by Mark Tufo
***
I walked away from the fortress happy to have some food. I alternated eating bread and cheese, always giving Oggie a piece of whatever I was having. Normally he liked to roam around, but he was hanging pretty close since we started eating. I found a small copse of trees and removed my destroyed clothes. I enjoyed the feel of the sun on my skin and actually took a moment to lie down. I had to admit, there was something extremely primitive and inviting about being this close to nature. I let my eyes close. Oggie was sniffing around the bag.
“We’ll eat more in a minute,” I told him groggily.
I heard him go bounding off. I think Oggie took the minute part literally I heard him come traipsing back much quicker than I had anticipated, or I had fallen asleep and more time had elapsed than I thought. I sat up when I realized those weren’t the sounds of paws on grass, but rather, shoed feet.
Nothing makes you feel more vulnerable than nudity, and besides some clinging twigs and leaves, I was as naked as one could get. I was staring at the clothes Lana had given me; I reached out and snagged them. My hand nearly rebelled at the feel of the scratchy Rayon-Burlap hybrid. I think I would have put my shredded clothes back on if I hadn’t shed them back at the opening to the copse. There was no way I was getting into a fight with my talliwacker flapping about. I had just pulled the rough material over my head when I heard her.
“Sir,” Lana called out.
“You’re kidding right?” I said softly, ducking down and putting my arms through the torturous sleeves as quickly as I could. “I’d rather wear rusty armor,” I said as I pulled the pants up. My socks were a lost cause and I had discarded them with the rest of my previous clothing. The boots could use a thorough rinsing, but they were in great shape. I put them on, foregoing tying them for the moment.
“What are you doing here?” I stood up. She had gotten a lot closer than I had expected and gasped in surprise when she saw me.
“I told my father. He did not believe me that a war is coming. My father said that you were just trying to scare us because we would not let you in.”
“So how did coming to find me seem like a good idea? You have no idea who I am. I could very easily be the monster your father believes that I am. Or worse,” I added, bending over to tie my boots. The wind had kicked up exposing that damned delicious looking neck again.
“This a test, God?” I grumbled.
“Excuse me?” Lana asked, thinking I was talking to her.
“Nothing.” I told her, thankful her hair had dropped back down. “Go home, I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but there’s nothing except danger out here.”
“Where are you from...really?” she asked, completely blowing off my warning.
“I love teenagers, such a uniquely obstinate being.”
“Your clothes, I couldn’t tell from the wall, but I knew they were different. And then when I saw your boots, I knew you weren’t from Maine and you have an accent I’ve never heard before. It’s so exotic.”
“You’ve never heard a Bostonian accent before?” I asked.
“Where? Are you from across the ocean? Father told me that people used to travel over the waterways covering vast distances.”
“I’m from...” I let it trail off, Massachusetts would mean as much to her as Boston would.
“And more importantly,” she pressed on, “What are you?”
“What?”
“I touched your hand…you are no man.”
“You have no idea what I am or where I’m from, and you come out alone and unarmed. And they say I have the dumbs.”
She looked slightly crestfallen. If she had lived during my times, though, she probably would have been a cheerleader with how quickly she rebounded.
“You are no Lycan like my father believes.”
“How do you know that?” I asked in between whistles for Oggie.
I wanted him to come back quickly so we could leave before her father sent out a brigade of men to hunt us down. And truth be told, being alone with a teenage girl scared the shit out of me. Not because I felt like I would commit any impropriety, but rather because like I’ve pointed out in other journals; the female teenager may be the most foreign creature on this planet. That includes zombies, vampires and now even Lycans and werewolves. They were an emotional bundle of drama, and I dreaded being around the ticking time bombs.
“You are not Lycan because they nearly burn to the touch. That is why I grasped your hand. I had to know.”
“Have you ever heard the phrase, curiosity killed the cat?”
“Many times,” she replied.
“Apparently that didn’t resonate with you, I’m thinking.”
“What is your name?” she asked, completely ignoring me in a perfect teenage fashion.
“Fine, I’m Michael Talbot.”
She let that roll around in her head for a moment before she spoke. “Again, sir, you are no Lycan, and I do not believe you to be any ordinary man. You are cold to the touch, but do not show any signs of hypothermia. My original question stands.”
“Listen, Lana, go home. Do whatever it is teenagers do during this time.”
“Teenager?”
“A person of teen years. You know fifteen, sixteen, etcetera.”
“Middling, you mean?”
“Sure, take your middling ass and go home. Your father is going to want my head now, and I’m very attached to its present location.”
“I am nearly an adult. I will do as I please!” she informed me in no uncertain terms.
“Great really, but go rebel somewhere else.”
“Why are you avoiding my questions?”
“You will not like the answers.”
“I know more than you think I do.”
“Most teen...middlings do.”
“I can sense something in you. Are you attracted to me?”
“Listen, Lana, you really don’t want to be around me. I don’t know what you sense or why you feel the need to be here. I may be attracted to you, but not in any way that is flattering.”
She looked at me crossly, my words confusing her.
I laughed, before realizing my folly. “Where is that damned mutt?” I asked impatiently wanting to extract myself from this socially awkward situation.
“You’re laughing at me? Is something about me funny to you?” She was truly angry now.
Poked a bear, wonderful. “Lana, I am many years your senior and have been in a time vastly different from this one. I find humor wherever I can get it. Go home, find someone you love to be with. Enjoy him while you can. Love hard, life is fleeting.”
“Why is there so much sadness around you?” she asked, stepping in closer.
Oggie finally trundled up. He was all wags and kisses to our new guest.
“Great of you to finally show up. We’re leaving, pooch,” I told him as I grabbed my meager supplies. I walked out of the copse and back towards the roadway. Lana did not immediately follow. But she would. How did I know that? Because what middling isn’t defiant?
“Don’t make me carry you back!” I shouted into the woods behind me where she trailed by a couple of dozen yards.
“You cannot see me!” she shouted in reply.
“I’m no woodsman, but a bear in heat would make less noise than you.”
“I want to see the world. I have only been out of Denarth once, and I was still within sight of her walls.”
“The world sucks, Lana. There’s all manner of unsavory things out here. “Even right here.” I mumbled that part. “Your father was wise to keep you inside.”
“A life half lived is not worth living,” she said as she approached.
“Why are you so desperate to cut both of our existences short?”
“My father will understand,” she said, coming abreast of me.
“No, he won’t. I was a father once.”
“Once?”
“Last chance, Lana, I have to catch up to my friends. (For lack of a better ter
m.) Where I go I do not foresee a rosy ending. I have done things in this life I must atone for, and I have a fate to fulfill. And apparently it starts with these clothes. Are they used as some sort of punishment?” I asked, pulling the shirt away from my chest where it was abrading my many wounds.
“I have a salve I can put on those.” she said, realizing my discomfort.
“NO!” I said much too quickly.
“I think I frighten you, Michael Talbot.” She laughed.
“You have no idea.”
“What happened to your children?” she prodded.
“Time,” was my solemn answer.
“Surely you are not old enough to have outlived them.”
I stopped and turned to look at her. “You are a smart one, aren’t you? Fine, this may be the only chance I have to be rid of you.” My pupils dilated as I opened my mouth, long canines pulled down pointedly, my heart raced as I felt the beat of her heart. The delivery of so much blood quickened my pulse in return.
“What are you?” she cried, pulling back.
“I am the worst of what this world has to offer,” I told her truthfully as I wrestled to regain control of my emotions. Oggie stood and watched purposefully. I wondered what he would do if I attacked the girl. He had seemed to grow fond of her, and I can’t imagine he would stand idly by as I devoured her. “I am a vampire, Lana.”
She raised her hand to her mouth. “Impossible. You are lying! This is some sort of trick to make me leave,” she said, but she was still backing up and looked like she would bolt at any moment. “That is why you are so cold?” she asked, stopping.
I nodded.
“Your family…all of your family has passed?”
I nodded again, tears threatening to fall. “Most of my friends as well.”
“You poor man.” She came closer, placing her hand against my cheek.
“I am no man.” I told her in a whisper; though I had meant to say it with force. “Lana, I am constantly in a whirlwind of destruction, and those around me usually pay for my transgressions. Go be happy, live your life out. Forget the world outside, it is not a place for those with kind hearts.”
“How can you say Lycans threaten our very existence and yet you wish me to sit by while they come for us? Will our walls hold?”
“No.”
“I must do what I can then to prevent that.”
“Yes, by going back and convincing your father his defenses are inadequate. That is the best thing you can do.”
“You would have me go back by myself, with all the hidden dangers lurking about?”
“It’s not that far.”
“What if I got lost? My death would be on your conscience.”
“Advanced degree in manipulation I take it?”
“It’s getting dark. I don’t think I’d make it back in time…being a silly little girl and all.”
“Let’s go.” I said, grabbing her arm, she tried to pull away. “We’re going back to your home.”
“I’ll tell father we kissed, Denarth laws dictate marriage.”
“What?” I asked, almost flinging her arm away as if it were on fire. “Now you’re lying.”
“Am I? What would you do then?”
“Run for the friggin’ hills, I suppose.”
“I do not wish to marry you Michael, but I will threaten you with Denarth laws.”
“So you would do something you do not wish to do just to spite the both of us? How is it that teens do not learn from those that went before them? Marriage would be horrible; you’d be talking about new hip-hop bands and shoes you wanted to buy. You’d probably want to go out dancing every night. Folks would tell you how nice it is you caring for your grandfather.”
She laughed. “I don’t know what hip hop bands are, but I do like shoes.”
“Go figure. Let’s go.” I’ll take my chances with Denarth law.
“Do you hear that?”
“No, do you have bat ears?”
“Horses,” she said, ducking down.
I didn’t hear them, but I heard the braying of dogs. “Hounds. We’re being tracked. This your dad’s doing?”
“Yours is the first dog I’ve seen in five years. A trader came to our gates once, had this old gnarled thing that lay in the back of his cart most of the time. I, at first, thought it was stuffed, it moved so little.”
“See, Lana, this is the kind of shit I’m talking about. I’m walking around minding my own business eating bread and cheese and I guarantee you these people are chasing me – now us – and want to do us harm.”
“We’d better get moving then.”
She was right, but we were going to have to move away from the area I had wanted to travel towards. For now I was stuck with Lana.
“Any idea who this is?” I asked her as we ducked behind some bushes. I was trying to get my bearings so we could get back to the general direction I needed to be going.
“I don’t,” she said, her eyes wide. I figured with fright, but I would later learn it was excitement. I’d forgotten how adept at lying middlings were.
We had been moving at a good clip, and, at times, the dogs’ barking sounded far distanced at other times it approached. The problem was, I could go a lot longer than Oggie, and Lana looked like she was already beginning to flag; youth or not, she had led a relatively sheltered life. Oggie was looking over at me from time to time, I think wondering when I was going to pick him up. In theory I could pick both of them up. I don’t know how much I’d be able to see at that point, or how comfortable a ride it would be for either of them. And with the thought of fresh blood being that closely pressed to me also had its own distaste.
“I’m exhausted,” Lana said, nearly stumbling.
“Having fun yet?” I asked with a sneer. “Told you it was a barrel of laughs out here.” The sun had set; the moon, which was at a little over three-quarters, shone brightly. “Whoever is chasing us is determined,” I said to her as we took a quick respite.
Oggie quickly laid down, his eyes shutting. His ears would swivel when he heard barking, but he couldn’t be bothered enough to look up.
The next round of dog barks was within a football field away; we were sunk. I could not carry two and outdistance a hound. Then we scored a mild victory. I heard men talking – only wisps as the wind would allow – but the retrieval of the dogs was clear enough, they were bedding down for the night. We could take a few more minutes to recover and then we would start out again. Oggie I would carry. Lana would have to make do. Maybe the harshness would send her back.
That tactic didn’t work out so well either, she was out. When I went to wake her, nothing short of dropping her in an ice cold bath was going to work. That and I felt somewhat guilty for the predicament she found herself in.
“I don’t even have a soul! Why the fuck do I need to be hampered down with morality?” I said as I shifted Oggie’s wriggling body around. I had each of them draped over a shoulder like sacks of potatoes. I walked throughout the night, not caring what sort of trail I was leaving. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it anyway.
“Where…where am I?” Lana asked.
I put her down and my back cracked in response. Oggie wasn’t quite ready to face the day. “You friggin’ lug,” I told him as I also set him down. I stretched and was rewarded with multiple pops and squeaks as I tried to realign myself.
“Are they still after us?” Lana asked, looking around. “None of this is familiar.”
“We’re about twenty miles from your city.”
“Tw-twenty miles? How is that possible?”
“We traveled throughout the night. And we’re going to have to keep traveling. Dogs and horses are going to be a lot faster than we are. They’ll make up most of this ground before dusk.”
Lana absently scratched behind Oggie’s ears.
“I should have known,” I told her.
“Known what?”
“That you were lying. How would someone who’d never bee
n exposed to dogs know to scratch behind the ears?”
“It just seems—”
“Stop, just stop. My bullshit meter is pegged.”
“Meter?”
“The dogs are your dad’s?”
“The finest hunting dogs. They’re used to round up meat for the winter.”
“You tricked me. I carried you for miles to keep you from danger, and instead I brought you into it. This is no fucking game!” I raged at her. “I’m not some knight come to rescue you from your castle like in a fairy tale.”
“A lot of people die in those fairy tales,” she said. “I knew what I was getting into.”
“But I didn’t. I don’t have the time or the inclination to babysit you.”
“I’m nearly an adult, I can do everything you can.”
“You can carry me and Oggie? That would be fantastic. Walking without socks sucks.”
She continued on without waiting for me.
“Stop! This has gone on long enough,” I told her. “We will wait here for your father, I figure he’ll be here around noon or so.” I sat down.
She turned to look at me. “Have you ever heard of the Right of Affiance?”
“No.” I broke a small piece of cheese off for Oggie and myself.
“If my father catches us he will use it.”
“What lies are you spewing now?” I asked, trying to get comfortable – a rock under my ass making that nearly impossible.
“If a couple lies together for the night the Right of Affiance is invoked.”
“Invoked? Sounds like something Azile would do. What are you getting at?”
“He will make us wed,” she said, a whimsical smile on her lips.
“Wed? Why?” I stood up quickly. “Wait…lie the night? We did no such thing!” I said hotly.
“My honor is at stake. He may detest you, but he will not allow his only daughter’s virtue to be sullied.” She was still smiling.
“This is another trick,” I told her, although I wasn’t so sure.
“Do you want to hang around and find out if I’m telling the truth?”
“What if I just tie you to a tree?” I asked. “Dad ‘rescues’ you.” I said with air quotes, her face took on one of confusion. I’m going with she’d never seen the gesture before. “And then I can be on my merry little way.”
“He will keep hunting for you, Michael Talbot. We are betrothed now.”
“I am not marrying you, Lana.”
“Then we’d better get moving,” she said, walking down the roadway.
“Son of a bitch,” I said, following her.
We had walked for about a mile before I asked her a question. “This isn’t another ploy?”
She smiled and kept going. Women have been beguiling men since the dawn of man, why should she be any different. Now it was imperative we caught up with the others, maybe Azile could fix this and then I’d exact my revenge on her.
When the wind shifted the right way, we could just make out the dogs barking. They had regained our scent, although I’m positive they’d never lost it. We hadn’t done anything to throw them off of us. Speed was going to be our only weapon. I had no real clue as to where Azile and Tommy had gone, there were tracks on the roadway, but they were far from the only travelers that used it. If they left the road at any pathway, I’d never know. How far would the chancellor chase his daughter? To the ends of the world would be my answer.
“If I knew how much this food and clothing was going to cost I would have stayed naked and hungry,” I told her.
She blushed.
“Sorry, wrong visual. I would have kept my old clothes. Here…take some cheese. We’ve got to find water soon or we’re all going to be in trouble soon.”
“You’re not a very prepared traveler.”
“I’ve run into a bit of a rough patch on this trip.”
“How far ahead are the friends that abandoned you?” she asked later that afternoon. I noticed that her steps were beginning to falter. She was exhausted, hungry, and most likely on the verge of dehydration.
The braying was getting louder. The dogs had an inkling of how close they were getting.
“Plan B it is,” I told her as I snatched her up into my arms. She gasped in surprise. “Oggie…water,” I said. We hadn’t yet established that he knew my words exactly, and I was unsure as to how he would react. For all I know he heard. ‘Oggie, blah-blah.’
Anything not immediately followed by the word ‘treat’ was generally ignored by him. He looked at me and the parcel I had strewn across my shoulder. He looked to the direction the dogs were barking, and then he immediately headed off the road. The traveling was extremely difficult, more than once we had to backtrack due to the underbrush becoming so dense. Lana periodically would protest her position, but it was weakly done. We both needed to replenish, but her even more so.
“I’m sorry, Michael,” she whispered in my ear as we moved. “I should not have done what I did. It was impetuous.”
“Wow…humility, took you long enough. How about a little honesty? The Rights of Affiance?”
“Is no lie.”
“Son of a bitch,” I said, pressing through a dense area of mulberry bushes. I momentarily lost sight of Oggie, I wasn’t overly worried we would lose him; Lana and I were about as stealthy as a drunken rhino.
When he returned, he was sopped from head to toe.
“You are the best dog ever!” I told him, giving him a large chunk of cheese. “Henry,” I said softly, pivoting my head upwards, “that doesn’t include you, you were my fourth kid.”
“Henry?” Lana asked, but she would not hear a reply even if I gave one; she had either passed out or fallen asleep. The only two types of people I’d seen sleep in the weirdest, most awkward ways were teenagers and military personnel. Either one could fall asleep at the drop of a hat with either rock music blaring or artillery shells raining down in the distance.
We pressed on and the denseness finally gave way to a fairly good-sized stream. It had to be about ten feet across, maybe two feet deep in the middle. What I wouldn’t have done for a canoe.
“Well, I guess we’ll see how good these dogs are trained.” I stepped into the icy coldness of the fast flowing water. I could hear horses now, they were panting heavily. The dogs were going berserk. They were at the roadway. I don’t think we had much more than a tenth of a mile on them at this point. But they were going to have a hell of a time getting the horses through this mess.
“Bring back my daughter!” bellowed forth from the chancellor.
I wanted to tell him I hadn’t taken her, but he wouldn’t see it that way. Odds were, he’d stick a spear in my gut and then ask.
“How the hell do I get in these situations?” I asked as I wallowed along in the stream. Oggie liked splashing in the water, but he wasn’t nearly as big a fan of staying in it. He kept going onto the banks shaking off and then coming back in.
“Father?” Lana asked, raising her head.
I moved towards the shore and put her down. “Get some water.”
She didn’t need to be told twice, she was scooping up handfuls. I shuddered thinking what manner of animals had used the stream as their personal rest stop. Old habits die hard. Right now dehydration was a much bigger enemy than Giardia. I also drank deeply; I was only somewhat appeased that nothing short of nuclear waste was going to affect me. Didn’t matter, drinking other animals’ feces and urine is not something I generally want on my menu.
“Lana, this doesn’t feel right. Seems more like a kidnapping.”
“I put you in this situation,” she said, letting her head dip a little. Water dropped from her chin.
“Can’t you go back and explain?”
“I don’t want to go back,” she pleaded.
“I get it…I do. I joined the Marines to see the world. Well, hold on, that’s a lie, I joined because it was that or jail. But I get it, there’s a big world out there and you want to see it, but coming with me this
way is not how to accomplish it.”
The dogs were barking in the distance, the brush had slowed them down.
“See how they like being in the thorns for a while,” I said.
We rested for a few more minutes, sating our thirst.
“It’s too late now,” she told me. “He will not be able to bring me back without us being married. He’ll have the Trinity with him.”
“The Trinity?”
“The man that will perform the nuptials.”
“Talk about a pitchfork wedding.”
“What?”
“Old saying.”
“My father is a public figure; he cannot have the scandal of an unmarried daughter that has spent the night with a man.”
“We did not spend the night!”
“Yes, we did. It does not matter in the least that nothing happened.”
“Camping trips must be a blast. Have a bunch of weddings during the summer months I take it?” I asked sarcastically. “Wait...what if you stay here and you tell him I was killed?”
“Killed?”
“Yeah, giant salmon or something took me out. Maybe a knife wielding clown.”
“Clown?”
“Can you tell him I got killed and you’re just wandering around now?”
“They will still marry us.”
“So? Then you can get a divorce and move on with your life.”
“Widowed women can never marry again.”
“What? Who the hell makes these rules up? What if you were widowed and then stayed the night with a man?”
She blushed.
“You know what I mean…like we did.”
“Death for both.”
“You guys are worse than the Muslims.”
“Muslims?”
“Religious fundamentalists. Always took things to the extreme at the expense of all others…and themselves, I suppose. That makes about as much sense as non-alcoholic beer, WHICH by the way I would drink if this damn age would just make some. We can’t keep running forever and he won’t stop, Lana.”
“I know.”
“We’re done. We’ll wait here for him. I’ll explain…even give him a demonstration. I’m sure he doesn’t want his daughter married to a vampire.”
“Soul stealer.”
“Sounds much more menacing.”
“The old books say vampire, but we call your kind soul stealers. Usually just a story to scare the children. None of us believed you existed.”
“Yeah, sometimes I feel that way.”
The sun was beginning its journey down. I don’t know if the pace had slowed them up, or if they were as tired as we were, but they had seemingly stopped as well. The dogs were quiet, as were the men. The sun appeared to be handing the day over to the moon in a tag as they passed each other up. Something should have clicked in my head – but it hadn’t – the woods had gone silent. If not for Oggie’s nervousness, I would have been caught with my thumb firmly entrenched in my asshole.
My first assumption was that the pursuers had realized how close we were, and instead of having a loud barking pursuit, they had gone for stealth mode. I was partly right. I made sure Lana was more than a few arm lengths away so no one would think anything more than what was going on, was going on.
Lana had her hands in her face, I guess trying to figure out how she was going to face the music on this one. Hopefully the truth would set us free – only MLK knew. I was standing by a tree. Oggie came up next to me, bristling, a growl on the edge of his pulled back lips. Out of my peripheral vision I caught movement off to my right. A good ninety degrees from where I was expecting the chancellor and his men to come from.
“Did they encircle us?” I asked softly. The hair on Oggie’s back was raised so stiff he looked more like a porcupine hybrid. “We’ll be fine.” I caught more movement. Too fast and too big to be human. “Shit. Lana, get up!” I said quickly, motioning with my hand for her to come close.
“How close are they?” she asked, thinking I was referring to her father.
“Shhh.” I told her. “Werewolves.”
Her eyes looked like saucers, her breath quickened, and her wonderfully beautiful pulse raced. Wrong thought! I admonished.
She produced a wicked looking dagger from under her sleeve. I was impressed.
“Know how to use it?”
She nodded curtly.
“Would you have used that on me?” I had to ask.
“If I had to.”
“Fair enough.”
I’d been in enough scrapes in my life to wonder at the complexity of an event. For seemingly long moments nothing happened. The air was still, the breeze not even blowing for fear of missing something. I’d seen it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Little Turtle, Carol’s Farmstead, Camp Custer, and a dozen other places. Nothing, nothing, nothing, EVERYTHING!
“Unhand my daughter!” the chancellor said, springing from the woods with sword in hand. A few men on each side flanked him. I hoped they were enough. The dogs unfortunately were nowhere in sight.
The chancellor’s sword had not even the time to finish its sway and settle its point at me when the first of his men screamed out in alarm and pain. Blood splashed across the chancellor’s left side as the man on his flank farthest from him was torn open. By the time they turned, the threat had passed.
“What kind of sorcery is this?” the chancellor asked me as if I were responsible for it.
“Get over here!” I shouted at him. “Werewolves!”
I don’t think he believed me, but I was unarmed and his daughter was next to me; that was all the incentive he needed.
“Lana, are you alright?” he asked, rushing over. I noted he made sure to keep the blade leveled on my midsection. Honestly, couldn’t say I blamed him.
“Oh, father, I’m so sorry to have put you through this.” She cried on his arm.
Of the six men that had come with the chancellor five were now in a loose circle around us swords drawn, looking outwards.
“Where are the dogs?” I asked.
“I had them brought back to the roadway once we caught sight of you two,” Lana’s father told me.
As if on cue they began their barking.
“How many men are with them?”
“Three men, five dogs.” Then the cries and terrified screams of man and animal alike assailed our ears.
The men around us looked like they wanted to flee. Well, I guess so did I, but unless you could outrace the moon, that would mean certain death. There were growls and the shouting of men pitched in battle. We could hear the horses as they whinnied in alarm; the earth shook a little as they must have been rearing up and slamming down.
“Warhorses. They won’t run, they’ve been trained to attack,” the chancellor said.
The sound of swords singing as they sought targets was captured in the silence that enshrouded us. One by one, the horses, dogs, and men began to go silent – and not in the pre-victorious war-chant type of way.
I broke the small ranks and headed out.
“Where are you going, coward?” the chancellor asked me.
“Kind of harsh aren’t you?” I asked back as I bent over and picked up the sword from the man that had fallen first.
“Are you going to marry my daughter now that you sullied her?” he asked as I came back.
“First off, I did not sully her. The only time I touched her was to put her over my shoulder while she slept. And maybe right now isn’t the best time to talk about this. If we make it through the night, we’ll talk more.”
“Movement,” the man to my far right side said.
“Do not break this circle,” I told them. “We are going to have to rely on each other to protect our backs.”
The chancellor had a look on his face like ‘Who died and made you boss?’ but he held his tongue, because the likelihood that we were all going to die was pretty high, and at that point, who gave a shit who was in charge. The movement traced around our circle to the point where I coul
d see it. The moon was bright enough for little else in the dense woods. I could get a sense of height and speed – neither of which I liked. Then a beast darted from behind a tree and was making great strides towards me. I’d like to think he came at me first because he figured me for the biggest threat, but most likely it was because of the inexperienced way in which I held my sword.
Small saplings unfortunate enough to be in between me and Bigfoot Junior found themselves quickly trampled underfoot. What I had at first figured for a scouting attack was actually a coordinated full on assault. Werewolves were charging from all sides, I did not have the luxury of time to turn and look. The cries of alarm and the cutting of air as swords moved back and forth was all I needed to hear.
The beast coming at me was huge, but more in the large – I mean large – human realm. Certainly not nearly the size of the monster I had squared off against a couple of nights ago. I still wouldn’t want to face this thing in a darkened alley – or a lit up one, but you get the point. It was scary as hell and had a murderous intent, but it was not the same creature Azile had paired me against.
A large paw swiped down towards my head. I instinctually moved my hand to deflect the blow. My sword pierced the werewolf’s hand. He howled in rage as he brought his other arm up. His teeth snapped violently as he pressed the attack. I ripped my sword free, severing two of its fingers. A strange dog-like whine whistled through its nose. His uninjured arm crashed against my side, rocketing me into a tree. I was partly grateful that I had the tree to stop my momentum as I was hurtled away…and pained as I collided with the immoveable wooden object.
I was fairly convinced my left shoulder was dislocated, aggravating an old injury that had never been properly treated. I grunted as I rammed my shoulder into the tree, the audible pop let me know I had reengaged the mechanism. I ducked as the werewolf swiped at my head. Two swaths of bark were sheared away; leaving bloody streaks where my head had been. Had I not made my new friend a permanent lefty, he would have ripped off the top of my head.
Somewhere distant I heard a man scream, I was so far removed from everything as my world was reduced to my opponent and myself. That was all that mattered, my survival, his death. Steel slashed as I had the audacity to press the attack. There was a moment (most likely in my imagination) where the werewolf couldn’t believe my nerve. He pressed on and I caught him high on the chest, slicing a wound that would have stopped a man. As he moved past it, my sword sliced into his biceps, the muscle curling as I cleaved it. Now I had his attention. His rage howling drowned out everything around me. He rushed past my sword, making it no more effective than a bullet-less rifle.
I didn’t have the room to back up; our circle had been compressed to a dot. We were fighting for our existence on an insignificant parcel of land the size of a kitchen table. I didn’t yet know who lived and who had fallen, that would have to wait. When I could back up, that would mean I was on my own. The werewolf was inches from my face, his muzzle dripping saliva all over my hand as I fought to hold him at bay. His left arm had fallen to its side, almost useless, and he could not get a grip on my arm with his now disfigured right.
My shoulder screamed as I caught him under the jaw line. I could feel his windpipe begin to close as I clamped shut. His feet began to rise up as I simultaneously cut his air supply off and lifted him into the air. I thrust him back far enough that I could pierce his chest with the sword. I shoved it through his chest plate and then wrenched the steel upwards. Cutting through his being, the left side of him began to slough off. I quickly pulled my sword all the way up, and with a determined slice, I chopped his head off. I kicked his body away before he had the chance to fall.
I screamed – it was my war cry. I had defeated an enemy in battle and my blood was boiling. I became a tempest as I moved to my side. The chancellor had suffered a wound defending his daughter. She had blood on her, but I didn’t think it was her own. The werewolf looked to me as I got between it and its prey.
“Dead now, motherfucker,” I told it. Its head cocked to the side much like Oggie’s would. It rang my bell as a hand caught the side of my head. “Worth it,” I said as I drove my sword home.
I was hilt deep before I pulled away. His jaw was still snapping but it had lost some of its vigor. It was bringing its arms back up to defend itself when Oggie circled behind and chewed at its Achilles tendon. The beast fell to its knees; to say I was concerned about where his large cavernous, teethed mouth was in proximity to my well-being was a vast understatement. I hadn’t used my equipment in its intended manner in millennia, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want it exactly where it was supposed to be. I danced back, raised my sword and drove it straight through the animal’s mouth as if in protest for what he threatened. He fell over with a louder thud than I should have been able to hear.
I was in a full on rage. I was hyper-aware, not a sound or a move could escape my attention. A bat swooped past capturing a large moth as I pivoted. Blood slammed through me as I sought out another. I could feel individual heartbeats even as they rivaled the pace of a humming bird.
Three of the chancellor’s men had fallen. Lana and her father were keeping one of the werewolves at bay. I pinioned my head, sweat came off in sheets, individual droplets hurtled out into space. I could hear them as they splashed down onto the leaves below. The two remaining men were fighting off the other werewolf and seemed to be winning. I turned back to the chancellor and Lana; and once again stepped in front of him, nearly catching a sword for my troubles.
Oggie was barking at the beast, trying to distract it. It was working; he or she, I don’t know and I wasn’t going to stop and ask, kept stealing glances behind to see how close the dog was. When it looked like it was going to turn and attack its distant cousin, I pounced.
“Hurt?” I asked it as I pierced its side.
It howled in rage and agony. Oggie kept spinning as the werewolf did, making sure he was always at its back. When it realized it was losing the battle, it rushed me – I guess hoping to off one of us so it could focus on the other. Before I could bring the sword to bear, he crashed into me, sending me hurtling towards the ground. I knew this was going to suck, I’d had enough two hundred-plus pounders knock me into the turf when I played football. Air wasn’t so much expelled from my lungs as it was compelled to leave. My vision blackened as large spots drifted across my visage.
As I struggled against my opponent, I wondered why he wasn’t delivering killing blows. That was when I saw Lana removing her short sword from the side of the werewolf’s head. She had stuck it through its temple hard enough that it had exited the far side. Her father helped roll him off of me. Oggie jumped in to lick my face.
“I’m fine, pup,” I told him, standing quickly.
As I got my feet back under me, Lana helped me the rest of the way up. Her Dad turned to help the other two men. It was three on one and it was still close and about the time Lana and I turned our attention his way we heard a loud piercing whistle. The werewolf’s head swiveled to the sound; I could tell he was about to bound off. I ran my sword through him before he had a chance. He turned back towards me but it was too late. The two men were taking out their fear and aggression – and a fair measure of revenge – on him. Repeatedly cutting him with their swords.
I pulled back to let them finish. Not more than thirty yards was a figure watching us. It stood a couple of feet taller than the werewolves, broader at the shoulders as well. That look was pure malevolent intelligence.
“You are marked,” It growled.
“Get in fucking line!” I yelled at it. “Or better yet, bring your mangy ass over here and we’ll settle this now!”
It roared; there’s no other descriptor I can use that will better describe what it did. Howl just sounds so weak to define the sound that came out. It gave one more long searching look, maybe to decide if it had a chance or, more likely, to burn my image into its memory…and then it was gone. Almost faster than I could track it with my e
ye.
Plumes of breath issued up from our hard fought victory, all of our chests were heaving as our bodies came down from their battle highs. The breathing was heavy and sounded like a sex operator’s wet dream. I was the first to speak.
“They’re gone.” I was finally able to catch a full breath after the werewolf had taken it from me. My shoulder throbbed, as did my head. I had a fair amount of gashes, bruises and bloody spots, but I was far from the worst of those of us that still lived. “Are you hurt?” I asked spinning to Lana. She shook her head.
“Dad?” she asked.
He had a wicked looking cut on the side of his face, but other than that, he looked fine. We turned our attention to the other two men. The skinnier of the two was helping his stout friend slowly to the ground.
“Delano’s got a broken arm,” he said, resting him against a tree.
“He’s got more than that,” I said, getting down next to the man. “What’s your name?” I asked the man.
“Pieter.”
“Pieter, go grab that man’s scabbard and break it in two. We’ll use that as a splint, and grab his belt as well. We’ll use that to secure it.” I was looking at the gash on Delano’s right thigh. Splint or no, he was going to die from blood loss long before he needed to worry about a broken arm.
“Got it,” Pieter said.
Lana got down next to me; she ripped Delano’s pants wider. She produced a small leather pouch with a needle, thread, and a jar of some sort of apothecary medicine.
“What the hell else you carrying?” I asked. Hoping that maybe somewhere on her she housed a beer.
“Lana’s always been one to be prepared,” her father said proudly. “I should check on the other men and the horses. My poor dogs.”
“There’ll be time enough to bury them,” I told him as I grabbed the scabbard parts from Pieter. “This is going to hurt,” I told Delano.
“Wait, wait,” Lana said, giving a small bottle to Delano. “Drink it all, tastes really bad, but in a few minutes you won’t care.”
“Got any more of that?” I asked, wondering what it was she had just given him.
“Just give it a few minutes. You’ll know when it has started to work and then you can set his arm,” Lana said to me.
“What are you?” the chancellor asked me.
“What?” I asked back, I had been intent on Delano’s condition and with watching Lana clean out the wound.
“I saw you lift that werewolf off its feet,” the chancellor said.
“Adrenaline,” I told him. He was shaking his head. “Trick of the light?” He was still shaking his head. “He was very skinny. You’re still shaking your head. I gave you three valid excuses, you can use one or a combination of any of them.”
“The drug is starting to take effect,” Lana told me.
“Will he turn into a werewolf?” I asked, looking at the wound she was now sewing up.
That got everyone’s attention. Pieter had re-drawn his weapon after having put it back in its sheath.
“These were werewolves, only Lycan can infect people,” she said, pulling another suture tight.
“How can you tell?” I asked.
She pointed over to the body of a young woman.
“What the fuck?” I asked, falling back.
Oggie was sniffing at her body.
“They always go back to their original form when they die according to the legends.” She cut the thread. “You want me to splint his arm?” she asked, trying to regain my attention.
I pulled my gaze from the raven-haired beauty that had died at the point of my sword. It would have been much easier if she were a he, maybe a little older and covered in lesions. Or, better yet, had retained the lethal form of the animal that had tried to kill us all.
“Dammit.” I pulled away from a woman that wasn’t much older than my own daughter when we had started fighting zombies. “You set it, I’ll splint it,” I told her.
Delano groaned a little as we worked but, for the most part, he was off in La-La Land – a place I wished to visit.
When we were finished, I looked at the rest of the fallen werewolves, all of them had reverted back to their human forms. The oldest male was ruddy, his hands calloused.
“That’s Yolen Penderast,” the chancellor said aloud. “That’s his wife, Hilda and their two kids Zeta and Poolin. They work the west fields; used to live in the city and decided that they wanted more space. We hadn’t heard from them in a few weeks and had sent out a couple of teams looking for them, with no luck. Now we know,” he said sadly, the weight of his office pressing on his shoulders. He had lost a family of charges on his watch, and it was not sitting well with him.
“What is going on?” I asked, standing after Delano’s arm was fixed in a crude splint. “You guys saw the other one, right?”
Lana nodded. “Lycan. It was almost like he had these werewolves out on a hunt.”
“Scouts or a training mission,” I said, but it could have easily been a question.
“This is preposterous,” Lana’s dad said.
“I agree,” I told him. “Preposterous that there are werewolves and Lycan.”
“These were good people.” He looked at the fallen family before him.
“This is my fault.” Lana stood, wiping the hair from her face or possibly a tear. “If I hadn’t run off, these people would all still be alive.”
I saw a different spin on the events; I was wondering which way the Chancellor was going to see it. His face was twisted in anguish.
“You may have just saved your entire village,” I told her.
Lana’s confused expression matched her father’s as they both looked at me.
“You told me he didn’t believe you,” I directed to Lana. “You have to accept what’s right in front of you now,” I said to him.
“A war? Hardly,” he said, I guess not wanting to realize the truth and who could blame him.
“This is just the beginning. If what my friends say is true, the Lycan are amassing an army. Who knows how many other people have been turned and are even now roaming these woods or country, getting lessons on how to be a destructive force.”
Pieter didn’t look so good as he listened to the conversation.
“Your walls will not hold them back, sir,” I said to the chancellor. “Listen, I get all funny about tooting my own horn, but if I wasn’t here, you’d all be dead.”
“If you weren’t here none of us would be!” he shouted at me. That was partially true.
“Father, I left of my own free will. I want to see the world beyond our walls, the merchants talk of great cities and wonders beyond imagination.”
“Silly girl, it is the merchants’ job to make up stories so that their wares seem more exotic. They have nothing but time to weave these tales, and each retelling is more fantastic than the next.”
“Post-Apocalyptic advertising,” I pondered.
“What?” Lana’s father asked.
“The loss of your men, horses, and dogs is regrettable I agree, but if that is what it takes for you to realize the danger to the rest of your community, then their lives were not lost in vain. Someday you can erect a monument for their courage.”
“We must get back to the village; I will need to talk to the elders about this.”
“I’m not going back, father,” Lana said.
“Of course you are,” the chancellor and I said at the same time.
“After we talk to the council, we will prepare a feast for your wedding.” The Chancellor was looking at me.
“Me? I’m not going back, and I’m certainly not getting married.”
The chancellor looked like he was about to blow a gasket. “You take my daughter’s honor and then dismiss her? You cad!”
Lana gasped as her father drew his sword. “Father, no!”
“Cad?” I asked.
“It is the highest form of insult,” Lana replied. “He is challenging you to a duel.”
“Si
r, I took nothing from your daughter, certainly not her honor. She is a bright, beautiful, capable woman, and someday she will make some man extremely happy, but that is not me.”
“Our laws dictate that any man and woman that lie the night must be wed!” he said hotly.
I started laughing, I couldn’t help it. Maybe I was a cad. “Then we have absolutely no problem,” I told him.
“What?” he asked, still holding up his sword.
“For I am no man.” I flashed my canines. I moved in before he could register the movement. I removed the sword from his hand and was back in my original spot before he could even track it.
Pieter dropped to his knees and prayed to whatever god he thought would listen.
I stretched the truth a wee bit but only because I didn’t want the Chancellor to find a loophole in his Puritan values. “I’m no man, I’m a vampire.” I told him.
He stood his ground but his face drained of color.
“You again doubt your own eyes?” I asked him. “If I was a man we’d all be dog chow right now.” He didn’t get the reference or his brain was still struggling to keep up with the events.
“I will kill you,” he stated.
I closed the gap until I was inches from his face. I nearly hissed at him. “I saved the lives of your daughter, you, and two of your men, and this is how you wish to repay me. I should drive this sword through your stalwart heart right now and drink my fill!” The force of my words pushed him back.
Lana slid between the two of us. “NO!” she said, trying to push me away – about as effectual as a child pushing on a stone wall.
I eyed him for a few more moments. My thoughts ran from anger to hunger. I tossed his sword to the side. “And Azile wonders why I have no desire to save the species. Man is the most traitorous, treacherous animal that has ever walked the planet. Maybe it’s time someone else ran the show.” I grabbed my stuff and began to walk off.
“Michael, I’m coming with you!” Lana shouted.
Again the chancellor and I said the same thing in unison. “NO!” Neither of us got our way. Apparently as long as women are alive they will always be the same.
“Father, go home, get the people ready. Do whatever it takes to keep them safe. I will send word when I can.”
“How can I keep them safe if I can’t even do the same for you? I will constantly be worried for you.”
“Why? I walk with the Shade. What could possibly do me harm?”
“Those who walk with a Shade are usually obscured from the light, my little dove,” he said, grabbing her head and pulling it close. “You always had too much of your mother in you.” He kissed her forehead. “Michael!” he shouted.
“Oh, for the love of God.” I mumbled turning.
“My daughter wishes to travel with you.”
“I get that,” I told him.
“She is more precious to me than the air I breathe.”
“I get that, too,” I told him, toning down my apathy.
“What are your intentions?”
“With Lana, or do you mean overall?”
“We’ll start with Lana.”
“Honestly, I wish she’d stay with you.” Lana looked crushed. “Where I’m going and what I’m getting into, I wouldn’t want anyone I cared for to follow. Lana,” I said, turning my gaze, “you’ve done what you set out to do. Your father now has the proof he needs to defend his city. There is nothing more you can do with me except die.”
She put her hand to her chest, the color which had been coming back to the chancellor’s face now begin to flow back out like low tide.
“I can help,” she said weakly.
“You can help by not getting in the way,” I told her as I turned and walked away. Oggie nudged her leg once and followed. She was weeping as her hand trailed along the dog’s back.
“Yeah, I’ll miss her company, too,” I told Oggie. “But this is for the best.” The dog turned once, whined and continued along.