Tides

INTERLUDE 2

He remembers.

He is standing in a circle of Wolves, half canine shifted, and half in their manforms. He is young, just a boy. In front of him are two dead bodies, the stench coming off of them thick and sickly sweet.

What have you done?!

He screams into the faces of the three standing in front of him, grief making him fearless. They did not deserve this!

The leader of the three steps forward, blood dripping from his fingers. The boy nearly vomits at the sight. He knows whose blood it is.

We told you to stop running.

You were going to kill me, he says. The boy is sure of it. He is going to die–just like they did.

And? You have nowhere left to run. He speaks softly so only the boy can hear.

The observation is from a cold cunning mind, whose only thought is to kill.

The boy stands tall. There is no honor in death.

He sees it coming too late, as the leader of the three backhands him across the face, knocking his legs out from under him. The boy goes down hard. The leader aims a kick at his ribs, but the boy crawls away, using the dead as a shield.

A weapon, he needed a weapon.

The ground around the bodies is sticky with blood, the dirt turned to gory mud beneath his crawling hands. It is disgusting. The boy holds in a mouthful of puke. He stops at the head of the first Wolf.

Her neck is broken, twisted terribly, her spine protruding from her thick coat of brown fur. Her green eyes are empty, devoid of life. Blood pools from her open jaws, only a trickle now that her heart has stopped beating. The second body is worse.

Mangled fur sticks to protruding bones, the ribcage shattered then pushed back through the skin in grisly white towers. His neck is also broken, brown eyes sightless, and what's left of his fur is matted with blood. The boy cries, wanting to bury his face against the cold hides and weep unstoppingly. But there is too much gore, and no safe place to put his head.

Plus, his enemies are still out there.

Come on out little cub, whispers one of the three as they round the bodies to face him. We'll make it quick.

But he cannot die–he is their legacy, and the boy knows it. The dead ones would want him to fight with all his strength to stay alive. No, he says.

A weapon, he needs a weapon.

His eyes land on the last weapon that the dead ones used before they were brutally murdered. A tooth, he needed a tooth.

Why do you want to kill me? he asks feigning ignorance. Stall, he needs to stall.

Because you are worthless, the leader of the three snarls.

I am a Beta.

The surrounding Wolves nod in agreement. Who was this upstart to tell a little boy what he could or could not be.

The three were losing them. The crowd was shifting towards the boy's side.

I tried to save them, the leader lies. But the Icefang Tribe was too quick.

The crowd is swayed. Of course the boy doesn't know what he was talking about, he is grief-stricken. And war will be brought to the Icefang Tribe.

It was the boy's fault, the leader of the three lies. He led them into Icefang territory, he planned their murders so that he could inherit the title of Beta sooner. It was all his fault. He needs to be killed for his crimes.

The crowd believes him, believes the liar. The boy cannot believe his ears. A cub such as himself committing murder? But the crowd is out for blood, whether it's one of the three's or the boy's. They are greedy.

A howl interrupts the murder preparations. The boy has his hand wrapped around one of the canine teeth of the dead male and is trying to wiggle it free. He looks toward the sound.

The alphas have arrived.

If anybody can help him, it's them.

But the alphas go straight to the leader of the three and ask him what's going on. He lies again. This time the boy was in a ploy with his parents to run away and his parents were killed in the struggle. The crowd does not hear this version, it is told in whispers that the boy strains to hear.

He should be banished for his crimes, says the leader of the three, aware that he cannot kill a cub in front of the alphas. They say nothing, only step aside and let the boy face his enemies. Just in time, the tooth wiggles free.

The leader of the three lunges at him.

The tooth comes up in a wide arc and slashes the leader's arm open. He howls in outrage. He is clearly trying to kill the boy and play it off as a mistake in the end. The boy jumps to his feet.

He dodges as he is lunged at again, then again, the leader's slashing claws inches away from the end of his nose. Slowly he is driven back, towards the scent-markers that trace the edges of his territory and his pack's territory. The boy is almost out of the circle of Wolves when he slips on wet blood. The crowd closes in.

And the leader's claws slash directly at his face.