FF: The Hunted
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy Joss does so please don’t sue, trust me it is so not worth it because I own nothing.
Feedback: Yeah feed me or I will wither away and you will never get the end of the story (only kidding…well maybe?).
Author: Reece
Pairing: Willow/ Tara.
Rating: Not certain just yet.
Summery: Read and find out.
Note: A/U, this is my first attempt at the Willow/Tara pairing, and unbetaed so please try to excuse any mistakes till I find a beta. Please enjoy
Part 1
She ran as fast as she could through the thick humid rainforest that surrounded her, her breathing was laboured as she raced threw the thick green undergrowth. Sweat was beaded on her brow part form the heat, part from exertion but most of it from fear. While sucking in a breath of warm damp air she continued to run, she knew it was close she could feel it if she could just stop for a minute she would be able to get her bearings and find it.
A loud, deep and savage roar rumbled from with in the depths of the rainforest behind her reminding her that stopping or even thinking about it anymore was going to get her killed. Pushing her self on knew it would find her sooner or later it was inevitable it was tracking her, stalking her, covering her every move and noting could stop it.
Suddenly a pulse of soft warm energy shot through her body, it reverberated through out her form pulling her and telling her to go right, looking in that direction she saw the sun that was squeezing threw the thick and dense foliage catch and glint of an object not to far into the distance. Making a hard right she increased her speed as she headed in the direction of the object.
The sudden sound of loud clumsy body bursting threw the forest breaking branch after branch as it moved in pursuit of its prey caught the young woman’s attention. Heavy footsteps chewing threw the forest behind her caused her heart rate to increase and her breathing to deepen as the fear that had been lurking at the back of her mind clawed its way out and exploded over her entire being, caught up in the fear that had over taken her the woman lost her concentration and collide with a tree stump that was protruding form the ground at an odd angle. Unable to maintain her balance she fell, her body ploughing into the wet and muddy rainforest forest floor.
She slipped as she desperately tried to pull herself up from the rainforest floor. Covered in a thick layer of mud and bent on all fours the young woman failed to notice as a large shadow fell over her slender form blocking out the what little light had managed to descend threw the over lapping leaves of the huge trees. A huge hair covered leg encrusted with wet mud and leaves swung like a pendulum at incredible speed and impacted with her exposed side propelling her threw the air. Desperately twisting her body in mid air she felt the air as it was knocked from her lungs as she crashed into the trunk of a tree.
She refused to lose consciousness doing so would guarantee her death, a cough suddenly racked her body lifting a hand towards her head she brushed it against her lips, looking at the back of her hand blood was smeared along her knuckles mixed with saliva and mud. A low rumbling growl pulled her attention away from her hand swivelling her head around the young woman came face to face with the demon that had been following her for the past day or so. It was huge, larger that she had initially thought standing at a little over 7ft in height. The thing was hideous, mad red flecked black eyes bulged from the demons eye sockets, while huge fangs reaching 6 inches at leased protruded from the demons mouth saliva ran down them and dripped on to the matted and dirty fur of the demons chest. The snout like nose sucked air in like a vacuum and then expelled the air noisily through the demons mouth. As her eyes tracked downwards she could see that the fur covered the demon entirely, a rancid a pungent odour emanated from the demon it was reminiscent of rotting flesh and the young woman did well to keep hold of the content of her stomach. The movement of the demons long arm drew her eyes to the large curved claws on the demons hand.
Tendrils of fear began to wrap themselves around her heart and squeeze, willing it to go away the girl renewed he earlier effort to pull herself up from the muddy ground. She knew she had to defend her self but she also knew that she had over exerted herself and her energy levels where running dangerously low, throwing caution to the wind the young woman closed her eyes and raised her right hand she held it out stretched towards the demon.
“Please let this work.” The quick heart felt prayer resonated threw her mind as she Concentred hard. She could feel her power as she pulled it to the fore. Opening her eyes suddenly they automatically narrowed and she thrust her right palm out in front of her body. She felt the raw and animalistic power rise and swell with in her breast. Almost as soon as it had risen it was moving rapidly throughout her being along her arm and bursting forth from her palm.
The demon slowly cocked its head to the side and snarled in the woman’s direction and watched as she held out her hand. The demon decided it had had enough of the chase and stalked in her direction its master wanted the woman dead.
She watched through narrowed eyes as the demon moved toward her. She knew it must be moving fast but she was lost in the accumulation of her power. The power built and she became detached form everything. She could vaguely feel it as energy snaked its way down her finger to the tips. Bending her fingers slightly she began to direct the flow into the palm of her hand. Five streams of energy combined churning into a swirling ball of white energy.
Time around her had slowed as the ball of energy came into existence, looking up the demon had frozen its arm raised and claws extended pointing downward towards her exposed chest a look of feral savageness frozen on its face. As she straitened her fingers the time around her returned to normal and the energy ball flew from her palm and tore into the demons stomach and ravaged through its body propelling it backwards with phenomenal force.
Pulling herself to her feet the young woman took one look at the dead demon its body mangled and ripped apart by the energy. Desperately she forced her body to move in the direction she had been pulled in, before the demon had caught up with her. Every breath she took and every move she made hurt telling her that the demon had done some serious damage to her body. As she stumbled into the clearing she sunk to her knees and thanked the gods and goddesses for guiding her here. Scrambling along the ground she reached the small column of crystal that was embedded in the ground using it for leverage the woman slowly pulled her battered and bruised body up off the ground.
Pulling a wickedly sharp looking dagger from the scabbard on her left leg she quickly pressed the blade to her right palm. The blonde ran the blade down an already prominent scar that existed on her palm. As she moved the dagger away blood dripped from her hand and landed onto the crystal column turning the crystal from milky white to light pink.
Slamming her blood soaked palm down on then crystal she watched as it turned from light pink to vividly deep crimson. There was a strange low rumbling sound beneath her but the woman didn’t move even when the earth surrounding the column began to fall away she didn’t move. She, the young woman was almost flowing as the light busted forth from the column engulfing everything within its reach.
When the light faded there was no column. There was no woman. There was nothing. The only sign that something had been there at all was the rancid and mangled body off a demon and a perfect circle of still smoking scorched earth.
****
Red light bathed the room looking up from the screen in front of him Conan Pepper knew he was needed. Jumping to his feet the tall gangly man grabbed the first aid kit he always kept close to his side. The arcward young man adjusted his glasses and dragged a hand threw his greased hair and ran towards the door almost tripping over the large wolf sleeping in the way.
“Sorry Grey, got to move your mistress is back boy, duty calls.”
The wolfs ears pricked at the word mistress and low rumbling growl was all that he received as the black wolf got up and stalked out of the room and headed in the direction he was headed. Sighing to himself the young man ran after the wolf. He could swear it had glared at him as it went past. She had told it to protect him while she was gone. So naturally the wolf had done just that. The great hairy beast hadn’t moved from his side, the dumb animal hadn’t even let him go the toilet in peace.
As he rounded the corner he almost ran into Grey again. Cursing under his breath Conan hit the entrance button to the chamber and allowed the wolf to enter a head of him. The chamber was a huge spherical room it was so dark it took his eyes a few seconds to adjust. Even then he could just about see through the gloom. He hated coming in here it always gave him the creeps he would rather be anywhere but here but as he said to the beast duty calls. The only thing usually in the room was the pedestal to him it just looked like a lump of rock covered in graffiti. He could see the pedestal and next to it a shape. Launching forward Conan came to a stop beside the shape and dropped to his knees.
“Oh no! Tara? Tara? Are you ok?”
“Ughhhh” was the sound that was emitted from the woman half slumped on the pedestal
Rolling her over Conan gasped at the blood and the dirt.
“Oh that’s not good. Tara come on please wake up!” Shaking the young woman Conan pleaded with his old friend to wake up. She did this all the time. For her travelling through the dimensions was like taking the train or a bus. This was not good. She looked awful. She was in a bad way, in all the time he had worked for her he had never seen her come back in this condition. This was what she paid him for and this is what he was trained for.
“Hey Grey your going to have to help me. You grab my kit and I’ll grab your mistress. Ok?”
The wolf emerged silently out of the inky black surrounding them and moved over to his mistress gently licking the face of the blonde woman on the floor.
Sliding his left arm under her neck and this right arm under her legs Conan forced his legs to raise himself and Tara up. Moving quickly threw the gloomy room Conan headed toward the door with Tara in his arms and the black wolf following on his heals first aid kit and all.
Walking as fast as he could with the body in his arms Conan made his way through the door and along the corridor he had originally came form. The complex in which they lived and worked was dull the walls once and off white colour where now grey and scorched. The place was a dump but it was home. The corridor steepened and the weight of Tara began to increases.
“Christ I should really start to work out. You don’t look this heavy Tare.”
Grunting with the effort Conan tried to hit the button to the door half way up the corridor. Managing to knock it with his elbow the young man heard the door swish open behind him and he gently maundered around and then shuffled sideways into the room.
In the room was practically empty apart from a dirty looking table that had seen better days, a grubby sink and an old stove. Coming to a halt in front of it Conan laid his friend down gently on the table top. Taking a deep breath of stale air Conan tried to mentally prepare himself for the task ahead. Grabbing her jacket he undid the zip and removed it quickly. He worked in silence and with such efficacy. It took him not time to get the dirt and blood covered clothes of his friend. Shrugging of his own shirt he hastily covered the naked body and over toward the sink. Turning on the tap he left the water running giving it time to heat up while he searched for a bowl.
“Hey Grey go and get me a blanket. I’m going to have to use my shirt for rags.”
The wolf growled but moved with lightly speed out of the door to do as Conan requested.
Moving back over to the prone woman Conan grabbed a chair and placed the bowl down on it next to the table. Grabbing his kit he put that on the chair as well and found a small bottle of disinfectant and poured a cap full into the water.
When Grey returned with the blanket Conan thanked the Wolf and pulled his shirt of his old friend and replaced it with the blanket.
Ripping the shirt in to shreds he dipped some of the strips he had made in to the lukewarm water and began to clean the encrusted dirt and blood from Tara's body while looking for any open wounds and other injuries.
The first thing he noticed as the filth was removed that her mid rift was badly bruised and her ribs must be broken. Small cuts covered her face and hands the only exposed parts of her body. A deep gash cut across her right bicep and another on the inside of her palm. That was an injury he was used to. There was a puncture wound on the back of the left calf, it went right the way through the flesh was ragged and torn round the injury.
After he had finished cleaning her Conan pulled all he needed form the first aid kit and began to patch her up as best he could. After ha had fished cleaning, stitching and dressing the wounds the young man emptied the water out and threw the dirt remains of his shirt in the rubbish. He had done all he could do, the healing part was up to his friend. A warm and heavy body knocked in to his legs and wound round them looking down Conan smiled at Grey and ran his hand over the dark and warm fur. This he knew was the wolf's way of saying he had done and good job and thanks.
“No problem boy. Let’s get her back to her room and then ill see what I can find for us to eat I'm starving.”
A loud bark met his ears as he moved to the table and lifted the clean and naked friend and took her to her bedroom.
****
Oh god was the first thought that rang throughout her brain. The pain that she could feel was unbearable. Her head throbbed like someone had taken to whacking it repeatedly with a hammer. Her whole body was aching and she didn’t want to wake up.
She could feel hot breath on her face forcing her eyes to crack open she turned her head and her blue eyes met and a brown pair, deeply set and shining with joy.
Clearing her throat she forced her hand to move and pat the top of the black head.
“Hey boy, you look happy to see me.”
“He isn’t the only one thank god your awake.”
Looking in the direction of the voice Tara was shocked at the state of her friend. While he was not the most fashionable man she had ever met in her life but he was always well kept. Today how ever he wasn’t his hair was a mess and stubble covered his usually clean shaven face his glasses were grasped in his had his clothes where rumpled and looked like they were in need of a wash, so did he if she though about it.
“You don’t look so good.”
“Yeah? Well you should take a look in the mirror.”
A half smile crept on to Tara's face as her friend stood and moved over to her bed. “That bad huh?”
“Well you don’t look your usual gorgeous self.”
A laugh bubbled up in her chest and quickly turned into a racking cough. A glass was gently pressed to her lips and a hand on the back of her head urged her to drink. After a few sips the glass was removed and her head lowered back to its pillow.
“What happened?”
“A demon.”
“Just the one?” She could see the puzzlement in Conan’s face and hear it in his voice. One demon was usually no problem but the thing she had met wasn’t natural. Well as natural as demons got.
“It wasn’t your average demon. It was a trap.”
Taking a deep breath Tara closed her eyes and tried to push the pain away. Pulling the covers of her face reddened as she saw that she was naked.
“I…err….I... had to take your… clothes off to treat you sorry.” Looking up she saw that Conan had turned his back and was staring at the door to her room.
“Its ok I understand, and I’m thankful that you were here.” Dizziness and pain washed over her as she stood.
“You shouldn’t get out of bed.” There was warning in the statement from her friend but she didn’t have time for it.
“We aren’t safe here Conan. Get what you can carry and then come back here.”
“What?”
She didn’t have time for questions. “I promise I will explain everything when we find some where safe.”
“Why do we have to leave?”
“Hhhhe knows wwwhere I am.”
The colour that was in Conan’s Face drained away and was replaced with sheer terror. A strangled sound escaped from his throat as he spun around to face her.
“Hurry Conan and get what you can carry only essentials. A change of cloths, some food, weapons, what ever you think you will need.”
“But…”
“Go!”
She had to run again, this time she wasn’t alone she would take Conan and Grey with her she could bare it if anything happened to her friends and she would never forgive herself. She understood his terror all to well, but were Conan’s fear stemmed from the tales he had coxed form her. Hers fear stemmed from the known, she knew who was hunting her; she had seen his face, looked into his eyes and almost drowned in the evil that resided within them. She had escaped him and he wanted her back. She never believed he would find her but she was mistaken. He had found her and now he was coming to get her.
Login
FAQ
Search
ensues 
