TRP: Bloodgrut and Raef (Ash Dream)

[Day:  200.  Setting:
Late at night after the reception.
Raef and Griffin's room.]

The world spun and blurred, the sound of clothing rustling
and music lifting in the air.  Distantly
he heard laughter, but that also faded away until there was him and his dance
partner.  At first Aesar was smiling down
at him, the elf whispering I saw you with that teasing smile he always wore,
then he was staring up at Azrael.  Azrael
also smiled, fangs flashing, in the candlelight that served as the only
lighting in the small cabin.

Finally it was him and Griffin.  Tonight the stars and moon lit the dance, the
silver light mingling with the oranges of the torches and candles.

The scene dissipated until he was walking down a familiar
path.   He walked this path every night,
but tonight he knew it wouldn't end in flames.
He fiddled lazily with a dagger, chipping away at a piece of wood.  He didn't know what he was carving; he was
never very good at it, but it occupied his time.

**Plan Coyote**

The woods around Raef shifted, a little, in the dream. The
trees grew taller and darker, more sturdy, and suddenly there was the smell of
iron and blood in the air.

Ahead of him, the trees twisted, their roots bursting out of
the soil and weaving together to create a throne. There were bones in the soil,
as if people had been buried there, and the roots twined through the bones,
using them to reinforce the chair. Roots slithered through the eye sockets
mouths of the skulls, some human, some elven, some small like halflings or
children.

A massive seven-foot orc stepped out, then rested on the
throne. His beard was long and neatly braided, ornamented with pieces of bone.
His body was thick with scars and muscle. One of his eyes was scarred over and
empty, but he wore no eyepatch, almost as if the missing eye were a badge of
honor. He pulled a pipe out of his pocket and began to smoke it, silently
watching Raef.

**Mink**

Raef reached down automatically for the sword he wore, but
his hand met air; he never had it in his dreams.  He looked over the trees and slowed his walk
until he was stopping before the twisted horror of a throne.

His heart that had begun to race felt as if it had seized
when the large orc rounded the throne to rest upon on it.  His grip on the hilt of his dagger grew
painfully tight.

"You interrupted something," Raef managed to say
as the air rushed back into his lungs.
He tucked the dagger away in it's sheath, his hand hovering close to
it.   It was a dream still - it had to be
- but he didn't know how this worked.
But he did know the orc before him, and he did know he couldn't win.

**Plan Coyote**

“Did I, now,” Bloodgrut the Smartest said.

His voice was surprisingly calm and refined for such a large
orc. It was a deep and warm drawl, as if Booodgrut were a grandfather, come to
have a patient discussion with a wayward grandchild.

**Mink**

Raef's jaw tensed; Bloodgrut sounded painfully like Griffin.
"Yes."

**Plan Coyote**

Bloodgrut nodded slowly. “Forgive my, uh, transgression,
what with me not attendin’ your fine weddin’. I figured my presence would only
upset you. Sit, boy, sit.”

Bloodgrut gestured, and another chair formed.

**Mink**

Raef glanced to the chair before he looked back to
Bloodgrut, disregarding the order.  This
wasn't some fucking family discussion.
"What do you want?"

**Plan Coyote**

“Now, now. Raef Chastian. We are family now,” Bloodgrut said
congenially. “Now perhaps things are a bit different from where you’re from,
but around here, folks are raised right, and we are polite to family. Have a
seat so we can talk like gentlemen.”

**Mink**

Raef took a step towards the chair, but he leaned back of
it. "I think I'm behaving quite well all things considered, thank
you," he said with a bare sort of smile. "What you want,
Bloodgrut?"

**Plan Coyote**

“I wanna have a nice conversation with my son-in-law,”
Bloodgrut said pleasantly. “Now... make no mistake, I won’t hide the fact I
don’t approve of your, uh, union. But the fact is, my Imesh has chosen you, and
I suppose I must respect the mistakes my children make. Now, I do have some,
uh, facts to offer you. Things for your consideration, I suppose, if you wanna
hear ‘em.”

**Mink**

Raef watched Bloodgrut for a silent moment.  A conversation was the last thing he wanted
with Bloodgrut, but he fucking doubted he was going to be left alone until it
happened.

"I suppose a few minutes won't hurt," he finally
agreed, stepping around the chair and sitting down. "What do you want to
'offer'?"

**Plan Coyote**

“I just wanted to pass on my condolences. Now, I heard about
what happened to your husband, that Azrael, or Az, I suppose.” Bloodgrut rose
to his feet, and he shifted closer, hand reaching to touch the necklace around
Raef’s throat.

**Mink**

Raef held up a hand to stop Bloodgrut from touching the
necklace.  "Your manners are
slipping." His voice was tense, his stomach knotted at the mention of
Azrael. "You'll have to excuse me if I don't take your  condolences."

**Plan Coyote**

“Now, now. Don’t be petty. Let’s let bygones be bygones.
We’re family now. It was a tragic disagreement, and I won, and it was nobody’s
fault.”

**Mink**

Raef quirked an eyebrow, jaw tightening. "We have very
different ideas on winning if you think you won."

**Plan Coyote**

“Well,” Bloodgrut said, as if he were being generous by
considering Raef’s point of view. “Perhaps. Perhaps. Now, how long have you and
Imesh known each other now?”

**Mink**

"Long enough." Irritation licked at Raef's
stomach, but it was hard to pinpoint why.
Maybe it was mentioning Azrael, or maybe it was speaking of Griffin, or
maybe it was Bloodgrut's fucking condescending tone. "Why?  Did you have a sudden urge to make sure he
was fine?"

**Plan Coyote**

“Now that’s a low blow. You’re in polite company, boy. Of
course I love all my children, even the wayward one. But it does pain my heart
what’s become of him,” Bloodgrut said. “Now I have a proposition for you, a
chance to do Imesh some good. A chance for you to better his life. But see, I’m
worried you won’t take it, on account of you being a selfish elf and all.” He
sat down in his throne again.

**Mink**

"I'm glad you're aware of who you're talking
with." Raef gave a faint smile. "Maybe I'll consider your
proposition." He shrugged. "Tell me what it is and we'll see."

**Plan Coyote**

The chair started to unravel. The roots selected a skull,
and a ribcage, and various bones, fitting them together into a skeleton.

An orc skeleton.

“Now, how long were you with your Azrael?” Bloodgrut asked.

**Mink**

Raef's mouth began to dry. "Five years." He was
guarded as he spoke and he made himself look away from the skeleton.

**Plan Coyote**

“Now that’s a pity. Five years. That’s a whole lot longer
than a few months, huh.” Bloodgrut nodded slowly. “Now, I don’t agree with your
lifestyle choices, boy, but I can respect them. Let me make you a proposition.
You want an orc to fuck— any orc, apparently. How about...”

Bloodgrut touched Azrael’s skeleton, and flesh crawled
across it, rapidly reforming into a body, Azrael’s body.

“How about a trade?” Bloodgrut said. “I dug up the pieces of
his skeleton. Now, if you like... we’ve got old magic, Raef. Druid magic. I
could bring him back. So that’s my proposition for you. Leave my son and lead
Imesh to me, and I will give you back your Azrael.”

**Mink**

The world dropped away as the flesh crept up and Azrael was
there, standing there.  Still dead, still
not breathing, but he was there and darkness flickered briefly at the corners
of his vision before he swallowed and reminded himself to breathe.

His fingers itched to reach out, to stroke down Azrael's arms
and squeeze his hands.   He could feel
hot tears welling up as he tore his gaze away.

Raef wanted to hold his husband tight once more, wanted to
be with him as they had been, but...but he had another husband, a husband
sleeping beside him.  A husband that
smiled still, and laughed still.

"No," he answered with a shaky breath. "I'm
not...I'm not going to give Griffin back to you."

**Plan Coyote**

“But you’re not going to save Azrael back from me, hm. You
elves. We’re like ants to you.” Bloodgrut chuckled.

**Mink**

"Azrael's dead.
You can't save someone from that." Raef's gaze flattened, but he
felt nauseated.

Plan Coyote03/06/2019

“You can’t. But I can. Eh, that’s a pity,” Bloodgrut said.
“Maybe I’ll bring him and just burn him again, huh?” He continued smoking his
pipe.

**Mink**

Raef stiffened, his hand clenching on his pants near his
dagger, but it drifted from his mind. "You wouldn't."

**Plan Coyote**

“Well, it’s a shame, is all,” Bloodgrut said. “Now I’m
inclined to just let bygones be bygones and let us all be friends, but your are
insistent on bein’ difficult, I see. What a shame, what a shame. See, I’d
prefer you just left my misguided son be, and I’ll give you back your proper
god-given husband. And then Imesh gets to come home and be with his proper
blood family. With his brothers. We miss him, is all. Don’t you want Imesh to
be happy?”

**Mink**

...burn him again... The thought danced back and forth, but
Raef made himself focus....because...because if he didn't...

He swallowed.

"He will never be happy if he went back to you."

**Plan Coyote**

“Maybe. But you ought to give him that choice,” Bloodgrut
said pleasantly. “Maybe consider— you’re sorta takin’ advantage of him with
your age and experience, don’t you think?”

**Mink**

Raef chuckled coldly. "You're really stretching here,
Bloodgrut.  I think you know he doesn't
want to go back, and you don't have a way to make him want to."

**Plan Coyote**

“I don’t need you to make him come back, Raef. I got a
solution. He doesn’t wanna be the Scion.... he doesn’t have to be.” Bloodgrut
spread his hands. “All he’s gotta do is come see me. And we’ll talk.”

**Mink**

"Uh-huh." Raef forced himself to relax in the
chair. "From what I heard your solution is to make a new one and I just
can't have that." He rolled his shoulders.

**Plan Coyote**

Bloodgrut cocked his head, eyes narrowing. “Huh. Make a new
one?”

**Mink**

Raef arched an eyebrow. "You really are a poor
father."

**Plan Coyote**

“Now, Mr. Chastian. Do you have children? No?”

**Mink**

"You are also rather poor at intelligence
gathering."

**Plan Coyote**

“Petty comments don’t become you. Now, I thought you were
supposed to be all refined. C’mon, boy. Replace the Scion? How d’you figure?”
Bloodgrut kept smiling.

**Mink**

"I'm sorry to've given you that impression." He
tapped the hilt of his dagger with the tip of a nail. "All I can tell you
is what I hear.  I don't play with
magic."

**Plan Coyote**

“And what have you heard? I’m not hear to fight, Mr.
Chastain. I only want to come up with a... mutually satisfying solution.”

**Mink**

"This is where I tell you to 'fuck off',
Bloodgrut." Raef smiled.
"There's no 'mutually satisfying solution'." He leaned forward
and rested his arms on his thighs. "You have nothing I want and you can't
have Griffin."

**Plan Coyote**

Bloodgrut sighed. He kicked back, and he puffed on his pipe.

The Azrael doll shuddered, suddenly. It’s feet began to
smoke, and it coughed, and when it coughed, black smoke rolled out of its mouth.
The air began to reek like burnt hair and flesh. Bloodgrut watched impassively.

**Mink**

When Bloodgrut leaned back, Raef began to stand; he was
done.  He was done with the threats and
the demands.  He just wanted to -

- smoke billowed and poured from Az...from his - the - body.

The chair clattered backwards as Raef automatically surged
forward, reaching out to grasp Azrael.
The world danced again, growing larger before growing smaller.
...please...no...

**Plan Coyote**

Azrael reached for him at the same moment. His eyes flared
wide, and he grabbed ahold of Raef.

“Raef,” he said. He spit and coughed around the smoke. The
flesh on his fingers began to burn. “Raef, make it stop. Help me.”

**Mink**

Azrael's touch burned against him and Raef wanted to recoil,
to escape the suffocating heat and smoke, but he ran his hands over Azrael's
face and through his smoking hair.

"I...I'm sorry..." he whispered, voice choked with
tears.  He couldn't do anything.  Even here, in his own dream. "...please...I'm
sor-ry...I can't..."

**Plan Coyote**

Azrael clutched Raef tighter— but his body began to crumble
to ash. “But you can,” he said. “You can come get me— why did you leave me? Why
don’t you want me anymore? I don’t understand. Raef, please, please, don’t
leave me, Gruumsh has me, I don’t want to be here—“

**Mink**

Raef scrambled to keeo Azrael together, the ash soft and
puffing up into the air.  he could only
repeat his apologies before Azrael was gone again and he dropped into the pile,
shielding his face as he wept.  He didn't
know what to do...what he could do...

It felt as if everything had shattered around him and he was
lost again after finally finding that one person who dragged him out of the
dark, brimming sea.

**Plan Coyote**

Bloodgrut braced himself on his knees and heaved himself up.
He tapped out the remaining ashes of his pipe.

“Well, think it over, now,” Bloodgrut said. “Don’t make any
hasty decisions.”

**Mink**

"...just leave me alone..." Raef whispered as he
wiped at his eyes, smearing soot over his face.
He wanted that anger back, wanted to feel the hot flames of hate, but
all he felt was hollow as he stared at the pile in front of with watery eyes.

**Plan Coyote**

Bloodgrut rested a heavy hand on Raef’s shoulder.

“It’s okay,” he said, sliding his hand down to pat Raef on
the back. “I know you’ll do the right thing.”

And then the world crumbled into ash, and the dream ended.

**Mink**

[End]

[Title: Ash Dream Summary: Bloodgrut interrupts Raef's dream
and offers him a deal: turn over Griffin and get Azrael back.]