Curse of the Moon

One hot afternoon, when they were training, Mel kicked Heat unto the forest floor.

"Ugh! I'm not getting up." Heat shrugged on the ground.

"Get your lazy butt off the ground!"

"Make me."

"Oh I will."

Mel started to kick him but Heat grabbed her leg and pulled her to the ground, next to him and remained there, too tired and comfortable to get up.

"See, you're just as much of a lazy butt as I am."

"No, I'm not. I'm just-"

"Lazy." Heat completed the sentence with a chuckle.

Mel kicked him on his shin jokingly.

"Ouch!"

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"Just kidding."

"Ugh!" She grunted and kicked him again.

"When did you become so nice?" Heat asked.

"When did you stop being a dick?"

"Hey, that was not my fault and you know it."

"Calm down, I'm just kidding."

"By the way, did I mention that my instructor back at Ur-tir'ak says my growth rate is stunning?"

"Did you tell him that it was because of a stunning amaroq teacher?"

"Yes, I did, and I think he said something about locating some vampires to search for you." Heat smiled at Mel and waited for her reaction.

She picked a leaf and tried to shove it into his mouth. Heat fought her off and they both burst into laughter.

"Hey, I have a good question for you: why do you have two weird looking knives all the time? You even carry them to school."

"You mean Tui and La?"

"You even gave them names?"

"Not really." She chuckled. "I'm not the one who named them; they got that from someone else. These were not originally mine and the names are Chinese. Show respect for ancient cultures."

"Oh fancy."

"Tui and La, means push and pull. The two opposing forces of nature representing balance; good and evil, light and dark, sun and moon and that kinda stuff. One cannot exist without the other."

"I'm pretty sure the sun doesn't need the moon to exist though. It produces its own energy."

"Heat"

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

Heat chuckled. "The fundamental concept of Yin and Yang? That's cool."

"Finally, something you're not entirely right about. It's similar to Yinyang, but it's not. It's different. Yinyang are not necessarily opposites. This is a much older philosophy."

"Interesting. The person who gave it to you must've been really special."

"Yeah…he was."

"I have another question; when I first fought at Ur-tir'ak, I easily beat the dude who was supposed to train me. Does that have something to do with all of this?"

"You mean all the power and possession curse thing? Well, you're pretty much very powerful already thanks to the snakebite. All training does is awaken the power. That's why I'm training you without your amen abilities. The less you use them, the more you gain control over them and use them as you please. So that's why your instructor believes you're improving and-" Mel suddenly paused her information session.

"What is it?"

"Someone's here. Quickly! Use your ground reception to see if you can find anything." Mel looked worried as she scanned the area.

Heat lowered his head and focused on the floor.

"There are five people slowly approaching," he said.

"I could smell only one. They're masking their scents," Mel said as she got up and pulled Heat to his feet.

"Translation?"

"They're amaroqs…run!"

The two of them began to sprint very fast, with Heat struggling to keep up with Mel, even though she was running slower for his sake. Heat used ground reception as they were running and detected another five amaroqs coming from different directions. He stopped running.

"Do they want you or me?"

"Me."

"But you're one of them."

"Yes, but—I'll explain later, ok?"

"Fine, then I have a plan."

"What plan?"

Heat went closer and whispered in her ear, and then changed his direction while Mel kept running straight.

Two amaroqs ran to where Heat and Mel had paused. They stopped moving for a second, and out of the blue, Heat jumped from a tree and knocked them both out by using his elbows to hit their heads. When the other three from behind reached where he was, they paused.

"Ok Mel, two down, eight to go. Take care of your five."

Heat took a deep breath, took a fighting stance and then attacked all three of the amaroqs in a hand-to-hand combat, at the same time.

Elsewhere, Mel was still running forward, when she suddenly changed her direction and started running at one of the amaroqs who were chasing her.

"Take 'em down before they leak. Don't let them know what hit them."

Mel threw a knife at her hunter, who dodged with ease. Then she flicked her fingers and the thin thread attached to the knife caused it to come back flying at the amaroq's head. He sensed the danger, looked back and ducked. Mel quickly swung her arm and just as the amaroq turned his head back to face her, and the knife slit his throat.

Mel could smell the other three amaroqs come her way. She raced at one of them, but just before she could attack him, another attacked her. Mel had her knife in hand, and stabbed his heart with it. Now it was down to three amaroqs for her and three for Heat. There was just one problem—the sun had set, and tonight was one for a full moon.

Mel was aware of the problem so instead of fighting she spoke, "Why are you still after me? Tell Deucalion that I'm not coming!"

"Why don't you tell him yourself? Just come peacefully. Leave the boy behind and don't drag him into this," one of the amaroqs replied.

"I'm sorry, but that's not happening. You're going to go after him anyway. Look above you, the moon is almost in its place. It's a full moon tonight, if we keep fighting, we'll all lose control when the moon is at its peak."

"Then I guess we'll have to defeat you before then."

The amaroqs charged at Mel together.

Meanwhile, Heat was losing his battle. However, his goal was to prevent them from going after Mel, and it was working. He had summoned snakes from the forest, but they had not yet arrived. As he was defending himself, Heat fell to the ground and expected a finishing blow from the amaroqs. However, they all stopped in their tracks and looked to the moon; they knew what was coming. At that moment, six snakes arrived and sprang themselves at the amaroqs. While defending themselves from the snakes, the amaroqs began to transform.

Over at Mel's end of the battle, the same thing was happening. She fought to control herself, but she knew that it was only a matter of time.

As Heat was witnessing the transformation, he remembered that Mel would be in the same situation. He ignored the amaroqs as they were trying to battle their transformations and ran to her location. He heard growling as he got closer and when he approached, he saw a brawl between the amaroqs and Mel. Somehow, she was still fending off attacking from the massive wolf-like creatures while untransformed herself.

"MEL!"

Mel was distracted at the mention of her name and got knocked over by one of her attackers. Heat was not yet close enough to do something, and if he entered in the brawl without a plan, he would be ripped to shreds. He felt powerless, and was hesitant to use snakes to fight, because of the warning Mel gave him. He fell to his knees with his head bowed and eyes closed.

"Screw this!"

He rose to his feet. Heat lifted his fists, pointing one at Mel and the other at the amaroq closest to her. Snakes shot out of his sleeves likes Jetstream, growing longer and longer until the ones from his right hand coiled into a fist, with which he knocked off the amaroq. The others from his left hand wrapped themselves around Mel and retracted back to Heat. With Mel on his shoulder, Heat made a run for it. As the amaroqs were closing in, Heat summoned snakes from his free hand and wrapped them around a tree branch. By retracting the snakes and was pulled unto the branch. Below him were eight amaroqs surrounding the tree. The branch was not high, but a disadvantage of being an amaroq was the inability to climb trees. The ferocious dogs relentlessly clawed at the tree.

"A tree huh?" a weak Mel asked.

"Have they lost their minds yet?" Heat asked, staring down at the amaroqs.

"Not yet, but when the full moon reaches its peak, they will."

"Would you also lose it?"

"I don't know for sure. I'm trying to fight it, but my transformation has already begun. Leave me here and go on ahead, escape."

"Oi, save the selfless act for some other dude who's willing to climb a tree and hold you in his arms to protect you from amaroqs while you're slowly transforming."

"Sorry, but only one of those kinds of idiots exists."

"Funny."

"What would happen if I transform while you are here with me?"

"I'll throw you down with the other amaroqs….I'm just kidding. I don't care whatever scenario you come up with. I'm staying here with you till dawn."

"To stop my transformation, I need to be in total control of my mind, by focusing on something strong and remaining calm."

"How 'bout you just take your mind off everything? Okay, lemme tell you a story; there was once a boy called Heat, he was bitten by a godforsaken snake and is now cursed and has the battle of the entire supernatural universe on his shoulders. Oh and this kid is also the best at whatever he does."

"Yeah, so good that he always misses the first position and settles for second at anything." Mel snickered.

"Wow! Right there! You just summarized my life's story! Thanks for the spoiler."

"I was just pointing out since you thought you're always the best."

"Best from beneath the first position, yeah I am."

"There's no such thing."

"Yes, there is. I just created it."

"Well there's one thing you're the best at: being selfless."

Heat chuckled. "That's like the first nice thing anyone has ever said to me in forever." He looked up and grinned at the night sky.

The full moon was at its peak, and Heat felt Mel's femur begin to shapeshift. Mel held his hand and clenched it as hard as she could, trying to fight back. Heat wanted to scream out of pain, but for her sake, he controlled himself. He looked into Mel's eyes and their gazes met.

"You can do this! It's working! Just keep focusing on whatever you're focusing on!" Heat lied to persuade Mel to keep fighting.

Mel's neck suddenly snapped backwards, her face directed at the moon and she howled. The amaroqs below them responded with a howl. She slowly felt her consciousness disappearing, and then she gave into the last resort she had to stop her final transformation.