Quest: Home for the Holidays [Aderlass] [Finished]

[The Jenn]

Peeking out of Mick's door let Aderlass see down the corridor and into a small slice of the living room. With the curtains drawn tight, it should have been incredibly dark, but there were candles lining the walls that cast a strong but flickering illumination over the scene. All he could see from his vantage point were several of the bone figurines arranged in odd patterns, the chalk lines drawn on the floor, and a small bone tail that normally wagged like no tomorrow. Instead, it was tucked tightly against a fuzzy orange-and-cream leg.

The most striking thing was probably the sound of Mick whimpering, not in pain or fear but in worry. The mouse would know him well enough to tell the difference. He might also hear a small groan of pain that couldn't be anyone's but Miss Eva's. Otherwise, he couldn't see or hear anything else. The smell of incense hung thick throughout the entire house.

[Kasatsu]

Leaning out from the room’s doorway he took in the bone figurines that lined the walls, the figurines becoming creepier as the candle light danced off of them. The smell of incense hung heavy in the air, making the mouse want to cough, a headache already starting to form from the smell. Spying Mick’s tail tucked against his leg, a sharp whine noise coming from the pup, his ears flattened back in worry. That was not a sound that would come from his friend unless something was terribly wrong. Worry had his eyes widening in fear. This was so not good.

It took a long moment for the second sound to make its way to his ears - the sound of a feminine groan of pain. This was definitely not good. It took only a moment for him to decide what he was going to do. He made his way swiftly, though not quickly enough where he would rush into the room without pause.

[The Jenn]

Moving quickly but cautiously as he was and stopping before actually entering the room to assess the situation, whatever it might be, Aderlass was quick enough to witness - but too slow to prevent, thanks to his pause - a sudden cry of pain from Miss Eva as she slumped to the floor and a snarl from Mick as he lunged forward, seemingly out of his mind, and latched onto his mother's throat.

She, for her part, seemed not only dead on her feet exhausted like she had been before and unduly lame from her 'healed' disabling injury, but also horribly confused, lashing around and making loud, gurgling noises when she could catch a breath. With one vicious movement, he tore out a large chunk of her throat and left her laying on the ground, bleeding from the very obviously fatal wound.

His orange-red muzzle covered in his mother's blood, the pup snarled with some indescribable emotion. "FINALLY!"

[Kasatsu]

The mouse stood in the entry way to the living room, his eyes wide in horror as the scene unfolded before him. This could not be happening. His mind went blank, everything fading away around the edges. No words come to his mind to even begin to define his thoughts as his mind tried to protect itself. Somewhere in the back of his mind the images of the last night he had seen his sister alive played in his mind.

Stumbling back he hit the wall, his legs collapsing under him so that most of his weight was leaned against the wall, as he stared at the freshly dead body of Miss Eva. There was a large chunk of her throat torn out, blood still flowing from the wound thought not as quickly since her heart had stopped beating. The words that Mick had snarled did not truly register on the mouse’s ears. His eyes refused to travel over to the pup.

[The Jenn]

At the sound of the mouse falling against the wall and the floor, the Pomeranian's eyes slowly turned to see what caused the noise. They narrowed and his teeth were slowly bared, lips pulling back. "You. I knew I should have dealt with you when I first got here. Damnable timing. Ahh well. Foresight can only go so far, I suppose. What do you want?"

The feline's body had no more life left in it, blood pooling all around and obscuring the lines of chalk that those paws, as hands, had so meticulously drawn the night before. The air was choked with incense, which her hands had placed delicately in its holders and lit to burn and smoke, and the figurines all seemed so much more sinister now, surrounded by haze and in the flickering lights of candles. In the center of the chalk circle, one figurine in particular seemed to draw the eye, simply by its central placement.

"I suppose you're confused," the pup taunted softly, teeth still gleaming with blood.

[Kasatsu]

The mouse was snapped out of his daze some, enough to gather more of his surroundings but not enough to completely understand everything that was going on around him.

“W – w – why?” He could not get more then that out and that was all his brain could process. He needed answers though he doubted he would like them. “Your not Mick . . . Mick would not . . . Mick . . .” He trailed off as if he had suddenly stopped thinking about the subject.

He shook his head in disbelief. This was not real. This could not be real. He wanted to run away but his limbs were locked in his state of fear and confusion, seemingly useless to him.

A drop of blood fell to the floor from the Pomeranian’s snout, staining a part of the floor that had somehow managed to remain free from the red elixir of life. He stared at the red drop, fear growing in him as if that one drop brought with it memories and reality.

[The Jenn]

The dog watched him, snarl turning into a fierce, viciously amused grin. "Oh, the poor little mouse," he taunted, tail wagging. "So confused, aren't you? You aren't the only one." He stared meaningfully at the body of the feline, barely feeling the blood as it cooled and dripped down his muzzle, hitting the floor.

He walked one step closer to Aderlass, then two. All the while, his eyes were intense and boring into the mouse's face. "Well. I really can't leave you there, for my own safety if nothing else. Did you think those rumors following my family were there for no reason? You couldn't possibly be dim enough to have heard none of them. Especially these past few days, they were all people talked about it. I had people approaching me in concern, did you know? I just laughed it off. Told them it was nothing."

A deep breath, then another. "I hate bearing children. It's so good to be a man again."

[Kasatsu]

As the canine approached him, he pressed himself further into the wall, trying to get away. His eyes still wide in fright, his breathing was shallow almost non-existent with his fear. This was not the friend he grew up with, it could not be. Mick would never do anything like this, he adored his mother . . . He shook his head in disbelief.

“You know, just as well as I do, that the rumors never did us any good growing up. So why should I believe them now?” His voice was thin, yet still held the mouse’s usual strength.

He was not sure what to make of everything that was going on. He clenched his hands reflexively. Natural instinct to protect himself was rising, though something tugged on his reflex telling him that he could not harm this creature before him. His two reflexes warring with each other he watched otherwise motionless as the creature made its way further towards him.


“Wot do you mean again? . . . You have always been Mick, ‘not-to-be-confused-with-Mickey’. . . . Wot children?” He was confused and he needed answers, even if he did not like them.

[The Jenn]

Stopping, the dog let out a bark of laughter. "You really are dense. Of course it's not a curse. Believe me, curses are different. No, think of it more like a... perpetuated cycle of violence brought on by the greed and desires of the children. Or the parent. However you want to put it."

Another step forward, canine head lowered slightly and teeth bared, tongue darting out to lick them speculatively. "I have always been myself, and that is who I will ever be, no matter the form I may take. Mick was not my first child. Nor was Eva. Not Herra, nor Yllie, not even Ursa. I'd probably need to think hard to remember the names of the older ones, not that they matter. They're lost to history. Only I remain. Like I always have, for nearly four hundred years now. And you're standing in the way, boy."

With a terrible snarl, the Pomeranian lunged forward, full of youthful vitality and energy and speed, to latch onto any part of Aderlass he could reach.

[Kasatsu]

This . . . creature, since from what it had told him, was no longer Mick. Something or someone else was in that body – something he refused to think was true. His mind refused to let him admit that he might have abandoned his friend for a fate worse then death, because that was all he could imagine it to be.

He had only a moment in time to think a small objection to the insult of the word ‘boy’ being used to describe himself, before the creature lunged for him, full of his young friend’s youthful energy and speed. Relaying solely on instinct the mouse brought up his arms to protect what seemed to be its goal – his face. A reflex that apparently saved him but probably just barely for the canine’s jaws latched onto his left arm instead.

Taken by surprise he gave a loud yelp of pain, though the surprise alone probably would not have kept him from crying out in pain other wise. Running on the instinct to now protect his arm, he gritted his teeth to prevent further outcries of pain in order to protect from showing weakness. Thoughts and instinctual reactions ran through his head on what to do for the arm but before he could put any of them into action a blue blur whizzed by.

Juris aimed himself at the canine’s eyes hoping to distract its attention from his master.