Wolfen - Part 13

Finally, after a long day’s journey, the familiar smell of home filled his nose. Verik inhaled deeply, savoring the scent. It felt like much longer than a few days since he was with his pack. So much had happened since then. He picked up the pace, wanting to get back to his family as soon as he could.

He didn’t make it to camp before they caught his scent. They emerged from the trees and ran towards him. Keil roared out in a glad and relieved voice, “There you are, you bastard! What the hell happened to you?”

Verik met Keil with an embrace. “It’s an interesting story. I’ll tell you when I get back to camp.” He let go and went to greet everyone else.

Nari pushed her way through everyone to get to him. When she hugged him, she dug her claws into his back and hissed into his ear, “You need to stop scaring the shit out of me. This is twice now where I thought you were dead for sure.”

He winced, “I’m sorry. I don’t try to.”

After greeting everyone, Verik noticed that someone was missing. “Where is Syla?” He asked Keil. Verik thought she would be the very first one to get to him, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“She’s deeper into the forest.” Keil responded. “Go back to camp and follow her scent to the east. She was already gone when we sensed you coming.”

“Thank you. I’ll go find her first, and then I will tell you everything.” He took off quickly back to camp. After everything he went through, it was going to be nice to be with his sister again. Knowing her, she would probably be worried out of her mind.

/.\ /.\ /.\

Syla was just ahead. Verik trotted silently through the forest. He wanted to sneak up and surprise her. He crawled to a rock ledge overlooking a small clearing. In the center of it, Syla was on her knees in the grass, sitting there silently. Verik was about to jump down, but he stopped when she suddenly put her hands to her stomach and began retching. After a few seconds, she doubled over and vomited a significant amount of blood.

Verik gasped in shock, jumped down, and ran to her side. “Syla, what’s happening? Are you okay?”

Her head snapped up to look at him, her eyebrows raised high. “Your back!” She cried out and tackled him, ending in her typical tight embrace, burying her head in his shoulder.

Verik, still concerned about what he just saw, pushed her away and looked into her eyes, “What just happened?”

She wiped the blood off her mouth and smiled. There were tears in her eyes, but the look that she had made it obvious that they were tears of joy. “Don’t worry about me. It happens all the time, ever since this pack found me. So far, I’m completely healthy, excluding these…episodes. Anyway, it doesn’t affect my health.”

Verik scowled. He still didn’t like it. “Does the rest of the pack know about this?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but they don’t know what it is.” She just stood there silently for a few seconds, but she couldn’t hold herself back. She smiled again, “I’m just so glad your back. I thought you were gone forever.”

Verik patted her on the shoulder. “Only death can prevent me from coming back here to everyone. Now come on, let’s go back to camp.”

Syla took his arm and followed him back.

/.\ /.\ /.\

Back at camp, Keil gathered everyone around Verik to hear what happened to him. Clearing his throat, Verik began, “So, I’m not really sure what happened when I was training. I was practicing with Keil and then I made some kind of mistake. I opened my eyes to find myself in a different land that was much darker and desolate. When I was exploring the area, I was attacked by a swarm of those winged creatures that met us outside the fortress. I ran from then until I came across a large crystal. Suddenly, I felt another presence with me, attempting to guide my actions. I let it take control and I somehow used the crystal to bring me back into a different forest.”

Everyone looked confused, but Lyan was the one that spoke up. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand...almost everything you just said.”

Keil nodded in agreement. “What do you mean by presence?”

“I don’t really know myself.” Verik told them. “I was standing at the crystal with hordes of the creatures closing in. I felt something trying to move my body, like another mind that was connected to me.”

“And you just gave it control?” Nari joined in.

“Well…I just had a feeling it was the right thing to do.”

Nari just shrugged and gestured for him to continue.

“Anyway, had sustained many injuries from the attack. When I appeared in the forest, I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was in the care of the Iseyla.”

At this, Syla gasped and leaned forward, a grin on her face. She wanted very much to meet them. “What were they like?”

“They were amazing creatures. They’re whole attitude and desire to help everyone was beautiful. They healed all my injuries and while I was with them, I met a human. In order to communicate with each other, they gave me the knowledge of the human language.”

Now it was Keil who became really attentive, “You can speak to humans?”

Verik nodded. “There was some conflict between us, but after we talked for a while, we got to know each other more. He said he would try to spread some good word around his city about us. But that’s not the most important thing that happened. While we were with the Iseyla, something…infected them. They were all in the water and suddenly they started getting sick. Their skin changed color, they were in a lot of pain, and they…vomited blood.” He looked over at Syla, but continued. “Their bodies started to change. Black scales covered their skin, wings sprouted from their backs, and they became very aggressive.”

David, clutching the purple egg-shaped stone that contained Karthan, the elder’s soul to his chest. He looked thinner than Verik remembered. David spoke out, “So, they can change creatures to be one of them?” He had a slight look of fear on his face.

“It would seem so, yes. They were really strong in magic, but they couldn’t stop the process. This could make defeating them impossible if we don’t act quickly.”

“If you can talk to humans,” Keil said, “we will want you to warn them and try to get them on our side.”

“The human I met was a hunter. He should be out here once again. I’ll talk with him and try to form a plan. It would be too dangerous to find him in his city.”

Keil sighed. “Then I guess we are forced to wait. Anyway, I imagine that you are tired from your journey. Go and get some rest.” He put his hand on his shoulder. “I’m glad your back.”

“I’m even gladder to be back.” He bid everyone goodnight and then walked out of the camp to sleep. It was still a possibility that he could hurt the people around him in his sleep. Until he could be sure that he was safe, he would have to keep his distance from everyone else.

/.\ /.\ /.\

Sure enough, without the Iseylas’ protection, he had the dream again that night. Again, it was slightly different. He opened his eyes and found himself in a huge empty flat field of grass. The sky was black and starless. No sound could be heard, but he felt a refreshing breeze blow by him. He had a feeling of peace and happiness. However, this feeling was short-lived as the expected and haunting screams burst through the silence.
The sorrowful, scared, angry, pained screams were so intense. He hated to imagine what kind of tragedy could cause this kind of a response. Then there was something else. It was a scent…the scent of blood and death. The odor was so intense that he became dizzy and fell to his knees. Then the familiar sound of Erebos’s angry ear-piercing roar.

At this point, Verik woke up in the real world. He stayed there lying down for several minutes. The sun was still in the sky, but it was low enough that he couldn’t really try and go back to sleep. With a sigh, he pushed himself up onto his feet. Just as he suspected, the area around him was completely demolished; broken branches scattered across the ground, several plants torn from the ground by their roots, dirt and rocks flung everywhere. The ground he was lying on before was scorched black and smoking slightly. He frowned at the area. Hopefully, he will find a way to stop his dreams or suppress his power as he slept, but until then, this is what he had to deal with right now. So Verik left the area snuck off to the edge of the forest to practice his abilities on his own before his pack woke up.

When he reached the edge of the forest, he sniffed the air, making sure there were no humans or other dangerous creatures nearby. Feeling satisfied that he was alone, he exited the tree line. The area was pretty simple. The forest behind him went a long way before curving out of sight. In front of him was a long plane of hilly grassland. Beyond the hills was the large human city that Jack resides in. He could hear around him was several birds singing their song from the tree branches. He closed his eyes and savored the peacefulness of the scene. This peace might not last long.

Not wasting any time, he sat down on the ground in a comfortable condition and repeated the exercise Keil taught him. Closing his eyes, he tried to shut his mind off to all outside distractions. He did this until all the sounds of the birds and the wind across the hills all merged together into silence. He opened his eyes slowly, trying to keep this kind of concentration, but as soon as the light met his eyes, his concentration broke and all the sounds came back.

He cursed and tried again. Why was it so easy to do before? When he was demonstrating to Jack, he just concentrated a little bit and it all came to him like it was totally natural. Then again, the Iseyla did fix his dreams, maybe they also strengthened his mind while he was with them. He scowled, if that was the case, which it most likely was, then he still had a ways to go before he can defeat Erebos’ and his potentially unlimited growing army.

He cleared his mind again and just sat there, just keeping himself in this state. The more he did it, the easier it was to do, but right now, it was useless. It can only be practical if he could use magic while doing it. But every time he opened his eyes, his concentration would break.

So Verik decided to try something different. He closed his eyes again, cleared his mind, and then tried to create a fireball in front of him. He lifted his arms slowly, his concentration was still holding. Once his hands were in front of him, he directed the energy in his body outward. It seemed to be going really well. He felt a sudden heat from in front of him and he knew that he did it.

He tried to open his eyes again to see it, but just like the other times, his concentration broke. The fireball that he created exploded, sending several smaller ones flying in all directions. One of them came rushing at Verik, but he dodged out of the way swiftly. It flew past him and into a tall thicket by the trees. He heard a loud yelp from behind it as the fireball made contact.

Verik gasped in surprise and rushed over to the bushes. He had no idea anyone was with him. He jumped over them and saw another wolfen he did not recognize. Her fur was a pure white color all around and her eyes were bright purple, but like him, she wasn’t normal. Her tail was long, black, and scaly; coming to a relatively sharp point at the end. Her lower legs were also covered in scales and large curved talons protruded from her toes.

They both stared at each other for several seconds. There was another wolfen like Verik. Were they connected? Maybe he will finally learn something about his past.

To Be Contined…