Kapitel 285: CHPT 285: Shrieks and Shrills bring Deadly Thrills under the Full Moon...
The Full Moon experience is often one of submergence....and the abrupt and bloody reemergence.
Submergence of the reasonable mind. Submergence of one's claws into flesh-bags of crimson. Submergence of one's ideals, plunged deep behind looming shadow of madness.
And then the sudden reemergence. A feeling Claude fought for and knew better than most afflicted by the Moon.
The sudden birth of consciousness that brought you into a world or area that was very different from the one you last remembered. For most it happened once a night on Full Moons.
For the last Lupine of Romulus, it happened multiple times throughout the night.
This time, he really was in a new world. Something he'd become aware of sooner or later.
***
He was running...
They all were running.
That was the first thing he could feel as he slowly but surely came back into himself. He could feel the icy winds ruffling his fur-- much colder than usual. That same feeling told him it was raining...frozen hard pellets that would surely slice human skin.
His pawed hands and feet soundlessly stomped through short hard grass wetted by the icy rainfall. With every foot-fall, he could feel the silent stampede of night creatures behind him like a steady quaking hum.
The other four senses came back in a nauseating rush of awareness.
The smells of blood, leather, metals, fur and other things more faint and less discernible filled his nose. The jumbled clutter of rainfall and heavy breathes followed quickly after along with his vision.
The sight caused him to come skidding to a halt for the first time in what felt like hours if the sting in his legs and shoulders had any say in the matter.
"[C-Claude? Are you back??]"
"Sort of..." He replied within his mind.
"[Then I assume you know where you are, yes?]"
"....I'm in a Tangent."
It was either that or he was in a completely new part of the world. The Vada District didn't have a climate or habitat even close to what he stood in while the predators of the wild waited patiently around him.
For the moment, the sight was beautiful in a dark and gothic sort of way....it was also breathtaking for the same reasons.
For as far as his advanced vision could see, rolling mounds and hills ran for miles. The expanse of vibrant green grass that stretched over the valleys like a natural sheet glowed and sparkled under the Moonlight-- a sight made more intense by the dazzling shimmer of icy rain pellets that rested on each blade of grass.
He felt like he was in a green valley of diamonds...
Deeper within, forests and groves stood tall enough to reach the thick foggy clouds that stretched across the night sky in uneven pockets. Their constant billowing movement across the sky caused the Moon's rays above to dance and bound across the ground in a soothing lightshow of natural elegance that had an almost lulling effect...
For a moment he forgot he was in a home of Monsters. For a moment he forgot who he was. Then, the steady drip of blood falling from his snout caught his attention....along with the wetness of his hands and chest.
His eyes snapped down to his body to find that he was covered in blood-- very little of it being his own.
"EUGH!!"
In response, he fell to his knees and dry heaved against the grass for several minutes before forcibly having to sit with the fact that his body considered what sat in his stomach as good food for the first time in-- well, a month.
"FUCK!.....That's disgusting." He growled before punching the ground hard enough to remove raindrops from the grass before rising to his feet.
"[It is...what you are.]"
"Yes, I'm aware...that changes nothing." He replied stubbornly and shook the rain from his wet fur.
In the midst of Arne's reply, a hauntingly beautiful chorus echoed across the peaks and valleys to fall on their ears.
Hauntingly beautiful-- just like the landscape.
The echo was smooth-- as silk, a tone that spoke of sadness and fear while also conveying a sense of impending doom. A sound so rich and beautiful, but equally as dark and ominous.
Oddly enough, he wanted to hear it again. He wanted to stand and listen to it in all its dark and expressive glory with the pack at his side while he stared at a blank night sky.
He'd gotten what he wanted. It came again-- sort of. This one was different in tone-- and violently more intense. In fact, it was rising.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!"
The sound ripped across the grass, causing the pellets of rainfall that rested on the blades to hover and explode from the magical intensity of the shriek. The clouds that once surrounded the forests and groves in the distance split and ran as if the very sound terrified the inanimate objects.
In a flash, the sound ripped through him and sent him back to his knees while a painful buzz deafened him for seconds after the events. The creatures of the wild were in a similar state before they all recovered.
"[Oh....shit.]" Arne said as if he'd just learned he ate an active bomb.
"What the fuck was that??" Claude asked while getting off the floor with Frosty and Gil's help.
"[I should've known before. There's really only one kind of Tangent that emanates song...it's meant to draw people in. I just never come across anyone who thinks of their cries as beautiful....you enjoyed that?]"
Claude massaged the pain from his temples, "The first one was calming....I wanted to hear it again. I don't know what that second one was. What am in here with?"
"[Well....I'd say it's pretty rare to see them here. But it can't be anything else. You're in the home of the Banshees.]"
Arne expected a more shocked response from Claude-- being the adept reader of Monster's he was. But the Lupine was dead silent, save for the intense sniffing and searching through the grass he was doing.
"[Wh--]"
"AARRRRAAHHHH!!!!"
Another shriek rattled the earth and hit them all in a way beyond a simple loud noise. The screams sounded tortured to put it lightly.
Claude continued searching while he covered his ears. Eventually, he stopped back near the entrance with his eyes focused like lazers on the floor.
Footprints.
"[Oh dear....it appears there are humans here.....]"
He wouldn't have thought much of it and tried to stick to the shadows unless they needed help. But the constant tortured screams, left him remembering a time when he was back in SkyHaven, hearing the screams of a young woman from the depths of an infested village.
The thought was oddly placed, but it drew him in. Maybe because his missed his friends..maybe because of something else.
Either way. The Banshees once beautiful song that abruptly turned to bloodcurdling screams of pain reminded him of someone. It reminded him of Maris, screaming from the village while the Goblins tortured her endlessly within.
Just like before, it took him less than a second to move. He didn't even fully know what he was doing. Instinct was weird like that...
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
_Avatar0FFury_
_Avatar0FFury_ YO! Got a lil ending to leave you wondering some things including what will happen next chap! I'll try to get it out as soon as possible. Anyway thanks for reading and thanks for the powerstones frenandoi, alex99(toxic99), WarriorWolf, TheLucidParagon, krissch_, XX_Osiris_XX, AnnabelleXD, Aaron_Lobo, omeroford, Ominous_Reader, Demosura, Lucas_Gommes_1300, drachenkInd, Arameus, Amith_Sydney, Trevor_Converse, Daoist_945497 and Daoist_QJ3j2b!
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