Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 64
64
There was no dead Wolf sprawled in the snow, no pools of blood, no dead Danado staring up at the night sky with his tongue hanging out and an arrow growing out of his forehead.
Seffer's arrow had struck a lumpy, uprooted tree stump with two dead leaves stuck in the top to look like ears.
This is impossible.
Dorin didn't have any words, but Hyker sure did, short as they were.
"It's the same trick! It's the same bloody -" That's as far as he got before the arrow struck him right in the area between the shoulder and neck, boring down into his body so that only half of it was still visible, pointing straight up into the air, the fletching vibrating slightly with the shock of the impact.
They both stared at it for second, and then Hyker started to scream. He staggered back, his right arm hanging limp by his side, blood pouring down, but Dorin was more concerned with the angle of that arrow than the arrow itself. It didn't come from behind, and it didn't come from ahead.
It came from above.
Impossible, he thought for the second time. He doesn't have any claws on his fingers or toes. I cut them off myself. It's agony for him just to stand. There's no way he could have climbed up a tree, just no way...
Dorin looked up, and after a frantic moment of searching, he saw the dark figure perched high up in the topmost branches, blending in almost perfectly with the shadows.
And it wasn't Danado.
He made a grab for the dagger at his hip, but he was too slow. The shadow leapt from the branches and landed right on top of him, knocking him to the ground in a splash of snow. He didn't even have time to cry out for help before it pressed the tip of a dagger against his throat, pushing so hard he could barely swallow.
It was Nilia. She stared at him, breathing heavily, her hair hanging down in messy tangles, lightly brushing against his face. There was a nasty cut in her arm, no doubt the source of the blood trail they had followed all the way out here.
"Remove your hand from your dagger," she said. "If you make any other move, I will kill you."
Dorin did as she asked and splayed his arms out to the side.
"Saaai!!"
From this angle he had a queer sideways view of Vekka, Yanek, and Thoka running to come help.
"Order your men to stand down or I will kill you."
"Stop!" Dorin shouted, and all three of them skidded to a halt.
"But, Sai!"
"Stay where you are! That's an order!"
They fidgeted in place, gnashing their jaws, growling in dissatisfaction. They bent their knees and lowered their heads, as if preparing to pounce, and Dorin knew that there would be no reasoning with them. You couldn't reason with a pack of animals. He could see it all unfold in his mind's eye with crystal clarity, as if he wasn't merely looking into his imagination, but the future. He could see them charge, foam dripping from their mouths, drawn back into furious snarls and joyful smiles at the same time.
Nilia would slit his throat, and that would be the end of him. He'd spend his last minute bleeding out in the snow, watching as they tore her apart. Maybe she'd get lucky and stab one of her assailants before finally succumbing.
But for what? Why were they all out here? Because Wardo didn't like them? Because they had tried to help a Wolf who was probably dead anyway? How many more Wolves would have to die before they saw the cloud of madness spreading throughout the tribe like a disease? How many Wolves would have to be left behind, staring in horror at the blood on their hands? How many Wolves would have to feel the exact same way he was feeling right now before it could stop?
Just stop...
"You!" In dealing with the other three, Dorin had almost forgotten about Hyker. The lanky Wolf was coming closer, clutching his bleeding shoulder, each step filled with murderous intent so thick he could actually smell it. His bloodshot eyes were bugging out of their sockets and he was breathing heavily through his clenched teeth. "You bitch!" he yelled. "You crazy bitch! Look what you did!"
Nilia pressed the dagger harder against Dorin's throat. "Tell Hyker to back away or I'll have to kill you."
"Do as she says, Hyker," Dorin said, knowing it was useless. "Just back away and we can all have a nice little chat."
"No, Sai! She thinks she can get away with this a second time!?" He pulled a long, curved dagger from his hip and pointed it right at Nilia. "I'm gonna gut you like a fish, you whore!"
This is it, Dorin thought. Nilia has to kill me. She has no choice._And then, riding on the heels of that first thought: _Would that be so bad?
He looked up at Nilia's eyes, hardened by years of strife, but still beautiful, in their own way.
She could have killed Ivio, Hyker, Seffer and Denko, all before this chase even began, but she didn't. She couldn't. Wardo's words came floating through his mind, a grim reminder of how differently everyone sees this world.
Wolves can't think with their hearts and their heads at the same time. It's either one or the other, and Nilia is always thinking with her heart. That makes her stupid. She'll put herself in danger to save her friends, just like Ander did.
These thoughts did not bring relief, but fear. He could feel her weight on his chest, he could feel her breathe, he could feel her warmth, he could see the falling snowflakes reflected in her eyes, backlit by the moon. She was an enemy, but he didn't want her to lose all that. The threat of his death was the only real weapon she had, but if she was just bluffing, she might as well be dead already, and he didn't want to see that happen. He didn't want to feel her body go limp. He didn't want to feel the ebb and flow of her breathing slow down, and then stop. He didn't want to watch those pretty green eyes go dull and lifeless. That moment of transition, when she goes from being alive to being dead... it was a moment he never wanted to live through again. Because when you see that transition take place, when you see that spark of life disappear, it's as if a part of you is dying along with it.
Maybe that's why he didn't shout out a warning when he saw Danado rise up from between the tree's monstrous roots, covered from head to toe in a thin layer of crumbling snow.
"Hyker, behind you!" Thoka cried, but it was already too late.
Hyker spun around, brandishing his dagger, but Danado simply reached over the wall of snow, grabbed the arrow still sticking out of his shoulder, and wrenched it to the side.
Hyker screamed and dropped the dagger, his face contorted by rage and pain. The look on Danado's face, however, made Hyker's seem tame, even pleasant, by comparison.
By the Cora, he really has gone crazy...
Danado wrenched the arrow again, twisting it around and around like someone stirring a pot of soup, and Hyker shrieked to the sky, blood spouting from his shoulder like a fountain.
Dorin thought it wouldn't go any further than that. He was wrong.
Danado seized Hyker by the hair, pulled him through the wall of snow, and slammed him face-first into the trunk of the tree, instantly turning his cries of anger into a gruesome gurgle.
Dorin watched, horrified, as Danado pulled Hyker back and smashed his face into the tree again and again.
Nilia was just as shocked as he was, staring at this grisly display of ferocity with her mouth open.
"Make him stop!" Dorin shouted, the edge of her blade biting painfully into his neck. "He's killing him!"
"That's enough, Dan!" Nilia yelled, but it was no use. Danado simply kept going, pulling Hyker's head back and slamming it forward like a Wolf possessed. There was a big red splash against the wood, and it was growing bigger with every strike. Bits of bark and teeth came flying through the air. The noise his face made as it crunched against the tree was like an egg being cracked open, all wet and runny. "Dan! He's already unconscious! Stop it! STOP IT!"
Danado pulled back and slammed Hyker's face into the tree one last time, using every last ounce of crazy strength in his mangled hands. Hyker struck the tree and rebounded, sticky ropes of blood and saliva swinging from his jaws. He fell backwards into the snow, twitched, and lay still.
By the Cora, his face...
Before this, his missing ear was the most unsightly part of him, but now it was the only thing that still made some kind of sense. His face was a mangled ruin, covered in cuts and scratches, embedded with tiny pieces of black bark. His nose seemed to be caved in, and there was a steady flow of blood oozing from both nostrils. His jaw was askew, and at least half his teeth were either broken or missing completely.
Danado bent down and picked up Hyker's dagger, not giving him a second thought. He straightened up, brushed the snow from the blade, and then his eye fell on Thoka, Vekka, and Yanek, staring, petrified, in abject terror.
"You three are next," he said, and started to advance.
Yanek and Vekka backed away, but Thoka stood his ground. "You think I'm afraid of you, you scrawny little whelp!? Come on! You just try! I'll kill you, you filthy coward!"
"Back off, Dan!" Nilia said, but by now her orders were starting to sound more like pleas. "This isn't part of the plan!"
"Shut up, Nilia."
"What's wrong with you!? We've got their leader. If you keep going like this you'll mess it up for all of us!"
Danado wasn't even listening. He just kept going, walking through the snow with his crippled feet like it was nothing, his haunted eyes peering out from beneath his furrowed brow, fixed intently on Thoka and the two cowering behind him.
"Dan! If you don't stop right now, I'll- I'll slit Dorin's throat!"
Danado stopped. "What did you say?"
"I'll do it!" She pressed her dagger even harder against Dorin's neck to show that she meant business. "I'll kill him myself, and then you'll never have your revenge!"
Threatening an enemy to prevent an ally from killing an enemy. This world really has gone mad...
Danado's gaze shifted from Dorin, to Nilia, then back to Dorin. His eyes were just like his sister's, the same shade of dark brown, but not like when she was still alive. These eyes that were staring at him right now belonged to a walking corpse.
He looked back at Thoka, then slowly backed away, much to the fat bastard's chagrin.
"What, is that it?" he barked. "Gonna cry off on that uppity bitch's say-so? What a convenient excuse for you, you sack of -"
"You shut your fat mouth, Thoka!" Dorin said, not liking the way his throat muscles were moving against Nilia's blade as he spoke, but there was something else bothering him even more.
Where the hell was Seffer?
Dorin tried to look back as far as he could without tilting his head, but the woods looked exactly the same all around them. He was probably to the south somewhere, but why hasn't he taken another shot? Was it because these idiots were blocking his line of fire? Would he leave Denko behind to try and get a better angle? Did Dorin even want him to take a shot?
He didn't know anymore. No matter what he wished for, the outcome was bad, whether he got exactly what he had hoped for or not.
Denko's voice, shrill and panicky, suddenly came from the shadowy line of trees at the south end of the clearing. "Seffer, look out!" What followed was a noise eerily similar to that of Hyker's face striking the tree, the sound of flesh impacting on wood. Denko just about went crazy, his screams made all the more terrifying by the fact that none of them could actually see what was happening. "You heartless bastard! No, get away from me! No! Noooo -"
The noise came again, that horrible, crunchy sound of wood and flesh coming together at speed, and then all was quiet.
All eyes were fixed on the spot where the scream had been so ruthlessly cut off, but the seconds dragged on and on without a sign. Above him, Nilia's breath kept pushing an errant lock of hair away from her lips, making it swing back and forth like a pendulum.
Two figures emerged from the shadows; one large, one small, and Dorin knew who they were even before they stepped out into the moonlight.
It was Hezzi, carrying Seffer and Denko's bows in his hands and their quivers on his back, and Sorrin, wielding a broken tree branch. Dorin couldn't see very well from here, but he'd bet anything the business end of that club was dripping with blood and fur.
Dorin scanned the treeline to the north and his suspicions were confirmed. Mellah and Renna were standing among the trees, well out of harm's way. Mellah had her hands over Renna's eyes, and she appeared to be whispering something in her ear.
All of them were together. They had stayed together since the start. Which meant that their next move would probably be...
Sorrin dropped his club in favour of one of their newly commandeered bows, and the full weight of the situation finally started to dawn on Dorin's men. They huddled together, back to back to back, slowly turning in a circle, their eyes wide. "Sai? What do we do!?" Yanek asked as Hezzi and Sorrin came closer and closer, their arrows nocked and ready.
"Nothing you can do," Dorin replied, surprised by how calm he felt. They really didn't have any options anymore, which meant he didn't have any real responsibility anymore either. It actually came as a relief.
"To hell with that!" Thoka said. "There's still four of us against four of them! We can take them!"
Danado pulled Nilia's bow out of the snow and drew an arrow from the quiver on her back. "Please, Thoka, go ahead and try it, I beg of you," he said, drew the bowstring tight (something Dorin wouldn't have thought possible with fingers like that) and aimed it squarely at Thoka's head. "Let's see what happens."
And that was pretty much it. Dorin had a dagger at his throat and the only men still standing each had an arrow aimed at their faces. The chase was over.
"Dorin," Nilia said. "Please, order your men to stand down, or we will be forced to kill all of you."
Dorin smiled. "All right. We surrender."
"No, Sai!" Thoka cried. "They'll kill us! We can't go down without a fight! If this is going to be our last stand, we have to at least try to go out like Wolves!"
"Shut up, Thoka. They're not going to kill you. Just throw your weapons away and sit down. You'll be fine."
"But, Sai!"
"That's an order."
Yannek and Vekka didn't need telling twice. They unclipped their daggers, hurled them into the night, and sat down in the snow with their hands in the air and their heads down. Realizing that it was now four against one, Thoka begrudgingly did the same.
Or at least, he pretended to.
Dorin was just about to sigh in relief, thinking that this awful night was finally coming to a close, when Thoka pulled a second, smaller dagger from his belt and sprinted for the far side of the clearing, headed straight for Mellah and Renna.
"Stop, Thoka!" Dorin shouted, already knowing it wouldn't make any difference.
"No, Sai!" Thoka spluttered back, struggling to move his thick body through the snow. "I refuse to go back and be skinned alive!"
He's going for the girl...
Danado took aim and fired, but the quick movement of the bowstring was too much for his crippled fingers. Blood shot from the tips in fine droplets and he fell to his knees, grinding his teeth in pain and frustration, and the arrow fell well short of the target.
"Mellah!" Knowing he would never be able to make such a shot, Sorrin abandoned his stolen bow and broke out in a full sprint. It was now a footrace between the two biggest Wolves present. Sorrin was surprisingly fast, but there's no way he'd make it in time, not when Thoka had such a demanding lead.
Mellah pulled Renna back, putting herself between the girl and the approaching danger. They didn't have any weapons with them, nothing to defend themselves with. If Thoka reached them...
"You're mine, you little brat!" Thoka screamed, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and flapping with every heavy step. "Chieftain'll forgive me s'long as I bring him your scrawny tail!" He reached out with both arms, one hand open and ready to grab, the other ready to stab. "C'mere you little moppet! I said come -"
What happened next happened so fast Dorin suspected his eyes must have played another trick on him, because there was simply no way a Wolf of Thoka's bulk could go spinning through the air like that, simply no way. And yet, that's exactly what happened.
Mellah stepped forward, completely unmindful of the dagger pointed at her chest. She drew her arm back and thrust it forward, punching Thoka right in the face. In the face. Her strike was so hard, it stopped the upper half of his body dead. The thing was, because he had been sprinting, his lower half kept going, resulting in the most bizarre backward flip Dorin had ever seen, something that would have been completely impossible had Thoka tried to accomplish such a feat on his own. He fell backwards but landed on his stomach, blood splurting from his mouth and nose in a spectacular arc.
It didn't end there.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Mellah screamed and kicked him in the ribs. "Going after a child! You should be ashamed!" She kicked him again and that finally jerked Thoka out of his temporary stupor. He tried to cover up, but there was so much of him to cover it was mostly a fruitless endeavour. Mellah kept on kicking him, screaming her lungs out, calling him every bad name under the sun while Renna held on to her sleeve, occasionally peeking out from between her fingers.
Realizing he was in a bad spot, Thoka tried to crawl away, but that punch must have done a number on him, because he could barely keep a straight line.
"Filthy! Coward! Lazy! Fat! Ass! Son! Of! A! Bitch! Why! Can't! You! Just! Leave! Us! Alone!? Just leave us alone!" Every word was accompanied by another kick, and not the wimpy little kicks of a 'plumpy tentwife' either, but the hard, righteous kicks of someone who was seriously, seriously angry. "How dare you try and hurt a child!? Why would you do that!? Why would anyone do that!? What is wrong with you!? All of you!? What is wrong with you!? Answer me!"
Thoka collapsed into the snow, unable to defend himself any longer. All he could do was hold up his hands in a feeble gesture of surrender. "I shorry..." he mumbled, blood bubbles bursting form his nostrils with every slurred syllable. "I shorry... I shorry..."
"I don't want your useless apologies! I want you gone! Your kind already took my precious Vallah from me, and I'll be damned if I let you take Renna, too! You hear me!? If you or any of your friends try to touch a single hair on her head I'll rip your throats out! I'll kill every last one of you! I'll... I'll..."
What else she was going to do on top of all that was something none of them ever found out, because she simply couldn't keep it going any longer. She backed away from the bloody, wheezing mess she had made of Thoka, covered her eyes, and cried.
It was a small sound, dampened even further by the snow all around them, but in the silent aftermath of their short skirmish, it seemed to echo throughout the entire clearing.
Renna tugged on Mellah's sleeve and pulled her arm away from her face. They regarded each other for a while, tears streaming from both their faces, and embraced.
Dorin felt strange, watching them from afar like this. There were so many different sensations, so many feelings, all coming together at the same time. There was the numbing cold against his back, the sharp bite of steel against his neck, the warm, heavy weight of Nilia's body holding him down. And then those two...
Sorrin finally caught up and threw his arms around his mate, steam billowing from his mouth in quick bursts. "Mellah, are you all right?" he asked, patting her up and down as if to make sure her limbs were all still attached.
"I'm fine, dear. My hand hurts a little, but it's nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"And Renna?" He dropped down to one knee and lightly touched the girl's face. "Are you all right?"
"I'm okay, Sorrin-Sai. Mellah-Kai protected me."
"All right, thank goodness... you're both all right..." He swept them both into a monstrous hug, squeezing them tightly, and that strange feeling stole through Dorin's heart yet again. Watching them awoke a soft kind of pain on the inside, an emptiness that wouldn't go away. Maybe it was the hunger Nilia had spoken of, the hollow sensation that animals could only try to fill with fighting and bloodshed. But those three... Nilia was right. They weren't animals. They could fill the emptiness with their love for each other. What would that feel like?
The snow was beginning to melt underneath him, making it feel like he was slowly sinking down into the ground. He was just different enough to imagine what it must be like to have that emptiness filled, just different enough to get a sense of its shape, like a blind Wolf slowly groping the edges of something new, something that he never would have thought could be possible, something different.
But he knew he was too much of an animal to truly understand what it must feel like, too much of an animal to ever feel it for himself, too much of an animal to even deserve this glimpse. Even looking upon it felt like he was somehow desecrating it, smearing his blood covered paws all over something white and pure.
Maybe it was better this way, not being able to comprehend it completely. Maybe it would make the end easier, not fully understanding what he had been longing for.
Thoka managed to get up on his elbows, shivering like a poorly constructed tent frame, then collapsed onto the snow, his considerable belly rising and falling as he panted for breath. He wouldn't be any more trouble, at least for a while.
Hezzi was slowly making his way closer, grimly training his bow on Seffer and Denko, still kneeling in the snow with their hands up in surrender. The kid looked to be in bad shape. His breathing was hard and fast, his hair hung over his eyes in sweaty clumps and his arms shivered like twigs in a high wind, but he was still standing. Dorin suspected that kid would somehow stay standing even if you lopped both his legs off. He'd find a way to stand up again.
A faint groan came from the south and Ivio raised his bloody, dripping hand to the sky, the crimson arrow heads reflecting the moonlight in lazy glimmers. "Whatsis hap'ning...?" he moaned. "Did we win?"
"No, Ivio," Dorin said. "We didn't win."
"O-oh..." The arm dropped. "I coulda stuck 'em... I coulda stuck 'em so hard..."
So even Ivio was okay.
Dorin sighed. He didn't feel anything for these Wolves. In fact, it wouldn't be going too far to say that he despised most of them, but even so, he was surprised to find relief in the fact that they were all still alive. He was their leader, he was responsible, he was the one they trusted to bring them all safely home. He may have completely failed the mission, but even that felt like a victory to him now.
Everyone was still alive. No one else would die tonight.
It was a good feeling.
That's when he found Danado's eye, and the look that Wolf gave him was one of pure hatred. It was a look that said he would not live to see the sun rise on this darkest of nights, and the thought that followed did not surprise him in the least.
That's good, too.
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