Nusac

Chapter 27
Faith’s POV

Life is good in Nusac right now. The sun is out birds are singing I’m on my way to buy a giant sharpening stone. Okay so I admit that last part of the list is the only part I’m actually interested in. I convinced Reg to make me that huge circular sharpening stone with a hole in the middle. Took a lot of convicting I can tell you. Then after I’d managed to talk him into it, it took this blacksmith guy the last three months to get it ready in the specks that I waned it.

Three months you say? Yes I do, you’ve been gone a while. Nine or so months. Not really that much to report so it’s probably good you haven’t dropped by. Boring for you but for me it’s life. I have a life how cool is that? Okay so I’m a little excited. Nam has never let me drive the cart before today. I had to stop myself from bouncing in my seat ‘cause if I had she would have climbed in along side me and taken the reins.

Okay so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you want a rundown on all that’s been happening? If I’m wrong… tough. Well where to start? Pike is still around. Not that he’s got anywhere else to go. He’s not really good at anything except wise cracks. Some of the stuff he’s come up with to say to the undead would put Buffy to shame. The amount of times I’ve nearly died laughing… literally I wouldn’t even try to count. Just don’t tell Nam. She has this thing… she doesn’t like it when I nearly die. As you saw.

About that… she still doesn’t remember anything about that day so I took the rap for killing Abbas. I’ve killed enough people to feel guilty for what’s one more? Don’t get me wrong I don’t feel guilty for it. I probably wouldn’t even if I had been the one to deliver the finishing blow. I just really don’t want her to have to go through that.

So the rest is just simple living. With a little demon hunting thrown in just for fun. I haven’t managed to break any bones for a while either so that’s always a plus… what is even cooler is that my knee and shoulder are still in perfect working order. Like I said before about not telling Namine… well Pike and I told her bits of it… actually most of it just the last part was altered slightly, she didn’t need to know about the whole it was her sealing the people in with the vamps or the fact she killed Abbas.

I don’t know what’s worse on this trip, the fact it’s taking so long to get to the damn place or how hard it’s gonna be to get the damn stone on the cart. I’m guessing a whole world of not fun.

“Fuck, Slayer did you have to want it so big?”

“What’s the matter Reg, can you not handle my rock.” I laugh in spite of myself, it was a lame joke but I cannot help it.

Between us we manage to prop the stone up on its edge against the cart so that all we have to do now is lift up the bottom and it should flop onto the cart… yeah… not sure if we should do it like that it might break the cart.

“On three… one… two… three…” Reg says as we both grip the bottom of the stone. Grunts and swearing follows, but finally the stone is on the cart.

“High five!” I say throwing my hand in the air, Reg obliges and a loud smack emits from our hands.

After catching our breath I sit with Reg on the edge of the cart. “So Nam told me to ask if you wanna come for dinner tonight.”

“I guess if she asked I better, she doesn’t seem like the person to mess with, something about being too innocent and sweet to actually be that innocent and sweet.” Reg replies smirking at me. “And I guess you should know.”

“And I’m guessing that I shouldn’t talk to you about things like that in case they do get back to her and she kicks my ass.”

“Fine, keep your details… I’ll just use my imagination.” Yeah, just because here they don’t frown on lesbianism doesn’t mean that the guys still aren’t perverts about the whole thing. I roll my eyes at him before he walks away to his house to pick up some stuff.

I ride the cart whilst Reg rides his magnificent grey speckled stallion Cloud. I love that horse but I think Reg rubbed off on him a little bit too much… you see whenever I turn my back Cloud tries to get it on with Aeries… which I suppose is all well and good because you know everyone should be happy and get some but the thing about Nusac is that they don’t really have vets in the traditional sense so they cant really get any of the horses fixed. Hence the reason we don’t leave Cloud and Aeries alone for long… don’t want any unplanned pregnancies on my watch!

I stop the cart with a sharp pull on the reins. “Woah.” I say before jumping down. Reg stops and gets off his horse to join me on the ground in a small clearing of the forest.

“You think a cart hit it or something?” Reg asks looking down at the reason I stopped. The cat is large, still a cat though I guess one of those grey tabby things… like I said it looks large its whole body stretches about three feet.

“It doesn’t look hurt…” I say turning my head sideways looking closer.

“Maybe some other animal got hold of it or something.” Reg says picking up a stick from the forest floor. I give him a strange look as he holds the stick. “I’m just gonna poke it a little bit to see if it’s dead or not.”

Why am I bothered about this? I don’t even like cats… but the whole size thing is sorta freaking me out… then again I am in an alternate dimension so I guess anything is possible. Reg edges closer to the cat and extends the stick towards its body. The stick prods at the cat’s stomach gently and still it doesn’t move.

“I guess it’s dead then…” I say as Reg throws the stick off the track. Reg makes a move to go back to his horse but I stare at the cat some more… something isn’t right about this thing. As I turn to get back on the cart I see a movement out the corner of my eye. The cat’s tail has moved from under its body… I am not liking that tail, it’s sorta like got two tails… it forks at the base and is kinda pointy at the ends.

The cat hisses and gets up… yeah this isn’t good at all.

Its back arches and most of its fur sands on end making it look even bigger. I never liked cats as it is. My neighbour had one back in Boston fucking thing kept attacking me. Fair enough I kept pulling its tail but I was only six. Now I have to deal with a demon cat. Am I allowed to run away just a few times?

Those two sharp looking tails begin to thrash around as it begins to growl. Nope looks like I can’t run away. It crouches low to the floor and lunges at me. Its front paws land squarely on my chest toppling me over onto my back on the ground. The paws on my chest use me as leverage to leap up and lad a good 5 feet away from me.

I push myself up onto my elbow to look behind me. See what I mean, cats just don’t like me.

It pushes its front paws against the ground to stand on hind legs… then being to change. Its fur disappears and paws turn into delicate hands and feet and what stands before me is a beautiful woman. Lets just say that if I wasn’t being all, faithful then I so would. Not that I’m saying much by that.

Her eyes are still slits like the feline from before and she’s still growling at me. I’d like to say that I stopped the cart so I didn’t run over her, why does she wanna hurt me so much? Her hand shoots down and in a flash of silver light a long and deadly looking sword appears in her open palm. A very sharp looking sword. Trust me I’m a blacksmith now I know these sorts of things.

I hear the sound of scraping metal as Reg draws his own sword.

She crouches low to the floor and springboards into the air high above our heads and come to land behind us. “Now that’s just cheating.” I comment. The way she’s looking at me I don’t think she’s speaks Latin.

A low meow is emitted from her vocal cords followed by a very menacing hiss. Sorry I don’t speak cat. She swings he sword at shoulder level and if I don’t think fast we may both lose our heads. I push Reg against his chest so he falls ungracefully on his butt. My back bends low to the ground to avoid getting hurt and curl my palm at my side producing a small ball of fire. I push my palm flat against cat lady’s chest and the flames engulf her.

I’m so glad that worked. Since getting that particular skill you notice exactly how many demons are impervious to fire.

Sorry did I forget to mention that before? I knew I’d forgotten something. Nam pushed the whole magic thing so I wouldn’t get captured again and look at the result. Sorry I didn’t mention it, it’s kind of the norm for me now.

As Reg gets to his feet he rolls his shoulders brushing himself down trying really wanting to make it look like he wasn’t on the floor a moment ago. “So is it gone?”

I smile climbing back up into the driving seat. “Yeah it’s gone.”

“Good.” Here comes the tough guy routine. “‘Cause if it had struck around I’d have kicked its ass.” This guy spends too much time with me.

“Sure you would.” I flick the reins and the horses begin to walk leaving Reg behind spluttering in protest at my comment. “Come on we’ll be late for dinner.” Was late for dinner once before… well more than that but I was always injured apart from that one time. Never ever going to put myself in that position again.

Dinner is as usual full of laughter when Reg is around, the thing with Reg is he and Pike are so on the same wavelength all the time so when they get together it’s like watching a double act in some great comedy club. Nam and me remain quiet as usual and just let the boys roll with their little banter.

“So there’s this cat just lying in the middle of the road. Playing dead you know what those dammed cats are like.” Reg begins the story putting his fork down against the plate in front of him. “Then Faith here stops just to see if it’s still alive.” Do want to see where he goes with this.

“I didn’t want to run over it.” I finish my meal and sit back in my seat giving the floor back over to Reg.

“Yeah, yeah. You were just being squeamish.” I roll my eyes at this comment and he continues. “So she starts poking it with this stick.” Hold on. When did I have a stick? “Just to see if it’s alive. Fucking thing morphed into a human right in front of me. From cat to human in seconds. It was a wonder to behold. She was very attractive until this sword appeared.”

Pike is captivated by the story as he always is. Everyone knows he’s exaggerating. Except me I know he’s just flat out lying this time. “Go on.” Pike urges leaning on the table.

“Well I showed that girl who’s boss around here. Showed her some fancy sword moves and she ran away. If I hadn’t been there Faith could have been in a world of trouble.”

“Yeah…” I comment less than enthused. His endings are usually much better than that. I think you just caught him on a bad day.

“See Faith this is why we can’t have a pet.” Namine says. Knew she was going to use that against me.

My mouth drops as I try to protest knowing there’s no point but unable to stop myself trying anyway. “I wanted a puppy. A dog not a cat. Cats can be evil… and they don’t like me.” I finish my sentence in a mumble not wanting to sound like a spoiled brat.

She shakes her head and refuses to argue with me on the matter.

Pike leans ever more heavily on the table. “Is that the way it went Faith?” Still stuck in the phoney story.

Reg looks at me pleading with me to agree. He doesn’t like being upstaged all the time. He likes the lime light every so often. He’s more than welcome to it. “Yeah that’s pretty much it.”

Reg manages to thank me with his eyes and stretches out his arms above his head. He looks out side at the demising light. “I think it’s time to be heading back.”

“Do you want an escort?” I ask with a smile on my face already standing to walk him to the door.

He does his strut all the way outside and to his horse. “I should be alright. Just wave my sword at them and they will all run screaming.” He blows on his fingernails and rubs them on his jacket. Yeah he’ll be all right. Night is drawing in. All the good little vampires will be getting themselves all tucked up in bed any time now. He mounts his horse and says his goodbyes and begins the ride back home.

“See ya later Reg, be careful yeah?” I shout after him and Cloud. The three of us remain just outside the front door for a little while waving as he fades into the distance.

I suppress a yawn as I walk over to the fire.

“Go sleep, you have worked hard today getting that thing up and running.” Nam says pointing to the bedroom.

“Yes mother.” I say smirking and jumping forward when she slaps my ass. Dirty bitch. Have to give her credit though she was right. I’m asleep before I even hit the pillow.

The warm light encases me, I seem to float around on the warm rays of the sun swirling and blowing in the wind. I feel completely at peace, there is no pain in me, not even painful memories… sure I can remember them but they don’t seem to hurt anymore.

I don’t think I have ever felt this good, I am overwhelmed with a sense of well-being and happiness. Every muscle in my body is singing in a symphony of otherworldly tones. My stomach is full, my mind is clear, my body is whole… I cannot describe the peace and happiness and… everything of this place… wherever I am I sure as hell never want to leave, I have never felt so good.

I take a huge breath as I wake up in the darkness, my lungs ache from lack of use and my whole body feels tingly and new. I cant help but panic as I move my head around trying to figure out where the fuck I am. My arms probe into the darkness hitting solid wood in all directions.

I am still panicking I have no idea how long the air will last in this place. My aching arms pound the sides of the box frantically, I open my mouth to scream but nothing seems to come out. I reach up and feel something silky and soft, my fingers clutch and rip away at the cloth frantically.

The cloth is thicker than I thought, it is taking too long. I pull and grasp at the material finally getting it off, then my hands come in contact with more wood. I punch with all my might as much as I can from the position I am in. The wood starts to splinter and break… earth falls into what little space there is in the box with me. I do not stop, the dirt falls into my mouth, eyes, nose… everywhere but I cannot stop. I need to get out.

My hand finally escapes and I can feel nothing in my grasp, it has reached the surface… if only the rest of me could. My other hand punches through the ground and I have to push with all my might against the dirt as I pull my head and shoulders out of the grave.

I lay panting on the grass, how the hell did I get here?

I awake with a start… sweat pouring from every part of my body. I cannot seem to catch my breath. It is light outside, I try to suppress a sob as I sit up in bed. This inadvertently awakes Namine.

“Faith?” She asks throwing an arm around my shoulder and pulling me in to lean on her. I lay my head on her breasts and try to stop crying… try being the operative word. “Faith, shh… You’re shaking.” She says trying to sooth me, she runs her fingers through my hair with one hand and rubs small circles on my back with the other.

I rock back and forth against Nam’s warm body. “I have to go back Nam, I need to go back…” My voice trails off as I try to block out the pain and anguish that has overwhelmed my senses.