Chapter
Raven opened her emerald eyes to olive coloured cloth walls. Trying to sit up, she found chains were poled in the ground, holding her down; her wrists linked together behind her back as well as a metal chain collar. Twisting a little brought a burning pain where the chains touch the skin, letting her know that there was copper in the chain links.
'Okay, the last thing I remember was being attacked by those Hounds. They cut me off from everyone, and then I clacked out. The pounding in my head the lack of sluggishness tells me that I was knocked out and not drugged.'
A familiar, hated scent reached her nose and she went limp, eyes closed, to try to fool her captors into thinking that she was still out cold. Boot steps came into the tent and stopped just behind her. She thought she had fooled him because he only stood there and, from what she could hear, wrote on a clipboard. That was until he painfully toed her in the ribs. She gasped and snapped her eyes open.
A uniformed man came into view and reached down for the chains. Not willing to go without a fight, Rei lunged forward and bit down onto his wrist, sinking her fangs in as deep as her gums would allow. The copper might restrain her crow form, but it did not restrain the wolf. As the person opened his mouth to scream, she jerked him down, letting go of his wrist, and ripped out his throat. Fully transformed, she whirled around and lunged at General Walker, aiming for his throat as well. He did not mover out of the way, instead he pulled out a silver baton and knocked her out again, answering her question to who or what had knocked her out earlier.
Armond slowly opened his eyes to bright light, making them shut immediately. He slowly opened his eyes, to have his wolf-like vision clear and allow his to see. Looking around, he noticed that he was strapped down with sliver clasps that would not allowed him to move. Glancing to his left where the sounds of boot steps were coming from. General Walker walked through the door with three guards. One of them came over and pressed a few buttons, which led to the releasing of his restraints a few moments later.
Before anybody could react, he ripped out the person's esophagus and leapt straight at General Walker. He did not move, but extreme pain rushed through his body. He hit the floor and laid there, stunned. It felt as if lightning had struck him. The hair all over his body was standing up and his body forced to shift halfway. As his vision faded, he heard General Walker's voice after a brief laugh.
"Good, with a few adjustments I will have control over this beast and I will know his secrets. "The Crow-girl is useless; they're too fragile to try this sort of thing. First test of his will be to shred her to bits."
Raven awoke with a copper band around her left wrist and a silver one on her right. Other than the straps, she was completely unbound in a very deep pit. By the smells and sounds coming down into the pit, she could tell that she was outside. Across from where she sat up was some kind of steel door, but upon investigation she found that it was impossible to open the door from this side.
The loathed scent of General Walker wafted down to her before she caught sight of him. A part of the grate covering to the pit lifted and a small wooden basket was set down on a rope. As soon as the basket touched the ground, the claw hooked onto the handle released its gift and then quickly drawn back up.
"I wouldn't be a very good general if I didn't treat my prisoners humanely?"
"When did human experiments become humane?"
"But none of you are human, you're just mere beasts."
With that said he whirled around and stalked off to go and do whatever he wanted to do. As soon as his scent was gone and she could no longer hear him, she went over to investigate the basket. Inside was a bottle of water and a shredded beef sandwich sealed in a plastic bag. At first, she did not trust the food and water so she ignored it all day, but finally as the almost full moon passed over the great of the large pit she ate the food and drank the water down as fast as she could. If she died from poisoning, oh well because she was going to die anyways.
The next morning General Walker's scent drifting down awoke her. As soon as he stepped up to the edge, the doors started making clinking noises and lifting up. She heard a snarling coming from the opening. Rei readied herself for an attack, but what she saw made her freeze in shock. Armond, in half form with stubs where his newly acquired wings used to be, was standing before the door with red glowing eyes and drool dangling from his snarling mouth.
With no warning, he lunged at her, taking her down to the ground. His claws dug into her shoulders, making her gasp in pain. That seemed to make Armond shortly pause, giving her enough time to toss him off her and to flee towards the closing door. Not making it in time, she used her momentum to carry her up the wall to dive right over Armond's head.
"How does it feel to have your pet wolf turned on you? He is showing his true nature, the nature of the wolf. I know that your wolf-love murdered hundreds and turned many more than that. Killing you is only second nature to him."
"Armond! Armond, please, it's me! Please stop."
Armond momentarily paused, but continued to advance on her with a word of command from General Walker. Confused, Rei took the defensive-evasive as her mind raced. She was in a deadly, if not crippling predicament. Walker seemed to have some kind of control over Armond and bent on killing her, he didn't need her so was trying to dispose of her.
' Okay, so he's set Armond after me. So how do I break that control and bring Armond back? He seems to remember my voice, so I can try and break though...'
"Armond!"
When he heard her distressed voice, he stopped again and she launched herself at him. Completely taken unaware, he collapsed shortly under her sudden weight, but recovered quickly and bit into her injured shoulder. She cried out once again, but continued onto him, clutching tightly.
"Armond, stop. It's me Raven. Stop Armond! Remember who you are!"
Armond tossed her by her shoulder with a flick of his head. He clutched his head and let out an eerie howl as he collapsed to his knees. Rei slammed into the wall, hard enough to knock her out. Armond's howl of anguish was still running through her mind and she settled into the darkness.
"Armond! Remember who you are!"
Raven's voice reverberated in Armond's mind. He clutched his head in pain, the feeling of it being ripped in two by lightning. All the memories he had repressed, of the fighting and war with the Crows, of those he had killed and assassinated on orders from the queen. As his memories replayed themselves, he felt another presence with him, warm and welcoming. That presence stayed with him as the Beast's memories came to him, even projected forgiveness, and absolute love when he watched what the Beast did to Raven.
Snarling in anger, he ignored the voice that kept telling him to finish Raven off. He advanced upon her as if he was listening to the voice until he got to her, then he picked her up and slammed himself into the steel door. The door flew off its hinges and hit the wall behind it. He ran through the maze hall of the military base until he came to a door that said, "MEDICAL SUPPLIES," right across it in bold red letters. He checked the door, finding it unlocked and went inside, breaking off the handle behind him, permanently behind him.
He reverted to his human self and went around, looking for supplies to patch up Raven's wounds. After patching hr up, he sat back and started his guarding wait. All he had to do now was just sit back and wait for Raven to regain consciousness. His wounds were already healing; the wings that his bestial side had ripped off were starting to grow back.
All of a sudden, she could feel Armond's presence in the flood of darkness and started "swimming" towards it, projecting warmth to him, welcoming him to share hers. As she got closer, she saw a bright light, which quickly flooded over her. Blinded she closed her eyes as the sounds of fighting reached her ears. Slowly she opened her eyes and was suddenly flung into the horrid war that was going on between the shifter species, mainly the Crows and Wolves that she had left behind years ago. The focus was manly on the black wolf in the centre of a clearing taking on dozens of crows, going through them like a hot knife through butter. The wolf lunged at the Queen of Crows and dragged her down, ripping her to shreds in the process. For some reason, Rei new that the wolf was Armond and that he was in Beastial Control. As another flight of Crows came, a few wolves, hidden in the trees in human form shot out nets to drag them down to the ground in pretty much no harm. Each one was one by one taken out and shackled in copper until it came down to the last one. In joy, Rei watched as she broke away from her captors and flew up into freedom. Then to Raven's despair, the Crow shifted to angel form and dove down straight at Armond. Armond, in his half-form, met Raven's mother head on, instantly overpowering her and taking her down. The captive Crows were instantly dispirited by the death of their queen and queen in line who had only been queen for an hour. She had died as any Crow would deem heroic, she went down fighting, the battle still in her glorious eyes. She was shocked by all the memories that took place after that, until she came to the memory of Armond attacking her. She could feel the Bestial Rage once again strong with something backing it up. She could hear the voice telling the Beast to kill her, but not too fast. It was being told what it wanted, that it could play with its food before it could eat it. She could feel Armond going into despair and projected forgiveness to him and all the love she could. Then she was suddenly dragged back into the darkness of the void. However, this time, she was falling into a healing sleep instead of the just being stuck in the nothingness. She gladly accepted it, a feeling of contentment and of having done something useful rushing through her.
Raven started awake, only to freeze and at the pain in her shoulder. Hearing a noise, her eyes snapped open to see Armond hovering above her. At first, her heart jumped into her throat as fear momentarily immobilized her, until she saw the concern in his eyes. Ignoring her pain for the moment, she cried out in happiness and threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug, ignoring the pain that lanced through her whole body. She didn't realize how tense she was until she felt her whole body loosen up and she stood there with him in her arms, and she in his.
"Wha...? Who...? How did you break out of Walker's control? You paused only shortly when you heard my voice, but it didn't completely stop you. Now you're standing before me perfectly fine."
"I was some how able to over take the Wolf. The Beast is easier to control when there is none in your mind telling it something, but there if there is someone there it can be overcome with difficultly, even if it's the Queen of the Wolves or a mad ex-military religious man who thinks he's trying to save the world."
Rei then noticed the pain of her wounds that finely persisted through. She sharply inhaled and sunk to the floor into a sitting position. Her shoulders were torn up from the fight and both of her wrists were raw where the two rings were. Armond noticed then, when she reached down to rub them. Anger sprouted in his eyes and he reached down and snapped them off, ignoring the burning of the metals. With the two allergens gone, her pain subsided some and her healing started on its way with no more silver and copper to hinder it.
"I must sleep so that I can heal. The silver and the copper have slowed the healing process immensely. It's going to take twice as long. Is it safe to sleep, or are they going to be pounding in here any moment?"
"They have not found us yet, nor did they see where we went. Besides, they'd have to blow the doors off to get in here because I broke the handle and they can no longer get in here until I open it. However, before you sleep, I must redress you're wounds. Stay still just fall asleep, I can fix it all up."
With that, he laid her down, took all the bandages off, and cleaned her wounds again. He put more gauze over the opened parts of the wounds and wrapped it back up. The wrapping, cleaning, and fixing of her wounds were not necessary because they would heal on their own, but if he cleaned it, there was a higher chance that it would heal faster. Besides, she would have less pain during the healing process because it wouldn't have to clean the wounds out. With that done, and her wounds done, he sat back to once again to wait for her to awake once again.
Raven was once again flying the Spirit Realm in her now new complete form, a wolf's body with the giant wings of a crow, but the head, front legs, and front paws of the wolf were replaced by the beak and talons of a large crows. It was a place where only those of Shifter decent could stretch their wings and fly, or stretch their paws and run. It was also a place where those of the right bloodline could go and speak with the God and Goddess. It was here she brought herself to instead of deep sleep. The stars of the Spirit Realm whizzed passed her as she flew. She soon felt a tug on her own spirit, warning her that the Gods heard her plea for their presence and now she was being drawn to them. The Great Crows were suddenly before her. Shade, the great black crow, her goddess, was as silent and swift as the night as she touched down before her. Streak, the great white crow, was as silent, but had the playful demeanour of the daylight winds. They were silent for only a moment; their black eyes seemed to bore into her soul, as stars seemed to shoot within those otherworldly eyes. Shade glanced behind her and Raven then noticed that the other Gods were there too. "You requested our presence, young daughter." Raven was momentarily speechless, but soon found her tongue. "I... I wanted to know to if I am doing the right thing, planning on introducing us to the Shifters and declaring our bonding... Or should we stay in hiding?" Shade and Streak looked directly at Raven and their eyes seemed to smile. "You must choose your own path, my child. We cannot choose your life for you. We will tell you the most likely outcome of both paths. If you go to the Shifters to express your love of Armond and that you are bonded, one of two things could happen. One, they could accept you because you are the sole heir to the throne and it will create peace, or Two, they could try to kill Armond and not care if that would make the war worse. If you were to hide, one of two things could happen. One, you and Armond would forever be on the run and in hiding, not able to show your faces, or Two, your kin will hunt you down, force you back, and kill Armond." "As we have stated earlier, you must choose your own path. We cannot tell you which path to choose, you must choose the path that seems the best for you. What ever you choose, we will still be proud of what you had made of your own life. Remember, you choose your life, you didn't follow what was expected of you, you have your own free will and that's what it is for." With that, the Gods left, but two were left behind. The two Wolf Gods remained before her. They rose to their paws and trotted over to her. It seemed as if in all the Gods, the female was black and the male was white, for these two's gender followed the same as the Crow Gods. At first, she was fearful that they were angry with her for what she had done. The black she wolf stepped forward to lick the space between her eyes just above her beak. "You have not met us yet, young one. I am Luna, Goddess of the Wolves, and this is my mate, Fang. You will be the ones to show the shifter species that they are to worship all the Gods of the Shifters, not just those of their own species. We have watched you grow up rebelliously and knew that you were the one perfect for our plan." The white wolf, Fang stepped forward to nuzzle the side of Rei's beak. "You were rebellious and did not wish to fight in this war. You want it all to end. We needed one who no longer wished to harm in order for our plan to be set in place. You are just a stepping-stone for peace to once again settle over all the Shifter races. Now, be proud and choose your fate young once, for all of Us are watching over you. May the winds grant you safe passage, little daughter of ours." With a smile both in their eyes and on their mouths, they disappeared, the shooting stars within their eyes outshining even their fading bodies. Once they were gone, she decided to fly slowly to her own body, for it was dangerous to stay in astral form for too long. She slowly settled back into her body and sunk into a real, deep sleep.
Armond waited anxiously for Raven to wake up. Her wounds should be healed by now, since she had no more allergens to hinder her healing abilities. His own wounds had healed already and the wings that General Walker had made him rip off were already fully formed back. He was ready to get out of there and nothing was going to stop him once Rei was healed. This place was evil and he was not going to allow her to stay here any longer than they had to.
Then out of nowhere, to figures materialized out of thin air, but his instincts told him not to attack. With the hair standing up on the back of his neck, he watched his Gods appear before him. Each God was on either side of her. At first, he was afraid that they were going to come and punish him, for mating out of species, but then they let their tongues loll out of their mouths in a friendly smile, the shooting stars within their black eyes.
"You've done well for yourself, son. You are to protect this child, whichever path she chooses. We have big plans for you two. The other Gods will not interfere, but we are tired of seeing wolves and crows fall left and right in this pointless war. Neither side can remember what the war was about, both blaming each other. General Walker is the one that started this war, he was once a Wolfling, but for his crimes, he was stripped of his Shifter abilities and thrown from our world. Now you two must unite the two warring clans and bring in the other Shifter species to bring up a revolt against this ex-Wolf and to rid the world of hi existence."
As if that was all they had to say, they hurriedly dissipated. Raven then started stirring from her rest. Sleepy green eyes gazed at him from the shadowed corner that Raven was curled in. He heard her stirring around as she stretched and rose from her spot. Her black hair was a little tangled and her lightly tanned faced was a little tight with stress.
"We should leave now, before they find where we've holed ourselves up in. I... I want to ask you something. How do you feel about us, including your brother and his pack, go back to my land in visions of peace, then we go to your land. I know I will be able to hold any flocks off, for I am their only heir."
"I- I'm not sure... If that is your choice, then I will follow you until the day that the Gods call me to their side."
The love and happiness in her eyes forced out any doubts that he had in his mind. If this is what she wanted and what the Gods wanted, then he would gladly give his life to see to it. Together, hand in they burst through the jammed door and flew through the semi-empty corridors. Heading upwards they ripped through any who opposed them, they used their noses to tell them where fresh air and freedom was. Bursting out into the dusk, they blinked and smiled in amusement to find them surrounded at gunpoint.
Glancing at each other, they grinned as they shifted and launched into a full-blown assault on the military-garbed killers. As their enemies wail rose into the darkening sky wolves burst from the cover of the forest to fall upon their human prey. Together Armond and Rei dodged the rest of the humans and ripped General Walker's face and throat out. They ran through the forest with the rest of the pack, enjoying the feel of the wind through their fur. Boarding one of the helicopters, they watched the scenery fly by with a new kind of exhilaration.
The mutilated body within a general's uniform twitched, and then jerked. Sitting up, General Walker gasped in a deep breath and let out a scream. The ripped and torn flesh slowly knitted itself back together to its original form. Snarling in anger, he rose to his feet and entered the hidden underground lab, then smiled in cruel pleasure. He might have lost the prey, but he still had the vital research and the precious vials of blood he had collected from both of the escapees... Fin