Penny -- Freewoman & Hounds
Title: “The Freewoman and the Hounds”
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt -
Warnings: NC-13; narrative heading into darker country.
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
Penny and Dee followed Regina Freewoman back into the School. In the inner room, Regina opened a cupboard and produced a second wooden sword, a polished leather belt, and a long polished wooden staff, easily six feet long. She buckled the best to her waist and set the swords in loops on either side.
“Let’s take the fight to the foe,” Regina said. “Here - ” From the bottom of the cupboard she produced a pair of wooden staffs, about the same size as Baliea the witch-princess’s had been.
“I’m not expecting you to use them for more than defence, but it ought to give those girls a second thought.”
Then she led the way through the darkened hall and the foyer, to pause behind the double doors to the street. There she manipulated some sort of metal device and set up long metal rods to run down the centre of the doors.
“There - once we go out, that will secure the School. My house is locked and secure - if they could have got in, they wouldn’t have needed the juju-wraith. Ready ?”
And she thrust the doors open and went out at a trot, staff in hand, swords in her belt.
Dee might not have followed, but Penny was firmly in Regina’s wake, and the journalist didn’t fancy being left behind on her own.
Outside, on the street, there were a half-dozen of the girls, led by the statuesque Baleia. Regina made straight for them, with Penny moving to take her left flank.
Baleia shouted something and reality seemed to flicker for a moment but then Regina called out words which meant something and then nothing, and swung the long staff she held, and everything was suddenly sharp again.
“Away !” Regina shouted: “In the name of the Four Kings who stand at the Gates of the City - begone !”
Baleia hardly moved, but several of the other girls seemed to be knocked back by Regina’s words.
“In the Name -- !”
Penny wasn’t having any Names invoked by Baleia - she swung her staff and connected with Baleia’s own, and apparently succeeded in interrupting whatever the witch-princess had had in mind.
But that put her closer to some of the younger ones, and they sprang forward. Penny back-pedalled, and the tip of Regina’s staff licked above her shoulder, warning the girls away. And, even as that might have laid Regina open to attack on her left, Dee Rosenorth stepped into the gap, to make it clear that she was shoulder-to-shoulder with her friends
“I ban you this School, I ban you this house, from the depths of their foundation to the top-most point of their roofs,” Regina intoned. “Go now, and come not again, lest the fate of the sons of Beth-giddon be your fate. Abjure wickedness and repent of sin: you cannot harm me, nor those I have put beneath my wings, for the True Breastplate is with me, and the Holy Meal within me.”
To Penny’s eye it appeared that a white circle swelled out from Regina’s breast, passing over herself and Dee, but flaring up when it reached the witches, who reacted as though scorched. The youngest (or smallest) turned and ran, and with their defection, the spirit seemed to go from the others, and they made their departure. Baleia, however, appeared almost unaffected: she strode away, following the others, but also turning back several times, as though wanting to be sure that Regina was still there.
With their departure the panic level subsided slightly.
“They were determined to get to you,” Regina said, looking Dee and Penny over with a careful eye. “Are you sure that there isn’t something else you need to be telling me ?”
“Well, for that matter,” Penny rejoined: “You seemed awfully … well, ready … for what they were doing. As if this had happened before.”
“Shouldn’t we be doing this indoors ?” Dee Rosenorth asked.
“Poss - ” Regina Freewoman broke off, as a howling came on the air. When it was repeated she gripped her staff more tightly.
“That won’t be a good idea - those are Liche Hounds,” Regina said, her head turning to assess the available options. “Normally - I have a motorcycle, which might match their speed, but you would be left behind. So, we must run !!”
She set off, in the direction opposite to that which Baleia and the other witch-girls had taken, at a steady trot, and Penny and Dee hastened to keep up with her.
“You’ve done this before,” Penny stated flatly.
“Yes,” Dee concurred: “You’re far too at ease with all of this.”
“Less talking, more running,” Regina told them.
As they ran, Penny reached into her pockets, for one of Borin’s little devices, to alert the Durbar Theatre group (or would they, by now, be in Chelsea ?) of the predicament in which she found herself. But, to her shock and horror, she realised that the coat in the pockets of which the things rested was the one she had left behind at the Theatre. She had, in fact, nothing more than her native strength and cunning, and her two companions, against witches and Liche Hounds (whatever the later might be).
They were almost at a main road (although Penny noticed that the lighting there seemed subdued, as though something were seeking to maintain the darkness) when the Hounds’ baying caught up with them, and suddenly a pack of spectral beasts, like whippets but with big teeth and claws, glowing ghostly white and surrounded by a sickly shimmer, leapt over and round them, to block their progress, circling them in.
“Stay behind me !” Regina ordered. She thrust her long staff at Penny, and drew the two swords from her belt. Then she ran at the closest Hounds, cutting and slashing in an interlaced overarm pattern.
The Hounds seemed to give back, giving Penny and Dee some hope, but then the ones to their rear began to close in.
“Penny !” Dee dodged what looked to her like a glowing mastiff, about the size of a small car … or at least a packing-case … and shouted for help.
“Use the stick-thing !” Penny Mortenson was in no position to assist directly - for one thing she was already engaged in protecting Regina Freewoman’s right flank, and for another she was herself faced by two or three of the spectral beasts - the Liche Hounds as Regina had called them.
“It just goes through them - like smoke !” She slashed out but there was no real connection - the short staff simply passed through the Hounds’ bodies and seemed to do little if any damage.
One of the Hounds dived at Penny, savagely biting at her. She tried to avoid it, but to either side of her were other Hounds, and she could not go backwards, lest she run into Regina. She tensed herself for the pain of the attack, but instead of tearing her flesh (or her soul) the Hound’s biting seemed to bounce off her. More, it triggered the defensive reaction she had discovered she had to magical attacks, and her hands burst into flames. Then the flames grew and spread down the long wooden staff which Regina had given her, and Penny found that she could use it to keep the Hounds at bay.
For her part, Regina Freewoman was chopping to the Hounds in front of her with her wooden swords, keeping them back and inflicting damage on them, despite their semi-immateriality.
“How are you doing that ?” Dee Rosenorth wanted to know, keeping herself between the backs of the other two, who were now effectively back-to-back in the street. Regina’s swords now looked to be made of razor-sharp metal, and were biting in to the Hounds’ bodies. And Penny Mortenson herself was, somehow, wrapped up to the shoulders in flames, which were also running along the wooden staff she carried, swinging it round, keeping the other Hounds back. “Doesn’t that fire hurt ?”
Penny wanted to reply, but the tension inside her was building to an unbearable level, until it felt as if she could bear it no longer.
To Dee Rosenorth it was as though the sun had suddenly burst into the gloomy night - light radiated from Penny Mortenson in all directions, and before it the Liche Hounds withered into mist and evaporated. Their incessant howling faded away and, in the distance, a piercing scream could be heard.
“What was that ??!!” Regina Freewoman asked, turning in time to see Penny collapse, and to catch the long staff as it toppled from her nerveless grasp.
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt -
Warnings: NC-13; narrative heading into darker country.
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
Penny and Dee followed Regina Freewoman back into the School. In the inner room, Regina opened a cupboard and produced a second wooden sword, a polished leather belt, and a long polished wooden staff, easily six feet long. She buckled the best to her waist and set the swords in loops on either side.
“Let’s take the fight to the foe,” Regina said. “Here - ” From the bottom of the cupboard she produced a pair of wooden staffs, about the same size as Baliea the witch-princess’s had been.
“I’m not expecting you to use them for more than defence, but it ought to give those girls a second thought.”
Then she led the way through the darkened hall and the foyer, to pause behind the double doors to the street. There she manipulated some sort of metal device and set up long metal rods to run down the centre of the doors.
“There - once we go out, that will secure the School. My house is locked and secure - if they could have got in, they wouldn’t have needed the juju-wraith. Ready ?”
And she thrust the doors open and went out at a trot, staff in hand, swords in her belt.
Dee might not have followed, but Penny was firmly in Regina’s wake, and the journalist didn’t fancy being left behind on her own.
Outside, on the street, there were a half-dozen of the girls, led by the statuesque Baleia. Regina made straight for them, with Penny moving to take her left flank.
Baleia shouted something and reality seemed to flicker for a moment but then Regina called out words which meant something and then nothing, and swung the long staff she held, and everything was suddenly sharp again.
“Away !” Regina shouted: “In the name of the Four Kings who stand at the Gates of the City - begone !”
Baleia hardly moved, but several of the other girls seemed to be knocked back by Regina’s words.
“In the Name -- !”
Penny wasn’t having any Names invoked by Baleia - she swung her staff and connected with Baleia’s own, and apparently succeeded in interrupting whatever the witch-princess had had in mind.
But that put her closer to some of the younger ones, and they sprang forward. Penny back-pedalled, and the tip of Regina’s staff licked above her shoulder, warning the girls away. And, even as that might have laid Regina open to attack on her left, Dee Rosenorth stepped into the gap, to make it clear that she was shoulder-to-shoulder with her friends
“I ban you this School, I ban you this house, from the depths of their foundation to the top-most point of their roofs,” Regina intoned. “Go now, and come not again, lest the fate of the sons of Beth-giddon be your fate. Abjure wickedness and repent of sin: you cannot harm me, nor those I have put beneath my wings, for the True Breastplate is with me, and the Holy Meal within me.”
To Penny’s eye it appeared that a white circle swelled out from Regina’s breast, passing over herself and Dee, but flaring up when it reached the witches, who reacted as though scorched. The youngest (or smallest) turned and ran, and with their defection, the spirit seemed to go from the others, and they made their departure. Baleia, however, appeared almost unaffected: she strode away, following the others, but also turning back several times, as though wanting to be sure that Regina was still there.
With their departure the panic level subsided slightly.
“They were determined to get to you,” Regina said, looking Dee and Penny over with a careful eye. “Are you sure that there isn’t something else you need to be telling me ?”
“Well, for that matter,” Penny rejoined: “You seemed awfully … well, ready … for what they were doing. As if this had happened before.”
“Shouldn’t we be doing this indoors ?” Dee Rosenorth asked.
“Poss - ” Regina Freewoman broke off, as a howling came on the air. When it was repeated she gripped her staff more tightly.
“That won’t be a good idea - those are Liche Hounds,” Regina said, her head turning to assess the available options. “Normally - I have a motorcycle, which might match their speed, but you would be left behind. So, we must run !!”
She set off, in the direction opposite to that which Baleia and the other witch-girls had taken, at a steady trot, and Penny and Dee hastened to keep up with her.
“You’ve done this before,” Penny stated flatly.
“Yes,” Dee concurred: “You’re far too at ease with all of this.”
“Less talking, more running,” Regina told them.
As they ran, Penny reached into her pockets, for one of Borin’s little devices, to alert the Durbar Theatre group (or would they, by now, be in Chelsea ?) of the predicament in which she found herself. But, to her shock and horror, she realised that the coat in the pockets of which the things rested was the one she had left behind at the Theatre. She had, in fact, nothing more than her native strength and cunning, and her two companions, against witches and Liche Hounds (whatever the later might be).
They were almost at a main road (although Penny noticed that the lighting there seemed subdued, as though something were seeking to maintain the darkness) when the Hounds’ baying caught up with them, and suddenly a pack of spectral beasts, like whippets but with big teeth and claws, glowing ghostly white and surrounded by a sickly shimmer, leapt over and round them, to block their progress, circling them in.
“Stay behind me !” Regina ordered. She thrust her long staff at Penny, and drew the two swords from her belt. Then she ran at the closest Hounds, cutting and slashing in an interlaced overarm pattern.
The Hounds seemed to give back, giving Penny and Dee some hope, but then the ones to their rear began to close in.
“Penny !” Dee dodged what looked to her like a glowing mastiff, about the size of a small car … or at least a packing-case … and shouted for help.
“Use the stick-thing !” Penny Mortenson was in no position to assist directly - for one thing she was already engaged in protecting Regina Freewoman’s right flank, and for another she was herself faced by two or three of the spectral beasts - the Liche Hounds as Regina had called them.
“It just goes through them - like smoke !” She slashed out but there was no real connection - the short staff simply passed through the Hounds’ bodies and seemed to do little if any damage.
One of the Hounds dived at Penny, savagely biting at her. She tried to avoid it, but to either side of her were other Hounds, and she could not go backwards, lest she run into Regina. She tensed herself for the pain of the attack, but instead of tearing her flesh (or her soul) the Hound’s biting seemed to bounce off her. More, it triggered the defensive reaction she had discovered she had to magical attacks, and her hands burst into flames. Then the flames grew and spread down the long wooden staff which Regina had given her, and Penny found that she could use it to keep the Hounds at bay.
For her part, Regina Freewoman was chopping to the Hounds in front of her with her wooden swords, keeping them back and inflicting damage on them, despite their semi-immateriality.
“How are you doing that ?” Dee Rosenorth wanted to know, keeping herself between the backs of the other two, who were now effectively back-to-back in the street. Regina’s swords now looked to be made of razor-sharp metal, and were biting in to the Hounds’ bodies. And Penny Mortenson herself was, somehow, wrapped up to the shoulders in flames, which were also running along the wooden staff she carried, swinging it round, keeping the other Hounds back. “Doesn’t that fire hurt ?”
Penny wanted to reply, but the tension inside her was building to an unbearable level, until it felt as if she could bear it no longer.
To Dee Rosenorth it was as though the sun had suddenly burst into the gloomy night - light radiated from Penny Mortenson in all directions, and before it the Liche Hounds withered into mist and evaporated. Their incessant howling faded away and, in the distance, a piercing scream could be heard.
“What was that ??!!” Regina Freewoman asked, turning in time to see Penny collapse, and to catch the long staff as it toppled from her nerveless grasp.