FFMUX RP Log: The end of Bass
A dark day like any other in Treno is lightened with the hope of reuniting a strange family. Stella, who had finally agreed to and audience with the Orator submitted most readily to the trade. A half-starved beast for a Stellazio coin? What a deal for her! Quack quack quack! There was no sense of triumph from the Orator, but she was relieved that after all this time they could peaceably release their poor pet.
Preparations were made that day. They packed their belongings and left the lodge. The sleeping weed was readied to dose what they expected and were later proven correct, to be a very uncooperative Bass. Then he was moved atop a large raft, lured by the promise of his favorite food. There would be no towing this fearsome animal against his will, nor binding him. Treble failed to soothe him with words and he struck out viciously at any who would come near.
Now they float down the canal on the cumbersome raft, made more difficult to maneuver by all the weight aboard. Bass has grown in his time in the ring, but he's also painfully lean. His ribs move under scarred purple flesh. His golden mane is mangy. There isn't a part of the creature that doesn't sport some sort of scar or sign of mistreatment.
While he sleeps, Treble sits nearby on the raft, running a hand down his snout as she did when he was still smaller than a carriage. "Pitiful beast," she sighs to him. It's become a mantra. "Whatever will we do with you...?"
Not terribly far away from Treble, yet obscured enough to give the orator a sense of privacy, Virgo sits. Her legs are folded in a position which seems to others to be terribly uncomfortable; it suits her to rest in that way. The frown on her face betrays her thoughts, pursed lips telling clearly her thoughtfulness. Only the sleeping weed Shae had recovered had calmed their babe, and poor Treble...
Virgo knew her sister could not be taking it well.
For a moment - for this moment - she leaves Treble to pet the behemoth which was dear to her as a child, and turns to Shae. The monk's expression, despondent as it is, speaks more than her low voice. "How long will the weed's effects last?"
Standing at the edge of the large raft and peering into the water somewhat dubious about this whole scenario, Shae can't help but find himself wondering why he ever suggested this. While he normally looks a little pale, his skin right now is cast white as a sheet as he considers all of the wonderful possibilities that being on this floating plank of wood with a drugged but still dangerous beast might offer him for drowning. Still... he keeps reminding himself, as he poles the bottom of the canal that he is doing this for his friends and that their heartache over their once lost but now found pet is far more important, far more deserving his attention and care than his own pronounced fears of the water. He's glad they have their 'child' back... but he's uncertain of how this will play out.
Turning his head slightly so that he can look over his shoulder towards Treble, the pirate opens his mouth as though to say something but quickly reconsiders it, eyes dropping towards the raft floor along with his chin and then turning back to stare across the water once more. Lifting the pole, he taps a floating barrel a few times and then pushes it out of their path, balance faltering a bit as he does and causing him to let out a small yelp, which in turns causes him to offer the girls a slightly sheepish look.
Finally, Virgo's words come to his ears, breaking the silence with something other than cooing directed towards the wounded animal. “I... don't know precisely.” He answers with a sigh, keeping face out towards the water to hide the readily showing concern, “Valcia assured me that it was quite strong... but with the beast's size and health... it might be hours or it might be less.” In his mind, he adds that the beast might /never/ wake up, but he does not put voice to it.
The behemoth's sleep isn't content. He fights even through his dreams and his stirring rocks the raft slightly. Treble plainly looks pained and leans forward to rest her cheek on the creature's face. "Peace, Bass. Be at peace." She continues to murmur to him, though in that strange beasttongue. He settles with a long huff and when he seems still, Treble sits back on her knees, hands folded in her lap.
She has seen much suffering in her time. Wars are rife with it, but she also served the church and in that time helped villages in need as part of her missionary service. But this is so much more personal. She scrubs her face with her palms and stands to get some time away from the terrible sight. There isn't much room to escape on this raft. It seemed huge without the beast aboard. She stands on an edge between Shae and Virgo, the behemoth at her back as she murmurs, "Varily we sail the river Styx tonight."
"My thanks to her for the quiet we've found," Virgo murmurs in an exhale. What little peace they have, fitful as it may be. The slowly growing twilight betrays her skin, pale from weeks in the sunless city, and done no favour by their current predicament. "'Least the wind be still."
The monk trails off when she hears Treble speaking in the tongue of beasts, and she closes her eyes, though not in rest. Carefully she looks out across the river and stands, so as not appear to jostle the raft and cause Shae strife. It's only after Treble speaks that she reaches out, one firm hand on the orator's shoulder, the best way she knows to offer out comfort while allowing space. "To the gates themselves."
“Should I ever encounter the elf again, I'll be sure to tell her yer thanks.” The pirate offers with a nod. Valcia proved invaluable to their plan, though he rescue of her had started rumors about his heroics.
Carefully pushing another bit of flotsam away from the raft, this time managing to keep himself much steadier as he does the pirate turns his attention towards the Orator and her 'sister' when they both give voice to what he considers dark thoughts. Their commentary is, perhaps, accurate though somehow it seems a bit too dark for Shae's tastes, considering their reunion with their pet. Somehow he thought they might have been happier all things considered, but then... things were not quite as they had imagined, perhaps.
Shaking his head slightly, looking away from them again, the pirate offers a faint sigh and shrug of his shoulders. “Perhaps we do... perhaps we do.” He offers, carefully adjusting the drift of the raft, “But remember... Styx borders both Gaia and Hell, and I for one think those gates be exit, not entrance.” Certainly, Shae will be glad to see the city of eternal night put behind them, but he can't help but grimace at the thought that he, of them all, is seeing things in cheerful light.
Uncharacteristic of her usual demeanor, Treble steps in to Virgo's touch and right in to an embrace. She leans against the monk-- her strength in so many circumstances through their lives. "Coming or going, beyond the walls there is less hope for Bass." She raises her head from Virgo's shoulder. "We can not possibly hunt enough to sustain him, even if we manage to tame him again. He requires medical treatment for I am certain he has an infection." They went through all of this for nothing.
"The Queen of Alexandria offered to house him, but I fear he will not make it past the mountains."
The orator may be acting unusually, but Virgo is acting in her comfort zone as she wraps Treble up in a sheltering embrace. This, at least, is soothing: the loss looming ahead of them certainly isn't. Treble says what Virgo thinks, and surely what had occurred to Shae, in part if not in whole. Virgo's first response is far removed from their matter at hand. "The Queen is a fine woman."
Virgo pats Treble, a little to the left of her shoulderblades - "But 'tis not false, the words past Shae's lips." She pauses for a moment, to steel herself in what she's saying. "An exit... comes in many forms. We need not speak his tongue to serve witness to Bass's pain." She closes her eyes again, this time in silent prayer. Her light burns banked against the weather, tonight.
All cheer be lost, he supposes to himself, when even Virgo steels herself against an inevitable loss. Even though she speaks agreement with his sentiment, drawing a halfhearted grin to his lips, he knows deep down they're all looking at the same end result. It makes his stomach turn to feel so helpless, but he's made to feel sicker still in feeling that he's the only one raging against the dying of the light, his pragmatism having chosen now, of all moments to abandon him.
Remaining silent for several long moments as he seeks some sort of comforting thought, the pirate just shakes his head as his knuckles go white in grip on the pole he holds. "Is there nothin' we can do?" He asks, voice laced with frustration and anger as he turns his gaze from the water and towards the girls in their embrace, "Got potions an' tonics in m'knapsack... a few healin' poultices that Valcia offered as well... surely we might do somethin' fer his pain?" His shoulders sink then, once his emotional tirade peters out, and with a defeated sounding mumble he adds, "For whatever good it might do..."
A window will be open, though a door is closed? Is that what Virgo is saying? Or is she speaking of his release? It's hard for Treble to reason right now. The comfort is appreciated and the end result is going to be the same. To Shae's offer, she murmurs, "T'would only serve to dull the physical pain." Leaving Virgo's embrace, she leans her full weight on the behemoth, stroking his mane that stinks of filth and animal stress. "Sister, you saw his eyes. Our Bass is gone, I fear."
Continuing to stroke, she strikes up a hymn learned years ago. Her voice is grief-choked and she has no talent for singing, but still she drones as those whom sing in church congregations do:
Dread Mother of forgetfulness
Who, when Thy reign begins,
Wipest away the soul's distress
And memory of her sins.
The trusty Worm that diest not -
The steadfast Fire also,
By thy contrivance are forgot
In a completer woe.
Thine are the lidless eyes of night
That stare upon our tears,
Through certain hours which in our sight
Exceed a thousand years.
The ruins of Treno surrounding the canal slowly give way to natural cliffs and the scent of brine can be smelled drifting through the cavern that encloses them. Voices echo eerily off the rocks and startle the bats that nest there.
"You know I dearly wish for this third option, o Markus," Virgo implores with eyes which are a little too wet to be normal. She lets Treble go - she always would, knowing the sister would return. "Every one of us would strive for it beyond our given rights. Bass is near and dear to us as family."
The silence which stretches out after Treble's statement is nothing but affirmation. Eventually, with bit lip, she decides: "There's none who know beasts better than you, sister. Any Bass left to dwell beneath must be tortured so." The thing she hates most is the glimmering question of whether they could save him, given time and resources. It is towered over by the facts: how many people this beast in Bass-form may hurt, the pain Treble would surely feel, the unfairness of keeping him drugged simply for safety - a half life -
She whispers, helplessly: "Not only he." 'Tis Treble's song which rescues her from the precipice of sorrow, a heart-bolstering hymn which hears Virgo's voice after the first words. She settles down on Bass's other side, ruffling his mane, and making no grand show of her own grief. It will come, and it will go. Oh, the poor babe.
There is no cure for it, the pirate decides, nothing that he can do to ease the pain of the girls whom he finds dear, nor the aches and ills of the behemoth he barely knows. Despite his desire that he might see them both smile, with both their acknowledgements of the falling of Bass's night and the hymn the both intone, Shae feels that he knows the role that he must play in this...
Standing silent sentinel and mute witness as the moments play out, listening to the song sung on the beasts behalf and taking but the barest of seconds when he feels that no one might notice to wipe a bit of dampness from his eye with the sleeve of his coat, he carefully steers the raft down the canal which has quickly become river, aiming to finally usher them out of Treno's darkness. It's only when they finish their singing and silence pervades again that he finally speaks once more. "Should you wish it..." He whispers, his tone expressing his desire to save the women from any further pain, "When we make landfall... I shall shepherd him on for you..."
From darkness they pass into a river rushing for the delta. Wildlife is abundant here and trees stir on high, rocky cliffs that tower over the shores. The land immediately surrounding them is flat and sandy, prone to floods. Thin, tall watergrass clings to the more solid pads and their feathery seed clusters wave them on as they pass by.
When the hymn rounds out, Treble rests a hand on Bass' dull red horn and gives Shae a nod. Even if she had the means to kill a behemoth, she doubts she can bring herself to land a final blow on this one. "Sister, when we make land, let us erect a field grave to him." Perhaps they will visit it as the years go on if it doesn't wash away.
There's no telling whether her voice would be sturdy enough, so Virgo nods to Shae's offer, and can only hope unspoken gratitude is enough. Her hands coil in his thick fur, even now gently grooming the blood from rough patches. He was proof that the kindness of a desperate heart could sway children of the wilderness. If only he were also proof of the universal quality of man.
"Here he feels the sun." Virgo lifts her cheek from his fur and looks up, towards that daystar she mentioned. "Our final effort in his honour. Though he rests in the earth, surely he'll find his way to the stars." She will not say her imploration to Ajora, not to Treble's ears - that wish is perhaps the closest she could speak.
Swallowing hard, knowing his offer taken by the silence that greets him first and then by the words Virgo speaking, the pirate never turning towards them after he made it, he does his best to gently guide them past stones and water grass and gathered mess washed down from the city, bringing them close to the ocean before finally finding a suitable place upon which to beach the raft. "This shall have to do, I think." He offers, tossing the pole onto the sandy ground, it followed quickly by his bag and then his crossbow. "We should move him onto ground, if we can." His words are very frank, and his expression an emotionless mask but his posture still betrays him, as well as the slight shake in his voice. It's not a task which he wishes to take up, but they're left with no honest choice outside it.
Fade to Black here, with the ultimate result being that Shae kills Bass, swearing revenge at some future date against the man who put them all through this.