I am so sorry for the long wait on this chapter guys! I was waiting for one of my reviewers to review and he never did, and then I had school... This was supposed to be up last week. Ah well. Better late than never, right? This chapter doesn't have a lot of action, but I kind of needed a calmer time. You find out who those two figures are, and you find out what happened to Rale in the this chapter! Next chapter may or may not have a fight... Fun fact: This chapter was supposed to be longer, as I was intending to include the fight... but when I hit 2,341 words, I figured this chapter was long enough XD Also, this chapter marks the changing point of views! We have Luka's POV in this chapter!
Review Replies:
SiRoLoL: I'm not rewriting my entire review, but you pointed something SO IMPORTANT! Yes, the Outsiders and the Outlanders. I just got my names confused.
Note: Okay, this is important. The dragons of the Dragon Mount Mod DO NOT have any powers. They can fly, but they can't breath fire or generate soul sand or what have you. I'm making it up for the sake of the story. Just so you guys know.
Less important note: I have never done this before, but I actually timed some of my favorite songs from one of my favorite soundtracks to parts of this chapter. I will put these timings after you read the chapter, because I don't want to give spoilers.
Now... Chapter 11!
Chapter 11
Luka
"It… It can't be!" Luka cried, eyes wide in shock.
Astrid simply gaped at the two people before them, eyes brimming with emotion. One of the two figures, the shorter lilac haired woman smiled. "What? Cat got your tongue, Astrid?"
Luka choked at the voice, tears slipping down his cheeks. The other figure smiled at them both. "Luka, be at peace. It's not the end of the world to see us."
"B-But you-you died!" Luka half-shouted. He was staring at the lilac haired woman.
"Yes I did…. Or so you thought." She responded.
Luka tried to form a name on his tongue. As his mouth opened and closed, Lily stepped forward. "Do you know these two?" She growled.
"Ye—yes, we-we do." Astrid stuttered. "They-they were part of our… our old village."
"You remember!" The man smiled, his fire red hair glowing in the torch light.
"M-Merk…!" Astrid sobbed out his name, stumbling forward to collapse in his arms.
Merk wrapped her in a hug and she buried her head in his shoulder. The lilac haired girl had tears streaming down her face as Luka finally whispered her name. "Kestrel…!"
Kestrel let out a happy sob and leaped forward, Luka quickly wrapping her in a hug. The villagers looked on in shock, Seth trying to talk. He finally found words only to choke out, "Dragons!"
"Ah yes. Those would be our dragons." Merk answered. He let go of Astrid with one hand and beckoned one of the dragons closer. It was a Nether dragon. "This is Smoke."
Smoke was a large dragon, his eyes a brilliant fire orange. He growled a greeting and dipped his head. Astrid and Luka both remembered Smoke from their days in the village. He and Kestrel's dragon, Darkness, where rather old, making them larger than the other dragons present. Kestrel then introduced her Ender dragon, Darkness. She dipped her head and Seth and the other villagers greeted them back. The other four dragons growled greetings.
"Hey Astrid…?" It was Yen. "Maybe you could explain something…?"
Astrid pulled away from Merk and turned around, wiping the tears from her eyes. Luka slowly shuffled around, still holding Kestrel in his arms. Astrid spoke up, voice still thick with emotion. "Guys, these are two people from our old village… You've all heard the story." She paused. "This is Merk, my older brother."
Luka gently pulled away from Kestrel and smiled at her before saying, "And this is my little sister, Kestrel."
"Wait I thought everyone from your village died!" Hale chimed in.
"We did too." Astrid nodded. She turned to her brother. "But how did you survive?!"
"We sent our dragons away." Lilac answered. "The Outlanders followed them and we ran away. Our dragons ran for a good few months until they were able to kill those barbarians. Then they tracked us down. It's been a good year since we found each other. Then we came to find you guys, since we knew Mina had sent you on the run."
The two trainers nodded and fell silent. Seth finally spoke up. "Look, I know you want to catch up, but we have a rather large horde of zombies coming and we need to start the plan."
"Ah, yes." Astrid spun on her heel, the no-nonsense air about her coming. It showed her tactician side was coming to light.
It was one thing Luka loved about her. If they weren't related, he'd probably have courted her. But Astrid had grown to be like his sister, and that's all he saw her as. "We need to change the plan a bit." Luka noted.
"Yup!" Astrid smirked. "First…" She quickly filled Kestrel and Merk in on the plan and then looked at the other two dragons. "We have soul sand now, and netherrack. Plus obsidian and the dark fog Ender dragons can produce."
Astrid started barking orders, directing everyone, even the dragons, to start digging a wide, deep gap around the village. The next few minutes for Luka were a complete blur of digging, shouting, roars and the warning drum beats as the hoard got closer. He dimly heard Astrid make a comment that, if they were lucky, the hoard would have to retreat into the forest as dawn came. Already, villagers, trainers, dragons and mobs alike could sense dawn approaching.
Sure enough, the horde veered into the woods, hiding in the safety of the trees as the sun came up. The bright side to this was that the villagers could keep working through the day, and work faster, since the protectors could help. The downside was that Astrid and Luka were cut off from running to their home, should they need too. Flying was always an option, but the skeletons that were in the mix of zombies might prove problematic for that.
"Well… the sun's up." Yen grunted, suddenly appearing at Luka's side.
The short, spiky, black haired man nodded. "It's a relief." Grief washed over him as he thought of Rale. Astrid had told him about the creature that had smuggled him out of the village. He hoped his friend was right to trust her.
"I wonder how this battle will go…" Yen muttered. The protector yawned and stretched. "Having dragons on our side helps a lot."
"Especially six."
"Mmm…"
They fell silent and continued working on building the cobblestone wall around the village. It was six blocks thick and they were going to be insanely high, since they had to be higher than the ice cliffs, to let the archers rain arrows down on the approaching mobs.
Sudden shouts echoed through the village, causing all the workers on the wall to spin around. Some accidentally fell off the wall, taking some fall damage, though the height wasn't enough to kill them. "Remind me to get everyone Feather Falling boots!" Luka shouted as he leaped off the wall.
He grunted as he hit the ground, but he sped into a sprint non-the-less, racing for the sounds of the shouts. The women were ushering the children into the church, which was currently the only fortified building in the village. Luka heard one child cry out, "Werewolves!"
Werewolves? …Rale! Luka thought, speeding up even more.
He sensed rather than heard his two dragons diving towards him, and he heard Astrid's, Merk's and Kestrel's diving down. When he glanced around, Luka noticed that Astrid was beside him. From the look on her face, she was also thinking about Rale.
As they drew closer to the center of the shouts, they both drew their swords, only to halt in shock at the sight before them. There were indeed two werewolves in front of them, but they weren't normal werewolves. Normal, unchanged werewolves were human looking, usually dressed in tattered clothes. These werewolves had tails and ears of a wolf and were dressed in the armor a villager or a trainer would wear. One of these two werewolves was very familiar. The other was female, and her hair, ears and tail were ashen colored. Her hair was long, and vanished inside her cloak.
"No please! You have the wrong idea!" The female werewolf cried out. She was clearly a soft-spoken individual, and her voice, though slightly angry and upset, was gentle. "We're not here to hurt you, we're here to help!" She dodged an arrow with a small yip. "We aren't werewolves!"
"Everyone, cease fighting immediately!" Astrid shouted.
They all stopped, everyone, even the werewolves turning to look at her. "Astrid?" Luka asked eyes wide.
"Just trust me." She answered, pushing through the crowd to stand before them. Luka raced to her side.
Astrid was getting straight to the point, her crimson eyes flashing. "Alright. One of you had better start explaining."
The female stepped up and bowed her hand over her heart. "First, I should introduce myself." She said, loud enough for everyone gathered to hear her. "My name is Claire."
"My name is Astrid." The trainer dipped her head.
"And I'm Luka." The other trainer also dipped his head, steel blue eyes filled with confusion. Why weren't these werewolves attacking them?
"It's nice to meet you. Rale has spoken fondly of you." Claire smiled.
"Wha-?!" Luka shouted. "Rale?! What have you done to him?!"
"Nothing bad." The male werewolf responded. "Hey there, guys."
The two trainers stared at him, mouths agape. "Rale?!"
"Good to see you two again." He smiled.
"B-But you?!" Astrid stuttered. "Oh! Claire! You were the one who smuggled him out!"
"Aye." Claire nodded. "I was going to save his life, as I promised."
By now, the entire village was gathered. Most had weapons drawn. Only the villager elder, Mera, Seth and Yen seemed to know what was going on. They were gazing at the two werewolves in shocked understanding. Luka glanced back at them. "So… you obviously aren't werewolves, and yet you were able to heal him? How?"
"It's a good thing you are all here," Claire raised her voice, "as this relates to all of you villagers." She paused. "I am of an old race of shapeshifters. My kind has all but vanished as of late, at least in these lands. Our main homeland is still abundant from last I heard. My specie has many kinds of forms, though my Clan shifted into the wolf form. Wolf-Changers are what we were and are called."
Some of the faces of the villagers were turning into shocked understanding as Claire spoke.
"Werewolves are renegade Wolf-Changers who turned evil though various ways. That is how the blood of me and my clanmates and kin can heal werewolf poisoning. Rale was poisoned by a werewolf, and I smuggled him out of the village in order to heal him. He was so far along in the changing phase, however, that the only way to completely heal was turn him into a Wolf-Changer, like me."
"But wait!" Mera cried out. "A Wolf-Changer can't change someone into their kind unless said someone is of the Wolf-Changer bloodline! That goes for any of the Skin-Changers!"
"Ah! So you still keep some of the lore in your libraries!" Claire's ears perked. "Some of it was lost, as I see, especially the most important part." She turned slowly to gaze at all he villagers. "You all have Wolf-Changer blood in your veins. I see that some of you have other skin-changer blood in you, like you, fair maiden." She pointed Elna out. "You have Cat-Changer blood in you."
"So wait, that means—" Elna broke off with a cry of grief."
"Peace, young one." Claire soothed. "You don't have to move. All the skin-changers get along swimmingly. And any skin-changers blood can heal a werewolf poisoning.
Elna let out a sigh of relief. Seth looked around. "So… we're all skin-changers?" He asked. "Why haven't we found this out before, or kept that knowledge in our lore?"
A look of grief came upon Claire's fair features. "The pure villagers, those with no skin-changer blood went on a killing spree." She sighed. "The villagers all lived under the rule of one ruler, before they split into separate villages of varying size and scattered around the endless expanse of Minecraft.
"At the time of the Great Attack, as it is called, the ruler was a queen. Her name has been lost to history, and she goes down now as the Mad Queen. The Mad Queen was a fickle, vain, and downright crazy individual.
"The Mad Queen was angry that the skin-changers were more beautiful than her, and she ordered as many of them killed as possible. She sent countless soldiers out into the land to find the land of the skin-changers, but she never succeeded in finding it."
Claire paused now, her face a mix of grief and rage. She finally sighed, the grief returning as the main emotion on her face. "The ancestors of the founders of this village, and thus their descendants, were Wolf-Changers. When they heard of the Mad Queen's attack, they begged one of the goddesses to suppress their forms and to make them look like ordinary villagers. The Mad Queen knew that this village had been a Wolf-Changer village at one point, and she razed it. Some of the inhabitants died, though most survived. I imagine that the fact that Wolf-Changer blood was in your veins was erased from history, to protect you in the future. Of course, villagers have no ruler anymore, so it's safe for you to learn it again."
"That's…" Seth murmured.
"Horrible…" Mist finished.
Astrid and Luka stood silently, listening to the story. They glanced at each other and back at the Wolf-Changers. Claire turned to them and suddenly reeled back in shock. "You two…!"
"What? What about us?" Luka asked.
"O-oh it's nothing. You… you just reminded me of my siblings." Claire shook her head, brilliant blue eyes wide.
The trainers accepted that and looked around. Astrid looked at her. "Are trainers Skin-Changers as well?" She asked.
"They can be, aye." Claire nodded. She looked around, spotting Kestrel and Merk nearby. "All four of you can."
All the trainers stared at her in shock. Luka's mind was whirling. I'm a Skin-Changer?!
Seth suddenly stepped up, looking confident. "Your name is Claire, right?"
"Aye." She nodded to the red-haired blacksmith.
"My name is Seth and this is my daughter, Mist." He introduced himself. "We've decided that, if you can, to change us into Wolf-Changers."
Claire and Rale both looked stunned at his request. Their look of shock changed to one of utter stunned surprise as the other villagers requested the same thing. Claire finally smiled and nodded. "I must warn you, it will hurt. I also don't know how long it will take, and with that horde outside…"
"Then only do a few of us at a time." Mera answered. "When the ones being turned are finished, they can come and fight and the next group can go and be changed."
Claire glanced at Rale and lowered her head. "Alright." She looked up. "We'd best get started then."
This chapter took me ages to write, honestly. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I'm sorry if the meeting with Merk and Kestrel looked rushed... but hey, they have a horde of zombies outside their door. I think a rushed meeting is okay XD
QotD 1: What do you think of Claire, Merk and Kestrel?
QotD 2: What do you guys think of the Skin-Changers?
Okay, now the timing of the soundtracks. The soundtrack I was listening too is Fire Emblem: Awakening. So go look that up on YouTube really fast. I listen to the complete soundtrack, and the best playlist for that I found was created by VideoGameSoundtracks. So look him up and then find his playlist for Awakening.
(1) Start the song "You have power... like mine" when Luka says: "It… It can't be!"
(1) Stop the song when Seth finishes saying: "Look, I know you want to catch up, but we have a rather large horde of zombies coming and we need to start the plan."
(2) Start the song "Id~(Return)" when Astrid says: "Ah, yes."
(2) Stop the song when you finish reading this sentence: Flying was always an option, but the skeletons that were in the mix of zombies might prove problematic for that.
(3) Start the song "Id~(Beginnings)" When Yen says: "Well… the sun's up."
(3) Stop the song when you finish reading the sentence: It was six blocks thick and they were going to be insanely high, since they had to be higher than the ice cliffs, to let the archers rain arrows down on the approaching mobs.
(4) Start the song "I mean it. Go!" when you start reading the sentence: Sudden shouts echoed through the village, causing all the workers on the wall to spin around.
(4) Stop the song when you finish reading the sentence: "Alright. One of you had better start explaining."
(5) Start the song "You may call me Marth" when you start reading the sentence: The female stepped up and bowed her hand over her heart.
(5) Stop the song when you finish reading the sentence: "Why haven't we found this out before, or kept that knowledge in our lore?"
(6) Start the song "The life force here shall renew me!" when you start reading the sentence: A look of grief came upon Claire's fair features.
(6) Stop the song when you finish Claire's final sentence: Of course, villagers have no ruler anymore, so it's safe for you to learn it again."
(7) Start the song "You may call me Marth" when Seth says: "That's..."
(7) Stop the song at the end of the chapter.