Midsommer's Night Run

[cian_oneill]

It was almost as regular as clockwork, heading up to Searchlight on a Wednesday night for a few beers and a game or two. Cian went to the Golden Nugget, probably the most regular watering hole, for someone who didn't have regular places. Sometimes he went all the way to Vegas, but usually didn't bother. The noise of the big casinos usually hurt his ears, and the smell of fumes on the strip was something he could do without.

Like this Wednesday, when he just went up to the bar and ordered himself a beer, taking it over to a table and sitting down. After taking a long swig he leaned back in his chair, legs stretched out in front of him, as he continued to survey the other occupants of the place.

Comments

[rhiannon_lee]

Just a minute, my ass…

After a couple hundred yards, Rhiannon looked over her shoulder and saw him keeping up. It made her laugh. He was fast even on two legs. “I haven’t got all night!” she shouted and picked up the pace into a full-blown sprint as they ran toward the old mining hills. Many a slayer had cheated her way onto athletic teams and crushed the competition without realizing the source of her abilities, and it was this fast gear that Rhiannon shifted her body into now, a superhuman powering her way through the loose desert landscape, a blur of arms and legs in the moonlight.

[cian_oneill]

They were far enough out of town now, along the deserted road, that when she shifted into high gear Cian decided to pull that card as well. He'd started stripping off his clothes, pausing to quickly drop them behind a bush and once clear of all hinderance, let Siofra out.

It still hurt a little if he hadn't taken the potion Annie had spent years making for him, but it wasn't as bonebreaking as he knew it could be, and was for others. His eyes clouded for those few beats, then vision cleared and he could see the running form of the Slayer ahead. It had taken even longer for him to learn to link the two consciousness minds, and most of it managed to transfer, but sometimes some things didn't.

Fur, bones, teeth, eyes, tail, all moved as lungs that had changed started working within the shifting chest. Where breath had begun to be laboured now air was easily inhaled. Silently the gap started to close again, her trail easy to follow with the scent he had already taken. Ahead now he could see the chase laid out.

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon let the wind play havoc with her hair. She ran until the elevation changed and the ground became treacherous underfoot. When the climb into the hills began, she looked back. Cian was gone. In his place she saw an animal galloping toward her and gaining quickly. She slid to a stop in a cloud of dust and caught her breath.

“Oh my god...”

What had she expected? She didn’t know. She wasn’t afraid, though she might have been. An animal so wild could rip flesh from the bones. However, she had faith that Cian could control himself or he wouldn’t have shifted on command without the sway of a full moon. She stood with her arms loose at her sides as the cat came closer.

[cian_oneill]

Siofra saw the woman stop, and slowed his own pace, coming to a slow lope, then walk as the woman stopped. Mouth open and nose twitching the large cougar slinked in a slowly closing circle around the Slayer, until it gained the higher ground. A large stone, on the edge of a rocky outcrop, afforded a perfect position and the animal stood atop it, eyes still on the Slayer.

Slowly haunches lowered, and finally, once seated, the eyes closed for a moment, head turning slightly, the domination now finished.