Hangin' Around

((Funny cliched title is both funny and cliched. XD))

It was dark.

Really dark.

It was the kind of dark where even a were couldn’t see the nose in front of their face. The drip drip of a leak in the ceiling, and the scampering of several rats hadn’t irritated Yoko at first. Now, however, he was starting to wish that he was free enough to at least break some little rat necks. He couldn’t believe he had even thought something like that. The fox had never had a mean bone in his body before, never a nasty thought. Until now. A wave of shame washed over him and he hung his head, defeated.

For the past several weeks he had been kept down here in this humid, moist dungeon like facility. He was chained to the wall, but not in the usual fashion. Hel was ever one for causing constant pain. Instead of wrapping the chains around his wrists, she had thread them under his skin. One end went under his left wrist, all the way past his back, through his right arm, and out his right wrist. Both ends attached to the wall, he hung in a crucifixion - like form. His entire back - as well as that part of the wall - was covered in the blood that had came from when he had first been hung. His feet were off the floor, so he was literally hanging. The blood was dried now, and not quite as bothersome.

Yet for all this, he never worried about what would happen to him. He had no idea what the Norse gods and their riders were doing up above while he was down below. For all he knew, the world could’ve already ended.

Kitai could be dead.

At the same time, there could’ve been no action whatsoever, and Hel was just using the anticipation as another form of torture. Which it was. It was far more torturous than the chains.

((You guys don’t have to wait for me to start a thread. You can start your own if you want. XD

Anyways, if anyone wants to come down and poke fun at Yoko before Hel comes in and does her thing, feel free to. ^^))

((nyahahahahha))

Kamira descended the stone stairs that led downward. They were slightly slippery with the thin moss that grew on them due to the moisture in this dank place. The darkness, however, didn't hinder her at all as the amount of light didn't affect how well she could navigate her surroundings. She stopped about ten feet away from where Yoko was hanging with a smirk on her face, waiting for him to notice her presence in the complete darkness. Her clothes still stank of blood from the people she had killed recently.

The scent of blood - not his - permeated Yokos senses. His stomach churned in a nausiated manner, probably the new smell combined with blood loss. He could take several guesses as to who it would be. One would be Krigon, but he usually smelled sweaty. Two would be Hel, but she never hesitated. Three would be...

"What do you want Kamira?" he asked in an emotionless tone.

No doubt she was probably here to insult him or something to the effect.

"Oh, seeing as how you're locked down here completely isolated from the rest of us, I thought that I should give you an update." Kamira said with a snicker. Your little friends were really busy, but unfortunately a huge group rafting down the main river in Salinas doesn't go unnoticed. It's almost like they were giving us a huge sign of where they were." What she didn't mention was that she had been having too much fun slaughtering the Salinas villages where she got that information that she lost track of where they went after that. "I hope you didn't have any baby names picked out."

Kamiras last sentence struck a nerve in the fox, but he kept his demeanor calm. They couldn't be dead. Akaelin never would've allowed anything that could've given them away so easily. "If you have something to say, then say it. Don't imply it." He needed clarification before - like a caged animal - he tore himself loose and ripped Kamiras tongue right out of her mouth. If she had so much as come within 50 yards of Kitai, he'd rip her to shreds.

"I mean that your future children - as well as their mother - are dead." Kamira said. "Has being locked up down here made you dumb as well? I thought I was being obvious enough. Demonwolf's annoying apprentice gave us some trouble though. Buuut, with so little resistence left, all life will be annihilated in a matter of days. Perhaps Hel will let you out to see the demise of the world." She was totally prepared for Yoko to forcibly rip himself free to come after her after her lies meant to upset him further. But in this maze of a pitch black dungeon, she would have the advantage.

"Oh you were being...quite obvious," he said, his speech clipped. It was true, Kamira would have the advantage, being blind and having acute hearing. The hearing of a fennec fox was sensitive enough that he could hear insects walking on sand. Like cheetahs, they were sprinters, though not nearly as fast - but still quick enough.

"I'm afraid I don't believe you," Yoko said finally. "I believe you are the kind of lying," Skank, he added in his head. "...person, that you would've brought something back to torment me with. A head. A...dead fetus. ... You aren't nearly as cryptic as you think you are, Kamira." It was true, he didn't believe her, but that didn't change the fact that she had threatened them all the same.

"Oh, believe me, I would have brought a lot more to show you," Kamira said. "Sadly, there wasn't much left. Would you believe how trusting your little Rebellion is? They welcomed back a person who betrayed them once already - a person they had to kill. A person who recently gained the power to blow things up at will. A person who wanted to avenge her death. Sadly, the damage she caused wasn't enough for us to spare her. I did manage to grab this from the carnage though - maybe I'll hang it in your room." Kamira held up a detatched tail that she had ripped off of a village dog. Fortunately, Kitai's scent still clung to the sheets that had been in Yoko's room when Rabbit had detained her. Kamira had meticulously applied it to the tail, and in the darkness it was impossible to see that the tail was a light brown - not a dark brown with orange.

"Well then," Yoko said in an eerily calm voice. He balled his hand into a fist, then tore his arm free from its chain. There was a sound of ripping flesh and the scent of fresh blood. After having organs ripped out every night however, this was nothing to the fox. He removed the glove off his free hand, reached up, and grabbed the chain where it left his wrist. The metal rusted, then fell apart completely. He would worry about what was left under his skin later. "Could you please do me a favor and come here, Kamira?" he said in an innocent tone. "I'd very much like to kill you now." It was almost as if Rabbit had never left.

He started to advance toward her, very aware that she would move out of the way, or do something to defend herself. He trailed his hand along the wall as he walked. The stone quivered and eventually crumbled. This room alone had been kept particularly dark, so when the sections of wall fell, portions of light began to shine in, allowing the fox more sight.

((I have to go get ready for a parade. See ya later.))

((I only have time to reply to one right now, I'll make another post later))

Kamira didn't show it on the outside, but Yoko's power always gave her the creeps. For her the solid borders of objects and walls were how she saw and found her way around. When the things she relied on started melting away a little shiver always ran down her spine. "You know, most people would give thanks to the person that killed the person that killed their children," Kamira said as she moved back. While refusing to flee, she wasn't about to stand there and let Yoko decompose her just so she could carry through with a cruel joke. "I guess you're a little different that way. And here I was thinking you might like a little something to remember your precious wolf-girl by - perhaps I should have brought you what was left of her head instead. But that wasn't a pretty sight at all."

((I'll be back at around 9:30 your time. I work tonight. TT^TT))

Light poured into the room, shining itself on Kamira, revealing the tail she held. He had never truly thought that Kamira had been holding Kitais tail. If Kamira had found the tail as recently as she said she had, the scent would've been much stronger than what it was. "You should leave now," Yoko said dryly. "Your game is getting no where, and I would think that you have the sense to realize that." No doubt Hel was going to repremand him for ruining that small part of the dungeon. The only thing he wasn't certain of is what kind of punishment she would choose. Hel was strange in the sort of way that you never knew what she was going to do next. Sometimes he acted as her dinner table, other times her punching bag. Sometimes he was her little play thing, and other times he was her chore boy. It all depended on what kind of mood she was in at the moment. He could only hope that he caught her in a chore boy or dinner table mood.

"Oh, it was entertaining. I only wish I could have seen what your face looked like." Kamira laughed and flipped the tail at him. "Have fun likkle Yoko, let's play together again sometime." She turned and danced back up the stairs, her mood lightened a lot from when she first came down to the dungeon, which was her objective. No longer was she feeling quite as bad for losing track of the Rebellion while taken up in killing villages. After all, the end of the world was inevitable, and who was she to rush it?

He waited - until he was certain that Kamira had gone - to crumble. Yoko pressed his back against one of the remaining walls, sliding down to the floor. His gloved hand, he fisted in his hair, bare one resting on the floor palm up. His mind screamed for him not to believe Kamira, that she was a lying whore. He listened wholeheartedly, but at the same time he wanted closure. He wanted to see for himself whether or not Kitai and the rest of the opposing group were still okay. Perhaps they were on their way to Nara - like he had advised - or were already there. He could stop in and just take a quick peek. If anyone found out he was there, he'd be gone before they had a chance to do anything about it.

He heard footsteps gliding down the stairway. At first, Yoko thought it was Kamira, back for round two of her little game. But the steps were too dainty, too light. His stomach churned and he placed the glove back on his hand as Hel came down into the dungeon.

Kamira paused in her happy jaunting walk back towards her room when she heard some footsteps pass her and descend into the dungeon. She was able to recognize the footsteps and outline as Hel, and turned around to follow the goddess halfway down the stairs. She did this because her mind had just chucked up another idea - one that would be the perfect form of torture for Yoko as well as provide some more entertainment for herself. If she and Yoko - the latter with orders to kill some people of the Rebellion - were to go and attack the group, then now was a good opportunity. After all, they hadn't seen the riders in a while and so were probably feeling a little too secure. Based on her previous descisions, Kamira doubted that Hel would actually order Yoko to kill Kitai, but the look on her face as her precious little fox killed her friends would be priceless. She allowed herself a little snicker.

Hel passed by Kamira without a second thought. She had a mission, a purpose to attend to. Namely, her disobedient little slave. The thing was sitting up against a wall, looking worried and nausiated. The former was probably caused by Kitai and her children, the latter by the goddess herself. "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately," Hel said simply as she approached the pathetic creature. "And I've been wondering to myself... 'What exactly is holding me back? What's keeping me from my victory?'."

Yoko knew exactly where Hel was going with this, but kept silent. Anything he had to say, she would doubtlessly inturrupt anyways. Besides, he really didn't have anything he wanted to tell the goddess. Death was knocking, and he wanted to open the door and say, 'What kept you?'.

"And then it came to me," Hel cooed. "It's you, Yoko. I want to take two steps forward, but you pull me three steps back. You are what is hindering me from my inevitable goal. I simply cannot have that any longer." Yoko opened his mouth as if to speak, but - as he suspected - was silenced by the diety. "I know, I know. You say you'll behave from now on, and in a sense you do. But you do so conditionally. Your little deals and promises are beginning to agitate me, and they are the main source of our setbacks. I have been weighing various options in my mind as to what to do with you. Of course you will be replaced by someone more efficent. But am I kind enough to send you back with your malformed wolf and her posse? Do I simply let you rot away into nothingness? Or do I keep you for my own entertainment purposes? There are so many options to pick from, I really can't decide on just one."

Hels smirk broke into a wide, triumphant grin. "I know you're scared right now. I can feel your heart pounding in my chest. A mortal heart is a rather cumbersome burden, is it not? Or perhaps you have forgotten that. Yes, I'm sure that is the case."

Yoko knew in the back of his mind that Hel would never be kind enough to send him back to the Rebellion with his heart back in his own body. She claimed to be benevolent and a savior, but she did nothing but torture and destroy.

"One thing though," she continued, the fox wishing that she would shut up. "There is something I don't understand. Perhaps you can enlighten me. I've taught you how to read and write. I've taught you swordplay and more fighting techniques than you will get anywhere. I've given you servants, books, minions, clothes and all kind of fancy things. Yet never once did you seem to appreciate my efforts. Why have you never thanked me?"

There was a long pause before Yoko realized that Hel actually wanted him to answer her. Frankly, he had no answer but one. "I would rather be back in the throes of insanity with the people I love, than clear thinking and where I am now."

Hel let out a small sigh. "That doesn't exactly answer my question."

He had never intended it to.

"But it will have to suffice. I think I know what to do with you now."

"Excuse me," Kamira spoke up, a wide grin spreading across her face. If Hel wanted to do something to Yoko that would really give him the mental torture that he deserved, then she had the perfect plan. It had to do with a new power as the rider of Conquest that she had discovered while slaughtering - or should she say watching the slaughter - of the villages in Salinas that she hit. "If you want him to pull some of his weight, then he could come with me to track and attack that Rebellion. When we find them I can guarantee you that Yoko will kill some of them. If he doesn't want his wolf-girl to die that is."

Hel met Kamira with an icy stare. "If I wanted an opinion from a simple minded little maggot, I would have asked for it," she said coldly. "I said nothing to you on the stairwell in the hopes that you had enough brains not to listen in on my coversation. Apparently you don't. Perhaps now you will take the hint when I say, 'leave'."

Kamira turned back to Yoko to mime some wolf ears and then drew a finger across her throat. She turned and dashed back up the stairs, attempting to keep her composure though she knew Hel was serious. Maybe destroying a few villages would take a bit of the stress off of her mind. She went down to the stables to tack and mount Hamlet, riding out into the world near the mouth of the river that she had been following before. Her clothes were changed so that no more blood clung to them.

((I have to go for now. I may or may not be back later. I'm not sure. TT^TT))

Yoko growled and rose to his feet, but was held back by Hel. "Now, now," the goddess cooed after Kamira had gone. "It's not her fault you think with your emotions too much. You see Yoko, I want someone who doesn't care so much. Someone who doesn't give a shit about the welfare of others. Someone who has no concern for right and wrong because they can't...even.....tell the....difference." She started to trail off, her words becoming light and airy. She scanned the fox up and down with a hungry look, a wide grin spread across her face. "Of coourrsee," she said sweetly. "I'm sorry it didn't come to me before." Yokos eyes widened slightly as he started to slowly back away from Hel. Whatever she was so happy about, no doubt it wouldn't prove good for him.

((I'm listening to this song and it seriously makes me think of Hel singing to Yoko. XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu_dfRAPHQk ))

Kamira rode along the river, still inside the Salinas border. A few miles back she had caught a werewolf that had tried stealing from her saddlebags. Rope bound his hands together and tied them to the back of Kamira's saddle so he had to run to keep up. He was obviously one with a weak mind, so she was planning on using him to test out a new extent of her ability that she had only ever tried with animals before. Lifting his chin, she stared into his eyes until they fluttered half closed. It was then that she went into his mind and gave him instructions, pleased to see that it had worked.

I am Conquest, and you have been conquered Kamira spoke into his mind; the werewolf nodded sleepily in response. You will go down into that village below and ask for information about a large group travelling down this river. A blond man and a girl with red hair and wolf ears were with them. After you obtain that information, bite every single person in that village down to the infants and return to me

The werewolf nodded and started toward the village with a blank look in his eyes. The humans in this country were so fun - they were so afraid of lycanthropy or any other form of wereism that if a village all became weres they would surely kill eachother. As for her captive, she planned on making him kill himself when he got back to her.

Hel was finished with Yoko. He could do as he pleased for all she cared. Afterall, she was kind enough that she was going to give him one last chance to save his sorry hide. A bit tired, she climbed up the dungeon stairs and into the corridor. Vines hugged the walls, climbing upwards and entangling themselves. It made a very eye appealing sight, though it didn't make the goddess any happier. She was tense, had a headache and needed a bit of relaxation. "Nim!" she called sharply. A minute later, Yokos little servant appeared, out of breath. Hel guessed that he had come from the other end of the world tree, and was a bit surprised that he had gotten there so fast. He was a bit young, only appearing to be 12 or so, but he would do.

"Come with me," she said stoicly as she started to walk forward. A bit confused, Nim followed nevertheless. The goddess led him into what looked like a large theatre, with about a hundred seats. Dark red velvet curtains were drawn close across the stage, and the area was lit by a gothic style chandelier. Hel pointed to the stage, silently asking Nim to draw the curtain. Frightened, heart pounding, he obeyed.

When the curtains were opened, they revealed not an empty stage, but something that resembled a carousel. Instead of horses, tigers, lions and zebras, however, there were six life sized marionettes. They stood, their heads and arms limp, each one evenly spaced from the other. "Turn the handle, Nim," Hel instructed as she sat down in the middle of the house. Nim swallowed past the lump in his throat, before he started to crank the handle on the back of the object.

Hel watched as the carousel came to life, spinning in a slow circle. The marionettes - all dressed in the same black attire - started to twitch and stir as a haunting bell like melody filled the air. The goddess loved watching these figures, who were also her enemies. Those who had gotten on her bad side were quickly defeated and placed upon her carousel to dance for her whenever she wished it. They were slaves to both her, and the strings that bound them. There was Loki, Frigga, and others, as well as a couple whos name she had forgotten.

If Yoko failed to please her this time around, there would be a nice little spot right in the middle just for him.

Kamira sat back to watch the fireworks as the seeds of chaos that her puppet had sown flourished. The dead body of the werewolf who had stabbed himself through the heart lay at the hooves of Hamlet without dignity; anyone who came upon this village would count him as another victim of the mass hysteria. Humans were funny creatures when you played on their paranoia and hate. Villagers were killing anyone they came upon: neighbors, old friends, children, and infants. The werewolf she had first come across was able to obtain a direction that the group had headed before his suicide. But the mental exhaustion from her efforts was giving her a headache and so she would track them tomorrow.

Kamira grumbled and held a hand to her head as she navigated the hallways of the world tree slightly less gracefully than usual. It was hard to concentrate on sounds and vibrations with this headache.