A.N. Well here's the next installment, and Hound gets a celestial visit this time. Remember I don't own the TFs and I have no money, so the cost of the legal fees it would take to sue me would far outweigh whatever you got. The TFs are the property of HasTak.
Thanks again for betaing, Hellsfirescythe! She's a wonderful person and you should all give her cookies. I'd also like to add another big "thank you" to everyone who reviewed.
This is supposed to happening at the same time that Ratchet's meeting Dian Cecht for timeline reference.
Hound felt his fuel pump sink as he gazed over the once lush landscape of Southern Ireland. Trees lay broken and dead across scorched earth, the bodies of several Earth species lay unmoving, their bodies just as damaged as the surrounding area. Noble oak trees who had once tried to grasp the sky with their lean branches, covered in mistletoe, had been smashed open, their dark heartwood now prey to the insects who would devour it. Broken bodies of fleet footed deer and auburn foxes lay smashed, cherry smears on the emerald isle. His chest sparked where Reflector had hit him. It was a superficial wound, but still stung.
"Hound?" The green Autobot jumped slightly as someone laid their hand on his shoulder. "Everything alright?" Mirage's worried voice struck his companion out of his reverie.
The tracker smiled sadly at his blue and white friend.
"I'm alright Mirage," He lied. "I'm just going to look around and see if anything survived." The spy nodded and walked away to where Prowl was giving orders to the other Autobots in the group.
Hound stepped lightly through the ruined land, further and further away from the group. He activated his long-range scanners, hoping that something, anything had survived the brutality of the alien war.
Nothing but more carnage met his view as he continued down his path, driving the jeep into a deeper depression. This was their fault as much as it was the fault of the Decepticons. The Autobots should have been able to drive back the opposing forces faster. They should have been able to protect this fragile, fragile planet from the present amethyst chaos that decimated its heart. Hound loved this world. It was contained the most amazing ecosystems that the Autobot had ever witnessed. Hundreds of thousands of species all co-existing on the same plane was certainly new, and the complexity of their linked existence was one that fascinated the tracker to no end.
A sudden cry brought the tracker to his senses. It was a human cry, full of pain and grief and rage, a shattering wail that penetrated Hound's very infrastructure. As it ended, Hound immediately began scanning the area, and frowned when his sensors showed only white noise. The tracker felt a strange sense of unease roll through him, and then shook it off. His sensors had probably been shaken up when he had been hit and he would have to get Ratchet to check it out when the groups met up again. The cry sounded again, this time lower and more desperate. Hound tramped toward the sound, careful to make enough noise as to not frighten the creator of the sound.
He had never seen a human like her before. The shade of yellow hair and thin yet muscular body type were rare in the human world as far as he had seen, and he stopped just short of her, not because he didn't want to get closer to her, but because it felt like he couldn't. It felt as if he had hit a clear, titanium wall and no matter how hard he tried he could not break through. She was a young human and the scratches on her face, neck, and arms looked painful. The blood that pooled on her clothes from the broken deer she cradled added to her wide-eyed haunted look. The ash and broken branches that covered and decorated the ground around her presented Hound with a picture that he would never be able to forget in all his lifetime.
"Excuse me…" The tracker softly called.
The woman looked up in surprise, and the look soon changed to one of excruciating hatred and anger. "You! Your kind did this!" She screamed, the trees shaking around her. She gently laid the deer's head upon the ground and grabbed an ancient, human style weapon- a bow; his internal computer supplied him- which Hound had not noticed before. "Go! Be gone with you now! Have you not caused enough destruction here? Have you not taken enough from me? Must you take more from my protection?"
"Please! I mean no harm!" Hound raised his hands in a defensive posture. His rational mind knew that her weapon could not harm him, but a deeper part of his programming screamed at him to show that he was not a threat.
"No harm? If by no harm you mean the rape of my land and the massacre of those whom I protect, then yes, you would mean no harm." She sneered and drew back the bow, aiming it at the tracker's already wounded chest.
"If I did mean to hurt you would I have alerted you to my presence?" Blue optics gazed imploringly at the figure before him. "And the other Autobots and I are far different from the ones who did this!" He gestured to the ruin around them.
"Words are but that."
Hound winced. Each word was clipped, full of icy fire that threatened to perforate his armor and liquefy his most crucial circuits. "And they will not bring back the souls of mine."
"No," Hound's voice took upon a mourning tone. "They won't. But I swear to you that if I could undo what has been done, I would do so without hesitation. Believe me when I say that at least."
The woman gazed at him; bow still in hand and ready to fire. Hound didn't know how long they stayed like that; all he did know was how her sharp eyes glittered. Hound felt that those eyes could pierce his very spark and would have if it had been possible. His optics did not leave her gaze though and he was repaid with the woman lowering her weapon.
"You speak true," Her voice adopted a far calmer tone, her eyes looking at him curiously. "What is your name, stranger?"
The tracker relaxed, "My name is Hound."
"A creature of the woods both in name and in spirit," The woman smiled approvingly.
Hound could not help but smile back, there was something strange about this human, and she called to him, echoed within his very being. "May I ask who you are?"
The woman's eyes glinted teasingly. "I am she who is known as the wife of Ailill Fionn, consort to Fergus Mac Roich, the mistress of the stags, and the soft-haired."
Hound's gaze took a turn toward confusion. Was that some strange human way of announcing their name? Spike and Sparkplug had certainly never done something like that. Before he could ask her though, the woman turned from him and picked up the body of the deer she had been cradling.
"What are you doing?"
"Rannoch still lives," She explained. "And I must care for him quickly if he is to stay that way.""
"Where do you need to go? I can get you there faster." Hound offered, and transformed into his jeep mode.
The woman smiled. "You cannot go where I will venture, Hound. But your offer is most kind. Do not grieve for what you have no control over, all shall be settled in due time, especially if those children of Crom Crauch seek to invade the land of me and my kin. Besides, I think your own seek you now."
"But-!"
"Hound!" Mirage's worried voice caused the jeep to re-transform. "There you are! Why didn't you answer?"
"I was speaking to the human female," Hound explained, detecting the impatience and slight worry in his friend's voice as he indicated with a wave of his hand to whom he had been speaking.
The spy stared at the tracker for a good minute. "What female?"
"Come on Mirage, she's standing right there. Don't be rude."
The spy stared again, this time with serious worry in his optics. "Hound, there's no girl."
The tracker felt a rare strain of ire flow through him. "Come on Mirage. She's right…here?" The jeep had turned to look at the blond human female only to find that she had disappeared and nothing marked the ground where she had walked and the deer had rested. "What in the name of Primus?" He whispered. He looked around, only to find a deer grazing with a herd of cattle in the distance. The deer was not the one who had been injured though.
"Are you alright Hound?" Mirage gently gripped his friend's shoulder. "Perhaps you took a bit more fire than you thought. Let's get back to the others."
"Yeah…" Hound said, allowing himself to be lead by his friend back to the other Autobots.
As they left, on an impulse, he cast one last glance over his shoulder, and could have sworn that the deer winked at him.
Luckily for Hound Mirage isn't the type to run around telling everyone he thinks his friend is crazy. ;)
So, our guest deity today was Flidais, the Celtic version of the Greek Artemis and the Roman Diana. She ruled the woodlands and was the protector of wild animals, the most sacred being the deer. According to legend she had a magic cow that could feed three hundred men in one night, and she was also a shape-shifter. Unlike Artemis/Diana however, Flidais was also a sexual deity and mistletoe was her sacred plant.
Thanks for sticking with me on this guys! I really appreciate it! Helpful criticism would also be very much appreciated.
TBPK