Our Land-shadows

Chapter 11 – What ritual?

…

"Baen! " Ellie cried out when they arrived at the scene.

The badger leader was lying in the sand, face-down, deep bleeding scratches on his back and side, and one of his back legs twisted in a strange way. His spear was broken in three pieces.

"Is he dead?" Sid asked in horror.

Ellie walked over to Baen and gently turned him over. There was a very soft moan.

"Baen, what happened?" Ellie asked.

"A-a bear…" Baen replied softly, his voice barely more than a whisper. "Huge…b-bigger than any I've ever seen."

"And… Peaches?" Ellie asked with a frown.

Baen closed his eyes. "I-I'm sorry, I…"

Eliie shushed him.

"It's not your fault. I know you did what you could." She said gently.

She turned to her brothers and Sid.

"Bring him to the badger village, the healer there will take care of him." She turned around to Seth and Sierra. "You two, take me to that With Wolf. If he send the bear, I'm sure he has my daughter."

Sierra nodded.

Not much later the two possums and the sloth were carrying the badly injured Baen carefully back to the village, while the mother mammoth followed the two wolves back to the mountains, as fast as they could.

"Where are the sabers?" Sierra asked while running ahead of the rest.

"They're out hunting," Ellie answered. "We don't have time to warn them. We must find my daughter."

"And Manny, where is he?" Seth asked.

Ellie looked down. "I… don't know."

"No time to find him," Sierra said shortly. "Let's go."

They fastened their pace, and the mountains came closer and closer.

The sun slowly began to set behind the horizon.

…

Louis looked up when he heard someone entering the cave.

"Who is there?" he asked. "Hello? Can you help me?"

But when the person came closer, he recognized the muzzle of Shani. But she had red stripes painted on her face, paws and sides. It looked like blood.

The she-wolf opened the cage the molehog was locked up in.

"It's almost time, little molehog," she said. "We'll be taking you to a different place. This cave is too small for what we're planning."

She grabbed him by the skin in his neck and carried him outside.

"What are you going to do with me?" Louis asked.

"You will see." Shani just said.

Making sure the other wolves couldn't see her, she sneaked out of the wolf den, following a narrow path through the rocks. The sky became darker and darker above them. Finally, they arrived at a round flat space between the rocks. In the middle there was a fire, with the Witch Wolf sitting next to it. He too was covered in stripes drawn on his fur with blood. He threw different sorts of powder on the fire, making the smoke rise high in all sorts of colours.

Behind him, there was a mammoth tied to a rock.

"Peaches!" Louis cried out.

Peaches looked up and recognized her friend.

"Louis!" she cried out a well, and there were small tears in her eyes.

"Such a peaceful reunion," the Witch Wolf said mockingly, with a wide grin on his face. He pushed the saber skull on his head down until it served as a mask. He looked even more creepy as usual now.

"Tie him up with her," the Witch Wolf ordered.

Shani did as she was told. She tied Louis up next to Peaches.

"I'm so glad you're alive," Peaches said to her friend.

"Me too," Louis said. "But what ere they planning to do with us?"

"I don't know…" Peaches sighed.

"I can enlighten you…" the Witch Wolf giggled, suddenly standing in front of them, his red eyes glaring at them through his saber-skull mask. His grin widened.

"We need blood for this ritual. Blood of two different animals. Blood of two different enemies…"

Louis and Peaches both gasped.

"Of course, we would have preferred the leader of your herd or one of the sabers," the Witch Wolf continued. "But you two will do. You'll have just enough blood for the ritual to work."

"W-what kind of ritual?" Louis asked.

The Witch Wolf let out a cackling laugh. "That's for us to know and for you to find out."

Shani sat down next to her master and nuzzled his fur lovingly.

"When can we begin, master?" she asked.

"Soon, my dear, soon," the Witch Wolf giggled. "Go and get your brother."

"Of course, master."

Shani turned around and tip-toed away, back to the wolf lair.

The Witch Wolf looked up to the stars.

"Enjoy the stars tonight, my dears," he said to Peaches and Louis. "They will be your last."

Louis gulped loudly, while the Witch Wolf let out a crazy, howling laughter that echoed through the mountains.

…

Manny arrived back at the forest. He was surprised to see that only Diego and Shira were at the cave.

"Where is everybody?" he asked.

"We don't know," Diego said. "when we got back from hunting, nobody was here. We looked for them, but we couldn't find them."

"Have you looked at the badger village?" Manny asked.

"No," Shira said, standing up. "Let's go look there right now. We have to know if they're safe… with all these strange things happening."

The three of them left the cave and ran to the badger village, not knowing in what danger Louis and Peaches were at that exact moment."

…

"Oh, brother…" Hamlin heard a voice behind him say. He looked over his shoulder and saw his sister Shani. She was covered in stripes painted with…. Was that blood?

"what is it, Shani?" he asked. "And why do you look like that?"

"I will explain it all later," Shani said, smiling. "You need to come, the Witch Wolf needs you."

Hamlin rolled his eyes. "Again?" He sighed. "Shani, I don't have time now."

"It won't take long, brother," Shani said quickly. "Please, just come along. For me…"

Hamlin sighed again.

"Fine," he said. "But let it be quick."

Shani looked excited. "Follow me." She said.