Admit to meeting the werewolf

The way the old woman looks at them tells the girls that she knows something is going on. Adella looks at Courtney questioningly, and Courtney nods softly in response.

Adella sighs and says, “We have not been truthful with you. We have, indeed, journeyed here from the other direction.”

Jakob stiffens and takes his grandmother’s hand.

“The answer to what you no doubt are wondering is yes. We encountered the werewolf who called himself Tegan.”

Adella then tells the story of how they stumbled across Tegan in their travels and accepted his offer to stay with him. She spoke of being locked in his cabin and the terrifying ordeal of watching him transform and slaughter their horse.

Jakob and Floreza listen with rapt attention as Adella speaks, with occasional extra details thrown in by Courtney. They do not elaborate on who they really are, other than to confirm that they did not come from Camoratheon. Adella also decides, for Courtney’s privacy, not to say anything at this point about possibly being impregnated by the beast, nor does she say anything about her own curse. She decides there will be time for that later on if they prove to be sympathetic.

“So you say the demon is dead? And by your hand?” asks Jakob. “That is incredible! It has terrorized this land for years!”

Adella explains how she made use of her silver jewelry and wrapped it around the sword’s blade to slay Tegan.

“That was quite cunning on your part,” says Floreza, rising and walking over to the ladies. “I suspected when you set foot in my home that there was more to you than met the eye. You have encountered a werewolf at full moon and have not only lived to tell about it, but you have also rid this land of a terrifying evil.”

She places both hands on Adella’s shoulders and looks her squarely in the eyes. “But there is more you haven’t told us, isn’t there?” Adella feels as if the woman is looking into her very soul and finds it difficult to maintain eye contact.

The woman’s hand moves and hovers over the place where the wolf’s teeth broke her skin. As if reading Adella’s mind, Floreza says, “Yes, you are right to be concerned; the disease has taken root, and it has hold of you.”

Before Adella can answer, Floreza turns her attention to Courtney. Looking her in the eyes in the same piercing way, she places her hand on Courtney’s lower abdomen. “And you have reason to fear, as well. You bear the seed of the manbeast in your womb.”

Both ladies gasp, and Courtney grasps her stomach with both hands. “It’s true then?” she asks. “I am with child?” Her eyes begin to fill with tears.

“Not yet with child, I think,” says Floreza, returning to her seat. “The seed of the manwolf moves more slowly and acts differently than that of a human male, but as suredly as I sit here, it will find your egg, and will conceive before a fortnight is complete.”

A stunned silence fills the room as Adella and Courtney stare blankly at each other. Finally Adella breaks the silence.

“You have confirmed our worst fears. Perhaps you also have hope to offer us. As you rightly said, we removed the curse of this creature from your land. Surely there must be something that can be done to save us from the vile beast’s touch.”

Floreza considers them thoughtfully. “What you speak of is something that exists only in legend. There are stories, but I doubt if anyone alive has ever witnessed the ritual; it could be mere superstition.”

“So there is a cure!” says Adella. “Tell us, please! We are willing to try anything. The only other avenue available to us is **** by our own hands so we do not spread this curse further.”

Floreza says, “Again, it is simply legend. All I can tell you is what my grandmother told me. According to the stories, the curse may be reversed for both of you, but I warn you, even if the stories are true, the ritual may be more than you can bear. You would need to act quickly; the curse is already at work in both of you. You have a fortnight at most to reverse its effects or there will be no possibility of reversal for either of you.”

“We understand,” said Adella, urging her on.

“Legends always abound about the seventh son of a seventh son. What you will need is even harder to find. You must find a seventh son whose seventh set of children were male triplets. It is in the triplets that the power may exist to help both of you.”

Adella fries not to let discouragement fill her. Already it seemed a hopeless endeavor merely to find such a rarity.

“Once you have located them, you must entice them to have intercourse with you, my daughter,” Floreza looks at Courtney, who is startled from her despair at these words. “You must have intercourse with each of them, and you must do it three nights in succession.”

Adella reaches over and takes her friend’s hand. Despite her locker room talk about her previous sexual experience, Adella knows such a thing is well beyond anything Courtney has done before.

“This is very important,” warns Floreza. “None of them may ejaculate in or in you. The mystical power surrounding the triplets of a seventh son are such that the act of intercourse will actually withdraw the werewolf’s seed from you. That’s why it must be all three of the men, and it must be three nights in a row, because of the power and persistence of the werewolf’s liquid curse.”

Floreza turns her eyes upon Adella. “As fortune may have it, you too may find release from your curse through these men. The legends say that the semen of the mystical trio, having engorged itself in sexual congress with one such as your friend, has the curative powers to reverse the curse of one bitten by the same werewolf. You, my daughter, must drink the semen of the triplets — from each of them, and for three consecutive nights. You must drink of it and swallow it all — every drop — if you wish to retain any hope of retaining your present form and state of mind when the next full moon rises.”

Adella stares at the old woman. Under any other circumstances, she would swear she was being subjected to one of her brothers’ perverted practical jokes. The supposed cure to their predicament rested in some 3-day orgy with total strangers in which they would empty their seed into Adella’s mouth? Such things befit a whore at a cheap brothel, not the Princess Royal of Mirantia!

But her worldview had changed drastically in the past day, and suddenly Floreza’s suggestion did not seem as far fetched as it once might have been.

“But where would one even begin to find three such men,” she asks. “Even assuming we wished to take part in such a vile ritual.”

“In all my years I have never heard of a seventh son with triplets on the seventh birth,” says Floreza, causing the women’s hearts to sink. “But as it turns out, only recently did I hear something.” The ladies turn their eyes on Floreza with renewed hope.

“My cousin Myrtle visited about three summers ago. She said when her ship arrived, three boys helped her with her luggage. She said they were identical, and when she commented upon it, she was told that they were triplets, and that they had made the village somewhat famous, having been born of a seventh son. She did not say whether they were the seventh birth of that man, though, and she only referred to them as ‘boys.’ I do not know if they were young boys at the time or nearing manhood. Even if you find them and even if they are the seventh, they may be too young. And they may be unwilling to help you.”

Left unsaid, but weighing on all their minds was that there may not be anything to the legend to start with.

“Well, we must at least look for these triplets,” says Adella. “If we cannot find them, there is no hope at all.”

They get more information about where Floreza’s cousin saw the boys. It is 10 days’ journey from there, assuming no unforeseen delays. “That does not leave us much time to spare,” observes Courtney. “And if we arrive and we cannot find them, or if it turns out they are unwilling or unable to help, we would be lost. That journey takes us away from the Obsidian Forest; if we are to find a magical solution aside from this, we will be more likely to find it among the forest folk.”

“I cannot argue with that,” says Floreza. “I can only tell you what I have heard, but understand this.” She looks at Adella. “Although the beast’s infection will not show its fullest affect upon you until the next full moon, it begins already to alter your body and your mind. You will become increasingly wolflike in your thoughts, actions and desires. You must be aware of this.”

“Wolflike? As in bloodthirsty and violent?”

Floreza frowns. “It is difficult to say. A female werewolf is, in many ways, far more dangerous than the male counterpart, but the tranformation process is different, too. You are a woman of strength and intellect. I can sense this. Use these qualities to your advantage and keep the beast within under control.”

With this somber warning, the women begin to prepare for their departure, still uncertain about whether to search for the triplets or to venture into the forest.

Jakob, who has been quietly observing all this time, speaks up. “I cannot allow you to set out on this quest by yourself. I will go with you and help you along your way.”

Adella protests. “Surely not! This is our burden, and we could not possibly take you away and leave your grandmother by herself.”

“Grandmother is more resourceful and capable than you know,” says Jakob, “and you have done us a great service by ending the terror of the werewolf at an unspeakable cost to yourselves. We are forever in your gratitude.”

Adella and Courtney look at each other. It would be helpful to have a strong man with them, and Jakob does have better knowledge of this region than they do.