The Guild Capitol: Chapter One

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The entrance to the portal that led to Asteroid Manifest was grand -- a great stone arch depicting sculptures of feathers and scrolls scribbled with Archean text guarded it, along with two Peacekeeper sentries who looked that the newcomers, nodding once in hello, before returning to their alert stations. The whole scene looked almost from a storybook, instead of smoothly paved asphalt, instead pretty marbled cobblestone (which was oddly flat to walk on) and a wide road headed towards many buildings that seemed almost out of place with how advanced they were compared to the stone roads. A large fountain rested in the center of a circled town square, four figures sculpted into it; one was a woman with a dryad looking face, her body wrapped in tight clothes as she was forever suspended in a graceful bound. A second creature looked to be almost spiderkin, but was quite large in comparison to vavare and had a much taller and leaner torso, with insect eyes and mouth that was locked tightly with vertical razor teeth. A third man was also sculpted, vaguely familiar to any who had met with Arya on the first mission; a simple silhouette with an almost cartoonish skull for a face. Finally, the sculpted man most heightened was none other than a depiction of Ragnarok himself, his swirling flames across the bottom of his robe forever suspended in stony projection.

Cafe store fronts littered with different aliens of all kinds and likeness, many walked around and avoided the new tourists though did smile and wave a few times as they passed. The large fountain was occupied by a woman, with fox ears and tail, wearing a top half of a kabuki mask while playing a shamisen, three orbs of water of different shades being played around with by the three draconic serpents that seemed delighted with her presence. On the other side of the fountain was a group of Terrans -- or would have been, if many of them didn't look malformed or changed, one man with spindly arachnid legs sticking out of his side as he wore a mask, a few of them having differing features of cross species from the Galaxy. One old geezer was covered head to toe in runic tattooos and was tiredly carrying heavy and thick gossamer dragonfly wings on his back as they sang merrily.

Across the way were a group of three normal looking Terran, all women, who were handling equines of massive size, two of them easily twelve feet in height, the third dwarfed by about four less feet. While the first two were powerful and the color of the sky; one a blue roan and the other a stormy gray, the smaller was spindly, quicker, and of a dark black, looking almost skeletal. The final oddity about these horses were the fact that they each had a pair of alarmingly huge wings. The bigger two gracious and feathery, and the tinier one with large, leathery bat-like ones.

Kay was attracting attention again. This timeby a group of three almost elvish looking people, all wearing that same wolf-embroidered tabard. They then quickly lost interest when they spotted Flora, who was waving them off, chuckling and returning to speak among themselves.

"Welcome to Capitol Square!" Flora said happily, "This is basically everyone's entertainment center for the more city-minded folk."

Sawna tilted her head then shrugged "possibly, but I doubt she would be someone we would want to meet." She said softly.

Matt nodded. "It makes me uneasy to think that we could ever be those people, like... a few things different and you get... just awfulness. It's scary. "

Sawna nodded and frowned as she looked to the water. "I fear that this universe would have more vampires than carpathians here."

Matt nodded. "You're probably right, depressingly. " he sighed and fell silent for a bit. Finally he asked. "So what's it like... you know, biting people? Do they generally volunteer or are you guys just living off packaged blood?"

"These days we bite volunteers or animals if we don't use blood bags." Sawna answered then shrugged. "In the old days we would bite people and make them forget we did."

"ooo that's creepy. Can you heal the wounds so they don't even question why they're a bit sleepy?" Matt frowned slightly, he didn't like the idea of being made to forget, but even so, he was more curious than anything else. "I'm gonna assume people are way easier to bite than animals, all that fur and stuff." He laughed.

Sawna nodded then laughed too. "Yes, animal fur is so not fun to pick out of teeth." She agreed then sobered again "Yes, we make them think they drank or something to cover the weakness, though a strong mind can push out the false memories."

"I can attest to that, animal fur is not at all fun to pick out of your teeth. Don't ever try to eat a dead mouse whole... it is a bad bad idea." He snickered at the memory. Gross.

Sawna chuckled and shook her head "I can't anyway, but thanks for that visual" She joked then sat up more as a fish took the bait. "Got one."

"Whoa, reel it in reel it in!" He insisted.

As the two fished, a yellow pair of eyes watched them from the underbrush, staring intently.

Sawna chuckled and reeled the fish in after a bit of a struggle. It was a good sized fish. She started taking the hook out of it's mouth "Should we do catch and release of give any we catch to the pack as a gift for allowing us to be here?"

"ooo that's a good idea. The leader lady didn't say anything about returning them. " Matt felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He lowered his voice. "I think we're being watched." He told Sawna quietly, casting his line again.

Sawna nodded and put the fish in the basket there "Yes, I know, but she said we would likely be a novelty here, so I am not surprised." She said as she re-baited her line to throw it back in again. "I wonder if they will come to talk or just watch."

Matt shrugged. "I dunno. It's a bit unnerving. " He forced himself not to glance that way.

There was suddenly a yelp and those yellow eyes burst forward, but not in aggression, rather by surprise as they promptly found that the body they were connected to to be tackled by a form that had snuck up behind them. The two children with the lupus features rolled down to the bank and landed in the mud of the lakeside. Snarling, the yellow eyed wolf pup stood and turned to face the culprit. "Fur-brain! I was trying to be quiet!"

"Must suck at it, then!" The other wolf pup laughed, her own amber eyes teasing him. "If your ears are any sharper than a ball you would have heard them better than you can hide! They sensed you almost right away! Some hunter!"

The boy looked absolutely furious as his lip on the snout pouted, glaring down at the female, who sat lazily as her tail wagged with the smug look spread across her face.

Matt stared at them, werewolf... children!?
"H... hey kids?" He set down his rod.

"He-ey!" Both of them said in unison, swinging their snouts in his direction.

"Where are your parents?" Matt asked curiously, indicating they could come closer if they wanted.

"Hunting." The boy said wistfully. "I have to stay within ten miles of the lake. Why are you guys here? Alpha howled you were visiting."

Matt nodded. "Yeah, we're fishing." He indicated the rod. "You guys know how to fish?" He had a lot of questions, but he knew it was rude to ask and was trying his best to just be polite. But man, baby werewolves... had they been born infected?

"No." The boy tilted his head slightly.

"Mom knows how to fish with her paws!" The girl chimed in, before her ears tilted, "But we don't."

Matt chuckled. "I'm Matt, this is Sawna." He indicated his companion. He picked up his rod and cast it again. "You guys spend most of your time as wolves then? Or is that the only form you've got?"

"Only form!" They both cried in unison. The boy spoke, "I'm Jason, and this is --"

"Kelli! I can answer for myself!" She glared at her brother. He glared back, and she continued. "Since our parents are both infected, for some reason instead of just being born infected to, we became part of it. We are wolf-people!" She laughed at the thought.

"wow..." Matt looked at them both in surprise. "So you're not infectious? you're just... wolves?" Interesting. "your parents are natural shifters though right? Shape changers. It's why it didn't kill em."

"Mhm," Jason nodded, "Alpha refuses to research the ability to allow non shifters to shift. She finds the idea horrific after we've already found a full cure for it when it's in the early stages. She claims a lot of pride for her infection but she seems to think it still bad at times."

Matt nodded. "I'm not sure being proud of being sick is such a great thing but ... I guess it's her life right and if it helps her deal with it... " He shrugged. "It's kinda amazing they've managed to live with it without having to lock themselves away. Maybe some day there'll be a proper cure, for the advanced stages. " he didn't mention that he was pretty sure Starr was working on one.