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Chapter 9 - Chapter 8: The Road Ahead

Outskirts Of Ye Olde Raven Inn, Elderbloom, Unknown World...

True to his word, Kedon had been up and dressed a few hours before sundown and Tumbris had been right beside him dressed and ready for the world outside of the Inn due to Kedon sparing no expense in terms of his leather armor and cloak to keep him hidden from danger and free of the shifting weather. Kedon had been well accustomed to living among the elements, but Tumbris had been different. He spent the better part of his childhood under the Inn's roof and among the women of his kind despite the unsavory practices going on inside. It had been the only home he'd ever recalled. Kedon awaited Tumbris to take his first steps out into the open as if daring the rotund merchant to say or do anything to provoke his ire when it came to the white-haired elven lad.

Tumbris took his first steps outside of the Inn since his arrival as an elven lad bound and gagged by slavers and dumped off inside never to venture outside until The Ranger had come to liberate him. While Tumbris had known about human sentiment toward elves being less than ideal unless being a servant or a means of sex had been involved, he was pleased that at least Kedon offered him a smile of sorts when he stepped out for the first time in years.

"Let's get going," said Kedon turning rather serious at that moment as he noted the hour of the day.

Tumbris nodded and followed his new master and lover out of the village and down the dark and mysterious pathways and back into the deep forest where he'd come from before taking up at the Inn and purchasing supplies for his continued journey through the woods.

There had been so many new sights and sounds as Tumbris found himself unable to handle most of the noise but Kedon had a firm grip on his hand and pulled him along whenever he paused due to being overwhelmed by the world and the noise. The larger human moved rather fluently through the woods like a fish in the water as his long black locks waved behind him in the distance rising and falling with each step and slapping against his broad black leather-covered shoulders.

His feet were large, Tumbris had known it from when they were in bed and he examined the massive human's body noting its size from head to toe as well as the cock that he frequently plunged inside him. Each step forward had been one of ease for the larger human while Tumbris had barely been able to keep up.

They walked for quite a ways before nightfall had loomed above them and Kedon ordered Tumbris to make camp. He had of course shown the white-haired elven lad how to do it, before hiking off into the woods for water and firewood before it got too late in the night for it. Tumbris had not known that Kedon had keen senses especially at night and as a result he'd been shocked that he returned with the required items while waiting patiently in their tent rolling out the bedding and keeping to himself as the noises of the woods began to get to him.

The hooting of an owl perched nearby along with the occasional shifting and ruffling of leaves had been something Tumbris had not been used to due to the singing and dancing that took place a the Inn drowning out all sounds of nature that he'd formerly been accustomed to.

Tumbris had been quite embarrassed when he nearly leaped out of his skin once Kedon had returned with the wood and water for the night. The large human brute made a fire with decidedly impressive skill and managed to hand off the water without spilling a drop refilling his waterskins and tossing some to Tumbris for storage just in case water had been scarce in their travels.

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The Tent, The Brindlewood Forest, Unknown Location, Unknown World...

Tumbris had been unable to sleep despite the crackling of the fire outside the tent and the soft yellow-orange glow casting long shadows amid the trees and dirt below them. Kedon had been pacing back n forth for a time before going out to patrol the area marking his territory by way of his urine along the ground and trees. Old habits had died hard when it came to his being raised previously by a pack of dire wolves but they had kept him safe just the same as he grew combining their ways and the ways of The Rangers that raised him with the intention of making him one of them until he'd been rejected once more in his young life by those he had longed to impress and be among.

First Ranger McCormick Neels had been of the mind to cast him back out into the woods snarling at the look of the boy who had only wanted to belong. He had outright refused to admit or conscript him angry that Pollux had even brought him to their camp to begin with. Heartbroken and rejected, a teenage Kedon fled into the woods once more not at all liking the vileness of humanity in place of the kindness and family dynamic of the wolves that raised him.

These humans had killed them, labeling them a nuisance and making outfits of their fur. It made Kedons' wolfish blood boil and before he knew it, his last memory had been of the snide comments made by the First Ranger as his beady eyes looked down upon him as if he were nothing more than scum at the bottom of his boot.

The screams were magnificent coming from the smug bastard with no one around to impress and intermediate, he begged for his miserable life and offered even one of his own men in his place, proving to be unworthy of the post he not doubt schemed to hold. The fiend had torn out the throat of the fraud and mutilated his body for the others to find and the animals to feast for his blood was the blood of a coward and not even the fiend had elected to feed off him.

Kedon had awoken after the incident naked and covered with blood amid the trees. While he hated The First Ranger and everything he stood for, he wanted him exposed but the beast, the vile fiend that resided within, had wanted to spill the arrogant mortal's blood for his callous words to the boy and in payment for the packs' blood taken by his men on his orders.

At the present time, Kedon had rushed out into the deeper woods desperate in his attempts to get as far away from Tumbris as possible as he felt his body begin to shift and change in the wake of the full moon looming high above him amid the canopy of trees. He could already feel the unnatural beating of his heart and the pain from his bones elongating and his body contorting to fit the frame of the beast, the fiend that resided within.

Such had been the way of his vile curse, but only part of it.