DISCLAIMER I don't own any of the D&D characters and I love em' too much to steal em'! Just the plot and the new additional characters belong to me.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Greetings fellow D&D fans! You are about to read my very first attempt at writing a fanfic! I hope you all enjoy, but please keep in mind that since I'm new at this there are bound to be a few errors no matter how many times I've proof read it (which have been A LOT!). So bear with me and I'll promise not to burn you to a crisp! sly dragon smile
LadyTiamat
PS: There's going to be quite a bit of H/S, and possibly a little E/D in this fic so consider yourselves thoroughly warned!
RATING: PG-13 (It probably won't be that high until a little later on in the story, but we'll leave it at PG-13 just to be safe!)
Curse of the Wolf
By LadyTiamat
Chapter 1
All he had to do was wait. And yet, Venger had never been one to posses much patience. The towering arch-mage stood on a parapet in his cold dark fortress. With clawed hands clasped behind his back his eyes scanned the black clouds that rolled quickly through the sky.
The rain that had fallen all through the night had stopped, at least for the moment. Shifting his gaze from the bleak clouds to the ground below he could see his army of orcs, bullywogs and lizard-men milling about their usual menial tasks.
The frustration of not doing anything himself caused a low growl to rumble from his throat. Unable to stop it, his mind once again wandered back to the events that took place only a few days earlier…in the dragon's graveyard.
'That boy!' he thought furiously.
'Ranger.' A nasty little voice in the back of Venger's mind corrected mockingly.
He had thought of little else since that last encounter with the Dungeon Master's pupils. His defeat in that miserable place had been so completely unfathomable that he was beginning to question whether it had even happened at all.
'Oh but it did happen!' the voice scoffed eerily. 'With all of your power and your armies and your spells, YOU the mighty Venger were nearly destroyed by a handful of children!'
Venger's hands came to grip the stony ledge of his parapet, an angry red glow beginning to emit from them. His mind replayed the events of his ultimate defeat yet again. The stone-faced look of the ranger, the horrible look of pity from the rest. His uncontrollable rage increased as the feelings of terror the young ranger had caused washed over him. The fiery red glow from his hands began to pulse with a violent energy.
The malicious voice continued, 'You are a FOOL Venger to think that you will rule the realm, when you can't even destroy a few pathetic children!…Led by that 'Boy'!'
A massive roar erupted from Venger as he whirled around and sent the red energy pulsating from his hands towards the heavy oak doors of his chamber.
An explosion of smoking wood and splinters went flying everywhere as Venger bellowed "Ranger!" to correct the spiteful voice in his mind.
"Those 'children' have proven to be a more than just a nuisance, but a force to be reckoned with!" He spat as if to justify himself. "But their luck will soon run out and when it does, I WILL be there for it!"
"Master?" a timid voice called out from behind him. Venger whirled around in surprise at the intrusion.
"Shadow Demon!" he snapped irritably. "This had BETTER be important!"
The dark shady form of shadow demon cowered at Venger's harsh shout. Judging by the smoldering debris of the former chamber doors, and his tone of voice, He could tell Venger was NOT in a good mood.
"I..I bring news of the young ones as you requested."
"AND!?!" Venger growled.
"They are going east, heading for the village of Devenmoore."
Venger glared at his spy in annoyance. "That's all the information you have for me!?! That they are headed east!?!"
Shadow Demon bowed himself especially low in fear. Venger felt a slight tinge of satisfaction at his crony's fear. Turning from his cowering cohort, He stalked out of the room and down the gloomy hallway.
Shadow Demon, realizing that his master was no longer present, quickly glided out of the room and down the hallway after him.
He finally found Venger in another chamber staring intently at a massive map of the realm that hung from the chamber wall. He could hear Venger murmur to himself as he charted the young ones' course.
Deciding to remain silent, Shadow Demon quietly waited for his master's instructions. Suddenly a low rumble reverberated throughout the room. Startled, Shadow Demon looked to Venger. The arch-mage was still staring at the map, his broad shoulders shaking. The low rumble quickly escalated into a full out maniacal laugh...coming from Venger! The horrible laugh became so fanatical that it caused Shadow Demon to shrink back with dread.
As Venger turned from the map, Shadow Demon was shocked to see Venger's face screwed into a deranged smile. "Before the young ones reach the village of Devenmoore they must pass…the 'sentinels' of Galatorox."
"Galatorox!?! That forest, my Lord, is vexed by an unholy curse. There's no creature in all the realm that does not know this. Nor would they dare to step foot there!" Shadow Demon spoke incredulously.
"Indeed Shadow Demon. No creature 'from' this realm. But Dungeon Master's pupils, the young fools, will have no such knowledge of the danger. And their blind ignorance will be their undoing."
Venger's lips curled into a demonic smile, his curved fangs gleaming wickedly in the dark. "I need you, Shadow Demon, to deliver a VERY important message for me…."
The rain fell lightly on the young travelers as they made their way slowly towards their destination in the east. Hank the Ranger kept a steady pace in the lead for the others to follow.
'What a rotten morning.' He thought to himself as he continued to walk.
It had rained the entire night before and had continued throughout the morning, with no current signs of letting up. Not only that but a thick mist caused by all of the moisture in the air made it difficult to see much of their surroundings.
Sliding his hand through his saturated blonde hair, he turned to see how the others were fairing.
Presto the magician and Eric the cavalier brought up the rear of their group, casually debating with each other about whether they'd rather face Venger or Darth Vader in a fight. Diana the acrobat walked a couple of paces ahead of them, quietly fidgeting with her javelin.
Sheila the thief walked just a step or two behind him, seemingly talking aloud to herself, but Hank knew better. He immediately noticed that her magic cloak was missing and since her brother, Bobby the barbarian, was also 'missing', it was easy to surmise that she had probably given it to Bobby for protection against the rain.
She must have felt his gaze on her, for she turned from talking to Bobby to look at him. For a moment Hank held his breath as she gave him a soft smile, a smile that she saved only for him. He returned her smile with one of his own.
His smile broadened as she finished her conversation with Bobby and quickened her pace to walk by his side.
"Any sign of shelter yet?" she asked quietly, trying not to draw the attention of the others. They had all been trekking in the rain for a couple of hours now and it had caused everyone to be a bit irritable this morning.
Hank sighed as he turned to look at her. She was drenched from head to toe, strands of her fiery red hair plastered across her soft freckled face. Hank's heart wrenched in concern for her as saw her shiver slightly from the cold. Yet despite the fact that she was cold and dripping wet, he knew she would never criticize his leadership or complain about his decisions.
Her trust and unwavering faith in him was a blessing that he wasn't sure he deserved. But deserving or not he couldn't have been more grateful. He would never forget the stinging pain he had felt the one time her faith in him faltered, thinking he was a traitor during the whole cloud bear disaster. Never again would do ANYTHING to betray her trust in him. He was sure that he never would have gotten himself or the others this far without her.
Reaching out a hand, he affectionately brushed away the wet strands of hair from her face, his hand lingering only for a moment on her cheek before finally falling back down to his side again.
"No." He sighed in frustration. "No sign of shelter anywhere, at least none that I can see through the rain and this mist. I'm beginning to think that this wasn't such a good idea."
"But Hank, this wasn't your idea. Dungeon Master said this was the direction we needed to go remember? You can't help fact that it's raining. Besides, at least this way we're getting a break from the heat wave we've had all week."
Hank smiled at her affectionately. Leave it to Sheila to 'look at the glass half full'. It was one of the many qualities that he loved about her. She always knew what to say to make him feel better when he needed it.
She smiled at him knowingly as they continued to walk. Despite of her kind words however, he knew that they needed shelter soon, before they all caught pneumonia from the rain and the chill.
As if on cue, a snide comment from the rear of the group broke Hank's train of thought.
"Oh fearless leader!?! Do you think we could find a place to dry off anytime soon or should I start growing gills?"
Hank stopped and turned to face the others, his patience already wearing thin.
"I don't know Eric, considering the way you looked as a bogbeast, having gills couldn't make you look too bad!" Presto joked.
"Meeyah!" bleated Uni the Unicorn, who shared the warmth and invisibility of Sheila's cloak with Bobby.
"Huh! Very funny Presto!" Scoffed Eric "Why don't you make yourself useful and conjure up a dry place for us to rest with that stupid hat of yours!?!"
Presto stopped laughing and slowly took the sopping hat from his head. He looked at it uncertainly. His hat was so temperamental at times, he was never sure what would come out of it next.
A reassuring hand came to rest on his shoulder. "You can do it Presto!" came Diana's optimistic voice.
Buoyed by her confidence in him, he started to wave his hand in a circular motion over his hat as he conjured a spell.
"Hocus pocus…malderin sei…give us some shelter so we can get dry!" He cringed at the poor rhyming but was happily surprised to see the hat begin to glow in response.
"Hey, I DID IT!" he shouted as he reached into the hat and pulled out an object. A huge laugh erupted from Eric as Presto held up the rather large hair dryer.
"That's great Presto! Now if you could just conjure up some hair dye and some scissors we could start our own salon!" Eric continued to laugh.
Hank came over and gave Presto an encouraging pat on the back. "Don't sweat it Buddy. At least you tried!"
"Thanks Hank, I know. Maybe it's just cuz' my hat's all wet." Presto replied self-consciously as he placed the soggy hat back on his head. All of a sudden the hair dryer in his hand roared to life causing all of the young ones to jump back in surprise.
"Hey! It's working!" Bobby shouted as a strong blast of air from the dryer forced the hood of Sheila's cloak to fall back from his head, causing both he and Uni to magically reappear as if from nowhere.
Presto yelped as the blast of air coming from the blow dryer became stronger and stronger.
"Presto, you can stop now!" Shouted Eric as he drew his shield up to cover himself from the massive surge of air coming from the contraption.
"I can't!" Presto panicked as the sheer force of the air coming out of the dryer knocked him flat on his back.
Relieved that the dryer was now pointed at the sky and not at his friends, Hank reacted quickly. Grabbing Presto's hat from his head he immediately brought it down on top of the blow dryer in Presto's hands.
Presto breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the item disappear from his grip back into the depths of his magic hat.
"Thanks Hank." He said as the Ranger pulled him back up onto his feet and off of the soggy ground.
"You okay?" he asked in concern. Presto nodded.
"Well I'M not! It's still raining, we're still soaked, and we STILL don't have any shelter!"
"Can it Eric!" Hank snapped in irritation as he turned to face the cavalier. He was in no mood for Eric's whining or his sarcastic remarks. Glaring petulantly at Hank, Eric opened his mouth to say something when suddenly Sheila let out a gasp.
Immediately turning his attention from the cavalier back over to the thief, he saw that Sheila was staring at something in the distance. Diana, who stood next to Sheila, was also staring wide-eyed in that direction.
Hank's eyes shot from them to the direction where the girls were staring and felt a small gasp escape his own lips as well.
The fiasco with the dryer had caused some of the thick mist in the air to clear, giving them a better look at their surroundings through the falling rain. And there, looming in the distance, towered a vast forest. A forest the likes of which Hank had never seen, neither on earth nor in the realm. It was dark and ominous, and the trees were several times taller and denser those that the cloud bears lived in.
"Look shelter!" Bobby jumped up and down excitedly. Uni bleated merrily along with him, excited for the chance to be out of the cold rain.
"It's about time!" Eric muttered aloud, taking off towards the forest.
But as Hank continued to stare at the distant woodland, an icy chill ran down his spine. And it wasn't caused by the wind or the cold.
"I'm not so sure about this guys." Hank suddenly spoke, causing the others to stop from taking another step towards the woods.
Eric spun around quickly in annoyance. "What is it with you Hank!?! We're cold and wet and in need of shelter and when it's staring us in the face suddenly you're not sure!?! What's there to be unsure about? You worry too much!" And with that Eric turned and continued to walk towards the forest.
The others hesitated and looked to Hank for a reaction. Hank sighed wearily. Being to tired to argue he instead gave them a nod to 'go ahead'. Not needing to be told twice the group turned and followed the cavalier.
"You okay?" Sheila asked in concern as she waited behind to walk with the Ranger.
"Yeah…" He said tiredly as they started to follow the others. "I just felt…never mind. Maybe Eric's right, maybe I'm just being paranoid."
Sheila's concern didn't lessen as she looked towards the dark woodland that lay ahead. Sensing her unease, Hank wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her close to him as they walked. Reassured by his closeness, Sheila leaned into him for comfort and warmth. Hank felt soothed by her presence but as they drew nearer and nearer to the forest he still couldn't shake the feeling that something just wasn't right…
He watched them closely from the depths of the dark foliage that encircled him. There were, indeed, six young children and a little unicorn trespassing through his forest. The shadow demon hadn't lied. A wicked smile worked its way across his black muzzle, revealing porcelain white fangs, as he easily spotted his assigned target. This would be all to easy. He shook with the thrill of the events that were about to take place. Now, all he had to do was wait…