Hopes Requiem
Excerpt from a project I'm working on for me and a friend. Maybe, just maybe if my drawing improves fast enough I'll post some concept drawings. But if an interest is taken in it then it will have to wait until I finish the story. Thank you. Marked for all ages but the finished story will have adult situations.
In the blink of and eye the world forever changed. Everyone's life had changed and me as well as a handful of people were thrown into something much greater than any normal being could ever dream of. Life was shattered and we were left to pick up the pieces.
The fact of the matter is, normal everyday people didn't know the dangerous truth like us. And that truth is the world is dying. The wind is beginning to die down, the flames of life rage and flicker as they fight from being snuffed out, the seas are in tempest, slowly drying up, and the earth is beginning to wither and crumble to dust.
We are trying to prevent and reverse the damage done before its too late. We are the worlds final hope. And if we fail life as we know it is doomed.
My name is Arc. I am a stalky twenty year old male with bushy short brown hair and my clothing usually always revolves around video games and a hoodie.
Though...most of my stuff wont fit anymore, The paws, ears and tail mess that up. And yes I said paws, ears and tail. Even a muzzle. I was turned into a humanoid red wolf with blue arrows scattered across my body. But I wasn't the only one who changed. The entire world was when we were swallowed by the light.
Though instead of explaining the entire story I think its better to take you back to the moment of the incident.
-
It was a cold winters night. I was sitting atop a hill at the end of my neighborhood. The hill itself has a tree nursery on one end and a large forest on the other. I myself was sitting on the wood planks surrounding the nursery looking up at the sky.
I have always loved stars, the stories and myths surrounding them and the constellations. Every now and then if I found it was a clear night I would come up to watch them. Tonight though was a night a comet would fly near here that only comes once every one thousand years.
And then in the blink of an eye the comet flashed into my view. A bundle of bright white light that slowly streaked across the sky.
But something strange happened right then, it was like the comet was frozen even though I could clearly see tendrils of light come from it. Another moment later something else that should have never happened in this region of the world did. There was a horrible earthquake that made me fall to my knees from the sheer shock of it. Trees tumbled and fell in the distance, car alarms sounded out, light posts, telephone, and power poles fell to the ground and the world around me was suddenly plunged into darkness.
But there was a light that seemed ti get brighter by the minute. I went into shock as I knew what it was. I looked up to see the comet falling towards me. I forced myself up onto my feet despite the earthquake and began to run through the nursery.
"Oh shit!" I called out as it was getting closer to impact. The earthquake throwing out my legs, prompting my decision to take a leap off the hill. And right at that very moment is when the comet made impact. My winter coat was torn off and I was sent flying as a bright light swallowed me before losing consciousness.
When I woke my jacket was in shreds. My body ached, my senses were overloaded. My vision was sharper and more focused than before. My hearing made my head hurt as I adjusted to all the sounds flooding my head at once, car alarms and sirens blaring in the distance, people screaming bloody murder. My taste was different as well, I made a bitter face and spat out a chunk of grass that was lodged into my mouth. The texture of it rubbing up against my tongue making me want to gag. And finally my sense of smell had my sinuses on fire, it was overwhelmed as much as my ears were, the smell of damp grass, burning and smoldering rushed in.
I quickly moved my hands up to cover my nose and made a disturbing discovery from this entire mess. My body was covered in some kind of red fur with blue arrows in certain places, but that was nothing next to my nose feeling deformed, quickly treading through the flooded grass to a puddle to come across yet even more weird things to add to the night.
I looked into the reflection the puddle gave and found I had the appearance of an animal. Pointed wolf ears, snout and paws to boot. But thats not even the best part. It was like winter never happened.
As far as I could see there wasn't a single bit of snow left. Just flooded roads and yards. Not to mention the temperature felt like a warm summers day. It was a moment I would never forget for as long as I live.
I shook myself out of my stupor and ran back to the hill. Thankfully I wasn't blasted too far from it nor injured badly, but my body did ache horribly from being launched such a distance.
Panting as I reached the top of the hill, I braced myself for the carnage that was sure to unfold in front of me. But it was as if nothing happened, no large crater, no flaming field, the forest was intact and unmoved. It was as if I dreamed up the entire experience. But there was a difference, I noticed a white wolf woman laying in the center of the field, wearing nothing but white cloth around her breasts and some sort of matching skirt to go with it. Her long snow white hair sprawled across the flooded grass.
The whole thing just seemed like it came out of a crazy dream. But my battered and bruised body from being sent flying said otherwise. No this is as real as it gets.
I shook myself out of yet another stupor and called out to the girl. All I got though was some sort of faint mumble in response. "So this is what the earth looks like. The stars look so beautiful and bright here."
I scratched my head in confusion as to what she meant and was about to call out to her again until I heard a familiar voice call out to me.
I turned around to see a giant purple Michelin Man on steroids running up the hill to me. "Katherin is that you? What are you doing bundled up under all that snow gear?"
The girl leaning onto her legs under all the purple snow gear would be my best friend Katherin, Kat for short. We have been friends since we were little kids. A kind of shy, quiet girl but has a heart of gold and a distinct love of cats. "It's the middle of the winter, it may look nice out but looks can be deceiving meow."
"Well get that stuff off before you get heat stroke silly." Grinning as I watched her remove layers of clothing and then come to find I wasn't the only one changed. Kat was transformed into a Lynx, fuzzy ear tips and all.
"Whats the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost, meow."
"Have you looked in a mirror? You look like a Lynx cat." Her eyes widened and she looked behind her in response. She gave her tail a firm grab and pull, proceeding to look like a lightning bolt had struck her.
"H-How did this happen! I don't remember!" What came out of her mouth after sounded like a garbed meow. Which sounded like a scream to me.
Suffice to say though, many people went vegan that day when they found they could speak to their pets.
"How in the world could you not notice you were a Lynx? Much less see what I became?" I waved my hands around my body for emphasis.
"I was too busy hiding under my table during that damn earthquake, fearing for my life thats what meow!"
"Uhm excuse me?" Another voice chimed in behind us, but we were to wrapped up into our fight to notice.
"EXCUSE ME!" I jumped and swung around to see the wolf girl. Her dark blue eyes cold and staring daggers at the two of us. "If you two are finished with your childish bickering we're being watched." She pointed to the abandoned building behind us.
We glanced behind to have a pair of red eyes greet us on the roof of it. What happened next added to the night. The wolf girl suddenly shouted for us to duck and I proceeded to jump back as Kat fell backwards. All of us just barely dodging the creatures freakishly long nails. The thing looking up at me with maliciousness in its gaze.
I couldn't tell what the thing was from the darkness but it definitely wasn't an animal like us. It didn't matter though, because during that very moment we all had some sort of weapon pressed against its neck.
Kat with one hand wrapped against its neck while the other had a set of claws pressed into its flesh. I had some sort of hooked blades in both of mine, and wolf girl had what looked to be a trident in hers.
It didn't phase me that we all suddenly had weapons. To me it was like second nature, as if I have used them my entire life.
"So." The wolf girl started, pressing the points of the spear in roughly. "What the hell are you and what use is it of you to kill the three of us?"
The creature let out a deep, raspy laugh. "YOU'RE asking ME what I am? You should know better than anyone considering what you are yourself."
I turned to look at her, not relaxing my stance on the things throat. "What's this thing talking about wolf girl? You some sort of creature like this?"
We were interrupted by more laughter from the thing. "You should talk boy. With what you are you're no better than she is. You're a-." The creature never got to finish its remark, it turned to ash in an instant.
"My my what a mouth you had beast. I send you to test them and you almost reveal everything. Tsk tsk."
Our attention was redirected to the forest. From its dark depths another being appeared. It was a black wolf male, wearing some sort of loincloth with a twisted, sadistic smile spread across his face.
"Can my night get any stranger or do we need a few more freak shows and strange occurrences to happen?" I said, staring daggers at the man. He pisses me off for some reason, makes my hair stand on end with that smile. I wasn't the only one feeling like this though. The normally silly/sweet Kat, looked ready to gouge his eyes out.
The wolf raised his shoulders and snickered. "What a welcome party, I really feel the love from you three. I come in peace...for now. Just came with a friendly warning." He said, pointing an outstretched finger at us.
"Things have only just begun. There are many more out there like me now who want your heads. You three best learn fast of what you're capable of before we take your lives. Because I assure you-" He paused, his sadistic smile widening. "I'll have the pleasure of your blood spilling onto me the next time we meet!"
Both mine and Kat's blood ran cold at the sound of his words. It wasn't something we were used to hearing. We have...had normal lives and now all of a sudden we are targeted for death and we don't even know why.
Wolf girl didn't take it too well herself, with the death grip she was giving her spear you would almost think it would bend in half from the force.
Our reactions were enough for the man as he laughed maniacally. "Whats wrong? What happened to that bravado you had moments ago huh?" He laughed until he hunched over. "Well I think on this lovely not I'll take my leave. Enjoy your night 'brave heroes!'" He sneered as he emphasized on the last bit. Turning to walk back into the forest once more.
"Hold it!" I called out. I don't know what came over me that moment, where this burst of courage came from but it didn't stop there. "Our 'hunter' should at least have the decency to give his name before walking off after a statement like that!"
The man didn't turn or slow his pace. For a moment the silence was almost deadly. "The names Itzel. Remember it well." He said, breaking the silence as the forests dark embrace took him in once more.
We all stared at the forest for a long moment. Watching to see if anything else would come crawling out of its abyss. Once I was sure it was finally safe I fell back into the flooded field, slamming my fist down into the muck. "What the hell!?" I shouted at the top of my lungs. When I was finished releasing my frustrations I took in a deep breath and let out an exasperated sigh.
"How are you two holding up?" I asked, glancing over at both of them after another long term of silence. Kat still standing and staring at the forest with fear in her eyes, shaking uncontrollably.
Wolf girl on the other hand was sitting, trident in her lap, staring at the ground. Her brows furrowed with worry.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared myself. Terrified even, but just waiting scared wont get us anywhere.
"I bet there are many questions for me. Many I wish I could answer for you." Wolf girl broke the silence and let out a weary sigh. "Thing is I cant remember anything other than I'm not of the world and my name." She paused for a moment. "Might as well get introductions over with. My name is Svette, it's a...pleasure I suppose. And yours?"
Both me and Kat introduced ourselves and we all got to talking from there. Anything beat the silence and the lingering thoughts.
"Well we have one clue anyway. We're too important to keep alive it seems." I said, picking up my hooked blade and raising it up to my face to get a better look.
"Not to mention none of us being normal in any way. So any ideas as to what these weapons are and why they suddenly appeared for us?"
"Its a faint memory but they are called Soul Arms. Weapons forged from a portion of our very willpower and resolve. Power of the-"
Svette bent over and clutched her head, a look of pure agony twisting onto her face.
"Don't force it meow." Kat looked over with concern. "The memories will return in time but you may cause mental damage if you push it."
"Kat's right, you've been plenty help with just this. Take a break for-"
"I cant just sit and wait for them to return when our lives are in danger dammit!" Svette screamed, tears streaming down her face as it started to rain.
I looked up to the sky and sighed. Wondering just how much things could worsen.
"Lets worry about that later, if we don't get out of this soggy crap the rain will do us in first." I said as I pulled Svette to her feet, walking over to Kat after and giving her a pat on the head and ruffling her hair before leading them back home.
This would be our first of many nights together. Marked for death and left up the creek without a paddle.
May God save our souls.