Elowyn froze.
She didn’t even dare to breathe.
From behind the pine, a low, wet growl tore through the silence of the wood, a guttural sound so deep it vibrated the ribs in her chest. She turned her head slowly, inch by agonizing inch, only to lock gazes with a pair of glowing, hungry eyes fixed intently on her.
Then another pair. And another.
Monstrous, gaunt forms prowled out into the open, making her pupils shrink in absolute horror. She recoiled, a wave of suffocating dread washing over her as her mind scrambled to comprehend the sheer scale of what she was seeing.
Dire wolves.
The universe was definitely mocking her.
What were they doing here?!
These were the legendary apex killers of the frozen summits– brutal, unreasoning beasts notorious for slaughtering a whole herd just for the thrill of the kill. Under normal circumstances, they never descended this far down the dense timberland. What on earth had lured them off their mountain heights?!
This was bad! Worse than bad!
A ferocious snarl tore through the frigid air, sending her pulse into a frantic tailspin.
Up close, the beasts were nightmare incarnate.
Ribs protruded like broken cage bars beneath filthy, blood-stained fur. Hot, yellow saliva dripped from their bared fangs, steaming the moment it hit the freezing snow. They were feral, twisted and entirely wrong.
Just great, Elowyn.
Your tribe couldn’t get to you, so the universe sent their wild cousins to finish the job.
She took one slow, deliberate step backward.
Three pairs of yellow eyes tracked her movement, marking her as prey.
RUN.
Survival instincts overrode all reasoning. Abandoning her water pails on the rock, Elowyn lunged off the icy bank, kicking snow in the air as she scrambled into a desperate, frantic sprint.
Behind her, a chorus of ravenous howls erupted. Then came the heavy, rhythmic thrum of massive paws tearing through the snow, already gaining ground.
Don’t look back. Just run! Keep running!
The woods dissolved into a wild blur. Her boots sank dangerously deep into the snowdrifts, threatening to twist her joints, but pure adrenaline propelled her forward. The sharp snap of breaking twigs grew terrifyingly closer, underscored by hot, wet snarling that vibrated straight through her spine.
She threw herself beneath low fir branches and leaped over frozen roots, driving her legs beyond their absolute limit.
Elowyn was no stranger to running. Her time in the IronFang tribe had taught her how to navigate treacherous terrain and use her environment to her advantage. But in this case, no amount of cunning could bridge the gap she possessed as a shiftless female.
Without a beast form to grant her superhuman speed, she was fragile, slow and hopelessly unmatched. Her human feet could never outrun a whole dire wolf pack.
She needed a change of tactics, and she needed it now.
Think, Elowyn! Think! Use the forest! Find an opening!
Panicked and desperate, she made the fatal mistake of looking over her shoulder.
What she saw turned her blood to ice. All three dire wolves were closing in, their gaunt, muscular frames plowing through the snow with relentless, crushing momentum. New chapters come out on novelping(.)com first.
She snapped her head back around, her wild eyes searching the dense snowy treeline ahead, her mind racing for a single lifeline
Come on...! Anything! Give me something!
Her searching eyes instantly locked onto the strange, green-leafed oak standing out marvelously against the white landscape. The summer-blooming tree! She had shunned this path of the forest since the day she encountered it with the healer, but right now, this unnatural beauty might just be her only salvation.
Dire Wolves can’t climb.
Goodness!
How had that slipped her mind?!
Years of surviving the IronFang tribe had drilled wolf biology into her head. She knew the mechanics of a canine body down to the marrow. Their heavy bone density, inflexible wrists, and blunt claws were built for raw speed across terrestrial ground.
In a straight chase, she was dead meat. But five feet of vertical elevation meant she had a chance!
But can she make it in time?!
No.
There was no room for doubt.
She HAD to make it!
Putting everything on the line, Elowyn planted her boots into the packed ice and launched her body up into the air, her fingers locking onto a steady bough just as hot, rotten breath hit her heel. Massive jaws snapped shut on empty air, missing her foot by an inch.
A strangled gasp ripped from her throat as her full body weight yanked violently against her shoulder sockets.
Move! Keep moving!
Ignoring the burning agony in her muscles, she dug her nails into the lush bark and hauled her legs out of the danger zone. She scrambled upward, refusing to halt until she was wedged firmly ten feet above the snow, locked between two heavy, leafy branches.
Directly beneath her, the pack erupted in a chorus of murderous rage.
The alpha dire wolf hurled its massive frame against the tree, its thick, blunt claws gouging deep grooves through the bark. It snapped furiously into the air, its terrible jaws coming within feet of her boot before gravity dragged it back down into the snowbank.
The sheer force of the impact vibrated straight up the trunk, rattling her branch and sending a shower of fresh, emerald leaves cascading down into the snow.
A single stray leaf broke free from the cluster, swept away by a sudden wind as it drifted gently down the western path.
High above the snow, Elowyn pulled her knees to her chest, her chest heaving in ragged gasps as her knuckles turned white against the tree bark.
Her gamble had paid off– these creatures couldn’t climb. Yet staring down at the predators prowling beneath her provided zero comfort.
"Get away from here! Leave!" She shouted down at them, hating the frail, terrified tremble in her own voice.
The dire wolves didn’t even flinch. They simply sat back on their haunches like patient gargoyles, their glowing, ravenous eyes locked onto her frame.
"It’s fine," Elowyn whispered to herself, clinging tighter to the pine bark as the mountain wind bit into her skin. "They are just wild beasts... they will get bored and leave. I... I just need to hold on longer."
But as the minutes stretched into an agonizing blur, their unnatural discipline began to dismantle her resolve. They weren’t moving at all.
What did she ever do to earn this kind of terrible luck?! All she did was go fetch water!
A cold wave of despair washed over her.
Was she going to die out here?
Tears of frustration burned behind her eyes, but she gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. She refused to let them fall.
They would either starve or freeze before she let herself come down from this tree.
They had to.
[•]
Ares was bored.
He looked around the shelter and realized there was absolutely nothing entertaining to do in this dreary, frozen wasteland. Sighing, he reached out, his long fingers wrapping around the crude walking stick Elowyn had stubbornly insisted on leaning against his side.
He eyed the timber thoughtfully.
If he were to smack his skull hard enough with this log, would his memories return?
He had to admit, existing in complete void was infuriating. No matter how aggressively he searched his mind, his past remained strangely sealed away.
But he did not long for his memories out of sentimental weakness– he wanted cold vengeance. He wanted to identify the unfortunate soul who had dared to put him in this condition. Someone out there had planned his murder and likely believed he was already crow food. Once he regained his memories, he would find whoever was responsible so he could exact a merciless retribution.
Though hunting down an enemy without a face or name sounded like an impractical task.
With a sharp click of his tongue, he threw the stick casually onto his lap. Ruminating over ghost assassins was a waste of his precious breath and time. If he ever wanted to deliver that vengeance, his immediate concern had to be recovering his health.
As the pale mountain light began to shift, Ares turned back toward the empty treeline.
"Where in the world is she?"
It made no sense. How complicated could fetching two buckets of water be? Had she lost her way, or was she deliberately dallying around to spite him?
He convinced himself he had no reason to worry about her. But as the time ticked by, a cold, unfamiliar dread coiled tighter in his chest. In all her trips with the old healer, she had never taken this long. Did she manage to get herself lost out there?
A sudden, dark thought made him freeze.
Or did she use fetching water as a convenient pretext to abandon him??
The reaction in his chest was immediate and violent, like something else had fiercely rejected the thought. It unnerved him, terrified him, even, how strongly his soul rejected the idea of her leaving him behind.
Curse her.
She had an infuriating ability of driving him out of his mind.
There was simply no rational reason for this suffocating panic clawing at his throat. He was half-convinced the girl had laid a silent curse upon him, slipping some mind-bending witchery into his medicine.
Before his thoughts could spiral further, a splash of unnatural color drifted into his view. Caught by the gentle gust of wind, a fresh green leaf fluttered past his cheek. Without thinking, Ares flicked his wrist, snatching the stem effortlessly between two pale fingers.
He narrowed his eyes, studying the unseasonal foliage with sharp distaste. "Nonsense... how is this not frozen solid?"
Dismissing the anomaly, he let it slip from his grip. He had other things to occupy his thoughts with already.
The moment the leaf hit the snow, a blood-curdling howl erupted through the mountain stillness. By all laws of nature, the sound was far too distant for his shattered body to perceive, and yet, it echoed inside his head like a war horn.
All the breath left his lungs.
His slouched frame snapped upright, every muscle coiling tight as his dark gaze locked onto the forest path.