As the afternoon grows longer and the sun dips toward the horizon, sunset is looming not far away. It's still warm, beautiful, and serene with the light breeze coming down from the mountain. Every so often the bell sounds as people come to the Valley to pay their respects to the dead.
Lili made her way up to the Valley of the Temples with Noah, grinning at him as they came up the path that opened to the beautiful, peaceful view of the resting place of the dead. "I told you, beautiful, right?" She took a deep breath and gazed around, her dark blue eyes taking in the surroundings with a slow calming of her smile to something entirely mellow. "I come up here all the time just to remember how to be peaceful, it's like a balm. And it's so much better when you get to come and see the sun set over the resting places. Like fire's touching them without anything having to light it." Lili's voice was at the very least reverent.
Dressed for the hike up, Lili had worn a set of blue jean shorts, cut off to the point that they left pretty much her entire leg bare, the lithe limb then ending in feet covered in a set of grey and green hiking boots and bright, pink socks poking over the high tops. For a shirt, just a simple, pale yellow tank top that fit her close enough to avoid getting it caught on scrub and twigs, the hemline stopping a good 2-3 inches above the waistband of her hip-riding shorts. Her dark, thick, waist length, hair had been separated into two French braids going down the sides of her head and resting head of her shoulders, tied off with bright pink hair ties. On her shoulders, Lili wore a riotously bright orange backpack that didn't seem too overly laden with items, and moved easily on her when she jostled it.
The orange-red sun sinks below the western horizon, leaving a darkening tapestry of purple and red-gold clouds behind it.
Noah walked along with Lili, wearing a smile. "You did say it was beautiful. I'll just mind the plants for the sake of the living and the dead. Nothing ruins peace like dead or dying flowers." The man was sorted out in a pair of jungle boots, a pair of khaki shorts, a tan t-shirt, and a rucksack on his back. "I always expect your peaceful to have more showers of sparks... Maybe a cannon firing at sunset." Noah exhaled a quiet chuckle, "Now don't take that as me knocking it. I've just been trained to believe your calms come before storms of energy and movement."
"That they would be." Healani says in agreement with Yohko. Looking up at the sky the sun moves in the horizon she nods her head. Her lips move into a slight smiles as she listens to the sound of the bell. She goes quiet for a moment, and in that moment she catches sight of Lili and Noah. A nod of her head is given. "It is lovely, and your friend is right there is a peaceful feeling to this place." She says to Lili and Noah.
Yohko nods in agreement as she follows Healani's gaze towards the setting sun. "Hai. I suppose this temple was built strategically in this valley to catch the light just right. You probably already know that it is an almost exact replica of a temple in Japan." as the pair of hikers make their way nearer to Yohko and Healani, she nods and bows towards Lili and Noah, her movements and expressions somewhat stiff and formal. She seems to be dressed as one of the local priestesses here, tending to the gardens. "Aloha to you two. You have come at a perfect time, when the sun hits the valley just right."
Brindled clouds conceal a few patches of starlit sky.
Finn is on the phone standing near the sacred bell, holding his cell phone to his ear with one hand and smoking a cigarette. He paces as he talks, rolling his eyes frequently. "Yeah, I'm here. Dude, I told you I'm here, I'm right by a freaking big-ass bell...What, are there multiple big ass bells? Then look for the one I'm standing next to, dumbass." He pauses to tip his head back and groan, his cigarette sending smoke curls up into the orange light where it's perched between his fingers while his palm unceremoniously scrubs down his face. "Whatever, man, you know my hourly rate. I'm here until you find me or I get bored, and you're getting a bill either way." The tall, red-haired man looks like he's come from some sort of office, wearing a blue and white plaid dress shirt with the sleeves rolled all the way up past his elbows, a pair of smart, sand-colored linen trousers, and brown leather shoes that match his belt. Just then, some visitor honoring the dead rings the bell, and Finn turns to face the ringer with a primed and loaded incredulity. "Seriously?" He shakes his head and hangs up on whoever was on the other line. "Apparently it's a lot more peaceful the further you get from the bell," he comments with a wry grin after Healani's comment to Lili and Noah.
From within the deeper, winding pathways of the Valley of the Temples, two women walk calmly along. As they passed near enough to where Yohko and Healani were sitting, they simply nodded to the women. Both of them looked to be distinctly asian, with long black hair, of some muddled decent, though, as their faces were too narrow to be classically Japanese, and too wide to be Chinese or Laotian. Perhaps Filipino or even Tongan, with their deeply set almond-shaped eyes and dark irises. As they passed within a few feet of the conversing women, they looked at each of them, giving small smiles and proper head nods, then offering quiet "Alohas." to them both. They could have been sisters, one only slightly taller than the other, and both wearing simple, functional, sundresses, one in yellow and the other in pale lavender.
Loa dropped Kealina.
Loa dropped Ah'lara.
Lili's grin grew back to it's wider position, and she spun around on her toes, looking at Noah. "I never said I stayed calm for long after I leave. I just know how to be good and can keep up the mellow for a little bit when it's warranted." She winked to him, then stepped closer to take his hand. "Come on, let's sit and watch. When they bring the lights up after it gets dark it's really beautiful then, too." Lili started tugging Noah over to where they could have a seat to relax and watch the sun drop below the mountains.
Turning her head to Healani and Yohko, Lili nodded and gave them both a bright, wide smile that could contend with the sun for warmth and brilliance. "Aloha ahiahi, and yes. Both reasons I love this place and have been visiting my entire life. It's a good place to remember calm, and an even better place to remember beauty happens even after we're buried." She, likewise, gave nods and smiles to the two women as they passed by, greeting them with a cheerful, "Aloha!" To Finn, Lili looked over and gave him a shake of her head, still grinning. "That bell's the most peaceful thing here, if you know what it's for. Maybe you should ring it, too, to give the spirits a chance to welcome you to the Temple?" She motioned to the bell with her free hand.
Noah offered a pleasant smile as he brought his hand to his brow to tip a non-existent hat. "Aloha ladies," he greet the four ladies. He breathed out a laugh as he looked to Finn, "It's not in it for the bell to chase you down. Best I can tell ya is to be aware of where the loud noises are going to be before they happen, like flag poles on post." Noah happily took Lili's hand and was tugged along by the woman and taking a seat. "No burial at sea? We're surrounded by a big ol' ocean. 'Sides, I can't imagine you wanting anything aside from cremation, Lee."
As the women who are offering a soft greeting draw Healani's attention. "Aloha," She says to the two women. She casts a look over at Finn an raises an eyebrow. "Tell your friend you will call them back later, this is a good time of the day to pay attention and see all that the temple has to offer." She offers him a slight inclination of her head. She is defiantly native Hawaiian by her features. Her onyx hair has been braided and bound up. She looks back to Lili and Noah. "Aloha, good day?" She asks them both. "Interesting, conversation and appropriate since twilight is coming." She adds. She looks back to Yohko.
Yohko glances towards the pair of women (sisters?), nodding and bowing politely to them as they pass by. "Aloha, you two." she greets them simply, politely...But pauses a moment, glancing after them and frowning softly. "Hm..How odd.." shaking her head, her gaze passes briefly over the impatient man talking on a phone, and she frowns, shaking her head. "This is a place for meditation and personal reflection. It is hardly the place to make a business deal. All visitors are encouraged to ring the bell as it is believed to bring happiness and longevity. It is a sign of respect." She seems a touch annoyed by his attitude, but tries not to let it get to her..Too much. Glancing back at Lili and Noah, she nods. "Hai. It is even more beautiful at night, when the lights come out."
Finn looks at Lili like she's suddenly grown a second head when she recommends he ring the bell, but he shrugs and pulls back on the shu-moku and lets it go, announcing his presence to the spirits. "You seem like you know your way around," he grins back at Lili as she tugs Noah along in her wake, "so I'll take your word for it." As the two new women pass by, he gives the pair of them a big grin and a lingering gaze as he greets, "Evening, ladies. Beautiful night for a stroll, isn't it? Just the two of you, is it?" Noah's advice snaps Finn's attention back to sacred ground and he nods. "Appreciate it, man. Best advice I've gotten so far for navigating this place. Don't want to get turned around and step where I shouldn't."
He catches Healani's words his way with a low "huh?" before realizing his phone is still in his hand. "Oh, that. Yeah, for sure, the place is...picturesque. Hasn't gotten to creepy yet, but I could see the potential," he adds quietly, looking over his shoulder at the lengthening shadows. Yohko's firm chide gets a raised eyebrow. "Hey, I'm with you. I'm not the one who picked this place to meet, but apparently there's something here I need to see. I'm not here to step on anybody's ancestors or anything."
The Valley itself took on the appearance of being bathed in fire as sunset struck it solidly. Shimmering layers of metal that didn't quite stand out so much during the normal daylight carried the warm, orangey-red glow and reflected it, the waters of the reflection pools looked coppery with the burning colors, and the reds of the buildings along the temple grounds grew flame bright, with rust undertones. Even the trees seemed to be shuttered in a sepia glow from the touch of the falling day star.
The two women looked up at Finn, though the one in lavender gave him a smile in response for his question. "Aloha, sir. And yes, just the two of us, a beautiful night for visiting those that have been taken from the living. Enjoy your time here." The one in pale yellow looked as though she wasn't quite sold on the redhead speaking to them, but she did manage to give him a polite smile and a nod of her head as they passed by, then continued on toward the thick, heavy trees of the surrounding forest. The woman in purple looked back over her shoulder and grinned at Finn, giving him a little wave goodbye and a lopsided smile.
Lili sighed happily and leaned against Noah's shoulder with her own, leaving their hands clasped so she could squeeze his. "You're right, but just because I want to be turned into a beautiful cloud of silt after fire has its way with me doesn't mean that everyone would want that. And I think it would be amazing to have my ashes scattered here, or on the mountains, high, so that eventually I'd be part of all of Oahu again." The concept didn't seem to bother the woman, in fact she looked steadily happy at the idea of what her 'after' would be.
Turning to look back at Finn, Lili grinned broadly. "Yeah, I know it pretty well. When you grow up on Oahu, you tend to explore anywhere and everywhere you can get to, and this place was one of those. It's good you rang the bell. It means you value the spirits, and they can be alright with that. They like it." Lili winked to the man before she looked over at Healani and Yohko, nodding to them in agreement for their statements, then let her attention be entirely devoted to watching the sunset, her eyes gleaming with the reflection of the slowly burning horizon.
Noah unlatched the waist strap on his rucksack, glancing to Lili leaning on his shoulder. "You may still outlive us all, Lee, blessing of the gods and all. I suppose you'll get more fanfare than a peaceful slipping from this world. Like the rapture with more fireworks and rockets." He chuckled as he looked over the valley with its fading light, smiling happily. A chuckle slipped out as he glanced at Finn, "Cellphones are the devil anyway, they just tether you to places you purposely chose not be. That's why they invented email anyway."
"Thank you." Healani, says to Finn with a polite bow of her head. She then looks over to Lili her expression is thoughtful. "That is true, when we are dead, our thoughts of this will be different." She cannot help but laugh over Noah's observation. She grows quiet as the dying sunlight bathes the temple. Her eyes taking in the light and the sounds. The beauty, that makes the heart sing. A quick glance is given to the two woman.
Finn returns the woman in lavender's little wave with a grin equally lopsided, but as they pass he loses his cheeky grin, and his gaze quickly turns down to the ground where he blinks several times. He rubs the his eyes with the back of an empty fist, then stares accusingly at his cigarette, and even gives it an investigative sniff. He's distracted when he tosses a grin to Lili and nods, "Yeah. The bell's good..." he mutters, then looks curiously after the two women again.
He's regained most of his cocksure composure when he laughs at Noah's truism. "Damn straight, you're looking at a hardened survivor of yet another meeting that could have been an email. Believe me, I tried to handle this the civilized way, where we could both have whiskey in our morning coffee, but the client insisted, and well...doing it for heaps of money goes along way towards easing the sting." He nods to Healani, "Sure. I mean, even newbies to the island know better than to piss off the spirits." But even as he talks to the dark-haired Hawaiian woman, he keeps casting pensive gazes after the two women, his brow knitting.
As the sun dropped lower into the sky, leaving it darker and a more virulent red as it reflected off the clouds towering overhead, the quality of light changed in the Valley. It was dimmer, less profuse, and the infusion of a soft, dark, haze seemed to overcome some of the shimmer from lower places. Only the taller buildings still shone brightly with the reflection of the Autumnal falling of the sun.
The woman in purple giggled softly, covering her mouth, as she and the other woman slipped off of a path and truly did head into the thick woods on the border of the Valley. Not at all moving toward civilization, but deeper into the massive forest that covered the Windward Coast of Oahu.
Lili smiled dreamily, only blinking when she had to, nearly entranced. "Do you think so, keiki? I'd like that, though I don't know about the out living part. The fireworks and rockets, though, that... that would be pretty perfect. Just make sure they go off pretty, like I'm telling you which ones to line up first?" She glanced over to Noah from the corner of her eyes, her smile taking on a more impish quality, before she took a deep breath and rubbed her cheek on his shoulder. "The lights come up soon, because the fire at sunset never lasts long on Oahu."
Lili looked at Healani and smiled wider for the burst of laughter, dark eyes shimmering slightly. Especially as she heard Finn's statement. "Oh man, I hate it when they want to talk on the phone instead of just sending us an email. It means they want to change something, or make 'minor' adjustments to some serious thing that really does alter the entirety of what they wanted in the first place. Or, they want to talk getting something done for less money than they agreed to when they signed their contract." Lili shook her head and glanced at Noah, grumbling softly under her breath. "Least favorite calls, ever."
Noah gestured to Healani, "She gets it," as he looked to Finn. "I dumped mine at the first opportunity, but that is mostly fearing a race of humans unable to communicate their wants and desires in a face-to-face conversation. Encouraging otherwise is the downfall of humanity." He kept his smile as he leaned onto Lili, glancing at the woman making for the trees. Sighing out a breath, he glanced at Lili, then back to Healani and Yohko. "I don't mind admitting to ignorance in the way of customs and ritual. I just don't recall anyone going skyclad when conversing with their ancestors. Would anyone care to enlighten me?" He nudged Lili gently with his elbow. "I promise to execute the display as you dictate, but I suspect I'll fall apart first."
Yohko peers after the two women in sundresses, forcing a small smile. "So, where are you two from..?" she asks casually before nodding to Lili. "Hai. That is good advice." As the sky rapidly grows darker however, Yohko frowns softly as she checks her watch. "I must apologize, but I need to return to my duties. It was a pleasure to meet you all." she bows again to all that are present, her gaze lingering a moment longer on the two sisters before she heads back into the temple.
"In modern times, you do if they are the night marchers. If you see them or hear them, it has been advised by the elders to strip lay on the ground face down and do not look at them. That is what my grandfather and grandmother would tell me and my siblings." Healani offers. "Personally I have never seen them. But that is the advice I have been given." She frowns a little her brow creating a v of wrinkles in the middle of her forehead. "Now keep in mind we as a culture were not body shy in the days of yore. Though there are a number of things that would cause someone to strip. They could be disturbing a grave sight, or they also might be doing some type of ritual." Healani turns her dark eyes back to Noah. "Where did you see someone strip?"
Finn scrubs his hand along the bridge of his nose, winces, and then stubs out his cigarette in the dirt then shuts the butt into a steel case produced from his pocket. "Okay. This is going to sound insane. But who's pregnant?" He looks around at everyone still nearby, even Noah, because dude, sometimes you just don't know. "I realize it's probably rude, and sounds completely crazy, but I need to know who's pregnant here. It's important."
As the sunlight burned away from the horizon entirely, and the sun was nothing more than a reflected memory on the whispers of the clouds over head, the stars began shimmering in the deep azure sky. Lights slowly started burning to life, the gas torches lit on an automatic sensor, which caused the entirety of the burial areas and the main temple grounds to be lit up with the flickering, bright light of fire. The forest the women had disappeared into darkened considerably, as the light stopped illuminating all of its shadows, and became more of a wall of standing, wooden soldiers against the night with their lush plumage the weapons of defense for the dead at their feet.
Lili nodded to Yohko as she left, offering a polite "Aloha, be safe!" to the woman. She glanced at Noah then, brows raising. "Skyclad? You mean like.. naked?" Lili peered around, eyes suddenly peeled in curiosity. Of course, then the fire came up from all the hundreds of gas torches, and Lili sucked in a sudden, gasping draft of air. "Oh man.. that's my favorite part." She squeezed Noah's hand and laid her head on his shoulder, eyes gleaming. "So perfect, so beautiful, and they all come up when the sun stops touching them. Like they never want to be in the dark without the fire, because they miss it." She sighed. Of course, then there was night marcher talk, and the quality of Lili's grip changed. "Oh man, you don't even MESS with the Night Marchers. They come in? Your ass goes to the floor, well, not your ass, you leave your ass up, but your face to the floor. Don't even look at 'em, neh? Cause they'll toss you, and you won't be around anymore." Lili lifted her free hand, calling out softly "Not it! I was just at the doctor like... three days ago. Definitely not pregnant!" She answered Finn's question with a solemn assurity.
Noah thumbed to the woman that headed towards the woods by way of explanation to Healani. "The two women that just passed, one in the yellow dress, the other in purple." He turned his head to peer towards the woods once more in the direction they disappeared in. His mouth curved into a smirk when Finn asked his question, "Well, the announcement was supposed to be a surprise, and you went and ruined it." He stroked his own belly to farther the joke. Being reminded of where he was, he squeezed Lili's hand in return as he looked to the gaslights coming on. "I'll glad we could get here in time to see them, Lee. They're pretty damn neat."
"Good Sir, I am not the one pregnant nor will I get pregnant unless it is by immaculate conception." Helani says this to Finn. She turns her head in his direction and the furrowed brow is now replaced with a raised eyebrow. She then takes her eyes off of him and looks around temple again. Her gaze then falls on the sentinel of trees in the direction where the two women went. "I just see a small glimpse of lavender in the direction where the two women went." She looks to Lili and then back to and nods.
Finn gives Lili an oddly approving nod at her pronouncement, and gives Noah a hearty thump on the shoulder. "Hey, congratulations, man. You're positively glowing." But he's distracted. He scratches his thumb along the scruff on his jaw, and follows Healani's gaze after the two women. "Well, this crowd is already on board with the night marchers stories, so I guess I can throw my hat in the ring. I was...uh...well-acquainted with an incredibly hot," he gestures expansively to show the breadth of hotness, "like, super-incredibly hot Filipino woman. She always kept a broom upside down in her house...okay rambling. The point is, turns out that she was a couple of months pregnant when I knew her. And she kept seeing her reflection upside down, like, everywhere. And she said that means the baby needs protection. And I just saw myself upside down in that woman's eyes." He gestures after the pair of sisters.
Finn adds, "And I'm pretty sure /I'm/ not pregnant, either."
The firelight danced in the valley, keeping things lit up where people were gathered, or visiting dead relatives. But the darkness in the woods only became more absolute, like a black shroud behind the trees.
Lili smiled softly and nodded to Noah. "Me too, this was good." Lili leaned forward a little, and rubbed her nose against Noah's, inhaling softly and giving him a dreamy sort of expression before she spoke, "Aloha ka hanu, for all the things you'll remember when you breath again." She blinked then, realizing there were still people there, because well, moments. Turning her head, Lili looked at Healani and grinned, glancing to the forest. "Huh, well.. I mean.. If they're screwing around back there, someone will catch them, right?"
And then of course Finn spoke up, and Lili turned a gaze to him with a wide set of eyes that looked remarkably dark in the firelight. "Wait.. I mean that's awesome, and good for you, and her, I hope her baby's healthy. But... you just said she was worried about her baby, right? And you saw yourself upside down in that woman's eyes?" Lili shuddered slightly and looked at the woods with far more trepidation. "Oh man, I hope NO ONE finds them fucking around back there, because... I mean, if it's what it sounds like you're talking about, they're these creepy ladies, and they eat unborn babies right out of their mother's womb. As... something. Aswang, yeah. They're the ones the Filipinos brought over with them when they came to our Islands." Lili rubbed her free hand on her flat, toned abdomen in a protective way, even though there wasn't a little bean in there to feed any hungry baby eater.
Noah nodded in reply to Healani, "That's the one's dress on a tree. I couldn't tell you if the other one's dress is still on or not." Pushing the shoulder straps off, he sighed as he stood up as he listened to Finn and Lee. "Not to sound like a killjoy, but they seemed polite as they passed by. Now maybe that's a feeding tactic or whatnot." Rubbing his hands together before opening his ruck to get out a combat knife. "I'm sure you have something better to do, as do I. But it seems like deterrence is the way to be, especially when no one is pregnant."
"I have heard about them. My grandmother loved the lore of our land. She said that they would appear as woman and then they would separate their torso's from their bodies to go hunting unborn children. The broom is supposed to confuse, well their tongues! The reason for this is because their tongues from moving there the birth canal and up into the uterus. They get caught in the broom and they will never get a chance to eat the baby." Healani states. "Did I mention that my grandmother was a writer. Her life work was collecting the lore of the islands." She shrugs her shoulder. "She said that the torso or the head is the best way."
"Only way to harm them is when they are not in one piece. If they are in two pieces find the lower half and destroy it. If they cannot comeback together they will die in the sunlight. If they are whole good luck for they are as immortal as most spirits." She adds.
Finn folds his arms across his chest as he takes it all in. "I'm really glad you all took that so well, because it still sounds sodding mental to me. But either way, seems like we should check it out, right? I mean, either these women are the...ass-wangs, and somebody should get them caught in a broom. Or they're not, and one of them might be pregnant. And I'm not what you'd call a "kids person," but I'm also not down with some monster sucking somebody's baby out like a protein shake." Healani's last sentence gives him pause. "So...if it's whole, all we can do is get Mom someplace with an upside down broom, and confuse it?"
The darkness continued to grow and the sky was now dark, filled with stars that were shining down on the world.
Lili stood up a moment or two after Noah did, rolling her own shoulders out of her backpack so the bright orange bag slid down her back, then rested onto the little stone retaining wall she'd been sitting on. Reaching up, she tied her two, long, braids together behind her back, so they looked like a retooled bun, and were completely out of her way. "Hey, it sounds like it's a good idea to go in there and at least.. I dunno, look? See if they're leaving halves of themselves laying around so we don't have to keep worried about them showing up if one of us, uh, ever does become pregnant?" Worry knit her dark brows together, but she looked at Healani and grinned. "I bet her books were great, especially if you know all of that from your kupunawahine." She nodded to Healani gratefully, then looked between Noah and Finn, before motioning to the woods. "Shall we?" Yup, that lithe, obvious dancer wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, tank top, and hiking boots seemed pretty damn ready to walk into the woods after possible immortal beings. Hooray for the immortality of youth?
Noah smiled as he affixed the knife scabbard to his belt, "Baby eating women? I grew up with one of those, so I don't judge when someone mentions it in conversation." Setting up on the seat, Noah took a long scan of the area for anyone that may be pregnant, thereby presenting a juicy target. He nodded to Lili, "Yeah, just give me a second to see if anyone in the area is looking round..." Making a slow turn as he scanned the place, he stopped looking in the direction of the temple as a woman headed inside. "I think we're going to have to skip the walk in the woods. Let's just hope she's into Burger King." With a deep breath, he stepped off the bench and headed towards to temple proper.
"Be careful," Healani tells them. "Considering the stories I have heard growing up." She leans on that crutch of hers. "I am going to go into the temple and make sure the pregnant woman stay there and look for some brooms to give them." She adds. She then shifts her position and goes to slowly make her way towards it.
Finn briefly checks his phone then re-pockets it, an old coin seemingly coming out of his pocket in its place. He rolls his neck to get the kinks out and similarly rolls the coin effortlessly across his knuckles. Starting off after the pair, he declares, "The good news is, no matter what happens...we're leaving with Burger King." He whistles a jaunty tune, something sea shanty-like and probably has words best accompanied with beer. Flipping the coin high into the air, he smacks his palm down on top of it on the back of his other hand. "Heads," he says with a sideways grin. "For good luck."
Finn then calls ahead to Lili, "Heads or tails, Pippi Longstockings?"
Lili nodded to Noah, then to Healani and smiled. "Good plan, keep the women safe, and yes, definitely give them some brooms to take home with them. I'm going to go have a look and see what I can find in the woods." She winked to Noah, then turned toward the woods, starting out that way, before she looked at Finn. "Lili, actually, but close with the Pippi, just not quite right. And no stockings." Lili lifted her leg straight out from herself, demonstrating its lack of hosiery. "And I like heads, never can go wrong choosing head, after all." She chuckled, then started walking toward the woods away, eyeing the line of trees as she approached.
Noah nodded to Healani heading towards the temple, pausing in his step. "If you have it covered..." He looked back to Lili, "I guess we're checking the woods, only makes sense since I have the eyes for it. Save you from having to start a bonfire." He chuckled before looking to Finn, "I would have called tails, but that's me." Altering his course, he headed down to the trees where the woman had disappeared off to.
Finn chuckles as he flicked the coin into the air once more. "Heads it is, Lili NoStockings. I'm Finn. And I agree, you can basically never go wrong with head. I hope we all get it." Total straight face as he pins the coin to the back of his hand. Except for that one inside corner of his mouth trying to smirk. He raises a hand to wave after Healani. "Watch for your reflection!" Following after Lili and Noah, the redheaded man chuckles and gives the coin another flip. "Show me tails for my Broheim here..."
Lili grinned slyly and looked over at Noah, winking to him. "Don't worry, No'ah'uh, I won't be blind in there either. But I certainly won't complain for your better eyeballs and your presence." She looked over at Finn and smiled. "Not that I'm doubting yours, of course. Nice to meet you and know your name, Finn? In case I have to scream for you or something. I'm Lili, like I said, and this is No'ah'uh.. or Noah for you haoles." Amusement lit Lili's eyes for a moment, until she hit the edge of the woods, almost literally, as she almost didn't remember to look back the way she was walking before she was greeted with a tree branch. Pushing the leafy, wooden arm away from her, Lili moved past it, taking a slow breath, and shaking her head. "Ok so.. definitely need a little help here with the eyes." Lifting her hand, heat started rising from it softly in waves that distorted the air, and then small sparks started to fly as Lili rubbed the pad of her thumb across her other fingertips, until a ball of fire floated in front of her, bouncing in the air. "Mmmm, fiery little witch light." She cooed at the Fire, then began walking again, as the fire moved ahead of her by at least 5 paces or so, lighting the way.
Noah unsnapped the strap on his knife as they walked towards the woods. "I seems to me that they may want their lower half in one piece. Makes you wonder if they have a sense of what is happening to them when they're away, supernatural version of phantom limb syndrome." He grinned at Lili, looking back to Finn, "The natives declared 'H' a vowel. I thought about changing my business card to reflect the pronunciation." Stepping along side Lili, he held the branch for her. "Maybe I'll take point here, play all Smokey the Bear." He chuckled as he stepped, and being farther from the gaslight or Lili's spark did nothing to impede the man as he walked. "And there's the second dress on the ground."
The woods are dark as all hell, not even the starlight breaks through the canopy much when so many trees are so close together, especially not when they had their full accoutrements of leaves and hadn't started to lose any for the fall and winter months. The light from Lili's fire only illuminates up to about 10 feet in a circle around it, enough to allow people to watch where they were walking, but not enough to allow anyone to see deeply into the forest. Besides, the light can't go /through/ tree trunks. Everything is fairly quiet here, no animals making noises at this point, and only the sound of the footfalls from those walking and the soft swishing of trees in a gentle breeze make themselves known.
Finn chuckles as the coin falls to his hand for a third time. "Tails it is. Good calls, all around. That bodes well. Never hurts to have luck on your side. Glad to know you, Noah, uh, and Lili. I would definitely never think it's a good idea to head into the woods with strangers, but we aren't strangers now, are we?" He brushes back a low-hanging bough. "That's a handy trick, Lili. Bet you're a hit on camping trips, too." This next bough he doesn't catch in time. "Pfft, motherffffff...wait, where do you see the second dress, Noah?" Finn squints into the dark woods, now cast in shadow beyond Lili's light. "Oh man, I don't know too many traditions that call for getting naked on sacred ground. Plus, aren't they worried about mosquitoes? Insect bites suck, insect bites suck worse in tender places." He shudders, and begins rolling his coin over his knuckles again.
Lili nodded to Noah and gave him a smile. "Alright, I think that's probably the best idea. You're a little less likely to just light some random poor bush on fire, too. That's what you want in your point man, neh?" Lili kept herself back from Noah a bit, so she didn't hit him with the little floating ball of flame as she moved. Glancing back to Finn, so he had her profile in the firelight, Lili shook her head. "We're not in the marshland up here, hardly any mosquitoes. Not as much worry. If you were down past Kailua? Oh yeah... you can get your ass eaten until you can't stand to do anything but lay on ice for a week." Lili shuddered, then moved over to bring the light around on the two dresses, the purple one hanging from a tree, the yellow one simply thrown to the ground, obviously not as worried about stains. "Huh... well. If you were a woman that had to separate to go off and eat babies... where would you hide your other half?" Lili pondered, looking around with her eyes narrowed. Nope, no sign that was clear to her eyes. "Man I don't even know."
Noah pointed out towards the yellow dress on the ground. "The natives back home swore by animal fats to keep mosquitoes and lice off you. I preferred cancer-causing DEET myself, or whatever the more eco-friendly version is." The man chuckled as he looked around, angling towards the west. "And we have hair... It's either from someone's head or someone is keeping with the 70s." He walked forward, his fingers gripping the handle of the knife. "You ladies just enjoying the night air in the most free way imaginable?"
Finn shakes his head and squints into the darkness just outside the little perimeter of light, and clenches his jaw in mild irritation. "Man, on top of being baby-eaters, these monsters have to be inconsiderate bitches and make us track them through all this nature. I've had just about enough fun playing Blair Witch Project, let's see if I can move this along. If you guys see anything weird, you didn't see it, right?" With that jaunty whistle on his lips, Finn flicks his coin up into the air, where it hovers and disperses into pale silvery moonlight, swirling and spiraling like smoke in the faintest suggestion of the coin's shape. "Braig, gimbatul uvano," the redhead commands the smoke as his eyes gleam bright gold, and he hurls the phantom coin into the darkness. The silvery shape explodes into the outlines of phantom hounds, noses to the ground and hot on the trail of something in roughly the direction Noah was heading. "C'mon, we should follow them. The nose knows, and all that." He grins and sticks one hand in his pocket, the other holding onto threads of moonlight connecting to the evanescent forms of the sniffing hounds. He follows them to a large clump of low scrub brush, and then he jogs after the forms to wind around a couple of trees, and eventually another group of bushes. "Good news," Finn growls with narrowed pupils and a wolfish grin, "They're as confused about where they're going as we are."
Lili let out a thoughtful sound. "So... the idea of phantom limb, that might be something to be careful of, I agree with you, Noah." She looked ponderous, as she kept walking, following behind Noah, and then also now behind Finn, so she didn't get in his way or mess up his tracking. Lili didn't grumble about keeping up the rear, though, she just kept moving. "Since lower bodies have no ear bits, I wonder if we should try to be quiet, since they probably can't hear? But maybe.. just be really careful until we're ready in case they can feel? But that's all moot if they can sense proximity or something, like a car alarm. One of those freaky viper ones that doesn't actually have the hologram snake but would be WAY cooler if it did, instead of that stupid red blinky light." Lili's mouth obviously was set to 'Open' frequency, as she seemed to be delivering a stream of consciousness direct from the boombox in her brain. When she spotted the ghostly dogs, Lili let out a happy sound. "Oooooh! cool dogs, Finn! That's AWESOME." And she started moving with a happier sort of bounce to her step, almost skipping, like she was suddenly having a merry time indeed, following tracking 'hounds' through the black woods. To hunt half women.
Noah shrugged a shoulder, "I'll take trees over sand and pebbles any day of the week. This is the good kind of nature save for the dead zones. When you set a perimeter, you turn to drop a deuce in the blind spots so someone thinks twice about using the tree for cover." When the phantom dogs appeared, Noah blinked his eyes before looking back to Finn and Lili, "And here I thought I was being all fancy by bringing a knife." The man shook his head as he neared the hair, pulling his knife to pick it off the tree. "Watch it be just boar hair..." He exhaled a laugh, "Between the ball of flame, glowing dogs, boots, shouting... I think the element of surprise is out of the question, Lee. My thought is we were trying to make the noise to keep them off the pregnant women."
Finn laughs, those threads of moonlight wrapped around his hand connecting him to the tracking 'hounds' as they trip a merry chase through the forest making a damned decent distraction for any hunting creatures. "Lili, you don't have 'off' days, do you? It's all just some kind of big adventure. But yeah, I guess the hounds are pretty cool. They aren't made of fire, though, so, there's that." He grins and cants his head towards Lili's ghostlight, then pauses beside Noah. "Honestly, if we find these baby-eating bitches, I'd rather have a knife. But since I don't know how to use a knife, I'm pretty sure it's best for all of us that you have knife. These boys will flush out the quarry, but they won't bring it down. There's another pack for that." His grin turns a touch feral in the half-light. "But we can be a decent distraction, if you get the opportunity to go Rambo on them. If you have a headband, Bro, now's the time."
The first quarter moon, tracing a nearby wisp of cloud in silver, sinks below the western horizon. The stars sparkle in the ultramarine sky, distant and serene.
As the ghostly dogs moved around searching through the dark woods, their glow illuminated lots of bushes, many the trunk of a tree, and plenty of grass and ferns growing on the ground.
Flowers started opening for the night, bathing the air in sweet scents that carried on the breeze, filling the world with a succulent sort of aroma that covered up most everything else, and clung to the back of the throat.
Lili chuckled and shrugged a bit. "I don't know if I have to go at this point, keiki, but if I do, I'll be sure to find a convenient tree to stop people from using it as cover, neh?" She grinned at Noah as she spoke. "And you're right, we're already screwed if they can hear us, but hey, it was a good thought none the less. Something to roll over the brain a little. And if that brings them here instead of toward some poor, pregnant wahine? Well yeah, then this is the place to be loud. And bothersome." She nodded surely, then flashed a wide grin over at Finn. "What's an off day? I mean, I sleep... you know, so I'm off sometimes. I think. And I feel better with No'ah'uh having the knife, too, but that's just the security blanket loving side of me. It's like knowing everything's gonna be alright." Lili looked down at herself and sighed. "Damn, I shoulda brought a sash or something, just so I could hand it to No'ah'uh and have him tie it on his head, that woulda been freakin' cool. But I guess I couldn't have planned for us going hunting out in the middle of the woods tonight, unless it was for a camp sight or something, you know?" Babbling... Well not babbling. Chatting. Yeah, Chatting. "Mmmm, it smells nice out here."
Noah exhaled a chuckled at Finn, "This thing, here, is what you call a deterrent. I'd be more comfortable with my 1911, but the sheriffs get all twitchy like you discharge a firearm anywhere save a range." Staring at the hair, Noah frowned. "Looking like our ladies are shedding." Dropping the hairs to the ground, he gave the blade a toss to hold it by the blade as he offered it to Finn. "I'd prefer they get up close on me if it comes to that. Just don't stick it into me or Lee, and we'll be straight." Noah nodded and smiled to Lee, "That's the thought at least." Another breathy chuckle came from the man, "I make a poor John Rambo." He sniffed the air, "Nice of the flowers to wake up."
Finn and his ethereal hounds continue the winding, backtracking, generally infuriating search for...hopefully just the innocuous half of the aswang. He just grins aside at Lili and shakes his head, chuckling. "I thought as much. Sleep counts, I suppose. And, honestly, I don't think pretty much anybody goes to a big old graveyard expecting to go hunting. But hey, won't somebody think of the children?" He slaps his free palm to his forehead. "Ugh, it's getting late, and I'm getting to the point I need to be propped up by substances. I hope we find...well, half of what we're looking for soon." He grimaces as Noah lets a handful of hair go. "Gross. They're probably going to have lost all of their charms when we find them. Figures." He sighs and eyeballs the knife in Noah's hand. "That's a promise I can't make, man. I appreciate it, but keep the knife. I'm going to need both hands and all of my concentration to control the pack, if it comes to that." He doesn't elaborate, as if that's somehow crystal clear. "But you're doing us a solid, being our point guy." He sniffs a bit, and in response the hounds lift their heads and sniff the air, as well, only to return to their mission at hand, the scent of flowers apparently not interesting to magical hound constructs.
As the spectral dogs moved and seemed to be gaining in momentum, as one, they all shifted to be staring at a specific grouping of bushes. The neared it, then started making strange, growling noises at the thick shrubbery that seemed to swarm around the bottom of a tall, solid, tree. None of the creatures shifted off their mark, and just... essentially pointed.
Lili snickered softly "I dunno, I think you've got what it takes, No'ah'uh, and you'd be better at building traps and explosives." Lili waggled her eyebrows at Noah. She turned to say something to Finn, then stopped when she heard the hair raising growl from his hunting hounds. "Oooh, uh... I think they found something." And with that, Lili started over toward the bushes the dogs were growling so fiercely at. She moved the little ball of fire around, trying to see through the dense foliage, but didn't get a clear view. Until she did. "Oh.. I think I found... good Akua above I would freak out so hard right now if I weren't actually looking for half a woman, you guys. But.. that's definitely a foot." Her firelight moved to the side, down near the bottom of a bush, where a single, lovely foot just barely jutted out from under the thick branches, toes unpainted. "If it's some other dead body I'm prolly gonna have to get a nightlight..."
Noah tossed the knife again to palm the handle, "Fair enough. I thought it may make you more comfortable is all." When the dogs went all pointer, Noah nodded, "Looks like your hounds did their trick. And if you want to bolt, man, it's cool. Probably safer, in case Lee goes all inferno." He chuckled, but his tone made it clear it wasn't completely a joke. Moving up along side, Lili, Noah just grabbed the foot to drag it out to see if there was an upper half or not.
As Noah dragged at the foot, out came a leg, then came the apex of the leg... and a hip... with no torso attached. As Noah kept pulling, it ended up dragging a set of feminine legs into the full on half splits, but the second leg did eventually follow. Everything below the belly button was there, including a hollowed out section that looked a little bloodless and odd, but shimmered with the light of LIli's fire to demonstrate white pelvic bone. So yeah.. either someone had thoroughly dismembered some other woman, or this was definitely the female end to a male end socket somewhere out in the world.
Finn can't even respond to anything said, because the pair of discarded women's legs is, well, every bit as unnerving as you'd think they would be. He releases the threads of moonlight, and the spectral hounds dissipate, leaving only a coin on his upturned palm. "Holy. Shit. I mean, we found exactly what we're looking for, but...goddamn. So, we burn it? I mean, isn't that what she said?"
Lili looked at the dismembered legs, cocking her head to the side, before she bent over a bit and peered at the spread eagled set curiously, looking right at the half-woman's snooch. "Huh... wow, so.. she takes her whole uterus and everything with her. It's like a.. hole." This said as she can see the firelight from the other side of the torso-less body through the specifically feminine slit between its legs. "That's so weird... Oh man, I'm staring at a half evil creature's snatch." She shook her head and looked at the bush. "Other legs? Where are you?" She called into the bush gently, peering around, then let out an "Ah HA! I found you, you totally suck at hide and seek because we had hunting dogs." Lili bodily shoved half of herself into the bush to bend into it, making them rattle around like crazy, as she grabbed another ankle and tugged hard. Of course, it caused Lili to fall back on her ass when the legs weigh far less than a full body or person, sending her backwards with a set of splits-champion legs following behind her. When she landed, it was on her rear, her momentum carrying her all the way onto her back, with a set of legs laying over her, mostly out of the bush. The slightly frenzied, almost hysterical laugh that trampled its way out of her mouth matched far too well with her very, very wide eyes.
From Noah's expression, this may not have been the first time he's pulled on a pair of legs without a torso attached to them. When the legs were clear on the bushes, he pulled the ankles together. "I can't imagine there are too many women that will let you move around their bottom half without noticing it." He nodded to Finn, "That's what she said, but I can't imagine it'll please the top side too much." Watching Lili, Noah gave a slight shake of his head, "You alright? You can head back with Finn if you need to. The smell of burning human is the last thing you want in your nostrils."
A horrific, screeching sound cuts its way through the air, high above. The sound itself is decidedly coming from the direction of the temple, and seemed to be mimicked a moment later by a second, ragged screaming voice giving way to pure, rage-filled noise. The forest deadened the cacophony a little, but it was loud enough where Lili, Finn, and Noah were that it wasn't slight in it's obvious intent.
Finn grits his teeth as the coin floats out of his palm once more. "Too late for that, I think. Looks like the party's starting whether we play along or not. I say light 'em up and give them a reason to want to kill us, at least." He offers the hand not levitating an illusory coin to Lili, to help her up. "On your feet, the ladies want to dance." His grin pulls lopsided and his eyes return to their gilded slits.
Lili accepted Finn's hand, and used it to pull herself up, letting the legs drop to the ground. "Mahalo, Finn." She cleared her throat and nodded to him, then squeezed his hand solidly before she let go. Looking to Noah, Lili lifted her chin a little and shook her head. "No, I'm not leaving you here alone with those things coming, and having to burn this. You aren't carrying any accelerant on you, I'd know it if you were." Lili grabbed the legs she'd fallen with, and dragged them over to lay on top of the other ones. Peering up at the trees, she hooked the ankles together on both legs and dragged them a little further away from the leaves she might set on fire. "You guys... back up a bit, neh?"
Lili took two steps back, and lifted her hands. Rubbing her thumbs against her forefingers, heat started to move in heavy waves from her hands up into the air, and sparks started to randomly fly away from her. The brand on the back of her right shoulder suddenly burst into flame, dancing with orange and red and white behind her back. Her eyes took on the sheen of flame, then slowly melted into being nothing but rolling orbs of fire that danced up into the sky from her eye sockets. "Whoosh." She said the word, and her hands started glowing as they filled with fire. Which she promptly threw onto the legs, where it spilled and spread, moving like it was flaming gel, almost liquid. The scent of burning skin and pubic hair was almost immediate, and the flames were intensely hot, like being near a foundry basin while it was being poured full of molten metal. The smile on Lili's face grew broad as the fire danced higher, and she stayed near it, soaking in the heat.
Noah listened to the screeching as his eyes went to the trees, "Alright, Lee, you just do your thing with fire." He moved around the two of them to put himself in the direct line between the other two and the screeching. "It sounds like they're coming in high, so duck out or use a tree for cover if you need to." The man shook his head, "G-ddamn flying half people..."
When the Aswangs came in, it was with a sort of intent that you might see from the Light Brigade. Two of them dropped out of the dark night sky on wings that looked like they should have belonged to a couple of gigantic bats. They were just torsos, sure, but they also had arms, and the heads of the lovely women they'd seen. Now, though, their hair was streaming back behind them as they dove in past the canopy of trees and both headed straight for Noah.
The first attacked with her teeth, driving in at Noah with a gaping maw filled with vicious, long teeth that required her jaw to open far further than a human's would. It bit at his shoulder, though it had obviously been attempting to possibly remove his head as a first instinct. She kept flying forward, then hit into the ground with a scrambling of her arms.
The second Aswang dashed down from the sky not a moment after the first and lashed out at Noah with a long arm, and a hand filled with filthy, elongated claws. The claws raked over his chest, ripping his shirt a bit, but that Aswang, too, had created so much momentum coming down that she soared straight to the ground, rolling, then coming to a stop.
Both Aswangs then stared in horror as their legs cooked in front of them, screaming at the top of their lungs in fury and pain.
Finn ducks and covers his head when the bat-women swoop, only to watch both of them dive for Noah. "Son of a bitch, apparently they heard our plan to have you be our Rambo. Hang tight, Bro, let me help." He hurls the phantom coin at the aswang who tried to take a bite out of Noah, and barks the command "Raeda-Nyw!" The coin elongates and weaves itself into an evanescent rope, snaring the creature and immobilizing her...at least temporarily. "Noah, Lili, for the duration of this fight, I'll protect you if you'll protect me against these aswang and any other immediate threats. Do we have a deal? Kind of important you specifically agree or not. For reasons."
Noah let out a groan as he was hit twice, stumbling to keep his feet. Blackened veins darkened through his skin, radiating from the bite and claws marks and down through his arm as he turned to dash at the one bound in place. "Let's see how long you stay in the air." Noah straight up slapped the bitch in the face, but as his hand left her, black, inking, tendrils stuck to her skin before getting ripped away and falling to the ground like strains of tar. "What?" Noah risked a glance to Finn, "Uhh.... Sure, why the fuck not?"
Lili turned her gaze from the beauty of the burning pile of Aswang she'd created in time to see Noah be attacked by not one, but two flying half-women. She growled under her breath, then screamed at them "Get away from my haole, YOU BITCHES!" Turning her body to follow their movements, she caught sight of Finn and nodded to him. "Yeah, I can do that." Then she looked over at the Aswang he had 'ghost lassoed' to the ground. After Noah slapped her, Lili's countenance took on a cruel smile that was so rarely seen from her. "Yeah. You need to fucking die. BURN!" She screamed it at the aswang, then lifted her hand toward the half-woman. Fire shot out from Lili like she was some sort of flame thrower, but the Aswang used the obvious impetus to try to roll free from both the tendrils that Noah was stealing, as well as the lasso around her. Ah'lara took a hit along her shoulder and side, grazing the left side of her entire torso and blackening it.
The two Aswangs seemed to have lost their taste for Noah, or maybe it was that he just wasn't the first one they noticed. Pale skin and bright red hair drew the attention of both women.
Ah'lara, with the massive jaws of doom, launched herself at the man with legs that looked like they came from a spider punching their way through the sides of her body. It was disturbing, as they were immediately useful, and not withered in the slightest. Apparently, though, Finn was perfectly adept at dodging bouncing spiders and he managed to avoid being caught on her wicked teeth.
Kealina, the second Aswang, manged to scuttle in under his defenses on her own, arachnid legs, and moved just soon enough after the other aswang that she caught him off guard. her laws ripped into his abdominal muscles, causing blood to drip down his suit shirt and his pants.
Finn shot Noah and Lili a wink and a thumbs up. "Great, that gives us more options." But that's about all the time he has to be cocky, because his magic snare or dashing Irish good looks draws the attention of both aswang. He dodges the first, and throws her an impolite salute just in time to be raked across the abs by her sister. "No, my fucking perfect abs! Now I'm not fucking playing around, bitches. Catch this." He snarls, the phantom coin returning to his palm as he slashes his other hand in a high arc over his head himself and anyone not actively engaged in attacking the aswang vanishes from sight.
The veil came over Noah, who wasn't used to such things at all. This would include avoiding fast movement. The black ink drowned out the whites of his eyes as he grabbed Ah'lara by the throat. The blackened veins on his skin reached over the skin to skin contact. "You aren't the only one here that eats life, bitch..." Noah ripped his hand away from her, the blackened veins remaining on her skin this time as she choked and gasped for breath as her life force started to wane. "Lee! Burn this, bitch!" He ducked and rolled to clear her line of fire to the aswang.
Lili stood next to Finn, then looked over at him and blinked, the flames that were her eyes clearly visible through the thin layer of her eyelids. She looked back to the front, watching as Noah took hold of the Aswang. Baring her teeth, something seemed to rise to the surface in her, and the blazing fire at her back became, quite truly, an inferno that rose up into the sky, like she was backpacking a bonfire around. Her eyes went from orange flames to burning white hot like phosphorus, and her hands started dripping with it to the ground. "BURN FOR ME!" She screamed it, her voice ragged and angry, as she put both of her hands out to pierce them through the veil and shatter it, pointed toward Ah'lara the aswang, and the woman began to steam. Her skin began to boil and blister off of her, and she vomited black, burned bits of her internal organs in a thick, slushy pour as she tried valiantly to avoid the boiling of her blood. It was clear Lili wanted to make the creature explode, though, and she wasn't getting away that easily as the awang's abdomen distended and blackened while it roasted from within.
The pain of being burned alive from the inside out after having your life force sucked away was nothing that any creature could really stand to have happen to them. The moment Lili and Finn had vanished, then reappeared, the aswang took on a frightened look. Then after the burning, it looked downright terrified. With a scream of fear, the wide, leathery, bat wings on her back lifted her into the air, as she attempted to flee.
Still on the ground, the second Aswang shrieked more in rage than fear at Lili as she threw around phosphorous white. Leaping in at Lili, despite the shield of broiling hot flames that came up, the Aswang managed to slash her long, filthy claws against Lili's arm from her shoulder in a line down to her elbow, knicking her forearm.
Finn looks between the black-veined Noah and the white-hot inferno that is Lili as the veil is shattered around them. "Fuuuuuu- remind me not to piss you guys off, okay?" Another wave of his hand raises a veil to hide them from the the remaining aswang's sight. "I smell barbecue," he mutters as the veil goes up.
Noah guarded his eyes as Lili torched the first one who took flight. He tossed his combat knife in hand to catch the blade, "Yeah, that's not happening..." When Lili was struck, Noah's aim moved to the other Aswang as he slung the combat knife at her. It whipped through the air, and handle of it striking the flying torso's shoulder causing a snarl of annoyance. Noah pressed back to his feet, "Back off of her, bitch!"
Lili watched the nasty creature take flight, spewing the charred, bloody bits of her internal organs. Grimacing, as she couldn't just go running after the bitch and leave this other live on here, Lili turned her blazing, white hot, gaze to Kealina. Of course, that was when the slice of pain went down Lili's arm, and she screamed into the night, pain obvious as blood started dripping down her arm and boiling away as it got closer to her hand. She lifted her uninjured hand toward the Aswang and more of the glowing, overly heated plasma shot forward from her. The Aswang dodged out of the way with a scrambling, roll, though, leaving the pelting of extreme heat to simply dig into the forest floor.
As Kealina rolled to the side to avoid the searing pain offered by Lili's arc of white phosphorous, she came into perfect contention with Noah's location. Reaching out with her clawed hand, she slashed at his torso as she went past him, catching the ridge of his ribs and his arm on her way by, with a wild, alien-bourne scream of defiance.
Finn grinned wildly as the first aswang fled and only one remained. As it dodged the white hot plasma shot at it by Lili, the redheaded man flicked his coin into the air, and then flung it at the second aswang with all his might. "Carach Braig!" he commanded, and the threads of moonlight exploded into a snarling pack of ravening beasts, the pack churning and surging towards the aswang with phantom teeth bared. The monster dodges nimbly, but some of the ghostly pack are able to sink their teeth into the creature, and the few who make contact rip into her savagely before disappearing back into strands of moonlight.
Noah gripped Kealina's arm as she slashed at him, allowing the blackened tendrils to spread to the aswang, sapping some of her energy away. The hold was temporary as Kealina broke away, sending the strings of tar to the forest floor. When Lili started gassing it up for a fireball, Noah leapt out of the way, rolling back to his feet.
Lili cocked her head to the side as the ghostly dogs attacked the Aswang and it kept going. And then the Kealina bitch decided to slash at Noah as well, and Lili looked downright.. well.. heated. "COMBUST!" She ordered the Aswang like she expected it to simply burst into flames. Instead, Lili managed to create another pool of charred, blackened vomit coming out of Kealina, as her stomach distended and blackened and vital things cooked inside of her. The way her body started to steam and bload was likely quite disturbing to the Aswang. "JUST DIE..."
The second aswang, Kealina, attempted to get up off the ground, and try to escape much as the other did. She managed to get up there, hoisting her own weight, and started flying up through the canopy, intent on survival.
Finn caught the returning wisps of moonlight in his palm and hurls it back at the aswang with an exhausted, pained snarl. "I'm with Lili, just die already! Carach Braig!" The phantom pack of beasts lunged forward, the ghostly outlines of clawed feet surging as easily into the air as if they were on solid ground. This time, the whole pack was hungry for a piece. Evanescent fangs ripped into the creature, shredding its wings and dragging it to the earth, where phantom maws crushed bone and ripped the aswang asunder. The quarry felled, the beasts lifted their heads in ghostly echoes of howling before drifting apart on the breeze. A bloodied and utterly exhausted Finn catches the tendrils in his palm as they coalesce into the shape of a coin, which he rolls lightly over his fingers. "Now that...that was a hunt in the woods." He turns a battered grin over at Lili and Noah. "And I'll hunt with you two, any day." He wraps his arm around his abdomen and takes a knee.
When the second aswang when down, Noah moved to stomp out the licks of flame that were spreading from the legs and from various Aswang torching. The black ectoplasmic nothingness dripped from his clenched fingers, hissing when it dipped in the fire, and browning the leaves in spots it touched. He cast his eyes to Lili, "I already know, yes, you don't have to say it. Far be it for me to think some ancestor will be pissed if the temple gets lit on fire." The man didn't so much as cough as he stamped out the last of them. "Finn... And shit, Lee? I think I have some bandages in my bag. A shirt at least." Taking a breath, he jogged off back towards the temple proper, uninhibited by the darkness.
Lili's eyes were still glowing, her body still put out enough heat that she could have dried out someone's entire load of wash just standing near the basket. She turned her face to look at Finn, then gave him a wide, dangerously twisted smile. "Good job, man, I think your pups liked their barbecue." She wasn't so much feeling anything for the longest time as she glanced over at the smoldering pile of Aswang legs. "Sure, ke keiki aloha. I'll be here." That said to Noah in a hollow sort of voice before Lili snarled softly. "Those aren't done enough. I'm going to make sure she can't come back and get them." As Noah ran to get the gear to help her arm, Lili walked over to the Aswang legs, held her hand over them, and wriggled her fingers. "Stay back, Finn." She warned the man as she stayed back a bit herself... before the legs literally just exploded violently into searing, still burning chunks that vaporized into nothing but raining ash as they flew through the air. When Lili turned back to Finn, it was with the gray specks falling from the air, dusting her skin, as her eyes slowly started to fade back to their normal, dark, dark blue. She smiled to him, then fell to her ass like her legs couldn't hold her up a moment longer, the long limbs splayed out at odd angles. The light burning like an inferno behind her back dimmed to nothing, leaving her with just the smooth, shiny brand of a small flame on her shoulder, and the heat that had been wavering the air around her hands just turned off, like a switch had been flipped.
Finn indulges in a long groan as he pushes up to his feet. "Hey, your barbecue was one of Biblical proportions. If they didn't see it from space, it's because they aren't looking. Fuuuuuucking hell. When the adrenaline starts wearing off, you really feel all the nicks and cuts, don't you?" He flicks his coin into the air and forces his eyes to focus as he issues a much less forceful command of "Evinyanta Nin." The rent flesh of his abdomen crudely knits itself together, but it's enough to staunch the bleeding. "Good enough. Here. Want me to take a crack at your arm? I think I have some juice left. Or maybe that's blood. Close enough." He grins lopsidedly.
Finn bellows after the retreating Noah. "Dude! If you have booze...please bring booze!" The redheaded man gets a cheesy grin on his face. "You want to know the best part? I've been on the clock this whole time."
Noah didn't hit a single branch on his way back through the woods, navigating the darkness without a problem with his ruck this time. "And back..." He let out a breathy chuckle at the ash cloud as he dug in his bag of a rolled up t-shirt and combat bandage. "Booze? Sorry man, Lee here has taught me to keep flammable materials and liquids off me at all times." Walking over to Lili, Noah knelt beside her to take a look at her arm. "We're probably going to have to go to the hospital for this." Ripping it out of its package, he dressed the wound carefully with the same sort of bandage the army has used since World War 1. "Am I carrying you out of here?" He smiled at the woman as he wound it around her arm several times and tied it off.
Lili looked at Noah as he came to her, giving him a soft, dreamy sort of smile. "I made it rain ashes, baby." She blinked, watching him as he opened up the bandage, then let out a whimper as he wrapped up her rather angrily clawed arm. "Shit... that seriously hurts way worse than it did a second ago." She chuckled lightly and looked up at Noah, dark circles under her eyes likely for the first time he'd ever seen it happen. "Finn said he could help it get better. If he can do that, then maybe no stitches?" Lili cocked her head and looked over at Finn, smiling. "If you can, please do? Mahalo for even offering, though, Finn."
Finn gives Noah an upnod as he returns. "Seeing the lovely company you keep, I get the whole, no flammable items thing. I'll order us something to the hospital, for while we wait. I have the company card, I'm sure they won't mind." He gives Lili a wink and flicks the coin into the air once more, visibly wincing as he does so, shaping the magic coin with the command "Envinyantalde." The tendrils of moonlight slip between Lili's skin and the bandage, roughly knitting the skin together to staunch any blood flow. "Don't mention it. I mean, actually, seriously. But that was pretty fun. Minus the enormous amounts of pain. Let's go visit the hospital, shall we? I have a pizza on the way."
Noah exhaled a quiet laugh, "That's why they're called pressure bandages, babe. It's to keep that red stuff inside so your heart has something to kick around." He gave a nod to Finn, "I owe you a drink or twelve. Just try to keep it to mid and bottom shelf." When the magic went off, he chuckled, "Or you could do that..." Standing up, he went off to grab his knife to slide it into the case on his belt, then he throw his rucksack on his back. Finally, he knelt, stretching Lili's good arm over his shoulder to stand her up. "Comon, we're gonna walk back to the truck so you don't confuse the forest as your bed." He gave her hand a squeeze, and smiled, "You did good, Lee."
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