Chapter 1 – The Big Entrance.
Tanner
The alarm rang through the house with enough volume to wake the lifeless, but uncharacteristically, Tanner was already awake. His sheet had been thrown off during the night, but pyjamas cased his body, the blue and white striped pattern a favourite of his, with the shirt opened to reveal an impressive set of muscles. He pushed the off button on the alarm, ceasing the noise, and swivelled his feet over the edge of the bed.
Breakfast was already on his mind, and he pulled himself to his feet and walked towards the kitchen with a pace that made him seem drugged, or drunk. The fridge, as always, had an ample supply of the few foods he could actually cook well: Bacon, eggs, milk, and bread.
'What the? Why the hell did I put the bread in here?' He shrugged it off and took out the packet of bacon and two eggs, then moved the bread to the cupboard before realising he'd need it anyway and taking it back out.
“Right,” he said to no-one, “Grub.”
Once he'd done his food (after burning his chest on kamikaze frying oil) he wolfed it down in none of the time it had taken him to make and ran back upstairs to get changed. After a few more minutes, his pyjamas were strewn over his unmade bed and his favourite outfit lined his person- a white shirt with thin blue stripes, a dark blue jumper, the thick faded-orange coloured jacket his mother had gotten him for his last birthday (
“If you're fighting monsters out there, son, I don't want to say 'I told you so' when you come back from Tenti with frostbite!”), dark yellow trousers, and his trusty boots, which had been passed down to him amongst other things in his father's will.
There wasn't a single mirror in his house, so he combed through his dark-blonde hair blindly and grabbed his contacts from the desk beside his bed, putting them in before heading for the door. As soon as he went to reach for the handle, however, the bell rang. Tanner opened it to reveal Emma, who hadn't even had time to take her hand from the buzzer.
“Wow. You're up?” she said in her consistently cheery tone.
“I know, I surprised myself, too,” he admitted.
Emma, who preferred 'Mimi' or 'Emmie' (she
demanded Tanner call her Emmie) was a shy girl except for in two situations. 1) Around Tanner and Squall, when completely the opposite was true. 2) When fighting, and her concentration was unfading. Her a-little-lighter-than-dark blonde hair was laced with highlights and dropped to just below the base of her ribcage, and the top she wore had thin straps holding it in place, showing off her star shaped birthmark at the point where the neck met her left shoulder. The top itself was a dark blue colour, which played host to small sky blue diamonds scattered randomly around the material. It just overlapped a black pleated skirt, which came slightly above her knees and showcased several intricately stitched roses, growing from the rim of the garment upwards. Under the skirt were two knee length socks, striped white and light blue, and finally, the outfit was completed with dark blue dolly shoes with a wing pattern on the insteps.
“I was just about to head to your house, actually,” Tanner stated, “I thought me you and Squall could take on a group job.”
“No, Squall took a job yesterday and still hasn't made his way back from it; it's just you and me,” Emma said, with a tone of happiness that was a little suspicious for someone who was just a friend. Tanner shrugged it off and went to walk out of his door, grabbing his sword from behind the doorframe where he'd leant it, and looping the sheath's strap over his shoulder. Emma held her arm out for him to take. He pulled his door shut and locked it, then linked his arm with hers and began the short walk into the marketplace.
“Emmie, you seem happy today,” Tanner noted as they walked.
“I do? Nothing particularly good's happened today...”
“Oh thanks,” Tanner said, feigning offence.
“Besides you, stupid.”
Just as he was about to say something, Tanner caught his foot on a raised paving stone and would have gone flying, had Emma not been holding onto his arm. The streets were full of them; they were mostly concrete with slabs of circular paving embedded in at regular intervals. The roads themselves were finely cobblestoned paths, and the buildings surrounding them were mainly old-looking brickwork, some houses still being just large rocks held together with mortar. His street in particular had a very diverse selection of the housing styles of Taaro, as his own house was one of the more modern designs, with rectangular bricks, foundations, concrete, and all the new age construction stuff that he knew very little about (his line of work was about as far away from housing as possible, except for when the demons he was hunting took it upon themselves to destroy family homes).
“Honestly, Tanner. You'd think as a master demon hunter you'd have a little more balance than that.”
“Oh haha. I can fight circles around you and you know it.”
“No, you wouldn't fight a girl, would you?”
“Sure I would. And I'd wi-” But he was interrupted by a sharp pain in his cheek where she slapped him. “Ouch!”
“No too sure now, are you, big man,” she said with a laugh and a wink. Then, all-of-a-sudden, she dislodged her arm from his and sped ahead. “If you're so certain you'd beat me then catch me,” she shouted back.
Sighing and rolling his eyes, but secretly fully game for the chase, Tanner set off along the abandoned streets (Hardly anyone was ever up this early, but Emma liked to get a headstart on whichever job she picked, and she always insisted on walking to the noticeboard with Tanner). He could just about make her figure out in front of him, turning the corner at the end of his street, so he picked up his pace and shot for the turning.
When he took it, he saw her running straight ahead of him, and focused on putting one foot in front of the other; there was no way she'd let him live it down if he lost this. As he watched her run, however, he couldn't help admiring the finer points of her body- the points that, as a friend, he shouldn't really be admiring, like the way her hips moved in a perfect rhythm, the way her breasts bounced ever so slightly inside her top, and the way her skirt gave him the slightest flash of light blue lace every so often.
She turned a sharp right just before he was about to catch her up, then looked behind her as he took the corner. When she saw that he'd almost caught her up, he noticed a very faint grin on her face as she clenched her fists together behind her.
'Oh no.' And 'Oh no' was right. Within seconds, the entire of her body was covered in fire, starting with a spark in the hands, then very slowly spreading embers up her arms which burst into flames as it crawled onto her torso. Tapping her hair, the flames turned it into a vibrant shade of red, and then the flames finally hit her legs, where she exploded into absolutely intense speed, hitting the last turning before the noticeboard in no time.
Tanner hoped with all he could muster that she'd mastered stopping that technique. The corner came up, however, and with the speed she was flying towards the noticeboard with, it was apparent that she hadn't. Quickly, he threw his hands into his pockets and closed his eyes, concentrating on picturing Emma's body, which of course, him being a 25 (nearly 26) year old guy, and her being a 24 year old girl, he did without clothes.
'She's just a friend,' he scolded himself, but didn't bother adjusting his image. Instead, he just jumped forward.
There was a weird feeling flow through him for a fraction of a second, like water was being poured into his head and through his body, out of his feet, then he felt soft fabric in his arms, which surrounded Emma's size 12 body. A quick thought reminded him that this was just how he liked girls; not like a stick, but not like a tree, either.
“What are you doing?” came Emma's voice, but it wasn't an annoyed tone. In fact, it was more satisfied, if anything.
“Stopping you from crashing into the noticeboard,” but as he opened his eyes, he saw that this wasn't a danger. They were at a complete stop.
“Idiot. I've mastered stopping now; I won't be needing your services as a brake any longer.”
Tanner quickly and embarrassedly let go, only then realising that he wasn't being burnt alive like he had been every other time Emma had decided to pull that stunt. He'd have probably realised this straight away, he pointed out to himself, had he not been caught up in perversions about Emma that would never be reality. They were
really close, so maybe one day if they were both excessively drunk, but he didn't want to ruin the friendship they had. Besides, she always seemed more interested in Squall anyway.
“Earth to Tanner. Noticeboard.”
“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, I was miles away.”
'The noticeboard' was directly in front of them, or rather, part of it was. The road they'd taken lead to a dead end, but it was a large circular section of the town surrounded by a 12 foot high wall where locals would set up a marketplace. In a few hours time, this place would fill up with people selling their wares, or more importantly for Tanner and Emma, sticking adverts to the wall.
There were all degrees of things advertised, from houses for sale (on green paper) to jobs on offer (on blue paper), but the ones that Tanner needed were the red paper ones: the hunter requests. These made up the minority of the wall's posts, but they were still plentiful, with about five or six new ones going up each day. There was one straight in front of Tanner, and he picked it off.
Hunter needed!
My daughter has been unable to sleep for the past week, and when she does, her 'rest' is riddled with screams. She kicks out at whatever is around her, and shouts out: “The Pasminde will come.” Please help us. As a reward, I can offer 600 breats.
Under that was an address, and it wasn't too far from where Tanner's house was. He reached for the Demolibri, which was ever-present in his pocket, and thumbed through the pages until he found what he needed.
Pasminde
A form of restless spirit, created when a newly-wed bride falls victim to the hands of betrayal and takes her life as a result. Bound on getting revenge on her adulterous husband, her soul does not leave, and instead becomes a Pasminde, moving along the nightmares of humans until she can finally reach him.
Like any other restless spirit, this creature cannot be killed, as it is already dead. It must either be exorcised or have its happiness restored so it can safely pass along.
That sounded like a challenge, but Emma was already on her way over with two more scraps of paper in hand; she'd scanned most of the wall in the time it had taken him to analyse the one he'd picked up.
“Here, one 'breats paid for Krawatte pelt', and one 'mystery monster kills family dog'. There were two more requests, but one was for a party and one was... well, one we're not going on.”
“Spider?” Tanner taunted.
“Shut up and pick a job,” she said sourly. Emma hated spiders, especially the huge ones that people put requests out for.
“Sure, sure. I've got a Pasminde for 600- a ghost,” he added when she gave him a confused look. “How many breats on offer for your two?”
“700 for the pelts, and 2200 for the mystery monster.”
“Mystery monster it is,” Tanner decided. 2200 was more than enough for one job. Money like that could buy him a new sword for his armoury, or feed him for at least a week, and that was
after he'd split it with Emma. “Give me the address.”
Emma
Half an hour later, Emma switched off the radio in Tanner's car, which had been playing something with a heavy baseline and a singer who did more bellowing than singing. She could listen to it without complaints, but it wasn't the sort of thing she'd pick if she had the choice. Tanner loved it though; it got him worked up before a fight.
Tanner opened his door and stepped out, walking around to open Emma's for her too. She let herself smile as he shut it behind her once she'd got out, and headed towards the house they were parked outside, which was on a street that had its back to a small woodland. The bell rang a three note tune when she pushed the button, and a few seconds later, a man in his fifties answered it.
“Are you here about the demon?”
Emma nodded and stepped in just as Tanner approached the house. The man lead them both through a hallway that stretched the length of his house, with doors leading into rooms either side, and one at the end that gave way to the back garden. This was the one they walked through.
Straight away, Emma saw why the job had so much money on offer. The 'mystery monster' that had killed the family's dog had left footprints about the length of her forearm impressed in the otherwise perfect lawn. Not to mention that the fence at the back had been pretty much
obliterated.
“What's left of Kipper is over there,” the man said with a shaky voice, pointing at a blood-soaked towel with a lump underneath it in the back corner of the garden. “We were going to bury him bu-” he sniffed, “But we thought it'd help you out.” Emma's compassionate side overtook her shy nature at the sight of the old man's pain, and she put a hand on his arm.
“We'll get whatever did this, and your friend can be put to rest in peace,” she assured him.
“Bring back its head. If you don't mind, I'm going to go inside before you... check. It's pretty bad.”
Emma nodded. “We understand.”
Once he was back in the house, Tanner and Emma walked over to the remains, which gave off a powerfully pungent stink that only increased as they got closer. Tanner lifted off the towel and Emma almost instantly shot her head away in disgust. Pretty bad was an understatement, to say the least. They could hardly even be called 'remains'. Whatever was left of the dog was very gone, a blooded, broken heap in its place. There wasn't an inch of fur left, and the flesh was literally covered with bite marks. A huge hole was missing from where the animal's stomach was supposed to be, spilling out what few innards the beast didn't take. The head was completely separated from the body, lying next to it with a bone sticking out from the bottom, as if he were some cartoon character.
“I don't even need the demolibri. This is a Krawatte attack, but it's a damn big one. Bigger than any of the ones I've seen, anyway. It's been enhanced by magic without a doubt.” Tanner covered the body back up.
“So how are we going to find it?”
“Shouldn't be hard,” Tanner said as they walked towards the section of fence that had been torn down, “With feet that big, it'll be at least my height. After you,” he added jokingly.
“Why thank you sir,” she responded, heading into the woods. Right away, it was apparent where the Krawatte had gone; the footprints were very easily noticeable. Two sets, one into the garden and one out, marked the same path, and Tanner and Emma walked along them, the moist, soil-y earth springing beneath their feet. There was a weird feeling between these trees- something strangely unnatural about nature.
Tanner drew his sword, and Emma clenched her fists, readying magic. Instead of fire this time, though, her hand turned completely black for a second, like a silhouette. A few seconds later, her whole body was the same; no shading or light whatsoever, just a black cutout. The outlined clothes pressed themselves into her, leaving the silhouette to be just her body for a split second before bulky, rectangular shapes moulded forwards.
When her body faded back into colour, the skirt and top had gone, white-gold plated armour in its place, with just the neck visible of a black body-tight suit which she wore underneath to prevent it from rubbing her skin. The armour itself was shined to perfection, through the dents and scratches were unmistakable and plentiful. It fit to her body nicely, with curved sections in the appropriate places.
Built into the armour was a curved sheath for her favourite sword, which she drew out as they walked along. It had a scimitar-style blade and a white-gold hilt to match her armour, with three gems along one side of the crossguard. One was a light blue topaz which had been on her mother's engagement ring, the next along was a pink quartz which was the only one of the three which had been on the sword when she bought it. The third was a deep green emerald which Tanner and Squall had put together to get for her birthday four years before.
As they followed the tracks, swords at the ready, Emma's mind wandered slightly in the way it couldn't normally during a job, but with Tanner's careful eyes, she knew she'd be in no danger. And that was just what she thought about; Tanner. They were perfect for each other, even Squall said it, but no matter how many hints she dropped, he never picked them up. Sure, he'd had a bad track record with people, but that didn't make him completely socially inept. He still bonded well with those he could trust.
She'd keep telling herself to stop dropping hints, and that the next time she saw him she'd just ask straight out, but then 'next time' came around and she was filled up with the hope that maybe he'd actually ask her this time. She dressed in skirts because she knew he liked them (she'd overheard 'guy' conversations he had with Squall when they thought she wasn't listening) and she let him see her shift armour if ever she got the chance so he could see the outline of her body that she knew was his 'perfect size' (again from the 'guy' conversations).
When she was alone with him, she was at her most comfortable, and the fact that he had a huge arsenal of weapons under his house and he knew how to use every one of them to its best performance added to the sense of protection she had with him. She was cheery and laughing around him, and he always knew what to say when she wasn't. He'd been with her at her father's funeral, and even stood up for her against the same gang of bullies who he'd not even been able to protect himself from over the years- he was an amazing fighter, and he'd clean any of them out in a fair fight, but eight or nine against one wasn't even close to fair.
He was just perfection, in her eyes. She was 'just a friend', in his. Sometimes she wished he'd wake up and realise she didn't want to be 'just a friend' anymore. Her thoughts were interrupted, though, when Tanner came to a complete halt.
“Something up?” she asked.
He pointed forwards with his sword, then indicated to his ears with the free hand. 'Listen.' Sure enough, there was a rustling up in front. Emma's grip tightened around her sword, but Tanner just focused his vision ahead. When a rabbit jumped out about 15 feet forwards of them, Emma relaxed and went to keep walking, but Tanner held his arm against her chest and pushed back lightly.
The rabbit looked behind itself, then shot off forwards, and a second later, Emma felt it. There was a slight vibration, nullified by the texture of the dirt beneath their feet, but still there. When she paid more attention, she could see that the leaves on the trees were bouncing minutely in rhythm.
Then she heard the footsteps finally, small thuds at first, but like that annoying kid in the movie theatre, they only got louder. Unlike that kid at movie theatre, however, this could be the death of them both. Hairs would be standing on the back of Emma's neck if she didn't do this sort of thing everyday.
Intense anxiety was rife in the air around them, and then the footsteps and the noise stopped just as quickly as Tanner had done. Ironic, because this caused Tanner to finally start running again. With both hands on the sword at his side, he still managed to keep a strong pace, and Emma ran along behind him, not quite knowing where they were going but following Tanner with all the trust she needed.
The Krawatte let out a dinosauresque roar that let Emma know at least what way they were headed, and Tanner ran unfeigned toward the source of the cry. When they were finally close enough, Emma could see it through the cover of the trees, and only her conviction to follow Tanner stopped her grinding to a complete halt. When Tanner said it had been enhanced by magic, she didn't realise exactly how big he'd meant.
Krawattes stood biped-ally on their powerful hind legs, tipped with long, thin feet, and human-like arms that ended in claws (no hands, no paws, just claws) stuck out of their torso from the front, rather than the side. They were covered head to toe in shaggy black and brown fur, and, being some sort of weird wolf mutation, had a canine skull; long snout, piercing eyes, large pointed ears, and thick fangs. The tallest she'd ever encountered came up to her breast, but this one in front of them was more than three times that.
When they reached it, Tanner slipped behind a nearby tree and Emma did the same. Amazingly, it hadn't noticed them at all, but when Emma look out at it, she saw why. It was already being fought, and the person had obviously been fighting for a while, as fatigue laced his strikes. Tanner swore and ran in to help the guy who was taking the suicide mission of fighting the Krawatte on his own, but as soon as he stepped out, it was too late. The Krawatte swung and hit the guy under the arm with his claws, sending him sliding across the floor into perfect view of the pair.
This new wound wasn't alone; Emma could see countless others lining his body. He leaned over to one side and vomited a scary amount of red liquid into the soil. The now very bloody person turned his head towards Emma and smiled despite the circumstances. It was Squall. Her heart lurched as the pale face dropped to the floor and the eyes of one of the two guys she actually trusted drew to a slow close.
