27
The beginning of the Blood Pack.
The next morning, Slyfer is sleeping soundly, without a care in the world. The previous night, after they had met in the tent, he had gone out hunting. He ate his fill and returned to barely get two hours sleep. Slyfer feels like his eyes, had barely closed before he feels a hand shaking his shoulder. Vinx nestled snugly in his neck also feels the movement and complains sleepily. She had gone hunting with him and is just as tired.
Slyfer opens his eyes, only to find Old Sun and Aldwin standing in front of his bed. His mind still groggy at first, does not register what is going on, but he soon remembers. The sleep leaves his mind instantly, as he starts to feel excited. Without a word he gets up after placing Vinx on the pillow, carefully.
Still without saying a word they head towards the back of camp. When they left the sun had not even showed itself yet, but when they reach, the supposed “barracks” of the special operations corps, some color can already be seen creeping over the horizon. The barracks is set up near the armies followers and the stench is unbearable. Slyfer holds his nose as they enter a huge tent, that has been set up poorly and looks like its going to fall apart. There are tares in the canvas upon close inspection. The group of three can hear muffled sounds of snoring. The noise makes Aldowin and Old Sun screw up their faces in disgust. It would be so easy to kill these people!
Slyfer concentrates his hearing, and it seems none of them have noticed their arrival. “Not even one guard, stationed outside to keep away trespassers.” Says Aldowin as they easily go through the outer entrance into the inner. What greets them is a barracks, in a state of disarray. Weapons clothes and old dilapidated armor, is strewn all over the place where the men simply just took it off and left it there on the ground.
Women’s clothes are mixed in between and Slyfer can see more limbs in some of the beds than one person should have. Slyfer counts fifty beds in total and about half of them have naked women in them. Bottles smelling of alcohol are everywhere in between the clothes. From what little Aldowin has taught him Slyfer knows this is the complete opposite of what a barracks is supposed to look like.
“I had come here hopeful, that what Old Sun had said was not true, but this! This is even worse then what pigs live like.” Slyfer’s eyes slowly turn to a smouldering red and an evil smile creeps onto his face. Old Sun is about to start shouting his face red with anger, but Slyfer stops him with a hand gesture. Aldowin looks at Slyfer with a raised eyebrow.
He points toward the exit and the three leave silently. They stop outside and hunch down together like three thieves coming up with a plan. Old Sun smiles in triumph. “I told you, these people are scum.” Slyfer smiles back, but it makes Old Sun get goose bumps. “Anyone will believe they are scum, if they get told as much over and over again.” The knowledge from the dragons and what Aldowin had taught him helps him now. Aldowin smiles with a little pride. He had already come up with a plan, but he wants to see what Slyfer will do.
Slyfer’s face goes serious and he looks at the tent and then at them. This time his face is like that of the devil. He starts to laugh like a maniac and sends his mind hurtling into the nearest warrior.
Erica, already awake lies in a bed next to a warrior reeking of alcohol. She is used to waking up early in men’s beds. She is just happy that the one, who paid her for company last night, did not beat her in the process. She looks around at the clothes lying on the floor trying to find her own, but also marking the ones she thinks, she may be able to steal something from before she slips away.
She slides out of the bed like a wet eel, and starts to silently dress, with practiced ease. She looks around, it doesn’t seem like anybody else is awake and watching. She tip toes towards the clothes of a warrior, who was especially boisterous about a good game of gambling he had won last night, intending to steal his winnings. Her heart starts to race, she knows if she gets caught, they will have no mercy and beat her half to death. “How will I make money then? No one wants to sleep with a beat up, whore.”
She hears a sound, she stops and looks around. Her gaze stops on another girl. The girl is smirking at her. “Damn, now I have to share!” She nods at the other girl, who basically can’t move, because the warrior had passed out on top of her. Erica finally reaches and bends down to start searching through the pants belonging to the boisterous one. SNooort! The sound nearly makes her heart jump out of her chest! She looks around using all her willpower not to bolt for the exit.
Her breathing slows and she looks at the bed behind her. It was just an elf snorting in his sleep. “I need to hurry!” She thinks as all around her more sounds starts to surface, she even sees another woman on the other side of the tent doing what she is now. She bends down again and that’s when it happens.
A man screams. “Fiiiiiiiireeee! Theres a Fiiiiiiire!” He jumps up to her surprise his eyes are still closed, as if he is still fast asleep and runs right for the exit, naked as the day he was born. She curses him and starts to follow. Then the voice comes, taring at the air and everyone’s’ ears. Wolves howl somewhere as they hear it. Her heart cramps up and she just wants to curl up and wish it away.
Slyfer smiles, as he hears the scream. The man comes barreling out of the tent in fear shouting about an imaginary fire, that Slyfer made real in his mind. The man still asleep believes he is on fire and in this state he starts running toward the red eyed Slyfer who is already irritated, because he can sense not even two warriors had woken up due to this idiot’s screams.
Not even looking at the man, he casually gives him a backhand slap. The slap is loaded with more power than Slyfer intended and it breaks the elf’s jaw while sending him flying and hitting the ground about a meter away. His forward momentum from the run also carries him forward and he slides naked on the sand and grass, stopping with a moan of pain.
Slyfer still senses none of the other idiots have woken up which shatters the rest of his hopes of making a good squad. “Fine then, I will wake you up the way; Alric woke me, countless times all those years ago.” Slyfer, shudders just thinking about it. Aldowin is bending to feel the elf’s pulls which Slyfer had so casually disposed of when he and nearly half the camp hear his student’s voice. “Maggots, I gave you an easy way, now lets go with the hard!” Slyfer holds out his hand in front of him and starts to inject magic into the air making it hotter and hotter until his hand is surrounded by a swirling, twirling mass of flame!
He pulls back his hand and throws it. The fireball hits the tent and suddenly expands, resulting in an explosion that pushes over other tents around it. Searing heat fills the tent and elves scream everywhere. “Attaaack! We are being attaaacked!” Slyfer starts to laugh as he gathers another handful of flames…
Inside the tent beds with sleeping elves and woman were sent flying to land on other ones forming a mass of groaning panicking naked bodies, as they squirm and struggle to get up and run for it. Another blast of heat hits the now destroyed tent and the men curse as they shove, kick and push each other to get out and away. The demonic voice fills the air again. “You think this is bad? Look at you struggling like a group of animals, its fitting since you are animals for me to slaughter. You sleep like the dead, let’s take it one step further and turn you into the dead!”
Aldowin goes pale as he sees all this. “He learned too much from that damn dragon!” Old Sun only watches his mouth agape. His mind is looking for something to do, but he cant think of anything. Another fireball shoots out and the tent is completely blown away revealing the naked elves underneath. Slyfer walks forward, fireballs in both hands now. The elves look at him and start to cry for mercy!
“Mercy? You want mercy! If this was a real ambush, would the enemy have mercy? Do you think you deserve it?!” He points at them his face filled with disgust. The red eyes that gleam along with the pointing hand that’s on fire makes him look like something that’s come out of horror stories they heard of as children. “Look at yourselves covered in filth, you live worse than pigs! Get up, move, move, move you pieces of dung!”
The bodies squirm, push and roll from under the beds and other debris. “Line up, now!” The elves start to line up some peeing where they stand. When everyone has lined up a crowd has already formed. Warriors dressed for battle that was roused thinking the camp is under attack. Slyfer looks at the naked things in front of him. “You women that don’t belong here, leave NOW!” They scream in fear and start running naked towards, wherever they came from.
Slyfer throws a fireball behind them, bowling some over. “If I see you with any of these men again, I will burn you alive!” The fallen ones scramble to get up, some falling again out of fear. As he turns back to the naked line of warriors, he receives a fist to the face!
Ban, felt he had seen enough and took his chance; he would fight or die trying! He steps forward just as the demon turns around and gives one of his best swings. The fist hits, but Ban lets out a scream because his hand is broken. Slyfer laughs and bends down next to the screaming Ban who is holding his hand bent over. “You call yourself a warrior. Is that all you have got. When you brake your hand in battle will you curl up like a little girl? You are useless!” The last part of the sentence he directs at everyone standing there.
He steps back and kills the flames, all around him. He looks at Aldowin. “Master, you are up.” Aldowin stands up with a smile and as he passes Slyfer, he whispers. “It was a bit much, but good job.” Slyfer’s face does not change, but inside he feels pretty good, he used his fear inspiring self for a good thing this time, he hopes. Aldowin walks forward his face serious.
He looks up and down the line of about fifty elves as he does. “Now that our greetings are out of the way, let me introduce myself. I am Aldowin and as you can see I am a High Elf, the nice boy behind me is Slyfer!” The crowd that has formed, start to whisper. They all had heard about Slyfer and now they had finally seen a bit of his prowess. The naked elves shiver a bit, as they look at him. Aldowin walks over the Ban who is still holding his broken hand, his face contorted with pain.
“You are weak! You have grown complacent, careless and useless! If we were the enemy you would have been slaughtered like the pigs you are! But this nice boy and I are the new pack leaders, for this motley band of misfits!” Hearing this, a lot of people gasp in surprise. Everyone knows how useless the special operations corps is and now someone with a good reputation is going to take command of them, on top of that, a high elf is going to be a pack leader!
Some warriors in the crowd snort in derision. Slyfer hears it and turns his burning gaze on them. His eyes bore into their very souls, as they go stiff. In their minds they feel like they are already dying. Slyfer sees their fear and he smiles and sends a mental message. “You look down on something that can kill you before you even know it. Do it again.... I dare you?” The warriors start to back away and then disappear.
Slyfer turns back, when he hears Aldowin’s voice in his mind. “Burn all their belongings, when I give you the signal.” Aldowin removes his piercing gaze from Ban who is standing brimming with anger at being called weak. Aldowin continues. “From today you will no longer be weak! From today you will no longer be useless. I will shape you into a fighting force the likes of which, the clans have never seen! Some of you are going to drop out; some of you will be kicked out! His voice drops, but is still clearly audible as he drawls menacingly.
“But when I am done, your enemies will be shaking, before they ever get to see you on the battlefield, your enemies will shudder at your name, your enemies will want to run when they finally see you and when they start running we will snuff out their lives as easily, as a storm blows out a candle!”
Aldowin is quiet to let it sink in. Someone from the crowd shouts a question. “What will be the name of this pack that will bring fear?” Aldowin is actually happy in his heart, that someone asked. It gives a more dramatic feel to what he is about to say. “We, will be called the Blood Pack! Remember it, worship it, because for the next few months you will be paying with your insignificant lives’ blood to join it! I welcome anyone who wishes to join, but remember we will only take the best!”
With this Aldowin lifts his hand and Slyfer sends a torrent of flame much larger than before into the beds and rotting clothes of the naked elves. The fire roars and everyone flinches. “Damn boy, that’s too much I nearly filched and that would spoil the look, I am going for!” Aldowin looks at the elves that are now angry despite feeling fear. All their stuff was in there, their money, things from home, everything. Aldowin looks at their hateful gazes.
He smiles. “Good, remember this feeling. This is what it feels like to lose, to be weak, and to be useless! Blame your own weakness for losing your insignificant shit! Remember the feeling, as you look at those flames and embrace it! Then make a promise to yourselves that you will never feel this feeling again!” Slyfer smiles crazily, as he looks at the flames.
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Aldowin berates him mentally. “Estund, look at the men’s reactions to my words, it will give you an Idea of who will make it and who won’t.” Slyfer looks at them, many are still afraid and dispirited, but some are standing taller, with jaws clenched. He marks each of them, especially Ban, he had swung at Slyfer even though he was nearly peeing himself.
That in itself, makes him a warrior worth having. Aldowin turns to the crowd. “You heard me say it! Anyone who wishes to join can, but be ready for hellish training like you have never experienced! You will have two days to sign up!”
Old Sun who had kept quiet suddenly starts to feel excited. If he were still young, he would have joined in a heartbeat. Looking at the crowd, he can see the same looks on their faces. Aldowin and Slyfer silently start to walk away, Old Sun hurries to follow and they disappear deeper into the camp, as they do excited talks suddenly erupts behind them.
News of what happened quickly travels through the camp. Warriors gossip with excited voices about what happened, most of it centred on Slyfer. They get an invitation from the King to attend a feast at his tent. Slyfer wants to decline but then he remembers that he may be able to see Fira and he starts to feel a little excited. He is sitting with Vinx and the other fairies talking about the day’s events when a servant enters. She is carrying a bundle of clothes.
Slyfer accepts the clothes thanking her, which makes the servant blush not being used to getting thanked. Like always, as Slyfer bathes Vinx is hovering around talking his ears off. Slyfer thinking of what happened yesterday decides to ask for advice. “Vinx is it wrong to kiss the girl you like?” Vinx goes quiet in her ramblings and flies over, to settle on Slyfer’s knee that is sticking out of the water. She cocks her little head to the side as she thinks. “Well… it depends.” Slyfer shakes his knee threatening to throw her off and they laugh. “Depends on what?” She holds on by laying her body flat across his knee. His knee stops moving and she props her head on her hands. “On the culture of the girl you want to kiss.-
-You see, some cultures believe you should only have one partner for your entire life, while others, like the fairies believe in freedom.”Slyfer feels confused and it reflects on his face. She continues. “In some cultures, they believe in something called marriage. I am not sure how it works, but what it basically means, is that you promise yourself to someone. That you will love, protect and provide for them.” Slyfer face gets an extremely worried look on. “Does that mean Aldowin and I am married?!” He remembers, long ago Aldowin made an almost similar promise when he was just a boy.
Vinx flies up while she and the others laugh at him, it makes him feel stupid. “No, silly this only applies between men and women, although I have heard of cases where a woman marries a woman and a man with a man. To clarify these cases are pretty rare, but they do happen. Slyfer is still confused, another fairy comes to Vinx’s rescue. “Do you feel the same type of feelings towards Fira as you do towards Aldowin.” Slyfer thinks about it for a second then shakes his head as he remembers how her legs had felt around him.
It makes his fire burn and something in the bath starts to move. The fairies blush and giggle at him which makes Slyfer want to die! “No I definitely don’t feel the same.” The fairy zips over to his shoulder. “You don’t feel the same but you still care about both of them. You see, you get different kinds of caring and love.” Slyfer starts to understand the principle behind it. “So, you only get married to the people you feel a certain kind of caring and love to?” The fairy zips into the air and spins, as she says yes. Slyfer is quiet for a while as he thinks and he swears, he can feel smoke coming out of his ears. “How do you know, if you love someone?” All the fairies stop, as if frozen. The one who had been talking flows down. “That our, little Sky Prince will have to figure out for himself, but your heart will tell you, you’ll just know.” As the fairy says it her hand touches his chest. He looks at it deep in thought.
Aldowin interrupts his thoughts. “I thought you were ready! Hurry we are going to be late and I don’t think we can afford, to make the King even angrier at us.” Aldowin stops talking as he sees the boy in the tub surrounded by fairies. “Doesn’t it bother you?” Slyfer looks at him as he gets out. “Doesn’t what bother me?” Aldowin shakes his head and just walks away. The fairies bring him a towel to dry of as they giggle at the two.
When Aldowin and Slyfer enter the Kings tent all eyes turn to them. When they had first seen Slyfer and Aldowin they had been wearing nothing more than rags, full of dust from traveling. The following days they looked better but still they weren’t dressed dark elf clothes, so they were just looked at, as outsiders. Tonight however, the two can only be described as Princely. Slyfer is dressed in black Old Sun had noticed he favours the color. Plain, black pants and boots. With no fancy adornment however the jacket he has on is in stark contrast. It has an extra leather piece that hangs over the left shoulder, to his elbow. On it is the tribal silver wolf of his clan.
On his right shoulder is a simple looking adornment, but it draws more gazes. It’s an intricate flame cast out of gold. It shows his rank, as pack leader. They finally reach the table and Slyfer lets out a sigh of relief which quickly gets sucked in again. As his eyes and Fira’s meet. In his mind he gets a quick. “I missed you.” Before she blushes. Her blue, slowly turning purple hair is taken up into a bun on the side of her head, which puts her neck on display. Fira smiles as she had the smart Idea to prepare for this eventuality. Her dress stops at the sides of her shoulders and meets in the middle a little low revealing just enough to drive Slyfer crazy!
Her dress is light blue and she has a purple shawl that can be thrown over her shoulders if it gets a little cold. Her heart beats faster as she can feel what he does, their connection gets stronger as they near each other it seems. Aldowin spoils his moment by slapping his back and whispering. “Control yourself; it looks like you are going to dive over this table to get to her.” Slyfer swallows and turns away greeting the other people at the table. Then he sits down not looking at anything, but the table.
The King shuffles around uncomfortably, as he watches Fira’a hair turn back to blue. The girl has a satisfied smile on her face which makes him even more uncomfortable. His reaction to her request last night gives him a bit of solace. The girl had tried everything in the book to get her way and he had constantly said no. “Join the army, preposterous! Over my dead body.”
Even after he had denied her request so many times, she still did not give up but eventually he won. He thinks back to how stupid he was all he had to do was mention that she is already an envoy and will be flooded with other responsibilities as soon as they reach the capital. When she heard what he said, she went quiet and clenched her jaw, her words from then gave him pride; “I am sorry father, I did not forget the promise I made to you and will keep to it.” After that not a peep escaped her.
The King stands up ready to give his speech. “My dear ladies and gentleman… a lot of things have happened in the last few weeks and I called this feast, so that we could celebrate the newest member of the clans, as well as remember those that gave their lives to ferret, and cut out the cancer that was the Spear clan!” Applause from everyone follows his words.
The King, chuckles. “Now, I am sure you all heard what happened this morning?” Excited talks suddenly erupt and the King has to raise his hands to silence them. “It is true that Slyfer has joined the band of misfits.” People laugh and nod in agreement. “But as you heard, he and his master plan to train them to become what they were meant to be! I want all here to know, I support them wholeheartedly! Not because he is now part of the Sun clan, but because making our own forces stronger, will only be better for us, we were a scattered and broken people, but the boy has shown us our flaws and I will not have it that way anymore!”
The King is pleased, to hear a lot of them agree. “Make no mistake, we are at war! The black dragon has already tried to take us apart, how many did we not lose, in the war against the wolves instigated by the Spears, with the help of the betrayer? How many sons and daughters died? How many resources did we lose? Some still blame the wolves, but we ourselves are to blame.” The King looks down as if sad about this; he truly is his own father and wife died in the war.
“As a show of good faith, I will let the wolf King; join us for dinner from now on!” Some elves want to complain, but too many give shouts of agreement for them to be heard. Everyone goes quiet as Grey King enters. His aura is mighty and a sense of authority can clearly be sensed from him. People whisper, to some this is a first for seeing a wolf king. Slyfer, of course starts to smile, as he looks at the wolf his hand is already making rubbing movements. Grey king sees it and quickly starts to talk to him, in his mind.
“No, rubs today Slyfer not in front of all these people!” Slyfer shows a pouting face for the first time since Fira has known him and she starts to wonder why. Luckily there are two wolves behind the King of wolves and Slyfer quickly sets his sites on their fur. “Fluffy!” Fira paying close attention to him, sees the change on his face as he starts to smile idiotically. Her eyes follow where his is pointing to rest on the female wolf, behind Grey King.
The female wolf suddenly stops when she feels killing intent directed at her. Her fur starts to rise making her look even fluffier. Slyfer smiles even more. Fira gets angrier, the wolf in her wants to come out and bite defeat her rival! Slyfer oblivious to all this had not even noticed it’s a female!
The King’s speech finally ends and he sits down clapping his hands twice, the signal for the food to be brought in. Slyfer looks away and to the front of him only to find Fira staring at him with a look that makes him fear for his life! She huffs and looks away not caring to meet his gaze any longer. In her mind her point has been clearly carried across. Slyfer on the other hand, is so confused right now.
The feast continues and they exchange a few words with the King, he mostly asks about Aldowin’s plans for the trainees. Fira’s mood bothers Slyfer and makes him irritable as well. “What did I do, I don’t understand?” He sends the thought over to Fira who nearly jumps at the sudden intrusion she didn’t even feel. The question however makes her even angrier. Since in her mind, Slyfer knows exactly what and is now pretending to be innocent!
“You know what you did!” Slyfer feels like shouting, but doesn’t. “No, I don’t!” She looks at him searching his face for lies but finds none. “You were looking at another girl.” Slyfer sits back exasperated. “Huh?” Fira’s anger only builds. “The wolf, you were looking at, the wolf that came with Grey King.” Slyfer nearly falls of his chair. “I wasn’t looking because of that…. I just like…” Fira leans forward, very interested now. “You just like?” Slyfer blows out a breath. “I just like …..fluffy things. I like the feel of it when I rub… fluffy things.”
Fira just sits and stares at him…..
Slyfer starts to squirm feeling awkward under her gaze. She suddenly starts laughing, drawing everyone’s attention. “Are you serious right now?” Slyfer blushes in embarrassment and looks away. The way he looks when he blushes makes Fira want to eat him up! “She smiles and looks down also starting to blush. “If you want, you can play with my tail whenever you want.” Slyfer forgets his embarrassment and beams at her with his shiny eyes. “She smiles at his dorky face. “You are such a weird person!” Slyfer shrugs, and then apologizes. “Sorry….” She takes his hand. “Don’t worry, I like that about you.”
The two continue to talk in their minds, it makes the King nervous, but what can he do? A question Fira asks, makes Slyfer start to think. “When did I start liking fluffy things?” He ponders about the question, but can’t get to an answer until he starts to think about the different kind of fluffy Trisha has compared to Fira, then it hits him. The reason he likes fluffy things, is because of her…. When he woke up on her back, when he stroked her tail, bit her ears.
He suddenly feels guilty.
“Why, why am I feeling like this? I am doing nothing wrong, right?”
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Chapter 27
Alright so... some may be thinking why I try and describe the clothes in detail. (I said try because I think I fail miserably)
Well for two reasons. I want you guys to more or less have a picture of whats going on and not just have my characters look like anime ones, that always have the same stuff on.
the main reason however is that clothes can tell you a lot about, what a person is feeling, or even planning. Its an integral part of body language, i hope it makes a difference.
Thanks to the guys that have voted so far, I really appreciate it! Also thanks for reading I nearly have a 100 follows. Don't know if that's impressive, don't really care, I am just happy.
Hope you enjoy the chapter. I will give a quick spoiler. The next chapter's name will be TRAINING FROM HELL