She Wolf

Chapter Three

Hungary- 1419

The stranger didn't wanted to be looked right in the face, or so it seemed since she was wearing a mantel with a hood she never lowered. She also never talked with anyone, but just sat silently in the tavern and drunk nothing, ate nothing; she simply sat and waited for the night to fall, and then she went out and didn't come back until the following morning.

Of course the villagers were terrified. The priest had reunited them all in the church two times since when the stranger had appeared, and they had prayed the Lord to keep them safe from the Devil. Because that woman surely was acquainted with the Devil.

If she had noticed the fear of the villagers, the stranger didn't show it off. Uncaring of the scared looks, uncaring of the whispers whenever she walked by, she just kept on with her life.

Since when she'd arrived, she'd spoken just once to Doina, the maid girl who worked at the tavern. The whole village had now the habit to reunite in the tavern at night, when the stranger was gone, to hear the tale right from Doina's mouth, night after night.

Sitting in front of the fireplace, the potatoes to peel left forgotten at her feet, Doina told them how it had happened; and they listened, trembling and doing the cross sign, praying for God to protect them.

"Her room is in the backside of the building." Doina's high pitched voice echoed in the silent room. "But I don't really think she sleeps in there, because the bed is always made."

"She doesn't sleep, doesn't drink, doesn't eat! She's sent from the Devil!" an old woman jumped on her feet and screamed, then fell on her knees on the floor.

Doina was used to those interruptions, and just went on with the tale.

"The first day she was here, she spoke to me. She asked me if we'd been attacked by wolfs. I said no, we hadn't. She then asked if people were dying from blood loss and with strange wounds on the neck. I said no. She then asked if our animals were all safe, if they ever disappeared. I said no. She asked me if we often went in the forest, and I said no. Then she spoke no more."

The whole room would then be filled in whispered prays, invocation to Saints and to God, and then the villagers would start discussing the stranger, her purposes and the Devil's handprint on her damned soul.

That episode repeated itself in many villages, with many maid girls or maid boys referring to many villagers about the stranger who never talked but one time, and just to ask the same questions. She stayed one week or a little more, and then as suddenly as she had appeared she would disappear.

When relatives from distant villages met and told each other the same story, they would all agree that the stranger was a damned soul who was searching for something.

And they were dangerously close to the truth.

***

Hungary - 1409

A full moon shone, bright and beautiful. Its silvery light made the Lycan Fortress look ethereal and unreal. But there was no escaping from the though reality, the reality of blood, sweat and battles.

The Lycans were getting ready for the battle, perhaps the biggest and most important battle they'd ever fought.

The Lycan spies had learn to the cost of many lives how the Vampires were programming a magnificent attack to the Fortress, with a huge squad of Death Dealers. They were sure, absolutely sure, that their attack would have caught the Lycans completely off guard.

As always the Vampires were underestimating their enemies, thought Lucien.

"Raze!"

At the call of his Alpha Male, the huge african man immediately appeared.

"Send here Sharona and Yanick."

His lieutenant and friend nodded and disappeared from the room, leaving Lucien alone with his thoughts. Such a night, such a night. His mind run to another night of many, many years ago...the night when he'd lost everything. When he'd lost her. But this night it would have been far different.

The muffled steps of three pair of feet on the marble floor pulled Lucien's mind away from the shadowy past, and he turned to face Raze, Yanick and Sharona.

The two young warriors were scared and excited, he could smell it. They were still very young and had much to learn about the war; but they also were extremely talented and faithful. Which made them perfect for protecting the Fortress from outside, in the open field, where the battle would have been easier since the most Vampires would have tried attacking the Fortress itself.

"Yanick, Sharona."

The two nodded, he a big muscular guy with reddish hairs and amber eyes and she a small well built blondie. Both strong and deadly, two true Lycans.

"You two will take care of the Fortress surroundings. Our healer, Sage, will be with you; so you'll also have to protect the wounded and make sure they stay safe. If we have to retreat, you'll be there to open the road for us. Is it understood?"

Yanick nodded a yes, obedient and trusting as always. Even Sharona nodded, but there was a golden ghost in her green eyelids that made Lucien understand she wasn't happy with that order.

"Go get your squads ready." the Lycan said, and when the three turned to go he called after the girl. "Stay, Sharona."

She obeyed, waiting nervously for him to speak; which he did just when the other two had left the room and their steps weren't heard anymore.

"What troubles you, Sharona?" he asked then.

She arched a blonde eyebrow, moving her eyes away from him.

"Nothing." she said, and then with uncertainty "Well really....I...I had hoped you'd let me fight in the Fortress. At your side."

Lucien turned his head a little so that his dark chestnut locks covered his face, and the grin that he couldn't retain at her words.

"Sharona, you're an awesome warrior but you're still inexperienced. To keep a Fortress requires a squad with certain abilities you'll most certainly develop with time, but at the moment..."

"But you don't know!" she said passionately. "You have not tested me yet!"

"It's a risk I can't take tonight, Sharona. And you're too much of a good warrior not to know it yourself." Lucien said with a tone that emitted only an agreement as a possible answer.

Defeated, the young Lycan girl lowered her head. Defeated by her own loyalty to him, but still not persuaded he was right. And Lucien had to smile again, for her stubbornness reminded him of another female warrior he'd known very well.

"Go get ready now, Sharona. Go, fight and convince me you deserve to fight at my side."

***

Hungary - 1419

If she closed her eyes, she still could see it. Hear it. Smell it.

She could see the blood of her own kind and of the Vampires, she could see the corpses everywhere on the ground. She could hear the lament of the dying, the cries of the wounded, the desperate screams of the ones still fighting inside the Fortress and in the surroundings. She could smell the blood, the sweat, the fear.

The bridge to the Fortress had been knocked down-she still could hear the sound of the stones falling down in the river-and thus the one inside had been locked. Locked in there with the Death Dealers.

The frustration still burned inside her when she remembered her useless effort to reach the Fortress, but every passage was controlled by the Death Dealers and no matter how many she slaughtered, they kept appearing like ghosts of the night.

She'd tried, tried and tried; and the only result was that she'd not been able to help her squad nor Yanick's and most of them had ended up slaughtered.

Then, a Death Dealer had hit her. His sword had sinked inside her flesh, right inside the right breast, and she still could hear the obscene whistles of the Vampires:

"Man, you hit on the breast because she's a female!"

She'd tried to attack them again, and another one had hit her this time slashing her on the stomach. A bump to her head. Kicks. Screams. Pain. Nothing. Darkness.

And fire.

Fire. She'd woke up to the smell of fire, to the sound of fire.

Naked, wounded, unable to turn into her Lycan form. Alone in between corpses and limbs. Alone in between pain and blood. Totally alone, the home of her clan burning right in front of her face.

Yes, if she closed her eyes she still could feel all of that. At times actually she didn't even need to close her eyes, for that remembrance was always with her. And she could not escape.

Not that she wished too. Otherwise she wouldn't have travelled from village to village all around Hungary in seek the remains of her race.

In ten years, ten long lonely years, she had found no one. Absolutely no one.

But she refused to believe that of all her clan, her big magnificent clan, there was no one left but her. She knew they must be somewhere out there. Her heart said so.

A heart that had already failed her once in the past, and she knew it; but she needed a hope to clutch on.

And so, she kept going.

Night after night, village after village, forest to forest.

Until that night.

Another night with a seducing full moon, a wolf's night, a Lycan's night. And in the depth of that forest, far far away from the village she'd stopped by, she'd smelled one of her kind.

The smell was feeble and almost lost amidst the smell of humidity, dead wood and wet terrain; but her Lycan sense of smell couldn't fail, especially on that matter.

She got rid of the mantel to be free her movements, for the other Lycan was turned and moving fast. She didn't turn, she couldn't lose time not even for that.

He must have been a youngling, because she could easily match his pace without being turned. The smell grew stronger as she ran deeper in the forest, and soon she was close enough to hear a sound of paws on the ground.

And then, again, blackness.

***

The youngest Lycans lowered down to sniff the unconscious body on the ground.

"So...you say this is a Lycan?" he asked, uncertain. He was barely eighteen, and was a tall slender blonde haired boy.

The other one was not much older, nor in human age nor as a Lycan.

"Can't you smell it, you fool?" he said. "She might be the one gal they told us about."

The young Lycan laughed at his friend.

"Who? The one from the tales? Sharina? Sharana?"

"Sharona, you stupid thing." answered the other, throwing him a punch on the right bicep. "Don't you listen to the others when they recount of the Great Battle?"

"But she should be dead!" the boy objected, earning himself a menacing look.

"No you don't listen. They never found her corpse, stupid idiot, and they know she wasn't captured by the Vampires. Therefore she must be still alive." he looked at the blonde girl, lying unconscious on the ground. "Poor girl. She must have searched us for all these years. I feel sorry for having hit her like that, it was a vicious head blow."

"Don't worry, you believed she was dangerous." the youngling said. He paused, and then went on. "But if she's really that Sharona, we should carry her to the dens, shouldn't we?"

***

It had once been some kind of monastery, but it was now nothing more than a bunch of extremely old stones barely standing together. But it was hidden deep inside the forest, and no one went there anymore; which made it a prefect place to become the Lycan's dens.

It wasn't much, and Lucien knew it, but at least they had a roof on their head-even if it was filled in holes, and on the edge of falling down on their heads.

He was absorbed in these thoughts when there was a frantic bump at his door.

"Raze!" he yelled. "Are you trying to crash the whole place down?"

"I'm sorry!" came the other's voice, barely muffled by the heavy wooden door and the big bricks of the walls. "But...you really must come see."

Lazily, Lucien lift himself from the pile of straws where he slept and went to the door. He opened it to find Raze with a stammered look on his face, and seemingly lost for words.

"You must follow me. You've got to see..." the huge black skinned Lycan blabbed.

"What...?" Lucien started, but Raze had already turned and was walking down the corridor heading outside the decadent building.

Outside, there was literally the entire clan reunited. And also two of the youngest members, two guys named Andrei and Julius, who'd been out on a hunt. They were standing in front of a figure abandoned on the floor, clearly unconscious.

"You must see." Raze said, pointing at that person. "You must see."

Andrei and Julius slowly moved away, letting their Alpha Male see clearly who was lying there on the ground.

And Lucien shouted out a name.

"Sharona!"

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Author note: If someone's reading this, feel free to comment. I'd like to know what you think. Thanks!