DON'T SPEAK OF YOUR FEARS [TAIN]

[SORCHA]

Sorcha was worn out. Too much blood, too many wounded, and not enough rest. She needed an extended break. Though she questioned her own sanity in venturing so far south, she was in search of some solitude. The retros had been quiet recently, and she had found after several years in the dome that though she was unaccustomed to the wilds, as opposed to the harsh surfaces of the city, it was more peaceful, more healing. The fact that the retros had receded deeper into their lands meant that Sorcha was free to spend some time away from civilization, and hone her instincts. At least, that was the plan. The second morning into the notion, Sorcha was wandering through the jungle in rapture. A small smile played on her lips as she thread through the trees. Once or twice, she’d come across retros and, shifting into the small form of a black housecat, had disappeared easily enough. After a while, she'd ventured down and shifted back into the narrow brunette young woman her human form took. Now, there was nothing. The sounds of the wilds, the puffs of her own breath as she walked, and … There was motion ahead, and Sorcha froze in anticipation. No sooner than she had suspected that it was her imagination than a deer dodged past her. It burst through the brush and in no less than two bounds had utterly disappeared. The breath she'd held was released, and she smiled at the idea that she’d been so frightened by a such a harmless … The large creature that followed slammed into her not a second later, all legs, short, rough fur, and (to Sorcha’s terror) the strong and unmistakable smell of dog. She tumbled with the beast, ass over teakettle, far longer and deeper than she thought was possible to the ground. When she awoke, it was pinned to the ground, her body aching and thoroughly confused. Where was she? What had happened? Nothing felt broken, but she also felt heavy. Too heavy. She rose on her elbows and froze instantly in terror. In her lap and across her legs, pinning her to the moist and cold earth, was the largest dog she had ever seen. Her body began to shake ... and a small squeak of fear escaped her. Dog ....

[Tain Rosdahl]

Sometimes the keepers were right, shapeshifters just weren't entirely human.

It was a pounding, roaring thrill that filled Tain until he felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin. The scream of underfed and overworked muscle was completely drowned out by it's power, and it drew Tain along a magnetic current through the trees and underbrush that snapped against his chest and sides. It was the chase, the hunt that drove him so.

Nothing in his brain cared that he was a vegetarian, that he wouldn't eat a bite of anything they caught. His brother had once commented that Tain would likely chase anything that went fast enough long enough, and he wasn't entirely wrong. It was a singular focus that adrenaline brought as he followed the panicked crash of the doe, scraping past trees and leaping brooks. The ground was getting softer and muddier as they went downhill, but the claws of his canine shift held strong.

The doe was not faring so well, and was losing ground. He was almost close enough to flank her, drive her right and turn back toward the rest of the hunters that were following. Exhausted and terrified, she'd falter and lose to one of them. It was a practiced pattern that they worked well, their quarry met it's end more often than not. And this close to the borders, their group wasn't concerned with stealth.

A flash of white; the tail made his heart jump in excitement as a fresh burst of speed carried him between two massive pines in time to see the doe cut left, and watching her he just missed the figure to his right until he collided with it mid-stride with a sick, wet crack, and everything exploded into a white haze of pain and spinning leaves and dirt.

Just as fast Tain slammed to a stop, dirt raining down on him as his head buzzed and spun. Confusion, panic, and fear jerked him into trying to move, stupid, but the immediate twist of pain through his shoulder and back froze him immediately. He wanted to scream to the hunters for help, but the pain was so intense he could barely breathe. Reality struggled to reassert itself through it, and he forced himself to at least open his eyes. He was in some kind of dug pit, lined with crude spears. Luckily he had NOT landed on any, merely knocked one slightly askew. And he was parked on some girl.

There was the panic again.

His instinct was to curse and jerk away, but of course it didn't happen. All he got was a fresh wave of pain with a side of ice cold nausea that left him shaking. Don't stab me don't stab me don't be kneejerk freakin crazy hoooly- WAIT. His mental scramble hit a pillar of idea; he KNEW her. Not super well, she'd been in Fulsi along with him years ago. Sarah? Sasha? Something like that. She'd been quiet and generally stayed pretty far away from him, for whatever reasons. That didn't mean she would remeber HIM, even if Tarrik had the same damn dog shift. Maybe it would keep her from going wildly violent if she thought he might be Tarrik; or she was just a good person!? HE didn't stab random people he fell in a hole with, it should go as an example to everyone.

And.. she was waking up. Tain tried to move, or shift or SOMETHING, but his body was in agony and wasn't responding right. He couldn't move most of his right side at all, which meant something big as probably dislocated. From the pain, likely his shoulder or clavicle. Sasha had been interested in medical stuff right? Maybe she could help, or GET help. But she looked terrified, those wide eyes fixed on Tain like he was something out of a horror movie. He struggled with a breath to get a word out; the crude growl of shiftertongue, but it was better than nothing.

"Sasha? It's Tain, remember me?! I helped you carry all those books that one time and AGGHH!" Her leg had moved, and moved his hurt shoulder. In a squall of adrenaline he fought again to move off her, and actually made it a few inches this time as a back paw got traction on the shaft of a spear. "Just don't shank me alright!?" A final push and he rolled onto his back and off her legs, and fortunately onto his good shoulder so the urge to puke was minimal. Now he just had to convince her to help him and not freak out more, scream about traitors, and knife him.

[SORCHA]

Fear crept down her spine, robbing Sorcha of her breath, her control, her ability to rationalize. His babbling about remembrance didn’t completely fly over her head – it echoed in the depths behind her panic, and she would have agreed to anything to be free of him. Sure, he had carried her books once; she would have agreed that he was a pterodactyl in another life for Christ’s sake, anything to get him off of her. She paled as the blood drained from her face and she fought a wave of nausea. For Sorcha, having a dog pinning her to the ground was a Grade A level of panic. She’d not done well with dogs before she had learned she was a cat-shifter, however, since then in the dome it was not uncommon for her to be the prize in a game of chase for canines too many times. These days, even the sight or smell of a dog or dog-shifter was enough to push her away from the Fulsi camp for a day or more. She breathed through her nose with her eyes closed, concentrating on not completely losing her mind. With purpose she forced herself to open her sea blue-green eyes. There seemed a hollow note to the beast’s voice and it made her look up and realize they were in a pit. A bright ring around their head was her salvation, and it made sense now why the ground had been so soft, and moist, and cold. Sasha. It was close to her name, but either way it would've had little effect just now. In the back of her mind she recalled the twins distantly, Tain had gone …. somewhere but the moment he moved his canine mass from her legs and she was free - there was no room left for thought. One moment she was on the pit floor, the next a small black cat took her place and she super-manned a flight straight out of the hole. Her first attempt was not quite high enough and she slipped from the rim of the hole, her small paws scrabbling at the dirt with panic. With a twist she landed on her feet and without pause launched herself back out. This time she cleared the lip. The small black cat did not stop there and she high-tailed it up the first tree she saw. The base of the jungle trunk was less than a few feet from the mouth of the hole, and in the safety of its limbs if she were to look down she could clearly see the dog in the hole. She hunkered down where he might not see her, her tail lashing with fear and irritation as her head swiveled this way and that. Mistrustful eyes accused in the world beneath flattened ears and above a sour mug. She didn’t like her field trip anymore.

[Tain Rosdahl]

On the one hand, she didn't go Xena Warrior Princess on his ass and leave him to his admittedly spacious grave. On the other, she totally ditched him like a bad date as fast as she could go. He mentally cursed and wiggled onto his side, then up to sit on his haunches. His right leg hung low and mostly numb, but now that he was upright it seems to calm down to a bearable level. That or the endorphins were finally kicking in, whatever.

"SASCHA! Or Samantha, whoever you are c'mon!" He didn't have the depth of breath to yell, but he could rasp out the words loud enough to be heard in the immediate area. "Is there anyone up there?! Py? MAX? Olly?! ....dammit man I'm stuck in a hole! A. HOLE." His volume was getting a little better, but there was still no answer. He couldn't hear the hunters either, they must have run past just a little too wide to see the pit. And this scaredy cat girl! He was almost positive that she was who he thought she was. Right? Doubt suddenly nagged at him. He'd seen her shift into a small black cat before she fled; she girl he'd known had been a cat too right? He couldn't remember. Cats however were RIGHT at home with the Analoya, which was not something he needed brought down on his head for flattening some kitten.

Forcing himself through the shift might not be a bad idea, though it would hurt like absolute hell. At least he'd probably shift anyways if he passed out, right?! His energy fluxed toward it... and shied away again. There was no way, not yet. It would be so much easier if he could get someone to pop the stupid thing back in, and he could start to heal the damage to the muscle and tendon around it. Just as the thought occurred he realized he NEEDED to hold the energy back, and hard. The unexplained accelerated healing he had was great for some things.. healing his out of joint shoulder while STILL out of joint wasn't one of them unless he wanted to be crippled. And that energy in him tended to go a bit rogue and do what it wanted, regardless of what Tain thought.

Frustrated, and listening in vain for his companions, he started to scan the dirt walls for an easy way out. There wasn't much of one, and he looked up to the top of the hole and beyond... to the angry black tail switching on a high limb. Things suddenly looked up, she wasn't gone!

"Hey! I didn't mean to wreck you like that, I was after a deer! ..not sure you saw it, but yeah, and then blam! You. Me. Hole. Ow. Popped my shoulder, pancaked you, messed up someone's trap. But since I'm not a huge awful frothing stranger-tackling monster, can you lend a hand!? I mean do you even... can you at least see the rest of my hunt from up there?! Hear them or something?"

[SORCHA]

Now that she had some distance, she took a good look at the beast. He really was the largest dog she had ever seen. Was that even a breed? Sure, Canis Mongoloidus. Giant. Ass. Dog. When he began calling to his friends, she looked up through the trees. Her delicate triangle ears rose and twitched as she surveyed their surroundings. After a few moments she looked back down. There was no one that would hear him. Well, no one but her. He was still trying to call her by name, which was puzzling until she remembered he said his name was Tain. Carried my books, she thought baffled. It had been years since anyone had been anywhere near her books. She now had her precious if not scarce library well hidden in the city. Without his human face she was stumped. Even back then she’d have gone nowhere near him in his canine form. As a human, she would have been scarcely more forgiving. The dog was babbling again, and Sorcha looked down to see that he had spotted her. Her tail flicked again indignantly as she deliberated what to do. She could leave him here. He smelled thoroughly of Carna and, he was undeniably a hell beast of the canine variety. She watched with critical eyes as he painfully rightened himself, her sharp eyes catching that he had injured himself. Information about the deer and his apologies slid straight past her, but popped shoulder penetrated the barrier of fear easily enough and now she had no excuse to simply leave him there. She couldn’t. It wasn’t ethical. A real doctor knew no Rings. Mentally she prepared herself and, shaking, she disappeared from the tree branches. A moment later, the outline of a feline head appeared at the edge of the hole. “You are a huge awful frothing stranger-tackling monster,” she sniffed, but he was also injured. “Your people have strayed too far to hear you,” she said quietly. Maybe she could just go and get them. Then she wouldn’t have to deal with this herself. However, leaving him alone and injured … “By popped I assumed you mean it is dislocated?” she said tonelessly. Her head tilted to get a good look at the limp leg and she inwardly sighed. He would not be able to adjust it himself.

[Tain Rosdahl]

"Yeah it's dislocated, I can describe how to put it back in it you'd try? I'm used to human ones, but it's not that different you know? Wait you liked medical things right!? You know how?" There was such an eager hope in his voice, genuine and open. He was a terrible liar most of the time anyways, but she barely knew him, so he did his best to look nonthreatening, which worked fine on dog people. The vibe he was getting off her was not so good in that regard. She actually called him a frothing beast! That was so many kinds of not cool, but Tain supposed he could roll with it if it meant she'd help him.

"I can see you don't like dogs much, right? But if I change it could tear the tendons more, and no amount of healing will get my shoulder working right again. If you just pop it in I can take care of the rest and boom! Human!" He scooted back toward the far wall to leave plenty of open space, crowding her wouldn't help anything if he was trying to get her down there with him. Py and company had to have realized he was missing now, and they wouldn't be like to leave him alone for long.. IF they could find him. It seemed like the soft walls of the pit swallowed sound whole, and it was starting to feel like they were swallowing him too.

"I can keep talking if it helps? Stupid stuff about my brother, or me, or human things.. how they turned me into this fat little otter, and I do mean fat. I'm not big but I end up with a new form brought out and.. yeah, it's like a small whale. Law of conservation of love handles!?" The space was pressing in on him mentally, and he was talking as much to remind her that he was just another guy as he was to keep himself from getting upset and doing something majorly stupid. He was already feeling a bit belligerent that day from being stuck on shift with Py; who he was inarguably ass over face in love with... and who still wasn't speaking to him. Today sucked.

[SORCHA]

You like medical things right? You know how? Right. She liked medical things right? Right? Though it was a rhetorical question, it was genuinely the first time anyone had ever asked her that. She had come from a family bred from generations upon generations of Doctors, all the way back to Dr. Archard Depplamere, a Yankee surgeon, who had served in the US Army during the Civil War. Maybe even before that, her father had once speculated. It had never before occurred to Sorcha to even consider whether or not she liked it. The idea to Sorcha was akin to a swan wondering whether or not it liked being in a family of swans. There was no like or dislike – no choice, it simply was. Her eyes narrowed, tucking the tid bit to mull over later. The current matter was far more pressing, and indeed the Current Matter was still talking … … it could tear the tendons more. If you just pop it in … her ears flattened and her small head pulled back from sight at the suggestion. The idea of popping balls back into joint, or moving bones didn’t bother her in the least. It was the idea of actually Touching. The. Dog. The fear returned, as potent as the scent of the canine wafting from the mouth of the hole. … fat little otter, and I do mean fat. Sorcha’s feline head popped back over the edge of the hole, the expression on her feline face a combination of skepticism and disbelief. Her wide eyes looked owl-like. “You can shift into two animal forms?” she demanded. She had heard of it once, but as she had never seen it for herself, Sorcha had never completely believed it. Without thought she shifted back into the form of a young woman, her long brown hair hanging to one side as she tilted her head in curiosity. “A full manifestation of an alter animal aside from your current form?” On her hands and knees she crouched over the edge of the hole. Despite her curiosity, she still shook visibly, her fingers trembling as she ducked a long strand of hair from her light eyes over an ear. She was attempting to forget that the center of her intense inquisitive moment was in fact … still a dog.

[Tain Rosdahl]

Tain nearly jumped out of his skin all over again when a girl's head suddenly appeared over the edge, and he landed right on his but with wide eyes to match hers. A beat later he recognized Sorcha, but his heart wouldn't stop hammering. It had to be a Fulsi thing, popping out of nowhere like that.

"Uh.. yeah? I mean loads of people in Carna have it! Wait, so does Tarrik, don't you ever actually.. talk to anyone in Fulsi?" he looked confused and a little, perhaps, sad. He thought the ranks there were close now with Charm in charge, and had spent a great deal of time himself in relative isolation in Carna in the first month. It was cold and cruel. He remembered Sorcha as quiet and shy, but surely she didn't get left entirely on her lonesome? "I can show you after if you want? I don't know how they do it, or why? The crazy shifts some people get make a bit more sense, like experimenting and stuff? But what kinda good is an otter!? ....don't get me wrong, it's very me, I mean it feels natural which is so so weird, but..." His ears sagged a bit to the side, put out. As fun as being a tiny wild butterball was, something like a horse or polar bear would be way more useful. The otter shift was sneaky and small, he supposed, but it didn't exactly inspire much fear or awe.

"Can I ask why you're so afraid of me? I get that I'm Carna and kind of a big.. predator.. animal? But I'm not like you know.. a jerk. Not as much as Jay anyways, which is what really counts. And you can tell him I said that, I'm sure he deserves it." Of all the Fulsi felines to be stuck with, why couldn't it have been Jace? He was his best friend and stubborn as a brick, but at least he wasn't terrified of friendly people in big holes. The thought was probably a bit rude; Sorcha hadn't left him yet after all. He just missed the blond man. Next time he saw him he had half a mind to drag him off to Carna like a leopard with a baby gazelle... only without the killing and eating part. Maybe if Sorcha wasn't Super Isolated Number One she might know about his friend, but he decided to press it once he was human and friendlier looking. His shoulder still hurt and she was still skulking up there after all.

[SORCHA]

He was rambling. Sorcha felt a strong sting of impatience tricking through her fear and her eyes narrowed infinitesimally. It was good - it got her mind working again. When the dog was finally silent, she rounded off the answers to all of his questions without hesitation. "No. Okay. I don’t know. Yes. Who the hell is Jay. If I find him I will tell him," she said dully. Technically, he had asked if he may ask why she was afraid of dogs. If she were in a different mood, she would have commented on such a trivial question. However, she also understood his meaning and desire to be polite behind an obviously delicate question - extending to the fact that her consenting to his asking her why she was so afraid of dogs would be followed up by the answer itself. It was moments like right now that she ironically admonished herself and admitted that it was likely things of this nature that kept people from wanting to converse with her. Then again she cross analyzed that she likely was focusing on other things than the question as an excuse not to talk about it. Get on with it, Depplamere. She sighed, defeated. "Cynophobia," she said yielded. When he blinked at her she looked around the forest, bit her lip, and almost barked. "I am irrationally terrified of dogs. Dogs not liking cats, my being a cat shifter, and narrowing escaping the jaws of canine death time after time has compounded this fear. Carna has nothing to do with it - I stay away from Fulsi dogs as much as possible as well." But that wasn't his fault, and he needed help. With another sigh and then an audible whine, she shifted back into her cat form leapt to the bottom of the whole and shifted again into a human. With a giant swallow and another breath for courage she puffed it out and collected her trembling self. Her eyes were shiny and wide with fear. "I don't know much about dislocations in animals and certainly not dogs as I have never even touched one. But, purpose calls for it. What should I do?"