After washing dishes and cleaning up, Sif and Havelock found themselves silently musing in Marcus's room. No matter how he tried, Havelock had no way to help the monster man in any way that counted, he was missing something crucial, and unfortunately, he felt like he didn't have the time to find it. He sat at a desk full of pieced together equipment, long silent, no bubbles or baubles to indicate that they were scientific in nature. The desk may as well have been ornamental, because by this point, all he was doing was staring at a resident he couldn't save.
"Any ideas?" he turned to Sif, who sat on the other side of the patient, but her eyes only gazed at the scientist in front of her
"I don't suppose I could try kissing him?"
"What? No, you can't do that!" he flushed, then turned away like he had more pressing things to do
"Why not?" she shrugged "It worked on you,"
"Yes... well, I mean... with me it was different. I was completely saturated, our friend Marcus is only infused,"
"Are those scientific terms?"
Havelock looked at her over his book of notes, hiding his reddened cheeks.
"...the brain is unaffected... his body is that of a beast, but there is a tiny bit of empty space still in there, still keeping him human,"
"And you have no way of getting filth to his brain?"
"If I did, i'd be able to equalise him, y'know, like I do to myself when I sip my potion,"
Sif looked at him, then somewhat crudely, made a syringe gesture, sticking an imaginary needle into Marcus's eye and making a squeezing sound.
"I doubt that would work, the filth needs to be carried there naturally or it'll probably burst his head,"
Sif sighed "Well, we wouldn't want that, not after the nice dinner Maggy made us,"
"You helped too," Havelock replied, watching her as she stood up and began to pace around the room
"Sure I did," She chuckled sarcastically, then approached him from behind and ran her gloved claws through his hair
If Havelock weren't trying to save the population of this city, he would've shut his eyes and allowed the exhaustion to take over, lulled into sleep by Sif's presence and touch. He leaned back and looked up at her as she smiled down at him. There was work to be done, but it seemed that Sif could not spend a moment without letting him know that she was right there next to him. She leaned down and whispered something into his ear, her breath tickling his neck.
"You want to know something Havelock?" She trilled, leaning against him
"Mhm?"
"I'm..." She took a deep breath in, brushing the fur of her face past his with an alluring slowness "Hungry," She said flatly, discontinuing the sensual tone of her words
Havelock snorted in disbelief, which prompted her to chuckle and nip him on the ear, then stand back up to her full height.
"Do you want a snack? I'm going to go see if Maggy has any leftovers,"
"A coffee would be nice... see if I can jumpstart my big dumb brain,"
Sif traced around the room and turned to him with a bemused look in her brow "Havelock, you've hit a snag, you aren't stupid,"
He looked over all the formulas and tactics he tried and failed on his notebook "Sure feels like it sometimes,"
He heard the silk of Sif's dress move once again as she knelt by his side, the warmth of her gaze infectious and inspiring.
"Havelock, one day, I hope that I am as intelligent as you are, the acquired knowledge you have buried in your head, the culmination of the human sciences. It is valuable, and enables you to protect the things you love, your people... a gift I would do anything for..." She held her hand up to his cheek and felt the heat from his face
"Funny... if I was as strong as you, I'd be able to save you from Caroline... or anything else that wanted you dead,"
She stood and gave him a light, caring pat on the face "I guess we'll have to stick together then, cover our bases..." The hound winked and turned away "let me fetch you that drink"
As Sif headed for the door, Havelock gave her a little wave and a word of encouragement.
"...oh good, thank you..."
Sif froze in the doorway, turning back to him like a soldier standing at attention.
"Sif? You alright?"
"Mhm..."
"Then why are you standing there?"
She held her hands by her chest, fiddling with the gloves on her fingers. "...Good what..."
Havelock stared forward for an entire moment, his eyes roaming around the room as if looking for the joke until finally, he latched onto the barest understanding of what she meant with a good natured smirk ".........Girl?"
Sif blushingly smiled and averted her golden eyes, tail moving side to side. Then, without a word, she nodded and left the room.
Before today, Lancard had never known the limitations of his flesh, he had not quite understood that thing which held him back. His back used to ache, his knees used to crack, there used to be a fuzzy part in his left eye. When he was young, he pushed himself time and time again, searching for that peak potential that would win him the next fight, or that would prolong his life a moment longer. He had a rigorous routine, which involved weightlifting, climbing, and running, hurting his lungs and stretching his muscles. He was far stronger than an average man, and although he had four times the muscle, he was only twice the size of one of his own guards. Compared to this? All of that was pointless.
Lancards pores seeped slightly with a wispy, dusty smoke as if he had converted into a chimney. He subtly billowed the injuries of his past away in a few fleeting moments, he felt young again, not like an adult, but like a child, unburdened by the weights of the world, free to jump and run as long as it was fun. In just a moment he could take in all of his surroundings, the cages, the streets, the people, but most of all, he could see straight down that narrow pier that led to Caroline's ship.
"Wrong choice Captain..." Caroline said, reaching for the axe on her back and unhooking it from the various straps that held it in place. He'd never seen it in action before, and had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't enjoy a demonstration
"You're an idiot if you thought I'd do anything but protect my friends Caroline,"
"Friends with that dog? That abomination?"
"With Havelock and the people of Lothorn... and yes, Sif too I suppose, she's done her fair share of bad, I'll admit... but I know how to forgive. War made monsters of all of us Caroline, but you wouldn't know, hiding in your ship while Lothorn tore itself apart,"
His voice sounded different, stronger, more resonant, it was free of his woes and trials, and felt powerful enough to shout someone to death, and at this rate, he just might've. Caroline scoffed at his bravado and started to circle him like a predator, eyeing him up in terms of optimal weak points and strategic advantages.
"The civil war wasn't my place to interfere, human conflicts aren't hunter business,"
"You sat still in your ship while we worked ourselves to death, we fought in the streets to eat a meal that night, we raged for days, fought, and died, while our superhuman monster-killer did nothing,"
His accusations teased out Caroline's pride and bared her fangs "There wasn't a monster to kill," She spat, seething through her teeth, and itching for Lancard to attack her
The helmet Lancard wore cast a shadow down on his eyes as he looked up, remembering a time when he was young and scared of the things that men could do. He remembered working 18 hour days and sleeping none, he remembered the endless toil, the vitriolic fighting, and the divide between people and power that doomed humanity in the first place. He remembered the face of the first man he killed, pulled from his ivory tower by fiery revolution, pockets lined with pointless gold, his personal power over everyone in the city so potent that the only solution was to pull his head off his neck. Lancard was handed a halberd, he didn't remember who by, but he put it down on the neck of Lothorns overlord, and from that day, he never let it go.
"Yes... there was," he whispered, his whole life spoken with three words
In a fierce burst of speed, Lancard surged forward and leapt off his feet, colliding with Caroline's chest with a full body kick. He tumbled to the ground, but that was of little consequence compared to the sheer distance Caroline covered so quickly. Over the sheer drop she flew, and just barely managing to catch the side of the pier. With one hand, she pulled herself up, making sure that not even her boot grazed the water below. Lancard gave chase of course, and barrelled down the wooden planks that tempted the sea. The huntress looked behind herself at her ship for a moment, then sneered and two-handed her axe as a special present.
The planks below them were loose and shoddy, so Caroline wouldn't be able to leap away, while the linear nature of their platform meant that her options were either to flee or fight. He had managed to turn the home turf against her. This long line of wood, tangentially connecting Caroline to Lothorn only in superfluous ways, was no longer a daunting road to Lancard, and with his newfound confidence, he bulleted down the planks, using the light footwork of his training to ensure he wasn't going to fall under.
Caroline's hateful eyes couldn't help but gleam with excitement at the prospect of such an encounter, sure, she had bigger prey, and those things stuck in the cages needed to be sorted, but sometimes, she just couldn't help herself. There was a hunt to be had after all, and who better to indulge a little?
Lancard levelled his halberd using two hands and jabbed at the huntress, forcing her retreat step by step as he encroached onwards every second. With so much reach, it'd be impossible to slip past him, and his footwork made it so very difficult to find an opening. Combatively, she was outmatched, cornered, hunted, and the realisation of this made her froth at the mouth. Lancard swept her in a wide arc to her left, one that she barely caught with her axe, using it to pull him in close. She used her free hand to grab him by the collar, then let her axe drop to the ground and reeled her fist to ruin his face.
TWHOOM!
In an exertion of air from her lungs, and the attempt of all the nearby air to move out of the way, Caroline's fist seemed to boom as it passed the side of Lancard's head, but she felt no connection, no satisfying bludgeon. Again, she pulled her fist back and sent it forward, holding him in place with a firm grapple, but it had no effect. Each time, he simply weaved his head out of the way, predicting the movements of a woman who'd never fought a person before
With a grin, Lancard hooked his leg around Caroline's back knee and palmed her vicious teeth, demolishing her equilibrium and sending her crashing to the planks under them. With accuracy and rehearsed speed, he then took the liberty of altering the structure of her cheekbones.
CRACK!
As his fist connected with her face, the planks beneath her head gave out, falling to the hungry ocean below and licking her hair with its inky waves. In a feral, screeching, desperate rage, Caroline reached around Lancard's waist and just started to squeeze, pulling him tightly towards her and listening to his spine struggle to stay in one piece. With his enhanced senses, Lancard could hear and feel the individual bony discs grinding against each other like nails on a chalkboard. Decidedly unpleasant.
He reached for his polearm and grabbed it by the end, taking a deep breath in to separate himself from her, then jammed it between the two of them, trying to wrench her arm off of him like a crowbar. With a cruel smile, Caroline spat blood into his face, and her grip did not loosen. In a panic, Lancard tried to push away from her totalitarian grip, but even as fast and strong as he was, he couldn't match a tenth of her raw power. Just as he tried a second more, he felt the deciduous snap he'd been dreading. With an anticlimactic pop, Lancard lost feeling in his legs.
Was his husband in one of those cages? He hadn't even had time to look. Could he have already been burned to death? He hoped not. If he died here, would Havelock succeed? That was the thing wasn't it, he wouldn't know... he couldn't bear not knowing whether his husband made it out or not. As Lancard felt his body being squeezed out like cake frosting, his mind drifted to memories of his beloved, of the history they had made... and remembering a brief lesson on human anatomy, Lancard had an idea.
From here, from just this angle, Lancard had perfect access to the Ligaments of Caroline's elbow, and with so much force being applied backwards, trying to pull him apart, he just needed to make a tiny weakness in the joint. In a daring swish, Lancard drove a knife from his pocket and jammed it into the joint of Caroline's right elbow, hooking it under the bend and pulling upwards. She smiled cruelly at him, revelling in his desperate attempt. He smiled back, glad to know she didn't even feel it.
With a triumphant push, Lancard pressed his hands against her throat and used all the strength in his arms to heave himself away. He wasn't trying to escape, he just needed her to pull a little harder... and by god she did. With a disgusting, beautiful squelch and pop, Caroline's elbow seemed to burst, the arm attached ripping from its socket and giving way. Caroline let go out of shock, and Lancard repaired his spine, leaping backwards out of her grip. On instinct, she rolled to her feet and grabbed her axe, but clearly, something had gone wrong in that big head of hers. She looked at her arm like a phantom limb, dangling from a few loose muscle fibres, a limb no longer hers, perhaps it never was.
"You... You bastard," She spoke so low the devil could hear
"My back.." He uttered in response, putting his hands behind him and straightening out like the old man he was
"I'll kill you..." She raved, her breath ragged, and her arm dripping blood "...and I'll let that dog eat your husband since you love her so much,"
"Go on then, lets go another round..." he said, encroaching on her with the presence of a god
Her eyes, bloodshot and filled with losing tears, scanned the area, behind her was her home, and in front of her was Lothorn. She saw the cages filled with animals on the edge, and without hesitating, to buy herself more time, hoisted her axe up with her remaining arm.
"Don't!" Lancard shouted, but it was too late
In a superhuman, soaring, throw, Caroline launched her axe across the sea and towards the cages. Lancard hooked his polearm across the gap, trying to catch it in mid air, but wasn't quick enough. The axe whirred the air away from itself and with a crunching metal scream, destroyed the heavy metal of one of the cages, creating enough room for its occupants to be let loose on the crowds that had gathered.
Lancard looked at her in shock, a creature so willing to hurt others, then looked back at the monsters prying their way out to gnaw on the people. He considered it for a second, chasing Caroline or stopping the half-beasts, but didn't consider it for another.
"You'll burn for this," He told her, then turned around and ran to save lives.
Caroline shakily sighed in relief, clutching her arm like a scared child. She turned around too, hiding the sickly look in her eyes, and ran towards her ship. There was something she needed to grab.
As Sif left Marcus's room, she drifted into the dining area with a soft swaying motion. There was something about this dress, about this house, about spending time just... existing, that made her feel light on her feet. The smell of food wafted through the air of the house, and Maggy stood by the kitchen, making sure everything was in its appropriate place. She had her back to Sif, but noticed her enter.
"Is... he going to be okay?" Maggy asked, her rigorous organisation a ploy to distract herself
"He's trying... I think he can make it..." Sif said as kindly as she could
Maggy seemed to turn her head downwards, doing her best not to let the pain show on her face.
"I see...don't let Havelock feel bad, I know he's trying..." she said
As Sif approached Maggy, just a few steps forward, her attention was raptly drawn to an open window, drifting a subtle breeze into the room from outside. They were near the edge right? Maggy's place was somewhat close to that void-black sea that bordered the world. She expected to be able to smell the waves, feeling the salty tang of the untamed air on her nostrils. Perhaps she could smell the sea and its myriad of olfactory colours... but that was not the smell she was focused on. Carried in by the wind, there was one scent on her mind, invading her nose and leaking into her brain like a cancerous bile, Sif smelt filth. Far more impactful than any scent was the feelings associated with it however, and it just so happened that this smell, in such a potent, unrefined... cooked form, made Sif feel hungry.
A single bead of saliva dripped from her mouth, agonisingly slowly falling to the wooden floor beneath her foot with a tiny plip. Her breath slowed, her eyes narrowed, her posture hunched. She hadn't eaten in a long time, and standing in front of her, none the wiser, incapable of fleeing, nor resisting... was Maggy.