Treaty Bound

Chapter 8: The Unwanted Children

   We watched in silence as the four massive ogres and the prison cart carrying the old woman raced off to the southwest until they disappeared between the bare branches of the ancient oaks. Wherever they were taking the old woman it seemed they were in a hurry to get there. I would never have thought that anything so bulky could move so fast, especially on those stumpy tree trunks of legs, but somehow they seemed to be running almost as fast as my father's cart horses. I would have been in awe of such a spectacle if I was not so consumed with anger.

   "Let's go," I could hear the sadness in Lily's voice but I didn't understand it. Was she upset about the old woman? Why would a werewolf care about the fate of a human let alone an old woman?

   The childlike joy of climbing the tree was gone as we jumped more then climbed down from our hiding spot. The wolves all stood with their heads low and their tails hanging lifeless behind them. I understood just as clearly as if I were reading my own mother's face that they were all sad and that they wanted me to know I was not alone in my own sadness. But they did not understand, I was not sad, I was angry.

    Then without a sound, Luke started walking south again and we all silently fell in line behind the black wolf. As we walked in silence for a few more hours my anger only seemed to grow. The wolf inside me didn't understand why I was so emotional. The old woman was not part of my family or my pack so it did not understand why she mattered to me. It's lack of empathy only seemed to prove my opinions on werewolves correct, fueling my anger even more.

   Still, it did not try to fight me, it only seemed to want to understand me. It clearly understood the need to protect the pack, its family, but not why I wanted to risk my life to protect an outsider. Apparently my wolf, possibly all wolves, thought anyone outside of the pack was an outsider and a threat, not someone to risk its own life for. Eventually, it seemed to understand that it was only upsetting me more and went silent leaving me alone with my thoughts.

   The sun was already starting to set when Luke finally stopped walking long enough to look back at us. He gave what looked like a nod to Bear before bounding off into the woods, the red wolf close by his side.

   "Well this is where we camp for the night." Lily said breaking the tense silence. "If you don't want to eat your meat raw I suggest you start gathering some wood for a fire."

   I hardly heard what Lily had said as a loud crack drew my attention away from her and onto Bear who was for the first time starting to shift into a man. Unlike Luke's change, Bear's was not silent at all. The cracking and popping of his large bones echoed off the surrounding trees as his body morphed from a massive wolf into a giant of a man. As his face changed from wolf to man it betrayed none of the pain I remembered, perhaps he just didn't feel pain.

   I had seen him in the village for only a few seconds before I had run but that had not prepared me for the sheer size of the man that stood before me. I was a large man, before this, I had never had to look up to meet another man's eyes. Even the warriors that had come to my father's shop from far and wide had at best been my equal in height and the number of men like that I could count on one hand. Bear, as a man stood a good head taller than me and possibly more. He made me feel like I was a small boy again looking up at my father wondering if I would ever be as big as he was. He was not my father and I was not a small boy, I was a man and he was, he was something else.

   His unkempt golden-brown hair was long for a man, hanging down far past his shoulders. A matching short beard framed a rather ugly face that matched his gruff expression. His mouth seemed too big even for his large head and at the same time, his nose seemed too small. His eyes were the only feature that seemed to fit his face and I could not help but notice that like Lily his eyes were the same color as his wolf's.

   What he lacked in looks though he more than made up for in size. The man's shoulders were wider than any doorway I had yet seen. His arms were so thick it looked like his muscles wanted to burst from his skin. I wish it could go without mentioning this but seeing him standing there completely naked was making me suddenly feel very inadequate.

   "Put some clothes on, no one here wants to see your cock," Lily said all the while not even looking at either of us. She seemed to be searching about the area for what appeared to be a good place to sit because a moment later she let out a small sigh as she sat down on a patch of moss leaning her back against an oak.

   "Where is pack," Bear asked as he looked around the small clearing.

   Lily's blue eyes grew wide "Oh shit! I forgot it this morning." Her look of shock quickly faded to a mischievous grin "oops, I guess you can't cover up," she said in the sweet tone that made the wolf stir.

   Bear just shrugged his enormous shoulders, "I get firewood, not go far," he said before turning ad walking off into the words.

   I watched him go till I was sure the big man was out of earshot before turning back to Lily. She was leaning back against the tree now with her eye's closed, not even bothering to watch Bear leave. She didn't look mischievous now, only tired and I got the impression it was not just from the walk. For a moment I thought to keep the question I was going to ask to myself, for now, but my curiosity won out in the end.

   "What is he?"

   Lily opened her eyes and looked up at me. She tried to hide her annoyance but I saw it on her face for only a moment before it was replaced with a smile "Who? Bear? He is an orc" she said in a tone that betrayed none of her annoyance.

   "Orcs are not real. They are just myths from the dark times," I said in shock but with no real conviction.

   "Didn't they teach you anything in the backwoods little village?" now she did sound annoyed. "Orcs are real and Bear is or at least he was one. Now he is a werewolf and that's all that matters."

   "So, you are telling me that his mother was a human and his father...," I stumbled over the word as my anger tightened like a knot in my chest. Images of the ogres walking below me as I hid in the tree flashed into my mind. The woman's eyes looking into mine pleading for help as I stood frozen in my hiding place.

   "The word you are looking for is ogre and no his mother was not...," it was Lily's turn to stumble over a word but she quickly recovered. "I knew all you country folk were uneducated but I really didn't expect you to be this ignorant of the world around you. Are you really telling me that you don't know that after The Treaty was signed all the orcs left the human settlements to start their own?" Lily asked

   "No, I did not know that. Why did they leave if the war was over?" I asked, still not sure if I really believed her.

   "Do you think someone like Bear would blend in well in your little village? Humans back then hated the Fey far more than they even do now. Most thought orcs were no better than their fathers. Many were killed by their own families just for being what they were and the ones that were not killed were shunned and abused. Would you stay with people like that?" lily asked

   She was sitting up away from the tree now clearly agitated by what she had just said or possibly with my ignorance, I was not sure. The wolf didn't care why she was upset only that she was and he was growling in my head.

   "Where did they all go?" I asked hoping the story had a happier ending. I was relieved when she leaned back against the tree looking more sad than angry.

   "I don't know for sure, somewhere near the southern tip of the snowcap mountains I think. Orcs were not part of The Treaty and so are not bound by it like we are. When the ogres were banished to the mountains the orcs followed them there and still hunt them to this day from what Bear has told me."

   "If Bear is an orc and not bound by the Treaty as you say then why not let him kill them today? You said it yourself, they hunt ogres and he obviously wanted to kill them so why did you stop him?" my voice rising with my anger as I thought of that old woman again. The wolf growled at me but I ignored it.

   "He is not an orc anymore," Lily said in a low growl, accenting her tone so sharply it was as if she had snapped her teeth at me. Getting to her feet she started slowly walking towards me.

   "He is a werewolf like us now and bound to the Treaty. If he had attacked them he could have restarted the war. Not that it would matter to us because we would have been dead," she spoke slowly and calmly but there was a threat edging her voice.

   "Ogres are stronger than us and nearly fast as we are in wolf form. On top of that, they are nearly impossible to kill. They do not cast spells like other Fey, all of their magic is channeled into strength, speed, and healing. They are the foot soldiers of the Fey for a reason and four against 3 would have been a slaughter," by the time she finished speaking she was standing only inches from me, her eyes looking up into mine unblinking. I could have swore that as I met Lily's gaze the gold in her eyes was dancing and twirling around blue as if it were alive.

   "Then what do you think would have happened to us once the wolves were dead?" she asked with a clear challenge in her tone. Suddenly I remembered her yelling at Bear only hours ago:

   "You are going to get me killed or worse if you don't stop being stupid yourself and hide with us."

   My anger broke then and with it my ability to ignore the wolf who suddenly pushed hard against my will forcing me to look away. I got the feeling that its pride was hurt by turning away from a challenge but he did not want to fight with her or upset her any more than I already had.

   "I'm sorry, I did not know," I said, partly because I was sorry and partly to calm the wolf raging at me in my own head.

   "No, you don't know. You don't know anything" she sounded almost close to tears now. "Just go find a place to rest and shut up"

   Hours later we sat in the dark around a large fire in silence. Bear had returned, not with an armload of wood but dragging a small tree or possibly a large branch as thick as my waist. He then snapped it into splintered logs with his bare hands before piling it up in a neat stack. I was sure he was putting on the show for my benefit but even the wolf hardly seemed to care about the display for power. We were far too lost in our own head to care what he was doing. Luke and the red wolf returned not long after Bear had finished with the logs. Between them they dragged a large wild boar.

   It was Lily who had started the fire though I saw no flint in her hand when she did so. I wanted to ask how she had done it but I kept silent not wanting to anger her again after only just getting the wolf to calm down. She then cut a large chunk from the boar with a knife I had not seen her carrying before that moment. I wondered where she had been hiding it as I watched the wolves tear into what was left of the boar, but again I refrained from asking.

   The smell of wood, smoke, and roasting boar made my mouth water. After the days long walk and not having eaten anything since the day before I was starving. Still, when Lily cut off a large chunk and handed it to me I could hardly keep more than a few bites down. My anger mixed with my nerves had turned my stomach against me. So I sat in silence, feeling sick as I waited and watched as one by one they each dowsed off. Once I was sure they were all sound asleep I stood up and with the graceful steps of a wolf crept away.