The Traveler: Name of the Wolf

Chapter 5

                The shadow was less a simple shadow and more a menagerie of them. Where they came from was hard to say, they had been pulled and tugged together into the basic shape of a man. At any moment it looked as if they would just as easily be pulled apart, ripped apart, as the shadows sought to return to their source. Holding them together seemed to be the skeleton they were attached to, and atop of that was a skull that did not belong to a man. It was a wolf's skull, Zen guessed, for it was canine and no other cousin of the dog was so big. However, upon it was a pair of deer antlers, growing where deer antlers grew. Despite the chimeric nature of the skull, they seemed to be a natural part of its anatomy.

Zen wasted no time, his flaming tongue dropped out of his mouth and with it he drew a fiery line in the ground.

"Do not bother..." said the creature. Its voice was a whispering echo

"You will excuse me if I do not trust you creature..."

"From the looks of it...you have no right to make such an insult. Yet this is trivial..."

"And what isn't..."

"You know who I am, and you know I am nameless now, even my few followers north of these lands, even they do not remember my name. They bicker, they quarrel over the smallest of things and every season my ties to the waking world become less and less."

"How tragic...?" said Zen, in pure, pure sarcasm.

"You do not respect me...?"

"But I will not go out of my way to spite you. If what you say is true, you took great effort to find me, to speak to me now, so far from your base of power, forgotten idol."

"The beast you seek, it is no beast of mine..." Zen flickered his tongue like a real snake.

"The sorcery is yours..."

"As are all man-beasts, but this is no recipient of my gift. The one you seeks call up my power by other means..."

"Does this 'one' have a name...?"

"And deny you the hunt...?" it said amused.

"But of course..." said Zen annoyed.

"It is a trinket of mine, and when not in use 'they' are no man-beast, they are not touched by the maladies of man-beasts. This false wolf, they wear my..." Zen roared. Something tugged on his large body, and without a word more, he was pulled back into the mist, and back towards the village.

Zen awoke, his eyeballs were red from the bulging veins and his irises glowed and had become slotted like a snake's. His expression was one of natural anger where in his eyebrows had started to fade away and be replaced by grey scales.

Looking forward he saw Mylik on the ground rolling pain, complaining about the burning sensation in his hand, while the two guards tried to help him, but were stuck trying to stop him from rolling.

As he stood up, they looked at him, and fear was on their faces as they saw his. He walked over to them and Mylik crawled away to the railing, the guards were simply scared, too scared to intervene. However, Zen was simply walking towards the railing. Mylik crawled away as Zen pulled down his scarf, leaned over the side and regurgitated his last meal. The sound was as unpleasant as the sight. Mylik turned to move for the ladder, when he found himself stopped, and lifted into the air by an unseen force. He was turned around to see Zen pointing his staff at him. He had finished throwing up the toxins that had formed in his body and had spat out one last time, wiping his mouth before turning to look at Mylik. His reptilian features were gone now and his eyebrows had returned, but his angry expression, his blood red eyeballs, and glowing irises were still there.

"Do no touch the staff..." Zen spoke at a normal tone but his voice carried unnaturally, especially to the crowd below who had gathered when Mylik started screaming. "Especially not when I am using it..." He softly put Mylik down "You could've killed both of us..." Zen looked at his hand, it was scaly with black talons. He shook it, turning it back, surprised by its change "...Or done worse to me..." He then looked around at the floor. The bowl had been covered in dirt and the vase was on the ground shattered, the content spilled, and three stones were in them. Each was smooth and white like a pearl, but more oval in shape and the size of a common rock used in slings. "Leave..."

"What...?"

"I said, leave..."

"You do not..." said Mylik, his courage suddenly returned. He was silenced when Zen put forth his hand and called his throat to his surprisingly iron grip, pulling the rest of Mylik along.

"I said leave...Be thankful my interests is in the stopping of this beast and not covering your face with boils!" He dropped him and Mylik swallowed his pride and left. Zen turned to the distance and leaned on the railing furious.

"Uh..." said the first guard. The two of them were scared. Zen put up a finger, telling them to be quite.

"Look, can we go...?" asked the second guard. Zen looked at them.

"Why...?" They were silent, with looks of discomfort as they avoided his eyes. They were returning to normal, but his eyeballs still had a red tint to them. "Ah, magic, you people are uncomfortable with it..." Zen had a look of revelation. "All of you are...all of you worship the Earth Goddess, you abhor, your fear anything...'unnatural'..."

"Well..."

"Shut up, I'm thinking..." Zen left the guard speechless, but he was thinking "then that would mean...but why...?" Zen had a look of realization "The chief that killed Mylik and his brother's father, what was his family name...?"

"Uh..." said the first guard "Black Fang...! Our chief is of the White Claw line..." Zen looked at the stone. He slammed the butt of his staff into the floorboard, created a muted thunderous noise. The stones shined.

"Oh, yes..."

The door of the chief's hall were flung open as Zen entered and towards him. He was on his chair with Mylik, Grishka and her brother.

"There is the devil now...!" shouted Mylik

"Shush..." said Zen, pointing his staff and holding his voice box, Mylik grabbed his throat as he tried in vain to conjure his voice. "Everyone, out, I need to speak with your chief..."

"For what reason...?" asked the chief, somewhat annoyed

"I believe I know who your beast is...but to confirm that I need information only you may give, information I suspect may be personal. Therefore in the name of not insulting your family, its history and its honor, I wish to speak you in private..."

"You speak of honoring my family, but you have a hex on my nephew..."

"Yes, well, he is a bit of a git..." The chief paused for a moment, and then laughed his heart out.

"Finally, someone with the balls to tell the truth, and it's a thrice damned spell slinger!"

"Yeah, also does anyone know a good black smith...?"