Millennia by Raven Slake (free books to read .txt) 📕

There was one good thing about the location of Emberlynn’s home. People in this town were used to hearing gunshots, giving her the bright idea that I should learn how to handle one myself. Which leads me to lesson one.

“Use two hands when holding it, eventually you’ll be able to shoot with just one, but for now, stick to two,” Emberlynn said as I lifted the metal gun up to my face. “Not that close to your face, when it kicks it’ll hit you in the face and that is never pleasant.” Correcting myself, I felt my leg automatically fix itself into a stance. “You’ve got instinct, that’s good.” Looking down what the humans called the sights, I focused my vision on the center of the red. With the gun held firmly in my hand, I squeezed the trigger as I was instructed to. It came upwards and narrowly missed my forehead. “Odd, you hit the dead center. Well that still does not stop me from making you practice.”

“What is this?” I asked inspecting metal.

“It’s a double action .44 magnum. Basically a handgun with a lot of power.” Obviously, seeming that it almost knocked me down. “Do not worry, that is not the most powerful piece of weaponry I have.” Her next thought seem astonishing for an environmentalist. After guns, I can give her the swords, they're easier to use against lycans.

“It’s not?” I exclaimed. Kaire laughed, making Emberlynn smile. She was beginning to make out what wolf sounds were laughter and which ones were growls. We were all getting used to one another not understanding what the other was talking about. I still did have to translate Kaire’s words for Emberlynn.

Emberlynn went into her house to find a new piece of weaponry for me to test out. She had faith that I was a good shot, but like all humans, she wanted to make sure that her guess was correct. As I finished my thought, Kaire walked up to my sat on my feet. Looking down at him, I could see something in his eyes. Something wasn’t right, there was something wrong with my brother. Maybe he had gotten infected from the rogue monster that had attacked me. Maybe he was turning more slowly than I had.

“Are you okay?” I asked him. He snorted and looked back up at me. Kaire was playing with my mind. We’re twins Millennia. I am in your mind and you are in mine. It is with the same with the humans but they don’t know it. You do not need to speak out loud in order to talk to me. I usually know what you are going to say before you say it. Glaring at Kaire, I lifted him off the ground like a human child would to a young puppy. While he was squirming, I twisted so that I was holding him like a human child. I could see the slight irritation in his mind.

At least you do not know my actions before I do them. Another snort from Kaire.

Are you sure? Before I could dodge his movement, he leaped and sent me backwards.

“You just had to learn this before me,” I thought out loud. He laughed just as Emberlynn was rushing outside to see why I had fallen. “He started it,” I called out to her. She started laughing at full volume. At least we were isolated in the countryside.

"Come on! You better learn how to use those swords!" We raced into her house, just waiting to our next surprise. Just as I walked in the doorway, a blade was pressed against my neck, stopping me from going any farther. She had seen me coming, despite the wall that had seperated us. Emberlynn was staring me straight in the eye, an intimidating move. I lifted my arms up into a surrending notion. "You can't give up just yet, the lesson isn't over." Pressing my hand on the blade, I gave it a gentle push, pretending to be tired. With a swift movement that made my body blur, I pulled out the sword I took from the warehouse and crashed it against Emberlynn's. "That's better." She spun around and countered my blow, sending me stumbling backwards. My hand gripped onto her chest freezer, catching my balance. I could see her coming at me, watching where I was going. Using both hands, I firmly wrapped my fingers around the handle and ducked beneath her blade while swinging upward to ensure that it would miss its target. Before I could regain my stance Emberlynn was already up and waving it down towards my skull. I rolled and blocked the move by scraping my sword against hers with enough force to send sparks flying. While on one knee, I brought my blade up swiftly, knocking Emberlynn to the ground. Her sword slipped out of her hand as she dropped to the ground. I sat on the balls of my feet, pressing my sword against her neck.

"How'd you know my next move?" I asked. All she did was smile.

"You learn to do that when all your life you've practiced fighting with Japanese swords." I looked down at her before standing up. "Plus, I just know things." 

****

Right around sunset, (evening according to humans) I found myself sitting on a funny looking seating device. Apparently, it had two different names that meant the same thing. (Why would humans do that? Why not name one seating device a sofa and another a couch? Not leave one item with both names.) Emberlynn put a rectangular shaped items with colorful rubber chunks sticking out of it in front of my face.

“See that big box in front of the sofa?” Emberlynn asked me. I nodded and stared at the rubber chunks in the rectangle. “Let Human Actions 101 begin. Okay, Millennia, that big box is called a television. Most people call it a TV, and most use this little thing called a TV remote to control it. However there are buttons that have the same actions as a TV remote.” Yawning, I leaned back and waited or the lecture to end. “I know you know about actors and actresses and how they pretend to be people they are not in movies. You’ve mentioned something about it once or twice. Well, this is one way people watch those movies.” She pressed one of the many buttons on the remote and images danced across the screen.

“This is a movie?” I asked, intrigued by the moving images. She pressed more buttons before shaking her head.

“No, this is a TV series. That means that there are these half hour long episodes that never seem to end. Eventually, the person in charge of the show decides it is not making good money and finds a good or bad way to close the series. I find movies more interesting than TV shows,” Emberlynn replied. “However, I like this show.”

“Does it have a name?” I questioned.

“All TV shows have names, same as movies. I just do not know the name of this one.” I found it strange that she liked the show but did not know the name of it. Although the thought was very interesting, I found the television even more fascinating than Emberlynn not knowing the title of a TV series. Kaire, I am almost certain that you can hear me. This is the weirdest thing I have ever thing in my lifetime. Kaire walked down the hallway and jumped onto my lap. Look at the big black box with the moving images on it. He stared at the TV and he cocked his head. Neither of us understood the point of the television but both of us were very interested. Just as I was figuring out what the characters were doing, I realized the Emberlynn was laughing hysterically. A low growl echoed throughout the room. Kaire and Emberlynn were staring at me while they left me confused.

Millennia, you growled at her. That was not me you just heard.

“Emberlynn, tell me, what is a lycan?” I could hear her gulp with fear. She wanted to explain, but she was afraid of the outcome. “Just tell me what I need to know.” Stay calm Millennia. Something snapped when you figured out you had growled. Your eyes started to glow even brighter than they had been before. Do not attack her, let her explain. Did Kaire know what I wanted to know? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he did not know. I would have picked up on it sooner if he did know.

“I am not one hundred percent sure how to explain this without someone hearing me. These days we are heavily monitored. Defining that creature will bring the government knocking on one’s door. When we were notified of the breakout of the creature we were given these packets that explained everything to us. I still have mine, I really hope you can read,” she said, worried and still scared that I was going to rip her throat out. You can read right? Looking over at Kaire, I nodded. Emberlynn wasn’t the only who was scared of the outcome of me learning about what I had become. She handed me a thin stack of papers, all of which had watermarks on the background. Remembering what I had learned when I had been separated from my pack suggested that these were government files that were not meant for human civilians. Looks like these had been handed out in a dire emergency. Looking over every detail, I did not let one thing get past me, which is very regrettable.

Please read the following with extreme caution

An experiment from the D.C. laboratory has broken out and is making his way west, towards California. This experiment was called the Hamilton Project, for the subject’s name was Hamilton Jett Rogers. Hamilton is not human, his new species is classified as a lycan. 

We used lycans as translators for canines. Their "wolf side" gave them the capability to understand wolves and other canines. Thus allowing us to retrieve much needed information on the local packs. We have the birth names of the wolves in the nearest pack and how they act from a lycan that once worked for us. She, like Hamilton, turned rogue and ran into the wild. THe wolves however, are unable to be fully infected with the lycan virus without dying. 

Lycans are very dangerous creatures. They appear human but at any given moment have the option of transforming into an abnormally sized wolf. Some can be domesticated, however, attempts have failed on Hamilton and he must be put down at any costs. Nonetheless, do not try to kill him yourself, there are only two ways but they are very difficult to accomplish. The first way to kill a lycan is to sever the spine from the rest of the body while piercing the heart. The material of the weapon used to kill the creature is of no importance despite common belief. Secondly, his throat or heart must be torn out by one of the same species. Only another lycan can kill him in the second method.

Hamilton Rogers will have an army of lycans with him, so if you see a group of suspicious people, do not approach them, only call your local police and they will contact us. If you become infected with the lycan virus, report immediately to the hospital. You will be treated with a serum that slows the process but does not stop it. Keep in mind that this is a virus. There is no cure, only treatments. The virus is transmittable through blood transfusion and through the exchange of bodily fluids.

It was all that I needed to know. When I had been bitten, I knew that I was infected with a virus. There is something you can feel. Your heartbeats feel off, as if there