Destiny

Part1

Baltar is © 2009 copyright of Balto96 

Some of the battles and most places were put on  actual locations in Alaska, roughly. Using maps too find these places of course. They are however all fictional.

Prologue

It was a dark but relatively quiet night. A Castle loomed over a nearby village. The outer wall of this Castle is in the shape of a hexagon, whilst the keep of the Castle is surrounded by half a wall, most of what’s left being under construction.

 The village name is Nenana, and it is a human settlement, so was the castle. Though the settlement contained a very large canine population, it was very much a human one. This is an important thing to remember. Though there is this diversity of species, you’ll never find a wolf there.

In this world, if nobility gave you status and rights; then your species gave you the right to live. If you be born a human or a canine, you were given equal rights both in the sense of nobility and life. However, if you are by chance born a wolf; than you have no rights. You wouldn’t be allowed to possess land (an exclusive right of nobles), carry any wealth of any kind, nor do you have the right to live. You would be seen as wild, un-civilized, a demon sent from hell to collect souls, the scourge of the Earth. Demons are to be cleansed from the land that god has created for man and his companion: canine. Thus under a demon symbol you will expect to be: burned at the stake, beheaded, drowned, tortured in various ways, beaten to death, stabbed, used as target practice, hunted down in various fashions, getting stabbed in the street is very common.

Thus has been the way such things have been for centuries and has been “Commanded by God”, the ultimate order that must be followed! Or else be called a heretic and face an inquisition. One thing is for sure, this night there will be many such “demons” in town, and they won’t be happy.

It was like any other night, cold, boring, and the dead walked in these dark hours as gaseous figures. However, the dead weren’t the only ones gliding through the night. Several living, cloaked figures slid noiselessly through the night, towards the Castle. Though it had a moat, these figures were able to cross it without much effort or noise.

*******

The guard was doing his normal guarding rounds. He was a human and such was not meant to be awake at such late hours. He was in the usual full body mail, metal helmet, and not to mention a sword.

Whilst walking along the wall on the north side, he noticed a large metal hook stuck into the battlement. Since he was sleep deprived, he didn’t immediately call the alarm. This would be a terrible mistake in any situation, as it was now.

He instead investigated the source of the hook. Getting closer, he noticed a rope attached to the hook, though the guard did not know it, he was in grave danger. Being stupid, he went further closer, so close that he looked over the wall and down towards the ground, however the ground was blocked out by the darkness of the night and, more importantly, a cloaked figure only four feet away was staring back at him. He recognized the figures face as that of a wolf’s.

He had only just realized that he’d spotted an intruder, when he felt a force push him on his neck down onto the battlement. His upper body hit the battlement, but his head had no such obstacle, before he could cry out, his neck snapped. His helmet went off his head and fell noiselessly to the ground below. 

The force that had broken the mans neck was actually delivered by a foot. This foot was attached too another cloaked figure who’d obviously already climbed over the battlements. He too had a wolf face.

The wolf figure hanging onto the rope gave him face of annoyance, for letting them nearly get caught. The figure on the battlements just rolled his eyes, not really caring how close they’d come to failure.

He jumped off from his battlement and pulled the guards body and quickly laid him on the rampart. He then went back and gave his companion a hand to help pull him over the battlement. This process was repeated three more times, making a grand total of five people. Three had bows, whilst the other two had only the weapons they’d concealed under their cloaks.

“Okay, Claws and Fangs, you two are after the guards above the gate!” ordered the first wolf, whispering so that they wouldn’t be heard. He got nods in reply from two of the figures that had bows.

“Sheila, you’ve got the gate guards?” asked the wolf, he is obviously the leader of this band.

“Please, I’ve fought off tougher men during mating season!” replied a female voice.

The wolf smiled at this, “You’re with me” he ordered the last figure, getting a nod. “Everyone knows what they’re doing?” he asked.

“No Lord Baltar! We know what must be done” replied a male voice.

“Then lets go!” replied the wolf named Baltar.

They split into two groups, the two bow men head towards the north tower, the nearest gate of the Castle being in the east. The remaining three headed to some nearby stairs, heading directly to ground level. At ground level, the group split up again, one figure heading towards the gate whilst the other two headed towards the keep.

The two on the wall luckily didn’t come across anymore guards until they were about to exit the north-east tower. Opening the door a crack, without having the hinges squeak. They spotted two guards on the wall, talking too each other about anything too pass the time. The figures immediately took the bows off theirs backs and readied an arrow each. “I got the far one” called one figure.

“Fine. You’re the better marksman anyways” replied the second figure, pulling the string on the bow back to his cheek.

The first had his bow ready but not pulled back, he kicked the door open and immediately pulled the string as far back as he could pull it, aiming at the guard farther away.

The second figure fired the second he had aimed at the nearest guard. His arrow hit the guard square center in his back. He crumbled from the crippling shot.

The first figure fired his arrow a second after the other’s had hit. His shot hit the farthest guard just below the neck. Dropping the man choking on his own blood.

The two bowmen came forward and checked their handiwork. Satisfied, they went to check on Sheila’s progress.

She had approached the Barbican (fortified gatehouse) from the shadows; the guards on duty didn’t spot her because they were unaccustomed to the darkness due too lit torches nearby them.

She threw a large knife at the guard on the far side of the gate. The knife went into the guard’s neck cutting off any yell he had, though he did let out a lot of gurgling sounds. Whilst the guard on Sheila’s side of the gate, it looked like she had tried to punch him and missed. But he grabbed at his own neck, trying in a futile effort to keep the precious blood from leaving his body. She actually held a small knife in her hand but it had been concealed by the night.

There were two more guards outside the gate, hearing the commotion, they turned around too see a lone figure standing whilst their comrades lay dying. They cursed and their drew their swords, charging at the cloaked figure. The figure darted toward the guards and tackled the first guard, biting into his neck; the hood went flying off revealing a female wolf.

The second guard was shocked at the sudden and brutal execution of his fellow man, that he dropped his sword and ran off towards town, only too be shot in the back by two arrows from above.

*******

Baltar and his companion on the other hand had reached the keep through a gap in the construction area near the keep. The lord of the manor was too lazy and cheap to hire guards to protect this part of the Castle.

The only guard in sight was at the top of the only stairway on the outside of the keep. The stairway itself was on the west side of the keep. The pair of figures tried as quietly as possible to get around to that side of the keep, with good results. The guard was asleep but was very much an obstacle. He slept at the end of the steps, right next too the door.

So, the two crept up the stone stairs, being as quiet as possible so as not to wake the man. They could have sneaked by him and into the Castle, but he was a security problem and had to be dealt with. The guard fell from the stairway without a sound, straight to the ground below. He lay there motionless, never knowing that he had just lost his life.  

“You didn’t have to kill him” said his companion, “Doesn’t matter, he’s human” replied Baltar, rather coldly.

They entered the keep without much trouble. There was a lit torch every fifty feet or so, an un-lit torch halfway between each lit one. This gave a lot of areas were someone could hide in the darkness. However, they didn’t come across another person in these passageways. They climbed a flight of stairs, presumably inside a tower of the keep, up to the next level. This floor was more fruitful in humans.

There were three of them; they were the night watch that was to guard his lordship in his bed. Two guarded the door, whilst the other one patrolled the corridors. There were also faint sounds of snoring. The pair of assassins hid behind a corner at an adjoining corridor.  

“How good is your throwing arm?” asked Baltar, whispering in his companion’s ear. The wolf lifted a hatchet from underneath his robes, handing it too his companion.

“Which one is mine?” asked his comrade, “The farthest one” was