The Stains of the Crown

Chapter Nineteen

Trigger Warnings: Flashbacks in the form of dreams, death, wounds, talks about severe abuse, medical care.

It takes three weeks to pick up on a trail. There were footprints, hundreds of them, in the mud. I look up at Dalla, frowning.

"Some of these are small. Too small. I think he's using children to fight, not just grown men." Dalla nods.

"I think you're right. Everyone, listen up! There will be children with him! Unless you're sure it's an adult, shoot to disarm, not to kill!"

"Yes ma'am!" the group resounds. We follow the prints until nightfall. Dalla decides that camp will only be bedspreads, no tents, and no fire. I shiver my way through the night. I'm barely asleep when Dalla's hand slides over my mouth, effectively waking me up. She presses her finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet. I look around, seeing torches in the distance. Together, we slowly wake up everyone, all of us grabbing our weapons. We leave the youngest few to clean up, the rest of us following after the torches on foot. I listen closely to the group we follow.

"Quiet, I hear something," a gruff, low voice says. The torches go out. Dalla motions for me to lead. I pick up the pace, following the sound of footsteps. When I see them, I start loosing arrows. The group charges at us. Guns go off, arrows fly through the air. Bodies drop left and right. I hear a child crying somewhere in the crowd. When I run out of arrows, I shift into my wolf, making my way through the crowd. A man nearby shifts, his wolf towering over me as he charges. I barely dodge him in time.

We circle each other, both waiting for an opportunity to attack. He lunges at my left leg. I take the chance to grab the back of his neck. I spin him around. I'm about to let him fly when he gets ahold of my front left leg, clamping his hot jaws around it. I whine in pain, biting at his shoulders. He releases my leg, growling wildly. I go to bite his throat when someone shoots me in the leg. I fall to the ground, shifting so I can put pressure on the wound.

He jumps on top of me, trying to bite my throat. I grab his jaw, clamping it shut. I feel my body start tingling intensely. I stare him in the eyes. His turn from an ugly pale yellow to the color of stone. An awful crackling sound comes from his body, the stony color spreading through his body. He stops moving, and I watch as the stony color changes to actual stone. I whine, my hands shaking around his rocky mouth. I let go, collapsing on the ground. I put pressure on my leg, trying to slow the bleeding.

I watch as the fight continues around me. The child was still crying, and it was nearby. I drag my body, wincing at the pain in my leg. I see a child around the age of six crying near the body of a man. I drag myself closer.

"Are you okay?" The little boy looks up, tears streaming down his face.

"He won't wake up!" I look at the man on the ground.

"I'm so sorry," I whisper. The boy sobs, running towards me. He wraps his arms around me, crying against my shoulder. We stay there like that until Dalla walks up. The boy scrambles away, shaking from fear. "It's okay, she won't hurt you." Dalla helps me up, handing me a shirt. I pull it on, standing. I go to take a step, but I fall, unable to put weight on my leg. Dalla helps me back up, holding my waist to keep me up. "Come with us. We'll keep you safe." The boy hesitates, but starts following us. It takes us a while to work our way through the bodies and back to camp. Dalla yells for a cot, and once it's set up, she sets me down. The boy watches her dig the bullet from my leg, staring with fascination. I do my best to hold still and not cry. It was in there deep.

"Almost got it." A minute or so later, she pulls the bullet out. "This is going to burn." She pours alcohol into the wound, making me gasp in pain, gripping the side of the cot. She dries me off with a towel before pressing a bandage to my leg. Already, I could feel myself healing. I sit up, only for her to push me back down. "We have to clean the bite marks. Those won't heal for some time since they're not very serious, but they could get infected." I huff, but roll over. She pours alcohol on them. She pats them dry and fastens another bandage around me before letting me sit up.