An eerie, blood-chilling, mournful wailing drifted over the walls.
A hunting wolf in the dead of night. Hawk shuddered as the howling
drew nearer. No normal wolf was this– stories of a daemon wolf as
tall as a man were told, and not all were drunken or idle gossip.
The people of Sultan and Deek barred their doors and windows at night,
and mutilated Duck Warriors had been found.
He heard a horrible cough, not unlike that of a lion, below the
wall. Slowly, Hawk kneeled, and stared down the sheer cliff-face.
The daemon snarled up at him, some dark liquid– blood– dripping from its
jaws.
Then it spoke.
(Warrior of Mana . . . . We have killed your compatriots,
as well as those that may have aided you. Now it is your turn to
die.
(Come and meet our crimson jaws, crafty thief of Navarre .
. . . Come and meet your final doom, ninja of flame . . . . The darkness
awaits your shrill death scream, as do we . . . )
"Then wait forever!" Hawk cried into the clear night.
The daemon wolf shrieked its rage to the impatient darkness.
(Coward! If you will not come to us then we will seek
you out! Blood will spill, yes, it will!)
Hawk stared down at the abomination, his shoulder-length
hair framing his face, and realized that it was completely blind.
Not even this foul daemon could see through those milky, silver eyes.
"Hawk?" Jessica stepped out of the doorway, looking worried.
"Hawk, what was that? Why are you still out here? Your watch
is over."
Hawk stood up. "Jessica, could you go back inside? Right
now?"
"Why?"
Below them, the wolf laughed. Jessica froze. "What
was that?"
Hawk said, grimly, "That was why I wanted you to go inside."
With an unearthly, bloodlusting howl, the daemon threw itself onto
the wall.
(Blood will spill, Hawk. If not yours, then blood of
your dear ones . . . We will rend, tear, you shall DIE!) The
wolf lunged at Hawk, who dodged it and drew his knives. It spun in
midair and lashed out with a claw, knocking Jessica onto the sands below.
Both Hawk and Jessica screamed, one in pain and one in fury. The
daemon wolf bounded off of the wall, and, seizing Jessica with its blood-soaked
jaws, trotted into the night.
(Come and get her, thief . . . When one fortnight passes,
we will devour her soul and scatter the bones to the wind.)
By the time Hawk got out of the gate, there was no trace of either
the daemon-wolf or Jessica.
