Author's Notes: Hello everyone, glad you like the story so far. Well here we go.
Karl had been wrong; it was not a long trip, it was an eternal one. The days seemed like they would never end; they rose in the morning at sunrise and Karl made breakfast for them, when Wilhelmina arose she would eat her meal while pointedly ignoring Karl. Throughout the day they rode in silence with her ignoring him except the occasional snide remark when the opportunity presented itself, for the most part however the rode in frosty silence.
They rode for four days; on the second day they left the road and headed into a range of wooded hills. The weather was rapidly cooling on a daily basis and Karl was beginning to worry that they may be caught in the snows if they were here much longer. He remembered the winters of his childhood shivering in his home village and was determined that if at all possible he would spend the winter in a nice warn city. He kept this to himself as he had a pretty good idea what Wilhelmina would say.
He soon had other concerns to occupy his mind. As soon as they had entered the hills he had had a sense of wrongness about him. The further they went the more his sense of unease grew. It wasn't long before he began to notice the absence of life; no birds chirped and he did not see, hear or smell any animals.
Indeed, what he could smell smelled nothing like a forest. It smelled…moldy, like a corpse decaying. Indeed, when he looked closer he saw that the trees were indeed dead and decaying. When he pointed this out to Wilhelmina she nodded, for once forgetting to be snide.
"It is as I feared. Ortlieb's magic is draining the life from the surrounding area; we're getting close to wherever he is hiding."
Soon even the air seemed to smell of death and decay and they were having more and more difficulty controlling their horses. Wilhelmina had experience with this but Karl, no horseman, did so only with the greatest of difficulty. He was so occupied with this he did not realize at first that the environment had changed.
The trees had suddenly given way to human habitation. They had been moving uphill steadily for the past two days but before them the hills dipped down into a small valley. In the valley was a river which flowed into a waterfall which fell down the hill they had just come up. Alongside the river was a cluster of buildings.
It was too small to be a town; more like a trading outpost around which a small settlement had grown. There were about twenty or so buildings clustered around what appeared to be an old trading post. Though he saw what looked like a tavern Karl saw no sign of a temple of any variety.
"What is this place?" He asked without thinking. Somewhat to his surprise Wilhelmina responded.
"Who knows; there are numerous such places; abandoned trading outposts, logging towns and the like. It may never have had a name. Even if it did it doesn't matter anymore, this place and its inhabitants are long dead; or at least I hope they are."
The closer they got to the town the more Karl's unease grew. This place smelled wrong; it was dead yet not dead and he could not shake the feeling that they were being watched. They dismounted at the old trading post and tied their horsed to a rotting post.
"Do you think he is here?" He whispered; something about the place made him reluctant to speak in a normal tone. Wilhelmina shot him a look of contempt; she was clearly as uneasy as Karl was, even if he had not been able to smell her unease one could tell from the way she held herself, as if expecting an attack from any quarter.
"Of course not; if he were I would have sensed him. We are looking to see if he was ever here and if so if he let any clue as to where he went. By the gods, you are a dumb animal aren't you? Just be silent and let me do the thinking, it clearly isn't your strong point."
Karl snarled in anger. He was tired of her jabs, her insults and her snide remarks. He had done nothing to deserve it and his nerves had already been worn thin by the woods and this town. He had had enough; he was going to give her a piece of his mind then and there.
"Enough!" He bellowed turning to face her. "I have had enough of your insults and abuse! I have done nothing to you to deserve this treatment and yet you go on and on! What have I ever done to you to deserve this?!"
"What have you done?" She asked, in a tone that suggested he was even dumber than she had thought. "What haven't you done?! You are a monster, just like that vampire…and just like the creatures that killed my family and my Henrik! You're all the same; you prey on humans because you are stronger than we are and you think it's your right to do so!
"Don't deny it!" She snapped at him as he opened his mouth to protest. "I know you'll say that you're not like that but you are! Remember what you told us; about how you first became what you are? You killed your own grandfather! I know what you'll say; that you did not have control at the time, that it wasn't you who did it.
"That's what your kind always does; you always have an excuse for what you do. But at the end of the day you had no remorse for what you did, did you? You didn't and if Marx hadn't leashed you you'd still be doing it! You might tell yourself that you're doing for a good reason but in end you're doing it because you like it."
Karl opened his mouth to reply; then snapped it shut. He raised his head and inhaled deeply; something was coming and by the sound of it was a great many of whatever it was. Terrified screaming from their horses brought them running outside to investigate.
In the gathering gloom shapes were beginning to emerge from the other buildings. Karl inhaled and nearly gagged. They were vile; smelling of decay, filth and death. He wondered how he had not smelled them earlier then realized they smelled almost exactly like the town, the two sources blending together to confuse him.
If their smell was foul their appearance was even more so. They were hunched so Karl could not tell their height. They had pale skin covered with filth, sores and scabbed-over wounds. Their eyes were pale and bulging. Their teeth were all broken and jagged protruding from blackened diseased gums; over which hung swollen, scabrous tongues.
"Ghouls!" Wilhelmina hissed hatred and loathing in her voice, along with an underline of fear.
Karl could understand; he himself felt his gore rising as he looked at them. Ghouls; mutated inbred cannibals! He remembered hearing horror stories about them, specifically about their poisonous claws and horrific strength.
The sight of them drove the horses mad with terror. With a final effort they tore themselves loose from the post and tore off down the hill. Seeing half their prey escape the ghouls let up a wailing cry that chilled Karl's blood in his veins; they then rushed at Wilhelmina and him.
He cursed and drew his swords, determined to give a good account of himself. He started to head back into the building when Wilhelmina grabbed his arm. To his surprise he saw that she too had drawn a sword as well.
"No," she said; "We must not get shut in. There are too many of them if we get penned in we are finished; speed and maneuverability are the only things that can save us." She threw herself a t the oncoming mutants with Karl right behind her.
The ghouls surged towards them. There seemed to be dozens, if not hundreds of them, but there couldn't be that many; at least he hoped not. Seemingly as one they let lose another high-pitched wail.
Both of his swords leapt into his hands as they came together. He lashed out with his boot and took the one coming straight at him in the chest, throwing it back into several others. At the same time he slashed out to the left and right with his two blades. With his right blade he skewered one through the eye, while with his left he chopped through the arm of another and cleaved through its skull. His arm shook from the blow, the skin of these things was tough as leather armor.
He soon realized that he had made a tactical error. If he had been fighting humans his ferocity might have scattered them, but these were not truly human. The closed in on from all sides and though he thrust and slashed in all directions as fast as he could and cut down several, he could not drive them back.
He roared in pain as claws and teeth tore into him. His cries of pain turned to furry and he redoubled his efforts. Realizing he could not remain where he was he thrust himself into the mob unleashing more and more of his inner wolf in an effort to break through.
He received more slashes and bites and was losing a lot of blood by the time he finally broke through. He quickly put some distance between them and him by running towards the nearest house. Seeing that they were gaining on him fast he leapt up onto the roof of the building. The roof groaned under his weight but held and he was too high up for the ghouls to get to him.
Karl panted and suppressed the urge to whimper in pain. The wounds, in addition to being deep, burned like fire; he remembered from the tales that the claws of ghouls were poisonous and he hoped that his body could regenerate the wounds they caused. He cast about looking for Wilhelmina.
The way she fought could only be described as shadowy; she seemed to slide from one shadow to the next, never seeming quite solid. Ghouls would charge at her and she would just vanish, only to appear a second later to the side or behind them, cut one or two down, and then vanish. Her most impressive moment was when she raised her hand, palm towards the ghouls, and hissed a phrase in a language he did not understand. Shadows formed in front of her; these became daggers that shot forward into the ghouls, cutting down several.
But it was not enough; with all her skill she was too out numbered. Karl needed to get back in the fight. Changing his tactics he thrust his blades into the roof he rose up, ripped his clothes off, and changed. He threw back his head and howled, he was pleased to see that it seemed to frighten the ghouls.
He leapt off the roof and landed among them. His claws proved more effective against them than his swords had been. Now he had the advantage of strength and he tore into them ripping off heads and limbs. They wailed in terror as he continued and soon more than dozen of the foul creatures lay dead around him.
Still it was not enough to turn the tide. The ghouls swarmed him; biting him, clawing him jumping on his back in an effort to bear him down under the weight of their numbers. It was almost as if something was driving them on and whatever it was it was stronger than their fear of him.
In spite of their best efforts he broke through them and saw Wilhelmina as she sliced through another ghoul. Karl suddenly sensed a second source of magic nearby. Out of the gloom he saw several jewel-like objects sail out of the gathering darkness and shot straight for Wilhelmina. She must have sensed them as she began to slide through the shadows to get out of the way, while at the same time chanting something.
Whatever she had attempted to do she was only partially successful. Several of the jewels fade away. One, however, managed to reach her. It impacted against shadows that had suddenly become solid and exploded. With a cry she fell to the ground, wither unconscious or dead Karl could not tell.
With a howl of rage he ran to her. He fell to the ground beside her and scooped her up in his arms just as more jewels shot towards them. He jumped to his feet and ran but was not quite quick enough. They hit the ground where she had been and exploded with such force that he was thrown to the ground. As she hit the ground she groaned, at least answering that question.
Seeing the ghouls were advancing on them Karl got back to his feet. He could feel his body fighting the poison but it would take time he did not have and it left him weak in the meantime, they had to get away. He began running for the river. Reaching it he plunged in.
The water was icy cold but the ghouls seemed unwilling or unable to follow. He began stroking, trying to reach the other side when he discovered he had made a terrible mistake. He had jumped in too close to the waterfall; its current was too strong and was drawing him towards it. He swam with all his strength but weakened by his wounds and encumbered by Wilhelmina he was unable to escape its grasp. With a yelp of terror they went over and fell into darkness.
Author's Notes: Hey everyone I hope you liked the chapter, I decided that Karl has had everything his own way so I decided to mix it up a little bit. I know that Wilhelmina's argument didn't make a lot of sense but when one is in pain one often doesn't make sense. Well, that's it for now. Please pray for Shawn, the people of the Philippines and the counties who will be hit by the storm and the people of the US hit by all those tornadoes; as well as the Americans held in Iran and the runaway girl in Nevada. That's it for now bye and may Jesus bless you all.
