"Near the Woods" The Supernatural Immortal "Isan no Jinro" Legacy of the Werewolf.

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Chapter One - 一生逃げる Flee For One's Life

It was midnight by the time that River and I managed to get to the Falls. There we set up a little rock wall - it was amazing what adrenaline and fear could accomplish because we made a ten foot high wall of rocks around our property and we managed to dig a tunnel underneath the rock wall to get to the little hovel that we would use as a sanctuary until Franz and I could manage to get enough gemstones to finance our trip to Moonlight Falls. The doctor had told me to escape to Moonlight Falls as it was a sanctuary and that was where we intended to go as soon as we had enough money. But for now we had to remain hidden.

Despite the way in which River and Fiona had parted, Fiona did not let out a single word that there was a werewolf on the loose. Whether it was that she was ashamed of birthing someone who had turned into a supernatural or whether she still had any inkling of motherhood left in her to protect her child, she didn't let any word slip that River had turned were. That was what kept me from going back and ripping her throat out. Needless to say, I was angry at the way that she treated River and as a husband, I wanted revenge. Instead, I took my anger out on a tree-stump and River, in human form, looked horrified at me in were-form tearing the tree-stump to shreds, knowing just how I was prepared to treat someone who tried to harm my beloved. All bets were off if Fiona had opened her mouth.
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We did not go out during full moons as the full moon triggered our transformation and we stayed within our hovel fighting down the urge to hunt. All things considered, our urges had to go somewhere...and well...what do you think we did?
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Franz was busy trying to hunt down valuable gemstones and rocks and we did what we could in order to save as much money as we could so that we could make our getaway. Franz was quite the capable Rottweiler and a whiz at hunting down gemstones and it was at the end of the third month that we had saved roughly over §200,000 in order to make our way out of Sunset Valley and start our trek to sanctuary.

It was midnight when we made our getaway and it was a rough journey. We slept by day in caves that we found; hunting by night as we travelled. Being lycanthropic made it easy to find game, hunt it down, kill it and eat it raw. It was just the gaminess of the meat that took some getting used to insofar as our palates were concerned. Franz would also hunt for us in the daytime bringing us small squirrels and other game to eat - what he didn't consume himself; he'd bring us as snacks. And thus we made our way slowly up the coast towards what we considered as sanctuary, a safe haven for those of us who, by our own luck or lack of thereof, had become creatures of the night; written about by humans with no idea of who or what we were in a lexicon of terror. What we really were was much simpler. We were just trying to survive.
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It was at the end of our slow month's journey that we finally reached Moonlight Falls. And it was a welcome relief, not only for our aching feet, but for our frazzled nerves. We'd realized that there were Hunters. The Hunters were a group of humans who had made it their life-calling to extinguish those of us who were Supernatural. They had banded together in order to make their objective the eradication of anyone who they suspected had any trace of otherworldly attributes, whether vampiric or lycanthropic, fae or witchcraft - none of these were safe from the Hunters. By sheer luck, we'd managed to evade the Hunters who were on the trail of a pair of what they considered demon-spawn. They were armed with stakes and magazines of silver bullets and we suspected that they were trouble so we detoured Moonlight Falls and camped out amongst the mountains until they departed the area. Then we made haste to enter Moonlight Falls from the opposite direction.
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I could have played my card and tried to eliminate them one-by-one, but they soon would have caught on and then come after us in earnest. And River just wanted to have some peace and quiet so River and I opted to outwit the Hunters with Franz's help and lead them on a merry goose-chase along the fields and forests, far enough away leaving enough clues pointing them in a whole other direction that they would be chasing their own tails for the next three months. Once they bought the bait, we rapidly made certain to shake their pursuit, lose them in the thickets and doubled back. I resolved that if they made their way to Moonlight Falls, threatening the sanctuary in any way, I'd tear their throats out and leave their carcasses for the crows to pick at.
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Moonlight Falls was a nice little haven between the Pacific Coastal Range and the Pacific Ocean and nestled in an out-of-the-way area that encouraged those who just wanted a nice quiet place to get away and unwind. Here was where humans (those who believed in the supernatural and were unafraid); lycanthropes, vampires, witches and the fae could rub shoulders and work cooperatively to establish a safe haven community in which they could raise families.
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We had to find a place to settle down and as River and I intended to raise a family when we were ready to, we decided that we'd pick a nice large property right across the street from the Falls where we could be lulled to sleep by the sound of the roaring falls every single night. And it was a nice little homey place to live - it was ours to do with as we wanted and I was looking forward to the family that River and I would raise together.
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But even so, there was that little intrusive voice in the back of my head that said to never let your guard down. Being ignorant of what dangers there possibly were was to court disaster. So making sure that Franz did his daily roaming of the town and hunting down as many gemstones as he possibly could was primary on the list. That would keep us in simoleons and simoleons brought us flexibility in terms of what we could or couldn't do. If we had to flee, we had enough money to get out of town quickly.https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ihNZ4_fEBzA/Xxhd4og2ejI/AAAAAAAAhxk/baC6FfZGakYI8wQjUwYN2XY-_w8iuhkHACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screenshot%2B%25288%2529.jpg
River was exhausted both mentally and physically with fleeing Sunset Valley and having to shelve her grief over being summarily thrown out of the house by her mother. To that end she curled up on the couch and had a nap. She'd cried many bitter tears over the whole loss of family. With me, my mother had rejected me from an early age even when I was a human, so I knew that I was on my own and had grown a good hard carapace that almost seemed unfeeling. But it was to protect myself. River, on the other hand, had always had her mother and then to be so cruelly rejected by her for circumstances beyond her control, it was soul-crushing. The only ones that River and I had were each other and each other was whom we clung to. But it still didn't stop the ache of loss for River; the loss of whom she once considered as family.

But those were humans and we were no longer them. We were other; a mix of what the humans would consider vicious animal-like creatures that would harm the human population if given free rein. Then there were others in this town that were the undead; and even more who had witchcraft and sorcery on their side; all anathema to humans whose heads were not equipped to deal with such. And if the humans who were not sympathetic to our cause did find out that this little sanctuary existed there would be wholesale bloodshed and a government edict on the elimination of us as a species.
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Preparation was key in our new reality. It meant dealing with things that a month ago wouldn't have seemed possible in any stretch of the imagination. Wrapping our heads around things such as potions or alchemy was a mind-boggling thought. It was amazing to see the glimmer of hope in River's face as she made her first vial of bliss. After all, the first toddling steps into a greater world than any human would ever know faced us. And we needed to become strong at this and fast; for our own protection.
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Our little home was good enough for now. It was a bedroom with the only access through a bathroom and I dug out the basement where we stored our research area. I had a nice comfortable nook between the kitchen and the bathroom where I put my computer desk where I wrote books under a pseudonym. River opted to learn how to paint and play the guitar, two things that she had wanted to master. And with Franz helping us, we had enough simoleons for her to be able to do that and it helped a great deal for her mood since with things to do, she wasn't dwelling on the past and feeling so utterly miserable any more. At least she was able to focus.
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Eventually I started a garden as we grew more secure with being seen outside our building. And a sense of normalcy resumed. At least to some extent since every so often a spectral entity would drop by and oft-try to make conversation; which just made things absolutely peachy since every time one would show up, the primal urge to run the other direction was always present. There's something disconcerting about having an entity looking over one's shoulder while picking potatoes constantly asking in a hollow voice that sounded like it was emanating from a tomb, "Whatchu doing?" Well, the one positive was that I would definitely never have need of a diuretic as long as Frida Goth was around. Memo to me: I should have made outdoor toilet facilities five feet of the greenhouse door.
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And of course making food involved having to empty out the garbage on a regular basis and it appeared as though River was getting more used to the fact that she was now able to freely walk the streets again without fear in Moonlight Falls as opposed to Sunset Valley. River decided that she would make Strawberry Pie and the tantalizing smells of baking filled the air as my keen sense of smell allowed me to sniff the air smelling the aroma wafting through the air from her cooking. Even as a were, I found that I still missed the taste of bakery goods and enjoyed a good apple pie or strawberry pie every so often. Hey, why not...variety.
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When I was done picking the vegetables and fruits and Frida Goth had floated off to whereever it was that she was floating off to, I decided to head down to the grocery store to sell off my wares. Since when we first moved, I had signed up to become a gardener, I was going to see how well the fruits of my labours, no pun intended, would sell. Maybe I might make enough to be promoted from cucumber smasher to something a bit more pride-inducing. While I had ridden my bike there, I noticed a fae denizen of our new fair town making their way to the grocery store as well. Apparently I had met Marigold Maldano who was notorious around these parts as someone who was tagging along on and as a human previous, she had been a supernatural fanatic. Evidently someone had finally granted her wish to become one of the fairies in town
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While I was out, my beloved wife asked me to go pick up some recipe books as she was working on her cooking skill and had just levelled up to Level Three, which meant that she was now capable enough to attempt some new recipes without burning the house down. I'm not being insulting. I can't do any better either at this point. So hence the reason we stick with baking - though that really doesn't make any sense. Evidently the Baking Oven doesn't catch fire as quickly as the stove-top. Well, whatever, eh.
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When River was done cooking, she went back to painting and I went back to writing, a new book called, "Dirt Under My Fingernails" which was about my adventures in gardening however it would prove to be an enormous flop. Maybe I should just concentrate on my Lifetime Wish of having the Perfect Garden. On top of that we wanted to find the secret of ever-lasting life which some people were talking about the very fact that it could be possible.
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When River finally got a skill point in painting, she grinned at me and said, "Sweetheart, I'm going down to the City Hall and registering as a self-employed painter"
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Of course, that night, we had the rather annoying visitation of our town kleptomaniac with the rather apt name of Robin Steal. I'm sure her brother works for the Canada Revenue Agency; first name, Legale. River doesn't like being woken up in the middle of the night and made sure that Robin understood that by generously offering her a "sandwich". I'm sure there was no love lost between the two of them.
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But at least we had a place of our own to call home...and we were starting to feel secure as residents of Moonlight Falls. So in between dealing with trying to understand alchemy and making potions and doing the chores necessary to remain financially afloat, we were doing great and with Franz's help, we had increased our net worth to well over §1M. Which meant a nicer and much bigger home...so we took down the old home leaving only the greenhouse and built up a nicer larger home.
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I knew that as a novice werewolf, that I would have a bit of trouble, but I didn't realize that transformation was something that needed to be controlled. River had much more control over her transformations than I did. And frankly that was rather worrisome as I didn't want to end up going out and involuntarily changing into my were form and scaring the living bejeepers out of our neighbours.
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I was hungry so I headed upstairs and grabbed a slice of apple pie. Luckily only River saw me and she understood that I was involuntarily in my full were form. I must have made a comical sight; a werewolf eating apple pie with chopsticks.

"Are you sure you can get all the crumbs up from the plate with those?" River asked me.

"Grrr...snarl.." gesturing at my plate...I lifted my head and shook it; Negative.

"So...how are you going to clean the crumbs. The dishwasher drain will get clogged if you leave a bunch of crumbs on the plate"

I lifted the plate...gave her what appeared to her like a savage teeth filled grin, flicked out my tongue and licked the plate clean. OK...evidently that got the point across.
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