I don't ever want to let you down
I don't ever want to leave this town
'Cause after all
This city never sleeps at night
It's time to begin, isn't it?
I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit
I'm just the same as I was
Now don't you understand
I'm never changing who I am
So this is where you fell
And I am left to sell
The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell right to the top
Don't look back
Turning to rags and giving the commodities a rain check
It's Time, by Imagine Dragons, from the album Night Visions, released in 2012
I obeyed my Mate's wishes for several sun-turns, pushing back the loss, and cherishing the wonderful Pups we had together. They should have been the first thing on my mind, but I was consumed with the unbridled anger that I could not quench. It built on me, ate at me like the red-hot that had consumed our homes, and no matter what I did, I could not douse it.
There was another emotion I felt that was almost as powerful- grief. I cared for my pups the best I could, hunting and feeding and grooming, relocating quicker then we did once before, and I educated them on how to care for themselves. Where I could, I helped them with their powers, and I kept the spirit of their mother alive. I told them how we met, how we hunted, and that she loved them all very much.
In every one of my pups, I saw Breeze, and sometimes it hurt my very soul, but in the others, I realise how lucky I was to have my kin. The Den was hustling and bustling, the younger pups playing and tugging on one another, some practising with their powers- it was not uncommon to see balls of light hanging around the Den or Spirit seemingly conversing with someone who wasn't there.
I sat outside the Den, simply watching the grass sway around us, watching Honour shift through forms as Forge tried to pounce on her with hardened blue fur. I knew someone was after me- and I thought I had dealt with the problem a long time ago- but I hadn't. And the fact that I'd thought I'd dealt with it, resulted in my Mate's death, and the partial orphaning of my Pups.
That guilt was something that I couldn't shake.. and I felt like I was just feigning happy families. I needed to go and deal with that enemy before any more harm came to those I loved. So, with a sickening feeling churning in my stomach, I set my date of departure for four sun-turns. As I cast my eyes back to my Pups, frolicking happily, I was hit with a wave of sadness. I was going to regret this.. but their safety was paramount.
My first act of vengeance, to satiate my anger, was to kill those humans who had hunted us down as though we were lesser beings. Though I had waited for several sun-turns, their scent was fresh, lingering much like my vengeance was. It clung to the brambles, the branches, the grass and the trees, and it made it incredibly simple to find their dwelling.
Tall buildings loomed over the bushes, blazing as they were lit up with the red-hot. The sounds of the human-language reverberated around, sounding relaxed and unconcerned, absorbed in their own selfish world, uncaring of the lives they were ruining. There were no younglings around that I could see, and I watched with a barely restrained growl as they moved with no destination in mind, dragging corpses of fellow forest-dwellers, exposing their life-essence through deep gouges and cuts inflicted by their not-quite-claws.
My shadows draped around me, making me invisible amongst the shrubs despite the light of the sun-turn, and I watched with tension coiling up in my body. I stayed frozen in that position for a decent amount of time, waiting for all of them to slumber. It was then that I would strike but also when I would make my greatest regret.
The wolf slunk out of the shadows, silently padding through the village. The darkness encased him like a blanket, hiding him from view as he chose which house to enter first. Angry he may be, but he would not dare lay a paw on any female or child, because they had nothing to do with the attacks inflicted upon his kin.
Pushing open the door, he entered silently, not even his claws clicking against the rough dirt of the floor. On the ground, there was one form, a male human, sleeping silently with a weapon to his left, an arms grab away. The blade was sharp, and would easily cut through Shadow if it made contact with him. Without hesitation, Shadow lunged, and his sharp, dagger-like teeth grasped around the victim's neck, causing him to flail as Shadow tore out his jugular, resulting in a spray of blood redecorating the room.
As the body fell limp, chest still and no longer breathing, he stalked out, his muzzle garnished with blood and his eyes hardened with the nightmares that the human would no longer see.
The next house on his prowl was short, longer horizontally then vertically, with two windows on the front, and some brick red slabs forming the main structure. They held strong, cement sticking the slabs together in an attempt to make a structure that was defensible, unable to be broken. The main entrance was a door made of wood, grainy and splintered, looking like it had faced many years.
Bounding in like a joyful child, he slammed into the door without care, causing the two people who dwelled within- both males- to jerk up in surprise. Like a devil mad with the fires of hell, Shadow blew the man on the left, barely covered with a shirt, into the back wall, causing the other man to curse audibly as a chalk plume of dust choked their throat.
As the shadows pressed upon the throat of the fallen man, Shadow mangled the other's throat, causing a spray of blood to adorn his fur, which was quickly becoming covered in blood. He disappeared, sinking into the ground before he reappeared towards the screaming man, leaping on him from behind and breaking his neck with a quick snap. By this time the rest of the village had become abruptly aware of the 'hell-dog', with the men running out with their weapons, ready to put it down.
They thought it was simply one of the village dogs with rabies, but they didn't realise it was too methodical, too stealthy and cunning for that. Shadow sunk into the ground, invisible to the naked eye, but the shadows could be seen twisting behind him as he traipsed in his domain, lingering with bloody fangs and outstretched claws. He leapt out of the ground in an explosion of shadows, sending darkened spikes flying outwards, causing the encircling men to leap out of the way.
Landing on the ground with all four paws, he reared up on his back legs and snarled, spit dribbling as he showed how sharp his teeth were. They all charged simultaneously, and a shadow shield formed behind him to intercept any sword strikes from behind. Shadow leapt into action, diving for the man in front of him, fangs wrapping around his leg as he pulled back, causing the man to fall.
He leapt to the side of a silver sword's swing, before retaliating with a ball of shadows, landing right in the would-be swordmaster's face. It peeled and oozed, corroding and eating the skin, and the tortured screams of the fallen man becoming the shrill backdrop to the massacre taking place.
"Il diavolo! È il diavolo!" (The devil! It's the devil!)
One of the men cried out upon watching the man die, red welts decorating his face and burning through to the bone in certain places. A man backhanded the one speaking with the pommel of his sword, before feigning, swiping for the right of Shadow. The wolf in question pressed to the ground, allowing it to swipe the air above him neatly, before he rolled to the right, dodging yet another sword strike.
"Speak English! None of us speak god-damn Italian!"
A purple colour crawled up their sword, and just before it could leech and creep onto his arm, the seemingly wise man discarded the sword, casting off the shadows before they took hold. He pulled out a short dagger, blade tip as short as Shadow's tail, yet he was surprisingly nimble with it, swift and becoming the first person to draw a lick of blood.
Granted, it was only a little bit, barely deep enough to cause any serious damage, but it was more then the others had done. Instinctively, Shadow knew to watch this man, because he was not on a mission for death- just for justice for his mate. Revenge, you could call it. Slamming his front paws onto the ground, sharp spikes of shadow emerged out angrily, impaling several of the circling men, resulting in large holes throughout their body, punctured arteries and organs resulting in their immediate doom.
As they fell, the shadows recoiling, Shadow bit the hand of another man, before throwing him into an advancing swordsman, knocking them both off-balance, and resulting in their bodies being consumed by his powers. The small army was thinning out considerably by this point, and only the seriously skilled were left, too experienced to fall for Shadow's tricks, and too well-trained to lose their attention on him.
"Why are you here Wolf?"
The man, who had criticised the other for speaking Italian, called out, standing back as two men stormed in towards him, back to back with outreaching swords. Shadow jumped above one sword strike, the edge of the missed blade hitting the man's fellow comrade, before allowing his shadows to explode in a plume of spikes and darkness.
Shadow merely snarled in response, too angry and too furious to reply, instead grabbing a fallen sword with his mouth and throwing his head to the side, the blade glancing off, and consequently redirecting another strike. Shadow pressed down to the ground as he twisted sharply, landing a shallow gut-strike on the human.
As they converged on his position, he disappeared into the ground, the only hint he was there being the sliver of blood that adorned his back. He'd gotten a slight wound on his back, and he lost a tuft of fur in the process, along with a small amount of his blood.
"Watch the ground. He has to appear somewhere."
He had never tested that theory, and as far as he knew, he could, in fact, stay there as long as he would like. He would never back away from a fight unless it was his pups or family in danger. The man sounded non-plussed about the fact that Shadow was doing what he was doing, and Shadow recognised it.
This man was a deadly opponent, one that was worthy, and one that would require all of his attention. Walking along underneath, in several spots he summoned his shadows, and like him, they were all too pleased to attack, to leech off his enemies and get revenge for Breeze. They, like him, longed for Breeze to intermingle with her, and now that it had been halted forever by these savage, selfish, merciless beasts, it wanted to repay what had been done, tenfold.
As one man fell to several purple spikes, Shadow silently merged back into the world, pouncing from behind a swordsman, who twisted and met his bite with his sword. Rather than taking a full-on bite of the silvery blade, purple built up in his mouth, acting like a mouthguard.
While he still got a cut lining the roof and bottom of his mouth, it was better than seriously severing something. He spat out a glob of blood as they filled out the circle again, but this time there was no man left out, nobody else standing aside.
"I ask again. Why are you here? Why are you attacking us like this?"
Shadow's eyes had a manic glint to them, shining with anger as his fur boasted a bloody edge. They all dived in, swords swinging, and without a word Shadow exploded in a burst of shadow, his chosen name-sake, causing everybody to try and deflect it from vital parts. As a result, a few people got it in non-lethal areas, like the feet, or the arms.
Reigning in his shadows, he picked up another sword, and swung it in a wide arc, forcing people to back away otherwise they were at risk of getting slashed. With a casual toss of his head, he threw the sword towards people behind him, before taking a headstrong approach and ramming into one of the circling men, causing him to fall.
A quick snap of his teeth and the locking of his jaw later, he was dead. Around him a shadowed dome formed, causing the strikes to glance of him lightly, without so much as inflicting a wound. He then got the shadows to fold around him lightly, headbutting and slamming into a group of two, before having the shadowy aura snapback, lashing out and sending them flying back like they'd been shoved.
"You killed my Mate, my Love. Without remorse. You must pay."
They were audibly surprised by his response, all of them but one showed surprise on their face. Shadow began to tire, ever so slightly, but his vengeance kept fuelling him, kept him fighting like a whirlwind of fury, the last bit of his energy being replaced with his relentlessness.
There wasn't much left of the fight, the man who had addressed him having resignation on his face. He didn't fight back anymore. Shadow walked away from that fight-no, that massacre covered in blood, the screams of children and women lingering behind him, one more target left on his list.
"The other target was the Vampire who accompanied the humans that day. He hunted me as I hunted him- it was a matter of who got to who first. And fortunately, I got to him- but not for a long time."
Shadow washed the blood off in a nearby river, streams of red cutting through the hazy blue. He cleaned his wounds, his saliva fastening the healing process ever so slightly, and he kept his shadows in his core, allowing them to recuperate from the workout he'd given it the day before. He hunted a large elk, consumed most of its meat, and dwelled upon his Pups, who he was already missing.
Upon finishing his meal and burying the remains, he began to track, heading back to where he last saw the Vampire, which was dangerously close to the Den. He just hoped that Whisper- or any of his three oldest Pups- remembered the safety habits that he'd implemented over the years- and that none of them would come across him.
Still, dwelling in a little shrouded area, where he was overcast by large rocks, and his fur naturally camouflaging him, he fell into a light sleep, resting for the following day's work.
It took him centuries of hunting to find the Vampire, always slipping out of his grasp like a fish in a river. The longer it took, the more he felt like he would never get to see his Pups again. It wasn't that simple, to just return and play happy pack, and it wasn't just because of his pups feelings.
No, it was because the Vampire in question would just continue to hunt him, chase after him, persecute him until either he or the Vampire died. He chased him all over the world, to several different countries that the human's had all claimed and named, and even some that hadn't. America, China, Italy, France, Australia.
He'd gotten to all of them through either walking- hunting- or by sneaking onto human travelling devices, that were far too topsy turvy for his tastes. Until finally, he got there. In a clearing where all of the trees and flowers were dead, the sky a tumultuous grey streaked with clouds.
"Ah, you're here. Once I've ended you, I'll go back and get your Pups. I think they're probably weak enough without their parents, don't you think?"
Shadow snarled, his shadows crawling over him. He had learned a few tricks in the centuries of hunting, such as how to imitate the human's external skin'. Their armour was thick and protective, able to absorb blows without damage caused to the users. He'd also grown quite attached to the sword he'd borrowed while.. massacring.. the village, and had learned to make his own- just out of shadows, not steel.
The fight was even longer than the one at the village. The Vampire was fast- but so was Shadow. Their battle was a blur of movement, purple explosions, sword strikes, and disappearing acts, but in the end, Shadow won. Gravely injured, to the point where he thought he die before he got to return, he barely remembered to ignite the scattered body parts, using an old trick he'd picked up, and skulked off before he collapsed amidst the forest.
"I was gravely injured, and it took me many day-turns to recover. It is not easy to fight against a Vampire without a Pack- and I have hope you will learn from mistakes."
I didn't get much time to continue my catch-up, because we were instantly summoned back to the main Pack site by an urgent call. One that we all heeded, and sprinted back as fast as we could- we had to get there now.
"Victoria's here with her army! Everybody gather at the meadow!"
Author's Note
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good Christmas, because I certainly did.
I'ma keep this short though because I'm about fifteen seconds from falling asleep.
First off- if anyone has any requests for things they want me to write, please PM me the ideas. I'm open to almost anything- if you are unsure, my rules for beta-ing are pretty much the rules I would like all requests to adhere to. They aren't strict, I promise!
Anyway QOTW: What do you all do on New Years?
I have a dinner, and meet up with old neighbours and family, and eat far too much bad stuff. I think that's about usual for this time of year.
I'll see you all on the 2nd of January!
~A very tired Caitlin