by T. J. Hunter
Chapter 9
While mind melting with Wolfpedia on Keob, I learned the Middle Eastern deserts were one of a few isolated places where lycanthropes found refuge and bred fighters. They’re like ant colonies having specific roles and duties and included guardians, which are like the half-human-half-wolf beast pictograms found inside Egyptian pyramids. Guardians protect lycanthrope lairs and will take your head off should you wander to close. There are also the four legged woodland type wolves created from a lycanthrope bite or deep scratch. None of these are deadlier than the third kind, shapeshifters, who blend in among humans.
Shapeshifters are very intelligent predators and feed on human flesh for sport. Given the opportunity, they’ll tear your throat out as quickly as their less evolved cousins will, but you are more likely to be surprised when they do it. The doctor, accountant, or teacher living next door could be waiting for an opportunity to eat you. Believe me, Alura and I are doing the world a huge service hunting these monsters, and I was looking forward to putting some of the fur balls down tonight.
Alura began walking up a rocky path and stooped down near the top. She turned back to me motioning to be quiet by pressing her finger to her lips. I looked around, but only saw stars above. There is no ambient light in deserts, at least not this one, and I could barely see my hand in front of my face.
Alura leaned in to me and whispered, “Close your eyes and say ‘clarisim’.”
I did as she instructed, and when I opened my eyes, the darkness had peeled away. I could see outlines of cactus, rocks, brush, and even a bat that flew by. Alura grabbed my chin turning it to a direction at my right. They were large shapes moving around and guarding a perimeter. I squinted my eyes a little and could actually see the outlines of wolves, some walking on two feet, others on all fours. At least twenty of the creatures were patrolling around a large single Bedouin tent.
“Be quiet,” Alura said. “We are downwind, so they can’t smell us, but they can hear almost anything at this distance. Remember your training Azul, especially the lightening and water spells. Focus your energy through your staff and hold it in your amulet ring hand.”
Alura looked concern, uncertain about how I might perform during my first battle.
“Brother, while you are a wizard, you are not unbreakable. You can die if injured bad enough. Do not hesitate, no matter what. We must destroy them all or they will kill us.”
I should have been frightened, at least a little. Instead, I felt the same anger when I mind read Wolfpedia. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and adrenalin began flowing through my body. I felt strong and confident as Kyiel and I followed Alura down the backside of the cliff.
I still had my night vision and noticed the wolves were acting differently. They were now pacing back and forth more quickly and in shorter runs. A few had their noses pointed in the air as though smelling something, and as we got about 300 feet in front of the Bedouin tent, the wolves started circling it in a tight pattern. More growls and yellow eyes blinked in the dark, which sent chills down my back.
Alura looked at me with a coy smile, and without warning, charged towards the wolves while tossing a pouch into the air. She drew a dagger from her belt and threw it into the pouch to disperse its contents, then shouted, “Aska illuminata.” Several balls of white light emerged from whatever was inside the pouch and floated above the wolves’ camp. Clouds formed over the Bedouin tent and thunder rumbled across the sky as the dark desert became as bright as midday.
Is she nuts? What am I suppose to do now?
Several wolves started running towards me from both sides readying themselves for a kill. I raised my staff up to the sky and shouted, “Aknor stellara,” causing the amulets in my ring and staff to glow bright blue-white. Clouds above swirled like a hurricane and a crack of thunder followed by a lighting bolt connecting to the top of my staff. I pointed my staff to where the first wolf was closing in said, “Aktum.” Three lightening bolts shot out from my staff setting the wolves into white burning flashes. I quickly turned and pointed my staff to the other wolves nearly upon me. Another loud crack of thunder and more bolts rushed from my staff, obliterating the other wolves.
Easy enough, but these were the four legged wolves. The bigger and meaner ones were up ahead. I ran forward and saw Alura somersaulting and dodging in various directions while slicing wolves and Guardians into piles of bloody arms, legs, and heads. A white light trailed each swing of her silver swords striking wolves coming from all directions. Alura squatted down on one knee, pulled the pins out of two grenades, and threw them out to each side. A bright flash and two loud bangs sent silver pellets flying into the air piercing through wolves and turning them into a fiery ash.
I raised my staff to the sky, swirling it in a circular motion above our heads and again shouted, “Aknor stellara.” Loud thunder erupted and formed a circle of blue-white light around as I continued rotating my staff. I then shouted, “Aktum,” sending bolts of lightening outwards into wolves and Guardians in wide sweeping attacks. A few more howls and bright flashes, and then there were only piles of fiery ash around us.
I quickly drew a pentagram in the dirt using the end of my staff. If any more wolves came at us, I wanted us to be ready to get the heck out of here. I reached into my pocket and took out the blue coin Alura gave me, but before I was able to use it, someone starting clapping from the Bedouin tent. We turned and faced the tent where a medium height man was smiling and clapping his hands together. He was about five and a half feet tall, broadly built like a wrestling steroid freak, and wore an expensive three piece brown business suit. His hair and eyes were jet black and he had a neatly trimmed beard.
“Very good, and very entertaining,” the man said.
Alura pointed both Desert Eagles at his head and I pointed my staff at his chest.
“Please, no more violence,” the man said. “My children would not understand. They are very protective, and as you can see, are many in number. Too many for you to kill them all should I be harmed and unable to keep you safe.”
Alura and I looked around and saw hundreds of yellow blinking eyes. We were surrounded.
“Who the heck are you”? I asked.
“My name if Lupzarro. This is my home which you have come uninvited. Nonetheless, it would appear your arrival is good timing just the same. I know who you are wizard and sensed your presence at the Gate of the gods. Do not be alarmed. If we wanted you dead, you would not have made it this far.”
“So says you,” I said.
“He’s a shapeshifter,” Alura said as she tightened her grip on her pistols.
The wolves around us were circling, growling, and showed us their long white teeth with noses pushed up in snarls.
“Alura, there are too many. We can’t win this battle.”
Alura kept her pistols fixed on Lupzarro while shifting her eyes side to side. She then lowered the pistols slowly from Lupzarro’s head and held them steady at an intimidating angle. Having two .44 mag caliber Desert Eagles pointed at his manly goods got Lupzarro’s attention, but he showed little concern.
“That’s much better,” Lupzarro said. “We should look at this misunderstanding as an opportunity to negotiate a truce.”
“Truce … what kind of a truce does anyone make with a man-eating wolf?” I asked.
Lupzarro smiled showing what looked like perfectly normal teeth, but his eyes turned yellow.
“You know wizard, my lords will soon be here and your kind will once again serve them as will all the inhabitants on this planet. I offer you safe passage from certain death here this night if you agree to stop pursing us, and how do you say … ah, ‘burry the hatchet’. In return we will not hunt your kind.”
Alura raised one pistol and pointed it at Lupzarro’s head while keeping the other locked on his wolf jewels.
“What about the others?” she asked, her fingers pulling slightly on the pistol triggers which caused Lupzarro to stop smiling.
“Man is our
food. You know this. We can not simply stop hunting our food, it’s not natural. The truce I offer is for your kind only.”
“That’s not much of a deal,” Alura said. “If I’m going to die here and now, I think I’d like to take you out with me.”
“Don’t be too hasty, there is more. If you agree to this truce, we will not harm your warrior. He is not well and could use your help. I can tell you where to find him, or if you continue being disagreeable, my children can make him a visit.”
“What warrior do you think you have”? Alura asked.
“Don’t worry,” Lupzarro said. “You will be pleased to know he is safe for the time being. Fortunately for him, he does not remember who he is. We are keeping a close watch so he does not get into trouble or hurt himself.”
“You’re a liar” Alura said. “Even if you were able to hold one of us briefly, we would fight to the death before being a hostage.”
“Ah, but that would mean such a warrior knew who he was, am I correct?”
Alura stared hard at Lupzarro while he grinned. It was a tense few moments and I wondered if Alura was going to blow Lupzarro’s brains all over the Bedouin tent, but she showed surprising restraint. Maybe the boss wolf did have one of our people after all, which would explain why Alura had not already shot Lupzarro.
The wolves were gathering in greater numbers and began growling louder while moving closer. During the verbal exchange between Alura and Lupzarro, I managed to drop the blue magic coin on the ground inside the pentagram and crushed it, then shouted, “Transmati Keob.”
Blue-white light instantly encompassed the pentagram sealing the edges and rose up to the clouds. Lupzarro’s smile turned to anger and he growled showing his long teeth, but still remained mostly human.
Several wolves that jumped up to attack us and were turned into fiery ash as they touched the light emanating from the pentagram. Hundreds of wolves howled as everything went black inside the pentagram and we were transported back to Keob.
“Greetings, and how was the hunting trip?” Sarila asked.
Alura’s face was filled with anger and she went directly to a computer without acknowledging Sarila. She typed something, placed her hands on her hips, and stared at the monitor.
“I see,” Sarila said. “Not very well I guess. What happened wizard?”
“We were outnumbered and this Lupzarro shape shifting creep said he had a Zeshtune warrior. He wanted to make a deal.”
“Lycanthropes don’t make deals wizard. They have no sense of honor and eat people for fun.”
I walked over to Alura and asked her if is she was alright.
“I’m fine,” she said angrily, then took a deep breath and spoke more calmly, “I’m alright Azul. Do you think Lupzarro was telling the truth about knowing where one of our warriors is?”
“I don’t know Alura, but if he is telling the truth, we’ll find him. I Promise.”
Alura put her arm around my waist and tilted her head on my shoulder. Her eyes carefully watched the monitor as names scrolled by in white and red colors.
“What does all this mean?” I asked, watching the names scroll by.
Sarila was now standing at Alura’s side and explained how the computer was listing names of Zeshtunians who returned to Earth and have gone missing. The names in red are those who were scheduled for recognition and remain unaccounted.
“We have scouts looking for them,” Sarila said.
“And not all have been found,” Alura added, her voice shaking. “Azul, we know all these Zeshtunians. They are our brothers and sisters and some have not been seen or heard from for many years. They are alone, maybe even dead.”
“Dead? I thought Zeshtunians went into a spiritual sleep if their bodies are destroyed.”
“That is true wizard, provided recognition has been completed,” Sarila said. “The power of Zeshtunians resides in knowing who he or she is, not just their amulets. This awareness guides them to sleep after their bodies die. If on the other hand a Zeshtunian fails to complete recognition, or believes he or she is someone else who can die, their conscientiousness will remain in empty space until the end of days.”
I looked at Alura and saw tears falling down her checks. This was the first time I saw her become so emotional, which was not part of her warrior repertoire.
“One can only assume the many names you see here are Zeshtunians who are lost, do not know who they are, or have died,” Sarila said. “Wizard, if you had died before going to the Gate of the gods, you too would exist only in space until the end of days. Once you placed your staff into the gate and unlocked your mind, your recognition began. Now you are aware of who you really are, so if your body dies, your spirit will sleep in your amulet waiting for the next recognition.”
I took Alura’s hand. “Come on Alura, let go home and I’ll make you a nice cup of hot tea.”
Alura smiled a little. “That sounds good. By the way brother, your first transportation spell worked out well.”
“I guess so, given we didn’t materialize inside a rock,” I said, causing Alura to make a bigger smile.
We silently headed down the tunnel into our home. Alura tried her best to hide her sniffles and wiping tears from her eyes. As soon as we got inside, she stretched out on the couch while I made hot tea. A few minutes later, I carried a tray with two cups of hot herbal tea and placed it on the table next to the couch.
“There you go little sister, the best tea Keob has to offer.”
Alura was sound asleep, so she didn’t hear me. I sat on my chair and thought about how quickly this fierce warrior had turned into a tearful girl. Warrior or not, she’s an incredible person and I was lucky to be her brother. Even though I haven’t known her long in this recognition, I knew we had each other’s back and would always be there no matter what came along. That’s what families do – they look out for each other and are there for them when it counts.
Lupzarro was probably telling the truth. Why Lupzarro is interested in this Zeshtune warrior, and who the warrior actually is, falls on my mysteries to solve list. I am going to find this warrior. I had to because I promised Alura we would.
My mind drifted back to what Alura said earlier when talking about magic coins. She said one of the coins was a surprise and had something to do with New York. I assumed Manhattan, because this is what New York is to most people, and Manhattan would be a good place to start looking for a lost warrior.