Whispered Promises to the Dark (open)

[Elizabeth Bell]

21.41
Tredecimber 5^th
Year LV

Elizabeth watched her slippered feet as she made her way along the length of the Great Hall, concentrating on the way the light fell on them as she walked to keep her mind off of other things: things like the looming gargoyles, the shrieking wind outside, or the blistering cold that turned her breath into a cloud in front of her face. Even the light of her candle seemed to struggle to survive in the frozen air. As with every night, she tried to balance walking quickly with keeping the flame alight. It was a difficult balance to keep, especially when she shivered so and an occasional draft swept up the skirts of her night gown and made the thin fabric of her dressing robe feel like spider webs.

She stopped suddenly at a sound from above, gasping. It was probably just a piece of wind-swept debris colliding with the high, arched windows; but either way, the gasp was what did her in. Her light flickered out and she immediately froze, letting her eyes adjust to the limited light. A cold, hard winter moonlight filtered down through the windows and stretched out tangibly across the stone floor. Her feel ached with the seeping cold.

Where was Alastair when one needed him? She smiled wryly, trying to remember that the cat guarded her almost every minute of every day and needed his rest, too. He was probably doing his nightly patrol of the grounds, and if he knew that she was out and about the castle past dark he would probably nip at her heels and growl. Another sound from above, this one a slight brush and scraping, jarred her.

Her breathing grew ragged, and now that her eyes had adjusted she could clearly see the quick, puffing clouds that it made. Her eyes drifted closed as she heard the gentle brush again, this time a little closer. Please be Alastair.

"Whoever you are," her whisper sounded loud in the vast emptiness that was the Great Hall. "Whether you are wind, or earth, or feline or wolf, show yourself to me but gently and I will be forever in your debt."

[Gabryth]

Paws beat the ground quickly, muscles working to move and jump debris as it came upon the path. There was a growling sound coming from behind the dark wolf as he moved. Tongue slipping out between his jaws as if he had been running for hours and in truth he had. Gabryth's human mind was screaming for help as the Gewyn moved in behind him. It was catching him...and doing it very quickly. It was as if it had been toying with him for the last three hours, just proving how big and bad it was. Gabryth knew it to be one of his brother's...only a relative could be this cruel to him and not feel pity. His legs ached and he was not sure how much longer he could even run. The wind was whipping coldly around him and it was hard to even concentrate as he padded through the snow at an extremely quick pace. If there was one thing Gabryth was good at it was running...he had learned to do his fair share over the last ten years. However, all that running didn't seem to be doing him any good as something hit him from behind. He went down hard, rolling with the pressure still on his back until he was pinned flat on his stomach, the sound of a growling wolf above him.

Gabryth thought for a brief moment that the game was over that he would be allowed to left alone, but that was not the case as claws dug into his back making him howl and cry in pain. It was a cruel trick to play on your own kind, but Gabryth knew that the pain would just be beginning. His kind cared little about each other...they would rather destroy each other than anything else it seemed. It was one of the reasons why he despised what he was and another reason why his body slowly and painfully slipped into his human form, whimpering. The pressure was off his back, but he did not move. He could hear the soft sniffing of the Gewyn whether he was in human form or not Gabryth did not know for sure, not until the voice sounded. "You smell of humans," a voice growled low and dark...and hardly human. There was more growl and howl to the voice than there was human speech, but Gabryth knew what it said. He was one of the few that knew the human speech as well as he did, mainly because he was one of the few that spent time so close to the Benevolence border. He could not keep away from the humans...no matter how hard he tried. "You spend too much time near them." Gabryth still did not move, partly because he was fearful of the Gewyn behind him and partly because the pain was overwhelming.

He knew before he felt the impact that his silence had angered the Gewyn. Pain flared in his chest as he rolled over onto his back, the submissive being taught a lesson as the face of one of his brothers swam in front of his face. It was rare for a Gewin female to give birth to a litter of pups, but somehow their mother had...Garb was the Gewyn above him now...the oldest and meanest of the litter. Gabryth knew he could smell his fear just as he could smell the satisfaction at his fear. Teeth wrapped around his juggular on his throat...the whimpering silenced for just a moment. Fear rushed over him and through him before Garb moved back, a laugh that sounded far more like a hyena's laughter made him shiver as the submissive was made to submit. His head turned to the side as he was released...blood was sliding down his face and the Gewyn slowly licked it away before he took off into the darkness.

Gabryth lay there, nude and broken, for what seemed like hours before the cold wind bit at his flesh. The wind was too much for his naked flesh, but he was far too weak to shift back and so he stumbled through the woods, deeper into the woods as he searched for any place to cut off the winds chill. He wasn't sure where he was...not until the giant building came into sight. It was a castle or so it truly did seem. It was dark...uninviting, and silent. It would be perfect to hide out until he was strong enough to return to his wolf form. As much as he hated his wolf form...it would protect him from the chill of the wind. Green eyes fell on the window and he moved, pulling his broken body up and through the window. It was hard to be quiet especially when you were more damaged than you would like to be. It caused a few more scratches to form on his thighs and arms as he slide through the window and dropped almost silently to the ground of the castle. It was then that he realized how bad his mistake had been. The smell of human was thick and close...fear blazed behind that smell and he turned, his eyes finding her in the dark as she called out.

Gabryth back away from her...into the wall and a chair or whatever it had been...tumbling backward crashing to the ground with something that broke, shattering into millions of pieces. So much for not frightening her...but he was frightened. He had never been this close and he could feel her blood calling to him...seeking him out with its smell and pulse. He ignored it as much as he could as he lay on the ground wincing and whimpering. English escaped him in those moments and he could do nothing but whimper like that or a wounded dog. If she ran now he would regret frightening her, but he was just as frightened...especially since the world was swimming in front of him. His wounds were not healing themselves...they were getting worse it seemed, probably caused by whatever he had run into or the cold that bit at every inch of his human flesh. It made him shiver as he curled into a ball, licking the blood off his hands, oblivious to what the human had done or if she had run away screaming.

Faceless - Godsmack

[Elizabeth Bell]

Elizabeth tensed and squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could, bracing herself, as a clearly audible scuffle started up behind her. It was followed by a bang that wrenched a small cry of surprise from her lips, but then nothing. She quickly knelt to the floor, gripping the leg of a chair and crouching. She listened, her whole body strained with the effort. Then, softly at first and then growing... whimpering. Like a hound, wounded, or frightened. She hesitated, but the sound wrenched at her heart. It was really probably a stray dog come sniffing around the castle for some scraps. Such creatures usually got a beating, so she couldn't blame it for being frightened of a human popping up during its scrounging.

Elizabeth stood and inched toward the sound, making soothing noises. "Hush, hush... I won't... hurt you... shhh... whereh --" She gasped as she leaned over a table, and there in the moonlight saw the bloody back of a human. They were curled into a ball and moving their head, but she couldn't tell what for. The scene was quite horrific. Though muscular and quite tall by Benevolence standards, the man -- it was obviously a male -- looked half starved. And he was whimpering like a dog. And naked. She averted her eyes, already pulling her thin wrapper from her shoulders.

Once she had it off she gave it a flick to lay it over him, so she could at least look at him. "Sir, you are safe now." She whispered, running a hand gently over the back of his neck. Her fingers felt sticky. "You must lift yourself. I will support you... we need to get you by the fireside, and I will treat your wounds."

Master Bray would be horrified, of course. But what was she to do? Whether her employer believed in the Gewin or not was not her concern; ensuring the survival of their victims was. Or at least, it was when they turned up bloody and whimpering at her feet in the middle of the night. She was running purely on shock, now. The longer she pondered the oddity and the danger of the situation, the less capable she would be of helping the poor man. So she pressed it from her head, simply operating on adrenaline and common sense.

[Gabryth]

Gabryth shied away from the girl as she spoke. He understood the words...but in a way he did not trust them. He had never had someone take an interest in his safety and this girl probably would regret it some time. Maybe it was all just a joke anyway. It wouldn't be the first time he had fallen for a trap...though last time he had not been in a castle. His kind really was cruel...especially to those that were weaker. It was the whole survival of the fittest, Gabryth was definitely not the fittest, but he had learned enough to get by just so long as another Gewyn did not take interest in him. Sometimes he was used to teach the young pups how to hunt and track. Gabryth had almost lost sight of the girl he had been watching for years...there was a new pack near the land he had staked and they were constantly running him out. The life of a lone wolf was never quite pleasant. That is why he was lying on the ground now, his body shivering and blood seeping from more wounds than he could count.

All seemed lost in those moments. Gabryth was not even sure if he wanted to live to see the sun turn him back into the monster he tried so hard not to become. He would have to be out of the castle before that happened...away from the girl that was trying to sooth him. She was so close now...he could smell her scent. It was a soft smell, very feminine and innocent. There was definitely a smell of innocence to her and Gabryth wondered to himself how young she was. He could not quite remember the right word or he would phrase the question out loud...but as a wolf most of the time it was hard to remember the trivial words of a language he hardly spoke, yes he was still good at it compared to others of his kind, but that was not quite an improvement.

The touch of her hand on his neck startled the young man and he automatically moved out of her reach, cowering even more from her. It was not that he did not trust her...which he did not, but it was more that he was so frightened it was hard to gain a real understanding of what was going on. Gabryth had seen plenty of humans, but he had never actually been in the same company as one, much to his own disappointment and yet right here and now he was having his first encounter with one and he could not help but feel fearful. It was not her that he was afraid of...it was himself and the call of her blood to him. Part of him wanted to roll over and bite her...drink her blood, drain her dry...steal that little precious thing of life from her. Almost as soon as the thoughts drifted through his mind he felt his body tense against them...fight the feeling of what her blood would taste like...of what her flesh would taste like as he devoured her life essence. It was as if he was drunk with the thought as he finally stopped whimpering his body moving enough that he could stare up at her. Green orbs glinted off the moonlight as he stared into her innocent eyes. Innocence...yes that is what they were...and it was that look on her face that made the human in Gabryth fight to the surface as a low groan...more like a growl, escaped his lips. He covered the noise by trying to get to his feet...not wanting to scare her away even though his own human mind was having a hard enough time as it was staying in control of his beast.

Her hand was still near his neck and Gabryth nuzzled it gently. I strange sight indeed. Gabryth knew that humans did not do this, but words were failing him right now and yet he felt he had to show his gratitude somehow as he was on his knees in front of her basically. It was a sure sign of gratefulness, if she knew what it meant. She was trying to help a beast...she deserved his upmost respect. Though he was unsure what to do with the simple cloth thing that had been thrown over him. He simply looked down at it as he pushed himself up to stand, form naked and showing the scars he'd endured through his life as well as the fresh new ones that would join the others. The cloth was at his bare feet and he did not bend to pick it up as he put his weight on the chair that was still standing. It kept him from losing his balance as the world swam around his eyes...he had hit his head at some point during the attack...when and where he was not sure, but it was true...only a head wound could make him see double. His hand reached out to find the girl's shoulder steadying himself between her and the chair. "Sit.......rest........" he spoke in a deep groan as he realized that blood had begun to drip down across his right eye. It was proof of a head wound...and those things bled like the plague. He pressed a hand to his head...fingers curling under as if they truly weren't there. "Blood." His voice sounded so surprised it was almost funny. What else could it have been? Nothing...he knew that, as much as the next person did, but still it did surprise him as he moved his hand, trying to wipe the blood from his face, his tongue sliding across the blood on his hand absentmindedly as he tried to clean the blood up. The girl momentarily forgotten once again.

Tears Don't Fall - Bullet for my Valentine

[Elizabeth Bell]

Elizabeth bit her lip as he pulled away from her touch, her eyes scanning over his face, noting the obvious terror there. She had never before been regarded with horror, and she was sure she didn't like the feeling. She watched with as much stillness as her muscles could hold, and slowly a change began to come over him. It was gradual and slight, but soon he was looking up at her with an expression she couldn't quite fathom. Try as she might, she couldn't avert her eyes from his. She felt locked into place by his gaze, as if he had drawn her into an immense spiders web. They were a quality of which she had never seen, with the metallic look of silver glazed with green light. She stared, lips parted slightly, finding it hard to believe that she hadn't slipped into the realm of sleep.

He rose to his knees with a groan, and she felt now that the expression on his face was curiosity or kindness, or some mixture of the two. She hadn't realised that her hand remained poised near his neck until he turned his head and nuzzled it, and then she realised that what he was portraying was... gratitude. Her eyes widened and her fingers curled reflexively into her palms, her flesh crawling with the instinct of an animal come face to face with its predator, but she smiled slightly.

Her smile faded abruptly as he stood, and she let out a small gasp, stumbling backward into the fallen table and then leaning against one upturned leg. He was quite a sight. The moonlight fell over his skin, highlighting a veritable map of scars and wounds -- but still there was an ethereal quality to his skin, which was more pale than any that she had ever laid eyes upon. Underneath the scars and the smear of blood and dirt, his skin looked soft and as smooth as marble. Beyond that, however... he was tall, and muscular... and entirely nude. Her eyes dropped without thought down the length of his body, and then she gasped, turning away. She had never seen male nakedness before except in infants. Her cheeks burned with embarassment.

She inhaled quickly once more as he stumbled forward, gripping her shoulder lightly while the rest of his weight balanced on the nearby chair. The closeness of him made her nervous, but she managed to place her shaking hands against his bare sides to steady him. She could feel his ribs. His voice was smooth and beautiful, but it sounded crusty and unsure, as if he hadn't spoken in years. Her eyes widened when he brought one hand to his mouth, licking at the blood there. She reached up before she could stop herself and caught his wrist.

For several moments, words were lost to her. Her wide eyes stared once more into his, and she felt herself again losing grip on the present. Then she abruptly looked away and lifted his arm from her shoulder, tucking her body against his and draping it across her back. She nudged him with her own hand against his back, beginning to walk slowly in the direction of the hallway that would lead to the stairwell. Her room was on the third level, and she worried over whether or not he would make it.

[Alastair]

.Alastair.

It was a wind whipped winter's night; frost on each gust and the trees groaning as their boughs tossed. Nights like these are no good. He thought to himself, tail lashing. The wind made it harder to scent danger, harder to hear the approach of any creature be it human, Guardian or Gewin. The big cat shivered, the motion running down his silver pelt like ripples in a stream and he flicked his ears back. There was something deeply wrong about tonight, though nothing besides the weather made it at all ominous. And the weather wasn't something he feared: Alastair was not easily spooked. No the weather was a thorough inconvenience, was all. Poor conditions simply made it increasingly difficult to do his job. His first instinct was to dismiss the nervousness. There was nothing yet to warrant being jumpy: aside from the wind he had seen nothing move in amongst the trees. Then again...Elencastel was a big building. Part of what made it so hard to guard was the fact that unless he stood on the tallest spire of the big manor he could not see all sides of the property. And if he perched there he would not be able to get to trouble in time when he saw it. If he wanted to be close enough to do any good, he would have to have blind spots. But his second thought was that gut feelings should never be dismissed without consideration. Sometimes gut instinct was the only thing that was right. He squared his shoulders and settled in a nook on the battlements out of the wind and into the shadow.

Presently, the wind changed directions by a few points. He noted it, as he did most details, and was almost ready to dismiss it when a gust of the breeze brought to him the faint but utterly unmistakably fetid scent of Gewin skin and Gewin blood. His hackles rose instinctively, his fur bristled and his hazel eyes glowed, the slitted pupils wide crescents in the dark. Without a moment's hesitation, he leaped up and away from the battlements, down the first stairwell and into the bowels of Elencastel. As soon as the he was out of the wind, two scents hit him: the first of the Gewyn and its blood. Male. Injured. He calculated mentally, the adrenaline already awash in his blood. The ash grey tom felt no fear. It was the second scent that gripped his mind with fear and anger for a moment before he shook the paralyzing emotions off and continued his ghost silent charge down the stairwell towards the great hall. The second scent had been Miss Elizabeth's.

He arrived in the gloom of the great hall, his pupils adjusting rapidly to the light of the one flickering torch there. The scent was strong here but the room was empty: he had just missed them. His heart pounding, he crouched in the shadow of a settee and took stock of the situation. His nose told him that there was no more blood than the Gewyn male's. This meant Bess was unharmed. There was no scent of fur, so it was likely the vile dog was in his human form. Alastair's lips lifted in a snarl. Bess was a kind girl...she would help a lost and injured man however suspicious he seemed. Which was exactly what terrified him. He couldn't bear the thought of the filthy Gewin scum taking advantage of her like that. Streaking from shadow to shadow, he tried to piece together where the pair had gone. Now there was no fear in his mind: only cold determination. Blood from the Gewin man's tracks made for an easy path to follow. He started where Elizabeth's shawl had dropped, smudges of stinking Gewyn blood on the thin homespun fabric. The trail led up to the stairwell and he followed the scent to the second floor of the castle before he heard footsteps: one set slow the other faltering. The rank smell of Gewyn assailed his nostrils and he knew he was close. Gods damn it all! They're heading for her quarters!

His mind churned, processing the situation at lightning speed. It was forbidden to shift in front of a human, yet how could he do his job in this thirteen pound body? He could do nothing against a man or a wolf or that abomination of a half form the Gewin sometimes favored. He hissed his frustration aloud, knowing it would not cost him the element of surprise: he could hardly hear himself over the sound of the windstorm outside. How could he protect Elizabeth without shifting before her? It occurred to him that there was no law that said specifically that he could not appear already shifted before her. True he'd be bending the rules a little but how could he do his job otherwise? How could he do his job with those damnable laws in place?
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