Elemental Chronicles Chapter 14: Will of wolves

Chapter 14: The Will of wolves

“This is my second home your kind has destroyed, the second onslaught I had to witness. But now I have power, I can do what I was too weak to do when I was younger. I will seek vengeance for all the innocent blood that’s spilled here tonight, all the innocent blood that was spilled in my kingdom!” Raven barked furiously, “starting with you…”
The white wolf’s face seemed to form an expression for the first time. A faint smile appeared.
“More blood will be shed if you oppose us Raven SilentPaw, last living heir to the thrown”
Raven body froze and his spirit shook.
“You see, we know who you are. You shouldn’t have exposed yourself in Deeproot. There aren’t many Waterwolves in this area so when we see one, we will consult our Intel. We figured out who you are by your distinguished markings and we immediately sent a message to the king”
“He…” Raven’s mouth quivered.
“He knows you are alive, he ordered us to bring you to him dead or alive”
“You will not take me; you will not have this kingdom!” Raven howled and stepped forward to charge for him. Before he could press his paw down to the ground, he had to kick away to the side to miss the wind blade that shot towards him in an instant.
“The kingdom is already ours, waterwolf”

A battle was going to break out and the only way Raven could stand a chance in a fight was if he had water to manipulate.  What was a waterwolf without water anyway? Weak. And he refused to be weak, not when he has to protect the ones he cares for. There were no abundant water sources around them and the white wolf wouldn’t be foolish enough to follow him.
“You can’t face me without water near, can you?” he smirked, “I remember now. You had to run to a fountain to defend yourself in Deeproot, and that didn’t even do you any good. You are weak, even Roshak could have taken you out”
“You disrespect your comrade even in death?”
“He was weak, didn’t deserve to be the 3rd seat”
“Who are you then?”
The white wolf huffed “2nd seat Raeza”
“Well, 2nd seat Raeza, I will show you how I have improved in the last eight months. I won’t hold back, I will protect everyone!” Raven growled.
“Then give yourself up!” he said again. Raven flinched as he couldn’t help but to consider it, it was truly the only way to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Hazel saw the doubt as his ears dropped slightly, she stepped forward.
“Don’t listen to him Raven. They have been trying to find this place since it was created, Orion will have us all eliminated once this is done anyway. We have to fight now. To prove our strength. To send a message!”
“Oh I will send a message” Raven smiled
Raeza laughed, “Oh? You still missing one major detail…” he paused.

Raven kept a fixed gaze on Raeza. He had to dig deeper into his spirit than he usually would, he had to touch upon more power to achieve greater feats. This was when the output of his training would be displayed. Suddenly he jumped off and dashed towards the anticipating opponent, whom immediately retaliated with a concentrated wind blade. Raven avoided it just barely, amazed at the speed of it again – and above his head water formed and he shot it towards Raeza as small projectiles. Stunned, he jumped out of the way and Raven lifted up his muzzle and the water lifted as well and he kept it in the air. He pulled more moisture from the air and shot it towards Raeza again. And as anticipated he dodged it and then Raven shot the previous water down towards Raeza. Raven smiled as he expected collision, but suddenly a wave of force emitted from Raeza’s body that disintegrated the water.
“I must say I am surprised, waterwolf. I didn’t expect you to be able to pull moisture from the air. Not that it will do you any good” he sighed, “you underestimate me”
He disappeared in a distorted wind tunnel and suddenly he was right in front of Raven, making himself look big as the strong winds blew over Raven’s fur – suddenly two heavy forces pushed down onto his head and into the ground painfully.
“The winds will decide your faith” he dug his paw under Raven’s ground-pinned chin and unleashed a wind blast that sent Raven tumbling backwards. He rolled and struggled to his feet. He gathered water again and shot it towards Raeza, which practically blew away as he pushed towards Raven again with his wind burst. Raven suddenly realized what it was – windwolves had the natural ability to use the wind to make themselves faster, as he noticed when they chased him down the streets of Deeproot. But Raeza was an elitist; obviously he would have perfected the ability and take it to the next step. He doesn’t disappear in the wind, his speed and white fur only makes it seem like it.

So it was a test of speed, a test Raven might lose without a real source of water. He couldn’t pull a lot of moisture out from the air as he was; it’s an ability he only came into recently. One that took many months of discipline and vigorous training, to touch just the hem of the potential of an advanced level. If only they came in another few months, he thought, then he wouldn’t have had this much trouble.
‘I am still weak’ he thought to himself. A weird sensation burned through his body, a foreign entity ran through his veins, something that felt… black. It seemed to offer him something, it was insisting to be granted access to his spirit. ‘No’ Raven commanded in his mind, the presence of this entity felt malicious.

He shook his head and came back to reality just as Raeza knocked him into the air, he was flung into the air and into a branch and as he was about to come down, a sense of hopelessness came over him that blocked the pain from taking control. That moment in the air seemed to last an eternity. Was that how it felt when you lose all hope? A feeling Raven knew too well.

Through the trees he saw a sudden glimpse of the moon, and in the distance between him and his deity, he could see it within the light, he could feel it coming to his salvation – the gods just refused to let him give up. He gets knocked down and beaten over and over, and yet he is never allowed to give in. He smiled faintly. The rain was coming.

Raeza could feel it as well; the air was about to change, and not towards his favour. He was going to have to end the battle quickly if he wanted to avoid any potential harm to himself – a waterwolf surrounded by his element could prove to be a dangerous encounter. He has heard about the legendary battles of Falcon, the rebellion leader. He wasn’t about to take a chance to face something even remotely like what the rumors said. Even if the waterwolf already proved to be weak.

Whisper snarled and growled uncontrollably as she watched Raven take a beating, she was in a mental battle with herself whether she was to obey Raven’s wishes or not. While they were making their way to the Elder he made her promise not to interfere when he was in battle. He tried to make her believe that he was strong enough to handle himself and too pride to accept any assistance, but she saw through his act, she knew he just didn’t want her to get hurt in his stead.

Raven spun around and landed on his aching paws, which infuriated Raeza. He was having a hard time reading Raven, his presence shifted from a pit of hopelessness to a tranquil state in an instant – it didn’t make sense to him. Did the coming rain give him a new hope? Raeza thought and his lip twitched towards a near smile.
“I will end you before a single drop touch soil!” He barked out and shot towards him with the wind burst, Raven was flung back; he was hit from behind right after and was propelled forward. Over and over Raven was thrown around like a ragdoll. His bones wouldn’t be able to hold out for much longer. The wind that was emitted from Raeza came over Hazel, Whisper, Vera and the few that watched like a gale, they had to keep low and protect their eyes.

The relentless assault stopped and Raven lay on the grass, he didn’t move for a while. Raeza panted with exhaustion and then laughed.
“I can’t believe I have to waste so much energy on you! I… I have to admit you have heart, waterwolf. But heart won’t let you survive my superior power” he growled maliciously. His muscles tensed up and claws dug into the soil, he poured his spirit out from his body and above him the air spun visibly until it gained a silver glow. The void sucked in the air around him and grew in size. It seemed like it was going to pull the fur from his body. He pushed his two front paws further apart and along with that action the silver void split into two large discs whistling furiously. “I will give you the grandest death…” he hissed.

Raven dug his elbow under his body and slowly pushed himself up and got to his feet. Raeza stared at him wide-eyed; he couldn’t believe Raven’s endurance. He snarled and sent forth the discs towards him, as they made their way towards Raven it left two perfectly smooth sliced trails in the earth. Just when they were about to hit Raven they split apart and started to circle him. The circling became faster and faster until Raven was concealed completely in the growing tornado.
Whisper rushed towards him and before she could even get close to the silver wind she received various small cuts on her body. She didn’t understand why but she pushed forward against the strong winds, as she got closer the cuts became bigger and more brutal. Hazel, seeing Whisper would be killed before she could even get to Raven, ran towards her and pulled her back with her tail.
“Raven!” Whisper cried out and fought against Hazel, pulling her along towards the wind.
“You will kill us both!” Hazel yelled out, “get back…” she continued and then Whisper sent a surge of electricity down her body and into Hazel’s tail. She cried out in pain and dropped to the ground. Her tail let go of Whisper’s waste and she stopped, looking back at Hazel and seeing the cuts appear on her unconscious body. She growled and dug her head under Hazel and carried her to safety. She turned angrily towards guards that were watching the onslaught and snarled, “Can’t any of you do something?!” then she looked at Vera’s staring blankly at her, “What about you? Not as strong as you say you are!” Whisper barked and Vera responded with a snarl.

Raeza fell backwards onto his hind as he laughed at them. Things couldn’t have gone better for him – Raven was dead and his enemies turned on one another, everyone was powerless against his power. Power is all he ever wanted. A few of the guards charged at him on Whisper’s whim and he took them out easily and watched them bleed out into the grass. He stepped on the one guard’s head and watched as the life drained from his eyes.

The silver tornado broke through the canopy and opened the sky, revealing the storm that was gathering in the heavens. The moon was completely gone, hidden behind the clouds. With the radiant light gone, another seal was withered and a dark power poured into his spirit, suffocating it. He broke through the wall of the tornado and appeared in front of Raeza – a movement that happened in a near instant. Before Raeza could even fathom what happened, Raven dug his canines into his throat and applied a monstrous amount of pressure. Raeza squirmed in his grip as his fangs broke through the skin and he shrieked in agony.

Whisper watched in amazement as she didn’t understand what happened either, but the feeling quickly flooded away as she realized Raven was going to kill Raeza. Raven, kill? He wouldn’t kill anything; it went against everything she knew about him. She didn’t know what to make of the situation – in the past few months as they trained they talked a lot about the journey that they would have to go on eventually, and it always ended up with him getting upset because he didn’t want to kill anyone. He was totally against it as a conscious living being, he was the element of health and life. He was a true waterwolf.

She took a breath and paused, and then tried again, “Raven?” she called out for him. But he didn’t hear her. “You don’t have to do this, Raven” she said, and he didn’t respond. He should have heard her, was he ignoring her? Raeza was about done for; his body went limp as he given up the fight against Raven’s grip. His death was inevitable.

Whisper ran towards them and faced Raven. His eyes were different and no sound came from his maw. “Raven, can you hear me?” she whispered and nudged him, he looked up into her eyes and she stepped back fearfully. “Raven?” she whimpered. His eyes were drained from all color, the radiant blue she came to know and love were now a cold dark grey and there were no more white on the sclera, but a lighter grey.

A gust of wind circled around them and pulled closer, and then an invisible explosion of gale force wind discharged from Raeza’s body and threw Raven and Whisper away from him. Raeza could have done it all along but it was a gamble since Raven could have taken his throat along with him. Luckily for Raeza that didn’t happen, but he was bleeding from the skin that was ripped from his throat. He coughed up blood and choked on his breath as he tried to breathe, the sounds disgusted Whisper as she got up from the ground. She ran to Raven and looked down at him; he was looking up at the sky. She saw the grey recede from his eyes and into his skull. He blinked a couple of times and then looked up at her.

“That was the strangest sensation” he whispered deep in thought and got up.
“Are you okay?” Whisper asked.
“I… I think so” he replied and scanned his inner spirit for remnants of what he felt a while ago, and then he saw the cuts on whisper “Are you okay??” he gasped.
“Yeah, I am okay. That silver tornado thing did a number on me. Unlike you. What the hell Raven? I was barely close to that thing and look at me, and you were inside it and you are unscathed”
“I don’t know what happened. I blanked out for a while; I barely had any control over my actions. My judgment was clouded and I guess I acted on instinct” his head dropped.
“That is weird”
“My mouth taste like blood”
Whisper sniggered and then turned to look at Raeza along with Raven, which seemed like he totally snapped. His white chest was soaked with blood and his wound exposed to them, and yet he had a cynical smile on his face.
“You think you have won?!” he barked out, blood dripping from his maw. “I am 2nd seat you fools! If you think I’m strong then you have yet to see true power. Right now the captain of our guard is fighting the one in charge of this pitiful veiled forest city. When he’s done he will eliminate everyone, as we were all ordered to do”
“Grandfather?” Hazel shrieked as she was awake again.
“You can’t defeat him; he is one of the few who are able to tap into legendary strength. I wasn’t even trying to defeat you, I was waiting for him to end it with whoever is in charge so you have to fall back” Raven smiled.
“You were holding back?” Raeza growled.
“No, I didn’t say that. I fought with the best of my ability. You are stronger than me by a long shot, I honestly have no idea how it ended up like this” raven shrugged.
Raeza laughed again, which turned into choking “You talk as if I’ve been defeated! I may be injured but I am far from being a corpse, come at me”
“Raven…” Hazel called out. She started to cry but it went unnoticed.
“Come at me!” Raeza yelled and charged for Raven and Whisper, the wind was forming around him again and he pushed forward with the devastating wind tunnel. Raven quickly tried to pull moisture from the air but he couldn’t tap into his spirit. Whisper jumped out of the way and Raven was hit back again. He got up and tried to lift a dew drop from a blade of grass and failed, he couldn’t manifest his spirit. He looked up worriedly at Whisper and she realized what was happening. But so did Raeza.
“Are you serious?” Raeza asked, “This couldn’t get any better. You’re powerless aren’t you?!”

“Raven!” Hazel’s voice echoed through the canopy. Every eye in the area turned to her. “He isn’t as strong as he was before!”
“What are you talking about?” Whisper growled, annoyed at the constant interruptions from Hazel.
“My grandfather… He isn’t as strong as he used to be. I fear that if he changes his spirit with be extinguished after a few minutes, he will die”
“Why didn’t you say something before!” Raven barked out.
“He ordered me to get you away from all of this; he wanted me to hide you. My job is to protect you, Raven. But I’m asking you now, I’m begging you… Please protect him!” Hazel pled.
Without a second thought, Raven was about to run off, but then he looked at Whisper.
“Go. I will take care of him” she said.
He licked the corner of her muzzle and ran.

“I won’t let you get away!” Raeza ran after him and the wind gathered again. Whisper appeared in front of him in a blinding and deafening lightning strike and grabbed and pulled him by the tail, released a large amount of voltage and tossing him over her back and into the ground – allowed him to spasm and crackle with visible electricity on his body
“You are facing me now” she snarled.
Raven looked back and smiled, “don’t die on me” he whispered.

“Get up” she ordered, “you can handle a bit of voltage, you are strong right?”
He clumsily got to his feet and shook the electricity from his body, “Don’t you dare mock me, female. You won’t be able to get another lucky hit on me” He sent two wind blades towards her and she jumped to the side and then back again to avoid them both. They were a diversion as he rocketed towards her in his wind tunnel; she was caught off guard and knocked into the air. It was more painful than what Raven made it look – as it hit the pelt gets crumpled up and pulled and then the force punches the life out of the body and hits you into the air – an ability that would break the bones and tear the skin off an average wolf, but luckily they weren’t average. Their lives and hardships prepared them for the worst, if only raven could see the strength he has.

Whisper recovered in the air and watched him prepare for her to come down; he was going to toss her around like he did to Raven. Or so he thought. Whisper released her power - she broke the seal her Will kept intact that kept the lightning within herself and at bay so she doesn’t burn out or hurt everyone around her. The Elder taught her that she shouldn’t fear the raw energy she was trying to hide, that it was there to protect and not just hurt the ones she cared about like she previously thought.

Her body lit up with brilliant turquoise blue lightning, it crackled in the air around her and reached out to nothingness before disappearing in an instant. She thought of it as a metaphor, her lightning kept trying to reach towards something inaccessible as if her spirit was yearning for closure. A personal revelation she only told Raven. But of course he didn’t understand and made a stupid joke about it. She smiled; she thought to herself that when everything is over they will make their silly jokes together again. It was something she was looking forward to, but first she had to deal with Raeza. A formidable opponent that refused to give up and stay down, kind of like an evil Raven. Whisper laughed and fell to the ground, releasing a massive amount of energy when Raeza collided with her. They both were engulfed by an explosion of lightning. When it died down it revealed Whisper and Raeza lying opposite of one another in a charred crater, both panting. Surprisingly, Raeza was still alive; Whisper pulled back some energy when she realized her body might not survive a full blown assault of lightning. She was still covered in cuts, some quite deep.

Raeza released a burst of wind under himself that pushed himself up, his spirit wasn’t depleted yet but his body was giving up. He was way past his physical limit. Whisper also got up, she had a new idea. She closed her eyes and focused her spirit towards specific points on her body. Her lightning flared in those places and slowly sewed the deeper cuts closed – she was healing herself.
“Are you fucking serious!?”
“Don’t piss yourself” she groaned, “It’s just a slight healing factor, it’s nothing compared to a waterwolf’s healing”

The more Vera watched the angrier she got. She was one of the strongest individuals in the veiled forest village but since the arrival of Raven and Whisper she has been labeled as nothing and cast out. After everything she was seeing that day she finally came under the realization that she wasn’t as strong as she thought she was – she still had a long way to go. Sitting there with no power to do anything, no one acknowledged that she took out the 3rd strongest Deeproot had to offer. But slowly her spirit was replenishing itself, and soon she will release an onslaught that will get her the recognition she thought she deserved, she was just waiting for Whisper to fall – but then Vera lost all hope of that happening when she saw she is able to heal herself. Whisper was stronger than what she was when she fought Vera in the arena; she surpassed Vera even though she learnt how to pour her spirit into nature itself.

“So this is the lightning wolf of history, how are you even here? Your species died out hundreds of years ago! Do you have an artifact giving you this power?” He asked curiously, silently fighting against his body trying to give in.
“Artifact? What? No… I am the real deal”
“Healing is part of your element?”
“Apparently, I never knew before I got messed up by Vera over there. I was going to die but the Elder has books about my kind which he consulted and he awakened this ability through a long and painful trail I had to endure. And it’s not healing per say, it’s a small regeneration ability, just strong enough to mend small…” She rambled and stopped herself when she realized she probably said too much again.

“Join us”
“No”
Raeza sighed and gathered his last bit of reserved energy, ready to unleash a flurry of wind blades onto Whisper. She prepared to teleport out of the way and take him down for good. He unleashed four large blades and as planned she teleported towards his destination, only to realize he was ripping through the sky with a wind tunnel heading towards Hazel. His malicious laughter could be heard from within the destructive chasm. Whisper watched in horror as she tried to pull off another teleport but she couldn’t gather energy quick enough. Hazel just stood there, stunned with despair and waited for impact.
“Hazel, no!” Vera barked out and unleashed large thorns from the ground to pierce Raeza but he blasted through them all. Hazel snapped out of it and jumped into the air as he was about to hit, she extended her long tail into the wind tunnel and grabbed onto something and pulled it out. Raeza was forced out of the tunnel by the neck and fell to the side, face first into the ground. He groaned for a few seconds and then lost consciousness – his body and spirit was at its complete limit. Vera and Whisper didn’t rejoice - they were staring at Hazel, with vacant expressions.

Hazel’s tail was stiff in the air as it bled; the pain was so unbearable it took a while for her body to register it. Her eyes flooded with tears. Her extravagant tail was ripped off by the wind force, only to leave behind a bloody stump and an exposed fleshy vine.
Vera ran towards her as Hazel was about to yell out in agony.

Far in the distance Raven had to stop and he turned around towards where a horror-filled, toe curling scream was coming from. ‘Hazel?’ He thought and he ran back towards them. He jumped over some bushes but without touching down on ground, he fell into a deep hole. He landed on his back with a painful groan and opened his eyes. He was in a faintly lit tunnel surrounded by forest guards on the verge of attacking him.
“Wait! Wait! I’m with you!” he yelled out, “I’m Raven” they pulled back and helped him up.
“We know” one of them said and came out of the shadows, “We were waiting for you” A familiar face said.
“Nayate?”

* * * *

They walked down the tunnel towards a direction Raven couldn’t pinpoint, he hasn’t spent much of his life underground, nor did he even know there was a tunnel system under the veiled forest village. The walls lit up with blue vines as they made their way forward, Raven couldn’t help but admire the luminous beauty.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again soon, Nayate”
“Believe me, you really aren’t someone I would want to run into” he hissed, but then smiled “We all have faith in you Raven. You have displayed great strength the past 8 months and we would like to see it again as you protect our way of life”
The guards dropped their heads as they walked past, he wasn’t sure if it was out of respect or remorse. No. It was faith.
“It pains me to say this but we are counting on you Raven. As we speak, our Elder is risking his life fighting the 1st seat of Deeproot. He already went ‘level four’ as he always says. He turned into his element. He is one with nature; we call this form the Forest Guardian. It is why we all respect and follow him, he is one with what we are, Raven”
Suddenly the ground trembled beneath their paws and he fell against the wall.
“We are close” Nayate said.
They walked into a small chamber – the tunnel ended there. A bunch of wounded guards and villagers lay on mats as they were being treated.
“They are very strong”
“I know” Raven whispered. Nayate directed him towards a pail of water.
“We made sure this will be here waiting for you. The Elder is just up that passageway and further on, if you could please heal yourself”
Raven was barely damaged but his bones and muscles did ache from the beating he took from Raeza. He counted himself lucky he didn’t get cut up again.
Raven poured his spirit into the water, forgetting he failed to draw out his power a short while ago. He imbued it with healing properties and poured it over himself. The pain he once feared was nothing more than a whisper of what he had endured that day. He barely felt the pain that came with this double edged ability. He didn’t flinch. Nayate smiled.
“I once saw you cry doing that” Nayate teased, Raven huffed. Nayate walked closer to Raven and said softly “You are strong, Raven SilentPaw” and bowed down. Raven looked down at him wide-eyed and then noticed everyone that were on their feet were bowing down to him.


-They display so much faith in you.-

-So much faith that will die in vain along with all the innocent lives if you persist on fighting against me.-

‘You have no power over me’ Raven replied.

-You need me,
My vessel-