War of Djinn and Men Part 1.

Aoife takes Angela, barely able to hold her while she remains passed out from her hard work. As soon as I'm free, I turn and exit the house. Sprinting down the big hill, then 30 some yards to the dirt road. He is heading the opposite way we go to the city of Tyre. I'm shocked the governor listened at all. “HEY-YO!” I let out a shout with enough power to cause the birds to temporarily stop chirping and cawing. The rider turns the horse and stares back at me, then looks around and heads back towards me.

As he approaches I realize he's one of the guards who escorted Timous and I through Tyre. He comes to a stop, “Sir. Where did you come from?”Sounds to me like he was looking for us while riding and never saw our door open on the hill. I'm relieved to think our home is safe. “I've been trying to catch up to you. What's the problem?” His heavy breathing and bags under his eyes tell me he's tired. "Sir, We have a new issue, the king's emissary and my governor wish to discuss it with you most urgently.” I look at him attempting to convey how much I'd rather just know what's happening. "Just speak freely when it's us alone, we don't have time to plan wrong.”

The rider nods. “You see sir, The Emissary of the king to Alexandria came to hear of our ghoul problem and the… Men who solved it. But before the Emissary could leave. One of his horses was mutilated. The next day the cow was the same. The next day a horse. The third day a guard went to the stables hoping to catch a culprit, But what he described was a beast.” Waiting for the facts and not getting them, “What beast do you think we are hunting now?” He sighs, Timous makes it down the hill with a waterskin as a gift for him. Which he happily takes and drinks. “The other guard thinks it to be a bear, maybe a lycanthrope or some large beast that scales walls.” “Shit, they don't know so we might be walking in blind.” I think to myself.

Timous looks at me, “It's gonna be a 2 day walk for me, and until we know what this is you shouldn't go alone.” The guard interrupts. “No sir, I was ordered to retrieve you now.” I raise my hand to stop him. "Ride back. Tell them we are coming and send a carriage to the sheep farmer along this road. Do you know the place?” He nods.“Yes sir” I nod back, “We will be there in the morning to come with and ride with a carriage. Go on, soldier.” He hands me the water bladder, "Thank you sir, I'll see you in the morning.” He turns the horse in the direction of Tyre and starts riding again.

“We should start packing son, we’ll need to get a move on.” Timous says starting to move back to the house. I follow. I grab the magic bag he made me with my own supplies. It's not as in depth as his, I apparently only need food and water so mine is strictly for backup supplies. Aoife is brought up to speed between both of us telling her. As Timous goes into the kitchen, Aoife grabs my cloak and pulls it down towards her. Instinctually, I kneel so she can talk to me quietly. “No one has ever kept a lycanthrope alive, very little is known about them. Even being hunted by men,the journals and stories say they are prolific at defending themselves and hunting. So you watch out for my Timous, and you yourself. You come back alive boy.” She says in not a warm, but very serious somber tone. “I know mom. I'll keep my eyes on him.” Timous walks out of the kitchen back pack in hand, "Are you ready son?” He says with a smile.

I nod at him and smile back, Aoife gives me a big hug and turns to her husband to do the same. Angela is still sleeping so we leave her be, but she's in the best hands with Aoife. Timous and I start on down the hill, keeping things quiet between us for the short walk. The sun is setting soon and we are moving as fast as we can. Back to the pack we made for me, I had an idea with it as we made it. We would add wood slabs to the bottom for him to strap his feet into, and some handles to hold on to. This way, if we need to move he climbs on and I start running. Timous added a few more features to the idea, the wood he stands on is sturdy in all angles. He essentially made a shoe cubby for each foot, and added extra stitchings to the shoulder straps.

No Timous weighs around 84 pounds, and we had never tried this pack yet. But we decided tonight was the night to give it a test. At the bottom of our hill Timous gets up on a boulder “Alight son, come back this way”. I back up to the boulder and can feel him fiddling with the pack as he climbs into place. “Ok my boy, I need you to start slow. Let's just walk a little ways first.” I start down the road walking at a medium pace. We give the pack about 10 minutes of testing.” So far no issues. Let's see if you really can run as far as you think you may.” I start in a jog for just a few minutes, then we get into a full run.

We don't stop at all, I just keep running and I'm barely breathing harder than normal. All that has happened between Hugh and I with the armor transfer has really been a blessing, no more pain anywhere at all. We continue running into the late night, making it to the sheep farm just before midnight. We make ourselves at home outside his fence, start a fire and inspect the pack now that it's been tested.Timous sighs, “The shoulder straps top and bottom are stretching. It will hold for a while but not forever.” I look across the fire at him and the pack, "So far that's still impressive..” He looks back to me and replies "I'm gonna make a little more medicine for our friend, You where tired from your Ki lessons earlier. Get some sleep son. I'll tend the fire for a while.” "You got it old man.” I reach for my pack as he tosses it across the flame, I open the pack and hold my hand over it. All I need to do is engage a little Ki and think “My bed roll. My bed roll. My bed roll…” And just like that, seconds later it comes out of the bottomless pack right to my hand. It puts a smile on my face as I unroll it and lay down, I pass right out.

“Mark, Mark my boy it's time! Get up son.” I open my eyes to look around and a carriage is rolling down the road. I start getting up and rolling my bedding back up, putting it back in the pack is the same process, you just think "Hold the bed roll.” I feel the tension pulling the bedding, I let go and it just vanishes as it gets sucked in. Being able to do magic is an amazing feeling. The carriage pulls up and the same guard is riding the passenger seat. “Are you ready sirs?” Timous stands up, "Let me give our host some medicine, we will leave soon. Son, I made ya some eggs, you should eat.” He turns to walk into the old man's farm. I grab the pan off the fire and start picking up my eggs by hand and inhaling them, both men in the carriage gasp. “That skillet was on fire and you just grabbed it with no pain?” I set it down and show him my arm through my cloak. "This armor is now my skin. It protects me from everything. Well so far.”

I grab the skillet again and keep eating my eggs. I look back to Timous just to keep my eyes on him. He's just walking up to the old shack and knocking. It's not a lot better but the property is much cleaner in general. I finish my eggs, stomp out the fire and load my pack and Timous’ pack into the carriage. I look back at him again and he's there with Douglas, Pointing at me and both waving to me. Douglas looks to be very happy to see us, and I wave back to him. They shake hands and Timous starts the return walk to us. I think back to all I was told about humans enslaving all races and driving non humans out of the lands they claim. I had seen the fear of humans towards me so far. But these few interactions that have been this different make me think that there really could be a way to make things better here. As Timous approaches he's breathing heavily and tries speaking through his breath to me. "Douglas was very shocked and happy to see us. He is doing very well, and his vision has not gotten worse. And he's been feeling much more limber. He still had some medicine left but now he's got another batch!” I smile as I hold my hand out for him to help him into the carriage.

After we get Timous into the carriage and I climb in after. The driver makes our way to Tyre and as the carriage turns around, I wonder allowed. “Maybe Angela would really like to see these sheep, maybe learn from Douglas too.” Timous, still catching his breath, smiles back at me again. "I told him we had not forgotten him. We had been rushed to Tyre before we could return to him first. He does seem very pleased for us to have stopped by. He also said we are all welcome to come and stay as needed.” I close my eyes and fall asleep for the ride

“Hey son. We are here.” I feel timous shaking my right arm as I wake up. As I open my eyes and look around I can see we passed the pathetic rock fence. And were approached the tall wood fence. I'm ready again for anything, Thinking over what I know about these Lycanthropes. "Thick hides, big and obviously predators. Timouse said they have venom glands to make werewolves out of men… But why none here now?” I think to myself as we come to a stop and disembark the carriage. “Hey Timous, If this is a Lycan. Why aren't there any werewolves yet?”I look at him and his face is expressionless. “Well, If its a Lycanthrope. It may have never been cornered,threatened or just hasn't wanted to yet. My books say it should only take a few days to turn a man to lycanthrope.”

“Hello friends, welcome back to Tyre of Alexandria!” The Governor shouts at us. Timous responds, "Hello sir! We hear you have a new problem for us to look into!” We take a few seconds to close our gap and speak face to face, the governor says. “Yes, I'm sorry to say. But you two did so well before, And with an emissary of the king here I needed to act hastily.” “An emissary for what?” I ask. The governor looks at me and answers solemnly. "Well they became nervous about the ghoul issue we had. And when the emissary from the king came, one of his horses was mutilated hours later. After one day and extra guards we had another horse be killed and a guard had seen a large beast in the shadows. Now This man has served Tyre for many years, and done so honorably and unquestioningly. He said the beast scaled a wall in the stable only to exit a window in the loft. It then evaded several patrols and dozens of guards and villagers.”

“Sounds rather impressive for a beast to avoid so many eyes.” Timous says. "Yes indeed. And just this morning a bull was found dead with its back straps missing and what looks like a broken neck, broken by a bite.” The governor informs us, Timous sighs. “Sounds like it's gonna be a lycanthrope…” Timous says almost depressed and defeated. “Let's hurry and start then, With a full belly it'll be slower than normal.” I fill the silence with that until the governor adds “I have 8 men tracking it now. And another 8 following them, I hope you can catch up or even just help. This way please, of course no matter what you will be paid well.” We start walking to the direction he leads us.

"Memphis is another city with its allegiance to Alexandria, she hosts a harbor to the sea of dragons. And the governor has just reported a fleet of halfling pirates. I sent word of the two of you, saying you might be able to help if that's ok.” Timous speaks up again as I wave to several residents who are happy to see us back. “We have no ships sir, but if they raid you lands we surely can assist.” “What is a halfling, and how dangerous are they?” I butt in. "They tend to just happen here or there in no order. Sometimes a creature; mermaid, Lycanthrope, Wendigo, maybe even one of my fairy kin. Will lay with, negotiate or force its way with a human woman. The spawn is called a halfling. Who knows what they can and can't do. But they are usually outcasts to humans.” Timous explains, and right at the end the governor looks down. Almost embarrassed.

“The bull is just ahead here” The governor says, I look ahead and see the thing. Part of its neck looks flatter than the rest of his neck. I know instantly this thing has some intense force. We approach and the bull is just starting to rot by the smell of it. "That flat neck is impressive. The bites look deep too.” First thing out of my mouth. “Indeed, It's likely a full grown Lycanthrope. But it almost… Interesting.” Timous pauses, We all look at him. “What do you see, old buddy?” I answer his pause. "Well, It didn't take a bite of flesh, It cut with one claw down the back strap and took damn near all of both. Why wouldn't it just eat?” I look over the body, specifically the chest and stomach. Both intact, "You sure it was a claw?” I ask Timous.

He looks up,”Even a crude blade or stone tools would cut cleaner, the flesh is still tearing here.” I look to the rear of the bull at the grass, “Where did you pull this from?” "Where is the farmer?” the governor says allowed with an echoing inflection. "I’m his son sir, father needed to repair the fence.” A boy, maybe 12 years old, speaks up. “Where did you find the bull boy?” The governor asks the boy, and he steps forward making his way to the rear of the bull. “We found the bull out of our fence maybe 20 yards past out this way.” I look out into the field. I see the father and 2 men repairing the fence. I see clearly from way back here, the bull was killed and dragged out of the fence line. Then how it was dragged from where it was to here. But as I stare, I see a much smaller trail leading to the woods maybe a mile away. That path is fading, so it must have been done last night.

“What way did your men go?” I ask. The governor points far left. Way away from what I see to the right. "Timous, We need to go now.” Timous grabs and holds the straps to his pack, breathes In deeply and proclaims “I’m ready!”. We get moving through the field and to the wood line after 10 minutes, and I know we are too slow. But Timous interjects into the silence, “After we pass the woodline let me get on your pack to cover ground son. This Lycanthrope is moving fast.” I grin, I didn't want to be an ass and call him slow. He moves as fast as those legs take him. After a few feet in, Timous spots a mound of displaced dirt and calls it out “There! Is it a print?” It's morning lite breaking through the trees, so we both get low and inspect it.” Damn right it's a print! Two claws digging in deep. This thing was moving hard and fast and pivoted rights here, and it turned left. Those troops and hunters might have gone the right way…” I say almost disappointed. “Well, let's get me on that pack so you can move my boy.” He says before I can let myself down, and moves to the pack without hesitation.

With Timous playing Yoda to me being Skywalker, We cruise the woods fast. Following zigzags, partial back tracking. We slowed down at old prints. It looked like a deliberate crossroad. Old paths, new paths intersecting in the same little clearing. Timous even got off the pack to help me here. “This beast is either very smart, or very old and smart.” Timous leads the conversation. “Because of the intersection here? This path is old, the dirt on the prints is hard, not soft.” Timous adds on… "The books I have are all, let's say, rather bleak to the nature of the beast. Some get trapped. Most get cornered in their caves, and the rest get killed by pure chance or luck. This is old here too.” Me investigating another path, “So im guessing none of them ever mentioned things like this. This path is old too, Maybe 5 left minus the one we followed here.”

“Well, no. None of them mentioned higher thinking at all. But this is intricate. This path is old. But what I'm wondering here is, is this an older beast who learned to survive and returns to areas like this for familiarity. Or one that simply one who knew or learned that doing this buys him time and distance… But then why kill a bull, drag it away then take back straps and nothing else?” I like the path I'm standing on and let him know. "What about here? You're right. It's traveling light and taking the best meat. More of the bull would be more to carry, and more mess. Add that surgical precision, we have a lot of evidence saying this thing is smart.” Timous is now looking at the path I like, shifting slightly right of the path we followed here. “This is it, get back to it!”

Again he gets on my back pack and we start chasing the prints again. It's just before noon and all we are doing is chasing hours old prints. This set is very singular, but now it leads into a gravel river bed… "Little chance of us tracking here.” I say mildly irritated after all that work. “I see son. Keep walking, we will find something here. Do you smell something?” Timous answers my irritation. We both smell it, it's on the wind coming at us. We keep moving forward. “In the brush to the right, flies!” Timous calls and points. We move in, and find fresh scat! it took a break right here! I look a little to our left, to the stream and right there just on the side of this tiny river are wet rocks in the air. I walk to it with Timous and kneel to look, I point to it and we both inspect it. “Yelp!” We both start scanning the area. It was definitely an animal yelping. “Which way?” I whisper. “It's too close, I need to hear it again…” He whispers back.

Then I see it, a 10 feet or so upwind. Another new path into the wood line, I point to it and Timous takes a minute to see it. "What do you see? There, another path!” We whisper excitedly as we start moving again, the path leads down into a cavern in the hills. We continue and find a few animal caucasus, deer and sheep most likely. We continue into the cave that turns into a clearing surrounded by the hills. 10 more minutes of walking with intermediate prints, scat and carcuses being hidden poorly. But no solid sign of a den, we continue on, the smell is intense. “This one beast must have over hunted the woods… Does that mean he's big or just over eating?” I ask Timous. "I don't know, you'd think more than a few of them would be needed to cause this chaos.” I stop dead in my tracks pointing to my newish, dull gold pointy ear. Timous answers "Pups?” To the left just ahead, his finger points in front of me. A medium sized tree with several bushes around it, and just behind them is a good sized cave opening. "Let's get in there and see what's up.

We move into the cave, it's not small. But not as big as a house. But still lots of space to inspect after being in the dark and moving into the dark. Timous lights another jewel, and we hear several growls around us except at our 6 o'clock. “Timous! Back to back!” He presses against my leg and tosses top lights of gems, one to my 2 o'clock and one to my 9 o'clock. It illuminates 2 large wolves, and one Lycanthrope rising to hind legs. The lycan snarls and swats in our direction, but stays back. 2 new wolves join the other 2 side by side. I keep my eyes on all of them, but the lycan whimpers with its snarls… It reminds me of all my rescued dogs. Being scared of a new place. Waiting for me to let them eat the food I laid out to establish dominance, letting them get to it and moving the bowel a little while they eat to show who's in charge…

I charge some Ki and try increasing the light, I still hear pups. And there, behind a big male Lycan I see another lycan. Lying down, shaking and wide eyed with pups at her chest and belly. The male keeps trying to watch me and them, the wolves push in a little when the lycan changes his tone. “The more wolves outside Mark!” The lycan adds new tones to his whimpers and growls. The wolves start pounding the ground and getting more aggressive right after…” The Lycan is commanding the wolves…?” I tell Timous allowed as I watch them all. And with that the lycan pauses… no more snarls for a few seconds.

“What's the plan boy! We're stuck…” Timous points out. "Are you understanding me?” I ask the lycan. The beast stops all noise and freezes. The wolves look to him and each other for answers. One wolf to the left, all black and bright eyes barks several vicious barks and comes towards us. The Lycan snaps a bark at it and it tucks tail, then joins its friend again. I nod at the lycan, "If you understand us, you need to let me know now. The humans are looking for you after you went for the bull ....” Mark, we're in trouble!” Timous starts smacking my leg, I turn and look. Another, bigger lycanthrope at the cave mouth. Breathing hard, holding back straps from the bull. This one is almost my size, Big rounded head from muscles. This has to be the daddy Lycan, I look back at the first one I encountered… It starts backing off towards the mom.

I take my pack off slowly and follow that by taking off my cloak, slowly. Trying to show the Lycanthrope I’m not really human any more. "Hey, you killed the human’s bull and horses. They are hunting you now…” I get cut off as the big one drops the back straps. “GOOOO!” The massive thing screams in what seems like a deep guttural dark demon voice, and without warning the beast lunges at me, clearing a 5 foot distance like it’s a step! Charging at me with his mouth open, claws fully extended ready for me to get torn to shit. My face shield slaps my cheeks as it closes, just before I drop my left hand down on his head. He tries not to yelp, but does slightly as his head and body smack the earth right by my right leg.Before i can think it through, I try to tell him again he's in danger. But I'm cut short as he delivers a full bite to my low right shin. I kick his full body out towards the entrance again, the massive thing sails right back to his starting position.

“We all need to leave!” I call out as he transitions to all fours and sprints to me again like he wants to tackle me. I let him connect and twist to toss him to my right. The big black lycan lands on its two hind legs and drops to its hands. This time I'm able to get a plan, so I build up my Ki and as he charges me I prepare to let it all go. 3,2,1… WOOOSH I let out the full force and the Lycan stops in its tracks to cover its eyes. I grab the wrists of the beast and charge his back to the wall. This lycan is just barely taller than me, so when we hit the wall his snapping jaws are right next to my face. His snarling and drooling drips from his mouth. The saliva goes from normal dog saliva to a light brown thicker mixture, for a second I think it may be shit getting regurgitated. But as he's snapping his jaws I see it’s coming from his gums just under his K9 teeth. This time I put my arm in his mouth and let him bite and chew.

After a few shakes of his head and some chewing, I can smell dog breath and a metallic stink. But no rotting flesh, this is no man eater, they are just eating animals.I tell my armor to open my mouth piece. He stops chewing and stares. "We can keep doing this all day so the humans can come, or we can get you out of here and to safety.” I feel the pressure of his jaws lessening. "Humans are coming here NOW!” The lycan releases my arm and stares at the entrance. “Come now…” I'm not sure if it's a statement or a question. “We need to leave.” I repeat. The lycan looks over at the nursing mother. “No leave.”I slowly release the massive lycan, to see if hes done fighting. He walks on all fours to the mother lycan,checking on Timous and I every few steps. He points to her leg and says again “No, leave”. Timous and I walk over to her slowly and look.

The pups are very young. Almost a few days old, The eyes are all still shut and they can barely drag themselves to mom. He points to the leg again and we both examine it. We both stare until Timous says “It's broken, there. She can't walk on her hind legs with pups.” The 6 wolves and second Lycan walk up to the injured moms leg. “We need to get them out of here Timous. They are smart enough to talk, and they don't stink like man eaters.” I look at him lost, not sure of the next move. One of the wolves walks to the entrance while he replies. "I know, son. But we are trapped here for now. I'm not a good animal healer. Aoife is, but that's so far away.

The one wolf snaps back to the cave and whimpers to the massive lycan. The 3 of them all seem to lower their heads defensively, and you hear a softer guttural “Humans,come.” likely from the uninjured lycan we scared off with first…The nursing mother looks at me with puppy eyes and it's clear she's absolutely terrified. I can't seem to shake the feeling that these lycans are just trying to survive. I kneel to the male, "Do you understand my words?” He nods back to me. "Will you trust us to help you all?” The lycan lightly whimpers, looks at his pack and responds “Help us.” I look at Timous, "go outside of the cave, when they get close start yelling at them to back off, keep them back!” He looks at me confused for a few seconds and then "Right!” He runs off. And I start talking to the Lycan.