Fenrir: Dawn Rising (Part 1)

"What, so you can get your hands on Jackal?" he barked in return, shooting his fist up towards the underside of Neku's muzzle.

Considering how the rest of the fight played out, though, there was a good chance it wouldn't even phase him.

"It's just that I'm not allowed to kill you!" Neku screamed in return, jumping up over Ris after the uppercut with the aid of his one good wing, stepping on his shoulders to soar higher. Slashing down in the air, the demonic dragon Kazan bellowed out of the arc of the slash, flying down towards Jackal...

Luckily for him, Kazan dissipated before coming close enough. Neku growled as he fell down the ground, more roughly than he wanted. He staggered back to his feet, huffing heavily.

Jackal hopped backwards, trying to put some distance between the two, but after he did, he grunted and fell to his knees once more, "Man... I should've dodged the energy attack when I had the chance..."

What Neku had said--or rather, screamed--struck Ris as odd. Very odd. "Wait...Not -allowed- to kill me?"

Neku rested his paws down on his knees, panting heavily. "It is... forbidden."

Aetsia nodded in agreement. It looked like Neku was starting to get weaker...

"Well, there's a surprise." Leo said. "So, uh, you gonna give up and leave now?" she asked Neku. "You seem pretty beat!"

Terra wrote:

Neku rested his paws down on his knees, panting heavily. "It is... forbidden."

Ris didn't understand. Why was Neku forbidden to kill him? That wasn't fair.

Not that he wanted to die or anything, but he hated all of this confusion, not to mention the fact that Neku had just tried to kill Jackal.

With lightly gritted teeth and clenched fists, the blue vulpine made his way over to the obviously-worn mongoose. "Why not? Who said you couldn't?"

"That's enough, brother," another figure walked into the hall behind Neku. This one was female, her armor made of leather, criss-crossing over her torso, and her legs. Her left arm is tightly bandaged up to her shoulder. Unlike her brother, her eyes were a simple blue.

"Tsk..." Neku looked over his shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

"Seeing you fail to these mortals. Mistress will not be happy," she replied.

"I was only told to stall, and I feel like I did that enough."

"Very well," she said, putting her paw on his shoulder.

"Greaaaat. One more joins the fun..." Jackal said, getting annoyed.

Alice crossed her arms and looked at the group, "This is a waste of my time... You two! Where's my father!?"

Quickly turning his head towards Alice, the blue fox said, "Jack's dead, you're wasting your time."

Turning his attention back to the mongoose and his apparent sister, however, Ris said, also obviously annoyed, "Hey, I asked a question!"

Leo rolled her eyes. "He's got a sister? Geez..." she grumbled. "Well, whatever, we'll kick her ass all the same when the time comes." she said with a smirk.

Grandpa didn't seem all that interested in the two now, since they only served Terra and weren't vampires. He had an artifact to find.

So he started to go off on his own. "It must be around here somewhere..."

He walked slowly. By the time they would be done talking, he wouldn't have gotten too far.

"Your father?" the girl asked, looking over the Alice. "Mmm... I guess I see the resemblance."

"The one called Thorn is not dead. He roams these castle walls... I see him every so often," the girl said, flicking her red, shoulder-length hair off her face, revealing the face of a dog.

The hound looked down at her brother, staring at the wings protruding Neku's back. "How many times have I told you, don't use these fake wings!" she raised, before tearing each wing out. The wings faded to nothing more than smears of darkness, fading away.

"... It's 'cause they make me look cool and stuff..." Neku admitted sourly.

Jackal let out a loud "HA!" before he quickly clasped a paw over his muzzle to keep him from letting out loud laughter.

Alice's ears perked up as much as an albino jackal's could, "My father's alive!? Where is he!?"

Kaede stepped forward, "Wait... Jack's... Jack's alive?"

Ris was just as surprised as the other two--Well, at least Kaede. "Wait, Jack's alive?!"

"I don't understand the importance of Thorn as much as you all do, but yes," the bitch said, nodding. "As to where he is? I have no clue."

After hearing Jackal's laughter at Neku's embarrassment, he growled softly. "I'm going to kill you, gay boy..." he muttered softly.

Alice began walking ahead, "I have to find him! No one get in my way!"

Adam started to follow her, "Alice, wait! Stay with the group!"

"Go to hell, momma's boy!" She shouted back to her younger brother. Kaede shook her head and sighed, "Just like her father..."

"Come, brother. You're running the risk of overusing Kazan," the dog advised, pulling Neku's arm up onto her shoulder, ignoring everyone else.

---

Luna pulled her paw back out of the water, panting softly in her frustration... It took her a while to realize something peculiar about her paw; it wasn't wet. She cautiously put her paw back in the water, let it sit, and pulled it back out, but it remained dry.

"Wha... What is this?" Luna asked, standing up and taking a step back from the water's edge. Once more, she dipped her foot into the water. This time, however, a hand grasped around her ankle and yanked her down into the lake, making her scream in pure horror.

When the lynx girl regained her consciousness, she was being dragged through the corridor of a castle. She failed to notice that her wrists were bound together with rope.

"Where am I?..." she asked groggily to no one in particular. The being that had pulled her down was one of the vampire minions that assisted with the resurrection of the owners of the castle.

The minion did not respond, and Luna was too dizzy and disorientated to panic.

"Okay, you know what? I'll just clean the slate here. Everyone I think is dead might be alive--No more surprises."

Not that that really settled anything, but he was satisfied for the time.

"Now then." Turning his attention back to the two "siblings" before they could leave, Ris said, "Seriously, who told you what to do? Terra?"

"Dude, we already answered that on page 13!" Neku shouted out, before his sister smacked him on the back of his head, dropping him down to the floor.

"Idiot, mongoose..." the dog said before walking away.

"H-hey, sis, wait for me!" Neku said while rubbing the back of his head, running after her. The two disappearing from sight.

Ris' eyes narrowed, his ear twitching in annoyance. "I don't even know what that means!"

"Well, I think I do. If you, like, put everything that happened here on the internet somehow... y'know what? Never mind." Leo said to Ris. "Though if we could do that I"m sure we would be able to find out very crucial details!"

Aetsia looked around, wondering where Grandpa went..

"That was very pathetic, brother," the dog said, after they returned to their quarters.

"Feh, I don't need you lecturing me like you always do," Neku replied, waving his paw in annoyance.

"Letting a mere mortal best you?" she asked.

The mongoose's ear twitched in aggravation. "Okay, first of all, only half of those people were normal, and second, they didn't beat me. I just chose not to win."

The canine crossed her arms under her chest. "You lost control of Kazan, as usual, because you tried to assert too much dominance over him at one time."

The mongoose's ears drooped down in shame, as his muzzle dipped to the ground, sitting down on the edge of his bed. The dog let out a sigh and put her paw on his head. "Oh, don't be so hard on yourself... Like you said, you followed Mistress's orders, and that's all the matters."

"Thanks for trying to pretend to have emotions for once, sis," Neku sneered, which the dog replied with a smack to the back of his head, her giggling to herself as she walked out of his room.

---

The next time Luna woke, she was sitting against the wall, still bound together. She looked up, hearing a few voices of creatures huddled over her.

"It's the strangest thing... Do you smell it?" one minion asked another.

"I do... It is just as you said."

"I believe they'd be very interested in this..."

"Should we? They wish not to be disturbed."

"Mmm... We shall wait."

"Oh... what about the girl?"

"Leave her for now. She's not going anywhere."

The lynx's body quit on her again, her head lolling as sleep pulled her back under once again...

"Sure hope that doesn't mean monsters I've killed before don't start comin' back... 'specially that lizard, Master put me against, back when I was training..." Jackal said, slowly sitting down on the stone floor, a puddle of blood forming where his arms were laid.


Deg, meanwhile, was whistling as he waited. The whistling was clearly annoying the Pantheon inside him, Stop making those noises already!

Deg shrugged his shoulders and stopped whistling. Deg could swear he heard Solus sighing with relief. The arrogant canine grabbed an apple from a bowl on the table and began eating it, the crunching of the apple echoing in the dining room they were in. The crunch was loud and Solus let out an aggravated growl.


Alice began walking over to Ris and grabbed him tightly, "You know my father, don't you? What do you know that I don't!?" She asked. Adam groaned, annoyed by Alice's behavior.

Ris wasn't at all intimidated when Alice grabbed him, instead rolling his eyes and stifling an annoyed sigh. "That depends--What do you know?"

Aetsia elected to stay with Jackal, as opposed to going off to find her Grandpa. She crouched down beside him, looking at his wounds. There wasn't much she could do for him...

Leo stood near Ris, wanting to make sure Alice didn't get too rough with him. She'd have to punch her face then.

"... wait, it's awfully quiet and nobody's bitched lately... where's the old fart?" she asked suddenly.