Ander - Part 1: Subchapter 2
2
"Hezzi! Wait! Something's not right!" Ander said, coming to a dead stop.
"Huh?" the young grey Wolf was already halfway towards the gates, no doubt eager to tell everyone about the kill. "What's wrong?"
"What do you see, Ander?" Banno asked. They didn't always get along with each other, but Banno knew that Ander was the sharpest in their family, possibly in their whole clan, and he valued that highly.
Ander didn't answer right away. Their village only had two gates, bracketed by two watchtowers each. The wall was made from long, sharpened posts that stuck out of the ground like teeth. There weren't any archers in the towers, and no lookouts patrolling the walkways. That could only mean they were busy elsewhere, or...
Banno suddenly dropped the stag he was carrying, no doubt noticing the same thing. Without a word, they both sprinted for the gates, streaking past their bewildered little brother.
"Hey! Did something happen? Why-"
"Stay there!" Banno barked over his shoulder.
The panic Hezzi saw on Banno's face, the fiercest and strongest of the Wolves, would have been enough to petrify even the most grizzled of veterans. Unfortunately for them, it had exactly the opposite effect on Hezzi.
"Like hell I will!" he said and tore after his brothers, easily outstripping them to the gates.
"Stop, you stupid pup!" Banno growled. He was still tired from chasing after that stag, but apparently Hezzi didn't have that problem. He slammed into the gate and tried to pull it open himself, his paws digging useless trenches in the dirt.
"I swear that little bastard is going to get us killed one day," Banno said to Ander as they finally reached the gate. "Stop that, you idiot!"
"But -"
Banno smacked him upside the head, not hard, but well enough to get his attention. "We don't know what's going on! Now just sit there and be quiet!"
Hezzi folded his paws over his muzzle while Banno pressed his ear up against the gate and Ander sniffed the air.
Ander could smell all the usual scents of the village: the Wolves, the salted meats, smoke from the cooking fires, but what he was really looking for was the smell of blood.
There was none.
Ander sighed with relief. Whatever the reason for the lack of guards, there has been no bloodshed. He was just about to mention this when he did smell something, something he's never smelled before. It was the briefest of scents, there and gone in a single moment, but it was like -
"I can hear them in there," Banno said, jerking Ander back to reality. "Sounds like trouble." With that, he wrenched the gate open, rattling the decorative skulls, and stormed inside.
Ander and Hezzi exchanged a puzzled glance, then followed.
This has been the second subchapter in my serial novel, "Ander". If you enjoyed it, please help keep my face un-mauled by irritable ostriches by dropping me a donation. Thank you! ^_^
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