Red Spell

Chapter Sixteen

Sorry it's late, guys, but here it is! :D

I didn't move for a long time even though Wolf didn't say anything else after that first declaration.  I let the words and feeling of togetherness and belonging I hadn't felt for nine years sink in.  I knew now who had left that note in my bag.  I believe you.  It was the note that gave me the courage to venture out into the woods to hunt in the first place.  Without it I would never have met him. 
I finally turned over and smiled as he glanced up.  He nodded and continued to poke and prod at the pods.  I smiled as I watched him.  He'd done so much already.  I wished I could stay in the cave feeling that moment for a year, but I only had a day.  I sat up and combed my hair back with my fingers. 
"How are you feeling?" I asked, glancing at his side.  I couldn't see it through his shirt, but the stain of dried blood was dark on the cloth.  He shrugged and I saw the slightest wince and I guessed the crust of blood had cracked. 
"Will you let me clean it?" I asked timidly.  "It will heal faster and hurt less." 
"You don't have to do that," he said quickly.  "I'm fine, really." 
"Please let me?"
He glanced up and finally shrugged again and pulled his shirt off.  The bandages were caked and I could see dampness spreading from fresh blood.  He let me peel off the old bandages and wipe away the old and new blood with snow dampened cloth.  I folded a wad of cloth and pressed it into the cut before binding it with more strips to keep it in place.  I blushed a little bit as I got it around his waste and he held perfectly still. 
"Does that feel better?" I asked, pleased that it was clean and the bleeding had stopped.  He nodded and smiled.
"Thanks," he said. 
"How's it going?" I asked finally, nodding at the pods.  He shrugged and didn't look at me. 
"They're still hard as rocks," he said.  "But don't worry about it.  Everything will be fine." 
I nodded, but the sharpness of elation began to dull as I thought about what that night could hold for me.  I crawled over and felt of a pod.  Loose leaves floated on the water practically melting, but the pods themselves had not softened at all. 
"It really will be all right," he said quietly.  I smiled at him, trying to keep back the tears. 
"Thank you for everything," I said.  I hoped he would understand that I meant everything including the alleviation of my loneliness and the feeling of friendship. 
We spent the rest of the morning going through the spell book and occasionally testing the pods.  They remained solid.  It would probably take days for us to be able to mush them.  I slowly accepted it and tried to enjoy the time with Wolf.  Still, my thoughts wandered to the village.  They were probably preparing for the hunt.  I thought of Da and the harsh words.  I wished I hadn't said.  Those were the last things I ever said to him.  I wished I could speak to him one more time.  I wouldn't try to convince him about the wolf or what really happened.  He would never believe such a story, but at least I'd say a proper goodbye. 
"I'm going to go back to the village for just a little while," I said as we ate lunch.  Wolf looked up quickly.
"Is that wise?  Do you really want to risk it?" 
"I want to see my Da again." 
"But you will."
"Before tonight." 
He didn't look happy. 
"I'll come back," I said.  "I'll be back before sunset." 
"Surely it can wait.  What if something goes wrong like last time?" he asked. 
"I'll be careful," I said.  It occurred to me that Merric might be there and I would have to avoid him.  He wanted to kill me after all and he knew exactly who and what I was.  I didn't say that out loud though.  It would only have made Wolf more upset.  He shook his head.
"I can't stop you, but please don't." 
I looked up at him. 
"What?" he asked.
"Thank you," I said.  "You're the first person to ever let me choose." 
He blushed a little and shrugged. 
"But I do have to go.  I'll be careful and I'll be back before sunset," I said, getting up.  His forehead creased, but he nodded and walked out to the ledge with me.  I felt his eyes on me as I slipped through the pine trees and began to climb down the mountain.  That was what it should've been like with Merric.  But then, I would never marry him anyway. 
I walked in silence, still tangled up in happiness and dread, all the way to the edge of the forest.  I could see and smell smoke from the village bonfire.  They must've already been gathering.  I edged around until I was hidden by the cottages before I jogged the distance between the village and forest.  Then I slipped quietly between the cottages as I made my way toward my own house.  The closer I got the more I doubted Da would be there.  Thorn was crowded with people from the surrounding villages getting ready to hunt...me.  My dream flickered up and a memory with it.  Mam had been telling me stories and details about magic.  Something about dreams...I crouched behind a woodpile trying to figure it out, but already dreading the result. 
"Often dreams come right before a spell is broken.  Magic knows when its time is over and sometimes it will tell the bearer.  The dreams even show how the magic will die," Mam had said.  My dream could be nothing but that; the magic telling me when and how it would die.  So I would break the curse after all, or at least take it with me to my death.  Tears welled up as what little hope I'd had left dwindled to nothing.  I wiped the tears away and stood up.  All the more reason to find Da and speak to him again before tonight.  I peeked around the woodpile at the crowd of men and boys surrounding the bonfire.  There was Da, right in the center, cleaning his bow and testing the string.  I opened my mouth to call him when a hand was abruptly clapped over it and I was dragged back into the snow.
"You're a hard one to catch," Merric hissed in my ear.  I screamed, but he pinched my nose and mouth until I felt dizzy and couldn't thrash anymore.  Then pulled a knife from his belt and poked it into my back.
"Move," he whispered.  When I refused he smiled.  "Or should there be a little accident during the hunt and we lose our precious shepherd?" 
I jerked away and walked, but he kept a firm hold on my arm and his knife.  He led me around the village, avoiding everyone, until we stopped in front of an abandoned cottage.  It was the one he'd wanted to take for us before. 
"Home sweet home," he smirked.  He opened the door and shoved me in.  "Don't bother yelling, they won't hear you.  And if they somehow do, then there will be accidents."  
"Why?" I demanded.  "Why are you doing this?" 
"Why?" he laughed.  "I want to be the next shepherd.  I should be the next shepherd.  I'm fixing a mistake made years ago.  Once you're out of the way it will be easy and killing you and showing the village that I killed the wolf will just be a perk," he said.  "Though if it's any consolation, I would have married you.  I would have become shepherd then too, but you ended up being annoying, so this just works better."  He smiled at me and then closed the door.  I could hear the bolt dropped outside and the crunch of snow as he walked away.  He was laughing to himself.  I waited for him to get far enough away before I started hammering on the door and shouting at the top of my lungs.  Nothing.  This cottage was further away from the others and the snow would muffle my voice before it could ever get back to the bonfire.  Wolf was right, this was a foolish stupid thing to do!  But the dream showed me running through the woods.  Surely this wasn't where I'd die...  I searched for anything that could help me lift the bolt from the inside, but the cottage was completely empty.  There weren't even windows and the chimney was too narrow for me to fit through.  I hammered and screamed as an hour passed and then another and I watched in terror as the shafts of light through the door slowly moved across the floor and up the back wall.  The sun was setting and when I became a wolf, there would be no hope of me getting out alive. 
I shoved myself up the chimney in a last desperate and hopeless attempt at escape.  It was tight and I was scraped and bruised as I wedged myself in more and more tightly.  Then I felt one stone jerk.  Was I breaking through?  It had been years since anyone had touched this cottage.  Maybe I could break my way out if the mortar was loose!  I pushed harder and more stones shifted until I was able to inch up another step, but the stone under my foot gave way and the chimney dropped.  I hit the floor and stones toppled down on me, blocking out the patch of light at the top and filling the cottage with ash and soot.  I could hardly breathe through the pain already and I thought I would suffocate under the rocks and ash.  I slowly pulled myself out of the rocks and edged over to another corner.  I hid my face in my cloak to keep out the ash and slowly drew breaths in an out as I trembled with tears and pain.  I was going to die in this filthy little hovel.  I didn't even look up at the lines of light through the door.  I probably only had an hour or so left as a human. 
"Selene?"  I felt a hand on my shoulder.  I jerked back.  Marta was looking down at me in shock. 
"What are you doing here?" she gasped.  I stared at her for several seconds.  She took me by the arm and pulled me out into the snow and put a handful on my forehead where I must have gotten scratched from the stones. 
"What happened?" she asked as she saw how terrible I looked.  I was filthy, bedraggled and tearstained. 
"I have to go," I gasped, slowly gathering my senses. 
"Go where?" she cried, keeping her hold on my arm. 
"I'm so sorry, Marta.  I'm sorry for the way I treated you.  I—I'm really glad you married Da," I said.  I meant it.  Looking back, she had been the kindest to me of the whole village.  I felt ashamed that I'd never given her a chance.  She smiled, surprised and I ran.  I didn't try to hide as I sprinted around the outer cottages towards the woods.  Merric would probably be with the men getting ready, secure in his plan.  I ran past with only a glimpse of the bonfire.  They were already packing their quivers, torches and bags of food.  They would be coming soon now.  I looked at the sun.  It was touching the trees already.  I flew into the safety of the forest and tried to take a different route so I wouldn't leave tracks, but there was too much snow.  They would find my prints eventually, though at least I was leaving human tracks, at least for the moment.  "Selene!"  I had almost reached the bottom of the mountain when I saw Wolf sliding and running to meet me.  He was holding a flask in his hand.  Had he done it?  Had the pods softened? 
"Wolf!" I cried, stumbling on towards him.  "I'm sorry!  You were right, I—."
He didn't let me finish as he uncorked the flask and held it to my mouth. 
"Drink it quickly," he said.  "I ground the pods into powder and mixed them in." 
I swallowed what felt and tasted like a stagnant mud puddle.  I choked as it went down and felt darkness creeping over my vision.  Was it the spell?  My knees buckled and I dropped.  I was only vaguely aware that I was being held as Wolf muttered the words from the spell book over me.  It was comforting and terrifying, but the feelings dulled until everything was black and silent.