CHPT 554: Faces

Thursday Evening, April 1st. 2241. Location, The Republic of Tierra Primazon's Northern Amazon Rainforest…..

Hsss!

"Ouch! Motherf—- hey do you even know what you're doing, runt?"

"You're like five foot four, don't use that word on me, Tigre. Also, I told you I'm learning."

"Right, Li. Give Don some grace…. And respect."

"What is that a threat? Please tell me it is….."

Claude's eyes opened as he was pulled from his ever advancing nighthorrors. This time, he was pulled away from gaunt elves riding Vampiric Pterodactyls across the night. And Lupines surrounding as a dark woman berated him over his weakness. In the reflective surface of the blood on the ground, he found his fathers eyes instead of his own looking back at him. Then they laughed…..

Claude surveyed the area. He didn't want to sleep. But the body sometimes had other ideas from the mind.

The Phantom Wolves and Gil circled him as he leaned his back against the cave walls. Deeper in, he found Li and Tom backing away from eachother with their eyes low. Between them, Don sat on the cold stone ground, hands glowing as they hovered over the cracks and crevices, pulling mixed metals upwards that almost looked like silver serpents. The other Shifters watched in amazement— or concern.

Clouds outside shifted in the winds and caused the setting sunlight to reach further into their cave, and shine more light on the brittle, uneven and broken swords laying everywhere.

"Make spears, they're harder to get wrong."

Everyone turned.

"Heyyy the Queens awake." Li poked.

"[Progress from broken knees and Dragons fire… I think.]" Arne commented.

"Sure." Claude stood up. Gil and the Phantom Wolves bumped him with their wet noses before jogging off to sit at the caves entrance.

"Sleep well? Si, I bet you were tired. Eating a whole ship full of Pirates would've put me to sleep too. All that human fear…Meu Deus."

"Dios Mio for real, abuela." Don agreed as he ran his hands across a steam of metal, attempting to shape it into a spear now.

Claude shivered at the memory of eating the Pirates.

But not out of disgust. He was past that and his palate was opposed to that. If anything he was h—

His stomach growled.

Helena raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to check the perimeter. Stay in the cave. While I'm gone Tom you're in charge."

He could feel the disdain from the others. Smell it on their sweat.

"[How about some democracy, mate?…. Why make one lead when one doesn't have the same control as say…. Four? There's a reason even The Plethora didn't have one true leader.]"

"Damn. Good point." Claude internally scolded himself.

"Forget what I just said." Claude announced, "Tara, Tom, Helena, and Li. You're in charge together over the entire pack, not just your kind."

Helena held up a hand, "If I may, you need a guide."

"I don't." Claude replied.

"The Amazon swallows life everyday. It has for centuries upon centuries. You'd be surprised. Sounds bounce off the trees deceptively. Old smells rise with the fog and spin your brain. Compass' don't work because the trees have so much iron. And you can't see the sky…." She said in her unique accent he hadn't heard often.

"[ I'd take her. She's proven her knowledge is worthy. The Crocodiles seem the most agreeable, anyway.]"

"Alright. Who's your next in line?" Claude replied.

"Paco. Play nice." Helena pulled the massive bronze skinned brute forward and tapped his cheek like a doting grandmother. He was the one Tom had asked to give Claude croc skin shoes. With his missing hair, eyebrows and hulking frame he looked more like a Crocodile wearing human skin than anything else.

"[Oh yea that'll do.]"

Claude nodded and Helena returned the favor before following him out of the building.

The air was warm, as if the setting sun was right above them— even with its gaze interrupted by the rainforest canopy. The density of it all held in the days heat like a furnace.

….

That word would never be the same.

As he walked, untying his longcoat from around his waist and shrugging it on, Helena scanned the area with a professional gaze. Her curly hair shined under the damp evening air. Absorbing the moisture naturally.

Claude transformed seamlessly, wiping away the cloud of steam as if it was gnats.

"I'll never get used to that, you know?" Helena commented as patches of scale blossomed across her bonier areas.

"Yes you will. There's more bizzare things out there. Where we're going."

Helena grabbed his arm, stopping him as she pointed at a bush.

"Poisonous?"

Helena nodded.

"[Noteworthy for someone else.]"

Claude stepped over the bush and kept on. Following a straight line of high ground.

Prey was everywhere. At every tree, bush and river. But it wasn't what he knew. Everything was its own brand of exotic. Probably written about in books well beyond his lexile level as a child. Books his father may have gotten him when the time came. Stories he may have told if he wasn't…..

"[Anyway.]"

Overhead, birds with purple feathers and fiery orange beaks ripped into giant bugs and walnuts. Heavy things lumbered through the foliage miles away— just observing them. Their new scents.

Even larger things loomed closer. Things with skin like chain mail and teeth like swords.

He let it approach.

It split the greenery with its massive frame. So tall its protruding spinal sail cut the tops of trees. He could smell the river water on it. Taste the fish guts on its breath with each exhale that came spiraling from a crocodilian snout on steroids.

Helena shrunk behind Claude.

The Spinosaur lumbered forward, less than a hundred feet away. Its massive glassy eye scanned over them before pivoting inside its sockets to face the pack of Raptors coming headfirst at the semi aquatic primal.

The beast stomped after the agile hunters and they disappeared in a scale and claw war deeper into the jungle.

Even when they were out of general earshot, he could hear their movements by the birds and smaller creatures fleeing.

But that focus slowly was pulled elsewhere as he caught a scent. Something similar to a pig or boar. Images of the Orcs flew through his mind.

Helena shook her head, "River Rhino's."

Claude could've scolded himself for being unfamiliar.

He let his senses filling in the blank picture as they closed in.

He could hear them drinking from the stream a ways ahead. Some less effected by the Spinosaur and Raptor spectacle earlier.

Large throats. Sounds muffled by heavy skin and muscle. They had to be larger than cows.

Claude held Helena in her tracks and silently climbed the nearest tree. It was different from the oak back home. Sap leaked down his claws. The moisture left the bark softer— heavier feeling. Massive slugs and worms emerged trying to poison him to defend their territory.

He'd never been so grateful to be a Lupine of Romulus as he ignored their bites and stings in pursuit of the hunt.

Once at the lowest level of the canopy, he walked the branches like they were a system of tightropes. His clawed feet bent and gripped the slim spaces. All the while, Helena slowly slithered into the water. He couldn't even see her beneath the waves.

Only the massive River Rhino herd. Short multicolored smooth fur. Heavy skin. Dotted backsides like Deer. They didn't have horns or antlers. Just incredibly developed bodies and prehensile snouts almost like elephants. He could hear the clarity of their breaths. Practically smell the quality blood rushing through their veins.

"[Hello testosterone…...]" Arne commented.

Claude had other words for what he saw. Other impulses.

One of the Herd moved.

He exploded from the trees in a thundering ball of shadows.

Seconds later he was landing on the back of the largest River Rhino while the Phantom Wolves and Gil caught theres.

The massive creatures dove into the rushing stream to their surprise. Claude dug his claws in deep to survive the push of the murky waves.

The things swam like fish. Or they were strong enough to run against a current.

He tore into its back with his incisors, ripping away and swallowing down clumps of hairy flesh and stringy muscle.

"RRRREUUUU!!!!" The River Rhino panicked and headed out of the water.

Something behind them exploded forward with a reptillian hiss and caught its leg.

Helena's jaws locked in and she twisted until its entire leg came off.

Before it could even fall, Claude had its throat in his hands and was on the ground.

Twenty minutes later and they were a few miles further up stream surrounded by freshly hunted River Rhinos.

Claude sat next to Helena as he ate. His current way of eating may have been new to him. But it wasn't to the Lupine within. He knew the fattiest and most nutritional portions to go for like he knew the back of his hand. It was all a quick and visceral process that ended with a sack of split bones and foul intestines laying in front of him.

He wiped his mouth and hands in the stream. Catching his reflection. His hair was so long it hung down to his waist like black head curtains. The Lupine visage that sometimes felt comparable to Fenrir's was no different. Maybe a bit more strained. Maybe a bit more wi—

"You are a good person, aren't you?"

Claude's reflection rippled out of focus as something slithered past him.

"What?" He looked up at Helena as she dragged her kills carcass and threw it in the stream.

"You have power, Claude Grey….. this much is obvious. Not experience in many things. But power in many areas. You could've killed those Rhino's in the blink of an eye. But you let us have our fun. You let us work."

"I could've just lost myself to my instincts." Claude wiped his hands off on his longcoat.

Helena shook her head, "No no no. You do it often. I think you are a nice young Shifter. Just like Don. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

Claude looked at her again with an eyebrow raised. It probably looked bizarre on his snouted face.

"You keep your tough killer face on for folks like Li. But if you ever need to relax, you may around me. I owe you my life….twice now. In general even, Like the rest of us." Helena bowed her head.

Claude shuffled awkwardly and cleared his throat. He could hear Helena stifle a laugh.

"Just be ready when night falls. I need you most on this, Helena. This is your home, so you'll be guiding us to every Guild Hall you know until we find a Portal that gets us to The Sunlands. And there is no resting. It gets worse from here."

"Deep waters are my favorite, Alpha."