In The Hands Of The Gods (Jeko & Niigani)

The moon was making its rise above the cold night sky. Bizikaw, still disheartened, had a very weary look on his face.

"What is with your face?" asked Jeko.

"Jeko, leave him alone." Aamoo cut in before Jeko began his spew of rhetorical questions to exert humiliation upon Bizikaw, "can't you see the wolf haven't slept or eaten? Do you not have a heart? You dumbass!"

"No, I don't have a heart. Hearts are for humans!" Jeko roared into a menacing laughter. "I have a brain though… oh and a stomach that craves death…" Jeko paused to give everyone an uncomfortable suspense before saying, " and a thirst for the blood of mankind." He continued to laugh with minaciously.

"SHUT UP!" Bizikaw tackles Jeko onto the floor. "YOU ARE NEITHER MAN NOR WOLF. WHAT YOU ARE IS A PATHETIC AND EVIL LITTLE COWARD!" Bizikaw's voice boomed loudly sending tremors through Jeko's body.

"Ssssssssssorry! I didn't mean to get you so riled up." Jeko's voice is now shaking with fear. He knew Bizikaw could kill him in one simple blow. The thought that Bizikaw may have seen what he did to Jiiga'e, suddenly overcomes him in horror. "Let me go. I know you wont kill me. We are brothers. LET ME GO!" Jeko wriggles out from underneath Bizikaw and into a clearing nearby.

Jeko narrowed his eyes at Bizikaw and Aamoo, glaring hatred at the both of them."Bizikaw, you stupid dog! You two better sleep with one eye open tonight!" Jeko howled and he too, like Niigani, ran off into the darkness of the woods.

After a little while, Aamoo and Bizikaw decided that they'd rather risk going berserk under the full moon together than being alone and risk being killed by other things.

*

The leaves and tree branches danced and swayed with the songs of the wind as the full moon radiated its bright light down onto them.

All is calm.

Aamoo laid perched on the strongest branch by the bough of a tree nearby in his human form. "Hey Bizikaw, do you think Jiiga'e could have survived that snowslide?" Aamoo asked, but was only met with Bizikaw's hmf.

Aamoo peered down at Bizikaw, who was laying down on the dirt floor, way too big of a wolf and man to climb trees for safety. "I saw what you did. I think you did a great thing by giving Jiiga'e hope. I think hope is what we all had wished our alpha's to give us, but who would have thought that our alpha would stray us so far away from righteousness. Am I right?" Aamoo continued.

"The moonbeam is giving us its strength. Shut up and take it in while it lasts." Bizikaw said nonchalantly. "I need this, so I need you to shut up."

Not a second later, Aamoo began talking again. "Bizikaw, why did you say all that mean stuff about the weak and then hypocritically try to aid them?" Aamoo's dull interrogation continued. "I mean, I'm not a strong Ma'iingan, but I sure will always try to help the weak whenever I can. But you, you're BIZIKAW! You are not just an average brute, you are THE brute! Shouldn't you always try to~"

"I said SHUT UP! It doesn't matter if I'm a hypocrite or not. We've killed so many people and have done so much wrong that our simple acts of kindness now, will never do us any good!"

"But we were under orders by our Alpha. Shouldn't that say enough about us?"

The sound of Bizikaw's growls suddenly interrupts Aamoo's line of questioning, alerting him to look in the same direction as Bizikaw, who was now standing on all fours with his scruff sticking straight up. In the darkness of the woods resounded the clicks of twigs breaking and ruffles of leaves as if something big was headed their direction..

"Stay up there and do not come down." Even though he muttered in a quiet tone, Bizikaw's voice was clearly forewarning. Aamoo, still in his human form, abided by Bizikaw's warning and climbed up higher onto another few branches.

Whatever was in the woods suddenly rushed out at Bizakaw at full speed. Bizikaw dodged the hit as the giant creature rampaged passed, turning around and lunging right back at him again and again. Bizikaw bolted left then right then left again and then right again.

"I can barely keep up with this beast." Bizikaw thought to himself as his muscles tightened to prepare for another evasion. "What the heck is this thing?"

Lost in his thoughts, Bizikaw receives an unexpected blow knocking him backwards. The beast was coming at him again, this time aiming for his head. Bizikaw struggles to get onto his feet, but readies himself for a grapple.

The creature darted forwards, right at Bizikaw.

Bizikaw tightens his paws, ready to jump to bite the creature.

But something was holding him down.

No.

Someone was holding him down.

Bizikaw turns back to look at his two back legs.

Without realizing it, Jeko had tied both of Bizikaw's back legs in cuffs and is now looping it around the tree trunk behind him.

Jeko let out a vengeful grin, "Told you to sleep with one eye open, didn't I?" he chuckled, finishing his knot before disappearing into the darkness again.

Bizikaw turns his attention back to the creature, accepting his fate he closes his eyes.

Just when all hope was lost he heard a loud howl. Aamoo was howling to the moon. Bizikaw opened his eyes and saw white. White like the purest white color of the moon.

The moon's powers strengthened Bizikaw and his body instantly quadrupled in size. He howled at the moon, his voice more broad and vicious. He was now a large wolf standing on his legs.

Bizikaw stretched out his right arm and swung it right into the face of the beast, killing it immediately as it flew by Aamoo's branch.

"Oh no." Aamoo dared not speak a word, "the moon has chosen Bizikaw to go berserk for this full moon." He thought to himself, trying to remain as still as he could.

Bizikaw howled in a roaring heat of rage then dashed into the woods chasing after Jeko.

*

Jeko reached his hiding spot, out of breath and laughing in thrill. "That's what he gets for being a smartass." The words rolled off his tongue with such amusement. "He's probably dead now!" Jeko continued to laugh.

Trees and branches cracked as they broke off in Bizikaw's path and Bizikaw's thunderous footsteps moved closer and closer to Jeko. Jeko's laugher slowly stops as he began to notice the pebbles rumbling under and around this paws.

Bizikaw pops up behind Jeko and he gasps as though his soul has lept out of his body. Bizikaw howled loudly, sending frightening quivers through Jeko bones.

Before Jeko knew it, his paws were already fluttering and his body was moving on its own, fleeing at the sight of Bizikaw's berserk-werewolf form.

"Rooooooar!" Bizikaw's howling began to sound more and more beast-like. His veins bulged angrily like it could burst at any second.

Jeko shuttered at the roar and ducked while sprinting away.

Bizikaw swiped his claws forward, extending his arms as far as he could to reach Jeko.

Jeko is now running as fast as he can away. As he fled he turned back to look at the distance closing in between them, he got a glimpse of Bizikaw's eyes and his heart sank into the pit of his stomach.

Bizikaw's eyes were white, like the moon with a tint of yellow surrounded by the black sclera that seemed soulless, like he wasn't even there. Like something else is completely controlling his body.

Like he was going to kill Jeko, right there and right then.

Jeko's traitorous legs couldn't go any faster allowing Bizikaw's long armlike paws to swipe at him, plunging deep into Jeko's abdomen right before sending him flying off into the distance.

Winded, Jeko attempts to stand as his four legs struggle to lift him up. Blood gushed from his mouth as he quickly examined his abdominal wound, but he couldn't tell what the damage was because all he saw was red.

"I didn't escape death two days ago, just to die here today because of you." Jeko managed to cough up.

The now berserk Bizikaw completely disregards Jeko's yelling and rushes toward him.

Jeko tries to rush away from another of Bizikaw's insanely strong blows, but no matter how hard he tries, the pooling blood beneath him keeps slipping in place. Karma. He knew he was receiving exactly what he had earned.

Bizikaw throws both his arms forward, swiping them simultaneously, ready to kill Jeko.

Out from the darkness of the woods, Niigani jumps onto Bizikaw, her jaws locking tightly on his neck. Bizikaw tries to swipes at Niigani, but she is able to evade every blow. Niigani was suffocating him.

Enraged and unable to breathe, the berserk Bizikaw punches the ground. One time, two times, and then a third time creating a large fissure into the depth of the Earth.

The ground shook as it split apart and the three wolves all fell into the cracks.

Bizikaw, the heaviest of them all, fell onto a little ledge not too far from ground level, hitting his head along the tumbling rocks, knocking him out instantaneously.

It would be morning before anyone wakes.

*

A small bird landed on Bizikaw's snout, pecking away the dirt to get to the flies buzzing away at the putrid smell of open flesh. Bizikaw opens his eyes and shakes off the little bird and the dust that is now covering his entire fur coat from head to toe.

Water trickled from above, splatting onto Bizikaw's face.

Bizikaw's tongue licked his snout hoping to get a lick of water since his throat was so dry and coarse. As soon as he tasted the salty liquid, he barked and stood straight up on his four legs.

"Yuck! Eck….yuck!" Bizikaw began to dry heave, but the lingering ammonia reeking from his coat was pungent.

"Bizikaw! You're finally awake!" a voice called out from above. Bizikaw transformed into his human form and finally was able to empty his stomach, which only contained the bitter yellow-green bile from being empty for so long.

"You nasty little fu~" Bizikaw was about to begin cussing when a rope dropped down hitting him in the face. "AAAAAOOO"

"Sorry, Bizikaw. This took me all night and all morning to make." Aamoo popped his head out. "I figured I'd rescue the brute first so then he can help me rescue the others later." Aamoo gave Bizikaw a big smile. "Now hurry and climb up, big guy.

"I don't know if I can." Bizikaw called up. "I'm hurt, I don't know exactly where, but I have no energy to climb."

"Tie it around your waist and I will try to help pull you. But I will need you to try your best to climb too."

After a torturous climb with many breaks, alas Bizikaw finally made it over the edge.

"Bizikaw, we have to get Jeko and Niigani out too. But there's only one Mulberry tree and I've nearly stripped it all of its bark to make this one rope. What do we do now?"

Laying down and panting out of breath on the grassy floor, Bizikaw answered, " We hunt for food to feed them. It will be my way of saying that I no longer owe them anything. Then go back to Ma'iingan camp to beg for their help and their forgiveness. Repent for our sins. And if we're executed, then so be it."

Aamoo's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you sure that's what you want to do?"

"Yes."

"Alright then." Aamoo transformed into his wolf form, ran behind a nearby bush, and began to dig.

"Why are you wasting energy?" Bizikaw barked.

"For this." Aamoo pulled out a possum and two hares, holding them with his mouth as walked toward the fissure.

Bizikaw narrowed his eyes at Aamoo and asked with skepticism, "I thought you said you worked all night on that rope?"

"And I did…but a wolves gotta eat and who knew how long you guys were gonna be out? So when these rodents came along, I took my chances." Aamoo answered with a blank stare at Bizikaw. "Good thing I did right?"

Aamoo tosses the dead animals down to Niigani and Jeko and then announces to them, " We will come back to help you. For the meantime, eat and stay alive." Then he turned his attention back to Bizikaw and said wearily, "I hope they heard me."

And with that, they both headed back towards Ma'iingan camp.