Chapter 2
It had been when the marks on her cave had read fifty five that she’d stumbled across the baby locatha. The mother had either died or left the nest, and the baby was only a few days old. At first she had thought that it would be an easy meal, but when she approached it, the locatha had looked up at her with wide eyes and began to whine.
Hesitantly, she had reached out her hand for it to sniff. After a few moments, it began to make a purring noise as it rubbed its head against her hand. The motion made her smile, and so few things did, that she picked up the creature and took it home with her.
She named the creature Moyra because that’s what the noise it made sounded like to her. Moyra was her first companion in the time she had been there, and her only companion for the forty-five years of his existence.
Moyra had proved to be quite lovable from the get go. When he was little, he would sleep all curled up on her stomach, often kneading his paws into her stomach. As he grew bigger, Moyra had taken to sleeping right next to her, allowing her to use his side as her pillow.
During the day, the two would go off hunting together, sharing whatever food one of the caught. Sometimes they would jump into the cool liquid that lay at the end of the forest path. They would spend hours splashing about and trying to catch the swimming creatures that lived there.
On several occasions, Moyra had saved her life. The first time, she had been prowling a new creature that she had never seen before. It stood on two legs, like she did, but had a larger head with sharp teeth and tiny little arms. She watched the creature devouring the remains of some beast with strange fascination. The creature didn’t eat in so much as it ripped apart, some of the meat appearing to get into its mouth.
She had slowly crept forward, so intent on the prey in front of her, that she didn’t notice the second creature behind her. It made its move at the same time she did, and within moments she found herself standing between the two creatures.
With a battle cry, she had raised her killing stick to fight them both off, but they had already cornered her. She was fighting the best she could, kicking and stabbing, but it was no use. She had underestimated them, and she would die.
At the last moment, Moyra had leapt out from the forest, his teeth blazing, claws extended, and fur standing straight up on his back. He growled as he struck the one closet to her neck, sinking his teeth into it. It screeched and tried to pry the locatha off its neck, and she had used the moment of confusion to strike out against the other one. It was a fierce battle, but they won. Moyra had one scratch on his front leg and she had a deep gash on her stomach, but they had made it out okay.
The last time Moyra had saved her life, it had cost him his own. She didn’t like to remember that day and so she pushed the memories of it to the farthest reaches of her mind. She had buried him in front of the entrance to the cave that way he was always watching out for her…wherever he was.
XXX
The first time that Willow had dragged them all to the area underneath Glory’s tower, Buffy had been missing for three weeks.
She had arranged them all in a semi-circle with Dawn in the middle, then made everyone else slice the middle of their palm while hopping on one foot and chanting. Willow had gathered the drops of blood in a small bowl and mixed it with herbs. She had smeared the concoction in shapes on Dawn’s forehead.
A glowing ball appeared above Dawn’s head, and the group held their breath. The creature that came out of there, however, was not Buffy. It had been some green creature with red horns, which had grabbed Dawn and shaken her, all the while screaming about cow princesses. Spike had snapped his neck pretty quickly.
The walk home that night had been torturous. Willow kept going over the spell while Tara kept insisting she had done everything right. Xander had his hand firmly over Anya’s mouth as she kept making inappropriate comments regarding the green man. Giles had been fairly quiet and Spike had Dawn tucked under his arm. She was inconsolable.
The second time Willow’s convinced “I’ve got it, no I’ve really got it” moment came a hundred days after Buffy had disappeared. The odd thing about the spell they cast was that it created a giant ball of energy that allowed them to see into another dimension. The scene that played out had given them all nightmares for weeks.
A strange human like creature covered in what looked like a mud type liquid was using a stick to fight off… well Xander had called it an offspring between a velaciraptor, a green parrot, and a horse. It was hideous, but the creature fighting against it was exquisite. Its moves reminded Spike so much of Buffy, but this creature was a tad more primitive in its fighting style. Still as graceful, and he bet that with the right training and weapons, the creature would give the Slayer a run for her money.
For a while it looked like the human creature was winning but the velpaorse, as Xander named it, suddenly managed to use its claws to rip a diagonal line across the creature’s back. Tara had let out a horse cry as the group watched the wound spread open from shoulder to lower back and blood began to pour out of it.
An inhuman cry had been heard from just out of the energy ball’s range of vision. A large dog like creature with horns leapt into the viewing ball and attacked the velpaorse. It was claws and teeth, screams and howls, blood and guts spilling all over. The dog had paused in its fight to lick the wound of its master before taking a bite out of the velpaorse’s stomach. The velpaorse fought back, ripping one of the dog’s horns off. Back and forth the two went until the velpaorse managed to get one of its claws under the dog’s belly. The tear dropped the animals intestines onto the ground and the next howl came from the mud creature, who had caught its second wind and tore into the velpaorse with wild abandon. Within moments both the velpaorse and the dog were dead and the viewer closed.
XXX
Today was going to be different, Willow could feel it. There was something in the air. She looked around to see if anyone else felt it to and caught Tara’s small smile. Willow returned the smile and added a skip to her step. This was going to work.
It was a few minutes later that the smile slid off her face. Crap! Why hadn’t she noticed the part about the blood sooner? Everyone was going to be so mad at her if this didn’t work. Wait, Spike offered his blood…and Dawn…Yeah, this could work…and why was Giles giving her that look? Didn’t he trust her? Oh, goddess this had to work.
“Spike, Dawn please stand here,” Willow swallowed thickly. “Um, could you guys, like, form a circle around us…please? Tara, can you stand so that the four of us form like a square of sorts. Okkaaaay.”
Tara looked into Willow’s eyes, “you can do this.”
“Yes, please do so that we don’t have to get dragged out here again,” Anya muttered from the circle. “It looks like it’s going to rain and I don’t have an umbrella because the stupid weather man said that I didn’t need it. Why would he lie like that?”
“Anya…sweetie…baby, please, please just don’t talk,” Xander pleaded.
Willow pulled out a small, golden knife. Spike laid his hand in hers and kept eye contact while she sliced neatly through the palm. She then did the same to Dawn, and tried her hardest not to flinch when Dawn let out a small cry. Tara held Spike and Dawn’s hands just inches from each other and let their blood flow onto the items that Anya had “donated” to the spell. Willow began to chant in Latin, and Tara echoed her words as bits of leaves and herbs were added to the blood mix. A green light began to glow between them. It glowed bigger and brighter as Willow and Tara chanted louder. There was a loud noise, and the four found themselves flung backwards from their square.
Spike was the first to sit up and notice the creature squatting where he had been standing just a moment ago. It was the human-like mud creature.
“Oh, great, Willow, now what did you bring us?” Xander asked, helping Anya up from the ground.
“It should have worked. It should have worked. I used the thorn of diagle and the leaves of bitoma,” Willow muttered to herself.
“Willow stop muttering and let’s figure out what you’ve brought here,” Giles was franticly cleaning his glasses.
Spike was still looking at the creature. It appeared to be female, or at least if it was human it would be female, it had the same parts. Its hair was long and matted beneath, and it wore no clothes if you didn’t count the mud. But for some reason, Spike couldn’t stop staring. This creature called to him, spoke to him some way. But how?
The creature was making a low noise in its throat as it regarded the Scoobies. It pivoted slowly toward where Spike was still on the ground. It cocked its head and looked at him for a moment before leaping on him.
Spike was about to knock the creature off him when the creature caught his face between its hands and slowly began to feel the contours of his face. He froze as fingers traced his cheeks, over his nose, and around his lips, but it was when their eyes met that he finally opened his mouth.
“Buffy?”
|
