Chapter 12
Lycan's Awakening part 2 - A Soul in Flames
I felt on top of the world, like a leprechaun who'd nicked another's pot of gold. For that one terrific moment of clarity I had truly known what it was like to be free. Sure it was a temporary feeling and I didn't have a doubt in the world that fate was around the corner with a knife poised to be stuck into my ribs, but that was to be dealt with then. I eventually found my way back to the tree that Kuroko and Asura had been resting under. The two sprites were in the exact same location as when I had left them. So I raised my paw and swatted them awake.
Kuroko spun around like a top. "W-W-What the hell!?"
"Get up glow-balls we're moving out!" I chirped while the two continued to try and regain their composure.
"Dammit boy, we were sleeping toru!"
"Ahhh details." I muttered. "It matter's not any more! I have an inkling we should go out and enjoy life, sucks to what Yiang had planned!"
"Is that so boyo?"
That voice. I hadn't heard it in days and already I was sick of the sound of her. That nagging little bitch that would go on and on and on. Why had she bothered to come back? Was she here to try and tempt me into another bullshit deal? NO! That is not how this was going to go down any more! I was free and happy and I wanted to just live my life with my friends!
"Friends?" She mocked. "You don't have friends boyo."
"Hey shut up!" Asura chimed. "We've got wolfy's back!"
"You belong to me sprite!"
I felt a surge of energy rush at Asura. The sprite popped in a way that would have been cute, had it not harked something far more sinister.
"Hey, what the---" Kuroko began, only to be burst in the same evilly cute way.
I felt something close around my neck. "DON'T YOU GET IT BOYO?" Yiang boomed. "I AM THE ONE WHO BROUGHT YOU HERE, I AM THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU LIFE! I WILL CLAIM IT BACK JUST AS FAST IF YOU EVEN THINK THAT YOU CAN BE FREE!"
She threw me through the air into a tree-trunk, the air was punched from my body as Yiang picked me up again and again; smashing my body repeatedly into the thick tree-trunk. On every impact I could feel the air pressed from my lungs and my ribs creaked in protest to the abuse I was being subjected to.
But in the back of my head I was confused above all, just what the hell had happened? I never pegged Yiang as the peaceful type but this was unbelievable! She had outright attacked me from no reason, killed my best-friends and was now beating me harder than a teenage boy does his dick.
Well this got out of hand rather quickly didn't it?
There was a moment of odd calm as she hoisted me into the air and pinned me, quite tamely to the tree.
"Do you get it now, BOYO?!" She hissed. "I. OWN. You."
I smirked. "You don't own shit."
There was a shift in the air as something began to change, she was using more magic. A lance of ice slowly began to form in the air in front of me. Its tip was pointed directly at me.
"Well." I muttered. "Something tells me this is going to hurt."
The icicle bored through my body with ease, puncturing a lung on the way in and collapsing my ribcage. My eyes bulged in shock and I tried to roar, but it instead came out as a strangled bloody mess. It was over.
This was it. I tried to fight it but I was pinned to the tree by a lance of pure ice, I couldn't drag it out and my knock-back wasn't focused enough to shatter it.
I thought. "Shift." Nothing happened. I remained pinned to the tree. Well this was a spot of bother wasn't it? Pinned to a tree by an icicle. A collapsed ribcage and a punctured lung. Blood slowly began to froth from the entry wound and I hacked up a glob of bloody phlegm. My horns buzzed with power that couldn't be channelled, my chest had a spike jammed through it and the tree would no doubt have a very nasty mark on it afterwards.
There was also the small matter of getting out of here.
'Return is that of crimson.'
Those word bounced back and forth in my mind once again. Just what the hell did Grotto mean by it? For the life of me I couldn't tell you why the elders of our worlds seem to talk in riddles in a fashion they seemed to have prepared long before the time they met you.
What was the meaning behind that riddle? Was my death supposed to bring back the Fox? Was that my grand-purpose in life? To die, TWICE!
NO!
Fuck you Yiang!
Fuck you fate!
I looked at the icicle jammed into my body. By now my vision was nothing more than a thick haze of dancing dots and a faint red mist. My brain swelled and my mind spewed out speech on auto-cue.
"You think you've won?! I'm not done yet Yiang, I'm only just getting started! This?! THIS IS A TRIVIAL HURDLE!" Something started to build-up. Like the tension of the moment was being held by a string ready to snap and unleash hell. "
MY NAME IS GABRIEL, MY SOUL WILL IGNITE AND SET THIS WORLD AFLAME!!"
The sudden rush of air and a surging of magic crushed my body worse than the lance did. I felt my skin heat up beyond description. The pain. The pain was indescribable. It felt like every layer of my skin was being peeled away by a rusted knife that had been held over an open flame. My fur was a huge mass of heat; roasting me alive as it popped and crackled merrily while I writhed beneath it. I tried to choke out a cry but instead I vomited a cloud of ash into the air. The icicle must have melted or something because next I know I'm flailing on the forest floor with my skin ablaze and my throat ripped hoarse from the pain. Taking to my feet I stumbled several inches away from the tree, still vomiting ash and cooking alive. I felt a welt on my skin grow and blister before bursting from the heat, disgusting and painful.
What the hell was going on?
Another convulsion gripped me and yet another cloud of ash propelled from my mouth and blackened the ground. I tried to keep my footing but my brain was starting to fry inside my head. Colours became mismatched swirls of ink beckoning my forth into slumber. It was after even more ragged breaths and several whines of pain, I collapsed in a smouldering pile on the forest floor.
*
I woke up. That was the best way to describe my coming around, I simply opened my eyes and woke up.
With a pointy stick jammed in the ground near my face. Now I could say I bolted upright and scanned the area, but my entire body felt like hammered shit. My throat was blazingly dry and every inch of my skin felt cracked and flaky. Something in the air smelt like burnt fur.
I think it was me... I smell pretty nice for a burning lump of fur.
Something disturbed the stick. That something smelt awful; or was that just me? The stick was yanked from the ground and its new holder yelped as it fell backwards.
"Thing is not waking." Somebody hissed, it sounded pained and slightly wary.
"Kill it, slit its throat and take the skin!" Another barked.
"Nooo! Claim it, take it back to warren and get rewarded!"
I grunted as I tried to shift my weight to my feet, the creatures were too busy arguing to notice my stirring.
"Why kill when if we claim we gain more?"
"Kill the beast, stabby stabby stab!"
"I say we vote on it. Those who want the thing dead."
One mutter of approval.
"Those who want it live?"
One mutter of approval.
Geez these things were not the sharpest tools in the shed were they? But sharp or blunt it wasn't like I was going anywhere any time soon, so it was the better deal for me if they were to continue wasting time.
*
Twenty minutes. They argued for twenty solid minutes about what to do with me. They then decided on taking me back to the 'warren' to which they began to argue afresh as to who was going to carry me. How these creatures had the intelligence to breathe was far beyond me. I was still biding my time. The gradual warmth of bodily function had begun to work its way through me. I twitched a paw experimentally; just to see if movement was yet an option.
It hurt. It hurt a helluva lot. But it was movement nonetheless.
I slowly, very slowly, got to my feet. My belly was aching horribly like a mass of solid rock was resting comfortably in my gut. Every joint in my body ground against its housing with painful cracks and pops jostling my skin around like paper while the creatures continued to argue over who would be the one to take the workload. My vision, all things considered, was pretty sharp. I could make out colours and basic shapes while the finer details continued to allude my eyesight.
My feet found a steady state on the earth and I wavered for a second as the creatures halted their bickering to instead switch over to a slightly bloated pause.
They'd seen me hadn't they.
"Creature moved!"
"Creature is wolf!"
"Lies! Wolf is not that! Lies!"
I looked up steadily and was brought face to face with one of the creatures. It had an ugly mottled snout and decayed teeth that reeked of day old meat. I had half a mind to faint just from the smell; but that would hardly be prudent would it?
I looked the creature in the eyes. "I'm a wolf." I muttered softly, belching a little. Belching something that stung the back of my throat and made my eyes water.
"I am a proud Irish wolf you mangy beast." I continued. Once more I had that disjointed dizzy headed feeling that comes with being tired or sick, the rock in my gut was starting to roll around.
"You are wolf?" The thing quizzed. "Never before seen wolf such as you."
"I'm something else.... Different? Yes, yes that I am. Different. Oh so different, or am I the same as some?"
My head felt like a mess as was my body. I swayed from side to side without thought and my muscles had given up screaming and were now nursing their own sore throats.
That rock in my gut was slowly shifting its way upwards to my neck.
"Why is wolf here?" The thing interrogated. "Answer me!"
My mind wouldn't form the words to answer with. The rock made it halfway up my throat while the creature jabbed me with a stick.
"Answer or I stab more!"
Answers wouldn't so much as reach the vapour stage of thought before they vanished from sight forever. Another jab and the rock made its way to the very edge of my throat and peeked into my mouth.
"Answer me! Wolf will answer me!" The thing reared back and jabbed my legs. "Now!"
My cheeks bulged a little because the rock made its way into my mouth and was preparing to exit from my body in a rather prompt fashion.
I looked the beast in the eyes, and mewled.
"I'm gonna be sick."
I vomited over the creature and that rock-hard presence inside me (minds out the gutter) was removed in a burst of fluids and squeals (I said minds out the gutter you filthy creatures.)
The substance splattered over the creature with the stick and it screeched in fright, tumbling away to scrabble at its face in agonised twists. My stomach slowly settled as the thing continued to writhe; I had only vomited on it why was it acting so weirdly? Continuing to pant and stare at the floor I could hear the other two creatures panicking and rushing around shouting random nonsense words. Having allowed myself to purge the offending presence from my body and rest for a small fleeting moment I began to look up again, my vision repaired enough to make out the world in full.
"What in the world are you...." I cut myself off with a yelp of. "Mother fuck!"
The creature on the ground was screaming for a rather more obvious reason now; mainly its entire upper-half was up in flames. Bright red fire slowly ate its way through the skin of its victim while I could only stand and stare dumbly at the spectacle unfolding on the forest floor.
I must have eaten something spicy because that's some hot vomit.
Really poor humour aside I was still stumbling like a drunkard and felt once more ready to hurl up what was left in my stomach. One of the other creatures spun around to face me with a snarl, my body shifted the weight again. Streams of not vomit but blazing red fire flew from my gullet to sear its way through the creature's eyes. The monster dropped its spear and screamed in agony as the flames devoured its skull while its remaining ally could only stand by and watch. It was a twisted display of raw power, induced by vomiting, displayed like an artists half-finished canvas on the floor of the forest. The last creature left standing with raspy breathing and pacing from side to side without pause, eyes shrunken and void of description. With a pitiful howling it fled.
With even more pitiable weakness; I blacked out.
Hunter's report:
Sir I have news of dire importance. The boy, Lycan, has found his fire. Its still in the premature stages as of now but he is months ahead of schedule. I believe this deity that I was informed of had a hand in this act. I must be given permission to act NOW or else the situation could escalate beyond my control. I ran the calculations Sir and I can confirm that, with the discovery of his fire, the boy will have a seventy percent chance to defeat me with the next twelve months. Already his potential for magic was great but now... NOW... I MUST ACT! He is a threat I tell you.
Sir I must request that you not only give me permission to engage but the knowledge of his name to be used as info. I can however confirm that his previous life may have been under the name Gabriel, but that cannot be confirmed.
Hunter out.
Hunter.
You will refrain from action or face my wrath. This is the only warning you will get. Now return to base, I have a new assignment for you. Don't worry, it will stay close to that boy you love to hate.
A note of Emperor.
*
I swear if I pass out again I might as well tuck myself and call myself Gabrielle so high would the level of oestrogen in my blood. That was a joke for those who don't know. Although this time I felt less, violated. Helped by not having three sweaty, mangy creatures arguing over who got my body (why do I always get the creepy guys?) while I was unconscious. It was a matter of seconds before I could get back to my feet again. The smell was the first greeting I received and to honest it wasn't even that bad. It was like cooked meat but a little more sweaty and salty. I took my lack of fatigue as a time to study the corpses of the creatures I had slain involuntarily. They looked like Grotto, Diamond Dogs didn't he say they were? For now that presence in my gut had shifted away for good and I would have time to gather my thoughts.
"Awake now boyo?"
Mother Fucker.