Fragments of the World Eater (Pendragon)

[readlliea]

"Oh." Duin replied, still confused but he supposed it made sense for more than one person to go hunting. "Is she always....angry to those she doesn't like?"

The way Duin phrased his sentence showed he wasn't sure if he was using the right words for what he wanted. Still he stayed there, not correcting himself.
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Why was this difficult?! Why?! It infuriated him so much! It wasn't night yet and already the beast was interfering, the urge to just hunt and chase down the elk was there but even in this form he'd be in trouble. His stomach growled as he tried to take a breathe to calm himself down. Knocking a arrow to his longbow, he raised his arms and started to pull back on it. It would be easy...just aim for the right spot and fire, then he could eat...just have to keep focus a few more...

Sadly that wasn't what happened. In the curse's desire to rip and tear, he pulled the string too hard and snapped the bow string! Eyes went wide as he released he didn't watch his strength and the Elk's head raised toward the direction the man was in. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest but also a loss of sense as he turned angry, gritting his teeth.

"no no no..." Eldrin growled.

Only for the elk to turn and about to sprint off. Giving Brenna her own opening to take it down.

[PendragonXeno94]

"For the most part," Erick answered. "She nearly killed me when we first met because I fought for Ulfric."

Dagny shook her head.
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When the elk turned and sprinted, Kohl-Brenna pulled an arrow out of her quiver and quickly shot an arrow at it. The arrow struck the elk in the chest, and the elk ran a few hundred yards until it collapsed.

Stepping out of the thicket, she slowly began to approach the elk while keeping her eyes up and scanning her surroundings. She knew someone was out there, but she didn't know exactly where they were...

[readlliea]

"Who?" Duin questioned, tilting his head.
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The smell of blood was quick to his nose and quickly the man stood up, brush and thicket being disturbed at his movement. It was animal blood but blood nonetheless. Leaving the spot he was at, he started to follow it but he was soon in sight of Brenna and he spotted her. Eldrin was wearing his novice robe with the hood down, bluish in color with the high collar. A quiver rested on his back but the bow was nowhere in sight. Though spotting Brenna gave him some of his sense back and he found himself able to think normally.

"Good catch.." Eldrin congratulated, giving a weak smile. "Still faster without a doubt."

Granted Eldrin was terrible at hunting, even before his curse. However the blood thirsty nature of the werewolf in him wasn't helping him. He could barely focus whenever he tried to hunt with weapons and unlike others, he felt many of the wolf's bestially traits trying to dominate him even in the day. It was why he hide himself so deep in the woods.

"Erick's not with you today?" Eldrin asks.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Ulfric Stormcloak... he was the jarl of Windhelm and wanted to break away from the Empire. Something he never got to see in fruition." Erick shook his head. "I had left the rebels long before the Imperials stormed the city." He glanced up at sky and chuckled. "I happened to stop at an inn for the night, and she recognized my uniform so she followed me to a little secluded spot in the woods where she attacked me."

Hard to believe that he married the same woman that wanted to kill him on their first meeting.
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Brenna smiled as she spotted Eldrin coming out of the brush and congratulated her on her kill. "Still doing well, I see," she replied. She shook her head when asked of Erick's whereabouts. "He's at home with a guest at the moment. My daughter took him in because she was worried he would freeze to death. We're hoping he will be on his way soon."

[readlliea]

"Strange....but I guess things work like that." Duin replied, not sure on what else to say to that.

None of it was familiar and he had no experience with romance...to his knowledge. So who was he to judge?
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"Yeah....well...I guess I should just stick with snares an stuff." Eldrin answered weakly.

Yep...doing real well struggling with his curse. Some part of him felt like he was just loosing more of himself with each night now. A quest huh? That was interesting.

"Understandable, I take it Dagny is doing well then too." Eldrin said. "I'm sure you'll have the house back to just the three of ya soon, mine's just as empty as ever."

A faint chuckle left him though it halted as he felt his stomach growl. He had jerky back at home, so he could snack on that when he got there...he'd have to. Why was all this so hard? He just wanted food for the night, to keep the blast monster in the basement...it was all he could do.

[PendragonXeno94]

"You don't sound well..." Brenna took a step forward and tried to meet his gaze. "How are you holding up?"

As she continued to try and decipher if his curse had gotten worse, she nodded at his inquiry of Dagny. "Yes, she's doing well. She's asked when you'll come visit." In the condition he seemed to be in, she was sure that it would be a while before he would attempt to visit. Perhaps she could figure out how to break his curse.

Hearing his stomach growl, she sighed and pulled her knife out. "Why don't we get this elk back to your place and clean it up some?"

[readlliea]

"I..." Eldrin started but he found it hard to make himself say the words and he tried to avoid her gaze.

He wanted to say he was doing better or at least that he was okay. But he wasn't, if anything he felt worse and it wasn't getting better. The beast from this curse wanted something more and he wasn't willing to give that monster it. Animals would have to do...it would just take him working hard to resist it and a while longer to get the wolf to accept this...right? That's all it would take?

"Ah, well sadly I'm..not sure I can handle....well....I don't want to put anyone at risk.." Eldrin stammered. "I'm just...not ready..."

He felt horrible for refusing to visit, sure she wasn't asking him to. But Dagny clearly wanted him to show up...but he couldn't. With everything happening to him, he'd feel like he'd snap. Recalling how one visit went when Dagny wasn't a kid and he actually went into town with her one day, he almost..lost it in broad daylight. A bad brawl in the tavern had spilled into the streets and resisting the sheer violence took so much out of him. IT didn't help that at the time Dagny didn't know about his curse so she only got the lame excuses as to why they needed to leave quickly. Part of Eldrin wondered if she knew now or not...given how long his last visit had been.

"You caught it Brenna...it's yours by all rights..." Eldrin pointed out. "Besides, you have a family to feed and a guest on top of it. You probably need it more.."

[PendragonXeno94]

"Eldrin, you know you can be honest with me..."

Knowing what happened the last time he visited made her heart sink a little. Dagny had always asked when Eldrin would visit again, but with the incident from last time, Brenna had to tell her about his curse only to burst into tears after a young Dagny ran out of the room and said she would save Eldrin and break his curse. But Brenna couldn't bring herself to tell Eldrin that Dagny knew. When he told her that she should keep it, she shook her head.

"You need it more than I do. I can always get another elk on the way home." Game was a far cry from scarce near her home.

[readlliea]

"Bre..I...." Eldrin started but he gave a defeated sigh. "There's no arguing with you..."

The man look defeated, like a spell he had been working on for months to master almost worked but then blew up in his face kind of defeated. IT honestly felt like all his body could do was betray him in any shape or form. After all, this curse was affecting his entire being and making it different. Sure he couldn't deny there was benefits but the shear amount of negatives that came with this....it wasn't worth it.

"I'm worse..." Eldrin finally admitted. "I can't even use the goddamn bow cause all my body wants to do is charge in and rip the thing apart!"

Running his fingers through his hair as he sad laugh left him, not one that was from humor but more of one of those nerves ticks that some people had.

"I broke the damn bow....It's broad daylight, Bre! And I snapped it like a twig without even meaning to..." Eldrin added, looking on the verge of a break down. "If you hadn't shown up I probably would've just handled everything like the curse wants me too....I thought living in the woods would help..."

[PendragonXeno94]

Brenna couldn't help but sigh. His curse seemed to have progressed more than she thought. "There has to be something to help..." While she wasn't overly fond of werewolves or vampires, she could never bring herself to hate Eldrin. But she didn't know what to do for him aside from offering her support and hopefully finding a cure before the curse destroyed him.

"Let's get his elk back and we can talk more." Pulling the elk behind them, she walked with him to his cabin where she began to clean the elk and occasionally looked at Eldrin. "So... living alone isn't helping either?"

All she could think of was a young Dagny going on and on about how she was going to save Uncle Eldrin and how she would find a cure for his curse. Someone had to know something about ending his curse.

[readlliea]

Something but that something clearly wasn't any method that he was trying. He tried dabbling in alchemy and potions, all he managed to do with those was either make himself sick or he felt no difference. Living in the woods and away from people to try and show the beast in him that they were going to feed off of animals and not people but..even that felt like it wasn't working. Having the werewolf strength made it easy to get the elk back to his small home; although Brenna might've noticed the patched up hole in the front door as they walked over to the shed next to the cabin.

The smell of blood didn't need to fester in the cabin, that would surely drive him mad. With the elk tied up, Eldrin excused himself for a few moments before going into the house. He'd come back quickly enough; granted with several sticks of jerky he must've made from a previous hunt and a piece was in his mouth.

"It sort of works...the living alone part." Eldrin admitted. "Like, there's no one to tempt the curse or incite it. It is...well lonely but no one can get hurt at least."

The piece of jerky he'd been chewing on idly was gone rather quickly; sharper teeth and a stomach always craving meat would make someone eat much faster. It became subconscious at this point for Eldrin, already quietly chewing on the second piece as he paced. The smell of the salty meat with several herbs helped to drown out the powerful and intoxicating aroma of the raw meat and blood. Though he knew if he looked to see what Brenna was doing...he'd lose his mind in seconds given how hungry he was.

"I know I can't live in a town..let alone near one. Too many people, too many that would just excite the beast in me and keep it even more to the front than it already is." Eldrin explained. "Some people can adapt around it and I thought..I could too, at least to some degree but looks like that's not working. Those old journals I found aren't helping either."

[PendragonXeno94]

Curiously glancing at the hole in the front door, she let Eldrin carry the elk into the shed before she started to skin and gut it. She heard Eldrin leave for a moment before he returned with jerky in his hands and mouth. "Well, this is true. I wish..." She sighed. "Never mind."

Quickly finishing the elk, she turned to face him. "So what happened to your front door? Someone try to break in? Something gone awry?"

Hopefully the jerky would keep him from going berserk since she knew the smell of blood would entice him.

[readlliea]

A glance to the front door and twisting the piece of jerky in his mouth, Eldrin finished the second piece quickly before replying.

"I need better chains.." Eldrin stated as bluntly as he could. "They almost didn't hold me last night."

Granted the chains were the same he'd been using for several months but with his curse getting stronger, he knew he'd have to replace them with newer and stronger chains faster and faster. Honestly, he wasn't sure how he was going to fork out the money for those; given how he felt like he couldn't even go into town now.

"Basement door gave way...only reason the darn....me....made it to the door to begin with. I reckon I spent the remainder of the night clawing at it since the chains still were holding me. So they didn't really give way but looking em over after I woke up, they probably won't hold me another bad episode..." Eldrin explained, third piece of jerky in his mouth.

Eldrin could recall waking up with his fingertips against the front door and he put it together quickly that yep, he somehow broke the basement door and got all the way to the front door. With how tight the chains felt, he was certain that only one paw full of claws was raking against it for a few hours to cause that much damage.

"Maybe I need to dig a deeper pit in the basement..." Eldrin mused allowed.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh..." He still used the chains? She thought he was over that by now. But... that only meant that the curse progressed. And it only made her worry more. She knew that he couldn't go into town, but something, anything had to help him. "Have you thought about seeking help from someone? A witch or a mage who might know a thing or two about curses?"

Well, she still blamed herself for letting that one werewolf get close to him in the first place. Perhaps things would have been better if it had been her who got bit. But there was nothing she could do to change that.

"I might have some fairly strong chains at home..." Dagny couldn't know how much worse he had gotten. It would only fuel her passion to help him and finding anything to break his curse.

[readlliea]

"You know how badly that can go." Eldrin responded as he looked back at her. "I'm a terrible liar and they probably would inform the guard about my appearance and send hunters after me. I heard the Dawnguard has started to take part in werewolf hunting now....they're just turning into a monster hunting party.."

There was still plenty of vampires but considering how that stronghold of them had been raided, the vampires were now scattered all over. Seems the Dawnguard had to resort to other means to keep themsevles funded; but this was mostly rumor still.  Truthfully there was a time he had stopped using the chains, but when his curse started to advance again, he went back to em. Maybe he should make the pit in the basement deeper?

"You okay with giving em to me? You might not get em back in one piece.." Eldrin asked, rubbing the bandaged areas of his wrist on his right hand.

Taking a deep breathe, he sighed. Finishing the piece of jerky in his mouth and then licking the remnants of herbs and salt off his lips.

"I wish it was easy just approaching someone with that knowledge...but the risk of getting a hunting party after me just....well, you remember what we found in that one bandit hideout. Them using werewolves like they were dogs for their fighting ring.....I'm afraid that either a mob is going to kill me or....I get used for entertainment while losing myself..." Eldrin admitted, looking toward the ground.