Bloodhunters

Xane Crow does not know his biological family, but his first family was a pack of bloodhuunters. These bloodhunters had a malicious hatred for werewolves, even though they are socially accepted by society. It was a gloomy negative atmosphere that Xane grew up in. In this pack, no one had witten names, instead they would identify each other through animal sounds. Due to a speech disability, Xane was not able to correctly pronounce any sounds. He would get teased, pushed around, and bullied for this. It also did not help that he was a drow and his skin was fairer and he had dark hair, which he kept super short, almost buzzed. Xane would keep to himself because he knew he was useful in other ways. He would excel at every task during his bloodhunting training and was an excellent tracker, so he was valuable to the team. Younger trainees have to go through a training course before they can become official members of the pack, with the final exam ending with hunting a werewolf. This program lasts a few years, but since Xane was brought in as an infant, he was one of the- if not thee- youngest trainee to take the final test. Days before the test, Xane was overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions. He was stress, nervous, sad, and frustrated all at the same time. He had really negative thoughts, but he knew he was stronger so he just kept training and preparing for his big day.

The Awakening of Rue

Finally, it was the day of the test. Xane's mind was racing in circle at the few scenarios that could happen if and when he passed his test. Yet, he never expected what actually happened. Just around sunset, all of the testers gathered for a pre-test warm-up in their hunter uniforms. These uniforms were flexible black jumpsuits with some equipment: night-vision goggles for those who have a hard time seeing in the dark, leather armor, a balaclava mask to keep idenities hidden, and plenty of weapons. Xane got all ready and headed to the starting line. The testing group consisted of four to five testers and one supervising proctor to make sure nothing gets out of hand. The sun sank lower until darkness covered the sky. Soon they were off. Swiftly, Xane sped off in search of a werewolf. It was his goal to finish first. After just a few minutes of running around, he felt out of breath and dizzy. It confused him because he was in the best shape, he cannot start feeling sick and nauseous now. As he kept treading deeper into the woods, he just felt weaker and weaker yet his rage was at this point out of control. He found a small corner to hide. He was losing control of himself, he has never experienced somehting like this before. He gazed up at the bright full moon as he felt this hair all over his body begin to rise. The luminence of the moon was so bright he had to squint just to look at it as he felt his mind slip away and he fell unconscious.

Xane awoke in a different location from where he lost consciousness. His clothes were terribly ripped, he was completely unarmed, and his head was pounding. There was a burning senstion across his face and as he touched his cheek, he felt a seering pain and a mixture of fresh and dry blood stained his fingertips. Horrified, he started to panic, looking for something to see his refelction, but there were no swords or metal to view. He tried to find his way back to base, but he was overstimulated with a sudden advanced smell and how loud the forest became. He ended up walking in circle until he lost hope. Another thing he noticed was how long his hair grew. Just last night, it was buzzed, but now its long enough that it touches his shoulders. Isolated and alone, Xane tried to find tears to shed just to let out the scared sadness he was feeling but the tears would not come out. Eventually a few hours passed and he tried to navigate through the testing forest again. As he was limping from soreness, he caught a familiar yet decaying scent. The scent lead him down into a small patch of torn up grass, claw marks in the dirt, and dried blood splotches in the grass. Xane was just frozen in place. He thought to himself "What happened?" Suddenly, a voice responds, "We did this." Xane scurries away into a nearby shrub, panicking. The voice spoke again, "the moon, she freed you. Us. I am what you fear. Rage, frenzy, jealousy.." The voice paused. "Pain." Xane stood up and returned to the site. He saw small tufts of black fur. He picked up a clump and held it up to his own hair. They were the same shade of black. "It felt so great to finally be released. Those hunters had no idea we hid amongst them. The very thing they hunted." Xane had no idea what to even think. Him, a werewolf? The more that voice inside his head spoke, the more sense it made; the gash on his face, the soreness after barely running for 5 mins, his hair growing back, the unexplainable mood swings and irritation. Xane knew he couldn't go back, they would kill him. He needed a moment. Xane fled deeper in the forest to territory he knew the bloodhunters would not be.

The night Xane fled, he had a dream. He was back in the testing forest in his gear. He was reliving the previous night. He ran into the forest, felt exhausted and sick, then hid away. Xane felt his eyes droop as the moon glimmered, but unlike last night, Xane reamined awake. Suddenly, he felt his body contort in all sorts of ways. He fell forward on his knees, wincing and clawing at the ground as he felt his whole body shift. He watched in horror as his hands morphed into furry claws. He felt his teeth grow larger than his mouth and his ears fold backwards. He looked all around at his new body. He was scared, yet it felt like a weight has been lifted off his shoulder. He felt powerful. He felt free. He ran around until he heard the snapping of a twig. All of his senses are on high alert. For a moment, he thought he saw a blur go by, until he caught it. From the corner of his eye he sees a hunter leap towards him. Xane takes a step back and recollects himself. Playfully and overconfidently, he runs around loving the chase. Soon that one hunter turns into two, then three. Xane believed that his was all a dream so he got a bit cocky. He was dodging all of their moves because he learned those moves and knew how to counter them, all of them, until one caught him by surprise. One hunter caught him in his blind spot and sliced Xane from the top of his right eyebrow, diagonal to his left cheek. Xane screeched in pain as the hunters were regrouping for a mass strike. Anger overflowed all of his sense when he lashed out and violently attacked all the hunters around. Their screams echoed through the forest and another young hunter appeared. Xane saw them frozen solid in his periphrial and without hesitation attacked the final test taker. Just as he felt his teeth sink into the hunter, he woke up. He started to believe that he is a monster, whether he's the hunter or the prey.

Rescued and Rehabilitated

Xane did his best to survive on his own, but he still was just a kid, barely in his teens. His sense of awareness and survival instinct have improved, but it was hard for him to live on his own. It also did not help to have a voice chime in every so often with a violent thought. One day, he stumbled into a small town. Scared of how he would appear to others, he remained hidden and scavenged around for supplies. While he was digging around, he encountered a small party of warriors. They all looked powerful and mighty, which intimidated Xane, but peaked his curiosity. At a distance, he tracked and followed them to wherever their destination may be and he ended up at some hideout just outside of the town. He saw the group enter a small cave, and he just had to follow. This was the most exciting event that has happened. With his head telling him no, but his heart telling him yes, he snuck into the hideout as well. Turns out these bandits were violent thieves who were terroizing the town and these warriors were sent to deal with the situation. When he got into the cave, there was a battle unfolding but it was overwith rather quickly. Confused, the warriors were puzzled because there were no riches to be found, just beaten up bandits. Xane tried to spy on them, but one of the warriors saw him and Xane hid in a small nook. The warrior sternly called out for him to show his face. Xane bit his lip. This could go two ways: he just gets sent away and scolded for being nosy, or this may be the help he's been searching for. Slowly and timidly, Xane puts his tiny hands out for warriors to see as he takes small steps to reveal himself. These warriors were huge compared to him. The shorter tiefling who seemed to be in charged spoke up and asked for Xane to state his business. Xane held his breath as he shakily signed, "I can't speak. I'm mute." The tieflings hard gaze softened slightly as he interrogated in sign back. He asked Xane why he's here and if his parents know where he is. Xane signed back that he is on his own and he wanted to see if he could help out so they could help him. The tiefling turned to his party members for discussion. Xane eavesdropped a bit, until he heard something about the warriors needing to find the loot before heading back. Xane knew what he had to do to prove himself. He started looking around for some hidden pockets that the bandits would have hidden their loot. He took a deep breath in and the smell of metal lingered in the air. He wandered around the cave, ignoring the tiefling calling for him until he got to a corner in the cave. There seemed to be a small passage with a shine at the end of it. He waved over the warriors as he squeezed his way in and found stacks of gold, jewelery and other priceless objects. He took a few items and crawled back out of the passage and showed the warriors. They were all impressed and were able to successfully finish their mission. As the party was packing up to leave, the tieflinf approached Xane and invited him to come to the adventures guild he and the other warriors are a part of. Astonished and excitedly, Xane skips around and joins the party in returning to the guild.

Fast forward, Xane, just at the age of 12 joins the adventures guild and trains as a scout. Eventually, he even becomes an apprentice and trains underneath Xerxes. Xerxes is the highest ranking guildmember, just underneath the guild master, so training under him was a dream come true for Xane. The guild is Xane's new home and they provide all that they can for Xane. They even created and gifted Xane a mask of his design that he wears with confidence. While, he still has werewolf episodes, the guild helps him through it and provides him with the best care. Xane has been apart of this Adventures Guild now for three years and is proud to be a part of the family.

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