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“So, you’re trying to tell me that it’s my destiny to save the Twilight Pack from Harloc?”
“Technically yes,” the black she-wolf, whose name was Strawberry, answered. “That is the reason we’re helping you. We also know that the druids have been prophesying you for a while now.”
“What do you know about the druids?” Sascha flattened her ears. What kind of wolves were these?
They seemed to know many things.
“We receive dreams just like the druids do,” Orion, the orange and white wolf, replied. “Anyway, enough talk. For this prophecy to fulfill itself, we must rescue Akemi from Harloc.”
“Alright,” Sascha flattened one of her ears. “Explain to me something. If you think Akemi is an important wolf of prophecy, then why do you have to ask your alpha’s permission? Doesn’t he want you to rescue her?”
Orion had earlier mentioned that they had to ask their alpha’s permission.
“To be honest with you, Akemi was a former Twilight Pack omega,” Strawberry answered. “Thor was forced to exile her under the impression that she had killed the pack’s beta; murder being one of the most horrid actions. We see it as an abomination. But we have proof that she did not.”
Sascha tilted her head. “So then if Thor thinks she did kill your pack’s beta, then why would he want to help her escape Harloc?”
“We use the proof we have, and hope Thor believes us and gives us reinforcements to fight against Harloc.”
“Well, then,” Sascha shot up to all four paws, claws digging into the cave floor excitedly. “Let’s hurry!” The white she-wolf pelted through the lichen entrance and into the pack’s clearing. Strawberry and Orion followed Sascha, coming to stand beside her.
The pack was distracted from their daily duties by Sascha’s sudden appearance. They shot her cold and suspicious glares, their tails waving to and fro with tension. One wolf, a very unusual looking gray wolf with green stripes and red eyes, stalked toward her with a menacing snarl on her lips.
“Ignore Okina, she just wants to protect her pack,” Orion touched Sascha’s shoulder with the tip of his tail, and then waved it toward a huge cave on the other side of the camp.
It had a long, lush lichen curtain hanging over the entrance. The rock cave went up like a mountain, but it was obvious that it sloped downward on the other side.
“That’s where Thor makes his den,” he went on and beckoned for Sascha and Strawberry to follow.
The three wolves stood in front of the den entrance. “Well, this is it,” Strawberry announced.
“I can smell you, Orion and Strawberry,” the voice said. The white she-wolf presumed it was Thor, the Twilight Pack alpha. She was eager to speak with him, wondering if he’d be generous enough to spare a few of his warriors to fight Harloc, the Dragon Lord of Doragontaigun. “Come in, I can tell you need to tell me something.”
“Good luck,” Sascha said, and watched the two wolves go in. She followed them, pushing through the damp lichen. Shaking the pale green lichen from her face she looked up and saw the Twilight Pack alpha.
What she saw certainly impressed her; the rest of the pack seemed to be lean and skinny with unbelievable strength and skills, but Thor was a gigantic male. He was muscular and fierce looking, with a large patch of his fur, probably about eleven inches of it, bitten and clawed off. His fur was almost spiky, as if frozen in place with ice.
Thor’s pelt was a handsome shade of dark butterscotch brown with three darker stripes on his back, pale underfur, and blue eyes. His welcoming glare shifted from Orion and Strawberry to Sascha, his stare then becoming stony.
“Who is this?” He asked with a low growl.
“This is Sascha, sir,” Strawberry answered the strong alpha. The white wolf sincerely hoped he wouldn’t engage in a fight with her for whatever reason. She hardly doubted she’d live, never mind win. “She would like to speak with you.”
Wait, I have to ask him for help? She wondered with disbelief. Forcing hesitation to leave her, Sascha stepped forward to face him directly. She kept a firm glare with the powerful alpha.
“I wish to ask you, Thor, for reinforcements,” she began.
He pulled away from her gaze and let out a loud snarl.
She expected him to say something and waited for a moment, but he never did. Therefore, she went on, “I wish to ask you for reinforcements… to fight against Harloc of the Doragontaigun Horde. A friend of mine, Akemi, has been taken prisoner by the dragon lord.”
“Did you just say Akemi?” Thor yelled, his fur bristling with fury. “You must be one of her little minions! I always knew she’d betray us to Harloc. I would never risk my warriors over a disgusting traitor like her.”
Sascha growled with anger at the way Thor so openly insulted her friend. Who the hell did he think he was?
“I’ll handle this, Sascha,” Orion stepped forward to face his alpha. “It’s the truth, sir. We were there to fight one of Harloc’s underlings, and it was indeed Akemi the dragon was carrying.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe it was Akemi,” Thor gave a sharp growl at the warrior. “I just refuse to help her. And I refuse to believe you have any real proof that Akemi didn’t kill Python.”
Orion sighed and then shot Strawberry a worried look. The orange striped male looked back at the pack alpha once the black she-wolf dipped her head with the same emotion of worry. “You’re right, sir,” he began with his ears flattened and head down. “We do not have the proof, but we do have a better solution.”
Sascha pricked her ears; so they hadn’t had the proof the whole time? This attempt was just going nowhere, especially with a Pack alpha like Thor.
“What could that possibly be?” Thor grumbled with annoyance. “If you are trying to convince me, you’re wasting your time. And how could I trust my warriors if they keep up defending a murderer?”
“Please, sir, take the time to listen to what I need to say,” Orion pleaded, and waited for his alpha to say something.
When nothing came out of Thor’s mouth, the young warrior went on, “It all began when I had gone to sleep one night. It wasn’t long after you’d banished Akemi from the Twilight Pack. I had a dream that Python came to me and told me that Akemi was innocent, and in fact Harloc was responsible for his death. He said that Harloc just wanted to stir up trouble within the Pack, and blaming Akemi would certainly destroy a prophecy or two.”
Was Thor beginning to see reason now? She hoped so. It looked like it, considering how he hadn’t interrupted his warrior.
Strawberry stepped forward. “You’ve heard of the druids, right?” She asked softly. “Well, they prophesied the coming of a great white wolf with the eyes of grass, did they not? Well, this she-wolf stands before you now. And you care so much about druid prophecy? Then you will have to rescue Akemi, or that prophecy will be ruined forever. And we’ll never be freed from Harloc.”
“Shut your amateur mouth!” Thor snarled viciously, his canine fangs seeming to be as sharp as ever.
The points of those fangs barely missed Strawberry’s muzzle, but she forced herself not to flinch from her Pack alpha. “You think it’s so easy? I let this she-wolf take control of my warriors and you go and kill Harloc, just like that? It’s not that easy! Harloc is an Ituic Dragon! He is a rare species of dragon that is rumored to be very tolerable to battle wounds. Almost as if he were immortalized, even though everyone has their weaknesses… I think. Yet, not even a dragon his size could inflict a decent wound on him without getting killed in the process, so they say.”
Sascha needed to say something here. Anything, for she was getting a bit worried that Thor wouldn’t quit having a negative mindset. “Thor, look. If you don’t believe Akemi is worth saving, then would you please find it essential to save me the trouble of rescuing her myself?”
Thor narrowed his eyes at her. “That would be suicide.”
“I know, but… like Strawberry said. I was prophesied by the druids about a year ago,” she began to explain. “I am supposed to save them from being executed at the hands of King Xanthus of Aerulis. And I fear without a friend by my side to support me, I might never be able to win.”
She was partly trying to play on his heart strings with the sappy she-wolf talk.
Thor sighed with clear stress. “I know that, Sascha. But can you really expect me to send my warriors off to die? I can’t betray them like that,” he spoke casually, but also with a deep emotion of grief in his eyes.
“I understand, Thor,” Sascha dipped her head respectfully to the leader. She could see what he was feeling, not wanting his warriors to die at the hands of Harloc. “But if you don’t try, then when will your pack ever be freed from Harloc’s grasp?”
He gave no reply, just sat down in silence.
“Perhaps we could talk it over with your pack members? See what they want to do,” Sascha suggested with a humble voice.
“I’m afraid they’d make a decision they’d live to regret.”
“But their deaths wouldn’t be in vain. They’d die protecting their Pack. Although I can assure you I will not let them die.”
It took Thor a while to respond, as if he were deep in thought. “You have my permission to ask my Pack to fight.”
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“Thank you, sir,” Sascha smiled gratefully. “I know how much your Pack means to you, I promise you I won’t let so much as a scratch appear on their bodies.”
Giving Thor a respectful dip of her head, she turned and headed for the exit of the Alpha’s den.
A sharp growl made her turn back to the pack leader. “Sascha, I trust you with my pack,” he snarled with warning. “If I see so much as a scratch on them when they come back, if they come back at all, then you know to expect I will spill your blood over the stones for it.”
These words from the alpha chilled her to the bones, and it made her wonder.
What if she failed him?
What if they all died in battle with Harloc?
But then she realized something; she realized that she could not lose this fight. If she did, then everything would be ruined; her plans for saving the druids, rescuing Akemi, everything. It would all disappear. She could not afford to die yet.
“I assure you, Thor,” Sascha gave him a serious look. “I assure you that I will not let anyone die by the fire of Harloc. His reign is over.”
It was just completely and simply over.
Without waiting for his reply, or for Strawberry and Orion to follow, she left the den and entered the clearing. Looking around for perhaps a ledge or a higher place to address the Twilight Pack, she lashed her tail with anticipation. This was an urgent message she needed to give to these wolves.
It was only a matter of time before Harloc would kill Akemi, and then everything would have been for nothing. Then she saw a ledge just above the alpha’s den entrance.
She padded toward it and quickly accessed the ledge by leaping up onto a boulder and then onto the mossy location above the entrance. Without her having to say anything, the wolves gathered below.
Anger and tension was radiating from them, something that Sascha hoped wouldn’t prove to be too much trouble.
“What is this intruder doing up there?”
“That isn’t Thor!”
They seemed like they were ready to rip her fur off. But the white she-wolf tried to ignore their faces and comments. “Thor has given me permission to address you,” she began, and waited a moment to see if they’d say anything. When they didn’t, she just explained everything that had previously happened with Akemi and of her decision to go and fight Harloc.
“And you expect us to go and die?”
“No, I don’t expect you to do that,” she responded. “I won’t let a scratch get on your pelt.”
“How do we know that?”
“Yes! How do we know that you’ll keep us alive and well?”
“Why can’t Thor just lead us into battle?”
“Don’t be an idiot! He’d never be so stupid. And who said we’re going anyway?”
“Attention!” Sascha growled sternly. “You all have experienced Harloc’s wrath, have you not?”
She wanted an answer from them, hoping that it would help them believe she was here to help, not lead them to their deaths. They all acknowledged the fact that Harloc had been tormenting them for years, one way or another.
With that down, they needed to get somewhere in this Pack meeting.
“You have all heard of the druids. They prophesied me. I am supposed to save the druid clan from the hands of King Xanthus of Aerulis. I can assure you that I will not let any of you die. I promise.”
She let a moment of silence pass, so it could register in their heads.
A ripple of agreement rose from all of the Pack members. She was surprised to hear them all agree with her! In a voice of authority, she went on with query. “Do any of you know where Harloc makes his home?”
“In the Meadows of Agrona,” a young Twilight Pack wolf responded. “It is not a meadow, but instead a strange barren land. It’s a scary place, full of animal skeletons as well as those of the humans.”
“Do you know how to get there?” Sascha asked the male wolf.
“Of course,” he replied. “See those mountains?” Sascha turned to see the mountains that the wolf had indicated. “He and his horde are just over those.”
“Good,” she murmured to herself, giving a faint smile. She would lead her platoon over the mountain, and greet Harloc with a deafening blow. How exciting to shed a villain’s blood! “I have a feeling that Harloc is increasing power by putting other dragons under his command, planning to destroy us and Windstorm. But we cannot stop him alone! We need more warriors. I will give you one week!”
One week was a short time, and so the Pack protested with disbelief. “I’m sorry, but we have no time!” Sascha announced over the voices. “I will separate the Twilight Pack into two groups. I will lead one to the north.
The other, Orion will lead into the west. Gather as many skilled warriors that are willing to fight against Harloc and the rest of Doragontaigun as quickly as you can! We will meet here in one week!”
Howls of agreement rose from the wolves, and she yelled over them to give a final order. “The time to set off is now! When we return to camp, the war will begin and we shall make the mountains shake to their core!”
Orion emerged from the Alpha’s den and took the wolves into his own group. Sascha leaped down and separated wolves into her group. So now, each platoon leader had the equal amount of warriors.
The time to leave was now, and so they did so; Orion led his warriors to the west as ordered, and Sascha lead her platoon to the north. They would gather many wolves and possibly dogs to fight against Harloc. And so, just like that, Sascha’s true courage began to show.
They had spread out over England. The two platoons had gathered many wolves and dogs to join their cause.
Sascha had no way of knowing if Orion was doing well in the quest for more warriors. But at least when they got back she’d have many warriors to fight against Harloc, whether Orion’s platoon did or not.
Talomi, the white wolf with icy blue stripes who had fought one of Harloc’s minions, had helped advise her in the leadership of the group. And so, she’d made him her second in command.
They’d gone from kingdom to kingdom looking for recruits. It all burned in their hearts to find enough warriors to fight Harloc and win.
Sascha’s blood as a wolf burned at the thought of gathering all the warriors to fight against the dragon.
She was filled with warm memories of Zachery and the druids.
They’d recruited over fifty warriors, on occasions gathering entire wolf packs or feral dog groups. These groups far and wide had been affected by Harloc and his horde. So therefore they’d joined Sascha’s platoon.
The white she-wolf prayed that Orion was having the same luck as she was having. A couple of dogs in particular stood out in the group that was well into the fifties and counting.
Chino, a male Neapolitan mastiff, was very strong and committed to killing Harloc. Upon Sascha and the platoon meeting him, he’d been a feared rogue in the kingdom of Brighton.
Sascha and Talomi had explained to him what they were doing in Brighton, that they had been gathering enough warriors to defeat Harloc and how he seemed just right for the job.
She’d told him to think about the offer, but he’d just left without saying a word. He’d showed his strength when a hunter had found the group making temporary camp in the forest, suddenly appearing from the bushes and attacking the man with incredible strength.
He had decided to join the group, and Sascha was glad for his support.
Another dog was an Irish wolfhound whose name was Adam. He’d actually been a hunting dog before Sascha had been able to convince him to join her platoon. The two were both amazing fighters.
It was almost time to meet up with Orion’s group, so Sascha was glad to have recruited them into her numbers before the time was up.
Sascha knew very well that Harloc could have eaten Akemi by now, and the thought made her stomach sick, but she had no other choice but to go looking for other dogs and wolves to fight by her side.
There was no chance in the world that she could beat a dragon and his entire horde alone and single pawed.
That night the group slept under the stars. It was a very beautiful clearing, similar to the one in the mystical Twilight Forest. But Sascha could not sleep, she was restless.
She sat upon a tall boulder that rested in the center of the snowy clearing, knowing that when the platoon reunited with Orion’s, they would be heading for what could be a fatal battle.
She knew for a fact that many of the warriors could die, despite her promise of their survival. But she had to serve them as a good leader, especially in battle.
How could she go into war with Harloc knowing that most of those loyal Twilight Pack warriors wouldn’t be coming back alive? Or those loners, some of them wouldn’t be able to return to their old lives again?
“Sascha…?”
The white she-wolf was surprised when she heard a strange voice behind her. She whipped around and saw that Adam, the male Irish wolfhound, had called upon her.
“Adam,” Sascha greeted with a dip of her head, and then asked, “What is it?”
Adam climbed up the rock that the platoon leader was sitting on and sat down beside her, looking at the beautiful white moon.
The moon reminded Sascha of the night Akemi had been abducted, the evening she’d just gotten back from training with Rei the Fighting Master. Certainly it was not enough training to help her fight King Xanthus, never mind Harloc? “I think you’re worried about the battle,” Adam told her.
“How did you guess?” Sascha inquired somewhat sarcastically.
“I have a tendency to know when others are stressed, and the rest was just a lucky guess,” he chuckled with friendliness in his deep voice.
His pale gray fur blew in the sudden breeze. “I was part of a pack of feral dogs once. Harloc was the one who killed them all. I was lucky enough to escape with my life. I’ve hated him ever since. So I intend to serve your pack to the best of my ability.”
“I thank you for your loyalty, Adam,” she sniffed the air. “It’s kind of cold tonight; you should probably get some rest with the others. We will be leaving tomorrow.”
“What about you?” Adam asked, though still stood up as if he were going to leave her.
It had snowed only a few days into the journey, so the snow was still hard and freezing on the ground, which made it even colder out.
“I’ll go to bed soon.”