Mektilk: Kindred

I survived through the first moons alone, pushing south.  The further south I moved, the less of the familiar rituals I saw.  I continued moving until I had left the blots of my life behind me and surrounded by the practicers of Christianity.  While I didn't pretend to understand myself, I didn't boast my faith either.
The only thing worth boasting was my ability to hunt.  Not just my prey, but I had also been hired out on occasion to remove a vampire or two from the city's flock.
Grounding myself to the earth's of this place for so long, I began to sense when an unfamiliar would trespass.  I took it upon myself to fetch and present them to the prince, sometimes scrimmaging with those who resisted.
I'm rather comfortable with my role here, even if the rest of them look to me as the dog.  They know not to tussle with my bite.  I am The Scourge.

Mektilk: Embrace

Many of the tribesmen had left for sea to fish, the priest of the newly founded church had blessed their travels.  We didn't so much mind to the new religion as it gave us new stories to share and allowed us to continue in our same rituals and traditions.
I had spotted him on my nightly patrol. I could have mistaken him for a beast at first glance but this was proven wrong after I approached.  We stared at one another through the darkness.  He crouched and ready while I stood like a she-troll gripping my axe and knifr.
"Verlassen!" I had screamed as I threw my body forward.
I had hoped the noise and movement to startle the beast, but it took that moment for him to slip beneath the earth.  I had grounded my feet, searching for where the man cloaked in wolverine fur could be.  I remember feeling the earth shudder beneath me as I felt his nails pierce into my ankles as he pulled my feet above his head.  I did everything but quit.  I slashed, I growled, I spat, I had to conquer.
"Sterben leise du Schlampe," he had growled.
"Nie!" I screamed as I thrashed my weapons towards him
The crack of bone was followed by a thunderous roar.  As soon as he finished bellowing, I could feel such a pain that had me to drop my weapons.  The blood running up my leg from where he had bit into my ankle and didn't release.
"Ich bin noch nicht fertig," I murmured before returning him the favor.  I sank my teeth into the flesh of his leg, tearing through as much as possible.  As soon as I had tore off a decent-sized bloody chunk from him I felt a hand slap over my mouth, crushing me nearly into the ground as he dropped my legs.
"Schlucken Kind," his voice rumbled from his blood soaked mouth.  "Sie haben es sich verdient."
I was struggling just to breathe beneath the enormity of his palm.  I swallowed the chunk.  He threw his head back and laughed as I kicked into his stomach.  I brought my right arm flying but it didn't matter.  His free hand snatched mine and pinned it beneath the earth.  I didn't stop fighting when he bit into my shoulder.
I felt myself being taken from me.  I thrust my head towards his in a swift attempt to hit him.  He continued to cling to my neck as my chest filled with fire.  My left hand isn't as strong as the other so when I went to strike his neck, it simply fell against it.
I couldn't beat this beast.  He ended me.  And just as easily, he restored me.
I could taste his blood from his tongue rolling across mine as I was called back from the brink.  He pulled away and I moved to keep tasting him.  It wasn't enough.  That fire still burning in my chest.  I need anything to put it out.
He had gone and I was left struggling with my right hand still stuck beneath the earth.  I thirst for more of the taste he provided me as I fight to break free.  I shifted my hands into talons and tore up through the earth.
The fiery hunger had spread to my arms and legs.  I could feel the pounding of a heart shaking my being as I shambled towards its source.
I remember little after I saw the face of my once-husband.  The mix of hunger and the rage of what-could-have-been released the beast that I became that night.

Tavi: Discovery 11

"What are you doing?" I scream.

"Showing you what happens when the people forget.  You think so highly of your mother, but take away the memories of others to remove her from this world.  Pave the way for the next wave.  No one will have to live in the shadow of her triumphs."

"You can't erase the presence of Thalia from this world.  She is the daughter of elf and demon.  She is wife to the one.  Mother of The Keeper.  She has lived through more times and lives than you could ever imagine!  Her story is one that will not be forgotten by any who've met her!"

The plants within the room start to move once more as my mother collapses to the floor.  The Fade is no longer there so I race quickly to my mother's side.  She's still breathing so I shake her lightly calling out to her.

No response.  I start to panic.  This must be the same fear that my mom felt when I entered time.

"She's okay, she just almost lost herself for a moment." Sophie reassures me.  "You saved her."

Zoee: Reality 7

He turns around and heads back towards his old room. Standing there confused, I take the candle and the towel with me and return to the master bathroom. I rest the candle down by the sink and lay the towel at the base of the tub to step on when I get out of the shower. I step in the tub and stare up at the two rings above me. They don't appear to be pipes to spray down water but they are quite thick.

I turn the center knob upwards to make the water flow to the shower spout above me and wrap the shower curtain around the tub. Turning the hot water knob, I hope that the water will somehow be warm when it comes out. As soon as the chill of the water hits me, I stop breathing for a moment. I knew it would be cold but had no idea how cold it would really be. After a few moments, my body becomes used to the chill of the water hitting my body but I still remain covered in goose bumps. I grab a nearby bar of soap and lather it in my hands to clean my body. I clean myself off as quickly as possible and shut the freezing water off.  I step out of the tub and dry of my feet and lower legs before picking the towel up to wrap the rest of my body.  I walk out of the bathroom and walk out to findCody. I head back towards his old bedroom and knock on the closed door.  Cody walks out and cocks his head at me wrapped in a towel, my red curls weighed down by the water that is resting in them.

"Do you have extra clothes that I could wear?"

"We really didn't think this whole thing through of you staying the night," Cody chuckles as he walks back into his room, suitcases open all over the floor.

I feel a pang of sadness as I look around at the empty walls.  They used to have posters, his train bed sitting in the middle of the back wall with toys all over the floor. Cody hands me a pair of sleep pants and a wife beater. I smile and take them into his old bathroom and change into his clothes and wrap my hair in the towel.  The mirror that used to be in here is missing as well so I can't check if my nipples are bleeding through the white top or not. I leave from the bathroom and go back into Cody's bedroom. I sit down on his floor as he fidgets through his suitcase.

"So seriously," I pry. "What are those rings about in the master bathroom?"

Cody's head bends his head in to his chest and sighs deeply. "It's for hanging someone up."

"You do what?"

"You have someone wrapped up in ropes around the body and a rope connects to them to the rings to hang them above." Cody explains as he turns around to face me.

"You HANG people in there?" my jaw hangs in absolute shock. "Why would you do that?"

"I'm not the one that installed those there!" Cody's voice rises defensively. "It's not as creepy as you think; it's more of a sexual thing."

"Like people that choke themselves?"

"No! No, no. Not like that. I really don't know how to explain it I guess without it sounding weird."

I sit and try to imagine how exactly it would work but I cannot seem to wrap my head around the idea. I have tried a various amount of sexual activities with previous lovers and have seen my fair share of pornography but I cannot recall anything with people hanging in a bathroom. Cody sits on the floor next to me and wraps his arm around me to pull me close to him.

"Please don't be freaked out," he whispers.

"I'm not; I'm just confused about it and trying to figure it out."

"So, what do you want to do for the rest of today?"

"I honestly have no clue. It's not like we can pretend to be teenage mutant ninja turtles anymore."

Holly: Ascension 13

"I know that I love your daughter."  Thomas answers looking directly into the stone cold grey eyes of my mother.  "I will protect her, bring happiness and light into her life as she brings into mine.  I will carry her through dark times and celebrate with her in the good.  I will care for her in illness, learning and laughing at anything life brings our way."

"That's sweet," she says with a half smile.  "So you've half thought it through."

"Half thought it through?" my dad and I both ask.

Mother drops her head to her chest for a moment as she sighs, but the hand holding the boulder remains in place, "Do you understand what I'm speaking of Thomas?"

"The family truth?" his voice clearly showing he's uncertain if that is what she's referring to.

"You're on the right train of thought," she turns to my dad.  "Can you get this?  It's starting to hurt."

"I got it," Thomas stands up and takes the boulder from my mother's hand.

"Thanks sweetie," she gives him a genuine smile as she shakes the sore from her wrist.  "Just think about it, alright?  Don't let it sneak up and catch you off guard.  Though I think you'd be perfect for the position."

Katherine: Narrative 19

I follow Tilk; I would rather be with him than everyone else in case they all somehow manage to let me get kidnapped again while standing next to a hole.  Using this massive blade, he breaks through the city’s foundation with ease allowing us all an easy entrance into the city.  Thalia produces a duplicate of herself to send through the hole to investigate what lies inside the city without causing any injury to ourselves.  We scoot over as close as we can to the side of the passage to allow the duplicate to pass through and into the city.  As she pulls herself up and into the city, I strain to try and hear any bit of noise that could pass.  No gun fire, no shouts, she seems to be alright up there.

“All clear,” Thalia whispers.

Her clothing has changed into that familiar white garb that people wore in the last city; Eva is wearing the same thing.  Tilk must have noticed their change in clothes and looks down at his own tunic and the white outfit begins to materialize on him.  He touches my shirt and my clothes show as though they were the white outfit as well.  Tilk helps to give me a boost to exit the hole, I help from the top to bring everyone else out from our hole.  Tilk needs no help, maintaining his human appearance with his dragon wings boosting him out from the hole.  Looking around, the town seems fairly quiet with very few people or guards walking around the town at all. 

We can spot the familiar looking building in the center of town and we begin to make our way towards it.  The goal is simple, to release the dragons from captivity.  We totally got this.  There are no guards outside the building so we simply enter the doors.  No guards inside the building either, just an elevator looking at us from the opposite end of the room.  We cautiously make our way across the empty room towards the elevator; there’s no telling what traps could be laid out in wait for us.  We’ve gone through so many of these buildings now yet everyone still contains new traps or terrors to slow us down.

The four of us slide into the elevator with only the choice of moving up, or going down.  Upward we go, there’s no telling what we’ll find either way.    As soon as the door opens, we are looking into an entire room filled with computers.  A handful of white-clothed personnel are working on the computers in front of us.  I can’t see any dragons anywhere; I look over to Tilk for any reaction that maybe he knows where they might be found.    Seeing that he hasn’t relaxed his guard, there must be something going on somewhere.  We leave out from the elevator leaving us standing not but five feet from this guy working on a computer.  Eva or Thalia throw something at him, I’m not sure which but I know that it wasn’t I or Tilk and the guy turns around at us aiming a small pistol at us.  I feel the energy of the shot fly past my face as Tilk becomes frozen in his stance.

Mektilk: Life

My bedtime stories as a maiden were tales of The Valkyrie, the epics of Odin, the tricks of Loki, and the loyalty of Freyja.  We left offerings of porridge and butter to the nisse to help us with the house farm.
I'd help to gather offerings for blot.  Celebrate the new year at Samhain.  Cheer for the rebirth of the sun at Yule.  Watch them dance the fires of Imbolc.  Welcoming spring and births with Ostara.  Honoring all that lives and grows through Walpurgis Night.
And then the wheel that was our year would continue to spin and we would do it all over again. Until my third Walpurgis Night as matron.
We were hand-fasted on a Frigga's Day in the Imbolc season.  With blessings from Eostre, he laid his seeds to grow root.  By Walpurgis Night, my field remained barren.
The wheel of the year spun on and we tried once more.  We focused all of our available energy on my womb with success.  At Walpurgis Night, my stomach began to show the bulge of child as many of my tribal sisters did.
A week before Samhain was when the blood flowed.  The midwife was called.  She and her apprentice did all they could.  The child was still lost.
I couldn't bring myself to try again.  To lose another, to fail again.  I would be a childless woman.
He tried to convince me.  Even when I wouldn't, he would swear to never leave me.  That he would live and love me no matter, child or not.
I began to push him.  Scream.  Beat.  I couldn't bear his face.  What features of his could our child have had?
He stayed.  He stayed until my final push.  I had him hand-parted from me.  I left him the home, the goods, everything to hand fast again and start anew.
I couldn't bear the look of my own face any more than I could have continued to have looked at his.  I shed the clothes of the housewife I once was and covered myself in the robes of man.  I moved to the outskirts of the tribal territory with the hedge-witch and her apprentice and began my era as crone.  I was not the typical age for crone, women who's children have grown to begin families of their own.  I was crone in that my time as a housewife had passed.
When the men would leave for hunts or fishing trips, I defended the village.  Even when the men were home, I would lead the defensive attack before any tribesman had time to arrive.  Which was good for me even if the hedge-witch didn't agree.  She felt that I was allowing my rage to swallow me.  That if I wasn't careful, it would lead me to death itself.
And it did.