The Daughter of War and Medicine

Werewolves are to be Hunted

Kassandra and the wolves stood as a stand off, neither party eager to attack the other. But then Jason stood up from behind her and stepped forwards. The daughter of Bellona didn't even notice before he said something in Latin. The words seemed... fuzzy almost.

The wolves must have understood though as their leader curled his lip. The fur stood up along his spine. One of his lieutenants tried to advance, but he snapped at his ear. The leader looked past her and at the body of his dead friend. He bared his fangs at her. Then all of the wolves backed into the dark. 

"Dude, I gotta study Latin." Leo's hammer shook in his hand. "What'd you say, Jason?" 

Hedge cursed. "Whatever it was, it wasn't enough. Look." 

The wolves were coming back, but the alpha wolf wasn't with them. They didn't attack. They waited- at least a dozen now, in a rough semicircle just outside the firelight, blocking the cave exit.

The coach hefted his club. "Here's the plan. I'll kill them all, and you guys escape." 

"Coach, they'll rip you apart," Piper said. 

"Nah, I'm good."

"I admire your bravery Hedge, but these aren't just any wolves," said Kassandra, glancing back at the body of the one she had shot.

Through the darkness there was now a man advancing through the storm, wading through the pack.

"Stick together," Jason said. "They respect a pack. And Hedge, no crazy stuff. We're not leaving you or anyone else behind."

The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight.His hair was greasy and ragged, the colour of fireplace soot,topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. His robes were tattered fur- wolf, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and several others Kassandra could identify from her time in the hunters. The furs didn't look cured, and from the smell, they weren't very fresh.

His frame was lithe and muscular, like a distance runner's. But the most horrible thing was his face. His thin pale skin was pulled tight over his skull. His teeth were sharpened like fangs. His eyes glowed bright red like his wolves'- and they seemed to fix on Jason with absolute hatred.

"Ecce," he said, "filli Romani." 

"Speak English, wolf man!" Hedge bellowed. 

The wolf man snarled. "Tell your faun to mind his tongue,son of Rome. Or he'll be my first snack."

"The faun," said Kassandra, "Will be no ones snack today."

The wolf man studied their little group. His nostrils twitched. 

"So it's true," he mused. "A child of Aphrodite. A son of Hephaestus. A faun. A child of Rome, of Lord Jupiter, no less. And a goddess no older than half a year. All together, without killing each other. How interesting." 

"You were told about us?" Jason asked. "By whom?" 

The man snarled- perhaps a laugh, perhaps a challenge. 

"Oh, we've been patrolling for you all across the west,demigod, hoping we'd be the first to find you. The giant king will reward me well when he rises. I am Lycaon, king of the wolves. And my pack is hungry." 

The wolves snarled in the darkness.

"Leave," Jason ordered. "There's no food for you here." 

"Unless you want tofu burgers," Leo offered. 

Lycaon bared his fangs. Apparently he wasn't a tofu fan. 

"If I had my way," Lycaon said with regret, "I'd kill you first,son of Jupiter. Your father made me what I am. I was the powerful mortal king of Arcadia, with fifty fine sons, and Zeus slew them all with his lightning bolts."