Ferocious

Chapter 8

Disruption

Sheila opened her eyes slowly as she came to, she felt so refreshed it was just as if she had not gotten up from bed for days and exactly as if there had not been any fight or struggle the very previous day.

She traced her fingers over where her wounds were supposed to be -still healing but she couldn't even find scars to prove that there had been wounds there before, only her memories served as a reminder of the gruesome incident.

She winced visibly as she recalled the deathly cries that came from the mouths of the werelynxes as they died horribly.

Her wince got a turn from Astro who was sitting up beside her at the edge of the bed.

"hey you" Astro said to her looking her deep in the eyes.

She rose to a sitting position as well to face Astro straight up then she kissed him lightly on the lips.

"hey..." She said to a surprised Astro.

"how was your sleep?" He asked her to which she smiled and shrugged as she replied "better than it should've been".

Astro looked away then, he seemed lost in thought for a while and Sheila had to place a hand on his shoulder before he came back to awareness.

"I'm sorry..." He said to her getting teary eyed.

She made him turn to her completely and hugged him tightly as he said that,

she knew what was going on through his head right now and also knew it must hurt him a lot to get him into a state like this.

He broke down at that point, sobbing hard into her shoulders as they embraced.

"I'm a horrible monster..." He said between sobs.

She pulled him back to look into his wet eyes

"hey, if it comes to that, then we all are monsters, in our very nature, in our being and self, don't beat yourself up on that, or would you rather have done nothing and allowed them capture or kill us both?" She said to him to which he shook his head and then she pulled him in once again for a hug.

She pulled him back once more and this time she met his lips with hers in a passionate kiss, tasting the salt of his tears and wishing she could swallow up his hurt.

***

Lucas couldn't believe the sight before him, there were mangled and torn bodies everywhere.

Keith as strong as he claimed to be had hurled at the sight of it.

'Twas's a good thing I didn't bring Leila' Lucas thought to himself thinking of how she'd have reacted to the nightmarish sight.

When the trader had come to give the news of what he'd found on the way as he returned from the city to the clan heads, Lucas had been chosen to go inspect it.

He had thought it wasn't anything major so he took Keith and a couple of warriors along,

on getting to the site and seeing the bodies in such state though, he had raised the alertness and awareness of everyone with him and had them posted at strategic posts to ensure they get no surprises should in case the entity responsible for this wasn't far away yet.

More inspection showed the corpses belonged to werelynxes and along the line Keith picked up a familiar scent then he beckoned Lucas over to a ditch.

"tell me my nose lies to me with the scents I'm picking up here" he said to Lucas in a low tone.

Lucas shook his head slowly after he confirmed the scents as well.

"they were here alright, and could've been in the battle too but we won't know that because the smell of rot has covered everything up over there" Lucas affirmed.

"not a word of this to anyone until we've confirmed whatever this is... Ok?" He said to Keith who nodded.

"what if whatever caused this is already at our settlement?" He said with sudden realization and fear in his eyes that transferred to Lucas when he also realized the implication of that statement.

"let's go meet Astro and Sheila, they might be able to shed more light on this" he said hurriedly and signaled everyone to start heading home quickly.

***

Astro stood before the judgement council, one that his uncle was also a member of (which shouldn't have been allowed since Sheila's mother wasn't included in the council and Sheila was only involved as a witness to the incident not a partaker). Astro had made that clear in the statements he gave.

After he'd spoken to Lucas and Keith on the training grounds as they got back from the scene, Lucas had promised to lay it down as softly as possible to the clan heads but Keith got to the clan heads first and laid it out as brutal as the matter really was totally telling it as the tale of the vile demonwolf who caused unspeakable gruesome deaths.

Sheila had been called then by the clan heads and primed by her mother who is a super lie detector to get every detail from her.

She had been guarded and refused to give up any details of the demonwolf incident, only that Astro did what he did to save them both.

When it was Astro's turn though, he laid the incident down in a way that favoured Sheila entirely putting all the fault on himself.

He explained a bit on how he had to use the demonwolf to fight lest they would've been killed or captured.

None of them seemed happy about the incident, well except his Uncle who was looking smug.

Jose spoke up first "I think its just too much for him" then facing Astro he said,

"your powers might be too much for you to handle and that demon in you definitely can't be controlled by you, and that in itself is a flaw that might come around to affect our clan negatively".

To which Astro replied immediately

"the keyword in your statement being 'might', we were under attack for crying out loud and had no choice but to attack as well and I had to do everything I could to stop them from killing or capturing us, it totally self-defense not that we went looking for trouble".

As he finished his Uncle put in "what were you looking for then at the unmarked territory in the first place? You do know there are strict orders preventing anyone from going into unmarked territory, unless it had been sanctioned".

Astro spread his arms sideways as he answered indifferently, "that order is for undeveloped Wolves, in case you've forgotten dear Uncle, I'm developed now".

The Chief of Clan then rapped his rod on the floor for silence before stating

"this case is only being addressed like this because of the nature by which the killing took place, not the reason for the killing or events leading to the battle,

what I want to know Astro is: were you in control? were you able to curb your bloodthirstiness, quell your rage and control your attacks?".

Astro mulled over the question and saw the implication to both answers.

Saying yes would mean he had control but still chose to kill in an horrific manner thus painting him as a bloodthirsty psychopath, and saying no would mean no he didn't have control on how he was and how he attacked in that state thus painting him as a freak of nature.

He decided to stick to the truth, he really wouldn't want to tell lies to the Chief of Clan in the first place so he answered,

"yes, I was in control but I had no control on my rage, blood thirst and attacks".

Lucas' father Lucio rose at that point as if that was the exact answer he'd expected and being next in line as Chief of clan all his moves recently have been political, he cleared his throat and stated,

"this has a huge implication on our clan, on us all, lets think about it and ask ourselves 'who is safe from the rage of the demonwolf?'

we all know as wolf shapeshifters, ours is the curse of a short temper, and we are quick to anger and rage in our very nature, what happens when Astro loses his temper and throws a tantrum?

I haven't seen or heard about any entity like this in all my long years but I got a full fill from the Chief of Clan himself about a demonwolf he once knew of in his own youth and the devastation it caused at that time and believe me it was just as gruesome if not much more, putting the clan first, I believe its best we do not have this entity amongst us especially if it cannot control itself".

Astro noticed the Chief of Clan had his eyes closed all the while Lucio was speaking, so he pathed privately to him,

'is this true, about the demonwolf you once knew of?' to which the Chief gave a slight nod as an answer.

Astro asked in the private path again 'is this your decision?' because he knew as Lucio's speech was about to end what the decision was.

At that the Chief of Clan opened his eyes and spoke out loud,

"it is the unanimous decision of the clan heads that you should be banished from the clan lands and you should find yourself a home far away from here, if you hold the clan's best interest and safety at heart".

Astro couldn't believe his ears even though he'd totally expected it, then he heard the Chief of clan path to him,

'I begged them not to go by this decision but their fear of what you are and might later become has clouded their judgement yet again, you need to run as fast as you can to get out of the clan lands and even beyond, your best refuge being after the great Luth river'

Astro was baffled by the 'yet again' in his words but more by the strange request and asked in the same path link 'why? what's really happening?'

Astro's Uncle then rose and said "you have till sundown to get your affairs in order, leave and if possible cross the great Luth river and go far far away, for the good of the clan".

Astro looked straight at the chief of clan and asked his question again to which the Chief of clan answered in the path link

'you will be hunted down, as soon as you're out of the clans territory a hunt will be put in place to put you down, run fast and cross the river and by then it'll be too dangerous for anyone from the clan to follow you anymore, I'm sorry dear one, but I'm just one old wolf amidst these young power hungry wolves, I begged enough but they wouldn't listen, save yourself now and maybe one day you'll save the clan itself'.

Astro hardened his heart at the words spoken in his head by the Chief of clan and stepped out heading straight for the outlands because it was almost sundown already and he needs to make most of the time he has left if he wants to live, which he wants.

With only one regret in his heart he ran as fast as he could.