Ghost Wolf

by Brandon Chen

  “I am Malyios,” the being said. “I was once a great Titan that dominated over the realm of Terrador. That scripture on the floor is a portal, one to Oblivion.”

  “Oblivion? I don’t understand what that—”

  “You will understand soon, boy.”

  ***

  Yuri lurched forward suddenly, his eyes wide with terror. He slammed his forehead on the low wooden ceiling and fell back, clutching his throbbing head in pain. “Ow!” he groaned, rolling off his bed. “Eh?” he yelped as he hit the hard, stone floor.

  “You seem lively this morning, hm?” an unfamiliar voice said. Yuri turned to find an unusually tall man in the next room, standing over a black cauldron. He was using a gigantic stick to stir the mysterious contents in the large pot. The stranger had long silver hair that streaked down to his lower back, and strangely large ears that pricked up. His eyes were white and lacked irises, which was even more disconcerting. But the part of this man that startled Yuri the most were the gigantic antlers protruding from the top of his skull.

  “W-Where am I? Who are you? Is this another dream?” Yuri said, sitting up.

  “Another dream? That, my friend, it is not,” the man said, setting down his wooden stick as he sauntered into Yuri’s room. He was dressed in a long blue robe with elegant designs of violet and green streaking throughout. On his shoulders were giant pauldrons that glowed a brilliant turquoise color every couple of seconds. The stranger reached up and stroked the wispy beard on his chin. “You are in my home. I am Moriaki, the Druid of the North. Archerus is an old friend of mine. I was on my way to pay Horux a visit when I stumbled across the two of you, unconscious and at the mercy of Faelen.” He sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “I never would’ve imagined that werewolves would overrun the city. I haven’t seen one in centuries. To think someone like Faelen is still alive after all this time.”

  “You know Faelen?”

  “We met centuries ago. I doubt he remembers,” Moriaki said, pointing to his ears. “I assume that you’ve never left Horux before; that would explain your expression when you first saw me. I am an elf, and thus I am immune to aging.”

  Yuri raised an eyebrow, impressed. “That must be nice.”

  “It is, to an extent,” Moriaki said with a gentle smile. “Throughout my centuries of living on Terrador, I’ve come to meet many people, see plenty of places, and experience countless adventures. But you also are forced to watch as the world deteriorates around you. I was there at Horux’s inception and it is sad to see the city crumble so soon. That was actually when I first met Faelen, back when he was a human.”

  “Faelen was human at one point?” Yuri said, stunned.

  “Yes, as all werewolves are,” Moriaki said. “He—”

  “Yuri?” Archerus’s voice called from another room. “Ugh, where are we?” Moriaki met Yuri’s gaze and winked at the boy. “We’ll finish this conversation later,” he said, turning to walk to Archerus’s room.

  Yuri followed the elf, noticing that none of the rooms in Moriaki’s cottage had any doors. Every room was open and connected. He peeked into Archerus’s room and saw his friend was lying in a bed of white sheets that were stained with blood. Despite the tainted cloths, Archerus’s wounds seemed to have already healed. “Moriaki, my old friend!” Archerus said with a broad grin as he embraced the druid. “It’s been too long!”

  “Really? It feels like I last saw you just yesterday,” Moriaki said.

  “That’s probably because ten years feels like nothing to you, you ageless bastard,” Archerus quipped, giving the elf a friendly slap on the back. “How long were we asleep?”

  “About two days.”

  “What?” Yuri exclaimed, his jaw dropping open with surprise. “T-Two days?”

  “You’d better get used to long naps,” Moriaki said with a chuckle. “After sustaining damage, werewolves tend to sleep so that they can heal their wounds. While sleeping, you regenerate three times faster than when you’re awake.”

  Yuri crinkled his brow. “Really?” He looked to Archerus. “So how did my wounds heal so quickly after only being asleep for a couple hours when I woke up in the royal jail with you?”

  “Call that a special case,” Archerus said. “You had just become a werewolf, so all of your cells were being altered. You were regenerating at probably ten times the ordinary rate. If you sustained that type of damage now, you’d probably still bleed out. You were in pretty bad shape when I pulled you from the water. It would take a miracle for you to survive with wounds like that now.” The man looked to Moriaki. “We’re lucky that you came to save us. Faelen would’ve slaughtered us both.”

  “He’s strong. I’m surprised that the three of us managed to get away in one piece, especially with the myriad of mindless werewolves that now follow him,” Moriaki said with a groan. He shook his head at the situation. “I’m sure that the two of you are hungry, yes? I’ve made some stew that should nourish you. We shall talk about the next plan of action over lunch.”

  The stew that Moriaki made was absolutely delicious. Then again, if Moriaki’s culinary skills were lacking after living for several centuries, then Yuri would’ve been surprised.

  The boy sat on the floor of the kitchen, holding a stone bowl filled with brown soup. There were vegetables poking out of the broth while bits of red seasoning floated on its surface. The stew was extremely hot and it radiated its heat throughout the bowl, stinging Yuri’s hands slightly. But his growling stomach cared not for the burning sensation in his fingers. He found himself gulping down the stew and asking for seconds.

  Archerus had explained Horux’s dire situation to Moriaki, who seemed unsurprised by the events, as if he’d dealt with similar issues before.

  “As the Druid of the North, it is my duty to help maintain balance in the continent of Escalon,” Moriaki said, using a ladle to pour some more soup into Yuri’s bowl. “Surely you understand the gravity of this situation, Archerus. The werewolf virus has been released. If it manages to travel to the mainland, the human race on Escalon will be endangered. The disease must be contained within Horux’s peninsula.”

  Archerus nodded in agreement, taking a sip from his hot bowl. Scrunching up his face at his burned tongue, he gently blew on the soup. “But the three of us cannot contain it alone. We’ll need help.”

  “I believe that calling upon the Iradian Empire would be our best choice of action,” Moriaki suggested.

  Yuri licked his lower lip. He’d heard that Escalon was home to multiple races, including the undead and vampires. Iradia was the human empire in Escalon. Within it was every human-based settlement on the continent, with plenty of resources and a powerful army. Receiving assistance from such a dominant force would surely be beneficial.

  “The only issue is that the Iradians are all human,” Archerus grumbled. “If one of the werewolves manages to bite one of their soldiers, then the virus could take hold. Yuri and I have seen how quickly the disease spreads. Within hours, most of Horux had been infected. Aren’t the elves immune to the infection? Wouldn’t it be—”

  “The elves have refused to set foot on the unholy lands of Escalon. The continent is one of the most dangerous places in the world. They are not interested in creating a settlement here. They live on another continent to the east,” Moriaki said with a light shrug. “Iradia is the only possible ally that we could reach out to. Unless you’d rather go off and ask the vampires and undead if they want to help.”

  Archerus set his emptied bowl on the floor and raised his hands into the air, defeated. “Point taken. Fine, we’ll reach out to Iradia for their assistance. I’ll be counting on you to get the king’s approval then. I expect that he already favors you,” he said.

  Moriaki scoffed. “Favors me? Hardly. The Iradians dislike anything non-human,” he said, looking at both Archerus and Yuri. “You two might want to work on controlling your physical forms. There would be complications if you … transform. It would be easier if you two maintaine
d the façade of being human.”

  “We’ll work on it on our journey to Iradia,” Archerus said, refilling his bowl with Moriaki’s delicious stew. “My concern is how we’ll keep the werewolves at bay in the meantime.”

  “I may have an idea,” Moriaki said, standing up and walking out of the kitchen. “Come outside when you two are ready to depart,” he called over his shoulder, strolling out of the cottage.

  Yuri and Archerus exchanged confused glances before quickly finishing their servings of stew. The two men then walked outside after the druid. As soon as Yuri stepped outside of Moriaki’s cottage, his eyes twinkled, fascinated with the towering trees that surrounded him. The cottage was located in the middle of a gigantic forest. The mountainous trees around him had trunks that stretched so high that they made Yuri feel tiny. A sea of green leaves covered most of the sky. Somehow the sunlight managed to trickle through cracks in the layer of leaves, shining ribbons of light onto the forest floor.

  Yuri whistled and walked over to one of the trees. He rapped his knuckles against its tough trunk in awe. “These trees make Moriaki’s cottage look like a mere pebble in comparison. I’ve never seen anything so tall before. They’re double the size of Horux’s outer wall! Are you sure that we’re only a day’s journey from Horux?” he said to Archerus.

  Archerus folded his arms and smirked. “The whole world isn’t like Horux, Yuri. If anything, I would say forests like these are more common than the ominous one outside of our city. Wouldn’t you say so, Moriaki?”

  Moriaki was trudging from the woods, shrugging at Archerus’s comment. “What was that? I didn’t catch what you said.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Where’d you go off to?”

  “I was setting up some magical wards around the area,” Moriaki said, squinting slightly as he turned to look back the way he had come. “Faelen and his werewolves will have to pass through this forest in order to leave the peninsula. Hopefully these nature wards will create enough barriers to stall their advance.” He nodded to Archerus. “It will take a couple days to get to Reidan, even with your werewolf speed. Are you ready to depart?”

  “Yeah,” Archerus said, his body shifting into his werewolf form. He glanced at Yuri. “Can you transform?”

  Yuri tried to remember what had triggered his transformation in the warehouse in Horux. It was all just a haze, a misty memory that he hardly remembered. All that he could recall was the savage rage that had pulsed throughout his body. He sighed and shook his head, disappointed that he still didn’t have control over his ability to transform.

  Archerus knew that he had been lucky to find his own trigger so quickly, and understood that it would take Yuri time to master his. The man glanced at Moriaki. “You should go on ahead and inform the king of the situation. Our journey will be prolonged if Yuri is not in his werewolf form and I am forced to carry him. You’ll save a lot of time if you go ahead.”

  Moriaki set his hand gently on Archerus’s shoulder, nodding to his friend. He shot Yuri a warm smile and morphed into a raven, winnowing into the air with several flaps of his wings. “I will see you two at the city then. May the gods keep you safe,” the druid called out, soaring up towards the sea of leaves above.

  Yuri gaped in awe at the elf’s swift transformation. “Wow, was that magic?”

  “If you want to call his connection to nature ‘magic,’ sure. He’s a powerful druid, able to shift to the form of any animal that he has once eaten. That isn’t even including the countless other abilities that old fool has,” Archerus said, getting down on all fours. He nodded to his back, indicating to Yuri that he was waiting for the boy to mount him. “We’d better get out of here. I want to put as much distance between us and Faelen’s legion of werewolves as possible.”

  ***

  The refugees from Horux had landed in Teolan, a port city of Iradia in southern Escalon. Princess Violet watched as waves of survivors poured out of their boats and onto the docks of Teolan. A line of Iradian soldiers, armed with rifles and swords, were standing at the end of the docks, preventing any people from entering the city.

  Violet followed her parents off their ship, stepping onto the wooden docks in her torn dress. She swallowed hard, shaking her head at the situation. Yuri was right after all. Beo was hiding a werewolf underneath Horux. But how was the beast released? Look at what’s happened to our city. Her gaze drifted over the crowds of hungry and exhausted refugees. We can’t recover from this.

  “Milady,” Senna said, sliding his way through a line of people. He halted before the princess and bowed respectfully. The knight turned his head, looking at the line of Iradian soldiers positioned at the end of the docks. “As expected, they won’t allow us into their city without proper explanation for why we have brought dozens of unauthorized ships into their harbor.” He raised an eyebrow and pointed to a man in long robes that emerged from the row of warriors. “Look.”

  Violet’s gaze followed the direction of Senna’s finger, seeing a bald man wearing a long robe that draped down to his wooden sandals. The stranger’s attire was white, with a single stream of gold running from his collar to the base of his dress. At first, Violet thought that this man was a priest of some sort. But as soon as she saw the necklace of black beads dangling from the figure’s neck, she knew that he was an elder of this city.

  While elders were not necessarily associated with politics, they still had a major impact on the decisions made within a settlement. “He must be here to speak to my father,” Violet said, watching as the crowd of civilians separated to create a pathway for the royal family. The king and queen walked through the passage with their heads held high, despite their lost city. “We should head up there too.”

  Violet, accompanied by Senna and several other knights, walked through the open pathway. The civilians had quieted, their eyes on the royal family as they strode past. Suddenly, a young man shoved his way through the crowd and stepped before the princess, causing her to halt in surprise. She blinked, recognizing the person as the thief she’d seen in Horux’s marketplace several days ago.

  The knights all drew their weapons in unison, pointing them at the panting man. But the stranger did not flinch, nor did his resolute gaze waver. He stared at Violet, his hands balled into clenched fists at his side. “Where’s Yuri?” he demanded, his eyebrows knit together into a scowl. “He was at dinner with you when the attack happened, right? Why isn’t he with you?”

  “Learn your place,” Senna snarled, about to take a step forward. He raised his eyebrows with surprise when Violet held up her hand, halting the warrior. All it took was a swift nod of the knight’s head to cause the rest of the soldiers to lower their weapons.

  “I don’t know about Yuri’s whereabouts,” Violet said. “He left our dinner early to see if there truly was a werewolf underneath the city. It would seem that he was correct.” The crowd gasped in unison and Senna glanced away, scrunching up his nose as if he smelled a disgusting odor.

  “He must’ve released the werewolf then!” one civilian cried out.

  “Yeah, he was the only person who knew where the werewolf was!” another person exclaimed.

  The survivors exchanged glances as they all began to speak up, voicing their opinions. But Violet simply shook her head and the people all hushed into silence once more. “No, several people knew about the werewolf’s existence,” she said to the townsfolk. “As for Yuri—”

  “He’s dead,” Senna said quietly.

  Violet turned and looked at the warrior with surprise. “What?”

  The young man in front of Violet was now shaking, his eyes wide with rage. “How did he die?”

  “I shot him.” Senna’s face was expressionless, but his words struck like daggers.

  A look of shock registered on the man’s face. The crowd quieted as they watched the trembling stranger. The thief suddenly sprinted forward, about to throw a punch right at Senna. He grunted when several knights stepped forth and subdued him, slamming him hard to the wo
oden docks. “You killed him?” he barked through his clenched teeth. The man glared at Senna from the floor as one of the knights pinned his arms behind his back. “Why the hell would you do that?”

  “Yuri had been infected and was beginning to transform. I did him a favor by putting him out of his misery while he was still human,” Senna said apathetically, looking down at the man as if he were nothing but a bug. “Take this fool away,” he ordered the soldiers.

  “I have a name,” the man growled as he was hauled to his feet and carried away. “Terias! You’d best remember it.”

  Senna watched as the man was dragged through the crowds of spectators and towards the brig of one of the ships. He looked at Violet and saw the sorrowful look on her face. “Milady, killing him is not what I wanted. He was dangerous and poised a direct threat to—” He bit his lower lip when he remembered the moment he had pulled the trigger. Yuri had been on his knees, pleading for mercy. A direct threat, huh?

  Violet shook her head and continued down the walkway. She had not known Yuri for long, but her heart still felt as if it had been penetrated by the sharpest of blades. Wiping tears from her eyes, she made her way to the end of the docks, where she found her father and mother talking to the elder.

  “Werewolves? Why, I was under the impression that such beasts were extinct,” the elder said, rubbing the top of his head. He pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. “If your city has truly been overrun by such beasts, the infection is likely to spread if it is not contained within the Horuxian peninsula. Come, we must get you to the capital at once. We must inform the king of this precarious situation.” The elder turned around and the Iradian soldiers immediately stepped to the side to open a path for the royal family. “I am not sure what we will do with so many refugees. It is not possible for us to feed and shelter your people for longer than a week. We will do our best to help, but they’ll have to be put to work if they want to live here.”

  “I’m sure my people will have no problem with that,” the king said, following the elder.