Shadows of the pack

Chapter Four - The Shinto onis are back: PART 1

Sebastian’s POV

Finally, after we had left the camp in utter disarray and chaos, I met up with Cane along the way. He could not wait for me any longer, as I kept flinging the soldiers in every direction, and anyone could have landed on him. I was able to find him through his wet and musty scent that had been like that since we came under the rain. Cain was shivering like a lost-in-the-snow wolf pup looking for its mother.

We continued our journey back through the village we had stayed in the last two days, but we didn’t stay there anymore, as we had to pass by the Ki’kirmul fortresses while we traveled, and they might be closed up soon because of the war ahead. Along the way, we saw scouts whom we assumed to be Ki’kirmul soldiers moving towards the direction of the camp we had just destroyed.

I can only hope to have bought some time for the soldiers to prepare well for the war; after all, the field commander, Bia’k, and his soldiers would need to find a new place to camp and new supplies to keep advancing for the war. This could take about a few months or so, and if the Ki’kirmuk soldiers wanted to launch an attack, now would be the best time to push back the enemy soldiers and make them retreat back to their border gates.

Deep down in my mind, I knew my intervention in the war was a distraction that I could have skipped, but I needed it. We journeyed through the cities of Ki’kirmuk on our horses until we found an inn to rest. It was obvious that Cane was so tired, and even I needed a rest, so we kept our horses in the stable behind the inn and decided to lodge for a while before we kept moving. We met a young lady whom I would have thought to be the owner of the inn if it wasn’t for the fact that she looked so young, who welcomed us with a smile and asked us what we needed.

‘A room with two beds, please!’ said Cane, seeming to be ensnared by the lady’s beauty as he kept looking at her even though she acted as though she couldn’t see him. Alright! Would that be all? Asked the lady, now stylishly looking at Cane and giving him a wry laugh. I couldn’t blame her much for acting in such a way; things looked awkward between them with the way Cane was looking at her.

I told her we needed food and drinks; she smiled gently and left to get us set up. She came back with the key to wherever she was taking us to, and we followed her.

She took us to a room on the upper floor of the inn and handed us the key; the room looked rough but cool enough for us to pass the night before we continued our journey. We dropped our things and went downstairs to get a table where the young lady had told us to sit, and some lads brought us the food and drinks.

We were served meat and a watery soup that had a rope-like substance in it. I hadn’t had anything like that before; it tasted just right even as it was my first time having it, and it went so well with the fried and tasty full chicken. You could tell from my reaction that I was having a blissful moment with this meal; the same goes for Cane, although he seemed more interested in the lady, as he kept looking over at her, and she also kept stealing glances at him, now smiling back. I couldn’t blame her; after all, anyone who saw Cane ordinarily would see him as a handsome man in his 40s. He had reddish-brown curly hair that looked untrimmed but attractive to the eyes, as well as a fit body with no bulging muscles. I felt envious of the situation between him and the beautiful blonde, but the food was more important than all of that, so I kept eating until it was all finished. Even my wolf could tell that I was satisfied with this meal.

After I was done, I went out of the inn instead of my room with the aim of transforming into my wolf form to run again. I’d been having this feeling of running ever since the full moon began edging in. After walking around the neighborhood for a while, I found a tree forest, so I went in to see if it was a place that my wolf and I could run.

Entering the forest now, I could see the trees were well spaced as though they had been organized to be like that by someone. The humans had their ways of doing things, so it shouldn’t surprise me if it’s their doing. I could remember back home, our forest remained untouched, and you could go running and hunt there any time you wanted, so long as it’s not past curfew, which was placed to prevent wolves from getting attacked by our enemies. I once heard that three young wolves tried to take down a big brown bear on their own even though they were no match for it; if it weren’t for the timely intervention of the patrolling warrior wolf guards, the bear could have given them eternal scars or even worse, death. We as werewolves could heal our injuries in a little time compared to humans, but some wounds would still leave scars. We had other enemies, like the vampires who move faster than we could see; they sometimes wander into our territories, and they could harm inexperienced wolves, especially at night. So curfews were a thing that was not to be broken by any wolf in the pack.

I looked around to see if there were any humans in sight, and I couldn’t see any, but I also couldn’t afford to be secretly seen by one, so I went deeper into the forest. Once I got to a deeper part of the forest, I took off my clothes and transformed into my wolf. We ran slowly through the forest while searching for prey to hunt through the corners of our eyes but couldn’t see or smell any. We couldn’t smell any either, so we kept running while enjoying the touch of a gentle breeze on our snouts.

Just when the thought of a blissful night in the woods began brewing in my mind, I caught a scent. I was familiar with this scent, so much so that I knew exactly what it was or what they were. The scent of aged burning fire coated with that of a decaying organism; we could see them through the corner of our eyes, surrounding us while wielding their swords and moving towards us. The Shinto Onis were here in their numbers!

I could count around 20 or more of them as they kept surrounding me while moving in sync.