The Lycanthrope Tails. Chapter 36.
The Lycanthrope Tails
Chapter 36
By Roofles
Jared fought with the door to the roof, having to use his inhuman strength to break the lock off and escape out of this place. The roof was empty and void of all life. There wasn't no wind. No warmth. The sky above had just been like before. A blueish void that stretched out endlessly in all directions around this place. There was an eerie silence as Jared closed the door, slowly walking outside.
Every step he took seemed to echo endlessly around him and then suddenly fade away.
"Welp, we're screwed." Gerald the fox jumped down from the brown fur werewolf's shoulder and onto the ground to look around. The fox walked over to the edge to peer out in hopes of seeing something. The ground, a tree, another building to jump too. Anything. "We could scale down the side?" He only offered looking back over at Jared who was checking other side of the roof.
"Hide underneath?" Jared shrugged. It wasn't a bad idea. When you had no other ideas, how could the only one be bad? "Nero must still being doing his uh... rampage." Jared tried not to think about it. Once more, he was helpless to aide anyone in need.
"It's too late for them." Gerald just said as if reading his thought. "Besides, those hunters have long been dead."
"Hunters? What do you mean they're dead?" Jared asked, if only to past the time. To get his mind off their current situation. If he could figure this place out, maybe he could find a means to escape. It was little hope; at least it was something.
"Well, yeah. First of all, all those whack jobs in there have passed away a long time ago. Their spirits are trapped in this place, to suffer for eternity." Gerald only shrugged casually with little concern for their blight. The fox even seemed to find it amusing.
"And you said they are... uh, they were hunters?" Jared just asked confused.
"Were hunters, I should've said." Gerald corrected himself with a nod. "The job of a hunter is a very, very... taxing. Not just on the body, though most don't survive past thirty. Forty if their lucky. It takes a toll on their mind, their very spirit. Most break and snap before long; those who aren't? Are turned or killed or worse..." The fox was walking along the edge of the roof, trying to find some way off. Or the best route down.
"So, those people inside are all..." That didn't bode well. If they were hunters, at one time, and this was the fate they got in thanks for all their effort? Who would be responsible for it?
"Most are hunters, yes. Some are just nut jobs that had an encounter with a monster. They were labeled as crazy by doctors or their own family. Taken away and locked in this place to silence them from the world." Gerald motioned over and Jared joined him at the edge. "We could scale down from here in hopes of..." The fox trailed off not sure what else to say.
They were trapped in this place after all. And they weren't alone...
There was a scent in the air Nero couldn't place his finger on. It was familiar and different at the same time. It made the rest of these meat sacks seem worthless. And worse yet, boring.
Nero dropped the struggling mental patient to the ground, already forgetting about him as he tracked that scent.
"I had hoped there were others like me in this place. Everyone I find are just crazy. Insane." Nero chuckled, licking one of his bloody fingers clean. It was still fresh. "But human in the end. It kind of brings back old memories." Nero turned to look at the man he had been strangling a second ago. "It was kind of fun, for a while. Hanging out with you nuts. Hunting with you lot back in the day. This all just got me all... nostalgic." Nero wiped a false tear away, getting his cheek bloody in the process.
Nero's hand twisted once more into a vicious black fur paw. That fur crept up along his arm to his shoulder like a virus, spreading over him. Nero shuddered at the feel of it, as that something took over his body. There was one thing certain about it he knew, that strength that came with it. After all, it only took one finger through the brain to end the ex-hunters life. The human skull gave in without a bit of resistance.
"I don't ever recall you being this weak." Nero shook his head, heading towards that scent in the air. "Or maybe I've just evolved past the weakness of humans. Reaching new heights. Breaking limitations of mortals..." Nero face split in a horrible grin, sharp teeth jutting out of the side of his mouth. "Now where, oh where can my little baby be? Oh where, oh where is he? The lord... took him away from me... Gone to heaven, so I got to be good...." Nero laughed madly as he sung, heading up towards the roof as he began the hunt.
...
Back in the present time Frostbite was struggling against his own adversary. Ambrose had grown several stories tall. The crimson fur wolf couldn't even fit his whole body on top of the building; the lower part hanging off the side with a foot on the ground for support. The wolf was trying to crawl his way back up onto the roof, the structure barely able to support his massive weight as it was. Frostbite kept him at bay... for the most part.
Ambrose swiped his massive arm over the whole roof forcing Frostbite to jump over it. The crimson wolf arm took off the stairwell entrance, revealing the fleshy innards of the building. The whole thing shook in pain as if it were an urchin with its shell broken.
The slathering muzzle of the massive crimson wolf continued to drool as he licked out at Frostbite hungrily. One claw clung onto the side of the building for support, the wall breaking underneath the wolf's strength as Ambrose pulled himself up, opening that maw wide and snapping his teeth down with such force the air itself seemed to break.
Frostbite sunk his frozen nails deep into Ambrose's arm, slicing down the length of it as he dodged those fangs; one bite like that and it'd be over. Forever... Steaming hot blood poured out of the wound as Ambrose howled, slipping backwards from the roof a couple of feet. The wound didn't only bleed, the edges around it blackened and died as cold crept over his arm.
Ambrose only snarled.
The ice wolf didn't leave it at that as he leapt up onto the top of Ambrose's muzzle as he turned it back towards the silver fur wolf. Curling up on himself once more, Frostbite spun around and launched himself right at the massive crimson wolf's face like a spiked cannon ball. Ambrose turned to the side as the ball of ice and spikes tore into his cheek instead of his eye where Frostbite had been aiming for.
Frostbite bounced off, landing back on all fours on the roof and skidding backwards from the force of it. He was panting heavily, covering in both his own and Ambrose's blood. Despite his effort, Ambrose wouldn't slow down. The massive wolf stamina seemed endless at this point. Even torn up and bloody the wolf still tried to get him. The wounds mending themselves slowly even with Frostbite signature touch to them.
There were things like this in the world. Things that wouldn't die. Things that were already dead. "When you come pass one of these monsters, know not to fight but to run. If you can't run, then hide. If you can't hide, then cripple them..." Frostbite recalled his pack-mother ages ago tell him as he spoke aloud, as if to tell his own body this.
It wanted to continue to fight. To fight until the bitter end. To take out all of its rage and frustration on this monster before him that resembled Dakota so much...
Frostbite could escape. It wouldn't be hard. The wolf could easily use Ambrose's own size against him. That would leave this monster out here for Jared and the others when they got out however. There wasn't any place to hide or regroup, Ambrose had already caught his scent and would hunt him to the ends of the earth he knew. That left only one option.
"You're slower than you look." Frostbite barked a laugh, taunting the giant of a wolf now. Ambrose licked over his bloody cheek, snarling with bloody teeth at the silver fur wolf. "Too fat to even get me. Weak, pathetic! Lesser than even the shadow stalkers." Frostbite brought up the weakest of the clans. "Or that other Blood Moon wolf." Frostbite gave a cold grin at that, touching a nerve with the comment.
Ambrose's pride wouldn't have that and the wolf howled in fury bringing his hand down with enough force to crack the earth in two. Frostbite flipped backwards as those massive clawed fingers broke through the roof and deep into the building.
Ambrose's eyes widen and the wolf howled once more, this time in pain. Something inside this place, this building was biting at his arm; his fingers were burning in some kind of corrosive liquid and despite his efforts Ambrose couldn't pull his arm free as the building clenched down around it with sharp inner teeth.
Frostbite didn't move closer as Ambrose began snapping his jaws blindly in pain. The giant sized werewolf brought his other fist down hard on the building, trying to break his arm free as it ate away at him.
"That worked better than I thought." Frostbite noted, to keep in mind for the other Blood Moon wolf if it ever came down to that...
Below in the deepest bowels of this place, Dakota was struggling himself.
The hydra abomination snake-like necks had wrapped around his torso, neck and one of his legs. Dakota was fighting off the other several heads that were trying to bite and tear into his flesh with their teeth. Each head was different. One was that of a jackal, another a serpent. One was blank of fur or scales, made entirely of flesh. It didn't have eyes just a mouth that was busy trying to bite Dakota's face off.
Dakota had become roughly the same size as his brother upstairs, a giant that filled the massive room as he fought against this thing. One of his hind feet connected with its body, pushing against it as he snapped his jaws around one of the several necks of the hydra. Biting deep into it and tearing apart the very tissue with his gnarled teeth as he twisted his head to the other side, ripping it off in the process.
The other five heads shrieked in pain, pulling back and loosening their grip around Dakota's body. The wolf twisted his own torso and broke free; grabbing the head that had wrapped around his waist as he fell backwards with one hand. Dakota's sheer size and weight was enough to pull the head out of it's very socket. It squirmed and wiggled in his grip as blood sprayed into the air before dying.
Dakota tossed it aside as well and spat the other one from his muzzle.
"Not so tough with all yours head, huh?" Dakota was already patting himself on a job well done when the things body contorted violently.
Two large bulges formed underneath the skin around the severed neck wounds and soon enough, two more heads broke free from each. They screeched in fury. Where there had once been six heads there were now eight.
"Got to be kidding me." Dakota took a step back.
"Didn't you ever read about Hercules!" Sveil dodged another attack form the undead lynx, the feline slashing out at him with arms made of bone.
"Fuck you, Jared hadn't read it to me yet." Dakota just cursed down at the small insect next to his hind paw. He had half a mind just to step on Sveil to shut him up.
"Figures you can't read..." Sveil just shook his head, quickly maneuvering to the side and away from Dakota; not wanting to get crushed by accident knowing the wolf wouldn't be paying attention to his safety. "You can't just rip or cut its heads off!" Sveil just quickly explain, shouting up at him.
"I can hear you just fine!" Dakota snarled back. His behemoth sized triangular ears folded back as he glared at the hydra advancing on him. "These ears aren't just for decoration you know!"
Sveil just ignored him, yipping loudly as one of those bone swords struck just above his head. The lynx had launched it out of his very arm, flinging it at him like some kind of javelin. It was too good to be true that the feline would thus be disarmed; that bone arm was already regenerating slowly. Maybe it was the dim lighting but the sword looking even more jagged than it had been before.
"Adapting. Surviving. It isn't only for the living." Nohbdy closed in. "Like the mighty hydra. All my creations continue to evolve. A wound is just a reason to progress further past the limitations! To continue moving forward, until the very end."
"You died once already. What more do you want." Sveil swung his tail like a spiked bat against the lynx's head. It connected against the side, taking it clean off. Much to the shadow wolf's surprise.
The feline's body didn't even twitch as it brought both arms up and cut like a scissor around Sveil's tail. The wolf winced, trying to hold it together before being forced back. The very end of his tail was cut off; it fell to the ground between the two.
"The weak die." A raspy voice spoke from where the lynx's head should have been. A neck began to form, sticking out of the empty space his head had once taken up. A skull of a cat slowly formed where It once was without flesh or tissue. "The strong live. The weak die. The strong live." Flesh began to reform along the neck and up over the cheek bone. The empty dead sockets began to fill with eyes once more as fur sprouted from the gray flesh like weeds. "The weak die."
"Reason why we are still around." Sveil ducked back into the shadows. "While you rot away, clinging to life like a desperate newborn pup without a mother to nurse from." Sveil mocked.
There was a crash from where the elevator shaft was and Sveil looked over in time to see that they weren't the only ones down here anymore. Bodies. Dozens of bodies began crawling over themselves and pouring to the room.
The black fur wolf could hear their moans of the anguish dead as they lumbered forward. They could smell the living, feel the warmth of their blood as with fleshless fingers they reached forward seeking it. They had followed them all the way down into this place, Sveil only now realized. It was too late to leave a fake trail. They were completely outnumbered.
"Maybe before you wolves reigned.... This is my time now." The lynx walked backwards, letting the dead crawl past him and towards the wolves. Sveil was too late again; the lynx had picked up his severed tail and was loitering it over him as if it had been exactly what he had been after. "The year of the cat. The time of the cat! And none of you mongrels are welcomed in it!"
The lynx stabbed one of his bone arms straight into the ground, right through Sveil's chunk of tail he had in his other hand. That bone arm cracking the cement as the lynx buried it into the ground. "I'll open the very gates of the underworld and pull all you bastards into it!" He only laughed madly as runes began to form around him, burning and etching themselves into the very ground as the smell of sulfur increased.
The lynx began to speak in a tongue no living creature should hear, the language of the dead.
"D-Dakota we have a big issue!" Sveil shouted moving forward. The dead blocked his path, clawing at his fur and face forcing the wolf to withdraw once more. The very words the lynx spoke burned his ears and chilled him to the bone.
"A little fucking busy!" Dakota replied with a grunt as he struggled against the eight heads. Pinning one down against the ground under a foot, squeezing the life out of another under one arm. Hold two of them in one hand and biting down on a third. And dealing with the other three by elbow dropping right onto the things body.
Dakota's weight fell onto the squishy body of fur, feathers, scales and flesh. One head bit into his shoulder, another tore at the side of Dakota's face while the last was crushed underneath his weight as he fell onto it.
The ground underneath the lynx began to shake and break apart. Strange symbols no living thing could read began rising from the floor, carved into a massive stone doorway that began to break through the very ground. Two massive skeletons, one of a horse and one of an ox, clung to the sides of the door with chains and blindfolds wrapped around their very bodies; using their arms to hold the doors closed.
"Dakota!" Sveil only shouted louder as he tried to keep the approaching dead away. "T-this is bad!" The wolf only yelped as those massive doors to the underworld began to open and a thick miasma poured out. "So, very very bad..."
...
Back in the time space Jared and Gerald were making their way down the side of the building. Gerald wrapped around the brown werewolf's neck once more as Jared used his clawed fingers and toes to create his own handles and holds in the cement. Jared could easily puncture through the solid concrete, it didn't mean it hurt any less; he was still shoving a finger into a solid wall.
"I don't know how they make this look so easy." Jared had tears in the corner of his eyes as one of his nails got stuck and he felt as if he pulled it off. "They transform and do this crap without even the slightest sign just how much it fucking hurts."
"At least your strong." Gerald just grumbled aloud.
"Not sure it's worth it..." The werewolf's ears folded back, reflecting his emotions. "There are plenty of ways to get strong. Breaking every bone in your body to reshape into a werewolf seems a bit... excessive. It's like... on top of breaking everything." Jared just kept talking, focusing on that rather than the fact there was no bottom to this place. If he were to fall right now, they might never stop. "Like when your fur comes out? It doesn't tickle or feel like bugs crawling on the skin... It feels like someone is taking tiny burning needles and pushing them out of your skin. And don't get me started on the tail." Jared shuddered.
"I'd trade it all, if it meant I could do something..." Gerald only muttered to himself.
Nero reached the roof. The scent fading away up here. Drifting into the empty abyss around them. He looked around slowly, until one of his pointed ears twitched. Nero heard Jared talking over the side, his voice echoing around this space.
The wolf was so focused on the hunt he didn't even care about where he was. Nero could focus on that afterwards with a full belly...
"Yo hoo." Nero waved over the edge, looking down. "Was wondering where you escaped too." His face twitched in a smile, trying to contain his delight. It was a werewolf below him. An actual one. Not one of those crazy bastards inside.
Jared froze in place, not daring to look up. He rather stare at the bland, grayish wall in front of him for the rest of his life instead.
"Hey. How about you come back up here and we can just talk." Nero began friendly enough, as he had done before. And had done every other time this had happened.
"No. No thanks. This was hard enough to get down... Let alone up." Jared just called, trying to keep his voice light and friendly. Trying not to let his fear show. Jared hated heights.
"Well then, I'll just come down to you." Nero just laughed, jumping right off the side. That hand that had twisted and turned into a massive black fur paw nails sunk deep into the side as he slowed his descent.
Jared managed to slip underneath the building. It was like climbing on jungle gyms with a bully chasing after you. A bully that wanted to gut and rip your intestines out that is. Jared was moving faster than he had done in quiet some time.
Nero reached the bottom of the building and flipped himself with that one arm underneath. Having to grab onto a root sticking out from the ground underneath before wedging that monstrous hand into the ground; the other half of his body was still human.
"It's been a while since I've met werewolf." Nero just started up as if they both weren't hanging upside down. Half of Nero's body had turned while the other half looked as if it were suffering from a bad infliction of the flesh-eating variety. "I'm Nero." He offered that human hand.
"Franklin." Jared just lied not about to give any real information to this killer. Nero smelled like blood, of death and as a werewolf Jared could even smell Nero's arousal from it all. The excitement of the kill, of the hunt was making this other werewolf burst at the seams as that black fur spread even further over his body. It seemed to be taking far longer than it ever did for Jared or the others. "Are you even a werewolf?"
Jared asked, trying to keep him talking while his eyes frantically scanned for something to jump to. To escape from this. Some part of him, even as a werewolf, knew in a one on one fight he didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell against this trained killer. Nero wasn't just a trained killer, he was stronger. Faster. Far more skilled than Jared was.
Nero did this for a living.
"Well, I've been wondering that myself actually." Nero scratched his fuzzy chin with the hand that was still human, just hanging there idly. "See, I wasn't bit. Before all this I was your everyday, average hunter."
That made Jared's ears perk up. Nero noticed that and a grin spread over his face, tearing his human cheek apart as those fanged teeth showed underneath.
"Hunters are funny, fickle creatures." Nero began. "They hate and condemn anything that isn't norm. Until it can be of some use to them. After all, they are still human in the end." Nero chuckled darkly at that.
Jared noted that Nero was stuck where he was, with a human hand he was forced to hang there and wait for the change. It gave Jared some time to slowly, carefully distance himself when Nero let his guard down.
For Jared, it was more like something was bursting out from inside of him when he transformed, as if his human skin was just something he was wearing. To hide the monster inside. Nero seemed different. It was more like a virus that spread over his body. They were so similar and yet, Jared couldn't help feel as if the two of them were as different as the sun and moon. Something about Nero just smelled... wrong.
An affront to nature.
"Hunters have done nearly everything imaginable to become stronger. Anything to even the playing field." Nero laughed, his voice growling a bit now. "You know, the things the weak do. The helpless do." And Nero's eyes drifted over to the fox trying to hide on Jared's back. "Clinging to the strong, like you. Like me!" Nero eyes lit up. "And trying to piggy back on our power."
The fox only grumbled bitterly at this unable to even say a word in reply.
"If you weren't bit, then how?" Jared wanted to keep him talking. Nero seemed to love the sound of his own voice.
Out here, Jared could almost see where this bubble around them ended. If he fell from here? Would he break free or would it repeat? Forced to start again? Would he fall from the top of the bubble? Jared didn't know, how could he. His mind raced, desperately trying to find any way to get out of here. If he dropped? Would Nero follow as well?
It was the unknown that made him hesitate so, the fear beginning to get to him as it had before. Dulling his senses, numbing his body.
"Not real sure. They said it was science, I think it was magic." Nero laughed. "It was this like, belt thing." Nero motioned around his waist with that human hand. The lower part of his body had turned into a feral creature, the hind legs of a wolf. It crept up his other leg, covering his foot now and moving towards that human part of his body.
Once fully turned, Jared knew Nero would finish the hunt.
Jared understood what he was talking about in an instant. Like those belts the guards, those hunters had outside this place. They were wearing them too.
"You aren't wearing one though." Jared said loudly, his voice echoing around them in this void. Maybe he could just stall out, wait until everything repeated and try something different? It wasn't a reassuring thought.
At least if he failed this time, he would have a second chance. A third. A fourth. Enough chances to drive one insane...
"Ah, you know about it too then?" Nero eyes seemed to glow as he heard him talking about the belts. "You're far more interesting than the quakes upstairs." He laughed now, licking the side of his face with a tongue far too long for a human to have. "That's right, I was one of the hunters that had one of those belts. They made them, created them specifically for us to use against you werewolves." Nero chuckled darkly. "Using the very hides of a werewolf...
"You know how they get a werewolf hide, Franklin?" Nero asked.
Jared didn't ask how they had created such a horrible thing. How many lives were lost trying to figure it all out. The hunters were desperate and would do anything to survive. Sort of like what he was doing now, hanging above this empty void. What Gerald was talking about. To sacrifice everything in hopes of achieving some kind of power...
"You see, a werewolf actually turns into a human when it dies. You prob know that. Fiction got that part right." Nero just shrugged his human shoulder. "Well you got to catch it then," his eyes lit up as he talked. "Catch it, chain it up and pin it down... then as it begs for its miserable life, skin it alive... Only then can you actually keep the pelt." Nero laughed, smiling at the thought.
Nero missed those days as a hunter.
"Hunters usually work in pairs, you see. It's better that way, able to watch each other's backs." Nero went on. "The belt was a lot like that. A partner you could wear around." Nero laughed at the thought. "Did you know, the belts are alive? They have a mind, a spirit of their own? Of the very wolf I skinned..." Nero looked at his monstrous arm as if recalling. Then laughed. "And man, oh man they don't shut up!"
Jared face paled a bit as he somehow knew what was coming next.
"Nagging me endlessly here and there." Nero shook his head. "I was the only one who could handle the mental abuse of it all. The others? They snapped, broke down and tried to rip their own skin off." Nero laughed; Jared recalled the man during the group session, constantly scratching his arm.
Was this time frame the same as Nero's? When they first created these belts? How many years ago was Nero's time?
"After a particularly long mission however..." Nero lip twitched and he was looking away, reminiscing on something dark and unseen. Jared moved farther away. "He just wouldn't shut up." Nero swallowed loudly, Jared didn't stop. "I couldn't just get rid of it. Then I'd be no better than the other hunters!" Nero laughed, a hysterical sound as his eyes widen, madness filling them. "So, that night. As he continued to nag at me..."
"Nero what are you doing? Stop it Nero. Come on, Nero this isn't funny! Nero no!...And I devoured him whole." Nero finally turned back towards Jared, his face tilting to one side as that black fur began creeping over the rest of it.
Jared shivered at the thought.
"Well, that's my story." Nero other hand had finally changed. His whole body had shifted, save for half his face. That human face looked more twisted and mad than the werewolf part of it did. "It takes forever to change but it feels so... good." Nero half muzzle, half mouth opened wide. "Thanks for waiting." Nero finally swung closer.
"Thanks for talking so damn, fucking long!" Jared shot back.
Jared had broken the foundation of the dirt floor roof above them. Puncturing holes all along and into it as he made his way under it. Long cracks had formed between each, connecting them together. Pieces of dirt and cement fell into the empty space below, barely able to support the two of them.
Jared pushed one hand hard into the ceiling above, using the other to claw out and rip the front of it apart.
The bottom of the building began to crumple and fall apart as those cracks opened wide.
Nero cursed, snarl and foaming at the mouth as he desperately attempted to cling on; to move forward. Grabbing at anything he could while trying to close in on Jared. Tearing his claws into the soft dirt above, trying to get a hold as he roared in fury as everything began to fall around him.
"Just. Shut. Up. Already!" Jared yelled back, swinging backwards and bringing both his legs forward with the motion. Both his large hind paws connected with Nero's chest and the jet black fur wolf was forced to let go.
Nero didn't yelp. Didn't cry out. He only laughed, as he snagged one of Jared's hind legs in one of his large hands. Jared gritted his teeth as he felt those nails dig deep into his ankle and foot as he swung back. Just hanging there as the world above them came crashing down. Falling into the blank abyss below.
"Damnit..."
The ground above was beginning to break apart from their combined weight. Jared couldn't hang on.
Nero didn't talk, didn't say another word as he smiled up at him as that wolf overtook what little human was left of the man. Reaching up with his other hand, Nero gripped Jared's leg for a better grip.
Jared cursed, wincing as his thick blood drippled around Nero's fingers. The smell of it only excited the other wolf more. "Can't... handle much... longer." Jared gritted his teeth, keeping his other leg up. Maybe he could just rip his leg off or something? "Gerald. Escape. If you... can."
Then there was a flash of orange and Gerald the fox leapt onto Nero's face. Clawing and biting at the jet black fur wolf wherever his four legs could reach. Gerald muzzle took hold of one of Nero's ears.
"I can do this much at least!" Gerald shouted as his front foot tore into Nero's eye. No matter how strong something was, the fox had learned the eyes were always a weak spot.
The wolf howled in pain, grabbing the fox with his other hand. Jared kicked out instinctively, trying to make Nero let go of his other bloody leg.
The jet-black fur wolf did...
And, holding onto the fox, Nero fell into the abyss below as Jared cried out; reaching for Gerald until they vanished.
"No. No, no, no..." Jared cursed, his wound still bleeding profusely as those nails tore their way out when Nero let go. Jared closed his eyes. The pain from his leg was nothing compared to watching Gerald vanish like that. Was he going to lose another friend?
There was an image and Jared could recall that man inside the pool of blood. Another; of Raith pelt in his arms as he slowly faded away before him. And finally of one, of two, of fifty, of a thousand lives Gerald had lost in this place before him. The sheer force of it, recalling each and every one of them... made Jared's nose bleed...
And he let go.
The brown fur werewolf fell. He continued to fall as he opened his eyes, looking. Scanning for any sign of orange as like a sky diver he plummeted towards the edge of that blueish space. The other two had hit it and vanished.
Were they erased from time? Did everything repeat?
Jared couldn't know as he hit it. The almost aquatic like bubble absorbed most of the fall before he slipped right through it.
"Fuck," Jared cursed landing right on his face. He rubbed his muzzle as he sat up. "Damnit, that fucking hurt..." He looked around, wincing at the pain. He wasn't sure if that had been the reason his nose was bleeding or from those strange visions.
The ground under him was like stone. It was cold to the touch and even as he stood up, Jared couldn't get his balance. It was as if he were on a ship, unable to get his sea legs as he fell onto his rear. Jared looked up and his ears folded back. For half a second, he felt as if he was going to fall upwards.
Right up above him was himself. Another stone platform with an identical brown fur werewolf looking up at him. For a second he thought it had been a mirror. The two of them stood up once more, looking at each other. Then around and back up at one another.
The one above him shifted then, reverting to a human form. Jared didn't know why; some part of him had wanted to do that though. A part he had ignored.
Countless other stone platforms were around them. Countless other brown fur werewolves matched their steps as they walked forward. Only then did they seem to break from the same cycle. Just small little changes and differences, like ripples in a pond...
Some were looking around, another had fallen down. One was shouting for Gerald. There was another just crying, rocking back and forth on himself.
"Every possibility. Every timeline. Every instance of you coming to this point." A voice spoke heavily in front of him. Jared jumped and regretted it, landing on his injured foot, and falling onto his rear as he held his bloody leg.
Unlike all the others around him, that began to fade away from view, he was the only one with a wounded right ankle. Some had faired far better. While others seemed to have fared far, far worse.
"You've returned. Yet, again." The platform he stood on slowly stretched out, forward and soon enough expanded to accommodate the other with him.
There they were in all their size. Jared wasn't sure how he could have possibly missed them. A massive, almost gigantic feline laid before him. It had the body of a lion with the wings of an eagle. The sphinx looked down at him with a stoic, lion face. From its massive brown main, grains of golden sand fell to the ground as it stared with dull, uninterested eyes.
"Holy, shit..." Jared tried to get up once more, wincing at his injured ankle. It wasn't healing as quickly as it should have. Something about Nero's claws prevented it from happening. Werewolves seemed to be able to inflict such wounds against each other. "You are one big pussy cat..."
The sphinx tail swayed at the comment. It just continued to look down on him, regarding him as if he were the strange one here.
"Where am I?" Jared asked, then blinked. "Where's Gerald!" He demanded the next second. "The fox. He fell down here with that... that monster!"
"A werewolf calling something else a monster?" The sphinx lifted an eyebrow at that. "Amusing."
"Yeah, yeah. Pot calling the kettle black. I get it." Jared waved the comment off. The sphinx didn't seem to understand the analogy. "Where's my friend." Jared demanded. Though he was still on his rear and several times smaller than the sphinx.
The sphinx reached up one massive front paw and touched at the space. The very air rippled as if it were made of water and soon enough an image appeared. Then another. From one there was two. From two five. From five fifty. Countless different images of the fox began to appear.
Some were still inside the building. Another was falling through that bluish void. Gerald was dead in the next. And in all the other images, countless in numbers... he was missing all together.
"You have brought an anomaly into my space." The sphinx spoke suddenly. Jared wasn't sure how much time had passed since they two of them had met... Jared got a major sense of déjà vu from it, from this, from everything as if they had this conversation before. "A dangerous variable into this already unstable rift." The lion only continued not seeming to be under the effect Jared was.
It took a moment. Jared having to look down at his wounded leg, the pain of it seemed to make him recall. To keep him in this moment instead of slipping away with everything else around them.
"Your space? You're responsible for all this!" Jared growled now, baring his teeth as he tried to force himself back up. "And how does Gerald mix into it?"
"He doesn't." The sphinx only replied, still with that stoic face. "The fox does not belong here. Neither of you do."
"Well... how about you get him for me and we'll just go." Jared offered, hopeful with a smile.
"I cannot." The winged lion only replied in a dry, monotone voice.
"You can't? Or won't?" Jared growled getting angry again.
"Can't."
Jared frowned a bit. The sphinx wasn't beating around the bush or teasing him. This guy was just telling him exactly how it was or is or would be. Just not with enough information. It all was giving Jared a serious headache. His nose had begun bleeding again.
If Jared wasn't a werewolf? Would his mind be able to endure all this? Or would it have broken already...
"Why not?" Jared rubbed just above his muzzle, groaning a bit. This was taxing. He didn't have time for this. Or did he? That thought only made this worse! He didn't know if he was running late or early. Or what!
It was only then the sphinx seemed to show some sign of emotion. The great sphinx shifted its weight, more sand falling from its thick mane. And it looked... annoyed.
"Must we have this conversation, again?" It only asked.
"We've talked before?" Jared just stated before shaking his head. "Of course. Well most likely, I should say..." He rubbed his chin thinking about it. "You're the guardian then of this rift, time bubble thing..."
The sphinx didn't reply to that, his eyes drifting upwards a bit as if to look at something Jared couldn't see.
"You know who I am. I assume I asked who you are but don't recall because of all this..." Jared just tried to rack his brain to make sense of it all. "Are you going to send me back? Kill me? Uh trap me in my own time bubble?"
The sphinx just looked back down at him. The large creature gave a heavy sigh and moved, making Jared take several steps back, as it laid down in front of him. The very motion seemed to take an eternity and once it was over, Jared couldn't recall when exactly it had happened.
"You really are just going to keep asking, aren't you?" The sphinx gave another heavy sigh. Jared felt as if he had asked more than once but couldn't be sure about that.
"That's sort of... me?" Jared only shrugged with an apologetic smile.
"I see." The sphinx just frowned a bit now, the massive lion kept his head up but seemed to relax a bit as it folded one front leg over the other. "Nesphite." It spoke suddenly.
"Huh?" Jared said in confusion.
"My name. You're first question usually tends to be to introduce yourself. Then ask who I am." The sphinx just lifted up one hand, turning its head to the side. More sand fell from its mane towards the ground. Not a single grain of sand was on the ground however.
"Oh, well then... it's nice to meet you." Jared offered a hand. The cat didn't return the gesture. "Right..." Jared lowered his hand. "Well thanks for not eating me."
"I don't eat." The sphinx just replied flatly. "And I don't ask riddles." The sphinx explained before Jared could make the joke.
"Well you don't know what you're missing then!" Jared just chuckled, taking a seat in front of Nesphite; he rubbed over his injured leg. The wounds seemed to be mostly healed. How long had he been in this place? "Foods great. Riddles are fun. Great way to pass the.... Time." Jared made a nudging motion with the pun.
The sphinx didn't seem to find it amusing.
"You make that joke every time." The massive lion just stated.
"Hey! You made one too. Sort of." Jared just laughed. "I'm sorry I forgot you. And our conversations."
The sphinx just looked to one side once more, seeing things Jared couldn't. It was hard to tell if it was bothered by all this or not.
"About what you said... about Gerald." Jared brought up.
"The fox, yes." The sphinx turned back to him.
"What did you mean?"
"I could let you go, right now." The sphinx spoke up. With a flick of its wrist a doorway appeared. Fresh air blew from it and Jared could see trees on the other side. From the forest they had come from. "But you wouldn't." And the door closed in the next second. Or maybe it took a minute? Or an hour to close. Jared just shook his head.
"I wouldn't...?" Jared asked, frowning a bit. The exit had been right there!
"You will not leave without the fox." The sphinx only explained.
Jared frowned at that. That did sound like something stupid he would do. "I can't just leave my friend." Jared begun, as if trying to explain even though he was sure Nesphite had heard it all before. And would again.
"Not in every timeline is he your friend." The sphinx brought up. "Many times, he is the death of you. Or abandons you to save himself." The sphinx motioned with one hand again. Images appeared. Like recordings they began to play to show such instances.
Then there were other times where the pictures were blank. No sign of Gerald could be seen within them.
"He saved my life, this time though." Jared only mentioned with a soft smile. "I know he's not perfect... none of us are." Jared looked down at his hand. "I can't just abandon him because, in some timelines, he did that to me. Two wrongs don't make a right."
"That doesn't apply here." The sphinx growled low and deep now. "How many times will you throw your life away for that fox!" Nesphite stood up to tower over him threateningly. "Leave now and you will be free of this cycle of death and betrayal!"
Jared just remained seated. "I can wait."
The sphinx lifted up one paw as if to crush him with it.
"Leave!" It warned.
"Maybe in this timeline, I can't save him. I'm sure, in one, I can." Jared just looked up at him. "I'm sure you know already how stubborn I can be."
That massive golden brown fur paw came crashing down next to Jared. The ground didn't shake. It didn't make a sound as it crashed to the floor. The air didn't move as it rested against him. Only sand fell from above.
Jared placed one of his own hands on the side of it. "I'm sorry, Nesphite. I'm sure I've caused a load of troubles for you."
The sphinx just laid back down. The massive lion seemed, tired somehow.
"I just... don't want to live with myself if I just up and abandoned him like this. I have to try everything I can. Only then, after every attempt, can I move on." Jared could feel the paw underneath his hands. The fur was coarse like sand. Still it gave some warmth to this place and Jared moved a bit closer.
"How did you know I wouldn't crush you?" Nesphite asked as he laid back down, shaking his mane. Sand rained down over head. Jared closed his eyes but not a grain of it actually touched him.
"Well, a few reasons." Jared turned that massive paw onto its side to look at the pink paw pads underneath. "You have very gentle hands, for starts."
The sphinx only looked down at it. "That's what you that time too..." Nesphite almost chuckled. "I still can't let you go."
"Is that why you trapped Nero here? To keep him locked away from the world?" Jared asked already knowing. "To protect it from him."
"That was the plan. Until you showed up." Nesphite voice was low and Jared flushed a bit as he heard a purr to it. "This is not the first time, as you must have guessed by now. That you have come here. There have been other times. Many times." Nesphite trialed off for a second. "There are times when I did kill you."
Jared winced at that.
"Times where I would just restart it all over again. And times..." Nesphite stopped at that.
"It must be very lonely here then, if you'd want the company of a guy like me." Jared chuckled lightly going back to rubbing the sphinx's paw.
"In the countless timelines. Every possible path and possibilities. There were some where you seemed to enjoy my company." The sphinx looked down at him at this. "And then there was one, when you did stay... Nothing can last forever, though." Nesphite voice soften and he took a moment of silence.
Jared didn't ask for more details.
"I'm sure... in those times, I enjoyed your company." Jared just offered instead with a smile.
"I exist outside of time. I do not age. There are not countless versions of me. Just the one and only." Nesphite lowered his head down. Jared could feel the smolder breath of the lion wash over his body as that pink nosed bumped against his torso and the chin rested in his lap, the heat of it reminded Jared of a desert. "Is this you willing to stay to keep an old cat company, once more?"
Jared stood up a bit and tried not to blush as the sphinx took a deep breath of his body. Jared had to use that pink nose to help him regain his footing.
"I'm sorry. I have to get back." Jared just kept one hand on top of that muzzle. It was warm to the touch. "There is someone waiting for me you see... I worry. If I don't get back, what he might do without me." Jared chuckled lightly, thinking of his red wolf. "He's kind of stupid and without me?" Jared didn't mention more, seeing the look that passed the lions face.
Nesphite only closed his eyes at that, staying in this moment longer than Jared was comfortable with. In this timeline, they were still stranger to each other; where Nesphite was remembering the time, Jared had stayed with him.
"Why can't you come with us?" Jared offered, scratching the top of that muzzle with his fingers instead. The sphinx opened his eyes slowly before finally pulling back, reluctantly so.
"It is not an offer I can accept." Nesphite shook his head, more sand falling around him. "It takes everything I have to maintain this rift. To keep that monster trapped here, with me. For eternity..." The sphinx took a moment on that. "I cannot neglect my duty."
"W-well I'm sure Dakota could deal with Nero." Jared brought up. "You can break this loop. We can find him and then all together we can defeat Nero!" Jared just smiled at the idea.
Nesphite chuckled at that. A deep sound that rumbled in is chest. "You misunderstand, little one." His words were softer now, they held meaning behind them Jared couldn't understand, nor reciprocate. "I do not trap him here for my sake..." The sphinx seemed to leave it at that. "At least... not anymore."
How many times, the sphinx wondered. How many times had Jared come to him like this. Nesphite had lost count during it all. Jared had been combative at times, mortally wounded others. One time he had even begged and pleaded for the sphinx to let them out. Out of all those times only one actually seemed to last.
Of a human who appeared here, with a warm smile. Trapped here and alone like Nesphite was. The two hadn't gotten along at first. Jared could be rather stubborn. Years would pass and the two had only each other and they spent countless days together talking about everything, to nothing to pass away all the free time they had. And how little time that human had...
It had been more taxing than Nesphite had originally thought it would be, to keep that Jared there with him. In his pain, in his loneliness the great guardian of time had slipped... and something had slipped into his rift, at first unaware. Until it was too late to do anything about.
Jared face fell. "I..." And he reached up to touch his neck, to make sure it was still there. "Were you the one to pull me into this place, then?"
The sphinx shook his head.
"I did not. Someone else did... I wish this moment could last. As it did before." The sphinx stood up slowly, facing towards where Jared had come from. "Stay behind me. You will not be here for much longer, I promise you... It is time."
Jared was confused but didn't question it as he moved to the sphinx's hind leg. He stared forward into the blueish space before them, where he was sure he had come from. Jared couldn't see past the stone platforms he had walked in on. It wasn't as if it were dark, it was as if there was nothing outside this space Nesphite inhabited.
The air seemed to grow heavy then, that blueish space warping and turning black as it swirled in on itself like a whirlpool.
Then there was a flash of orange and Gerald the fox jump out. "Jared!" He shouted. "Run!" Right before a massive black fur paw came crashing down ontop of the small vermin. Crushing him underneath it, breaking it... and dragging it back into the shadows they had come from.
"Do you know how a fox gains power?" Nesphite only asked then.
"Uh..." Jared just said, still trying to process rather that Gerald was his one or another from a different time. And if that even mattered...
"Time." The great sphinx said as a black snout poked out from the warped space. "It is said every hundred years, a fox grows another tail. With each one their spiritual power increases."
A sleek arm came out of that warped space, stepping onto the ground. Between its black fur toes Jared could see blood of his former friend.
"You brought a time anomaly with you, Jared." The sphinx glared now as another arm pulled its way out and crashed onto the ground. It was sleek, muscular, and lean. The black paw moved up to a white wrist. Jared recognized it...
And then a massive orange body pulled through that warped space and with it, a giant fox head snapped forward.
Nesphite didn't say a thing as a monstrous, nine-tailed fox stepped out of the warped space. It's tails lashing behind it like headless serpents. Crashing and breaking the platform behind it.
"G-Gerald?" Jared could only ask.
It was a fox. A massive one at that, the size of the sphinx next to him. It had cat like eyes, white tipped ears and a bright orange body. The same markings. The same smell. It was Gerald and yet...
"Oh, Gerald... what have you done?" Jared could only ask, as it smiled at him then...