iwillshieldhim | What Stalks in the Night [for fieryknowledge]

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What Stalks in the Night [for fieryknowledge]

The day had started out like any other. The pinging of Ignis' phone alarm. The snuggle of Prompto because that kid turned out to be a snuggler at night and always tried to hide it in the morning. The grumbling from Noct. Breakfast. Clean up. Deciding what to do.

Today turned out to be a day for a hunt. Good. Gladio itched for a fight today and a hunt mean a fight and gil, even if the latter was the more necessary right now. Those damn energy drinks for Noct to turn into potions were annoyingly expensive; thank the Six they were popular enough to be absolutely everywhere even if the blasted things were pricey.

The hunt itself proved to be surprisingly elusive, though. Most of the afternoon was spent in just trying to track down the beast, perched on the backs of their chocobos with maps pulled out and a lot of cursing because this place proved to be a bit of a maze of canyons cut into the rock. Eventually, they found it, though, and Gladio had to admit... this wasn't going to be easy.

It was almost like a giant scorpion, except it had paws and a sort-of-face like a lion and it was furred. The tipster had called it a Chimera; Gladio called it ugly. By the end of the long, damn difficult fight, he had called it several far less appropriate names. It had managed to put the hurt on all of them, but only Gladio had taken a blow from its glowing tail, stabbing right into the muscle of his left arm. One of those expensive potions had taken care of that, or so they thought, and they had gone back to camp stinking, exhausted, and ready to just get some food in their stomachs and pass out.

But as they finally saw camp in the distance, Gladio was surprised at how the heat of the day was clinging to him because he felt even more sticky-sweaty under the leather. Fuck. Last thing he needed right now was to have to air-dry his fatigues, but he probably wasn't going to have a choice.

Little did he know.

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Snarl!

Gladio's sound was anything but human and he pushed Ignis' head down harder, squeezing his neck hard enough to briefly cut off blood around his neck and head. The wriggling, however, was enough to start to work belt and pants down over Ignis' slim hips, though its scraping off layers of skin in the process. None of this seemed to be stopping him.

The pressure around his neck was enough to slow down his movement and soon enough, he was starting to go grey around the edges of his vision. Panic had started to set in now, his hands scraping along the dirt, trying to claw his way free even though he dimly knew that if Gladio didn't want him to get up, he likely wouldn't be getting up.

A low groan of dismay slipped free even as he tried to grab the retreating waist of his pants with a hand, anything to keep them up and keep Gladio from-

Ignis' protests had faded into whispers, then whimpers as he realized that nothing was working. Unless Gladio came to his senses...

But Gladio didn't. None of them knew that there was poison in the chimera's sting, now in Gladio. Prompto and Noct were only just starting to realize that it was getting way too late, where were Gladio and Ignis? Something was wrong, but they had no idea how wrong it was.

Gladio's hand didn't loosen up, kept up the heavy grip it had around the back of Ignis' neck, fingers leaving behind bruises as it tightened to stop his prey from struggling further. It didn't do anything to Gladio when Ignis finally stopped moving other than he released Ignis' neck and set to what the venom in his mind drove him to do. Conscious thought wouldn't even come before the terrible fever finally took hold after Gladio had finished, leaving him as unconscious as Ignis. They wouldn't know it was meant to give the chimera a meal after it was done being impregnated.

Night crept over them both as they lay unconscious; their only defense was that daemons came thanks to movement, but other animals would eventually pick up on the scent of blood....

Waking up wasn't something Ignis wanted to do. Not when darkness was something safer and less painful. His stomach lurched when he cracked open his swollen eyes and for a moment, he almost passed out again. It would've been easier, really. Kinder. Unfortunately, it wasn't in Ignis' character to give up, as much as he might want to. Groaning under his breath, he did what he could to roll up onto his hands and knees, gasping when pain shot through his gut and-

He fought back a soft sob once he realized what had happened. He could try to deny it, but the telltale throbbing between his legs was unmistakable. His memory about what had happened was foggy at best, but there was no denying that something horrific had happened. Trying to push that ominous knowledge aside for a moment, he glanced around, swallowing past a dry knot in his throat only to croak something out when he saw that he wasn't alone. Gladio lay not three feet from him, clearly unconscious. Trying to speak again, Ignis lurched closer, still on his hands and knees because honestly, he wasn't sure he could stand up if he tried. Not with how weak his legs felt.

It wasn't good.

Gladio was very much unconscious and all it would take was a touch to feel that he was burning hot to the touch, far more than was safe. There was sweat heavy on his brow and worse, there was some sort of black spread from under his jacket that started where he had been stabbed earlier by the beast they had fought.

Worst of all, it was dark, with only the moonlight over head. They were in deep trouble.

When he tried to get more words out of his throat, there was panic in his voice. Gladio was far too hot to his grimy hands and nothing he did seemed to rouse him. Even worse, there was a trail of thick black ichor streaking from the wound that had been treated earlier and there was no way to miss it, even in the dim light of the moon.

Panting, Ignis clambered to his feet, wobbly as a newborn spiracorn. So far, he couldn't hear or see anything approaching but that luck wouldn't hold out. Not for long. One good thing was that in the distance, he spotted the familiar glow from the runes that protected a nearby haven. It wouldn't be the same one that their companions were camped out at, but it would do for the night.

Now, to get them there. Teeth gritted over pained noises, Ignis tried his best to drag Gladio along. He managed, but barely. Gladio was too damned heavy but Ignis was desperate. If they couldn't get to the haven, they'd be dead. Ignis was in no shape to protect them both. Hells, by the look of him, he couldn't even protect himself.

Five feet. Ten feet. Fifteen feet. Ignis was slowly dragging Gladio along, but even the rough treatment wasn't waking him. Something was terribly wrong, as if earlier hadn't proven that, but from the paleness of his lips specially set against the dried blood on them to his unconsciousness, Gladio couldn't have been too far from the edge of something even worse.

When Ignis was closing in on the haven, exhausted and hurting and leaving a slight blood trail on the ground (from himself, from Gladio, who knew), that was when the first howl happened. No ichor bubbling up from the ground, which meant most likely something not daemon - voretooth. Ignis still had at least another fifty feet to go.

The howl made his blood run cold. Still, fear or not, he couldn't stop. Not when their lives depended on it. Normally, Ignis could handle himself just fine. Unfortunately, even at his best, a full pack of voretooth could be dangerous even for the strongest of warriors. At the moment, he was a far cry from a strong warrior.

Biting back a moan of pain, he kept tugging, his pace quicker now. Another five feet, then ten. He kept his attention away from his screaming muscles and the pain in his abdomen and kept it on the pace of his feet and the weight in his hands. Finally, finally, it was close enough that the runes were bright in the dark evening air.

So close. So close... only for Ignis to falter and fall to his knees with a low cry of pain. He couldn't. He couldn't-

It was that cry of pain that finally started to draw Gladio out of the fever-state he was trapped in. The first conscious thought he'd had in hours was something so silly, so stupid, so impossible - Iris, give me ten more minutes - before reality started to set in. He was on fire, too hot, and someone was right beside him.

He couldn't see the voretooth pack that finally came into Ignis' field of vision, growling low as they circled their prey from every direction except from the haven. They moved as one, coming in closer and closer-

The growls alerted some deeper part of Gladio's brain that something was wrong, and all at once, instinct took over. He surged up, unintentionally nearly bowling Ignis over, and looked around as the world spun. He couldn't see much of anything and his entire body screamed as fever-tight muscles pulled, but it didn't matter. There was something growling nearby and a smear of bright blue that could only be a haven.

He looked down and barely made out Ignis on the ground next to him. A fight? Ignis hurt? Where was Noct and Prompto- the haven?

He quite literally grabbed Ignis by the arm, dragged him up and hauled him towards the haven, much to the confused surprise of the pack.

Ignis barely registered the hand hauling him up. Hells, he barely even realized that Gladio was upright at first, thinking that he'd just lurched over again. Once he realized that he was up, that the glow was close enough to touch, he bit back a muffled curse and clambered up and onto the flat of the haven proper, his hand absently reaching down for Gladio.

Gladio took it but it was mostly his own scramble up that saved him from the voretooth that got closest and tried to bite his ankle. He sat there on the edge of the haven, breathing far harder than he should have, but it was obvious how wrong his body was because he could barely get oxygen into his lungs and his head was going in massive fast circles. He could vaguely taste blood (with no idea he'd swallowed it or what was going on) but worst of all was the heat.

"Ig-" he croaked, looking over at Ignis but his vision blurred so he closed his eyes. Where were Prompto and Noct?

By the time that Gladio had righted himself on the edge of the haven, Ignis had rolled over onto his side and done his best to curl up on himself. Now that he had a moment to breathe, he allowed himself to feel the pain racking his body and oh, he wished he hadn't. Everything ached at best and at worst... he couldn't even put a name to how it felt.

He hadn't even realized that his pants were ruined, unable to stay up on their own, or the torn and missing skin that heralded a hell of a struggle to get them down. All he knew was that he was in pain and it wouldn't stop. Each breath was a struggle when all he wanted to do was close his eyes and let it wash him away.

What the hell happened? He hit his knees when the world spun again but he worked his way over to Ignis, trying to get his eyes to focus on whatever had happened to his friend. He could hear Ignis struggling to breathe and that scared him even more than his own condition, because when he put his hand to Ignis' arm he realized how cold the other felt (without realizing it was him who was burning up). There was a terrible dark something on his neck that didn't come off when his fingers wiped across it, squinting through his blurred vision and the faint light of the haven's center fire. Bruising...?

What the fuck happened? Had something attacked them both? Why couldn't he remember anything of the last- he wasn't even sure how long. For now, all he could do was slowly work Ignis closer to the magical blue fire and collapse behind him, breathing hard himself as he nearly passed back out. "Iggy, I got ya," he whispered, but he knew there was nothing in him to fight right now.

He didn't know why, but the feel of that burning hot skin touching his made him shrink back, curling up a bit tighter as if to ward himself away from it. There was no reason why in his brain, but his instincts were wary and hardwired not to trust anything right then... even Gladio, for some reason.

The hand along his neck made it worse, made him shiver and tense up only to groan at the tug of sore, abused muscles. When Ignis turned his eyes toward Gladio, they were glassy and there was fear in them.

"... need to let them know we're out here."

Gladio had to close his eyes after he tried to focus on Ignis, because seeing his friend looking that afraid threatened to frighten him in ways he couldn't explain. He nodded, reaching down and slowly finding the cell phone thankfully still in his pocket.

In the end, he had to use the voice command on his phone to dial Prompto - not Noct. Prompto might get more upset but Noct was rash, strong headed, and more likely to panic in this situation. Prompto would listen to reason even if he didn't like it.

"Gladio?! Where are you guys?! We've been worried-"

"Shut up and listen. Got Ignis. We're both hurt." A rasp of his voice, trying to stay focused but it was so damn hard. "At a haven. Don't know where. Keep Noct there until morning! Don't risk him. Go out... after first light."

"O-Okay. I'll try to keep him here. Just- there's potions in the armiger! Use them!"

Which was surprisingly smart of the kid. "Yeah. You gotta protect him-" his words were slurring. "Promise me you'll protect him."

"P-Promise. You've got my word."

And gladio believed it. He barely managed to hang up but the cell phone fell from his head as he found himself dry heaving.

As Gladio spoke, Ignis let himself go, his brain drifting off into that half-conscious state that spoke of shock and worse things. Each passing second made him aware of more and more things that hurt. His throat was raw and bruised almost as badly as the back of his neck was. His back and sides stung where skin had been sloughed off in bloody strips and between his legs, he was still sluggishly bleeding with each shift or bunch of his body.

The sound of retching tugged at his hazy mind and for a moment, he cracked open his eyes and peered over at his companion. It was in his nature to try to help, but he couldn't get his rebellious body to respond and honestly, he was almost too worn to try again.

"What-"

"Dunno." Muttered, his eyes closed as he laid there confused, realizing idly that the inside of his mouth was fairly torn up and his cheek really smarted, but mostly it was the terrible heat throughout his body and the dizziness that kept him from getting upright again. Was he bleeding anywhere? Had he been stabbed? No, bloodloss made you cold. Infection?

Maybe. It was past his ability to know, but Prompto had a good point. With every bit of effort he could manage, he tugged a potion free of the armiger where their stash was hidden away, then pressed it to Ignis' arm. "Heal."

And again, Ignis shrunk back when Gladio came near. He wasn't even aware he was doing it. All he knew was that he hurt and wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and pass out again. His reasoning mind knew that the potion would help but the base animal in him was petrified and wanted to get away...

Sighing roughly, he wrapped shaking fingers around the potion and did his best to break it open, moaning under his breath when he finally managed it. It eased the pain to something resembling more of an ache than anything and allowed the sluggish bleeding to finally seal up and stop, but Ignis was still pale and shaky thanks to blood loss and the bruises, while not quite as livid as before, were still very evident along his skin.

"You need one too. Too hot."

Had... Ignis pulled away from him? Was Ignis afraid of him? Never in their lives had Ignis been afraid of him, always calm and collected and giving him some hard looks before they became friends but never afraid. What in the hells was going on?

Still, he pulled out a second potion and just let it crash to his chest in his hands, groaning as the coolness started to spread but it only took the edge off the terrible heat. He wouldn't know it stopped his brain from cooking inside of his own skull given his temperature.

It was taking everything in him not to pass back out. If he did... he was certain they could die before the morning came, potions or not. "...You- you know what happened?" Because clearly something attacked them but... what? Why couldn't he remember anything? Had he taken a blow to the head?

As the pain had eased, so had some of the tension in Ignis' muscles. He was limp now, sprawled on his side as he ever so slowly started to uncurl. Right then, he was on the edge of unconsciousness but Gladio's voice tugged him back. Groaning in protest, his opened his eyes again and tried to focus on his friend but weariness wouldn't allow it...

... when did he lose his glasses? Is that why his face was scraped up? Had they ended up broken?

"... I don't remember a lot. I left the haven to look for herbs to use for dinner. Something... it chased me. Big and strong. It... held me down-"

Ignis' voice faded at that, the hand near his waist slowly reaching up to tug the remains of his pants a little closer to his body.

It took longer than Gladio would ever care to admit to realize what Ignis was saying. His eyes followed the movement of that hand, staring with barely half-opened eyes, before it registered. Something... something had hunted Ignis down and- Gladio felt a sick churn in his stomach, almost violently, before he breathed out hard. "Iggy..." Quiet, sympathetic, but with no idea what to do. What was out there that would do something like that? What kind of sick monster?

He laid there, feeling more helpless than he'd felt in his life, and it was an even more sickening feeling. "...get some sleep," he murmured. "I'll keep watch." Because one of them had to. If they both passed out again... even in a haven, there were people who could find them who they wouldn't want to.

The tone of Gladio's voice left him feeling even colder than before, a shiver sliding through him as he tried to nod in agreement. Right. Sleep. Sleep would help. He was already so tired and sleep would be a good thing to help his body start to get itself back to normal.

Sighing, he curled up again, his eyes closing after a moment, though he was still oddly aware of Gladio's presence. It was... uncomfortable but he was glad he wasn't alone. Gladio would keep him safe. He could trust Gladio-

The depths of their injuries and sickness showed when they woke not within the haven, but on soft beds. Both Gladio and Ignis were tucked up into beds, but as it turned out, not in the same room. Ignis' wounds had been tended to and he had been washed, but only time would fully take away all of the damage done. The faint, familiar taste of potions would linger on his tongue, potions used to handle the internal damage.

But he wasn't alone in his room. On a chair near the door sat, of all people, Cor Leonis, carefully working a whetstone over the length of the katana in his lap, the quiet ringing repetitive as he worked to correct a nick in the blade.

It was a familiar sound. Familiar enough that when he came to enough to actually register hearing it, he almost drifted back to sleep. The pain he remembered was gone now, replaced by a faint, lingering ache that was nothing more than stiff muscles. He'd felt worse when he had first started training and still felt worse after a long hunt and the like. His throat was still scratchy feeling, but it didn't hurt. It felt more like disuse than anything else.

It took him longer than he realized to properly wake up and even then, it was just barely. He was still tired since his sleep had been anything but restful, but he felt... better, considering what had happened. Still, he couldn't let it linger. There were things that needed doing. He could handle what had happened in his own way, and later.

Huffing under his breath, he reached up and scrubbed a hand through his hair as he got himself sitting upright only to freeze when he saw who was with him... and that he wasn't where he last remembered.

".... Marshal."

"Ignis." Calm and measured as the Marshal always was, not even looking up from the methodical work on his blade. "Glass of water, right next to you." He was very well aware of what had happened to Ignis, far more than either of the two injured parties knew. Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time he had seen something of this sort, and their bodies had been puzzles that fit far too well together in the story.

"It's a little after nine in the morning. We found you not long after dawn yesterday morning." Ignis was the sort of man who needed facts, who needed to know what was going on to be able to settle in his mind, but Cor was well aware it had to be done in pieces, in this case, to keep from overwhelming the younger man.

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/comes up with insane monster biology

It works!

Re: It works!

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