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“I have you again,” I said, through a mouthful of fur and blood. “Don’t make me hurt you any further.”
“You’ve beaten me,” said the wolf struggling to free himself. “Now you have to kill me.”
“Kill you? No, I won’t do that.”
“This is the law of the wild. Kill me now, or they will.”
I let go of the wolf’s leg and backed up. Droplets of his blood fell from my chin into the earth beneath me, and as I stepped away from him, I saw the crimson trail they left in the snow. The wolf wasn’t getting up. His leg was covered in blood, and he was on his side, watching me, heaving, puffs of steam issuing out of his mouth and nose.
“Kill me!” he roared.
“I won’t,” I said.
“You said you were one of us… but when it comes time for you to prove it, you fail.”
“Choosing not to kill an opponent I have beaten is not failure. It’s honor.”
The wolf spat against the snow. “What do you know of honor? Trapped behind your walls, experiencing the true wilds only when you are given permission. You are no Moon Child. You are a pet dog on a leash who sleeps in a cage.”
Anger filled my chest. “I am no one’s pet,” I growled.
“Then prove it!” the wolf yelled, his voice shooting into the forest. “Honor in the wild is giving your opponent the decency of a worthy death.”
I licked my lips, and got a fresh taste of hot, coppery blood… but there was something else in there, too. Hidden amongst the metal taste of blood there were other flavors I couldn’t quite put my finger on. They didn’t taste like anything, in fact, but I did—somehow—understandthings I hadn’t a moment ago.
I had no way of knowing how I had come into this knowledge, but I knew the wolf in front of me was male. I knew he was about my age, if not a little younger. I knew he was strong, and healthy, and I could tell he had eaten a good meal before this; something meaty, and hearty. He’d maybe had some mead, too—I somehow smelled the honey.
I also had his scent, but it wasn’t just a scent; it was light. It was as if I could see his aura, the shimmering halo of his spirit, or his essence, or whatever you wanted to call it. It trailed off him, coiling and circling the area we had been fighting in. It led into the woods, and then beyond, and I could see it as clearly as a streak of light in the dark.
Tallin came up beside me. “We should leave,” he said, “We should go back to the castle. This was a mistake.”
“I’m not leaving,” I said. “I came here to find my brother. I’m not about to commit murder to do it, but I’m not going away until I’ve spoken to him either.”
“We don’t have the luxury of choice.”
The downed wolf struggled to stand. I could tell he was hurt, his injured leg could barely support his weight, but he stood anyway, shaky leg and all. With his snout low and his eyes trained directly on me, his chest rising and falling, he started to approach.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“You kill me,” he said, “Or I kill you. Eat or be eaten.”
“It doesn’t have to be like this!”
“Itislike this. Accept it, or you will not survive out here.”
I backed up, trying to give myself as much time to process all of this as possible. I hadn’t come out here to kill anyone. I didn’t want to end his life, but I felt like I had to. The other wolves watching from the trees weren’t moving, they weren’t about to interrupt, or stop what was happening. They wanted to see how this played out, and ultimately, there was only one way this was going to go.
Forthem, anyway.
I had a different idea. Instead of lunging toward the wolf, I snatched Tallin up and into my mouth, taking care not to dig my teeth into his flesh, and I started to run. I didn’t head toward the lame wolf, but instead went off to the side, following the glowing line of his scent into the deep, dark, thickness of the woods.
The wolves along the tree-line didn’t move except to part for me, allowing me to go through them without a fight. The wolf I had hurt yelled after me, demanding that I stop, that I come back and fight him, but I wasn’t listening. I just kept running, keeping the line of his scent firmly in my sights.
I thought I saw movement in my periphery. Ghosts, shapes, moving quickly through the woods. They weren’t ghosts at all, though, but other wolves. They were keeping their distance, moving quietly and swiftly, not toward me, but parallel to where I was running.
The scent trail I was following took me directly into a small clearing of trees, where there was only white snow and dark earth, and a small gathering of rocks. I stepped up to them, dropped Tallin inside the circle of rocks, and looked around.
“Ouch…” Tallin said.
