The Wolf-maidens
Disclaimer: I don't own RH, if I did then Will and Djaq would still be there, and Marian wouldn't have died. For the purposes of this fic Will did not go to the Holy land, because Mysty wants him (love you really, sis!)
Summary: Allan and Much are a little surprised to find a wolf pack on their doorstep, and the gang instantly has favourites, but there's something different about these wolves… something… intelligent… Allan and Much suspect something's going on.
Then comes a surprise they weren't expecting…
…
"So when do you think it'll be ready?" Allan asked conversationally, "seeing as this is the fifth time tonight you've tried to cook something other than squirrel?"
Much scowled at him, "For the fifth time, I don't cook squirrel!"
"Really?" Will asked, grinning, "Because I haven't seen many squirrels in the last week,"
"Guys!" Robin yelled exasperatedly, "Stop picking on Much, we've got –"
They were interrupted by something that sounded like dogs trying to tear each other to pieces outside the camp.
"What the hell is that?" the gang ran in the direction of the sound – they saw 2 wolves in the middle of a pretty intensive fight, with 2 others watching, howling loudly.
The 2 wolves that were fighting couldn't have been more different; one of them, who clearly had the upper hand, had thick, blue-silver fur and piercing blue eyes, whereas its adversary, who was being kicked about the clearing, had ebony fur with copper-red streaks and hazel eyes. The 2 wolves who had unintentionally alerted Robin's gang to the fight were also completely dissimilar; one of them, the smallest of the four, was a deep maple red colour with sparkling green eyes, and the other had sleek, black fur, deep blue eyes and was watching the fight with what seemed to be a very amused expression on her puppy-like face.
Eventually, after one last lunge from the ebony-coloured wolf which resulted in it being flipped onto its back by the blue-silver one, the fight ended. The ebony wolf limped away, growling as the maple-red one approached it. Robin and his gang stared in shock.
"I like the grey one," Allan grinned, nodding to the blue-silver pack leader, who was now sat on its haunches and licking its paw.
"No way," Will responded, "The brown one's definitely better."
This lead to a rather large debate about which wolf was better out of the four. It eventually stopped when the maple coloured wolf bounded over to robin and started trying to lick his face before being chased off by the pack leader.
"They're all girls" Kate commented suddenly, causing the others to stare at her.
"How do you know?" Will asked, raising his eyebrows.
"It's not that difficult to tell, they're definitely girls" Kate insisted as the ebony-coloured wolf started inching towards Will. He absent-mindedly scratched her behind the ears as the pack leader stared incredulously at her.
"Hello Ebony," Will murmured, still petting the over-sized dog.
"What?" Allan asked.
"Well they've got to have names, right?" Will insisted, "How else are we going to tell them apart?"
"Right," Allan shrugged, "In that case, the grey one's called storm."
'Storm' went back to licking her paw.
The black wolf was given the name 'Midnight' (courtesy of Gisbourne), and the red one was given the very imaginative name of 'Maple' by Robin.
After an evening of trying to stop the pack from stealing the food (with little success), Robin and his gang decided to go to sleep, and had to push the wolves out of the camp. They woke up the next morning to find 3 members of the pack curled up around the fire, and the fourth, Maple, was sleeping on top of Robin. Allan, feeling reckless, prodded Storm awake. She stretched and yawned widely, showing her rather sharp and dangerous-looking teeth before snapping at Allan, giving the very clear message "no one disturbs my naps and gets away with it!"
Robin, being half asleep, didn't notice that Maple was asleep on top of him, so when he sat up he was woken fully by a yip of protest as she fell off, much to the amusement of everyone else.
Storm made a little growling noise and crouched low, ears pressed flat against her skull.
The others soon started reacting in the same way, crouching low and growling, ears flat back until Storm suddenly sprang to her feet and galloped away, closely followed by her pack and tailed by an alarmed Robin and his gang.
Isabella was riding through the forest with her procession, followed by a guard who was dragging a young man behind them; the young man's hands were bound and the chain that was pulling him was tied around his throat, cutting visciously into the flesh of his neck. He stumbled and was violently hauled up and beaten by the guards. Storm's growl became vicious, angry – there was something in that growl that, Robin was sure, would strike fear into his heart if it had been directed at him.
The small pack leapt out just as the young man was pulled level with them; one of them took out the horseman dragging him while the other two, Maple and Ebony, dragged the boy by his ragged clothes and into the bushes.
Storm was clearly furious; it took several guards pointing spears at her, and her pack to convince her to leave the bloodied, badly bitten guard alone. Still growling savagely, she skulked off into the bushes where her pack and the boy were hiding.
Isabella, startled and surprised by the sudden attack, was bustled away by her guards while the one Storm had attacked was dragged with them, groaning bitterly about the pain "That bloody dog" had caused him.
Storm snorted indignantly from her hiding place in the bushes at the insult before turning her attentions to the boy. She whimpered and nuzzled his side in an attempt to see what was wrong. He stirred and looked at her; smiling slightly through the pain his wounds were causing him.
"Hey there, Storm cloud," he murmured, scratching her ear before he lost consciousness.
Robin and the gang arrived just at that moment. They looked at the boy, exchanged glances and, before anyone could stop him, Allan picked up the invalid and balanced him carefully on his shoulder, ready to carry him to the camp.
Nobody said anything, but there was a strong suspicion within the gang that the poor boy wasn't going to last the night.
…
That's it for now! *Hides* sorry Maple!
Yes, she made me post this thing that's been knocking around on my computer for a year, and in return she will update her Knight Rider fic. You heard me, Maple; UPDATE!!!!
Feel free to tell me your opinions (in a review, naturally) and I must warn you that I will give all flames to Maple to use in her experiments. Seriously – that is very scary.
And also feel free to guess who the boy is! I will reply to tell you if it's right!
And it'll probably take ages for me to post another update for this fic, so bear with me.
Click the green button! Go on, you know you want to :P