The playing didn't exactly happen. Neither did his little nap, either. Vrasje had just-barely stepped outside into the cool evening air when they both sensed something to their left.
Vampires?
They were dressed in pretty nice clothing, too.
"Elder Vrasje," the taller man said as he walked up to him cautiously.
Marquise watched through Garlic's eye as the man moved, catching that he was quite nervous about approaching them. There was evidently good reason to be wary, too, because Vrasje snarled before the man even got within ten feet of him.
"My apologies, my lord, b-but as the working magistrate and his assistant, we had to come investigate once we got several strange reports..."
Vrasje didn't seem surprised, and after a few moments of holding Garlic tightly against him, he relaxed enough to retract his fangs.
"You have confirmed that the reports are true," he finally said, making the man across the yard from him quickly nod his agreement.
"Except, you have also trespassed on my land and, for some reason, were unable to simply knock on my front door like a civilized vampire," Vrasje added, making both men flinch.
"I apologize for our poor choice of addressing this situation. We just..." the man looked over his shoulder, finally making the other hesitantly step forward.
"We didn't think that you'd ever bring a live one back."
Marquise felt his wolf react by snuggling in closer against Vrasje's bare chest and giving a pathetic whine. That near-silent sound seemed to trigger him more than Marquise had ever managed to.
"This wolf belongs to my heir! Taru chose him and changed him, and we will be registering him shortly," he said assuredly.
Both vampires looked like they were about to faint from shock, but they managed to pull themselves back together at the last moment and give a few coughs behind their hands to try and brush away the awkward tension.
"Ah, so that is how it is," the magistrate said with a nod, though he still looked rather disgruntled about the situation.
"Well, um... what made lord Taru consider changing a werewolf, if I may ask?" the man inquired as he looked his wolf over with a slight bit of curiosity.
Vrasje managed to calm down again and actually moved to set Garlic on the ground, but his wolf was having none of that. Before its front paws could even touch the ground it was pushing back up with its hind ones, trying to keep from being abandoned!
You're a damn drama queen. He's not going to pick you back up just bec—and he picked him right back up. Even gave him a few whispered praises and an added hug before returning his attention to the two pale men in front of them.
"You'll understand when you see his human form, but I stand behind my heir's decision," Vrasje finally replied.
The man who was still standing a little farther away inched closer until he stood shoulder to shoulder with the magistrate. He looked a good deal younger, and also still had a faint glow of youth to his features, but also the shadow of sickness. He must have been changed recently... Perhaps he even belonged to the magistrate as his own heir.
"Elder Vrasje, I apologize if my words seem rude, but there are laws about wolves in this town, and even though that one is quite small and doesn't seem aggressive..."
That makes sense. Most towns outlaw wolves, and honestly, most wouldn't even want us there, even in our human forms, anyways.
Well I want you here and you're staying.
"I am the one who wrote those rules. I will reconsider them and discuss the situation with you right now, if you two would like to come inside?" Vrasje said, surprising Marquise as much as the two other vampires.
Without waiting for a response, Vrasje turned and headed back up the steps and through the intricately carved double doors. Marquise watched as his pup looked over Vrasje's shoulder at the two vampires, its little chin tucked between its paws.
The two men began speaking amongst themselves as they followed them inside, then down a long hall until they stopped at the farthest room in that wing of the mansion.
It was evidently a massive meeting room with a long wooden table, some sixteen or so chairs, and huge floor to ceiling windows. Since he'd lost his chance to go outside and play, Garlic finally decided that he wanted to get down and wiggled a bit in Vrasje's arms.
When he was set down a moment later, he gave a quiet grunt and hurried over to hop up onto a dark purple velvet-covered lounge chair nestled up against one of those massive windows. Right as he got settled little droplets of rain began to tap against the glass, making Garlic lean back on his hind legs and tap at them here and there, mimicking the actions a cat might make in the same situation.
"Are... you sure that's not a fox? Do werefoxes exist?" the magistrate asked as the two took seats across from where Vrasje had settled.
Of course, their attention was clearly still on Garlic, but his little pup didn't seem to care in the least. Raindrops were evidently far more important than discussions of life or death.
"He is a werewolf, and an alpha, to my knowledge," Vrasje said, finally drawing Garlic's attention as his wolf flipped its head around, and partially sideways, to look at the man.
Yes, I am an alpha! Even if my new wolf is a pipsqueak. Emphasis on squeak.
"An... alpha, huh?" the magistrate mumbled as he openly stared at the tiny creature.
"Does he have a name? Do they name themselves? I've only ever heard a few werewolves that dared to interact with people," he said, clearly curious but also sounding a bit incredulous.
Vrasje nodded as he looked back over at Garlic, who gladly gave him a swish of his long fluffy tail in exchange for the attention.
"His name is Marquise, and I suppose he used to be a well-known alpha, but something happened with his larger wolf and now he's got this little guy going on," Vrasje said, making the two vampires across from him look at each other, then back to the little wolf.
"He's that Marquise? I've heard of an alpha going crazy and poisoning himself with silver, but the details of the situation haven't been easy to find. They had been readily available when the situation first occurred, but I suppose it was later that the new governor, with agreement from the three wolf packs that somehow live within the city, decided to sweep it all underneath the rug, so to speak. You can't even find the medical documentation that went along with the evident experiments and what not," the other man said, making a curious light brighten Vrasje's dark eyes.
"He probably is the person you mentioned, but I wasn't really wanting to barge into his past, since he doesn't seem to want to share it," Vrasje said with a faint smile.
That smile seemed to coax Garlic from the lounge, as the little guy hopped down and padded over to him. Vrasje, of course, picked him up without a word and hugged him against his still-bare chest.
"Has he caused an trouble for you since he's been here? Do you know what happened to his eye?" the younger vampire asked curiously.
Vrasje gently ran his fingers through Garlic's soft coat.
"No trouble, and to my knowledge, it was destroyed by rot. Likely from the silver, I'd imagine."
That was pretty much the case.
"If he was poisoned so badly that his eye had to be removed, then how can he still be alive and in such good health otherwise?" the magistrate asked, clearly stumped by the situation.
Vrasje looked down at where his pup was snuggled against him, but Garlic didn't seem to have any interest in answering their questions.
I'm not really sure how it works, either, but it seems like my wolves have the ability to affect my human self. If he gets cut I would usually get cut, and so forth, but when I started the silver experiments, things changed. I'm not completely sure how it happened, or why he did it, but my wolf seemed to take the majority of the poison's affects onto its own body. My vision did end up becoming damaged in my right eye, but it failed completely and fell out because the right side of my wolf's face had rotted to such an extent.
Vrasje gave his head a gentle pat.
"It seems like his wolves are different than others. I'm not sure how it happened, and he doesn't know, either, but his alpha wolf took most of the poison damage upon itself, and I guess when it sealed itself away, it returned a majority of that damage to his human body."
That's pretty much the basics of it.
The two men were silent for a long moment, seemingly conversing between each other telepathically. When they turned their attention back to him, they seemed a little more at ease.
Hmm?
Garlic gave an excited whine as it stood on Vrasje's lap with its front paws on the armrest, wiggling a little as it watched the closed doors leading to the hallway.
"It seems like his master is here. Excuse us for a moment," Vrasje said right before the doors were pushed open and Garlic bolted from his lap!
Taru immediately set down the two large bags he'd been carrying so that he could scoop him up as soon as he got close enough.
"Hello there, sweetheart. I'm sorry it's been a while, I've been way too busy."
He didn't care at all. As long as Taru came home at some point, he would always be happy to wait for him!
Master Taru, Vrasje named my wolf Garlic. You should name it something better.
Taru gave a quiet chuckle as he carried him over to the table, then sat down next to his own master.
"Garlic, huh? I don't know, I think it's pretty cute. Your fur looks like a mixture of different spices, with the majority being garlic-colored, so I think I'd like to keep that name if you're alright with it?"
Utter betrayal.
Okay, it's not too bad.
With that discussion easily resolved, Garlic snuggled up in Taru's arms as the man looked across the table with a smile.
"Hello, gentlemen, I see that you've met my new heir," Taru said without an ounce of hesitation.
The magistrate gave a calm nod, but then seemed to become more serious.
"We were discussing him with your master, and while he doesn't seem to be dangerous right now, there are rules against having wolves in town. Now we know that elder Vrasje has helped us establish those rules, so we would like to see if we can come to a compromise for this situation," the man said, earning a nod from Taru and Vrasje.
"I think the first thing that will need to be done, and as soon as possible, is the signing of documentation that confirms him as your heir. That leads me to wonder, though... is he now a vampire? Or is he still a werewolf? Is there a possibility that he's become a mix of the two?" the man's heir asked.
Taru looked at his master at the same time Vrasje glanced at him.
"A mix of the two, I'd think. He's still able to gain weight but he needs blood every so often to survive. He also has two different sets of fangs," Taru said as Garlic turned around in his lap and promptly bared his disturbingly-sharp set of canines at the other men, only for those teeth to abruptly retract, then be replaced with thicker, longer fangs.
Not exactly what I'd have chosen to show off when we're trying to seem less threatening, but I guess our size would probably make any other possibly dangerous part of us seem miniscule, at best.
The bite on Vrasje's arm from earlier was already sealed over and barely visible against his pale skin, too.
They look impressed, but not afraid... in the least.
Heaving a sigh through Garlic's mouth, Marquise sat down, then flicked an ear as he realized something.
I can control him again!
Taru gave his head a pat as he kept his attention on the two men across from them.
"We will be setting up an event here for him after we sign the paperwork. We were planning on doing it earlier, but he's been healing really well recently so I didn't want to stress him out by making him go into society yet, but if you recommend completing the documents sooner, we can get that done," Taru said with a content smile.
The magistrate returned his smile, seemingly relieved that the situation had been easy to handle all around.
"I think the sooner the better. If he's doing alright tomorrow, would you consider coming down to the courthouse and signing the paperwork?" the magistrate asked hopefully.
Marquise could understand the man's reason to nudge things along. Mouths talked and talking eventually turned into action if enough people talked and the situation wasn't corrected.
"I think we can manage to get him down to the courthouse tomorrow," Vrasje said as he turned his attention to his heir.
Taru looked a little nervous, but after a few moments he smiled at his master and nodded his agreement.
"We will bring him to you tomorrow morning," Taru said, making Marquise narrow his gaze at the floor.
Morning... gross.
"Sound perfect! We will see you at the courthouse. Thank you for sitting down and speaking with us on such short notice, and we apologize again for rudely intruding, lord Vrasje," the magistrate said as he and his heir stood from the table and bowed respectfully, then were lead out by a servant.
Once they were gone, Marquise quickly turned to face Taru, then returned to his human form, straddling his master's lap with an excited smile on his face.
Except, before he could even lean forward and hug the man he was yanked to the side and back into Vrasje's lap!
"What are you doing?!" he growled up at the man as he was settled in his lap,
"It is not appropriate to sit in his lap naked," Vrasje said simply.
Marquise felt his eye twitch at the man's words as he squirmed his way around so that he could face Vrasje, and was about to give him a piece of his damn mind when he felt a soft fabric partially wrap around him, stealing his attention.
"Arms please, sweetheart. I got you some nice new things to wear on my way over," Taru said, making Marquise instinctively lift his arms a little so that Taru could slip the light blue shirt on one side, then the other.
The fabric was extremely soft and silky as it glided over his skin. As soon as it settled Vrasje was lifting his own hands to fasten the buttons.
Once that was done Taru carefully helped Marquise stand, then supported him as he stepped into a pair of undergarments, then, finally, a nice pair of black dress slacks.
After being given his cane, Marquise carefully stood on his own and looked in one of the large windows at his reflection. Ever since he'd come to live with Taru, every time he'd seen himself in a reflection he'd looked like a ghost of his former indestructible self, but now...
Leaning his cane against the table, Marquise straightened his shoulders and body as he took several determined, pained steps toward that window before pausing a foot or two away from it. Closing off his mind as best he could, he licked his lips and let himself drift off into thought.
Alpha Marquise... The former ruling wolf of the three London packs.
His heart swelled with a delicate pinch of pride as he stared at his own determined gaze.
You managed to survive in the wild, fighting tooth and nail for your pack, then you tried to save everyone by mistakenly signing a deal to be poisoned by someone who only cared about himself in the end. And now...
He tilted his head, watching as his dark hair swayed with the movement. His mind wandered to how the two men, the magistrate and his heir, had dealt with their situation. They hadn't been very worried about him being a wolf because of his size and temperament.
Maybe there's a reason why I didn't die from poison. Maybe there's a reason why I am here now.
He felt his little wolf wiggle inside him, curious but confused. It made him smile. The little guy hadn't been around for his past tumultuous life. It hadn't been attacked relentlessly or poisoned continuously.
I'll protect you, little one. I have made terrible mistakes in the past, but I think now is the perfect time to begin working towards a new goal. I'll show you how beautiful this world can be, and perhaps we can convince another town that not all wolves are bad... the right way.