This is for anyone that roleplays with me in "Unique, But Not Alone"
If you don't, feel free to ignore it ^^
Grab a bowl of popcorn and a soda, because this monster is HUGE...
If you don't, feel free to ignore it ^^
Grab a bowl of popcorn and a soda, because this monster is HUGE...
Ray lay still, appearing dead save for the slight rise and fall in her uneven breathing. Somehow, unknowingly, she had partially shifted to her day form, only her wolf ears peeking out from underneath her hair. Dreams, memories attacked her in her deep sleep. They pulled her mind close, in an unwanted embrace before they poured out every sin she had ever committed, every life she'd ever taken. Then they retreated back to the corners of her mind, two more taking its place and performing the same malicious act.
"Ray! Wait up!" Her best friend, Arja Feng. They would do anything together. Did everything. She was the one sticking up for Ray, the one that introduced her to others. She was so outgoing, and Ray was so... Ray. The wind seemed to propel her forward as she jogged up to Ray. "What do you want to do today?" She brought out the laughter in Ray; brought out the carefree Ray. And she brought out a promise to go down by the forest and hunt, tracking down anything from a mountain lion to a squirrel. They'd taken down quite a few predators themselves, just the two of them. Known throughout the pack as Fang and Claw, you call one, you get them both. And they could accomplish anything you set them to, not mentioning the fact that they had fun proving their teamwork.
Ray, have you got everything? Arja thought. Ray flicked her ear in acknowledgment, hearing her mental communication. They were going hunting again, this time for a herd of boar. The group had been giving their pack some trouble, and of course Fang and Claw had been called in to take care of it. This would be fun. Ray bounded after Arja, heading straight for the glade where they'd find the group. She could smell them before she saw them, their pungent odor making her eyes water and her nose sting. Arja stood crouched nearby, watching Ray intensely. Suddenly, she charged out into the clearing, Ray hot on her heels, tearing and snapping at any boar within reach of their teeth.
The boar scattered in every direction, leaving Ray and Arja in the center of the clearing. Ray ripped out the throat of one that had dared to brandish its tusks at them, crouching low as her friend jumped overhead. Three of the bulky animals dropped under Arja's ferocity, five more taking their place. Ray kept on the outskirts of the clearing, tracking down any and every boar that had decided to flee. In half an hour, Fang and Claw had returned to their pack, none the worse for wear. After rinsing the stench of boar and blood off her pelt, Ray shifted back to her day form, staring up at the night sky. Ray, I must speak with you. It took a moment for her to realize that it was the Alpha mentally communicating with her. Another assignment? No, he would've asked for Feng as well. She shifted again and padded over to the leader. Yes?
Ray, have you ever heard of a tradition concerning what happens during an eclipse on the thirteenth day of the month?
Ray shook her head, trying not to scatter water droplets on the Alpha. He continued on with his thoughts, a mental communication.
Then have you ever heard of the Scathe?
Ray's interest was kindled. Everyone had heard of the Scathe. They were among the most elite, the most brutal and prestigious pack anyone had ever heard of. But they rarely accepted members. Most of their members were thousands, tens of thousands of years old. Ray was barely fifty. What did this have to do with her?
During every eclipse, the Scathe hold trials. They believe that if you can harness the power of the moon in its most glorious and terrible form, you will be invincible. The chief obviously regarded the pack with much deference, and the moon was almost like a wrathful god in his words. Still, he went on. They've decided to extend their offer to our pack, having deemed you and Arja worthy of joining them. I know you're young, but if they've singled you out, I have faith that you can do it.
Ray almost jumped and barked madly, ecstatic at being chosen to join none other than the Scathe pack. And with her best friend! But she held her ground, showing her excitement only through an unintentional rapid flicking of her tail. What must we do? she asked, eager to prove herself.
Here, the Alpha hesitated. You won't be completing your task with Arja. This is strictly you, on your own. It is tradition, Ray. And if the Scathe has singled you out...
Ray understood. There would be no going back. The Scathe even had wolves designed to manipulate and control others, just to see how powerful you could be if you were unrestrained. But still, she was willing to do anything, even if she had to eliminate a pride of lions single handedly, she would do it.
You will be handling a single pack of wolves. An enemy to the Scathe. They have been ever more quarrelsome as the years grow, but now they’ve reached the Scathe’s patience. As the eclipse dictates, their pack will be greatly weakened. If you can control the energy of the eclipse, even greater than energy from a pure, full moon, then you would be able to destroy the pack.
Ray nodded, a thousand thoughts screaming for her attention. Ridding the forest of another pack was only natural, and it wasn’t like nothing before had ever happened. The only problem was finding a strategy that wouldn’t get her killed and would show her prowess in battle. If she was to eliminate the pack, how would she do it? Maybe she could pick them off one by one, but sooner or later, the alarm would sound. She might be able to set traps, but then again, they were smarter than just ordinary canines. Remembering the Alpha, still waiting for her to accept, or at least to acknowledge the information, she nodded to him. The chief drifted off with some parting words, or rather, thoughts.
The eclipse is in two days, Ray. Any questions before then, and I’ll make sure to try my best to answer them. So saying, he leapt onto a fallen tree trunk and padded towards Arja. Ray could tell they were having the same discussion.
Two days... Ray thought. She thought she could feel the tips of her fur tingle with excitement. Two days and I get to prove myself. She was more than confident that she could take out a pack, especially with her gift. But she was terrified of fighting without Arja by her side. They had always relied on each other, and maybe that was the problem. Maybe that was why they were being separated, to see how well they could do on their own. Ray glanced over to see the chief padding away into the foliage. As soon as his smell was more or less gone, Arja bolted straight for Ray, tackling her.
I can't believe we're going to join Scathe! Arja cried, excited. We'll be the best members they have! she resolved, howling into the dark night sky.
What's your task? Ray asked, curious. She only got a teasing stare from Arja in return. What?
You know we can't discuss that with each other. Anyway, it's getting late. I'm turning in. So saying, Arja retreated to a nearby den, owned by Fang and Claw's pack.
Ray was startled by that information. She had no idea they weren't supposed to tell each other, but she was glad she had asked Arja first, and didn't listen in on her conversation with the chief. She shifted to her day form, going home to mend after getting rid of the boar. Can't wait for two days, I'm too excited! she thought. As soon as she got home, she applied a salve to her wounds, then wrapped them tightly. She wasn't going to risk an infection before the trial.
"Good luck, Ray." Arja slapped Ray a high five, then shifted and disappeared into the woods, off to complete her own mission. Ray looked up at the sky. The eclipse would begin soon. She shifted and padded off, in the opposite direction of the forest she was used to. Or so she thought.
This section of the forest was very different. It was darker, and the trees grew much farther away than what she was used to. She missed having a secure wall of wood and leaves at her back, but that was probably the point of her task. Well, I'm out of my comfort zone, she thought ruefully. With the Scathe, that seemed to be the point.
She picked up a scent trail left by the problem pack and stopped, her ears pointed in different directions in her confusion. It smelled just like her own pack... Wait, no. She was imagining things. This smell was mustier and... well, more pungent. She followed the trail, watching as the forest seemed to grow darker, the vines and brambles catching in her fur.
Soon, she arrived in a clearing, her heart sinking. It seemed every wolf in the pack was there, just waiting for her. A low snarl erupted from a young wolf, no more than twenty. A hot-headed youth if ever there was one. The outright display of aggression invoked growls from several other pack members. For some reason, Ray could not read their minds, although she detected no barriers or other defenses.
Suddenly, two wolves broke formation, charging at her. Before Ray could think about her actions, she met them head on, tearing out one of their throats while battering the other with her hind paws. More of the wolves joined in, and pretty soon, Ray was fighting just to stay alive. A kind of frenzy took over her senses, adrenaline and fear corrupting her thoughts.
After two more wolves dropped, some of them dropped back at a safer distance, circling around her. One lunged at her, tackling her. Another saw Ray fall and also joined in, trying to rip her apart with his teeth. Ray felt a bite on her foreleg, then snapped at the offender's tail, catching it in her teeth. The canine howled and retreated, shifting back to a human once he was far enough. Ray stood up, ridding herself of the other wolf. Blood lingered in the air, and again she felt that same curious sensation. Wasn't that one of her pack members...? Oh. No. Ew, no.
Most of the remaining pack members had shifted back, grabbing weapons of various sizes to use. Ray shifted as well, drawing a dagger from her shoe as she stood up. A woman rushed her, wielding a long blade, although you couldn't call it a sword exactly. Dispatching her, Ray turned to find a remaining three wolves, now in their day forms, watching her warily. Ray was getting tired, her dagger arm slower than it should have been. She also gained quite a few injuries then she otherwise would have avoided.
The remaining team staggered to their feet, horror etched on every line of their faces. Two women, and a man. The three of them took up a point around Ray, trying to keep at least one of them at her blind side. Again, Ray stabbed at them with her mind, but nothing, not even a trivial piece of information, was gleaned from her invasion.
The man on her right gave a loud cry, but Ray ignored it, recognizing the distraction for what it was. Instead, she twisted around and met one of the women as she took her chance at Ray. Instead of dealing Ray a killing blow, her neck was snapped and her corpse was tossed to the side.
What is she doing?! Has she lost her mind?! the remaining male thought.
This isn't the same wolf I knew, the woman regretted. Somehow, between then and now, she's changed.
But of course, Ray could not hear any of this. Their minds were shielded, or not there at all.
She couldn't afford to be on the defensive anymore. Ray lashed out at the woman, still holding her dagger at the ready. Thick arms wrapped around Ray's waist, then threw her to the forest floor, strong fingers wrapping around her neck. Ray struggled vehemently, lacing her fingers around his and trying to pull them off, but her strength was fading, her vision blurring and turning dark. Realizing the futility of trying to pry his hands away from her neck, she gathered the last reserves of energy she had, reaching for her dagger and bringing it above her assailant. As soon as she had buried the dagger in his throat, his grip slackened, and Ray was freed.
But the woman was still a problem. Seeing her companion die, she tackled Ray and began clawing at her face, her arms, anywhere. She wasn't even carrying a weapon anymore.
Ray fended off the attacks as long as she could, but soon, exhaustion and fatigue had settled over her limbs and mind, like leaden weights. The moon was completely eclipsed now, and Ray was feeling nothing. There was no surge of energy. She was going to die, having come so close to completing her mission.
Ray sustained scores of scratches from the woman, her skin feeling as if burned. But instead of focusing on the pain, on staying alive, she thought of her life. Her family, her pack. Arja. And how none of them would be as terrified of dying as she was. Then she thought of her pack leader. How he'd encouraged them to join the Scathe, and how supportive he could be with almost anything. Slowly but surely, Ray was making her peace with the idea of dying.
Then the scratching stopped. A weight was lifted from Ray's body, as if it had never existed. Ray had shifted, unintentionally, back to her night form, watching as small threads of shadow curled their tendrils around her form. They lingered on sections of her fur and outlined a complex mix of cryptic symbols. Ray wasn't aware of where exactly the shadows stayed until they burned into her, giving the unpleasantly painful sensation of being branded. There were some around her eyes, down to her tail and on the tips of her ears, some whitened and bleached, some staying black.
Ray had been granted the power of the Eclipsed.
Ray's remaining attacker froze, watching the transformation take place. This can not be the Ray I knew! she thought.
Ray watched as the last pack member pulled out another weapon, an AK-47 with a white handle. Ray remembered a gun like that, the very one that Ray herself had picked out. She had given it to Arja. With a sinking feeling, Ray took a good look at the assault rifle. Time seemed to freeze as she thought hard on what had just happened. There was no way Arja was dead. She wouldn't have failed her mission. Was this why Ray had been called, to destroy the pack in case Arja failed?
Denial and grief welled within her. She wouldn't believe that Arja, her best friend, the one always there for her, was gone.
Not gone. Killed. Murdered. By this... this troublesome pack member. Ray let out a long howl and jumped at her, shifting in mid-air back to her day form. Taking her by surprise, the woman squeezed off a few rounds with her rifle, two of them tagging Ray, one in her leg, the other lodging itself in her stomach.
Heat traveled throughout her body as the bullets collided with her body, ripping through skin, tissue, and muscle. She was just glad this woman hadn't used hollow points. Ray would be pretty much impaired. Landing on her assailant, Ray gave a few punches and took a few hits as well, many of them going to give her bruises.
One of the hits connected with the side of Ray's dark head, making her see a sort of fog. For a minute, she confused the pack member with Arja herself, holding the AK-47 in one hand and kicking her friend off with a sharp kick to her bleeding side.
But then the feeling was gone, and Ray shook her head, scattering some loose thoughts and blood droplets out to the wind.
Ray doubled over as another kick came, this time getting her breath knocked out of her. But the feeling passed in less than two seconds, the eclipse somehow lending her another wave of strength. Ray shifted to her night form, trying to ignore the pain of the bullets also shifting in her anatomy. But she was still able to use her body to more or less of the extent she'd had when she was tired. Growling, Ray jumped onto the woman's back, pinning her underneath snow white paws.
Ray's body didn't even react to the bite. It didn't flinch, it didn't move at all. In fact, if Ray's eyes had been open, she'd be catatonic. But instead, she was in a coma...
Ray's assailant had her arm tangled up in an awkward position when she had been thrown to the grassy ground, now stained red with blood. The way it landed gave the woman an opportunity where the barrel of the AK-47 dug into Ray's fur. They realized this at the same time, but Ray was the first to react. Digging her paws into the woman's chest--and breaking a few ribs, puncturing her lungs--she immediately bit at the arm that was holding the gun, feeling the buck through her teeth as the bullets flew off, free, into the night sky.
As soon as she had done this, everything changed. The sky was the same, but the forest was different. More familiar than where she had been. There was a huge, fallen log that had halfway rotted and led over to a stream. There was a den beside the water, giving shelter to some pack members, one of which she had been.
This was her camp. And the woman she was standing on, the one whose arm she had in her teeth, was Arja.
Ray didn't have time to think about anything. One minute she had been fighting for a cause she had thought was justifiable. Next minute, she was the murderer of her entire family. A murderer. In the clearing were the bodies of the wolves she had once called friends.
A Scathe wolf--in human form, rather, and wearing a suit--walked into the clearing. In a quiet voice, still full and powerful, he spoke as if announcing the score at a basketball game. "Victorious, Ray Claw. Arja Feng, failure." Those two lines, so small and simple, but they explained everything. They weren't taking two members. They were pitting two best friends up against each other to see who was the most bloodthirsty. Bloodthirsty members for a bloodthirsty clan. No, a cult.
Arja looked at her, eyes clearing. She understood as well. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
Then, the Scathe man pulled out a handgun and took a whole quarter of a second to aim, squeezing the trigger. Ray flattened her ears instinctively--it was supposed to be really loud--but the gun was fitted with a supressor. Looking back down to her friend, Ray jumped off her and shifted. Her friend was gone. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, a single drop of blood starting to trickle out of a minute bullet hole directly above her temple.
"Congratulations Ray. You made the Sc-"
That was as far as he ever got. Ray killed him instantly, fury, hate, malice, grief, shock--all of it combined into a compacted, white-hot spear, hurtling for his brain.
She didn't speak. There were no last words of revenge or gloating. There was simply Ray, tens of corpses, and the wind in the trees.
For five years, Ray had searched for rumors, tidbits, the occasional hesitant blink or murmur about the Scathe. Within three years, she had killed half of them, about eight wolves. During the next year and a half, the Scathe Clan began getting more and more protective of their remaining members. They met in secret, going completely underground society for a while. Ray managed to find and kill two more of them during that period of time. Now what remained of the Scathe, seven wolves, began growing more and more nervous. Ray Claw had become a forbidden name.
And still she hunted. And with every mistake, she learned. She became the very essence of the Scathe contained in one strong body.
In two months, she had diminished the Scathe's members by four more. By now the remaining individuals were fleeing, three wolves unaccounted for. Ray hunted down one in two months. He had been hiding in Italy, arrogantly thinking he was safe.
Another month passed and the young telepathic had traveled everywhere she'd heard someone's mind whisper. Her instinct led her, and soon another wolf, this one a woman, went missing.
Three months and Ray's vengeance was complete. But she didn't feel any more satisfied. In fact, she felt empty now. What else to do? Was there nothing else she could do?
What's the point to my life?
Revenge will do that to you. Revenge creates a shell. And you crumble from the inside out.
Gawd, that was long xd
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