Uriel" "At your service"

 

For the past 23 months, Maharet and I have lived in my mountain cottage. We spent entire nights together walking, admiring the views, running as wolves through the forests, and hunting. Or simply sitting on the porch, gazing at the stars and trying to remember the names of the constellations.

In the penultimate month of the two years since my last duel with Blade, we decided to take a short break (a month or two) to visit friends and sort out the financial matters related to what we had left behind when we left town. It was a difficult separation for me, albeit a brief one. All my friends, both old and young, had gone to a concert by some Lestat. So I had nothing to do in the city. So what was I supposed to do? I stayed in the mountains. My first nights alone were peaceful. I spent them chasing deer and wolves through the forest. Sometimes, when I took the form of a bat, I managed to scare a squirrel. Once, I managed to terrify a group of kids camping by a lake.

On the fifth day after their departure, I had a nightmare. A white beast writhing in pain, roaring. I took this dream with a grain of salt and decided to ignore it. However, when I had similar nightmares over the next two days, I began to worry. After some thought, I decided to follow the dreams. I had already noticed that, in addition to visions of the suffering white beast, I saw glimpses of certain places I knew.

I set off. The first place in my dreams was a cave about 5 kilometers from my current location. When I reached the cave, I fell into a deep trance. And again I heard that cry, or rather howl for help. The dreams led me to other places: an old grove on the outskirts of town, an old mine a kilometer away, and finally, abandoned houses on the edge of the forest. It was in one of these houses that I had my epiphany. I used to visit all these places with my friend Mael. He was an exceptionally sincere and kind werewolf.

He belonged to the White Howler tribe (one of the last of that tribe). After some time, the Silver Claw tribe took him in. I was surprised too, but apparently their society believed it was better for Mael to wander among his own kind than with a "leech."

We said goodbye, promising each other that if either of us needed help, the other would answer the call. Now I was to fulfill that promise.

On the way to the Silver Claw caern, all I could think about was not arriving too late and finding Mael dead. I prayed for that. Something else gnawed at me. What could have happened to make him call for help? After all, Talons are born warriors.

From half a kilometer away, I spotted smoke. When I arrived, I found only a single, massive battlefield. Not a single living soul. At the entrance to a cave where werewolves sometimes lived, I found the body of the pack leader. His skull was shattered near the back of his head, and a spiral had been carved into his chest by claws. I had to be careful.

The battlefield "told" me its entire story. The pack members had been surprised by the Dancers in the Umbra (or so I thought, as there were tracks that looked as if someone had been thrown "out of nowhere"), and the rest of the enemies were just waiting in the real world to attack the werewolves, exhausted from the earlier battle. Several Dancers and Wyrm monsters were killed, but eventually their strength prevailed. The tracks led to the cave, but Mael's trail was nowhere to be seen. What was going on?

I entered the cave. After a few turns, the central cave came into view. It was covered in Dancer drawings! And on the main wall, hanging from his chains, was Mael! I ran to him as fast as I could, freeing myself from the chains, and asked,

"Mael, what happened here? Why did they dare attack? Answer me!"

But he only raised his head and said,

"Free me..."

I did it as quickly as I could. I turned and tried to run with him, but I noticed Dancers coming from the corridors straight at me. There were six of them. Enough to kill me.

"Run, Mael!"

I screamed. And that was all I managed. I felt a dagger piercing my throat. It was all a trap! As I fell, I managed to turn around. The person I had freed wasn't Mael. The she-wolf was just transforming into her true form—an illusion! How easily I was fooled!

The stranger approached me and pulled the knife from my still-bleeding throat.

"Who are you, thinking you could take the Howler from us?! You idiot!" Eight werewolves didn't save him, and you thought you could take him from us alone? She would have continued babbling, if my wound hadn't begun to heal, making her realize who

I was, and if another Dancer hadn't rushed into the cave:

"Lady! Someone's attacking us..."

He didn't get to finish, as a silver spike plunged into his back, exiting from the front and shattering his sternum. I recognized my savior by his weapon and his killing style. Blade entered the cave. His eyes clearly showed he was enjoying himself.

"Damn! That scum is incredibly hard to kill! Uriel, can't you be left alone even for a moment?

" "You know me. I like to be where the action is."

The wound was gone. But that wasn't my concern at the moment. We stood in the middle of a huge cave, surrounded by five werewolves (three of whom Blade had finished off earlier at the cave entrance) and their leader.

Suddenly, one of them jumped at me. It was obvious he was a youngster. The older ones let him go first. This was most likely a test of his skills. He hadn't noticed a small, yet important, detail. I had a small knife in my hand, ready to cut, which I had pulled from my boot shaft. Blood spurted from the severed carotid artery. He writhed in agony for a moment longer as I fed on him, then froze. Meanwhile, two others charged at Blade. The poor creatures were so blinded by the lure of killing that they didn't notice the rope Blade was holding, just as deadly as they were. Their heads rolled to the ground. The fourth fled.

"This one's mine, Blade!

" "OK. I'll take care of the last one.

" In the heat of the moment, we'd forgotten one thing: the leader!" When I'd killed my opponent, I turned to see how Blade was doing. He was finishing off "his," but a she-wolf was already lurking behind him.

"Blade, watch out!"

She raised her dagger, but before she could strike, something ripped open her thigh, and as she fell, crushed her chest.

I saw a flash of white fur in the shadows.

"Mael!"

I ran to him as fast as I could. He had already transformed into a human. Wounds were visible all over his body.

"Blade, we have to get him out of here immediately!"

"Okay. I have an old hideout about half a kilometer from here. Let's go.

" When we arrived, Blade went looking for bandages for Mael, while I stayed behind, tending to him with what was in the "handy" first aid kit (you could set up a medium-sized hospital).

"Mael, tell me what happened there? Why did the Black Spiral Dancers attack?"

He looked very tired, but he answered everything:

"You probably know that the Dancers are mostly corrupt White Howlers, right? Besides wanting to

rid this territory of the Talons, they also wanted to "recruit" me for themselves." You know I own the company that owns these lands. You see... There's oil in this area, and if they could get me on their side, nothing would stop them from building a refinery here and poisoning Gaia. They tortured me... They killed my comrades right in front of me... I'm tired...

"Sleep, Mael, sleep."

I left the room just as Blade arrived.

"I have bandages...

" "Thank you. They'll come in handy. In the meantime, let's let him rest. I'd like to talk to you."

We went into the next room and closed the door so as not to disturb Mael's sleep.

"Peace and quiet at last. I have one question for you, Blade: how did you know I needed help?"

"I didn't.

" "What???"

"I had some very important business for you, so I came to your house in the mountains. When I saw that no one answered, I took the liberty of opening the lock and checking if everything was okay. You were supposed to be there with Maharet for another two weeks. The signs indicated you left in a hurry. So I followed your trail. I visited all the places you'd been until I finally reached the caves. You know the rest of the story.

" "Aha. So what was this 'urgent' business that brought you to my house?"

"During the last duel, you lost something in my pub. But I only found it recently.

" "Something?"

Blade turned and pulled a medium-sized paper bundle from his bag. I tore open the wrapping as quickly as I could. I was acting like a child on Christmas Day.

"My klaive?

" "Yes. It must have come loose from your belt. I found it while tidying up under one of the tables. But it's not just the knife, is it?

" "Exactly. It's a valuable souvenir." I received it from Mael as a parting gift. I was surprised he gave it back to me. For werewolves, it's almost sacred. Thank you again, friend...

"At your service, Uriel... Always at your service."