You slay me, Crispin Ashwood!, part 1

The first time Taneth and Crispin Ashwood ever hugged was like receiving one of the best gifts on Christmas Day. He had held her so securely and the hug had seemed like it lasted for an endless amount of time. Taneth knew in that moment that Cris would be her friend for a very long time and he would help take care of her in ways that some might not be able to. She knew she had someone she could trust with her secrets because the reality was that Cris was not a talker. He was a watcher and he wanted like any person, but he very rarely spoke of his wants; however, Taneth knew but she had to get around the wall of solitude that Cris had set up. Now that she had managed to breech his walls, she took liberties with Cris that some may never have tried before. This newfound friendship also came with an invitation for tea at Taneth?s Little Cottage, which Cris ate up. Little did he know that nothing was as simple as tea with Taneth.

The Little Cottage is not exactly little, but it is not a mansion either. The cottage is a double story and looks lovely. There is a gate that blocks the entrance and once inside the gate it looks full of flowers and other plants. Cris might see the jasmine that she smells of in the garden. Taneth was bouncing along in front of him, as happy as can be, and chattering nonstop. She was that excited to have him over for tea.

When the cottage and her garden came into view, he was certain that there was something other than a green thumb at work. It was like spring had come only in one place, or that winter?s touch hadn't had the strength to encroach upon her territory that far. He did not look like he fit in there, either, with black leather from throat to sole, knives resting comfortably in their slings on his legs. Loops of silver electrum chain whisper with each step he takes to her four. "It is very peaceful here, Taneth. How is it that you're able to leave as often as you do,? Cris asked.

Her home definitely did not look like it has been touched by the cold. It does not feel like it either. "Well, I make food every day and I give it to people who are hungry. I also deliver flowers to people who sell them," Taneth responded in a singsong tone. There is a cool breeze and it is almost like the flowers are dancing. She opened the front door and stepped inside. Cris might smell freshly baked sweet things.

Hand broken from his pocket, fingertips skimmed shoots of lavender and droplet blossoms of other plants. "Do you enjoy the work you do?" He followed her inside and ducked his head in gratitude for the invitation.

"Well, yes. I used to do it more when I worked at the inn because I was able to meet more people. Now I have to look." Her Little Cottage seemed cozy. It was not decorated in pink, but more natural tones. There seemed to be an odd assortment of knick knacks from collectable figurines to jewelry to even weapons in different areas as they move through the home. Most seem magically inclined, though it did not feel like her. The home and her very area seemed very secure and safe, if not comforting.

?I did not know you worked there," granted, he had never asked either. "Was there a reason you stopped?" As she led him through her home, he let his gaze wander. Drawn more to the weaponry that did not seem to fit the gentle serenity of the rest of the Cottage. It was quiet, a haven. It was a wonder that Fin found it in him to leave at all, too.

?It was many moons ago before I went to ground." There might be the sound of wolves howling in the distance. "I got tired." She led him to the kitchen. Cookies, homemade bread, and various other baked goods as well as a prepared tea and cups with flowers rest on a nearby counter and table.

What Little Cottage did not have that sound? She had warned him of them, and so their woodland chatter did not startle him as it would have otherwise. In the kitchen, he felt like an oversized bull in a miniature china shop. "Of?"

"Of tending bar. And then there were the demons." Taneth shrugged as she has led a somewhat interesting life in Rhydin. She motioned to a comfy chair. "Please sit. Are you hungry?"

"Ah. That explains it. Thank you." On his way toward the chair, he shrugged free of his coat and draped it along the headrest. It left him in only a thin white shirt with short sleeves and a V shaped collar plunging a few inches past collarbones. Black Marks clasped him like shackles on nearly every inch of exposed flesh, silver scars of faded runes hiding in between. "I'd not refuse any food you served me, Taneth." It took a moment, but he finally did sink into the chair.

Taneth smiled from the pleasure of watching him sit and at least pretend he was comfortable. "Do you want real food or sweets?" She did not sit yet as she did not know how hungry he was. Her gaze drifted to the markings. Scars and tattoos were always a draw for her.

"Whatever is easiest. I shouldn't like to trouble you further."

"It is not trouble, but I should like for you to tell me." Taneth encouraged. "Please."

Well, if she was going to ask him so nicely.... "Sweets, then," a nod of his head to the vast array of baked goods she had filled her kitchen with.

Taneth aimed a sudden smooch for Cris' cheek before she bounced off to collect a tray of various sweet things. "Would you be a sweet Crissy and pour the tea please?"

Sudden, just as the duck and turn of his head. She got his hair instead, which smelled profoundly of peppermint. "Erm. Certainly...." Hand pushed through his hair to erase the feeling, it was easier to rise from the chair than it was to sit. He searched for the pot and teacups with a sweep of his narrowed gaze.

The teapot and cups were all right there. On the table. "Crissy, do you think everyone is truthful?" A curious question as she came back with the tray of sweets and set it on the table.

It was a curious question. Thank the Angel he did not have to look far and went about the act of pouring tea in such a cautious, unhurried fashion. It gave him time to ponder it. "I'd like to think so, yes, but I know that is not realistic. We've all the capabilities to lie as we do ones of honesty."

There were extras for the tea if he needed it. "How can one tell the difference?" Taneth asked as she set the tray on the table.

He could not be sure if it was a blend he had tried before, and until he was, he did not add anything to his cup. "It takes practice. Observation, confidence in one's own ability to read and understand others. Would you like anything in your tea?"

"No, thank you. I hope you like the tea. I tried to remember what I have seen you drink before." She settled onto a chair and smoothed out the skirt of her dress. "Thank you for coming. We do not get many visitors."

Cris nodded and passed her one of the cups and resumed his seat, not without the previous hesitation. "I'm sure it's delicious, Taneth." He glanced aside to the tray. "Thank you for inviting me," as he looked back to her. "It's rather difficult to refuse tea."

"I usually see you drink it." Taneth smiled. She was thrilled with her visitor sharing a cup of tea with her. "I am glad we are friends now. Really."

"I do like it, yes." Cup held in a cradle of scarred fingers. There was a rune on the back of his right hand, as well, an eye with a vortex shaped pupil. "Are you?" slight upward tilt at one corner of his mouth.

"Yes. I wanted to be your friend for such a long time." Probably within seconds of meeting him. "Why do you have markings?"

Something that he would be more than likely confused to hear. He remembered himself as awkward, sickening and prickly after he had come to town. "They were given to my kind as gifts. We, all of us, bear them for various reasons."

"So there are more of you." A sip of her tea as she watched him since her statement.

Cris chuckled, "Yes. Yes, there are."

"Much more?" Taneth?s eyes widened at the thought of the multitudes of Cris? about town.

"Not here, in town, though. Thank the Angel. I've seen a few clusters of them off and on, but I seemed to be the only one that's stayed." He looked up. "Enough, yes."

"Is your Sweetheart like you?" Another sip of tea.

"She is---much more than I am, in many ways." He finally took a sip from his tea. Light, naturally sweet. He had been right not to add anything else.

"Does she make you happy? It is good to be happy with Sweethearts." She was curious about the relationship between Cris and his sweetheart. "Sometimes they can be hurtful." She held back the sigh of her own past love wounds.

"She does." He turned the cup in his hands. "Even the slightest idea of her does." Gaze rose from the auburn liquid in his cup. "Have you been hurt in that way?"

"I am glad for you. Do you smile when you are with her?" Taneth grinned as she avoided answering his question about her hurts.

Snort, "Yes, Taneth. I smile when I'm with her."

A merry giggle. "I should hope so!" She nudged the plate of sweets to him.

"I speak more when I'm with her, as well." He took the nudge as a prompt and reached for a cookie laden with a fat, purple flower.

"And do you...." Dare she ask? "Do you hug more?" She definitely was teasing him.

"Should I be concerned about this line of questioning?" He took a bite and ushered a falling chunk of cookie into his mouth with the heel of his palm.

Taneth fell back against her chair with a wild giggle. "Sweethearts like hugs, do they not?"

Cris waited until he had swallowed, "I'd not refuse her, if that's what you mean."

"I should hope not." Taneth grinned then she munched on a cookie too. "What did you do with the ribbon I gave you?"

Somehow, he felt that Taneth was going to relay all of this to Leena. He hoped he was not there to witness it. "I keep it in my coat pocket." For it was obviously no longer around his wrist. "Jack offered to give me a ribbon of his before. Is the one you gave me like his?"

"No. It is just a ribbon. Scottie's is something more."

Cris nodded as he said, "I'd the feeling. Was there a reason you gave it to me, or did you simply wish for me to have it?"

"You are my friend." A smile. "If you wanted more of a feeling or connection to me then I would have to give you something else."

Another slight, smaller curl at the corner of his mouth. "I appreciated the gift, Taneth, thank you."

"You are welcome. Does it bother you when I want to give you hugs?" Taneth tilted her head.

"No," she had caught him mid-bite of the cookie. As he cleared his throat, he swept his lips clean with the rough pad of his thumb. After he swallowed, he tried again. "No, it doesn't. Only when I'm unprepared for it. But if it is to be a regular occurence, I will do my best not to seem so entirely put off by the affair. I am sorry if I've offended you with that, Taneth. There've only been a small handful of individuals over the course of my life that have been so excited to be that up close to me, and there's been a considerable length of time in between each one. I've been unable to remain desensitized."

"Why? You are delightful." She held her cup out. Cris is on tea duty and she drank all of hers.

That, made him smile. A white fissure in the stern set of his lips, with remarkably straight teeth for how little they were revealed. He set aside his cup to take hers. "Am I?"

"Of course you are. But sometimes I think you are mad at me." She ducked her head when she said that. Perhaps from embarrassment.

He poured, even as his smile died. "A common misconception. You're not the only one to experience it." He offered the cup back, "You've done nothing to anger me, Taneth. I've already told you that, yes?"

"How will I know when I do?"

"I will tell you."

"Promise?" She closed one eye then the other.

"Yes, Taneth, I promise. But I can't foresee you doing anything that would upset me to such an extent."

Curious tilt of her head. "What would make you mad?"

He chuckled and allowed himself respite by easing back into the comfort of the chair. "Am I to give you a list that you may choose from?"

"Just little bits." A smile. "Please."

He exhaled in surrender, wondering if his grievance list was too long and that was why it took actual concentration to pick something. "If you would not have heeded my warnings about approaching me. I've harmed people for such things when I did not wish to."

?Do you think you would harm me?" Taneth tilted her head as sly smile grew on her lips.

"I shouldn't like to have the opportunity in the first place.?

"But I am very quick."

"You are, yes. And I doubt that I would escape retaliation for too long." Cris sipped his tea. "It goes beyond that, though. Barring the fact that you're quick, or that I would not wish any harm upon you, I told you that because it is a concern of mine. You would not like your concerns to be disregarded as unimportant, would you?"

"No." Taneth?s word were soft. "Sometimes, I think, that that it is how it is."

Cris gestured to her. She understood. He filled the silence with a sip of tea, then set his cup aside. "You believe yourself to be disregarded?"

"Sometimes." She was quiet.

Slight tilt of his head as he considered her in her chair. "Sometimes, I believe that to be true too."

"Do you?" Her eyes lifted when she heard his words.

Cris nodded as his left ankle propped against his right thigh, he rested his hand on one of several silver buckles holding it together. "I do. Recently, I've noticed that you seem to be badgered. And that may not necessarily be a terrible thing, for those that do ask after you are your friends. But its repetition, even for me, seems to be incredibly irritating. I don't know how you weather it."

"People only want me to be happy, so I must be for them." Quiet. She looked down to her tea cup.

He tilted his head as he studied her as she studied her tea. "How do you know that? How do you know they do not simply wish to help you?"

"They cry when I cry or some say they do not want me to be like them. I just know." Or maybe she thought she knew.

He blinked. "What is it that makes you cry?"

"Nothing." She said it too quickly. "Do you know how to use swords?" A subject change as she looked up from her tea cup.

He found it endearing, if not slightly patronizing, that she opened this discussion by asking his opinion on truthful people. But he allowed her that one. "I do, yes."

"Are you so very good?" She was not ready to talk about it.

"I'd like to think I'm rather skilled at it, yes. I've trained with swords since I was a child."

"Oh yes? Why?" She leaned forward with her interest.

He could not tell if her interest was personally motivated, or spurned by the need to shift the focus from herself. "My kind are warriors. We are cautioned to become proficient in various weapons, but to also have a signature with which to put all of our focus into. I chose swords, specifically the art of dual wielding."

"And why is your....kind....warriors?"

This was becoming a rather interesting conversation. "We were chosen to be."

"Do you fight to save others?" Taneth tilted her head as she stared unblinkingly at him.

"Yes."

Taneth nodded and smiled sadly. "Good?then you can make a promise to me?" A sudden question.

He had made several promises to her over the course of their friendship, but the weight she put into this request urged him to pay attention. "What is it?"

"Promise first."

Tension beneath pepper dark stubble on his jaw. It took longer for him to concede. But he did, finally, with a slow nod of his head. "I promise."

Tea party with Prickly Bear and Crissy, part 1

As Mesteno and Cris pulled up in Mesteno?s van, Taneth stood at her gate waiting for them. Her smile was so wide that it seemed like it could split her face in two. Mesteno might not see any makings of a forest or anything with wolves around. Yes, there are trees and it looks woodsy but there doesn't seem to be any Misty Forest in the surrounding area. Taneth waved two hands and bounced with glee. "Come! Come! Tea is just about ready!" Her excitement is very barely contained.

In such a tranquil setting, Mesteno's battered, black van was an eyesore. The one redeeming feature was the curious quietude of its engine however, so at least there was no drone to sully the peace. Mesteno slipped out of the driver's side, left the van unlocked so Cris could follow at his leisure, and landed on cat-quiet feet despite the steel soled boots. He felt a bewildering urge to take them off however when he saw the cottage, and even glanced at the feet of the bouncing young woman as if to see whether she had gone without shoes. He cracked her a smile, as ever a little Bear-trap alarming, but intending no harm this day. He strode across to meet her at her urging. "S'the end of winter and you got a garden full of flowers already," he remarked when he neared, peering about with curious, golden eyes. That would have to suffice for his hello!

Taneth giggled with delight at Mesteno?s version of a greeting.. Her entire home did not seem like winter had touched it with the sun and gentle breeze, which made it seem like the flowers were dancing. She was not wearing shoes at the moment and she reached out for Mesteno's hand. Cris will come when he was ready and she knew he wanted time to explore the garden as well as give Mesteno and Taneth time to talk alone. "I have flowers and everything all the time. I made them. We will go inside first then, if you want, I can show you the wolves and everyone." A squeak of glee.

He did not shy away from the hand-holding as he let fingers tangle loosely, and the blonde tug him wherever she liked. Warm as it felt with the unexpected sun, he felt a little foolish for the weighty, shearling lined jacket he wore, and the thick woollen sweater, but he was too busy staring at Taneth's garden to worry, and followed her towards the cottage with his head at an avian tilt. "You mean you plant them?" he asked her. The wording had been a little unusual - but this was Taneth after all, and unusual was a Taneth characteristic.

And she very rarely gave straight answers. "Well, they all started as something but then I made them stronger and helped them to grow." Right into the cottage they went. Her cottage was light and airy and smelled of baked goods and seemed just as cozy as she does. "Do you want to sit somewhere soft for a bit?" He might notice swords and knives scattered about and a lack of pink decorations.

She was a girl, and as such, Mesteno expected some degree of pink (though his antiquated mind might have been stereotyping to assume he'd find some!) Her answers, however convoluted, seemed to make some sense to him, and as he paused by the door to take off his boots (because he didn't intend to track dirt through her home) his expression suggested an epiphany. "Ah! Like the forestals?" he asked. "The beings who tend the woodlands and talk to the trees." As if that should make sense to her. Do not doubt he had seen those blades. He was a particular admirer of fine steel. "I'm always happiest on the floor," he told her with a shameless shrug.

A glance back over her shoulder to Mesteno, coy. "Something like that." She tugged him toward her 'family' room. It had a nice, cozy couch and chair along with an unlit fireplace. "I like sitting on the floor too,? she said with a grin when she noted his feet missing boots. "Do you wish any food or drink, My Prickly Bear?"

Taneth, coy? He arched a brow, assumed he had missed something, and reconsidered his avenue of prying. Perhaps he would learn more by watching with this one. He followed her on feet somewhat grass stained towards her 'family room', arms a slack link between them, since his strides were a fair deal longer than hers. "Some water would be good, Nympha, but I don't mind waiting until Cris joins us so you guys can sip your tea," he added with a grin.

A wild giggle. "Crissy will come inside when he is ready. Maybe he thinks I will surprise you." Oh, her cheshire grin. "What is a Nympha?" She motioned to the floor space then bounded off to fetch some water. Her bare feet not making a sound; however, she was humming and singing about Prickly Bears.

Mesteno was beginning to hope Cris was not rummaging around in his van. There were things in there the careless might trigger unwittingly. Brief, concerned look shot back at the door, and then a slow shake of head as his eyes trailed Taneth's bounding for the water. "Its'... my native tongue. I called you a fairy. Least that's as close as I can get in the translation," he told her as he crumpled inelegantly into the space she gestured to, all coltish limbs and artless messiness.

She returned in short time with a glass and pitcher of water. She set both on a nearby table for Mesteno and dropped to the floor to cuddle up with him, uninvited of course. "Crissy like to walks among the garden flowers. I think he wants to see why they are dancing." A giggle. "A fairy? I like your word." She made herself comfortable against Mesteno. "Thank you for coming to visit me." Heartfelt gratitude.

He rearranged himself so that there was space enough against his side to press in, though it was almost comical how he went about it, like cuddling was a business he did not quite understand, probably rarely accommodated. Still, he had an odd inclination towards protectiveness with her, as doubtless many had, and his arm fell loosely about her waist. "Thank you for inviting me," he replied, not yet reaching for the water. "You stay here on your own, Taneth?? he asked he tried to work out whether the finely crafted blades were hers or someone else's belongings.

"Yes. Sometimes people sleep here, especially if they are upset like Finner but everyone always leaves." A brief thread of sadness entered her voice then she merely smiled up at Mesteno. "I made everything here. I cannot wait to show you everything."

He did not know Fin well, but had noted his occasional melancholy. It was her statement about everyone leaving that made him peer down at the top of her curly, blonde head though, as if he could not decide whether the smile trailing at its heels was just bravery, or a sign of a mind prone to darting from one emotion to another haphazardly. "You could rent out a room. Have a lodger for company," he suggested, before adding - ?you can't have made everything. Bet you didn't make the cottage." Wolfish grin! Like he had caught her out already.

"Rent..." She blinked as that idea never entered her mind. "Like the inn?" Fingers began to walk up his arm. "Well, I asked the trees if they would become the cottage and they said yes. So we all worked together and here we are. There is still the Misty Forest, which I made too. Do you like me?"

He was putting pieces together again. Not a forestal - perhaps a druid? Yet she seemed as civilised as she did feral, and he could not imagine her casting runes and wearing antlers or whatever it was druids got up to. The girl remained a mystery, and her questions continued to arch those dark, auburn brows. "Why wouldn't I like you, Taneth? I make you think I didn't before now?"

"You seemed scared of me the first time I met you." She nosed Mesteno affectionately. "I think Cris is afraid I will ask you to join him in helping me and that is why he is not here." She moved from topic to topic as easily as water could flow.

"I'm not very good with people," he confessed, though he did not sound ashamed of it. "I'm not a good person," he added, as if he thought it better she knew, though he offered no reason for the statement. "You didn't do anything wrong, I'm just not used to touching, or... girls. And why would Cris be afraid of me helping? What's he helping you with?" He was not offended by the potential truth of her words, but he was wondering whether the help had anything to do with her bruises.

She leaned from him and reached to touch her palms to his cheeks as she stared at his face. "Everyone has good and bad in them. Even me." A breath and a heartbeat. "Would you promise to help and not tell anyone else before I tell you?" There was a seriousness there that rarely can be seen in with her.

Tea party with Prickly Bear and Crissy, part 3

Taneth leaned away and glanced up to Mesteno. ?Would you say that I am different?? Perhaps it is a loaded question or a very simple one. Nevertheless, she fluttered her eyelashes and smiled ever so sweetly up to him. She had no need to look out the window or to check on Cris. She had a deep rooted connected to everything living within her garden and forest, so she could feel their own sense of amusement as Cris was out and about after those rabbits. The rabbits themselves were having a grand time teasing him.

Those damnable rabbits were traitors. But oh, so adorable. Normally, he had no trouble convincing others he was twenty-five. More often than not, he was believed to be a decade older. But the broad grin he wore as he surrendered to the four, four legged animals hopping around through the flowers belied a wealth of fun and the capacity for a good time he rarely, if ever, showed. He had been invited, but still he knocked when he reached her front stoop instead of barging in without warning.

Taneth gasped at the knock of the door and she was up to bound over so she could fling the door open. ?Crissy! You made it! Did you have fun?? A grin suggested she knew he did as she stepped aside to allow him entry. ?Prickly Bear and I were talking. Tea is ready but I will need to warm it a bit more for you. When do you think you would want to go see the forest?? She was bombarding him already, but he should be beginning to get used to this since he and Taneth have become friends. See? Mesteno has something to look forward to aside from the typical ?can you stab? me friendship questions.

Whatever he might have been about to answer ended up stalling at the knock on the door. For now he simply watched her bolt across, unable to entirely hide his amusement as Cris was on the receiving end of a slew of questions. ?What kept you?? he asked innocently, as if he had no notion of the bunnies.

?I did, yes,? Cris said as he nodded his gratitude and stepped over the threshold. He had teeth for smiling, straight and white, already falling victim to the fall of his lips over them as his mirth receded like a tide pulled by the full moon. The remainder of it lived somewhere behind his gaze, warming spring green that matched Taneth?s front lawn. ?I?ve missed playing with rabbits.? He might have seemed like someone to gloss over it with something more manly. But. Well, he was screwed when they would step outside again later and the bunnies were still there.

Those bunnies wiould be following and teasing Cris the entire time he was outside with Taneth and Mesteno. Taneth merely giggled girlishly and led Cris further inside. ?Prickly Bear has been having a great time. He is also going to help you when it is time for you to place your swords into my middle.? She said this so casually like it was nothing. Her steps bounded over to warm up the water for Cris? tea once more. ?Go sit with Prickly Bear while I get your tea ready then maybe we can go see the Misty Forest.?

Cris? brows rose, he did not know how that exactly constituted a great time. Inquiring look moved from Taneth to Mesteno. ?Are you??

Well that was one way for the discussion to start. The amusement bled away fast, left Mesteno grim faced and more like his usual storm-cloud surly self. Initially, his answer was little more than an abbreviated nod, but after reaching for the water she had brought him to chase the dryness from his throat, he confirmed with a, ?If it comes to that. We?re trying to think of alternative options.? Or at least, he was. ?I?ve a history of it, maybe that?s why she asked.? His narrow shoulders hitched in a shrug. It was common knowledge he was the violent type, and he would not be shocked if Taneth had somehow sensed it.

Meanwhile, Taneth was busy preparing Cris? tea so Mesteno and Cris had a few moments to chat without her. Whether she could hear them or not was anyone?s guess, but she was probably good at pretending that she has no knowledge of a conversation or action and it did not seem like she was going into the other room at the moment as she was also placing a couple snacks on a tray.

Sit with became stand by. Five paces took Cris further into the room and he lingered beside the stretch of floor Mesteno had claimed as his own, the fold of his own arms slow to lock, but tight once they got there. Gaze thinning, he lifted it to the doorway leading into the other room. ?When she asked for my aid, she tried to impress upon me the seriousness of the situation, but---? half shake of his head, ?I suppose it?s my own wishful thinking that?s keeping me from fully believing it to be true.?

Mesteno craned his neck to peer up at him, but made no gesture for him to sit. The man was as welcome to his feet as the necromancer was to parking his ass on the floor, so far as he was concerned. ?I think it must be as serious as she thinks for her to even suggest something like that. She might seem young, but I don?t think she?s oblivious to the weight of the task. It?s not something she?d ask unnecessarily.?

?Young would not be a term I?d use to describe her. Innocent is closer, but there is wisdom in her that combats any perpetuated naivete.? Tip of Cris? tongue began a slow count of molars. ?I?d like to think that darkness could not touch her, but that, I suppose, is equally naive of me to hope for.? He turned his eye down on Mesteno beside him. ?What alternative options have you thought of??

?Darkness always likes to come bothering creatures who?re?? Mesteno fumbled for the terms. ?Closer to the white than the grey. I know she?s got these darker elements to her like she says, the things she?s scared of getting out and endangering people, but I get the feeling even with those, she?s inherently good.? Not like him. Not like them? He knew too little of Cris to make assumptions. He abandoned the glass where he had scooped it up from, and frowned as he confessed, ?Not a lot yet. Just taking her to see my mother. You come up with anything better, feel free.?

Now Taneth emerged from her kitchen with a quiet hum, perhaps the little minx had planned every moment of this visit. If she knew what they are talking about then she was not showing it. ?Here is your tea, Crissy.? She set down a tray of snacks and tea, not yet blended so Cris could select which leaves he might want to use. She knew he had his own tastes and would not decide for him. She did settle back beside Mesteno and looked between the two. ?This is lovely. Perhaps when I show you where to put me to ground I will explain further why I chose you two.? She smiled and seemed so relaxed over this. One could wonder how she was so calm about her potential death by two people was now calling friends.

?Thank you, Taneth.? As lovely as two surly gentlemen could be in a quaint cottage with flowers, rabbits and an otherwise leisurely atmosphere. Cris took his time with selecting which leaves he would brew, each brought to his nose for an inhale of consideration. He choose the third option. ?Does that have to wait? Could you not tell us now??

?Gotta admit, I?m keen to know too,? Mesteno told her, though he was careful not to sound as if he intended to pressure her should she decline

Taneth looked between the two men, her potential killers. She considered their words visibly as she bit lightly on her lower lip. Her gaze drifted toward where the backdoor would be leading to the garden and further down to the Misty Forest. She had to show them where to bury her if the time came to it but then she shrugged. ?I asked the both of you because I know you will be strong enough to do it without hesitation. Without feeling like you are betraying or hurting me. You will strike a true, swift blow without thinking about how I feel about you. And you both will keep this secret for me. You will also keep my body safe until you put me to ground in the special place. You will do right by me.? A direct look at Mesteno then Cris, long and caring. ?I know can I trust you with my life.?

The blend Cris chose was unfamiliar enough to forgo adding anything else to the cup. He took one of several cookies from the platter Taneth had set down and retreated to lean against the arm of the chair he had sunk into the last time he was here. He had asked her why the last time she explained the situation to him, and he found that her answer had not changed. A small sliver of him, that he had not known was there, had been hoping it would. That there was something more to her reasoning than the mere, simple fact that she trusted them. The weight of it was split in half with the other man, but it was still a heavy thing. With a nod,, he looked down into his cup.

Mesteno was an observant man, and during the past few weeks he watched Taneth in her flitting from person to person, noted those she placed her trust and affection in, and Cris had often been amongst those she lavished with attention. He did not doubt her trust in him, and he did not doubt that the task she set for them would be difficult for the taciturn fellow. He felt an unexpected compassion for him (though he would never declare it) and despite his own unease with the situation, decided to offer what he could to try and alleviate the weight a little. ?If you get cold feet, don?t worry, I got it,? he told him. Made it sound as if he would not hesitate, just as Taneth expected of them. When he turned to look at Taneth though, his focus intense, it was to ask her ?What happens after we put you in the ground, kitten? If we?re real careful like you ask, and we do no harm to your heart, you gonna heal up in there? The earth gonna heal you? Because if not, we?re gonna have to really buckle down on this alternatives business.?

That same sliver, the thoughtful one, the one that chewed over what Cris heard and saw and tried to make sense of it, had the feeling that Mesteno?s reassuring sentiment was not meant to cause him as much irritation as it did. There was tension under the scratch of black stubble on his jaw, where teeth ground together and he swallowed a slightly bitter flavor. No, he was not exactly prepared to carry out this task, the assisted suicide of a young woman he was starting to think of as his friend, but that did not mean he would not do it. The very notion Mesteno felt it necessary to utter such words felt like the sudden slap of a wet towel. Uncomfortable and unnecessary. He took a sip of his tea, and looked up to Taneth to hear her answer.

Taneth smiled at the two men. She knew Cris was irritated, but she nodded for him to drink more tea to help soothe his irritation. She turned her gaze to Mesteno at his question. ?Over time, I should be better as long as no one disturbs me. You will understand once you see the Misty Forest and where I am to be put to ground. It happened once before. But I put myself to ground last time, well...the other me?s did. In time, I should return from the ground and walk through the town once more, but I do not know for sure. This is the first time I have asked for such help. It is possible I might not be strong enough to bring myself out alone.? a shrug of shoulders, she was still not concerned. ?Either way, if none harm my heart then I should come back eventually.? Maybe. She could always decide to sleep for the rest of time or, as she said, not be strong enough on her own to return. Quietly, Cris likened it to grave dirt and vampires. Not that that helped lift his spirits, any.

Unaware he?d caused any offense, Mesteno listened to Taneth as she explained the aftermath, his eyes faintly narrowed and one arm draped loosely across an upraised knee. ?Well that?s something I suppose,? he mused aloud. ?But there are gonna be people worried about you, wondering where you?ve gone. I don?t mind keeping secrets,? in fact he had a talent for it, ?but are we allowed to tell them when it?s done? Or is it to be kept quiet even then??

Cris had not meant for the crunch of the cookie to be that loud. Surprised, he caught crumbs with his middle finger and stuffed them back between his lips as Taneth glanced first to Cris? cookie crunch with a grin then nodded to Mesteno as she said,. ?If it happens and is done then you will be free to speak as you wish. I do not wish it said now because I fear some people will try to stop it at all costs, even the cost of the both of you. Scottie has already said he does not want me going back to ground. Benji might cry. If it happens, they cannot stop you or cannot know until it is done.? She is so serious. ?And I do not want either of you to feel badly afterwards. If you must do it, in the end, then you will come to see why.?

That at least was a small relief for Mesteno. With as many friends as Taneth had, he knew there was a high likelihood he and Cris would be hard-pressed to avoid some difficult confrontations. Particularly with Jack and Benjamin, who seemed most protective of her. Secrets were, sometimes, things Cris wished he was not good at keeping. The weight of this one hung in the back of his mind and swayed with every turn of his head, like a pendulum, reminding him of the time they were all losing. He had spoken of it to no one, not even Leena, to whom he felt a loyalty that went beyond his physical body. ?Let us hope, then, that if it needs to be done, it shall be done with discretion.?

?Then I hope you both can catch me before I lose myself so completely.? Omnious words, perhaps. She shifted and squirmed as there was a pain to her side, but other than her body movement she showed no other sign of discomfort.. ?But it may not happen.? She tried to lighten the heavy load she placed on them

?Do you have any idea what caused it to happen in the first place? The way you describe it, the others having physical manifestations, we could look into finding a way to suppress them.? It was a long shot, just like the meeting with his mother, but a little background might help them come up with something more solid. And Mesteno was determined for an alternative.

Taneth shook her head. ?The first time in Rhydin was when the dreams broke free. For me, it was not my dreams but my feelings.? Finally a name to how she feels. Feelings. ?They may not come free now but come through me. I simply do not handle it all well enough yet. Perhaps I am weak.? Doubt. She was so doubtful of herself.

That at least explained why she could not rely on the other Taneths to put her beneath the ground again as they had the first time. Mesteno nodded understanding, one corner of his mouth at a downward skew as if he disliked the way this was going; normally he had a knack for solutions, but he was coming up dry on ways to help Taneth. ?So they play it out through your body. Are you aware of yourself when they come to the fore? Do you just have to sit back and watch it happen??

A breath then Taneth laid her head against Mesteno when she finally settled from her squirmfest. She let Cris listen as he liked to do. ?The first time it happened in Rhydin I went to sleep, so I did not know until they put me to ground and we all became one again. Then I was able to remember most of what happened during their time with bodies. Most did not leave here, the few that did made their impressions with people. Some still remember.? She nuzzled her cheek comfortably against Mesteno. ?Now it all flows through me and I know it is happening. I just do not always have the strength to control what I feel and what happens. You have seen me simply jump on people because I am so happy to see them, right??

Mesteno glanced at Cris now and then, curious as to his silence, hoping for some sudden bright notion or insight that might not have occurred in his own mind, but if the other man did, he was playing his cards close to his chest. Damn it. Taneth?s nuzzling drew his eyes back to her though - girlish behaviour, young as he had said before - and he still felt she was in some ways, even if the other man preferred to call it innocence. ?That explains the bruises then?So you turn on yourself to try and keep the bad feelings at bay? And sure, I?ve seen you jump folks.?

Taneth nodded just enough.. ?The bruises come when I am mad at myself or I feel bad about something.? Her words are so soft now. ?Well, imagine me happy and jumping and smothering someone with my happiness and love. Imagine how much that is.? A poke. ?Now, turn that love and happiness to utter rage, misery, and destruction with the same magnitude if not more for being so locked away. Every wrong felt, imagined or real, every hurt and sorrow all in one being with so much energy and zest to complete everything to the fullest it can possibly be.? For her, that is hell and it caused such agony within her.

Mesteno took the poke lazily, humming a thoughtful sound for what she offered in explanation. ?Before this splitting, were the emotions you felt less extreme? Things that you could control rather than being swept away in?? He could not recall the situation she hadmentioned, the dreams breaking free, but often he was so far removed from the craziness that happened in the city that they passed him by altogether. Now he had a notion to go poking around through archives to see if there was anything he could find to help.

?Yes, they were locked away. Hidden from me because of the time before Rhydin. Because of what happened to my home.? She very rarely ever spoke of where she came from. ?I will do my best to make sure you and Crissy do not have to place your swords into my middle.?

?Before?? He did not know why he had not thought to ask. Most of the city?s residents were not native after all. ?Where did you come from? And is there anyone back there that we could try and reach that could help us now?? Parents, relatives, someone who might be able to explain what she was, even. The fact that she lived in the cottage entirely alone should have tipped him off, but it was worth a try.

Taneth grinned up to Mesteno. ?Yes, before Rhydin.? The grin sobered and she shook her head. ?No, there is no more home. No more people you can talk to, but you can talk to the flowers in my garden. Perhaps they can give you the answers you seek.? How absurd to suggest such a thing. ?We still have your mother.? Since he wanted another solution; seemed so set on it.

?I hate t?have to tell you this, little lady, but I don?t know how to talk to flowers. Unless yours have mouth parts that is.? Cris had been out there dallying earlier though, so maybe Mesteno could attempt it. Her reassurance earned her a light squeeze to her far shoulder, before he moved to rise to his feet. ?Come on, Cris you?ve had more?n enough time to finish that tea. It?s time we went to see this spot you want us to bury you in,? that last part for Taneth.

Tea party with Prickly Bear and Crissy, part 5

?This place is the center. It is a part of my heart. I made this very spot special to me because everyone needs one special place for their heart to feel safe. This is my place.? She gazed about each totem. ?I have had no one for so long and even before Rhydin, when I was home, I had no true safe place for me or my heart. When I came to Rhydin and the land was ripe with energy, I knew I had to finally make a space just for me. And the space grew so others too could have a safe, accepting place if they needed it.?

Cris had thought that was part of the reason---that it was the epicenter of her land. ?That was very kind of you to do.? He stepped back from the tree and slipped both hands into his pockets. ?I do hope that it will not come to such an extreme. Negative feelings are part of all of us. We, all of us, have them. It is what we do with them that matters. You?re not the first to experience such things.?

?Yes, I was told that back home. I try not to let them affect me so, but I still have much to learn. And we all have our weakness. As you can see I am different.? She tucked her hands behind her back as she looked around once more and rocked on her feet. ?And I might react differently.?

Cris turned a renewed half smile to her. ?I say that, and I?ve been extremely negligent with how I?ve handled my own negative emotions. It?s not my place to tell you how to handle yours. I merely hope for a better outcome.?

?We do not know what will happen yet, Crissy. Everything could be fine and I worried for naught.? She shuffled closer to him. ?But I want to be prepared this time.?

Cris nodded as he said, ?It?s wise to have all of one?s bases covered.? Slight turn at her shuffling approach.

?Might I have a hug?? So timidly asked. But she looked like she might desperately needed it. She had been so casual, so calm about what she asked of Mesteno and Cris, but maybe now that facade was fading and her true fear about being killed, about being a killer, was starting to give rise to dread.

One day they would come to a place where she did not need to ask. That day was rapidly approaching. As opposed to simply lifting his arms so that she might find her own place at his side, Cris turned to fully face her and took to one knee, slicing their height difference to ribbons. Gentle beckon of his hand, ?Of course.?

Taneth soon curled in against Cris and laid her head against his shoulder. Eventually, he might feel the dampness of tears as she cried on his shoulder. Her arms about him. No words, not yet. She just needed a moment or three to simply let herself feel the weight of what she has asked and what could be.

Cris had worn his coat, so it was not the dampness that clued him in but the gentle drip, drip in the otherwise silent grove they had wandered into. He had not wanted her to be frightened, but at the same time felt a slight measure of relief that she felt some sliver of uncertainty as it appeared both he and Mesteno did. His arms tightened around her smaller body. He cradled the back of her blonde head in the curve of his left palm and murmured kind words that sounded like her name.

She cried for a little longer before it slowly subsided. ?Thank you.? Soft words, tentative words. ?Maybe I will be able to convince you and Prickly Bear to stay with me until I fall asleep.? She might need the comfort.

?You say that as if asking us is a chore,? words turned to where he felt the curve of her ear beneath her hair.

She tightened her hold on him and clung more. ?Is it not? You could be doing so many other things if you were not here with me.? She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.

In the shadow of her shoulder, there was the beginning of a smile. ?I could, yes. But I?m not, am I? You told me once that if I?ve the need to leave, I may. Yes??

?Of course. You can leave whenever you wish.? She closed her eyes a moment and breathed deep. ?Do you wish to have more tea??

?Then you?re fine. If I?ve the need, I will. Otherwise, I would like more tea, yes. I would always like more tea.? That close, she drew in whatever scents surrounded them in the grove, mingling with leather from his coat, and mint and match smoke from his skin and Marks.

?We can go back to the cottage for more tea and snacks. Prickly Bear can join us when he is ready. The wolves will bring him back so he is not lost.? she straightened from Cris so that he can rise and walk. And not be hampered with her.

Like always, Cris never minded to stay with there where she needed him to. But when she drew back, he did the same, only his hand lingering in the way it dragged over her shoulder blades. Palm up and open, he offered it to her to hold on the journey back.

Her smile dawned like sunshine as she took Cris? hand. He did not usually like to hold hands. This touched her deeply. ?Thank you.? She guided him back through the forest. Letting Cris take in as little or much as he wants. Other than that she was not talking much at the moment.

There were parameters one must meet to graduate to that level. Once there, holding his hand was a surprisingly easy thing to do. With his free hand, he touched what he could. The stretch of branches and leaves, sunbeams as the broke through foliage. For all that he had lived in a thriving, modern city, this place reminded him very much of Home. And he found that he missed its simplistic, natural beauty. ?Anytime, Taneth.?

?Are you happy we are friends?? She squeezed his hand as if she needed to reaffirm that they are holding hands. She seemed so sensitive at the moment since she cried.

?Are you merely curious, or do you think that I am not??

?I hope that you are, but I cannot assume you are.? Eventually they passed through the longer than it appeared tunnel and are at the garden. She led him into the cottage. ?Do you wish to rest while I warm up the water for tea??

?I wondered if you were concerned that the gravity of this potential task would affect us. Yes, Taneth, I am happy that we are friends. I?ve discovered that I?m not so terrible at making them as I once thought. It is keeping them that?s tricky.? Cris followed her in, with one glance back over his shoulder to the parade of fat rabbits still in the garden teasing him. Thank the Angel the ducks were further behind. ?I could help you.?

?Come along then.? A tug to his hand. ?I think the rabbits like you. Do not be surprised if you wake up to one at your door.? A giggle as she led the way to the kitchen. She did stop long enough to collect the tea tray she took to Cris earlier. ?Crissy, about what I asked. I think the biggest obstacle will be Scottie.?

?I?d like that, actually. They?re my favorite animal, somehow.? He followed her until he could no longer, looking over with risen brows at her observation. ?Why do you think that?? He had his own assumptions, but he wanted to hear hers first.

?I am sure one or two will surprise you from time to time.? And one bunny was hopping about Cris? feet. Seems he made a friend.. ?Because he has been the most adamant that I do not go to ground and if I do I know he wanted me to go to him first. But I worry he will stop me.? She set about warming the water again as she set out a tray of tea tins for Cris to select from and fresh cookies. ?He worries I would never come back and I have never told him differently.? The love for Jack Scot was in her voice, but her face had lines of worry for him too.

Each tin was brought to Cris? nose for an experimental sniff. Finally, he settled on the second one. ?You can?t blame him for feeling that way. From what I?ve seen, he cares for you a great deal. No one wishes to lose their friends.?

?Yes.? She was going through the motions for a moment and eventually set the fresh tea stuff and cookies before Cris. ?Do you think I should go to Scottie first?? She seemed hesitant to do so, she was more concerned for his reaction and well-being over it than her own at this point. In truth, she just wanted to sleep for a long while and let it be done with.

?Well, do you believe you did the right thing with what information you had??

A nod. ?I could always go to him at any time, I suppose.? Then she shrugged her shoulders.

?I think it?s too late now to consider who you should have gone to first. I think you followed your instincts and you are doing what you can, with the power that you have. He?s still an option, should we require his aid. But, perhaps, we may not need it.?

?It is not so much as first as in before you, but he did not want me to go to ground at all without telling him. But I may not have the opportunity to tell him, Sometimes things just happen and there is no time for the planning.? A soft sigh as she motioned for Cris to make his tea. They stayed this way for a while until Mesteno made his way back to the cottage. Then three talked, drank (not tea for Mesteno) and eventually Taneth fell into a deep enough sleep that Mesteno and Cris could leave and continue their lives outside of the Little Cottage.

So it ends here?, part 2

Mesteno stopped beside her, and stared at the ground fiercely as if he expected to see some sign of disturbance. Perhaps to feel something lay beneath the morning glories. Unfortunately, he was so unable to detect energy that was not outright connected to death, he would have missed it had there been anything.

And the flowers looked just like flowers. "Cover your eyes or you will be upset," she gave him warning before she disrobed slowly, awkwardly, as she was usually already bare when she made this trek. She dropped the robe carelessly and stepped into the middle of the morning glories vines. Then it happened, she removed the sheath from the dagger as the sun was rising and began making her long slits down all sides of her body. The slices are smooth, practiced, and deep. She seemed to be expertly handling the blade. She stood there as she let her life's blood flow from her slowly before laying amongst the morning glories and simply letting herself seemingly die a slow death as her eyes became blanker the more she lost.

He opened his mouth to protest until he realised the robe he had been cautious about on first arrival was coming off. It was not fear of the knife she wielded that made him turn his back, simply a prudish need to not see anyone sans their clothes, a sense of ingrained propriety that he see none but his lover in such a state. However he knew the moment she bled. The scent of it reached his nose, sharp and heady, and did terrible things to his stomach; old hungers woke, restless and churning, and he did his best not to taste the air, to ignore the ripeness of it. When he heard the soft rustling of her lying down, he dared a glance back, quick, uneasy, and sat himself down as well, just within arm's reach of her. The extent of her injuries was something he could only guess at with his reluctance to turn and look, but he knew the difference between something minor and something major.

Oh, her wounds were deep. Almost surgical in her slicing. The vines, however, did their job of covering and protecting as well as soaking in the life that flowed from her to their roots deep in the soil. She did not speak. Did not look at anything else. She was simply becoming the ragdoll he has witnessed her be before.

The soft noises of the shifting vines saw him turning far enough to watch them as they stretched out towards her. To begin with, he was not sure of their purpose, but as he observed, finally able to overcome his aversion to the exposure, he realised with morbid fascination what it was they must be doing. His focus ticked across to Taneth's face, to the blank, unseeing stare. Selfless little creature. And in that moment so very vulnerable. He was no Benjamin, ready with warmth and affection, but he was not entirely callous either, and strangely enough, he had a tender spot for the little blonde woman he had only just come to know. Wordlessly, he reached across, and found one of her hands with his own, letting hers rest limply against his palm. It was all he could think to do to offer a little comfort.

Taneth must have died this death for days on end since this ritual began. The ground soaking and sucking up what life she had. Her body cold and lifeless for a few moments. She was causing herself a self-inflicted death each and every time. Mesteno just happened to convince her to allow him to be present for the last one.

Silence. Mesteno was good at that. Good at being still and unobtrusive. It did not matter that she could not return the squeeze, and he did his damndest to ignore the scent of the blood she lost, her flesh draining to the point no mere mortal should have recovered. The cold was alarming, and he shuffled a little closer, gathering that single hand between both his own to rub it gently as if he meant to see some heat restored. After a time, he began to hum. A low, gentle sound, though he'd no notion of whether she could hear it.

The moments were long, longer than any should have been before the first gasp of air struggled from her throat and her eyes blinked. Her wounds not healed, but she was alive barely. She was freezing cold and still unmoving.

He had lost track of time, though he might have watched the sunrise had he a mind to. Instead he had sat there, quite still, a sentinel with head bowed and a frown wedged neatly between his brows. Her gasp startled him from his stillness though, banishing the tune in his throat as she sucked air into hers. He shifted onto his knees beside her, abandoning his grasp of her hand to touch the cool skin of her shoulder. "Taneth?" His voice low and quiet.

She was so cold and gave no response to Mesteno asking her name. She had only the weak struggle to rise from her spot on the ground as if it were an automatic motion after her ordeal. She might be an autopilot or maybe she simply wanted to be gone from the place so filled with her blood, her life.

Mesteno remembered how unresponsive she had been at the side of the road, he knew it should not trouble him as it did. It was normal, for such a horrific process! And yet he still spoke her name again, as he reached to grasp the fallen robe to wrap her in it, and find a way to help her up without aggravating her wounds or touching the blood in general. "Slowly, little lady. Slowly now."

She dropped to her knees and winced. The pain is evident on her face as is the soft panting as she tried to bear with it. Perhaps his presence was enough to bring her out of her blind fumbling to try to leave the garden.

"Just be still a moment, Taneth. Don't try to get up yet," he cautioned her, keeping close enough to share body heat without agitating the wounds. "We'll get you inside, but don't rush." Stupid, really. She had done this who knew how many times, and he had come, an interloper, and thought to take charge.

She lifted her eyes to Mesteno as if she had been awakened from a dream. A brief dark shadow passed through the blue then she smiled ever so weakly. "Perhaps this will be where my end is met." Her voice was hoarse.

"I?ll be damned if I'm letting you 'meet your end' while I'm here with you," Mesteno told her, sounding entirely too obdurate to let it come to pass. But she was speaking, which was more than he had expected from her. He held her as best he could, as loosely as he could to avoid chafing the injuries, but did not try to gather her up to take her indoors. "If you're not too cold, I'll stay sat here with you until you have the strength to stand," he told her, "but if you're in need of heat, tell me and I'll carry you."

"No." That singular word is harsher than it needed to be. "I never stay here too long afterwards if I do not have to." She was pushing herself back up to her feet as she does not want to be outside. She was freezing cold, but she did not feel it. She talked softly to herself. "I told you this would happen."

He nodded, accepting her choice, and after a brief glance at the ground where her blood had spilt, abandoned thoughts of trying to hoist her beneath her arms. Instead he reached to take her hands so he could help pull her to her feet, leaving the robe draped about her shoulders. "Lean on me if you need to," he told her quietly.

An audible gasp and extreme grimace as the robe was draped over her and she began to move again. She gritted her teeth as she said, "Why do you help me so?" She was in so much pain and she felt that claw gripping in her center.

The sounds she made were likely to have sent most people cringing, concerned of having hurt her, but he remained steadfast in aiding her, either deaf or accustomed to such noises. "You trusted me enough to act on your wishes, Taneth. And I will do as I promised. But I've watched you, I'm learning you, and the more I do, the more I don't want you to end up in the ground. I'd rather help you through things if it can be done."

"Why?" Insistent on knowing why. She dropped to her knees just before her home. She just seemed so frail at the moment.

"Because you're a good person, Taneth, and I like you. And I stick around for people I like, until they tell me to f--.. go away." It was not often he curbed his tongue, but he felt disinclined to pollute her ears with obscenities. "Why is it so hard for you to let people help?"

"To fuck off?" She said it for him. She knew the word since she has heard it so often, this is Rhydin after all, and the anger in her is more inclined to use it. Palms pressed to the ground as she choked a moment on her own breaths. She was struggling. Imagine her doing this on an almost daily basis.

"Yes," he sighed, "yes, to fuck off." Again he offered his hands to her, patient, but not forcing her to accept his aid if she did not wish it. "Come on, you can be angry with me for being here later. Let's get you inside," he coaxed.

Once the choking was done, she stayed on her knees a moment. Cringing, her face was strained from the pain. "I am not angry yet." But she would be at some point, she felt it deep in her gut.

He dropped to a crouch beside her, awkward in his concern. Kindness was not something he often offered to people, and unsure of how best to help her, he kept his hands to himself. "Okay, that's good. But I'll stay and watch you even then, if it happens."

So it ends here?, part 4

She paused in the ramming of her head against him and her head tilted back as if she was gazing up at him. As if she saw and heard him then she backed up several steps slowly, sleepwalkingly. A moment of pause as her gaze sat square on Mesteno. Several heartbeats later and an internal shift, she growled audibly and ran at a wild speed to lash out at him. Where did that second knife come from? It was small and seemed hidden, perhaps, as she tried to cut him! She was violently aggressive. There was also a strange light coming from her fingers, it was omnious and perhaps seemingly like she means to either knife him to death or suck his very life from his body with her clawed free hand.

Worryingly, he saw nothing of recognition. Perhaps there was another bedroom in the house he could take her to now that the rage had passed, somewhere she could rest comfortably. Perhaps he could lead her there by the hand-- or perhaps not. Her speed was startling (his own fault, he had made assumptions based on her gentleness and the sleepwalker's clumsiness). "Shit!" So eloquent in these trying moments - he managed to catch at her wrist in time to keep the blade's tip from doing more than delivering an ugly scratch across his sternum. Reaching with the other to try and snatch the blade from her grip. As for the light, it did seem ominous - but one threat at a time. "Taneth!"

Taneth?s grip was tight to that blade as she had an uncanny adeptness with the handling of the knife. So they struggled a bit, but since she was not in her full blown stage of rage and destruction, she eventually lost the knife with Mesteno?s attempts at dislodging it. If her fingers manage to touch the skin of Mesteno, he might feel that dangerous pull of life being sucked away. After all, a giver of life can always take it away painfully and that was her attempt now.

Such a simulacrum she could be! His brief elation at the blade's absence was fast overcome by the touch of her hand though. He had not much skin bare as was normal. Only the base of his throat, his hands and face were easily accessible unless she meant to dive her fingers beneath his clothes. A strange thing happened though. As he felt that tug, like water flowing the wrong way up a stream, something rose up to challenge her. What she drew from him was tainted, rich with something cool and deep, potent but more importantly, very ancient, and like a cat woken by a child pulling at its tail, furious and possessive, it sought to turn the tables.

A tug o' war ensued, the energy churning under his skin like dark smoke, and made to pull back, to draw Taneth's energy into him quite involuntarily. She has stumbled across something which usually only triggered when he lay at death's door from injury, and he had never been wholly self-aware to counter it in the past and was not sure now if he could.

She gone for the throat and her fingers tightened a grip on that part of him. Fingers trying to dig deep like they were their own knives. She felt that struggle with his ancient energy and her own energy. It was definitely going to be a battle between their two forces as her own was not easily given up unless she willed it so, but just as it began and the sudden sun streamed onto her back she instantly dropped to the floor as if the very strength in her was gone and she laid there limp like the ragdoll on the road that she has been before.

Her fingertips stippled his throat with reddened marks and slim crescents where her nails caught him, but her wrist would wear a bracelet of similar marks from his hand no doubt, and no sooner had he realised the trouble mounting between them, than he used his free hand to try and knock aside the one at his throat, losing a little skin in the process. It was barely worthy of his notice, particularly when she was slumping so suddenly. It was a struggle then, to rein in his own power and keep it from continually sapping her. There was too little left for such an assault, and for a moment, instead of reaching for her, he pressed hard into the door, pushing through his heels and up to his shoulder blades, eyes squeezed shut and palms over his face as he wrestled for control. Reluctantly, the dark in him subsided, shrinking down with a surly, petulant ache, and he shuddered in relief at its absence. He had indulged it too much of late. Control restored, he dropped to his knees beside Taneth, cautiously checking her over to make sure her breath still whispered past her lips, and to feel for the flutter of a pulse, yet all he found was that she was so cold, frozen perhaps to the touch. Limp and eyes unseeing as they stared above. There seemed to be no breath or pulse. She was just a body.

"Shit...Shit! Taneth!?" Panic set in, hard and fast, struck him like a splash of cold water and filled him with so much adrenaline he had to resist the urge to bolt just to be away from it. Of course he did not though. Mesteno had long ago ceased to run from his problems, even if they were of a certain enormity. Like potentially having slain Taneth. Confirming what his first checks had already told him, he gathered together the few remaining scraps of control he had to put his hands, one over the back of the other, against her sternum to start chest compression. He would be damned if he let her die there under his watch! But then there was a blink. Slow and steady, just a blink and a stuttered breath. She did not move though.

The first blink he suspected he had imagined. It was not until the second came with the accompanying breath that he groaned. "Deo gratias," his voice more shudder than anything. "Noli me vigilante." A sure sign he was shaken when he reverted to his native tongue; the Dead language, how appropriate. He ceased the compressions, suffering the uneasy high of too many deeply taken breaths, and gathered her up against him, folding her against his chest as he sat with his back to the door, getting her well and truly tangled in his lanky arms.

She was that familiar ragdoll that he had found on the road to the inn that night. Just the blank stare and occasional blink. Unless he supported her head, it merely lolled back like she was some poor empty shell of the girl and not the one who called him Prickly Smoochie Bear and hid ribbons and flowers in his hair. The lolling head was something he was quick to remedy the moment he first observed it. One palm found a way up to cradle the back of her head, angling it gently against his shoulder to keep it supported. The other hand worked vigorously, rubbing at one of her arms to try and infuse some warmth into that uncomfortably cold flesh. So long as she kept taking breaths. So long as the blinks kept coming. Christ but she had near given him a heart attack.

Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly. She just seemed even more fragile than before. A simple little Taneth ragdoll that could tear or break at the littlest drop. Before, he had Benji to help wrap her, and Cane's heat to help see her own restored. Without them there, he feared his own lacking heat would not be enough to help her recover. Gathering her up, keeping her clutched close, he shuffled across to where the blanket was in the corner, fumbling it up and around her as best he was able before carrying her out of the room and right down the stairs. He was going to get her to the damn fireplace, and if there were no flames already living amongst wood or coals, he would make damn sure there was soon.

And there was no fire in the fireplace. In truth, it was more for her guests or ambiance than anything else. She typically did not need additional heat. She was easily maneuvered, but any lack of support would result in a drooping limb or lolling head. Taneth was that unresponsive other than her blink, breath, and opening and closing of her mouth. Maybe she was experiencing an internal trauma or terror, who knew.

He would not have been shocked if it were so. Life energy was such an intrinsic part of her, and it had just come into contact with something that was its polar opposite. Mesteno lay the girl on the floor, wrapped in the blanket, and covered in his jacket (the shearling lining might help a little) but he was hastening to get the fire lit, searching for the finer pieces of wood, some kindling - evidently he had made a few in his time, because once he had a flame there to nurture, his breath gently coaxing it to lick higher, it did not take him long to arrange the stack so that the fire spread and began to chase the chill away. The higher the flames rose, the thicker the sections of fed it, until he could finally leave it untended and drag poor Taneth up against him again, his body cradling hers with the heat closest to her.

Her eyes eventually closed and did not open. Her body stilled, not even a breath or the opening and closing of her mouth. She was still freezing cold to the touch but now she was just...there, which was a worrying development for Mesteno... no breath at all? Again he checked at her throat for a pulse, the familiar thread of panic beginning to gnaw.

The pulse was so faint, oh so faint and seemed like it was fading. Imagine her going through this alone each and every time she allowed herself the bloodletting to keep a promise to some girl. It was like she died a thousand and one deaths each and every time, if she has not killed someone else or many someone?s during these passing moments when she wandered.

Oh he could well imagine it, and even before he knew the extent of it, it was why he had wanted to come and stand watch over her, to try and make it a little less traumatic. With her pulse fading though, Mesteno was left grasping at straws. He did not want to start chest compression again while she still had a pulse, no matter how faint, and he was no healer. His face was twisted into a grimace, a miserable rictus, and he could hear nothing but the rough-shod pounding of his own heartbeat in his temples. "Please please please... come on Taneth, this was the last time. The last!" The heat alone did not seem to be doing much. A shaky hand hovered over her mouth, waiting for even the barest breath.

Nothing. He received nothing for the longest time. Her pulse had even disappeared. One could presume she was dead. For poor Mesteno's heart, it was probably several thousand rapid heartbeats before she rasped out. "Water."

Someone else might have presumed. Mesteno knew better. Sensing death was one of the few things he was able to detect, and he was intimately familiar with the sensation of a soul snapping loose of the flesh. It was only the unusual lack of this that kept him from coming apart at the seams, straining to sense how close she came. He was on the verge of giving her mouth to mouth when she suddenly offered that single, hoarse word, and terrible as the whole ordeal had been, he felt utterly drained emotionally. Miserable, wrung out and trampled, all knotted throat and burning eyes. Perhaps he shivered a little when he heard her, yet all he said was, "Of course.. you rest there, and don't even try to move." He was oh-so-careful when he eased away from her, moving her to lie by the fireside while he went to fetch it. He was not long in returning, the glass offered to her wordlessly once he had helped her sit again.

Taneth was unable to move still. She repeated her request for water in her rasp of a tone. She was so weak and fragile. Carefully propped in the crook of his arm, he lifted the water until the edge of the glass was at her lips, and tilted it just far enough to offer the slimmest trickle. He would be damned if he set her coughing after all that! "Make sure you swallow. Nice 'n slow," he instructed her. She seemed to swallow, but there was a shift in her eyes almost like a slight begging for Mesteno. "More?" He could only assume. Her body was so drained of fluids after all. So he tilted the glass further, enough for a mouthful, and for as long as she needed it, he helped her drink.

She took in more water simply because she could not turn her head away, but the wanting...no pleading...in her eyes was still there. Something was wrong. Mesteno?s brow knotted with a deep-etched frown, and he set the glass aside, still three quarters full to try and determine what she needed. "Water...? You don't want to drink it?"

So it ends here?, part 6

Cris turned the sword in his hand and approached the nest holding Taneth's left arm tight. Blade hilt brought down in attempts to break her hold on the knife in that hand and kick it away. Taneth reached out longing for Cris. Fingers seeking his skin and a dark light, her dark seeking to rob him of his life. She was melding into the darkness more and more, by purpose or an accident one cannot be certain. But if she could suck Cris' life from him painfully then she would do so.

Taneth?s melding into the shadows was not normal. The relief of the falling blade was short lived, because Mesteno could not figure out the cause of the change. He could wield the shadows like weapons, but had not the same affinity for them as a shadow elemental, who might have been able to explain her actions.

The damnable thing before Cris should not look so much like the friend he had made. He had enough with illusions, hallucinations. Things that were not real, that should not be real, nor even happening at all. He frowned, upper lip disappearing into it. She reached for him and he felt the smudge of her fingertips across the loose sleeve of his hoodie.

Taneth?s fingers dug for his skin, seeking and searching for that flesh contact. If such contact was made, Cris might be susceptible to having and feeling his life being taken from him in a very painful way. See, one gives life and the other takes it. One is love and the other is destruction. They just happened upon the wrong one at the moment.

Thankfully, Mesteno had experienced this particular trick of Taneth's while they'd been upstairs, and noting the seeking way she grasped at his ally, he offered a sharp warning. "Fuck-- be careful man, she'll drain you like a damn leech if she gets hold." He even stepped closer to try and barge him aside.

"Stop it. Stop it, Taneth." Cris shook his arm, yanked against her inky, rigid little fist. Barged, thank the Angel, for he had made his own fist in an inevitable attempt to use it. But instead, stumbling twice aside, he turned the blade around in his hand and swung his arm, bringing the pommel down on a crash course for her head.

Cris struck her and she went down before she could fully be swallowed by the shadows. Her body not broken, but the battering from her self-inflictions and brawling with Mesteno very visible. She did not move as she was in partial darkness and partial light.

"By the fucking Angel...." Downed, he brought his boot down next on her other wrist to force the second weapon from her grasp.

Mesteno shot a glance at Cris to make sure the man had not suffered any ill effects, but a heartbeat later he was fixated on Taneth again, his expression grim. "I know we promised, but fuck... I at least thought she'd be in her right mind when the time came."

She did warn them it would not be easy. She said it might be them, someone else, or her. And she made them promise before knowing all the details.

But for the dark and grim expression hardening Cris? face, he did not seem to have been touched by anything dangerous. His sleeves were long and they covered nearly all of his hands. "Perhaps that was why she asked us first. Maybe she knew for certain she wouldn't be." A grimace as he looked over her fallen body lashed in black spiderweb shadows. "Have you made any headway in your own investigations?"

Taneth was still. Her breathing might be questionable. Maybe it was another trick, who knew.

"Perhaps," Mesteno echoed reluctantly, ignoring the blood dripping over his knuckles, slow, warm and tacky. "Just wish she had not ommitted so much before we agreed." Part of him had to admire that manipulation; he would not have expected it of her in a million years. "And no, nothing. Scoured the damn library, she turned down coming to see my mother for advice. I'm telling you, she's got her heart set on this."

"She gave us specific instructions, yes? Where to wound her, and where to take her afterward. If we need to, and if we follow those instructions, she should be fine. She would not have told us to do it otherwise...." Cris had to believe that too. Gaze dropped to the prone woman at their feet. The blade in his hand lowered three inches.

Cris seemed as set on it as Taneth had been. Mesteno's expression darkened faintly, as if he disapproved of how little time they had been given, how little they had done to try and avert the seemingly inevitable. "Fine." A single, monotone word, dry of everything but cold displeasure. He moved to crouch besides her, keeping the shadows strong, and touched a pair of bloody fingers to her sodden chest, right where she had indicated. "Here then." He had seen Crispin's blade, and knew him to be ready. "Together then. I'll not back out of a fucking promise."

A trick of the light perhaps. Because Cris had not intended to kill a friend today. He had not intended to kill anything yet, but his downward gaze was steady, and he raised the blade in his hand, turning it down to point at her chest. He would wait until Mesteno drew back his hand.

A weak groan, a stuttering breath. It seemed Taneth was not unconscious or dead. She was somewhat awake now, but her state of mind was questionable. Perhaps it might be unexpected, but Mesteno's hand wrapped about Crispin's about the blade, the culpability to be shared. He really wished Taneth had not surfaced from beneath that darkness. "Time to sleep, Taneth," he murmured faintly, and not unkindly. He guided the pull, hating every moment of it.

It was, but unlike the last time they had discussed it, Cris did not feel a stain of patronization. They may not have been friends with each other, but they had a mutual one that came to them both for help. He did not look away from the spot they were supposed to pierce. With Mesteno's guidance, he added his weight to the strike as he sank to one knee, bringing the sword point down with it.

If the strike was true then she opened her eyes the moment her middle was pierced. Her gaze upon them both, but not in hurt but in some strange sort of gratitude. She would not try to stop what they were trying to do. It was now or face what could happen to them or someone else again. For her to take a life and remember than for her to lose her own. After all, Mesteno saw the moments when she was dying a thousand deaths to keep a promise.

Attention kept directed on the place where the sword point disappeared into her middle. If Cris looked anywhere else; at her face, at Mesteno, at the sweet, quiet cottage they were doing this in, he was certain he would be sick.

Mesteno had seen. Nor would he forget how miserably vulnerable, how insufferably agonised she had been in those moments despite his presence. He could not conceive how she had done it alone, repeatedly, and not abandoned the task. The strike fell upon the mark his bloody fingers had left behind, and left her heart well alone. His hand came away from Crispin's, arm slack at his side, and the breath came rattling out of him like an old man, the shadows sliding away like a dark tide. They had no need to hold her now.

No last gasp of breath, just the simple closing of her eyes. They had kept one part of their promise. It was almost over.

Cris did not think Mesteno had been prepared for this either. He could only presume then that the place where they were supposed to lay her to rest had not been prepared. Shovels, they needed shovels. Swallowing, he closed his eyes. "Do you recall if we were supposed to keep the blade inside of her body to prevent reanimation?" That was the last thing they needed.

They would be surprised at Taneth?s level of preparation. The backdoor opened audibly and there was the pitter-patter of little feet moving swiftly through the cottage. Someone was coming to help.

Mesteno was doing his best to try and banish unwelcome memories. A blustery field and a handsome, ailing, Turkish man, urging him to do just as he had done to Taneth. It had given him foul dreams for months, and he knew there would be restless nights anew after this. "I don't remember her mentioning it," he admitted, scrubbing a palm over his face. "She said she'd have the ground ready, but not what to do with the blade. She said she put herself under once before, but I can't imagine she'll recover with it left in her..."

"You're right. I meant for the journey to the site. It wasn't exactly next door." A door opened and already on his knee, it was easy for Cris to let go of the sword sticking up from Taneth's middle to touch his right boot where he kept another weapon at the ready, watching the doorway he presumed they would see the other presence appear through.

The call

Mesteno and Cris were good friends for making and keeping a promise that they had no prior knowledge of. Taneth was coy enough to keep the details to herself until she had the ties that would bind this fate. She had planned this to the very detail. This spring was the spring for her Glory to return. For the few remnants of a life past to return and give some piece to Taneth?s previously shattered heart. She had been in so much pain, turmoil, and depression that she needed this end to be met for herself and for Glory. Her strength and heart would be Glory?s strength and heart until the time came for Taneth to return to walk the land, if that time came at all. Some flowers die out in the changing of the seasons only to regrow stronger and more vibrant and other seedlings simply just never grow again. Which way would it be for the one some call the Golden Girl?

The child knew not the fate of her own self, but she knew that the true Taneth had left her inner child in a body as she had before. The child knew that Taneth had given her a task and she had promised to fulfill the task even if it meant the tranquility of the moments would be erased by the ferocity of an angry crow. The child Taneth knew she had to call upon him because the true Taneth had been too weak to do so. She had been too scared. She did not want her beloved Jack Scot to see her in her despair and dark moments.

The child stood above Taneth?s freshly covered grave. The pink baby?s breath flowers that had been the ground cover had been cleared away. The sign of her rebirth, her growing, and her healing would be the sign of new sprouts. Her blood would be life again if one started to see the pink flowers blossom along the ground and the massive tree. The child sat by the grave of her true self and looked up to the sky and did the one thing she had been promised to do. She called out with the heart of Taneth, ?Scottie.?