Chapter 9

It was like a torrent breaking through as the shadowy figures ran through the street, flooding the smouldering remains of houses, breaking through the feeble doors that had already been busted by the mercenaries. Frightened male screams floated into the night before the street saw some of the marauding warriors jumping out of the shadows to escape the swarm of wolves. They were dark, with glowing red eyes like the ones that had consumed Wolf-mother on the lake; they had transformed from the friendly, lazy beasts that she had travelled with into proper predators, with fangs and mouths bathed in blood, and low rumbling growls that could only warn of more danger to come. It was as if the yellow in their eyes had been tainted by the shift in the night, a calling for a hunt. It was a nature she'd been dimly aware of, but it was terrifying to bear witness to nonetheless.

She stood frozen in place, trembling, as she saw one of the mercenaries be separated from his group before a large bite tore through his arm. His spear fell to the floor with a loud clang as he panicked. Another wolf lunged and went straight for his head. A crunching noise followed, and the body crumpled onto itself, becoming nothing more than food for the hungry creatures of the night. And so the scene multiplied itself, with those visible from her vantage point falling prey to the attacking shadows.

Female screams joined the cacophony, and Alix felt herself pale when she realised that the wolves hadn't simply stopped at the mercenaries. What difference was it to them? The fire had sparked an invitation for chaos, and under its mantle it was only so easy for a beast to seek blood. Gone was any semblance of protection; the only light came from the fires still ravaging the buildings, and it was a mocking one, interested only in illuminating their misfortunes. She made a move to go back to the stables, to wake up the innkeepers before they fell prey to the bloodlust of the pack.

She only got as far as the back of the inn when she felt something colluding with her shoulder from behind. She fell to the ground, rolled and got up in a single movement, turning to face her attacker.

"Yew-child," the woman of the silver stare said. "Why did you run?"

"W-w-wolf-mother," Alix stammered as she took in the form of who she thought had been cruelly maimed. "I thought you… I saw you being eaten by the wolves… how?"

The woman stared at her for a moment before sighing heavily. For a moment she rested a hand on her temple. "So it was that… do not worry about it, child. That is my duty to my children."

"Duty?"

"As the moon knows it must step back in order for the sun to rise, so I am bound by a certain covenant. My blood is the life blood of my children. You will have your duty to fulfil as well."

Alix's stomach churned at the memories of the carnage, and she flinched away from the woman. "I-I don't know…." I don't know that I can do that.

Wolf-mother seemed to understand her thoughts. "We are kin, child. Everything I can do, you shall be able to do."

Beyond the crackling of the fire, which was still angrily lapping the remains of the inn and parts of the stables, Alix could hear the rustling of the wind. From the forest, far away in the horizon beyond the fields, the echoes of a murder of crows could be heard. It was like an omen of sorts, and it marked a moment where something shifted. Behind her, the innkeeper's wife had awoken, and wearily she had stumbled a few steps in their direction.

"H-help please, my husband…!" she weakly called out to them. The silver eyes flashed, and Wolf-mother stepped towards the woman with a hungry look in her eyes. Alix knew what was going on in her head, because she could feel its echoes in the trembling of her skin as she tried to hold the woman back.

Prey. The innkeeper's wife, the mercenaries, the villagers. They were all prey, easy for the picking, divested of the protection of civilization by the onset of fire. As their dwellings had crumbled so had their protection from the hungry eyes of the night. And now capricious mother nature sent its wolves to rake in her victims, like a new storm after another.

"Move aside, Yew-child," Wolf-mother snapped at her. "You shouldn't interrupt the Hunt."

"Please, not her! She took me in!"

She received an incredulous stare. "Have you forgot who you are? What is a human to you?"

"Please, I beg you! Don't eat her!"

A laugh erupted from the woman's chest. "Will you plead for every mouse's life, for every little creature in the forest we come across? You will soon exhaust yourself, child."

Alix was shoved roughly to the side. She held onto her sword as she fell, but managed to get back up quickly enough to catch up to the woman. She tried to tackle her from behind, but found her hands grasping at air, and then teeth closing around her midsection. Before she could scream, she was flung to the air.

She slowly rolled to lay on her back, feeling pain over her shoulders, on her arms, and a pulsating warm sensation from her torso, from where she was sure she was heavily bleeding. From far away she could hear the innkeeper's wife screaming for her and she smiled, touched by her concern. Footsteps approached her, but it wasn't a woman's light gait as she'd expected. A large silver wolf, pale as the moon and with familiar knowing eyes, came into her field of vision.

"This is the way things are, child," the creature said. "As men lust for each other's lands so we hunt and eat and terrorize Man in their nightmares. You are a child of war. Remember this."

Wolf-mother howled. Alix knew who she was calling for, but found her strength was fading, and her eyesight turning blurry. The pain in her abdomen was even more pulsating, and cold began to seep into her limbs. The stars above were dimming, and she thought that perhaps their reflections would escape her blood like they'd done when Wolf-mother had been devoured.

The silver wolf retreated, and the girl knew that it was to finish the hunt and devour the innkeeper and his wife. Perhaps her actions had been all for naught; the only difference they had made was shift her a bit closer to Wolf-mother. When she had left her brothers it had been to find her prey; when she had picked up the sword it had been to hunt. A whine was heard softly leaving her lips as she lamented her foolishness: she'd thought she'd been escaping from the forest, from the wolves, but all she'd done is bring them with her to the doorstep of the village.

Responding to the previous calling, two familiar wolves emerged from the shadows and approached her silently. At first they licked her wounds with incredible care. She wanted to badly to reach out to them to pet them, but she found she barely had any strength left. "Mountain-stream, Magpie…" she called softly at her brothers, knowing what was to come.

A sharp pain shot through her leg as the first bite tore her flesh, and after that, she knew no more.