[Lady of the Night]

MONSTERS OF THE NIGHT
Chapter One
Morbus

One day, the ocean started washing up corpses.

They were small at first, dead crustaceans and bivalves appearing but inevitably being covered by the sand. But as each night passed, it got worse. The corpses got larger and larger, dolphins and sharks, creatures that the inhabitants of Gemini had probably never even seen before.

Today, a dead whale appears on the beach.

It’s already rotting away, but weirdly enough it does not seem to be the cause of the smell that has been lingering over the grasslands since this strangeness has been occuring. A black, inky substance is found in small puddles along the beach, some of it on the massive carcass itself.

One thing is for certain: it seems to be moving east.

[Kol Nidre]

Dreams had been quiet, black and silent. Despite the long hours of slumber he now normally endured, Kol Nidre saw nothing behind those dead eyes. Drug addiction was hard to break, and he had done this before for a long time — unwilling. Now, it was to keep the darkness and putrid brine at bay, so at least he could be sane for a while. His body was tired, aching, and for the first time in his life, he felt old.

The winds of Gemini shifted and the tides brought in strange corpses. Sea creatures that landdwellers have never witnessed washing up onto the dark sand, their stale blood oozing back into the foam. The ocean lapped up what was once hers, but the seagulls had a grand feast on the flesh of sharks and sea rays. Their bulbous bodies bobbing down the shore to find another larger corpse that had sunk and wilted from rot.

The whispers of old swept in, caressing his face with a cold fingers until his sore eyes crept open. A pale leg sat a few inches from his snout, and as he breathed in he could smell the scent of sweet grass and sweet peas. He followed the line of arm until it strained up against the naked scars of a shoulder. The old king sighed, closing his eyes again. She was always here with him, especially now that something odd was lurking under the skin of the land. Not a ghost, either.

The woman shifted and stood, he wondered if she felt too tired to wait. Gold eyes opened up again, watching her feet quietly pad off. He'd linger in his feigning state before he rolled against his ribs and up to his stomach where he took a moment to sigh through the throbbing aches. It took another few moments to stand as he grimaced against his shoulder and he took a few stiff steps forward to force his joints to lubricate themselves. With an exhaled sigh, he had finally noticed he held in his breath.

How pathetic you've become...

"Quiet." he mutters to no one, walking forward again and out into the short forest path out into the fields. From there he would travel (quite slow mind you) toward the ocean and down the Hewn Steps. Progress was slow, but it was still progress with grunts between each large step he scaled down. The soft sand was a comfort between his toes and Kol Nidre relaxed with relief. His relief, however, was short lived. The foul stench radiating from the beached whale wafted through the ocean breeze and his head swung toward that direction, muzzle wrinkling in distaste. He slowly started to walk that way despite his inkling to turn the other direction and leave. No, he had come way too far to turn tail and run now.

He approached the fallen giant, the blubber looking almost unreal and the flies were thick. The smell radiating from the corpse was not the pinpoint though of his foaming stomach. No, it was a darker substance residing on the edge of the abyss. He turned his head slowly, the sun reflecting off the shining surface of black blood and the sight of it made him lurch, jaw unhinging and his back arched as he heaved. Nothing came, but it was painful nonetheless. Kol faltered side ways, away from the disgusting substance before he could dry vomit again.

What the hell is that?

✦ ✦ Speech Text ✦ ✦

[Ivaylo]

"And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you
I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

"They've been here. For days. They keep... getting bigger."

Ivaylo, with an eye scarred but still green as leaves, slowly stepped forward across the ebony beach. Her gaze was fixated on the poor beasts. Whatever they may have been called in their world, they would only be seen as one thing to her; a repulsive nightmare that she couldn't find herself waking up from. The very idea made her turn towards the man who came and wonder whether he was even real. Was she in another trance? Was she sleep walking again?

No, she couldn't be. She had smelled it coming. An odor so acrid and poisonous that it had given her the same gagging response as him just a few moments ago. A reasonable wolf would have steered entirely clear of the sea if it carried this stench of death and rot. But she lingered. It made her sick to her stomach, but she stayed. Come morning, the bodies arrived. Gradually, but consistently, they grew in numbers. Then sizes, and shapes. Creatures she'd never imagined existing. She didn't know whether to take pity on them or be completely intrigued by how they ended up on Gemini's shores. One thing was for sure. She could not figure this out on her own.

Ivaylo looked toward the horizon, to where the water met the sky and colors of blue and yellow blended into plumes of thin, fluffy clouds. It breathed only a slight hue of life into the gory scene. This decay was overpowering and frightening. Something had to be done. Her nose wrinkled as she looked back at the man closest to her and nodded towards him. "We should hold our breath and back off a little. Whatever that substance is has something to do with what brought these things here. And I don't want to see anyone here perish like they have."

A short pause. It had been some time since she'd met another packmate, and she had completely forgotten how to properly navigate these interactions as stranger and stranger events kept occurring. When would her life slow down just a little so that she could introduce herself like normal again? She might never know. This was just how things were since settling here. And it just be like that sometimes.

"The name's Ivaylo. I realize this isn't the best or appropriate time to meet, but I think someone needs to be told about this. Immediately." She gave the dead sea monster one last sorrowful glance before returning her gaze to meet his. "Something... awful is happening."

[Angus]

Something was amiss in Gemini.

It started with a smell, and then corpses. It was, if nothing else, the great set up for a horror movie.

This was the sort of thing that frightened pups and left mothers worried. What it seemed to have done though, was encourage one small pup to venture forth and investigate. The greatest adventurer of all time was about to become the world's greatest detective.

Angus pounced on the opportunity to begin investigating the smell the smaller dead creatures as they appeared but this- this was something all together new and extraordinary. He wouldn't lie that he'd found himself following after Ivalyo as she headed towards the shore, but he'd play it off as though it was his idea and his idea alone (they just happened to get there at the same time).


"They've been here. For days. They keep... getting bigger."

An astute calculation! The pup trotted up behind his friend and gave her a nod, a look of complete satisfaction and also intrigue plastered across his face.

"There has to be some kind of link between them and the smell."

The pup furrowed his brow as he stepped up to the dead whale and sniffed. The boy recoiled at the smell and sneezed before lifting his head and smelling the air. There were two distinct smells and it was clear they did not share the same point of origin. His stomach churned as he took in a deep whiff of whatever the hell this was.

"The smells...they're different. Which is interesting because all of Gemini smells like this. Which leads me to believe that there must be someone that smells this bad, and that is killing these creatures."

He looked from Ivaylo to the other who was staring at the whale. He didn't know who this one was.

"The name's Ivaylo. I realize this isn't the best or appropriate time to meet, but I think someone needs to be told about this. Immediately. Something... awful is happening."

Angus gave a huff as he nodded in semi agreement with his friend. He looked out to the other male. Right! Introductions!

"I'm Angus!" he began with a smile, bounding up to the other individual and looking at him. The pup gave a wide smile before looking back to Ivaylo.

"I think we should tell someone about this, but," he started, tail wagging excitedly, "I think we should find this culprit ourselves. It's the only way it'll be stopped."

[Hickory]

    Hickory liked it when not a lot happened in his life. He liked the days where he simply slept through the night and simply walked around Gemini in search of herbs. When no one was hurt, when he was just hoarding what he got and had nothing to do but hide in the shadows. When he had smelled the beach - an area he had decided was best avoided -, he had ignored it. Someone else would handle it. But the scent grew fast, and soon the monster was lurking closer, too curious to stop. Something was happening, and he didn’t know what it was. He wanted to know. The beastly coward watched from atop the cliffs that looked out onto the beach, and his many eyes fell onto the biggest source: the whale.

    He creeped down the steps, trying not to get anyone’s attention. Hickory gained onto the strangers around him, staying at a distance but close enough that he could see the flies hovering over the carcass. All his noses scrunched up in disgust. The smell was atrocious. Was this some kind of sickness? The man looked the entire creature over, eventually getting closer to the already gathered group. His eyes tried to convey that there was something much more important than commenting on his appearance - how he tired of it. Surely the dead, smelly whale would take their attention more than he?

    The black blood gathered in puddles, and he stopped shortly to avoid stepping in it. The hellhound sniffed, heaving some before getting himself back together. His mind started to race. It would be obvious by the sudden stiffening of him that he was starting to freak out. Was this some kind of punishment? Had Gemini done something wrong? Taken in someone bad? Was God warning them? “Gemini is cursed…” He whispered, the voice only coming from his front face. Then he turned to the others, eyes almost crazed, teeth showing too much. “GEMINI IS CURSED!!” He screamed, backing away and falling into the sand.

    Poor cowardly beast.

[Excalibur]

OOC: I love Hickory <3

---

Like the others the smell had drawn her in. She had descended the steps eyes straining to make out the dark shapes washing about in the waves, they looked solid and bobbed like tree trunks, half submerged. But tree trunks don’t attract clouds of shrieking sea birds to squabble and rip at them. Only flesh has that effect.

She walked out across the black sands, streaked silver by reflective pools, until she came to the first body fetched up at the high tide mark. It was small, some sort of porpoise and a young one at that, not that she knew what it was. The flies that scurried around it’s drying eye and open mouth buzzed angrily at her approach. She lifted her paw to her face, trying to blot out the smell as she inspected the carcass, it was perfect... Save for the fact it was dead, washed up on a beach and covered in black slime. She had expected to see an obvious wound, a clear cause of death, bite marks or cuts. But there were none. It was just dead. There weren’t even any peck marks, the birds were so spoiled for choice at this buffet they hadn’t bothered with this dry and salty morsel. It was the same with the next creature she came to, a huge fish with tough grey skin and a gaping mouth of monstrous teeth. It was smeared  in black slime and it was dead. Just dead. It was the same for the next creature, and the next, and the next, and so on an so forth for miles down the beach. From seals to sand crabs no ocean creature seemed to be immune. Other than the birds no living creature could be seen, there was just a tide of death and slime and wrongness. And the smell. That smell.

She turned and ran back up the beach, being careful to hug close to the cliffs and stay away from bodies, she had looked but not touched. Every fibre of her had rebelled at the idea of touching one of those corpses. When she rounded the end of a jut of black rocks, re-entering the bay where the steps lead back up to safe, dry, not-slimey land she caught sight of the others gathered around the whale. That had not been there when she had headed off down the beach but there it was now, a clossal monument to the wrongness.

“…awful is happening."
”… way it'll be stopped”

Snatches of the conversation from the group reached her over the wind, crash of waves and wail of gulls, but it was quite clear what the topic of conversation was, as if anyone could speak of anything else.  “It’s the same all along the beach, for miles there’s just this.” She panted as she slowed her paced and approached the worried knot. This needed no cleared description. “There are no bite marks or cuts on any of them, they are just dead.” She submitted her findings to what she presumed must be the debate about what the fuck was happening here. Normally she would have rolled her eyes and been like isn’t it obvious but for once in her life she had to admit, it wasn’t obvious, and she had no clue what was causing this.

A gust of wind brought her the strongest waft of the stench yet and she had to swallow firmly to hold back the bile that had suddenly rushed in as the smell hit her full force. It was more than carrion, death or rot, it was wrongness and fear, run-now-and-don’t-look-back-ness. It seemed unnatural, other worldly, almost like a curse…

“Gemini is cursed… GEMINI IS CURSED!!”

“Oh shut up Hiccup.” Excalibur snapped, angry that he had voiced her own thought and angry at how stupid that thought actually sounded when said aloud. “Just because there is something on this beach weirder than you doesn’t make it ‘cursed’” She made spooky wiggles with her paws to emphasize her point.  She darted a glance at the others present wondering if they knew it was her fault they were listening to this and hoping they didn’t. She had accepted this quivering jelly into the pack which meant she had some sort of responsibility for his outright cringe-worthy behaviour. “Unless you have something useful to add sit down and shut up.” She hissed more quietly just to him, trying to lock her steely gaze onto his, but finding it difficult with the whole six-eyes-are-you-looking-at-me-or-them problem. Don’t you embarrass me was the point she was trying to make either way.

[Rook]

The beach was where the party was happening, it seems. They had all congregated where the smell was vilest, but the sight of all those washed up, dead corpses stopped her in her tracks. For once, she was speechless. For once, she was numbed to the point of fatigue. Who let this happen?

Her eyes snapped wide open when she saw something very red and very three-headed enter the scene. When the beast started wailing something about curses, she shot out, aiming to headbutt him straight onto the sand and tower over him, keeping all four legs gripped straight around the boy’s body so he couldn’t get up. Should she succeed, or if not, the questions would still remain,

“Speak, hellhound! What’s this about a curse? What did YOU DO?”

[Kol Nidre]

Golden eyes retracted from the bloated corpse and fell onto something living. The wind crawled through Kol Nidre's shoulders and up his neck in a cold caress. Something was wrong, very wrong. The stench that wafted from these black pools dotted across the beach with corpses nested beside them, the old King almost wished to smell the rotten brine over this. At least it was familiar, and the dread manageable. Not this time, however.

This time, something tangible resided.

He barely registered Angus arriving until he peeped up about the link between the smell and the corpses. He nodded warily, agreeing that there was some sort of connection between the two. Was the substance killing them? Was there a creature in the waters that produced such an awful ichor that it killed, but did not eat? What sense was that?

According to the stranger's observations, they had been there for days now. A new occurrence, but it was just now being discovered. Well, by more than one body at least. Kol side-stepped toward Ivaylo to steer clear of the shining black substance as well as the giant corpse that bled into the dark sand. Eyes watched as the liquid glistened, light reflecting off of it as if repulsed. It was darker than any night Kol had endured, blacker than the tormented soul that followed. "I'm.. Kol Nidre. I agree." he prompted finally, turning fully away from the substance and walked a few feet to sit in pure sand.

It wasn't long before their small conversation warranted more company. "That much is clear. I don't think I've ever smelled something so awful, nor have I seen any... blood or... substance that warrants not only the smell but the consistency. I'm.. not sure what it is, but it is not good. Perhaps..." Before he could finish his sentence, Kol jumped at the screech of a hellion he failed to notice approaching. His thoughts were jumbled as the rest of them, wondering what the hell was happening. He sighed heavily, trying to slow his rapid heart.

You'll all...d-

"Yes, I observed the same thing. It may be a creature that kills but does not eat the corpses. It may excrete that substance in the water, and the animals poisoned." What else could it be? Kol was slightly relieved that someone calmed the three-headed dog. This was no curse, the King knew of curses. He could feel the cold deep set into his bones and the barnacles on a rotted tongue clack in joyous glee. This was something they did not understand, something shrouded in the jagged waves.

And of course, the shouting attracted yet another. The courtier sighed and shook his head. "They did nothing, calm down. I should take this to Serrate, or Akira. I'm sure they'll want to know about this. It is no curse." At least they could warn about the beach to others. If any where to succumb to this black poison, Kol could not help but blame himself. A healer's intuition, possibly. "Keep away from it, if my hypothesis is correct... then it is poison."

A poison he would not wish to deal with or let the other healers deal with.

✦ ✦ Speech Text ✦ ✦

[Ivaylo]

"And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you
I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

A look of surprise brightened Ivaylo's expression as she noticed Angus come to her side, offering her a nod in greeting. Her brow furrowed as she parted her lips to object, but she simply kept her mouth shut and nodded back. She was trying her best to remember that he only wanted to be included and not kept away from all the action. After all, he was smarter than her, and he might be able to think outside the box better than she would.

She listened to him intently, taking a seat so she could release weight from her injured leg and pay attention more closely. She regarded how much he had changed since she first met him. Before, he could barely hop over a thin stream. Now here he was, detecting scents and conducting an all-out investigation all by himself, no questions asked. Ivaylo resisted a smirk as she watched him introduce himself to the other man, and suggested that they find the one responsible.

"Ah. I dunno--" She tried to add in as Kol Nidre finished, but her rebuttal was cut short as a crimson hellion appeared from the corner of her vision. Her head twisted, eyes widening as she gazed at him. Ivaylo hadn't even noticed the grey female that had trotted up to them to add her two cents, her mind dwelling on the possible danger that could be lurking on the beach. She had never seen anything like him... them? She wasn't so sure, but she did know that it was becoming hysterical and shouting something ominous and disturbing. She hesitated before taking a step towards him, but the silver she-wolf had quickly silenced him with a snap. Part of her felt badly for the cowering hellhound, but she guessed it was best if someone kept him quiet. She could at least gather that he was a known member of Gemini and not just a random beast showing up to have a panic attack. It's safe for now, she thought, glancing down at Angus. But it wouldn't stay that way for long.

And apparently it wasn't very safe to begin with, for the hell boy at least. Ivaylo jumped as an umber colored wolf lunged towards the red beast and attempted to pin him down, demanding answers. A small intake of breath escaped her, but without thinking, she rushed forward to headbutt the girl off of him. "STOP!" She didn't intend on hurting her, only to shoo her away to allow the hellion some room to back off. Whether the hit connected or slipped past her, Ivaylo would skid on damp sand and pivot around to face her with bared teeth.

"He only just got here. Can't you see he's trembling with fear? You're only making shit worse. Save it for when a child isn't present," she snarled, her eyes flicking to Angus for a split second. She wouldn't tolerate disorder among them, not now. It wasn't the time to be pointing fingers or picking on vulnerable packmates, especially in front of an impressionable pup. Her intense green glare stayed glued on the russet she-wolf as her ear pricked towards Kol Nidre, and she huffed in agreement.

"Understood. Angus?" she said sternly at first, then finally shifted her gaze to look at him expectantly. She gestured with a shake of her head to come to her side again, away from the two women and the hellhound. If he took heed to her request, she would stand in front of him and glance at Kol Nidre with a serious tone. "I'm going to stay here and keep watch, maybe find more evidence of strange creatures roaming around. Perhaps you should suggest a bigger search party to... whoever it is you're going to speak to. If I see anything, I will make sure all of Gemini hears my howl." She looked down at her friend once more, her eyes softening as she gave him a gentle noogie over his curly head.

"The more eyes, the better," she muttered in his ear, an invitation for adventure and mystery solving. Raising her head to look at the other three who remained, her foreboding stare returned and she stepped forward to address them. "Stay, if you wish to help. If not, you should all warn your loved ones, and quickly. Tell them to be cautious, and on the look-out for anything suspicious. But... maybe, don't tell everyone you pass by, unless they're heading towards the beach. We don't need even more panicked fools rushing head-first into this," she remarked slyly, glancing at Rook from the corner of her eye, and also the hellion for a short moment. "We don't know what's going on quite yet. Be vigilant."

And with that, she turned and nudged Angus on the shoulder, then began walking along the water with her nose to the sand. If anyone tried to stop her, she would simply look up at them with narrowed eyes and carry on with her search, sniffing every piece of debris and every footprint. There was no one around who had the power to tell her no. She earned her place here, and she would keep it, but she would do what she thought was right. Protecting her home and Angus meant everything to her now, and they were either assisting her or standing in her way. It was easy to get on her good side if one simply did the former.

[Rook]

"Stay, if you wish to help. If not, you should all warn your loved ones, and quickly. Tell them to be cautious, and on the look-out for anything suspicious. But... maybe, don't tell everyone you pass by, unless they're heading towards the beach. We don't need even more panicked fools rushing head-first into this," she remarked slyly, glancing at Rook from the corner of her eye, and also the hellion for a short moment.

Rook: