Water ran down Emily's clothes in rivulets as she stepped up to Mist and Atticus. Several strands of red hair allowed drops of water to fall on the nearby stone, leaving a trail of darker stone where she passed.
As Emily approached, she saw that Atticus had already popped the cap on one of his healing tonics and was holding his leg at the right angle so that the bone knitted back together correctly.
When Emily was near, the man shot her a sour glare as he drew shallow pants.
“A little more warning next time would have been great. I could only cushion our wolf's landing slightly. If he were any other animal, he would be dead.”
Emily pressed her lips together with a frown.
“With what time? I only made it out alive because the bloody danger noodle doesn’t have opposable thumbs.”
Kneeling, Emily moved over to Mist to inspect his wounds. From the looks of it, she had indeed overshot the water's edge. She’d been trying to get them close but accidentally put too much power in.
Looking down the beast's length, she could see Mist was favoring his one side, and there was swelling around his hind legs and stomach.
“I’m sorry, but I only have one tonic left, and the dosage will not heal this beast,” Atticus said as he slowly got to his feet, gradually resting more weight on his leg as it healed.
“Nor should you, but it’ll make crossing these mountains almost impossible with an injured beast,” Emily said as she stared at the animal in pain.
She’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel guilty—Mist had been good to her, and leaving him behind felt wrong. But if they wanted to keep a reasonable pace, she’d have to push through and move on.
Emily was just scratching the back of her head, trying to come up with an answer, when she heard a familiar sound.
The thunderous beating of wings seemed to catch on the horizon, easily distinguishable in the open air.
Emily’s head snapped up to the sky as she searched the clouds, doing her best to squint through the drizzle. Near the upper peaks of the island they were on, she could just make out a figure descending towards the lake.
With wide eyes, a chill ran down her spine as a Wyrm approached, growing nearer by the second.
“Shit, help me drag Mist under the tree,” Emily grunted.
The tree that Emily was talking about was a little bigger than the one they had gotten from the waterfall, and it was also the only cover anywhere near them. The problem was that, even with two people working together, lifting or even dragging a wolf the size of a horse was no easy task.
Emily created some cords made from her blood, wrapped them around the front and back of the beast, and began to pull while Atticus moved under the wolf's chest and lifted. With the two of them working together, they slowly began dragging Mist towards the small piece of cover ahead of them.
Mist didn’t help in the slightest and only whined as they continued to drag him. Seconds later, Emily began to smell the sickly sweetness of rotting flesh with smoky overtones. The creature was nearing them, and who knew if it had spotted them yet? Grinding her teeth, Emily glanced over to the massive trunk and had the cords of blood shoot out towards the bark and lodge themselves there. Then, like a flexing muscle, she had the blood retract and tighten, dragging the wolf even faster toward the tree canopy.
The sound of the wings beating above was drawing nearer by the second, and Atticus groaned as the two of them suddenly plunged the rest of the way, falling in a heap in the shade.
The sounds of the Wyrm continued to get closer until its wings almost drowned out every thought in Emily’s head. She searched the parts of the sky she could see from under the branches.
Both of them did their best to remain quiet as the burning smell of meat became overpowering, and Mist whined again at it.
Emily lowered herself and got ready to fight when the sounds of flapping wings began to recede. They waited a couple of minutes, and then Emily stuck her head out in time to see the titanic lizard lapping up water near the lake's edge before taking to the air again.
Neither of them spoke, but Atticus stared at Mist with a frown.
“We can’t stay here for long. Our best bet would be to find a time to make our escape and get to the next island before nightfall.”
“And him?”
“It’ll be best to put him out of his misery.”
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Emily couldn’t help but agree with Atticus. It was the best choice to make right now, but it bothered her for some reason.
“Give me half an hour. I’d like to try and help him with my abilities. If I can’t, then I’ll deal with him.”
Atticus’s eyes watched as the Wyrm arced back towards the island's peak and then down at the Rime wolf.
“All right, but after that, we’re leaving. I’ll try and find us a secluded place to launch from,” he said as his eyes shifted to their environment.
Emily nodded and sat down cross-legged next to the wolf.
“Hey, boy, now you might not understand me, but I feel responsible for this, so I’m going to help you. But it’s up to you what you get from this.”
Emily’s plan was quite simple.
She intended to try and form another connection with Mist just as she had with Cupcake. The problem was that this type of connection had to be mutual.
It worked so well with the she-wolf because more than anything, she desired to get stronger and was willing to do anything for that goal. Their connection worked because they both had the same desires, but with Mist, Emily couldn’t tell what he wanted.
Either way, she needed to begin the connection, so she gathered power from her blood, pulled out two orbs of red, and merged them.
She lowered her hand in front of Mist’s snout and hummed.
“Come on, eat this for me, boy.”
Mist whined and sniffed at the baseball-sized glob of blood. He made a half-hearted lick at it but then stopped.
Emily pressed her lips together and rubbed the bottom of his jaw.
“Eat...”
The Rime wolf seemed content to remain there, so Emily lowered her shoulders.
“If you can’t cooperate, I’ll do you a favor and help you along.”
The orb of blood began to unravel into tiny tendrils that then forced their way beneath Mist’s lips.
The Rime wolf tried to shake his head at first, but then the blood began pouring down his gullet, and he involuntarily swallowed.
The longer Emily kept this up, the deeper the connection got until she could feel something from Mist. He wanted to stop the hurting, and to Emily’s surprise, he missed Alex.
Emily had only thought of the man a little in their safest hours, and she compared what the beast was feeling to her own feelings. As far as she could tell, her emotions were similar to the wolf’s.
This discovery alone made Emily hiss in shock. She had thought the only reason she was with this frustratingly secretive man was because she was bound to him. And in most cases, this was true, but something was different about Alex. It was hard to put her finger on but he was one of the few people she had met in both this life and the last that was comparable to herself. His skill and adaptability had impressed her, making it easy to place him at her level. If anything she missed him as a rival.
The contract had been itching something fierce since parting from Alexander, and the only reason it wasn’t worse was because it hadn’t been her intention to split from him. Her final saving grace was that she was actively working to find him again. The fact that it might not only be for the contract's sake had surprised her.
Emily frowned and pushed the unnecessary thoughts aside.
The link deepened, and when she was sure it was strong enough, she activated blood price. This time, their situation was less urgent, so Emily had time to feel the skill at work. Normally, the skill would require the permission of both the caster and the person she was casting it on, but not when her blood acted as the bridge.
She could feel the walls around her core drop and Mist stepping into her power.
If the beast knew how. he would be able to control her blood, but by extension, Emily felt the walls around Mist’s blood fall. Her eyes widened as she realized she could reach into a living creature, something she had never been able to do unless it was her own body. Realizing the uses of this, she latched onto the large dog's life force and poured a small amount of her own into his. If this were blood magic, they would call what Emily was doing life source offering. Emily was willingly using some of her stored vitality to revitalize the beast's body. Like this, she was able to heal Mist at incredible rates. The thing was that Emily would never use this on another human because they would all too quickly realize they had just as much control as she did. If Emily wanted, she could drain someone dry in an instant, but at the same time, they could do the same thing to her, and she would never willingly put herself in that kind of situation.
A couple of minutes passed, and Emily opened her eyes to see a healthy wolf sitting up with happy pants wafting onto her face. Closing off the connection and canceling the skill, Emily caught sight of a red streak running through Mist’s matted fur. It wasn’t as extensive as Cupcake’s, but it was noticeable, and it had only cost her about five lives' worth of blood.
Emily hopped onto Mist's healed back and patted him. He felt stronger and healthier than ever before and readily went searching for Atticus at her silent request. The man had moved along the shore to an area with more trees.
When they approached, his eyes widened at Mist, though he didn’t say much.
“I’ve found the perfect area, but we have a problem.”
Emily hummed to let him know to continue.
There’s a mass of trees up ahead, but there is also a small tribe of elves living on the section of the island. Now, their numbers are on the high side, but they’re manageable. The problem is, the moment we pass through the area, our fighting may alert the Wyrm.”
Emily was leaning to the side in the saddle with her arms crossed out in front of herself.
“Why are these little rats even here? I would have thought the Wyrms would have eaten everything on this island already.”
Atticus nodded and spoke.
“This is just my guess from experience, but I’ve seen them eat a couple of elves now and then before backing off. I’d say they’re not eating all of them on purpose.”
Emily stilled at the implication. If the Wyrms were purposeful in not eating all the elves, then it was almost like they were keeping livestock. The level of intelligence both disturbed and impressed Emily. That also gave Emily a good idea.
“Shit, well then we should use this to our advantage,” she said as she looked in the direction Atticus had pointed.
The man tilted his head at Emily as he tried to put the pieces together.
“What do you mean? The elves are taking up a quarter of the island. I can only see downsides.”
Emily grinned, flashing her pearly whites at the confused man.
“Well, if the Wyrms are farming elves as a source of meat, intentionally or not, then we have a card to play.”
Atticus shrugged his shoulders.
“Enlighten me.”
Emily’s shoulders drooped; she was really missing Alex’s analytical mind at this point.
“What does a farmer do when his livestock is threatened?”
Atticus’s spine straightened as he whispered his next words.
“He comes down to investigate.”
Blood points: 180