Hunted|Haunted - Chapter 17 - Wrong neighbourhood

— Trust me on this one. — Tove tried her best to be convincing.
— No fucking way I'm doing it.
— Look around, it'll take at least a day to notice its absence. — Neven also, was on her side with this.
— I don't know how to explain it to your ancient ghostly ass, but this isn't what I'm worried about. I am not getting up there.

And lo, they beheld a pale horse, and its rider's name was going to be Nexialist.

— He has a broom. If you get on the horse, we'll be way faster.
— Coyote, dude, brother, whatever, I can’t even begin to explain to you, but I’d rather trust Nex with a motorbike. —Cogs added.
— Why? It's the horse doing most of it.
— Just curious, have you ever ridden a horse?
— Of course? What kind of question is that?
— I rode a horse a few times in my life. — Cogs was trying his best to explain the situation and not laugh. — And that was because I lived on a farm when I was Toma’s age. Nex over there is a city kid. He never even saw any wild animal bigger than a dog!
— Never once I was that offended by something I completely agree with. — Nexialist grumbled, still eyeing a horse with suspicion.

Toma jumped on the horse, which didn't seem to mind.

— Oh, this one is much calmer than Heathen.
— Isn’t Heathen a workhorse?
— Is that the one you set on fire? — Nex is asking the important questions here.
— … No.
— No, but seriously, I get riding a horse, but like… The horse is naked. — Tove said, taking a good look at all sides of the horse.

— So?
— So, how do you stir it?
— Why would I stir a horse?
— And then you tell me not to touch you, you truly are one cruel soldier. How do you plan to tell it where to go?
— By telling it where to go? It’s not that hard, and Toma knows how to do it, and he's already on the horse.

The horse was eyeing Nexialist's shoes with equal suspicion.

— So you're telling me, witches can speak horse.
— Can't one of your ghosts possess it and get it over with? — To think about it, the whole ordeal, ridiculous as it was, was probably even weirder to Harvey, since he couldn’t see most of the personage.
— I’d try, but I’m not that sure about it. — Cogs shrugged at the inquisitive look in his direction. — I could probably possess a dead one, but making it move would be complicated. Never liked horses anyway.
— Ugh, why I oughta… — Tove chomped the horse's shoulder, and after a short tremor, the horse's eyes turned bright orange.
— Get on, ya coward. Limited offer.
— Can you repeat that? Your voice sounds a little horse.
— Keep in mind, one of us is a half-ton animal, and the other is you.
— Fine, fine. — Nex rolled his eyes, but started climbing the horse, silently praying to any gods willing to listen that he didn’t fall, or worse, get tangled in the process. — Just don’t break a leg or whatever it is horses like doing.
— It's not my first time seeing a talking horse, but it never quite stops scaring the rubber bands off of me.
— I’m curious when and how was the first time.
— Turned out my sister's animal shape is a horse, and she didn't tell me. So, the next one is…. That direction. Let's'a'go.

After a series of unnotable clues, such as random letters carved into trees and traces of glitter, by the evening, they eventually ended up in a town. The first thing to catch Nexialist's attention was a row of neat, shiny bikes parked in front of another ancient building. He was too focused on bikes to analyse it.

— I have a thought.
— Lose it.
— Just a thought!

— No, dude, there's like, there's something hella wrong. I dunno if the horse is broken or something, but… I swear that thing is staring at me.
— What? The bike?
— I know how it sounds, but it's definitely not the weird dude on it. Maybe one of them is a mimic, or the horse is making me crazy.
— Wait a- — As soon as Nex focused less on potentially hijackable bikes and more on reality, he noticed a lonely biker, who was sitting on one of the bikes as still as if glued to it. — Sonnovabitch… I didn’t even notice that guy. Is he, like, tied to the bike, or what?

The biker looked fairly ordinary, if it weren't for how still he sat and how much black he wore. Black helmet, black leather jacket, black cargo pants, black boots... Only the shirt he was wearing was dark grey. The biker also had some very weird tattoos on his neck, but it was impossible to tell what they were from this distance.

— Nope, nope, no, no, no, nope, without me. — Tove trotted to the nearest wall and through it, leaving the horse rather confused.
— Sir, why are you tied to a bike?

Of course, as soon as they turned around, Toma was next to the man.

— When did you even- Why haven't we put him on a leash yet?
— Or ourselves on the chill pills.
— Also true. I'll fetch our jockey.
— And I’ll go get the kid. — Yeah, because the man didn't react to Toma in any way, and Nex was also starting to get uneasy. So he climbed down from the horse and came closer to Toma, having half a mind to drag him away.

Upon closer inspection, it was very clear that something was wrong with the guy. Also, his tattoos looked like runes. And Nex knew only one kind of people in his life, who would get tattooed like that.

— Toma, hey, let's go, it's none of our business. He must be tied for a reason.
— But-

A man appeared from the building, and upon seeing him, Toma followed Tove's suit, practically teleporting back onto the horse.

— Never mind, Tove's right, something's wrong.

Nexa was very surprised by this, but decided to follow the kid's instincts and his own ringing paranoia. Better safe than sorry. The horse, however, continued to wander around unbothered, occasionally sniffing and munching on decorative bushes. Thankfully, Neven soon returned with the “jockey”.

— No! Nope! I'm not getting near that fucking place!
— Get into the horse.
— … Yano, the way you look at me right now, makes me think you were supposed to be a dentist. Or a librarian. Or a-
— Now.
— Fine, fine, Hilthe, stop staring, my own seven mommas didn't glare at me like that!
— How many?!

Tove sprinted as soon as she got control over the steed, so Nex, who barely had the time to climb back up, unfortunately had to shift his priorities to not falling off. Such a shame, truly. The only one who didn't want to find out more was Harvey, because Harvey was busy trying to catch up to the rest. He was failing, for the record.

— Tove for fuck's sake, slow down, I'm about to eat some gravel!
— Ah, my bad, sorry. – She said, stopping dead in her tracks, causing Nex to “eat some gravel” from the other side of the road. The kid, meanwhile, either was made from straight Velcro or managed to cover himself in glue at some point. — My bad, sorry again. You good?
— I'll let you take a wild guess. — Fortunately, the mask had a metal frame which negated some of the worst damage, because Nex was able to sit up, although slowly and slightly swaying, and flip Tove off.
— Whew, I didn't know a horse could go that fast! Good call, though. But we needed to take a left turn when we left that town, so now we have to take a shortcut in that direction.
— Elaborate on the “good call” part.

Nexialist continued to sit off the side of the road and sway. Suddenly turning into a worm and crawling away didn't seem all that bad. Cogs patting him slightly on the back didn’t really help the situation.

— Yeah, so, that man… Is sort of known around these parts. I don't know the details, but no one I met who knew about him recommended being in his line of sight.
— So, is it mystic bullshit or regular criminal bullshit?
— No idea, but I do wear lucky threads in case it helps avoid whatever it is.

The shortcut led through a dense forest, so the group decided to leave the horse by the nearest building, a shed of some sort.
The branches hung low, making Nex walk nearly parallel to the ground.

— Look!
— I swear, if another hedgehog is chasing you-
— Just look up there!

A tree was missing a letter-sized piece of bark, its wood filled with carvings. Next to it, a rusty knife with a handle nearly rotted away.

— Never mind that, it's not Krsto's. It doesn't sparkle to me.
— But what if it's important anyway?
— Kid, if we start investigating every single thing on our way, we'll never get anywhere.
— Ah, biscuits, just read it! It's too high up for me.

But no matter how hard Harvey and Nex stared, the carving didn't make any sense. The symbols sure looked like letters, but no two neighbouring ones looked like they came from the same alphabet.

— Dude, you arright? You look like you've seen half a worm. — Tove was still getting used to Neven’s palette of facial expressions.
— That is… that is my knife. He must've taken it off my body… The writing is gibberish as far as I can tell. This letter is mirrored, and those are upside down. These two are sideways. This is a symbol for a wyvern nest. This one is alchemical for salt. This one is “make a right turn when you see”, but it doesn't mention what we're supposed to see. This one is “Danger, falling…” Something. Can't make it out.
— If they were how they're supposed to be, what would they spell?
— Ch, K, S, Yeh, Tvan, Pheh, Auwd, Kheuwe, Yyi. Gibberish.
— Uncle Harvey, can you look for more things like that? Maybe dad has more, then we'd only go to places that have both tracks.
— Sound idea. Let me just…

As soon as Harvey caught a glimpse of the tracks, he went pale and trembling in sheer horror.

— Kiddo… Why do you have his things?
— Whose?

Harvey tried his best to talk through fear, but that was a name he just couldn't utter. Something primal in him was sure that speaking his name out loud would immediately bring trouble.

— Your dad's twin. I was at the burial. I know for sure you didn't go to the mansion, because you don't know where it is, so HOW in nine Hells did you get them?
— Oh, you mean the gun? — Toma pulled the object out of his infinipocket, struggling to hold it with one hand. Harvey, upon seeing the thing, immediately jumped higher than his sum length and onto a tree. — Coyote taught me to use it before I ran off. Why are you… emm.. Being like this? Nexa, is this something people usually do when they see a gun?
— OH, WHY DON'T YOU ASK “COYOTE”, WHY AM I BEING LIKE THIS?!
— What he said, I guess?
— ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! HE'S WITH US?!

Harvey’s voice reached a pitch where nearby birds started answering, thinking he was a fellow songbird. Nex, slightly tilted his head, clearly puzzled by what was happening.

— Well, yea. Floating around and commenting on your fashion sense for the past… However long it was.
— Let's say we don't have the best relationship. — Neven decided to fill the others in.
— Dude, what'd you do? Damn, and I thought you were over the top!
— Without going into detail-
— Nah, look at him perching there like a goddamn peacock, I'm gonna need all the details.
— Him, Krsto, Imeje and multiple others were a part of the group that tried to stop the order via marauding the order's artefact-creating temples. I was tasked to… “Stop” them, but “dead” was more preferable than “alive”, so I think that would make it “hunt them down like rabbits”. Let's say I wasn't exactly… “Geneva-abiding” with my methods.
— Damn, now I only want to know more. But, I guess you weren't that good of a hunter, them fuckers’ still alive and kicking.
— Have you considered it's because I didn't actually want my brother dead, and he was dumb enough to throw himself in front of every single bullet?
— Damn. Why'd they send you, though? Seems dumb.
— If I hadn't known better, I'd say it's because father wanted us both to suffer, but the actual reason was that Krsto wouldn't be able to kill me either.
— That one backfired, it seems.
— He didn't kill me.
— Yep, those twenty-something holes in your back are just flu.
— … I was only shot four times total?
…
— Dude, you've seen yourself?
— … I don't know?

While the ghosts were busy counting Neven's bullet holes, and Nexialist tried to persuade Harvey to calm the heck down and continue the search, the bear counted Toma as one of her cubs.

Yes, the bear, didn't you notice it approaching?

Toma also didn't. So, upon being grabbed by the clothes, he promptly dropped the gun and turned into a chunk of wet, scared seaweed.

Nex was the first to turn around. And the first to swear.

— Shit.
— Holy fuck, an actual bear! — Cogs buzzed with excitement, immediately flying off closer to the animal. — I’ve never seen one this close!

The bear roared and sped off, with Toma chirping helplessly in her jaws. That made Cogs stop and reassess the situation.

— Get the gun! Get the gun, it took years to summon!

— Get the kid, you dumbass! — Nex shouted in response, already reaching for the gun lying on the ground.

— With what hands?!

— Go possess a bear or what.

— Yeah, uh, I think something is, already. — Tove pointed.

The bear was, rather obviously, showing the middle claw to the group. Nex answered by aiming the gun at the bear.

— DON'T! — Neven tried to get the gun out of his hands, with the usual result. — Magic ammo, you have none, you'll knock yourself out.

— Okay, I’m not shooting nothing with your gun yet. — Nex nodded. Then took his own gun out of the hidden pocket holster, aiming it at the bear too. — But I’m adding poaching to my wanted list.

He didn't fire, didn't have time to do it. Because Cogs flew closer to the bear and, with a battle cry, punched it straight in the eye. His fist, instead of passing fully through, connected with something, seemingly just beneath the bear's skin.

The bear didn't like it one bit. It let Toma go, but then it turned with a growl at Cogs. Who came to an abrupt realisation that he was seen and about to have a one-on-one with a bear. Rather than attacking Cogs, however, it then turned at Nex and Harvey's direction. The live threats interested it more than the dead ones.

— …How big of a chance that a shot wouldn't do shit? — Nex quietly whispered to Neven, slowly pocketing Neven’s gun.

— From your hands, 100%. Generally, approximately 0.02%, it's a demonsbane firearm.
— Those are real? Holy shit.

Next punched Tove, whose hit did significantly more damage, but also pissed the bear off more. The bear caught Tove by the leg and flung it, Tove flying after it.

— Well, that was unusual.
— You don't say?

Right as Harvey got down, Neven was struck with a bright idea that left Harvey struggling to breathe on the ground and seizing.

— Should've done this a while ago — said Neven, now possessing Harvey. — Ermearra's grace, you're hallucinating. All of this – and you're hallucinating. How come all remotely responsible adults in this mess are dead… Give me the gun, he should be able to take a couple of shots.

— And you people were telling me off about my pills. At least I’m lucid enough to aim, fuck’s sake! Alright, catch!

Despite successfully catching the gun, it continued its way to hit Harvey in the shoulder.

— If it makes you feel any better, he just sees colours. Let's hope I didn't lose any skill.

— You're not gonna shoot her, right?
Neven sighed.
— Toma. With how often trouble gets you, I am quite surprised your mother's hair isn't white, let alone is on her head at all. But no, I'll just scare her a little.

The bullet whistled right above the Bear's head, leaving a trail in its fur. Having gotten the hint, the animal slowly backed away into the underbrush.

— What'd I miss? Dude. Duuude, the hell is with your arm?
— A slight dislocation.
— If that's a slight, then I'm a graceful little butterfly.
— Fret not, I know some- — But halfway through healing, Harvey fell unconscious, leaving Neven standing. — … Spells. He's going to hate me so much when he wakes up.