Familiar of the Wolves

Prologue - Abducted

Introductory AN

Just for understanding reasons: the text and events written in italics are memories of past events told or thought by the characters. So, italics: past; normal: present. 

After a successful hunt, the wolves return to the pack. However, fewer wolves return than have left.

The young woman hugs her little son tightly and tries not to stumble on the stony ground. She has been blindfolded, but still she can feel the warm sun and the wind blowing some dust around her legs. The ground is dry, dusty, and stony. Through a small gap at the bottom of her blindfold, which is not well tied, she can see the dry land, which consists mostly of withered trees and meadows. She suspects that her captors are walking behind and beside her. She also feels a man's hand on her back. The footsteps of her captors are so quiet that she almost cannot hear them because of her own shuffling steps. The further they walk, the more she can hear. Voices, hoof beats, rustling, they are approaching a settlement, she thinks. She is afraid and flinches at every sound and clutches her son even tighter.

Suddenly and without warning, the blindfold is torn from her eyes. It is insanely bright, and she needs a moment to get used to the light. An old man with tanned skin and golden symbols on his face stands before her. He is slightly shorter than her, but he makes up for it with his penetrating gaze and confident demeanour. The man eyes her carefully before looking to the man standing next to the woman, "And where is Kunitsa?" he asks the man. "He was assassinated by Lutobohr." The woman snaps her head up at her husband's name, he had managed to kill one of those beasts. "Strange... Elora didn't react at all..." the young woman lets her gaze wander, and loses focus of the conversation between the two men.

 A large gathering of people has formed around her, and they are all staring at the young woman with their eerie eyes. The people really do look like wolves with their yellow eyes. They are mainly men, almost no women. Behind the people she can see tents and some animals like horses, sheep, and goats tied up on some poles or herded in small pens. She turns her attention back to the two men, just to hear the older one say: "Take her to Elora and someone will have to tell her," before he turns away and walks away. She is finally able to take a closer look at one of her captors. He is not the youngest either and has an ugly scar on one side of his face, this almost makes it seem as if his face is melting. She shivers under his lustful gaze. He turns from her to his cronies, "Who will take her to Elora?" he asks contritely. The men all shake their heads quickly, "You should do it you are the leader after all," one of the men hastily suggests, to which the others nod in agreement. Grumbling, the scarred face, as she now calls him, not knowing his name yet, grabs the young woman by the arm and pulls her towards a large tent "Make sure she doesn't attack you!" another calls after them, joking. But there is probably some truth in the little joke, because the young woman's companion reacts irritably to the shout, "Shut up!" he shouts back over his shoulder. He pulls harder on the woman's arm and walks on faster. The tent comes rapidly towards them, the woman struggling not to trip over the stones on the ground at their pace. The man roughly knocks the curtain away from the entrance of the tent and enters impetuously. He then stops abruptly so that the woman almost runs into him. He now holds her wrist tighter in his grip so that it hurts the young woman. The woman grits her teeth and looks around the tent. Another woman is kneeling on the ground, on a cushion, in front of a fireplace and is putting new wood on the embers. She turns around when she notices the newcomers.

She has beautiful, alert green eyes, not yellow like all the other people the young woman has seen so far. Short brown and slightly wavy hair surrounds her round, friendly face as she looks at the newcomers with a wry gaze. When she turns to the man, her expression changes, and she looks at him with something like disgust on her face, "What...? Who is this? What is going on here?" she demands to know in a firm voice. The coarse man shifts around uncomfortably under her gaze, still clutching the young woman's wrist. "This is the spoils of our last outing. Anagast said she should stay with you." Finally, he lets go of her wrist and pushes her towards the other woman. The green-eyed woman reacts quickly and catches the prisoner. "Are you all right?" she wants to know while angrily glaring at the man. "Everything is fine, don't worry, nothing will happen to you here. What is your name?" she asks the trembling woman. "Tatyana," she stammered, "Don't worry, Tatyana. No one will hurt you. I am Elora," she reassures Tatyana. "Have you separated? Where is Kunitsa?" Elora now directed her words back to the terrible man. "He was killed by Lutobohr," he says uncertainly and meekly to Elora. Tatyana looks up in confusion, amazed that this fearsome man can also appear frightened and small. She looks back at Elora, who suddenly seems to be radiating a dark aura. Tears roll down Elora's cheeks. "No," she shakes her head, a few strands of her brown hair falling into her face, "I'm sorry, Elora..." the man says meekly. "You're not sorry for anything! You're glad he's dead! He wanted to challenge you! I don't believe you!" she shouts at the man in anger but also sad. Her dark aura, as well as herself, seem to be getting bigger and bigger. And the man grows smaller and smaller. "But Elora..." he tries to soothe her. "No! Get out! Get out now!" She throws a log after him as he leaves the tent, overwhelmed.

"Would you like something to drink?" says Elora, addressing Tatyana as she turns away with tears streaming down her reddened cheeks. "Yes," she replies in a choked voice. She quickly clears her throat and says again, "Yes, please."