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“…come on, wake up, Imogen!”
Fearne’s voice sounded foggy and distorted as Imogen struggled to do what she was shouting. When had she fallen asleep? What was going on?
“Please wake up? Oooh no, she got another one. Oh well… Imogen!”
Imogen did finally manage to yank herself to consciousness when Fearne grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. She was on the ground, which was weird. Fearne’s face lit up in a grin when she saw Imogen’s eyes open.
“Oh good, you’re back!” she exclaimed, carefully pulling Imogen into a sitting position and brushing some dirt from her back as Imogen looked around in confusion. “Do you know where you are? Remember what’s going on?”
“Uh…” Imogen began, glancing around at the scrubby stretch of field she found herself in, but Fearne didn’t let her puzzle it out.
“So we’re fighting some jerk wizards,” she filled in quickly, and when Imogen looked in a certain direction over Fearne’s shoulder, Fearne quickly moved to block her view. Imogen could hear someone screaming in terror from that direction. Huh. “One of them managed to throw a fireball at us. You got the worst of it and got knocked out.”
“Right,” Imogen breathed, nodding. Yes, she remembered that. She could see Ashton helping Orym to his feet out of the corner of her eye, the two of them brushing soot off of themselves. Chetney was somewhere on her other side in wolf form, watching… whatever was happening behind Fearne that she didn’t want Imogen to see. That tally was missing a couple of people and Imogen’s pulse spiked in panic. “Where’s Laudna?”
“She’s fine!” Fearne said quickly, but Imogen must have been staring at her in a manic sort of way because she relented almost immediately. “Okay she’s fine physically. She kind of freaked out when you got knocked unconscious.”
Imogen started scrambling to her feet and Fearne jumped up first to help her, which was good because she was a little dizzier than she realized. It was sunset, and the sky was full of pewter gray storm clouds. They were near the edge of a dark forest, wind whistling across the dusty field beyond the tree cover. Imogen and Fearne were at the edge of an obvious blast crater, both sooty and scuffed like Orym and Ashton appeared to be. But the dark red sky and the chilly wind and the cracked ground mattered very little to Imogen.
“What… what do you mean ‘freaked out?’” Imogen stammered. She tried to look past Fearne to see Laudna, as she could still hear a low wailing sound coming from over there, but again Fearne moved to block her view with her hands up in a gesture of platitude.
“It’s fine, it’s cool, Letters is over there right now to calm her down-”
Before Fearne could finish, the sound of F.C.G. shouting rapidly grew closer until he suddenly clanked to the ground next to them.
“Holy shit,” Fearne blurted, but Letters sat up almost immediately.
“Oh, Imogen! You’re awake!” he said cheerfully, as if he hadn’t just sailed a hundred feet through the air and crash-landed in the dirt. “Nice job, Fearney.”
“Letters, are you okay?” Imogen asked, but F.C.G. just waved her question off.
“I’m fine, but you should probably go check with Laudna,” he said, and if his metal face could frown in consternation it would have. “She was not interested in pointing out where she was on my feelins’ wheel.”
The hand-carved emotion wheel Chetney had made for Letters bounced off the ground next to him. F.C.G. and Fearne both stared at it, bemused, and Imogen made another attempt to skirt around Fearne. But once again, Fearne grabbed her by the shoulders and stopped her in place.
“Let me go, Fearne,” Imogen snapped, and Fearne lifted her hands back up in surrender immediately.
“Look, I just want to give you a little warning,” Fearne said lowly, and Imogen let out an irate sigh but stopped to listen nonetheless. “She saw you go down, and she started… screaming, a lot. And then her Form of Dread changed into something… new.”
That distant wailing sound that was making Imogen’s heart clench… was that Laudna?
“And she started kind of screeching at everyone to get away from you,” Fearne continued quickly, as it was clear to her that she was losing Imogen’s attention. “And she uh, got rid of that one jerk wizard with the fireballs…” Imogen followed Fearne’s eyes to a smear on the ground about twenty feet away, consisting mostly of a torn Ruby Vanguard cloak soaked in black ichor. “So the other two made a run for it, and she went after them, and then I woke you up!”
“Fearne, please,” Imogen said lowly, clenching her hands into fists to keep them from shaking. “Let me go to her.”
Fearne glanced at F.C.G., who nodded, and then sighed and stepped aside. Imogen took off running the second she could see past her.
Imogen’s heart was thundering in her ears. Her Form of Dread changed into something new? What did that mean? And that heart-breaking screaming was getting louder now, was that her?
Ahead, near a jagged outcropping of rock breaking the wind-swept plain, was a hulking shape consumed in shadow. The figure was stooped low to the ground, focused on something out of sight. As she got closer, it became clear the moaning sound was coming from the shadow, and it felt like a fist clenched around Imogen’s heart as she recognized Laudna’s voice within that chorus of howls.
“Laudna,” she called out as she approached. “Laudna, I’m alright. I’m okay.”
The creature spun toward Imogen with a speed that belied its size. She couldn’t suppress a gasp at the sight.
Laudna’s face barely peeked out from a mass of black feathers, thick rivulets of black tears pouring from wide, pure black eyes. Gnarled tree branches sprouted from her shoulders and stretched into the gray-red sky, pouring shadows like fog, giving her the larger appearance that Imogen had seen from afar. Her arms were long and skeletal, greasy black feathers sprouting from her elbows and wrists. Her hands, long and clawed and dripping black ichor, were also smeared with fresh red blood, most likely from the two indistinct shapes on the ground behind her that had probably been the other two jerk wizards. Even hunched as she was, she stood several feet taller than Imogen as she came closer, slow and careful.
“Im… ogen…” Laudna croaked, her voice layered beneath whispers and growls like when she spoke into Imogen’s mind. Her big eyes blinked down at Imogen like she didn’t recognize her, but Imogen wasn’t afraid. She could never be afraid of Laudna.
“Yeah it’s me, it’s your Imogen,” she said quietly, moving within arm’s reach of Laudna’s tall, stooping form. “Can I come close? Can I touch you?”
Laudna’s brow furrowed, and Imogen could see her warring with herself, shaking her head back and forth and blinking her eyes over and over. Finally, she nodded her feathered head, and when she opened her eyes next there was a familiar focus in them. Imogen smiled vibrantly as she stepped in between Laudna’s long arms and reached up, laying a hand flat against Laudna’s chest where she could feel her slow, thunderous heartbeat.
“My… my Imogen,” Laudna rasped, and when Imogen nodded the shadows ceased pouring from the tree branches above them.
“It’s alright,” Imogen whispered, and she heard Laudna let out a long sigh of relief. “We’re alright, darlin’. We’re okay.”
“Imogen,” Laudna replied just as quietly, and her voice sounded more like just hers now as her body relaxed, tiny bit by tiny bit, in Imogen’s presence. “Oh, my dearest, I was so frightened.”
“I know,” Imogen nodded, and Laudna seemed to be shrinking in toward her just a bit. “But Fearne got me back up. I’m okay, I promise.”
Now that she was up close, Imogen could better see the details of this Form of Dread. Her face, white as porcelain, was surrounded by a halo of dark feathers sprouting in place of her hair and all over her neck. It gave her a slightly owl-like appearance, if an owl could cry great black tears and had a mouthful of sharpened teeth. Beneath the tree branches reaching skyward, bony wings had sprouted from Laudna’s shoulder blades, half-heartedly covered in sharp black feathers. Her legs had become long, leathery bird legs with talons sharper and blacker than any raven Imogen had ever seen. As she loomed over Imogen, most of Laudna’s weight was resting on her hands, planted on either side of Imogen’s feet at the end of her elongated arms. Her clawed fingers dug furrows into the dirt as she clenched them anxiously.
“Laudna,” Imogen breathed, lifting her other hand up to Laudna’s cheek. The soft, warm touch made Laudna shudder, but she nuzzled into it like she was desperate for it, and Imogen let out a breathless laugh. She ran her thumb gently below one eye, smearing some black tears away. “Laudna, this new form of yours… it’s incredible.”
Laudna laughed, the sound deep and rumbly and just a touch bitter. She looked away from Imogen’s face, but moved in such a way that her hand didn’t leave her cheek.
“Imogen… you’re far too kind to me,” she sighed. “I… I lost control again.”
Imogen slid her hand down to the join between Laudna’s neck and shoulder, unable to move further down due to the tree branches sprouting there. Though the branches were shrinking away now, as were the feathers, very slowly.
“It’s okay, Laudna. We can’t be completely under control all the time, especially when we’re in danger,” Imogen said firmly. “I leveled an entire city block the last time I saw you go down.”
Laudna turned to meet her eyes again at that, and Imogen smiled at her. Laudna didn’t seem to know what to do with that, where to put all of this open kindness, so she looked down bashfully.
“You’re hurtin’ too much, Laud,” Imogen pressed, sliding the hand from Laudna’s chest up to the other side of her face. “We were under attack, and you defended me. You got ‘em. We… we’re at war, y’know?” Both of them winced a bit at that, a turn of phrase that had become more common among the group recently, but Imogen shook her head briskly and went on. “Just take a deep breath for me.”
Laudna did as she asked, the feathers and bones retreating further into her form as she exhaled. The smile returned to Imogen’s face as they shared a couple of deep breaths.
“Can I hug you?” Imogen asked, and Laudna wrinkled her nose.
“Surely not while I’m this… monster,” she murmured in disbelief, and Imogen couldn’t hold back a sigh.
“Laudna, I’m in love with you,” Imogen said seriously, and Laudna managed to muster a greyish-violet blush high on her cheeks, pretty beneath the tiny feathers now shrinking into her temples. “And not in spite of the things about yourself you think are monstrous. I love you because of those things. I always have.”
Laudna bit her lower lip, potentially to keep her jaw from shaking as tears began dripping from her eyes again. Before Imogen could say another word, Laudna wrapped her long arms around her, enveloping her in a careful embrace. But Imogen threw her arms around her neck and hugged her tight, unafraid. Laudna let out a shuddering breath as she sank into Imogen, the last shred of apprehension about hurting her finally leaving her.
“I still just can’t believe you find me… loveable,” Laudna murmured, and Imogen shook her head with a laugh.
“Not just that, I think you’re beautiful, Laudna,” she said fervently, leaning back a bit to take Laudna’s face in her hands again. Laudna met Imogen’s gaze, eyes flicking between Imogen’s like she was looking for something, trying to make sense of her. “Why do you think my new dress shows off my scars?”
Laudna tilted her head, genuinely confused, as Imogen drew one hand back to show Laudna her sleeve. Glowing beneath the sheer fabric, as ever, were the lightning scars racing up her arms from her fingertips.
“You’ve always said they’re beautiful,” Imogen said softly, smiling at the sight of the red and violet light reflected in Laudna’s deep black eyes. “And I trust your judgement on the subject, because you are the most beautiful person I’ve ever met.”
Laudna sniffled. She let out a watery laugh. Then she broke down crying, burying her face in the space between Imogen’s neck and shoulder and wrapping her arms tight around her. Imogen stood firm, holding up her weight easily and running her hands slowly up and down Laudna’s back.
“I love you so much,” Laudna bawled, muffled against Imogen’s neck, and Imogen couldn’t keep the smile from her face despite Laudna’s tears.
“I love you too, Laud,” Imogen whispered. “So much. More than anything.”
When Laudna’s tears had run their course, she pulled back as far as Imogen’s arms would let her and began wiping her tears away with the heels of her hands. But Imogen reached up to help, leaving the two of them laughing as they swatted at each other’s hands until Imogen finally pulled out her old yellow hanky and finished the job.
“Can I kiss you?” Imogen asked, and Laudna snorted a laugh.
“Really? While I’m in this form?” Laudna asked, eyebrows shooting up.
“What form?” Imogen asked with a smirk.
Laudna looked down at her arms, her hands, her feet. All the branches and feathers had disappeared, the talons and claws and ichor were all gone. She looked back up at Imogen, who was smiling at her like she adored her, which she did. Laudna almost started crying again.
“I would, though, just so you know,” Imogen said, just a bit suggestively, and Laudna let out a bright, incredulous laugh. “I’d kiss you with all the branches and the teeth and all of it. ‘Cause it’s still you.”
“That’s really sweet, but also… kind of disgusting,” Laudna laughed, wrapping her arms comfortably around Imogen’s waist, and Imogen wiggled her eyebrows.
“Only if you want it to be, babe.”
The sound of Laudna’s unabashed laughter drew the rest of Bell’s Hells over to them from across the field. Everyone was a little battered, but otherwise okay.
“You both good?” Letters asked, and Laudna immediately knelt down to face the small automaton.
“I’m so sorry I threw you like that, Fresh Cut Grass,” she said seriously, and Letters just took her hand in his and patted it kindly. “I wasn’t quite in control of myself, I’m afraid.”
“Yes I realized that after the fact,” they replied with a nod. “But no worries, I’m fine. All’s forgiven.”
“Can I at least mend your emotion wheel?” Laudna implored, but Chetney, a crotchety gnome again rather than the wolf Imogen had last seen, just let out a snort of laughter.
“Please, that’s C. Pop Industries engineering, baby,” he drawled, showing the object in question to Laudna. “Not a scratch on her.”
“That really is impressive,” Laudna said seriously, nodding as she looked the item over, and Imogen let out a comfortable sigh.
She was alright. They were alright.
“Okay that’s all well and good,” Fearne said loudly, drawing everyone’s attention to her. She had her hands crossed over her chest and was tapping a cloven hoof impatiently on the ground. “But are we gonna talk about the fact that Laudna and Imogen were making out when we came over here?”
Laudna stood back up at Imogen’s side and they shared a startled look.
“Are you serious?” Imogen asked, wrapping an arm around Laudna’s waist. “We’ve been makin’ out for weeks and this is the first time y’all noticed?”
The whole group erupted into conversation, bets exchanged and congratulations offered and hugs and laughs and, in Fearne’s case, tears of joy. Pâté even popped out to rub it in everyone’s faces that he knew and they didn’t.
But Imogen and Laudna just shared a smile, hands tightly intertwined between them.
“Now they all know, you still sure you want to be with me? Monstrous as I am?” Imogen asked in Laudna’s mind, and Laudna grinned and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“Surer than I’ve ever been, my darling,” Laudna replied, her voice layered with familiar whispers. “We do make a rather lovely pair of monsters.”
Imogen laughed out loud in delight at that, turning to pepper smiling little kisses across Laudna’s face to a chorus of “ewwws” and “awwws” from their friends.
A rather lovely pair of monsters indeed.