His teeth were still sharp, four of them long and pointed, when he fell asleep that night. It worried him even more when he woke up and almost bit his tongue off; were they really turning him into an animal after all?
He tore into his raw meat with vigor and licked up the blood as it dripped down his chin. Grey padded over to him and stared at him with what could have been concern, but Alec didn’t take notice. He did, however, take notice when the bear grunted as it sat back down after finishing its own meal, and he wondered when he would face it in the arena.
With hours to waste every day and very little to do, Alec took many naps. He also spent much of his time just leaning up against the stone with his arm draped over Grey’s body, stroking the once glossy fur, though he was always careful to pull his arm back if anyone came by. After all the things they had put him through, he wasn’t sure he could take being forced to fight Grey in the arena.
They were lounging just so when Alec heard footsteps and hurried to pull his arm away, though their bearer wouldn’t appear for a minute or so; his hearing had been improving at a steady pace for some unknown reason. As they drew closer he noticed that they were far lighter than any of the men who had yet visited him, and became seriously curious for the first time in days.
Slowly, cautiously, a slender, curvy form emerged from the shadows in the tunnel that led to the arena. It was almost too much to take. Mandy stood before him, dark, auburn hair trailing over her pale shoulders as she padded over on bare feet and knelt down, peering in at him with worry, fear, and determination filling her painfully beautiful face. She wore a strip of dark cloth wrapped tightly around her chest that left her belly bare, and a thin, thigh length skirt that fluttered as she knelt down, with a tattered makeshift robe over it all. She had probably just come from the public house.
“I’m sorry…” She whispered.
He moved quietly over to her and reached a hand out to clasp the one she had wrapped around a bar. “There was nothing you could have done.” He said, trying to sound reassuring, but knowing he had failed.
“Maybe there’s something I can do now?” The statement turned into a question as her lilting drawl faded to nothing. “Maybe I can help you escape…” There was no conviction in the suggestion.
“How did you get down here anyway?”
“I waited near the gate and followed you when you came back out of the arena.” She said with an involuntary shudder. “You always get so bloody.”
“I know, they don’t give me a choice.” He said, though he knew, somewhere deep down, that it wasn’t quite true.
I know. This fighting has changed everything though. The men are too rowdy, they beat us more often. Especially the girls they drag to the fighting. You didn’t see it I guess, but one girl accidentally spilled mead all over a soldier and he threw her in. The wolves tore her to pieces while they all laughed.” She barely got the words out before collapsing into full body sobs.
“That’s why I’m not sure about escaping, how would we help the rest of them?” He said as he reached through the bars to grasp her arm, trying to comfort her somehow.
“But,” she said in between subdued sobs, “what can you do from in here? If we escape, maybe,” she sniffed, “maybe we can find others, warn them. Maybe get enough people together and fight back.”
“You’re right.” He said, more to help her calm down than out of any hope of either escaping or finding kindred spirits. “But how are we going to get out? Do you have a plan?”
“No, ‘course not. I’m just saying.”
Just then he heard another set of footsteps, much heavier ones, approaching rapidly.
“You got to go!” he whispered, “I’ll think about it. Come back tomorrow. Quickly, someone’s coming!”
She reached up and stroked a slender hand over his bearded cheek, then padded softly away.
Leif
They slowed considerably after that first husk of a village, both because of the increasingly rough terrain and to take more time to enjoy each other’s company. It was almost as if there was some unspoken understanding that when their journey ended, so too would the unique harmony they had found; that somehow, if they just held it off long enough, it might simply go away and leave them be.
Two more dead towns blocked their path as well as an outpost. The latter was unoccupied, though just as well stocked as the first they had encountered, so they rested two whole days there, enjoying the view from the top of a large hill nearby during the chilly afternoons before returning to the nook to build their fire away from the howling wind.
“I never thought I would see anything so beautiful outside the forest.” She said as they lay on the slope of the hill looking out over the far distant ocean, valleys and rivers and rocky planes spread out before them forever.
“I’ve always loved the water.” Leif responded, adjusting his arm into a slightly more comfortable position as she lay snuggled up next to him.
She turned her head and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “I love you.” She said, laughing slightly, then growled and bit his ear.
“Ow! What was that for?” He said, pulling back and laughing.
“I think you taste good!” She said in mock seriousness. Then, “It’s a compliment!” in a slightly more indignant tone as he made an incredulous face.
“Ya, I’m sure all the rabbits and squirrels thought it was a compliment too.”
“Oh shut up.” She said laughing as she slapped him playfully across the cheek.
The Kata had become something entirely other. He no longer needed to move with joints, he could shift his arm or leg all the way up and then shift back at the very second it made contact. At first it felt very weird, but as he continued to practice it became more natural and eventually he didn’t have to think about it.
He also discovered that he could remold his body while it was air. When he shifted, his limb was still obvious, but distorted, and if he touched it with his other hand it felt almost like water, or mist, though it didn’t leave anything behind. He found that he could extend it and reshape it into anything, but if he released and let it reform it would collapse back to its original shape. He also found that the longer he held it, the more it drained his energy, making him both hungry and tired after a long practice session.
The potential combat applications were simply mind boggling but the more he advanced the more he wondered what would happen if he phased completely. Would he be able to hold his body together? He hadn’t felt the same urge to do so since that moment in the shell, but it had been nagging at him since then and he knew he would have to try it eventually. He could only imagine what it would be like if he could just drift away on the breeze, float up into the sky and sail over the endless earth. He dreamt of it often.
“How much further do you think?” Ria asked as they finally left the outpost.
“Probably another week of travel. Depends on how many days we rest I guess, maybe eleven days?”
“And only another moon before the snow comes.”
“A little more than that, I think.” Leif responded, though it would certainly come sooner in that cold northern climate. They would have to hurry if they were going to find shelter in the harshest season of a harsh world.
Alec
He entered the arena to cheers of “Bloodmane” and “Alec the Red” as they had come to call him. As usual, no one cared who did the killing so long as there was blood, and Alec was the bloodiest. He looked up at the crowd and was surprised, but only slightly, to see Marcus sitting where he had once sat, on Gerard’s right. The children had joined the women in serving the men food and drink and looked just as happy about it as the women did.
Looking back across the dark red and brown dirt he saw his newest victim. It was the bear. Apparently even Gerard had taken notice of his popularity and decided to have him dealt with. Apparently Gerard was about to be short one bear.
As he watched the giant brown mass of fur and muscle, slowly advancing toward i
t, he noticed something that confused him. The bear had always been in the cage next to him and had never seemed all that aggressive, but when it rose on its hind legs in front of him and towered almost half again as tall as Alec, he saw something completely feral in the small black eyes. It was as if the bear had transformed, all its natural instincts removed save for one.
Alec entered his ready stance, feet wide and torso low to the ground with arms spread, offering the deadliest of embraces. For some reason his stance had been getting lower and lower to the ground each time he fought. It hadn’t affected his fighting, so he shrugged it off.
The bear roared, then resumed all fours and charged. Alec leapt over it, reaching down to claw at its eyes as he did so. He landed and looked at his hands, confounded at his choice to claw instead of hit. Then he saw his claws, long and sharp, like Grey’s were.
Distracted by the sudden change, he was almost bowled over by the bear’s second charge, but was able to roll to the side in the last instant, only receiving a glancing swipe in return. He came out of the roll into his ready stance, blood dripping from three long, shallow gashes on his calf. The bear, only four or five strides away, rose again to roar and Alec took the opportunity, charging himself. He head butted the bear’s midriff, then again straight up as the mighty head came down, connecting with its jaw and sending it reeling.
Whatever magic made Gerard immune to Alec’s power, this bear had none of it. He pounced as the mighty beast stumbled and fell, landing on its side in the bloody dirt. Alec landed on its back as it rolled over, trying to regain its footing, and reached around to rip at its eyes and nose. He felt his new claws open several satisfying rends before the bear bit down on his left hand, crushing it in its powerful jaws. Alec screamed, then grabbed the jaw with his other hand and flexed. First a might creaking, then Alec roared and put all his strength into it, ripping it clean off. The bear rolled back over, putting Alec between its immense bulk and the ground, but Alec was already moving. He reached around the blood drenched neck and squeezed tightly for several long seconds, then pushed the mammoth corpse off and climbed to his feet, panting heavily and bleeding from both his leg and hand.
As he walked off to the renewed cries of “Bloodmane” he thought over what he had witnessed and the answer hit him like a lightning bolt. It must have been Jeremiah; he must have some enraging mixture. He would also be how Alec escaped.
He heard Mandy coming long before he saw her. The echoes, though indiscernible to anyone else, were obvious to his sharp ears. The guards had only just left after returning him to his cage and he knew they would be back soon with the evening meal, so he beckoned her over urgently.
“Quick!” He whispered as he reached out to caress her cheek then grab her bare shoulder. “I have a plan.”
Her eyes lit up immediately, then narrowed slowly as he explained, realizing how much he was asking of her.
The next day at about midday he watched her pass by, carrying a large wood jug and a couple flasks and knew she had succeeded. A short while later she came running back with the key to his cage. The cage hadn’t originally had a lock; the animals it usually held not being able to open latches, but they had fitted it with a metal box that was probably scavenged from somewhere inside the mountain when its new use was made clear.
After showing her how he had seen the guards operate it she was able to unlock the door. Alec then went over and released Grey and they all ran out to the entrance where he grabbed a sword from the sleeping guards.
“It worked ok?” He asked though he could see for himself.
“Ya, idiots would do anything for a drink on the job, didn’t give me a second glance when I told them it was from the Master, said it was because they had been doing such a good job lately.” She said, laughing derisively.
“How long did it take?” He asked as they headed to the guard house to grab supplies.
“That’s some powerful stuff! I only found a little where you told me to look, but it knocked em out in minutes. What is that stuff anyway?”
“It’s what they use to capture these creatures, a kind of knock out drug.”
His heart was racing and from how fast she was talking he could tell hers was as well. He could just begin to taste the freedom he had lacked for so long, and it was invigorating. He grabbed a heavy dark soldier cloak and tossed it to her.
“Here, put this on, you’ll freeze otherwise.” She was wearing what she usually did, the thin skirt and tight strip across her chest. “Why didn’t you change before you came?”
“I thought they might notice if I was wearing something heavy, don’t you? Besides, they were too busy staring at my butt to think about what they were doing.”
It made sense, though Alec worried about how cold she would get with such thin clothing. “Come on, let’s hurry before someone comes.”
They found a couple sacks and stuffed them with all the food and supplies they could find and then opened the door. The faint whiff of freedom that had so tantalized Alec disappeared in an instant when he heard a low, rumbling, humorless laugh.
Outside stood Gerard, Marcus, Taylor, and twenty other soldiers.
“Before you sleep, I want you to know that you only got this far because I allowed you to do so.”
Alec awoke strapped to a table in one of the metal rooms somewhere inside the mountain. Light flooded the room from some unseen source and two forms he couldn’t quite make out at first stood over him.
“How weak do you want him to be?” Asked an old, weary voice, obviously uncaring about the situation.
“Not enough to be obvious, but as much as can be up to that point.” Replied the distinctly melodic, resonant cadence that could only belong to the monster.
“As you say.” Jeremiah replied, then moved out of Alec’s limited vision.
“You have become more of a nuisance than I had expected.” Gerard said chuckling slightly. “It seems your exploits in my arena have earned you a reputation, one that makes it difficult to install Marcus as your replacement. So, to fix this little inconvenience, I am having you drugged. I know you are too strong for him, but they need not. You will lose, Alec. You will lose everything.”
“Why are you telling me this?” he tried to ask, but his mouth wouldn’t quite cooperate, turning it to almost indiscernible mush
“Oh, I have no need to hide my plans from you.” The giant responded with another chuckle, obviously getting Alec’s meaning. “You can do nothing to stop me, so why wouldn’t I take a little satisfaction after all the trouble you have caused? First, I will put you and your precious cat in my arena, then, when you won’t give my men what they want, they will turn on you. Marcus will enter, finish the cat, then finish you. After this, I will take your girl and use her, and when she has born me a legitimate heir, one who will not fail me as you have, I will be finished with her as well.”
Alec strained at his bonds more intensely with every word, but he felt so very weak. When he could strain no more, when he heard what would happen to Mandy, he felt himself break.
“You should congratulate yourself.” Gerard continued as Alec shook silently. “I have no use for women, they disgust me, but for you… For you I will do even this. You could have had her yourself, you could have done whatever you wanted to her, but you chose this course instead.” He said, shaking his head. “I will ever fail to understand the madness that leads mighty men like you to these foolish actions.” At this he turned and departed, leaving Alec to his misery.
Ria
When they first saw it Ria gasped.
“He wasn’t exaggerating.” Leif said quietly.
“It’s like the city.” Ria said, just as quietly.
It hadn’t been long since they left camp, the sun had just finished rising, so they were still fresh for a long day of hiking. It looked like they would be using that energy to find a way into the fortress instead.
“What are we goina do?” She asked.
“Let’s split up and go around it,
see what we can see.” He didn’t have to say ‘be careful’, but she wished he had, the sight was beginning to bring back memories of the shell and she was all the more wary because of the new life inside of her.
She knew she was human and that the wolf in her was some strange alteration that seemed connected with the shell, but she had no idea how it might affect her baby, so she had refrained from altering her body as much as she could. The similarities between this new place and the one that had so changed her were enough to make her even more wary for her child than for herself. She knew Leif could know nothing of this as she had not yet told him, but it still hurt her that he seemed more worried about what to do than he was about her safety.
They got closer and he went around to the left as she circled right. It was quite a while before they met up again, not only did she have to be careful not to be detected while getting as close as she could, but the sheer size of the thing added much to the delay.
“What did you see?” he asked as they stood on the other side of the small mountain that formed the eastern side of the enclosure.
“Solid wall all the way to the rock. There’s an opening in the mountain on the south side, but I saw at least twelve guards outside. You might be able to climb this but I can’t.” She felt the urge to tell him but knew it wasn’t the right time.
“Ok.” He said, “There is work on a new section on the north side but they all come in and out of the one big gate in the front.” He stopped for a long moment, eyes loosing focus as he gazed off into the distance, lost in thought. “Ya, I think I’ll try climbing this. It’s not that tall and if it doesn’t work I can just come back down. I’d rather not have you come with me anyway.”
Of Wind and Waves - Chronicles of the First Age, Book One Page 12