The brotherhood of wolves

Chapter 5

WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU MAKE YOU STRONGER

Dmitry half alive was taken back to the Gipsy camp site, lying down on his mother's bed, with bandages soaked in blood, eyes tightly closed from all  the torment and pain, was struggling on the boarder between life and death.
Rada anxiously praying silently to divinity, pretending she's alright, she was washing his body with clothes soaked in water with healing herbs,  repeating the same movements like a mantra indefinitely, as if it could ward off the evil done from him.
Her mind tormented by all sorts of mixed thoughts and fears, rewinded over and over the scene of the attack,  he was just a child as a fact, not strong enough to face such evil, she could not comprehend how could it be possible that a creature from hell to come into our world to attack an innocent child, there must be a hidden reason behind, a viable one.
Dmitry agitated he spoke in his sleep, long shivers running through his body, burning with fever he was mumbling indecipherable words,
after long hours of turning and tossing he quiet down falling into a sleep like a coma... for three weeks.
Rada afraid of losing him, she spent many restless nights at his head watching, fatigue finally speaking for itself, tiredness putting her down, she  fall asleep in a deep slumber.
Her dreams was filled with monsters with sharp talons and fangs dripping with blood, wolf heads on a human  muscular body covered with thick long hair, walking like man on two legs, nor a man nor a animal,  somewhere between them, a creature from nightmares.
She woke up more tiered than when she went to sleep.
Making an enquiry through all her books she found nothing about vîrcolaci (werewolves), remaining in the dark about the subject.
She looked at her son discovering that his facial features looked in a way more pronounced, more feral,  acquiring animal characteristics of a wolf, his body become more athletic, even gaining few inches in height.
His dark hazel eyes changed their  color becoming deep amber coloured like a pair of a living flames, shone brightly in the darkness of the room, having a life of their own.
She removed the blood stained bandages in order to change them with fresh ones but to her surprise the scar was gone not a trace of it left, his skin was left clean, unmarked like nothing ever happened.
Unable to hold her astonishment, stumbling down the steps, she walked out of the wagon, stopping at the last one, she sat down swaying like a drunkard.
Few steps away from her wagon, some of the gypsies dwellers, were talking quietly, warming up around the log fire.
In particular, one of them, an old woman leaning on a cane stick, she walked over to her, taking a seat across from her on a log, She was one of the elders owning the reputation of a very skilled witch who's well known in the art of necromancy using her powers to commune with the dead, heal others, or use her power over souls for good ends.
Drawing symbols in the snow with her walking stick she gave her a long look, speaking:
" Malinka (micuțo) , what trouble you so bad?"
Rada not knowing what answer to give her, she shrugged looking sad and sighted deeply.
"I don't know what to do Mommo , Dmitry's not well" telling her what happened in the forest about the wolf attack, taking out her grief by telling someone else about what happened.
The old witch standing up, she mentioned to Rada with a quick beaconing of the hand to follow her in her tent, where on a round table dressed in red velvet was laying next to a human skull and a crystal globe, a book wrapped in human flesh.
Pulling a chair from under the table she motioned for her to sit down,
lighting up few candle from the table, she opened the book searching through it pages, founding what she was after, she start ridding loudly:
"In the night of Saint Andrews when good and evil walk's through the night together hand in hand before of the rooster crow, if an inocent soul it's bitten or scratch by an vîrcolac or a Strigoi, the curse will pass down on him or her, the only way to escape from her/his fate it's to be killed  with silver, by someone with good enough hart,who can take pity on his/her or to find the beast who make them one , cut open his heart and drink her ashes in order to become human again. They can't stand the smell of the garlic and when the roosters crowing, they loose  their wolf form and power, returning to their human form not remembering anything.
Horses and cats can sense them make them able to alert people of.
  His / her only purpose of existence will be to find their master, doing his or her bidding like a loyal guardian."
Rada seat quietly not being able to muter a word, thoughts running through her head a thousand milles per hour, tossing and twist them in her mind to find a way of escape. 
Mommo's pity mirroring in her eyes,  she friendly hit her on the back encouraging her :
" The devil is not as black as he seems ! He will find his own path through all of this, i'm sure about ..
This child of yours it is carved from rough material, i can see it, must be a highly reason behind everything "
They keep chatting for a while,  Rada returning to her wagon she did not find her son inside, he was missing,  looking for him allover the place ,he couldn't be find as if the earth had swallowed him. She waited patiently for him to return, morning making her way  through the window, at first rays of light, Dmitry comeback, naked feets, with twigs and dead leaves stack in his curly hair, his shirt soaked in blood. She said nothing, not daring to ask where he was, waiting for him to reveal what he did but Dmitry throwing his shirt in the fire stove, he put clean fresh clothes and laying on the bad he fall asleep like a rock.
Rada tip towing she left the cart heading for the village market.
The morning was cold, steam coming out of her mouth, she haved the filling of  déja vú  of the night when her sister was cornered by that horrible creature, she cringed thinking about what happened,the day light giving her a safer felling of confidence.
At the village fair she bought ingredients for her cures and ointments.  Finding a quiet spot in waiting for customers she was listen to the gossip of the fair.
A woman  in mourning clothing, all dress in black,  she was telling a story crying, to the few people that was circling a meat cart,  how her husband was fund dead in the morning,  moulded by an wild animal like a bear or a creature  crossed between bear and wolf .
Taking off the cloth that was covered the cart, the body of a dead man was unveiled, his futures unrecognisable, parts of his body missing,  was chopped of with so much savagery that his left limbs twisted from the wrists they fell dangling out of the cart , part of his face savaged, one eye missing, the other one out of his socket was staring frightened blankly, his mouth split in half, the lower half hunging on the man chest like a bloodied wound, all together making a view not for the one with a fainting hart.
Rada gathering her things she scurried back to the campsite, a gloomy premonition seized her, remembering that her son comeback in the morning with his shirt all blooded and torn to pieces, she only needed a confirmation of her suspicions, unable to believe that he was the killer.
Entering the wagon, she left  her items of merchandise on the floor, approaching her son quietly  she looked for a sign on him from the earlier atack, Dmitry feeling his mother presence next to his bed, he turn on a side to face her, greeting her with a smile, from a teeth in the front,  a blue thread hung ..She froze remembering the blue shirt on the dead man, the exact colour like the thread from his mouth.
She felt the earth flee from under her  feet, acknowledg of what Dmitry become, but she did not expect him  to be driven by his animalic  instincts so soon.
If the people of the village will discover the crime, they will be all killed, bad consequences to bestows  apon the senior of the castle and the gypsy dwellers from the whole area.
She needed to find a way to confine him, to stop him do not harm other's and himself, she knew he was no danger to her, she's was not afraid of him.
The main problem was how to do it, she have to find a sleeping potion strong enough to put him to rest , she knew nothing about his new powers, she's only knew about his strength, dat his strong enough to shred a grown man to pieces, she knew nothing about his habits still learning.
She must find his weaknesses, how can be weakened, what make him fear . The only things Mommo told her was that they are invincible, silver  being a great weapon against them,weakening her strength,  decapitation almost impossible, he must be struck in the heart with a silver blade, the heart to be burnt, the ashes given to the one who was bitten  or moulded by one and survived, like her son .  On a very low circumstances, people attacked by werewolves have a chance to transform in one,  but what she knew was that the one who becomes a werewolf it's a perfect killing machine. She learnt that they can talk only for one single night a year and also they're bounded by the moon phases, when the moon it's fool they power is at its peak.
She have to find the one who made  Dmitry a creature of the night and kill him, burn his hart and give Dmitry to drink his ashes for cure him of the curse.
She blamed her sister for the all thing, if she would not left that late in the night, in particular on a night like that, but one the other way how could she possible know ...she interrupted the string of her thoughts, it's too late for that , she needs to gather all the broken pieces and take to action.