Don't murder me, I beg of you don't murder me...please, don't murder me.

[gaueko-erebus.livejournal.com]

[Not long before sunrise, Sunday September 20, Day 112]
[The woods outside of town]


My howls ring out, through shadow and tree, down from the hills to the town, and even the wolves dare not respond. The ghosts that once sang with me are lost and gone. The woman who danced in my shadows and worshipped me with body and mind is lost and gone, at least to me. See then, what happens when the gods are scorned, when that which is ours is taken from us, and we are bereft. See then the perils of disregarding the gods.

I howl, and even if they do not truly hear me, children weep in their beds. Guardsmen flee their posts. Women gather their babies and huddle by lit lanterns, staring out at the dark. Men in the tavern look up from their drinks and shudder. And in one particular home a redheaded woman sits bolt upright in bed and reflects on just how lucky she has been. They know me. Even if they have never seen me, have never heard my name...they know me.

The beasts of the wood have learned to flee my footsteps. Horses and cattle throw themselves screaming into wire fences. Deer blunder their way through the dark, snapping their legs in creekbeds and gopher holes. Their eyes roll in mute agony as they thrash and die in the mud. I chase them down when it pleases me, and put an end to their suffering, leave the carcasses for the foxes and the ravens. I am not playing mortal now. I have no need for meat.

Those that do me homage do so from the bottom of burrows, from behind closed doors. They do so with fear in their hearts, with the stink of fear-sweat and urine, and for those that can, with a lit candle in their fists and a prayer on their lips. The night is hungry, and those that can know well to fear.

I howl, and the woods cry their terror.

I am hunting.


[OPEN to Bakeneko}

Comments

[bakeneko-excolo.livejournal.com]

Boku was too bemused by his time with Luke to think on it Friday night. Yet all Saturday we stared at maps and papers and trivia unseeing. "Howling, mainly. Like... you know. Wolves, but not." No. Not like wolves. Wolves howl to find their pack. To strengthen their bonds. Perhaps to show their territory and pack is strong. This one has no pack, despite his time with the pup. This one does it to cause fear.

Whether it feeds on the fear or not, it draws me like a festering sore that must be cut out lest the sepsis poison the entire body. Regardless of the night sky above, the thought of Luke being subject to such a one again is intolerable. It is on the edge of town that I finally stretch...

The wind carries sickness. Sneeze at the sound of howls that echo. Limbs eat the distance until I find the first carrion. Waste of meat, savaged and left. Eater of fear and black and blue. I hear his call and still the answering snarl. Instead, climb the limbs of the tree and walk the tree rooftops. I see you, corruption eater. This is no hunt, lives of animals wasted. No balance.

I see you. Dropping on his back, I wonder if he even saw me.

[gaueko-erebus.livejournal.com]

U barely notice the little weight dropping onto my back, not until the claws slice through my skin. Oh, little monster. I remember you. I don't know what brought this on, nor do I care, but I am guessing there will be no Djinn to help you this time. And I am in no mood to play tonight.

Roaring in fury, I twisted my head around. I am going to seize that little bitch and chew her to pieces.

[bakeneko-excolo.livejournal.com]

His howl is closer to a growl this time, though he seems strangely slow as he turns his head and I stretch...

My suddenly increased weight upon his back causes him to stumble slightly. That and his slowness, or perhaps it is my speed, let me reach and seize both the back of his neck and the front. The loose skin there is supposed to protect from getting a grip on the jugular. This time it merely gives me two handles to deflect his jaws. My back feet are on either side of him and I twist at the hips to throw him hard enough against a tree so that is lists to one side.

[gaueko-erebus.livejournal.com]

You miserable bastard.

Before I can get my teeth into him and shake him little body to bloody rags he's changed, back into the monster that attacked me in my own garden. The claws sink deeper, hot blood pouring down my side, and I stumble. You syphilis-ridden cunt, I will see you broken, you are going to beg for death by the time I'm done, you-

Teeth punch through my neck, but the fur and the muscle keep his teeth away from my spine and my jugular. But I can't twist my head around to bite, not with his teeth pinning me, and-

-and by the time I've realized what he's doing he's done it, bracing his hind paws on the ground and twisting his neck and I slam against the nearest try. The crack of my own spine rings in my ears and I roar in pain.

...the last time we fought I was coming down off sex with Verdandi, the night had just begun, and I had my priestess watching, filling me with her worship and power. Now it is near sunrise, close enough that I can feel the approaching throb of the daylight like a hand on the back of my neck, and I have nothing.

I have enough of my mind to be worried, but the rest of me is struggling with hind legs that are no longer working properly, scrambling for purchase on the forest floor and twisting to snap at his belly.

[bakeneko-excolo.livejournal.com]

His rear legs move awkwardly as he lunges for me. Teeth snapping. I do not think there is even anything in his mind but destruction. Certainly all I see in his eyes is madness, like a rabid dog that needs to be put down.

Another angle of hips and torso, my clawed foot kicks out, straight and strong to catch his jaw and close it with a snap, sending him down once more to scrabble with his limbs and I stretch...

I stand there waiting for him. There is no outrage as filled the yamaneko, no anger as filled the Monster. Only a quiet regret that he who could be so much more is this thing before me. I find my sword in my hand. It has been centuries since more than clothing could shift with my forms.

As I shift my stance to hold the blade ready, it is resolution in my eyes. And more than a little pity.

[gaueko-erebus.livejournal.com]

His foot drives into my jaw nearly hard enough to break it, the force jarring through my brain and closing my teeth on my tongue. Blood floods my mouth, and I go down. Damn him, my back, my fucking back, I will kill him for this...I'll take hours to kill him...I'll roll in his blood and strew his guts through the trees...I'll...

Manage to get to my feet, though my hind legs tremble and my back aches. Blood drools from my jaws and patters on the grass. And oh, you patronizing little shit, you take human form to deal with me? You think you'll kill me with a sword? You'll crawl before I'm done with you...

A roar builds in my throat, and stumbling on my weakened legs, I charge.

[bakeneko-excolo.livejournal.com]

He keeps coming for me, a strange mix of determination and dementia. He manages to catch the outside of my thigh with a ripping tooth as I turn aside from his charge. Before he can press it, I have plunged the sword into his ribs. It withdraws with a wet gurgle that tells me the lung has been punctured. "The night does not belong only to you, little god."

He stumbles back and I stretch...

It is no wire now, but a length of silk. He pants at me from where he lays, looping the silk about his throat as he snaps at me. A few twists and I pull it tight, whispering in his ear, "Change effects everything, even gods. A maelstrom of change is coming. If you do not choose what you change into, you may not like what change chooses for you." I keep it tight until he stops struggling, but the voices unite to have me step away before what passes for a heart stops.

[gaueko-erebus.livejournal.com]

A moment of roaring triumph as my fang catches in the thick muscle of the bastards thigh. His blood mingles with my own, and my jaw clenches at the taste. I want to pivot, to take full hold and rip his entire leg off...but my hind legs give out and I fall, and my tooth slips from his flesh as his sword sinks into mine. My scream shatters the darkness.

I'm on my side. On the ground. There's blood matting my fur and I can't seem to breathe properly. And he's yanking the sword from my side and saying, "The night does not belong only to you, little god." as he does so.

Of course it does. I am the night. is what I mean to say, but it comes out a howl of agony. I will kill you for this. I will kill you...kill you...once I'm healed I will kill you....but the night...

Oh, fuck.

She's behind me now, hauling me back by a loop round my neck, and I trying to kick but my hind legs won't move. She's breathing in my ear, and my teeth can't reach her and the sun is rising oh the sun is fire the sun is death and oh Sugaar I cannot breathe

[bakeneko-excolo.livejournal.com]

Just stand as the light starts to trickle through the trees. The ones who have not taken form for this are satisfied enough, but there is one last thing and I stretch...

I deliberately stalk and lift my leg in a mockery of canine mannerism. Acrid urine stings the dawn air as it hits his side. I will not see our loved ones hurt again. I run to meet the sun, my thigh already healing.

Change has come.