Hoeru had known about the giant wolf that stalked the forest. Everything in the forest had known of the tempermetal, elder hunter just as they knew of the eldest tree and its radiant peace. They knew to stay away from its territory. They knew it did not suffer visitors. And yet, Hoeru had once ignored their voices and went searching for it. Once. He could still remember the terror at the sight of its battle scarred maw, its teeth as long as his legs, and its cold, yellow eyes.

The creature that stood between them and the fort had those same eyes, those same teeth, but Hoeru couldn’t see its face. Except for its notched ears that stuck out from holes in the top of the mask, its old, hard earned scars were covered by a smooth bone-white mask.

Raw despair shook Hoeru to his core. Not despair for himself or for his friends. But for the wolf spirit. Mask had stolen it. Turned it. Corrupted it.

The creature would have torn him and his friends apart if it had ever seen them. It would have devoured them without a thought and would have relished their screams. It would have done these things because that was its nature.

It should not be here. It should be in its home. Standing here, well outside its territory, was nothing more than the animated corpse of that vengeful, beautiful creature, turned from what it was meant to be into something twisted to serve another. The wolf would have died before allowing that to happen. The wolf had died, and that mask was the proof.

“Hoeru? What do we do?” Keira asked from behind him. One part of him said run. The other part said fight. He guessed the least he could do was give them the choice. They were humans after all.

“I-” He started but the words wouldn’t come. His throat was dry and he had to try again. “I’m going to fight it.”

“You’re what?” Keira hissed.

“I have to. You need to get Raz to that fort. I’ll… I’ll distract it.”

“Are you insane?” He was surprised at the heat in her tone. There was anger mixed in with her incredulity and fear.

“Maybe. But it’s what I have to do. Do what you need to.” He didn’t intentionally say the words. They didn’t sound brave to him. He sounded terrified to his own ears. And he was shaking. But his trembling legs were carrying him forward an inch at a time.

The wolf spirit was still until he started moving. Its mouth fell open revealing huge white fangs shining with spittle. Its yellow eyes shone in the depths of the mask, eager and hungry.

“Miles, take Raz,” he heard Roland say.

“What?”

“Just take him and when you see your chance, run.”

A moment later Roland was standing beside him. Keira let out a noise that was caught between terror and frustration and stepped up beside them. Hoeru looked at them both, shock hitting him even through his fear.

“Why?” was all he could ask.

“This is something I can fight,” Roland said quietly. He wasn’t shaking like Hoeru, but Hoeru could smell the fear-sweat coming off him.

“I can’t die here. But I’m the reason you’re all here, so you’re not dying either,” Keira said, strain evident in her voice.

Hoeru felt his throat constrict. He wanted to thank them, but the words wouldn’t come. All he could do was nod and start taking steps forward.

“Guys? This cannot be our best plan!” Miles squeaked behind them. But there was no time for that. It was time to fight.

The wolf agreed. It raised its head and let out a howl. It was like the forest itself was howling, and maybe it was. Hoeru could feel its magic rippling like a sheet in the wind. At a distance, the sound had been terrifying. This close, it was a physical force that pressed Hoeru and the pair at his sides back on their heels.

Hoeru wished Raziel was awake. He’d fight beside them. And he’d smile while he did it, Hoeru felt sure. That was just how his human was. And that was what held Hoeru in place while the wind of the monster’s howl crashed over them.

He couldn’t smile himself, not here, but he could bare his teeth and let loose a howl of his own. Roland and Keira joined him. Miles just screamed.

The whole world seemed to explode into motion. The crouched wolf unfurled itself and crossed more than half the distance between them in a single bound. Hoeru hurled himself toward it, letting his instincts take complete control. He left Roland and Keira behind, trying to keep the wolf’s attention on himself. If any of them could avoid its jaws, it would be him. He just hoped there was something they could do while it was distracted.

Hoeru had never in his life moved so fast. His feet were sure and solid beneath him, and his every reaction was lightning fast. The wolf spirit was faster still. The only thing that saved him was the wolf’s sheer size.

It was swift, but Hoeru could dodge beneath it, force it to turn more sharply than it was built to in order to track him. And still there were only bare inches of empty space between its jaws and his flesh. That wasn’t enough though. He couldn’t just dodge or it would ignore him and go for Roland or Keira.

He danced back from its snapping jaws, drawing it out to the edge of its balance. The moment it started to draw back its head from the strike, Hoeru flung himself at it. He wanted to go for the eyes, and his attack did surprise the wolf, but it knocked him into the air with its snout, an impact like getting hit by a falling tree. It sent Hoeru spinning up into the air. As he twirled, he caught sight of it rising up on its haunches like a dog waiting for its master to drop a treat.

It’s going to eat me, Hoeru thought. Inwardly, he wondered if he’d be able to hurt it from the inside if he could avoid the teeth. Outwardly, he screamed and flailed.

Gravity reasserted its hold on him and the wolf’s jaws opened for him. A small dark form came hurtling from behind the wolf. It was Roland, Hoeru realized. Too little too late, but it was a nice gesture to try to save him.

Roland crashed into the wolf’s back leg just as it was coming up to snatch Hoeru. Roland should have bounced off. Instead, he shouldered the wolf spirit’s leg aside like a boulder crashing through an old shed. The wolf spirit let out a yelp and twisted in mid air, its teeth barely slipping past Hoeru. Both of them fell to the ground hard. Hoeru tried to hit the ground rolling but landed awkwardly. There was a pop and fire shot through his shoulder, across his back, and down to his fingertips.

At the same time, the wolf hit the ground with a sound like a furious landslide just a few feet away. Hoeru would only have a second or two before it was on its feet again. He grabbed at his shoulder. It didn’t feel broken. Dislocated then. That was an easy fix.

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Hoeru screamed as he slammed his shoulder into the ground again and felt the joint pop back into place. He’d have been worried about drawing the wolf’s attention with the noise, but its entire world had narrowed to Roland. There was a noise that Hoeru mistook for thunder until he realized the rumbling was coming from the wolf’s throat and chest. The wolf was up again, staring at Roland.

Roland, the idiot was staring right back at it, arms spread as if to say ‘come and get me’. Hoeru couldn’t let that happen. He crouched, tightening his whole body like a coiling spring and threw himself at the side of the wolf’s unprotected belly. Up close the wolf’s smell was overpowering, and as he grabbed onto handfuls fur to hold himself close, his nose was full of the smell of old death and blood.

Hoeru pulled himself close and tore into the wolf’s belly with his teeth. Hot blood gushed over his face and down his throat, and the wolf spirit let out a piercing shriek of a yelp. Hoeru pressed into the wound, biting and ripping with his teeth. A paw the size of a table smashed Hoeru to the ground as the wolf scratched him off like an annoying flea.

He rolled on the ground, trying to find his feet, but he’d hit the ground too hard and his body wasn’t listening. Roland screamed defiance, trying to draw the wolf to him, but the wolf casually batted him with a forepaw and sent him flying to smash into a tree before turning on Hoeru.

Hoeru rolled onto his back, his whole body clenching as he let out wracking coughs, trying to fill his lungs. Then one of the wolf’s paws fell on him and breathing just wasn’t an option anymore. The paw was as immovable as a mountain. Worse yet, he could tell it wasn’t the wolf’s full weight but that it was intentionally holding him in place without crushing him.

The only parts of his body that weren’t covered by the huge paw were his head and his left arm from just past his elbow. He clawed at the wolf’s paw desperately, tearing at handfuls of its thick matted fur, but the wolf didn’t seem to even notice. It was staring at him with its huge, yellow, bloodshot eyes. Hoeru tried to scream in agony and terror, but he couldn’t. All he could do was look into those terrible eyes.

When he’d seen the wolf before, its eyes had been full of malice. Not wickedness precisely. Just a simple, pure hatred for anything that would intrude on its territory, in its home. Now that hate was gone. The wolf’s eyes were utterly empty. It stared down at him and lowered its muzzle with no glee or joy at the prospect of killing an enemy. There was no more emotion in it than there would be in a knife falling towards his heart. That emptiness was worse than the teeth descending to take his head.

Bright pops of light like exploding fireflies suddenly appeared just a few feet away. In all the frantic action, Hoeru had lost track of Keira, but he could suddenly feel her presence like a bonfire’s heat. She hadn’t been idle while he and Roland fought the wolf. She’d been gathering magic. It had been background noise, but now that he’d sensed it, it was inescapable. Even the wolf paused to look up at the light.

Keira was surrounded by dozens of tiny orbs, each a unique shade of brilliant color. She was clasping her stomach with both arms, hunched over like she was freezing, trying to hold on to every bit of warmth she could. She looked up at Hoeru and her eyes were glowing with the light of all the magic she was struggling to contain.

“Hoeru, close your eyes,” she said through gritted teeth. The wolf spirit realized the threat she posed and snapped its jaws at her. It probably saved Hoeru’s life.

Keira exploded. There was an instant when Hoeru thought he heard her scream, but her voice was caught up and drowned by the thundercrack as all the energy she’d gathered was released at once. The next few moments were an overload of sensory perception. Light and sound, terrible heat, his body being flung up from the ground only to crash down again.

When he came to rest, all he could hear was ringing in his ears and all he could see was the afterimage of the flash burnt into his eyes. His body was a mass of bruised muscles and aching bones. But he could breathe, and he sucked in that first wonderful breath with glee.

Sound returned quickly, but all he could hear was Keira desperately sucking in air. As his sight returned, he found that he’d been flung at least a dozen feet away. Keira was bent over on her hands and knees, her chest heaving as she struggled to draw in air to fuel her overtaxed body. But the expression on her face was not exhaustion. Hoeru couldn’t place it until she finally was able to get enough of a breath to make a sound. She started laughing, the sound desperate and joyful.

“I did it,” Hoeru heard her whisper, too low for any human to hear.

Hoeru pulled his body into a sitting position. The motion was excruciating, but he could already feel his bruised body knitting itself back together. Once he was up, his eyes found the wolf. It was on its side, perfectly still, part of its huge mask scorched black and a webwork of tiny cracks showing where it was still white. He had one wonderful moment to think that it was finished, that Keira had beaten the creature.

Then it twitched, and he knew it was just stunned. Hoeru drove himself to his feet, whipping his head around wildly, trying to find Miles and Raziel. Miles was dragging Raziel up the hill toward the fort. The wolf was stirring, and Hoeru knew this was their only chance at escape.

He had no idea where Roland was, but Keira needed help. She’d stood beside him. He couldn’t leave her behind. He staggered over to her. She’d seen the wolf’s movements too, and it had wiped the glee from her face instantly. He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet. He all but dragged her up the hill while they both gasped for breath. He didn’t know where Roland was. There wasn’t time to look for him. He had to get these three into the fort. Then he could come back. He’d have to come back.

Miles, to his credit, didn’t leave Raziel behind. But he was no faster with his load than Hoeru and Keira were, and it wasn’t fast enough. Hoeru could hear the wolf lumbering to its feet, feel its attention on his back. Miles heard it too. He looked back, and because he wasn’t looking where he was going, he took a bad step and fell. And Hoeru felt the wolf’s growl rumbling through his body.

Time was up. There was only one thing left to do. He had to buy them all time to escape. He turned around to face the wolf. It was still unsteady on its feet, wavering a little from side to side as it came up the hill towards them. But every step was more sure than the last while Hoeru felt like he was going to collapse at any moment.

Hoeru gritted his teeth and steeled himself. His knees stopped shaking. His hands curled themselves into fists. He knew he was going to die. But his life was going to buy the lives of his friends. That was enough for him. He stepped forward to meet Death.And a hand fell on his shoulder, holding him in place.

Raziel looked terrible, his cheeks sunken, his skin pale and clammy, and looked like he was barely holding his eyes open. But he was smiling.

Hoeru knew he had to act but he couldn’t move. There was something in the air around Raziel, something happening to the magic around him, in him. It was nothing like what Keira had done. He wasn’t gathering in magic. And yet, the air was tight, almost humming like a plucked guitar string. He raised a hand and said a single word.

“Stop.”

Raziel’s voice was barely above a whisper, rasping through a dry throat. But he said it with perfect conviction, and Hoeru felt his own breath catch in his lungs as his body obeyed the command.

The wolf halted in mid stride.

Raziel was barely standing, his arm drunkenly wavering in the air, but the wolf stopped in place like a well-trained hound. Seconds dragged by, Raziel getting more unsteady with each moment. The wolf began to tremble as it slowly forced its paw back to the ground.

“No,” Raziel said, holding himself steady for a bare instant. The wolf’s paw jerked back up, and it was still again. Hoeru could see Raziel’s whole body trembling just with the effort of staying upright. He wanted to help his friend, to hold him up if nothing else, but his body simply would not move. Raziel held on like that for maybe thirty seconds all told. Then his knees gave out, and he slipped to the ground. But he kept one hand raised.

“Just a bit more,” Hoeru heard him say, but the wolf was moving again, not so much straining against whatever Raziel was doing but rather moving slowly as if time passed differently for it than for them.

“And… there,” Raziel slurred before slumping to the ground. The wolf stopped, shook its head as if to clear it, and then bared its fangs again though its eyes were still as dead as ever.

It shifted its weight to charge, and Hoeru did the same. Whatever Raziel had done, it didn’t change anything. Just bought them a few wasted moments.

And then a tiny form in a brown hooded cloak sailed over them and landed between the wolf and them. It pulled the hood back, revealing a head with blades of grass in place of hair.

“Kusa!” it said, its voice small and childlike, yet ringing with authority nevertheless. The wolf stopped again. This time it turned its head, like any dog hearing a strange noise. It growled and then turned and stalked down the hill.

Roland came crashing out of the trees, a nasty cut on his head and his shirt torn but looking otherwise unharmed.

“What happened?” He asked. Hoeru looked from Kusa to Raziel to the disappearing form of the wolf.

“I have no idea.”