William lifted his tired head to the ceiling. He had spent too much time in the dark. He would have liked nothing better than to gaze up into the sunshine one last time before he died. But he was in here and the sun was out there, so he had to deal with what he had.
In an absent-minded gesture, he raised the heavy shackles and clanked the heavy black steel of the chains. His wrists were deeply wounded. Without a healer it would take the better part of a day for them to heal. The raw flesh rubbed uncomfortably against the cool clasps. He tried to reposition his arms to let the clasps hang loosely but every position he tried the steel still bit into his arms and wrists. He plopped his hands in his lap and tried to ignore the stinging pain.
His legs were a little better off. Looking at himself he was reminded of a panda bear sitting dumbly on its butt eating bamboo. The thought of food sent his stomach into a symphony of growls and almost painful contractions, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten in a very long time.
He didn’t know how long he had been there, and he was certain that he was going to have to wait another extended period of time before anyone came to check on him. It seemed odd that nobody had come to talk to him before. His memory of his time in this prison was so hazy people could have visited him and he just hadn’t realized it at the time or remembered anything about it. The cold black walls were similar to his room but here the indifference of the walls and the light from the ceiling crystals was chilling in ways that he never thought he would experience.
He must have fallen asleep.
The first thing he noticed was that a very familiar werewolf was standing in front of him, with an open cell door behind him. The second thing he noticed was that his wrists had healed and the sensation of stinging steel was absent from his arms. He looked at Ares as the massive werewolf studied him from a few feet away. William looked back and repositioned himself into a more comfortable sitting position. The movement broke dried blood on the inside of his clasps and tore several hairs out from the still tender flesh, sending needles of pain up his arm, he ignored them. Once he was settled, he looked up at his teacher and waited for him to speak.
“Are you there, William?” Ares asked with no hint of sorrow or humor. His voice was as cold as the walls.
“You asked me that question once before.” William let a small smile play around his lips as he consciously flicked his tail on the ground. “Only that time I couldn’t answer yes. Do you remember?”
Ares seemed to relax a fraction and crossed his arms over his chest. The eight-foot-tall werewolf inhaled the scent of the room. William knew that the smell of blood would not be missed by his teacher. “Since when did you master such acute control over your metabolism?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
William was confused. He cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
Ares gestured around the room with his claws and nose. “You haven’t left any droppings or marked your territory.”
For several moments he was even more confused than he had been a second ago. Left any droppings? Then it hit him and he felt really stupid. He whipped his head around and scanned his prison cell. He hadn’t gone to the bathroom. He inhaled and he couldn’t smell any urine either. At first, he wondered how this was possible. It was just one more thing that his other could do that he might never be able to. William shrugged.
“How do you feel?” Ares asked. A small amount of warmth was present in his teacher’s voice.
William looked around and heaved the clasps and chains around his wrists. “I’m ok, considering I’ve been here for god-knows how long.”
It was meant to be a joke, but Ares face hardened and his eyes darkened. “The only reason that you are not dead right now is because of what you did for your pack in the Whyte Plain. William, what happened back there?”
His mind reached back to that place. It seemed very fuzzy. He remembered the events leading up to going into the Whyte Plain but everything after that had happened so fast that he wasn’t sure of anything. “I did what I had to.”
“What you had to?” Ares looked down at him. William felt like a child being addressed by his father. “If it were up to Derceto, the Elders would have killed you after I dragged you back to the city.”
William was calm but couldn’t keep the defensive tone out of his voice. “Ares, if I hadn’t done it than my whole pack would be dead right now, wandering that godforsaken place as one of those shadows.”
Ares almost turned his back on his student. “That is the only reason you’re still alive. Do you know how long you’ve been in here?” William shrugged. “You’ve been in here over two weeks. Myself and others have been keeping a very close eye on you to see which way you would go. Yesterday you were the calmest that you have been since waking up. I still wasn’t sure it was you until you answered me.”
William wiped his snout with his claw. He had been in here for two weeks? How had he survived with no food or water? How had his other been able to exert himself over that amount of time and not kill him? The thought of time brought to mind the other members of his pack.
“What about Charles and Achelois? Where are they?” he couldn’t keep his voice even.
Ares head tilted down towards his chest. William could see his teacher’s tail droop a little. William wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question anymore. Ares composed himself and looked William in the eye holding his student’s gaze. “Achelois is gone.”
Ares said it in such a matter of fact tone that William thought that he must have heard wrong or that there was more to be said. “What do you mean, gone?” William didn’t try to hide the confusion on his face. “Has she left the City under the Mountain? Was she sent somewhere else? What…”
“She’s gone, William.” Ares interrupted. “There was nothing we could do. As soon as she woke up inside the city she began to melt. I was there watching from her cell door.” Ares did not stammer over his words but it seemed that Ares was having trouble with his language. “She was changing into one of those shadows and I, along with two others, were forced to kill her immediately.” Ares raised himself to his full height and looked down at William. “Achelois never came back from the Whyte Plain. That thing that Nicolas brought back only looked like her.”