Venatores Noctis: Bastard Inheritor: Chapter 3 – More Human than a Sinner

Chapter 3 – More Human than a Sinner

On the way to where Nave’s ex-soldiers might be, he and his beastmen are ambushed by vampire wolves, and not just any wolves, feral wolves that attack like real wolves rather than the manipulators that they typically act as. Some are injured during the fight, but they manage to make it through it without any casualties.

“Those vampire wolves were strange. I’ve never seen a feral one like that before. Do you know about them, Nave?” one of the beastmen says.

“They’re rare and used as if they were attack dogs by the normal vampires and vampire wolves. As far as I know, they’re feral because they’ve sinned too much. It is also said that their sin mutates their body, which is why their limbs and body seemed to be different sizes to one another as if certain parts of their body shrunk or were extended by some supernatural means.”

“Well, at least it’s a comforting thought that all vampire wolves will eventually become feral since they have to sin to use their wolf form.”

“But then someone has to deal with their feral form.”

“Speaking about that, who do you think sent them after us?”

“It doesn’t matter as far as I know,” a beastman says, “Normal vampires, vampire wolves. It’s all the same and we’ll defeat them both!”

Upon hearing this, the beastmen cheer to uplift their spirits much to Nave’s comfort and nostalgia for having such spirited soldiers. Eventually, Nave and his soldiers come to a ruined settlement on the mountain they are on with no signs of life in the area and many signs of a past conflict.

“They said they’d be here, sir?” a beastman asks Nave.

“It’s one of the places they said they’d be. Search the area for any survivors.”

The beastmen search the settlement with Nave who goes through several houses and buildings.

“This place has been picked clean and nothing’s been left behind,” Nave notes, “There aren’t even any corpses or pieces of rotting flesh left.”

After looking through a few buildings and moving aside everything he can, he finds one place with a rug hiding a door. Nave gets his soldiers so they can go through the hidden door together and into a series of caves that goes down into the mountain.

While traveling down the dark series of caves, the beastmen who can see in the dark and those who can smell poisonous traps safely guides the group. They almost open a few false doors that led to traps, however, the beastmen that can hear the traps being set off save the group before the door opens. The group does get to a door that isn’t trapped and carefully goes through it. On the other side, they find a dark room with pillars of stone that almost appear as if they were handcrafted to hold up this part of the mountain. As they make their way through the room, the beastmen that can hear the subtlest of noises and see into the dark alert the rest of the group of people moving in the room.

“We mean you no harm and come in peace. I’m Nave Meridies. Some that are with you know me,” Nave says.

“Nave! It’s really you. Lower your weapons, guys. This one is a friend,” a beastman says.

More beastmen come out of the darkness and introduce themselves to Nave and his soldiers. After their introductions, they are led deeper into the mountain where the beastmen have set up a home for themselves. Little homes and stores are made out of the stone of the mountain, pieces of wood, and rugged clothe. Beastmen go in and out of secret entrances of the mountain to bring supplies, food, water, and new beastmen to be introduced to new friends and a home. While Nave’s troops and the other beastmen talk to one another, Nave spots the flag of his army that his father made. The flag has a cross designed in the form of the word IHS with thorns surrounding it.

“I hope you know that we didn’t mean to show you any disrespect. We were trying to show the leaders of the Church that they couldn’t take advantage of us anymore,” a former soldier of Nave says.

“I know that. It’s just good seeing my father’s flag to remind me of what he and my mother fought so hard for and what they endured.”

“Really? You need the reminder? Aren’t you able to talk to your saintly ancestors that are in Heaven?”

“It’s only when God allows and yes, I needed a reminder. I didn’t come out here to join you. I left the city because I gave up on everything and-”

“You’re going to fight the last battle against the vampires then the wolves?” a beastman asks one of Nave’s soldiers.

“We are and we’re going to win with Nave leading us into battle, and when we win, the Church will have to respect us and give us what we want.”

Excitement begins to build among the beastmen who hear and overhear the conversation with many of them approaching Nave to join his army.

“Is this true?” a former soldier asks Nave.

With all this commotion around him, Nave slams the table and says, “Quiet! Shut up, all of you!” Once everyone has quieted down, Nave continues, “It’s true some of the Church may respect us and reward us for our deeds accordingly, but that is not why we fight. Look at my father’s flag and the thorns that surround the IHS. That is a reminder of the crown of thorns that Christ wore and reminds us that He died and suffered even for those who spat at Him, mocked Him, and would not repent. We should be following that example and not think about the rewards or how we will be treated after. This is why we fight. This is why we live and will do what’s right no matter the cost or the rewards. I no longer will be so shallow as to think of only myself because I will live and die for my God who is truth and love itself. Now, who’s with me?”

The beastmen cry out and volunteer to fight and those who abandoned Nave and those who recently joined renew their vows to fight for God and for him.

“There’s the inspiring Nave I know,” his former and now retuning more solid says.

Gathering up their blessed weapons, the beastmen prepare for war, however, their scouts report, “The vampire wolves have surrounded the mountain. Our traps have slowed them down, but they will eventually figure out a way around them.”

“I’m surprised they would send so many after us. I guess the traitors in the Church fear the force we can gather that much.”

“I’m surprised you even trapped every inch of those caves in the first place since this is supposed to be a safe haven for beastmen.”

“It is a safe haven for beastmen since only beastmen can avoid the traps with no problem.”

“But what about those who aren’t beastmen who are seeking shelter?”

“We have scouts watching the traps, so it wouldn’t be a problem to save them, but that’s enough of that since we’re abandoning this location. Come on, we have some traitors to punish. It’ll just be like old times.”

“Right, just like old times or less than a week ago.”

“Specifics, specifics.”

Together, Nave and his beastmen attack the wolves with every advantage they have by using the last of their traps and knowledge of the caves to catch the wolves by surprise. By the end of the battle between beasts, the beastmen come out of it victoriously with very few injuries on their side. The beastmen try to take some of the wolves alive for questioning, however, the wolves kill themselves with a blessed dagger they have so they wouldn’t be forced to talk.

“This is a pain. That was our best bet at getting a hint about the other traitors,” Nave says.

“Well, looks like we’ll have to find out the old fashioned way,” a friend of Nave says.

“And that would be?”

“Do the same thing your father did and just force out the traitors. We’ll give small cuts with blessed weapons to people. If they bleed profusely, they’ll be exposed. If not, they’ll only be scratched.”

“I was thinking about using my father’s strategy but didn’t want it to come to that. I wanted to get rid of the traitors through more peaceful means.”

“But even your father knew that even the simplest of plans were sometimes the best.”

“That plan was actually inspired by my mother’s straightforward strategies. They both learned something important from one another. Did I ever tell you that she was inspired by his strategies and made up her own by making my father marry her on the spot and threatening to cry until he accepted the proposal?”

“No, you never told me! You must tell me more.”

“I’ll tell you more on the way back, but for now, that’s the plan. We’ll aid the Church in the final battle against the vampires while rooting out the traitors as everyone is focused on the battle. After that, we focus on the traitors and celebrate by ourselves because the leaders will most assuredly not approve of our course of actions.”

“So what? It’s the right thing to do.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m still hoping they’ll give us a better option. Maybe it’ll be better as a last resort now that I’m thinking about it.”

“You know it’s the only option we have. We’ll need a more than a miracle to get anything better.”

Knowing that this is true, Nave says nothing more and gathers together his beastmen before heading back home with his newly reformed army of beastmen.