Into the Light (Axe Druid Book 1)

by Christopher Johns

  “Game fun!” The cyclops stomped his feet in glee at the prospect of a new game.

  I shifted back and ran to my friend, casting Regrowth as I went. He laid there, groaned low, then cast a heal on himself too. He sat up, looked at me, then at Grum and back to me before laughing.

  “The shit I go through for y’all motherfuckers,” Jaken groaned. We all started laughing.

  Did I really attack you? I asked him through our earrings.

  Yeah, Jaken responded but quickly filled me in. We were trying to get you away from Grum before he saw you, but when we tried to herd you away, you got to me. Luckily, I was able to get you to hold still long enough for Balmur to knock you out.

  Dude, I don’t remember, I’m so sor–

  Shut up. I meant it when I said I forgave you. That’s what brothers do. Jaken smiled sincerely and gave me a thumb up.

  So we left it there. His HP was recovering quickly, and he wasn’t in any real danger. Plus, the danger of me getting pancaked seemed to have lessened dramatically. I helped him stand, and we walked, both a little stiffly, back to the others. Weapons had been put away, though Grum seemed to just carry his at the ready always.

  “Where did you find Grum, Bokaj?” I asked.

  “Oh man, me and ol’ Grumpy go way back, right Grum man?”

  “Grum happy, not grumpy.”

  “I know, buddy.” He smiled his usual easy smile and turned to us. “Turns out that the Werewolves had begun to prey on things other than the Ursolons. Like Grum’s goats. These things are huge, dude. The size of thoroughbred horses. Anyway, he caught a few of them hunting me and helped me kill them. Told me about his goat Bess, Bett?” Bokaj looked to Grum, who told him it was Bett. “Sorry, man, Bett. She was his first goat, and they killed her. I tracked them here. Then he followed me in, hence the rescue.”

  “Damn, man, that’s fucking awesome,” I admitted. I wasn’t sure if I had the guts to tell the rest what had happened to me. I knew they wouldn’t judge, but still. “So what next?”

  “You got turned, man,” Balmur said. “None of us did, thankfully, but are you okay?”

  I looked myself over. Other than being naked, I felt fine. Hell, better than fine—I felt great. I noticed the notification icon flashing and opened it to see what it was.

  CONGRATULATIONS!

  You have completed a secret quest!

  Biting The Hand That Feeds – You have killed the alpha who turned you, literally biting the hand that fed you. You now gain control of the former alpha’s Pack. You also gain the abilities of an Alpha Werewolf.

  Reward: Moon’s Grace, Hunter’s Call, Savage Fury. 300 EXP

  Holy shit. That was a lot of abilities. As I looked through them, I began to see the ups and downs of my bounty.

  Moon’s Grace – Significantly decreases the risk of a cursed transformation and loss of control.

  Hunter’s Call – Increases the damage output of one pack member by 10%. Duration: 15 seconds. Cool Down: 3 minutes.

  Savage Fury – Increases speed, damage output, and resistance of all pack members within audible range of the alpha. Duration: 30 seconds. Cost: Mobility and 150 MP. Cool Down: 10 minutes.

  Those were awesome, but the downsides were huge. One, they only worked on pack members, and looking around, they were all dead. So, that was moot, and I lost mobility AND a healthy chunk of mana on that buff? That had to be pretty awesome to cost so much.

  “Yeah, I’m great, guys. Check it,” I said and showed them all my screen.

  “Is there a pack page in your Status Screen?” Yoh asked.

  “Yeah, man, the least you can do is check it out,” Balmur suggested.

  I nodded and acquiesced.

  Name: Zekiel Erebos

  Race: Kitsune (Lycanthrope)

  Level: 16

  Strength: 38

  Dexterity: 31

  Constitution: 27

  Intelligence: 40

  Wisdom: 34

  Charisma: 17

  Unspent Attribute Points: 0

  Lycanthrope was actually clickable, so I tapped it and looked at it. There was the information I knew, the abilities I received, and the status adjustments, but there was also a pack tab.

  I selected it, then was surprised to see I had one member. It was Kayda, since she was a part of me, technically speaking. So she was alive and well—good. There was a button that gave me the option to add members at the bottom of the page. I sent the party invites, and they all joined. Once they did, I could see their names pop up on the page. Awesome.

  “Thanks for the assist, guys.”

  “Eh, you always were a little slow on the uptake. It’s gravy though,” said Yohsuke.

  I chuckled with these fools I called friends. We set about searching the camp for our things that had been taken. We searched the little dens up in the tree and couldn’t find anything. I went into the alpha’s pavilion and searched. The desk held papers with plans to attack different settlements and recruitment strategies. Basically kidnapping a few scouts here and there, then attack when they had a larger force. Nothing else of note. Werewolves had no need of money. Under the bed furs, we found a trap door. In it was Storm Caller and all of Jaken’s gear and items. I found mine in it, too, just beneath his things. Ironic that I had been on my stuff this whole time.

  I equipped my items and let Kayda out to roam. She took an interest in Grum immediately. She landed on his shoulder after we explained that she was our friend, too.

  “Bird play game you do?” he asked, poised to flick her off his shoulder.

  “NO!” Yohsuke and I shouted in unison. The cyclops looked dejected but smiled when the Lightning Roc patted him with her wing.

  “Have we figured out how far we are from the Unseelie?” I asked.

  “From what the map is showing, still out of range by a few days,” Bokaj informed us.

  Shit.

  “You want go see Unseelie?” Grum asked? “Why?”

  Bokaj tried to explain things how best he could, and Grum seemed to understand.

  “Ah, you try get Maebe help?” Grum asked before clapping a hand over his mouth.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Unseelie Queen,” he whispered. “She crazy. No say name, or she hear. Find us and come for us.”

  “That’s what we want, though!” I cried. “We want to talk to this Maebe. See if she can help us return home!”

  “SHHH!” he whispered and began to look around worried. “She hear you! Come with bad Fae to get us, like Grum mummy say!”

  A few of us chuckled. We had been raised much the same way; there was always something out there to scare disobedient children before bedtime. This Maebe must have been the one here.

  A breeze stirred around the group, but no leaves moved on the ground. The grass didn’t stir, nor did the branches above us.

  “She here,” the cyclops groaned softly, almost in tears.

  At the same time, the sky began to darken. Not due to clouds or night but because it had been blotted out by a writhing, black mass overhead.

  “The Hunt here, too,” Grum yelled. “Run!”

  The baying of the hounds began, and I could begin to make out different shapes in the darkness. Black, Demon-like creatures rode atop great black steeds. They held bows and had swords at their hips. They numbered in the dozens that I could see from where we were, hundreds of feet below them. A haunting horn sounded, and the host began to dip toward us—they had found their prey.

  “You guys trust me?” Yohsuke asked.

  “Yep,” said Jaken.

  “Uh-huh,” Bokaj and Balmur chorused.

  Kayda screeched a challenge to the darkness above us in defiance.

  “Don’t ask stupid questions,” I told him.

  “Okay, here goes.” He stepped forward and raised his hands out to his sides. “We entreat Maebe, Queen of the Unseelie Fae, for safe passage to her lands where we wish to parlay!”

  The breeze became a gust, and it swirled around us, n
ow disturbing the greenery and our clothes, hair, and affects.

  I looked from my friend to the descending Hunt. I could see the largest figure of the horde galloping at the fore, his great, horned head capped in dark metal, a bow held ready but no arrow drawn. His eyes burned bright red, and his smile, in grim victory, bared his sharp teeth to us all. He had sharp features, Elven from my best guess, and he was far more muscular than even our tank was. He was massive, almost fourteen feet if I had to guess, and his mount was a beast that I had never even seen before—a horse made of pure shadow with dark, glassy eyes like a doll’s, and it seemed to give off more shadow as it ran.

  “I hear your call, small one,” whispered a voice in all of our ears. “Come.”

  “NO!” bellowed the creature at the front of the Hunt. He nocked a massive arrow and pulled it back in one fluid motion, releasing it. It flew directly at the summoner of this Fae wind. As soon as it looked like the arrow would impale my brother, he was gone. Then my friends were gone.

  I blinked and realized that I stood in a large, white room. It was grander than anything I could have ever imagined.

  The walls sparkled like water—carved of ice, I’d have guessed—but the air wasn’t cold in the slightest. I could see carvings of creatures scattered all around us. They seemed almost alive but made of solid ice. Their expressions either of fear, hatred, or resignation. There wasn’t just one kind of creature but many: Elves, Kitsune, the Little Folk, Spriggans, Dryads, and even a couple of giants that didn’t even come close to touching the ceiling with their weapons raised to attack.

  “Beautiful, aren’t they?” posed a woman next to us.

  She was dressed simply in a slip of a red dress—that didn’t do anything to hide her hourglass figure—and no shoes. Her pointed ears were longer than most other Elves I had seen before. They also flared out from her head a little more at a right angle. She was unique, different from the Elves I was used to seeing. It was an interesting sight. They were adorned with a dozen odd earrings and piercings of gold, silver, and platinum. It made me wonder if, with so many precious metals, this creature was allergic to iron. I had read so many books on the Fae in my childhood that the question was almost free of my throat when I was brought out of the thought.

  “They are,” said Jaken. The rest of us nodded, just to be polite.

  She turned to look at us, and my breath caught. She was beautiful. Her skin was so dark that she looked like the night personified. Her eyes were a deep green, and her full, pouty lips broke into a bright smile. Perfect, white teeth grinned under a small, dainty nose. Her cheek bones were high, but not as sharp and angular as you might expect from someone of Fae descent. Her hair was black but with colors like reds, greens, shades of purple, and even silver highlighting throughout her hair. She was beautiful. The more I looked, the more her skin began to fascinate me. I could see little pinpricks of white scattered—like freckles—across her nose and on her cheeks, chest, and shoulders. Some scattered down her toned arms here and there. They looked like little stars, and then I realized that she was night personified.

  “Who among you called to me?” she asked. Her voice was feminine and strong. She was used to getting her way.

  “Grum did,” rumbled the cyclops from his knees. “Queenship,” he added hurriedly.

  “Yes, I heard you. Who else?”

  I stepped forward but held my tongue.

  “I did, too.” Yoh stepped up next to me. “I was the one who called for an audience with you.”

  “Yes, you did.” She nodded. She walked over to Grum and looked up at him and smiled. “You were the one who uttered my name and brought it to his lips, weren’t you, my precious?”

  “Yes, your Queen-ness,” he said, and tears began to fall from his eye.

  “It seems you already know the punishment for speaking my name to outsiders? Yes, of course you do. Grum, was it? You’re in luck, Grum. I’m in a generous mood today, and it seems you have at least brought me some interesting visitors. This is the only time I will do this, but good boy.”

  She reached out and patted him on his hand. He looked at her in surprise and faded from view without a sound other than sobbing.

  “What did you do?” I asked her in horror.

  “It speaks!” She turned around and seemed to glide toward me faster than a bullet. I couldn’t move away from her. Her green eyes sparkled up at me from inches away. She was a little shorter than me as well. Then she seemed to grow rapidly. I looked down, and she was levitating to look down at me. She smiled.

  “You see me,” she said. It was an accusation as much as a statement.

  “Of course I see you, you’re right in fro–” I stopped when I realized what she really meant. “Yes, I see the real you. Now, tell me what you did with Grum. Please?”

  Now, I knew I was out of line—dangerously so if she was anything like the queens and kings I read about—but the big lug had saved our asses. He had just been trying to help us, and that’s cool with me. I like helpful people because I’m the same way. Watching her make him vanish had freaked me the fuck out—and I don’t spook well. Sue me. He bled for us—with us. That’s a bond grander than most in my book.

  I could make more out of her actual face under the glamour she used. Glamour was a type of magic most of the Fae in my books at home were adept with. They used it to make themselves more beautiful and fascinating. Maebe seemed to be trying to do the opposite. Was this because of my True Sight ability? That let me… see creatures as they are. So she was hiding herself. But why?

  She smiled a bit more; it almost split her face in half.

  “I did something I rarely do. I rewarded him. I sent him home to his flock.”

  “Alive?”

  “Oh, I see that you have played our games before?” she asked, delighted. “Yes, and whole. Good for you, making that distinction.”

  “I have heard of your games before,” I admitted. “I’ve read books about the Fae. The game is that you will tell the truth, always but have mastered telling versions of it. Omitting information that is pertinent and telling half-truths. Power is everything to the Fae, or at least, that’s what I read.”

  “Your books do not lie,” she said simply. “Still, I don’t like that you can see me. We will talk more later.”

  She turned around immediately and lowered to her feet. She walked over to Yohsuke and stared down at him for a moment.

  “You wished to talk?” she asked mildly. “Talk.”

  “We want a way home. We were banished here by a spell and have no means to return on our own. We received word that, while the Wild Hunt and the Seelie queen—Zekiel what was her name?”

  “If my books were right, it’s Tita–” I began.

  “STOP!” she screeched. “Never say the name of a Fae Queen. That summons our attention. Continue.”

  He stared at her for a second, clearly about to have me say the name just to spite her but must have decided against it.

  “The Seelie Queen—and her gaggle of bitches—are hunting us. You aren’t, so we decided to try and come to you for help.”

  “Oh, how I do love that word, ‘help’.” She clapped her hands in delight. “So few come to me these days. Why, it’s been a century or more since I’ve even held court. Longer still since I’ve had a guest.”

  She wandered away, up steps behind us—that I failed to notice—and sat on a large throne shaped into a Dragon’s maw made of ice. The body was attached, the jaws stretched wide, so that the throne fit into it perfectly. Her artist was talented as shit. It looked so life-like that it could have moved its football-field-sized body and crushed us all.

  She closed her eyes and began to drum her fingers in thought while she played with her hair.

  “Umbra!” she called at last, her eyes still closed.

  “Yes, my Queen?” a deep voice from behind us made all of us jump. Balmur had his weapons out, and the rest of us were ready to fight, too.

  We turned to see a small Gnom
ish man, skin as dark as my fur, kneeling behind us. He was bare chested and armed with a rapier with a thick hand guard. The blade appeared to be iron. His features were almost bland and forgettable, save for the mustache that he had twirled and twisted into handlebars.

  “Summon my court. They will meet tomorrow, in the eve. We are going to have a ball,” she purred. “And Zamir? See that my guests are… well tended.”

  “Yes, Darkest Lady,” a feminine voice said from my right.

  We turned our heads and noted that yet another beautiful woman was standing next to us. She was the same kind of Fae that Maebe was because her ears flared out the same way. She didn’t try to tone down her beauty and ethereal looks. Where Maebe’s skin was like a starry night sky, her’s was like alabaster.

  She motioned to us with her hand, long thin fingers waving for us to follow.

  “The nude one stays,” Maebe said in amusement.

  I blushed and waved for my friends to go. “I’ll be okay.” I tapped the earring in my ear, and they nodded.

  I covered myself, then turned to find the Fae Queen standing right there in front of me. She must have levitated because I hadn’t heard a damn thing.

  “Your earrings will not work here, unless I allow it,” she said smugly. “I can see the enchantments on your items. I can see the magic all over you and all over them. Nothing escapes my sight here in the domain of Ice and Night.”

  She walked away from me, wandering from sculpture to sculpture. She caressed each one as she moved. She stopped and stared at a Kitsune who looked resigned and then turned to me once more.

  “Are you usually so quiet?” she asked.

  “No,” I chuckled. “Usually, I never shut up. The last few days have been rough for me.”

  She looked at me, and then I looked at the ground. She walked over to me and gripped my face with her thin fingers. She stared into my eyes a moment then held her other hand up.

  “Show me,” she ordered.

  I had no idea what she did next, but I found myself reliving the events of my time just before we came to the Fae Realm, but they were jumbled. Then the transportation and our time in the Fae Realm. In hyper speed, the events played out as I had lived them. In what felt like only seconds, she had seen it all.