No Pain for Fiends

[Strazio Rockwell]

Strazio sprinted through the forest, once again morphing into a human battering ram. He left a sprinkled trail of blood drops in his wake. The mage came to another gulley, this one with a small stream of putrid water flowing through it. He skidded to a halt and turned around. His breathing slowed as he craned his neck and listened. Nothing. No sight nor sound of the brownie. That made his skin crawl. She was watching him, she had to have been watching him. And yet, were it not for the general malaise held within the forest, it would have been a serene scene. Behind him the murky creek bubbled and frothed. Ahead of him a gentle and cool breeze swept through the forest, sending fallen leaves into the air.

Sparks slipped across his skin and coalesced around his wounded shoulder. A soft sizzling noise accompanied the smell of burnt flesh. No doubt his hunter’s nose was keen enough to track the scent of blood.His wounds were small, but deep, and unless he dealt with them they’d continue to bleed. His magick greedily seared the edges of each puncture wound and cauterized the blood vessels. There was no doubt that this would impede the healing process, but Strazio never worried that far ahead. The pain was brilliant, and not entirely unwelcomed. He always found such a macabre sense of clarity from suffering. 

“Thou scurry so frantically young one,” Avana’s voice called to him from an unknown location, “like a fevered rodent trapped in a labyrinthe.”

Strazio growled and pointed his finger towards the voice, “don’t speak down to me you fucking cat.”

There was a moment of silence. Strazio’s eyes darted around, scanning the area for anything that might give away the brownie’s position. She was moving into position, preparing herself for a quick and easy takedown. Strazio backpedaled down into the gulley. Hit boots squelched as they sunk into the watery soup. He doubted his ability to outrun her. Sure he was fast, but only in short bursts and he tired quickly in a full out sprint. He kept stepping backwards, eventually wading through the brook and emerging on the other side. A “hail-mary” sort of plan began to form in his head. His arms pulsed with chaotic energy. Avana stepped out from behind a tree, her tail twitched like a snake. “Doth thou intend to strike me down?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Strazio snarled, “something like that.”

“Naive child.”

Avana bounded towards the sparkling mage. Her body once again grew larger, bringing her to the size of a small car. Her massive paws smacked against the dirt as she rushed forth. As she reached the edge of the gulley Strazio unleashed twin beams of destruction, just as Avana attempted to leap over the stream. The mage did not aim for the brownie, no he aimed for the stream below her. The magick crashed into the muck-filled water. An explosion of steam, mud, and filthy water swallowed the ferocious hunter. Her momentum carried her through the sudden geyser, but she stumbled to keep her footing as she landed. Sloppy mud and vile water clung to her fur, changing it from pink to a dirty mauve. She shuddered. Strazio was nowhere to be found; even worse she could no longer smell him, the stinky muck clouded her sense of scent. Oh well, she figured, he wasn’t exactly subtle as he stomped through the forest. She’d just follow the trail of snapped branches and bootprints.

Strazio held his breath and waited for Avana to move on. He had dove under Avana and into the  ravine. It was a gamble, he had assumed that she used her sense of smell to hunt and not some mystical tracking power and he was right. He also assumed that she underestimated his intelligence, and again he was right. Who would’ve guessed that the short-tempered and easily provoked mage would have the foresight to hide in plain sight instead of running away? The cat shrunk down to her regular size and scampered off. Strazio exhaled.

After pulling himself from the grey stream Strazio took a moment to collect himself. Two very close calls in the matter of minutes. The longer he played the more he hated this asinine game. There couldn’t be much time left on the clock he figured. He made his way back to the starting area, or rather where he figured the starting area was. It was during this trek back that he realized how easy it was to track him. A trail of broken limbs and boot prints led him back to the beginning. No wonder Avana had found him right out of the gate. Hopefully Gamzee had an easier time than he had, hell this was probably a walk in the proverbial park for the strange kid. This, however, was not the case.

Gamzee had found his way back to the start, but he couldn’t have been farther from it. The grey-skinned boy sat on his ass, rocking back and forth whispering to himself. It was a surreal, if slightly frightening sight. “Uh, you okay there buddy?” Strazio asked, and was promptly ignored. He huffed and took a few steps towards the hunched figure. He could barely hear Gamzee’s whispering, and as he inched closer he could see that the kid was drawing something in the dirt. Strazio reached out and put a shoulder on the troll’s shoulder. His head snapped around and the two locked eyes, Gamzee’s were dilated to the nth degree. Strazio flinched and said, “holy hell, what the fuck happened to you?”

“The lines come together and make a circle brother,” he held the “er” part of brother for an uncomfortable amount of time. Gamzee’s dirt-stained finger scratched out a grid of near-symmetrical squares. He traced back over the lines frantically as he repeated his fevered mantra. The lines come together and make a circle. Brother. Oh, brother. Strazio sighed and took a step back from his companion. Something was fucked in the boy’s head and Strazio was no psychologist. There was nothing to be done for the poor lad, but sit and weather the coming storm.

“Congratulations,” Avana’s lyrical voice called out, “the game is yours, I must admit that was a clever gambit.”

Strazio turned towards the approaching brownie and asked, “what the hell did you do to him?”

“Nothing, the unfortunate boy stumbled upon a pit of nightveil mushrooms,” she said, “perfectly harmless, although he will remain in an altered state of mind for quite some time.”

“Great,” Strazio said.

“The lines come together and make a circle brother,” Gamzee chimed in.

“Fucking fantastic.”

Above them the sun had reached its apex. Half the day was already gone and they had managed to do little more than play a game of hide and seek. This irked Strazio, and although most things irked Strazio this lack of progress rubbed him in a special way. He exhaled and told Avana, “well now that we’ve played your game let’s get going, I’m starting to get irritated.

“Certainly,” Avana responded, “although I don’t think your friend is in a condition to hunt.”

Strazio glanced over at Gamzee, who had now stood and was staring vacantly at some far-off mirage. “Don’t worry about him,” Strazio said, walked towards Gamzee and slung an arm around his apprentice’s neck, “really, he’s more bearable this way.”

“Strazio,” Gamzee said in a moment of lucidity.

“Yeah buddy?”

“I think I can see into the future.”

Strazio stifled a chuckle and said, “see, just fine.”

“Well, it is your funeral,” Avana said before prancing off into the forest, “follow me and I’ll lead thou to thine quarry.”

“Come on, up you go,” Strazio said and hefted his friend’s limp body into a fireman’s carry.

“Brother, I don’t want to leave my motherfucking circles,” Gamzee said frantically pointing towards his grid of squares.

“Goddamnit stop squirming,” Strazio growled, “we’ll pick them up on the way back.”