[Village of the Earth] A Thief in the Night

"Quite the intimidating wall."

Iskra, currently in the form of a man with a very long mullet-tail, looked up the rather imposing wall guarding the Village of the Earth. It was wooden and spiked at the top and wrapped the village all around like the protective arms of a father. He frowned, folding his arms and muttering to himself as he walked back and forth before the obstruction. This village was well protected, and for that reason would have soft, easily kidnapped women. Indeed, clutched in one of the man's large hands was a sack for the express purpose of rapture, the rapture of some unoffending young woman into a life of slavery and the selling of her body for the profit of this demon.

But first, he would have to overcome the wall.

A little bit of walking took him towards a gate, and like the beast he was he remained just shy of it, fearing, for the moment, the possibility of being sighted by some human or guards.

He retreated a bit back the way he came and scratched lightly at the wood. Perhaps with sufficient force he could bring it down.

It would be noisy, but perhaps worth a shot.

Then again, he was only here for a single woman, not to start a war with his apparent neighbors.

Decisions, decisions. He took his chainblades down from where they rested on his hips before it dawned on him.

"I can climb with these!"

It might have been a common assumption for a human, but this wasn't a human. As such he swung the chains once around his head and threw them forward. They sank into the wood, allowing him to yank himself up by the metal claws. He repeated the gesture again and gradually started working his way towards the top of the wall.

[ EXP: 350 || +1 TEXP (1st post) ]

The man drew inches from the top, and honestly the height would be dizzying if he wasn't used to flying--

Flying? Flying! Yes! That's how he'd get over those intimidating spikes at the top, though he wasn't sure he wanted to be doing too much of that sort of thing. He imagined that the humans in the area despised her kind like the humans in most other areas. If they saw him flying, they'd definitely know he was a spirit, and since he wasn't a kami, that only left one other faction for her identification.

With a short yank the man was evenly atop the fence, looking down and surveying the surroundings for a proper house to sneak into. He managed to avoid impalement by balancing evenly between two of the spikes, but he couldn't avoid detection from where he stood.

There! A torch moved in the dim lighting, and from the timing and location of the torch, she guessed it to be a guard, if the guards were anything like the bunch Lethe was a part of in the Village of the Moon.

So he immediately dropped, landing in a soft crouch on the ground. His form began to shift and change until instead of a man, a woman stood in the darkness of the alleyway, her hair white and marked with spots not unlike a leopard's or a hyena's. Her skin was dark, however, and her eyes were as blue as a mountain lake as she edged up against the side of the dark passage, wondering what kind of act she would pitch to appear innocent.

[ EXP: 291 ]

Apparently this area's guard had turned an alleyway too early. This left Iskra with two options: stumble out at the risk that this guard wasn't some ordinary, unperceptive human or try to run and nab what she came for and sneak past him with a struggling bundle on the way out.

She'd definitely see more of the village's layout for future raids if she chose the former option, so she did. Feigning a limp, she stumbled out of the alleyway and into the main street, coughing and appearing as weak as she possibly could. She held her arm, moaned, and leaned up against one of the many solid stone buildings erected around the area, slumping to her seat on the ground and overall appearing as though she'd just had a very rough time.

Rather, she thought that by looking pitiful, she could appeal to the guarding instincts that the type of men who often volunteered to patrol these towns at night tended to have. Though she had a beastly strength, her muscles were slender and she was short.

[ EXP: 200 ]

So off she was whisked through the street with all the haste of an ancient ambulance. Perhaps she had exploited his protective instincts too far, because now she was before the village healer, and no doubt he might recognize some of her physical traits as slightly abnormal.

"I am a kami," she lied. "I was fighting a wicked bat demon in the skies above and he threw me down. I think I landed on my elbow wrong."

Kamikonjou, as she knew, were favored in human villages as much as her kind were despised. By assuming the identity of one, she hoped to curry some favor while still preventing him from examining her and finding that her injury was feigned. "I'll be okay, really."

Asked for her name, however, she wanted something that sounded less... grunty. "My name is Ishra."

Another lie, but it'd get her through for the moment.

Hopefully they would let her go, though she wasn't sure if the mission was botched yet or not. "I came here in search of a certain young woman. She won't remember me, but she is in grave danger."

[ EXP: 219 ]

Iskra's first impulse was to throw the old man down and break his neck for insisting that she lay down, but that dark sentiment primarily arose from her feeling of being trapped in this healer's workplace. Indeed, at this point she wanted very much to spring away with a snap and a snarl back to the freedom of the wilds.

But as things were, she had to maintain the lie.

"I am not sure what she calls herself now," she said, a lot of the demonic growl usually lacing her voice outright missing. "But she was an orphan left in this village some time ago near her birth. I know of a nefarious plot by some devils to use her pure blood for a dark and loathsome ritual. I admire your walls, yes, but these monsters have the ability to bend time and space. Unless I get her out of the village, where they know her to be, then they'll simply appear."

She paused for dramatic emphasis. "Yes, they will appear, because they don't have to obey the physical laws of space and time. They can freeze the entire village while they move around for the equivalent of a day, and when they have received what they need, they will make her vanish." A pleading look filled her eyes. "I will be okay, I am a warrior, but that innocent young lady..."

Yes, the more innocent the better.

[ EXP: 264 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]

So now the spirit was in deeper doo-doo than previously. Now she'd managed to attract the attention of the entire village, and if she wasn't careful, her deception would be found out.

With a wince, she began to walk towards the door, wishing that she could perform like the devils she'd spoken of... the ones who could disappear and reappear elsewhere for she would surely transport herself out of this situation.

"My friends..." she began, not sure of how exactly she could lie her way out of this one. "There is another that I must tend to tonight."

She nodded gravely. "I have a small child at my home... a product of love between me and a handsome human male. I cannot tarry the entire night. I must check on him."

Such would at least explain her urgency about everything, she thought. As long as she made it out of this village without the entirety of it tailing her, then she would be perfectly fine. Let them find out later that she was lying, and she could come in with more stealth later and steal a virgin.

[ EXP: 211 ]

Iskra sighed in relief at being allowed to go free, though initially it might appear that she was relieved she could go attend to her child, if they bought such a story.

But buy it they did. Honestly, if she got this one guy off by himself, he wouldn't be hard to deal with. It was attracting the ill intentions of the entire lot of them that worried her and kept her from acting out.

"Thank you dearly for your kindness, Physician. I shall tell my brother and sister spirits to guard this place with particular care."

No sooner had they began walking along the road than the kennels exploded in noise. Baying and howling and all manner of bothersome racket. It was all she could do not to simply freeze the entire building and let them choke on the air as it froze the lining of their dim-witted throats.

"Oh, I can hardly blame dogs for barking," she continued with a false charm as they finally, FINALLY departed the village gates. "It's what they... do after all. Dogs, I mean. Even spirits who are formed like dogs carry the habit, I'm afraid."

Her place wasn't too terribly far away. It would definitely be faster if she revealed her true form, but she wanted to wait until they were a little further away. "So what is your name, kind human?"

[ EXP: 260 ]

The woman continued on casually, her eyes eventually drifting up to the skies above. The moon sat in the star-speckled canvas of the sky like a fat pie on a windowsill. For a moment, she felt sorry for this man. He was so dreadfully naive. She couldn't despise weakness like she used to under her clan. It wasn't much in her anymore, since relative to her the entire group of hyenas had been weak. This gave room for pity to flourish in a small way. A flower of virtue in the midst of the desert of amorality that was her soul.

Yet, more thoughts filled her mind as well. There was a large crack in the wall of her future brothel that needed patching. There was a hundred little thunder rats living in poverty under her apparent rule. There were future generations of herself just waiting to be conceived. For all of these things she needed material wealth.

It was for the greater good of herself.

"Not much further," she answered casually before turning to pin the much larger man up against a tree. Nobody was around for at least a mile at this point, and the power in her arms was monstrous, even as a member of a group of spirits reputed far and wide for their hideous strength. She didn't devolve into a snarling fit with the sudden action, however. She remained cool, quiet, and collected.

[ EXP: 264 || +1 TEXP (1st post) ]

The woman smiled, but her teeth no longer looked like a human's. Instead, they were pointed and conical, none of them flat. Their eyes were the same color. She began to exhale throatily, like a person trying to suppress a laugh before her voice gave way to a series of long, low chuckles, like a staggering howl. Her form began to shift, her weight increasing as her body underwent a horrible change. Her mouth stretched out to accommodate the collection of fangs that lined its insides, and that was the most prominent part of the shifting of her shape as her length grew and her body shifted to a quadruped form, filling out as her clothes recessed into her skin and joined the transformation. Her shock of white, spotted hair fell down her back, crawling down her boy like mold until it formed a coat of fur, and the rest of the alterations happened so quickly...

By the time it was all done, however, it was a massive, gently bristling, white hyena that pinned the man to the tree and not a woman. When the beast spoke, its mouth didn't move, as though the sound were being generated unnaturally from the monster's area instead of the normal route of throat and tongue.

"My name is Iskra," she said plainly. "I have an important mission in life, so you have two options now. You can help me, or I can transform you into a woman and use you instead."

[ EXP: 295 ]

The beast looked somewhat perplexed, and when the man swung at her in his small way, she actually let up off of him enough to dodge and allow him free movement.

Instead, she began to pace a little bit around him, not unlike a wolf eying a herd of sheep for a weak point. It wasn't as though she didn't present a sizable barrier to his escape, even if he could now run. She was four feet at the shoulder, which was taller than your average tiger, and despite her size she was very quick in both slight movements and outright speed. She grew up among the brute spirits of the forest, and she bred true to her demonic stock, a line that survived and flourished under anarchy and famine. She laughed again, ostensibly at him, but it was a natural reaction in her kind to hunger.

"Such a weak proposal?" she said, curious and still circling him. "I just threatened to... literally take away your manhood and confine you to a life of slavery and rape. What's your idea of a strong proposal?"

After a moment, she realized that it wasn't the most effective way to phrase the question. "I mean, what would it take?"

[ EXP: 229 ]

The monster continued to chuckle low under her breath. He was so meaty. Usually humans were mostly bones, but this one held a lot of the good stuff on his frame.

"Oh, it's not that. I just find it sort of silly that you go on and on about pride. Have you ever seen a whore with pride?" She looked at him blankly, her tone casual. "I haven't, and I deal with quite a few of them. It's not really an issue of a man bending to my will as an issue of a man behaving irrationally. If you wanted to keep your pride, the best way to do so would be to comply with my wishes and not force me to stock my shelves through means involving your body. Just give me a good substitute. I'm sure there are some girls in your village who would kill for a chance to leave and work elsewhere."

She drew closer to him with another chuckle. "I don't have to be this nice, you know. I could've just took you away myself... or do you doubt my powers? If you doubt my powers, I can prepare a little demonstration for you..."

[ EXP: 207 ]

Of course, by "demonstration" she meant just that, a literal demonstration. She didn't mean to actually engage him in battle, for she oddly felt no desire to permanently harm him at the moment despite her great threats and her hunger. He wasn't acting out of line, as far as she was concerned. This village was his clan. She could recognize the sentiment that led him to protect it so stubbornly as the same one that she once had for her family.

She chuckled again, openly. "Why would I stock a brothel for men with demon women? I don't wish for my customers' entrails to be spread about my floor. I need a living clientele." The pacing stopped. "Very well, then, kitse."

With the chant of the word, a magical influence came over the area. Anyone would be able to feel the darkness, but it would only manifest to those gifted to see the things of the spirit. A number of glyphs, wavy and of various color formed on the air before funneling forwards towards the man at an incredible speed.

Should they come in contact with the hammer-wielding man, they'd twist his form into that of a goat of some description.

[ EXP: 230 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]

Used Soul Vertigo I

Iskra scratched her chin nonchalantly and yawned, a noise that gave way to yet another disconcerting chuckle, as though the mortal danger that the human was now in was some sort of elaborate joke. "You dropped your hammer," she said, almost as if she were making a bored observation. "Rather, I suppose I could make my offer again. Either you can surrender to my service, or I will kill you and eat you before you leave this area." She licked her chops, curious if the man would betray his "clan" now that the danger was real and evident. "Not necessarily in that order. Goat is my favorite, after all. Either way's good with me. What's it gonna be, human?"

[ EXP: 137 ]

The woman's brows knitted together for a moment, as though he'd said something infinitely perplexing.

And then she walked over to a stump and sat down, her fist upholding her chin and her knee upholding her elbow in a classic "thinker" pose.

A moment passed. She simply stared at the goat.

"You know..." she began. "If you had actually offered to sell one of your clansmen to me, I would have raped and eaten you."

"But if you had completely refused, I was going to humiliate you more and taken a woman from your clan anyways. You offer a sensible compromise. You'll help me get what I want from another village. This was, in fact, the correct answer and the best way to defend your clanswomen."

In an instant, Iskra released the bind that held the man in the form of a caprid without moving from her spot. "When I met you, I thought you were stupid. Now I can see that you're smart to a degree." She smiled carnivorously. "I'm not one to think that any dishonor lies in mistreating anyone not of your clan, don't you think?"

[ EXP: 215 ]

Iskra looked at him with her head tilted slightly to the side with an infinite inquisitiveness. "Then we have nothing more to discuss tonight. It's too late for me to actually get anyone tonight, but since you agreed on your honor to assist me, then I believe you." She smiled with a genuine warmth. "Are there any particularly rich human villages that you know of? Large ones... maybe ones with a lot of water? I would surely be more interested in those than your noble fortress."

[ EXP: 100 ]

The demon rather liked the human's quick thinking. Already he had knowledge of which villages would be weak relative his, and now he was passing that intelligence off to her. This seemed like a good type of thing to have... a human who already knew the ins and outs of the area. Perhaps in the future when she planned to attack a place she could intentionally have one of these people about gathering useful information like this.

"I have a friend from the Village of the Moon," she began thoughtfully, a brief image of Lethe floating through her mind. "So we will leave them unmolested. Village of the Sun would be the next best bet, but they are, as you say, a village, so they will be united against a common foe. A clan of numbers gives strength." She chuckled again. "I think that these outlying settlements would be the best place to attack with little risk of reciprocation... I believe that's more important to me, though. You have your walls to protect you if they recognize you. I have... very little but my own strength."

[ EXP: 213 ]

Iskra felt like laughing, though she wasn't sure if that was just her hyena nature rearing its head or if she was glad for how well this trip had gone despite ostensibly not yielding any stock for her store, as it were.

There wasn't much else to do out in the woods. Her home lay a little further on. There wasn't much use to pausing where she was.

But then she wondered at the value of making this otherwise honorable man help her destroy some poor woman at no profit to himself.

Then again, that wasn't really her problem, when she thought about it. Her goal was to have one hundred and sixty four offspring. His goals did not intersect with that unless she intentionally went down and made it his business to help her reach that goal.

So with a light heart she turned and made her way on... the twisted path through the trees, across the rubble, and over ashen remains of wildfires. She made her way back to the place where the thunderrats rested in peace of mind as they shared her home with her. She made her way back to her bed.

And she slept with a guiltless mind.

[ EXP: 219 ]