Wolfen - Part 10
 
That morning, Verik had the same dream again, only slightly different. He still couldn’t see anything, but there was something else. He could feel grass under his feet. All three times he has had that dream, it has become slightly clearer. There was no other details that he could notice. Nothing to see, nothing else he could feel, nothing he could hear. Except for the screams, of course. When they started, he had a sense of familiarity. It was as if he knew who they belonged to his whole life, but he just couldn’t place his finger on who they were. He tried concentrating hard, but the volume of the screams became too loud so he couldn’t think.

/.\ /.\ /.\

Nari woke up to the wind blowing against her fur. Sitting up and stretching, it took a few seconds h=for her mind to get back into gear. She looked around her, the small stick shelter that she was in was gone. All of her pack members were also getting up and realizing the same thing.

One of them, Kilia, gasped and pointed to the sky. Following her finger, Nari saw that all of their shelters were suspended in the air about twenty feet above them.

“What the…” She turned toward where Verik was resting and sure enough, his body was lifting slowly into the sky, the mark on his chest glowing brightly. He was the one doing this.

“Should we wake him? Tharren, the second in command, asked. Before anyone could anser, all the shelters suddenly exploded into hundreds of various sizes of sticks. They began spinning around them like a tornado was raging in their camp. They kept getting faster until they reached dangerous speeds.

“Yes! Wake him NOW!” Nari yelled. They had to stop this before any of them might get hurt or killed. Tharren took a step forward, reaching out his hand to grab hold of Verik, but before he was able to reach him, a larger stick collided with his head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Everyone else darted to cover, but Nari was standing right in the middle of the camp. It would be hard for her to make it somewhere safe. She sensed something to her left, glanced over, and saw a stick rushing strait towards her head. Quickly dropping to the floor, she rolled to the side.

She grunted in pain as she landed and something hard dug into her back. Underneath her was a small pile of rocks. She had an idea. If she hit Verik with one of them, he might wake up this will stop. She quickly snatched one up and threw it at him as hard as she could. Unfortunately, it hit a large stick and bounced off-course.

She picked up another one, but before she could throw it at him, another stick sped at her hand. Since she was too busy concentrating on aiming her throw, she did not have enough time to react. The stick crashed into her wrist. There was a loud snap as the stick shattered and her wrist broke. She yelped in pain as she pulled her wrist back. She would not be using that right now.

Reaching down with her left hand, she grabbed the largest rock in the pile, about the size of her had. Not taking the time to aim properly, she threw the rock as hard as she could. It was, for the most part, on course, but it was going slightly too high. The rock hit directly against Verik’s head.

Immediately, she fell to the ground along with the sticks and Verik. Getting back to her feet, she rushed over to Verik. She sighed in relief that he was still alive. If she was stronger, that throw could have killed him. Gently, she licked the wound on his head.

/.\ /.\ /.\

Verik groaned in pain as he sat up. His head hurt like crazy. “What happened?” He asked as he pressed his hand against his temple.

Nari was staring back at him, scowling and crossing her arms. “In your sleep, you started causing mayhem. I had to chuck a rock at you to wake you up. I accidentally hit your head with it, I apologize.”

Verik frowned. “It happened again? I had the same dream, also…”

“What dream?”

“I first had it before I woke up from my coma. Then two days ago at the fortress and then now. In the dream, I’m standing in complete darkness, and there are these people screaming. After a few a little while, they are interrupted by a loud roar. The roar sounds like Erebos.”

“Do you think it means anything?” Nari asked.

Verik shook his head. “I don’t know. They seem to be getting more detailed. Maybe if I wait, I might get everything.” Standing up on shaky legs, he looked around the camp. All of the stick shelters were disassembled and hundreds of sticks were lying on the ground. Keil was helping Tharren off the ground, who had a small wound on his head, nothing too serious. All of the other wolfen just stood there staring at him with fear. He looked over to Keil for support.

Noticing his gaze he stood next to Verik and addressed the pack. “Okay, everyone. There is no need to be afraid. He does not know how to control his powers yet. I will help him learn to do that. However,” he turned to face Verik, “I will have to ask you to sleep separately in a different area to prevent this from happening again.

“It’s probably for the best.” Verik admitted. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Okay, that’s that. This morning, I will take Verik out to the valley to begin training. Everyone else, please help fix the camp back up.”

Everyone nodded and went to work gathering sticks, though some of them, Verik could tell, were still nervous and jumpy from what just happened. From what he did.

/.\ /.\ /.\

Keil took Verik through the forest all the way until they reached the end, which opened up into a large empty valley. Besides the tall grass, there was nothing out there. “This should be a perfectly safe place for you to practice your powers.” Keil said. “The first step in controlling your abilities is first being able to control yourself. I know it might be cliché, but it is very true. So, to start your training, see that rock over there?” He pointed to a small boulder in the distance.

Verik nodded and grinned a little bit, eager to begin.

“Good. Now stare at it closely and do not let your eyes wander. Keep your gaze fixed on that rock the whole time.”

“Okay. What next?”

“That’s it for right now. Don’t look away unless I specifically tell you to. If you do, then I’ll throw this stone at you.” Keil picked up a small pebble off the ground.

“I think I’ve had enough rocks thrown at me for today.” Verik looked over at Keil and frowned.

“Ah, you looked away. I’ll let this one slide, but the next time I won’t hold back. Now look back at the rock.”

Verik’s tail drooped as he was a little disappointed in the first phase of training, but he did as he was told. He stared long and hard at the rock, but Keil didn’t say anything to him. He had to have been staring at it for almost an hour. Out of the corner of his eyes, he couldn’t see Keil anywhere. Did he leave him here?

Slowly, he turned his eyes to the left to see where he was, but suddenly a small pebble was launched at his shoulder, sending him a jolt of pain. “What the hell? How did you know?”

Keil, who was standing behind him this whole time laughed. “Never underestimate what your enemy is capable of. Now turn around and hold your gaze.”

Verik massaged the forming bruise on his shoulder and complied. This time, instead of staying behind him, Keil was in front of him, doing all sorts of things to try and distract him. He did all sorts of waves, gestures, and dances, but nothing he did was able to distract Verik from moving his eyes.

Keil was in the middle of some dance when he suddenly staggered backwards and pointed to the sky. “Erebos!” He called out and his face had a genuine look of terror.

Verik quickly spun around and lifted his claws for battle, but there was nothing…except a sharp pain in the back of his head as the pebble bounced off his skull. “Damn you!” He growled as he turned back to Keil, who was grinning so wide that his lips might split. “That wasn’t funny.”

Keil shrugged. “I thought it was pretty funny.” Before Verik could respond, he continued quickly. “Anyway, you did good enough to move on to the next phase of your training. This time you will demonstrate some of your abilities.”

“It’s about time.” Verik sighed with relief.

“Okay, so we’ll start with something simple. This is not so much training, but demonstration. Think of something simple, like fire. Try to make this flower,” Keil pointed to a large blue flower next to them, “catch on fire. Don’t move are anything just sit down, get comfortable, and then concentrate. Go ahead.”

Verik sat down on the ground and gave the flower the death stare. He imagined images of the flower bursting into flame and tried to mentally throw it at the plant, but that didn’t work. He tried holding his hand over the flower, trying to harness his power through it, but that had no effect either. He tried a few different positions and thoughts, but they still yielded no results.

“There’s no hurry. We can do this for a few hours if necessary.” Keil said in a calm voice.

Verik calmed himself down and continued concentrating. Still, nothing seemed to work. He continued trying for about another thirty-four minutes before he started becoming frustrated again. He sat on his knees, eyes clenched, hands held out toward the flower, and chanted the word “burn” over and over in a whisper. Just as Verik expected, that had no effect. Just like everything else.

Keil chuckled behind him and wave of anger surged through Verik. He jumped to his feet and faced him. Do you even know what you are doing? I have been at this for quite a while and you haven’t done a thing to help me! Aren’t you supposed to be training me? It looks to me like your just standing there watching me attempt something I have no idea how to do for your own amusement!”

Keil grabbed the back of his head and forced him to face the flower again and growled into his ear, “Make it burn! NOW!”

Verik angrily threw his hand toward the flower and a thin, but intense, flame burst from the ground, creating a flaming pillar about ten feet high.

All the anger that he had was suddenly gone, replaced by amazement. “Did I do that?”

Keil patted his shoulder. “Yes, you did. That was a test, to see how you best use your abilities. You were feeling anger back there, correct?”

Verik nodded.

“And what about your dreams? What emotions do you feel during those?”

“Mostly fear.” Verik responded. “What are you getting at?”

“I believe that your powers are increased with certain emotions. You saw yourself what you were capable of when you were angered. Earlier this morning, your dreams caused you to fear, which then caused you to subconsciously tear our camp apart with your powers.”

Verik scratched his ear. “But what about the fight with Erebos? I was neither angry, nor fearful. Come to think of it, I didn’t really feel anything at all…”

Keil nodded. “That was because your mind was clear. And that brings us to the next phase. This one is the most important part of training. The key to controlling your abilities. Once you have mastered this, which I almost have, you may very well be the strongest creature ever to walk on this world.”

“What do I do?” Verik asked with increasing interest.

“Nothing right now. I will show you a demonstration of my abilities before we continue. You probably need a break before we continue. You are going to need all of your mental strength for this one.”

He retrieved the pebble that he throw and bounced it on the palm of his hand. “This is the the main extant to my abilities.” He said just before hurling the pebble at Verik again.

Verik cringed and put his hands up to stop the small rock, but he was just a little too late. The rock sped towards his face, but then it just stopped, frozen in the air. Glancing over at Keil, he could see that he was holding it there himself.

“The amount I can lift is very small, but I have become very proficient at using what I can. The biggest thing I was able to manipulate was a rock about the size of your fist. I can also use this to weigh down someone’s foot, causing them to stumble. This has been useful in a few elusive hunts.”

“Can you do anything else?” Verik asked.

“Yes, but I need to concentrate hard on this. Step back and do not disturb me.”

Verik did as he commanded and Keil started doing whatever it was he was going to do. He stood straight and spread his arms wide. His fur was rustled by what looked like wind, but there was no breeze that he could feel. Keil remained like this for a few seconds and then he started changing.

His fur was moving together to form feathers, his body started shrinking, his arms changing shape. The strangest change was his face. The fur on his snout was disappearing and the skin underneath was turning yellow and hard like a shell. It also morphed into a more pointed shape as his teeth disappeared. His eyes became smaller and his ears shrank away.

It took him a while to realize what was happening. At first, Verik was a little disturbed, but then, as Keil’s body became a more recognizable shape, he was amazed. Keil had shifted himself into a large raven.

“That’s amazing!” Verik wagged his tail. “How did you do that?”

“I have mastered the act of clearing my mind. You are capable of so much when you are not hindered by other thoughts. This is what I will help you achieve.” He flapped his wings and took to the sky and flew around for a few seconds.

Verik watched with a bit of envy. To be able to experience the world like that would be amazing. Maybe once he got control of his abilities, he would be able to do the same thing.

Keil landed on the ground near him and began transformation back into his original self. Once he was back as a wolfen, he said, “Unfortunately, I lack the strength to be able to keep that form for any long period of time. Maybe one of the elders’ enchanted equipment can help me with that. Anyway, it is time for you to practice. Make sure you are in a comfortable position and close your eyes.”

Verik flattened the grass around him and seated himself. Closing his eyes, he awaited Keil’s next instructions.

/.\ /.\ /.\

Keil tried to speak in a calming voice, so as not to startle Verik. “Okay, the next thing you need to do is…nothing. Try not to do anything except breathe. Don’t even think. All the sounds around you should blur together into just a subtle noise that you can easily ignore. Nothing around you should bring any thoughts to your mind. Everything should fade away. Once you have done this, then your abilities should be amplified.”

He slowly paced around as Verik concentrated hard at his task. “I think I’m doing it.” Verik said.

Keil stopped pacing and frowned. “If you were doing it, you wouldn’t be speaking right now. Stay silent and do not think.” He continued walking back and forth, letting Verik try this on his own for a while before deciding to change methods. He was just about to start walking him through some mental relaxation exercises, but when looked over at Verik, the mark on his chest began glowing. Immediately ceasing. He did it already? He must be stronger.

He knelt down next to him to try and instruct him to use his powers. Gently, he started, “Now--”

That was as far as he got. His voice made him jump and the glowing mark flashed really bright, temporarily blinding Keil. A strong gust of wind blew him over.

It took a few seconds for Keil’s sight to return and when it did, the area was completely empty. Next to him, on the ground was a small crater where the grass was gone. He looked to the sides, but there was nothing except valley and forest. There was also no scent of any living creature near him. Verik had vanished.