Scatterings: Reprise 1


The morning sun slanting through the window woke Troya, she stretched and yawned,
amazed that she had fallen asleep in the first place, sleeping was not a Homnoi
trait, she put it down to the occurances of the night before, cleansing Kel on
top of the visit to her source had obviously drained her, Kel was still asleep,
her arm flung over her face as if shielding her eyes from the sun, Troya was
aware of strange new feelings in her, feelings that were as foreign to her as
they were to the people she fed off, feelings she identified as caring, wanting
to help, perhaps the first faint stirrings of love, if such as her could feel
love.

Carefully pushing aside those feelings she arose and surveyed the area through
the window in the loft of the barn, the barn was as she suspected, in the middle
of cultivated lands, if she sharpened her vision she could make out a road and
traffic some miles distant, explaining to Kel about her lack of transport was
going to be harder than she thought, however she had some exploring to do before
Kel woke up, checking carefully to see that Kel was still asleep Troya resumed
her own form and flew out of the gaping hole in the side of the barn.

Some time later Kel awoke with a start, certain that someone had called her name,
the morning sun through the window momentarily blinded her, and she shook her
head and rubbed her eyes to clear her vision, when without warning a hand clamped
itself over her mouth and a strong arm pinned her arms to her body, she stiffened
in surprise, then went limp as the arm forced her to the floor again, a voice
warned her to keep quiet, a feeling of horror flooded over her, it felt as if she
was living some horrible nightmare again and again, something horrible was about
to happen/had happened, was happening again.

Hands rough on her body, searching, probing, hurting, she screamed, then suddenly
a brightness, a globe of pure light hovered over the head of her attacker, flared
almost incandescently, she shut her eyes, unable to look, not wanting to see,
then silence, broken only by the thud of something solid hitting the floor, her
whimpering joined in by the harsh heavy breathing of something else in the room
with her, almost fearfully she opened her eyes, only to shut them again in a
hurry as her frightened mind denied what her eyes said they saw, a black leathery
figure with wings and piercing red eyes, a devil, her mind screamed, with that
she fainted.

Troya was out surveying the general area when she got the feeling that she was
wanted, that Kel was in danger once again and that if she didnt hurry it would be
too late to save her and a mind cleansing could only be done once, a second
attempt was courting insanity, not bothering to change forms, she hurtled back
towards the barn, noting as she did the pickup parked out front, through the hole
in the barn, her eyes instantly registering the scene in front of her, her fury
and anger flared and she became living light, pure and lethal.

Kel's attacker never knew what hit him, one minute he was pawing at her body, the
next he had been instantly consumed, more than consumed, he was subsumed, all
that remained of him was his heavy leather boots and belt, they fell to the floor
with a heavy thud, Troya saw Kel's eyes flick open, saw the horror in them as she
sought to comprehend the figure in front of her eyes, saw terror win out over
everything and watched partly in sadness as Kel fainted.

Hastily she resumed the form that Kel recognised, she threw the boots and the
belt out the window into a dilapidated wagon, cleared up the obvious signs of a
scuffle and quickly made her way down the ladder, when she heard signs of
movement from above she climbed the ladder and made out as if she had just
returned, she found Kel searching around the loft, looking distressed and upset,
she was never sure if Kel ever accepted her story that she had just had a bad
dream, as it was obvious that there was no one else in the barn, and no signs of
a struggle, Kel must have just had a bad dream, nothing to worry about.

Calming Kel down took Troya the best part of an hour, finally Troya lost her
temper and told Kel to snap out of it, the look of pained betrayal on Kel's face
was enough to send Troya flying to her side begging for forgiveness, as she held
Kel, Troya spent time examining her feelings, it seemed that this human form was
not really such a good choice, after a time it appeared that you took on the
characteristics of the form, she was startled to find that this was not as
upsetting as she first thought, though certainly these feelings of compassion
and...love could prove difficult in the end, she often wondered why she was the
only one of her species on this planet, as it was certainly large enough to
support a whole tribe of Homnoi, perhaps, and the thought startled her, perhaps
the growing empathy with the human form, if assumed for too long took over and
made it impossible for a Homnoi to continue to feed, in effect a self imposed
hunger strike to the death.

The thought was disturbing.