Stormchaser
Disclaimers – You can find them in Part 1.
Feedback – You can contact me at Shadowlander1@coastal.net.
The name Dysis is from Greek mythology. She was one of
the Horae, the goddesses of the seasons. They were also the collective
personification of justice. And no I haven't the faintest idea why she showed
up in this.
___________________________________________________________________
Buffy had the wind knocked out of her as she slammed
into the cat, sending them both crashing to the ground. Scrambling to her feet,
she watched Angelus's retreating form with a curse, still trying to regain her
breath, only to be tackled by a rather frisky mountain lion.
The cat purred happily, the missed kill momentarily
forgotten, as it pounced on its life-mate.
Granted to would have been even better if they had gotten to kill the
leech together, shared its stolen blood, but no matter there were always other
hunts they could go on. Right now there were other things they could be doing
together, things that didn't include unwanted interruptions by the hated
leeches. With that thought, Willow began to change shapes once more, returning
to her human form.
Buffy looked up into the furry face looming over her
in disbelief as it shifted before her very eyes becoming human within seconds.
One minute she was staring into the eyes of a wild cat, its emerald eyes
shining, the next those same eyes were more human, filled with mischief and yet
still held a bit of that wildness.
“I'm keeping you this time.” Willow said softly her
eyes laughing at Buffy's expression. “I caught you twice now.” She purred
happily, that little voice belonging to her cat warming to the idea. This was her life-mate; it was only proper
that they should be together, to hunt and prowl the night for the hated leeches
that roamed the town.
The Slayer regarded her captor for a brief moment,
wondering at the rather odd comments before her own little voice spoke up. ‘Ah
to hell with it,’ she thought before raising her head and capturing Willow's
lips with her own.
“Wouldn't you two be more comfortable in a bed?” An
amused voice question brought the two back to reality.
“Huh?” Buffy questioned tearing her lips away from
Willow's to look to her left as the redhead issued a warning hiss at the
interloper. Leaning against a tree was a young woman dressed in dark clothing
looking rather bored with the world. Or at least with the early morning
graveyard
activities of Sunnydale anyway.
“I love you too yarn-chaser!” the mysterious woman
laughed smirking at the two. “Now introduce me to your funny smelling friend.”
“Again with the funny smelling remarks,” Buffy
grumbled climbing to her feet. “Just how do I smell funny? And what is it with
all the smelling anyway?”
“Full of questions isn't she?” The woman commented
more to herself then to either of the tow teenagers.
“What are you doing here, Dysis?” Willow questioned
cocking her head to one side in confusion.
This was the last place she had expected to see the older woman in more
ways then one.
“What? I can't come and see my favourite
Brahan?" The woman asked stepping away from the tree.
“Not if it means coming anywhere near California,”
Willow retorted crossing her arms over her chest.
“So I don't like earthquakes,” came the playful
reply.
“Excuse me!” Buffy spoke up interrupting whatever
Willow was about to say. Once getting the strange woman's attention, “Who are
you?” The Slayer questioned determined to get to the bottom of the mystery that
seemed to center itself on Willow. She hated being out of control of a
situation and lately that was a feeling she'd had to become used to. It was an
unwanted feeling, one that had first reared its ugly head shortly after Angelus
had began his latest offensive against her. And she wasn't even going into
those dreams she's been having. It was beginning to wear on the young Slayer,
causing her to make stupid mistakes. So far she'd been lucky and none of her
enemies had been able to capitalize on them. She knew it, Giles knew it, and,
hell, Angelus probably knew it! No, it was time to stop making mistakes and
start thinking smart and she was going to start by finding out a lot more about
Willow and her unique abilities.
“Forgive me, I am Dysis.” The woman said with a
formal bow. “A friend. I think you've already met Willow here.” She added with
a playful smirk, shooting the redhead a chock grin at Willow's low growl.
“She's not usually like this you know. You seem to bring out the beast in her,”
she
continued conversationally, winking at Buffy over
Willow's outraged expression.
“Don't you have some man to mug or something?”
Willow questioned with a growl taking a menacing step toward the other woman.
“No,” Dysis deadpanned with an arched eyebrow. “But
if you like I can go and kidnap a few and sell them to my sisters. They always
like new blood.”
“Huh??”
“Don't encourage her, please,” Willow cut in
admitting defeat. Sometimes she really didn't understand Dysis, her thoughts
were just so odd even to her. “Why are you here?” She asked again, running a hand through her shoulder length hair.
“You two need my help,” Dysis replied seriously.
“Come on, I'll feed the two of you and answer all your questions,” she offered,
briefly wondering how the two would take to what she had to say. It was bad enough that Buffy had the whole
Slayer destiny thrust upon her without her consent. Now she was about to find
out that everything she thought she knew about herself
was wrong and the truth was something far more
deadly.
‘You own me big time Ares.’ Dysis thought as she led
the two out of the graveyard and into their future.
Buffy slid into the booth in the tiny, out of the way
diner, and tried to focus her thoughts on the woman seated across from her.
Although she was having a hard time doing so with Willow seated next to her,
who seemed quite content to continue her low purring.
Granted it was low enough that normal people
couldn't hear it, but for the Slayer is was very distracting.
“She's not aware of the purring” Dysis said with
amusement, clearly enjoying the Slayer's discomfort. It wasn't often she got to
deal with mortals, but a promise was a promise, and she was finding the young
blonde mortal to be very interesting.
“Huh?” Came the reply from her two companions,
bringing a smile to Dysis's face.
“You're purring Willow, your young friend is finding
it rather distracting.” She replied with a devious grin.
“Huh, I am?” Willow said in disbelief, turning her
senses inward to take quick stock of herself.
Sure enough she was purring, her cat very pleased with having its
life-mate sitting so close as they were about to eat.
“Sorry” Willow said sheepishly, consciously stopping
herself from purring. ‘I can’t believe I was doing that!’
“You have to forgive Willow, she's usually not like
this,......until, oh, around the full moon. But your rather unique scent is
throwing things off for her.” Dysis explained her eyes shining with
laughter.
These two were proving to be truly entertaining to
say the least, she just may give some hard thought to moving to Sunnydale so
she can continue to be amused by them in the future.
“Again with the scent thing.” Buffy grumbled leaning back on the padded
bench, settling in for the time being. Strangely, now that Willow had stopped
purring, she found herself missing the low steady rumble that had been
distracting her just moments ago.
“What is it with you people that you go around
smelling people?” She questioned.
“It’s not what you are thinking, my young friend.”
Dysis assured her with a calm smile. “I’m not sensing you like Willow does. You
have to understand, for a Brahan, their senses are very important.
It literally governs how they perceive and react to
the world around them. It’s a very delicate
balance that is not often thrown off, but when it
does the Brahan experiences difficulty in controlling themselves. Like what
Willow is going through right now, you're scent is rather intoxicating to her.
Which in turn is throwing off her self-control.”
“So you're saying that I’m...” Buffy began.
“Pretty much catnip to Willow,” Dysis finished with
a straight face.
“I am??” Buffy gasped in disbelief, absently wondering
why she took such great pleasure in hearing the words. Maybe she had been hit
on the head one too many times, because she was pretty sure that she should be
grossed out right about now.
“Just shoot me now,” Willow groaned dropping her
head to the tabletop, her face nearly as red as her hair. She couldn't believe that they were having
this conversation in the first place.
‘Leave it to Dysis to pick the most embarrassing
topic to talk about,’ she ruefully thought, wondering if it was truly possible
to die from embarrassment.
“Okay, so am I going to get this type of reaction
from all of these Brahan guys?” Buffy asked carefully, she wasn't sure if she
could tolerate having a bunch of people purring every time she walked into the
room.
“Not if they want to keep their hearts!” Willow
growled looking up from the tabletop, she had found thus far to be very
fascinating, her eyes flashing. No one was going to be purring to her
life-mate, but her! It just wasn’t going to be happening, not while she was
around.
“Did I mention that Brahan tend to be possessive
toward their loved ones?” Dysis asked innocently, not at all concerned about
Willow's outburst.
“Aha,” Buffy replied trying to ignore that annoying
little voice that seemed rather pleased that someone would be willing to rip
out the hearts of anyone who would purr at her. ‘Only on the Hellmouth,’ she
thought to herself, wondering if it could get any weirder. Only to realize that
she just jinxed herself with that thought, this was Sunnydale after all, the
place was primed to make her life a living hell.
“Don't worry, I'm sure that you two could come up
with a suitable solution to the problem at hand,” Dysis said soberly. “You are
going to have to explain things to her.” She stressed to Willow who ran a hand
through her hair in defeat.
Dysis was right; she would have to explain the
bonding ceremony to Buffy sometime in the near future, if nothing else but to
avoid any unpleasant situations that may come up. Nothing ruined a perfectly
good get together than having to rip someone's heart out in full view of
everyone.
And Willow was certain that that would be the
outcome if anyone from her clan so much as blinked funny at her life-mate.
“Explain what?” Buffy asked, noting that Willow had
begun to growl lowly.
“I’ll tell you later, in private.” Willow offered, her eyes begging the blonde
sitting beside her to please just trust her. She really didn’t want to explain
the ins and outs of a Brahan mating ritual right now, not with her cat offering
helpful details on some of the more exotic points of
the whole thing.
“As for your scent,” Dysis spoke, breaking the
staring contest the two had seemed to have fallen into. ‘They just had to discover
their hormones now!,’ she silently cursed with a shake of her head.
‘I’m getting too old for this.’