Chapter 10

Faith of the Fallen

Will's nose twitched trying to scent the three strange wolves that had just shown up at the door to the spell room. All at once Will realized who they were, it was Brandon, his brother Collin and the Golden Wolf Jason. The three of them stood there in their wolf forms waiting to see what the two of them would do. Jason's eyes were only on Halt, Will could see that he knew that Halt was not one of them.

"Why would you do that for us? Why don't you want to turn us in?" Will asked Brandon as he could tell that he was the leader of their group here. So it was him that he knew he would have to go through.

Brandon moved forward, now that he could see that they were not going to fight right now. He growled softly to Jason so that the golden wolf would back off. The wolf backed down back he never lost his focus on Halt though. Brandon sighed and started to talk.

"because of what happened a few days after our mission to the wizard's castle".

At this the others started to whine and whimper. Halt and Will could see that all of them, even Brandon were clearly upset but then Brandon growled at them and they were then silent again but they still did not loose the pain in their eyes. Soon all three wolves had moved into the room and had sat down and looked at Halt and Will, who realized that they must do the same if they wanted to hear the story.

"What happened?" asked Halt, taking the only chair in the room, while Will and the other sat on the floor. It seemed that the other wolves had taken for granted that Halt could talk to them. Will realized that they probably thought that all humans could talk to all animals.

"Will do you remember the youngest wolf in our group, Nicholas?" Brandon asked and when Will nodded, Brandon then continued "Nick was killed by Lucas and Charlie. The Witch was there, just standing there, watching as he was torn apart. She let it happen.

"Why would she allow such a thing to happen? I thought that she needed as many wolves as she could create to be her guards. I thought that was why we were made for her" Will said.

"Oh she does need us but it was like she was angry over what had happened. Like there was more to our mission than she was letting on and us not fulfilling our job, she just needed that anger to be released and some how that anger transmitted to Lucas" said Brandon and then Jason started to speak, his eyes on the floor for the first time since coming in the room with the others and not on Halt.

"Nicholas was just laying in the sun, resting his shoulder that had been troubling him since the mission, he had taken a bad knock to it and he was lucky that it was not broken. Lucas saw this as a sign that Nicholas was weaker then the rest and this he must have told Charlie. So then the two of them attacked" said Jason while Collin just nodded and whined softly.

"Collin there was nothing you could have done. I know he was your friend but if you had gone out there you would have been killed too"said Brandon rubbing his head against his little brother's shoulder.

Halt realized that Collin must have been the next target of the two lead wolves, and Brandon must want to get away before he is killed too.

"So you want to get away before it is you as well?" Halt asked Brandon, Collin and Jason looked at Halt again. Will realized that even if they knew that Halt could understand them, they did not know that he could make himself understood as well and Jason had pick up on this.

"Yes we would. We would give anything to get away from here. I can tell you both had some kind of spell placed on you,different to what we have been through. Human you have obviously been given the power to speak to us and Will you have been given the power to turn into a human" Jason said looking at the two of them with the eyes of a predator.

"Will, my son...what is it with this one?" asked Halt.

"Jason has a nickname, which is hawk or at least it used to be when he was human. I don't know if he remembers his life at all. I only remembered parts of it but that was because of you, Halt" said Will.

"What do you mean human? haven't we always been wolves? I don't believe that we were because the only human in the room is that one!" said Jason pointing to Halt.

Brandon and Collin looked confused about this too. None of them remembered their lives before the witch got to them. Will knew that they would need some more convincing before they would believe that they were human but this was neither the time or place of that conversation.

"Look we can go over that conversation another time. Let's just get the book and get out of here" said Halt placing the blade and the dust in the bag that he carried.

And Although the other wolves growled at this, they relented that it was something for another time and lead the way out of the room and down the corridor, their noses working and their eyes sharp all the time, making sure that they were not found by any other wolves or the witch Shotaha.

In the warm yellow light of the spell book room the companions started their search for the spell book she used to change Will and the others into wolves. There was thousands of books in the room but with the noses of the wolves they soon could tell which ones that she could have used by the smell of wolf in their pages.

"Which is it?" asked Collin.

They had found two books with wolf scent on them and had long spells in a language that none of them could understand in their pages. Both of them looked very old and worn.

"The only thing we can do is to take both books and hope that one of them is the book we need. I sure don't want to come back here again" Halt told them and the wolves all agreed.

"He is right, it's tie to go" Will said, quickly running to the exit and checking out whether the coast was clear. It would be bad to get everything they needed only to have themselves caught. Will knew if that was to happen, Halt would most likely be killed and his and the other wolves spells reinforced, so that there would be no way for Raven to undo it, they would never think of their human selves again but if Halt was to die, Will knew that he would not want to remember his human life without him.

As the small group moved through the castle, torches flickered light as their passing made the still air move, throwing the groups shadows on the walls. All of a sudden, two massive shadows appeared, they moved from one side of the corridor to the other. Halt, Will and the others froze, hoping that those shadows would not or could not detect them.

They did not.

Soon the group could breathe again. Halt said now that it was over and that it was time to go home and at that the three new wolves looked at each other.

Home? was the only thing they thought.

An: were they the wolves you thought of? only Alex the rogue guess two of them right. Side note have any of you read the first chapter of the "Royal Ranger" on the Ranger's apprentice web site, I have and I cannot believe what happened to her.

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