Surrounded

But why had Shabot and his fox people turned upon Fred and Astra? What did the demifoxes want?

"And are you any less a threat to us?" Fred asked them in a fierce voice. "Or any harder to kill? In case you haven't noticed, our weapons are not silver either."

"And what does that matter?" Shabot cocked his head curiously, "We are not were-beasts."

Fred and Astra glanced at each other wonderingly. Did the demifox named Shabot seek to confuse them, or was there something else behind his wild words. Of course Shabot and his friends were were-beasts, they were demifoxes after all weren't they. That was as plain as the snouts on all their faces. And demifoxes were lycanthropes, cursed humans twisted into animal shapes and filled with blood lust when the moon was full. So why in damnation was Shabot implying that Fred and Astra were the monsters and that he and his kin were something else all together?

Suddenly there was a commotion in the crowd; it stirred and made way for an old, gnarled fox-man who walked with the aid of a staff as bent as he was. Shabot bowed to the old demifox and pointed at Fred and Astra. "They are not of the Folke, I say they come from Moreau's thorny den," Shabot said. The old fox-man, an elder of Shabot's people and a skilled shaman, eyed the two with a cold detachment. "My name is Boshwyn Ringroot," the elder introduced himself. "Why have you two come to this place?"

"We came here looking for others like us, others that have been cursed," Astra replied after a moment. Shabot gestured with excitement at Fred and Astra, his tail wagging furiously, "You see, again they condemn themselves." Fred glared at Shabot, his anger only matched by his rising bewilderment. "And what makes us any different from you?" Fred asked with scorn, "Your curse is no different from ours!" Ringroot stared at Fred and shook his head, "I wonder, are the rumors of Moreau true or have they simply twisted your minds. Perhaps once upon a time you were one of the Folke."

"Until six days ago I was a knight of Allaria," Fred proudly corrected the elder, "and I intend to reclaim my birthright!"

"I have heard enough," Ringroot sighed and raised his staff. "Know this, whatever you are, the demifolke are not creatures cursed, but a Race that holds her head high. As for what you are..." Fred saw both horror and pity in the demifox's eyes. And then, without warning, a mighty thunderclap sounded in Fred's ears and it shook him to his very bones. He dropped his dagger and clutched at his head, falling to his knees. Astra too was felled by the magical attack. And neither of them could move a muscle as the demifoxes rushed forward and grabbed at them. Their hands were bound with heavy rope and their mouths gagged. And then potato sacks were pulled over them and cinched tight. After that was only darkness.

Fred and Astra slept peacefully on a soft bed that had been laid down in a room within the den of the demifox Elders. They would not awake for some time. They were sleeping off the affects of a brew that they had been force fed, a brew made from herbs, roots and extracts of poisonous blossoms. The brew was not intended to kill them, instead it was designed to open up their minds and loosen their tongues so that they would speak freely and answer all questions truthfully. What they had revealed to the Elders was both frightening and reassuring. The initial assumption that Fred and Astra were enemies sent by the dragons was proven to be false. But they were connected to the dragon they named Malachi and to Synizn, and that made them pawns of the dragons, however unwitting. Most incredible of all though was that the two demifoxes were once upon a time human. Looking at their two sleeping forms, Ringroot was filled with revulsion. He had for some time now suspected that the attacks against the demifolke and the many abductions of his people over the past few years had been instigated by the dragons, but no one had ever known the reason behind it. Now it seemed clear. The dragons had needed living flesh with which to create and perfect a new and dark magic, a magic intended to change one Race into another. Such a magical feat had always been thought impossible, but the existence of Fred and Astra proved beyond a doubt that the dragons had succeeded. Ringroot shuddered, only the Spirits knew what kind of evil this act of sacrilege would unleash. Or what kind of punishment would fall down upon the heads of all the world's people for this terrible blasphemy.

Ringroot hoped that Fred and Astra would aid him and his brothers in averting the divine retribution he was sure was coming. He hoped that in them a key could be found with which to close and lock the dark door that the dragons had somehow opened wide. He then looked down at his palm. In it he held a five inch high glass figurine. He had taken it from Fred's pouch. Fred had called it the Crystallic. Under the influence of the truth drink, both he and Astra had claimed that with it Synizn would be able to restore their humanity. Ringroot hoped that this was true. His only problem was that Synizn was a minion of the dragons and as such Ringroot would die before he ever let him lay his dirty hands on the arcane artifact.

1. When Fred and Astra awoke...

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