With an enormous effort, Shadow bent back and almost dodged the sharp blade. It didn’t slice her head off, nor did it cut through her face. It merely scratched her cheek. That was a lucky night for Shadow, indeed. Did she ever fight a moon wolf before? Of course not. Strictly speaking, she never was in a fight for real at all. The encounter at Phoenix peak couldn't count for that, as she didn't have a chance to wield a sword that night. Even sparring with her teacher in a Silver Sliver school couldn’t. However real it seemed, the sword dance with master Old Bark was no comparison to what Shadow was about to experience.

Night wolves were unlike other magical creatures. Some argued they possessed intelligence equal to humans. They were tricky and clever in fighting, and while the animals were primarily concerned with their survival, moon wolves hunted not only for food but also for enjoyment.

Shadow was swirling in a deadly waltz with death with her sudden enemy. The wolf was trying hard to get her. Yet she could escape again and again—she was good at sword dancing after all, or, at least, good at dodging as it turned out to be.

Agile, with a body woven of a black mist, the wolf seemed to be here and there and nowhere simultaneously. Its sharp claws were trying to cut through Shadow’s throat, swooshing right in front of her face. Evading them in the last moment, Shadow tried in her turn to reach the creature again and again, but with no success. Fire Storm once told her: “If you have to fight a moon wolf in the dark, strike not where it is, but where it’s going to be.” That advice never made much sense to her. If she could hardly see where the beast was now, how could she predict where it would be a moment later? She didn’t even have time to think about such matters. Using trees around her as a defense, Shadow retreated towards the house with each step. She hoped that someone would hear the sounds of the fight and come to her help until it was too late. Maybe, Hawk was not asleep yet. Was Shadow able to defeat a creature without even a light at her hand? Unlikely. Besides, moon wolves never hunted alone, and thus a retreat was the only feasible option she saw. The perspective of getting herself surrounded by multiple deadly enemies at once looked dire.

“Help!” she yelled in despair.

The burst of darkness came from her left, and she jumped in the opposite direction, then made a long thrusting strike trying to hit the enemy and again retreated a few steps towards the house. Having its wall behind her back made Shadow a little more confident. The wolf, on the other hand, became more angry and persistent. It swirled around her like a small black hurricane, turning the night into a dark blizzard.

In a few moments, Shadow realized that the wall not only protected her back but also hindered evasive maneuvers. She found herself almost pinned to it by the dark shard-like claws swirling around her. Trying to strike back, she only got a few more cuts on her arms before the door upstairs burst open, and she heard a familiar voice calling her by her new name:

“Arrow?!”

Hawk jumped down without hesitation, and the black cloud instantly sprung back. As if Shadow was going to let it escape! It could be just a trick of a wolf trying to lure her out, yet Shadow rushed after the creature without hesitation. Not bothering to protect herself anymore, she stroked through a black mist with a broad slashing strike and scored a hit! The sharp tip of the sword went through the invisible flesh of the enemy with a light yet noticeable effort. The creature whimpered in pain, and the black cloud quickly shrunk into a big wolf-like shape. Shadow rushed after it when the wolf hurried away, leaning low to the grass. The creature passed the small garden in a few large jumps and disappeared on a pathway leading down to the river bank.

“Arrow! Wait!”

Hawk caught her by her hand when she was ready to follow the creature.

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“Don’t get yourself into a trap. There might be more of them!”

He raised his sword, casting glances around, but the darkness around gave up no suspicious sounds, and only dogs were howling in a yard nearby.

“Did you see it?!” Shadow gasped from exertion. She was breathing heavily.

“Of course I did!”

“It was a moon wolf! Sacred ancestors, a moon wolf, right in the middle of the village! We need to warn everyone…”

When they returned to the room, Fang and Start were also awake. They’d fired up the hearth and lit an oil lamp and a few candles. Star helped Shadow to treat her wounds. Fortunately, she got off lightly for such an encounter. Even the cut on her cheek was shallow and soon stopped bleeding. By the time Star treated it with hemtree paste, Hawk had already warned their host about the threat, and soon they saw a few young men with torches and dogs searching through the bank of the river.

Shadow grabbed the lantern and joined them despite others suggesting she’d rest. The warm light was the best protection against the moon wolves. Even a gleam of an oil lamp was enough to turn the black mist composing the wolf’s body into a solid and fragile substance that could be easily broken with a simple stick. Of course, opposing a pack of moon creatures with nothing but a sword and a flickering lantern in your hands would be too arrogant, but that was not the case now. Encouraged by other people searching around and Hawk, who joined her with a torch, Shadow rushed into the darkness of the night, looking for traces of the wounded animal.

“Stupid highlanders,” Hawk swore while following her. “They are idiots, at least. Could you imagine they didn't believe me at first? I mean, what the heck, it’s a moon wolf! No jokes. And that tavern owner is the worst of the lot. He wouldn’t believe it even if the moon wolf bit off his arse!”

I could understand them, though, Shadow thought. I wouldn’t believe it if someone told me that a moon wolf could appear out of thin air in the middle of the village. And the creature hunted alone as it seems… what is it doing here? Looked for incidental prey?

Shadow didn’t tell about her thoughts to Hawk. Soon her fervor started to wear out. They walked at least three hundred feet downstream, passing the end of the village when she finally stopped at a rocky spot. The villagers fell behind some time ago. There was no other way for the creature to escape but by further following the river. Unless it climbed uphill, which was unlikely, considering that Shadow got it well—she was sure about that. It was unlikely for the wolf to try to sneak into another house or hide in a garden: the dogs, barking behind, were the best guarantee against that. However, time was obviously lost, and the creature must already have been far.

“I'm almost sure the wound was deep,” Shadow said through her teeth.

“We search for it in the morning. Let’s return now,” said Hawk.

He was right. The pursuit was pointless. Even wounded, the creature could run long before falling.

It was when Hawk rose high his half-burned torch that Shadow noticed a dark silhouette lying on the bank of the river just a little further away.

“Wait!” she exclaimed. “It’s over there!”

Cautiously they approached the motionless figure just to realize that they were wrong. It wasn’t the one they were searching for. While being able to become a misty cloud during his hunt, in his usual form, the moon wolf resembled an animal from whom it received its name. It looked like a big silver-fur dog and nothing more. But a figure Shadow and Hawk saw uphill was not a dog but unmistakably a human.

But why is he here? Shadow thought, stepping closer and lowering her sword. Is it one of the villagers? But they were behind.

Hawk kneeled to the stranger lying on the ground and slowly turned him face-up. It turned out to be not a man, but a woman, that very widow who pleaded for Shadow’s help this morning.

Why? Shadow thought, speechless.

“She is wounded,” spoke Hawk while carefully raising the woman’s head. “Her clothes are wet… it seems to be blood. But… she is still breathing.”

Shadow sat down beside him, still unable to understand what was happening there.

“I will carry her to the house. Could you hold the torch?” asked Hawk.

“Sure…”

As the warm light touched her face, the woman awoke. She opened her eyes, blinked a few times, and then, realizing whom she saw, grasped Shadow. And again, her hold was quite firm, especially counting that she was unconscious a moment ago.

“Gashga… turma gashga…” she said with a voice much weaker than her hands. “Search old gashga… look there…”

“The mines? Search the mines?” repeated Shadow, trying to understand the rest.

“Carefully, please,” Hawk tried to calm the woman down. “You are wounded. Please, lay still!”

The widow breathed in hard and passed out again.