The 1st Tenet of the Rykanthé
Eat if you are Hungry; Drink if you are thirsty. A weakened body leads to a weakened mind. The attack against your mind is always ongoing and a healthy body leads to a healthy mind.
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It's been a week since I've come to live with these Rykanthé.
I arrived in a cart pulled by some large beast that resembled a larger version of Dire Garou to this massive grouping, of tens of thousands of people. Each person had a different look about them, some looked happy to be here, some looked completely indifferent, others looked like the hated everything; the worst of the worst looked like they wanted to give up on everything, including life.
In the cart that had driven me away from my family and home was filled with others like me, most of them were scared, and afraid like myself. To my surprise there was a large diversity in ages; some who looked about my age, a some looked middle aged, and a few looked old enough like they might die in a few years anyway - I couldn't see them being a threat to anyone, and I kind of envied them that they looked like they might die soon - to my surprise there was even a few children. Most of the children hadn't stopped crying the entire time. I might have pitted those kids if they hadn't been so annoying, and if we all hadn't been in the same situation. Some of the older adults, made an attempt to console the children, little good it did.
The journey had taken about a week. The driver had driven through several valleys, hills and over flat plains. We stopped periodically for about three to five hours a day in different towns and villages collecting other like us. Each time we stopped the local village looked at us with disdain and treated like pariah; diseased, cursed, and beyond all hope.
Eventually we arrived at our destination, it was a thick forest; it looked to be the sort of place that was haunted. I couldn't help but think that this place seemed like the perfect place to die. I looked up at the tall, thin withered trees that seemed like they would rot and die on their own. I stared at the trees for a while, and saw myself hanging from one of those trees, the proper end to a miserable cursed existence.
We were all unloaded and told to start walking into the forest. Suddenly One of the men in chains had jumped down from the cart, snapped his bindings without much effort, and to my surprise he took off trying to run away at a pace that seemed inhuman.
The driver then jumped down in a casual pace. I couldn't see their face hidden behind their cloak and hood. Without warning the driver let out a roar so loud and bestial that we all collapsed to ground in fear. My body lost its strength, the strength in my muscles ebbed away like I was made of jelly. The man that had taken off collapsed instantly.
In the blink of an eye the driver had descended upon the escapee, driving his head into the ground. The man let out a roar that was just as bestial and loud, we all cowered further in fear. Then the driver had let out one last roar so loud that it seemed to pierce my very brain. I couldn't think straight, I felt dizzy, and vomited from the force of the roar.
After a few minutes everyone got back to their feet. The driver had caused the man to go unconscious and now he was dragging him by the scruff of his neck.
Suddenly taking everyone by surprise, that beast that was pulling the cart began to morph and shift into a person. The driver unfazed through the man some clothes. The driver ordered us to walk into the forest. We walked for what felt like hours. Eventually we began to hear murmurs, and chattering. With each step it became louder, and louder till we saw the light from campfires.
Over a hill we saw them, the massive group of people, all gathered together in this deep forest.
The driver approached from behind us still dragging the man behind him.
"This is the Pheruks Woods, this place will be your home now. Welcome to this home of the nomadic Rykanthé, welcome to the 'Brotherhood'.
The driver leads us down the hill into to the valley. It was hard to tell how many people were here, but at a glance there was enough people here to fill a small city.
We were greeted by a group of people who graciously welcomed us. It was explained that tomorrow there would be meeting for those that had arrived over the last week. It was told to us that another two groups would be arriving tonight. We were then given places to sleep for the night.
This entire place was nothing but a loose collection of tents, shabbily constructed pavilions, and fire pits. This place gave the feeling of a refugee camp.
After we had settled in, we were given food to eat and given a brief overlook of where everything was at. The food was rather bland, and consisted of mostly meat with a little bit of vegetables sprinkled in. While eating something caught my attention, I looked up to see a group of people walking up a hill. Spread out beyond the hill were small fires, and through the trees I could make out the shadows of people. My eyes moved back to the group of people climbing the hill, one of them stopped and turned around. The eyes of this person were bright yellow and seemed to pierce through the darkness directly at me. After a moment this person continued on up the hill beyond the forest.
"Oh, curious about them, are you?" A man appeared from behind me. He had long curly black hair, tanned skin. This man looked ungroomed, thin, with downtrodden eyes, with stress filled dark lines under his eyes. His clothing looked dingy, and tattered as if they were one of the few things he actually owned.
"Up there, that's where the packs stay. They protect this place and keep us from escaping. Each pack have an Alpha and Beta, like a Captain and their Lieutenant. Then there's the Gammas the soldiers of the pack. Lastly there's Omega, the packless, lone wolves. Each of us; you, me, and everyone else here, we're omega, packless nobodies, the only difference between us and a true omega is we have this village of nobodies.
The Alpha-Tau likes to say we're all one pack, one big family, but that ain't true. We're all just cursed bastards trying to survive and not kill anyone in the meantime," the man started to go off on a tangent; it was obvious he didn't have the best opinion of this place.
"Don't listen to him, we're here to learn to control the beast within us. When we can we're free to go," a woman a couple of tents down spoke up.
"Yeah right, fat chance in hell of us controlling that bloodlust. Just how long have you been here again?!" The man spoke up raising his voice.
". . ." The woman stayed quiet.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," the man said in passing as his attention turned back to me.
"Don't listen to the junk they try to feed ya; everyone is told that if we can control of our bloodlust, we're free to go home. No use getting your hopes up for that. It's all garbage. I've been here for seventy years, seventy years and I've never seen a single person go home, most join a pack, or just die off. The stress eats at ya, the bloodlust drills into ya psyche, it slowly kills what makes us sane, and eventually it turns ya into a beast, the Vukodlak. I've seen a lot of people turn, and I've seen a lot of former people, now beasts hunted down, too many to count. The packs they do try'n bringing 'em back, trying to save 'em, make 'em normal again, never works though. All that's left is to put a piece of silver in 'em," the man pointed the center of his forehead.
"Enough of that though, you should get some rest, the Alpha-Tau of the village, and the Alpha-Tau of the Packs will be meeting you tomorrow after the last of the new groups arrive for the season. Oh, by the way the name's Sam, Sam Graves," he extended a handshake, though it seemed more out of habit more than a courtesy. "So, tell what's yours?"
"Oh me, I'm Daniel, Daniel Bellerose."
After our greeting Sam bid me goodnight and left disappearing into a tent.
Oddly enough hearing all of that made me somehow feel so much worse, but it gave me some twisted sense of comfort, like accepting the things you know you can't change.
I headed into my tent but stopped just before entering. My eyes once again gravitated toward the hill to the far-left side. There was a bonfire large enough to be spotted miles away. From the hill I could feel something, something staring me down. That feeling moments later disappeared leaving me with a sense of unease. I entered my tent finding a fur pelt to lay down on.
A moment later I felt my eyes grow heavy, my mind drifted off; sleep is probably the only sense respite I will ever have from now on.