(Side Story: TC) Wendigo-go dancers

[Nerissa Clemming]

Nerissa meandered down the road in her usual position: hands on her pockets and her hood covering her head. She didn't really have a plan for that night; she wasn't tight on cash nor was she hungry, so she decided to just wander Harper Rock. She had become relatively familiar with the town by now, but there always seemed to be something new that she would find outside of what she had already discovered. This helped keep things interesting, allowing her a chance to actually be out and about and not holed up in her apartment or some cafe.

Speaking of something different, a strange noise caught her attention. It was quiet so she almost didn't catch it, but she did so she decided to investigate. She followed the noise until she saw what appeared to be a purple haired woman wearing clothing way too big for her pushing a wheelbarrow. The noise mystery was solved, it was the slight squeak of the wheel, however a new mystery arose: who was this woman and what was she doing? Curiosity got the better of her and Nerissa decided to follow the woman, keeping a safe distance away to avoid being detected.

It didn't take long for her to realize the woman was a vampire. She reeked of spilled blood, which probably explained the poor fashion choices, and she didn't give off the usual human-esque scent. Nerissa continued to follow casually. She definitely didn't have any plans for that night, so why not see what this vampire was up to? Judging by how skittish the woman seemed she was either a fledgling or a criminal (or even both). What secrets did she have to hide?

Nerissa hesitated at the forest's edge. She didn't like to go into it much; her cocky attitude when she was newly turned caused her one too many near death experiences for her to want to return. The woman was quickly disappearing, so Nerissa steeled herself and entered. She was stronger after all, and she brought her Cathryn, so she stood a MUCH better chance this time. Besides, she was invested in this mystery now. It wasn't long until she saw the woman dump the wheelbarrow and its contents over a cliff. Criminal then dumping the evidence. Very interesting. Nerissa pondered on how much further she wanted to investigate when the woman seemed to perk up and sprint away. Without any hesitation Nerissa followed, avoiding as much undergrowth as she possibly could to hide her footsteps.

She stopped just a few trees behind the woman and looked around. They were much deeper in the forest than she liked, who knows what could jump out at them? As she was regretting her life choices at that moment, she saw a grizzly bear charging right towards her. Cursing her luck she reached for the dagger at her belt, but the bear paid her no mind and continued running past. What the heck? She looked back at where the bear came from and saw a monstrous beast standing over two men. Nerissa stood shocked. She had never seen anything like this before, and she really didn't want to see it ever again. This night has become way too intense!

To her surprise the men seemed to take it down quickly, easing her fears a little. Something about watching a terrifying beast get killed made it seem much more manageable. Nerissa turned around and gasped audibly. A similar creature to the one that was killed stood right behind her, only this one seemed much bigger and much scarier. "Ah sh-" the sentiment was interrupted as the beast swung at her, effectively flinging her into a tree. As she fell to the ground she scowled. This was not turning into a good night at all.

[Mardvosa (DELETED 9357)]

Gray-green eyes peered from behind the tree, whose bark had turned an eerie black at this point, yet such wasn't really noticeable in the nearly complete darkness she found herself in. The otherworldly sensation to hunt had died down, exchanged with light curiosity, but mostly with nervousness as she watched the duo confront the bear, at first. By no means was she a good enough sneak to get past them unnoticed, and for some reason, the both of them were armed. The tree made a few creaking noises as it's bark slowly wilted away, but she couldn't move. Not now. Her thoughts began to race with possibilities of whom the two might be, what they might do and especially, if they would find the body that she'd dumped nearby...

... she tried to stay still, be as quiet as possible and inaudibly begin to mutter for them to just go away. Just go away... she needed a break from today's insanity. And for a brief moment as she peered around the tree once more, it seemed the bear was strangely backing away. She doubted that it was intimidated by the two figures in the dark, yet still... it went away. She breathed a sigh of relief, thinking... hoping the two would just call it a day with whatever they were doing out here. Minutes of eerie silence passed, when finally she heard it, a strange deathly wail accompanied by the cracking of twigs and branches, as a monstrous creature with flesh appearing as if decayed, wounds that never healed and a deer-like head with antlers stained with coagulated blood. The creature almost seemed familiar from her late teens as she began to be near-obsessed with mythical beings and the occult, but she couldn't place it. Her mind wasn't fully focused enough to think of what it was, exactly, but was stuck in the moment. Struck with both horror and mild awe, she watched as one of the figures stepped forward to fight with this... -thing-. From where she stood, it was almost something out of a movie, the man's blade reflected in the moonlight that poured between the many trees, illuminating the area in a brief flash before striking the creature in a flurry of moves. He seemed much more agile than she would've imagined, but there was no time to think...

... more crackling of woodland flora came from somewhere behind her, and as she turned there was... a woman!? Before Meryl even got a chance to take in that she was being followed, the woman was flung into a tree by a second one of these monstrosities. It was clear that everything had become one, enormous mess, a shiver running down her spine as her mind spun with ideas on what to do. This woman could've been following her for a while... what did she see? Maybe it was even... the one whom did this all to her, in the first place. It began to become too much, indecision rushing through her mind like a waterfall pouring onto a river that was far too small to take it. Her vision blurred and refocused over and over, her hands began to tingle heavily as if too much blood was being pumped there, her eyes clouded over red and she began to audibly vocalize strange words that were not her own, her focus entirely on the second wendigo:

"Rakh uzhael nefeir iisha!" She spoke loudly, in a strangely dual voice, one her own, one otherworldly and haunting, her body had stepped forward into sight and made strange hand gestures that almost came naturally. Her eyes opened wide as she had no idea what had just happened, but her focus was on the second wendigo still, and she watched as strange purple-black shadows coalesced around it's eyes, towards which it clawed viciously as it shrieked in horror, blinded by some manner of eldritch force that Meryl had unwittingly conjured, but definetly enough to hopefully draw the gaze of the two figures standing in the mild forest clearing. She breathed heavily as the tingling feeling in her hands slowly faded away, her head spinning exhaustedly as she looked to her compass in a daze, looking for North, for Harper Rock. For a brief moment she just stood there, the moonlight finally having fallen upon her figure, pale, slender and almost six feet tall as well, oversized clothes and coat flapping gently and long purple hairs eeriely carried by the wind, as if it was the night for cinematic moments. And then... she ran. Ran as fast as she never did, before. It was too much. It was all too much...

[Kaspar]

Aaron's playful mood had rubbed off on Kas, even in the tense situation he was able to snark in response to the man's teasing over his lame one liner. "Leck mich." He muttered, shooting him a dirty look accompanied by a particularly petulant curl of his poked out tongue, flicking it back to lick across his own lips. When the creature came into full view however he was silenced, staring in horror at the approaching beast, though he couldn't help the lightest scoff of disbelief at Aaron's reference, although it helped take some of the fear away over those massive antlers. It was time to screw his courage to the sticking place, to join Aaron in the fight. Of course he got little chance, Aaron dashed forward at lightning speed and with impressive dexterity. The man swung his sword like another appendage, one he'd gotten to know well with hours of police and practice. His coordination was no surprise, the drummer had years of understanding the correlation between the eyes and hands, knowing how to use every inch of his body to get the results. The energy that came off him was overwhelming, it felt like watching a kung fu movie sped up and Kas was reluctantly impressed. Of course he was fairly unimpressed by the man's joking and jeering as the creature fell down broken and bent in death.

"Du bist ein dummkopf." Kaspar snapped, almost hissing the words as he heard more noises approaching. There were footsteps in the leaf litter, other things out there and he was still prepared for more.

There were other people, he thought, but they weren't just people. Vampires. He couldn't believe he hadn't felt it before, that strange wave of energy that they gave off, that cold creeping sensation at the base of his spine in part contributed towards their presence he guessed. Perhaps they had been too far away? He could smell human blood on the wind now, the smell distinct unto itself much like that idiosyncratic feeling that most vampires gave. One of them had gotten close, the woman barely visible to him through the trees but he certainly heard her voice when the creature came at her. The other vampire had run, taking that heavy scent of human blood with her and Kaspar had absolutely no inclination to follow. Neither was he particularly convinced that he would want to help the stranger who was still hovering in the area. The beast rose up behind her, and with one great swing sent her flying into a nearby tree. It would have been easy enough to turn and run, this night had been fraught with danger, and on principle he tended to look after his own *** first and foremost. The only thing that made him stay, made him charge forward with a sudden fight and fire was the way the beast looked at them after, Kaspar feeling as if it was saying “you’re next” before lurching towards victim number one.

"Fick!" The rocker groaned, fully convinced that he was already regretting his sudden launch into action. He'd taken off at a run, sword brandished at the ready, held in a grip that was secure but loose enough to allow for movement. As he charged the beast seemed to take notice, rearing up to its full height to reach for Kaspar, forcing him to change his tactic at the last second. He ducked, throwing his weight into a shoulder as it collided with the midsection of the great beast, twisting his blade so that he could stab it downwards at an angle, digging it into creature's thigh with a guttural cry. The wendigo howled furiously, swiping at Kaspar with its claws, forcing the blonde man to yank his blade free messily and drop down to the forest floor, crawling at a frantic scramble around its thick legs towards the vampire woman. "Up, up, up!" He snapped, struggling to find his feet with the help of the tree trunk, looking back in time to see the creature limping towards them. "AARON!" He growled loudly, the word tangled up in a snarl.

"Leck Mich" - Lick Me, Kas uses it interchangeably with "suck it"
"Du bist ein dummkopf" - You are an idiot

[Aaron Hunter]

“I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay,” sang Aaron. “I **** all night, and I kill all day.”

His words slowly trailed off while he wiped the blood from the cold, deadly surface of his blade with a few fallen leaves. The pearlescent red liquid twinkled under darting moonbeams as the killer dropped the makeshift rags to the floor. A black leather jacket may not have been the standard issue uniform for a lumberjack, and a glistening sword was an unlikely replacement for a sturdy axe, but Aaron had effectively assumed the role of the powerful woodcutter, felling the forest beast with a series of hefty blows.

Perhaps Aaron had also reached the dizzy heights of a great philosopher, answering the question about whether or not something makes a sound in the woods when it tumbles over? Harper Rock’s version of Bishop George Berkeley was quite clear that the collapsing wendigo creature had hit the ground with a definitive thud, despite the cushioning of the surrounding foliage. Aaron watched for a split second as a couple of flies buzzed around the corpse, preparing for nature’s regenerative feast to begin.

Before Aaron was able to belt out another line from his bastardized version of the classic Monty Python song, his sparing partner was already on the move. Kaspar had spotted two additional people rustling around in the undergrowth, a couple of woman who, at first glance, appeared to have arrived at the location separately. One looked like she was keeping a low profile, trying to stay hidden behind the thick tree trucks and densely packed leaves. Unfortunately for the second woman - who seemed vaguely familiar to Aaron - hiding was not an option. Instead, another monster, larger and more ferocious than the one recently dispatched by Aaron’s trusty sword, was attempting to turn her into a rag doll.

Just as Aaron was about to turn and follow his friend, and join in the rescue mission, the trees in front of him suddenly parted like the curtains at the start of a Broadway stage show. The moon once again broke free from its cloud prison, casting a spotlight onto the ghostly performer who had taken centre stage. The wispy creature resembled the woodland mutant, with antlers and a ghastly snarling voice, but it appeared to be more spectral in appearance. Whatever it was, the monster was heading directly for Aaron.

“It looks like I’ve got some company!” shouted Aaron, replying to Kaspar’s call. “I’ll take on this dude, you tackle the other guy. Save the Cheerleader, save the world, buddy!”

Aaron was used to fighting alone, he enjoyed the solitude and freedom that it afforded him. Although the musician was a likeable, easy-going kind of guy, he was well aware of the aggressive demon that lurked deep within his soul. Sometimes, isolation was Aaron’s dearest friend.

His close companions would most certainly include the drummer’s faithful sword and the fully loaded semi-automatic firearm that the gunslinger was now brandishing in his steady right hand.

“You want some too?” said Aaron, unleashing a volley of bullets straight at the onrushing monster.

A puzzled expression erupted across Aaron’s face as each projectile appeared to miss its target. Maybe he should have stuck with the blade, he thought to himself while firing off another wave of hot metal. A deep frown took hold of Aaron’s brow as each and every bullet failed to make an impact.

“Wow!” exclaimed Aaron. “I’m like a blind man playing darts tonight!”

There was no time for any in depth analysis of Aaron’s apparently shabby shooting. In a flash, the supernatural beast was upon the punk, swiping at him with claws and razor-sharp teeth. The creature’s jaw briefly locked around Aaron’s left shin, snapping at him like a rabid dog.

“**** a brick!” said Aaron. “I’m getting munched by ghost Bambi!”

Aaron’s right boot kicked out at the mutant wendigo, enabling him to wriggle free before the teeth could do much damage. At what was essentially point blank range, Aaron squeezed the trigger of his weapon, discharging the remaining contents of the magazine into the growling face of the phantom beast. It was at this moment that the penny dropped like a stone, and Aaron realized that his earlier aim hadn’t actually been useless. For some unearthly reason, bullets were having absolutely zero effect on the magical monster.

“Now this is bad news!” he announced like a medieval town crier.

Scrambling for his sword, while the frightening forest phantom attempted to take another chunk out of Aaron’s legs, the confused musician took an almighty swing at the neck of the relentless devil. If it were possible to slice clean through air molecules, then the killer had probably just succeeded in separating numerous pairs of oxygen atoms. Sadly, he had magnificently failed in the task of parting the beast’s head from its body, as the blade left not even the faintest scratch on the spectral skin of the demon. Just what kind of incorporeal creature was Aaron facing?

Aaron scurried backwards like a crab, putting some well-needed distance between the chomping mouth of the monster and his ankles. The mysterious beast was bulletproof, literally, as well as resistant to the shining steel of Aaron’s sword. The punk needed to think, and think fast, before he was transformed into the rampaging beast’s chew toy.

[Nerissa Clemming]

Nerissa struggled to her knees, wincing at the pain coming from her ribs as the Wendigo got closer. It was huge, bigger than anything she had ever encountered before, and it was completely trained on her. She fought against the pain and she tried to put the tree between them, but stopped as she noticed the dark, swirling shadows that seemed to come from nowhere and began attacking it's eyes. Nerissa glanced over at the woman she was following and saw her saying something, but the screeches of the Wendigo drowned out all noise. She took this opportunity to get some distance between her and the beast, but the pain from her chest made moving very difficult. Something was definitely broken.

A blur ran past her and Nerissa saw that the woman was gone, along with whatever magic she had conjured up. Enraged, the Wendigo lumbered over the Nerissa, it's hand outstretched to take another swipe, when something caught it's attention. One of the men was charging towards them, his sword at the ready. The beast changed it's attack to aim at the newcomer, momentarily forgetting about Nerissa. She wrapped her arm around her middle, faintly feeling the bones in her rib cage slowly shifting back into place as the bones began to heal themselves. Nerissa always marveled at how quickly her body repaired itself now, especially in comparison to her old one, but now was not the time to appreciate it. The man had fallen to the ground in front of her and urged her to get up, reminding her of her current situation.

She used the tree to help stand, fighting against the pain, and pulled her rifle from her back, quickly looking it over. The gun took quite a bit of damage from the tree, it's barrel dented badly from the impact. She groaned and put it on her back again, instead pulling out a short sword and making a mental note to repair her Cathryn if she made it out of this. There was no way she could do much damage now, but holding the blade made her feel better.

The man called out for his friend and Nerissa recognized the name, but couldn't dwell on it too much as the Wendigo closed the distance between them. She raised her sword in defense when something from the corner of her eye caught her attention. Her shadow, barely visible in the forest floor, sped towards the Wendigo and began to wrap around it like a boa constrictor, squeezing the creature tightly and preventing ti from moving closer. The Wendigo screeched again, struggling against the unexpected foe, but unable to get free. The shadow constricted tighter and tighter until the sound of bones breaking could be heard over the creature's screams, until the screaming was cut off by the shadow crushing it's windpipe.

A cloud began to cover the moon, hiding the shadow until it could no longer be seen, and the creature fell to the ground, twitching as it finished dying. Nerissa just watched her her eyes wide. She new her shadow was strong, but it had never done something like this before! Before she could wonder further, she heard shots being fired and saw Aaron on the ground, firing at another beast. With a groan she said "This is turning into a really bad night!"

[Kaspar]

Kaspar got to his feet, back knocking back against a tree, a steadying and grounding force that he leaned into as he tried to think quickly through what he needed to do in that moment. He'd edged closer to the stranger, she appeared injured and yet her focus was directed towards the creature and something else, something that Kaspar couldn't see at first when he looked. The darkness seemed to loom, flickering with shadows that moved too quickly to be ignored. They began to wrap and climb around the creature, tightening into bands of blackness that seemed to constrict. It tried to screech, to cry and struggle but it was no use, already injured it quickly succumbed to the pressure, collapsing upon the ground like a felled tree. Good thing, too, because Aaron wasn't coming to join them anytime soon. Kaspar, of course, had a whole lot of questions about why a shadow had just crept up to wrap around and smother the creature, assuming it was at the woman's command though finding her looking almost as bewildered as he did by it all. There was no time to ask, however, as he heard shots ringing through the darkness and his friend's yelling as he was stalked by something that just wouldn't go down.

Kas slunk towards the woman, hand gently reaching to clasp her around the elbow, urging her on. "Come on. We need to get Aaron and we need to get out of here, it is not safe." An extra pair of hands couldn't help, even if she was injured, though healing quickly it seemed. A necromancer, perhaps, or simply someone who had learned the tricks from a wraith. It was hard to tell unless you looked closely for the tell tale signs that marked paths. Kaspar looked remarkably human, for the most part, he felt it, he acted it and in most scenarios few would be able to pick him as a vampire. It was something he was grateful for, fighting hard not to expose himself too readily while he had the opportunity to maintain some semblance of the life he had before. With the woman in hand Kaspar strode towards Aaron, sword at the ready though from what he could see it wouldn't do much. "Aaron... Have you got a plan? I think we run.
Far and fast!"

[Aaron Hunter]

The situation was becoming increasingly desperate for Aaron. The bullets had delivered exactly zero effect upon the ghostly forest creature, as if the vampire were firing a children’s water pistol at the rampaging beast, rather than a semi-automatic weapon, and now Aaron was slashing away at the monster with his normally trusty sword, but its hard steel blade had seemingly been transformed into a limp stick of celery, such was its lack of impact. At this rate, the punk would have to resort to hurling his chunky boots at the phantom, and hoping that it choked on his laces.

Aaron could hear the cries of pain and anguish resonating from the battle that was ensuing elsewhere in the woods, and he knew that Kaspar was in trouble, but he was pinned down, fighting for his life against a deadly foe. Effectively, the vampire was trying to defend himself against a giant, marauding tiger, armed with nothing more that a fly swat.

Suddenly, a wave of inspiration crashed into Aaron’s mind rocks, the refreshing spray of inspiration invigorating his thoughts. Undoubtedly, a fly swat wasn’t what was required right now, but what about the flies? The attentive vampire had earlier noticed a few insects buzzing around the corpse of the dead transhuman wendigo. Why not try to summon a swarm of the little fuckers, release a biblical plague onto the ferocious forest spirit that was constantly trying to chew his legs to pieces?

Backing away from the spectral monster as it took yet another swipe at Aaron’s limbs, the drummer focussed all of his attention onto the bugs that were circling above the recently deceased creature just a few feet away from him. Mentally, he sounded nature’s bugle, calling upon the myriad of creepy crawlies that dwelt deep within the forest to come to his aid.

At first, there was an eerie silence, as if the plug had been pulled out of a stereo system mid-tune. Then came a strange rumbling sound, miniscule vibrations that grew and grew, signalling the imminent arrival of an army of tiny creatures that were ready to do the bidding of their vampire master. Finally, there was an overwhelming buzzing sound, the drone of thousands of small wings flapping and humming in unison, being summoned into battle. The sky fell blacker than a well of thick crude oil as the buzzing battalion filled the air above Aaron’s head, blocking out the beams of the moon.

The squadron of flies, wasps, insects of all descriptions, bombarded the hapless wendigo spirit, wave after wave, a bug blitzkrieg. Aaron’s concentration remained rock solid, summoning swarm after swarm of nature’s finest warriors, pulverizing the woodland demon into submission. A gargantuan sigh of relief escaped from Aaron’s dry lips as he watched the forest spirit collapse to the ground. In a flash, the droves of insects dispersed into the night, allowing the moon’s rays to bathe the skin of the vampire’s flustered face.

He paused for a second or two, gathering his thoughts and strength. The beast had managed to have a few nibbles at Aaron’s shins and ankles, but there was no serious damage. If anything, the pain felt by the rocker was more psychological than physical. The realization that his fighting skills alone weren’t always enough to defeat an enemy had been rammed home pretty hard during the last few minutes.

Scrambling to his wounded feet, the bite marks stinging a little as they brushed up against the shrubbery on the forest floor, Aaron turned to assess the situation with Kaspar. His friend was dragging a woman away from the scene of another skirmish, one that appeared to be going badly. She definitely looked familiar, although through the foliage it was difficult to fully make out her features. There was no sign of the other woman. Either she had fled the scene, or she’d become a victim of this particular battle.

“Running seems like a great plan!” shouted Aaron. “Head towards me. I took this dude down. He was starting to bug me!”

Aaron beckoned the couple towards him, waving his arm furiously to encourage the pair to get a move on. It appeared that the wendigo-go dancers were worthy adversaries, certainly dangerous, and definitely not to be underestimated.

[Nerissa Clemming]

Nerissa jumped slightly at the man's contact with her arm, but followed anyway. He made sense, they had to get out of here. But that name he said, Aaron? Could it be...? Now wasn't the time to ponder about it, they were still under attack. As they began to make their way back to Aaron, Nerissa noticed the distinct lack of noise, making her more unnerved than she already was. What happened to the noise?

As though an answer to her unspoken question, a loud buzzing began to fill her ears. To her surprise, thousands and thousands of bugs flew in and attacked the beast that was left standing, swarming it on all sides. The beat tried to fight the swarm, but more and more kept coming, relentlessly attacking until the massive creature stopped moving. Nerissa watched in amazement. It seemed the forest had more secrets up its sleeve than she originally thought. Or was it because of the other man? Did he have something to do with this?

The man's voice sounded so familiar, but she couldn't try and place it right then, and the dark shadows made it difficult to define features. Right now, running sounded like the best plan. "I don't know what you two did to anger these...things, but I agree that we should get the hell out of here before things go even more south!" She followed the men with an arm around her waist, biting back the pain coursing through her chest. They had to get out first, then she could concentrate on her injuries.