Between Fang & Fae

Chapter One: The Wolf in the Woods

Aderyn’s bootsteps thumped through the woodlands as she hiked west. She stepped heavily, in order to prevent any accidental startling of the fauna. The wolf she tracked was a few days from this area; she’d be on its tail before sundown. As if on cue, she heard a distant howl and flinched. She hated that sound. The howl was abnormal, and saturated in its suffering. Her father would tell her to mercy kill it, were he here, so she had begun her trek just before the sun rose.

She came up on a small pond and peered down into it curiously. A dragonfly skimmed the surface, then a toad captured it with its sticky tongue and munched it sloppily just as an owl swooped down and grabbed the toad in its talons. Nature took its course despite her presence, as if she was as much a part of it as the beetles and the birds.

Once the ripples cleared, her reflection stared back up at her. Her hazel eyes were sharp–stalker’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if the circles under them were always that dark, or the pondwater was playing tricks on her. Glistening white scars marred her skin, and she wore them proudly, like a soldier’s ribbons. Her blue tattoos from her days with the Picts rippled on the water/s surface.

Aderyn tilted her head, allowing her long tawny hair to fall over her shoulder. The hawktail feathers that adorned her locks were remnants of her transformation, but she didn’t mind them. The likelihood of crossing paths with a human was low this far from a walkable trail. She’d seen plenty of humans with feathers in their hair, and in this day and age they were labelled as ‘eccentric.’

Her glamour shimmered momentarily as she came back to her senses, her vigilance focused on her surroundings. For a fraction of a heartbeat, fuzzy antlers sprouted from the top of her head and her brown, feathered wings ruffled in the breeze. She ripped her gaze away from the water’s edge and turned towards her destination. She dropped her glamour, shrinking to a four-inch winged creature and sliced through the air towards the setting sun. If she was going to find the wolf before the moon emerged, she needed to get moving.

She tucked her feathered wings close to her body and whizzed between the trees. The jetstream caused by her momentum rustled leaves and startled small creatures, but was otherwise imperceptible. Flying was one of her favorite sensations, and for a moment in time, all that existed was wind. Flight was safe in a world where hungry predators and ignorant humans noticed nothing beyond their noses.

She was several miles closer to the wolf in minutes, and she landed on her feet mid-shift, her bare feet landing gracefully on the crunchy leaves that carpeted the forest floor. Popping back to size from a few inches to several feet winded her no matter how much she practiced.

Without the mental strain of holding her glamour, she could take a moment to focus her senses. She raised her nose to the air, inhaling deeply, simultaneously sharpening her ears to the world around her. Half a mile north, she could smell wood ash and open flame. She wrinkled her nose. She hated the smell of burning wood. The trees were her friends, and fire meant suffering.

She snapped her wings open to gauge air currents, and noted she was downwind. She ran a hand through her tousled hair, careful to avoid her antlers with her claws. They were always so sensitive when in velvet. Aderyn crouched onto her haunches to wash her hands in the creek that ran downhill, adjacent to a cluster of bushes covered in plump, fragrant berries. She reached, tempted by the seductive crimson fruit, her mouth pooling with saliva in anticipation.

A twig snaps. A low exhale that doesn’t belong. A growl. Aderyn’s outreached hand becomes menacing as she turns her pointed ear towards the sound. Forgotten berries tumble from her palm as she narrows her eyes towards the treeline beside her; her comfortable crouch shifted predatorily, a posture that said get back, I’m warning you. The scent of wolf was still upwind, and other predators tended to steer clear of wolf territory. Whatever had made the sound was now still. She could hear its careful breathing and rapid heartbeat. She was hardly aware that her teeth extended into fangs and her face twisted into a bestial snarl.

She heard the crunch of leaves and the sound of sinews moving beneath skin before she pounced, pinning the creature against a tree stump. The hare squealed, kicking its legs and trying to claw her forearm. Her body relaxed in recognition as her mind caught up to what her instincts already realized. There was no danger, just a fellow wanting the same berries she did. As her heartbeat slowed, so did the rabbit’s. She let him go, and he slumped against the ground, catching his breath. “I’m sorry, friend,” she apologized earnestly as he tentatively hopped towards the berries she’d dropped on the dirt. “The sooner I find this wolf, the safer you are.”

Aderyn got back to her task, honing her senses to refocus on tracking. She walked along the edge of the creek, climbing the hill and migrating upstream. The scent of wolf, fire and ash grew stronger, but now she also detected herbs, meat, steel, and rubber–all indicative of a human settlement. That sort of atypical behavior further hardened her resolve to exterminate it. A musky odor emerged through the perfume. Male. Exterminate him.

She stopped walking just before she emerged from the treeline. All around her were chopped trees and tire tracks, indicating someone had been here seeking firewood and lumber. The stumps nearest her seemed freshly cut, but further north she could see some growing moss and mushrooms. Alongside the signs that she was getting closer to the human were indicators that she was getting closer to the wolf. His musk was stronger here, and it made her dizzy and nervous. There was a sick or wounded wolf circling a human settlement, that much was for certain. She needed to hurry, because the human’s days were numbered so long as that wolf still roamed.

Before she could be accidentally seen, she slipped into the shadows between two trees and focused on her glamour. Her antlers and wings disappeared, but the hawkfeathers she’d left adorning her hair before reappeared. Her claws now resembled a nice black manicure, and her clothes and boots were back. Still, the thing that remained the same, was her smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks, and the clear quartz marble that hung just below her throat.