A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

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[fadingworld]

Mal has no real sense of danger. He's only heard the stories of other things out there in the woods. It is only when the noises die away that Mal looks up puzzled.


It comes from behind. Mal turns at the rustling leaves and in his words looks into a face of death. Backing away a step, he does the only practical thing, he screams Regis' name. Another step. Mal's heart beats wildly.

He turns to run. It's on him, faster than he could have thought possible. One swipe lifts him off his head and hurls him into a trunk of a tree with a sickening thud.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis was carrying in a last armful of wood into the cabin when Mal's scream reaches him. He drops the wood and even before the logs have thumped to the ground he's flying, flowing as smoke through the trees. Even without a nose he smells the heavy animal stink as he drawn nearer. And, blood. He smells blood.

Then he sees it, a big, hulking form like an unholy crossing between a bear and a ram, snarling as it draws nearer a crumpled shape on the ground. Mal. Oh no, Mal!

Fear fuels rage. When Regis retakes solid form again, placing himself between Mal and the beast, he is ready to fight, in a shape that Mal has only seen just vaguely, just seen those foot-long claws of. In this Regis is much more bestial, with his mouth full of long, sharp teeth, his nose flattened in like a bat's snout, his ears long and pointed. He stands there, hunched and ready to spring forth, snarling. Many beasts would back away from an enraged higher vampire. But this one? This one doesn't.

[fadingworld]

Mal's head is spinning as he recovers from the stun. Pain floods through his body and only years of training to withstand pain keeps him from crying out.

He blinks his eyes into focus to crawl backwards into some sort of hopeful safety. For a second he thinks he is in even more trouble, seeing two monsters. Then he recognises the claws and clothes.

Regis.


Mal breathes a sigh of relief and drags himself backwards a little. The looks do not disturb him, they are associated with warmth and safety.


He is so very lucky that Regis came.

[mandragoraspiritus]

It seems like a dumb thing to do, to charge straight ahead at a hulking beast like this. Still, Regis does have a plan when he does so. When the expected swipe of a claw comes it passes through a cloud of smoke. It flows around the beast in the blink fo an eye, taking shape again where Regis can slash his claws at an exposed flank before the monster can turn. It happens again and again, vanishing into smoke only to materialize and attack.

It is a good tactic. But, this is a chort. Its hide is thick and though Regis is certainly drawing blood it isn't a monster quick to go down. It is also full of rage and for its great size it is incredibly fast. It takes just one miscalculation on Regis' part and the beast has him, the long, sharp claws of one massive paw slashing across his body, tearing skin as well as clothes. The next paw slams into him and sends him flying, much like it had Mal earlier. Branches crack under the force until he's finally on the ground again, gasping, clutching a hand to his belly where blood runs freely.

[fadingworld]

Regis told him that only another Higher Vampire could kill him. It was one thing to be told it and quite another to see him bleeding in front of him. The monster was advancing and he couldn't stop himself, "Regis!"

What he could do against the monster nothing. But perhaps with that enraged focus on him, he could give Regis a chance to breathe, or get out of there.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"No!" Despite the anguished roar from the vampire, the chort does turn towards Mal, snarling and lowering its massive, horned head, looking much like a bull about to charge. There is no way Mal would be able to survive a full assault lie that, there simply isn't.

Regis forces himself up. The wounds are already healing but they do hurt. It is true, that only another higher vampire could kill him, but if the chort does enough damage quick enough - which it's certainly able to do - the Regis could still very much be rendered into a state it would take him a long time to regenerate from. A very long time. Too long, far too long to save Mal.

As before fear fuels rage, a bestial, animal rage. Regis' groan of pain turns into a snarl that blessedly stops the chort from charging at Mal. The change comes quickly but it still feels like an eternity, where bones crack and reform, muscles grow and warp, clothes split and rip at the seams to reveal skin darkening and becoming covered in coarse fur. Soon there's no sign of the friendly barber-surgeon. In his place stands a monstrous bat, nearly as large as the chort.

[fadingworld]

Mal feels a strange sense of peace in the seconds he stares death down. His head turns with the beast's as the roar takes on a different quality. His jaw drops as he watches the bat form emerge. It's...stunning.

It should have been terrifying but Mal sees it as Regis' greatest form of protection of him. "Beautiful," he says softy, hoping Regis will catch it and understand it.

[mandragoraspiritus]

If he hears it he doesn't show it. There's nothing but animal rage as he stares the chort down. Then.. IT'¨s not a roar. It's a shriek, deafening even to human earns but in such a high pitch that Mal couldn't ever hear the full range of it. The chort, however, can. It recoils, stumbling backwards, grinding its head down against the ground as if it could grind the noise away.

The bat lunges. There's no room in the woods to fly, but it doesn't need to. It's on the chort in no more than a second. What follows is a bloodbath. It tears into the beast, piercing that thick hide with both claws and fangs, tearing and ripping, never once letting go, never letting up in its savagery. Even after the chort has fallen, dead, does it keep on tearing it apart, soaked in its blood.

Until finally it looks up, vicious blood red eyes fixing on Mal.

[fadingworld]

It is savage. Mal's heart stops beating once or twice. It's Regis, he reminds himself, it's Regis. He wonders if Regis is thinking though at the minute.


He gulps and pulls himself up a little holding his hand out palm upwards. His voice is soothing, "Hi. Thank you for saving my life."

[mandragoraspiritus]

There's a low rumble from the bat, its eyes tracking Mal's movements from where it stands hunched over the carcass of the chort, supporting itself with the knuckles of its massive wings. The gore is all around it, clinging to it; rips and pieces of flesh stuck in both teeth and claws.

[fadingworld]

"You need to clean up a little," Mal says softly. "You've got ….it on your teeth and claws." With an effort, he pushes himself to his feet, keeping a hand over his wound, he walks towards the bat. The ground isn't completely steady but that is okay.

"Do you mind if I help you clean up a little to say thank you?" Is it shock that makes him so calm? Or complete faith in Regis. He thinks and hopes it is the latter.

[mandragoraspiritus]

The bat stands still as Mal approaches, like a predator standing guard over its prey, observing a mouse coming closer. Then it sniffs the air, lowering its great, shaggy head, seeming to zero in on the wound Mal is covering with his hand. For a moment a long, red tongue laps out to lick over that flat snout. In anticipation?

Then it suddenly rears up, throwing itself backwards, away from Mal. Stumbling over the carcass it falls and clumsily crawls away. As it does it shrinks, its shape warping and twisting in an obscene rewind of the first transformation, until Regis is there again, if as a crumpled and heaving shape on the forest floor, gasping for breath, naked and covered head to toe in blood and gore.

[fadingworld]

Mal's heart hammers as he comes unsteadily over to Regis and kneels down beside him. It is definitely easier to see him in his human form.

With his non bloody hand he reaches out and cups Regis' cheek. "Thank you," he says, "For saving my life. You may," there is a shaky laugh, "need a bath."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Please..." It's a hoarse croak that comes from him as he takes Mal's wrist in his hand and gently draws it away from himself. He's trembling. "Give me a moment." Even through the stink of the chort, of its clawed-out and ruptured innards, he can smell Mal's blood, the sweet lure of it. It floods his mouth with saliva and makes his teeth ache.

But this should not be about him, it is not about him. He can smell Mal's blood because he is injured. He must control himself.

"Are you badly hurt?"

[fadingworld]

Mal sits backwards to give Regis a little space as requested. "I will be alright," he says, "I will need a little attending to when we get back to the cabin." He's not lifted his hand yet to check. Truthfully, he's ready to jump at the smallest noise and wants nothing more than to be under cover. That fear of what is out there, is keeping the pain at bay at the moment.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Can you walk on your own?" Regis asks. If needed he would absolutely carry Mal but it would be better, for both of them, if Mal could make it on his own.

"After I have seen you safely to the cabin, I must..." He made a gesture at himself, at all the blood. As Mal had said, he needed to wash it off. "After, I can attend your injuries."

He stands slowly but not unsteadily. In form he's human again and yet everything about him where he stands naked and drenched in blood screams that he's not. He absolutely is not. On his belly, where claws had cut deep into his abdomen mere moments ago, there is no sign of injury.

[fadingworld]

“I can walk,” Mal says. He is not one hundred percent sure that he can but he is going to. Slowly, he pushes himself to his feet, planting his feet apart till he steadies.

He looks at Regis stomach area. “Another useful skill, this fast healing.”

[mandragoraspiritus]

"We heal quickly," he agrees as they start walking in a slow and careful pace, Regis staying constantly aware of Mal and how he's faring. If he can walk the distance.

"But it isn't without limits. I have been injured badly enough more than once that it had incapacitated me. That chort could have managed to do just that."

[fadingworld]

"So that is what it was called," Mal says with a shudder. His face grows paler as they walk. "I would be dead without you." He glances across. "I am grateful you are such a good fighter and that....beast did not get lucky."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis shakes his head. "I am not a fighter. In more ways than one I am quite the coward." He smiles bleakly. "But any animal can be pressed to fight. When it is cornered or when its mate is threatened."

He watches the paleness of Mal's skin, wondering more and more if he should lift and carry Mal, despite the blood. The chort's and... Mal's. "I should have been there. I put you in danger."

[fadingworld]

Mal won't let him carry him, he'll walk while he can. "You didn't know it was out there," Mal points out very gently. "You were there when I needed you, do not blame yourself."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I more than anyone should know what can dwell in the woods." In his defense, there had been so signs of monsters the last time he had been in the area. What had caused the chort to come there? They were territorial from what he had understood. Had something driven it from it's own territory?

[fadingworld]

Mal makes a noise of disagreement, "You were not clairvoyant last time I checked." His pace is slowing but he looks grimly determined to make it back over the last small bit.


"It's okay." He smiles across. "I may get a scar out of this." And he would be a little less perfect. That is appealing.

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Yes, that is quite likely," Regis says grimly. He hasn't seen the extent of the injury, of course, but with that much blood and what eh knows of a chort's claws, of the damage they had done to him, he is more than a little concerned. "I will do what I can to make them as small as possible."

[fadingworld]

Mal waves his free hand dismissively. "Don't worry." He knows he should be reacting but it's hard to think straight. It is a relief to see the cabin. Mal's knees almost buckle when they reach the door.

"Go, clean up. I'll simply sit on a bench till you are back and rest."