{"sf1_id":922038,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Chapter 5: The Queen","author":"Volcan MacAingeal","words":25032,"posted_at":"2015-10-15T15:20:00.000Z","tags":["Aiuranthrope","Lycanthrope","Os-Nadarra Sentinels","Phoenix Werewolf","Polar Bear","Series Progression","Story Series","The Overlords","beast","combat","warrior","werecat"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/922038-chapter-5-the-queen","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/922038","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=922038\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"The Os-Nàdarra Sentinels\nArc Three:\nThe Overlords\nChapter 5: The Queen\n            An imposing figure watched from afar\nas the small group of anthros, including the troublesome, giant vampire that\nhad arrived to help them, began to depart, loading themselves into their\nvehicles and speeding off towards the city, leaving plumes of snow trailing in\ntheir wake, and the bodies of almost three dozen werewolves to litter the area\nwhere they had battled. Ruby red eyes glared at the departing intruders, who\nhad dared venture into her territory and kill her pack.\n            Not to mention, they were known,\nnow; the groups who had come before them were all part of the pack now, except\nthose who could not be turned. Those ones had become food, and now nourished\nher kin. They had not been able to report the existence of her pack, allowing\nher to continue moving silently across Northern Canada in pursuit of her\ntargets, as well as spread her influence, with only suspicion of her presence,\nnot any proof. But now her secret was out... well, at least one secret.\n            Through a muzzle more beast than\nhumanoid, a deep, yet effeminate voice, spoke softly. \"It appears I will have\nto step up my time table...\" the werewolf said before turning away and\ndisappearing behind the hill...\n            ~~~~~\n            With Aisuours now having joined the\nparty, the Os-Nàdarra returned to the motel for a debriefing. Thanking Michaels\nfor his help, they let the ranger get back to his daily routines, and said they\nwould take it from there. Aisuours displayed a unique ability to shrink down to\na smaller size, and simultaneously transform into a black-haired human with\npale skin, retaining most of his vampiric traits, including his violet eyes.\nThis was a handy ability, allowing him to enter the motel rooms without issue,\nwhereas in his true form he'd have been too big.\n            Everyone was there for the debrief;\nVinge, Lighris, Tsume, Brent, Pavan, and of course Aisuours, all found places\nto sit in Vinge's motel room, while the Ice Phoenix sat cross-legged in an\nalmost meditative pose as he waited for the others to settle in. He thought\ncarefully about what he was going to say, making sure he had all of the facts\nin order in his mind before he began speaking.\n            \"Alright, let's go over what we know\nso far,\" began Vinge. \"Let's start with these lycanthropes; Aisuours, you\nmentioned earlier that you've known of their presence up here for a while?\"\n            \"A few weeks at best,\" the\nhuman-formed bear returned. \"I first noticed them up here last month; it was\nonly a few at first, so I left them alone. But their numbers kept growing.\"\n            \"By how much?\" Lighris asked.\n            \"Tens of them, each day, and kept\nincreasing until suddenly there were a couple of hundred in the area,\" Aisuours\nexplained. \"Their leader, I eventually gathered, was that red-eyed she-wolf you\nsaw; the same one I fought with when I arrived and the rest of her pack fled.\"\n            \"Uh, I don't want to sound sexist,\"\nremarked Pavan, casting a wary glance at Tsume. \"But in a wolf pack, isn't the\nalpha usually a male?\"\n            \"Typically yes,\" replied Aisuours.\n\"But this female is different- what you saw today was no typical pack of\nwerewolves, as you guys may or may not have noticed.\"\n            \"You're referring to the way they\nmoved,\" Vinge stated. \"The way they attacked us -not the M.O. of your usual\nwolf-pack; they usually kill singling out the weakest of a herd or group, and\nthen taking it down after luring it away from the safety of that herd. This\ngroup however, it didn't do that.\"\n            \"No,\" replied Aisuours. \"The way\nthey behaved was more like a soldier's platoon; ambushing, boxing you guys in,\nand then dividing up their strength on the offensive, to try and take you all\nout as quickly as possible, rather than singling out the weakest to strongest\nof your numbers to pick you off one at a time.\"\n            \"And they have a female leader, as\nopposed to the usual male alpha,\" said Vinge. \"It's not unusual to believe a\nfemale would have a different approach to a situation than a male -it's been\nproven, actually, but this completely defies all logic. I think the one we're\nfacing may be far more intelligent than any other lycan in the world.\"\n            Tsume grinned. \"Of course a female\nwould be the first intelligent one.\"\n            Everyone shot her a look.\n            \"Sorry; couldn't resist,\" she said,\nputting up her hands.\n            \"This is no joking matter, Tsume,\"\nstated Vinge. \"Male or female, the fact the pack leader is intelligent is a\nproblem; they can think strategically, plan an attack, find a weakness. It\nsuddenly makes sense why nobody noticed them before; they've been discreet,\npicking off victims at the most remote locations to expand their numbers, as\nthere are lots of anthro canines and humans alike up here they can turn into\nmore of their own.\"\n            \"Wait, canines and humans?\" Pavan\nasked. \"Just them?\"\n            \"Therianthropy is limited only to\nspecies that resemble them,\" Vinge explained. \"Or rather, in this case, a Lycan\ncan only turn canines, vulpines or other lupine anthros into werewolves; an\navian, feline or reptile wouldn't be affected. Humans are, however, because\nthey have very adaptive genetics; they can mix with just about anything, and so\nthey remain vulnerable while avians like us, or a bear like Aisuours -even\nwithout his Vampirism, would be immune.\"\n            Pavan nodded, understanding.\n            \"But, that's not all there is to\nthis,\" Vinge carried on. \"We now know there's something else out there,\nfighting the werewolves. I did some thinking on it, trying to see if there was\nanything I could compare to the claw marks we found on that dead one in the\nwoods. They didn't match another lycan, and were far too smooth for any other\nclaws species except one; felines.\"\n            \"A big cat killed that werewolf?\"\nLighris asked, incredulously.\n            \"Not just any cat,\" replied Vinge.\n\"I think we may be dealing with more than one breed of therianthropic\ncreatures; Werecats.\"\n            \"Two rare supernatural creatures in\none place?\" Tsume asked. \"Doesn't that seem unlikely to you?\"\n            \"Admittedly, yes,\" replied Vinge.\n\"But it could be a territory war; if there are Werecats here, they may be\nfighting with the werewolves for control of this area, or one side may be trying\nto expand into the other's. Either way, it has started a conflict between them\nand Dawson City is so near to it, the city might be caught right in the center.\nIf we don't isolate this, we could looking at a therianthrope pandemic.\"\n            Lighris grimaced. \"I think we're\ngetting in over our heads with this one,\" he stated. \"If this is some\nsupernatural turf war, how can we stop it? Aisuours said there are hundreds of\nlycans out there; six of us here, one for every fifty of them?\"\n            \"I agree,\" said Vinge, before anyone\nelse could speak. \"But, first thing's first, we need to confirm whether I'm\nright or wrong; we need to find where both sides live, and plan our next move\nfrom there.\"\n            Tsume chimed in with her opinion.\n\"Vinge is right. We need to know where our targets are before we do anything\nelse.\"\n            \"And what do we do after we find\nthem?\" Pavan asked.\n            \"We'll decide that after we've found\nthem,\" replied the Ice Phoenix. \"Plan too far ahead, and we may find ourselves\ntaking the wrong road.\" He stood up from his bed, eyeing his team one at a\ntime. \"For now, we better get some rest; we're going to have a long day\ntomorrow.\"\n            Everyone agreed with that\nsuggestion; they'd had a rough day already, and they all knew, just as Vinge\ndid, this was only the beginning of their mission. They were far from finished\nyet. He saw them all out, holding the door open for the last of them until they\nleft and returned to their motel rooms -except for Aisuours who proceeded to\nhead off into the blackness of the night. Being of a nomadic lifestyle, staying\nin a motel was likely not comfortable for him; he was better out there, in the\nwilderness.\n            As the last of his friends exited\nthe room, Vinge closed and locked the door, closing the drapes and returning to\nhis bed, where he lay down and shut his eyes, slowly drifting off into sleep...\n            ~~~~~\n            The next morning, the group left as\nsoon as the sun was high and illuminating the snow- covered ground, leaving the\nmotel and heading back to the site where they fought the werewolves to get to\nwork tracking the pack, as well as their apparent adversaries -a group of\nWerecats or so Vinge suspected. As they had discussed last night, it was time\nto find them, and determine if they posed an immediate threat to Dawson City\nand the other nearby towns.\n            It was known that most wild cats\nwere more independent than canines; while wolves or wild dogs would always\ngather into a pack, felines usually travelled alone or, if they were in a\ngroup, it would be small, condensed. They relied on their speed and strength\nover the strength of numbers like a wolf did, but as a therianthropic species,\neven one could spark a pandemic of Aiuranthropes, and large cats were\nproportionately stronger than a wolf. In hindsight, they all agreed that\nfinding the werecats first, and then the lycans, was the best course of action.\nThey already knew the lycans were a threat, but the aiurans were still an\nenigma.\n            Reaching the clearing where they had\nfought the lycans before, Aisuours got to work trying to find a trail. Having\nspent his life wandering the wilderness, he had become quite a good tracker,\nand worked with Tsume and Vinge to uncover a trail; the ice phoenix used his\npowered to clear the snow and expose the ground underneath, which Tsume felt\nover with a hand and shut her eyes as she channeled her energy through it,\nsensing the various depressions and deformations in the land caused by the\nbattle that had taken place here.\n            \"Okay... based on the different\nsizes I'd say there were at least... nine werecats here,\" said Tsume. \"They\nhave larger paws than werewolves. As for the lycans there were twenty, maybe\nmore. The fight in this clearing didn't remain here; it carried on...\" She\npointed to the east, towards the high peaks of the Yukon's area of the Rocky\nMountains. \"That way.\"\n            \"The scent of the werecats comes\nfrom that direction too,\" said Aisuours. \"They must live up on one of the\nranges.\"\n            Lighris grunted. \"This could take a\nwhile,\" he said, rubbing the back of his head. \"On this side of the boundary\nthere's at least fifty peaks up there; they could be living on any one of those\nmountains.\"\n            \"Then we'll recon from the air,\"\nstated Vinge.\n            \"Easy for you to say; you don't even\nfeel how damn cold it is around here,\" Pavan remarked.\n            \"If you have a better idea, voice\nit,\" the ice phoenix returned plainly. \n            Pavan's face went blank and his beak\nhung open as if to speak, but no words came out. Lighris actually laughed. \"You\ngot him speechless; I thought I'd never live to see the day,\" he said.\n            Tsume and Brent -from inside of his\narmour, shared the laughter, and after a moment Aisuours let a small chuckle\nescape too. Pavan stood, arms crossed and flustered with his left eye twitching\nslightly, fuming with annoyance. It did not feel good to have the tables turned\non him like that; normally he was the one who left others flustered...\n            \"Alright, cut the jokes,\" Vinge\nintervened. \"We've still got a job to do. Tsume, Brent, Aisuours; start heading\nfor the mountains -use the truck and call us if you run into trouble. Fliers\nwith me; let's go.\"\n            With that, the group separated;\nVinge, Lighris and Pavan took to the sky, spreading out their wings and getting\nrunning starts before they rose into the air above, climbing high over the\ntreetops and into the air, while the others, led by Aisuours, began to make\ntheir way back to the truck; they had come only with the Silverado this time,\nwhich Brent climbed into the back of while Tsume took the wheel and Aisuours,\nshrinking back down to human form, climbed into the passenger seat. They would\nbe able to travel much faster by vehicle than on foot through so much snow.\n            High in the air, Vinge set his gaze\nupon the mountains where they were heading, running several possible scenarios\nthrough his head as he considered how an encounter with the werecats might\nproceed. So far, only lycanthropes had been seen; if this was indeed a\nterritorial war, the lycans were playing to their strength of having numbers,\nwhile most cats were fairly social but independent -they would want to be near\nsome of their own kind, each one keeping to themselves, so if they were\nsticking to that mentality, then the group did not have to fear being\nsurrounded...\n            Unless these ones were playing it\nsmart and sticking together, rather than working by instinct; as unlikely as it\nmay have been, he had already seen the lycanthropes, or at least one of them,\ndisplay intelligence; he should consider the same for whatever awaited them on\nthose mountains...\n            \"Hey Vinge!\" Lighris called.\n\"Werewolves are killed by silver, right? What do you use against Werecats?\"\n            \"The same; all Therianthropes\npossess the same vulnerabilities!\" Vinge called back.\n            \"But we don't have any silver!\"\nPavan chimed in.\n            \"We don't need it; silver makes it\neasier but even lycans can only take so much damage!\" Vinge replied. \"Don't\nforget, we killed several yesterday!\"\n            \"Oh yeah, we did! I guess we're okay\nthen!\"\n            Though the peaks had looked close\nfrom where they were, in truth the Rocky Mountains were quite far from Whitehouse;\nseveral hours of flying and the trio of avians reached the mountain, circling\noverhead for a while until the others on the ground arrived. When they saw the\nSilverado below, which had managed to keep pace with them on the roads, had now\nleft the eastbound highway and was beginning to climb the slope of the first\nmountain they reached. With that, the avians descended, landing in the box of\nthe truck carefully and one at a time, where they found Brent shivering in his\narmour.\n            \"Sh-sh-should've\nput some insulation into the plates of this thing,\" he chattered from\ninside the metal suit. \"Starting to get\nreally cold in here.\"\n            \"That wouldn't help much,\" Lighris\npointed out. \"Metal conducts cold as much as it does heat, you know. That's why\nyou're freezing.\"\n            \"S-still,\nit's freaking stupid cold around\nhere,\" said Brent. \"My species\nusually lives on the plains or in foothills, not in the snow. I lived in Unity\nFalls specifically to stay south of Canada's worst. Now I'm up here in the\nbone-chilling Yukon looking for werewolves.\"\n            Lighris rolled his eyes. \"Oh quit your belly-aching,\" the lightning\nhawk scolded. \"We're not going to be up here for long.\"\n            Vinge paid little attention to the\nexchange, keeping his eyes on the slope ahead and the hills above. His pupils\ndilated as he widened his eyes and used his telescopic vision to peer straight\nahead, studying the landscape. He could see, in the snow, signs of recent\nactivity could be seen -large-bodied creatures falling into -or being dragged\nthrough the snow, perhaps. He couldn't be sure until they were closer...\n            Waiting for a few more seconds, he\nknocked on the back window of the truck to get Tsume's attention, motioning for\nher to stop up ahead, directing specifically to a slightly more level part of\nland where the Silverado was in no danger of sliding back down the mountain if\nthe snow were to loosen beneath it.\n            When the truck was stopped, Tsume\nclimbed out first, and recoiled slightly as she placed her foot on the snow.\n\"God damn,\" she grumbled. \"Can't feel anything through all of this.\"\n            \"Doesn't look like we'll need to,\"\nAisuours remarked as he climbed out of the truck and returned to his true form,\nchanging from a human and into a black-furred, eleven-foot tall bear once\nagain, where he proceeded to sniff the air, detecting the smells past the cold\nwinds. \"There's been some activity here. I smell...\" He shut his eyes and took\nin a deep breath through his nostrils, and then his expression became blank as\nhe opened his eyes again. \"...Cougars.\"\n            \"Mountain Lions, here?\" Lighris\nasked, quizzically. \"Don't they normally follow the elk herds?\"\n            \"They do,\" confirmed Vinge. \"And the\nelk herds would have moved on by now; there shouldn't be any cougars up here at\nall.\"\n            \"Is it an old scent?\" Pavan offered.\n            Aisuours shook his head. \"No;\nthere's been movement here within the last few hours,\" replied the vampiric\nbear. \"I've also got the faint smell of a werewolf; just one, though, coming up\nthe mountain from the same direction we did.\"\n            Vinge glanced over at Aisuours\ncuriously. \"Did they go back?\"\n            \"Doesn't seem like it, no. The wolf\nscent mixes with the cougars; they must've jumped them,\" said Aisuours.\n            Lighris stepped in, putting up both\nhis hands and shaking his head. \"Hold on, hold on; one werewolf, jumped by multiple\ncougars? That doesn't make any sense; wolves are the pack hunters, cougars are\nloners.\"\n            Pavan scratched his head. \"Hate to\nsay it, but Lighris is right.\"\n            \"And I hate to mention it,\" began\nTsume. \"But I think this supports Vinge's werecat theory.\"\n            \"Even weres still follow most of the\nbasic instincts of their feral counterparts, right?\" Lighris asked.\n            \"Even a feral animal will alter its\nbehavioral patterns for survival,\" replied Vinge. \"I think I was right; there is a territorial war going on up here.\"\n            \"So if I smell cougars,\" began\nAisuours, looking at Vinge. \"Then we're dealing with a cougar strain of\nAiuranthrope.\"\n            \"Correct,\" replied Vinge.\n            Suddenly, the word 'strain' rang in\nhis mind, and suddenly he was thinking back to the lycanthropes they had seen\nthe day before, remembering their appearance, their size, and of course, their\nshade of fur. Out of habit, as he always did, the ice phoenix slowly crossed\none arm over his chest and brought his other arm up to his face, biting down\nlightly on his left index finger with the tip of his beak while staring off\ninto space, seemingly lost in the infinite sky above as his thoughts went\ndeeper.\n            \"Uh oh; he's in his 'thinking'\npose,\" Tsume remarked.\n            \"Why's that a bad thing?\" Aisuours\nasked.\n            \"Because it usually means he just\nrealized something we probably aren't going to like to hear,\" a scowling\nLighris returned bluntly. \"Alright, frosty; let's have it. What have you just\nthought of?\"\n            \"That our she-wolf pack leader might\nnot be from Canada,\" remarked Vinge.\n            Lighris' expression softened. \"Oh...\nnot what I was expecting but okay.\"\n            \"What makes you think she's a\nforeigner?\" Pavan asked.\n            \"Her species, for one,\" replied\nVinge. \"I know among anthropomorphics, fur, feather and scale colours can be\ndifferent but there are of course those rare ones. Anyway, with that wolfess,\nher fur was black.\"\n            \"So?\"\nBrent asked after finally getting his armoured self out of the back of his\ntruck . \"I thought lots of wolves had\nblack fur?\"\n            \"Most wolves have brown or grey fur,\nBrent,\" replied Tsume. \"There are no black wolves here in Canada, anthro or\nferal.\" She rubbed her chin in thought. \"At least not native.\"\n            \"Exactly,\" Vinge chimed in. \"I think\nthe strain of lycan we're facing may be that of the European Black Wolf.\"\n            \"So she's from Europe?\" Lighris\nasked, earning a nod of confirmation from Vinge.\n            Pavan threw up his arms. \"Bloody\nhell!\" He squawked. \"If I find out she's from Transylvania my cliché alarm is\ngoing to explode out the wazoo!\"\n            Tsume gave Pavan a quizzical look.\n\"Pavan, Transylvania's just a region of Romania; it's not a country.\"\n            \"Clearly you haven't seen many\nvampire movies -including ones that also had werewolves,\" Pavan returned. \"They\nALWAYS take place in Transylvania.\"\n            \"I can name six off the top of my head\nthat don't,\" Lighris disagreed.\n            \"Guys,\" Vinge interjected, crossing\nhis arms and eyeing the others sternly. \"Focus?\"\n            \"Sorry,\" Pavan and Tsume returned\nsheepishly. Lighris only grunted.\n            \"So where were you going with that?\"\nAisuours asked Vinge. \"You think we should find out who she really is?\"\n            \"Even rare as black wolves are,\nthere are at least a thousand possibilities in every country in Eastern\nEurope,\" replied Vinge. \"But, therianthropes have the proportionate physical\nstrength of whatever feral animal they resemble. These lycans, and the werecats\nas well, are both of species known for sheer strength.\" He frowned. \"And our\nfull-time 'muscle' is back in Unity Falls, incapacitated.\"\n            \"Good thing I'm here then,\" said\nAisuours, perhaps a little smugly. \n            \"I know,\" replied Vinge. \"This just\nmeans we can't fight them directly. This is going to require quite a strategy\nif we have to confront them. We have to be careful.\"\n            Aisuours nodded in agreement. \"Let's\njust focus on one group first, then the other,\" he said.\n            Vinge nodded back. \"Right,\" he said.\n\"Let's get moving guys; we still have to find the werecats.\"\n            \"Uh... I don't think that'll be a\nproblem,\" Pavan remarked.\n            \"Why not?\" Vinge asked, looking\nover.\n            Through the feathers of the wind phoenix,\nhe saw that Pavan's face had bleached white with fear, and he was looking up\nthe mountainside next to them, eyes wide with terror. \"'Cuz I think they just\nfound us.\"\n            Everyone spun around, following\nPavan's gaze up to the cliff, and that's where they saw it; a great, humanoid\nbeast covered in golden fur with a tan undertone, and a bristled, brown mane\ngrowing from the back of the head and down the neck like a dorsal ridge. Their\nlimbs were bulging with powerful muscles, and the bright yellow eyes of the\nwerecat sent a brisk chill down the spines of the avians, moreso as they\nobserved the long, razor-sharp narrow claws gripping the ledge upon which the\nmassive werecat sat watching them, fangs bared and eliciting a low growl as\nthey all spotted it.\n            \"Ah shit,\" Lighris muttered. He\ntensed his right arm, causing it to course with electricity as he mentally\ndirected power from his body into his hand...\n            \"Wait!\" Vinge hissed. \"It hasn't\nattacked yet.\"\n            \"Are you going to let it?\" Lighris\nasked.\n            \"It had the perfect opportunity to\nget the drop on us while we weren't looking,\" Vinge replied. \"Why didn't it?\"\n            \"I dunno; deciding which of us\nlooked more tasty?\" Lighris asked. \"Who gives a fuck? I'm not waiting for it to\npounce me!\"\n            \"Lighris, wait!\"\n            But was too late; the lightning hawk\nthrust his arm forward, shooting a bolt of lightning from pointed fingers that\nshot out at the werecat; reacting to his movements the cat was out of the way\nbefore he even launched the lightning bolt, which flew off harmlessly. With\nthat, the werecat landed in the snow at the bottom of the ledge, its glare\nintensifying on the five of them, before it reared back its head and roared to\nthe sky.\n            \"Nice going, you idiot; now you\npissed him off!\" Tsume scolded Lighris.\n            The werecat sprang, using muscles\nlike coiled springs to launch itself through the air, arcing over Vinge, flying\npast Aisuours, and landing squarely on Lighris, tackling him to the ground and\nmaking him skid through the snow; the feline placed a paw upon his throat,\nextending its claws in threat as it growled at him. Vinge turned to face them,\nintent on trying to get it off of Lighris, but a low growl make him stop, and\nslowly he followed his ear to the sound, to an alcove in the mountainside out\nof which emerged a second werecat; this one was coloured just like the first,\nbut the mane it had was black like oil.\n            More growls caught the ears of the\navians, and sure enough, they found themselves completely surrounded; two more\nemerged from the nearby slope leading down the steep side of the mountain, a\nfourth appeared on the ledge where the first had been before, this one with an\neven longer bristled-back mane. And finally, a fifth fell down from above and\nlanded on top of Brent's truck, before kicking over the armoured hyena faster\nthan he could bring his gun about.\n            'We\nwalked right into an ambush,' Vinge realized. \nThe werecats had them surrounded; the team had\nbetter numbers, but two of their big guns were already down. Tsume and Pavan\ndrew their weapons, facing the werecats by the ledge and waiting for them to\nmake a move, while Lighris was still pinned to the ground; he dared not\ndischarge electricity from his body to blast the werecat off of him, else out\nof reflex it might cut the arteries in his throat. A growl from Aisuours as he\nstomped the ground and showed his fangs seemed to be all that kept them from\nattacking at that very moment.\nThe werecat standing over Lighris glared at him\nangrily for a moment, until Vinge speaking caught its attention. \"Wait!\" He\nshouted to it. \"We're not here to fight.\"\nThe werecat looked over its shoulder at him, staring\nat him expectantly as it stopped growling, closing its mouth partially to hide\nits fangs -although kept enough of them peeking out to show they still intended\nto use them. They watched Vinge as he removed his sword, still in the scabbard,\nfrom his belt and set it down, then kept his hands at his sides as he addressed\nthe Aiuranthrope.\n\"We're not here to hurt you,\" he said, speaking as\nhonestly as possible.\n\"Vinge, you're talking to wild animals with\nsuperhumanoid powers; what the hell are you thinking?\" Lighris asked, earning\nan annoyed growl from the werecat still standing on him.\n\"Lighris, do the smart thing for once in your life\nand just please shut your pie hole,\"\nTsume remarked scornfully.\n\"What she\nsaid!\" Brent called.\n\"We're here to deal with the werewolves,\" Vinge\nbegan, speaking once more to the werecat. \"I know you can understand me. My\nname is Vinge, of the Os-Nadarra Sentinels; I know it's likely you haven't\nheard of us, but we are here for a reason. We know you're not the cause of the\ndisappearances we came here to investigate, but we just needed to be sure you\nare of no danger to the people of Dawson City. If you can show me you aren't,\nthen we will go, and leave you in peace; you have my promise.\"\nThe werecat turned to look at Lighris briefly,\nbefore looking over to one of its black-maned kin. The second werecat growled\nand approached them, standing by Lighris and watching him while the brown-maned\none approached Vinge, walking on all fours before rising to eye level with him\nand staring him right in the face. Vinge remained stoic and unmoving, letting\nthe werecat approach; he showed no fear, but his heart was beating fast,\nstaring into the face of a creature that, at that range, could kill him in a\nfraction of a second, yet it bore no open hostility; its claws were retracted,\nits teeth were only slightly showing, and its eyes, though the displeasure in\nthem was apparent, were not angry.\n\"Give me a reason... to trust you,\" it growled.\nIt could talk...\n\"It can talk?!\"\nPavan squawked, eliciting a grunt as Tsume shut his beak with the blunt sides\nof her katars, slamming onto the top and bottom and sharply shushing him.\n\"You are fighting the lycans, yes?\" Vinge asked,\nholding back his own surprise at the werecat's apparent ability to communicate.\nHe had gathered they were intelligent but did not know that, these ones at\nleast, still retained the vocal chords that allowed them to speak.\n\"They have hunted us for years,\" the werecat returned.\n\"We have tried to hide from them but always, they find us. They kill my people,\nand we are too few to fight them all.\"\n\"They've been chasing you... why?\" Vinge inquired.\n\"Because, we have seen their leader's true face,\"\nthe werecat stated.\n\"The werewolf with the ruby coloured eyes,\" Vinge\nreturned without a moment of thought.\nThe werecat growled in reply. \"So... you have seen\nher too,\" it said.\nVinge nodded. \"We fought with her yesterday; she\nattacked us in the woods, east of Dawson City. That is also where we found\nevidence of your people; the damage inflicted on the corpses left there was\ninconsistent with a pack war. But, based on what you have told me, my previous\ntheory about a territorial war is out the window as well.\" He turned and peered\noff in the distance, back towards the woodlands where they had seen the lycans.\n\"I'm sorry for assuming, but if what you say is true, you're fighting for\nsurvival, not for territory.\"\nThe werecat growled again. \"The one who leads the\nwerewolves is evil beyond imagination,\" it said. \"She lies, manipulates,\ncorrupts the minds of others, and then infects them, adding them to her\never-expanding pack.\" The werecat turned to look at its fellow aiurans. \"She\ntook our home, killed the ones we cared about... running was all we could do,\nand for years she has chased us across these cold lands. We number no more than\ntwenty now...\"\nVinge studied the werecat's face for a moment; even\nthrough their bestial features he could see the honesty in their eyes, cloaked\nby the terrifying yellow glare, but still visible to those who knew how deeply\nto look. With only a short thought on the matter, he looked at the others,\nseeing they were still prepared for a fight. \"Tsume, Pavan, Aisuours stand\ndown,\" he said. \"These werecats are not our enemies.\"\n\"You sure about that?\" Pavan asked.\n\"Trust me,\" Vinge said, almost pleadingly. \nThey looked at him doubtfully for a moment, but\neventually they complied. Tsume lowered her katars, eventually stuffing them\nback into the holsters on her hips, while Pavan returned his sword to its\nsheath. He had never drawn his whip, and it still hung around his shoulder, and\nmade no move for it. Aisuours could not put away his weapons but he lowered his\narms and relaxed his stance, returning to a proper upright posture, still\neyeing the werecats warily.\nThe werecat leader looked at each of them\nindividually, once more at Vinge, before she spoke again. \"Leave us,\" and\nwithout any hesitation, the werecats backed away, and sprang from the scene,\nleaping up to the ledge above and disappearing from sight, all except for the\nbrown-maned werecat standing before Vinge.\nWith the werecats gone, Lighris was able to stand\nup, grumbling as he dusted the snow off of his coat and shook it from his\nwings. \"That was getting cold,\" he muttered.\n\"A little help\nhere?\" Brent asked, his armour rattling as he tried to stand up.\n\"You still haven't put any means of getting back to\nyour feet into that thing?\" Tsume asked as Aisuours trudged over to Brent,\ngrasped the armoured hyena and hauled him back to his feet.\n\"What am I\nsupposed to use, retro-rockets? This armour's too light for that; I'd go into a\ndozen cartwheels,\" returned Brent as he moved the armours limbs about, getting proper\nmotion back into them as the snow was pushed from the joints. \"I'm working on improving it, but this\narmour's just a prototype, really.\"\nThe werecat listened to their conversation before\nturning to the ice phoenix again. \"Your friends, I can tell are not lycans,\"they\nstated. \"And you have the smell of their blood upon you, so it is clear you are\nnot their allies. But if you are a threat to us...\"\n\"We are not,\" Vinge replied plainly. \"I confess, we\ncame up here wondering if you were a threat like the lycans, but it is clear to\nme now that you are the ones in danger, you and\neveryone in the Yukon Territories. Perhaps we can help each other.\"\n\"How?\"\n\"You have dealt with the lycans for longer than us,\"\nhe said. \"Maybe you can help us stop them.\"\nThe cat snarled. \"You cannot ask us to fight,\" it\nstated. \"We are outnumbered, and every one of them are nearly as strong as us.\"\n\"I am not asking you to fight,\" Vinge returned. \"Nor\ncan I force you. But if there's anything you can tell us about the pack leader,\nanything we might use, that is enough.\"\nThe cat narrowed its eyes at him. \"And you will not\ndo us harm in return?\"\n\"So long as you and your people are of no threat to\nanyone, you have my word that we will never take up arms against you,\" Vinge\nsaid, with solemn, lucid words, never once breaking eye contact with the\nwerecat as he spoke.\nEventually, after eyeing him with consideration for\nwhat felt like a half hour, the werecat stepped back from him and fell to all\nfours, shutting its eyes and becoming still. Right before the eyes of the whole\ngroup, the feline began to shrink, their body becoming thinner, the bristled\nbrown man relaxing and, somehow also becoming longer, and their massive paws\nshrinking, becoming more like humanoid hands. It didn't take long for them to\nfigure out that the werecat was reverting back to their true form, to speak to\nthem with their true face.\nThey shrunk down to less than half of their size,\nbecoming slimmer, shorter, the long hair that was once the mane hanging around\ntheir lowered head, hiding their face as they continued to change. When finally\nthe shrinking stopped, the anthro cougar that had revealed themselves as the\ntrue form of the werecat stood up. The feminine features, such as the endowed\nchest and curvaceous form were immediately apparent as the cougar stood\nupright; all along, they had been female.\nThe cougar raised her head and looked at Vinge with\neyes that were nothing like what they had been before; they were brown now,\nhalf-lidded and tired like, and she spoke with the voice of a mature woman,\nfilled with experience beyond her years. \"I shall give you the benefit of the\ndoubt then, Vinge,\" she said. \"You can call me... Buniq.\"\nPavan stood slouched and with his beak hanging open,\neye twitching slightly. \"Holy crap... it was the woman the whole time... a big,\ngolden-furred mountain lion,\" he said. He relaxed, and flashed a goofy grin.\n\"Is it too late to say she's hot?\"\nTsume and Lighris both slapped their foreheads in\ndismay. \"You're an idiot, Pavan,\" grumbled Lighris.\n~~~~~\n            The village of werecats was nothing\nlike the Os-Nàdarra had expected when they emerged from the narrow mountain\npass concealing the entrance, following the footsteps of Buniq as she led them\nthere. They emerged into a small valley, not a deep one but enough to block the\ncold winds of the mountains, making the winter air more tolerable. The valley\nwould be impossible to find without wings, a helicopter, or the luck of a\nleprechaun; it was far from civilization, hidden well...\n            And miserable.\n            They emerged from the narrow pass,\nto see the collection of sparse homes. All of the snow in the valley had been\nused to create several igloos in which the inhabitants ducked to hide from the\nintruders, but those who had not been fortunate enough to build their own\nigloos were forced to instead sleep in animal hide tents, which although were\nenough to protect them from the elements, did not offer the warmth and\ninsulation of the snow blocks used to make the igloos. Aisuours and Brent\nremained behind at the truck to wait for them, letting only the phoenixes -the\nones with the best chance of escaping if things went awry, accompany Buniq back\nto her home.\n            Only a few inside were actually\nwerecats as well. Those who were out of werecat form were revealed to in fact\nbe aboriginal humans, with the black hair and the dark, almost chocolate skin\n-not as dark as the average African human but close- and the angular eyes a\nclear indication these people were of First Nation descent.\n            \"These... these are all humans,\"\nsaid Tsume, stating the obvious.\n            \"Yes,\" said Buniq.\n            \"I think these are Eskimos,\"\nremarked Pavan.\n            \"Inuit, I'd guess,\" offered Lighris.\n            \"Correct,\" Buniq called from the\nfront. \"We are from the east, from the land you call Nunavut.\"\n            Vinge eyed her curiously at that.\n\"You have travelled a long way, then,\" he stated.\n            \"We have been running from the\nwerewolf leader for at least five years,\" Buniq stated as she led them over to\none of the animal hide tents, rested upon the highest point in the valley to\noverlook the others. Outside of the tent, another Inuit woman, holding a folded\narticle of clothing, stood waiting, passing it to Buniq as she approached. \nThe mountain lioness nodded to the woman, speaking\nto her in a dialect everyone knew was probably Inuit, but none of them actually\nunderstood, before the woman left, eyeing the phoenixes with concern before she\nproceeded towards the center of the village. Everyone was watching them from\ndown below. Some were still in their werecat forms, their eyes fixed on the\nfour phoenixes. Only Lighris returned their glares, until an elbow in the rib\nfrom Tsume reminded him not to pick any fights.\nThey watched as Buniq unfurled the long, hide shirt\nthat had been handed to her, slipping it over her head. Pavan would have been\neyeing Buniq inappropriately until she covered up if not for Vinge shooting him\na glare that made him respectfully look away. The shirt, once it cleared her\nchest, fell around her, and she proceeded to then slip on the pants that had\nbeen left with them. Fully clothed and decent, she sat down next to the unlit\nfire pit outside of her tent, picking up a couple of flint rocks, and held them\nover the dry wood in the center\nTsume leaned forward. \"Allow me,\" she requested\nbefore holding up a hand, and Buniq let go of the two flint rocks as they were\ntugged from her paws by an unseen force, watching in wonder as Tsume\nterrakinetically carried the stones into the air, holding them over the wood\nbefore she touched them together. With a wiggle of her index and middle finger\nthe two stones then struck together several times, showering the wood with some\nsparks until it eventually caught, leaning forward an gently blowing on the\nflames to stir them.\nSlowly, the fire grew, and eventually caught on all\nof the wood. Buniq actually smiled, and nodded gratefully to Tsume as she set\nthe two flints back down on the ground. She added more wood to the fire, and\nthe others sat down next to it with her, except for Vinge who kept back from\nthe fire a little, avoiding the heat.\n\"I sensed right away when I first saw all of you\nthat you were no ordinary birds,\" Buniq remarked, and then glanced at Tsume.\n\"It appears my instincts were correct.\"\n\"My name, as I mentioned earlier, is Vinge,\" the ice\nphoenix began introductions. \"This is Pavan...\"\n\"We're phoenixes!\" Pavan chimed gleefully,\ninterrupting Vinge. \"I'm Wind, Tsume here is Earth, short blue guy next to\n-ow!\" Pavan recoiled from an elbow to the shoulder. \"Next to me is Lighris -you\nsaw his lightning for yourself. And our big boss there,\" he gestured to Vinge.\n\"Is ice.\"\nBuniq turned her gaze to Vinge. \"You must feel right\nat home, here in the north.\"\nVinge shrugged. \"Home is not the climate, it is\nwhere I make it,\" he said. \"But this place does indeed make me feel stronger;\nthe cold air is like fuel.\"\n\"Meanwhile the rest of us just get frostbite,\"\nLighris remarked. \"Probably lucky my brother didn't come after all.\"\n\"You have a brother?\" Buniq asked.\n\"Yep,\" replied Lighris.\n\"Another elemental of lightning, like you?\"\n\"Funnily enough, no,\" replied Lighris. \"Volcan's\nactually a Fire Phoenix. Long story.\"\nBuniq nodded. \"For another time, perhaps,\" she said,\nfolding her palms across her lap. \"Now... you asked me to tell you about the\nlycans and their leader.\"\n\"Before you do, I'm curious,\" said Pavan. \"Where the\nheck did you learn English if you're Inuit?\"\n\"My father, Adlartok, taught me,\" she replied. \"He\nlearned it because he sometimes did business in the city of Iqaluit, selling\nfish.\"\n\"Ah,\" replied Pavan.\n\"Now then, shall I begin?\" Buniq asked. \n\"Yes, please,\" returned Vinge.\nBuniq took in a deep breath through her nostrils,\nholding it for a moment before she released it slowly. \"I want you all to\nunderstand, this is a very difficult topic for me to discuss, so I ask that you\nbe patient with me.\"\n\"We understand,\" assured Vinge.\nShe stared at the fire, contemplating the words to\nuse to tell her story, shifting her position on the cold dirt ground below her\nbefore she began. \"I suppose to start, I should tell you this; we know her as Assiminik.\"\n\"Assimilate?\" Pavan asked.\n\"She said 'Assiminik', Pavan,\" corrected Lighris.\n\"An Inuit name,\" Vinge added.\n\"So... she's one of your people?\" Tsume asked.\nThe look\nTsume received from Buniq, so sharp and filled with resentment, could have\nstopped the gears of a clock dead, fixing her with a glare as hard as any Vinge\ncould muster; the look was enough to make Tsume recoil and Lighris to tense\nwith the same thought, ready to stop her if she decided to lash out.\n\"Do not ever... say that again,\" retorted Buniq.\nTsume blinked twice before she mustered a weak\napology to Buniq, and the cougar slowly relaxed. \"Forgive me,\" she bade,\nlowering her head. \"I just despise that woman so much... but to answer your\nquestion, no; she is not one of us. She was an outlander, whom we rescued from\nthe cold depths of the ocean near our village -one of our fishermen caught her\nin his net one day and hauled her to the shore, half-drowned, nearly freezing\nto death, and starving.\n\"We nursed her back to health, and when she awoke,\nshe claimed she had no memory of who she once was. I still do not know if her\namnesia was truth or a lie, but we named her, and let her stay in the village\nuntil she was well enough to leave and find her way back home again. She did\nher part to contribute, and many of the men in the village, despite normally\nbeing wary of outsiders, took a liking to her. Some even asked if she could\nstay.\"\n\"What did she look like?\" Vinge asked.\n\"Tall, strong, fur the colour of charcoal and scalp\nhair, as long as mine but worn over one of her eyes usually; her hair was as\nblack as ink, and those red eyes of hers, so unnatural and full of a cruel\nintellect we all saw too late,\" explained Buniq. \"Most of us gave her the\nbenefit of the doubt, causing us to let our guard down around her... and that\nis when she made her move.\n\"Only a year after being taken in by us, I woke in\nthe night to heated voices, and stepped outside of my hut to see her arguing with\nmy father, with almost half of the village men and several of the women\nstanding with her; she was demanding leadership of the village be turned over\nto her, and my father -the true leader at the time, refused her. It was then\nshe revealed what she really was; transforming right in front of his eyes, she\nclawed him, tearing out his throat and his eyes in one swipe of her great paw.\n\"I ran to my father's side...\" Her face soured, her\nhead lowering again and her fingers clenching into fists, knuckles cracking as\nshe continued. \"I held him as he died... he could not even see me or speak to\nme, so mutilated as he was, and as the last of the life slipped from him... I\nlet my own other side out.\" She raised her gaze again. \"I changed, and I\nattacked Assiminik.\"\n\"Wait, you changed?\" Vinge asked, interjecting for a\nmoment. \"You were already a werecat?\"\n\"I have been one for as long as I can remember,\"\nreplied Buniq. \"I do not know where I received the curse -perhaps I was born\nwith it. My father, Adlartok, was never sure either.\"\n\"He couldn't tell you?\" Tsume asked.\nLighris narrowed his eyes. \"I think I see where this\nis going,\" he said. \"Why everyone in this village except you is a human.\"\nVinge, who shared Lighris' suspicions, felt a pang\nof guilt and sympathy as he finished Lighris' statement for him. \"You're a\nfoster child,\" he said, plainly.\nBuniq nodded. \"You understand how I know the views\nof my people on outsiders,\" she said. \"I earned their trust over the course of\nmy life. Assiminik received hers, however, through other means.\"\n\"Meaning what?\" Pavan asked.\n\"She had been bedding some of the men in the\nvillage, as well as a few of the women -some of them even the wives of those\nmen,\" replied Buniq. \"And through that intercourse, she infected them all.\"\nVinge's eyes widened as the realization dawned on\nhim. \"By Odin,\" he whispered. \"All of the people who supported her uprising...\"\n\"You are correct,\" Buniq interjected. \"She made them\nwolf creatures like herself.\" Buniq shut her eyes in a melancholic manner as she\ncarried on. \"The whole village turned on itself, then. After I knocked\nAssiminik to the ground her new followers leapt into action and attacked the\nothers who still stood up to her. In all of the confusion, several of the\nvillagers fled; I tried to help fight, but eventually I ran too. Thank the\nspirits that not even a werewolf is faster than me; soon I outran them, and was\nsafe.\n\"I knew I could not waste time mourning; the other\nvillagers were still out there. I gathered who I could find, mostly young men,\nchildren and their mothers. No more than fifteen of us had escaped. I gathered\nthem, and convinced them that we needed to leave, and so we began to head west.\nSometimes, Assiminik's followers caught up to us; I knew we were getting\nnowhere, and so I made the survivors an offer, to grant them my power so that\nthey at least had a chance...\"\n\"And so you made them werecats,\" said Vinge.\n\"Yes,\" replied Buniq. \"The children were too young,\nso they were not changed, but as any good mother, I feel, would do, they\naccepted -they were willing to sacrifice their humanity to save their little\nones. Though it made me sick to my stomach, I used my bite to pass my curse\nonto them, and within the next few nights they became Aiuranthropes, and we\nkept on running, far from our homeland.\"\n\"You said there were only fifteen of you,\" said\nVinge glancing over his shoulder to the shelters. \"I am sure there are more\nthan fifteen here.\"\n\"Sometimes, Assiminik's pack managed to get ahead of\nus if we stopped for too long,\" explained Buniq. \"Those who escaped her wrath,\nI found. Nobody else, except those who ased for it, became Werecats, but our\ngroup became larger until we eventually numbered forty. By then, we were here,\nand the ocean barred our way, and so we fled back to the mountains. But along\nthe way, we encountered some of her pack once more.\"\n\"And we know the rest from there,\" said Lighris.\n\"You fought back, and we found the carnage left behind.\"\n\"You have not been in this valley for long, have\nyou?\" Vinge asked, barely even as a question, as he already knew the answer.\n\"No, we have not,\" replied Buniq. \"We have been here\nonly a few days. We went as far from the city of Dawson as we could, but I fear\nthat place is Assiminik's goal. She has taken every remote village that has little\nto no contact with your cities -she has passed through the mountain barrier,\nand now her pack hides in the woodlands to the West, dangerously close to that\ncity.\"\n\"Which is why we have to stop them,\" Vinge stated\nfirmly, starting to pace idly. \"Buniq, you've seen Assiminik's pack, and so has\none of our own companions. He says they number the hundreds; how many have you\nseen?\"\nBuniq considered the question for a moment, her eyes\ndrifting to the upper right corner of her socket, thinking long and hard, before\nshe gave an answer. \"I would say he is correct; her pack will be over two\nhundred by now.\"\n\"Two hundred?\" Lighris echoed. \"Shit... I didn't\neven know there were that many werewolves on the planet, let alone all in one\npack!\"\n\"There's one more thing,\" replied Buniq.\n\"Assiminik's affliction; it's different than mine -not only by species, but by\nhow infectious it is. Whenever I bit one of my people to turn them it took four\ndays for them to undergo their first change.\"\n\"That's consistent with therianthropic lore,\" Vinge\nremarked.\n\"I have seen someone bitten by Assiminik change in\nless than a minute,\" replied Buniq.\nThe four phoenixes gawked at her in awe, barely\nbelieving what they had just heard from her. Pavan teetered on his seat,\nlooking ready to faint, while Tsume put a hand to her head absently, staring at\nthe ground in horror. Lighris scratched his head irritably, before he gruffly\nstated.\n\"And infections vary only by a person's immune\nsystem,\" he said. \"So anyone bitten by this bitch will change just as fast,\ngive or take a few seconds.\" He turned to Vinge. \"We can't fight that ourselves\nVinge; loathe as I am to admit it, Assiminik can make reinforcements for herself\nfaster than we can kill them.\"\n\"With two hundred lycans, she can take Dawson City\nin a matter of hours,\" said Vinge. \"And with the thirteen hundred people she\nwould infect from that town's population, she could take Whitehorse in less\nthan a day. She's been biding her time, patiently waiting until her pack was\nlarge enough to be a small army. Now she's going to make it into the largest\narmy of monsters to ever walk the Earth!\" He turned to Buniq. \"Thank you for\neverything you have told us, Buniq. But we have to go now; we have to get to\nDawson and contact someone for help.\"\n\"Who the heck is going to help us all the way up\nhere?\" Pavan asked.\nVinge hesitated to give an answer, the words dying\nin his throat. He didn't actually know who\nthey were going to contact for help... there was nobody in the world who was\nequipped or trained to deal with something like this. \nBut Lighris answered it, with a firm, strong voice.\n\"The Airforce, that's who,\" he stated as he stood up from his seat on the rock,\nbrushing the snow from his backside before turning his gaze towards the south,\nthough there was nothing but rock wall in that direction as far as he could\nsee. But it was not at the wall he was staring; it was somewhere much further\nthan that. \"Back to Dawson; I think I'm about overdue to give my grandpa a\ncall...\"\n~~~~~\n-Fort MacAingeal, Location:\nClassified-\n            \"Spread out up there!\" Joseph\npractically yelled into the radio as he watched the F-16 fighter planes flying\nabove, shaking his head at the carelessness of the rookie pilots as they nearly\ncollided with one another. \"Maintain minimum safe distance from each other;\nthis isn't a damned competition! One of you wrecks those planes, and you'll be\nscrubbing out the toilets for the next six months, you hear me?\"\n            Joseph Torcuil MacAingeal, Chief\nWarrant Officer of Fort MacAingeal -named in his honor for serving more than a\nhundred years in the Canadian forces, as well as being the first phoenix to\never be part of the national military, dating back to before the First World\nWar, in which he had fought, as well as the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam,\nand nearly every operation ever overseen by the Canadian Air Force, of which he\nhad been one of the first pilots in the force.\n            He was also the squad leader of\nCanada's most elite pilots, known affectionately as The Hornets -named for\ntheir choice of aircraft, the F-18 Super Hornet. While most C.W.O's might\nremain at the base to command from the ground, Joseph outright refused any such\nlifestyle. Having lost his wing in the First World War in an aerial dogfight,\nJoseph was already confined to the ground for the rest of his life, unless he\nwas in a plane, and so he would never, under any circumstance, be denied his\nright to fly. Not until he was out of his prime...\n            The higher-ups of the military would\nbe waiting about four thousand years for that.\n            And now, here he was, training more\npilots to join the Canadian forces; his squadron had not been in action for\nsome time, so he voluntarily put his experience to good use by training the\nnext generation of fliers. Using decommissioned F-16 Fighting Falcons, retrofitted\nfor training purposes, he sought to teach these men how to fly as if they were\none with the wind itself. And though he found himself frustrated by their\nimpulsiveness, they showed potential.\n            \"Chief.\"\n            Joseph turned to the voice, spotting\none of his lieutenants approaching him, the lower-ranked officer saluting him\nas he stood before him until Joseph told him to be at ease. \"I'm sorry to\ndisturb you, Chief, but there's a call for you on your personal phone.\"\n            \"From who?\" The one-winged phoenix\nasked.\n            \"From your grandson, Lighris,\" he\nreplied.\n            Joseph tilted his head curiously.\n\"From Lighris? Huh; that boy rarely ever calls me,\" he remarked, putting a hand\non his chin and stroking it in thought before turning to the officer. \"Take\nover here; I'll go see what's happening.\"\n            \"Yes sir.\"\n            Walking around the pilot,\nJoseph headed for the stairs leading down into the main terminal of the air\nbase, striding down the steps with surprising grace born from being stuck on\nthe ground for nearly a century now, and landed on the main floor, where he\nleft the stairwell and made a left for his office, other officers saluting him\nas he passed, until he reached the door to his office, stepped through and\napproached the desk, where his cellphone sat, open, on the desk.\n            It wasn't exactly protocol to answer\na personal phone while on duty, but at Fort MacAingeal, it was usually too\nquiet to be concerned with protocol. He picked the phone off his desk, holding\nit to his ear. \"Hello?\"\n            \"Hey,\ngrandpa Joe; long time no see,\" the voice of his eldest grandson spoke to\nhim through the earpiece.\n            \"I'll say. How are you, m'boy?\"\nJoseph asked.\n            \"Well...\nactually I'm up in the Yukon right now,\" replied Lighris. \"There's something going on up here you\nshould know about.\"\n            Joseph scowled slightly. \"Why do I\nget the feeling I am not going to like this?\"\n            \"You\nprobably won't,\" Lighris replied, bluntly. \"What do you know about werewolves?\"\n            \"Big, ugly and a pain in the arse to\nfight; why?\"\n            \"I'm\njust going to go straight to the point; there are about two-hundred of them\n-and I'm not exaggerating this- we think heading for Dawson City.\"\n            Joseph's excited yell was heard\noutside of the office, making several passing troops and staff jump in\nsurprise. \"Two hundred?!\" He\nbellowed. \"How can that many werewolves possibly be all in one place?\"\n            \"Look,\nI know it sounds crazy, but we're certain of it; I'm up here with my team,\nwe've seen the werewolves, and their leader -some sort of alpha bitch, is damn\nsmart. We need your help; we can't take these things all by ourselves.\"\n            \"I'm not saying I don't believe you, Lighris,\" began\nJoseph. \"But if you want the support of the Hornets, I need proof to show the\nhigher-ups, or they'll never authorize a deployment. I scramble fighters\nwithout that, and it turns out to be a wild goose chase, demotion's the least\nof what I'll have to worry about.\"\n            Almost as if on cue, his phone\nbeeped, indicating a multi-media message. \"That\nshould about do it,\" Lighris replied. \nHe pulled it away from his ear, tapping the speaker\nbutton before opening the photo that Lighris had sent him, and found himself\nlooking upon an overhead view of a snowy landscape, covered in black spots.\nBut, on closer inspection, he saw that these 'spots' had shape; the shape of\ncanines, down on all fours, minus a few that seemed to be looking up towards\nthe photographer and growling at them. On that image alone, Joseph saw more\nthan two-dozen lycanthropes, each one of them big and powerful-looking.\n\"...Sly move, m'boy,\" complimented Joseph. \"I don't\nknow if this will warrant deployment of my squadron but it might get the Yukon's\narmy mobilized, and if they so require it then we might see some action too. I\nknow the commanding officer of a base not too far from Dawson -he works fast,\nand can be there soon.\"\n\"How soon?\"\n\"Twenty four hours at most; eight at least,\" replied\nJoseph.\n\"Try to tell\nhim to hurry; these lycans get closer to Dawson by the hour,\" urged Lighris. \"If it comes to it, we'll try and hold the\ntown; we might be able to stall them.\"\n\"Now just hold on there, Lighris,\" stated Joseph.\n\"Don't you go getting caught up in this; this is dangerous. Situations like\nthis are why countries have armies.\"\n\"Like with the\nCyber Wyvern attack last year?\" Lighris reminded. \"Sorry to say, grandpa, as much as we need the army's help, we don't\nneed their permission. We've already fought these things, and we're in the area. If your buddy up here\ndoesn't get here fast enough we're about the only line of defense Dawson City\nhas; a town of thirteen hundred people doesn't exactly have a substantial\npolice force to fight for it.\"\nJoseph groaned. \"Alright, fine. Just contact the\ntown sheriff and show him what you've shown me,\" Joseph explained. \"Have him\ncontact me or Colonel Rory McKinnen at Fort Coldspine -that's the guy I'm\ncalling on. Everyone with a car has to evacuate the town; if the wolf pack\nswarms it we may have to bombard it, buildings and all.\"\n\"You got it,\" returned Lighris.\n\"You be damn careful up there, boy,\" Joseph stated.\n\"If I have to tell my daughter one of her sons is dead, I'm going to very displeased with you.\"\nLighris chuckled grimly. \"Please, gramps; it's going to take a lot more than some lycans to take\ndown any grandson of yours.\"\nWith that, he hung up, and Joseph slowly set down\nthe phone without looking at it, standing and staring at his desk for a moment\nbefore he reached over for the corded phone on his desk, waiting until it\nconnected. \"Get me the C.O of Fort Coldspine, stat,\" he commanded.\n~~~~~\n            Vinge stood atop the roof of the\nPolar Rest motel, his gaze focused on the north-east from the town, in the\ndirection of the lycanthropes, watching and waiting for when they would appear.\nLess than an hour ago, Lighris had informed him that he had gotten in touch with\nhis grandfather in the Canadian Airforce, and that he was sending help for the\ntown. Despite knowing that the Canadian Army was on its way to help, he still\nfelt uneasy... \nCould involving them only make matters worse? Most\nof the Yukon's population consisted of canines and humans -including the\nmilitary presence there, and they were beings susceptible to the curse of\nlycanthropy. If they failed, Assiminik's pack would still grow larger. Albeit\nnot as large as if she got the chance to raid Dawson City, but still enough she\nwould remain a threat.\nIt couldn't be helped; assembling a platoon of\nsoldiers who would be immune to the curse would take days, and they didn't have\ndays. The werewolves could descend upon Dawson at any moment. They needed\nfighters, and the ones at Coldspine were all there was in the area, besides the\nOs-Nadarra already there.\nHe heard a grunt, and looked to his right to see\nTsume climbing over the side of the roof, lifting herself up on her hands and\nswinging her legs over the side before approaching Vinge. \"Michaels just got a\ncall from the town sheriff,\" she explained. \"McKinnen is already on his way,\nand he's ordered the force here to start evacuating the town. They're going to\nbe heading south to Beaver Creek.\"\n\"That should be more than far enough,\" said Vinge,\nnodding in agreement.\n\"Where's Pavan?\" Tsume asked.\n\"I asked him to keep watching the lycan's\nmovements,\" stated Vinge. \"And not to land no matter what he saw; I have no\ndoubt by now Assiminik knows we're watching her.\"\n\"You don't think she'll alter her plan?\" Tsume\nasked.\n\"Even if she does, it's too late; her position has\nbeen compromised,\" replied Vinge. \"The army is onto her, the town she's\ntargeting is clearing out. She'll either go through with her plan or she'll\nretreat, but now that we know of her, she'll have nowhere to run. This is a\nsituation affectionately called 'do or die'.\"\n\"Or 'backed into a corner',\" Tsume remarked, putting\na hand on her hip. \"This setback could make her angry.\"\nVinge actually smiled. \"That's what I'm trying to\ndo.\"\nTsume blinked her brown eyes several times before\nstepping back from him. \"You scare me sometimes,\" she remarked.\n\"Anger is fuel,\" Vinge stated. \"It'll drive you\nforward, and it's a powerful weapon in and of itself, but it's a double-edged\nsword that can just as easily be repelled back at its wielder. I make Assiminik\nangry, she'll start thinking rashly.\"\n\"After building up her pack for so long, you have to\nadmit she's probably really patient,\" Tsume remarked, \"You sure that you can rile\nher up just like that?\"\n\"Perhaps not, but either way she'll have to come up\nwith a decision quickly,\" replied Vinge, \"The longer she waits the worse off\nshe will be. Besides, a strategist hates nothing more than having a carefully\nlaid-out plan go awry; that I can say from experience.\"\nBefore the conversation could progress any further,\nthe two phoenixes saw a winged form coming their way; looking closely they saw\nit was Pavan, descending down from the sky above. Vinge stepped aside as the\nwind phoenix swooped in and soared across the rooftop before angling backward\nand beating his wings in reverse, slowing himself until he could come to a stop\nand land. He landed into a jog, circling around and running up to Vinge.\n\"The wolfie's are on the move,\" he reported. \"They\njust reached Tombstone Park.\"\n\"Ominous name,\" remarked Tsume.\n\"If they've hit the park, they're not far away,\"\nstated Vinge. \"Go back and check their status; if we're lucky they're stopping\nfor a rest. But no matter what you see, do not\nland.\"\n\"What if someone's in trouble?\" Pavan asked.\n\"There would be no one there this time of year,\"\nreplied Vinge. \"So if you see anyone in trouble, it might be a ruse, so if\nthey're not of a species immune to lycanthropy, then they cannot be trusted.\"\n\"Vinge, that's kind of cold, don't you think?\" Pavan\nasked. \"Er... no pun intended; not that time anyway.\"\n\"We've already learned from Buniq that Assiminik is\na master of deception,\" Vinge pointed out. \"She successfully deceived a whole\nInuit village, long enough to infect them all without anyone ever finding out\nwhat she was doing. We can't take any chances.\" He shut his eyes. \"I don't want\nto sound heartless, but you all agreed to make me leader of this team. I am not\nlike Volcan; he thinks with his heart, but I think with my head. \n\"Were there still people in danger out there he\nwould risk his own life to help them all, even if he had to do it alone, and\nyou guys would follow him. But I don't think like that; I will not risk the people\nI lead without good reason. We know what the enemy is, but we don't yet know\nwho they are, and that means we have to be cautious. Let the enemy come to us,\nbut we must not let them draw us in.\"\nPavan tilted his head, crossing his eyes. \"I'm\nworried... I think that almost made sense to me,\" he remarked.\nTsume giggled before raising a hand to tap the side\nof Pavan's head. \"Something up here after all,\" she remarked.\n\"Hey come on...\n~~~~~\n-Meanwhile, east of Dawson\nCity-\n            The convoy of soldiers, all aboard\nArmoured Personnel Carriers and light vehicles with mounted guns, rolled down\nthe road noisily as they made their way from Fort Coldspine to Dawson City.\nThey were briefed only in that there was a possibly Lycanthropy outbreak moving\ntowards the city, and that they were to sterilize the threat. Armed with\nexplosive weapons -grenade launchers, namely, and high-powered equipment, they\nsped down the road as fast as the APC's could muster, urged on by the threat.\n            At the lead, the driver of the first\nvehicle, along with his comrade -both of them wolves, were sharing a bottle of\nwater between the two, and swapping stories about their training days, when\nthey saw a figure in the road and slowly rolled the transport to a stop. They\nstare in wonderment, trying to discern just what it was they were looking at. \nThe figure ahead was... oddly feminine looking, with\nfur as dark as the night, and hair even darker -as black as oil, standing\ncompletely naked in the road, arms crossed over her chest in an attempt to ward\noff the chill of the wind, the shivering and looking ready to fall over at any\nmoment. She was a wolf, like them, tall and athletic, and looked up, lifting\none arm from her chest to wave at them.\n\"What the hell is that lady doing all the way out\nhere?\" The passenger asked.\n\"Maybe we should help her?\" The driver suggested.\n\"Yeah... but just in case, I'm bringing my gun,\" the\npassenger replied, reaching down by his feet to produce an AK-101 -the chosen\nweapon for their mission, and climbed out of the truck, followed promptly by\nthe driver.\nThey approached the wolfess, putting up their arms\nto shield their faces from the wind as they neared her. They tried not to look\nat her sculpted body, exposed for their eyes to see, as they tromped through\nthe snow on the road to reach her, stopping when they were only a few steps\naway. \"Ma'am; are you alright?\" The driver asked. \"What're you doing out here;\nare you in some kind of trouble?\"\nJust like that, the wolfess seemed to stop\nshivering, and slowly turned to face them, the window tossing her hair about\nand concealing most of her face behind it, but one ruby red eye stared at them\nfrom beneaths the dense locks. \"Not at all,\" she replied, her voice heavily\naccented. \"But you just might be, soldiers.\"\nBefore they could ask what she meant by that, she pulled\nher other hand away from her chest, raising a queer-looking, evidently\nhome-made device, with a blinking red light on the front. She pressed a button\nwith her thumb, and suddenly the wind was drowned out by deafening explosions.\nThe two soldiers whirled around, seeing their entire\nconvoy going up in flames. The APC's, sturdy enough to withstand the blasts,\ntoppled over with all of their tires ruptured and the armour plating warped and\nscarred by the blast. However, the lighter armoured jeeps were not so\nfortunate, the gas flowing through them igniting when the flames of the concealed\nexplosives found them. They watched in horror as several of their comrades in\nthe vehicles were caught in the blast.\nThe passenger turned his rifle on the wolfess,\ntaking aim straight for her skull with the barrel of his gun. \"You bitch!\" He\ngrowled.\nThe wolfess moved her head out of the way, less than\na second before the muzzle flash, and in one single blinding movement she\ndelivered an inverted kick directly to his face, sending a tooth flying as her\nheel struck his face. The driver went for his sidearm, only for her to grab the\ngun just as he slid it free of its holster, stopping it, and then with a\nsingle, pointed finger, she struck his eye. The finger was tipped by a claw\nthat should not have been there, and it buried deep into his eye, making him\nscream in agony and drop his pistol.\nBy now, the other soldiers had already broken open\nthe doors of the fallen APC's and were scrambling to get out, but the first\nones to exit were suddenly grabbed and pulled out of view, hollering in terror.\nTheir comrades, rushing out with rifles in hand, saw that they had been\nblindsided by a pack of werewolves hiding in the snow who were now leaping out\nlike trapdoor spiders when prey was near, and throwing themselves upon the\nsoldiers. Any who were human or canine-species were dragged to be bitten, but\nthose were not were killed where they stood.\nGunfire filled the air as the Canadian soldiers\nfought back; a few lycans went down, but there were too many for the platoon,\nespecially with their heavy weapons lost and having already been surrounded by\nenemies, they were swiftly overwhelmed by superior numbers and the element of\nsurprise.\nThe passenger soldier, after recovering from the\nkick to the face, tried to sit up, but was suddenly seized by the wolfess, who,\nin an impossible feat of strength despite there being no way she could be that\nstrong naturally, lifted the male wolf up with minimal effort, tactical gear\nand all, by his throat. He choked as she held him up there, but her grip\nloosened after a moment and she brought him almost nose-to-nose with her, a\ndiabolical grin on her face.\n\"Welcome to the pack, soldier,\" she said, flashing a\nmouthful of sharp teeth.\nThe soldier could only cry out in pain as she bit\ndown on his neck hard enough to draw blood...\n~~~~~\nBOOM!\n(Play Halloween Music 'Night of the Werewolf' by Brandon Fiechter on\nYoutube)\nIt was distant, and not that loud, but it was enough\nto catch the ears of the three avians, turning in the direction of the\nexplosion to see a column of fire and smoke rising into the sky from the main\nroad reading towards town. They stared in stunned silence for a moment, before\nthe sound of gunfire reached their ears, and that was when Vinge and Pavan took\nto the skies, leaving Tsume to go tell the other as they departed with all\nhaste.\nPavan stirred up a wind tunnel for them, generating\ncurrents of air that they could ride on with their wings, carrying them forward\nwith greater speed than Vinge could fly on his own. Pavan, during the flight,\nlifted his whip from his shoulder, making sure he had it ready for what would\nlikely be a fight soon. Vinge didn't voice it, but as they soared towards the\npoint of the explosion, he had a sinking suspicion he knew what they were going\nto find...\nIt took only moments for them to come in sight of\nthe destruction, just in time to see a soldier falling from the grasp of a\ntall, lean female, while numerous other soldiers were mauled by scores of\nlycanthropes. Without a moment of hesitation, they descended, landing near the\nfemale wolfess as she stood over the soldier; the sound of their feet hitting\nthe snow caught her attention, and she whirled about to face them, her\nextra-long hair whipping about as she turned.\nAs soon as Vinge saw those ruby-red eyes glaring\nback at him, he immediately knew just who it was he was looking at...\n\"Assiminik,\" he said, his voice low.\nThe wolfess' eyes widened with clear intrigue as she\nheard that name come from the beak of someone who she had never seen before.\n\"So you know the name given to me by the Inuit?\" She asked; Vinge immediately\ndetected an accent in her voice, and kept listening, hoping he could place it\nif he heard more. \"Interesting... that can only mean that you've encountered a\ncertain werecat, da?\"\nAt 'da', Vinge immediately identified the accent.\n\"Russian,\" he whispered, before he replied. \"So what if I have?\"\n\"Well... you have seen my face now,\" replied the\nwolfess. \"By all accounts, I should kill you just as I will soon kill her when\nI find her.\" She smiled. \"But... having phoenixes on my side would be a fine\naddition to the army I am building, so I...\"\n\"Save it,\" Vinge interjected. \"You're going to try\nand make a deal with us; to spare us or offer us a place in your so-called\n'army' in exchange for us telling you where to find the werecats.\" He scoffed.\n\"You can go right to hell, bitch.\"\n\"Whoa... hearing that kind of talk from you, Vinge?,\" Pavan remarked.\n\"Not now!\" The ice phoenix hissed.\n\"Well, you're correct about the offer to join me,\"\nreplied Assiminik. \"But if you're going to refuse that, then I can't spare you\neven for information.\" Her face contorted into a scowl. \"None may know my\nsecret, not yet... so you two will have to die.\"\nSeveral of the lycans that had gathered behind her\nstarted to advance, but Assiminik put up her hand. \"Nyet,\" she stated. \"I will\nhandle this myself.\"\n\"You, against two phoenixes, lady?\" Pavan asked.\n\"Look, you're damn hot... and... naked, but we killed a chunk of your pack\nyesterday, all of them in werewolf form, and then all of you got run off by\nAisuours. You think you can take us all by yourself?\"\nAssiminik only grinned. \"Come and find out then, nemnogo gavno,\" she returned.\nPavan tilted his head curiously. \"Erm... what did\nshe say?\" He asked.\n\"She just called you a 'little shit',\" replied\nVinge.\n\"...Oh, it's on now.\"\nVinge glanced at Pavan. \"Don't underestimate her;\nshe may be more dangerous than she looks.\"\n\"If she's even half as dangerous as Tsume, then I'll be worried,\" retorted Pavan,\nbefore he let out a whoop and lashed out his whip at Assiminik.\nWith blinding speed, and impossible reflexes, the\nwolfess actually caught the end of the whip before it could fully snap out,\nbarely even batting an eye as it was caught in her palm. Pavan gawked, and then\nAssiminik grabbed the whip with her other hand, yanking it from his grasp\nbefore she whirled about in a fully spun, and the handle end of the whip flew\naround and struck Pavan while he was still staring, making him reel with the\nslightly heavier and tougher grip of the leathery weapon.\n\"Ow... okay, eating my own words now,\" remarked\nPavan, laying in the snow.\nVinge drew his ropera, twirling it in his hand\nbefore, with a wave of his other, he formed a dozen ice spheres from the snow\nat his feet, raising them to float around them as he stepped towards Assiminik.\nWhen he was halfway to her, he cast the spheres her way, sending all of them\nhurling towards her one at a time. She dodged the first, the second, the third,\ntook a graze to the hip by the fourth, dodged the next three with a leap,\ntaking the eighth in the arm but barely flinching, and then dropped to all\nfours, avoiding the last ones, before she sprang at Vinge, leaping like...\nwell, a werewolf, but she was still in anthro form, even as she hurtled across\nthe air at him like an owl swooping in for the kill.\nVinge spun away, leaping out of her path, and as she\nregained her balance, he stabbed his sword at her, aiming for her eye; she\nducked, and then dodged to the right as he thrust the blade at her again. She\nmoved in closer; he swung, aiming for her vulnerable neck. She stuck out her\narm, slapping the inside of his wrist to stop his swing, before, in one deft\nmotion, she wrapped her arm around his, twisted herself sharply, and dislocated\nVinge's shoulder.\nVinge hollered in pain, and then grunted as\nAssiminik's knee struck him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. His\nvision went hazy as he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and coughing.\nThe pain was unbelievable, and her speed was unnatural; lycans were fast, but\nshe was still in anthropomorphic form! And the method of her fighting was not\nthat of some beast or brawler; she knew how to inflict harm, with expert\nprecision and brutality alike.\nPavan, now back up, had retrieved his whip and\nlashed it out at Assiminik again, which she once more caught, but as she tried\nto yank it away again, this time Pavan held firm. \"Not this time, toots!\"\nShe grinned, before she pulled even harder, and\nsuddenly Pavan's feet left the ground; he continued to hold onto the whip, even\nas he was swung through the air overhead, but then decided to let go, resulting\nin him being thrown into the sky, but with a quick beat of his wings, he\nregained control. \"Alright; time for the old fly-by dicer!\" He whispered before\nhe drew his khanda, falling into a dive and plunging towards the ground. The\nwind phoenix circled around until Assiminik was in his sights, soaring at her\nfull tilt and rearing back, folding his wings, and whirling himself about; at\nthis velocity, his top-heavy khanda could strike with enough force to cut\nthrough even a wooden beam.\nBut he felt it hit nothing, because even at the\nspeed he was going, Assiminik managed to evade his attack by leaping backward,\narching herself through the air and curling her tail inward to avoid the blade\nas it narrowly whizzed past her feet. She did a full backflip, landing back on\nher feet again, and watched as Pavan, pushing aside his disbelief at\nAssiminik's incredible agility, circled around again and this time, came in\ndirectly, intent on slashing her from the other directly.\nAs soon as he landed and swung, she ducked; strands\nof hair were taken by the blade but no harm befell Assiminik herself, and just\nas Pavan started to do his spin to attack her again, she lunged forward,\nthrowing herself into his back and lashing her arm across his neck, bringing\nher arm against his windpipe and applying pressure. In that instant, Pavan\ncould not breathe; he dropped his sword and grabbed her arm, trying to pull it\noff, but her grip was powerful. Not only was she agile, but she was taller and\nstronger than the Wind Phoenix, and with him unable to move or exhale, Pavan\ncouldn't use his powers.\nAssiminik was grinning even as she choked the Wind\nPhoenix, complete disregard for his life apparent in her eyes. Pavan kept\nstruggling as the pressure against his throat increased, even feebly trying to\nelbow or kick her, though he lacked the flexibility to really land a solid hit,\nand his vision started to darken as his lungs burned for air...\nA razor sharp pain shot across Assiminik's back.\nShe yelled in pain, her grip on Pavan loosening\nenough that he finally pulled her arm away, collapsing to his knees and gasping\nfor breath. She callously kicked him in the side to knock him over, before\nreaching behind her and pulling whatever had stricken her out of her back,\nstaring a sharp needle of solid ice.\nShe leered at Vinge, and saw the Ice Phoenix was\nback on his feet and glaring back at her, his sword now held in his left hand as\nhis right hung uselessly at his side. The ice phoenixes face was contorted in\nboth pain and anger as he faced the wolfess. Assiminik snarled at him, and then\nleapt towards him, and then charged. He waited until she was close, before he\nbreathed a cone of ice from his beak, freezing the ground and causing her to\nslip. She wheeled herself through the air to land on all fours, looking up as\nshe slid towards Vinge, who had his sword pulled back in readiness to stab.\nShe tucked in, rolled, and then delivered a kick\nwith both of her feet right to his chest. The force of her strike was\nimpossible, even for a wolfess of her height, as Vinge was sent flying through\nthe air, landing on his back almost ten feet away, feeling searing hot pain\nacross his ribs, wondering if one of them was broken from the kick. He gasped\nfor breath, and tried to sit up, but Assiminik was on him in a flash instant,\npinning him down and baring her fangs.\n\"Even if you were a canine I would not waste time\nturning you into a werewolf,\" she stated as she held up one paw, claws growing\nfrom her fingers right before Vinge's very eyes. \"You're not worth the trouble;\nI'll settle for that town instead!\"\nAs she raised her paw to eviscerate the ice phoenix,\na gunshot caused her to freeze, and she looked up to see a truck speeding\ntowards the scene, in the back of which was a colossal armoured figure, armed\nwith a machine gun and firing a spray of bullets at the werewolves. Running\nalongside the speeding truck was the great black-furred bear, Aisuours, his\nthundering steps felt even beneath the snow as he charged, fangs bared.\nShe hesitated, and then turned her attention back on\nVinge, still clearly not intent on sparing him, but as she raised her claws\nagain to do the deed, the ground next to her exploded, and the familiar face of\nTsume appeared from the spontaneous hold in the snow leading into the dirt;\nTsume lunged forward with speed surprising even for her, and buried her Katar\ndeep into Assiminik's exposed belly.\nAssiminik howled and leapt away, the katar pulled\nfree in the process, and she clutched the wound with her paw, stumbling\nbackward for a moment as she grit her teeth through the pain. She looked at the\nwound briefly, seeing her blood-soaked paw, and then realized she no longer had\nthe advantage; the werewolves with her were no more numerous than the ones she\nhad the last time she had faced this party, and that bear alone was so powerful\neven twenty lycans counted for nothing.\nImmediately, she began to change, her body growing\nin size rapidly right before the eyes of both Vinge and the battle-ready Tsume\nwho stood over him, keeping herself between the werewolf and Ice Phoenix. They\nwatched as her arms became think and powerful like those of a professional\nbodybuilder, her legs thickening to match as her pawed feet morphed into\nclawed, canine paws. The fur of her body bristled into needles as she fell to\nall fours, and her muzzle thickened and became slightly longer while her hair\nretracted into a spiny mane on the back of her neck.\nHer eyes reopened, revealing those ruby-red orbs\nonce again, and she unleashed a powerful roar. The lycans near the destroyed\nmilitary convoy scattered and ran fled across the countryside, taking a few\nhits from Brent but successfully outrunning the Os-Nàdarra as the truck slid to\na stop near Vinge and Pavan. Aisuours unleashed a powerful roar as the\nwerewolves fled, and the strength of his voice seemed to make them actually\nmove faster.\n\"Cowards,\" he growled.\n            Tsume lowered her weapons, turning\nto Vinge and dropping to his side. \"Are you okay?\" She asked.\n            \"I'll live,\" replied Vinge as she\nhelped him sit up, coughing a couple of times as he did. \"But Dawson City is in\nmore danger than ever now...\"\n            Lighris, after getting out of the\ntruck, turning his attention to the ruined vehicles of the military convoy,\nstepping towards them in disbelief until his foot hit something metallic. He\nlooked down, seeing a large piece of pipe, half destroyed, sitting by his foot.\nHe reached down, picked it up and studied the damage to it, seeing how the open\nend was split like something had burst out from the inside, and knew\nimmediately what he was looking at.\n            \"A pipe bomb,\" he said, before\nturning to the vehicles, seeing the utterly destroyed road beneath them, the\nscattered asphalt, husks of the light vehicles and overturned APC's. \"A few\npipe bombs couldn't do this; she must've had a thousand of them all over the\nroad. This whole section was booby-trapped.\"\n            \"She knew the convoy was coming,\"\nstated Aisuours.\n            \"And\nnot only did she stop it, she increased her ranks again,\" Brent stated as\nhe noticed how very few bodies were actually present on the grim scene. \"We called for help from the freaking\nmilitary and even that didn't stop her.\"\n            \"And now,\" Vinge concluded. \"There's nothing stopping her from\nattacking Dawson before the people can evacuate... nothing, except us.\"\n            Tsume looked at Vinge closely.\n\"But... what can we do?\"\n            Vinge looked at her with a\ndetermined expression. \"I'm still working that part out...\" He replied, grimly.\n~~~~~\n            The air was tense back at the motel\nwhen the Os-Nadarra returned, wondering what to do next. Lighris was on the\nphone with his grandfather once again, while Tsume and Aisuours were seeing to\nVinge and Pavan, helping them while they recovered from their battle with\nAssiminik. A sickening crack filled the room as Aisuours helped Vinge pop his\ndislocated shoulder back into place, and keeping him steady as they waited for\nthe pain to subside.\n            Meanwhile, Tsume was dabbing, with a\nhot cloth, an open cut on Pavan's head, caused by when his whip had struck him\nbefore. In the heat of the conflict he hadn't even noticed the strike had\nactually split skin. \"That bitch was crazy as hell,\" Pavan said. \"I don't know\nif she's more dangerous in lycan form or out of it; she kicked our asses all\nover the place. How the heck could she have been so tough?\"\n            Vinge nodded in thanks to Aisuours\nafter the pain in his arm slowly ebbed away enough that he could do with\nrubbing it to ease the rest, before the ice phoenix proceeded to address the\nothers. \"I don't think she was any ordinary woman, lycanthropy aside,\" said\nVinge. \"The way she moved and the way she attacked; there was technique, skill,\ncalculated precision -it wasn't any martial art I've ever seen before, but it's\nclear to me that she has been trained, and she's been trained well. If it's a\nstyle I didn't recognize, that probably means classified CQC fighting styles\n-Special Operations training.\"\n            \"So you're saying she's a soldier?\"\nAisuours asked.\n            \"Black Ops, maybe, or a Spy,\"\nreplied Vinge. \"She also spoke with a Russian accent and even said some words\nin the language. I think we were right about her being from Europe, but much\nfurther east than,\" he looked at Pavan. \"Transylvania.\"\n            Pavan chuckled nervously.\n            \"So she's from Russia, and clearly\nhas some soldier training,\" said Tsume. \"But why would they send a werewolf? Or\nlet her build a small army of them? I thought spies and Spec. Ops were supposed\nto be discreet.\"\n            \"I don't think she's working for\nthem,\" replied Vinge. \"As you said, she's not being discreet enough to be some\nspy for another country. Maybe she's a rogue, but it's impossible for us to\nknow for sure. All we need to know is that she's coming this way, and by the\ntime Coldspine could send more troops -if they even have any left- Dawson will\nalready be lost and Assiminik will be heading right for Whitehorse.\"\n            At that moment, Lighris returned to\nthe room, pocketing his phone. \"Grandpa Joseph is trying to get his squadron\ndeployed to come up and help us, but he doesn't know how long that'll take, and\neven with F-18's it's going to take him some time to get up here. We're on our\nown for now.\"\n            \"I also spoke to the Michaels,\" said\nBrent, who had just arrived seconds before Lighris had finished his call. \"Duke\nand Nora are going to help with the evacuation but even they say it'll be a\nwhile before everyone can get far enough away.\"\n            \"Then we need a plan and quick,\"\nstated Tsume. \"Some way to stall her...\"\n            Vinge slipped into thought, considering\ntheir options. Assiminik had the advantage in numbers, the Os-Nadarra had no\nsupport, and Dawson was completely without defense for at least a few hours.\nThey already knew that Assiminik was on her way; she had made her intentions\nvery clear when Vinge had been fighting her, but her pack was so many, and the\nOs-Nadarra were but five -six including Aisuours, who had already agreed to\nstay and help. But if Assiminik came with her entire pack to attack the town\neven he would be overwhelmed.\n            It reminded Vinge of one of his\nfavorite studies in history class; the famous Battle of Thermopylae almost two\nand a half millenia ago, where but three-hundred brave warriors of Greece\n-Spartans to be exact, stood against a seemingly endless army bent on conquering\ntheir home, using a narrow pass and drawing the enemy in, forcing them into\nsuch an enclosure their superior numbers accounted for nothing. But there was\nno way to use such a strategy here; the land around Dawson City was rugged,\nwith a river on one side and a massive hill on the other. Nothing short of\nterraforming would change that.\n            Unless...\n            Vinge suddenly rose to his feet, so\nabruptly he caught everyone's attention, especially when they saw that look on\nhis face...\n            \"I have an idea. It's a longshot...\nbut it might work,\" he said, confidently.\n~~~~~\n            Atop the tallest building in Dawson,\nthe members of the Os-Nadarra stood, staring off in the direction of the\ngathering lycans, too far even for their eyes to see yet, but they knew they\nwere out there nonetheless. Dawson City, populated by barely more than a\nthousand people, was their target. It wasn't a big town, and it was in one of\nthe most remote areas of Canada; wilderness, as far as the eye could see.\nSurrounded on all sides by uneven terrain -a river on one, frozen over by the\nwinter, and a small mountain to the other side, over which Assiminik lurked. \n            Vinge stood at the ledge,\ncalculating the exact distance around the city as he prepared to carry out his\nplan. The townsfolk were at the river, evacuating on foot to cross over where a\nsmall caravan of vehicles would take them safely to the south.The others\nshivered in the cold, but Vinge could feel the power in that icy chill flowing\ninto him like a rechargeable battery absorbing electricity, filling him with\nenergy. That power made him feel all the more confident that his plan would\nwork...\n            But just as he took in a deep breath\nand prepared himself for what he was about to do, he felt a tap on his\nshoulder. \"Vinge,\" Lighris' voice spoke.\n            \"Hm?\" Vinge asked, looking over his\nshoulder, and seeing Lighris peering in another direction, pointing with one\narm.\n            He followed Lighris' finger, his\ngaze falling upon the main road out of town, where a peculiar group of humans\n-twenty of them, including one familiar cougar woman, could be seen walking\ninto the village, all of them wrapped in cloaks both for modesty and for\nstaving off the cold as they stepped into the town. Buniq was looking straight\nat them, an expression of determination across her features.\n            She motioned for her party to stop,\nand then approached the Os-Nadarra, looking up at them from below. Vinge stood\nat the edge of the building for a moment before opening his wings and hopping\nover the side, beating the limbs several times to slow his drop to the ground\nuntil he landed in front of her.\n            \"Buniq,\" he said with a respectful\nnod. \"What brings you here?\"\n            \"We're here to help you,\" she said.\n            Vinge tilted his head at that. \"But\nyou said you didn't want to fight.\"\n            \"We don't,\" replied Buniq, looking\nover her shoulder at her followers. \"But these men and women followed me\nvoluntarily. We have all come to accept that if we don't stand up to Assiminik\nnow, we may never be rid of her; she has chased us for five years, never\nquitting, never giving up. Eventually, we will run out of places to run.\" She\nturned back to face Vinge. \"Either with our death, or hers, the chase ends\ntoday.\"\n            \"You're not afraid she'll find your\nvillage?\"\n            \"Everyone who ever saw her face is\nhere with me today,\" she replied. \"We also travelled over the mountains when we\nleft the valley, and there's a fresh blanket of snow covering the land there\nthat will hide old scents. She'll never find the valley. Even if she did, I've\nturned leadership over to someone in the village whom I trust; if we do not\nreturn in the next day, they are to lead the others away from there.\"\n            Vinge caught on to the meaning of\nher words by the sad tone in her voice, and the way her gaze faltered. \"You\ndon't believe you will be returning at all, do you?\"\n            \"Live or die... they are not my\npeople,\" replied Buniq. \"I've never been one of them... even if they accept me,\nto this day I still feel like I don't belong with them.\"\n            \"So what will you do?\"\n            \"Assuming Assiminik doesn't kill me?\nI have not thought of it yet,\" replied Buniq. \"Spirits willing that I do live, perhaps I'll decide then.\" She\nshook her head. \"But, enough talk; we are ready for battle, whatever the\noutcome.\"\n            Vinge nodded. \"I have a plan that\nmay help us,\" he said.\n            \"What about the people here in the\ntown?\" Buniq asked.\n            \"They're evacuating as we speak,\"\nreplied Vinge. \"The town police force is getting them out on the western side,\nover the Yukon River, where they'll turn south. Assiminik should not see them\nleaving until she already reaches the town. That is where my plan comes in.\"\n            Vinge opened his wings, beating them\ntwice before he jumped and flew back up to the building, returning to his\noriginal place on the roof. Buniq, using her natural agility, leapt up to the\nnearest windowsill, pulling herself up to it, before jumping the rest of the\nway up to the building, curious to see what it was Vinge would do. She climbed\nover the side, walking over to stand by the others as they waited, seeing Vinge\nshut his eyes and begin to focus.\n            The blowing snowflakes in the wind\nseemed to change course, moving against the very air currents themselves as\nthey flew over to Vinge, imbedding themselves into his feathers. By the second,\nhis feathers seemed to become brighter, until soon his feathers appeared to\nactually be glowing. The others could sense the energy he was building up,\ndrawing on the power of his natural element, until it was so oppressive that\nthey felt as though their friend might explode.\n            \"Odin... give me the strength to\naccomplish my mission,\" whispered Vinge, but Aisuours caught it, thanks to his\nkeen hearing.\n            \"Odin? The Norse God?\" He asked.\n            \"What, we didn't mention Vinge was\nPagan?\" Tsume asked.\n            \"I thought that was a dead\nreligion,\" returned Aisuours.\n            \"Not to people who've been alive\nsince those gods were still worshipped, like his...\" Tsume caught her words,\nand then whispered the next. \"His father.\"\n            Aisuours gathered by her hushed tone\nthat the subject of Vinge's father was touchy, and did not press for any\nfurther information. He kept watching, waiting to see what would happen...\n            Finally, Vinge raised his arms,\nholding them out to the left and right, facing the north and south of Dawson\nCity, and from his hands erupted streams of snow and ice, billowing out as if\nreleased from a compressed state and streaming over the buildings towards the\nedges of town, arcing through the air before angling down to strike the ground,\nand beginning to form into solid matter, forming into ice at a rapid rate. The\nice began to spread and increase in density, and began to take form\n            The others watched in awe as they\nwitnessed Vinge's display of power, none of them ever having known he was\ncapable of such a feat. As they watched, the ice forming at the edges of the\ntown became as high as the buildings within moments, and spreading all around\nthe perimeter of the town itself, like a ring of fire following a fuel line -in\nthis case it was ice, but it was no less incredible to witness. The ice lined\nitself along the entire side of the town facing the east, lining the foot of\nthe mountain and encasing the very trees themselves in ice, leaving no opening\nto be found.\n            The wall continued to rise until\nthey were more than thirty feet high -too high for any lycanthrope to jump\nover, which would force them to climb Every minute he did this felt like an\nhour to Vinge, but he held firm, driven on by his determination and the power\nof the elements all around him. He summoned strength from the snowflakes, the\nsnow on the ground, the cool air itself, and the moisture of it all around him,\nfilling him with power, but his stamina was draining faster than he could\nreplenish his elemental energy...\n            Vinge finally stopped, his arms\nfalling limp at his sides as he stood, struggling to breathe, and opened his\neyes. He looked so tired, one might think he had not slept in days, the hue of\nhis feathers had dimmed slightly, indicating that not only was he out of\nbreath, but he had forced himself beyond his limits and nearly drained himself\nto the last reserves of his elemental essence...\n            \"Vinge, are you...?\" Tsume began.\n            She didn't even get to finish before\nthe Ice Phoenix became weak in the knees and started to fall. Pavan was at his\nside in an instant, placing an arm over his chest and bracing himself as\nVinge's weight fell upon him. Vinge's eyes fell shut again, his breathing\nslowed, and he stopped moving...\n            \"Is he alright?\" Buniq asked.\n            Aisuours stepped over, reaching down\nwith one massive paw and taking Vinge from Pavan, holding him gently in both\npaws and raising him to chest level before he leaned down and placed his ear\nagainst Vinge's chest, listening carefully. Within a moment, he pulled his ear\nback, eyeing Vinge respectfully. \"He's alive,\" he said. \"He wore himself out\nwith that feat; he'll be out for hours.\"\n            \"Great, so our leader built us a\nwall and now he's taking a nap?\" Lighris asked, scornfully.\n            \"He gave us an advantage, Lighris,\"\nBrent retorted, glaring at the lightning hawk. \"Look.\"\n            The wall had completely blocked off\naccess from the direction which Assiminik was coming from; even if she climbed\nover the mountain, she could not hope to climb over the wall itself. She would\nhave to go around it, but because of the terrain itself outside of the wall,\nthey would easily be able to see her maneuvers easily. Worst of all -for her,\nis that if she went North, she'd have to climb more mountains to get around,\nbut if she went South, she'd be stuck at the river.\n            \"Son of a bitch,\" said Lighris.\n            \"Exactly,\" said Brent. \"Assiminik\ncan't get to the people leaving the town without going around the wall, and by\nthe time she sees it, she'll have no choice but a frontal attack or to turn\naround and retreat 'cuz she'll know we'll be watching her. Since this wall\ncovers the whole land around the town, she has nowhere to go unless she wants\nto take a dip in the river.\"\n            \"But the river's frozen; it's no\nthreat to her,\" said Tsume.\n            \"It is if she thinks our Ice Phoenix\nis still active,\" said Brent. \"Vinge can shatter the ice on that river with the\nsnap of a finger; she won't risk it. Not even werewolf would be able to handle\nwater that cold.\"\n            \"So a bluff,\" said Lighris. \"Well,\nthere are worse plans to depend on I guess.\"\n            \"The bluff won't last forever,\nthough. We'll still need a perimeter,\" said Buniq. \"Assiminik will look for another way in, and if her\nwolves circle all the way around and find out the river isn't a threat to them,\nshe'll flank us.\" She looked at Lighris. \"You could hold them back.\"\n            \"Lady, I barely take orders from\nVinge or my brother; why should I\nlisten to you?\"\n            \"Lighris, shut up and let the woman\ntalk,\" Aisuours growled, coldly. \"She sounds like she knows what she's doing,\nso let's give her a chance and hear her out.\"\n            Lighris grunted. \"Fine, but I don't\nhave to like it...\"\n            \"Lighris and...\" She loomed at\nPavan.\n            \"Pavan,\" replied the wind phoenix.\n            \"Pavan. You two will patrol the wall\nfrom the air; attack the lycans as they climb the wall,\" Buniq explained.\n\"We'll use the high ground to our advantage but we have to keep the numbers\nthin at all costs, and not let any of them go over the other side of the wall,\nwhatever the cost.\"\n            \"Any idea how we stand on a big wall\nof ice?\" Brent asked. \"My armour's\nboots don't have slip-resistant soles on it.\"\n            \"I'll take care of that part,\" said\nTsume. \"Dirt sticks to ice pretty well and gives grip; s'why they cover the\nsnowy roads in gravel during the winter time. I'll also need some help digging\nup some stones to use; I don't think katars and knives will be very helpful\nagainst eight-foot wolves, so it's up to my terra powers.\" She gave Brent a wry\nlook. \"Just the same, though, try not to run around too much.\"\n            \"In this cold? Can barely move at\nall,\" Brent reminded.\n            \"Enough chatter,\" stated Aisuours,\nraising his nose into the air and taking in a deep breath. \"I smell werewolf...\nthey're coming.\"\n            Buniq's brow furrowed deeply. \"Then\nwe need to get into position,\" she stated firmly. \"Prepare to defend the town!\"\n~~~~~\n            The team spent the next hour\npreparing for the defense of Dawson City, gathering whatever they could use for\nprotecting the town. Dirt was scattered across the top of the wall to give the\nteam grip, and stones were also placed to allow Tsume to fight at a distance\n-on top of the wall, she would be off the ground and her powers would be\nweakened. Not that she could do much with the frozen ground anyway, so she was\nleft with that, and to be an extra pair of hands for Brent if his gun jammed or\nneeded to be reloaded.\n            Twenty-one werecats lined the wall,\nevenly spread out, with Aisuours, Buniq, Brent and Tsume forming at the very\ncenter. Above, Lighris and Pavan circled overhead, waiting for the ideal moment\nfor them to join in the imminent battle and assist.\n            Prior to forming on the wall, the\ngroup had taken Vinge to a motel -not the one belonging to Duke Michaels, but\nto the Inn in the town itself, where they left him in a barricaded room where\nhe'd be able to rest and recover from his act of building the wall; the act\nthat, hopefully, would give them a chance against the odds they faced.\n            The wind was slow, but cold, chilling\nall of them to the bone as they stood waiting for the coming lycanthropic\nthreat. The townsfolk were nearly evacuated, and would need no more than a few\nhours to get to a safe distance and escape; hopefully by then, the expected Air\nForce support would arrive, and sterilize the remnants of the threat. They\nneeded only hold their ground until then.\n            And then, it came; Lighris, flying\nhigh above the town, was the first to spot them -a swarm of black coming over\nthe top of the mountain. Were it not for the eyes in the sky, the lycans could\nvery well have approached the town quietly, with the group never knowing they\nwere there until they were close, but the sharp eyes of the avianic elemental\nspotted them first. With that, he turned about in flight and went into a light\ndive, descending towards the wall and passing overhead where they could hear\nhim call out his warning.\n            \"They're coming!\" He called before\nhe pulled up and ascended again.\n            \"Everyone, stay strong,\" Buniq called\nout. \"Have courage, and we shall prevail. \" Her voice was filled with strength\nno one else felt, and simply hearing her lifted their doubts slightly. She shed\nher cloak from her body as she began to grow, transforming into her\nAiuranthropic self, becoming taller, broader, and more muscular by the second,\nuntil she was back in her werecat form, dropping onto one forepaw and eliciting\na low growl. \"The time for battle is upon us.\"\n            The other werecats yowled in\nagreement, and stood watching up the mountain for their enemies to appear...\n            Up above, Lighris flew in a few\ncircles, watching the lycans from up high. They had stopped, for some reason,\nand remained standing, unmoving on top of the mountain. Pavan flew up alongside\nhim, following his gaze before glancing over at Lighris. \"Why're they just\nidling up there?\"\n            \"I don't know,\" replied Lighris.\n\"But if this queen-bitch that leads them is as smart as we've been led to\nbelieve, she's probably assessing the situation, trying to find the best way to\nget into town.\"\n            \"Well, that's what we're up here\nfor, right?\" Pavan asked.\n            \"Right,\" returned Lighris, narrowing\nhis eyes in suspicion. \"But I don't like giving some bitch smarter than me time\nto plan.\"\n            Pavan rolled his eyes, chuckling.\n\"Dude, you totally left yourself open to a...\" He paused as he realized Lighris\nwas no longer flying next to him, and looked around for any sign of him, eyes\nwidening as he saw the lightning hawk flying towards the lycans. \"What the bloody hell are you thinking?!\" He\ndemanded.\n            Lighris, without answering Pavan,\nfell into a dive and flew over the mountain top, opening his wings and holding\nthem stiffly to glide over, and mentally commanded his electrical powers to\nmanifest into his wings causing them to crackle wildly with electricity as the\nenergy built into the limbs.\n            He flew low, but not too low, else\nhe might bring himself close enough for the lycans to reach up and claw him.\nSome saw him coming, growled and even attempted to leap at him, but he was\nfast, flying over them with ease, before he unleashed the energy he had stored\nin his wings; the whole area alit with white as bolts of electricity exploded\nfrom his wings, and scattered over the werewolves with destructive power. Many\nfell victim to his strafing attack, convulsing and twitching as they fell to\nthe ground, the electricity coursing through them.\n            \"Yeah!\" Lighris bellowed before\nsoftly banking to the right, circling back around before he flew back up a\nlittle and faced the werewolves, flipping them the bird and cackling. \"Yeah,\npussy-dogs, how do you like them apples, huh?!\"\n            They growled and barked at him,\nbaring their teeth at his insults, but he did not let up despite their threats.\n\"You're all taking orders from some bitch? Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't\nyou wolf types follow an alpha male usually?\nI'm really confused, 'cuz your boss don't look like no male to me!\"\n            A stone came flying at his head,\nhurled by one of the lycans; he ducked, his head, watching the stone fly past,\nbefore he resumed his insults. \"Oh a stone; like I haven't had rocks thrown at\nme before. That all you got? You throw stones, I throw this!\" He jabbed his arm\nforward with fingers outstretched, sending another lightning bolt into the mix;\nhis plan was working, the lycans were getting angry. If he could stir them into\ndisorder, and Assiminik couldn't direct them, they would be much easier to deal\nwith.\n            \"Am I making you guys mad?\" Lighris\nasked, cockily, before he bellowed out in a forced voice of rage. \"Well then\ncome and get me if you got the balls for it!\"\n            With that, he wheeled about, facing\nthe slanted side of the mountain, and dove, avoiding another rock being thrown\nat him, and his retreat spurred the lycans into action; they broke away from\nAssiminik despite her commands, and chased Lighris down the slow; easily fifty\nof them, giving in to their primal rage and chasing the lightning hawk.\n            Lighris flew towards the wall,\ncupping his hands around his beak and yelling at the top of his lungs as he\nflew over. \"Incoming!\"\n            \"Crazy\nbastard!\" Brent cursed.\n            \"He may have actually had an idea;\nthose lycans have broken from the main group!\" Tsume declared. \"Let's pick them\noff before they regroup!\"\n            Brent nodded his head -as much as he\ncould with the neck of his armour not being articulated. He elevated his\nmachine gun arm, flashes of white-yellow erupting from the barrel of his gun,\nfollowed by the rampant, loud shots of the gun itself filling the air. Tsume\nwaved her hand, elevating one of the stone in the pile by her leg and launched\nit terrakinetically with a thrust of her arm towards the lycans, sending it\nflying like a cannonball. Her aim was true; the stone thudded into the face of\na werewolf with such for that it actually knocked them from on their forepaws\nto on their back.\n            As the first wave approached the\nwall, Lighris made his move, flying over the pack in a strafe and dropping\nlightning bolts on them, cast from his hands; several of his blasts missed, but\nthose that landed killed the lycans instantly, or at the very least left them\nstunned and easy pickings for Brent's gun. Those that avoided Lighris'\nonslaught leapt at the wall, throwing themselves into the cold, rock-hard ice\nand slammed their claws in with enough force to leave indents they could hook\nthemselves onto. With their claws holding them to the wall, they began to\nclimb.\n            Now it was Pavan's turn; he the Wind\nPhoenix swooped down out of the air and blew across the wall full speed, faster\nthan a peregrine falcon in dive he brought with him a heavy backdraft of\ngale-force wind that peeled most of the lycans off of the wall and sent them\nfalling back to the ground, some even landing on their fellow pack mates. Those\nwho managed to hold onto the ice and continue climbing did not get far, for the\ninstant they poked their heads up over the edge, they were met with the paw of\na werecat striking them across the face with outstretched claws, or, for one\neven more unfortunate wolf, the massive paw of Aisuours, which sent them\ncartwheeling through the air for nearly a hundred feet. \n            With the combined onslaught, the\nnumbers of the werewolves fell rapidly, until only a dozen were left. With\ntheir numbers so easily reduced, the remaining lycans fled back up the mountain\nto regroup with the remainder of the pack. So far, the group had suffered no\nlosses, and no injuries, with all of the damage on the side of the enemy.\nStill, that had been at least fifty werewolves; Tsume and Brent had used many\nof the stones and bullets already. Brent took the opportunity to check his\nrounds, finding he had only seventy rounds, give or take, left out of a\nmagazine of more than two hundred.\n            \"We did them some harm, but they are\nnot finished yet,\" Buniq informed, her voice as strong as ever even with her\ntorso covered in blood; she had felled one of the lycans herself, and her\ngreater confidence at their chance for success carried in her words, inspiring\nher fellow werecats and even filling Tsume, Brent and Aisuours with more\ncertainty. \"Do not falter; we need only hold them a little longer!\"\n~~~~~\n            Assiminik was impressed.\n            The strangers defending Dawson had\ndug themselves in well, and were putting up much more of a fight than she had\nexpected; they had even provoked some of her pack into breaking ranks and\nchasing one of them directly into the kill zone -an act of which she made an\nexample out of one of the returning survivors, clawing him across the face and\nnearly taking one of his eyes, warning the rest that if they ever disobeyed her\nagain, or compromised their strength like that, their fate would be far worse.\n            She also had seen the werecats, who\nhad allied themselves with the town defenders, and were now part of the force\nstanding between her and her triumphant takeover of Dawson City -just the first\nstep in her conquest of the Canadian Territories. But she still had the issue\nof now there being three people who knew her face; nobody could know who she\nwas, or where she came from. And the only way to guarantee their silence was to\nkill them. Fortunately, all three of those offenders were all in one place.\n            But now, she was faced with the task\nof attempting to overcome the defense those offenders had set up. She stared\ndown the mountain, studying the wall carefully. It was not just the wall that\nwas an issue, or the defenders upon it, but the terrain. She could not flank\nthem from this height; they would see her pack moving towards the north end;\nthe wall was not higher than the mountain, and climbing onto the wall from that\nend would be as simple as stepping off of a bus. But again, the terrain worked\nagainst her; there were trees covering the mountain but not enough to hide her\npack in their shadows.\n            She grinned toothily, though, as she\nunderstood it would not require her entire\npack to overcome the defenders on the wall...\n~~~~~\n            \"What're they waiting for?\" Aisuours\nasked, staring suspiciously up the mountain at the werewolves, who had remained\nidle and quiet for what felt like a long time. \"Do you think she figured out\nwe've just been stalling her?\"\n            \"If\nthat's the case, she'll leave, right?\" Brent inquired.\n            \"No,\" Buniq replied plainly. \"She's\nplanning; probing the defense for a weakness.\"\n            \"How can you tell?\" Tsume asked. \"If\nshe sees the townsfolk have already left her entire purpose of raiding Dawson\nis gone, right?\"\n            \"But there's still the problem of\nyou,\" replied Buniq, glancing at Tsume. \"And of me. Someone in your group has\nseen her true face.\"\n            Tsume arched an eyebrow. \"How did\nyou know that?\"\n            \"I would know her smell even if I\nwere deprived of it for thirty summers; I detected it on the ice and wind\nphoenixes,\" replied Buniq. \"Was it in lycan form she faced them, or as her real\nself?\"\n            Aisuours looked up at the sky,\ntowards the two avians circling overhead. \"Pavan said she fought him and Vinge\nin her true form,\" he replied, before looking at Buniq again. \"You're saying\nshe's not just here for the townsfolk then?\"\n            \"They are her secondary objective\nnow,\" replied Buniq. \"Assiminik does not want anyone to know who she truly is;\nwhen she first arrived in my village she claimed she didn't remember who she\nwas -she pretended to have amnesia but I understand now she did not want us to\nknow her name. After transforming most of the village into her servants she\nchased us for years, because we know her secret. Now two among you know what\nshe looks like, and she will not rest until they have been rendered silent.\"\n            \"In other words, she's going to keep\nchasing Vinge and Pavan until she kills them,\" said Tsume. \"As if Calhoun\nwasn't giving us enough trouble?\"\n            \"A story behind that, I suppose?\"\nBuniq asked.\n            \"Oh you have no idea, sister,\"\nreplied Tsume.\n            \"Cut the chatter,\" Aisuours stepped\nin. \"They're moving again; I think the whole pack is coming this time.\"\n(Play 'Werwolf' by Charon Exkadi)\n            The others followed his gaze, and\ncould see the lycans were on the move again, spreading their line wide and\ntightly packed as they began to move down the hill at a brisk pace, moving\nsideways only to dodge trees as they descended. The line formed by them was\nonly two lycans deep, but it was seventy-five wide -wider than the row of\ndefenders atop the wall, and with their thinned formation, they were harder to\nhit as Lighris would find as he swooped down for another attack, casting a bolt\nof lightning that went astray, and found only one target out of the cluster.\n            Soon, the lycans reached the wall,\nleaping and digging their claws into the ice to begin climbing. Tsume dropped\nwhat stones she had left upon them, and Brent stood at the ledge to rain\nammunition upon them. Pavan came in for his attack, rushing across the wall as\nbefore to blow off some of the werewolves; those that fell had to start their\nclimb over again, but it delayed them. Those that didn't, however, sprang over\nthe ledge and engaged the werecats on the wall.\n            The battle turned to fang and claw,\nwith the two therianthropic species ripping into one another. Howls and yowls\nfilled the air as the beastly creatures fought, with the others keeping up\ntheir efforts; Lighris joined the defenders on the wall, as he could no longer\nuse lightning bolts to attack without striking the wall itself, and so switched\nto his long sword, charging electricity into the blade as he fell upon a lycan\nand stabbed them with a downward thrust, sending electricity coursing through\ntheir body while simultaneously impaling vital organs. With that, he pulled his\nblade free and joined the battle.\n            Aisuours engaged several werewolves\nat once as they came over the wall; the first he easily dispatched with a\nbackhanded blow that sent them flying, but the other blindsided him, leaping\nonto his shoulder and ripping into flesh with their claws; Aisuours growled,\nand after kicking away the next lycan charging him, he leapt up, turned over,\nfell upon the wall with such force the ice barrier shook, crushing the lycan\nunder his greater mass, before he leapt back to his feet and re-engaged the\ngrowing number of werewolves.\n            Brent had already run out of ammo\nagainst the werewolves, and Tsume had no time to help him reload, so instead,\nhe was letting the lycans wear out their claws against his military-grade steel\nplating, which not even they could tear through, and occassionally bludgeoned\none of them with his gun or left arm. Tsume was moving and dodging a werewolf\nchasing her, now forced to use her katars and knives again, and she managed to\nget under its guard and stab it in the chin from below, impaling its brain in\nthe process. Before it could collapse on her, she shoved it over the wall, and\nprepared for the next one.\n            She was then blindsided by another,\nhowever, and fell onto her side as it tackled her. She scrambled to get back up\nbut the lycan was on her before she could. However, before it could attack her,\nan easily recognized whooping filled the air. \"Chop-chop!\" Pavan called as he\nsoared past, folding his wings and spinning himself with such force that he\ntook the werewolves' head clean off with his khanda, unintentionally leaving\nTsume covered in the blood of the lycan, but better that than her own.\n            \"Thanks Pavan!\" Tsume called.\n            \"No problem!\" Pavan called back\nbefore something caught his eye. He unfurled his wings and caught a wind\ncurrent to stop himself from straying too far as he squinted towards the north\nend of the wall. He widened his eyes again, this time with pupils retracting as\nhe used his telescopic vision to get a better look at the wall, before his eyes\nwidened further, this time with shock.\n            \"Ohshitohshit! Guys, they're\nflanking us!\" Pavan called.\n            Tsume and Brent followed where Pavan\npointed, and quickly saw the lycans on the wall; they had failed to notice a\nsplinter group moving under the cover of the trees on the mountain and now\nthere were over a dozen coming at them from the north, about to climb onto the\nwall and charge them.\n            \"Tsume,\nI need a reload, hurry!\" Brent called.\n            Tsume rushed over, picking up the\nspare box magazine for Brent's gun as she did, and was at his side. He walked\nher through the reload process, starting with ejecting the empty magazine,\nattaching the new one, and then chambering the first round; it was different\nfrom an assault rifle as the gun Brent had was belt-fed, so rather than pulling\nback on a catch, she had to open up the top of the gun and lay the first round\nin place before shutting it again. After that, Brent was ready to go.\n            The lycans coming from the north\nwere coming fast; Brent turned to face them and fired, unleashing a hall of\nbullets from his gun; on the narrow top of the wall, they were easier targets,\nthe first three at the front dropping quickly, but the rest started to weave\nside-to-side, making it harder to land a shot. Tsume stood at Brent's side,\nwhile Pavan landed to take position at his other, and with a slapping motion of\nhis left hand, Pavan hit the next leading werewolves with a force of wind that\nsent them over the side.\n            However, when they were close\nenough, one of them sprang, leaping clear over its brethren and launching\nitself towards the trio. Tsume saw the flying werewolf too late for Brent to\nreact; it fell at them, and slapped his gun aside before landing and, with\nanother swipe, broke off the box mag and sent all of his spare ammo tumbling\nover the wall.\n            \"Shit!\"\nBrent cursed; he tried using the round the remained chambered to shoot the\nwerewolf, only to have his arm seized, and then he was lifted off the ground\nand thrown over the wall; the hyena screamed in such surprise he blew out the\nspeaker of his armour before crashing through the roof of a house. \nFollowing the attack, the werewolf turned to face\nTsume and Pavan, and they saw the ruby-coloured eyes staring back, immediately\nknowing whom it was they faced.\n            \"You bitch!\" Tsume spat before she\nlunged at the werewolf, stabbing at her with a katar, but the deceptively swift\nlycan dodged Tsume's attack and swiped her with a claw, which she only narrowly\nevaded.\n            Pavan attacked next, lashing out\nwith his whip; it cracked the air next to  Assiminik, making her blink, and it was then\nhe lunged in to attack, but she saw through his trick and kicked him hard in\nthe ribs, the Wind Phoenixes' eyes going wide as the air was knocked out of his\nlungs and he was sent over the wall as Brent had. Reacting fast, Tsume launched\nherself off of the wall, grabbing Pavan and turning around while clutching his\nbody to hers, bracing herself.\n            'This\nis going to hurt!' She thought as she fell.\n            She hit the ground, finding herself\nsandwiched between frozen dirt and wind phoenix as she hit; such a fall\nwould've shattered the hollow bones of Pavan, but Tsume was a flightless bird,\nand despite how hard she landed, her bones didn't even give -although she was\nstill stunned by the landing, she and Pavan were okay.\n            Buniq was now aware of the flanking\nattack, and the moment she saw Assiminik, a boiling rage welled up from within\nher; she turned on the lycan wolfess, and charged. Assiminik, oblivious to\nBuniq's oncoming attack, was leaping down from the wall to finish off Pavan and\nTsume, when right out of midair, Buniq tackled her, the both of them crashing\nthrough the wall of the very same house where Assiminik had dropped Brent\nbefore. They tumbled through the room they entered, rolling entangled in one\nanother before going through a window on the other side, which sent them\ntumbling down to the ground.\n            Assiminik quickly threw off Buniq\nand scrambled back to her own feet, as did her opponent, and they faced each\nother. Buniq's stare was filled with rage as it met the gaze of the werewolfess,\nboth of them snarling with challenge as they stared each other down.\n            \"I have finally caught up to you,\"\nAssiminik growled ferally.\n            Buniq growled back. \"Today is the\nday you pay for everything you have done,\" she declared.\n            Assiminik grinned toothily back at\nthe werecat. \"You already know you cannot defeat me, Buniq,\" she retorted. \"You\nhave the spirit of a hunter but I am made to kill.\"\n            Buniq didn't reply, simply glaring\nat Assiminik as she readied herself for the inevitable battle that would\nunfold...\n(Play 'Through the Heart of\na Nation', Ace Combat 6 soundtrack)\n            A sound filled the air, like a\nwhooshing noise, but sharper and more distant. The ears of both Assiminik and\nBuniq rose as the sound reached them, stopping their growling to better listen\nas it drew closer. Buniq did not know the sound, but Assiminik easily\nrecognized the sound of jet engines. She wheeled away from Buniq and ran out\nfrom behind the house to get a better look at the sky, and she saw them,\napproaching from the west, fast and deadly.\n            Military jets.\n~~~~~\n            Joseph MacAingeal,  gripped the controls of his jet fighter\nfirmly as he and his two wingmen closed in on their target, the trio of F-18\nSuper Hornets humming loudly as they began their attack run. \"Tact-Com 6, this is Hornet-1, closing in on\ntarget area. We have target hostiles in sight. Wind speed, twelve, elevation\ntwo, two, six, one, descending to bombard range.\"\n            \"Copy that, Hornet-1; you are clear to engage.\"\n            \"Roger that, Tact-Com 6; missiles armed and moving in,\" Joseph replied. \"Hornet-3, Hornet-4, you ready?\"\n            \"Roger that, C.W.O; we're ready to blast some lycans.\"\n            \"Negative, Hornet-3; unknown targets in danger close,\nrepeat, unknown targets.\"\n            \"Chief, those friendlies?\"\n            \"Roger that, Hornet-3,\" Joseph replied.\"Take aim at the mountain peak at one-two, target\nelevation twelve-zero-zero; we'll bury the werewolves in an avalanche.\"\n            \"Target confirmed; vector locked in.\"\n            \"Target in range.\"\n            \"Fire at will.\"\n            With whooshing sounds audible even to the pilots, the missiles on their\nundersides ignited their thrusters and launched. \"Two away,\" each pilot reported in as they fired their payloads,\nsending six high-explosive missiles straight for the mountain...\n~~~~~\n            On the wall, the sound of missiles\nbeing fired was heard by the group. Aisuours, at the top of his lungs, bellowed\nout for everyone to get off the wall before he seized Lighris and leapt clear\naway from the top, into the town, followed shortly by the werecats, who quickly\ntook cover amidst the nearest houses. The werewolves on the wall, believing the\nmissiles were intended for them, turned around to duck behind the wall for\ncover, some already fleeing back up the mountain, only to find they had erred\nrather severely.\n            The missiles struck the mountain,\nthree times consecutively and with two missiles each, blowing away rubble and\ndebris upon impact. Some were near enough to be caught in the blast, others\nrendered deaf by the ear-splitting sound of their impact, and were slow to\nreact at what came next. Rock, snow and fallen trees, swept up in a massive\nlandslide, were coming down the mountain towards them. The lycans, panicked,\nran back towards the wall and attempted to climb, but the avalanche reached\nthem first, burying them under thousands of pounds of debris and trapping them\nbetween the wall and the avalanche; even the wall itself caved under the hit,\nburying them further in ice.\n            Some managed to barely escape the\nfury of the attack, only to be ambushed by werecats the moment they stepped\namong the houses, and the Super Hornets overhead pulled away from the pillar of\ndust left by their bombardment, while Assiminik stood, only able to watch in\nhorror as her entire pack was obliterated.\n~~~~~\n            \"Hit\nconfirmed; multiple KC's. Good call, Chief.\"\n            \"Roger that, Hornet-4; break formation and perform sweep.\nSee any stragglers making a break for it, send 'em to hell. Targets in town are\nnot to be engaged, repeat; do not fire upon the town. We've got friendlies down\nthere that can handle the rest. Two circles, then RTB.\"\n            \"Copy that; breaking away.\"\n~~~~~\n            Assiminik stood staring at the ice\nwall in shock and awe, seeing the pile of rubble that now mark the gravesite of\nher werewolves -her army... a force she had spent five years building,\ndestroyed in a single moment. So much work, so much time, so much planning...\nand now it was all for nothing...\n            \"My pack,\" she growled, turning on\nBuniq slowly, the fury apparent in her eyes. \"My forces... my warriors!\" She bared her teeth. \"You did\nthis!\"\n            \"I did not do it alone,\" returned\nBuniq, unyielding in her stare. \"Surrender now, Assiminik; the battle is over,\nand you have lost.\"\n(Play 'Monster' by Skillet)\n            \"I can rebuild my pack,\" retorted\nAssiminik, her muscles tensing. \"But I am going to make sure once and for all\nthat you and your new friends never\nget in my way again!\"\n            Without another word, Assiminik\ncharged, in a blinding surge of speed; she rushed Buniq, and the two clashed,\nripping at each other with their claws and throwing one another all about as\nthey fought, leaving impressions and clawmarks in walls. Many times, they\nstruck each other with their massive paws. At first, Assiminik had the\nadvantage, but as Buniq fought, her superior strength got the edge, eventually\nforcing the werewolf to throw her away from herself to gain some distance.\n            They regained their footing, glaring\nat each other again. Assiminik roared in rage, Buniq roared in hatred, and they\nclashed again, this time Buniq throwing herself at Assiminik, tackling her with\nall of the speed she could muster, sending the werewolf flying backward, but\nnot knocked down; a quick somersault and Assiminik was back up. They closed the\ndistance, once again both of them rearing up onto their hind legs, time seeming\nto slow for both as one paw-strike after another ripped lacerations and tears\ninto their bodies. \n            By now, the other werecats, as well\nas the Os-Nadarra, had gathered and were watching the ensuing battle unfold,\nstaring in awe and silently cheering for Buniq as she fought Assiminik with all\nof her strength, years of desire for vengeance finally being let out of the\nWerecat's heart as they battled. They were evenly matched; despite Assiminik's\nevident professional training, she had given in to her rage, and was no longer\nfighting like a soldier, but as a beast. \nBuniq had been a therianthrope all of her life, and\nfighting like a beast was second nature to her. A trait in which Assiminik\napparently did not share, as her coordinated mind conflicted with the beastly\nurges now overwhelming her; she was off balance, and Buniq seized that\nweakness.\nSoon, she broke Assiminik's guard, and attacked with\na flurry of paw strikes, clawing Assiminik twice across the chest, and then\ndelivered two mighty smacks to her head, one followed by a second -the latter much\nharder than the first- which sent Assiminik flying off the ground, spinning\nabout in midair and landing face-down in the cold snow, letting out only one\nmore exhale of breath before she became silent...\nBuniq stalked towards her fallen adversary, the others\ncheering her victory but pausing as they saw her extend her claws to their full\nlength; they didn't dare try to stop her. If anyone had earned the right to\nkill Assiminik for all that she had done, it was Buniq, for she had lost as\nmuch as anyone else to the werewolf. Even now, images of her bleeding like a\npig were apparent in the mind of the werecat, and she could feel a primal\nhunger rising in her, driving her on.\nBut as she raised her paw to land the killing blow,\nshe willfully stopped herself. Buniq had taken lives before, but always with a\ndifferent purpose -survival, typically, but Assiminik was down, defeated, an\nall Buniq could think about was ending her life. It was not Buniq's thoughts\npresent, she realized; the beast within her was using her rage to take control.\nHer arm shook as it was held over her head, her legs tensing and being pushed\ndeeper into the snow as she fought to keep hold of herself.\nShe couldn't do it. Killing Assiminik would not\nbring her father back; she would still be alone. She would still be the strange\ngirl in a tribe of humans; life would never be as it was before. At the same\ntime, she knew Assiminik would just keep hurting people if she didn't kill her\n-eventually she would indeed make a new pack, and then the hunt would be on all\nover again; Buniq and her people would never be free...\nShe would kill\nAssiminik... but it was not for vengeance. It was for peace...\nBut as her paw began to fall, something fell out of\nthe sky; a black, violet and golden blur, slamming into her with the force of a\nboulder rolling down the slope of a mountain. Her eyes shot wide open as a\nmighty fist struck her chest and sent her flying; she landed on Aisuours, both\nof them sent falling to the ground upon impact, surprising everyone. They turned\nto see who or what had attacked her, and the eyes of the three phoenixes went\nwide in astonishment as they observed the dark avian standing between them and\nthe werewolf.\n\"Seems your hesitation allowed me to arrive in just\nthe nick of time,\" said the avian, grinning deviously as his amethyst eyes\nstared maliciously at them. \"Apologies for the surprise attack, but I'm afraid\nI can't let you kill this woman.\"\n\"A black and purple phoenix that looks exactly like\nVolcan,\" said Tsume. \"You're... Calhoun, aren't you?\"\n\"That would be\nmoi,\" the phoenix returned with a cocky smirk, bowing mockingly at them. \"I\nsee Kumori gave away some information; he really isn't much of a ninja, is he?\"\nLighris stepped forward, glaring at Calhoun with\ndark intent of his own, his yellow eyes filled with murder as he stared down\nthe demented clone of his brother. \"I ought to thank you,\" he said. \"You saved\nme the trouble of looking for you; now for all the misery you caused my kid\nbrother, I can finally put you six feet under.\"\n\"Normally I'd indulge in such a promising fight,\"\nreplied Calhoun. \"But I know when I can or cannot win a battle, and currently\nI'm quite outnumbered, so I'll have to wait for next time.\"\n\"There's not going to be one,\" Pavan declared,\nholding his sword. \"If you have any of Volc's memories, you know for a fact you\ncan't get away; not while I'm here.\"\n\"Clearly you don't remember enough about Volcan to\nknow what I can do,\" replied Calhoun, his eyes glowing bright violet. \"So I'll\nhave to remind you.\"\nAt that, black flames exploded outward from Calhoun,\nenveloping him in a raging inferno of dark fire that the group recoiled from.\nLighris stood his ground, believing his hybrid blood would give him the\nresistance to fire he normally had, but such was not the case here; as the\nflames licked at him, he felt not just burning, but a horrid pain reminscent of\na knife being dug into his arm where the flame touched; he reared back,\ngrabbing his arm in pain as a sinister fog rose up from the point of injury.\n\"That's not fire!\" Pavan exclaimed.\n\"It's fire,\" returned Lighris. \"But it's mixed with\ndark energy; this guy's using a fucking fused element!\"\n            \"By himself?!\" Tsume demanded.\n\"Who's giving him dark energy?\"\n            \"No one; he's a hybrid elemental!\"\nLighris returned.\n            The flames cleared, and Calhoun had\ntransformed, becoming a giant, feral variation of his former self, just like\nVolcan's own feral mode. He let out a screech before opening his wings widely,\nunleashing an inferno from his body that sent the others scrambling for cover,\nigniting the houses before he grasped Assiminik in his talon and took to the\nair, taking off from the ground and flying above the town, heading south and\nleaving the burning village behind, and the defenders to fight the fire\nthemselves...\n            Later...\n            Vinge awoke to find himself being watched by Tsume, Buniq -back in\nanthro form, and Pavan, sitting up carefully and greeting them with a nod as he\nleaned against the back of a bed he couldn't recall ever being in before. But\nsoon the memories flooded back to him; he remembered building a wall around\nDawson City, to stop the werewolves that were coming to the town to infect the\npopulation.\n            Vinge suddenly noticed the injuries\nof his friends, particularly the bandages Buniq was wrapped in around her arms,\nlegs, and probably her torso but she was wearing her cloak again, and Vinge\ncouldn't see. Still the sign of battles were obvious, and he asked the obvious\nquestion.\n            \"What happened?\"\n            \"We managed to fight them off,\"\nreplied Tsume. \"Your wall was a big help; it bought us all the time we needed.\"\n            \"Coldspine sent out some more troops\nto sweep the area; try and find any remnants of Assiminik's pack,\" Pavan added.\n\"We did it, frosty; we won.\"\n            Vinge felt lighter at those words,\nleaning back against the headboard of his bed as he let them sink in. \"Thank\nOdin,\" he muttered, but then posed another question. \"And Assiminik?\"\n            \"She...\" Tsume began, but hesitated.\n\"Well... Calhoun showed up.\"\n            \"Calhoun? What for?\" Vinge asked,\nhis eyes sharp.\n            \"To save Assiminik, apparently,\"\nreplied Tsume. \"He stopped Buniq from killing her, and then left with her. We\nhad to stay to fight a fire he caused and the military jets were long gone. We\ncan only assume she's with him, now.\"\n            Vinge groaned and his finger and\nthumb to his eyes, shaking his head as suddenly is relief was replaced by\ndread. \"Dammit...\" He cursed.\n            \"On the plus side, though,\" Pavan\nchimed in. \"Buniq is coming back with us!\"\n            Vinge looked at Buniq, who blushed\nat Pavan's words. \"I... don't mean to sound like I'm inviting myself,\" she\nassured.\n            \"You've already said goodbye to your\ntribe?\" Vinge asked.\n            She nodded. \"Yes,\" she said. \"We\nlost several of our werecats in the fighting; seven to be exact. Tsume helped\nme bury them,\" she looked at the Earth Phoenix gratefully. \"It's time that I\nmove on... there's nothing for me with them anymore.\"\n            \"Where do you hope to go?\" Vinge\nasked further.\n            \"When Adlartok found me, he said\nthat he also found evidence of the cabin where I was carrying... 'modern\nconveniences' I believe you called them?\" She looked at Pavan. \"Which likely\nmeans I am from the same society as the rest of you; perhaps one day, I can\nlearn who I really am, and find a new purpose.\" She looked between the three\nphoenixes. \"After seeing you all, and your willingness to protect the innocent,\nI feel I would be better served travelling with you.\"\n            Tsume smiled. \"You could be more\nthan that,\" he said.\n            \"Pardon?\"\n            \"While Vinge was out, Buniq, it was\nyou who took leadership of us while we defended the town,\" Tsume explained.\n\"And damn if you were impressive; I think I saw you take out four of those\nwerewolves yourself, not to mention you beat Assiminik. And she's still out\nthere, too; you know her better than us.\"\n            Vinge chuckled light-heartedly. \"I\nthink that's a nomination,\" he said. \"Tsume wants you to join up with us.\"\n            \"I'm all for that!\" Pavan agreed.\n            Buniq looked between Pavan and\nTsume, and then saw Vinge extending his hand to her. \"Then, as temporary leader\nof the Os-Nàdarra Sentinels,\" he said. \"It is my pleasure to invite you to our\nteam; I'm sure Volcan would agree. We can give you a home, companionship and\none day, perhaps even help you find what you want to know about yourself. It\njust so happens we have some friends in high places that might be able to check\nfor you when you are ready to look.\"\n            Once more, the werecat in cougar\nform glanced at each of the phoenixes, clearly conflicted about making such a\ndecision; committing herself to a cause that she could never know where it\nwould lead her. But, she had seen their convictions and resourcefulness\nfirst-hand, and knew that Vinge meant what he said that they could help her\nfind answers... as well as give her a purpose.\n            With only a moment of thought, she\nreached out and grasped Vinge's hand. \"I would be honoured to join you,\" she\nsaid.\n            Vinge smiled back at her, nodding.\n\"Welcome to the Os-Nàdarra, Buniq.\"\n~~~~~\n            Assiminik's eyes sprang wide open as\nshe heard a door opening; she rose out of bed, expecting to find herself in a\nmilitary holding cell or in the back of a convoy truck with guns aimed at her,\nbut instead found herself in a room that looked like it was part of a barracks,\nlying on an old bunk bed -one of four, the rest all sitting empty, covered in\nsilken sheets that, although were slightly dusty it appeared someone had at\nleast made an attempt to clean them.\n            Under the blanket, though, she found\nherself wrapped in bandages, with fresh gauze placed over the wounds inflicted\nupon her by Buniq. Though they had already begun to heal, the blood stains on the\ngauze told her that they had indeed been severe and had bled for some time\nbefore she was patched up.\n            Which still begged the question...\njust who had done so?\n            As if on cue, the door to her room\nopened; she backed up instinctively, pulling out from under the blankets and\npreparing to get to her feet as she watched the stranger enter. An avian with\nfeathers as dark as her hair, with an undertone of bright purple with the eyes\nto match, adorning a golden cuirass with markings she promptly recognized to be\nof Ancient Egyptian origin, older than most known countries and kingdoms of the\nworld, and with matching knee-height greaves and elbow-length bracers. He wore\ngray pants, and appeared to be shirtless, but even though he was unarmed her\nevery instinct told her that the avian was dangerous -perhaps even more so than\nherself.\n            \"I see you are awake,\" the phoenix\nstated.\n            Assiminik didn't reply.\n            \"I would expect you'd have\nquestions,\" the avian said insistently. \"Don't worry; I am not going to harm\nyou. In truth, it was I who saved you.\"\n            \"Why?\" Assiminik asked, plainly.\n            \"You opposed the Os-Nàdarra\nSentinels,\" the avian explained. \"They are my enemies, and would stand in the\nway of the goals I have set out for myself, as they apparently have done to\nyou.\"\n            \"So what; you're proposing an\nalliance?\" Assiminik asked, coldly.\n            \"Sort of,\" the avian replied,\nmaintaining his distance as he crossed his arms, never breaking eye contact\nwith her. \"I am pretty damn sure I can't beat those do-gooders by myself, and I\nknow eventually I would have to face them again to carry out my plans. By\nbattling them, and nearly causing your own lycanthrope pandemic you've already\nshown you have the very kind of resourcefulness and cunning that the team I am putting together will need.\"\n            Assiminik snorted. \"I need no help\nfrom you, avian.\"\n            \"All evidence to the contrary,\nconsidering the state I found you in.\"\n            In a flash, Assiminik was out of the\nbed, crossed the room and stood almost nose-to-beak with the avian. \"Do not\npresume to talk down to me bird; I\ncould kill you without effort.\"\n            Calhoun's eyes glowed brightly,\nbright enough they illuminated her face, and suddenly she became aware of the\nheat emanating from him, which only escalated as dark and purple flames\nappeared on his wings; she backed away, expecting an attack, but he remained\nsteadfast, and simply continued looking at her.\n            \"Not as easily as you think,\" he\nsaid.\n            \"You are a phoenix too?\"\n            \"Indeed, but of a different sort,\"\nreplied the phoenix. \"I am the incarnate of destruction itself, but I do not\nseek to destroy this world. I sense in you a kindred spirit; a woman of\nambition. Why else would you build an army of werewolves?\" He grinned as the\nglow in his eyes faded, and the flames around him went out. \"You have the\nspirit of a conqueror, the strength of a beast and the mind of a master\ngeneral.\"\n            He pointed at himself. \"My power and\nstrength,\" he said, before pointing at her. \"Your cunning and intellect,\" he\ngestured to the side, \"and that of an associate of mine who, presently is a\nlittle... out of touch. The three of us, and more that we may find, can create\na cabal of conquerors, with which we can build our own nation...\" He tightened\nhis hand into a fist. \"And begin our work to take this world, extending our\nreach even further beyond until whole galaxies burn at our feet.\" He arched an\neyebrow. \"Tell me that does not appeal to you,\" he said, almost daringly.\n            But she could not say it didn't...\nbecause this avian was speaking like a man after her own heart. She could not hold\nback the grin that stretched across her features; this phoenix was powerful,\nshe could feel it, he knew the common enemy they now shared and his goals\naligned with her own but he wanted even more than just a world... the very idea\nappealed to her, and made her whole body come alive at the thought.\n            \"Perhaps we can work together,\" she said, nodding. \"Well, given that I owe you\nmight life, I suppose I might repay that debt by at least seeing what you have\nto offer. So then, what do I call you?\"\n            \"You may call me Calhoun,\" replied\nthe avian. \"And you have made a wise choice my lady; you are now on the path to\nbecoming an Overlord of a whole new era.\" He stepped closer to her. \"But I\nnever got your name either; I would like to know the identity of who I will be\nworking with.\"\n            \"The Inuit called me Assiminik,\" she\nreplied. \"But it appears that, at least with you, I need not hide behind an\nalias, so if you so choose, you may know me as Asya Boleslav.\"\n            Calhoun chuckled. \"The name of\nmortals; not befitting for one such as you,\" he said. \"Assiminik will do then.\"\n            They grasped hands, their grips firm\nas their eyes met. \"As of this day forward, let all the world tremble at our\ncoming,\" said Calhoun.\n            \"Tremble, and grovel at our\npassing,\" Assiminik returned.\n            Calhoun grinned. \"Oh I think we are\ngoing to get along just fine, my lady.\"\n            She grinned back. \"Indeed we may,\ncomrade.\"","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/890941-chapter-4-trouble-in-the-north.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/834365-pokemon-qatm-chapter-6.json"}