Blood Trials

The colony went their separate ways, darting through the trees beyond N-Gen Pharmaceuticals. Marie manned the wheel once again, not looking anyway but ahead. Dane sat in the back. He hummed the ran his fingers through her hair to neaten it. The nude lipstick she wore was tainted by her platinum blood, and her clothes tainted by her blood as well as the blood of the ones she faced in the night. She rested against him, the same way Ankh - wrapped in Viggo's jacket - laid in Sayeed's. Viggo sat a ways from them, with Tsakani and Logan.

Dane pursed his lips with his tails trailing onto her face. "I keep waiting for her to open her eyes."

Sayeed shook his head, still holding Ankh, as he answered: "that’s not going to happen; she’s inside Strulovitch’s head now. She’ll be there for all..."

"No. She’s dead. She’s dead."

The Egyptian regarded him crestfallen. Ultimately, he did nod. "She’s dead. They're dead," he corrected looking between Dane and Ridley and Viggo huddled by himself. "We should say a few words for them, you know?" Sayeed looked down at Ankh. "She was fiery. She only wanted to understand who she was a-and we took that from her. I always wanted a younger sibling and then I got you. I kept this secret from you, all your life. You deserved better from me. From ma and baba."

The jackalen cast his dark eyes on the Danish hunter conclusively. "Ridley was more than a hunter, more than an ally; she was my first real friend. A-and I-I knew we were star-crossed the moment I fell in love with her. She would do anything for any one of us because she was so selfless and pigheaded. She sacrificed herself, and made her mother cry, but saved hundreds of mothers - possibly - from crying for their children. I will always, always love you, Ridley Dominique Davinca Axel du Luq. From now to the end of my centuries.” Dane kissed her temple, unable to slow his tears.

Logan nestled into Tsakani and the hyenian - now human - gathered the other two children Marie rescued closer for warmth. Tsakani looked over to Viggo coldly then rested the little girl against his chest to keep her warm. Marie turned into the school and cruised to a halt. "We have to get them to the infirmary," she directed to Tsakani.

"I'll drive the rest of the way," Viggo offered.

Marie cradled one of the weak girls. The remaining therianthrope children - Delphine, Josephine, Logan and a younger pup named Liam - were bundled close together for warmth. Viggo looked to them through the rear-view window, seeing them shivering but more afraid of the bodies in the van with them. The Viking sighed as he continued up the road, still in handcuffs. That didn't hinder his driving skills very much. Sayeed sighed then carefully laid Ankh aside.

The van's headlights shone into the headmaster's residence, illuminating the shocking parental panic in the house. In a lightning-fast motion, Dominique came rushing out the front doors. Sayeed pushed the door open. The little therians looked to him for support. The new ikon stepped out and halted Dominique in her tracks. He gave a light beckon to the three human children and Logan's wolf form.

All four of them shied behind Sayeed while everyone else came hurrying out of the manor too. Calista came to a jagged halt from the streetlamps highlighting the contours of the face she had known for forty-five years. She covered her mouth, ignoring Dane sliding out of the car. "Ah--" Calista breathed. "Ahmed," she whimpered. She set a palm against the cold, toned core, feeling him. "Ahmed!"

Sayeed wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her crown. Ahmed stepped into the light then paused. The intimidation permeating from Sayeed outweighed the blazing relief that came with seeing his son alive. Sayeed stretched an arm to him. Ahmed obeyed. Ahmed chuckled his disbelief. The Badr family started sobbing their reunion. Behind them, Clarke and Esmeralda came out with Mariska.

Dane watched Dominique's eagerness turn hesitant. Morgan sniffing around her. "Morgan," Dane called. Logan's ears piqued behind Sayeed before yapped. The twins pranced into each other and tackled the other to the ground. "What happens to them?"

"They're under my protection, now," Sayeed stated. "I guess that means I've got my own colony," he chuckled looking around. His humour was snuffed when he saw Dominique nervously coiling her maxi skirt as tight as possible.

The goldblood looked around the scene. The therian children, feeling secure enough to explore the new location; Logan and Morgan licking the other's face and yapping over the nighttime quiet; Viggo getting out of the driver's side. "You," she bellowed.

"Good morning, lady du Luq," Viggo began. Dominique stomped towards him. "I-I know the last we met was less than..."

Dominique grunted as she jabbed him in the nose. Viggo caved to his knees. "Jesus," Mariska commented. Dominique howled her agony and shook out her hand. "That's one Hell of a left hook, Dominique."

"I suppose I had it coming," he stated.

"My niece taught me that, you pompous pompe à chiasse!" Dominique huffed. She looked around again. "Where is my dearest," she pressed, growing angsty all over again. "Dearest?"

Dane looked to Clarke, Esmeralda and Mariska and shook his head weakly. Dominique saw it to. "She told me to 'live a life worth watching'."

"She ran away," Esmeralda asked.

"Oh, there she is," Dominique breathed in relief. "I see you've brought the she-wolf home too." Before Sayeed could stop her, Dominique reached into the van. Calista too. "Come, dearest, we are to away to France. I..." Her hand grazed Ridley's feeling it cool. "O-oh, she's asleep. And she's cold," she added. Clarke and Esmeralda turned to Dane. "Someone get her a blanket, please."

"Dane," Clarke called firmly. "What happened to Ridley?" The young hunter looked to his father for solace. Viggo stood up, whipping his let-down braids out of his face. "Sorensen," Clarke bellowed, silencing the air. "Mission report. Now." Esmeralda joined Dominique's side. "Now!"

"She was planning to run," he began. "That psionic doctor..." Dane mustered the courage to look up. "There's a new Source now," was all he mustered. Clarke shoved him aside and made for the van's sliding door. "I tried to save her."

"Hogwash," Dominique sang then gathered the tarp to cover both Ridley and Ankh. "She's exhausted," she corrected. "She'll be awake shortly. Thereafter, we will pack our belongings and be off to France." Esmeralda sniffled and that caught Dominique's attention. The redblood sobbed and shook her head. "What is the matter with you all," she asked, looking back at Ridley. "She can't be dead. Why, that would mean..." Dominique swallowed hard. "She's just a bit cold, is all, no?"

"No," Esmeralda answered through her thickly clogged nose. "No," she sniffled.

Dominique started breathing shakily as she shook her head at Esmeralda's sobbing. The goldblood covered her mouth then looked back to the cool form under the tarp. "No. No, no. No!" Dominique fainted into Esmeralda and Clarke. "Not my dearest!"

Dane shut his eyes then leaned into the hood. Viggo - still handcuffed - rested his hands on the hunter's shoulders. The Danish men looked back when Calista screamed, seeing Ankh too. Clarke - a force of brute strength - peeled Calista off the van and set her back into Ahmed's hold. The chief hunter turned to Dane, failing at reigning in his mourn. "Call it in."

Dane sniffled then pressed his finger into his earpiece. "Attention, Dunon Academy, we've got a D-8 at the old manor. Repeat, a hunter is dead." He looked to The Axels and Badrs huddled by the van's parted door. "A hunter is dead."

The hunter's facility was where the buzz of activity came from over the summer. The morgue was one of the most off-grid parts of it though. In the coffer, lay the mortal remains of one Ridley Axel. The mortician was doing her makeup and Dominique was styling her hair with her tears blinding her vision. A handful of hair was in her hand that she was brushing absentmindedly. Her pale blue eyes were cast on the dreadfully plain wooden box. Unvarnished and un-decorated.

Dane came in with a bouquet in his hands. The red on his face and the puff in his eyes were telling. He nudged her lightly in the arm. Dominique let the coffer leave her sight for the young fair face next to her. Still, she brushed that handful of abyss-toned hair. The mortician, Lorenzo Mucci, quietly left the two to the room as he backed out. Neither of them heard the thick door slip close.

"She looks breathtaking," Dane commented. Dominique forced a brief glimmer of a wry smile. "You were right; purple is her colour."

Dominique looked down to the sweetheart dress - a deep eggplant colour - that Ridley wore. "You would not believe the lengths Coco and I had to go to for her to even look at something that wasn't black. We removed every drop of black from Coco's closet and locked her in it until she told us she tried something on." Dominique hummed distantly then looked down at the hair she still brushed. "What are those," she asked weakly, seeing the bouquet out of the corner of her eye.

She looked to see that in between the white flowers were matte blades. Dane looked down at the bouquet and fluffed up a peony as he showed them to Dominique. "Her favourites. Peonies and kunai throwing knives."

"They're beautiful," Dominique sang with tears filling her eyes all over. She set the brush aside and tuffed the hair she held neatly. Carefully she tucked them into Ridley's pale hands. "Oh, she looks just perfect! So demure, so elegant, so dangerous." She hummed then leaned into Dane. "Thank you, young Viggo, for loving her despite her many, many imperfections."

"Thank you, lady du Luq. Thank you for making her whole again."

She hummed disconsolately. "You know, I told her all out her Mesopotamian heritage. How we wear white to funerals because in the land beyond life, you eat dust, and it is a grim place. How we decorate our loved one's graves and tend to them. How we had special rites to perform to make sure they enter the beyond place and don't come back to haunt us." She shook her head then sighed. "Then the Christians were invented and told us that, if one was good in this life, the life beyond was peaceful, and white, and winged people."

Dane wrapped an around Dominique as they admired the peacefully asleep young woman in front of them. Dominique whimpered. Her legs caved in. Dane gathered her in his arms as she sighed. He combed through the hereditary black hair - laced with grey - as he exited the cold room. Veteran hunters came in after them, ready to roll the box out. Dane set Dominique in the hearse and handed her his pocket square handkerchief. She nodded reassuringly to him, and he rigidly closed the door.

The hearse took off and Dane watched. He squared himself to get into the next car. The vast fields ahead led to rolling hills that were vaguely visible. The motorcade angled eastwards towards the town cemetery with hunters, family and friends. The sun was behind the hills, ready to rise above it but not high enough to cast over its light. They rode in silence with only the cars' engines for noise in the dreary atmosphere.

Hunters' Hectare and its well-maintained wrought iron gating were cornered off from the rest of the cemetery. It had been a rough past few hours for everyone; managing the therianthrope children, handling emotions, Sayeed, Ankh, Ridley. Yet here they were, all gathered - waiting on the sunrise - to bury one of their own. The coffer was lowered into the ground, once everyone was gathered. In the next grave was Ankh, surrounded the Badrs.

The sun's rays started peeping over the hills that encapsulated Dunon Town. With that the priest - standing between the two graves - gave his send-off prayers and a blessing. He nodded curtly and made his exeunt. On Ridley's side, Clarke and Dane - once again - took the weighing task of manning the shovels while on Ankh's side, it was Sayeed and Ahmed. Dominique looked around the modest, un-ornate funeral.

“That is it? Will you not say a few words?”

Clarke's famous words were: “that’s not h-how... how hunter funerals work.”

Dominique's frail discontent turned to a bitter red. “She is your daughter!” The white pencil dress she wore made the blaze in her glassy eyes more dramatic when she cast them to Ahmed and Calista. “As she is yours!” She looked back to Clarke. “I have buried my mother, my father, my sister, my nephew, his wife and his daughter! And now I bury my niece; the very last of my family!” After a series of sobs, she kneeled at headstone. “We du Luqs have lived centuries but you... dearest, you have not tasted freedom! I bury my heart with you and pray it finds peace. I pray God rest your soul.” Her uncharacteristically un-lipsticked lips kissed the covered headstone, and she rested a hand on Ankh’s. “God rest both your souls.” Dominique crossed the grave to bury her face into Mariska's shoulder. "You may proceed," she voiced then snorted a thick clump of snot.

"Clarke," Esmeralda called. "We can't..." she all but threw herself into her baby's chest. "Rowan can't be a hunter," she stated. "I can't bury another child."

Clarke looked to the box below then nodded to his wife. He ruefully began tossing dark sand into the whole. Dane followed his lead. Ahmed and Sayeed too on Ankh's remains. Dominique sat in the chair that held her basket of flowers and treats she brought for the graves. Her pedantic sobbing was noise to the otherwise quiet cemetery. Dane dropped another shovelful of dirt then halted. He looked to Clarke who visibly didn't hear what he did.

He heard it again. The thud, thud. The disbelief in his heart made him shake his head. Again, it sounded, but this time, Clarke heard it too. Seeing the stretched awe of the chief hunter's face, Dane threw his shovel aside. He jumped into the grave. The unanimous gasp that came halted all proceedings. He peeled the lid open. In the box, laid Ridley. Still, unmoving but Ridley. Some of the dark sand had filtered onto her but nothing had changed. The thud sounded again.

Dane looked over his shoulder at her foot hitting the coffer. Dominique winced then fainted. Dane cupped her cheek. "Ridley?"

"You're dead," she mumbled so softly, it was a wonder he heard her at all.

"You're alive." He scoffed his disbelief. She hummed weakly, reaching for his face. "I love you," Dane declared. He kissed her. His tears fell onto her face.

Sayeed looked into the grave as the huntress' eyes fluttered open. "Ankh," he called. He dove into her grave. He opened her coffer. He shook her vigorously. "Ankh? Ankh!" He peered out of the grave at Clarke and Dane propping the feeble Ridley out of her grave. "Ridley, she's not waking up!"

Ridley's illy pallid form turned to the next grave. Her eyes were wide and confused. "I'm not dead." She looked around then failed. Clarke grabbed her before she plummeted back into her hole. He held her from behind. She looked to the Badr family. "I can't sense her."

"How're you alive," Marie pressed. "Why aren't you in that gremlin's head?"

Calista looked between Ankh's brown-haired form laying still and the death-defyingly pale person in purple. "Because Ankh is," she stated. Ridley's shaking form leaned into Dane. He wrapped her in his jacket after he dusted the sand off it. "The Bloodline is a physical thing but the Source, is just a psionic."

Dane wrapped his arms around the feeble young woman who was shaking to her core. "How could we not have known you were alive? You weren't breathing, you were cooling off, you were," he paused. "H-how?" Ridley swallowed then shrugged weakly then nestled into his embrace, taking in the warmth. Dominique jumped them, hugging from the back. Morgan and Logan also gathered around them. The Axels looked across to the Badrs.

Sayeed shut the grave then helped Ahmed bury Ankh. Tears poured out of Ridley when the sun rose enough to cast onto her. It was painful. She nestled deeper into Dane while the remnant funeral proceeded. Mariska and Esmeralda were consoling Calista. Josephine, Delphine and Liam were close at their side - in their therianthrope form, since the quintamine had worn off - and wagging their tails low. Then, to conclude the less than traditional funeral, Clarke - as the highest ranked hunter present - unveiled the headstone:

Ankh Badr

Daughter, Sister & Friend

18. 09. 92 - 14. 06. 22

Next to that, was the granite stone that headed Ridley's grave and was covered with a dark grey veil. Under the transparent veil, they could still see its contents; which included her latest Gradus:

Ridley Dominique Davinca Axel-du Luq

Lone

07. 11. 03 - 14. 06. 22

*Pompe à chiasse: French for diarrhea pump