This episode goes out to my new beta reader, Lost Lantean!
Episode 9: Moonborn
21st of Solis
"We're about ten days from the city of Kadic." Jeremie announced that morning at breakfast. Kadic was the largest non-port city, and also had the highest collection of magistrates, who hunted blood magicians and those who were possessed by demons. "I'm hoping that we can get there without Xana turning her eye on us. We've been lucky these past few days." He said. The Wise Man was correct—they hadn't seen any of Xana's constructs since Dhaune had been revealed to be a traitor.
Laura sat up. "She probably thinks that we're too busy tearing each other apart,"
It hadn't been directed at the Colonist, but Yumi still visibly grew angry. "I swear to the gods, Dhaune will pay for what she has done." She hissed. Yumi was still beating herself up over Dhaune's treachery, even though it had happened eight days ago.
Aelita placed her hand on Yumi's shoulder. "It wasn't just you who was fooled by Dhaune, lethallan. We all were—"
Just then, Odd came out of the woods, carrying several birds and part of a deer in his hands. "Good morning, everybody!" He said cheerily, with not a hint of shame in his voice, "I think I've got enough food to keep us fat for days!"
Ulrich wasn't impressed. "You left your post last night, Odd. Where did you go?" He demanded.
"Don't be such a hard ass, Ulrich," Odd replied lightheartedly as he moved towards the aravel. "I just went hunting. We have to eat, you know, and we're nowhere close to a town."
William looked at him strangely, but still helped him get the food inside of the aravel. "But didn't you go hunting yesterday? And the night before…"
Laura crossed her arms. "In fact, you've been hunting every night this week." She cocked her head to the side. "What's going on, Odd?"
Odd raised his arms defensively. "Nothing is going on!" He denied.
None of the Heroes were convinced of this answer, but it was obvious that they would get nothing further out of him. They packed up the camp, and proceeded to travel down the road. Lyoko truly was beautiful, especially in this forest. But when travelling through the forest there were risks such as orc raiders and bandits, as well as more mundane problems.
Aelita lifted up her foot to examine it. "Ugh, I think I stepped in something." She complained.
Yumi laughed. "Aelita, I keep telling you to get yourself a good pair of boots! Like mine, for example." Yumi motioned to her thigh-high boots, which were steel-toed. She called them 'fashionable and functional.'
The Outcast didn't seem to see it that way. "Oh, Yumi, I could never wear boots like yours! I'd get lost in them! I keep dropping stones in them, and they take forever to reach the bottom!" She sounded honestly distressed.
Yumi opened her mouth to reply, but what Aelita had said stopped her, and she thought for a moment. "Wait. Is that the reason I've been finding pebbles in my boots?"
Aelita jumped a little. "No!" She said quickly. She looked forward and searched for anything to change the subject. "Jeremie, you have a hole in the back of your shirt."
Jeremie sighed. "I know, but I can't mend it." Before she could ask, he explained, "Whenever I try to, I pick up too much fabric and the shirt puckers and hangs strange afterwards."
Aelita ran over to the side of the aravel and struggled to jump onto the shelf with a knapsack. She grabbed a needle and thread. "I can mend it for you. We don't even need to stop." She started to med the shirt as they were walking.
Laura looked at her skeptically. "You know how to sew?"
The Outcast glared at the Fair. "Why do you say that, Laura? Why can't I have practical skills?" She demanded.
"Ow! Aelita, don't forget that I'm still in this shirt!" Jeremie reminded her when she accidently stabbed him with the sewing needle.
"Sorry," Aelita replied a bit sheepishly.
Laura simply shook her head before turning to Ulrich. "You look awfully grumpy, Ulrich." She teased.
Odd spoke up. "He's always grumpy. I call him Ulrich the Grouch,"
"Is there any reason I should smile? After I realized Odd left his post last night I had to cover a double shift. I'm exhausted." Ulrich glared at Odd. "Don't think I've forgotten that. You owe me big time, Della-Robbia."
William laughed. "The two of you sound like an old married couple. More specifically, my grandparents."
Several hours later, the sun was going down and all of the Heroes had gone off to bed with the exception of Jeremie, who had volunteered for first watch. He sat by the fire with his book, studying battle strategies and ways to improve his telepathic connection with the other Heroes. He looked up as Odd tried to sneak out of his tent. "Odd! Where are you going?" Jeremie asked.
Odd stopped dead in his tracks. "I was just going to go hunting."
Jeremie shook his head. "Are you out of your mind, Odd? You've been hunting every night this week. If we carry any more meat with us, not only will we attract drow constructs but wolves and other predators! Go back to bed," He shook his head as Odd rolled his eyes and reentered the tent.
The teens were awoken suddenly by the sound of Laura's scream. They all scrambled out of their tents, and they too screamed when the saw a monster holding the princess, who had been keeping watch, in its mouth. It was nearly six feet tall, with long fingers and paws, as well as mangy dark fur. It had a long snout and white whiskers. It dropped the Fair when it saw that the Heroes were watching, and stared at them with orange eyes.
The teenagers were face to face with a werewolf.
"Werewolf! Kill the monster!" Jeremie ordered, and the teens drew their weapons. The Wise Man waited for Yumi and Ulrich to draw the beast's attention before dragging Laura to safety. "Are you alright?"
Laura nodded. "I'll be okay. I just need to heal my wounds." Jeremie nodded and tried to leave, but she grabbed his arm. "Jeremie, wait! I have to tell you something!" She hissed.
Jeremie pulled his arm away and drew his sword. "It'll have to wait, Your Highness. We can't let this monster hurt anyone else!" He said, and he ran to help the others.
William tried to slice off one of the monster's legs, but it was swifter and with one slice of its great arms sent the Vanguard across the camp. Yumi tried to take it down by knocking him off its feet with her bo staff, but it jumped and sent her reeling back with a swift kick to her abdomen. Ulrich was the first to engage the monster head on, and managed to slice at the werewolf several times before it knocked him out of the way too.
Aelita sent a boulder at it from behind, holding Erahalam in her hands. After dodging her missile the creature stalked towards her, and she used the staff to send electricity through the monster. It shrugged it off easily, and picked up the Outcast then threw her. She struck the side of the aravel and slumped down the side with a pained groan. The monster, seeing no further threat, started to leave, and Jeremie jumped on its back. The Wise Man slashed at the monster's chest and it grabbed him, throwing him back into the camp.
Laura, apparently done healing, ran to help, but cursed quietly upon her discovery that the monster was gone. She helped William, who was closest to her, stand, and healed the wound that resulted from the claws. "Thank you, Your Majesty. That… thing is unstoppable!" William said.
"Exactly. We cannot hope to stop that thing in its present form. We have to wait until the sun rises." Laura said, and the rest of the group walked towards them.
"Did any of you notice that the werewolf wasn't trying to hurt us?" Yumi asked, trying to work through the pain in her gut. "I mean, it wanted to get us out of the way, but it didn't go out of its way to kill us."
Jeremie shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We have to kill the thing before it kills someone." He looked around, "where is Odd? Don't tell me he slept through all this."
Ulrich ran to Odd's tent. "He's gone, and his clothes are all ripped up." He announced as he showed the others the remnants of Odd's clothes.
Laura seemed confused as she walked over to the Scout's tent. "The werewolf couldn't have gotten him. I spotted it as soon as it arrived." She said as she examined the ripped vest.
Aelita crossed her arms. "I think we all know that we cannot depend on your eyes, Laura." She looked away towards the path the werewolf took. "And now Odd has paid the price for it."
William looked to Aelita angrily. "Watch where you throw your accusations, wilder! You're speaking to your princess, after all."
"She is no princess of mine!" The Outcast protested.
Jeremie interrupted them. "We can discuss politics later! Right now, we have to find the werewolf!"
William searched around the campfire, and he found a clump of fur. "Look—the beast left fur. Maybe we can track it."
The Wise Man took the fur. "Odd's been training me in tracking. I may be able to find it."
The group headed into the woods, dousing the fire to prevent it from spreading. Jeremie directed them through the trees, and they eventually found the monster feeding on a bandit in the remains of an abandoned house which had apparently been destroyed by a dragon. The teens prepared to fight, but the creature sprinted off. Giving chase, they cornered the werewolf at the edge of a cliff.
The group pressed in on the landward sides of the trapped monster, confident that this engagement would go better than the last. The monster watched patiently but didn't fight the encircling teens. Instead it patiently bided its time, responding only aggressively enough to prevent the teens from pushing it over the edge. Increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress, William finally lost his temper and charged in recklessly, managing only to reach the edge and fall as the werewolf sidestepped. He would have plummeted to his death had the monster not turned, caught, and lifted him to safety.
Jeremie, seeing this, sheathed his blade. "Stand down!" He ordered, and he closed his eyes to visualize Odd in his head. Sure enough, Jeremie could see himself as well as the other Heroes inside of his head. "That werewolf isn't an unthinking monster! That's Odd!" The werewolf nodded and howled, shaking the leaves from its sheer volume. The teens relaxed, sheathing their blades, fans and staffs. Odd the Werewolf tugged on Jeremie's shirt. "What do you need?" The Wise Man asked in his head, directing it towards the Scout.
"Clothes. Mine ripped and the rest of my wardrobe is back at camp." The Scout explained. The Wise Man nodded, and went back to the abandoned house, searching through wardrobes until he found a change of clothes. When he returned with them, they all tried to get comfortable. They felt they could do nothing else but wait until sunrise.
Several hours later, Odd the Werewolf howled as he went through his painful transformation back into a boy. The girls turned as he returned to his true form, and he looked embarrassedly at the other boys. "Uh… so, who let the dogs out?" He asked sheepishly.
William was livid. "That's all you can say? 'Who let the dogs out?' We chased you halfway across this Creator-forsaken forest, and on top of that we were ready to kill you, and all you can say is 'who let the dogs out!?'" Odd laughed, but William kept shouting. "Oh boy, you had better tell us who let the dogs out, or you're going to find out who framed Roger Rabbit!"
Odd laughed, but he agreed to tell the story.
Thirteen-year-old Odd Della-Robbia carefully took aim at a deer, and with a deep breath in, fired his arrow. The arrow found its target, killing the deer instantly. Celebrating, Odd climbed down the tree, collected his game and started back towards Capital Lyoko. No doubt the humans would be impressed that such a small elf could take down a buck, but the elves would be impressed that an elf would be allowed to hunt at all.
Suddenly, Odd was being carried, and when he looked up, he saw a werewolf. Odd screamed, and he tried desperately to break free. However, the young boy was unable to reach his quiver, his bow or even his iron dagger. He tried to wiggle free, but the werewolf held him tighter, carrying him into a suspicious cavern.
Inside the cavern were many banners and standing lamps. A tall man with long platinum blond hair approached the werewolf, and just by looking at the man, Odd could see he was a vampire. He had high cheekbones and blood red eyes. Odd started to panic, fearful that the vampire would suck his blood, or worse, turn him into an undead creature of the night himself. Instead, the vampire held the boy's head in his palm, examining his neck and mulling something over inside his mind. "He won't survive the turning, I think. Did you find him starving in a gutter? He's so scrawny."
"I'm not scrawny; I'm svelte!" Odd protested, and regretted it immediately.
The hold of the werewolf grew tighter and its claws began to sink into Odd's flesh as the monster prepared for the master's response. Surprisingly the Vampire Lord cackled. "He has spirit. It is such a shame that he'd die before the venom turns him." The man sighed loudly, and waved the werewolf off. "Oh, just kill him. Dump his body in the woods or something. No one need know."
A female with long black hair approached the man. "Sir, maybe we could turn him into another lycan servant?" She suggested, "We could always use another watchdog to look over our coffins."
The man seemed impressed with her ingenuity. Calling the werewolf back, he bid it to follow him, and they entered the bowels of the cavern. The werewolf dropped Odd, who tried to escape. The raven-haired vampire blocked his exit. The man with platinum blond hair sliced open the arm of the werewolf, and he ordered the woman to drag Odd to the bowl full of blood. Together they forced the bowl past the lips and between the teeth of the teenager, holding his head back so that he was forced to swallow the coppery liquid or drown in it. Once it was down they dropped the gagging teen to the ground. His heart started beating faster, and his muscles began to swell as he underwent the first of many painful transitions.
Odd the Werewolf roared, running out of the cavern and looking for prey in the forest. Before the moon hid for the night, Odd killed a herd of deer and a hunter. His forbearer, the werewolf whose blood had been used to turn him, approached him that morning. His forbearer was not a wizened old man or a warrior under unfortunate circumstances but rather a beautiful young elven woman of Southern decent.
Not much was really known about the Uncharted South, mostly because it was uncharted, but also because the people there were supposedly frightening savages. However, this beautiful girl in front of him was neither frightening nor savage. Her skin was dark, and her hair was black except for the two red streaks in her bangs. "My name is Samantha Knight. I guess we'll be getting real close." She introduced herself.
They did indeed get close. Odd and Sam became lovers, and plotted their escape for two months, believing this would be an adequate amount of time to properly gain the Vampire Lord's trust. On the third full moon Odd spent as a werewolf, he and Sam slaughtered the entire coven. Odd had taken the Vampire Lord's brooch to prove to his family what he had done. Sam stayed in Capital Lyoko for a time, but the two had a falling out and hadn't spoken since.
Up until that fateful day three years later, Odd had skillfully hidden his beast form. He had to, or the magistrates would hound him like they would a blood magician. He kept the brooch with him as a reminder of his past, and a hope that it couldn't dictate his future.
Ulrich spoke up. "I remember Sam. She always was a little strange." He reminisced.
Aelita shuddered. "Poor thing! I can only imagine what being a slave to a vampire is like."
Odd shrugged. "Sam never spoke about her time as a werewolf to me. I mean, at all. I don't even know how or why she was turned, only that vampires historically have werewolf slaves to scare away hunters, collect blood and protect their coffins." He held the brooch in his hand, remembering the time he spent with Sam.
"Don't you want to be human again, Odd?" Laura asked, and when Aelita tried to argue that Odd wasn't entirely human anyway, she held up a finger to silence her.
"Do I want to be human again? No!" Odd said. "Did you see me as a werewolf? Not only am I in complete control during my transformations, but I'm also stronger and faster. Why would I give that up?"
Jeremie reasoned with him. "But aren't you worried you might lose control?"
"I've been undergoing transformations for three years now, Belpois. I'm totally in control." Odd reinforced the idea that he could control himself. He looked at William. "Well, that's the story on who let the dogs out. Are you satisfied, tall, dark and suspicious?" William huffed, and the Heroes laughed.