LIFE WITH MASTER

[size=+1]The first time I travelled into town, I desperately hoped to find something there.

I hoped to have the chance to talk to the locals, to experience contact with a human being for the first time in my existence. I hoped to fully comprehend civilisation for myself instead of merely reading about it or hearing tales of it. I desperately hoped for acceptance, understanding, the knowledge that I was not so alone in this dark and terrible world.

Yet I discovered that civilisation was behind a door that would always remain shut for me, that human contact would forever be denied and that acceptance was something I could only possess in the most maddening of dreams. For in the eyes of these people, those so blessed as to be able to call themselves 'human', I am a monster, a terror of the night, and they want no part in whatever business I come to conduct.

Since that first visit I have been able to steel myself to such rejection. My heart barely sinks as I spy the shutters of the houses closing, and I only just feel the sting of rejection when I see the streets below emptying. Inside the carriage my companion Vasile awaits with the coffin; I hope he is prepared for what I witness as well.

I hope he prepared to go through with what Master asks of us both.

The carriage passes through the streets of the village, now empty of life. Behind the shutters I can feel eyes upon me, fearful and panicked. Our reputation precedes us, as does Master's. This is his village, these are his people; through fear does he keep them in line.

We are but one of the ways he sows this fear amongst them.

Further through the village and up another hill we pass, towards the Church perched at the edge of a cliff looking down upon a river. Next to this lies the graveyard, the purpose of this visit. There we will desecrate the burial of a hanged man, all in the name of Master's research.

With luck, the locals will not see this transgression. I doubt they would take kindly to it if they did.

Tugging on the reins, I pull the carriage to a halt outside the Church doors and step down from the driver's seat, moving round to open the door for Vasile.
"The priest will likely be inside," I force my vocal chords to growl out, "We should take care. Could be trouble."[/size]


* * *​

[size=+2] "So are you willing to admit you made it all up yet?"
"I swear I'm telling the truth! I saw it just around here!"
"Janos, we have been walking up and down this forest for hours now. And we're getting far too close to that Castle for my liking. Just admit you were telling tall tales once again and then we can all go home."
"Truly, I tell no lie! It was here the last time I came this way!"
"You're such a liar, Janos!"
"And you're always so quick to judge, Dorian!"

As Beatrix and Wolf waited, they heard these words drifting down the path, drawing closer and closer with each passing minute. Three voices, those of young men. And headed their way…[/size]
 
"Mmm...hm?"

Beatrix caught herself nearly falling asleep in the trees. Being unable to move much was making her body relax and feel the need to shut down. The leaves rustled as she moved her arms, giving them a few shakes to spark some life into them. These travelers arrived just in time, it looked like. Beatrix would have felt horrible if Wolf had to capture them on his own. Plus, what would Master say? She'd hate to disappoint him, especially with her excellent history with hunting and killing.

With a sturdy branch gripped in each hand, she poked her head down to get a better view of the pathway. There were three male figures pacing closer to her area. This was a perfect opportunity! Surely, three bodies would please Master. That was probably all they could afford to transport, anyway. Beatrix was meek; she wouldn't be able to carry one without dragging him across the ground. Wolf was mighty, though. He would be able to handle it.

The trio lined up with the hidden spider-woman, finally. Immediately, she undid her grasp in the trees and allowed her weight to drop onto them. They paused when they heard a disturbance above them. There was little time to react. One managed to rush out of the way, but the other two remained staring, in absolute awe of the shadowed monster falling over them.

Giggling playfully, Beatrix wrapped all of her arms around the pair, as if giving them a hug. Right then, noticing the lack of another, she frowned. "Why is your friend running from me? Awh!"

The two were speechless, and squirming for freedom in her tight embrace. Laughing once more, she leaned her face into the neck of one of them, which fit snugly in between the mandibles on her jawline. Slowly, she opened her mouth, her lips brushing against his sensitive skin. Beatrix relished the feeling of him trembling in response. The fear of her victims was something delightful. At times like these, she'd forget about being human. Right now, she was a beast and nothing more, nothing less.

When her mouth closed, her fangs sank into the man's neck, injecting him with some of her venom. After she did, she allowed him to break free from her grasp. He would not run for long. His vision would blur and he would be clumsy, becoming easy prey for Wolf. Beatrix was sure this fellow would drop into the dirt at anytime now, and then he would wake up in one of Master's prison cells!

The other victim attempted to follow his friend, genuinely concerned that he would die. "Do not worry! He is not going to die," she assured him, petting his hair with one hand while her other arms squeezed him closely. Blood and poison dripped from her teeth as she smiled at him, her inky black eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"M-Monster... Y-You damn monster..."

"I know," she replied in a sad whisper, nuzzling into his neck and giving him the same treatment as she did his friend. "I know."

For the next passing moments, all she did was hold him in her arms. He went limp and passed out, slumbering deeply against Beatrix's body. Sadness masked her face now as she looked over him. "I wish we could have had more fun and I wish we could have been friends. Humans don't like me. Maybe you'll like me when you're a monster too?"

Beatrix stroked his hair one last time, her hand running along his face as well before it hooked into the collar of his shirt. He was beautiful; much more beautiful than she was. With a sigh, she unwrapped the rest of her arms, her body going from a standing position to a crawling position once again. While dragging the unconscious body along, she went searching for Wolf and the other two travelers.
 


The rain was coming. The first spots hit Vasile's hairline as he stepped from the carriage. A fine mist was cresting the cliffs, as if all the land was tumbling upwards into vapour, and beneath his feet the mud subsided. With one arm hooked against his chest, already aching from the cold, the servant climbed the path toward the church. Behind him Tammuz lingered with the carriage and saw to the horses, keeping that distance that all the Master's children kept.

All but Vasile. For on these errands he was granted that particular luxury... that particular curse... of sharing briefest words with humankind.

The church was small, ramshackle wood, and doomed one day to plunge over the cliffside and be lost forever. As Vasile neared he saw what little light it offered being extingusihed, the candles snuffing quickly behind the windows as if slain by his very presence. And even in this there was a torment, as if the humble dwelling wilted like a flower before his coming. He knocked awkwardly on the door, but his biceps not knitted quite correctly for the action and it made his knuckle drag down the wood with every rap. Even in the simplest human greeting he found the flaws of his patchwork nature.

By the time the door opened the rain was splashing down, and Vasile's head had stooped lower in its onslaught. As he lifted it to peer at the man in the crack of candlelight, he saw but a poorly framed picture of the old priest with wide eyes and wizened hair. Dressed in his smock, the man was blended with the shadows of his church and appeared only as a floating head and twinkling crucifix caught in lamplight - a dual image of faith and terror.

Since humans first strayed beyond their bounds, they had learned the business of wordless communication - of universal grunts and gestures. And now, like mismatched savages, the two creatures eyed one another in the doorway. Vasile lifted a pouch of coins into the candle glow, and as the priest hesitated Vasile's hand trembled ever more violently. It was a good minute before the priest pulled the door an inch wider and reached his own arm out. Snatching the pouch and almost dropping his candle in doing so, the money was clutched to his own chest - a pose that mirrored Vasile's.

Faith and terror.

"The east border! I hung a lantern!" He had a peculiar voice - at once powerful yet afraid, wavering yet forceful. He nodded past Vasile's shoulder, and the monster turned with wheezing breath to spy a fairy-like glow at the graveyard's edge. The old man had prepared everything for them... everything that would allow him briefest contact with the demons.

"Did..." Vasile's voice echoed behind his mask and made the old man freeze a second before he could slam the door shut. As the monster turned his face again, he could tell how his soft tones unnerved the human. "Did he... have anyone?"

Another pause, heavy with the crackle of mounting rain. The priest's eyes seemed to yawn wider. "No. He was a sinner."

"Did you know hi--"

"He was a sinner! Unloved!" The door thudded shut and the key rattled loudly.

"Unloved..." Vasile echoed. For another minute he stood there and enjoyed the slight warmth that came from the church - the slight sense of peace it exuded. What could an old priest want with the Master's silver? What cause would make a man of God stand aside and permit such desecration to his holy ground?

Tonight a pair of monsters worry for sanctity... whilst the sanctified show their monstrousness.

Vasile limped back towards the carriage, where Tammuz had already lifted out the coffin and filled it with the sacks of work tools. A motion from Vasile was all the giant required and then he was off, lumbering down the muddy, streaming path that bisected the graveyard. Vasile followed and his uncertain gait made him sway between the shadows of the headstones. Watched by stone angels and leering gargoyles, the pair toiled through the night and came at last upon the lantern that hung from a sapling elm.

And there, like an island amid the streaming mud, they found the fresh, unmarked grave of the criminal.

Tammuz laid the coffin down with a thud. And Vasile, sighing, circled him and plucked up the lighter of the shovels. "Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood, and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on."
 
The last traveler bolted, but not nearly fast enough to get away from Wolf. Wolf's body was low, travelling with fast strides, limbs stretching out. He ran mostly on four legs, though sometimes for extra traction or speed his two grafted-on arms reached down to the ground and dug in. He cahsed the last one down the river bank, always pulling closer and closer until he was close enough to leap.

His four arms threw themselves around the man and slammed him to the ground beneath his captor. And from there it was nothing more than basic math. Four is more than two, and in this case the competition was in arms. One large hand held the traveler's arms together behind him wile the others kept him close to Wolf, and in an awkward leaning position where he had little traction. Wolf's three-legged gait wasn't as smooth as his normal mode of locomotion, but he was more in control than his prey.

It didn't take him long to reach Beatrix again, and he wrangled his captive into a position where his neck was exposed for her fangs. His lips didn't fit perfectly, he had a hint of a snout and they kind of stretched around his jawline, but they for a fleeting instant pulled into a frown as he saw her tenderly holding the man. He didn't know why, though, no one had ever taught him how to digest anything but the most basic of emotions.

"Here, Beetrik... where third?" He said slowly as he saw she only held one in her hands, when he remembered three. The unspoken question in his eyes was if he would have to chase him down, and Wolf's body started to lower down in preparation to sprint as he waited for an answer.
 
With a grin on her face, Beatrix lowered her face to the neck of the human that Wolf captured. He yelped pathetically as her fangs sank into his skin, injecting her venom into his bloodstream. A pair of marks were left behind from the pricking of her teeth, and she licked at the bit of blood she got into her mouth. Not the most pleasant of tastes, but it satisfied a small amount of hunger she was feeling.

"I bit him," she answered, looking past him to where her victim ran from her. Still dragging the unconscious man on the ground, she moved forward to search for the third one.

Something that she noticed was despite their kidnapping, this place was serene. She liked the sound of the flowing water and she was fond of the way the winds rustled the plants around here. This place soothed her. There was nothing to fear because she would be the top predator, if she lived here. Plus, there were plenty of places to hide. The only thing she'd miss is the library. There wasn't any place she could keep her books! Also, there was something nice about perching on top of the bookshelves in Master's library...

"Here, Wolf." Beatrix stopped beside a bush where a body laid in. During his rush away from Beatrix, he must have stumbled and fell into the shrub, due to the dizziness caused by her toxic bite. So there he was, slumbering silently on the ground.

"We go back now?"
 
[size=+1]From the skies, the rain begins to fall.

It's like the planet is weeping.

From the carriage I remove the coffin and place the tools we will require for this travesty inside. Shovels and a heavy crowbar to break into the coffin and remove a man from the place of his final rest. A man hung by his fellow humans now denied even the chance of a grave undesecrated by the will of Master.

And I, the lowly minion, am the one sent to carry this desecration out.

Vasile speaks with the priest of the ramshackle church for the briefest of moments. I suspect this is the reason he came in the first place. Up in the castle, surrounded by naught but brick and with only Master and his minions for company... it weighs hard upon a being such as Vasile. These excursions are his only respite, his one chance to speak with those far more fortunate than ourselves, those who were born rather than built.

How I envy them, sometimes. Truly, they do not know how fortunate they are.

Returning from the church, Vasile walks with me to the grave of the man whose body we shall be taking. The rain hammers down upon the fresh grave, turning the earth to mud. I lay the coffin down and take up my shovel, preparing to carry out Master's will. Right or wrong is irrelevant at this time, I tell myself.

This is the will of Master, and I am his loyal servant.

With a sigh I strike the earth, pushing aside the soaking mud to get down to the coffin. Vasile is helpful, but this is my area of expertise; I heave aside mounds of dirt and quickly get down to the coffin without much effort. Carefully reaching down, I pull it free from the hole and dump it down beside us both; no sense in being cautious, after all. We both know what we are doing is wrong but necessary.

The coffin is crudely made from the trees that grow in the forests near to the town, its lid nailed down. I drop the shovel and take up the crowbar, jamming the tool into the coffin and prying the lid clear. The smell hits me first; the body may only have been dead a day or two but already the stench that comes off it is potent. I look down into the coffin, at the dead face of the man whose grave I have desecrated and whose body will soon be subjected to further horrors by my Master.

I cannot help but pity him.

Part of me wants to put him back in the grave and let him rest, but I know I cannot listen to that side of me; Master wishes this corpse to be brought to him, and I will see his will carried out. Yet as I transfer the body from one coffin to the other, my eyes fall upon the path that leads up to the church and spots the torches in the distance. Others are approaching. They will be here soon.
"Vasile," I growl to my companion, motioning with my head towards the torches, "Others are coming."[/size]
 
"Go home now," Wolf nodded in agreement as he reached into the bush and pulled out the unconscious man. With a grunt, he managed to get both to lay across his back in such a way that he could hold him with his extra arms. The weight was uncomfortable, but he didn't want Beatrix to know that.

As the rain began to fall, some first few drops fell onto his head, causing him to shake it from side to side, uncannily like the creature for which he'd been named. He shot an annoyed glare up at the clouds, as though it was their decision to rain on him, to inconvenience him. He looked back to Beatrix, shifting from side to side to pull his feet from the moistening ground, trying to stretch a smile across his lips. "Quikkee."

And with that he turned toward the bank, trying to plan how to climb up the side without losing hold of the two bodies flung across his back. He began to shortly pace up and down the sides, until he found a stretch of bank shallow enough to climb up in the growing rainstorm. He started to pull himself up, digging his fingers into the grass and mud to get enough traction, letting out a lower canine growl as he made the effort.
 
Rhodri stepped forwards stepping past his companion as she guarded the exit to the cell. The prisoner shied away from him looking as if he might rush for the door again. In the flickering torchlight fear and desperation was on every line of his face. A face that had tasted the first touches of middle age and belonged to a man who had pleaded for days to be allowed to return to his family that without him would mot survive the winter. Winter had come and gone and now he was a lot more compliant, he knew his fate.

But did not accept it yet. With a lunge he swung at Rhodri knocking him back and rushed towards Gergana, but just before he could reach her a heavy swinging chain knocked the legs out from under him and he staggered careening into the iron bars of the cell and slumped to the floor and Rhodri stepped towards him fixing the manacles around his ankles and chaining his wrists together. "Are you alright?" he asked Gergana before gesturing for her to help get the man to his feet. "Just one more." he said looking down the corridor "Lets hop he puts up less fuss."
 
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