((OK! Here we go.))
As the demon takes flight Viss had already prepared to change once more to follow it in pursuit when she becomes dimly aware of Fleshbane saying something but before she has time to wonder about what it might have been some alien energy rips her out of her existence. For the fraction of a moment Viss finds herself in a state that does not compare to anything that she would have defined as reality. A kind of unease sweeps through her that she had never felt before and panic threatens to overcome her at the thought that maybe this feeling might never pass. But before it can overcome her, the moment has past and reality as she knows it is returned to her.
Her relief is short lived when the realization that she now finds herself high up in the sky without a pair of wings. She is about to turn herself into a falcon once more when she notices that she isn't the only one that had made the strange trip. Tessa starts to growl in distress next to her and Menek and Satra also seem to have become involuntary airborne. In pure instinct she reaches out to the source of her power and quickly extends it to everyone around her, allowing them to steady themselves as the air beneath seems to turn into solid ground.
Once no one is in immediate danger of plummeting to their deaths her mind and focus snap back to the demon and rationalized thinking takes a leave of absence was more. Every muscle in her huge feline body seems to work on its own when she readies herself in position to intercept her tormentor on his way to safety and end him once and for all.
She hasn't even begun to move forward when her enemy vanishes. Her head darts around in the hope of spotting him again but even when she tries to make out his foul stench it is simply too omnipresent than to pin-point it to a certain location. She howls in frustration at the thought that once again her foe might best her.
That's when the rest of the team springs into action all around her. Watching everyone around her work together in unison to fight the enemy, to fight THIS enemy, sends a strange shiver down her spine. This was her fight. It had nothing to do with anyone else. And yet here they were. People that she had barely known longer than a week and others to which she has shown nothing more than contempt from they moment she had met them, all coming together, supporting each other, supporting her.
She quickly snaps out of this thought. They were after all in a battle. A battle that she had started. The least she could do to pay back the others was doing her utmost to end it.
As everyone moves into position and prepares. She herself reaches out to Melora and even though she can't feel the goddess presence in this strange and alien plain, she is still able to call upon her power, drinking from it to become stronger and faster.
She feels like she is bursting with energy when a glittering shower of golden dust begins trickling down on them, lending the scenery an almost angelic atmosphere. And there, in the sparkling inferno she is finally able to make out the demon again. And without a moments pause she turns on the creature that had haunted her her entire life, that had killed her and that now had come after her to haunt her afterlife as well.
She jumps and her claws and teeth sink into the demons flesh.
She is young, maybe six years old. Curai is standing before her, a stern look on the normally so gently face.
Tell me Vissaria, why did you do this.
She stares to her feet shuffling them about a few seconds before she looks up, her face defiant and stubborn.
This things bit me! They are ugly, they stink and they hurt me.
Curai shakes his head looking at the space where about four square feet of forest floor were burned and charred.
And that gives you the right to kill them?
She shrugs her face still sullen.
What does it matter. They are just fernstingers. It's not like they do anything useful. I'd liked it best if they were all gone, so that I don't have to get bitten anymore.
Curai takes her by the hand then. He walks her over to where the fernstinger nest had been and with a stick moves away the charred earth, uncovering a second burrow beneath it. The burned remains of some small mammals still inside.
Silkmice use fernstinger nests to keep their young save from predators. The reason those nest stink so much is because the fernstingers use the excrement of the silkmice to strengthen their nest. Now tell me, how do you judge the usefulness of another being, Vissaria?
One of her claws finds a way past the demons metal enhancements. Viss can feel the vulnerable flesh rip and tear.
She is a little older. Curai has taken her to the town for the first time. She is overcome by all the impressions, smells and sounds crushing down on her at once. And there were people everywhere. So many people. She hadn't even thought it possible that so many people could even exist in the world.
She is waiting in front of a shop while Curai has gone inside to get some supplies. She spots a group of children and waves at them as they come closer, exited to meet someone her own age for the first time.
"What are you supposed to be?" one of them, a boy, asks, not hiding the sneer in his voice as he circles around her.
She smiles and bows, showing respect as Curai has taught her.
"My name is Vissaria. I have come here with my father to get supplies. It is my first time in a town like this." The way the children circle her starts to make her uneasy. "It is really quite different from the jungle and..." she breaks of with a shriek when on of them, a girl this times, grabs her tail and pulls at it.
"Look at this," she says giving the tail another yank. "Is that some kind of costume?"
Wincing with pain, she frees herself from the girl's grip, turning her head as the children continue circling her. "No, it's not a costume and that hurt."
"Not a custome, eh?" a boy says. "So you are some kind of monster then, should we call the guards so that they slay you?"
"No, I'm not a monster. I'm a normal..."
"Normal? Look at yourself. You are not normal. Normal people don't have tails. They don't have hair all over their body. You are a freak!"
"Yes a freak."
"Freak!"
"An ugly freak."
Before she can do anything the kids have pushed her and she falls to the ground, her face slamming hard on the stony street chipping a piece of one of her fangs. Tears fill her eyes. Tears of pain but also of anger. She jumps to her feet with ease, turning on the kids that quickly back away when they see they look on her face.
"Vissaria." Curai says calmly from behind her. He puts a hand on her shoulder and gently pushes her away from the children. "I am done here. It is time to go home."
On their way back through the city her curiosity is gone. The people that she had thought so fascinating before, now seemed to stare at her with disgust and animosity.
The next time Curai has asked her to come to the town with him, she had declined.
Viss feels the demon struggle between her fangs. How it tries to break free from her grab. But she doesn't let go. next to her Tessa snaps at the still invisible figure, her teeth blocking the demon's way of escape.
She runs through the jungle. It is night and even to her eyes the dark forest is nothing more than a labyrinth of shadows. She stumbles for what feels like the hundredth time as one of her feet gets caught on a vine or a root and falls flat on the wet forest floor. The air gets pressed out of her lungs and for a moment she just lies there trying to catch her breath again.
Finally she pushes herself up again. She scans the darkness around her until she finds the bow that had flown out of her hand. Curai's bow. The bow she had pried from the dead hands of his torn and mangled body.
She takes in a deep breath, flaring her nostrils to search for the scent of her father's murderer. It becomes harder and harder to make it out over the myriads of other scents flowing through the jungle but there, just barely she catches it again and starts running again in pursuit.
Something hits the demon and it shakes in her grip. Viss doesn't know what it was she just holds on biting.
It had started to rain and the sun had begun to shine through the canopy above. She is standing alone in the jungle. Next to her the massive body of the huge predator that had killed her father. Tears run down her face as she stands there alone and with no guidance what comes next.
After a while she stumbles forward. Not knowing ad not caring which direction her feet will lead her. She has only taken a few steps when she hears a crunching sound. Looking down she is able to make out the shattered remains of a nest. Broken shells and egg yolk strewn everywhere. It must have happened during the battle.
For a moment she feels like she can hear Curai's voice whispering in her ear, advising her to watch out for breeding mother's as they can be especially ferocious and might attack even when unprovoked.
"We have to be understanding of such creatures Vissaria. We might feel threatened by them and feel attacked but it is always important to look for the reasons behind every behavior."
As she stared down on the broken nest, tears come to her eyes. She kneels down carefully touching the broken shells.
"I'm sorry..." she whispers to the unborn souls whose way into this world was cut short by her actions.
She gets up again and wants to turn away when she spots something in the corner of her eye. There between the ferns in the undergrowth something white is glistening. As she inspects it she discovers another egg. It must have rolled away during the battle and it is seemingly unbroken. Carefully she picks it up and as she presses the egg to her breast she sinks to her knees, crying and thanking Melora for giving her a chance to make things right.
Somewhere behind her Viss hears the pilot, Satra, say something and suddenly the demon is fully visible again. It is heavily wounded and Viss understands that this will end one way or another and clenches her jar around the demon's body even more.
"I don't understand why you are doing this? Why won't you explain what is going on. This is not like you Viss."
It is the day after they had stumbled over the remains of the destroyed village. A day after she had found the trail that she herself hadn't known she had been looking for. Hartur is standing behind her hands on his hips as she is packing together only the most essential of supplies. She doesn't answer him. How would she explain it anyway. How can you explain being haunted by something that you don't even have a memory of. Being awoken by nightmares of people screaming in terror, people that you have never met. Who do you explain how it is to miss a family you never even had the chance to know.
"Viss! Talk to me. What is going on?"
She turns around and musters a smile.
"It is alright," she says. "Everything will be alright. But there is something I have to do." Her voice had become hard at those last words and she can see a frown building on Hartur's face.
"I know that look. You are going to do something stupid again. Better I come with you..."
"No!" she had interrupted him. "This is something I have to do on my own."
And she had turned around and had walked away. Right towards her death.
The demon gives of a sudden wail of pain and terror and suddenly Viss can feel its ghastly aura fade away. She releases her grip and watches as it disappears. She waits for a feeling of triumph to fill her. it doesn't come. Relief, yes, but not triumph. It was over. It was finally over. All this years of anger, dissipating before her eyes. Something lifts away from her. A part of her that had been festering somewhere deep inside like an infested wound that now was cooling down and shrinking away.
Menek's question pulls her out of her thoughts and finally she becomes aware of her surroundings. She turns herself back into her normal form. Her body mostly unharmed by the battle. She opens and closes her mouth a few time unsure what to answer.
"It... it killed me. Back when I was still alive. Really alive I mean. It killed my entire tribe and later when I tried to kill it for it, it killed me instead..." she swallows, having trouble to say the next words out loud.
"I'm sorry," she mutters. inaudible at first but then louder and with a firm voice. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. I put everyone here in danger for no other reasons, but my own selfish ones."
She looks at everyone in their little group, lingering just a little longer on Fleshbane and Shulmor. "I need to thank you, all of you, for not abandoning me in this battle even though you had every right and every reason to do so. I couldn't have done it without you and I am forever in your dept."
She takes another deep breath waiting for the others to decide what to do next.
))