A New Path

by Xander Jade

  ‘By the way, call me Sigmus. At least that is somewhat part of my name, Al is nowhere in it. We have company, the Leshies advised something is disturbing the surrounding woods. Grab everyone that can fight and head outside, Reaper and Hercules know to meet you already,’ Sigmus advised.

  "Ladies and gents, we have a situation. Those of who you want to get their hands dirty, grab your gear and suit up, meet me outside. Something is in the woods around us."

  I ran to grab my gear and went outside to see Herc and Reap waiting. The others came out a minute later, armed with bows, quivers, and blades.

  "Lashane and Shaila aren’t going, Leena is staying to protect them," Cass stated when I looked around to see who was joining me.

  ‘Alright. What is the problem, Sigmus?’

  ‘We have multiple problems, Max. The most pressing is in the northwest section of the forest. We need to get there quickly, they are cutting down everything and using them on siege machines for future battles,’ he answered in a grim manner.

  ‘Who are they?’

  ‘Trolls, ogres, ghouls, and redcaps (a breed of goblin)’

  ‘Damn, are we going to need help?’

  ‘The Leshies already sent help,' Sigmus advised. 'They are meeting us there. Forest creatures.’

  "Alright everyone, northwest is our destination. Plenty of evil ones, dangerous as well. We are being met by forest creatures sent by the Leshies, let’s head out at a moderate pace."

  We left out and made our way to the northeast part of the forest. As we came upon the scene, it was already hectic. Wolves, bears, and all kinds of creatures were battling each other.

  "Everyone with a bow, kill those ogres and ghouls first. The trolls will be the hardest to kill, so go for the Redcaps at that time. I will take my duo and we will battle them. Cassie, use your magic and fry their asses, shift it need be Val. Go!"

  They went off, I took out my bow and let loose my arrows one after the other as fast as I could, taking out evil ones. When I was empty, I threw my quiver and bow down to grab my sword. Running over to the trolls who were fighting the wolves, I hacked and cut everything that was in the way. Reap and Herc got into the fight as well, tearing apart the bastards, but there were too many of them. I got hit in the leg by an arrow, something hit my head and knocked me down. Loud noises were all around, Cass and Val were screaming at me, but I couldn’t understand them. I looked around to see two trolls coming my way. Touching the back of my head I felt something wet, and pulled back my hand to see blood.

  ‘Get the fuck up, Max! You need to shift! Now!’ Sigmus yelled at me in my mind.

  I was still woozy and found the trolls were closer now. I was trying to concentrate and try to shift, but to no avail. The girls were all screaming still, trying to get over to me, but were cut off. Reap and Herc were in a battle with multiple trolls, they couldn’t help either.

  I felt a sharp pain in my legs, looking down I saw one of the trolls had stepped on them. He was smiling smugly and I knew my life was about to be over. My mind tried one more time to shift and at that moment something broke in me. My chest seized up to the point I could barely breathe, my body collapsed, and bones broke into a thousand pieces. My mind was hearing shouts and screams from all directions, but I could care less. I was hurting, my eyes felt like a million needles were poking them.

  When the pain stopped, I opened my eyes and all that was seen was the color red. My senses were multiplied somehow, and got up on my knees, trying to get myself off the ground. Finally getting up onto my knees, my eyes scanned the area trying to find where my people were, Val was was in her lioness form, but I saw terror in her eyes while staring at me. Glancing at myself to see what had changed, I found my body was covered in brownish orange fur. My legs were tree trunks, thick with muscles, and felt strength like I have never felt before. Somehow my body shifted into some kind of beast. Taking a chance to stand on my back two legs to see if they were weak, I found when I was at my full height that the beast measured at least twelve feet off the ground. At that moment, I was scared out of my mind wondering how this happened, but also remembered being pissed off that someone wounded me.

  I turned my head to the sky and roared, the noise was so loud that the ones around me winced, and the forest around me went totally silent. For a minute, I didn’t know who I was, but felt emotions all around me: love, concern, but most of all fear. The beast in me looked around to find out where those emotions were coming from, and found a whole area of creatures looking up at me with trepidation. Deciding that I liked fear, my legs started walking towards them and they scattered. Every step shook and rumbled the earth, I heard someone yelling something at me, but I didn’t pay attention. My beast just wanted to inflict terror into these beings. A few thought they would be brave and come at me, they were half my size, bald, somewhat muscular, and were carrying clubs. My mind elongated the talons on my paws to six inches long and two inches thick.

  The pukes started swinging those clubs at me, some hit me, but didn’t effect me any. I swung my arms horizontally, left and right. Head were coming off the beasts necks. Four of them backed up, but I caught the nearest one by the head and crushed its skull. Throwing down the corpse, I ran down another two at the forest entrance. The two idiots tried to hit me with their toothpicks, I took them away and beat the shit out of them with their own weapons. When that was done, my feet stepped on the heads of the beasts and crushed them into paste. My bloodlust and adrenaline were peeked now, I turned to head back to see if anybody else wanted to face me. My beast was disappointed though, no one was stepping towards me. The only ones left were humans, elves, a bear and a siba. Heading over to the group, I growled at them feeling the fear emotion again. It felt amazing. They scattered and my head followed a couple of humans.

  Sasha moved out of the way and yelled out, "Max, please, it’s us! Please, stop this!"

  Val was back in human form and shouted, "Max, calm down, please come back to us!"

  "I don't think he can understand, or he doesn't recognize us!" Cass yelled. "How the fuck did he do that? I have never seen this kind of creature before. If we can't get him to turn back, we may have to take drastic measure!"

  Sasha shouted, "What do you mean drastic measures? We have no idea what he can do, and I really don’t want to find out!" The elves backed further away in fear.

  I stopped before them and roared again, man that feels great, so I did it again and bet creatures could hear it from miles away. The bear and tiger got in my way for some reason, they didn’t look like they were going to move either. I stepped up to them flexing my hands, waiting for them to do something. Then, I heard voices inside my mind.

  ‘Max, you need to calm down," Reaper stated. 'This isn’t you, so just breathe deep.’

  ‘Yes, please Max,' Herc bellowed in a deep baritone voice. You are scaring your mates and friends. Just step back and relax. Let your body shift back to normal.’

  ‘Reap, Herc, what the fuck is happening to me?’

  ‘Ahh, good job chosen. We have established a link with Reaper and Hercules. I will answer that. You have shifted for the first time and with that, your animal is fighting for dominance in your mind. Don’t worry, I have no intention to let it run things, but we will have to compromise with him since he has just been born, so to speak. He will want to run and see what this body can do, which is great since we need to know as well. Reaper and Hercules will need to come with us just in case and guide you on how to take control back to shift.’

  ‘Okay, it’s good to hear your voices guys and nice to know we’re bonded.’

  Reaper spoke up then, ‘I have felt your bond for many years, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get any response from you. We can understand your common tongue, that’s why we comply when you ask for things.’

  Herc responded, ‘I tried to communicate before, but was being blocked. Sigmus let us know about the path blockage.’

  I was speechless and for a few moments didn’t know what to
say. ‘This is all freaking me out. How do I change back?’

  Reap answered, ‘First, calm down, you won’t be able to change back until you do. Second, let’s go out into the woods, you need to get the adrenaline out of your system. You need to run and let your animal take command for awhile. He will know what to do, not to mention, you will need to hunt; your transformation took a lot out of you, and will need to be replenished.’

  I nodded and Herc advised, ‘Max, you are making your mates very uneasy. Their concern for you is palpable.’

  I looked down at my women, the looks on their faces said everything. They were terrified, but still holding their ground. The tears flowing down their faces is what broke me, so I grunted to them. I pointed at me and then to the woods.

  Cass yelled at me, "Max, where are you going?"

  Val followed up with, "Come back, honey! We can get through this together!"

  I fell onto all fours, looked at them one last time, and took off not looking back. I ran into the woods quickly, it looked like everything was a blur, but felt magnificent, so I went deeper into the forest.

  In the meadow, Reap and Herc turned to the stunned ladies waiting for their reaction. The ladies started to take off after Max, but they were stopped dead when they heard a voice in all of their minds.

  Reap growled out, ‘Ladies, go back to the cabin. Max has some training to do and will need to get used to this on his own. His animal is in charge at the moment, but Herc and I will get him under control. We will leave on that.’

  Cass yelled out, "Wait! How are you talking to us?"

  'We are able to communicate with you because of Max,' Reaper replied and they took off.

  The elves and weres were wide-eyed as they watched the killing duo go after Max.

  "Holy shit! That had to be the biggest were I have ever seen," Elwin gushed in awe.

  "Shit, what kind of were did he shift to?" Sasha asked in confusion.

  Cass explained, "After thinking it over, I believe it was a combination of Hercules and Reaper."

  Val nodded, "I agree. Big fucker wasn’t he? Sure didn’t want to battle him either.

  The others agreed and chuckled.

  She continued, "My lioness has been waiting for him to show her his animal and test him on his prowess."

  Cass chuckled, "Well, what does she think now? He looks like he can take her, and probably the rest of your old pride."

  Val snickered out, "We have never seen anything like him. It excites her knowing that huge beast is her mate, but it also frightens her. She doesn’t know how to handle this situation."

  "Well, there’s nothing we can do about it right now. So, let’s go back and tell the others then wait till he comes back," Cass suggested and the others nodded. The group started their journey back to the cabin.

  Chapter Tweny-Two

  Deep inside the woods, I was still letting my animal run, trying to calm down some but caught something with my senses. I strolled slowly over to a hill east of my current position and stopped behind some brush to see a group down below. People were camping, laughing, drinking, and some were cooking over a spit.

  I moved into the brush slowly making sure they couldn’t detect me. Scanning the camp site I surmised the count coming to about sixty, and more female than male. Kids were running around playing behind the adults, and some were chatting at a camp fire. Being a male, what do you think I looked at first? You guessed it, the females were smoking hot: perfect skin, some tight and athletic, while others voluptuous with curves in all the right places.

  Sigmus spoke at that moment, 'This was another location for us to look at, the Leshies picked up this wolf pack and the evil ones coming into the forest.'

  Grunting my agreement, I looked around to see a conference being held in the middle of the camp, where numerous females, and a few males were being led by a perfect specimen. This one had to be about 6’3", olive skin, black hair, tight stomach, and a fine fucking ass. I assumed she must be the leader, and whoever was her mate was a lucky man.

  Scanning over the camp for some time, my eyes saw some little ones come out for food, and they were kind of cute. I was about to leave when my eyes detected movement from the east, thinking it might be some type of animals or someone connected to the people here, but I didn’t expect what came out of the trees. Three beasts came out casually walking towards the pack. They were the most hideous things I have ever seen. The beast had grey emaciated bodies with bones sticking out of the skin, jagged looking teeth, very tall, and had what looked to be horns coming out of their heads. The three ugly creatures walked calmly toward the campsite while the defenders were scattering and yelling for the others to prepare themselves. Hmm… wonder how they’re going to do that. They better have some kind of arsenal in those tents, because these fuglies were about to cause chaos. Suddenly the campers were tearing their clothes off and throwing them on the ground. If it wasn’t a serious situation, I would be checking out all the naked females. ... Hey, I’m a warm blooded male, and seeing naked flesh always gets me going, if you know what I mean.

  Abruptly, the campers fell on all fours, and started to change. I caught the lead female as she was changing, she turned into a big black wolf. She must be the alpha, and her betas came to stand next to her, baring their teeth when the creatures came to a stop twenty feet from them. The wolves looked tense and the three ugly ones bellowed a challenge. The alpha and even the betas were big, but they had no chance against these things. I heard a sound behind me, and turned to see Reap and Herc as they came up to the scene and growled.

  ‘Wendigos. What are those creatures doing this far south?’ Reap asked.

  ‘Don’t know, but it doesn’t add up,' Herc replied. 'They usually only go after humans, I wonder what has changed since they are going after weres now. Maybe they are just killing the other predators in the woods.’

  I bellowed to them in their mind, ‘What the fuck are those things? They are hideous.’

  Sigmus grumbled in my mind and let me know as he spoke to all three of us, ‘They are an abomination. Used to be a human turned cannibal, as the legend goes. They track down humans and eat them, that’s how they gain more power. They are very cunning, fast creatures, and hard as hell to kill. The Leshies didn't warn us about this, something evil must be nearby.’

  Herc nodded and said, ‘Yes, and we have humans to the east of us. Are we going to let them live or kill them?’

  ‘Kill them. We can’t leave something like that out here. Although, now that I think about it, people have been going missing. The rangers have been beside themselves not being able to find any trace of the ones that captured them. I wonder if they have anything to do with it.’

  They glanced at each other then looked back at me and grunted. I took that as a yes. We observed the inevitable fight coming, the wolves didn’t have a chance unless we intervened. I looked at the females and the cubs shaking in fear, so I got myself ready for the fight. Both sides ran toward each other and met in a clash of yelps and growls. The alpha was holding her own, but the two betas were dead in thirty seconds. It didn’t bode well for the wolves.

  Sigmus interrupted me, ‘Max, are you ready?’ I nodded and he advised, ‘The only way to kill these things is to rip the heart out and destroy it. It would be easier to behead them, then take out the heart.’ I grunted as my reply.

  ‘We are going to observe you for a little while, to see what you can do in this form. We will intervene if it gets bad.’ Reap cautiously expressed.

  Nodding knowing it would be a good test, I grunted and stepped out of our hiding place. My eyes scanned the fight before me and found those creatures have killed at least twenty already. I came out into the clearing on my back legs and roared. Man, I love to see the reaction of those after doing do that, the fight stopped cold and the two sides looked at me sizing me up. Snickering at those looks, I was at least 3 or 4 feet taller and had way more meat on my bones.

  I sprinted on two feet down to the battle and whe
n looking into the repulsive creatures’ eyes, I saw fear mixed with rage. They left the wolves alone and concentrated on me as I dashed towards them, but didn’t move as my big ass plowed through them. Now, as I said before, I am about 12 feet tall. I never said anything about my body, as it stands I guarantee you my weight is over a thousand pounds. So, when that train hits you, things tend to bend and break.

  I shoulder checked them and they flew backwards about 30 feet, bones shattering on the two decaying bodies. They got back up and charged after me, albeit slower, so I was ready for them. Looking down at my hands, I mentally told them to elongate, and after a few moments they did. They ended up about three inches long, two inches thick, and razor sharp. The first one was going to be my guinea pig, so I waited for him to make his move. He tried to bull rush me like I did to them, but I sidestepped and swiped down on his back with my claws. His back sliced right open, and a painful screech came out of its mouth. It took a swing at me, but I ducked under it and caught its arm with my right hand. I then swung it around to face me and took a swipe across its neck. The head came off like I was cutting butter, the head rolled away and its body dropped to the ground. I immediately thrust in its chest cavity to rip the heart out, it came out with a disturbing sucking noise and I crushed it with my paw as blood was flowing down my arm.

  Turning around to find the pack attacking the other ones, I mumbled, "one down, two to go." The closest one to me was to my right and walked towards the thing while it was fighting off wolves. Taking my chance since it was distracted, I strolled over and cut the fucker’s hamstrings with my claws. It fell to its knees. Without giving a chance for it to heal, I swiped and cut the head off of the ass wipe. It went rolling over to my left towards some wolves and the body fell over. My fist was already swinging towards the body before it even landed and put a hole inside its chest to extricate its heart. Grabbing onto it, I pulled it out and threw it down on the ground, then crushed it with my right foot.