The night was crisp and cold but clear. The night of the full moon at winter's solstice was here. In the darkness a shadow was seen to move only for a moment. It had begun.....
As I waited patiently in the clearing they began to appear, slowly at first then in groups of two or three. Soon the night air would be filled with the sounds of laughter, singing, dancing. Much later the sounds of copulation would be heard as the couples retreated into the shadows for the annual mating rituals. The survival of our race depended on these annual rituals. Without them our race would wither and die. This was the only night of the year we allowed ourselves to consume the blood of humans. However appalling it was to consume human blood, it was essential to replenish our life force, the only way to remain immortal, the only way to remain fertile.
There were those around the world sympathetic to our plight, as well as those that would just as soon see us dead. Those humans sympathetic to our cause willing provided us with our yearly blood rites. They also helped provide protection for us throughout the year. Those that hunted us would not stop until we were completely exterminated. After the night was over we would spend the remainder of the year in hiding fighting for survival. This is as it has been for the past thirty centuries.
At that time we numbered well into the thousands, now our numbers have diminished to a mere six-hundred and sixty-six. Some among us believed this to be a most auspicious number. They said this was the year we would rise again to our rightful places in the world. I was one of those who believed. How very wrong we were. This would, in all actuality, turn out to be the final night of freedom for the Ashmarian Werewolves.
My name is Elensar Ad Vaal Bellensaria. I am, or was, the Grand Sire to the Ashmarian Werewolf clan, from the destroyed kingdom of Bellensaria. The following is the tale of our final hours of freedom and the events that led to our downfall.
