Tales of a Shifter (P5) The White Mountain

Chapter 46 - Catch & Release

Chapter 46 – Catch & Release

Shit, I'm dead....

Jacob thought. Clawing the earth with all of his might in an attempt to gain leverage and get away. Every attempt summoned more pain, and yet he strained past the pain, and somehow managed to get up onto his elbows. It wouldn't be enough to save him.

But then, from out of nowhere Sister Ann appeared beside him.

Without a word she ran over to him and slammed her right foot into his chest, pinning him to the earth. Jacob saw starts as he snarled and fell back in the dirt. Fiery agony engulfed all of his senses. Weakly Jacob clawed at her leg, drawing blood as he tried to push her away. "What the fuck are you doing!?" He questioned straining to speak and not to gasp his words.

Sister Ann lifted her foot again and slammed it home on his broken torso once more. Then she hissed at him, her face brutal and serious. "Stay down and shut up if you want to live. The Master will speak for us. Only the Master can speak in their presence. Do you understand?"

She commanded him with that same powerful voice she had used before to rebuff him back in the office.

Then before Jacob could respond, Ann dropped to her knees slightly in front of him and threw her hands into the air as if in surrender. She bowed her head and just...sat there.

I'm so fucking dead...

Jacob complained as the creature was now within reach. It glowered as it drew close, its eyes focused on Jacob, surprisingly flickered in Ann's direction and to Jacobs's immediate shock, it smiled.

At this point Hovel approached and unlike Ann he didn't drop down to his knees, but Hovel did raise his hands and bow his head to the creature. Confused Jacob held his tongue and still unable to breath without nearly dying from agony he had no choice, but to stay on the ground and await doom. But doom never came.

Instead arms raised and eyes cast down, Hovel began shouting. His voice reverent and clear...and resounding in the empty cavern making the man seem somewhat larger then he was. "BANE. GOD OF MAN! PLEASE HEAR US. WE ARE YOUR CHILDREN. WE HUMBLY ASK THAT YOU SHOW US YOU'RE MERCY! WE REGRET ANYTHING THAT WE HAVE DONE TO UPSET YOU. PLEASE. SPARE THOESE WHO HAVE TRESPASSED! I ASK THIS AS YOUR LOYAL SERVANT. AS YOU'RE CHOSEN... "

GOD? This thing is their GOD!?

Jacob wondered to himself in disbelief. His eyes traced the misshapen boulder of teeth and flesh and dismissed the idea of anything Godlike or Holy.

The creature came closer. The mad cackling was gone now. The voices were silent. Hovel and Ann were silent.

Jacob was counting the seconds until the beast ripped them all to pieces, but it was suddenly clear that the Beast was making no aggressive moves forwards. And in the back of his mind, Jacob also realized that the intense smell of burning metals had somehow died away, fading like it was swept out of the cavern altogether.

And the Beast...the Bane.....it also stopped glowing. All of the giant black tendrils of twisting, and malicious power that had been coiling and crackling around its body dissolved from sight, soaking down into the white fur and flesh of the Ghoul as it moved closer, carrying its arms close and its back straight. Like a Man or a Shifter.

And once the beast cane nearly a breath away from Hovel it stopped advancing. Then to Jacobs's severe shock, the Ghoul leaned down to Hovel's face and softly said. "Hello, our Chosen."

The words were deep and gravely and layered, but Jacob couldn't deny that the Ghoul was speaking. Perfect English. And that fact only made his tingling more intense. The sensation of wrongness only grew. Ghouls didn't speak.

But AS Jacob acclimated to the fact that this ONE could, the Beast carried on speaking. It giant heavy head, danced, its thick nostrils flexing as its eyes peered into Hovel's face. "My Child. You prostrate yourself before US...and yet you also stand in our way. Those who would attack US are deserving of destruction."

The Beast shifted its fangs up, and its eyes locked on Jacob. Milky white depths alien and hungry. Hovel glanced at the Lion too, and in his gaze, Jacob didn't see an ounce of care. Just cold calculated detachment. With a small sigh, the Grand Master gestured softly to the Beast before him.

"Please." Hovel replied, bowing his head deeper. "I understand that this beast has deeply disrespected you." Hovel paused and touched his chest. "But this Beast is essential to your coming Advent my Bane. It would be a....waste."

The creature reared back, and rumbled, its fangs gnashing together as it jaws slapped together and its giant chest rolled with strange sounds that no other being in the universe could make.

Jacob felt the sounds crawling across his soul, cutting into his ears. He snarled at the Beast belligerently, even as doing so made him tremble in pain.

And then the Beast snapped its teeth again, its ears swiveling in Jacobs's direction, but its white eyes stayed on Hovel. The Bane growled and spoke.

"Fine." Came the simple Reply as the Creature took a step back and turned its large girth to the side, its gaze traveling back across the Caverns wide grounds. Our Children will receive what they ask of US. Mercy. Power. Nourishment. The World. We gave it all to you long ago." The voice of at least ten different beings all rose up at that moment. And the Bane looked to Hovel and raised a giant hand to him.

"WE called forth everything. We branded the stars destinies. We named you our Chosen. Before you existed. The one who beget the child of destruction and rebirth..."

"Thank you...." Hovel whispered as he dropped his arms, but he didn't raise his eyes yet. He didn't speak.

Jacob frowned to himself, confused by the things he was seeing, but also able to partially understand that the Bane had just spared his life...for whatever reason.

Huh? So I guess today wasn't the day....Shit I kind of feel disappointed...

Jacob thought to himself, internally releasing a sharp inhale, as the sharp hot pain in his torso was punctuated by a sharp crack deep inside. His Ribs were cracking back into place. Soon enough he could regain his feet.

But not exactly sure of what his move would be just yet, Jacob decided to keep listening and watching.

The Ghoul was back to speaking, it rumbled as it suddenly lifted a giant hand, tipped with claws the size of daggers, before it ran a claw down Hovels cheek. The act was gentle enough not to draw blood, and Jacob nearly gagged when the Grand Master shuddered at the touch. In pleasure. Then the beast was speaking again. Its large milky eyes drifted towards Jacob and he was deeply disturbed by the deadly intelligence they held.

And when it said what it said next Jacob knew he wasn't just imagining it.

"We know you Lion." The Bane said its voice somehow silky and soft. "King. Beast. But you do not know US. And yet still your actions serve US. You serve US. Your face is one that we will not forget..."

Jacob glared at the Beast.

Know me? Ha! You know nothing. I serve myself...

He thought back, but he felt it was wise to hold his tongue. All things considered.

And the Bane didn't seem interested in his response, because it went right back to talking. Its words now directed to the Grand Master.

"Hmmm, speaking of those that we Know. There have been many visitors today Chosen. Many Faces. Some old and some new." The Beast stopped and shook its head. "It has been countless moons since you have come to see US Chosen. And yet today so many....One was a foolish man who tried to defy Our orders. A child of the Sun, who unfortunately lost Our favor."

Silence followed these words. And Jacob flashed back to the body that had been sliced up and devoured.

"Eric..." Ann started. Then Ann gasped before she looked down and grew silent, but Jacob did see her trembling.

Hovel seemed to pause at these words, and his hands tightened into fists, but his face didn't change, and his gaze remained open and calm. Almost as if he had already known this was the fate that had befallen his Novice.

"And there was another...." The beast suddenly continued, as it lifted to its full height and looked back behind its self again. But this time its gaze centered on the small white bubble, where Brandon was laying, safe and unconscious.

"The Child of Sun and Moon appeared before US. After so much time....so much wasted suffering the stone is here. But...."The Ghoul turned and snarled like a wave crashing across the sea. The sound rumbled in Jacobs's chest. "The Child is stubborn. He fights endlessly. Even now. His kind were always useless hindrances. Creatures of Light." The Bane suddenly whipped back to Hovel and screeched angrily in his face, its fangs glistening and voice splitting into various others.

"WE WANT THE STONE!!!!"

Shockingly....Hovel didn't drop to his knees. And yet the sound was cutting, a jarring roar that shook Jacobs's bones. His soul. Sister Ann whimpered and dropped her face to the stones as if they could swallow her.

The roar rumbled like falling boulders across the walls, and only once it died did Hovel softly call to the beast. "My GOD the Stone is yours. The Stone has always been yours. But as you yourself has acknowledged the Druid is powerful, and we have yet to find a way to get the stone."

The Bane suddenly hissed and said. "WE said nothing of his Power! He is not powerful!!! He is desperate." The Bane clenched its teeth. "The Child knows that that Stone will undo the Curse he set upon Us. He knows that without the stone...he will be destroyed."

He will be destroyed....? What?

Jacob frowned as he slowly stated to shift up off his back to his knees, then to his feet. He could feel the newly formed bones inside of him protest every move, and he felt the Organs inside of his sloshing and moving in unnatural ways.

Shit...I'm bleeding internally.

Jacob growled as he held his belly. He openly glared at the Banes massive white back, where no trace of blood or slashes could be seen in its perfect hard flesh.

This fucking thing seriously tried to end me just now...It's no God. That's for sure. And what did it mean destroy him? Destroy Brandon? And it spoke of a curse too.

Swallowing as nausea and pain mixed in his mind, Jacob shook his head, and put the last few minutes out of his mind. For now.

Just forget that.

I need to get to Brandon. He hasn't moved a muscle since we arrived. And what the hell is that thing glowing around him, anyways?

Jacob frowned as he took a step forwards, then another, preparing to cross the room.

But the Bane snarled, its eyes locking on Jacob and its fur standing up in aggression. The Lion quickly stopped and stepped back, everything in him warning him that he was in no shape to take the Bane on again.

With a sharp assertive snort of warning the Bane tightened its giant hands. Closing them into fists the size of sledgehammers.

"But....WE are not going to stay on a path that will be fruitless in the end." It sighed. The Bane speaking solely to Hovel. "It cannot be ignored that WE cannot get to the stone like this. We cannot overcome his power. Yet. But I do sense the weakness in the Child. His mind. His soul. It is fractured....and fragile. And so too is his current power. In your hands my Chosen...." The Bane seemed to purr, leaning close to hovel, and touching his face and shoulder. The caress, oddly serpentine and graceful. "I trust that he will soon shatter. And when he does you will return him to me. And the Stone will be OURs."

"Yes....Yes, my Bane..." Hovel called, his voice thick with emotion and his eyes clear and unwavering with devotion as they stared into the giant fangs and empty white eyes.

The Bane chuckled, countless voices breaking and pouring out of its maw before it extended a claw and hooked it into the soft flesh at Hovel's throat. Flesh split like ripe fruit, and blood flowed like water. Hovel flinched, but he did not retreat as the Beast finished.

"DO NOT FAIL US..."

Then without another word, the Bane turned and started to walk away, back in the direction of Brandon.

Jacob went to follow, but to his aggravation Sister Ann suddenly shot up to her feet and grabbed him harshly by his left wrist and pulled him to a stop. "Wait, you fool!" she whispered grunting to halt the Lion that outweighed and out stood her.

Jacob would have normally been able to dislodge the woman but seeing as his body was still recovering from the deadly blows he had suffered, his strength was not what it should have been, and Jacob quickly decided that instead of wasting what little energy he had on Ann he would just do what she asked.

As for the Bane, the creature covered ground fast, and was already sauntering up to and past the small white bubble in the ground that held Brandon inside, the darkness spread out, pockets, paths and endless tunnels, that stretched out beneath the earth.

The Bane marched onwards, its large white body slowly fading into the distance, then completely from view. And yet....the air around them continued to thrive with that sensation. The presence of something.....other. Jacob shook off the chills, and Sister Ann, and brushed past Hovel.

The walk towards Brandon was a cautious one, where Jacob, and even the Alchemists, kept watchful eyes on the darkness beyond. Jacob swore that he felt the Banes eyes on him as he walked. But they all came to be standing over Brandon, and his strange, white bubble of light, without anything happening.

Brandon laid inside, his face contorted in pain and his body curled into a protective little ball, with his arms wrapped around his head. Still, he did not move.

"Brandon! What the hell?" Jacob called and wondered aloud as he, Hovel and Sister Ann all gathered in a loose circle around the strange thing before them.

Still holding is belly, and trying to ignore the way his right lung was starting to open back up, Jacob looked at the strange lights that were wrapped around Brandon's body like a...Shield of some sort. The light was ethereal, nearly the same color as the clouds above. The bubble even seemed to be vaporous like a cloud, easy to break. But as Jacob reached forwards and pressed his left hand into the globe of light, he hit solid strength and warmth. Like living diamond. And the warmth pulsed, like a heartbeat. A soft heartbeat.

Jacob pulled away and again couldn't help saying. "What the Hell?"

Sister Ann, standing to the left of her master, glanced up at Jacob with an exasperated sound. "Geez. It's an Aurora. Don't you know anything!?" She finished with a roll of her eyes.

"A what?" Jacob replied, unmoved by her sharp tongue...and actually starting to admire it.

Hovel, who hadn't said a word since the Bane departed, also sighed. The front of his throat and his robes were drenched in blood, from the deep gash in his skin, but the Grand Master seemed to pay the injury little to no mind as he answered Jacobs question.

"Come, Jacob, you know more then you like to pretend about the ways of Alchemy and Mana..." The Alchemists started. He raised his hand and gestured to the pulsing ball of light. "Doesn't this remind you of anything you've seen before? After all the years you've spent at the Base?"

Remind me?

But then something occurred to the Lion and he realized what he was looking at. The color of the globe surrounding Brandon was not like the other Alchemists, but Jacob was sure that this was the same things that Hovel used. A shield of light. But why Brandon's Aurora was white Jacob couldn't say.

"It's a shield." Jacob eventually supplied. "The same kind of Shield you guys use to keep the Lil One from feeding on you."

"Yes..." Hovel replied. "We call this An Aurora. IT seems that just as before, the boy has called forth his Will and fashioned this shield from it."

"Sister Ann spoke next, frowning and looking somewhat uncomfortable as she took a small step back. "But Master this Aurora is White and it's so....powerful. I can feel it vibrating across my soul. I can feel the heat coming off of it."

Hovel frowned into the White Light, glaring into the globe at his son within. "Yes, Ann. It is white, but the color doesn't matter so much as the fact that again the boy failed to control his own power."

Jacob tilted his head. "What are you talking about?"

Hovel smirked and pointed. "Just look at him, Jacob." The Grandmaster started. "He's unconscious. This power is not in his control. He merely summons his powers by instinct. He summons the Aurora to protect him, but unlike a true Manna user, it seems the boy can't use any type of skill." Hovel sneered. "This...This raw display is nothing more than the act of breathing or eating. He only seems able to call it forth when he is in peril. For survival."

Sister Ann shook her head. "But it saved him." Ann cut her eyes to the darkness and whispered. "It saved him from the Bane. His power is...."

Hovel snapped at her. Blue eyes cutting at the Novice in bitter anger. "His power is nothing! He is nothing, Ann. Do not speak like a fool."

Ann flinched, nodded and looked away. Her face shamed.

But Jacob who was somewhat unhappy about Hovel's words growled at the man. And threw his arms into the air. "So, basically, what your saying is that we're all still at square one? The Lil One's power is too much for you....or that thing you call a GOD. And if that's the case how the hell are you ever going to get the stone!? Or better yet? How the hell are we going to move him out of this fucking cave!!?"

Sister Ann, for once didn't bark at Jacob from his tone, instead, she also looked at Hovel and said. "Master? The only way to get to him is if the Aurora is broken or taken down. So?"

Hovel cut his eyes at Ann, then at Jacob and finally, after a moment he said. "So....Because the boy passed out with the Aurora up. Once we awaken him and he realizes that the danger is gone. The power should fracture and fade away. We have to wait for him to regain his senses."

"But he could be out cold for a long time..." Sister Ann started to protest as she racked her hand back across her scalp.

But just then, with nearly perfect timing....a weak, raspy voice rose up, from the depths of the white Aurora. Brandon voice softly coughing and breathing shallowly rose up. "Ezekiel....Ezekiel....please."

Jacob didn't even waste time looking the others before he dropped down on his hunches and called back. "Brandon! Hey! Lil One, can you hear me?"

"Ja?" Slowly the Druid uncurled and his glossy green eyes swung weekly towards Jacobs' voice. The moment they looked at each other Jacob could nearly feel Brandon's body relax. His eyes blinked once then closed again.

Jacob leaned on the globe and started to speak again, but the sudden loss of balance stole his words. His hands that had been resting on the solid warmth of the Aurora suddenly pitched forwards into the open air as the Aurora blinked out of existence. Like a bulb of light being turned off.

Jacob caught his balance on the cement, just beside Brandon's shoulder. Holding back a small grunt as his achy body was jolted.

"It's gone..." Sister Ann breathed. "You were right."

Hovel scoffed as he suddenly moved forwards. "Of course I was." He replied, then to Jacobs intense irritation the Alchemist stepped up to Brandon's side, lifted his foot, and proceeded to use his boot to step on Brandon's crown. "Get up Boy! Get up now..." he barked, his blue gaze centered on his son the way a spider looked at a fly. He pushed Brandon head side to side in an attempt to stir him.

"Hey! Stop it you fucking animal!" Jacob soon growled pushing Hovel's foot away. Rolling his eyes to the heavens and sighing in expiration, Jacob shooed the Grand Master away, as he got down in the dirt. "Jezz. Just....I'LL carry him." Taking a moment to place Brandon on his back, and cross his arms across his belly, Jacob, worked the boy into his embrace.

It took a moment, but eventually, Jacob was back on his feet.

"Now...." He said looking at Hovel and Ann. "Let's go."

Once more Hovel took hold of Ann's hand. While Ann put her hand on Jacobs' shoulder.

Moments later A giant vat of black swirling emptiness opened up. A giant impossible mass of energy that hung suspended in the air, but invisible strings. Jacob stepped through first, making sure the clutch the burden in his arms close. For the landing.

And just as the darkness closed around them all....Jacob swore he heard the Banes' voice. Cackling.

SEE YOU SOON...CURSED CHILD.