Chapter One:
“Fear the lone scarred wolf, my dear, for they have survived with no one and fought everyone. They have no mercy or care, just blood lust.”
This was no coincidence. Adiiele stood at the edge of the large mansion, her ears twitching to the change of the wind. “I can smell a Beast in there.”
“You smell Beast everywhere, Adii.” the half elf’s horizontal ears bent downwards as she let out a heavy sigh to look at her companion. Roan shrugged, the strands of her straight black hair falling gracefully behind her shoulders. “What? You know I’m right,” she said.
Teal eyes rolled to the sky and returned to the looming figure of the mansion, ignoring their black-eyed friend. While Adiiele could usually bite back with her own sass, she just wasn’t really feeling up to it that night. “Ro, you should stay here.” a choked sound came from the other half-elven girl, but Adiiele took no pause. “We’re thieves, but I am more trained in hunting Beasts. You were-“
Roan waved her hand. “Fine,” her tone was laced with irritation. “I get it, just go and have all the fun. But if you get your hide in trouble, you can kiss my help goodbye!”
A smirk came upon the brunette’s face as Roan stomped her foot and crossed her arms in mock offense. Wrapping her tanned arms, Adiiele couldn’t help but let out a small whine, dramatically lodging her weight upon the taller female. “Oh no!” she began, eyes gazing upon the sky. “Whatever shall I do? The great Roan won’t save the life of her best friend, however, will I-“ a stab of an elbow dug into Adiiele’s side, and laughter bubbled up in fits between the two of them.
“Get out of here, ya monkey!”
--------
One could say this mansion was ginormous and would be awed by the splendor that sparkled on the tiles and on the ceiling in the moonlight. Except for Adiiele, who sniffed at the air and felt her mouth drooling a bit as she smelt a delicate aroma in the air. “Cheese,” she hummed. Dammit, Adii! The snapping of her tone knocked her back to her senses. Eyes on the prize! With a slight flip of her hair that had been pulled into a twin braid high ponytail, the halfling continued forward.
Bare feet remained soundless on the cold flooring, the glimmer of the moonlight on her olive skin, causing her to jump in the shadows as she heard the marching of a guardsman. A low hum could be heard, the beating of the wild drums as the second moon of the world quickly rose from the sky with a distant howl in its wake. Adiiele couldn’t help but growl towards the second moon, the wolf blood that ran in her body racing because of it.
Its rise and fall was the same as the typical moon, but people who had not been born or bestowed with the beast blood could not see it. So it remained hidden, it’s effect looming over like a bad omen. The phase for the night, although the white moon was utterly opaque, was full. A sight that she hadn’t seen since she was eleven years old and hunting her first Beast with her guardian.
“Of all nights, why did it have to be this one?” she complained, looking around the corner to see the guard was no longer there. Bolting past the hall to the right, the thief came upon a dead end decorated in tapestry. The ugly kind nobles thought were beautiful more so for their gold than their design. Okay, I know there’s a secret passageway behind one of these tapestries. She felt up behind each of them, being mindful not to accidentally knock one of them over. “Come on, I know it’s gotta be-“ there was a slight pop and a breeze of air. “Gotcha!”
Slipping into the cold, musty tunnel, the thief kept to the right, her hand brushing against the cold stone counting the steps she was taking. Though by the time she got to ten - this was after Adiiele had counted four twice and had to skip six - there was a loud crash that sounded from above and caused the tunnel to let out a puff of dusty rubble.
A string of curses passes the halfling’s lips. “What is going on up there?” Another crash, the sound of voices and hollering. “Tonight maybe won’t do, I can’t steal the ring with all this chaos.” The earth began to shake, and she scrambled forward to get out of the tunnel, not trusting it at all to hold. In her rush, Adiiele didn’t care where her hands took her or where her feet would land. The moment she found a hidden door, she pushed with all her might and rolled forward just in time for another quake. Though she didn’t look to see if the tunnel remained as she closed the passage shut behind her. “Hells on earth, what is going…”
Adiiele allowed her words to fall flat as she took notice of her surroundings. She was in a large room fitted with various things that only nobles could afford: a large bed with satin silks, long drapery, a desk, two wardrobes, a vanity, an area with a fireplace, and was that a dummy?!
She walked over towards the closest thing next to her: the desk. Books and paper laid strewn about the rich mahogany wood. Each book was in another language that she had no knowledge of, lines and lines of meaningless words filled her brain as she flipped through the pages. They reeked of Beast, and the stench seemed to be stitched and pruned into the air around her. Adiiele’s heart pounded as she quickly looked over her shoulder, then back to the pages with shaky hands. There was no reason for her to be looking in these pages, no reason for her to stay and get out of there even if she was empty-handed. But as soon as she was about to turn and make a run for it out the window, she caught a glimpse of what drew her towards the pages of the book.
While she couldn’t read the words, the thief knew what was roughly being said by the picture of the werewolf on the right page, howling at a blood red moon, a half-eaten body in its hands. The memory of blood overwhelmed her senses, and Adiiele slammed the book closed. Short breaths intruded her lungs; she couldn’t breathe. Adiiele had been trained for beasts, but this, this was not what she expected.
Her feet controlled her body as she pivoted to run towards the window, but that was not what she did. Adiiele found herself face to face with a looming figure, saliva dripping towards the linoleum tiles, the silhouette of the moon enveloping the hulking monstrosity as it grew before her.
Instinct bid her hand to grab at the silver dagger strapped to the back of her hip, knowing her arrows would do no damage to the Beast. The Beast rose its claw up and swung.
Adiiele narrowly avoided the attack, tumbling onto the hard floor and holding dearly to the dagger in her hand. I am not getting paid enough to do this, she thought to herself trying to remember everything she knew about this noble family she had decided to rob from. This was probably her dozenth time robbing them and never in her life had she smelt Beast nor even seen one. The only time she ever had a run-in with trouble was always with the same guy and at different times. This was just a bit on the ridiculous side.
Still, she had a job to do, and whether that meant killing a werewolf and getting her that item or die trying, it was something the thief was sent to do, and she was stubborn to complete it. No fleabag was going to stop her.
The Beast swung again, but Adiiele felt a bit rejuvenated and with a twirl of her blade, she slipped from his grasp once more and watched with sharp eyes the movements of the animal before her. Fenris’ voice echoed in the back of her head, noting her stance, her posture, how she held the blade. Although her mentor would scold her on holding her dagger a bit cockeyed, she knew that this was right - for her at least.
“Now,” she began, testing the Beast as she took a step to the side. It mirrored her, snarling with anticipation. “We either do this the easy way or the ha-“ the werewolf lunged, and she rolled out of the way once more letting out a string of curses and using the momentum of the roll to get behind the wolf and slash at its back, cutting deep into the flesh.
Burning flesh and heated silver rose in the air, and it took Adiiele a second to recover from the strong scent that overwhelmed her nose. “Gods above, you really need to take a shower, furball!” a small chuckle forced its way past her lips as she dodged another swipe. The familiar tide of recklessness overwhelmed her muscles, and the half-elf did her best to hold back the feeling of a taunt worse than the one she just said from leaving her tongue. Even as her hands shook with energy, the brunette kept her breaths even and her eyes steady as the Beast curled its lip and snapped its teeth.
It was clear that whoever was in there, they had not gone entirely feral and the slash of her blade may have woken them up some more but she couldn’t be for sure. Not until she began talking, something she was not known for.
With a deep breath, Adiiele sheathed her blade and held her hands up. Though her fingers twitched with readiness. “Hey, I know you’re still in there,” she wished she knew the name of the Beast, that would make it easier to pull them back. Yet she didn’t, and with the number of family members living in this home, it was like finding a gold piece in a bag of coppers. Her best guess was that it was one of the males and still that could be anyone.
“Just take deep breaths, okay boy? It’s easier to go back when you’ve calmed down.” And when you’ve had blood but that’s just an inconvenience. An inconvenience that could prove life or death if she didn’t get him to calm down first. All that was needed was a little blood to get the trigger of going back to start.
Back when she was still training under Fenris, he had her train multiple times on encounters such as this, usually ones that were watched by others, werewolves and hunters alike. But nothing, not all the training in the world, could have prepared her for the first time she had to do it. The terror she felt. The same kind of terror that drummed at her heart and made her chew her lip. If Adiiele could get close enough and gain enough control of the situation, then both would come out more or less unscathed.
But things never go according to plan.
A loud banging erupted from the door, and whatever calm that had been in the amber eyes of the Beast disappeared as it roared into the air and forced its body on the thief’s who screamed bloody murder as she felt the flesh of her arm being ripped open. The Beast’s screams followed as it pulled away with a string of blood, glowering down at her hand that held the silver dagger. The banging continued, and while the wolf’s teeth seemed to want more, it pulled away, looking more frightened than fearsome the moment its eyes landed on the door.
Just as it gave in, there was a loud shattering of glass, a few shards landing on Adiiele that she blocked with her forearms as best she could. When she pulled them away, she saw the sight of swords and spears pointed at her and a circle of guards bearing their judgment down upon her behind closed lids.
“Damned Hells.” were the last words she muttered as they grabbed at her arms and dragged her away with little struggle. Under her breath she swore to skin whoever foiled her plans alive, glowering at the window with terse eyes, her ears gravitating downward. Seinfeld better pay her well for this.
Comments (0)
See all