Red Spell

Chapter Three

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I went to bed with no expectation of sleeping. I had known it was coming, but I had hoped Da would wait a little longer before he told the village of his betrothal to Marta. He hadn't even asked me. It impacted me nearly as much as him, but I had not been included in decision making for years now. Still, I had hoped, on something so important, he would've remember me.

I pulled the blankets over my head in hopes of blocking up the tears. I wanted to smack something, but Da would hear. I wanted to yell at him, but I still held out the slightest hope he cared and I couldn't afford to lose that one last bit what things used to be like.

Eventually, I dozed off and I had a dream that Da married the wolf and they ate me for dinner. I jerked awake with a cry, sweat plastered my hair to my forehead. I held my breath in the dark to see if I'd wakened Da, but instead, I heard more shouts from outside. Jagged light blazed up through the window as someone ran by with a torch.

"Da?" I called. There was no answer. More torches passed as I stumbled down from the loft and pulled my cloak and boots on. The door was unlatched and Da's boots were gone. I snatched his coat from the peg and rushed outside. The shouts had grown louder and more men rushed past with torches; some trying to pull their coats on as well.

"What's going on?" I cried.

"Go inside, Selene," Brog, one of the shepherds, yelled as he ran by. I stamped my foot. I was the Shepherd's daughter. I should be in the thick of whatever was happening. I leapt the two steps into the snow and followed the men, clinging to Da's coat.

We all ran straight to the sheep pen and my stomach sank. The snow was stained red and one of the sheep lay twisted to the side. Another wolf attack. Then I felt the chills as I realized that a wolf could still be near. The soulless black eyes passed through my mind like cold water and I shrank towards the brightest of the torches. I saw Da in the middle of the pen with an ax glaring into the darkness beyond the torchlight.

"Three sheep are missing," one man said after he'd finished counting. "No sign of the wolf."

I climbed over the wall and pushed my way through the panicked sheep to Da.

"Selene, what are you doing here?" he growled. I swallowed.

"I brought your coat."

He grunted and pulled it on before turning back towards the shadow of the forest.

"I believe it went that way. The forest is closest to the pen there," he called to the other men as he pushed the sheep away. I got stepped on by a few frightened sheep before I climbed quickly up the stone wall of the pen. I watched as Da and several other men, armed with whatever they could find, hurried off into the darkness after the wolf. I admired their courage as they headed straight for the forest in the dark. I turned to go back to the torchlight when I noticed dark marks on the other side of the fence. Four huge paw prints dug deeply into the snow leading off towards a completely different part of the forest. The crazy marks of the frightened sheep dodged back and forth over the paw prints as though they were being chased. I stared. I had found its trail as well as the trails of the missing sheep. I flung myself off the wall and shoved my way through the sheep back to the few men left behind.

"I found the trail!" I cried.

"I told you to stay inside, Selene," Brog said. I glared at him.

"But I found the wolf's trail!"

They looked annoyed and glanced back and forth between each other, but they didn't tell me to go away again. This wasn't something they could ignore. I led them around again to where my footprints marked the wall.