shadowkitty
Mistress of Shadows
CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN: Tonight we Run
The Circle of five had now become six.
Aela and Skjor had gone off in search of any human cattle that the vampires had kept in the ruins. Farkas and Vilkas had brought in their supplies they had dumped outside the ruins, before they had changed into their beast form and stormed the fortress. Wyldfyre sat by the roaring fire Kodlak had made in the middle of the large room where she had not long ago had her initiation into the Circle. She had the cup that she had drunk Farkas’s blood from, in her hands. Turning it over, she examined the carvings on the outside of the cup. They depicted Weres in various poses, one couching, ready to pounce, another with its head thrown back, howling into the night sky.
“This cup I drank from, is it some sort of ritual cup?” she asked Kodlak.
“Not really” the old man replied “But it seemed fitting. Usually the ritual is held in the Underforge but your situation was a little, unusual”
“The Underforge?”
“It is our sacred place. A place of quite thought and where we conduct our rituals.” Kodlak looked thoughtful “To be honest, the Underforge has not seen much use as of late.”
“That is where I would have drank the blood, if I had not been a..?”
“Yes daughter” Kodlak nodded “Like I said, your ritual was under special circumstances. We could not have brought you into the city in your former, condition.” Wyldfyre nodded, understanding. She was glad that they had all been present for her ritual, as shockingly painful as it was. She handed the cup back to Kodlak.
“Thank you” she said to him. He knew what she meant and he gave her a fatherly pat on the shoulder.
“Now” Kodlak said as he stretched his legs out towards the fire. “When are you and Farkas to be married?” Wyldfyre was slightly taken aback and glanced over at Farkas who was lying on their bedroll in a dark corner of the room.
“We haven’t really discussed that” Wyldfyre answered him. Kodlak nodded.
“Well do not delay for too long, I do love a good wedding” and with that he dozed off. Wyldfyre moved over to the bedrolls that she and Farkas were to share and lay down next to him. They both lay on their backs and stared at the ceiling. Farkas put his arm around her and drew her to him and Wyldfyre rested her head on his chest, enjoying the warmth of his skin, and his smell.
“You smell different” she said to him. He smiled as he stroked her back.
“I don’t think so. I think you can smell the real me now”
“You are right” Wyldfyre answered him “Before, it was normal human smells, like grass and sweat, but now it’s different. Better.”
“And what do I smell like now?” Farkas chuckled. Wyldfyre sniffed him. A dozen thoughts and images crossed through her mind.
“The earth, animal, blood” she tried to convey what she was seeing. Farkas nodded, understanding.
“What do I smell like?” she asked him. Farkas drew in a breath, it was full of an intoxicating musky mixture that almost drove him over the edge.
“You don’t want to know what a female Were smells like” he said to her.
“Tell me” she urged him. Farkas ran his hand through her flaming hair, it felt like silk between his rough fingers.
“It’s like nothing else” he said “Drives us men mad.” Wyldfyre raised her head and looked into his eyes. “In a good way” he finished, a look of hunger in his eyes. Wyldfyre shook her head.
“Farkas I can’t do that here, not in this place” a look of anguish on her face. Aela and Skjor never returned to their camp and Wyldfyre guessed what they were doing, but she could not bring herself to be intimate with Farkas in this place where she had done terrible things and where memories of her torture were still lingering in the air. Farkas held her tightly.
“Sleep my love” he soothed her as she placed her head on his chest. “Tonight we run”. Wyldfyre drifted off listening to his heart beat.
“Ready?” Wyldfyre nodded and Farkas’s body began to shimmer and change. Wyldfyre concentrated on her own body and she felt the tugging and breaking of her bones and muscles as she changed into her beast form. When the two Weres stood there together Wyldfyre moved closer to Farkas sniffing him again, familiarising herself with his scent. Farkas’s eyes locked onto hers and they shared a moment of intense desire.
“We need to run my mate” Farkas said to her.
“Try to keep up” Wyldfyre lunged forward and sped off into the wilds. She felt exhilarated as she raced through the countryside and dodged between trees. The wind whipped through her fur and she felt so alive she wanted to cry out. She was surprised when she realised that she knew the way home. Her natural instincts had kicked in and she followed an invisible trail as Farkas kept pace beside her, which led them past Morthal and towards the mountain.
Wyldfyre sniffed the air constantly and discovered new and unusual scents. She came upon one that was delightful to her and she veered off course and followed it. She slowed her pace, sniffing at the ground as the scent meandered among the trees. Farkas came up beside her.
“What do you smell my mate?” he asked her.
“I do not know” she answered. The scent was animal, but she couldn’t quite determine what it was. Farkas sniffed the ground and immediately knew what Wyldfyre had picked up, but he wanted her to guess.
“Describe it”
“It’s animal. Large. Four feet. No, four hooves. Delicate. Musky” She lifted her head, suddenly excited. “Deer!” Wyldfyre rushed off through the trees following the scent of the deer, a new hunger building inside her. She was now the hunter after her prey. Farkas followed behind her, letting her enjoy this first hunt. He remembered what his first hunt was like, that exhilarating feeling. He wanted his mate to feel the same.
“There!” Wyldfyre had stopped and through the trees was a lone female deer, cropping at blades of grass, completely unaware of the danger it was now in. A low rumbling growl emanated through Wyldfyre and she tensed her whole body, ready to lunge.
“Wait!” Farkas stopped her. Wyldfyre shivered slightly with annoyance. “Look at it. Look at the way it moves, anticipate its next move before you make your kill. Know your prey” Wyldfyre relaxed and watched the deer. It looked up from its patch of grass every now and then and sniffed the air. Wyldfyre could see the timid animal was wary and that she would have to move quickly when it was time. The deer moved a step forward and put its head down to feed again, angled away from the two Weres.
“Now!” Wyldfyre lunged through the undergrowth and took the deer down with her claws before she clamped her teeth down onto its delicate neck and snapped it. The deer had barely enough time to let out a cry before it went limp in Wyldfyre’s jaws. She let the deer go and it fell to the ground. Wyldfyre normally would have held a little remorse for killing such a delicate animal, but in her beast form it was food.
“A good kill my mate” Farkas came over to her, and they fed on the deer, stripping its flesh from its bones. They sat there for a while, licking the blood off their fur before continuing on to the mountain.
As they neared the mountain Farkas slowed and peered up at the peak. It was not a very high mountain and Wyldfyre could just make out a stone construction at the top.
“What is it?” she asked her mate.
“Skyborn Alter” Farkas remembered the human name for this place. He also remembered something else about it. “My mate, it has a word wall”
“I have to go up there” Wyldfyre started towards the path that led up to the monument. As the two Weres neared the peek Wyldfyre caught another scent on the wind. She stopped and tilted her head. Fire, and power and ancient words.
“Dragon!” Farkas stood beside her, peering up the path. He had always wanted to see a real dragon, but now that he had a chance to he was not so sure he wanted to. Not to mention they were both in beast form and had no other weapons to fight the dragon with but teeth and claws.
“My mate” he urged her “This is not a good hunt” Wyldfyre stopped and looked back at him.
“Why?”
“Because we do not fly!” he answered her incredulously.
“We can take it before it does” she tried to convince him.
“We have no weapons”
“We have these” she showed him her claws and teeth. They were quite formidable.
“That may not be enough” Farkas argued.
“I want to look” she said then “If it is too hard, we come back another day with human weapons”
They followed the path cautiously and as they rounded the last corner Wyldfyre saw the word wall. Unfortunately the Dragon was asleep on top of the wall. Wyldfyre surveyed the area. The mountain beside her rose above the wall and she could see a way to climb up around the back of it. She could take the dragon by surprise if she could sneak up on it close enough. She relayed her plan to Farkas who, although he didn’t like it, agreed. Wyldfyre started to climb the mountain. Her Were strength made the going easy and she stepped lightly across the rocks, pulling herself up with brute strength when the going was too steep. She circled around the wall and came up behind it from above. The Dragon lay draped over the wall, its eyes closed in its slumber. Wyldfyre was surprised to hear the familiar chanting coming from the wall even in her beast form.
She could see Farkas down below slowly creeping toward the dragon. He was going to attempt grabbing it by one of its wings to keep it grounded while Wyldfyre took it from above.
“Ready?” she asked Farkas when she was in position. Farkas sent her a positive image and Wyldfyre tensed her muscles, ready for the jump from the mountain to the dragon. Wyldfyre sprang forward in time to see the dragons eyes open. She collided with its head and latched on with her claws, snapping and biting at its thick scales. She brought her arm down with as much strength as she could and ripped a fair sized hole in the side of the dragon’s neck. The dragon thrashed around, its wing pinned to the ground by Farkas. He tore at the wing, its membrane in tatters. Wyldfyre had to hang on when the dragon thrashed about and then it dropped to the ground. It landed heavily on its side and Farkas jumped onto it, slashing at it with his claws.
The dragon let out a blast of frost in frustration which blew across the yard harmlessly. Wyldfyre continued to savage the dragon’s neck, sending its hot blood flying everywhere. She slashed at the wound, opening it up further. As the Dragon weakened, Wyldfyre felt the souls inside her stir and they fuelled her savagery to a new level. She was no longer Wyldfyre but a Werewolf, a beast of the moonlight, running purely on animalistic instinct. This Dragon was her prey and she and her mate were going to kill it. She bit into the neck of the dragon and tasted its flesh, its hot blood searing down her throat tasted like pure honey to her. She tore at the neck until she realised that the dragon was now dead.
The Werewolf stood over the dragon and she threw back her head and howled into the night sky, triumph and dragons’ blood coursing through her body. As she stood there the dragon’s body disintegrated and another soul entered her and filled her. She looked over to her mate who stood there watching. Dragon blood dripped from her fangs as she moved over to him and he nuzzled her neck. The dragon blood on her smelt strange and alien to him and when he tried to lick it off her fur it burned him. He yelped and stepped back.
“My mate” he said to her “Does the dragon blood not burn you?” The she-wolf tilted her head, not understanding the male wolfs question. Farkas threw a questioning image to her and he began to worry that Wyldfyre was lost inside the beast. He took in a breath and changed back into his human form. The she-wolf lowered her head and growled at him, raising a huge clawed hand. Then the human spoke to her.
“Wyldfyre! Change back!” he urged her. The she-wolf stood there growling at the human male. She stepped towards him “My love, remember who you are!” She shook her head, trying to clear the murderous thoughts and images that ran through her mind, until one image stood out. It was of a house by the lake. Her house. And standing before her was her mate. Farkas, her love. Wyldfyre stepped away from Farkas and focused her strength on changing back into her human form. It took all of her focus not to succumb to the call of the beast and the restless dragon souls inside her. She looked into Farkas’s eyes as a means to pull herself out of the dangerous path she was almost set upon.
Wyldfyre stumbled to the ground when at last she was back in her human form, she whimpered as Farkas lifted her up and carried her over to a large rock, propping himself against it and sitting her on his lap. She clung to him shivering until she was able to speak again.
“I almost killed you” she half sobbed. Farkas smoothed her hair.
“It’s all right” he soothed her.”What happened?”
“I don’t know exactly, but whenever I fight a dragon and absorb its soul, it is very hard to control at first, and I go sort of wild for a time. I’m not a very nice person to be around when that happens, unless..”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you are a male” Wyldfyre looked guilty, but still she was starting to feel those primal urges as the close proximity of Farkas and his wonderful scent filled her nostrils.
“I guess the beast took over me to?” she asked him. Farkas nodded. Wyldfyre leaned in and nuzzled his neck. His breathing quickened as her musk overcame him. Farkas drew her in closer to him and she felt that he was as aroused as she was. They made love under the moonlight on top of Skyborn Altar.
The Circle of five had now become six.
Aela and Skjor had gone off in search of any human cattle that the vampires had kept in the ruins. Farkas and Vilkas had brought in their supplies they had dumped outside the ruins, before they had changed into their beast form and stormed the fortress. Wyldfyre sat by the roaring fire Kodlak had made in the middle of the large room where she had not long ago had her initiation into the Circle. She had the cup that she had drunk Farkas’s blood from, in her hands. Turning it over, she examined the carvings on the outside of the cup. They depicted Weres in various poses, one couching, ready to pounce, another with its head thrown back, howling into the night sky.
“This cup I drank from, is it some sort of ritual cup?” she asked Kodlak.
“Not really” the old man replied “But it seemed fitting. Usually the ritual is held in the Underforge but your situation was a little, unusual”
“The Underforge?”
“It is our sacred place. A place of quite thought and where we conduct our rituals.” Kodlak looked thoughtful “To be honest, the Underforge has not seen much use as of late.”
“That is where I would have drank the blood, if I had not been a..?”
“Yes daughter” Kodlak nodded “Like I said, your ritual was under special circumstances. We could not have brought you into the city in your former, condition.” Wyldfyre nodded, understanding. She was glad that they had all been present for her ritual, as shockingly painful as it was. She handed the cup back to Kodlak.
“Thank you” she said to him. He knew what she meant and he gave her a fatherly pat on the shoulder.
“Now” Kodlak said as he stretched his legs out towards the fire. “When are you and Farkas to be married?” Wyldfyre was slightly taken aback and glanced over at Farkas who was lying on their bedroll in a dark corner of the room.
“We haven’t really discussed that” Wyldfyre answered him. Kodlak nodded.
“Well do not delay for too long, I do love a good wedding” and with that he dozed off. Wyldfyre moved over to the bedrolls that she and Farkas were to share and lay down next to him. They both lay on their backs and stared at the ceiling. Farkas put his arm around her and drew her to him and Wyldfyre rested her head on his chest, enjoying the warmth of his skin, and his smell.
“You smell different” she said to him. He smiled as he stroked her back.
“I don’t think so. I think you can smell the real me now”
“You are right” Wyldfyre answered him “Before, it was normal human smells, like grass and sweat, but now it’s different. Better.”
“And what do I smell like now?” Farkas chuckled. Wyldfyre sniffed him. A dozen thoughts and images crossed through her mind.
“The earth, animal, blood” she tried to convey what she was seeing. Farkas nodded, understanding.
“What do I smell like?” she asked him. Farkas drew in a breath, it was full of an intoxicating musky mixture that almost drove him over the edge.
“You don’t want to know what a female Were smells like” he said to her.
“Tell me” she urged him. Farkas ran his hand through her flaming hair, it felt like silk between his rough fingers.
“It’s like nothing else” he said “Drives us men mad.” Wyldfyre raised her head and looked into his eyes. “In a good way” he finished, a look of hunger in his eyes. Wyldfyre shook her head.
“Farkas I can’t do that here, not in this place” a look of anguish on her face. Aela and Skjor never returned to their camp and Wyldfyre guessed what they were doing, but she could not bring herself to be intimate with Farkas in this place where she had done terrible things and where memories of her torture were still lingering in the air. Farkas held her tightly.
“Sleep my love” he soothed her as she placed her head on his chest. “Tonight we run”. Wyldfyre drifted off listening to his heart beat.
*****
Wyldfyre stood naked, delighting in the chill of the evening air. She and Farkas had divided their belongings between the rest of the Circle, who were making their own way back to Whiterun. Aela and Skjor had left that afternoon and Kodlak and Vilkas had just bid them farewell. Wyldfyre could see them way off in the distance. She looked out over the countryside, her heart beating in anticipation of what was to come. Farkas stood there beside her and he took her in his arms and they kissed passionately for a few minutes, before he drew away.“Ready?” Wyldfyre nodded and Farkas’s body began to shimmer and change. Wyldfyre concentrated on her own body and she felt the tugging and breaking of her bones and muscles as she changed into her beast form. When the two Weres stood there together Wyldfyre moved closer to Farkas sniffing him again, familiarising herself with his scent. Farkas’s eyes locked onto hers and they shared a moment of intense desire.
“We need to run my mate” Farkas said to her.
“Try to keep up” Wyldfyre lunged forward and sped off into the wilds. She felt exhilarated as she raced through the countryside and dodged between trees. The wind whipped through her fur and she felt so alive she wanted to cry out. She was surprised when she realised that she knew the way home. Her natural instincts had kicked in and she followed an invisible trail as Farkas kept pace beside her, which led them past Morthal and towards the mountain.
Wyldfyre sniffed the air constantly and discovered new and unusual scents. She came upon one that was delightful to her and she veered off course and followed it. She slowed her pace, sniffing at the ground as the scent meandered among the trees. Farkas came up beside her.
“What do you smell my mate?” he asked her.
“I do not know” she answered. The scent was animal, but she couldn’t quite determine what it was. Farkas sniffed the ground and immediately knew what Wyldfyre had picked up, but he wanted her to guess.
“Describe it”
“It’s animal. Large. Four feet. No, four hooves. Delicate. Musky” She lifted her head, suddenly excited. “Deer!” Wyldfyre rushed off through the trees following the scent of the deer, a new hunger building inside her. She was now the hunter after her prey. Farkas followed behind her, letting her enjoy this first hunt. He remembered what his first hunt was like, that exhilarating feeling. He wanted his mate to feel the same.
“There!” Wyldfyre had stopped and through the trees was a lone female deer, cropping at blades of grass, completely unaware of the danger it was now in. A low rumbling growl emanated through Wyldfyre and she tensed her whole body, ready to lunge.
“Wait!” Farkas stopped her. Wyldfyre shivered slightly with annoyance. “Look at it. Look at the way it moves, anticipate its next move before you make your kill. Know your prey” Wyldfyre relaxed and watched the deer. It looked up from its patch of grass every now and then and sniffed the air. Wyldfyre could see the timid animal was wary and that she would have to move quickly when it was time. The deer moved a step forward and put its head down to feed again, angled away from the two Weres.
“Now!” Wyldfyre lunged through the undergrowth and took the deer down with her claws before she clamped her teeth down onto its delicate neck and snapped it. The deer had barely enough time to let out a cry before it went limp in Wyldfyre’s jaws. She let the deer go and it fell to the ground. Wyldfyre normally would have held a little remorse for killing such a delicate animal, but in her beast form it was food.
“A good kill my mate” Farkas came over to her, and they fed on the deer, stripping its flesh from its bones. They sat there for a while, licking the blood off their fur before continuing on to the mountain.
As they neared the mountain Farkas slowed and peered up at the peak. It was not a very high mountain and Wyldfyre could just make out a stone construction at the top.
“What is it?” she asked her mate.
“Skyborn Alter” Farkas remembered the human name for this place. He also remembered something else about it. “My mate, it has a word wall”
“I have to go up there” Wyldfyre started towards the path that led up to the monument. As the two Weres neared the peek Wyldfyre caught another scent on the wind. She stopped and tilted her head. Fire, and power and ancient words.
“Dragon!” Farkas stood beside her, peering up the path. He had always wanted to see a real dragon, but now that he had a chance to he was not so sure he wanted to. Not to mention they were both in beast form and had no other weapons to fight the dragon with but teeth and claws.
“My mate” he urged her “This is not a good hunt” Wyldfyre stopped and looked back at him.
“Why?”
“Because we do not fly!” he answered her incredulously.
“We can take it before it does” she tried to convince him.
“We have no weapons”
“We have these” she showed him her claws and teeth. They were quite formidable.
“That may not be enough” Farkas argued.
“I want to look” she said then “If it is too hard, we come back another day with human weapons”
They followed the path cautiously and as they rounded the last corner Wyldfyre saw the word wall. Unfortunately the Dragon was asleep on top of the wall. Wyldfyre surveyed the area. The mountain beside her rose above the wall and she could see a way to climb up around the back of it. She could take the dragon by surprise if she could sneak up on it close enough. She relayed her plan to Farkas who, although he didn’t like it, agreed. Wyldfyre started to climb the mountain. Her Were strength made the going easy and she stepped lightly across the rocks, pulling herself up with brute strength when the going was too steep. She circled around the wall and came up behind it from above. The Dragon lay draped over the wall, its eyes closed in its slumber. Wyldfyre was surprised to hear the familiar chanting coming from the wall even in her beast form.
She could see Farkas down below slowly creeping toward the dragon. He was going to attempt grabbing it by one of its wings to keep it grounded while Wyldfyre took it from above.
“Ready?” she asked Farkas when she was in position. Farkas sent her a positive image and Wyldfyre tensed her muscles, ready for the jump from the mountain to the dragon. Wyldfyre sprang forward in time to see the dragons eyes open. She collided with its head and latched on with her claws, snapping and biting at its thick scales. She brought her arm down with as much strength as she could and ripped a fair sized hole in the side of the dragon’s neck. The dragon thrashed around, its wing pinned to the ground by Farkas. He tore at the wing, its membrane in tatters. Wyldfyre had to hang on when the dragon thrashed about and then it dropped to the ground. It landed heavily on its side and Farkas jumped onto it, slashing at it with his claws.
The dragon let out a blast of frost in frustration which blew across the yard harmlessly. Wyldfyre continued to savage the dragon’s neck, sending its hot blood flying everywhere. She slashed at the wound, opening it up further. As the Dragon weakened, Wyldfyre felt the souls inside her stir and they fuelled her savagery to a new level. She was no longer Wyldfyre but a Werewolf, a beast of the moonlight, running purely on animalistic instinct. This Dragon was her prey and she and her mate were going to kill it. She bit into the neck of the dragon and tasted its flesh, its hot blood searing down her throat tasted like pure honey to her. She tore at the neck until she realised that the dragon was now dead.
The Werewolf stood over the dragon and she threw back her head and howled into the night sky, triumph and dragons’ blood coursing through her body. As she stood there the dragon’s body disintegrated and another soul entered her and filled her. She looked over to her mate who stood there watching. Dragon blood dripped from her fangs as she moved over to him and he nuzzled her neck. The dragon blood on her smelt strange and alien to him and when he tried to lick it off her fur it burned him. He yelped and stepped back.
“My mate” he said to her “Does the dragon blood not burn you?” The she-wolf tilted her head, not understanding the male wolfs question. Farkas threw a questioning image to her and he began to worry that Wyldfyre was lost inside the beast. He took in a breath and changed back into his human form. The she-wolf lowered her head and growled at him, raising a huge clawed hand. Then the human spoke to her.
“Wyldfyre! Change back!” he urged her. The she-wolf stood there growling at the human male. She stepped towards him “My love, remember who you are!” She shook her head, trying to clear the murderous thoughts and images that ran through her mind, until one image stood out. It was of a house by the lake. Her house. And standing before her was her mate. Farkas, her love. Wyldfyre stepped away from Farkas and focused her strength on changing back into her human form. It took all of her focus not to succumb to the call of the beast and the restless dragon souls inside her. She looked into Farkas’s eyes as a means to pull herself out of the dangerous path she was almost set upon.
Wyldfyre stumbled to the ground when at last she was back in her human form, she whimpered as Farkas lifted her up and carried her over to a large rock, propping himself against it and sitting her on his lap. She clung to him shivering until she was able to speak again.
“I almost killed you” she half sobbed. Farkas smoothed her hair.
“It’s all right” he soothed her.”What happened?”
“I don’t know exactly, but whenever I fight a dragon and absorb its soul, it is very hard to control at first, and I go sort of wild for a time. I’m not a very nice person to be around when that happens, unless..”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you are a male” Wyldfyre looked guilty, but still she was starting to feel those primal urges as the close proximity of Farkas and his wonderful scent filled her nostrils.
“I guess the beast took over me to?” she asked him. Farkas nodded. Wyldfyre leaned in and nuzzled his neck. His breathing quickened as her musk overcame him. Farkas drew her in closer to him and she felt that he was as aroused as she was. They made love under the moonlight on top of Skyborn Altar.