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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 6, Written December 2011

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Chapter 6 - Unlocking the past

Dark Wind was twelve years old, but she was aging and maturing at the rate of a Human, or perhaps aging even more slowly. She was just becoming sexually capable, and in her wolf form she still appeared to be a wolf that was no more than two years old, while the wolves in her pack were considered full adults and were mating and breeding when they were two, and considered ancient by twelve or thirteen years. Social contact and interbreeding with her father had caused some distinct differences in this wolf pack. They were smarter, and worked more cooperatively, and allowed the second and even third ranked mated pairs to breed and raise pups. In most wolf packs, only the alpha pair, and perhaps one or two other high-ranking pairs, would ever raise their pups to maturity. This difference made the pack both larger and stronger, but also led to more tensions in terms of rank contention.

She paced back and forth in her cave. The sensations of being in heat for the first time were new to her, and somehow quite disturbing. Her body longed for things she didn't understand yet - things her parents had never had time to explain to her. She knew how puppies were made, of course. It was a fact of life that was impossible to miss, when your family bred and raised dogs for a living. She had often watched her father putting pairs of dogs together to breed, and he had explained to her as they mated that this was how a litter of puppies was created. But perhaps the very fact that her father raised dogs to train and sell had taken away the taboo or mystique of the act of procreation. It was no different to Dark Wind than sowing a field of grain and harvesting it for sale. Breeding was something you did when you wanted to make a new litter of puppies. It had no other meaning for her.

It did not bother her that the wolves in the pack wanted to mate with her, even though she was a Feral Folk in wolf form, and not a true wolf. Her parents had never made it a taboo thing for different species to interbreed. How could they, when her father was a Feral Folk, and mother a Kitsune? She knew her father had assumed animal form on many occasions, and had sired quite a few litters of puppies and wolf pups, and even a few horse foals. She had even watched him breed with a female dog once. It was not an unusual thing to her mind. Her half-brothers and half-sisters among the wolves, like Bent Ear, were accepted and honored in the wolf pack. When she was ready to breed, she knew her pups would be well regarded by the wolves as well, and that she herself would be respected by them for adding to the strength of the pack. She admired the strength and beauty of the wolves, and found them attractive, in some ways. But she didn't desire any of them strongly enough to mate with them. In truth, feelings of physical desire for another was something that had not yet been hers to experience, though it soon would, if nature took its course.

Dark Wind didn't want puppies of her own. Not at this time, anyway. If she wanted to play with wolf pups, there were plenty of them being born in the pack each year. She had more important things to do with her time, than dealing with her own litter of puppies. She had to figure out more about magic, so she could get her revenge for the death of her family, and against the farmers and mercenaries who still laid traps for her and tried to seek her out and kill her. She slept among the wolves, and hunted and fed with them, or hunted alone. But most of her free time she spent in her cave, studying magic.

Still in wolf form, she curled tightly and licked herself, trying to make the strange feeling between her hind legs lessen. But unlike licking a scrape or cut, licking herself between her hind legs didn't soothe the strange feelings she was experiencing there. It just made her feel even stranger. Panting heavily, she gave up on that effort, unwittingly stopping just short of giving herself her first orgasm.

Dark Wind shifted back to Human form, to resume her studies. She found with some relief that in Human form the sensations of being in heat lessened considerably. It was still there, but nowhere near as distracting. She lit her lamp and opened a chest to study more scrolls and books. She felt a small amount of pride when she used that lamp. Her lamp was fueled now by animal fat that she had cooked down from pigs or cattle that she had hunted and killed herself. The suet that she needed for this was considered quite tasty by the wolves, and they would rarely share it from their own kills. She collected it and cooked it down in a kettle to make the greasy white lamp fuel.

Killing cattle to get the suet was no trouble for Dark Wind, even though she was still a little small for a wolf. She had a very unfair advantage now when she hunted. She would go beyond the bounds of the forest and seek the farms on the edges of the man-settled areas. In wolf form she would stalk her prey, carrying a sharp knife in her mouth. Then she would use her oneromancy to make the animal fall into a deep sleep. Then she would assume a wolf-like, semi-Human form, slit its throat and belly, and take the best parts of the animal for herself. The mutilated remains of the farm animals that she left behind, and the occasional nights where her jet black, semi-Human form with unnatural glowing green eyes was spotted by a farmer, caused the villagers to believe that a werewolf or demon lurked in the woods. Some villagers still believed that this demon was the girl that had escaped when they killed the other two inhuman creatures at that farm. Others believed the girl from the farm had been devoured by the demon, and warned their own children to stay out of the forest, lest they to be eaten. Few now dared to venture into the woods, unless they were hunting the green-eyed 'demon of the forest'.

It amused her that some farmers had even begun leaving 'gifts' at the edges of the forest, to appease the 'demon' and get it to leave their livestock and families alone. Dark Wind encouraged this, occasionally influencing the dreams of those farmers to indicate what sort of 'tribute' might please the demon. This gained her some new metal tools, cooking pots, and some fresh clothing for her Human form. These tribute items she could use her teleport spell to snatch away, without risking being spotted. Occasionally they would stake out one young pig at the edge of the fields, offering it rather than their more prized sow as her victim. But she rarely took the staked out animals. It was too likely that they were bait for a trap, and the animals would make too much noise at her hidden location, if she teleported them to her.

As she read the scrolls, Dark Wind paused and stared once more at the two chests that remained locked. The wards on the locks of those two chests were crafted to only allow her father or her mother to open them. Now that they were both dead, Dark Wind could feel those wards weakening slightly. But they still prevented her from unlocking the chests.

She put away the scrolls and tried to remember one of the more advanced spells that her father had performed, using the books and scrolls of the third chest. The spell for summoning a fire elemental was one that seemed clear in her mind. She could still recall the precise details of the diagram that her father had laid out on the floor of his workshop, to bind the summoned creature in place, compel it to serve him honestly, and protect everyone and everything outside the circle from being harmed by whatever was summoned. She was pretty sure she could recall the words of the incantation to perform the summons, and which combinations of minerals and dried herbs her father had cast into the brazier in the center of the circle, to make a small fire elemental appear, to do his bidding.

"I'll try it!" she said to herself, as she rummaged through the bottles and boxes of dried herbs to find the ones needed for the summoning spell. When she was satisfied that she had located all the right materials and mixed the powders as she had seen her father do, she carefully inscribed the three concentric circles, the five pointed star, and the central triangle into the dirt on the cave floor, along with the arcane symbols that went in the gaps between the each of the circles. She remembered that it was very important for the pattern on the floor to be intact and accurately drawn, so she was very careful in making all the lines and marks crisp and clean, and not to step on or smudge anything she had already drawn.

Standing naked in Human form outside the circle, she lit the brazier in the center. She recited the incantation as she remembered it, pausing at the appropriate points to cast small handfuls of each of the five prepared powders into the brazier. With each new powder, the nature of the flame changed slightly, getting brighter with the first one, turning acid green with the second, then a pale blue with the third, and becoming an almost normal looking red flame, a foot or so tall, with the fourth cast. Concentrating carefully, she said the last words of the incantation, and added the fifth powder.

The result was unusual, to say the least, and not at all what she expected! Although the floor of the cave outside the circle was still illuminated as if a normal fire burned in the brazier, everything within the circle was reversed! Where the dancing flame should be was a flame-shaped dancing shadow of deepest black, which seemed to suck up all light that touched it. Extending outward from that was a corona of flickering anti-light. Dark Wind had never seen anything like a photographic negative before, but what she saw, within that circle, was just like what a negative photographic image of the fire and firelight should have been.

The black fire writhed and guttered, and then shaped itself into a ten inch high image of a Human female, with black fire for hair, and acid green eyes.

"Who summons Asha?" the fire Elemental asked.

"You may call me Dark Wind. I summoned you, to do my bidding," Dark Wind replied.

"That's not your true name, is it? Smart girl. True names have power. You couldn't have summoned me without saying my true name. Very well, Mistress Dark Wind. What tedious task must your reluctant servant perform?" the creature asked.

"Outside that circle are two chests that are sealed with magical wards. Can you remove the spells that seal the locks, without harming anything else, or harming me?" Dark Wind asked.

"Not while they are out there, Mistress. You know enough to summon me, and to draw the circle to bind me. You know I can't pass beyond this circle!" the elemental said, with a bored attitude. "Bring the chests to me, inside the circle. Then I can easily remove those warding spells. I sense a weakness in them that I can use to shatter them. Set them beside me, and thy will be done."

"I am not so foolish as to step past the circle that protects me from you, Asha!" Dark Wind said with some satisfaction. When her father had summoned an elemental, it had immediately tried to entice him to cross the circle, and he had explained to his daughter that if the caster entered the circle with the summoned creature, the creature could attack the caster and no longer had to obey them!

"Well, you can't blame me for trying, Mistress," the elemental said, grinning. Her smile was like a glowing green crescent of burning copper. "You'd be surprised at how foolish some apprentice mages are when first they summon one of my kind. You look quite young, and I thought I could fool you, I freely admit it. Very well, then. Drag the chest to the circle's edge, and push it in, so you may remain outside the circle. Then I will remove the wards, oh wise young Mistress."

"But that would erase part of the symbol in the dirt, and again you would be free to harm me. I will not do that. I will put the chests beside you, however," Dark Wind said. Her eyes glowed brightly, and the two chests teleported to within the circle. The effort tired her, after casing the summoning spell. She took a deep breath and sat on the ground, saying, "There. Unseal the wards, as I commanded."

"Teleportation? From one so young? You are a most unusual child. I could almost admire you. Ohhh! Oh yes, these are very interesting, aren't they? The smaller one, especially. There, child. The wards are gone, as I promised, and nothing else is harmed. May I return to my realms, now, Mistress?" the elemental said.

"After you answer one more question for me. What, exactly, are you? I have seen fire elementals before, and you are unlike any I have seen," Dark Wind said.

"You are new at this, aren't you?" Asha said, grinning again. "And yet you did manage to compel my service. Very well, Mistress. I am a black fire elemental. We aren't very common. I am, to some extent, a reflection of your soul, little Mistress. You are not completely pure and innocent, are you? The dark dreams have already touched your soul. I can even sense that you have already killed another, when you didn't need to. Use what is in the small chest, Mistress, and you'll learn much more of my kind. But I will offer you one bit of friendly advice, because I respect you at least a small bit, for daring to summon me at your tender age. Never tell a summoned creature that you don't understand what they are. If they know that you are unaware of their strengths and weaknesses, they will use that against you. And now, Farewell, Mistress Dark Wind. I dare say we will meet again. See you in Hell."

With that, the fire in the brazier abruptly extinguished, and the light in the cave returned to normal, lit only by the tallow lamp that was atop one of the other chests.

Dark Wind felt very tired, but she dutifully performed the closing part of the ritual, thanking and banishing the summoned energies and breaking and then erasing the summoning circle, so the summoned creature could not return until and unless summoned again. She realized as she scuffed away the circle that the elemental's name had been misspelled. She had inscribed it as Asha, and had spoken it thus. But she recalled now that the name her father had written there was Aska. She had still been successful, but she had summoned the wrong creature, due to that error. Or was it as Asha had said, because Dark Wind's soul was somehow tainted by the death of that horrid farm boy, four years earlier?

She tried her keys in the locks, and both chests unlocked.

She found that the larger chest, which contained the advanced magic that her father felt safe to use, also contained her ancestor's journals. The handwriting in the ancient journals was a different style than what she was used to seeing, and the phrases and words sometimes strange, but she was satisfied the she could read them.

She laid a hand on the smaller chest, and paused.

Asha had sensed something about the contents of that chest, and the elemental had actually encouraged Dark Wind to use what was in it. The elemental had admitted that if you told a summoned creature you didn't understand them, they would use your lack of knowledge against you. And she had said she would see Dark Wind again... in Hell.

Hands trembling, Dark Wind re-locked the fourth chest, and with her last strength she cast a new ward on that chest, so that only she could unlock it. Then she fell into a deep sleep, and dreamed of the days of her ancestors, when mages could openly practice their arts, magical creatures appeared openly among humans, and the church didn't hunt them down.