Chapter 3

Aύok

Kill, feast, devour.

Aύok fought with his lycanthrope primal desires. Blood, mixed with smoke assaulted his heighten sense of smell. His newly turned lycan peasants feasted on the dead humans, their insatiable appetites prodding them forward to their next meal. His elven blood prevented the wolf within him from conquering his mind. His newest creations lacked his mental fortitude, their human minds weak and easily overcome by the blood of the wolf.

As the sun peaked above the forest in the distance, Aύok forced his body to change. Silvery white hair receded back into his body as bones cracked and popped. His canine head pointed to the sky in a silent scream as his snout deformed and collapsed upon itself revealing a hairless, angular face, turquoise eyes blazing in the dawn’s low light. His oversized armor with intricate silver vines and runes slid into itself to fit Aύok’s muscular elven frame. Rolling his shoulders, the remaining bones dislocated and snapped back into place.

After centuries of transiting between forms, the pain was only a distant memory. Growling caught his attention. Looking down, his young horde of lycans stared at him with hunger, drool descending from their jowls. Aύok’s eyes flared, forcing the horde back a step. Once the fire that danced to life died, his pupils dilated and were consumed by a black void revealing a small blue ring that pulsed softly.

With a thought, Aύok’s voice boomed inside of every mind of horde before him.

Return to your pathetic human form. Your disobedience with be met with death.

Howling cries of pain followed the cracking of bones. Aύok stood stall, watching them suffer as they returned to their human forms and descend to one knee, bowing their head. All but one completed the transformation. Aύok surveyed his submissive fodder, his black eyes landing on the lycan who stood growling, fresh blood coating the gray fur of his muzzle. Aύok’s dark eyes pulsed, the blue rings more vibrant, threatening to overtake the darkness.

You wish to challenge for alpha.

The horde wined in protest to their master’s words that rang inside their skulls.

I will feed upon the weak and consume all within my path.

Aύok smiled to the reply, knowing the strength of the wolf’s will that coursed through the lycan’s body. Drunk on bloodlust and new found power.

You will not move as they rip you apart.

Aύok’s eyes pulsed one last time, his sire bond successfully linked to the horde. The turquoise returned and he nodded towards the betrayer. With a single thought, the horde moved.

Kill.

Frozen in place by Aύok’s sire bonded words the lycan died.

Aύok’s night had been a disappointment. Of his many excursions into the human lands, this was the first time he had lost control of the horde. New lycan were complicated and difficult until the sire bond took hold. They had travelled from village to village to the south. Normally, it would only add to his horde and he would use the additional bodies. They were only usefully for a few weeks, after the wolf consumed them, they lost their ability to keep their human form. He would either dispose of them or ferry them back under the mountain back to the wastelands to keep the minotaur occupied and oblivious of his plan.

Traveling so far south threatened their existence, but even when they approached the third village, it was destroyed. His nose caught a feint scent during a strong wind, his curiosity driving him farther than he should have already. Looking farther south, he knew if they continued in that direction, it would only be a matter of time till he discovered what had caused the destruction. Looking to the east, it was too early to execute his plan. He needed his kin with him.

Properly dress and gather rations. We travel at dark.

The horde of blood covered humans moved as one, exploring buildings. They needed to gather all they could to continue the resurrection of the ancient elven fortress that was buried within the deep forest of the north west. These humans would die there, and their bones added to the hundreds of others who had perished in its excavation.