The Bone Shadows Ring

Chapter 3

Chapter 3
The First Change
In the tent there sat five elders each resenting a different tribe each wearing nothing. "I am guessing this is the one your pack mate was talking about, a rather old and scared man said as I entered.
Gage nodded,
It was at this time I began to have a headache
"What have you told him so far?"
"just general information about the tribes and are history"
"How has he excepting the information so far"
"he is handling things surprisingly well"
"and what did you do about his family"
"You leave them out of this" I interrupted, I could not control myself my anger had just sprung out of no ware they just ignored me.
"Don’t you dare act like I am not here, how the hell do you think my family feels, me being drug away like this" I felt the pain and rage build up with in me and all at once I began changing uncontrollable, I felt my bones twist and relocate. I felt my body change fingers in a way I can't explain, in ways that were not normal. My body convulsed and flung me to my back
"He is going to be a new moon" some voice shouted in the back ground.
All at once I felt a rush of senses that I had never known before, my sense of smell was the first I noticed, so many new scents that my human brain could not have otherwise detected, I heard small creatures in the woods walking about. My sight grew sharper and I could see several times better than before. The world changed before me, all my senses were keen, it was then I noticed the sodden need to hid, in order to protect the others, with a silent dash I was out of the tent and in the wilderness. The night seemed so beautiful, and I could see in the dark, it was like thermal vision mixed with night vision. It was then I caught the scent of a deer and off on the hunt I went. I was suddenly extremely hungry, like I had never eaten before in my life. The smell made me salivate as I grew closer to my prey. I slowed down and began sneaking up on it. It didn’t hear me coming till the last second and by then it was too late and my jaws were around its throat it barley bellowed as it went down. The tweet taste of warm blood filled my mouth, followed by the sheer ecstasy of a successful kill.
It was then that the rest of the group caught up with me although they spoke no words I could tell that they were welcoming me to the family. After a feed a bit I shifted back, only rages of my clothing remained.
"your heart beat with the wild, you should consider being a hunter in darkness". Said Raven as she transformed back to her human self, her body necked body reflected no moon light.
"I think you could make a good Iron master said Gage shortly after,"
"I think he has got what it take to be a Blood Talon a massive figure in the back said"
"the bone shadows have no interest in this one" robbed woman in the back said.
"The Strom Lords have not decided, meets us back at the Tent so we can issue are Tasks.”
And just like that they went in to their wolf forms and disappeared in to the darkness. I just stood there looking at my fresh kill, or rather what was left of my kill. I didn’t know what the hell had just happened but I felt amazing. It was an overwhelming sensation that was followed exhaustion and worry. What if that had happened in town and i kill someone I knew, deep in my heart I was glad that they had come and gotten me. Despite all of these new things I missed my wife and daughter; I was worried about missing my job, I am sure they had it covered somehow but what do I know. I went to the car and grabbed my phone. I left my charger; I put the phone in what was left of my pants and went to the tent. Two of the five reps were there one was Gage and the other Raven.
“Were it everybody else at?” I asked
“They have decided that you will be of better use in one of are tribes, why? I don’t know I suppose they have other thing to attend to.” Said Raven
“So what’s next on the agenda?”
“We give you a task and you do it after we train you in a few basic werewolf skills of course”
To change shapes all you have to do is think about it and it happens.
“I closed my eyes and thought about it, I was excited when I opened them and was a wolf again
“a simple task has fallen to me and I will pass it to you as you task, there seems to be someone who has discovered are existence and is writing about are kind on an online blog, find him and eliminate him and you shall be an iron master” Said gage as she placed rather large suit case in front of me. “Hear is all you might need”
She left the tent,
“for the hunters in darkness you must prove you can hunt and kill both spirit and flesh without any big messes, I will teach you how to travel in to the shadow there is a certain hunter who has derange to no more than a monster, the goal is to bring him back here so we can save him, if that is not possible you will have to eliminate him, fallow me to the locus” she began to walk to the opposite side of the tent, I shifted back to human form and fallowed. On the other side of the tent there were smaller tents all grouped to gather and each of the small tent groups were marked with glyphs. “Each camp site has its own glyph there were five glyphs altogether she led me to the one that looked like a closed eye. “This is where you will stay until you have a tribe, this symbol means this area is reserved for Irraka or no moons, like yourself. Go ahead and set up your shelter I’ll be back in an hour” Said raven as she walked towards the cottages.
I rushed to the car and got the gear my wife had packed, still holding on to the suitcase Gage had given me.as I returned to my designated area I could feel the eyes of the others on me, I cautiously began setting up my tent. I could hear the whispers of the others. They were all sizing me up I could feel it. I had just finished stowing my stuff when Gage Showed up “how you doing Cecil”
“Just getting settled in”
“I heard raven gave you a pretty crazy task, going and hunting down a wild hunter in darkness, messy business.”
“I can’t say I will enjoy it, why are the tasks both dealing with death?”
“As a no moon all tribes see you as a potential assassin your kind has a natural affinity for tracking down and getting rid of problems”
“That’s reassuring, so the rest of my life is going to be dedicated to removing problem” i sighed
“hay don’t blame us you the one who changed under no moon” Gage said defensively.
“i guess deep down my soul knew when to change and what I was meant to become, I just didn’t”
“that’s how it is with all of us I never thought I would be a Warrior but I changed under a full moon and just kind of grew in to it” she sighed “well I a, sure Raven will be back any moment, I’ll catch you latter” as she walked away I heard something fall to the ground, I went and checked it out, it was a small set of keys in the center of the ring there was a note, it read
I thought you might need these for your task there is a small truck parked in the woods near the rest area where Raven got naked these are its keys, I also included my cell number if you need help
555-302-6493
Good Luck
Gage

“Well this should be interesting” I thought as I stowed the keys in my pocket. I then went back to my tent and opened the brief case in it was a hand gun, silencer and some ammo, a set of lock picks, a flash drive, and several other things I had never seen before I placed everything back in to the case and hid it under my sleeping bag. “How are you doing so far?” ravens voice came from outside the tent. I walked out to greet her
“as well as one can be I suppose”
She handed me a amulet “if you have any hope of brining shadow- terror back you are going to need this”
“what is it”
“It’s a fetish, it’s designed to reminded him of who he is, I just hope it works”
“and if it doesn’t”
“you will have a hell of a fight ahead of you, so anyway fallow me if you would”
We walked to a cave just out side of the camp, we entered the cave and fallowed the wall till we came to a large cavern, inside the cavern was a thick forest and in the middle there was a clearing, in the middle of the clearing there was a strange fountain like stone formation.
“This would be the Loci thing I am assuming”
You are correct”
“So how to I do this,”
“ shift to wolf form and Look in to the fountain, concentrate on the reflection“
“Sounds simple enough” I shifted
“Ill meet you on the other side, I heard ravens voice fade, it’s hard to explain what exactly happened. I knew I was there when my reflection changed. Its like what they say about a mirror, don’t look to deep because something is looking back in to you.
The first thing I noticed was the smell. There were sent that no human word could name. And there was not just one smell but several unnamed smells. The I noticed the coloration was off, some colors were brighter and others were darker but the rest was just, different.
“amazing isn’t it” raven said from behind me her black cote was covered in sliver symbols.
“It’s something else that’s for sure.”
“It is the shadow world, it’s as you can see a lot like the Physical world, but somehow it is different. Fallow me if you would”
I followed closely behind her. As you can tell there are no people here only, the reflections of their actions, thankfully were we are there is very few people, or else this place would be more twisted then it is. You should se a typical town, its crazy things look like a twisted painting of a demented 10 year old. But most of the untouched wilderness is like you see before you, different yet the same”
We walked out to the camp and there was nothing but empty clearings. The cabins however were surrounded by al sorts of strange looking beings and seemed to radiate a white light. The trees all looked younger in this world and some hardly even showed up.
“ this loci has been here a long time the rest of the alliance was thrilled when we found it. It was at one time the seat of the alliance but the council decided to turn it in to a training/recruiting facility.
she shifted to human for, as did I.
All and all tis a strange place that we really don’t understand you see how the cabins are brighter than the rest of the area, it’s because of all the years of debating that took place here, it attract a wide array of spirits that you wouldn’t ordinarily see in the middle of a forest.
Despite the fact that the Council has moved to a new location, some of the spirits still linger here were the either change or are devoured by other spirits. Eventually the nature choir will reclaim this area, but for now it is what it is and are presence does not help much. With each new rotation the cubs bring new spirits in most of the negative ones we keep in check. Banishing, binding or destroying the ones that try to linger to long.
After all we don’t want a powerful negative spirit in are training area to took us to long to tame the place” raven smiled as we entered a dence forest area.
“You target will most likely be in the deepest part of the forest, the futher away from human the better. I recommend you go to the villages and look for any rumors of animal attacks that have the locals talking. It will be up to you what to do once you catch his trail.” Raven smiled, we shall go back to the loci now so you can start you hunt.”
The walk back she did not say anything. We stepped side ways at the foutnai and I found my self back in the real world.
“good luck cub, you are going to need it”
We parted ways and I went back to my tent and went to sleep, it would be easier to find a place to start wen the local humans were up and awake.