Blaze in the Darkness | ✔

Chapter Twenty-five

"Nix, go into the safehouse, and take the ambertails with you! Raset, find a good position to shoot from afar! Go, quickly," Thoysal barked, his two silver blades appearing out of thin air, gleaming dangerously in the sunlight. His eyes spelt murder.

Raset set the ambertails down and grabbed her bow from her back, nocking an arrow. She gave me one last look, gesturing at the ambertails. "Keep them safe for me."

Pressure rose in my chest, both from fear, seeing the two of them scared, and having to take care of three living beings. "I will," I promised. And with that, I turned around and nudged them down the stairs.

Werewolves rushed around me, trying to get down the stairs as quickly as possible. I rushed down too, barely avoiding getting trampled a few times. A few people hissed in pain as they stepped on my tail, but I ignored them.

It wasn't long before I nudged the two ambertails into a corner, away from the stream of people. Wait. Two? My eyes widened as I looked towards the stairs. There was no sign of the third ambertail; all I could see were more werewolves coming in.

Raset would never forgive me if I let one die. With that in mind, I weaved through the crowd, going up the stairs again as quickly as possible. I whined impatiently as the flow struggled against me, trying to get me to go down instead of up.

At last, I shot out the doorway, quickly moving past the two warriors that were there to ensure everyone got in safely. Howls, growls, and snarls shook the air. The fight was close.

Lowering my snout to the ground, I tried to find the ambertail's scent. A soft whimper escaped my throat as I realised that its scent was drowned by the hundreds of werewolves. There was no way I could find it.

Without thinking about it, I followed the scent of a hundred blooming flowers. It went in a large loop around the fight. Carefully, I snuck from house to bush, always keeping the sounds of the battle on my left side.

I froze in fear as two wolves crashed through the underbrush in front of me, snarling viciously. Dark red blood dripped from their fangs and bodies as they fought each other, fur flying into the sky. One managed to get a hold of the other one's neck, biting it as the awful scent of blood filled the air.

The eyes of the bitten wolf turned glassy, and the killer let it go. It laid its head in its neck and howled in victory, celebrating its now-dead enemy at its feet. After giving the dead canine a last scratch on its side, the wolf shook out its fur and charged back into the fight. The first of its wounds were already disappearing.

I had to do everything I could not to move, not to breathe, not to make a sound. All I could do was stare in silent horror as the pool of blood around the werewolf became larger and larger. Never before had I realised how much blood could come out of a wolf, even one the size of a stallion. It was way too much.

It took me minutes before I could move again. The scent of the dead beast had overtaken the old one of Raset, but I moved around it and followed the path the spirit had taken. My trembling paws moved as quickly as they could to put distance between me and the wolf.

I soon found Raset's floral scent again. All my focus was on that, in an attempt to block out the horrible sounds of dying and fighting wolves. It wasn't all that effective, but at least I knew every swift step took me closer to the spirit.

With a confused look, I circled around a tree. Her scent suddenly stopped here. Had she disappeared? Then, I heard the twang of an arrow being released above me. I looked up to find Raset crouched there, hidden among the leaves, nocking another one of the sharp projectiles.

Staring at her, it hit me again. How was I going to explain to her that I lost one of her three closest companions, whom she told me to watch? What if she would be mad at me? I whimpered softly, shifting my stance uneasily.

I froze when the leaves rustled above me, and I found two brown eyes staring down into mine. The moment she saw me looking back, her face turned into one of disappointment and anger.

"What in the goddess' name are you doing here," she hissed, carefully releasing the pressure from the bowstring. "You could have been killed. Where are the ambertails?"

A whimper escaped me again, images of the two fighting werewolves flashing in front of me. "I... Two of the ambertails are in the safehouse, but one of them vanished and I couldn't find it. The only other scent I recognized was yours, so I came to you," I said softly.

Her eyes lost their harshness, but only a little. "They are known to run off, it's not your fault. Just stay beneath the tree here with me, alright? Don't go anywhere."

I nodded and sat down against the tree, wincing as a pained howl filled my ears. Why did they have to fight? It was awful. Nothing good could come of it, ever.

My eyes were drawn to the battlefield, two hundred paces away from where we were. The field had turned into red mud, with wolves everywhere, fighting, dying, dead. It was a sea of brown and grey fur, moving without rhyme or reason.

And amidst it all, a single large, blue butterfly flew. Its wings held at least fifty different shades of blue, from a dark midnight to a color so light it was nearly white. I stared at it. Something so innocent and harmless was out of place, surrounded by vicious beasts that were set on ripping each other to shreds.

With light flaps of its wings, it flew above the battlefield before coming closer to me. Just as I thought it was about to attack me, it landed, only a metre or two away. There it sat, slowly moving its beautiful wings. Somehow, I could only think one thing.

The doom butterfly has emerged from its cocoon.