Red New Moon [Tanken, Daiken, Travis]

He was tired, finally, of the same history over the years. His life was a damn cliché. The bad brother craving to see his brother’s suffering but never actually killing him. Al least the ending was not going to be the same. He will not turn good at the last second and then life both of them happily ever after. He was going to kill him this time, no matter the method or the cost, and he was letting himself die later. He never had something to call life. Maybe at first, but that was gone a long time ago. He just killed, hunted, had sex, and stalked Daiken. The first years it was fun, but now, after a century, he was tired and bored. Tanken knew he was never going to change, and he hated life to much to try and live it for the next centuries that may pass over him. Just as he finished the checking of all the traps at the bloody forest, he straightened himself and yawned. He had been working for quit a long time now, maybe weeks. He couldn’t actually count the time as he had been too entertained with the whole traps creation and other dirty tricks he was going to use against his brother. Now he just needed the pray to fall on one of his multiple traps. He would have to go and look for him, and then draw him to this place. He knew Daiken, and it was going to be very easy to put him on the edge of his nerves when he could take a look at him.

Tanken shifted into his black beast and walked slowly towards the city once more. It wasn’t going to be a good idea to get into the Darkness territory if he wanted to draw a single wolf to his own death. He must wait on the city center for him to appear. He had been watching him lately and he had been going to the Shopping District several times in the last month. Maybe that routine hasn’t changed. Once the lights started to appear before his blue eyes, Tanken shifted back and walked like a normal mortal would do along the several lights and streets. Her looked around and moved inside a restaurant. Moving upstairs like a shadow, he opened the roof’s door and walked to the edge, looking down at every being under him. He liked that view, himself above them all and no one actually knowing it. He sat on the corner like a gargoyle and waited patiently for the next hours for him to appear.

It may have been luck, destiny, or the time he waited, but Daiken finally appeared on his sight. Tanken stood up and moved slowly but anxious to the other side of the building. He looked down at a dark alley and jumped to meet the concrete street again. He walked towards the busy street with his hands on his pockets and waited there, in the middle of all the humans walking forwards and backwards worried about their own issues, until his brother’s eyes would meet his and let the fun to roll on by itself.

He had been walking through the shopping district, getting some paints for the babies’ room. He wanted to paint the walls with childish images of animals and nature to surprise Noctavia with it. He couldn’t wait for the little demons to born, and the time for him to work on their room grew shorted every day. Just then, as he was reading a post on one of the parlors, the smell of an old figure of his past made his day get ruined entirely, and possible, also the rest of his life. A sense of protection for his pack made him follow his scent until his human figure appeared, grinning evilly at him as always, to then disappear again between the mass of humans that were walking on the same street. Daiken couldn’t let his brother interfere with his new home, his new family. Not again. He followed Tanken to the Crimson Forest, his eyes tracing every tree and figure for his hateful brother. It had been more than a century of enduring his every act and plan, Daiken had to kill him. He couldn’t afford wasting more time as his children were about to meet the world, and they couldn’t met their sadistic uncle no matter what. ‘Careful, Daiken. He always has more than one card under his sleeves.’ Slayer warned. It was true. Tanken always used all the knowledge they both learned from their time in the Kazeshini clan, but Daiken focused on the martial arts. Tanken always placed more interest and liking for the theorist stuff, like the creation of traps and venoms. He always used something like that against him.

His eyes moved to the ground as he inspected every part of the forest. The leaves were a bit different from the rest there. The time that they fell to the ground and discomposed was different from the rest around them. Moving forwards slowly, he moved the leaves a bit and looked at the trap under them. A net resting hidden from normal eyes to trap it’s pray at the moment were it would be disturbed. Daiken wondered how many traps they would be around waiting for him. He did exactly what Tanken wanted; coming to the place he chose and worked in who knows how many days to have it ready for him. Tanken just worked this hard when he had a full attack planned on him. This was the third time until now... The last two took the lives of both his packs, and almost his own. He couldn’t believe he was doing this again. How much longer was he going to play this damn game? This had to end, tonight.

Time passed and he was still trying to find Tanken. Maybe he decided to leave before even starting. No... Tanken could wait for hours, perfectly hidden, for the right moment to attack with a deadly blow at the very first time. A surprise hit from the shadows was far more useful than a long term fight with someone who can be stronger than you. Sighing, Daiken knew that he was being watched. Those blue eyes staring at him, representing how cold and dead his heart was. He knew where Daiken was, but Daiken didn’t have a clue about his position... Usual... Tanken was like a plague... You don’t know how, where, and when it will hit. You just know it is going to hit sometime and that you can never get rid of it.

It had been so easy, he knew that before and confirmed it now. Daiken followed him like a cucaracha after sugar. He had him right where he wanted. He had followed him at the Crimson Forest where all his traps were waiting for him. As soon as Tanken reached the place first, he shifted once more in his wolf form and started hiding with the help of the trees. He jumped to the lowest thick branches and started his way from tree to tree to follow his brother as he tried to spot him. One of his best moves was that one. Hide for hours until he decided to appear, and he never failed with that ability. He watched at his brother as he found out about one of the traps. He improved... The other times he fell right into them at the first attempt. Now he was being more careful. But he had made several for him to get into at least one, and when that time came, he would be ready to strike. Tanken waited for the next hour and more, watching his brother and following him closely but always careful to not get spotted.

Tanken sat on one of the branches as Daiken kept walking carefully around. He shifted back and took a glass bottle hidden into a hole of that same tree that he had saved there to use it at any time now. Shifting again into his wolf, he held his breath and opened the bottle to pour the liquid all over his claws. The yellowish liquid was a concentration of Rosary Pea and Aconite, better known as Wolfsbane. Both considered as two of the most poisonous herbs, one of them, being especially against for werewolves. He was going to play dirty as always, and his brother should know that for now. He left the empty bottle there and kept on following Daiken, waiting for the right moment. It was then that he almost fell on one of the holes he made that had several of the most poisonous scorpions. The arachnids twitched and moved their deadly tails at Daiken’s leg trying to hit him with one of his venoms. As his brother fought to not fall on it, Tanken found it as the best opportunity and jumped down to try and hit his back with his claws, attempting to insert them deeply into the back of his waist, puncturing where he knew was the kidney. He knew that inserting the venom there will make his kidneys useless when they tried to combat and clean the poison from his body.

With the new moon, the dense forest, and cold fog it was getting more difficult to see anything around. Daiken knew that every time he focused on a possible trap, he was vulnerable on getting hit by his brother. He had to focus on several things at once. His sense of smell was of no use. Tanken had been here for what looked like days and the entire place was filled with his scent. Trees and plants always saved the smells better than anything else, and trees and plants was everything you could found there. More than an hour passed and there wasn’t a movement or sound that could give away his location. As time passed, he missed one of the traps and fall right into it, if it wouldn’t have been for Slayer yelling at him to jump. But right there, Daiken lost concentration and just focused on not falling into the trap, forgetting his brother. A black wolf jumped from a thick tree near Daiken and landed at his back, inserting his five long claws on his right kidney quickly. It was just a matter of time to then realize that the attack had one of the cards Slayer spoke about, and that card, was a powerful posion.

A loud snarl of pain broke the silence of the night. The pain invaded him as fresh and hot blood fell to mix with the crimson leaves. Daiken’s eyes glimmered furiously as he shifted in seconds and turned to attempt a lock Tanken’s right arm between his jaws, twisting his elbow to the left until the joint and tendons holding it ripped apart, making its movement useless for at least some minutes. Tanken succeed in his first blow, and now the fight started, he wouldn’t be able to hide again now that he exposed himself. Both bodies of the same age but different strength, collided like two raging bulls to then trap each other’s flesh, muscles, and bones with fangs and claws that became stained completely in blood after a few minutes. The question was, who was stronger? Daiken always had more force and resistance, but Tanken was smart and agile. As the fight continued, Daiken started to feel the symptoms hitting him one by one as the poison spread along his body. As Slayer helped him fight Tanken, Daiken worked into the archives of his memory to find the relation between the symptoms, the time, pain, and all the characteristics he could gather, with all the poisonous herbs he knew. Nausea and a tingling sensation at the origin had been the first ones, making him want to vomit with each blow he received from his brother. Increased salivation, deshidratation, and difficulty breathing were next, making it hard to follow Tanken’s movements as the minutes passed.

Tanken grinned evilly as his attempt succeed and the venom got into his circulatory system, as part of his blood was already falling over the already red leaves under them. For a Kazeshini, the first blow was very important, especially for someone with just a few years over his shoulders. Tanken learned to kill as fast and lethal as a spy or ninja should do. The first blow was what mattered, after that, it was hard to tell if you will success if your contestant wasn’t younger. The problem was that Daiken was also very fast, and just before he could retreat his hand from his back, he was already shifting and turning to reply with the next attack. His jaws trapped his forearm and his head turned to the left, twisting and ripping apart his elbow and shoulder joins and tendons. The pain hit him like a wrecking ball on his entire right side, his arm blended to the wrong side. Tanken moved backwards and used his left hand to place his arm on the right position, clenching his jaws hard to endure the pain hitting him again.

He looked furiously at his brother and launched at him again, running on his three good legs until both their bodies hit each other, their jaws trapping each other flesh and muscles as the just wanted to rip the other apart. They bit, clawed, and broke each other until Tanken started to notice that his movements got slower and less focused. Finally the effects of the Aconite and Rosary Pea where making their effect. Tanken bit into his neck and pushed him backwards towards a river he also planned on using against him. They rolled towards the river and Tanken pushed him towards the falls where rocks of all sizes waited for a body to crash against them. No matter the huge pain in his entire right arm, Tanken placed it down and helped himself to push his brother farther away with the help of the poison hurting his body from the inside, as he did from the outside, a deadly snarl sounded over the noise of the water. One last push and he would be able to throw his own brother down to a near death. After that, it was going to be so easy to leave a pack without their new useless Alpha.

Daiken’s body reached the shore slowly as the water pulled him near the ground to finally anchor there peacefully. Red lines moved from his wet black pelt to the river, the blood dissipating as it reached the flowing waters. Fresh marks of claws and fangs covered his body, making the blood to flow easily from them. His eyes remained closed, but the pain started to invade him once more as his nerves decided to feel again. Daiken opened his eyes slowly to welcome a darkness of a night without moon. He couldn’t remember what just happened, his location, the time, or why half of his body was still underwater. His head hurt and a dim annoying sound kept resonating inside his ears. Suddenly, his mind started to remember what happened two hours ago.

Daiken placed a paw in front of him and started to get up slowly as his legs trembled with the effort. His lower back hurt more than anything else, the origin starting at his right side, puncturing his kidney deeply. Daiken tried to remember when and how was he attacked there so harshly, his memory just coming by pieces, like an old film. Straightening himself up, the pain grew on his back, obliging him to drop his knees down as more blood feel down from the injury.

At the beginning, Daiken just had some data to know what herbs Tanken used exactly to play dirty, as always. But now, the other symptoms were already taking over his body into a state he knew was going to prevent further attacks on Tanken. He managed to hurt him as much as he could, but the venom made him useless from now on. His kidneys, liver, and spleen shut down, including an excess of fluid in his lungs, making him cough light amber liquid every now and then as he fought to get some oxygen into his lungs. And those were just the Rosarie’s effects. The Aconite made his blood pressure to increase, making his injuries to bleed more and not coagulate as usual, his heart finally presenting the irregularities proper of the Aconite. Damn it. Daiken couldn’t afford any more time here, but he couldn’t leave if Tanken was still alive. As he knew it was a matter of time until Tanken returned to continue the fight, Daiken made an effort to get up again, blood moved down his forehead, covering his eyes and cheeks. It was obvious he hit his head somewhere, maybe against a rock. For a moment he feared for his live. He couldn’t care less about his fate before, but now he had a pack again, he had Noctavia which he loved with his entire heart, two little wolves were going to born soon, and he didn’t want to die before being able to meet them, be there for them and his pack, teach them everything he knew and learn with them what he didn’t. But Daiken was also realist. He knew that he was too weak right now to avoid more attack, and Tanken already had too much fun. He was going to finish this very soon. Daiken hated to ask for help, he always survived alone, but right now was not the time to be conceited. Throwing his head backwards, he managed to hold down the coughing to send a long and deep howl to the night sky. Any werewolf near a radio of 28 kilometers would be able to hear him.

“Really? This is as far as the great Alpha goes? Three times Alpha, and the story keeps repeating itself...” An evil and cold voice appeared between the trees as a black figure walked slowly towards Daiken. He had managed to throw him from the falls and he enjoyed seeing and hearing how his bones crushed and broke against the rooks at the bottom, smiling evilly as he used the safe way down through the forest and reached his bleeding body. “Come on Daiken, is that going to stop you from getting your revenge? Remember how your little mutts and pack howled of pain when the hunters killed them one by one? I saw everything... and I then killed the hunters to not leave any loose ends. The only loose end I always left, was you... And I think I’m going to fix that now and for all.”

Tanken moved closer to his brother, his right paw up in the air, not being able to put it down and lay weight on it, at least not for now. His usual blue eyes were darker with anger but the grin crossing his snout showed amusement and joy as he looked at Daiken in that state. "Come on, brother! We aren't done!" He watched as his brother asked for help and left his neck uncovered, inviting him to take that last attack to end his miserable life. Running towards him, Tanken opened his jaws and launched. One more bite, and all this will be over.

Tucking his hands into his pockets, he patrolled the borders. Vitani had made plans for the two that evening, but he told her it was vital for him to do a border patrol first. He had heard of Axel and Damian's fight, forcing the Elite to forfeit his rank to the elder wolf. But Damian was lucky Axel did not take his life. The elder was wise in the powers of his age and sophistication, fueled by the want for power. He was able to defeat his opponent and Travis had hoped his position would not also be in jeopardy. The brute had not been alive asking as Axel, but he knew how to fight and would do anything to keep his fae safe from harm. As Guardian he would keep all safe from outside danger. He wandered the streets, keeping his eyes opened and his body focused, ready. He moved about the lands, listening to the noises of the city by him. The cars whipped by, forcing their way to their destinations. But a sound one could not cover was the cry of a wolf. Moving for the dark shadows of the alleys, Travis shifted to his primal stage, snarling and tail raised over his spine. The sound was distant and upon further smells of the area, he discovered his Alpha had been through this very way. He followed the scent, lowering his head as he raced over the ground.

As he approached the Crimson Forest, he was eager to find the strong scented Alpha. Quietly his blended coat mixed with the surroundings as large paws took careful steps to avoid attention towards his position. Emerald hues stared into the night, eyeing a pair in the distance. They seemed to be fighting, though one was definitely winning. He moved closer until he smelled a familiar and yet foreign scent. Tanken. The loner which had laid hands on his lady was standing before him ready to attack his Alpha. Without a sound, the large beast lunged and knocked the loner away from his Alpha. Planting his paws in the ground, he stood defensively before his Alpha, protecting him from any other attacks. Travis took note of the strange smell coming from the Alpha, mixing with his blood, but focused his attention to the vial creature before him. Snarling he rolled back his lips and growled to the loner, "what are you doing here loner? Thinking you are about to kill Daiken? If that is correct, then I regret to inform you that you must go through me first, as it is my duty to protect and serve my leader. So... Bring it on.."

Tanken was suddenly hit at his side, his body flying aside to drift over the red leaves and dirt. An evil snarl rose from his throat as he finally stopped and stood up quickly, his furious eyes looking towards the source of the attack. It was that male he met before at the bar, when he was drunk and willing to attack anyone that would bother him. What was his name? He remembered he was the Guardian or the same pack his brother was in, but his name was hidden under the files of his memory. Tanken lifted up his injured arm and moved it in circles. He knew he was going to need his entire force with this new contestant. Damn. He had been so close to finally kill Daiken, and this brute decided to appear in the last second to save him. How pathetic. He didn’t have any more venom to help him this time, but he did have those traps around the forest. He would have to think in a way to drag him towards them, that if he even cared to move away from Daiken. He wasn’t going to back down now. He was going to kill Daiken or he die. He sensed some of his force with that hit, and it was a lot, but maybe he would have a chance. Yeah, that was idealistic. He knew that his time was going to come soon, and he wanted to take Daiken with him before that.

“Didn’t your mother taught you to don’t put your snout into others issues? This is between my brother and me, leave the mighty Alpha to deal his own fights!” He growled with hate and anger, placing his injured arm on the floor again. The pain diminished as it healed and he would be able to fight like always in a few more minutes. Tanken took some steps forward and circled the brute, trying to make up with a strategy to go for his brother before getting killed by the other. His fangs dripped blood and saliva as his open snout warned both wolves of several bites to come. He had to test the strength of the brute before planning a further attack on him. Launching against him, Tanken jumped to the right and then slid near him to attempt a blow at his ankles with his long claws, careful to be able to move away in case his jaws wished to trap him.

Daiken looked down at Tanken as he came closer, inches away from snapping at his throat. It was too late, he wasn’t going to be able to avoid that attack, not even lower his head to cover his throat. In a split second, another wolf came from the trees and pushed Tanken away, preventing his attack and possibly, saving his life. His eyes moved to the new male, the scent of the pack strong on him. He wasn’t Damian, or Ryker, and from what he heard, he wasn’t the famous Axel Noctavia talked about. His smell was familiar, especially at the borders of Eternal. Was he Guardian Travis? Daiken walked a few steps and felt his legs trembling as they screamed with pain. His breathing was hash and fast, making his words slip between gasps with effort. “Careful... He loves to play games during a fight.”

Daiken felt a deep pain crossing his back and his head drop down trying to endure the simple effort to be on his all four. “Travis, I suppose. May I ask for a favor? This will not end until one of us dies. No matter what happens to me, just make sure he ends here. He is a threat for Noctavia, my children, and all of you.” He didn’t know him, but after he just did, he knew he could trust this werewolf to kill his brother. It was his duty after all, but he wasn’t in the position to give the least attack now. His eyes moved to Tanken as he launched again, he wanted to move and help Travis, but his muscles didn’t followed his orders anymore. “Travis!”