by G. Akella
"I do." The buzz was suddenly gone from Max's head, his euphoria yielding to a dreary emptiness.
"Well, after yesterday's events, the probability of the Great Forest's destruction at the hands of the Ancients has decreased to seventy two. Sata's doom, however, is all but certain in ninety seven scenarios out of one hundred."
"A world without the goddess of luck?" Max said skeptically, as the meaning of his recent exchange with the black-haired beauty finally began to dawn on him. "But that's impossible!"
"Some leave, and others immediately take their place," Urkhunt said. "This world is governed by balance. It's remarkable that you've managed to slay Python—your chances were paltry. But that—"
"Then we'll keep managing!" Max exclaimed. Somehow he desperately didn't want to see the beautiful fox depart from this world.
"She has staked everything on the Black Demon from the prophecy. Now her fate rests entirely on his actions. And nobody can influence him at this point. Just as nobody can influence you, either."
"Roman... Krian will succeed," Max said emphatically. "I know there's nothing substantive you can tell me—you gods are even more restricted in your actions than us," he peered intently at the gray lion. "But I know my friend better than anyone. And I know that he will do what must be done."
"Your friend has long ceased to be human," Urkhunt sighed. "You cannot know what's on the mind of an elder demon."
"It doesn't matter what he became," Max objected flatly. "What matters is who he is. Now, instead of crying doom and gloom, why don't you give me a hint how I can help?"
"How you can help?" Urkhunt scoffed. "Well, I already told you never to rap again." Getting up on all fours, he walked up to Max and nuzzled his shoulder like a house cat. "Good luck to you, Gray One," he spoke softly. "To you and to your demon friend. Take care of yourself. We won't meet again until the battle with the Ancients."
The next moment the lion was gone, leaving behind only the rustle of leaves hounded by the tenacious wind.
Suddenly Max felt incredibly weary. The conversation with the deity—a final stretch in a day that felt like a lifetime—had drained him completely. Shifting into a cat, Max literally fell onto the ground next to the snag he'd been sitting on, surrendering to sleep before his muzzle even touched his forepaws.
Chapter 15
The morning sun was merciless in dispersing the night's enchantments. The wind had died down, and the grass sparkled with dewdrops. The forest giants framing Urkhunt's shrine looked on with gentle condescension at the young gray lion curled up on the grass before them.
Max was awoken by an enormous beetle alighting on the tip of his ear. The lion opened his eyes, rose to his feet, shook off the morning dew along with the pesky insect, and gave a satisfying stretch, the kind of stretch only felines could pull off. He wasn't the least bit hungover—just the opposite, he felt fully rested and ready to take on the world. After lapping up some ice-cold water from a bubbling spring near the shrine, he nodded goodbye to his people's progenitor on the pedestal, and set off at a brisk trot in the direction of the castle.
Syruan stood exactly where it was supposed to. Externally, the castle of Max's blood brother hadn't changed at all in his absence, except for the host camping out on the grass in front of it like a Gypsy encampment. Dark elves attired in every variety of garb and armor, pets and mounts of every size, shape and color blended together into such a motley multitude that any actual Gypsies would turn green with envy. The group must have reached the walls of the castle fairly recently, and were now waiting for Tasha to speak with her father and figure out the accommodations for all these fighters and beasts. The castle wasn't elastic, after all, though in their private conversation Phylatrim had assured Max there would be enough space for everyone.
The warrior's mind, however, was occupied with something else entirely. It took him all of two seconds to spot the familiar figure in green druid duds embroidered with silver, but then he took his time admiring his beloved. Alyona was explaining something emphatically to Ellanca and Masyanya, the two women leaning against Mopsy's heaving side, while gesturing toward the castle.
Their party had camped just off the side of the road leaning up to the castle. Alex and Donut were standing off to the side, engaged in an animated discussion. Bonbon was sleeping on the grass, limbs spread out like a starfish. Helliona was plucking petals off a big plant that distantly resembled the sunflower, her head resting on Rexar's shoulder. And Luffy was simply lounging on the grass, meditating on the flames enveloping his fingers.
The Blades were situated further away from the road, ostensibly to give their many mounts and pets more room to roam. The sight of his woman and his friends was at once welcome and overwhelming, and Max had to take a few deep breaths to calm down. The hell with Earth and its polluted cities, the hell with the Internet! Besides his parents who had died long ago, and Roman and Alyona who were both here, he didn't have anyone truly dear to his heart. But here he had found a home and a family in the span of only a few months. He cared deeply for these people, and he depended on them, just as they depended on him. And so what if he was an exile? Home wasn't a geographical location, but a place where you were always welcome. Exile was only temporary, and even if it wasn't, the hell with the Great Prince of the Nightcrawlers, too! Max would still have a home—he and his people both. Just as long as we handle our business and find Roman, he thought with a sigh, then donned invisibility and made for his party's camp.
The idea to mess with his people had just come to him a moment ago. They had only seen him as a lion very briefly, after all, so here was an opportunity to put on a bit of a show.
Prowl cut his movement speed to sixty percent while adding extra to his Camouflage. In the end, he almost pulled it off. When he drew within forty feet of Alyona, Mopsy sprang to his feet with a roar, sending the girls resting on him flying and setting a veritable whirlwind of actions into motion. In an instant Alex was on his feet, his bow drawn; Donut slipped into stealth; Ellanca and Masyanya both cussed loudly as they tried to regain their footing; and Rexar literally hurled Helliona behind him as the latter shifted into combat form in midair and turned toward the danger.
But once the alarmed party got a good look at who it was that had disturbed their peace, everybody froze like pillars of salt, and Mopsy's menacing growling turned to mirthful whinnying, which sounded positively surreal coming from a creature that looked like a bull terrier with a crocodile's scaly skin. Her mouth agape, Alyona began to lower the staff raised above her head. Luffy beamed a joyous smile after shaking the nascent fireball off his hands. As for Max, such a "hearty" reception made him burst into Homeric laughter, but since cave lions didn't quite have the vocal cords for guffawing, what escaped his gullet instead was a deafening roar. Closing the gap between him and Alyona in a single leap, he shifted instantly into elf form, grabbed the girl up by the hands and led her into a twirling dance in front of a dozen incredulous eyes.
"Poser," Alyona whispered in his ear blissfully after he finally set her down and planted a hungry kiss on her lips. His arm wrapped around his woman's waist, Max turned to the viewing party, which now included the Blades who had gathered for the commotion, and flashed a happy smile.
"There's our valiant leader," Bonbon cackled, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "I thought we sent you to learn to shift into a lion, not a hippopotamus! Fess up, how many steroids have you gobbled up?"
Scratching Mopsy behind the ear mechanically, Max blinked in confusion at his merry band of companions. Then he turned to Alyona and suddenly realized that his girlfriend had greatly shrunk in size. Well, maybe not greatly, but a noticeable amount. Though already fairly tall, Alyona's head was barely peeking out over his shoulder. How curious! But he wasn't given any time to ponder this new development, as everybody began welcoming their commander proper, which included pestering him with questions.
"How did you manage to ding 188 in less than a week? Was it just from the Peacemaker quest?" Donut in
quired as he shook Max's hand.
"The Peacemaker quest got me exiled from the Great Forest," Max snorted. "I'll explain everything later."
Luffy threw him a raid invite and immediately transferred leadership, which prompted a new round of incredulous expressions on his companions' faces.
"Who the hell was it you snuffed out?" Teetotaler asked the question that was on everybody's mind.
"And a knight of the Order to boot!" Masyanya observed shrewdly. "You keep an eye on this one, Alyona," she addressed her girlfriend. "Or next time he runs an errand he'll exterminate half the Wild Wood and befriend the entire demon army surrounding the Great Forest."
"Funny you should mention that," Max grinned. "I may not have befriended the entire demon army, but I did make a few strategic allies..."
"Holy moly!" Donut clapped Alex on the shoulder excitedly and roared with laughter, pointing at the warrior. "He's not kidding! We're freaking unfriendly with the Netherworld! We can waltz right past those demons like a diplomatic mission rocking immunity!"
"I will explain everything later!" Max cried in response to the avalanche of questions from every side. "Let me catch my breath first! And besides, there's Tasha," he added, gesturing toward the castle gates—the black-haired rogue was already heading their way with a retinue of four werepanthers. "I promise to answer everyone's questions once we're all settled in."
"Greetings, brother," Tasha bowed her head politely. "I admit, I never would have guessed you're the Gray One from the fables my nan used to tell me as a cub."
"What if I am? Have I grown horns on my head now? Why are you being coy all of a sudden?"
"No, no horns," Tasha laughed, embracing Max and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Welcome to Syruan, Gray One! Father is expecting you," she turned to the rest of them, and yelled. "Yo, peeps! Listen up! Whoever is able to release their pets, please do—there's not enough room in the pen for all of them! Squad leaders, see Urlu, Orin, Garv and Dylan," she motioned at the shifters accompanying her. "They will escort you to your quarters and show you around. You, Teetotaler, and you all," she nodded at Max's squad, "come with me—your quarters are on the third level."
"'Yo, peeps' is your schooling, I take it?" Max inquired of Luffy along the way.
"Heck, I'm surprised it took this long for a crowd of earthlings to warp her speech and manners," he grunted. "But you're not changing the subject! Who is this 'Gray One' my fiancé has just mentioned?"
"Oh, nothing, really," Max dismissed the matter with a wave. "Remember Tolstoy's Ivan the Fool? That's pretty much me now. On the upside, I now have an excuse to run around the pool and cross the street on red."
"Let's get serious, eh?"
"I'll get serious later—I don't want to repeat the same story a hundred times."
"Fair enough," the mage acquiesced, then added softly. "You need to forget about Alyona for now, all right?"
"What?!" Max's breath caught in his throat. "Did she—"
"No! It's nothing like that!" Luffy interrupted him. "But you can't be together just yet. You're a shifter, and she's an elf. You weren't a shifter before when the two of you, uh, you know..." he made an uncertain gesture. "But you are now. And that changes things."
"What about you and Tasha? I remember her mentioning certain 'interesting' aspects..."
"The interesting aspects in question," Luffy smiled, "boil down to listening to her stories about her kin, who they are and how to behave around them, and telling her bedtime stories about our past world. We make out sometimes, too, but it doesn't get farther than that. Just imagine: what if she loses control and turns into a panther half-way through? I don't know about you, but I see myself developing a serious case of erectile dysfunction if that were to happen. I'd rather play it safe and wait till after the ritual," the mage rubbed his hands with dreamy anticipation, then clapped Max on the shoulder. "And I suggest the same for you, brother. Just wait till Alyona turns. Everything should be fine then—maybe even better than fine!"
"Are we going to have a ritual, too?"
"I doubt it. Tasha is the chieftain's daughter, so everything needs to be all formal. I'm sure you can just find some shaman to do the service, and you're golden!"
"Mm-hmm," Max scratched the back of his head as he passed through the castle gates. "After all this time, I suppose I could wait a little longer."
"Don't worry, honey, you won't need to wait long," Alyona smirked behind him.
"You heard the whole conversation?" Max gave his girlfriend a bashful look.
"We druids have good ears," the young woman winked at him, then smiled. "Not that I needed them now—the two of you were so loud, the whole century must have heard you!"
"Welcome to married life, brother," Donut made an innocent face, slipping out of invisibility to his right. "For the avoidance of doubt, I was just walking nearby, training my stealth skill. I definitely wasn't eavesdropping, and Masyanya definitely didn't ask me to do it," he concluded loudly, for all to hear, as snickers and chortles sounded all around them.
"You shifty rogue, you," Masyanya grumbled behind him. "Prepare to recite poetry to me all night, just as you'd been promising for the past two months. Either that you're sharing the rug with Mopsy for the next forthright."
"See, you're not the only one enduring these hardships, I'm right there with you," Donut gave a dramatic sigh as he halted to wait for his better half.
"Man, how I've missed you guys!" Max laughed, squeezing Alyona tight with one hand, and smacking Luffy on the shoulder with the other. "You have no idea!"
"So, it has begun," Phylatrim drew a heavy sigh as Max finished his story. He walked up to the window slowly, his hands clasped behind him.
Max had given him the abridged version, leaving out certain sensitive details like Sata' flushed face at the mention of a certain demon—that nugget of info he would take to his grave. He and Roman were no strangers to keeping each other's secrets. Besides, he could have just imagined it all, and making such unsubstantiated claims was a sure way to make himself look like a total ass. Let the gods handle their own affairs—he knew better than poke his nose in them.
"What has begun?" he asked. "You already knew of the Ancients' coming, and that I was this Gray One."
"You prepare for the worst, but hope for the best, right? And that's what I was doing—hoping against hope! Maybe you weren't the Gray One from legend. You're not of this world, after all—maybe gray patterns are totally common where you're from! Maybe Morrigan's ghosts were wrong. Or maybe the Ancients awoke only to fall back asleep."
"Somehow I doubt they're sleep deprived after slumbering for millennia," Max chuckled.
"I suppose," the lord sighed again, then continued. "See the scroll on the desk? To your right. A letter for you from the Great Prince."
"Why would he write an exile?"
"Cut it out, brother. You know perfectly well he was ordered to drive you from the territory of his High House, and he did just that. Do you think he's an idiot or someone who wishes his people ill? Trust me, he's the kind of leader who will bend over backwards to protect his people, and if it means forging an alliance with drow or even the demons surrounding the Great Forest, he won't think twice about it."
"Ordered? You're saying there's authority higher than the Great Prince..." Max began suspiciously, but then it dawned on him. "Urkhunt?"
"Very clever of you," the lord smiled. "I would wager one hundred gold that the letter has precise instructions where you ought to be 'exiled' and for how long. The letter arrived yesterday, before all of this stuff happened to you. Before you crossed that invisible line that Sata spoke of."
Max picked up the scroll, broke the seal which depicted a scowling lion's maw, and unfolded the thin leather parchment. A single word was written at the center of an otherwise virgin-black sheet: "Darkaan." Max gave a snort, setting the scroll back on the desk, leaned back in his chair, and lit his pipe. Phylatrim walked over to read the contents, shrugged his shoulders, took the scrol
l and stashed it into a drawer.
"That's very helpful," Max jibed as he blew out the smoke. "And here I was planning a fishing trip..."
"The Great Prince expresses his favor with this letter, and that's worth something. A great deal, even."
"Sure, sure," the warrior waved dismissively. "But what of my question, brother?"
"We will accept Alex into our clan should he make his desire known. The same goes for all the avengers of the Two-Faced Goddess. It would be a great honor to have them as brothers and sisters. As for the rest, they would need to earn the right to be called the Night Hunters."
Handing in Cenatodone's head to the Great Prince had raised the reputation with the High House of Nightcrawlers to unfriendly for everyone involved in the battle, whereas being accepted into the clan required no less than respect. The Nightcrawlers revered the Goddess of Vengeance—according to their mythology, it was she who had ended the life of King Nakilon whom they detested. That was why Phylatrim was willing to accept her avengers without question. And Max had made a personal request for Alex. He suspected that the Blades might even be accepted with a neutral reputation given their membership in the goddess' Order. Which was nice and all, except there was no time to grind reputation by running around the forest collecting rare herbs, exterminating pests and the like—it had been relayed to Max that there were ten or so repeatable quests of that nature. Such a project would take no less than six months, and they had nowhere near that amount of time at their disposal.
"I see," said Max. "Tell me this: if we find the Two-Faced Goddess' shrine, would that be sufficient to accept all of my squad members into the clan?"
"Absolutely," Phylatrim nodded. "Such a feat would go down in the annals of history."
"And how much time do we have?"
"We will conduct all the clan inductions tomorrow night, along with the Rite of the Scarlet Moon," said the chieftain. "I recommend a day of rest after that, and then you can set out. And again, I must insist that you take half a century of the clan's fighters with you..."
