"Listen kiddo, you have no idea how important it is that I get back down to my sister. We're in the middle of a war, and-" Jyriah didn't get to finish speaking.
"Quiet, Pawsie. We're playing a game, and if you're good I'll give you a treat," the boy said with a happy expression.
"Uhh..okay...?" Jyriah hesitated as his lower eyelids raised in suspicion. "Can I have some water? I'll die without water..." he trailed off.
"Well, pawsie - we'll see. You just have to be nice and play my games - and then I'll give you treats and water," the little one replied.
Jyriah honestly couldn't tell if the little one in front of him was male or female, but so far he was betting this was just a little boy who was bored.
Still... he knew better than to underestimate anything or anyone, so he'd play along for now.
"Okay, its a deal. What are we playing?" Jyriah asked with a little bit of dread in his voice.
"Hold on - I'll be right back. I have to go get them" the little one said.
"Wait! - ach..." Jyriah shouted out as he watched the child fly off.
For a moment he reflected on his life and how he got here, but his thoughts were shattered as he heard his baby sister's voice calling for him.
"Jyriah!"
"Myranda! Myri!" Jyriah shouted towards her, even though he couldn't see her all the way down in the darkness. All he could do was hear her.
"Jyriah, I swear if you're dead - I'll never forgive you!" she shouted in despair. The youngest sibling was already having a hard time with losing her sister - to lost the other brother she cherished so much, would be a death blow she knew she wouldn't be able to handle.
He frowned and looked down and stuck his hand out of the net and waved it around as though she could somehow see it. It was a very, very dumb thing for him to hope for, but still, it was something.
Jyriah usually liked to pick on his sister when she cried over something like dropping a bowl, or cutting her finger - but right now, her cries were that of anguish and pain. It made his heart ache - and not just figuratively. His chest was tightening, and it made it hard to breathe.
"Myri - Why can't you hear me!?" he shouted and shook at the metal that held him up high nearly 21 feet in the air.
It was helpless. To not be able to reach out to his sibling who was mere feet away was the most agonizing thing he'd even been through up to this point. Jyriah had run out of objects to throw, and was now able to see through the net and to the endless black.
"Aaaagh!!!!" the red-head shouted in fury and once more formed his sharp wolf-like teeth in an attempt to chew through the wire again like some kind of squirrel. All it did was hurt, and he was pretty sure he had chipped his back tooth.
A few swipes of the tongue would then confirm that indeed, he had cracked his back tooth on the right side of his mouth. Crap. Now he was stuck in the air, thirsty, AND he had a minor difference in his mouth that would bother him no matter how much he came back to feel for its sharp peak.
"Why are you screaming?" the little vampire child asked, which caused Jyriah to jolt as the cold voice came from behind his head.
"Gyaaah! - Shhhhuuuugar...." he tapered off his cursing as he beheld the face of the young one who giggled at his twisted face. "I was yelling for my sister - and now you made me yell," Jyriah answered as he grasped his chest like his heart was about to explode like a chest-burster.
"Oh, your sister is the spotty one? I like her coat," the little child said with a smile.
"You know us?" Jyriah asked with a cocked head.
"Duh. You live in the forest. I see you guys running around all the time. You look upset- are you guys upset?" it was hard to see their face, but Jyriah was sure they were smiling.
"Yes...why are you doing this to me? What's your name little boy?" he asked as though he was about to try to sweet-talk himself out of this situation.
"I. AM. NOT. A. BOY!!!!" the child screamed into the net, her head fit through the large holes as though they opened for her.
'Can they control this stuff?' Jyriah asked as he watched the girl bend and form the metal to pull herself through. It looked like she had warped reality as the metal became nearly liquefied at her touch.
"Sorry! EEp - ow! OW! STOP IT!" Jyriah shrieked and batted at the child who was gnawing on his hand like a rabid puppy.
"What is your problem!?" he followed up and pulled his hand from her grasp.
"You - you're just like everyone else. I'm not a boy. Look!" she argued and turned on a pretty little rose that lit up her face in the dark. The red color changed at the wave of her hand (much like the crystal light he had as a kid). The colors shifted through the entire spectrum until she finally landed it on a white hue that showed off her face.
....Her hideous...grotesque... face...
It took all of Jyriah's strength and willpower to not give away how shocking it was to finally see her.
The poor thing looked like a literal doll that had been stitched back together after being broken. Different colors of patches of skin had been crudely sewn together, across her face, and it looked as though recently her hair had either began to grow back, or was growing for the first time.
Her eyes were weird, but he actually like those - one of them was a white iris with a black pupil, and the other was a black iris with a white pupil. They were actually very pretty - and reminded him of his sister.
'Don't make a face - don't make a face. Pretend she's Myri - and you'd never call her ugly. This kid can literally eat you - don't upset her," Jyriah thought to himself in terror, but kept a poker face.
"O-kay, jeeze...sorry. What is your name then, little sister?" Jyriah asked with a grin he'd give Myranda if he was teasing her.
"Lyrica - Lyricalynne Elaine Chrystoph - but don't call me Ellie. I hate being called Ellie," she hissed with a little demonic tone in her throat (but it was kinda adorable coming from a tiny stature.
"Alright - I won't. Nice to meet you, Lyrica. I'm Jyriah," he answered, but she frowned at his reply.
"No. You're Mister Pawsie, remember?" she replied with a twisted grin.
"Y-yeah...that...Sorry," he felt so weird being intimidated by a child, but something about her made him pity her more than just her sharing a few similarities with his sister. No, Lyrica looked as though she had a sweet soul that had to be hidden with a bratty exterior.
"So - why can't my sister hear me? Or see me? Do you know what this is?" Jyriah asked and pointed to the net.
"Uhh, it's Orichalcum... there are lots of them around here, you just can't see them because you're a werewolf. I think you'd be really scared if you saw how many of these old things have dead stuff in it. A lot of them are super old.....but not this one. Heheh. I made it myself" she giggled and smiled.
"Sooo she can't see me or hear me? Really?" he asked with disappointment.
"Uhg - yeah! What's hard to understand about that, Pawsie? You can't see or hear anything inside of these things because you're a wolf. You may as well be in a cage. I read in a book that humans used use it to trap you guys. There are a lot of bones around here, so they can't be wrong..." she said happily as though they were having casual conversation.
"We're done talking now. I want to play a game!" she whined and was uncomfortably close to Jyriah as she leaned in and smiled as she put something soft in his hand.
"You have to be Mr. Wizard, and I'm going to be Princess Bonnie. You have to try to catch me, and then after you catch me, you have to be Knight Finnigan to come and rescue me. Okay?" she asked as though he were incapable of understanding child-play.
"O-okay..but.. how are you able to go in and out of this and I can't?" Jyriah tried to ask again, but she just ignored him.
"Don't be boring Mister Pawsie. Now. If you play my game, I'll bring you something to eat and drink - but no more boring stuff, or I'll spin this net so so so so so so so so so so" she stopped to take in a breath, and then continued "so so so so so fast that you throw up all over the place like blaaarrrgh!" she said with a wide grin that showed all the sharp teeth in her mouth.
"Oh-ohkay..." he started with a mix of fear and sadness, but pulled it together to muster up a gritty voice as he moved the little puppet as he talked. 'Haha, come with me princess - or I'll...take all your stuffed animals away!'
'Eeep, nooo!' the little girl cried in a higher pitched voice and then moved the little stuffed, limp doll around in the air.
They looked really worn out - and had definitely seen better days.
He wanted to ask more questions, but as a captive, it was best to do as his captor demanded -- even if they were a literally demon child with a cute facade.