To Court the Fèidh - Chapter Twelve -
Story by Cederwyn Whitefurr on SoFurry
Alexander breaks free of the cruelty and depravity of the Elder Council's tortures, but it comes with a terrible cost - only one person is left who knows something...and Alexander is determined to show him the errors of his cruel and callous ways...
To Court the Fèidh
Chapter Twelve
© Cederwyn Whitefurr
8th October, 2021
All Rights Reserved.
One pulled the silver dagger free of Alexander's paw, making him scream as it scraped shattered bone as it was withdrawn.
“Such strength and resilience...” Muttered the man, a he looked at the stag, who turned his head away and gritted his teeth.
Weak, tortured and bleeding, Alexander knew his options were limited. His strength wasn't inexhaustible, he knew that – so when the moment came, he'd have but one chance to act upon it.
“What do you think about - “ One asked.
“Arch-Magi Blackmane was quite specific, we're to try the new serum on this beast. I'm sure when its dead, we'll be left to find out just...”
Summoning what little energy he had left, the Stag quivered and took an incredible gamble that could very well cost his life...
He shifted....
“What the...” One of the guards yelped.
In two heartbeats, Alexander went from an anthropomorphic Red Deer to human. Slipping the bonds that were meant to trap and hold a creature that was nigh on nine feet, from hooves to antlers, Alexander rolled off the examination table and fell to his knees.
Get up, you've got to fight with everything you got left to you...
A guard charged, unsheathing his sword as he come. Alexander let his training take him, and he dropped under the guards arm before he seized it and brought it down over his knee with a bone shattering snap. Screaming, the guard's fingers released the sword and Alexander snatched it up, feeling the silver hilt instantly burn his human-like skin.
“Stop him!” Someone shouted.
Alexander reversed the blade and drove it up through the chest of the human who had dropped it, piercing his heart and killing him instantly. Shoving the body away, he rose, naked as the day he was born and rolled his shoulders.
“Fools, you think you can control one of the Fèidh?”
One of the Elder Council raised his hands and Alexander swirled like a whirlwind and lopped the hand off at the elbow. Shrieking, the man dropped to his knees, clutching at the severed stump from which blood spurted.
Caught off guard, Alexander suddenly screamed as black magicks were flung at him, causing him to drop the sword and collapse to his knees.
“I know not what a Fèidh is...” A voice behind him snarled. “I know a beast when I see one and...”
Screaming in agony, Alexander writhed and clenched his fingers together as he sought to gain enough mental control to summon his own magicks. Pain built on pain, as the Elder Councilman poured the vile magicks into the screaming human who slumped to the floor and convulsed.
“Beast, you know not of the power the Elder Council can bring to bear... I will make you suffer, I will make you scream and beg for mercy...”
“I will...” Alexander shrieked, then he slammed his hands on the ground and bright, blinding explosion of light flashed out like a heatwave from within him, destroying the room and carbonising the living and the dead before they crumbled into powder on the floor.
So violent was the explosion, it shook the very keep – the vibrations slowly fading as once more, the Stag rose up on one knee, his antlered head bowed and sweat soaking his furred body.
Panting, he rose to his full height, then looked down at the gaping hole in his paw. Trying to draw on the Fèidh magicks, Alexander felt only the tiniest of trickles.
“No...not when I need you...” He gurgled, sinking to his knees.
Again, he tried, again, the magicks fizzled and failed to manifest.
*
Intently, the Arch-Magi studied ancient books and scrolls, before discarding it and selecting another seemingly at random as he sought to understand just what it was the Order was dealing with.
“No...no...no!” He clenched his fists in rage, as he threw the books aside carelessly. “This is no good, its useless to me! This is no Therian! How can it move with such speed – its resistance to silver! No Therian can suffer so, silver poisons them and...”
A frantic banging on the door made him snarl with resentment and hatred.
“NOT NOW!”
“Milord – the beast...” Come the frightened voice from the other side of the door.
“Kill it – its still mortal and therefore can die! Bring me its antlered head, or surrender your own!”
“Milord, it...its.... It's killing them, I can hear the screams and...what do we do? How do we stop it...”
Frustrated, the Arch-Magi blocked out the shrieks and screams of his men as they fought and died in the hallways leading to his private sanctum.
“I need more time! Do what you can, do not let it near me! Get the silver nitrate...use it!”
“Yes, milord, at once...”
Footsteps were heard running away and the Arch-Magi resumed tearing books off the shelves in his frantic haste.
“Not a Therian, some... offshoot? A sub-genus? An unknown offshoot of the Therian's? A...wait...”
Frantically, he stumbled over the discarded books and then dropped to his knees and dug up a tome whose cover was cracked leather and dust shrouded it. Tearing it open, he flipped through pages of vellum that crackled and some turned to dust before his eyes found that which he'd sought.
It was a snippet – a fragment, of exactly what this hell-beast was.
In the year 548, dud a beast be found. Resembling a European Red Deer, Cervus Elaphus, It was injured, near death and the Brother's who found it thought it was a simple deer. It was weak, bleeding out and when it spoke, did they realise that it was one of the beast-kin...yet unlike any beast they had ever seen. It died shortly afterwards, and Magi from our Holy Order did examine the beast, but found no matching connection to Were or Therian.
Our Arch-Magi himself, examined the corpse of the beast, and made a pronouncement that he himself, knew of them. They were a proud race, neither Therian nor Were. Extremely xenophobic and possessed of terrifying strength and speed. Worst of all, was their magicks they could employ – to deceive, hide themselves or even their villages and, it was rumoured, even to...
“NO!” He screamed, turning the page, to find the remainder had long ago crumbled to powder. “I need to know how to fight this creature, how to kill it and...”
A blood curdling scream come from outside the room, then the door itself buckled inwards, half coming unhinged as something was slammed against it...bright red blood pooling under the door and seeping its way into the room.
“One...two...” Come a bestial growl that send chills up the Arch-Magi's spine. “I'm coming for you...”
TO BE CONTINUED