Portalling Out
May. 20th, 2003 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
singindemonhqIt had been a real kick to drive the fire truck - until it hit and smashed the Jetta, totally blocking the Coast Road. It'd happened near enough to the house for us to switch to Grant's antique Eldorado Caddy without too much delay.
Percy and Samantha had piled the loot from the army camp into the car, and Percy was driving as we went on to my own base, where we were to release Erynne and give her a lift to LA.
This time we were likely to be leaving Sunnydale permanently. According the omens the town might not even be there for much longer. I'd spent time here but I was too busy checking through the items that I was taking out with me as we sped on. The dying town wasn't anything to cheer us on our way, anyway.
I looked up when an earth tremor took out a shopfront with a tinkling crash, but it was nowhere near us. Percy is a more experienced driver and I was glad he'd taken on the chore.
A pair of fighting were-wolves had slammed against the passenger side of the Caddy several times, a couple of days before. Now the front passenger door was dangerously loose, which was why I was stuck in that seat. The rear doors were jammed shut, with antique parts needed. I'd no idea what it might have done to the inner workings, but the Caddy had seemed tricky to drive, afterwards. Conditions deteriorate fast in a deserted town, too. There was broken glass in the streets and the earth tremors made things much worse.
I was eager to leave Sunnydale even though we seemed to have lost the demon that had chased us out of the army camp. As we pulled up outside the Old Embassy Theater (apparently derelict, and a useful base) I thought the worst was over - when will I learn?
As I opened the door I called to Erynne that her lift was here. I heard her answer that she wasn't quite ready as I turned and took the recorder/ltdi that connected to the inter-dimensional computer. I scooped up every disc in sight and was collecting everything small and portable that I wanted to keep.
I'd prepared a whole stack of portal opening discs and wanted those too. Some of the chants and incarnations have fractured, abreviated sounds that make them difficult to do from memory. I'd recorded most of those discs in two or more sessions to avoid ... accidents ... with a completed charm.
I'd put Erynne on the Minions list to get her inside, and taken her off it to keep her there. Security wouldn't pass her out unless she was listed. I was going to the computer to register her as employed again when I realised I could List her as a Friend now she was here to palm-print the pad. She'd still be able to use my base, if she needed it - because there was no way she could palm the pad as a wolf. I'd have done it that way in the first place if she'd been herself.
Then everything seemed to happen at once. The whole place shook violently. I heard Percy shout, went to the door, and saw something back the way we'd come. The shape just might have been the song-immune bundle of rage that had attacked us at the camp. It was in the far distance but moving fast.
There was something that might be a black line of liquid, or a crack, slowly widening across the road that we were headed down. The air was full of blowing dust. I shouted,
"Erynne! Get in the car now! Trouble! She shouted back that she was coming. I heard her, I saw her running out of from behind the stage with one hiking boot on and one in her hand. She whipped sideways to pick up a small bag, still moving fast. I leapt for the door, jamming the lock open with the keypad as I reached it and racing to the car. It was easier to see the pursuing demon now...
I jumped in the front passenger seat, knocking into Percy before standing, still clutching my things. The crack in the road ahead was much wider. There seemed only one choice left.
Quaverell had been amused to find a theatre here, so near the convergence of so many portals. The car was almost in the right position and I told Percy to ease her forward and to speed in when the way opened. Normally I'd have tried for LA or Seattle, both easy, but that could drop the pursuer on people we knew. Erynne wouldn't take to that.
Conditions were filthy and there was too much dust to chant safely. I slammed in a disc that should have taken us to Kansas, with a slight risk of faulting to Hampstead Heath, both good junctions for further jumps that would lose the brute. Erynne had been running for the car and there was thumping and a scrambling sound behind me as the disc started,
"C'ver vrk, nr'k npl, esc..." I won't quote the rest.
The dirty silvery whirl grew in the air in front of front of us, pulling us in fast. Percy gunned the motor and we were in and through - so fast and hard that the car bounced on its wheels when it landed...
The jolt as we landed, far from Sunnydale, had knocked me back into my seat. I looked at the scene ahead of us before turning to the driver and saying,
"Percy, I don't think we're in Kansas..."
Then I realised that Erynne wasn't in the car...
Percy and Samantha had piled the loot from the army camp into the car, and Percy was driving as we went on to my own base, where we were to release Erynne and give her a lift to LA.
This time we were likely to be leaving Sunnydale permanently. According the omens the town might not even be there for much longer. I'd spent time here but I was too busy checking through the items that I was taking out with me as we sped on. The dying town wasn't anything to cheer us on our way, anyway.
I looked up when an earth tremor took out a shopfront with a tinkling crash, but it was nowhere near us. Percy is a more experienced driver and I was glad he'd taken on the chore.
A pair of fighting were-wolves had slammed against the passenger side of the Caddy several times, a couple of days before. Now the front passenger door was dangerously loose, which was why I was stuck in that seat. The rear doors were jammed shut, with antique parts needed. I'd no idea what it might have done to the inner workings, but the Caddy had seemed tricky to drive, afterwards. Conditions deteriorate fast in a deserted town, too. There was broken glass in the streets and the earth tremors made things much worse.
I was eager to leave Sunnydale even though we seemed to have lost the demon that had chased us out of the army camp. As we pulled up outside the Old Embassy Theater (apparently derelict, and a useful base) I thought the worst was over - when will I learn?
As I opened the door I called to Erynne that her lift was here. I heard her answer that she wasn't quite ready as I turned and took the recorder/ltdi that connected to the inter-dimensional computer. I scooped up every disc in sight and was collecting everything small and portable that I wanted to keep.
I'd prepared a whole stack of portal opening discs and wanted those too. Some of the chants and incarnations have fractured, abreviated sounds that make them difficult to do from memory. I'd recorded most of those discs in two or more sessions to avoid ... accidents ... with a completed charm.
I'd put Erynne on the Minions list to get her inside, and taken her off it to keep her there. Security wouldn't pass her out unless she was listed. I was going to the computer to register her as employed again when I realised I could List her as a Friend now she was here to palm-print the pad. She'd still be able to use my base, if she needed it - because there was no way she could palm the pad as a wolf. I'd have done it that way in the first place if she'd been herself.
Then everything seemed to happen at once. The whole place shook violently. I heard Percy shout, went to the door, and saw something back the way we'd come. The shape just might have been the song-immune bundle of rage that had attacked us at the camp. It was in the far distance but moving fast.
There was something that might be a black line of liquid, or a crack, slowly widening across the road that we were headed down. The air was full of blowing dust. I shouted,
"Erynne! Get in the car now! Trouble! She shouted back that she was coming. I heard her, I saw her running out of from behind the stage with one hiking boot on and one in her hand. She whipped sideways to pick up a small bag, still moving fast. I leapt for the door, jamming the lock open with the keypad as I reached it and racing to the car. It was easier to see the pursuing demon now...
I jumped in the front passenger seat, knocking into Percy before standing, still clutching my things. The crack in the road ahead was much wider. There seemed only one choice left.
Quaverell had been amused to find a theatre here, so near the convergence of so many portals. The car was almost in the right position and I told Percy to ease her forward and to speed in when the way opened. Normally I'd have tried for LA or Seattle, both easy, but that could drop the pursuer on people we knew. Erynne wouldn't take to that.
Conditions were filthy and there was too much dust to chant safely. I slammed in a disc that should have taken us to Kansas, with a slight risk of faulting to Hampstead Heath, both good junctions for further jumps that would lose the brute. Erynne had been running for the car and there was thumping and a scrambling sound behind me as the disc started,
"C'ver vrk, nr'k npl, esc..." I won't quote the rest.
The dirty silvery whirl grew in the air in front of front of us, pulling us in fast. Percy gunned the motor and we were in and through - so fast and hard that the car bounced on its wheels when it landed...
The jolt as we landed, far from Sunnydale, had knocked me back into my seat. I looked at the scene ahead of us before turning to the driver and saying,
"Percy, I don't think we're in Kansas..."
Then I realised that Erynne wasn't in the car...
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Re: hunting prey
Date: 2003-05-21 08:00 pm (UTC)*She watches as it slides back into the
trees, disappearing from sight*
*Reddish-yellow sap drips onto the ground*
*backs away, and turns to resume her
trek toward the Caddy*