“Unless you’re a king that pays me well,” Wulfgar added. “Speaking of, we should talk soon. I may have some information of worth.”
Kane patted the man’s shoulder. “I expect nothing less every time we see one another. I will send for you soon.”
The two men clasped arms in a rather manly handshake, giving each other pats on the back in a half hug. Without a goodbye, Wulfgar saluted Kane, gave me a slight bow and continued up the cobblestone road.
“He’s an intense man.” I glanced back at him as he walked off, curious about their apparent friendship.
Kane chuckled. “One of his good traits. He has many and needs to considering that his kind and my kind usually do not mix well since he is a Wornoichen. I’m grateful for that since otherwise our engrained hatred for one another would be an issue.”
“Wornoichen?”
Kane plucked a piece of fruit from a vendor’s booth as we continued walking, tossing a coin to the woman who owned it. He handed the fruit to me. “Wornoichen have an almost tragic history if I am honest. They were once human. Similar to vampires, they were changed. An entire community of them, in one night. Within a week, several settlements had either been killed or transformed.”
I took a bite as he explained, chewing thoughtfully before speaking. “Transformed into what? He looked human enough to me.”
“When calm? Yes. But in battle, he changes.” Something about the way Kane said the words carried a respectful weight.
“Changes how?”
“He takes on some traits that are very canine-like. With his fury, his kind can grow claws, sharper and longer teeth, elongate their ears for better hearing, elongate their noses for better scent ability,” he explained, pausing only a moment to make sure I wasn’t freaking out. When he saw that I was following, he continued, “When his people were being changed, they got stuck in their transformative stages. Some fully turned into uncontrollable canines, attacking others upon sight. Their bite being what spreads the disease… if it doesn’t kill you. Very few have had control over it. I have never seen any of them have the control that Wulfgar does.”
I looked back the direction the fabled raider went again. “Why does your kind and his not get along? And how did the spread of the condition get slowed if it was happening so fast?”
“Those are related.” Kane steered us down a road to our right. “It was my kind that went in and contained the situation. Most other races did not have the strength or simply did not have the numbers. We had both. So, we created a barrier with stations and magic, mages helping us with the later, and we walled them into a containment city. Those that were outside of it were tracked down and either brought in or killed. It caused a lot of resentment from them to vampires and mages, but it stopped the progression of their plague.”
He motioned for me to step around a small puddle on the sidewalk. “After that, decades passed before any of their kind was let outside of the boarders. The city is still maintained by that barrier. But there are some that have proven their own self-restraint that have been allowed to roam free. Wulfgar was the first. Since then, though, his kind has started to die out. Only a fraction of their numbers still live. Wulfgar, himself, lost his entire family, including wife and children.”
“So, this was recent?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. The condition slows their metabolism permanently. Unlike us, they do age. But unlike their original human forms, they age much, much slower. I believe he is over a hundred years old.”
“And now he is a raider for hire? What did he do before this?” I found myself completely enraptured.
He shrugged. “I do not know. I only know that he does his work well. Better than I’ve ever employed in the past. What he does with all of the spoils I pay him? I do not know. But I speculate it might have something to do with how his city stays fed.”
“You think he…”
“I can only speculate. But what he does with his earnings is none of my business. My only business is if he does the work I pay him for. And that he does.” Kane seemed proud to speak of the man.
I processed the information for a moment. “Wornoichen?”
“Wornoichen.” Kane walked us into a general goods shop. We made our way to the back where he handed me a small ornate dagger.
"This is pretty...." I was a little lost as to why he put the blade in my hands.
"Everyone in this world has weapons. You need to carry that one with you at all times.” Kane flagged over the shop keeper.
I looked around at my outfit and bit my lip. "Where would I keep it? Just carry it in my hand? Or do women carry purses here?"
He chuckled. "Well you could. People do carry what you know of as a purse, if I recall from my short stay on your planet. Women here wear elaborate armor as well, especially things that strap to thighs. Or they have bags like that.” He pointed to a messenger bag on a rack nearby.
"Oh. Yeah. It's a harsher world here... more battle torn." I sounded sad for a moment but looked over at the bag, distracting myself. Seeing something a little more my style behind it, I pulled it off the rack, thinking about my actual purse that was somewhere in the castle. Someplace I didn't know. I almost spiraled into a panic attack, worried about who might have
