#two front heads and a face on the tail suggests chimera

[historieofbeafts]

Usually when I encounter unidentifiable animals it’s either because of physical damage to the manuscript or because something generically animal-shaped has been drawn in a location where the text doesn’t provide any clues for a more specific identification. But sometimes a genuine mystery turns up, like this 13th c. french miniature:

Key points:

five heads

but not where you’d expect

two of them are birds

confidently placed in a chapter about whales

definitely not a a whale

who is she

[BnF, Nouvelle acquisition française 13521, fol. 27]

#no idea what to tag this #history mysteries #unidentified beastlike object #two front heads and a face on the tail suggests chimera #but nothing else about this image does

[bonniebird]

Theo Raeken x Reader

Requested by Anon

Prompt List

Part One

Part Two

You were correct. In fact when Theo managed to reach the vet the monster was almost upon the two of you. “Beast follow!” Theo gasped. Frowning you slid down out of his arms and gave him a disapproving look. “How in the world are you out of breath, you couldn’t have been running at top speed… do werewolves even get out of breath?”

“I was carrying you and fleeing that!”

While you’d been bickering Deaton had moved closer, hoping to see what was wrong before disaster struck. 

“Here, Scott thinks you can do something with this.” You said to Deaton as you handed over the claw. He led the two of you into the back as he started to look over the claw. Something huge hit the side of his building. It made the table rattle and all the jars and storage shelves vibrate nervously. Disaster had propelled itself at top speed at his building and Deaton was more than a little worried.

“I haven’t seen anything like this before.” He commented.

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely… it appears to be, almost like a chimera.” He frowned, looked at you and then you both looked over at Theo who raised his eyebrows and gave you both a confused look.

“It’s not mine.” He said quickly.

“Well obviously, this thing doesn’t look like any other… things like you.” You said with an exasperated sigh as you looked back at Deaton. “It’s following the claw, right?”

“If you can get it away from here and away from town it might follow the claw.” Deaton suggested. He shook his head, fumbling around as he took pictures of it and started looking through more books.

“That will work?” You asked

“That’s the best thing we can do for now. We can’t have this thing rampaging around town.” Deaton advised.

“We can do it.” Theo said quietly as he grabbed at the claw and glanced at you. With a firm nod you followed him.

“I’ll see if I can find anyone who knows what this is.” Deaton called after the two of you.

Theo led the way as he snuck around the side of the building. Motioning for you to stop as he reached a corner. Glancing round he could see the beat clawing at the front of the vet. He frowned, something out the front of the building was reacting the same way to the monster as werewolves react to mountain ash. Whatever it was wouldn’t hold up for long. He also spotted the McCall back gathered a little way up the road. At least leaving Deaton wouldn’t mean he’d be alone for too long. He managed to get Scott’s attention and try to convey what the plan was. Satisfied that Scott seemed to understand he turned back to you.

“I can carry you. It’ll be safer and faster.” He offered awkwardly. With a sigh you let him hoist you up and zipped the claw up in your pocket.

You held onto Theo as tightly as you could, he rushed through the woods, heading to somewhere he clearly knew, he seemed to follow a path you couldn’t see. I didn’t take long for the sound of the beast lumbering after you to echo around. After a few moments a Coyote ran up alongside Theo, growling and snapping.

“What is that?” You asked and Theo let out a quick laugh.

“It’s Malia. She says Scott has a plan, apparently Deaton called Argent and figured out what it is.” Theo answered. He sped up and followed Malia through a new path, eventually he had to slow as the path narrowed more and more until he nervously stopped. “Give Malia the claw, We’ll take too long going down this way, she can go up ahead.”

Malia stopped snapping at the two of you as you did what Theo said. He frowned at her, muttering something rude about Coyotes that had her give him a sharp growl before running off.

“Do you know what Scott’s plan is or did you just give the only thing controlling that thing to a coyote on some weird werewolf blind faith?” You asked him.

“Scott always has a plan and finds some way to save the day. At this point it just re-signs itself to follow along.” He muttered and gave you a sheepish smile.

Theo led the way through the woods, helping you through matted bushes and over tree roots. When you reached the McCall pack the sun was starting to rise. You’d spent all afternoon and evening fleeing from the creature, you hadn’t even noticed how long it had been.

“They actually did it!” You said in surprise when the two of you got close enough to see Derek and Malia holding down a confused figure who was shouting and complaining.

“Looks like someone whose powers switch on out of the blue. Happens sometime. We know how to handle it.” Theo informed you. The elders had made it seem like the Beacon Hills wolves were a bunch of idiots who couldn’t tell their tail from their nose. But you watched as they moved with precision, Stiles explaining what had and would happen, Lydia heading off with Scott to call ahead to Deaton. The other wolves lurked in the woods nearby, cautiously. Derek kept a firm hold on the poor person as they listened in horror to Stiles. By the time it was morning Deaton had fixed them up and they were on their way with a few of the pack members and Scott’s mother who had come by to pick up Scott.

Seeing them work together makes you think of them in a different light. Theo was rushing about following orders, a determined look on his face, as he followed Deaton’s directions. Perhaps you’d been wrong. They were not well established coven by any mean stretch. But it wasn’t so repulsive to think you would be forever bound to werewolves who were so determined to help and protect their home.

#theo raeken x reader #theo raekan imagine #theo raeken #bonniebird #teen wolf

[shadowsbestiary]

Kelusine Species Sheet

BASICS

Name: Kelusine 

Height: 2’6”-6’0” at the shoulder 

Weight: 900~ lbs-2000< lbs 

Diet: Carnivore 

Classification: Planetary, Natural, Non-Magic Sensitive, Sapient, Feral, Feline 

Trainable: Yes 

Temperament: Territorial, Protective, Energetic, Playful

Danger Level: Medium

Lifespan: 170-180 Kelusian Years 

Litter size: 2-4 cubs

BIOLOGY

Morphology: Immense felines, they are quite similar to the big cats of Earth aside from their strong saber teeth (which range from 4-8 inches) and thumb-like appendages in place of their dew claws. Males have lion-like manes whereas the females sport a short mane along the nape of their neck. In certain subspecies that reside in colder regions (Mountaineers and Wastelanders), the females’ manes may extend to their shoulders and belly. 

Subtypes: 

Islander: The swimmers and climbers. Found in low level coast forests in tropical regions and, as their name suggests, on island chains connected by shallow expanses of ocean. The smallest species, this cat resembles a Cloud Leopard in structure and their ankles can rotate backwards, just like the real life cat’s. This enables them to climb down trees headfirst, climb upside down, or even hang by their back feet. These cats reach only two and a half feet at the shoulder.

Plainer: The runners. The second smallest in shoulder height (4 ft), yet the second longest (14ish feet) thanks to their lengthy tail, Plainers are built purely for speed. Living on the wide open grasslands, they rely on quick bursts of speed to take down their prey. Their long tail acts like a rudder, just like a cheetah’s would, which enables them to make sharp turns with minimal warning. 

Forester: The jack of all trades. An intermediate of the five subspecies (4 ½ feet at the shoulder), Foresters resemble the tigers of Earth in build. Strongly built without sacrificing speed, Foresters live in, you guessed it, forests. They prefer hardwoods with mixed pines, but can adapt to Alpine forests or mid-latitude jungles and woodlands. 

Mountaineer: The jumpers. Closely resembling snow leopards or mountain lions, Mountaineers are found in similar environments; high altitude snowy mountains. Thick fur keeps them warm in the frigid air, and a thick tail helps them balance while chasing prey across steep slopes. Unlike snow leopards, however, Mountaineers are immense and rank #2 height (5ish feet) and #1 in length from nose to tail tip (16ish feet). 

Wastelander: The bone crushers. Unlike the other subspecies, which have body types based primarily on existing big cats, Wastelanders get their inspiration from smilodons and grizzly bears. Built for pure power with strong shoulders and immense front paws, Wastelanders are the largest of all Kelusines with shoulder height measuring six feet and even seven in rare cases. They are also the only subspecies with a short tail. 

Colors:

Standard:

Black

Grey

Silver

Brown

Light Brown

Tundra

Chocolate

Lilac

Fawn

Brown Ash

Golden

Tawny 

Cream

Orange

Peach

Green Ash

Yellow Ash

 Russet

Russet Brown

Cinnamon 

Red

Strawberry

Red Ash

Blue

Blue-Grey

Chinchilla

Moonstone

Blizzard

Modifiers:

Colorpoint: Dilutes the     base while leaving the extremities (face/tail/paws) normal

Reversal: Switches the     color of the base coat and markings (ex: black with white stripes)

Light: Turns the     inner marking of rosette/smeared/clouded/snow spot lighter than the base     coat

Pied: White covers     25%-90% of the beast in solid patches

Splatter: White “paint     splatters” cover 10%-50% of the beast

Tortoiseshell (Female only):     The “red” gene is active and causes discoloration in patches. 

Patterns: 

Standard:

Common

Blotched Tabby

Brindle

Mackerel Tabby

Plain (no pattern)

Spotted Tabby

Ticked Tabby

Uncommon

Cheetah

Clouded

Dapple

Ocelot

Speckles

   Rare

Double Dose (Spots on body and stripes on extremities)

Rosette

Snow Spot

Wild

Mutations: 

Chimera (Two different base colors and markings)

Split (Two marking types)

Albino

Melanistic 

Fallen Snow (Sabino along dorsal side)

Drift (Sabino along ventral side)

Glitch (Markings are broken and missing in some places)

Mist (Markings fade towards dorsal side)

Fog (Markings fade towards ventral side) 

Storm (Markings in thin vertical bands)

Physical Mutations:

Mane:

Razorback (mane continues to tail)

Rimmed (mane along forelimb and back limb undersides; not found in Islanders or Plainers)

Curtain (long fur resemble horse mane; not found in Islanders or Plainers)

Static (Long and stiff along spinal area)

Scruff (Longer chin fur; standard Wastelanders)

Tail:

Bobtail (Stump)

Angel (longer silky fur)

Short (Akin to a wolf; standard for Wastelanders)

Ears:

Pointed (triangular rather than semi-circle; standard for Islanders)

Tufted (Lynx-like; standard for Wastelanders and Mountaineers)

Horned (Curl backwards)

Folded (Folded downwards)

HABITS

Habitat: Thanks to the abundance of specialized subspecies, Kelusines are one of the most diverse species in terms of location. They can be found almost everywhere apart from the far poles, deserts, and swamps. Large carnivores, they require an area rich in prey and thus control large swaths of territory either as a clan or as individuals.  

Diet: Hypercarnivores, Kelusines require meat. They are not picky when it comes to meat, although shy away from carrion or cannibalism and a vast majority will not eat humans. One exception is the Wastelander subspecies, who will eat whatever prey they can catch. And humans are easy prey; dumb and slow. 

Intelligence: Kelusines are one of the most intelligent animals of Kelusia. Like most creatures, they can speak Basic, or English. However, they are one of the few species that can learn languages other than their own and Basic. Kelusines are also one of the few that can operate high level technology. Some actually possess a Communication Watch on their wrists. Able to comprehend advanced math and science, Kelusines still prefer subjects that deal with history, natural science, and technology. 

Social Life: Social creatures, wild Kelusines often live in small prides that consist of 5-7 individuals. However, sometimes to expand their territory, prides will join and make larger groups, or clans, of around 10-20 individuals, depending on the amount of prey available. When in clans, Kelusines have a ranking system to help things flow smoothly within the clan. The “head” positions are the Leader, Medic, and Deputy. Below that is the bulk of the clan, divided further into equal subgroups: Scouts, Operators (tech), Hunters, Guards, Milk Givers, and Elders. Below that rank the Trainees, who are the Kelusines ages 4-12 years, and finally come the Cubs, or Kelusines under the age of 4. 

Life Cycle: Kelusine females carry for 9-10 months. There are 2-4 cubs in a litter, on rare occasions 5. The cubs are born helpless and cannot see or hear a week after birth. It is not uncommon for an expectant mother who resides alone to seek out a clan who will let her stay with them the first week or so after her cubs’ birth. She does this to ensure that her cubs are not killed by a rival or possibly a jealous male. 

At two weeks, Kelusine cubs are stumbling around on stubby, unsteady legs. By now they can hear and see. They resemble fluffballs on sticks, their fur soft as down feathers. At three weeks, they can walk on their own without trouble and are play fighting with littermates or cubs near the same age if there are any. Around two months they are introduced to solid food. However, they continue to nurse until they are 9 months. At two years they begin to learn how to hunt for their own prey. They are usually taken out by both their mother and father if in a clan. If not, the mother or an older sibling will take them. 

Kelusines are considered cubs until year four. By that time they are the size of a teenage tiger or lion. From year four to twelve they are considered adolescents.  By now they are about the size of an adult lion or tiger. During the teenage years, Kelusines’ manes begin to grow. Their saber teeth also grow longer and stronger. Unless they grow up as rouges or loners, Kelusines begin to learn the basics of fighting at age twelve. If they were born outside of a clan, Kelusines often learn to fight sooner. 

At sixteen years, Kelusines can make it on their own with no extra help. However, they are not considered full adults until age twenty. Females mature, both sexually and mentally, faster than males. They are considered mature at eighteen, while it takes males until year twenty. After a Kelusine reaches age twenty, they may leave to explore or may look for a job as a mount. 

Kelusines are a unique species in that they are biologically immortal. The oldest Kelusine on record, a Forester by the name of Powerful Huntress of the Mountain Pass Pride, reached 220 Kelusian Years. However, most Kelusines only make it to 160-180 KY due to an oddity within their genes that becomes active around that age and produces similar symptoms to the viral infection rabies. Instead of intense fear, the Kelusine will become extremely aggressive, attacking anyone and anything in sight. This is not contagious, as it is not an infection, but there is also no cure for the affliction referred to as “Old Age Rage”. The only way to stop an OAR Kelusine is, unfortunately, to kill the beast.

Vocalization and Body Language: Like many of Kelusia’s unique fauna, Kelusines can speak Basic but also, as said earlier, have a unique ability to learn other languages such as Ragera. However, when they talk it is noticeably more guttural and rough compared to human speech. Aside from being able to speak “civilized” languages, Kelusines can make a wide variety of feral sounds. They have the ability to roar, snarl, growl, chuff, cough, groan, and hiss. Younger Kelusines can purr, but they do not have the ability to roar until age 5. Islanders and Plainers cannot roar no matter their age, but instead, like cheetahs, can purr through adulthood. 

Kelusines are also heavily reliant on body language. Their body language heavily mimics the tigers of Earth. A calm Kelusine has a relaxed body posture, and the tail hangs languidly. When curious, their tail will be raised high in the air and their ears will be forward in interest. An aggressive Kelusine will bare its teeth, widen its mouth, enlarge its pupils, and flatten its ears. 

OTHER 

Ridability:  Very human-like in their intelligence and readily available, Kelusines are not hard to come by. Kelusines are perhaps the most common mount as living with riders ensures a constant, easy food source while also making sure they get their exercise. That being said it is crucial for riders to understand Kelusines are not pets. Rather, they are companions who have agreed to carry the rider on their back. It is also important to keep in mind that, while Kelusines do have the intellectual capabilities of a human or higher creature, they are still highly dangerous predators who can turn on you if they so please. So treat them well. 

Common Uses: Mounts, Guards, Guides, Rangers.

#Shadows_Species #kelusines #kelusia #original species

[godlyborn]

discord. | instead the risk lies on the journey home.

summary: ellie, linnaea, lucien, and rory encounter monsters on the way home. trigger warnings: blood, suggested gore.

Ellie pressed down on the gas, trying to get as far away from the monster that they just disabled as she could. "What was the part of the prophecy, about coming home?" Ellie asked, Rory, trying to refresh her memory. "Maybe that'll be helpful in avoiding all of this."

“Uhh,” Rory, dropped down into the seat next to Ellie, trying to rack her brain for the exact wording. “Shit, something about care and being cursed to roam without it?” She glanced at the rear view mirrors, seeing if they were keeping their ground. “I might have to blast it with another wind tunnel soon. We have to come up with something though or I won’t be at full strength.”

Lucien stuck his head out the window as far as he dared, trying to get a view of the beast chasing after them. By now he was used to seeing these things keep up with cars, so he didn't bother asking Ellie to speed up. "It has... goat horns?" he asked no one in particular. Sliding back into the car, he turned to his sister. "Maybe we can throw something at it."

"I can't do anything with my powers unless I touch it," Ellie replied. "And well that's a little hard."

Linnaea had her back pressed firmly into the seat, with her head pointed straight ahead and hands vice gripped onto her seatbelt. Through gritted teeth, she replied, "Great idea Luce, just toss a banana peel out the window, that ought to do it."

Rory groaned, burying her head in her hands for a second. “Fuck.” She took a breath and dropped her hands. “At least we’re close to camp. Worst case, we hold big ugly off and they can run.” She looked up to glance out her mirror again, but instead saw another, smaller monster coming full force at the truck. “Fuck! Look out!” She screamed out in warning, just seconds before it made impact.

Lucien couldn't help himself from making jokes in high stress situations, and huffed out a laugh at his sisters comment. "You have a banana?" he asked, while at the same time reassuring her, we'll be okay. He was about to search for something to throw, when the RV rocked with a hard impact and he crashed into the wall. Pain lanced along his shoulder and the whole car smacked into a few trees, bending metal far too close to his face for comfort. "Fuck," he gasped.

Ellie's head slammed to the window as another monster made impact with their car. Her whole body tensed and she tried getting the car running again, but it wouldn't work and there was no time. "We need to get out and run," Ellie said.

Rory had been flung towards Ellie’s side of the van after the impact, and luckily smacked her head on the side of the other girls seat, still leaving her disorientated, but not injured with a head wound. It took her a full minute to register Ellie’s words, pushing her body back upright slowly as she got her bearings back. “Yeah.” She gritted out. “We need to go.”

'We need... and run...' '...need to go.' A sharp ringing drifted from Linnaea's left ear to her right. She brought a hand up to press against the part of her forehead that slammed against the seat in front of her. "Oh, fuck." Linnaea felt around for her seatbelt, pawing at the clasp to get it undone. Why did it feel like she was moving through syrup? Luce, help.

Lucien surged for his sister, blinking stars out of his eyes. He felt a little trickle of blood somewhere on his back, but didn't think about it as he fumbled to get Linnaea free. Once the clasp was undone, he grabbed her and started pulling her out of the car, not wanting to risk her falling behind. Both monsters were coming in fast, and he looked to Rory and Ellie. They'd given him and his sister knives, but they didn't seem like much now, in the face of this. "Which way do we go?"

Ellie helped get Rory out of the van. "Come on Rory, today is not the day to be slackin'," she said, resorting to lightening the mood, an instant coping mechanism to deal with the situation at hand. Hell would Ellie lose any of these people, not after they have gotten this far. "Go, right, run!" Ellie told the twins. "We're right behind you."

Run. Linnaea waited for the signal to travel from her brain to her legs. Run. Why was this taking so long? RUN. Linnaea picked up one leg and placed it in front of the other. Then again. Then again. Did running always feel so... voluntary?

Rory shook her head as Ellie helped her out, trying to get the world back into focus. She unsheathed the sword that was strapped to her hip, breathing for a second before letting trickles of electricity run down the metal as Alex had taught her. “Me slacking? Never.” She looked back over at the twins, speaking after Ellie. “Get to the hill, you’ll see a tree. Keep running, and don’t you dare stop.” When they took off, she looked back to Ellie. “If we need to, you go after them and I’ll hold them off.”

Once Linnaea finally started to pick up speed, Lucien let himself go faster. He was a few steps in front of her, his hand clasped around hers, trying to urge her to keep up. He glanced behind them and saw the monsters getting closer. "Sis, don't fight me," he said, and scooped her up in his arms. With the sight of the lion-goat-snake thing zeroing in on them, Lucien started to sprint.

“You distract one, enough to get me close enough to use my powers on it and buy us time to get across the border,” Ellie insisted. “We need to disable at least one right now so we don’t have have two chasing after us.”

Rory nodded her agreement. “Okay, get ready.” Seeing the Chimera zero in on the twins, she raised her hand to send a strong blast of wind at it, knocking it off its feet and barreling into a tree. “Go!” She called time Ellie, lunging her sword at the smaller monster, getting its full focus placed on her as she turned it slightly away from Ellie.

Linnaea felt the earth spin away from her, and then she was floating. Looking up, she saw her twin's face, panting heavily. Above him, the clouds seemed to be fleeing from the horizon. Linnaea turned her head to the side. Just past Lucien's arms, she saw the ungodliest abomination, sprinting toward them on all fours. Linnaea opened her mouth to ask a question, but mustered instead a shriek of pure terror.

"Shh, hey," Lucien said between pants. He heard a roar, and a crash, and stole a look behind him. The monster had flown into some trees behind them and had crumpled to the ground. "We're gonna make it, sis, I think I see it." He tripped over a branch but quickly regained his stride, gripping Linnaea's shoulders to keep her steady in his arms. He heard another roar behind him, distressingly close, but this time refused to look back.

Ellie ran for the smaller monster. Fuck, Dad, you better help me. She slid in, trying to get close enough for contact and put it to sleep enough for them to buy them time, but it turned and caught the back of Ellie's leg, and she screamed, tripping and rolling, though she managed to catch it's leg, and she practically had a death grip on it, just enough for her to put it to sleep. She took a breath from the ground, and stabbed it with her knife, killing it.

Lucien. Linnaea tapped on her brother's arm. Lucien. The beast had left a crack in the tree that ripped all the way up to its branches. Angered now, it's eyes were locked with Linnaea's, and she could see deep into where its soul should be. Lucien, it's coming. Fur and scales melded into a single blur of speed as the creature rapidly closed the distance between them. Its beady black eyes became a ribbon of black. There were, two, four, six of them now. LUCIEN.

He didn't want to look, and he tried to tune out his sister's frantic pleading and just run, run. Legs burning, heart pounding, he gripped his sister a little tighter: a silent attempt at reassurance. I won't let you get hurt. 

And then, like the cosmos had heard his promise and started to laugh, the beast was there, a pace behind them. He saw houses in front of him and screamed out a panicked, desperate, "HEL—" His voice melted into a garbled noise as the snake tail bit into the place where his neck met his shoulder, and pulled. Linnaea exited his arms as he was yanked backwards, feet dragging through the dirt. He gripped the serpent with numb fingers, trying to dislodge himself, too shocked even to scream.

Everything happened at once. She heard Ellie scream and almost fell over trying to get out to her in time. “Ellie! Are you okay?!” Helping her up, Rory frantically looked around to find the Chimera and found it breathing down the twins back. “NO!” She screamed out, and took off towards them, throwing her hand behind her to set off a blast of wind to speed her up. Regardless, she knew she wouldn’t make it in time. She saw the Chimera grab Lucien, yanking him back and pushed herself to speed up. Every bone in her body thrummed with the power of electricity but couldn’t risk it with Lucien right there, and wouldn’t let herself risk it.

Ellie heard Rory scream and she looked up, pushing the pain in her leg aside for the time being. All she could think about was 'we need to get out of here, we need to get to the border'. Ellie lifted herself from the ground, running after Rory and the twins, but Rory was much faster with the wind on her side.

Linnaea hit the ground hard and the ringing in her head became a deafening siren. Lucien! She watched the abomination take ahold of her brother. Stand up. Again, she felt the signal between her brain and legs dissipate. Stand up! "Lucien!" she screamed, unable to hear her voice over the ringing.

He remembered, belatedly, that he had a knife. His entire left side was going numb, venom from the fangs lodged in his arm, no doubt. Clumsily Lucien reached for the blade with his other hand and waved it in a wide arc. It glanced off the scales like nothing, and then a front paw of the monster wrapped around him, almost like an embrace. Then claws ripped open his stomach and something— he didn't see what— fell out. Blood coated his legs in seconds. A little whisper of sound fell out of his mouth as he was dropped to the ground, cold and still with shock.

Ellie got to Linnaea, grabbing her arm, to help her to the border as fast as she could, knowing Rory was closer to Lucien. "We'll get him, I promise."

Rory slowed down out of pure grief and shock when she saw Lucien drop, and she could almost feel that there was nothing left to do to save him. She wanted to vomit at the sight of all the blood and gore, despite having previously fought in a war. But blood was a lot different then layers of gold dust that took forever to wash off the body permanently. She glanced up as she saw Ellie her to Linnaea and looked back over, knowing that she had to get him out of there, regardless of how cold and still he was. She forced her legs through the shock, her sadness turning to anger as she ran towards the Chimera.

Linnaea sat in their childhood bedroom, her bed opposite Lucien's. She pulled her feet up onto the bed, her back pressed up into the corner. "Lucien," she whispered, watching him sitting across the room. "What's happening?" The carpet beneath them darkened from its faded white to a deep crimson as a swamp of blood bubbled up from some aquifer underneath. Somewhere, Linnaea felt herself be lifted up off the ground. Here in the bedroom, she sat curled up into a ball, eyes locked on her brother, as their childhood memories sank deeper into the rising red flood.

Lucien stared back at her, in one piece, trying to move from his place at the center of the lake of red. He couldn't move, his body rigid, anchored and sinking fast. Somewhere else, something with large teeth was bearing down on him. But he felt nothing, nothing. "Linnaea," he called back, as if from twenty rooms away. "Leave. I can't go with you."

"I can't leave without you!" Linnaea's voice came out in a sob. "This is our place. You have to fight through it, you can't leave me alone." The room was filling up faster now, the red spilling out over her sheets, climbing up her feet and ankles. "What's gonna happen to us?"

"Dunno." The room was fading away, darkness spreading like ink stains from the corners of their bedroom. "I don't want to go," he suddenly sobbed. His head ached, like someone was cutting out the part of mind where his sister lived. "Linnaea. Linnaea."

Linnaea looked frantically around the room for a way out, but everything was now submerged in the blood. The other corners of the room seemed to grow darker around them. Picture frames, stuffed toys, clothes—she watched as they swirled around the center of the room before rushing out towards the darkness, carried away by the current. 

A current? 

"It's the river." Linnaea gasped, clawing her way to the edge of the bed, which now floated atop the deluge like a raft. "Lucien! Don't cross the river!" She gripped the bed post, struggling to keep her balance. "You're on the river! Don't cross the river!"

The river. Lucien was suddenly at a shore, standing alone, Linnaea's voice a distant thing. "Okay," he said. He couldn't tell if she heard him. "I won't cross!" he shouted. "I won't cross!" 

His lips moved silently, eyes glassy. I'll wait for you, Linnaea. 

The darkness folded in on everything.

Rory charged towards the Chimera, the sound of her feet slapping against the forest floor causing it to look away from Lucien and at the angered daughter of Zeus. It let out a roar, as if daring her to attack. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to get his body away without taking out the monster first. She took a second to calm herself, channeling the power that was running through her veins. Dad, please. Help me. Her eyes snapped open, glowing a bright blue. She reached her hands up, feeling and hearing the skies darkening as storm clouds almost appeared out of nowhere. She let out a half grunt, half scream, and as the Chimera lunged, she pulled.

"I'll find you." Linnaea couldn't keep her balance any longer. As her legs gave way, the whirlpool of red pulled her down and the surface collapsed over her head. 

When Linnaea came to, the clouds were screaming through the sky, and all she could hear was ringing.

She let out another scream, this one laced with pain, feeling something very cold slide through her stomach. Then the ground lit up bright as a huge bolt of electricity struck down, electrocuting the chimera and turning it into dust as it screamed, it’s horn just barely exiting Rory’s stomach before it vanished fully. She felt all the energy drop out of her body alongside it, just barely having enough in her to pull Lucien’s body not even a foot away before she dropped. Her voice called out for Ellie, though it was so quiet she didn’t even know if she had heard it. Dad, please. she thought, before her body went limp and her vision faded away.

Ellie heard Rory scream and she felt herself tense. She dragged Linnaea over the border. "Stay here, I'm going back for Rory and your brother. " She ran out once again, the pain starting to push through now. Just a little longer, Ellie. When she came across Rory's bloody body and Lucien, her heart dropped. Her eyes focused on Lucien for a minute, her mind drifted to her memory of her brother's dead body. Ellie bent down next to Lucien, her fingers not feeling a pulse. She gulped and fixed her eyes on Rory. She could feel a pulse coming from Rory, but she was in bed shape. Ellie put her arm underneath Rory's, dragging her to the border, Ellie's breathing heavy, exhausted. Once they were over, Ellie put her hand in pocket, searching for her phone. Her hands covered in Rory's blood, she pulled up Ben's number, her shaky hands sending him a text: 'border, please help'. 

Ellie hoped her boyfriend would respond before she went out for Lucien's body again. She wouldn't leave that boy out there, even if she knew his end. She grabbed his limp body, pulling him through the border to before her legs buckled and she collapsed to the ground. Her adrenaline ran low, and the world became fuzzy, and it went all black.

#elliot #ellielinnaealucienrory #ellielinnaea #ellielucien #ellierory #instead the risk lies on the journey home #discord #d:ellie #d:ellielinnaealucienrory #d:ellielinnaea #d:ellielucien #d:ellierory

[paws-and-claws-au]

Chapter 1: A Chance Encounter

Prologue, Ch.1, Ch.2,Ch.3, Ch.4

Summary: In a kingdom where practicing magic is outlawed and mythical creatures are being hunted, one boy is caught in the crossfire between the two sides of the fight. Only an act of pure, selfless love will lift his curse and return his life to normal…but who could ever love a monster like him?

Chapter Summary: Prince Roman stops at an inn to rest after defeating a chimera that plagued a village...and meets an unusual man with an even more unusual suggestion.

Warnings: Mentions of a battle, that’s about it for this chapter. This fic features Morally Grey Deceit.

Pairings: Royality and Analogical

Word Count: 2,389

Song for this chapter: “The Storm” by The Arcadian Wild

AU Creator: @thegremlinprince

Fic Author: @ironwoman359

Available on AO3 here

Roman rode back into the village, tired, hungry, and with more than a few bumps and bruises, but victorious nonetheless. He smiled as a crowd formed behind him, their cheers following him into the town square. Once he reached the center of town, he paused and held his hand up. He waited for their shouts to did away into murmurs, then he spoke.

“People of Riversedge! The chimera that has plagued your fair village these past weeks is now dead! You may sleep in peace again, knowing your herds and children are safe from its jaws!”

The crowd erupted into more cheers, and Roman bowed.

“Please, Your Highness,” a voice to his right spoke above the ruckus, and Roman turned to see the head of the village council staring up at him. “Allow us to repay you in some way for what you’ve done for us.”

“No, my lady,” Roman declared with another bow. “I am merely doing my duty as your prince. It would be unbecoming for me to ask for a reward.”  

“I...Your Highness, it would be improper if we did not–”

“My lady,” Roman interrupted as he dismounted. “All that I ask of you is that you direct me towards a place in town where I may lay my head for the night, and a stable for my horse.”

“Oh! Of course, your highness, right this way.”

The crowd parted as Roman followed the head of the council through the streets until they reached a small inn at the edge of town.

“It is not much, but the beds are warm and the stable is dry, your highness,” the woman said with a bow.

“Thank you, my lady,” Roman replied, nodding his head in respect. “You honor me with your hospitality.”

Roman handed a gold coin and the reins of his horse to the stable boy out front then slipped into the inn before the woman could reply. Heads turned and voices paused as he entered, but he was used to this treatment and ignored it, heading instead straight for the man behind the counter who bowed low as Roman approached.

“Your Highness. We are humbled by your presence. For you, the finest room in the inn, at no charge of course...”

“That won’t be necessary, my good sir,” Roman interrupted. “I wouldn’t dream of depriving you of your well deserved revenue. How much?”

“I...Your Highness, I–”

“How much?” Roman repeated, and the innkeeper stammered out his price. Roman felt eyes watching him as he paid the man, but he was used to commoners staring whenever he brought out his coin purse, so he ignored the sensation and strode up the stairs.

He didn’t notice one pair of eyes that continued to follow him, didn’t see the owner of said eyes down the remaining contents of a steaming mug or hear the stranger mutter:

“Hmm...now that is very interesting.”

He simply found the room that was to be his, locked the door behind him, and flopped down onto the bed in what most would consider a very un-princely manner. But hey, there was nobody here to see him. What did it matter if he acted a bit undignified?

Roman sighed and began to strip away his armor, wincing in pain as the movement irritated the minor injuries he’d received in his tousle with the chimera. Honestly, he was lucky to have gotten away with only a few bumps and bruises...dodging the swipe of lion’s paws and blasts of fire breath had been no easy feat, to say nothing of dealing with the creature’s snake-tail. Roman pulled his chainmail shirt over his head...and froze.

His earlier assumption about nobody being there to see him had been inaccurate.

A bright pair of yellow eyes stared at him from the window, and Roman gripped his sword on instinct. He took a step forward, then let out a relieved sigh as he let his sword arm relax.

“Well, hello there.”

A black cat sat on the windowsill, its tail twitching back and forth as it trained unblinking eyes on the prince.

“You gave me quite a scare there,” Roman chuckled. “But you’re just a pretty little kitty, aren’t you?” He reached forward as if to pet the creature, but the cat hissed and arched its back, and Roman quickly pulled away. “Okay, okay! Goodness gracious, there’s no need for that kind of attitude.”

Roman swore the cat arched an eyebrow at him, but he dismissed it as his eyes playing tricks on his mind. It had been a very long day, after all.

“Well, I’d love to stay up and chat, pretty kitty, but a prince needs his beauty rest!” Roman bowed dramatically, then slid into bed. He blew out the candle on the side table and murky shadows engulfed the room. The cat did not move, its large yellow eyes unblinking as it watched Roman shuffle about under the blankets.

“Goodnight, pretty kitty,” Roman called sleepily before closing his eyes and letting himself be carried away into sleep.

---

The cat sat still for a moment, then it yawned, stretched, and hopped from Roman’s windowsill to the branch of a nearby tree. In a few moments it was on the ground, and it was about to slip away into the alley behind the inn when a voice called into the darkness, making it freeze.

“Well well well...this night is just full of unexpected faces.”

The cat slowly turned to see a familiar figure leaning against the wall of the inn, arms folded in front of him and one eyebrow quirked upwards.

“Now, the prince being at this inn at the same time as me? Crazy coincidence, but I can believe it. The prince and you being here at the same time? Even crazier, much harder to swallow, but not impossible, I ‘spose.”

The man leaned forward, the moonlight gleaming off the white thread embroidered into the hood of his cloak.

“But babe, I’m having trouble accepting that all three of us happened to be here on this fine summer’s eve.”

The man smirked as the cat glanced around and shifted its weight uncomfortably.

“So the question obviously is...were you following him, or were you following me?”

Silence filled the alley, and after a moment the man sighed.

“Then again, I guess now it doesn’t really matter. Go on then, run along.”

The cat’s ears twitched forward in surprise, and the man chuckled.

“What? I’m not gonna stop you. I know better than to get in his way.” The man turned to leave, but paused, glancing back over his shoulder at the cat. “Just, do me a favor and tell him this from me: just because you think you know what you’re doing doesn’t mean you aren’t being stupid.”

He winked, and with a swish of his cloak he was gone, rounding the corner to the front of the inn, and after a moment, the cat slunk away as well, leaving nothing but starlight left in the alley.

---

Roman made his entrance to the main room of the inn early the next morning, and was greeted with the smell of hot porridge cooking over an open fire.

“Your Highness!” the woman leaning over the pot cried in shock, bowing low. “I apologize, but breakfast is not ready for you! You’ve risen sooner than we’d thought you would and–”

“It is quite alright, my good lady,” Roman interrupted, raising his hand with a smile. “I can wait for a few minutes. It already smells delightful.”

The woman flushed pink before nodding in thanks and returning her attention to her work. Roman sat down, content to watch the embers glow in the fire for awhile, before he realized that he wasn’t alone in the open space. Sitting in the corner, quietly sipping from a mug of something hot, was a man wearing a long, black traveler’s cloak. The hood was lined with a fine, white embroidery, and the man had it drawn up, despite sitting indoors on a fair day.

And his eyes were trained right on Roman.

Roman gave a smile and a nod towards the man, being used to commoners staring at him in public, but what the stranger did next surprised even him. The man stood up and actually came towards Roman’s table.

“Prince Roman,” the man said, drawing his hood back as he approached and giving a small nod of respect. “I hope you won’t consider me too bold, but would you consider taking your breakfast with me? Eating alone is really such a bore”

Thoughts of what his father would say about such behavior briefly flitted through Roman’s mind, but he nodded and gestured to an empty chair across from him.

“I couldn’t agree more, sir…?”

“Remington,” the man supplied, taking his seat. “Though you can call me Remy, most folks do. Remington is such a mouthful, to be honest.”

“I suppose it is,” Roman agreed, eyeing the man curiously. While he didn’t appear to be more than ten years older than Roman himself, there was something odd about the way he carried himself...he had an air of confidence and ease that suggested youth, but his eyes, piercing and gray, seemed to hold much more wisdom and experience than one would expect from looking at the rest of him.

“Again, you will forgive my boldness,” Remy said, interrupting Roman’s thoughts. “But I simply can’t hold back my curiosity...what is the Crown Prince of Aromania and only heir to the throne doing fighting chimeras in the remote parts of the countryside?”

“You give me too much credit, sir,” Roman said, raising an eyebrow. “I am not yet the Crown Prince.”

Remy waved his hand dismissively.

“You will be within the year, if I’m remembering my dates right. Besides, Crown Prince or not, you’re still here, in Riversedge of all places, and now there’s one less chimera in the world. Forgive me for thinking so, but that’s a bit of an odd pastime for a prince.”

“Perhaps,” Roman said slowly. “But those who lived under that creature’s tyranny can now sleep a little more soundly at night. Isn’t that what the goal of a prince should be? To protect his people from whatever may wish to do them harm?”

“A prince could easily just order his soldiers to investigate chimera reports,” Remy countered.

“Ah…” Roman looked down, clasping his hands together. “Well, a prince could not easily do that...the Crown Prince could...but again, I do not yet hold that title.”

Remy folded his arms, staring at Roman pointedly.

“The statement still stands, it is odd for someone of your stature to concern yourself with what many others in your position may call too trivial, or too dangerous, to handle personally.”

“Who are you?” Roman asked, staring in disbelief at the stranger he’d found himself debating with. He talked with the wit and confidence of a nobleman, but his clothes suggested he was middle class at best.

“Just a traveler,” Remy said with another wave of his hand. “I’m in town to look for the rare herbs that grow in this part of the riverbank.” He fixed Roman with a pointed stare, and Roman swallowed. “You still have not answered. Why are you here?”

Roman clenched his hands into fists.

“It’s my duty to be a leader,” he answered eventually. “ Someday, a king. And a king who leads others where he himself would not go or gives orders that he himself would not carry out is nothing more than a coward hiding behind a crown.”

Remy’s eyes widened, and he leaned back in his chair, regarding Roman with a new expression.

“The words of King Thomas,” he said simply, and Roman nodded.

“From the speech he gave at his coronation. You’ve read it?”

“Yes…” Remy murmured, almost to himself. “I...have read it, on occasion.” He shook his head, then looked back to Roman. “He is an admirable man to have as a role model.”

“He was the best king Aromania’s ever had,” Roman stated, and Remy nodded thoughtfully.

“I may just be inclined to agree with you.”

He suddenly got to his feet, and Roman was so startled that he stood as well.

“Well, Prince Roman, I must be on my way. But if to help and protect the innocent is what you desire…”

“Yes?” Roman asked, cocking his head.

“It may serve you well to travel along the river to the east. After a day’s ride or so, you’ll come upon a small settlement, barely a village anymore. Any people who are left would tell you to steer clear of the tower on the hill. I would tell you otherwise. You may find yourself in the face of danger the likes of which you’ve never seen, but behind it all lies a lonely soul that is desperate need of help.”

“Wha-”

“It’s been many years, and not once has the right person ever been able to breach those tower walls...but if there is anyone left in Aromania who’d be able to, it may just be you.” Remy bowed then, and pulled his hood back over his head. “It was a pleasure, Your Highness.”

Then he was gone, his cloak whipping out behind him as he exited the inn. Roman stared after him, trying to figure out what exactly he’d just been told.

“Oh my...what did old Remy say now?” the woman at the cooking pot asked, and Roman turned.

“You know him? Who is he?”

“Oh, just a traveler we see here often,” she sighed, glancing down at her porridge. “He’s some kind of herbalist I think, he always comes through here and picks the plants that grow on the riverbank. But he’ll sometimes have the strangest conversations with people...on more than one occasion he’s scared a potential customer away!” She shook her head, and looked at Roman apologetically. “I’m sorry if he bothered you, Your Highness.”

“No...no bother,” Roman muttered, before he turned and bowed to the woman, making her blush. “My lady, thank you for your hospitality. It was most appreciated.”

“Oh, will you not stay for breakfast then?”

“No…” Roman said, looking towards the door. “I believe that I shall get an early start on traveling...”

“I see,” the woman nodded. “Returning to the capitol?”

“Not just yet,” Roman answered. “First...I must ride east.” 

Prologue, Ch.1, Ch.2 Ch.3, Ch.4

A/N: I am getting SO excited for this next chapter...I had an idea of how this chapter was going to go, but as per usual, Roman just wanted to steal the show completely, and it turns out, Remy does the same thing, and I made the mistake of putting them in a room together, so it ended up not going exactly like I thought XD. But I like how it turned out, and am very excited for what comes next! Grim and I have been talking about lore and world building stuff more, and I’m super stoked to share more of this world with you guys! Thanks for all your support, it means the world to us!  -Taylor, aka, Iron. 

AU Creator: @thegremlinprince

Other fics by @ironwoman359​ 

A REMINDER - THERE IS NO TAGLIST FOR THIS FIC. If you’d like to stay updated with this AU, follow the @paws-and-claws-au​ sideblog! This here is my taglist for all my writing (which you can ask me to be on at @ironwoman359​)

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#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #ts fanfiction #royality #analogical #roman sanders #remy sanders #virgil sanders #paws and claws au #patton sanders #story #morally grey deceit #claw marks

[long-roads-travelled]

Chapter 5

I woke up to Deklan moving around, grumbling quietly under my breath. Sleepy and hardly aware of what I was doing, I wiggled further into him and tightened my hold around his waist.

“Oh, sorry, did I wake ya?” Dek asked, his voice lower than usual and raspy. I sighed and relaxed at the sound.

“Yeah. ‘S fine,” I mumbled. Realizing what I was doing, I rubbed my eye and hesitantly sat up, starting to get off of his lap. He grabbed my arm gently and pulled me back down.

“You can stay here an’ doze if you want,” he murmured, squeezing my bicep before opening his arms. I slumped against him after thinking about it, knowing he probably needed the cuddling more than I do after last night.

I yawned as I put my legs over the arm of the sofa-chair, crossing my arms and looking out the window. It was snowing again. White mounds were covering the ground, the only contrast being the gray and brown trees that circled the cabin, and I could make out a red stag with a decently-sized rack wandering amongst them for a second before it slipped out of sight.

The two of us sat in a comfortable silence for maybe fifteen minutes, but I interrupted it. “How’re you feeling, Dek? Last night seemed pretty rough,” I said with a gentle voice, tilting my head to fix my eyes on his face.

“Uhm,” he hesitated, “I guess I don’t feel that much better…” Dek mumbled, his ears pinned back now.

“That’s okay.” I moved to be sitting on the arm of the chair instead of his lap. “How’re your bruises?”

“Still sore. Ozzy took the ice pack before he left, since it was warm.”

“Want me to get it?”

“If ya wouldn’t mind,” Dek sighed, scratching just behind his ears.

“Of course not.” I smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder. Getting off of my perch, I went to the icebox, my hooves thunking against the floor.

I opened the top and dug for the ice pack, grunting softly since I had to lean over the edge, as it was all the way at the bottom for some reason. The buzzard—Sterrin, we’ve named him—flew in from the other room and landed on the top of a cabinet, a dead mouse in his talons. I paid him no mind. I eventually found the ice pack, standing up and closing the top before heading back over to Dek.

“Here,” I hummed, giving it to him, getting a small nod in return before he tied it over the large bruise on his chest with a series of quiet grunts.

I watched him, sighing to myself. Deklan was so much more fragile than he looked, I knew now, and it was mildly distressing. He curled up and rubbed his eyes, then yawned with a tiny squeak that made me smile ever so slightly.

“Wanna try to go kayaking?” I asked. He needed to distract himself, so I figured this would be better than moping around all day.

“Oh, sure,” he murmured before putting his legs down again and getting up.

“I still have a coat of yours.” I went to grab it from the coat rack, hearing him follow me. I then gave it to him and sighed. “I’ll be right back, I have to put on some proper clothes.”

“���Kay.” Dek nodded, staying where he was whilst I went off to my room.

I shut my bedroom door as noiselessly as possible, standing there for a moment. I thought to myself, wondering what kind of other things he could be hiding from me. There was no way Duana was the sole reason why he decided to get shitfaced… Was King Kazimir part of it too? He did seem pretty heavily spooked by that gargantuan stallion. I think most of us beys would be, though. His reaction seemed different, like his fear stemmed from something else about Kazimir.

I shook my head; I could think about this more later. I went to my dresser and pulled out pants and a white button-up that was thicker than it looked, then put a black sweater on over it. The leg wraps went on last. I made my way back out to Deklan, a kind smile on my face.

“Ready now, Con?”

“Yeah, you?”

“Yeah, let’s get going,” Dek hummed. It seemed like he suddenly felt better, but I knew that wasn’t really the case.

I followed him outside, then trotted up to walk beside him. The snowfall had finally stopped, leaving everything covered in about a foot of the stuff, meaning we had to trudge through it. Otherwise, the weather was perfect, although I wasn’t sure we’d be able to go kayaking as planned. We’d probably find something else to do.

The walk to the riverbank where our kayaks were didn’t take long. We maneuvered down the incline carefully, slipping in parts, and got down safely.

“Yep. It’s frozen,” I sighed, walking up to the ice. I stomped on it to see how thick it was. “Goes down far, too.”

“Ah, damn,” Deklan grunted. I heard him walk up behind me.

“Well, we could—” I began before I was promptly nudged onto the ice. Startled, I threw my arms out and waved my tail wildly to keep balance, my hooves slipping. I heard Dek laughing from the bank. “You— You gobshite!” I shouted, squealing at the end, and it only made him laugh harder.

I lost the battle to balance myself and fell on my back. The shock made me groan, and I just laid there for a minute. From what it sounded like, Dek was at the point of keeling over from hiw hard he was cackling at my buffoonery. What a prick I’ve decided to befriend.

“Woah, uh, Connie,” Dek’s laugh dissipated into concern. “There’s a massive crack under ya.”

“Wha?” I sat up and looked around myself. There was indeed a huge crack in the ice. My ears went down, tail flicking as I tried to think of how to get off the ice before it split and sent me into the freezing water below.

“Here, I’ll come to you.”

“No, you stay where you are. You’ll crack it more,” I ordered him as I carefully got onto my knees. Hopefully my pants would have enough friction here. Slowly, I inched my way back to the beach, having Dek hold out a branch so he could pull me the rest of the way.

Dek started giggling again as I managed to stand, his annoyingly charming grin spreading across his face. “That was the best thing I’ve ever witnessed.”

“Yeah fuck you,” I grumbled, gently punching his arm when I walked past him.

“How’s your arse?”

“Sore. I better not catch you making ass-fucking jokes with Ozzy.”

Dek cackled at that and shrugged. “No promises, Roy.”

“Don’t call me that. That sounds weird.” I began climbing up the slope with him in tow behind me.

“Yeah, it does. Oops,” Dek chuckled.

I got to the top of the slope and grunted, rubbing my behind. I didn’t really care if Dek noticed. We were close enough friends that it didn’t matter. I turned around, catching him staring at me as if he was in a daze, all while he was still just on the edge of the hill.

“Hey, I know I’ve got a fantastic rump, but c’mon,” I teased, making him snap out of it. He cleared his throat and quickly got up, obviously quite flustered now.

“Uhm, sorry. I’ve got no excuse,” he muttered.

“It’s fine, man. No worries,” I assured him, beginning to walk back up to the path.

“Alright.” Dek brushed his wavy blond hair out of his eyes as he walked beside me. “So. What’re we doing now?”

“Well, Ossian’s over at Old Man Sean’s to help take care of the chickens and herds, so we could go there,” I suggested, looking up at him to see what he thought.

“Mm, I’m up for it.” Deklan nodded in compliance, putting his hands in his pants pockets. That’s when I noticed he wasn’t wearing gloves. There wasn’t much I could do about it, so I left him be.

We walked through the unbearably deep snow towards the outskirts of town, the two of us mostly quiet. It was a comfortable quiet, though. The grayed bark of the trees was a stark contrast against the bright snow. The tops of bare shrubs poked out, like they were trying to get a breath of air. The snow gradually started to get shallower.

“Hey, Conroy?” Dek asked, his voice soft.

I perked my ears; he almost never called me by my actual name unless he was deep in thought or nervous. “Yes?” I looked at him, tapping the back of his thigh with my tail.

“Uhm…” he paused, biting his lip. “Do you ever wonder if it’s, uh, any better in Rosnya?”

“Oh.” I furrowed my brows as I thought about that question. “I dunno. We never really hear about Rosnya unless there’s been conflict. So, I guess it’s possible.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Any other reasons…?”

“No, nothing else. Just wondering,” Dek replied swiftly. I knew he was lying now.

I simply rose my brow and looked ahead again. I figured if there was another reason, it was personal, so I wouldn’t press him to tell me what it was yet.

——————

We finally started coming up on Sean’s farm. I could see three figures on the front porch, but I was still too far to see who they were. Deklan hollered a greeting, waving at them. The figures turned; it was Sean and August, but the third I didn’t recognize.

Dek and I walked up to the step, and he started talking to them, once again back to his usual self. I studied the stranger, noticing he had white brindling on one side of his body. Looking more, I saw the bisected hooves. A moose-bey in Cothary? Weird, I thought to myself, and even weirder that he’s a chimera.

The stranger introduced himself to us as Doyle Gaughran. He caught my eye and turned his head towards me. Straight away I saw that his eyes were different colors too, and the dark ruddy-brown hair became blonde around the middle.

“Hello?” he waved his hand and snapped in my face, snapping me out of it.

“Oh, sorry,” I squeaked. “Just kinda… fascinated, I guess.”

“Get it all the time. It’s rude to stare,” he growled at me in mild annoyance. I just flattened my ears, looking off to the side.

I couldn’t help but realize the feeling of familiarity that was brought up by Doyle. He wasn’t my father, I knew that for sure, but… I don’t know. I think I’m being weird. I sighed and excused myself from the conversation, going around to the back of the house to find Ossian.

Sure enough, I found him in the chicken pen, but he had Officer Fallon with him. I rolled my eyes. Ossian turned around, a grin breaking onto his face as he waved at me. “Hey, Connie! Deklan with ya?”

“He’s talking with Sean and those other two,” I called back, trotting over to them.

“Ah.” Ossian came to the fence when I did. “Well, I’ve gotten to talk to Fallon some. He’s nicer than you make him out to be.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I sighed, leaning against the fence.

“I’m flattered,” Fallon chuckled, in the middle of swapping the straw bedding in the coop. “Why don’t you like me, Conroy?”

“I’ve never really trusted the military,” I murmured, adjusting my beanie. “It’s a long story.”

“Ah, well, that’s alright. I’m not that upset,” he shrugged. “I don’t much like it myself.”

“Well, I’m glad we could agree on something,” I sighed, rubbing under my beanie when my scalp itched. “I guess I’ll go handle the livestock.”

#long roads travelled

[jilliancares]

All is Fair: Chapter 4

Word Count: 3k

ao3 ; wattpad

masterlist ; next chapter

CHAPTER FOUR:

Phil shared a wary look with Emma. He honestly hadn’t been trying to make Dan mad—well, other than making Dan fall in love with him (hopefully) and eventually having to break the news that he’d used him to be able to meet his father, which, yeah, would probably end up making him mad. But other than that, this hadn’t been intentional. He’d actually thought that his efforts had been working, Dan actually becoming flustered because of the things he did and said to him.

For a little while there, he’d thought to himself, this’ll be a piece of cake. He was now realizing that it’d be more like a piece of cake filled with glass. And on fire.

It didn’t help that Phil didn’t even really know how to make Dan fall in love with him. Firstly because Dan was convinced he was straight, which he so very completely obviously wasn’t, even if he was still in denial about it. But secondly because he’d never been in love before himself, and all he knew how to do was flirt (badly, if Dan’s reactions were any indication) and sit close to him in hopes that the close proximity would force Dan to realize he loved him. And it wasn’t working at all.

He supposed he could tell Dan the situation he was in and hope Dan would play along in front of his siblings so they’d let him meet Ares, but the thought of admitting to Dan his dastardly plan was terrifying. What if Dan yelled at him for only joining the quest because of his ulterior motives? Dan had already threatened to kick him off the quest just about two minutes ago, although Emma had insisted he wouldn’t really.

With a sigh, Phil kicked out at a rock in front of him, wondering just what in Tartarus he was going to do to make Dan fall in love with him.

Just then, a strangled yell came from the woods, around where Dan had marched off to.

"Dan!" Emma shouted immediately, sprinting into the woods without a backward look. Phil cursed under his breath, scooped up his sword, and darted after her.

He leaped over roots and fallen trees and ducked under low-hanging branches as they ran, Phil a few paces behind Emma.

"Dan!" Emma shouted, breathless.

"Here!" came Dan's strained reply, and they both darted into the clearing Dan was in, coming to a halt when they saw the monster holding him.

It was a chimera.

Phil had honestly never thought he'd end up seeing one in real life. He'd seen monsters before, of course. He was a demigod, it was impossible to not have seen monsters. But he'd only had to actually face them very rarely.

There'd been the first one he'd ever met, which had posed as a very normal looking girl before he'd realized her arms were snakes and she then proceeded to try to kill him. He'd strangled her with an electrical cord and coughed as she exploded into dust. Other than that, he'd fought a couple monsters in the woods during his time at camp playing capture the flag and whatnot, generally fighting only when he was forced to. But he'd never seen a monster, one on one, after that initial meeting with miss snake-arms.

For a second, he froze—and then he had his sword in his hand and was charging forward.

"I wouldn't, if I were you," the chimera said. Most monsters could talk, and while Phil had thought its voice would come out gravelly and deep, it was instead feline and smooth, which maybe made more sense anyway.

The chimera was scarily human, although much taller than one, standing a good two or three feet above Dan. It stood on two legs despite its lion-like body, and instead of front paws it had hands—with thumbs and everything! It currently had one, claws extended, pressed against Dan's throat. Phil knew it could breathe fire out of its lion-head, knew its snake-tail was venomous, and still he felt tempted to charge.

"Because if you do," it continued, "I'll kill him." One claw pierced the skin of Dan's neck (he sucked in a breath through his nose) and blood, dark red, slid down his throat.

"What do you want?" Emma demanded, her dagger held in hand. Her eyes were darting around the clearing, though, looking for opportunities.

Phil made eye contact with Dan, whose eyes were wide. He almost wanted to scoff—Dan had said he was able to defend himself—but he was too worried to feel annoyed. And not just because if Dan died then their quest would fail and he'd truly have no chance of meeting his father. It was because, even despite Dan's snappy attitude and resistance to being seduced, he seemed like a guy Phil could genuinely like, even if he'd never actually have the opportunity to after he screws him over.

The chimera grinned at them. A lot of the time monsters didn't even want anything, were just there on their own accord, hunting half-bloods for sport. But sometimes they'd been sent by higher beings, gods, usually. Sometimes worse.

"I'm just trying to persuade you three to turn back," the chimera purred. "You'll fail your quest even if you were to continue. What's the point?"

"Weak," Phil said with a shrug. "Like that could possibly persuade us."

"What if I told you you're going up against a god, little half-bloods? Still keen on going then?"

"A god?" Emma spluttered. "Seriously? A god stole Aphrodite's bow?"

"Well they didn’t steal it themselves," Phil added. "I mean, gods can't steal directly from other gods."

"Whatever," Emma snapped. "And no—just because it's a god doesn't mean we'll quit. Aphrodite entrusted this mission to Dan and us. We're gonna get it back."

"I wouldn't be so sure," the chimera chuckled. It's snake tail came up to caress Dan's cheek, and he flinched. "Should've known a son of Aphrodite wasn't much of a fighter." Dan's eyes hardened, his hands clenching into fists where they were trapped at his sides.

And then Dan whispered something and his giant warhammer appeared in his hand. He could barely maneuver, trapped as he was, but he flicked his wrist downward and slammed the hammer into the chimera’s leg. It roared, letting go of Dan on instinct as it hoped on its other leg.

Dan raised his hammer a second time but the chimera darted out of the way, it's leg apparently not injured enough to halt it. Phil followed, his sword raised, but it roared and breathed fire. He had to roll out of the way to avoid it, the heat scorching.

"Stop bothering with fighting me," the chimera laughed. "Don't you know my claws are poisonous too?”

They all froze, staring at the chimera in horror. “What?” Emma whispered.

“We’ll be seeing each other again,” the chimera purred, and then it was gone, bounding into the forest so fast it was out of sight in seconds.

“I’ve never even heard of a chimera’s claws being poisonous before,” Phil said, turning around to face Dan and Emma, both of whom were wearing identical looks of shock and worry. “We can’t even be sure that it’s true, right?”

And then Dan collapsed.

—

Dealing with a poisoned person was terrifying. Dan was out cold and no amount of slapping his face or shouting at him would wake him up.

“Fuck!” Emma burst out. “We’ll have to carry him! We’ll have to, we’ll have to…” she glanced around, every which way, and paused. “Which way did we come from?”

Phil looked and—everything seemed identical. He’d been running on pure adrenaline, barreling towards the sound of Dan’s voice, but he hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going, hadn’t even thought to remember where all their stuff was. “Shit,” he cursed.

“What are we going to do?” Emma shouted, her eyes practically bugging out of her head as she pulled on her hair. She collapsed next to Dan, shaking him desperately. “How long does the poison take?”

“Maybe we don’t need to do anything,” Phil suggested tentatively. Emma turned and glared at him, so viciously that Phil almost felt a need to take a step back.

“Listen here, Phil Lester,” Emma bit out, her teeth gritted in anger. “You may just be another lousy Ares kid, all fighting and no feelings, but this is my best friend. If you suggest we just sit here while his life slips away then I suggest that you run when I come to fucking murder you.”

Phil swallowed, actually taking a step back now. “That's not—I wasn’t…” he cleared his throat, shook his head. “That wasn’t what I mean. In one’s hour of greatest need, a god’s assistance will help to succeed,” he quoted. “Maybe… maybe a god will show up and save Dan.”

“I’m not willing to take that chance,” Emma scoffed. “Besides, no one’s ‘suffered for the cost of a bet’ yet.”

But maybe Dan has, Phil thought desperately, but he said nothing. With a groan Emma jumped to her feet.

“You stay here and watch over him,” she instructed, jabbing her finger in Dan’s direction. “And if that chimera comes back, let its snake bite you before you let it touch Dan.”

“Got it,” Phil said uneasily.

“I’m gonna run in this direction and hope it’s the way we came from,” Emma continued, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb. And with that, she was turning and running in the other direction, her long legs striding over uneven ground.

With Emma gone, Phil went and kneeled next to Dan. His face was pale, his breathing shallow, but even despite his evident suffering he still looked beautiful. His face was so relaxed in sleep, so innocent, none of his usual looks of scorn or furrowed brows as he glared in annoyance or anger.

I could love you, Phil realized, looking at him. Not because he was beautiful, although that was certainly undeniable, but because of the times he’d observed Dan without him knowing. Especially now that he was on a mission with him, getting to see him up close instead of from across the dining hall or training in the training room. When Dan thought no one was paying attention to him, he let his guard down, turned soft and sweet and kind. Phil had seen him and Emma talking to each other quietly, happily. He’d seen them laugh together, seen Emma take his walls down brick by brick.

It made Phil want to be able to take his guard down as well. Made him want to see what it was like on the other side of the wall, see what Dan was like. And now I never might, he realized, swallowing thickly. I can’t let that happen.

Phil grabbed Dan’s hand in his, disoriented by how cold his skin felt. He tried to ignore it, instead pointing his face skyward.

“Aphrodite,” he said aloud, tightening his fingers around Dan’s. “Please. Help us.”

There was no answer, other than the sounds of the forest around him, birds singing and bugs chittering. He cleared his throat.

“I know I’m no son of yours,” he said. “But like, you’re kind of dating my dad. Even though you’re married to Hephaestus…” Phil shook his head. “Not that that’s a problem, per se…” Very suddenly, the entire forest went silent. Phil sucked in a breath. “For you! It’s of course a problem for us mere mortals, to be untruthful in a relationship. But—but you’re the goddess of love! It only makes sense for you to pursue your one true love, and you never chose to marry Hephaestus in the first place, so…”

The forest was alive again, and the goosebumps that had erupted on Phil’s skin faded away. “So just… please,” he continued. “Please help us. Help Dan.”

Aphrodite didn’t answer. But a cloud in the sky did shift, just a little, and the sun pierced through it, and through the trees, shining right on a small plant growing at the base of one. Phil looked at it for a moment, bewildered, before he gasped.

“Oh! Oh, thank you! Thank you!” He darted over to the plant, plucked it carefully, and carried it over to Dan. He’d never seen one in real life before, but it’s appearance was easily recognizable. It was a nectar plant, the very same that was harvested by the gods for the nectar they drank. It did the same kind of deal as ambrosia, healing demigods (unless they ate too much, of course, in which case they burned alive or something).

He had no idea whether it’d been there before and Aphrodite had just directed his attention towards it, or if she’d made it grow for him. Either way, he was beyond grateful.

Kneeling over Dan, Phil pried his mouth open and squeezed the stem of the nectar plant, its pale white petals soft and silky where they touched his hand. Thick, golden droplets of nectar squeezed from the stem and into Dan’s mouth, landing on his tongue.

“Wake up,” Phil whispered, even daring to squeeze the last little bit from the stem of the flower. It was dangerous, and Dan definitely wouldn’t be able to consume any more godly food in the next couple of days, but it was worth it. Dan gasped, his eyes fluttering open, darting around, as he sat up in surprise.

“I’m not—where—” he panted, looking all around him. “What?”

“How do you feel?” Phil asked, peering at him intently. His hand was behind Dan’s back, helping him to sit up, and Dan looked at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“Um. Fine,” he said, sounding confused. “But before it was… it was burning. My neck,” his hand flew up, fingers connecting with his neck. There was blood there, from before, but the injury was gone. Dan scrubbed away the blood with his sleeve and underneath it, all that was left, was a thin white line.

“How’d you do this?” Dan asked, amazed. “Where’s Emma?”

“She went to go find our supplies, but she hasn’t come back yet,” Phil answered. “I prayed to your mom,” Phil supplied, given Dan’s curious look. He raised the now crumpled flower, and Dan gaped at it in surprise.

“Holy shit…” he breathed. He tried to sit up more but was apparently having a hard time, the ambrosia probably not having worked all the way through his system yet. Phil pulled him up, pulled him against his shoulder, and Dan stiffened. Phil sighed.

“I’m sorry,” he said preemptively. “For being so forward.” And then came the lies, the scheming, the weaving of future plans. “It’s just—I’ve had a crush on you for practically forever, you know? And I saw this quest as a chance to finally get to talk to you. I was overexcited and stepped over way too many boundaries and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Oh, I, Um. Yes, thank you,” Dan stuttered. “Um. I’m sorry too. For threatening to kick you off the quest.”

“It was deserved,” Phil said with a shrug, and Dan chuckled nervously. He smiled at Phil, and Phil smiled back.

He would have to be much more subtle with his future advances. No more flirting, no throwing himself all over Dan. He’d have to actually befriend him first, have to make Dan trust him, and sneak under his defenses that way. He had to make Dan fall in love with him.

He remembered the forest going completely silent a few minutes ago, just from an offhand comment Phil had said to Aphrodite about love. He just hoped he’d be able to make it through this unscathed. Maybe his father would protect him, once he finally met the man.

Dan was still leaning against Phil’s shoulder, the two of them having moved on to new topics, about camp and monsters and quests, when Emma burst back into the clearing, tears trailing down her face.

“I can’t find our stuff!” she wailed, looking towards Phil in desperation, and then she paused. She took in a shuddery breath. “Dan?”

“Emma,” Dan said with a soft smile. Sure, he’d been being pretty nice to Phil the last few minutes (probably the combination of Phil actually apologizing and the fact that he was most likely a little bit drunk on the nectar in his body) but his face really lit up when he saw Emma, softened completely. If Phil weren’t so sure that Dan wasn’t straight, he would’ve thought he was in love with the girl. “I’m okay,” he promised.

“How?” Emma whispered, while striding across the ground only to sink down on the other side of Dan. She took him into her arms and Dan sighed, long and loud.

“I hate hugs,” he muttered.

“Don’t care,” Emma said, her voice muffled by his neck. “Thought you were dead.”

“Come on! I’m better than that!” Dan protested.

“You were out cold on the ground,” Emma said hotly, pulling away to glare at him, and Dan shrugged.

“Yeah but my mom loves me, apparently.”

Emma raised her eyebrows. Phil pointed to the flower.

“Nectar?” she said incredulously.

“From Aphrodite.”

Soon, Dan felt good enough to walk and they were all standing up carefully, making sure he wasn’t about to pitch over and eat dirt. Still, he was unsteady enough that they decided not to try to search all of the surrounding forest for their bags. This meant that they wouldn’t have any ambrosia for next time, nor money—godly or otherwise. Besides the clothes on their backs and the weapons in their hands (and in Dan’s case, vanished somewhere in the air) they had nothing. Phil didn’t want to bring it up yet but it was pretty obvious that they were going to have to turn to stealing for their next meal. It probably wasn’t such a good idea to mention that right then, however. For now, they could just feel relieved that Dan had managed to escape death and try to find their way to the edge of the forest, where hopefully they could find a road they could walk along. If they were lucky, they might even be able to hitchhike.

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand,” Emma said as they walked, her arm wound around Dan’s waist to assist him. “The prophecy skipped a line. Who suffered? For the cost of the bet, who suffered?”

Phil looked her in the eyes and said, “No idea.”

~~

next chapter 

#aif #all is fair #phanfiction #here it is guys!!! #hope you enjoyed it! #i wrote all of this in school yesterday #throughout my classes lmao

[lordzuuko]

So I've been thinking about that PJO AU of Voltron I read and I wonder how does Keith react the first time he uses his powers? How old is he too? And would/is he an orphan? Or a run away maybe?

That Voltron PJO AU ask with their godly parents Hades visits Keith at camp and everyone is surprisedHmmm let’s age them up a bit here.

Keith’s demigod backstory because this is what I live for.

Keith is of Japanese descent. So he’s technically half-Japanese-half-Greek. He was a sheltered kid, he couldn’t remember much about his Daddy when he was a kid, but he knew that he only visited rarely and gave them a lot of money. It was usually just him and his Mommy. He was homeschooled because apparently his father said so. He didn’t know why so he didn’t really bother. He got to spend a lot of his time with his Mom but one time his Dad came home and told them they needed to board the plane to go to a different country for Keith’s safety. 

They were riding the cab to the airport when he asked his mother where his father was. “He’ll meet us there, sweetheart,” came his mother’s reply. Little Keith was excited. He was 9 years old and he loved going to different countries so this wasn’t an exception. An unfortunate event happened while they were on their way, their cab crashed and Keith saw with his own two eyes his mother dying. “Darling, please go to this place. They will keep you safe.” His mom gave him a card with an address and he cried in front of her, desperate to keep her alive. He looked up and he saw his dad take him into his arms. Keith wanted him to let him go to stay with his mom but the last thing he knew, darkness wrapped him and his dad, and that was the last thing he could remember.

That was how Keith found himself in the streets, because he had no heart to go back home because it would only remind him of his mom. At the age of 11, he started seeing weird creatures. His first monster was a chimera. He was scared to death, so when the monster started attacking him, he ran as quickly as he could. Suddenly a sword materialized in front of him while he was hiding with a note “Use this, son. With love, Dad” He had no clue what the note even meant but when the chimera found his hiding spot, he instantly grabbed the sword, dodged the monster’s tail, rolled over to its backside and stabbed it repeatedly like he was hungry for murder, causing it to disintegrate. He saw more chimeras coming his way he killed five of them. 

He looked at his hand and he dropped the sword. He was not only scared of the monsters, but he was scared of himself. He wrapped himself in the corner and started to sob. He didn’t know what was going on until he saw shadows gathering around him. He looked up and he saw his father wearing a black cloak. “My beautiful brave son. I’m Hades, your Father.” Little Keith had never been so quick to stand up and ran in his life to his hug Dad. He wanted to hate his Dad but he was only a kid so when Hades told him his side, he understood why he couldn’t stay with them, but he found out that Hades had been looking out for him. 

Keith later soon found out the he had “powers.” He found it cool that he could summon the dead and Hades had never been so amused to see a child of his thinking being a child of the underworld to be so cool. Hades reminded him that he needed to go to “Camp Half Blood” to which Keith replied with “Soon. When I’m ready.” Keith was stubborn and he kept on sparring and chatting with the dead warriors he would summon. That was when he heard a noise. He looked back to see it was another Japanese kid. Keith quickly hid his sword.

“I’m Shiro and you have a sword. That’s so awesome!” Little 13 year old Shiro said. “Do you have powers, too?” Keith blinked because WHAT? Shiro told him that apparently he could fly and demonstrated it. Keith told him he was a demigod and a son of Hades to which Shiro found pretty cool. Shiro didn’t know who his godly parent was but he could see monsters. The second he said that, more monsters appeared and together they fought them. After they won, Shiro laughed and hugged Keith calling him amazing. “We should definitely stick together. Teach me some of your moves and I’ll teach you mine. My Mom wanted me to take martial arts when I was young so…” Keith was at awe but he just nodded. Shiro took his hand and squeezed it which made Keith jump in surprise, teleporting them to another place. The shadows disappeared around them and Shiro asked “Keith, did you just?? You could do THAT?” Keith shook his head because OH GODS HE HASN’T DONE THAT BEFORE. 

Shiro (18) and Keith (16) were together for years (both motherless), not staying in one place to avoid monsters, until Keith suddenly remembered he needed to go somewhere. So when he showed Shiro the card his mom left, Shiro’s eyes widened because “This was the place that goat person kept on spouting about that I should go to back when I first met you. I got scared because I had no idea who they were so I ran away.” Keith frowned and they heard some screaming and it was the satyr Shiro was avoiding. “FOUND YOU. FINALLY.” Apparently they were told they needed to go to camp for their safety because they were already old and their scent was stronger than ever. Shiro suggested they use Keith’s “teleportation”powers while Keith said to use Shiro’s flying powers at the same time. “You can teleport?” the satyr asked. “I’m a child of Hades.” “A child of Hades?! Oh my gods! No wonder so many monsters were in the vicinity. Two children of—” That peaked Shiro’s attention “Are you saying I’m a child of Hades?” “No. Children of Hades can’t fly. I have an idea though who your godly parent might be.”

When they reached camp after so many monster encounters and a lot of shadow traveling and flying, they were so relieved when they pass the camp borders. The whole camp was alarmed at the new arrivals because so many monsters gathered outside. Shiro and Keith almost face-planted once they were inside, but Shiro held on to Keith’s waist to keep him from falling. The other demigods gathered to help them when suddenly, two glowing symbols were floating above Shiro and Keith’s heads. They were claimed.

“Takashi Shirogane, Son of Zeus and Keith Kogane, Son of Hades. The children of The Big Three.” 

Everyone bowed down to them because right in front of them were the most powerful demigods.

#newworldchild #ask #sheith #pjo au #whoa this was longer than i intended it to be #also the bowing down to a child of big three is one of the coolest scenes in the book BUT THEY DIDNT INCLUDE THAT IN THE MOVIE WTH?