tonight, I'm sure of that."
"When I was a boy there were stories about men who could change into wolves," Thomas said. "Turns out I should have paid more attention."
"The stories are rubbish, I know that much. Wolfsbane does nothing, and you don't have to change on a full moon. However, you must change at least once a week, otherwise you'll start going mad. And a mad werewolf is dangerous. Silver will kill you almost outright, depending on where the wound is, as will decapitation.
Fire will cause serious problems, as it does almost everything else on the planet. And while you can heal most injuries, your limbs don't grow back, so be careful."
"Anything else?"
I searched my memory for anything I'd missed. "Right now you can turn into your beast form, basically one of those we saw back in the city. But over time you'll learn a third form to go alongside the beast and human. The wolf itself. It's the hardest to transform into, as it's the least human. But you're a long way off from that."
"Do I age?"
"You're not immortal, but you'll age slowly now. A hundred years will look like only a couple has passed to a human."
Thomas silently held his head in his hands. He understandably needed time alone.
I wandered off into the woods, leaving him to sit and ponder my words. When deep enough inside, I set a snare trap by an old tree. The tracks I wanted were easy to discover. It would just depend on whether they smelt Thomas before the trap was sprung.
I sat up the nearest tree for twenty minutes, perched on the end of a branch, as rabbits and deer walked under me. Each was nervous, tentatively looking around for unseen predators, and not quite sure why. Then my prey trotted past, oblivious to the danger. A quick gust of air from me, and the trap sprang shut, hurling the boar five feet off the ground by its hind legs.
I dropped to the floor and approached the massive animal from the rear, I didn't want it to see me and go any more insane than it already was. The squealing alone would wake the dead. I removed the air from its muscular body, rendering it unconscious without a fight, which allowed me to examine it more easily. An older male, which was good, I didn't like killing females. Sometimes they're pregnant and sometimes they're too young. Adult males are fair game.
I removed a small dagger, the same one I'd used to kill the first werewolf in Soissons, and slit the boar's throat, avoiding the warmth that escaped. Then I cut it down with a loud crash and dragged it back to the clearing.
Thomas stared at the dead beast with hunger in his eyes. "What's that for?" he asked.
"Later," I told him and removed the ropes from the animal, leaving it to bleed out onto the freshly leafed earth.
"I have another question for you." Thomas' words were meant for me, but his vision was firmly on the boar. His change would be soon.
I sat back on my ferns, cleaning the blade with some nearby leaves. "Go ahead."
"What is Avalon? And why did hearing their name make you unhappy?"
Now that was the question I'd hoped to avoid. "I work for Avalon. In a sense anyway."
Thomas raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I work for some people in Avalon, carrying out certain... tasks." Assassination, murder, theft, infiltration and spying, all things I've done in my life. And all things I'd have no problems doing again. "All the gods and goddesses of old, Zeus, Hades, Odin and the like, well, they're all real. Although, not actually gods. They're a mixture of sorcerers, elementals, the fae and other magical beings. A long time ago, all of these deities were left to their own devices and that created constant chaos. Many of them don't like one another, and when you throw in the various other species that exist in the world, like vampires and weres, what happens can be all out war.
"So a few thousand years ago, there was a war amongst the various gods. In the aftermath, they all agreed to join Avalon. They're all left to do what they want,
"When I was a boy there were stories about men who could change into wolves," Thomas said. "Turns out I should have paid more attention."
"The stories are rubbish, I know that much. Wolfsbane does nothing, and you don't have to change on a full moon. However, you must change at least once a week, otherwise you'll start going mad. And a mad werewolf is dangerous. Silver will kill you almost outright, depending on where the wound is, as will decapitation.
Fire will cause serious problems, as it does almost everything else on the planet. And while you can heal most injuries, your limbs don't grow back, so be careful."
"Anything else?"
I searched my memory for anything I'd missed. "Right now you can turn into your beast form, basically one of those we saw back in the city. But over time you'll learn a third form to go alongside the beast and human. The wolf itself. It's the hardest to transform into, as it's the least human. But you're a long way off from that."
"Do I age?"
"You're not immortal, but you'll age slowly now. A hundred years will look like only a couple has passed to a human."
Thomas silently held his head in his hands. He understandably needed time alone.
I wandered off into the woods, leaving him to sit and ponder my words. When deep enough inside, I set a snare trap by an old tree. The tracks I wanted were easy to discover. It would just depend on whether they smelt Thomas before the trap was sprung.
I sat up the nearest tree for twenty minutes, perched on the end of a branch, as rabbits and deer walked under me. Each was nervous, tentatively looking around for unseen predators, and not quite sure why. Then my prey trotted past, oblivious to the danger. A quick gust of air from me, and the trap sprang shut, hurling the boar five feet off the ground by its hind legs.
I dropped to the floor and approached the massive animal from the rear, I didn't want it to see me and go any more insane than it already was. The squealing alone would wake the dead. I removed the air from its muscular body, rendering it unconscious without a fight, which allowed me to examine it more easily. An older male, which was good, I didn't like killing females. Sometimes they're pregnant and sometimes they're too young. Adult males are fair game.
I removed a small dagger, the same one I'd used to kill the first werewolf in Soissons, and slit the boar's throat, avoiding the warmth that escaped. Then I cut it down with a loud crash and dragged it back to the clearing.
Thomas stared at the dead beast with hunger in his eyes. "What's that for?" he asked.
"Later," I told him and removed the ropes from the animal, leaving it to bleed out onto the freshly leafed earth.
"I have another question for you." Thomas' words were meant for me, but his vision was firmly on the boar. His change would be soon.
I sat back on my ferns, cleaning the blade with some nearby leaves. "Go ahead."
"What is Avalon? And why did hearing their name make you unhappy?"
Now that was the question I'd hoped to avoid. "I work for Avalon. In a sense anyway."
Thomas raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I work for some people in Avalon, carrying out certain... tasks." Assassination, murder, theft, infiltration and spying, all things I've done in my life. And all things I'd have no problems doing again. "All the gods and goddesses of old, Zeus, Hades, Odin and the like, well, they're all real. Although, not actually gods. They're a mixture of sorcerers, elementals, the fae and other magical beings. A long time ago, all of these deities were left to their own devices and that created constant chaos. Many of them don't like one another, and when you throw in the various other species that exist in the world, like vampires and weres, what happens can be all out war.
"So a few thousand years ago, there was a war amongst the various gods. In the aftermath, they all agreed to join Avalon. They're all left to do what they want,
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