Blood Trials

It was something like a cave where Ridley woke up, but there's a deluxe bed along with two carpets. On the walls, burning candle sconces and even a fireplace! She could feel the primal throughout the room and beyond the labyrinth of a cave. It was like an unseen river, flowing through the air. She hummed feeling its soothing side, as opposed to its nausea-inducing rapids. Sitting up, it was like she could see it waving in the air, like the Northern Lights. Silvery and delicate. At the foot of the bed, barely visible, was the åse.

Her white coat was almost missed from the pelt blankets over Ridley. She gripped the furs, feeling the genuine fur in her fingers. "You use your dead as blankets?"

Why am I not the least bit surprised, Ninsun sighed. Disappointed but not surprised.

We do not, the wolf-woman answered. That was all she said.

Falk sighed before sitting up from laying on the ground. The åse nodded at him before leaving. Ridley's eyes followed her out the little convex hole. On the cave walls - some fresh and some so faded that it was a miracle they were seen at all - were cave paintings. All of groups of wolves on the hunt, or gathered around a hearth. Falk watched her take in the paintings closest to her, admiring the tradition of style passed on through the ages.

Lower down, not far from where the åse left, was a series of wolves visibly made by a child. The Source sighed then looked over to Falk. "You won't leave, will you?"

"We will not," he answered.

Ridley knelt next to him, after sliding off the warm bed. "Then where do we go from here?" Falk arched an eyebrow at her. "You won't leave, you won't let us protect you. It doesn't change that your people are in danger," Ridley explained. "Whether you accept it or not, you have the full support of the vampires' Source."

The silence that followed proved pensive for the ikon, and was met with him looking away from the Source. Ridley looked around the cave; at the primal around her that felt as if it overpowered her senses yet, at the same time, was so subtle it was hard to believe it was there. Around the cave and could feel the very essence of life permeating through the rock walls. Her hand waved lightly in front of her, seeing the aura of primal ripple from her.

Falk turned to see her playing with the air. Ridley didn't notice; too spellbound by the kaleidoscope of colours she, alone, could see. The ikon sighed then combed his spikey brown hair back. "I want to protect this colony," he began, regaining Ridley's attention. "My sensibilities are just unable to fathom a fang, of all things, trying to help."

"I had a hard time digesting that people would trust me without expecting something in exchange so what about a compromise?" The wolfen sat straighter with his interest piqued. "Let me call in an elite unit. Cover the main road to the reserve with your best therianthropes, as a sign of good faith. You can choose the other half of the compromise."

"I don't want any more of your kind in or near the colony," Falk barked and Ridley inclined her chin. "But a compromise does seem like the best option." Falk sighed then shrugged his shoulders. "Come with me," he ordered coolly and stood. "While we play diplomats' ping-pong, we may as have a drink."

Ridley peeled herself off the ground and followed him into the labyrinth of caves. Dark, damp, disorienting echoes yet they moved through it like it was nothing. She couldn't see a thing, other than the primal rippling off the walls. "How do you see, down here?"

"We're wolves. Most large dogs have Tapetum Lucidum, an extra layer to their eyes. A reflective layer; it sends light back through our eyes, increasing the light exposure. Very few therianthropes can naturally utilise their morphed abilities in their human forms. We keep the young down here; forces them to learn to use it. Muttbloods," he spat coldly, "are completely unable to do this."

"Message received," Ankh sighed. Ridley felt her psionic footprint divert down a different pathway in the caves.

The primal bounced off of the other people walking through the den, their figures were shadowy and the primal just went over them. "That muttblood saved my life, multiple times, which means every vampire - including the ones who live here - owe her their lives."

"Doesn't change the facts. She's a weakling and doesn't belong among us."

"Why are they such bane to you?"

"To a fang, a muttblood may have their uses. To us, going between forms is an honour. A sacred honour. It shows the balance between the world of man, where we come from, and the natural world, the world we now belong to. A muttblood, therefore, denies one world for the other."

"Really? Then what about a therianthrope who can't morph, do you throw them out too?"

"Finally, you understand."

Ridley shook her head as then they continued through the abyss. "Okay," she answered in defeat. "Not my culture, not my place to judge." Falk hummed his victory.

The two crossed into a cave of faint light; light that came from the bioluminescent algae in the water. The underground lake wasn't the only light; candles were generously placed about. The whooshing water only made the glow ripple and highlight the contours of the therianthropes and ampyra there. The murmurs of conversation echoed over the walls with the primal in the dimly-lit caves. Falk nonchalantly slid passed people and took glasses from a dispenser and handed one to Ridley.

The liquid was murky and an odd pinkish-red colour that raised her skepticism. She swirled the liquid, examining the contents. Falk took long sip from his own glass then turned to his guest. Ridley sized him up before taking a timid sip of it. She hummed then slapped her lips together. She looked up to Falk and took another, less unsure, sip.

Falk beckoned her to follow him through the caves where people were continuing to tend to huge fires and makeshift grills. "We live off the land, wholly. Take a guess what you're drinking." Ridley took another sip of what she deduced was a fruit. The juice was thick and tart with the fruits' flesh swimming around. "It's cherry." Ridley slapped her lips together again the furrowed her eyebrows. "Outsiders stay in cities and are dependent upon technology and industry, the two fields that worsen nature. You've only known food touched by technology." They stepped into a more lit-up stretch of cave.

There were trees and shrubs in the cave with the last of the sunset seeping through the ceiling. The garden was solely dedicated to feeding the colony with sorts of vegetables and fruits, herbs and spices growing. Over there, by the stretch of river used for irrigation, were even tea trees. "Whoa," Ridley commented stepping into the garden, feeling the soft ground under her stiletto ankle boots. "How's the grass greener here," she asked as she ran her hands over a patch. "Softer too."

"Innovation is just propaganda, designed to make us fear the wilderness. This is what happens when you just open your eyes to the land of your ancestors." Falk sailed towards a blossoming cherry tree and picked one off. He tossed it to her and Ridley caught it in her mouth.

She groaned the pleasure of it. "Oh my God," Ankh squealed. "This is heavenly! Ooh, I see avocados. Try those next!" Falk sized her up as she spat out the pip. "Avo! Do the avo!"

"Ankh wants to try the avocado," Ridley began, pointing to the trees nearby.

"The muttblood?" Ridley scoffed and Ankh sighed. Before either one could retort, a harrowing howl echoed through the caves. More howls bounced off the rock walls that filled with the sound of panicked murmurs. "We're under attack! Protect the young." Falk turned to Ridley with his eyebrows furrowed as more howls sounded. "Fangs. Lots of them."

"It's Viggo," Ridley spat. "You have to let me-"

"I'm ordering you to help," he cut in and took of bolting deeper through the garden.

Ankh barked as she came sprinting after them. Falk let out a pained scream and started tearing his skin off. Blotches of chocolate brown fur sprouted from him. The crunch of his bones breaking and re-shaping was met with him stumbling and falling. Ridley pressed on. She let out a battle cry when she saw Margrethe with her tablet, surrounded by armed men. Ankh bolted passed her and pranced over a boulder. A car rammed into her. Out from the car came Viggo himself, in a perfectly pressed white suit.

Ridley balled her fists as wolves, foxes and a few jackals and hyenas came storming passed her. The Source skidded to a halt on the dirt ground, next to Ankh. She dead... so to speak. The car had crushed her ribs. Ribs that cracked out from her perforated lungs. Ridley watched her gasp for air before shaking off the brief brush. She winced then snarled and joined the fray. Ridley straightened up when Viggo looked to her.

Splitting image of Dane, save for the mohawk of long, thick braids and a grown-out beard. "Ms du Luq, we meet-" Ankh tackled him to the ground. Gnawing and gnawing at his throat and chest. Ridley rolled her eyes and turned to the guards facing off with the therianthropes. Ahmed The ampyra who lived among the colony were flushing into the trees with children and the elderly.

Ridley spun on Margrethe, who only gave her a wink. Ridley grabbed her steel belt and tore it off. It stiffened into a katana that she arched over her head. Margrethe was stunned. Ridley charged towards her. The geneticist merely snapped her fingers. A growl sounded from passed her before a hyena wearing a shock collar stepped forward. Behind him was a smaller grey and brown wolf, also in a shock collar.

"Oh no," the Source breathed. "Morgan." The hyena sprinted to her and Ridley lowered her sword. Falk rammed into him and they flew into the side of the hummer truck. "No!" Ridley hastened for them and pulled Falk by the beef leg. He wasn't in his wolf form; instead he stood on his hind legs, covered in fur, with his head somewhere between human and wolf. "He's a friend!"

Falk spun to her and she shoved him in the chest. "What're you doing," the ikon roared. He turned aside slashed a goldblood shooting at him. He grabbed him and flung him across the clearing into a wooden cabin.

"You're Tsakani," Ridley said to the hyena. "You're the one helping Morgan and Logan. You can trust us; we can help them. All of them."

The hyena looked over to Margrethe who was looking over her tablet, ignoring the carnage around her. "He's a traitor to his kind," Falk jeered then arched a beefy paw over his head.

"He's on the inside. We can use him to get in and around the facility."

A goldblood shot at Falk and he winced and contorted in pain. He ripped the dart from his spine before falling to his knees. Ridley flipped over his shoulder! She threw the sword at the goldblood. Falk groaned then fell to the ground Ridley grabbed the dart gun and punched the goldblood in the nose. The rifle flipped over her shoulder, between her legs and into his groin! She battered him with his own weapon! She pulled her katana from his chest and tore pulled it across into his ribs.

"Morgan," she called to the little wolf cowering by the car ahead of her. He winced looking at her fearfully. "It's okay," she whispered. He snarled at her. "There's an orchard surrounded by caves. Go!" He yapped at her, scratching at the collar. "I promise I'll get it off but you have to go!"

"He can't," the åse stated. She snarled, leaping onto the roof of a Hummer. "He says there's a tracker in the collar. Get that woman!" The åse too stood on hind legs before diving across a Hummer and onto the boulder. She slashed through the flesh of another wolfen.

Ridley slammed her sword into the neck of a man with a dart gun. She kicked the jerking body in the chest. The head rolled towards the tyre of the car. "Morgan," she whispered to the wolf. "We'll find Logan but you need to hide. Go!" The grey and brown wolf scampered into the thicket of trees. Ridley twirled her katana and turned to Margrethe who was oblivious to the threat on her life.

A chill ran down the Source's spine. Her head spun towards Ankh. Viggo had her by the throat. Amed tackled them to the ground. Beyond them, Calista was pressed into a tree with claws pressed into her diaphragm. A foxen stood on her hind legs, glowering Calista down. Ridley clenched her hand tighter around her hilt. She screamed a battle cry, charging. The foxen's ears turned to her before her coppery snout. A hyenian grabbed Ridley by the shoulder. He slammed her into a Hummer.

She kicked the snout repeatedly. Claws smote into her chest, making her gasp. The hyenian threw her aside. Another hyenian pranced over Ridley. He wrestled the other to the ground. "Save Morgan," Tsakani declared.

Ridley rolled over with her hands over her bleeding chest. Across the Hummer was Margrethe, now spectating the fading fray. The Source groaned, feeling the wounds heal and scar. She rolled over, hitching for air. "Ankh," she called weakly. "Find him." Ankh took off into the trees.

Cupping her cracking-into-place ribs, Ridley turned to Margrethe. The doctor was backing towards the backseat door. Ridley steeled herself upright to jog in agony towards the Hummer. Margrethe only tapped on her tablet before tilting her head. A snarl came from behind the doctor before a fennec-like therianthrope came charging for the Source.

The fennecian smote a paw at her. She held up her sword to block. A second paw went for her ribs. Ridley gasped. Margrethe got back into her car that, along with others, was taking off. The fennecian threw her into a wall before charging after the Hummer, with others of Viggo's therianthropes. Ridley tumbled onto her stomach, coughing up her platinum-stained blood. She was panting shakily, clutching her core.

She could only watch as Viggo and his minions towed off Falk's therianthropes. The resistance was fierce but futile; they were being taken faster than they could be freed. Ridley teared up, watching the carnage fade with her wind slowly returning. Ahmed, a jackal on his hind legs walked up to her with his ears pointed down. Ridley looked to her blood on her hand; not all of it was her murky grey.

Do not fret, Ms Axel. They may have this battle, but we will have the war.

"There's good news," Ankh stated. "A little wolf-y joins the ranks of the colony." Ridley shook her head in dejection. "Dude, this isn't solely your responsibility."

"If this was happening six months ago, maybe a part of me would believe you," Ridley admitted. She wailed when she tried to stand. Ahmed snarled in reply. "That fennec hit my sternum and my diaphragm. I think at some point I punctured a lung."

"That fast healing is proving to be pretty useful. How dead would you be otherwise?"

"Not helping, Ankh," Ridley grunted when Ahmed threw her arm around his neck. She braced herself.

Ahmed tossed her over his shoulder. She screamed. Ahmed snorted then made back towards the cave series morphing back. Unlike Ankh, Ahmed didn't make a sound as he shifted back. Ridley could feel his bones crack and grind under his skin. All he elicited was a grunt when his spine began reshaping. Ridley looked around, seeing Ankh catch up with a pup in her teeth. Ridley sighed deeply then felt Ahmed hand her over.

The firm arms Ridley found herself in were Falk's. The ikon and his bare chest was sweat-drenched and reddened. Ridley chuntered from the shooting pains in her torso. In spite of the brute physique, the ikon's hold on the Source was gentle. The crestfallen pout on his face was directed to the carnage behind Ahmed. The wolfen looked down to the huntress weakly.

"Never in my centuries did I think I would trust fangs from beyond the colony." Ridley looked between Falk and Ahmed, then Morgan in Ankh's teeth. "But you cannot expect us to leave."

"Honestly, I think you'd be safer here," Ridley lamented. "Viggo's a smart man. Now that you know that he knows where to find you, he'd be stupid to attack again."

Besides, the åse added, he got what he came for. Very few, thank the stars.

"What will he do with them?"

"Breed them, exsanguinate them, replicate them, train them, torture them," Ridley stated. "Whatever he'll have to do to get a sound therianthrope populace."

Falk walked with Ridley in his arms into the caves, the same way Ankh did with Morgan in her teeth. The young, the elderly and anyone else incapable of fighting were huddled in a hole, guarded by ampyra and therianthropes. The ikon merely passed the guard detail and looked into the hole. A unison sigh of relief came from them. Despite the budding calm, a dark shadow was cast over Falk's features.

He returned to his makeshift room to set Ridley on the bed. She moaned and cupped her ribs, watching him cave from frustration. Ahmed followed with Ankh and Morgan. Morgan whimpered then scratched at his collar. Falk arched an eyebrow at the grey and brown wolfen. Ridley beckoned him towards her, with Falk watching. She tugged her sword from its belt form. Morgan rested his snout on her lap, shutting his eyes.

The sword grazed the collar, sending a jolt through him. Morgan jumped with a yowl. She had a firm hold on his jaw. "On three," Ridley stated. Morgan shut his eyes and she could feel him grit his teeth. Her fingers slithered between the metal and fur. "One..." Morgan started breathing erratically. She ripped it apart with the current shocking her too. Morgan howled "... two... three."

Ridley threw the halves to the ground, watching Morgan ruffle out his fur. She combed through his fur, seeing the melancholy on his face. "We'll find Logan." The wolf nestled into her lap with tears falling onto her jeans.

"You will find Logan," Falk corrected coldly. "Viggo's creations have no place here and that thing is a muttblood. I would have him out in the wilds with the rest of them, if it weren't for you."

Ridley's lips parted then she looked back to Morgan. "'The rest of them'," she echoed thoughtfully. She stood up, groaning, but turned to face Falk. "How many therianthropes have you exiled?"

Shamelessly the ikon answered, "how would I know? They are of no concern to me."

"Make an educated guess," Ridley roared. Falk did a double take at her. "Tell me!" Falk shrugged and turned away. Ridley pulled out a knife! She shoved him to the wall. The Source pressed the blade into the ikon's throat. "How... many...?"

"You dare raise a hand at me!" Her hand slid across his neck, making a shallow cut. The glower in her gold-ringed eyes was unwavering. A low animal-like growl escaped her. For the first time, Ridley saw a genuine fear in Falk's eyes. "D-dozens. Hundreds. I-I don't know," he stammered. He swallowed hard from her disposition. "Why does that matter?"

"Because only three of your therianthropes were taken," Ahmed answered. "But there's a small army out there. A small army, looking to belong; who have nothing to lose; who, very likely, have a vendetta against you and this colony." Ahmed swallowed hard, looking at Ridley not moving a muscle. "Stand down," he ordered.

Oh, do give us a good show, Ninsun began. A duel to the death!

"I told you not to bring any weapons into the colony," Ahmed vexed. "Now stand down."

Ridley backed away from him then turned to Morgan, huddled behind Ankh, who towered over him. "We need to find those outcasts," the huntress began. "Ankh, can you sniff them out?"

That will do no good, the åse stated. If you were to find them, the scent of the colony is all over you. Those children go amok at any trace of the colony. We have turned our back on the ones who needed us the most, and now it is too late.

"What does mean," Falk hissed.

After the attack, I went to ensure they were safe. Neomie had been stalling me while those men helped pack up their den. When I realised what she had done... Ridley turned to Falk with an arched brow. The ikon balled a fist, listening coldly. Ankh - behind them - rested her snout on Morgan's crown. Their den has been cleared.

"Well, that bridge has thoroughly been burnt," Ridley commented.

"Great åse, have you... been to this den before?"

They are children of the primal, as much as any of us. Their place may not be here, among the people, but they are of the same roots as the rest of us.

Ridley shook her head then turned to Ankh. "We'll go look around the den. Maybe there's something there." The grey wolfen nodded. "In the meantime, Ahmed, could you and Calista look after Morgan?"

"Of course," Ahmed replied. Morgan nestled into his side. "Maybe we can figure out a way to go between forms. For muttbloods."