The Midnight Voyager
Prior account author:  niverian77
Current account author: :iconLhi’aans_of_Lhi’ardika:
Based from a Role Play session with  Night1513
Chapter I: Reunion
It was cold tonight, not that it bothered her, in fact Night found the experience refreshing. The elated awareness of the fur along the back of her neck standing up on end, allowing the chill to gently ripple down her spine and ending to the tip of her beautifully downy tail gave her a sense of profound stimulation. She savored the taste of the crisp, frosted air dancing, teasingly across her tongue, filling her lungs and in finally and deliberate gradual release in a steamy mist that rolled in curls and puffs. Adrenaline pulsed vigorously through her veins with the unutterable thrill of the hunt she had anticipated. It had taken some time but at long last Night had finally tracked down a rather substantially powerful buck, that she had her eyes after.
Phantom, as the locals called him, wasn’t like her prior quarry, as unlike the other bucks, this one stood alone, not only large and powerful, but it had an uncanny reputation for being notoriously cunning and intelligent, often outsmarting its would-be predators with its speed, and a strange wild sense. Traits that had attributed much to the insult to its hunters by its continuing existence. Its fame had even given it an enormous bounty on its head to anyone who’d be able to take it down. Local legends told that it was perhaps the reincarnation of an Indian witch-doctor. While others claimed that it’s powerful, princely antlers could somehow detect the minute vibrations in the air, warning it if there was going to be danger. Though most took it as luck, but to this day nobody knew.
Night however was not deterred, holding no belief in such superstitious stories. Because like with all things, even if it was magic or luck, it had run out. Because in every story, somewhere along the line, everyone meets their match and inevitably their story, as all must, has to end one way or another. Night in this case was the prime example in the case of the right predator serving as the perfect foil to the elusive prey.
Night, as her name suggests, worked best after dark, where her ebony fur and black, light-duty hunting gear blended in perfectly to the shadows, allowing her to stealthily stalk her game at her leisure with minimal detection as she vanished into the concealing shades of the landscape. Her light, trim, athletic frame supplied her with the perfect match for speed and maneuverability; giving her some degree of flexibility in order to play all the angles. Though it can be said that among her repertoire of features, she possessed a most valuable, albeit unusual trait asset; a set of raven wings that protruded from her back gave her the advantage of air superiority, allowing her at times to silently glide through the air and thus avoiding the inconvenience of noisy footsteps that gave most of her colleague away.
In the past, the buck in question, presently eating at the grass below its hooves, would utilize its uncanny knack of somehow staying busy without dropping its guard. Yet tonight, for whatever reason, the buck had complacently relaxed its guard, perhaps cocky as it was in the middle of the meadow, bathed in the rays of the moonlight. It was a fatal error, which Night would easily take advantage of. Staying in the shadows, she moving with extraordinary stealth, not just in sight but also in sound, she had to take every step deliberately and with great care not to make a sound, even so much as a blade of grass had to be orchestrated with precision to keep her from detection. The grass itself was tall, providing her with some much needed cover as she silently began to stalk toward her prey.
Suddenly, the buck abruptly raised its head...had she been detected? She stood frozen for a moment or two, but relaxed when she realized it wasn’t looking towards her, but instead gazed upward to the sky. It struck her as odd that the deer was doing this, until the cause came a few seconds later when in the distance came a faint rumbling sound, it suddenly struck her as a distinct familiar sound. A sudden rush of memories flashed before her mind’s eye. Then as if out of the blue, she remembered; that the sound resonated in relation to someone she’d been waiting for a long time; was it was HIM?!
Even with the evidence as of yet approaching, something told her it was HIM. Whatever it was she couldn’t say for certain except she trusted her hunters’ intuition, something in her gut, perhaps the hope in the bottom of her heart or the persistent knowledge in the back of her mind. Somehow she could feel it in her bones that it was HIM, as even now as the noise grew louder and louder until from above, a strange, large object flew overhead as the ground shook from the momentum and the powerful thrusters driving it blowing the surrounding grass into a wild, convulsive dance, the bright lights overwhelmingly shone, blinding the buck and making Night shield her eyes. Through her fingers, she strained to gaze through the blaring light when at that moment she had in her line of vision the silhouette of the frightened, crazed buck running blindingly in her direction, to which Night whom was caught in a daze of awe was almost impaled by the swinging antlers of the massive stampeding beast at which she had quickly pivoted, reflexively dodging the animal. As a result, she lost her footing, almost allowing the buck to slip away...almost.
Although it had managed to bolt past her as it trampled up sod under hoof, Night soon recovered and pursued after it. The buck continued to run with amazing speed and agility which would have outdistanced Night if not for one slight detail. To the wayside, there was a dip to which followed into a incline and ending in a cliff wall; a fortuitous discovery as she sprinted on, using the momentum provided by the small valley to give her the upward thrust she needed as she shot off the cliff. Night looked over everything below her as she spread her wings and soared over the ground, just as the buck paused to catch its breath, it’s last as it turned out as it looked up for that brief moment to see what appeared to be a massive bird of prey with her wings shimmering in the brilliant moonlight. It tried to summon the last bit of its strength to make one last dash...only to find that it was too little too late as the she-wolf dived downward feet first, bringing within the force of gravity the weight of a hundred and twenty five pounds of muscle, bone, force and most pertinently, the mind to craftily calculate the best point of impact as the collision struck the lower spine and hips with such force that she could feel the joints pop under her feet as they dislocated and the sound of a loud wet “crack” of the hipbones shattering under the sudden and powerfully driven impact of her descent as the massive bull collapsed, kicking and bleating in petrifying fear and excruciating pain. Now came the hard part, Night knew to be cautious as the buck’s head was violently thrashing in all directions, loudly wailing and kicking in every attempt to flee, though at this point the fight or flight response was only down to fight and clearly there was little it could do with that. This had been a personal victory, nevertheless, Night knew that she had to curb in her elation for the next few moments as she began to calm the pitiful animal enough to finish it as she gently shushed the massive buck.
“Shh...Shh...Shh... It’ll be over soon.” She whispered softly in a calming, almost hypnotic tone as she rubbed the neck of the bull and hummed as the hauntingly mellow tune seemed to much to her surprise had made it settle down as it was now breathing heavily, jets of steam blasting from its nostrils as she drew her head in closely and then without warning, in one swift motion, she opened her jaws wide around the beasts neck and with powerful force closed around where the spine was, hearing the vertebrae crackling under the immense pressure; feeling the jointed segments pop and crunch in the force, sinking her fangs into the large veins, spilling the contents of its life-blood across her. The once breathing and very much alive, proud buck had suddenly and abruptly stopped breathing altogether as it went limp and heavy in the embrace of her fangs.
Her ruby red eyes dilated and were aglow with the intense rush and ecstasy of the taste of the hot, fresh, steaming blood gushing down her throat and the feeling of being the one to bring down the most powerful buck in the territory. Feeling victorious after weeks of hunting, she celebrated by doing something she hadn’t done in ages... letting go, allowing the madness of her wild nature to possess her in a, mindless frenzy as she ripped into the carcass, tearing out chunks of flesh and fat and gristle. It was two minutes when she finally had her fill of bloodlust; her head was swimming in an almost inebriated bliss from the massive amounts of adrenaline and dopamine that practically bathed her in her own chemical bath of hormonal surges. To add to her elation came the reminder of the craft that had moments before flown overhead, knowing it was HIM. So she looked upward to the moon in gratitude, she let out a deep and almost musical howl which resonated across the forest. The melodic howl served a twofold purpose:
The first was to show to the world what she had done, by her own wit and merit she had single-handedly brought down what the skeptics, naysayers and failures said was impossible.
The second was so that HE would hear her and having heard would pursue. After waiting the past ten years, she would be reunited with the one who had saved her life.
As the ship finished the last stages of the landing cycle, Omega took note of the strange, almost eerie sense of déjà vu, as he gazed down out of the viewport of the cockpit. He was aware of course that it was the same images from ten years ago making the recognizable comparisons in the archives in his memory bank and signifying the correlation between the two time periods. The response told him what he already figured out, that little, if any, had changed, as though he had only left for a long weekend and returned. Time was often funny that way, how nostalgia often played tricks with the mind, teasingly ripping long forgotten memories out from the mire of the subconscious and the float back to the surface of reminiscence.
For most individuals of course, the experience of flashbacks would at times take hours, days even, but in the mind of Omega, whose psychology was far more advanced by comparison to the average mind, compressing weeks of flashbacks, and every second of his prior experiences all in a matter of milliseconds. Despite the fact that in Omega’s perspective, the past was superfluous, holding little place in the affairs of the present and Omega was never one whom tried to live on the basis of bygone events, but with progressive ambition moved forward, both mentally and now, presently, physically as he stepped out from the hatchway of his ship and onto the misted and chilly forest which was accompanied by the pristine silence...or rather, the faint and inconsequential sounds of the few nocturnal birds making their calls and echoing past as it faded off into the rustling of the trees that gently sway in the frosty breeze; when suddenly as if heralding his arrival, a sudden din had split twain the curtain of silence was a long, piercing and hauntingly beautiful howl reminiscent of that of a wolf echoing as though it boomed from the stages of an opera house as the enchanted aria wafted through the trees in an enticing lure like the siren. Omega’s ears stood on end, turning, and his curiosity became something more...the memory of HER...the wolf of this world whom by his influence had saved her from a fate worse than death.
He began to scan the frequency of the howl...it registered as female. This equated the odds of it being HER to an 83% chance...and chance it he would as he rushed out to find it’s point of origin. His body as he ran was whipped by brush, tree branches, and thorns; none of it concerned him. These were merely mild irritants to which would be pushed aside as he passed.
Upon entering a clearing in the glare of the moonbeams arose the silhouette of a figure, a tall, slender figure. Omega optimized his glare reduction filters to get in a focused picture of this figure, and he was right all along...it was HER. Yet upon closer inspection, much to his horror, he didn’t see the innocent and kindly being he had helped to cure of a horrible plight those ten years ago...but had instead revealed a ravenous animal covered in blood which was further evident in the deer which had been tore open at the belly where it’s entrails were spilled.
“No...This isn’t possible I...” Omega stammered by the horror of what he had seen before him. Then as if aware of his presence, began to stalk toward him in a deliberate predatory gait. Omega knew not to move, to hold perfectly still because he knew that any attempt to flee would only further excite her into a thrill of chasing him down. It was all too soon as she came within several feet of him and before his sensors could act upon her stance, she had already tackled him down onto the ground which for a moment his optics went into a white static before readjusting to having her already on top of him, her trim but powerful arms with their clawed hands had pinned him firmly to the ground. Omega looked to her face; she knew he was terrified.
Not so much in the tell-tale conventional ways, she couldn’t feel him struggle, she didn’t hear his screaming or crying and hyperventilating nor could she smell the pheromones and adrenaline in his distress, but in his face, the kind of look of one so frightened that they were too terrified to move.
“I...I fixed you...you were suppose to be cured!” Omega whispered. The sensation of his knowledge riveted through her as she growled to him as she gazed down at him with an almost forbidding delight.
“I failed...how could I have...?” Omega began when she then thrusted jaws towards his face. Omega caught these movements in the milliseconds and could only brace himself as he felt her hot, stagnant breath drafting upon him. He didn’t want to hurt her, but if he had to stop her then so be it. The small alien braced himself for the tall She-wolf’s impending attack. Expecting to be assaulted by the fierce teeth ripping and tearing his face to pieces, he was surprised contrarily as he was being vigorously and briskly slathered by her long canine tongue as it rigorously lapped at his face, washing away the dust along with the now fleeting fear he had. Omega couldn’t help but laugh at the motion as the shock now revealed her to be not the monster, but like a happy puppy who’s friend had returned after a long trip.
“Ok, OK! Will you stop it already?! My face is already drenched!” Omega exclaimed. Night looked back to the recipient of her affection, relishing in her little mischievous welcome.
“But I don’t think I cleaned from behind your ears, not proper for supper you know.” Replied Night as she lifted Omega back up onto his feet to which revealed their perspectives.
Ten years had definitely made an impression on the many changes that had taken place over ten years, though Omega, the Lhi’aan alien hadn’t changed much. He still had the same black hair, grey fur, yellow eyes and the glowing markings on his face, the interesting angular nose which took over the front of his muzzle to which contained no nostrils and of course the trademarks glowing foot spurs that defined his race along with the strangely hypnotic flame of shifting yellow and black flares . About the only thing that changed was his attire which was slightly different than before. His leather jacket was much more elaborate than the last having a flexible metallic trim on the collar and opening of the jacket; he wore a black shirt around his thin frame instead of red and wore pants that matched the color his jacket. His hair style was longer and had bangs this time. The other thing that hadn’t changed was his size...he hadn’t grown at all, short then and now seemed to be shorter, standing at no more than four foot, eight inches.
From the counter-perspective of Omega, in the recollection of the fifteen-year old wolf was fairly tall, about five foot, seven inches. Now, at the present, she was twenty-five years old standing at a tall, six foot, five, with a beautifully trimmed and mature body covered with a light hunting gear, all black to help her camouflage. Omega couldn’t help as he looked up face-to-face at the she-wolf with a reserved grin as he laid face of the she-wolf as she began to wash the blood off from water from a canteen she had prepared for moments such as this when she got a little messy.
“My, my Night, I can’t believe how tall you’ve gotten.” Quoted Omega, relating Night as the great wolf from the tales of the Brothers Grimm which in reply grabbed Omega from under his arms and lifted the short Lhi’aan to her face as she smiled with an impish amusement to Omega’s sentiment.
“All the better to do this my dear” she said as she embraced Omega in her arms.
Omega looked over her shoulder, feeling the flow of warm life coursing through her. The raven wings along her shoulders brushing his face with their soft plumage when he detected something warm and wet along his shoulder as it began to slowly trickle down his back. She was crying, tears, sweet tears of joy flowed from her eyes and onto Omega.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time. I’ve been coming to this same spot on this one night, every year so I would remember and hoping one day you would return here to me...” she whispered softly into his ear.
“...and now that you’ve come back, I’m not letting you go this time.”