Knowing he is not good with animals, Olaff runs towards Thanara's wagon in order to make sure Ahreni is free and able to help.
Ahreni, once freed, grasps the reins of the leading horse and tugs.
Looking back and seeing Ahreni struggling with the most stubborn pair of horses the caravan has, Relisha gives a piercing whistle.
Thanara casts her flight spell on herself before flying up into the air, hoping to get an eye on the source of the problem...
Thanara’s eyes narrow at the creature assailing her caravan. She points a finger at it and a massive boom of thunder peels out as a bolt of black/blue lightning streaks through the sky!
Sandru gives Ahreni an encouraging push and the shifter enters the wagon cautiously. Rognar, meanwhile, gives a nod to Sandru as Ahreni passes but doesn’t say anything to her directly. Inside, Ahreni finds Thanara sitting on her cot, legs crossed and talking quietly to Varla who sits curled up on the floor beside Thanara’s legs. When Ahreni enters, they stop speaking and Varla rises and bows to Thanara before passing by Ahreni without a word.
Ahreni stops just inside the wagon and waits silently. Thanara just leers in response, anger evident in her eyes. ”Let’s get one thing straight. Until Ameiko determines a proper punishment for your crime, you are in my custody. And during that time, you will do as you are told. Do you understand?” she eventually says, her tone serious and sterner than Ahreni has ever heard it.
Ahreni continues to stare at Thanara, her expression unmoving.
”And you will talk like a proper person, as best you can!” Thanara adds, her frustration evident.
Ahreni continues to stare. It's not glaring, it doesn't have that kind of emotional force but Thanara might as well be talking to a carved ice sculpture for all the response she's getting.
”Say something! Acknowledge that you understand what I am saying.”
If Ahreni were a six year old this is probably the point where she'd grin and declare 'I win' or something equally juvenile. Unfortunately for the entire caravan she was raised by a wolf pack and simply continues to stare until...
"You not Alpha." The sound is a rumble, a growl with just enough variation in tone to, perhaps, be words.
”What the f+## is that supposed to mean?” Thanara asks, her eyes unblinking and unflinching from Ahrenis.
Ahreni stares back... but despite her lack of verbal response Thanara can tell two things clearly from the way that Ahreni is standing, all stiff back and raised hackles. One, that she feels under threat and two, that she feels no remorse or similar emotion.
Anger rising inside her Thanara stands up and moves slowly across the wagon until she is directly in Ahreni’s face. ”I am in charge here. Is that clear?” Ahreni growls again and snaps at Thanara, her teeth snapping shut just in front of the sorceresses face – fighting back rather than cowering before the sorceresses righteous indignation. Thanara however doesn’t flinch at the bite and that seems to annoy Ahreni, the first sign of real emotion she’s showed since entering the wagon.
Thanara looks Ahreni in the eyes and asks coldly ”What? You going to kill me next?”
"Don't kill b$$@~es." Ahreni snaps back. "Too weak!"
”By your own definition, you are a b~*%# too. So I guess you are weak too,” Thanara retorts, throwing words rather than the spells that part of her desperately wants to. Ahreni however makes a snorting sound that screams of derision. "You not Alpha. Do not command. Too weak. You want Alpha? Earn it!"
”And what? You think you are my ‘Alpha?’” Thanara asks reflexively.
"I protect pack!" Ahreni responds sharply. "Fight for pack. Kill threats."
”So do I! And both you and Savah are part of my pack!” Thanara snaps back. ”I am trying to get you two to see you don’t have to compete with one another! We can all be a pack together!”
"No. We can't" The words drop like stones and Thanara ploughs on, unwilling or unable to acknowledge them.
”How do you not see that what you did hurt me? How do you not see that if she’d have done the same to you, I’d be just as devastated?”
"Only one Alpha." Ahreni says, slowly, ignoring Thanara’s questions. It is as though she's trying very hard to be clear. "One pack. One Alpha. Savah want you. Want Alpha but not fight. Say 'better than that'. Not better. Just... like fox. Sneaky... Pretend. Wait for pack to sleep. Then kill Alpha. Split pack. Make pack weak. Varla want you. Varla not Alpha. Knows this. Pack still strong. Savah not know. Not want to know. Make pack weak."
Thanara rolls her eyes at the mention of Varla. ”You think everyone that looks at me wants me.”
Ahreni barks a laugh. "Wear clothes. Then no problem. Smell want on her. Smell her want on you. Am not 'smart'. Not human. Am wolf. Smells not lie."
”I’ll wear what I want to wear. And I’m beginning to doubt this claim of smell you keep throwing around,” Thanara replies snarkily.
Ahreni slams Thanara into the wall of the wagon in a sudden, brutal movement. Her head shifts and Thanara finds the wet nose and long teeth of a wolf in the crook of her neck. Ahreni takes a long sniff and then releases the sorceress. "Want to know?" She asks, grinning a very wolf-like grin as her face returns to normal. "Could f@&% you. Here. Now. Angry storm. But still want. F**@ now. Angry later. F+!! easy. Fear hard." She watches Thanara, the grin still carving its way across her dark skin. "So? Wrong?"
Thanara gasps as Ahreni forces her against the wall. Her heart races as her mind drifts back to the last time this happened, and the end result. Her body naturally responds and indeed betrays her baser instinct.
Thanara. Stop it! She killed Savah!
Thanara’s eyes dance back and forth between Ahreni’s, who just watches, her sharp senses picking up every flicker of Thanara's eyes, every hitch of her breath.
Thanara tries to push herself up and regain her poise but the effort seems half-hearted as Ahreni reaches out to take Thanara's chin in one, completely human, hand. Thanara’s chest rises and falls in fast paced breaths as she wages an internal war with herself. But her eyes never waver from Ahreni’s.
"Thanara, listen to me." It's the same strange voice from the last time they talked, but Ahreni is looking straight into Thanara's eyes as she speaks. The connection is intimate and intense despite the strangeness of Ahreni's voice. "Feelings are difficult, no-one knows that better than Ahreni, for all that she cannot express it. You cared... care for Savah, but trust me when I say that she is not good for you. She is the kind of woman who wants to own the world, and she only owns what she can control. You want that comfort, that stability, the feeling that you can lean on someone else - but think about what it has done to you. Would the Thanara from a year ago, the Thanara who rebelled against her father's control and wanted to see the world, recognise you now? I'm sorry, but Savah broke a part of you, so that you would be hers.
Ahreni will never be like that. She won't take away the decisions to make your life easier, and she won't stop pushing you because it is hard. She will push, over and over again to make you strong. That is what she means by Pack. Standing together, being stronger together. You will have to make your decisions and fight your own battles, but if you let her she will be with you every step of the way." Ahreni looks like she's about to say something else but her voice cuts out suddenly.
"Us. Together. That is pack." The shifter says finally, her voice and speech returning to normal. "Savah not know. Not understand. Pack is together. Not owning. Savah, Ahreni, never pack. Would be wrong."
Confusion became evident in Thanara’s eyes at the new tone and vocabulary. She tried to absorb the words through her addled haze. By the time Ahreni has finished speaking, Thanara is trembling against the wall of the wagon. She doesn’t say anything, but after a moment she slumps down and into the floor covered in furs. She raises her knees up and rests her elbows on them, burying her fingers in her hair, trying to focus through her conflicted state.
Part of her wants to scream and shout. Another wants to cry. Another wants to throw Ahreni out of the wagon and fry her with lightning. Another wants Ahreni to throw her back into the wall and take care of her need that has been neglected since she returned to life.
The cocktail of scents Ahreni is smelling is dizzying and the shifter's head practically whirls as she watches Thanara. The desire is there, strong, but Ahreni holds tight to another feeling, another memory. The memory of the pack alpha, curled around one of his she-wolves, licking a wound in her side. Sometimes being Alpha means caring for the Pack, not just fighting for it.
She takes a careful step forward and curls an arm around Thanara. "Come." The shifter says, pulling Thanara the three paces to the pile of furs that cover the cot. Another tug and Thanara finds herself enveloped by furry warmth as Ahreni curls herself around Thanara's golden form. "Together." The shifter whispers. "Cry. Talk. Just be."
Thanara lies there quietly for some time. The smell of desire never leaves Ahreni’s senses. Especially in close proximity. Eventually Thanara mutters ”She didn’t break me, you know.”
"No. You are strong." Ahreni replies, nuzzling Thanara's golden hair. "You... not remember that. For time. But still strong."
Thanara’s eyes flutter closed briefly and a whimper escapes her throat as Ahreni nuzzles at her.
Are you forgetting what she did? She killed her!
”No. Not...I didn’t mean like that,” she adds in a half-whisper, half-pant. ”She just opened my eyes...to what you made me confess to you in the barn. That...even though I’m strong...sometimes...I like to be weak...”
What the f*%$ is wrong with you, Thanara? Savah hasn’t even been dead a full day.
"That is Pack." Ahreni replies gently. "Place to be. Be you. No pretend, no fake. Pack wants you. Just you. Fur, claws, everything." It appears the shifter is trying to make a joke... badly.
Fortunately it is clear that Ahreni’s taking charge right out of Thanara’s hands has tapped into the sorceress’s subconscious desires. Her mind hones in on one part of Ahreni’s statement as she rolls her head over and looks at Ahreni with half-lidded eyes. ”So...you want me?” she whispers.
"Yes." Ahreni responds, her mouth descending onto Thanara's upturned lips. The golden skin of her throat looks so deliciously vulnerable...
Thanara groans into Ahreni’s mouth as she returns the kiss, her inner voice finally finding itself drowned out. She reaches over and places a hand on Ahreni’s forearm, offering gentle encouragement. Her body slides closer to Ahreni’s on the furs, trying to coax the shifter into more direct contact.
Ahreni, it turns out, needs very little encouragement as she grasps Thanara's wrists and pushes them apart, exposing the sorceress to Ahreni's golden eyes and predatory grin. "Definitely want!" she says, before her mouth descends on Thanara and sets to work. Thanara simply gasps at the sudden ferocity from Ahreni, but passively accepts it. She resists enough to convince herself she tried, but not enough to actually deter Ahreni in any way…
Knowing he isn't good with the animals, Olaff feels powerless at the situation. Know it would be stupid to risk his life, he seeks shelter.
There is a knock on the 'door' of the wagon that Relisha and Ameiko share and the tiefling finds Ahreni waiting patiently outside.
"Can we talk?" The shifter asks. Once Relisha agrees Ahreni leads her to the edge of the caravan and paces back and forth in the snow. "Need help." She says. "Tell me. Why I wrong? Why kill Savah wrong? She was bad. Bad for Thanara. Bad for caravan. Better without her. She had sword. At me first. I fight. Good ending. Why is this bad?"
The shifter seems honestly confused.
Relisha sighs, unsure how to explain it to someone who sees the world so differently.
"I guess the only way to understand it is to understand that we're not a pack, Ahreni," she says finally. "It's comforting that you see us as your pack, but people don't operate that way." She wrings her hands together. "A pack is strong. It's tightly knit, has a strong hierarchy, and the members look out for each other. But the only morality a pack has is the survival of the pack. Groups of people are much more complex and our definition of what is punishable by death is much narrower. Savah, while vile, manipulative, and controlling hasn't done anything to warrant that punishment."
She pauses and looks off into the darkness.
"In a pack, what you did would be respected. But we're not a pack. We're a group of people with a mission. She had skills that were important for that mission. So even with her flaws, with her gone we now have a lesser chance to accomplish it."
The tiefling is clearly unsure as to whether she's explained it correctly. "Does that make sense?" she asks.
"We are pack. All caravan is. Watch each other. Help out. Sandru is Alpha. Work together. Survive together. How not pack? Savah was threat. When other threat - like drake. Kill it. Good! Everyone happy! Why not now? We kill ogre oni. Everyone happy. Why not Savah?"
She takes a breath to calm her frustration.
"And people are angry because Savah was a part of our group. All they see is that you're willing to turn on one of our own. That scares them."
"Do not understand. Sorry. Thank you. For trying."
She releases the shifter and steps back just a bit.
"How is Thanara treating you?" she asks. "She is treating you fairly, isn't she?"
"You ... talked?" Relisha questions with narrowed eyes. "Wait she didn't ... she didn't make you ... She did, didn't she?!" The tiefling's face flushes pink in anger and her golden eye shimmers. "She can't do that! I'm going to talk to Ameiko!"
With that, she turns and clearly intends to march straight to the wagon and bring the boom down on the sorceress.
Relisha finds herself suddenly locked in Ahreni's muscular arms. "Stop. No. Not that." The shifter says firmly. "Come."
She frogmarches the oradin over to Thanara's tent and pulls her inside.
"Thanara. Tell Relisha. You not Alpha. Not force me to f$~$."
Then, she asks her question. Thanara’s face first grows pale, then a bright shade of pink before she buries her face in her hands in humiliation as she pulls her heavy hooded cloak over her head.
Relisha's complexion matches Thanara's shade of pink. "Just ... just tell me," she says with gritted teeth, clearly wanting to be elsewhere and not in this conversation. "Tell me that you didn't take advantage of her."
She sits down on the side of her cot and grabs her fur blanket and pulls it violently over her entire body, her embarrassment making her wish she could just die again.
Muffled from beneath you hear her voice say ”I dunno what you told her, Ahreni. But you may as well tell her the whole of it since instead of asking her about sociology you instead have convinced her I’m some sort of lunatic.”
The wolf girl looks to Relisha and a grin splits her face. "Want to see?"
"NO! No! I don't want to see ... anything. I just ... I'll go."
Without another word, the embarrassed tiefling slips out of the wagon and makes her way back to Ameiko's.
Upon returning, her face still retains it's bright red color and she just shakes her head at any of her lover's queries.
She gets up in a huff and leers at Ahreni. ”You humiliated me just now! You know that!?!? To take charge in private is one thing. But what you just did...” Thanara rants, her body trembling with anger, ”That was worse than any of the control games Savah did!”
She turns and steps to the flap of the wagon, looking back briefly as she says ”Straighten this place up. Do not leave the wagon until I come back, and no shape shifting to sneak out. I need some air,” before she lightly hops out of the wagon. She turns to Kjaerullf and says ”She is not to leave the wagon.”
She heads off with Rognar, who is actively picking his teeth free of some jerky. He walks along with her in silence a bit before quipping ”So, you two been having fun, huh?”
”Shut up, Rognar,” Thanara retorts sternly.
The big man just chuckles to himself, thinking back to the sounds of passion he was privy to the previous night with a s@!@ eating grin on his face.
Ahreni, Relisha, Sandru and Vankor all work together to get as many wagons to safety as they can.
Thanara's bolt slams into the three-headed monster, shocking it badly. It's roar is drowned when down below everything is engulfed as the avalanche. All told, only Koya's wagon is unable to be moved out of the path of the avalanche before it arrives. Olaff sees to his aunt getting to safety in one of the wagons and then dives for cover as the snow arrives.
Up above, the three-headed monster surgers forward towards Thanara and the white dragon head tears into her with its teeth.
Ahreni takes off into the sky, her white owl form lost almost instantly against the white snow. She beats upwards with powerful wingbeats and claws fiercely at the dragon.
Having nothing with which to attack at range, Relisha simply sends out a linking tendril to both Ahreni and Thanara to keep them alive.
At first, Olaff doesn't know what to do once he is engulfed and trapped in the snow. He tries to moves his arms and legs, but the weight of snow is really incredible. Luckily to him, he hears the voice of Helgarval. "Stop moving your head, Olaff. I'll help you."
Olaff feels the front of his helm heating up a bit and soon after he can see flames leaping in front of his face and bursting forward.
Thanara gritted her teeth, determined not to cry out in pain. She would prove to everyone she was more than some damsel in distress.
She was a threat.
She pointed a finger and two more bolts of lightning struck the creature as she turned and flew past Ahreni, hoping the shifter could slow pursuit down enough for her to unleash more pain on this thing.
Meanwhile, Rognar turns and hustles through the snow to try and get to Olaff to help pull him out.
Steam and flame erupt from the ground near Rognar as Helgarval's blast of flame melts through the snow and makes an easy exit path for the Ulfen to climb up and out of the snow that has buried him with the other men's help.
Up in the air, Ahreni the owl joins Thanara in battle with the three-headed monster, missing her attack against the larger creature. Thanara misses the first two times, but catches the foe with her third strike.
The creature retaliates, biting the owl twice and slashing her once with its claws.
Thanara sends another two bolts at the creature, trying to avoid clipping Ahreni as she does so.
Ahreni goes for the eyes!
The tiefling watches the aerial battle knowing the only thing that she can contribute is healing.
Ahreni 38/59
Olaff 46/67
Relisha 58/73
Thanara 31/37
Once freed, Olaff moves to grab his longbow and shoots at the creature.
The three-headed monster takes a wound from Olaff and Ahreni both, but they still have to deal many more injuries like those before the beast will fall. Launching into an assault on Ahreni, the dragon head misses with its bite but the remainder of attacks all tear into her repeatedly!
46
Thanara tries a different spell. She works some magic and four orbs of lightning soar to the chimeric creature and strike it.
The paladin whispers a prayer of healing.
Ahreni 12/59
Olaff 51/67
Relisha 53/73
Thanara 36/37
Ahreni is faltering, but the prospect of letting the beast free to attack Thanara is not acceptable so the snowy owl rakes the dragon with its talons again!
Olaff continues to send arrows towards the creature, his attacks far less potent than Shalelu's.
Ahreni lands a single talon just after Thanara's missiles strike the flying beast, but unfortunately it still is hanging around. The dragon head snaps forward to bite Ahreni with enough strength to knock her unconscious just as an arrow sails past her from somewhere on the ground, missing. Opening wide, the white dragon head lurches forward to clamp its jaws around Ahreni's wing, but jerks suddenly as its jaws slam shut when a second arrow from the surface enters the lower jaw and pierces the top jaw of the head, pinning the two together and causing enough damage that the its wings stop beating.
With Olaff's second shot, the three-headed creature falls from the sky and lands in a large explosion of powdery snow below.
From their positions in the sky above, both Ahreni and Thanara take note that the avalanche made the chimera's nest visible and easier to find. Flying over they discover +1 silver dragonhide banded mail, an elixir of fire breath, three sets of cleats, a jar of frostbite ointment, 139 sp, and 789 gp.
Thanara returns to the snow covered caravan, carrying what she can of the chimeras plunder. As she lands, she turns to Ahreni and says ”I had it under control, you know.”
Ahreni drops the armor from her talons with a clatter and shifts back into human form. She's bloody and bruised and one of her legs looks like it's broken.
"Wanted to help." She says simply and then collapses into the snow. Examining her leg for a moment the shifter reaches down and yanks the bone back into place with an unpleasant grating sound that sets teeth on edge.
"Better." Ahreni says, looking up. "Sleep now." And she falls back into the snow, unconscious.
"Wait! Don't ...!" Relisha calls out, but is too late to stop the shifter from attempting her own first aid. "Bloody stubborn women!" she grumbles to herself as she makes her way to Ahreni's side.
She's still grimacing in pain, having not severed the healing links to her companions. But she tends to Ahreni's wounds before gesturing for Thanara to approach as well. "Let me check you as well," she says as she grits her teeth against the pain.
Thanara looks at the bite wound, already closed and now barely bruised. ”I’ll be fine. Focus on her. I will have Varla tend to the remainder of this injury.”
She then turns and heads to her wagon, signaling for Varla to follow her inside.
Relisha returns her attention to Ahreni. With judicious use of her healing magic, she soon has the woman as good as new.
"Can you let me my job next time?" she says with a stern gaze that isn't matched by her warm touch. "You have to be careful when setting limbs."
Once she's confident the shifter hasn't suffered any permanent effects, she takes a closer look at the armor she dropped in the snow.
"This is ... this is beautiful," she says in awe, stroking the silvery gray leather under the steel bands.
"Yours." Ahreni says with a grin. "Put on. Before Noisemaker sees!"
With her leg better Ahreni gets to work on digging out Koya's wagon. Her wolf form has large paws and a lot of strength so she makes good progress while a small part of her mind wonders what indignities Varla is inflicting on herself to impress Thanara this time...
Olaff cheers once his arrow kills the creature and then approaches as the beast falls into the ground. He then draws his sword and severs its draconic head. "Ha, this vill make a fine trrophy!"
Once the others are taken care, Olaff joins in the attempt to free Koya's wagon, even asking Helgarval to breath fire from time to time to help with the process.
It takes several hours to finally get Koya's wagon dug out and repaired, but by later afternoon you are finally able to resume your trek once again. The avalanche makes travel extremely slow and you do not make much progress before nightfall.
The caravan rumbles on for the next two days, with no further sign of trouble. On the third day, Ulfr smells a cookfire. A mile or so later, all of you can smell it, drifting in on the wind. Soon enough, you are approaching a small group of young men and women, perhaps ten altogether. All of them young that is, save one, a middle aged man with a string of fox skulls adorning his belt.
"They are not Erutaki. These men are white skinned and dark haired, with a savage countenance. Kellids," Ulf warns, "barbarians from the east. Gods know why they are out this far."
Those of you from Varisia have seen Kellids before, though not often. Like the Ulfens, they are known as a warrior people, but have an even more savage reputation. In Varisia, they are usually seen traveling as mercenaries.
These don't look like a group in anyone's employ though. They wear rough animal skins and furs, and their weapons look old and well used. Only about half of them are made of steel, the rest of the men have stone-tipped spears.
Sandru orders the wagons to a halt a good half-mile from where the barbarians are camped. "Well... there's no going around them. I don't just want to ride up to them. Anyone have any ideas?"