Chapter 20 Get ready to be hit with some juicy plot!

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From the bench I hear a sound coming from the bone pile in the corner. It looks like the bones have shifted a bit.

I ask Mora who’s still looking over here, “Hey is it normal for bones to move on their own?”

She looks at the bone pile in her own cell with a somewhat nervous expression, “Normal, no, but haunted skeletons are supposed to be a rather common find in old graveyards and mires.”

While getting up and moving over to my pile I ask, “Ever fight one?”

She scoffs, “As if we’d let bones sit around the bastion. We keep it immaculate as a temple in service to the gods.”

From Walt’s cell we hear a loud clatter.

I chuckle slightly, apparently not wanting to bother with the nuisance; Walt stomped on the bones and is now dropping them through the grate over the docks below.

Looking back at my pile I notice a single arm is protruding towards me, bits of flesh are still present on the fingers.

I wait before approaching but nothing happens. As I walk over I look through the grate to see a slow rolling fog bank come off the river into the city.

A glint catches my eye from the bone pile, a ring is still on the hand’s finger. I bend down and examine it.

The ring is silver with a blue stone, the outline of a dragon’s head is etched on the rock.

Do I smell a farm animal?

“How very dog like to be playing with bones.”

The surprising male voice startles me into breaking the hand.

"Hmm how disrespectful towards the dead."

A well dressed man is standing just outside my cell, just when did he get here?

He’s tall, skinny, with short blonde hair and a sharp looking pointy beard coming just off his chin.

Mora angrily yells at him, “What is the meaning of being brought here? Do you know who we are? Release us immediately!"

The man turns to her and laughs, “Well aren't you a pretty one, you know I owe a fellow to the south a great debt, I wonder if he’d shave some off if I send you to him in a cage. He lives in a very secluded castle and I bet it's been ages since he's tasted a dragonkin’s blood.”

Before Mora speaks up I shake my head at her. If this old man is chatty then I want the right information.

She obediently steps back and remains silent. The man scratches his beard, I can see disappointment on his face at her lack of reaction. As well, Walt has completely ignored him and is still dropping bones from his cell.

I speak up, “So I guess it’s safe to assume we were not picked up in regards to the bandit issue?”

He smiles at me as he turns around, clearly in a good mood, “Obviously, as if local guards could afford the rune enchantment on those chains.”

I look at my shackled hands in mock disappointment, keep talking mister.

He has a rather triumphant look now before boasting, “I can only imagine the look on that feather brain Miklos’ soul if it was still in this world. Despite having so many people try to kill you, he instead gets the Nemesis Axe while I catch you by paying a few bandits.”

He looks around and then smiles at me once more, “That is why they sent you this way correct? So many soldiers sent to war, no one else left to come clean up a few ruffians in the countryside. All I had to do was send a few letters of complaint to the capitol and here you are.”

I make a defeated look and sit on the bench, “So what do you want?”

The man takes a look at Walt's work as if interested before answering, “Your heads of course.”

This finally provokes a stern look from Walt.

“Oh how scary,” the man mocks, “I wonder what the reward has gone up to, maybe if I let you stay here awhile it will go up even more. Of course I’ll have to keep you well fed, if I turn over emaciated heads she’ll be suspicious.”

Before I can ask who he is talking about the door to the dungeon bursts open.

A man looking like a younger version of the other walks in, “Father I spotted the new guards you hired bringing in prisoners, what is….These are the Fenrir’s sons!”

The older fellow nods, “Quite right they are being quite cooperative in our search for the renegade bandits. However they were spotted by some citizens at an incident involving the death of some merchants so we needed to bring them in to appease the people.”

I speak up, “I’m feeling much less cooperative at this point.”

The younger man points at me, “See father! We’re going to lose our heads for this! The line of Vuk will end before I even have a son! Have you gone mad despite your improving health?”

So this is King Vuk? He doesn’t seem like the kiss ass I was expecting.

Vuk begins to usher out his son, “Come now Jr., your attitude isn’t helping at all. Let’s go discusses this elsewhere and call it a night. I’m sure everyone will be more relaxed in the morning.”

As he shoves the boy out of the room I spot a ring on his finger similar to the one in my hand.

Once they are out I immediately ask Mora, “What's the story on these rune marks?”

She takes a moment to rein in her thoughts, “Um, disabling magic is very old and can only be done a few ways.”

She sounds as if she's once more reciting something from a book.

Mora continues, “While rituals can be done to limit a certain magic type in a large area, to limit all magic is more difficult. These runes should basically only affect our hands and there are very few rune smiths capable of making these hence what he said about them being expensive. They are usually held in small number by royal dungeons for dangerous mages.”

Looking back at my tail, there are indeed still tufts of black cloud inside the fur.

I call over to Walt, “Hey try breaking the lock on yours with your tail.”

He nods and attempts to insert a solidified sliver of fur into the locking mechanism. The fur however softens as soon as it touches the cuffs.

Walt shrugs at me.

I ask him, “I don’t suppose you can scratch off the rune by smashing it against the bars?”

He hits the bars a few times before stopping to rub his wrists, suppose it’s too bad Akane isn’t here.

A voice calls in from outside, “Knock it off already!”

Hmm well I’m out of ideas.

Once more asking Walt, “Did something seem off about Vuk? He shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on me.”

Walt nods, “I couldn’t smell a human until his son walked in.”

Maybe that’s part of it.

Sitting back down to think, “I’m pretty sure the actual King Vuk is rotting in this pile of bones.”

I watch out the grate in the floor as the fog bank in the city below overtakes buildings one by one.

Well that seems worth a try.

I sit on the floor against the cell bars and focus on my tail while closing my eyes.

Mora says quietly, “Honestly that’s a bit creepy, it looks like you’re crying wisps of black clouds”

“Ya well, its working.” I reply.

My tail fog has taken the form of a serpent, I can see out of its own red glowing eyes.

I move down the line of cells and under the dungeon door, here I see two men playing with dice at a table.

Moving under the table I spot a ring of keys on the second guard's belt. I carefully move up and “swallow” the keys without making a sound.

I pull back to the cell. The keys drop to the ground but before I can do anything I hear the guard already notice.

He bursts past the door. Mora is sitting on the bench, Walt is back to dropping bones, I’m still sitting with my tail through the bars, covering the guard's keys.

He walks over to me with a grin...he wouldn’t…

The man stands by my tail and has a big smile while lifting up his armored foot over it.

“Your funeral Mister,” I warn.

“Ha, stupid mutt” He goes to slam down his boot only to receive one hell of shock before even touching me.

A poof of smoke comes out of his mouth as he falls backwards, roasted in his own armor.

I look at him over my shoulder, “At least he died smiling.”

The other guard looks in, “Gary?... Gary!”

He rushes over and checks his partner before turning to me, “What did you do to Gary?!”

I wag my tail slightly to reveal the keys, “I don’t know, I’m just as shocked as you are.”

The guard makes for the keys only to fall victim in the same way as Gary.

“Told you.” I stand up and look at the other two, “Shall we leave?”

The keys unlock the cells but nothing seems to fit our cuffs.

While Walt grabs a sword from Gary, Mora turns to me, “I bet the head guard has the key.”

Well I’m not keen wasting our getaway time looking for him but these damn things need to come off.

I look back at the grate on the floor again, the fog has engulfed the town below.

“Give me a moment.” I sit on top of the grate and focus.

Once more my tail becomes a cloudy animal, this time a crow.

Slowly descending into the town, I aim for the area where I think we left our wagon stabled.

Interestingly, I can see perfectly in the dense fog making finding the inn no problem. Slowly gliding down the streets in the night fog seems strangely relaxing.

Once I reach the cart I collect our weapons, fortunately the fog aids my magic. I imagine my creation is quite large for a crow now.

I have trouble guessing where on the cliff side to return to but it is as if I can feel the pull of returning to my body.

Standing up I toss Walt his sabre and take Zviera out but use it myself.

Once more I feel the pulling sensation on my arm as the spear tip sparks up into a pulse. As I guessed the magic of the spear itself still works, if perhaps only slightly weaker.

Using the surge from the spear tip, the rune on my cuffs is easily destroyed. The metal is quite warm but it only takes a touch to ruin the enchantment.

I cloud form my arms out of the bindings and use the spear on Mora and Walt’s cuffs.

He destroys the lock with a shard of metal fur and she does the same with an icy talon.

Now with everyone free and armed I guess I should decide whether to leave or have a little revenge. I suppose this falls under taking care of the issue by any means as fast as possible.

Looking at the other two, “Well attempting to do something good got us in here, let’s do something bad on our way out.”

Mora looks out the doorway, “It’ll be a pain to wander the castle looking for Vuk.”

I nod, “That's why we’ll be taking a short cut.”

Walt looks as if he just got sick to his stomach by guessing what I have in mind.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Before Mora can ask what is going to happen, I engulf both her and Walt into my fog and burst out into the night air.

Taking the shape of a small wyvern I saw pictured in a book I circle the castle, occasionally I fire a jolt at any guard I see while looking for the biggest windows I can find.

As I round the cliff side of the castle I find a large window just as I guessed. I dive low towards the river to collect some additional fog before flying up and crashing through the window of the castle.

The throne room is empty at the moment, it is the middle of the night after all.

I cast the fog about the room and walk over to the throne. It’s nice, it looks to be made from stone carved from the hill on which the castle sits. The back actually looks very similar to the Raijin, a wolf like dragon carving complete with wings that stretch out and connect to the floor.

It might have been carved from this very spot judging by how both the legs and wings seamlessly connect to the floor.

I take a seat, Mora looks at me with surprise, “Really? I don't think this is the time for throne shopping.”

I pout, “But it looks awesome, a bit uncomfortable however. I wonder if the Raijin would like it, it's easily large enough for him.”

Mora rolls her eyes but I continue, “Anyway here's the plan, Walt you handle the guards, avoid killing them all. Mora, if Jr. shows up detain him, clearly he doesn’t have a clue. I’ll handle Vuk.”

They both nod in understanding and take positions on either side of me.

We didn’t have to wait at all, guards begin rushing into the room.

Just before Walt prepares to engage them and stop things from getting crazy Jr. runs in as well.

He looks to the man I recognize as the guard captain, “What the fucking hells is going on? Ever since you showed up three months ago and father hired you things have gotten worse and worse around here and now this! The Yoden army will march on Sigdun at this rate!”

Vuk calmly enters the room, “Relax Jr., we’ll have a chat with our guests and work everything out.”

I call out, “I’d prefer you’d stop the act, whoever you are. King Vuk is currently a rotting corpse in the castle dungeon.”

I hold up the ring I found for Jr. to see.

He pulls out the fancy sword from his waist, I bet it isn’t even sharp.

I look to Mora and Walt.

Vuk sighs, “Take care of the puppy's men. Captain, detain Jr. please.”

Walt disappears causing the advancing guards to hesitate.

Mora running to protect Jr. causes them to resume the attack.

Immediately in front of Mora the two guards drop to the floor out of her way allowing her to pass by.

Once more the guards stop in confusion, no doubt wondering whether to attack me, still seated, or pursue Mora, and what happened to the two out cold on the floor.

A distant rumble of thunder echoes through the dark chamber. When a flash of lighting from the storm outside flickers behind me in the shattered window, three more guards drop. The remaining four groups together, backs to each other.

Vuk calls out as he walks forward, “How entertaining to see a silver wolf in action, a first for myself.”

As Mora is actively fighting the guard captain, Vuk breaths blue fire in a direction near the remaining guards. Walt suddenly appears rolling to dodge the flames.

The imposter king looks up to me, “Aren’t you being a bit over confident, little black puppy?”

I had been seated, one leg crossed, elbow resting on the armrest, enjoying the show, waiting for Vuk to make a move.

A shrug in response and I remain seated.

Walt drops from above and sends the guards flying while Vuk was distracted by me.

I look to Walt and nod towards Jr., Walt immediately joins Mora.

It seems the guard captain is quite capable. I see him carefully countering Mora’s every attack, her frustration is making her get sloppy, if she messes up I’m sure he’ll strike.

Vuk sighs once more, “Well this seems to be a bust, I suppose I should at least try for the consolation prize of your head.”

Stretching out my arm, Rost appears from a wisp of black fog from the floor around the throne.

I tap it on the floor but remain seated still, “Feel free to try.”

Vuk smiles and reaches under his coat behind his back and takes out an extremely intricate whip, the bothersome part would be the small knife like blades on the end of it.

He lashes out at my neck.

At the moment of contact, his whip simple passes through a black cloud.

Reforming standing on the armrest and leaning against the backrest, “I think I’ll be taking your fancy whip as a prize for my sister.”

Vuk doesn’t lose his composure, “So this is what a barghest is, an annoying cloud for sure.”

He breaths more blue flames at me, I’m barely able to stop them just short of me with an upheld hand.

The heat will prevent me from making clouds so I’ll have to use smoke...but there isn’t any!?

In my moment of confusion the whip flicks past my chest, my reflexes barely saving me.

I spot the smiling Vuk prepare another lash and I drop into the fog on the floor.

Coming back up behind him I swing for his neck with Rost only to have him deform in a burst of blue flame.

He reappears a bit away, his facial features completely changed.

He’s bald, the short pointy beard turned black, his complexion older and eastern looking, large goat horns on either side his head, and lastly bright glowing blue tattoos all over his body.

Mora yells from the back of the hall, “It’s a jinn! Smash his head with Rost!”

Vuk clicks his tongue, “What a loud woman,” he looks back to my weapon, “I did feel the sting of silver in your toy spear thingy.”

I pull in more fog from outside as I create a murder of sparking crows to begin assaulting him from every direction.

He takes a fire form but I tackle into the flames forcing him to reform as he takes the hit and we crash into a stone wall.

I fog form to avoid the impact and immediately reform swinging Rost to catch him off guard.

He also returns to flames to which I shoulder check him back out again with a stagger.

He lashes out with the whip to catch me and balance himself only to have it pass through me.

He lands on his ass on the floor and speaks to me as I reform, “This has to be the single most annoying fight I have ever been in.”

Walt calls from across the room despite trading blows with the captain still, “I know the feeling Vuk.”

The jinn scratches his head, “The name is Janyu...Not that it matters I still plan on taking your heads.”

He stands up and once more breathes fire, wary of the whip I step back to avoid this time only to need to block a ball of flames thrown at me.

From the back we hear a scream, Walt has stabbed the captain through the back at the same time as Mora thrusts her spear through his chest.

Not to be distracted I turn back and fire a bolt of lightning from Rost as soon as the fire clears.

The beam is devastatingly focused as it tears through the air and demolished the throne past the empty space.

A complete miss! And… ”Fuck, I wanted that chair!”

Janyu reforms to my side, looking at the still smoking seat, “Too bad, I rather liked it myself as well.”

Walt’s saber slices down where Janyu stands only to pass through flames.

Mora remains at Jr.’s side, on alert should the jinn try anything and to stop any more guards arriving.

Janyu looks rather annoyed, “Another silver weapon, can nothing go my way tonight?”

He lashes his whip at Walt who dodges out of sight only to reappear behind the jinn once more to slash formless blue flames.

At that moment I shift forward in the fog to clash with the flames forcing us both into physical forms as Walt stabs Janyu from over my shoulder.

The jinn punches my gut and backs away while clutching his shoulder.

His wound slowly heals with flickers of small embers.

Getting frustrated myself I slam the ball end of Rost on the ground sending a shower of sparks at Janyu.

He’s forced into flames, I notice they flicker in the wind blowing in from the broken window. The storm outside is in full swing… And I’ll use it.

I looks to Walt and we begin our combination attack of a tornado whilst pulling in the wet storm clouds from outside.

As if to mock us however, Janyu laughs and begins to flick his whip in a circle as he coats it with his fire breath until a flaming cyclone of his own forms, the heat of it canceling out our own.

Walt tries sending ice arrows at him only to have them melt.

It was worth a try I suppose.

I myself charge into the flames causing them to be doused on contact with me but the blades of the whip still find their mark against my light armor.

Taking the chance I grab hold of the whip and wrap it around Rost before sending a charge down its length forcing Janyu to release it.

I can feel blood trickling down my side as I choose to store the whip in my tail, out of the jinn’s reach.

Walt presses the attack despite his blade never actually hitting the man.

Again I slam the ball of Rost down sending arcs at the walls, shattering the remaining windows.

Clouds begin to roll in, rain starts to soak the room.

A booming echo of thunder sounds just above the castle as lightning arcs into the large open room and strikes my weapon.

I use the strike coat myself in lightning as I shift into a black metallic wolf and cloud dash at Janyu once more.

He barely dodges the initial attempt, but I rebound off the wall behind him to make a second attack.

This time is a hit and he’s sent sprawling across the floor.

His body covered in burn marks, bruises, and a rash like appearance I assume is a reaction to the constant assault from silver weapons.

He lays spread eagle on the floor and begins to laugh up at the clouds slowly drifting through the throne room drizzling rain on us all.

He looks up at me as I begin to approach with the intent to end him, “You know pup, this was an entertaining game.”

My ear twitches at the word pup as I prepare to slam the ball of Rost into his skull.

Janyu however bursts with a blinding flash of blue light, I hear, “But I believe we’ll end here on account of rain.”

As my vision returns the jinn is nowhere in sight.

With a sigh I take a seat on the remains of the throne, now a stone bench.

I lift up my damaged jacket to check my side where the whip cut me. Three gashes are already turning slightly purple and releasing a truly lovely orange puss.

“Great, the damn thing was poisoned too.” I let down jacket, my cloud shifting afterward probably aided in spreading the poison as well.

I’m already feeling light headed.

I signal Mora to bring Jr. over.

Speaking to Walt loud enough for Jr. to hear, “If I die, castrate him.”

A small yelp comes from the man as Mora pokes him with the spear to make him step closer to me.

Turning to face him, “You will summon every medical personnel in the city. Hang any guards which were signed on with your departed captain over there. The bandits were paid off by Janyu.”

I toss him his father’s ring, “Do Not disappoint me, King Vuk.”

Looking at Mora, her smooth grey skin soaked from the now clearing clouds, “I’ll be taking a nap now, goodnight gorgeous.”

I lean on Rost and close my eyes.

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“Please remember to stop at the gift shop on your way out today.”

I open my eyes.

Sitting up from a blue bench I look around.

It’s an incredibly large room with blue painted walls, on one wall an incredibly large window.

An enormous school of fish swims by the window...What?!

I jump up and run to the window, something's off.. I’m a child?

Looking at the glass I can see my reflection, I’m short but it's too blurry to make any details.

Suddenly a large shark swims into my vision, I stand silent in awe of its grand size.

Its grey tones and sleek body give the impression of a creature whose sole goal in life is to hunt.

The shark passes by and I look down into the water. Hundreds of fish can be seen and many other sharks. Some even have flat, widened heads.

I smile as a weird green animal swims past me.

“That’s a turtle.”

I spin around to see a sad looking Freki.

She walks up and holds my hand as she looks out the window, “The flat head ones are hammerheads. The big one is a baby great white.”

Pointing at each fish she names it, “those are black tip reef sharks, that’s a tuna, near the surface is a sun fish, down there are stingrays.”

I’m amazed by the weird shaped animals.

I squeeze her hand and ask, “How do you know their names?”

She smiles, “You tell me, you dream about this place pretty often, you say it’s called Monterey.”

The great white swims past once more, hard to believe such a massive predator is still just a baby.

It’s a beautiful sight, all the creatures swimming about, the soft blue light shining through the water and reflecting shadows from the surface on the room’s floor.

“Is it always this window?”

Freki laughs, “No, there are many tanks, it seems you loved visiting as many as you could. My favorite you’ve shown me was one in a dark room with hundreds of jellyfish.”

She frowns and pulls me away to sit back on the bench.

Running a hand through my hair, “Nox, my fuzzy pet, don’t forget who you are now. Leave these dreams to fade. You have a grand life ahead of you to create new amazing dreams. Grow stronger, learn everything you can… don't get arrested again.”

She lets out a small chuckle.

Ah, that probably could have gone better.

I realize I’ve taken my normal form back, when I look up we are back in Freki’s woods.

With a sigh I look at the goddess now seated in my lap on the wooden throne, “I think we have this talk pretty often, can’t you give me a hint?”

“To get stronger?” She acts like she’s considering it, “Well you are heading for some even tougher fights...including a warzone.”

Freki leans her hands on my shoulder, “harness the storm, master metals, create fire.”

I pout, “So vague.”

She flicks my nose, “A barghest is a creature of the night, it preys on fear. The places that send shivers down grown men’s spines hold power for you. My champion isn’t meant to be a knight in shining armor but a dark herald who strikes terror to all those who dare threaten my lineage.”

Leaning back in the chair, “I don’t think I strike fear to anyone.”

She snuggles against me, “Have you looked in a mirror?”

“Shut up.” I can't help but smile. “Say I become some great dark hero of Yoden, then what?”

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

“I want a small castle, with a small town, somewhere where strangers won’t bother me and my family.” I can almost picture it in my head.

“A big family I hope?” she prods.

With a nod, “Sure, sounds fun. I’ll play with my pups all day, and my wives all night.”

Freki bursts into laughter before hopping up.

“If you want that, you should try getting better with women. Although you are already not too bad.”

She leans over me with her hands on each arm rest, “I can show you a few tricks if you’d like?”

The sudden thought of Mora telling me not to think like a horny dog pops into mind.

If ever I have a moral struggle, why now!

Again Freki laughs as she cloud shifts to lying on top of the throne above me.

“Ya know fuzzy, it's been a fun chat, but you need to wake up and get back to work.”

I stand up and begin to walk towards the woods, “I know, seems I have a lot ahead of me.”

She shifts to my side and gives me a parting kiss on the cheek, “I want dozens of pups to name!”

The fog rises up and swallows me as I trod forward.

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I open my eyes in a stone room, on a soft bed.

Mora is asleep next to me, it’s dark but a candle dimly flickers in the corner.

My side is sore, looking under the sheets I see that a fresh bandage is wrapped around my ribs.

A deep rumble of an approaching storm rattles the window slightly, guess I’m still in Sigdun.

I mutter to myself, “How many days was I sleeping.”

“Four.” Walt answers from a chair near the door.

Then why do I feel like I need a nap?

I look towards Walt, “Jr. keep his end of the deal?”

Walther nods, “The crooked guards hung, the previous king given a proper burial, two shaman and three doctors have been fussing over you since that night.”

I wonder what kind of spells the shaman used to cause me such a strange dream. Suppose I should be thankful for their hard work.

Resting my head back on the pillow, I can feel the crooked grin on my face, “Tell Jr. he gets to keep his dick.”

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A/n his week ill be back checking chapters, looking at the early ones to address some of the constructive feed back iv had

20.5 will be the next release, you get some other POVs

noticing i haven't said any reference imagery for Mora, google Ice Drake Shyvana and go from there.

when i actually make this into a book, here is the ending plus an epilogue chapter made from 10.5+20.5. hopefully it does well after some major proofreading on my part...and 80% less penis jokes.

Don't forget to rate stories, up vote, down vote, try a review, comment, be apart of the community and help us writers improve. Also helps with motivation during the week.