With a crack like thunder and a blow like lightning his horn was taken. The Url knelt blow after blow after blow hailing down shattering his bones one by one. Yet admist the storm the Url’s form merely emptied, no fear, no anger, no sorrow, no shame... His body was a mere shell cracking more and more with every blow of the hammer, yet it couldn’t make a dent upon his will. His eyes opened within the familiar void of his mind where he would hide away during the curings, during the darker days of his past, during the moments when emptiness was better then emotion. The Url stepped into the light,hearing the familiar (clink) (clink) (clink) of chains padding across the darkened stone of the emptiness. The Url turned to the sound seeing the familiar glow of two pairs of eyes amidst the darkness: The dark crimson eyes filled with bestial rage and predatory hunger and the pale turquoise eyes empty of any sign of life beyond a dispassionate determination. The Url grit his teeth as the beating went on the pain hitting over and over as The Blood Wolf stepped forward, its pale red claws scrapping across the floor as the (clink) (clink) (clink) of the chains dragging behind its legs rang out like a war cry. It bared its blood red teeth and barked at him, "Release me Url, let me claw and tear until we are free." James gave him a quiet glare. "No." "Coward, why do you submit? They insult our honor, they are trying to break us and you won't fight back!", The Wolf strained against his binds, his mouth foaming as he raged, "Draw your blades, fight back!! Let the fervor wash over protect our honor, protect our kin, protect our lives!!!" The chains began to weaken cracking as the Wolf raged and fought to be let free. As the blows rained down, his eyes began to turn wild and his mouth curled into a wolf like smile when... "NO!!" The Url roared, his hands tightened as he faced down the beast. The Wolf faltered for a moment as chains shot up from the ground and wrapped themselves around him pulling tight as the Wolf slammed into the floor bound fast to the ground only able to growl and bark. The Pale Wolf stepped forward its spectral form flowing like a still river as it glided forward, translucent body bordered with pale turquoise light. It spoke with a cold, dispassionate women, "Why do you not call upon Alu, why do you let them beat us when we can escape them. When we can be free of their petty denouncements with a simple snap of our fingers. If they hunt us for it then let them they will only find Death at the end of our blades!" The Url stared into the turquoise glow of the wolf’s eyes and roared at it, "Be Silent!! I am not a beast let them brand me, let them beat me I accept this punishment. Not out of Cowardice or Weakness but because I owe them this. The Oath is severed by my actions, even if they can't break my spirit maybe breaking my body will suffice..." The Blows rained heavier and harder as his mind began to fade slightly into unconsciousness... The Wolf looked at the Url growling, "You are the most foolish of us all, you wrong them and refuse to repent yet you will submit to be punished like a weak Cur. If you will not escape then let your focus slip and let me make them hear. Let them also endure unfading, unending whispers and mutters of the Lost and never found. Let us not fade like prey but howl like Wolves!!" The Wolf began to pulse with Turquoise light before releasing a deafening howl, filled with a eternity of voices which sent the weakened Url screaming to his knees. The Url's beaten form began to glow every tattoo, every inscription, and ever piece of his form heralded the memories of Death as the voices of the dead and the not yet lived arose from the crack of Alu's door filling the area around the Url with their endless mutters and whispers... The Url growled as the voices grew louder and louder in his mind, until he slammed a fist into the floor. Causing the Chains around the Pale Wolf to tighten dragging them back into the dark. "This is not the Affair of the Dead, this is between me, Basthur, and My Fellows. Back to your cage!", He growls forcing himself painfully to his knees yet while the voices quieted they never silenced. “Now I can take this in peace." "You desire peace, Baant. Then simply Die you are less then dust and dirt fade as a weak, dishonorable prey," ordered a voice from the darkness. "Come forward, prisoner let me hear your chains if you wish to try to call me weak," the Url called into the darkness. Something approximating a laugh echos from the darkness, "You have fallen so low you can't recognize the voice of your other half, the half you disgraced by accepting a wild blasphemous beast into your clan." "I disgrace nothing, I never rejected you or blasphemed against Basthur's Gift." "You would side with a beast, which would massacre your daughters to sustain itself...YOU would make a animal your child. Why because you felt bad for them, weak and foolish they were right to brand you a Beast because you feel more for them then your Bounded or the Teels." the Url grows quiet before a hardening resolve enters his voice, "That...that is the accursed thinking which drove me to accept the gift. I thought they would help me stop thinking like a beast." "Stop being the wolves, stop replacing mercy and rational thought for a base instinct to kill...The Accursed are more complex then we care to think. Some are palatable, many are better cured but those who retain themselves who show a capacity to feed and live in peace should be given a chance. I wanted to be able to evolve without being forced back to being a mindless killer or as you would say A Honorable Hunter" "Well said Url, I can attest being a hunter as the Oorl sees it brought us naught but pain and regret. Yet you don't seem to acknowledge the risk you have taken. You let a sleeping beast into your home, you know as I that they all need to feed" concluded the weak, malnourished Ailor, his voice raspy and quiet, as he crawled into the light. The Url gives the Ailor a disgusted glare speaking with pained venom, "You my weakness, you dark facade of a man. You dare call me weak when you barely cling to existence here. A cancer unwilling to die. The Beast and butcherer" The Ailor looked at him with a dulled interest, "You never tire trying to dispel me like i'm some kind of void born curse but I am you. We are the same, I am the half to that Worm which calls you a beast. I am the half which gave itself to the gift and I am the half who keeps him in check.Yet...I agree if only partly with it on this occasion. why? Why would you let a beast come between you and your brothers and sisters in the Gift?" "You should know why Ailor, The Darkness came when we stopped caring and when we relegated accursed to nothing but prey...we killed where we should've cured. Massacred where we could've healed." "You are a hunter, be pragmatic not foolish...why would one such as you who saw the Destruction the beasts and their disease cause protect one of them?" "She can't be healed or cured, they would ask me to maim or kill her to prove myself...she doesn't deserve that. She simply wishes to live, to have people who love her if she could be free of the curse she would've had me free her by now.", The Url turns to the Ailor, "Do you remember what he said to us...before we went our separate ways. How Alexander departed after four years of friendship and unceasing Aid in our darkest days. How he ended four years in which we let him feed on us despite all his protests. How he ended all that study and experience." The Ailor nods reciting the words with a small sort of sympathy, "I am sorry my brother, sorry for all that you have done to keep me alive...know that the day you find the to the Curse I bear. I will be the first to take it..." The Url nods to his words and the Ailor's weakness fades a little. "Url, much has changed and much hasn't but no longer can we merely relegate them to prey...they have done much bad yet no matter how we deal with the Cureables. Our goal has never faded, the cure for the uncurables is what we still search for. So as Mother said to us often, Do what you think is right, no matter how right or wrong it goes family will always be there in the aftermath. Trust in your family as they do in you," The Ailor says his body beginning to strengthen. The Two share a smile for once in all the time they had existed together. The Ailor and the Url both stood shakily speaking in tandem, "Blood before Oaths, blood before Gods, Blood before everything." Suddenly a voice asked the broken heap of a Url. If he had remorse for his actions the Url's responses were robotic, unsure... Within the Darkness the Url was alone, the Oorl's rebukes and the Ailor's encouragement had faded into silence as the Url looked out into the darkness tears growing in his eyes. "I...I've lost them...," the Url admitted quietly, "They are casting me out." His words came quietly the weight of his new brand starting to make itself known. His confidence shook, how could it not. What ever the reason the Url couldn’t deny that it was not strangers who held him fast as he was beaten, but his friends men who had fought with him and celebrated with him. Now watched or tried to watch as his body was shattered. He was alone no one was going to step in to help him now but as he began to sink into grief. The sound of paws rang throughout the darkness, He looked up preparing for the Wolves but instead something new walked into the light Three Snow Foxes. Suddenly the final blows came and the Url slipped fully into unconsciousness... The Light went out, plunging the cave into darkness but as the light faded the Foxes fur began to shine with warm white light. The First Fox was a larger female fox with shining white fur and a kind motherly expression. On her back was a small baby fox, while at the side of the mother Fox was a small Fox Pup. "Why do you mourn Url? You knew this would happen and were prepared to accept it, but more over you were determined to pay this price?" asked the Mother Fox laying against the Url's side. "They were the ones who made me what I am now, who helped me when I asked and celebrated with me in my good moments...now I am..." "Alone?", finished the Fox with a sarcastic flourish, "But you aren't alone James, You have family, your daughters, your wife, your brother, your sister in law, your niece...the ones who gave you the hope and who won't leave you behind. In this darkness, you have us and you have them now lay down and rest. You have endured enough now it is time to heal." The Url laid down as the foxes rested their heads on him and they all simply rested. The Url awoke from the emptiness.
