“Your head still hurting?” I asked Rima as we approached a small cluster of trees.

He looked at me, his shirt hanging around his neck to dry. “No Champion. My gift has long since healed it,” he smiled tentatively. “Though the sting of embaressent remains.”

“Meh, you have the same problem I do: You jump without looking.” I patted my chest proudly. “The woman dig it.”

“We do not!” Nel called over her shoulder from her place at the head of the line.

I heard Tima hiss from somewhere to my left but didn't bother looking.

We ignored them both.

“Hey, Rima, you know how you said your gift heals you...well, is there some way to tell what each gift does?” I brought up my screen and looked at it with a frown. “Because mine only says the gift name.”

Rima tilted his head to the side in thought, his top knot bobbing with the movement. “When we access our stat screen we simply will it to be and it appears before our eyes and if we require more information we simply focus on that part of the table.”

With nothing better to do as we trudged along I looked down at my palm and focused on the gifts tab. Nothing happened except I went a little cross eyed. Annoyed, I jabbed at it with a finger but that had much the same effect. It wasn’t until I pressed and held my finger on it that the tab expanded and I whooped triumphantly.

Well I kinda figured that out by myself, cause I’m smart.

I don’t know what that hell that even meant. Could I swallow a ball of Iron and upchuck some Steel?

Every time I got injured I lost a bit more of my original nanobots and synthetic skin. So far, the existing nanobots had been using the iron and scrap metal I’d been eating to build new ones, so does that mean that the new nanobots were made from cheap iron and I was actually making myself weaker every time I fought?

What happens if something actually broke my bones and it got repaired with subpar metal? Crap!!

I heard Rima say something to me but I just shushed him. My brain deep in thought. If I could get this transmutation gift working and found out how to alter the makeup of metal as I digested it...I could get a serious upgrade...once I found a blacksmith that could explain metals to me since I know jack shit about that.

Current rate...so I could increase that. Interesting.

“Alexander!” Nel barked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I looked up to see we were at the tree line. According to Nel, the Pack lived somewhere in that area, their huts built among the trees. Normal sized trees. I feel I need to just point that out.

I closed my fist, dissolving my screen and nodded at Nel. Seeing she had my attention she motioned us to follow her. It wasn’t so much a forest as a cluster. The trees were spaced well enough apart that sunlight could stream down from above unfettered. The branches swayed gently in the breeze, their shadows dancing along the ground.

More sun meant more small plants though and I found myself constantly pushing through a bush or stepping around a small tree. Ferns clustered against tree trunks, their bright green leaves unfurled in the midday heat.

“The Pack isn’t too far in. They use these woods to train their young before allowing them to travel further away. The forests near the Citrus Pools are often full of game and a favourite of theirs.” Nel told us, stepping over a cluster of red topped mushrooms the size of my hand. Her spider legs were held tight against her back, two of them though wrapped around her hips and hung against her thighs. It reminded me of the first time we had met and I thought it was leg armour.

“Feels wrong.” Rima muttered from behind me as he pulled his shirt back on. Tima hissed quietly in support. “Too quiet.”

We all stopped. The two Denvii cocked their heads to listen and I boosted my hearing augments. Rima was right, it was too quiet. I wasn’t an expert on forest sounds but dead silence didn’t seem like the appropriate answer.

The sun suddenly didn’t seem bright enough. The shadows around us turned dark and menacing, stretching out obscenely to cover us. Or at least that’s what it seemed like to me. Nothing had changed but my unease mounted as I looked around.

Nel moved closer to me, whether conscious or not the movement had a cascading effect and all of a sudden Rima and Tima were joining in on the group huddle. There is something naturally creepy in silence.

“Let’s keep moving.” I whispered before pushing to the front of the group. “I’ll take point. Tima and Nel in the middle. Rima, I want you to stay in the back. Call out if you see anything.”

We all fell into place and with a whispered word of direction from Nel we moved on. I wasn’t nearly as stealthy as I would have liked, being much too heavy and much to city for it, and I could just feel the group flinch whenever a stick snapped under my tread or leaves crunched.

“It’s close!” Nel’s breath was warm against my skin as she leant forward to whisper in my ear. I could feel the gentle brush of her hair against my neck and fought down a shiver.

I crouched down behind a tree, the other three dropping low and moving closer. Pushing more power to my hearing I turned my head and focused.

“I don’t hear anything...no birds...no insects...no voices...it’s just silent.” I slowed down my breathing then cut it off completely. My body becoming stiff as a statue as I filtered out everything but sound.

“I hear...a droning noise...or a buzzing...I know that sound.” I whispered. “Flies. Lots and lots of flies.”

I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The last time I had heard that noise was when I’d walked down an alley and found a pack of flies feasting on a dead cat. This was a lot like that, only louder. A lot louder.

“Nelzarastorama, perhaps you should wait here.” Rima told his sister. It looked like he knew what to expect as well.

Nel was having none of it. She pushed me gently towards the source of the noise, her pretty features set in firm unyielding lines.

The trees gave way to a small glade surrounded by little wooden huts. It was beautiful with its green meadow of short rippling grass. Wildflowers bloomed around the structures, the reds and pinks and oranges bright and vibrant. Fruit trees stood next to small vegetable plots fenced in with small wooden fences.

It was beautiful. It was horrifying. Bodies lay everywhere covered in flies and crawling insects. We took a step forward and with a horrid dronning buzz the flies on the closest corpse took flight. Nel gasped and Rima cursed. I felt the muscles in my jaw bunch as I grit my teeth at the sight of the body lying on its stomach. It must have been a woman at one point, the frame was too slight to be a man. Fur, matted with dry blood squirmed as insects burrowed through it.

A breeze brought the smell of decay and rot to us and I spat.

I crouched down for a better look at the body, the rest of the group hanging back.

The fur ran along her back before growing shaggy and wild around her head. Sharp, wolfen ears poked out of the tangled mess. Gripping one cold, hairy shoulder I gently rolled her over. The fur wrapped around her ribs before thinning out over her chest and navel and leaving her face bare. Her throat was torn out, flaps of skin and gristle surrounding a gaping hole. Four long slashes ran parallel down her chest, from the left shoulder down over her breasts and ending by her right hip. Another set of similar claw marks bisected her stomach. The skin I could see under the fur was pale and bloated, decay already setting in.

I let the body roll back and stood, dusting at my hands reflexively.

“A-Alex,” Nel whispered from behind me, her voice wobbling. “What happened here?”

I don’t think she was expecting an answer and I had none to give her. A wild animal attacked a pack of werewolf creatures and slaughtered them? It was ridiculous. I moved further into the glade, the rest following along. I swatted at random flies that got in my way and looked around for clues.

“Do all these bodies belong to the Pack?” I asked over my shoulder. “Are there any that don’t look like they belong?”

“No, Champion. Not from what I can see.” Rima’s voice was thin and I gave him a nod of encouragement. Nel just shook her head, her hands covering her mouth against the sight and smell.

A male Pack member was laying half in and half out of his cabin, dried blood staining the wood a rusty red. We walked past and I saw that he was actually all out. The part of him that was meant to be in, the part from the waist down, was missing.

“Thats the Alpha’s Cabin!” Nel said, pointing at the largest building.

I walked around a mother daughter pair holding hands and scowled when the flies went right back to the bodies after we passed.

“They aren’t eaten.” Rima growled. Anger was good. Anger pushed you to action and I didn’t want him freezing up.

“No, they aren’t.” I agreed.

Nel caught on a second later, her dark red eyes going wide. “You’re saying they were just...killed! For no reason. Just slaughtered! Woman! Children! Men! Boys! They were a family and...and...and something just killed them!”

I was used to senseless violence. Seen it enough times to know that it was just that, sensless. What concerned me was the claw marks found on the first victim. It hinted at a clawed animal, but an animal capable of this level of violence had to be a predator and what predator attacks the camp of larger, multiple predators.

and there was no other body other than Pack!

Rima pulled his spear off Tima, his knuckles going white as he gripped the shaft and looked around. He was a warrior and hunter, he knew how prey and predator acted. He was thinking the exact same thing I was.

Three wooden steps led up to the door into the Alpha’s longhouse and I cast one last look over my shoulder. My gaze settled on Tima.

“Sorry girl, but your too big to fit inside.” I said.

Tima hissed, her tongue flicking across scaly lips as her tail thrashed at the air. She wasn’t happy and I was about to give her company.

“I also think you two should stay here.” I said to Rima and Nel. They opened their mouth to argue but I just talked over them. “How likely is it that Blackpelt is inside, alive and well and waiting for a meeting? It’s more than likely he’s in there dead or out there dead.” I pointed out over the glade. “And all of us stomping in there will just make it crowded. I’ll go have a quick look see and you lot can keep watch out here. Yell if you see something.”

I leapt up the stairs before they could complain and entered the building. Windows high up on the wall let a little light in and I could see a fire pit taking up the centre of the room, the stones and ash were cold. The little stack of firewood had toppled over and pieces of timber about as long as my forearm and as thick as my thigh lay scattered about the room. I stepped over them quietly, boosting my visual augments so I could see better.

There were signs of a struggle. A tapestry hung askew on one wall, the edge torn. A chair was laying on its side. A table was flipped upside down, a bowl scattered and broken around it. Blood splatter covered one wall, the drops a dark shadow against the light wood.

There was a door leading to the rest of the house on the far wall and as I picked my way through the clutter I heard the creak of wood. I bent my knees, expecting something to come charging out of the back room and felt foolish when nothing happened. This whole place had me on edge.

The door was laying on the floor and I crouched down to run my fingers along the inch deep grooves dug in the wood. That was weird. I looked at the doorway then back down to the door. If I was looking at this right and assuming the door was meant to open to my right, like a normal door, then the scratches were on the inside of the door.

The Alpha had trapped the creature in his own house?

I walked into the back room, ready to overclock at a moments notice. It was a study, I think. Bookshelves lined the walls around a small fireplace with a stuffed deer head over it. Soft cushioned seats were situated around the room with small coffee tables. It was small and homey and nothing like I expected a werewolf home to look like.

Denvii, I remembered, were a balance between man and beast. Guess this was more a man pad than a beast pad.

The damage in the room was limited to the chairs and a few books but as I turned I saw more scratches marring the wall surrounding the doorway. I looked to the next doorway, this one open and it’s door still attached.

I was starting to think that maybe the Alpha hadn’t trapped the beast in here. I was starting to think the Alpha was the beast in here.

I heard the creak again. This time it morphed into a groan, as if something big and very very heavy was moving. The sound was coming from the next room. The creak came again and a hand gripped the edge of the door frame. A hand with thick hairy fingers tipped with claws that dug into the wood. I saw the tendons stand out in sharp relief as the hand pulled at the wood, dragging whatever bulk it owned towards the doorway.

“Fuck.” I muttered as I caught sight of the black veins creeping up each finger like rotten worms.