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The Offering of the Fangs 2 - The Secret of Howling Grove

Chapter 1

The forest of Lanea.

A living, breathing behemoth of a beast that never slept. Vast and indomitable, with a thick coat of lush grass and trees that seemed as though they wanted to scratch the sky, it was the utmost expression of the triumph of nature.

Many had tried to tame it; to claim it in the name of one king or another. No one could. That forest -- or, indeed, that ancient beast -- had its ways to keep man from sullying it with the corrupting touch of their greedy, unworthy hands.

Some say every forest guards a secret. Stories are told about red gems of remembrance hidden in the deepest recesses of a few of them, or the occasional ruins of a temple from an age long gone. Some forests are said to be labyrinthine mazes full of illusions, while some others are blind. Truly, every tree could tell a tale, if only we knew how to listen to them.

For centuries, the secrets of the forest of Lanea remained hidden from those not chosen by the moon. Secrets of deadly fangs, claws and glowing eyes that lurked in the shadows of the night. Certainly, the forest belonged to them, just as they belonged to the forest. There, in that place where man couldn't reach, they were the lords of all. Who were 'they'? Well...

~*~

Galia - year 1152.

The golden disc of the sun slowly made its descent toward the scraggly line of the horizon, casting long shadows across the seemingly endless forest of the south-eastern province of Lanea. A squirrel scampered among the trees in search of one more acorn for its hoard. Suddenly, it raised its head, ears perked. A nervous twitch of the nose, and then it was a mad dash up the closest tree, to get as far away from the ground as it could.

A subtle rustle of leaves...

Three shadowy figures emerged from behind some tree trunks in the distance. Walking on four lupine legs, they quietly made their way across the forest, moving at a slow, deliberate pace, like the stalking predators they were. The one at the front, with a coat of fur as dark as the shadow of night, had its nose close to the ground, carefully sniffing through the grass, while the other two studied their surroundings with alert eyes and ears.

"Catch her scent yet?" asked the more robust one, with a coat of gray fur.

"Yes, she passed through here... no more than ten minutes ago," affirmed the one at the front.

"Ah, so she's slowing down. Well, it won't be much longer then."

"Right. She's probably catching her breath somewhere past those trees over there," conjectured the one who appeared to be the leader of that three-wolf pack. "I think it's time to cast our net. Marjorie, you'll close in on her from the left while Anabelle does the same from the right. I'll take the front. That way, we'll be able to cut off all her escape routes."

"Oh, the 'Triangle Trap,' right? Heh, I'd like to see her try to escape that!" said the robust she-wolf whom the pack leader had called 'Marjorie.'

"Alright, let's do this."

Thus, the three she-wolves split according to their plan. The bigger one, Marjorie of the gray coat, went to the left, while the silent one, Anabelle of the white coat, went to the right. Their leader, Rose of the black coat, proceeded onwards at a slower pace, to give her companions time to get to their positions. And thus, the 'net' was cast...

Slowly, with their bodies close to the ground, the three lupine prowlers made their way past the line of trees Rose had pointed out as the most likely place for their objective to be hiding behind. From the safety of a high branch, the diminutive squirrel from before watched with rapt attention as the she-wolves silently set their predatory sights on a particularly large bush.

A slight twitch at the base of said bush did not go unnoticed. The black-coated huntress smirked, briefly revealing a chilling set of deadly canine teeth. The 'game' was nearing its inevitable end, and she was already anticipating what was sure to follow...

"Alright, 'princess.' Looks like we've got you surrounded," she spoke aloud, breaking the tense silence. "Now, how about we finish this silly game? Just be a good girl and step out of that bush already, will you?"

A few seconds passed by, and then... Rose's blood-curdling lupine grin grew wider as her dark purple eyes beheld the figure of a grayish brown she-wolf emerging from the bush.

"There you are!" said the grinning black-coated huntress, making no attempt to hide the sight of her teeth. "Well, then. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which one will it be?"

No response.

"Heheheh... You're not giving up, are you? That's fine by me. It will all end the same way for you anyway: with my teeth on your throat."

Cursing inwardly, the grayish brown she-wolf carefully assessed her own situation. She was surrounded. No matter which way she turned, one of her three pursuers was there, facing her. She hated it, but she had to admit to herself that escaping was not an option anymore. One way or another, she would have to fight her way out...

Rose watched as the cornered she-wolf flattened her ears and bared her teeth, letting out a quiet, rumbling growl. The grin of the black-coated huntress only grew wider.

"The hard way it is, then!" she exclaimed, already anticipating the thrill of the kill.

At once, the three canine beasts began to circle around the trapped she-wolf, closing in on her ever-so-slowly, never taking their predatory gazes off her growling form.

"Heh, your shaky growling doesn't fool me, Elise. I can smell your fear from here," stated Rose, never withdrawing her bone-chilling stare from the wolf with the grayish brown coat. "Oh, but don't you worry. I promise it will all be over very soon now..."

The circle grew smaller and smaller. The grayish brown she-wolf, Elise, found that she couldn't keep track of all three of her pursuers at once. No matter which one or two she turned to, there was always a third one in her blind spot behind her. She knew she couldn't just wait until one of them inevitably lunged toward her. If she wanted to stand a chance at surviving Rose's 'Triangle Trap' strategy unscathed, then she needed to make the first move.

But, which one to target? The bulky gray wolf, Marjorie, was bigger and sturdier than her. The difference in size and build was an important factor in one-to-one combat, and Elise clearly didn't have an advantage over her in that regard. Then there was the silent white wolf, Anabelle. She was much closer to Elise in terms of size and build, but something in her quiet emerald stare kept the cornered she-wolf from making a move against her. 'Attack me, and you won't live to see another day.' Such was the wordless message Anabelle's unsettling ice-cold stare seemed to convey in its arcane ways. It might as well have been a plain statement of fact.

And finally, there was Rose, the she-wolf with the unruly black coat of fur. She was the de facto leader of the trio for a reason, and Elise knew it. Rose was a huntress through and through, with ample experience in tracking, subduing and ultimately killing her prey quickly and efficiently. For her, failure was never an option. Indeed, once she had set her sights on a target, she would stop at nothing until her deadly fangs had sunk fully into their throat, feeling them squirm helplessly as the warm taste of their blood slowly filled her conquering canine mouth.

"Come on, flower girl! Do it! Show me what you're made of!" prodded Rose, noticing the glint of Elise's fight-or-flight response gleaming in her eyes as they settled on her.

For a moment suspended in time, all four wolves remained perfectly still, seemingly not even breathing. Every muscle was tensed up, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. Every tooth and fang was bare, radiating aggression and a promise of pain. Every sense was keenly alert, fueled by a maelstrom of survival hormones, waiting for the final spark that would ignite the inevitable explosion within their veins.

And then, the final spark came.

It took the form of an acorn; one that had quietly rolled off the branch the squirrel was standing on. It fell to the ground with a barely audible 'pok'. That was enough to break through the deathly silence and cause time to flow again. Violently so.

A grayish brown blur shot forward with a loud snarl. Rose answered it with a lunge of her own, jaws open in full. However, just before the two wolves collided, Elise slammed her forepaws into the ground and swerved sideways, narrowly missing the lunging bite of the black-coated she-wolf. Anabelle and Marjorie made their move too, although they weren't close enough to assist their apparent leader.

But Rose was prepared. She knew Elise was going to choose flight over fight again. The brownish she-wolf was still too green to engage in a duel of fangs with the black huntress. And thus, as Elise's tail rapidly passed by in a blur, Rose caught it between her jaws and forcefully yanked its fleeing owner backwards and onto the ground.

Not wasting a moment, the black she-wolf leapt on top of Elise and went straight for her throat with a vicious snarl. And that was it. That was the unavoidable end of their tense confrontation. It truly couldn't have ended any other way.

Elise thrashed about wildly for a few moments, but soon gave up, letting her limbs fall limply by her side. The other two wolves calmly walked up to them, watching Rose holding her target's throat securely between her merciless jaws. The hunt was over.

"Well, I guess that was that," said Marjorie while sitting down and scratching behind her ear with her hind leg as canines do. "So, how about we go back to Howling Grove now? It's getting late, plus all this chasing and stalking made me so hungry I could eat a horse!"

Slowly, Rose released her grip on Elise's throat and stepped off her.

"Alright, that wasn't too bad. You still need to work on your technique, though," she said. "And next time use your damn fangs. They're our greatest asset for a reason."

Coughing a bit, the defeated she-wolf picked herself up one leg at a time and shook her whole body. Then, still catching her breath, she turned an exhausted eye toward her victor.

"I know, I know, I just... couldn't find any opening, Rose."

"And you never will, which is why you have to create one. It's basic stuff," said the black-coated huntress with a sigh. "All I'm saying is, you've got to trust your wolf instincts more, Elise. You have all the tools you need to defeat me, I promise; you just have to use them."

"That's easy for you to say. You weren't surrounded by three ferocious wolves there, you know..."

"Ah, don't be too hard on her, Rose," kindly said Marjorie. "The girl is trying her best. It's just that she's only been a wolf for a few days, while we've been so for years."

"I'm being too hard? How? If anything, I'm being too soft!" scoffed Rose, raising her nose. "She's lucky I'm holding back, but maybe I shouldn't. After all, pain can be an excellent instructor. A good wound might point out her mistakes to herself much better than any words could."

Elise began to take a few steps forward, but her shaky legs seemed intent on making her fall. Still saying nothing, Anabelle stood next to her to prevent her from stumbling.

"Thanks," said the spent she-wolf with the brownish coat of fur. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I can't stop shaking yet."

"It's all the adrenaline, girl!" said Marjorie with her booming voice. "Don't worry, it will pass!"

The white one, Anabelle, simply nodded while giving Elise a warm reassuring smile. The latter couldn't help but wonder about how different the silent she-wolf was when she wasn't in 'hunting mode,' so to say. The bone-chilling murderous gaze from before simply was... completely gone. It was almost as if she was two wolves in one!

"Well, that was fun and all, but Marjorie was right before. It's time to go back to Howling Grove," proclaimed Rose, taking the lead as she usually did. "Come on, let's get moving."

And so, the four canines began on their journey back to where the rest of the pack lived, walking on their wolfish paws across the grass, slowly making their way between the many untamed trees and bushes. They took their time, for there was no rush. After all, they were one with the forest. It belonged to them, just as they belonged to it.

~*~

The twin willow trees.

The arc formed by their intertwining branches marked the place where the secret gate stood. It was an invisible magical gate, covered in vines and drooping leaves from the twin trees that stood at either side of it. What lay behind depended entirely on who was crossing it. If it was a lycca or a human bonded to a lycca, the fabled Howling Grove received them with open arms. Anything else would end up lost somewhere in the deepest recesses of the forest, where nature would eventually swallow them. Such were the ancient rules set by Mother Moon in the Age of Myth.

"Ah, home sweet home," said the big gray she-wolf as she prepared to cross through the gate. "I wonder what the guys caught for dinner today? I hope it's a deer. They taste great in a stew!"

"I thought you said you'd eat a horse," Rose pointed out with an amused smirk while she crossed the gate.

"And I would! But deer meat is better, and you know it!"

One by one, the four she-wolves passed through the gate between the twin willow trees, entering a narrow passageway formed by nothing but thick vegetation. As they did, they changed and shifted, going from a quadrupedal stance to standing on their hind legs while their arms and torsos took on a more anthropomorphic shape. The process was so natural to them that they even continued walking and chatting through it all as if nothing unusual was happening.

As Elise made her way through the leafy passageway that led to Howling Grove, she couldn't help but reminisce about the first time she had walked down that path. That had occurred about five days prior, on the same day she was awakened to the truths of the forest by her wonderful lycca mate, Fang. The two of them had crossed the gate side by side, in their feral wolf forms.

"Are you nervous, Elise-vanni?" he had asked her on that occasion.

"A little bit, yes..."

"Relax. You will be fine, I promise."

The two wolves then reached the end of the narrow passageway of leaves, where another archway of intertwined branches waited for them, similar to the one at the entrance. Once they had crossed it, Elise found herself standing before a large clearing in the woods. The centennial trees marking its perimeter reached astonishing heights, and their tops appeared to fuse tightly together over the clearing, filtering the incoming radiance of the sun into an almost ethereal cascade of hazy amber light.

The awe-stricken she-wolf saw a few lycca milling about, seemingly preoccupied with their own daily routines. Some of them were in their bipedal werewolf form, while some others ambled around on their four legs. Somewhere near the edge of the clearing, two bipedal lycca -- one of them male and the other female -- were locked in a passionate embrace; their mouths firmly pressed together, clearly indulging themselves in an unabashedly lewd round of deep tongue-bonding.

Somewhat flustered, Elise turned her gaze away... only for it to land directly on the sight of a feral couple mating very vigorously behind a tree right next to her!

"Oh, my god!" she exclaimed, immediately lowering her head and covering her eyes with her front paws as her furry cheeks burned red with embarrassment.

"Ah, yes. You are going to be seeing this every day," calmly explained Fang, chuckling quietly to himself.

The mating couple took notice of Elise's reaction, and the large male ceased his thrusting at once. After exchanging silent words with his smaller mate through their lupine gazes, he dismounted her and stood aside as the white-coated female proceeded to make her way toward the mortified she-wolf standing next to the archway.

"It seems like you caught Anabelle-vanni's attention, Elise-vanni," said Fang, smiling.

The girl-turned-wolf raised her brownish head slightly, encountering a pair of emerald eyes right in front of her face. Big and pure, the two pools of sparkling green seemed to study her intently with the innocent curiosity of a child. 'What do I do?' Elise thought to herself, frozen with panic. 'S-should I play dumb and tell her I didn't see anything? Will she even believe me? I--I'm sorry! I didn't intend to look! It was an accident! P-please don't bite my face off!'

But Anabelle didn't bite her face off. Instead, she took a couple steps forward and proceeded to sniff at the thick fur around Elise's neck very thoroughly. The latter couldn't have been any more paralyzed if she tried. She simply stood there, frozen rigid, as the white female preoccupied herself with taking in her scent.

Finally, Anabelle pulled back, seemingly satisfied. Then, with a smile, she gave Elise a little lick on her cheek.

"Ah, it looks like Anabelle has just given you her seal of approval, girl!" spoke a booming voice. Elise looked up to see a robust she-werewolf with a gray coat of fur walking up to them on two sturdy legs. A prominently bushy tail swayed from side to side behind her frame, but most prominent of all were the... rather ample assets on her front.

"You're new here, aren't you?" the she-werewolf with the prominent features continued. "What's your name?"

"E...Elise."

"Elise, huh? I'm Marjorie, but you can call me Margie. And this here is Anabelle. She, uh... She's a girl of few words. That lick she just gave you; that was her way of saying 'hi' to you."

"Oh! Uh... H-hi there!" awkwardly said Elise to the white she-wolf. The latter simply smiled.

"Wait..." interjected Marjorie as she noticed Fang. "You soma-bonded with the handkerchief boy? Oh! Then you must be the one who rescued him from that bear trap when he was but a clumsy little cub! Girl, you left such an impression on him, he waited for you all this time like a faithful dog! ...no offense, of course."

"None taken, Marjorie-vanni," politely nodded Fang. "Although I must say I am nameless no more. Elise-vanni honored me with a name to call my own. Thus, I am happy to say that from now on, I shall proudly respond to the name of Fang."

"Fang, eh? Well, it sure beats 'handkerchief boy'!" laughed the big she-werewolf in her booming voice. "Alright, Elise! I bet Romeo here can't wait to show you around, and I think our good Anabelle wants to go back to what she was doing, so let's talk some more later, okay?"

"Uh, y-yes, I'd like that," smiled Elise, still somewhat awkwardly. The poor girl had had so many life-changing experiences in one day, it only made sense that she was still adjusting to it all. And that was just the beginning of her new life as a werewolf...

~*~

"Um, hello? Girl, you there?" said Marjorie as she waved a large furry hand in front of Elise, jostling her back to reality.

"Oh! Y-yes, sorry!" hurriedly responded the latter. "I was just... thinking about the first time I crossed this passageway."

"Ah, yes. The first time is always the most memorable, isn't it?"

Elise didn't know how to answer that.

"Anyway, I was just telling you that you did great today! You've made a lot of progress since we started this whole training thing, girl! Keep it up, and I'm sure it won't be long before you find yourself pinning Rose down with your teeth on her throat!"

"That is never happening," quickly stated Rose, flicking her black tail. "Hell will freeze over twice before her teeth can get anywhere near my throat."

"Oh, come on! I'm trying to give her some encouraging words here!"

"And I'm being realistic. Elise has made progress, yes, but she still has a long way to go. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go spend the rest of the night with my lycca."

And with that, the black-coated huntress walked away from the group, disappearing behind some trees at the edge of the main clearing of Howling Grove.

"Oh, boy," said Marjorie, staring at the point where Rose had disappeared. "Did you see that evil gleam in her eyes? Poor Daggerclaw... I think he will soon find himself all tied up and at the mercy of his merciless mistress. Again."

"...'Poor' Daggerclaw? I thought he liked that," commented Elise.

"Oh, he loves it. I was just being facetious!" said the gray she-werewolf with the ample frontal assets, before letting out a hearty laugh.

To be continued...