Ch.9 Wolf and Storm Part 2

I awoke with the sun rising. And birds sang from high up in the tree. I looked over to the branch above me to see that Hel wasn't there. I sat up rubbing my eyes and slid down the trunk of the tree to the ground below. Deer that were in the thick of the trees sprinted away from my sudden appearance.

I watched them leap away through the trees and disappear in the trunks. I decided to go and see what food I could find for us. Fixing my troubled long purple hair and making it do right once more I headed into the woods. I wondered where Hel could've gone so early in the morning. Usually he would say something.

Heading through the trees with hardly a sound I found the deer herd from before. A buck and several females with two fawns bounding around playing with one another. I hid beneath the trees watching them enjoying themselves. A stick in the forest a bit away broke making the deer stand alert, their ears erect pinpointed forward at the nose. I saw the buck raise its tail and leap away bellowing out its cry of retreat.

A huge dark brown beast sprang from the woods landing on one of the female deer and taking it down. I gasped at the huge werewolf. How could Hel do such a thing? The werewolf wagged its tail out of joy at his successful hunt.

"Hel!" I barked storming from the trees. "How could you kill such an innocent creature? You should've just left them be!"

The werewolf turned to me raising a brow. His lip twitched up into a growl at me. I slapped his muzzle to the side forcefully. "Don't you growl at me, sir! I'll make you tuck that tail!"

The werewolf rose up over me snarling in rage. I gasped and felt like this wasn't Hel. The feeling got worse and worse and I fell back onto the grass in fear. "Uh oh. You're not him!"

The werewolf snapped its jaws. I saw his eyes lunging closer to me suddenly. I shut my eyes and blocked my face with my arms waiting for the pain. Hel! The pain never came but a sickening crack and a slight whimper could be heard. Looking over my arms I saw a great black werewolf pinning down the huge dark brown one. They snapped at one another jawing. The great black werewolf brought his paw across the other werewolf's face making it yelp and cower behind its huge paws. It yelped and yelped.

"Get off him!" I turned my head to see an iron sword get flung through the woods at Hel.

I sprang up flinging a block of wood. You've got to make it! "Hel!"

Thunk!

Hel sprang away behind me and crouched there as the iron sword buried itself in the block of wood. The other werewolf rolled over onto its paws and looked to the person who threw the sword. I saw a boy near my age step from the trees and stand next to the dark brown werewolf. His grey eyes looked into my red ones with a glare. His chocolate wavy hair had a few sticks and leaves stuck in it from him running through the woods. "Who the hell are you?"

"I should be asking you the same thing." I countered as Hel snaked his head level with my shoulder and growled. "You tried to kill Hel."

"He tried to kill Rayr!" the boy snapped jabbing his finger at Hel. "How can you protect such a beast? Where did you come from anyways?"

I rested a hand on Hel's muzzle. "He is my protection. I will protect him at any cost. If I knew how to tell you where I came from and how I got here I would. I'm not sure though."

Hel kept his eyes fixated on the werewolf that was crouched next to the boy. "I do hope you two aren't working for the evil of the dark lands."

The boy and the werewolf seemed to get enraged over that. "Who do you think we're running from? Those bastards took everything from me! Dad, my mom, my family, even my home and town! Everything's gone!"

"They can do that?" I asked in a mutter with shock. "I thought they only went after the heirs and the lords?"

"If the lord has a town they will." The boy replied. "How do you know about this? If you're an heir to a lord you're the first female one I've come across."

Hel turned his gaze to me. "You are correct. An heir to a lord is usually male. It's rare that a female would be an heir even though she has two older brothers. Sadly they didn't have the DNA to take over their father's legacy. It was within the youngest.

"Which is also very rare since it's usually in the first child or the second if not both."

The boy turned away with a deep frown. "Such an annoyance. A female heir. Females can't hold up the male role of this one bit!"

The boy yanked the sword from the block of wood and strode away through the woods. Sell turned to Hel wondering what he meant. "Hel? Will I burden the lineage?"

Hel looked down at her with his red eyes. "Pay no heed to what the boy says. He knows not what he speaks of. Come, I shall give you a history lesson that your father gave to me about all of this. We will forage also while we talk."

I smiled walking beside him. As we walked searching for food he told me of three great wars that occurred in Minecraft. Wars that lords fought to bring peace to the land once more. The War of Damnation, The Cycle of Blood, and The Cycle of the Damned. Three great lords were behind them that defeated the evil and reigned in the peace once more.

Rien, Ananon, and Lones. Ananon though wasn't a lord but a lady. She had been the last of the three great lords that ruled over the evil before she died. Rien and Lones took up the slack but it was too great for the both of them. Having a third person to help with the burden had been nice.

The two lords had no choice but to go into hiding as the evil grew in numbers. As time went by Rien and Lone attacked from the shadows at the small bands that would fall upon a town. They would avoid a full confrontation since they couldn't handle it at the time. Now, with sixteen plus years gone by since the last war the evil was rising up and getting stronger than before. A new lord had ascended within the darkness that Rien nor Lone knew of.

I sat beneath a tree with Hel who had transformed back into his human self. He had caught bunnies and were stringing them together to carry back to the tree.

"I wonder if the dream I had of dad going down into a secret place beneath the town was his group?"

Hel turned to me wondering what I was talking about. I turned back to him and realized I hadn't told him of anything I had seen. I hugged my knees not knowing where to start. "A few nights ago back at the island in my house I dreamt of dad."

I went on to tell him about my ability to project and talk with my brothers. How I had followed dad and overheard a conversation between them. It now all made sense to me about dad's secret that he had kept from his family for so long. The sense that I had attained from him over the years when he would stare into the fire. Hel sat there staring at me with interest.

I sat there staring at a yellow flower next to me. "I knew there was a deep dark secret dad was hiding within him. It would send chills through me though each time I tried to think what it could be. I guess I kind of knew that it would deal with the monsters of the darkness somewhere along the way."

"It's the sense of what was handed down to you to be able to get that much out of him just by observing his actions," Hel said going back to his rabbits. "It actually surprises me that you've caught onto your ability at an early age and perfected it."

"Is that good?" I asked cocking my head.

"Your father told me that it was an exceptional trademark to the skeletal lord race. You might be an exceptional heir but you still have much to learn about the things around you." Hel stood and put the rabbits over his shoulder before looking down at me. "Come on. We've got things to do today."

I stood slowly watching him walk away. "What about that boy?"

Hel kept walking. He wasn't concerned over the boy that we had met or the werewolf. "What about him?"

"Good or evil?" I asked walking after him.

"That depends on his heart."

I stared into the soulless black eyes of a dead rabbit. I couldn't understand how the boy felt. I was sure loneliness wasn't great.

Painful.

I stared up at the back of Hel. I didn't understand his loneliness either. He had been waiting for me for so long like my father had instructed him to do. All that time he had remained on the islands facing the other werewolves that roamed there. He had known all the things that would come for me.

Yet he didn't shy from the things to come. He wasn't afraid. I couldn't understand why he wasn't afraid of it all. Was it how dad had trained him to be? I sighed trying to make my mind cease with all the thoughts that popped up.

It was starting to give me a headache slightly.

We arrived back at the oak with no place in the tree to call it home yet. I began to make small rooms that were six by six within the oak tree. Hel went out gathering stone by making a small mine not too far from the tree. He made a few furnaces to make things faster when they had multiple things to smelt or cook. He also made a few chests that he and I would be storing things in.

He returned to the tree and was amazed at how I had kept the tree alive with the rooms I had built inside of it. I had used raw wood as the base and sides of the rooms anyways so that the tree could mold to it and still live. I and my brothers had done this before many times. I leaned against the wall to rest when Hel stepped in amazed at the work.

"Wow. You've really got your dad's skill."

"Thanks." I sat back closing my eyes. I found myself leaning against a stone wall in a dimly lit room with about thirty people sitting around a long table. A man with a a long cloak propping his chin up on his laced fingers gazed at the people calmly. They all contained skulls of skeletons over their faces. Another man with a cape sat at the other end of the table leaning back in his chair.

"What do you propose we do? They've been massing underground. It's more than the machines can take."

"The design will help the problem at hand. It'll take up the slack since the other is down. Plus, it'll help with the recent attacks out in the next village."

I sat there in the dimmest part of the room silent as I watched the two head skeletal leaders talk something over.

"What of him though? What will we do about the issue?"

The skeletal lord leaning back in his chair was silent for a moment. The other members looked at one another impatiently. I could tell that whomever they were talking about their numbers weren't going to be enough.

"We're not even close to being able to handle the issue right now. We have no choice but to hang back and stay as we are."

"Rien!" barked the skeletal lord.

"I'm sorry, Lones. We can't do a thing yet. The heirs are still out training. So far thirty of them have perished. Intel has been checking up on them. Have you not gotten the reports?"

The skeletal lord named lones let his hands cross on the table in front of him. "Yes, yes. It means nothing though! They weren't meant to go on if they can't fight! You know that!"

The skeletal lord's skulls hollow eyes lit up with brief anger before dying down once more. "Lones, your son came close to death."

Lones went silent. "He was protected at the last minute."

"Yes, be thankful for that too." Rien tapped the table with a bony finger.

"What of the Devil's Prophecy? When will it become true?" Lones asked leaning forward.

Rien's skull head moved side to side. "I do not know. There have been no visions lately."

The members shifted in their seats. "What about her prophecy that she said would take place?"

Lones and Rien remained quiet. I could feel uneasiness in the room. Something about this subject had them slightly concerned and disturbed. "We don't know. That's the problem. It's been shrouded with uncertainty. We've tried everything to see it clearly but there's no use. The devil of prophecy is alive and roaming but we cannot see whom or what it is."

The members murmured to each other. The two leaders sighed together.

"This is such a bothersome subject."

Lone perked up at a thought and leaned forward to Rien. "How are your sons doing?"

Rien leaned forward. "They contain no skeletal lord DNA what-so-ever. I've tested them. They are their mother's children."

Lone's skull grinned. "Your daughter though. She's the one that has it."

I could see that father's skull was gritting its teeth. "I'm not sure. Just recently my spy's lost sight of her. Her house was destroyed and she disappeared in thin air. I can't even track her."

Lone's black hollow eyes narrowed. "What? How can this be?"

"I went to my mansion there on the islands just yesterday. It was smoldering like a fire had come through. I saw her house also. Apparently a fire ogre had come there."

"Fire ogre's are the ones that work for him. You know this." Lone said clenching a fist. "All the ogre's do!"

"I'm aware of that, Lones!" Rien snapped. "My daughter is smart and very quick to find a place to hide. Surely she's in a safe place right now."

"What of the wolf?"

Lones and Rien stared at one another. "He's vanished along with her."

Lones sat back in his chair and grinned. "Rien, how can you lose your daughter and the wolf? He was the only informant left to keep track of her!"

Rien's bone fingers made a screeching sound as he drew them across the table making everyone grimace. "Lones, don't you dare lecture me on this! She is my daughter and I'm aware of my mistake! I'm working to find her as we speak!"

I stood where I was and stepped towards the table unable to believe what they were saying.

"You could've found her by now. It's as if you're stalling. If she doesn't have the DNA then why do you still have that child and your sons alive?"

Rien remained silent. "My wife."

"She was a tool. Don't tell me you actually love her." Lones crossed his arms in front of his chest. "The code-"

"Fuck the code!" Rien leapt up angrily, his eyes bright red and burning. "What if I care about the damn Minecraftian? She's done more than I could ever hope for even if she's a tool!"

Lones and the members stared at him. Rien sat back down calming himself. "If I recall, you did the same with yours."

A diamond sword buried itself into the headrest of Rien's chair where his head would've been. Rien had dodged the attack and landed in a crouch. He stood slowly and smiled. "Apparently I touched a nerve. How horrible."

"Rien!"

"Relax!" he barked. "They aren't coming to kill us! This town will be safe from harm. I swear to it."

The two skeletal lords glared at one another. I was taken aback by all of this. 'Dad… How could you say this about mom?'

"The Devil's Prophecy will come. I swear that on my last remaining child." Rien spoke softly. "Just wait for a little longer. It will come."

I found myself laying on the floor with Hel over me looking worried. "Sell?"

I sat up having him move back. I turned to him and couldn't find the words to speak with. Slowly standing I suddenly heard a storm raging outside. Heading over to a window I saw that a severe thunderstorm was raging war on the outside world. "The Devil's Prophecy. What can you tell me about that?"

Lightening cracked illuminating the dim room. Hel stared at me. His blue eyes slightly darkened. "You've seen something. Heard something. What?"