Descent of Wolves

Snow, Sentries, and Shadowy Figures

CW: Minor violence, blood, and language

            They called themselves "Et Iustus", roughly translated to mean: The Righteous. They were agents of the empire, protectors of the crown, and overall pains in the ass. Although that last part was an opinion solely believed by Maloria.

            The "Righteous" Guards hunted the wolves under some unknown order declared by the emperor. 

            Maloria hunted the Guards.

            While the order was unclear to the non-elite, one thing was known for certain: it had to be in concern of the perpetual winter, well almost perpetual. 

             Snowstorms had raged across the empire in almost unending waves, the winter lasting longer and longer as the years passed. Maloria had felt the shift long before it had occurred, had known, for some reason, that the snow would not relent the first year it had lasted longer than expected. The snow was not the coldest part of the empire, though. That was certain. 

             The winter had come, and hadn't gone, and the people blamed what they could only assume was the most logical explanation: the wolves.

             Thus, the Et Iustus was created almost overnight to hunt the wolves, and Maloria, as she aged each year, hunted them.

The 31st Year of the Amara Malediction:

Spring? -

           Maloria watched her breath cloud in the air as she shifted from her spot in a tall tree. The guards had been straying from the common footpaths lately, much to her dismay. The new rotations of the guards meant two peevish things: Maloria had to venture out earlier and wait in the cold for longer so that the snow would cover her boot prints in the snow, and that the empire was becoming more desperate. Desperation made fools of men and women, and that meant Maloria was becoming more screwed by the day.

           Maloria had narrowly escaped a stay in the dungeon, and a brutal execution, for that matter, way too many times to count. For all the training the Iustus received, they were rather stupid. Maloria had taken out several of the guards on basic wit alone, and while she wasn't parading around town with a bow and a quiver of arrows and shooting down sentries in the street; she wasn't exactly discreet either. The winter sky and the woods were her only disguise, but the wolves were her only living witnesses. It hadn't always been that way, hence the scrapes with the law, but it was that way these days.

           Maloria steadied her bow as she caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure in the distance. It wasn't a wolf, so it had to be a guard; no one else would be idiotic enough to wander the woods. Maloria knocked an arrow and knew her aim would hold true. As always, the shot rang silently through the snowy forest and hit its mark, barely. "Shit" Maloria muttered as she watched the body in the distance fall. The shot barely scraped the arm of the figure and was most certainly not fatal. The figure seemed to stay down, however. They must have hit their head on a rock, Maloria thought as a feeling of uncertainty settled in her chest.

           Maloria hadn't missed a shot in years and hadn't gotten a lucky break in far longer. She sat in the tree for a few moments, waiting to see if the figure would get up. It didn't. Maloria cursed as she descended the length of the tree, her limbs aching and freezing. 

           Shade appeared nearly the second Maloria's boots hit the snow. The wolf looked up at Maloria with curious eyes that were an almost perfect mirror to Maloria's own. Even he knew she was screwed. 

           Shade faded through the woods ahead of Maloria, teasing her with his abnormal ability. Maloria glared as she trudged through the snow. "Show off" she muttered as Shade reached the fallen figure in the distance. 

           Maloria reached the body minutes after Shade did and once more glared at the wolf for ditching her before fully accessing what exactly she had hit.

           "My Gods" Maloria breathed as she took the arrow out of the boy she'd hit. She hadn't hit a guard, at least, he wasn't dressed like a guard. The boy was clothed almost carelessly in raggedy, out of fashion garb and he wasn't wearing the emperor's crest or any visible weapons. The boy also looked too young to be a guard, he looked no older than her, in fact. 

           Shit, shit, shit, Maloria thought as she took in the blood spilling from the boy's head onto a large grey rock and trickling down to the snow. His arm was also gushing blood. Maloria should've left the arrow in, she'd forgotten that. 

           The snow was turning redder by the second and Maloria didn't have anything to stop the blood flow. "Shade", she called out, voice barely louder than the raging snow. "A little help?". The wolf disappeared in mere moments with a low growl of acknowledgement. 

          Maloria carefully lifted the boy's head from the rock. Blood matted the boy's curly brown hair and stuck to Maloria's clothes as she struggled to adjust the body. Maloria kneeled in the snow and settled the boy's head in her lap with her hand pressing against the wound on his arm. Shade didn't take long to return with a basket of supplies. 

          Maloria gave the wolf as strained smile as he set the basket in front of her. She used her free hand to grab a heeling tonic and some bandages. She removed her other hand from the wound on the boy's arm, it was bleeding less than before. Thank goodness, Maloria thought as she cleaned and bandaged the wound, now for the head. Maloria shifted the boy once again to take a look at the wound on his head. The wound definitely needed stitches. 

          Maloria cared for the head wound as best she could, her stitches definitely could use some work, but the wound looked better than it had and was no longer bleeding. She shifted the boy off of her lap and rested his head back on the snowy ground. She couldn't leave him, she knew that. 

          Minutes passed in silence, and then the boy began to stir. His eyelashes fluttered opened revealing dark green eyes. "What in hell" he muttered, sitting up way to fast. His eyes found hers in a flash, and they were not kind.

          Shit, Maloria thought for what seemed like the millionth time today, she was definitely screwed.