Chapter Twelve: Cornered
"They're sniffing around our territory now, in no time they will find us. Does that go with your plan?" Balto asked rather harshly as he and his brother returned to the rendezvous point where the white wolf Lyya was waiting. Usually for Balto, he would not speak that way to someone he barely knew, but being chased by a group of highly disciplined wolves unnerved him.
"Good. Now we just have to rally them and lure them to us." Answered the white wolf, something told the brothers she was not joking, there was seriousness in her eyes, unless her lying ability had grown so strong that even her eyes could lie.
"What is it on your mind Lyya, I know you always have the plan, but this suspense is killing me." Said Kirdo in a calmer tone, being a wolf-dog that had seen the slaughter of his pack mates, being chased by a pack of killers in his own territory was not enough to scare him… or so it seemed.
"You will see soon enough," Lyya still held her mouth firmly, "I can't promise everyone a good ending, but I am positive we'll survive this."
"Anything is a good ending if we survive," stated Kirdo, appeared confused.
Lyya turned her head away, and for a second she looked unsure, but as soon as she looked back, the sly, skeptical look returned. "Just do what I said, and we'll see if that good ending is indeed good for you."
"So what now, lure them here and pin ourselves between the human's town and pack of angry fangs?" Snapped Balto, this plan made no sense to him.
"That's quite the part you are going to perform," Lyya smiled one of her chill-sending smiles, "You won't find much sense in it because you are but a part of the grand picture, play your part well and you may find yourself in a successful plan, deny it… then I am afraid, you'll really find yourself quite pinned."
Balto fought back the urge to growl, what she said was right, he would risk much if he turns away right now, but he could not help but felt being used by this white fox in front.
Kirdo had a calmer mind—most probably he had gotten use to Lyya's manipulation—and asked for the details. Now the two of them were to approach the enemies from their front and lure them to a clearing north of their den site, while Rokal and Mista approach them from the north, the Shadowy brothers would see to it than none of their friends get hurt.
"What is all this for?" Balto thought out loud as they moved into position.
"Same question here," his brother replied, "Lyya isn't one I would trust my life to, but right now, she's my only bet. Besides, we are really tired of being chased again and again, it's time we act."
Balto stopped dead in the track and eyed his brother carefully, "What if this act is going to be your last?" he asked carefully.
Kirdo brushed off the serious question with a carefree chuckle, "I doubt we'll be that down on luck with you in the team, Hero of Nome." He teased.
Balto chuckled at his brother's words, Kirdo surely had his ways to cheer up just about any situation. Balto could feel the atmosphere grew from the grim seriousness to a lighter, more comfortable one.
A howl ripped through the morning air, a rally call and definitely not on their side, they knew instantly that Mista and Rokal had successfully captured their rivals' attention. They would lure them towards Balto and Kirdo's direction and they would take it from there and bring them to that spot Lyya pinpointed.
The two brothers hid stiffly and nervously under a pile of rocks as the barking and snapping of multiple wolves got louder and fearfully closer. "I don't think they are this foolish to think that we are merely running from them." Kirdo stated monotonously, despite the direness of the situation, he still had his emotion perfectly under control.
"They don't need a plan to corner us," Balto agreed, "Come, we better start running so we won't need to speed up that much when they reach us." He stood up, beckoned his brother to follow.
They started out as a fast trot, but quickly sped up as the sound of crushing sticks and running paws on snow got closer and closer.
"Pick up pace you wolf-dogs! Use your petty dog paws the way wolves do!" They heard Rokal yelling at them from behind. They did not know if he was really close enough to see them, or he simply picked up their scent along the trail, but they did not dare to turn and see. Whichever ways Rokal detected them, the enemies were close, too close for comfort.
The destination drew closer as they ran frantically to put more distance between the pack of vengeance-driven wolves. A reddish brown wolf ran past them, it was Mista, running straight toward the meadow. She must be really scared… Kirdo thought, she was never the bravest wolf in the pack, and this situation would scare even Rokal the fearless. I just hope that Lyya did do something about that place that will miraculously, or magically, safe us.
Lyya was there, quite surprising for some of them. But sure enough, the white wolf-dog was sitting in the farthest edge of the clearing, shifting her body nervously.
Balto and Kirdo reached Lyya in merely a few seconds. To their dismay, the trees and bushes behind them were too thick, trying to go through them was impossible. They had pitted themselves against a dead end.
"Now what?" Kirdo inspected the growth and confirmed no way out, "Why are we here? You do realize there's no escape here, don't you?"
"Shh! Quiet!" the white wolf-dog snapped without looking at him, "There's a hidden trail to our left, but don't move yet. I intended to end this once and for all."
"But how-?" Balto did not have the chance to finish his sentence, as Rokal burst into the clearing, with a whole pack of hostile wolves close behind him, with their teeth bared and ears laid flat against their head. On the lead was a dark grey wolf, he let out a sinister smile as he saw all his 'prey' trapped before him.
"There is nowhere to run, Valley's End wolves!" He yelled as he stopped about two yards away from Balto and his friends, his wolves quickly surrounded them, "Now you shall face what you have done to my pack!"
"What is the meaning of this, Karani?" Lyya shouted as she took one step forward to look the fearsome wolf in the eye.
"Look at my pack," The mad wolf gestured, "Missing someone you fought in the battle? Aye, that's what you dogs done to my pack. By killing the alpha female in my pack, you wrecked my pack's hard-built balance and eventually my pack broke into a half! You all have to pay for this."
"Sounds not even fair compared to what you did to my pack." Rokal spat.
"Ooh brave words, old bones. Be careful of what you speak, for it may decide how painful your end would be…" Karani growled. Some of his followers advanced, but he shoved them back.
"I do not see how we can tear your pack in two by attacking a single wolf, would you mind explaining?" Lyya shushed the old wolf away and asked politely.
"You tipped the balance of our pack, you insolent fool!" The maddened wolf roared, his wolves growled and barked in agreement.
"I don't understand, nor do any of my pack mates, I believe." Lyya said, she even managed to put on a confused face, which looked really weird on the white wolf to Balto, but nevertheless, Karani seemed to buy it.
"Well, I did say I want to let you know your crimes before I get my... reparation, didn't I?" He spoke to himself loudly, and launched into a story spiced with a great amount of cursing and swearing. With the harsh words removed, his story sounded like an exaggerated version of what Siria told them.
Balto could see that Lyya was stalling, but it was really hard to tell if you did not know what was going on, she looked to be paying real attention to Karani's twisted story, nodding and mumbling as the story went. But stalling for what? Is she expecting some sort of help, where can she get any help?
Karani's story went on, and it was close to the finish, unless Karani would like to add some comments about the story, but it seemed unlikely, considering he had cursed all he wanted as he told the story.
"Now," Karani cleared his throat and made a savage smile, his wolves stepped closer and readied themselves, and these brought Balto's attention back to the impending doom he was going to face. He remembered what Lyya said about the hidden escape, but he did not know where, he silently cursed himself for not asking earlier when he had the chance.
"I believe you have now fully understood the reason of our action," Karani continued, "Actually I'm feeling quite merciful today, so I will give you the chance to surrender yourself. It'll make your death a lot easier."
"You call that mercy? You weasel-minded warmonger? We need not a single bit of your honor-destroying lies!" Rokal spat, finally had enough of the nonsense he was seeing, if he had to die this day, he would rather it to be an honorable one, "Bring it."
"You'll have what you seek! Old dog!" Karani roared, "Get them!" He lunged.
Balto watched in panic as the hostile wolves approached, snarling and barking and they approach. On his left, Lyya was starting to retreat, Shadowfang leaped into the shadows, preparing to strike from his most advantageous locations, and…. Was that dog barks?
