Ander - Part 1: Subchapter 5
5
Her aim was true, but Banno's reaction was faster. He plucked it right out of the air, almost casually, like he was picking an apple from a tree instead of a sharp rock aimed directly at his face. It might as well have been standing still for all the effort he put into it.
The noise from the crowd died down to whispers, then absolute silence. Everyone wanted to know how the biggest Wolf in the tribe would react to something like this, including Ander.
Banno looked down at the offending rock, twirling it between his fingers. He knew all eyes were on him now, and he savoured every moment of it. Then he finally looked up at the Vixen who had thrown it, a huge smile spreading across his muzzle.
"Spirited one, aren't you?" he said, and laughed.
Ander sighed with relief, the sound masked quite nicely by the cheers of the crowd, but then Banno did something; something so vile, so disgusting, it chilled Ander to the core.
Banno raised the rock to his mouth and licked her blood, his tongue snaking over the rough surface like a serpent. "Mmm..." he said, closing his eyes in pleasure. "You taste good."
Ander could barely contain himself. He could feel the rage building up inside of him, threatening to tear through, and the look of horror on the Fox's face did nothing to alleviate this. He clenched his fists so hard he could feel the blood from his palms flow past his fingers and drip to the ground in a warm, steady pulse.
"Ander! You're bleeding again!" Hezzi said, concerned, but Ander barely heard him.
Calm down, Ander. You can get through this. Don't do anything you'll only regret later.
Banno licked his lips slowly, sensuously, and added, "You'll taste even better while you're dying, Fox."
Before Ander could stop himself, before he even knew what he was doing, he stepped forward and shoved Banno in the chest with all the strength he could muster, knocking him to the ground.
A gasp rose from the crowd. They receded like the tides, leaving Banno and Ander alone in a growing half-moon of open space.
Ander looked down at his bloody hands, incapable of understanding how they could have acted on their own like that, how they could have betrayed him so.
Banno looked up at Ander, incredulous. There were twin spots of blood on his chest, and Ander couldn't even tell if they came from his own hands, the stag, or the terrified Fox. Sometimes it felt like his whole life was filled with nothing but blood, torrents of it, mixing and flowing together so that not even the gods themselves could discern who it once belonged to. Not that any of them would care even if they could.
Banno threw his head back and laughed. By the Cora, all he ever seemed to do was kill and laugh, kill and laugh. "What was that all about, Ander?" he said, still sitting in the dirt, making no moves to get back up.
Ander didn't know how to answer that, since he didn't know himself.
"Oh, wait!" Banno continued. "Could it be you've got an especially soft spot in your already soft heart for the cute little Foxy, hmm? Do you want to keep her all to yourself? Do you want to take her as your mate?"
Startled by this accusation, Ander looked to the Fox. Even as he turned his head he realized, too late, that he had fallen for Banno's trap.
Although not nearly as fast as Hezzi, Banno could still move surprisingly fast for such a large Wolf, and he used every ounce of his speed to the fullest potential in order to take advantage of the single moment Ander had his guard down.
He sprang to his feet and lunged at Ander, punching him right in the side of the head in one smooth motion.
Ander fell hard, scraping the side of his face against the dirt, and before he could even think of getting back up Banno was on top of him, tearing at his clothes with his sharp claws, slobber flying from his mouth, his eyes crazy with anger and jubilation, a combination only he could achieve.
The crowd went crazy, cheering as Banno rained down blows, feeding his bloodlust.
Ander tried his best to ward off Banno's strikes, covering his face with his arms in an unconscious imitation of the Vixen, but that only exposed his throat.
Ander could feel Banno's fingers dig into his neck, his thumbs pressing against his windpipe, threatening to crush the very life out of him. Already his vision was growing fuzzy around the edges, tinted with splashes of black. They grew longer and wider, filling up his vision until he could no longer tell them apart from Banno's leering face.
"Banno, stop it!" someone screamed. Ander thought it might be Hezzi, but sounds were taking on a strange echo effect, as if he were hearing them from within the darkness of a cave.
Or a pit. A pit of darkness he would never be able to climb out of.
"Let go! You're killing him!" Suddenly, there were hands on Banno's arms, trying to pull them loose, grey hands that looked almost white against Banno's black fur.
Hezzi.
"Get off me, you stupid pup!"
The pressure around Ander's throat suddenly lessened, and he quickly seized the opportunity to steal a ragged breath. It cleared his vision just enough for him to see Banno strike Hezzi with a vicious backhand blow, sending his little brother skidding along the dirt with a yelp, blood gushing from his nose.
Oh, that is it!
Ander rose up as best he could against Banno's crushing weight and punched the brute right in the face, mashing his lips against his teeth. He could feel them clearly in that instant, even through the skin, like daggers against his knuckles.
Pinned down like that, Ander's punch didn't have all the power it might have had, but it still managed to knock Banno off to the side, and that was enough. Ander wriggled out from underneath his brother's shadow and quickly got back to his feet, fighting the urge to cough.
Kneeling in the dirt, Banno rubbed the corner of his mouth with his hand and stared in disbelief as it came back bloody. While Banno looked at the red streak across his fingers, Ander took a brief moment to spare a glance Hezzi's way. The young Wolf was holding his nose in both paws, trying to stop the flow of blood, but it wasn't working. A single line of crimson flowed between his fingers and dripped onto his leather vest, but an even worse sight was what Ander could see within his brother's eyes. Like the clouds gathering overhead, they were grey, and ready to overflow. Not that Hezzi would ever cry. Wolves were taught to destroy such weakness within their hearts at a much younger age, but Ander could see his bother's struggle just the same, the way he was fighting to hold back those shameful tears, not for his cut nose, but for his brothers, fighting once again. Perhaps more than fighting.
Banno, Hezzi, Ander. All three of them were bleeding now.
Banno got up and spat a red glob to the earth. He advanced on Ander, growling like a feral animal.
Ander and Banno have had many scuffles over the years, some more serious than others, but never anything like this.
He was genuinely trying to kill me just then, Ander thought. If Hezzi hadn't interfered...
"What's wrong Ander?" Banno said and made a mad swipe for his face.
Ander managed to jerk his head back in time, but it was a close call. He was no match for Banno in a one-on-one fight, especially not when Banno entered one of his crazed rages, but he wouldn't be able to avoid those blows forever.
"First you shove me, then you hit me, and now you're backing up!?"
"Banno, this is foolish. There is no reason for -"
Banno darted forward and Ander barely managed to block this latest attack in time. It struck him high in the forearm, and Ander suspected that particular spot would ache for at least two days. If he managed to live past this one, of course.
"Banno, just listen to me! We can -"
Whap! Another blow snuck past his guard and landed on his shoulder. If he hadn't been backing up at that precise moment, he might very well have had a broken collarbone to pay.
"What's the matter, Ander!? Don't you want to fight anymore!?" Banno shouted, loud enough to be heard over even the most boisterous of cheers. "I know that's not the case, you whelp! You've wanted to fight me for years! Just never had the courage to do so until now!"
"That's not true!" Ander rebutted, even though he knew it was. Every Wolf in the tribe knew it, probably even Hezzi.
"Now's your chance, Ander! Fight me! Come on! Prove your worth!"
"I don't want to fight you, Banno," Ander said, standing his ground.
"That's fine, too." Banno said and grabbed Ander by the neck, his grip like steel. "Whether you fight back or not won't make a difference to me. I've wanted to do this for a long, long time!"
Banno drew back his arm and - horror upon horrors - he had a rock clenched in his fist. Not just any rock - the rock, the one with the Fox's blood on it. Ander didn't know when he picked that up again, but surely he didn't mean to - ?
You know that's exactly what he means to do.
Ander tried to break free, but Banno's grip was just too strong. He could feel the tips of his claws digging into his skin, threatening to puncture his throat.
"Goodbye, Ander. And don't worry. Your little foxy will be joining you shortly..."
Ander closed his eyes, waiting for what would surely be the final blow, the blow to end all blows, strong enough to crack open his very skull.
Far above their heads, a single bolt of lightning cut a burning path through the sky, and the thunder was like the sound of the heavens themselves crying out in pain.
This has been the fifth 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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