Chapter 2. Where The Wolves' Path Led

But the wolves only stared at the woman, not moving or attempting to strike. Suddenly, the leader opened his jaws and growled in quite an intelligible language:

"Magda. You're to come with us."

"Magda – is it my name?" the woman whispered and coughed. The wolf nodded. Obviously, speaking was as hard to him as to her (with her sore throat). "Who are you? Am I supposed to know you?"

"No. We were summoned," the wolf explained. "Get up. Go."

"I can't move a hand, let alone go anywhere!" Magda (so that was her name – a pretty one, she thought) groaned. "I'm dying of hunger and in the whole feel like a squashed caterpillar! If you want me to walk, at least get me some food."

Several wolves heard it and ran away.

"Wait. Food," the leader said.

"I hope it's not human meat," Magda shuddered.

"No. Lemmings. Gulls. Bears."

In half an hour, the wolves returned. Each was carrying a sack at its back. Magda took one of the sacks and opened it to find a large piece of boiled meat. Her mouth watered. She pulled off a loaf of it with her fingers and ate. The meat may have been cold, but Magda felt she had never eaten anything better. She finished the dinner with several handfuls of snow again and cried:

"Oh thank you so much! Where did you get the meat?"

"There," the leading wolf informed her, turning his head left. "Let's go."

The wolves helped her to get up, and they walked together in the direction the leader had shown. Magda was trying to sort out her mind again. Her name did sound vaguely familiar to her, so what if some memories were hidden in her consciousness?

"Where am I?" she asked the wolves.

"Arctic," the leader replied. "Near North Pole."

"How did I get here?" Magda continued her questioning.

"From the vortex," the wolf said as if it was the most well-known fact on Earth.

"Goodness, what vortex?"

"The vortex," the wolf repeated dully.

"Where are you taking me?" Magda asked, seeing that she had no chance to find out anything about the vortex thing.

"There," the leader said, pointing ahead with his paw.

Magda panicked. What if the wolves were going to kill her after all? Maybe they had some primitive minds and would feed her just to get her fat and eat her later? What if they were… she searched her brain for the word and luckily found one… werewolves? In that case they were probably going to make some ritual and then bite her, so that she would be one of them?

"Please," she begged. "If you want to kill me, do it now. I can't stand this waiting."

"Won't kill," the leading wolf said.

"Are you werewolves?" the woman asked, trembling.

"What are werewolves?"

Apparently, this is a no, Magda guessed and relaxed a little. Maybe they were trained wolves – train by some Inuit or Icelandic people. They would take her to a village of some kind, where she would at least get a temporary shelter…

Suddenly, she did see a group of Inuit men walking towards her. The wolves surrounding her stood still, stiffened, and bared their deadly fangs.

One of the men… no, a boy of no more than sixteen stepped ahead.

"You're alive!" he yelled at Magda. "Aktuk! Are you planning to restore your precious city? Well, that won't do! People are warned now!"

Magda was more than shocked:

"Dear boy, you must have confused me with someone! I… I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm not an idiot, Magda, and neither are my parents and friends. You won't fool us with this faked naivety. Better tell us what are you planning."

The leading wolf interrupted:

"Lady lost her memory."

"Well!" the Inuit boy raised an eyebrow, not knowing whether to believe it. "And what if I told you there are several helpless elfin children just half a mile there?" he pointed to the left. "With their respective Light Fairies?"

He was checking if I really lost my memory, Magda realized. How am I supposed to react?

After a pause, another man from the group said to the boy:

"I think she did lose her memory, Zak. Even Magda wouldn't be able to adopt such a disguise."

"Alright," the boy grunted. "I'm sorry, miss, I lied – there are no elfin children around. I hope you will now lead a better life."

"Let's go," the leading wolf said and pulled Magda's sleeve. She awkwardly nodded at the people and reluctantly followed the wolves. Actually, she'd have liked a chance to talk to Zak. She'd be able to find out more about her past. But… perhaps… Magda remembered the boy's words and shivered. What was her past like? What could she have done with elfin children or Light Fairies, hadn't she lost her memories?

Light Fairies… A blurry image came up in her head: a tiny winged girl with sparkling golden hair, in a greenish yellow dress.

"Did I know this boy, Zak?" she asked the wolves.

"Yes," the leader said, after a moment of hesitation. "Hated."

"I hated him? Or he hated me?"

"Both."

Magda froze. What sort of person was she?

"And what was the city Zak talked about?"

"The Golden City."

"I built it?"

"Yes."

The woman frowned and clenched her teeth, repeating the words in her mind, hoping some faint remembrance would well up. There was nothing – only a momentary flash of bright, unnatural golden color.

Suddenly she looked at her companions and came up with a very interesting thought:

"How do you know all this if I didn't know you before?"

"Have heard. Were told," was the leader's short response.

They walked further in silence until Magda cried:

"Oh, please, how long will it take us to get wherever we are heading? My whole body aches, I'm tired and hungry again."

"Soon," the wolves promised.

Indeed, in only several minutes they saw the light of a fire. In another several minutes, they approached it.

A rather scary-looking man was sitting in front of the fire, carving something from a wooden log with an odd white knife. The man was dark-haired with skin of a shade of dark-yellow color, like that of the Inuit people. His eyes were bright green with yellow sparkles, like a wolf's eyes, and his slightly opened mouth showed sharp wolfish-like teeth.

He looked up as the group came to the fire. The leading wolf lay on the ground and looked down:

"She lost her memory."

"I can see it myself," the man smirked. "If she's standing here and just blinking her eyes instead of trying to throw me back into the vortex or at least yelling and blaming everything on me, there is definitely something wrong with her head. All the better."

"Am I supposed to know you as well?" Magda asked carefully.

"Oh, Magda, don't say you have no memories of me," he laughed, mockingly hurt but also probably genuinely surprised. "I was your first advisor and assistant. My wolves were your most faithful guardians. And, if I recall correctly, you promised to marry me."

"Marry you?" the woman cried, glancing at her grayish-diamond ring.

"Of course. Had we not fallen into the vortex… Oh, by the way, tell me how you survived."

"I don't know!" Magda said. "I woke up in the snow, and then the wolves found me. Anyway, what was 'the vortex'?"

"The fire vortex that led to the center of Earth!" the man now didn't try to hide his astonishment. "Don't tell me you've forgotten even that!"

"I tell you I don't remember a thing!" Magda exclaimed.

He shrugged:

"Fine. Then I'll now send the wolves to bring us some meat, and after a supper I suppose I'll have to tell you about your own life."