Chp.27: The corpse wolf

"Have they passed?"

"I think so. We can go"

Fourteen baby dragons reappeared in the middle of the plain, while in the distance some winged creatures moved away in the sky. Rhaegal watched them, making sure they didn't retreat, then the dragons resumed their march.

When Tikka and Teramon returned with the news of what had happened, almost no one believed it right away. They were surprised that Haku, Kotaru and Darbi had actually been able to take down a great basilisk, but after knowing how they had done they had to admit that their plan was really good. However, their admiration was short-lived: Tikka and Teramon had in fact revealed to them of their 'close encounter' with a wyvern, an unequivocal sign that the human army was moving towards the border. Their siblings had understood the problem very well, so they had immediately resumed their march to get away from there as quickly as possible.

Now, almost another week later, getting more than a few miles a day had become nearly impossible. The sky was continually crossed by winged patrols of humans, who counted not only wyverns but also other creatures they didn't know, and even on the ground it wasn't unusual to come across some soldiers on horseback. Dragons were required to keep the invisibility rune ready for use at all times; by now, they used it almost permanently, and kept attached to each other's tails to avoid getting lost (since they couldn't see each other either). However, whenever they glimpsed the shadow of a winged creature, they couldn't help but run and hide. It was an instinctive mechanism that activated even if they had the invisibility runes.

The dragons couldn't help it. Their first encounter with a shadow that blocked the sun was when their father had attacked them trying to kill them. Their bodies instinctively remembered fear, as it associated the shadows of the creatures in the sky with danger. And indeed, whenever they noticed a flying creature, the dragons began to tremble and felt the immediate urge to flee.

After all those days of travel, the dragons had completely passed the plains. By now they had reached a wood, which was much smaller than the Karbraland Great Forest, but which was still much more pleasing to them since they could hide there much better. The trees provided protection from above with their canopies, and the ground was filled with bushes and shrubs that they could blend into.

"Maybe we should stop" Rhaegal said as he continued to watch the patrol disappear over the horizon, illuminated by the setting sun. "We all need to sleep, and here we have enough protection. Let's organize watch shifts and rest"

The hypothesis was well accepted. After all, due to the constant patrols, all of them hadn't slept in days. They all needed to get some rest. So they looked for a particularly large tree that could hide them all, they chose how to manage their shifts, and after a quick dinner they fell asleep.

To avoid risking the lookout falling asleep, they had decided that they would take watch shift in pairs. Rhaegal and Teramon were thus finished together to make the first shift. They had climbed the tree and lay down on the top branches. The trees of that wood weren't as big as those of the Karbraland Great Forest, so their branches could barely support them, but sitting in the middle of their canopy the two dragons were still able to keep themselves stable. From above it would have been easier to detect any threats.

"Urgh, I'm so tired. If you hear anyone snoring, it might be me" Teramon grumbled as she rubbed her lids.

"Hold on, sister. We have to be strong while we're on watch. In an hour we too can rest" Rhaegal said, though he too was rather sleepy. Unfortunately, since they had decided to watch in pairs, each shift now had to last much longer.

Teramon sighed. "I hate how things turned out. It was so good until a week ago... now we have to hide all the time again, like in the forest" he grumbled. "I would love to know why the newcomers suddenly changed the position of their armies..."

Unbeknownst to them, the reason for the sudden change was Gorsh's actions. The lionman in looking for the hydra had gone very close to the border, and when he had found it and turned into a calamity he had left it there, so he and his army had camped not far away. The humans had obviously followed the beastmen, and now there was a fierce fight between them to get the hydra's attention. The humans tried to push her towards the beastmen camp, while the beastmen instead tried to hold her where she was. In fact, for his plan to work, Gorsh needed the entire human army to be present: otherwise, the hydra would not only have won, but would also have kept much of its strength and this would have been a big problem for him. Thus, this area of ​​the border had turned into a fierce chess game between the patrols equipped with flying mounts, and of course the group of dragons was right in the middle of them.

"I keep wondering if we shouldn't swerve" Rhaegal murmured. "Of course, this way we would pass through inhabited centres, but perhaps it would be easier..."

"Easier than not being noticed by an animal flying several hundred meters up?" Teramon asked rhetorically. "It's better for us to stay on the pre-established route"

Rhaegal sighed. He knew his sister was right. They had talked about it several times, and each time the arguments against changing course were always greater than those in favour. At least, it was easy for them to go unnoticed in the woods. "Don't think about it" Teramon told him. "We're almost there now. The desert isn't far away. We'll arrive soon, and then we'll finally be able to move without being afraid that someone will see us"

Even if they didn't have the map with them, the dragons remembered many essential details, and they knew that the wood where they were at the moment was located just south of the Yuthia Desert. Once they passed the wood they would reach a river, which if they remembered correctly was called Skai River, and after fording it they would arrive at the desert. Therefore, they didn't have far to go. They just had to hold on for a few more days.

"I wish we were already there" Rhaegal murmured blankly, then he shook his head. "No, you're right, I don't have to think about it. Distract me, tell me about something else"

"Something... like what?" Teramon asked not knowing what to say. They practically knew everything about each other since they spent all their time together, it was hard to find new topics to discuss privately…

Rhaegal seemed to think about it, then said: "You and Tikka never really talked about what happened when you went to see our siblings. You just ran back here telling us that they had killed a great basilisk and that we had to leave immediately because the newcomers they were close. Since that day we've been too busy hiding to talk about it, so... can you at least tell me how they are?"

Teramon seemed to remember just then that she and Tikka had given almost no explanations. "Sorry... yes, they're fine. All of them" she responded. "Kotaru was always smiling, Darbi... well, he is Darbi, and..."

She suddenly stopped talking. Rhaegal noticed it. "What's up, sister?"

Teramon didn't know what to say. "Ehm... not all of them are fine. According to Kotaru... Haku had a crisis after what happened"

Those words struck Rhaegal. "Crisis? What crisis?"

"Kotaru didn't want to explain it to us. He said Haku would tell us about it if we asked him, but… well, we didn't want to talk to him at the time" Teramon replied a little embarrassed. "Though, thinking about it a few days later... I have to admit that I noticed some differences in him. When he realized that we didn't want him around, he immediately walked away... and he seemed very dejected indeed. I think this experience has really marked him deeply"

Rhaegal felt concern grip his heart like a vice. Even though he tried not to think of him as such after what had happened, Haku was still his brother and hearing Teramon talk about him like that made him feel bad. Rhaegal had imagined that Haku had been furious or angry… not certainly that he would have become so dejected and condescending towards them, or that he had even had a breakdown. That last word disturbed Rhaegal: what did Kotaru mean by 'crisis'? He hoped his brother hadn't been hurt or something.

"Kotaru wanted us to deliver a message, to all of you... but we forgot about it due to the circumstances" Teramon continued with a bit of embarrassment. "She said to tell you that she believes our family can be truly united again, and that we should try to give Haku a chance to prove to us that he understands his mistake. She knows it will be complicated, but she is sure that one day we can all live together again"

Back to being a united family? Rhaegal wanted nothing more. The idea of ​​having his two brothers and sweet sister back with them thrilled him. And after Teramon's words he wanted to give Haku a second chance, he really wanted to. But just thinking about it, his face seemed to burn again. His body shook slightly and he instinctively brought a paw to the left side of his muzzle. "I'm not sure I'm ready to do that" he admitted. "Maybe someday... but not now. Sorry, sister, I..."

"Hey, hey, you don't have to justify yourself!" Teramon exclaimed. "I understand you're not ready... Tikka and I aren't either, in fact. And I think all the others too"

Rhaegal felt a bittersweet taste in his mouth. But before he could say anything else, a strange smell seeped into his nostrils. "Sssh! There's something!" he whispered.

"I know, I smell it too!" Teramon said, sniffing the air, and looking at a point in the trees. "It's approaching... but what is it? From the smell it almost looks like a corpse..."

A wolf appeared in the trees. But it was no ordinary wolf, Rhaegal and Teramon could see right away. Its fur was torn in several places and its eyes were white and without pupils, and some of the skin was even stripped away. Its entire body gave off an aura as black as the night sky that seemed to wrap it like a cloak. The wolf moved silently and quickly, much faster than any normal wolf. If it hadn't been for the stench of rotting flesh it gave off, the two dragons wouldn't have noticed.

"What is that?" Teramon whispered.

"I don't know, but I have no intention to let it go ever closer!" Rhaegal said, and he descended from the tree protected by the invisibility rune, and then threw himself at the wolf with the aim of using the fact that it couldn't see him to bite its throat.

But instead of continuing on its way without seeing him, the wolf immediately changed direction and ran towards him with his jaws wide open. Rhaegal was surprised: could the wolf see him? Or was it sensing his presence in some other way? Before he could ask any more questions, the wolf was upon him. Rhaegal however was still a dragon, and consequently when the two collided it was he the one who threw the wolf to the ground and bit it on the throat.

But the wolf didn't show any sign of fatigue or pain: on the contrary, it continued to scratch him with its powerful paws. Rhaegal was protected by his scales, but after a while even these began to peel off. Conversely, the wolf didn't seem to be willing to die, even though Rhaegal's teeth had already ripped through its trachea and half its esophagus. To top it off, the taste of that meat was strange: Rhaegal felt like his mouth was full of spoiled food. 'Damn! This thing doesn't die!' he snapped in his head as the wolf continued to wriggle under him.

But finally, Teramon appeared among them and with her right paw crushed the wolf's head. The body continued to squirm for almost a minute, then the dark aura that enveloped it vanished and it never moved again.

Rhaegal spat out the wolf flesh that remained in his mouth. Without the dark aura enveloping it, he could clearly see that what was in front of him was a corpse. "Thanks for the help, Teramon"

"A straight shot to the head is always the best solution. Destroy the brain and you kill any living thing" his sister said. "Its skin is all rotten... what is it?"

"We'd like to know too". Their other sisters had obviously woken up; with all the fuss they had made it was impossible for them to lie dormant. "What happened?"

"This creature was about to attack you, so Teramon and I resolved the situation. But it was already a corpse when it attacked us" Rhaegal replied, and his face darkened. "I think I know what is the explanation behind all of this"

The fourteen dragons looked at each other in concern. Everyone had the same thought in mind. "The hydra" Sisna murmured, remembering how Nogg had explained to them that the creature's deadly breath could turn living creatures into its minions.

Rhaegal nodded. "It must be near. We're not safe here" he said. "I propose that we continue sleeping until tomorrow morning, and then set off without stopping towards the desert. We'll rest there next time. Are you okay with it?"

Everyone agreed. They would have preferred to leave immediately, but they needed at least some sleep. The next day, when they were all rested, they would continue without stopping. So, everyone went back to sleep while Rhaegal and Teramon resumed their roles as lookouts.