by Mark Tufo
“We cannot allow the spoiled ones to once again turn.” Her features were hard set, as if to just think upon what was happening was distasteful.
Xavier took two steps towards the Landians, who held their ground. He spun and bounded off.
“Come,” Inuktuk said. “We will leave this place, for now, I fear we have invited a curse upon this land with our actions here today. There will be a price to pay.”
Grenton blew into an old horn that had long ago turned from a shiny copper color to a dull green, though its tone remained clear and bold. He sounded the rally and turned to follow his leader.
“WHAT HAS HAPPENED here?” Xavier roared as he looked upon the pen that contained their human-werewolf army. At least a quarter of them were dead or lay dying from arrows.
“We have been attacked,” Maal, the leader of the werewolf handlers told him. “The humans shot a storm of arrows from over there. He pointed to a breach in the wall not more than fifty feet away. “They would have kept firing if myself and the others had not gone after them. We caught but three.”
“Bring them here!”
Maal motioned and a Lycan guard came up roughly ushering three people in front of him. When one tripped to the ground, he savagely yanked the man up by his arm then violently swung him back into the dirt, breaking his left leg and four ribs. The Lycan could not contain himself; he placed one large paw against the man’s head and with the other tore into his midsection, ripping through the man’s abdomen and chest.
Xavier could not help but notice how calm the other two men were, even though they watched their companion being eaten alive. He thought perhaps these archers were just stupid, he knew humans were lesser animals and they constantly proved it. Xavier made sure they all took the time to watch as the Lycan guard ripped into and devoured the man. He’d screamed weakly at first, but now he was still, except for the occasional twitching muscle.
“This is your fate as well,” Xavier said to the two remaining men.
“And we accept it willingly,” Huron, the older of the two said.
“Are the Landians so weak that they send the old and infirm to fight in their stead?” Xavier asked.
“I am seventy-four,” Huron said. “I have lived a long and fruitful life, I have children and grandchildren that I love dearly. That you have come here and corrupted the land must be dealt with. I volunteered in the only way that I could.”
“You volunteered to die!” Xavier shouted.
“I did.” The man nodded solemnly.
“The time of man is coming to a close. It is our time now.” Xavier thumped a fist against his chest. The man’s insolence and certainty was beginning to weigh upon him. He was moving forward to rip the offending head from the old man’s body. A groan from the Lycan guard halted his progress. The Lycan stood straight up, his maw covered in red and purple. He brought both of his paws to his stomach and clutched his middle before he bent over. Unfathomable cramps twisted inside his gut. Froth began to bubble through the Lycan’s clenched teeth.
“What is this?” Xavier’s eyes grew wide as the guard fell to the ground. The large animal pulled himself into a ball so tight he was not much bigger than their distant cousin, the wolf. He was panting heavily, a circle of urine spread out beneath him.
“Samir is all knowing. Inuktuk will show us the way.” Huron’s arms were outstretched to the heavens. “The Land will provide the answer!”
“What is this? What is going on?” Xavier asked.
“Have you not figured it out yet, mongrel?” Huron spat. “We have become poisonous to your kind. Inuktuk has made us untouchable. To kill and eat us will bring your death!”
“This cannot be!”
“Go, slink back to your deep, dark caves. Hide in the shadows where your kind belongs. Perhaps we will allow you to live.”
Xavier swung so hard he caved in the left side of the man’s head. Bone folded in on itself; his left eye struck his right before the man could completely fall over. A lopsided grin sat etched upon his features as he stilled upon the grass.
“No prayer before you die, thing?” Xavier asked of the last man standing.
“I will…” the man started. Xavier did not want to hear any more of the squeakings of Man. He dragged a two-inch claw across the man’s neck, cutting through his windpipe. The last few gulping breaths sounded suspiciously like laughter.
Neither Lycan moved to help their fallen comrade. “Can this be true?” Maal asked. He was clearly distressed at the prospect that they might no longer be able to eat humans.
“No!” Xavier said savagely. “It is merely a ploy. And if you say one word of this to anyone else, I will rend your reproductive organs from your body.” For a brief second, Xavier thought about killing Maal to ensure his silence and might have if it wouldn’t have raised even more questions. There were, at least, a dozen Lycan close enough to see what was happening. “Burn that Lycan, he has the sickness,” Xavier said as he turned away to think upon this newest problem presented to him by Men.
“DO YOU THINK the grapes worked?” Grenton asked Inuktuk as they set up camp some five miles from Talboton.
“We can only hope.” Inuktuk was burdened with her thoughts. She did not have the stomach for the damage another war would bring upon her people. When she’d come up with her desperate plan, the three old ones had gladly volunteered their lives for their people. The names Huron, Juneaux, and Lindred would be added to the legends of her people for their sacrifice.
Chapter 4
Mike Journal Entry 3
PISSED OFF DOESN’T even begin to describe the emotion I felt at this point. If I had the ability to uproot trees and start swinging them around like clubs, I would have done so. I’d probably feel bad for the tree, though, minding its own business for like a century and then I come around and start fucking with it.
“Kind of like what they’re doing to me!” I railed. I was a good mile from the gates of Denarth. I climbed to the top of a huge, rocky outcropping; the city walls were visible from here. I was still unsure of what my next course of action should be. I had not lied in the least when I said I wanted nothing to do with their war. The problem was that the people I cared for were knee deep in that conflict. I learned something about war long ago, before I became a vampire, almost before I even had enough years under my belt to be called a man. It’s never really about the conflict itself. Your loyalty was to the men and women you fought beside. You didn’t fight because you gave a shit about oil prices, or some God, or an imaginary line drawn in the sand. You fought because you had a brother or sister in arms next to you, you fought because while they were trying to keep you alive you were returning the favor.
“What the fuck do I do now, Oggie?” I had lain back, my folded hands cradling my head. The big dog was lying next to me, his head resting on my chest.
“A child could have tracked the path you left.”
“I was wondering how long it would take for you to get here.” I did not move at the sound of Mathieu’s voice. He climbed the rock; for a second my face cooled as he blocked the sun before he could lie down, much like I had.
“No one would believe that your exit was in earnest. Did you drive your feet into the ground as you stormed off? You were as a petulant child.”
“Oh, the anger was real enough.”
“It is a beautiful day,” Mathieu replied. “How long are you planning to remain out here? The Red Witch is displeased with you.”
“I’m staying put until she finally gets to the point where her displeasure turns into concern and then relief that I’ve returned.”
“That may be a while.” Mathieu smiled broadly.
“Something funny to you?”
“The Red Witch has spoken to me regarding your vast ability to find, trap, and then don trouble like a heavy garment upon your shoulders. Stories are one thing, but to actually be privileged to witness one in the making is quite another.”
“How is it that my life is so amusing to so
many of those around me?”
“You should perhaps look at it from my perspective some time.” I was about to deliver a comeback when he sat up quickly. “Something…someone approaches.” He stood and squared himself as in preparation for battle. Oggie was immediately up as well; apparently I was the weak link in the danger-sensing department.
I then caught a familiar scent on the wind. Oggie was bristled, as was Mathieu; he was subtly changing from his human form.
“I have been in this spot for quite some time—long before the Polluted One came. If I wanted to inflict damage, Old One, I would have done so before now.”
“It is not comforting, Lunos, to be stalked by a Lycan. Forgive me for not letting my guard down,” I told him.
“You know this filth?” Mathieu asked, although it sounded more like a growl.
“You ask like I’m stepping out on you. Yeah, we’ve had words. When the brother of the Lycan that is attempting to take over the world speaks, you tend to hear him out.”
“This is Xavier’s brother? Why have you not ripped his throat out?”
“Apparently, he’s not a fan of Xavier, either. So he says. So, technically he’s on our side, but I’m not sure how I feel about him,” I said aloud.
“Let us wonder no more. We kill him now. The worst that can happen to the world is that there is one less Lycan.”
Lunos snarled as he emerged from the woods directly in front of us. He’d once told me he was the runt of his litter, yet he was still bigger than any Lycan I had thus far encountered, save Xavier, which meant he dwarfed the three of us on that rock. If not for the height advantage the ledge afforded us we would have been craning our necks to see his ugly face.
“Michael, I would have believed an Old One capable of garnering more worthy allies.” Lunos was looking at Mathieu. “Although, it does appear you have trained him well. I have never seen an infected change without the presence of the moon. Perhaps he has some small value.”
Mathieu was thrumming next to me, I could almost feel the vibrations in the air.
“What do you want, Lunos? Do you bring more worthless bits of information?”
“I could just leave with what I know.”
“Either join us or join them. This playing for both sides shit isn’t going to work. Oh, that’s right—you can’t go back, can you? Your brother has placed a bounty on your head. You might be welcome now; I heard he no longer allows litter mates to be killed.”
“The thought alone of joining with you makes my fur ripple. I would rather return home and endure the penance I escaped all those years ago.”
“You couldn’t make any less sense if you tried,” I told him. “You obviously hate us, yet you desire to help us? Why should I take the word of one who has no loyalty? I must assume everything you say is false, a trap to regain your place among your own.”
“It is true, I do not love humans, but it is equally true that I do not hate them. They are merely a food source, nothing more.”
“Oh, I think you could add ‘a means to an end’ as well in there. You want something from us Lunos, a deed of some kind— something you’re too chicken shit to do on your own. You seek help from the beings you think the very least of. What’s that say about you?”
Lunos did not take my bait. “He has not yet found your storeroom of weapons.”
I swallowed down hard on the words I’d been about to say.
“Is that a hint of fear I smell being carried along the wind? I knew it would be worth being downwind to gauge your reaction to my information. The Red Witch is powerful, but careless. She leaves clues behind for those that know how to look for them.”
“What do you want?” My eyes narrowed, this conversation had gone from irritating to potentially deadly in a matter of a few heartbeats. Lunos needed to die, regardless of his usefulness. Lycan by themselves are cause for sleepless nights driven by the fear of extreme nightmares. Armed Lycan? Well, that goes that extra step into the realm of insanity.
“Right now, Old One, you are wondering how best to kill me. Is that not true?”
“It’s not like you’re reading my fucking mind, Lunos. I’ve been debating killing you since we first met. And my compatriot and I are talking openly about it.”
“If I had wanted Xavier to know the location of your weapons he already would. Do I look such the simpering fool that I would accidentally let slip what I had discovered? I have told you so that we might establish a base of trust.”
I let out a short laugh, as did Mathieu, though his came out more like a bark. I wanted to give him a fist bump, but I didn’t think he’d know what the hell I was trying to do, and then we’d have this awkward hand exchange going on in front of a lethal enemy; it would totally blow our manly moment.
“Trust? You just called us food.”
“I would eat neither of you,” Lunos snorted in disgust. I couldn’t help taking that personally.
“Okay, maybe not either of us, but we identify with humans.”
“You are about as human as I am, Old One. I am only here talking to you because you are NOT human. Do you wish for me to tell you what I need to?”
I couldn’t help but notice how sincere he was in his deception. It was strange, he was basically saying that he wanted to tell me more, even though it wouldn’t be in his best interests to share the knowledge. In a twisted way, it was kind of refreshing. It’s one thing to be lied to and it’s also one thing to be lied to and know you are being lied to. It’s quite another to be lied to and flat out told you are being lied to. In Lunos’s case, he was lying by omission and telling us so. “Go on,” I prodded.
“Xavier’s hold on power is more precarious than ever. The Landians have joined the fight.”
“About time they got off their asses,” I said, more to myself. If they’d done something before Talboton had started to burn that would have been even better.
“I do not believe they truly wish to fight. They cleverly used a natural substance as if it were magic; it successfully instilled great fear among the Lycan.”
“I’ve never been good at riddles. Could you maybe dumb that down for us hairless ones?”
“Grapes. The Landians sacrificed three of their own, having them consume massive amounts of the fruit, knowing the Lycan would then eat the men.”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” I asked Mathieu, who had pulled back slightly from his werewolf persona, at least enough that he could use his vocal cords, though it did sound vaguely like rusty guitar strings rubbed across sandpaper, unpleasantly gravelly, in other words.
“Grapes are poisonous to canines.”
I couldn’t even fathom the level of restraint Mathieu must have used as he straddled the line between two distinct and separate species. His words were strained, but clear enough.
“Son of a bitch.” I remembered once when Tracy and I were first married. We adopted this God-awful ugly dog from the pound. You know the kind, so ugly they’re adorable. I’d like to say that was the case here as well, but it wasn’t. He was just plain ugly. All the same, I loved the mutt. We named him Rhino. Scratch that; I named him Rhino. He had these small, close-set eyes and an extremely long nose, plus he was a dull, solid drab-gray; almost a non-color. He looked like a furry rhinoceros; it seemed only fitting. Not really the point of the story…so, anyway, I’d gone out with some of my Marine Corps friends and we’d done what any self-respecting bunch of Marines would do. We got shit-faced.
When I came home that night, Tracy was on the couch, a book splayed across her chest. She was fast asleep. Rhino had jumped off the couch to come and greet me; a heavy dose of snorting and ass wagging ensued. I picked him up and began to squish his massive nose, and he grunted and sneezed and licked at my hand during my ministrations. It quickly got to the point where even my blasted self was disgusted by the sheer volume of puppy slobber he had deposited on my hands. I gently placed him down, wobbled a wee bit as I headed for the sink, and washed my hands. Hang on, I’m getting to th
e meat of the story. The trouble began when I turned to reach for the paper towels. I knocked over an entire bowl of green grapes. Rhino’s eyes got huge as he saw, probably in slow motion, this huge bounty of food coming his way, which was fine by me. I figured with both of us working on the problem we were sure to get it cleaned up pretty quick. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught what I thought was an action figure soaring straight out of a comic book. Tracy literally flew from the couch, cleared the island in the kitchen and sailed horizontally to the ground, landing like a seaplane, smack between Rhino and the grapes. Well, to be fair, she made a landing on a bunch of the small, balled fruits, smashing them completely out of their skins.
“Whoa. That was awesome!” I told her, meaning every word. “Did I ever tell you Cat Woman turns me on?” (I should add that this fetish was before my personal view on cats had been skewed by negative factors.)
“Get Rhino out of here!” Were her words as she slid along the floor, liberally coated in homemade non-alcoholic wine.
I was drunk, male, and a Marine, but that didn’t make me stupid. Close, I guess, but not totally without some redeeming qualities. I noted the urgency in her actions and her voice. Something was wrong, though I had not a fucking clue as to what it was. I picked up Rhino and headed out of the room, clipping my hip on the side of the island and nearly sending us both sprawling. I chugged upstairs with the puppy firmly secured in my grip.
“Talbot! What the hell are you doing?” Tracy called after a few seconds.
“I’m keeping the dog safe and sound from enemies both foreign and domestic, just like you ordered,” I told her valiantly.
“Put him down and come back here and help me, will you?”
Rhino whined for a moment as I placed him in the bathroom and then I trudged downstairs. I couldn’t help but laugh as I looked upon my young wife, her left side soaked, pieces of grapes clinging to most of her body and throughout her hair.
“This funny to you?” She’d had a fistful of the grapes and was about to toss them into the garbage but obviously, smooshing them in my face was a better call. Learned a lot of things that night. First, going out with your friends and getting drunk doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get some when you get home, and second, grapes are extremely toxic to dogs. Who knew? A thick pocket of pain traveled quickly through my entire body as I thought on that small, sweet moment in time, indelibly etched upon my memory. I did my best to keep that part of me sealed off, but from time to time bits would leak through my not-so-impenetrable defenses.
