The Old Moose and The Wolf from Hell
In the forest just before the marsh, a lone wolf prowled in the night. Suddenly he stopped, raised his head and looked in the direction of the nearest human town, ears upright, eyes alert, all his senses scanned his surroundings for anything, but nothing. The moist air was filled with the silence of music of thousands of trilling insects. Even the moon was shy that night. She revealed very little light from under her skirt but that was not a problem for a werewolf. They could see perfectly in the darkest caves and on moonless nights. They could hear the heartbeat of a gerbil many spans down in the ground where it thought itself safe. They could even smell their mates from a forest away. But none of these senses alerted the lone werewolf to any nearby danger. There was a strange feeling in him, one he had never felt before. He did not know what it was but he definitely knew it did not feel good. Unable to perceive any nearby threat; he bent his head over and continued stalking. Maybe if he were an Alpha, he would have worried but he was not an Alpha. He was not even a Beta but an Omega; it was not his place to worry. He always thought that all the worrying be left to the stern Alphas and their Betas. His duty was to bring joy and laughter to the pack and to his family. At the moment, he was tracking what he smelt was a moose, a very aged one. He sniffed the grass where it had left footprints like crumbs. He could smell some blood. Good. It was probably diseased or injured. He looked up towards the trees and tall shrubs in the forest with careful eyes that glowed orange in the dark. The horns of the animal had not made any discernible creases in the vegetation. Also good. This probably meant the old moose was not very big but just small enough for a lone werewolf to take down by himself. He twitched both ears in every direction, trying to pick up the faintest sounds that would give the old animal away but nothing. Not to worry, he knew where the animal was headed. He would just follow the trail it left behind until he surprised it.
Panting as he plodded, he thought about how excited the youngest wolf-lings would be to see a dead old moose for the first time. He could envision them engaging each other for the best parts of the carcass in a play fight. This thought brought back happy memories and led to yet another. He would also save some of its flesh for Tibeth. Ah, Tibeth. How he loved to tease her. The Omega pictured the disgusted look she would give on seeing remnants of a now dead moose. He would laugh and tease her even more, saying it was a gift for their children; Marrow and his little sister. At the thought of the family he was not supposed to have, that strange feeling nudged his gut again. He still was not sure what was wrong. During the conflict with his body, he almost gave himself away for alas! There stood the moose he had been following to the witness of stars. He was right too. It was quite old, not very big and looked sickly. The old animal grazed on without a worry in the world. If the old moose knew about the presence of the werewolf that had been tracking it all night, it did not seem to care as though resigned to the inevitable. He could easily subdue the animal by tiring it and only then would he end it. This was supposed to be the easiest kill in moons. The Omega commanded his body to be still. Each muscle, every bone, none was allowed to move without his permission. The forest quieted in deadly anticipation. He drew closer with each step, the next more quiet than the last, cutting through the brush of the forest like a ghost through water. He was now barely a few spans away, taut, ready to pounce on the unaware animal when he heard an echo of a sharp scream. The Omega lost composure immediately. Sidetracked, he looked back in the direction of the human town again, not the first time that night. Had he imagined it? Why, even the old moose too stopped grazing and looked in the same direction. The aged animal definitely saw the Omega now but he did not make any attempt to flee. It just stood there, lazily munching away on twigs and grass. The Omega was at first confused between resuming the hunt or following the echo but two more screams made his mind up for him. Without a moment's hesitation, he sprang from the shadow of the thicket and sped off for the human settlement, faster than he had ever ran before. He had traveled a reasonable distance when he saw it first and then smelt it.
A glow flickered on the horizon and it smelt of burnt embers - Fire. Bad. The screams were clearer now, more urgent, and not single anymore but an entire mass of petrified wails like a horrified choir out of harmony. Very bad. He shot across the night in blurred speed, past The Hanging forest, past Widow's ravine and way beyond Marsh territory until he reached what was once a bustling town, now unrecognizable, being reduced to ash in flames. Blood wet the tarred ground from bodies that littered the street. There was an arm without its owner, a head, a torso torn clean in two and so on –all more dead than dead. In his fatigue and shock, the Omega did not realize immediately that his body had shifted to look human. His mind tried to make sense of what his eyes saw but it failed him. Who did this and why? Those questions would have to wait. He had to make sure they were safe. He hurried across to the end of the street, took a turn and then another, following a second trail that night. Everywhere the Omega looked was blood and fire but he did not stop to check on any of the bodies. He stopped in the front yard of a familiar cottage and became instantly aware of someone else, something else inside. The house just like the town seemed different. It was quiet. Too quiet. Beyond the small steps that led to the balcony, the front door had been ripped away from the hinges and was thrown onto the lawn beside the house. The werewolf walked through the open doorway into the cabin. Inside, the cottage was littered with broken furniture and other belongings but the children could not have done it. He focused all his senses in an attempt to find them but he soon would not have to. That was the instant the Omega first saw him, saw it. He clenched his teeth instinctively, tightened his fists and stared hard. The creature stared back. Time froze, and for an instant the werewolf thought back to the last happy memory with his family.
Some sunrises ago before the night of the old moose, Omega Markel of the Forest Marsh werewolf pack stalked someone else. He had been watching a young woman who came from the woodlands away from the human town to Siren Lake. She sat on the bank of the lake and kicked the peaceful water below in play. It was a bright radiant day, the kind that humans considered to be beautiful, though to Markel or most werewolves for that matter, the day seemed the same as any other sunny day. The lake sparkled with thousands of little reflections of the sun as wind stroked the water surface to ripples. The long grass around the lake was not spared the caress of the wind and the blue sky stretched clouds into interesting twisted proportions. It was no doubt a peaceful setting and the woman Markel watched silently from the brush seemed to think so from the way she sat carefree on the grass by the lake, enjoying the view. Markel cared not much for nature's beauty nor the insistent need for humans to describe everything but he did care for the young woman, maybe more than for himself. She was effortlessly an attractive maiden - hair that shone like the sun, blue moist eyes filled with wonder and the demeanor of an adventurer. He drew closer to her and leaped quite high from his hiding, landing abruptly on the patch of grass a few wolfspans from where she could see him. He did this intentionally in an attempt to startle her and succeeded. She had a quick start before she composed herself, smiled sweetly and beckoned the werewolf to come closer. He jogged towards her and shifted to his human form just before he held her in his arms.
"Were you followed?" asked the Omega.
"You know I was not. You gave me quite a freight there. Will you ever quit your silly games?" she asked.
"At least my games do not scare the fish. You are the one who kicks water like a toddler, yet my lovely Tibeth, it is I who plays silly games?"Markel replied.
They pressed their foreheads close and held one another for what seemed longer than usual. Finally, she broke free and playfully patted his chest.
"How is Cantor these days?" he asked.
"Mostly backwards and still very much afraid of everything; werewolves, trolls, vampires, and demons", she replied with a sigh.
Markel laughed. "Demons do not exist. It is the vampires they should really be worried about."
"It is all the same to them. And how do you know demons do not exist, playful one?"
"I just do. They don't."
"Oh well, you werewolves cannot take all the credit. Just do not give me a jump like that anymore. You can play shadowy prince with your pack all you want but neither with me nor the children" she jeered.
"Ah, the children. Where – " he had barely finished his sentence when a boy ten, maybe eleven summers old grabbed him from behind. The child climbed unto his back and held tightly, giggling all the while.
"Marrow!" acknowledged the boy's father, "you are getting bigger everyday and better at shadowing. I did not notice you back there. And where is your sister?" A little girl, barely six winters old tugged at his leg, looking back up at her father and beaming. No one noticed she was there until that moment.
"Ah, there's my sneaky little moon rock, eh" Markel said proudly as he picked the little girl up and tickled her. He now carried both his children.
"They could sense you were nearby and wanted to surprise you so they begged I let them stay back in the thicket awhile. Obviously, you are not the only one who enjoys your silly games" Tibeth their mother said, her smile still there since she met Markel that afternoon.
Markel kissed both his children and declared, "Marrow and my little moon rock will become the greatest Shadow wolves to ever live. I know it Tibeth. After I teach them everything I know, they would be able to live the best of human and werewolf worlds, maybe even unite both someday. Then we would not have to meet in secret anymore. We would be a normal happy family."
Tibeth drew closer; she hugged all three of them and said, "we are a normal happy family now."
Back at the cottage, Markel gawked at the two malevolent red eyes that shone brightly at him. They had no pupils and were filled with raging hate. Markel had heard tales of the creature but he never thought it possible that such an abomination could exist. The beast smelled foul like a carcass rotting under the heat of swamp mud. Darkness did not hide the heinous look of the creature from Markel. The head that bore those sinister malevolent eyes looked like a wolf's but both of the beast's kill teeth shot from its closed mouth. Two small horns had grown in its head where they should not be, between both ears. The upper body and arms were heavy set and covered in wet fur, drenched in blood which was not its own. It stood like a man on both feet but where there should have been toes; hooves were in its place. Markel growled and dashed for the demon wolf, aiming to bite out the throat but the monster was quick for its size. With a swing of its giant paw, it hit the werewolf which knocked Markel against the wall of the cabin. The Omega shook it off and launched another assault. The demon wolf reached to grab the werewolf by the head but missed. This allowed Markel to dart for the beast's leg and after biting down hard he tugged back as forcefully as he could. The creature merely grunted and drove its long claws into the Omega's back. Markel wimped and had to let go to collect himself but the monster was too fast. It grabbed the werewolf by the neck and tossed him farther across the room. The Omega hit a cupboard with a loud crash and landed badly on the floor. Markel was fazed. He staggered to his feet and with great effort leapt forward until part of the attacker's face was in-between his jaws. He bit at it viciously and refused to let go. Again, the monster let out a little more than a grunt and drove his claws into the body of the werewolf, staining his fists with the blood of one more. Markel was no match for the demon wolf. It was a mistake for the Omega to have thought he could bring the beast down but he was blinded by rage and nothing else mattered to him. The Omega tried to hold on to the demon wolf's face but the beast kept pounding fistfuls of claws into the slowly dying Omega. Finally, Markel surrendered, let go and slumped to the ground, panting in exhaustion. But the monstrous creature was not done. It picked the badly wounded werewolf up and ripped him apart how one would rip linen in two. The cottage room was repainted with warm blood from the latest casualty. The demon wolf heaved, as though satisfied with itself and sauntered out in search of another unfortunate life to end that night. In his dying moment, Markel had shifted into his human form. Laying there in two parts on the cabin floor with no hope of survival, he saw Tibeth for the first time that night at the far end of the cabin corner. Her golden sun hair was matted in blood; he could see the horror in her eyes from the shock of her final moments, all that adventure cruelly squeezed out of her until a corpse remained. He could also make out a shape beside her, a little silhouette (also dead from the look of it) which was once his hope of uniting humans and werewolves. But he could not see the figure as clearly. His eyes were heavy, his sight was failing and it was getting more difficult to breathe. He cursed having to spend his last moments like this but his mind was trying to tell him something. What was he forgetting? There was something amiss somewhere, but whatever could it be? He told himself he just needed to sleep for a little while so he would regain his strength and search for his family. He shut his eyes, hoping to open them again, but never did.
Meanwhile, a purple-eyed creature was hiding in the dark and witnessed the horror in the cottage. It never knew rest again.