Aranea felt stormy winds smashing her body. She opened her eyes and found herself in the paw of a great beast, the amber eyes of the creature seemingly piercing her very soul. They were standing on the cliffs, below them was a sea of pure darkness. Howling winds slammed into her, ripping chunks of stone from the cliffs with each blow. The wolf hag's head throbbed with pain, making it difficult for her to concentrate and remember...

"Stop resisting." The beast spoke, and Aranea remembered the name. Ravager. This creature before her was the ancestor of the entire Wolf Tribe, "Drop the pretense, already. Let go of your restraints, accept me, accept rage and fury. Become who you were always meant to be."

"How… How are you here?" Aranea whispered, looking around. "Where are we?"

"This is your head, stupid." The hold on Aranea's body increased, pushing the life out of her. "I am but her fragment, locked in you. Ravager, yet no Ravager. Alive, yet not alive. This form that you see before you right now is merely a part of you, a part that you..." The hold tightened, causing Aranea to scream in agony, "... dares to lock away," The amber eyes flashed with anger and hatred, "All these years! We stumble and walk around doing fuck all, denied our revenge and our heritage, all because you are too scared to accept who you really are!" The enormous jaws almost closed on Aranea's face, drool from the snout was falling on Aranea’s face, "I hate you for being weak. I hate myself for being weak. Let me go already, let me rip and tear." Madness was in her amber eyes, and yet the voice that uttered the next words was pleading, "Let’s follow after the mother. Let’s embrace our curse. Aren’t you tired as well? No matter how much you try, you are simply too weak without me, and with me, you will become a monster. Face it, none of your dreams will become reality. Don't you miss our parents too? The life that was lost won’t come back no matter what. Abandon sanity, and let’s climb to the top of the pile made of bodies! Let us set this world alight for what has been done to us! Once everything is over, we will be reunited with them!"

"I miss them." Aranea responded, looking into amber eyes. "It’s true, I too hate myself, and I hate you as well." Ravager smiled, eager for permission, her hold on Aranea’s body released slightly. "Yet I deny you. I won’t. I will not follow in my mother's footsteps. Selfish as this may be, I have a dream. The dream for which I am willing to die. One day, I will change the Tribe. Only after that will I end Tilden. One day I will find and put an end to the suffering of my mother."

"Fool." Ravager responded, releasing her. Aranea’s body began to fall into the dark waters below, and she felt the coldness of absolute darkness…

… and then warmth as she woke in the bed. She looked around and felt terror. This room. This window. These toys. This was…

"Come on down when you're ready," A gentle and caring voice from downstairs said, "We need to talk while we still have time, Aranea."

She stood up and looked at her body. It was impossible. She had no scars, and her hands and legs were tiny in comparison. She was young again. A cub.

Aranea licked her lips in fear as she came downstairs. The place was surrounded by warm light, and yet something felt odd. The place looked distorted, some things were much bigger than she remembered them. The ceiling seemingly stretched all the way to the skies. Aranea walked to the dinner room and saw two enormous-looking wolfkins. One was standing by the window. Another was cooking something nearby. One wolfkin was unmistakably male, an enormous bow was behind his back, and a few long arrows lay at his feet. The second wolfkin was clearly female, sharing the same god-like physique as the first wolfkin, she had a two-handed claymore in a sheath at her back. Both had white fur. They both turned and looked at her with crimson eyes. Both had features that were strikingly similar.

The amber eyes appeared behind the darkness of the window, and Aranea stepped back in fear. The enormous beast was out there, waiting in the dark.

"Do not worry.," The male wolfkin said, "She never comes in here."

"Although we asked her to come." The female wolfkin added, placing a nice-smelling cake on the dinner table. "It’s warm and nice in here. There are no reasons for her to be stuck all alone in this cold and stormy weather outside."

"You… you too are in my head, right?" Aranea inquired, "This place, this whole thing, is it just some weird dream?"

"Bingo," The woman smiled, "You remember the nice days so rarely… It’s weird. You love your parents so much, yet you shut away all good memories of them. You should return to this place more often."

"What, are you going to ask me to release my power as well?" Aranea laughed, her voice pained.

The woman beckoned Aranea to sit and eat with her finger. The wolf hag stubbornly refused the offer.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Nope," The male casually said, "You don’t want us, that’s fair enough. You have some noble goals, changing the tribe, saving your mom…"

"And yet you hate yourself," The woman lowered herself on her knees before Aranea. Even right now, the wolfkin towered over wolf hag, "You can’t make positive change while feeling such hatred for yourself. You have to let it go. Remembering the past does not have to be painful..."

"Beat it!" angrily screamed Aranea. "Forgiving myself? How can I? Because of me, my father is dead! Because of me, my mother is a monster!"

"Others hurt your family, not you." The male wolfkin pointed out the obvious, "You can’t shoulder all the blame alone."

"Yes, I can and I will! My mother told me to stay home! My father told me to listen to mom!" She breathed angrily, looking at her paw, "Whose fault is this that I broke their instructions but my own?" She felt herself choking, "I have the duty before my pack! They accepted me as a friend, but the moment I relinquished some power, I injured my friend! I have a duty to protect my pack, yet they were hurt because I was a bad leader!" She unleashed her claws. They looked so small on her fingers, "Get… get away from me. I don’t need rage, I don’t need to forgive myself, I don’t need memories of the good days because I don’t deserve any of this! I only need to save my pack, fulfill my duties, and to make my dreams into reality so others can finally be happy! " She shouted at two wolfkins.

"Dear, how can you make others happy if you reject happiness for yourself? You want to see others happy, but what about you?" The female wolfkin asked, with sympathy in her voice.

"Let me out of here! I still have so much to do! I don’t have time for… for this!"

"Go then," The male spoke calmly, putting his hand on her forehead, "When the time comes for you to understand and accept yourself, call us," The Twins smiled and said the words in unison, "Everything will be alright in the end. If something is not right, then it isn’t the end, Aranea."

****

She breathed hard, waking up in a dark room. The first thing she noticed was that her armor was gone, and her hands were tied with metal handcuffs. Aranea tried to break them and understood that she was simply not strong enough. She looked around and saw a bland stone room around her. The walls were made of red stone, the floor was cold. A simple metal door blocked the exit.

"Wolf hag… Aranea, you've finally woken up?" Said someone in a strained voice to her left.

She turned her head and saw Yuki. The scout sat near a wall, her body covered in half-healed cuts and bruises, and the same metal handcuffs were on her hands. Sly was lying near her, the scout kept his head on her knees, scratching behind his ear gently. A large bruise was on the right side of Sly’s head.

"Yuki," Aranea said, standing up. "How are you?"

"Feel like shit, to be honest," The scout grinned and nodded at the door, "They...Came for Kostya, Kate, and Kaleb. We tried to resist and…" She looked at the unconscious Sly, "…I failed to keep him safe once more. Stupid idiot." She patted his head, "What will happen to him when I am gone? Aranea, make sure that he will always eat properly at least."

"Nobody will be gone," The wolf hag responded, trying to sound certain, "I will make sure that you all will…"

"Aranea," Yuki stopped her, "I heard screams. Trust me, I know what they mean and who was screaming," She looked up. "None of us are getting out of here. The merciful thing to do will be to kill each other right now," She looked down at Sly, "And yet I can’t, just can’t do it to him. What a useless piece of garbage I am."

"Like abyss you are, and like abyss we die in here. Yuki, I swear to you, you will see the light of the outside yet." Aranea looked at the walls, clenching her fists. Maybe she can break the walls…

"Don’t try it," Yuki noticed this and lifted her hands, showing that her left paw was smashed, with white bones visible. Drips of blood were still falling from her paw, "When screams came in, I slammed and slammed into walls… Not a scratch. Save your strength. We're going to need it."

Aranea looked for something, anything, that could help her get out of this place. The walls were smooth, made of simple red stone, yet tough enough that not even her claws could make a dent in them.

With a soft hissing sound, the door slid open, revealing a tall man in rich clothing. The red cloak was casually slung over his shoulder. At a glance, he was in his forties, bald, and had a long yellow moustache that he kept neatly trimmed. The man had no brows, his green eyes looked at Aranea in anticipation.

"Awaken, wolf girl?" The man asked in a casual voice, and the wolf hag recognized him as Yasen Wolansky, the bastard who nearly killed them before.

"Where is the rest of my pack?" Aranea demanded to know.

"Hm. Where indeed," Yasen said, stretching out his words, "Come with me, I’ll show you. Nope, just you," He quickly added, noticing Yuki’s attempt to stand up, "You move, girl, and I will flatten you. The lady has a bone to pick with this wolf girl, you wait for your turn."

Yasen waited until Aranea left the cell before snapping his fingers and closing the door behind them. He casually walked forward, seemingly unbothered if Aranea would follow him. Looking around, the wolf hag noticed rows of cells on the first and second floors of the corridor. These were simple cells, only iron bars kept people inside them. Most were empty, but at least twelve people were still in cages. Everywhere Aranea looked, she saw people without limbs or pieces of skin, some still bleeding pus and blood. One woman pressed against the bars and begged the wolf hag to kill her, before they came back again. Half of the skin on the head of the woman was missing, revealing gleaming meat underneath. A pool of blood was gathering under her legs. The wolf hag released her claws.

"If you touch our prisoners, the lives of your pack are forfeit for sure," Yasen said, without turning, half yawning, "This one right here was sentenced to death by bleeding out, because she held back her screams when the lady tried to get to know her better. She was so stern back then. Look at her now—just a few hours in my lady's tender care—such a lovely bird, eh? All break down in the end. Had she given up what my lady wanted from the start, her horror would be over by now."