The Wolf of the Wilds

The Ambush

So far, the word interesting was not the way to describe her trip to Montis territory. After having retrieved her knife from the Fengari and pillaging her forest home for her most precious possessions, they set off at the crack of dawn, leaving her territory forever.

Initially, Helena had been slightly concerned that she would struggle to keep up with the convoy, but four days later, after hours of running at a trot, she decided that her concerns had been totally unwarranted. The pace was boringly slow and several times she had run on ahead to have a ten minute nap while they caught up.

The group hadn't even traversed the mountains properly. Instead of doing it the good old hard way by climbing it, they had just taken a coastal boat through another pack's territory, skipping the mountain range entirely.

So far the only enjoyable part of the whole ordeal was the evenings when she would sit and eat with the other wolves. The hot meals were greatly appreciated and she could ignore Edgard's defensive behaviour as long as she could chat to Felix or Adrian. Adrian was often busy with his beta duties, in preparation for the next day of travel, so sometimes she turned to the young omega for company.

Felix was fast becoming a friend, his soothing mannerisms, intelligent words and calming presence becoming a way to unwind and de-stress after a long trek. He wasn't afraid of her in the same way that the scouts were. Of course he didn't dare anger her and he always pulled conversations into middle ground if she was getting too fired up, but he just seemed to accept that he was the weaker of the pair and was content to give her free reign. He made no attempt to undermine her. He was not threatening or jealous in the slightest and frankly it was a lovely change.

Once past the mountains Helena felt the shift in climate. The days were still hot, but not so much so. Her fellows began to sweat less, and rare, cold climate plants began sprouting out from nowhere.

It was on the tenth day of travelling when the incident occurred. 

Helena had been running ahead on the road to see if she could have another rest further up, when a scent reached her nose. For an instant her muscles froze and suddenly she was carrying herself with a defensive gait, her ears flattened, hackles raised and teeth bared. A quiet growl vibrated in the base of her throat.

There was blood in the air.

She slunk into undergrowth at the side of the road, disappearing in amongst the darkness and leaves. The smell grew stronger and stronger as she continued along the path and then faint noises reached her ears.
Distant screaming. Angered yelling. Running. And a panicked horse.

She sunk further into her crouch, treading lightly on the ground, barely making a noise. Eventually the road twisted and passed through a slight gorge between two steep hillsides. It was dark where the trees crowded in over the path, the foliage was thick and dense.

The perfect place for an ambush.

She knew it from experience, having done a couple of her own in the past, but clearly these thieves were less of the hit and run type and more of the hit and kill type.

There were several wolves. One young, about six fully grown and then- then- no.

That scent shouldn't be there and if her nose was really telling the truth then she was in for some trouble. A metric fuck ton of it.

Herbs like rosemary, mint and fennel hung like a cloud around the area, but there was a sick undertone of rot and despair to it. She had only ever encountered this smell once before and that was as a child. Her parents had made her stay inside while the beta and the other large wolves of her pack fought outside in the street. There'd been blood, feral yowls that were neither human nor animal and finally the thud of a blade.

It was the stench of a skin walker.

She hated skin walkers with a passion. They were difficult to kill. You either had to know their true name or you had to use a blade coated in white ash to chop them into pieces. With wolves around, that made the whole thing just a little harder.

Of course, they were only rogues; cast off omegas with no where to go. They had likely crowded around the skin walker and adopted it as a leader, like moths to a flame. Whilst omegas were easy to take down, it took away the all important element of surprise. That was something she'd definitely need against their boss.

Perhaps she should have waited for the other wolves to help her, but she knew that it was unlikely that any of them would know how to deal with the creature and it was even less likely that they would be equipped such a fight. Fortunately for her, she kept a jar of ash in her bag.

Now some might think her insane for carrying ash, but ash had several useful properties. It could be used to make soap when added to animal fats, it could be used to treat acidic soil, it was good for cleaning, scents could be wiped with it, it could be used as an insect repellent and it could kill skin walkers. For her it was a necessity.

Once safely hidden in the cover of an overgrown bush, she shifted. Then she fished the glass jar out of her bag and carefully pulled off the cloth lid. She dipped her gloved fingers inside and scooped out a little of the powdery substance and coated the silver blade of her knife with it. Once no reflection remained on the weapon, she carefully and silently packed the ash away.

With her dominant hand, she held the handle of the knife, not quite tense, not quite relaxed, ready to strike when needed.

If she wanted to kill the skin walker then there was only one way to go about it. Going after the rogues was a waste of time and would lose her her greatest advantage. Her cover. No, instead she would target the leader directly. Once the abomination was dead, then she could pick off the rogues one by one and search for any survivors. At that point hopefully the others would have picked up the scent and would be on their way to help.

She snuck through the undergrowth until the rotten stench was almost overbearingly strong. It weighed on her senses like a leaden blanket and disgust made her nose crinkle minutely. From the other side of the vegetation she could make out the crunches of bone and the sickening snaps of muscle as they were torn from their tethers.

This was who she was after.

A/N

This part is a little different from the previous ones. I'm unsure whether I'm going to post the actual fight, because it could get rather dark. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this! Votes, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome.

Have a lovely day!

-H