DREADWOLF

◈ Chapter 149:

Food.

 

Food was annoying.

 

Annoying because Rain felt he needed so much of it to prevent himself from accidentally eating Opal or Lyra. It was a fairly inconvenient thing to have to deal with to say the least.

 

Worse, it was getting more inconvenient to deal with. The various animal stables they had been preying on were starting to disappear. Mostly that was because Rain had either eaten every single animal in them or because the panicking owners were taking their animals and fleeing to some other part of the vast city. 

 

That meant they had to go further and further afield to get the meat Rain needed to remain in control.

 

A skeletal rat wobbled around the corner where Rain hid crouched. A skull was balanced on its head, held up by its ratty arms.

 

"It's clear, no levelers to interrupt, you can go eat…" the skull lowered its voice surreptitiously, "...and grow."

 

Rain set his lips in a line. Opal somehow finding an unlikely ally in Vash in her determination to get him to eat and grow as much as possible was probably not a good thing.

 

Still, Rain couldn't deny his growling stomach and he slipped from the shadows, moving through the large stable doors and into the interior. The sound of nickering horses came from the darkness and his instincts perked up. Prey was near.

 

Lyra rushed by his side. She'd gotten a stick from somewhere and on the end of the stick was a ball of skeletal rats hanging onto each other. She waved the stick vaguely and the sound of alarmed horses came from the dark.

 

"Alright I want a nice clean operation, no slip ups. I don't want to see half a hundred horses left wandering around the streets of Florens again okay?" She pointed to what seemed like an office. "Rain take the dead end. Vash, on me. Opal, lock and bar the doors."

 

There was… something almost a little offensive about how the sheep girl had started treating his hunting. It just didn't seem very wild and predatory, in fact it felt more like an organised dinner event that she directed.

 

He slipped into the pitch black back office. 

 

Soon after the first of the horses were chased inside, boney rats scuttling around behind it spooking the thing and getting it to move.

 

A massive paw reached from the shadows and gripped its neck, dragging it into the dark.

 

This was the fourth stable they had raided that night, and Rain was starting to feel a little better. He'd just eaten yet another horse's head and was about to bite into its ribcage when Lyra's voice made him pause.

 

"H-hey, you're not supposed to be here! This is private property! I'll call down the guard! I'll call down the, uh, the Ranker! Seriously, you'll totally regret breaking and entering!"

 

"This is our fucking stable you insane sheep!"

 

Ah. That sounded like a problem. 

 

Rain let the meat fall with a thump and slunk toward the door, luminous yellow eyes peering from the shadowed doorway into the pool of candle light held by the one who had spoken.

 

A pair of rabbit eared Lapine were there, standing with a black wooled Lyra and Opal. There was no Vash to be seen. Although Rain suspected that might be a wise choice on Vash's part, word spreading of his existence would make it harder for the necromancer.

 

The taller and more muscular of the Lapine leaned over Lyra, the dyed chevrons patterned up its ears unkempt and faded, along with the rest of him.

 

"Girl, if only you knew who you were trying to steal from. The 'wrong kind of people' don't begin to say it."

 

He reached out a paw and took hold of Lyra's neck, dragging her close to his face, his warm breath on her cheek.

 

"Which is bad for you considering we don't have the choice to go to the city guard. But I'm a good guy, you know, so I'll give you a chance to make up for it."

 

"Hey," said the other peering into the dark stalls.

 

"-Now just get down on your knees like and open wide-

 

"Hey!"

 

The Lapine snapped around to his friend. 

"What is it?!"

 

"The horses, it's not just mine, half the stable is missing!"

 

The Lapine blinked.

 

"Hey, sheep girl." The grip on Lyra's neck tightened. "What did you do with my boss's horses?"

 

Lyra made a strangled sound and flapped her hand at him in a request to speak.

 

He eased his grip. 

 

"I didn't do anything with them! how would I disappear, what, a dozen horses, in a closed and locked up tight stable! I was asked to look around for intruders by our boss, are you completely clueless? Haven't you heard about all the stables being raided recently?"

 

The Lapine stared at her.

 

"Check the back," he said after a moment.

 

Then when there was no reply from his companion he turned sharply.

 

"I said-"

 

But there was no one there. 

 

He frowned and tried to peer into the dark, lifting the small candle he held, trying to see motion.

 

"...Hey, get the fuck back here you idiot, stop fucking around."

 

The Lapine waited but there was nothing but silence.

 

"Left you on your own I guess harhar," croaked Lyra from around his paw.

 

"I hope you weren't referring to me as this 'idiot'" came a new voice.

 

Lyra's eyes darted to the side and then widened as a collection of Lapine came from the dark, each of them somehow even more scruffy looking than the one who held her.

 

The largest of them was a big wide Lapine, with arms the size of legs and dyed chevrons scrawled across his body.

 

"B-Boss-"

 

"Shut up. I don't care. Where are the mounts? We're going to get there late and those Drake fuckers will snatch them from under us." 

 

"Uh, half the horses are missing boss, you, uh, you sent this one here to guard?

 

The man peered at Lyra, frowning with puzzlement.

 

"I… did not. Look this doesn't matter, we've got to move, right now. We'll take half of us and leave the rest behind to deal with this while we take the big bounty's family."

 

Lyra's eyes widened in sudden fear.

 

"Wh-what are you saying?! Wranvyre is dead! there is no big bounty!"

 

"No body, no dead. He's counted as missing, even if they found one of his eyeballs and most his teeth embedded in the walls that's no certainty. You don't know that snake, he breathes manipulation and lies and fakery like he breathes air. But even if he doesn't turn back up I'm sure we can make some new arrangements with the bereaved family."

 

"NO! It- He's dead! he's fucking dead!"

 

"Who are you to care so… so…" The large Lapine frowned and peered closer at Lyra in the gloom.

 

As suspicion dawned on the Lapine's face Lyra drew in a breath.

 

"Raaain!"

 

There was a series of grunts that filled the air and the Lapine boss turned to see those behind him collapsing as black things dangling from the ceiling snipped bit and clawed at the backs of their necks or pierced through their skulls, disturbing hanging stalactites of jaws and claws and coiling centipedes.

 

"Wh-What-- hrck."

 

The large Lapine looked down to find a set of black scythes emerging from his chest. His legs gave out and his flesh parted as he fell through them, head splitting into three.

 

Rain let the scythe like dark paw sink back into his fur and turned to find Lyra with her hands on the remaining Lapine's shoulders, his arms inside the wool of her forearms. The Lapine seemed surprised, but then he started screaming. 

 

His thrashing managed to knock Lyra off him and she stumbled back, the Lapine's arms pulling free from her wool and revealing that they were covered in knife wounds. 

 

He stumbled back, eyes wide, and then turned and fled.

 

Fled right into the embrace of the headless undead horse rising behind him. Its chest split apart in the most grisly way, its ribcage like that of teeth. The thing enclosed his head as the spars of the rib cage speared through his chest, puncturing his lungs. There was a momentary shriek, and then silence. The undead horse slumped down with the dead Lapine in its chest cavity.

 

"Wet work is so messy. I really prefer my dead to be at least a little dried out before I do anything with them," said Vash with a sigh as his rat-supported skull jumped down off the now still horse.

 

He was about to turn to Rain when Lyra suddenly jumped forward and booted the skull. A surprised looking Vash was engulfed by the black wool of her leg as a frantic Lyra darted to Opal just emerging from one of the box stalls.

 

"Hey what's- argghhfcckk!"

 

Lyra stuffed the startled and struggling goblin into her wool before racing back to Rain.

 

"What are you waiting for! GOGOGO!"

 

"...Where?"

 

"To my parents! You heard what he said! They're going to be attacked! They're going to die!"

 

"I can't hide while runn-"

 

"I don't care!!!" shrieked Lyra, "I don't care if this entire fucking city sees you! Run Rain! Fucking Run! After everything I've done for you, you can r-run- I can't do this with you anymore m-more if- if something happens- I dont - I- I can't-"

 

She looked up at Rain with tears running down her cheeks.

 

That did it. 

 

The barred stable doors exploded as a wolf monster crashed through, the wood turned to flying shrapnel that hailed against the opposite buildings, a sheep girl hanging of its shoulders crying out in alarm as it sprinted full pelt down the street.

 

Dark streets only lit by the occasional lamp flickered past, a finger pointing overhead directing the wolf through street after street at an astounding pace, feet pounding against cobble.

 

The streets of Florens weren't entirely deserted of course, they never were, even at night, and there were cries of alarm as a massive black thing thundered past in the black, a shadow seen at the occasional edge of the lamp light. 

 

Even with Rain running full tilt, his paws practically brushing the ground along with his feet, it still took a long time to cross the entire city. The reason why the gang had wanted the horses was made clear, and Lyra's panic only increased as she cried out for Rain to run faster, charging through quarters and districts, rich and poor, low and high and mid level, miles and miles of built up city and millions of people.

 

Eventually they came out into what appeared to be a district of individual houses with walled gardens, a sleepy wealthy street, with leafy draping trees shading the cobble streets.

 

Less sleepy and wealthy were the people moving in the dark. A lot of people. A lot of people fighting and killing. Knives and crude cudgels swinging along with spouts of sudden flaring magic, flashes of fire and sparks, Lapines igniting with a scream as fire met fur, Drakes roaring their victory only to be counter skewered by the lightning quick lunges of the Lapine.

 

Rain ran through them all to the target, a house, one a little bigger than the others, one with light spilling from the windows and noises coming from within. Rain didn't have to smash down the gate because it had already been broken open. He sprinted toward the building, a screaming Lyra on his back. 

 

People were moving around inside, visible through the windows. Shouting and fighting and cries of pain came from within. A few were kneeled cowering on the ground, someone was holding up a blood stained axe, about to swing at the huddled shapes.

 

If there was chaos before it became ten times so as a huge paw smashed through a window, engulfed the head of the axe wielding Drake, and ripped him out of the house screaming.

 

The gangs, Lapine and Drake both, all froze in their fighting as they watched one of their number vanish into the night. 

 

"Wh-what the fuck? What the fuck was that?!"

 

The darkness of the broken window frame seemed to bulge inward, as though the night itself was spilling into the room. But then it was moving down and a large wolf-like head was pushing through the too small window, the window frame and most of the walls disintegrating around it as a maw opened and white teeth flashed.

 

"Monster!!" came the cry, and the gangs which had been trying to kill each other a moment before turned on the wolf together, nearly two dozen levelers in total.

 

Magic bloomed and fire roared, and a slurry of even greater darkness billowed from the wolf's fur, throwing itself up to stop the attack even as it disintegrated and puffed into mist, so much of the stuff disentrating under the barrage of magic that it filled the room, muffling the lantern light to bare dimness, and making it nearly impossible to see.

 

A paw came from the mist and grabbed the nearest Lapine hauling them out of sight. Screams and terrible crunchy fleshy sounds came from the dark.

 

The paw came again, grabbing a Drake's sword and ripping him off his feet with a wail as he rocketed into the mist.

 

Panic closed on the gangs as they were slowly vanished, Drakes and Lapine alike huddling together, backs pressed against each other, cowering in fright.

 

It didn't matter. They were each taken, one by one, each disappearance increasing the pressure in the little cramped space in the dark they occupied, pumping up and up and up the sheer blind heart pounding panic to boiling point until they were keening as blade tips waved madly, each wide eyed glimpsed sight of the huge paw causing high pitched screams and a frantic mad struggle to shove and push others in front, clawing and biting at each other like mindless trapped animals, doing anything, anything, not to be taken.

 

Their numbers dwindled until there was one.

 

And then there was none.

 

Lyra stumbled through the remains of the wall, waving away the dark curling mist as it spilled back into Rain's fur.

 

She dropped to her knees and embraced the cowering elf and horned sheep person along with a smaller figure who was like a slightly smaller version of Lyra.

 

"Wh-what did you do to your wool Lyra?" came the elf's faint voice.

 

"I- It's dye, don't worry- are you okay?"

 

Lyra lifted the chin of her smaller version and gasped as she found a brutal axe wound across her face, her nose split in two, the bone and cartilage of her nasal cavity visible in the cleave, blood streaming freely down her chin.

 

The smaller Lyra blinked slowly, clearly in a state of shock.

 

The elf cried out at the sight and pressed her dress against the wound stemming the flow as the woolie darted to his feet, frantically pulling draws from a desk until he found what he was looking for. A small vial of potion was tossed through the air and caught by the elf who applied it in one fluid motion, expertly pouring it over the wound.

 

Lyra slowly rose to her feet, her whole body trembling.

 

"K-kill them," she whispered, voice raw.

 

Rain leaned in, "Are you sure?"

 

"I don't care anymore. I just don't care. Kill them Rain, kill them all."

 

She shivered as the mass of black fur moved past her and slipped out into the night.

 

Screams could be heard soon after.

 

Lyra watched as her mother pulled away her blood soaked dress from her sister. Thankfully her face was whole once more, albeit with a nasty scar.

 

The half woolie teenager blinked up at her.  

 

"Lyra?"

 

"Yeah… it's me…"