Kain ensured that he was well beyond the little mortal's range of sight before he unpicked the arcane bindings on his physical form, and *shifted.* His every sense heightened, skin aching as it stretched and remolded, his essential substance uncoiling to fill its natural vessel. With the relief of a creature confined for far too long, only now released to the night, Kain stretched heavy-muscled limbs in the cool air. His vision clarified, sharpened, so that each creeping insect and each vein of the leaves around him burst into perfect focus. His hooves flexed into the soft forest soil, the cutting edges digging deep, providing purchase to support a mass greatly magnified, heavy with muscle and the weight of millennia of accumulated power. Kain filled his lungs simply for the luxury of the act.
But he dared not delay long. Another slow stretch, intensely pleasurable, and Kain surrendered his natural form to the magic of shapeshifting once more, teeth set against the anticipation of pain. Bones twisted in their sockets, warping, lengthening. Tendons abandoned their anchors, sought new ones. Dense black muscle rippled beneath green-tawny hide, white hair darkened, spine lengthened into a lashing tail. Flat teeth sharpened, jaws gaping with a butcher's arsenal of finger-long fangs. Front paws the size of dinner plates touched ground, claws like daggers gripping the soil. A coarse, dark pelt flowed over the hell-thing that Kain had become.
His senses shifted as his form did. Vision faded a degree, though not so badly as it did when Kain sought human form. Scent and hearing both expanded to compensate – odors became almost tangible things, objects with color and weight, a whole world of sensation in every panted breath, and even the movements of the small insects beneath the soil became audible.
Kain turned, and started for the boy's clearing.
As always, it took him a few moments to relearn fine control of these limbs – they were long, disturbingly jointed, his tail was an unfamiliar weight, each wash of the breeze over his fur was a distracting caress. But after the first jolting steps, his strides lengthened, claws flashing. Muscles bunched smoothly he leapt a collection of boulders, tumbled taller than a man, with easy strength.
The young aspen and pine trees were packed thickly, this part of the forest untouched by the hand or plow for decades. The spaces between the trees were choked with tall grass, though this was little bar to Kain's vision, for his back would have reached a man's lowest ribs and he held his head still higher. But as Kain neared, and the errant breezes changed their course, it became obvious that something wasn't right. There was ash on the air, and the stink of searing meat. Had the boy fallen into the coals? The monitoring spell had given Kain no warning! The wolf burst into the meadow at a full bodied run, long morning shadows flashing over his pelt, brimstone-yellow eyes gleaming like embers.
The child had clearly not followed orders.
He was still swaddled in Kain's clan drape – that, at least, he had managed. But the boy had evidently sorted through some of the debris Kain had left behind, discovering prizes – a small dagger with a bent tip, several metal stakes, broken bits and pieces. He was using the first of these to hack strips of meat from the basilisk's skinned tail. Other gibblets were threaded on one of the stakes, which was arranged between stones over the rebuilt fire.
The cries of small birds, fleeing the vampire's arrival, alerted the mortal and he jerked upright, turned too fast. The boy's eyes were bright with fever, reddened from too little sleep. He gasped, the dagger clutched in his one good hand, twitching as if he meant to run and then freezing like a rabbit caught in a raptor's full view. The scent of the mortal's sudden fear was an alluring salt tang between them, new terror layered over old. And there was certainly reason for fear.
Kain's form was monstrous, as unlike a natural wolf as Kain himself was unlike a human. Hellhounds, those rare demonic beasts associated with the plane of fire, were closer in size. But even those creatures lacked Kain's mouthful of layered fangs - and the vampire's sheer strength, built upon a body designed for murder.
The vampire lord slowed to a trot as he neared, then a walk, golden eyes the size of the child's fists narrowing in consideration. How in the abyss was he to pick the wretch up like this? Kain came to a halt a few strides away, studying the problem. When the boy did nothing, Kain inclined his muzzle towards the dragging end of the crimson clan drape, and exhaled hard, making a huffing sound, in the hopes of reminding the human of his duty.
The boy drew a deep and deliberate breath. He stated to speak, voice cracking, then tried again. The boy drew a deep and deliberate breath. He stated to speak, voice cracking, then tried again. "Uhm. Hello," said Rahab, at long last.
Perhaps the terror of the past two days had addled the creature's wits. Kain said nothing, waiting with narrowed eyes for the mortal to perform as ordered. Neither a maw full of jagged teeth nor a tongue made for scouring the flesh from bones particularly facilitated speech. And his hands, lacking the prerequisite thumbs, could hardly tie the proper knots themselves.
The boy bit at his lower lip. "I kind of, erm. I kind of thought you'd be a pony," he said.
Kain exposed and inch more of his long fangs in a silent snarl. Idiot child.
Rahab reached down slowly, with the hand that held the knife, and picked up a small piece of meat he'd dropped in his terror. Then he tossed the flesh in Kain's direction. It bounced over the trampled grass, leaving rusty marks behind, and came to rest nearly upon the vampire's right forepaw.
Kain growled as he stalked a step to the side and seated himself away from the scrap of meat. Damnation, boy. Do as you were told!
There was no reply to Kain's aggravated Whisper. The human did not even appear to detect the mental sending. That was to be expected – even strong fledglings took decades to master the skill – and yet Kain found it disappointing, regardless. Also, inconvenient. Might it be possible to knock the wretch to the ground, and gather the corners of the cloak himself, then tie them with some combination of teeth and forepaw?
Gradually, tentatively, the boy let the battered point of his dagger dip, though he relaxed not at all. "If… if you aren't going to eat me… can… can I eat? If I finish quick, I mean?"
'May I', whelp, Kain found himself correcting, out of long habit. While he supposed he would have to make an allowance or two for the mortal's upbringing to date, such laxness of form and cultivation would simply have to cease.
But as for the boy's proposition – Kain considered it. The boy's preoccupation with nourishment, of course, was of no particular surprise to the vampire lord – young fledglings behaved in much the same fashion. Kain little liked the stench of cooking flesh. But on the other hand, a well-fed fledgling was a quiet one, and perhaps the same was true of humans. And a delay would give Kain a few more moments to attempt a solution to his present conundrum.
The massive wolf nodded its head, and in the event that was not sufficient indication of intent, stretched his clawed forepaws forward and lay down, belly flat to the grass. Even still, holding his head erect, he could very nearly look the child in the eye.
"Thank you. Uhm." The boy paused a moment more, and then stepped over the basilisk tail – putting it between he and the wolf, for all the good that would do him – and commenced to cutting once more. Another skewer soon lay over the fire, and Rahab pulled the first from the coals with a bit of scavenged fabric. Squatting on a fallen log, attention divided between food and wolf, Rahab commenced to tearing bits of sizzling meat from the skewer, gulping them down gracelessly, as if he expected this to be his last meal.
Kain watched him for a short time with eyes like brimstone, then permitted his attention to drift to the items still scattered around the clearing. After a time he rose, ignoring the human's sudden wariness, and stalked to nose through the wretch's bedroll. A large square of undyed flannel, originally destined to be stitched into the padding worn beneath armor, bore a degree of strengthening enchantment. Kain dragged it away from the others with his teeth, and set to spreading it on the ground. It took some few moments – the wolf's body was not well-suited to fine dexterous actions, and teeth made a poor substitute for hands when smoothing an object flat. The matter at last accomplished, Kain looked to the boy, growling shortly in indication that it was long past time to leave.
Rahab swallowed the last of his meat half-cooked. The mortal's expression appeared pained, but as Kain detected no greater degree of physical distress through the monitoring spell upon the coin the boy bore, he presumed that the human was merely thinking hard. "I... I think I know how to do this, uhm. I… guess you need a… maybe you already have… uh. I'll just call you Lord Wolf?" the boy inquired in a confusing and disjointed fashion, as if unaccustomed to speaking at length, as he stood and limped to where Kain had discarded several frayed hemp ropes. He took one up and then started, hesitantly, towards the enormous canid.
The black wolf's eyes narrowed as the mortal first bypassed his carefully arranged blanket, and then with scarcely a pause, tossed one end of the rope over Kain's back.
Snarling, a low hiss such as never could emerge from a natural canine's throat, Kain turned on the boy, jaws parted to deliver a reflexive, cautionary bite. Kain certainly knew better than to permit the taking of familiar liberties by his spawn. All of his own fledglings – Rahab too, in time – would know the pain of the wolf's long fangs… and much more besides.
Yet this was not Kain's Rahab. How, precisely, was the vampire lord to discipline a creature as fragile as this one? Even a nip might kill. Kain snapped his maw shut, teeth clacking like the close of a steel trap. The boy, for his part, appeared scarcely to notice Kain's abortive lunge. He patted the wolf's wiry flank soothingly, making a tsking sound with his teeth as one did to calm nervous horses. "Tsa, there, I'ma trying to hurry. There now… easy, Lord Wolf." Rahab crooned, and leaned down to sweep up the square of flannel, ruining Kain's careful arrangement. One wadded corner followed the rope over the wolf's back, around his shoulders.
Kain growled low as the little mortal crouched, found the dangling ends of the rope and fabric, and drew them tight around the wolf's neck. Using teeth and one hand, the mortal tied a knot and cinched the rope tight, clearly practiced. Had breath mattered more than incidentally to Kain, he might have found himself uncomfortable. Again the boy tossed a length of rope over his back, wrapping it around his neck and beneath his chest several times, making of the rope and twisted flannel a harness, of sorts. Then he stood back a little, one hand still on Kain's heavy-muscled shoulder, clearly trying to decide how to proceed.
Kain was an old creature, and a prideful one - but disinclined as he was to indulge the stripling, standing upon that pride would do nothing but waste time. And while time was one thing Kain had in abundance, the same could not be said for the shivering waif that fickle Fortuna had left to his care.
Still, Kain was no beast of burden, to crouch and cower before a master. The rope about his neck was there only because he allowed it, and the human would do well to remember that. With a last narrow-eyed stare, he turned away from the boy and paced over to a nearby deadfall. The timber was half-rotted, and he had hacked away dryer portions of the wood upon its underside in order to start his fire the eve before. But the bulk of the log remained, and it was sizeable enough to serve as a mounting-block of sorts, even for an undersized boy. He stepped alongside it and waited, a trickling growl of impatience escaping as he did so.
The boy had made a stifled sound of protest when Kain had shouldered away from his hand-but now that a solution had presented itself, he hesitated, his apprehension plain. Kain growled again, impatient with his dithering. Sucking in a breath, the mortal approached-and when the wolf did not move away, he climbed ungracefully upon the log. Reaching out, he wrapped the fingers of his good hand upon the rope about the wolf's neck, and daring greatly, slung one leg over that coarse-furred back, pulling himself astride.
"Th-thank you, Lord Wolf," the boy said apologetically, legs clamped uncomfortably-tight about Kain's ribs.
At least the mortal's weight was no inconvenience - indeed, it was scarcely noticeable at all. The wriggling of fingers and toes into his thick fur, however, were rather moreso; three points of tickling sensation as the boy firmed his grip, working his good arm and both feet under the crosswork of rope and flannel tied across the wolf's back, fingers and toes clutching fur. The boy's heartbeat, the heat of his body, and the spread of Kain's own clandrape like a red riding cloak over his haunches - all were utterly novel sensations. Rahab nestled his chest along the wolf's spine, and his fidgeting settled after a few moments.
"Uhm. I'm ready," stated the boy.
Rumbling his pique, Kain took a few steps, prepared for the feel of the boy's slight mass sliding from his perch. But the mortal clung like a limpet, so lightweight that even his slight strength - when factored with the tautness of the ropes - seemed quite sufficient to keep him in place. The wolf kept to a walk across the sloping field, tall grass shushing by to either side. At the edge of the western forest, brush and autumn-blooming shrubs were clumped thickly, to twice the height of a man; under other circumstances, Kain would have simply jumped these, or ducked under. Now he picked his way through with care, so that nothing more than soft leaves and tiny twigs scraped his burden.
Though the mortal's heartbeat sped a little, and his scent sharpened slightly, he seemed in no distress. Upon breaching the maze of underbrush which rimmed the forest proper, Kain permitted his pace to quicken, wide paws finding sure footing amongst the stones and tumbled smallwood. As Kain ghosted deeper into the forest, the trunks thickened and the ground-choking vegetation thinned, and clear paths proliferated. As always, the woods were nearly quiet around Kain, most living things capable of sensing death either fleeing or huddling still and silent, as their natures dictated.
The wolf's flowing gait was smoother than any horse's, his wide paws silent over the terrain, layered tendon and muscle absorbing the impact of each stride and transmuting it into forward force. A small streamlet was bypassed easily, Kain's clawed feet finding certain purchase on wet and moss-covered stones, the wolf's agility so great that he did not even have to slow his pace. The next stream, though, had carved deeper into the soft soil, cutting a channel several lengths deep and wide. Kain could leap the distance easily, but with the boy... with a curt growl of annoyance, the wolf paced upstream, seeking a fallen tree or crumbled embankment.
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Good news - my coauthor will be joining me for the next while, so maybe I can even deliver on that 'tolerable grammar' promise. Huge thanks to reviewers, too! I really appreciate the fixes, and the ideas. If you've written, check your PM inbox - hopefully I've replied to everyone.