The full moon part 3

The chaos of the rain and wind went on past the middle of the night. Bennett's thoughts had kept him awake all night long. The pleasant sound of raindrops falling on the roof and window panes of the guest room in the attic, caused his eyelids to feel heavier and heavier as time went by. However, he considered himself responsible for the safety of the landlady who had been so kind to him since his arrival. He wanted to make sure that the sealed windows of the diner would efficiently keep the intruders away that night.

It was way past midnight and the warmth of the room had caused Bennett to fall into a deep sleep, when he suddenly awoke and sat up straight in his bed. All of his senses were alerting him, but he could not hear anything out of the ordinary from downstairs.

He swiftly jumped out of his bed and quietly, descended the stairs to the dining salon which was now cold and dark.

" Is something the matter?"

The landlady whispered from the upstairs corridor. Bennet turned around and gestured her to be quiet. Then, he tiptoed to the door, which he had quite masterfully barricaded.

His eyes peeped through the seals, searching the darkness of the alley. His Instincts never lied to him. Somewhere in a dead of night, someone was slowly limping toward the diner's entrance. A foul odour, getting stronger by each passing moment, caught Bennett's attention and he instinctively, took a step back.

The rain was battering the windows continuously and filled the dining salon with its loud commotion. Bennett approached the entrance once again and caught a glimpse of the dark alley from behind the door.

The unbearable order was hindering his breathing and his heart rate was astonishingly fast.

Suddenly, a quick flash of thunder lit up the sky so brightly for a second and Bennett thought what he had just seen, must have crawled out of this worst nightmares. That creature, now banging its fist feebly on the door, was a human, but the kind that had been dead for two weeks at least, and was now taking a break from the afterlife. His muscles were all rotten and in his empty eye sockets, there was nothing but sheer blackness.

From over Bennett's shoulder, the landlady whispered,"Werewolf!"

"No. Far from it. That's... A corpse!"

Bennett took the landlady by the arm, led her to his own room in the attic and the gave her a silver dagger for precaution.

" Don't you worry about a thing. Nothing can break those seals and that creature is too weak to even make it half the way. This is just so you feel safer until the morning comes." He said to her kindly.

"Where will you sleep then?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll find a place. "

He walked to the door and suddenly, as if he had remembered something important, he turned around and said, " Is there any kind of bar or tavern that takes in customers during the night? If you don't serve shapeshifters at times like this, then who does?"

" Oh, that's easy. You can always find most of them near Taberna. It's a pub adjacent to the castle security's headquarters. So it's usually very well preserved and supervised, so the owners are not afraid to keep it open overnight, you see."

"Right..."

He was in deep thought for a few moments and then, with a soothing smile, he replied," Sleep well, my lady. I thank you for your help and hospitality.

He returned to the only window in the dark corridor upstairs that he had not sealed, due to its distance from the ground. He waited for the candle in the landlady's room to go out, then he silently opened the window and crawled out on the ledge. While hanging his legs down the window, he glanced at the beautiful rainy houses and streets of Crescent City.

And then...

He leapt straight to the night sky with a flawless motion.

Everytime he transformed, a severe pain would cause his muscles to spasm intensely, but he was used to it. He had been a shapeshifter for twety-nine years, since the very day he had been born.

During every transformation, he could turn into an enormous black eagle, with his body growing twice the size of a war horse.

His silky, black wings tore through the flood of the rain storm like a battle axe and he soared with amazing speed above the city. Not long after he had flown past the city's main square, he saw the towering walls of the castle of Lunarfield drawing near.

The whole city was shrouded by the dark cloak of the rainy night and the tall towers of the castle had cast their pitch-black shadows on the nearby streets. Bennett knew better to get too close to the watchtowers in the shape he was in. So he soared even higher to look for the lights of the pub around the castle walls.