Demonic Wildlands

Month of the Phoenix 3, 172 ,317 DE

"RAAARRRRRRR!"

Repressing a shiver, the big man, stealthily moving through the forest, looked up into the sky, but he could not see anything through the tiny gaps in the canopy. Behind himself, he manged to catch a glimpse of the smoke rising from a walled village burned down by the Dragons.

Jones frowned at the memories from the smoldering ruins of the village. The people in the village had not had easy deaths. They were tortured. From the carefully located burns and the precisely flayed sections of skin, their torturers took great pride and probably enjoyed their work. With the care their tortures took to avoid damage to their vital organs, they could have easily been kept alive for days.

As the heavy wing beats of a Dragon, hit the trees like the winds from a hurricane to end all hurricanes, the big man man hid in the roots of a giant oak tree. Damn Dragons. What are you scaly pole-smokers looking for.

Hissss!

Looking out of the corner of his eye, the big man saw a coiled green viper barely a foot from his thigh. He could see the poison dripping from the snakes fangs and the prismatic glow of Chaos in the depths of its eyes, but with the Dragon overhead, he did not dare to move. The snake might kill him. The Dragon would assuredly kill him, but only after torturing him.

Once the shadow of the Dragon passed over and disappeared to the northwest, the big man's left hand snapped out and grabbed the snakes head. Even though the snake tried to bite the man, its fangs broke against the dull metal encasing the man's artificial arm. With a negligent squeeze, the man crushed the snake's head.

The big man looked to the northwest. That scaled ass-fucker is headed in the same direction as I am. There's no way that thing could get past the Watch Towers, so it must be trying to intercept someone before they reach safety.

Moving out at a jog, the big man scanned the forest in all directions. The blood red crystal in the prosthetic metal plate covering nearly half of his skull and the left side of his face whirred and hummed steadily. With it the man could see far above and below the normal visual spectrum of a human being. When he spotted a cooling patch of liquid smeared on the roots of a tree, he changed his course and sped up.

Reaching the tree, the man rubbed his fingertips across the smear. After looking at the red stain on his fingertips, he sniffed it and frowned at the coppery scent of blood. Looking around, he spotted another smear several hundred yards to the west through the gaps between the forest giants.

Taking off at a jog, he followed the more and more frequent smears of blood, until hidden beneath the roots of one of the forest giants, he spotted an adult wolf and a cub. They both had black fur, darker than midnight. The adult had amber eyes, but the cub had deep forest green eyes.

The big man's one natural eye opened wide. A green-eyed wolf? I've never once seen that in any of the thousands of worlds I've been in.

With its eyes fixed on the big man, the wolf's form shifted. Flowing like water, it turned into a naked human woman, more accurately a girl not quite past her teens. Looking no older than twenty years of age at the most, she had waist-length hair the same black color as her fur and tawny gold skin. Her body was lean and muscular with small breasts and her fierce-looking face had a wild and heart-stopping beauty to it.

"Jones." The girl spoke the single word in a voice barely above a whisper, and the ferocity in her smile was more suited to a predatory animal than a human.

"Sable." Jones' voice came out as a surprised whisper. He quickly closed the distance and knelt by her side.

The cub next to Sable growled at Jones, and Sable cuffed it softly on the nose. "Quiet. He's a good human. Maybe, the only good human left."

The cub growled once more, but Sable ignored it.

Jones frowned. "Roll over. Let me see that wound."

Sable lay upon blood-soaked ground, with a long, ugly tear down her right side. As she shifted her position, Jones got a good look at the torn and blackened flesh of the wound.

*I'm poisoned. Don't say anything. My cub should not understand about poison yet.* Sable's words slipped into Jones' Mind, and his head snapped up as he met her stare.

*Your cub?*

Sable ignored Jones' question. "Where have you been all these long millennia? You disappeared on your Master's mission and never came back."

Hearing a mix of anger and joy in Sable's voice, Jones winced slightly. "Things got complicated. It took longer than I expected. How long have I been gone?"

Sable frowned. "Only a bit over a hundred and seventy millennia."

Jones frowned. "Damn. Time flowed in a weird manner where I was. It didn't seem like any more than fifty-five to sixty millennia."

Sable laughed derisively. "Any more than fifty-five to sixty millennia. You talk about it like that's nothing. I waited for you for years, before giving up."

With a wince, Jones pulled a vial of reddish-purple liquid out of his belt-pouch. "Drink this. I'm still not even a shitty imitation of an Alchy or Apothecary, but it should help."

Sable frowned but drank the liquid. "You're also too late. Everything has gone to shit here Jones. A few months after you were sent away, all the Masters of the War Master Temple left. They went to fight off some great Primal incursion in the Border Realms and never came back. A few years after that, the Celestial Court showed up in force. They Sealed the Realm and Renamed it the Dragon Seal Universe. They spent centuries hunting down all the wolves they could find, but there are still wolves out there. Even the common Beasts learned how to hide among other species and survive."

Jones shook his head. "Master Tolwyn said I had to get the data crystals from that Realm fragment, no matter what, and I got caught in a trap. It took a long time to get out."

Sable laughed morbidly. "He knew a man like you would never give up until you succeeded, and by then, it would be far too late for you to attempt to track them down. He did it to save your life. The War Masters left reciting their death poems. They expected to die."

Sable smiled at Jones. "At least your return let me escape from the Dragons' Seal on me and my cub. With that dimensional shifter of yours we can free the-"

Jones cut Sable off in mid-sentence."It's broken. It burned out completely trying to get back into this Realm. It must have been because of that Seal you were in."

Sable looked slightly crestfallen, but after a few seconds, her head snapped around to the north. "Dragons are coming. Three of them."

As Jones pulled a heavy gun from the holster at his waist, Sable put her hand on his wrist and shook her head. "No. They're too strong. We can't take all of them, before more come to help. Take my cub, Jones. Take him to the War Master's plateau. I can still feel the Watch Towers. The Dragons cannot get past those."

"I'll carry you." Jones reached out to pick up Sable, but she slapped his hands away.

Sable stared steadily into Jones' eyes. "It's still more than a week's journey to the plateau. We'll never make it with the Dragons dogging our steps. Take my cub to the plateau. I'll lead them away, and once I shake them off someplace far away, I'll meet you."

*I'm dying Jones. The poison is killing me. Take my cub to safety. I'll buy time. You owe me!*

Jones nodded and let out a hissing breath between his clenched teeth.

Sable looked at the cub. "Raymon. Human form!"

Raymon growled, and Sable smacked it on the nose. "I said human form, brat!"

Raymon's form flowed like liquid, and he turned into a naked human boy of maybe three years old. As he spoke, his voice was deep for a child so young. "I don't wanna go with no shitty old human. I'll stay with you."

Sable smacked Raymon on the nose, again. "Do as mommy tells you. Go with Jones. Learn to be a human. You're half shitty human yourself. Hide among the humans until you're strong. Then kill all the Dragons. Do you understand me?"

After glaring at Sable for a few seconds, Raymon nodded. "I'll kill all the Dragons. Every one of them."

Sable hugged Raymon. "Good boy. You grow up strong and kill the Dragons. Make mommy proud."

Sable stared at Jones. "Jones. Hide here, until I lead the Dragons away."

Sable smiled sadly and touched Jones' cheek. *Goodbye, Jones. You took too long to come back. Teach my cub right.*

Sable's form flowed back into that of a huge wolf, and with one last look at Raymon, she raced away toward the southeast.

"AAAAOOOOUUUU!"

A few minutes after Sable's disappearance, her mournful howl sounded from the south.

"RAAARRRRRRR!"

"RAAARRRRRRR!"

"RAAARRRRRRR!"

Hearing the howl of a wolf, the roars of three Dragons sounded from the north, northwest, and west. As the Dragons streaked past, Jones caught glimpses of at least seven different Dragons, but he was certain there were at least four or five more.

With a bleak expression, Jones stared to the south. Knowing that he was no match for so many Dragons, he felt like a part of him was dying. As he looked at the boy squatting next to him, he resolved to do what Sable asked of him. He would raise the child and teach him how to live like a human.

A few minutes after the Dragons disappeared, Raymon strutted out from beneath the tree and glared at Jones. "Take me to the home of the shitty humans."

Crawling out from the tree roots, Jones stared coldly at Raymon. He had no experience with children, but the boy seemed far more intelligent and articulate than Jones thought a child that age would be. "You're an obnoxious little brat, aren't you?"

Meeting Jones' eyes, Raymon continued to glare. "I'm Raymon, Son of Sable. The Great Wolf."

"Obnoxious brat. Call me Jones."

"Shitty old man Jones."

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