Arine sank to her knees as a wave of nausea washed over her. She wasn't sure what had happened, but she'd somehow lost her sight when the young man she was supposed to interview blew that powder at her. She felt like her head was flying high above the rest of her body, and a cold sweat was running down her face. She tried to get back to her feet, but found her legs were far too wobbly. "You jerk!" she heard someone say, their voice sounding like it was coming from under water, "All you had to do was just stay here until that Irish nut did away with the elf. I think you broke my nose!" The blonde clutched her abdomen as she felt her muscles spasm. As she began to struggle to breathe, she wondered if she was dying. "This is just great," the voice continued as Arine thought she could hear footsteps coming closer to her, "It wasn't like I was going to hit you or anything. I'm not a rapist either, you know. All I wanted was some money for textbooks for next semester, and now I'm probably going to have to use some of that money to go to the ER to get my nose fixed!" The footsteps continued to come closer as Arine fought the urge to throw up. It was funny, but she never thought that her last moments on earth would be spent on the receiving end of a lecture from a kidnapper. She'd rather hoped she would've died more like Katie, in Mia's embrace... Katie! Mia! Her heart was beating rapidly in her ears as she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She had told Katie she didn't want to be the damsel in distress. She wanted to be the hero, wanted to protect her sweet elf. She had no idea at the time though that things would be nearly this difficult. "I mean, sheesh, you didn't have to hit me that hard you..." the voice was cut off as Arine made a desperate lunge for its source, wrapping her arms around a pair or nearby legs and tripping their owner to the floor. As she could feel his body struggling underneath her, she tried to crawl up his body, feeling a sudden rush of panic as she discovered she couldn't make a fist. "Get off me!" the now frightened voice yelled, "What kind of crazy bitch are you?" "M..." Arine gasped out, trying to make her voice work, "M-M-Mia! Where... What have you done..." "I said get off!" the voice now said angrily as the blonde felt something strike hard at the side of her face. ------ O'Brian rushed after Mia into the library, swinging his war club and missing once again as the agile elf was once again able to duck. Before Donovan could come any further into the room, something brown flew at him, scratching him deeply across the face and knocking his glasses off. "Ah!" he shouted as he clutched his face painfully, feeling blood starting to seep out of the cuts on his face as Mia's owl Althor swooped around for another attack. "Mia," a woman's voice called out, "Are ye a'right dear? We ‘erd a commotion and..." "Look!" an older voice said in alarm, "Someone's tryin' to hurt our Mia!" O'Brian pulled his now bloody hand away from his face as he scowled at the direction of the voices. It was a group of daoine sidhe, trooping fairies! They hovered between him and the elf who was now clutching a shillelagh of her own. "Damn ye pagan whore!" Donovan yelled, "Do ye really think yer pet fey can save ye, ye..." he was cut off as Althor swooped down once again, digging his claws into the Irishman's left shoulder. Letting out a cry of pain, O'Brian turned quickly and hit the owl with his shillelagh. The animal fell to the floor of the library. "Althor!" Mia cried. "Th' owl!" ‘Athas growled as she flew at the Irishman, "You'll pay for that!" "Grandma, no!" Eriu screamed as Donovan now swung his weapon in the old fairy's direction. In spite of the loss of his glasses, he managed to make contact, sending the ancient one flying into one of the book shelves where she bounced off and landed near a small iron pot on the floor. Mia looked from her owl to her fallen friend, then narrowed her eyes as she focused on the brute in front of her. As she glared angrily at him, something ran through her. Fear, as well as pain and an overwhelming sense of dread. "Arine," she gasped. O'Brien started to laugh. "Aye," he taunted, "Ye blonde tart is mine. Ye want her back, ye'll ‘ave to go through me." "No!" she screamed as she raised her club above her head and charged. ------ "Titim gan e!" the mountain lion roared at the witch in front of her, watching hopefully as the monster was knocked down temporarily by the power of her words. The Irish people and their sidhe neighbors had always shared a deep understanding of the power of words, and with the exception of the Bards none knew how to curse better than the pooka, "Imeacht gan teacht ort!" The Yamanba began to get back up when a heavy wind started to blow around her, threatening to carry her off the roof. She turned to Maire and smiled wickedly as, with a wave of her hand, the wind subsided. "N... Nay," the pooka gasped as Yomiko stood once again before her, "Tis not possible..." "Yousai," the witch laughed as a pair of fireballs appeared floating in the air on either side of her, "You have been a worthy opponent. Indeed, I know not when I've last been given such a challenge. But this battle is now over," she said as the two fireballs raced towards the pooka. The animal managed to leap out of the way just in time as the missiles exploded into the roof, but unfortunately landed hard on one of its hind legs, twisting an ankle and causing it to start to limp. "You can no longer continue," the witch said, her glowing red eyes staring emotionlessly at the wounded pooka in front of her, "Surrender and I promise you that, as befitting one who fought bravely, your death will be quick and painless." The pooka looked at the witch before her as she shook her head, "Nay," Maire said, "I cannot surrender, not when th' fair one is in danger." "Very well," Yomiko said as she held up a thin bony hand, "You leave me no choice yousai, I..." the Yamanba stopped before she could utter the next spell, a look of confusion showing upon her ghastly face as she saw what looked like a group of ghostly objects flying towards the building. ------ "You've hurt Althor!" Mia shrieked as she swung madly at the Irishman with her stick, ""You hurt ‘Athas, and you've struck against Arine! You..." "Yes!" O'Brian said gleefully as he blocked the elf's blows, "This is what I wanted! You and me, to the death, once and for all..." "Shut up!" the elf screamed, "You bastard! I'll kill you, I'll..." before she could finish Donovan hit her hard on the knuckles of her left hand. Mia cried out in pain as the Irishman grabbed the end of her shillelagh with one hand and hit her in the side with the other. The Shea elf lost her grip on her weapon as she fell to the floor clutching her side. O'Brian tossed the elf's weapon aside as he stared down at the elf. It was funny that he hadn't noticed it before, but she was actually quite lovely. Strange thoughts began to enter his head, thoughts of what he could do with and to the Shea elf before he killed her. Meanwhile, Mia finally started to catch her breath. Her thoughts went out to Arine, and to her friends in the other room. Bitter tears started to fill her eyes as she looked up at the man who was about to kill her. Her blood ran cold though as she saw the lust now present in his eyes. "No," she whispered, her eyes widening with fear like a deer caught in the headlights, "Please goddess no..." Donovan saw the elf looking wide-eyed at him in fear, and smiled wickedly, "Why Shea," he snickered, "What big eyes you have..." "All the better to see you with," a voice snarled, startling both the Irishman and the elf cowering before him. Suddenly, the door to the cottage flew open as a pack of wolves rushed in, three of them rushing at a now frightened O'Brien as the other ten wolves quickly surrounded Mia. ------ Arine was knocked off of MacAulay as the druid was forced to hit her a second time in the face. The young man shakily backed up away from her. This wasn't how his plan was meant to work at all. All he was going to do was sit in the room with the reporter until he received the call from O'Brian, cast a spell of forgetfulness, and go his merry way a few hundred dollars richer. Instead, the crazy blonde went nuts, taking a boxing stance and punching him hard in the face and gut. He'd been forced to resort to a rather low-dose narcotic plant a Native American shaman friend of his had once introduced him to. Instead of simply allowing herself to be carried away to lala land though, she attacked him again, even though her only forms of attack left to her seemed to be the bear hug and excessively drooling on him. As he pulled out a handkerchief and began wiping the blood from his face, he felt something brushing up against his pants leg. Looking down, he was only mildly surprised to see the annoyingly persistent blonde once again attempting to fight through the effects of the drug he'd given her in order to try and grab his leg again. "Get away from me!" Nicholas yelled angrily as he backed away from her, "You're out of your mind, you know that?" "There she is!" an older woman cried out, "Fiorenza, Donata, Giacinta; come with me. The rest of you go up to the roof and help the fata!" MacAulay looked up from Arine to see four ghostly women on broomsticks fly into the room through the open apartment window, each carrying a lemon filled with black pins. "Shit," he gasped as he took a step back in fear. One of the women, a beautiful one with long black hair flowing freely behind her, looked down with concern at the blonde crawling around on all fours, "Arine," she said as gently as possible under the circumstances, "Are you alright child?" "M... Momma De Luca?" Arine managed to get out, "H... Help... I..." "Shhh..." the matriarch cooed, her attractive astral form looking from the blonde to the druid, "It's all right now. Leave everything to Gemma." One of the other Strega floating in the room looked angrily at MacAulay, "I know you," she spat out, "You're that druid bastard that impregnated my daughter Delanna, then left her when you found out she was carrying your child." "Oh Christ," the druid muttered as he felt his knees begin to shake in terror. "Really?" Gemma said with a sardonic smile as she threw her lemon at the gangly young man, "The pangs of labor, labor pain on you!" "The pangs of labor," the other three Strega called out as they tossed their lemons at him, "Labor pains on you!" Nicholas immediately fell to the floor of the apartment screaming, clutching his groin as he began to feel all the physical sensations of childbirth. Meanwhile Arine felt a pair of cold yet tender hands carefully lift her above the ground. She was soon sitting on Gemma's lap, the Strega allowing herself to become partially solid as she wrapped one arm around the blonde's waist and held onto the broomstick with the other. "Giacinta," the matriarch ordered over the sounds of the druid's agony, "Come with me. Fiorenza, Donata, go join the others up on the roof," and with that, the four Strega and Arine flew out of the apartment window. ------ "What have we here?" one of the Strega flying above the roof asked, "Could it be the Baba Yaga?" "No sister," one of the others answered, "The Baba Yaga flies above the ground on a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder. Besides, the Baba Yaga is a Russian witch, and what we have here is clearly an oriental." The Yamanba glared hatefully at the spectral Strega on their broomsticks who had dared to interfere in her fight with the pooka. As one of them flew down to retrieve Maire, the pooka shifted into her squirrel form and allowed herself to be picked up. "How dare you!" Yomiko shrieked, "This is between me and the yousai! Leave now, and I'll be merciful and let you all live." The nine Strega on the roof looked from the Japanese witch to each other and back again. As Donata and Fiorenza joined them, they all began to smile at the Yamanba as they held up their cursed lemons, readying to throw. ------ Donovan was backed up into a corner of the living room, the three wolves continuing to show their teeth and growl at him menacingly. Meanwhile, one of the wolves surrounding Mia came up to her, nuzzling its muzzle up to her as she sat on the floor. "Mia darling," the wolf said in an old man's voice, "Are you alright?" "G... Guiseppe?" Mia asked in surprise, "How did you know..." "You're family," the wolf said matter of factly as it laid a heavy paw on her leg, "Family sticks together." The elf hugged the animal around its neck. She then remembered her friends in the library, "Althor and ‘Athas, they were hurt. They're in the library..." "Armano," Guiseppe said as he turned to one of the wolves behind Mia, "Go into the library and check on the fata and the owl." As the wolf went off to the library and the other wolves surrounding Mia likewise gave words of consolation, O'Brian's eyes widened in fear as he heard the beasts talk. "Conriocht..." he muttered as he pulled out his rosary, "Pater noster..." he was cut off as the three wolves before him began to laugh. "Fool," one of them said, "Do you honestly think your god will hear you after you burst into a young girl's home and attacked her?" "Brothers," the second one said as he bared his teeth to the frightened Irishman, "What shall we do with this man standing before us?" "I have an idea or two," the third said as he began to lick his lips. ------ "My eyes," Arine said, "I... I can't see anything." "At the moment, that's probably a good thing," Gemma said as she looked down at the landscape rushing by below them. They were high up in the air just below the clouds in order to help avoid detection by anyone on the ground. The wind blew Arine's fine blonde hair back, and the rush of air was helping to clear her head of the drug MacAulay had given her. "Don't worry about it," the matriarch continued, "From what I can tell, the effects will wear off soon enough. Your breathing's already back down to normal and... Arine?" she asked as she noted the sad look creeping across the blonde's face. "I was given a choice," Arine muttered bitterly, "In a dream. I was told I could either be the hero or the typical woman in need of rescue. I chose the role of the hero. Heh, some hero I turned out to be," she quipped. "I don't know," Giacinta, Gemma's granddaughter put in as she flew next to the matriarch and the young reporter, "From the looks of things when we arrived you landed a good punch or two on the creep." "Even a hero needs help now and then," Gemma added, "After all; even King Author had his knights of the round table behind him." Arine smiled a bit at that, "Thanks Momma De Luca." "Any time dear," the old Strega answered, "Now hold tight to me child. We're going to begin our descent, and soon enough you'll be with your elf once again." As they slowly began to fly downwards towards Mia's cottage, behind them two other Strega were carrying Nicholas MacAulay, the skinny young man crying out in agony as another contraction hit. Behind them the remaining nine Strega flew, one carrying the injured Maire while the others guarded the captured Yamanba, her body bound in chains made up of cursed lemon peels. -To Be Continued- ------ Author's Notes: The idea of a werewolf being a person cursed to change against their will during the full moon is actually a modern Hollywood notion. In the traditional folklore of Europe, witches and sorcerers used spells to transform themselves into wolves, often wearing wolf furs and pelts in order to accompany the spell. -End Notes- Fata- Italian word for fairy Yousai- Japanese word for fairy Titim gan e- May you fall without rising! Imeacht gan teacht ort- May you leave without returning! Conriocht- Werewolf
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