Fantasy Unlikely Partners

[Flutterby]

He was eyeing her really closely, like he knew something. But how could he possibly know anything? He's just a cop, and the dog isn't here to smell me. Without Rex acting funny, there's no way he would know it was me.
"Wait, Chris," She said quickly, stepping out of the house. The ground was cold on her bare feet. There was a slight breeze, chilling her and stirring her hair. "You said there was an accident." She shifted her feet a little. "Was anyone hurt? And this wolf, what'll happen to it? Will it just, like, leave, or are you going to track it down?" Ari tented her eyebrows in worry, fishing for information on how careful she should be in the woods nearby.

 

[Tharivle]

"Something very big hit the side of the car, but there is no evidence other than the damage itself to prove that. Rex caught a funny smell, but lost it almost eminently." Chris eyes her suspiciously but continued. "And as for the wolf. There is no reason to hunt it unless it hurts someone. We hit a dead end and that is that until someone tells me otherwise."

 

[Flutterby]

"Hit the side of a car? Oh my god.." Ari's eyebrows went up as far as they would. "The driver.. is she going to be okay?"
She looked around her, and then said, "Wait, Rex is with you? Where.. where is he?" On the inside, she wanted to punch herself for sounding so ditsy. But, he was a cop, so she assumed he liked helping damsels in distress.

 

[Tharivle]

"She was banged up a bit but she will be fine." Chris smirked a bit. "Rex is here with me, but he is right next to you..."
As he talked with her inside Rex had zigzagged around things in the yard and skirted the house so that he was next to the porch wile they were talking. And he was silently staring at her, and slightly crouched, as if ready to pounce.
"Come on boy, lets go on back to town." Rex stayed as still as a statue for a few more seconds his eyes boring into Ilaria, then he trotted past her and took up his position at Chris's side.
"Have a nice day Ari." Then he turned to leave but then turned back. How did you know that the driver was female?" Chris paused for just a second the clarified, "I only said there was a accident, and you asked me if she was okay, how did you know it was a she?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ari followed his gaze to Rex, and met the dog's eyes evenly for a moment. The way he was crouched, looking at her so intently, he looked like less of a dog and more of a wolf. And she was pretty sure he could scent the wolf on her own person.
She broke into a smile, turning back at Chris. "Oh would you look at him, all serious on the job." When Chris called him, she turned her eyes back to Rex again, and looked at him calmly. You're not going to attack me, so play nice and go back to Master. She thought, a little viciously.
As they turned and walked away, Ari's stayed on the porch, watching quietly as they left. Her heart dropped when he turned back and asked her a question. Shit. Ari looked thoughtful for a moment, and then laughed lightly and shrugged. "Oh, I don't know, I guess I just sort of assumed. I dont spend a lot of time around men, so.." She ended the sentence vaguely, shrugging again, and then waved. "Take care," She said happily, and then turned to go back inside, carrying just a little bit of tension in her shoulders

 

[Tharivle]

He was watching her intently for any sign of anything really, but as she turned to go back inside he saw the tattoo of the moon on her neck and he knew. So she is a shapshifter.
"I like your tattoo Ilaria, when did you get it done?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria's hand went to the back of her neck, bare from having her hair up. She turned, and put on another bright smile.
"Oh, I got it when I turned 18, back in the city." She said quickly. "Little parlor on the north end of Boston." She brushed her fingers over it, using the same lie she always did. She really had lived in Boston as a kid.. in 1890.

 

[Tharivle]

"Cool, but weird. I swear I have seen that same symbol before." Chris paused to see if she would turn around. "Yeah, the last time I saw that it was a neckless round a thief who called himself The Shapshifter...."

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria's heart skipped a beat. There is no way.. Humans don't know we exist.. Her brain knew that, but there was a horrible feeling in her gut.
She did turn, and leaned against the porch post. "Seems like an odd nickname, mustve been a pretty imaginative fellow."
If Chris really had seen the 'tattoo' before, it meant he had run into a Moon Child before. The tattoos were not tattoos; they were a natural mark. When a Moon Child comes of age, the image of the moon they were born under appears at the back of their neck, marking them as one of the moon. They looked like tattoos to a casual observer, but a supernatural eye could be trained to spot the differences. No tattoo, no matter how good, could stay as clear and bold as the mark for more than a year or so.
That's when she identified the feeling in her gut. He's not human. That's why his energy was so intense. That's why he's functional right now. And that's how he knows what I am.
Ari tilted her head to the side, the ditsy look gone, and studied him closely. "Is everything okay, Chris? You seem a little.. spooked."

 

[Tharivle]

"Yes everything is fine. Just didn't notice it before. I have one too, let me show you. " Chris walked up and pulled up his right sleeve and held out his forearm. To any normal person it would look like a basic tattoo of a sword. But for anybody with any kind of magic the sword would appear to have golden flames rippling up the blade.
This was the test. If she panicked then she was a Moon Child. If she plainly said it was a sword then he would take it as his mistake and leave.

 

[Flutterby]

Ari walked down to look at the tattoo, placing her feet gingerly on the gravel. She took a gentle hold of his wrist, and gazed down at the tattoo. It was flaming. Like, moving, golden flames. She felt like there was a rock in her gut. She looked up at him, with a small smile. "Wow, that is beautiful. Don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. Is there a story behind it?" As she was touching him, she drew a little bit of energy from him. This was starting to feel like a dangerous game of chicken.

 

[Tharivle]

Chris felt the energy leave but it was a very small amount, so he let it slide. "I was in the army before I became a cop. I was wounded and sent home a few months before the war ended. Only took a month or so to recover, then I got a job as an officer. Just a few weeks after I became a cop I got this tattoo. It was something that everyone had and it was my first job so I wanted to fit in." Chris pulled his arm back and rolled down his sleeve. "Granted.... I fought in WWII and Rex here hasn't aged a day in the last 73 years..."
He was no longer smiling. Rex had circled around and was nearly behind her. "Who are you? What are you doing here? What part did you play in that crash?" Chris's voice was stern and short as he asked the questions in rapid succession.

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria listened with a smile on her face, although the little taste of his energy made her want even more. Her smile stayed until he mentioned WWII, and then it faded, and she met his eyes evenly. Well, she hadn't broke first, at least.
Ari placed her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and tried to hide her annoyance when he questioned her.
"I told you exactly who I am last night, Chris. My name is Ilaria. I still use Bronte as my surname. I moved out here to get away from the city, have a more peaceful lifestyle. There's a lot of uncheck crime against mortals in the cities, it bothered me." She glanced at Rex, who did actually make her uneasy, and sighed. "I'll tell you what I know about the crash if you stop trying to intimidate me with your wolf, and come inside. I'm not a huge fan of daylight hours, you know, being a child of the Moon and all. And I was trying to have a cup of tea." She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to indicate that if she walked away, she wouldn't have to defend herself against Rex.

 

[Tharivle]

"Chris looked at her with narrow eyes, trying to decide if she was a threat or if she was innocent and just in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Wait outside Rex."
Rex trotted past them and laid down in the driveway. "After you." He said in a softer tone as he gestured towards the house. Chris followed her inside.

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria relaxed a little as Rex laid down. His tone changed, and she nodded silently, and lead the way into the little house. She motioned to the little table at the other end of the kitchen; it was in front of a bay of windows with a window seat, and had two wooden chairs as well. She paused at the stove, putting her kettle back on to warm up. "There's some pastries from Just a Cup there, you're welcome to one. Do you want a cup of tea?" She said, nodding to the pale teal box in the middle of the kitchen table.
"I felt really good, after last night," She glaced up at him, from pouring water into her mug, "Sorry about that, by the way. I took too much. It's my death month, I was really drunk and you were.." She paused, as an image from their time in bed interrupted her thoughts. She cleared her throat, and finished softly, "..extraordinary."
Ari brought over the tea and sat across from him. "I was itching to change, so I went out for a flight. Barn owl, great hearing. I was over the woods when I heard the crash, got to the car in about a minute." She wasn't looking at him, instead adding a bit of sugar to her tea and stirring it slowly. "The woman was concious, at the time. She saw me, as a wolf, so I couldn't change back to this form. And I didn't leave, because..." Ari looked out the window, which offered a pretty view of the rocky beach. "I could feel something nearby, something supernatural. It wasn't something I knew, but I could feel it, in the woods." Her eyes drifted to his face, and she gave a half-shrug. "I didn't want to leave her, with whatever it was. It left a few seconds before the fire chief showed up, and then I took off. I could smell it though, at the edge of the woods." She took a small sip of her tea, and frowned. "It smelled like sickness. I was hoping to catch the smell on my way back, but no luck." She looked up at him, trying to read his face to see if he believed her.

 

[Tharivle]

"Okay, I believe you" Chris responded in a light almost cheerful tone. "Sorry for being rough out there. Just wanted to see if you would run or try to explain, I didn't think it was you." Chris paused a bit before continuing. "Rex caught the sent of something after checking out the point of impact on the car, and followed it to the edge of the woods before lousing it. That is when we started following you." Chris smiled a little and leaned in and whispered, "You were extraordinary too."

 

[Flutterby]

Ari nodded absently, her mind on the feeling she had about the thing in the woods. She was brought back to the present by his not-so-professional comment, and she glared at him a little, but she could feel her ears grow a little hot. "You realize you're probably saying that because I took enough energy from you, to get you on a high, right? I was surprised that you even remembered my name when you woke up." She finished her tea, and stood to put her cup in the sink.
"But.. Golden Flame, that explains why you're fine, and why your energy is so.. strong." She said, noting that the word she wanted to use was 'addictive.' She picked up the leather book and came back to the table, letting it fall with a light thud. She looked at him critically as she sat down. "I haven't run into one of you in a very long time. You're a weird lot, starting off human and all. How old are you, exactly?"

 

[Tharivle]

Chris could tell she was both embarrassed and annoyed by his commit but he didn't really care. She started it. "I'm 97, still relatively new to the game." Chris peered at the book in front of him. "What is this."

 

[Flutterby]

"Not saying it wasn't amazing, just saying it might be less so if I'm not feeding off of you." Ari mumbled, in response to the look on his face.
She raised an eyebrow as she pulled the book toward her, agreeing with his 'new to the game' comment. "Wow. You were still a human the last time I ran into a Golden Flame member." She shook her head a little, not sure if she was more surprised it had been so long, or that she was running into a Golden Flame again at all.
"It's a book." She said flatly. "Can you read the language, or no?" The book was written in a dialect based off of Romanian, used by gypsy-born witches, mostly of the Satanic type. "It's difficult for me, so if you were more familiar, it would actually be helpful."

 

[Tharivle]

Chris looked at the cover then cautiously opened the book. "I recognize some of the words but I'm not going to be much help translating." He said as he sifted through the pages. He closed the book and pushed it back to Ilaria. "Sorry I can't help more, but I do know several people that could read this as if it was a children's book." Chris hesitated a little, "But that would mean taking the book to the Golden Grove..... What is it about? What is its purpose?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria nodded and pulled the book back to her. She fiddled with the cover. "I got it from a group of witches, while I was in Europe." She opened the pastry box on the table and pulled out a chocolate croissant. After taking a bite, she added, "Nice girls, except for the whole Satan-worshipping thing. The smell in the woods reminded me of them. Not like they themselves smelled like that, but that I had smelled it around them, on their clothes. I don't think I even noticed at the time, they wore a lot of perfume and stuff, but by the time I got back here, I realized that's where it was familiar from." She took another bite.
"I never got super good with reading their language though, so I'm not exactly sure what's in the book. There's a lot of talk about chalk, salt, and sacrificing." She gave a small shrug. "Thought it might have some clues about whats out there."
Ari took another bite of the pastry, and looked at him calmly. "I'd rather not let you take it, though. There's some kind of magic binding it to me, supposedly, and I'm not really sure how that works, but I don't really want to find out. I think there might've been blood involved."

 

[Tharivle]

"That is up to you, whether you want to get it looked at or not." Chris was thinking intently staring at the table. "Demons with enouph power could get big enouph to do the kind of damage we saw today, but there hasn't been an actual manifestation in the last 200 years." Chris looked up at Ilaria, "What could make a demon strong enouph to appear in a demonic form?"

 

[Flutterby]

Ilaria looked up at him sharply when he said the word demon. It hadn't crossed her mind. She shook her head at his question. "A big enough summoning, but you'd be aware of any groups in the area capable of that. But unbound, just mucking about in it's true form? I don't have any idea." She rolled the idea around in her brain. "It would have to be a physical object, something passive. And if they can get to it, it doesn't belong to anyone supernatural, or it would be protected. Something that either looks average enough to go unnoticed, or is hidden." She gave a half shrug. "I haven't dabbled in demon-lore in a long time, and everyone I know from that time of my life is dead. So, I guess the Golden Flame is it, then?"

 

[Tharivle]

Chris eyes her with surprise. "You know that the Golden Flame is a very protective and secretive group. If you want to come with me to find answers then you will have to be very well behaved." Chris actually looked a little worried at the thought of taking her to the grove. "There has never been an outsider that has entered that hasn't been either killed or imprisoned.... Granted there has never been an outsider that has come in peace." Chris thought a little more. "I believe i can get you in and back out without a scratch if you want to come. I will be leaving within a few days."

 

[Flutterby]

"Chris, it's not my job to find answers. I'm just being a good citizen of your little town." Ari said, a little testily. As much as she liked misbehaving, she resented him implying that she couldn't act right. "Believe it or not, I am a functional being that can play nice with others."
She brought her attitude in check, growing serious. "And I haven't lived this long without knowing how to deal with groups of supernaturals. If you communicate with me, I won't step out of line. As long as the book doesn't leave my sight. Ever." She shifted in her seat. "The coven that made this book was into some really bad stuff. They put protections on their texts, and they're not something that I understand. I was young, I didn't speak the language well," Her ears grew hot at the next part, "And I was pretty much always drunk during that time. I have no idea what kind of magic is on this book, and I understand very little about what is described within it. The Golden Flame needs to be very careful."