Chapter 281: Boring Summer [#10]: Bright and Beautiful
"And Nature is alive- It breathes, it grows, it spreads, it dies." Stiles rested upon the low grass in a clearing in the middle of the preserve, a low apple tree hanged delicious red apples for him to grab, his beloved children rested at his feet as he carefully manipulated the wind around them to move the fallen leaves and create a small hurricane: "Did you wait for long?" Stiles smiled when he heard Derek's voice, he turned to look at the gorgeous man who smirked at him cockily- Even though he looked, smelled, and felt nervous about this whole thing! "Not much, i was just telling the kids a little about nature-" Stiles started to pull things from a deep dark blue bag, a striped towel that was the stereotypical towel you would think of when picnic came to mind, next was a picnic basket, plates, cups, and of course!
Food.
"I also brought these!" Stiles pulled butcher knives from his bag, making Derek confused, but what Stiles said was not what he expected to hear: "You know? To, like, take the fur and skin off of the rabbit you'll bring me later?" Derek simply froze- D-did his Mate just ask him to hunt a rabbit for him!? "Now sit your ass down so we can start this picnic, it may not look like it, but my little ones are hungry." To prove his point, Eli tried to grab a low hanging apple from the tree, sadly he failed but Stiles simply swiped his finger diagonally, a small blade of wind precisely cut the stem from the branch, making the apple fall right into the boy's hands: "See?" Derek blushed slightly, the tip of his ears getting red as he nervously looked over what he chose to wear: Black tight shirt, black jeans, black boots, and his black leather jacket. Shit, he went full 'I am Vengeance' to a picnic date plus kids! Stiles did not comment on it, so it must be fine.
Derek sat down beside him and they started to make small talk, they talked about the trees and leaves, as well as the clouds and the wind, the scent of flowers and food was brought to the conversation and somehow that ended up with Stiles asking: "So, what do I smell like to you?" And Derek froze- He closed his eyes to better focus on the scent of his Mate and spoke as the words entered his mind: "Like nature, like wet dirt after a thunderstorm, like a field of flowers, like the wind blowing through a lake and bringing that scent of an entire ecosystem, but you also smell strongly of honey, spices, your dad, Eli, Ammy, your pack, and… Me." When he opened his eyes, Derek was taken aback by Stiles who was really close, smiling at him: "Wanna know what you smell like?" Derek knew what he smelled like, his sister and uncle always told him, but he wanted Stiles to smell him so he nodded! "Well…" Stiles approached, his nose delicately touched Derek's shoulder and he felt like he was about to melt-
"You smell like ashes of a volcanic eruption, you smell like guilt- Not a heavy scent of guilt, but almost like guilt became part of your scent, anger and sadness is also there. You smell like Peter, Erica, Cora, Boyd, and Isaac, with lingering scents of Scott, Allison, Chris, and my dad… I can also smell the forest in you, pine, oak, and the heavy and musky scent of your sweat that I like, and the scent of affection, surprise, confusion, impressed, and a heavy amount of lust." Stiles grinned like the asshole that he was, he looked and smelled so smug as he looked at the shocked face Derek tried to hide, his emotions were so easily seen by Stiles, and he was so dumb- He could smell his emotions! "I-" Stiles shut him up quickly and easily, a simple single finger touching his lips was enough: "I can't fully forgive you now, I'll probably never trust you the way i trusted you before you kicked me out, but i do want to try this… If you want to too, that is." This time Derek didn't hesitate! He pulled Stiles and absolutely devoured his mouth, those sinful red lips of his Mate parted to allow him access to his tongue, shy thing that didn't move at all- Derek was surprised for a moment by how easily and willingly Stiles just let him do whatever he wanted, Derek manhandled Stiles to sit on his lap as he kept using and abusing Stiles' mouth with his own.
The kiss was filthy and he had forgotten about the kids for a moment, but because he remembered them (He heard little Ammy whisper an "Ewww") he stopped, releasing Stiles who looked absolutely ready and willing to be devoured- But Stiles was a teen, Derek couldn't help but have a small part of his brain tell him how he'd become a Kate Argent if he continued, but a larger part of him told that small part to fuck off before he gave anothee fleeting kiss on Stiles' lips: "C'mon, let's continue our little picnic, okay?" And like that, they resumed eating, talking, and smiling at each other as if nothing had happened- Eli and Ammy were both playing, Derek played with them as he shifted into his full form, the large black wolf acted like a big puppy and tried to get his pups attention by lowering himself to the ground, it only had Eli hiding behind Stiles as he smelled slightly afraid while Ammy just slapped his nose for scaring her brother. "Now now Ammy, it isn't good to slap daddy-" Stiles froze as if he noticed what he just said, Derek preened as he heard his Mate announcing to his children how the wolf was now their dad. "-Uhm, well, anyway-" Awkwardly, Stiles picked Eli up and hugged the baby, smiling and whispering to him: "C'mon baby, wanna go foraging?" And indeed he wanted to! Eli got to his full shift as did Ammy, soon Stiles followed by transforming into a large white fox, as big as Derek himself, his eyes however were bright blue and his fur was snow white, which was the complete opposite to Derek's form.
In fact, Stiles himself is the complete opposite to Derek- They share some similarities, like their intelligence, their sarcasm, their love for books (albeit their favorite genres are different), their love for nature… But their opposites? While Derek's quiet, Stiles's talkative, while Derek's stoic, Stiles's expressive, while Derek's cold and ruthless, Stiles's warm and even more ruthless than he is (Which isn't an opposite, but it's a good thing), while Derek's shy and introverted, Stiles's loud and extroverted.
They were made for each other.
And now, as they walk through the Preserve, four different shifters in a weird family, Derek feels happy and without worries for the first time in a really long time. Their picnic reunion (Derek secretly added a 'family' to that) went well, they walked back to the Stilinski's household while the sun was setting in the horizon, the kids were asleep on Derek's and Stiles' arms as they whispered amongst themselves so they wouldn't wake them up: "Today was fun." Derek smiled, not an ounce of that visible heavy emotional weight he carries every single day on his back could be seen right now, it was like he was a completely different man! "Yeah, it was." Stiles' shy smile was everything to him, he wanted to see that smile, he wanted to be the reason that smile was there! "So-" Stiles suddenly stopped, his body moved before Derek could ask what waa wrong, and they were running towards the Stilinski house- There, on the roof, stood a large black spider with green eyes, mouth agape and dripping with green-black liquid, beneath it was a familiar animal.
Erebus.
He wasn't moving.
Stiles? Stiles felt something within him crack- The pack bond he shared with his raven cracked and broken, no longer there as the bird was no longer alive. "Derek." Stiles turned to look at the wolf, he pointed at the spider just as it started to screech really loudly, alerting the entire neighborhood of the monster- How could he forget? The world was changing, and they would change with the world or be left behind to die: "Protect the kids." Derek was about to ask 'Protect them from what?' When he heard the sound of hundreds of little feet tapping on the ground, moving, then there was galloping, snarls, and cries and hoots as two wolves, one coyote, one large owl, and one horse appeared, they were all fighting several little spiders (When compared to the - their mother?- larger spider, they were small) that all were moving around like crazy. "Holy shi- Back!" Derek shifted into his large wolf form instantly, snarling and defensively surrounding the kids, who were now awake and staring at the spiders in fright- Ammy pulled out this small wand and pointed it at one of the spiders, and from the wand a bolt of fire shot out, burning it as it hit. 'Did Stiles give magical guns to our kids?' Indeed Stiles did! Sadly, only weak magical wands were sold on the [Shop], at most it had a wand that casted a level 1 or level 2 spell once or twice a day.
Eli himself had a similar wand- Stiles gave them both the wands and told them to use it only when necessary, and now it was! He aimed with shaky hands as a ray of frost energy impacted on one of the spiders Derek was beating the shit out of in wolf form, both kids were absolutely shooting the spiders without mercy as their scent betrayed their fear and anxiety, and as one of their father he will keep them safe with his life! 'Protect pups.' That was all he could focus on, his (future) Mate was strong enough to take care of himself, case and point: A large white flying eagle that was loudly beating the shit out of the large spider with fire and lightning. See? Derek isn't worried about Stiles, he is worried about the kids, he'll protect them.
Meanwhile, Stiles was focused on using [Rainbow Blast], a spell he read that was radiant in nature, and the way this creature feels like is very undead! The spell would release two blast of rainbow colored spheres that upon impact would explode and damage the spider- He did notice the large spider started to regenerate like a werewolf, the smaller ones did not regenerate as fast as the adult one did, they were killed before they could even try! Also, fire seemed to do it for the small ones and stopped their healing, the big one? The big one needed that radiant energy and damage to stop healing! Stiles groaned when the spider spit a large blob of green poison on his avian form, besides its large size it had impeccable aim and had the magical ability to control shadows to some extent, which it was using to block some of the spell attacks Stiles was using. Radiant seemed extra effective because it dispersed the shadows- The sun was setting in the horizon, the shadows were larger and therefore the spider had more power! Stiles' white eagle form could see such power also increase in the small spiders, he saw how his kids were in danger, and he reacted.
"Fucker!" He screeched as a bright ball of light shone above his head, immediately it was like he turned on the sun because daylight was shining everywhere! The spiders let out these painful screeches of pain before they started to try and retreat, the big one as well, although it looked really angry more than afraid of the sunlight- Stiles would not let it go! "Derek, get the kids to safety." Stiles had no idea what else could be out there, he did not care if magic and the supernatural was exposed to the world, all he cared was for the safety of his loved ones. He'll get revenge for Erebus! Stiles casted a new spell he was not sure would work, but might as well try! He gathered the energy from within his body and charged towards the spider, dodging masterfully three of its large blobs of poison before he kicked the spider, the last moment before the talons of his form connected, a bright white boom of energy, a spear of electricity impaled the spider's abdomen, exploding in gruesome green poisonous blood, there was some necrotic energy mixed with it too as well as an acidic energy because the blood started to melt the floor of the house as it fell, however the Spider was still fucking alive!
Stiles turned to attack it again, his giant eagle body could not move before the spider struck him- With a poof of smoke, his body went from a giant eagle back to his Stiles form: "What even are you?" Stiles called telepathically to him and he came- Avalon swooped in, his talons clawing at the spider's eyes, taking out two of them before dodging by the skin of his teeth (or rather, skin of his beak) a large and strangely black sphere of poison. It was full of poison, acid, and necrotic energy in that thing! Stiles saw when the ball flew out and hit a tree, it withered and melted the tree at the same time, killing it in seconds: "Fuck, careful Avalon!" The rest of his pack was chasing after the smaller spiders, Skoll and Hati were killing them left and right, Malia helped a lot as did Nalunod, Derek was protecting his dad and kids inside the house, and for that he was grateful. "Shit-" He moved his hand, casting [Push] and with that a bolt of purple energy pushed the Large creature out of the roof, making it fall right into the Stilinski's garden, destroying a portion of the decoration Stiles had made.
His fingers traced the air around him, his hands made the gesture of grabbing and holding as the water from Nalunod's pond suddenly came to life, moving and making a large hand that grappled and grasped the spider. Huffing and puffing like a wolf, Stiles clenched his hold, keeping the spider there- It cried, cried for its young to come and help, and Stiles' limited understanding of this creature translated a few words: "COME. EAT. DESTROY." It repeated the same words several times as Stiles' hold kept increasing, this wasn't what the spell was meant to do, but he could modify it a bit right? He tightened the hold the giant hand of water had, he saw the green-black blood of the spider fall as he crushed it with a giant hand of water.
[Announcement!]
A sudden flaring red screen appeared before Stiles' eyes.
[Your world is undergoing change- In 1 Year time, magic will reach the point of manifesting naturally, monsters will become normal occurrences, and technology will fall.]
Wait, why will technology fall?
[Why technology will fall? Because that is the will of Ghur, technology is merely a distraction of the great world this will be- However, magical technology? Wink wink nudge nudge.]
D-did the screen just speak to him? "What the fuck?"
[Rude.]
With that, the screen simply vanished, and no matter what Stiles did, it did not appear again. He had never seen his screens turn red before, but it gave him a good warning, he must prepare.
But first- "How the hell am i going to clean this shit up?"
—-
In the end, the rest of Derek's pack came and helped. Isaac and Jackson acted disgusted with the large spider while Lydia looked rather curiously at it, he did not know why they were here but a look at Derek told him enough; The Alpha had to make sure his pack was okay, but he couldn't leave his cubs to check on them, so he called them and they came here for some reason. "So this thing attacked your home?" Erica, ever so curious, held Eli in her arms as the little doe was slowly relaxing, Peter held little Ammy with fear in his eyes, to think he almost lost another member of his family… "Yep." Stiles was well aware of his neighbors watching him from afar, or rather, watching what was in his yard and how destroyed his house looked. He managed to hide the corpse of the spiders, but to explain what they heard and some saw? He wouldn't, nor did he care- He cared only for his own, and if they are alive and well! Possibly hunters will come, but Stiles will be ready by then. "Lydia, please get me my green bag-" He pointed at Derek, who had it, but was too worried and pacing from one side to the other as he was having a phone call with someone. Lydia gave him an analytical look before she went, took his bag, and gave it to him: "Go on, ask them questions."
"Do you know what that thing is?"
"Well, if I had to guess, it's an Undead Demonic spider coming from another dimension." Stiles' cheeky grin grew- He knew exactly what this was now that he had time to look for a glossary of monsters and beasts, which was also why he was collecting the things' blood, eyes, jaw, and poison sack! "This is something called a Death Crawler, but this one? It's an Adult One, like dragons the older they are the stronger they are. Their blood is poisonous, acidic, and has beautiful necrotic energy that I'll use to do something." Lydia was about to comment when Avalon landed right beside them, looking at her with an inquisitive expression: "Sire, this one is like me… But human, she is a Banshee." Stiles raised his eyebrows- huh, so that's why she was looking at the spider with such curiosity! She can feel the death inside the spider, the necrotic energy that lingered in the green blood. "Well, Avalon, thank you for telling me." Stiles used [Shape Water] to control the blood, or he tried to, it was unsuccessful so he resorted to just collecting the blood for now!
"I hope this works-" He grabbed the corpse of his first pack member, he was not sad as he should feel for the fact that he knew he could bring him back, in fact, he has brought the raven's soul back! "So Alpha, this ritual thing is gonna make my body immortal!?" And that soul is very excited on his shoulder, sadly none besides him himself could see him thanks to his new feat: [Soul Sight]
[Soul Sight:
Allows you to see spirits and souls of the nearly dead, grants you the Level 1 spell [Spear of Rot] and the ability to speak with the souls you see as long as they speak a language you understand.]
See? Useful! "Yes, Erebus, now wait-" What is Stiles doing? A ritual of course, since he can also cast spells ritually he is going to convert the beautiful raven he has into something unique, something even more beautiful, something that won't die as easily! "-Let's get this started." Stiles slashed his own hand, bleeding upon Erebus' corpse, he heard the pack making inquisitive sounds, Derek tried to get close but Stiles had to focus right now! He spent the next 10 minutes chanting in an unknown language (unknown to most) and using the blood collected from the Death Crawler to make markings on the raven's corpse, this was also part of the ritual to convert it to undeath. What? Nature is death, nature is life, nature is everything! Undeath is also part of nature, and Stiles knows it. "Come forth from beyond the shadow veils of death, my champion, Erebus." What he did was a clever combination of both spells [Summon Undead] To push Erebus' soul that he got with [Raise Dead Animal] which he canceled when Erebus' soul appeared from beyond the veil, he gave the option to resurrect the raven or make him better- The raven chose to be better. So Stiles combined another spell; [Awaken Undead] and both were casted at the same time, which made something unique.
It wouldn't be possible if Stiles didn't have the new feat [Ritual Specialist]:
[Ritual Specialist:
You can modify, combine, and create rituals to cast spells! This feat allows you to cast multiple spells through a single ritual, the amount of spells you can cast as ritual (at the same time) is equal to half your level!]
See, cool right? Anyway!
The moment he spoke the last words of the ritual (not caring if the neighbors could see, everything went to shit anyway!) his own shadow expanded and covered the corpse of the raven, the soul on his shoulder simply was pulled towards the corpse with a "Woah!" before the shadows consumed the corpse- Erebus, as his name was, emerged from the shadows again. This time, his body was not that of a physical raven, but a wisp of dark energy molded together to shape a raven. "Wow, this is trippy!" Stiles blinked- Ah, right, awakening… It gave sapience and sentience to the undead, as well as the ability to speak if the means are there: "Alpha! I can speak! Wow, this is so weird!" His voice sounded like a whisper in the wind, almost ethereal in nature: "Urgh, I'm already regretting this…" Even though he spoke like that, the huge grin on his face clearly told them all how relieved he was.
Erebus landed on his shoulder, momentarily dissipating before reforming, his eyes were bright neon green and his body was bigger than a normal raven, about the size of Avalon himself! "Well, is everybody up for tea?" Stiles had what he wanted from the corpse of the large spider, he wanted to just deal with the rest of it later, he had not many [SP] left so he couldn't cast taxing spells after casting so many of them today! "We'll deal with the corpses of the spiders later… Skoll, don't eat that!" Skoll let go of the spider he was trying to gnaw on with a whimper: "Now, let's get inside because I have some dire news from nature itself, let's go." Clapping both hands, Stiles pointed to Peter and said: "Call Chris, everyone should be here to hear what's going to happen, every single person that knows about the supernatural inside this town- Because guess what! It's about to get worse!" Stiles sounded a little bit hysterical, because he was freaking out right now! I mean, giant spiders? What's next, dragons!?
Don't answer that!
It took about an hour to get everyone to the Stilinski's household, Stiles dealt with the spider corpses while waiting, burying it wasn't exactly an option so he just toasted it! Fire and some holy water (He had to make it, since store bought is not cheap!) was enough to turn the spider's corpse into black ash that was scattered to the seven winds. After he dealt with that, he began tidying up the garden, and as it turns out, the people from Beacon Hills weren't as dumb as he thought! A majority of them spent their lives here, were born here, or had family here ever since the Hales roamed these lands, they kept to themselves- Or the majority did. Those who didn't? Stiles shooed them away with a glare and flare of his magic, he also called his own pack, Danny, the Queens and Urian, his dad was already there, and the mountain lioness came when he called for her with a roar! Nana and her cubs Naer, Noel, and Niin were all there too. Adorable beans that meowed and mewled to him until he reassured them everything would be fine.
Once everyone was there- And i mean, everyone, Jammy, Howard, Keaton, Adrian, Urian, Erica, Boyd, Danny, Jackson, Lydia, Allison, Scott (who is yet to even apologize to him, or try to speak to him), Melissa, Chris, Peter, Cora, his babies Eli and Ammy, Derek, his dad, and of course, the Guerra Pride! Well, they weren't there physically, but their Alpha, Alpha Mate, Left Hand, and Emissary were on a call with him and hearing what he had to say: "Thank you everyone for being here- Today my house was attacked my a Death Crawler, an undead monstrosity from the outer plane of Hades, or in simpler words… A spider monster undead demon from another dimension." There was silence, no one spoke as he hadn't yet finished what he had to say: "After defeating and killing it, I can't ignore it anymore… I know that no one here has to believe me, but I assure you this-" He closed his eyes, sighed heavily as he said: "Things are going to get worse, more and more monsters, demons, celestials, and more are going to come to this world… In about a year, the supernatural will no longer be an unspoken secret in the world, but will be exposed worldwide."
Derek looked at him, his eyes wide- But there was trust behind those eyes, he trusted what Stiles was telling him: "What are we going to do?" Hearing his question, Stiles smiled: "The only thing we can- Prepare, get stronger, train, and protect our town. Demons, Fiend, Fey, Undead, Celestials, Dragons, and more are coming to this world, and better be ready because society as we know it will collapse, technology will stop working because magic will bloom beyond what is possible, the world will regress a few thousand years- Planes will fall from the sky, submarines will sink either from malfunction or being attacked by sea monsters, chaos will reign for the first few years of the new world… Which is why, I, Stiles Stilinski, Alpha of the Stilinski pack, hereby give Alpha Hale the proposition of fusing our packs through our mating."
There was silence. Not because of respect for what he had to say, but shock and happiness- Derek's face reflected the moment he realized what Stiles said.
"I, Alpha Hale, accept your proposition Alpha Stilinski… We shall be mated in the spring." Mating happens normally in the spring, which gives them about… Four months to prepare.
Derek couldn't believe he could be this happy- He was going to be mated to Stiles, and the affectionate smile he gave him cleared all the doubts Derek had in his mind that this was done from necessity- maybe a little bit, but he could also see Stiles' love for him, he could smell it as could every Werecreature in the room. "Holy shit!" Everybody exploded into congratulations, comments, and even just seemed happy- Except a few, like how Scott looked constipated, Urian looked a little apprehensive, and John looked a little sad that his wife wasn't here to witness this.
But all that mattered was Stiles's smile- Bright and beautiful.
-Scene Cut-
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