CHAPTER 3: The man without a shadow
1180 Words
I’m not the man who left Evaroth.
I’m possessed with a wolf spirit now and the beast inside me sharpened everything about me, steady growl building inside me.
A merchant from the Festival who I didn’t notice anything strange about back then. My wolf instincts told me he looks so much like the man who bumped into me that very day. There was something off about him, I’m staying quietly in the shadows observing him.
In the central square, the merchant was setting up his night cart again. Same leather cloak. Same crooked spine. Crates of candles and small bones. My fingers twitched. Claws threatened to break skin. But I couldn't attack here. Not yet. Too soon.
I could have ended him. No one would have mourned. The wolf wanted blood. But Jasmine wouldn’t want revenge like this. Not yet.
Circling around the square in the shadows, and slipped into a narrow passage between two closed shops. With my sense of hearing sharpened like a blade. “I crouched near the fence listening with my super hearing ability. Two voices drifted from the alley. one sharp, one gravelly. The merchant and… someone else.”
Merchant: “…the blood was clean. Innocent. Just like the Alpha said.”
Unknown Voice: “You lit the mark?”
Merchant: “Yes. Near the girl’s path. They’ll find it when the time’s right.”
Unknown Voice: “Then he’ll rise fully by the next blood moon. All the town will howl.”
I had a twist in my stomach.
Zehron. They’re speaking of Zehron. This wasn’t random. This was planned.
Early dawn of a new day, back alley behind the market square. The fog hasn’t lifted. Merchants are just beginning to set up their stalls. The merchant is alone, unaware I was watching him from the shadows.
I waited in silence, perched just beyond the old baker’s wall, watching the merchant unload another box of trinkets — bones, feathers, silver pendants.
Rafa:
"You're out early, merchant. Strange night to be selling charms."
His eyes widened when he saw Rafa
He sensed a wolf spirit in Rafa
nearly dropping his box. (Rafa stepped forward)
Merchant (recovering):
"Good sir… just setting up for the day. These are only protective wards. Nothing more."
Rafa (approaching):
"Protective? From what, exactly?"
Merchant (nervous chuckle):
"Why… from wolves, spirits, the usual superstitions."
Rafa (coldly):
"I think you’re selling lies to fools. But I’m not a fool. I heard you last night. I smelled your truth."
The merchant froze.
Rafa stepped closer, voice low and steady.
Rafa:
"You marked the wall with the Crescent Fang. You spoke Zehron’s name. You were there the night Jasmine vanished. And I want to know… why her?"
backing away instinctively He reached into his coat with the speed of light Rafa reached out to him and grabbed him by his wrist twisting it hard and slammed his face first on a brick wall.
The merchant was not able to transform and fight because Rafa never gave him the opportunity to challenge. He cried out.. “ Please don’t kill me, I'll tell you what you need to know, I was only carrying out orders!!!”
For a moment Rafa’s eyes flashed gold and his human voice left him then the voice of the beast in him took control. "Don’t reach. Don’t lie. Talk."
Merchant (panicked):
"I didn’t choose her! I swear! The Alpha said her blood was needed — pure, sealed, untouched by pact. She was a key!"
Rafa:
"A key to what?"
Merchant:
"The second awakening! The pack's expansion! The Pale Moon Spirit grows stronger with every chosen death. Zehron… he's returning to full form. He walks in dreams already. Soon he’ll walk in daylight again."
Rafa slammed him harder into the wall.
Rafa:
"Where is the next mark?"
Merchant (terrified):
"I don’t know! I only light the sigils! I swear — I’m not even full-blooded!"
Rafa stepped back.
His breath was ragged. His hands trembled.
He was stronger now. Strong enough to kill.
But he didn’t.
Rafa (quietly):
"Tell Zehron this: the child he offered… she has a godfather. And I don’t sleep anymore."
(The merchant whimpered)
Tell him I am coming for him!
leaving the merchant crumpled in fear and broken but alive. I turned and walked away. No footsteps. No sound. Only the faint hiss of burning blood… and a red cloak folded neatly on the ground, untouched by shadow.
The merchant moved quickly and staggered into the woods beyond Evaroth unknowingly to him Rafa made him a bait. His heart hammered very fast as he passed beneath a mossy arch carved with old sigils. Only those with wolf blood would see them.
Arriving at an abandoned building deep in the belly of the forest where the secret wolf pack dwells, gasping and holding his ribs, Rafa slammed him into the wall.
Ragnar. Second in command of Zehron’s pack was eager to know what happened as he observed the merchant gasping for breath.
“ I bring very important information, ” the merchant said. “There is a war coming and I strongly advise you tell Zehron there’s someone out there seeking for revenge and he said “ he is coming”
“And who might that be”? Ragnar asked
I don’t know his name for sure but he said he is the godfather of the little girl we abducted during the Lights festival.
I remember I came across him that festival night but right now he possesses a wolf power. I could tell he wasn’t ordinary. He is a werewolf. A lone wolf.
(Ragnar growling), were you followed?
“ No I wasn’t! I swear… I escaped.
“You escaped or he let you go?”
Ragnar stepped forward, his nose wrinkled as he sniffed the air.
“ you reek of fear….. and something else”
The merchant became confused and asked “ what do you mean?”
Ragnar kept mute. He waved and called for a younger wolf to sniff around the merchant’s cloak. He tore open the lining of his coat and pulled out a small carved stone wrapped in copper wire. Said to be a tracking charm.
(The merchant stammer) I swear..I, I didn’t know! He must have put it inside me when he had me pinned.
( The entire pack growled at once)
You fool!!!!! You led him right to us now
“ I didn’t know I swear!” The merchant kept on pleading.
Ragnar: he marked you and you brought him to our door.
“Back in Evaroth Rafa and Sariah Morran were tracking the charm prepared by Sariah.”
The tracking charm will not last long the moment they discover it... they’ll destroy it.
“They already have.” (Sariah replied confidently)
“ But it was enough, I know where they sleep now,” Sariah Whispered to herself.
I watched her linking to the charm, she held a glowing ornament in her palm.
I stood in silence, breath slow and controlled.
“One by one,” I whispered. “I will find you all.”
- Writer
