by Kindred Ult
"Well…um…" Nasoren looked away. "I could always go with you, you know."
He jerked his head up and regarded her. "You?"
"Well, I've been specifically trained to fight the undead, but vampires and werewolves are pretty much a part of that classification right? And I think I proved that I can handle my own against them last night."
"Those were all very weak. Maybe the weakest possible. They only followed the big one because he was far stronger." Brand began eating again.
She followed suit, glad that they were past the painful part and into statistics. "But still, I killed all four of those on my own, just think how well I could do next to you."
"You would be better served killing me." Brand was looking down.
"Well, I can't very well do that now can I? First, I am completely lost and couldn't find my way out of this forest even if I were an immortal. Second, I can see something different about you. It might just be that your eyes are blue when you're a werewolf while theirs are black, but it's more than that too. You didn't kill me back there, even though you obviously had the chance. No other werewolf could have done that." She was getting a little excited.
He shook his head emphatically. "That's nice, but you're ill-prepared to fight werewolves. You barely survived last night, and you cannot expect that flame to last forever can you? Your crossbow only allows for one shot before it is useless, and your other weapons are not silver."
"Aha!" She smiled with glee "I already thought of that. I kept Janije's bow and his arrows, so I'll just use those instead of my crossbow, and I've trained rather extensively with the spear, so if you're not using it you can give it to me." She was obviously proud of herself.
He cocked an eyebrow. "The spear?"
Her smile faltered. "Yea, you know, a stick with a point in it."
"I know what it is, but that's not a sufficient weapon to fight with. I only use mine for throwing or if I'm part of a defensive maneuver." Brand was looking very skeptical.
She shook her head in frustration. "You people just aren't paying enough attention to what the spear can really be used for if it is used like a Bo staff instead of a something to skewer a boar with."
"Well, regardless—" Brand started, but he was cut off by Nasoren's indignant response.
"What, you got something against girls or something?" She was tapping her foot.
"No," he looked down again, "it's just that I don't want you getting hurt."
"Why's that?"
"Because…because you were the one who kept me from killing the others. If I lose you I might lose myself again." Brand would not look up.
She smiled sarcastically. "Well, that's sweet. Look, I really don't care what you say. I'm going to follow you to that lair no matter what you do. You can either accept this fact, or you can deny it and we'll die separately. Which is it?"
Brand sighed deeply and finally looked up. There was obviously no arguing with this girl. Kids these days. "Fine, fine, but you must promise me that you'll keep to the back and use Janije's bow. Only use the spear in self-defense okay?"
She might have jumped for joy. "Fair enough. We're partners now right?"
For a moment thoughts of Janije flooded his mind again, but Brand suppressed them and shook the hand she had proffered. "Yea, we're partners. At least for now anyway."
She let out another radiant smile. "I guess that'll just have to do for now."
After they finished their meal the moon came out from behind the mountains. Almost immediately, they both started to hear many howls off in the distance. The howls slowly began to grow louder as the wave of them approached their position, and they were startled to hear several howls disturbingly close to them. They were about to find some cover when three werewolves burst from the bushes around them and stalked towards them, surrounding them. Brand and Nasoren where ready for a fight, but before the werewolves could charge them Brand let out his own howl and transformed into a werewolf. This time, however, he kept enough presence of mind to only turn into his normal form so that he did not break his newest set of clothes.
The other werewolves immediately recognized that Brand was far stronger than they were, just as he recognized that they were weaker than he was. As one, they backed a step away and kneeled down. The one directly in front of Brand, the strongest of the three and obviously the one in charge, spoke to Brand, his voice trembling just a bit.
"Our apologies, we did not suspect you to be a werewolf, sir. We are at your service." He was obviously a male, by his tenor and tone.
Brand, who had been expecting a fight, was very much surprised by this reaction. He had assumed that all werewolves knew who he was by now, and that he would be considered a renegade. This did not seem to be the case, however, and he resolved to make the most he could out of his small bit of providence. He took a step toward the speaker and addressed him.
"What is your name?"
The werewolf looked up, and Brand saw something like relief in his eyes. "My name is Snarl, second class; and those with me are Paw, class three; and Claw, class three. What is your name master?"
Once again Brand was taken aback. He realized that he was powerful in his strongest form, but he must be exceptionally strong if these ones had already accepted him as their master. He was about to answer the question with 'Brand,' but then he thought better of it. These three had feral names, and he thought that they would find it strange if he did not. He decided to go with the name given him. "Deathbreak, I do not know my class."
He noticed that Nasoren gave him a quick look of concern when he spoke that other name, but he could always explain it to her later. The werewolf in front of him accepted the name with ambivalence. "Well then, Deathbreak, would you like your humble servants to escort you and your slave back to the werewolves' lair. I'm sure that our King would love to see a new werewolf as powerful as you are."
Nasoren bristled at being called a slave, but Brand knew that it was necessary. They would have to expect problems like this, and he was glad that it was not strange for him to have a slave. "Yes, do that."
The three werewolves stood and began walking in the same direction Brand had been about to go before he passed out, and Brand and Nasoren followed them. The five of them walked for about two hours before they finally reached the werewolf lair. It was nestled at the end of a long crack in the middle of the mountains that surrounded Darkoven, which explained why the vampires had yet to find it. It was extremely well hidden.
As they approached the entrance to the lair, which looked disturbingly like the head of a wolf carved completely out of rock, the three werewolves stopped, knelt, and began to chant. Their chant sounded like some mixture of poetry and rhythmic verse, but it made very little sense to Brand, who had no idea what they were doing. He was beginning to wonder just what was going on when he was astonished to see the eyes of the stone wolf shoot open. It looked at the party for a moment, and then its entire head moved as it spoke to them.
"Welcome Snarl, class two; Claw, class three; and Paw, class three…And who is this one?"
"Deathbreak," Brand answered.
"Very well, Deathbreak, what is your class?"
"First, I believe." Brand had gathered this from talking with Snarl and the other during their journey here.
"Very well, what was your original name and race?"
"Brand, I was an elf." Brand felt better saying his name now.
"Welcome Deathbreak, first class. Who is this human with you?"
"My slave, Nasoren." It made Brand very awkward actually saying it himself.
"Give me a drop of her blood."
Brand took one of his claws and barely pricked Nasoren's finger. Her blood pooled inside his claw and he flicked it into the Stone Wolf's open mouth. The wolf was silent for a moment, but then it looked at Nasoren. "Nasoren."
"Yes?" Nasoren wondered why she was being addressed.
"You are not allowed to leave this lair without your owner's explicit permission unless you are wi
th him. If you try to leave without having at least one of these, I will crush you in my mouth. Do you understand?"
"Yes." There was a hint of finality in her words, and she wondered if she was making the right choice after all. It was too late now, however, and she steeled herself for what the future held for her.
"Good, you may all now proceed, and Nasoren, you have my sympathy." Stone Wolf stopped talking and opened his mouth until it was the size of a large gate. His tongue splayed out like a carpet, and the five of them walked into his mouth and continued down his throat. It was a disconcerting experience, but Brand had been through worse, and Nasoren was too confused by Stone Wolf's last sentence to really notice. After a bit, the cavern began to look less like a throat and more like a cavern. They continued through a truly confusing labyrinth of caves and tunnels until both of them felt as if they were absolutely lost, but right as they were ready to give up, the group came to a large stone door. Once they came up to it Snarl walked forward and knocked on the door with great power. The sound of his knocking reverberated through all of the caverns they had just passed through and in a moment a small slit appeared in the door and two large eyes peered out of it. The werewolf on the other side of the door barked out a challenge, and Snarl easily answered it. The slit was closed, and in another moment the entire door opened and they were escorted into the underground kingdom of the werewolves.
The kingdom of the werewolves, despite its crude outward appearance and the barbaric reputation of its inhabitants, was a vast and beautiful place carved out of the stone with strength only werewolves possess. The harshness of its architecture only served to accentuate its feral beauty, and Brand could do nothing but stare. Who could have known that the werewolves were capable of something this…sophisticated? In a moment, he was aware of Snarl and the other two staring at him. He cleared his throat.
"Well, where do we go now?"
Snarl shifted in place for a moment. "Well, with your permission, we would like to take our leave. The King and Queen always make it a point to meet every new werewolf, so if you want to start your life with us out right, you'll have to go and meet them."
Brand let them go about their business after they gave him directions to the place where the royal couple, who have no other names save King and Queen, resided. As Brand and Nasoren walked through one of the rock streets, it suddenly struck Brand that there were werewolves just standing and talking to each other, laughing, or wrestling. These creatures were just like anybody else when around each other. This last thought surprised him more than he had thought it would.
'I guess you were right Janije. Everything can control itself.' He could not help but think of his dead friend at a time like this.
When they finally reached the Royal castle (if it could be called that), they were allowed inside and entered a rather short line of werewolves waiting for an audience. In a few minutes they were escorted into a lavish chamber that further confused Brand. The room must have served as a kind of council chamber, since there were many seats in a circle around where they were, but for now there were only two people in attendance. The werewolf King and Queen sat on their high thrones and looked down at him. The King looked him over and growled slightly.
"So you're the new werewolf?"
Brand could not help but bow. "Yes sir."
The King looked like he enjoyed the obeisance, but he still let Brand up. "How is it that, even though you are a new werewolf, you are a first class?"
"Well sir, I was fed a first class werewolf heart by another first class werewolf while I was still a mortal. It seems that I was instantly transformed into a creature of that power."
"Very well. This other werewolf, what became of him?"
"I killed him, and those with him sir." Brand did not know why he was telling the truth, but he could not help himself.
"Good." The King smiled.
Brand was startled. "Sir?"
"He was a renegade, convinced that the town of Valestren should be destroyed. Speaking of which, did you destroy the town?"
"No sir." Brand was even more confused by the King's reaction.
"Very good, not very many werewolves can deny themselves their first bloodlust, but those who do are bound for greatness. Besides, we really do not need the attention such an act would undoubtedly bring on our heads." The King smiled.
Brand felt much better after hearing that, but he also wondered about his self-purposed mission. "Of course sir."
If there was anything connotative in his voice, the King did not notice it. "Well, now that we're established in that respect, you probably want some kind of lodging for you and your slave. After that you should probably find someone who can teach you about our customs and mannerisms. Well, since you did rid us of a nuisance, and since you are now one of our highest class of warriors, I believe that we can find you both of these. Normally, you'd have to carve your own house of the rock, but we recently had death in our ranks, so you can take his home."
"Thank you sir."
"Right, and about your slave, do not worry. We have many slaves here, and it is strictly against our laws to harm or even touch each other's slaves with expressed permission from the slaves' owner. You may believe that we are a pack of mindless beasts, but we have our laws, and punishment for breaking our laws is death. We may not be able to stop every crime, but we make sure that the perpetrator of the crime is severely punished. The only ones above the law are my wife and myself." The King nodded to the Queen, who smiled back at him. "Anyway, you must be tired. Here, Lupine will escort you to your new home, and once you reach it she'll instruct you on our customs and whatever else you wish to know so that you may appear respectable before us when you return three days from now for your official meeting with us. Farewell until then."
"Farewell your majesty, and your majesty as well. I thank the both of you for the great honors you have bestowed upon me." Brand bowed to both of them. The King smiled, while the Queen acknowledged him with a curt nod. Then Brand felt a clawed hand on his shoulder and he turned around to see another werewolf (presumably Lupine), who bade him to follow her in a feminine voice. Brand never would have guessed that she was a female, since there really are no distinguishing features on werewolves, if not for her speaking to him first. He wondered if that was going to be the only way he could tell what gender those around him were. 'That would be a pain.'
Brand and Linda followed Lupine out of the castle and through the streets once again. They wound through them for a bit before finally coming to a large structure near the outskirts of the lair. When they entered Brand noticed that the house was remarkably well carved and luxurious. He wondered who had owned this house before he did, and how such a being had met its end. At the front of the house a small brass plaque had born the inscription "Wulf," and so Brand figured that must be the one who had owned this. He was about comment on this to Lupine, but when he turned around he saw that she was completely naked and in her human form. She noted his surprise and laughed.
"That's right, you really do not know any of our customs do you? In the werewolf society, we don't really wear clothes unless we're going out, and even then rarely. It's considered bad manners to appear in public in human form, but it's also bad manners to enter someone else's home in werewolf form or to entertain visitors in werewolf form. Well, while I'm explaining things to you, I guess I'll mention some other rules. The only was to rise in rank is to kill a werewolf of higher rank. We have thousands of warriors, so it doesn't really matter if one dies. However, you must formally challenge that werewolf in front of witnesses and fight fairly. If you kill another werewolf dishonorably then your life is forfeit, no matter how strong you are. We do not tolerate cowardice, and subterfuge is a tactic to be used only against vampires. Any questions?"
Brand thought for a bit, and he did have one that he had wondered about for a very long time. "Why are the werewolves and vampires fighting?"
She smiled and took a seat. Brand shifted to his elven form and s
at down as well, thankful for still having his clothes. "Get straight to the point huh? Well I was hoping you'd ask this, but the telling might take me awhile. You'd best get comfortable, and your slave too."
- 13 -
A History of Blood
9
A History of Blood"Now let's see, where to begin… Well I guess the most obvious place to start would be that one time. Before I begin though, I should tell you that I was not alive at the time of these happenings, but I did get the events in question from someone who was alive then, so you can pretty much take my word for it. Alrighty then. A long time ago, at least one hundred years ago by my reckoning, a vampire named Lucifer, who is widely regarded as the originator of their bloodline, and a few other vampires raided an ancient castle just outside of Darkoven forest and stole a princess named Christine from it. It is said that Lucifer had been lusting after the princess ever since she was born, but that he had decided to wait until she was matured before he came for her. All of the inhabitants of the castle, and also the surrounding country, had loved Christine, so they had tried to find Lucifer and kill him, but when they did they were easily beaten back by the vampires around him. After their crushing defeat, most of them gave up, but two of her three brothers, Galstryx and Edward, swore that they would never rest until they had saved their sister.