Off the Leash (Florian)

[Aegis]

The group was shook, and it was obvious that many of the members were not hardened and combat ready. Gahala seemed to be the only one remaining calm alongside Florian. Lilac was doing her best, not quite sure what Florian had done to her fireballs but was readying herself to continue to help. One of the mules snorted and stamped its hoof nervously.

And then the being shimmered into existence, on the opposite side of the fire from Florian and Lilac. As the active camouflage fell away, the creature's Aether presence could be detected once more. But now, lit by the fire, it could be seen. It stood tall, two full heads taller than Florian, with mighty, curled horns. It was covered in surgical scars, old ones. And, should Florian notice, that all of the surgical scars that Florian had acquired from Constantine, this beast would have the same exact ones, and some additional. It was obvious it was a Lysanrin, either now or at one point before becoming... whatever it was now. It's body and musculature were far larger than natural for a Lysanrin, it had glowing aetheric claws extending out of the tips of its fingers and toes. Over the tops of its shoulders, large curled horns could be seen coming out of its back as well.

The man it had revealed itself in front of froze up, and the being reached out, grabbing him by the throat. It picked him up and opened its mouth. A glowing force began to weave its way out of the man's body, his face twisted into a voiceless scream, writhing wildly in pain but unable to break the grip. The glowing force, entered the creature's mouth, and it continued to absorb it all until there was nothing left. The man had aged hundreds of years in a matter of a few moments before disintegrating into a pile of dust, his body and soul completely drained of all naturally existing aether.

The being began to reactivate its active camouflage, a process that would take a few seconds to spread across its body, starting from its head, as it stepped back away from the fire.

[Florian]

Now that he could see the creature, he knew it was for him. Florian knew those scars that matched his own, and he couldn't help but yell. His own fate had been total deconstruction, death, but it seemed other Lysanrin had much different experiments done to them under the doctor's careful hand.

"What did Constantine do to you!?"

Florian did not remember reading about this creature in the doctor's notes, but to think that he was somehow so valuable to the doctor's science as to hunt down with something like this made him retch. His survival seemed to be a detriment to the survival of others as he watched his new companions die. Here he had been so concerned with himself. He had no way of knowing this would happen, and yet it was his fault all the same.

Before the creature could fully disappear, Florian grabbed a stick out of the fire, one that was not yet totally consumed by the flames, and ran to hit the rapidly-camouflaging beast with it. If anything, he wanted to draw the ire of the thing to himself. It suddenly re-appeared in full vision, momentarily unbalanced, and Florian took the opportunity to run. He seemed to be after him, and he would be better at protecting himself than a group of people it seemed intent on destroying.

[Aegis]

As Flroian yelled those words at the being, there was a momentary flash of recognition in them, as the eyes softened to a light lavender hue. Pain, sadness, loss. But it was quickly overtaken by crimson and the being continued onward. As the fiery stick struck the creature, snapping the stick, sending embers and a loud crack into the air. The experiment took a step backward, nostrils flaring, arms coming up defensively as the fire came too close to its face. This distraction caused the camouflage to cease and become undone, and the creature saw Florian turn and run.

It looked over at the little girl and her protectors, seeing her summon another fireball, seeing the campfire behind her. It was an easy decision. The beast turned and began to lumber quickly after Florian, leaving the camp behind. It ran on all fours, its oversized arms being used to pivot its body forward, similar to how a gorilla might run. It chased and chased and chased, gaining ground on Florian, for the man was by no means an excellent runner. Perhaps this was an oversight of the Zaichaeri government, not providing proper physical training for its servants. It wouldn't be long until the root of a particularly inconveniently located tree would trip up the lad, sending him sprawling forward into the dirt of a small clearing in the forest.

The beast was quicker, leaping up and over Florian, cutting off further distance away from it. As it leaned forward on its arms, staring Florian down, it was still paused. Florian may not have discovered anything on 000 but 000 knew plenty about Florian. One of the experiments that Constantine had resulted in 000 being more in tune with any Lysanrin around him. Every Lysanrin that had come under Constantine's scalpel, every physical, mental, and emotional change those at the facility had gone through, 000 felt all of it just as much as they had. An empathetic bond, and in this moment, Florian would be able to feel just a hint of that now.

000 was in excruciating pain, constant, unending pain and it wanted nothing more than to be set free of the pain. Across this temporary bond, Florian would see a glimpse, a flash of a scene in his mind's eye. It was of a small boy, horned, dirty and clutching his knees, chained at the neck in a stone walled cell. A boy with the same horns upon his crown as 000. And soon, it was over, and the bond was severed. The beast charged forward on its huge, lumbering arms, making a straight dash right for Florian.

[Florian]

Florian was still on the ground as the beast lumbered towards him. He had no idea of what sort of death — or not — awaited him at the end of the creature's long arms. But for a second, he could feel, and he could feel that this used to be a man, a boy, a Lysanrin like him, but what remained of him after such horrifying experiments was beyond Florian's purview. But he had seen the brief change in his eyes when he yelled the name Constantine, so maybe he could understand speech.

He did not have enough time to stand up and keep running through the woods as the experiment bounded towards him, but he raised his arms, as if they could defend himself against whatever it planned to do. A shield could last for a second, protect him for a moment, but he could only assume that what was once a Lysanrin could absorb the aether.

"IT'S OKAY!" He yelled, as much to himself as to the experiment. His mother tried so desperately to teach him empathy, for years and years to understand the lives of others mattered as much as his own. It was a hard pill to swallow, a difficult lesson to even comprehend. People could hurt others and lash out because of the own damage and pain and trauma they carried. She was kind to everyone, even when they hurt her. Florian had to wonder if she was even kind to the one who killed her. "It's okay!" He said, again, his hands still out to protect himself.

"It's okay. It's okay. Please don't take me back. Please don't take me back to the doctor." He pleaded between heavy breaths, even as the distance between them closed. It was only a few seconds before it was going to reach him, and the only weapon in his repertoire was his words. He couldn't dare fight the creature, but maybe he could reason with it.

[Aegis]

The creature charged, slashing, its aetheric claws tearing through the shield as easily as fog, and absorbing the shield as it did. Another swing as the gap was closed, slicing upwards through Florian's upper arm. As the claws cut, they absorbed the ambient ether from the flesh they cut through, turning the most exposed edges to dust, while aging and killing those nearer to them, effectively cauterizing as they cut. This attack sent Florian's right arm flying several feet away from the Lysanrin.

The creature went in for another attack, but paused, stopping close enough that Florian could feel its breath, could see crimson eyes shift back to lavender as it looked at him. Another memory flashed through this empathic bond between them. A boy, being dragged from his mother, who was turned away coldly. "Please! Please don't take me back to the doctor! Mama! Please!" The memory flashed away, giving Florian just a moment to see a fireball explode against the side of the creature's head.

The creature screamed in pain and stumbled, shoving Florian backwards as it fell itself. After scrambling and gaining some distance, the creature turned, staring past Florian now. Behind him, Lilac was there, her body ringed in fire, fireballs hovering around her, Gahala at her side, rushing forward with his axes. Behind them, the rest of the camp, all carrying weapons. The creature snarled as Lilac through another fireball at him. He opened his mouth, swallowing it whole and absorbing it. But he cast his gaze over at Florian, then back to the girl, his eyes flitting back and forth and shifting between crimson and lavender as he did.

Another fireball was thrown, accompanied by an axe being flung. The creature raised its own hand defensively, as the fireball blinded it temporarily and the axe bit into its forearm, slicing clean through, severing the limb, and embedding itself into its shoulder. A pained scream roared out over the clearing. The creature scrambled, locking eyes once more with Florian, before grabbing Florian's arm and loping off into the wilderness, leaving its own partial limb behind. Gahala moved to give chase, but it was obvious to all there that the man was by no means quick enough to remotely catch up to the being.

Lilac moved into a defensive posture between Florian and the direction the creature went. Gahala was soon back, around the same time, Florian would be aware of the severing of the empathic bond they had shared. The leader of the camp looked down at Florian, "We don't abandon anyone we take into this camp." The man looked at Florian's severed arm, surprised at seeing no blood, "We're gonna need to get you patched up, can you stand?" He offered a hand as Lilac deactivated her fire magic and immediately burst into tears, rushing into Florian, trying to wrap her arms around his head as she sobbed.

[Florian]

A scream tore through him as the claws did. He looked frantically between the beast in his face and the wound, the missing weight on his right side. The left arm was still up, still trying to protect himself, even if his shield had just been torn through and the right side taken. So much for protecting himself, but he wouldn't have been able to fight back, either. There was no winning. He was going to die.

The fireball changed that, maybe. Maybe it didn't change it at all; the creature's lavender eyes and sharing of...images, or a memory that mimicked his own request. Maybe he was capable of empathy. It didn't matter in the end. Florian vomited to the side and slouched over in the cold dirt under the cold trees and the uncaring sky and could not bring himself to understand what just happened. He stared in the distance where the creature had gone. It could have killed him, but it only claimed his arm. Proof that he found him, maybe. A trophy. Lilac was hugging him while he was on the ground but his mind was elsewhere, so far away.

It was like he was watching his body on the ground as he floated away. The tears on his cheeks had already started to dry, and no new ones fell. At least his cloak wasn't ripped, but his shirt was torn at the sleeve. He refrained from looking too closely at the injury. It was like he had just been balanced and now he was off-balance once again, and from the arm he wrote with, too. A part of him, gone, just like that. Florian let Lilac hug him for a moment, but then he stood up with assistance from his remaining arm and brushed himself off.

"I'm okay. I think...I think it's better if I leave. It was after me. We're from the same place. It might come back. I have to go. I have to go." Florian shook the vision of Kaya's head on fire from his own, and the man who turned to dust. If he wanted the rest of them and himself to be safe, he had to be alone. Again. Again. Always alone. It was his fault they died, and now he had to leave before they grew to resent him for it.

Fuck, the beast took the arm he actually used. He held up his left hand and looked at it, front to back, as if to confirm it were real, and then he started to walk deeper into the looming woods.

[Paragon]

Darkness followed Florian into the night. A velvet black that pressed heavier upon his every step. He left the camp behind and with it, the new companions that he had made. Just as he had parted ways with the other escaped prisoners from the facility. Every snap of a twig or rustle of leaves in the darkness carried with it the looming shadow of a beast that stalked him in the woodlands. Whether or not it was the creature that had been set loose to fetch him was not clear but there was no comfort to be found in the lonely road that Florian had chosen. How long and how far Florian walked was not clear. The mind numbing shock of losing an arm combined with the horrific events that had unfolded that evening were the only things to keep him company for some time.

Eventually the world became so pitch black that it was impossible to see much further than a few feet in front of him. Every step seemed to take Florian deeper and deeper into the darkness until it became apparent that he was going in circles. The same trees. The same bushes. The same beaten path with the same debris upon the forest floor. It did not matter which way he turned, whether it was left or right, forwards or backwards. He continued to come back to the same place.

Until he came back a final time…and standing there was a man.

He was bathed in the moonlight of the midnight sky. The skin that could be seen was pale. He wore simple leather pants tucked into travel boots and a grey shirt that fit his strong frame comfortably. His hands were tucked into his pockets. At his side was a massive black tiger with cerulean stripes along its dark fur. Of all the things that may have been startling about his sudden appearance however, none were more startling than the infernal eyes that stared at Florian from a face completely obscured by shadows. Two points of intensely burning fire that stared at the young Lysanrin with an unsettling amount of familiarity.

“Hello, Florian.” One of the man’s hands left the pocket nearest the black tiger. He threaded his fingers through the fur on the feline’s head, eliciting a purr from the great beast. “Care for some company?”

[Florian]

Circles and circles and circles, it took time to even recognize that he was walking in circles. His thoughts moved in circles, too, through chains of events and people and things and thoughts that brought him to this place. He was numbed and alone and abandoned again, even if he chose to abandon this time. There was too much to think and so he thought none of it.

He stepped on the same twig at least three times, breaking it in different places. He saw where he stepped in the dark, reflecting off the moonlight. The darkness cloaked him and kept close to him, and it was comforting, in a way, to know that he could not see and that no one could see him. It felt safer. It felt safer until he met the man and the big cat, though he didn't feel threatened by him, either. He looked at the cat with an admirable glance; it must have been magical in some way, and it was bigger than a mountain lion and striped with blue. He hadn't heard the man approach, nor had he seen him, but he stood there, casual and with his name on his lips.

"You know my name," Florian said under his breath. He didn't recognize the man from the camp, and he would know the infernal eyes if he had seen them before. His eyes darted to the big, blue-striped cat at his side, and then back at the man. He was obscured even as the moonlight fell on him.

"Sure. I could use some company." Replied the Lysanrin, the words leaving his mouth before he really thought them through. He wasn't sure if he had much choice in the matter, as trapped in this shadowy loop as he was, and he took a few steps closer to the mysterious man.

[Paragon]

“Among other things.” He scratched behind the ears of the great tiger, eliciting more content rumbles from the magnificent beast. Upon ceasing his petting, the tiger rose up onto its feet and padded over to Florian sniffing at him curiously. The tiger’s head was level with Florian’s chest, rippling with predatory power and strength. Intelligence shone in its eyes as it circled Florian, clearly studying him. It sniffed at the space where his missing arm should have been before nosing it. As soon as its nose touched Florian, a warmth spread through his body. Aches dulled, the chill of the evening abated slightly, weariness fled from the sorest of his muscles, and any hunger that stirred within his belly lessened. It was not a perfect restoration but it was something.

“She has not told me her name, yet. Nevertheless, she suffers my company well.” The tiger returned to the shadow-man’s side, rubbing her head upon his flank. He let out a fond chuckle as he pat her. When Florian accepted his company, the man nodded and stepped forward. The shadows obscuring his face pulled back revealing a man who might have been able to pass for human. If one squinted. His skin, though pale, was healthy. His eyes lessened in their intensity, dulling to a glow reminiscent of banked coals in the bed of a campfire. His hair was as black as the shadows that surrounded him. As he revealed his face, there was a shift in the darkness. The shadows practically pressed in closer, reaching, yearning to return to him. In the air around him it was as though the shadows practically clung to him with a rabid desperation, begging for his every breath, his slightest touch, or even the barest of glances.

“Walk with me.” He stepped to the side, creating a space between himself and the tiger. All around them, the shadows of the forest continued to remain impenetrable.

“Would you like to play a game as we walk? The rules are simple. We both ask each other a question. You do not have to answer truthfully but if you choose not to answer at all, the asker gets to ask two questions for your silence.” He reached up and rubbed at the back of his head. “Technically speaking, if you play, you get to start with two questions already.”

[Florian]

His breathing quickened as the massive cat approached him back. He hadn't been around an animal this big before, and it could easily have taken his other arm where the experimental beast had taken the first. But when the big cat's nose touched him, the pain and aches and hunger he had hardly the mind to notice until they were gone started to fade away, and he relaxed. Florian studied the man's face as he revealed it from the dark. He was magical of some sort, but he was no master of magics himself and had no names to put to what he did. He had no name for a man who drew cloying shadows to himself, nor eyes that burned in the dark. He had no name for him at all, despite the fact that he knew his. Everyone seemed to know about him before he knew a touch about them.

He stepped into the space made for him between man and tiger and impenetrable darkness. "I'll play the game." Florian replied. He had nothing to lose and nothing really to gain, but a distraction was better than wandering alone indefinitely. Two questions. He didn't necessarily have to make them count, depending on the man's propensity for answering questions. And how long he wanted to walk. Two questions immediately sprung to mind.

"Who are you?" Came the first, an easy enough, obvious enough question that his new companion likely could have guessed it. Didn't matter, though, because it was comforting to have names to faces. Even if they were wrong. "How did you find me?" He followed up the first question with the second closely enough that this new, however temporary companion would have to answer both questions at the same time. And then, he knew, he would have to answer his own questions.