Lyka's breath tore through the silence sharp and desperate her heart a rythm of fear in the suffocating dark. Above her gnarled branches wove a ceiling of thorns, strangling the moonlight casting a shadow on her path. With every step she took she sank into the soft ground the sound of her footsteps being swallowed whole, but the distant snap of twigs and clink of armour of her persuers cut through the stillness.
They were getting close.
Pregnant and bleeding she ran on least they capture her. The overhead branches bit into her skin, thorns stitching crimson trails of blood down her arms. The air clinging to her thick with scent of her own sweat and the musk damp of the earth. Even the trees seemed to breathe their roots coiling like serpents beneath het stumbling feet.
Then she heard a shout.
A voice harsh with command echoed behind her. The soldiers were no longer hunting her, they were now herding her into a place of their choosing.She spun her foot snagging a root and the ground rose to meet her as she fell the impact stealing the breath from her lungs. Vines twined around her legs as if the forest had chosen its side.She tried to wrench herself free of them her nails clawing mudand roots just as a torch flared in the distance.
LIGHT.
It carved a path through the dark blinding her. She heard boots crashing through the undergrowth as they rushed towards her. As they neared she heard a soldiers breath catch on a curse.
"There's the whore!" he sneered.
Lyka tried to rise up gods she tried but the ground held her fast, vines and agony anchoring her in place. Her belly ached with sharp,twisting pressure causing her to let out a gasp.She could feel the child stirring weakly inside her. Rough hands tore her up, a gauntleted fist cracking across her cheek, and a boot slamming into her side.
"You thought you could run?." the soldier said spitting saliva all over her face.
Another blowlanded this time to her belly.
"Thought you could bring that bastard child into this world?." the soldier spat with menace.
The words blurred around her, all that remained was pain, pain and shame and the ever fading light of her her life.But then a growl tore through the commotion, low and deep rolling like thunder through the trees,freezing the soldiers in place. From the dark a glowing pair of eyes pulled through, not one, not two but a dozen more appeared shinning in the darkness. Silence hung thick in the air, then slowly they emerged into the clearing revealing the owners of the glowing orbs.
Wolves.
They were massive, larger than dire wolves even larger than any natural beast they had known. Their fur shimmered like smoke under the moonlight, their muscles shifting and rippling with power. They did not bare their teeth,they did not snarl they just watched.
The soldiers instinctively drew closer, forming a circle around the injured Lyka, a formation probably long drilled into them.
The largest of the wolves stepped ahead of the others. She was immense nearly the size of a horse with her coat streaked with silver and eyes twin orbs reflecting the moonlight. She padded to the edge of the torchlight and stopped and scanned the scene before her. At the Lyka who was bloodied and bruised clutching her swollen belly. At the soldiers who had their blades drawn and their backs to her.
She sniffed the air, a shift in posture, ears tilted foward, muscles tensing.
Recognition.
Her gaze turned to Lyka, something flared in that stare. Empathy, sorrow.... understanding, she took one step closer and let out a low resonant sound that echoed like a mournful song.The other wolves followed her lead. One by one, they circled the soldiers.They began to panick.
"What's going on?" One of them muttered sword shaking in his hands "They're not just watching us ." he continued as he backed into another soldier. "They show intelligence in their eyes"
"Kill the woman!" The captain growled finally realising the siuation they were in. One of the soldiers raised his sword to strike,Lyka tried to scream, to roll away but she couldn't.
The blade fell swiftly whistling in the air but before it struck her a blur of fur and fury collided with the soldier. Fangs tore into his throat and blood sprayed across Lyka's face, the man collapsing beside her his body twitching. But it wastoo late, the sword had slashed her side. A ragged cry escaped her lips as she clutched her belly. The wolves attacked, fury unleashed with bodies slamming into steel their claws shredding chain‐mail like paper.The soldiers screamed in pain but would soon be silent.
Only when the clearing was still and every soldier lay broken beneath the bloodied moonlight, did the she wolf move to Lyka's side. Dazed from the blows to her head and delirious due to the gash in her side Lyka lay there defeated. She believed the wolves would devour her now that they had taken out the soldiers who had posed no threat to them to begin with. The She wolf pressed its muzzle against her face, then her stomach then her ears dropped. She let out a soft whimpering, the sound of grief.
She howled,It was no cry of victory but of mourning a cry of choice. Moonlight shimmered across its body as the clouds parted to reveal the full moon Its form beginning to glow. Silver like light poured from her into Lyka, wrapping her in a cocoon of lunar radiance.
Lyka arched.
Her scream never left her throat swallowed by the light that surged into her. Bones knitted, flesh mended somehow she her wounds were healing but It was more than just that. She could see the wolf fade as the from it light poured into her. That's when she realised they were merging.
Two souls were becoming one. And within her, three heartbeats pulsed were once there had been only two.