Chronicles of the Wolf Book II: A Wolf in Sheep's clothing

Chapter 22

Marx knew I was holding back. He knew it somehow. I didn’t want to second guess it or let the opportunity simply slip by. I had a lot of questions for him. Including why he was helping Norman Hunraken. I looked over at Marx again he seemed to be waiting patiently.

“If I manage to hit you, you need to teach me things.” I said to Marx.

“Fine,” Marx said.

“Alright here I go,” I attacked Marx again.

This time I was going to attack him soundly. Without making it possible for him to counter. Marx was still turned around and I started to second guess for a second but a part of me told me to continue, he was going to block me. I started to attack him. Before I could reach Marx, he had turned around grabbed my arm and used my momentum against me and slammed me on the floor so hard that it created a massive crater in the floor.

I got back up quickly. This didn’t hurt…much…so I had to get up before Marx had a chance to attack me again. I started to use my strength and speed and got up before Marx had sliced me with one of those weird claw shaped knives. I think it was here when I was really starting to see how much of a talented soldier Marx was.

Blood was pumping through me it was making my heart beat fast. I managed to barely miss getting sliced by Marx. I realized he was holding back a lot. I did not know why he was holding back a lot. But I didn’t have time to really think about it. He still was attacking me. He was still another predator, I could tell that.

I attacked but every time I did. It seemed like I didn’t have a chance at all. He had grabbed my arm or slashed me with the blunt side of the knife in such a way that he had caused me to lose my breath. I started to realize that there was no way I was going to be able to beat him. There was no way. I was being outclassed by someone who was not even trying. That was seriously irritating.

It was making the wolf in me angry. I was getting frustrated.

“You are a lot of bark but no bite,” Marx said after he threw me on the floor again and had one of those knives to my neck. “You smell like you are going through something there boy, are you sure you should challenge another alpha?”

The way he talked, he talked long another person who had grown up in a similar civilization as ours. I knew that he meant a Chief. I remember that my father had said that some other tribes had called their chiefs, alphas.

I managed to push Marx off, but he seemed more like he had jumped off because he wanted to. I got back up and looked over at him. Marx was cool calm and collective everything I wasn’t at that moment.

“Why do you talk like that?” I asked.

“I talk like however the hell I feel like,” Marx said.

I looked over at everyone else. I saw that Walker looked shocked. I bet he did not believe anyone could toy around with me the way that Marx was. The only time I had seen anything toy around with a Beghrest the way that Marx was, was that lizard creature that had attacked my planet. I grew angry at the thought of that creature.

“Let me guess, you have some oh woe is me sob story upbringing.” Marx said. “Living in your father’s shadow for years because of who he was and how everyone seemed to know him.”

That was a bit to precise for my liking.

“You tried your best to get out of his shadow but no matter how far you try to get away, your father’s shadow is still cast on you.” Marx said.

It was then I realized Marx was talking about himself, not me.

“Is that why you are helping Hunraken?” I asked.

“Hell no,” Marx said. “My old man may have been the most annoying old man in the history of the universe, I would not simply do that just to escape his shadow. You however you have a lot to learn, still you still dread your father’s shadow even now.”

“What hell you know?” I growled.

“What do I know?” Marx laughed. “Boy, you are suffering through a rut, I can smell your damn stench from over here.” Marx said waving his hand in front of his nose. “You have no idea what you should do, and you are terrified about it.”

“You can’t be more wrong,” I said in a bluff.

“Please son,” Marx said smacking his teeth. “You aint got no clue about anything at all. You are a boy who got pulled out of your world and thrown into god knows what and for what reason you have really no idea.”

“It’s because of that stupid prophecy,” I said.

“It’s because of that stupid prophecy,” Marx mocked. “Please son, you have no idea what you are dealing with.”

“What are we dealing with?” I asked.

“Something you cannot even fathom.” Marx said. “You think that the Storm Bringers having those power sources is a bad deal, you have no idea what is really going on.”

“What is really going on?” Walker asked.

“Stay out of it boy,” I said to Walker.

“The Mask Of Damus, The Horn of Jericho, the Red Dawn, all legendary treasures.” Marx started. “All have one thing in common and one thing only and you know what it is don’t you?”

“They were all Star Builder technologies.” I said.

“Yes,” Marx said. “More importantly they are power sources that were used by the star builders. That Mask of Damus powered this array that Damus had to transport those Shade creatures from the dark side of this planet to any other planet in the galaxy.”

“Is that what it can do?!” Walker said.

“The Red Dawn can create the power of a sun,” Marx continued. “The horn of Jericho, something that releases energy in the form of stars. And now they are looking for someone with the bloodline.”

“Bloodline?” I asked.

“Yes, the bloodline to the Star Builders, specifically Methuselah.” Marx said. My jaw dropped it was because this was a bit to coincidental to what Lacia had told me all that time ago. She thought that the creatures, the lizard creatures were after her because of her blood ties to Lord Brahma.

“What if I tell you I know who they are looking for and I have been hiding it for the past 40 years.” Marx said.

“What do you mean 40 years?” I asked.

“40 years ago, this damn monkey comes to me,” Marx started, and my mouth gaped. “He was not a regular damn monkey. I was drinking at a bar and I thought that I had finally gone drunk myself into insanity. However, the damn monkey makes this comment about how I was not creative enough to hallucinate something like him.”

“So, this damn monkey tells me that a few days from now, my then wife’s daughter that she thought had died was going to come back.” Marx said. “And Lo and behold there she is, mysteriously back, and mysteriously pregnant.”

“My wife was terrified, her daughter was barely 9 how could she be pregnant, neither of us knew what the hell that was about.” Marx said. “So, I decided to investigate it, and you know what I found out?”

We were wondering about that at this point.

“Project Rho,” Marx said.

Our mouths gaped.

“A nine year old pregnant?!” Umberto said. “How the hell did they do that?”

“The sick (insert explicative here) did god knows what to the poor girl.” Maarx said. “She was a damn stick figure and my wife offered to get the baby transferred to her, I was against it said kill the damn thing growing in her, but now I know I was wrong to suggest that.”

“So your wife had that baby?” I asked.

“Yes, delivered it but he came out a perfectly healthy young boy,” Marx said. “But then the damn monkey came back a short time after that. Said that the cockroach was coming and that another girl was going to come and ward off the cockroach.”

“Lo and behold that damn monkey was right again,” Marx said. “Another girl appears, her name was Alexis Rose.”

“We heard that name before,” I said.

“I bet you have,” Marx said. “But this is where the story diverts. EVERYONE and their momma thought that Ronnie bore The Tempest, but that wasn’t the case. The monkey told me what the plan was.”

“What was the plan?” I asked.

“Make everyone think that she did.” Marx said. “When in fact what happened was that when Alexis was killed, she was born back on Saffar, and this is who the Storm Bringers are looking for.”

“But what is this Tempest character?” I asked.

“The monkey said you called it D’Opidium,” Marx said.

“What?” I said.

“And that you are the protector of the Opidium.” Marx said.

I stood there in shock. So, the Storm Bringers were after the Opidium and the power sources, but then it hit me. If Lacia was any evidence the Opidium had the ability to control lightning somehow. Lightning was a power source, could they need the Opidium as a power source?

“Are there any other legendary treasures that they could be looking for?” I asked thinking about how since they lost the Horn of Jericho, they could be looking for something else.

“Yes,” Marx said. “If you think the Mask of Damus was the only thing that Damus had hid, it is not.”

“Oh great,” I said. “What the hell is the other treasure he hid?”

“A mirror,” Marx said.

“A mirror?” I asked.

“Yes, but it’s not like any mirror,” Marx said. “That is the craziest mirror I have ever heard about in my life. You see this mirror this god damn mirror can send you into different dimensions.”

“What the hell?” I said.

“There is such a thing?” Umberto said.

“I have never heard of that before,” Walker said.

“How come I never once heard even rumors of this thing?” Sammie asked.

“Not everyone knows about this thing,” Marx said.

“But what the hell do they want this mirror for?” I asked.

I had this dreaded feeling, that Marx was going to say something that was a lot more devastating than what I had heard up until now.

“Using the mirror, along with these power sources, it is not impossible for someone to destroy all known universes.” Marx said. It was then I realized that Hanuman was right someone was pulling the strings someone a lot eviler and sinister than Norman Hunraken. The question was who was it? END OF PART 1