⥐ ⋞ ☽ ⋟ ⥐
| Jackson |
It was chasing him. Jackson could hear its thumping, pounding paws and its heavy, snarling breaths. It wanted his blood, and if he didn't keep running as fast as his legs could carry him, it would grab him and toss him around like a ragdoll. He'd seen what that thing could do; he wouldn't stand a chance, inimă or not.
He raced through the forest, getting further and further away from the battle. He didn't really know where he was going; he just headed in the direction he'd seen Damon point out. The cadejo pit was around here somewhere...right?
The Amarok's deafening roars cut through the tense silence, shaking the snow from the trees, and unsettling the frost lingering in the air. The ground beneath Jackson's feet was shaking, whimpering every time the beast's massive paws slammed down on it. Even the forest felt afraid.
But he kept going. He had to keep going.
He ran deeper and deeper into the woods, and when he looked over his shoulder, he set his eyes on the Amarok. It had its glowing red eyes fixed on him, and despite the bone sticking out of its leg, it was doing well keeping up with him.
And then his sights shifted to Damon, Wilson, Sebastien, and Raphael, who followed not too far behind the beast. Knowing that they were back there gave him a little more confidence, but he had a horrible feeling that something was going to happen.
Jackson glared ahead, frantically searching the darkness for signs of cadejo or any other threat. He leapt over fallen trees, dodged an old, frozen and rusted car, and kept heading forward.
But then a blur of rushing white to his left snatched his attention, and he glanced over there to find Damon running in his Prime form thirty feet away. Was it time to switch places already?
He stared ahead again, focusing on the forest. The last thing he wanted was to lose his footing or crash into something. He glanced to his left every few moments, noticing that Damon was getting closer, and soon enough, the Alpha was running right beside him.
"Are you okay?" Damon asked him.
Jackson nodded, panting. "Y-yeah."
"Raphael said you've got to break off slowly; head to the left and join them," he instructed.
Would that work? Wouldn't the Amarok just follow him? "What if it follows me?" he asked worriedly.
"The inimă," Damon said hesitantly. "You need to give it to me."
Jackson frowned strangely. "What?"
"He said that thing is after the inimă's aura, so when you hand it to me, the Amarok will stay on me. But he insisted that you have to want to give it to me," he explained.
His frown thickened, but he trusted Damon, and he was sure that Raphael knew what he was talking about. So, as he ran, he reached into the bag he'd put the amulet in, and then he handed it off to his mate.
But then he felt something strange. A feeling of loss; a feeling that he'd had something or someone torn away from him. And he felt the inimă's pull. It pleaded that he took it back, almost shrieking at him the longer he left it in Damon's grip. He couldn't take it, though. Damon needed it to lure the Amarok, so he disregarded the amulet's cry and looked up at the Alpha, ready to break off.
"Slowly," Damon repeated with worry in his voice. "Don't dart away."
Jackson nodded, his heart racing in his chest as his anxiety enthralled it. He didn't want to move away from Damon—what if the Amarok didn't care about the inimă? What if it wanted him? He frowned in panic and looked back at it, but he noticed that the creature had actually shifted its gleaming red eyes to Damon. Maybe it really was locked onto the amulet's aura.
He took a deep breath and fought against his fear. Glancing back at the beast, he slowly moved a few feet to Damon's left, and the Amarok's gaze didn't flicker. It wasn't interested in him anymore, and although that made him feel relieved, he was also horrified that something might happen to his mate. He still had a terrible feeling that something was going to happen, but it didn't feel as intense as all the other instinctual warnings he had. He didn't want to ignore it, though.
When he reached the others, he ran beside Wilson.
"You okay, Jack?" the tiger asked him.
He nodded and looked at Sebastien. "I'm getting a weird feeling."
The hound frowned. "What kind of weird?"
"Feeling?" Raphael questioned.
Sebastien glanced at him and said, "Asmodi demon, Lord Caedis."
A look of dread struck the orange wolf's face, the first anxious look Jackson had seen on him. "What is it?"
Jackson tensed up. "W-well...it feels like...I don't know, like something bad is gonna happen."
"When? Where?" Raphael questioned.
"I-I don't know," Jackson answered. "I just...feel it."
"He hasn't entirely honed the ability yet," Sebastien told Raphael.
Jackson frowned in both confusion and curiosity. "Wait, if you're related to Lord Caedis, wouldn't you have the same ability?"
"No. We don't have enough demon blood for something that powerful," the orange wolf answered. "Heads up!" he then warned.
When Jackson looked ahead and shifted his sights to Damon, he saw a vast frozen lake on the other side of the tree line. He didn't remember crossing this place when they'd stumbled on the cadejo pit, but then again, they were coming at it from Kane's side of the area this time.
Damon led the Amarok out onto the ice.
Jackson tensed up again. What if it was the ice? What if something was going to happen on the ice? Was the Amarok too heavy? Would it crack the surface and send itself and Damon tumbling in? Or would another creature come out of the dark and send the man he loved plunging into the depths?
No, it wasn't the ice; he became sure of that when his paws touched it. So what was it? Why was he convinced that disaster was creeping up on them?
Damon continued across the ice, and when they got back into the woods, it was time for him to switch with Raphael. Jackson watched the orange wolf veer to Damon's side, and once the Alpha handed him the inimă, he left Raphael and raced to Jackson's side.
"Guess I'll go next," Wilson suggested.
"No," Damon said. "You'll take the last run; the tunnel we found to get down closer to the pit was narrow, so your agility will help you avoid the Amarok's attacks."
Wilson looked horrified, and Jackson felt anxious.
"Tunnel?" the tiger questioned. "Why not just take it to the edge and shove it?"
"We don't know how safe the edges of that canyon are. One wrong move and the entire ground beneath our feet could crumble," Damon replied irritably.
"Hate to say it, but he's right," Sebastien said. "There's a way for us to push it into the pit though, right?" he asked, looking at the Alpha.
Damon nodded.
"There's a sort of ledge," Jackson said.
"Great," Wilson grunted.
"You'll be fine," Jackson said, trying to assure him. He didn't like seeing his friend so nervous, and he wanted to help, but like Damon said, the tunnel was too narrow for the two of them. However, he trusted that Wilson knew what he was doing; he'd seen the tiger in action, and he knew that he could do this.
They kept racing through the woods, and eventually, Sebastien switched out with Raphael. The cold, pine-fragrant air soon shifted, thick with the pungent smell of death and rotting flesh. The silence was stolen by anguished snarls and crying, distorted howls, and a horrible, terrible feeling of pain and suffering stole the atmosphere.
The pit was close.
"Get ready," Raphael told Wilson.
Wilson huffed and nodded; he was clearly trying to put on a brave face, but he was terrified.
Jackson ran closer to him. "Just keep running and don't look back," he told him.
"When you get down to the ledge, veer out of the way," Raphael said. "That thing is too big to match your agility, and it'll charge right over the edge."
The tiger huffed again. "All right...veer out of the way."
"You've got this," Jackson said.
"Yeah..." he drawled.
Jackson then shifted his sights to the Amarok. Despite its wound and the five-kilometre run, the creature didn't look anything close to tired. It snarled and roared, chasing after Sebastien, who held the inimă between his teeth.
He then stared ahead; through the tree line, he could see flat ground...and the drop that led into the pit of an undead tsunami.
"Where's the entrance?" Raphael questioned.
"Half a mile that way," Damon said, waving his paw to the right."
The orange wolf nodded. "All right, time to switch out."
Wilson took a deep breath. "Are you guys following?"
"Sebastien will watch you from the air and swoop down if you need help. The rest of us will wait here."
"You're all just leaving me?" the tiger exclaimed.
"Can't we go with him?" Jackson asked worriedly. "What if something happens?"
"Sebastien will be there," Raphael said firmly. "The last thing we need is to be down in that tunnel if that Amarok decides to turn around when it sees all those cadejo."
Wilson snarled frustratedly. "He's got a point," he admitted. He grunted irritably and sighed. "All right...all right, let's do this shit."
"Be careful," Jackson pleaded.
The tiger scoffed at him. "Don't worry, man. I got this, right?"
He nodded despite the anxious look on his face. "Yeah."
Wilson shot him a smirk, and then he started moving towards Sebastien.
Jackson watched his every step. When he and the others reached the tree line, they stopped running, but Sebastien and Wilson kept going. The hound passed the inimă to the tiger, they switched places, and Sebastien took off into the sky, leaving Wilson running from the Amarok.
The tiger ran close to the tree line, and when he headed back into the woods towards the cave entrance which led into the pit, the Amarok followed. Wilson got further and further away, and in a matter of minutes, he was out of sight.
"He'll be fine," Damon said as he left his Prime form and stood in his normal wolf form beside Jackson. "Don't worry."
Jackson turned his head and looked at him. "What if something happens?"
Damon frowned and then nuzzled his neck. "Sebastien's covering him, remember?"
He sighed quietly and pressed his muzzle into Damon's fur. It brought him a little comfort, but his anxiety didn't ease up.
"Come on," Raphael said. "We'll find somewhere to watch the edge from."
Jackson and Damon followed him around the canyon edges. The sea of corpses seemed larger this time, louder. There were more prowlers attempting to climb up the sides to get out, and Jackson spotted a huddle of brutes. And...something else. He tensed up, and dread gushed through him as he came to a halt. There...standing on top of a boulder as if it were king, was a creature with no face. Its human-like body had lanky arms and grey, slimy-looking skin, and the only orifice on its face was a gnarly, rounded mouth which stretched from its chin to where its nose would meet between its eyes.
He didn't know what to call it. An infected fae? An evolved infected? Were all of those things fae?
"Jackson," Damon called.
He took his eyes off the creature and looked at Damon and Raphael. But he couldn't speak. He felt so horrified and afraid that all he could do was stare.
"What is it?" Raphael questioned.
Jackson shifted his sights to the grey-skinned creature again. "I-its...one of them."
Damon moved closer, and when he spotted it, he snarled quietly.
Raphael looked confused. "A siren."
Both Jackson and Damon frowned at him.
"What?" Jackson questioned.
"That thing...with no face. It's a siren," the orange wolf answered. "Sebastien reported a sighting not long ago to HQ, and they've been called sirens. They emit low frequency sounds capable of paralyzing most Caeleste."
Jackson felt horrified. "So...they are infected fae?"
"They are," the orange wolf confirmed. "And they're probably one of the most if not the most dangerous variant we've discovered."
"W-we should call this off; we need to bring Wilson back!" Jackson insisted. "That thing could paralyze him, and the Amarok will—"
"We need to get rid of the Amarok," Damon interjected. "We've got about ten minutes before Wilson gets down there, so we need to find a way to get that siren away from that ledge," he said as he pointed his paw towards the ledge that Wilson would soon find himself on.
Raphael nodded in agreement. "Come on," he said as he continued hastily leading the way around the edge. "We'll get it to the other side."
Jackson anxiously followed. Was ten minutes really enough time to get that thing a safe distance from where Wilson would be? He didn't know, but he was going to do whatever he had to to ensure that his friend would be safe. But that siren...that thing...it horrified him. It terrified him. Knowing that the virus was evolving and spreading to other Caeleste was scary enough, but seeing an infected fae and what it could do made him feel more afraid than he might have ever been in his life—especially since his best friend was going to be getting close to it. That siren they faced on their way through the woods managed to freeze Jackson's entire pack without any effort at all, leaving him to save them. He didn't want to be put in that position again... but if he was, he wouldn't let fear rule him. There wasn't time for that. Wilson needed him, and nothing—not even a siren—would stop him.
⥐ ⋞ ☽ ⋟ ⥐