Boom
The explosion, either a grenade or an RPG, blew the radio out of Captain Reid’s hand and slammed him on the ground. White smoke and noise circled him.
‘Maybe I’m dead,’ he reasoned. When his eyes opened the white smoke vanished, along with his company and the whole country of Afghanistan, gone.
Reid lifted himself and viewed his surrounding.
‘A forest? Where am I? What's happening?’ His only gear were his rucksack and rifle, and no radio.
“Ya, tolinia nazda!” shouted a voice past the trees on his right. A female voice followed by a deep low growl.
Reid hustled behind a tree to listen for the voice. Twenty feet to his right, a large brown wolf bared its fangs at a white haired girl. The girl flailed a sword at the beast, and yelled at it in a strange language.
The girl’s ears then perked. She shot a glance in Reid’s direction, and called out to him.
“Hey you!” she yelled, in English.
The wolf turned away from the girl toward Reid and sniffed the air.
‘Crap! She can hear me and he can smell me!’
The beast stepped in Reid’s direction snarling with hate in its piercing yellow eyes.
‘Bro, there’s a wolf in front of me in a strange forest, and that girl’s ears are way too long and pointy.’
The wolf took another step. Reid sprang from behind the tree with his rifle aimed.
“Don’t come any closer to me you dog, because you’re not real!” he shouted at the wolf, and the wolf jumped at him.
“No!” yelled Reid, and fired a three round rifle burst at the pouncing beast.
The monster yelped as the shots struck its face, head and neck and collapsed on top of him. Winded, Reid pushed the creature off of him as the white haired girl dashed toward them.
“Hey!” she checked the wolf, “ You killed him!” she shouted.
“I'm sorry, was he your pet?” Reid muttered, gaping at the large wolf corpse.
“No! He’s Makas, and he claimed I owed him money, but it's just extortion!” said the girl.
“Wait...The wolf claimed what?” asked Reid.
Cossas
“Hey wake up, you’re talking in your sleep!” yelled Naja.
“Hmm?” replied Captain Reid, groggy and drooling as he woke up holding Naja from behind. He’d fallen asleep as they rode the great elk.
“Did you have a bad dream?” she asked.
“A bad memory,” he answered.
“Oh, dreaming about your girlfriend? Is she evil? You know I can put a spell-”
“Naja! When I met you the first time in the forest….you said that wolf that I killed wanted money from you.”
“Makas? Yeah that son of a bitch tried to blackmail me-”
“How can a wolf blackmail you?” Reid asked, truly confused.
“Because he knew too much. I’m glad you killed him cause that cruel bastard’s better off dead! Oh, look, we’re almost there. Alce! put us down!” shouted Naja.
Two miles ahead of them, stood a large town surrounded by flatland.
“Captain, that town is Cossas. We’ll walk the rest of the way there. It’s not safe for Alce to leave the forest.”
“Will we find the “key” in Cossas?” he asked.
“No, just a lot of trouble. Come on!”
During the walk Naja informed Reid of the plight of her world. City states in the north at perpetual war with a southern tyrant, named Faynus. An evil warlock of the Gobra race.
“Gobras, you said these people are the most populous in this world,” he stated as they neared the town gates.
“Yup, followed by the Canids, then the Elves and everything else,” she responded.
“Are there humans...like me?”
“The Canids would be the closest thing to human, except they’re not human,” she answered pointing at a group of “human men” entering the gates.
“So, those men over there are not human but Canids. And what exactly are Canids?”
“They’re werewolves.”
“...Oh..” he muttered, staring at the three traveling human men and noting their dog-like faces.
The Slaughtered Lanra
They walked the streets of Cossas and Reid observed the people. The most populous people were the Gobras, humanoids with a “Jabba the hut” look to them. Frog like, with big eyes and large mouths. Most were tall and barrel shaped. According to Naja the Gobras ran the cities and towns on Cionis.
“Here’s the spot! The Slaughtered Lanra! And yeah we can get a good leg of lanra here too!” chimed Naja.
“Sounds delicious,” Reid replied, smelling the alcohol and other scents in the noisy dive bar she swaggered into.
Naja, in all her young girl glory, strode to a group of Gobras and slammed a dice box on their table.
“Oi! I got snake eyes for your blood eyes, Hargis! Now give em here!” she shouted in the tavern.
The big Gobra at the head of the table, Hargis, laughed, “Raaaah, you damn Elf! You get nothing from me!” and he backhanded Naja, knocking her to the floor.
“Hey!” shouted Reid in defense of Naja. This angered the Gobras at the table. They faced him and sniffed the air with their large nostrils.
“Ehhh….he’s not a Canid, he smells funny,” said one of the Gobras as Hargis ogled Reid’s rifle.
*Disarm your weapon but leave one dart. Fire the one dart at his foot!* Naja’s voice bounced around in Reid's head. He faced Naja with a stunned look.
* Trust me!* she sent to him.
“I don’t trust you!” Reid said aloud, but removed the magazine from the rifle, keeping one chambered round. As he worked the rifle Hargis and his goons took a step toward Reid. He aimed the rifle and fired the round at Hargis' foot.
Fwap!
The shot grazed Hargis foot and blew a hole in the floor. The whole tavern stopped talking and stared at Reid.
“Ohh! That is interesting. Did the Canids make this?” asked Hargis, taking another step.
“Don’t come any closer guy, or I will put a hole in you!” Reid pointed the unloaded rifle at Hargis.
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“Canid-man, you can’t put a hole in all of us-”
“He’s not a Canid you fool! And if you want that weapon you’re gonna have to earn it!” yelled Naja, slamming her dice box on the table again.
“Umm..what did you just say?” Reid asked Naja. She ignored him.
"Little Naja, you would gamble this weapon for the blood eyes, hm ? Haha!” Hargis bellowed and reached in his pouch for two coin shaped rubies. He dropped them on the table, the blood eyes.
“You brat Elf, two of three. You win you get the eyes. You lose I get the weapon, and the Canid-man, he comes with me-”
“Wait! I’m not-” Reid protested.
“Deal! Let’s roll the dice” yelled Naja, and threw two dice in her box and tossed them to a female Gobra dealer, who checked the dice for malfeasance.
“My dice ain't loaded you witch!” barked Naja at the dealer. The dealer spit on the ground and accepted her dice after a careful inspection.
“Naja, why are you gambling my rifle?” asked Reid.
“Because I'm going to win and we need those blood eyes if you want to go home! Come on Hargis, let’s roll already!”
Hargis motioned to the dealer, who shook the dice in the box and slammed them on the table. Captain Reid, now a spectator, watched the fate of him and his rifle unfold.
“Elf girl, call it! Even or odds,” hissed the dealer.
“I am odd!” Naja yelled back.
Hargis waved and the dealer raised the box. The dice read three, odd.
“Yaaaa! I told you, trust me!” Naja boasted to Reid.
“It’s two out of three,” replied Reid, expressionless.
“Hmph! Roll the dice again!” commanded Hargis to the dealer.
The dealer shook and slammed the dice box on the table again.
“Call it, Elf!” she barked at Naja.
“Odd!”
The dealer raised the box. The dice read four, even.
The crowd of Gobras erupted in cheer around Hargis, who smirked and nodded in approval.
“Don’t worry, we have another chance, and I don’t lose earthman!” Naja assured Reid.
“Gamblers always think they have another chance,” he muttered back, not facing her.
“Hmph! I’m no ordinary gambler, roll the dice you witch!” she huffed.
The dealer shook and slammed the dice box on the table.
“Call it, Elf!”
“Even!”
The tavern crowd focused on the dice box. The dealer lifted the box, the dice read seven, odd, Naja lost.
“Raaah! Give me the stick Canid!” yelled one of Hargis’ goons, grabbing Reid’s rifle. Reid let it go and stared daggers at Naja.
“Reid...I ...I ..it wasn’t supposed to!”
Hargis cut her off, “You stupid Elf girl, did you think your illusion magic would work here, hunh?” he yelled, wielding the rifle in triumph.
And Reid figured Naja out, “I see now, you attempted to cheat, and Hargis there stopped your cheating and beat you fair and square...is that right, Naja?” Reid asked her in a calm voice.
“Um...well...I ...we can get the weapon back-”
“Shut your mouth, don’t say another word!” Reid snapped at her, furious, and turned his back on her.
“Reid-”
“Ssh!” he shut her down. He had enough of her talking.
Three of Hargis’ goons grabbed Reid and forced him over to their boss.
“Hey, you show me how to use this weapon!” demanded Hargis.
“Well, you see a weapon like this is used for war, and love,” said Reid.
“What are you going on about?” barked Hargis.
“I said all is fair in love and war you fucking frog!” yelled Reid, jumping on top of Naja and chucking an M67 grenade behind the tavern bar.
BOOOOM!
The grenade’s explosion burst every glass, mug and mirror on the inside of the bar sending shards flying everywhere. The patrons panicked, half of them with eardrums blown stampeded to the exits and the windows. Soon smoke filled the air.
Reid leapt off of Naja and forward kicked Hargis, grabbing the rifle back. He then snatched Hargis coin purse off the table with the two blood eye rubies in them.
Still moving, Reid slapped a magazine in the rifle and fired a burst at the tavern ceiling, maximizing the noise and the panic. In the confusion Reid grabbed Naja and pulled her out to the street.
“How do we get out of here?” he yelled at her, holding her hand.
“Straight ahead! We need Gallots!”
Naja pointed at a horse stable. But they weren’t horses, they were giant lizards. Naja ran at the stable keeper with a handful of coins yelling, “Here, here, just take it!”
She motioned to Reid to hop on one of the four gallots already saddled.
“Just pretend it’s a horse Reid!” he said to himself, and mounted the foul smelling creature. And the gallot lifted itself and whinnied like a real horse, ‘Oh, cool!’
“We have to head west, heeyah!” cried Naja.
Reid followed her, but she slowed down, and so did he. Ahead of him the crowd from the tavern joined the crowd in the street, who all panicked and stampeded toward Naja and Reid.
“Naja, why is the whole town running at us?”
“Oh no!”
“What is ‘Oh no’?” he asked, not understanding the uproar in the street.
“Damn! They found me! We gotta run!” Naja yanked the reins of her gallot and bolted in the other direction.
Reid stared at the horizon, “Who found you....oh….”
A mile outside the gate, a dust cloud whirled toward Cossas, and there they were, thirty, no, forty werewolves. And they moved fast. Reid could only think of two words for this situation.
“Fuck me!”
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All of Cionis key is proofread by the awesome Chiisutofupuru who writes Sasha. An awesome story that I proof and I'm a fan of ^_^