Quest (OLD: the new version MIGHT be posted shortly)

Chapter 5-Sage

I looked over at Landon, wondering what was wrong. He was just staring at the shepherd, who had started to quiver.

“Um, we should get away from him,” Landon advised. The urgency in his tone made me stand up and back away.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“That gem in the sword, that’s a moonstone. No, that’s the Moonstone,” he said.

“Hunh?” Heather asked.

“We had to leave before night, the mistletoe and silver, the thick gates and walls around the city, the Moonstone,” Landon listed, his tone breathy and quivering. “They’re werewolves. We’re in the middle of a city of werewolves and it’s nighttime.”

“Crap,” Austin agreed.

The shepherd was clutching the throne with white knuckles. His head was back, his white tress swinging down. His jaw was clenched in pain and his gleaming white teeth were bared. Suddenly his teeth began to elongate into fangs. His nose and mouth elongated, and as they did a cracking of bones breaking could be heard. The shepherd yowled in pain, as did people just outside the door. His ears flattened and came to a point, and as they finished they twitched around like a dog’s. His neck seemed to swell; muscles and tendons bulged out as it grew. His shoulders, too, became wider. Bones kept breaking and mending into larger versions, ligaments kept snapping and re-growing, muscle could be seen tearing and mending. His hands widened and his fingers lengthened, one at a time, with a loud crack of each bone. Long claws grew out of his fingers coated in blood, as if they tore their way through the flesh of his fingers. His legs and arms elongated, muscle bulged out of them. His feet stretched out and went through the same process as the hands. And fur was everywhere. Silver fur the same shade as his hair sprouted out of every pore. The brown cloth that was tied around the beast’s waist snapped and a tufted tail, which had extended from the spine, poked out.

The beast turned around, its inhuman eyes roving over us. If we needed a shepherd, then we were the sheep. And now we were surrounded by wolves. The wolf started prowling towards us. His claws scraped against the stone floor. My mind started reeling, searching for something that could help us.

Sunlight! They changed in the sunlight. I held out my hand to create sunlight, but the feeble light did nothing.

“Solis,” I ordered. Speaking sometimes made spells stronger, and the light did increase, but it wasn’t enough. The light flickered out and the wolf looked annoyed. I pulled out my wand, which would make the spells even stronger. “Solis.” This time a solid orb appeared and the wolf stopped moving. All the other magical people pulled out their wands as well and followed my lead.

“We can’t keep this up all night,” Peter pointed out.

“I know,” I snapped. “I’m thinking.”

“What about the sword?” Heather asked. “He said that it could defeat any monster, right?”

“Who’s going to stab it?” I asked. “That’s a fierce animal.”

“I will,” Carson, one of the fighters, volunteered. “I’ll kill that thing.” I looked over at him. His dark red hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat from the heat radiating off of the sun-orb, but his freckled face was set in determination. I nodded.

~*~*~

“Heather, come hold my wand,” Sage said.

“What?” Heather asked. I agreed; what kind of non-magical could use a wand?

“It’ll keep holding the orb; just keep it pointing up,” Sage told her. Heather nodded and took the wand. “Jae, take Carson’s.” Sage was all business and I knew I had to. Carson gave me his wand, which felt odd in my hands. The mini-sun they had conjured was sending out massive waves of heat and I felt sweat run down my back almost as soon as I took the wand.