The Final Gathering

The night was crisp and cold but clear. The night of the full moon at winter's solstice was here. In the darkness a shadow was seen to move only for a moment. It had begun.....

As I waited patiently in the clearing they began to appear, slowly at first then in groups of two or three. Soon the night air would be filled with the sounds of laughter, singing, dancing. Much later the sounds of copulation would be heard as the couples retreated into the shadows for the annual mating rituals. The survival of our race depended on these annual rituals. Without them our race would wither and die. This was the only night of the year we allowed ourselves to consume the blood of humans. However appalling it was to consume human blood, it was essential to replenish our life force, the only way to remain immortal, the only way to remain fertile.

There were those around the world sympathetic to our plight, as well as those that would just as soon see us dead. Those humans sympathetic to our cause willing provided us with our yearly blood rites. They also helped provide protection for us throughout the year. Those that hunted us would not stop until we were completely exterminated. After the night was over we would spend the remainder of the year in hiding fighting for survival. This is as it has been for the past thirty centuries.

At that time we numbered well into the thousands, now our numbers have diminished to a mere six-hundred and sixty-six. Some among us believed this to be a most auspicious number. They said this was the year we would rise again to our rightful places in the world. I was one of those who believed. How very wrong we were. This would, in all actuality, turn out to be the final night of freedom for the Ashmarian Werewolves.

My name is Elensar Ad Vaal Bellensaria. I am, or was, the Grand Sire to the Ashmarian Werewolf clan, from the destroyed kingdom of Bellensaria. The following is the tale of our final hours of freedom and the events that led to our downfall.

As I raised my arms over my head and prepared to speak, a hush fell over the gathering, "Welcome! Welcome brothers and sisters! Gladness fills my heart to see you all here this night! Long have we suffered, long have we strove to survive! Tonight marks the beginning of our revival! The beginning of a return to the world we once ruled! Ahhooooh"!

"Ahhooooh!" howled the pack.

When the howls subsided I continued," The night is young, as is our human feast! Arrhoowl!! The time is here, the time is now! Are... you... ready?! "

"Ahhoooh," the pack answered.

"I say again: ARE...YOU...REAADDYY?!"

"AHHOOOH", the pack roared.

"Then let's get freaky deaky!"

"Freaky Deaky!" echoed the pack.

Thus the rituals began. The bands started playing; the dancers started dancing slowly at first then progressively faster until a frenzied crescendo was reached. Our human feast was ushered in and divided out among the crowd. My mate and I chose a slender young blonde female to share. My mate always had a bad habit of playing with her food before she ate. We separated ourselves from the pack to enjoy our feast in private.

"Come child, let us play," my mate whispered to our blonde sacrificial lamb as she used her claws to pop the buttons on the girl's blouse. I circled behind the girl and slipped her shirt off as my mate relieved her of her shorts. The scent of fear coupled with excitement exuding from the girl was almost intoxicating. We took our time pleasuring the blonde while resisting the urge to feed until the point that she reached her climactic peak. As the convulsions of ecstasy coursed through her veins my mate and I sunk our fangs into the girl's jugulars and drank our fill; stopping just before the child passed out to ensure she was not killed. With the taste of human blood still on my lips, I released the blonde and took my mate into my arms kissing her with such passion I thought I saw fireworks. The time was right, the time was now. I could feel it in my veins, we would rise again. With that thought foremost in my brain I entered my mate knowing the night was ours.

During our throes of passion I did not hear or sense when our outer security forces were taken over. In fact, I did not become aware of it until the entire clearing was surrounded by floodlights. We were undone. We were surrounded by those that would have us dead. I had been fortunate to have taken to the woods with my mate during our feeding and mating. As I watched from the shadows of the forest, my brethren were systematically slaughtered along with their human concubines. I don't know how many survived. My mate and I turned to flee only to be turned back again and again by more forces hunting us.

She and I got separated that night during the confusion of trying to escape. I have not been able to locate her, but I sense she is still out there somewhere. Until the day we are reunited I will continue to search out those that survived and track down those that slaughtered my people.....We will rise again.