Winter 31st, 514AV
noon
noon
Esteem.
Daegron never thought he'd feel such a thing for someone he barely knew. A woman no less; yet her grit rivalled his own, and fuelled her strength. In those coals she called eyes, burned a rage that he'd known yet never met before. It was like his own anger against the world, a need to break the chains and push onward, never to surrender.. Yet in the clouds her breath created, in the pulse that he could see throbbing on her temples there existed something more; a deep hatred for all the things that HE stood for. Well, not exactly himself, as he was reminded by his own reflection a moment before her forehead painfully connected with his brow, sending him straight to the ground as a thunder cracked and echoed in his battered skull. Really, what a woman!
As his back struck the thin layer of frost that was already forming underneath, he finally shook confusion out of his head. For the reflection was not his own but belonged to a man they called Buras. Daegron had blatantly stolen his face; something he'd found himself doing all the more often these days. Buras conveniently enough had more or less the same stocky built as the Morpher had, albeit less strong and leaning towards the plump side as it was proven. It was a whim born of curiosity that he followed and got him into yet another world of trouble.
It all started with a walk in the wilds. Daegron had begun to love those precious bells he could spend away from the dread of his windowless cell; away from the solitude of a bustling city, away from the ever prying eyes of people who were ready to point the finger and put the blame on their neighbour. And most importantly, away from all reflections. No mirrors, nor windows not even the calm surface of Ravok's blessed waters. Here, in the forests, the ugly truth that haunted him, the image of his own self shattered and torn, was nowhere to be found. It was soothing, it was his shelter.
In the beauty of this shelter he basked, wandering aimlessly along the shoreline. Winter had solidly stepped in; the first snowflakes appeared by dawn and blanketing the earth would be only a matter of bells. The chill of the North gnawed at his bones but somehow doused his soul with an unusual warmth. A marvel that he enjoyed immensely. The ecstatic quietude that had sucked him into her cold embrace was rudely broken. The all-too familiar rattling of chains came first. Then a few shouted orders, curses and the creaking of cart wheels struggling against the newly settled frost. Curiosity had bested him and he couldn't help but investigate.
By the time he'd approached the source of this nuisance, a new kind of ruckus seemed to have started. It was surprising to see that young girl, probably a southerner from the unusually tanned skin, making a run for it. She could barely be sixteen and she'd just showed the nerve that those Slavers around her lacked. She'd just slipped herself through the wide spacing of that rickety cell and foolishly started running straight towards the thick foliage; into the maw of the first wolf to call dibs on her lean figure. She'd taken a random direction and simply left; a desperate attempt to free herself that was bound to end soon, as a muscular mercenary blocked her way.
Yet, he wasn't meant to stop her. As Daegron's keen eyes watched from his vantage point, a tall figure crept behind the man and tripped him over. As a hand reached to pull the young slave towards it, the hood fell to reveal a face that he'd briefly met but remembered well. The black eyed slave that accompanied Parnell's protege Vera, seemed to be keen on trouble. Defiance and an odd smirk were painted on her face as she grabbed the girl and dashed away. The mess she'd caused was beyond description. Curses followed and the slavers swiftly gathered their whips and weapons to claim their merchandise back and punish the insolent woman, racing behind them.
Buras was smart. He'd decided to follow a circling route and following the shallow ravine he'd pop in front of the fleeting slaves. But he didn't last long. He was all talk and no brawn as it was sadly proven. Daegron surprised him by using one of the most horrible transformations he could create on the spot in his twisted mind. The rest was just a swift but gruesome beating from which Daegron had gained a few bruises and a slight cut on his left arm by that petched long knife his prey used. Buras was now all tied up with his own ropes, coatless, bruised, freezing and bleeding from his severed hamstrings, just below both his knees. Food delivered to the first wolf that would smell him. As a gift to nature, an offering to the wild spirits that dwelt in those empty lands so close to civilization. Daegron's prize ? The man's face and weapon, along with a fancy grey coat, adorned with a silver pin that everyone else in the group wore. He'd even learned the man's name, through careful intimidation.
The train of memories tore up the haze the Morphing had created and all was all clear by the time her knee crashed on his chest stealing away his breath. She'd found him first and thinking of him as a slaver, she was ready to take the kind of vengeance that seemed to be long due. She stopped for a mere moment, saying something incomprehensible that could have been a curse and went on to grab something from the ground. He was pinned down, helpless and the sharp rock that she wielded and raised over him could spell his doom.
"Stop !" he said, gasping for air as the menacing arc of his own demise started to form itself. Djed flowed and poured out of his head and his natural form took the reigns, undoing the transformation in a grotesque display of bulging veins, stretched skin and shifting muscle. Seeing that she was already boiling with righteous rage and unsure of how the change he'd initiated would be accepted, the Morpher spoke as calmly as he could, hoping that the pointy edge of her improvised weapon would not pierce his shifting skull.
"Tis I, remember me from the Temple ? I mean no harm !"
