The Angel and the Beast! [Tori]

[Elisabeth Ramsey]

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[bg=7fbfc6] All business was going on as usual in the Fallen lands. It was an unusually sunny day, and spirits were running high. The deal with the Carna, though risky, seemed to be going well, and the end of winter was fast approaching, meaning the game would be plentiful once more. Disease wouldn’t be as common, nor would word of a comrade freezing to death. The Fallen were cheerily going about their business, and, in their good moods, didn’t notice the absence of a young Tenderfoot. Elisabeth had woken up early and snuck out. The Switchstone Express had been out of sight her sight before the sun had risen. By late morning all other Fallen should’ve been far behind her, but she still scanned the empty desert around her worriedly. It was her first time in months venturing out alone, and the first time without permission, period. An elated smile lit up her face as she swung her pack by her side. The adrenaline rush she was feeling was worth whatever punishment waiting for her upon her return; she loved testing the boundaries. It was something she’d never done, never even considered before. But here! It was absolutely wonderful here! There were rules, but there was no one watching her every move. In fact, there was room for her to make up her own rules. She liked doing that. It gave her a feeling of power, however small it was, which was foreign and exciting. The sun was directly above her when she noticed the change of temperature. The terrain change came next; going from smooth sand to rough ground with small patches of snow. Snow! Elisabeth stopped to open her bag and pull on her snow pants, jacket, and boots. She would’ve overheated if she’d worn them during her entire trek through the desert, but they were welcome to her now. The dragonfly shifter walked a little farther, gleefully noticing how thick the snow was getting. She’d only seen snow in pictures before. She pulled her left mitten off and gingerly scooped up a handful of snow, looking at it for a moment before bringing it up to eye level. She watched, enthralled, as it melted in her hand, turning from a solid, fluffy white object to a clear, hard, compact, ice-like ball. Only after all the color had drained out of it did she dump what was left of it in her mouth and eat it. She barely had time to chew it before it melted and trickled down her throat, sending shiver throughout her entire body. It was cold, but delicious. She pulled her mitten back on—her hand had gotten so cold that it had turned a bright pink—and picked up some more and ate it. It was just so pure and clean! Elisabeth laughed and fell on her back in the snow. The snow must’ve been fresh, because she sunk down a good half a foot. For a moment she stretched out and relaxed in it, imagining she was floating out on a cloud somewhere. Then, all of a sudden, her arms and legs started moving madly. Her arms jerked up and down and her legs from apart to together, over and over again. After about a minute of that (which was overkill, as she’d come to learn) she stopped, breathless, and carefully stood up, only getting a few handprints in the imprint of her body. She stepped back and tilted her head, appraising her work. Somehow, miraculously, maybe magically, she’d transformed the silhouette of her body into something holy. A snow angel. She dropped in a different place and made another one, then another, and another after that. Soon a mosaic of snow angels was spread out in the snow, each as exciting as the next to Elisabeth. She stopped then and began to roll a snowball in hopes of building a snowman. She didn’t get very far on that, though; a horrible intrusive feeling made the girl stop and look around. She’d accidentally sampled a bit of someone’s thoughts. The thoughts were murky and unintelligible—the person thinking them was simply too far away—but they were warning enough. Elisabeth sunk down in the snow as best she could, her heart fluttering in her chest. Worst case scenarios flickered through her mind. At first the worst she could imagine was another Fallen finding her and telling on her to Skye, but then she remembered the threat Noah had made to her when they parted. She hadn’t taken it seriously then, as she’d been only half-conscious, but it chilled her more than the snow now. And, worse than Noah catching her outside of Fallen (she did like Noah; she missed him) was his friends. She drew her arms closer around her and her face paled. Her memory of the Carna was foggy, but she knew they were no less than evil. Other than Noah, of course. The other was close enough to Elisabeth that she could hear his footprints in the snow. Her panic lessened her control over her telepathy, so whatever random thoughts she recognized did her no good. She sniffed, but her nose was too frozen to work properly. Her eyes darted around the open area, searching for an escape. She couldn’t shift; she’d freeze to death quickly in her dragonfly form. She could only wait and see who was approaching and prey they didn’t notice her. So, deciding that plan was the best she had, she burrowed as deep into the snow as she could, trying to keep as much of her body behind the snowman as she could. The crunch crunch crunch of boots in snow came nearer and nearer until Elisabeth thought they couldn’t possible come any closer. The person’s shadow loomed over her. She didn’t move for a few seconds, hoping maybe the person would go away, but, unfortunately, he didn’t. Elisabeth looked up then, with fear in her eyes and a light smile on her lips. --- words; 999 o.o’ ooc; 8’D <3 they’re going to go somewhere near the Meadowlands eventually XD Credits: Girl – faestock.deviantart.com River – grannysatticstock.deviantart.com Meadow –resurrection-stock.devianart.com

[Tori]

[bg=000000][atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true] Tori gave voice to an exasperated sound as a familiar pair of blue eyes peeked up at him. “Elisabeth!” She was smiling, an innocent expression like that of a puppy who knows their human is angry but wishes to entreat them into a more peaceful mood. “What are you doing here?” He frowned at her, then reached down and hauled her to her feet, not unkindly. He didn’t really need to ask - there were snow angels everywhere. “It’s dangerous out here,” he pointed out sternly. He would know, considering he was in the process of tracking a virus. And yet here she was, frolicking around in the snow, oblivious to any dangers. One of the scouts had seen the thing from a distance, and raced to report it. Salvatore had headed out and caught its trail, following to assure it left Fallen territory. It had done just that, but the path was too direct, as if the creature had known it was being followed and wanted to lead its pursuer into a trap. As a result, he followed cautiously, staying a day behind but determined to assure that it wasn’t circling back to cross their border again. For all that they were vicious, viruses possessed a great deal of cunning intelligence. It was then that he’d noticed the disturbance in the snow, and paused to investigate. “Look, you need to get home.” It was already past noon. In a few hours it would start getting dark, and while he was going to spend the night out, Lissy needed to be under shelter. Not only were there viruses prowling about, but Carna were patrolling the area as well, as part of the recent alliance. Despite the armistice, he wouldn’t turn his back to them in a crowded meeting, let alone chance them running into a young, naive girl after dark. Dismissing these thoughts with a shake of his head, he dusted some snow off the girl before him. “I don’t have time to take you back, so you’re going to have to manage on your own.” ooc; gah, this is short, sorry. D8 couldn't think of anything else for him to do/say. words; >.>

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[Elisabeth Ramsey]

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[bg=7fbfc6] “Tori!” She cried out in delight as he swung her to her feet. Already she’d forgotten about her worry of a scolding; she hadn’t seen Salvtore in a week! The girl beamed at him as he spoke. She did her best to look serious when he spoke of danger, but almost as soon as he stopped she threw her arms around him in a hug. She was beginning to release him and step back, but a soft, alien noise in her mind made her freeze. She didn’t catch all of what Tori was thinking, but she did get enough to know there was some sort of virus out roaming. And something about a Scout… had he been injured by the virus? Elisabeth frowned and stepped back, only feeling a little bit guilty for invading the Delta’s brain. It wasn’t as if she could help it; she had yet to learn how to control her ability. “I don’t have time to take you back, so you’re going to have to manage on your own.” She tugged on the zipper of her jacket, confused. She must’ve missed part of what he said, but she could infer that he wanted her to return to the Fallen Station. Before she could stop it, the corners of her mouths tipped up. “I don’t know the way back,” It was true; she hadn’t thought of it earlier, and had been paying little attention to the area around her as she walked. She supposed she could find her way back if she really wanted to, but it would be tiring and consist of a lot of aimless wandering. “But that’s okay! I’ll just come with you. I’ll be quiet, and I won’t get in the way, honest!” She had forgotten that he hadn’t said that he was tracking something, just thought it. Elisabeth became worried then. What if he got mad at her for interrupting him? The worry showed in her eyes as plain as every other emotion she felt and she pulled harder on her zipper. He already seemed grumpy! It wasn’t a far jump from irritation to anger. So… She would just have to make him happy. She thought for a moment, then laughed and grabbed his wrist. She fell back into the snow, pulling him along with her. How smart she was! Of course the snow would cheer him up. How could it not? It was so fluffy and white and soft! Elisabeth turned to him, grinning, wanting to share her joy. “Guess what?” She almost whispered, as if she was about to tell him a secret. “I feel like a marshmallow in this!” And then she flapped her arms in her puffy down jacket for emphasis. Elisabeth let her arms fall still and lay for a moment in triumph, because, really, if snow and marshmallows didn’t make him happy, she didn’t know what would. --- words; 482 ooc; RUMOR, if this is not okay, just tell me <3 You are not online. And I really wanted to get this post up x’D I’VE OWED IT FOR TOO LONG! Credits: Girl – faestock.deviantart.com River – grannysatticstock.deviantart.com Meadow –resurrection-stock.devianart.com

[Tori]

[bg=000000][atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true] Tori sighed, then shook his head patiently. “I’m following a virus, Liz, it’s not safe. Home is straight that way,” he corrected gently, pointing toward the way he’d come. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but he knew better than to invite her on a hunt. He couldn’t protect either of them properly if he was worrying about her. Suddenly, the girl grabbed his wrist with a laugh and pulled. Caught by surprise, he tumbled into the snow, throwing out his hands to catch himself so he didn’t flatten her slight frame. Blinking snow from his eyes, he sat up, startled. Lissy turned to him, eyes glowing with enthusiasm. “Guess what? I feel like a marshmallow in this!” Tori stared for a moment, taken aback by the sheer ridiculousness of the statement, then slowly collapsed into helpless laughter. For a few moments it was all he could do to breathe. When he finally got his amusement under control, he shook his head again, chuckling and breathless. “Oh, cariño, you’re too good for this place. But you’re still going home, charms aside.” He placed a quick, apologetic kiss on her cheek, then stood and shook the powdery snow off his clothes. Offering Elisabeth a hand, he pulled her up. He regretted the necessity of sending her away; he hadn’t spent nearly enough time with her lately, and the guilt of the fact gnawed at him, but virus-tracking wasn’t a suitable bonding experience. The older brother complex he’d developed over her demanded that her safety come first. Anticipating the disappointment on her face, he ruffled her hair with one hand. “I’ll be home in a few days,” he promised. “We’ll do something then, just the two of us.” Placing a hand on her shoulder, he turned her to face in the correct direction. “Do you see that bump on the horizon? The one that looks like a giant pebble was dropped? If you just walk straight toward that, you’ll hit the old tracks. Turn left and follow them until you hit the train cars.” Pivoting, he squinted up at the sun, judging the angle. “If you hurry, you can make it home before the next Carna patrol is scheduled to come through. So, off you go. I’ll let you know as soon as I get back.” ooc; ffff, and you thought you owed YOURS for too long. xD cariño = sweetheart words; 386

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[Elisabeth Ramsey]

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[bg=7fbfc6] She’d always found laughter contagious. Hers started first in small giggles, then grew into full-out, body-shaking laughs, and she fell back in the snow, happy that Tori seemed to be in an agreeable mood. The seemingly purposeless laughter brightened her mood, too; Elisabeth just loved laughing. It was over all too soon for her, but as her companion was sobering up and her stomach was beginning to get sore she decided she best end her bout, too. The girl sat up when the Delta began to talk, a breathless smile still on her face. What he said confused her – he wasn’t going to take her on the adventure? Even after they’d shared such a great laugh together? Before she had time to figure out a way to argue this, though, he leaned in and kissed her cheek. Instantly a blush began to take over her face, emphasizing the light flush she’d already had from playing in the snow. Blue eyes darted quickly around, and upon seeing no one near enough to notice she relaxed. After all, it wasn’t really considered indecent if no one saw, right? And, besides, Tori was practically like family. She was allowed to give and receive innocent hugs and kisses to family. When he offered her a hand she took it and pulled herself up, her usual smile working its way back onto her face. She was imagining the fun they’d have, disregarding what he’d said about her going home. Though she did her best to pay attention, she couldn’t help her mind from straying to unfamiliar and exciting parts of the Menagerie. The clues she’d gotten from what he said and what he thought were enough to piece together a daydream of a grand adventure in which they were both glamorous sleuths. Imagine helping to bring down a virus! What heroes the others would revere them as! Her eyes began to drift out of focus as she dreamed up their reception, conveniently ignoring the sinful aspects of it. Her interest was caught again when Tori mentioned the Carna. Elisabeth mentally scrambled backwards and replayed what he’d just said, feeling bad that she missed it. It wasn’t as if she purposefully zoned out; her mind just had trouble staying on one subject for a while, especially when there were so many other things to think about. But the Carna! The gleeful expression she took on was probably not the healthiest reaction to hearing of the notoriously bloodthirsty ring. She couldn’t help it, though; she could only think of her friend Noah and how he was in Carna. In fact, the thought so consumed her that she had to share. “Oh, nevermind, Tori, it’s fine! I’ll just wait here for the Carna patrol, Noah might be with it! Have you met Noah? You should stay to meet him, he’s the best! He’s so fuzzy, you’d love him!” She babbled excitedly on. She crouched down in the snow and began to roll as many snowballs as she could – if Noah was coming, they were going to have fun. --- words; 510 ooc; Oh, Lissy. XD Credits: Girl – faestock.deviantart.com River – grannysatticstock.deviantart.com Meadow –resurrection-stock.devianart.com

[Tori]

[bg=000000][atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true] Alarm leaped onto his expression. “What? No, don’t wait for them! You want to avo-” Abruptly he paused, gaze narrowing suspiciously. “Just how do you know this Noah?” Dear God, had she been talking to the patrols that came through? He cringed internally at the thought. He wanted Lissy far away from the Carna. Far, far away. Australia was not far enough. It was difficult enough keeping an eye on her in the isolation of Fallen territory, let alone when strangers were prowling around the borders. He opened his mouth to caution her. “Pretty?” Tori whipped around, startled by the grating voice. Silent and unnoticed, a figure had approached, and was now standing ten yards away. It was vaguely humanoid, the size and build of a bear standing on its hind legs, with beaded, scaly skin in shades of gray-green that gleamed in the sunlight. At the end of thickly muscled arms hung heavy, paw-like hands with short fingers that curved into long, deadly talons. Dressed in thin, tattered clothing, it had a bald head, a pointed face reminiscent of a lizard, and bulging, red, slit-pupil eyes that were currently fixed on Elisabeth. “Pretty.” He swore vehemently, only just remembering to do so in Spanish so the girl wouldn’t faint, and stepped in front of her, palming the combat knife he carried. “Don’t even think it, you overgrown alligator.” The red gaze switched to him, and its scaly lips pulled back, revealing yellowed canines in a grimace that made its entire face wrinkle. “Tracker.” The word was an angry hiss. “Liz, now would be a good time to go. Toward the mountains. Left along the tracks. Don’t stop.” His voice sounded distant to his own ears, barely audible over the pounding of his heart. Tori reached behind him with the hand not holding the blade, and gave her a gentle shove. The virus was moving a few paces to each side, trying to see around him, but he moved with it, staying between it and Lissy. It was clearly fascinated by her, and frustrated that he was in the way. It growled at him, a grumbling sound that mixed a hiss, a whine, and a throaty snarl. Tori dropped into a slight crouch, knife held easily before him in a ready position. “Why do they always have to be big, nasty creatures? Why not a fluffy kitten?” he muttered. ooc; LOL I DON'T EVEN KNOW. words; 401

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[Elisabeth Ramsey]

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[bg=7fbfc6] The girl missed all the cautionary tones in Tori’s voice; she only comprehended that he wanted to know how she’d met Noah. She paused from her snowball-making, gathering her story up in her mind and adding in little truth-stretches to make it better. She absolutely loved telling of her adventures at the Speakeasy, though so far she’d only told them to herself and whatever small animals had stayed put long enough. Unfortunately, though, the story would have to wait until another day before it was re-told to intelligent ears; the rasping voice of the virus stopped all of Elisabeth’s words in their tracks. She leaned around Tori to see the creature and immediately wished she hadn’t. She shrunk back into the snow, for the first time feeling its coldness. The thing was hideous. Never before had she seen something so blatantly ugly and scary. It looked worse than any monster she’d ever dreamt up, though, truth be told, she didn’t have all that great of an imagination for frightening things. “O-okay…” Elisabeth stammered in response to the Delta’s commands. A glance to her left showed her the mountains to which he’d been referring, and confirmed that she would be able to navigate around him without coming in range of the virus. She stood up on shaky legs, but didn’t move. Her eyes were drawn to the glare of the sun against the metal in Salvatore’s hand—to his knife. Her stomach dropped and her throat tightened; it was serious. She looked once again to the virus, which thankfully was focused on the man for now. She didn’t know if she would be able to handle looking into its eyes again. Of course the Tenderfoot wanted to obey Tori. Of course she wanted to put as much distance between herself and the monster as possible. But how was she supposed to just go off and leave him by himself? In the time that Elisabeth was torn in making her decision, the virus was acting. It loosed a final, chilling snarl, then moved toward Tori with surprising swiftness. The girl shrieked and dropped to the ground, covering her eyes with her hands. Oh, Lord, please let him be all right, please give Salvatore speed and grace, please don’t let the monster hurt him… She prayed feverishly, unaware of a faint trembling in the ground around her. Please, dear Lord, hold him in your palm, protect him with your strong hands. Whatever you do, God, don’t let him die, please, just don’t let him die! Her heartbeat had been picking up speed like a racehorse rounding the final turn and coming down the homestretch. Fear and panic took turns beating against her ribcage, pushing back the hope and trust and faith that tried springing up. The negative emotions consumed her; her prayer dribbled off as the panic had her taking irregular breaths. She was stuck with that last image of the virus lunging at Tori, and though she wanted desperately to look and see what had happened she was rooted to the spot. Her hands shook over her eyes, which were pushed shut as tightly as they would go, and Psalm 46:10—“Be still and know that I am God”—flashed through her mind once before a mighty crack silenced everything. The girl let out a trembling breath and her entire body slumped sideways into the snow. For a surreal moment everything was still and peaceful; her frenzied emotions settled down and a calm fell over her. The moment was fleeting. The virus—it really was quite slow, as pain obviously took a while to travel through its nerves—let out a shrieking wail. Elisabeth sat up and almost fell over again; she was feeling quite dizzy, for some reason. Her eyes took a bit longer than they should’ve to focus on the scene in front of her. It was horrifying, and yet it was fantastic. The virus was sitting down and full-out bawling, and at first the girl though that Tori had landed a lucky hit. While he very well might’ve, that wasn’t the virus’s chief concern. A thin root with a knot at the end was just visible over the top of its right foot. When Elisabeth took a closer look, she saw that the root was literally going through the virus’s foot. She was repulsed; she turned her head away quickly, but could not block out its pitiful cries. She crawled over to her friend and tapped gently on his shoulder. “Salvatore? Are you OK? Did it get you? W-what happened?” She had more that she wanted to say, but she broke off and hid her face behind his back. Already she was forgetting the vicious way in which it had come at her friend and the horrible way it had looked upon her. It didn’t sound at all human when it cried, but the dragonfly shifter still found her heart breaking for it. The pain it must be in! She thought. What had Salvatore done to it? A dark, weighty accusation was forming at the back of her mind—what if it hadn’t been Salvatore? What if this was… her fault? --- words; 862 ooc; TELEKENISIS <3 Credits: Girl – faestock.deviantart.com River – grannysatticstock.deviantart.com Meadow –resurrection-stock.devianart.com

[Tori]

[bg=000000][atrb=width,500,true][atrb=border,0,true] He could still feel Elisabeth’s presence at his back when the virus snarled again, then barreled at him. The girl shrieked, but Tori did have time to worry about her. Three hundred pounds of muscle was charging straight for him. It was tactless, but effective. If that thing got a grip on him, it could rip him apart with ease. Normally, his first impulse would be to dart out of the way, but Lissy was somewhere behind him. If he moved, the virus could slam right into her. He would have to repel or redirect it, and subtly had never been a consideration in his fighting. All of these thoughts went through his head in an instant. Then he drew back his right hand, folding it into a fist around the grip of the knife as the virus lunged at him. With a yell, he slammed it against the creature’s nose, putting the weight and force of his entire body behind the punch. It hurt. The beaded, scaly skin was rough, like sandpaper, and the thing had a head like a cinder block. The impact tore open his knuckles, lancing through his wrist and shoulder. It had the desired effect, at least. The enhanced strength behind the blow made his hand flare with pain, but it snapped the virus’s head back, sending it reeling. Tori followed up immediately with a left hook to its throat. It coughed out a choked sound, wheezing and staggering, and he whipped the knife up, intending to plunge the blade into its chest. The alligator-bear-man took a quick quarter turn, the strike glancing off its shoulder, and grabbed his forearm as the blade skittered across its scaly skin. Tori snarled at the pain of the crushing force and ripped his arm free, talons opening gaping rents in his flesh as he did so. While occupied, the creature’s other hand tried to gut him, but he deflected it at the last moment, escaping with only shallow scratches across his stomach. Fangs snapped at his face, but he ducked, came up inside its guard, and rammed his shoulder into its chest, using the strength of his legs and core. It would leave him with a bruise, but it forced the creature back a few steps. Tori followed, expression dark with fury, only to be interrupted by a sharp crack, sudden and reverberating in the cold, clear winter air. Both he and the virus blinked at the root that had emerged through the former’s foot, baffled. Then it started wailing, toppling back onto its rump. Tori grimaced at the noise and backed away, dropping into a crouch to sit on his heels, nonplussed. A few moments later, Lissy tapped him on the shoulder. He glanced at the blood dripping from his right hand. “Nothing serious.” He pivoted, putting his good arm around her and tucking her against his side, one eye on the bawling virus. “I...I’m not exactly sure. A root went through its foot.” He glanced from girl to beast and back again. Its pain obviously distressed her, but he couldn’t just leave it. It was a virus. Something designed to spread disease and death. If he was rational, he would kill it. But he was reluctant to do so with Elisabeth near. There was no doubt in his mind that it would disturb and frighten her. Straightening, drawing her with him, he turned her away from the virus. “Cariño, I need you to start walking home, okay?” he informed her gently. “I’ll be right behind you. I need to deal with the virus. I’ll catch up to you in a just a few minutes.” She wouldn’t like being by herself, he was sure, but he was just as sure that she’d like it less if she had to watch him slit the creature’s throat. ooc; 83 words; 641

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