CHPT 289: Waking Up. In Mind and Body....

Saturday Morning, December 1st, 2240.

When the warm and airy grasp of slumber had released his shaken mind, he was left to lay in unknown lands, listening to the breaths of the creatures that surrounded him.

He didn't want to wake up. For once, there were no nightmares. Only black...comfortable and weightless, slumber. It was like he was at the bottom of an empty ocean, simply drifting while the swaying waters fell on his ears as an ethereal song.

Even now, so far from the hard earned place of peace, he still hummed the song silently. Holding it firmly in his mind to comfort him like a child with a stuffed animal.

As he sang it softly, he could hear the difference as clearly as one felt the air change from night to day. His voice, raw and increasingly more guttural lacked the smoothness and magic of the Banshee's. He sounded how he looked.

Battle-hardened.

His songs would have no magically soothing effect. No matter how hard he tried, and his body wasn't made to relax for more than four hours. It was made to move, and to fight. He'd have to do one or the other any second. So, he chose the latter. He was tired of seeing blood for....well at least a few hours.

"Shit." He growled before painfully rolling over and opening his eyes.

A sky blanketed behind an expanse of foggy storm clouds welcomed him. It's shade an airy whitish-grey due to the suns rays fighting to break through the cold mist. Where he was from, clouds weren't a very common thing. The change was nice.

Other's weren't...

He sat up like a Vampire rising from it's luxurious tomb. Only his metaphorical tomb was less lavish and more....well. Waking up in the sand with a completely cleaned Buck and a dozen other sleeping predators was pretty self explanatory.

In one fluid motion, he pushed the carcass away and stretched with his eyes closed, remembering the comforting darkness of a good sleep.

Recently transformed joints and expanded sore muscles made themselves aware like dozens of small explosions taking place beneath his skin. Each muscle group, each flaming tendon. He could remember them all in perfect detail. Exploding with size, burning with power, hardening like iron made to assist him in doing exactly what he did hours ago.

Flashes of what took place ran across his vision in a grotesque slideshow. Closing his eyes had become borderline traumatizing once again.

With a sigh, he opened them to find the foggy sky looking back at him.

When he lowered his head, Frosty sat in front of him patiently with a hard expression on his snouted face.

A handful of other canids roamed around them while Mountain Lions and other Felines watched, pridefully passive and aware. Within the sands, snakes slept deeply as the cold sapped their energy.

Huff!

Frosty exhaled sharply through his nose, grabbing his attention once again.

When his own eyes locked with the PitWolves icy blue irises, he felt the pull of their mental link. Frosty was worried about him. Obviously he didn't say such words. But they were communicated nonetheless.

He sighed and leaned forward, connecting heads with the massive wolf while he scratched behind his ears and frosted tipped neck.

For a moment, he was back at his fathers cabin. Reading on the porch with a poorly lit lamp while he used Frosty as his pillow and reading partner. He was a great reading partner.

"I'm alright, bonehead. But we're just getting started. I won't break.....we'll keep fighting." He didn't have to say the rest. They both knew why they needed to keep fighting....who they needed to reach....how many they needed to rip through to get there.

He shook off the thought like a wolf removing snow from it's dense fur.

Speaking of...

When Claude disconnected from Frosty, he continued to scratch the wolfs muscly brown furred head, feeling the melted flakes in his fur. Sometimes it felt like only yesterday he was in the Redwoods fighting snakes in the unbearable heat with Ursula and Warren.

And now.

"....Winter is here, brother." He said to Frosty as the light shower of snow fell over them silently.

DING!

[You have survived another Full Moon! As a result, your racial abilities have grown and advanced through a means of Lunar Evolution!]

DING!

[Enhanced Physical Capabilities Increased!]

[Enhanced Recovery Increased!]

[Body Language Understanding Increased!]

[New Racial Abilities Unlocked: (Compass Sense), (Beastial Integration)]

"What the hell is that?" He asked.

"[I guess now it's time we talk...about a lot of things.]" Arne suddenly said.

"Agreed."

"[I suggest we do so while walking. I'm sure Ursula needs to be checked on.]"

Before Arne could even finish, he was on his feet and scenting the air for any indication of how to get back to Rollan's. The protective instinct to get back to the newly changed pulled practically every fiber of his being into moving...but he didn't know where??

"[Sure you do.]" Arne replied to his thoughts.

"Arne, we're in the middle of nowhere, you dingbat." He growled as a small panic began to heat his skin despite the coldness of the air.

"[I know you feel it. Just let yourself move.]"

Claude stiffly did so, struggling to simply let himself walk when the urge to manhandle his own body often overpowered him.

"What is this?" He asked while the legion of predators followed.

"[New Racial Ability number one. Compass Sense! Your mind is instinctually using the memories of your past travels to recreate a lay of the land. Now you are simply following the map you've created. It's not exactly the same, but Wolves have something similar along with good memory. That's where we assumed we got it from. A lone Lupine is never lost, Claude.]"

Claude relaxed at the thought and simply let himself move, feeling the cold rocks stab into his feet with every step.

***

After a few miles of silence passed, going by villages in the distance-- now spitting smoke into the sky from randomly placed campfires, and roaming packs of monsters, a question blinked to life within Claude's mind.

"You assumed?"

"[...Come again?]"

Claude rolled his shoulders painfully before responding, "You don't know where the ability truly originates from? Didn't Romulus know? I thought you all were a pack."

Arne sighed knowingly, "[Hm, good question. I'm aware that I haven't told you much about our creator...or much of our history. And there's a reason for that. You have your own current problems to deal with. You aren't ready to learn everything. Not yet. But I can tell you this. Romulus was a mystery wrapped in a cloak of confusion. Sure he was our leader and almighty creator...and like most gods. We didn't see much of him. He traveled often, only bringing the strongest of our race with him...]"

"The Potentials...."

"[Yes. Many were Potentials. Others were....welll-- that doesn't matter currently. What you must know is that, where Remus was an elitist warmonger and combative powerhouse, Romulus was a scholar first. Always studying, always questioning the way of the world.....some called him radical. In death, i've learned that he was brilliant beyond anything our race truly respected-- save for his closest confidants. And as a byproduct of brilliance, Romulus was misunderstood by the world as a whole. You'll soon find many mysteries tied to becoming a Lupine of Romulus....many mysteries indeed.]"

Claude felt a chill skitter down his spine, not from the steady snowfall.

"[But! I don't want you to think we knew nothing. In fact, we knew much. We learned on our own. We pieced together our hailings as a race through trial and error. Some would say that brought us lower classed Lupines a newly found level of experience. I would agree....but, sometimes I wish I spoke to the man more. The world hasn't seen one like him since.]"

Claude stayed silent, he wanted him to talk more, keep his mind off everything else.

"[....It's funny really...]"

Wish granted.

Arne spoke as they walked beside a river that splashed it's coldness onto his feet. "[...Two twin brothers. Born in chaos and strife, awakening the same Class power....and still, they became so different.]"

Claude never even considered the source or title of their power. The question burst from his lips before he could even finish the thought, "What was their Class? Was it some sort of Specialized Class?" Frosty trotted next to him as if he too wanted to know the answer while the Phantom Wolves followed behind.

"[We never knew the specifics. Romulus was like the mythical hero of the Lupines. He left us with a lot of speculation in his search for knowledge and power. But, he did leave us with one piece of solid evidence. In doing so, he even shed light on his early years with his brother, Remus. Personally, I think it's a Rare Class-- only it's one thats never been replicated. Fun fact, their Classes normal counterpart is most likely, a Beast Tamer.]"

Claude's eyebrows climbed the length of his forehead, "How could you know that?"

Arne chuckled, a refined and almost charming sound, "[Well the name of course. Where you were made as a Beast Tamer. Romulus and Remus were Reborn as the....two of a kind, Beast Mages.]"

A lightbulb exploded within his mind, "...And that's how they were able to make a race of Monsters through magic....."

"[Indeed. Speaking of Monsters.....you've changed your tune on the word, have you not?]" Arne inquired.

Claude's signature scowl hardened, "I've changed my tune on a couple words...."

He could practically feel Arne nodding along in understanding, not an inch of him seemed to look at Claude differently despite the change of events over the last night.

"[Alright. I think that's quite good. You should have your own opinions on this world based off your own experiences. I think it's time you looked up from your books. Tell me what's changed about you Claude. Not physically, but mentally. Tell me how the world shows itself through your eyes now....]"