Work Text:
There were stories passed around fires in Cloud's village of a massive 'beast' prowling at the edge and terrorizing anyone who got too close to the surrounding forrest. He'd heard them for years and thought they were just stories to keep the younger children from wandering off too far. When he was old enough he'd started sneaking off, seeing just how far he could go before his nerve finally failed him and he was forced to turn tail and run. He'd been building himself and his supplies up for years, and now he felt confident enough to go into the woods and see this 'beast' for himself.
He wandered a good five miles into the forest before deciding to set up camp that night. He'd gotten a late start and didn't get anywhere near as far out as he'd liked, but it was a start. A small campfire was going in front of him to keep him warm and cook the meat he had skewered on some thick branches he'd collected. He had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders to try and help stave off the cold. And he still didn't believe there really was a beast in these woods.
Cloud's attention was entirely on the fire in front of him, which is why he missed the first twig snap about fifty yards to his right. The next one got his attention though,and immediately his head whipped around to where the sound had come from. His massive sword lay propped against the fallen tree trunk he now sat on, the hilt just inches from his hand. Slowly he reached out for it, and once he felt the thick leather against his palm he sighed and tensed his muscles up in preparation for a fight. The woods around him fell silent again, and Cloud noticed that the wildlife had fallen deathly silent around him. Even at night the bugs never shut up, so this was worrying. Very worrying.
Another snap, this time in front of him, and his attention turned to the new noise. It seemed to have been made by the seam thing that broke the first one. Cloud figured it was a feral wolf or something but knew that didn't mean he could stay relaxed. Whatever it was had likely decided that Cloud was going to be dinner, because it was circling the small clearing he'd turned into a camp like he was prey. He followed the sound as it moved in tense silence before he finally heard leaves rustle in the opposite direction. Whatever it was had decided Cloud wasn't worth it and seemed to be leaving. He sat there for almost an hour before finally letting his sword go and turning his attention back to his food.
Which, he discovered, had burnt to a crisp while he was distracted.
“...Godsdammit,” he muttered and pulled the meat off. He figured if nothing else he could leave it for when he left and maybe some other animal would come by and eat it. He set the sticks off to the side and curled up in his tent to sleep for the night. It was a fitful sleep; when he woke up his head was pounding and his eyes were sore. He'd woken up on and off all night for whatever reason. When he crawled out of his tent he discovered the reason why. There were massive footprints that circled his tent no less than a foot from it. He'd never seen prints like these before. Whatever it was, Cloud decided he didn't want to tango with it.
This pattern continued for the next week. He'd find a place to camp for the night, get settled down with his food, and something would start crawling around nearby for an entire hour. Whatever it was only seemed to show up when he was cooking. He learned how to keep an ear out for the creature while still being attentive to his food, which kept him from burning anything. Four days in he didn't even acknowledge the sounds coming from the forest and continued with his routine. Every morning when he awoke he would find fresh tracks near his tent.
Eventually Cloud decided that he had to trap this thing and find out what it was. Judging from the sounds he heard at night and the prints he found every morning he came to the conclusion that this thing was huge. Meaning he had to set a huge trap for this thing. It took him another two days just to build the thing, and then another two days to find where he wanted to put it. As he was setting it up he realized he wouldn't be able to go anywhere. He'd be stuck in this camp for a few days while he waited. But that was fine with him. It gave him a chance to just relax. He'd picked a spot near a river so he could get water whenever he needed it and even take baths to stay clean.
On the third day he headed down to the river for just this reason. His clothes were waiting on the side of the river as he bathed along with his sword on the off chance he needed it. He was chest deep in water when he heard the first growl. His muscles tensed and he whipped around to try and find whatever was making the sounds. A few seconds letter there came another growl, this one much closer. Cloud immediately turned and began wading back over to the bank to grab his sword and clothes. When his feet touched the edge of the bank he froze.
Standing just at the edge of the woods was a massive...thing...covered in black fur. Massive horns curled up on the thing's head, torn red fabric around its waist, and nasty claws that made Cloud more than a little wary of fighting it. It stood on two thick legs and towered over him easily. His entire body was tensed, ready to jump to the side if he had to. Neither cloud nor the beast moved for a long, long time. The creature was the first to move, turning and calmly walking back off into the woods and disappearing into the shadows. Cloud wasn't sure what the hell he just saw, or what the hell that thing was, but he knew he wasn't keen on getting close to it. A realization came to him that made his blood run cold.
That thing was probably what had been follwing Cloud for a week. It was probably what had been circling around his tent and probably what had been keeping him so on edge. His trap was still set up near his camp, but a feeling at the back of his mind told him this thing wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for it. So he dried himself off, grabbed his clothes and sword, and headed back to his camp. To his surprise his trap was actually lying in ruins beside his tent. He knew when he'd been outsmarted and decided against rebuilding the trap for the thing.
Later that night he heard the sounds again, but they seemed to be more confident. In fact he was almost sure he could see the thing's shadow prowling just behind the treeline. This time Cloud refused to sleep, instead wanting to stay up and see if he could get the beast to show itself again. To his surprise, it worked. Everything had fallen silent, and for a good while Cloud thought the thing had left, before it finally walked into the clearing.
Only it wasn't the beast. Instead Cloud found himself face to face with a handsome man with long black hair and bright red eyes. His first thought was 'vampire,' and Cloud actually regretted not listening when someone warned him about that. His red cloak was tattered and pulled tight around his shoulders.
“Oh. I wasn't expecting to see someone else in these woods,” Cloud said and frowned. “It's dangerous though. There's something prowling around, and I don't know what it is.”
“I think I'll be fine,” the stranger said, refusing to come any closer and instead eyeing Cloud from across the fire. “Thank you though.”
“Why don't you come sit?” Cloud suggests, moving over a little on his log to make room. “You look like you're probably cold.”
“I'm not,” the visitor said, shaking his head slowly. “Why are you in these woods?” The question caught Cloud by surprise, and it took him a few moments of thought to collect his thoughts.
“...Oh. Well there's stories in my village of a beast that prowls the woods. I decided to come out here and look for it. Prove they're all wrong,” he explained, poking the embers of the fire to keep it alive. “Starting to think they were true, though. Something weird has been following me. It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. You sure you're not cold? There's room over here by the fire,” he says.
“I'm sure I'm fine,” the stranger said. “But you should go back to your village. The stories are true, and these woods aren't safe for humans.”
“If that is the case, then why are you here?” Cloud asked, eyeing the stranger now with concern and maybe a touch of fear. “Shouldn't you be in your village?”
“I don't have a village. I don't have anyone,” the stranger explained. “I'm alone. And for good reason.” Cloud frowned a bit at his explanation and shook his head.
“I don't think any reason is a good one to have no one,” he answered. “I'm Cloud. You?”
“...Vincent,” he finally answered after a terse silence. “But my point still stands. You need to leave.” Cloud scowled now and threw one leg up over the other as his arms crossed.
“I'm not going anywhere just because you tell me to,” he huffed. “I came here for a reason, and I'm not leaving until I'm done.” A black eyebrow raised in surprise at his insistence. Vincent's head shook slowly and he sighed.
“Stubborn human, as always,” he muttered. “You want to see the beast? Fine. I'll show you.” A second later and a dark smoke began swirling up from Vincent's feet and completely engulfed him. Cloud couldn't see anything in front of him, but his hackles were raised and his hand was already squeezing his sword when the smoke vanished, and standing in front of him was the creature that had been following him. Cloud dropped his sword and scrambled over the back of the log, falling down onto his back and quickly picking himself up to avoid getting killed. But instead of attacking Vincent stood there, his body lax and what Cloud could only call a very lonely expression on his face. Cloud also realized that Vincent likely wasn't attacking the people that came too close to the woods. They only thought he would because of this.
“...What the hell?” he asked quietly, coming closer to look Vincent over instead of cowering away from him. “What..how? Why are you like this?” Vincent didn't answer, and Cloud figured he couldn't speak in this form. “I want to talk. Change back.” Vincent continued to stare at him for a while before it clicked. “You can't change back, can you?” Vincent's head shook from side to side slowly. “...Will you change back on your own after a while?” A slow nod in answer. “...Then I guess we'll have to wait then, won't we?” Red eyes blinked in surprise as Clear turned and headed back towards his tent. “I don't have any spare blankets unfortunately, so you're on your own. But you're welcome to sleep by the fire.” He grabbed his blanket from the log he had been sitting on and calmly crawled back into his tent.
This time Cloud slept the entire night, only waking up to the smell of meat cooking. He took a few moments to wake up before panicking when he couldn't remember getting up to start cooking, then remembering he had offered for Vincent to sleep at his camp. He poked his head out and sure enough, Vincent sat by his fire tending to breakfast awkwardly. Cloud shook his head slowly and crawled out of his tent slowly.
“Morning,” he said sleepily, plopping down beside Vincent and rubbing at his eyes slowly. “Glad you decided to stick around.”
“Well...you didn't panic when you saw me. I've been lonely, and figured you might be nice company,” he explained. Cloud shrugged slowly and continued trying to wake himself up.
“So why are you like that? That...beast thing,” Cloud asked. “It's weird. Are you like, a werewolf or something?” Vincent chuckled at that and shook his head slowly.
“No. I'm not a werewolf,” he answered. “To be completely honest, I'm actually possessed by a nasty demon. He seems to have taken a liking to my body. I've been trying to get rid of him but he won't go anywhere.” Cloud's head bobbed slowly in thought.
“Have you tried to find a necromancer to help? They can usually figure things out like that,” he suggested. “I know where one lives. I could take you there.” Vincent froze for a second and turned to look over at Cloud in confusion.
“...What? Why would you want to help me?” he asked, a frown settling on his face. “I just told you I'm possessed by a demon. Most people run from me in fear, if they even give me a chance.” Cloud shrugged and picked up one of the sticks with meat skewered on it.
“I know you aren't a beast. It's not fair that you're stuck with that demon in you,” he explained. “So I'm going to help you because I want to.” Vincent blinked a few times in surprise before nodding slowly.
“Thank you, Cloud,” he said quietly. “It will be nice to have company again.”
“You're welcome. Now help me pack everything up. We've got a long way to go to get to the necromancer's.”