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A series of screams, shouts, whoops, and commands filled the air as the young were ran as fast as his paws could take him, desperately trying to keep up with his pack mates.
Behind the group of five weres, were humans who were riding horses, who were shouting profanities at the group, of how they’d use their hide to keep them all warm for the winter.
They were what the were’s called “Vânătorii De Vârcolaci”, “Werewolf Hunters”, human beings who rode iconic black steeds, who donned both silver armor and weapons, as well as other items that helped them slay weres.
These were men and women alike who served the king, as a hidden army that worked hard to eradicate were’s from their country, they had various units that expanded throughout the kingdom, a group of twelve highly trained hunters resided in each group, each one who specialized in the slaying of weres, both young and old alike.
And currently, Attila’s group had accidentally stumbled upon them while trying to go back to their den after a successful hunt.
Attila and Roel were at the very front of the pack, both leading the way as they made various sharp twists and turns in their chase, jumping over and under places that would normally be hard for men on horseback to chase through, but the hunters never relented and gave a hard chase.
They were close to nipping at the heels of the weres, and they had to quickly find a way to lose them, either they’d end up paying with their lives.
Suddenly, Roel pointed out a narrow cliff’s ledge nearby, they could make a sharp turn that would ensure them that at least a few of the men on horseback would fall to their demise, granting them an easy escape.
And thus, with the plan decided they sprang into action and ran as hard as they all could towards the cliff’s ledge.
One by one, as each were got close to the ledge, they’d pivot their foot towards the last minute, giving their body enough momentum to make the sharp turn, and they ran in the opposite direction.
And, just as predicted, a few of the hunters on horseback who couldn’t make the turn slipped and fell over the edge, breaking their bones and snapping their necks on the way down.
Granting them a swift death.
However, that wasn’t the case when Falk missed his turn and instead twisted his ankle, lost his footing, and fell over the ledge.
The last thing he saw was his pack mates running hard and fast ahead of them, none of them heard his yelp of surprise as he fell to what would likely be his demise.
And as Falk fell, he got hit by the various bushes and trees that grew on the side of the cliff’s face, earning himself various painful cuts and bruises.
As he fell, the final thing he saw was the brilliant moon that shone brightly in the sky, as the world around him went black.
He had been smacked in the back of the head by a tree branch.
Roughly, five hours later Falk re-awoke, he was incredibly sore as his muscles and entire body ached.
The cuts that he had gotten were now itchy and incredibly painful.
He tried sitting up from his current position as he lay down on something soft and furry.
Falk’s eyes flew open, wide and with shock, he quickly scrambled to get off of whatever he was on top of, thinking it to have been a possible were that had been killed.
As he scrambled away, he turned back around to see what it was, and much to his surprise, it wasn’t a were but one of the deceased black horses that the hunters used to ride on.
Its neck was twisted in an incredible angle that Falk never thought such a thing could achieve, a bone stuck out from the injury and a pool of crimson blood-soaked the green grass.
He sighed in relief and decided to get a move on, he knew that if he stayed where he was that he’d soon be found by the hunters and killed.
And despite how much his body screamed at him to stay and rest, he pushed on, as he limped his way to somewhere safe.
Hopefully…
Eventually, Falk came upon what looked like to him, a large shed that was attached to a house, he didn’t see any lights on and figured that the human inside must’ve abandoned their home since it was located neck-deep in werewolf territory.
He hoped he was right as he silently entered the shed, and shut the door behind him.
He didn’t watch where he stepped when he first came in, as a rake shot up and the pole smacked him dead in the face.
He let out a small yelp as he tried to move away, his hind paw getting poked by yet another rake.
He turned around and bumped into a wheelbarrow.
As he desperately tried to maneuver around the various farming and gardening tools, unbeknownst to him, the home was actually inhabited, and he had just awakened the owner.
You woke up in a start to the sudden banging and clanging of tools that came from your tool shed.
You yawned and rubbed your eyes, as you got up from your warm bed you put on a robe of sorts to keep you warm, grabbed a lantern, and headed off in the direction of the noises, wondering to yourself if another coyote had gotten stuck inside of the shed.
You sighed and made a mental note of later checking out the structural integrity of the shed, to see if there were any holes in the walls where critters could get in from.
As you made it to the door that opened to the shed, which was adjacent to your home, you opened the door and hoisted your lantern up to see just what was making all that ruckus.
Piercing yellow eyes met yours, you stood in silent shock for a moment, and analyzed the creature.
It was nothing more than a skinny and smaller werewolf, which didn’t surprise you as you had made friends with plenty of weres in the past, however, something about this one set you off.
Perhaps it was the look of fear in its eyes.
It reared itself close up to a corner and snarled, growling deep and low at you, making itself look incredibly threatening.
You honestly, didn’t even bat an eye at the display of aggressive behavior, younger weres where prone to not trusting humans, given the fact that they had hunters after them.
You slowly lowered your lantern and spotted a hook on the wall to hand it on, as you did so, you kept your movements slow, so as to not frighten the were.
“Are you alright?” you asked, voice calm and low
A growl was all they replied with.
You frowned for a minute and mentally searched for the limited Romanian that you had learned from the local people of the village nearby.
“I-…Uh-…vârcolac…tu esti…”
“I-…Uh-… werewolf… you are…”
You spoke to it, and suddenly the growling stopped, its ears perked up.
“Știi română?”
“You know Romanian?”
It asked you back, it’s accent thick and heavy as it spoke.
You shook your head, “limba română, mica... vorbesc numai, engleză”
“Romanian language, small… only speak English”
When you finished speaking it nodded back and cleared its throat, “You’re not scared? Of me?” it asked, and you could tell that the were had an accent when speaking in English to you.
You shook your head once more, “No…”
“Why not?”
“I’ve seen your kind before, many times…” You replied back
It cocked its head to the side, like a puppy, in curiosity.
“What do you mean?”
“I help your kind, at least those who are injured and find their way to me, I keep them safe until they are healthy enough to leave on their own…” you explained.
It seemed to be in shock and disbelief at the information given to it, “You don’t kill were?” it asked
You shook your head, “No, I hate the werewolf hunters… I detest them, why do they kill god’s creatures if this is their planet as much as it is ours?” you retorted.
And for a moment, Falk could swear to himself that he saw a bit of his alpha, Attila in the human before him, as the two seemed very alike in their ideals.
“I am not a bred werewolf…” he explained to you, unsure of himself as to why he felt like telling you this information, “Pack mates and I… we…” it stopped trying to search for the correct English words, you quickly came to the conclusion that perhaps the English language probably wasn’t its strong suit.
“We…cursed…!” it continued, pleased with itself that it had found the correct word, “Made into werewolves by a purebred…” they explained.
You nodded, as you had heard of such of a thing happening before, recalling your father who told you a story.
“It’s ok, whether you are a pure or cursed were, that doesn’t matter to me, I am here to help you….” You explained yourself, your hand gently outstretched, “Will you allow me to aid you?”
It cocked its head to the side, “Aid?” it asked
“It means help, you are injured…” you said as you pointed to a gash on its upper left arm.
Falk’s gaze moved over to the injury and he saw dry blood all over his black fur, the injury was dirty and it felt hot to the touch, it was probably in the process of getting infected.
And he knew that infected wounds led to illness, he turned his gaze to you once again, “You help?”
You nodded, he frowned…
“You friendly? How-… How I trust you?” it asked, still unsure if it should trust a human.
“Of course, I’m friendly, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation…” you explained, “You can trust me, I promise…” you said as you made a cross over your heart.
Falk was still unsure but in the end, he decided that perhaps you were his best bet for some assistance.
He moved away from the corner and sort of just plopped down onto the floor, his body becoming tired, the adrenaline in his system steadily fading away.
You took this as a sign of temporary trust and ran back inside your home, to your bathroom where you pulled out a box of your medical supplies and ran back to the werewolf.
You carefully approached the tired werewolf and made quick work in cleaning and dressing every wound you could see.
You applied antiseptics, rubbing alcohol, and an anti-pain ointment on the wounds, making sure that they were well taken care of.
Sometimes, the were would flinch at the pain but overall remained motionless, only moving when you asked it to, to which it obliged to.
By the time you were done, every visible wound, both big and small has been thoroughly treated and bandaged, preventing any from garnering an infection.
As you stepped away and made your way to the door back to your home, you heard the werewolf behind you shift around.
You turned to look and saw it curled up in a ball, it shivered slightly.
You went back inside and put away the supplied and grabbed a thick wool blanket from your couch as well as a pillow, you came back to the werewolf and placed the blanket over it and the pillow near its face, so that it could take it.
You headed back and just before you left, you heard a soft voice reply,
“Mulțumesc, omule…”
“Thank you, human…”
you smiled to yourself and replied back before leaving,
“Dormi, lupulețule…”
“Sleep, little wolf…”
Now alone, the werewolf drifted off into a dreamless rest.
When the morning came, Falk awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside and the smell of something delicious that made his mouth water.
As he slowly woke up, removing the fog from his eyes as he rubbed them, the delicious smell got closer and closer.
“Atila? Ești tu? Este micul dejun?”
“Attila? Is that you? Is that breakfast?”
it asked as the sound of a door opened.
“Attila? Who’s that?... No, it’s just me…” you replied back.
The werewolf’s ears perked up upon hearing your voice, for a second there he thought that he had dreamt last night’s encounter.
Looked like he was proved wrong when he saw the wool blanket, pillow, and you, who stood in front of him holding the severed leg of a cow.
Falk drooled as he looked at the leg, “Eat, you need to get stronger…” you said, placing it front on him.
You turned to leave momentarily, grabbing a bucket on your way out.
Falk didn’t even hesitate when you brought him the limb, he sunk his teeth into it and tore at the flesh and muscle, breaking the bones beneath, a series of satisfying loud crunches and pops filled the air.
You came back with the bucket in tow, however, instead of it being empty, it was filled with water from the well in your property.
“Water, you must be thirsty…” you commented as you placed it off to the side of him, and sat off to the side of the large shed, on the three steps that divided the shed from the house, giving him ample space to himself, so he wouldn’t feel suffocated.
“Mmmn- ‘ank ‘ou” he spoke, mouth full of raw meat.
“Close your mouth and eat, otherwise you’ll choke…” you reprimanded the were, who’s ears seemed to pull back in embarrassment at the comment.
You listened to him eat as you worked on a small wooden carving of a nightingale that laid on your hands.
After some time, Falk made quick work of the leg, he managed to eat everything except for the large bone that he placed off to the side.
He grabbed the bucket of water that you handed him and licked his lips, he dipped his head in and began lapping up the water, eagerly drinking his fill.
When he finished he pulled away from the bucket and looked up at you.
You saw that his face was wet from the water and chuckled, he looked just like a wet puppy.
“Full?” you asked
He nodded and then shook his head, removing the water from it, and splashing water all over the place, you didn’t mind.
“Thank you” he replied back
“No problem, I’m glad I could get you to eat…” you commented as you sighed, working on the wooden carving.
“What happens now?” he asked, still not completely sure of himself if he should trust you.
“You need to stay for a few days, your left ankle got twisted, and it would be painful to walk on…” you explained.
He looked down at said ankle and found it in a splint and bandaged,
“Give it some time and a few days to heal… when it doesn’t hurt anymore and you’re able to walk without any difficulties, you are free to leave…”
He turned to you and cocked his head,
“Cannot be that easy…” he commented
“easy what?” you asked
“You… minciună, uh-… lie…hurt me… maybe… yes?” he replied
You shook your head and sighed, looking over to him, “You still don’t get it do you?”
He didn’t reply back, just simply stared.
“If I wanted to hurt you, I would’ve done it as soon as we met…” you gestured over to a shotgun that hung next to the door, near you, “I could’ve shot you if I wanted to…” you explained.
Falk didn’t notice the gun until you pointed it out and his heart sank for a moment, you were right, after all, even if you didn’t shoot him when you first met, you could’ve easily killed him while he slept.
“I’m your friend, not your enemy, Lup” you replied back, giving the werewolf in front of you a nickname, as you did not know what it called itself.
Falk nodded and looked over at you, “Lup, not my name…” it replied
“Oh? Then what is it?” you asked, curious
He didn’t reply, you watched as his ears twitched nervously on his head, seemed that he didn’t trust you enough yet.
You sighed, getting up “No matter… do you want me to check your injuries, Lup?” you approached him attentively, watching his body language.
His eyes flickered nervously at your form, but he decided that since you weren’t posing a threat to him and he could retreat if need be, he nodded.
“Ok…” you said gently as you approached.
Falk laid down on top of the blanket you gave him, it was warm and protected him from the cold hard wooden floor.
When you approached and sit down in front of him, you took a moment to appreciate the monstrous beast before you, it walked and talked like a man but looked very much like a wolf.
You gently reached out your hand to its head, Falk closed his eyes reflexively as you laid your hand on his snout.
You gently petted him, and scratched him behind his ears,
‘Oh, you poor thing…’ you thought, you could tell that he was absolutely terrified but seemed weirdly relaxed in your presence.
As you continued petting him, you heard a soft rhythmic thumping behind him, you peaked your head up and over him, and watched as his tail unconsciously wagged as you pet him.
He was enjoying himself, and you smiled warmly.
You stopped petting him and got to check on the wounds, making sure that none were infected and then redressing them. As you inspected each one, you found no such signs of an infection.
“Doctore, esti?”
“Doctor, are you?”
it asked you.
You nodded, “I used to be before I came here…” you took to changing the bandaging on another wound.
“Folosit pentru?”
“Used to?”
you nodded, “Back in England, home, I used to work as a local doctor for a small clinic-“
“Clinica? Ce inseamna?”
“Clinic? What mean?”
You stifled a small chuckle, the were reminded of the children back home who you would teach how to read, each one far too young to understand what certain words meant.
“It’s like a small hospital, where the doctor works and checks on those who are sick, they tell them what’s wrong with them and gives them a prescription to go get at a pharmacy…”
It made a noise of acknowledgment, understanding what you explained.
When you finished inspecting its wounds, seeming pleased to find that they were all healing nicely you got up to leave.
But just before leaving you left him with one final note of information; “Dinner will be later today, at around noon, so please try to wait until then, alright?” you stated, and watched him nod, pleased you left him be.
Fast forward, and it’s now been two whole weeks that the werewolf had stayed with you, so far, you’ve been tending to its wounds and feeding it, and the two have grown very accustomed to one another.
The relationship around you two had been building slowly but steadily, you two trusted each other.
At around the one week mark, you deemed it healthy enough to leave the safety of your shed, every day and night you would leave the shed door open for it to leave through, but it never did.
You never asked why but suspected that they were waiting for someone or something.
One day though, the curiosity inside of you couldn’t hold back anymore and you had to know.
“It’s been two weeks now Lup, why have you not left?” you asked them.
Lup looked up at you, he’d gotten accustomed to the nickname and responded to it whenever you called him.
“Wait for familie… family, pack” it stated.
“Oh? You’re not a lone wolf?” you asked
Lup shook its head.
You hummed in acknowledgment, “It’s going to be wet and cold tonight Lup, you should stay inside of my home…” you offered, as you picked up the ax that hung from the tool rack on the wall.
“Inside? Your home? No…” Lup shook their head, “I will ruin home…”
You chuckled and pet his head gently, “No you won’t… now, I’m going to go cut some wood, alright?”
Lup nodded and purred as you pet them.
You left the shed through its door and went out into your pasture to go cut some wood.
Meanwhile, as you were hard at work four large weres were sneaking into your property, their snouts low to the ground as they smelled Falk’s scent.
Matthew pointed you out to Attila, “Uite, un om!” he whispered.
“Look, a human!”
Attila nodded and with caution, they kept to the shadows of the surrounding woods and followed the scent into your shed.
As they all went inside of the massive tool shed that you had in your property, there they found Falk, unconscious as he slept soundly.
Roel rushed over to his side, thinking that perhaps he’d been poisoned or worse, “Falk?” he shook the younger were.
Falk groaned but made no effort to awake.
Roel didn’t take this well and shook him again, “Falk, frate, treaz! Pachetul dvs. s-a întors…!”
“Falk, brother, awake! Your pack has returned…!”
And he did, Falk growled as he stirred awake, initially he thought it was a combination of you and his brain playing tricks on him. “…What?” he groaned out, sleepily.
As he blinked away the sleepy haze in his eyes, they widened in shock as he saw Roel sitting in front of him.
“Roel? Chiar esti tu?”
“Roel? Is it really you?” he asked.
Roel nodded, “Si, frate…” he gave him a toothy grin as they embraced in a long-overdue hug.
“Yes, brother…”
Falk looked behind Roel as he hugged and nearly screamed for joy when he saw the others too, “Baieti!”.
“Guys!”
After he embraced Roel, he took the others in deep hugs as well, clearly, they had all were all missing the missing link to their chain that held them together.
“O, mi-a forst atât de dor de voi toti… Am crezut ca nu va voi mai vedea niciodata!”
“Oh, I missed you all so much… I thought I’d never see you again!” he exclaimed to them in joy.
Attila chuckled and was just as much as overwhelmed as Falk was, he was incredibly happy to have him back.
“Spune-ne Falk, de ce esti aici? Si cine este acel om afarta? Te-au ranit? Esti tinut aici cu forta?”
“Tell us, Falk, why are you here? And who is that human outside? Did they hurt you? Are you being kept here by force?”
Matthew asked Falk, he was horribly worried over their friend and at the potential prospect of a threat.
Falk looked at Matthew with shock in his eyes, just as he was about to explain what happened to him the shed door swung open.
And there you stood, in shock at the addition of four more werewolves inside of your shed.
“Who are-?” You were about to as before Charles had lunged himself towards you, the intent to kill in his eyes.
Falk launched himself at Charles and managed to knock you out the way, the ax that you once held in your hand was flung in the opposite direction, Falk stood between you and him, he growled, his fur puffed up like that of a cat’s, he was trying to make himself look bigger and threatening to Charles.
“NU LE ATINGETI!”
“DO NOT TOUCH THEM!” He growled to Charles who didn’t bother to get up from his now sitting position and watched as his packmate protected a human.
“Dar sunt un om! O amenintare pentru vârcolaci!”
“But they’re a human! A threat to werewolves!” protested Charles who growled back.
You stood behind Falk and watched the other were’s closely, you could tell that there was an argument taking place, something about you being a human, that much you could tell.
Attila, the alpha as you could tell since he was considerably much larger than all the others, stood between Falk and Charles. “Destul” he commanded.
“Enough”
You looked at him and he at you, “Human…” he began, “Are you a threat to us?” he asked, he too had an accent when speaking English but seemed to speak the language better than Falk.
You shook your head, “N-No, sir I am not a threat to you nor your pack…” you spoke with confidence even though your voice wavered nervously.
Attila nodded and gently pushed Falk aside, who hesitated before allowing his alpha passage to you.
“Our packmate, why does he reside with you on your land?” he asked
“He wandered in here, sir, he was injured and needed help, so I aided him…” you answered truthfully.
Attila did not say anything as he turned to Falk for confirmation on your words.
“Yes, is true…” he answers, Attila turns his attention to you once more.
“How did you aid him?”
“I cleaned and disinfected his wounds, made sure that they wouldn’t get infected and I also stabilized his twisted left ankle, from my medical expertise, I would say that he fell and that’s how he gained his injuries…” you replied back, eyeing the large were nervously.
Falk nodded, “I fell when ran from hunters… us… together… many moons ago…” Falk spoke up, adding validation to your story.
Matthew nodded, “That is right, Falk wasn’t with us when he escaped…” they spoke, and you noted that at least another spoke the English language better than Falk.
Attila nodded and hummed as he thought deeply for a moment before looking at you once more, “This is true…” he stopped for a moment, “…Human, we thank you for aiding our brother…” he expressed his gratitude to you.
You nodded and bowed your head respectfully at him, “Of course sir, I could not help but aid him, I have done it before with others of your species…”
Falk nodded and interjected, “Is true! They told!” he said, as he eagerly pointed at you.
You nodded, “Yes, as I told Lup, I had helped many werewolves that came before onto my land, I always helped them, they are god’s creatures as well, and they deserve respect and refuge from those who wish to slaughter them…” you confessed to the alpha.
Attila gave you a toothy grin, “Ah, you are a protector al vârcolacilor, guardian of werewolves…. Yes?”
You nodded, although a part of you did not know what he was referring to.
“Wait, you mean the rebeliune?” Charles spoke up his eyes fixed on you and the alpha.
“Yes, against the king if I’m not incorrect…” added Matthew
You tilted your head in confusion at Attila, “What do you mean rebellion?”
Attila sighed, “Many… many moons ago when the king declared war against our kind before we became cursed… many oameni, humans, like you fought for and with us… although not many remain now… their focus is on aiding the injured, like you…” he explained.
You nodded and something clicked in your head, you had heard whispers of such a group existing, however, never knew that you had accidentally become an accidental member without even realizing it.
“I’m glad I could aid him, he was very skinny and in a lot of pain, I knew that he would not survive if he did not receive some help…”
Attila nodded, “We are all thankful for your aid…” he said as he looked at Charles, who looked away in embarrassment but spoke to you nevertheless, “Da, thankful of your help…îmi pare rau ca aproape te-am ucis…”
“… sorry for nearly killing you..”
You chuckled, “Ah, it’s alright, your natural instincts were to protect Lup, I understand that, no harm done…”
“Falk” spoke Attila, his attention directed to you.
“Wh-… huh?” you sputtered
“He calls himself Falk, not ‘Lup’…” he corrected
Your eyes widened and you turned to Falk, “Your name is Falk? Why did you never tell me?”
Falk sheepishly looked away, “did not trust you… scuze…”
You shook your head, “That’s alright, no need to apologize…”
Attila clasped his hands together, gathering the attention of everyone to him, “We should leave, the moon will soon set and the sun will arise in its place…”
Everyone nodded in agreement and all got up, you split off from them and made your way back to the ax that lay on the grass in the distance, you were going to put it away.
Before the small group of were’s finally left, you felt strong arms envelop you from behind, a wet nose nuzzling your cheek.
You yelped in surprise before turning around, you saw that it was Falk and laughed, hugging him back, “Be safe out there, Lup-… F-Falk” you corrected yourself.
Falk replied by purring and licking your cheek, tail wagging furiously.
“Farewell, tutorele meu” was all that he said as he finally left your side and ran off into the distance to his pack, you watched as the massive black-furred beasts left silently.
You touched your cheek gently, as his final words echoed in your mind.
“…My guardian…”