A/N: Werewolf the Forsaken and all related names are copyright White Wolf
This is the final chapter of this story. I hope the people reading it liked it as much as I liked writing it. Thanks to all and see you around.
CHAPTER VIII: Ready to drop
I'm writing this as we fly over the rainforest, all suited up and ready to do what the Lodge requires of us. Our call name is Furies, we are the hidden dagger, and today we will slit some throats. Below us, the Amazon Rainforest looks like a sea of green, hiding untold dangers and enemies. The helicopter is flying fast, doors opened as we approach the drop zone.
I'm nervous, I'll not deny it. We all are. It's been months since I last saw some real action, and other members of the pack have been out of the fray for years now. But we have trained, we have focused and we are ready. We will kill that traitor.
I have to lean to the side and kiss my lover to remember she's with me no matter what happens. The helicopter pilot says we have thirty minutes. Our spirits are high and our morale is soaring. Thunder is wearing the necklace I gave her on our first month, it's polished and varnished wood, depicting two wolves locked in fight. I chuckle when I see it. Just remembered we never got around to that rematch, never really needed it.
Over these last few weeks I've learned a little more about my other pack mates. I managed to get Shibata to talk about the Gauntlet, as her experiences will sure benefit us, but I won't write down more than what I already did out of respect for her. The Gauntlet was a bad mistake, no doubt about it, and until we take it from the Pure, it's better we talk less about it.
But I've also learned she is from a traditional Japanese family, whose firstborn have been werewolves for ages, down from the Oda Shogunate. They are Ivory Claws, and Shibata is a firstborn. Ivory Claws are misogynist pricks, and if that doesn't explain a lot about her behavior, I won't play the analyst, at least not in my diaries. Suffice to say she fled her abusive father and the Lodge accepted her with open arms. I have met few other warriors I'd like to have by my side as much as her.
Four Fangs's human name is Julia, and she's a genius at heart. She understands the spirit world and the gauntlet like an elder, but unlike most ithaeur she'd rather stomp down and force the spirits to do her bidding than bargain and appease them. Oh, she's fierce, yes, not unlike me, Shibata and Thunder, but she is subtle about it.
Her hair has grown a lot by now, covering the extensive tattoos she has on her scalp, going down to her backside and covering a good part of her arms and legs too. If she strips, shaves, and you look at it from behind, the tattoos form a hideous creature, forever locked in a deadly embrace, trying to eat the shaman's head. It's a fetish tattoo, and it holds a spirit who was preying on the minds of the soldiery from these barracks in the north of our country. Fangs and her former pack lured it out in the open and managed to trap it into the tattoo. Now the shaman can leech it's essence to power her own mystical gifts. She says it tried to get into her head sometimes, but she can stomp it back to its place. Too bad her alpha kicked her out of the pack because she was now a 'liability'. Liability my ass, that was pure envy.
Night's Voice is the odd one out. Most of us did something gruesome, be it fighting a pack mate or killing an enemy in a vicious manner. Voice just wanted out of her pack. As she herself admits, she's a born beta, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know when a leader is a bad leader. From what I gathered, her alpha kept making bad decisions and leading them into fights that were too dangerous. One day she got tired and told him to fuck himself. Then she left and went to the farm where we met each other.
Her human name is Eliane. And she doesn't look or sound like a warrior. If I hadn't seen her fight, I'd doubt her abilities. I'd say she's the weakest fighter of the five of us, but she can hold her own in a fight against me. Not bad, really. But her most important job is being our glue. She's an elodoth, it's on the job description, but she makes it seem easy. Always has the right words, the right food, the right action, to soothe that pain or heal that wound. I like her as my beta, even if she is undisciplined as hell, maybe even because of that.
Alone, we were misfits and outcasts. Together, we are the lodge's honed and true scalpel. We're sharp, we're hard, we cut out the heart of the problem before it grows strong. Well, that's what we are supposed to do, anyway. Today is our test run. We will not fail.
Ten minutes to the drop zone, everyone is buckling up for the hot drop. Thunder straps my harness in and I kiss her when she's done.
"Don't die. That's an order." I say. She smiles her soothing smile.
Yesterday I got courageous and decided to consummate our relationship. We shared more than a bed, we shared our bodies and our pleasure. It was awkward, and she had to explain a lot of stuff to me. But it was fun, and it felt good to be that intimate with someone for the first time. I will carry her warmth with me, even if I still can't take that stupid wolf out of my system yet. I love my Sound of Thunder. I love my Celeste, and she loves me too. That love makes us stronger than rage and hate have ever made.
I might never write anything here again. Today my life takes a big turn, and I'll not have time to enjoy the frustrations and fears of infancy again. I am Snake Eyes, killer of wolves, eater of my own kin, leader of the Furies. I am hate, rage and fury. And today the traitors of our people will learn to fear me.