Advent '10 - December 10th
December 10th - 15 days to go
Harry awoke lying on the floor.
He briefly wondered how he didn't wake up sooner when he remembered that he was somewhere in Japan and had been sleeping on a futon rather than a bed.
Thus rather easy to roll off of.
But rather uncomfortable.
Groaning, he rolled over carefully. With fifteen puffskeins that liked to hog the bed there was always the chance that he could squish one of them. Not that that seemed to do anything as they were resilient little creatures.
They had stolen his bed. Again. And like usual, Ash was lording over them all on his pillow.
Harry rolled his eyes as Ash wiggled his tongue in greeting. Stretching over he scratched the little ball of fur until it started purring loudly.
This woke up the rest of the puffskeins who dug themselves out of the nests they had made of Harry's blankets to crowd around him.
Harry grinned and went about petting them all until his brain caught up with the rest of him.
Hang on…
There were now four yellow balls of fur.
He frowned and checked again.
Nope! Right the first time. He now had four yellow puffskeins. Crouching down he tried to spot the anomaly. It was hard at first because they were all bouncing around, at least until Ash gave out a short trill and they stayed still.
Harry easily picked out Hestia, Zeus and Apollo. But the fourth was a lot smaller. Harry eventually spotted it half hiding under Aphrodite. It was a bright custard yellow and about the size of half the length of his thumb.
Harry stared at Aphrodite.
She squeaked at him.
"Is that your son?" He asked with wide eyes.
She purred.
Harry blinked. "Can I pick him up?"
Aphrodite squeaked and then nudged the tiny ball of yellow fluff towards him. Gently, Harry picked it up and then looked between it and Aphrodite.
"Well, at least now I know why you were acting oddly…" he trailed off as he stared at the miniature puffskein in his hands. It waved its tongue at him.
So. Cute.
Harry grinned. "I'm going to call you Julian. You look like a Julian."
Julian purred as Harry gently stroked his fur before giving him back to his mother.
Harry smiled when he saw Julian practically burrow beneath Aphrodite's fur.
Then he turned a stern eye to Zeus and Apollo. "Okay. Which one of you knocked up 'Dite?"
Neither of them moved.
"Come on, come on. Take responsibility for your actions. A child needs both parents."
They still didn't move, even when Ash trilled at them.
Harry rolled his eyes and pulled conjured a sugar cube. "I've got a treat for the one who tells me he's the father."
All of the puffskeins started to bounce at him. Even Aphrodite. Even Julian.
Harry sighed and crumbled the cube into powder, sprinkling it on the bedding. "Well, that went well. And I'm going to ignore the weirdness of even trying to contemplate how 'Dite could be both the mother and the father.
"Or how Julian could be his own dad."
It was just then that Fred and George woke.
"Hey guys, look!" Harry said, pointing to the pile of puffskeins. "Aphrodite gave birth!"
Fred and George looked at him weirdly. "That's impossible Harry. Puffskeins are pregnant two weeks before they give birth."
Harry scoffed. "You've got to be wrong. She was only pregnant for a day. No, wait...three days?" Harry looked confused for a moment. "The day after the swamp fiasco, at least."
Fred and George stared, stumped at the small yellow puffskein.
"Maybe it had something to do with that potion we threw on you." Fred offered eventually.
"Sped up everything."
Harry nodded. "That might explain why you have six baby Nifflers."
"What?"
Harry nodded to the customary pile of dirt in the corner of the room.
"Impossible." Fred murmured.
George just turned to look at Harry with a scientific gleam in his eye.
Harry glared back. "Don't even think about it." He hissed.
"But Harry…!"
"No!"
George rolled his eyes good naturedly and sat down cross-legged on the floor next to him.
"So what did you decide to call him? It is a him right?"
Harry nodded and George grinned. "So what did you decide to call him?" He asked again. "Eros?"
"Nope!" Harry said happily. "Julian."
George looked at him oddly. "I thought you were sticking with the Greek theme?"
"I am." Harry said in confusion.
"I'm pretty sure 'Julian' isn't a Greek name."
"Yes it is."
"Sounds Roman to me…"
Harry scowled at him. "So, what? You want me to give him a second name then?"
George shrugged. "That could work."
"Julian Alexander?"
"I'm pretty sure 'Alexander' isn't Greek either."
Harry growled in frustration. "Macedon! That's Greekish!"
"You're gonna call him Julian Macedon?" George raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly. "Regal. Very commanderish. Like a general."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Fine. But he'll be known as Julian. He's got the Greekish second name to make sure he doesn't feel left out."
George grinned. "You do know that they can't understand you, right?" He asked.
Both Harry and the Puffskeins froze and slowly turned to face George, who swallowed nervously.
"The understand." Harry said slowly. "They understand everything…"
The moment stretched on until Fred broke it by plopping down next to them and petting Julian.
"So what've you guys been talking about?"
"Nothing." George said quickly, edging slightly away from Harry and his little army who were still staring at him, unmoving. "Nothing at all. Harry was just telling me how intelligent his pets were."
Fred looked at his brother, taking in the strange expression on his face and the paleness of his skin. "You okay, bro?"
"Yes!" George yelped. "Perfectly fine, thanks for asking, let's move on!"
Fred glanced once between Harry and George and then shrugged. "Sure, I guess. We could always start to plan tonight's prank, I guess."
This seemed to shake Harry and the puffskeins out of their little moment. The puffskeins began to purr as they bounced around Harry's legs, as Harry turned to face Fred, completely ignoring the still shaken George.
"You got any ideas?"
Fred grinned. "Well seeing as we're in Japan, how about fireworks?"
"Fireworks are a Chinese invention." Harry pointed out.
The twins looked at him in confusion and Harry just sighed.
"Fine. Whatever. Fireworks."
Fred's grin came back. "Fireworks." He confirmed.
Savitar had called another meeting of the Omegrion. Two more of his Limani had been hit, one in Rome and one in Copenhagen.
He snarled as he thought about the destruction. He hadn't been able to go visit the buildings yet, he was waiting for the weres reports then he was going to go and see if he could fix it.
If he couldn't then there was going to be hell to pay. This had gone way beyond an attack on his were's, this was now an attack on him.
It didn't help that for some reason he couldn't get a lock on the guy. Savitar had even gritted his teeth and asked Acheron for help. Ash had just raised an eyebrow, not asking why Savitar couldn't do it, and tried to look to see where he would strike next.
After five minutes of trying Ash had just shrugged at him helplessly and told him that he couldn't see him either. It was like he was outside the fates influence or something…but that was impossible.
His temper had frayed even more at the thought.
When he found the guy he was going to rip out his spine and laugh. After he had tortured the information about how he could evade both Ash and himself.
The door opened in the room knocked him out of his thoughts and Savitar watched as the Regis' of his weres trailed in, their heads down, unwilling to look up and draw his ire.
Unfortunately, this show of subservience didn't appease him at all and he felt his bloodlust spike as he noticed that along with both the Arcadian and Katagarian Drakos, he was also missing half the other Regis'.
"Where are your brethren?" He hissed out.
None of the were's moved.
"Tell me!" He roared, feeling the walls start to shake in his anger.
This time Nicolette stepped forward. "Half of them were at the Laminas in Rome."
"So? Why aren't they here?" Savitar seethed. "Are they all injured?"
Nicolette grinned before marshalling her expression into a blank one. "Not…really…" she offered.
A crack appeared on the wall behind them.
"Get them here. NOW!"
Nicolette rushed out of the room to do his bidding, leaving the rest of the men to shuffle awkwardly in place.
Savitar ignored them and instead paced the room, trying to gain control of his anger before it brought the roof down on them.
After a few minutes Nicolette slipped back into the room and nodded at the rest of the were's gathered there.
As one they covered their noses with their shirts and their hands.
Savitar stared at them in confusion before the door opened and Arion, Draven and Patrice shuffled in, bringing with them the most ungodly smell.
Savitar choked and covered his own nose, tears burning in his eyes as he half turned away from them.
"What-" he retched and took a moment to gain control over his spasming throat muscles. "What the bloody hell is that?"
Speaking was a bad idea, now he could taste it.
The three were's looked miserably at the floor.
"Answer me!" Savitar gritted out, clapping his other hand over his mouth.
"They had some sort of capsules." Arion said after a moment. "The leader threw them and a swamp opened up beneath our feet."
"None of us in the bar came away unscathed." Draven added. "And the smell won't come out; the water seems to have sunk into our skin."
"It's called a bath. And soap." Fury sniggered, stopping almost immediately as laughing caused him to breath in more of the stench.
"I've had thirty seven already." Arion growled at the Katagarian wolf.
"Yeah, well maybe you should take another one. My sense of smell is never going to be the same again."
"Why you little!" Arion snarled at jumped at Fury who yelped and started to run away.
"Vane! It's going to get on me! Help!"
"For the love of-" Vane snarled as he grabbed the back of Arion's neck with the hand not covering his own nose, as he rushed by, choking him and throwing him to the floor.
His eyes widened as he realised what he had just done. With great hesitance he raised his hand to his covered nose and took a brief sniff.
It was all he needed.
With a look of horror he held his hand as far away from his body as he possibly could. "It's contaminated!" He shouted at Fury who had ducked behind him when he had grabbed Arion. "You made me contaminate my hand!"
"But on the plus side," Fury said with a grin, "A least he didn't get me."
Vane snarled at him and grabbed at his brothers face with his hand.
"Bastard!"
Fury wrenched his head out of Vane's grip but it was too late. "It's on me!" Fury wailed, clawing at his face. "On me!"
Savitar stared at his Regis' with a tic making his eye twitch. These were the most important people in the species?
Draven turned back to Savitar. "Can you help get rid of the smell?"
"I'm only going to do this because you're all giving me a headache." Savitar said blankly, waving his hand at the group.
The smell tripled.
Fury's wails tripled as well and he fell to the floor, rolling and clutching at his head.
The rest of the were's staggered to their knees, retching. Even Savitar staggered a little, though he would deny it later.
The only were's that didn't really seem affected by the increase was the three that had been covered in it for days.
"Go." Savitar waved them away. "Just go. Nicolette will call you with the news."
They nodded at him and left. Soon after the smell started to abate slightly, now it was only coming from Vane's hand and Fury's face.
"You go too." Savitar ordered them.
Vane nodded and grabbed his brother by the shirt, dragging him out the room. If he happened to use the hand that was contaminated…well, Fury had no right to complain.
Even with all the sources gone the room still smelt so Savitar had them relocate to a new room. On the opposite side of the building.
"Right." He said with a grimace. "We're still missing three people. Damos and Darion I understand you've still had no luck finding. But what about Vincenzo."
At the mention of the Katagarian jackal's name, Constantine started laughing.
Savitar and the rest of the were's stared at him.
Constantine got himself under control enough to get out "He was in Copenhagen." Before he collapsed back into giggles.
Savitar just looked at Nicolette. She nodded and went back out to make another phone call.
Five minutes later had a sulky looking Vincenzo slinking in through the door.
When Constantine saw him he broke down into full blown laughter, sitting down on the floor when his legs couldn't hold him up anymore.
Vincenzo glared and started towards him, murder in his eyes.
"Vincenzo!" Savitar barked at him. "Report! What happened in Copenhagen?"
With one last glare at Constantine, Vincenzo turned back to Savitar. "He managed to erect some sort of anti-gravity field that encompassed the whole building.
"He also did something to make it that whenever anything came in contact with anything else they were launched in opposite directions."
Savitar raised an eyebrow, impressed despite himself. He turned to Constantine, who seemed to have got himself under control.
"Why is this funny?" He asked, which set Constantine off again.
"Be-because-" He managed to get out between his laughs.
"It's not important!" Vincenzo growled out.
"He was in the toilet when the anti-gravity started!"
The rest of the were's started to snigger.
"It's not funny!" Vincenzo shouted at them, turning a dull red, "I had my mouth open!" He clapped a hand over his mouth as his eyes widened in horror at what he had just revealed.
At this the group dissolved into laughter, unable to look at Vincenzo. Constantine looked like he was about to pass out he was laughing so hard.
Savitar tried to school his face into something stern. "Thanks for your report." He told Vincenzo gruffly, "You can leave now."
Vincenzo nodded at him, still bright red and disappeared almost immediately.
A snort escaped Savitar before he could help it and it was with real difficulty that he gritted his teeth together to make sure that nothing else passed them.
It was then that Damos appeared right in the middle of the room with a piece of paper in his hand.
He looked at the collapsed were's in gales of laughter around him with an odd expression.
Then he caught sight of Savitar and quickly made his way over to him, passing over the paper.
Savitar took it and looked it over.
"He was in Germany. He was wearing something that obscured our senses, made the animal side go crazy. He also snuck something into the water that made us all turn into our animals.
"There are people who know about dragons!" He hissed at Savitar in wonder, "They actually have some sort of gathering grounds for them! There were dozens of them.
"Darion was still under whatever they did. But I knew that as soon as I woke up you'd want my report. I drew you a picture of the guy so you'd know what he looks like." Damos finished off with a gesture at the paper in Savitar's hands.
Savitar looked at him slowly. "Damos. What is this?"
"It's a picture."
"Is it supposed to be helpful?" Savitar asked, turning the paper around so that Damos could see what he'd drawn.
It looked like a child's scribble. There was a sick figure drawn in green except for his head, which was drawn in pink. On top of the pink circle was a shock of green squiggles sticking straight up into the air.
Damos flushed red. "Ah." He said after a moment, "I guess I drew it while I was still under the influence of whatever he drugged me with."
Savitar raised an eyebrow.
"At least the colours are right?"
Savitar gritted his teeth. "Out!" He roared at the were's in the room. "Out! NOW!"
The were's took one look at his face and disappeared.
It was only when Savitar got back to his home that he started to laugh.