Ander - Part 6: Subchapter 142
142
Tio could actually feel the heat baking off of her. It wasn't the fire, and it wasn't the blood, it was her, just her, as if her anger had come alive.
"Layla-Kai?" He looked up, seeing for the first time just what she was changing into, what they were turning her into. Her left cheek was badly swollen, as if she had greedily stuffed a big chunk of meat in there without chewing (something Father said he should never, ever do, otherwise he could choke to death). There was blood everywhere. Her face was caked in drying splatters of it, and even more was constantly dribbling down her neck and seeping into her clothes, which wasn't a pretty green anymore, but a mottled mess of reddish brown splotches, with only the barest hints of green in-between. Looking at her, he was amazed that she was still conscious, let alone spouting threats. In her condition she ought to be about as threatening as a hummingbird. A humming bird with broken wings. But somehow, she wasn't. Even though there was blood dripping from her cut and swelling lips, they had peeled back into a snarl every bit as vicious as the ones back home. And even though she only had one good eye to look out of, that eye was furrowed down to a furious slit, as if she was trying to set them all on fire just by staring hard enough.
Looking into a face like that made him feel like he had, through some impossible oversight or temporary bout of insanity, hugged a wild momma bear instead of the super nice Fox lady who had booped his nose. Even the adults were taking an uneasy step back, glancing at each other in an unsure way that just didn't fit at all.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Hokin-Sai shouted. "It's just some stupid half-dead vixen bitch!"
The others chuckled in an attempt to shrug off their unease, but Tio knew better. It was just for a second, but they had been scared, scared plenty, and although the baby part of him was glad they had gotten stung for poking around inside a beehive, the smarter, older part of him, the part that had begun to shed his baby ways of thinking, knew that this couldn't be anything but bad. A cocky Wolf playing around with his food was one thing. An embarrassed Wolf trying to save face was another.
Hokin stepped forward, and after only a moment's hesitation, his friends followed suit, tightening the circle.
Layla-Kai responded to this by hugging Tio even closer and baring her fangs, growling in that surprisingly scary way of hers. He could actually feel the vibrations through her chest.
They're going to kill her, he thought, still struggling to understand the very concept. He knew what it meant, he knew what it took, but to take that concept and apply it to Layla-Kai was something his mind outright rejected. And yet the rock was still there, lying at Hokin-Sai's feet, a direct contradiction to what he believed should and should not make sense.
"Snarl at me like that, will you?" Hokin spat, closing the distance. "I'll teach you some manners! I'll -"
There was only one thing left to do. The only thing he could do.
Tio wormed himself free of Layla's grip (something he couldn't have done if she hadn't been weakened so severely), got down on his knees and spread his arms wide, imitating what he had seen Dorin-Sai and Aisa-Kai do at the wall, when they were trying to get everyone to stop fighting. He hadn't understood it back then, had only watched with a frown on his face from atop his father's shoulders, but he did now. He understood it all.
"Please don't hurt her!" he pleaded, sniffing back his tears.
"Get out of the way, boy!"
Tio shifted uneasily, but held his ground. "Please, Hokin-Sai," he said, his voice all choked and phlegmy. "She's my friend!"
"She's a FOX!" Hokin spat out. "A filthy vixen bitch!"
The other Wolves nodded their agreement, growling and licking their lips.
"I won't ask you again, boy." Hokin-Sai took another step closer. "Get out of my way."
"No!"
Crayten-Sai, a shaggy brute with bite marks across his muzzle, put a hand on Hokin-Sai's shoulder. "Wait a second. Isn't this Traido's ensa?"
Tio's ears perked up at the sound of his father's name.
Hokin-Sai stopped and cocked his head. "That true? You Traido's kid?"
"I am!" Tio said, trying not to let himself get swept away by this unexpected current of hope. He didn't know if these guys were actually friends of Father's, but if they were, then surely they'd let him and Layla-Kai go, right? And more importantly, if they really did know Father, then maybe... "Have you seen him?" he asked, barely able to contain himself. "Have you seen Father?"
A lopsided smirk spread across Hokin-Sai's face. "No, kid. I haven't. You know what that means, don't you?"
Something was happening. Tio didn't know what it was, but he could feel it. The moment that ugly smile touched Hokin-Sai's face, the night seemed to get a little darker, even with all the flames burning out of control. It was as if someone had thrown a very thin, but very dark blanket over everything.
"What are you doing, Hokin?" Crayten-Sai asked. "That's a Wolf pup. I didn't come here to hurt Wolf pups!"
Hokin shrugged free of his grip. "He deserves to know." He bent down and rested his hands on his knees, putting himself on the same level as Tio, not unlike a kindly uncle. "Think about it, kid. If your father's not in here with the rest of the backrollers, and he's not outside with the true Wolves, then doesn't that mean there's only one place left he could possibly be?"
Layla-Kai drew a rattling breath between her clenched teeth. "You son of a bitch..."
"What? What's going on?" Tio didn't understand. Layla-Kai looked so angry, maybe even angrier than before, and Hokin-Sai was just staring down at him with this weird mix of pity and condescension, like he was some stupid little baby.
Layla-Kai grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back into a monstrously tight hug. "What is wrong with you?" she hissed at Hokin-Sai, blood dripping down her lips. "Why would you say something like that to a child?"
Say what? He hadn't said anything! He'd just been talking in stupid circles this whole time, wearing that smug grin, but -
"I'll tell you where your father is, you snot-nosed little brat," Hokin-Sai said, and was he enjoying this? Was he actually enjoying this? "If he's not here, and he's not out there, then that means he's still in the pass! He's still buried in the snow!"
The memory slammed into him all at once, seamlessly fusing the present and the past. Shouts of anger turned into screams of fear. The roar of the flames turned into the otherworldly rumble of the mountain, the Cora Himself.
He remembered sitting on top of Father's shoulders, so high it was dizzying, feeling like he was on top of the very world, looking out over a sea of Wolves. He remembered pointing at the cliffs, those black and white cliffs with the icicles hanging down from every rocky outcropping like rows of jagged teeth, each one shining from the inside with its own little spark of reflected torchlight.
"Ten strides under!" Hokin-Sai shouted, showering his face with spittle. "Frozen solid!"
Father, what is that? He remembered feeling nervous, but not scared. Why would he be scared of some weird rumbling noise? He was with Father. The biggest, toughest Wolf there ever was. There was no need to be scared. Being scared was for babies, and he wasn't a baby anymore. He would prove it by killing a whole mess of Foxes all by himself. A whole pile! A hundred deep!
"A block of ice, kid! I've seen 'em! They're just like statues! Except their eyes are red and their hands are all bloody 'cause they tried to dig their way out through the snow! Some of them scraped their fingers down to the bone!"
And then it happened. The Cora came alive. It vomited a great cloud of snow into the pass. Tio remembered craning his neck and looking straight up with his mouth agape, not understanding what his eyes were seeing, but unable to look away. The massive sheet of snow shooting across the sky with such speed and power that it actually hit the opposite cliff before crashing down. He remembered exactly what it had felt like when that shadow first fell over him, getting darker and darker. It had felt like he was just a tiny fly. Just the most insignificant little thing in the whole world, staring up at a massive hand coming down to crush him.
Father!
He remembered Father gripping him by the ankles so tightly it hurt. Remembered the way he tried to push his way through the sea of panicking Wolves, everyone staring up at the cloud of white death descending form the sky, roaring like a demon.
Hold on, Tio! For the love of the Cora, just hold on!
Fatheeeer!!
"- is dead and gone! Frozen just like all the rest!"
It was like getting hit in the face by a very big, very heavy rock. Just one bright flash of pain and then nothing. Nothing at all. Just the darkest dark and the coldest cold, worse than any nightmare could ever be. He remembered trying to wake up anyway, but couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not because everything stayed black regardless. He remembered trying to move his arms, his legs, anything, but he couldn't. He tried to call for help, but he couldn't do that either. His mouth was full of snow, ice cold on his tongue. It was in his nose, in his eyes, in his throat. He couldn't breathe.
He wanted his father, but no matter how hard he tried to reach, his fingers just kept closing over freezing clumps of snow.
Where was he? Where was Father?
The darkest dark, getting darker. The coldest cold, getting colder.
"And you wanna know who's responsible? Huh? You wanna know?"
By the gods, this one's just a kid!
Get him out of there!
Is he alive?
I don't know! Oh gods, he's freezing! Help me with this! Come on! We have to get him to Bethany right now!
He remembered something soft... A pelt, maybe? Something warm. The hollow, rippling sound of strong winds blowing against a tent. And voices. Moans of pain. Whispered thanks.
He remembered opening his eyes and seeing a Fox looking down at him. A big one. He got such a fright he nearly knocked over the bowl of warm water she had been dipping his fingers into.
Easy, little one! Easy! It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. Just try to stay calm, okay?
He looked around in a panic, not understanding. They were in a long tent filled with Wolves, most of them either unconscious or staring up at the ceiling. He didn't see his father anywhere.
You just keep your fingers in here and I'll be back to check on you in a few minutes, all right? You don't need to be afraid anymore.
"It was Foxes, kid! Foxes! Just like the one behind you! They're the ones who called the snow! They're the ones responsible for killing your father! They might as well have taken a knife to his throat! It's all the same!"
The others roared and stamped their feet, their eyes glowing dully in the thick haze of smoke. And Tio... he simply turned his head to see Layla-Kai, staring back at him, slow breaths passing over trembling lips.
"Tio..." she said, tears running down her swollen cheeks, carving clear lines through drying splatters of blood. She looked so sad...
"So get out of the way, boy," Hokin said. "Get out of the way and let us have a go at her. If you're good, I'll let you have the finishing blow all to yourself. However you want. Stab her. Bite her. Choke her. Bash her skull in. Get revenge for your father. How does that sound?"
Sometimes... bad things happen. You can't stop them from happening. It's just part of being alive. Sometimes those things are so bad that they hurt you in ways you've never been hurt before. They hurt you so bad you can't even understand it. Some people try to cope with it by burying their feelings deep, deep down, so it can't hurt them anymore. Some people get sad. Some people get angry. Some people run far, far away, or try to ignore it completely. Some people... lash out at the thing that hurt them, even if it's something that can't be hurt back. They think that, if they can inflict as much pain as they're feeling, then that'll make the pain go away. That it'll make them feel better.
"Eye for an eye, kid. Eye for a bloody eye."
"Eye..." Tio said, staring down at the ground, "... for an eye?"
"That's right, kid." Hokin ran a long, pink tongue over rows of jagged teeth. "Eye for an eye."
But that doesn't fix anything. It only doubles the pain.
Tio's hands balled into fists and his face went through a complete transformation. His brow furrowed and his muzzle crinkled back, revealing rows of sharp, pointy teeth. He was shaking all over. He raised his head to face the line of ravenous Wolves, and in a voice wholly unbefitting such a small child, bellowed: "That doesn't fix anything!"
Hokin blinked, completely taken aback. "What?"
"You heard me!" Tio shouted, tears streaming down his face. "I don't know if my father is dead or not, but if he is, then killing Layla-Kai won't bring him back! All it'll do is make everyone who loves her feel just like me!"
"You're not thinking right."
"No! _You're_not thinking right! Layla-Kai helped me! She helped a lot of us, and so did all the other Foxes! If they thought like you did, then 'eye for an eye' would have gotten me killed! It would have gotten _you_killed!"
"Wolves _did_die, you disrespectful little snipe!"
"And killing Foxes won't bring them back either! 'Eye for an eye' only doubles pain! That's what Layla-Kai told me, and I believe her! It's happening all around us right now! You have to be blind not to see it!"
"Doubles pain, huh? Doubles pain, you say? You mean like this?" Hokin slapped him across the face, and the next thing Tio knew, he was down on the ground, the bitter taste of blood filling his mouth.
"Tio!" Layla-Kai grabbed hold and pulled him in close, glaring daggers at the five Wolves slowly bearing down on them, drooling in anticipation.
"I knew your father, kid!" Hokin screamed, pointing one hooked finger at Tio's shocked face. "I'd rather not hurt his ensa, but I will if I have to! Now get out of the way before I do something I might regret!"
Tio shook his head. "No."
"Do as he says, boy!" Crayten said. "Just get out of here!"
"No!"
Layla-Kai looked down at him, blood and tears leaking from her battered face. "They'll kill you, too, Tio!" she cried in a haggard slur. "Just run! Just get the hell out of here!" She tried to push him away, but Tio would have none of it. He wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could, shouting "No, no, no!!" over and over again, each 'no' accompanied by a hard shake of his head.
"I'm not blind, kid," Hokin said, "and neither am I stupid. I know perfectly well what's going on. Killing this vixen bitch won't bring Prya back. You were right about that. But..."
"Tio, get off!" Layla-Kai hissed, trying to prise his fingers loose. "Tio, get out of here, please!"
Hokin raised his hand, curling and uncurling his fingers. His claws caught the firelight, turning each one into a double-curved crescent of black and orange. "If you see your father on the Path, tell him I'm sorry I had to put you down, but it was for your own good. I'm sure he'll understand. He wouldn't have wanted his only son to turn into a Fox-licking backroller anyways..."
He really meant to kill him, of that Tio had no doubt. It wasn't the claws, it wasn't the baring of the fangs or the wild drooling. It was the tears... the tears in Hokin's eyes. Tears rolling down his cheeks even as he pulled back his arm, ready to deliver a deadly swipe. It was just like Layla-Kai had said. They were trying to make the pain go away.
"And if you see Prya walking the Path, tell her... tell her I'll catch up in just a bit..."
"Tio!" Layla-Kai hugged him close to her chest and twisted around, turning her own back into a shield just as Hokin leapt forward, his arm cocked back and his jaws opening wide, a stream of tears flowing in his wake like shining stars.
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