RP:Creepin'

Part of the Through A Glass, Darkly Arc

Part of the What You Leave Behind Arc

Summary: After learning that neither Lanara or Talyara have been faring very well, Meri decides to check up on Callum. What she sees is not good.

Callum's Home

After learning what Lanara and Talyara have been put through, Meri can't shake the feeling that she really make her way down to Callum's home in the forest. It was something she resolved to do sooner, rather than later, considering the newest information she's received. What if Callum had been attacked and kidnapped too? So rather than going home immediately after leaving the animal sanctuary, Meri makes her way through the forest. His home is not her first stop though. First she leaves Kadence, the wagon, the polar bear, and the puppy at the ranger's encampment that's a short distance away from the forest home. His home is her second stop on the route back to Cenril. Except she does not waltz right up to the front door. That would take a certain amount of nerve that Meri's not quite sure that she could muster right now. Instead she creeps around the forests that line the perimeter of his home, trying to see if she can gain answers to the question she is seeking from a distance. The blonde is actually putting quite a bit of effort in her attempts to go undetected by Callum. The skills she has been honing as a ranger are put to good use, she's able to move through the forest silently. The cloak that she is wearing seems to have some perks of it's own. While wearing the piece of clothing, it was harder to detect Meri in shadowy areas. She almost seemed to blend in. It must be a rogue thing. The point is, she's creeping hard and is not looking to be spotted. She just wants to make sure someone is not dead.

No lights were on in the house. The only noise that seemed to come from it at all was nearby in the stable where Storm Cloud stood around restlessly. Thankfully, the horse looked as if he’d been fed and watered everyday, and that right there might prove that the Catalian was okay. Or at least, that’s what it seemed like until a closer inspection of the house is made. Various windowpanes were either broken or had large holes in them, the holes nearly the size of baseballs. Likewise, there were also a few holes littered across the roof. What the heck would’ve caused such damage? Surely not meteorites or something of the sort. There -had- been reports of a massive thunderstorm in this part of Sage, that’d also been accompanied by hail. Perhaps that’d been it. But, why hadn’t the damage been repaired? It’s not like Callum didn’t have the money to take care of it. This whole stealth mission of Meri’s was sure to create more questions than answers for the psion.

As Meri surveyed the ruins of her former home, whispers were carried along the breeze from a part of the forest nearby, and the scent of burning herbs soon after. Callum sat in front of a strangely-shaped, still growing tree, beneath him a pentacle made of salt, with black candles marking the spot of each point of the star--the tree too even had a ring of coarse sea salt around it. One wouldn’t think that this tree was out of the ordinary, for all trees grow as they please, but this one -felt- wrong. Not only that, it -looked- wrong. Pieces of bone stuck out of the bark; a femur here, a humerus there. But, the pièce de résistance was the human skull that stuck out near the top. It mirrored the look of the bismuth skull that sat to Callum’s right. “This shield is my power to protect against evil. This shield keeps out harm,” he said, dropping lavender into the small cast iron cauldron. The herb burned just as the ones before it, the moment it touched the fire, the smell mixing with that of the sage previously put into the flames. “This shield does not allow the dead to pass through it. This shield is my domain and I alone determine what is allowed to pass.” Morning glory petals, bits of nettle, sandalwood powder, and basil were also tossed in--Meri, of course, would be able to identify most of these, if not all, thanks to the training in herbalism Callum had given her once upon a time. “No dark entities shall pass through this shield. As I will it, so mote it be.” He didn’t seem to be reading this from a book, the words solely coming from memory now. He’d done it so many times in the couple months since his run-in with and subsequent slaying of Caiburne that he didn’t need the tome anymore.

A rainbow-tinted aura came from the bismuth skull then, surrounding Callum, his things, and the tree that plagued his entire existence. Vines crawled up out of the ground, as they had any time he’d used the skull to protect himself, creeped ever so carefully around the tree, and looked as though it were trying to strangle it. “You’re dead. Stop growing. Just move on. You can be here anymore. I won’t let you. I won’t let you hurt anyone else. The skull is mine. Its powers are mine. Your time is done here. Go away…” He hesitated, then finished his thought a bit more quietly, “...please.”

Meri had been hoping that she would find some amount of relief during this visit. She finds none. It starts with the house and the damage that has been done to it. What has happened here? The roof? The windows? How has Callum not had these repaired yet? It’s at this point that her heart begins to sink. Maybe he was kidnapped too? It was not until that she saw Storm Cloud, who still appeared to be well taken care of, that she started second guessing that line of thinking. Plus Cal scent was still strong in the area that it was clear to her he had to be somewhere. It was only a temporary relief for as Meri followed that soft sounds of someone whispering, her heart was back to sinking. Just what was Callum doing? The blonde would attempt to find a better position, one that allowed her to see the details of the tree and hear the words being whispered, hopefully without pulling Callum’s attention to herself.

As Meri manages to creep closer and is able to hear what Callum is chanting, the woman frowns and is instantly filled with guilt, regret, and fear. Fear might seem like the outlier amongst these emotions. It was not fear of Callum himself, but a fear of what might have happened to him. The details of the tree were observed now that she was close enough. Meri is not quite confident that this tree was here before, and even if it was...the bones that seem to be growing into the tree? That was definitely not there. And that was definitely a humaniod skull. Why did it look so much like the bismuth skull? That was strange. Meri liked none of this. Especially not that the skull was out in the open, seemingly in use by the aura that Meri was seeing. The blonde sucked in a hard breath despite herself. She hated that skull. It might be precious to Cal, but Meri would sincerely love nothing more than to see that stupid thing thrown into a volcano somewhere. This sentiment was something that she felt toward all the skulls. She regretted helping the witches get those cursed items. The cost has been to high for the reward they got….or that Valrae got. The more Meri watches and listens, the more those feeling intensify. The woman has half a mind to step out into the open right now to approach Callum. Yet she also realizes perhaps this is not the best of times, there was a cart of animals waiting to be brought back to Cenril. The ranger’s camp that is currently babysitting them would surely not want to deal with babysitting a polar bear for longer than they had to. Meri resolves to return, but for now she’ll watch from the shadows for just a little bit longer to see if she could unravel a bit more of this mystery.

Callum was growing impatient. It’s almost as if he expected Caiburne’s skull to reanimate itself and say “Sure, Cal! I won’t come back again!” But, it wasn’t that simple, was it? That other Catalian had been just as connected to plantlife as Cal was--even moreso after he’d been resurrected by Kahran--so it figured that in death, Caiburne would also be connected to his precious greenery. For Callum though, the whole situation was maddening. He could hear Caiburne’s taunting, his promises of Cal’s death--but the worst of it all was that Cal could hear Caiburne’s laughter. “...Shut up…” Static began to cling to the air as the witch dwelled on it, staring into the empty eye sockets of Caiburne’s skull. His right arm was raised, the hand attached balled into a fist. No sooner had this been done did the fist find itself colliding into the tree, just below the skull, where Caiburne’s neck would’ve been, “I SAID SHUT UP.” A crackle of lightning accompanied the punch, but it did nothing to silence Caiburne’s laughter. Gods, if only he’d been able to throatpunch that frakking asshole when he was alive.

The adrenaline didn’t take long to wear off; Cal was tired, so very tired. And when it did, it was only then that he’d realized his punch had been enough to bruise his knuckles and break the skin on the jagged bark of the Caiburne-tree. It hurt, a whole hell of a lot--perhaps moreso than what it would for most people because Cal had always been rather… delicate. Tears welled up in his eyes as his free (and uninjured) hand was quick to snatch up a large vial out of the satchel that was just to his left. Flecks of orange and yellow petals, along with tiny black specks floated about in the milky white liquid, but didn’t last long in the vial for the cork was pulled free with his teeth, spat out carelessly, and the contents within drank. The substance, of course, was milk of the poppy. It’d been something Cal had supplied many times to various healers as a painkiller/anesthetic, but this one seemed to be much stronger than the others. The strong scent of poppies would float on over to Meri as she watched her ex deal with his inner demons. His rage subsided and he became passive again, languidly picking up his belongings and packing them away so that he could return to the remnants of his home.

Meri watches. She could not hear Caiburne's laughter, his promises of death, none of it....which meant that Meri was not entirely sure of who Cal was talking to. It was obvious the tree was somehow involved in whatever was occurring, but Meri could not piece together if there was actually seem unseen voice he was hearing, which is a phenomenon that she has experienced herself when she got caught up in that Frostmaw drama. Or was it really all in Cal's mind? Had he perhaps lost it like Lanara had? Meri frowns at the notion. As all of these questions are running through her mind, Cal decides to make his way back to the house. Meri does not follow. She holds her position and keeps utterly still until he has gone inside. Once she hears him enter the home, Meri finally moves from her spot. She moves closer to the tree that he was just yelling at so that she can see these details up close. The examination of the tree does not last for long, Meri does not want Cal to poke his nose into a window in a moment of paranoia. After about fifteen seconds of an up-close inspection of the present bane of Cal's existence, Meri leaves the area. She'd be back after she manages to get a polar bear and a puppy home back to their new homes. She'd be far less stealthy when she returns, and she won't be alone, but it will not be Fleur that she decides to bring with her.