The clouds had settled over the lands quickly, threatening rain and a possible thunderstorm. The sudden arrive of the storm cell had plunged the Southern area of the Plains an early darkness as the sun was blocked. That hadn’t proved an issue for some out on the Plains, but the howls of wolves echoed soon after the early darkness settled in as they took advantage of the early evening. Those out hunting on the Plains decided then to turn for the safety of home before more predators came out to hunt.

It was about an hour into the early darkness when the rain came and showered the earth for only a few minutes, but it was a heavy downpour. Perhaps twenties minutes had past before a scream had peeled through the air from somewhere along the Southern border, but it didn’t echo far, deadened by the heavy air and the few trees in that area.

A howl of a wolf followed only a few moments later.

Upon the soaking ground she lay, covered in mud and blood from the very short and one-sided struggle. The scratches here and there were minor, at least in comparison to the nasty bite between her shoulder and throat on her left side, also looked like it wasn’t just bitten but also chewed on. It was bleeding pretty well and it burned, the red headed young woman could only lay there and wheeze and gasp for air.

It had left her for dead, or to turn, it didn’t care, it was just being cruel.

So she was alone, away from home, a snuffed out torch, a broken lantern and a shattered compass nearby. Her backpack was torn open, a quiver of arrows looked as though they had been stepped on, the bow had survived though, discarded in the mud a few yards away.

On top of the smell of blood and the churned up mud, it also smelled like wet dog in the area.

Shifting into her wolf form had offered Serafina quite a bit of comfort as of late. Her life had taken a rather drastic change in recent times, and she found that going back to shifting and running through the woods was calming for her. It brought her a sense of normalcy that she longed to feel. No longer did that normalcy come from spending time with Nemesis and Celeste, that ship had long since sailed. What had once been her family had grown to different dynamics, and now she hardly even wanted to visit Nemesis, for fear that he would see her as a burden or a nuisance more than anything. Long ago he had loved her, even after he had brought Celeste into their home. However, time had changed much of that. Nemesis and Celeste had hardly even come to help Serafina as she learned of her ascension, even though Nemesis had already ascended. It hurt her that they seemed to not care about her as much, but she was slowly learning how to cope.

Xerxez had assisted as a coping mechanism for a time, but after his disappearance, she had given up on that. She had now begun to feel something in her heart for another, but she was slow to let anything blossom from that, as she was afraid of being hurt once again. The hunt was something that would keep her going, something that would never let her down. The freedom she felt as she ran was welcome.

This particular night, Serafina had caught the scent of human crossed with wolf as she ran - the scent of lycanthropes. She had traveled to Bohar for a change of scenery, having grown tired with hunting around Vilpamolan, since she spent the majority of her time there due to her business dealing at the Second Circle. She found it curious that a pack of Lycanthropes would be so far from Kurayo, but then again times had certainly changed in the thousands of years she had been alive - so too had the territories in which lycans and vampires roamed.

After some time of searching Serafina had yet to find the pack that was leaving the scent. Soon, another scent mixed with that of the wolf… fresh blood. Serafina froze as she caught the smell, discerning which direction it was coming from. As she began to head in that direction, she soon came upon a scene that had clearly been an attack. She could see a young woman lying in the mud, blood pooling around her from the injuries that had been inflicted by the werewolf that had attacked her.

Serafina morphed back into her human form, and seconds later her clothing materialized as well to cover her. She closed the distance that remained between her and the wounded female. Crouching low, she listened to the labored breathing and wheezing. It was in this moment that she realized there was a choice for her to make. This woman was going to lie on the ground and die if left alone. Serafina had the choice to either feed from her before she died, to just go on her way and let her die, or to heal her. If she chose the last of the options, to heal the young woman, she would almost certainly become a werewolf. Would she want to live with that? Serafina mulled the options over in her head.

Was she willing to take a new werewolf under her wing and teach her the ways of lycans? Though Serafina was not purely lycan, she had a good grasp on what it meant to be one - and it was certainly better than being dead. That settled it.

”Seems you’ve gotten on the wrong side of a lycan, or at least found yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said gently to the young woman, now kneeling in the mud beside her. With a quick moment, Serafina brought her own forearm to her mouth, tearing open her flesh with her teeth, crimson blood flowing from the wound. ”Drink my blood - it will heal you,” she said softly, offering her arm to the young woman. ”If you do, you will live,” she said. ”But you’ve been bitten by a werewolf. There is no cure for that. You will live, but you will be lycan. I can help you, if you’d like,” she added.

She sat there, in the mud, her arm bleeding near enough for the girl to turn her head and reach it, if she chose. If she obliged, Serafina would press her arm to the girl’s lips and let her drink until her strength returned, and offer her some advice - along with many questions of her own.

Her breathing had become laboured before the other woman had approached, a rattling wheezing came from her on each inhale and exhale. Aside from the shock that was controlling her body at the moment, what little clarity of mind she had left she was using to say prayers to the Gods, praying that her family would be ok without her. She had no sense of the approaching woman and was very close to passing out when she heard the woman speak.

Eyes snapping open again and a new wave of panic settled in as the poor young woman thought perhaps that this would be another predator to come and finish her off. But no, instead this woman knelt down next to her and then offered her blood from a freshly opened wound on her arm. Heal her? Drinking the woman’s blood would heal her?

Fear filled eyes shifted rapidly from the woman’s face to her offered bloodied arm. Live or die, there were only two options now. Die and leave everything behind, or, live and still leave everything behind, but live as a lycanthrope, but at least she’d be alive. But did she really want to drink the blood of this stranger? What if it did something else to her?

Ultimately just before she would pass out and likely never wake up, she turned her head and let the blood dribble in. The human instinct to survive and a deep seeded fear of death pushing her to make whatever attempt she could to live. But if she knew who was helping her, would that have changed the young woman’s mind? Perhaps, but it was also too late as she let the thick metallic tasting crimson liquid dribble into her mouth and down her throat.

She drank what she could before her eyes rolled back and she passed out, yet, she wasn’t dead.

---

A couple of hours had passed, and, in that time, the young woman’s smaller wounds had healed, some colouring coming back to her skin. The ragged chew marks on her neck had stopped bleeding at least and it did look like it was slowly starting to heal.

With a pained groan she blinked her eyes open and looked around, spotting the woman who had saved her was still there watching over her. A hand moved and reached out to the woman as tears filled the red head’s eyes, had she made the right choice in drinking the blood? If she had made a mistake, would she have the strength of will too fix that mistake in the future?

She tried to sit up and fell back again as she had put weight on her still wounded side, making a gasp of pain as she did. Looking to the woman again she managed to speak. ”Thank, you.” Still with tears in her eyes.

Serafina nudged her arm a bit at the girl to get her to drink the blood that was freely flowing from her arm, and it seemed that her efforts were not in vain as the young woman turned her head and seemed to accept Serafina’s offering. The goddess pressed her arm against the girl’s mouth and let the blood flow down her throat. Just as she expected, a few moments later the woman had lost consciousness.

Rather than leaving this woman unconscious while healing from the physical wounds of her attack, Serafina resigned herself to plop down in the mud just a few feet from the woman. She watched as the wound on her arm she had inflicted upon herself healed shortly after the girl had finished taking her blood, and knew that now there was nothing to do but wait for her to awaken. Though she was viewed as evil, she wasn’t about to leave this girl to learning the way of being a werewolf all on her own. The lycanthrope that had changed her should have done so. It should not have left her to die, or to change into a brand new wolf with no instinct on how to hunt without terrorizing an entire village.

Serafina was left alone with her thoughts for a time, closing her eyes as though she were resting but never really falling asleep. Her senses were attuned to everything around her, which is why her eyes snapped back open hours later when the woman began to stir.

As the woman reached out to her, Serafina made her way swiftly to her side, catching her hand in her own. ”Took a right while to wake up, you did,” she said softly. She winced for the woman as she attempted to put too much weight on her injuries that had been much more severe, injuries that the blood would take longer to heal than the more superficial ones. ”You’re better off to stay laying down,” she added.

Serafina made a small motion with her hand and a skin of water appeared, which she offered to the woman. ”Take a drink of this water,” she said softly. ”And you might not want to thank me when you learn what you’ve got in store for you now,” she added. ”Some might say you were better off dead - but me, I think you can learn to make the most of it,” she concluded with a grim smile.

”That’s enough of that for now,” she said, smiling in a warmer manner at the girl. ”Why don’t you drink a bit more of that water, and tell me your name… and anything you can remember about the beast that attacked you? I can give you some answers and explanations, all in due time,” she said. ”But will start with the smaller aspects,” she added with a comforting tone.

When the woman grabbed her hand the young woman did feel a bit better, she wasn’t alone now at least and this woman seemed to be willing to help her through this. Doing as she was told she laid back down again as the woman handed her some water. The red head drank deeply for a moment, not realizing just how thirsty she was until the water had been offered, her mouth and throat dry.

As the woman spoke she eyed her, and then a few questions were posed. The red head looked away for a moment drinking more water as she did before looking back to Serafina. ”My name is Cassandra.” Her voice was hoarse as she spoke and she was still breathing heavily, because her heart rate was picking up as the lycanthrope venom worked its way around her body. She didn’t really notice yet since her skin was covered in rain and cool mud but her temperature was climbing up as her body did its best to fight an impossible fight against the changes that would occur. The worst was yet to come.

”I was out hunting when the storm rolled in suddenly, so I started for home.” She coughed and wheezed again and, without thinking about it, did manage to get herself sitting upright, but she wasn’t as steady as she could be so she was forced to lean a bit more forward to stay upright. She drank more water before continuing. ”It wasn’t too long after the rain that I knew I was being followed, I had heard the wolves so I thought it was a normal one.” Tear started to drip down her cheeks again. ”It, it came out of nowhere and knock me over before disappearing again to stalk me. When it attacked me again it knocked my dagger from my hand before biting, chewing on me.” She broke and started to cry more. ”It made me its chew toy.” Clearly she was mortified and traumatized as she pulled her knees up to her chin and with that slumped back onto her side again, thankfully away from the wounded side. ”I, It was too hard to see it, it just looked like a wolf on two legs, I don’t even know if it was male or female.”

A few beads of sweat appeared on her forehead as Cass’ fever started to get higher.

”It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Cassandra, even given these rather… dismal circumstances,” she said, and the tone of her voice certainly supported that she meant what she said. ”My name is Serafina,” she added, choosing for the moment not to go into detail on who she truly was. It was not an attempt to mask such a thing from Cassandra, but rather she did not want to overwhelm her with even more information. Her life was about to drastically change as it was, and Serafina did not feel the need to add to her stress. Not yet, anyway.

She could sense Cassandra’s heartbeat quickening, but that was a given with what changes were taking place in her body. She said nothing of the rising pulse, instead focusing her gaze on Cassandra as she explained what she had been doing before she had been attacked. After the explanation was finished, Serafina nodded solemnly at her. ”You’re not wrong, I’m afraid. Some people of the lycanthropic persuasion as simply horrible and are out for nothing other than to make people suffer at their hand,” she said, with an air of disgust to her voice.

Male,” she breathed. ”I caught his scent. I’d like to know if the creature’s intention was to leave you alive long enough to change, at which time the lycanthropy running through your veins would have accelerated your ability to heal… or he may have simply wanted to kill you. Either way, he is a disgrace to the lycanthropic name,” she said, nearly spitting the last few words. ”Mark my words, I will find him one day, and he will answer for this.”

”Cassandra… the change is coming for you,” she confirmed to the woman, noting the sweat beading on her forehead. ”Right now, your core temperature is rising. Your body is becoming hotter. Your heart is beating so much faster than usual, and it will only grow quicker. That will last for a while, but soon after that, you’re going to start shaking, with the chills. Your body thinks you have an infection. It isn’t wrong. Lycanthropy is an infection, of sorts,” she said, looking away from Cassandra for a moment.

Serafina moved a bit closer to her, taking the chance to wrap her arm around her shoulders in a sign of comfort. ”I carry the lycanthropy gene myself, among other things,” she said quietly. ”My change was different from the one you are going to experience, Cassandra, but I think I can still help you,” she said, gingerly patting her shoulder. She removed her arm from around her. ”I will be honest. I am not usually one to help people, even with things such as this,” she said. ”But you did not choose this.”

Serafina fell silent as though she were contemplating something. After a moment, she spoke up again. ”You cannot go back to your home, Cassandra. Not now, at least. If you’ve any family, you’ll most likely kill them,” she stated rather bluntly. ”I do not mean to scare you, but now more than ever it is important for you to hear the truth of things.” She took a pause before continuing. ”If you would like, I can bring you somewhere safe, where you will not be able to harm anyone. I can help you through this… if you would like. I understand that I am nothing but a stranger that happened upon you in a time of need… but I am willing to share with you more of who I truly am, if you would like my help,” she said.

Should Cassandra accept her help, Serafina was prepared to tell her all about who she truly was, and offer her safe haven in her realm while she traversed the coming change.

Her name was Serafina, a pleasant name, even if Cassandra had no idea who the woman truly was. The disgust in Serafina’s voice when speaking of the lycanthrope who had attacked Cass was reassuring to hear, it meant that at least Serafina was against such actions and wouldn’t put Cass in further harm. Or so Cassandra hoped. So it was a male that had attacked her then, at Serafina’s promise to make him pay Cassandra nodded. ”Good.” Perhaps she could help in that? Get revenge for what had been done to her? Depending on how she came out the other end of the change that Serafina now spoke of that was taking place in Cassandra’s body.

Cassandra was starting to feel hot, or was she cold? It was difficult to tell, but she did notice she was starting to shiver, regardless of what temperature she felt she was. Serafina moved closer and wrapped an around Cassandra’s confessing that she too carried the lycanthropy gene, but Cass was unsure what she meant by ‘among other thing’. But the close contact made the terrified woman latch onto Serafina and try and pull her closer so that Cass didn’t feel alone as she started to feel worse from the venom in her blood.

No, of course she couldn’t go back home, she would be a danger to her parents and siblings if she lost control of herself. An offer of somewhere safe, from a stranger, who would reveal more of who she was if the offer was accepted. Cassandra pulled back enough to study Serafina’s face for a moment just to see what she could see, but what did Cassandra have to lose now anyway? ”Please, help me… ahhh!” She groaned in pain as a sudden headache split his skull and she leaned into Serafina again, her body going shivering more than it had been. ”P, please don’t leave me.” She was crying again, tears streaming down her cheeks as her body trembled and heated up, a burning fever and she was in a cold sweat.

Cass had a long way to go before the change was finished and none of it would be pleasant.

”I’ll help you,” Serafina reassured Cassandra as she once again sat near her in an attempt to comfort her. She knew that the pain was going to start coming soon, and she did not know enough about Cassandra to know what kind of pain threshold she had, or how she would handle the coming onslaught. She held her close as she was hit with the headache, the beginning of the pain that would come with the rest of the change. ”And I won’t leave you,” she said, her voice quiet.

It was truly uncharacteristic for Serafina to offer to care for someone in such a manner - even more so for her to offer such care to someone she had just met. It was certainly putting things into perspective for her as to how she had changed recently. However, it was not the time for self-reflection. It was the time for her to help Cassandra.

She could see the shivering had started, and she knew that it was time to get Cassandra to her realm. It was a place where she would be able to keep her safe while she changed for the first time. Then, she could teach her to hunt, and perhaps even teach her to change at will rather than with the moon. For some affected by lycanthropy, there was no way to keep from changing with the moon, but Serafina was confident that her power as a deity would allow her to imbue that strength within Cassandra, if it was something that she wanted.

”Let me distract you from the pain for a moment, and then we will go to a safe place,” she said, ”As I told you before, my name is Serafina. Serafina Volkov,” she added. ”I have been alive for thousands of years. I am what is known as a Vaewolf - essentially part werewolf, part vampire. All of the strongest qualities of both species, and none of the weaknesses,” she said. She paused for a moment, allowing Cassandra time to process before moving on with even more hard to believe information. ”I am also known to some as the Reaper, or the Temptress, as I rule over the domains of Death and Debauchery.” She paused, not for effect, but to gather her words. ”I implore you - Death is not what many make it out to be. Please, do not be afraid of me,” she asked, her words sincere.

”The place I plan on taking you is my realm, the Hall of Indulgence. You won’t be able to hurt anyone there, and I can help you control this,” she said, and she squeezed her arms around Cassandra a bit tighter in reassurance. ”All we need to do,” she said, a portal opening only a few yards from them. ”Is to step through that portal. It will bring us to my private chambers, and we can go from there,” she said, reaching up to pat Cassandra’s red hair reassuringly. If Cassandra was alright with it, the pair could travel through the portal so she could continue to help her.

Cassandra just held Serafina close as the fever became worse and the chills started along with the shivering. Cass focused on Serafina’s words as best she could, she was a werewolf! Or at least part werewolf and part vampire, which didn’t exactly add much comfort to Cassandra. But if there was anyone that could be best suited to help Cassandra right now than it would be Serafina, so what choice did Cassandra have? She didn’t know any healer that could have helped her, and she would be a danger to anyone she was around anyway if, and when, she lost control. She was just a farm girl and a hunter, nothing more than that, she had no magic, a couple of hobbies and interests, but nothing that would stand out. At least with someone like Serafina she would be safe, Serafina would be able to control Cassandra if she lost herself.

However, the next bit did make the red head’s eyes pop a little wider and she looked to Serafina’s face again but stayed close. Death and Debauchery? Reaper? Temptress? Her Realm?! Cass’ eyes betrayed her as it was clear she was processing this, but once it clicked her eyes widened just a little more. This was the Goddess of Death and Debauchery! Yet after a few moments thought the idea that the woman who would save her was that Goddess wasn’t all that terrifying. Besides, Cassandra’s family had been spared weeks ago when the angels had invaded the lands on the command of the Light Goddess, who Cassandra was certain would have killed her outright rather than let her turn into a lycanthrope.

Silent for a bit aside from her teeth clacking from her shivering, Cass used a foot to drag her backpack to her. She reached in and removed a deck of tarot cards of all things. She let some of them drop to the ground until she found the one she wanted, the Death card and held it for Serafina to see. ”Death can mean change, the end of something to start something new, it doesn’t have to be an end of a life.” Cassandra managed just a faint smile as she teeth rattled in her skull from the shaking. She looked to the portal and nodded, she would go, Serafina had earned her trust.

Struggling to her feet and needing some help to do so she gave one last look in the direction of her home before walking through the portal with the Reaper.