Wolves of War

Hurricane Sanna

She threw the doors open, the loud bang of the wooden doors resonated against the wall of the cottage, causing everyone to jump too attention. The look of anger and frustration was visible on her features as she slowly entered the living space. I was not expecting her for another couple of days. I’m actually surprised she showed up. The journey to Davineeya takes just under 10 days for a royal convoy to reach. The Forest City lies at the very end of the mountain range. I sent word about Asai’s condition to the capital 6 days ago.

Sanna made eye contact with me. Her wolfish features twisted in anger as she stormed up to me. Ramune wasted no time in getting in between the two of us. The flow of energy danced between my fingers ready for when Sanna decided that Ramune wasn’t a big enough wall to hold her back.

Sanna spat at me and thankfully missed. Taking deep breaths, I forced my anger down and summoned all my patience in order to have this mystery argument with Sanna. I looked over at the she wolf. The first thing I noticed was how dirty she looked. She must have forced her caravan to move day and night. No wonder she is here earlier than scheduled.

“Galga, have someone check on Sanna’s entourage. Please give them a place to rest and food and water.”

Galga closed the book she was reading and got up from the table. Ever since being accepted as a Priestess of Serberus, Galga dove head first into her studies. She had a lot of ground to cover, a lot of knowledge to learn. She has taken every challenge that was placed in front of her and conquered it. Her magical ability doubled in a short period of time.

I turned back to Sanna, my eyes briefly glimpsed the hole in the wall created when the front door collided with the wall. My eyes shifted towards the official consort who was still glaring at me in righteous anger. The next thing I noticed about Sanna were the dark half-moon circles under her eyes and the state of unkemptness.

“Welcome to City Davineeya, Sanna. You arrived here a lot sooner than we planned. The city is still in the beginning stages of a restoration plan, so your room, unfortunately, is not ready yet. ”

Sanna growled at me “How dare you!”

I blinked, confused. “How dare I?”

“I am the prince's consort!” She yelled “I am his official Consort!”

I looked up at Keylyn confused, but he was just as confused as I was. A few minutes of awkward silence passed between Sanna, Keylyn and I.

“My Lady, it looks like you had a hard journey. Allow me to show you to the bath”, Keylyn offered.

Sanna swatted away his words “From your account of the events that happened here, why did it take a week for you to update us about Asai’s condition?”

“If your anger is due to being notified late of Prince Asai’s medical condition, then that is my fault. “Ramune said, attempting to take the attention off of me.

“Princess Talia’s main concern was keeping Asai stable. She left all other affairs to Keylyn and I.”

“But that’s just it! Tending to Asai is my job, my duty. You should have sent me word immediately. It is my right, my responsibility to make the decisions when it comes to Asai’s care. Not yours!”

“And when exactly would that have been?” I asked her slowly. Trying to string together a possible lie that sounds like the truth.

“When the situation was under control, that’s when you should have sent word.”

“Well, Sanna. One can assume by the letter I wrote that it took me 168 hours of blood sweat and tears to get Asai stable. It took 168 hours of sleeplessness to organize an army of both wolfmen and vampires where both sides were tired, hungry and wounded from the battle they took part in. 168 hours to gain control of what looked to be a hopeless situation and instill in the people around me just a little bit of faith to keep going. 168 hours.”

“Only 168 hours?” Sanna folded her arms. “You should have sent word then.”

“I did” I said

Sanna’s frown deepened.

“Show her to her room” I asked a random spectating maid. She jumped when I pointed to her.

“But her room isn’t ready” the girl stuttered.

“So…”

The days went by slowly. My body was completely worn out after having quelled the sudden zombie invasion in South Akkaddia. I came down with a fever and was unable to tend to Asai for a short period of time, but thanks to Thea, Galga, and Mihira, they followed my plan the best they could. They helped Asai survive 5 days. On the 6th day, Asai got his transfusion. I was still coming down from my fever but I was lucid enough and had enough strength to perform the blood transfusion on Asai. Once the transfusion was given, Asai became stable but he fell into a deep sleep. Concern for his quality of life has been brimming with its ugly head on nights when it’s hard to just watch him lay in a bed unmoving, and showing no signs of wanting to wake up.

In the case of Atman and his wings. The search party managed to find the wings but they were in pretty bad shape, crushed and barely recognizable. Galga, to mine and the others' surprise, used her talent to successfully repair and reattach Atman’s wings. She explained that she just knew what to do and that this aura that she described to me whenever she becomes lost in her work guided her through the process. When Serberus marked her, Galga’s connection to Kaos became more amplified. The Shewolf will be able to do a lot more than mend clothes from now on. With care and practice, she will become very skilled at being a surgeon, a rare sub-skill for a healer to possess.

“Would you like to feed him, princess?”

I turned to see a young girl holding a bowl of bone broth. Motioning the girl forward, I took the bowl from her and nodded my thanks. Sanna made a big fuss about wanting to take care of Asai, but when the time came to put in the work she refused. Now she spends her time wandering around the city and bossing around the maids. She made a big stink the other day when she found out about my naming ceremony.

Despite the challenges that hurricane Sanna brought. The Golden Forest is slowly beginning to thrive. The remaining soldiers from mine and Asai’s army have spent time and energy restoring the city. News of the Golden City being open spread and those who once called this ancient city their home began to move back in. We predict that by spring time 40% of the city will be livable. With my power over the earth, fruit trees have begun sprouting again, enough to keep the people happy and fed. But being winter, there wasn’t much I could do about meat. With Serberus returning to full power, the streams and springs are starting to refill, but the animals may not return to the forest till spring time. Fortunately, the lake nearby is full of fishing opportunities, and people are coming in to claim land and begin planting. Trading has begun for both goods and services. Society is beginning to flourish and culture is beginning to form.

The king has been sending weekly letters asking for progress. I update him about the city’s progress and nothing else. Asai’s condition has not changed since the first letter I sent. Sanna has been sending her own updates to the king so I’m sure he and the Queen have some idea about what is going on. Minthe might be working on a way to take advantage of this situation.

Asai’s condition is also not the only thing that I had to worry about. I killed a main fire deity. He is…was the ruling deity of the reptiles of the desert. The death of a powerful deity like Rahjah is not something that goes unnoticed. The minor deity Salamander might take Rahjah’s place upon his death, but it will take some time to get used to the new Fire Deity and for the balance of power to restore itself. The clan that serves the former fire deity will want some questions answered. When they find out that a witch from the Grey Wolf Empire killed their deity, they could demand restitution and if not given, a war might break out. The Grey Wolves may not survive a war between both Ursa and the reptiles. And if they do, the economic impact they would suffer will take generations to recover. Worst case scenario, clans team up to take down the grey wolf empire for having a witch that can destroy gods.

I wiped clean the corners of Asai’s lips. Gently I touched my lips to his, praying a silent wish over him. Other than this seemingly endless sleep, Asai is fine. This makes me believe that there is something else going on with him mentally, spiritually even. Once in a while, we will note increased heart beat and breathing and even rapid eye movement have been observed. There are some days when Asai will sweat without having a fever. It’s as if he is going through some intense workout. Another thing of note is that Asai is not losing any body weight. In fact, he is gaining more mass. Something is definitely going on, I just wished I knew what.