New Life in a New World Ch. 01

John was literally being led through the valley like a dog. The woman had tied a rope around his neck and was pulling the end like a leash. She had tied the other end in a loop and ran the rope through it. If John tried to run, struggle or simply attempt to be difficult, she would simply yank on the rope and it would tighten around his neck, choking him. His hands were still bound behind his back. As she led him along, she had his rifle slung over her shoulder and carried his vest and pistol holster in her free hand. Despite his situation, John closed his eyes and smiled when he felt the warmth of the morning sun on his face. He reopened his eyes and took in the wonderful sight of the sun bathing the mountains and valley in a warm orange glow. If there was a chance he would be executed, he would at least enjoy one last sunrise.

There was another sight John was enjoying as well, the beautiful woman walking a few steps in front of him. He could not help but stare at that wonderful ass as she walked. What he thought was just part of her clothing was indeed a tail emerging just above her rump. Her tail had white hair until that ended with black hair at the tip. If her ass was not seductive enough, watching her tail flow back and fourth was only adding to her sexiness.

She must have sensed John gazing at her because she soon gave the leash a quick yank, snapping him back to reality. John coughed as he briefly lost his breath from the collar choking him. John was getting annoyed with this woman and his current situation. But what the hell could he do? He had spent the last hour while they were walking attempting to break free of his binds but the rope was thick and the knots were too strong. The skin on his wrists was rubbed raw from the rope.

"What's your name?" John asked. John got no response from the woman, she did not even bother to look his way to acknowledge him. Normally John would not tell a captor anything about himself, but fuck it, those rules went out the window as soon as he entered this place.

"My name is John, what's yours?" still no response from the woman. John let out a frustrated sigh, "Fine, I'll make up one for you. Hmmm, how about Queen Bitch."

The woman finally stopped walking, she turned to John clearly irritated. "My name is Lydia! Lydia Ulrica," she snapped back.

"See, was that so hard....Lydia?" John replied with a smirk.

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Could you be any more difficult?"

"I don't know, is that a challenge?" John could tell that she was getting pissed off, "But really, you have no real reason to complain. After all, I'm the one tied up. Maybe you should learn to have better control of your prisoner."

John kept pushing the limits of Lydia's patience, he knew one of three things would happen. First, if he was really lucky, she would give in and start to deal. Getting the binds or the collar off of him could be a good start. Second option, he could get Lydia angry enough that she would make a mistake. If John could get Lydia close enough to him, he could attack her and get away. However, at the moment she seemed to be determined to keep her distance and still kept a strong grasp on his leash. The third possible outcome, Lydia would simply kill John. As grim as that sounds, John was fine with any of those outcomes.

Lydia took a deep breath and clinched her fists, attempting to maintain control of her anger. She closed her eyes to gather her thoughts and when she opened them, she seemed to be calm and collected.

"Look," Lydia said, "If you are a good boy and can keep quiet until we get to my village, your binds may be removed."

John nodded in acknowledgement with a smug smile, his stubbornness paid off and Lydia was forced to make the deal. The village was not that far away so John could hold out for at least that long. Lydia continued to lead the way back to the village.

They started to pass some of the farms located on the outskirts of the village. The village itself was tucked in at the end of the valley with the hills on either side. It was not long before they entered the village. The houses were built about a foot or two off the ground, John assumed that this was in case of any flooding in the valley. The walls of the houses were made of wood planks, the roof made mostly of straw. Pillars, about the thickness of a tree trunk, supported the outer edges of the roof. The larger buildings were similar but had their roofs made up of wood and were more elaborate. The architecture definitely looked like something out of the dark ages, perhaps almost close to ancient Nordic.

Despite everything John had gone through in the past twenty four hours, the biggest shock came when he saw the residents of the village. While some were like Lydia, half human and half wolf-like, the majority looked like full wolves. They stood on two legs, crooked backwards like the hind legs of a dog and had five fingers on each hand with claws for tearing flesh. Many stood well over six or seven feet tall. Even more startling, their heads looked exactly like that of a wolf. John thought back to the fantasy stories his parents used to read to him as a child, these were real lycans.

Lydia continued to lead him deeper into the village. John noticed that the half-lycans seemed to stay isolated in their homes, only peeking out to see the stranger walking down their streets. It seemed that with the exception of Lydia, half-lycans were second class citizens. The full lycans however were dressed in much nicer clothing and proudly roamed the streets. But once John had entered the village, all activity stopped. Those in the streets moved out of the way to let Lydia through before turning their gaze to John. While some had an initial look of curiosity, that quickly changed to hatred. John heard manly low growls in quickly gathering crowd.

"Filthy human!" one of the male lycans growled next to John.

Holy crap, it talks! Where the hell was he? John turned to look at the lycan, his head was lowered and claws extended, desperately wanting to tear John to shreds. John lowered his head and brows, he clinched his jaw in an attempt to stare down the lycan. John and the offended lycan made direct eye contact with each other, neither wanting to back down. A sudden yank on John's collar pulled him away and forced him to continue following Lydia. He could hear several taunting laughs behind him.

They finally approached a large, elaborate building near the center of town. John could only assume that it was the town hall. The building was at least two stories with carved wooden wolf heads extending from the roof. Several stone steps led to a pair of large doors. However, Lydia and John did not have to go inside because it seemed that their arrival was expected. This seemed to even surprise Lydia as she saw three male lycans step out of the town hall and approach them.

The lycan on the left had brown fur and wore black plated armor over a red robe. Since the outfit looked more ceremonial than practical, John assumed that this was a palace guard. The lycan on the right was the exact opposite, he had black fur and wore black steel armor over chainmail. He was battle ready, and not just by his outfit. Like almost all the other lycans in the village, he looked at John with hatred and malice. The scars that were visible through the fur showed that he had been in many fights. John's gaze then turned to the lycan at the center. He was clearly older than the others and had a thick coat of white, almost grey fur. He wore an elaborate white robe with red and gold lines that twisted and crisscrossed like vines. Unlike the others, he did not look ready to kill John, instead he looked at John with intrigue.

John looked over at Lydia, "So, this is the part where you release me."

"I said I may release you," Lydia said with a smirk, "I never said I would."

John couldn't help but smile a bit, he got careless and he just got played big time. The guard moved behind John and grabbed his arms. Lydia removed the leash from his neck and moved toward the white furred lycan at the center. The guard kicked John behind his right knee, forcing John to kneel. John lead out a small groan as a jolt of pain shot through his broken leg, he may have been doing better but his leg was still in bad shape. John tried to do his best to hide his pain, but it did not go unnoticed by the leader.

"That will be unnecessary Rollo," said the white furred lycan in a deep voice, motioning to the guard.

Lydia gave the leader a small bow, "Father, I found him trespassing in our territory. From his clothing and weapons, I do not believe he's from any nearby lands."

Father!?!? That would explain why Lydia, a half-lycan, did not fall fate to the second class citizenship as the others. But at the same time, it deepened the mystery for John. John could see some resemblance between her and the leader. However, he did not see any other humans in the village, so where was her mother? Plus, if humans were so hated why would the leader even mate with one?

The black lycan scoffed, "Why did you bother bringing this beast before us? If you had any brains in that tiny head of yours, you would have killed him. I guess you are also growing a soft spot for humans."

"Hold your tongue Ulfric or I'll rip it out," the white lycan growled, "You may consider yourself our best warrior, but I'm still leader of this village. I had instructed my daughter to return any foreigners she found to me alive."

Ulfric backed down and looked away in frustration.

"My name is Radulf, you are in the village of Wolfdell," said the white lycan. "Now, who are you?"

"Corporal John Young, United States Army Special Forces," John decided to throw out all the rules and decided to give honest and direct answers.

Radulf raised an eyebrow, "And where exactly is United States?"

"In relation to here?" John replied with a nervous laugh, "I sure as hell wish I knew."

"So how did you even get here?" Radulf asked, looking even more curious.

John shook his head, "Again, I have no idea. One moment I was in my world, I was knocked unconscious and then I found myself here."

Radulf's eyes widened in intrigue, what did he mean by his world? Did he simply mean some other far away land? No, he had to be from someplace that did not exist in this realm. Everything about this human was strange, his clothes, his weapons and the way he showed little fear around the other lycans. This certainly could not be the warrior the prophecy spoke of, could it? How could someone who was not from this world and had no reason to fight for this world save it? But he simply could not disregard this man, there was still a chance he could be the one. He would need to send John to the Lady of the Mountain to confirm it.

"So you truly are a foreigner," Radulf said with a smile.

"Father," Lydia interjected, "This man has killed several of our kind, he must be punished."

A wicked smile appeared on Ulfric's face, "Your daughter is right, I say we hang him from a tree at the edge of our lands and tear him open. He can serve as a warning to the neighboring human villages."

"No!" shouted Radulf, looking back at Ulfrick, "What exactly do you think that will accomplish? I am not looking to start a war with the humans."

"But father!" Lydia shouted with frustration. Radulf raised his hand, cutting her off.

"I am well aware of what happened with the wolf pack," Radulf motioned toward a group of wolves that John could only assume were the same ones that attacked him the previous night. "I am also well aware that the wolf pack attacked first. I am not going to condemn a man who was simply acting in self defense."

John knew something was up, but could not figure out what it was. While the rest of the village would certainly love to tear him to shreds, the very leader of the village was insisting that John remain alive. He was surely not the first human that Radulf had come across, so why was he worth protecting? John could tell that Ulfric and Lydia could not understand either. Radulf knew something that the others did not know about or refused to believe. As John was thinking about his current situation, a flock of birds caught his attention except that something about them did not seem right.

"Rollo, remove his binds and collect his weapons from Lydia," Radulf ordered, "We will hold onto them for the time being."

Rollo pulled out a dagger and cut the binds on John's wrists. A surge of relief flowed through John as he could now finally move his arms. He quickly rubbed his wrists and aching shoulders. John was allowed to slowly get to his feet. Lydia moved over to Rollo to hand off his weapons. Just as Lydia started to pass John's M4 rifle to Rollo, John quickly moved over and snatched the rifle from Lydia's hand. John switched off the safety and aimed the rifle directly at Radulf's head. The village leader's eyes opened in shock, he feared he had been betrayed by the young human.

"Get down!" John yelled at Radulf.

The lycan ducked giving John a clear view of the bat like creature that was swooping down for Radulf's head with claws extended. With a loud bang, John fired a single shot. The hideous creature let out a high pitched scream as it fell to the ground. John looked at the creature he just killed. It was the size of a large bird, like an eagle. It's skin was a dark, blood red. Two sunken black orbs made up it's eyes. Despite it's size, it had long razor sharp claws that could easily tear through any hide.

"An imp!" Ulfric said as he gave the creature's corpse a slight kick, making sure it was dead.

The group looked up to see a dozen more imps swoop down into the town square and start attacking the citizens of Wolfdell. Rollo, Ulfric and Lydia unsheathed their swords, the villagers started screaming. Rollo attempted to get Radulf to safety while Ulfric and Lydia split up to fight. Despite still recovering from his injuries and his broken leg, John entered the fight too. Almost immediately, an imp made a beeline directly for John. He calmed his breathing and forced himself to focus past the pain, his hands started to steady themselves. John smiled as he recalled how growing up, his parents would take him pheasant hunting in upstate New York. He brought down the imp with a couple quick and well placed shots. The loud, ear-splitting shots from his rifle seemed to draw more imps to him. Another imp made an attempt to dive-bomb him on his left. John quickly turned, switched his M4 to full-auto and with a quick squeeze of the trigger sent a three round burst knocking the imp out of the sky.

Lydia and Ulfric had each managed to hack and slash their way through a couple more imps. Rollo managed to score a kill too while protecting Radulf. Lydia swung her katana, slicing another imp in half, blood spraying into the air. She looked over at John with amazement, not only was he fighting alongside them but he would also place himself between the imps and other lycans when needed. John turned toward Lydia to see her staring at him. Another imp approached from behind her, John raised his rifle and fired another burst. Lydia could hear the sharp crack as the bullets passed right by her head at supersonic speed followed by the high pitched screech of the imp behind her getting shot down.

With each step, another sharp bolt of pain shot through John's left leg. Fortunately, the imps focused their attack on the center of town so he would not need to make an attempt to move across town. John could now only see a few imps remaining. John then heard the sound of a child screaming. John looked over to see a small lycan girl face first on the ground with an imp on her back, clawing at her back and head. Her arms were flailing, attempting to get the creature off of her as she screamed in terror. John aimed his rifle but then soon realized he could not take the shot without risk of hitting her as well. John lowered his rifle and limped over to her as quickly as he could, the pain ever increasing in his leg. When he reached the girl, he grabbed the imp at the base of it's wings, pulled it off the child and threw the creature to his side. Just as the creature tried to get up and fly away, John turned and shot the creature.

"Are you ok?" John asked the child, helping her to her feet.

She nodded but John could see several deep gashes on her back. John helped her into a nearby building where other lycans were taking shelter. Not more than a moment after getting her inside, something impacted John's chest with enough force to knock him flat on his back. John looked up to another imp on his chest, the imp immediately started clawing into his chest. John screamed in pain as the imp's sharp claws tore into his flesh. He instinctively grabbed the head of the imp and jammed the muzzle of his rifle into it's face. John pulled the trigger, the force of the bullet caused the imp's head to explode in John's hand. John tossed the corpse to the side and looked at his rifle, the bolt had locked back indicating that John was out of ammo. John had not gotten his vest back yet and therefore did not have any extra magazines to reload with. Fortunately for John, he saw Lydia, Ulfric and Rollo sheath their swords indicating that all the imps had been killed.

John looked down at his shirt, the front was torn up and blood was starting to soak through. John slowly stood up, his leg throbbing in pain. Ulfric made his way over to John and with a growl, snatched John's rifle away from him before handing it to Rollo.

"You're welcome, asshole" John said with a sneer.

Ulfric quickly grabbed John's neck and started to squeeze, making it very clear that he could rip out his throat in an instant. John was not going to let himself be intimidated, he stared directly into Ulfric's enraged eyes.

"Try it," John managed to grunt despite Ulfric's firm grip. "Trust me, you'll be doing me a favor."

"Ulfric! Enough!" shouted Radulf. "Go and check the rest of the village and tend to the wounded."

Reluctantly, Ulfric released John and stormed off. John rubbed his neck, taking a moment to catch his breath. Lydia was standing at her father's side and for the first time John could see Lydia smiling at him, just barely. A warm smile emerged on Radulf's face.

"Young man, you are the first human to ever fight alongside other lycans and for that I thank you," Radulf looked at one of the dead imps. "We should consider ourselves lucky, these were just lower imps. The other ones can produce fire and we would be putting out an inferno about now."

John was astounded by how casually Radulf talked about these creatures. John didn't know what to believe anymore. He had a lot to learn about this world, but at least he made one ally today. John gripped his chest as the adrenaline wore off and the pain from the wound started to overwhelm him. Radulf's expression turned to concern, he turned to Rollo.

"Rollo, please quickly take him to Anya," Radulf then turned back to John, "She is our very best healer, she will take care of you. Once she is finished, your weapons will be returned. Since I suspect you have nowhere else to go, please consider Wolfdell your home."

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John followed Rollo to the edge of town. John pressed a clean piece of cloth that Rollo had given him earlier against his chest to keep pressure on the wound. John tried to strike up a conversation with Rollo but the lycan did not say a word, guess he was the strong and silent type. They finally arrived at a medium sized home, John guessed it served a dual purpose as a clinic and as a residence. Rollo opened the door and motioned John inside. Inside was a living area with a dinner table, chairs and a fireplace. A curtain marked the midway point of the room and created a divider.