Stealth had never really been one of Veronica’s strongest points. It wasn’t that she couldn’t sneak about and be stealthy, it was more that she had just never really bothered with it. Most vampires couldn’t handle slayers whether or not they knew that they were coming, so as Veronica trampled through the forest, crashing through bushes and crunching through piles of leaves and twigs. She didn’t really stop to think that it might not be completely safe to be doing this, but then again, she had her sword with her, so why did it matter?
As she entered the clearing that she could have sworn the screaming was coming from, she was hit by a stench that was so powerful that it made her eyes watter. Sadly it was a scent that she was all too familiar with, rotting flesh was often part and parcel with her ‘job’ as a slayer. She remembered the first time that she had seen the first rotting body, it was in a small house on the outskirts of the state, her sister had brought her there in an attempt to track down a particularly dangerous vampire that the police were also chasing at the time. They claimed that he was responsible for the deaths of thirteen people, but Veronica knew that it was much more likely to be higher than that, thirty was what her estimate was.
Still, they’d manageed to deal with him and get out before the police had been able to arrive, she was sure that this couldn’t be any worse than that. Right?
The first thing that she noticed was the bear. The second thing that she noticed was the lounger in the middle of the clearing. It struck her as odd, but she couldn’t really devote all that much time to thinking about a chair when there was a bear that could very well try to eat her in any moment. Her next thought was of Nora, a bug bear friend she had made in very similar circumstances to these, although that situation included a dead body. This one didn’t. Veroncia wondered if it was possible that this could be her. But she quickly realised that this bear wasn’t even the same colour as her friend.
Swearing to herself, Veronica stepped backwards, she had no interest in killing the local wildlife, and whether this was a regular bear or a bug bear she wasn’t particularly interested in finding out which it was. She was more than happy to simply leave the clearing. Then the bear, or bug bear, or whatever this was (you never knew in Ashkent Creek) could go about its life and Veronica could go about her life and they could all get along just fine without killing each other.
“I’m just going to leave,” she said clearly to the bear, unsure whether it understood her or not, “and hopefully we can get through this without trying to kill one another.”
Taking another step backwards, she watched the bear carefully, praying that it let her leave.
Hoyt was still standing when she entered the clearing. He decided that standing was hard. But the effect was powerful for at least feeding off her fear if what he felt was any indication. The fear was delicious and intoxicating, like a bottle of vodka that had cost more than $20.
Then he noticed the sword. She was a hunter or slayer or any one of the billions of incessant terms those people called themselves that roughly translated to “I’m an awful person with a tiny dick.” Then again she probably didn’t have a dick.
The waves of fear coming off of her were so potent that he figured he could press his luck a bit before she did anything. He also was pushing 650+ pounds at that moment so he pressed his luck.
He fell to the ground, going from bipedal to a quadruped stance. Okay, now land the plane, he thought. And then he roared. As loud as he could make it.
He nailed that plane landing like... what was his name? Hitchcock? No that wasn’t right, that’s the bomb guy, long take man. Scully? No that was the chick from the X-files. Well, any way, he nailed it.
It was at that exact moment he saw it. The dog. Well, “dog” implies that this creature obeyed any sort of reasonability vis-à-vis size. It was a little smaller than Hoyt was at that moment, but at that moment Hoyt was a bear. But whatever it was, or how big, it was obviously a dog. It was also pitch black. So black that Hoyt had a hard time seeing it. He could see the eyes as they were glowing bright red.
He had two options at that moment, fight back or run. And he wasn’t planning on running. Only problem was, he couldn’t. The dog-thing wasn’t afraid of him, he couldn’t hurt it. So that limited his options. She could turn the sword on him but he could fuck her up if he needed to, the dog could fuck him up and he couldn’t do a thing.
He decided to try a risky move. He transformed back into a human. He was much too focused on the big ass dog to notice her reaction too the bear suddenly becoming a human. He pointed at the dog, “Okay so do you like see that?” he paused for a half second before continuing, “Cause if you do see that we’re fucked, and if you don’t we’re either double fucked or I’m crazy.”
