The Wilds of Askavi, Tuesday Morning (Fandom time)

[glacial_queen]

Lucivar sat on the bank of a creek, finding a little comfort in the rhythmic whack whack whack coming from the clearing. At least destroying the abandoned shack with a sledgehammer gave Jaenelle an outlet for sexual rage and burning energy. Even more important, it was an outlet that would keep her in place for a little while.

Hell's fire, he was tired. The Masters of the Eyrien hunting camps couldn't match Jaenelle's ability to set a grueling pace. Even Smoke, with that tireless, ground-eating trot, was struggling. Of course, unlike one drug-driven witch, wolves liked to do things like eat and sleep, two items now high up on Lucivar's list of sensual pleasures.

Smoke	*Yas?*
Lucivar	Lucivar looked around until he spotted Smoke peering at him from behind a tree, well-hidden in the lengthening evening shadows. He wondered where Smoke had been; for the last day and a half, Smoke would suddenly veer off and fade into the underbrush for an hour or so, before reappearing with no explanation. Lucivar was wondering if he was looking for other kindred wolf packs. Jaenelle barely noticed he was gone. "It's all right. The Lady's tearing up a shack." Smoke whined and hid behind a tree. He puzzled over the wolf's distress, then hastily sent a mental picture of the broken-down structure.
Smoke	*Cabin made by stupid humans.* Smoke sneezed.
Lucivar	Lucivar smothered a laugh. He couldn't argue with Smoke's conclusion. The wolf's reference points for a 'proper human den' included the Hall, the cottages in Halaway, the family's other country cottages, and Jaenelle's cabin. So it made sense that Smoke would see the shack as a den made by an inept humans. Kindred, he was discovering, had Opinions. His desire to laugh faded as he saw that Smoke was still cowering behind the tree. "Smoke?"
Smoke	Smoke made that whining sound again. *I do not know what to do,* he admitted finally. *I do not want to get into trouble, but I do not like leaving her alone.*
Lucivar	"Jaenelle?" Lucivar asked. "She needs a little time to be by herself--"
Smoke	*Not the Lady,* Smoke interrupted. *The other one. It was okay while she was practicing her tracking--* Smoke sniffed disdainfully at that, an almost human noise *--but she will need sleep soon and I do not like leaving her alone.*
Lucivar	"You found another kindred wolf out here? Lucivar asked, pleased. "A little witch?" Smoke's pack had been almost obliterated by hunters a few years back. Even now, bolstered by survivors from other packs and living in the safety of the Hall, his pack was still small. "By all means, go to her."
Smoke	*Not a kindred,* Smoke said, with an audible rrruff. *The Lady's pale human. Karla. She is following us in some kind of hunting exercise. I did not like to leave her alone, but she said you would miss me and I was not sure if this was a human thing.* There was a quality to his psychic thread that suggested that, if it were a 'human thing,' Smoke considered it to be a very stupid one.
Lucivar	"What?!" Lucivar lunged to his feet, filling the air with Eyrien curses. He was going to throttle that little witch until his knuckles turned white. He had told her to go back to school, had told her not to follow, and yet, here she was. Lucivar was going to kill her. And then deliver her to Hell so his father could kill her again. "Bring me to her," he commanded. Smoke led him to Karla's camp, no more than half a mile away. If Lucivar hadn't been so focused on Jaenelle, he would have noticed someone's presence, though he had to give her credit for at least trying to stay undetected. She'd stayed mostly upwind and quiet, camped out up in a tree where she could keep a relative eye on them. None of the defenses she'd rigged had the full power of the Sapphire behind them, either. If he had noticed her presence and had done a desultory scan, he probably would have been fooled into thinking that whoever else was out in Askavi wore the Tiger's Eye. That wasn't much of a comfort. They were on the northern border of Ebon Rih, abutting against Jhinka territory. Knowing that Karla wasn't using her full strength to keep herself protected just angered him even more. He growled a little in his throat.
Karla	"Smoke?" Karla croaked. She sounded absolutely exhausted, as well she should. Keeping up with Lucivar and Jaenelle for the past day and a half was enough to run anyone into the ground. She peeked out of her little nest; a sleeping bag affixed with Craft to the fork in some tree branches. "I told you to go back to them. I'll be--uh-oh." Someone had just spotted the very angry Lucivar standing next to the kindred wolf.
Lucivar	"Uh-oh is right, little witch." Lucivar glared up at her, wings flared and fists propped against his hips. "Drag your ass down here. Now." And on the off-chance Karla was thinking about refusing, he added, "Or I will."
Karla	Lucivar made empty threats all the time--to the best of Karla's knowledge, he'd never walloped any of the coven--but he always carried through when he offered someone a choice. Rather than find out how he'd get her out of her tree, Karla vanished her sleeping bag and started climbing down. Fortunately, he didn't put a time limit on it. Sore and stiff and nearly trembling with exhaustion, it took Karla a little while to make her way down. All she wanted to do was lay down and nap, but when her feet touched the ground, she just glared up at Lucivar with all the temper she could muster. Temper was pretty much the only thing keeping her upright at the moment.
Lucivar	Bloody Hell. Lucivar just glared right back, making a mental tally of every cut, bruise, and scratch he could see. She was filthy, covered in mud and leaves and grass-stains. Her clothes were torn and her braid was matted and unkempt. But he recognized the defiance in her eyes--she was here to serve her Queen and she would fight anything he did to interfere with that. Hell's fire and Mother Night. "How did you find us?" he asked, while he tried to decide what to do with her. Bundling her back to the Keep was pretty much out of the question right now. She'd pitch a Hell of a fit if he tried and, well, he couldn't blame her reactions. She was serving her Queen. She was serving their Queen.
Karla	Karla looked a little surprised that he hadn't begun dressing her down immediately, so she was wary when she answered. "Jaenelle taught me how to search for someone by their Jewel," she replied. "You have to wear a darker Jewel than your quarry, so I couldn't find you or Jaenelle, but Smoke wears the Purple Dusk." "So do a lot of people in Askavi." Karla just gave him a Look. "How many of them are kindred wolves?" she asked tartly.
Lucivar	"So, you snuck out of the Keep, found Smoke, started heading in our direction and somehow kept up with us, even though I'm having trouble matching our pace." Forgive Lucivar for sounding skeptical, but hardened warriors would have problems catching up to them, never mind one scrawny, half-grown witch. Especially not with the lead they'd had on her.
Karla	Karla tried to bristle at his tone, but couldn't work up the energy. "I caught the Opal Wind that was close to where I had first found Smoke," she retorted. "So I didn't have to try to follow you all the way from the Keep. And while you and Jaenelle keep moving, you're kind of zig-zagging a lot. I've been tracking you while going forward, sometimes picking up your trail before you veered off to the left or right."
Lucivar	Lucivar nodded a bit. They had beelined out past the inhabited areas, but once they'd left civilization behind them, he'd just let Jaenelle choose where they went. They'd still covered miles of territory, but in a wide range, not a long one.
Karla	"This is the first time I managed to get close with you," Karla admitted. "Even with all the zig-zagging, it's taken me this long to catch up." She swayed a little, and reached out for the tree to steady herself.
Lucivar	"When was the last time you've slept?" Lucivar demanded.
Karla	"The night you left," she replied, blinking a little owlishly at him. "Last night, I was still trying to catch up."
Lucivar	Lucivar could imagine about how well she'd slept that night, too. "And ate?"
Karla	Wow, Karla's toes sure were interesting. "Luncheon at the Keep," she said in a small voice. "I couldn't grab supplies before I left. I was supposed to have gone through the portal by then."
Lucivar	"So no one knows you're here?" Lucivar had been clinging to the faint hope that she'd at least left a note or told a servant or something. "You could have been killed out in the wilds of Askavi and no one would have even known where to look for your body!" "But I wasn't!" "Don't count on that for very much longer!" Lucivar began pacing. He already had his hands full with one drug-addled witch. He didn't need to add Karla's brand of idiocy to the mix. "On the off-chance I don't throttle the life out of you, there's still no telling what she might do."
Karla	"Nothing," Karla said, shaking her head. Okay, whoa, that made her a little dizzy. "You brought Jaenelle out here so she could release the savage, drug-induced bloodlust on animals, right? And came yourself to give her a target that would enrage and satisfy that bloodlust like nothing else--a human male. But she hasn't touched either, has she? She's refusing to hunt, refusing to buy herself that release if the cost is another's life. She won't do it, Lucivar. I knew that before you left the Keep."
Lucivar	"I had hoped..." Lucivar said, letting out a ragged breath. "But, you're right. She won't. The only person she's hurting is herself. She has no mercy for her own body. She treats it like an enemy worthy of nothing but contempt."
Karla	"That's how she sees it," Karla said, eyes almost feverishly bright above the dark circles around her eyes. "In her mind, her body is the instrument by which her enemies betray her at every turn. It leaves her vulnerable to someone else's sadistic games. It limits her in every way. My Craft will give out before my body does. Not so for Jaenelle."
Lucivar	Lucivar looked at Karla, a little taken aback. Was this Black Widow wisdom or something else? No matter. "Let's get you back to our camp," he said. Though 'camp' was pretty much a scuffed spot on the ground right now. "We'll decide what to do from there."
Karla	"I'm not in trouble?" Karla asked, shocked.
Lucivar	Lucivar laughed at that. "Oh, you can't imagine the worlds of trouble you're in, witchling. You're just also too damn exhausted to fully appreciate it. I'm going to wait until you've had a chance to rest before I begin explaining it all to you."
Karla	"Bastard." It was a half-hearted insult at best. The idea of a nap was lovely.
Lucivar	"Prick," he corrected, plucking her up and tossing her over his shoulder. It wasn't the most comfortable way to travel, but then, Lucivar wasn't exactly worried about whether Karla was enjoying the trip. "Let me down! I can walk!" "Yeah, but I saw how slow you climbed down that tree. I wanted to get back to Jaenelle before tomorrow, if it's all the same to you."
Karla	The worst part of the trip back to their 'camp', Karla reflected, was that Lucivar made sure to bounce her around enough that she couldn't nap. Prick.

Smoke	The sound of smashing preceded their arrival. Jaenelle was still venting her rage on the shack. Smoke had peeled away from them, promising to meet them shortly. In fact, he beat them to the creek, panting on his side with a dead rabbit at his paws. *Eat,* he sent reprovingly.
Lucivar	"Have you eaten?" Lucivar asked the wolf while he set Karla down. Unsurprisingly, she abruptly sat in place, her legs rubbery and aching. When Smoke didn't answer, Lucivar called in the food pack and a large flask Draca had given them before they'd left the Keep. Foolish male he, he'd tried to refuse it, thinking there would be plenty of fresh meat, thinking there would be time to build a fire and cook it. Draca had just stared at him until he'd taken it, thank the Darkness. "You keep the rabbit," he said, digging in the pack and pulling out two large beef sandwiches. "We don't like raw meat."
Smoke	*Karla, eat.* Smoke told her, before cocking his head in entreaty back to Lucivar. *Fire?*
Lucivar	The Eyrien shook his head, passing both sandwiches to Karla and grabbing a third for himself. He refused to think about how nice a fire would feel, sipping from the flask instead.
Karla	"Can I have some of that?" Karla asked, half of the first sandwich already gone.
Lucivar	"It's whiskey," Lucivar said. That meant 'no.' "You're having a hard enough time staying awake as it is. Finish your sandwiches and I'll think about it." He ate his sandwich slowly, savoring the taste and the sensation of not moving. Maybe he could ask Smoke to stay up for a few more minutes, let him get a quick nap in before Jaenelle needed to run somewhere else...
Smoke	*Yas? Karla?*
Karla	Karla's head snapped up from where she'd been dozing over the remains of her second sandwich, automatically probing for the source of Smoke's anxiety. A few birds chattering. A squirrel scrambling through the branches overhead. The usual wood sounds. Only the usual wood sounds. Heart pounding, she leapt to her feet, racing after Lucivar to the little clearing.
Jaenelle	The shack was now a pile of broken timbers. A few feet away, Jaenelle sat on the ground, spraddle-legged, her hands still gripping the sledgehammer's handle while the head rested between her feet.
Lucivar	Approaching cautiously, Lucivar squatted a few feet away from her. "Cat?"
Jaenelle	Tears flowed down her face. Blood dribbled down her chin from the bite in her lower lip. She gulped air and shuddered. "I'm so tired, Lucivar. But it grabs me and..." Her muscles tightened until her body shook from the tension. Her back arched. The cords in her neck stood out. She sucked air through clenched teeth. The sledgehammer's handle snapped in her hands.
Karla	Karla waited, not daring to touch her while her muscles were tight enough to snap. It didn't last more than a couple of minutes. It felt like hours. When it finally passed, her body sagged and she began crying so hard Karla thought it would tear her apart. It was too much like watching Jaenelle in the grip of her dreams. Without thinking, she dashed foward, putting her arms around her best friend, and began to rock her gently. Jaenelle didn't tense or fight, so she held her and let her cry herself out. She felt the sexual intensity rising as soon as Jaenelle stopped crying, but she held on. If she was reading the intensity correctly, she was over the worst of it now. And Karla wasn't the kind of threat Lucivar would be in this situation.
Jaenelle	After several minutes, Jaenelle relaxed enough to rest her head on Karla's shoulders. "I thought I felt you," she said, voice raspy. "I couldn't be sure. It's muddling my senses."
Karla	Karla gave an exhausted chuckle. "Like I'd let you traipse around Askavi with only a few hard-headed males for company."
Lucivar	Lucivar had a thing or two to say about being hard-headed, but he was forestalled by Jaenelle saying his name. "Hmmm?" "I'm hungry." His heart sang. "Then I'll feed you."
Smoke	*Fire?*
Jaenelle	Jaenelle's head snapped up. She stared at the wolf standing at the edge of the clearing. "Why does he want to build a fire?"
Karla	"Damned if I know why he wants one. But if we did, we could ask Lucivar to make laced coffee," Karla wheedled. "He has whiskey. He told me."
Jaenelle	Jaenelle pondered this for a minute. "He does make good laced coffee."
Lucivar	Taking that for a 'yes,' Lucivar let Karla lead Jaenelle to the other side of the clearing while Smoke started searching the debris for pieces of wood big enough to use for fuel. Lucivar called the pack and the flask he'd left by the creek, fishing out another beef sandwich and began digging a good-sized firepit.
Karla	Even while she helped Lucivar make camp, Karla kept an eye on Jaenelle as she wandered from one side of the clearing to the other, nibbling on the sandwich. Jaenelle seemed restless, but not uncontrollably driven, which was good because they were losing the day's light and the day's warmth, and Karla really didn't want to trek through the wilderness by night if they didn't have to. Last night had been Hellish enough, thanks. By the time Lucivar had the whiskey-laced coffee ready, Jaenelle was tucked in her sleeping bag, shivering, eagerly reaching for the cup he handed her. Karla cut off his suggestion that Jaenelle put on another layer of clothes. *As long as she focuses on the fire being the only source of warmth, she'll be reluctant to wander away from it until morning,* she pointed out on a spear-thread so both Lucivar and Smoke could hear.
Lucivar	"But she--" Lucivar paused when he got Karla's psychic thread and nodded once. "Right." He went back to rummaging in the food pack for something else he could offer Jaenelle to eat when he heard a delicate snore. After almost sixty hours of unrelenting movement, Jaenelle slept. He glanced up to meet Karla's eyes, both of them almost nakedly grateful for the sign that she was, for now at least, at peace. He set the pack aside, closed her sleeping bag, and added a warming spell to keep her comfortable as the temperature dropped throughout the night. Karla pulled the coffeepot away from the heat and added more wood to the fire, as he kicked off his boots and settled into his sleeping bag. "She's going to be okay," he murmured into the night.
Karla	"I know," Karla said, voice quavering a bit. "I know." Sometimes, the Darkness truly was merciful. And then there was only sleep.

[NFI, NFB, OOC is A-okay. Text stolen and adapted for my own nefarious purposed from Chapter Thirteen of Anne Bishop's Heir to the Shadows. Part four of plot (Read one, two and three.) For once, no warnings, enjoy that while you can.]