Silver Moon Huntress

Vesper

“I hear something”, Marren said through our mindlink.

He was running east of me on a parallel route. We’d been investigating a threat about 100 miles south of our border, close to the nearest human settlement.

The territory was unclaimed, with our pack and the Blood River pack being the closest to its border. The humans rarely came to this area because of the rugged terrain, as well as the fact that there were large caves all along the cliffside where bears liked to hunker down for the winter. We had never claimed the land because the Union Council was keen to keep turf wars from popping up.

Alpha Holland had a decent working relationship with the Blood River Alpha, but it was best not to tempt fate. Instead, both Alphas had agreed that we would share responsibility for the territory and do our best to keep each other informed.

We received word from the Blood River Hunters that they had detected a strange scent, neither human nor wolf, during their last excursion, but had been unable to trace it past the waterfalls. Alpha Holland felt it was imperative to find the source of the scent and ensure whatever creature it belonged to was not a threat to our pack.

Marren and I had both patrolled this land, but neither of us were particularly familiar with it.

I adjusted my course, heading east to close the gap between Marren and me. As I got closer, I heard a strange sound. It was like a rustling, but not the same as wind in leaves or small creatures in the underbrush. At the same time, there was a steady pounding, but it did not sound like any animal paws I’d ever heard.

“Do you smell that?”, Marren asked.

As soon as he spoke, I caught a whiff of acrid decay. Marren stopped running, and I followed suit. We were in a small round clearing, dimly lit due to the tall trees that blocked out the light. I lifted my nose to distinguish the direction of the scent. I couldn’t. It was all around, but somehow did not lead anywhere. To my right, Marren yelped.

“What the f**k??”

He was looking at the ground. For an absurd moment I thought he was doing a strange dance, as I watched him hop from foot to foot, kicking his legs at nothing.

I glanced down and shrieked internally. There were millions of insects crawling all over the clearing where we stood. Grubs, beetles, centipedes, roaches, and spiders climbed over each other, writhing in a huge leg-filled mass.

I shifted to my human form and began throwing fire at the insects. Near me, Marren also shifted and I felt the earth shudder as he used his gift to open chasms in the ground that swallowed the insects and zipped themselves shut.

To my surprise, the insects did not catch fire, instead, they simply disappeared in tiny puffs of smoke that reeked of things long-dead. We had nearly finished exterminating the creatures when I heard that same rustling and pounding, this time much louder.

Marren and I looked at each other, both assuming fighting stances. Out of the darkness came a shadow. It vaguely resembled a wolf, but it’s features were not defined. Although it made no attempt to communicate, I felt an intense dread unlike anything I’d experienced before.

The shadow stalked toward us, and I lit a ball of flame in the palm of my hand. It suddenly charged, and I let fly my fire, but it sailed through the shadow with no resistance and caught on a small bush. Marren shielded us with a wall of dirt and rock, but the shadow sailed over it and turned to charge again.

I could feel myself panicking. How could we fight something that had no true form? Against any other enemy, Marren and I had a clear advantage. We’d never encountered anything we couldn’t destroy together.

Marren gave me a nod, and we immediately shifted back to our wolves. Our other skills were doing nothing, but perhaps we could fight this wolf shadow with wolves of our own.

The shadow charged Marren, who barred his teeth and let loose a guttural growl. I lunged at it, but my teeth closed on empty air as it passed through Marren’s body.

Immediately, he fell to the ground in his human form. His eyes were open, but each of his eyeballs were completely black. I could hear his heart racing, but the sound was decreasing.

I felt rather than saw Marren’s energy being drawn, and I looked at the shadow to see that its outline was becoming more and more distinct.

The smell of death was intensifying, and I could see small insects rushing out of the bushes to greet the shadow. They pooled at its feet and began to climb its legs. I couldn’t understand how they could cling to a shadow, but they continued to scale it until they completely covered its body. I looked on in horror as the shadow took shape as a monstrous wolf made of tiny writhing insects.

It opened its jaws and snarled a strangled growl that shook my bones. It crouched, ready to pounce on me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement.

Before I could react, the insect-wolf exploded, showering the ground with little crawling things that made a break for the bushes.

In its place stood a snow-white wolf. It howled, and out of the trees came two more wolves, one russet, the other brindled.

I shifted and rushed to Marren’s side. I saw that his eyes were closed. I could still hear his heartbeat, but his breathing was shallow. I peeled back one of his eyelids and saw with relief that his eye was back to its usual steady grey.

I shook him gently, but he did not respond. Behind me, the white wolf shifted, and the most beautiful woman I had ever seen sat beside me. Her elegantly coiffed hair was the color of newly fallen snow, and her eyes were a strange lavender color. She moved with a grace I had never witnessed before as she placed her hands on Marren’s chest.

“I can heal him”, she said, in a voice that sounded like wind chimes.

I watched as she focused, a small v of concentration furrowing her pale brow. Marren’s breathing strengthened and his body twitched, but he did not open his eyes.

The woman sat back and called to her companions, “we should make camp. He has a long night ahead of him.”