Reunion [finished]

[Willow]

When Willow heard Matt, his voice seemed oddly muted, as if it wasn’t actually making a sound. She glanced over at him to hear better, then frowned. His lips weren’t moving.
She stared for a moment, then nodded at his instructions, putting the silent communication down to him being a...to not being a shifter.
Willow contemplated Matt’s words as she glanced to the left, judging how far she had to move. Not getting injured whilst trying to kill the thing may be tricky – she’d have to find the right balance between being cautious and taking a risk.

She had to force herself not to stare around again when he disappeared, instead focussing on flanking the creature as ordered.
As she reached her position, she heard a faint rush of air opposite her, on the other side of the beast.
Taking this; and the subsequent absence of wing beats, to mean Matt had reached higher ground – either the wall or ceiling – Willow guessed at his ambush. Leopards used a similar trick – hide in the branches of a tree, then drop down on their prey as it passed beneath them.

The creature had paused now – sniffing the air and hunching slightly; wary.
Shielding Matt’s location until he was ready to move was vital, so Willow – still not quite believing any of this was really happening – loosed a sharp, shrill whistle.
It had the desired effect, if it could be called that. The creature stopped its questing for the invisible being in the room and continued heading for Willow.

In order to keep its attention, Willow slowly waved the torch around, giving it the brightest thing in the cavern to focus on, if it could see at all, and kept up a constant murmur of noise – speaking general nonsense, like you would to calm a spooked animal. It wasn’t her words that mattered anyway – it was the tone employed. It probably wouldn’t work on the beast heading towards her, but if it kept the thing’s attention and covered any noise Matt made, then Willow didn’t mind sounding a bit stupid, for once. Plus, she had every excuse in the world to be spouting gibberish at the moment.

The sudden writhing of the monster told Willow that Matt had moved, and she wasted no time in ceasing speaking in favour of looking for an angle to attack from.
She swiftly set down the torch and drew her other sword as she darted forward, getting as close as she could whilst looking for an opening without getting hit by the creature’s flailing tail.
The moment it stopped thrashing about and moved in a set direction – right for Matt, incidentally, Willow moved in, catching up to the beast as Matt shouted.

Faced with the creature’s long tail and back, Willow didn’t see many easily reachable attack points. There would be more opportunities to do serious damage closer to its chest and neck...
Following this train of thought before she’d even completed it, Willow leapt over the beast’s tail and landed on its back, her swords plunging down, one towards the back of its neck, the other its heart. The cloak prevented Willow from seeing where its ribs were, so she guessed and hoped she didn’t hit bone.

She didn’t. She barely got past skin. Thick scales caused the blades to skitter sideways, leaving bloody trails behind, but no real wounds.

The monster, enraged and in pain, thrashed again, this time trying to dislodge Willow as she clung onto it, one arm wrapped around its neck and locked in place with the other in a choke hold as her knees dug into the creature’s sides.
She was forced to let go and dive away as it brought one of its arms up to drag her off, her sword slicing across its throat again as her arm withdrew.

Landing hands first, Willow propelled herself into a roll to keep moving and right herself at the same time, stopping in a crouch as she glanced up to check both the creature and Matt’s positions.
Matt had lost his sword, but it didn’t look too hurt. The crocodilian beast was a few metres away, its skin glinting with the odd splash of blood, Matt’s sword lying nearby. Too close to risk darting in after it just yet.


[OOC: sorry if this is a bad post, I’m still a tad out of it. I blame the (legal) drugs =)]

[flippedside]

Matt glared at his sword, and wished he had the ability to drag it towards him just by looking at it. He didn't, but no use wishing--the monster was looking hungrily at him. The slice to its gut had caused blood to begin to seep out between its hard scales, but it wasn't seriously injured. Time for a new plan of attack.

He moved backwards and faded out again, and then launched himself skywards. He decided to try sending a thought message to Willow, in hopes that she would hear and understand. It might not alert the monster to his position like words would, but then again, the beast might be able to hear him using thought-speak. He'd have to hope not.

{Get it to chase you. I have an idea.} He pushed the thought at her forcefully, and then turned his mind away. He couldn't worry about whether she'd heard or not--he was already committed to his new plan of attack.

Catching hold of the ceiling again, Matt paused to gauge distance. The monster was going for Willow, so that was good. It wasn't exactly chasing her, but it did seem to have her in its focus. He dropped and flipped in the air so his feet came down first on the creature's back. There was enough of an impact to knock the monster forward several steps, though it didn't fall. Then its tail came in striking distance, hissing just past his face. Matt dropped his shadowing so that he could focus on what he was doing. He grabbed his arms around the creature's throat, flailing his wings for balance.

Matt gritted his teeth as the end of the beast's tail grazed his wing, tearing the fine membrane. He used his legs and wings to launch upwards, so that his chest was pressed against the back of the beast's head. Gripping tightly with his legs, he leaned forward.

The monster thrashed, making Matt's movements more difficult. Its arms were shorter than a humans, but still long enough to allow it to rip its lethal talons into his rib cage. Matt jerked with the pain, his breath temporarily sucked away. The creature twisted away, instead of striking again, and Matt grabbed his chance to shove fire in its face.

He didn't just burn its face, though. Matt screamed into the beast's mind, over the power of its thoughts, {You're not the only one with talons,}. His thought was loud enough to cause the monster to jerk slightly in surprise. That and the fact that he gouged out the beast's eye. The monster howled in pain and Matt took that as the response he needed. He poured fire down its gullet, until its writhing contortions and the shredding of his arms by its claws threw him off.

The monster screamed and danced. Matt sat gagging for a moment, allowing his body to begin healing some of the more serious injuries. He didn't have time for a full healing session. He darted in, grabbed his sword, and leaped forward and up, his wings propelling him.

He struck the sword through the beast's eye and into its brain. It gave him one last savage swipe, before collapsing, dead. Only a few final twitches jerked its body. Matt staggered back, and then sat down against the wall, bloody sword in hand. He needed a long sleep to allow his body a full healing. He let his head fall back against the wall.


OOC: That was far more gory than I intended it to be. Sorry. Well, monster's dead now. Willow can have her screaming fit. XD

[Willow]

Willow paused for a moment before responding, running Matt’s instructions back through her head to make sure she’d heard them right. Once she was, she struggled to avoid actually speaking her mind.
‘Are you crazy?!’ She thought, but Matt had already stopped listening.
‘It’s not so different to your idea before,’ Some part of her reasoned as she ran through a barrage of unhappy curses, moving towards the creature, taking its escalating snarls and slow hunching into a crouch as a sign it would chase her if she ran.

‘Distracting it and purposefully playing zebra to its lion are very different scenarios!’ She argued back, as the creature finally caved and started after her, stalking rather than sprinting, mirroring Willow’s wary movements as she retreated, deliberately making her actions border on the line between trying to slink away and turning and running for all she was worth.

Then she did something incredibly stupid.
She tripped over the rope that had been attached to her wrist. She’d utterly forgotten about it, not even noticing it in the brief moment at the beginning of the fight when it had slipped off.
Now she was cursing her basic, stupid mistake as she landed on the ground, already trying to skitter backwards as she saw the creature’s muscles bunching to finally sate its hunger after the centuries it had spent asleep.

Giving up her attempts to run in favour of swinging her swords up to face the creature took perhaps a twelfth of a second*, hoping as she did so the creature would either be so blind it jumped clean over her head, or its belly would be less protected than its back and would be penetrated by the blades Willow held up as it landed on them.
She wasn’t stupid enough to close her eyes as she waited for the sudden weight – keeping the monster in sight would be the only thing to keep her alive if it’s bad eyesight and her swords failed.
As a result, she saw the thing stagger from the weight of the companion she’d utterly forgotten about, and experienced an unexpected moment of euphoria she never would have thought she’d get when she saw something tripping.

Then she realised the few steps it was taking would land it right on top of her, and the sound of its talons on the rock had convinced her long ago that she didn’t want to come into contact with them.
Her swift kick backwards didn’t give her enough distance to completely avoid the metallic claws, and she hissed at the long scratch that stretched down the length of her shinbone, the blood dribbling out of the wound as she instinctively pulled her injured leg closer to her and lashed out with her good one in one movement**, catching the beast in the side of its long muzzle just as Matt’s face appeared over the top of the creature’s head.

Willow remembered his worries about the thing using blood to power its magic, but could do nothing about the single claw tip that was stained with red as she ignored him and rolled aside, swords still in hand as she targeted the creature’s flanks and legs, avoiding getting in Matt’s way as she went about trying to do more damage to the creature, attempting to take out its hamstrings, since its legs were staying relatively still compared to its slashing arms. She just had to remember to keep ducking its still-whipping tail.

Matt getting thrown away, bleeding heavily from his arms and ribs distracted her for a moment, the beast choosing that instant to slam its tail into her side, knocking her into the air until she crashed into the wall, no breath left in her lungs and momentarily stunned as she fought to take in a decent breath and blink away the kaleidoscope colours and patterns that were blooming in front of her eyes.

Though the rush of blood away from her suddenly fuzzy head was a definite complaint from her body, she sat up and focussed past the distracting colours as she dragged in fully registered breaths, watching as Matt finished off the beast then collapsed against the wall.

Shaking off her dizziness, Willow got up and scrambled over, concerned. She hadn’t seen him heal himself, and didn’t want him to bleed out. Though his arms were more injured, his side was far closer to his vitals.
When she reached him, however, she found no immediate cause for worry. He was still bleeding, but the most serious lacerations were healed over.

‘What the...’ Willow didn’t bother finishing the thought, instead she slumped down next to him and went back to staring wearily at his altered appearance, his rapid recovery only reminding her of his recent transformation.

She sighed before she spoke, leaning her back against the wall and tucking her knees up to her chest, arms wrapping around her legs, her chin hiding behind them as her eyes peered out at the cavern over her dusty white-clothed kneecaps.
“I know we’re both tired and injured, especially you, so I won’t ask questions now. But will you answer them later, when we’re back on the surface and have lied about why we look like we’ve been to hell and back to Kaz and the others?” Willow asked quietly, her voice seeming muted compared to the loud screams of the creature that had been ringing through the cave until now. “Then we can go after your spell caster, if you still want our help,” She added, to show she was still willing to help him, despite the fact that her fear of him from before was trying to fight its way past the sting in her leg, the pounding in her head and the exhaustion tugging at her limbs, mind and emotions.

Willow sat quietly and waited for a reply, gazing out at the shadows beyond the small light her abandoned torch gave out, thinking back on everything that had just happened, wondering what was to come.

[OOC: *People can actually move this fast – a programme I saw showed it took a professional bodyguard this long to disarm, punch and aim the disarmed weapon at the threat in this amount of time.
** I actually did this to one of my consultants...luckily I didn’t hit him too hard, or in the face...plus I both had a reason, and he was the forgiving sort. We get on fine now =]

Okay, long post 1,004 words. I decided to leave the freaking out for later, when they’re both more than half awake and she actually knows what she’s screaming about =P and don't worry - I've read far worse gore than that.]

[flippedside]

Matt was struggling with not falling into a complete healing coma when Willow approached. He blinked, trying to focus on her face. She was staring at him, but he couldn't quite make out her expression. Matt dragged himself fully back to reality, aware that though his side and head were healing, he still felt like he'd been gutted and spit. His head pounded horrendously.

"Lied about...?" Matt repeated blankly. "Oh, right." One problem with healing was that it made it hard to think. His brain felt like it was full of static, mixed with a dull throb. "I can't promise anything. I will tell you that I've never seen a monster like that...thing." He pointed at the dead crocodile-man. Or whatever it was.

"I think I can help some with the looking like crap." His eyes focused on the blood staining her leg. He started to reach out, realized his hand was scaled, and stared at it until it looked "normal." Or at least, human.

"Let me see your leg," he ordered. Matt finished reaching out, and pressed his hand against the open wound that was leaking blood onto the slit leather of Willow's clothes.

Matt tensed. Healing himself didn't require any thought on his part--though it was hard work, and he was always raging hungry afterward--but healing others required considerable focus. He thought Willow was probably too shocked to really react to what he was about to do, which was all for the best, since he suspected that it would feel strange and alien to her. Matt focused, and the fine muscle tissue and skin rapidly regrew, filling in the wound. The cut wasn't terribly serious, and within a few moments, the cut was sealed. He paused to "sense" if there was anything else, but any other damage had been healed along with the long cut on her leg.

"Better?" he asked. More serious wounds on others sometimes hurt worse when he healed them, but this didn't seem like it had been bad enough to cause pain while being healed. He could never tell the effect his gift had on others, though.

Matt grimaced, stretched, and stood slowly. He'd interrupted his own healing to take care of Willow, and his body complained viciously at his movements. Careful stretching of his wings drew blood and magic into the rough tears, healing them rapidly. Matt twitched, and realized that his arm was still open to the bone.

He realized that he was still seriously wounded right about the same time that his legs threatened to give out. Matt sat quickly back down, the loss of blood and the demand of his body for a complete healing threatening a complete black out. He let his head collapse back. "Um...I need to heal..." he mumbled. Matt had just enough time to recognize that he'd have some ugly scars when this was all done before he blacked out completely.

OOC: Wow. I didn't realize people could move that fast. That's kind of cool. Kind of short post...but Matt's just about done-in.

[Willow]

Willow nodded, not pushing for a promise. Even if she did, she doubted she’d get anything coherent from Matt at the moment – he seemed a bit dazed. Once he’d started to talk, he disproved that theory, but Willow was a little more preoccupied with what was happening to her leg than anything else.

It felt a bit...odd. Kinda like everything was numb, but she had full sensation still. It didn’t really hurt, but it was extremely strange. It reminded her if the time Kaz had gotten her off-her-face drunk so they could stitch up a wound in her side. Only that had hurt, but she’d been far too out of it to complain, or do anything much except watch and wonder at the tugging feeling of having her skin and muscle sewn back together. Thankfully, Veraz had been the one wielding the needle and thread.

It was only when her leg was whole again did she realise the thudding in her head had dissipated as well, leaving Willow blinking at her recently healed limb.
“Yeah, much better. Thank you,” She said, when she’d gathered her thoughts enough to realise Matt was asking her something.

She stood with him, realising faster than he did that his arm was still gaping open.
‘Does he not feel that? Willow wondered, opening her mouth to point it out when the healing wounds in his wings caught her attention, though they were significantly smaller than the one in his arm. More specifically, it was the wings themselves that distracted Willow for a moment, by which time Matt had noticed his wound.

She put her arms out to steady him as he sank rapidly back down to the floor, concern back in her eyes that turned part-way into relief when he mumbled something about healing. She nodded, even though his unusual, silver-blue eyes were already rolling back into his head under his lids.
Willow sighed and glanced around, getting up to recover the torch and to test out her leg. It worked perfectly, she noted as she skirted around the dead beast on the ground.

When she sat back down next to Matt, both the torch and his shirt recovered, Willow drew both her blades and set about cleaning them, both because it needed doing and to keep herself awake. She doubted anything else would come crawling out from where the crocodile-thing had – if it hadn’t during the fight, it was unlikely it would now, but Willow planned on staying on guard anyway, just in case.

However, the repetitive action gave her plenty of time to think, something she wasn’t too sure was a good thing right now.
Willow was still in a hazy acceptance of everything that had happened, though she had a feeling had her life not been in danger her reaction would have been far...louder. Assessing this, Willow wondered if this reaction would happen belatedly, once she’d had time to distance herself from everything that had gone on and allow a normal reaction to someone suddenly turning into what looked like a half-human, half-reptile to fight something that belonged firmly in myth and scary stories.
That called back her earlier thoughts on the spell caster. The bad guy out of a children’s story.

Oh, crap.
‘Please not another insanely strange-bordering-on-mythological person/thing! I don’t think I can take much more stress,’ Willow thought, practically moaning as she let her hands fall limp over her blades and her head fall back against the wall with a defeated thud. This day was just going brilliantly.

Still, her swords were clean and sharp – nothing left to do there. Willow turned her mind to the spell caster and everything she’d picked up on him, trying to visualise how things would go.
Going with the assumption he was something like Matt and the creature – not as an insult to Matt, but to compare magic abilities – he had a reasonable control over offensive spells, possibly elemental ones. The long preparation time suggested they’d be powerful – it made sense to Willow that the stronger something was, the longer it took to make or prepare it. There was his physical strength – if he could throw people over a dozen feet, then he could probably crush bones too. So avoiding getting grabbed by him was a good idea.

Willow sighed, running her hand through her hair distractedly. She didn’t have much to go on. She could hope that communication between the front group Matt was going with and wherever Willow was might be easier – hadn’t Matt given her instructions directly to her mind before? Willow could then pass on their position to the other groups via wolves and other loud creatures that fit into the surrounding area.

Willow sighed again, this time giving up thinking as she sat watching the shadows, waiting for Matt to come round or Kaz to send a search party out after them. Hopefully the latter wouldn’t be necessary, though Willow had no idea what time it was, nor how long was left until the scouts assembled everyone at base camp. With any luck, Matt would wake up before anyone realised something was amiss.

[flippedside]

Awareness returned slowly. First there was an annoying pricking sensation in his hand, then the awareness that his thigh was stretched over a sharp rock. Then came the sharp pain that told him that he was hungry. REALLY hungry. Matt groaned as memory came crashing back. His eyes opened to the dull flickering light of the torch, which was starting to gutter in complaint.

Stretched before and slightly to the side of him lay the monster. Matt had a sudden irrational desire to devour it. Right. Time to eat, he thought dryly. Dragons ate raw meat, but Matt was pretty sure even they wouldn't eat dead monsters. No, a small sheep or two ought to do it...He smiled humorlessly and turned to look at Willow.

"Still around, hey? I had the sense that you were about to run off screaming, but that was before I passed out, so...maybe you weren't. I'm a bit fuzzy on it all, still." Matt shrugged. He was a little foggy on what had happened just before he went into a serious healing coma, but he did think he remembered healing Willow's leg. Glancing down, he was pleased to see that that, at least, was accurate.

This time, Matt stood easily, snapping his wings half-open, before he closed them and let them meld back into his skin. Even his eyes changed--going from cat-like to human, though the hue remained the same icy indigo color. Shifting like that was a form of shadowing--of assuming a similar identity, but changing enough to blend in. Of course, it was impossible for Matt to truly shape-shift--he couldn't become an animal because they didn't share enough similarities. Theoretically, he could also assume full dragon form, but Matt had never actually been able to achieve that shape. His parents and anyone else who might have been able to teach him the final shadowing ability of a wyrdragon had died when he was still young.

"Well, I'm hungry," Matt announced. "I think we ought to go up and raid some food stores. Or...maybe just go hunting. Anyway, get out of here before anyone gets suspicious." He glanced back at the dead monster and grimaced slightly.

"You can ask me your questions while we go," Matt added, turning to Willow. He allowed a slight smile across his face, thinking that he'd probably have an interesting time evading her questions. His offer was only a polite way of inviting the questions that Matt knew were inevitable. And she ought to have a lot.


OOC: Some uselessly interesting info on how Matt changes shape/form. lol.

[Willow]

Willow glanced over as Matt stirred, watching as he became fully conscious and pretending her nerves hadn’t just come flooding back, keeping her expression neutral. She wondered briefly at the smile, but ignored it in order to answer him, returning her still-steady gaze to the shadows obscuring the opposite wall.
“No, you were right. I’m still extremely tempted, but since we’re both going the same way, screaming and legging it won’t do me much good. Plus I’m still skeptical that all this is even happening. I’ve definitely had stranger hallucinations.” She replied, a deceptive calm to her words as she stood, lifting the torch with her and tossing Matt’s shirt at him when he’d finished shifting.

“Call me a hypocrite, but that still seems really freaky to me,” She commented, though it was more of an observation than a complaint. Reminding herself that that was simply Matt’s way of shifting did no good – there was still an odd, tense sensation in her throat, as if she was already screaming but without any sound. It only amplified the dreaming/hallucinating theory – a lot of the time she could neither scream nor run, though she tried.
‘I really need to figure out if I’m asleep or not,’ Willow thought heavily, turning and heading towards the tunnel, trusting Matt to follow her and just wanting to be out of the dungeon of a cave.

Her humour was apparently automatic though, as she rose a dark brow at Matt’s raiding suggestion.
“Yeah, there are food stores aplenty in the middle of the Castan Mountains,” She stated dryly, then nodded thankfully at the hunting suggestion. Finally, something normal and sane to do. “There’re probably a few herds of caribou or some other animal around here. We can hunt large game as long as we don’t hold everyone up. That means anyone hunting either takes their own equipment to make a small fire, or eat raw.” Willow wasn’t too sure why she was explaining all this – she knew she was waffling, but concentrating on talking about something she knew kept her calm.

She grimaced when Matt reminded her of all her questions, and she suddenly wished she wasn’t so bloody inquisitive. This wasn’t going to help her staying-calm plan, as proven by the ridiculous urge to start laughing. Oh, great. Now she had a nervous laugh.
‘You asked,’ She reminded herself, along with the fact that she’d want to know sooner or later.
So, she forced the stupid laughing impulse down, idly thinking of a few painful memories to sober herself up as she considered her first question.

She decided to start simple and obvious.
“What are you?” Willow worked to make her tone inoffensive, though her choice of words didn’t really help the effort. She wasn’t looking to insult, she was just too mentally exhausted to think of any possible ways of wording her question in a politer manner.

[flippedside]

Matt glanced over at Willow at her words. "Mm. I think most of your kind would be disturbed by my shadowing...er, shifting." He finished tugging on his shirt and answered her thought. {You're not dreaming. Though I doubt my using mind-speak is going to convince you of that.} That brought a faint smile to Matt's face, though he was still deeply uncomfortable with having shown Willow who--and what--he truly was.

Desperate situations... he thought with a sigh. He was still shielding his thoughts heavily--a result of the brutal encounter with the crocodile monster.

{By the way, you're pretty good with the thought catching. At least, when I talk to you.} He doubted that she could intentionally catch the thoughts of those who weren't speaking directly to her, but with training and practice it would be possible. No good suggesting that just now, though--she was still too freaked out by everything else.

Matt padded after Willow towards the tunnel, his thoughts focused on his hungry stomach. Distantly, he recognized that the cave would need to somehow be resealed. Just now, though, his thoughts were focused Willow's suggestion of hunting caribou...

"Raw is good," Matt said lazily. Oops, he thought as an afterthought. She might enjoy a raw caribou as a wolf, but he wasn't a wolf. Or a human--and he had just reminded her of the fact yet again. Too late to do anything about that now...

Matt shifted about uneasily, and unintentionally picked up the pace. He didn't like anyone knowing what he was; worse that it be a shape-shifter. Could he trust her with that knowledge? Probably not. There had been one other shape-shifter who knew, but that was a long time ago now, and that man was dead. Had been dead for a while.

Matt passed slightly ahead of Willow, glancing about the cave. The paintings had ended and the tunnel entrance was just ahead. He could see the steep sharp climb. He glanced warily back at Willow before making fire in his hand. No use hiding that he wasn't human, at least for now.

He paused at the tunnel entrance to answer her question. "I'm a weredragon. I guess it's a little like a shape-shifter. I can shift from dragon to human and back...sort of. My main "form" is half-way between the two. You just saw it."

Matt turned away and ducked into the tunnel. He huffed out a bit fire and automatically heated the air around him, warming Willow as an afterthought. He didn't like cold, and thought she wouldn't mind if he heated the air to something above freezing. It took more energy, though, and he felt the edges of his energy fraying, the first warning of dizziness awakening in him and reminding him that he needed to restore his lost energy--and quickly. That meant food.

"For obvious reasons, I don't go about as myself. It's a little hard to explain--and apt to get me killed pretty fast."

[Willow]

Willow sighed, reluctantly agreeing with him as she got over the surprise of hearing his voice in her head again. It was far stranger now that she didn’t have the threat of death to distract her; she couldn’t mistake it for Matt speaking aloud anymore.
“I know I’m not dreaming. Too much has happened to disprove it. I’m just...” She trailed off, exhaling heavily as she raised her hands to shoulder level, shrugging, then stuffed her hands back into her pockets. She wasn’t sure what she was. Confused, tired, cold, hungry, but not just that. Something akin to resigned, but...something else. Whatever it was, it was linked to the odd dream-like feeling and the uncomfortable sensation in her throat.

She managed to conjure up a small smile and a shard of humour at his next thought-words, and replied both mentally and verbally, since talking was still her main means of communication. Plus it’d be sod’s law that the one time she just thought something would be the one time Matt didn’t catch it.
“Guess that’s something, eh?” She said, the questioning lift at the end of her words rhetorical.

Matt’s accidental reminder of his species, oddly enough, didn’t bother her. Willow ate raw almost as often as she did cooked – the past eighteen months had seen her retreating to her wolf shape, or wolf mentality at least – far more often than most shifters in order to travel long distances or track, and she’d gotten over the human revulsion of raw meat months ago. Similarly, her wolf shape would try eating vegetation if she was travelling too quickly to shift, though the shape of her teeth often made that difficult.

Though it hardly struck Willow as comforting, the fire-conjuring was gradually ceasing to surprise her. Matt had done it enough in the fight for Willow to accept it as another skill, like some people used magic. Granted, it was very different to Veraz’s comparatively tame little charms and wards, but even they had surprised Willow until she got used to them.

The warmer air served to relax Willow a bit, and combined the new knowledge she had brought back a few memories, but before she could consider them, Matt spoke again. His words made Willow fall quiet, but there was a small frown on her face. What he’d said was true – if he did go about in his true shape, sooner or later people would try to kill him because he was different and they were scared, whether they had reason to be or not. It was a dark facet of shifter nature, one Willow didn’t agree with. Yeah, he was different, but that didn’t mean he was bad or dangerous...well, he was the latter, but so was anyone with a weapon.
Willow wasn’t too sure what to say to his bluntly truthful statement, so they walked quietly for a while, until Willow went back to the thoughts she’d abandoned when Matt had spoke.

“Oh!” She said suddenly, as something clicked into place. “That time in Bethany, when we were with Aspen...you heated the air then, didn’t you? I remember seeing a slight haze around you, but ignored it cos I thought Aspen was about to faint at the time,” She continued, her general unease with the situation lessening minutely for a moment as she speculated. “And before, on our way here. It got warmer, just for a second. Was that you too?” For a moment, she wondered if her near-rapid fire questions were bothering Matt and paused, but reasoned that he’d tell her if they were.

[flippedside]

Matt crunched across loose rock, moving carefully up the steep incline of the rather narrow tunnel. Bits scattered under his boots, bouncing back down the incline. The walls were rough, with jagged scars of rock slashing outwards. He moved in silence, picking his way carefully and waiting to see if Willow had more questions. He was also "listening" to make sure that no one came down the tunnel and surprised them. He'd rather tell the others that the tunnel had dropped sharply and they'd both taken a tumble, than try to explain the dead monster in the cave behind them.

Matt was half-aware of pieces of Willow's thoughts, but they were disjointed and senseless. Most of the time thought-catching was like that, and he had to use his own instincts to piece together enough to understand what the other was thinking. In this case, Willow's thoughts came together directly in a series of rapid questions. He could almost see and hear the memories that she was projecting. A bit loud, but he picked up enough to remember both times.

It was always odd to see yourself through someone else's eyes. It gave a sense of dislocation. In Willow's memories, he could pick up her own feeling of puzzlement at the time, along with her new understanding.

He paused to look back at her. "Yes, and yes." Turning and continuing on, Matt expanded slightly. "Dragons like heat. So do I. I hate the cold, but I can self-heat the air, so I don't usually feel it. If I'm being careful, you can't see or feel what I'm doing." He shrugged. "Since most people can't tell the difference, I don't usually cover that trick too much." It was true--when people did notice the slight shift in the air about him, they usually put it down to a trick of the light, just as Willow had. Since it was always a subtle shift of air and light, most never even noticed in the first place.

"Anything else...? We're half-way there. You're running out of questioning time." Matt quirked an eyebrow, even though he knew that Willow couldn't see him.

{OOC...Ooh. Insta reply. ;D Matt doesn't like being questioned too much, but he's putting up with it.}

[Willow]

Willow kept her gaze on the ground and her free hand on the wall as they walked through the tunnel, remembering the patches of ice that had repeatedly tried to floor her. Not wanting another fall, especially in front of someone else, she carefully dug her metal spikes into the ground, the smaller ones strapped around her hands clicking quietly across the wall with each step.

“Makes sense,” Willow agreed, thinking over his answer briefly. She opened her mouth to ask why he was up in the snow-laden mountains if he hated the cold, then shut it, mentally smacking her forehead since neither hand was free. ‘Yes genius, the spell caster. You know; the one you were chattering on about on the way here? Dumbass,’ Quietly hoping Matt hadn’t caught her internal dialogue, she listened and was surprised to hear that they were already half-way back. The tunnel had seemed a lot longer before...then again, she’d been slipping every five seconds and cursing every two on the way down, so that had probably made navigating the path seem a lot longer.

Willow gave her next question a small bit of thought. She’d ask where he came from, but that would probably be a rather long answer if she asked for more detail than a simple place name – she’d guessed that he was from the Northern Wastes, from the amount he seemed to know about it, but she didn’t know anything about the North. She wouldn’t be able to visualise the place he was from even if he told her.
“The other species we shifters thought were mythological...do all of them exist too?” She asked instead, then realised that could have a long answer too. Oh well, she’d asked it now.

The thought that the creatures from the old legends existed even now utterly occupied her mind for a moment as she recalled numerous childish arguments with the other kids over which mythical animal was better after hearing the stories from the adults with enough free time to tell them. Were-dragons, she realised, had never featured in the tales, though their more well-known cousins had. Willow wondered why that was; had Matt’s kind simply kept to themselves more than the dragons had, or were they mistaken for dragons?

‘I’m just accepting that these stories had some truth behind them,’ Willow realised. It hadn’t even crossed her mind to question it. Though, since seeing Matt in his real shape, she had a feeling she’d believe almost anything he said at the moment.
‘Since when am I this trusting?’ Willow wondered, but didn’t argue her acceptance. This was the strangest thing that had ever happened to her, so she was just going to hear everything she was told then decide what she was going to do later.

[flippedside]

"All of them?" Matt replied. "I have no idea. I don't even know what all of your mythical creatures are." He considered, trying to remember some of the stranger tales he'd heard in taverns over the years. "Well, most of the dragons are dead, but they definitely exist. So do some of their stranger relatives, like the giant serpents, or the feather-winged serpents. Hmm."

Matt scrambled over a rough spot, and then ducked down to work his way through a particularly narrow space. Once out, he continued.

"I met a griffin once. Proud, cruel creatures. Then there are the wyr-hawks, which are not at all like you shape-shifters--anymore than I am. Giant raptors who can shift into tall, winged humans. Not too friendly, but they make their aerie in the North Desert with some of the other hot-blooded flying creatures.

"Centaurs are common in the Edrei River Valley...They have their own city there where they work metal. In fact, many of my weapons were made by them. You really can't compare anything else to the work of the centaurs." He shrugged. "I guess just about anything you imagine could be real. I'd never seen a crocodile-man-creature before, but we just killed one."

He realized that he was rambling a bit, but Matt had more to say on the subject. "I've lived for many long years--decades--amongst you shape-shifters. In the North, there are short bitter fights and long-lasting rivalries, but mostly everyone just accepts other creatures of other races. It's not that everyone gets along, of course, but most recognize that many misunderstandings are simply due to the vast differences between each race. The way a griffin thinks and the way a dragon views the world are completely different, but mostly, we accept that. In Rhyallia...everyone's just the same. There's one country with one Emperor and one set of laws, and no one can deviate from that. That's what caused the first wars...And it might cause more in the future."

Matt had heard Willow's surprised realization that she was simply taking everything at face value--for the moment, at least. She would question it later, but Matt hoped that she would learn acceptance, rather than simply denying the existence of the Storm and Star creatures.


OOC: Willow was right--Matt had a lot to say. lol.

[Willow]

Willow’s eyes widened briefly. She’d never heard of feather-winged serpents, or wyr-hawks.
‘Why do I get the feeling that I won’t have heard of half of what Matt tells me?’ She wondered wryly, though there was a hint of exasperation there too. Willow didn’t like being in the dark about things, but this was one loop she was considering giving a miss for the sake of her own sanity.
Although, she had calmed down significantly – she no longer felt the urge to scream and get away from the place as fast as she could. She just found herself listening and accepting, voicing her own take on things as they talked.

That’s what occurred when Matt had fully answered her last question, though her reply was more of a non-argumentative counterstatement than anything. “That’s the problem though – we can deviate from the laws in place. That’s what causes the wars,” Willow responded, thinking now about the political state of the country. “If there is another war, it’ll be the Empire against the Rebels, most probably. Because not everyone agrees on how the country is run. I know it’s guerrilla movements from the rebels at the moment, but I’m sure someone tried to talk things over peacefully first; they would’ve been stupid not to. When they can’t get what they want or compromise, they break the laws. It’s differences in opinions and some people’s lack of the ability or will to compromise that escalates things to what they are now.” She continued, almost certain in her theory. Of course, Willow had no idea just what had occurred between the Emperor and the Rebels that led to the latter’s formation, but she was fairly sure it had something to do with one or both parties being unwilling to agree with any of the others suggestions or demands. It was a reasonable guess, anyway.

Sighing, Willow pulled herself out of her thoughts – she could never concentrate on politics for long – and estimated how long they had left until they reached the cavern. Probably a few minutes more, so if she was going to ask anything else, they’d have to have rather short answers.
Something of what Matt had just said came back to her, so she followed that thought.
“You said you’ve been among shifters for decades. How old are you really?” Regardless of his answer, ‘decades’ told her he was a lot older than he looked. He’d meant what he said when he’d told her he was ‘a lot older than you think I am’.

[flippedside]

Matt gave Willow a side-long glance. "Good question. I don't really keep count. Somewhere past 200 years." He knew that would throw her off quite a bit. "Comparatively, though, I'm still fairly young for my species. I don't know what my age compares to your kind because we don't age the same." He quirked a grin. "That answer your question?"

Matt scrambled up a steep slope, and pushed himself into a short leap, balancing precariously on a rough ledge. The tunnel wound up tighter and narrower, making travel slow. Matt focused on pushing himself carefully up through the tight slick walkway. It took considerable concentration to move his body through the narrow space without slashing himself on the jutting stone.

At last, daylight began to filter down, and Matt was able to stand straighter. In another few moments, he was turning a corner and light glinted further ahead in the ice cave. Matt kept his narrow flame going until he was fully out of the tunnel and the daylight shone through the ice and snow.

He turned and waited for Willow to exit.


OOC: Ugh. Crappy post. Really couldn't find anything to say...

[Willow]

‘Two hundred?’ Willow mouthed, incredulous. She hadn’t been expecting him to be over one hundred, if that.
She shook her head, though not in denial, more amazement as she answered his question slightly ruefully. “Yeah, I guess it does,” She would have reverted to her habit of running a hand through her hair as she thought if it weren’t for the unsteady terrain. Even as she finished speaking she had to throw her hands out to snag the rock of the walls to stop herself from falling as she stepped on a small patch of resilient ice; too thick to be melted immediately by the heat Mat gave off.

Willow followed Matt up the incline, wordlessly in order to concentrate on the climb as it proved to get increasingly difficult. She didn’t try to avoid the smaller outcrops of rock, letting them nick or graze her skin in order to find a slightly easier way up than Matt was taking in his effort to avoid injury. Being a wolf shifter made her a little more suited to the area also, having grown up in and around the Kanat Highlands. It didn’t spare her from slips however, and by the time they’d reached the ice cavern, Willow was covered in tiny marks from the stone; her hands the worst off but not bothering her. The skin was toughened from years of similar activity and the hilt of a sword, so scuff marks stretching the length of her palms were nothing.

As she walked forward and took hold of the first rope still resting at the foot of the icy slope leading up to the surface, Willow wondered briefly how many hours they’d been down under the ice. It didn’t feel like the same day that she’d been teasing Kaz and Veraz, talking strategy to capture someone she knew nothing about.
‘Great, another cliché. I’ve really gotta stop acknowledging those,’ She thought briefly, quickly testing her weight against the rope before pulling it taut again and starting to climb. ‘I don’t even know what I’m gonna tell Kaz. Sure, we aren’t injured anymore, but our clothes are still torn. He’s gonna wonder about that.’

Waiting until she felt the disturbance of the rope behind her to signal Matt was following her up the slope, she started to talk quietly, though no one should be so close to the cave entrance that they could hear her.
“If Kaz asks why we were gone so long, or about our clothes being ripped, just say a part of the tunnel gave way and we fell. It’ll explain the tears, and you healing any cuts we gained won’t be an unusual concept to anyone. It’s a reasonable cover, unless you’ve got a better one?” She said, her tone open but unusually tired. Once they were out of here, she just wanted to go to sleep, for a few days preferably. Earlier she'd felt like screaming; now she was just exhausted.

[OOC: feel free to get them both back to the surface in your next post, so they're not hanging around in the slope. And no worries; everyone has their bad days.]