Saturday, March 22, 2014

Portland In Black Aside 2

Aside for Portland In Black.  Check it out if you like this and want to see what happened before and after...

JESHA

Jesha had woken up sore before.  Hangovers were one thing she'd had experience with.  Combat injuries too.

Playing the dumb college girl sometimes meant going a bit overboard on the booze.  Fighting and hunting monsters, that often left her sore.  Shapeshifting into a giant wolf and being riddled with bullets, well, Jesha hadn't developed a complete set of skills for handling that.

"Ugh."

Jesha opened her eyes, smelling dew and wet clothes around her.  A pile of fabrics covered her prone body.  She stretched reflexively.  Jesha immediately regretted it.  Something didn't feel correct, and her stretching only made it flare up in hot, burning pain.  "Ow!"

"Dang it."  Jesha tried to get a look at her body.  Naked under the pile of clothes, she'd had the presence of mind during the end of the fight to drag a big pile of clothes down with her.

Jesha knew how to mend her wounds with her shapeshifting, sealing off cuts and open wounds.  It was a quick use of her shapeshifting to keep a injury from bleeding her out.  Unfortunately, she didn't just have some bloody wounds to worry about this time.  Moving around a bit Jesha instantly could tell that she had a fair number of internal wounds and compound fractures.  Her wolf body could take a great deal of its, but...

"It translates badly.  Ow.  How can being so big be so much fun but so much a pain?"

Jesha then turned her thoughts to Noir.  He'd been taken by the monsters.  Undead things dragged him off, and she couldn't run.  She blacked that part out.  Instincts took over, and her mind was gone.  Jesha remembered flying into a mad rage.  That rage didn't preserve any really thoughts with it.

No, she just remembered flashes of it.  Tearing and rending.  Something small hit her.

And it was stronger than her in her wolf form.  "I couldn't beat it.  It just... hit so damn hard."

"And you think that means you failed?"  A stranger's voice interjected.  Jesha jumped in surprise, causing her to wince in pain.

"Please... Don't make me-" Jesha growled.

"Its okay, please."  Jesha looked up at the strange man who talked to her.  He held out up a hand in an apologetic gesture.

The man was older than her, she guessed, based on his salt and pepper beard.  It leaned more on the white side, of course.  His hair was fairly shaggy.  She saw years on the wrinkles on his face.  His eyes were small, yet like diamonds glittered.  His face was more rounded.  Shorter than Jesha most likely, he wore a thick coat, a cane crooked in his elbow.  He only had his right arm, the left was missing.  His sleeve hung loosely at his left side.  He wore a pink and red shirt under the coat, stained with what Jesha could smell was coffee and ink.  A pendant hung from about his neck she recognized.

He put his hand to his chest.  "I serve the Darkness.  His throne will rise again."

Jesha blinked.  "Oh.  I didn't expect to see... I mean, its rare to see other people who honor the Wolf God."

The one armed man smiled.  "You can call me Tyr.  Can I do anything to help you?"

"Um..."  Jesha blushed.  Suddenly being naked under these clothes felt embarrassing.  Having lost someone she meant to protect to monsters?  That made Jesha feel like she was five years old again.

"Its alright.  You didn't know enough to know better."  Tyr answered.  He seemed to have guessed the reason for her embarrassment.  "Who did Black Anna take?"

"Black Anna?"  Jesha's eyes widened.  "Wait.  That Black Anna?  The monster queen?  SHE took him?"

Tyr nodded.

"Oh.  I didn't know that- why would she be in Portland?"  Jesha asked.

"This is her home town."  Tyr leaned on his cane.  "Things like her don't realize that they cling to the same old patterns.  She died here, so she comes back here over and over.  I'm to talk to her about your friend.  Who was he?"

"Noir..."  Jesha paused.  "Well, Noir is a necromancer."

Tyr tilted his head.

"Not like that kind.  Noir's sort of overly sentimental.  He... tries to help people, especially the dead kind.  He tends not to think too far in advance of his actions."

"Why are you with him then?"  Tyr asked.  "You took a bullet or two for him.  You must have a interest."

"I protect him."  Jesha stopped herself from admitting that she was attracted to Noir.  That she felt a deep connection to the necromancer.  Jesha's heart wanted him.  And she was certain she was breaking down his walls.  This stranger, even as another of the Wolf God's cult, didn't need to know that.  She didn't say aloud that she was in love with Noir Badarte.

That was something she wasn't quite ready to share.  Yet.

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