The Wolf

"Okay, enough piano playing. Let's play chess now." Said Eliza after some time. They already had been playing piano for about half an hour, and their desire had passed.

They stepped out of the room and went into the room across the hall. There was really not a single piece of furniture in the room at all. The only object was a chessboard, which was lying in the middle.

"If you already have such a big house, with so many rooms, you should use everyone."

This was the motto of the two. That's why they had a different room for each activity: a chess room, the one they were in at the moment, a piano room, a bedroom, a clothes room, a game room, a dining room, a carving room, in which they carved all sorts of things.

They also made the chessboard themselves and that clearly can be seen from the quality.

It took them several months to carve all the pieces and the board, and unfortunately, it was not very good.

But for playing it was good enough.

The two children sat down across from each other, Nero was white and Eliza was black.

Almost every time, the game started with a pawn on e4. Quickly Eliza replied with her pawn.

They played for almost 10 minutes in their first round, and in the end, Eliza won. They set up their pieces and played again.

Their pieces flew across the board, and at first, Eliza was leading, but then Nero started to gain the upper hand. In the end, Nero was the winner of the second round.

And again they set up their pieces and started to play. For almost two hours the two played against each other.

Nero won twice and Eliza five times.

"Well done little brother, it's getting harder and more challenging to play against you every time. Eventually, I won't stand a chance, it's like you were born to move your pieces," Eliza said jokingly.

"Unfortunately, you can't make money playing chess. Ok," Eliza stood up with a clap " if we still want to hunt today, we should leave now. Come on little brothers."

"All right, Eliza"

With that, the two went downstairs and started putting on their winter clothes again.

"Are you going hunting again?" asked her mother from the kitchen. There was something in her voice, but Nero could not determine it.

"Yes, mom." Replied Eliza, "We'll be back soon, I promise."

"Take your time my little ones. Goodbye, I love you very much. " She first hugged Eliza and kissed her on the forehead then Nero, "Take care of your brother Eliza. And go to Herald and give him this." With that, she handed them a sealed letter, "A little thanks. But don't open it, keep it sealed! Do you understand?"

"Yes, mom. We love you very much too." Answered Nero, who was already excited to go hunting again, "Let's finally go Eliza."

"Yes yes, you little hunter. See you later mom. Love you."

"Bye my children, I love you more than anything."

"We know mom, we too. See you later." With that, they walked out and closed the door behind them.

When they have already gone some time, Nero suddenly turned

"We still have to go to Mr. Herald and deliver the letter."

Eliza stopped and briefly looked back at Mr. Herald's house, "Let's do that when we go home. " She said after a moment's hesitation and continued walking. Nero just shrugged his shoulders and followed her without any objections. Later, Nero would wonder what would have happened if they had made a different decision then. If they had gone immediately to Mr. Herald and handed him the letter. He wondered if anything would have changed.

They continued walking and turned onto the main road. Suddenly, several dozen soldiers appeared in front of them. They had torches in their hands and moved quickly and purposefully.

Immediately Eliza and Nero moved aside and bowed slightly. They watched as the guardians of the law marched past them and turned the next corner.

"I wonder where they're going?" asked Nero to Eliza, but she just shrugged, "There was probably a murder somewhere again, like the one at Mr. Ruz's, remember?"

Nero nodded and they walked on in silence.

Lost in thought, they re-entered the large forest and walked their standard route.

To avoid getting lost, they carved arrows in the trees pointing towards the village. Looking for traces, they went further and further into the forest.

Pretty early on, they found their first lead,

"Eliza, Look here! " Nero called out to his sister.

Eliza just deftly climbed down from a tree and jumped into the snow next to him. She knelt and looked at the round tracks briefly,

"These are tracks of a deer. Unfortunately, we have no way to catch this animal or trap it. We need predators."

"We could just follow the tracks, couldn't we?" Nero suggested in his young zeal, but Eliza shook her head,

"No. It hasn't snowed since earlier. The animal could be over dozen hills by now. We don't know how far the tracks go. If we follow them now, and then it starts snowing, all the tracks will be covered in snow and we could get lost. Better let's keep moving forward." Explained Eliza

"Ok" Nero only answered, and continued walking. Every few meters he fetched his knife and carved an arrow into the tree.

After another hour, Nero began to grow impatient, "We still haven't discovered a single trace of a predator. What if there just aren't any animals left?"

"I don't think so, we just need to look some more. " Eliza said encouragingly.

Nero listlessly continued to search the ground when he finally spotted something,

"Eliza here! There are fox tracks here again."

Relieved, Eliza sighed and stepped up next to Nero, but then her expression changed,

"Those are way too big for fox tracks. They're wolf tracks!"

Nero's eyes widened in fear and he looked around, "What do we do now?"

"Normally we should make a run for it as soon as possible, but it's only one track, and one of the prints is slightly less dented, meaning he's limping on his back right leg, or front right leg. This is a death sentence at this time of year, so the wolf will already be almost insane with hunger. He was probably banished from his pack some time ago because of his disability. We should try to catch him. It will be harder than our normal prey, but it will give us more meat. We can't catch him with a simple snare trap, we have to come up with a plan. So Nero, put your strategic chess brain to work and help me concoct a perfidious plan to catch and kill this stupid animal. "

-

Two hours later, the two siblings were again lying in wait for their prey to fall into their trap. This time it was not a fox they were waiting for, but a real wolf.

They had set up a large trap that protected several escape routes. Eliza was lying in the tree with her bow taut, Nero next to her. He once again had a rope in his hand, but this time it was not for a snare trap. The mouse was lying there and they had used almost all the rest of the powder to create the strongest scent possible.

Nero was incredibly tense and could hardly sit still.

They waited another half hour, listening for any sounds. It was already getting dark and they had to concentrate more on their ears than on their eyes.

And finally, he appeared, the wolf.

First, they heard him sneaking through the snow, and then finally they could make him out in the last rays of the sun.

It was an old wolf, whose front leg was slightly tilted to the side. Apparently, a fracture that had not healed well. He was very skinny and obviously very hungry.

He approached the mouse hunched over.

When he got close enough, he sprinted at it as best his leg would allow.

Despite his injury, the wolf was surprisingly fast, faster than they had expected.

"Now." Eliza hissed and Nero reacted immediately. He pulled as hard as he could on the rope that stretched across the floor. The wolf stumbled and fell over the rope, staggering and falling. Eliza shot an arrow while Nero used his dagger to cut another rope holding a heavy stone that now fell from the tree.

The stone was meant to be a weight for a noose that now tightened under the wolf, trapping him. Eliza's arrow hit the Wolf in the side and made him yelp, but he only wriggled more. So Eliza shot two more arrows, one of which missed and one of which hit the wolf in the hind leg.

Somehow Nero felt sorry for the wolf, so he jumped down to the writhing wolf and gripped the long spear tightly in his hand. He lashed out and plunged the spear into the animal's throat.

The wolf's movements froze and blood pooled in its throat. Nero looked the wolf in the eyes and saw the light flowing out of them and he felt sadness. A deep painful sadness.

'What a waste death is.'