What You're Missing (Toby)

[Ellwood]

The inside of Toby's cabin was a recognizable location. Whether Ellwood was pleased - or more likely, displeased - to be back at the scene of the crime was something he could debate with himself later. He firstly had to focus on more important things, like batting away the homeless man's grip upon his shoulder. Ignoring the fact it felt like he just slammed his wrist into iron, he still had other reasons to glare.

"Don't touch me," he growled the order out, a prideful giant threatening at the edges of his facade. He didn't know if the homeless man could sense it or not, but Rion followed his demand immediately.

"I apologize," he replied as he stepped back and slowly pulled the hood down. Brown hair was dirty and matted, and just a bit on the longer side - close enough for Ellwood to reminisce about reflective rivers past. The thick beard and deep eyes made him look much older though, in what would have been his late 30's - if he'd been human. But Ellwood had all but been told that Rion was something else.

"Physical contact," the walking enigma explained simply, "Is better for teleportation."

The younger man was still growling in his chest when he added, "For that matter, how did you even know to bring us here?"

Rion's features looked back at him rather expressionlessly. "I did not. But the last time Toviyah came to me, he was operating out of this place. I assumed he still was, and since my usual place of residence is lacking in four walls… I thought his place would be better."

Ellwood was still looking at the homeless man, and glaring at him more angrily then he deserved. The weresaber then turned on Toby, remembering a conversation from the night before. "So you do bring home a lot of big, strong guys."

Arms folded across his chest, scowling and facing away from the old man.

"I thought I was special," he said injuriously.

Rion's head bent a few inches to his left, a doggishly confused expression on his face. Ellwood waited another beat before he dropped the act and rumbled a bass laugh instead. Wry humor defused some of that boiling anger, bringing it back down to a more managable simmer.

Rion was still just confused.

"Have I … missed something?" he asked, looking slowly back and forth between the old and the young.

[Toviyah]

Feeling a glare turn his way, Toby coughed into his hand and studied the nearest wall with his friendliest, most vacant half-smile.

"So you do bring home a lot of big, strong guys."

"Hmm?" He asked.

"I thought I was special!"

Confusion weighed heavy and uneven on the old new guest's mind, tilting his head to one side until the mask cracked and the were's dark laughter crackled through. Anger still remained, albeit no longer seething, and the young man's pride was a wound newly dressed.

Aurion looked from young human to young angel. "Have I... missed something?"

"No," Toby hurried to assure him. "Except yes. But still no. Forget I said anything." He rushed around to intrude in Ellwood's field of vision, channeling his inner beagle to make him seem cuter and less crushable. "It - it's nothing personal! I... really like you and, uh... I hope we can still be friends? Was that the right word? Friends? With benefits?"

He took a careful step out of mangling range. "Back to business, then. 'Rion, demons got through again. They're out in the woods, waylaying travellers. There's a swarm of rats, and a giant thing made of lava. Reeks of sulfur and brimstone. I don't remember seeing anything else."

[Ellwood]

His head shifting just slightly to the right, the young man's eyes refused to move from Toby and glared at him out of the corners. The terrible "Grape head" was doing his best to seem innocent and unworthy of juicing - an act the jury was still deliberating on, from long ago.

"It - it's nothing personal!" Toby said defensively, if playfully. "I… really like you and, uh... I hope we can still be friends? Was that the right word? Friends? With benefits?"

The weresaber almost held back the grin forming on his lips. Almost wasn't enough to stop fangs from baring at the back of his mouth.

The expression on the homeless warrior suddenly changed as well, but for a different reason.

"Oh. He thinks we've been intimate," Aurion realized, blinking his confusion away to replace it with vivid concern. His expression rapidly turned on Toby instead.

Ellwood rolled his eyes with a huff. "Don't explain the joke, old man."

"It's a joke?" he replied, features softening on the greying figure. "Yes, that makes much more sense. Never mind."

"Whatever," the saberwere blew it off, humor having passed, with anger still everpresent under the surface.

"Back to business, then," Toby agreed, and his words brought back everyone's severity. "'Rion, demons got through again. They're out in the woods, waylaying travelers. There's a swarm of rats, and a giant thing made of lava. Reeks of sulfur and brimstone. I don't remember seeing anything else."

"A Pit Fiend, from what I could tell," Ellwood added, taking advantage of the cabin's accommodations again. He felt a tall drink of water was called for, and then swallowed half of it at once. "I don't know how strong he was for sure, since I was already outnumbered by then. He incinerated my kidney with a lance of his, in a much tougher form than this."

Aurion looked down towards that area, but Ellwood was already adding in, "I got better."

"The Knights' scryers should have noticed frequent attacks by a Pit Fiend," Aurion said after a moment of glancing at Toby. Ellwood's hands tensed for a second, and hoped no one saw the motion in his bare forearms.

He didn't break the glass. That was something to appreciate.

"The Pit Fiend wasn't there at first," Ellwood explained, his annoyance inflected in the words. "There's a flying demon - no feathers, but magic to spare. She didn't look strong. I could have killed her easy, but she was a summoner. She's the one that brought the porcupine rat things, and the Pit Fiend, too."

"A variant of the harpy perhaps," Aurion stated. "And they've ... had victims?"

[Toviyah]

"They've had victims," Toby said. "People began disappearing... again..." he winced at the last word, "A little over a week ago. Screaming in the night, but nothing when the sun rose. No bodies. Not even bones. I sensed something hungry - must have been the rats - but none of the malice that shows up in demons that can summon other demons. Nothing but hunger, in fact. The menagerie that attacked Ellwood last night didn't seem like the kind that keep their prey alive."

That wasn't much of a small mercy. Toby thought about the alternative and decided he was best off not thinking about it.

"I didn't smell hellfire until last night, but now that a Pit Fiend's crossed over, it'll be around for weeks. Last night must have been its first appearance. Not a very clever specimen, by the way. I scared it off with bad theater lines." He sniffed the air. "Doesn't smell like it's prowling around this plane of existence at the moment. We've got at least an hour before daybreak. Now that I've a better idea of what we're looking for, we can find the summoner. If we move fast, she won't have time to summon anything."

He studied the tension in Ellwood's shadow, and spoke again. "Or we could give her just enough of an opening to drag her friend through. Kill two demons with one expert."

[Ellwood]

Ellwood was thinking more intensely about the demons as they talked. If the saberwere had porcupine spines like those rats, it would have helped a lot of things. People could pick up on the inherent danger to his existence faster, and know to steer clear. Spines make an effective ward against attack from behind as well - or, physically anyway. But most importantly, they could bristle when he was annoyed, so even those without empathy could pick up on his emotional state.

They'd be bristling right then.

"I told you. I can kill the … the flesh harpy," Ellwood struggled to call her something specific, annoyance unhid on the tip of his tongue. "I don't need your help … for that."

His fellow swordsman was unphased by the sabertooth's posturing. That, on its own, was slightly unnerving to the saberwere. People were supposed to see him as a threat. The pit fiend hadn't. Neither did this guy. Something was wrong with that.

But Aurion sensed something else underlying the were's words, even without a magical assist. He noted how Ellwood kept trying to seem taller than him, and ever since they'd gotten down "to business" as he called it, the humor had gone right out of his tone.

Without humor to deflect Ellwood's thoughts, anger reigned.

The swordsman gave a very measured response, to avoid further wounding the beast in front of him. "Then … I won't help you with that."

Ellwood kept staring. Aurion turned more to Toby before he continued, "It is just the pit fiend that is the threat?"

"Yes," Ellwood answered for him with a growl, interrupting whatever Toby might have said.

"Well…" Aurion started simply "Then I will just help with him. Pit Fiends are rare to cross over on their own. They are very strong, and very dangerous … and very noticeable. Noticeable demons don't last long without drawing slayers."

"And Beagle McHuntingdog thinks you can take it on yourself," Ellwood chimed in with his wounded pride. Breath was dragged through his nose and huffed back out. "You're the 'expert'."

[Toviyah]

The shadow over Ellwood’s features looked to be getting darker. Words fumbled and didn’t emerge. Tension built. Toby looked from expert to smoldering were.

He spoke. “She’ll try to show off all her babies too.” He watched Ellwood from the corner of his eye. “Those were her babies, weren’t they? All those rat porcupine embryos.”

The sabertooth’s answering grunt was half agreement, half the sound of a rockslide still waiting for an excuse to cut loose.

“How many of those do you eat for breakfast?”

“Seven, when I’m hungry,” the beast was quick to shoot back, though he looked not the least bit happier for the excuse to be sarcastic.

“You can manage all of them,” Toby suggested. “Get them mad. Talk smack about their mother. I hear they’ll go down spicy. Get them coming at you. We need a way to keep them off our backs.”

The young man’s affirmative snort was all the answer he needed.

“That’s that then. He’ll handle the mama and the babies. If the pit fiend comes, you’ll handle daddy,” Toby said as he turned his attention more to the expert. Eyes glanced back and forth from the two warriors, and it suddenly came upon him that something was missing among them. “Now how about a few beers.”