It felt like a warm blanket. He began to feel almost happy. It wasn’t the fighting that brought it about. It was something deeper, like warm sunlight on his cool skin. He found it hard to concentrate on the fight. Something was making him slow down, but somehow that didn’t really matter.
Nicolas swept his leg out in a vicious arc just above Ansuya’s unconscious body. When he turned around, he saw Charles was smiling. Nicolas thought it was the adrenaline of the fight that was making the all black werewolf smile. He turned around and whipped his claws into the heart of a billowing shadow and ripped his claws outward, causing a shriek of pain in the Shadow, forcing it to withdraw momentarily.
Nicolas looked back over his shoulder and Charles arms were lowered and relaxed. Charles was slowly walking away from the fight. “CHARLES!!!!” Nicolas shrieked in anger and frustration, “What the hell are you doing?!” He saw William and Katherine look over but they had their hands full trying to get to Aceso who had been cornered by a swarm of the Shadows. He called out to him again, but Charles acted like he either didn’t hear him or didn’t care. Either way, Charles was walking away from them, deeper into the Whyte Plain, into the waiting arms of the Shadows.
Let the asshole die then! If he’s stupid enough to be taken in by these demons then he deserves what he gets. The Mountain should have killed him when they had the chance. He pin wheeled around and slashed an uppercut into a Shadow that had come up close to him. He dove forward into a roll and crouched before sweeping his legs out to give him a bit of much needed space.
Nicolas looked over and Charles was almost completely out of sight, his black fur was allowing him to camouflage perfectly with their surroundings. If he lost sight of him now, they would never see Charles again, except as one of these Shadows. Nicolas grimaced and grunted, taking another swipe at a Shadow that swooped towards him.
Punching the ground and growling loudly he exploded up from the ground as he lunged after their Tracker. Sprinting faster than he ever had before, he caught up to Charles and plowed into him hard from behind. The impact whipped Charles’ head back on his neck and the two crashed down hard to the ground.
Charles acted like he was possessed and started flailing and clawing at Nicolas as if the man didn’t recognize him. Nicolas was prepared for it however and, dodging the startled flailing of the bigger werewolf, he sunk his teeth down hard into the man’s side. His jaws squeezed down hard till the taste of blood flooded his mouth.
Charles stopped struggling and screamed in deep pain. Nicolas got up and flung his claws out at some approaching Shadows. He accidentally missed and managed to swipe a claw deeply up Charles’ face, leaving behind three red trails along his snout. Oops.
Charles kicked out around him and threw himself up off the ground. Putting his back to the Scout he breathed raggedly through the pain of his new injuries.
“Welcome back, Tracker,” Nicolas sneered through gritted teeth as he held off another attacking Shadow. “You ready to join us now? Or is there a field trip you were headed off to that you neglected to invite the rest of us?”
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Charles shook his head and fighting off a Shadow of his own said, “I owe you.”
Nicolas just nodded and kept fighting. “We don’t stand a chance on our island out here; we have to get back to the others.”
The two men starting moving back the way they had come. The fight was hard but moving in the direction they wanted to was even harder. The Shadows were herding them, it seemed like. It was like fighting against a tide that kept trying to slide them to either side of the direction that they wanted to move.
It seemed like forever but they finally made their way back to their pack mates, guided by the sounds of fighting that was still raging just as hard as when Nicolas had left. This might be their end. The Shadows were everywhere, and they hadn’t made a dent in their number. It was like every one they injured just pulled back till it healed, covered by two other fresh Shadows.
William, Katherine, and Aceso were holding their own though. They had managed to clear a space around Amanda at least. Charles and Nicolas were able to get to Ansuya and keep the Shadows off her.
“Aceso! We can’t keep this up! We have to get out of here!” Nicolas called in desperation. He heard William grunt in what could have been agreement, it was tough to tell with that guy sometimes.
Aceso called out, “Agreed! Nicolas can you two get to Ansuya? We’ll take care of Amanda!”
Nicolas nodded and with an exertion that he didn’t think he was capable of, he fought harder than he ever had before, forcing himself to move faster, longer than he thought possible. He managed to get to the Elder and scooping up her body he slung her lifeless form over his shoulder. “I’ve got her!” he called, sprinting over towards Aceso, with Charles right behind him.
Aceso cried out, “Katherine, get us out of here!”
The Sage nodded and the dark stillness of the Whyte Plain disappeared around them and cold salty water rushed in from all sides, covering their heads, as they all slipped beneath the ocean waves somewhere in or around the Pacific Ocean.
Nicolas coughed and sputtered as he found his legs under him and propelled himself back toward the surface. Breaking the waves with his head he inhaled deeply the clean air of the ocean. For his troubles he got a mouth full of salt water, as a wave sloshed over him, causing another fit of coughing and hacking as he gingerly placed Ansuya on her back, keeping her face and snout dry. Looking around he saw that William had done the same with Amanda. Miraculously, they all seemed to be ok.
Aceso scanned her surroundings with a sinking feeling in her gut. She had led her pack to this. There was nothing but ocean on all sides of them. With Ansuya and Amanda knocked out they were lucky they were in the middle of nowhere. She shook her head glumly. They couldn’t approach any civilization with the two of them locked in their werewolf form anyway. But how long would the five of them be able to stay afloat, especially since they had two other bodies that they had to keep on the surface as well.
They had been traveling east, by northeast. Since they were in water and not on a landmass somewhere, she could only assume that they were in the Pacific Ocean. By that reckoning the nearest landmass would be Taiwan Island, or China to the west, just depending on which one they came to first. Which meant that they had a very long swim ahead of them.
“So what do we do with these two?” Nicolas asked calmly. “The Shadows had them for who knows how long before we doubled back. There’s no telling when they’ll wake up, and even then, we don’t know if what happened to…you know.” Nicolas got very un-characteristically quiet.
“I have to believe that if I made it back, then the Elder and Amanda can as well,” Charles said defensively.
“Yeah, let’s talk about that for a second,” Nicolas growled harshly. “You almost got us killed with that little stunt you pulled back there. Are you sure you’re all there Charles?”
“Hey, now is not the time for this,” Katherine interjected.