It was worse than they'd thought. The village looked like a pigsty. Sheraff, Theraff, Levet and Ranfred, hiding in some shrubbery on the hill overlooking the village, observed it with curiosity:
The village was small. The little houses in it were dilapidated and very dirty. The roads were thick with mud and grime, having a haunting shade of red in it. Wendigos, most of them barely clothed, lazed about in boredom. A big group, lying on broken wooden sofas in the middle of the village, were feasting on scrumptious, raw, human legs. An inordinate amount of human blood lay in a pool under them. It was very slowly draining away to the village exit and lent the mud the red tinge. The wendigos, however, noticed nothing, as they chewed away. Unlike conventional feasts, they weren't even talking amongst themselves, focused only on the meal in their hands.
The four werewolves took all this in for a few minutes as they attempted to discover every little detail. "I've seen enough." whispered Sheraff, finally, in the bushes as he stared down at village so far below him. "We need to talk. Let's go." Saying so, he carefully navigated his way out of the shrub. He cast a few furtive looks around and smelled the air. Finding nothing, he set off on a silent trot down the hill. The other three, wordlessly, followed their alpha.
Within a couple of minutes, the four werewolves were inside the cave they were using as their hideout. It was halfway down the hill's slope and had a huge boulder they could push to use as a door. Levet, showing uncharacteristic magical affinity, had lit a smoke-less fire in the center, to light the place up.
"Seems like we were right." announced Theraff, pushing the boulder to block the entrance.
"Are you sure?" wondered Sheraff.
Theraff looked at his brother incredulously. "Did you see them down there? They were feasting! How could they have this much supply of fresh humans after they massacred that village as soon as they came here?"
"Hmm...." Sheraff put a hand on his chin and stared into the fire.
Ranfred came up beside him with his long walking stick and gently tapped him with it. "Even I have to admit it seems extremely convenient for them to have so much food right after the slaughter of Led Orien."
"Convenient." is the right word muttered Sheraff.
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing."
Levet collapsed on the hard ground. He rummaged in their supply bag and dug out a big water gourd. Taking a healthy swig, he threw it over to Theraff who did the same.
"So, what's the plan, alpha?" asked Theraff.
Sheraff looked up at his brother and remembered how he'd caught up to the three of them so quickly. He was supposed to be at least 2 days later than when he'd actually arrived. Was he worried about me? Despite believing that, Sheraff remembered that feeling he couldn't shake off that Theraff had been running from something from back at the village. Again, after so many days that feeling came back to him. Like his brother was hiding something from him. Like he wanted to tell him something, but always stopped himself.
Sheraff's eyes refocused as he heard the snapping of fingers and he reverted back to sitting on the cold, hard rock of the cave. "What's wrong, alpha?" asked Levet. "You letting your mind run wild again?"
"No...no, it's fine." said Sheraff slowly. He shot his brother a glance, and for a second their eyes met. Again, that feeling overwhelmed him. He opened his mouth to say something but Theraff broke off eye contact and Sheraff's words died in his mouth.
"I say we break in and make the village leader talk." said Ranfred.
Sheraff, who had been taking a swing of water choked and spluttered the liquid out. "Wh-what did you say?" he coughed.
"I say we get them to talk." repeated Ranfred.
"Yes, I heard what you said, but I can't believe you said it." said Sheraff. "I've never heard you suggest force in...like what?"
"Eight years." said Theraff solemnly.
Ranfred let out a booming laugh. "Yes, it has been very long, hasn't it?" he mused. "But...it has also been a long time since we have been in such eminent danger like Valentine. We need to get to the bottom of this Led Orien mess before the vampires come raining down again."
Levet laughed and patted his old friend on the back. "Oh, you old coot, you hadn't gone senile these past years after all."
Ranfred grinned. "Just got older and wiser...than you." he winked.
The four werewolves burst out laughing in the small cave. The fire crackled merrily away and the on the walls shadows danced with mirth.
"Yes," said Levet. "I guess we've all grown..." For a second, he looked almost sad.
"So have you, old man." said Ranfred, noticing his friend's pain before anyone else. "You know magic now? This smokeless fire; even I, who's supposed to be the werewolf court mage, don't know how to do that!" he laughed.
Levet forced a smile. "Yeah, even after what the two of us went through at Armia, you never learned it, did you?"
"Ah, that...that...well, I figured what the hell."
Sheraff laughed. "I guess you were a carefree youngster once too, huh?"
"Oh, more than you know kid." said Levet.
"You should've seen him when we saved that village of Uram...the amount of girls he bedded that single night..."
Theraff laughed. These two were always close. They'd been Omegas till they'd met each other. Even after their rivalry of power from their younger days, they'd never formed a pack, always preferring to strike their own path with no strings attached. But, finally, after meeting Theraff and Sheraff, somewhere the two had decided to settle in. Somewhere they'd agreed to stay for a while...and had been by their side since. Where would I be without them...?
"Anyway, back on topic." said Theraff. "What're we gonna do about these wendigos."
"I say-" started Ranfred but Sheraff held up a hand. "I heard you before. But I refuse."
"What!?"
"For now." continued Sheraff. "I say we watch them for a few days. If they really do have dealings with the vampires, I wanna see it with my own eyes."
Theraff and Levet looked annoyed, but Ranfred sighed. "Well, I'll defer to the wiser move."
* * *
Levet suggested they take turns to watch the Wendigo village and Theraff insisted on taking the first turn. Sheraff gave his assent and settled down for the night. As he lay in his mattress, he stared into the fire. It burned brightly, happily dancing in the night. The cave was warmly lit up, dark shadows playing on the walls. Somehow, his mind was not able to relax...somehow he was uneasy, as if something bad was gonna happen. He peered around the cave and saw that Ranfred was fast asleep, but Levet appeared to be alert, not a sliver of sleep in his eyes. Was he uneasy too?
Sheraff almost opened his mouth to ask that, but somewhere the sentence died in his throat. He was feeling...lonely. He wanted to be alone. This cave, the people around him, the people back home...they somehow felt so far away... He stared into the fire, seeing his entire life flash back in those flames. His strong father, his kind mother...his admiration of his strong brother...how the admiration turned to jealousy as they grew up. How his father fawned over his brother...how all the girls loved him. How he'd felt the biggest insult in his life when his brother refused to be alpha and instead put him there...Wenrrietta and-
A huge, monstrous roar ripped through the night air. Animals scattered, screeching. The wind blew by the trees, rustling in a disapproving tone. A horde of snarls rose through the air, screaming a battle cry.
Levet had been out the cave before Sheraff had even processed what was going on. He'd recognized that roar; it was Theraff's. Ranfred had jumped up and ran out of the cave too, and the alpha, taking a split second to come out of his past musings, rushed after the two too.
They reached the edge of the cliff-like hill and looked down; the war had already started. Theraff, now transformed into a full silverback, was taking on the entire attacking party of the village. His huge jaws ripped apart wendigo after wendigo as his claws kept other attackers at bay. But the rest of the wendigo village was waking up. Torches were being lit up and the sound of weapons clanging together rang throughout the air. The wendigos were snarling and screeching to wake everyone up to the emergency. As they snarled, even their necks split open, revealing these three-inch jagged teeth inside their throats, making a huge three-foot wide jaw perfect for swallowing humans whole.
Sheraff hesitated only for a second. Theraff was taking the brunt of the wendigos, but there seem to be no end to them as they kept pouring out of the houses like ants. Levet was already half-way down the hill, now transformed into a brown furred lycan. "Ranfred, provide support from here!" shouted Sheraff as he flung himself from the cliff too, transforming mid-air into a black lycan, bigger and bulkier than Levet. His green eyes shined green as he dived headfirst into the chaos.
There were more wendigos than he'd thought. Theraff looked like a giant beast, flinging wendigos like they were dolls. But Sheraff noticed the bite marks twinkling bright red under the moonlight. He changed his direction mid-way and jumped straight into the second group of wendigos which were going to flank Theraff. He was suddenly angry; all he wanted to see was red. Whatever was in front of him, was going to die.
The wendigos jumped aside when they saw the giant wolf jumping at them. The evaluated the wolf for a second; huge black, muscular body. Green eyes with black pupils, huge canines, drooling with anger as he snarled. The hackles on his back standing straight up to over a foot high. For a split second, the wendigos realized how this was going to end; but the adrenaline kicked in and they all screeched and rushed at him.
Some wendigos had weapons; swords, spears, even bows. Sheraff got pierced by them a few times, but he didn't feel any pain. All he saw was moving creatures that he was going to split open. From the corner of his eye, he saw a wendigo on the roof a derelict house, shooting unrelenting arrows at him. With a snarl of anger, he jumped straight on to the roof. The wendigo froze in shock; he hadn't expected the werewolf to be able to jump this far. Before he could drop his bow and run, Sheraff pounced on him and ripped him apart with his jaws. Warm blood sprayed his face and the insides of his mouth. More!
Without a second's hesitation, Sheraff jumped down and started savagely ripping apart whatever his claws caught onto. Before he realized, the movement of the wendigos had changed; they weren't attacking him anymore...they were fleeing. But Sheraff was faster...much faster. The sound of four, heavy, padded paws rushing toward them was the last thing many wendigos heard. He saw, far away, a young, female wendigo, running away with a child in her arms. No one escapes! With a huge jump he landed on the roof and was after the two, bouding from roof to roof. The female was almost out of the village gates when Sheraff lunged at her from the roof. She turned around in horror and the last thing she saw was a huge snarling werewolf falling from the sky straight at her....
* * *
The first rays of the sun touched upon a desolate, dead village. Bodies littered the entire settlement. Houses were nothing more than smouldering, black piles of logs now. A few decapitated heads slowly rolled down the main village road. Severed hands, still clutching weapons were strewn around the burning buildings. The pungent smell of bodies rose with the smoke in the air, signalling to everyone in the world, a massacre had just happened.
The figure of a huge, black, wounded werewolf could be seen limping through the village. His gait was dragging as he shambled over to the main village square. There he lay down and started gingerly licking his wounds. He was momentarily joined by the figures of two more werewolves; one brown and the other gray. Both of them less wounded than him.
Levet and Ranfred transformed back to their human forms as they took their places at each side of the huge werewolf. Both looked at their alpha with concern. It wasn't like Sheraff to go berserk, however slightly. He'd ignored defense and allowed himself to get this injured seeing only blood. Even as they stared, the wounds on the black werewolf began to heal.
Theraff came up the carcass strewn road, shirtless and dragging a wendigo with him. The black werewolf lifted up his head and gazed at his brother for a few long moments. He blinked his green eyes for a couple of times and without another expression, Sheraff shifted back to his human form too.
Theraff came up the group and threw the wendigo at Levet who caught him and pinned him into the ground, snarling. Theraff turned to his brother and noticed the wounds he had. "You alright, little brother?" asked Theraff, concerningly.
Sheraff had burned through his anger and now he was feeling angry at himself for every having felt this angry at his own, caring, older brother, whose only crime was that he was a silverback. "I'm...i'm fine." he answered gruffly.
Theraff stared at Sheraff and his little brother defiantly stared right back. Theraff almost laughed and shrugged as if in satisfaction. "I have to apologize, little brother."
"What for?" asked Sheraff.
"For this whole mess. The wendigos got a strange, cloaked visitor when I was observing them. I couldn't see who it was so, I-" The pinned wendigo snarled and tried to mumble something, but Levet crushed his throat even harder which killed his words in his mouth.
"Anyway, I couldn't see who it was, so I climbed down the hill to get a closer look." continued Theraff. "But...I got too close. One of the wendigos saw me, and raised the alarm. The cloaked figure disappeared before I could to jackshit."
"And I'm assuming that's why you left the village leader live, huh?" asked Levet, savagely snarling at the wendigo beneath him.
"Yes. That lowlife is gonna tell us who that black cloaked figure was." said Theraff walking up to the wendigo.
Levet let go of him and the wendigo snarled again. "You-" he began when Theraff clamped down on him with an unnatural rage. "You will talk, wendigo." he said softly. "You will tell me everything."
The wendigo looked horrified. His eyes lept to Sheraff, begging for help. Sheraff returned only a cold stare. Ranfred looked indifferent too, more concerned with the smouldering village. "Leave him to me, alpha." said Theraff. He dragged the wendigo away from the group as the supernatural creature started kicking about frantically, terrified of Theraff.
Theraff dragged him into the only standing house left in the village and banged the door shut. The only things the three werewolves outside heard next were the panic-stricken screams of a wendigo who knew he was going to die. He screamed and wailed, turning the entire countryside into a haunting, deadly place. He screamed like his lungs would burst. They heard a few bangs and the screams increased by tenfold. Whatever Theraff was doing to the wendigo was not humane. Scavengers who'd crawled out to feast on the massacre of the village rushed back down their holes when the heard the screams. Like a banshee wailing for her beloved, the screams rang out. Then there was a sound of an angry...or was it mirthful?...roar, the snapping of a neck, and the screams suddenly died.
Theraff smashed open the closed door and walked out looking like a savage. He was covered in blood, his nails were still transformed into a werewolf's, and his face looked hungry to kill. He walked up to Sheraff, anger clearly seething from him. Sheraff raised his eyebrows.
"Them! Fucking them!" he declared loudly. "I fucking knew it! We should've slaughtered those fuckers long ago!"
"Who?" asked Sheraff, bewildered at the anger.
"The Deadtails..." said Levet, slowly. "Isn't that right?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Theraff. "The fucking Deadtail pack! Apparently, they reached out to these," Theraff looked around to get a satisfactory adjective to describe wendigos "these scum, to ask for the magic crystal they had."
"Wait, what?" asked Sheraff, now losing the conversation.
"Our fucking neighboring werewolf pack!" shouted Theraff.
"I know who the fuck Deadtails are, jackass!" said Sheraff, standing up. "What fucking magic crystal?"
Sheraff's angered retort made Theraff calm down a bit. It wasn't like his brother to get angry over petty things. He paused and took in a deep breath to calm himself. "So," he began again, calmly, "apparently, this wendigo village had a huge magic crystal. The Deadtail pack approached them to ask them for the magic crystal in exchange for fresh human supply."
"And as they'd run out of food, they readily agreed." offered Sheraff.
"Yes." answered Theraff.
"But...why did they need the crystal." wondered Sheraff.
"They obviously needed to cast a big magic spell. One that couldn't be cast with the magic they inherently had, so they had to use an external source to draw on mana." muttered Ranfred, half to himself.
"What kind of magic that even werewolves didn't have enough power for?"
"Maybe...to wipe out a peace summit between vampires and werewolves without a trace?" suggested Levet, almost sarcastically.
Sheraff pondered with his hand on his lips. The other three let him; they knew by now not to interrupt his reflections. "This was supposed to be a shot in the dark." he finally announced. "We didn't have any evidence the wendigos had been involved with the massacre. We just guessed."
"That's the thing about shots in the dark," said Levet. "sometimes they hit. What we need now is our next plan of action, Alpha."
"I can't argue with him." chipped in Ranfred. "It's clear the Deadtails are involved in this."
"They were bad news from the start. Despite you brokering a 'peace' between our packs, Sheraff, I never trusted them" said Theraff, irritably. "They always had a bone out for us. When they finally got a chance, they showed their true colors."
"So...we need our next move." edged on Levet. "Just give us the word and we'll go to war."
Sheraff still didn't say anything. He stood there deep in thought. He remembered all the lively, wise werewolves he'd sent to the summit. Ani, the sharpest kid in the pack with the kindest heart. How that massacred resulted in Valentine threatening Wennrietta and Feraff. The weak Deadtail pack that he'd done so much for just to stop the Woodland Walkers from slaughtering them. How that very same pack had plotted against him. It was a good plan too; massacre the peace summit. Anger the vampires so they'd descend on us and kill us. Then join up with them and reap all the benefits. They would've gotten rid of rivals and made powerful allies...all in one night.
"How powerful is the Deadtail alpha?" asked Sheraff, quietly.
"...powerful." said Ranfred, his eyes intently fixed on Sheraff. "He's known as the Warlock Alpha for a reason. He knows spells I can't even fathom."
"You've known him for a long time, haven't you?" Sheraff turned to Levet.
"Fairly. I ran into him when we were both young. He had a small pack then which he tried to attack me with. The only reason he escaped alive that day was because of his magi-"
"I don't care about ancient times, old man." snapped Sheraff. "You went to him for a few weeks recently. Wanted to learn magic."
"I...went there to learn magic just to get Ranfred off his high horse." said Levet sheepishly.
"And to spy on the Deadtails without even trying to hide it." said Sheraff matter-of-factly.
Levet grinned. "You aren't Wise Alpha without reason."
"How powerful was he then?"
Levet turned serious and pondered for a moment. "Not...as powerful as I'd thought." he said finally. "After all this time, I'd expected him to be a lot more deadlier...but he wasn't."
"But he still was deadly?"
"Isn't that true for any Alpha?"
"Fair enough." Sheraff fell silent again.
"So...are when are the Woodland Walkers going to war?" asked Levet.
"They aren't." announced Sheraff.
"What!? What the fu-"
"Because we're slaughtering the Deadtails ourselves!" said Sheraff savagely.
There was a second of stunned silence. "...er...what?" asked Ranfred.
"They attacked my pack. They endangered my family. They threatened us." said Sheraff angrily. "No one gets away with that. I want to rip them apart myself! Us four, working together, can take down that pack. That much I know."
Levet grinned, pride gleaming from his face. "That's my boy."
Ranfred shrugged as if it couldn't be helped. "Well, we do have a silverback on our side."
Theraff laughed. "You two old men were legends in your time too." A ravenous grin spread across his face. "As for the silverback, he can't wait to slaughter some Deadtails!"