Chapter Four: The Elemental Masters/The Werewolf

The seemingly supernatural group of the Elemental Masters have a meeting. Meanwhile, Neil stumbles upon an injured young boy in the thicket of the forest.

The falcon flew far west, into the mountains until it reached a small cave high up above the lands. As it flew through the entrance, it instantly transformed into a tall figure in a white robe, wearing a gold pendant, hair like waving mist, evaporating at the tips. It was met by four other beings similar to itself. One was in red, with a wild flame for hair; one was in blue with rising water, one in gray with a wisp of clouds, and one in tan with solid stone atop its head. Each wore a long robe; three giant clawed fingers on each hand protruding from long sleeves. They all seemed to have no face, and piercing white eyes housing no pupils made them seem almost inhuman.

The one in red walked, or as it seemed, floated toward the one who entered. “Soulonomous, What have you learned?”

“They have reached the middle of the forest, and the boy is still unaware of the importance of his place in the prophecy.”

The one in tan clenched his fists. “We must crush them now before they have a chance of carrying out the prophecy.”

“No, Terranomous,” Said the one in gray. “The Great Force cannot suspect anything.”

“Cyclonomous is correct,” said the one in white.

“But we are gods!” yelled the one in red; the flame grew brighter and larger for a moment.

“Pyronomous! We may be gods,” Soulonomous replied. “But we all know The Great Force is much older and much more powerful than us. It is neither a being nor a god; we must be cautious and discreet.” Soulonomous looked at each of the others. “I don’t know how many times more I need to say this, but if the balance is upset, there will be even more dire consequences, and we will be directly responsible.”

Pyronomous withdrew a bit; his flame returned to normal.

“Aquanomous?” he continued, “What can you do?”

The one in blue looked up. “Nothing until they reach the swamp,” He replied.

The five robed figures continued to converse with one another for quite some time.

###

By this time, the three travelers were (unaware of their own significance) heading toward the exit of the forest. It was just starting to dusk, yet they had only left the cross-stream two hours ago. “About an hour more of walking, then we will set up camp,” Sentesyl said, looking back at Neil. Tentesyl was far ahead of them occasionally skipping or looking at bugs. Sentesyl slowed her pace a bit so Neil could walk beside her, a gesture Neil was not used to. After a couple of seconds of silence, Neil looked over and said,

“Sing for me.”

Sentesyl looked over with a furrowed brow. “What?”

“I want to hear you sing again, it was amazing.” He couldn’t help saying it with a smile.

She looked down, then back up. “I don’t think so, I only sing when no one"” She paused. “Or only Tentesyl is around.”

“Please?” Neil was practically begging.

“Well...maybe later, around the fire...maybe.” Neil responded only with a smug smile of either satisfaction or triumph.

“Oh, by the way,” she said raising an eyebrow, “I got that joke.”

She then ran quickly away from him, laughing. He just watched her run away for a second as he remained walking a steady pace.

“Joke? Wait…why didn’t you tell me?!” He let out a frustrated growl before he chased after her.

They were running alongside of each other as fast as they could. Sentesyl looked over and stuck her tongue out at him.

“I’m gonna win!” she said, running slightly faster. Figuring the goal was to pass Tentesyl, he conjured up enough speed to do so. Unfortunately, it was also enough speed to knock him out cold when he ran head-on into a low tree branch.

    When he woke up, it was dark except for the glow of the bonfire; the moon was hidden behind the clouds.

“We decided to set up camp here,” Sentesyl said, leaning over him. “We didn’t know how long you’d be out.”

He got up suddenly and held his head. “Ow, my head...”

“Yah, you ran right into a tree branch.”

He paused. “And why does my butt hurt?”

“Oh. Tentesyl wouldn’t stop kicking you.”

She yelled from the distance, not looking over. “I was bored!” Poking the fire, she delighted in the popping sounds and jumping embers.

“Actually, I think she may be jealous,” Sentesyl whispered.

Neil let out a frustrated sigh. “Wait…you moved me?”

Sentesyl chuckled and said with assurance, “I’m stronger than I look.” She then went by the fire, grabbed some food and water, and quickly came back. “Hungry?” she asked, holding up a piece of venison.

He said nothing, he simply grabbed it and started chomping it down. He grabbed a cup of water and some slices of bread. Holding a piece of meat in his cheek for a second, he looked up at her. “Sorry,” chew, chew. “I always wake up starving when I get knocked out.”

After dinner, they sat around the fire and ate some leftover berries while Sentesyl told folk stories. After Tentesyl fell asleep, Neil and Sentesyl stayed up a bit and talked.

“I just need someone who can take away all the crap in my life,” Neil said, looking down. “Someone who I can look to and look forward to them saying, ‘It’s okay, don’t worry, I’m here.’ To some, that used to be their mother or father, or best friend…but it never was for me.”

Neil looked up at Sentesyl smiling a bit. Sentesyl smiled and put her head down feeling a bit embarrassed. “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone. We all will, it just takes time and patience.”

“Well, I’m running out of…yawn…patience.”

“And I think it’s time for bed.” She got up and walked over to her sleeping bag; Neil followed and stood looking down at Sentesyl before sitting down.

“Oh,” He smiled. “Thanks for letting me catch up.”

She looked at him, confused.

“When we were walking,” he continued. “I know it doesn’t seem like much, but no one’s ever done that for me before.” He looked up into the stars, as if he were longing for something. “My whole life, I’ve been left behind.”

Sentesyl gave him a sympathetic smile, and lied down in her sleeping bag in the glow of the crackling fire. They were about to sleep, totally unaware of what was going on at that very moment, off in the distance...

“Your ways of running the pack are old and feeble,” It said telepathically to the other standing across from him.

The other growled aloud and responded with thought, “I will break you, inside and out.”

They were werewolves, a whole pack; the rest forming a circle around the two who were about to battle, somewhere in the forest in the open light of the full moon. They appeared mostly wolf-like. Man-sized wolves that stayed hunched over and ran on wolf feet and man-like, clawed hands. The first had a brown coat, and vigor in its step, the His opponent was larger and had a mostly white pelt, flecked with gray. It seemed more reluctant, or perhaps, cautious in choosing its steps.

The two battled; biting, scratching, diving, clawing, barking and bleeding. During the fight, the other pack members howled, barked, and growled. The younger one clawed the other in the face, disabling one of its eyes, then threw several bites at him and missed until landing  a successful bite at its hide. The gray one howled and bit the younger one’s leg, twisting its head as it did so, causing a loud snap. He let out a sharp whimper before limping forward; he attempted to swipe at him, but was no longer able to fight and fell forward into the mud. The victor stood up on its hind legs and howled fiercely into the night sky. The loser limped over to a tree and put its head down as the pack withdrew into the forest; the sun began to rise.

The travelers were awakened by the sound of barking, howling, and snarling in the distance. Sentesyl got up and yawned. “Well, the sun isn’t rising yet, but we’re all up. So let’s get some breakfast and head out.”

 Neil listened for a moment to the distant howling. “What’s with the wolves?” He asked.

“Well, it sounds like an alpha challenge. Every year the wolves have a one-on-one battle to the death for leader of the pack.”

“Wow, and do werewolves do this too?”

“Werewolves instinctively have a lot in common with wild wolves, so yes, it is in their nature. In fact, the only way to tell them apart from this distance would be to listen to their howl when calling each other. The whooping howl you hear now could be either wolf or werewolf.”       Neil looked back into the dark woods. “Well, it sounds like someone won.” There was silence in the air as the sun started rising; Neil started walking away. “I’m gonna take a walk and wake up, call me when it’s time for breakfast.”

“Be careful,” Sentesyl said.

She turned around, but he was already gone.

As he made his way through the brush, he cleared it away from his face with his hands each step. He could have sworn he heard whimpering, yet with each progressing step (and every minute of the rising sun); it sounded more like human crying. He pushed his way past the growth and found himself in a clearing. Still damp and muddy from the rainstorm two nights ago, the area was filled with paw prints and strange handprints; Neil was more concerned with the boy.

He sat huddled under a tree. He was bruised, scratched, and sobbing as he held his leg. Neil advanced slowly and carefully, but despite his efforts stepped on a branch, causing it to make a loud snap. “Go away,” the boy said, still huddled.

From his voice, Neil could tell he was around thirteen; he seemed tall for his age. “I want to help you,” Neil said, getting closer. “Are you okay?”

“You can’t help me...Go away, I deserve to die.”

“I’m sure you don’t.”

Still being careful (you can never be too careful), he kept walking over. “Tell me what happened.”

The boy looked up, his short black hair filled with chunks of mud, his face stricken with sorrow. “I was in a fight. My friends...” He lowered his head. “I thought they were my friends...my family.” He paused, trying not to cry, but his eyes swelled with tears. “I lost...and they left me.” He looked back up at Neil. “They turned on me and left me to die.”

Neil could relate to this situation (not completely, of course, but somewhat), and in turn extended his hand to him in help and friendship. The boy just stared at the hand by his face.

“Listen, I can tell you I haven’t ended up left for dead naked in the middle of the forest after a fight, but I know what it is you’ve gone through, and I know how you feel. Worthless. Friendless. Weak, hopeless and the only hope you have is that when you close your eyes the world will go black and not exist anymore. Now I’ll say again, I want to help you.”

After some reluctance, he took his hand and Neil helped him up, putting the boy’s arm around his shoulder to take the weight off of his foot.

“So what’s your name?” Neil said, looking over.

“Maurtt.”

“Maurtt? Okay. I’m Neil.”

They made their way through the forest (though now it was more difficult), and they could hear the stream almost right in front of them. He was about to go through and say happily, “Look, guys, I made a friend!” but what he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.

There were about seven of them (male humans, scarred and dirty, wearing only what seemed to be dirty cloth shorts and small swords at their sides), surrounding the campsite and the unarmed girls. They did not touch them, and even though their swords were not drawn, they (the girls) seemed like running would be a lost cause. The one with a large scar over one eye and silver hair seemed to be conversing with the girls.

“Who are they?” Neil asked, still staring ahead. He tried to be as quiet as possible. “Werewolves,” Maurtt replied.

Neil looked over. “But it’s daylight. I thought they only hunt in wolf form.” Neil was a fanatic of werewolves in his world and he assumed the “facts” were the same in this one, due to observing so many other apparent similarities between them so far.

“No,” Maurtt continued. “They hunt in human form too, but they hunt separately.”

Neil looked straight ahead. “So they’re not hunting.”

“No…they’re recruiting.”

“Recruiting?” Neil looked over to him, then back to the clearing. He couldn’t believe this was happening.

“There would have been significant losses in the alpha battles in many packs over the last few nights...” He paused to shift his weight. “And they most likely need to rebuild their numbers.”

Maurtt felt Neil’s grip tighten as he inquired, “But even if they become werewolves…they won’t have to join the pack...” He looked over. “Right?”

“No,” Maurtt said gravely. “When you are bitten, you are telepathically linked, and more than likely will be compelled to join the pack.”

Neil gritted his teeth. “No.” He couldn’t stand the thought of losing the sisters, the only friends he’s had that haven’t yet betrayed him. “Stay here.”

He put Maurtt's arm around the branch of a small tree. He passed through the brush and walked into the clearing with his hand on his sword.

“Well, finally,” the eldest one said. “How long were you going to stand there talking?” The sisters rolled their eyes.

“How could you hear me?”

The leader looked around at his crew and they all bellowed in laughter. It was deep and hearty belly laughter with a touch of madness. Something you might expect from a stereotypical pirate. Neil’s face grew hot as he heard it.

“Well, you don’t have to be a wolf to have good hearing. And as a matter of fact, you whisper very loudly; even the girls heard you.”

“Yah,” Tentesyl replied. “If you planned to rescue us, you’re doing a fine job so far.”

Neil assumed a stance to lower his center of gravity. “It doesn’t matter; I won’t let you take my friends.” He then started to draw his sword.

“Ah, ah, ah,” The leader waved finger at Neil and motioned to the men closest to Sentesyl. One of them moved closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders. He stared down at her with a look of desire, practically drooling and licking his lips. The other moved to just a few feet in front of Neil. Neil put his hands out to his sides, as the leader was signaling for him to do.

“Now,” he said calmly, still looking at Neil. “Make her one of us.”