A/N Here's the first chapter of A fox among wolves. First THIS CAN'T BE READ WITHOUT READING THE PREVIOUS PARTS! I wrote two stories before this one, and it became a series. So without those two, this won't make much sense. Please read The fox in the snow, and The tale of a travelling fox first. Thank you.
Believe it or not I actually put some thought in the title. Skandians are also reffered to as Wolves, due to their ships. May's a shapeshifter, and here we go a title is born!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own RA!
Chapter 1.
May.
"You know boats aren't that bad." Will says besides me. I look up and glare at him. Easy for him to say. He's not terrified of falling off of it. He's not seasick. I've been walking around half-dead for about two days now. I finally feel a little better. At least I'm not throwing up anymore. I managed to get my cloak back from the skandians. They don't bother to tie us up, because come on where would we go? Not into the ocean.
"I'm going to regret that statement aren't I?" Will eventually says. I give him a wolfish grin. Or at least I wanted to. A somewhat higher wave rolls under the ship and I can't take it anymore. I hang over the railing and get rid of any food I still had left in my stomach. Evanlyn takes a step to me and gets my hair out of the way. I explained everything to her yesterday, and she's not as careful around me as she used to be since she found out. I whipe my mouth with the corner of my sleeve when I'm done and mutter a thanks to her. Some skandians made a bet when the next time was, that I was going to throw up. dumbest game ever, if you ask me.
"There's a storm coming." Erak says besides us. "And a big one." He adds. I groan in despair. A storm would make everything even worse.
"How can you see? The entire sky is clear!" Will exclaims.
"I can smell it in the wind." Erak answers. "Nordel! knock the girl out and tie the three of them around the mast.
"Wait what?" I ask. "Knock who out?" In the corner of my eye I see Nordel coming for me. I quickly duck and slip around him. I run and climb as quickly as I can into the mast.
"Listen girl, I don't have time for this. Come down now!" Erak shouts. From up here I can see the stormclouds building at the horizon. I gulp and slowly gat back down. I walk up to Erak.
"You're right, there is a storm coming." I tell him. "But I don't want to be-" I don't get any further and everything goes black.
When I wake up my head is pounding. So we're back to that? Great. I can feel we're back on solid ground because the floor isn't moving. I groan and sit up. I blink a couple of times to clear my vision.
"So you're awake then eh?" A voice to my left says.
"Yes I am, after someone knocked me out again!"I say back. So I'm a little cranky, who cares. I put my head in my hands and try to compell the pain to go away. It doesn't work obviously.
"Here, this'll help fight the pain." The voice says. He hands me a bottle of water and I drink it. "The name's Gordoff If you want to know." The voice says.
"Thank you." I say. "Where are we?"
"Skorghijl lass, Now let's get you up. There are things to be done." Gordoff says. I nod and get up.
Skorghijl is a barren windswept island, bare rock, steep granite cliffs and a small level beach where the sun and salt-whitened timber huts huddled. There's no tree or blade of green anywhere in sight. The rims of the cliffs are scattered with the white of snow and ice. The rest is rock and shale, granite black and dull grey. I hate it.
"May!" I hear a voice shout. I turn around and the next thing I know is that I'm being crushed in a hug.
"Eh, okay. You can let go now Will, I'm not dead as you can see." I tell him.
"Well it took you long enough." Will says with a smirk. I blow my huff out of my face in annoyance.
"Okay you had your little talk, now get to work. I know everyone inside'll be hungry in a moment." Gordoff says pushing us to one of the huts. I sigh, I almost forgot we where taken here as slaves.
The next morning I join Will to train for a while. We run around the island. It's a shame there's nowhere I can shift without being seen. I'm a little on edge because of that. When I was with Gilan, the first few months before he knew about me, I could sneak off every once in a while to run free, but here. I'd be killed on sight for whitchcraft. I wish I was back in Meric, that this was just another nightmare. That I would wake up and realize it's all over.
"What are you thinking about?" Will asks besides me. We're halfway our third lap.
"Nothing, just general thoughts." I say.
"With you it's never genral thoughts." Will says with a grin.
"Maybe, I was just thinking of home. Hoping this isn't real." I pick up the pace a litlle. "Now, let's see who's faster, shall we?"
"Oh you're on Greensworth." And we both sprint away.
I finish first, like I always do. Then again, it wasn't very fair.
"Why are you wasting your time like that?" Evanlyn asks us. "We're not going anywhere. We're stuck on this damn island. There's no way of escape. That's hopeless."
"Well, well, princess can swear like a sailor. Who would've thought that!" I laugh.
"Wait, princess?" Will asks confused.
"Yes, princess. I am king Duncan's daughter. As soon as I reveal myself, we can ask a ransom and be on our way back to Auraluen." Evanlyn simply states.
"You're the kings… " Wills voice trails off in the end, and I barely surpress a smile.
"Yes. Will I'm so sorry, I wanted to tell you sooner. When I was in Celtica I was travelling incognito, I nearly forgotten to tell my real name to people I can trust. After Gilan left, I was affraid you'd sent me after him." She explains. When Gilan left… It seems like that was years ago, yet it was only days. Maybe a week.
"And you've known for how long exactly?" Will asks me.
"Oh since before the bridge, I guessed it and she admitted it to me." I shrug it off.
"Hey, you three. Get back to work." Someone's voice behind us says. We all sigh, but do as he says. Have I mentioned that I hate it here?
A few days later another ship arrived. I'm not good with ships, but I don't think it should like like this. The mast is snapped in half, and it seems like the ship's more under water than above. It creaks and squeaks when it comes closer.
"That's Slagor's ship." Erak says besides us. I look up and see Will running to us.
"Where did that came from?" Evanlyn asks.
"I don't know, last thing I knew is that he was safe and sound in Skandia." Erak says more to himslef than to us.
"Slagor!" He calls out to the other Jarl. "Where the devil did you come from?"
The burly man at the stern, controlling the ship's steering oar, waves a hand in greeting. He looks plainly exhausted, and glad to make harbour.
One of the crew now stands in the bow of the ship and tosses a heavy line to Erak's men waiting on the beach. In a few seconds, a dozen of them tail onto the rope and begin to haul the wolfship in the last few metres. Gratefully, the rowers slump back on their benches, without the energy to ship their oars. The heavy, carvedoak sweeps trail in the water, bumping dully against the ship's sides as they pivoted back in the oar locks.
The keel grates against the shingle and the ship comes to a halt. Sitting lower in the water than Wolfwind, it wouldn't ride as far up the slope of the beach.
The men on board begin to disembark, hauling themselves over the bulwarks at the bow and dropping to the beach. The rowing crew stagger up onto dry land and stretch themselves out with groans of weariness, dropping onto the coarse stones and sand and lying as if dead. One of the last to come ashore is Slagor, the captain.
He drops tiredly to the beach. His beard and hair are matted and rimed white with salt. His eyes are red and haunted looking. He and Erak face each other. Oddly, they don't greet each other with the normal grasped forearms. I don't think Erak likes this man.
"What are you doing here at this time of year?" Erak asks. Slagor shakes his head disgustedly.
"We're damned lucky to be here. We were two days out of Hallasholm when the storm hit us. Waves as big as castles there were, and the wind was straight from the pole. The mast went in the first hour and we couldn't cut it loose. Lost two men trying to clear it. Then the butt end kept slamming into the ship's waterline and before we got rid of it, it had driven a hole in the planks. We had one compartment flooded before we knew what was happening, and leaks in the other three."
The wolfships, in spite of the fact that they look like open boats, are actually highly seaworthy vessels. This is in no small part due to the design that divided the hulls into four separate, watertight compartments beneath the main deck and between the two lower galleries where the rowers sat. It is the buoyancy of these compartments that keep the ships afloat even when they are swamped by the huge waves that coursed across the Stormwhite Sea. Or at least that's what Svengal once told me. I still don't care much for the sea. A boat is a boat, isn't it.
"What were you doing at sea in the first place?" Erak asks. "This is no time to try to cross the Stormwhite." Slagor takes a wooden beaker of brandy-spirit offered by one of Erak's men. Around the small harbour, the crew of Erak's ship are bringing drinks to their exhausted countrymen and, in some cases, tending to injuries obviously sustained as their ship had tossed and heaved in the storm. Slagor makes no gesture of thanks and Erak frowns slightly. He drinks half the brandy in one long gulp and wipes the back of his hand across his mouth before answering.
"Weather had cleared back in Hallasholm," he says shortly. "I thought we had a break long enough to get across the storm zone." Erak's eyes widen in disbelief.
"At this time of year?" he says. "Are you mad?"
"Thought we could make it," Slagor repeats stubbornly. The burly Jarl lowers his voice so that it didn't carry to the other crewmen. Only Will and Evanlyn and I can hear him.
"Damn you, Slagor," he says bitterly. "You were trying to get a jump on the raiding season." Slagor faces the other captain angrily.
"And if I was? It was my decision to make as captain. No one else's, Erak."
"And your decision cost two men their lives," Erak points out. "Two men who were sworn to abide by your decisions, no matter how foolhardy those decisions might be. Any man with more than five minutes. experience would know that this is too early to make the crossing!"
"There was a lull!" the other man shoots back and Erak snorts in disgust.
"A lull! There are always lulls! They last a day or two. But that's not long enough to make the crossing and you know it. Damn you for your greed Slagor!" Slagor draws himself up.
"You've no right to judge me, Erak. A captain is master of his own ship and you know it. Like you, I'm free to choose when and where I go," he says. His voice is louder than Erak's
"I'll note you chose not to join us in the war we've just been fighting," Erak replies, scorn in his voice. "You were content to sit at home for that, then try to sneak out and get the easy pickings before other captains were ready to leave."
"My choice," Slagor repeats, "and a wise one, as it's turned out." His voice becomes a sneer. "I notice you didn't exactly have a great deal of success in your invasion, did you, Jarl Erak?" Erak steps closer. His eyes blaze a warning at the other man.
"Watch your tone, you sneak thief. I left good friends behind me there."
"And more than friends, as I've heard," replies Slagor, emboldened now. "You'll get scant thanks from Ragnak for leaving his son behind as well." Erak steps back, his jaw dropping.
"Gronel was taken in the battle?" He says clearly surprized. Slagor shakes his head now, smiling at the other man's loss of poise.
"Not taken. Killed, I heard, at the Thorntree battle. Some of the ships managed to make it back to Skandia before the storms set in."
The Wolfwind, Erak's ship, had been the last to leave the Araluan coast. The crew were still waiting for Erak's return when the survivors of Horth's ill-fated expedition had straggled back to the ships, bringing news of the failure and then sailing away. We had later heard Wolfwind's crew talking about the Thorntree battle. Two Rangers, one short and grizzled, the other young and tall, had led the King's forces that decimated the Skandian army as they had marched to outflank Duncan's main force. That could have only been Halt and Gilan. I know so.
Erak shakes his head sadly.
"Gronel was a good man," he says. "We'll feel his loss sorely."
"His father is feeling it. He's sworn a Vallasvow against Duncan."
"That can't be right," Erak says, frowning in disbelief. "A Vallasvow is only to be taken against treachery or murder." Slagor shrugs.
"He's the Oberjarl. He can do as he likes, I'd say. Now for pity's sake, do you have any food on this godforsaken island? Our stores are ruined by sea water." Erak, still distracted by the news he'd just heard, becomes aware of our presence. He jerks his head towards the huts.
"Get a fire going," he tells us. "These men need hot food." He shoves Will roughly towards the hut. He staggeres, then begins to run, Evanlyn close behind him. I hesitate, but after a stern look I follow them. A vallasvow against the royal family of Auraluen. Well so far the plan of getting a ransom. We can forget that now.
A/N Tada! And it's done. I would've put it on sooner, but I didn't have any time to write the last week, I came back like three days ago. Now in good news... My birthday's coming up! Just two little weeks left. Anyone wanna guess how old I am? If you're right, you'll win something!
Please review! Thank you.