I looked at the night sky, past the trees and the leaves and wondered whether this was better or worse than the camps. It felt sickening to even make that comparison, to think that captivity was better than freedom. Yet here we were, constantly running in fear of whatever may come our way and not knowing whether breaking a tree branch could cause the forest to increase its ire.

Is Elm in the same situation as us?

It was a thought I didn’t relish. He was a better mage than any of the people in this group, but he didn’t have the same information that we did. Elm and his group only had a chance of surviving on the roads. In a weird way, we might have been the lucky ones. Although it was hard to call being trapped in a murder forest lucky.

I felt another presence move to my side and lay down next to me.

“Anything interesting in the sky?” Sera said with a soft voice, hoping not to wake anyone.

“Couldn’t sleep. We’re going to need to hunt soon, and I can’t imagine that things are going to be as easy as ketroch hunting.” I lifted up my left hand, and saw the raw flesh on my middle finger. The hunting two days ago had gone well, but one of the ketrochs had gotten close enough to slam into my hand. Its mace-like tail nearly shattered the bone in my finger, and it was only thanks to Silva that it didn’t get in another hit or claw at my face. “Depends on what you call easy, I guess. Even the prey in the forest are dangerous.”

Sera lifted up her right hand and placed it next to mine. Her hand was slightly smaller than mine, but both were covered in calluses from the mines.

“Did you notice, the trees didn’t lose their leaves?” She pointed to the closest tree branch, and I could still see its green leaves swaying in the winter wind. “I don’t remember it being like that back in Marlisle.”

I shook my head, my palm still facing skyward.

“It was always like that. I never saw a brown leaf until we were captured.”

Sera let out a soft, but wistful laugh. “That’s got to be the first time you remembered something I didn’t.”

“Yeah… and it was about leaves.”

Off in the distance, I could hear Silva and Alex reminiscing. They too seemed to be trying to escape to the past to avoid the dread.

“Is there anything I can do to make things better?” I said, giving her the question that had been keeping me up. “Because it feels like everything is worse than when I started out trying to rebel.”

Sera let out a long, patient sigh as she let her own hand rest back on the dirt.

“Think of a plan on how we can raid the camp. Don’t die. Keep us alive.” Although I couldn’t see her in the dark, I could feel that she was smiling. “It’s pretty simple, honestly. You might need to work a bit more with the Nacilians.”

“Is that even possible at this point? Silva openly attempted to remove me from my role, and Alex stood by and assisted her in it. If it wasn’t for Mell, we could have been in real danger.”

“Silva isn’t your concern. It’s Alex’s. At the very least, I think he wants to make amends.”

I took a deep breath, feeling the icy air sting my lungs as another gust came through as I began to sit up.

“Maybe you’re righ-”

Eyes.

In the forest in front of me, two inhuman scarlet eyes stared at me. Just seeing them sent a shiver down my spine. I placed my hand forward and let out as much light as possible on that singular spot. In the forest, an outline of darkness formed and took shape. Although I’d never seen them in my life, the description of it screamed in my mind.

It was a canine, with fur as dark as the night and eyes as red as blood. They were one of the few creatures who would hunt outside of the forest boundaries, and were the second reason that you weren’t supposed to leave home at night. Never alone, it would hide in the dark and watch until the perfect moment came for it and its pack to consume their prey.

“Shade wolves.”

I quickly bolted up to my feet and kept my light focused on the wolf. Sera followed after me, and I could hear crackling coming from her hands as she prepared to fight. Silva and Alex had noticed my sudden shift and had already prepared themselves for a fight, hands filled with fire or ice.

“Wake up the others and keep them safe.” I ordered them with a stern look. “Sera and I can hold our own.”

I put up my other hand and searched the other areas to find another wolf on my right staring me down. A low growl echoed from its throat as it bared its fangs, and it seemed to back up slightly further into the darkness.

Does it not like the light?

I focused a bit more on the wolf on my right, and its growl grew deeper and more guttural. Shade Wolves were night hunters, which meant that their eyes might be more sensitive to brighter lights. I didn’t have my burner, but I did have a tool which I knew would make it hard for them.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Sera moved to my side, lightning still dancing across her fingers while her eyes were trained on the other Shade Wolf.

“I blind, and you shock.” I said with a false grin, hoping to hide my panic. Just like the cassoban, shade wolves were another creature we were taught to fear from childhood. Even though I couldn’t see her face, I could feel her nod.

I watched the red eyes glare at me in the distance, and peered to my side to check on the other. Something about this felt wrong, even more wrong than it already did.

Why are they waiting? It’s not like we’re going to go anywhere. Unless…

Our blindspot. They’d been waiting to get into position.

I pivoted my legs and hands to face behind me and shined a light upon another wolf which had just burst from the tree line and was headed directly at me.

“Sera, behind!” I yelled, and her attention also turned.

She turned as the wolf grew close and let out a blast. The wolf tensed at the lightning and collapsed mid run onto the dirt. That moment of hesitation was enough for the others to move in, and Sera couldn’t cover me as one bolted directly at me. I raised up my palm and shone the light into its eyes, hoping to disturb it. I dodged to my left as it ran forward, feeling its fur brush against my side. It quickly turned and prepared itself for another run.

Shit. What can I even do?

I could hear the other wolf preparing to go after Sera, and knew that she couldn’t defend the both of us at the same time. It began to weave, dodging from side to side as it came closer to her. The wolf attacking me did the same, avoiding every attempt I made to blind it. As it made one final lunge at me, I shifted my upper body to the right and hoped it wouldn’t hit anything vital. A raised paw extended out and slashed at my left thigh as it made another pass, carving out the flesh. Although I only saw its face for a second, it almost looked like it was smiling.

I’m so fucking useless without magore…

“North, I’m coming!” I heard Wanderer shout from a distance, his sword in hand. It was already red with blood, suggesting he’d already taken down some of the wolves. The one that was on the ground after Sera had shocked it squirmed as it regained control of its body, and extended out its legs to claw at Wanderer’s leg. He flinched and stumbled to the ground as the wolf made its way up.

“Focus on yourself!” I shouted back at him. I didn’t know what I was stalling for with the wolf, only that I needed more time.

The wolf made another run at me. I wanted to blast it full on, but going all out would probably blind my comrades as well. I kept focusing the light on it even as it drew nearer. This time, it refused to flinch. I tried jumping back to dodge it, but it overwhelmed me and tackled me to the ground. It dove forward to bite at my neck, but I raised my hands to hold back its maw from tearing into my throat. I pushed against it with my life. I could hear Sera and Wanderer calling out my names as the beast growled in my face and clawed at my arms. Its neck was too thick to strangle even as I focused all of my might.

I was defenseless, and all I could do was wait for one of them to save me.

No. I have power.

I could feel more and more of my flesh being torn away as its claws dug into my forearms, its hind legs digging into my ankles. It snarled, saliva dripping down my face. Even with all the pain, even with all of the damage I was taking, letting go meant death.

It went again to try and push against my grip and tear more of my skin off, but I could see it slowing. It went from hunger, to rage, and then to fear. The movements slowed as it began to scream in pain, probably because it felt like its insides were melting. All I did was hold on and make sure I was channeling as much of my mana into its body.

In a sense, I was doing exactly what magore did to the bodies of those without attunements. I was giving the wolf mana poisoning, and it very much didn’t like that.

Instead of it overpowering me, I pushed back against its body and began to over turn it, twisting and thrusting it onto the ground as I flooded its systems with mana. As its movements slowed and its limbs stopped spasming, I saw Wanderer’s blade plunge from above and directly into the wolf’s head, killing it.

My attention switched as I heard Sera screamed. I stopped channeling mana out of my palms and focused a light in her direction.

Instead of screaming out of pain or fear, she’d been screaming out of rage. Not just her palms, but her entire body crackled with electricity. Even her hair, which was normally just a dark brown, appeared to have blackened tips. At her feet lay a wolf with its dark black fur now singed and smoking.

“North, can you stand?” Wanderer said between gasps for air. He extended a hand down to me, which I took. I wobbled as I made my way to my feet.

“Apparently. Thanks for the save…” My words trailed off as I looked back at the dead wolf laying near my feet. Something about it stirred my gut in a way that was familiar. Just for a second, it looked as though some blue light flickered between the fur.

“You need to be bandaged. You might heal, but blood loss is blood loss.” He spoke in an oddly calm tone for the situation.

“Are Mell and Ruby safe?” I was still searching around for more shade wolves, but it appeared that the others were focused on Alex and Silva.

“They’re fine. You need to worry about yourself right now.”

I felt pretty alive at that moment thanks to the adrenaline running through my system. I took deep breath after deep breath, and could feel my system slowly return to normal and my heart beat return to a steady pace.

I looked off in the distance and heard a disgusting crunching noise. I lifted up my palm to light in the direction and found Mell making his way towards me, his arms and chest covered in blood.

“The wolves have been dealt with, sir. Sorry I couldn’t come to your aid.”

Even drenched in blood, he’s being polite.

Silva and Alex made their way after him, looking completely out of breath. Alex had a large gash on his left arm which he was covering with his hand, and Silva was limping.

“Where’s Ruby?” I inquired, searching around with the light.

“Sleeping.” Mell said, somewhat dejected. “She slept through the thing no matter how hard we tried to wake her. She’s unhurt though.”

Good. We can’t lose our cartographer.

“Well, glad we’re all alive. Gather up the bodies and take what we can, because we move at sunrise.” I took a step away from Wanderer and pointed in what I thought was probably south. “Onward, we go.”

I could only smile as I felt the blood loss and exhaustion catch up with me, and I plummeted directly onto the ground.