Warlord's Ward

A Missing Commander

"The hell he is." King Detry didn't like being inconvenienced.

Especially not by a wolf.

A missing NightHunter Commander, no less.

"Kick it in." He ordered his Captain.

The wolf guard's eyes narrowed disapprovingly on them, but he wisely didn't try to intervene as the large man slid off his house and went to the hut. Delivering a hard kick that sent the door swinging open.

The Captain rotated in the doorway. "It's empty."

"Where is he?" Detry demanded.

"He must've followed the intruders." The Guard said in confusion.

"What intruders?"

"A dark-haired man and a small wolf."

"A she-wolf?" The King snapped.

The guard nodded.

"What direction?"

The guard reluctantly pointed.

"Follow them!" Detry shouted. "We need to catch up before they can vanish."

Irasus cast magic in sparkling lights around them. Lowering that magic over the forest like a blanket. Masking the descending darkness in further shadows. Making it seem even later in the eve than it was.

Her magic fell into the foot tracks and brightened them into luminescing purple and yellow prints.

The long-haired brunette lunged forward, taking quick steps in the dark that made her thin, pearlescent garments pull against her body and wave out behind her in an unseen wind. Dancing through the flimsy dress as it teased it. Making her glow in the dark as her feet found each of the next prints. Landing precisely where Warlord's had been earlier.

Everything was pristine in these woods save for areas where someone had trudged through, and the magic easily found the prints of creatures that had passed through so recently.

King Detry stayed close to his gifted mage. Heeling his horse next to her to keep pace.

The night was getting thicker, and he had to yell back to his guardsmen to begin lighting the torches.

Soon lanterns bloomed to life, and firelight danced off the sticks. Illuminating their paths.

Though Irasus seemed to need none of it. She ran on her toes. Flitting through the woods like a dancer.

Seeming like something entirely constructed of magic.

Had King Detry not hated mages so much, he might've appreciated the essence of it.

***

Abruptly she came to a stop, staring at the tracks before her just outside of another encampment.

"What?" Detry led his horse up next to her.

She turned rounded eyes up to him. Clutching the saddle of his horse. "What have you done?"

"What do you mean?" He blinked down at her. His brow descending at her impudence.

"This is not a mage like me that we follow. This is something else..."

Her brow furrowed and she had a pained expression. "I can feel him already. And he is powerful..."

"You're the most powerful mage in existence." Detry scoffed at her words.

She squeezed his knee in her desperation to convey her urgency. "My Liege. Please listen! He is not human."

"I know that." Detry spat down at her. "You think me a fool?"

"No, Liege." She shook her head. Tossing her hair. She grew somber. "But you must tell me what he is."

"He is a mage."

"And?"

"A wolf." He said under his breath. Forcing many of the knights around him to whip their heads in his direction.

Warlord had been forbidden from ever taking that form in the Guild, so the knights had no idea.

"Do you understand the ramifications of that?" She asked him askance.

"When one is a wolf, all their senses are enhanced. They hear better, see more, feel more through the tiny nerves linked to their fur. Everything functions at a higher level."

"What of it?" The King snapped. Kicking his leg out enough to push her off him. Wanting to distance himself from the whole conversation.

"Magic is just another sense, My King. Say he would be as powerful a mage as me if he were human, being a wolf would make that a much more alive magic."

"The darkness." One knight murmured nervously.

Another's horse shifted discontentedly. It's ears pricking back and forth as it moved anxiously.

"Something is wrong with the horses." The Captain of the Guard announced to the King.

"Settle them and keep moving." The King directed. Staring forward and refusing to look down at Irasus. "We're getting close."

The King spurred his horse forward and it bumped into Irasus, moving her aside.

She hissed through her teeth and reached out to him as he went by, restraining herself, she dropped her hands to her sides.

"He's not hearing me..." She said worriedly.

"What is it, Girl?" The older knight leaned over toward her.

"He could kill us all..."

"Best charge up that magic of yours then..." The knight counseled her. "Do whatever is necessary to superfeed it."

She worried her bottom lip. Still staring at the trees. Giving a decisive nod, she began walking next to the horses again. Weaving her magic through her in tethers she began binding them together to give her magic more the force of rope instead of threads.

It was a painstaking process. And made light brighten along her hair and skin as she worked it.

***

Warlord's party had followed the sounds of his sister's cries and came to a bustling camp that was alive with wolves fighting other wolves.

I'd never seen such chaos. There was splattered blood everywhere. Wolves were ripping at each other. Tossing fur and flesh in great streams. My gaze slid through every corner seeing such a horrific sight in the descending darkness was ominous.

It was strangely silent for what one would've expected.

There were small snarls and grunts and branches cracking. But beyond that, there was no creeping wind swirling leaves. No evening birds sending their eerie calls into the failing light.

No sign of life other than these vicious beasts.

There were two mages working against their far greater numbers.

It took me only a moment to realize that the mages were Hawk and Magus, the mages Warlord had helped escape the Guild under the condition they find and protect his sister and send him word. Hawk wielded a blue light that fed his power. Magus' was green.

But trying to determine who they were actually fighting against was impossible to pinpoint.

There's far too many wolves here to tell which are on which side.

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