Chapter 8: The Lunar Alchemist

A Chapter by Andrew Akuna

The Lunar Alchemist

Raven's Way was starting to gain its glow. The sun was falling and a few stars were visible in the darkening sky. Slowly, the colorful characters of the city became to come out of hiding. Even from where he was, hundreds of feet above the ground, Xero could hear the city coming to life. Horns honked and people talked as the walked the streets.

As the sun set, Xero could feel his power returning to him. He was standing on the spire of a skyscraper, looking down at the city, trying to come up with a way to draw out Vlad.

"I could threaten to kill Longinus..." Xero said to no one. "Nah, I'm sure he knows Longinus can't die. What if...no, thats dumb..."

Xero had been standing on the spire for about six hours now, watching and plotting. Realizing that he could not come up with anything alone, he resolved to leave his post and go find Longinus. The panther looked to the sky and closed his eyes, then held his arms out. He felt a breeze and allowed it to push him off. As the speed of his fall increased, Xero's body began to fade away slowly as if he were smoke. The panther hit the ground as a mass of black smoke and slithered around on the sidewalk, scaring any fur that caught sight of him.

The smoke formed a sphere in the center. The sphere swirled around, then opened as one of Xero's yellow eyes. After scanning around for a moment, the eye closed hard, then reopened; now it was red.

Alright, Mutt. If I can't sniff you out here, lets try a different approach. In Xero's eye, every fur walking about appeared to have a different colored ribbon trailing far behind them. The ribbons seemed to pulse like heartbeats. Alright. I just need to find one with no pulse... Xero faded from sight so that he could examine the furs without drawing anymore attention to himself. He came across four Wolves in the next thirty minutes that were similar to Longinus, but not him. One came close, but his pulse was just very slow. Poor guy... Xero said, floating before the sad gray wolf. He was sitting huddled up in an alley, looking out into the street from under the hood of a long black coat. Xero could tell that he was going to die tonight. The panther reformed, but remained invisible. He took hold of the wolf's blue soul ribbon with his left hand. The tattoos under his fur ignited, but seemed to fade a little. The collar still around his arm also reacted by pulsing. The wolf's pulse began to strenghten, and, as if for no reason at all, his expression changed. He looked happy. Xero let go and the wolf got up an walked away. Xero smiled and tried to take a step, but stumbled and fell over, flickering between visible and invisible.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Meanwhile<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Longinus, once again, found himself at home in a bar. He had had about as much luck locating Vlad as Xero, so he decided to take a break in a bar, using the fact that he had first seen his brother in the bar as an excuse. The wolf had only been in the bar for 2 hours, and was already on his thirteenth drink.

"I said give me another..." the wolf slurred, slumped over on the bar.

"And I said no!" The Tiger turned his back to Longinus.

"Let's not make this unpleasant..." this time he articulated perfectly.

The Tiger tilted his head to the right, then turned back to face Longinus. He smirked and reached under the bar and drew out a shotgun.

Longinus raised his head just enough to look the Tiger in the eye.

From outside the bar, a piercing scream, chased by a gunshot, then more screaming, could be heard. The furs near the door quickly moved away, some even crossing the street. A Lion in a black R.W.P.D. uniform drew his handgun and slowly approached the door to the bar. The door blasted open and the officer quickly aimed inside, then lowered it slightly. The inside of the bar was completely blocked from view by what appeared to be a black cloud. The officer stepped back and reached to the radio on his shoulder.

"Uh, this is Parker at the Raven's Nest Tavern, requesting immediate back--AHHHH!!!!!!" Something that appeared to be a black vine shot out of the shadows and impaled the Lion. The Lion screamed and fired madly into the darkness, but it was useless. Just as the bullets hit the cloud, they lost all momentum and hit the ground. The now profusely bleeding officer struggled to escape, but it was useless. The end of the vine that was through the Lion appeared to split and wrap itself over his shoulders and under his arms, creating a kind of harness. It lifted him from the ground, then dragged him sharply in. There was silence. A few furs, the only few that were not completely paralyzed by the incident, were frantically dialing 911 on their cellphones. Suddenly, the silence was shattered by screams of terror and pain. There were faint flashes of white light before everything was still once more. Slowly, blood flowed from under the inpenetrable darkness. In the river of blood was a badge with the name Roy Parker on it; there were claw marks on it. The cloud began to flow upward, as if being drawn out through the ceiling by a vacuum. The door slammed itself shut, but not before the onlookers got a glimpse of the inside of the bar. There were screams of horror at the sight.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Two Hours Later<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

There were police officers everywhere. Most of the street was taped off now and there were reporters craning their necks to get pictures of the murder scene.

Inside the Raven's Nest Tavern was a horror story made painfully real. There was blood and alcohol everywhere. Broken glass littered the floor and the bar area. Moist thuds told officers on the scene that pieces of flesh were still falling from the ceiling even after so much time had passed. The place was completely destroyed, but that was nothing compared to the only recognizable bodies in the room. Hanging from the ceiling by a black chain wrapped around his ankles was a bloodly Lion in a black R.W.P.D. uniform. His arms and legs had been severed, but were hanging losely by chains from where their joints should have been. On the wall behind where the bar should have been was another dismembered body, a Tiger with a scar on the bridge his nose. He was held together by chain as well, but his body was also bound to the wall by chains. Both bodies were riddled with deep claw marks

As the officers investigated, an invisible being searched for clues among the carnage as well. He reached up to the body bound to the wall and got some of its blood on his paw. He tasted it, then coughed, drawing a few looks from nearby officers. He was still for a moment, just long enough for their eyes to leave him.

Ew...thats definitely shadow magic. Xero thought. He gasped when he felt a paw on his shoulder. Suddenly, everything was dark.

Several miles away from the tavern, Xero opened his eyes to find himself in yet another strange place. This one was dark. There was a dripping sound and several strange smells, but more than anything, it was just dark. It had the feel of a mad scientist's laboratory.

"What have I done? What have I done?!" Xero heard someone repeating. He looked straight ahead and saw Longinus sittin in a corner, hugging his knees to his chest and rocking back and forward.

"Dumb asses." Xero turned around to see another gray wolf towering above him.