Chosen by the Fates

In the Dark of the Night

Ashleigh~

The midnight air is cool as we leave the A-frame, heading out on our walk. I take in a sharp breath when I look up. There are billions of stars scattered across the skies. More than I can remember, even from my childhood in the country.

Or maybe I’ve travelled through metropolitan areas for so long that I’ve forgotten what the sky actually looks like.

“Haven’t been to many rural places?” 

“Not since I was a kid.” I watch as what looks like a meteor flashes by. I make a wish quietly to myself. Please let her remember.

It’s nice sharing the comfortable silence with her. When she isn’t looking at me as if she doesn’t know me, I almost forget everything.

But my brothers and I are here to save her. I can’t afford to pretend things haven’t changed. Not for her sake, or for mine. I finally gather the courage to speak, “When I asked about your dreams, whether you think they are real… we were interrupted.”

“I was sort of hoping you’d forget my dumb question.” A sigh escapes her.

I am caught off guard. When she’d asked me a week ago, I was so sure she was remembering. What changed? “Why?”

“Because that’s not how dreams work. The world isn’t like that.” Her voice is wistful, almost as if she is still on the brink of realizing it all.

If only I could just tell her something. Anything. I hedge the thought, trying to lead her back to everything. “What if it was?”

I’ve been certain of who she is since our dream encounter. And when she asked about my dreams I finally was given irrefutable hope. I don’t know how all of this happened, but my brothers and I will pull her out of this waking nightmare. 

“You wouldn’t need to ask that if you had been in my dreams.” She laughs. The forest is lit only with the reflection of moonlight on snow. The trees are bare shadows reaching for the sky.

I lean in close as she is looking ahead. I almost missed her blush in the dim light. If I could just lead her back to that dream, to me. Here and now…“And if I have?”

Her blush darkens. Conflicted thoughts flash behind her eyes. I’ve learned to read Delphi in an untold number of lifetimes. It takes very little time for me to learn to read them in this one.

Come on Delphi…

Instead, her eyes snap shut and she winces. She reaches up to rub her temples. I take hold of her shoulders to steady her.

“Aisling?” The tenor of my voice is more worried than I intend. “What’s wrong, are you alright?”

She nods, mumbling about a headache and needing to drink water, but when I offer to walk back with her she refuses. She says she likes the feel of the air. Did I push too hard?

We walk for a bit longer in silence. I need to be more careful. My heart twists painfully in my chest. She is so close, though. I close my eyes to center myself in my mind palace. I remember my brother’s warning, what we all know.

She must remember for herself. I must not push her mind beyond the narrative she knows. 

“So you’ve had dreams of me?” Her question sounds playful, teasing almost.

But the question itself brings to mind thousands of lifetimes. Our most intimate moments, every battle and mission. Warm comfortable moments with Delphi and our friends. Private moments where our bodies felt like they were the only refuge amidst all the planes of existence.

The memories of our shared kisses, laughter, touch… The walls I’ve placed around my mind crumble in the tidal wave of remembered moments. I am flooded with emotions I don’t even know how to begin to understand.

The rush of feelings is condensed by her one thoughtless comment, becoming a sharp stabbing pain in my chest. The pain strangles my voice. All I can do is stare and nod. I can’t even tell her why I am trying to hold back my tears.

Her expression is filled with an empathy that Delphi has been gifted with in every one of our lifetimes.

“Woah… woah.” She offers her arms to me in a hug as she whispers to me. My body moves of its own accord. I fall into her arms, burying my face in her neck as the tears come unbidden. I hold tightly to her, afraid that if I let go I will lose whatever control I have left.

How can she look straight into my eyes and not remember anything?

I don’t know how long we sit like that. It doesn’t matter. I don’t know how to reconcile the relief that she is alive with the pain that she doesn’t know me.

When my tears finally stop, I feel hollow. I take a few slow deep breaths and step back. Brick by brick I rebuild the walls within my mind.

“The Aurora is out.” Her voice is gentle. Her hand points up. I lift my eyes to see a blue green haze has begun dancing across the stars.

My mouth is drawn into a sad smile, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I’m sorry if I said anything insensitive…” She sounds concerned and apologetic. It’s not her fault. I know whatever happened, Delphi would have gone down fighting it. The dancing lights above us fill the emptiness I feel after crying with a strange sense of calm.

If I can’t tell her… I look back to her worried face, making up my mind and nodding to myself. Perhaps I can show her.

Even if she doesn’t remember me consciously, some part of her responds as if she does. She’s been more comfortable with me since we began messaging throughout the week. I’d hoped it meant that she was remembering more.

Her eyes hold my own, and I step in closer. She remains still, watching me. She doesn’t shift away. I lean in, pausing once more just in before her lips. The fog of her breath mingles with mine.

She continues to hold her ground, eyes on mine. I want to kiss her, but I’m not sure how to phrase why as I ask. “Perhaps if I just…” my voice is hushed and slow as I think, “…show you our dream…?” I wait for her reply, but she remains silent. 

I hesitate, worried that she hasn't answered me. 

Suddenly her lips are on mine, our mouths part, her tongue sliding along mine. We both press into one another, my heart hammering in my chest.

I almost don’t sense it before it hits. A bone chilling cold dances at the periphery of my mental awareness, sending every hair in my neck rising to stand on end.

Several things happen at once.

First, Aisling crumples in my arms, losing consciousness. I stumble, catching her reflexively. The wind picks up around us in a shrieking wail and I hear the groan and splitting sound of wood. A massive dark object hurtles at us and I spin, putting myself between it and her. It slams bodily into me, taking us both to the ground. I bend over her bodily to shield her as more dark projectiles hurtle at us.

Then I hear a deep snarling that reverberates through the woods and snow. 

The wind howls, and the sound of wolves howl with it. When I open my eyes, it's as if all the shadows of the forest have gathered into some great fluid and writhing mass. The tendrils snap tree branches around as it lashes about, and those branches are flung far and wide as if carried by the wind.

Snapping at the tendrils is a pack of massively sized wolves. One golden wolf has some piece of the thing in its massive jaw. The others yip, bark, and snarl as they give chase to the many tendrils of darkness snaking through the trees.

They’re trying to drive it away.

My mind races through the many times and planes I’ve lived in, trying to catalogue and understand what I’m seeing. But this is Midgard. This realm is particularly well known for the extinction of nearly everything mystical.

There’s no time. I’m not equipped to fight whatever the creature is, and there’s no way to be sure that these wolves are friendly. I have to make the most of their distraction. I gather Aisling in my arms, struggling to my feet in the snow.

When I look again, the golden wolf stands apart from the wolf pack, eyes locked on mine. Black ooze drips from its jaw. There is a sentience behind those eyes that is unmistakably human. And strikingly familiar…

The wolf lets out a soft, pained whine, and then spins to rush after the shadows with the rest of the pack.

I run for the A-frame without looking back.

***

Sol~

Our pack has split up. We almost never do, but this time it became necessary. The scent crossed along our entire Northern perimeter, encompassing miles of mountainside. Whatever it is, it is fast moving. Good thing we are faster.

I’ve been searching alongside Skoll for hours, and so far we’ve found nothing fresh. It almost seems as if it's searching for something.

Hati’s unmistakable howl sounds from the Northwest peaks, then trails down toward the highway as they move. Toward where I first scented Aisling. A pit of worry coils in my gut, and my wolf lets out a low growl.

Within a heartbeat Skoll and I are racing the winds themselves. The darkness thickens and the smell of putrid rot becomes overwhelming and fresh. Our ears swivel, hearing the paw beats of our pack running at full speed alongside us.

As we get closer to the source, my wolf picks up another scent. Mate.

The woods are the same stretch where we hunted the Bull Moose. My worry turns to fear as I hear her voice in the distance. Then another voice answers her. She’s not alone.

The foul scent mingles with hers as it leads us straight toward her.

The cold filling the woods here is unnatural, and the wind feels wrong somehow. Skoll veers off to flank what we are tracking. The rest of us silence and slow our approach. This is intentional, Skoll will use her noisy approach to hopefully lead whatever the thing is away from the humans.

Dread fills my wolf and I. We both know at the core of our being that whatever this smell is, it is dangerous.

When the trees clear ahead, I see her there in the dark. A tall figure is leaning in close to her. My wolf and I freeze in our tracks, unable to move or avert our eyes.

Some part of me knows we are practically on top of whatever we were tracking. But my wolf is conflicted. I realize the figure is the man that had grabbed her wrist at the coffee shop. Ashleigh…

Then she kisses him.

My wolf whines softly, my heart twisting into painful knots.

But within moments her body crumples in his arms. Something is wrong.

Before I can process it, the wind increases in force, blowing my fur in uncomfortable directions, swaying me bodily with the sheer speed.

The trees around us groan, and tree branches begin to break. Tendrils of darkness grow and snake through the forest around them, debris swirls in the air.

I realize Aisling is at the center of the vortex.

My wolf and I move toward her without hesitation, snarling as the larger debris launches at her.

Ashleigh protects her bodily. However, even as he does, he is knocked down with her. The black tendrils coalesce into something undefinably fluid and massive, rushing forward.

I am already between them as its snakelike bulk lashes forward, leaping to catch some part of it in my jaws with a snapping growl. Wolves are preternaturally strong, but I just barely manage to jerk the thing away from them. It oozes something acrid as my teeth bare down. I can hear my pack launching an all-out assault on the thing from all directions, driving it away.

I can only hope that Ashleigh gets her out of here.   

I feel something sharp and painful tighten on my wolf’s leg and thrash us away. My wolf’s jaws are torn from the creature’s bulk, and we land in a snow pile. My wolf shakes off, glancing toward Aisling.

Ashleigh has her in his arms, and stares into my eyes with something akin to recognition. 

I have no way to speak, but my heart echoes one thought. Keep her safe.

It’s all I have time to think before I am back in the fray. With one last backward glance I see him turn with her, running back down the road.

Then darkness swallows any visibility provided by the snow and moon.

A giant form that is inky black against the fluid shadows themselves becomes visible, stretching tree-like toward the sky. The thing looks to be made of thick black bark, with spidery and elongated limbs that stretch like branches clawing downward towards us.

It hisses and when it manages to hit, the strikes burn.

How are we supposed to fight a tree?

I look between my pack. Loki and Fenrir in particular are circling it, darting forward with testing nips. The creature responds to each strike in a 360 degree arc. Where are its blind spots?

Luna dives in as it lashes out at the twins each time, but other limbs block each attempt. Where are its openings?

Hati emits a sharply pitched, and long kulning howl which rings through the sky. Gudernes Vilje. A shiver runs down my spine. A rumbling can be heard in the distance. Our forest knows we are its guardians. All things hunt and live in balance with our pack. 

The forest will answer Hati’s call.

Skoll watches as I do. We exchange a look, and she tips her black mane at me. Our job is to keep this thing busy until the cavalry arrive.

Debris from the surrounding woods is launches in all directions at us. We scramble and roll through the snow. Wolves are born from the wind, and we are the few who can outrun it.

Luna manages to snap up a snaking root at the base of the creature. She snarls and pulls. I join her. A loud shriek and groan of wood splits the air as the tree-like creature rocks unsteadily. Loki and Fenris work in concert to snap at limbs that swing toward us. 

Skoll snarls and barks, catching another thrashing root in her own jaws.

The wind picks up violently. The thing's many branched arms level the forest in its wake as it slams all the arms down toward us at once.

We scatter, ducking and weaving as branch after branch strikes into the ground. Fenris yelps as one pierces his hind leg and several more cage him in place. Loki snarls, throwing himself at the cage.

Before I can react, the entire forest erupts around us. Massive dark shapes flood into the surrounding moonless area as dozens of moose join the fray. Moose are normally solitary creatures. They prefer the silence of their own company. But as some of the North’s largest megafauna, and herbivores known for stripping down trees in the winter for food, they are uniquely equipped for the bark-like armor of whatever this unnatural thing is.

We dart clear as the stampede bodily kicks and slams into it. Shrieking wails fill the night air. A sound that anyone not witnessing the battle might confuse with the howling of winter winds.

Our pack runs interference on the creature’s claw-like branches. We snap and catch them as they thrash toward the moose. 

It isn’t long before the thing is reduced to some kind of wooden wreckage. The shadows seep away, dispersing like some dark fog. The moonlight returns in the wake of the creature's destruction. The air warms just a little, losing it's edge. 

We are all breathing heavily. Fenris is limping. Skoll has a gash over her right eye. The moose huff and kick at the debris. 

I am still in shock. I've never seen or fought anything of its ilk. Whatever this was, it was an affront to the forest. The Gudernes Vilje has never been used in my time. 

One moose, entirely white, steps forward to stand before Hati. Hati bows their head low, exposing the back of their neck to the great beast. We all follow Hati’s example.

The moose’s luminous eyes watch us, then the creature lowers its own head in return. The great white creature huffs before turning to leave. The rest of the moose follow after.

Hati pads over to Skoll with a soft worrying whine. Skoll licks at Hati’s muzzle, and Hati begins cleaning the blood from Skoll’s brow.

Loki yips, taking off in the direction of the clearing where our pack meets. Luna and I follow. Skoll and Hati will watch over Fenris while we get a vehicle.

My wolf sniffs the air as we run. Aisling’s scent leads down the road further into the woods. I look between Luna and Loki, then veer away in a detour. Worry fills me, and another feeling my wolf and I can’t yet process. 

I just need to know that she is safe.

I follow her scent back to a large A-frame cabin within minutes. Her vehicle is parked out front. I walk slowly forward for a better view. Through the windows I see her stretched out on a long couch. Ashleigh is sitting beside her, head down in his hands.

He put himself at risk for her. My wolf doesn’t like him there beside her, but we respect what he's done. My heart twists in my chest.

With one last backward glance, I return to the woods.