When Leo lost consciousness, the last thing he recalled was beating the monster that Natalie claimed killed Iris. After he passed out, he suddenly heard a sound,
Clap
Clap
Clap
When he opened his eyes he was once again in a hut, but his time he was on the floor next to an open fire.
Clap
The sound appeared again. After looking around, he saw a woman sitting in a chair slowly clapping her hands. What drew his attention though, was the monster wolf laying next to her. It was covered in black fur, and looked at Leo with interested orange eyes. As Leo stood up the woman stopped clapping and said,
"Bravo. That was a splendid fight. As expected from my champion though. It looks like I was right in picking you to represent me." Leo was confused about what was going on. He thought he had just finished fighting the monster, now he was here listening to a woman talk about him being her champion? Before he could ask though, she started talking again,
"No need to say anything, I know you're confused about what's going on. That's why I brought you here, and we have until morning to talk. And your woman by the way, she's not dead... Yet." When she said that Iris wasn't dead, Leo felt a brief moment of happiness. It wasn't until a moment later that he comprehended her words. Even if Iris was ok now, her words meant that she wasn't going to be soon. It wasn't until this point that Leo began to question the identity of the woman. Once more seemingly reading his thoughts,
"I am Artemis, goddess of the moon and hunt. And this is Fenrir, the father of all canines." Leo's first thought was about how he was glad he didn't vocally mention his disbelief at the gods existence, his second though was of caution since it probably wasn't a good thing he caught the attention of a goddess. It was also then that Leo recalled that she referred to him as her champion.
"I have a couple questions, what's going to happen to Iris? And what do you mean about being a champion?" Leo figured that since she included a time limit by morning, he should only stick to the two main things he was concerned about.
"Since they're actually two related things, its quite simple to answer. The woman, Iris, will die by sunup. The only way available to you to save her, is by becoming my champion. Then I will allow you to turn her into werewolf as well, thereby saving her. She should have died quite a while ago, but I am using my powers to keep her alive. I will cease lending my assistance however, when the sun rises, or if you refuse my offer to become my champion." When Leo heard what Artemis said, he was suddenly mad. Not only was she insisting that he turn Iris into a monster like him, but from the way she was talking, she as holding her hostage as well.
"And if I don't become your champion?"
"Then not only will she die, but a lot of the other people you care about will as well. Come with me to see." And with that she led the way outside of her hut. The wolf Fenrir followed her and Leo brought up the rear. He noticed that she stopped in front of a pond, and when she pointed at the water he looked down.
Reflected in the waters surface was the inside of iris's hut. There were several people present, Natalie who was crying her eyes out, Austin who was attempting to tend to Iris, elder grandma who had arrived apparently and was sitting at iris's bedside, and Iris herself who was laying on the bed covered in bandages and bruising. Leo also saw that he was laying there too, in front of the stove. He couldn't believe it at first but he tried something, he pinched the skin of his left arm and watched it twitch slightly in the image. Before he could say anything, Artemis started talking again.
"You don't realize this, but you yourself are a mutant you know. Except you have a rare hidden mutation, mutated blood. When your blood became contaminated with a high wolfs, one of Fenrir's descendants, it started to change your body completely from the inside. You would have become a hybrid of man and wolf, but your brain would not be able to handle the change and you would be little more than an animal. You would've slaughtered any around without thought. I decided to change that so that you might become my champion, and using Fenrir's blood further, I made it so that you would only become feral once a month. Your sanity is only a product of my mercy, if you refuse my offer, not only will you kiss your life goodbye, you will also indiscriminately kill any around you. So how about my offer now?"
Leo was dumbfounded at Artemis's explanation. He suddenly had a thought, given how she waited this long to contact him, he wondered if she meant to corner him so that he would have no choice but to accept her offer. When she read his thoughts, a smile spread on Artemis's face. She was pleased that not only was her champion capable in combat, but was able to reach correct conclusions on his own as well. Leo realizing he didn't have much choice in the situation decided to give in, for now.
"Ok I'll accept. But there has to be another way to save Iris, I refuse to turn her into a monster like myself." Artemis smiled even more and explained,
"You do not need to worry about that. You're the only werewolf that will change during the full moon, a form of insurance so to say. Any you make afterwords will have similar abilities as you, but won't be as strong, or be as connected to the moon as you are. To infect others, you need to share some of your blood with them, a bite won't work since it was originally your blood that changed you as well. And I have these for you as well." After she finished speaking, a pair of metal cards appeared and Leo recognized them as Id cards. He suddenly recalled that his said werewolf for race and realized that it would complicate things when he would try to travel in the future.
"That's right, these cards are for you and your wife. They are separate from Themis's control so no one will tell the difference. Just make sure you don't use any other cards because they won't work with these ones. Plus yours is a little special." At her word Leo looked at the cards he was handed and noticed that there was another slot on it under status.
FOLLOWERS- 23
Before he could ask about it though,
"A part about being a champion is that they get blessings from the god they follow. I consider the transformation I did on you one, this is the other blessing you will get. I call it the Pack ability. As you gain followers in the world, your power will grow stronger. The more powerful the followers, the stronger you get. And this will just be your base as you can still cultivate mana or chi to become stronger still. This is your challenge."
"And why do I need a challenge?! This is probably a little late but what does a champion do exactly?" Leo was starting to become even more concerned about what he got himself into with each passing word.
"The champions typically battle each other to prove dominance over the others, and by extension the gods they serve. However not every God or champion is interested in being he best. Hephaestus for example, his champions usually focus on crafting weapons for the fighters. And if they are called to combat, rely on the people they've armed to fight for them. Demeter is similar, except her champion rarely, if at all becomes involved in fighting since they focus on crops and the harvest. I will warn you about one champion though, Arthur. He has been around for at least the last thousand years and he has been at the top since then. He is the only one I wouldn't recommend fighting. As for your challenge, I don't care about fights to the death, but I want to be entertained. So I want you to recruit the other champions instead of killing them. This should be in your best interest as well since with the pack ability, each champion you recruit will add to your strength tremendously."
Leo's head was spinning as he tried to absorb all of this information. Before he could say anything though, Fenrir walked up to him.
'You are of the same blood as me. As such I will also grant you a boon my child.' Leo could hear a voice that was sounding inside of his head. He turned to look at the giant wolf, who then placed a paw on his chest. After a second he removed it and the voice sounded in his head once more.
'As my child, all of my descendants will acknowledge you. With my blessing, they will worship you and beg for the chance to serve you.' Once again Leo wanted to ask questions, but before he could Artemis spoke again.
"I know you want to ask several things, but time is short and I said that I will stop supporting your wife's life at sunrise. I don't mind continuing our talk, but unless you wish for her to die then we should wrap things up." For once Leo agreed with her, but before she sent him away he requested,
"I said I'll become your champion, but I have a request. In five years, if I keep you properly "entertained" then I want you to remove the monthly curse on me." Artemis considers his request for a moment then said as she grabbed his arm suddenly.
"Very well, but you better put in a good effort to release my boredom. Remember the one to pay the price of you don't, won't be you. Now then, good day." As she said that, his arm under her hand started burning before she suddenly shoved him into the pool. As soon as his head was submerged, he opened his eyes and was back in iris's hut. He looked out the window and saw the horizon glowing, indicating that sunrise was approaching.