My Werepanther System: Starting with Nine Lives
Chapter 54 FANG SCRIPTURE

Chapter 54: 54 FANG SCRIPTURE

Rex stepped into Nahual Falls with Syphen. The two feline shifters exuded an aura of both mystery, power and potential. They held few similarities in their current forms. Syphen was green skinned and black furred with a body built for climbing and sprinting. Rex was a giant of sunlit gold proportions, sabered fangs and a mane that did nothing to hide his bulging back muscle.

Even so, the beings sharing the cave space with them knew the duo well. Even as Rex dawned a new form.

An older man stood up. His beard was scraggly and white as snow on a mountain top. He was bald. Bat fangs replaced his missing teeth and tattoos sleeved his arm. His hide poncho was covered in blood and flower petals.

"BEHOLD! The—"

"Quieta." Flora pushed past the preacher with zero patience. A few others laughed as she approached. She wore little more than a hemp bra and underwear. From there, Rex could see all the scars on her feminine frame. He noticed bites from serpents, cuts from cats and Dogmen, and bruises in shapes he didn’t recognize. Even then, she had her weapons on hand.

She stopped in front of Rex and Syphen and did a quick rendition of the bow Rex saw a day before.

Then she was up and speaking to Syphen so the Nahual could translate for them both. Her words were crisp and smooth. Her voice was deeper than he expected— deeper than most, as he studied her.

Syphen turned to Rex after she finished speaking, "She says, you look different."

Rex nodded, "Tell her we need to get down to business."

Syphen did.

Flora nodded.

Rex spoke to Syphen once more, "We need to have a meeting. Tell her to bring her closest allies. Preferably a member from every little group here. Give me a member of the elders, the fighters and these gardening chicks."

Syphen nodded and translated to Flora.

She understood in that same stony expression she always had, then she nodded and called out to the cave.

Suddenly people were getting up and shouting back. Soon after she turned to Syphen as a number of individuals approached.

Syphen turned to Rex, "She says, we will have meeting in meeting room."

"How creative." Rex said.

Syphen turned to Flora. Rex put a hand on his shoulder, "Don’t translate that."

Syphen nodded and Flora turned to lead them deeper into the cave with a single word.

"Seguir."

Rex assumed it meant follow as he and Syphen fell into step behind her.

Rex’s eyes would’ve stayed on her if there wasn’t at least one hundred cave-people in glowing flower fields staring at him while others were shaping animal bones into weapons and hides into armors.

He couldn’t help but notice how quickly they adjusted. It was a good sign of what was to come.

Flora led them deeper into the cave. Where the moisture faded and the arcane glow of jungle wildlife faded, leaving only cold stone and the old markers of life left to die. She led them around holes in the path and forks that led down into deep earth where bizzare smells swelled and the absence of sound reigned.

The walk was only a few minutes but the world changed drastically.

They stood on a stone clearing. An opening from a shattered stalactite left a hole above them giving way to the night sky. Moonlight spilled in from the left, giving the dark room of stone a pale lighting.

Beneath the hole in the stone ceiling, the fallen stalactite was plunged into the earth like a sword from the heavens. Fissures and cracks rippled outward all around them.

Rex approached the stalactite. It stood taller than him— which made it far taller than everyone else.

But he liked the idea.

"I have an idea....." Rex thought as he jumped up on top of the fallen stalactite.

He landed soundlessly atop the stone spike. It was flat and smooth with ringed shapes of inner gems like a chopped tree.

With his foot, he tapped the ground he stood on, testing its durability. Beneath him, the older man representing the elders began scribbling away in his book fervently beside Syphen and Flora.

Rex squatted low, bunching up his massive leg muscles before leaping straight up into the air.

He soared, nearly reaching the ceiling before flipping and falling back down to the spike.

Golden glowing sand flowed from his dark mane, giving a solar essence to his nightly fall.

In a glowing blur, he smashed into the fallen stalactite, driving it deeper into the ground.

The fissures deepened as the spike sank.

Rex jumped again.

He smashed into the spike.

Once again, the cracks in the ground split until it formed the ground into a number of split pathways.

Fittingly, each representative group stood on their own stone path.

"And with the leaps of the Lion! A new holy place is born!" The old man yelled.

Rex jumped a final time.

He landed, slamming the spike into the ground.

Suddenly, they were all surrounding a platform of smooth ringed stone. Like a round table.

Rex jumped off the meeting table, landing on his own stone path.

"Alright." Rex said with a clap of his hands, "Syphen, translate as I speak."

Syphen nodded beside him.

"First, I’d like to know everyone’s name."

Syphen translated and suddenly they were all speaking one by one.

Flora, obviously, remained silent.

To her left, a male fighter stood tall. He was small in stature and thin in build but he looked sturdy. He had big hands and feet and a large head that was painted with green feline designs. He wore a dark knitted shirt and washed cargo pants with a wood thread belt that held a holstered handgun and Thunder-machete.

"Bruno."

To his left, a woman stood of similar age and build. She was pretty with flowers sewn into her braids and skin as bronze as the metal itself. One of her ears was lined with animal bone and piercings to be stretched and sharpened like that of a bat. She wore a long flowy dress covered in stains and rips.

"Maria."

Beside her was the old man, with his notebook and fangs and tattoos.

"I am Adelmo. I write your legend until my dying breath rides its last wind."

"That’s not creepy at all." Rex thought before adressing everyone. He paused, realizing he’d never addressed so many people on something so severe. He’d never had a leading spot. He’d never been that guy.

Then he looked at Syphen— who was looking at him like he was looking at someone else. Then a vision of wolves swarming him entered his mind. He didn’t have a choice. He didn’t have an option to shy away from the role. It was in his blood. Literally.

He straightened, thinking of what a war general would say right before Drift Dimension deployments, "Flora, Bruno, Maria, and Adelmo, I want you to spread the information I give you here to your groups of people. The fighters, the elders, the healers and crafters.... And the leaders. It’s like I said before. You’re not looking for a savior anymore—"

"Because our savior is YOU, oh great cat g—"

"Man, shut the hell up." Rex waved off the old man’s words, "Please. Don’t put yourself beneath me. Don’t put yourself beneath anyone. Fight for your spot— there’s people..... there’s things out there, worse than Beto, that want to take it. They want all of us. And I’ll be damned before I go into a war with a bunch of kiss ups watching my flank. We’re not victims. I want killers. I want people who want a meal. I need to know you’re hungry. I need to know you know prayer won’t put up. This will."

Rex raised his clawed hands to them. He flexed his arms. He snarled and snapped at them. Maria jumped.

As Syphen translated his words, he slowly watched comprehension play in flashes and twitches on their faces.

Adelmo wrote so fast his hand was a blur as he giggled.

Flora was cold.

Bruno nodded and bounced on his feet.

Maria slowly returned to the table with a wild look in her eyes as she balled up her trashed dress in her fists.

"The way I see it, we need eachother. I’m not from a jungle. At least not one with trees. I’m from the metal and streets. But I get you. And I think you get me too."

Rex waited.

After Syphen finished speaking, Flora looked to Rex.

Syphen translated as she spoke. "She says....we have no claws or great power over the elements."

Rex nodded, "You will. I will make you like me. If we work together. You fight for me. I fight for you."

Syphen spoke.

Collectively— for the most part, their eyebrows raised.

"WE ARE HIS PROPHETS!!!" Adelmo screamed to the moon.

Flora shook her head.

"....what?" Rex was lost.

Bruno snapped at Flora— visibly ready to embrace werepanther power.

Maria quickly slapped Bruno in response as she scolded him while referring to Flora.

Adelmo continued to document every inch of the nightly excursion.

"Syphen, the hell is going on?" Rex asked.

Syphen’s ears twitched as he turned to Rex. "Flora..... wants more out of the deal. She beleives without..... familiar structure, her people will become savage. They’ll lose..... I don’t know that word."

"What does she want then?" Rex asked.

Syphen scratched his head, "She wants to fulfill her role as tribe-mother."

"Yea— fine. That was the idea." Rex said. As he spoke, Flora continued to stare at him.

Syphen continued, "She cannot do this without a tribe-father at her side."

"What’s that?" Rex asked.

Adelmo interjected, "My niece wishes for you to court her. She wants to be by your side in more than catliness.... this will give our people a sense of home... even as you transform us into something greater. Our roots will remain strong."

"Wait—"

"Flora is beloved by all. If you wish to be seen as less than a god, than you will need to act as such. In many religions, gods cannot intermingle with mortals. But you, Rex.....intermingle as you please." Adelmo smiled.

Rex turned to Flora, "And if I..... court, you, you’ll work with me?"

Flora nodded, and in memory of their first meeting, she leaned across the table and held out her hand.

Rex stepped forward and shook it.

All the while he couldn’t help but think.

"I’ve never had a girlfriend.... and now— to kill a god, I’m going to marry an Amazonian village-princess. At least she’s hot as hell."