18+ Dusk

"I'm so glad you're okay Aliah." Alice said with a sincere smile. "It's so good to see you again. What are you all doing in Whiterun though? All at once? I daresay this isn't just a reunion. What's going on?" Aliahs' own smile faltered at that. She remembered Torins' grim news, and what she'd heard from others about the actions of the Whitescar brotherhood in the northern holds.

"I trust you've heard of this whitescar brotherhood. I was in Falkreath when I met Salthar, Torin and Elizabeth. Salthar had been summoned to Whiterun,and I came along to learn what I could" she explained honestly. "I wish it were so simple as a reunion, but it never is, is it" the vampiress continued with a sad smile.

Her attention was drawn to a pair of guardsmen that sprinted down the street towards them as if an angry giant was after them. As they made their report, Aliah became more concerned. When Alice turned to her, saying that most of the guardsmen were too drunk to do much besides, hold a perimeter, and asked for assistance, the vampiress nodded. Werewolves were dangerous enough, rogue ones, even more so. "It's not trouble. Besides, I'd rather we deal with the dog properly, rather than risk it escaping and injuring innocents"

Shadari cursed softly as the Orc mercenarys' claws elongated, and people began to scream and run for the exit. "Is it too much, just to have ten minutes of peace and quite?" She hissed. The assassin didn't particularly care for the welfare of the inns' patrons, but Averaine had already drawn his own weapon and was facing the transforming Orc. She drew her own falchion, and took a position to the knights right, her right hand holding her weapon in a ready position, and her left hand went to one of the throwing knives on her belt. "Okay, listen ugly. I'm tired, and this may be my last chance to relax with my friends before everything goes to hell. So either get a hold of yourself, or charge us so we can carve you up" she growled.

Lythare was on her feet in an instant, drawing an arrow and putting it to her bowstring with a speed a grace only the eldar could achieve. Unfortunately, the patrons in the tavern were panicking at the sight of blood, and she couldn't get a clear shot on the orc that was seemingly frozen in some form of grotesque transformation. Lythare didn't want to risk hitting a panicked civilian, or worse, one of her companions. She stepped to the side, once, then again, searching in vain for an ideal shot. Preferably one that would injure or kill the orc without him being able to escape.

Torin stared at the transforming Orc, even as he leapt to his feet. He noticed Lythare doing the same, gracefully drawing an arrow and nocking it on her bowstring. However, it didn't look like she'd be able to get a shot, due to the large amount of panicking patrons that were rushing for the exits. Knowing that shooting into the crowd would only bring on more panic, the ranger set aside his bow and drew his sword, moving up on Averaines' left side. The vampiric knight, wearing the heaviest armour, would probably be in position to take the brunt of the lycans' attack. That left both Shadari and himself free to engage the beast, and hopefully, Lythare would be able to put him down before he escaped, or harmed anyone.

The pain was unbearable. Transformations of all lycans were not known for being pleasurable, but they were brief spouts of pain; this was worse.
Shork seemed to have temporarily stopped transforming as he calmed, but his arm still resembled that of a beast. It sapped at his strength whilst growing in weight, even his natural orcish strength struggled to support the inhuman appendage. Even for Shork the terrifiying visage made him sick. All of the left side of his body was that of a twisted, deformed animal, another mind trying to escape from the mental binds its mortal host possesed. Shork knew his Beast form was shunned by society for a reason, but seeing first-hand a sample of his other half was purely repellant.

To mope here in his drunken, confused state with patrons fleeing the scene was only a temporary measure. His left eye, caught in a petrified state of transformation blinked & spotted the shine of metal through the pounds of flesh & skin. Perhaps the Nordic people were more prepared for danger than Shork would have predicted, or at least more foolhardy. Quite literally half of him wanted to tear down the scornful opposition & feast malevolently, but Shork suddenly felt of wave of power, & lumbered for the stairwell, panicked citizens trampling one another as they jumped out of the mutt's way.

Averaine cursed as the noise of shattered glass reached his keen ears. "Upstairs! The beast is trying to escape!" Without waiting for the others, the vampire knight charged up the inns stairs, sword gripped in his hand. He heard a roar that sounded oddly triumphant, coming from one of the rooms. The vampire smashed the door open with a negligent swing of his arm, and stormed inside to see the beast land on the street below. Guardsmen scrambled out of the way, more concerned with saving their own hides than protecting the citizens of the city. Jumping out the window and revealing his vampiric, or at least, unnatural abilities to the assembled guards below might not have been the wisest course of action. However, he could not in good conscience, allow the monster to escape and wreak havoc in another part of the city.

He leapt. The fall was easily twenty feet, but that was of no concern to one such as he. Averaine landed easily, bending his knees a little to absorb the impact, before racing in the same direction, shoving one of the braver, or perhaps more foolish, guards out of his way as he did so. He thought he noticed Aliah and Alice arriving on the scene, but he could not afford to waste time enlisting their aid. He simply lowered his head and ran on after the beast...

A commotion drew his attention, and Julius put his hand on his sword. Guardsmen rushed around, some of them with a purpose, others just staggering along drunkenly, trying to strap on their swords. Julius stepped in the path of one guard, who looked more frightened then woozy or confused, and demanded in his best soldiers voice "guardsman! What's going on?" The man stared at him as he was wondering whether he was deaf or just plain stupid.
"Where have you been? Drinking yourself stupid, son?" The man growled, disregarding his Imperial soldiers uniform. "There's a bloody werewolf rampaging through the city. The captains ordered everyone to their posts!"

"The captain? Captain Psyrakon? Where is she?" He asked. The guardsman turned and pointed towards the bannered mare. Julius sent the man on his way, and took off towards the inn, noticing a black leather clad woman standing beside Alice. All of their attention seemed to be fixed on the inn. "Alice! I heard there was some crazy werewolf tearing through the city." Then he recognized the woman. "Oh. Hello, Aliah." His tone was a little more guarded when talking to the vampiress.

Shadari snarled a curse as the beast chose to run instead of do the proper thing and die. She heard Averaine charge up the stairs, and shouts of surprise from outside. She wasn't entirely sure she could leap out the second floor of the inn and not break a leg, so instead, she went for the door, shoving panicked patrons out of her way. By the time she'd gotten outside, she saw Averaine turning the corner, sword in hand, head down.

Sheathing her falchion and drawing a throwing knife, she took off after them, having little wish to come face to snout with a werewolf, and hoping that a will placed knife would convince the beast to lay down and die. Or at least distract it long enough for Averaine to take its' head off.

She still found it a little strange that the beast had decided to run instead of fight. She hadn't met many werewolves in her life, but none of the ones' she had met had ever fled from a fight. 'great' she thought to herself. 'We just happen to encounter the one doggie that has any smarts at all'

Just as Cilla was about to launch into a blow by blow description of everything she and Alice learned they heard a huge crash from the second floor of the Bannard Mare. Cilla immediately tried to run off and investigate the disturbance but Elizabeth gripped her shoulders to stop her from running off. Their adventure a year ago had only made Cilla hungry for more adventure and emboldened her to the point where she wanted to investigate every little thing that happened in Whiterun. Even if it were in her best interest to stay put, like now. She gave Elizabeth a pleading look anyway, hoping that they could go over and help but knowing that she wouldn't be able to. Elizabeth was probably scared and she had become a big sister to Cilla so she couldn't go either. Still, Cilla hoped that maybe this time she'd get her way.

"Get up! Everyone get up!" Alice yelled at the staggered guardsmen. The werebear had blown right past their line outside the inn just as it was formed. The beast jumped out of a second story window, showering the guardsmen with glass and landing right in front of them. Everyone was fine but several of them were knocked on their butts when the wearbear charged and the rest were scattered, shaken and still drunk. "Get your arses up and get after that werebear! We've got to trap it behind the main gates or it'll run all over the area! And it'll be your faults! Let's go! Let's go!"

Alice could see Averain and Shadari running after the wolf. The vampire knight had his sword ready and the Khajiit assassin had a throwing knife ready. Alice grabbed her ankles and rubbed them while muttering an incantation in Dunmer. She had drawn runes of speed on her ankles years ago and they remained invisible until activated. Even though she was wearing knee high brown legion boots and long socks Alice could still activate the runes by rubbing her ankles and chanting the activation incantations. A moment later the runes glowed bright blue around her ankles, showing through her boots. While active she could run at the speed of a galloping horse but drained her magika like a sieve. She figured she could run for about twenty seconds and cast a calm spell on the werebear before she magically exhausted herself. Hopefully she could get this mess resolved sooner.

"Aliah. I'm going to chase down this werebear and try to pacify him with a calm spell. If you can, try and keep up with me. I need you to dump as much frost magic into that bear as possible to slow him down. We should be able to stop and restrain him together, especially if Averaine and Shadari help. Then Julius can round up the guardsmen and haul him to Dragonsreach. Let's go!"

Alice shot off towards the werebear, catching up quickly with Averaine and Shadari. Gathering as much magika as she could, she fired a ball of calming magic at the wild bear. It flew with blinding speed and was inches away from hitting him square in the back!

Landing on the ground with enough force to cause a small tremor, Shork powered forward, his animalistic agression combined with falling glass enough to shatter the confidence of the guards. The initial seal had failed, but guards unendingly flowed from the barracks to the south. forcing the Werebeast to retreat up into the Wind district. Making sure not to mortally wound anybody, he simply shoved any human obstacles away as opposed to pouncing on them. Soon Shork was beginning to enjoy his synchronization with his beast form. Was it possible that he could do this more oftenly?
This stream of thought resulted in a loss of concentration, & whilst most projectiles fired at him reflected almost seamlessly off of his tough hide, soon a strange feeling sprang up from Shorks back. Almost instantly Shork knew he had been hit by something new. Natural instinct automatically made him turn in the direction of his unknown assailant. He expected to see a strongly built man wielding a wicked-looking Crossbow.
Instead all he saw a feeble, pathetic girl.
Well, that wasnt including the swarm of guardsmen & some of the unique figures from back at the Bannered Mare. But instead he focused on the girl. Not out of attraction or beastly hunger, but confusion. Because Shork was positive that the queer feeling building at his spine was her fault. Yet how? She carried no visible weapons despite wearing combat apparel. Her hand was illuminated by a turquoise, glowing orb... of course. A calm spell. Obvious even to the primitive mind of the beast.
She was trained in the arcane arts.
So Shork began to retreat, unsure if fuelled by his own will or the Hex's effect. For while he could easily overwhelm the common footsolider, & possibly even his hunters from the tavern, what all his brawn was helpless against was a young woman, barely out of childhood, who could control his very actions.
He tried to make his way towards a small clearing amidst a cluster of houses, but stopped when the garrison from Dragonsreach blocked his passage. For all his adrenaline & purpose, Shork could not raise a claw against them, even to shove them out of the way. The Illusionist had chosen her weapon well; he was trapped.
Unable to perform any offensive action, Shork decided to drop to his all fours, growling deeply to keep the guard's at bay. Fortunatly they seemed to get the hint, & after gradually backing away the crowd backed away to let a single figure walk through.
Her.
Like a frightened Animal retreating from a flame, Shork recoiled from her arrival. How could such a young, pathetic, adolescent render a beast of Hircine so helpless?
Only one sanctuary remained in sight, a single beacon of hope. To the right of a temple stood a statue, & in front of it was a shrine.
Suddenly Shork began dashing towards the shrine, realising he temporarily had lost control of his body. But this time he did not resist, letting the beast carry out its plans.
Only later did Shork realise his blasphemous plans of his other half.
Reaching the statue & surveyed the gathering of his adversaries. Crossbow's clicked into positions. Bows creaked as arrows were drawn. Now was the time to expolit the Nord's weaknesses.
Shork garrisoned himself behind the statue & began to slowly claw at the religious artifact, his paws slowly beginning to crack the slabbed stone.
"Fire at me, & watch your God's influence crumble!" The bear roared in an unheavenly tone, taunting his opressors.
Deep in his state of limbo, Shork panicked at the Loop-hole in his agreement. Hopefully words would stall the beast for long enough, & perhaps Shork could finally end this brutal predicament.

Aliah nodded as Alice explained what she wanted her to do. She was no mage, but she knew her minor spells as well as anyone, and the plan was a sound one. As she prepared to spring into action alongside the young Imperial, she noticed Averaine and Shadari in hot pursuit of the beast. She gathered ice to her fingertips, and took aim at the fleeing beast, but that turned out to be unnecessary. As soon as Alices' calm spell struck the beast, he slowed, and then fixed the girl with a seemingly incredulous stare. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting magic to stop him.

As he stared at Alice, Aliah circled wide, abandoning frost, to rest her hand on the hilt of one of her ebony blades. Then the beast did something unexpected, and rather clever. It leapt to the statue of some deity that Aliah didn't recognize with the rush of imminent combat in her veins. He placed his wickedly curved claws on the statue, and bellowed defiance at the assembled guardsmen. "Fire at me, and watch your God's influence crumble!"

To her astonishment, many of the guardsmen backed up, and almost all of them lowered their crossbows and longbows. She would have liked to scream at the idiots. The beast was bluffing. If it destroyed the statue, it would be presenting a clear target to all the guardsmen currently in the square. Muttering under her breath, she drew one of her swords and approached, until she was standing two metres away from the statue and the beast. "Listen well, beast. This so called 'god' has no influence over me. And you've become more irritating than I would have liked. Either step away, or I'll come over and cut you down" the vampiress subtly tensed, knowing from experience that most lycanthropes took poorly to threats.

Lythare watched as Averaine tore up the stairs in hot pursuit of the Orc turned monster. Judging by the sound of breaking glass and cries of surprise and fear from outside, both the beast and the knight had gone out of the window. Lythare knew that with a sufficiently soft landing, she could do the same, but with a pursuit a foot, she couldn't risk spraining or breaking her ankles or knees. So, instead, she turned for the door, where most of the taverns temporary inhabitants had fled out of moments earlier.

Beckoning her fellow ranger to follow, she dashed outside, and cursed as a crush of people blocked her view of the chase. By the time she'd fought her way out of a giant know of frightened and drunk customers, she'd lost sight of Averaine and Shadari. "Aethos!" The loyal bird of prey swooped low over head, answering her cry with a querying shriek of his own. "Which way did they go?" The bird winged away from her, gaining altitude, until he suddenly dived, then climbed again, and began circling.

From her knowledge of the city, which wasn't great, but not terrible, either, she deduced the beast and his hunters had made their way to the market. Over her shoulder, she shouted "Torin, quickly! To the market!" She had no clue if the ranger would be able to make it past the same crowd of people that had so entangled her in time, but hoped he'd heard her instructions.

Without further delaying her chase, she took off towards the market square. It did not take her long to reach it. It seemed that guardsmen had already cleared the area, or at least their commander had foreseen the chance of an escape attempt and ordered it cleared before hand. A crowd of Whiterun guards blocked access to the streets leading to the market, but made way for her. She came across Aliah standing with one sword drawn, facing off against the beast, who seemed to be using a statue of Talos as leverage to keep the guardsmen at bay. Knocking an arrow, the elven ranger prepared to bring the stand off to a halt.

(OOC: I know in-game the marketplace and Bannered Mare are right next to one another, but since Whiterun has expanded, I thought it reasonable to have the marketplace moved a small distance away.)

Donath had been about to continue speaking with the young girl, when an ungodly roar got his attention. Immediately, the veteran warrior had his guard up. No human throat could come close to replicating such a noise. But he'd heard it before. Scanning the rooftops and streets, he said to Mila "Get yerself inside, lass, an' lock the door" He advanced down the street, axe gripped in both hands, listening as shouts of alarm rang out, along with orders. He noted that the noise was away from Breezehome, and the little lass. That gave him some relief, and he picked up his pace slightly, now less worried about the girl, and more worried that he'd miss out on cutting down the monster that had made such a noise.

As he made his way to where he thought he'd heard the noise, the marketplace, he came across Julius. The boy wore his Imperial livery and had a sword, and looked worried. "Julius! Come on, lad. I think the guards have it penned in!" Leading the young Imperial, he charged down the street, and came across the guardsmen, who he shoved out of his way, not offering much in way of apology. Most of them were all too happy to let the stout, rugged warrior make his way to the front. 'Damned cowards' he thought to himself, stopping short as he took in the situation. A werebear, one of the beasts of Solstheim stood behind the statue of Talos, snarling threats to the assembled guardsmen.

Apparently, most of them were devout Talos worshippers, because none seemed to have the courage to fire on the beast. He noticed Aliah speaking to it from a distance that was too close for the old warriors liking. He also noticed Lythare, who had an arrow knocked and looked ready to shoot. Donath motioned for her to wait. If Aliah could talk the beast down, they might be able to find out why it had rampaged throughout a good section of town without killing anyone. And if it couldn't be convinced...well, Donath hadn't had a good fight in a while.

Torin struggled through the group of patrons after Shadari, but the lithe assassin was already out the door and in pursuit of the were-beast, along with Averaine. Lythare dashed ahead of him, disappearing as well into the crowd, and moments later, the elven ranger called back to him that she, and the were-beast, obviously, were headed to the marketplace. By the time Torin had made his way past the crowd, Lythare was gone, not having wasted any time in her pursuit. Torin made his way to the marketplace as well, not wanting to leave his companions without his support. He could hear an unfamiliar, bestial voice bellowing a threat, quite possibly to the guards and his companions. He approached passing grim face guardsmen, though most of them looked more drunk than dutiful. But then, chasing a hulking dangerous creature through the streets was one hell of a way to get sober.

He made his way to the front of the group, and froze at an odd sight. The beast, identified to him now as a Were-bear, was threatening to destroy the statue of the Nord god Talos, which had cowed the guardsmen into inaction. However, Aliah, among the rest of his companions he could see in the crowd, stood ready to attack should the beast fail to back down. Torin hoped it wouldn't come to that, especially since it would lead to at least one death. He had no desire to kill the beast, unless it gave him no other option.

Julius was surprised to see Donath barrelling down the street, and half thought the warrior was going to run him down in his urgency. Instead, he came to a halt, and said "Julius! Come on, lad. I think the guards have it penned in!" He didn't need to explain what 'it' was. Apparently, the werewolf wasn't as smart as it thought it was. He followed Donath, though he hesitated at the front of the crowd. He wasn't exactly keen on fighting such a large, possibly violent creature, unless he had to.

(ooc-sorry for short post. Not much time today.)

Salthar made his way from Dragonsreach down to the city proper.He could clearly hear some commotion going on near the marketplace, and steered clear of it. He had no real interest in involving himself in the affairs of others. Especially when he and his companions had , much more pressing issues to take care of. Despite the councils disbelief, the Whitescar brotherhood was a distinct threat, and Salthar very much doubted they'd stop at Windhelm. And from the few reports he'd heard of their leader, it seemed a larger conquest of all Skyrim was well in the making.

Whether the brotherhood were allied with or subservient to the creatures they'd encountered a year ago, the Altmer vampire didn't know. He feared the answer, though he would never inform his companions of that. And after all, this brotherhood was only human, and fallible.

As he approached Breezehome, he felt a little concern at realizing none of his companions, except Elizabeth were missing. As he approached the young woman, he said "Where's everyone gotten to?" Her eyes strayed towards the marketplace, and Salthar sighed. "I leave for a few moments, and they have to get involved in local problems. I suppose there's nothing for it. We'll simply have to wait for them to return" he decided.

Elizabeth was somewhat glad that Donath hadn't asked her to come along. It wasn't that she was unable to fight, but, honestly, she wasn't sure what, exactly, she'd be able to do against whatever it was that was rampaging through the marketplace. Which was why she stayed with Cilla near the house, and was relieved when she saw the familiar robed form of Salthar approaching. "Where's everyone gotten to?" The vampire asked, and when she glanced towards the market, he sighed. "I leave for a few moments, and they have to get involved in local problems. I suppose there's nothing for it. We'll simply have to wait for them to return"

"What did you learn at your meeting?" She asked, genuinely curious as to whether he'd learnt anything useful, or at least garnered some support for the group. Elizabeth seriously doubted they could take down this new, whitescar brotherhood by themselves.

Without a word Mila ran into Breezehome and locked the door. Simus and Carlotta had heard the noise and they were staying with her. Simus knew Alice and the guards could take care of it and Carlotta knew better than to tangle with such a monster. Cilla however was ready for the adventure. Elizabeth hadn't given her an answer one way or the other and she could resist the temptation no longer. While Elizabeth and Madrar were talking Cilla sprinted away and made a beeline for the market and the scene with the werebear, cutting through several flower beds and yards as she went. When Whiterun's citizens instituted gardening projects to beautify their city they hadn't considered what children did to them and now the poor plants were paying for it.

At the scene the guards had the werebear cornered. Ten of the men had been pulled from patrol shifts and were relatively sober. They were armed with three foot steel spears with oak shafts and large steel heater shields bearing the Whiterun crest. They had arranged themselves in a phalanx formation in front of the old monument to Talos where Heimskr used to preach. They effectively trapped the beast from the front and ten other men armed with a mix of steel swords and wooden shields or battleaxes flanked the spearmen. This latter group was made up of the same drunks that just fell on their arses outside the inn but now they were mad and ready. Alice stood in front of all of them, unarmed except for a steel dagger in her right hand and a frostbite spell in her left. She wasn't experienced enough in destruction magic to kill the wolf with frost magic but she could slow him down enough for a killing blow.

The men were horrified when the beast spoke, few of them realizing any werebeasts could talk. Alice had heard tales of werewolves that could but she had never seen one and she had never seen a wereBEAR before. She herself was scared but she kept calm for her men. They looked up to her and they were too afraid to engage without damaging the holy statue. Alice knew it was just a statue and they could build another one but if it fell it could crush several of her men. Or worse, the bear itself. Having a werewolf brother, Alice understood that no one chose to shift in a time or place like this. It just happened and until it was done you were a slave to your beast side. This bear could shift back into its "normal" form if it calmed down enough and then the guards could take that person to the castle safely. There would be an interrogation for certain and Alice wasn't looking forward to that but she would see that the man or woman who shared this beast's body was treated well.

She looked behind her and saw that most of her adventuring company had joined the scene. Torin and Lytharre had arrows ready, along with ten other guards with bows drawn. Averaine and Shadari were ready to strike. Donath and Julius were moving up with more men and Cilla was running headlong towards her.

Wait, Cilla was running headlong towards her!

Mentally Alice immediately went into panic mode. Cilla was too impetuous for her own good and she was about to become a snack. Alice loved her little sister far too much to let that happen but she couldn't take her eyes off the bear. One of them had to yield. She hoped and prayed that someone could stop Cilla before she hurt herself. She sheathed her dagger and canceled her spell, put her hands to her sides and walked to the bear behind the statue.

"Let's not do something we're gonna regret!" Alice shouted. "Just climb down from there and walk towards me! We can talk about this! Nobody has to die today!"

The mixture of threats & yields actually confused Shork to some degree. On the one hand the Elf that stood a few mere metres from him definatly deserved a good swipe. Her attitude was as bad as her intentions, & if Shork had to guess he might have guessed she was no civilised individual herself.
The guards, showing more love for their deity than Shork would have initially presumed, now took on a more neutral pose, but some rangers & warriors had made their way through the crowd, brandishing ranged & melee instruments. They fanned about in the crowd, perhaps working in unison, perhaps not. One of them even looked familiar.
She, who on closer inspection appeared to be of Imperial blood, now appeared with a dagger in one hand, & a more dangerous spell in the other. She tried speaking with Shork, trying to convince him to stand down. Which Shork desperatly wanted to do. But his primal side had developed a dislike for the illusionist, & struggled to accept the peace offering.

Yet moments later the Werebear did indeed stand down. Produced by his hard personality Shork would have said it was because he had spotted the Raven Rock messenger in the crowd. But the truth was, through all the hatred for the people before him, the beast could not attack the crowd without fear of harming the small child mixed up in the standoff, looking for somebody.
With this he found the strength to take over. But before he began, Shork spoke to certain people in the crowd.
"The Brotherhood of the Northern plains. I come to hunt them".
Then with that, the Bear released his grip on the statue, dropped down to the corner of grass beneath him, & without anybody seeing (yet definatly hearing) began to change.
Back.