The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness

In WOLF BROTHER, Austin learns of the destiny he can never escape, and the adventure begins. Auslly-ness galore! I promise, cross my heart hope to die! Strong T!

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing and do not profit from anyone/anything you may recognise in this fic! This includes not only Austin and Ally but Michelle Pavers fabulous 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness.' This is simply to satisfy our Auslly obsessed minds!

Please also bare in mind that this is NOT my original work. This is the original copy of 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness,' only Torak and Renns characters have been converted to suit the characters: Austin and Ally. I will change the occasional scene to create more romance as the original focused more on the friendship and hinted romance much later on. I am a sucker for the Auslly romance so I'm afraid it had to be done. :D If you haven't read 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness' I'd recommend you do so as it is absolutely amazing. Seriously.

Wolf Brother

Chapter 2: Austin

Austin crashed through alder thickets and sank to his knees in bogs. Birch trees whispered of his passing. Silently he begged them not to tell the bear.

The wound in his arm burned, and with each breath of his bruised ribs ached savagely, but he didn't dare stop. The Forest was full of eyes. He pictured the bear coming after him. He ran on.

He startled the young boar grubbing up pignuts, and grunted a quick apology to ward off an attack. The boar gave an ill-tempered snort and let him pass.

A wolverine snarled at him to stay away, and he snarled back as fiercely as he could, because wolverines only listen to threats. The wolverine decided he meant it, and shot up to a tree.

To the east, the sky was wolf grey. Thunder growled. In the stormy light, the trees a brilliant green. Rain in the mountains, thought Austin numbly. Watch out for flash floods.

He forced himself to think of that - to push away the horror. It didn't work. He ran on.

At last, he had to stop for breath. He collapsed against an oak tree. As he raised his head to stare at the shifting green leaves, the tree murmured secrets to itself, shutting him out.

For the first time in his life, he was truly alone. He didn't feel part of the Forest any more. He felt as if his world-soul had snapped its link to all other living things: tree and bird, hunter and prey, river and rock. Nothing in the whole world knew how he felt. Nothing wanted to know.

The pain in his arm wrenched him back from his thoughts. From his medicine pouch he took his last scrap of birch bast, and roughly bandaged the wound. Then he pushed himself off the tree trunk and looked around.

He'd grown up in this part of the Forest. Every slope, every glade was familiar. In the valley to the west was the Redwater: too shallow for canoes, but good fishing in spring, when the salmon come up from the Sea. To the east, all the way too the edge of the Deep Forest, lay the vast sunlit woods where the prey grow fat in autumn, and berries and nuts are plentiful. To the south were the moors where reindeer eat moss in winter.

Fa said the best thing about this part of the Forest was that so few people came here. Maybe the odd party of Willow Clan from the west by the Sea, or the Viper Clan up from the south, but they never stayed long. They simply passed through, hunting freely as everyone did in the Forest, and unaware that Austin and Fa hunted here too.

Austin had never questioned that before. It was how he'd always lived: alone with Fa, away from the clans. Now, though, he longed for people. He wanted to shout; to yell for help.

But Fa had warned him to stay away from them.

Besides, shouting might draw the bear.

The bear.

Panic rose in his throat. He pushed it down. He took a deep breath and started to run again, more steadily this time, heading north.

As he ran, he picked up signs of prey. Elk tracks. Auroch droppings. The sound of the forest horse moving through the bracken. The bear hadn't frightened them away. At least, not yet.

So had his father been wrong? Had his wits been wandering at the end?

"Your fathers mad!" The children had taunted Austin five summers before, when he and Fa had journeyed to the clan sea-shore for the clan meet. It was Austin's first ever clan meet, and it had been a disaster. Fa had never taken him again.

"They say he swallowed the breath of a ghost." The children had sneered. "That's why he left his clan and lives on his own."

Austin had been furious. He would've fought them all if his father hadn't come along and hauled him off. "Austin, ignore them." Fa had laughed. "They don't know what they're saying."

He'd been right, of course.

But was he right about the bear?

Up ahead, the trees opened into a clearing. Austin stumbled into the sun - and into a stench of rottenness.

He lurched to a halt.

The forest horse lay where the bear had tossed them like broken playthings. No scavenger had dared feed on them. Not even the flies would touch them.

They looked like no bear kill Austin had ever seen. When a normal bear feeds, it peels back the hide of it's prey and takes the innards and hind parts, then catches the rest for later. Like any other hunter, it wasted nothing. But this bear had ripped no more than a single bite from each carcass. It hadn't killed from hunger. It had killed for fun.

At Austin's feet lay a dead foal, its small hooves still crusted with river clay from it's final drink. His gorge rose. What kind of creature slaughters an entire herd? What kind of creature kills for pleasure?

He remembered the bear's eyes, glimpsed for one appalling heartbeat. He'd never seen such eyes. Behind them lay endless rage and a hatred of all living things. The hot, churning chaos of the Otherworld.

Of course his father was right. This wasn't a bear. It was a demon. It would kill and kill until the Forest was dead.

No-one can fight this bear, his father had said. Did that mean the Forest was doomed? And why did he, Austin, have to find the Mountain of the World Spirit? The Mountain that no-one had ever seen?

Your guide will find you, his father's voice echoed in his mind.

How? When?

Austin left the glade and plunged back into the shadows beneath the trees. Once again he began to run.

He ran for ever. He ran until he could no longer feel his legs. But at last he reached a long, wooded slope and had to stop: doubled up, chest heaving.

Suddenly he was ravenous. He fumbled for his food pouch - and groaned in disgust. It was empty. Too late, he remembered the neat bundles of dried deer meat, forgotten at the shelter.

Austin, you fool! Messing things up on your first day alone! Alone.

It wasn't possible. How could Fa be gone? Gone for ever?

Gradually he became aware of a faint mewing sound coming from the other side of the hill.

There it was again. Some young animal crying for it's mother.

His heart leapt. Oh, thank the Spirit! An easy kill. His belly tightened at the thought of fresh meat. He didn't care what it was. He was so hungry he could eat a bat.

Austin dropped to the ground and crept through the birch trees to the top of the hill.

He looked into the narrow gully through which ran a small, swift rive. He recognised it: the Fastwater. Further west, he and Fa often camped in summer to gather lime bark for rope-making; but this part looked unfamiliar. Then he realised why.

Some time before, a flash flood had come roaring down the mountains. The waters had since subsided, leaving a mass of wet undergrowth and grass strewn saplings. They'd (referring to the water as human) also destroyed a wild den on the other side of the gully. There, below a big red boulder shaped like a sleeping aurock, lay two drowned wolves like sodden fur cloaks. Three dead cubs floated in a puddle.

The fourth sat beside them, shivering.

The wolf cub looked about three months old. It was thin and wet, and was complaining softly to itself in a low, continuous whimper.

Austin flinched. Without warning, the sound had brought back a startling vision to his mind. Black fur. Warm darkness. Rich, fatty milk. The Mother licking him clean. The scratch of tiny claws and nudge of small, cold noses. Fluffy cubs clambering over him: the newest cub in the litter.

The vision was as vivid as a lightning flash. What did it mean?

His hand tightened on his father's knife. It doesn't matter what it means, he told himself. Visions won't keep you alive. If you don't eat that cub, you'll be too weak to hunt. And you're allowed to kill your clan-creature (the animal that represents the clan you belong to) to keep from starving. You know that.

The cub raised it's head and gave a bewildered yowl.

Austin listened to it - and understood it.

In some way that he couldn't begin to fathom, he recognised the high, wavering sounds. His mind knew their shapes. He remembered them.

This isn't possible, he thought.

He listened to the cub's yowls. He felt them drop into his mind.

Why don't you play with me? The cub was asking its dead pack. What have I done now?

On and on it went. As Austin listened, something awakened in him. His neck muscles tensed. Deep in his throat he felt a response beginning. He fought the urge to put back his head and howl.

What was happening? He didn't feel like Austin any more. Not boy, not son, not member of the Wolf Clan - or not only those things. Some part of him was wolf.

A breeze sprang up, chilling his skin.

At the same moment, the wolf cub stopped yowling and jerked around to face him. It's eyes were unfocused, but its large ears were pricked, and it was snuffing the air. It had smelt him.

Austin looked down at the small anxious cub, and hardened his heart.

He drew his knife from his belt and started down the slope.

And that's chapter two. Really hoping you're liking it so far. I do really love this story. Anywho, I thought of another relatable thing to help with the idea behind this story. If you've seen Brother Bear, then what the people of that time believed is much the same as in this. The plot in that film is entirely different but I don't know... Thought it might give some of you more of an idea. By the way, Brother Bear has got to be the most underrated Disney film of all time.

Moving on, thank you so so so much for every follow, favourite and review. You guys are truly awesome. Please keep up the amazing support as it really does inspire me.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Love you guys xxxx