Artiface of Strength Ch. 08

I got you now, my lovely bitch! He chortled, as he got closer and closer.

Florence knew that victory was his; she had run directly into an impassible thicket of woody thorns, and William was smiling wolfishly as he thought about all of the things he was going to make her say when he caught her. But then Florence saw one last opportunity, a small bolt hole directly into the heart of the bush. It was too dark to see what it contained, but she was desperate to win this time and she decided to take her chances as she darted into the dark. This was a decision that they'd both live to regret as she dove directly into a bee hive with a resounding splat of broken hive wall and oozing honey.

Never had victory turned into ignominious defeat so quickly. Instantly, every single inhabitant of the hive poured out and began attacking. Unfortunately for the two wolves, these were not domesticated honey bees, instead, they were larger than this. They were wasps capable of stinging their victims repeatedly, and they were quite upset at the two wolves who had just destroyed their hive.

"Run" screamed Florence mentally, and the two wolves did just that. But as they fled, they were being stung repeatedly by the savage swarm that followed them.

"Into the mud!" William yelled desperately.

The two headed directly into the center of the bog, finding it's stickiest, slimiest, smelliest heart. All the while, they were being stung repeatedly, leading them to run faster than any wolves in recorded history. They slogged through the muck as it got progressively deeper before finally throwing themselves into the mire, rolling in it to coat themselves in bee-shielding mud. They closed their eyes and ears tightly, hoping to keep the worst of the mud out, and somewhat impatiently waited for the storm to pass. Eventually, it did; the bees lost interest and flew back and began rebuilding their hive.

Covered in slightly stagnant, and extremely sticky muck, Florence sent, "You were saying something about my pussy being slick, dearest?"

"Yeah, well at least I caught you. But now I've been stung all over my body and I'm wondering, how do wolves react to venom?"

"When we combine it with alcohol, it becomes a pretty strong hallucinogen. Come to the clubhouse on almost any Friday and you will see the men ordering a drink called a 'venom'; only on Friday's though, no one manages to work the next day after downing one of those!"

"So, with all those stings that we took, do we need medical attention?"

"No, we heal pretty quickly, and without the activating alcohol, the pain will be gone in a couple of hours, all we will be left with is a pretty annoying itch. We will need to find a way to get this disgusting mud off before it dries completely though; I mean, you stink!"

"Florence, I hate to say it, but I'm betting that the disreputable old bastard back at the truck..."

"Knows where the water is," Flo finished.

"Do you want to kill him, or should I?" William said grinning.

"Would you miss him?"

"Life is never dull with grandfather around."

"Let's go face the music then, but if he says even one sarcastic word about this, I'm going to rub this mud all over him."

William snorted and the two began to make their way... slickly, back to the truck. When they caught sight of Ja-mul, he wasn't saying anything sarcastic, merely pointing over his shoulder and shouting, "There's a small river over that way, and when you get back, I've got something for the bee stings."

"I think he knows that you are mad at him," William sent.

"Are you sure that you'd miss him?" Florence responded.

"Some days," William laughed.

After an ice-cold rinse in the shallow water that was more of a creek than a river, Flo and Will found themselves back in camp. They had shifted and were now warmly dressed, but both still smelled faintly of stagnant mud. Their mood was grumpy, and they were not saying much to Ja-mul. Oddly enough, the old man was smart enough not to mention their adventure, but he didn't bother to hide his amusement when he told them to sit by the fire and eat dinner; their guest would be arriving before long.

All three of them dug into their stringy, unseasoned rotisseried rabbit with relish. It wasn't very good, but there was plenty of it, and it had been many hours since any of them had eaten. They finished their meal fairly quickly and clean up was a snap, they just tossed the remainder into the fire and called it a day. One thing had become apparent however, all through the meal, both Florence and William had been scratching more and more openly, clearly the venom in their bodies was causing both to itch more than they wanted to admit.

Producing a small bag, Ja-mul pulled out several chunks of a home-made granola. "Here, eat this," he said, "It's made from morning glory seeds and it is a very effective anti-itch medicine. I put honey in this batch, although I suspect that you two have had enough honey for a while."

He then scuttled away quickly before Florence could lash out at him, disappearing into the bushes behind his truck. "Yes, I'd miss him," William said, before she could ask. "And don't discount the honey either, most of his remedies taste awful, but they do usually work.

They ate their granola in comparative silence, and Florence found that it was surprisingly good, certainly much tastier than their dinner had been. Indeed, the concoction was very pleasant, heavenly...even euphoric. It was almost... "Shit!" Florence exclaimed.

"What?" William cried, leaping to his feet and taking a defensive posture.

But before Florence had an opportunity to explain, Ja-mul returned to the clearing, chanting in a language that neither knew. He was dressed for some sort of ceremony, clad only in a loin-cloth and deer-skin moccasins, his long gray hair was now braided and festooned with feathers. He wore a necklace, bracelets, and anklets made of carnivore teeth.

His chanting alternated both in volume and tempo, and was interspersed with interludes of atonal mumbling. In each hand he held and shook some sort of crystalline fetish. Florence thought they looked like some sort of maraca, although she had no idea what the crystalline heads might be made from, she was sure that the handles were made out of polished manzanita wood.

As he approached the campfire, he threw a handful of some sort of powder into the fire which exploded with a flash and produced a large cloud of white smoke which enveloped them all. He then switched to Na-Dene, Ja-mul's birth language and a dialect with which both William and Florence were more comfortable. Ja-mul began to praise Xwun as both a God and a Goddess, thanking her for appearing above them in the sky tonight. He implored the God to come down from her home in the sky and to share her wisdom, and to direct all of them on the right way of life.

He then raised his fetish to the moon, repeating his praise, as well as his requests for Xwun's help and guidance. The fetish seemed to gather the moon's light and focus it onto a single point, acting as a spotlight-like trail through the white smoke and directly into Florence's face.

Florence felt the light as if it were a physical blow, it rocked her back and made her head spin. As the light bathed her features, she heard a humming sound that seemed to surround her, making her feel as if she were suspended in a single musical note. But before she could think what to do about it, she heard Ja-mul's voice screaming, "Goddess, join with us!"

Suddenly, she remembered. "The venom..." was all she managed to gasp before she was gone. No longer within her own body, she went completely limp and pitched forward into William's arms.

Ja-mul then turned his wrist slightly, refocusing the Goddess's light into William's face, as he shouted, "and her mate with her". He then screamed loudly in Na-Dene once again and tossed more powder into the fire, causing another explosion and with it, William to crumple to the ground with his beloved mate.

"And now we wait," he said, switching back to English as he walked back to his truck. He sat down and pulled out his medicine bag, removing one more chunk of his morning glory seed granola, and beginning to consume it, he said "It's more comfortable in here anyhow."