Wolfen - Part 17

The sun was just starting to show above the horizon, so everyone decided to try and get some rest. The events of the night had everyone exhausted, both physically and mentally. The herbs they fed David took effect and he was sleeping relatively peacefully. Verik left on his own, like he normally did. He was getting better at controlling his powers, but until he had full control or these dreams stopped, he had to put some distance between him and his family.

And, as Verik expected, his sleep was plagued by the dream. He found himself standing on a grass covered hill, overlooking a field of grass with a large forest in the distance. The sky was mostly clear except for a few clouds scattered around, and the moon and stars were shining brightly. The air was pleasantly cool. This was the most detail he has gotten in these dreams yet, but there was still no sound. Some movement caught his eye. A lone shadow moved up the hill, but there was nothing around that could have created it. When it reached the other side, it stopped suddenly and didn’t move for a few minutes. Suddenly, a bright light exploded from above the shadow, temporarily blinding Verik. Immediately following were the haunting screams and Erebos’s angry roar that ended all of his dreams.

Verik opened his eyes back in the real world, the tall trees of the forest surrounding him. Getting up, he looked around to assess the damaged he caused around him. There was significantly less than the last time. Several feet around the spot where he slept was burnt black, a little bit of smoke still rising from the ashes. Other than that, there were only a few broken branches scattered around, and those might have been from a different day. He smiled. This has probably been the only day that he woke up to any kind of good news. His practicing must be improving instability of his powers when dreaming.

He stretched and started heading off to his pack. With everything that was happening recently, there was probably a lot that was needed to be done.

/.\ /.\ /.\

“So, are you guys nocturnal?” Keil asked Myorakk. When everyone was up and about, Verik, Syla, Keil, and Nari went to talk with their newest “friend” to get some information so they could begin to form a strategy.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you mean. Explain, please.” Myorakk responded while examining his claws for something.

“Do you sleep during the day, or night?” Keil rephrased his question.

The demon let out a yawn. “We don’t sleep.”

Keil was obviously confused. “What do you mean you don’t sleep? You don’t get tired? How do you regain your energy?”

“We absorb the energy from the world around us. We don’t ever need to sleep.”

“Great…” Keil scowled. “What about your vision? What time of day is your vision the worst?”

Myorakk scratched his head. “Well, our vision is perfect when the sun is down, but it’s even better when it is up.”
Verik growled, “We don’t want to hear about how great your species is. We want to know the best way to kill them.”

“Fine. There is one thing. Our bodies do slow down in cold temperatures.”

Verik sighed and scratched his ear in annoyance. “That information would be pretty useful if it wasn’t in the middle of the damn summer.”

“What about the river?” Nari suggested. “Just before the sun goes up, the water can get pretty cold.”

Keil shook his head. “We can’t fight in the water. Our fur would become too heavy and we’d probably end up just as slow as them.”

Syla suddenly perked up and grabbed Verik’s shoulders. “The mountain! It’s always covered in snow at the top! It must be freezing up there. Could that work?”

“What mountain?” Verik glanced at Keil for confirmation.

“She’s right. There is a mountain beyond the human city.” He thought about it a more seconds. “That might actually be perfect. Great thinking, Lu!” He patted her shoulder. She just smiled and dipped her head.

“So now the questions is how to lure him there.” Verik said.

“Oh, that should be easy. Erebos hates you with a burning passion. He wants you dead more than anything. Now more than ever. Once he knows where you are, he’ll come running. We just need a way to let him know without dying without it being totally obvious that it’s a trap.”

“You are one of them. Could you go back and tell him?” Keil suggested.

“Probably not. Erebos was already suspicious of me all the time, since he cannot hear my thoughts. If I came back now, he would probably just kill me to be safe.”

Verik smirked as a thought came into his head. “But what if you were able to convince him that we were holding you captive.”

“Judging by the look on your face, I don’t think I’m going to like where this is going.” Myorakk said hesitantly.

“If we inflict wounds on you before you go to him, then it would probably increase the chances of Erebos believing your story. Nothing is more convincing than what you see with your eyes. The wounds wouldn’t be too serious, of course, but they’d have to be bad enough.”

Myorakk stroked his scaly chin as he thought about it. “That could work. I’ve been through much worse in my life than anything you could inflict on me. As long as you don’t touch my wings, feel free. I take pride in having perfect wings. It’s quite uncommon among my species.”

“It looks like we may have a plan.” Keil announced. “So, we’ll take our whole pack to the mountain and then send you to send Erebos. Once he arrives at the mountain, we’ll ambush him.”

Nari wasn’t satisfied. “What if he brings his whole army with him? Will we have enough strength to take them all on?”

Verik remembered something. “On the way to the mountain, we pass by the human city. I can sneak in there and try to find Jack. He said he would tell about our time together to his friends. Jack would definitely join me; maybe there are other people that would be willing to join us also.”

“I don’t trust humans.” Nari scowled and crossed her arms.

“You’re going to have to.” Keil scolded. “We’re going to need all the help we can get. Now let’s get ready. We need to act as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the stronger he become, the harder and more dangerous this battle is going to be.”