"A lot has happened since your departure from the Temple; I knew the others would act quickly, so I had to be quicker." Chase said, looking down at the bag to his side.
The bag...moved, rather like a bloodworm or a caterpillar. Chase picked the bag up.
"Most of The League has been rounded up and arrested on suspicion of murder, conspiracy, anarchy, and a few other charges that are actually...quite correct. In any case, most of them are in a detention facility pending mass trial, but a few..." Chase let the sentence hang in the air.
Varko tried not to gawk at how easily Chase held what was obviously an adult man one handed, Chase just grinned and said, "He's barely over ninety kilos, you could easily do the same."
"For fifteen or twenty minutes; that's Kellon, isn't it?"
(Press the speaker icon to hear Chase speak)
"The one and thankfully only. I'd like to say he and his hired goons put up a fight, one of them did manage to knife me in the back after I tapped Kellon here, so I had to klonk him." Chase said.
Knifed... regeneration...that explains the change in the rune... he's hungry, and not for dried fish.
"Knifed? Are you...did you?"
"No: not my style, I like to deal death from a distance, the look on their face. The guy that actually did it I bounced off a convenient wall. That's what I get for getting up close. Besides, there's barely enough muscle on those skinny bones of his to seal a paper cut."
"There's a cave...a half K to the South, a couple of Frost Reavers." Varko said.
"Hmm...a nice sweater to go with that fancy cape of yours." Chase grinned.
"And you get to do the dirty work." Varko said. "I'll keep an eye on Bag Boy here..."
"Promise you won't pulp him till I get back?"
"I can wait for a while." Varko said, looking down at the bag, which was moving again.
"I can too...you first." Chase insisted.
Chase unzipped the bag; Kellon managed to wriggle out, when he saw who was waiting for him, he went pale for a moment, then regained his composure.
"You..." Kellon said, staring at the huge barbarian.
"You..." Varko said in return.
Above them, the sound of a door opening and closing, followed by light footsteps...
"Varko? You finally home? That chit cleared; woulda been faster if we had an actual connection to the outside world. Dammit anyway...three damm phones... in the whole damn village!"
"Why don't I take care of her while you take care of him?" Chase said, reaching into his EternaBag, he pulled out... clothes...nice clothes..
"Don't look so shocked; sometimes I have to depend on my keen fashion sense rather than my rakish good looks." Chase said, actually slipping them on where he was.
"Maybe you could announce me so she doesn't try to take my head off when I go upstairs." Chase said.
"She's not like that, but, Estill, I'm in the cellar, got a Softie down here I may or may not be bouncing off a wall, a friend of mine's coming up, he'll fill in the blanks, okay?"
"Okay, just don't be all day about it."
"Okay."
Chase took one last glance at them both, "No judgment from me, either way.", then left.
"Breakfast?" Estill asked.
"None for me, not yet, I'll wait for Varko." Chase answered, anticipating what was waiting for him in the cave.
"Thank you, though..."
"Hmm, looks and manners, nice clothes, too."
"You're gonna make me blush..." Chase said.
"Too bad you felt like you had to play dress-up just for me." Estill said.
"You saw me come in...earlier."
"Carrying a bag with what had to be a person in it...one handed. Is it the same guy that nearly killed him and that Prince fella?"
"Yes, using a device that is supposed to keep one of us quiet and immobile long enough to chop us up in little bits. It apparently had a self-destruct built into it...for those that failed in their mission."
"Didn't work out very well for him..."
"No, not really, but it did for everyone else, this is really good, by the way, nothing bad in it at all."
"No, and I knew you would taste or smell it if there were, and that's not my style anyway."
"What is your style?" Chase asked.
"Don't really have one; never really did, just stay in the background and try not to get hacked." Estill said.
"Best kind."
"Humph... That's not gonna do it for you, you're going after those snow puppies up on the hill, right?"
"Yep...as soon as I know Varko will be okay; that fellow might not be a physical match for him, but he's wily, and taking eyes off of him, even for a second..."
"Varko's got more going on in his big skull than most, and you're twitchy to Feed, there's no need to wait on Varko. Just strip outside: leave the fancy britches on the porch, shirt too, I'll get 'em."
Chase snorted, "No peeking, Madam."
"Riiiight...just watch out for the Menfolk, they'll want a tooth for their necklaces."
Chase stepped out to the porch, changed into his usual attire, breathed deeply in anticipation of the Hunt, then ran off in the direction of the cave system. Estill quietly went to the porch and gathered his clothes; Chase had them folded neatly, so she sat them on the shelf above the fire to warm.
"Be thankful I'm not forty years younger; I'd want more than a tooth..." Estill said to herself.
"They will overwhelm us eventually, and that will be the end of us as a unique race."
Kellon looked different from when he'd last seen him; the Softie had always been on the puny side, but he looked tired and disheveled now, the result of being carried around in a kit bag.
"Did you at least enjoy your ride?" Varko asked.
Kellon remained silent for a moment before he responded, "He carried me several kilometers before he boarded a train; they let that thing board a train."
"Right now, Chase is the least of your worries, you tried to murder me and my...other people..." Varko said, already feeling his arms twitch.
"That decision was made...in house." Kellon answered, trying to keep his voice calm as the big brute stared down at him.
It was not quite a lie...
"You were in a position to take out two of them; a rare opportunity, the others said it was too good to pass."
Again...not quite a lie...
"If you knew where I'd just been..."
"I heard; another golden opportunity missed, you could've taken out at least part of the Temple those things call home."
"And me in the process."
"C'mon man: you might strut around in animal furs and throw spears, but I know what motivates you, Varko, more than your precious 'way of life disappearing' shart, and that's money."
"How much of it is it going to take for you to let me go on my way?"
"More than you've got." Varko said.
"You sure about that? You've had a taste, you know what's out there, you could...just disappear one day. Nice setup; house, water, heat without lighting a fire, cool in the summer without having to live six months downstairs."
"The Abomination isn't here; it's just us. You know the existential threat they pose; how much?" Kellon repeated.
"If he's where I think he is, he's taking his fill, probably as we speak. Too bad he didn't do the same with you; I guess it was honor, or not enough of you to be worth his while." Varko answered.
"How many of those damn things are there, who has one, and where are they at?" Varko asked.
"The question you should ask is how long will it take for the Remnants to find me? Good name, huh, I just thought of it." Kellon answered.
"It'll take years, many years, to find us all; The Strength Of Our Conviction runs deep. You can loom over me and flex all you want to, but we both know you'll let me go eventually, you have no choice, unless you kill me of course, and that will really bring the Firedrakes to the Sunstone."
Varko felt the Old Rage boil up inside of himself; his breathing became rapid, his pupils dilated... "Do you think killing you is the worst thing I can do?"
Still in the Old Rage, Varko moved behind Kellon, took the back of his head in his hand, and slammed his head face first into the heavy wooden table. He felt bone break, he smelled fresh blood pool, Kellon twitched a few times then lay motionless in it.
On the floor above, Estill heard the slam, and knew what it meant; silently, she got the bucket the big rag, and the patchouli oil.
"Cleanup, Table One..." was all she said as she headed downstairs.
Bliss... satisfaction... completeness...
It took Chase nearly an hour to end them both; Gods, that was awful compared to the Kid, The Head Taker. If he ever did meet him, he'd have a lot to learn from him.
The first one he'd found he simply smashed to his Shaqarava and emptied; his first wild prey in many years, he'd forgotten the sweeter, more intense taste of prey personally hunted. He felt the Snow Ape weaken as he pulled the strength from it, the ape giving a tired scream for help as it was being drained.
The scream attracted its mate; in his haste to finish, Chase accidentally crushed the snow ape, as it was now dead, he simply drew the new one in, using its own momentum to capture it and begin Feeding.
Bliss...pure bliss, even more than the last one. This one, far stronger than the last, actually put up a fight, even as Chase pumped the strength out of it and into himself. The nagging little itch of the knife in the back, and his bruised Heart, now completely healed. He'd truly forgotten how much better wild prey tasted; he wondered why, it wasn't as if the creatures of the Down Below were ill treated, what was the difference?
Chase emptied the second snow ape, letting it drop to his feet. He looked at them both; one crushed to a pulp, the other just lying there...
"Sloppy, sloppy work..." He muttered as he got the vial from his EternaBag. He put a few drops of the clear potion on each corpse and watched it flash out of existence.
CorpseFlash was indeed aptly named...
"I have to meet him." Chase said to himself. His hunting skills needed to improve; as good as he was at assaination, he was bad at the Hunt. That needed to change...
Then he remembered...
Varko...
Chase ran out of the ice cave with the speed of a cheetah and the grace of a dancer...
Varko was waiting for him on the porch, the duffel bag next to him...
"Is he?" Chase asked, looking at the bag.
"No, Crom intervened, damn him." Varko said, looking at the bag with a mixture of sorrow and disgust.
"Why?" Chase asked.
"He's worth more alive than dead, and we can deliver him back and collect the reward, plus, he has more information that... someone can get out of him." Varko said.
"True enough." Chase said, watching the duffel bag.
"Here...both of you..." Estill said behind them. She produced two large paper bags.
"Food for you both; you still wanna fix the place up?" She asked.
"Yeah..." Varko said, eyeing the old wooden porch.
"It'll be easier to sell if it's fixed up right." Varko continued, his eyes looking down.
"If I decide to sell..."
"And if not?" Estill asked.
"Either way, I'm getting damn tired of living without power, water and heat."
"An air conditioner would be nice, too."
Varko looked at Estill surprised but said, "No argument here."
Varko then looked to Chase, "One more job." he said, looking at the bag.
Chase nodded...
Then, Varko's ComGem chimed...
Rafe...