Shadow of Dawn

Chapter 13

Eight days passed before the herd moved onwards, leaving a changed landscape. The mammoths had flattened the tall grasses and the snow in every direction, giving the plains a strange rusty color that mingled poorly with the winter skies. Their passage left the horizon separated into two distinct strips; one a carnage of grass, slush and mud, the other increasingly white and cloudy.

The companions recovered from their exhausting journey during those eight days in the dank room, eating as much meat as they could and basking in the warmth of a fire all day and night. Occasional downpours allowed them to drink and wash and collect water for drier days. When night fell, screeches and roars rang against the stone walls. Packs of scavengers swept across the plain in the wake of the herd; a few scratched at the large wooden doors. The sounds of flesh being torn apart disturbed their sleep and Valmyr was certain they were all thinking of the old kin. By the time the plains seemed safe enough to move on, Valmyr's ankle was no longer swollen, but he still fashioned a sturdy walking stick from what spare wood he found.

The distance they traveled each day was halved and the mood sunk the instant they stepped back out into the open. Even Thorval admitted somberly that he could have stayed another few days dining on mammoth meat and sharing songs. Fear and hope spurred them onward, into the east that promised so much and yet so little. Was this all that they could expect? Boundless grasslands and herds of mammoths to feed on? They had been nomads in the Dawnwood, hunted from their lands by creeping frost and living nightmares, but this...

There was not a tree in sight and all of the first folk shared the same ache, the same longing for a forest.

So they marched on.

They noted no differences the deeper they dove into the plains; frozen blades of grass, hard earth, bland horizons. Once they stumbled across something that resembled an overturned bowl of woven grass, half-crushed by mammoths. Mara believed it belonged to civilized folk, but Valmyr disagreed; many birds made large nests of the sort in the Dawnwood, even though this one was wide enough for the four of them to fit in without Yull. They marched on, mood falling on the unchanging plains. Since the stampede, the landscape lay mangled and flattened before them.

The scavengers they had heard night after night emerged from their burrows around dusk and Mara and Yull spent much of their time chasing the bolder ones away. They encountered beasts that resembled snowlions, except smaller, with six legs, striped skin and long fangs. When night fell, the snarling felines prowled close, their oval eyes gleaming red in the darkness. Yull's size deterred them most of the time, though once Valmyr clubbed one brainless with a stone and frightened the others with his shouts. The great black birds left them alone, soaring high above them and far too focused on the feast of stinking mammoth carcasses.

By the time the stone building had disappeared behind them, only the cold proved to be a true predator. It hunted them by day, carried on brisk winds that rose suddenly from stillness to whip them raw. At dusk it seeped through their furs, furs worn with use and soaked more often than not. When night fell the cold enveloped them, a treacherous blanket promising warmth and peace but granting only burning fevers and frozen limbs.

Fortunately, Valhilde benefited from Yull's heavy frame and thick fur, never straying far from his natural heat. In her arms she cradled the ever-growing wolf pup, nurturing her despite the harshness of the land. Valhilde never ate before feeding Aevi ate, and every day saw her legs and jaw and snout stretch. The pup stared at them all curiously with big golden eyes, sniffing the air before a storm, growling when animals wandered too close, howling at the wailing wind.

It was partly thanks to Aevi that they spotted the next stone edifice rising ahead of them. Low clouds and a heavy fog had been crawling across the plains for several days so that they never saw further than a few spans. On one of those mornings, the wolfling scouted ahead with great, bounding strides until she disappeared in the mist. Valhilde, perched on Yull's shoulders, peered nervously into the murk and called her name out of worry.

'The wolf is fine,' Mara said reassuringly. 'That is how they are when they grow. Roaming far and wide. She is looking for a forest, for something that reminds her of home.'

'Like we are?' Valhilde asked, a curious mix of innocence and intelligence in her eyes.

'Yes,' the young woman answered. 'Exactly like we are. And we are near, I can feel it in the air, I can smell it on the wind. Fogs this thick are born from forests. And big ones too.'

'If only we could see,' Valmyr grumbled. He had been in a foul mood since injuring his ankle. In his heart he wished he could tell the others of the blackness in his mind that clung to him with more fierceness than a mist.

They will never understand, the voice hissed every time Valmyr yearned for the others' help, they will take you for a madman. You will be left behind.

But he is my father! And Mara is... She... we are all bound now. No one will be left behind.

You are becoming burden where once you were the strength that held them all together. Falling when you should run. Whimpering because of your ankle. You should have listened to me before. We are better off alone.

There is no we!

Is there not, little brother?

Leave me alone!

And the voice would listen, but a lurking darkness in the nooks of Valmyr's mind told him that it did so only to let him believe he was still in control.

The wolf howled, its long cry sounding as if from a distance, muffled by the mist. Valhilde leaned forward worriedly, her head darting left and right.

'Aevi!' she called, her voice frail and worried. 'Aevi!'

The echoes of barking came to them followed by a fearful screech that sounded like no beast they had encountered before.

'I do not like this,' Mara held her hand up to make them stop. Yull set the girl on the ground. The fog began swirling toward them, lower and lower in the air until it slithered around their ruined boots. Standing in a close circle, they could hardly see each other, making out their fuzzy grey outlines but losing all sense of detail.

'Aevi!' Valhilde cried once more.

'Hush! Mara hissed.

The air hung heavy, a dull absence of noise and color swallowing them whole, deadening the world around them. Every nervous step they took made muffled thuds, their breathing deafened by the foggy void. Valmyr followed the indistinct shapes of his companions, pain lancing up his ankle.

Mara screamed as a shadow tore through the mist. Valmyr snapped his head toward the noise and let out a soundless sigh of relief. It was only Aevi, leaping back into Valhilde's arms.

'The wolf,' Valmyr said, though he sounded nervous as well. 'Just the wolf...'

'No, there!' Mara peered into the shroud. Ominous and blurred, there rose another stone construction, engulfed by the mist...

...and then the mist shattered, falling from the air in fragments, dissolving to reveal otherworldly shadows looming over them. Tall, horned shapes mounted upon great four-legged beasts that snorted and stomped the earth. Spears tipped with metal as bright as moonlight pierced the grey shroud. Black furs flapped in the wind and one of the shadows drew a long blade from its hip and the sound it made came pure despite the fog.

Mara screamed and Yull roared as more and more of the silhouettes appeared, as if conjured from nothing. Valmyr's eyes darted from shadow to shadow, slowly circling and closing in on them without a sound. The wolf barked madly. Valhilde shrieked as one of the beasts rose on its hind legs.

They were surrounded.

Valmyr met the largest shadow's gaze, peering past the mist and through a mask of metal. The eyes were black and thoughtful, deep pools of obsidian, human but ferocious. Then without warning, Valmyr's own eyes rolled back into his head and he slipped into darkness.

I told you you would need me... The voice accompanied him into the abyss.