When Demadara returned to her senses, the sun had died down beyond the mountain´s exit. before her laid a new pile of clothes, most importantly a long flowing red mantle, covered in a fine web or intricate runic lines.
After getting dressed she looked at herself in the mirror standing at the side of the bed. The mantle fit her well, the pants and shirt were not too tight either, she'd be able to run and move relatively unhindered.
"My lord."
The soft voice had Demadara reach for the heart before she even looked at the entry of the tent. There the fox woman stood, frozen still, her hands in the air. Her ears had folded, but still Demadara´s hands did not relax their grip around the Heart.
"Forgive me for startling you my lord, I wanted to ask if you needed help."
Demadara shook her head and quickly reached for the mantle´s hood, pulling it far over her face. "I'm fine. You never told me your name, or why you decided to stay."
The fox woman grasped the seams of her dress and performed a curtsy, her head held down. "I am Timae, my lord. And, I've no place to be. Not any longer, at least. It is you who freed me, and you who spared my life despite knowing what I am."
While Timae spoke, Demadara was searching through the tent, and eventually found what she needed: Two seats of belts. With it she fashioned another harness for the Heart. Her breathing relaxed once more with it securely attached to herself.
"I know what living in a cage does to someone. Nor can you really be dangerous. You've only one tail."
Timae´s ears perked up, she blinked a few times. "How do you know of that?"
Demadara continued to look through the tent´s contents. heavy unwieldy armour, useless cult artifacts without an ounce of power in them, weapons of all kinds, yet not a single well balanced dagger.
"Your kinds power manifests in your tails, I read that a year ago. So since you only have one you're hardly stronger than a normal human."
The sword would have to do, She attached the sheath to her belts and finally turned back to Timae. "If you have to come along then fine, but you hunt your own food and don't get in my way."
Timae stepped aside, and Demadara left the tent, looking across the cave. It was a camp of beasts alright. large stores of meat and weapons, but she could not even see a single glimpse of gold anywhere.
"So you're awake again, just in time for dinner." Grim was marching through the open gate into the mountain, dragging along the corpse of a large boar-like creature. "We should probably hurry, the birds outside have been looking at me really hungrily."
"Birds? You, you don't mean that there are ravens out there, right?" Timae had followed by Demadara´s side, her eyes now wide open.
"Well sure seemed like ravens to me, they're certainly big enough. What's it matter?"
Timae reached out for Demadara´s hand, who quickly pulled away from her.
"Their eyes, mercenary. What colour were their eyes?"
Grim leaned his head to the side, rising an eyebrow. "Well they were strangely blue, not a kind I've seen here before-"
"We. Must. Leave." Timae was wringing her hands, staring from Grim to Demadara as every hair on her tail stood up. "We have to leave, run, scurry, get away from here as fast as we can! If they are here that means she found us, it means she knows her pet is dead and that means we are dead if she catches us!"
Demadara grabbed Timae by her shoulder, but even that did not stop the fox woman from trembling and pleading. "Who, what is coming?"
Her words had Timae calm for a moment, long enough for her to cling onto Demadara. "The wolf will come, my lord. The wolf who ate my people and ripped out my tails."
She exchanged one short gaze with Grim. Both nodded.
It was a cold night, and the wind had picked up strongly. Ceaselessly it came from the north, the direction they were taking along the mountainside. They saw no other animal around, nothing except the ravens above. Their ceaseless cries and the howling winds surrounded them as they marched.
"What is this damn wolf anyway, Timae." Demadara growled as she tripped for the third time, her hands immediately reaching for the Heart. It was still there, still secure.
"The most cruel and gluttonous beast between the empire and the plains of ash, my lord." Timae´s eyes were glowing in the dark, she kept on turning her head with every step, squirming and shrieking at every sudden noise.
"She has made these parts beyond the imperial borders her home, and every tribe or group that does not bow to her she hunts to extinction. Some, she just hunts for sport. We bent the first day she came, but it was not enough." She held her tail in her hands, running her fingers through the soft fur. "I was, I was our guardian. She ripped out eight of my tails and kept me as her pet, then threw me out when I tired her."
"So you're saying she was the boss of this group as well? Heh, hopefully we see her soon." Grim looked up to the dark, moving cloud of ravens above. "She'll have a lot to answer for."
Their path eventually lead past the mountain, and made way for the Titan´s Plains. Far in north began the great hills, while south of it laid the imperial greater province of Zana. But Timae´s eyes were pinned north west.
"We mustn't fight, mercenary. All we can pray for is to escape her-"
A great howl traveled towards them. It hit the mountain and echoed off of it. Timae froze in her track, put her hands on her head and slowly sunk to the ground.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The light of the moon reflected on the fields of flowers that bloomed on the plains in this season. It covered a figure that was approaching them at a leisurely pace.
She was clad in a short red dress, her feet as bare as her hands. A massive long tail whipped through the air behind her, twice as long as she was tall. In the silver light of the moon, her hair and fur was of a dark brown colour, though Demadara could swear she saw streaks of red.
And with every step she took, the land decayed around her feet. Flowers and grass wilted to nothing in moments, bugs and insects curled up and died, leaving a single black trail in her wake.
"Two little lights, in the company of a large one." The young voice made a mockery of the ancient malice shining in her ice cold eyes. "My little birds whispered that someone had killed one of my darling pets. I come, to punish those responsible, and what do I find?"
Demadara and Grim had frozen in their tracks. The sheer presence of the wolf was overpowering. What approached them was both old and young, the vigour of a thousand youths, sustaining a will older than the first of man.
"A little light playing god, a useless fox with no right to live, and you." The wolf woman pointed at Demadara, her smile betraying her fangs. "I thought your light was large, but you are merely carrying a sun. How, disappointing."
They were struggling against her presence, Grim trying to unsheathe his blade while Demadara reached down to the heart. Her fingertips were so very close.
"And I had hoped for a proper hunt. Oh well. I am Kaya, first of Fenrir. Remember it, prey. Before you become my meal." She fully bared her fangs, her nails grew into claws as she leapt forward.
Demadara´s fingertips finally reached the Heart. It lit up in a brilliant flare and Demadara was whole again. While Grim still struggled against the presence, she slammed her foot into the ground. The pressure caused the ground to rumble as spikes erupted from the earth, exending forward towards Kaya.
The wolf woman grabbed onto one and pushed herself up into the air by it. her long tail a writhing silhouette against the moon. When she kicked her feet against the air, it sparked a whirlwind, howling across the plains and sending her forward towards Demadara.
When she landed, the ground shook in a wave like disturbed water, sending the three flying backwards. Ignoring both Grim and Timae, she came straight for her.
Continuing to draw strength from the Heart, Demadara´s eyes turned silver, seeking eye contact with Kaya. Their gazes met, but the wolf woman did not slow down in the slightest.
With a curse under her breath she ducked, the sharp claws clipping her hair. Her hood had fallen down, the two now stood face to face.
"A scarred outcast doll, holding onto the heart of a god." Kaya´s words ended in howling laughter. She wrapped her arms around her waist, shaking her head over and over. "Of all the ways that history could begin anew, it does as a comedy, a farce!" She turned around, wiped the tears from her eyes, and looked up to Grim.
Blood ran down Kaya´s lips as she was pierced twice. Demadara´s blade through her stomach, Grim´s through the neck.
Kaya´s eyes slowly rose up to meet those of Grim, and her smile faded. It was replaced by disappointment.
Her tail whipped through the air, throwing Demadara off her feet. It coiled around her multiple times before clenching, and the sound of broken bones filled the air. Her body was dropped on the ground.
Grim tried to pull his blade out, but Kaya gripped onto his arm, sinking her claws deep into flesh. It changed colour, turning blue then black, becoming ice cold. It spread from the puncturing wounds across his entire arm. Grim punched and pushed against Kaya with his left, but the hits became weaker and weaker, until he stopped.
His entire right arm was black and shriveled, when Kaya as much as tugged it came off, falling to the ground. She pulled the sword out of her throat as her tail removed the blade out of her back. Both cuts closed and healed. The wolf girl cleared her throat and sighed. "How little have you lived. An entire part of you and it was almost nothing."
Timae had curled up into a ball, looking up at the scene, her eyes falling to Demadara writhing in agony.
Kaya reached back and pierced Grim´s chest with her hand, parting tissue, muscle and flesh. Finally she pulled out his heart. Severed, with a golden glow surrounding it, it was still beating, his eyes still moving as they looked down at the wolf woman.
"You were pathetic. But you will make for a little appetizer."
Grim´s body tried to move, to raise his remaining arm, but Kaya opened her mouth wide and sunk her fangs into his heart, ripping the organ into pieces. The faint glow dimmed, and Grim´s body turned still.
Kaya swallowed and turned her back, her tail pushing over Grim´s body, as it fell to the ground it shattered into tiny pieces.
"Oh?" Kaya stopped in her path, now faced with Timae. The fox woman was still trembling, her tail stuck between her legs. But she stood between Kaya and Demadara, her arms spread out. "You, you will not harm my lord any further."
"I will not? Or what, you will stop me?" Kaya reached out and wrapped her hand around Timae´s throat. The fox woman gagged, her eyes widening. But her arms stayed spread out.
"I've already torn you apart so many times, it is not even fun hurting you anymore, useless little fox." Kaya´s ear twitched, she punched the fox woman in the stomach and sent her reeling to her knees to walk past.
But Timae reached out to grasp her ankle, making Kaya stop again. "You have quite the nerve. You did not try even half this hard when I was hunting your people, just what kind of guardian does that make you?"
She bared her fangs to Timae, the entire pressure of her presence barring down on the fox woman. But her grip stayed strong, she met Kaya´s gaze.
"You will not, hurt my lord."
Kaya´s tail cracked down on Timae´s arm. It cracked and broke, her fingers grew limp and let go.
"You're lucky your light is so little and repulsive that I cannot bring myself to eat it, useless fox. I'm only interested in this one."
Kaya now towered above Demadara, laying on her back. Her legs and arms were twisted, blood ran down her lips.
"Here ends your travel, little jester. That power is fit for a proper queen, not a used up slave."
Kaya took one more step.
And the sound of a snap echoed down the mountain. Every hair on Kaya´s body rose, her eyes widened with primal fear. Reflected in her eyes was the figure of a woman, clad in pure white.
The wolf woman just stood there, blankly staring forward at the nothingness behind Demadara. Then she took a step back. The decay around her feet had spread from how long she had stood in place, her tail wrapped itself around her.
"Another time, then. The next time I hunt you, it will be for real. Don't make it as disappointing as this time."
And without another word she left, turning her back to Demadara and wandering north west, towards Haneon, the first forest. The ravens turned and followed their master and the winds died down, leaving silence.
Timae crawled over to Demadara, a whimper shaking her body as she dragged herself forward with her broken arm. "My lord, my lord." she severed the belts with her other hand, and pulled the heart close to. It began to glow, a golden shine that began to engulf Timae. Her arm began to snap back into blade and heal, and her tail grew longer and wider until it split into two.
"Forgive me, for partaking in what is not mine." She muttered, before laying her hands on Demadara´s chest. Their eyes met, and the fox woman did her best to smile. "I will return it to you, a hundred, a thousand fold, my master. I promise."