The wolf was pulled from his cage, Yelana’s hand soothing him as his aching body and faint mind moved through the brutal domain of the monsters, like he was naught but a cub. His arms still bound and their hunger clear. Regardless, he knew what must come next. If they intended to make a feast of him then there is only survival or oblivion. One look into the eyes of the goddess of nature reaffirmed the truth. There was truly only survival. Gentle was her hand on the predator, but cold was the truth she offered to her children. Unrelenting and absolute. He was battered, broken, drugged, and restrained, but nature did not care there is only the blood red moon.
As they dragged the wolf into a savanna of abandoned stone, he saw the monsters gather around him. Some were bound like him, far too lost to be a part of his pack. The rest encircled them like hungry vultures, some bearing firearms and others carrying impractical cutting tools clearly to relish the kill. He looked up and saw her. The brood mother corrupting Ventari’s blessing. Yelana released her grip on the wolf and nodded, knowing he knew what must be done.
Up in her bedroom, Permiso smirked at the scathing appraisal of the situation, she laughed, “Oh, I’m sorry. I know you were expecting my usual blood bowl, but I’ve had you figured out from the moment you got here, Gavy. The same sneaky underhanded monster you have always been.” His brow furrowed and his face went pale. She circled to the front of him to savor this expression. The pale white mask that he wore to hide the cornered animal he was becoming. “You bring me gifts that you believe you can poison, but you forget that the greatest mercy I offer is to remove them entirely.”
Gavin watched nervously as he saw just how few of his offered prisoners had survived the initiation, each one restrained behind their back with metal casings that encased from their hands to their biceps. They were each battered and scarred from the conditioning and none of them looked like they were in their sane mind. As his eyes locked with Pine’s he felt a horrendous wave of guilt. He had thrown this young man into her madness and her world. A man whose home he had helped destroy. How was he any different than her. Destroying someone’s past to make them into your tool.
As his eyes drifted to his feet in shame, Permiso cradled his chin and lifted his face to look at his, her glee in his demoralization sickening. She laughed, “My precious Gavy remembers who he is now.” She kissed his cheek, her hands exploring his chest as she felt his breathing shift, This was the version of him only she ever got to know. That only she could truly love. A broken and horrid man who knew only betrayal and death. Who knew what true loss was and the freedom it could provide. She whispered, “I’m going to kill them now. Free you from the guilt of your betrayal. Once their blood is spilt, your goddess will forgive you and grant you release.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The monsters raised their guns and seemed ready to strike. That was their first mistake. The wolf felt his body warm and his pain vanish. His senses heightened just a little, but it would be enough. There was no alternative. He kicked one of the bound monsters into the hunters a large distance away. While all of them were caught slightly unaware, he dove into the fountain in the middle of the square. Firing out of instinct, the resulting lightshow and bloodshed was enough of a distraction for him to run for a storefront. One of the gunmen saw him running and began to fire at his back as he ran. He was fortunate. A few shots made successful contact with him, one to the back of the leg and another to his shoulder, but the rest were either grazes or had hit the shackles on his arms. Sliding across the floor as he fell, he put everything he had into bending the restraints while they were still warm. The burning metal seared his flesh some as he broke free, but he was able to remove one arm and then another, diving behind a counter before the gunman could get a clear sight line again.
Gavin watched in confusion as these events unfolded, and as his excitement peaked, Permiso’s fury grew. What could possibly be going on that could make him light up this way. Looking at the bloodshed, she was pleased until she saw one of her hunters walking into one of the storefronts only to see his body tossed out like a lifeless doll moments later, his gun missing. When the other hunters saw this and began to fan out, she watched the scaled man from before leave through one of the windows and hobble his way around the back.
It looked like he was trying to flank the men at first, but it was becoming increasingly clear to her eyes that he was about to be cornered. Then she saw something odd. He was sniffing the air like an animal and then quietly hid himself behind one of the doors on the back of a different building. As soon as the guard was within twenty feet of the door, the man opened it gently so it wouldn’t hit anything but so he could still leave quickly. Despite his obvious injury, he closed the distance on her Pierrot in less than a moment and swung the rifle with such precision and power that it killed him almost instantly. When the dead man’s partner noticed what had happened and tried to turn his gun, it was already too late. The killer had wrapped his leg around the gunman’s throat and with a single leap crushed his neck completely. Taking the guns from each of the fallen, he circled to the unpatrolled far side of the courtyard. She pushed a button to seal the courtyard completely so that this hunt didn’t end too soon.
“You may have found me a beautiful treasure, Gavy. I appreciate this new Pierrot. He seems like a stallion.” Permiso cooed as she watched the hunter in action.
The wolf could smell little in the air over the blood of the fallen, but their attire was far too loud. Every shuffle of fabric and plate. Every telltale clack of their equipment. Why were they so loud? Overzealous for death. Disgusting in every sense. The wolf didn’t know what to do with these things. They were cold and hard to consider, but there was enough familiarity somewhere in his instincts to see their use. Seeing one of the monsters in the distance, he compensated for drop off and fired, missing his shot but signalling his location. Whatever these were, they were not something he was adjusted to. Dropping it out of his hand, he moved quickly to a good vantage point on where he had just fired from, lurking and hunting these monstrous corruptions of his beliefs.