Chapter 7

The Witch Queen's Castle

That promise had been on Halt's mind a lot since Will had been taken over two weeks ago. The fear in Will's eyes as he was lead away, haunted him, disrupted his dreams. He could still hear Will's voice calling out to him, and his own answering back.

Now the men that were left were in a cage on the back of a wagon being taken to, who knows where, not that he could really tell. His head still hurt from where they hit him to knock him out, as he tried to run away as soon as the chains were off. he had been planing it as soon as he knew that they were coming for the lot of them, hoping that the confusion of the transfer would aid him in his escape.

He was still going to try again once they opened that door, the first time had not gone well but with over forty men in here, they were not going to be able to stop all of them if they tried to escape this cage. This time the confusion would work, there were no chains on their legs this time, he would get out and find Will and leave this land forever.

Then Halt saw it, a monster - like castle, but not like the ones he had known anywhere in the world. It was like something out of a creepy dream. It stood three stories tall and the roof was high and pointed at the moon or sun, depending on what time of the day it was, Halt guessed. A round tower was attached to the side of the building and strange colored smoke could be seen coming out of the window. There were huge old oaks that surrounded it on three sides.

As the wagon pulled up, Halt made himself ready to run. Then something happened, he could not move. It was like he had become a block of ice. Then she appeared.

She looked like she was in her late twenties or early thirties. She had a heart - shaped face with long red hair and brilliant Aqua colored eyes. She moved with a cat like grace, brushing her fingertips against one man. This man then shivered and fell to the floor in what looked like some sort of coma but he was clearly still awake.

Halt watched her touch one man after another again and again until she was near him. Halt had noticed that with some of the men, they had fallen straight away, while others had stood their ground against her touch, only to have themselves touched again and with that second touch, surrendering to her power.

Soon her hand brushed against Halt and he heard in his mind "you are fighting me, young one?" young one? how old was this person? Halt thought. then he felt the touch heat as the voice came again "I see a boy in your mind. He is the reason you fight. You love this boy. Hmm mm you may survive what I have in mind for you".

Halt felt the fingers and her mind leave him and he was found he was still on his feet. He was still going to run, he might be getting little dizzy, but after she had left the cage he was the only one still standing. Suddenly the dizziness became all consuming and he blacked out. When he woke, he found he was in a stone room with the others that had put up some kind of fight. Suddenly smoke filled the room, it smelt strange but before Halt could do anything about it, he was asleep.

But his dreams did not make any sense. Instead of his normal dreams about Will and the journey over here, he saw himself tied to a table, naked, as the witch (as Halt realized that was hat she was now) drew a strange kind of star on his chest. She said some kind of spell in a language that he had never hear before and then the star burnt into his chest and disappeared.

"Now for his animal side" she said, he heard her say. Then she forced him to drink this foul mixture that made his body feel like it was on fire, and his body then shook with the pain of it. It was during this, that Halt realized that this was not a dream and when most of the pain had past he heard her say again.

"Good, he survived both transformations unlike the others. Make sure he is chained up with the others that survived. For the collar, give him the mercury one, he will most likely be stronger than most, because his will is stronger than most. I don't need my new prize getting away from me before I have had a taste". Halt's mind had, had enough and he fainted away again.

Halt woke up some time later to find two large paws stretched out in front of him. He jumped up onto his paws and moved back frightened by what had happened, until he slammed into the wall and he could see his reflection in the windowed doors that led to the outside world.

Halt could see he looked like a normal wolf, but a lot bigger. He was dark brown colored with midnight colored eyes. His nose twitched and he could smell everything both inside the room and outside in the forest, he could tell what was human and what was not. As he looked around the room he saw things that he could never had seen, even as a young man. If Will could see him now? what would he think? if only...

Halt then suddenly felt pain again, his whole body was on fire with it and when he looked back at the window he could see a human looking back at him but it was not himself. Well, it was but it was himself when he was about twenty years old. His hair was now dark brown, the wrinkles that he had got over a lifetime of being a ranger were gone and he felt stronger than he had ever been before.

Then he smelt her, a strange other worldly smell and then he was back in his fur coat, wanting to kill her for doing this, and from the deep growls that were coming from around the room he was sure that he was not the only one to feel this way.

"So my wolves are now awake. I will tell you all now that there is no going back, this ability that I gave you all, is for all time. You will never grow a day older, never know death unless a wolf or I deal it to you. Your hearing, sight, smell in both your forms is heightened. You will serve me until I get rid of you. Fight if you wish, you will not win. Those collars around your necks were dripped in mercury or liquid silver if you must know. It is the only metal in the world that can hurt you because it can weaken or kill you now that you are wolves" she said before turning to one of the wolves, taking the chain off the wall and pulling him out of the room, soon deep howls and screams could be heard coming from the room above them.

Halt was not sure what she was doing to those wolves in the days that followed but it was not going to happen to him. He threw his weight against the chain and collar every chance he got. He did not care that he was a wolf now or that his human body was that of a young man, his promise, thats what drove him now, but with the silver collar on him he could not escape this hell no matter how much he wished it.

One night, he was asleep, dreaming as always that he had broken the chain and had saved Will and they were on their way home until something changed and his dream became something else. It became mucky and it was like he was looking from above.

He could see Will huddled on the floor, weeping. The clothes that he was dressed in were torn. His knees were drawn up and his arms wrapped around them. Then the scene changed again and he could see some one giving Will something to suck on, that makes him grow hard fast and he is soon screaming with the pain of it. Then he is picked up and taken out of the room and more screaming and moaning is heard.

Halt's eyes flashed open then. Those monsters were at it again, would they never stop hurting his boy but this time he was too far away to help him out. That's when his growls started up and he threw all he had against the chain.

He could feel the collar biting into his fur but not the skin, not yet anyway. Again and again he threw his new strength against the chain knowing that he must escape Will's life depended. He could feel something, that was not right, it was as if that dream gave him more than he had before. It was as if Will was lending his strength too. He slammed this strength into the collar until finally it broke and he crashed out of the window and off into the night.

Far away Panis Rauly was getting ready for a special trip. One that would see him in the land of make believe, of animal people that should not exist. His master lived there and had called him in. He decided if he had to go, he would take something to do on the weeks it would take to get there.

Lifting a small boy, that had worked so hard for him into the wagon. His eyes lingered over the young body. The boy had only been with him for a short time compared to others he had, had but he was easily his favorite to use. The boy was perfect when the spell took hold, he would freeze in the hard position and when touched him or used him, even though he would always call for someone called "Halt", the boy would go for hours.

Yes this would be great, although looking at the boy now, he could see he might only have a week or two left. The illness that eventually killed all of the boys that came to them, "the effect of the spell, the boy was dying", Panis thought. Still there was more fun to be had before he had to say goodbye to this pleasure boy.

To the boy in the wagon, he did not respond to the touch of his owner anymore right now, his body was still recovering from last night. He knew he had a drug in his mouth to deal with the pain of travel but for now his mind was on something much better. For he heard in his mind, something he had hope to hear for a long time.

"Hold on Will, I am coming"

An: So what do you think of what happened to the two of them?

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