#wnm

Sources:

BBC News. (2020, November 30). Black Lives Matter founders: We fought to change history and we won. Retrieved September 7, 2021, from BBC News website: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55106268

Black Lives Matter: From Hashtag to Movement. (2020). Retrieved September 7, 2021, from Anti-Defamation League website: https://www.adl.org/education/educator-resources/lesson-plans/black-lives-matter-from-hashtag-to-movement

The Good, Bad, and In-between of Social Media - Carrier Clinic. (2019, August 8). Retrieved September 7, 2021, from Carrier Clinic website: https://carrierclinic.org/2019/08/08/the-good-bad-and-in-between-of-social-media/

Introduction to Sociology. (2016). Castells and the Network Society [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLF5J8Y5zyg

Blaidd awoke to fingers trailing gently through his fur, and warm, smooth skin pressed against his side.  

“Good morning,” he murmured, his voice rough with sleep, and wrapped an arm around the Tarnished’s waist, pulling her across his chest.

“Good morning yourself,” she whispered back, and tucked her head beneath his chin. Blaidd hummed approvingly as she continued to run her fingers through his fur, this time with more intent.

“How long have you been awake?” he teased. “And watching me sleep?” The Tarnished smiled against his neck.

“Not long,” she said. “I didn’t want to wake you…” She traced along his collarbone with a sleepy hum. “It’s cold outside, and you…” She wriggled closer. “Are extremely warm.” Blaidd hissed as she accidentally nudged his inner thigh. Parts of him were certainly heating up quickly. He bent his head slightly and nuzzled her ear.

“So are you,” he rumbled, trailing a lazy finger down her bare back. “...as I recall.” That earned him an approving hum.

“Anywhere in particular?” she murmured. Her breath hitched when he trailed his hand up and down her inner thigh, and then to her slit.

“Yes,” he murmured. “Very much so.”

She still was, but they reasoned that it was best to make sure.

Afterwards, the Tarnished wrapped herself up in his cloak – an altogether fetching sight – and threw together breakfast with the contents of her bottomless pack. Blaidd located a clean pair of trousers in his own pack, and fetched water from a nearby river. They ate together in a surprisingly comfortable silence. There was an ease about her that humans almost never showed around him.

He could get used to this. And wasn’t that a strange thought?

“Would you happen to be heading north, by any chance?” he asked suddenly. The Tarnished looked up curiously.

“Soon, yes,” she said. “Raya Lucaria. I’m hunting Great Runes, and all that…Why?”

“Well, since you’re headed in that direction…If you meet a venerable blacksmith, who is a little on the large side…” Blaidd gestured with his hands, indicating just how large that was. “Tell him I sent you. He’ll be sure to treat you right.”

“Thank you,” she said, with a small grin. “Is there anything you want me to tell your friend? If I see him?” Blaidd thought for a moment, but shook his head.

“Nothing critical…Just tell him I said not to drop his hammer,” said Blaidd, smiling to himself.  “He’ll understand.” The Tarnished nodded.

“Then I will,” she said, and then sighed. “It might be awhile, though…I have a few things to take care of up in Stormveil, first.” Blaidd nodded.

“Of course,” he said, hiding his disappointment. Unless Ranni directed him otherwise, he was headed back to Caria Manor himself. The Tarnished hesitated.

“I, well…I hope that our paths do cross again, Blaidd,” she said. Blaidd let the silence hang for a moment, and then grinned. It was painfully obvious that she wasn’t merely being polite.

“As do I, woman,” he said. “But there’s one thing I should mention…” His eyes grew serious. The Tarnished frowned.

“What is it?”

“...I’m going to need that cloak back,” he growled. The Tarnished jumped away just as he reached for it.

“Then I suppose you’re going to need to get it back, won’t you?” she laughed, and darted deeper into the cave.

The moon was bright and full, and would be so for the next few nights, according to Iji. It was not Ranni’s Dark Moon, but his mission had taken him far from his mistress. The House of Caria walked the path of the Moon, Dark and Full, and the Full Moon’s bright light invigorated his senses and mind. It sharpened his claws and filled his blood with heat. The Dark Moon soothed the tangle of his human thoughts, but pulled him sweetly deeper into the heart of his wolf.

Tonight, Blaidd was on the hunt, and the last thing he needed was peace. Darriwil was no dull-minded prey animal. He was a traitor. He deserved torment beyond what a wolf could provide.

A fearsome grin spread across Blaidd’s face, his fangs gleaming like knives in the moonlight. Yes…His human half would decide Darriwil’s fate. He bounded to the top of a broken tower in the dark heart of the Mistwood, and howled to the Moon of knives and blood. Perhaps tonight would be the night that the traitor crawled out of his hole.

Blaidd was about to leap down to the shadowed earth to resume his hunt, when a twig snapped, below and to the right. His hand flew to his greatsword, all of his senses snapping to attention. The footsteps were too light to be a runebear, but too heavy and far too loud for a demi-human. He sniffed the air curiously. Ah. Human. He readied himself to pounce. A human in the Mistwood at night could only be there for violence. And then the human snapped their fingers. First once, and then again. It could only be deliberate.

Blaidd crouched as low and still as he could, even though he knew it was pointless. He was out in the open, and bathed in moonlight. Bloody Seluvis could have spotted him. He scanned the shadowed wood around the ruins. That finger snap was Kalé’s way of getting his attention, and he knew that the merchant trusted few people…It would only be polite to see who it was. Finally he spotted the human. It was a female, a Tarnished, wearing a dark, hooded cloak and leather armor, armed with a claymore and bow. Her hood obscured her face, but she was crouched low, and staying in the shadow of the ruined walls.  

Curiosity eventually banished his sense of caution. And besides, with the Full Moon on his side, it would be incredibly difficult for her to get the jump on him. He dropped soundlessly to the forest floor, right behind the human. To her credit, she remained perfectly composed. In fact, she raised a finger to her lips.

“Shh,” she mouthed, and nodded at the slumbering runebear. Blaidd arched a brow. Those snores would drown out an earthquake. The human had nothing to fear, as long as she didn’t go out of her way to disturb it. Still, there was no reason to hang about. Blaidd gestured towards a ruined structure deeper in the woods, where they could talk freely.

The woman’s shoulders slumped in relief. “I hate those things,” she whispered, barely audible through the runebear’s snores. She turned, and snuck soundlessly through the trees. Blaidd followed, amused that she would show a half-wolf her back.

“Kalé sent you, did he?” Blaidd murmured, when they were alone, and crouched beneath a ruined archway. The Tarnished woman nodded.

“He did,” she said quietly. “I heard you howling last night…I’d never heard anything like it before.” She smiled, a little sheepishly. “I asked Kalé about it, and he suggested I meet you myself.” The half-wolf huffed, torn between amusement and annoyance.

“Ever the bloody busybody,” Blaidd muttered. This is what I get for stopping by his church, he thought. He was only this far south because of Darriwil. A hunt was a hunt, not a social call. The sooner he tracked the bastard down, the sooner he could return to Ranni’s side.

However, Kalé was a decent sort. He would not have sent just any Tarnished his way.

“Hmm,” he murmured, half to himself. “Maybe to him you don’t seem so strange…” The Tarnished frowned at that.

“Strange?” she asked. “What’s so strange about me?” She looked down at herself, checking her armor and hands. Blaidd chuckled.

“What other sort of human would come to the Mistwood to find a stranger? In the middle of the night?” he chuckled. “I could have been anyone. Or anything.” The Tarnished eyed him skeptically.

“Do you mean me harm?” she asked, crossing her arms.

Blaidd watched her for a moment, and let the sounds of the wood hang in the space between them. The forest is never truly silent, and sometimes humans needed to be reminded of their place in it. And this human was too complacent by far.

In their castles and towns they ruled, but out here in the dark of the wood, wilder powers walked free. Blaidd watched her eyes as her senses came alive in the silence. For her, there would be the rustle of wind in the trees, the crackle-snap of small animals hurrying about the underbrush, and the music of tree frogs and insects calling to each other. Perhaps she caught an echo of something large and dangerous rumbling through the brush.

You are far from safety, he thought, and he was human enough to be concerned.  

For he felt all, especially under the moon. He felt the push and pull of air and breath as the forest lived and died around them. His were the deep sounds, long lost to human memory. He heard, smelled, and saw the ancient lure of prey, as well as the ever-present threat of predator, neither of which she would ever truly perceive. But her spirit would react, regardless. The old, primitive pieces of her mind would know, and tell her to beware the dark. For here there be monsters.

Humans, Tarnished or not, killable or not, did not belong in the wild. Perhaps she needed a reminder.

“Would I tell you if I did?” he asked, after a moment, and climbed to his feet. She looked up at him, her pupils dilated in the dark, taking in everything she could.

“Some would,” she said quietly. Blaidd frowned. Her heart rate had picked up ever-so-slightly, but the acrid reek of fear was nowhere to be found.

…Perhaps she was simply a fool.

“And you think I am one such person?” he asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the stone wall.

“I trust Kalé,” she said simply, and pushed her hood back. “I do not believe that he would send me to my death.” She stood, and approached him slowly, taking care not to make any sudden moves. Respecting his unspoken warning. Her eyes caught a sliver of moonlight. “Has he?”

“No,” Blaidd said, after a moment. Then he smiled, showing his teeth. “Unless you are here for my head…” The Tarnished grinned.

“Certainly not,” she said. “I was simply curious. And any man with his sanity intact is worth knowing, these days.”

“I am not a man,” said Blaidd curtly.

“You’re man enough,” she said. “And Kalé said that you were worth meeting. I trust him.” She gave him a small smile, and her name. The half-wolf inclined his head slightly.

“I am Blaidd,” he said. “And seeing as you are here…I am looking for a man named Darriwil,” he said.

“Darriwil,” the Tarnished repeated, with a frown. “I haven’t seen anyone by that name around here.” She shook her head apologetically. “l…What did he do, if you do not mind me asking?”

Blaidd clenched his teeth, the oddness of his new acquaintance slipping to the back of his mind.

“He is nothing but a traitor,” the half-wolf growled. “He fled somewhere nearby, or so I’ve heard. A fitting end is needed to his tale…” The Tarnished hummed thoughtfully.

“Traitor…” she murmured. “You know, I passed by a sealed evergaol on my way here. I caught a look at the occupant, and he was pacing the edges on all fours, like this…” She started to crouch, presumably to demonstrate, but Blaidd stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Did he have a curved greatsword, with an unusual bend, and razor edges?” he asked urgently. The Tarnished nodded eagerly.

“Yes!” she said. “And his helmet was shaped like this…” She clumsily sketched out a vaguely cone-shaped helm around her face. “It almost looked like a snout.”  Blaidd abruptly leaned down and sniffed at her hair. She had not entered the gaol, so the scent was faint, but…

“It’s him,” Blaidd growled, and released her, paying no mind to her startled expression. He stood up to his full height, and turned towards the heart of the forest.

“Wait!” The Tarnished rested her hand on his elbow. He turned and looked down at her, a grin teasing at his mouth. The top of her head barely reached his waist. “I’m coming too.”

“Of course,” he said easily. “...If you can keep up.” Blaidd smirked, and jumped up into the trees.

He had the scent. Darriwil’s life was about to come to an extremely painful end. He took off at a run, easily bounding from tree to tree.

“...It’s this way!” called the Tarnished. Blaidd jerked to a halt. The Tarnished was ahead of him, atop a steed with strange, shifting eyes, that smelled of clean rain and sunflowers. She grinned at him, and scratched the spectral steed’s ears affectionately. “...Try to keep up.” She urged the speed into a gallop, and took off.