Wilderness hannah, p.4
Wilderness Hannah, page 4
part #3 of Damsel Series
That hurt. The exercise wasn’t fun on its own and her back was uncomfortable, when she had to bend it. The point there was that it wouldn’t have been anymore fun in three days, when it got crusty, either. At least she assumed that was the point.
She had to lie on the ground for parts of it and twice had to stretch out cramps, her body not used to the work load.
Still, it really did only take about fifteen minutes, and she honestly felt it, when she was done.
In every part of her, as if she’d actually done something, instead of just flexing in her apartment a bit.
As she finished, everyone else came back into the room, clearly having actually washed the dishes, instead of just setting them in the sink for the maid service to handle. Then, instead of just standing there, not knowing what to do, Hannah made a phone call. It wasn’t early, but it was only eight-thirty at night. At least she almost did it that way. The phones were all still monitored, and while she wasn’t passing any secrets, it made sense to her to be careful. Especially when magic was being used, or talked about.
So, instead of calling anyone, she settled on her white sofa, sat cross legged and closed her eyes, her hands on her thighs in the international sign of meditation taking place.
~Alistair~
She only thought the name one time. There was a pause then, but an answer came, about ten seconds later. It was at least as loud as her own thoughts were. A little more so, in fact.
~Hannah? What’s up?~
~I was scratched by a werewolf earlier. So, I need to book a trip into the Never, with Debbie, if possible. I shouldn’t change from that, but I don’t feel like taking chances, if I don’t have to. Would it be possible to check in with Debbie on that kind of thing, do you think? I know that she’s been going through some stuff...~
The boy didn’t just answer, actually doing something. She could kind of feel it happening, being connected to him mentally at the moment.
This time, when the voice came it sounded different, like Debbie did, most of the time.
~Hello?~
~Hi Deb! Hannah here. I was scratched a bit by a werewolf earlier. It’s the new moon, and just some claw marks, but it was also spitting all over the place. I can fix this, so I won’t change, but I left all my magical skill in a different reality. I was wondering if I could arrange a trip over there soon, with you? Other people were hit, too. I don’t know what to do about that. I can fix them, if we can get them there?~
There wasn’t much of a pause at all. It was clear that she was calling out, in real life. For her wife. Lash. That meant she got to go over the whole thing again, some seconds later, yet another voice being put in her head.
~Are you all right? I’d heard there was a fight and that you and Superion handled it...~
Lashondra seemed worried then.
Hannah cleared her throat, in real life, not certain if that would carry, mentally.
~I’ve got this. There were other people involved. Survivors. It was the wrong time of the month and all the experts, that being John and Carl, agree that this wolf seemed super strong and hard to hurt, which was wrong.~
~I understand, I think. I’ll see if I can arrange for everyone affected to travel with us. That might take a few hours to arrange...~
She nodded. After all, leaving that late wasn’t really the best plan. Of course, if they could get the other scratching posts to go with them, she could pass them some healing amulets as well, which would be way more fun for them than doing it the slow way.
At least she was planning to do that, if it was an option.
Chapter three
The next morning, after a night of lying flat on her bed, tummy down, without a pillow, Hannah got up early. That meant she found John camping on her sofa, which could have been a problem, she realized. Her brother, Nate, didn’t really seem to love the guy, for some reason. She didn’t have the specifics, but from the one conversation she’d overheard, it involved animal men and an island. Not in a good way.
She kind of figured that her brother had been raped by them, but that hadn’t been spoken of, directly. That one might have been her own subconscious mind projecting her own fears onto the situation, really. It might have been something else, of course. The men had talked things out, at the time, but hard feelings weren’t called that because they were soft and easily let go of.
Still, John was uncooked, not bleeding and gently snoring when she walked out and there were sounds coming from the kitchen. She’d managed a shower and while the wounds on her back hadn’t felt good under the water, they hadn’t started to bleed again, or weep. That probably meant the damage wasn’t all that bad. Like she’d figured, in the first place. After all, the EMT hadn’t insisted she go the hospital and she was nearly certain they were contractually obligated to make that kind of offer whenever it was even remotely needed.
So, she’d left that off, but didn’t put a bra on, since the strap for that wasn’t going to feel great. Plus, she wasn’t so large that she absolutely needed that kind of thing, day to day. She moved into the kitchen quietly, without going into full sneak mode. Not that she really had one of those. She just didn’t want to end up catching a burst of light as powerful as the surface of the sun, from her brother. If he was on edge, because of their guest, it was better not to do that kind of thing.
As it was, just walking in, he jerked around, his eyes and lips showing startled behavior, instead of the rage she feared might be there.
“Oh, Hannah. I noticed that John was out there. I...” He waved. “Really, I associate him with some bad things. It isn’t really fair of me. I’m working on it. That...” He shrugged. “It isn’t anything I’m willing to talk about, before we eat. I was thinking vegie omelets? I picked up some fresh peppers, and nice-looking green onions.”
She nodded, since he already had all of that cut up.
“Sounds great, actually. I need to make a run into the Never later today. Possibly tomorrow.” She didn’t want to bother lying to him, but didn’t know what he was up on, at the moment. “There was a werewolf attack, near the shopping district, yesterday.”
Instead of doing what she would have, if someone had said that to her, which was to question their sanity, or at least ask if that kind of thing was real, her brother winced and then nodded.
“Fuck. I hate those things. I saw that video, last night. It’s not the right time of the month for that kind of thing. That should mean it isn’t that contagious, from what I’ve always heard. Then, you should have taken it down, with what you did to it. I don’t have a lot of experience with that kind of being. Some. I can kill them with light blasts, so it came up, a few times.”
He went still then, and after a moment, seeming to pay attention to the eggs, sighed.
“You weren’t bitten, I saw that. Some of the people there were. Did any of them live?”
She nodded.
“Hence the trip into the Never. I can stop that curse over there. Reverse it, too. So we’re collecting up anyone who is at risk and taking them there for patching up and to make sure they don’t get furry once a month.” That was the plan, at least. Lash hadn’t called to update her that morning. Then, it was only about six in the morning, so she wouldn’t have, unless it was an emergency.
She hunched over a bit, keeping the pain from the move off of her face.
“If they can be talked into coming. I mean, I wouldn’t take up some stranger on an offer to go to Never Land, myself, and I know that the place is actually real. Though, if I’m going, I should take my pals over there some junk food. They mainly eat fruit and vegies, since a lot of the animals there are sentient. So, cakes and pies for all my men, you know?”
The girls there too, but Nate got the idea.
“I can pick some things up? I can’t really go over there. Or, well, from the sound of it I could, but I’d be powerless, being tied to the sun here. What I can do is spend some of your money on candy and sweets. Call it... What, five hundred dollars worth?”
She didn’t know how much things like that really cost. Nate wouldn’t either, she knew, so nodded.
“Get a lot? If it costs more than that, then it does. No more than a hundred pounds worth? I can only carry so much with me.” That was too much, for a lengthy journey, but Debbie tended to come out right next to the trees that Daniel Pan and his cohorts lived in.
It wasn’t too much to ask them to take care of the lifting and toting of sweets like that.
“I can have that by noon? When are you going, do you think?”
She didn’t have a clue, but tried to think through it all.
“It will depend on when the others are ready to go. Certainly, no sooner than that. I should go with you to do the shopping, but I feel a sudden urge to practice. Not that it will do me any good. I didn’t miss, yesterday. It just didn’t do any good. Worse I’m sore today. My coach gave me new muscle building exercises. They work, but... I’m kind of sore, for the moment.”
Nate nodded.
“Take a day off? Healing up after a fight won’t kill you. At least from that high energy stuff. I get wanting to sharpen your skills, but grinding yourself to paste really won’t make you stronger.”
“Yeah. Even I can see that. Still, there are things to shoot in VR and all that. I need a better fighting program for that. The one I have for blade work is kind of boring.” It had been good training, for the first two weeks, but then she’d learned what the opponents, all bots, were going to do and had pretty much just started killing them in a few moments each time.
Then, that kind of training wasn’t really about making her an expert knife fighter. It was about making certain she was always willing to stab someone, if it came up. So far, the one time that had happened, she’d done it. It just hadn’t accomplished anything useful.
“Make your own? Tyler will know someone who can do that, I bet. If he can’t just do it himself. You should run the idea past him.”
That was Kate’s boyfriend. Also, her tech guy, so it really wasn’t a bad idea.
Not loving John or not, Nate was apparently being forgiving enough to have fixed the man breakfast. It was just what they were having, and John didn’t look at the food as if he suspected poison or anything like that. He did run and get a shower first, as well as brushed his teeth. Hannah had guests, occasionally, so kept a few packs of toothbrushes there. It came up. She had razors too, but the man didn’t bother with using one of those.
“Thanks. This looks good. What’s the plan for the day?”
They covered that, but instead of insisting they start right in on learning about the magic he wanted for her, John volunteered to go to the store.
“Especially if you’re buying, love? I need to ward this place, at the very least, which will take some supplies. I just have Nathaniel pay for that?”
She grinned then.
“Sure, but if you’re spending my money, I expect you to put out later.” She stopped then, and furrowed her brow. “Though really, this is my dad’s money, so...”
It was teasing, and both men nodded at it, instead of becoming insulted.
John, who was probably about forty, simply gave her a slow nod.
“Fine. I just don’t have any cash, this side of the pond.”
She nodded back, overdoing it a bit.
“Make a point of getting things to trade, or give as gifts, in the Never. I’ll cover that for us, this time. I need to figure out what the time schedule is going to be like that way.”
It was still too early to call anyone, so she ate, cleaned up, including doing the dishes, or at least rinsing them off and putting them in the machine, then hit the VR room. She did do her boring blade work again, and thought about what she wanted that way. There was a lot of it, so she actually wrote that down, before calling Tyler. That took place at nine, sharp, so she wasn’t shocked to hear him answering in his normal fashion.
“What?”
“Hey, Tyler. This is Hannah?”
“Hannah? Are you okay? I saw that thing yesterday. I should have called, but you know, I’m never sure if I should do that kind of thing or not. So I don’t do it and then seem like a callous asshole.”
From the tone, he more or less meant that, even if he wasn’t that bad, really.
“From now on call? Not just me, either. Not everyone will love it, but most will think it means you care. Anyway, I was thinking about a VR game and wanted to run some ideas past you for that?”
There was a pause then, followed by a grunt.
“I can do that. What do you have in mind?”
She paused then, and took a deep breath.
“A simple background space. Something not too complicated, but with enough room to move. That could, maybe change in shape, and size? A one-on-one knife fight, but with good motion capture on the other side. It can be set up to attack using random moves, with variable speed, and that should seem a lot like a real person in a fight. We’d need a real fighter for that part. Someone good? Then, I want to have the strikes weighted. You know, so a slash to the eyes would cause a realistic but variable response, a stab to the middle does so much damage, a small cut to the arm a lot less?”
There was the sound of typing, in the background.
“Okay. That’s pretty basic. How many different opponents do you want? We can add in powers, second weapons in case they lose the first and all that? You want realism, right? So, varying difficulty levels? That... Really, if you don’t want music or voice over work that we can’t do ourselves, we can bring that in for about ten thousand dollars. It will take a month or two, unless you want a massive push on it? The hardest part will be finding someone willing to do the mocap for us. Motion capture is a bit of a pain. I get the idea though. Keep it simple, except for the actual fight? A little like Mortal Combat, only you’re going up against the other fighter yourself. With a knife...”
The man didn’t sound excited, but he did seem engaged with the idea.
“Are we doing this ourselves or farming it out? I mean, if we bill it as Wilderness Hannah’s knife fight trainer, we don’t have to pay for too much advertising on it, do we? You can do the voice for that as well, which will work.”
She stuck her tongue out, looking at her front door, from her sofa, across the room.
“We can do that part? I don’t need music for it at all. Really, it would be better if we left it seeming more real. Like you actually are in a house, or a dark alley. That kind of thing.”
“Kay. When are you available to work on things?”
She didn’t know what would be coming up, but it wasn’t as if she had a day job to see to, either.
“In the evenings? I have to do some things, soon, but pretty much when you want to bother with it?”
“Right, like I’m going to be that lazy? You know how I am. I’ll start on this now. Can you find a knife fighter for us? Someone who works cheap, if not free? That will help keep the costs down.”
“I don’t know? Let me ask around?”
That seemed to be good enough for Tyler, who hung up, as if they were finished. Which was typical of him, so she didn’t bother worrying over it. If he needed her for anything, he’d call. As it was, she’d need to get with him, if she wanted to hear anything about what was going on. She also needed to find someone good with a knife, who could do motion capture for them.
She blinked, and nodded.
“Robin Loxly.”
The man wasn’t a friend of hers, but they had met once and while he’d held a bow on her at the time, as well as a few other people, he’d had a knife on his belt and Alistair, who was an incredible telepath, had supposed that the man could have taken all of them in a fight, even if he didn’t have any real powers.
At the time she’d figured that he’d meant her and Kate, even if her friend was actually also a superhero. Only later had he explained that he’d truly meant all of them. Everyone who had been there, including the people on Robin’s side, if they’d thrown in with her people.
It was a good idea, if an odd one, so she bothered to track the man down. That took about two hours. What worked in the end, oddly enough was calling up her former girlfriend, Veronica, and asking her if she knew where to look for that kind of thing.
That got a laugh.
“I have that, here in my phone. We used to date. How are you? I saw you were in a fight. Without me... What’s with that?”
Hannah got the idea, since Cry Diamond was an actual superhero and had invited her along on her adventures, several times. Now it seemed like she was out cheating on her, fighting crime all on her own.
“I was literally walking down the street when a werewolf jumped out and started killing people. It wasn’t planned on my part, or you can bet that I would have had you there, too. As it is, Debbie is taking me into the Never with some other people, who need to not be wolves three days a month. I need to do some magic and can’t really pull that off here. That place is awesome, that way.”
“That sounds like fun. Are we going to be fighting anyone?”
Hannah shook her head. They’d gone there together a half dozen times and never had even had sharp words with anyone. Still, Veronica had her own idea of what preparing for an adventure meant.
“No? We should have John Fawks with us, too. I... how do you get along with him?”
“Meh? He’s friends with my father, so I tend to think less of him for it. He never did anything too bad, on the island. That’s rare there, so it probably means he isn’t evil, really. I can work with him, if that’s what you’re asking? Are you dating him?”
Hannah snorted.
