WIP: "Reap the Wild Wind," post four

[thrihyrne]

Sorry about the lag; I posted the last part, said I'd have the next part shortly, and then went out of town for a week. But here's the continuation of the prior post. I'll put in the leading up paragraph again here before starting into the new section just to give you a reminder of what's going on. These are all OCs with the exception of Cobweb, back in his early, early years as a har. This is a story set in the misty early years of the Sulh.

Summary: Níl gach uile fhánaí caillte— Not all who wander are lost. (J.R.R. Tolkien) Kelp, a newly-incepted har and his companion, Blackspur, journey from an outer island of Alba Sulh to find others of their kind. Adult. Adventures, aruna, and an occasional warning for violence.



With a wave of his hand, Cairn caused a torch to spring to life with flame. He took it from its sconce on the damp wall, and unbolted an old, rusty latch to open the heavy door. Kelp wasn't ashamed to fall behind; he let Cairn lead into the dank room where his attacker and accomplice were shackled to the wall by their ankles. The one who had knifed Kelp in the gut lay on his side, a skinny arm droped over his head. Ian, the one who'd felt Kelp was sport, was curled against the wall in a seated position, his forehead plastered to his knees. Cairn swept the torch in front of him, moving it closer and closer until the one on his side whimpered, shooing vaguely at it as though to make it go away, like it was part of a dream, or nightmare.

"Him," Kelp said, dropping to his knees. "I want him."

"Up you get," Cairn said authoritatively.

The brown-haired human Kelp had chosen to incept slowly opened his eyes. He seemed resigned, beaten down; the fight had gone out of him. Ian gave them a malevolent glare, and then got swiftly to his feet, his arms crossed defiantly across his chest. The other human pushed himself up from the floor to cower against the wall.

"Kelp and I are here to incept you, to make you one of us," Cairn said as he took a dagger out of its holder on its belt.

"What if we don't want to become freaks like you?" Ian challenged, resolutely looking Cairn in the face and ignoring the knife.

"Becoming Wraeththu is a gift, a tremendous one," Cairn said, and Kelp thought he heard a shadow of entreaty in his tone. The Warloch didn't want to kill them, but that was the only option if they didn't opt to become har. Cairn was struggling with his dream and the reality of how these two had injured someone in his clan. "Either you join us, or I execute you. Your choice."

Ian barked a harsh laugh. "Some choice."

"What do you have to live for, being human?" Kelp asked, honestly perplexed at why, especially given their situations, either of them wasn't jumping at the opportunity to become a part of their group. "Barely living, hiding in an abandoned castle, probably most or all of your friends dead— you should be thanking us. Begging us," Kelp said darkly.

"What are you?" the brown-haired youth asked. "You seem human, sort of. Are you mutants? Do you drink blood? And your bits!" His gaze snaked down to Kelp's groin before returning to his face. "I don't want to die, so do what you have to, but I don't know what the fuck you even are."

"We're har, Sulh to be precise," Cairn answered, twisting the knife slowly in his hand. "It's easier simply to be rather than explain. We were human before we were incepted. And trust me, your new organs will make any sex you had before seem flat and boring." He turned his attentions to Ian. "Hold out your arm, unless you've decided I should kill you instead."

"No." His eyes blazed with lambent hate. Ian jerked up the sleeve on his shirt, revealing a thin arm corded with muscle and a tapestry of tattoos. "Do your worst."

With a steady hand, Cairn cut into his own forearm so that blood welled up, dark and potent. Next he made a deep slice into Ian's arm through some inked words and handed Kelp the knife.

"From stone and blood, walk the path of Wraeththu forever," Cairn intoned, rubbing their wounds together so that his blood would infect him.

Kelp decided it was time for him to do the same. "What's your name?" he asked. "You'll get a new one, after, but what is it now?"

"David."

Cautiously, with trembling fingers, David undid the buttons on his tattered coat and wrestled his left arm out of the sleeve. He pushed up the filthy hem of his jumper and put his pale forearm out for Kelp to cut him.

Kelp made a thin cut, deep enough for blood to slide down his arm, and then he cut his own wrist. He'd been scared to death at his inception, but the har had been so hypnotic and beautiful… he doubted such thoughts were in David's head. He pressed his wrist to the cut, making small circles to ensure his blood was in the wound. He didn't know how much it took, but after a few seconds he stilled, and repeated what Cairn had said. "From stone and blood, walk the path of Wraeththu forever."

Just then Petrichor arrived in the doorway. Cairn nodded at him as Ian made disgusted noises and wiped his bloody arm on his jeans.

"I'll unlock them and go with you for the first watch," Cairn said, pulling out a rusty key and removing the shackles from around the prisoners' ankles.

"How long does it take?" David asked, panic etched on his features.

"It depends on the person, but usually three to four days," Petrichor answered. "You're going to the woods for your althaia; hara here need to get their sleep."

"What all will happen?" David said, his voice shaky and full of fear.

"You'll find out. Come on."

Kelp was left alone in the dungeon, his thoughts scattered and tossed like autumn leaves on a blustery day. The humans would be har soon, and this had been his first inception. They had wanted to kill him, and Ian was still unrepentant; he'd not apologised for forcing himself on Kelp, or for knifing him.

"He'd better change a lot," Kelp thought bitterly, the magic of inception turning to ash on his tongue. He knew he should be with somehar, to be held and comforted, but his defiant, rebellious streak had been shoved into prominence with Ian's insolence. He made his way to his pallet on the upper level, covered himself with blankets and looked at the stone ceiling as he stewed, waiting angrily for sleep.

* * * * *

Two days later he was going through a caste training exercise with Blackspur when he heard David yelling. He was screaming something about Ian and horses and how he was being turned inside out and the pain and Ian was dead.

"What's he doing here at all?" Blackspur asked, his forehead wrinkling. "His althaia can't be over yet. Where's Petrichor?"

Kelp hurriedly got up from the side of the stream and they ran the short distance over the rise to the outside of the decaying castle. David was in quite a state; his clothes were half torn off, agonies and laments pouring out of him, pulling his hair and groaning things that might have been in English.

"She took him!" he wailed, clutching at his abdomen. "Fucking hell, when does this end?" he moaned.

"She who?" Ferngarn asked, trying to soothe him with a gentle pat to the arm. David, in the painful netherworld between human and har, flinched from his touch.

"A horse! She possessed him! Showed up on the shore when we were alone, and offered to take Ian away, away from you and the horrible pain of turning into whatever this is. He climbed on her back and I begged him not to, but he was mad! She took him into the lake and he never came out. She killed him! Now I'm all alone and my guts are being torn out, so alone, fuck, fuck," he moaned, collapsing into a heap and trying to make himself as small as possible. He sobbed against his knees, groans punctuating the syrupy dirge that rose up from him, a despondency so real that Kelp thought it was draped on him like a heavy cloak.

"Keep an eye on him," Ferngarn muttered as he stalked into the castle. "I'm getting some dramswort. At least he'll sleep."

"Bloody kelpie," Kelp swore. "As soon as he's changed and somehar's taken aruna with him, I think we should get out of here."

"The only reason we're still here is due to him," Blackspur groused. "Well, Ian, too. I say good riddance, given what he did to you."

A few minutes later Ferngarn returned and gave David the draught. Eventually he calmed down enough to be helped to a pallet where he could be monitored. His change was complete by nightfall of the next day. Kelp sat in one of the large rooms where a fire had been lit, studying the map that showed the locations of former human cities that might still have inhabitants. He heard a shuffling noise and saw David in the doorway, looking uncertain but more confident than he ever had since Kelp had laid eyes on him. His transformation was stunning— it was still him, but his features seemed refined, a more feminine beauty revealed so that he glowed with the shifting duality of masculine and feminine, a truly magnificent har.

"Kelp?" he asked, need and confusion warring for dominance in his expression. "I feel like— well, I'm pretty certain I'm not human anymore."

"I can assure you that you're not, and in the best way." David gave him a wide smile. "Was there anyhar with you when you woke up?" Kelp asked, getting up from the makeshift bench.

"No, that's why I'm here. There's this discomfort, though. Some of the new parts to me, they're going crazy," he said, clenching his fists at his side as thought o keep himself from reaching out. "Or I'm going crazy. Crazier."

Kelp cradled his hand on David's jaw, running his thumb on his cheekbone. The luminous creature in front of him didn't at all resemble the half-starved human from the forest, but he still felt that another har in the tribe should take aruna with him. Kelp needed some time to think of him as har only, to let the memory of his attack to fade. David had been only an accomplice, but that didn't mean he wouldn't have tried to kill Kelp if he'd become desperate.

"You need aruna," he said gently. "I suspect it's been decided who you'll be with your first time, but I don't know who it is. Let's go see if Cairn is around, as I'm sure he knows."

"Aruna?" David asked, allowing himself to be guided across the large grass-covered courtyard to a set of stairs that clung to an exposed stone wall.

"Impossible to explain. All hara need it, and you're not completely done with your transformation until you've experienced it. Some is instinct, but you'll also be guided."

Kelp knocked on one of the few remaining wooden doors, pushing it open after Cairn called for them to come in.

"Ah!" he said, his mannerisms revealing his enthusiasm and approval. "So, 'tis done, then."

"Who's to take aruna with him?" Kelp asked, feeling the new har's impatient, growing hunger for something he couldn't define.

"Ferngarn offered. I'd like for them to have your room, as it's relatively cosy. Do you mind sharing with Blackspur for the night?"

"Of course not."

"We'll be leaving in the morning," Cairn said, the decisive words a balm to Kelp's spirit.

"I want to make a monument for Ian," David blurted out. "I know he did awful things, but he was my best friend. I don't want his death to go unmarked."

Cairn gave him a measured gaze, but David continued to look straight at him. "Well, I doubt you'll get much sleep tonight anyway; do it before dawn. Then put your past behind you. Leave it with the memorial."

David nodded, letting out a low sigh. He seemed bereft, but then he gathered himself together, his new harish organs doubtless clamouring to be tended to with an ever more urgent pitch as the minutes went on. Kelp had only passing memories of that time, though he remembered clearly the look of rapture on the Wraeththu's face as Kelp sank down on him, his body greedy for the ouana-lim that had gleamed, copper and garnet.

"Do you know the way to Kelp's room?" Cairn asked, and David nodded. "Go there. Ferngarn will be with you shortly. Welcome," he said more softly, walking over and taking David's face in his hands and sharing breath. David could barely stand when Cairn released him, and he groped at the wall until he could again stand straight. "Welcome, Lochenfex."

"Lochenfex."

Kelp could tell the new har was trying out the name on his tongue, and evidently found it pleasing as a smile bloomed on his lips.

"I'll tell Ferngarn your new name, as well as the rest of the tribe. Right now, go and get comfortable. This will be a memorable night," the Warloch promised.

After Lochenfex left, Cairn looked at Kelp, who fidgeted a bit. "It's okay if you feel uncomfortable in that you no longer harbour resentment toward him," Cairn said. "The other, Ian, I'm of two minds about myself. I thought he was an integral part of our future, and now his half-harish body is part of the spoils of that kelpie. We're far superior to humankind, Kelp, but we're not immortal, and Alba has magic which goes further back than any of us can imagine."

"It can be a wild place," Kelp agreed. "Untamed, breathing secrets with each mist. Will the land reject us?"

After a pause, Cairn shook his head. "No, I don't believe so. We have so much more awareness, more respect— the land hasn't felt that, hasn't been gifted with regular sacrifice in a long, long time." He gave Kelp a kindly smile. "Go enjoy your companion's company. I know Petrichor has some wine; go and ask for his wineskin. I'm sure he won't mind, and you could use it."

Kelp gratefully thanked him, and did just as had been recommended.

They left in the morning after a hearty breakfast of porridge, eggs and cured bacon. Lochenfex ate with gusto, and Kelp wondered if he really had gone over to the forest to make the monument to his former friend. As the new har was shown his horse, his un-ease around the animal vibrated from him with an intensity Kelp found disconcerting. Ferngarn passed by and spoke with him via mind-touch.

He did go. He's leaving everything human behind; I made sure to demonstrate in as many ways as I could how preferable it is to be har. I'm exhausted.

Looking over his shoulder, Kelp caught Ferngarn's attentions, and the elegant har winked at him. A flush crept up Kelp's neck, hidden by his cloak. For having taken aruna all night with a har newly through his althaia, Ferngarn looked as dashing as ever.

"You've never ridden a horse?" Petrichor asked Lochenfex, who violently shook his head. He did seem momentarily captivated by the silver and green colours that striped through Petrichor's black hair. Even Kelp had no idea how he'd done that, but Petrichor had been pretty young when incepted and may have dyed his hair as human. "I'll tie your horse to mine. At least on this first day, you'll ride with me."

"Thank you," Lochenfex said, his relief stamped on his comely features.

Ready to go even further away from home? Blackspur asked Kelp via mind-touch, canting his horse closer to him.

Wherever our clan is, that's home.

.:~ to be continued ~:.