Before a Once Upon A Time

Wolf Of Man - The Beginning And End Of Servitude

Story 3 - Wolf of Man

Part 4 - The Beginning And End Of Servitude

Warning PG - gets a little graphic in places, do not read if squeamish.

After Lupe's first night rampage he woke and found himself chained to a thick, heavy stone wall he couldn't recall ever seeing before. His clothes were stiff and sticky in different places from the blood that was caked on them and he smelled a terrible, thick smell that seemed to excite some primal part of his mind but made the rest of him want to throw up. And not want to throw up. He saw the blood on him and foggily remembered his night. He didn't want to see what was within his stomach for he knew it would make his throw up again. The worst part was that the evil, cruel fairy had put something in his cage - for that was what this was - and it would make him sick and sad for the rest of his days, this image, burned onto his eyes from hours of exposure, much clearer than the half remembered images of his wild night.

            A girl he only vaguely remembered as one of his admirers sat on the ground a small distance from him. Her stomach was torn open and her hands missing, two of her fingers torn away from her body splayed around her. It was Rosia. Sitting there, he knew in some deep part of his soul that this was his fault. He had killed Rosia. And the worst part of it all? She still lay there with a happy look on her face as though he had attacked her so rapidly that she hadn't even had time to change expression when he killed her

            *The reason this is the worst part is not simply because it terrifies his mind to think he did this. The worst part was that he didn't. The mean, cruel fairy tricked her into telling her family that she was going to visit her grandmother in the forest who was sick.  And then she had killed the girl and thrown her, already dead, into the cage with Lupe after altering her expression so that it would never move again and would remain perpetually happy. So, in a very roundabout way, it was his fault, since she only died because he was amazing. But it wasn't really. Not in the way he was thinking. The mutilation to her body, yes. He had had a little snack after the fairy had captured him - but then he had been full and happy and content to sleep until morning when he woke human and remorseful for his actions.

            Her blood pooled around her so that in a trick of the light, he could have sworn she wore only red clothing, perhaps a red hood and for a moment, this happy illusion saved his sanity which was quickly deteriorating.

His new, heightened mind put an end to this quickly however. It shut him down, made him numb and unable to think until something snapped him out of his stupor.

A door opening. His mind leapt to thankful relief at being set free from here before suspicion and unease of his conscious thought crashed down on him. Whoever this was, he was betting it wasn't someone here to help him. It was more than likely either the person who put him down here or the person who was going to take him to his execution - because he had figured out that he was in some sort of dungeonous cage or prison cell, in those days.

            The person who stepped through the door was Char. Lupe stumbled back from his position of attack that he had slipped into by instinct of self-preservation and the instinct of the hunter he now was. Even if everyone else didn't know about Char's hunting escapades, he did and he feared the boy in front of him for what he might do to him. Was he here to kill him? Would he not get a trial or an execution? He would be put down just like an animal...just like the thing that he had become so closely related to overnight?

            No. It was not to be. For following her handsome knight was the queen. Or well, not THE queen. Just a fairy who thought herself above everyone - including this beast of a man who now stood before her. Or well, not stood. More like slumped aggressively on the floor. Yeah. Let's go with that. Who now slumped aggressively on the floor before her. That was better.

 Something about her smell set him on edge and he felt a small snarl escape his lips. (Somewhere at the back of his mind here, he realizes that this is not normal, being able to recognize people by smell and another part of him acknowledges it as the most natural thing in the world. He would later come to love both of these parts of him, conflicting as they may be. But for now, the more primal part of him was what had control.) He didn't really know where the primal rage that forced it from his lips came from - he only knew that it was protecting him and keeping him sane and that soon, at some point, he would have to embrace this part of him along with the weaker, thinking part of him that would keep him from omitting stupid noises like that, showing his face, his cards, much to early in the game.

            His simple reaction caused the fairy to smile. Her smile wasn't like most smiles, honest and genuine or vicious and hard, or even wide and showing bitterness or dangerous amusement. No. It was a simple smile, soft and small and full of honest amusement and joy, even though the joy was about corrupt, dirty things. Her smile was the kind you expected to see on the mouth of an angel accepting people to heaven, or a Tho accepting people to Jat, not on a demon luring people to their demise. (Though I suppose angels would actually probably be less angelic and more normal considering they don't feel the need to be beautiful, they simply are and their insides are pure and kind too. But demons would need the same pretty faces the angels have to lure people to their dooms because who trusts an ugly, evil looking face? Huh. Seems like we've got it backwards in all our paintings and drawings. Angels should be the ugly ones, for they have no need of beauty and devils the kind, gentle looking ones because it lulls us into believing them. Or maybe this logic can be spun in circles so many times that it would be best to simply assume that they can look anyway you can think and simply be kind to everyone - though be careful who you give your trust to.) Her smile melted Char’s heart a little and he momentarily forgot his role as a guard. Just for a moment. A single slip, a second lapse. But Lupe leapt at it, trying to escape.

It didn't work. The fairy moved with a speed and strength far beyond her frame and threw him to the opposite wall from the door before he had gotten even near the opening. She cooed at Char, "Sweet, please remember your duty, before your love right now. We can deal with that flaw later." The last part was said as a off handed thought, insignificant and easy to accomplish.

            Char smiled at her words, even though in his spell-muddled brain they didn't really process and his attention became focused rigidly on guarding the door. Lupe peeled himself slowly off the wall, wincing and yelping in equal measures until bit by bit, he was standing again, just as he had been when Char first entered, ready to fight for his life if need be. The fairy’s voice range out."Boy. Whatever you name before, it matters not to me. Now, and for forever more you shall be Lupe Umain, The wolf belonging to man and you shall be my servant to command. Do you understand?"

            The fairy's main mistake was thinking that Lupe was still sane at this point in time. He wasn't by now. Well, not entirely. His human sided mind had shut down in an effort to save his sanity and thus, it was not even aware of the situation. Lupe charged at her and morphed midway - a thing the fairy had not been expecting. Morphing when she said so, yes. But when she had not? How could he? Was he magicked other than her spell?

The answer was no. The truth was, Lupe has also a witch, though one without enough magic to make much of a difference and who had not discovered his talent anyways. But in this moment of need, his magic allowed his to transform into a beast mid-jump and kill the fairy in one bite, jaws firmly fixed around her throat. Char instantly rushed to her aid as the spell diffused, dribbling out of his brain quickly. His sword out, he looked at the wolf in front of him. The beast was large, no doubt, but not the largest he had ever hunted. Yet something in the eyes of this beast showed something more than the other beasts he had attacked in the past- there was a bright, human like quality to the shine in them, maybe. Or maybe they looked more wild than any he'd ever seen. Either way, he hesitantly lowered his sword and stood out of the way for the wolf, who until this point had had his jaws clamped still around the fairy's throat, ensuring her death. At Char's surrender of duty, he trotted through the door and through the village until he reached the woods. And then? He ran. He sprinted and streaked with vicious intentions. Even though he was not evil, he would never regret the fairy's death.

            He found a wolf pack but they too felt the same fear the Char had and ran from him again and again until eventually, they fought. And when he should have allowed them to be freed, allowed them their lives under him, he killed them without meaning too. He went on a wild rampage until he collapsed, exhausted, far away from his home, at a bubbling stream that lulled even his vicious mind into a peaceful slumber.