Shadows of the pack

Chapter Three - Kill the Enemy’s General

Sebastian’s POV

The rain was about to begin, so we giddied up our horses. The weather had been showing signs of a possible downfall since midday; the lightning and partly dark clouds were evidence of that. It was almost nighttime, and we were on our way to the camp of the West Mo’udum army. The plan was to kill the field commander and a few generals, so the enemy could retreat to their kingdom, but on that night, something was different in me. The full moon should be coming out tonight, but since it was almost certain that it would rain, it might not be out; maybe tomorrow it will.

The one thing that felt off in me was that I didn’t have the killer’s instinct, a desire for blood. It was as though I wasn’t sure about killing anyone today, which certainly was from my wolf.

Still unsure about what to do to the enemy’s commander or the soldiers, we rode on our horses to the enemy’s camp anyway. Cane was carrying a sword just for his own defense, since he almost certainly wouldn’t be killing anyone today. Although he was very skilled at using a sword, Cain had insisted on not fighting tonight for his own personal reasons.

We got closer to the enemy’s camp in the rain and decided to tie our horses a mile away so we could continue on foot. The enemy’s scouts seem not to be out on patrol tonight, probably because of the rain.

Unlike us supernaturals, humans are more resilient to cold. It was obvious that Cain was feeling the weather but didn’t have much of a choice since we planned together to attack the camp tonight. As we got closer to the camp, I could already smell the humans from miles away.

We moved closer to a little cliff by the side of the enemy’s camp, and we could see a few soldiers standing guard under the light drizzle of rain. We could also see light coming from the tents and noise that seemed to be coming from the soldiers. Surely, if it weren’t for the rain, the soldiers and scouts on routine shift would be scattered around this cliff, as it seemed like a good place for their enemy to infiltrate through if they wanted to, and that would put the M’oudum army at a disadvantage.

It was time to move, as the night was growing darker. I knew it was only a matter of time before Cane had something to complain about; after all, he was still human. Cane loved to sleep, and that was evident as I watched him yawn and shake off the cold a few times. Crouching, we moved through the left side of the camp towards the tent that seemed to be that of the commander because I saw high-ranking officers come out from there and head towards their different tents.

I took out a knife from my scabbard. It was one bestowed upon me by my grandfather on my seventeenth birthday. It was about 6 inches long with a hilt designed like a sword and the edge forged in a triangular shape. The knife is so sharp that it could cut through a small leaf amidst thin air because I always found a blacksmith among humans to sharpen it after every full moon.

Cane was to stand watch behind the cliff with his sword for defense and whistle to signal. I moved close to one of the soldiers guarding the commander’s tent along the side, and in one heavy blow, he was about to land on the ground and cause a heavy thud, but I didn’t want to alert the other guards, so I caught him and dragged him to the back of the tent silently. I went by the other side and saw that the second guard was now inspecting the other side that I had dragged the first guard through, looking for his partner. I closed up on him and covered his nose and mouth altogether, suffocating him to avoid noise, but he made a little disgruntled sound that made the commander call out to them to know if everything was fine. I was able to knock him out after his little struggles and moved inside the tent to find the general sitting while studying what seemed to be a map or perhaps a battle plan.

As soon as I entered, he looked at me and back at the entrance I came through as though he was calculating what had happened in his mind. He looked at me shocked with his mouth agape, seeming not to know what to say. This commander was too worn to be the perpetrator of this war; he had a weary look and looked like he wasn’t ready for a battle, not to mention a war. He finally found his voice, still sitting and looking up towards me, asking me, “Who are you?”

“I’m here to kill you, Commander,” I said to him. He sharply lowered his gaze toward his hands and back at me, still having a weary look. He didn’t seem like someone who wanted to fight me. He had a sword beside his armor that was placed on a cross-sign-standing piece of metal and a majestic arrow that hung on the wall. I knew then that the arrow was his actual weapon because of how insanely majestic it looked, but he didn’t, for once, look towards any of the weapons or try to grab something to fight me; instead, he seemed to have accepted his fate, even if it meant death.

“Are you not afraid to die by my blade, general?” I asked him.

He looked at me again and said, “If you kill me, you’ll be unburdening me from a lot of things. I have lived long enough to not be afraid of death; my children are old enough to take care of themselves and the family, and I only worry for my wife. She would be deeply grieved and stricken if she ever heard that I died on the war front when I should have retired a long time ago; this war was never my choice.”

Then I thought to myself, killing the old commander was not what I actually needed to do; it was only a means to an end, but I could do something different to achieve my aim. I looked over to him, now sitting too, and asked him why this war was being waged on the kingdom of Ki’kirmul.

“This war is pointless,” he began.

Our kingdom, the great Mo’udum kingdom, has enough resources to go around for the elites and its people, but the people still suffer from the rules and policies made by greedy elites and politicians. To make matters worse, the current king is a dunce who seems to have been pushed to start this war by all means to expand the kingdom’s territory. I am but a soldier; all I do is follow orders. If a war is ordered, there’s not so much I can do to stop it even if I wanted to. You see, this war wouldn’t end even if you killed me; the king and his pious minions would send someone else to replace me in a few weeks,” ended the commander.

I scoffed at him and said, “Go back home, Commander. Don’t die for a stupid war.”

“What is your name, Commander?” I asked. He told me his name was Bia’k. I left him there staring at my back as I went out of the camp. I began transforming into my full wolf with new plans in my mind.

After I completed my transformation, I started running through the large camp looking for their supplies. It was the food and the weapons. I just had to destroy their major weapons, which would give the M’oudum Commander an excuse to retreat for the time being and the Ki’kirmuk kingdom time to prepare their defenses against the enemy without me having to kill anyone. This was my new plan.

The soldiers began trooping out in their numbers as soon as their attention was drawn to the big black wolf ransacking through their food and weapon supplies, each one of them holding the weapon they could find. I could tell none of them had seen a wolf as big as mine from the look of shock they all had when they first saw me. I made sure I destroyed all their food supplies, then I went towards their weapons supplies, bashing through the armory and catapult supplies. A fire engulfed their weapon supplies, burning through the flammable liquid I presume they had stored for catapult attacks on the Ki’kirmuk kingdom. I dashed out of the supply room and met soldiers surrounding the area, with some of them carrying swords and others spears to fight me, the wolf!. I laughed inwardly and began running through them using my wolf speed. It’s another advantage if the enemy soldiers are wounded severely; this made me even happier as I tore through them, launching them far away and injuring a lot of them during my rampage. I could go on and on attacking them tonight, especially because my wolf was at full power since the moon was supposed to be out tonight. My wolf enjoyed this show of strength, as it was able to stretch and flex its muscles.

I left after fire had engulfed the whole camp, and I watched from afar as the soldiers tried to put out the fire, but it kept burning until there was almost nothing left, and instead they began to retreat to the tree lines with their commanders to keep themselves safe from the fire.