The Fall of Gilneas – Chapter 5: Waking Up
The Fall of Gilneas
Chapter 5: Waking Up
I was kept in my cell for several days. King Greymane came to the cage with Krennan Aranas at one point, muttering amongst themselves while watching me. Despite my curiosity, they stood far enough away to keep me from hearing them.
Each day, my body’s strength returned bit by bit. Nobody came to tend to my wounds at all, but it felt as though they were healing on their own. Pretty soon, I was able to put more weight on my right paw. Every morning, someone would toss fresh meat into the cell. As I recovered, my body became increasingly agitated at being imprisoned.
Then, one day I felt something strange after finishing my morning meal. Almost immediately, I started to feel dizzy and my vision darkened. Within minutes, I was unconscious.
When I came to, I felt the rain beating down on my fur. I was in the stocks, my wrists secured off to the side, level with my head. I could see several such contraptions set up in a circle in front of me – all empty. Beyond the stockades, I could see the town of Duskhaven.
My body began to struggle, roaring with rage. If only they had put me here a few days ago. I would have been way too weak to retaliate.
“Well, well, well…look who’s awake,” I heard Lord Godfrey sneer.
Three people walked into my line of vision: Lord Godfrey, Krennan, and King Greymane, himself. Krennan wore a hooded cloak to protect himself from the rain and he was hunched over a bowl – possibly to shield its contents from the weather. The king stood relatively unprotected, his hair clinging to his face where he stood, drenched. His eyes were set on me, a combination of compassion and apprehension shining through them.
“My king, are you certain this thing is actually her?” Lord Godfrey questioned. His voice was hard to hear above the sounds of the storm and my snarls.
Greymane stepped forward and brought his face in close to my snout. My body strained and fought to break out of my confinement to get at him. He gazed directly into my eyes for several moments. “I’m sure of it,” he finally responded with confidence. How? How can he tell who I am?
“Pardon my skepticism, but she looks no different from the others,” Godfrey argued.
“Silence, Godfrey. I do not need to explain myself to you,” the king commanded, not taking his eyes off me. “I know you’re still in there,” he muttered to me. He spoke to me like I was a human.
He stood back up and walked over to Krennan. He retrieved the bowl before returning to me. “I need you to pull through, Miss Naomi Malmin. This dosage is strong enough to kill a horse.” Dosage? Dosage of what? “But I know you. I know what you’re made of,” he mentioned with a reminiscent voice. “You will be fine. Trust me.” I felt a strange sense of assurance from his voice.
King Greymane glanced back at the other two, who were still standing a way away. “I know what you’re going through,” he told me calmly. How could you possibly know what I’m going through? “Now, drink up and close your eyes.”
The king grasped my jaw firmly, forcing my mouth open and preventing me from being able to move my head at all. My body struggled even more desperately to escape. He tipped the bowl, pouring the contents into my open maw.
It smelled awful and tasted worse – like sour milk mixed with sea water. With Geymane’s hold on me, I couldn’t stop the liquid from flowing down my throat. He kept trying to mutter encouragement to me as he poured the nasty concoction.
Before he was finished, my eyes rolled back and I blacked out.
***
My head was swimming when I awoke. I was on my back; my vision was blurred as I opened my eyes, instantly disappointed to see the furry snout extending between my eyes. It didn’t work. Whatever they gave me didn’t work. I’m still a worgen. Rain battered my face. I raised my arm out of the mud and hung it over me to keep the water from striking my eyes.
Hold on a tick. I moved my arm. I stretched out my arm towards the sky and began flexing and extending my fingers. They moved with each conscious command. I lifted the other arm and ran the pads of my left hand up and down the soaked and matted fur on m right arm. My brain was working a little more slowly than usual while still recovering from unconsciousness, but the realization finally came. I’m…I’m in control!
With a grunt, I sat up. My body felt so peculiar. I had been a passive observer in my body for so long; now, it just felt strange to be capable of my own movement. I turned my hands over, studying every feature of them – from the fur to the claws at the end of each finger to the dark, thickened pads that used to be my palms. I curled my fingers into fists before extending them again. I’m in control! My mind kept repeating the realization.
I had the feeling I was being watched and I could hear more growling and snarls; I looked up. There were worgen occupying pretty much all of the stocks now, likely awaiting their dosage of Krennan’s potion. Then, at the entrance to the stockade area, Lord Godfrey stood, arms crossed, beneath the pouring rain. He did not look happy to be outside. I hope he hasn’t been waiting on me.
Slowly, I twisted around and pushed myself to my feet. I wobbled around and it was hard to get my balance. The curse had moved me around so much with ease; but now that I was in control, I had to get used to how these new legs moved.
After some stumbling, I was able to move my way to Lord Godfrey. I was quite a bit taller than him now. He didn’t smile at me; but I took his cold stare as acknowledgment. “So Krennan’s potion did not kill you? Well, I suppose that means the human inside of you is in control then,” he commented, sounding genuinely impressed. The way he said that irked me. The human inside of me… It implied I wasn’t human. It implied I wasn’t me. “I guess I won’t be shooting you.” He paused. “At least not yet,” he added with a threatening grin. From the tone of his voice, he was disappointed.
“Not yet?” I gasped before clutching my throat in surprise. My voice was rough and raspy, as if I had screamed myself hoarse. It sounded only vaguely like my voice.
Lord Godfrey laughed to himself, amused by my distress. “Go speak to Krennan Aranas and give him the…good news.” It legitimately sounded like the last couple of words tasted like poison in his mouth. “He’s in charge of the house where we keep…your kind.” He liked to punctuate his statements with an air of condescension. Lord Godfrey pointed to a large building nearby. “Just remember, I’ve got my eye on you. You so much as try anything funny and you’ll get a bullet between the eyes,” he threatened.
“Try it…we could rip him to shreds before his hand reached his gun. You know you want to!” a low hiss of a voice in the back of my head chimed in. I shuddered a bit as I recognized the presence. The curse was still there, waiting. It was too weak to take over, though. I tried to ignore it.
I nodded, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of a more speech. Carefully, I stepped past him, doing everything I could to keep my balance so he wouldn’t see me falter and use that as a claim of “funny business.”
As soon as I left the stockades behind, I stepped out of the mud and onto the paved street. It was somewhat easier footing. There were a few people out and about, wearing heavy cloaks beneath the rain. As I stepped forward towards the town, many of them stopped what they were doing and stared at me. It was a painful reminder of two things. First, I was so very different from them. Second, I was naked. As if this wasn’t humiliating enough. At least I had the fur to cover my more private areas. I still couldn’t help but try to cover myself up with my massive hands, though.
I slipped into the building Godfrey had pointed to. Water dripped off my soaked and heavy fur onto the wooden floor. It was warm inside this building; a fire roared in the hearth against the wall. It was a large room. In the back, I could see stairs leading up to a second level. There were a couple of worgen wearing plain clothes walking around the room as well.
Krennan sat at a table, speaking with a woman whose back was turned to me. As the door closed behind me, everyone stopped and looked up at me. There was silence, save for the rain outside. The woman turned around; it was Mayor Armstead. They both stood up; Krennan’s mouth hung open.
“By the Light, it worked!” he exclaimed excitedly after a moment. He rushed up to me. I instantly reacted, trying to shrink away into the corner. “You’re back in control, aren’t you?”
I nodded.
He took a step back, obviously incredibly pleased with himself. “Amazing. Now…to put Greymane’s eyes to the test. What’s your name?”
I sounded off my name, once again taken aback by the hoarseness of my voice. It didn’t hurt, it just sounded so strange.
“What do you know? He may be old, but our leader’s got eyes sharper than an owl,” Krennan laughed to himself.
Mayor Armstead walked up beside Krennan, studying me. “Welcome back, Naomi. You were fortunate. Krennan’s treatment doesn’t always work this well on people who’ve had the curse as long as you,” she commented. “You’ve got some fight in your spirit.”
“My word! Look at you!” Krennan gasped. “Did Godfrey just leave you out in the mud?”
“Certainly smells like he left you out in the mud,” Lady Armstead laughed. My ears fell and I stared at the ground, feeling immensely self-conscious. “Don’t worry, nothing a bath won’t cure.” She walked forward and placed a hand gingerly on my back, urging me forward.
“King Greymane will be furious. He told Godfrey to put you back in your cell while we waited to see if it worked,” I heard Krennan mutter to himself as I was led away.
“I know you’re confused and probably have a lot of questions. I promise we’ll have time to answer all that we can after you’ve had a chance to get cleaned up,” she assured me calmly. Her voice sounded so warm and inviting.
She led me into a room in the back of the building, behind the stairs. There was a large tub in the center. In the corner, there was an interesting contraption – like a huge metal bucket over an open fire. A chute led from the bucket to the tub. Lady Armstead pulled on a chain near the thing and a small hatch opened, water flowing down the chute into the tub, steam billowing off the rising water level. When the tub was nearly filled to the brim, she let go of the chain and the water stopped.
“It’s a handy little invention,” she mentioned when she noticed me watching it. “One of our tinkerers came up with it. Sure makes preparation easier.” I couldn’t argue. It was annoying enough to fill up the water basin I used to use to clean myself on a day-to-day basis. It was even worse if I needed a more comprehensive wash. “Well, in you go.”
Is the mayor of Duskhaven going to…bathe me? It was a truly awkward situation, made so much worse by my strange appearance. Body trembling slightly, I stepped into the bath and sank in. It was warm and comfortable. I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh. It’s been too long. All I could remember was the cold and the rain. As I sat there, I almost forgot where I was; I almost forgot what I was.
That is, until I felt a brush forcibly being rubbed down my backside. I arched my back and gasped in surprise, eyes snapping open. “Calm down,” she stated in a soothing, almost motherly voice. I just sort of sat there as she aggressively brushed the mud and gunk out of my fur. “I never had the chance to thank you for what you did that day,” she commented at one point. “It was quite brave, especially for an ordinary civilian.”
“I didn’t have a choice, really,” I muttered.
“I know, I know, you were already bitten,” she sighed. “But still, I’m alive because of you and the others. A lot of people are,” she reminded me.
I didn’t respond. We were quiet for a moment. She began running the brush through my hair – which was really more of a mane that didn’t go all the way around my neck. There were so many knots; my head jerked back with each stroke and I let out involuntary wolfish yelps.
“Sorry. You have been in the wilds a long time,” Lady Armstead observed. “But…you’re here now. And you are more than welcome here in Duskhaven,” she announced. Again, we lapsed into silence. “I would exercise caution though. The people are still more than a little wary of those we’ve managed to save. Don’t expect anyone to invite you into your home,” she warned after a moment. “At least not at first,” she added with a hopeful intonation. “But at least they won’t shoot you outright.”
That’s a happy thought. “Great,” I grumbled, trying to sink into the water.
“Don’t worry too much about it. I’m sure that once word gets out who the new worgen girl is, you’ll be very well received,” she stated optimistically. Lady Armstead stood and walked around to the side of the tub. “Here, I’ll let you take care of your front.” She handed me the brush. “When you’re finished up, Krennan and I will be waiting outside and the three of us can talk. We’ve had some…worgen-sized clothes made. I’ll have some brought in for you.”
With that, she left me by my lonesome. I sat in the tub, carefully running the brush through my fur. I didn’t know how to think or feel anymore. There was a deeply confusing mix of emotions swirling through me. What was right? Am I supposed to be happy that I’m back in control again? Depressed that I’m still covered in fur? Scared about the voice of the curse I heard lingering in my head? Ashamed of what I did while the curse was in control? It was too much to mentally sift through.
Where’s Gwen? She should be here in Duskhaven, somewhere. Surely she would come find me as soon as she heard I was alive and here. I prayed she wasn’t too mad at me for going it alone that night. I hoped she could forgive me for what I put her through. My sensitive nose began to sting as I fought back the urge to cry.
“You’re weak,” the voice chimed in. It sounded almost like my voice in a sinister way.
I barely noticed when someone entered the room. “Excuse me, miss,” a rough voice stated tentatively. I jumped. A worgen woman stood by the door, holding a bundle of cloth. She had much lighter fur than me; it was brown instead of dark grey. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Lady Armstead wanted me to bring these in for you,” she announced.
“Thank you,” I responded despondently.
“I…I overheard them talking about you…cursed for almost eight months and you were able to overcome it,” she went on, a spark of admiration in her voice. Eight months? Was it really eight months? And what does she mean ‘overcome’ it? “It’s amazing. Well, welcome to Duskhaven,” she greeted with a bow before putting the bundle down on a table and excusing herself from the room.
I sat in the tub for quite some time, thinking through the situation while absent-mindedly brushing myself from snout to paw. It was oddly calming. The water eventually stopped being warm and I could see bits of fur and dirt floating in it. I guess it’s time to get out.
With a grunt, I pulled myself up onto my paws and stepped out. Water dripped off me, spattering the floor and imitating the sound of the storm outside. There was a towel amongst the bundle of clothes the worgen woman had left for me.
I dried myself off as best I could, though my fur was still quite damp. But at least I didn’t feel disgusting anymore. And I smelled differently, too. Maybe my strong sense of smell had just become acclimated to the stench of the wild, but I couldn’t help but notice how delightfully clean I smelled.
The bundle included a simple cotton chemise and a white gown. It wasn’t much, but at least I would be fairly well-covered. After dressing myself, I took a deep breath and tentatively opened the door.
Krennan and Lady Armstead were sitting at the table again. They stopped their conversation as soon as they saw me. “Well you certainly took your time,” Krennan laughed. “I hope you are feeling better.” I didn’t respond.
“Are the clothes to your liking? They’re nothing fancy, but they’re functional,” Lady Armstead inquired.
“I personally prefer pantaloons, myself,” I responded, shuffling a bit where I stood.
“I should have known that. I’ll talk to the tailor in the morning and see what we can do for you.”
I opened my mouth to protest, not wanting to be a bother, but Krennan started speaking before I had the chance. “Now, I expect you have many questions,” he said in an inviting tone.
Of the dozens of questions swimming through my brain, one in particular bubbled back up to the surface first. “Where is Gwen?”
Krennan looked at Lady Armstead uncomfortably, who returned his gaze with equal unease.
“Gwen Forrestier…the druid who was with me in the city,” I clarified, interpreting their glances as confusion. I recalled Lady Armstead’s name was also Gwen.
Krennan cleared his throat. “She’s…not here,” he admitted.
“What?” I exclaimed. Not here? Where is she?
“The moment your friend woke up, we told her what had happened. Then, she just left,” Lady Armstead explained. “We sent people after her, but they couldn’t find her. Originally, we thought she was headed towards Stormglen to be with the other druids, so we sent them a message. They had not seen or heard from her either.”
“You were supposed to keep her safe!” I yelled. “They betrayed your trust. Tear them limb from limb.” I pretended not to hear the voice.
“What were we supposed to do? Lock her up like some kind of prisoner?” Lady Armstead protested. “That isn’t how I run my city.”
I stood there for a moment, fuming. “I’m going to go look for her,” I declared, marching towards the door.
Lady Armstead shot up from her chair. “Stop her,” she commanded.
In an instant, I felt powerful hands clamping down on my shoulders. One of the male worgen in the building had caught hold of me. “My apologies, Miss,” he muttered.
“Let go of me!” I demanded. I stared directly at Armstead. “I thought this wasn’t how you run your city.”
Her features softened. “You’re not a prisoner, but…if we allowed you to leave, you’d be lost to the curse again,” she informed me.
“Lost?”
It was Krennan’s turn to clear his throat. “You see, the effects of the curse cannot ever be fully cured as far as we know. With treatment, however, your mind will remain yours…and not that of a wild animal. We are fortunate that the treatment worked on you in the first place. Normally, I can only treat recent infections. But that means we’ll need to continue your medication if we’re to have you reverse the curse,” he explained. “If we don’t, I’m afraid the curse will take over once again.
My ears fell. “So, I’ll never be human again?” I concluded sorrowfully. And I’d have to keep taking that nasty medicine.
“Aren’t you?” Krennan responded. After a silence, he continued. “Spend some time thinking on that. Anyway, I was able to make the serum after some time studying the curse. I’ve needed some ingredients that are…rare in Gilneas, like mandrake essence. Your father has done wonders for me by trading with foreign countries for the reagents I needed.”
“My father?” I echoed. I recalled the conversation the two scavengers were having in the city. “What…what does he know about me?”
Again, Lady Armstead and Krennan made eye contact. “We thought it best to circulate information that you had been killed in Light’s Dawn Cathedral. For all we knew, that was the truth.”
That’s probably for the best. “Where is he?”
“Last I had heard, his ship was to be coming in to port today with another shipment. The storm may have delayed that, unfortunately,” Krennan responded. “Look, I know you’re worried about your friend. I know you want to find out what happened to her. Give me a few days and I’ll cook up enough of the serum for you to bring with you and keep your mind your own,” he proposed.
“I’ll even send some of my best hunters with you,” Lady Armstead added.
The worgen let go of my shoulders and I stumbled over to the table, falling into a chair. “I…I suppose that’s the only way I can do it,” I responded. It was going to be an excruciating wait. “I can track her down…I can hunt her. Just go and let me take over.” I shook my head.
I spent the next several hours talking with the two about what had happened since the attack on Gilneas City. No one knew what had happened to Crowley and his men – whether they had been killed or cursed. I couldn’t believe anything could have killed Crowley, but the idea of him being trapped in the body of a beast terrified me. Much of the population had moved south, with the vast majority seeking refuge within the guarded walls of Duskaven. The people had returned to the harbor towns after a couple of months and would retreat to their boats at first sign of trouble to stay safe. That was how they survived the first wave of worgen to begin with. King Greymane spent much of his time in his manor on the top of the mountain, but would often come down to Duskhaven to seek Krennan’s counsel. The people of Gilneas were hanging by a thread, but they were surviving.
As time passed, I quickly became tired. Lady Armstead showed me to an empty bed up the stairs and left me to get my sleep. My mind was still swarming with questions and worries, but my exhaustion overcame all of that and I slipped into the realm of dreams.
***
“Naomi, where are you?” I could hear Gwen calling out to me. I stood alone in a shadowy forest. It was darker and denser than Northgate. Was this…the Blackwald? “Why did you leave me behind?” She sounded so sorrowful.
“Gwen!” I cried out.
A glowing apparition presented itself to me. It was the image of Gwen, shining with an eerie, translucent emerald light. “I’ve found you…please…find me,” she pleaded. Then, the vision disappeared.
“Gwen!”
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Mind of Malm 