"Sweet Mother,
sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy
must be baptized in blood and fear.”
A cloaked figure
gives the chant as beneath them lie the bodies of two torn apart
individuals with one being further carved up by a knife through the
chest.
"Sweet Mother,
sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy
must be baptized in blood and fear.”
The chant continues
as the individual brings both their hands into the carved torso
ripping open the rib cage creating a cooling sensation to their
fingers.
“They had better
come, I can hardly contain myself. An elderly elf and a snow witch,
after all. Maybe...maybe just a nibble.”
Reaching in, the
person rips out the snow witch's ice covered heart and brings it
close for a heavy lick causing the hood of her cloak to fall from her
head revealing her brown hair. She looks back around, her tongue
licking the side of the heart, as three figures in black stand before
her. Branwen takes a bite of the heart and smiles.
“Tell me...are
any of you rabbits?”
Having come to a halt out by a caravan cart, Alleyne takes the time
given to her to keep her body limber as she lowers herself down to
the ground where she can begin stretching herself out. First by lying
on her back and hugging a leg close to her chest and then repeating
with the other. She keeps alternating until it's time to come up to
her knees and begin stretching out her arms in behind her head. Once
she's finished that, she lies over her front and begins arching out
her back as Sonico returns with a small book and a healthy smile on
her face. The caravan, now with the business concluded, heads off as
the elf member of the group waves off to the rabbit who returns the
favor until grabbing up her pet's leash.
“Hey, Alleyne.”
Hearing her name, Alleyne looks over pushing her rear out far before
coming up to her knees.
“Lucky there was an elf in the caravan I could talk with, I
completely forgot my own personal side mission with this trip. As you
recall, I aim to turn you into the perfect pet. So I'm going to teach
you some tricks. Oh.” Sonico looks down at what she has written and
does her best to work through the words “Ona...tie...a' tricks.”
“Amin perform vee' naie.” Alleyne quickly replies as Sonico's
eyes divert to the side.
“I'm...gonna take that as a let's get started. So let's get
started, starting with...De.”
Upon the order, Alleyne comes to her feet standing up before her
certainly pleased Mistress.
“Quena.”
“Uma.”
Alleyne speaks as ordered, though Sonico looks not as enthused there.
“Woulda been cute if you barked there...” Sonico shrugs and just
continues on. “Hama.”
At the command, Alleyne sits down on the ground looking up at Sonico
who is quick to continue.
“No' lle knees.” Sonico's tone takes a more commanding one as she
watches Alleyne obey going back to her original starting position on
her knees. “Cam.”
Sonico instructs as Alleyne holds out her left hand. The rabbit
smiles taking a step closer so she can take hold of Alleyne's hand
giving it a shake. The elf furrows her brow a little having not
expected that but shows no signs of struggling against her Mistress'
hold and instead allows her to finish. Sonico then looks to her final
word of command as she takes another step toward Allenye holding out
her hand closer to the elf's face.
“Sul...S-sul...Sulpa.”
Alleyne leans her head in close eyeing her Mistress as she gently
licks the back of her hand sending a shiver straight through the
rabbits body until she collapses backward. Alleyne looks around for a
bit then crawls alongside Sonico's head bringing it up into her lap
slowly waking the rabbit girl from her brief state of
unconsciousness.
“Guess...I gotta...train myself too.”
\m/<(^_^)>\m/
“No' lle knees...hama...cam.”
Sonico continues going over the written orders repeating them over
and over to herself as she and Alleyne now walk through a densely
wooded area as Alleyne keeps on her guard watching around them.
“De...Quena.”
“Tira ten' rashwe!”
Alleyne quickly reaches a hand out in front of her Mistress who
lowers the small pad of paper from her view.
“Alleyne, I didn't--” Sonico stops when she sees the point of an
arrow aimed directly at her face halted by her pet's ability and
timing to grab hold of it.
As Alleyne looks in the direction the arrow had come from, Sonico
drops down on her backside shivering over yet another near death
experience. Alleyne steps in her way though blocking any further
attempts on her life as she snaps and throws down the arrow parts to
the ground readying her staff.
“Vano n'e sinome!” Alleyne demands furrowing her brow toward the
trees.
“My, my.” Comes the calm voice of a slender man as he steps out
from the trees. His face was concealed by a red mask leaving nothing
open but his eyes as his body was covered in black and red leather.
He fixes a bow back in behind himself before drawing out a short
sword from a concealed sheath. “Your pet has some keen eyes to
detect my arrows.”
He says to Sonico who was still shivering on the ground as she stared
back at the man growing more and more certain of his intentions as he
draws closer.
“That heavy collar will also make it quite difficult to remove her
head.”
The man lunges at Alleyne who smacks the sword to the side with her
staff turning with the impact to deliver a high kick. Unfortunately,
he manages to duck and uses the opening Alleyne delivers to lock eyes
with Sonico sending a tingle all along the rabbits spine. Seeing the
opening she's made, Alleyne gasps pushing her staff out trying to
send the would-be assassin away. Given it's weak approach, the man
simply sidesteps it as the elf is forced to regain her balance.
During this, the assassin bumps her down to the ground on all fours
pushing a foot down against her back.
“I would stay down if I were you, elf.” He kindly suggests as
Sonico looks to her side seeing the broken parts of the arrow. “And
smile. You never know, it might stick after I cut.”
Grabbing it, Sonico swings stabbing the assassin in the calf causing
him to cry out. The rabbit then grabs Alleyne in her arms and bounds
away into the woods quickly leaving the man behind to deal with his
wound.
“Damn rabbit...” He swears as he rips the arrow out from his leg
hobbling to maintain balance. “I'll make a new sheath from your
ears!”
An arrow suddenly pierces into the man's chest dropping him to his
knees.
“C...Cassandra...”
“No you won't.” Comes a voice directly in front of him. However,
there was no one there as two more arrows are fired into his neck
then forehead. “To be ousted by his own target. Deal with his
remains, I'm going to continue the hunt.”
Three leaves drift down from the trees as a larger man comes from the
darkness wearing a similar outfit. He approaches the body of the
assassin resting his enormous cleaver to the side opting to pull out
a small dagger instead. After crouching next to the body, he stabs
the blade into sternum and uses his might to seemingly clean slice
all the way down.
>--->>
Further
along in the woods, a still quite visibly shaken Sonico is looking
all around as Alleyne watches over at her a little surprised with the
showing of strength earlier. Not only did she muster up the courage
to stab the assassin in the leg but she carried Alleyne all the way
out here and still only looks more worried than tired.
“What.
The hell. Was that? Alleyne?” Sonico asks in a frantic voice
turning back to her pet. “Monsters and trolls and soul sucking
demons I can understand, they're just trying to survive. But that
person...he wasn't a bandit, he wasn't a slaver, he was something
else. He meant to kill us!
Does it have something to do with this? Something to do with your
collar?”
Sonico scurries to Alleyne gripping the thick metal around the elf's
neck attempting to pry it apart at what appears to be the seam. There
was certainly the lock back there but despite her best efforts,
there's no budging it. Therefore, Sonico tries a different approach
by coming around front and attempts to remove the chain leash.
“I can't...go through this. I can't...” But with the chain welded
to the collar, Sonico only winds up throwing herself backward to the
ground. Alleyne quickly comes crawling over kneeling next to her
Mistress bringing the rabbits head up in her lap. “Alleyne...I
don't...”
“Hama.”
“What?”
“De. Quena. Cam.”
“...quena.”
“Sulpa.” Alleyne says as she takes Sonico's hand licking the back
of it. “Sulpa.”
“Sulpa.” Sonico repeats finally understanding what her pet was
attempting and finally calms down into a smile. “Thank you,
Alleyne.”
Sonico reaches out a hand stroking the side of Alleyne's head folding
down her ear before popping it back up. Seeing it happen causes
Sonico to giggle as she repeats watching it shoot back out again. She
goes for a third by Alleyne catches her wrist shaking her head.
“N'uma. Tanya hurts.”
“Sorry.” Sonico at least picks up on the third word there as
Alleyne now begins to look around their surroundings.
“Lye anta utu- tuupa.”
Sonico tilts her head at Alleyne's serious tone as the elf comes up
causing the rabbit girls head to drop back against the ground.
Alleyne looks back and, for a moment, looks weak. Soon, though,
Alleyne is back walking around the larger trees scouting out before
coming back grabbing hold of her staff and offering out the ring of
her leash to Sonico.
“Sina men.”
Sonico takes the leash handle and comes up to her feet following
behind Alleyne as they start through the forest once more.
“You know, I may not speak elven, but I can still tell you aren't
much of a conversationalist.”
/\
/. \
/__\
|_|
/. \
/__\
|_|
Down
inside the hollow of a massive tree, Alleyne works to build up a door
of sorts to further protect them for the night as Sonico rests in a
small ball along the floor just a few feet away.
“In a
way...this reminds me of home.” Alleyne registers Sonico is
speaking, but gives nothing in the way of response other than a short
glance back over her shoulder. “I mean, aside from the monsters,
the ghosts, the underground slave rings...well, that's somewhat like
home too considering how I got you.”
Sonico
sits up and watches Alleyne finish the makeshift door of their
temporary shelter. It wasn't all the way secure, but it was the best
that they could hope for for the night. Therefore, Sonico feels safe
enough to pull her elf from the project and closer to her. Alleyne
crawls over as her leash commands kneeling down beside her Mistress
who only laughs.
“You're
always so formal, even about this.” She smiles looking her pet over
reaching a hand up to pat atop of Alleyne's head. “You're a good
girl, Alleyne, this...this isn't what you deserve.”
Sonico
follows the leash around from the collar straight to where she grips
the giant ring at the end of it.
“But,”
She begins before looking back at her pet with a smirk. “Twenty
carrots is a lot to this rabbit so I think I'm gonna keep hold of you
a while longer. After all, we still have that bet to win back home.”
Sonico
holds her smile as her hand trails down the side of Alleyne's head
pausing at the top of her ear when she remembers and swiftly removes
her touch. Alleyne blinks back at her Mistress a few times as the
rabbit girl lies down into her little ball. Alleyne just touches the
side of her own head and soon lies down as well giving the door a
final look before closing her eyes.
|
=====
| |
0 |
|
|
===========
Morning
came as both Sonico and Alleyne awake to find sunlight peering in
through the cracks of the door. There wasn't any sign of anyone
attempting a forced entry and they both appeared normal after a quick
check. Still, Alleyne grips her staff as she cautiously exits the
hallow looking all around for any signs of an ambush. She doesn't
come across any such sign, but she does come across an ominous omen
in the form of a nude male strung up by his ankles. His chest was cut
open from his neck down to his groin and every organ removed. Inside
the empty chest cavity lay a short sword and a few arrows as if
decoratively arranged. Sonico is just about out when Alleyne pushes
her back into the hollow to spare her the sight.
“That's
good, surround her with no exits.” A feminine voice chimes
seemingly from right in front of Alleyne but there was no one within
view. “It's rare when an elf bests a trained assassin. What's your
name? Even pets are given them by their Master.”
Alleyne
strikes out her staff swiftly. “Vano tuulo' i' shadows ar' anta
amin.”
“Oh?
I' edhel doesn't quena english?” The woman laughs as Alleyne,
surprised, keeps her staff ready. “Eller's y' lot lle can istima e'
y' lammen tuulo' y' ungwale edhel. Mani will amin istima tuulo' lle?
maybe nothien.”
Alleyne
gasps furrowing her brow at the notion of a tortured elf but then
hears a snap from behind her and turns narrowly ducking the hefty
swing of a mighty cleaver aimed to take off her head. Stumbling back
Alleyne feels something hard pressed to her back and looks behind her
to see it's just a tree. Uncertain though where it came from, Alleyne
once reacts just in time to duck rolling out of the way only to bang
her shoulder into another tree, one she didn't even realize was there
to begin with. She shakes her head as the cleaver is swung again this
time cutting a little into her shoulder. Alleyne cries out staggering
away throwing out a hand to balance herself off a tree only to
collapse to the ground as the feminine voice only laughs.
“Have
you yet to realize it, elf? My miasma will have you stumbling around
blind for hours. As for you...”
Sonico
steps out from the hollow coughing into her hand a few times as she
glances around what she presumes to be an empty forest.
“Alleyne?”
She asks out before coughing again.
“Let's
resume the hunt.” Three leaves fall out from the trees landing to
the ground...and then silence.
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