It takes a lot not to laugh at the statement after the day I’ve had.
“I need to get home,” I tell him.
His golden eyes shift down to me with a look so human I shiver. “Has no one told you? You’re dead. You don’t have a home.”
So, it’s true,I think sadly. While I didn’t think Vaelith was lying to me. I hoped he was mistaken.
“I still have to go,” I murmur, taking another step back.
“You seem nice,” he decides with a wistfulness that prickles the hairs at the back of my neck. “But you’re the most delicious looking meal I’ve seen in a long time.” He rolls onto all fours and towers over me. “You can run, if you like. I haven’t had a good chase in a while, and it’ll make me feel less guilty when I eat you.”
“Please, don’t.” I know it’s useless to try, but I pray there’s a small part of him that will let me go.
“Go on. Run,” he urges, gently at first. When I don’t move, he bares fangs as long as I am tall and snarls, “Run!”
I scream, but it’s engulfed by the roar that swallows the world.
It rolls beneath the earth and splinters across the sky. It shakes the ground beneath our feet. An earthquake that has the wolf staggering back several steps, massive head swinging in the direction of the sound.
I follow the line of his attention to the crack and snap of trees. The thundering clap of something enormous charging towards us.
“Can’t be...” the wolf mutters, but a figure as tall as a skyscraper unfolds against the heavens.
And the wind goes silent.
The world stills as if the very earth is too afraid to move.
The trees beneath his feet bend and snap. They’re swept aside with an easy flick of his monstrous hands, clearing a path until he stands before us with the swirling fury of a wildfire.
“F ... Father...” the wolf stammers, head bowed in supplication and shame.
But the creature blotting the moon merely stands over him. Antlers a crown of carved ivory spiraling towards the stars from a face of bone. Two pools of crimson glow from the sockets that wash down the long length of his snout. He crouches, folding a body made of pure muscle and covered with a thick, black fur onto all fours. But those burning eyes stay fixed on the wolf. Hands with jagged claws fall to either side of me, caging me.
Protecting me.
A low rumble vibrates through the clearing. A snarl deep in the cavity of his chest.
“You dare threaten my wife?”he says without a mouth, yet it rumbles through the sky like thunder.
The wolf, on its belly, head to the ground, whimpers, “Forgive me. I didn’t know. She didn’t say...”
Talons gouge into the dirt. Ripping up mounds. Creating trenches.
“If I find a single scratch on her...”
“He didn’t hurt me,” I blurt. “He saved me from a different ... thing that was chasing me.”
I don’t know why I’m trying to protect the wolf, but maybe because he saved me, and it only feels right to return the favor. Even if he saved me so he could eat me himself.
Vaelith lowers his massive maw and sniffs the air around me. I reach up and lightly touch the side of his nose, and I’m immediately scooped up into his palm.
“Are you hurt?”he demands.
“I’m okay,” I promise.
He continues to study me for several moments before returning his attention to the wolf still cowering in the dirt.
“Your queen just spared your life,”he snarls.“Spread the word. Anyone comes near her again, I will make an example of them.”
