It had been a long day. From start to the current. Old uncomfortable memories were pulled to the surface. Poorly healed wounds reopened, new ideas blossomed in violent fashion.
Grimble was given a new case. One to rival the rest. And he was either being used as a political pawn for the betterment— or better use, of Goblin-kind, or a fall guy for a political assassination.
He was in over his head. Outgunned. Outnumbered.
And night had only just begun.
The sky was cut by brush-strokes of navy blue that mixed with the orange rays of the setting sun. Starlight bloomed and sparkled, rivaling the backdrop of cars, highways and dragons yawning inferno steam from mountaintops in the distance.
Dusk-haven loomed behind him like a bubbling heavy metal mass of lights and runework over gritty architecture.
Grimble walked a dirt trail alone. Streets, lights and signage were a foreign concept on the outskirts. The howls of distant wolves and fluttering flight of bats became the new ambient tune.
He tried to ignore the steady hammering of his heart. He'd walked twelve miles and still felt the anxiety energizing his every move.
That's how it always was. There was no trick, no breathing technique. Walking to your possible death was simply terrifying.
It didn't help that he was walking into a forest reserve full of—
A twig snapped on a hill directly over him. The perfect high ground. The perfect means for an assassination or pouncing attack from the native species of the area.
Displacer cats.
He spun around with his shotgun raised and eyes wide with survivalist fury. He fired the silver laced pellets from the double barrel blaster.
The shape in the shadows was fast and ducked behind the trees, leaving Grimble's bullets to blast a chunk out of the tree.
"Grim! Hang on it's me!" A familiar voice whispered urgently.
Grimble lowered his gun only partially.
The shape rose up and stepped out of the shadows with his hands raised. Fiery orange eyes blazed.
Grimble cursed aloud, "What the hell? Merrok? I could've killed you!"
"I'm too fast I think."
"I think you don't get your ass beat enough." Grimble lowered his shotgun.
"Who's fault is that?" Merrok questioned as he skipped down the hill, flipping over rocks and around risen roots with an acrobatic physical flow.
"What do you think you're doing here?" Grimble asked. "I told you I didn't need your help on this one."
"Yea, the only one in the last eight months. We've been working together consistently for a year. And then out of nowhere you say you've got a requested case by some big shot... and you don't need me?"
His eyes seemed to glow brighter in the night. In his intensity and growth into an adult. He looked terrifying. A titanous hybrid clad in black and blues that could melt into the shadows near effortlessly.
"You're the one that told me to always follow a hunch." Merrok said.
Grimble took a deep breath, "He's twelve miles from city-limits. If I send him back the way he came alone, he'd risk running into assassins, scavengers or worse— his mother would kill me. He can get into the reservations. He's fae— partially, so once inside, I'll take him to the old portal and hope it works before my suspicions are made real."
"Look, I'm sorry—"
Grimble held up a hand, "You didn't do anything wrong. Keep focused and walk with me."
"You got it." Merrok fell into step with him.
Grimble would be lying if he said it didn't make the walk a bit better.
"So, what are we doing in the Curse-Woods?" Merrok asked.
"Following a lead."
"Is it worth the risk?" Merrok asked as he looked around, "I mean…. It's a full moon and I swear I heard warg's a couple miles back."
Grimble faintly smiled, "You know you're more likely to be harmed in Dusk-haven than out here, right?"
"Well that's only because everyone knows not to go out here." Merrok replied.
"And why is that?"
Merrok looked around once and whispered, "Dark-fae. Shadow-beasts. Evil spirits."
Grimble shook his head. "It's time to start checking your sources."
"What— why?"
"Because they're bought and paid for. The Cursed-Woods is a reservation. It's the last remaining home for a people erased from history. In the cities they say Dark-fae. That's not correct. They were once known as dark-elves. A long time ago. They didn't join the Governing Enclave during the Era of Collision. They protested the Military Guild liberating the Mountain-Lands which ended in the Stone-War that killed all the Dwarves. They've been reduced to tribal landlocked nomads for the last four-hundred and twelve years. They're a distinct type of Poly-Race—"
"Like me." Merrok whispered.
Grimble grunted in confirmation, "Only they are Dark-Elf, Dwarf, wood-elf and Human hybrids. They live underground during the day and come out at night. They're called Star-Speakers."
It was then that a few pairs of glowing crystal blue eyes showed in the distance on their path.
Merrok hesitated.
"We're good. They're not combative like us. That's what the forest-trolls are for. In the city we know them as Shadow-beasts."
Grimble came to a stop with Merrok at a fork in the path.
A sign loomed with words written in a language outside of English. Colors flashed and twisted the characters as faint lights from the rising moon and stars shone through the canopy.
"Cool."
"Not good." Grimble said.
"Why?" Merrok looked around alert.
Grimble dug through the pockets in his longcoat and pulled out his lighter.
"What's the matter?" Merrok asked.
"Stand guard." Grimble grunted as he crouched over the fork in the path and lit his lighter.
The shadows fled like roaches. Under the faint glow of the fire, Grimble found the grass and wood shaved earth torn apart. Clumps of fur and flesh were stuck to the bark and mixed up in the soggy ground.
Grimble reached out a finger and pressed it into the earth.
Sticky red and green fluids rose.
His mind worked, "Displacer cats consume blood. The magic in it powers their visionary tendrils. Signs of their kills are shown in bone. There's no bone here— only blood and flesh. There was a forest-troll standing guard here— and it's dead. It wasn't just hunted, it was brutalized. Not for sustenance either."
"Grim…"
"They're already here."
Grimble jumped to his feet with his shotgun in hand and ventured deeper into the Star-speakers reservation.
"What's going on?" Merrok asked, "Who's the enemy."
"Currently, i'm not sure." Grimble replied, "But the locals aren't in danger— they aren't panicked. Whatever's in here with us is calculated. A savage— but an active assassin all the same. It had to kill the troll to get inside, but once in, it's gone unseen."
"How does this connect to your case?" Merrok asked as Grimble led them through trails and over hills bordered by marked trees and glow berry trees.
"It's a missing persons case. The target is high priority and recently delegated to my Private Investigations Firm— I have a hunch that a move is being made on her life— and the government….. police? A police gang of radicals maybe, is trying to pin it on me to avoid populace backlash. I think I was buttered up and egged on to take the case. Now that it's in my hands, they can take me out and get to her. Anything from there is all on me."
"Who is it?" Merrok asked.
"Terrana Leonhardt." Grimble replied darkly.
Merrok gasped— partially at the treehouses of stone and mountain complexes built into cliffsides, "THE Ms. Leonhardt??? The modern day revolutionary. She's famous as hell. Why did they choose you?"
"I'm good at my job. I'm also the perfect fall guy. I'm not a Corpsemen. And I'm a goblin."
Star-speaker scouts ran beside them riding massive panthers and nocturnal mountain-goats.
Grimble raised a hand to the scouts, "We're kin. I'm trying to get to Leonhardt. Stay underground for your safety, please."
"Is this where they wanted you to be?" Merrok asked.
"No."
"Then how's the assassin—"
"Shh!" Grimble quickly interrupted.
"Right. Sorry. How does it know to come here?" Merrok asked.
"I planted the info to test if Chief Vanagand was in on it. Only he knew I would be here."
"Why did you come here?" Merrok asked.
"This reservation has an old Fae-Realm portal that barely anyone uses. It's safer."
"...why do you know that?"
"Because I know Terrana Leonhardt used it from time to time. Because I know Terrana Leonhardt….. well, I knew her." Grimble replied.
"You— what? That makes you part of history."
"We're all part of history."
"Hmm… deflection. Why don't you like speaking about your relation to her?" Merrok asked.
"I should've waited to teach him interrogation and physical tells." Grimble thought.
"Don't tell me you guys were a thing." Merrok mumbled.
Grimble's silence was answer enough.
"W—"
A howl split the silence.
Bone chilling and unsettling in a dozen ways. The main way being its proximity.
The star-speakers riding their nocturnal wild brethren hissed and shrieked in foreign languages suddenly.
A dark shape fell from the trees above and landed on the leading Star-speaker riding a panther.
The two were crushed under the massive shapes weight.
It rose up from the giblets and viscera with eyes like simmering blood pools.
"Oh shi—"
"Move it!" Grimble yelled at Merrok.
The red eyed shape lunged at the other Star-speakers in their shocked stupor.
It lunged with claws that reflected the moonlight like glass. Grimble watched it all happen to his left as they ran in the distance.
The Star-speakers ran— minds twisted by the intimidating aura of the savage interloper.
The red eyed shape gave chase, sometimes on two legs, sometimes on all fours like a massive hell hound.
They didn't get more than four steps in.
The beast snarled and bit at the nearest mounts back leg, slowing the creature in a spurt of blood and torn bone.
It jumped over them and pounced on the next.
It rose up once more, baptized in blood. This time it turned and began chasing them.
"Merrok!"
"Yea?" Merrok sprinted beside him.
The beast neared.
"Carry me." Grimble said.
Without question, Merrok grabbed Grimble and pulled him up to sit on his shoulders.
Grimble took aim with his shotgun from his new seat, silver laced pellets at the ready. He aimed his sights between the beasts red eyes. They bounced up and down as the thing gave chase. Unbelievably fast. Rivaling vampires in frenzy.
He fired.
Merrok didn't even stumble from the recoil.
Lights flashed, allowing Grimble to see its oily black fur— like a rat, over rippling muscle and a scrunched up snout. Doggish. Monstrous.
The bullets sunk into the creature and immediately, it began to ignite and steam as it let off pained yelps and curses in a voice caught between man and beast.
"Werewolf." Grimble said aloud.
The beast jumped off the trail and dashed deeper into the forest.
"I thought those were reduced to a few packs in the glacial regions." Merrok said.
"I guess not." Grimble huffed. His hands shook like hell.
"So, the assassin was a werewolf…."
"Not just any werewolf. His eyes were red. An alpha werewolf. And he's trying to stop us from reaching the portal." Grimble said.
Suddenly a collection of horns and earthquaking rumbles erupted from the dark forest as the Star-speakers began to alert the others of the attack.
"It's not over?" Merrok asked, voice shaking ever so slightly.
"Not at all. Take a left."
Merrok slammed his heels into the dirt. They slid down the path and made a left around a twisted braiding of oak trees with glowing roots below ground.
The howls came again from a wounded face and vocal chords.
"Shit!" Grimble took aim with his shot-gun once again, eyes on the treeline bordering them from above.
He could hear its breaths as it ran beside him.
A black blur jumped overhead, dashing into the forestry on the other side.
Grimble wasn't fast enough.
Merrok wasn't either.
The Fae-portal glimmered like a fallen star at the center of Rebel-Grove less than half a mile ahead. A field of stone bordered by ancient trees and wooden effigies.
Grimble felt the weight of his gun.
"Six more shots." He noted.
Immediately after he began firing, not trying to hit the werewolf but just to keep it from lunging and throwing them off their trail.
They inched closer.
"Do you miss her?" Merrok asked as he ran.
"What?" Grimble was thrown off by the question. Though he shouldn't have been. Merrok had a tendency to question the littlest things in intense moments.
"Do you?"
"…..yea. I do." Grimble sniffled.
The werewolf cackled in the shadows.
To everyone's surprise. Or maybe no one's, they made it to the Fae-portal.
Rebel-Grove welcomed them with ancient humming earth and protective sigils hidden behind layers of moss, grime and dust fallen from an old war.
"We made it. How did we make it?" Merrok asked with an exhausted huff.
Grimble stood beside him, gun in hand. "You're amazing, kid. Try to stay that way."
"W-what?"
Squelching gallops suddenly echoed through the forest in their direction.
"What is that…?"
A clump of massacred bodies trudged out of the forest and approached rebel grove. Now perfectly visible as it stepped out of the shadows and into the light.
"Don't tell me." Merrok huffed.
The werewolf stood strong, holding up a dozen star-speaker corpses to shield itself from Grimble's shotgun blasts.
"Let's go." Grimble said without looking at Merrok.
The two turned to leave. As soon as Merrok stepped through the Fae-portal framed by vines and gemstones, he shot the base, destroying the sigils engrained in the stone there and shutting the portal.
"I made a promise to your mom I intend to keep." Grimble thought.
Then he turned back around to face the werewolf.
No bullets in his gun. Not fast enough to reload. In an open field.
"I'm glad I didn't vote for Vanagand last election." Grimble thought before sighing and pulling out a fae-wood. "You mind?" He tried to speak past the shake in his voice.
The werewolf said nothing.
Grimble lit up and inhaled the fumes.
He dropped his shot-gun.
The werewolf dropped the corpses— including children.
It was then— in Grimble's enhanced state, that he noticed the necklace lodged in the fur around the werewolf's massive neck.
An emerald seed pendant.
Terrana Leonhardt's pendant.
In a flash his mind pieced together previously glossed over events.
"Twenty-nine hours. In the report she'd been missing for twenty nine hours. Missing persons reports start forty-eight hours after no call and no shows. That's... she was already unaccounted for then for five hours. If this has all been a set up since then, it wasn't an assassination set up in progress. It was a clean up. Terranna's been dead. They're just tying up loose ends. Sloppily. But I'm a goblin. They just need an excuse. And you're just a dog looking for your next meal….."
Grimble's fury rose like a tide. It was a distant pain. He hadn't seen or spoken to his old lover in years. It had been that long since he'd been himself. The wolf came as a sign that it wouldn't return. Her or himself. It was all to be consumed and immortalized as an unmet longing.
Much like wolf and its howls to the moon.
It was then that it started to rain.
As the earth shook and the moon shone and the wolf grinned.
Grimble took another inhale of his Fae-wood.
"Let's get this over with, you bastard."