CoR Baking bad

[Hollow glade]

It was hard to know how much time had passed. Kóri had slowly crawled down the fire escape of Sebastions building and taken off running as soon as their feet hit the floor. Just in case Ragar had seen or heard them, somehow. In case he was after them. They ran until they were no longer able to. For probably over an hour of getting as far as possible. And a lot closer to their area of town. Unconsciously, they realised, they had been heading to Thorje's. But they couldn't go there anymore. Ever again.

Kóri whimpered and changed directions, finding deserted commercial venues, lightless restaurants and almost empty parks. It was really late. But stopping didn't feel like an option. They could have found a hole to burrow into and slept until morning. But what if they were found? He wanted to gut them. They had understood that much. Pain or no pain, the monstruous man would kill them. To top it off, their mouth still smelled and tasted like his blood. Their hand like Sebastions own. Shit. Kóri sniffled again. In their teary eyed aimless wandering, they caught a familiar scent without being sure who it belonged to and followed it. Anything was better than the blood. When it grew in intensity they remembered. It was Margot and Re. And it led to a building... A closed, of course, bakery. Even if they weren't here it was worth a try. The scent didn't go anywhere else. So they found a window and started knocking with urgency. Every couple of seconds they stopped, listened for Ragar's heavy steps and then continued.

 

[Jas]

"~It's too early...~" Margot complained in Iverian, tossing in her sleep. It'd been a couple of weeks since she and Re had been sharing the apartment in the bakery, and with only one bed... well, they got cozy. With Re being the smaller of the two, it often led to Margot playing big spoon to Re's little, and she thought Re was doing something weird to cause the banging.

But even jostling the other girl didn't end the banging, and Margot's eyes fluttered open. Through the film of sleep in her eyes, it was hard to focus on anything in the room. She was bewildered as the knocking stopped, then abruptly started again:

Rap, rap, rap!

The window. Carefully, trying not to wake Re, she extricated herself from the bed and went to investigate. It was possible that Re woke from the turbulence that the bed inevitably transferred to her, but Margot was more concerned with the immediate threat. She stood on the chair of the desk so she could see down.

The detail which caught her attention first was the fluffy white hair. "~Little Fox...?~" She asked herself, befuddled. While she was there the hand reached up and rapped again, causing her to jump backwards, lose her balance on the chair, and crash down on her ass in the middle of the room. If Re wasn't woken up by the jostling mattress, she almost certainly was woken by that.

Margot didn't care; she should probably be up for this anyway. Their friend outside looked a bit frantic, as was the quality of their banging.

As she got to her feet again, there was a flash of crimson and the window unlocked itself and slid open. She got up on the chair again and whispered outside, echoing her initial words of shock. "~Are you okay, Little Fox?~" she asked in Iverian. After a moment, she shook her head and repeated it in Lutetian. "Are you okay, Little Fox?"

 

[Sune]

Despite Margot's attempts to let Re remain asleep, Re had been awake since the very first tapping on the windows. Though, it had been on the other side of the building. She'd heard the tapping slowly rotate the building until it came to their window. The first taps hadn't gotten Margot up, but as soon as Margot had been disturbed, Re was up.

She pulled a knife from underneath her side of the bed and prepared. At Margot's fall, Re did her best to try to catch her, immediately dropping the knife to try to grab her. It was moot, though. Margot's excitement got her back up and the window magicked open. Again, she spoke in Iverian, but she finally swapped to Lutetian. "Little Fox- Kori?"

She blinked. "What are they doing here at this hour? Tell them to meet me over by the kitchen door, I'll let them in."

With that, Re moved barefooted towards the kitchens to open the locked door.

 

[Hollow glade]

There had been movement inside, they'd seen it. So this time they lingered at that particular window. Then some noises that made them step back from it, just a little. They could hear Margot whisper, fall (huh?) and finally she opened the window. Truth be told, Kóri was ready to have climbed in right then and there, but...

"Not okay, I-" They were going to try and explain, glad that the surrounding darkness likely meant Margot couldn't see Kóri. And that they were an absolute mess. But then they heard Re's voice. Something something kitchen door. "Kitchen door? kitchen door..." They repeated quietly, darting away from the window and surrounding the building. Without bothering to ask, the slipped in through the door Re had opened.

Under the light, Kóri looked... awful. They reeked of dried blood, stress and tears. They were wearing black cargos, a white top with black cyber lines as decoration. Both garments were stained with blood. None of it was Kori's own blood though. The lower half of their face was very stained, and so were their hands. Their hair was an absolute mess as well, if still fluffy, and there were dried tear tracks on their cheeks. They also carried a big backpack, full, and a ring on one finger.

"Sorrryyy, need help, please help?. I have so much trouble." They whined, then gulped, then forcefully closed the door to the outside just in case they'd been followed. "please..."

 

[Jas]

As Kori ran off, Margot turned to follow Re to the kitchen door. From across the room, she gasped as they stepped into the light. They looked so much worse than she could tell in the dark of night and with the extreme angle she was looking down at them from.

"Oh gods! Little Fox! What happened?!" She bounded forward and gave them a hug, getting blood on her own nightclothes in the process. Then she realized they may be injured and held them at arms' length. All the blood seemed to be someone else's, so she hugged them once again.

 

[Sune]

As soon as Kori came into view, Re's eyes glowed and a low growl came to her throat. She had joked about having a bad sense of smell, but the smell of coppery blood was strong in her nose.

"Who hurt you." She demanded, her voice in between her normal voice and a wolf talking.

 

[Hollow glade]

Kori hugged Margot back, and Re's sudden growl and tone made them squirm and want to become a lot smaller. So they whimpered and hid their face against Margot's shoulder.

"J-just scare? Cant- I need stay here. Can't, stinky man is hunting after me." They said quietly, peering at Re while hiding part of their face against Margot still. Their scents helped them calm down a little. It wasn't the same as being snuggled up to Seb. But it was good either way.

 

[Jas]

Margot turned her head, concerned by her friend's tone and timbre... It half sounded like she was wolfing out. And at this particular juncture, that seemed, to Margot, to be a terrible idea.

In a bit of a panic, her grasp of Lutetian slipped a bit and she spoke quickly and brokenly. "They only hurting inside." She patted her chest. "Heart. Not body. Is it blood? I fix blood!"

She hugged Kóri tighter and a burst of red energy radiated from her and washed over both of them. When the light faded, so too had the blood. The orange blood stains remained on the fabric; not even magic can get those out. But the surface blood was gone.

"See? No hurt. Just other bloods!"