thearena | A melody of angry growls, a counterpoint of painful howls

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A melody of angry growls, a counterpoint of painful howls

WHO| Rapunzel and Some
WHAT| OKAY, WHO TRIGGERED THE MONSTER TOONS. DARN IT, RAPUNZEL.
WHEN| Week 2, during the night
WHERE| Toon Town
WARNINGS/NOTES| Your worst nightmare

The thing that woke her up was the feel of something small and soft, with sharp skritchy nails, running across her. It was too heavy, and too soft, and its claws were far too sharp to be Pascal, but there were so few rats in the tower that she couldn't think what it had been. It was enough to pull her into wakefulness - and that was probably the only thing that saved her.

Another two rats ran by, as she sat up, her hair pooling by her feet as it slid off her body, and a few seconds too late she cringed away from them a little. It didn't matter, they hadn't been running from her, and hadn't touched her anyway.

Which, Rapunzel's sleep-fogged brain slowly worked out, meant they were probably running from something.

Rapunzel was not used to being in the open, and the vastness of the sky scared her here more than it probably would have at home. A roof had felt safer, more enclosed. More like home - or, at least, as close as she was likely to find here. And the floor had even been soft, somehow. Like everything else thus far, it hadn't been ideal, but surely it would do. Now, though, that roof meant that it was very dark inside the little building - but still not dark enough that she didn't see the splashes of color moving closer, as the rats squeaked and ran.

Rapunzel stumbled to her feet, hands full of her hair, and started backing towards the exit, more slowly than she maybe should have. But nothing had tried to kill her yesterday, nothing had tried to kill her yet.

"No," she murmured, voice soft and full of horrified denial as she backed away from the patches of color, "no."

Reflected moonlight glinted in through the doorway in a brief instant, maybe because the clouds had parted, and glinted on teeth and claws and open mouths and blank, staring eyes of huge animals, wearing tattered clothing, their eyes on her, their jaws open, red tongues-

"No!" This last word was more scream than word, and then she was running, running as fast as she could, down and away. She was in good shape but her heart was still pounding, from fear as much as anything, and the hair that she wasn't holding flew behind her like a banner.

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When they came further out into the light, loping after her in shambling, ground-eating runs, the three monsters on her heels were made plain.

The dog came fastest, unnaturally tall and thin, his ears flopping and tattered, two fangs so long he couldn't close his mouth. All three were laughing, a horrible low chuckling that rose and fell with their panting breath. Their huge, white eyes reflected the light in a sickly green way, narrowing as one reached for that banner of hair.

She wasn't looking behind her, she was just running, sprinting as fast as she could. Her breathing was already ragged - this wasn't something she was used to, but she could hear the things behind her. She didn't know what they were - maybe they weren't that bad, really.

But they were laughing.

If she could find somewhere to climb, then maybe they wouldn't be able to climb. Maybe that would give her a bit of time, let her plan something. Maybe she could find something else that she could use as a weapon - she'd found a pole amid the rubble earlier in the day, but that was long since behind her.

She made a little whimpering sound as she ran, trying to go faster - if nothing else she knew where she'd been, and so she ran along those paths, retracing her steps. At least then she knew where she was going, even if she couldn't think of much that was tall. But maybe on top of the buildings, maybe up the half-broken down mountain, maybe the great golden horn that was back where she started.

Be careful where you put your feet, Rapunzel, don't stumble, don't fall, don't stop don't stop don't stop-

One gnarled hand grabbed her hair, and there was a bark of delight that sounded so distorted it could have come straight from a nightmare. It was the bird-person, his hand covered in ragged gray feathers wrapping in her strands. He was taller than her, and round-bellied, and put all that weight into jerking her back towards the rest.

"Rapunzel!"

Some had known that scream, the first one, and he knew that face, and the darkness did nothing to hide any of this from him. Clear as day, he could see the monsters who had her, and there was no hint of second thought in the way he flung himself off the rooftop where he'd been. He only had his short knife for a weapon, but that didn't matter. His blood had run cold and then hot at the sight. He grabbed for her, body and hair both, and slashed at the hands holding it as he tried to get her onto his back so he could use all his hands. "No, let go of her! Rapunzel, hold on!"

Rapunzel's only real advantage here was the same thing that got her into trouble in the first place - that she had so much hair. She'd been holding part of it as she ran, because dragging all of it was asking for trouble. She still screamed when she felt it tug out of her hands, and she was moving fast enough and the pull was sharp enough and there was so little bunched in her hands, after all this time, that it very nearly did pull her head back.

She was half sobbing as she turned around, grabbing fistfuls of her hair and pulling like this was some sort of hideous tug-o-war, trying to tug her hair free-

And then there was another monster. She screamed again, letting go to try to stumble back, away-

Except the thing, the first monster, still had her hair, and she was dragged forward by that, and the other monster had both her hair and her-

But its hands were gentle, and it was between her and the other monster, and maybe even if it was trying to kill her too it would be best to let them deal with each other first, so that she would only have the one to try and handle. She couldn't think of anything else right now, couldn't seem to comprehend what was going on. Her mind was too consumed with trauma and terror and that nightmare sound and claws and fangs and mangy feathers, eyes and teeth and a red tongue.

She didn't want to hang on to the new monster, but she did her best to help him get her behind him - behind was good anyway, it would be the easiest way to run.

Somewhere, she was vaguely beginning to realize that he knew her name. Maybe that was good. Maybe. She'd think about that later, when she was Away, because in the end she didn't even know where she was going anymore.

If she'd rather be behind him, then he was going to be the best wall he could, by the stones, and he turned his flank to the monsters, both mouths snarling. But it wasn't them he screamed at as he slashed at their hands only their hands and not her hair, it was the evil men in the Capitol who had brought her here, Rapunzel, who had absolutely no place in a hell like this.

Inch by inch, he drove them back, forced them to drop her hair and yanked it back from them, their sluggish blood soaking into it. One caught one of his wrists, sinking long black claws into it and wrenching hard, and he shrieked, but it wasn't the hand with the knife and he stabbed fiercely at them, kept fighting until they had no grip on her.

And then he whirled to scoop her up, and run as if the sun itself were chasing them.

Edited 2013-03-29 02:44 (UTC)

At that second, Rapunzel was almost beyond caring if her hair was cut to get away, just as long as she did get away. It would matter to her later, when she wasn't all but blind with terror, but 'later' wasn't 'now.' About as far as she got to noticing that she still had all her hair was the color, somewhere in the back of her mind she did notice that the color was the same, and was pathetically grateful. Not as grateful as she was to drag it away, coiling it close as fast as she could. She didn't even realize there was blood soaking into it until it was in her hands, soaking through her dress, which was almost enough to make her start sobbing again.

She tripped over her feet (stupid, clumsy - Mother had been right, Mother had been so profoundly right about everything - naive, immature, stupid Rapunzel) as she tried to pull her hair close and get away, all at the same time. She managed not to drop her hair when she fell, as she stumbled to her feet-

And then something was grabbing her, her, not her hair this time. She shrieked again, trying to pull free, to run from everything, to run until she found the ends of the earth, to run until she found home again, until she found Mother. Mother would protect her, just as she always had.

Some staggered as she fought him, startled, but there was no time to figure it out, no time to ask her what she was doing. He held her tight, three arms wrapped hard around her, holding her to him, and ran as fast as he could. "Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold still!" he cried out, all but panicking himself. Was she struggling because she was hurt? All he could smell was blood, and he didn't think any was human, but it was hard to tell with so much.

He ran until he couldn't hear them anymore, scarcely paying any attention to where they were going, and only then did he look for any shelter for the two of them.

Rapunzel was reasonably practical, which meant that even in her current state, it didn't take too long for her to figure out that she wasn't going to escape - and this thing was at least taking her away, and right now away was good, the best direction, but what was she supposed to do when they stopped?

She wasn't calm, she as far from calm, and she was so far from all right that she couldn't see it any more, but nothing was actively trying to kill her, and her mind wasn't completely blank with terror anymore. She was, at least, enough herself to realize that he was talking to her.

"No. Why? What are you? What do you want with me?"

Maybe it would be like the thing from earlier, the thing that hadn't hurt her, that had apologized so often. It had protected her. It was helping now, maybe. Despite what she said, she stopped fighting, at least so hard as she had before.

Rapunzel tucked her head down and cried.

Edited 2013-03-29 03:35 (UTC)

Her questions made no sense. But her being here made no sense either. So he cupped a hand behind her head, holding her close as he searched for a spot. Another rooftop? No, he wanted to go down.

"Rapunzel, it's me, Some," he murmured anxiously, drawing against the wall of a building by the side of one of the Arena's lakes. There was a weird yellow boat in it, sunk. Some thought it might even be upside down. "Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?"

"I don't," she tried to say through her tears, but was stalled there. She didn't know how to continue - she didn't know him? She didn't know what was going on? She didn't know where she was, she didn't know what had happened, or why it had happened to her.

"No. No." It was an answer to his question and a denial, of this, of everything that was happening.

The soft lapping of the water sounded, very gently, and at that she started to try, once again, to climb out of Some's arms.

"Put me down! Please, please put me down." The blood was starting to dry on her clothes, her skin, her hair, slimy and taut and cold, until it seemed it was all she could feel, and all she could see was the monsters. There was water, she needed to get to it, she needed to rinse away the blood in her hair and on her clothes and hands and face, or she felt she might go insane. She still couldn't do much, not here, but this was something she could do, be it ever so small.

This time, he opened his arms, setting her on her feet, and stood up to his full height to look and make certain they hadn't been followed. "I think we're safe... for a little time," he had to add, and hated it. "I haven't f-found a good place to den. But we can keep moving..."

He cradled his hurt arm against his waist, doing his best not to move it, now that he'd noticed it.

She picked up her skirts and ran for the water, planning on going at least far enough in to kneel. Not further than that, maybe, because she didn't need to, all she needed was to get the blood off of her, out of her hair, away from her skin. It was just bad luck that the bottom very abruptly vanished something like one step in.

Rapunzel's last sound before she vanished was a little cry, soft and surprised and then gone. She had the sense, after that, to hold what breath she had left, but that still wasn't much, and she wasn't entirely sure what good it would do her. Air was only good for so long, and there wasn't any down here, or none that she could use. She supposed that fish must breathe something else.

It was more disorientating than she'd ever thought it would be, underwater - perhaps because the water itself was very dark. It was also terrifying in an entirely different way than the monsters had been. She was left to flail towards the surface, using her hair as a guide, as it was still long enough to be left somewhere dry, and thus pointing the way up. It was lucky that she had this, because she didn't have anything else - the water was black and cold. She got her first real sense of direction beyond her hair when her arm collided with what she assumed was the side of this odd, stone lake, scraping skin off her palm and wrist, jarring the bones. It made her want to double over with the pain of it, but there was no time for that now, because her lungs were burning. There was the wall, use it as another guide.

"Wait, do-" he started when he saw that she wasn't stopping at the edge of the water, but then it was too late, and he darted forward, dropping to six before diving off that abrupt edge into the water. He had no idea how deep it was, and her hair- Some blinked stinging eyes against the water. The darkness was no barrier for him, but it was murky and half-opaque anyway, and it took him a moment to pick her and her hair out from the waving masses of watergreen.

Unlike Some, Rapunzel couldn't see. She could feel the water moving around her, rippling as though there was something else with her, which only made her think of the monster. It had been feathered, with a beak, like a water bird, with a small head and blank eyes and-

Rapunzel's struggling turned more frantic as she tried to claw her way up the wall, but it was slick and smooth, and it was starting to seem that the water might go on forever.

There was a crack in the wall, and she grabbed it, chipping fingernails and scratching fingers as she clawed at it, using it to propel herself as far upwards as she could, clawing with the other hand and her feet, trying to find something. This would all be so much easier if she could breathe.

Edited 2013-03-29 05:56 (UTC)

Some kicked forward, hard, catching himself against the wall with a forefoot to either side of her, and grabbed her hands. Stretched out, he was over twice her height, but even he wasn't as tall as the water was deep. He had to push off the wall again, her hair tangling around him in the water as he swam them both to the surface.

She struggled for a moment, kicking wildly and managing to jar her foot when something grabbed her - but it was something pulling her up, away from the cold water, not deeper, and that was something. The water was pulling past her face - though that seemed oddly distant, as did the breath escaping past her lips. It was hard to focus anymore. The water felt wrong as she tried to breathe it, she knew that much, but there wasn't air-

Until there was.

Even once her face broke free of the water, it took Rapunzel a moment to breathe. Once she did, she started coughing, and couldn't stop.

He paddled beside her, one foreleg hooked under her to keep her up before he pulled her across his back. They were near enough the edge now that he could just hold onto it, keeping them on place.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, can you hear me?" he asked, clearing the hair out of her face, his upper body twisted around to face her.

She was still coughing up water and gasping, trying to get enough air into her lungs, and wasn't much good for talking for about a minute. It was disorientating, but the thing that was coming across was that the no one was trying to kill her for now, and she wasn't drowning, and she probably wasn't going to die.

Yet.

She coughed and curled up and tried - successfully, if only just - to keep from throwing up. She also tried to keep from crying again, but there failed.

"Who are you?"

It wasn't quite a yes or no answer to the question but seemed like the more pressing issue, just then. Who was this who kept on saving her? She was beginning to think that he might be a friend, but how could she have friends that she didn't know? How could anyone have friends here? It seemed like everyone should be too busy trying not to die to have time to bother

He stared at her, blinking, and his heart, which had climbed into his throat when she went under, sank to the depths of his stomach instead. Who are you? But... but he knew he couldn't be mistaken as to who she was. "... Rapunzel, it's Some," he said again, voice distinctly more anxious. "Don't you know me? From Bete Noire?"

"I've never... Mother never..." She stops there, maybe because she doesn't want to say anything more. But the words don't make sense, so she takes a different route.

"Is Bete Noire some kind of city? I've never been to a city - sometimes I used to think I'd like to go, but Mother didn't want me to. She was right."

He kept staring, at a loss for words himself. "You- you came here just from your tower?" he asked, voice a little weaker than he would have liked. Oh, if this was something the Capitol had done, it was cruel. He'd rather be back on the glacier.

"How do you know about that?" Rapunzel would be less okay with someone else knowing so much about her, if not for...

Well.

If not.

She wiped green - algae or moss or slime something - from her face and that hair which she could. She could almost breathe normally again, and at least most of the blood was gone. One trauma at a time.

"Because-" He trailed off, dismayed. How in earth to explain that? He didn't really understand himself. "I know- knew... you. Rapunzel. Or... another Rapunzel. We... she lived with me in the city where I lived before. We were very... very good friends."

Rapunzel wiped her eyes as she looked up at him, and tried to stop crying. He wasn't human, and his teeth were most decidedly pointy, but... he'd helped her. He saved her. He kept on doing so. And maybe, here, the shape of your teeth didn't matter quite so much, not with what else there was.

Her voice is a little husky when she speaks, but there's something that at least vaguely resembles a smile in it, which is better than the last 20 minutes.

"We... we were?"

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