Shadows of wolves

Chapter 18

Ash

The feeling was back. Deep in my stomach something twisted and turned, waking me, urging me, tugging at my very being. It called me. I opened my eyes and sat upright on my cot, swing my legs from their warm cover to the cold dirt. it had been weeks since I first arrived at this camp and I hated every second I spent in it.

I walked to the tent entrance, careful not to wake the sleeping bodies that occupied it. They hailed from all across the land, from oceanic cliffs of dragon cove in the east, to the dessert wastelands in the southwest. I held on to the fabric of the tent entrance, looking down on the hundreds of tents that filled the valley around me.

I made me way forward, letting the fabric go and continue its light flapping in the breeze. Even in the dark I could see my breath create mist ahead of me and I regretted not grabbing something to cover up, wearing only pants wasn't the most practical thing.

The tugging guided me through the badly coloured red and brown tents. I weaved around them, seemingly dancing from one shadow to the next, avoiding the pools of light and the nightwatch. I reached the border of the tents and a nightwatch bonfire with two guards quietly conversing. Beyond them lay the foot of a mountain. It was a treacherous ascent compromised of loose rocks and pockets of snow.

I moved slowly at the edge of the fire light, keeping low. "...-the Arl wouldn't be mad enough to try something like that on the king would he? He couldn't have possibly have known that the wolves had such numbers," one guard said, his voice was tinged with uncertainty.

"Wayne said that he heard from Penny, a chambermaid that overheard the king recount the story to his adviser that they were prepared, they picked off the hunting dogs and lead the hunting party into a clearing. The wolves then jumped from their ambush in numbers and rushed the hunters, killing most of the guards, but the Arl and his men were no where in sight. Both the guards were slaughtered and the king almost lost his life when this black she-wolf had him pinned on the ground, but something happened and the wolves ran off, the king probably killed too many of them and scared them off. Now to me all of this sounds like a set up and our king, the brave man he is, showed them not to mess with him!" The second guard nodded himself, satisfied with his recollection of the story.

"That proves nothing! I bet it was those blighted Narrian bastards trying to make the Arl and the king war against each other. Think about it. If we are thrown it a civil war, the whole kingdom would be torn apart and weakened and the Narrian could sneak in and pick us off easily."

"It couldn't have been them, the Arl ordered a purge on the vermin last week."

I crouched in the dark listening to them and felt my stomach were the tugging was strongest. They were talking about Shadow. How could she do that? Lead other wolves to try and kill the king? How could she even kill a human? Did she even show me her real self or was it all a facade? I starred up at the stars, hoping they could help me somehow. They glittered back oblivious to all beings below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shadow

I lead the pack through the forest, blocking them from my mind as my inner turmoil raged. Thunder would lead these wolves well, but food was hard to come by and I would just be giving him more mouths to feed. I looked back to them, eyes filled with hope, glee and freedom looked back at me. If Thunder wouldn't take them then I would establish my own pack far from here, but I had to find Ash first.