impression in the bark, he swung it up and around so the arm wrapped around the tree above him.
Adrian grinned a growl when he saw the creature was trailing red smoke from the cracks in its hide and even a few scales were falling off as it spun around the tree. Adrian readied himself, his claws leaving gouges in the bark.
"Get out of my head!" Adrian roared as the creature swung close to him and he punched it square in the face, between the eye stalks. He creature wailed as its hide of scales shattered like smoked glass, and the pieces blew away as ash, leaving only a shimmering red form in the air which eventually faded away.
"Hah!" Adrian laughed, sliding down the trunk of his tree.
At the bottom it seemed darker, as if the sun were setting.
"Oh, I get night here too?" he said to himself in an adrenaline high.
Something scurried through the fallen leaves in the dark. "Oro?"
Then he saw them. They were the dark. On all sides, some stood on stilted legs so they could easier see their prey, were hundreds more of the black hammerhead creatures.
"No way…" Adrian whimpered, the pain of his injuries returning. Something told him they wouldn't wait to attack one at a time.
He was right.
The snake looked up out of the small case laid with sand. A scurrying noise had awoken it.
The snake was repeating a mantra in its wedge shaped head. Sarasarasarasara it went continuously. Sarah was fading. The weight of instinct was squashing her out of the snake's body. She moved to the side of the case and saw, scuttling along the floor, a creature the snake recognised as prey. Sarah recognised it as… something else. Someone else.
Odd, she managed to think, that it's not in a cage…
The rat scurried on, searching. It knew where it was going.
There are rare cases in reincarnation where the creature in question remembers everything about their past life. This rat did.
It was not pleased.
Jamie crept into the dark attic. It was an hour or so past sunset, and Nina still hadn't made any attempt at talking to Jane, something for which Jamie had ventured up here for. Jane had yet to clear the dust and debris but there were signs of her adapting the place to be her own. The laptop was sat on top of a pile of sketch pads and there were small plush animal dolls strewn over the bed.
Jane wasn't on her bed however.
"Jane?" Jamie called out quietly. He could hear her breathing. Then he found her.
Hanging from one of the rafters by her feet was Jane, wrapped in her wings. Her breathing gave the impression she was asleep.
"Jane? Are you okay?" Jamie asked, his brow furrowed in concern.
The leathery folds of Jane's wings shifted until her wolfish face peeked through a gap, her bright orange eyes seemingly lighting up the room. She sniffed, and Jamie could see where her tears had dampened the fur on her face.
"I, uh, I came to say sorry for what Nina said to you before…" he said, holding up a can. "I brought you a coke…"
One of Jane's arms stretched from under her wings and took the can. "Thanks, J, but you don't have to apologise for Nina…" Jane seemed to think, flicking the can with a claw. "I forgot that Nina… rejected it. She's still not used to it, I must've, um, creeped her out."
"Aren't you getting a headache like that?" Jamie asked, leaning to the side and attempting to turn his head upside down.
"Nope!" Jane laughed squeakily.
"How'd it happen?" Jamie blurted out, pulling the ring of his can with a fizz. The silence that followed was filled by Jane following suit and opening her can.
"It just sorta did," she said at last. "I dunno if it was cos I wished so hard or it was, y'know, destiny for it to be at that time," Jane explained, her wings relaxing
"How're you doing that?"
"Hmm?" Jane noticed she was taking sips from her can, upside-down and not spilling a drop.
"Huh… I never noticed. Guess there's more to being a primal than looking like one… Hey! Don't-"
Jamie's hand shot away from the sketch pad as if it was red hot. "Sorry, I just wanna look. I won't make fun," he said sheepishly.
Jane sucked her tail nervously while Jamie flicked through the pages, smiling.
"These're really good," he said when he'd put the pad back on the small pile. "I wish I could draw like that."
"You don't think they're… weird?" Jane asked tentatively.
"Nope, I really like them. They're like superheroes, huh?"
Jane laughed. "I guess so…"
Jamie stepped back as Jane gracefully put her hands on the floor, let go of the rafter with her feet and flipped around, flapping her wings for balance, until she was upright. "Is Nina… still mad at me? I want to talk to her…"
"Um… Uncle Manny heard you arguing."
Jane nodded as they walked to the hatch in the floor, Jane's wings folding in and her fur disappearing. "With three of us in the same place, how long do you think it'll be before Haverton finds out?" Jane asked jokingly.
"Uh, Jane?"
"Yeah, J?" Jane said, noting Jamie's anxious tone.
Jamie took a deep breath before replying. "Do you think Manny can make me a primal?"
Jane, taken aback in surprise, also took a moment to think of an answer. "I'm not too sure," she said while she waited for him to reach the bottom of the ladder. "I don't think you can be made into one… I think it has to be hereditary…"
"Heridititary…" Jamie mumbled. "My sister's a primal…" he said hopefully.
On the same day, Lulu was roughly awakened by her mother.
"Wha-? Mum? What is it?" Lulu groaned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She'd stayed up all night thinking and hoping about Adrian, or so she'd thought. "Is something on fire?"
"No! The hospital rang! It's something to do with Adrian!"
"Adrian?" Lulu said excitedly, scrambling out of bed and throwing on the nearest bundle of clothes she could grab, catapulting Mr. Tigsy from her bed, who hissed a cat expletive and fled the room.
"Where is he?" Lulu demanded as soon as she got to the top floor of the hospital. Sergeant John Hunningan ran up to her before anyone else could shift her away, but from the look in her eyes John determined he'd need a tank to do so. Lulu vaguely acknowledged there was more than the usual amount of agents around, and most of them had pistols in hand.
"He's still here, but…" the huge black man answered quietly.
"But what?"
"Well, the nurses came in his ward this morning to check up on him, he wasn't there. They found him wandering the corridors, growling, and when they approached he attacked them…"
Lulu paled, tears rimming her eyes. "You didn't shoot him, did you?"
"We had to. Tranquiliser darts, Lulu!" John added when a large bolt of manna earthed itself in the floor from Lulu's hand. "When we got him under the doc's say he was still asleep when he attacked. He's been sleepwalking all night, they say."
"Can I see him?" Lulu demanded, her irises flashing pink for a moment. By this time Molly had caught up with her daughter and was watching the quick exchange like somebody watching pro tennis.
"Yes… but, um, prepare yourself…"
"For what?"
"The worst," John said grimly, leading Lulu and her mother down the corridor to Adrian's ward.
"Whoa…" Molly gasped when the state of the area grew more clogged with agents and more destroyed. There were claw marks gorged in the walls and floor, even the ceiling sometimes, and large stains of blood on the walls. Again Lulu could tell they were Adrian's without needing to get close.
"What happened?"
John was silent for a second. "We have no idea…'"he said at last. "Especially how he got his injuries…"
"He's hurt?" Lulu burst out, running ahead of them to Adrian's ward. The agents swiftly moved out of her path having heard of her knocking down two of them three days ago.
Lulu found Adrian alone in his ward. He was covered in long, shallow gashes and was breathing slowly and coarsely, as if he had been doing a ten mile jog. Lulu rushed to his side and just as she got there he let out a low, pathetic growl and a new gash slashed across his chest like there was an invisible knife-wielding maniac in the room. Lulu sobbed and put her hands over his forehead.
Inside him, she could feel his aura, and it was dwindling in a cloud of sticky black… stuff. Lulu jabbed some manna at it and it easily dodged. The part that was Adrian was slow and sedate, and in pain.
"Ma'am, he could be dangerous, you must leave-"
"Shut up! He's fighting something!" Lulu shouted at the agent who had entered the room, the other's having stopped Molly.
"Ma'am?"
Lulu stood up, gasping exasperatedly. "You wouldn't understand… just get out and lock the door."
"Uh, with you inside?"
"Yes!" Lulu shouted, shoving the agent from the ward and slamming the door shut. From outside they heard her shout something about 'stupid suits' and 'bloody morphine!'
Inside Lulu busied herself by taking the needle feeding Adrian with sedative from an IV drip from his arm and tossing it aside. Then she fell over as her centre of balance flipped. She quickly clambered back up, her extra legs growing under her and her face stretching into a muzzle.
Calming herself she gently pressed her palms to Adrian's temples, whispering "I'm coming, honey."
The room was lit up by a blinding light as Lulu's horn shone like a sliver of the sun.
Adrian punched another black creature to smithereens. But there were more. There were always more. He ran, on all fours, through the jungle, but they always caught up on their long, stilted legs, tripping him with their flailing limbs and forming walls of limbs in his path.
Some time ago a sharp pain had struck his inside left elbow, and he'd become slow and dopey since then, which wasn't helping. The creatures were catching up easier now, and he was covered in all manner of cuts and slashes. His once orange and black coat was drenched in his blood and he was limping badly. He knew he wouldn't have long left.
Occasionally a different thing would appear and stop one of the monsters from achieving a killer blow. He couldn't make them out but they looked to be either a black robe with a scythe or a short skunk boy. They disappeared soon after driving off the creatures, but even they were overwhelmed.
Adrian finally collapsed in a clearing. He slowly noticed the jungle, his jungle, had changed from a verdant, life-filled place into a dark, boggy swamp populated by thick copses of leafless, twisted trees and the endless tide of elastic limbed corruptors.
He could see them now, as they towered above the tree line, searching for him. They would link limbs to pile up and their many red eye clusters would pierce the grey sky with beams of red light, searching for their quarry.
Adrian tried to get up and run when one of the red searchlights shone his way, but his injured leg gave way underneath him and he toppled into the grey mud. The tower of things shouted an unpleasant, triumphant screech and it buckled over into a tide of the things, all zeroing in on him.
He staggered to his feet and stood his ground. No more running, he said to himself. I just… wish I could see Lulu… one more time.
As the first of the things broke into the clearing, growling and chittering horribly, Adrian felt the stabbing pain leave his arm and the feeling of drowsy light-headedness leave him. He roared in defiance at the monsters, his head clear at last.
The arms of the things stretched out to meet his charge, and he tore them out of his way, shattering the closest creature to him.
But again there were too many. The ones behind piled over the ones before them, landing behind Adrian and slashing his back. He spun, smashing more of them but still they came, smaller yet no less deadly.
One caught him off guard by slamming into his stomach with its head instead of slashing, knocking him to the ground. The rest quickly piled on top.
Some of them wound their tensile arms around his chest, attempting to squeeze the life from him while others simply stabbed and stabbed at what bits they could reach.
The one on his chest muttered something in its foul language, but Adrian somehow felt the gist was 'Christ, are you still alive?' Adrian found himself wondering if he'd burned through any more of his lives doing this…
Then a bright light shone from nowhere. Some of the far away creatures screamed in terror. Adrian heard galloping hooves and more cries from the monsters. The blinding light got closer and the monsters around him either fled or burst into vaporous clouds of dark red smoke as they were hit by beams… pink beams, Adrian realised.
The creature that had knocked Adrian over stood boldly in front of the shining, inconsistent shape of light, before it too was evaporated. Adrian weakly lifted his head as the light stepped closer, congealing into a shape he was familiar with.
The shape solidified into a female centaur, which helped in to his feet, then hugged him. Adrian felt his wounds closing, all pain fading to a memory. The centaur stepped back, kissing his face with its muzzle, and a scent he knew well filled his mind.
"Lulu?" he said in disbelief.
"Yes, It's me…" she said, her voice chiming like bells to him. The crowd of black things howled and jeered at the sound. Lulu glared at them with contempt. "You can beat them, Adrian. I know you can."
Adrian looked over her shoulder at where she'd come from. The gnarled trees and dead ground were straightening and turning green again.
"How are you here?"
Lulu gazed at her shimmering hands. "I don't know… But I can't stay for much longer. I can do one more thing for you before I have to go…"
Lulu raised her arms above her head and spread her fingers. A shining film of light glimmered from her fingers, and started falling as sparkling motes of light. The things howled louder as the light touched them and most burst into dark red flames and the rest fell into piles of ash. One remained, larger and darker than the others. It stood fearlessly, glaring back at Lulu.
"Dis iss betwee' me an' 'im," it grunted in fractured English.
Lulu stamped a hoof and blasted manna at it, but the thing still stood there after the smoked had cleared. "Me an' 'im," it repeated.
Huffing, Lulu turned back to Adrian. "You can beat it. I know you can. I love you, Adrian Tigermane," Lulu whispered, kissing him passionately. Adrian's heart lifted, vigour flowing through him. Lulu broke the kiss and faded away. Adrian turned to the head thing. Both of them were surrounded by a fully reinvigorated jungle.
Adrian settled, raising his arms and unsheathing his claws. The head creature's arms telescoped from its arms. They started circling each other.
Lulu leaned back from Adrian's healed body, taking her hands away from his temples, breathing slowly and heavily. She could still feel the power flowing through her bones, though it wasn't as strong as it was when she was in… wherever she was with Adrian.
She jumped; braying quietly in surprise as Adrian roared and his eyes opened and closed in the space of a second. All Lulu saw was a dull red glow, like the eyes of the Soul Scourges she had seen. They flicked open again as his normal eyes.
She backed away, her hooves clacking on the tiles and Adrian snarled and slashed at the air above his bed. He slashed again, tearing the bed sheets and smashing the bedside lamp.
Lulu whimpered as Adrian fell out of bed and clambered to his feet, eyes still closed. He staggered around, sniffing, until he started taking unsteady steps towards her. Lulu sobbed, charging a small ball of manna in her right palm.
Adrian doubled over in pain, growling and clutching his head, his fur standing on end. He then fell, coughing. Just when Lulu thought he would cough up a lung he spat out a stream of thin, grey liquid that hissed on the floor until it was just a wisp of smoke in the air. Adrian's eyes opened and he stared unseeing at her.
"Adrian?" Lulu sobbed as he climbed to his feet and looked at his paws as if he were seeing them for the first time. The look from his eyes was unnatural to her. He took a step forward.
"Is it you?" Lulu insisted, her manna charged hand twitching. Then something appeared in Adrian's eyes, that twinkle of curiosity that was purely him.
"Lulu?" he whispered.
"Adrian!" Lulu gasped, her fear melting away, and she leapt forward and embraced him. "You did it!"
Outside, the agents, John and Molly waited. They'd heard the shouts, the blasts of manna and the roars, and now it had all gone quiet.
"Do we go in?" an agent asked John.
"We have to. The girl could be in danger," another stated as if it was fact.
"No, she couldn't. Lulu can handle herself," John said, leaning to peer through the keyhole. "Anyway, you wouldn't want to go in there now…"
"Why not, sir?" the agent asked as John stood up, his face impassive.
"Just… trust me on this one," he answered, patting the agent on the shoulder. Molly giggled.
"I'll get us some coffee, hey?" she said to the group.
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