Chronicles of the Wolf: Of Wolves & Spiders

Chapter 9

“So, you claim that you wanted to celebrate the hunt, and therefore you took so long?” Da’Mon said shaking his stick at me from beyond the wooden bars. I was sitting here looking at him recounting my story up to this point for the past several minutes or perhaps it was an hour or two by now.

I had arrived back at the village a few hours ago by now, when I returned, I saw that the Obscuros had come to the Gris village, apparently, or so my father explained, the Obscuros were hit hard by the drought and they headed down to the Gris Village for aid. Here they were told by my father that myself and the pack had gone out to get food. That apparently was about 3 or 4 days ago.

In the 6-7 days I was gone, the village had gone through an intense famine. The food reserves had been taken up in hopes of being able to help the Obscuros who had come to the village in hopes of receiving aid. With the extra Beghrest that came for aid they were able to use up the reserves quite easily.

“That is correct,” I said.

“And that took you three days?” Da’Mon said.

“It is tradition to celebrate a successful hunt is it not?” I asked.

“Yes, but that took you three days!” My father barked off in the distance. He had been walking back and forth pacing back and forth around the area.

“I’ve seen how much you celebrate we even celebrated before we left!” I said, and my father angrily snarled.

“But it was not for three days straight!” my father growled.

“There is no need to get so angry at me.” I said. “Had you fools prepared more instead of celebrating all the time perhaps we would not be in such a pinch.”

“So, you still claim to have no responsibility for putting all tribes at risk?” My father huffed angrily. He looked furious he looked like he wanted to rip something apart. Had I not been behind these bars I was certain that he would be ripping me apart.

It seemed that that brought him to wit’s end for he stormed off angrily out of the prison hut. Da’Mon had watched him storm out. He stared back towards me and shook his stick at me.

“You are an ill omen since birth,” Da’Mon said and walked out of the hut leaving me to my thoughts. I angrily hit the side of my prison and slumped down in a far corner. This was rock bottom for me.

A few of days had passed. Not much had changed. I was still being kept in the prison. My father and the other chiefs apparently had not decided what my punishments would be for causing such disaster to our tribe. What shocked me was that even the Marrons were angry with me and Kalit was not talking to me at all and saw me with such hatred that it was palpable.

The food in the form of the Rybaks that I brought back was providing some sustenance. I found out that a group of Beghrest had gone out to hunt for more Rybaks a couple of days ago and returned this morning. When they came back Da’Mon came to tell me that they only took two days instead of the seven that I had taken.

Over the past few days I had learned the consequences of us taking so long to return from the hunt. There were many people were adversely affected by the drought. Our normally clean source of water in the middle of the Bel’athore forest had been tainted because of lack of rain. There were things in the water that when drunk directly people would get deathly sick.

Da’Mon explained that parasites must have gotten into the water because of the lack of rain over the past few weeks the water was not getting filtered by the usual circulation of the water in lake. Me taking so long to bring food didn’t help, some people had died from starvation while I was off goofing around with the pack. This included my own mother.

I had trouble accepting that when I found this out, she apparently died about two days before I returned to the village. This was why my father had been so upset with me taking so long and had looked like he was going to rip me apart. I do not know what my future entailed anymore, I was beginning to worry about the possibility of having to explain my actions to the White Wolf Council.

“Are you finally seeing the consequences of your actions?” a voice asked me. I turned and saw Lacia D’Opidium standing with an entourage of female Beghrest.

“Came to gloat, have you?” I said snorting.

“I came for no such thing,” Lacia said. I noticed she was still wearing clothes. I had no idea why every time I had seen her, she had worn clothes. She was now a full-fledged adult, and there should be no reason why she would be wearing clothes. This time she had changed from the usual black she wore to this red color I had never seen made into clothes.

I had heard seen this fabric be made into other things, notably things such as flags and draperies for huts of the chiefs. My own hut had such fabric in the form of draperies covering the entrance to it. From what I remember it was a sign of nobility.

“I only came because I had heard that Da’Mon had told you about the passing of your mother.” Lacia said.

“So, you did come to gloat,” I said.

“No, only to express my condolences.” Lacia said.

“I do not need your pity,” I said.

“You are quite stubborn,” Lacia sighed. “No wonder your father fights for you so.”

“What do you mean?” I said

I stopped because my ears suddenly perked and so did Lacia’s. We both stared in the same direction. Something had made this very strange noise. But the noise was coming from a peculiar location.

“Did that come from the sky?” I asked.

“It sounded like it,” Lacia said.

“A storm?” I asked.

“No, the sun is out,” Lacia said as she looked at the hut entrance.

There was quite suddenly a sound of people gasping just outside of the hut. It was suddenly followed by a series of other pops. Pop, pop, pop the sky roared as if it was thunder. One of Lacia’s servants was near the hut entrance and pulled the curtain open and saw Beghrest run in fear looking up into the sky.

“What the devil is going on?” I asked.

Something suddenly hit the female servant that had opened the curtain. It was this blue and purple light that reminded of a lightning strike. The second that the female was struck by this beam of light it instantly vaporized her. There was no other explanation for it. She was there one second the next she was nothing but dust in the air. There was a thick smell of burnt flesh that emanated throughout the hut.

“What the devil was that?!” I said.

“We have to get out of here!” Lacia said suddenly and she turned around and started fiddling with the lock on my cell.

“Lady Lacia, are you sure you can release him?” one of her servants said.

“We don’t have time to worry about that,” Lacia said.

She messed with the lock for several more moments before she undid the lock releasing me from my cell.

“We have to stay low,” Lacia whispered to me.

“What is going on do you know what is happening?” I asked.

“They’re here.” Was all that Lacia said with a terrified face.