FIC :: Fabula Rasa (3/3)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Fabula Rasa ((3/3)/7) -- in other words, the last installment of thefirst episode of what might be seven 
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: All characters in this part belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I'm poor, I'm harmless, I'm just borrowing.
SUMMARY: It's got a book in it, it's got Buffy and Willow, and some (hopefully non-copyright) guest stars
SPOILERS: None, but we're still talking minimal smut
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All nice feedback welcome. It's still not my fault, and Hito the Aardvarks out there, because, (as we all know) aardvark never hurt anybody !!


  
Fabula Rasa - - Part 3

 

 

Buffy didn't know what it had been. She assumed it was what had been following them, through this mysterious forest-out-of-nowhere, whatever had beenhowling, and had now shut up. Ominous that.

It might, she admitted to herself, be utterly innocent of the howl-type noise, but it was there. She'd seen it a couple of seconds ago, slinking through some trees about a hundred yards away. It had looked low, lean and lupine, but she wasn't about to worry Willow with what might not be.

Quickly she gathered together some small rocks - - stakes were all very well for vamps, but not everything conveniently exploded into grey dust when staked. Stakes were hardly arms-length weapons, and she knew of several things that had tried to walk along the stake to her. Rocks, on the other hand, while they didn't exterminate vampires, did knock them back a bit, and did pretty well against a variety of other adversaries (even if Moloch had required a fire extinguisher and several hundred volts).

 

"Any luck ?" she called. She'd seen what Willow as trying and while she didn't want to interfere, Buffy felt that being penned back against an invisible barrier was somewhat adverse tactically.

"Not yet," her best friend replied, in the matter-of-fact, slightly reserved voice that told Buff that Will was On It, and would Report any Developments.

"Well, they're here." Buffy would have kept the news back, but Willow deserved to know the truth.

She'd said "they" because there were at least eight of them. They looked like wide-bodied pit terriers (low centre of gravity, hard to tumble, her instincts relayed to her), grey, with white eyes and ivory teeth. Rather a lot of teeth, though thankfully, so far as Buffy could see, all in the usualplace, in the front.

Willow used a word Buffy had never heard from her before, and then muttereda Jewish apology. Obviously whatever she had tried hadn't worked.

Four of the Things With Teeth (Buffy had to call them something) hung back,keeping to the edges of the tree-shadows, while the other four pressed forward, slowly, cautiously. The howl was gone, replaced by a muffled, almostmuttered, whining sound.  

"Do you have anything sharp in that bag, Will ?" she asked, keeping her eyeon the big one that seemed to be pack-leader.

Willow pulled out a knife - - an athame, with its sanctified handle and cold iron blade. And, as she did so, the air fizzed. Quickly she reached down for another knife, an ordinary one, for cutting up herbs, meaning to passit to Buffy.

But the pack-leader had already charged, and Buffy had time only to throw one of her rocks before it was on her.

 

Manically, Willow slashed at the barrier with the athame.

Buffy had her hand in the creature's beard-hair, trying to keep the Teeth away, while prodding it with the stake in her other hand. Thankfully the other Things With Teeth were hanging back, watching their leader's Epic Struggle.

 

The barrier parted, like cellophane before a sharp knife, and Willow almostfell through.

Buffy was weakening - - even her Slayer stamina was no match for . for . for whatever this was. The Teeth, ivory-white, and razor-sharp she had no doubt, kept getting closer and closer to her as the Thing shook its head backand forth, stopping her getting the eye-socket and brain shot she wanted (if, that was, a Thing With Teeth had its brain in what appeared to be its skull - several demons, Giles had borne in on her, had brains in very unusual places).

 

Suddenly Willow was calling to her.

Buffy threw herself backward, and stabbed, all in one movement.

Willow swept the athame back through the arc that had opened the barrier, and chanted something which, at home, would have been integral to a Closing Of The Circle ritual.

The Thing shivered - had the barrier re-established itself through its ribcage ? Buffy Summers, Slayer, Chosen One, bane of her Principal's life, didn't care. It stiffened for one moment and in that moment she staked it as if it had been William the Bloody in one of his most tiresome moods.

 

This time the howl was agonising, not least because of the volume. The next Thing With Teeth bounced off the barrier much as Buffy had done initially. Another approached more cautiously, then backed away. The pack-leader writhed, apparently part-paralysed.

"Help me push it back, Will," Buffy requested. Willow Rosenberg didn't pretend to see just why they were doing it, but it was something to do, and she did it, relying on Slayer-sense to get it right.

The Thing With Teeth went back through the barrier (though Buffy noticed a degree of resistance when her hand got too close), and promptly tried to stagger away, whereupon it was torn to shreds by its former pack-mates.

"Nice," Willow commented, holding the bile back.

"So what is this place ?" Buffy asked.

Then the shock struck her. There was no point being hungry - neither of them had thought to pack lunch; she didn't even have a candy bar tucked away,and Willow didn't usually snack. So, not hungry .

 

Willow was also feeling a bit on edge, having no clear idea of what happened next, and having watched an alfresco al dente au natural cannibalistic meal-time, and .

It was quite a relief to be bodily swept up, and deposited on the stone table (if a smidgen uncomfortable), and then thoroughly and expertly hugged, snuggled, kissed, smooched and generally ravished (as best one can be when wearing all your clothes).

 

So neither of them really noticed when existence turned white around them again.

 

 

Finis

 

 

 

Part 2 - Fables of Tone  

 

follows shortly