Why The Mad Dogs
The sound of dribbling water woke Hammosh. He tried to sit up, but the chains held him fast to the cold stone floor. Hammosh yanked them again and looked around the room. It was very dim and hard to see. He sniffed the air. Hammosh knew he was underground because of the damp and earthy moldy smell. This wasn't all he smelled.He could smell something very sweet and delicious on the other side of the room. A strong instinct came over him making him want to eat whatever it was. He strained over to try to see what was on the other side. A Steel bolted door. He heard footsteps coming from the other side of the door. Then the sound of jangling keys was heard unlocking the door. A number of locks were heard being unlocked, there must have been at least six of them.
A metal bar was heard sliding across from the other side. The door opened slowly a few inches then it was slammed open. It made a screeching metallic sound causing Hammosh to whine and cover his ears. It was painful and he couldn't stand it. Three men stepped inside while two others closed the door. It was too dark to see their faces and one of them started to talk, "Well, will ya look at this one, he's a big fella all right." The second man to the right spoke, "Yeah, when you they say they got a big one, they got a real big one and they never kid around about size here."
The third man on the left started to talk "Look at him, the poor little wee werewolf is just cowering in the corner with his hands over his head crying like a wee little baby." The three bursted into boisterous laughter. The one on the right began talking to Hammosh "What's your name?" When Hammosh tried to speak but all that came out was animalistic barks and growls "Bark bark grrr grrroowl!" "Oh is that your name? Bahhahahahaha! This is really hilarious. -- he probably doesn't even know how to speak in the first place, right guys?!"The man on the right said. Then one of them said, "If he can't speak then he'll be trained like the other monsters. For this one, we'll need someone who's familiar with werewolves to train him right. Even if he does know how to speak he'll be forced to be trained with the others. Hey, I think I'll name him Sir Dirt Buttface!" Hammosh, in both anger and frustration, was finally able to find words and said in a very loud, deep, gravelly voice, "Hey!! Don't you DARE call me that!! I am Hammosh, Hammosh Kahone -- the last of the Kahone family!! I-I will not let you take my name rights!!!"
The three men looked at him with surprised faces. One of them pointed at Hammosh and said "He h-h-he spoke in perfect English! Holy crayge! He actually speaks perfect English! I've never seen anything like this before!" Hammosh then found his normal voice and said very angrily "Oh, yes, I surely do speak perfect English! Why do you act so surprised? I mean, I'm an ordriey right now and last night was my very first change!" The three men exchanged looks and noded and made some motions. The door was opened and whispers were passed on to others behind. An ordriey stepped in with two other men. They wore thick black studded leather, leather helmets and leather gloves.
The ordriey was seven feet, a foot shorter than Hammosh, he had greyish blue hair and fur on his tail. He had horns like that of a texas longhorn cattle and looked about in his 50's. The ordriey and the two other men grabbed, pushed, and held Hammosh on the stone floor and forced a muzzle over his mouth. They released the chains from the wall and pulled him. They yanked and pulled the chains dragging Hammosh out the room. He attempted to sting one the men that was pulling too hard but couldn't since it was in restraints "Oooooh he's got some attitude. That will make his masters real pleased. You hear that, wolf brethren? Your new masters got something for you," The man sounded young.
The hallway was long and dim lit by the torches that lined the stone walls. Hammosh asked "Where are you taking me?" The ordriey holding the chains scoffed, "Hhmmfff, your masters, of course." "What do you mean by masters? You're confusing me. Oh, and what's your name?" "Hhhmm? No one asks that question. You should know who your masters are by now, you've been here for for months." "Wai-uh-what? Months? No, no this isn't right, it's the first time I've ever seen this place. Have you even looked at my face? I-I I'm sure this is some mistake." Hammosh moved quickly to get in front of everyone and suddenly rushed right past behind the men almost knocking them over.
The men responded by yanking the chains, pushing, and kicking him. "Aaahh! Ooo! That beast sure is gonna get what it deserves. Think you're too clever for us huh?" Hammosh whimpered for rest of trip. A pair of massive steel double doors, each a foot thick were pushed opened by four ordrieys about seven feet tall. The doors towered over the ordrieys that strained against them grunting but one of them slipped and fell on his back. He tried to get back up and failed gasping and groaning, his breathing was labored. Two heavily armed tuatarrian guards with lances came and grabbed the ordriey and lifted him off his feet, throwing him across the hallway.
The tuatarrians flicked their lizard-like tongues, hissed, and one of them hastily bit the ordrieys who had just finished opening the doors. They jumped and ran through the doors quickly, the ordriey the lizard-like folk threw stood up and ran screaming back through the doors, his hooves clomping all the way. The tuatarrians had feathery-like spikes running down their necks, their brownish, greyish skin was scaly and had darting black eyes that struck fear into Hammosh's heart. They had proto beaks that protruded from their mouths. Hammosh did not like the looks of them at all. One of the tuatarrians came walking up, staring at Hammosh with those black eyes the entire time. It flicked it's tongue through his hair and brushed it's clawed hand across his face turning his head so that he looked right at the tuatarrian.
Hammosh closed his eyes and tried looking away but the tuatarrian didn't allow it as it inspected him. It started to take off the muzzle that covered Hammosh's mouth and one of the men yelled,"No! Don't take it off! It's a werewolf you idiot! They bite if you're not careful!" "Then take it to where I can finisssh insssspecting it, mammalsssss, thessse black markingssss around it'ssss eyesss are unique unlike the othersss," the tuatarrian spat. Then the ordriey and men dragged Hammosh through the doors while the two tuatarrians followed behind. The doors automatically closed with gears, ropes and chains, and pulleys done by a monstrosity. The room was warmer and brighter than the hallways. Hammosh was too horrified at the creature he saw, he couldn't even tell what it was, it was so deformed.
The deformity was chained and caged at least about five stories high away from the ground. The cage was rusted and needed repairs. Chains that held it up were horizontally pulled cross where each pair of chains led through eight different tunnels in four directions. Hammosh turned his head away and bumped into something warm, wet, slimy and hard. He looked and saw another monstrous looking creature but this one was more distinguishable as it had a black skin-like exoskeleton, an elongated head with four jaws that had unevenly sharp teeth that looked like broken ivory shards. It's head had multiple porous holes with gaseous like substances pouring from them, it had twelve legs with two hooked rigged toes on each foot and a rough scorpion-like tail. The creature's sides were moving up and down but stood still as a statue, it's eyes the size of dinner plates and they were an emerald green like Hammosh's, it had no pupils. Hammosh felt as though he were strangely connected to the monster, like they were brothers, and he felt somewhat safe.
That feeling scared Hammosh, making him snap out of it when he realized that it was too familiar and creepy. As the ordriey and men walked Hammosh through, the monster stayed in place and turned it's head slowly, it's pupiless eyes watching him contentedly and knowingly. "Oooh, take me out of here fast please, I don't like this, I really don't like this!" Hammosh panicked and cried to the ordriey and men who were walking him to his destination. The two tuatarrians behind him cackled and swished their lizard-like tails that dragged along the stone floor. The men suddenly hurried, "Come on, quick! Get in here, you're masters are in here!" And they pushed Hammosh through a mesh wired door and quickly took off his muzzle and slammed the door.
Hammosh thought it was odd they suddenly would go in such a hurry at the end. Then he saw a door on the other side open. Light shone through and pikes were shoved through the sides poking and jabbing at Hammosh which cut a little and forced him towards the opening. By the time he realized he was out the door was closed. "Ah, so here's our new toy to play with today. Scared huh? Eh, you should be more excited than scared because our new toy is gonna have ta put on us a show! GET ON IT BOYS!!!" Then Hammosh heard the crack of a whip and growling and barking. He looked up and saw three people standing up on a high platform surrounded by at least more than two dozen of werewolves from down below, leaping up trying to get them.
The werewolves wore spiked steel collars and spiked cuffs on their wrists and paws. They were mostly common blacks with a few timber greys and ethiopian brown werewolves. After hearing the whip a number of times all of the werewolves turned and stared at Hammosh for a second and burst into running balls of speed snarling with their teeth bared and snapping. Hammosh did not for one second stay in place and immediately ran on all fours away from the wild pack that would tear him apart. A dead end wall. The pack rushed in behind and Hammosh took the advantage. He jumped and kicked the werewolves with his hooves using his tail to propel himself through the air and managed to land on the platform. The moment he landed his hands started to smoke and burn, he jerked them off, standing up.
Silver. The platform had silver plating at the top. "How clever, using silver up high on a platform just so in case a werewolf lands up on here would repel it, eh, too bad it didn't work on me, it sure did hurt," Hammosh thought. Then Hammosh felt a whiplash right across his face unexpectedly and saw the three clearly. A human woman, a wurdal, and saw the greyish blue haired ordriey that had led him was here. The ordriey didn't change uniform and had a snarky look on his face. Now since the lighting was much better Hammosh saw the markings on his face which were a dark burnt umber brown. The marks were around his violet purple eyes and each had a streak on the ends pointed downwards.
"Hah! Now do you want to hear my name?" The ordriey said tauntingly looking around along the bottom sides of the stand his whip in hand ready to strike. He looked at Hammosh, "I'm surprised at how you reacted to your packmates and how you got up here so quickly without failure. Look at us, we are you're new masters. You will obey us, I am your master, Kerlone Mahone." The woman standing next to him was smiling thinking about what to do next, "Call me Tueller...," and she was cut off by the wurdal who had a stone cold expression, "Weker Mavu Wheymuar," He said stiffly. The wurdal was at least six feet tall, thin and lean like a leopard with fuzzy blonde hair, his ears were cat-like and stood atop, his face was long and resembled a wolf and a lemur's, he also had a lion-like tail, his eyes were a light sky blue. Then Hammosh said stuttering and nervously laughing, "H-h-h-hi u-um n-n-nice, hahaha, uh n-names?" Hammosh touched his face where it stung and throbbed from being lashed, a little blood was on his fingers. He was somewhat angry towards his masters by far and glared at them, he was beginning plan something on mind and tried his best with talking about whatever came to mind, "Heh, ok, I'll obey, I'm stepping right back, I'm taking a step back right over here, but I'm not going to disobey, right, fair play? You sure are not going to hurt me anymore because I'm serving myself a death sentence and that could be any moment from where I stand, hhmm?"
As he spoke, he was taking steps backwards. He saw on the other side of the wall and platform, there were silver lances sticking straight out the ground with werewolves impaled on them from old and the recent dead. His plan was going south, the plan was not going to happen right away fearing that if he were to do it right away, it would give himself away and possibly ending in death. Kerlone responded to Hammosh's reply in a snappy tone, "So you say, that is an interesting way to tell us that you're going die anyway and that you're willing to obey us?" Kerlone had a growing suspicion that something was going to happen between the two of them, he played along with Hammosh. "Alright that's enough, now get off!" Kerlone and Weker both cracked their whips, kicked and pushed Hammosh off the platform. Hammosh threw his hands out to grab the edge but the silver burned and let go falling hard on the ground.
"Oooff!" The masters looked down laughing, pointing at him, making faces and waving byebye. Then three timber greys big, thick furred with wide canine muzzles, jumped on him and began biting, ripping at what was left of his armor, scratching with their claws, kicking up dirt with their hind paws with tails straight. Hammosh flashed his teeth back at them and kicked one of them in the face with his three toed hoof making it fly across a few feet. An ethiopian brown lept at Hammosh's throat, barely missing it and again caught him on his forearm ripping and mangling, shaking it's long head and back and forth, it's long pointed ears bent back, thin but strong jaws were clamped on like iron grips. Then suddenly a bright light was flashed, flashing multiple times and he felt himself stiffen. He realized it was starting over again, the transformation but from bright lights this time and again he felt the torrent of pain inside his body. He felt the change coming, he screamed in pain, he looked at his hand which grew claws and this time scales grew in patches just as the fur did.
"No! It's happening again, but I've changed more than last time!" Hammosh felt something warm inside his chest, more pronounced than last time and smoke plumes came out his mouth and nostrils. He had fully changed, his skin and hair a reddish color once again. The ethiopian brown was still clamped on and Hammosh blew fire from his mouth burning the werewolf causing it shriek and let go, it backed off. Hammosh swished tail, raised it striking at the other werewolves that attacked him. He howled and charged at a common black, his down curved horns bruised and shattered it's ribs as he drove it into the dirt. Hammosh lunged in biting another werewolf that managed to get hold, he tasted blood. The tasting of blood made Hammosh go into a blinding frenzy and began tearing down every werewolf coming his way.
The rest of werewolves now saw clearly Hammosh was a threat, they began backing off, others ran whimpering and whining with tails inbetween their legs. Hammosh felt the stinging of silver whips being lashed on his back, causing him to go into an a blood rage. He lost it completely this time and turned around, standing up he swiped his dragon-like claws at the masters who attempted control over him. He caught Weker across the belly, ripping him open, blood gushed and gurgled out all over the place, he lept at the two other masters who tried in the attempt. Hammosh had completely lost himself, nothing of Hammosh was left at this point. He howled, roared and smashed his massive paw into Kerlone, shattering his arm, flipping him through the air and roared. The woman master, Tueller, saw the other werewolf master trainers downed, looked at Hammosh with terror in her eyes and began to scream hysterically. She was too horrified to run and dropped to her knees, staring at him helplessly, dropping her whip on the ground.
Hammosh gained up on Tueller growling and snarling, he began huffing and puffing, more smoke pluming from his mouth and nostrils. He spread out his dragon-like wings and flapped them blowing dirt and dust but he didn't fly off. He raised his head, his muzzle and claws bloody, he began to howl and "Klonk!", Hammosh was knocked in the head, he turned around to see Fletcher with a long steel pipe in hand. Fletcher was quick and swiped the pipe from under Hammosh's feet tripping him. Hammosh fell face first, when he lifted his head he came back to his senses and realization of what he had just done. As zmag, he put his clawed hands over his head, and on his knees began to cry, whimper and whine, his tail curled. Hammosh tried to avoid looking Fletcher in the eyes and failed, staring at him in shock, his body trembling.
Hammosh tried to say something, it came out as animalistic as he was in dragonish wolf form,"Grrr, rrrooo, arrooo, yip, hhnnngg, hhiinng, nng, nng, hhiiinne!" Hammosh slumped on the ground in despair, sobbing while Fletcher had pulled out a shotgun trying to make a decision whether or not to he had to put him down. Fletcher looked at the two others who were down and made the decision that he will give Hammosh one last chance, seeing the innocence still in him. Fletcher dropped his weapons and embraced Hammosh as he fell asleep and reverted back to his original form. Fletcher went to work quickly on the unconscious Weker stopping the bleeding completely. He attended to the ordriey who was still conscious, grabbing his broken arm, Fletcher had fixed up a splint, straightening Kerlone's arm. After that he attempted to calm down Tueller, she never did look at him.
The werewolves stayed away, loping, staring at them with green, orange, and brown eyes waiting for an opportunity for the perfect strike. The werewolves unfortunately never did get the opportunity as Fletcher dragged a dead ethiopian werewolf, he took a silver dagger and plunged it into it's chest, ripping and breaking it's ribbs exposing the heart, he tore it out. After the heart was taken out he began to skin it making all the other werewolves freak out knowing that the ethiopian now was truly dead and never to come back to life. Fletcher took the skin and walked towards a massive door which was slightly ajar. He had a stick in hand dipped in something that was purple, waving it at werewolves that came too close, werewolves backed off repulsed, gasping, breathing hard and some vomited and passed out. Finally reaching the door he went through and came back with a caravan, two hyperpotomas were pulling it, the door now wide open. The hyperpotomas were aggressive towards the werewolves kicking and pawing at the ground as they came in through the door.
Some werewolves immediately took initiative running at top speed towards the door for freedom while Fletcher and five other people jumped out the caravan and began shooting and slicing with silver weapons taking them out quickly. A few though did escape without a single wound, others with aggravated injuries. The hyperpotomas had almost no hair, yellowed skin, thin manes and thin hair on the tails were black, their back feet were horse-like and the front feet had five webbed hooves. They had large orange eyes and tusks like boars. They were skinny and their muzzles were brown and each had a unique red/pink pattern on the legs. The hyperpotomas snorted, roared and tried to chase the werewolves pulling on the ropes and yokes that held them place in opposite directions. One of the hyperpotomas broke free chasing and goring a werewolf, knocking it to the ground.
The room was now empty of werewolves, the hyperpotomas retrieved and put back with the caravan. The group of werewolf hunters were beginning to leave, serious in tone Fletcher yelled at them, "Hey! Hey! Get back here! I did not give permission to leave yet, we still have people to help here. Come help me pick this guy up he's too heavy." Half the werewolf hunters came by and picked Hammosh up with some difficulty while others picked Weker up with no problem. The others trying to lead Kerlone to the caravan had a hard time, "Rrr, nnn, Stop that I know what I'm doing!" Kerlone would push and shove whenever someone neared him, he got onto the caravan. Tueller followed along, at least she no longer was in the state of terror. The werewolf hunters and Fletcher were ready and setup to go and quickly they got the hyperpotomas to pull the caravan as quickly as possible.
They had escaped and after a few miles Weker woke up in pain gasping, whimpering, and grabbing onto onto anything he could get his hands on so that he wouldn't focus on the excruciating pain he felt from being ripped open. Later that day Hammosh woke up feeling queasy. He stood up slowly and poked his head out a window and vomited. Hammosh didn't pay attention which side of caravan he stuck his head out, it was the front side and Fletcher turned his head to see who it was. Fletcher was driving the hyperpotomas and handed the reigns over to a tiger wearing a straw hat and baggy pants sitting upright next to him and got a clearer view, "Hammosh! Hammosh oh you little .... get your head out of there, we're having a talk about this. Now!" Hammosh slowly pulled his head back in and looked at Fletcher who looked both angry and concerned, "Oh I don't feel too well. Fletcher I'm sorry I had to lie about my pregnancy. It was all I could do at the time, I was scared for my baby! Oh I have to take care of my morning sickness...." Fletcher handed Hammosh a jar of herbs, "Why did you lie about this earlier? Your baby is going to be a zmag!" "Because I had no one to really trust. I thought because I'm a zmag that my baby would be in danger! I couldn't have trusted you back there, it was far too quick, I barely even know you in the first place. What's in the jar? It better not do anything bad to me," "Something to help and I promise it won't do harm, chew it and you'll feel better. It's tanikerumig roots they'll taste a bit bitter."
Hammosh sat down against the wooden wall of the caravan, opened the jar, he sniffed, it had a pungent smell and made him gag, still he picked one and chewed it. It was bitter just like Fletcher said it would, ten minutes later he felt much better. He noticed a shelf full of different jars, he started grabbing them looking at each and one of them in curiosity until he picked up one jar and Fletcher yelled in alarm quickly taking it out of his hands, "NO! No! No! Don't touch that! That's wolf's bane! That's used to kill werewolves! You don't ever, ever, ever touch anything on this shelf! Now that's off limits to you Hammosh! From now on if I catch you again fiddling with these jars out you go! Outside where you can't get your hands into! You understand?" Hammosh nodded his head in agreement and mentioned, "Um Fletcher that wretched place I was in, right before I changed there was this, this bright flash of light out of nowhere, it affected me like it was the full moon, do you know what it was?" "I don't really know but what it sounds like something called a werelight. It's usually that zmags and other desert werewolves experience this when they feel frightened or something but it's extremely rare for it to happen. Possibilities that when a werelight is set off it, in other cases could attract a god, it can be so powerful at times. Werelights are usually created by dreamones" Fletcher explained. Hammosh then began talking of the monstrosity he saw before he met with his masters. Fletcher looked even more alarmed than he was with the jars, "Hammosh this is not ok in the least. What you're describing is a yorgsh. These monstrosities of the dark are never to be messed with. What it was doing to you was trying to manipulate, trick you into thinking it's friendly. It may have even charmed you, they used to be ordrieys like you but they have depended so much on the dark that they themselves were transformed to be as hideous as the underdark."
"Uh Fletcher where are we going? It's uh starting to get dark don't you think? Mmm well maybe this time I can try too at least brave the dark? I know I'm just talking to talk, I'm booooored, can I go outside now pleeeeease?" Hammosh was pleading to Fletcher, "You've been telling me that I can't go outside but at least for this once." "Oh no no no I don't think so, there are many many things you have to learn about your werewolf capabilities, we're not far enough away from civilization though..." Hammosh sounded upset and exagerated his words,"Civilization! What! You're bringing me out into the wilderness!? Why? All I ever wanted to do was to get home and relax and talk with my mate but noooo you just had to take that time away from meeee." Then there was whispering in the back and Hammosh with his senses heightened he heard everything clearly, "I told you he was going to start complaining! And Fletcher is all oh yeah sure that big boy's not going to complain and then he's like, Hammosh is not going to cause trouble and dur-duh-dur-da-dur-dur or whatever the heck he says that's really stupid. Fletcher has to always bring in some sort of troublemaker onto our wagon especially a freakin new werewolf who doesn't even know shit and you know what Fletcher says? He says yeah he'll learn to control it but what we say is no he's not learning crap and we're gonna have to end up killing him because he's going to be like RAR at us with his big ol teeth and claws or whatever the heck he has on himself." Then there was muffled chortling and Hammosh didn't like what he heard and growled a warning at them, he didn't hear the rest of the conversation, "Ooo that werewolf heard us all right" then more whispering but quieter this time with more muffled chuckling. Fletcher didn't pay attention to who was talking behind his back and continued talking to Hammosh, "Woah, calm down they're just talking about what they usually talk about. They're not really that much for trouble makers at least, just don't let them get to you because that's what's they're rooting for. They want you to lose your temper, eh ligarian cat people. What were we talking about? Oh yes, yes um, ok so, I am taking you into the wilderness, not that I ever wanted to take you from your family time but it's for your protection and to train yourself. Hey! You two! Stop that! No that's not funny at all and you think this getting anywhere? Shut Up Tabby! Sorry Hammosh they're starting to get antsy because of you. And you, you better behave or you'll be cut down. Hey we still got werewolves to track down!"
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