Unexpected Guests

"I don't like the way you and that vamp hussy be looking at and talking to each other!" Nyx exclaimed as soon as they got upstairs. She had kicked everybody out of the room and had started in on Growl as soon as she locked the door, hands on hips at the window, looking down at him as he sat with his chin in his hand, pondering profound thoughts.

"What is really the problem, Nyx?" Growl replied, thick lips thinning in ire.

"You and that hussy!" She turned towards the window and exhaled deeply. Growl calmed down a bit.

"You and I are packmates. Chosen. So we shall be, til death do us part. Nothing will separate us eternally. So if anything you're thinking lies along that road, put yourself at ease." He stood and went to hold her by the shoulders. "We've got so much more bigger problems." She leaned into him, but before they could have a few more minutes of privacy, an insistent knocking came at thf door. They both sighed. He went to unlock and open the door. One of his lieutenants, Maul, a heavyweight White ex-boxer that stood only a couple of inches shorter than Growl, was at the door.

"We got some... visitors, boss." He followed Maul downstairs and was himself trailed by Nyx. The bottom floor was quite large and held a library that took up half of its space. There were rooms of curios and administrative offices that had been in great states of disrespair but which had been rearranged and fixed up. In one of these offices was a group of about twenty children. When Growl came in the room, all of them bowed. When they stood and looked at Growl, he knew instantly that they were not children. Their eyes were windows into old souls, glittering with strange bejeweled orbs that could not be properly called eyes, but were crystal-like in appearance.

"My Lord Growl the Alpha," one of the diminutive beings began. "It is with pleasure and honor that Queen Vashti sends her regards and salutations."

Nyx rolled her eyes. "Another 'queen'?" Growl glanced at her wryly.

"Please continue, uh..." Growl said to the gnome-like being, getting stuck when he did not know what or how to call it.

"Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Vervain."

"Good..." Growl looked outside to gauge what time of day it was. It was a recurring habit and a futile gesture as the day was simply overcast. "Anyhow, good day. You're all welcome to my place, and as long as you come and stay in peace, you will always be welcome." All of the small beings again bowed to Growl. "Another thing, please, no more bowing. Please."

"Yeah," Nyx added. "We don't do that around here."

"You do it when I say you do it, and when it's called for," Growl corrected. Nyx rolled her eyes. Growl's eyebrows drew down. "You gonna disrespect me in public?" Nyx's eyebrows shot up in indignation. She opened her mouth."I don't wanna hear anything!" Nyx was astounded! How had things gobe downhill so quickly? "As a matter of fact," Growl continued, turning to Maul, "escort her out of the room and stand guard at the door." Growl's lips had thinned again and his brow was still furrowed.

"Yes, sir, Lord Alpha," Maul replied. He turned to Nyx who, stunned and hurt, simply walked out of the room. The small guests nodded to and murmured amongst themselves.

"Now," Growl said to Vervain in a no-nonsense tone, "who is Queen Vashti and how do you need me to be of assistance?"

"Lord Growl, Queen Vashti was a dormant woodland sprite who lived in the area known as the Bronx Zoo. The War of Awakening caused her to come out of her slumber a decade ago." Vervain looked down. "Since then, she has been turning the Bronx into a jungle, street by street, toppling buildings and rearranging the land so you would never recognize it." The "War of Awakening" - it was not the first time he had heard that term about World War 3; mainly faerie folk called it the former, because it had certainly awakened some strange and supernatural life forms out of human "myth" and "legend."

"All right. So what is the purpose of your visit exactly?"

Vervain and the others shuffled their feet. "Well, my Lord Growl the Alpha... Queen Vashti wants you to kill her."

*

The said Queen Vashti sat on a throne of verdure, pound for pound stronger than steel and yet supple enough to shift and modify its structure at the occupant's mental direction. She was on a grassy knoll somewhere on Valentine, surrounded by expanding greenery. The knoll would melt into the ground when she would move up after this block had been completely subsumed by the rampant vinery taking over everything, slowly pulling down all man made structures or simply invading and overgrowing all things in its path. The Bronx was definitely become greener, but at what cost? Queen Vashti was personally guarded by an irradiated serpent the length of a city block and almost as thick around as a small car. "Guarded" was a misnomer - if Vashti attempted to flee, the serpent somehow knew and would turn and hiss at her. The power of the expanding greenery and attendant fauna, some irradiated, issued from Vashti, but she had no doubt that the serpent would devour her if she tried to forcibly leave. Back when she was asleep, before the War of Awakening, the Bronx Zoo had been one of the greatest tourist destinations in New York. Now the Bronx Zoo was an agglomeration of rusty cages, rusty water fountains, and the long ago corroded skeletons of the animals who had died in the initial bomb blast. Some hardier species, a couple of lions and apes and serpents had been irradiated and were still out there, living and dying, settling and multiplying in what were now the charred but still serviceable environs of Central Park.

Queen Vashti could feel all life forms in her territory and she felt the living organism that her greenery was becoming now stretching out towards Central Park. If it ever reached there, the rate at which her flora would multiply was a scary thought. She did not want this kind of virile and uncontrolled growth. Having awakened and taken the form of a lush human female in her twenties, Queen Vashti had simply wanted the Bronx Zoo area. Her subconscious, however, had other ideas. Tendrils of flora and vines had tentatively reached out into and down the streets and, finding no resistance, had merely continued. The plant life wanted to expand, to live, grow and stretch itself as far as it could go.

But the queen had seen this from a distance and had ordered her servants to find for her a champion, a warrior. There was a name that the very wind brought to her: Growl Alpha. Visions of this Alpha showed her that he would lead them (everyone that wanted to go) to greener fields where not just vines and thorny flora flourished (those that did not need the sunlight anyway), but where there was sunlight in these her visions. The future for Growl was fraught with peril, but if he could overcome the many enemies he had to fight and conquer, these same powerful enemies would come in handy in the new place this Alpha was to lead them. There were a few enemies, however, who had to be vanquished. Queen Vashti had been cut off from Vervain and the others after they left. Only intermittent telepathic flashes told her they were nearing their destination, very close to this savior werewolf. Imagine, a werewolf, of all beings! Well, it was a perfect choice for the enemies he would have to overcome, some of them shuddersome.

And one of the most powerful enemies Growl would have to defeat and likely kill... was her.