Chapter Text
Agatha ran.
Her lungs burned with oxygen and the lack of it, and her legs and stomach burned from exertion, and her skin burned from scratches she earned by falling or tearing past thorns. The forest of the Wastelands streamed past her, huge old trees twisted by age and scarred by claws, thorn thickets with branches thicker than her arm that seemed to move more than the wind could explain, bones scattered across the earth. She saw no animals.
Her foot caught on a stone and she fell, hit the ground with a thud that she heard first, and only felt second. She’d tried to catch herself on her hands but had only managed to hurt them; they stung, and so did her knees. Agatha groaned, and clambered back to her feet. That had been harder than the other falls; she’d caught herself on hands and knees and scrambled up to keep running before, not sprawled all over the ground.
…Bleeding, she noted when she raised a hand to wipe away the dirt and leaves on her face. Her palm was bleeding. So was the other when she checked, a slowly growing sheen of red, although it was barely visible in the—
—dark. It was getting dark, that was why it was hard to see the blood among the dirt; it was getting dark out. It was still early, the sun wouldn’t truly set for hours, but twilight came heavy and early in the forest, and Agatha was alone in the Wastelands and it was getting dark.
Agatha needed to get—needed to get back. Needed to find Lilith and Adam and everyone else again. She couldn’t be in the Wastelands alone at night, she’d die, something would find her and eat her and she’d die, she needed to find her way back now before it was really dark under the trees and she wasn’t able to see anything and all the worst dangers came out—
She wasn’t sure, really, what the worst dangers were. Rogue clanks and vicious, escaped constructs had attacked the camp at night, but they’d also attacked during the day, and there were stories of worse things, of trees that could pull themselves out of the ground and hunt to eat, poisonous mists, parasites that would take over a living body and walk it into a town to release their eggs, entire caravans that were found dead on the road, without a mark on them—
Agatha needed to get back. She turned around, and scanned the dirt. She didn’t know exactly which direction she’d come from before she fell, but it wasn’t really dark yet, just half dark, she should be able to find—disturbed leaves, or broken twigs, something—
A twig snapped. It wasn’t from under Agatha’s feet. It was from the direction she’d come from, and—there was nothing that could be out here that was good for her. Agatha backed away. If she had a weapon—but she didn’t, there wasn’t anything, there weren’t even vines here—
The figure that emerged was… a man. More or less. Certainly male. Certainly not human. Agatha took another step back and looked for a branch, a large rock, something—
He was dressed like old-fashioned cavalry, and might have been handsome if he hadn’t had purple skin, graceful fingers that turned into long and curling claws, and pointed ears. And a too-long face, the reason for which was clear when he smiled; all his teeth were fangs, grown sharp and several times the length of human teeth, and his jaw must have grown to match. He had a sword, but it looked like the least dangerous thing about him. “Vell hallo, sveethot. Vot iz hyu doing out in de Vastelends all alone?”
—the nerve! Acting like some—some smug shop owner, asking her if she was sure that she knew what type of wrench she needed! Agatha scowled at him. “It’s none of your business,” she snapped.
He shrugged, unaffected, and took a few more steps closer. “Hy guess not, bot iz unusual, yah? Not many pretty gurls go runnink around de Vastelends by herself.”
Agatha glared, and took a few deep breaths to remind herself that attacking anyone who could safely wander around the Wastelands alone would not end well for her, no matter how much he really deserved it. “You’re in the Wastelands.”
“Vell, yez,” he kept smiling lazily, kept approaching. He was still two meters away and it wasn’t nearly enough in Agatha’s opinion. “Bot Hy iz a jäger.”
—oh. Oh, this was even worse than Agatha had thought. She took another step back, reached up to comb her hair out of her eyes like it would matter how well she could see when he attacked. Bits of dead leaves fluttered to the ground. “Does the Baron know you’re out here?”
“Ah!” He grinned, brighter, and stopped to pose, flicking a hand through his hair. “Hy iz a vild jäger. Ve iz de goot-lookink vuns, hyu see. De Baron iz jealous dot all de gurls like os, so ve dun go vith him.” And then he was in front of her, grinning from a foot away, and the back of his claws brushed lightly over her cheek. Agatha jumped back. “Vot hyu say? Hyu like eet?”
“—you crass thug!” Agatha punched him, and he jerked back with a startled yelp. How dare he! The nerve of that—that—monster! “How dare you touch me! Try it again and I will crush every bone you have to powder!”
Someone was laughing. The jäger looked annoyed, and turned to yell at a tree to the side. “Schot op, Oggie!”
“Hit him again, gurl!” a voice called out of the tree, in between laughter. “Dot iz de best ting Hy see in veeks!”
“Iz not dot fonny!”
“Nah, Hy tink eet iz,” a third voice added from a second tree.
Agatha glared into one tree and then the other, but couldn't see anyone until there was a rustle of leaves and their occupants landed on the ground in front of them. Two more men—two more jägers, Agatha assumed, and they looked a bit more like it. They had the same claws, the same elongated face and fangs that caused it. The green one's face was too wide, too, and covered in short fur; the other one had tan skin and sun-blond hair like Agatha sometimes saw on farmer boys who came into Beetleburg's market, but he had a single ram's horn growing out of the curly sheep hair, and his feet were bare because they only had two giant, clawed toes.
Some of the rage leaked away, abruptly, and Agatha realized that punching jägermonsters was probably not a good idea. (Probably because of the breakthrough, it made her attack a jägermonster, it made her attack Lilith, what else would it do?) “Um… sorry,” she said, and edged out of the purple jägermonster's reach as the other two approached. “For punching you. I'm not very rational right now.”
“Nah, dun be sorry!” The green jägermonster grinned like his head was about to split open, and casually elbowed the purple jägermonster as the newest two reached him. The purple one glared and elbowed him back. “Dis eediot deserves lots worse den dot. He iz Maxim, by de vay, und Hy iz Dimo und dis iz Oggie. Vy hyu tink hyu iz crazy now?”
“Um….” What did jägers think of sparks? They'd all been made for sparks, but for specific sparks, but they worked for the Baron, but these ones didn't, what if they liked killing any sparks that weren't Heterodynes? Well, that probably wouldn't put Agatha in much more danger if they did, jägers liked killing anyway. A breeze blew past the jägers and into Agatha's face, making scratches that she hadn't even realized were there start to sting. She started rubbing at them carefully, feeling for dirt or leaves. “Lilith said I'm breaking through, and I guess she's right, it doesn't feel much like I thought breakthrough would, it's mostly very scary and angry, but I don't know of anything else it might be, it's definitely very mad.”
The green and purple jäger traded looks, while the horned one leaned on a poleaxe and stared at her in open curiosity. “So she chase hyu into de Vastelands?”
“No!” All three jägers gave her startled looks, and Agatha scowled back at them. “She would never! She did… say it was safer for me to be out of the town… but she’s here too, she didn’t throw me out, she would never!”
“Hy dun hear ennyvun elze near here,” the purple jäger said.
“That’s… that’s true, I… should really get back… before it gets dark….” Agatha tried to peer past the jägers, but they were blocking her view to where (she thought) she’d come from, and the shadows would have hidden any scuffed dirt or broken twigs she might have used to find her path. She hoped that was all they were hiding. (With three jägers nearby, it might even be true; certainly they could have killed a lot of the other dangerous things in the area, there might not be much left to hide in shadows.)
The green jäger shrugged. “Dark iz not dot bad. Half de tings in here ken’t see hyu den, iz verra easy to ambush dem.”
“But I won’t be able to see at all!” Agatha’s eyes were starting to sting, matching the scratches on her face. She still didn’t know if the jägers were even going to let her go, or wanted to toy with her first before they killed her.
The horned jäger looked uncertain. “Ve… ken help hyu find… vereffer hyu iz from? Hy dun tink dere iz moch near here, bot if hyu valked ve ken follow hyu.”
Agatha tried to scrub the tears out of her eyes with her hand, then remembered it was also covered in dirt and blood and who knew what else, and left them. “We were traveling, we weren’t in a city.”
“Ho, so hyu pipple iz close! Ve ken do dot.” The horned jäger grinned; the green one rolled his eyes.
The purple jäger shrugged. “Ve iz not doink ennyting elze,” he told the green one.
“Yah, hokay, fine, ve get hyu beck to hyu friends,” the green jäger said, and the horned one beamed at Agatha. She gave the horned one the most grateful smile she could manage, since the green one was already turning away. “Chust dun tell ennyvun, Oggie is gun ruin all hour reputashons like dis, iz not effen a kid dis time….”
All three jägers went to inspect the stone that had tripped Agatha, and from there the trail she’d left. It seemed to involve a surprising amount of bickering, which involved a surprising amount of punching each other, but that meant Agatha could follow almost without being noticed. And it was, she had to admit, a very good thing the jägers were tracking her for her; Agatha had thought she’d been running mostly straight, but it turned out she’d actually been turning often, every time she fell, or dodged around a tree or thicket of thorns.
The wind picked up after a handful of minutes, trying to blow Agatha’s hair in front of her face, and the green jäger dropped back to walk casually by Agatha's side while the other two kept bickering. (The horned jäger whacked the other over the head with the handle of his poleaxe, and the purple one howled about that wasn’t fair, swords didn’t have dull edges.)
Agatha eyed the green jäger, but he didn’t make any move to touch her, only walked with an obviously casual interest in the nearby trees. “Vot hyu name?”
Oh. Well, Agatha had been rude. Not that manners quite applied when she thought she was about to be eaten, but since it looked like she wasn’t…. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Agatha.”
“Agatha vot?”
“Agatha Clay, from Beetleburg. Adam—my father—owns—owned a machine shop, and my mother Lilith gave piano and dance lessons.”
The green jäger gave Agatha a startled look. “Hyu momma brought hyu out here?”
“She said it would be safer if I wasn’t in town,” Agatha explained. It did sound kind of odd, put that way. “And she and Adam used to travel with my father and uncle and I think my uncle might have been a spark, so I guess she would know.”
“Bot hyu poppa iz not a schpark?”
“I never met him, so I’m not sure.” The green jäger gave her another confused look, so Agatha clarified. “Adam and Lilith adopted me, after my uncle disappeared.”
“Huh.” The green jäger stared intently into the trees. “Vell, Hy tink hyu iz a verra speshul gurl, Miz Agatha.”
He did not offer to explain, and Agatha didn’t quite dare to demand one.
He stayed next to her for the rest of the walk while the other two bickered, although he didn’t say much more, just stared intently at the trees like he was looking for something. Agatha considered trying to make conversation, then gave up. She had no idea what jägers considered acceptable topics of conversation, and they seemed not to be easily offended so far, but maybe she just hadn’t happened to say anything offensive yet. It seemed safer to let them decide what to talk about. And Agatha was behind on traps for the evening now, she ought to keep an eye out for useful-looking vines or sticks, which would be harder while talking.
Twenty minutes later she’d only found one vine, and was idly coiling it to carry more easily when the green jäger went stiff beside her. “Miz—”
“Lilith Clay,” Lilith’s voice filled in, strict, and Agatha’s head shot up.
“Lilith!” Agatha dropped the vine to run forward. Lilith, Sirius, and Mercury had (it looked like) emerged from behind a thicket; the purple and horned jägers were standing to the side, staring at Lilith instead of bickering. Agatha ignored them to hug Lilith. “I’m sorry, I was—I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Lilith hugged her back. “I’m glad you’re safe. Assuming you are.” She held Agatha at arm’s length, and looked over her critically. “What are all these scratches?”
Agatha ducked her head automatically. “Just… thorns, and from falling. Nothing that bad.”
Lilith sighed. “We should check them for poison and infection, then, but you’ll probably be fine.” She pulled Agatha over to her side and kept her arm on Agatha’s shoulders like she was still ten years old, but now of all times Agatha really shouldn’t object. Lilith looked back up at the green jäger. “Thank you for bringing my daughter back safely.”
“…She’s a verra speshul gurl,” the green jäger said. “How could ve not?”
“She is,” Lilith said blandly. Agatha frowned, but stomped down on the urge to demand an explanation for it immediately. She could later. Lilith glanced between the green jäger, the other two, and Agatha, and then gave Agatha a gentle push toward Sirius and Mercury. “Why don’t you three go back to the camp. I’ll catch up after I talk to the jägers.”
Agatha backed up to stand between Sirius and Mercury, but frowned. “But—”
“I’ll be fine, Agatha, don’t worry,” Lilith said.
“Hy vould like to tok, Hy tink,” the green jäger said, carefully neutral.
“The camp isn’t far,” Sirius said. Her ears were up, alert and searching for sounds, but not afraid. “I’ll be able to hear if anyone yells.”
“And Adam will want to see that you’re safe,” Mercury said.
He would. He would be worrying, although telling him that Agatha was safe and Lilith was alone with jägers wouldn't necessarily be an improvement. Agatha sighed. "Can you come back quickly? He'll worry about you too."
"Hoy, ve iz not gun hurt Miz—" the horned jäger started to complain, but was cut off by the purple one punching him in the side of the head.
Agatha was not reassured. The jägers had been nice, but… they were still jägers. Their entire purpose was to kill people.
Sirius wouldn’t lie about being able to hear, though, and with the jägers and Lilith all wanting to talk, Agatha didn’t have much choice, so she nodded reluctantly. “Okay. Just… talk fast, I guess.”
“We will.”
Agatha nodded, hesitated again, and reluctantly started walking away. Sirius nudged her into a slightly different direction, and they left for the camp.