Rock Out
Rock Out
(started 3/5/10 - ended 3/14/10)
This story was heavily influenced by Metallica and their song "The Unforgiven III" off of their album "Death Magnetic" (which, by the way, I would recommend strongly that you listen to as you read this just so that you get a good sense of how the lyrics later in the story are spoken), but just so we're all clear, I give that part of the credit to them and their super-awesome career that will hopefully continue for generations to come. Everything else (and yes, I do recognize the amount of changes I put in there in comparison to the original song) is credit to ME!!! So...NO TAKEEEE!!!! I'M WARNIN' YOU!!!
Characters: Nicholai (fox, piano), Nordic (wolf, lead bass/vocals) [co-main character], Lars (dragon, bass guitar), Dante (tiger, drums), Mik'ail (tiger, guitar), Sinclair (fox, string conductor), Rex (German Shepherd, brass conductor), Rafe (dragon, choir conductor/head pyrotechnics expert), Julius (wolf, lead guitar/vocal) [main character]
Final song. This is it. Go out with a bang...
The crowd - possibly the largest we've ever drawn - is cheering our name. The lights are dark, with only the glow of glowsticks and lighters in front of us as we walked out from behind the massive curtain. The crowd didn't notice us enter the scene for this, our final entrance of the night, and I had to smile. Out from the cover of darkness, we would emerge...
The heart-tearing, soul-wrenching, bone-chilling, bloodcurdling, howl of a wolf split the air like glass breaking in the silence of night, and the crowd immediately cheered louder. The howl, however, was no sound effect... 'Twas me, hehehe...
The delicate piano started down its melodic course, a pure white spotlight descending on the grand piano and its player, Nicholai, looking so somber - as was appropriate to the song - in his black leather and his dyed black hair shadowing his vulpine eyes, the piano hiding the rest from the crowd. As he played, soothing violin strokes began to be played in the background, courtesy of the orchestra commanded by our own Sinclair, mister vulpine Bach himself. The lights of delicate red fluttered down to the orchestra and its leather-clad maestro, only to be followed up by a matching set descending on the brilliantly-conducted brass section, with our German Shepherd buddy Rex at the head, his fur offsetting the rest of his body from the glinting black sleekness of his outfit and his dark hair streaked with blond like a curtain around his head.
In came Mik'ail and Lars, the regular/bass guitar dragon/tiger duo, lightly announcing their presence with solemn strums, with strobing lights flashing in accordance with their strums, blue flashing down on the two, not revealing their very muscled presence for more than a split second in-between strums. With their entrance came that of the choir, headed up by the ever-gentle, yet very intimidating dragon we knew and loved by the name of Rafe. His tight black leather stretched as he motioned lightly this way and that, the voices of a hauntingly demonic choir rising from the depths and adding to the already-dark mood with each movement, along with the red lighting that now descended upon his choir, as well.
Next came the not-so-subtle entrance of the drums, backed by our fierce Dante, tiger and drummer-extraordinaire. His orange fur blended nicely with the orange lighting that now strobed down upon him, but also up through the lights in the floor below him. He was smiling as he lightly tapped out the rhythms on the snares, not even touching his footpedals yet.
Finally, the crowd had to know where that Hellish howl came from, and so both I and my partner decided to reveal ourselves, entering on both lead bass and regular lead guitar as the sound level began to rise now and the lights came on all around the arena, dimmed slightly. Our forms revealed, the crowd saw in my partner a six-foot gray wolf in revealing black leather, studs adorning his collar and gauntlets gleaming as they caught the light, his fingers flowing over the strings like water, his teeth bared in a fanged grin outward to the crowd, amber eyes blazing. Oh yes, that wolf was pouring out the music...and he was also pouring his soul into it. Oh, Nordic... That's his name, by the way.
What they saw in me, I suppose, was a six-one, two-hundred thirty pound black wolf covered in ragged faux-fur attire, a tribal expression stitched across my muzzle as my eyes looked hungrily out at those some-odd thousand fans. I always loved getting up and performing for people, and I always had. Even as a young pup, I had loved performing, and now it was my job! And I was performing with some of the guys who I considered the best in the world.
We were LunarKryne, and we would play out our hearts for these people.
"Feel the moon on your human flesh, feel the light enter your body. The haunting howl down from the tops, of mountains ever-haunted. It is the time, let the pain, fill your ev-er-y pore. Be afraid, always afraid, of the shadows deep in...YOU! Feed! The! Beast within! Don't! Let it go! Withooooout! Let it go without..." Nordic and I sang in perfect harmony, years of performing coming to fruition as the crowd roared their approval, faces appearing and disappearing with the strobing light.
"How can I go on, if I've got nowhere to go? The howls shaking my soul, how come it's got so cold? How will I go on? My body's slipped of me. My mind has shed its thoughts. I've got a life to liiiiiiiive." The crowd roared as we sang this. Heh, they always loved the chorus line. But for now, back to the main.
"You fall upon your bloody knees, feeling yourself move without you. You see your eyes look to the sky, that glowing eye above you. This Hellish curse, blessing now, re-forms hu-man bo-dy. No more past, only present, lupine future will en-SUE! Gone! Are! The! Days! Bane! Of the hu-man raaaaaace! The human race..." Nordic and I just couldn't sound any more sweetly in harmony, and each of the others played their part perfectly, with Rafe and his satanic singers (not really, might I add, it's just figurative) vocalizing that Hellish feeling throughout that awesome crowd, who were practically howling their heads off. We rampaged around on stage, snarling ferally between lyrics and beating our chests, while the violins and the brass kept their calm form, practically leading itself with the familiarity they had with this song.
But for now, time to get back to another rousing chorus line.
"How can I go on, if I've got nowhere to go? The howls shaking my soul, how come it's got so cold? How will I go on? My body's slipped of me. My mind has shed its thoughts. I've got a life to liiiiiiiive."
Mik'ail and I and Lars and Nordic back-to-backed on stage, like tag teams as we let our souls pour out through our notes and let the crowd listen to the rhythms of our hearts in the music.
Suddenly, Lars and Mik'ail dropped out along with Sinclair, Rex, Rafe, Nicholai and Dante, leaving only Nordic and I to play on as the lights dimmed down to just upon he and I. The crowd went quiet just after we did, knowing that something awesome was coming, and we were loathe to disappoint. Time to get to the really good stuff!
"The feeling..." Nordic growled into the mic, stretching it out.
"So deep within..." I returned, stretching it out equally to match his length.
"That feeling..." Now joined in Dante with his drums and Mik'ail and Lars, raising up the volume and the energy.
"Under the skin..." And now Rafe threw his choir into the mix, adding that demonic element to the rush of the music.
"The feeling..." he started.
"...now it's comin' out!" I added in that same stretch.
"Under the skin..."
"...so deeeeeep within!"
"That feeling..."
"...risin' to the top!"
"So deep in-" he started.
"Now it's time to just GIVE IN!!!" we howled in unison, the crowd roaring as we let loose that primal fury within and the solo started.
Mik'ail was our lead soloist, and so as we all gave him support, he came to the very forefront and just started ripping and tearing at those strings, his claws flying over them like no other while his tongue flicked back and forth as he smiled a snarl, looking to his guitar as the crowd chanted his name. I had to smile. He always loved when he got to go it alone and show off for the crowd. I couldn't say I blamed him, and damn was he good!
The smoke eventually died off from his strings (metaphorically, anyway, though more than once he'd literally set a guitar on fire...in more ways than one) and we all pulled back together to set up the ending.
"The haunting howl down from the tops, of mountains ever-haunted. Feel the moon on your human flesh, feel the light enter your body." This was it. Bringin' it all back together. We were going to finish strong, I could feel it.
And once more, back to that rousing crowd-favorite: the chorus line! Everybody now!!!
"How can I go on, if I've got nowhere to go? The howls shaking my soul, how come it's got so cold? How will I go on? My body's slipped of me. My mind has shed its thoughts. I've got a life to LIIIIIIIIVE!"
As we combinededly howled and roared that line, a massive amount of assorted pyrotechnics went off, with jets of flame and sky-lighting fireworks lighting up the arena and the crowd. The lights faded, but the last strums of the guitar still went in the pitch black.
The guitar eventually faded off and the crowd absolutely roared. I think we could all basically feel the energy in the air coming off the crowd, almost tangible excitement coming off of them. It was like a haze that we could almost see as the lights came up and revealed all of those enthusiastic faces. I think we were all really glad to have performed for them.
"Thank you everybody!" I shouted. "Thank you so much for comin' out to see us! Ya have yourselves a great night! We'll see you again next year! THANK YOU!!!"
As we were walking offstage, occasionally throwing spare guitar picks into the crowd, Dante tossing a few pairs of drumsticks out there as well, we could hear the crowd chanting, "Lu-nar-Kryne! Lu-nar-Kryne! Lu-nar-Kryne!" Oh yeah...
That was one Helluva show.
Well, you guys, I hope you enjoyed this part of my story. I know it took a heck of a lot of time for myself to gather up the inspiration to write it, but I think it turned out really well. I hope you guys agree. I'll be sure to get the yiff goin' on if I decide to do a part 2, but until then, I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it! Thanks for reading!!!