Bigby in Wonderland [Narrative and Open]
i_huffandpuff
At least it was only a forest, Bigby was thankful for that. It would've been nice if it had been a forest that he recognized, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice in this situation. Forests as a whole at least were similar and negotiable when it came to traveling. It was simply a matter of getting up, catching his bearings, and searching for something that smelled familiar. Preferably something that smelled like home.
He could smell a city to the North, but it wasn't New York, something told him that. But it was a city, so Bigby got up and shook himself before turning to the North. If it wasn't New York it'd be someplace else, but any city would be good enough as long as there was a phone. And perhaps if he was lucky, it would be a city he'd actually been to before. Though, in these sorts of situations he was never that lucky.
Three initial whiffs of the air told him almost everything he needed to know about the wood that he couldn't glean at first glance. 'Almost' because the distinct smell of metal failed to reach his nose, failed to warn him about what was just in front of his paw.
Bigby let out a string of whimpers unbecoming to a wolf of his status, but it was unavoidable. His front right paw was caught in the sharp claws of a trap, snapped shut up against leg. He let out another high pitched whimper as he moved around balanced on his remaining three legs. It would have been much easier to get out of this in human form, though it would be easier to get into a limping trot as a wolf once he'd gotten out. The trick was getting out without opposable thumbs.
He had to grit his teeth in order to move around without wanting to scream, but even so, he still couldn't do it. He was just glad no one was around to witness this.
Bowing down twisted his paw at an awkward angle, but he had to do it to get his mouth at an angle where he could grab at the trap with his mouth. There would be something to bite down on now, meaning no more whimpering. His teeth gripped onto the metal on one side of his trapped paw and he pulled. The other side was pulled further into his skin as a result, sharp metal teeth and all, but progress was being made if he ignored the pain. Just a little more…
There was more blood on the ground and on the trap and matted into his fur then there had been when he'd started, but the trap was off and that was all that mattered. His paw, which translated into his right foot as a man, would take a good deal of time to heal. Bigby could tell, this was no Mundy trap he'd been caught in. Hurt too much for that, the pain bit in almost like it had been enchanted silver. Perhaps it was, but he didn't care enough to stay and check it out, and if it was he sure didn't want to drag it along with him. Not on only three good legs.
Gingerly he stepped away, letting out another sound of pain as he put weight down on his bleeding paw. His own noises combined with the sounds of the forest and for a moment he had to ignore everything he could see and here, just to regain his footing. He had to be able to walk.
He took one halting step and then another, neither of them moving him more than a foot, but at least it was movement. Bigby concentrated on it, one step after another.
His gait picked up a slow rhythm after awhile; step, step, limp… pause for pain. He used the pauses to cast out his senses, sniffing out any other traps that might be in the way and watching and listening for unfamiliar nasties in the woods that would look to attack a lame wolf. These were a surprisingly and blessedly empty wood. For the most part. There were sounds, nothing visible, that Bigby wasn't sure he liked, but he kept trudging along. There was nothing he could do about it in this state. Bleeding on your foes didn't usually do much to discourage them.
It was a whispering in the wind and a slight tremor of vibration coming from the ground that Bigby didn't like. Tremors meant steps, whispers meant they were the steps of something that could communicate. That he could feel and hear it all meant that they were somewhere close. The feeling of unease in the back of his mind… that meant they were drawing nearer.
The last thing Bigby wanted any hunter to find was him as an injured wolf just begging to be shot. A shot wouldn't kill him, but those Mundys sure knew what they were doing when they'd invented gunpowder and bullets. They made for a hell of a painful combination and Bigby did not intend to experience it again. He tried moving faster. Better self inflicted pain than the pain of a gunshot, and then the subsequent pain of digging the bullet out.
So he picked up the pace ever so slightly, pausing only to listen and to notice that suddenly, whatever was behind him began to move faster.
The only way to compensate was to overcome the pain. More pressure to his right paw, even a trot would be better than a gimpy walk. Running was horrible, but he tried. His paw was only going to be worse when he got to that city he could smell, but it was better than getting caught by whatever was behind him. He was suspicious by nature and sticking around to meet and greet when he was injured in a strange land was not tops on his list of things to do.
He ran, gritting his teeth together, gaining speed as the vibrations behind him provided the encouragement. The question was, when would he meet the end. As much as he wanted to, he didn't dare look behind to see what was following. It would only serve to slow him down, possibly trip him. He knew that if he fell he wasn't getting back up.
No, best not to fall until he reached that light up ahead. He hated to sound so cliché, even if it was just in his mind, but that was the only way he could describe it. There was a wall, a high long one from the look of it, and it was completely solid but for a hole right in the base. It was just perfect for him to slip through, not too big, and not too small. Just right.
He was showing his Fables colours, right there.
Whatever was behind him was only gaining, so Bigby pushed on until he'd reached the hole.
It was only then that he turned his head back briefly, trying to see what had been pursuing him. He only caught a small flash in a tiny patch of light making its way through the canopy of trees. A suit. Some sort of suit. The arm. He could see the collar and a hand.
That was all he needed to convince him to jump straight through the hole. Through the rabbit's hole. Bigby collapsed, landing hard on his front paw. It was done for now, at least until it saw some sort of medical attention.
But it seemed that that would be alright here. A city. That was what was on the other side of the rabbit hole. A large booming city that he didn't recognize at all. It had all the familiar smells, but none of the sites. He recognised where he'd landed to a point. It was a city park. Smelled like hot dogs, pigeons, and dog shit. Definitely a city park, meaning there would be people.
Bigby had had many experiences throughout the years, all reminding him that most humans did not react well when they saw large wolves wandering where large wolves were not supposed to wander. He could play the injured puppy card if necessary, but he didn't want it to come to that. He just wanted to crawl over to that clump of bushes over there and wait until it got dark. Current Mood: curious
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/26/2006 01:31:00
A rocking chair. That's all it needed by this point. A rusting, broken carcass of a ship and a rocking chair so she could sit and rock and shoot. It wasn't much anymore, but it was still home and she would club a fool to death with more than just a rocking chair for trying to make it otherwise. She had food, staples, things easy to get and keep. Her man would be home and things would need to be settled. Such as why he continued this craziness. Why she let him. What in the 'Verse they were going to do about it all besides play nice with the local law. And how long it took before arguing all this was sucked right out of her the moment she realized there wasn't anything to really complain about. Zoe Washburn, former military, always outlaw, adjusted the bag slung over her shoulder and gripped the Mule's Leg a little tighter as she stood in the park, looking at a bad trail of blood not a couple clicks from the last bit of Serenity she'd figured she'd ever see. Eyes narrowed, she slowly followed it with the wary eye of someone who knew that blood just meant desparate.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/26/2006 16:46:12
It was a female. A strange female, unsurprisingly. It wasn't like him to have to luck to run into someone he knew within his first hour in some strange new world. Things just didn't work like that, no matter how much he wished they did.
Bigby tensed as much as he could, pushing himself up slightly. Whoever she was, he could smell the metalic acidic smell of gun powder on her. Injured as he was, that made him nervous.
His giant muzzle was visable from the shadows though he worked to back further in. It was a slow process.
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/26/2006 22:25:31
An animal? The city they'd crashed to didn't seem that big but it didn't seem wild either. Whatever it was, it was big, bleeding and backing up.
Standing a few yards from the foliage it'd managed to push itself into, Zoe peered with wary eyes to get a better look at how bad it was off and how close it was to that fight or flight reflex. The gun was still in her shooting hand, the other holding a small plastic bag of groceries. The Modern Star at Home Wife.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/26/2006 22:34:39
There was a gun essentially pointed at his brain. Bigby was not looking to be shot. It wouldn't kill him most likely, but it would hurt like a bitch and quite possibly effect him in the same way it had effected Snow.
Lame predators did not survive long in the wild.
Bigby looked up, staring at the gun and the woman weilding it. "Shoot that thing and I'm going to be really pissed off. Don't worry. I'm not going to attack you."
He hoped that she wouldn't have the normal mundy reaction to talking animlals.
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/26/2006 22:55:24
Eyes like saucers? Check. Mouth agape? Check. HIgh pitched scream? Not likely. The gun didn't move though as she drew back slightly, as if impressed by that display of speech. From a muzzled mouth. Her first gut instinct was 'Reaver Gone Wrong', but a talking animal wasn't exactly their style. And she would have been dead by now. Zoe was hoping to avoid that.
"Right," she agreed with him. The gun was slowly lowered to point at the ground. "This your blood you got all over my pretty lawn or did someone else not get the threat?"
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/26/2006 23:07:01
"Thanks," he said gruffly when the gun was aimed away from his important bits. The pain in his paw was enough and he was glad the shock and awe of a talking wolf had worked.
He ducked his head for a second, licking at the paw while considering her words. Her lawn? Must've been a figure of speech.
"Got caught in a bear trap in the woods," Bigby finally admitted, his paw in clear view, bloodied and mangled as it was. A not so subtle hint: bandage, please?
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/27/2006 00:46:47
Alright then. This was an animal, not a mistake. A ... wolf. If Wash was right, Zoe was starting to figure out why Earth That Was was so... was.
Her worried face did not leave. "If that's from the woods, you're one long way from home..." Guy? Wolf? Wolf-guy? Flipping the Mule's Leg in her hand, she gripped it by the barrel and crossed with slow steps towards the animal and the bloody mess that was made of his leg. "... ain't we all," Zoe muttered to herself, one of those spoken thoughts as she knelt down to get a measure of this... creature. The wound was horrid, sympathy was involved, but a few things were first.
"I got a kit back in the ship. This can be wrapped up but the moment you do me wrong, you won't have a brain in your head to worry about that foot of yours." It wasn't a threat, it was a promise from a very devout woman of violence.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/27/2006 01:02:14
Bigby recognised the dangerous note in her voice for what it was. It made him pang for Snow even, just a bit. She had that same tone when she wanted it.
He nodded at her, giant head bobbing up and down before he started trying to get up again. It was a struggle, and once he was up it was going to be slow moving. "I'm not going to hurt you," Bigby ground out once again, leaning as much to his left side as he could. He was in no condition to hurt her anyway.
"Thank you," he said. "I came out of the woods and ended up here, through some sort of wall. I don't really know how."
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/27/2006 01:26:43
"Seems to be going around," she said after his travels. Lips pursed as the beast struggled to get up, her threatening stance squeezed out of her like the air in a balloon from a very small leak. "Stay here. I'm gonna go get the kit."
With reluctance, she turned her back and ran back towards the broken hull of the ship, still within view of the bushes she'd found the beast in. Zoe found the patchup kit with ease. If the creature was expecting a ripped shirt for binding wounds, he should have limped by someone else. The medbay was long gone, not likely still in space but they had supplies.
Coming back with a small plastic kit at a short jog, Zoe still couldn't believe she was doing this.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/27/2006 13:30:54
Well, that was a relief. Bigby let himself fall back over on his flank, trying not to look too pathetic or whimper too much.
He only looked up again when she came running back, mildly nervous that it might either be someone new, or that she'd brought something more nefarious than a med kit along with her. But luckily, it seemed she was true to her word.
He thought about things for a moment as she neared. The injury would be an easier wrap and set if he were human, but with the human form came other issues that he wasn't equipped to deal with at the moment. Such as the lack of clothing, and the fact that it might possibly scare the kind woman stupid. She'd dealt well enough with the fact that he talked, so there was really no reason to test his luck.
He'd wait until they'd finished here before he decided if he needed to transform. The wolf was a more resiliant form anyway. That bear trap would have done more than fracture Mundy bone, it would have split it in two.
"I'm Bigby," he said when she neared. "From New York, which I'm sensing this is not." She'd sounded somewhat lost too.
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/27/2006 14:18:05
It has a name. This either made things a little easier or awful difficult.
Another pause to remind herself that yes, this was a very large animal and yes, it was talking and something should eb done about that. It- He had a bloody mess of its paw, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The kit opened with a click, Zoe snatching up a small silver canister and giving the wolf a 'let's get this done' look. "It'll sting."
Should the wounded paw be Zoe will shake up the can and administer a thick foaming agent over the matted fur. It does, in fact, sting like most disinfectants, pulling the skin under fur tighter and helping the open wounds to close.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/27/2006 14:29:10
She was right, and it stung like hell. But it wasn't worse than the pain he was already feeling, so by clenching his long jaw shut, he could deal with it. Despite the situation he was still too proud to actually whimper or whine in front of the woman.
It was manageable, and though still covered in blood, looked slightly better.
"Do you live here?" He asked, partially to distract himself, and partially out of curiousity. She'd fetched the kit awfully fast. And some sort of 'ship' had been mentioned, but Bigby couldn't smell water on this side of the city. There were docks somewhere, though.
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/27/2006 15:03:58
Sprayed down, it wasn't pretty. She wasn't the poking and proddng type of quick medic, just the type to wrap things up. What was the bedside manner for a big dog like this anyways? 'There, there, Fido, good boy?' That seemed utterly ridiculous, so she kept her mouth shut.
Next came a sort of opaque blue tape, part plastic, part something else. With strong but at least repectfully delicate fingers, she wrapped up the injured paw to keep it splinted and the tape stretched and conformed to the shape it wrapped about. The stinging went away, thankfully, replaced by a topical anestetic that would speed up the wound closing process more, keep the bone stable and give him a little more support to stand. Not much, it was a patch up job, but it'd be better than bleeding out in the bushes.
"Yeah, as much a living as one gets these days," she answered as she worked, wondering why a talking wolf was better company these days.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/27/2006 15:24:29
It was best for both of them that she didn't choose to call him Fido. There was only so much he could take even with all the help she was giving him, and dog names were right up there with being mistaken for a werewolf in Bigby's mind.
He wasn't sure how to take her last comment either. They were in a city. Surely there was something to do within its limits. It didn't look barren to him.
"What do they call this place? I can't say I've ever visited before," he tried again, wishing for even the littest of hints as to where he was and, preferably, how he was going to get back home.
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/27/2006 15:55:54
Zoe leaned back up on her haunches, closing the case. He'd be fine, better if they found a real doc (veternarian?), but she did what she could.
Dark eyes fixed him square. "I got lots of names for this place, but none of them are right," she told him, then stood tall. "It's a city, but none I've ever been to." She sighed, put a hand to her hea and muttered, "Bai yun cang gou."
Looking back to Bigsby, she told him with a certain amount of sympathy. "You ain't wher you been before, trust me on that."
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/27/2006 16:19:36
Recognised the language as Chinese, but he didn't speak it. Bigby let that one pass.
Still no name though. How frustrating, but at least he wasn't the only one who didn't know. Or the only one who'd been seemingly sucked into this city.
"Guess asking the way out would just be a waste of breath then." Bigby very carefully began to move, rolling partially over onto his stomach and beginning to try and stand.
She'd done a good job, whoever she was. It still hurt to be sure, and he couldn't put full weight on it, but at least he was standing. And if he needed to a limping gait could be started. He was going to try and avoid that though.
Bigby took an experimental step, winced slightly, and then tried again. "Thank you," he said again. "Few days and I should be able to find that forest again."
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/27/2006 17:20:31
"I don't have one, neither do you," she said, arms folding across her chest. Then again... that's one thing she hadn' tried yet. If she and Wash weren't the only ones and this wasn't some sort of terrible insanity, then there would be a way out.
"... but should you come across a nice neon sign," she added, arcing a long arm across the park. "That's what's left of the ship. Not worthy of much but a shelter for now... but we may have a few more answers than most."
Her hand directed his view to the a twisted metal wreck, nothng more than a couple walls spaced the size of a studio apartment with no view.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/27/2006 21:51:14
So she hadn't meant a sea worthy ship. Bigby wasn't sure what he was looking at when he caught sight of the thing.
It was like some left over bits from a metal factory gone wrong.
He appreciated the offer of shelter. He knew what it took to offer a complete stranger shelter not really knowing if you could trust them.
He wasn't sure about it, though. He had to... well there had to be some way out of this place and back to New York. Maybe this woman hadn't found it because she was living in her ship.
There had to be some way out. Even if he had to limp to find it. And he was stubborn enough that he would.
One had to remember the rules too; the less socialising with mundies, the better. Talking to her in his wolf form had been bad enough. "I think I'll rest, and then... I should really look around. Try to see if I can sniff out anyone I know."
Snow, Jack, Boy Blue... hell, he'd even take Charming at this point.
From: i_canhurtyou Date: 06/27/2006 22:47:46
Like she was going to let an animal inside. This was not what her husband met by 'Black Market Beagles'. But at the same time, any port in a storm, any ally in a minefield.
She took a breath as if to give his descision wait and squared her shoulders. "Well, then that'll hold. You'll know when to take it off." And that's her good karma for the day.
From: i_huffandpuff Date: 06/28/2006 17:14:56
"I will."
Bigby gave her the wolfish equivilant of a smile, hoping that it didn't put her off too much. It involved a good deal of teeth.
"Thank you again," he said sincerely.
Then, still limping painfully, Bigby started looking around. He commited the smell of the area to memory before gimping off, in search of a deep clump of bushes to rest in.