赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Caleb's heart fell into his stomach. He took a slow breath as he stared at the image before him.

His father, precisely as he remembered him in the weeks before he went missing.

“Caleb…” Ashleigh whispered.

She looked back at him and saw his confused expression. A mixture of sorrow and joy. His feelings touched the edges of their bond.

“Alpha Caleb of Summer,” the image of Cain said. “You are attempting to copy the files contained in this drive. Verify your identity, and the files will be released to you, as well as the message from the creator.”

“It's not really him,” Caleb said softly, sniffling and swallowing down the rush of emotions. “It's a message. A program.”

“Fail to verify your identity, and the files and message will be immediately destroyed.”

Caleb sighed.

“It's not him,” Ashleigh said, reaching her hand to touch his arm lovingly. “But it's still a piece of him.”

Caleb closed his eyes and nodded.

“I'm right beside you,” she whispered, moving her hand down his arm until their fingers intertwined. “Always.”

Caleb gave her a gentle smile and took a deep breath. He stepped forward until he stood directly before the image of his father.

“How do I verify my identity to you?” Caleb asked.

The image turned to look directly at Caleb.

“A drop of blood will be enough,” it replied.

“Blood?” Ashleigh asked. “How will a program be able to read your blood?”

“There are sensors all over this room,” Caleb replied as he pulled out a small multitool from his pocket. “They read everything. It's how we monitor the teams and ensure that we aren't pushing them too hard or putting them in real danger during the simulations.

“I've never tried to have a blood panel run from them, but my father designed a lot of the system. If he's asking for blood as verification, I assume he included something for that.”

Caleb sighed. Flipping out the knife from the multitool, he made a small cut on his arm, just enough to bleed. He offered his arm up to the image of his father.

“Is this good enough?” he asked.

“Your identity has been verified. The files have been transferred to your preferred storage.”

Caleb pulled his arm back and licked his wound. It would heal within the hour.

“Preparing message for playback.”

Caleb licked his lips and swallowed. Ashleigh stepped forward and leaned her head on his shoulder. Her presence warmed him and set him at ease.

“Caleb.”

Caleb drew a sharp breath as his father's voice called out to him.

It wasn't like the image, which was cold and unfeeling. This was his father's voice. Strong but playful. Gentle but powerful.

“If you're hearing this, I didn't make it.”

Ashleigh felt the quickening of Caleb's heartbeat. She put her arms around him, and Caleb closed his eyes with a deep breath.

“I'm sorry, son. I never meant to leave you or your mother behind,” Cain whispered sadly. “I hoped I could do this quietly and come back to you both before Tomas and Gorn realized what was happening. But I was wrong. Very wrong….”

[Almost three years ago, Loki's Fall, South Winter]

They had found him far quicker than he had anticipated. He knew destroying the mounds near Broken Crag had been a risk. He had seen the Autumn wolves scouting the area, but he was afraid they would set up defenses around them if he didn't do it then.

Of the twenty mounds he had discovered across the territories, he had destroyed seventeen of them. Once he took care of Loki's Fall, only two would be left.

He always knew that the first mound in Spring would be a problem, but he was sure that getting back to Moonguard wouldn't be an issue.

But now, there was no way he would make it that far.

Cain looked down at the cut on his arm. It was infected, and his veins beneath the surface were already darkening.

It had been three days since the Autumn wolves had found him in the pass. He was too weak to run. It was the only reason he hadn't already blown Loki's Fall and started his journey back to Moonguard.

He grabbed his computer and the USB he had been loading his research onto during his mission. He transferred the last data onto the drive and opened the recording software.

Cain took a deep breath before selecting the record option.

“Caleb, if you're hearing this,” he paused. “I didn't make it.”

Cain closed his eyes and swallowed.

“I'm sorry, son. I never meant to leave you or your mother behind,” Cain whispered sadly. “I hoped I could do this quietly and come back to you both before Tomas and Gorn realized what was happening. But I was wrong. Very wrong.”

Cain looked into the darkness of the mound. The soft glow of the crystals surrounding the tree was the only light aside from a small lantern and his laptop.

“I don't have a lot of time. The space on this drive is limited, so you won't have to suffer through one of my long-winded explanations of the science behind my project,” he chuckled.

Cain closed his eyes and clenched his jaw before taking a deep breath.

“But, even more than that… I was stabbed. Autumn wolves followed me here; they were trying to capture me, but I killed them. There was some kind of poison on the blade. It's slow but very effective. There isn't much time left.”

Cain paused the recording, a heavy sob escaped his lips, and a flash of anger and regret flowed through him. He couldn't imagine how Caleb would feel listening to this message.

He took a deep, cleansing breath and continued the recording.

“My office has a box hidden behind all of my files and old research. Inside that box, you will find a journal and a necklace. The journal holds a record I have kept over the years concerning my research for Gorn. It all relates to a mysterious power source from deep within one of the mountains within the Spring territory.

“That power source… it's fae in origin. The chamber that it comes from is a mound. But it's not like the rest of them. All the mounds that we have read about, found and studied. They were formed from the death of many fae in the same spot. Like now, I sit inside Loki's Fall. The most well-known of all of them. But this place is not filled with power.”

Cain looked around. The chamber was very similar to all the others. Perhaps more crystals surrounded the tree.

If he hadn't seen the mound in Spring or explored and studied the one in Moonguard, he would have thought they were all the same. But they weren't.

“The necklace, it's a puzzle box. Inside it, there is a bone. I found it at the mound in Moonguard. This mound was very different from the others. Like the one in Spring, it held a strong natural power source. But there was something else. Bones. In every other mound, no bones were found, but this one, bones were scattered among the tree roots. I took that piece, and I studied it.

“I was able to pull DNA from it. That was why I took that year in the human world to learn more about processing and studying it properly. And I wish I hadn't.”

Cain sighed.

“I didn't realize yet that Gorn and Tomas were trying to harness the power from the mound in Spring. I made the mistake of telling them not about the bones or even the mound’s location but about what was inside of it, about the fact that werewolves and fae are related.

“They started asking about how the fae were able to use magic, how they could pull from the power source. They became obsessed with finding a way to awaken the fae inside the wolf.”