That’s Werewolf Talk
Prologue
The silver light of the crescent moon shone down on the clearing where they had made their settlement. Clouds lazily passed by, sometimes casting shadows blocking the moon’s glow on the cool autumn night. A gentle breeze wafted through the northern forest, bringing with it the scents of pine and turning leaves.
A labored scream cut through the night, oddly almost immediately followed by the calls of wolves in the distance of the small settlement. The screams and the wolf howls had been going on since sunset, hours ago. The screaming was coming from the settlement, from one of the buildings within. Most of the buildings here were small, large enough to fit a couple individuals and appeared to be made of a combination of stone and wood or vines.
At the center of the settlement stood a larger building. It consisted of the same size, structure and building materials as the others but attached to it was another part completely made of stone with a tall chimney, a forge. It was from within this building that the screams were emitted. Within the building three forms huddle around a fourth that was laying on a bed. The figure on the bed screamed again.
“Push child. You are almost there.” Said an older woman standing at the foot of the bed. She was leaning over the soon to be mother; her hands ready to help with the childbirth.
Another scream.
Off to the side, the other two figures were in whispered conversation. One an old wizened man. His long hair and great big beard whitened with age. He still stood near straight despite his advanced years. His robes were plain and he carried a gnarled old staff in one hand. Upon the top of the staff was a glowing crystal of some sort wrapped up in a basket of wood that looked like the staff itself had reached out and grown around the crystal to keep it close. The crystal’s light emanated a blue light into the room that softened the light of the fire in the hearth. The man himself looked pretty plain other than the great white beard that hung down to his waist, and the various beads and pieces of nature that hung from it and his robes, a feather here, a clay bead there, sometimes another small stone or other trinket would show itself as he impatiently moved from one foot to the other.
“It is nearly time Garrosk.” He said to the other figure. “The eclipse will be upon us in the next couple moments. Your child may be the child of prophecy, the Uraworma. Look out the window and see its already begun.”
The last figure in the room did as he was told. He had to stoop down to look out the side window and did indeed see that the lunar eclipse had already started. Garrosk himself was a mountain of a man. His arms, chest, and face were covered in tribal tattoos, on his upper arm his tribe’s emblem of a wolf’s head on a field of lightning bolts and holding a Warhammer. He was not only the town’s blacksmith, but their leader. True that most of the time he sought counsel from the very elderly man standing before him, the village’s shaman, but ultimately any decision that would affect the town was his to make. The mantle of leadership was most weighty tonight. Garrosk was the largest and strongest warrior in town. He was covered in tribal tattoos that couldn’t completely hide the scars he’d received in his long life of fighting. Both he wore proudly. The only person brave enough to threaten him was the elderly midwife that was currently helping with the birth of his son. She had raise a wooden spoon to him and told him that if his giant self was going to keep pacing all night he would either leave on his own accord or she would throw him out of his own home. Needless to say the scene would have been comical to anyone seeing the near seven foot tall man being scolded like a child by the midwife who barely topped 5 feet but stopped the pacing he did. There was so many things resting on tonight that he must be present.
“I know Grandfather. As you suggested the scouts are out howling to cover up the screams of Ellie so they don’t come to us.” Garrosk whispered to the wizened old shaman.
Minutes passed as Garrosk watched out the window. The lunar eclipse had started. It was one of the few times in his adult life he had ever been truly terrified. Worried that his child would be born, whether or not they would be the child of the prophecy Grandfather spoke of, and whether Ellie would survive the birth. As if this weren’t enough, there had been recent reports of Fae activity in the area lately. Garrosk hoped they would pass his tribe by without deciding to pick a fight. As a precaution as soon as Ellie had gone into labor, he had sent his six fastest scouts in diferent directions. They went to varying distances from the settlement and had started howling to try and cover up the sounds of her childbirth. The forest carried sounds for miles around so hopefully it would distract the Fae. They had a vague knowledge of the prophecy and if they had any indication that a child might be born into it, then surely none of the village would be safe.
The next few minutes pass and the lunar eclipse was on in full. As it started to end and the several things happened in succession. Grandfather’s crystal went dark and somehow the fire in the hearth seemed to no longer be giving off as much light. There was a final exhultant scream from Ellie, followed by the cry of a baby as his child was born. The midwife scooped up the child and looked before wrapping it up in a blanket and handing the baby over to the now exhausted mother.
“Congratulations Garrosk. You have a boy. May the mother’s light shine on him.” Whispered the midwife.
As if in answer, Ellie wiped off the baby’s face and brought the blanket back. She intended to show Garrosk their son even though the light in the home wasn’t very bright when suddenly the first moonbeam from the waning eclipse came down through the 2nd window near the roof and landed upon the child’s face. The beam sat upon the baby’s face who did not react for a few seconds until it spread out and the room was bathed in normal light from the fire, Grandfather’s staff, and the normal light of the moon.
“And so it begins…” Garrosk overheard Grandfather whisper. Grandfather had looked down upon the baby as Ellie had handed him over to Garrosk to see.
Garrosk looked down at his son and noticed that over the next couple seconds he watched as suddenly his son’s face started to glow as if it was emanating from within this little baby. When the glow receded, his son was left with a mark around his left eye in the shape of a crescent moon. The skin was not darkened like a brand or tattoo but actually shown paler than the surrounding skin, almost silvery. Not only that but the baby’s hair and irises had also changed to a pale silver. Garrosk suddenly realized that maybe Grandfather was right, and suddenly be became extra worried. He had moved the blanket away from the boy’s face in order to see him clearly, and his son grabbed a hold of his father’s finger and cooed as any normal baby would.
Garrosk chuckled. “Strong grip for such a little guy. We shall call him Erebesk, after our tribe’s legendary warrior founder. Let us hope that this name pleases the ancestors and spirits so that they may forever shine upon my son and his accomplishments.”
Garrosk was about the hand the babe back to Ellie when he came to a horrible realization. He had not heard any wolf howls in several minutes. Obviously no runners had been sent out the scouts to let them know his child was born yet. A lead pit grew in his stomach. He went to hand the babe back to Ellie. He watched horrified as he handed little Erebesk over to his mother, that the midwife suddenly was back up against the wall, hanging suspended as if she were strapped there. A quick second looked shows that she in fact was hanging. Vines had grown out of the walls and wrapped around her wrists, ankles, and neck. All of this happened in the span of a few heartbeats. Garrosk watched as the midwife started twitching and vines around her started moving on their own, constricting. The midwife tried to scream but her closed throat wouldn’t allow any air to pass through. The three watched for a few stunned seconds as the suddenly the midwife’s chest burst open in a fountain of gore upon them and thorny vines shredded her torso then bloomed as if some vile plant could bloom by being bathed in blood.
As the midwife slumped quite dead upon the wall, a figure shimmered into view below her across the room from the three stunned spectators. Her figure was obviously feminine and lacked any clothing but her skin looked like it was made of tree bark, her hair a tangle of green vines and moss, sprouting its own flowers along the tendrils. In her hands she held a bow with an arrow pointed straight at Ellie and the newborn bundle.
“And so it ends…”the figure spoke in a voice that was ethereal yet filled with hate.
Seeing Ellie and his newborn son in trouble was enough to shock Garrosk out of his stunned state. He jumped straight at the creature as she loosed her arrow. Garrosk managed to push the shot slightly with his body as he had tackled the creature, the arrow only piercing Ellie’s shoulder and missing the tiny Erebesk who started crying from the shock and shouting.
“Get them out of here…RUN!!!!” Garrosk yelled as his body and face started to change.
Ellie and Grandfather turned as they saw Garrosk change into a monster. His nails and teeth lengthened into claws and fangs, his face elongated to give him a muzzle. His already large size grew even larger as they knew that within seconds muscle would be packed onto his frame and his bones would grow until he would be near ten feet tall. His skin sprouted black fur that covered him head to toe as his clothes were absorbed into his body.
They ran out of the home, knowing full well that while Garrosk had assumed his hybrid form, the wooden creature’s appearance meant that the Fae knew what was going on. Ellie realized she had to get very far away if she even hoped of saving her newborn son.
As they ran out of her home, Ellie saw some of the other villagers were awake. Some of them were mid transformation when she and Grandfather burst out of her dwelling and into the street. There were wolves, dire wolves, and hybrids townsfolk everywhere. Everyone knew what was going on in the town even if some had been asleep until only moments ago. Unfortunately the grogginess of being awoken in the middle of the night also was the downfall of some of the tribe for they were cut down by arrows from unseen sources or other creatures’ weapons before they could get their bearings. The town was being overrun the moment that creature in her home revealed herself. Ellie was still in slight shock from what all was transpiring. She was mostly recovered from giving birth to her son but her shoulder was burning painfully. She ripped out the arrow that the creature had shot into her and took Grandfather’s hand as he lead her away, hopefully to somewhere safe. The problem was that she had no idea where would be safe, the Fae creatures seemed to have the little town surrounded.
Grandfather had known it was coming. He had had a vision the night before of some of the events that were going to play out tonight. The spirits has deemed it so that he could know some of what was going to happen in order ot make sure that they child of his peoples’ prophecy, little Erebesk, would survive. Unfortunately he had not been shown that the dryad would be in Ellie and Garrosk’s home. The Fae creatures shouldn’t have been able to do what they’d already accomplished tonight. He himself had set up the barriers both around town and in each of the tribe members’ homes. The Fae creatures shouldn’t have been able to come into the homes without being invited or breaking through the sturdier walls. He lead her through the town. It seemed that everywhere they turned were more of the Fae’s soldier creatures. The town was obviously lost, but they continued on as fast as possible, trying to stay out of sight. They made it to Grandfather’s home right on the edge of the little town, just on the edge of the forest. He lead Ellie inside quickly. She was understandably distraught and crying. He understood for from her perspective she brought a life into the world and within a couple minutes she and her newborn were being hunted down because of it. Grandfather grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Ellie, I know you don’t want to hear this but you need to calm down. Go into my room, there are two packs and a harness in there. I had intended to give it to the two of you in a couple days as a present but you are in need of it now.” He commanded her quietly.
Ellie nodded and moved off to Grandfather’s room while he looked out the window. She left Grandfather watching out the window for any pursuit while she headed off to the next room. Ellie found the packs easily enough and the harness sitting next to them. Odd that he would have packs ready for travel when he didn’t usually leave the town other than to get ingredients he needed for unusual spirit rituals. She looked down at the harness and realized what it was and chuckled, wishing it had been received as a gift in a more peaceful situation. The harness was constructed to adjust its straps on its own. You could carry a small bundle, like a swaddled newborn in it on your back whether walking as a human or on your back as a wolf. The straps were ingenious that they would keep whatever was being carried from jostling even with the loping strides of a wolf at full run. Just as Ellie started to chuckle at Grandfather’s gift a surge of burning pain went through her shoulder. She shifted baby Erebesk to her other arm and pulled at the shoulder of her dress. She exposed the wound the arrow had made and saw to her horror that the blood had turned black and that there was black spreading out like tendrils from the wound. Her wound was poisoned, but she knew she had neither the time nor the knowledge of herbs to find if Grandfather had a cure sitting somewhere on the shelves in the main room. She hiked the shoulder of her dress up, determined she’d just have to worry about it later and hopefully it wasn’t anything lethal until they got her baby to safety. She knew it unlikely but on some occasions Fae would capture her kind to use in their experiments or as slave labor. Hopefully she would be long gone before then. Ellie picked up the packs and put on the harness, putting Erebesk on her back and headed out to the main room. In the couple footsteps it took her to get there she watched as Grandfather looked back at her with the door open. He winked.
“Get him to safety, he may be our kind’s last hope. There’s a human city to the east across the river. It may take a couple days, but you can hide among the humans for a little. Once you’re inside, ask for Selena Hammer, she’ll know what to do. Now go while I slow them down.” With that he closed the door. As Grandfather walked out, both the door and his front windows glowed a soft blue light for a moment.
Ellie looked out the window and saw Grandfather striding down the hill from his front door. The crystal on his staff was shining and he stopped. She saw the Fae soldiers had stopped at the edge of town just past the buildings but before what most considered Grandfather’s front yard. She made her way back to his room and looked out the back windows, no sign of Fae soldiers. She opened his back door as quietly as possible and snuck into the woods.
Grandfather had lived a long eventful life. He almost missed their home world but not the Fae that came with it. He was tired of the fighting, only within the last decade or so had the tribe had any relative peace, but he figured in order to save baby Erebesk, who Grandfather believed with all his heart would be the child of the fabled prophecy, he’d get to stick it to the Fae one last time. He walked out with purpose his staff held in front of him, the crystal glowing brightly in the night, and his robes clattering in the breeze with his various trinkets he’d gained over the years. He saw now that the Fae soldiers recognized who he was. They had all stopped just past the buildings of the rest of town. The old shaman chuckled to himself.
“Come on then you twisted creatures. Come get me if you dare.” He taunted them.
The creatures paused for a moment, shifting as if unsure of what to do when the middle of their group parted. From the parting of the creatures came a humanoid figure, female in shape but slight of build. Her skin was fair and white to the point that it had a blueish cast to it, and her hair was black. It was long and straight reaching to her hips. A great blue and white cloak flowed behind her and she was wearing armor that seemed to be made of some combination of large reptile scales and plant material. She carried a sword on each of her hips, but of a design or material Grandfather couldn’t determine. Her face was beautiful to behold, but her bright blue eyes showed a cold alien light to them, almost as if the whole of the situation amused her.
“Greetings Grandfather, it has been a long time.” She pouted “You never come to visit me anymore. I do not know what to do with myself some times. Your Pack leader put up a decent fight. He killed my dryad general before I found him. I had to make an example of him because I cannot have any more of your nonsense in my domain.” Her voice was like several at once. Her hand shot forward from behind her back and Grandfather watched as Garrosk’s severed head bounced and rolled on the ground toward him, still in his hybrid half man half wolf form. It rolled and stopped a foot or two from Grandfather, the dead eyes looking up at him as if they still contained the rage that Garrosk had in life when defending his family, pack, or tribe.
Grandfather held his staff above his head, the crystal flared and he slammed the butt of the gnarled staff down into the ground. In response the earth shook slightly and then suddenly blocks of stone rose up out of the ground, creating a wall between him and the creatures. They jeered from behind the wall but none of them were brave enough to move past it or try to climb the smooth rocky surface.
Grandfather congratulated himself. He knew he’d owe one of the local rock spirits big for that disruption but it would be worth it. Suddenly the rock at the center of the wall slid back into the ground. Standing behind it was the Fae that had tossed Garrosk’s head so casually at him, her hand up and pointed at the section of the wall that had just dropped back. It had been many years since Grandfather had seen a True Fae, one of the Overlords of their chosen domain, and he’d hoped to never seen one again. He smiled.
“Well Mistress, it seems that we all have our good days and bad.”
“What is that supposed to mean old wolf? I think as you have gotten long in the tooth you may have forgotten your mind.” She stalked through the opening she had created in the rock wall and right up to Grandfather stopping mere inches from him.
“It simply means that regardless of what you do to us my kind will be saved. You’ll never find the child, which makes it a bad day for you and a good day for me. I loved you once even if you can’t actually understand that feeling because it is so beneath you. I was a fool and didn’t see the error of my ways for a very long time. It wasn’t until we got to this place that I realized there was another way. It’s only been about a century of freedom, but I’ll take what I can get.” With that, Grandfather reached into his robes and produced a glass jar. He looked at the True Fae, and she looked down and saw the jar, its contents roiling within the jar, glowing a bright red. As she watched the glow became so intense it seemed to outshine everything and Grandfather tossed down the jar even as she put her gloved hand through his chest to tear out his heart.
The jar hit the ground and shattered. The fae soldiers watched as their True Fae leader was engulfed in a storm of fire and light that exploded from the old werewolf’s jar. The red energy enveloped her and the old shaman then expanded outward with a loud explosion that last about five seconds then collapsed on itself.. Those standing behind the rock walls were unharmed but a couple had grown bold and went to stand behind their Mistress. Their bodies were instantly turned from living fae creatures into nothing but husks of their former selves, but when the light and fire was gone so too was the old wolf and their Mistress. Neither of their bodies or remnants remained. It was as if they simply vanished.
After she had gone about a mile or so sneaking through the brush as quietly as possible, she still saw no signs of pursuit. Suddenly there was an explosion back the way she had come from in town. She wished she could have seen the look on the Fae creatures’ faces whenever Grandfather rained down on them whatever he had but there was no time to go back. She reached into herself and willed herself to change shape, taking on the shape of a wolf. Her earlier suspicions were confirmed when as her body changed, the harness Grandfather had made shifted as well to accommodate her newly grown fur and bone structure change. Her dress receded into her but the harness did not. Erebesk would be safe while she ran through the woods. She just had to make it to the human city and then hopefully relative safety as long as they didn’t figure out what she was.
Ellie stopped only when she needed to. She ate and drank only what she needed to keep going and making sure that her newborn son was fed. She stayed on the move for three days before the human city walls were within sight. She would make it on the fourth day. Unfortunately, she could feel the insidious poison she’d been shot with still in her system. Despite her ability to heal, her body would not reject the poison fully. The Fae had plenty of practice over the centuries to perfect their poisons against her kind. Luckily there had been no signs of pursuit so she was sure she’d lost her pursuers. On the morning of the fourth day, she decided to forego any changing into her lupine form and stayed as a human. It was slower but at the same time safer for her and her baby. She didn’t know how far out the humans patrolled from their city. Their senses were terrible when compared to her own kinds. As the day wore on, she made it to a great stone and metal bridge she’d only ever seen from afar before and then the howling started.
The sound chilled Ellie to the bone. The howls she heard weren’t from any wolf she had ever heard. There was an unearthly quality to them that tended to fill anyone that heard them with dread. The howls she heard might have once been her kind, but now warped and twisted by the magic of the True Fae, they would no longer recognize that they were ever like her.
She was exhausted but she still ran. She had to make it across the bridge before the Fae wolves caught up with her. She looked back only once and saw the creatures crashed into the open air before the bridge, riders on their backs. Ellie ran for all her life, and not only her own life, but that of her child’s depended on making it to the guards she could now see at the other end of the bridge. She waved her hands and cried out.
“Help. There’s Fae wolves behind me! Please help me!” she cried out, and as she yelled out Erebesk cried out as well as if he knew his mother was in trouble.
As Ellie yelled out she saw the guards react. At first they pointed weapons at her. They looked at her and it took a moment for her words to register. The guards looked behind her and saw the Fae wolves and their riders. The two at the foot of the gate waved for Ellie to keep coming toward them. At the same time, they waved to other guards higher up on the gate. Ellie watched as those guards farther up brought weapons up. The guards on the ground ran over to her and started helping her inside. She caught a quick glance of the guards higher up on the wall, heard one of them say Fae and his rifle light up with sigils on the side. After their weapons lit up, the guards let loose at the Fae wolves. The first shots sunk into the ground right in front of the Fae wolves. Suddenly the fae creatures realized what would happen if they continued forward and turned around and fled back into the woods.
Ellie was ushered inside the gatehouse. She was inside the city. She felt relief and a surge of joy, but three days of running near nonstop trying to protect her newborn and the insidious poison finally caught up with her. Just inside the gate the guards started to question her but she collapsed.
“Ma’am how did you get here? Are you from one of the outer towns or mining communities? Why were those things following you?....” the guard kept going but Ellie was beyond hearing him anymore. She couldn’t give away any information about herself or she was sure her baby would be thrown out of the city.
“Sel….Selena…..Hammm…Hammer…..baby……Grandfather…..Erebesk……”she managed to stammer. The last thing Ellie saw before all of her trials caught up to her was the sigil badge on the man’s chest and the word MAGUS below it before all of the world faded to black.