The Deception Ch.6 A Rendezvous with Fate
The Deception
Chapter 6
A Rendezvous with Fate
Jonas got the nagging feeling that he was being stared at by one of the wolves behind him and he resisted the urge to turn his head to see which wolf was staring at him. He got his answer a second later when he heard a hushed voice. "Why are you staring at him, Ronan?" He listened for a response for a few seconds before he heard it. "Wait...Wha-?" The wolf was cut off mid sentence when the wolf ahead of him growled. "Enough talk. We are close." Jonas looked past the wolf in front of him and saw a small little village packed with wolves looking directly at the arriving party. Jonas immediately bit his lip and thought to himself. "Great. Now I'm a fucking tourist attraction." Jonas shook the thought out of his head and just kept walking. As they neared the village Jonas recognized a figure standing with chieftain regalia. It was Alana the wolf he had mated with earlier and he looked at her seeing her smile slightly at seeing Jonas walking with the wolves. Although Jonas really didn't want to see her at all but he kept to his word at following the wolves until they stopped in front of her and the lead wolf dropped to one knee and the rest of the party did also. "He is here. Just as you asked us, my lady." The lead wolf said to Alana as she walked forward and thrown Jonas a quarterstaff. He caught it with ease and twirled it around and then stomped it on the ground, showing that he had combat skills with a quarterstaff. Alana grinned and spoke softly. "Just as I had thought. They have trained you sapiens..." she paused and then rephrased her sentence. "The humans have trained you well in all forms of combat, didn't they?" As soon as she finished Jonas held up the quarterstaff and did a few flips and striking a fly out of the air that was near Alana's head and he responded. "No, I took a personal interest in it myself. The stuff they teach us in the military is different then what I learned." Alana nodded and held out her hand and he looked at it confused at the significance of it. He finally caught on and tossed the quarterstaff into the air, spinning, with it landing directly in her hand. Alana looked pleased and then said. "You prove to be a great warrior when it comes to close combat as well as how you humans fight." Jonas just sighed and shook his head. "I'm not that great of a warrior. I have done things that aren't great and I know what war can do to people. It changes them. Morphs them into battle hungry monsters."
As he finished he clenched his fists, remembering all the things that his comrades have done that he just sat and watched. Alana noticed it and said. "Even though war is always going to happen, there are things that we all have to face and whether or not you choose to let it change you is up to you." Jonas surprised by the wisdom behind Alana's words realized something. All the things he did wasn't the problem. It was the way he let them affect him was. Alana looked to the others and said. "Let us all welcome the human with open arms." Jonas felt a tension rise in the crowd and heard a few mutterings but a few wolves stepped forward and one of them hugged him and whispered in his ear. "You spared the life of my brother. Therefore, there is no hate between us." Jonas was a little confused by what the wolf meant when a wolf stepped forward out of the crowd and walked to Jonas. Jonas looked at the wolf and saw scars on his left side. Jonas mouth gaped open as he realized who the wolf was. Jonas stammered out a few words. "Y-y-you s-survived?" The wolf smiled slightly and nodded. "I did. And I wouldn't have if you hadn't helped me back on Pegasi." Jonas didn't know what to say and didn't know what to do. The wolf continued his slight speech. "You have changed much since then. I can tell that you continued to fight but not against us. You showed that no matter what species we may be... we are all the same. We fought for our honor, our pride, and our traditional sanctity that was stripped away by the other humans' influence." Jonas nodded in understanding and replied. "I think that is what we should all fight for. Our own traditions, our own honor and pride and not fight for the wrong reasons as we humans have for centuries. But there is hope that we will not be the species that will cause the others to try and be like us but different in as many ways yet being the same. A unified existence with one another." The wolf seemed moved by what Jonas said and grinned while nodding to Jonas's words.
"Wisdom. Honor. Pride." A chorus sounded around Jonas as the wolves all shouted as one shouting the three words all in unison. Jonas was amazed by how they all sounded as one. A beautiful resonance of voices that made Jonas feel welcomed by them. The tension that Jonas had felt in the air earlier was completely gone and the wolfs looked at him as if he was different than anyone they have ever seen. Alana stepped aside as a large wolf walked forward and he seemed to be very old by the way his eyes showed off his wisdom and experience. "Jonas...I've seen visions of you of late. You have things to learn about yourself, Young One. For things are not what they seem." Jonas was confused, puzzled, and wondering what the old wolf meant. "How did you know my name?" Jonas asked the old wolf with a hint of hidden surprise. The old wolf smiled and walked over to Jonas slowly. "There are things that I never knew the name of and yet I seemed to know it without truly knowing myself. And this is how I knew your name. When I first saw you in my visions, I had begun to believe that it was with no purpose other than to show me a human. But I found that you are not what you seem to be and that you have friends without you knowing it. Which includes my daughter." The old wolf placed a hand on Alana's shoulder.
Jonas jaw just dropped in awe. He hadn't known that Alana was the daughter of the, what he figured, shaman. Jonas heard movement behind him when Leona walked over on all fours and licked Jonas's hand. Leona stood up as the warriors of the village tensed up and obviously a leopard showing up in their village was a taboo. The old wolf spoke out to Leona. "Spotted One, you also play a part in his future. Although, the outcome will always be different then as I saw it in my visions." Leona looked at him in confusion wondering who he was referring to when he had said "him". The old wolf pointed to Jonas as if knowing why she was confused about what he said. Leona looked to Jonas with a questioning look as if he had answers but Jonas just shrugged and said. "Your guess is as good as mine." The old wolf suddenly sniffed the air and his ears twitched as if he had smelled and heard something. "There is an evil approaching us." The old wolf said in an almost audile growl. All the wolves raised their heads and sniffed and strained to hear what the wolf had sensed but it quickly became known that something or someone was headed their way.
Jonas didn't think he could smell or hear what they were hearing or smelling but a rancid and pungent scent filled his nose and he could almost taste the smell. Jonas turned around and saw a human figure walking towards the village. Jonas powered up his armor to full capacity and a hissing sound was heard around his feet as he powered his speed enhancing thrusters. A helmet came out of his armor and locked over his head as a cloaked whip-sword uncloaked on his back as he grabbed it and brought it out. The whip-sword was wicked in appearance as it had various spikes and curved knocks in it and he said into his helmet as he leaned down as if to leap at the "evil" that was coming their way. "Charge my shields to the max, Sarah." As he began to run at unnatural speeds a beam came out of seemingly nowhere and attached to a invisible source on his back. An indicator on his helmet's HUD showed that his shield was at full strength and he spin in the air, lashing out at the human figure in the distance as the blade connected to the ground it slid along and sent a charged slash speeding towards whoever it was. The being side stepped the slash as if it were nothing and as he neared he saw that it was his C.O. but his eyes were slit like with his flesh rotten and he had various metallic structures making up most of his body. Jonas with both hands swung the whip-sword in a horizontal cut at his old C.O. The now zombified C.O. held up its arm and the sword made contact with his arm and stopped the attack even if it cut into its arm. The metal inside the thing had stopped the sword from cutting its arm off. The zombified sergeant grabbed Jonas's arm and with the other hand grabbed him at his throat. "Is that how you welcome a commanding officer." The thing said in an automaton voice. It let go of Jonas's arm and punched his helmet crushing the face plate and shattering it as the punch sent Jonas flying back. Jonas landed hard skidding and while he was skidding he flipped to his feet and skidded back a few more feet after the initial blow.
Jonas's hands weren't covered by gauntlets and a pair of gauntlets form his power armor covered his hands as he leaned back on one foot and held an arm back, ready to punch the automaton. While waiting for the automaton to make a move and it did make its move as it ran towards him. Jonas's helmet didn't work for targeting anymore so he only had his peripheral vision to make paint a target on the things waist. As it drew back it's arm in another punch, Jonas lunged forward and struck the automaton square in the gut and literally tore the automaton in half just by the sheer force of Jonas's punch. Jonas watched as the automaton was tore in half by the strength of his power armor and he quickly recalled his whip-sword to his hand as it flew through the air and landed square in his hand. He stomped on the back of the torso of the automaton and slung the blade upward and brought the sword down hard severing the head while using the power armor's strength to cut through the hard metal of its neck. The severed head was sent skidding and it stopped right at the feet of Alana's father. Everyone watched in sheer awe as Jonas walked over and picked up the head and hoping the comm. unit in his helmet still working said out loud. "Render get a connection to this things programming and find out who sent it after me." Everyone's ears were standing on end as they heard him through the shattered faceplate of his helmet. Jonas noticed as they saw a cloaked figure come out of the brush nearby with three other figures coming out after it. Jonas mentally said "Oh shit. how do I explain this?" The figures uncloaked and everyone looked at them seeing their names painted, spray painted, or written on their chest plates. All of the humans names read out: Render, Stalker, Tormentor and Vindicator. They looked at all the animals around them and then looked over at Jonas. One spoke out to him with slight anger. "You didn't tell them, did you?"
To Be Continued...