[Forsaken - Grace] - The Third Way

[autumn-skald.livejournal.com]

OOC: For the challenge on killing, as well as an interesting way to explore a background point. Just in case it needs saying this story is OOC information and nothing anyone would know IC.



I knew they were all dead, that none of the others had made it out of the ambush. I had managed to swallow down my Rage, to make sure that I didn’t lose myself to it as that would just get me killed as well and would do no one any good.

They had come for us in the night, sneaking past our defences without too much trouble; it had been so quiet of late we were perhaps a little complacent. To my shame it was I who had the perimeter that night, I am not sure how they got passed me but they did.

When the sounds of violence echoed through to where I was walking I did my best to reach them. I approached under stealth to find that three of the pack had already fallen, their blood pooling on the ground around. I fought down my anger and stilled my body, trying to see if there was anything I could do to help my alpha who was fighting on.

Surrounded by four Pure and with blood pouring from multiple grievous wounds I knew that it was a matter of seconds before he fell as well and that the assistance of one still new Irraka would make little to no difference. So I made the personal call to stay still and shortly after there was no point in moving.

As I lay watching they laughed and joked about the destruction they had wrought, one even going so far as to pee on their corpses as a lesson to any Forsaken who might come across it. They obviously realised that they were missing one of us and hung around for a while before they finally decided to give up on waiting for me to make an appearance.

When they were gone I heaped my fallen pack’s bodies into a pile. I could not risk burning them as the fire would just attract the pack who had murdered them. Instead I found the small packet of decay dust that our Ithaeur had kept by him and used that to turn their bodies into ash. I gathered some of the ash up and mixed it with a little water before using it to paint my face with. If I was not able to save them, I could at least avenge them.

I tracked the pack quite easily through the forest, it wasn’t particularly large and they weren’t being too careful about their movements. I was using as much stealth as I could manage to ensure they wouldn’t be able to catch my scent or the sound of my steps. I didn’t really expect to survive this, I was hoping to try and take their alpha down before the rest of the pack rended me limb from limb.

They holed up in a half-ruined farmed house and from outside I could hear them laughing and celebrating their victory. I bit my anger down again and I waited, patience is definitely one of my virtues. They were sloppy though, perhaps they had forgotten about me or perhaps they assumed that with my pack dead I was of no threat to them, but they posted no guards and set no watches and so when they fell asleep I had my chance.

I snuck into the building carefully, keeping all my senses alert for signs of any traps or trouble. Everything was fairly quiet though, other than the sounds of snoring that was coming from one of the Pure. It did not take me long to find their alpha, even in a different form his build and colouring gave him away.

The building was not large, though he had given me an unwitting help in the fact that he had taken himself into one of the other rooms that still had a roof to sleep, thus separating himself from his pack, if only by one thin wall. I looked around the room, I needed to try and give myself a way out of this, even if I didn’t think I was going to manage it.

There was a window that was broken enough for me to climb out of at the back, but I also needed to try and slow the rest of the pack down, even if only for a few minutes to give me more time to get out of there. There was also some broken furniture in the room, an old wardrobe and some shelves over in one corner.

I carefully, so carefully started to move them across so that the blocked up the entrance somewhat. It was painstaking work as I had to make as little noise with them as possible and I have never been the strongest of people. Thankfully Urhan enhances your strength whilst not hampering your ability to manipulate objects too much so I managed to pile them somewhat haphazardly, not perfect but perhaps enough to give me a few more seconds to get out before they burst through into the room.

The next part was the hardest and the most dangerous, trying to take him out before he could work out what was going on and gut me like a fish. I knew that I was completely outclassed in a straight fight with him; I also knew that I had absolutely no intention of fighting fair.

Finally I pulled the silver chain from around my neck and wrapped it around one of my fists. Now I was as ready as I would ever be.

Taking one of my daggers from my side I snuck up carefully on him from behind, I gently placed one hand on the side of his head and quickly slit his throat open, the blood spraying out and hitting the wall. He might have cried out if his vocal chords hadn’t just been severed. I quickly then took the chain between both my hands and wrapped it around his neck, digging it deeply into the open wound, causing it to sizzle and burn as the curse of the silver took its toll on him. There had been no way I could use something so fragile as a proper garotte, but pulled into the open wound into his neck would stop the wound from closing up and gave me a chance that the blood loss might actually kill him.

With that there was no more waiting around I could do, the noise from his movements would shortly alert his pack to trouble, as would the smell of blood. Quickly I changed forms and leapt through the window, running as though my life depended on it, which of course it did.

I ran myself to the point of exhaustion, always alert to the potential of pursuit knowing full well that if they caught me they would kill me, assuming they didn’t torture me first. Eventually I managed to find a spot I had used to hole up in before, it was pretty well hidden and my lack of scent trail would at least make it harder for them to find me whilst I slept.

Over the next few days there were some close calls, they almost found me a couple of times before I finally managed to make it into Forsaken territory again and relative safety. I did not tell anyone what I had done, though I did tell of the death of my pack and that I had escaped the massacre, if some looked at me questioningly over the stories about the death of the alpha of that pack, none were prepared to actually ask me about whether I had any involvement or not, probably because most of them believed it beyond my capabilities, perhaps instead assuming that the alpha died in the attack as it made far more sense than him dying at my hands.

For my own part I saw no need to disabuse them of their notion. I accepted my role within Uratha society a long while ago. I believe in the Oath and I believe that killing other werewolves is a breach of it. I also believe that sometimes there are werewolves who need to die and some of us need to carry the burdens of those acts so that the rest are not stained by them.

So I am an assassin, I kill the enemies of the Forsaken and take on the tasks so that others do not have to. I break the Oath because I believe that sometimes it needs to be broken and that my role as an Irraka is to do it. I expect no tales of glory for my work, or even cunning. No praise nor censure for if the Forsaken have learned of what have done then I am not doing my job properly.