Unlikely Circumstances

S

Stheno

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Original poster
The land of Navarre is full of many creatures. However three were dominant. The Fey, creatures of magic and wisdom rooted in nature and the Dredes rooted in technology and expansion, the final set is the hybrids. Those who were experimented on by the Dredes, they grow in numbers and are hunted down and killed if found. A neverending war between the Dredes and the Fey continues to run on. All three races hating eachother equally.

Inara glanced from her hiding spot, Dredes everywhere. She was not sure how she was going to get out of this situation. They were obviously harvesters looking for new test subjects and recatching the ones in existence. She could see the cages from her perch. They would catch her soon if she did now move, she didn't exactly blend in. Her long orange hair was streaked with stripes, her tanned body was covered in them as well. Tiger hybrids were rare as it is... who knows what would happen if she was spotted. She spts in disgust, how she hated Dredes
 
The man in charge was covered in a type of cybersuit. He glowed in the night, making his presence obvious. But what was even more terrifying than the Drede was the hybrid creature at his side. There was a type of collar on the back of its neck. This creature, a sick, twisted imitation of what it might have once been tried ripping off the collar, but yelped when it was shocked. It had long limbs, like those of a thin dog, but its back bragged of Drede gynecology. However, so sickly thin and malnourished, its ribs showed through its pale, translucent skin. Every step was painful for this hack-saw creature. This pain showed on its face, stuck in between its former wolf fey form and the Drede's angered features, it was in a constant scowl. One eye was black and gold, the other, a robotic bluish Drede eye that glowed, most likely where they had inserted the genes for maximum effect.

His master lifted his arm, a hologram showing up in mid air. There were a collection of red dots on the screen, all of them marked for death.
"127453, you have your data, hunt." the Drede said, pressing buttons to initiate the command prompt.

With a jolt of electricity, the information was pumped directly into the creature's nerve stream. It cried out, severe pain causing its body to convulse while standing for a moment. Then, its cries turned to howls as it dashed into the brush, driven mad by this sickly sweet torture.
 
Inara's eyes narrowed seeing the creature. She remembered that collar, she had escaped it once herself.. starved near to death when she was taken in by the other hybrids. They fed her and taught her how to survive, most of them were dead now. She understood the crazed killing of this dog creature, she understood it all too well, luckily she knew her name was no on that list. She was irrelevant to the creature, but she felt bad. She felt that it was necessary to try and get the collar off, she knew to well the torture it was going through. She quietly shifted towards him hiding well above him in the trees.
 
The creature, moved wildly, severe pain could only be solved by finishing this mission, this bloodbath. The creature had illusions of escape, of fighting back. But the truth was that he could no more help himself than he could help the Fey that he had come to drag back, kicking and screaming. He caught a scent of something else though. It was familiar and strange all at once, unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Sweet and sour, Calm and raging, seductive and dangerous. He took the risk of following that scent instead of his given targets. It caused more discomfort, like lying to a loved one, but he had to know, had to try.
 
She arches a brow surprised as he breaks from his programmed path, she didn't even do that.... this one was strong. After a couple of seconds she realizes he is hunting HER. Her eye brow arches and she smiles picking up the device used to pop her collar off and slips behind the creature ready to remove that cursed collar, it wouldn't erase the madness or the pain but he would be free. No longer in command of the Dredes.
 
Startled by her sudden arrival, he instantly rolled, trying to throw her off. He snarled and pinned her down to the ground, his eyes mad. But nothing could have been worse than his breath, as if he was rotting from the inside. He glared her down as slobbery drool escaped from his unnatural muzzle-lips and landed on her face. He looked like he had caught a bad strain of rabies by how his spit frothed at the corners of his mouth.

He could have killed her right there and then, if not for the sudden shock that coursed through his nervous system. He whimpered and backed down from her, crouching low to the ground. The shocks intensified and he whimpered again, nearly crying now.
 
"Those fucking Dredes" she moves him over and shocks the back of his collar and smiles satisfied as it pops off releasing the programming and falling useless to the ground, "your welcome hunter" she smiles not sure how else she can really help him, her cat ears perk up listening and she smiles satisfied that no one else is coming.
 
His body changed, transforming from that sickly thing before into a cyclone of things. A mix of fur, and tooth, and claw enveloped him. The Drede body that he was fused to glowed in the middle of the cyclone, floating there like some ethereal being. There was a bright flash of light, and the cyclone stopped, faster than it had started. All at once, the sickly creature was gone, and in its place, the form of a Drede, but without its technology and modifications. Scars licked every inch of the Drede body, signs of whipping when he had done wrong, and dozens of injections points when they wanted to test him. What a pretty body this Drede had once owned. He was a collection of roped muscle underneath all of that skin, even if he was skinny rather than bulky. By his body type, he was in his prime and of a lower class, the many hours of toiling in the sun evident by some tan lines.

There was only one thing about him that was not Drede, and that was the tattoo stretching around his neck like interweaving knots. This was a wolf warrior to the Alpha of this forest, or once was. Any other signs of his former self was unrecognizable. The physical shock of the collar being removed would keep him weak for a while, and the amnesia of his life before the testing would be hard to recover from.

Why had he changed so much without the collar? Was this the reason that he had been able to resist it so well? These were answers that she couldn't find, not yet, and not while he was naked and unconscious in the forest.
 
She growls under her breath, of course he would pass out... the fact he was so malnourished helped she was actually capable of carrying him then climbing up the tree with him, she glances around the room and put him in her bed covering him with the blankets. "He is probably gonna be starving... I better go hunt something for him." She sniffs and then strokes his cheek gently looking at his tattoo then turns on her heel jumping from her door to go and retrieve food for herself and her guest.
 
He stirred, the blackness around him not giving a clue as to where he was. All he knew was that there was a tightness in his stomach and his feet were killing him. All of the sudden, he felt very sick. He turned over, dry heaving for a moment before this bluish slime left his mouth. It was then that he realized that the room was not as dark as he had assumed, but filled with moonlight inside of a great, hollowed out tree. He was taken with awe by the gravity of the place, moss growing where the wood had rotted away, creating a soft bed for him to lay on. Suddenly, he felt very sorry for ruining the beauty of the place with his vomit. He wasn't sure what his vomit should look like, but he was sure it shouldn't look like that, it didn't seem to belong to him.

Then the pain set in, a dozen different places where it felt like his bones had been broken not too long ago and they had just healed. How did he know what that felt like? Did it matter? His head throbbed in pain, and he ran his fingers through the tangled mess to hold his head still, as if doing so would stop the sharp pains. It didn't. It only made him aware of the fact that he was filthy, as if he hadn't bathed in weeks. Was that important either? He didn't know. All of the sudden, he realized that he didn't know anything. No recollection of who he was, what he was, or how he had come to be here. This sent him into a panic and the once serene place he was in became suddenly hostile. It was like a cage of beauty and air now in his panic.
 
She returned to find him clutching his head and trembling, she saw the vomit and blinked concerned, that wasn't normal. "Hello hunter, are you hungry?" She steps inside dragging a deer behind her looking at the man she carried home half covered in blood herself her tail swinging behind her, she had no clue he had no memory, after all she remembered everything. She did imagine he was very confused as he doesn't know her nor that she brought him home, "we got lucky... deer were everywhere. Um do you need your food cooked? I am not sure what kind of hybrid you are... how do you need your food cooked?"
 
He jumped, falling over a few things in the process. A girl, orange even in the moonlight, with a tail and carrying a giant deer while she was covered in blood. How else was he supposed to react? Oh, hello, stranger! Glad you're home, am I next on your meal? So, in all of this excitement and confusion, his body reacted in ways he hadn't expected. Immediately, he covered himself, crouching to the ground to avoid more embarrassment.
"What are you?!" He shouted, disturbing some of the birds outside from the slumber.
 
She blinks entirely confused, "I am gonna assume you want it cooked" she sees he landed in the vomit and wrinkles her nose "cmon hunter its okay, I am not gonna bite you my name is Inara. I am sorry for the blood.... I don't have weapons so I had to use my claws and teeth...here you're filthy... there's a lake a mile from here.... you can bathe there while I cook the deer" she curses herself. She as never good with others, what on Earth possessed her to bring this one home.
 
"Where am I? What am I? What-? Where-? Who-?" He curled his head down as the questions overwhelmed him and his head hurt even more.
He found that he had landed in the blue slime and wrinkled his nose in disgust. Then she mentioned the lake, and hope filled him. Something he knew, or he thought he knew. He opened his senses and smelled the night air, full of life and things in it. There was a rabbit cuddling close to her kin some ways off. A storm was coming, but not for a few days. And then he smelled the water, full of writhing fish, and snails, and whistling reeds. It calmed him, like a sweet lullaby. For a long moment, he stood there, taking in these scents and a humming began in his throat without his knowledge. He twitched and the humming stopped, his senses dulled. His headache was still there, but it wasn't so intense.

"How do I get there? To the lake, I mean? Inara? What is my name?" He asked like a child, so innocent.
 
She blinks wishing she could help him, "I do not know your name... I just barely found you... perhaps you should bathe first and then I will try and help you understand what has happned to you.." She gives him directions to the lake with a shake of her head and begins quartering the meat, placing firewood in her stove and cooking it, she watches it carefully wondering why this hunter did not remember... how come he was so privileged that he was allowed to forget while she still woke screaming in the night for the things she did. She sighs heavily and sets the food out while she goes to the lake as well to wash the blood off of her.
 
He was humming again, a deep, sweet humming. He was just standing there, eyes closed and face turned to the moonlight. That collar around his neck ebbed with a Drede glowing light. He turned slowly, facing her as his humming stopped. His eyes were blank, like he was half asleep. He inhaled, the smell of deer meat filling his nostrils.

"That smells wonderful, Inara," He said, humming.
 
She laughs supposing anything would smell good after being starved as he was, "its ready for you to eat." She strips in front of his unconcerned and she has whip marks laced a crossed her back the same as his and her whole body is covered in tiger stripes as she wades in the water washing the blood from the deer off of herself not paying much attention to him at all, not knowing how to pay attention to him.
 
His eyes followed her, like following a snake in the grass. He couldn't resist the alluring smell of meat and waded over to it. He didn't seem to be aware of the social boundaries that came with nakedness as he slipped pieces of cooked meat into his mouth. The strange glowing from the tattoo had stopped. He had been in the water long enough to recognize the marks on her back and tilted his head back to swallow one of the pieces of meat better.

"You have the same marks as I do on your skin... Does that mean we are the same?" he asked, innocently.
 
She blinks over at him and wades out of the water shaking off the wetness in her hair, " in a sense we are. You and I are both hybrids... although I am not sure what type of hybrid that you are.... you are obviously Drede... but what type of Fey I wonder" she looks lost in thought then resumes, " we were both chosen as hunters.... many failed experiments are. You get a control device attached to your spine which shoots electric currents through your nerves... your collar shocks you and keeps you on course. When I saw you running through the forest following your programming I had to help you... so I removed the control device... I have not yet discovered a way to remove the collar" she herself still wears hers. "These marks we share... they are from a whip".
 
"How did you escape? I do not remember with my eyes what happened, but I feel that I do not want to remember." he said, shuddering.

He remembered feeling as if he was helpless, that everything he did was only a cog in a great machine that he had no control over. He could touch the scars on his arms and almost feel the pain that had healed over there, a faded memory from someone else's life. Yet, there was the evidence, there on his skin. It had been he that had suffered this. It hadn't been a hero from some great story, but he, whoever he was.
 
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