Hope stood barefoot in the stream in nothing but her underwear, just in case anyone happened to approach. She couldn't stand the feel of dried blood and grime on her skin any longer. So, with a harsh rag, she stood against the rushing water and scrubbed her skin until it flushed pink.
The dream visitor was a coincidence — she was exhausted, and the hunger pangs had gone to her head, nothing more. Still, the sense that the tadpole squirming about through the crevices of her brain was connected to this other being sent a thrill of uncertainty down her spine.
She moved to her hands and knees and let the water crash against her thighs, chilling her to her bones as she lowered her head and submerged her hair. Hope shuddered as her scalp tingled, but the blood and debris washing away gave way to a sensation of euphoria.
"You seem like you're feeling better."
Hope lifted her head and threw back her hair, letting it slap against her back as she looked up at Astarion, who sat much like a cat on the boulder to her left. Damn, she thought, his approach had been as silent as his breathing.
"Do you always stalk your traveling companions?"
"Stalk is a harsh word," he smirked as his red eyes traveled down to the curve of her cleavage, "I'm merely admiring."
Hope rolled her eyes, "Oh, you're admiring, are you?" She asked as she stood to her feet and cut through the water toward him. She placed her hands on the dry stone beneath him, tilting her head back to peer up at him. "Yesterday, you seemed to have every intention to partake in voyeurism, not admiration."
He sighed, smirk still in place as he said, "What happened between you and Lae'zel was none of my business. If the roles were reversed, would you have stepped between us?"
Parting her lips to reply, Hope's playful smile dropped as she realized he might not like her answer. Of course she wouldn't, not as herself, at least.
"Ah," Astarion purred as he took her chin between his fingers, trapping her under his dark gaze. "And that, darling, is exactly why we get along."
"Because I'm inherently selfish with really nice breasts?"
Astarion grinned, "Well, yes, but also… I quite like it when you lose your temper. You should do it more often."
Oh, if only he knew.
They were quiet for a moment, but before she could break the silence, he asked, "You didn't perchance have any strange dreams of late, did you?"
Hope's eyes widened, and her heart dropped, "I…did actually. Last night."
"Oh?" Astarion's eyes lit up while fear crept through Hope like ice. "Then it was real. That's good to know, considering the powers I was offered. I'd hate to squander them, assuming it was no more than my imagination."
Pushing away from the boulder, she shook her head, "Even if it's real, you can't just take candy from a stranger. No matter how enticing it seems."
"Well, that's no fun. " Don't tell me you're not tempted by the prospect of power," he flicked his fingers in her direction, "Surely, after your little run-in with Lae'zel last night, you of all people would want something more than spite under your belt." Imagine it, using our tadpoles as a means to vanquish our enemies."
Hope sighed, "Of course, obtaining power is tempting." She took up her clean shirt and slipped it on over damp skin. "But all power comes with a price. If you lose more than you gain, it's just not worth it."
"What would I have to lose?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, and chuckled and rolled his eyes. "You? Please don't take offense, darling, but just because I like it when you lose your temper, doesn't mean you're worth more to me than my own freedom."
Hope would be lying if she said the words didn't sting a little. Not because she didn't want them to be true, but because it reminded her of something.
Herself.
Is that what she'd sounded like those years ago? When she'd abandoned everyone and everything she cared about for her own prowess?
"I don't know you, Astarion," she said, kneeling down to tie her boots, "And you don't know me. All I'm saying is if you're going to do it, you better understand that there are more important things to lose than your companions."
"And what might that be?"
"Yourself."
His amused smirk slowly softened as their gazes met, but returned just as quickly.
"Well, this conversation is a bit stale for my liking, though…this doesn't change our agreement," he suddenly looked uncertain, "Right?"
Hope smirked now, "You can still feed on me."
"Hm, then I'll see you tonight," Astarion hopped off the boulder. "Do try to eat something. I don't want you feeling faint…what a mess that would be to explain to the others."
She watched him saunter away without a reply and shook her head. What was it about him that drove her…was insane the right word? There was a part of her that wanted to push him over the edge of a cliff for his clipped words and another side that wanted to devour that smart mouth of his.
Hope didn't go back to camp.
Instead, she picked her way along the road, retracing their steps from the previous day back to the Hags' cottage — alone. Honestly, the decision to take care of it herself was a quick one. As Astarion mentioned, everyone would assume she was still at the stream, avoiding Lae'zel.
It was a perfect cover for her to, well, get a little revenge.
The cottage stood before her, once warm and inviting, but was now drab and dismal. The lush forest had turned into a swampy marsh of questionable water quality. They'd already taken everything they could from the shelves and cleared out the boxes of useful material, so the walls were bare upon entry.
All was quiet, no sign of the Hag.
Hope's gaze drifted to the fireplace, and she moved toward it. It was still lit, but beyond, she could see the vague outline of another room. With a moment of concentrated will, the fire died down until it was nothing more than soot and ash. Placing a hand against the stone, she ventured forward.
Breathing in the scent of earth and rot, she descended the wooden slats for stairs and into the cavern where the sight of a bubbling cauldron over a fire caught her attention first.
"So, where's Hansel and Gretel?" She muttered as she stared into the suspicious liquid that was a bit too green and viscous for her liking. An eyeball rolled to the surface, and Hope scrunched her nose. "Gross."
The exploration of the cave was quick; she didn't spend much time roaming; she searched for signs of the Hag and the girl and moved on. The rest wasn't her concern. She approached a face, carved in wood, and tilted her head to the side. Though to her left, the elf and his cries were a bit loud.
Well, she supposed she may as well help him while she was here. She approached and paused, crouching before him.
"Hey," she said, snapping her fingers, "Where's the Hag?"
Holding his head, he slowly looked up with wide, frightened eyes. "Monster! Monster!"
Hope glanced behind her shoulder to find nothing there and turned back to him, "Me?" She'd been called worse, but right out of the gate? Damn.
"Flesh rotting — bone shining!"
Nodding slowly, "Okay, well, I'm going to go kill the Hag. Do you know where she is?"
"Get away! GET AWAY!"
Hope sighed and slowly stood, "Right. I'll just take a look around…"
To begin her search again, she turned to the rest of the cavern and closed her eyes. She breathed in, tasting the air. She listened to every drip of water and scuttle of little legs.
Magic.
It was different, though — unlike her own or even Gale's. Acidic, almost, like the bitter remains of burnt coffee.
Hope opened her eyes and found herself facing the face in the tree. She smiled as the illusion shimmered before her and she walked through.
"Clever," she muttered, continuing along the wet and rocky path deeper into the cavern.
What felt like a sonic boom sent Hope flying off her feet. She slammed against the rock wall beyond, crumbling it upon impact.
"Don't make me hurt her!" Someone cried out from afar.
Hope curled her lip as the rage she felt yesterday rose to the surface. She slid down the wall and rose to her feet again. The taste of iron coated her tongue as she pushed off the ground and rounded the corner to see where the assault had come from.
An arrow whistled through the wind toward her face, and Hope snatched it in the air before it could make impact. With a snarl of frustration, she sent the arrow back to its sender with deadly aim. It made contact, through their eye — an instant kill.
Now that she could see beyond the rock formations, she turned in a circle to survey all who she was against. There was still no sign of the Hag yet; these must be her little cronies. She sighed in frustration: Where is she?
One step at a time, she reminded herself and located all the opposing enemies in the area. Once she knew where they all were, she focused her targets, twisted her wrists, and listened to the sickening cracks of five necks snapping simultaneously. Some dropped to the ground where they were, while others fell off the formations they'd perched themselves on.
"Now, then…" Hope picked her way around the space, and it didn't take her long to find the hidden chamber behind the waterfall. "Dammit," she cursed softly, "I was already dry." She waved her hand and parted the water as though it were a curtain and stepped through.
This was taking longer than she'd anticipated — would the others begin to wonder? She was sure the only one who might actually worry and try to find her would be Gale. For now, all she could hope was that Astarion had relayed her whereabouts by the stream and that no one would go looking.
Climbing down a rickety ladder wasn't an issue — the explosive at the bottom was.
Hope coughed as it scattered a noxious fume that stung her eyes and urged her to throw up. As fast as she could, she used a vampire's speed to move from one platform to the next until she made it to the bottom.
"Better than ADT, I guess." She coughed, wiping the saliva from the corner of her mouth, and peered into the new chamber before her.
Raising her brows, she stared at the centerpiece, which was the girl…in a cage, dangling precariously above a hole in the center. Moving forward with careful steps, Hope glanced around at the cage again.
"What is she to her, a pet canary?"
"You are as stupid as they come, aren't you, petal?"
Hope turned in the direction of the familiar voice and eyed her. "Well, I figure you and I have some unfinished business." She smirked as the scream of vengeance echoed in her mind.
She could do it, she could use the tadpole to aid her, but why? She alone was the most powerful being in her world, granted that's her world, not this one. Still, she had strength left to finish what started yesterday.
"Is that right?" She asked with a click of her sharp teeth. "Tell me then, how will you save yourself if you're too busy saving the girl?" Pointing a crooked finger at the cage, it exploded into flame.
"Oh, come on!" Hope exasperated, just before she was shoved with an invisible force that sent her back, yet again, cracking her head against the rock. "Stop. Doing. That." She groaned as she lifted herself up. "I'm going to have a bald spot before I ever get back home."
The Hag's cackle crackled like distant fireworks before she split into multiple versions of herself and scattered across the cavern.
Okay, Hope, focus. First things first, stop the fire before it engulfs the girl. Dashing toward it at a full sprint, she slid to a stop, held her hand out, and shouted, "Phasmatos motus incendiamos!"
Rather than simply extinguishing the fire, it jumped from the cage and attached to the mirror images of the Hag, until only one was left. With a heaving chest and singed hair, she roared and sent another fire blast, this time directed at Hope.
Hope, however, was running out of steam. She hadn't had a single drop of blood since well before she was swept away by the Nautilouid, and her extremities were feeling the ache of its absence. She brushed the fire away with her hand before it could make a full impact, but singed her palm in the process.
Cringing, a low growl emanated from deep within the cavern of her chest. She thought, then, why not fight fire with fire?
"Ex Spiritum In Tacullum, En Terrum Incendium, Phasmatos Salves A Distum."
A wall of fire engulfed the Hag, turning itself into a spinning tornado of disastrous heat and flame — trapping her within its center. Hope kept her hand up, brows furrowed in concentration as she let the storm rage through her and into her incantation.
She wasn't aware when the Hag had died, only that when she'd finally stopped, nothing but ash remained. Hope lifted her hand and wiped the stray bits of blood from her nose that had trickled down her lip. Breathing heavily, she knew it would cost her.
Could she even make it back to camp like this?
She had nothing to feed on to replenish what she'd used… Or did she? Her gaze drifted toward the girl who climbed down from the cage. Heat gathered behind her eyes with hunger, but she willed it back. She'd just saved her; she couldn't suddenly claim her life, or all this would have been for nothing.
"You've ruined everything!" The girl suddenly shouted in her face, tears in her eyes.
Hope stared at her without words, glanced at the hold below the cage, and sighed.
"No. No, I can't do that." She reprimanded herself.
"She was going to fix everything!"
Dumbfounded, Hope glanced around to ensure she was still seeing what she saw before. "By killing you in a cage? Yeah, that's…sound logic."
"She was taking care of me. She was going to take care of my baby; teach it magic even. And now you've ruined it!" Tears streamed down her cheeks. "I can't be a mother…"
Hope puffed out a sigh, cheeks expanding. "Didn't see this coming. "Well," she rubbed the back of her neck irritably, "You know, it wouldn't have worked out anyway. Making deals with forest beings never usually does."
"You ruined everything…"
Nodding slowly, she pursed her lips into a thin line and said, "You're welcome."
She stamped her feet as she left, still crying into her hands.
Hope stood there for a moment, letting it all soak in before she sighed and said, "I should have just eaten her."
Then, with a slow gait, she left the way she'd come. It was a blessing to be greeted with daylight and fresh air as she walked through the disheveled cottage and into the open wilderness. It was a long way back to camp; maybe she should rest and try to eat something first. Was there any more liquor? That could at least curb some of her appetite.
In search of a bottle of something strong, she rubbed her singed palm against her pants and rubbed off the dead skin cells like dried glue.
Thump thump.
Hope raised her head and stared in the direction of the heartbeat. At this point, she didn't care what kind of animal it was. Hooves or not, she needed to sink her fangs into something.
Thump thump.
It was like following the scent of fresh water in a desert as she slid through the blackened brambles of decayed foliage. She eyed the man beyond, who stood in a small clearing shuffling through the contents of his pack.
Hope entered the space. He was off limits, she supposed. She didn't want any bad blood between herself and the locals, though she'd admit it was tempting after the amount of energy she'd expended against the Hag.
"Ah, good day," he turned and smiled at her through his well-groomed mustache.
"If you're searching for the Hag, she's already dead."
"I'm not." He replied simply and looked her over. "Actually, I'm in search of something else, if you might have any information."
Hope cringed, her head hurt a little too much for 'information'. Still, her curiosity was no better than a kitten's as she asked, "What might that be?"
"I'm in search of a Vampire Spawn that goes by the name Astarion."
Time seemed to slow as a different kind of rage stewed in the pits of Hope's empty belly. It was different from what she felt with the Hag or even Lae'zel.
This…this was far more dangerous.
Who might be in search of Astarion?
"Never heard of him," Hope replied with ease, "I take it you're a hunter of sorts?" She asked, gesturing to his bag, which she now realized was filled with a variety of sharp weapons.
"I'm to take him to Baldur's Gate. My people wait for me there. The reason isn't for your ears."
Hope slowly tilted her head to the side and surveyed him. This man was hunting Astarion to do God knows what to him. While she was certain Astarion wasn't an inherently innocent vampire…neither was she.
"It's a shame," she murmured, eyes casting to the ground as her rage turned into something else.
Hunger.
"What is?"
Hope glanced up with yellow eyes as dark veins crawled down from her eyes like creeping vines. Her fangs extended as she bared them, "That you came here all alone…"
Realization crossed his features as he dove for whatever tool he'd stuffed inside his bag, but Hope was faster, even from across the clearing. She snatched him by the shoulders and sank her fangs deeply into his carotid and drank deeply. Moaning, she relished the warmth that coasted down her throat and revived her from head to toe, leaving her tingling with relief.
Hope didn't stop until nothing was left, and even then, bit into other places across his shoulders and down his arm, ensuring she'd taken every last drop. At last, she dropped him to the ground in a heap and sighed with euphoria. There was a bitter aftertaste, likely from some sort of protection he'd ingested. Little good it did him as her body fought the foreign object and won with ease.
Ghosting her thumb across her bottom lip, she licked it clean and dropped to sit next to him. "Nothing particularly against you," she said, looking his corpse over, "I just don't like hunters. They leave a bad taste in my mouth."
She reached forward and touched her fingers against his forehead above his vacant eyes and watched as his remains crumbled, turning into dirt. It looked more like a fresh grave, but if anyone were to take a shovel to it, they'd find nothing.
"Well, I feel better," Hope said as she stood and smirked slightly. She checked her clothing for any evidence of her misadventures and, once satisfied, began the trek back to camp, her steps a little lighter.
The fire was warm as Hope sat beside it, though her eyes were on Astarion, who lay down with his elbow propping his head up from just across from her. Gale had joined too, the roll that separated them, but Shadowheart and Lae'zel stayed in their tent. Not that she minded.
"So, where did you get off to today?" Gale asked as he flipped a page in his book. "Astarion said you were bathing. Surely you weren't so dirty it took all day."
Hope managed a small smirk — after her little feast of the hunter, she'd been in a much better mood. "I took a walk," she shrugged and let her gaze settle on Astarion, who was already staring at her with a shade of hunger behind his eyes. "And I met a man."
Rolling his eyes to the sky, he smirked, "Am I supposed to be jealous, darling?"
"No, but you should be concerned."
His eyes flashed down to hers again and narrowed, "And why is that?"
"He was friendly enough," she chewed her lower lip, "But he was looking…for you." She eyed him. "Now, why might a hunter be searching for you to bring back to Baldur's Gate?"
Silence swept over the camp, and even Lae'zel poked her head out of her tent to listen.
Astarion quickly moved into a sitting position and defensively scoffed, "Well, I don't know…" He looked away, his mind clearly moving a thousand miles in every direction.
"Hey," Hope leaned forward a little to catch his eye, "He's gone now, but do we need to worry about anyone else roaming in the dark?"
Should they be keeping their own form of surveillance?
"No…" Astarion snapped back and then sighed. "I don't know… Just let me think." He stood and left the fire. She watched him drift to the lakeside.
"Are you certain he's gone?" Gale asked, and she glanced at him.
Hope didn't know how much he knew about her, if he knew anything at all, but it wasn't something to unravel tonight. Meeting his knowing gaze and quietly said, "Yes, he's gone."
She brought her cup of hot tea to her lips and smirked as the hint of a devil played behind her eyes.