The Waning Moon War Book 1

Ch 5 The Nameless Visitor

Silver worked her way through the heavy brush of the forest looking like a walking bush she thought to herself "I can't believe it's been almost two months and I haven't seen any change in their activity with the losses they've sustained."

Then an ungodly scream cuts through the air. She took a quick moment to lock on to the sound then walked in the direction. As she got closer the screams could no longer be heard. Silver slowed her walk and saw green light emitting from behind a tree. She quietly drew her blades and slowly creeped around the tree crouched position. As she came around the tree she sees the back of a changeling in armor with its wings beating back and forth rapidly in short bursts. Silver slowly raised her daggers to make a quick kill but then a males voice says "OW! Careful there. There that should make your leg good as new." Silver freezes as she watches a vampiric jackalope hop out from in front of the changeling and into woods leaving a few drops of green blood on the ground.

She slowly lowered her blades back under her bush illusion with a confused look while thinking "Did he just help a creature instead of feeding off of it? Why?"

The changeling then pulled out some medical gear out while grunting "Shit that little blood sucker sure can bite." Once done he stood up revealing a bandage on his right rear leg just behind the knee. He took off after grabbing his gear.

After a bit Silver stood up looking in the direction the changeling left in. Saying softly "Why did he let it go Tairis?" after touching the green blood and looking at it she lowered her illusion. Then her eyes widened in fear as an unwelcomed stench filled the air. She quickly turned her head to see three Timberwolves were looking at her and was approaching her slowly.

She quickly tore off in the opposite direction looking for any way to slow or stop them. In a few seconds she spotted some loose rocks above her and fired a bolt at them. As they fell she quickly darted under them feeling the rocks scrape at her and crushed the closest one on her flank.

As she continued on the other two jumped over the rock pile. Then the two let out an ear chilling howl. In seconds multiple howls responded back through the woods. Silver looked around to see two more wolves leaping over a large tree and one on her right jumped off a large rock. Silver thinking to herself while looking back forward "Buck, they just keep coming. If I hurry I may be able to lose them before I get to the hide out."

As she ripped passed a few trees she spotted some tall bushes a little off to the right. Smiling while thinking "Right there." Soon as she reached the bushes she leaped over them with the wolves only seconds behind her she saw six changelings sitting talking. "Ho, BUCKING HORSE APPLES!" She says as she collides with one wearing only a helmet and sitting next to a cuirass. They both tumble across the ground while the helmet flew off.

As the changeling and her untangled she kicks his muzzle trying to get free. While the five Timberwolves tailing her burst from the bush landing only a couple meters from all of them. One of the changelings yelled "Master Corporal deal with that nightmare, as the rest of us deal with the wolves."

"Yes, sir." Said the one she collided with as he drew a pair of daggers with his magic.

Silver quickly analyzed the area and upon seeing little hope for immediate escape, she drew her daggers with a small flourish. Then sees the bandage on his right rear leg of the changeling. While she was distracted he teleported in close to her and made a quick stab at her flank. Silver quickly tried to teleport a short distance behind him but she still got struck as what felt like a bolt of energy ran through her right rear leg.

While Silver limped around to face the enemy while trying to wake up her numbed and bleeding leg. The changeling was turning around when a Timberwolf half the size of the other wolves jumps from a near by bush biting him on his flank and sinking its claws into his sides. While the changeling started trying to buck the wolf off Silver fired a bolt at the timber wolf without hesitation or thought. But the changeling bucked just as the bolt cut threw the wolfs lower jaw and then it cut deep into the changelings flank then blowing the top of the wolfs head off. While the wolf fell to pieces around him leaving a few claws in his side he limped to face Silver. While she stood there befuddled by why she just saved an enemy.

As he starts to hover off the ground and slowly started towards her. But as he flew forward another full sized Timber Wolf leaped up from a bush form and brought its massive wooden paws down on his head pushing him to the ground. When it landed on his head on the ground he passed out dropping his daggers to the ground. While the wolf Silver took out was just fully reforming and was eyeing her up for an attack. As she swiftly sheathed her daggers as the larger wolf pinning her opponent down dragged its wooden claws down his head across his right eye, then over his muzzle while turning to Silver.

Silver quickly started charging a powerful spell to slow the advancing enemy on her. As the smaller timber charges at her she closes her eyes and unleashed her powerful spell creating a ear shattering boom along with a blinding white light from around her body. The concussion wave deafens, and disorientates the changelings while the timber wolves were blown apart by the wave. Silver opens her eyes to see the damage around her as a few trees leaves, needles and small branches rained around them. Silver looked over at her opponent laying in a pool of his own blood as she turned to head into the woods. She hesitates for a second as her question about him crawled back into her mind "Why did he help that one creature?". She quickly ran over as the voices of her cohorts yelled in her mind "Leave him there!" As she levitates the male changeling onto her back as she hears another more gentler voice says in her mind "That’s my little one."

She quickly teleported to his saddlebags and grabbed them with her mouth. Then as she teleported deeper into the woods as she saw the timbers legs start to reform. As she kept getting further away she could hear screams of terror filled the dreaded forest. After a few seconds silence falls on the forest as Silver casts a stasis spell on him to slow his bleeding. Moving fast as she could through the thick brush to her hideout before he could bleed out. As she enters the hide out she turns the hot water on with her magic and teleports a bowl. She drops his saddlebag on the kitchen table and teleports her own next to his. While the bowl filled she swiped a door open and pulled a bed and box spring out with wheels. As she pulled them out she used her magic to reshape them to fit under the changeling. Once reshaped and placed down she gently sat him on the reformed bed with his head on a small pillow facing the wall. She teleported a few small nightstands near the bed then grabbed her medical gear and the bowl of water.

After a few hours of working on his wounds she was finally on the bite and humming softly through the surgeon mask. Then heard the changeling moan as he slowly opened his eyes then asks groggily "Where am I? Why can't i move?" Each question sounding more panicked.

Silver leaned over to his head then says softly through her covered mouth. "Your fine I've just put your body in a stasis spell to slow your bleeding. Now go back to sleep."

As she casted he sleep spell on him he asked "What happen.. to.. mmy..."

Soon as he trailed off to sleep she started singing softly while she removed a few shards of wood from his bite wound "Hush my little nightmare as I lay you down."

Once done she put shields over all the injury’s along with a spell to numb his future pain then levitated him up and returned the bed to normal. Then put him down and covered him with a blanket. She then took her tools back the kitchen to clean them and herself.

A little while later the changeling opens his left eye to Silvers open mouth over him. He yells in fear and panic "Don't eat me you bucking mare!" as he raises his fore hooves up to push Silvers head away.

Silver started giggling "Eat you?" Then started to laugh so hard she lost her footing on her left side and fell to the floor with a thud. Still giggling in pain "Ho, that’s a good one."

He quickly tried to get out of the bed but fell to the ground. Realizing his hind legs and wings weren't responding he used his fore legs to crawl forward while he muttered "I can't believe this, captured by a blasted Nightmare. Probably going to interrogate and torture me."

As he crawled past the front of the bed Silver comes around her side still giggling to herself. He casts a bolt at her but only a few magical sparks fly from his horns tip. With a confused look on his face he says "Wha..What the?"

As Silver stops giggling then says "I've casted a spell on you to prevent you from attacking me with your magic." She lifts him up with her magic while he hisses at her in disapproval while he squirms but his hissing and squirming ceases his body attacks him with pain. She sets him back in bed in a slightly up right position and covers him up to his lower torso with the blanket. Then says "Now rest until the stasis spell wares off and the pain numbing spell take effect." She turned and headed to the kitchen while still looking at him slightly asking "While you were out I made us a soup made of rose buds, daisies, some hay, and few vegetables. Do you want some?"

Not responding to her question as she pulled two bowls out he asks "So why did you save me then?" In what sounded like a disappointed tone.

As Silver levitates the two bowls of hot soup up along with a couple of spoons and slowly walk over towards him while bring a chair for herself. She says "Well seeing you help that Vampiric Jackalope was different for your kind." She sets the food on the night table and positions her chair to face him while continuing "When most of your kind use them as food source."

The changeling looks away to his rear legs saying "So how much did you see?"

She gives a sly smile as takes her seat, he looks back while she talked. "Well not much since I was behind you and about to slice your throat open with my daggers." She looked over at Taris’ spear over the sink while taking a deep breath and gave a big smile "Then I saw the Jackalope bound away from you." She looks back at his wounded rear leg and nodded towards it saying "Then I watched you patch yourself up." She pauses for a second then continues in softer voice while looking away shyly "Anyways you seem different from the other changelings and you re ..." She stops and takes a deep breath as she wipes a few tears form in her eyes then shakes her to stop herself from crying. "Anyways you must be hungry." She says quickly while levitating a bowl up and offers it to him.

He raises what would be his left eyebrow at her then says "You know my kind feeds off of love right?"

"I know." She says as she levitates her own bowl up to her nose and takes a long whiff then continues "But we both know your kind still needs food to survive just like my kind. So are you really going to refuse the food?"

He sighed then nodded Silver pulls a small wooden bed tray from under his bed. She sets the tray over him and gently sat the bowl down with a spoon. As he picked up his spoon with his right hoof Silver started to eat her meal. He asked as he filled a spoon full of soup. "So what do I call you?" He gives a suspicious sniff of the soup.

Silver swallows then says "I'm Silver Moon and what do I call you?" He looks up at her and remained silent while trying to decide to tell her or not. Silver gives a small sigh as he looks away and starts eating as his eye grows wide in surprise. "Fine you don't have to tell me but I need to call you something." Silver takes a few bites of soup as she gives a smile. "Corporal." She says thoughtfully with a smile then magicly jabs her spoon towards him. “Yaa, I think I'll call you Corporal for now. Well at lest until you tell me your real name."

As he finishes his first few bites of soup not hearing what Silver said as he says "This is so delicious." He looks up at Silver with an overly pleased look on his face.

She says with a smile "I'm glad you like it Corporal."

He pauses in confusion then says with a giggle "Ahh, a name for me." He looks away for a second then says as he lifts another spoonful up he says "Well at least I have a name now right." Right after he started eating in without saying a word.

After they finished there food and took their bowls he finally noticed the other doors. Then asked "So, I'm guessing your not the only one here. What are your friends going to think when they see me?"

Silver gives a small, quiet sigh of pain and a cold chill runs through her as she looks up at Tairis's spear then says "Their opinions really don't matter right now." She puts the bowls in the sink and starts cleaning them. After she turned the lanterns off leaving moon beams lighting up the rooms and said "Have a good night." As she opened her rooms door she looked back at him and said with a smile "Thank you for the complement." She stopped for a second before she entered her room saying "Oh, right the washroom is here if you need it." She ignites a lantern in the washroom on for a second for him then turned it off.

She closed her door with a click and locked it with a red glow. Corporal watched the door fade back to normal as he laid his head down he thought as he slowly drifted off to sleep. "So how in the hay am I going to capture her?"

Meanwhile Silver was writing in a book and whispered softly. "I hope your right grandma." She closed her book and headed for her bed muttering "I must be crazy for saving him." She turned the lantern off and crawled into her bed.

When morning came, Corporal felt something warm and soft rubbed near his genitalia. He opens his eye to a bright light; he quickly closed his eye while groaning then asks "What are you doing to me?"

"I'm giving you a sponge bath to keep you and your wounds clean." Silver says in a muffled voice. "Your a really heavy sleeper. Now hold still I'm almost done cleaning your lower half. After which I'll change the water then I'll tend to your face." She glances over to catch a grin growing on his face. She asked "Are you really thinking that right now?"

He chuckled "Aww, you don't have any fun playing doctor." As he felt Silver started to re-bandaging the bite wound. "So how long have you been a medic or a doctor?"

Silver lifts him gently in the air with her magic and sets him down lightly then after teleporting to the kitchen and back with clean water she says "I've been doing this for over two years thanks to Dr. Zafmir he trained for the first year. The rest was on the field of battle and any book he left me when I left."

While she worked on taking his bandages off he asked "So what’s the damage?" As he opened his other eye to see it functioning properly.

Silver levitated a hand mirror over while saying "Your lucky the wolf's claws missed your eye." She lifted the mirror up to show three deep cuts running down from his right side of his head one just above his eye. As the other two cut just below his eye running down his cheek then down his muzzle half way as they meet up with the third claw and dropped towards his lower jaw.

"Wow close call." He said with wide eyes then asked "So how long are you going to keep me here to heal this damage?"

Silver started to gently wash his face with the soft cloth while she says "Well my best guess I’d say about eight weeks or so. Depending on how long it takes to heal the wound I inflicted near your flank. Not to mention I've been finding more wood shards that I missed last night."

While she started cleaning his head he asked "Why does this not hurt at all?"

Silver focusing on his head with squinting eyes as she removes another few wood shards while replying "It seems the pain numbing spell I casted on you last night is finally taking full effect." As she applied new bandages "I've got to deal with a few things in the forest but I'll be back before the sun sets." She said while levitating the wash bowl and medical kit up to head to the kitchen. "I want you to rest with little movement as possible today."

Tharin lays back down resting his head on the pillow and then asked "So what did you do with my gear?"

She pulled the mask off and lays it on the table with the other things saying "I have them in my room along with your weapons." She dumped the water out while saying louder. "I also had to take your medical gear you had..." She sets the bowl down continuing "in your bags." She quickly washed herself up in the kitchen sink then took the medical gear to her room. When she came back out with her saddle bag and set them down on the table opening the flaps over each other. She opened the fridge to pull a bowl out saying "If you get hungry there is some cut up carrots in water here for you."

Tharin raises his head as Silver sets the bowl on the night stand then sees her saddle bags as she walked away to get her supplies. He used his mouth to flip his covers off then took to the air with his wings creating a buzzing sound. Silver looks back at him with a raised eyebrow as he was inspecting her inner bag lining. Then says "Well that’s a rare sight."

Silver came over with a few bottles of water and apples while asked "What’s a rare sight?"

He touched the lining in curiosity "Your saddle bags inner lining..." He looks over at her "it's made from a black dragons hide. Right?"

She set the food and drink in one pouch while saying "Yaa, well that’s what grandma told me. But we can talk more on that when I return." Silver gently helped him back to the bed and covered him up. "Now listen to your doctor rest for today. Will talk later today." After returning to the kitchen she then throws on her black cloak while locking her bedroom door with the same spell as last night. He watched her leave and lock the main door with that spell. As he laid there in the warm light he drifted off to sleep.

As evening rolled in Silver came in giving a heavy sigh "Another bust on finding that new encampment." She says as she hangs her cloak up. "Not to mention another encampment destroyed by what looked like Timber wolfs due to the claw marks I found." She muttered while she sat her gear on her bed and put a magical red X over a small circle on her map.

As she exited her room she could hear Corporal give a light moan as if in detest. She walks over but as she got closer she started to sense an uneasy energy around him. She slowly crawled her way on to the bed and over his slightly squirming body. She closed her eye and leaned in close to his head opening her mouth, then starts feeding.

She materializes in what looked like a forest. Then in the distance she sees Corporal running from a large black entity. She watches him stop for a second to fire a bolt at it but when it hits it grows larger. Silver changes herself into Queen Chysalis and shifts the woods so he was running right to her. As he came into view he yelled "Thank the hive! Help me my Queen, I can't stop it!"

He runs past and hid behind a rock. Silver watched as the black entity devoured anything in front of it. Silver says in Chrysalis's voice "This is your end!" Her eyes begin to glow a bright solid white as she opens her mouth. Tharin looked out from behind the rock watching the black entity get torn to shreds and sucked in to Chrysalis's mouth. He watched as it was reduced to almost nothing. Then in a flash of blind white light erupts from Chrysalis. Silver comes to and gives a satisfied sigh. She gently got off the bed while the energy around him started to change for a better feel. She grabbed the bowl that still held a few carrots and walked towards the kitchen eating the last few carrots. She emptied the water out setting the bowl aside then grabbed another bowl along with a fork then started cutting up apples, lettuce and added some rose petals into each bowl.

After a bit Corporals voice cuts the silence "Your finally back, so what took you so long?"

She lifted the two bowls with her magic and walked to his bed saying "Couldn't find what I was looking for so I stayed out longer then I intended." She sets the bowls on the night table and then helped him into a sitting position then gave him the bowl with the fork. After sitting down she asks "So how are you felling right now?"

"I'm feeling some uncomfortable pains right now. Other then that I feel fine." He takes a bite of the salad and gives a light sigh as he enjoyed the mixture of flavors.

"I'll cast that numbing spell after cleaning your wounds tonight." Taking a small bite she and asks with a partly full mouth. "So out of curiosity why did you help that Vampiric Jackalope instead of feeding on it?"

He looks over at Silver with an uneasy look as if it would hurt to say. After a few seconds he says in a shameful voice "Well they are kind of like us in the way it needs blood to stay strong just like my kind with love."

"Why does it sound like your filled with shame with what you did?" She asked with another partly full mouth.

He looked down at his bowl for a bit as took a few more bites then continued "The Queen never liked how I've helped so many animals. I think in time the Queen was going to deal with me as an example..." His voice trailed off then he started to eat slowly.

Silver gave a small smile, while looking at him and swallowed then said "Well maybe with what I saw and what my grandma told me, Maybe the story grandma told me wasn't totally crazy."

Tharin looked over at her with a curious look "What do you mean?"

"The saddle bag you were asking about. Well she told me her whole team was killed trying to get some info on one mission." She takes a small bite and continued. "She was forced to enter a swamp to try and get away in the thick fog. Unfortunately a small team of changelings was just behind her." Taking another bite. "When she realized she was being tailed through the thick fog she ducked into a strange looking cave near by." Silver stood up as she took a final bite and took both of there empty bowls to the kitchen. After she put the bowls in the sink she grabbed her medical gear and the wash gear before continuing her story, as she set the gear down. "What she didn't know was that it was already occupied by a dragon." She positioned Corporal to tend to his wounds and put a surgeons mask on while saying "When she heard the dragons low growl she bolted out of the cave and into the thick fog then right into the changeling patrol." She took one of the bite bandages off and said softly while examining it. "Well this bite wound looks better at least."

Corporal asked curiously "So how did your grandma survived the attack?"

Silver wiped the wound softly saying through the mask "She couldn't remember she told me it was a blur but she does remember being saved by one of the changelings before she was crushed by one of the dragons feet." She lightly applied a white cream to the wound. "In return she took an acid blast to her torso. In the end only her and the one changeling that saved her called Kail survived but he was badly hurt. She bandaged the male up, sealed his magic for a short time, and put him safely against a tree." She covered the wound and put a shield over it. "As she tended to him he asked "Why are you helping me?" " She started tending to the other wounds while continuing "She replied "That not all of our kind are jerks. And why did you save me from being crushed?" But she said he never said a word for a bit well until he asked while looking her belly over "Why would you risk your unborn child for a mission like this?" My grandma told him it was the dumbest thing she ever did but she wanted a better life for her not plagued by war." Silver paused while she pulled a few more shards of wood out of his wound then continued. "Even if it didn't work out the way she wanted but she did make off with a small portion of the dead dragons hide with no trouble from any other changelings."

"So do you think there are some kind changelings now?" He asked while Silver wrapped his eye up.

"Well..." She started to say while casting a shield spell on the bandage eye "I did watch you give medical care to a Jackalope; so you can't be a total dirt bag right?" She smiles while lifting him up and flipped him on his belly. "So how was your sleep?"

She gently unwrapped his injured flank he gave a heavy sigh "It wasn't to bad but part of it was really unsettling."

"How so?" She asked while he squirmed uncomfortably from an ointment she applied to the wound.

"I dreamt that I was being chased by a large black entity then the Queen dealt with...it." He turned his head hard to the left looking at Silver working on his other bite wound. "That was you wasn't it?"

Silver looked over at him and smiled he only caught the faint glimpse of it. She then went back to her work. "What gives you that idea?"

"The dream changed and it looked like she ate the thing." He kept looking at her.

She started giggling softly "Okay yaaa, I did feed off of you but in the end we both got what we wanted." She casts the pain easing spell then looked over at him. "Right?"

He lays his head down "I..." he muttered "I guess." He remained quite for a bit. As she came around the bed he spoke softly "Th...Thank you...I guess."

"Your welcome." she replies as she smiled while she continued to treat his wounds, then finished his sponge bath. Once done she headed for the washroom but before entering she turned to Tharin "So Corporal do you need the washroom or anything?"

"No I'm fine for now?" He says while looking in her direction.

After a little bit. "Ahh that’s better." She says as she walks over to Corporal while using magic on two towels to dry her main and tail. She looks down to see him asleep. As she heads to her room she turns the lights out and goes to bed.

As three weeks ran by as Silver returned one night and checked on the Corporal she realized he was weakening from his need for love energy. As soon as she finished cleaning him and tending to his wounds she gently moved his bed closer towards the wall with the window on it. "What are you doing?" asked Corporal weakly while he looked up at Silver from the pillow.

Silver looks down at him and gave a light sigh "Something I'll probably regret later but you need to feed." She turned away to entered one of the near by rooms to levitate another bed, bed fram, along with sheets and blanket. Once she had them in place right next to Corporals bed she started to head for the washroom saying "Give me a bit to clean up and then will deal with your...hunger."

Corporal remained quite as he watched her closed the bathroom door. She looked at herself in the mirror while she retrieved a few rose flowers from a gilded jar. "Are you really going to let him do this to you?" She turns to the shower. After a little bit passed by she exits and heads into her room drying herself off as the scent of roses filled the room. Corporal lifted his head up to the scent of roses.

Silver exited her room levitating her pillow and locked her rooms door up while she walked over to her bed. She set the pillow down on the bed then closed her eyes while Corporal watched a blue aura forms around her head and slowly disappears. "Wh...what was that?" he asked weakly

Silver turned out the lights in the kitchen while flipping the blanket over. "It's a barrier for my mind so if your draining effects minds it wont get to mine." She said while she got into the bed and flipped the blanket over herself. She then focused on wiggling closer to him then she looked into his one large blue eye locked on her as she feels a old emotion stirring thinking "Wow I've never realized how mesmerizing and beautiful his eyes are until now." After thinking that she felt herself blushing.

While Corporal was stunned by Silvers' eyes and coat colour. The moon light reflecting off of her Silver eyes, her deep purple coat and deep green mane shimmering from any water left in her hair. He was thinking as he felt his temperature rise "What is this?"

Silver broke the awkward silence "So uh... how do you want to do this?"

Corporal shook his head then said "Umm... this is just fine." As he senses her strong love for Corporal along with a great sadness. He opened his mouth and began to drain her. She watched for a bit as a pink mist like energy was pulled from her chest and into his mouth. In just a few seconds she began to feel her strength and energy fade away. Then being replaced with a warm and relaxing feeling as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

With each passing seconds Corporal could feeling his strength returning. After a while he stopped and gave a satisfied sigh "That’s a lot better then just eating food." He licked his muzzle with his long snake like tongue while he looked down at Silver as she muttered something. He leaned his head down and kisses her forehead then says softly "Thank you so much." As he settled down in his bed he sees her give a small smile as if she heard what he said.

A few hours passed until Silver came to still feeling the weakness coursing through her body. She tied to move with little success as she thinking "So this is what the draining effects feel like. I can't deny it I do like this relaxing feeling." She looked at Corporal while the moon light reflected off his black carapace then says groggily "You are kind of cute even with those massive fangs." In moments she could feel the weakness growing stronger as her eyes slowly shut as she gave a weak smile.