Post by ۞ KAT ۞ AKA Red Viper on May 31, 2019 17:02:11 GMT -5
It was bitterly cold in Northrend, especially on the back of a swiftly flying griffon. The late afternoon sun offered little warmth as rays blanketed down through various clouds that very likely carried snow.
The red haired woman who was the lone passenger on the creature wore a grimace of determination on her face as her gloved hands gripped the reigns tighter, thighs pressed against the griffons feathery sides firmly. Her shoulders were hunched forward, neck almost lost between them. Amber eyes glittered as sharply as the ice below her.
When the Wyrmrest Temple came into view, a silent beacon in the center of the Dragon Wastes, her snorted breath of vapor was instantly carried away.
The beat of her mounts wings soon were drowned out by the soft thunderous beating of the many dragons which cut through the sky, circling around the Temple always on guard. For at the top, were the aspects. One of which- was her reason for venturing into this forsaken frozen land.
With a yell she urged her beast onward, faster, climbing in altitude, skimming the stone walls of the Temple until the summit was before her. The gryphon screeched as she hauled back on the reigns and jerked them to the side, making it extend its claws for landing.
She wasted no time slipping out of the saddle, her boots thumping softly against the marble of the floor. Squalls of snow swirled up around her toned thighs as she began stalking purposefully toward the gathered grouping of beings. There was no time to think about how cold she was. About how much she loathed the snow. Right now, only one thought consumed her. Erasing a mistake and setting things right.
Kat’s jaw tightened feeling the eyes upon her. She was not in the mood to deal with all of them. She wasn’t even in the mood to ogle Nozdormu or Malygos. Out of all the impressive bodies there, her feet carried her to the most diminutive of them.
“Chromie.” She nodded to the gnome before offering a respectful nod to the others who were watching with detached interest.
“Kat! It’s good to see you!” Chromie chirped in her annoyingly high pitched gnome voice.
She inwardly twitched at the lack of 'Lady', but considering who it was, she decided to let it slide. Of course tis. “I suspect you knew I was coming.”
Giggling Chromie nodded while looking up at the honey skinned human. “How about you tell me why you came though. I get so confused with how many times we may have had this conversation, it’s chances to change for each instance are high.”
Forcing a smile Kat nodded and lightly brushed a hand over her lower abdomen, “I came to…” she paused the words feeling like rotten eggs in her mouth, “humbly request yer aid… a favor… if ye will.”
“A favor? “ her large green eyes smiled as she scrunched up her lips, “Please speak it, I will see what I am able to do.”
“Aye…” Kat’s hand gestured vaguely as she spoke, her tone determined yet wrapped in trepidation. “I need to go back into the past a few months. I need to stop myself from allowing something to happen.”
Before the words were already out of her mouth, Chromie was looking apologetic. Kat jerked up a hand to pause whatever words she was about to say. “Chromie, I am not asking fer much. I have aided ye many, many times, even saving yer life. What I be asking be a mere drop in the bucket, and it be the only time I will ask ye fer this favor.”
“Carry on…”
“I need to return to January 24th. I need to speak to meself. Not fer long. I just need to make sure I don’t allow something to happen.”
“Kat, I would love to help you, I would, but-“
“Chromie…” the human’s voice took on an uncharacteristically imploring tone. “In the past, I had helped ye look fer a wedding ring er something fer someone to set time right… What I be asking be more important than that. It be very important to –me-, it won’t have any huge adverse effects on the time line er whatever…. I just need to do this. I need to stop this –“ she jerked up her tabard and her shirt with one hand, pressing down the band of her bottoms to expose her lower abdomen to the gnome, “from happening. Please. Grant me this favor… I saved yer life.”
Green eyes widening at what she saw, they flicked from it to Kat’s shimmering amber orbs, then briefly toward the other aspects before inhaling deeply. “Fix your shirt, it’s cold…”
“Will ye aid me?”
Chewing on her lower lip a moment Chromie finally nodded, then shook her head, “I will only give you one chance.” She held up a finger to emphasize her words, “And I will only give you ten minutes.”
Unexpected tears sprang to Kat’s eyes as she knelt before the gnome, “Chromie, thank ye… I-“
“You will not deviate from the task you wish to accomplish, and you will not try any funny business. Time lines are delicate things after all.” It was odd to see the chipper visage of a gnome with a knot of a frown in her forehead.
“Aye, of course! Of course!”
“I will need a Chronoshard from the location you wish to visit. Do you have anything from that particular location that would tie you to it?
Her face went blank for a moment. “I…” The wind picked up again whipping her cloak about her shivering form, snapping her in the face making her wince. Pushing it back behind her, her hand brushed over a key that was dangling from her belt. “I have this!”
Ripping it free she held the house key before Chromie, swallowing back any sentimental attachment she had for it.
Chromie took the key and studied it carefully a moment, gazing over the Opaline skull at the top before turning it over to read the inscription on the back. “The key to my sanity… C.M.”
“Aye… Ian-“ her throat knotted up. Clearing it she carried on with more detachment, “Cillian gave it to me not long after he was found and came back home. It be the key to the cabin we called home together. The cabin be where I need to get to, to stop meself from going in.”
“Oh!” Chromie chirped with a bright smile. “Well then this will be perfect!”
Kat swallowed and masked her face with an impassive stare, to hide the pang of hurt she felt seeing the key disappear into the gnome’s hand before a bright light shone through the fingers encasing it. When she slowly opened her hand once more, laying in the palm was a small shard winking with an odd light.
“This is a Chronoshard, it will enable me to create a portal to the location it is tied to. Are you ready to go? Remember. You will only have ten minute, and one chance.”
Brows knitting together Kat nodded once firmly. She hadn’t known when her heart had begun to hammer so loudly, and she vaguely wondered if Chromie could hear it. This was her one chance to set right what she should never have allowed to happen.
She had to be successful.
“Aye… I be ready.”
“Alriiiightie then! Hold onto your helmet- wait you’re not wearing one- well, hold onto your crown then! We are going time traveling!”
Swirling her hand over the small shard she then grinned directing the energies from it toward Kat. As what looked like sparkling sands of time began to consume them Kat’s vision blacked out for an instant. When she opened her eyes again she was standing in the driveway to the cabin.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. It was very late- or very early depending how you looked at it. Well past midnight and she was due to soon arrive and go inside. The cabin was pitch black, and looked like there was no one inside. She knew better however. Cillian was lying in wait for her, ready to carry out his devious plan.
“Alright, I think we are at the right time, give or take a minute, do you see you ye—Heeey!”
Kat was already ushering the gnome into a patch of bushes, holding a finger to her lips. “Ssshhh! I will be here any moment, listen, that’s me coming on me horse. Wait here while I talk to meself yea?”
Present Kat peeked out from her cover toward the road where she saw the glow of her horse cutting through the night, then turned her attention to the door of the cabin where a dagger was planted firmly in the door holding a note. With a pained smile she took a breath and stood up as Past Kat dismounted.
For a moment Present Kat wrinkled her nose at the choice of armor Past Kat was wearing. What had she been thinking?
“Hey! Who the f*ck are ye!?” Past Kat growled reaching for her dagger as Present Kat moved confidently toward her. “Hey! Don’t f*ckin move! Who the f-“
“Katheraine, shut the f*ck up and listen. I don’t have long fer this. Try to follow along, ok?” she turned her hip to show Past Kat the identical dagger on her hip, “I be ye. I came back from five months into the future with Chromie. She owed me- er us. And ye NEED to listen-“
Snarling Past Kat took a breath to spit out some more profanity which Present Kat knew was coming. Stepping into herself smoothly she pressed her body against the woman’s, circling a hand around her waist, pressing a finger under her belt, the other hand pressing to her lips as her eyes bore into the mirrored amber orbs that were growing wide. “Ye NEED to shut the f*ck up and LISTEN.”
“Kat, you only have five minutes left!” Chromie called out from the bushes, making Past Kat blink from the form of the gnome stepping out into view back to the visage of herself.
Past Kat huffed a hot breath through her nostrils and nodded once. Present Kat mirrored the nod and dropped the hand at her mouth.
“Ian be inside. There be a note on the door. Turn about in this case AINT gonna be fair play,” her eyes began to shimmer again making Past Kat narrow hers, “He is gonna string ye up, and make ye powerless. He is gonna MARK YE, Katheraine. He is gonna BRAND ye.”
Before Past Kat could say anything, Present Kat was already moving her clothing aside, and gripping Past Kat’s hand to press against the raised brand of the paladin’s entire hand along her lower abdomen.
“What..the…f*ck…” hissed Past Kat.
“Kat we have to g—“
“JUST A MINUTE CHROMIE!” Present Kat cried gripping Past Kat’s shoulders to give her a firm shake, “Do NOT go in there tonight! Go to the Bay. Do NOT let him brand us! He aint worth it! He aint worth it!!!”
“But I—“ Past Kat stammered trying to process everything her eyes darting from what she had just seen to her own face, which was twisted into such anguished pain.
“Do NOT let him---“
“I’m so sorry Kat, your time is up!” Chromie nodded to Past Kat with a smile, “Nice to see you again! Don’t waste your chance! I’m only giving you this one.” She winked as she grabbed Present Kat’s hand to pull on her a bit before they were both swallowed up in shimmering sand.
* * * * *
She was in shock. Her body felt cold despite the muggy heat of Booty Bay about her.
What happened that night… Had she really traveled back in time to stop herself from doing something? What had been so bad that she would have- the brand. Never in her life had she ever allowed someone to mark her, yet there it had been. Cillian’s large hand print burned into her flesh.
Her hand moved to press over her stomach as her eyes continued to stare into the memory of looking into her own eyes. There had been so much pain there. She wasn’t one for showing such emotions, yet there they had been. It was the look in her eyes that had made her leave, as she had been told to do- and come to the Bay.
Sure she really liked that young paladin, he was delicious and so impressionable. She had felt herself falling for him the moment she first seen him in the Mage District outside the Recluse. But she hadn’t known him that long… only a couple months. Would she have really allowed him to brand her like that? Did she really care about him that much and perhaps not realize it? What would have happened in that cabin had she not left…
He’s NOT worth it!
Her impassioned words still echoed in her mind.
Standing, she began to undo her armor, allowing it to fall to the floor carelessly. It was when she undid her belt that she noticed a slip of paper float away from it.
“What the f*ck…”
Curiosity clawing at her she plucked it up off the floor and uncurled it. It was only a small piece of parchment, but she instantly recognized her own hand writing.
He aint worth it. GUARD YER HEART! Else he will shatter it. Beware the mage. Expect Traitors. X and Grim remain.
* * * * *
“Well?” Chromie smiled tilting her head once Kat was grounded enough to stand straight. “Did you listen to you?”
Dazed, Kat held her head before falling to her knees, retching.
“Oh- right… Forgot to warn you! When you fiddle with a time line- especially your own, that can happen. Your memories are being altered to conform to your new past which is now your present. I suppose it can be a bit nauseating.” She giggled and blinked innocently still waiting for Kat to answer her.
If there had been any memories she had wanted to keep- they were gone before she could even think about them one last time. Less than fleeting glimpses and whispered before they were erased like they had never been there.
It took a good few minutes before Kat was able to focus and keep the world from spinning and lurching around her.
“You’ll catch up to yourself soon. Memories from months ago, though likely new will be just as dull as your other memories had been, even though they are new to you now, they technically are not new at all and are what always were. It’s hard to explain. Did you listen to you?” she tried again.
“Da f*ck are ye talking about?”
“Here…” Chromie leaned in and began fiddling with Kat’s shirt, “Let’s take a look at your abdomen.
“Hey! Hey! Can’t we have Noz do this er something! What are ye do-“
“Well look at that! You did listen to yourself! I was a little skeptical; you can be a bit stubborn. But I guess you managed to convince yourself! Well done!”
Peering down at her lower abdomen Kat ran a hand over the old scar she had had since she was a child. All was as it had always been- far as she knew. Then it slowly started trickling back to her.
She had seen herself one night… and told herself… told herself… Cillian was going to…
Chromie watched as the memories began to play out in Kat’s altered mind, a soft, understanding smile playing on her lips.
Founded April 26, 2005