The current party of hunters are plenty equipped for the mutant modern creatures. There is way to many back up guns, strange metal knives and very well practiced magic. Very exact measuring spell craft pouches at ready use.
There is plenty of escaped zoo and exotics out there. There are creatures that the 21st century has put back from lost habitat - beavers, fish species and the red squirrel. Plenty of countries have their own projects to protect creatures from endangerment. There are even oceanfront protectors, restoration of coral reeds. This had a back lash against humanity. The radiation and the genetic recoding DNA breaker disease did plenty both favour of returning lost species and horror of realization that these creatures should have stayed dead.
This is why birds are flying dinosaurs again. Plants lost in the glacier melt began growing and taking over the upper hemisphere of Russia, which has its own terrifying wildlife mutated by the recent apocalypse event. The white out dead zone has become populated with boss level monsters that eat each other. Watched with drones and satellites imagery. Plenty of countries have joint effort at keeping Russian monsters problems to stay in Russia.
This is why there is human eating plants spreading across the UK, the remains of plants before mammals walked on land. The rich ancient under soil of pre-humanity had awaken monsters that humans never documented existing. The black vines that are pest contorl in human houses are another grown mutanted from a seedling back when lizards owned the land. The UK unique wet climate - freezing winters and drought summers. Humidity stable. This place was plant heaven and is being claimed by plants a feild at a time. But even plants are having war for humans. Smart plants are genuinely are at war to keep humans like lifestock pets. The old university orphanage isnt human made, it was a joint cause of plant wars.
"Have you seen that deer yet?" Raven asked her. Currently they walked hip attached at the front lead of this walking march. Everyone is at high alert.
"Depends on if it used to be a deer." She voices matter of fact, monotone as undertakers do for living people, "And you know I am freinds with the not deer." She took out a notepad, a small easy crystal slate access undertaker tool, "The American skin walkers can be mock deers or moose." She slides scrolling down the documented things, "You have hybird things that lived in Walton Hall, those are by DNA - deer. The other hoof things released from the zoos." She closed the pad and slips it back. He stares forward blankly.
"That ahead of us. That is what we assumed was a deer." He voiced and she fixed her sight to adjusted. She locked eyes with the creature. Bone exo-skeleton of a blacken meat underneath, blue eyes that unfit the thing. She cant hear it. She does see it. She soon scratched her mask chin, rare time that undertaker cant hear a realm creature. She suspects it must have ghost properties, making it scenery by law for her. She cant hear it, thus it couldnt touch her.
"Environmental issue. It isn't my concern. It is hungry for you lot." She takes a notepad out again, "No sounds heard for undertaker, another dangerous human hunter." She began documenting it. Making measuring glimpses.
"Can you handle it?" He asked her and she paused pen.
"It doesn't have a tome entry. I can't eat it." She continues writing her notes, "A lot of matrix material is being woven to stabilize the predators existent shape. A gods side project left without supervision. Or created by humanity. There is a distinction and yet the same result."
She pen pauses for a proper look. She needed to for her jotting, breaking eye contact several times. She doodles a few interesting things about how it watching them. There is some intelligence in some way, eyes on the guns and watching the hand moves. But it hasnt trying speech yet. She tilts with realizing it has an aura that doesnt belong among the awake world. This is a nightmare made, which means its a dream that has crossed over. Has it become real due to the law around it being plausible, that is what happened with the skin walkers. They also became real due to there being materials suitable for its nature.
"Smile dog?" She tries to figure out the story of it, "or just another lost SCP. They did release a lot of them." She shifted her gaze to the darknet pane, checking the dream worlds networks for information. If a lord lost a proxy. She finds no surprise of some the lord's crossing into stable existent shapes. She does a last try searching and finds it hasnt any classification. This is a new made and unique product of this universe. Although, she sense there was likely stories made by other universe that suggested it was going to become existent somewhere. There will be an artist sketch of this freak out there.
"Try recently recovered DNA taken from a flesh chuck recovered from the icebergs." A human among the group behind them said, "There was a trail to attempt DNA replication to read the genes. The DNA was taken in by the mutant virus and was successfully made. A lot of collected DNA has been making appearances." She softly nods as she understands that the UK was doing world leading research into lost DNA of ice age species and other species across the world. They did intent to just make a gene record for medical research into biodiversity. As creatures were dying by human fault, this was hope to keep ancient DNA records for future replication. Say it a key ecosystem creatures become endangered, humans could attempt resurrection. Some bee species are on this list. A few butterflies, which back fired. Thats how you had the deadly blood drinkers become an issue.
"So a mutanted Lazarus specimen." She nods getting it, "What did you learn about the genetic recoding?"
"Its most common generation was when whales were land predators. It has some New Zealand gaint Sloth mimic patterns. We never would have know what it was if the world didnt have a problems it does. It would have just stayed as DNA in a tube." The hunter trembles little with looking at it.
"Definitely a hybird with the base DNA as the sample you speak of." She makes write of what the humans side claims pf being their knowledge of it.
"You arent about to give it a cute pet name or something." Raven knowing her fondness for making pets out of the abnormalities. She giggles. Yes, giggles that he knows her to well.
"It will take time for the others to get use to him." She grins wide thin lips, "He is just to afraid to approach. Thinking that hiding behind a thin metal sign is fooling anyone. Very cute. Very young."
"So she claimed it as her pet now?" The hunter at their back asks.
"Apparently." Raven sighed and she took out a feather bundle, attached it with cord. Tied to a fishing rod line, set up.
She check her proud cat toy work. She stops walking, wafted them to stand back. A set of smooth motion and the line of feathers flies, landing short of the bone creatures front paw. She let's the feather sit there. The creature slides around the metal pole to smell the feathers. She gave it a small tug. Eyes dilated for the thing. She goves a small pull and then with reactive speed of a crazy woman, pulled the toy back from being devoured.
The massive one 'bear' is trying to stomp follow the toy. She purrs amused. It hyper-focused on only the toy. Paw grapple air at each attempt to get it. Raven stares between her and the thing. He touched her arm in alarm of something wrong. A portion of the sky just flexed open, two yellow eyes are glowing from that opened thing.
"Narly loves feathers toys. He is just jealous." She voiced and reached into her cloak, pulls out a strange stick bundle with sticking out feathers. Raven having seen this strange item many times before. He constantly finds these bundles of stick and feather. He stares at her, stiffly realized she made them and they are toys that belonged to her pets.
"I know what I will nickname this little cub." She managed to allure it to reach. She steps really close, lowers herself to be smelled. It tested her body with a few pats. She reaches in its allowances, gave a chin scratch. That was all it had to be. It flops before her, belly up and hugs her hand. It love nibbles her fingers and let's her other hand pat the tummy.
"Oh hell no. No. NOT AGAIN!" The screech of a hunter among the party. Staring at her and the thing. He then glares at the open yellow eyes gap.
"Oh get over it, old man." Lazed on the metal sign ahead, "You cant stop her adopting us. She has the right to look after us for as along as she does it right." Her beloved Tyr tuts in black mist shape, forming as a errierly similar looking Morpheus. Yet that is clearly not the sleeping dream monster that sleeps on strange spots.
"Come on Ragnar, his just a baby." She pulls the bone rigid monster into a hug and shows it off like a baby, "His a sweet little Bjorn."
"And where exactly is Loki for all this?" Ragnar Lovebrooke snarls.
"Passed away." She announced, "He is a vessel for the death god. Morpheus left this universe, so in definition he passed away too. He slept somewhere and didnt wake up." She pinged a deep sad emotional waver that caught hard in the voice. Even as an undertaker, the dip was there. They all felt her sorrow in lacing those words.
"A lot of my pets went during the battle of peace. Left with only you three cats. Two dire wolves. The four separated spiders." She loves over the bone bear deeply, "I am going to miss my moo bird of spit wash. I already really miss Morpheus, he checked in and slept in my arms the most." A black inky substance drops at both sockets of her eye mask. There was drips under the chin too. The inky substance falling over the bone bear, the bear tolerated it.
The sky gap made a strange hiss, the gap flops closed and the sense that it ran away was clear. Tyr having see his brother have a spat, rolls and dropped into cloud. Gone too. Ragnar stares intensely of the new pet, he twisted to a displeasure face. He looks at everyone else in display of his displeasure. He snarls of it rolling about and getting more attention then he gets.
She softly shifted feet, scooping the massive being of bone. As she lifting it to be carried, it shrinks. Smaller. And smaller. Until.
A snow white kitten with bright blue eyes was eating its tail, hugging her arm and giving a loving trusted gaze. She tussle about with the 8 week old shape kitten. Taking out several meat stripes, which were refused. She had to toss the jerky to Ragnar. Ragnar was no linger moody, food made the cub tolerated. At least this kid wasnt going to steal his food. She worried as she tried a lot of meats. At a point tossing away a strip of what looked human like flesh, Ragnar hated that meat. He tossed it and it was devoured by a dark cloud hiding behind him, Tyr using Ragar as cover from the white fur menace.
She sighed in releif that the newest member was very happy to eat bones. She should have started with bones. It wiggled out her hands as a kitten. And runs zoomies. Being hissed by the elder three on passes by. Making interesting kitten acrobatic paw attacks on her feet and hands when possible. Running laps to the point of exhaustion to sneak attack her right hand the most. He sunk into her storage upon being so deep asleep, he was acting dead. A laying roadkill pose at her foot.
"I love him." She purrs, "His the right bit of chaos."
"And how do your dogs feel about there being a white snow ball?" Raven recounted her other pets. Although his unsure bringing this sore topic. They by definition are dead, but he really wasnt sure if those things were living to begin with.
"As exactly as they do about the rest of us." Ragnar replies, "I command them."
"He proclaimed he does." She corrected, "They share dwelling space. Ragnar here is the cat that thinks himself a dog. Sleeping on their backs." She pats air flatly with a laugh, "He always loving them." Ragnar being called out like this pouted while still enjoying the meat stripes. Tolerated her nonsense because she gave food.
"Does she pick up strays randomly often?" Enquiry voice with fear. A white small body crashed into her leg and began trying to climb up her. She snickered and scooped the bone white kitten in her hand. Soon laying over her shoulder and chest. Purring loudly, it drowned her abilities to hear heart rates.
"Yes." Raven hooked arm around her waist, "This is why I cant leave her unsupervised for long periods." Minding to not disturb the kitten that has curled itself right around her neck. Head buried into the area of a human neck would have vien to the heart.
"I miss my babies that have left me." Her voice did that dip again and he pulled her to walk with. The journey can't stop. They needed to reach safety on this motorway by a time. Continue down the pushes aside cars, cleared corpses and the occasional other hunter parties that took stop at the road side for break. A well populated areas have percentage of some brain lacking department. She didn't even need to strain to find danger.
"Excuse me." Speaking of scam artist. This group of trashy humans with weapons openly hostile to them, "Toll please." The party behind made looks between wondering what fools these idiots are. Then it was a head nods, some voting. A betting game. Someone put real rations on the line. Raven measuring the idiots, looked back at his team with disappointment and back forwards at looking at the day light theives.
"Oh, new toys!" She posed the white snow fur kitten to face the mob ahead, "Look Bjorn! Meat sticks." The kitten thing studies the men. She softly poses the kitten in her hands to be able to move, that the kitten can choose. The men looked at each other and laugh. This sweet kitten jumps down, the size shifted while he reaches the floor.
He made it down on all fours, grown into the horse. His original nature of outer bones among grey flesh. The men are laughing, twisting into that laugh to madness. The laughter is becoming empty and fearful. The laughter cuts out, like a cord pulled out from a jack plug. It turned into a matter of survival, every single man here for pocket money turned into mindless muted flesh bags. They pushed and shoved. Evaded and dodged.
"The toys aren't just for Bjorn." She held back the party with her left hand pulling people back. A ripple of the air happened, that law bent. A massive series of many limbs pulled from the small gap and took a man. Ragnar at the back of the group, broke his human mock. Jumped over the entire group and pinned a guy into the floor... literally bending the floor to melt as he pleases to hold down his prey. Tyr was watching, held back... watching the spare ones. And poof, the cloud disappeared and appears to swallow a being. She looked at the party that matters, steps gathering them closer together. This was in near missing of two grey wolves that barrels in among the cat battle. The two dire wolves, jump with splitting the humans from the attachments that made them meat puppets, which established these humans are not acting on their clear own wills.
"Are they eating the parasites?" Raven had to voice.
"Well they are animals. More like toying with the bugs, in slow torture before killing and eating them." She poses that this was normal, "I am disappointed that 'Lady pink' has been not catching its fill."
She claps loudly and all these creatures turned facing her. They made judging looks, so she puts hands on the hips with making a point to stomp. The two wolves grin wider and pounced playful - leaning as high heel shoes and making strange abnormal wooing. She stomps again and this was repeated by the two wolves by their front paws, making the cats fur stand on end.
There was a hung feeling of zoomies was on the way. The ripple made by Narly, flexed into nothingness. The blacken dusty cloud, of Tyr's manifestation, faded into nothingness. Ragnar turned human shape, walks over like a proud old man while chewing a blacken something like a blade of grass. Bjorn tots over and turned into a tiny hand sized kitten - purring and curled on her right foot with ease.
The two wolves barked harder, up right and tensing their bodies ready to shoot. This made the humans alert. Made them awake. Made them all the more aware of themselves. The wolves bolted into the forest edging, jumped over the concrete blockade that holds the monsters from eating the travellers of this motorway. The humans are all taking grip of their reality. She picked up Bjorn, putting him into her clothing. Cradling the baby into her fabric layers, a spare set of arms hugging the child closer.
"Why have you not documented these parasites?" Asked by among the party that has seen her making documents of things. Observing her calm, her clear knowing.
"These parasites were the fall over the enitre Undertaker system in many universes." She explains flatly in her montone, "They are just everyday pests that I am hired to handle." she follows with flicked her left hand, "Silver kingdom is still an active undertaker's mirror realm that has not been erased yet." She looked at each of the group, "You can asked the Ender why he hasn't erased them." She turned forwards, "Oh poor humans. Holes in your memories. Unexplained personality and mood swings. Forced awakened sight of beings not human." She rolls joints with flexing her body to be carefully back to mimic normal, "I hope my jaw isn't visible."
"You don't even have a face." Raven hissed, "What freaking jaws are you meaning?" She settles with debating to argue about her bodies, about the nature of her bodies and if correcting him is worth it. Unsure how fragile this version of him is.
"She has monsters jaw." Among the party pushed itself around to the front, "And I havent erased tools that are useful." She stares deeply and then slowly nods getting it.
"You two know each other?" Raven checking in with what his allowed to recall.
"He hasn't tried to want to kill me yet." She added.
"You're a tool too." The ender huffed, "Speaking of hiring." It lifted a slate of stone that doesn't come from the local technology. Yet she shifted her type of eyes and manages to correct to the layering that this tool is from. She took the slate with her left hand, and goes through the network access this slate offers. She finds an outdated realm's tech of stone soul cataloguing. Its own sigil system, its own rules and the job reported on open access for all rankings. She studies the wanted.
"I am not interested in contacting them." she returned the slate back over, "For all I know, his become his own micro verse." the ender takes a breath with being met with an answer he wasn't expecting, "Oh, that you didn't know." She looked around, "That ender will be around soon when that micro-addendum dies. Time is a relative law." The ender hugs his slate to himself, "Really? That fact terrifies you? That souls have always been impossible." it lowered his head with thinking, "Don't let it get to you." She play pats, "It's what I am. It's why I am not worried about that soul's path. It is selfish and locked only to itself. Many of the side chapters are such ways."
"You just told this poor guy that the puddle he was skimming the surface of is the depth that could reach the bottom of the trenches in the ocean." Raven taking her shoulders and she thinks about is touch. Her mind was consumed by his ability to touch a spirit body like her. She however eased down since 'ender' is its own biological existence they work with. She suspects that her more abyss crossing nature has these aspects. So not a question on Raven, more like where is the line of law between them. Since life and death are not a measuring tool during this era.
She does have this feeling that spirit folks are more welcomed with the assuming of 'reincarnation' tales and 'soul swapping bodies' are a thing more often. The technology has digress to appearing to be more natural, but high grade tech like crystals being the computer, phones and tablets of this era, that is a thing. Bring her to this thought of the seemingly restricted lost speices from samples from the dawn of time. More exactly, she plenty more aware then the avrage joe that cross contaimintation with lost, removed realms did leave behind traces that could become massive threats.
Seeing a sabertooth massive wild cat is just a blink of eyes. Wolves appearing in the dog population. Release zoo hybrids. Personal exotic pets hybrids. She plenty aware of the increase of bugs, because one the largest collectors of mantis, stick bugs, beetles and etc... lives in a tool shed in the middle of Wales. Seeing alien DNA, aka the black vine things from the campus - hasn't fazed her.
"Well as long as none of my dead pets are back to life. We will be safer then I imagine." She voiced as her mental thought slipped accidentally. As when she started getting used to England (in her lives as human), collecting and rescuing exotic pets was a big deal for her. She has had many broken law creatures that appeared to be harmless chameleons, geckos and snakes. On the younger side, still in Florida, she assumed the local bear that lived in her Aunts empty lot beside the house was a scary pet. Of course, not a real or typical Florida bear. No that was a native American land keeper that ate not native souls off the land.
"You have to come up with terrible ideas." The ender hissed at her like it was her fault. That just thinking of possiblity meant it was a slip chance it happens.
"Bjorn already handled it." She was petting the very fattened white snow ball in her hammic cloth arms, "And just now..." She made a tome slam closed inside her torso (not visible to them but very felt in her), "All souls in my reach are safe and accounted." the Ender blinks at her like she just lit a fire by an oil soaked pile of dry tender.
"How did the soul language taste of?" Raven enquires as this was likely the only way he will get a straight answer that he could calculate.
"I think I just ate four religions into non-existence." She replies instead of her tyical discribing the flavour pallet. He didn't want this answer, looking at her deeply, "Ugh fine. A whole buffet that could have been a 2000 guest party spread. From four starter chooses, four main meals, nine varaities of snacks and 3 dessert chooses. I can't exactly state a single profile." She pets Borjn softly, it wake nibbling her hand. She continue petting the bitting kitten. Unbothered. Raven and the Ender... the party are very bothered.
"Are you still hungry?" Raven asking like it was costing him.
"I am always starving. Just different types, levels and capacity handling." She shook her head, "the things I can't eat goes to feeding my pets. Except the souls themselves. Souls are bastards with to much hassle. The last time I licked one to help them, it complained about how my spit dissolved something vaguely not important. I told them that Fate had plans. I can't ignore the fact that Fate literally called dibs on the soul."
"She lost me at the she not full thing." The ender turned to Raven.
"You clearly don't listen to all of her words." Raven huffed, "Lea," He paused his tongue right there. She shifted her body type to that older style. Shifting all the way back into the gothic bride veil monarch of an undertaker. In stone mat black shoes that announced her presense ahead of all things. She still has a set of floating arms holding Bjorn, not disturbing the monster in kitten form. An air blows, it wasn't a human world one, the veil shifted to the broken mask plate that was that life. That dead face. He golped hard in this mistake of his.
"She's dead you know." Spoken calmly and flat. Turned with not looking into him with the dead face on. The veil settling back down covering her, "The names don't belong anywhere here."
"Oh, like a lizard. You shed your names." Ender snarls a little.
"Nah, more like a few mutiverse walkers kept tracking her soul down and using her existence. Single minded hunting her across many tomes. Drove the poor lass to adapt to be nameless or whatever she is doing." Ragnar stepping around and body rubbing into her, shifted into a sleek black cat body. Skinny and iconically judgemental with sharp eyes. He was a veteran and jumped proudly onto her shoulder. He perched on her like a owned land mass that moves.
"They tasted nasty too." she followed, "I still have to find them and hang them. You reckon they be hiding in the tavern at the end of time?" She asked more at Ragnar.
"I think Twilight ate them. They might have been made into forbidden tome tools." She softly nods of this.
"I did make that same deal with the souls of my biological parent and his lover."
As of this moment, the stand off has ended. Conversation between creeps made every human that wasn't the party keep clear. The party of money snatchers with senses back are seeking thier own pantence and salvation. A new cult has been made in the crazy eyes of a survivour. This survivour took one look about Leana's appearance and has deciced to dub her a creature to be worshipped in fear of appeasing her for not ruining thier lives. Such madness is a normal outcome by the universe handle of her crazy talk of souls. Extreme law breaking of understanding god and things, means twisted fated things are that more crazy.
She just sort of knew it, as she looked at empty patch of motorway, lift up. A bright buggy beady eyes locked on her arms in envy, sad it wasn't there to be craddled. The mantis that should be among her dead creatures, belonging to a new realms in the heavenly places, is not missed by her perceptive gaze of tome shuffles. She can tell an eclipse that doesn't belong when it shows itself in small tells.
Her lock look over Sunna was a big indicator of fortune ahead into the city.