Have you ever heard the old adage your actions in a single moment can change your life forever? Well, I can tell you that's definitely true. The year was 1872 there had been a massive Blizzard that year. We had been snowed in for months and well as you can imagine, things had gotten bad real quick. Snow had all but buried us with only the roof poking out above it and even it was threatening to cave in under the weight. We weren't able to get out for firewood so the cold set in quick our provisions froze and well it wasn't long before I was the last one standing. I don't know why I was the last survivor I was a small twelve year old girl back then but I was just so cold and so hungry. I don't know if it was the first time I took a bite out of my father’s dead body or if it was that's something magic was always in me all I know was when winter came to its end and they finally found us I was still alive.
When the disappearances started, I blamed them on the Local boogeyman story like everyone else at first but when I realized the odd dreams, I was having wear actually memories of the event themself. I tried to end it but despite even shoving a pistol in my own mouth it wasn't enough. However, when I tried to get my hands on dynamite, I met a witch who gave me a pendant to help me control my affliction. I still need to sate my body's need for human flesh from time to time but as time went on that became far easier to do.
Turns out that being a Wendigo in the twentieth century you can live a relatively normal life. The magic is useful, and the extremely elongated lifespan made for a nice convenience and occasional annoyance, but I can't say my curse of an existence is that bad. Well, that was until people started figuring out about my kind. The monsters that hide in plain sight most of us are willing to let bygones be bygones and live peacefully. As I said it's pretty comfortable being a magical creature in the twentieth century. However, there will always be those who decide that they weren't ok with just being comfortable. I can agree with the hunters that those monsters need to be put down lest they threaten us all, magical or otherwise but when hunters started turning their blades against those of us who wished merely to be left alone. Well, that's when I drew the line I'm an old Wendigo and few are willing or dumb enough to fight an old Wendigo. Well old in the terms that I've survived this long. I'm still pretty young I'm pretty sure by Wendigo standards I still look like a young teenager it’s been nearly two hundred years and I barely aged two or three years so I can only assume my life span is far far longer than an average human and though that makes explaining things difficult by human standards it lessens suspicion on me when a body or two goes missing. Though it doesn't hurt working in a cop shop with access to a morgue not that I really needed to work thanks to even low return safe stock options you can earn quite a pretty penny over a handful of decades. However, that said it was not only good for easy food but also gave her a decent cover for her main job.
I am a member of the Peacekeepers a group that were willing to put their differences aside in exchange for creating an equal status quo. With those of us who simply wish to be left alone we're left alone and those that wished to fight got the opportunity in the name of Aaaaa lets say more productive cause. Most of the reasonable hunters who believed that the more well, monstrous magic users that had little care for the peace or for the life of the other races need to be kept in check worked for this group. So no one glanced twice when a peaceful Wendigo walked into a station one day offering to sign up in fact they were kind of stumbling over themselves trying to appease me.
Wendigos were powerful magical creatures in their own right hard to kill and very deadly. On top of that, they were able to tap into their monstrous sides’ powers in human forms. Were powerful mages which’s warlocks’ liches whatever you wanted to call them. Who had to either use disguises or were almost powerless in human form. So needless to say they were more than willing to accept me despite my tastes in meals. It wasn't long before I practically had my own precinct though few officers stuck around very long. As I was more or less used to train the orders rookies. As I had done my best to keep my city a relatively safe and stable refuge. Though I was only technically in charge of a small part of the city but was constantly called on by other precincts. Due to my powers and since I was far more reasonable than many of my other counterparts this led to my city and moreover my district to have a large number of magical creatures in it. Though that led to its own fair share of problems one of the unique ones that she particularly liked though was the undercity.
The undercity was a mix of portal networks underground tunnels, buildings, sewer networks, train lines, and small pocket dimensions. That made a large subterranean city possible with a minimal footprint in fact two thirds of her city's population was underground and that was saying something for a city like San Francisco. Though this had its own issues like how most people thought the earthquakes in the area were because of the fault lines and well at least a quarter of them were. Having that large of an underground structure without any form of planning board occasionally led to unforeseen incidents but ever since they got an earth dragon living down there keeping the place more or less in check that have become less of an issue. Not that there was ever any shortage on problems in a city where the actual population was nearly three times that of what was on the census and the majority of that unknown population being magic user's creatures monsters and everything in between. Meaning the whole place was a powder keg place somewhere close to a nuclear bomb and thankfully i wasn't in charge of that. My job was to keep my specific keg from blowing up and make it through the day by day.
I have to just keep reminding myself of that. I thought as I picked myself up after being thrown through a shopfront window. I ran a hand through my hair knocking out any of the glass in it and checking if my horns were showing and thankfully, they were not. I took a deep breath and walked back into the door of the butcher shop.
I'm Amy short for Amanda and this is a pretty much average day for me dealing with this bullshit. As soon as I entered, the shop I could tell from just the smell wasn't serving the typical beef chicken and pork, and though none of the more, exotic meats were human several weren’t safe for humans to eat.
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“Damn it Sammy I warned you five times already that's two more than what's regulation! You can't put non FDA meats in your shop front! You can advertise them to the magic community and sell them to anyone who comes in and asks for them but you can't put them in public view.” I said before having to duck to avoid a thrown cleaver.
“What the fuck Sammy?”
I’ve none the shops troll owner for years and yeah, he had a temper, but he’d never attack me directly. Throw me through a window sure we were both more durable than your average Joe that sort of stuff was the equivalent of a shove. The cleaver though that could have actually done some damage. I'd be it not much but still, it would hurt like a bitch.
“No fuck you! I’ve had enough of this bullshit!” Sammy said his disguise gone and his eyes glowing green his voice echoing as crimson smoke puffed out with each word presumably from the medicine pipe in his hand.
“Oh shit what did you smoke Sammy, look you need to calm down before we do something stupid.” I said digging in my pockets looking for my cigarette case.
I don’t smoke but the small metal box was perfect to hold chalk. I found one that had a blue marker signifying it as quarts chalk and scribbled a rune on the wall before dodging out of the way of another cleaver.
'Damn it I need a new aid for this shit.'
I thought marking another wall I just needed to mark two more walls to complete the spell. Unfortunately, Sammy was Infront of one of those walls. I didn’t have long to worry as I had to catch a table, he threw at me. Using it as a makeshift weapon I knocked away a half butchered corps before charging and ramming the table into Sammy’s stomach. Which really shouldn’t have worked as Sammy should have seen that coming. That wasn’t good that meant there was no way of talking this out he was likely in some form of berserker rage or trance but either way it wasn't good. I marked the wall and quickly mumbled my spell and with a wave of my hand an icy wind blew through the room. It took a few seconds, but the room was soon filled with a raging winter storm and this was the ideal hunting ground for a wendigo. Though it was nothing more than a smoke screen to finish the marking. I pulled out a handkerchief sized piece of cloth with a detailed magic circle on it. The moment the circle was activated anyone in the range of the ruins was teleported to a preset location in this case the coliseum.
The Coliseum is a pot marked underground fighting pit designed to contain violent magic users/creatures in a safe space far from the public eye.
Thankfully my spell was still going. Orcs didn’t like the cold so I was hoping I could literally cool him off but just as I turned up the cold Sammy exploded into green hellfire.
"Oh, shit Sammy what have you done?"
I honestly don’t know how to describe how I felt. I had known Sammy since he was a boy and yeah, he had the typical orc aggression, but he respected anyone who he butted heads with. Otherwise, he was a gentle giant with a soft hand with kids and animals to see him like this was truly heart wrenching.
“Sammy please if you're still in there you need to let me know now, please. If there's anything left of you in there, I'll do everything in my power to help you regain control but if not I I'll need to put you down.”
Sammy’s only response was a guttural roar. I swallowed my anger and sadness and let the wendigo take over I really didn’t want to be in control for this. As I changed into my wendigo form blacking out for the first time in several years when I came to I was naked and covered in blood again.
“Hey, you, ok?” Jeff the arena guard shouted safely behind the magically reinforced portcullis the only way in and out of the arena without having to go through close to a mile of rock,
“No, but I’m not hurt now get me some damn clothes.” I ordered picking myself up. I felt feral and cold, my curs tearing away at me. It would never do any lasting damage, but it was extremely unpleasant. I shivered as a towel a change of clothes a blanket and a thermos of coffee were thrown at me through the gate.
“Thanks.” I sighed, taking a swig of coffee before cleaning myself up the best I could and got dressed. I then Rapped myself in the blanket trying to get warm a fruitless effort, but it still felt better than nothing.
“OK then go ahead and let me out.” I side as I walked over to the gate.
My first planned stop was the showers with my second being my office. Then I definitely needed to report this to the other districts a drug that best case contracted you with a demon and worst case converted you into one was a nightmare put lightly.
“Hey what happened heard you went full Wendigo in the arena?” Ed Parker asked. Ed is the official station captain at the precinct I was based out of. Technically there was a hidden entrance into the underground where the actual precinct I worked for was, but we still needed an above ground facility to act as cover. He was in charge of the one above ground I was technically in charge of the one below. He was also just a regular guy he had no magic or magical ancestry. The most he had was a clip of magically everything I could think of including blessings ruins and outright enchanted bullets that were worth nearly twice his entire salary. However, he was competent and didn't freak out when a demon or some random Eldrich nightmare teleported into the room two characteristics that I put a lot of value in.
“Hi, I don't really know Sammy smokes something that made him aggressive and attacked me. I tried to calm him down but he just kept getting angrier and angrier, so I teleported him to the arena to cool him off but when I manage to get him there he went full demon. I couldn't get through to him but the demon took full control and I I had to put him down.”
“Oh, I'm sorry I know you two were friends and to go out like this I, just, sorry.” Ed said placing a hand on my shoulder trying to console me.
“Thank you, Ed, I appreciate your concern but when you've lived as long as I have loss is something you have to get used to. Though I will say it never gets any easier.” I said taking a deep breath to try and calm my nerves.
“Now if you excuse me I really need a shower.” I said waving him off as I walked into the women's locker room. I had two lockers here one for my general day-to-day and one where I store a change of clothes, I had a few outfits made using magic that could adjust to handle my other forms’ size or even restore themselves from damage. Unfortunately, they were expensive as all heck, and I only had a few. So most of the time I just tore up whatever I was wearing and required a change close unfortunately because I like the jacket I had been wearing. This was one of those times. I hopped into the shower trying to get the day’s events straight in my head as I watched the red of my own blood and the dark green of Ork blood makes as it swirled down the drain. I made a vow to myself that whoever made that shit was going to pay and if I couldn’t do so legally well they’d just be my next meal.