…or, Over The River And Through The Woods
My body blazed with the need to run. Every pulse of my heart propelled me onward, deeper into the woods. My feet touched the ground rarely and briefly. The whole world fled backwards from the strength of my kicks, and the forest ran forward to fill the void it left. Instinct and reflex sent me flying around trees like a magic-guided javelin. The sound of crashing leaves and branches filled my ears as countless scents filled my nostrils. Flowers, bark, moss, water, fur, sweat, and even the tiniest insects all advertised themselves to me.
The world opened up into a clearing and the pebble-strewn shores of a small lake. The fleeting feel of the rocky ground under my feet was jarring, but I welcomed the variety. I ran straight ahead, my hooves barely breaking the surface of the water as they skimmed across its surface.
Running on water. That was interesting. Even considering the fact that I’d been turned into a fucking deer, that was something that was worth noting. I skidded to a stop on the other side and tried to turn myself around to look at the lake.
Turning was also interesting, but not in the same way. It’s a more complicated operation with four legs than two. During the wild flight, I’d been moving naturally, instinctively. I fucked myself up when I started paying attention to what my feet were doing. Finally, I just kicked up on my hind legs and jerked my body around.
It might seem like I’d taken the transformation in stride. That was literally true; I’d been off and running before I’d had a chance to digest what was happening. When I didn’t think about it, there was nothing strange or unnatural about the deer body. It felt like it belonged to me, and it responded accordingly.
There was no feeling of alienation. This was my body. It had changed, but it was still mine. I was still me.
I walked up to the edge of the lake and reached out with a hand—foot, I mean. I held it just above the surface of the water and then brought it down by degrees until my toes passed into the lake. I stepped forward a bit and put my weight on that foot. It went down to the mud without hitting any more resistance than you’d expect from a lake. I took a couple steps forward, focusing my attention and will on my hooves. Nothing. I was walking through the water, not over it.
Of course, I also took a glance downward to see if I could catch my reflection. The murky lake water wasn’t a mirror, though. I might as well have been looking at my shadow.
The water felt good on my coat, though, after a long run, so I waded in deeper. There was a moment of panic when my hooves lost the bottom, and then I realized I could still swim. I went back and forth across the middle of the lake a few times, then around in a circle, before heading for shore. The cool water had a powerful appeal, and before walking out of the lake, I lowered my head and drank deeply from it.
Out of the water, I froze. I’d just had a sensation like hearing a floorboard creak or a twig snap, though I hadn’t heard anything. Something had happened, though. There was danger around.
A breeze drifted through the treetops, and then there were new scents in the area. Cloth, leather, metal. Drying human sweat. Sex.
Iason.
I shuffled around in a clumsy circle, looking for any sign of him. I couldn’t see anything. He was a stealthy bastard, but all my senses had grown sharper except for my sight and the last time I’d seen him, he’d stood out like a beacon to my new eyes. So, he wasn’t here yet, but he was close. I wheeled myself around and ran around the lake, taking a heading out of the clearing at a right angle to my earlier path.
Why was I running from Iason? He’d sent me hurtling away before I knew what was happening, but now I was doing so by choice. Rationally, I didn’t know the woods and I was far from any trails. It wasn’t obvious if I could turn back to a human on my own or not. Seeking Iason out, or letting him come to me, would have made sense. Still I ran, each leaping stride carrying me further and further away.
Why?
Because it was a hunt.
Also, it was fun. The sense of urgency which impelled me forward wasn’t fear, it was excitement. Running had become an act of pure bliss. In running away from Iason, the act gained purpose and significance.
I ran for just over half an hour before I stopped at another break in the woods . My sense of time also seemed more acute. A glance around seemed to tell me how much time had passed—something about the sun and the shadows. I didn’t fully understand what I was seeing. It was instinct again. That sweeping look showed me something else, too: a column of golden light rising up into the sky, not too far off and coming closer.
Iason really did blaze like a beacon to me. That would be useful if I needed to get back to him. It would also be a little helpful in avoiding him. I couldn’t keep turning around to check his position, though. My strength was in forward motion.
He’d said the bracelet would let him find me. Did it turn me into a beacon for him? I didn’t know. It was time to put some more distance between us, though. I kicked off and started galloping away.
After many minutes, I found a broad stream and turned to follow its course. That would be predictable, but if Iason could track me mystically then that hardly mattered. If he was tracking me through physical means then it seemed that running along the streambed would make that harder. It let me run in more of a straight line without having to veer around trees or turn my head to squeeze through tight spaces.
Also, constant running was thirsty work.
I stopped to get my bearings at a wide spot in the stream. As I came to a halt, hot breath streaming from my nostrils, I heard rustling and the sound of rapid footsteps pounding on the ground. Iason had veered to intercept me when I’d changed direction, and he was almost upon me. I turned and headed for the trees, running away from the noise.
Plunging headlong through the woods was more challenging than running alongside and through the stream had been, but it was an exhilarating challenge. I felt alive. “Exultation” is a word that doesn’t get thrown around a lot, but I think it described what I was feeling. Even when prickly branches scratched my flanks, the tiny stings blurred into a pleasant tingle. There was an itch in my soul and running was scratching it.
The land had been growing hillier as I went, and eventually I came to the edge of a bluff, overlooking a river. It wasn’t very far across, but it was deep and fast-flowing. I didn’t have enough of an understanding of my body to chance swimming in it, and I had no clue how I’d been able to run across the lake before. I did a quick check for Iason’s light, but the trees were too tall and too thick. I started running downriver. The ground sloped downward in that direction, and it would take me further away from Iason.
I had only been following the river for a few minutes when I felt the same warning sensation I’d had at the lake. A moment later, there was a rustle and a whoosh, and a heavy ball of scents dropped onto my back with a whoop and a holler.
I almost leapt out of my furred skin at the impact. The jolt was more than physical. Any trace of exhaustion fell away, and when my hooves next touched the ground I shot forward at double or triple my previous speed. I was the same size, but my whole being felt enlarged.
Iason’s hands grabbed at my neck mane. His knees pressed against my sides, spurring me onward as his laughter rang out over the river valley. I could feel him leaning low over my back, but his weight didn’t press down against me. He was a part of me. He added to my strength instead of to my burden. He was my rider. I was his mount. He was my knight. I was his stag. This was the bond he’d talked about, the one that was deeper than lovers—and more lasting than hunter and prey.
When the bank flattened out a bit, he turned me towards the water with insistent pressure. My body responded to his will as naturally as it responded to my own. My hooves hit the fast-flowing water at speed, once again finding enough purchase to send me flying over its surface instead of plunging beneath it.
I didn’t stop to question it. I just ran on. Iason turned me around so that I was running uphill, against the current. We passed back up between the high bluffs. The river grew wilder and more turbulent, but its motion never posed any problem for me as my hooves never touched it for very long at a time.
We came to a place where the channel was very narrow and the tops of the high bluffs hung out over the water. In the shadow at the base of one side, there was a round opening, obviously artificial. Iason steered me into it, up an underground tributary. The beginning of the tunnel was dark, but around a bend it was lit by flickering orbs of smokeless fire that danced around by the walls. By their light, I saw a series of shapes gliding down the water towards us. On instinct, I ducked my head and jumped with my legs tucked up beneath me, just barely clearing a trio of startled elves headed for the river in kayaks.
Iason laughed louder than ever, and we continued our mad race up the waterway. The passage wound around and around, sloping more steeply upwards as we went. Eventually it leveled off, and then we reached a point where the tunnel was wider, with boardwalks on either side of the water. There were doors set into the walls in some places, and crates and barrels stacked on the walkways.
The air was getting fresher all the time, carrying the smell of flowers, trees, and grass, as well as wood smoke and cooked food. Finally I saw sunlight ahead. We bolted out beneath the open sky, boxed in on both sides by the walls of a canal. A huge paddle wheel loomed ahead. Iason pulled to the side, digging his boots into my sides and yanking upwards. I understood and flexed my legs for a powerful leap. We sailed upwards, over the sides of the canal and onto the soft grassy ground.
Iason brought me to a halt. I looked around and saw we were in a large enclosure surrounded by a roughly circular wall of wood, alive and growing with twiggy protrusions that sprouted leaves. There were tree-like towers—or maybe tower-like trees—sticking up above the wall at almost regular intervals. In the center of the enclosure was a cluster of trees ringed with platforms and connected by rope bridges.
Slender forms moved among the walkways and around the bases of the trees. There were excited voices and rapid footfalls coming from multiple directions. Iason tugged on my mane, and I reared up on my hind legs and spun around while he shouted and whooped in triumph.
I didn’t need to be told where our ride had ended. As far as our chase had ranged, the underground river must have led us back much closer to campus. This was Treehome, the residence of elves.
Moooook!
Awesome, I can’t wait to find out what consequences this will have for their relationship…
Iason is still a jerk though.
Great chapter! I really love the description here.
Apparently the bracelet allows running on water, but not walking.
Interesting! I can’t help but think of Violet and what she’d do when she sees this in Jamie’s mind….
Wow. I officially love this series more than the original MU. Maybe its because Jamie isn’t as much of a push over as Mack… eh.
MORE PLEASE!
After the bonus story with the stag bracelet, people were making comments about it giving a whole new meaning to ‘stag rider,’ but last chapter and this one make it seem pretty clear to me that these bracelets are where the term originated. I’m not surprised that their habit of seducing the comeliest humans led to long-term racial tensions.
Now, what other abilities might the bracelet have? So far, we have seen or been told that it alerts the giver to the location of the bearer, alerts the bearer to the giver while transformed, transforms the bearer, grants the ability to run on water when transformed, seems to grant heightened physical abilities while transformed(although that could just be the form itself) which are further enhanced while mounted by the giver, and offers some protection from ranged attacks. It is also bound to the bearer until death, which seems like less of a bad deal if Jamie can control the powers too. It’s increases the creepy factor if all of this power is only under Iason’s control, and further increases if it is the reason Jamie has been so readily accepting Iason despite all that Iason has done. These bracelets were created, after all, by elves out to seduce humans who weren’t going to be around long enough for a proper relationship.
Did the stag form have the earrings? This magic apparently doesn’t convert clothes, but a staple of fantasy shapeshifting allows it to absorb some equipment into the form that reappears when the person shifts back. Another common ability has the person shapeshift heal to some degree during the process, which makes me wonder if this will help with Jamie’s condition of ‘rough usage.’ The bonus story shows that it doesn’t heal a person completely, and a large wound on a stag is reatively bigger on a human, but this doesn’t mean it offers no healing.
Lastly, does a woman wearing one of these bracelets turn into a doe?
Iason Deer-Stalker
Lives up to his epithet—
And Long Rider, too?
Jamie thinks Iason
Treats him like a whore—does that
Make Iason his “john”?
Once Human again,
Jamie needs to write Iason
A Deer-john letter…
Fu. Cking. Hell.
Pleasant ^-^
Iason is astonishingly creepy. I sure hope this “bond” is good for Jamie too. Considering how secretive (read: downright hostile) the elves are about concealing the location of Treehome, poor Jamie may get the flack for Iason’s showing off once again.
Anyone else think of Ashitaka riding Yakul in “Princess Mononoke” while reading this?
What a ride! Just read the last two chapters and *couldn’t* stop to read the comments after “Stag Party.” MOOK!
@M-F
Not really, but now that you mention it…
Odd chapter really, can’t really say what it is I don’t like about it… maybe just Iason. Also unlike others I have to say that I prefer MU classic, MoarMU is still entertaining, but honestly I personally feel that the MoarMU chapters WITHOUT Iason are better. Honestly I didn’t realize I was that biased.
Yeah….
The only thing that kept this from being absolutely awesome was the creepy-stalker way Iason slipped that bracelet to Jamie without telling him first.
But wow. That’s friggin’ awesome stuff, leaving aside the lack of consent.
I have to second what’s already been said. This was a neat sequence, but I’d feel better if Jamie had some say in it all.
MOOK!
…wow…
Ya, what they said.. wow…
Oh, and Z, that pun was hilarious!
OOK!
@m-f yeah i didnt hink of it but now that you mentioned it yeah it does have similarities.
personally i thinki thye running on water is like the lizards can. you got to be going fast enough so that your barely hitting the water so that you dont break its tension.
about the jewelry, my belief is that jamie in deer form is still wearing them.
wonderful story but personally i could do without iason, im hoping this leads to a fight between with the 2 of them causing more tension. but what is story without conflict?
Zath is punderful
When writing treble-haiku
It’s just amazing!
I really dislike the dynamic between Jamie and Iason. Jamie hit the nail on the head several chapters back… he’s a little freshman girl head over heels and in way over his head with the popular senior guy.
It’s funny. I dislike Iason, and I dislike Amaranth. I love AE’s protagonists… I just dislike her significant others.
@ erewhon 14:
“The only thing that kept this from being absolutely awesome was the creepy-stalker way Iason slipped that bracelet to Jamie without telling him first.”
That, and all the symbolism I see in this act. Jamie IS the prey. He WILL be hunted down, no matter what he may want. Iason holds dominance always. This relationship will never be equal. If Jamie ceases to be a good hunt, Iason will move on to bigger and better game. Etc, etc. Maybe I read too much into it, but given Iason’s past behavior and his behavior here, this will not only not end well. This well end so badly that people on the other side of the world will sense it.
I wonder how well-known the bracelet is. If the elves don’t know about it, then Jamie could just stay in his new form and possibly be safe. Who would attack an over-sized stag wearing multiple earrings (in an elven design) with an assassin for his rider?
Well, that was a fun ride. Iamie the stag certainly performs well as a mount. And he’s got some sort of enhanced surface tension or viscosity thing that allows him to run on water.
Iason ought to keep an eye on the clock – they haven’t eaten yet and Jamie has Lore in the afternoon.
Two more thoughts:
The elf women at Treehome will surely know how long a stag’s tongue is, and what it can do. Wonder how many will offer to give Iamie the stag a rubdown.
The elven side of Jamie’s family now know that he has a very expensive elven spread, courtesy of his boyfriend. They would surely recognise the bracelet if they saw it. No idea how they would react – they know these things happen, but to their own flesh and blood?
Iason: You never told me that Gildas Goldenblade, finest and most prolific duellist in the whole of elfdom, was your great-great-great-uncle!
Jamie: You never asked.
@6 Chrinos:
Dunno about the physical attributes, but they’re not wildly enhanced. Apart from his perceptions of Iason and the passage of time, his senses seem normal for a deer.
I think he would be able to feel his earrings if they were physically extant on his cervine form. Deer flick their ears back and forth almost constantly, scanning the environment for sounds. He would surely feel the hoops swinging.
@7 Zathras IX:
Ha! (Chuckle)
@10 Laughing Collie:
Jamie is a stag. A mount. Iason, his rider, rode him to Treehome. Nobody is going to blame Jamie for anything. From what Professor Bryony said, guests are allowed at Treehome, it’s just trespassers who are unwelcome (and shot at). The maverick Iason has made an entrance in style, having ridden his fine new stag/boyfriend up the canal, no less, and now everyone wants to have a look.
I’d guess that Iason will formally introduce Jamie to the residents of Treehome, and formally warn them to keep their meathooks off his prime venison. So Jamie will probably get added to Treehome’s guest list at the very least.
@11 M-F:
Of course. Great animated film.
wonderful chapter. The more I read this story the more I hate Iason. I really want him to get what’s coming to him and soon
Ok. I know that Iason was waaaay too hasty in bonding Jamie with him, especially without Jamie’s consent– though Jamie is quite a go-with-the-flow type– but… damn.
Alexandra Erin, that was beautiful.
Also, Jamie’s tattoo is soulbound. I wonder if that means it shows up on his back– his haunch?– in stag form? And what that would look like?
@26 ayla: Although I think the idea you’re presenting for Jamie’s tattoo would be neat, I suspect that as a tattoo, the only way you’d see it is to shave him.
I like how you went with this AE. ^_^ I wonder if his perspective on the transformation will change when he turns back to a human. He seems okay with it now, but he has to /stop/ to think like Jamie. It looks like the stag instincts take over if he doesn’t concentrate. So, while I’m not saying that Jamie’s been brainwashed or such, I wonder if he’ll have the same perspective. ^_^
It does make me wonder about Iason’s past that he has these things. Yes, elves seem to acquire things over time, but he’s still young, even for an elf, and it makes me curious.
Good chapter, can’t wait for the next (as always).
ARF, MOOK, whatever
It is possible the Jamie-Iason dynamic is moving toward a painful resolution at the next dance. Most readers chose to blame the other directed anger on Pitchy, but…
AE– That was an AWESOME chapter!! I know ToMU and MOAR MU tend more toward drama than action/adventure, and the drama can be really interesting, but I like the action scenes the best. I guess that’s my gamer background talking…
As for the Iason haters…
Aww, don’t hate on Iason too much. Sure he’s conceited, sexist and immature, but something we need to remember is he’s NOT human, and is actually more like 11 or 12 in elf years. I think Jamie just had a great time, and sure their relationship has a clear dominant, but there are so many, happy, healthy relationships that actually do too. I just think he gets a bad rap. His immaturity can be annoying sometimes, but I think he’s one of AE’s most interesting characters.
man! now I’m wishing for a bouns story about Jamie’s elvish side of the family. although I think it would be interesting to see how his elvish mom and human dad got together – I guess human guys giving it in the ass isn’t that big a deal though (I’ve had no experience with that). isn’t Jamie’s mom half-elf though? so then maybe a story about his grandparents… so many choices! also – do bonus stories only happen on the main MU story? is that why the Violet story went there?
@29 Ananta Iason is the same age as Dee. Surface elves are apparently not expected to show maturity this young, but only as a cultural thing, not because of actual immaturity, as opposed to the fact that the human brain, especially including the areas responsible for making rational decisions and overriding impulses, don’t really finish maturing until around 25.
Ananta @29
I suspect you’ll find most of those “happy, healthy relationships” included mutual negotiation. Iason has not done anything like that, and in fact his behavior mirrors very closely the behavior of the classic abusive husband/boyfriend. That’s what I find disturbing — that, and his serious mental imbalance concerning females. I can’t help but wonder what past female figure abused him so that he has to work so hard, so constantly, to always prove his (theoretical) manhood.
after 36hrs straight plus a few extra hours between coma/sleep, i have gone through MU, MoarMU and Tribe for the first time. later, i will go over it all again at a more leisurely pace. then, i will sip and savour each morsel of words delicately – as soon as this feeding frenzy of mine abates… but for now, i am ravenous for more…
iason is a necessary prick. while jamie is not half the pushover mack is, he is more susceptible to bodily harm. i like him, but he is perhaps a little too ‘grey’. iason is pushing buttons jamie probably wasn’t aware he had. hopefully pushing jamie to reconcile his human and elvish halves. up until now, he has liked to keep them separate, compartmentalizing what is acceptable in one surrounding and never the twain shall meet…
if i had to meet iason in real life, i would despise and avoid him most likely. if he had to ‘disappear’ from MU, without being replaced by a worthy antagonist, a lot of energy would disappear. can’t wait to see where AE takes this relationship from here…
you have turned me into an instant fan, AE! i’ll be posting links to everyone i know (talk is cheap, i know
) keep up this marvelous work!!
It is somehow only now that I look forward to Iason’s death. With much writhing and exploding intestines.
Elves do have those, do they not?
That sounds like a good time.
In the same way that one’s first hit of cocaine sounds like a good time.
You may to the greenwood go
And hunt the red deer and the roe
But leave you be the milk white hind
For she is of the woman-kind.
– from a traditional Scottish ballad
@NS – have you read AE’s other works? Star Harbor Nights, Void Dogs, and The 3 Seas.