PreCursive

  As the howling of both the monstrously huge Spirit Wolf and the gathered werewolves started to die down, I found myself tensing. I…hadn’t expected the Chief and his smen to suddenly transform into humanoid wolves. Not only that, but they seemed to be a kind that were ected somehow to Spirit Wolves like my own panion. Most Thunderheart members that I’d see had already been rge examples of mankind, but these ged ones were evehe smallest among them dwarfed my five-eleven frame, looking to be ht or niall from the tips of their ears to the pads of their feet.

  I had to wonder, were these all of the werewolves among the Thunderhearts? Was Bleddyn a werewolf? I was suddenly reminded of how he had killed that servant Pignolo, all those months ago. The asshole dwarf had almost looked to have been savaged by a wild beast.

  What about in the vilge? Were there even mht now, howling to Elys in its walls? I couldn’t hear anything from that dire, but I couldn’t know.

  Were Hook and Sylvia in danger?

  Moreover, was I in danger right now? Why had Gruffyd decided t me to see their transformation? I thought this was just going to be a meeting with their ‘A One’, who I believe Gruffyd had referred to as ‘Taran’. I’m guessing that was the massive Spirit Wolf starting to look back down at the gathered man-wolf hybrids.

  Damnit, I should have kept my ons on me.

  The rgest of the werewolves who I thought was Gruffyd raised his cwed hands in supplication to Taran and spoke, seemingly unhindered by the nee of his mouth. “Hoaran!” He bellowed, in a rough, growling version of his normal voice. “Blessings to you, on this night! We, the children of your cw, renew our pact as our aors did before us! May we stalk together in the light of the moon, for eons to e!”

  To my astonishment, Taran’s muzzle opened and actually spoke back. “As before, so now,” He rumbled, in a voice that shook dust from the standing stone near us. “Be vigint, my cws and fangs. Dark tidings sweep across this nd, and old powers stir in the deep. Remember my teags and beware, for all is not as it seems.”

  Dark tidings, all is not as it seems…

  Was…Taran aware of the horde? Was something else going on?

  Gruffyd and the rest of the gathered werewolves bowed their heads in supplication. “We shall remember your words, Lord of Blood and Thunder.” He raised his head again, as most of the nearly formal atmosphere dissipated. “There is…ahing, my lord. You have likely noticed, but I have brought two outsiders to the gathering this night.”

  The massive Spirit Wolf snorted in amusement, his eyes shifting to look at Fade and me. I stiffened under his assessing gaze. “I have, young Chief,” He said evenly, never looking away from us. “And what iing guests they are.”

  “This man and his panion traveled a great distao warn us of an impending disaster, o’ Son of Elys,” Gruffyd said respectfully. “It was my decision t them before you, as I judged they would be of i. If I am wrong, I humbly beg your fiveness.” I had to bite back a bark of hysterical ughter as the enormous werewolf’s ears actually fttened against his skull in trition.

  Taran’s enormous blue eyes finally looked away from me to gaze at Gruffyd once more. “Do not wruffyd. Your intuition was correct. However,” He paused, letting his gaze ruhe rest of the gathered werewolves. Their tails actually started to wag under his scrutiny. “I must ask that you depart on a hunt, for now. I have…business with these two whelps that is not meant for ears other than theirs. Go now, aurn with a kill so we may feast together.”

  The pack of transformed Thunderhearts started panting iial excitement, the wagging of their tails only pig up. “At once, my lord!” Gruffyd said eagerly, before turning to face the other werewolves. “Go!” He said, pointing one cwed finger off beyond the rim of the standing stones. With a round of howls, the wolfmen and wolfwomen dropped to all fours and sprinted off into the darkness in search of prey. Before he set off as well, Gruffyd turo me and fshed a fang-filled grin.

  I smiled baeasily at the sight of so many sharp and pointy teeth.

  With a howl of his own, Gruffyd bounded off into the darkness with the rest of his pack.

  Leaving me and Fade aloh Taran, the ‘A One’ I was supposed to meet. The ring of standing stones fell into silence for a moment, before it was broken by Taran.

  “e,” He said suddenly. “Join me beyond the stones. It wouldn’t do to speak of these matters in such a sacred space.” At that, the massive Spirit Wolf moved away from the ring of stone, while above us the burning blue heart blew away as ashes. The blue torches around me snuffed out as well, casting my surroundings in darkness. As my eyes adjusted to it, I looked down to search for Fade, only to find that he was already padding after Taran.

  I grumbled to myself as I followed him into the grassnds. Little traitor, you could at least pretend to be ed.

  The two Spirit Wolves had moved to a small hill that wasn’t far from my position. Both of their lupine frames were silhouetted by the bright and full form of Elys high in the sky. The trast between Fade’s paratively puny frame and Taran’s gargantuan one was striking. As I joihem, my eyes had adjusted enough to the darkhat I could see the sidering look in Taran’s eyes. He nodded his huge head at the two of us, before leaning down. I kept as still as I could as the Spirit Wolf took several deep sniffs of us both, ruffling my hair from the force of the wind.

  “Hmm,” He said slowly, sitting ba his haunches. “This is a first. A Precursor has never boo one of my kind before.”

  I…wasn’t even surprised that he could tell what I was. I stayed silent, though. I didn’t really know what to say to this presumably a being.

  It didn’t seem like he minded.

  His eyes settled on Fade. “You’re a young one,” He mused. “I wouldn’t put you at more than a few months old in fact. That makes you the you of us.”

  Fade barked something back at the older, stronger, and rger wolf.

  “Fade, then? And only five months old at that. Greetings, littlest brother,” Taran chuckled. “Truly, I have to wonder what the Whisper plied Mother with, to bestow her blessing on a young pup such as you.”

  Whisper...

  The only Whisper I knew was Sylvia's code name.

  I furrowed my brow at the odd turn of phase. “Ah…” I finally spoke up, drawing Taran’s attention. “Could you perhaps expin that, Lord Taran? Or…why you even wao speak to us in the first pce?”

  Taran barked a ugh then. “Such audacity! Rare is it that I find someone willing to speak to me in such a manner. Even my own blessed have a tendency to kowtow. I see why this one likes you so.”

  I turned and raised an eyebrow at Fade, causing him to look away almost bashfully. I smiled and he young wolf with the side of my leg, causing him to huff and nudge me back. “I like you too, boy,” I murmured.

  When I looked back up, I saw that Taran was watg us with a nostalgid somewhat sad look in his eyes. “I have no problem expining a few things to you, young ones,” He said, surprisingly softly. He slowly lowered himself down to the grass, letting out an ued groan of relief as he did so. Now that my eyesight had fully adjusted to the darkness, I could tell that Taran’s bck fur was shot through with streaks of white. I think…his age affected him more than I thought it would, for what I had thought might be an immortal being. “e, sit with me. I speak with you until sunrise if that is what you wish. I imagihere are some things that escape you about the nature of Vereden, young Precursor.”

  I did as he asked, flopping down into a cross-legged position while Fade sat on his haunches. “I think I’m adjusting pretty well, to be ho. And…” I decided to take a gamble. “I’m ly flying pletely blind here, about what it means to be a Precursor. I met a chatty old Elf a few months back that had some things to say about our supposed ‘Quest’.”

  Taran was unfazed. “Yes, I smell Alveron on you, faint though the trace may be. I’m unsurprised he found you, desperate as he is. But I’m afraid I wasn’t speaking about the nature of Precursors, young Hart.”

  Wait, had I told him my name? I don’t think I had.

  “Instead, I’ll tell you the truth about what your young panion and I even are,” He tinued. “What your kind call Spirit Wolves and what the Mynydd s call the Lis y Gwyllt are…nothing more than Awakened wolves.”

  I blinked rapidly at that. “Wait, what?” I said in fusion. “But…Fade doesn’t have a Status like I do. And I heard that Mystic Beasts don’t have them in general.”

  “Mystic Beasts, bah,” Taran grumbled, blowing my hair back with a snort. “Such a pin name for such a ucopia of peoples. But yes, I am serious. We may not have a plicated, half-broken form of Awakening such as what the mortal races do in your odd numerical Statuses, but what we have is an Awakening all the same. Only, we are not blessed by your ‘System’. Nor are we blessed by any gods. Instead, we are blessed by the Spirits. It is the way that they reproduce.”

  “I…what? Reproduce?” And…blessed?

  Was that what a Status was? A blessing?

  From what?

  Taran nodded. “Yes. Spirits, especially Great ones such as Mother Elys, ot reprodu the mahat you mortals . Instead, they bestow upon the recipient a fra of their power, endowing their soul with the ability to grow in Mysticality. The ultimate goal of this blessing is so the recipient traheir mortal flesh aually bee a Spirit themselves. However, the Spirits are incapable of blessing a fully se and sapient mortal with their essence, and are thus limited in choice to animals.”

  I cast a gaze down at Fade. “So, Fade…”

  “Was a normal wolf pup not unlike any other, until Mother cast her eye upon him aoortion of her essearan firmed. “She does not do so often, and I have never knowo purposefully create a child and pce them ih of another deliberately, as I believe she did for you. It is almost…vulgar, and so unlike her. Unfortunately, I ot ask what her iions were with young Fade. She would dodge them expertly. Mother is fickle, at the very best of times.” He grumbled to himself.

  “Blessing and Awakenings…” I said slowly, leaning bato my hands. My gaze drifted away from Taran to rest on the very moon he was talking about. “So, if Awakenings like mine are just blessings, then…who blessed us mortals? What did the gods do to cause the Initialization?” I paused, a thought ing to me. “Is our Awakening from the gods?”

  Taran sighed. “Unfortunately, I ot answer you. The ao that question remains unknown to all to this very day. Not even Mother truly knows the source of your bizarre Awakenings. And I truly mean bizarre. It is…a mish-mash of various ws and energies, a has such potential wrought within its depths. I shudder to imagine what your people could bee if it was not inplete as it is. I tell you this. Mother believes that the gods found something or someone, and began to fight over it. She believes this to be the genesis of the War in Heaven. Some time in the fighting this…source of power was either maniputed or malfuned in some way, which led to the propagation of your Statuses. Beyond that, no Spirit say otherwise.”

  I took that in for a moment, slowly frowning. How did that fit in with what Elder Alveron had told me?

  What had the gods done? How did Precursors fit into that? Was…the Precursors Quest an eborate form of revenge, created by the System for whatever they had doo it?

  Taran had no answers for me. He simply shook his head when I asked him.

  We sat in ptive silence for a moment, before Taran spoke once more. “However, that isn’t what I wished to speak to you about,” He said, perking up. A lupine grin stretched across his features. “Instead, I’d like to present an opportunity to you and young Fade.”

  “Uh…” I said hesitantly, a little taken about how puppy like Taran was ag. “If it’s an offer to bee a werewolf like the others, then no thanks. I’m good.”

  I had no i in suddenly sprouting fur and a tail, thank you very much.

  “What?” Taran said, startled. “No, I couldn’t bestow my blessing on you like them if I tried. That’s only possible because of an old blood pact I have with the founder of their s and my own once-upon-a-time partner, Mynydor. That predates the ing of the Initialization, and was thus incorporated as a special Racial Talent for the Mynydd s. Not all choose to pursue my blessing, and thus not every member of the s cim to be a Wolfblood. No, this opportunity is for young Fade. I…would like to extend an offer of what you would call ‘apprenticeship’ to him.”

  Fade jerked suddenly, as startled as I was. The both of us exged a baffled look before my panion barked a question at the other Spirit Wolf.

  “I’m getting to that,” Taran scolded Fade lightly. “Let me ask you, young one. You have found yourself struggling with your abilities of te, haven’t you? You’ve been w why your own growth has been so sluggish, ing in fits and bursts? Especially pared to the rapid adva of your chosen panion. I would bet that new abilities suddenly ma for you out of nowhere when you most hem.”

  Uh, well. That holy sounded pretty accurate.

  Fade looked away almost mulishly.

  Taran just nodded. “Yes, as I thought. You’ve no doubt wished you uood how they worked. Well, I fix that. I am to take you under my proverbial wing, and teach you all that you o know. The mortals have their own paths of adva, in their Magid Cultivation. So too do we have our own Eldrydd Path. I teach you a great deal, young one. You will never be helpless again when I’m doh you.”

  Fade went pletely still at that, fixing Taran with an almost ravenous look.

  Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but frown. “What…would that entail?”

  “Ah,” Taran paused for a moment, before smiling at me almost sadly. “Unfortunately, young Fade would have to stay here with me. I’m afraid I ot apany you on your journeys, Nathaniel Hart. It would be months, possibly years before you see each other once again. The teag that I would be bestowing upon your panion could not be interrupted.”

  Months or years before I would see Fade again? I was tempted to immediately reject his offer, but…

  It wasn’t my decision.

  I kept quiet, as much as I didn’t want to.

  Fade almost seemed to frown, looking off into the distance where Elys sat full and heavy on the horizon. Taran and I waited in silence as the young Spirit Wolf sank into visible ption. After a few moments, he stirred and looked up at Taran once more before chuffing something softly at his elder.

  “Yes, you may have the night to sider the matter,” Taran nodded his enormous head, befetting to his feet. Padding down to the bottom of the hill, the a wolf looked over his shoulder at the two of us. “But I shall require an answer before your panion leaves in the m. I…do not bme you, if you choose not to take my offer. I well know how hard it is, to be parted from the person you have chosen.” With that almost mencholy statement, Taran walked away, seeming to disappear almost instantly into the darkness.

  Meanwhile, Fade and I were left on the small hill lit only by the light of a full moon. I looked over at Fade, from his position sittio me. He was staring off at Elys once more, looking ptive. I y a hand on his back, but he didn’t react to it.

  “We’ll…just stay here for now,” I said quietly, to a small apanying nod from Fade.

  He had a big decision to make, after all.