Moonchaser Prologue: "Moonlight Ultimatum"

This is the prologue and an excerpt from my first sci-fi/fantasy novel called "Moonchaser"

Victor Carnassus bounded through the darkest vestiges of the forest, belching a hoarse pant as each thud upon a stick or a patch of dirt sapped more of his energy.

A short distance behind him, the shouts of his pursuers rang through the trees. This seemed to immediately quicken his pace and put a broadening gap between himself and the bloodthirsty huntsmen grasping at his heels. The miles of endless running through the trees was beginning to take its toll on Carnassus and even the strenuous breathing and throbbing pressure in his head failed to drown out the voices of his pursuers.

Finally, the frantic flight across miles of thicket became too much for him and with a burst of air from his lungs, he dove headfirst into a nearby tree trunk to grab a needed drink of air from the atmosphere.

Hunching his back against the tree, he made a quick dab of his fingers to the trails of minor flesh wounds darting over his skin from the countless whipping of tree vines and branches against his torso. He made a series of glances between the row of trees that he just ran through and the path which would lead him further away from the huntsmen. As he stared off behind him he began to see the blurred fluorescence of torchlight drawing nearer to the tree that he rested against.

The renewed sound of voices and the ever-nearing presence of torchlight shook Carnassus from his sitting position and got his feet moving in the opposite direction of the huntsmen once again. One of the hunters shouted out something incomprehensible to his ears; making it clear that he had finally been spotted.

Carnassus knew now based on his growing lethargy combined with the quickened pace of his pursuers that it would eventually come down to direct confrontation with the hunters very soon. He quickly banked to the right and darted for a small exposed area of the woods with which to lure the hunters to. Carnassus stood in the center of the circle of trees, alone and weaponless. He sluggishly reared to face his outnumbering foes as they quickly converged on the clearing.







A dozen armed men hell-bent on bloodlust marched toward their single opponent who was solemnly standing alone in the middle of the open alcove. The leader of the huntsmen, complimented with an ugly series of facial scars, strode forward and grinned as he eyed his enervated opponent. Carnassus responded with a clearly disdainful scowl of his own as the huntsmen leader began to speak.

“Why do you flee so frantically, my lord? We’re all so…eager to become reacquainted with you again,” He chided, eliciting a round of sneers and snickers from his cohorts. “Your brother has ordered all able-bodied men of the colony to condemn the actions of you and your followers and extinguish the lot of you from our land,” he declared.

Carnassus’ sour expression worsened at the thought of what his brother had done and what he had ordered of him and his kind. He stared up at the night sky and saw that the clouds concealing the sleeping moon were rolling away. He turned his head again toward the arrogant scoundrel before him, a scowl spreading across his demeanor from ear to ear.

“My brother is a false prophet that you, in all your blind ignorance, choose to follow. He calls me and my own monsters; but soon enough, you will come to see who the real monster is. You will watch firsthand as your people die of starvation and disease. You and your wives and your children will suffer…and your blessed governor, my brother, will do nothing to deter the inevitable genocide,” Carnassus replied defiantly.

The leader clenched his teeth and drew his weapon simultaneously before stepping a few feet closer to Carnassus. “Your brother will be pleased when we deliver your head to him personally!” the leader barked, “Death to you and all heretics alike!”

He nodded at several of his men and they slowly approached Carnassus with weapons at the ready. Suddenly, the illuminating light of the moon shone down on the clearing; the clouds that had been concealing it had completely dissipated away.

Now it was Carnassus’ turn to grin as renewed stamina and strength filled up his being to the core as he took in the moon’s empowering glow. He quickly tore off the tattered remains of his tunic and clenched his fists in righteous fury.

The huntsmen stopped in their tracks as their expressions turned from one of puzzlement to one of shock as a nexus of dark grey hairs materialized and slowly began to sprout from nearly every pore of Carnassus’ body. Simultaneously, his facial features began to fully morph into something occult; his ears became more curved and pointed, his teeth became sharp as daggers and his mouth began to extend outward.

After mere moments, Carnassus had hardly any trace of visible humanity left on him as the space before the terrified and catatonic huntsmen was now occupied by something more terrifying than they had witnessed before. Staring them in the face was a beacon of menacing terror; a perfectly designed compilation of human and beast.

The beast’s morbid appearance was complimented by a face with canine features blatantly comparable to a wolf and clenched fists with knife length claws occupying them. No ordinary feral animal was this beast/man however; he did not drop down onto all fours as a natural lupine would; he continued to stand upright on two legs. Some tattered remains of his human clothing still cloaked several parts of his body which shook the hunters into the reality that the mere human man that they had slavishly pursued through the woods had changed into something else entirely.

With lightning fast speed, Carnassus darted forward within inch-length of the leader’s face. He stopped dead in front of him and opened his mouth to a toothy grin as all of his morphed teeth gleamed in the moonlight.

The leader’s heart beat so fast in his chest it could likely be heard for miles. Sweat poured down his face as Carnassus drank in the man’s fear. Through psychological paralysis, the leader managed to retain control of his basic motor functions. With a grunt, he swings his hunting knife in a feeble attempt to slice at the creature before him.

Carnassus easily caught the leader’s arm and wrenched the blade from his grip, tossing it to the ground as the other huntsmen watched on, helpless to intervene. The other men could only turn away or shield their eyes as their leader’s blood was strewn in a clean streak across a nearby tree. As soon as the leader’s lifeless body fell to the cold ground, Carnassus dove for the nearest man, sending another body to the ground. As if he were death incarnate, this beastly being fell upon the unfortunate men with terrible wrath.

Through the haze of bloodlust and adrenaline, Carnassus had no comprehension of time, place or logic. All that he felt was fiery malice pulsing through his veins, all he heard were the screams of his former countrymen dying by his hands, and all he tasted…was the terrible brew of human blood upon his lips.

After he finished his gruesome work, the blood-haze lifted from his clouded mind and he took in the horrid view of a mangled young man sprawled underneath him in a mangled heap. He turned away from the body of his last victim and reared his head toward the heavens, pronouncing his grief and anger with a shrill howl that pierced the air. He glanced again at the young man beneath him, bringing his clawed hand down to close the boy’s lifeless eyes. The gesture was almost comical after the destruction that he had just wrought, but it was nonetheless solemn remembrance of the fact that, buried underneath that animal guise, he still had a semblance of humanity.

You have forced my hand, brother. They died because of you. The whole colony will die because of you. But we, the scapegoats, the traitors, the heretics…we, the werewolves, will survive.

He rose from his supine position and took one last glance at the scattered corpses, briefly letting out a contemptuous growl before darting off with reckless abandon away from the alcove.

He dove through several more miles of thicket with speed that couldn’t be matched, using the moon’s power as a vacuum through which he absorbed this unnatural energy.

After trekking for several more miles at a higher elevation, Carnassus finally reached his desired destination. Before him lay an open clearing outlined with ruins and rubble from years past. In the center of the clearing lay a small, broken pedestal which caught the apex of his gaze as he slowly walked over toward it.

To the far right of him, another figure darted out of the trees and revealed itself in the clearing. Carnassus’ gaze was caught by the newcomer and he readied himself to combat the figure. However, he regained his composure when he saw that the figure was a friend, not a foe. The other werewolf walked closer toward Carnassus and by the simple gesture of the heads and expressions on their canine faces, it was apparent that they both knew each other.

Carnassus knew the new coming werewolf as a female by the traces of brown on her and slightly shorter stature. But this was not just any female in his eyes, but his wife, Nessina.

“My love, I’m glad you have made it here,” Nessina’s ginger voice resonated through his mind.  

Carnassus nodded at her and tried to equalize her enthusiasm, but his mind was set on the dire circumstances involving his entire people.

“I was pursued by five humans on my way here, but I managed to evade them, I apologize for my tardiness,” She continued.

Carnassus nodded but continued to remain silent before finally telepathically speaking back to her after several moments.

“My brother has seized control and declared marshal law on all of us; he has blamed us over the death of the governor and the plague gripping the colony, simply for his own opportunity to seize power.”

He paused to let this sink in before continuing. “Worse still, he has revealed the secret that our brothers and sisters have kept hidden for centuries to the entire populace, all werewolves in this land will be forever hunted for ages to come.”

“We have done no wrong despite what others may think; we know the truth that your brother has neglected.”

He covered her smooth hand in his rough, calloused one. “Still we must be ready for anything, we will not sit idly by and allow our ultimate fate to be genocide. This is not what destiny holds for us,” Responded Carnassus passionately. His fingers intertwined in hers and a single finger of his other hand gently brushed against her left grey cheek.

Carnassus’ eyes shifted down to the protrusion that was growing within Nessina’s stomach. As if trying to reach out to his child, he brushed his tufted hand against her stomach smoothly.

“He is growing,” He spoke eagerly, sliding his hand in a circular motion on her stomach.

“Yes, it is but a month or two away,” Nessina replied with a serene smile across her maw.

 Carnassus smiled before his expression again soured and he was overcome with a separate sense of sorrow. His eyes drew away from his wife and his hand removed itself from her stomach.

“I fear for the future, not just for ours but for his,” Carnassus explained while making a motion of one of his claws to their son. “What son should have to grow up in a world where he will be ousted, hated, by those around him?”

Her expression had quite obviously taken a saddened turn at her husband’s cryptic words. No reply resounded through his mind at first; the desperation of the moment had silenced her.

“Everything that I will do, I will do for you and our son. Everything that I intend to do…” he began, trailing off. “My brother will die by my hand for what he has wrought…in this life or the next,” he declared.

Nessina’s brow furrowed and she frowned quizzically. “The next?” she asked.

Carnassus shook his head and cringed. “He won’t stop, he won’t ever stop until he has either destroyed us all or we submit ourselves to his twisted wishes. I have heard it in his voice and I have seen it in his eyes. He will never stop…and so neither can I.”

“Why? Why must you reap your revenge? What’s done is done and cannot be changed. Why open this wound further?” she asked, not understanding what he was getting at.

“Think of everything we’ve accomplished Nessina! We’ve lived in harmony with humans for years! Why allow all of that coexistence to be lost because of the whims of a coward.

“The people only coexisted with our kind because they didn’t know what we really were. We must accept the fact that our kinds will never fully assimilate together; we will always be outcasts!” she sorrowfully replied.

Carnassus shook his head and fixed his eyes directly on her. “You’re wrong; I will make things right. I will kill my brother and I will make things right. I will not allow us to live like rats for the rest of our existence. I will make things right. My brother has given us an ultimatum: he and his family shall not rest until all werewolves are extinguished from the earth. And so I shall give him one: I shall not rest until his tainted legacy is undone. Balance will be restored; I swear this to be so; by my doing, I will set everything right.”