Greetings, dear readers! This is Chapter 1 from the book I recently published. I will be serialising it on Substack, publishing on Wednesdays. Chapter 1 is free to read, however the other 6 chapters will be paywalled (the chapters are quite long). It is a dark fantasy, set in a semi-medieval wold with magic and animal shifters. The story deals with very mature themes, read at your own risk! It also might make a good read on Halloween and the dark autumn and winter evenings ahead of us…

What is it that makes a man?

Is it the swing of his sword?

Is it the strength of his fist?

Or his power to slay those beneath him?

Stella pondered lying on the cold stone floor, fighting for a breath after the man kicked her stomach repeatedly.

“Up!” another man yelled, “Again!”

Stella got up and stumbled forward to retrieve her dagger. The man kicked her face just as she almost grabbed the hilt of the blade.

Blood splattered onto the floor from her mouth.

“Pathetic little bitch! Imagine you’re fighting for your life! The Bloodhound Queen’s henchmen won’t show you mercy! Fight! Unleash the beast within you!”

He was right. Stella squinted her amber wolf-like eyes and jumped at the man, biting into his neck viciously. The man squealed and shook, not expecting the swift attack.

“Get it off me! Help!”

“Release him, Stella!”

She would not. Her teeth sunk into the man’s flesh. His blood tasted sweet, his fright - even sweeter.

Her Lord grabbed Stella by the back of her neck in a painful grip.

“Release him!”

Stella relaxed her jaw and the Lord dragged her off the man, pushing her into the floor, before kicking her stomach again.

“You. Will. Obey. Me,” the Lord grunted slowly.

His henchman whined and cursed, holding on to his bitten neck.

“The damn bitch! She nearly killed me!”

“Good! That’s just what we need. A couple more months of training and she’ll be ready.” Lord Rufus grinned.

Stella laid on the floor again. She was used to harsh conditions. Her spirit could take ruthless attacks, which her feeble human flesh could not.

Only a month ago she bore a different name and she walked through the snow-covered forests of Northern Hebeny for the last time.

She walked alongside those of her kin, the last daughter of Wolves. She walked proud, with her wolf eyes aglow. Lunula was her name, the last of Wolflings, no other child had been born in the Wolfling king’s dynasty for decades. The Prophecy was clear, and she knew it well; the Wolflings were bound to be forgotten, there was no other way. And her unfortunate birth marked the end of them.

She’d grown up among the Wolflings, despite her curse, and the fact that she did not possess the power to become a Wolf at will like the rest of them. Trapped in her human skin, her life in the woods was an everyday struggle. Still, she was a Wolf on the inside, and just like the rest of her kin - she saw the dead. Wolflings, the merciful creatures leading the spirits to the other side, to be at peace in the realms of the Foreverold.

Lunula despised her feeble human body. It would get hurt easily, or freeze, or bruise, not like the thick skin of a wolf.

This frail human skin was the reason the Wolflings were banishing her. A grown human had no place in their lands, not even one with a soul of a Wolf.

She laid on the cold floor thinking about men. She’d never met creatures equal to them in cruelty. Even the harshest of the wolves never took pleasure in pointless violence. Why had her Grandfather, the last king of the Wolflings, told her tales of heroes from the olden days? Were they not men? What made a man?

The last King of the Wolflings was a grey man, crouched beneath the heavy burden of his many years. He was magnificent in his Wolf’s skin, a stately, silvery-white Wolf with his green eyes aglow. He’d raised Lunula, when no one else had dared to touch the child of destruction. Out of all the Wolflings he could stay in his human flesh longer than a few moments. The rest of them wished to forget their human origins. Wolf skins were strong, resilient, and majestic. While human flesh always reminded them of their frailty; of pain, and death. They chose to be more wolves than men.

The king of the Wolflings, however, did not defy his humanity. He raised Lunula properly. He taught her to speak in human tongue, to read and write. Told her the tales of old about the beauty of being human. After his death, Lunula was allowed to stay in his cold, empty castle deep in the woods until her eighteenth Winter. Then the wolves banished her for good. Lunula was bound to forget her Wolfling name and not to reveal any knowledge of her kin.

“Get up,” Lord Rufus barked at her, breaking into her thoughts, “get cleaned up, otherwise my slut of a brother will faint from the bloody sight of you!”

He pulled Stella up by her hair, and kicked her behind, to make her move forward.

Stella was the name Lord Rufus gave her. He had bought her from the dirty place she’d wound up in, after the banishment. She did not know the name for places like these.

A month ago, she had stumbled into the snow-covered town, dressed in rags. She’d roamed the streets hunting for house cats and rats to eat raw, while sleeping in gutters, until the savage girl was captured by some vile men. They brought her to a strange place, where women sold their flesh for gold. They tried to wash her dirty skin and dress her up. Alas! The wild one fought like a wolf caught in a snare. After she’d marked their hands and feet with her sharp teeth, the men found another use for her. They’d seen her fighting the wild dogs for food when she lived on the streets. Whole packs swarmed the cold, frosty gutters in the winters, attacking the homeless, the crippled and the lost. The savage girl had no fear of the mutts. A Wolfling feared no pathetic half-breeds. She attacked the dogs, ripping them apart.

So the men made her fight the dogs, while other men paid gold to watch the bloody spectacle. And fight she did. They called her simply, The Bloody Bitch, laughing and jingling their pouches of golden coins. The girl was glad to fight for food, a warm meal reminded her of her Grandfather, the only one who’d ever shown her kindness.

It was in the fighting ring, where Lord Rufus first saw her, attacking a mutt and ripping his throat to shreds with her human teeth. She feared no pain. The more the dog fought, the more ruthless she became, until her opponent was dead. The men cheered  the half-naked, wounded, blood-covered girl. While she sat staring at them, thinking, what made them human.

Lord Rufus knew another use for the wild one. Her ruthless nature was the weapon he needed to defeat an enemy. Hebeny, the once-mighty Kingdom beneath the Blackwood forests, had for many years now fallen under the whims of another Kingdom. The Bloodhound Queen’s realm, Northsanguis, had slayed Hebeny’s best men. The Queen knew no mercy. Lord Rufus, was one of the few Nobles that had survived and bent the knee to her. His eyes had been full of shame, but in his heart, he swore to slay the Bloodhound Queen. For it, he needed a spy unlike any other. A human with a beast’s soul, who feared no pain or torture. Who feared no hounds, or their Queen. In Lunula Lord Rufus had found his spy. 

Stella was to be trained both in combat and the life of the court. The Bloodhound Queen summoned handsome and well-educated young men and women to her court, and Stella was to become one of them.

She stumbled into the dark, hearth-lit kitchen. The cook and the maids gasping at the sight of the bloody girl.

“I swear, she’s no human,” the old cook grunted, while the maids threw her a wet cloth and shoved a bucket of ice-cold water toward Stella. The Lord’s young brother was a man of gentle demeanour. He fainted from the sight of blood. Lord Rufus constantly questioned his manhood and wouldn’t hold back on ridicule. The gentle Lord Julian of barely eighteen summers, was a man of knowledge, who spent his days delving into books for wisdom and comfort, after the peaceful world of his childhood had turned into a battlefield with the Bloodhound Queen’s victory.

He was to educate Stella. Young Lord Julian avoided his brother’s orders, but the day had come, when he could escape no more.

Lord Rufus led Stella to the castle’s library, where Rufus’ henchmen had dragged the unfortunate young man beforehand. The ruthless Lord kicked the doors open with his foot and shoved Stella into the library. The girl tripped and fell by the feet of a well-attired young man. He jumped back startled.

“What, Jules? How do you like our young lady? Not as pretty as you, but…” Lord Rufus and his henchmen burst out in low, bear-like laughter. Stella gazed up at her “teacher.” The young Lord indeed looked different than the men she’d seen before; pale, golden haired with eyes of blue and rosy cheeks. His clothes were grey and looked as soft as the fur of a gentle, young wolf-cub. He even had the look of a frightened pup in his eyes.

“You could’ve at least given her some decent clothes,” Lord Julian objected. Stella wore a ragged dress the maids had given her. She would not let anybody touch her; Stella’s skin bore a layer of dirt, smeared with blood, and sweat.

Lord Rufus laughed in return.

“You can wash her and dress her up, that’s all you’ re good for, Jules! Maybe she won’t bite your head off!” And with it they left.

Lord Julian sighed.

“What am I to do with you? How can I teach a savage to read or write? This is madness! Rufus is mad!” He paced around the library shaking his head. “You probably can’t even speak. I’ve read of savages raised by animals. Rarely are they teachable.” He sat down by the table and hung his head.

“Another reason for Rufus to laugh at me. All this knowledge and I can’t teach the bloody girl anything.”

He looked for refuge behind the cover of a book, like he always did in times of trouble. Stella stared at his stack of golden hair sticking above the book. She recognized the book, Grandfather had one just like it in his castle.

“The tales of the old,” she read out loud in a hoarse voice. She’d nearly forgotten how to use it, for many months she’d had no need for her human voice.

Lord Julian peeked above the book covers surprised.

“You speak? And… and you read?”

“Yes.”

“What does Rufus call you? Stella?”

“Yes.”

“But why… why wouldn’t you speak before, Stella?”

“I wished not to be human. I wished to be…” She went quiet. The name of Wolflings was not to be corrupted by revealing it within these walls. The young man slowly paced to her with his arms raised.

“I mean no harm.”

He stopped and looked into her dirty face. He found no beauty in it, but her large, warm eyes captured him, with the spark of wildness about them.

“My brother has assigned me to teach you, Stella. Will you learn? I will not hurt you.”

“I do not fear pain.” She raised her chin proudly. No matter how her feeble body objected, her spirit would not yield to the weakness of the flesh.

“I see.” Lord Julian swallowed hard at the sight of the bloody wounds, covering every bare part of Stella’s body.

“Will you let me teach you? I do understand my brother. We need to slay the Bloodhound Queen, her reign has turned Hebeny into a ruthless place. People fear for their lives. Nobody is safe. The slightest hint of treachery is punished. Do you know what the “Feast of the Hounds” is, Stella?”

She noticed the young man’s face change, and suddenly he appeared much older than his youthful features.

“You have seen death,” she said.

Julian turned pale. He closed his eyes and nodded.

“Would you sit down by the table?” Julian pulled out a chair for her. Stella sat down. Strangely, tears gathered in her eyes. She had not been invited to a table ever since Grandfather died. Though she wished to forget her human nature, Julian’s kindness moved her savage heart.

“Why do you cry, Stella?” Lord Julian asked, while two dirty streams traced down Stella’s face from her eyes.

“I don’t know. I feel no pain. It comes from here.” She placed her palm on her heart.

Julian tilted his head to the side.

“Maybe not all is lost,” he said and shoved the open book in front of Stella.

“Read, please! Read out loud. I have to know how deep your knowledge is.”

Stella read, some parts she remembered by heart and closing her eyes she recited them, just the way Grandfather had done when she was a child.

“Tell me, who condemned a young maiden such as you to live unprotected on the dirty streets?”

“My Grandfather. He moved into the blessed realms of the Foreverold.”

“Oh… forgive me. I should’ve guessed.”

Stella nodded. She resumed reading, until both heard heavy footsteps nearing the library. The doors slammed open, and Stella pulled back, falling  to the floor. She’d forgotten how to get off a chair.

Lord Rufus walked into the sight of Stella standing on all fours.

“Ah, I see you’re as useless as usual, Jules! You have to make the bitch obey! Spank her if you must!” Lord Rufus approached Stella, she backed away, growling quietly.

“Get up!” He yelled, and Stella listened. Though she feared no pain, the thought of a warm meal coming from the Lord’s hands crossed her mind. She was hungry.

“Good girl!”

“Don’t treat her like an animal, Rufus! That’s… hideous…”

“There is no pretty way to slay the old hag, Jules! We need this one to be an animal. Obedient. Completely loyal. Have you seen a creature more loyal than a dog?”

“How do you expect me to educate her? She has to become a Lady of the court!”

“I want you to educate her mind, not her soul.” Lord Rufus approached Stella and attempted to cup her face. Stella growled, showing a row of white teeth, and nearly bit his hand. Rufus didn’t hesitate to strike her face, forcing her to the floor again.

“Stop it!” Julian yelled.

“You’ve always been a coward, Jules!” Rufus smirked. “I need to show her who’s in charge.” He pulled Stella up.

“We shall keep the animal inside but give it a human mind. Cold, ruthless, but loyal to the death.”

“Loyalty has to be earned!” Julian objected. His eyes glancing over the pathetic creature, with its arm squeezed in Rufus’ grip.

“Oh, silly little Jules! Is that the wisdom you learned from all those books?” Rufus shook his head. “Loyalty, my dearest brother, is gained with power. The strong slay the weak. The persuasive bend the spirits of the submissive.” Rufus looked into Stella’s eyes. This time he touched her face without her growling. Stella stared hatefully but let him.

“Good girl! You’ve earned a warm meal. Come, Stella!”

Julian’s sympathetic eyes followed Stella. After Rufus mentioned the warm meal, she went along quite willingly.

“You see, Jules?” Rufus glanced back at him. “She knows her place. Obedience and loyalty will be rewarded, while her stubbornness is punished. As simple as that!” Rufus grinned and left the library.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter of my dark fantasy, and feel like reading the whole novella, you can purchase it HERE . Every purchase is an investment into the books I could publish in the future, and I’m sooo happy, and grateful every time someone chooses to buy my book!

If you liked this story, I’m currently serialising the first draft of Book 2, of this series (The Last Daughters…), The Last Daughter of Dragons. It’s completely free to read, I’m publishing a new chapter on Substack every Saturday. You can read Chapter 1 it in the link below.

The Last Daughter of Dragons (1)

Kathrine Elaine

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September 21, 2024

Welcome, brave readers! You are summoned to witness the making of a story. I’m planning to write and release a new chapter per week, and although the first two chapters have appeared on Substack before (it was a single long chapter, which I’ve changed and split into two), from then it will be whole new chapters. This story is dark, fast-paced, set in a …

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