Like The First Dew Fall

[Erynies Adrasteia]

The next morning...

Ryn is nowhere to be found inside thebunker hearing post. She's hard to miss once outside though. The sun has only just begun to rise, still hidden behind the distant mountain ridges. Ryn is standing near a cliff in a small area free of shrubs and larger rocks. A couple feet away a small fire is burning beneath what must be two rabbits speared onto branches. Ryn herself has her 'wings' unfurled fully, spread to an almost twenty feet wide cloud of filigree fibers. They shimmer slightly and as the first rays of the sun fall on her, the morning dew that has gathered on them makes them glitter like strands of light.

For a moment she truly does look like the divine being she claims to be and there's none of the tension she usually holds in her body. It's a glimpse of the wild creature that must have walked the wilderness for millennia. And then it's over, her wings twisting together into larger threads and carefully shedding the morning's moisture into an empty plastic bottle before withdrawing entirely.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina shuffled out into the sunlight next, followed by 'Doug', who was holding a cobbled-together umbrella over her head to try to provide some shade. She smiled, a little awkwardly, when she saw Ryn standing in the sun.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I caught fresh food." Ryn says, sounding as awkward as Katarina probably feels. "The 'ration-emergencies' I found inside seemed bad even for human-cured things."

[Katarina Kane]

"Really? They seemed normal enough for me. But I supposed we're just...used to different things," Katarina said, briefly squinting into the sun.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"We can go back inside if you'd prefer. But you should try the rabbit. I gathered sage and mezquitl and rock salt for it." she says, tilting her head at a spot where she's used a flat rock to grind things up into a kind of wild seasoning for the meat. Oddly enough there are also a couple pieces of cactus she collected but they seem intact.

[Katarina Kane]

"Well, if you went through all that effort," Katarina smiled, walking over towards Ryn, with 'Doug' following.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn grins happily and dusts off a flat boulder with her hands for Katarina to sit on, folding her legs underneath herself to sit down.

"This is how I used to eat all the time. More fruit than I could find here. I have tea leaves and eggs too!" she adds, fishing them out of her pockets. The leaves have an unusual aroma but not necessarily bad. The eggs are tiny with a brown-speckled shell, certainly not from a chicken.

[Katarina Kane]

"Stand there, Katarina ordered 'Doug', sitting down on the boulder Ryn had dusted off. "Foraging from the wild, hrm? I supposed that must be more...normal, for you."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn nods. "It's fresh. Humans make some good food, but a lot of it is... made to last. And not just with salt or fermentation. And it feels good to hunt." she admits. "The chase, the kill."

[Katarina Kane]

"I suppose without guns or...tools, it feels more fair," Katarina said, somewhat diplomatically.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"You don't like it." she says, fiddling with one of the branches holding the rabbit, adjusting it above the fire for no particular reason. "What I do."

[Katarina Kane]

"I'm not....comfortable with killing, no. I've never..." she said, fidgeting slightly.

"It's not something I like. Whether it's justified or not."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I cannot stop to any more than stop to breathe. I'm old. Older than forgiveness and mercy." she says, sounding tired, almost saddened. But the steel never quite leaves her voice.

"But there are still those whose soul dwells in those times and you cannot soothe and cure all beasts. Some need ending. I was never revered. Only feared. It never bothered me before."

[Katarina Kane]

"And it bothers you now? You wish to...change? To be more like..." Katarina trailed off, with a light cough.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I don't want you to fear me. Or despise what I do. But it's all I am."

[Katarina Kane]

"Is it all you are, or all you can be?" Katarina asked, pointedly. "You're older than forgiveness and mercy. I'm older than a Walkman, and yet I learned."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn shrugs slightly. "I know of one god who changed under great suffering. But I don't know how to and after there may be naught left of me..."

[Katarina Kane]

"I don't believe that," Katarina said, firmly. "I'm not even entirely certain you have to change what you are.

After all, I don't believe this breakfast was supposed to make anyone fear you, yes?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"But you didn't like that I killed for it. And those were only rabbits..."

[Katarina Kane]

"If you try to serve me people, we'll have to have words," Katarina said, trying to stifle a smile.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I would never." she says solemnly. "I just... You deserve to know who I really am and though I've never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it... if I took off this blindfold you would run."

[Katarina Kane]

"Why? What is it you are afraid of happening?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"It's the curse of my banishment. To mark me as a monster. They poured terror and fear into my eyes so all who behold them would know in their bones what stands before them."

[Katarina Kane]

"And you are what stands before them. The eyes...does they show what they want you to be, or what you want you to be?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"It's primal fear. The need for survival that burns like adrenaline in all living things when faced with the end. And the knowledge that their fate is no longer of their choosing."

[Katarina Kane]

"No one's fate is of their choosing. That's why it's fate, right?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Well yes, but... Gah! Words!" she hisses and snaps a bit of wood off the spit and throw it into the fire to produce a brief flash of sparks. "Fine. You need to understand before you even think to let me try and carve the siren from you." she says and stands up, whipping off her blindfold at the same time. And when she looks up at Katarina the world is swallowed by the void surrounding the otherworldly flame burning in her eyes. Every fiber of her being screams at her to run, flee from this... thing masquerading as a young woman. It's every wolf that circled the campfire in the dark, every nagging feeling of being watched from the darkness, of being jumped by something horrific except it's right there and the eyes in the darkness are real and they are death and she should run for her life!

It's one thing to know that Ryn was never human but another to feel it in the thrilling surge down her spine and into every fiber of her that this is a monster. A creature so old it has seen civilizations come and go and it didn't care. A thing that somehow, inexplicably, has decided out of all it has seen with those horrifying eyes, she's the one human it cares about. A monster that she kissed only a couple hours ago...

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina does an impressive job not immediately turning around and running away in fear, in that she only fell immediately off the rock she was sitting on as she stared Ryn down, like a frog into a flashlight.

"I...I....I..." Katarina said, stuttering.

"I...usually don't.....like...older women...." she managed to gasp out, with extreme effort.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn blinks, which makes the effect flicker and then cut out entirely when she scrunches her eyes shut. And almost belatedly she lets herself fall to sit on the ground. Not only didn't she run, she made a joke. At least Ryn thinks it is. "You didn't... but... how?" she stammers herself. The churning in her chest is even more confusing than normally. Part of it is still strangling her breath and making her voice hitch but at the same time it's radiating a warmth at not just the resilience but at Katarina's willingness to endure this. To prove something to her.

[Katarina Kane]

"I'm j...just that sp....spec.....sp...." Katarina tried, but broke out into a coughing fit. It was still Quite a Bit, even with the eyes closed.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Katarina!" Ryn is on her feet and at her side in the blink of an eye. "Are you unwell!?"

[Katarina Kane]

"J...just need a moment. And maybe a drink of water..."

Indeed, Katarina seemed parched, her scales dry.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Here." she says, and hands her one of their few water bottles. And then takes the one she filled with morning dew and carefully starts emptying it over Katarina's arms.

[Katarina Kane]

"Th...thank you," Katarina said, greedily drinking the water down. "I guess it's hotter than I thought out here. Doug, shade."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"You need to swim in the water. You can't stay out here for long like this."

[Katarina Kane]

"That's where they'd look for me, though," Katarina said trying to smile. "Never be where they're expecting."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"And dry up in the process. Up!" she says, gently but firmly grabbing Katarina underneath the arms and lifting her up. "Back inside, now. I'll bring the food inside and then I will go find more water."

[Katarina Kane]

"And dry up in the process. Up!" she says, gently but firmly grabbing Katarina underneath the arms and lifting her up. "Back inside, now. I'll bring the food inside and then I will go find more water."

"Doug, carry the food," Katarina said, as Ryn helped her up. Her scales felt dry and and scratchy under her hands; sirens did, after all, belong in the water. Whether Katarina had intentionally led them to the driest place she could think of or if that was just a coincidence was an open question.

"It's such a beautiful day, though," Katarina deadpanned, leaning a little on Ryn. "Won't be a hair over 40." She still quivered a little bit; either from the heat, the lack of water, or the after-effects of being blasted by Ryn's soul-vision.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"It is and I would love to show you." she says, missing the sarcasm entirely. "But you're in no shape. And you need to be as well as possible if I'm to excise your demons."

[Katarina Kane]

"And there's nowhere better to get better than a secret outpost in the middle of nowhere..."