Tracker Dog Facility [V 3.0]

[Utopia]

Tracker Dog Application

Username:
Utopia
Tracker Dog you want:
Number 77
Name you'll give it:
Wechselbalg [ˈvɛksəlˌbalk]
("Changeling")

Reason why you want it:
I have always had a thing for (artificially created) creatures that are a little bit more than pets. I have also always had a thing for futuristic settings (Shadowrun, Warhammer 40k, Stanislaw Len’s novels to name a few). And I have a ton of characters floating around that have been altered and / or created for these settings and I do role play some of them in a pen&paper-group, while others sit in the back of my head (sometimes with a firm character sheet, sometimes not) and only get used for short stories – and a few of these could definitely use a companion of some sorts. There is, for example, my technomancer Salome, proud companion of a Zver named Schwarzgold.
Background information aside, I totally see a potential for this guy to become a very interesting companion. I’m toying with the idea of a Warhammer 40k character (preferably post-heresy /nerd) and the possibilities to pair her up with a gorgeous creature like this excite me to no end. Fortunately, I always have had very lenient GMs and co-players so far, so if I actually manage to find a Warhammer 40k pen&paper-group, I’d try to probably talk them in allowing me a… well, ‘animal’ companion. (Note: The introduction will be based around Warhammer 40k with the corresponding vocabulary. I will however try to make it as understandable without Google Fu as possible.)

Will it be used in any kind of story?
Do you count pen&paper as a story? If so, then yes. I might be gifted with the inspiration and time to write short vignettes ever so often, but nothing more. I neither have the time nor the motivation for longer ones, I’m afraid.

DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: authorization needed
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: confirmation pending
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: access granted
WELCOME TO DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: menu
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members: datasheets
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members: datasheets: Wechselbalg

SPECIES: mutated Tracker Dog / entity of the Immaterium (confirmed by Reman Finai)
GENDER: genderless
AGE: physical age: 29 / mental age: unknown ?no cellular aging? ?rejuvenation treatments?
HEIGHT: circa 95 cm / 3” 1.4’
WEIGHT: unknown
PSYCHIC: positive (switch to full report?)
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES: glowing markings, mane, appears translucent

NOT RELATED TO CHAOS IN ANY WAY, APPEARANCE IS MISLEADING

IS ACCOMPANYING INQUISITOR EUOPA AGYRIS (change data sheet?)

DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: switch to: subsection: members: reports
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members: reports
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members: reports: Wechselbalg
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: error: no report found
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: searching database for “Wechselbalg”
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: searching database: complete

SEARCH RESULTS:
datasheet: Wechselbalg (switch to datasheet?)
unsorted: sheets: Wechselbalg (switch to information sheet?)

DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: switch to: subsection: members: unsorted
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members: unsorted
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members: unsorted: sheets
DATABASE [ORDO MALLEUS]: subsection: members: unsorted: sheets: Wechselbalg

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON INQUISITION MEMBER “WECHSELBALG”

PSYCHIC POWERS:
extremely weak offensive powers, weak empathic powers, strong spotting powers, extremely strong camouflage powers
note: can turn fully (im)material at will and can also turn others into its half material, half immaterial state, however this requires very high concentration and drains most its stamina

HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS:
1. The individual is able to eschew seizure and / or contact easily due to his half material, half immaterial state. It is able to sense feelings – stay calm when trying to approach it.
2. The individual abhors Chaos, the signs of Chaos and the entities of Chaos. Do not expect it to stay calm and / or put when being faced with any of these three.
3. The individual does not follow orders. It will however follow reasonable requests.
4. The individual values courtesy.
5. The individual is not able to talk with non-psychic beings.
6. The individual will only expose itself to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation in dire situations.
7. The individual does not like its personal space to be invaded by strangers. Will bite!
8. The individual somehow shows traits of a jester during frequent outbursts of energy (every 3 to 5 days). It is best to ignore such outbursts; attention of any kind will only fuel its attempts at tricking people.

FURTHER NOTES:
1. Is sentient. Does not like to be treated like a dog.
2. Is mainly sweet-tempered. Exceptions are rare but strong.
3. Has a slightly sadistic sense of humour that it exerts solely on people it dislikes.
4. Is possessive of those it likes. Can be jealous.
5. Favours non-violent solutions.
6. Is easy to appease – a single apology works wonders.
7. Can go up to three weeks without food or water. Has a weakness for raw seafood, soft cheeses and drinks of low alcoholic content. Gets drunk very fast.
8. Likes soft music, preferably chants. Does not mind loud noises.
9. Favours dark, warm places and heaps of blankets. Is attracted to dim and / or natural light sources, especially fire and glowing embers.
10. Loves to play chase and will trick people in playing when lacking a partner. Wins always. Cheats.
11. Is very fond of non-sentient creatures. Has been observed to befriend those easily.
12. Does not like strangers – will retreat and observe from a distance. Can however get a little over-friendly with people it knows well. Dislikes to sleep alone, but will only allow people it knows well near itself while sleeping.
13. Does not like sacral places and rites. Is okay with sacral symbols. Shies away from priests and other members of the Ecclesiarchy. ?heretic tendencies?
14. Will under no circumstance attack a being that is showing no signs of aggression and does not belong to Chaos. Is an able fighter.
15. Loathes having its ears touched in its material form. Loves scratches on back and neck.
16. Is barely noticeable for Psykers. Very useful for scouting and / or infiltration.
17. Apt at spotting other psychic beings. This does extend to other entities of the Warp. Can distinguish a daemon from any other psychic being.
18. Preferred fighting technique: ambush / hit-and-run.
19. Claws leave deep gashes in carpets and scratches on wooden floors. Is better kept in a non-material state in case of diplomatic missions.

STARTING DATA-PAD
STARTING DATA-PAD: complete
OPEN FOLDER: PERSONAL
AUTHORIZATION NEEDED FROM: Euopa Agyris
AUTHORIZATION: received
OPEN FOLDER: PERSONAL: complete
OPEN DOCUMENT: MEMORIES
OPEN DOCUMENT: MEMORIES: loading

Silence. There had rarely been so much silence – usually, the cities of the Imperium of Mankind were bustling with life and noisier than a Valkyrie Assault Carrier. This one however… well, maybe it was because it was on the very outskirts of the Imperium, on a barely developed Jungle World. The forest that covered the planet had been burned down in several places and cities had been built to harbour settlers. There was already a medical industry forming as well as tourism was picking up, but the population was still laughably small and wide-spread.
Or maybe it was because Inquisitor Reman Finai was paying Dyene V a visit. The planet – or precisely: the fifth moon of the gas giant Mykonos – had shown up in his reports once too often. That was, it had shown up once and that was once too often for Reman Finai. He, like all Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus, wasn’t known for his lenience. Rather to the contrary, in fact. Finai had nearly been elected a High Inquisitor a few times already as the rumour mill had it and those weren’t picked for their good looks after all.
It really was silent here, though. Euopa Agyris, Remembrancer in Finai’s service, was used to picking up small details that made her poetry much more vivid and interesting. She even liked silence – it gave her the possibility to concentrate on said small details and to focus on composing new epics. This silence however was too much; it was starting to plainly unnerve her. Instinctively, she sped up her steps until she was marching right behind Finai, his presence strangely comforting.
He was alert, as usual, his posture betraying a mixture of emotional withdrawal, absolute sureness and an unwavering, calm resolve. Finai was a force to be reckoned with. She was sure that he had noticed her catching up to him, but he just kept walking instead of addressing her. In her mind, Euopa was already trying to string words together to describe this new mission and to compose a new epic that was worthy of him. She had only accompanied the Inquisitor on two missions so far, both of which had turned out to be false alarms. Nothing worth to remember there – this one however was different.

“You. Remembrancer.” – “Yessir?” – “This is important. This will be unlike the missions we were on before, this time I am entirely sure.” A data pad trust into her direction. “Have a look at it, Remembrancer, and do your job. Remember it. This is your chance. Do not spoil it.” He stalks away, leaving her half trembling with fear and half with anger. My name is Agyris, she wants to call after him, but in the end, she just retreats to her chamber and turns on the data pad.

The pad had contained a written report from some guardsman of the Planetary Defence Forces and a pict of very questionable quality – but what a pict! A strange creature, the front half of its slightly glowing body protruding from a wall, the other half being hidden behind it. It looked like a fake to her, but if Finai wanted to check, then maybe…
Euopa mentally shook herself. This was not the time to zoom out – she could still do that back on their ship. Taking a deep breath, she once again tried to take everything in: the low-rise buildings, the earthen colours, the muddy road and the green of the jungle looming over the small city. Every so often, a citizen of this settlement would hurry out of their way – or be pushed aside by one of the twenty heavily-armoured guards Finai had brought with him – and in the distance, the shrieking of xeno creatures could be heard occasionally.

The smell of earth is stronger than the mountains,
The jungle turns its fingers to the sky…

She almost collided with the man as Finai suddenly stopped. They had arrived, it seemed, and Euopa hastily took a step back as the Inquisitor turned around to face her. In his eyes she still had to prove her worth to him and she knew it. “Already off to your own little realm, it seems”, he remarked, his tone calm but his eyes piercing straight into her soul and tearing it apart to find even the smallest of flaws and punish her for it. Euopa nodded, her voice suddenly gone as it had been so often when he addressed her. He probably didn’t even mean to look that way, he just did. He always did.
“Do you know what a Tracker Dog is, Remembrancer?” Around them, the guards took a defensive stance, their helmeted heads turning from one side to the other. It didn’t quite help to calm her already stressed nerves down, either. Euopa half nodded, half shook her head and Finai quietly raised his eyebrows at her indecisiveness. They had met back on Telos, her homeworld, where she had gotten in trouble with the authorities for some of her more unconventional poems: He had stepped in for reasons that were wholly beyond her and had taken her with him for reasons that were even farther beyond her.
“They are a special breed. I believe they even have xeno blood in them, but that is none of my concern.” Still, he wrinkled his nose as he spoke. Finai really wasn’t known for his lenience. “Tracker Dogs are artificially created to serve as loyal companions all throughout the Imperium. Most of them are used for military purposes – as they were intended – but some are in private hands. They’re smart enough to serve for all sorts of tasks – scouting, patrolling, guarding… tracking.” There was a hint of amusement in his voice. Or was there really?
Euopa nodded. The Inquisitor didn’t quite seem to acknowledge it, but there was an ever so slight change in his tone of voice. Was he truly sounding a little bit less harsh now? “Did you take a look at the data pad?” She nodded again, still not trusting her voice. He had that effect on most people, simply because he was an Inquisitor. A simple nod could eradicate whole planets and a word could end a life faster than it had begun (or slower, depending on the convict) – it wasn’t that much of a surprise that most people didn’t even dare to speak around him.
“You know what might await us then.” And with that he turned away again, leaving Euopa with the increasing feeling of fear quenching her throat. Of course she knew. He was an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, after all. He was there to eradicate the threats of Chaos, to bring down any daemon or cultist that found his way into the Imperium and sought to corrupt it from within. He was there to battle the most malignant foe that Mankind had ever encountered, the mindless evil that spawned from the immaterial dimension of the Warp. She had known that writing about him also meant writing about Chaos, but she had never come this close to it before.

And darkness holds it, suffocating,
A darkness no-one’s ever seen before…

They entered one of the larger buildings shortly after Finai had spoken to Euopa. There was something written over the entrance, but Euopa had paid no attention to it, too absorbed in her tries to reassure herself. She was shaking ever so slightly, she realized, even though the air was hot and humid around her. There seemed to be no possibility to ignore Dyene V’s climate, not even with air conditioners – the temperature had dropped a little bit as soon as they entered the building, but the humidity had only increased in turn.
Right behind the building’s door, they stopped. There were some plastic chairs standing in the corners and one or two faded motivation posters almost blending into the light brown walls – no windows, though. It looked almost normal, Euopa observed, just like one expected a building on an almost desolated outpost to look. What had she expected? She didn’t know herself – maybe the star of Chaos etched into the walls, the Imperial Aquila defiled and broken on the ground… but no, it was there, as regal as ever, stretching its wings over the door they had just stepped through.
Finai snapped his fingers and pointed to the door on the other side of the room without saying a word. The atmosphere had changed – the guards were tenser now, the muzzles of their rifles trained at the door the Inquisitor had pointed to and even Finai had drawn his bolt pistol, the heavy weapon both reassuring and terrifying in his hands.

About to spew its light and tear asunder
Whatever foe might step forward to meet him…

Surprisingly quiet, two of the guards crept towards the door, halted for a moment – all around her, safety catches clicked open – and then pushed it open. The world seemed to freeze for a moment, but after a strangely anticlimactic shudder… nothing happened. No daemonhost charged at them, no cultist or otherwise defiled individual stepped up. Nothing. Slowly, more guards advanced, however all of a sudden Finai turned and pointed to her, held up two fingers and turned around again to march off in the dark corridor that stretched behind the newly opened door.
Two of the guards promptly shielded Euopa from behind and one gave her a firm push with the muzzle of his rifle. Gulping nervously, she followed the armour-clad figure of the Inquisitor in front of her, his golden powerarmour (Mark VIII, no less, modified to be worn by a human and not a Marine – these ones were as scarce as they were precious, for this newest model was only given to the Emperor’s truest and most accomplished servants (mainly servants from the Adeptus Astartes, the Chapters of the super-human Space Marines, and certainly not some normal human being)) giving off a soft shimmer.

A beacon! Emperor, this meagre servant
Guides thousands with his shining light!

They advanced in silence. In front of her, Finai’s scarlet cloak was swishing nearly inaudibly with every step he took, the plates of his powerarmour grinding against each other ever so softly. The corridor they were marching down was long-winded and dark, the lamps under the ceiling dimmed to give off a soft glow and nothing more. Euopa almost craved to close the short distance between her and the Inquisitor – the uneasiness she perceived from this place was beginning to grow larger than her fear from him and that meant something.
At the end of the corridor, another door awaited them. This time, Finai motioned for them to halt and stepped forward on his own to push it open. The bright light of Dyene V flooded the darkness and made Euopa lift a hand to protect her eyes – the guards stood unflinching, of course, their helmets protecting their eyes from the sudden shift in brightness and Finai was far beyond such reactions. Alongside with the light, noise came flooding in. Voices – both human and animal – were sounding in the distance and the noisy sounds of business accompanied the chatter.
Finai grunted and holstered his bolt pistol again. Around her, the guards were lowering their rifles and breaking the defensive formation. Euopa felt a weight being lifted off her shoulders as the Inquisitor stepped forward again, his demeanour speaking of alertness rather than of readiness to shoot. They had arrived in an entrance hall of some sorts. Here, people were rooted to their spots upon their appearance, their eyes wide and fearful at the sight of the Inquisitor and his entourage. The sounds, she noticed, were coming from a distance – the entrance hall was as quiet as a Stasis Tomb on some Tomb World, where the cybernautic warriors of the Necron slept until some poor fool signed his own death sentence by awakening them again.

He is emerging from the darkness,
His armour shines as brightly as the sun…

Not that it would have bothered the Inquisitor. Finai simply walked up to the unfortunate worker who was closest to him, planted himself in front of the already terrified man and stared the poor soul down for a few seconds. “Where is the overseer of this facility?” The worker seemed to shrink back into the ground at the sound of Finai’s voice. The Inquisitor wasn’t even sounding particularly scary to Euopa – well, he was, but he could sound far more intimidating – this was merely his normal tone of voice: calculating, chilly to the bone and with a hint of both cruelness and pride.
The worker could only point to one of the three outward bound doors and mouth something that probably meant ‘in that direction’. Euopa was almost expecting the poor guy to die from a strike any moment. Finai however only grumbled something along the lines of “Pathetic, useless scum!” and shoved the man aside hard enough to cause him to stumble and crash to the floor in a heap of limbs. They set off again, the Remembrancer only snapping out of her thoughts when the last guard had almost passed her and nudged her with the butt of his rifle. She hurried to catch up to the Inquisitor again.
Another corridor, far brighter than the first one, a large, circular room with a glass ceiling, an awe-struck worker with more precise directions, two more corridors, increasingly broad and sterile, something that seemed to be an assembly hall, another corridor and after a turn, heavy steel doors, guarded by two members of the Planetary Defence Forces. They snapped to attention as the Inquisitor and his entourage rounded the corner. The steel doors however remained shut.

Here, where the whiteness is detaching
This maze from all the outer world…

“Open the doors, man!”, Finai snapped at one of the soldiers after having come to an abrupt halt before the unrelenting steel doors. Doors usually sprang open before an Inquisitor, simply because he was likely suspect that something unusual was going on behind them otherwise and that would result in him opening the doors by force. And nobody wanted that to happen if he was closer to the door than several lightyears.
The soldier seemed slightly uncomfortable under the Inquisitor’s cold stare but he managed to give an appropriate answer, which at least seemed to calm down the rather un-amused Finai. “I can’t, Sir. These can be only opened with a retina scan or from the inside and I’ve got no access, Sir.” Finai snorted and drew his bolt pistol, which caused the soldier to go white with fear and hastily add: “I can try to make a call for someone who can, Sir!” The Inquisitor gave one of his rare grins, holstered the bolt pistol again and the soldier fiddled out a mobile radio from one of his pockets with shaking fingers.
About three minutes later, the doors slid open with an audible hiss. Cold air washed over the waiting and Euopa involuntarily shuddered and slung her arms around herself to shield her thin frame from the sudden drop in temperature. A man stood in the doorframe, an uneasy smile plastered over his face. He was quite handsome, Euopa noticed, but the panicked expression in his eyes and the slightly trembling lips made him look like a particularly handsome rabbit.
“Pleased to meet you, Inquisitor.” The newcomer made a daring attempt to dispel the tension in the air, but Finai met his uneasy smile with an unwavering stare and crossed his arms over his broad chest. The attempt had obviously failed. “M-my name’s Vendrian Polus, I am the overseer of the facility. You wanted to meet me, Inquisitor?” He didn’t look like an overseer, Euopa thought – overseers were often from the Adeptus Mechanicus, machine-human hybrids who strived to shed their mortal bodies in order to achieve the perfection that only technology promised. Vendrian Polus however was human through and through (at least judging from the looks of him).
“You are an overseer?” Finai seemed to share her doubts. “Has something happened to the Tech-priest?” The Adeptus Mechanicus was, after all, stationed on Mars and if, for some reason, the local Tech-priest had died, it would take months, maybe even years to dispatch a new one to Dyene V.
“No, Inquisitor.” Polus seemed to become increasingly uneasy. “There never was a Tech-priest. We are working with organic, although artificially created living beings here and the Adeptus Mechanicus is rather… err, unfit for this task.” Euopa didn’t blame him for his uneasiness. Being questioned by an Inquisitor truly wasn’t a fun experience, even if the Inquisitor in question hadn’t yet broken out the variety of his… ‘tools’.
Finai made a noncommittal sound but nodded and – pushing Polus aside – stepped through the doors, his entourage hot on his heels. The doors slid shut behind them, their hiss causing the cool air around them to whirl. “I have had a report of strange sightings around your facility, overseer”, he announced sounding almost bored, his head turning from side to side to get an overview of the room. Euopa followed his example, curious what she would see. From her point of view, it looked like a research station of some sort.
Long tables of polished steel stood in gleaming rows under bright spotlights, microscopes and medical equipment scattered across their clean surfaces. At the far end of the room, ceiling-high cabinets held test tubes and glass bottles with brightly coloured liquids in them. Fire extinguishers were secured to table legs everywhere and two even thicker looking steel doors on opposite walls led out of the room. The prevalent colours were white and silver – spotless and shining under the bright spotlights – and the only other colours were brought into the room by Finai and his entourage. Even Polus was dressed all white.

Here, where the whiteness is detaching
This maze from all the outer world,
The bright. white light is truly catching
His words in flight as they unfold.

After a moment of silence and looking around, Finai turned around calmly, his eyes hard and unblinkingly trained on the slightly sweating overseer: “Do you know what I am talking about?” It was quite clear that Polus knew exactly what Finai was talking about, even to the rather inexperienced Euopa. She was good in observing even the smallest details of her environment but reading people? Not so much.
“You mean Number 77.” The overseer’s voice was quiet, even after he had cleared his throat twice. For a split second, the Inquisitor glanced over to Euopa and she caught the hint of a raised eyebrow, but as soon as the moment had begun, it ended again and Finai continued to stare Polus down.
“Then why did you not contact me? Why did a Guardsman – a Guardsman of all! – have to plead for my help against the daemon? Why did you keep quiet, overseer?” The room’s temperature had dropped for another five degrees all of a sudden. In a flurry of scarlet cloth and gleaming golden plasteel plate, Finai had drawn his bolt pistol and aimed it at Polus’ forehead. A strip of holy paper, covered in a prayer or chant to the Emperor, fluttered at the bolt pistol’s handle. The Inquisitor’s voice had become poisonous, his eyes were blazing in their sockets.

An angel, a saint who set his holy foot
Mighty on this mellow earth
And that it out of its misery he’ll put,
It rises up to meet his worth.

Behold! His eyes aflame, his gaze is stone,
His grip is molten rock and roaring flame!

Polus dropped to his knees, his mouth gaping, his face pallid, Euopa noticed with rapt fascination. Something fluttered deep in her stomach, but for the first time of the day, it was not the flutter of fear but of excitement and… what was that feeling? Jealousy?

He is the Emp’ror’s hammer, he alone
Is to win this day’s unholy game…

“Traitor!” Finai’s voice echoed in the laboratory, magnifying the roar several thousand times. The bolt pistol bellowed once, twice, three times and battled the sound of the Inquisitor’s scream bouncing off the walls again and again. Euopa didn’t shrink back but watched in wide-eyed rapture as Finai turned around again and fired one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight shots into the cabinets. Glass broke and liquids spilled out, some catching fire instantly, some eating through the remains of the shattering cabinets, others giving off a foul stench or thick smoke.
Euopa coughed as the first wave of smoke, stench and finely dispersed chemicals hit her. Her eyes watered instantly, her throat burned and she fought to draw breath. The air seemed to become thinner and thinner with every single one of her heartbeats. She wheezed, black spots appearing before her eyes. The soldiers, protected by their helmets joined the Inquisitor in his quest for destruction, their rifles spewing coherent light in all directions, cutting through the tables and instruments, shattering the spotlights and reducing the smoking skeletons of the cabinets to heaps of smouldering rubble.
It was then when she saw it first. Something stood over there, in front of one of the two steel doors. It gave of a soft, blue-ish glow that made the clouds of smoke and Emperor knew what else glow eerily around it. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be too big – maybe as high as her hip, but she could be mistaken, of course. The lack of oxygen made it difficult to think. “Inquisitor!”, she managed to get out and saw the golden figure turn: “There!” She pointed towards the glow, noticed that everything became increasingly blurry and collapsed, nearly getting hit by a streak of coherent light whizzing past her left leg. For a few seconds, she could neither think nor move. The air had become nearly unbreathable by now. How Finai managed to remain standing was beyond her – maybe… for whatever reason it was, she wished she had the same ability. The sounds of the bolt pistol fire and the sharp sucking noises of the laser rifles became increasingly distant.
It was then when something started to haul her backwards, away from the streaking laser fire and the clouds of gas and smoke. She felt strangely light, almost as if she had no body anymore. Her vision was swirling, but the black dots were vanishing, the blurriness decreased and it got easier to breathe again. All of a sudden, the sounds stopped. It got far warmer than before and the air felt almost healing on her still burning respiratory passages. Her eyes were still watering, but she could sit up again and swipe the clear fluid away. Her vision cleared.

She was no longer in the laboratory.

She was in the corridor again. No, she wasn’t. The soldiers were gone. Or maybe they had just fled. She didn’t know. How had she- why was she here? Someone had dragged her – Euopa felt the hairs on her neck stand up as something cool brushed against the side of her throat. It felt slightly slimy and a little bit like a snake. Her whole body froze in terror as the thing brushed against her once more. Something sharp and spiky prodded her back and she heard sniffing noises and felt the puff of air that came with them.
A soft whine followed the prodding and sniffing. It sounded… strange. Hollow. Like – like not from this world! Euopa whirled around and scrambled away from the thing until her back hit the wall. The cold tiles made her gasp involuntarily, but her mind was still numb with shock from the sight. Something stood in front of her. Something that – glowing skeletal markings and no eyes and a long tongue lolling out of its mouth and sharp claws protruding from the two-toed feet and a shaggy mane and no eyes… Euopa opened her mouth to scream, but no sound emerged.
The thing approached her. Even though it could not see her, it seemed to know exactly where she was. Its claws clicked with every step and it stretched its neck to sniff at her again. It retracted two or three steps, cocked its head to one side and whined again. Euopa, still rooted to the spot, could only stare in response. Just as the thing opened its mouth and presented a scary variety of deadly looking teeth, realization hit her. She had seen this thing before! It was the same being she had seen on the data pad that Finai had given her.
Her blood seemed to freeze in her veins. They were here to investigate this thing. Finai was an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus and that meant that – “In the Emperor’s name, I command you to yield, daemon!”, she screeched, her own voice unfamiliar even to her ears. The thing stopped dead, seemed to think her words over, snapped its jaws shut and almost curiously, cocked its head to the other side. Not the desired result. With trembling fingers, she fumbled the pendant of the thin silver chain she wore under her clothes – an Imperial Aquila – out of its hiding place and stretched it toward the thing. It didn’t seem to mind, which was just as bad.
“Leave this world! The force of the Emperor commands you! Go back to the Immaterium, foul daemon!” She was running out of ideas and her throat was burning again. The thing had settled down on its hind legs and seemed rather interested in her tries to banish it. None of them worked, however. “Emperor protects! By the light of the Golden Throne, I dispel you!”
A mighty thud broke through her desperate chant. The steel door to her left suddenly sported a massive bulge. The thing sprang to its feet. Another thud. The bulge got more prominent. The thing retreated a few steps. Thud. Thud. Thud. The steel door was almost unhinged by the savage blows it received from the other side, smoke billowing from the slits that had appeared between the door and the doorframe.
Euopa shakily got to her feet and pointed an accusing finger to the thing: “The Emperor protects!” Just as the words left her mouth, the door burst open to reveal Reman Finai. His golden armour had dark streaks of soot on it, some of the blessing papers attached to his weapons and torso were smouldering. In a flurry of blue-ish glowing, the thing vanished and Finai turned to the still trembling Remembrancer with an expression of pure, unadulterated disbelief on his face.

“It’s gone”, she declared, “the daemon’s gone.” And with that she collapsed once more; already unconscious before she hit the ground.

When Euopa awoke again, she found herself lying on something very hard and very uncomfortable. Whatever it was, she didn’t like it, she decided and pried her eyes open. Bright light greeted her and made her screw up her eyes again. “You are awake”, a voice stated. Euopa did a quick check and decided that the voice sounded distinctively like… Inquisitor Reman Finai! She shot up in a sitting position and her eyes sprang open again. Indeed: Inquisitor Reman Finai was towering over her.
At the back of her head, Euopa realized that she was sitting on an improvised bench made out of plastic chairs that had been grouped together in a room she didn’t recognize. Finai’s eyes softened at her panicked expression and he almost smiled, touching her shoulder with one of his gauntleted hands. “You did well, Remembrancer. I would not have thought someone like you would be able… but you were and you can be proud of yourself. Few have the resolve to banish a daemon and even fewer are outside the ranks of the Ecclesiarchy or the Inquisition.” She stared at him, dumbfounded.
Without taking notice, Finai took a seat next to her. The chair gave a rather unsettling sound, but it withheld the Inquisitor’s weight. “Strange though….” The man’s voice was soft, almost as if he wanted nobody to hear what he was saying except for Euopa. “I have brought two Psykers with me. They declared no daemonic activity here in this facility, nor any on Dyene V. If anyone would be able to pick up the connections of a daemon and the Warp, it should be them. If there is a daemon, there are connections to the Warp. But there were none. They didn’t even feel a daemon in here.”
“But I have seen it!”, Euopa burst out, not able to stay silent any longer, “It was there!” Finai nodded slowly. Encouraged, the Remembrancer spoke on, her voice growing shriller and shriller: “I’m not mad, I know what I have seen – it was there and it touched me! It hauled me out of there!” She shuddered at the thought.
“You are not mad”, Finai acknowledged with another nod, “I have seen it too. It vanished as you commanded it to do so like a daemon does.” Euopa drew a deep breath, held it and then deflated like a pierced balloon. Tears were forming in her eyes, the first ones already trickling down her cheeks. Everything was silent until she gave a half-strangled sob and buried her face in her hands. Shoulders trembling, she cried next to the unwavering Inquisitor. He did not touch her nor did he try to offer any comfort – he simply waited for her to get the panic and the fear out of her system and calm down by herself again.

When the gasping had turned into sniffles and she had begun to wipe at her eyes and nose, Finai spoke up again, his eyes trained in front of him as if not to embarrass her: “It has saved you, if I am not mistaken. You would have died in there if it hadn’t dragged you out, but that must surely mean that it has an interest of some sort in you. For some reason, it – whatever it is – has decided to save you and we can use this as a link.” Euopa froze in mid-motion and Finai cast her a quizzical glance before he understood and gave another one of his almost-smiles.
“I’m not going to put you in danger. That is, in any danger you are not willing to put yourself into”, he assured and Euopa, feeling suddenly silly, nodded faintly, “But if you stay here long enough – in this facility, I mean – it might come back for you.” She had stopped wiping, her hands sunken motionlessly to her lap. She gazed down upon them for several heartbeats, until she lifted her eyes to meet his. Euopa Agyris, Remembrancer in the Service of Inquisitor Reman Finai, nodded.

Lo and behold! The fiendish creature…

Euopa paused and stared down on her journal. She always used journals like these to write her poems and she had found the perfect spot in the Tracker Dog facility to write, but her creative juices weren’t flowing as she had hoped they would be. For two weeks, she had only spent her nights outside the facility. During the days, she had always stayed at the facility, waiting for the Thing to show up again.
She let her gaze wander. Vindar and Helmann, the two Psykers who were accompanying her as usual, stayed almost painfully close to her. The tall, dark Vindar was meditating a few metres away from her while the shorter and almost translucent Helmann was reading something, sitting next to her. They were in the facility’s auditorium – or rather: a loge that hung high up in the darkest corner of the already gloomy room – and they had chosen their location carefully.
Finai hadn’t taken much time to find out what the facility’s workforce knew about the Thing. It didn’t like brightness or daylight. It preferred unpopulated rooms. It was drawn to small, dim light sources. It could literally walk through walls. It showed up only rarely – sometimes it wasn’t sighted for three or four weeks. It was rather withdrawn – nobody had come nearer than two or three meters to it.
Nearly all of these weren’t true for Euopa’s encounter, though. The laboratory had still been fairly brightly illuminated (even though the clouds of smoke had surely been dimming the light) and the twenty guards made for a small crowd already. And, of course, it had dragged the collapsed Remembrancer out of the danger zone.

Hesitatingly, she lowered her gaze to her journal again and then crossed out the word ‘fiendish’ with two thick lines of her pencil. Finai had ordered her to come to his quarters every second night and lectured her on the different types of daemons. At first, she had been confused, but she was fairly certain that he wanted to prepare her for her next meeting with the Thing (as it had been unofficially dubbed by now).
And besides, she was almost sure that he didn’t know what they were up against. A trained Psyker – someone who had a mental connection with the Warp and could draw the power to alter the material reality with it – could detect demonic energy and other connections with the Warp that normally indicated another Psyker or a daemon. Neither Vindar nor Helmann had however detected any of this and judging from the fact that they were Psykers in the Inquisition’s service, they had to be both exceptionally brilliant and exceptionally trustworthy. If they said that there was no connection, then there was no connection. End of story. It was as easy as that.
The easy things however ended there. The Thing had immaterial characteristics and the dimension of the immaterial was the Warp. There could be no immaterial things in the Materium – the normal dimension, if one wished – as immaterial things could only exist in the Immaterium – the Warp. Immaterial things couldn’t enter the Materium either, they needed material bodies to do so which they originally did not have. There were certain possibilities that allowed a Warp entity to enter the Materium – they could be summoned and channelled into artificial bodies or they could possess a psychic being through its connection to the Warp. The third possibility – the possession of a dead body after a Warp Rift had opened – was fairly rare, however still possible.

In this case, the first possibility sounded the most plausible to Euopa. And still… the Psykers insisted that there were no connections to the Warp to be found.

Lost in her thoughts, she lifted the pencil to her lips and tapped it against her under lip in an unsteady rhythm. It just didn’t make any sense. The Warp was a dark and twisted place. It held horrors both known and unknown to mankind, horrors that sought to destroy everything around them. If the Thing was truly a being of the Immaterium, why had it saved her instead of watching her perish? How could it be immaterial and material at the same time? If it had psychic powers, then maybe… but the Psykers would have noticed that.
It was then when a curious sniff right at her right ear made her drop both her pencil and her journal and jump to her feet with a shriek. Vindar and Helmann mirrored her movements, their eyes widening at the sight. Euopa whirled around and stumbled a few steps back until she hit the loge’s railing. The Thing’s head and neck were protruding from the wall, its ears pricked. It cocked its head and opened its mouth to pant, its long tongue lolling about.
The Remembrancer risked a quick glance at the two Psykers. Neither Vindar nor Helmann were looking particularly scared, only… intrigued. Curious, maybe. The thing still seemed to look at her even without eyes and Euopa felt her resolve draining at its appearance. Half translucent, the eerie glow of its bone-shaped markings still prominent, the teeth promising a quick death between its jaws…

“There is only the Emperor, and he is our Shield and Protector.” Helmann’s forceful voice ripped through the silence that had fallen on the auditorium. The Thing snorted, the sound seemingly coming from somewhere very far away, turned its head to him and then back to Euopa.
“Curious”, Vindar remarked after another moment of silence, “it doesn’t react like a daemon would.” A daemon would show signs of distress and even pain or panic when being confronted with the Emperor’s name and faith in the Emperor, Euopa had learned. The only exception to this was if the Emperor’s name was spoken by an individual without faith, but this was not the case. It could not be the case.
“It truly seems not to be one then”, Helmann answered, his pale eyes almost glowing with excitement as he watched the Thing slowly step from the wall. Euopa pressed herself tighter against the railing as it stretched its neck in her direction again and sniffed at the air. She wasn’t ready to trust it yet. The smaller one of the two Psykers carefully took a step towards the Thing and then another one. The Thing’s head swung around to face him.
“Careful”, Euopa could only say before Helmann took a third step and the Thing dived straight through the floor and vanished. The Psykers grinned like maniacs for the rest of the day. They resembled children who had been given a year’s amount of their favourite candy, Euopa thought as she uselessly prodded her journal with her pencil. At least someone was happy about all of this.

“Ah, Remembrancer. Do come in, I have been expecting you.” It was strange to see Finai like this. The Inquisitor wore simple everyday clothes (however they did look quite expensive, now that she got a better look at them) instead of his heavy battle armour. His weapons were gone, too, replaced with a filigree glass filled with a deep red liquid. Wine, judging from the decanter on the table.
“My name’s Agryis.” The sentence had slipped past her lips before she could stop it, but Finai only turned his head to stare at her. Behind her, the door clicked shut and Euopa felt unsettlingly trapped. For a very long moment, they stared at each other, Finai’s face unreadable and Euopa’s betraying a hint of panic.
“Is that so?” The Inquisitor was the first to look away again. He lifted the glass in his hand in front of his face and scrutinized it. Euopa shifted uneasily on her feet. Was he displeased? With a resounding clink, Finai put the glass down on the table hard enough to spill some of the wine and turned around again to face the increasingly uneasy Remembrancer: “You are right. I apologize.”
Euopa’s mouth dropped open. Wait. What? Since when did Inquisitors – Inquisitors! – apologize to humble humans like her? Finai who had discreetly averted his gaze and had started sipping on his wine, waited for her to collect herself again until he nodded to a chair that stood on the other side of the table: “Have a seat. We might want to talk about something I found today.”
Still feeling slightly incredulous, Euopa obediently shuffled over to the chair and sat down on it, only for him to pour her a glass of wine and hand it to her. She took it from his fingers and sniffed at it, curiously. A rich flavour flooded her senses and she raised her eyebrows in surprise. The following low chuckle from across the table almost made her drop the glass however. Finai was looking at her over the brim of his glass, his eyes barely concealing his amusement: “It is one of the perks of being an Inquisitor that everyone wants to be one one’s good side… and that obviously requires valuable gifts.”
That was obviously true. Even though Finai’s ship likely belonged to the Inquisition, the interior of the Hammer of the Emperor looked as if it could be found in the palaces of the High Council of Terra, the supreme leaders of the Imperium of Mankind who had taken the Emperor’s place after his near-death. Some of said interior might belong to the original equipment of the ship, but she somehow doubted that the Inquisition deemed it absolutely necessary to have gold-plated pillars and ancient, possibly priceless artefacts in the private chambers of their members.
“This mustn’t corrupt an Inquisitor though.” All humour had vanished from the man’s voice as Finai suddenly gave the woman in front of him a hard glance. “An Inquisitor stands above human standards in every way. He may accept gifts, but he will never let anyone bribe him.” Euopa nodded, feeling as if he had caught her with her hand in his private cookie jar. He gave her another stare and then nodded: “Let’s get to the important part then, shall we?”

Leaning back, he rested his glass on his thigh. “It seems as if Number 77 or ‘the Thing’, as you are probably calling it, is a failed experiment of some sorts. I have managed to get a hold of the official report. Someone has tried to hide it and if it weren’t for a good portion of the Emperor’s blessing, I would have never found it.”
He stopped, looked her up and down and gave one of his almost-smiles. “You are allowed to relax, Mistress Agyris. I haven’t given you the wine to poison you.” Feeling caught once more, Euopa leaned back into the surprisingly soft cushioned chair back and obediently sipped at her wine. Nodding contently, Finai returned to his speech. “It was thought to be a lost cause during the manufacturing process. Apparently, the embryo died during a very early stage – or at least it did something very close to dying. The report is quite fuzzy in that aspect. Whichever it was, after that occurrence, the embryo suddenly and for no apparent reason started to thrive.”
Euopa’s raised eyebrow in reaction to what he had just said had not eschewed the Inquisitor, and he acknowledged her doubts with another nod. “This does sound extremely suspicious. Death cannot be reversed after a certain point and a dead or nearly dead embryo is extremely hard to revive. Question: How did it happen? The report holds no information on this. This case is unlike every other I have witnessed and even though I have sought the advice of my brothers and sisters, I have still only one solution: We must seek to understand this creature through scrutinizing and studying every aspect of it.”
“I will, however, share the rest of the report with you for I believe that it might be crucial in your role as the… forgive my wording: bait.” He waited for her to nod and then carried on: “It was a perfectly normal embryo before this incident. However after its… resurrection, the embryo started to show abnormal signs. It’s genome had been tested before, but it started to develop things that had not been observed in its genetic code: the horns and the mane just… showed up. It is highly unusual for an animal to grow horns and first signs of a mane in its foetal stage, either. And glowing markings are a rather rare sight, too. I do not know of a single species with glowing markings outside the Immaterium.”
“Normally, this would lead to the foetus’s extermination. Mutation is, as you know, a crime and this extends to these Dogs in a way. Smaller mutations that are actually helpful are, of course, allowed. But mutations of this extent?” He shook his head silently, but the message was quite clear. “However this was not done here. I have found notes on how interesting this particular mutations are and that Polus himself was entirely opposed to doing what should have been done. So far, I do not know who was involved in this matter beside him, but I am going to find out and brand them the heretics they are.”
“That aside, however, as long as it was a foetus, there was nothing stranger about it than the visible mutations. Shortly before its – well: birth, another test was conducted. The exact results were destroyed shortly after the test, but I am fairly certain that Number 77 has no gender, even though it was designed as a female.” Euopa’s eyebrows raised all on their own. “According to what I have found, this curbed the enthusiasm about its mutations, but they still had the gall to allow it to be born nevertheless.”
Finai paused, leaned back and took a sip of his wine. His face and posture were calm, but Euopa supposed that there was a volcano of rage bubbling behind his façade. He had seemed extremely calm throughout his speaking, however the choice of words… There was a moment of silence and Euopa was nearly desperate enough to ask him to continue when the Inquisitor spoke up again: “Apparently, Number 77 opened its eyes, drew its first breath, grew instantly translucent and vanished through the floor of the laboratory.”

A mutation then. Or several mutations. But where had they come from? It sounded like the influence of the Warp, no questions there… but they had cross- and double-checked every speck of data they had gotten their fingers on (and ‘they’ were really ‘they’ – Finai, Vindar, Helmann, the other specialists in Finai’s team… and Euopa, the humble Remembrancer). There had been no records of unusual activity – no rifts, no storms, no suddenly opening passages. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The Warp was a curious dimension, but to influence the Materium, there needed to be some breach in the veil that separated them and apparently, there had been no unusual occurrences during Polus’s service as overseer. Finai had played any and all of the cards he had held up his sleeve – even to the point of summoning another, even more potent Psyker to his side to have her re-check everything – but none of them had succeeded in explaining Number 77 and its oddities or brought them closer to the solution of the riddle.

Number 77 was as mysterious as ever two months after they had arrived on Dyene V. There had been one or two more sightings, but they had always been short – a muzzle sticking out of a wall or a retracting hind leg vanishing into one. Finai and his interrogator, a glum fellow with the name of Xavyr Chruw, had tried to get the workers to tell them about other sightings but they had never gotten a satisfying answer. Even Euopa could sense that the Inquisitor was getting fed up – she had overheard him remarking that even a Paradise World sometimes could be considered in need of an Exterminatus, an orbital strike which vaporised everything organic on a planet’s surface.

Apart from that, things had changed drastically, however. Vindar and Helmann were mostly staying back on the ship while the new Psyker – a young woman named Selane Remnon – and Euopa were lurking about the facility with increasing distances between them. Finai was hoping that this would attract the Thing more often, however that had not worked out so far. Euopa and Remnon had even started sleeping at the facility, but that hadn’t been any use either. The Thing seemed to have retracted completely.

During their tenth week on Dyene V something happened that made them reconsider their increasingly pessimistic mindset, however. Euopa – who had been sleeping in the small loge in the auditorium, while Remnon’s bed was on the far end of the room’s floor – awoke for no particular reason and probably would have dozed off again if she hadn’t felt a strange… weight on her feet. It wasn’t really a weight. There just was something there. She opened her eyes, lifted her head and was greeted by the sight of the Thing draped over her legs, sleeping peacefully.
They set up a camera after this incident and without missing a single night, the Thing would always appear after Euopa and Remnon had gone to sleep. Sometimes, it would go to sleep too, sometimes it would just sit by her side and wait, sometimes it wound circle her bed endlessly and sometimes, it would lay its head upon her arm and stare pleadingly in the Remembrancer’s sleeping face.

“It is not malevolent”, Finai concluded after another month had passed. Remnon and Helmann were screening Euopa for daemonic energies day after day, but she was as plain as the facility in that aspect. “If it were, you would have long become tainted by now.”

DATAPAD: warning: battery low
DATAPAD: shutting down
DATAPAD: recharging

[Utopia]

DATAPAD: recharge complete
DATAPAD: restarting

After three months, something happened that put a sudden end to their investigation. Finai had put off several other reports, however he could not ignore the newest one. According to an anonymous letter, someone on an Agri World approximately twelve lightyears away had proof of a Chaos cult spreading on the world. If one of these worlds were to fall, its sector would undergo a severe shortage of food and nobody wanted that to happen. Humans tended to be unpredictable if they didn’t get their food.

With a surprisingly heavy heart, Euopa left Dyene V and the Thing behind. The three months had granted her a firm place in the Inquisitor’s entourage – even though she hadn’t finished more than four stanzas of her epic, Finai had decided to keep her at his side. Why, he hadn’t told her and she hadn’t asked, thankful for the chance he was offering her. She had never thought about becoming a member of the Inquisition, but… the possibility was alluring. Even though she was probably too old anyway…

That night, she felt a strange emptiness. The feeling of something being there on her legs was gone and Euopa found that she could not sleep without it. The Hammer of the Emperor had not entered the Warp yet – right now they were travelling at sub-light speed. If everything went according to plan, they would enter the Warp in the next hours and emerge at their destination after twenty-something hours. The faint hum of machinery was a poor replacement for the Thing’s company.
Euopa had wrapped herself in every blanket she had found and, resting against her bed’s headboard, she tried to complete at least a few more verses. She was tired, but not tired enough to doze off just yet. Every so often, she would lower her journal and stare ahead of her blankly. Line after line was noted down and crossed out again, sometimes rewritten and sometimes just discarded. Her creative juices were barely trickling… so much had changed on Dyene V. It just didn’t feel right anymore.

She probably had dozed off somewhere, for when Euopa opened her eyes next, everything was dark around her. Well… not exactly dark. A soft blue-ish shimmer made her small cabin seem almost immaterial. Her mind still fuzzy from the preceding sleep, she closed her eyes again when realization hit her and she almost shot up from her bed. With a surprised yelp, the Thing retracted to the far wall and wagged its tail questioningly.

“Remnon! Open up! I know you’re in there!” Euopa pounded her knuckles against the metal door that shielded the Psyker’s private cabin and instantly regretted it. Nothing happened though. “The Thing’s here!” That did the trick. The door nearly vanished in the wall and Euopa was yanked inside in a matter of seconds. The closing door would have cut the Thing in half if it were not for its ability to walk through walls.
Just as the Thing was inside the cabin however, the hum of the machinery increased and outside the small window of the cabin, the stars gave way to the entirely indescribable pattern of the Warp. As soon as this had happened, the Thing started to yowl. Ears pressed flat against its head, it propelled itself forward and Euopa, for the first time, felt something heavy connect against her legs and consequently got knocked over as the Thing frantically scrambled over her, leaving several long gashes on her arms and torso and tried to hide behind her.
It half tried to hide beneath her, too. Remnon, with a more than bemused expression on her face, one hand lifted and energy sparkling in it ready to knock the Thing off the Remembrancer, could only watch as the Thing’s yowls became heavy panting and panicked whimpers while it actually tried to hide its head under its front paws. Euopa (whose initial shock had worn off by now) slowly pushed herself in a sitting position and turned around to face the Thing.

It was terrified. As she turned, it tried to adapt its position to stay hidden behind her. Tail between its legs, it had curled into a tight ball and judging from the sounds it was emitting, the Thing was about to loose whatever sanity it possessed. Without thinking, Euopa reached out and put a hand on the Thing’s head. Behind her, Remnon gasped sharply but the Thing only looked up and then, with a rather pathetic little noise, shoved its head against her belly, its body uncurling in the process.
It was strong enough to push the lithe Euopa a little bit back, but she could feel its body shaking. It wasn’t trying to hurt her or to push her back. Slinging her arms around its neck and feeling the shaggy fur of the mane tickling her arms, the Remembrancer bent over the trembling Thing, shielding it with her body.

After twenty minutes, her legs started to hurt. She had grown cold and her toes were feeling increasingly numb, but the Thing had not moved. Remnon had sent for Finai a few minutes ago and the Inquisitor was bound to arrive any moment. The Psyker still lurked about, watching the other woman carefully. She was ready to strike both her and the Thing down, Euopa thought glumly, and even though they had formed a loose bond of friendship during the last months, Remnon would do so without hesitating if she or the Inquisitor deemed it necessary.
The soft hiss of the opening and closing doors was barely audible over the hum of the machinery. Far more audible however were the heavy steps of Finai and his sharp voice: “Stand aside.” Euopa knew he meant her. She also was fairly certain that he already had his bolt pistol at the ready and that he would, in a mere split second, shoot the Thing if she obeyed him now.
“I’m not going to repeat myself, Remembrancer.” His voice held that poisonous edge again. He would shoot her like he has shot Polus and everyone else who dared to step up to him. Euopa was tempted to release her grip around the Thing’s neck. A part of her desperately wanted to step aside and let him do as he must. A part of her understood him, even agreed to him and that part was her rationality and her faith in the almighty God-Emperor who had sent and guided Finai on his path as an Inquisitor. She felt her fingers unlocking around the Thing’s neck, but before she had even finished to unlock them, the Thing pushed its head even firmer against her belly.

Save me.

She hadn’t heard it. She had rather felt it resonate deep in her soul, not a voice but a thought of blue-ish, shimmering light, a plea that was both around and inside her. She just knew it was there, just like she had just felt that the Thing had slept on top of her or been by her side in her sleep.

“No.”

She had expected him to shoot. She really had. She had braced herself for the impact and the pain, but they never came. Instead, she heard cloth rustle and his voice, commanding as ever: “Leave us, Remnon.” And then, more forcefully: “I said: Leave us. Is everyone out to anger me today?” Soft steps, the door hissing open and closed. Euopa hadn’t even realized she had closed her eyes and pressed her face in the Thing’s mane. The fur felt soft, she realized with mild surprise.
Heavier steps, the mattress of the bed creaking quietly as he sat down upon it. “You are acting like a cultist, Remembrancer, like an apostate protecting her precious daemonhost.” He spat the last words and she could imagine him pointing the bolt pistol at her back almost lazily, but his eyes, his eyes burning with the fire of a star core in her imagination. She shuddered at the thought, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter and pressing her face deeper into the long tresses of fur.

The Thing smelled of temples, of burning incenses and books and dust and metal and stone and wood and old things and spilled blood. She could feel the air moving where its nostrils were pressed against her stomach.

“It’s terrified”, she defended herself and got a mouthful of fur in response. Unwillingly, she lifted her head to spit it out and bowed down again to rest her cheek against the Thing’s neck, “It’s terrified of the Warp. What daemon would be terrified of the Warp?” A moment of silence followed and then she heard Finai chuckle. It was a dark, almost menacing sound like an ammunition clip being shoved in place.
“Are you trying to reason with me?” She closed her eyes again and allowed the Thing’s smell to wash over her. It still trembled. It still was pressing into her as if it wanted the two of them to become one. It still needed her help.
“Why would I not be?” Her voice shook slightly. Was she supposed to be afraid? She was afraid. But there was more to her than this fear right now – there also was the steely resolve not to leave the Thing at his mercy. When had she started to refer to it as the Thing? It was more than a thing. It needed a name.
“Because an Inquisitor does not reason with heretics.” Each word hit her with the force of a Astartes Power Fist. A Heretic? She? For the duration of a heartbeat, images flitted past her still closed eyes – proud images, presumptuous images. She in the armour of an Inquisitor, bolt pistol at her side, she on the bridge of the Hammer of the Emperor. She pushed them aside. Only the God-Emperor decided on his children’s fate.
“I am not a heretic. I have not abandoned the Emperor, nor has He left me” she answered, feeling calm entering her mind as the truth of her words dawned upon her. The Emperor alone had guided her way to the quivering creature in her arms, for she had always followed His rules and rites. She would not leave the creature to die an unjust death at the hand of a well-meaning servant of the Imperium.

A long silence followed her words. She could hear him shifting once or twice, but he didn’t speak up. The Thing inched even closer to her. How was it able to breathe like that? After what felt like an eternity, Finai finally broke the silence that had settled in the cabin: “An Inquisitor does not reason with heretics.”
“Then why are you?”, she replied, feeling the tresses of fur move against her skin as her mouth moved. It tickled. Her legs had gone numb by now and the only reason why her feet weren’t hurting like crazy was that they had gone numb long before her legs had done so. At least she could rest her head upon the creature’s neck.
Finai chuckled again. In her mind, Euopa watched a whole battalion ram ammunition clips into their laser rifles. “Has it ever occurred to you that I might be questioning you?” His voice had lost its dangerous edge. It was almost velvety now, but she could sense the underlying threat and the silent promise of pain.
“Then why haven’t you dragged me off yet and left me at Chruw’s mercy?” Silence followed, broken only but the hum of the machinery until the Inquisitor sighed softly. She could hear him shift again and then the mattress creaked, cloth rustled and one or two steps could be heard as he rose to his feet.
“I have seen no reason to do so.” He was towering over her, she knew it without even opening her eyes. The creature whimpered softly against her and she instinctively cradled it even more as if to protect it from the no doubt disapproving stare that the Inquisitor was likely giving them. A part of her painted the bolt pistol in his hand, the muzzle aimed at her back.
“Deliver me, Emperor, from the lightening and the tempest”, she whispered. The words were from an Imperial hymn, however which one… she probably had butchered them horribly, anyway.
“Deliver me, Emperor, from the curse of the mutant”, came the calm answer. Without thinking, she finally unlocked her arms around the creature’s neck and whirled around, her eyes blazing at the man in front of her. The creature clawed at her back, desperate, pleadingly, leaving more gashes and shredding her robe before giving up and pressing against her once more.
“This is not a human! This is a beast and breeding has been based on mutations for thousands of years – certain mutations are allowed in the gene pool of a bred species, you said so yourself! Stick to your word, Inquisitor!” The bolt pistol was hanging idly at his side and his eyes held something that could almost be described as melancholy, she realized with a start, but she did not back down.
“I believe I have also added that a mutation of this extent is far too large to ignore”, he replied as calmly as before: “Stand aside, Remembrancer Agyris. This is not a matter of debate.” She bit her lip, half keeping herself from spitting her fury at him, half trying to keep her calm. Exploding in his face obviously didn’t help either.
“It is not malevolent, you told me yourself…” She trailed off at the sudden flash of impatience on his face, paused for a moment and decided that one last try couldn’t possibly make things worse: “And besides, it’s sterile. I mean, genderless. It cannot breed and taint the gene pool any further, even if it wanted.”

He stared at her for a few seconds, his face unreadable. And then, completely out of the blue, Inquisitor Reman Finai started to laugh. It was not a happy laugh nor a nice one – it made both Euopa and the creature flinch and inch a little bit back. It sounded as if he temporarily had gone insane.

As sudden as the laughter had begun, it stopped again. “Forgiveness is a sign of weakness”, Finai stated flatly and drew his pistol.

“But by saying that, you do admit to having thought about it!”, Euopa blurted out, stopping the pistol somewhere midway between its holster and her forehead. Finai raised an eyebrow, then two and whirled around unexpectedly enough to cause Euopa to inch back again.
“Remnon!”, he bellowed, “I know you are out there! Get your sorry self in here!” The door hissed open and the Psyker stepped into the room, looking a little bit caught and very, very curious. “Screen her. And the damned thing too.” Finai motioned towards the strange duo on the ground with his pistol and then crossed his arms over his chest as Remnon stepped forward.

Being screened by a Psyker wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, one didn’t even feel it. No invisible hands groping about in one’s brain, no foreign thoughts entering one’s mind – just the anticipation of something that would never be noticed by a non-psychic person. “Agyris is clear”, Remnon announced after two or three minutes and then spent nearly ten with a look of deep concentration on her face.
When her gaze became focused again, she stared at the creature for a long moment before turning to face both Euopa and Finai at the same time. “I suggest to let it live”, she said forcefully, “Mistress Agyris has been quite right, it is not only benevolent but also highly useful to our cause.” For the first time she could remember, Euopa watched Finai’s face turn from anger to slack-jawed.

Years had passed. Wechselbalg had always been at her side after the incidents on Dyene V, his presence having become a luxury that she wouldn’t want to miss. So many of her companions had died – her mentor, Reman Finai, her friend, Selane Remnon, and countless more. She didn’t even recall all their names and faces. What a strange thought – she, who once had been nothing but a rebellious poet from a little world in a forsaken corner of the Imperium, now was one of its fiercest protectors and her longest and best companion was an abomination to the Imperial doctrine.
Closing her eyes, she leaned back into her chair. Her own ship… who would have thought it? The hum of the machines of the Chant of Light was faint here in her private chambers, even when travelling through the Warp. Euopa Agyris, Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus and only living discipline of the deceased Inquisitor Lord Reman Finai, opened her eyes again and stared up at the high ceiling, adorned with a rather spectacular fresco of the Emperor striking down his traitorous son Horus.
Sighing, she straightened again, brushing her hair out of her forehead. Even though she had crossed her fifties, she still looked (and physically was) as young as twenty thanks to several rejuvenation surgeries and treatments she had undergone. Reaching out for a glass of wine, her fingers accidentally brushed over an old data-pad lying next to the glass and activated it. The ghostly voice of Selane Remnon filled the room.

”I have spoken to it again, trying to understand what has happened. I believe that I am close to the solution by now. Allow me to present you with my findings so far, dear friend – even though I am not absolutely sure on some things, I think I am not too wrong.” A faint echo of the Psyker clearing her throat.
“I am nearly completely sure that it is a being of the Warp in a material body. This explains its ability to be both immaterial and material, or rather: half immaterial and half material, either consecutive or at the same time. It is almost painfully vague about its origins, but it seems that it is even older than the Eldar. Whether that is true or not, I cannot say. It does seem old in many an aspect though – its language is understandable, but archaic. It often speaks of a necessity to survive in order to preserve ‘the old way of the Warp’, whatever that may be. I suppose it is referring to the status of the Warp before it became tainted and the Chaos Gods formed, however that is only a wild guess.”
“It has confirmed that it is not the only being of his… erm, ‘race’. There are others in the Warp, however from what I have gathered, they are forced to hide from the forces of Chaos and disguise themselves as its servants. That would explain why it so terrified each time we enter the Warp. You still bear the scars of that first time, do you not?”

Euopa smiled faintly. During the rejuvenation processes, the scars had been lost. She had almost considered inflicting them upon herself at that time to not loose that part of her history.

“I have asked it to tell me exactly why it was able to possess that embryo and it finally has answered me. It is a fascinating story, so bear with me – I could sum it up in a few words, but so much would be lost. The name you chose for it means Changeling in the local tongue of your homeworld, if I remember correctly. Do you know how close to the truth you came with this?”
“It told me that it was simply minding its own business in the Warp, when it noticed a desperate call for help. Since it is a very benevolent creature, it of course searched for the source and found a tiny soul hanging in between the Materium and the Immaterium. It was not a sentient soul by any means and therefore not interesting enough for daemons to pay any attention to what was happening. The soul had barely formed yet, but its body already was falling apart. It would die in a matter of minutes and the soul would become one with the Immaterium, however the soul did not want to leave the Materium. It clung to life with a desperation that intrigued Wechselbalg.”
“Wechselbalg wanted to help the soul. It was so tiny, so helpless and yet so full of force and will to live. Wechselbalg mentioned that it tried to ‘push the soul back in its body’. The attempt however failed and the link between the body was weak enough already that Wechselbalg could slip into the body and try to pull the soul back. Before it succeeded though, the link broke and the soul vanished into the Immaterium. Wechselbalg was heartbroken and it remained inside the now dead body, mourning for the little soul that had been lost.”
“Wechselbalg does not know for sure what has happened then or at least it claims not to know it. For some reason or another, it got stuck in the body. We have exchanged theories, but none of them were satisfying… maybe it is because it remained too long in the body, maybe it was because the link broke while it was inside the body, maybe the soul wanted it to stay in the body. It seems however that Wechselbalg unintentionally has – well, for the lack of a better word – fused with the body somehow and is now unable to leave it.”
“The really interesting part about this however is that this means that Wechselbalg is psychic. Psychic! I have never noticed that… well, before I screened it. And even when I am paying close attention because I know that it has to be there somewhere, I am barely able to spot it. Its presence is almost like… background noise, maybe. It is there, but it is so little more than the actual background noise that… it absolutely feels, looks and sounds like background noise as long as you are not aware that it is there.”
“It’s like… camouflage, I would say. Perfect camouflage. I can’t imagine that anyone would be able to spot Wechselbalg. That is not all however, it gets even better: Wechselbalg can spot others while they are not able to detect it. When it comes to fighting, it is near useless though – no aggressive powers – however it would be absolutely great when it comes to sneaking up to enemies and spying on them. It seems to have some emphatic powers, however I am not sure how far these go.”
“I sure hope I can repeat this experience one day. It has been great to talk to Wechselbalg and maybe one day…”

Euopa hastily switched the data pad off, nearly spilling wine over herself in the process. Only days after the recording on the data-pad, Selane had died in a fight with a daemon summoned by her own apprentices. Even though years had passed since that incident, Euopa still wasn’t able to listen to her friend going on happily about her apprentices’ skill and eagerness to learn, the same apprentices that had killed their mentor so shortly after.
She sunk back in her chair, glumly twirling the glass in her fingers. By now, she was a mentor herself and she marvelled at the fact. She had never thought herself to be much of a teacher. “Knowledge is power. Guard it well”, she whispered, leaning her head back to stare up at the fresco.

Her sombre mood however didn’t last long. With a playful yipping sound, Wechselbalg erupted from a wall behind her and tore on a straight path through the chamber, vanishing into the opposite wall. Bemusedly, Euopa stared after her trusted friend (for Wechselbalg was far more than a pet). What had that been about?
The question was answered as soon as she had finished thinking it: a resonating crash came from behind the heavy door that shielded her private chambers from the rest of the ship. Sighing, she put the glass down and said: “Open the doors, please.” The ship picked up her voice patterns and silently, the doors opened. She almost smiled at the sight of her rather dishevelled apprentice, the now ex-Guardsman Leniel Torbah, but settled for a grave nod instead: “Come in, Torbah. Has Wechselbalg tormented you again?”
The sourly mien said it all and she had to chuckle in order not to smile. Inquisitors did not smile (or at least Reman had always said that). “Wechselbalg!” she called out. A faintly glowing muzzle slowly protruded from the opposite wall. “Do leave my apprentice at peace when he is supposed to study, will you?” The muzzle snorted and retracted again, whereupon Euopa turned to face her exasperated student: “There. The simplest solution mustn’t always be the worst.”
He nodded and lingered hesitatingly until she raised her eyebrows at him. Understanding the sign, he bowed slightly, noticed her even further raised eyebrows and turned to leave the room again. Nevertheless she heard him mumble faintly: “Forgiveness is a sign of weakness.” Upon his turning however, Wechselbalg immediately stalked forward from the wall behind which it had been hiding and scuttled over to Euopa to rest its head weightlessly upon her knee, the long tongue lolling out and vanishing into her leg.
Just as the doors started to close, the Inquisitor casually remarked: “Never forget, never forgive.” Torbah instantly sped up his steps. Looking down to her companion and friend, Euopa grinned at the slightly reproachful Wechselbalg: “What? If he is allowed to cite common-places, then I am too. Besides, there will never be a man as great as Reman to say this sentence, so allow me to defend his memory.” The air around the not-so-Tracker grew even more reproachful. “If the Emperor would not have sent him, we would have never met.”, she added softly, her eyes growing distant again: “And if he would not have wanted to make me his apprentice from the very start, we would both be dead by now.”

Wechselbalg – it liked the name, actually… after Selane had explained its meaning to it, it had become fond of the name – watched its friend drift off. It recognized the look on her face, she always looked like that when she was remembering the old times. Strange to think that there actually were old times… the steady rhythm of night and day was unheard of in the Immaterium and it had been greatly confused by it at first.
It lifted its head from her leg and prodded her stomach with its nose questioningly. No reaction. Well. That called fore more dire consequences. It rose to all fours and took several steps back. Tongue lolling out, it estimated the distance, thought its plan over and then bounded forward with a mighty leap. Several fast steps to gain momentum, another leap and – just before its paws would have slipped through her chest like the walls it passed regularly – Wechselbalg fully manifested itself in the Materium, hitting the Inquisitor in the chest and sending both her and her chair flying backwards.

The furious yell “Wechselbalg!” was heard throughout nearly the whole ship and many a head turned as the cheerful creature raced by, the half amused, half vengeful Inquisitor stalking through the corridors in its wake. Things never grew boring with those two.

ATTACHMENT: Notes (open?)
OPEN ATTACHMENT: failed
OPEN ATTACHMENT: attachment protected
OPEN ATTACHMENT: authorization needed
OPEN ATTACHMENT: authorization failed
ALARMING: Euopa Agyris
SHUTTING DOWN DATA-PAD

[Scarlett Redd]

Tracker Dog Application
Username: Alsatian-Lover
Tracker Dog you want: #77
Name you'll give it: (...Hmmm... ) Fang
Reason why you want it: It's cute and needs a home... And I love animals

Will it be used in any kind of story?: Probably.
Describe its personality:

(She?) Likes me but hates other people, a little selfish and doesn't like strangers much. She often causes chaos by stealing shoes, keys, etc.

Write an introduction for your Tracker:

(She?) barked a warning to the person walking into her territory... before realising that it was just me and calming down. She bounds over an winds between my legs.

[Raindrop]

(Note: Although I know this Tracker is ungendered, I prefer to call it a 'him', as it's easier for me, and it does seem to suit him better than being referred to as a 'she'.)

Tracker Dog Application

Username:

Raindrop

Tracker Dog you want:

Tracker Dog 77

Name you'll give it:

Vallus.

Vallus stand for 'Pale' in Latin. It might be odd, so I'll explain a little about my choice of name.

As soon as I read his description, the first thought I garnered from it was 'Hey, look, it's a ghost.' He does seem like a ghost, with his glowing features and dark colouring. I did not choose 'ghost', though, as I feel that is over-used, and not that creative. When I tried translating 'ghost' into Latin, it did sound weird, and none of the other translations I picked other than Vallus seemed to suit this lovely Halloween Tracker. So Vallus it was.

Reason why you want it:

I love Halloween. Anything related to Halloween excites me, and this is probably my favourite time of the year, apart from Christmas. (I do love Christmas.)

I personally like ghost or skeletal-themed creatures, with their slight translucency, and creepy but lovely and original designs. This particular Tracker reminds me of animals from the deepest parts of the ocean, like the Twilight or Midnight zone. Creatures from there are odd, not like any other in the world. And yet they are beautiful, too. They also have this odd, glow around them, that really brings their splendid colours to life. It really does make for an alluring appearance.

When I first saw him, my heart almost skipped a beat. This Tracker, with its gorgeous lineart and design, made for one of the most perfect Trackers I've seen here at Tracker Dogs. His personality is the type of character that I mostly like to work with while writing stories. I would definitely enjoy writing stories about him in detail.

I don't apply for the Trackers here just for the sake of getting one, or because of their appearances. The reason I have applied, is because this Tracker deserves a great owner, and lots of love and attention. I hope that I can give this Tracker a good enough home, where he will be forever loved and comfortable in.

Will it be used in any kind of story?

Definitely, once inspiration hits me. I do have a few already up my sleeve, but I'll still need to see which one would fit him the best and which one actually makes for a better story plot.

Describe its personality:

Attention span - High
Energy - Average
Intelligence - Higher than a average Tracker, though by how much is unknown

A cold, stiff creature. Vallus seems to detest all forms of emotional activity from anyone, even in himself. He always appears to have no emotion shown, thus it is quite impossible to tell what he's feeling at a certain moment. He does feel emotions though, even if he doesn't show them.

Vallus cannot speak naturally, so he must rely on talking to another by the means of using psychic powers. The more he knows and trusts the being, the easier it is for him to communicate with them. He doesn't seem to talk at all, unless absolutely required. He gets along well enough with other animals, though, especially with those who aren't too sensitive or emotional, and mostly any creatures that aren't human.

Vallus never argues or gets into fights, and if he does, it is a rare sight. He usually prefers not to go into any violent or physical fights, though if provoked, he will do anything necessary to keep himself alive.

Vallus usually appears to be very mild, and although he does appear to seem a little frightening at first sight, as he is slightly larger than the average Tracker, and has a spooky appearance, he is actually a good companion, as he isn't hyperactive or talkative, and not rude.

Overall, Vallus is quite mysterious to many, even his handler. Indeed, many parts of his life are a complete mystery to all, except for the Tracker himself. He is trustworthy, though, and you can definitely count on him to complete a errand or a task for you. His loyalty never falters to those whom he firmly stand by, but he likes keeping to himself, and does not gain trust in others on sight. It takes a while for him to even trust a stranger to stand next to him. He prefers having only one owner or handler in his lifetime, and is not accustomed to the idea of having many important figures to him.

A strong-willed character that somehow behaves stubbornly if an idea does not suit him well, Vallus does not like taking orders, especially from people he deems unworthy of being taken commands from. Usually he does what he likes, and does what would reap him better benefits, though if necessary, he will follow commands, usually from those whom he respects and has admiration for.

Vallus sees himself as a figure that should be respected and teasing or snarky remarks about him are not tolerated. He does not forgive easily, and a taunt will always be remembered by him, etched forever in his mind. Those who make fun of him will fully regret that they have ever done so, as his wrath is horrible. It is best that you not try to cross paths with this mysterious being.

Special Traits:

His very presence in a room can make someone become negative. They would think negatively, and act negatively. He can't really control his powers over this, somehow his body aura emanates a strong feeling of negativity from it, enough to make anyone nearby become influenced by this. He can also sense emotions, especially emotions like fright, hatred or jealously. Vallus is rather like a wolf this way, sensing the fear housed in the creature, and twisting that fear around to bring down the target.

Vallus can easily pick up scents of the targets he must track down, due to his sharp, keen nose. Unfortunately, his slight glow gives him away before he even comes into range of a chosen target, a distinct disadvantage he faces if he should go on a tracking mission.

Due to his inability of speaking naturally, as it is unknown whether he has no vocal chords or if he is affected by something else, Vallus must rely on his psychic-like abilities to communicate with another creature through their minds. It is shown that this Tracker can communicate better with a being that he trusts and is closer to.

Vallus seems to have a weak connection to Earth when direct sunlight reaches him. Seeing as that he is a creature that is not fully undead or alive, simply a balance of the two, he can survive in both the Underworld, where creatures of chaos like himself usually thrive, and also on Earth, but with exceptions. Creatures of chaos, like vampires or ghosts, cannot retain a solid, mortal-like form in the presence of sunlight. Vallus survives on Earth with the same conditions.


Tracking type:

The sort of tracking that Vallus is really good at is stealth tracking. This might be weird, as he is larger in proportions than an average Stealth Tracker, but his ghost-like attributes, of being able to pass through walls, in addition makes his body somewhat like a spirit's, making him weightless. His body furthermore becomes not entirely solid, with a slight glow around it. Perhaps this is the reason he can pass through objects, yet it is not confirmed if this is true.

Handler:

Dhesa Irueil (day-sa , i-ru-el) is a rebellious, punk-like girl who prefers dressing in gothic clothes. Her thoughts run darkly, even without the aid of anyone provoking her into that state. She always seems to be moody, even if it's the middle of a sunny, lovely day. Usually hot-headed and reckless, she's ready to run off into the midst of danger without a second thought. Dhesa believes in paranormal activity, although she is deathly frightened of anything of that sort. Her attitude and looks, masks a soft-hearted, protective girl, and easily scared, sensitive girl who wishes to stop pretending to like anything dark. She actually really loves animals, and cares for them, even though she never takes notice of them and usually seems to hate them.

Dhesa's older sister works for a a research group dedicated to studying paranormal activities. She often tries to help her sister in her study, but Vallus ends up helping more than Dhesa does.

Write an introduction for your Tracker:

Bustling activity from inside the facility was not uncommon, seeing as it was already Halloween. A group of special Trackers had just arrived, and that had caught the attention of many.

The girl scowled, her face pale in the glare of the artificial lights from above. Her face was pale, as it always was from spending too little time exposed to sunlight. Her eyes flickered restlessly around the length of the room. She was obviously feeling out of place from the general crowd, with her gothic style in dressing, and a huge dark jacket that was several sizes too big for her. The rest of the people dressed casually; jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, the the like.

She grumbled. She seemed annoyed being there, but in truth, she was frightened of what she would see. She didn't like scary things, even fearing them, although she dressed so darkly. She didn't want to go there in the first place, but her sister, a researcher in a paranormal activities group, had insisted that she needed a suitable Tracker to help her out in the study of paranormal activity. Somehow she hadn't been able to go to the Tracker Facility today, so she sent Dhesa as her replacement.

Dhesa's eyes, which were flickering from one scene to the next, fixated on a glowing figure inside a cage larger than the one of a normal Tracker's. A chilling tingle was sent up her spine just looking at it. Her eyes narrowed, not understanding why the Facility required such a large cage. They did not possibly need such a large cage, did they? What did they need to store in there?

A figure slid out from the side of the cage. Dhesa's eyes widened, that creature, whatever it was had just passed through solid metal. No animal could do that. She let out a strangled gasp, swinging her head around wildly to see if anyone had noticed the creature. No one did. It was strange that they didn't notice a canine-proportioned creature, that was especially large. Any one could have seen it.

The creature calmly regarded the mortal girl with an impassive, blank face. Dhesa was frozen with fright. Her childhood fears, turned into a phobia, paralyzed her. She couldn't move her limbs, they felt like lead, weighing her down and making movement impossible.

Dhesa felt moodier, it was quite sudden, but she didn't feel affected by it much. she was always usually slightly depressed and in a bad mood, and it wasn't surprising if she got more depressed.

The creature, probably a Tracker, seeing as it bore many resemblances to a normal one, with the exception of its larger proportions and a fuzzier mane that grew along the length of its neck, tilted its head. Although it had no emotion shown on it, Dhesa could make out a slight confusion growing within the Tracker. It seemed like it was asking her, Why are you not screaming and running away?

The girl felt herself loosen up, finding the Tracker less frightening. It actually seemed pretty mild, and not that frightening.

--About 8 months later--

The creak of a door alerted the woman, probably in her twenties or even less, to visitors. She swung around in her chair, facing to greet her guests.

A pale-faced girl, in her teenage ages at best, was surprisingly dressed in dark, punk clothes, that did not suit her well. They looked like they were meant for a older person, judging by how ill-suiting it was for the girl.

"Hey, Dhesa," The woman smiled, brightening up considerably at the sight of the youth. As she proceeded to hug her sister, she caught a glimpse of a familiar glowing figure standing at the girl's side, her eyes widening. "I see you've brought along a friend, too?"

It rather surprised Tara at Dhesa's choice of pets. Vallus, the glowing Tracker, was bigger than an average doberman or greyhound, and she knew that her sister was afraid of quite a lot of things, which included large animals and scary things. Up to now, Tara still couldn't understand why her sister wasn't afraid of Vallus. But still, the Tracker was a huge help to her group of researchers studying paranormal activities, which was a reason why Tara did like having the canine around.

"Yeah," The girl shrugged. "I thought maybe you'd want Vallus around to help you out, you know." Tara nodded. "I could use some help."

WIP

[Maddyoll]

Congrats Bear n_n He is a beautiful tracker~!

I have sprites of him in my post that you can keep..♥

[orange.c y r u s♥]

Congrats Bear c:

[Kaylawolf]

Congratulations Bear! He was one of the cutesiest Tracker I've ever seen.

[Nyxeva]

Thank you everyone!
*huggles Jarrahdale*
If there's anyone who went for him who does NOT want me to use your artwork, please let me know.

[CaptainHiccup]

We wouldn't happen to be able to ask for an extension for 77? Just until 6:00PM EST time, still on Halloween, the 31st for us...

If not I'm sorry for the spam...


<3 ChiCha

[Irios Atelis]

I am sorry it has taken me so long to get here, thanks to Aiki for relaying the message

I was having a bad day but hearing Aiki's text message of:
CONGRATS! YOU WON PYRO!

Completely made my day so thanks and I will love him and my Lepidus forever!