Riven Wight

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Izzy’s smile faded as Riley leaned forward, taking in his expression. She stared at him for a moment, searching his face for any sign he was trying to mess with her, but found no such evidence. Either he had been there, watching them, passed by the dog earlier, or knew something about it she feared she should be worried about.
She licked her lips as she opened them to speak. “Uh, yeah...” she began slowly. “How'd you know? Does that mean something to you?”

Melodramatic Deities and an Ageless Taste for Pizza

Aww, man! You've just had a whole crapload of bad luck, huh? I'm so sorry to hear that. You have no need to apologize! And don't worry about replying. Sleep, rest, get better. That's far more important.

Get well soon!

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Izzy looked at Riley in surprise at the revelation about this side of the world believing Cerasus dead. She inhaled, and nodded. Avoiding hunters sounded like a fantastic idea. She listened to his further explanations, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she tried to put it all together. She sighed at it being all hypothetical, but nodded again, all the same.
“Just let me know. You know how to find me.” That her help would eliminate some of her debt was just an added bonus.
She exhaled in irritation at herself for commenting about being worried. “It’s a different kind of worry,” she grumbled, picking once more at the remainder of her donut, crumbs dusting the knee of her pants. She shook her head as he chuckled. “Nothing, really. Well, we buried a random dog that got ran over. I have to admit, that was a bit odd. But what in my life hasn’t fallen under that description lately? And at least he has a heart for animals.” She smiled lightly.

A Land of Wonder and Nightmare

Elayra only half listened when Ghent responded, her attention on Drust. Some stress had been worked out on the shadowmire, forcing the Curse back into its normal dominance, but even she was feeling the weight of everything. She could only begin to imagine what kind of war was waging in Drust’s head right now.
As if in response to her thoughts, Drust’s neck twitched.
She shook her head slightly, trying to dispel the thought. Now was not the time for focusing on everything. All she had to worry about at the moment was making sure to not set him off. Her muscles ached, ready for a good night’s rest, warning her that they would be of little use against him if the Curse overpowered him.
“There's no need to run.” Elayra stretched her arms out over her head, just the thought of running, even if done by someone else, an exhausting one.
Drust turned, examining the room once more, his eyes lingering on every shadow.
Elayra sat forward when Ghent offered her the phone, the shifting light causing the shadows to shy away from it. “Thank you. But are you sure? What if someone else tries to contact you while you’re gone? We could wait outside until you return.”
When he began to sound more like an overly protective mother scolding her children, the same scowling annoyance crossed both her and Drust's face.
“Know. Your. Place, boy,” Drust snarled, the lines on his skin pulsating slightly.
“We’re not lost children, Ghent,” Elayra spat, glancing to Drust to make sure he was still in control. “We don’t need you to play mother hen. We’ve survived long before you were in the picture, and we’ll continue to do so with you in it.” She took a slow, deep breath, not looking away from Ghent.
“If you’re sure you don’t need your device,” she indicated his phone by tapping its back, her voice stiff, “I’d suggest you get going." She place the phone on the floor, the light shining up. "But take this.” She forced herself to stand, then unhooked her dagger from her belt. She handed it, sheath and all, to Ghent. “Be prepared for anything.”
“And always expect the worst,” Drust added, finishing their familiar mantra in his gruff, cold tone.

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As Riley began his answer, Izzy took a donut for herself, then returned the box to the desk. She tore off a piece of the frosted bread, and used her leg near her knee as a plate. She popped the torn piece in her mouth, and looked to Riley, brows furrowed, just before he gestured to the child, making her glance to him.
“So, if we all started to think of him less as that child, and more like who he was, his behavior would change to adapt to that?” she asked as Riley finished his second donut, her own still only with a small chunk missing. “But, if everyone in the world of aberrations still thinks he’s a powerful vampire, why would he be acting like that? Because we’re the only ones who know about his current condition? And does that mean our weaknesses and strengths shift, too, depending on what the majority of people believe, or just when it comes to interacting with individuals?”
She picked off another piece of her donut as Riley continued, licking his fingers.
“Aberrations are formed by belief mixed with ‘spiritual pressure,’” she echoed slowly. “Anything can pop up here randomly? Oh boy,” she drew out the last. “This is a small town. People get bored. It’s chock-full of all of those, and then some.” She took a deep breath, and looked Riley in the eye. “What can I do to help?”
She glanced distantly to the door when he asked about Trevor. “You and me both.” She sighed. “I saw him earlier today. He’s as much like himself as usual, as far as I could tell.”

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((Only, you know. My computer managed a triple...))

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((Dx I feel your pain with double posts...))

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“Really?” Izzy had seen some of how Cerasus had influenced the weather itself, but she had thought it was simply because it was, well, Cerasus. Which came to show, once more, how little she knew about the thing she was--rather, that she was somewhere between "being" and "had been."
“That reminds me,” she added as her conversation with Trevor earlier that day came to mind. “I meant to ask what you know about vampires. I mean, Trevor knows more than me, and he’s a hundred-percent human. So...” she reached behind her to grab the box and offer it once more to Riley, “what kind of ‘loose ends’ were there, and are left from us being here? And it’s stopped now, right, with us...” she glanced toward the child, “like this?”

A Land of Wonder and Nightmare

“We’re aware of that factitious tale,” Drust scoffed at the mention of Alice in Wonderland. “Over a century ago, Alyce Heart, the then heir to Wonderland, paid Earth a visit. And thus, that piece of so-called ‘literature’ was born.”
When Ghent pulled out his phone, Elayra could not help but step a bit closer to him, trying to see what he was doing to make the screen light up. She blinked in the white light that erupted from its back. The light startled Drust into spinning around, and Elayra instinctively raised her sword, ready to counter him, but he blinked in the light, cast a quick, final glance around, then sheathed his sword with a satisfying shing-click.
He entered the storage shed, having to duck to avoid hitting his head or the katana’s hilt on the head jamb.
For a moment, his body blocked the light before he stood to the side toward one wall similar to a garage door chained tightly shut from the inside.
Since he had the light, Elayra nodded for Ghent to enter before her, then followed him inside as she sheathed her own blade. Though it no longer latched, she closed the door behind them, then looked around at the various equipment, some she recognized to some extent and others quite foreign. Spiderwebs clung to all but a few of the items and caked the corners. Some of the arachnids cowered away from the light while flies and other small insects struggled against the webs.
With a quiet, heavy sigh, Elayra deposited her pack once more on the floor by the bare garage door. She sat, her hand sliding down the shaft of her bow with the action, thankful for the chance to rest and hoping that, this time, it would last.
“You guys allergic to anything?”
Elayra gave Ghent a tight-lipped grin. “Does—”
Sensing a snarky comment, Drust caught her attention and glared darkly at her, his neck twitching.
Elayra closed her mouth, her expression tense. “No,” she answered instead.
“It’s impossible to say here.” Drust turned his normally veined gaze to Ghent. “But don’t worry about that.” He slowly removed his own pack and tossed it so it landed beside Elayra’s.
“Whatever you can scrounge up will be fine. Trust me.” Elayra’s gaze lingered on Drust, watching him carefully.

A Land of Wonder and Nightmare

“Pets?” Elarya looked at Ghent with surprise, then smirked. “Serves them right.” It was, at least, a relief to know they were little more than that here.
She gave a heavy sigh when he began to explain what a purse and ‘pretty penny’ was.
“Wonderland's got satchels, right?”
“It’s even got purses.” She smirked at him. "And that phrase. Wonderland wasn’t always cut off from other worlds. The penny's the lowest of our currencies. Well, when it actually mattered. Has been for... three hundred years?” She glanced to Drust, who gave her a jerky nod in confirmation. “I’ve heard stories of a group of world-jumpers that would come and go as they pleased. If Earth has them, it wouldn't surprise me if it got it from us.”
“The jumpers usually kept to themselves.” Drust turned his gaze forward, his view relatively unobstructed even by the taller of his two wards. “But they did like telling stories. Whether they should have been telling them or not.”
When he asked about how they gathered food, Elayra opened her mouth to answer, but Ghent answered his own question.
“The royal city still has a fairly effective market.” Drust’s expression and tone darkened at the thought, and his neck twitched, “but even that’s to be avoided by any who managed to avoid the Curse. Unless you wish to lose your head. Or worse.”
“Who does the cooking?”
Elayra raised an eyebrow at the odd question, but shrugged. “Whoever gets to it first.”
The trio entered the familiar park, even passing by the playground where they had met. Instead of keeping to the main road, Drust and Elayra followed Ghent down another, narrow trail. Near the end of it, brushed by only ghosts of the lights from the street, sat a dilapidated shack.
As Ghent circled the Shelter, Elayra cautiously went to one of the windows as Drust circled it in the opposite direction as Ghent, a hand ready to draw his katana should the need arise. Elayra, one hand resting on the hilt of her saber, used part of her sleeve to wipe away the grime covering one of the windows, and tried to peer inside, but it was either blocked, or too dark inside to see beyond her own reflection.
She moved from the window as she heard the men complete their circle of the place. “I can’t tell if there’s anything in there.”
Drust frowned. “There’s only one other way to find out, then, isn't there?”
Elayra looked to Ghent as he spoke, Drust’s gaze never leaving the front of the shack.
“Not the most fortified structure,” Drust stepped to the door as Elayra drew her sword, just in case, “but it’ll do.” He drew his own weapon, then turned and tried pulling and pushing on the handle. Regrettably for the door, it was locked. He spared the hinges a quick glance to make sure they opened inward, then quickly solved the minor dilemma with a turn and side kick to the lock.
With a rattle that vibrated through the structure and a bit of splintering wood from the door frame, the door burst open, hitting the wall beside it. Drust hurriedly stepped back, his sword held as defensively as Elayra’s in both hands, but nothing moved to attack from inside. The dim light of the night settled only a foot over the smoothed, cement floor, allowing them to only make out a few dark shapes hanging on the wall furthest from them.
After a short moment of silence and the swaying movement of settling dust, Drust lowered his sword, his head twitching again.
“Don’t suppose you’d happen to have a torch or something on you, would you?” Elayra glanced to Ghent.