134 CHPT 134: Home to the Dark

"UH!"

Claude's eyes shot open and he found himself looking up at the trees that blocked out pieces of the cloudless dark blue night sky. He was back in the real world, he was sure of it after hearing Frosty's loud breaths to his left.

He continued to lay on the thick lush grass for a few more moments as he thought about what Fenrir said. Pretty much all of it made him uneasy— more so than he already was about the future.

"[Well that was....eventful.]" Arne finally said.

Claude didn't respond, he was too deep in his own mind questioning the giant Wolf's words. He found himself only being driven deeper into a feeling of discomfort as he replayed their interaction over and over.

Slowly, the familiar angsty— aggressive tingle he got every morning started up inside him. Prompting him to silently get up and approach his work out equipment.

"Work the muscle. Clear the mind." He said as he walked over to the pull up bar.

***

He spent the better part of an hour and a half doing weighted pull ups, muscle ups, push ups and lever holds until his arms felt like they'd pop. Then he moved on to doing heavy goblet squats and lunges across the yard encompassing the cabin with a 70lb weight in each hand.

By the time he was done working out, the wounds on his side were little more than bruised red scarring that he could officially add to his collection of battle scars and the jumpy feeling he started with was gone.

"[Your more quiet than usual Claude, talk to me.]" Arne said as Claude stood in the grass feeling the warmth of the slowly rising sun.

"He didn't say animals...." Claude muttered.

"[Huh?]"

"He didn't say I have what it takes to lead the animals. He said creatures.....creatures of the night." Claude said as he raised his left hand— remembering the pain of Fenrir's claw stabbing through it.

"Woah..." he said out loud as he turned his hand over and noticed the weird symbol on his palm.

"[That looks like—]"

"Norse." Claude cut in as he studied it.

It was a circle. An impossibly dark circle that somehow looked like it had incredible depth, like a sea of pitch darkness. Two similarly black lines outlined it, forming an open space that was filled with Norse writing.

The longer he stared at the lettering, the more he felt like he understood it.

"Myrkur....Heimr..." Claude said suddenly. He flinched as he felt the dark circle pulse in his hand.

"[What does that mean? How can you read that?]" Arne asked.

"I don't know yet." Claude responded.

After sitting in silence and inspecting the marking for a while, Arne broke the collective quiet.

"[So. Do you know what that new skill you earned does?]".

"Oh! I haven't even thought about that yet. Let's see." Claude replied as Frosty hopped up, intrigued by his happier tone of voice.

The sun continued its path towards the top of the sky until it now flowed just above the trees, casting deep shadows into the yard from the forest.

"Alright let's do this." Claude said as he activated his skill, (Shadow Cast).

.....

"....."

"[.....]"

"What the hell— why isn't it working?" Claude asked as he stood with his back to the sun.

Arne bounced a few ideas off his head that turned out to function as more failed attempts. He was left standing in the field thinking it over to see what the problem was.

"Shadow Cast.....Shadow Cast....hmmmm...OHHHHHHH."

"[We may need to question our combined level of intellect..]" Arne commented as they both stared at the large collection of shadows stretching out of the forest.

"Ok. Now let's do this." Claude said as he raised his hands and aimed for the shadows.

FWSSSSSS!!!!

The wind screamed as black smoke crawled out of the dark circle design in his left hand and swirled up his forearm.

"What the hell?" He thought as the smoke continued to flow from his hand.

Fwoo!

Suddenly, a black ball of darkness shot from his palm and slammed straight into the darkest portion of the forest.

The smoke slithered back into his palm and left him, Arne and Frosty staring into the forest.

After a few tense moments, he noticed movement. A collection of movement as things crawled out of the darkest corners and crevices— things they looked way too large to fit into. It's like they were spawning from the shadows.

He was initially unsure of what they were until he saw 6 pairs of bluish white eyes open in the dark forest. They reminded him of a dozen small moons.

"[Interesting.]" Arne said.

Frosty's tail began to wag as Claude felt his heightened interest through their link.

All he could do was watch as their glowing eyes moved out of the darkness to greet him.

"No fucking way."