Prompt# 304 - Dystychiphobia - How He Was - Tekia – Original/Exalted

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: How He Was
Fandom: Original/Exalted
Prompt: Dystychiphobia
Warnings: none
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Dark Lord returns home after two years away at war.

The goddess came to Iron Dust while he was sleeping.
“There’s someone here that shouldn’t be here.” She stood before him, her feet bare and a cloak of pale moonlight on her shoulders. Her hair was shorn to her ears, and her eyes were dark. She held her body stiffly as if merely being in his dream displeased her, her arms folded over her chest, her lips thin.
He licked his lips, but couldn’t find his voice.
“I want you to go, find him, and get him out of here.”
He tried to speak again, but words wouldn’t come to his tongue.
“He shouldn’t exalt. Nothing good will come from him exalting, so you must find him and return him to where he belongs before he does something stupid.”
He didn’t understand. Stop someone from exalting? Well, it wasn’t as if it hadn’t been done before. But why? They were in the middle of a war that decided the fate of Creation. Why would they stop anybody from exalting?
He shook his head. Those questions weren’t for him to ask. The goddess had given him a duty.
“He’s east of here. Stop him from exalting, and send him home. Once you find him, I’ll show you the door to his world.”
He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but he was suddenly blinking his eyes open, the green tinted light from sunlight filtering in through leaves dancing above him. He took a moment to remember his dream, his new quest, before he sat up and ran a hand though his hair.
He was alone beside the campfire from the night before, the other bedroll folded up and tucked into the saddlebags. The fire was cold.
He set about cleaning up his half of the camp, mindful of his companion’s absence. White Song was prone to wondering off, but he chalked it up to her Lunar nature.
Was that why Luna had come to him? Because he traveled with one of her children? That too made no sense. He firmly pushed those thoughts out of his mind. There was a sense of urgency flowing in his blood, telling him to get a move on, to find the man and get him as far away from Creation as possible.
How he was to do that, he didn’t know.
By the time he had geared up the horses, his companion returned. She crept into the clearing as a white fox, her totem animal, pink nose sniffing the ground. When she reached the middle of the camp, she changed back into a human, all lithe grace and poise.
She pushed her mane of white hair over her shoulder and eyed his hands on the leather of the saddle. “Heading out so quickly? You haven’t eaten yet.”
He shook his head. “There isn’t time.” He bent and picked up the last few items littering the ground. “I’ve been given a mission.”
Her head tilted to one side. He thought that perhaps if she still had her fox ears, they would be twitching with curiosity. “Where will we be off to?”
“I don’t know. East of here.” He put a hand to his chest. “Something is pulling me here.”
She nodded. “Then let’s be off.” She turned and shrank in size until she was once more in her totem form. The horse barely flinched when she leaped onto its rump, settling in.
Shaking his head, Iron Dust pulled himself into the saddle and turned the horse east.
Two days passed before the constant pull of ever east began to deviate from their set path.
“We must be getting close,” White Song murmured as they paused to watch a flock of birds scatter at their presence. “Your lodestone is finely tuned to this man’s presence.”
“Luna told me to find him and send him back from whence he came. It seems that he and I are tied together until he’s sent away.”
“Without him exalting.” She sat up, her large ears twitching with interest. “What do you suppose they fear from him?”
Iron Dust shook his head. “I have no clue.”
They left their horse behind at the next town they came across. The trees were denser here and the horse would only slow them down. White Song took to the air in the form of a great eagle, her massive wings tipped in the same white of her fox fur.
Iron Dust walked on, his eyes on his feet more than on the direction he was headed. The ever constant pull led him true, and he trusted it without a doubt. White Song would keep an eye out for danger, and he trusted her with his life.
Nearing nightfall, White Song dropped to the ground, once more human shaped, a wicked blade in her hand as she crouched protectively before him. A low growl from the back of her throat filled the otherwise silent forest.
Iron Dust tensed on the balls of his feet as his eyes sought out the danger his companion had found. And there it was: a fae so very far away from the Border Lands. Iron Dust stood calm and collected as the creature crept closer, eyes not on the fae at all, but on the forest around it. He kept his hands lax at his sides.
“Such pretty creatures so far from safety,” the fae said, her voice soft and lilting, eager to charm the unwitting.
White Song snorted. “Turn about and leave us, Fae,” she commanded.
The creature turned it’s unnaturally large eyes onto her, glad to latch on to a person that would fall for her tricks. “This is closer to my territory than yours.” Her lips curled over her sharp teeth.
White Song mimicked her smirk. “Perhaps, but I’m stronger than you.”
The fae hesitated a moment, her eyes flicking from White Song to Iron Dust and back. Then she took one step back. “I’ll leave you, for there is easier game in this forest.” She turned to go, her brown silky hair sliding over her shoulder with her movement.
“Wait,” Iron Dust called out. “Easier game?”
“What?” White Song turned her glare onto him.
He held out his hand to stall her.
The fae smirked. “Humans are so much easier.” She faded away as if she were made of wind and Iron Dust cursed.
“Our target.”
White Song took a moment to process that information before she was racing after him as he followed the gust of wind that took the fae away from them.
Dodging trees was easier when you’re the size of a fox, but Iron Dust didn’t have that advantage. Instead he used his magic to lift him into the tree branches, his steps light as he danced along as if he were as the wind itself.
He heard White Song roar and quickly dropped to the ground. She had leaped onto the fae, her beastman form far larger than the fae and making the fight look unmatched. The three humans standing before them all had weapons in their hands and looked ready to join in the fight.
One of the humans was his human.
With a soft curse, Iron Dust quickly stepped between the humans and the fight. He held up his hands, palms out, to show he was no threat. The tall blond man was so startled that he turned his eyes away from the fight to Iron Dust.
“Please, stay out of this one. We don’t want any accidents.”
The human said something, and Iron Dust was stunned to realize that he didn’t know that language. He tried more common language, hoping that they would understand him.
Behind him, White Song threw the fae away from them and turned to roar once more. The humans reacted by tensing. The large blond made to shove Iron Dust out of his way. Iron Dust latched onto his massive arm and shook his head. “Do not interfere.”
He pointed and said something in an angry tone. Iron Dust shook his head again.
Then the fae was returning and had lost the glamour of beauty. She had turned into a mass of rage. Her long chicken legs had grown claws as large as Iron Dust’s hands, and she had two short swords in her hands. She had grown in size to match White Song.
The humans all jerked with shock. Iron Dust wondered for a brief moment what the fae had shown herself as to them.
He tried to turn the humans away from the fight. It was too close to turmoil for him. If anything happened here, his human might exalt. He couldn’t risk it.
“Please, let us away from here.” He pointed between a pair of trees, opposite the fight. The other two humans, another blond and one of black hair, were smaller than the large blond, and were engrossed in the fight.
The dark haired man was talking in a low murmur, had been since they had arrived. Iron Dust couldn’t understand a thing he was saying, but thought perhaps that he was also in danger of being his exalted one. Lips thinning, Iron Dust turned his attention the last human.
He too was a large man. His eyes moved about like a bird’s, never settling on one object for long.
Iron Dust couldn’t tell among them which one was his human. He tried to usher them away again, but by then White Song had ended the fight. The fae fled with a rush of wind again, this time the wind strong enough to toss Iron Dust’s hair until the black length was hanging over his face.
He brushed it back and looked at White Song. She stood in her beastman form, breathing hard, gazing in the direction the fae had gone off in. “She’ll come back.”
Iron Dust nodded. “Of course. The faster we flee, the less likely she’ll find us.”
White Song turned toward them and grinned, exposing her mouth full of fangs.
The large blond acted before Iron Dust could react and pulled him behind his larger frame. White Song laughed.
“He means to protect you!” She threw back her head and laughed a full belly laugh that was the oddest thing to see coming from the beast creature. Iron Dust tried to sooth the men.
“It is quite all right. She is our friend. White Song, change back, you’re less threatening in your human form.”
She did so, shrinking down into her small female form, her long white hair hanging free nearly down to the ground. She wore a dress of the softest leather that had been died sky blue to match the tattoos trailing around her exposed thighs and arms.
One of the men whistled lowly.
Iron Dust shook his head and stepped around the large blond. “We need to leave, now, before we have an accident.”
“You’re so scared that we will.”
Iron Dust nodded. “Luna warned me to make sure it didn’t happen. A fight with a fae will surely cause exaltation.”
She shrugged and dropped down into her fox form before running and leaping onto the tall blonde’s shoulder. “Then let us away.”
With a hand on the blonde’s arm, Iron Dust tried to direct them away. Thankfully, this time they went.
One of these men was his human that was not meant to exalt. He had to get them back from whence they came, while traveling through a war torn land. And the men appeared quite willing to fall into battle to protect themselves.
They couldn’t speak a language Iron Dust knew, and how knows how many dangers awaited them?
As they walked, Iron Dust quickly made up a charm, changing his own personality. He was going to have to avoid fights as well, and focus most of his attention on the humans. He was going have to become very afraid of any situation that may lead to an accidental exaltation.
When the request for a resplendent destiny was finished, he cast it upon himself and felt a type of paranoia settle over him.
Good, now, to get Luna to tell him what he was to do next.