Forrest of Dain, Kingdom of Dain- Mid Summer 14 years AR

“UGH!!!!” Jon grunted as his body hit the ground and rolled. He lay there for but a moment before springing to his feet, wincing at the pain from his chest. He knew he had a few crack ribs. A warbling shriek filled the air as he snatched his woodmaul from where it landed and turned back towards the fight. The source, a 10 foot tall, 40 foot long monster was in the middle of the shallow river, another by it’s side while the largest one fought Ser Finn and two knights at the on the far bank.

Jon held his gold glowing hand over his cracked ribs from the impact as he ran towards the nearest one. It saw his approach and he dove to the side as it opened it’s mouth and the orange glow of flame came streaming out like liquid fire. He was terrified by the massive reptilian beast before him, he knew what it was thanks to the description the knights gave when talking about the monsters of the forest, it was a Drake! It’s liquid fire splashed on the rocks behind him as he rolled further away from it. It stuck to whatever it touched evident by the burning rocks, plants, and fallen Ranger around the river. The scouting party just had to hold out. One of the knights had already howled a call for aid and with the lycan sense of smell to lead them there, reinforcements would soon arrive.

He got up quickly and ran towards the beast, he’d rather have to duck the things tail than get hit with the flames that he had seen cover the first to die in the expedition. The only safe place was near it, they didn’t seem to want to spit fire at themselves. He dropped to the water as the long whip like tail cracked over him that would have been around chest level.

Jon got to his feet and got back in the safe zone, too close for the fire or tail, he just had to watch out for the legs. Speaking of them, the tree thick back legs of the beast stood before it, as it lunged forward on the digitigrade legs it further exposed the ‘backwards facing knee’ that Jon knew wasn’t actually the knee... It’s thick scales had been repelling the arrows and glancing strikes of the squires swords and light axes. If the guild labeled him as a barbarian and southerners too, may as well fight like one. Less finesse and as much overwhelming force as possible.

He lifted his woodmaul and chopped down on the exposed joint, the scales split as the bladed edge tore through them, a blink of an eye later the haft of the axe vibrated in Jon’s hand as the head hit bone. The wound was small for such a large animal but the shock of the hit to the joint and the severing of tendons caused the monster to jerk it’s leg up as it shrieked in pain. Not being ready for the sudden change of pasture the rump of the animal rolled towards Jon who was forced to let go of the maul as he jumped away, splashing through the water. It turned to look back with reptilian eyes on its horned head at Jon, he thought he was about to be a crisp but a growling yell came out as the one knight that hadn’t fought the bigger one turned his attention on the one Jon was fighting.

The knight was on the other side of the drake, so Jon couldn’t see what happened, the thing jerked it’s head back and spit flame the other direction. It shifted it’s front legs wide and started to rise again, stabilizing it’s three legged stance. Jon didn’t wait for that to happen, he drew his broadaxe and dropped a two handed strike onto the monsters side. The scales split but other than a small cut it wasn’t effective. Jon was forced to retreat again as whatever the knight was doing caused the Drake to shift, once again falling forward. Jon thought for a moment and ran to the front of the beast, he ran towards the beast and swung hard at the exposed neck.

The scales were thinner on the neck and pointing towards it’s tail. If cutting down the scales glanced off and chopping into it didn’t do much, maybe it was time to try a different approach. Jon’s this time swung up, the edge of his broadaxe sliding under some scales and over others as it found purchase in the thing’s flesh. Jon knew immediately that he’d just delivered a killing blow. What told him was the bright red blood that squirted out of the wound like a torrent, dousing him thoroughly in a second the moment he pried his axe out of the wound. He sprinted away as the now dying drake didn’t like that and tried to get him in it’s jaws and it followed it’s instinct and tried to run away. Everyone let it go, as to Jon’s surprise the largest lay dead, a second dead one nearby, and two more remained as the scouts tried to deliver blows in close quarters. The drakes had reinforcements of their own. As he went to recover his woodmaul, a weapon capable of disabling them. Their own reinforcements charged out of the woods on all fours rising to two and drawing their weapons in smooth movements.

Jon picked up his woodmaul and then at the shrieking drake he’d lain low and went for the dying one. The other drakes were to preoccupied trying to burn or snap at the knights that now swarmed around their clawed feet or climbed upon their backs. The ignored dying one could be a shriek for help. He approached from the opposite side the drake was looking and went for the base of the skull. One swing and it’s already weakening shrieks were cut short. His woodmaul had split the beasts scales and dug down between vertebrae, paralyzing it instantly. He had to yank to get the woodmaul free but it was done.

Another had fallen and with three of them being dead, the remaining two tried to run or limp away but didn’t get far as the reinforcements had maces, war-hammers, and heavy axes able to crush scales and damaged what lay beneath. The only reason the scouts struggled was because they were armed with weapons meant for quick light travel. The swords, light axes, bows, and daggers of the group weren’t designed to pierce such a heavily armored monster. They were meant to be quick to move and reposition, to take advantage of short openings in their opponents defense. Jon’s woodmaul could break through the scales but a short moment of opportunity would be wasted by him. Even if he saw it his woodmaul wasn’t a quick precise weapon, the opening would close before he could reposition. He was okay with that, nothing wrong with being a barbarian, especially one covered in drake blood standing next to the corpse of the monster he killed.

“That yours? You hurt?” Ser Finn walked up pointing towards the blood that had sprayed down his front. That reminded him of the pain in his chest and the cracked ribs he had. Another benefit of his training, he was used to keeping focus with cracked ribs. He shook his head and nodded towards the drake.

“Nope, not mine.” Jon said but couldn’t help but smile.

“I see, who got it?” Finn said as he walked over and noticed the deep gash on it’s neck. Jon knew he wouldn’t have to answer as the knight looked at the gash, then the blood covering Jon, and finally his bloody broadaxe, “Not bad for your first kill in the Dain kid.” They’d only been in the forest for 3 days by this point and that was also how long they’d known each other. It was annoying to Jon but Finn and taken to calling him ‘kid’, despite only being 18 himself.

He wasn’t a true born lycan but was a human page that was chosen and bitten when he became a squire. Most of the lycan squires were like Finn as it was apparently hard for lycans to have children, the pack would replenish its losses from the Great War on the mainland through finding worthy candidates and offering the bite. True born lycan children did exist but only came every 50-100 years or so but didn’t matter as lycans were biologically immortal, same as Elvanni. Jon hadn’t known that and nearly shit himself when he learned that Ser Afgheir was nearing 300 years old.

It was saddening though to realize that the oldest lycan on the isle was the King at only around 350, they had extremely low life expectancy compared to their allied immortal race. Mainly thanks to things like expeditions to the heart of the Dain. The older lycans had marched off to join the legions around 5 years before Jon was born and none had returned yet. Ser Afgheir said most died, the rest still fight, but they weren’t going to come back until their enemy was gone. The enemy was of course werewolves and they had sprung up from time to time to be put down but centuries ago an outbreak in Utinum not only brought down the empire but ended with millions either being turned or killed in the heartland of the once most densely populated region of the continent.

“You two alright?” Ser Hallr jogged up in his wolven form, the sight didn’t bother Jon anymore.

“Yes, the kid got a kill,” Ser Finn flicked the blood still dripping form Jon.

“So just Dame Siv, Hala, Merileth and Alwin,” Hallr said sadly, “Suppose three dead and one missing an arm is better than can be expected being ambushed by 5 drakes including a greater one.” Jon’s jaw dropped, the scouting party had consisted of only a dozen people, four knights, three squires, four rangers, and him as Finn’s acting squire. A full quarter of them died including one of the three knights he’d seen fighting the largest drake.

“So you’ve already gotten the details? Siv died weapon in hand, she was swinging at its head when it bit hers off,” Finn stated quickly as if he was arguing or debating, “Hala charged it’s fla-”

“I know, I’ve already gotten the details. They died with honor,” Ser Hallr said, a bit of pain in his voice. Jon hadn’t known any of them until he was ordered to join the scouting party with Finn but didn’t say anything as the two knights took a moment of silence for their fallen comrade with bowed heads. Jon bowed his too out of respect.

They started to walk across the river as the rest of the expedition made their way to the bank. Jon spotted the fallen laid out, a headless body, two burnt corpses, and a nearby Alwin having a healer work on the stump of his arm that was gone below the elbow. Then he looked at the massive heaps of scales that had killed them and realized they actually were lucky. Jon spotted his friends and tapped Ser Finn, after an approving nod he turned to join them.

“What in Hel’s name Jo-” Jon held up his hand and Erin stopped.

“We were ambushed while we were halfway across the river. They came out in front of us and both sides with the sides spitting fire to keep us from falling back until they charged us. It’s not my blood, I’m fine, and yes I killed one.” Jon decided to just answer all their questions right off the bat, the last part was because he knew at least Aethred would ask. They couldn’t argue it either, Jon needed a bath.

**********

A few hours later they made camp, having spent some time breaking down the drakes for their meat, fireproof scales, and two large venom sacs each; they contained gel like liquids that when mixed together ignited and burned hotly. Jon was let off on evening training after having gotten it from a massive lizard instead, he was proud of the fact that he kept his head during the fight and used reason to take one of them down. He’d suffered a bit as he watched Leo and Jaesmin take a light beating thanks to them ignoring the beastmind, he had to ignore his too while watching but he wanted to be there anyways. He’d also gotten a few trophies from his kill. A stack of the biggest scales and a pouch of the smallest ones sat in his rucksack and the entire front row of long serrated teeth from the drake, top and bottom, lay in front of him. He was slowly grinding holes in them with an awl.

“Making a necklace to match Jaesmin’s?” Aethred asked with a smirk, watching Jon work on the tough tooth.

“Yep,” Jon simply answered and watched Aethred’s grin falter.

“Ah….” he stumbled. He probably planned on ribbing Jon more but admitting to it had likely thrown off him off, “why a necklace? these are pretty sharp, ow. Could make a pretty cool dagger out this or something, its even like a saw.” Jon reached over and took the sharp long fang of the drake. The fang itself was six inches long and ivory white. It had some yellowing but a bit of polishing and sanding took that off. He had four of them and smaller ones from the front of the mouth. He was making one that was a larger version of the shadowcat one he’d given to Jaesmin. He hadn’t decided what to do with the rest of the teeth, or the scales for that matter.

“A drake-fang dagger…” Andrew said wantingly. He hadn’t made anything for Andrew in a while. He though a minute and picked up one of the unused fangs and tossed it to Andrew. Aethred looked hurt but he needed a spare in case he screwed up making the necklace, he’d give it to him if nothing broke.

“Speaking of her, where is Jaesmin…. and Cara?” Leo asked looking around after he sat down.

“Jaesmin’s on lookout, Cara’s got the last shift so…” Aethred informed him looking longingly at the teeth, Jon tossed him one of the smaller ones, he could make a decent little bootknife from it. He looked insulted but dropped it with a shrug.

“So shhhh.” Andrew hushed them pointing at the tent nearby where Cara was at least trying to sleep.

Jon continued to work away as time passed, polishing, blunting, and putting a hole through each tooth as he got to them. It was harder work than wood or normal bone but he was getting there. Aethred and Andrew sat side by side messing with their own teeth, trying to carve handles with Jon's tools and figuring out how to attach them. Leo sat quiet looking at the campfire, he only had a few bruises from the nights training. Most from the trainers attempt to force an initial response.

Before long Jon had the teeth ready and had strung a leather string through them, he held them up and decided to wrap the base of each tooth to secure it rather than let it slide freely. He wasn’t usually one for wearing jewelry but he wasn’t going to mind this. The teeth of a giant fire breathing monster that he killed himself. It was even confirmed because other than his strike, the thing hadn’t been mortally wounded. As he finished he held it up in the light and noticed Leo jerk out of the corner of his eye. Leo was pale and looked like he was in pain. His brow was tightly furled as he hunched over holding his stomach.

“Hey Leo, you alright?” Jon asked, the others around the fire looked up from their own projects. Leo lurched forward again but this time his mouth extended forward before going back again. Jon had seen that plenty of times now, even though far slower, it was what a lycan’s mouth looked like as they transformed.

“Oh shit!” Aethred said as he shot to his feet and backed up.

“AFHEIR!” Andrew ran towards the center of the camp to find someone who knew what to do, running right past confused lycan knights that were sitting near their own fires.

“I thought Ragnar said a month or two!” Erin exclaimed, standing back and not sure what to do as Leo lurched again, his eyes changing.

“Woah, woah, get back,” a group of knights that Andrew had run by arrived and immediately drew their weapons while pushing Jon and them back

“Don’t hurt him!” Cara yelled, being woken up by the commotion. Afgheir ran into the circle of knights, skidding to a stop. Jon could see Andrew running behind him but he was stopped by the knights. Not having time for chit chat, Afgheir jumped right in.

“Shut it! Boy focus on the feeling inside you. The one in your gut, you can at least cast LIGHT so you know what I’m saying, hold it in. Hold it tight!” he said quickly and with a tone that said Leo does it or else, “Focus, it only comes out when you WANT it to come out, you’re it’s master.” After a moment the lurching stopped and his eyes turned back to normal,“There you go, there you go.”

“Is he goi-” Andrew started looking worried, Jon noticed that the knights looked worried as well, this wasn’t a normal thing.

“SHH! Now listen but keep it back. When it stops fighting, release your control a little, if it spreads on it’s own push it down again. Keep doing that until it doesn’t do a damn thing. I know it feels different but it’s magic, wild magic. It’s more chaotic but you can control it the same way.” Afgheir explained but more to motivate Leo, it wasn’t an impossible thing to ask of him. They waited minutes while Leo lay there, occasionally twitching when Jon assumed he released it.

“It burns!” Leo cried out after nearly five minutes.

“I know it does, that’s what wild magic does to the body. It’s more powerful that normal magic but if witches and druids can harness it, so can lycans. You know that, the proof is right here. Now shut up and focus on the magic not the pain!” more motivation, Afgheir looked worried and glanced at some of the knights near Leo. Jon noticed them shifting their grip on their weapons. Jaesmin arrived at this time but was stopped by a knight from entering the circle. He pushed her to Erin who wrapped her up in a hug and whispered in her ear, probably telling her what was going on.

The minutes passed, with the occasional twitch as Leo lay now sweating on the ground. His skin pale from either pain or terror in knowing that he either became a lycan or he would die on that very spot. Afgheir gave him some motivation here and there and Jaesmin cried in Erin's arms. Eventually the twitching stopped completely and some color returned to Leos face.

“Is it expanding? Are you pushing it down” Afgheir asked, making eye contact with some of the knights again. Jon knew he was looking at the ones that could very well become Leo’s executioners.

“No and no, it’s staying there on it’s own.” Leo said and Afgheir gave a sigh of relief. The knights around them relaxed slightly too

“Good...lasses, go away!” Afgheir turned and said to Erin, Cara, and Jaes.

“What? Why?” Erin looked confused at the order.

“I wanna stay, it’s my brother!” looked mad through tear stained eyes.

“Unless you want to see your brother naked, go away or at least turn around. We’ll wrap him in a blanket before he transforms.” With that they turned although Jaesmin stayed put a moment until Erin turned her, naked or not she didn’t seem to want to lose sight of him.

Two of the nights stepped forward and helped Leo pull off his clothing while Afgheir reminded him to keep focused on the feeling inside him. Soon Leo was standing naked and a female knight handed him a blanket, apparently the no looking part was only for the younger girls. Even willow stood nearby but adverted her gaze when his underclothes came off.

“Can you still feel it?” Afgheir asked and Leo confirmed with a nod,“Good, now I want you to spread it, not let it spread on it’s own, you do it. Same as casting a spell, got it? You three can turn around.” Jaes nearly dug a hole in the ground she spun so fast, Jon watched as Leo closed his eyes and concentrated.

“What’s suppose to-” Andrew was cut off as Leo let out a pained yell, the knights stayed put though.

“AAAA-” His eyes changed and his mouth grew out and transformed into a skin covered muzzle. His muscles grew and hair started sprouting from his face body. A thin piece of flesh quickly grew from behind and started sprouting hair and in the meantime his feet grew in length while the balls of his foot and tows turned into a massive paw. His teeth pushed out and enlarged in a way that only magic could do. His ears shifted to the top of his head and elongated. All of it happening nearly simultaneously over the course of a few seconds.

“Gods!” Jaes said with her mouth wide open. Leo lifted his wolven head still yelling in pain although his voice was different.

“AA-” the yelling stopped and turned into a loud, long howl, “AAHOOOOOO!” Jon felt it sounded triumphant.

“Is he?” Jaesmin asked taking a step forward but was stopped immediately.

“Shut up! Howlin's normal the first time. Leo now you need to speak, say something. In common, not the lycan language. I know it’s hard to speak common but say something or we’ll have to end you.” Afgheir seemed more calm now but a few of the knights had turned right with Leo, although far faster. Leo opened his mouth and moved his long tongue around a bit and opened and closed it. He was getting familiar with having the mouth of a wolf, no wonder it would be hard to speak common, he’d have to learn how to make sounds again.

“I-Imm…. Skra-...skril-….SSST...ill...m-me,” Leo managed to get out, he moved his tongue around still. Jon couldn’t imagine how strange it was but he’d find out before long.

“Lycan language?” Jon took the moment to ask the knight standing next to him.

“You’ll learn it eventually, it’s barks, growls and howls. You learn it during your first transformation, like it’s always been there.” Jon nodded and couldn’t help but reminded of his visions.

“SH! Good, now push it back down, pull it all back into your gut where it started…” Afgheir said, sounding a bit more cheerful. Leo changed a bit, ending up somewhere between his two forms, “Nope keep going, you die if you can’t retake human form… there you go.” Another few seconds and Leo was standing naked in front of a fire with literally dozens of people looking at him. His eyes went wide and his hands shot down to cover himself.

“Ha! Well done!” Ser Erik called out from the side.

The crowd parted to let him through but he just waved the gesture off. He turned around and everyone else soon followed suit, the nearly executioners giving Leo a pat on the back after sheathing their blades.

“That’s it? Well done?” Aethred said, looking around at everyone going back to their business. Jon figured it was a dull event for most of them, having been through the same thing and seen it countless times already.

“What’d you expect? A parade? Streamers and music? Listen Leofrith, now you just need to practice it,” Afgheir said, he was beaming slightly as he spoke“Also, congratulations you’re done with evening training, instead you get to stand around in the nude going back and forth.” Jon laughed as Leo brightened at the first half of the last sentence just to deflate with a huff after hearing the second laugh.

“So are we done too?” Jaesmin asked looking hopeful, they had gone through the same amount of training as Leo.

“No!” Afgheir smashed that hope immediately, “He was lucky! It normally takes only a minute or two to get control for a first transformation, he took ten times that! The longer it goes on the harder it gets.”

“Really?” Jon asked. Jon didn’t know why but Afgheir really should have been telling them this stuff, then again maybe it was common knowledge in Ederath and he forgets that they grew up elsewhere.

“He was probably only a minute or two away from being beheaded. Don’t skimp on training because he got lucky, you might not be.” the look in his eye told Jon he was completely serious, he gulped and looked at Leo. He had frozen putting on his pants and stared at Afgheir. He had been just minutes away from dying.

“Well Leo, now there’s no complaining about things not going right!” Aethred called out cheerfully pulling a bottle of liquor from his ruck. He opened it and took a drink before passing the bottle to Leofrith, who smiled and took a drink too. Afgheir, who hadn’t seen the bottles of liquor before just sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose at the scent.

“Ser Afgheir?” Leofrith held the bottle out to him, he looked at the knight solemnly, “Thank you for helping me… It’s alcohol, like ale but several times stronger. Something made in Terra.”

Afgheir took a large gulp and cringed before handing the bottle back and walking away. They waited till he was gone and laughed, passing the bottle back and forth. Ten minutes later Afgheir returned and whispered something in Aethred’s ear. Aethred listened, he nodded and produced an unopened bottle from his bag, gave it to the knight, who just walked away. They just sat there a moment and then laughed. Jon saw something flash in front of his face and looked down at the drake fang necklace that he’d set down during the transformation, he looked up to see Jeasmin smiling down at him. He bit his lip and smiled… he may have been a little buzzed already.