Stump

They watched by the light of the flames consuming its flesh and hair until they vanished when the writhing creature dove into a thick pile of snow.

Then there was only silence and misty blackness again.

They fled to the tavern, carrying the screaming terrified children in their arms.

When they reached the building, the snow stopped falling and a sudden arctic breeze blew away the thick cloying mist. The thick snow-laden clouds raced away to the east and the full moon bathed the white world around them with its bright blue light.

Gebrim and the children pounded on the door and screamed to be let in while Stump and Elowen gazed up and down the moonlit street, looking for any sign of the hulking blood-mad beast.

The night was quiet around them. There was no sign of the monster.

Once the barricaded doors were opened, parents and children were reunited with cries and tears of relief.

The night passed and nobody slept. Stump, Elowen and Gebrim stepped into the frigid night and patrolled around the building, then made their way to the place where the beast had attacked them and saw its faint tracks leading off into the distance.

It was two hours until dawn.

He turned to look into Elowen's bright green eyes. They were dancing in excitement, but her face drooped with exhaustion.

*Should we hunt?* he asked into her mind.

She smiled widely at him but shook her head.

*Let's get a few hours of sleep and hunt it down in the light of day,* she responded.

Nodding in agreement, he turned around and slogged back to the tavern.

Gebrim stared at them in confusion. They hadn't said a word to each other but they acted as if they'd just had a conversation. He shook his head and followed behind.

Once back at the tavern, Stump found a spot close to the fire, leaned back against a table leg, closed his eyes and slept. Elowen stretched out and, using his thighs as a pillow, fell instantly asleep. Gebrim sat near them, staring down at the beautiful young woman's face with rapt attention.

Stump woke a few hours later just as dawn was cracking the sky. His eyes snapped open and he was instantly awake. His legs were asleep. Elowen's head rested heavily on them and they'd gone numb.

He stirred under her, reaching down to lift her blonde head from his lap so he could slip away, but she woke at his touch and looked around in confusion.

Stump nearly groaned out loud.

Gwen was back.

She sat up and stared into his face. The fierce coiled violence was gone. The tempered steely gaze was replaced now by sweet, soft and confused green eyes. She looked around fearfully at the other people in the large room.

They looked nothing like Stump. There was no green skin and large pointed ears. Their eyes were small, their lips were thick and their teeth were square. She'd seen her reflection in a mirror Stump kept in the cabin but she didn't like it and had stayed away from it. Everyone here looked like her.

She crowded in behind him and fearfully kept him close between her and the other people in the room.

Gebrim slept on beside them, stretched out on the wooden floor with this dark brown cloak drawn over himself like a blanket.

Stump stood and motioned for Gwen to follow him. He took her hand and led the way to one of the small storerooms in the rear of the building and shut the door. Most people were sleeping or dozing and nobody noticed the change in her.

The smell of herbs, stale ale and moldy bread filled their nostrils as they stood looking at each other.

Gwen fell to her knees and smothered him to her. She held him tight against her trembling body. She was frightened of the new surroundings. Since she'd first woken, Stump and his cabin were all she had known. The people, the smell of sweating humanity, the sounds of people coughing, talking, farting and snoring... they were all unfamiliar and frightening.

Stump held her, stroked her blonde hair comfortingly with a large clawed hand and whispered soothing words in her ear.

"It's okay, lass," he said whispered. "You don't need to be afraid of them. They're not going to hurt you."

He held her at arm's length and spoke into her mind.

*Can you hear me?* he asked.

She jumped and held her hands to her mouth in startled amazement.

*I heard you in my mind,* she said back to him and took her hands away from her mouth to reveal one of her glorious smiles, full of love and trust.

*I want us to talk this way from now on, okay?* he said, looking sternly into her eyes.

She returned his look with a serious one of her own and nodded somberly.

*Why?* she asked.

He pointed in the direction of the people on the other side of the wall.

*They don't need to hear what we say, so we'll just keep it between us,* he answered.

She nodded again and drew him back to her. She wasn't shaking anymore.

*You don't need to be afraid of them out there, but you do need to be afraid of the beast,* he said into her mind.

In simple words, he told her everything that happened the night before. He left nothing out.

She let him go and sat on her heels listening intently. Her eyes were wide with fear and amazement.

*The beast is out there and I have to hunt it down,* he said. *I have to kill it so it doesn't hurt anybody else. It doesn't come out during the day so this is the best time to go after it.*

She nodded. His magic dagger and the red fire stone he owned were the most effective weapons against it.

*I'm coming with you,* she said.

He stared deep into her large green eyes.

*I know you are,* he said, knowing there was no way she'd let him leave her behind. *Then let's get going.*

He and Gwen took up their bows, told the towns guard they were going out to hunt the creature and stepped out into the crisp morning air. They'd each found a pair of snowshoes in a storeroom and strapped them on before Stump led the way to the creature's trail.

Moments later, Gebrim trotted to catch up to them, a set of snowshoes strapped to his feet. He smiled at them and fell in line behind Gwen. His spear was in his hand and wide plumes of steam shot from his mouth as he struggled to catch his breath.

The beast's footprints were dulled with fallen snow but were still clear enough to follow.

-----------------------------------

The man knelt naked in a pool of frozen blood and stared around him dazedly at the piles of half eaten bodies, entrails and human body parts.

He recognized some of the faces from another lifetime.

He groaned in pain and touched the left side of his face gently. Pieces of his skin sloughed off, black and charred. His flesh was hot to the touch and the cloying smell of burned hair was in his nostrils. His ear had completely burned away and the burns on his shoulder matched those on his face.

He tried to blink his left eye but he couldn't see anything. When he brought a finger to his eye to touch it gently he screamed in agony as what used to be his eye exploded in a shower of blood and pus.

He shivered as the cold penetrated his now human body and looked around for his clothes. He'd learned to strip them off before letting the change take over. He'd learned to control it.

He found his clothes next to the shivering terrified "prisoner" in a body-free corner of the room. He'd kept her alive, even in his beast form. He needed someone to pin this all on.

She stared at him with a gleam of satisfaction in her bloodshot eyes and cackled with glee at his pain.

"Looks like you finally found your match, demon," she chuckled hoarsely. "You finally got a taste of what you deserve."

The black-bearded man stepped close and backhanded her on the mouth, snapping her head to the side and mashing her lips against her teeth.

She groaned in pain, spit out a gobbet of blood and held her tongue. Her eyes stared daggers at him but she was helpless, held down by the thick cold chains on her wrists and ankles.

He got dressed, the clothes felt icy against his pale shivering skin.

Digging around in his pack, he pulled out a rolled bandage and a padded compress. He'd carried them around for a long time in the bottom of his pack and finally had a use for them. Usually, when he turned back to himself, any wounds he suffered in his beast form were healed. However, he'd never been wounded as he had the night before. The Goblin's blade was special and whatever he'd done to throw a ball of fire at him was something he'd need to watch out for. That and the deep wound in his lower back.

He pressed the compress against his eye and wrapped the bandage around his head, tying it off with a sloppy knot. The skin on his shoulder and face felt hot and tight and his eye socket throbbed with a deep burning pain.

The raw human flesh he'd devoured as a beast an hour before churned in his stomach. His belly was full but he felt a raging thirst.

He went to his pack again and unslung a water skin strapped to its side. He put the water skin's wooden mouth to his lips and upended the sloshing bag. He drained most of it and threw the dregs to the chained woman who eagerly drank down what was left.

Now dressed and ready, he stepped outside to erase his beast tracks. He didn't expect any of the cowardly townspeople to follow them, but... just in case.

He opened the door, lowering his head to throw up his coat's hood at the biting cold and when he raised his head, met the old Goblin's eyes as he was about to climb the four steps to the dilapidated house's covered porch. Two tall people stood behind him.

-----------------------------------

As he followed the tracks, Stump remembered this place. This was Rainald's house. The piece of shit he'd knocked out and hogtied only to leave him several days out to be devoured by a pack of wolves.

The bullying thug had made it out alive. The bullying thug was the beast!

He'd been ready to brave the beast in its den with the magic dagger in one hand and the red fire gem in the other. He'd taken off his snowshoes and been about to raise his foot to the first step when the door opened and Rainald stepped out, blinking one good eye in the bright morning light.

He looked exactly the same as when Stump had last seen him, except for the enormous bristling beard. He was tall, maybe six two, fat-bellied and sallow-skinned. The top of his head was bald as an egg but the hair on the sides and back was long and greasy. His nose was thick and bulbous and his remaining eye was small, black, beady and sunken deep in his face.

Their eyes met and Rainald reacted a split second before Stump, diving away as a ball of fire shot from the red stone in Stump's hand and smashed into the rickety door, making the house shudder. Snow thumped all around as it slid off the peaked roof.

Rainald turned with a growl. The growl lengthened and deepened, rumbling deep down in his chest.

Stump stepped back in amazement and fear, unable to do anything but watch as Rainald changed. Gwen and Gebrim stood behind him, rooted to the spot in fear.

Gwen crouched behind her shield with her sword held at chest level and pointed at the man changing before them. Gebrim stood slack-jawed with his spear gripped loosely in his hand.

-----------------------------------

Rainald rolled off the porch and turned to face his enemies, his face set in an expression of savage rage and then the face began to change.

The man screeched in agony as the bones in his face snapped and crackled into a new shape, three-inch-long canines sprouted from above and below, and the flesh beneath the grotesquely shifting face bulged and squirmed under the skin which sprouted thick black hair, as thick and bristly as metal wire. Its ears shifted and moved until they sat atop his head and grew triangular and responsive.

The screaming man dropped to his hands and knees and his body swelled, stretching out and then ripping the clothes at the seams.

The chest deepened and the belly sank in. He yipped as his feet lengthened and tore apart his boots. The joints in his legs snapped until they bent in the opposite direction like a dog's... or a wolf's... legs. His hands grew and his fingers thickened and lengthened, sprouting three-inch-long, iron-hard curving claws which ripped his gloves into shreds.

The enormous hands clenched and unclenched as if already rending flesh and bone, and slavering fangs snapped at the air in agony or ecstasy. Heat radiated from him in shimmering waves and steam rose from his thick still sprouting fur.

Rainard's human growl of anger turned into a deep bestial rumble that rose octave by octave and finally ended in a deep-throated ear-piercing howl as he stood up to his full seven feet and ripped the remains of his clothes away with powerful claws.

Stump, Gwen and Gebrim backpedaled until they were about ten steps away. They'd stood and watched the transformation, unable to tear their eyes away, unable to move, as if they were held in place by an invisible force.

Stump watched the massive creature that just moments before had been a fat-bellied middle-aged man straighten and turn its savage glowing red eyes in their direction. All three almost felt their bladders give out at the stomach-churning fear that washed over them like a deep black shadow in their souls.

As it crouched to leap, Stump finally reacted, raising the red stone and sending a blazing bolt of fire at the creature.

Instead of leaping in among them, it dove to the side to avoid the fiery missile.

Crouching, Gwen raised her shield until her eyes peeked over its rim, held her sword at the ready and walked towards the monster wallowing in the deep snow, steam rising around it like smoke.

*Stay back. Stay back,* Stump screamed into her head.

Her muscle memory had kicked in. Years of training, of swinging her sword, of fighting enemies of all kinds across the wide continent, snapped her focus to the present.

At that moment, the moment death stared at her with red malevolent eyes, Elowen/Gwen's personalities snapped together like two puzzle pieces. The two distinct personalities disappeared, or rather became one, and a new Elowen took their place. She was a combination of both.

She was now her true self. Like the final piece placed on a puzzle, her brain became whole. Synapses reconnected and memories and personality traits reasserted themselves, blending seamlessly with Gwen's.

From this point on, she was and always would be Elowen, a knight of the Radiant Order. She still quivered in fear but she held it back with an iron will. Whatever would be would be. She would fight it head on with sword in hand.

Her eyes hardened and her knightly vows echoed through her mind and resounded in Stump's head.

*Show no fear in the face of your enemy. Be brave and upright that the Gods might love thee. Speak always the truth, even if it leads to your doom. Do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reason. Protect those who cannot protect themselves and do no wrong; that is my oath.*

The words repeated over and over in their heads as Elowen glided forward in a crouch.

Stump noticed a change in the set of her shoulders. This wasn't Gwen anymore.

Elowen stared at the great furred beast before her. It straightened to its full height and its lips curled up in a savage snarl. A deep rumbling growl reverberated in her bones. Fear sent a shiver down her spine and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, but she strode towards it.

When she stood maybe ten feet from it, she feigned a charge and spun to the side as it leapt forward to meet her, slashing her sword down on an outstretched arm as it passed. It screeched in pain and rage and spun to face her, its rage-filled eyes staring into hers.

Its back turned to Stump, the old Goblin raised the red stone and sent bolt after fiery bolt streaking towards its back.

Some sixth sense made it leap to the side yet again to avoid the flaming missiles.

At that moment, Elowen ducked beneath the fire bolts and lunged forward, locking her arm and driving eighteen inches of razor sharp steel into the werewolf's side, through its belly and out the other side.

The beast screamed in agony, straightened and slashed a powerful hand sideways, smashing into Elowen's shield and sending her flying through the air to land with a puff of powdery snow in a drift 15 feet away. She held the hilt and six inches of her broken sword in her hand, the rest was embedded deep in the creature's belly.

She stood and watched as the creature tried to grip the blade and pull it out of its stomach. The massive beast couldn't grip the metal, it kept slicing into its hands, its hot steaming blood made it slick and slippery.

She stood and watched the creature struggle to unsuccessfully pull her blade out of its body. It roared and raged, gnashing the air with its fanged mouth at every unsuccessful attempt and sliced its clawed hands to ribbons.

She jumped when she felt a hand touch her arm and nearly shoved what was left of her sword into Stump's chest. He stood there holding out his magic dagger, hilt first.

Elowen dropped her useless sword hilt and took Stump's offered weapon. Its 12-inch double-edged blade would mean she'd have to get close to the beast, but it was deadly and she knew how to use it.

She flipped it in her hand until its blade lay along the length of her forearm, hidden from the monster's view.

She raised her shield and once again glided towards the creature as it ragingly continued to pull the blade out of its body.

When it finally registered in its raging brain that the bitch was getting ready to attack it again, it ignored the blade in his guts and crouched. Its long arms stretched out in front of it and its legs bunched, ready to launch it towards its tormentor.

Elowen saw the telltale signs and dropped flat on the trampled snow as the monster leapt at her, intending to rip her apart with its claws and shred her with its fangs. It flew over her but one of his claws managed to tear through her coat and rip the armored robe beneath to leave a raw red bloody welt on her skin.

Her armored robe immediately began to reknit but there was now a long flapping rent in her furred coat.

When the beast landed, it was less than five steps away and Stump sent a fire bolt into its heaving back, sending the howling creature flipping end over end to smash against the side of the old house and land in a deep snow drift on its side.

Its fur caught fire but it was instantly extinguished when it landed in the snow. Steam rose from the beast-shaped hole in the snow drift and they could hear it yowling in pain as it bent and twisted its body against the cooling snow.

Elowen slogged through the piled snow towards it as it struggled to its feet. Holding the shield tight to her body, she drove the magic dagger forward and slashed its ankle down to the bone, severing the Achilles tendon, sending the remains of the now unconnected tendons snapping up his leg and down its foot like cut rubber bands.

The beast roared in agony and lurched away from the slashing ripping dagger in Elowen's hand. Its foot was useless and every move of its leg sent waves of agony ripping into it body.

Fear now filled its eyes. This was like no other fight in its life. Every battle before this one had ended with it feasting on its enemy's flesh, rending it and devouring it still quivering with life. None had ever had an advantage over it. It had never been conquered.

Until now.

Its hot blood pumped out of it. Its left leg no longer obeyed it. The bitch in front of it tormented it with a savage metal fang. A fang made deadly with magic. A fang that would take its life if it let it.

It stood on its one good leg and tried to lunge towards the bitch, only to fall face first with its hand outstretched, clawed fingers stretched out to her but not quite reaching.