Vortex had returned to the workshop the following night and nights thereafter. With Axle as a new addition, she had to learn how to wield them properly. Garriz was intrigued to learn that Vortex had a private discussion with the weapon and learned about referring to them as if they were a person.
“I think and live. Maybe not like you, but I still deserve respect,” she recalled Axle explaining for her to transcribe to the large minotaur. They were met with a solid nod, returning to their positions. Garriz has been training Vortex how to wield Axle for the past two days. During that time, all three were chipping ideas on how to get Nebula back home. Initially, they had tried to hold the moonstone out to where Nebula had cracked to the atmosphere, hoping that it’d act as a beacon in a similar fashion to how the Headless Horseman was obliterated. Regardless of how high up Vortex held the gem, or any magical words to enhance its power, nothing was working. Nebula drew up a blank on how as well. All she knew was that the moonstones were used to navigate- she collected them mostly to have mementos of all the worlds she’s passed through.
“Are you sure there isn’t ANYTHING you can remember with how the moonstones work?” Vortex shouts out as she swings again. Garriz refuses to teach her how to fight in a duel until she masters her swings with Axle. The basics were starting to wear down her biceps; this was double sided axe style?!
“I only know certain things about how Chelonia works. I can’t know everything from there! It’s hard to keep up with my studies as it is…” Nebby drifts off, cleaning her webbing out of nervousness. “It’s like me asking you how your spacecraft is made. You only know the boosters and planes, but not the inner workings.” The werewolf scratches her leg with one foot, glancing away. That was true- Vortex likes to know a lot of things, but if asked how to travel to outer space, it would not end well.
“Hey, focus!” Garriz shouts, spinning his oversized worker’s hammer. There was nothing special about it, but it served as a literal learning tool. “You wanna get stronger? Practice that swing one hundred times!”
“I have swung one hundred times!” Vortex shouts back, Axle slumping down to the ground with the werewolf’s grip. “Then practice a hundred times more! A warrior does not get stronger unless they train every day!” Nebby wishes she could get Garriz to be nicer to Vortex, but she still can’t muster the courage to talk to him about it.
“How come Nebula doesn’t have to train?!” Vortex whines. “Doesn’t… time out!” She stops in her tracks. “Hey, Nebula! Are you a girl or-?”
“What?” the siren tilts her head.
“You know- what do I refer to you as?? Are you a ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘they’-?”
Nebula’s inner gears grind to a halt. “What are you talking about??”
“Argh- I’m Vortex! Everyone refers to me as a ‘she’ or ‘her’ because I’m a she-wolf. What do your people use as a word for that??”
“...” Nebula stays quiet, squinting her eyes and lips parted. “I don’t- I don’t think your people are biologically able to pronounce them. My friends and family refer to me with ‘cxhiu’(wheuw).” “... you’re right-” Vortex comments.
“Do you have any ‘effeminate’ notations?” Nebula asks.
“Yes: ‘she’ and ‘her’ in English,” Vortex says. Nebula opts for, “use those from now on.”
“Right- doesn’t she need to learn how to fight too?” Garriz shakes his head, lowering his hammer. “Nebby is not a fighter by nature- we talked over breakfast earlier. She told me that Chelonia rarely ever had wars, so the need to fight is only taught for meditation.”
“Like martial arts?” the werewolf inquires.
“Right on the mark. Nebby hasn’t learned it because she was not old enough to be considered for training.”
Vortex ponders that for a moment. Such cultural differences- what would be taught at such an early age on here would need to wait until full maturity on Nebula’s planet?
“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask: where’s your cloak?” the blacksmith questions. He pointed to her with a hooved finger. “You have that on all the time, so I’m surprised you came back to me without it.” A quick grapple or two behind her back and to her neck confirms that. Where DID her cloak go? The last time she remembers having it, she had… wrapped it around…
“Nebula. What happened to my cloak?”
Nebby’s fins perk; then, she looks away, embarrassed, not saying anything for a few seconds, before finally speaking. “I...I kinda used it as a second blanket…”
The werewolf groans to herself, rubbing her armored forehead with her hand. At least it was still intact. “Where is it?”
“It’s in my- er, the room Garriz has me sleep in. I can go get it right now,” Nebby says, starting to stand up.
“Alright, let’s take a break here,” Garriz states, putting his hammer fully down. “We’ll continue once you’re well hydrated. No leaving until I say so, though, you got it?” the minotaur establishes. Vortex finally plops Axle to the ground, apologizing briefly to them when she hears an “oof”.
“Still getting used to you, sorry,” she says, patting the metal with her hand as if to reassure them. “Everything that has happened is still hard to believe. First Nebula quite literally crash-landing onto this planet, the Headless Horseman, you, everything.” She already had enough to deal with the mist…
She glances off to the side, staring at the path of the near endless evergreen trees. The night was cool, a testament to the spring season in swing. She should be cold, but thanks to her fur, it was nothing more than a breeze. Her winter coat was still shedding, so her fur was flying everywhere. If not for the helmet, her allergies would be acting up more than a high school theater rehearsal.
“Hey, Vortex,” Axle calls out to her, catching her attention. “What was it about the mist you spoke about?” The werewolf’s tail frizzes up a bit at the mention of it. Her ears turn down, and she sighs deeply.
“The mist of the Beastial Barrier- Sanctuary if you’re an older folk. Everyone underneath in this barrier thinks that the mist is what protects us from the outside world. It has all sorts of mythical creatures within- fairies, unicorns, centaurs. You know, the likes.” Vortex explains, using her hands to express herself animatedly. However, her hands curl up into fists, tightening on the grass.
“But that mist is nothing but a lie. That mist is why I’m cursed to become a werewolf- and what’s worse, I’m not a werewolf bound to just the full moon. So long as the moon shows itself, I’m tied to transforming that little bit.” She gestures to her form. “Tonight is hardly a sliver out, but I’m still covered head to toe in fur.” True, she was only an inch under six feet this time around, but that tiny bit was enough to cause a significant change. “My only night of refuge is the new moon. Each day, it becomes more and more difficult to stay sane. I feel myself becoming less of who I am- I’m…” she pauses, trying to make sure her voice doesn’t waver.
“I’m afraid I’ll look at myself and not know who I am anymore.” The silence afterwards was not awkward, but solemn. Vortex’s dark teak brown eyes fall, eyelids closing. Axle’s metal shimmers in the moonlight, reflecting the soft glow. Not quite waxing, but getting there.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Axle starts, moving his single eye to look at Vortex. “But there are ways to kill a werewolf. Silver, wolfsbane, and mercury.”
“Decapitation if you want to go that far,” Vortex throws in. “Why? Plan on killing the beast from the inside?”
“No, no,” Axle echoes out, looking out to the distance of the forest. “I didn’t expect this to become lost knowledge, but there is a way to cure your lycanthropy that doesn’t involve being killed.” That got Vortex to perk right up- pointy elven-like ears pointing at the sky, small tail wagging side to side, and jumping up from a seating position to a squat. “What is it?! If you knew already, then spit it out!”
“Slow down. I’ll tell you, but lower your voice.” Axle whispers. “I don’t wish for the minotaur to overhear you. Long ago, there was a werewolf that was on a search to cure her lycanthropy. She was being pursued by monster hunters and let the curse willingly take over her. Once she had realized she would eventually succumb to the curse if not treated, she had spent all of her waking moments researching ways to kill the beast.” Vortex listens intently, not moving a single muscle, hanging on to each word. “Then, one night, she had finally encountered a way to remove it for good. I only knew of her because that… man had fought her in the past.”
“That man? You mean the Headless Horseman?”
“Right. She almost befell him successfully, but he escaped from her claws through the Horseless Headman’s smoke. He had taken away that very cure, taunting her to come after him if she could to take it back.”
“So, what was it?!” Vortex asks, growing impatient, stamping one foot down. “Stop holding out on me!”
“What you took from him was that very cure! The moonstone itself!” Vortex pauses to search through her hip satchel, pulling out the moonstone itself from inside. “You’re telling me the moonstone will cure my curse? That… that makes sense! In a weird way, that all makes sense!” Vortex’s eyes gleam from staring at the gemstone. Finally, she can cure herself just like that werewolf! “But… if the stone was there when I defeated the dullahan, then what happened to the other werewolf?”
“... I don’t know,” Axle admits. “All I can remember is that it took a few special moonstones that held strong powers imbued from the earth to cure it. With him taking it, I highly doubt she was ever cured.”
Vortex’s expression fell inside the helmet. So there was a good chance that the werewolf from Axle’s story never got a chance to live back to normal. Despite knowing how she can finally get rid of the curse, she can’t help but grieve for that one who never got that same chance, too.
“Is this why the moonstone carries a similar mirroring of the Headless Horseman’s likeliness inside?” She holds the gem up to the moonlight, observing carefully. Moonstones were supposed to be opal-like, blue and translucent. This one was an eerie neon green; if she were to focus, she could still see that pumpkin head’s smile in the cracks.
“You could consider him a power on the earth, I guess. I don’t know much else.” Silence washes over again, but Vortex is calmer than before. “However-” Axle starts, eyeball swirling to look at the werewolf once again. “-You could find the next moonstone by using the one you have as a compass. Consider it an educated guess, but I have a feeling that it might be trying to tell you where to find the next one.”
“Why would it do that?” Vortex questions with a cocked eyebrow, lips turning thin. “It has the power, but not like it can call out to others like they’re lost friends.” This weapon was gonna be the death of her, she swears.
“Do you not feel that pull?” Axle inquires genuinely, eye furrowing. “I can. It’s telling me to head north- and it has only gotten stronger as the days have gone by. Hurry. We might miss our chance to retrieve it on time.”
“You can feel it?” Vortex can’t believe this. There’s so much to learn with this sentient thing, but it has so many abilities to leave her head spinning. “And wait, what do you mean that we’re running out of time??”
“Can you just trust me on this?!” Axle demands, rattling slightly from frustration. “It’s hitting a peak like it would a hurricane- we have to move, NOW!”
Making up her mind, Vortex grabs ahold of Axle’s handle, lifting herself and them back up. “Good grief, you are HEAVY…” she grits out, balancing her weight out from standing. She places the moonstone back in her satchel and takes off to the thick of the forest. Blinded by the opportunity to finally be back to normal permanently, she forgets about her training with Garriz.
Meanwhile, Garriz comes back out of his house calling for Vortex. “Break’s over! Time to get back to it!” When no response comes, he walks down the steps of his house and scans the area. “Vortex? Taking a bathroom break?” Again, no Vortex to confirm. “Goddamn it- she took off on her own. Terrible at listening, worse with directions…” he sighs to himself. “I really am trying, Priestess. But your little kid from another batch has to put in the work.”
Nebula emerges from the house, cloak folded neatly and held to her chest. “What’s going on? Where’s Vortex?” She gazes out to the clearing as she asks, trying to find any sign of the sepia-teal mixed werewolf. She couldn’t sense the moonstone nearby. In fact, it was on the move. Did she figure out its tracking abilities?
“Must have left for the evening,” he says, running his hands through his hair. “Damn brat. I can’t make her stay, but she makes it hard to like her,” he remarks. “Well, I suppose this will mean I have more time for my clients. Feel free to rest here for today too.” Nebula moves faster than he expects and starts swimming out to the trees. “Wh- get back here, Nebby! What’re you doin’!? Nebby!”
“I sense the moonstone moving deep in there- that can only mean Vortex went off in that direction!” she shouts, rushing to their direction. “Where are they headed with that thing?” She swims and swims, chasing after wherever Vortex fled off to. It’s hard to keep up- the she-wolf has too much leg!