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The Wild Girls (chapter story)

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YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

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She didn’t even know what would be up there when she emerged. What if a revenant should be wandering by just as she exited? At least down here, she was fairly well-hidden.

In fact… Heather wriggled, peering down into the black beneath her. She wondered if, if she needed to, she’d be able to slip down there. She didn’t like the idea one bit.

But she didn’t like the idea of having no escape route, either. The best hiding spot had to have a way out. At least she could get a better look.

The opening was narrow. Very narrow. But Heather had a narrow frame, and she’d become very flexible after years of being encouraged to climb under and over things to steal treats and things for her friends. She twisted and squinted. Her eyes had adjusted about as well as they were going to, and she could almost make something out down there.

A little glint. Something metallic?

No. A glow.

A light.

Heather’s gut clenched.

Two lights.

A pair of bright white lights were down there. And they were getting larger.

Heather started to hear sounds. Scratching sounds. Clawing sounds. Sounds of rocks breaking and falling.

Immediately, Heather’s efforts reversed, and she started twisting and struggling to get back upright and pull herself back up. Broken legs be damned— something was climbing towards her.

The eyes got bigger. Closer. Heather panted with her efforts, heart pounding in her chest. She grabbed onto a craggy ledge, only for the brittle stone to crack under her weight. She thrashed, and cried out faintly as she felt something in her side sprain painfully.

A revenant, maybe. A demon. An undead predator. Some forgotten Slayer monster.

It was getting closer and closer. Heather bit her lip to hold in a squeak, pure fear-based adrenaline coursing through her—but totally useless.

She couldn’t disentangle herself.

She couldn’t run.

This was death. She was already dead.

No way out.

And still she thrashed and writhed as the eyes drew closer, closer, closer…

26-Oct-2020 15:37:46 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2023 21:19:33 by YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

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The eyes clinked together faintly, and Heather’s own adjusted—and she realized she was staring at a pair of small, spherical glass lamps.

And their carrier climbed into view.

And Heather’s struggles slowed, and she stared.

The creature was… a girl. Cast in a warm yellow glow from the lamps she had swinging from the pole tied to her back, her dawn-brown eyes nonetheless glimmered with obvious life. Her skin was a lively autumn brown, far from the sickly pale of the undead or the vivid scarlet of the demonic, and her curly dark hair, while a little dusty and unkempt, flounced down to her shoulders and framed her oval-shaped face rather nicely.

Heather blinked. Not that the last detail was relevant to anything, she told herself, feeling her cheeks heating up a little. She glared down at the girl. “W-What are you—how did you get down there?”

This had to be some kind of panic-induced hallucination. It didn’t make any sense. But, Heather thought, staring down into those blank, blinking brown eyes, perhaps it was more sinister.

She’d heard of shades in the Wilderness. The ghosts of memories. Spirits forcing the living to relive their battles, their traumas, their losses and their tragedies. Terrible events lingering and capturing the living to experience the horrors of the past all over again.

This isn’t real, she told herself. This isn’t real. This isn’t real it’s not real it’s not oh Zamorak she just grabbed my hand—

The girl’s hand was cold. But not grave-cold. Just… cold. Heather swallowed.

The girl stared up at her. Tilted her head. She seemed to be about Heather’s age, Heather realized. She was lanky, with broad shoulders and—Heather noticed a few nicks along her jawline, and realized the girl had cut herself shaving this morning.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

26-Oct-2020 15:38:07 - Last edited on 26-Oct-2020 15:58:27 by YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

Posts: 2,888 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The girl blinked.

“How… how the heck did you get down here?” the girl asked. Her voice was surprisingly quiet, and slurred a little, as if she hadn’t had reason to practice with it for some time.

Heather stared down at her for a long moment.

“I got stuck,” she said.

The girl’s head tilted the other direction. She released Heather’s hand. “Well, I need you to move,” she said. “You’re blocking my exit.”

“What were you…” Heather shifted slightly. Priorities. “I can’t really do that,” she admitted.

The girl’s large eyes closed, then opened again, in a slow, catlike blink.

“Because you’re stuck.”

“Because I’m stuck.”

The girl rubbed her chin. “Um… okay.” She regarded Heather curiously. Critically. Heather felt strangely flustered under the intense examination. “Can you go to the left?”

Heather hesitated, then did her best to do as she advised, squeezing against the left wall. “I-I really need to get out of here. My friends are—”

“No, the left .”

Heather stopped short. “This is the left.”

“No it’s not!”

“This!” Heather tapped the wall irritably. “This is left!”

“It’s right!”

“Do you want me to go this way?”

“Yes!”

“ That’s right, idiot.”

“No! Go left!”

“Are you…” Heather glared down at her. “Are you trying to say your left?”

The girl blinked.

“Oh. Right.”

Her cheeks went a little pink.

Heather couldn’t help but snicker at the look in the strange girl’s eyes. She squeezed to her right. “There you go. My right.”

“Look, I haven’t, um…” The girl clambered up, glass spheres clattering—their heat prickling by the back of Heather’s neck—as she squeezed past Heather. “I forgot left and right worked like that.”

26-Oct-2020 15:38:54

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

Posts: 2,888 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Look, I haven’t, um…” The girl clambered up, glass spheres clattering—their heat prickling by the back of Heather’s neck—as she squeezed past Heather. “I forgot left and right worked like that.”

Heather grimaced. It had been a tight fit with just her in here. Now she felt positively canned in, smushing her whole body against rough, cold stone. “What do you mean, ‘ worked like that’ ?”

“Haven’t had to...” The girl seemed to be struggling for words as she dug a roughly-bandaged foot into Heather’s shoulder, bracing against her. “... um, give people directions like that much. Don’t see a lot of people out here.”

“Oh.” Heather bit her tongue to keep from making a remark as the girl kicked off of her, and suddenly the girl was past, and Heather could breathe again. She suddenly realized that she was now almost entirely at this stranger’s mercy. “Um. Sorry. I didn’t mean to... make fun.”

For her part, Heather couldn’t remember the last time she’d needed to apologize to someone. The Bandits didn’t really do apologies. Except when confronted by someone bigger and meaner who wanted one. Herself saying ‘sorry’ was one of the strangest sounds she’d ever heard.

“It’s okay.” Actually, scratch that. Hearing someone accept an apology was stranger. Heather craned her neck to try to look up as she heard the girl climb free of the ravine. She couldn’t quite turn her body far enough to see more than the girl’s ankle. There was a pause. “Wow. You’re really stuck, huh.”

“Can you see anyone up there?” Heather asked weakly. The feeling of helplessness was starting to sink in. Being at anyone’s mercy in the Wilderness was terrifying—especially a stranger’s. This girl seemed awfully young to be a hunter, and she wasn’t wearing a yellow cape, but even if she wasn’t out for blood…

“Nobody.” The girl’s tone was flat and unreadable. “Just us and dust.”

26-Oct-2020 15:39:10

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

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Nobody. The worthless louts had left her for dead. Heather cursed inwardly, even as she tried to make her voice as sweet and endearing as possible. “Do you think you could, um…”

“Oh, sorry.” A cool bare hand wrapped around Heather’s left ankle. “Brace your other leg.”

“What?”

The girl grasped Heather’s ankle tightly in both hands and pulled .

Heather had no time to react. She let out an involuntary cry as she felt herself raked up the side of the fissure. The rocks cut and scratched at her arms, her neck, her stomach. Her right leg, partially stuck at a bad ankle, wasn’t able to lift with the rest of her, and—

CRACK .

Heather howled.

“ Shoot! ” cried the girl.

Heather was blinded with pain like a hundred sharp pins as she felt herself being lifted up out of the fissure. She immediately covered her own mouth with her hand and bit her palm to hold her screams back.

But it was all-too-easy to fill the silence with noise.

And a distant inhuman shriek answered the call.

Heather dimly heard the girl say something she didn’t understand. Something that sounded like ‘refill loud’. As she felt herself being picked up and hoisted over the girl’s shoulder, her numb brain slowly put the pieces together.

Refill loud.

Refill hound.

Revel hound.

Rev elhound.

Rev hellhound.

One last bolt of terror shocked her system enough to struggle in the girl’s arms, only to find herself being set down on something soft and leathery.

And then it felt like she was moving. The world rushed by, and Heather coughed as ash billowed around her. She still couldn’t tell what was going on. Panic and pain and nausea and confusion warred for dominance in her wild mind.

And at long last, Heather’s brain had mercy upon her body and decided to allow her to pass out.

26-Oct-2020 15:39:30

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

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CHAPTER THREE: WONDER
Heather didn’t exactly drift back into consciousness so much as bolt upright and hurl the chicken pecking her face across the room.

She stared blearily at the squawking bird—a fat soot-black beast with reddish-golden flecks dotting its form like spatters of blood—and realized she had absolutely no idea where she was.

“What the… cluck?” she muttered under her breath.

Heather heard a giggle from behind her. Head suddenly pounding with panic, she whirled about to see the… The Girl. The Girl was hunched over by the head of the bed, rummaging through an old dresser. She grinned down at Heather. “‘What the cluck!’ That’s really funny!”

“... no, it’s not.” Heather look around, realizing she had awoken in some kind of cottage. The walls were old ash-darkened bricks, same as any Wilderness ruin, but the ceiling looked new—with fresh-cut reddish wood, even. Well, fresh by Wilderness standards. The windows were boarded up, of course, but with a dresser and washbasin, a crackling woodstove, a workdesk—she noticed the lantern stick set into a hole in the desk to allow it to stand upright, the orb lanterns hanging overhead to provide light for whatever work the desk was there for—the place was actually…

… well, honestly, it was kind of nice. Heather had only seen homes approaching this level of pleasantness on the one or two outings she’d been taken on south of the Ditch, and she’d never been able to stay at those kinds of places for long.

“What… what is this place?” As she stirred, pain like needles shot through her bones from her right leg and straight to her spine. She looked down, noticing that her leg had been heavily bandaged and placed in a splint.

It also appeared to be tied to the bedframe.

29-Oct-2020 15:10:01 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2023 20:09:20 by YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

Posts: 2,888 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“This is my home!” The Girl spoke more easily now, Heather noticed. Her voice was still a little slurred, but gone was the halting, uncertain feeling-out-the-sounds tone. “I had to—aha!” It appeared she’d found what she’d been searching for.

“What’s going on here?” Heather’s eyes narrowed. She looked around for a weapon, wishing she’d worn her boots. She kept a knife in the left one. What imbecile had convinced her to go barefoot? “Why the—why am I—”

“You were hurt.” The Girl paused to point at Heather’s leg, blinking large eyes down at her.

“I-I know that!” Heather sputtered. “I mean, why am I tied to a bed? ?”

The Girl blinked.

“You were... hurt.”

“So why —” Heather caught herself, reeled her words back in, and forced her voice to let them out slower. “So why… does my being hurt… necessitate being tied to a bed?”

“You kept rolling off the bed.” The Girl’s head tilted. “What were you dreaming about?”

Heather glared. “Maybe I was dreaming about getting my leg broken by a demented chicken-witch kidnapper!”

The Girl stared for a long moment. “That’s probably because you broke your leg in real life.”

“ I know I— ” Heather pounded the pillow with her fist. It wasn’t really as satisfying as slamming a table. “My point is—”

“Oh.” The Girl frowned. “I get it. That was a joke?”

Heather gave a very terse nod, leveling a cold stare on her captor.

“You’re…” The Girl averted her eyes and turned back to her task, drawing out a mortar and pestle and grinding something up. “I don’t know if you’re upset right now.”

Heather said nothing.

“But you seem upset.”

Heather gave another terse nod.

29-Oct-2020 15:10:27 - Last edited on 29-Oct-2020 15:12:36 by YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

Posts: 2,888 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“I’m... sorry I broke your leg.” The Girl bit her lip. “I thought you heard me. I should have waited.” She looked back at Heather, still avoiding eye contact. “That’s what you’re upset about, right?”

“Are you touched or something?” Heather snapped.

The Girl flinched. She paused in her grinding a moment, and Heather was surprised to see her actually look rattled. Then, in a smaller voice, she said, “I… don’t know what that word means.”

The Girl resumed grinding the herbs. She wasn’t looking anywhere near Heather now.

Heather swallowed, feeling a funny weight in the back of her throat. It took her a moment to realize that she actually felt… sorry.

That was weird.

The bandits didn’t mince words with one another. They flung insults like a mole flung dirt from its burrow—casually, constantly, and without looking back to see who they hit. That was how you knew someone was from the Wilderness. That was how you knew someone could handle themselves.

The Girl didn’t seem to understand any of this. Heather had hurt her feelings.

The Girl walked around the bed to cast the ground-up herbs into a bubbling pan.

And Heather felt guilty.

She winced as a bitter smell hit her, and watched through narrowed eyes as The Girl stirred the pan’s contents, still not meeting her gaze.

“I’m… sorry,” she said, swallowing again. The apology burned on her tongue, and she tried to get it out as quickly as possible to avoid permanent damage. “I shouldn’t say that. I’m just stressed.”

The result was almost instantaneous as Heather saw a visible weight leave The Girl’s shoulders. The Girl looked back and smiled brightly. “It’s okay! I broke your leg for the same reason.” She pointed with the spoon. “I asked you to brace your leg so I could get you out of there safely before the revenant hellhound could notice us.”

“R-Right.” Heather shifted uneasily. “How did we…” A thought struck her, ugly and cold. “Did you see it going after anyone? Two boys my age?”

“No.”

29-Oct-2020 15:12:47

YuBiusk Ink

YuBiusk Ink

Posts: 2,888 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“... Okay.” Heather smiled with relief. She had to admit, even if The Girl’s mannerisms were a little odd, it was kind of nice to speak with someone who spoke so plainly. It felt… easy.

Easy to get information, she corrected herself. It saved time. That was all.

“So you carried me all the way here?” she asked, watching The Girl pour something thick, glimmering and golden into the pan. The bitter scents grew richer, more nuanced. Sweeter. This was a floral scent Heather very, very dimly recognized—a sweet, calming scent she’d smelled on the steps to a great Monastery many years ago. It wasn’t some sort of weird potion, she realized. It was just tea.

“Dragged you. Yes.” The Girl ladled some of the drink into a tin cup and brought it over to Heather. She still avoided eye contact, but Heather was starting to suspect that this was normal for The Girl. "Drink this. It helps.”

Heather took the cup in both hands and breathed in the steam with wonder, the sweet roses tantalizing her with buried memories. She drowned those memories for good measure as she took a deep gulp of the surprisingly sweet tea. Where had a girl like this gotten ahold of sugar? “Th-Thanks. Um… my name’s Heather, by the way.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Heather,” The Girl said, meeting Heather’s gaze to give a very brief, very polite smile. It seemed almost like a scripted response.

Heather waited. The Girl looked away again.

Heather cleared her throat. “Um… What’s yours?”

“Oh!” The Girl blinked. She reached forward a hand, and Heather, after a long pause, shook it. “My name’s Catteken. Y-You can call me Ken!”

Her eyes met Heather’s again, and for a moment, Heather saw a glimpse of something new in those blank eyes—a spark of nerves, maybe, to match that tiny tremble in her voice? Ken’s hand was calloused, warm, and it held Heather’s surprisingly tight.

“Cool.” Heather looked down at the tether. “I need to take a piss, Ken.”

29-Oct-2020 15:12:57 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2023 21:20:17 by YuBiusk Ink

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