Myrelias

Camren woke up with a groan, pain coursing through his body. His mind was covered with a fog and he could barely think.

Camren blinked, struggling to regain his eyesight. It took a minute for the fog to clear and the earlier events came rushing back to him: the cellar, Alpha Xavier, the witch, the pain and then what?

By the time he regained his sight, Camren realized that he was seated on the floor of a dark cell. He wasn't alone though: to his right a petite girl with pale skin and teal coloured hair was leaning by the wall with her eyes closed, but Camren knew she wasn't sleeping by the way small sobs escaped her lips every now and then.

A handsome woman with a lithe body was sitting by the door, she looked like she crush Camren with her smooth muscles that gleamed with sweat on her glowing brown skin. A tattoo covered the left side of her face, short green hair framed her sharp jawline and her yellow eyes fixed Camren a steely gaze that informed him he was staring.

A red haired beauty with grey eyes and tanned skin was curled into a ball, eyes blank and staring into space. A tall dark man with bulging muscles was punching the wall, short dark hair falling to his forehead, orange eyes glowing with anger and jaw clenched with agitation. What really caught Camren's attention was the tattoo of a three headed wolf that occupied his right arm: the mark of a Zotal. What in the name of Selene was he doing here?

Nobody paid any attention to the newly awakened Camren. The cell silent except from the teal haired girl's sniffs and the Zotal's angry punches.

"Hey! Muscle man, could you take that somewhere else?" He turns staring at green hair with an intensity that has even the red haired who is farther from them flinching, but green hair isn't intimidated, she simply arches a provocative brow at him and Camren had a gut feeling that she could probably beat the Zotal in a fight. It's instinct.

"Why?" He growls, punching the wall with an even more fiercer force that sends the walls groaning. "You've got a problem with it." He snarls, fangs elongating and eyes turning darker. He's about to wolf out.

"Please. Let's not fight amongst ourselves." Teal haired looks wide eyed at the Zotal.

"Shut it bitch." His anger is quickly directed at her, and she shudders, thin frame shaking as she glues herself to the wall as though hoping she could sink into it.

"Call her that one more time, and I will knock your teeth so far done your troath you will feel them in your stomach." Now standing, green hair is a few inches taller than the Zotal.

"For people who are about to become Vampire food, you have sure got some fight in yourselves." Camren rolls his eyes. How can both of them not see how stupid they look.

Green hair looks amused by his words, but the Zotal looks like a bull that has just seen a red cloth. Just when Camren is wondering if it had been better he kept his mouth shut, the door is pushed open.

"Witch." The Zotal snarls at her, she looks unimpressed from the disinterested arch of her brow.

"Sit down,and stop growling like a dog." She smirks coldly, heels clicking on the floor with each calculated step. The Zotal doesn't like the order, but he turns quiet when a glowing purple orb forms in the middle of her palm, the pain of her magic still fresh in his mind.

"Good dog." She smiles as he sits uncomfortably on the ground. The cell has turned silent, a stiff tension hung in the air.

"What did you do to us?" The pain from the Witch's magic still crawl in Camren's veins, the Pack bond severed and in it's place now laid another bond: one more darker, oppressive and sinister.

She turns slowly, her yellow eyes filled with emotions that are too complicated for Camren to decipher: there's anger, reverence and a hint of fear, she stares at him as though he is a confusing puzzle she can't solve.

"I severed your Pack bond." Her voice rings coldly, when Camren thought she would no longer answer his question. "You don't need it anymore." Her eyes drift to the other Werewolves.

"Your loyalty and your life now belongs to the Lord of House Bloodthorne, you cannot die without his permission." She smiles sinisterly at the pale looks of the Werewolves. "Your life, body and even your soul, all belong to him." She chuckles, a dark painted nail lifting the head of the red haired. "Don't look so horrified sweet, trust me a Vampire's bite is very addicting, you will love it." She bites into her plump bottom lip with a wink.

Camren bristles, how can the bite of a monster be addicting.

"It's time to go, I don't have all day." Magic thrums on her skin, filling the room with an electrifying feel: the air felt dry and static.

A golden circle appears in the middle of the room, expanding until it can contain ten adult Werewolves.

"Go in." Absolutely not. All Camren can see at the other side is a horrifying darkness; it's like walking into the open mouth of an unknown beast.

The Werewolves exchange sceptical glances amongst themselves, none of them trust the Witch, but what choice do they have, they are all going to die anyway.

Green hair is the first to step in, easily devoured by the darkness. Camren follows next and the others trail after him uneasily, the Witch is the last to enter. The golden circle dims rapidly and fades as though it had never been there.

********

Camren felt as though he had been thrown into a fast mixing blender; turning this way and that. Everything felt so uncomfortable, he couldn't breathe, a heavy pressure squeezing him from all sides. Colours moved fast in a blur he couldn't make out, thousands of sounds; both animals and humans, rushed past his ears, the sounds loud and jarring.

Camren gasped when the sensation stopped as he landed on solid ground, he groaned head throbbing and stomach queasing as he dry heaved.

It took a minute for Camren to regain his bearings and he finally managed to open this eyes, though he didn't bother standing as he couldn't trust his legs yet.

Apparently he wasn't the only one in that condition; all around him the other Werewolves were lying on the green moss ground and groaning.

The only one who was unsurprisingly unharmed was the Witch, arms crossed around her chest as she watched them with a bored gaze.

"First time portal travellers, always so dramatic." She rolled her eyes. "I would stand up quicker if I were you guys, before you become food for the ground." Camren noticed that the ground had become softer and he was going slightly deeper into the floor, almost as though he was sinking slowly.

He rushes to stand, ignoring the dizziness that almost sends him tumbling back to the floor.

"What do we do? The ground is about to eat us." Red haired girl cries, everybody has noticed that the strangely soft moss is not normal.

"If we walk quickly it won't swallow us, relax it's slow." The Witch rolls her eyes as she begins walking into the dark forest, the Werewolves trailing after her.

The walk is quiet and tense, each walking gently, afraid that one step too deep would send them to become moss food. No one says a word, but everyone feels relived when they leave the moss and step into smooth grassy land, hopefully this one isn't looking for food either.

The forest is dark, but it's not a problem for Werewolves and their enhanced eyesight, but for Camren who doesn't have a wolf, he is struggling to see, stumbling blindly after them.

Maybe the Witch can't see too, because soon a blazing fire ball is floating in the air and illuminating their surroundings.

Tall green trees that stretch so far the top can't be seen surround them, green vines wrapped around the body of the trees.

Strangely coloured flowers, bloom around the forest each one with a more sweet floral scent than the next. Thousands of glowing coloured bugs float aimlessly around them.

"Wow!" Teal haired girl gasped. The culprit of her awe is a beautiful golden tree that glows in the middle of the forest.

Unlike other trees, it can be considered short, it's body was glowing and transparent, roots buried in a shimmering golden lake that surrounds it. One of it's transparent branches curl towards Teal hair who is standing by the edge of the lake, it curls around a lock of her hair tentatively like a shy child and she giggles.

"Move away from the tree." The Witch said coldly. The others follow her gaze and they are horrified. A dark root is slowly inching out of the lake preparing to drag the unsuspecting She-wolf in.

"Oh my God! Move." Red hair shrieks.

Teal hair quickly moves back, the root barley missing her. It beats the surface of the lake like an angry child before sinking into the lake.

"What the?" She still looks traumatized. "I..why? The tree looks so beautiful." She blinks.

"And that's what they all thought." Looking closely into the lakr, you could see people and animals all entrapped within it's roots, thin and scarred, as the tree drains their life for food.

"So we should be wary of the beautiful things then?" Green hair arched a brow.

"Of course." The Witch smiled slowly. "This is Myrelais, the beautiful things are always deadly."

Myrelais. One of the Vampire lands, ruled by House Bloodthorne.

They are in Vampire territory. The thought sinks horrifyingly into the pits of Camren's stomach.

A sharp growl and a putrid smell suddenly fills the air. Something is coming and it is coming fast, as loud footsteps echo across the forest.

"Oh shit!" The Witch cursed.

The creature is large and tall, looming over them ominously. It's face is a disturbingly smooth mask, devoid of eyes, ears and nose with only a large mouth that is filled with sharp fangs. It's skin is smooth and red, like something that has been skinned, body haunched over as it's long hands filled with sharp claws almost touched it's legs, long and thin feathers that looked like it's skin fluttered behind it.

"Stand back." The Witch growls at the Zotal and green hair who are preparing to shift. Green hair stops, but the Zotal continues to shift.

The Witch's eyes glow yellow and with a wave of her hand, hundreds of vines entrapped the creature. It growls trying to cut them with it's sharp claws, but more wrap around him. Some burrow into it's mouth, throat and stomach bulging from the vines.

The vines begin to glow red, the creature howls loudly as it combust. Limbs, blood and organs flying everywhere. A few creatures slither out to feed on it's remains.

The smell in the air turns horribly putrid and the smell is even worse for the others than Camren, they look as though they are about to throw up.

"I thought you said it was only the beautiful ones." Camren accused as he picked a disgusting red meat from his hair, he doesn't even want to imagine what else is stuck on him.

"Well, the ugly ones are dangerous too," the Witch shrugs, "welcome to Myrelais, love." She smirked.