Circle Of Sisters
4. Tracking
It was only after a few hours of tramping through the disenchanted forest that Wolf realised just how glad he was to be out of the house. He disliked the very thought of wishing to be away from his Virginia, but at the same time he could not deny the truth of it. In the dappled half light of the forest he was tempted to allow himself the luxury of forgetting all about the past week. But he was only half a wolf. His all too human mind refused to stop thinking, worrying, planning. Still, something about the cool green wilderness was calming to him. All too easy just to think one paw at a time in here. Step here. Stop, sniff here. Circle here. Avoid this tree. Was that the scent of rabbit? All these things, his wolf mind took care of without his even having to be aware of them, in fact it was better that way for all half-wolf's. Let the wolf out. He had a sudden memory of his father then, the small boy he had been sitting rapt on the ground as his father went through some of the basic mental exercises taught to all young half-wolf's.
"Lucian, are you paying attention?" his father asked, the ever patient voice cutting through the cub's wandering nose.
"Yes, papa"
"What was I saying then?"
"You were telling me how to recognize my wolf and my human selfs. You said how important it is to give equal time to both or else one might get mad and make trouble for the other. But what happens when they fight, papa?"
"Well, you either become a very dangerous human, erratic and violent, or you might become a very passive wolf, stumbling, senseless, a danger to yourself and your pack"
"It doesn't sound good either way"
"No, but it doesn't happen very often, young cub. And you have many years before you first feel the Goddess in your blood. Plenty of time to practice and forge a bond between your wolf and man selfs. You will learn just how and when to let the wolf out"
He had learnt those things, Wolf knew, even though his teacher had been taken away from him so early, and so cruelly. He was a good half-wolf, cunning, resourceful, intelligent and loving. He would find a way forward from this mess, he told himself firmly. He had found himself agreeing with Virginia this morning. It wasn't meant for her, this afflicition of the werewolf. She had seemed so sure of it, so he found that he also had to believe it. And yet, it warred with his own ideas about fate. Nothing happened without a reason, and what would be the point of making someone a werewolf if they never experienced it? If by some miracle, he and Virginia did find a cure for her some time in the next few weeks, what would have been the reason for the whole episode? Surely she was meant to learn something from all this. If they turned aside the curse, what then would happen to her? Wolf knew that certain things usually kept occurring in a person's life until they figured out the lesson to be gained. And the more often a person turned away from learning, the more disrupting the events would become. Did this mean that Virginia hadn't gained what they had hoped for her when they had drawn her into this world? And just who were they anyway?
It was all too much for Wolf. He stopped abruptly and slumped down to lay his cheek against the damp earth. A semi-sentient frond of creeping ivy poked it's trailing tendrils up through the soil to investigate if anything worth eating had happened upon it's patch. Wolf opened one eye to growl at the leafy thing.
"Don't even think about it" he snarled at it, feeling a growing sense of exasperation. Life was just a big competition in the forest, and in the Kingdoms at large. Eat or be eaten. No one just lived out their lives in peace and happiness, untroubled by fate or chance. Wolf wondered if other inhabitants of the Kingdoms ever just lay down as he was now to curse the uneven path of life they were on. He smiled bitterly in the gloom. Most of them had, probably. He was foolish to think he was the only one with problems to solve. He heard the quiet tread of boots coming towards him. Willem, following along in wolf fashion, a little behind and off to one side. He heard his brother as he paused in the undergrowth, sensing that the leader of their little pack had stopped. Willem changed direction slightly to intercept the new location. The bushes parted silently as he came upon Wolf still lying on the ground.
"Having a moment?" Willem asked, and Wolf heard the quiet humour in his voice.
"Of sorts. I've been thinking too much again"
"Ah ha. Bad wolfie habit, that one. Come on then. We won't find your friend laying about" Willem replied, reaching down to yank his younger brother to his feet. Willem brushed absently at the grass and leaves clinging to Wolf's coat.
"Lets go Lucian. Now remember, don't just think, become"
"You've been talking to Virginia. She's always saying stuff like that" Wolf huffed. But she was right, of course. He sighed and stretched the muscles of his back, feeling them crack with restrained tension. Willem had already moved off but Wolf caught up with him again, taking back the lead with the unconcious consent of Willem to his status as the alpha. Presently, as the morning moved towards midday, they drew near the boundary of the fullblood wolf pack. There were none nearby that the brother's could sense, so they left their marks on a tree and crossed into the fullblood's territory. Wolf led them almost directly to the place where he had last seen Elias. The small grove was deserted and no scent fresher than a few days lay over it. So, he had not returned, Wolf thought unhappily. He cast about in the direction he had last seen the man go. The trail was faint, but still detectable to the two half-wolf's. Wolf saw Willem's nostrils flaring as he learned the scent they were to follow.
"Hmm, I don't like the smell of that wound. How long's it been now, six days? He'll be riddled with infection if he still lives, Lucian"
"Should make him easy to find then"
"Yes, well, you're right, of course. Well, lets be off then. Unless you want to..."
"What?"
"Have lunch?"
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Elias watched out of the corner of his eye as the black bird perched uneasily on the decaying foot of the corpse. It fluffed it's feathers out, making little motes of dust circle in the damp air of the tomb. Elias frowned slightly to himself. He really should stop thinking of this place as a tomb. Tombs contained the dead, and neither he nor the witch Hera could be called by that name just yet. He felt of the wound in his back, knowing it to healing finally, the ragged edges closing together and clean new skin growing over them. His head felt clearer, his body not racked with the fever as it had been. Well, at least Hera had kept to her word on that account. Whatever the herbal concoction she had instructed Connor to prepare and apply had saved him from immediate death at least. Yet it seemed strange to Elias that he still craved life, even after all he had done to warrant it's deserting him. Must be a human thing, to want to cling to life like that. Just to lay down and die in the woods, alone and unnamed, well, that was an animal trait. Elias was no unthinking beast, no, of course not, he reasoned within his mind. But, he had the beast inside him, and that beast had done terrible things.
"We all have the terror within us. All are capable of it" Hera spoke in his mind. Her voice was soothing to Elias and he found himself nodding in unconcious agreement. It was all too true. His own brother, the good and loving priest that he had been to his own flock, had he not committed great injustice and cruelty to Wolf? Ignorance could not be used as an excuse for torture. And yet both Peter and his apprentice Connor had paid the price, so to speak, with death and madness consuming them. Elias shifted position uncomfortably on the makeshift pallet that the mad priest had set up for him on Hera's request. So, if divine justice existed and was meted out for Peter, why not Elias? Who had done the worst crimes?
"Do not compare yourself, Elias. It's a waste of time to try and measure this crime against that, because none of us know what the yardstick for comparison is. Do you really think we stand side by side with others at the end of our lives? No, we stand alone, and our misdeeds are known only to ourselves"
"Misdeed is hardly the word I will choose when I finally stand before God"
"Maybe, maybe not. I think in time you will come to realise that you are in essence an innocent here. You do not choose to do what you do. All your efforts to free yourself have come to nought, but surely you realise that they will count for something?"
"You use arguements that I have counselled myself with over many years, Hera"
"And yet you still mourn. Perhaps when your new kin comes to you, seeking those very same answers, you may find them together"
"My kin?"
"Well yes, your sweet Virginia. She is one of you now, is she not? Made by you, and, dare I suggest it, made for you. Daughter, sister, lover, who can tell? But you and she are bonded now and neither of you can deny it. Even now she seeks you out. She has sent her Hero to find you and he draws near this place as we speak. What will you do Elias? Will you allow them to dictate the terms to you? Do not forget your own place in this matter. Do not allow them to ride roughshod over your destiny again, Elias" Hera spoke softly, coaxingly and once more Elias found himself agreeing with her thoughts. He shivered at the idea of Wolf so close, tracking him down. He pictured the large, dominant figure in his mind. It was true, Wolf would seek to use Elias to cure his beloved mate, would likely beat and claw every last ounce of information out of him. The fact that Elias had no information would not deter the half-wolf, he guessed.
"What should I do, Hera?". The air in the room seemed to stir as the corpse twitched. The black bird, disturbed, took to flight, disappearing up the stairs.
"I can help you, I think. We need to take the half-wolf out of the equation. He will never let you go again and he will forever stand between you and Virginia"
"I won't kill him, or have him killed, Hera. He is, was, my brother"
"Of course, of course. There is no need to kill him. We only need to keep him restrained for a while, until you and your Virginia have had a time to speak, plan what you will do. I have in this tomb a special mirror that will do that very thing, and he'll be quite unharmed, I assure you" Hera said. Elias watched as one of the bony corpse fingers lifted itself to point into one of the dark corners. Elias looked there to see a half buried old mirror, covered in green slime with faint cracks running over it's surface. He frowned at the thing. He didn't understand how any magic mirrors worked, much less broken ones. But Hera was right. Wolf was coming for him and Wolf would keep him away from Virginia. Virginia who needed Elias to show her the way of things. And, Elias realised, he needed her too. He felt a sudden strong compulsion to be with her, speak with her, touch her. He sighed loudly and almost felt Hera's pleasure at his decision. It made him wonder momentarily at Hera's own agenda in all this.
"Don't worry over much about what I want, Elias. Know only that for now, we both seek the same thing. Now, your intrepid wolf friend
has camped down on the edge of the swamp for the night. At first light, he and another will come here for you. We must be ready for
them. Come here closer and I will tell you of the magic of this particular mirror of mine"
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"I don't like this place much, Lucian. It stinks" Willem muttered under his breath. The two brothers were fixing themselves a hasty breakfast of one rabbit apiece. Wolf tossed the remains over his shoulder, finding himself agreeing with Willem's appraisal of the swamp edge they had camped on overnight. If only his older brother would stop telling him all about it. They had spent most of the last day scouting for the faint trail of Elias as it meandered back and forth across the disenchanted forest. For a while it seemed that there was no set pattern to the werewolf's wanderings and Wolf had imagined him to be in a fever induced stupor, blundering through the trees. Eventually they had come upon a spot where Elias had stopped for quite a while. By the scent and tracks they judged it to be less than three days ago, but the trail that led away from the grove was different. It was direct, straight as an arrow now and it pointed out from the forest's edge, over the farmlands and fields towards the ill omened swampland. Both Wolf and Willem had an instinctive dislike of having to leave the safety of cover in the forest and cross the exposed fields, but Wolf had vowed to follow the trail till it's end. They had waited until dusk, and Wolf had sent one of the Magic Birds back to the cottage with a message for Virginia, letting her know that he and Willem would be spending the night on the trail. Wolf had watched the little bird vanish swiftly into the evening with trepidation. His urge to be with Virginia, to watch over and protect her and their cub was almost overwhelming. After they had crossed the open spaces, deftly avoiding guard dogs and watchful farmers, he had spent a great part of the night pacing back and forth unhappily at the spot where they had chosen to bed down. By morning he had worn a patch of the straggly grass right down to the bare earth, despite Willem's pleas to leave off and get some rest.
"Will you cease that damned pacing! You're giving me a headache! She's just fine, I tell you. Elsie is there, the Forest is close, and your mate is not without resources of her own, you know!"
"Don't tell me what to do. Things are easy for you to say. You are unmated. You haven't seen your mate lying close to death, knowing that it was your doing. I wasn't there for her and I can barely stand to be away from her now" Wolf had spat angrily at his brother but had immediately regretted it, seeing plain on Willems' face the hurt of his words.
"Then go back now. I can find and retreive your friend easily enough"
"No, no. It's something I have to do. He wouldn't come with you anyway. I'm sorry Willem. I'm not handling all this very well and I shouldn't take it out on you. Huff puff! We haven't had much of a reunion have we?"
"To tell you the truth, it's gone much better than I thought it would! I had imagined the worst, that you would drive me away. And here we are, not under the best of situations of course, but we're together. Mother and Papa would be happy at least, don't you think?" Willem replied, yawning and scratching out a rough nest of leaves and dry grass. Wolf stared thoughtfully at his brother, allowing himself to see the honest wisdom of the words. He felt a deep surge of emotion, a sense of brotherhood he'd long since thought dead in his life. And it was true, they were getting on much better than Wolf had ever imagined, despite the fact that Wolf knew very well that he was behaving quite unreasonably. He forced himself to quit pacing and settled down nearby, half closing his eyes against the crescent moon as She travelled across the sky. Virginia answered to the Moon Goddess now, he realised. But he smiled in the darkness. The Goddess would not find Virginia to be a very tractable moon-child, not at all.
Now, thin sunlight filtered through the mist as the brothers finished their early caught breakfast. Wolf tossed the spindly rabbit bones into a nearby pond, watching as they disappeared beneath the floating muck that covered the surface of the water. That same scum seemed to cover just about every other surface as well. The whole place was a dripping, gooey bog. Wolf had been through the swamp once before, more than a year ago when in search of his darling Virginia. He'd found her just in time too, only minutes away from being completely bound into the earth by the creeping vines. He remembered just how happy she had been to see him. She had thrown herself into his arms, the very first time he had held her close and he had breathed in her delectable scent, knowing then and there that there was no way he would ever leave her side again. Just minutes later, she had told him that she loved him and only a few hours after that she had been in his arms once more, only this time in the complete, loving way that they both wanted. Wolf felt his cheeks flaming at the thought of that long ago afternoon. He wanted to visit that ferny glade again with Virginia, right now. Willem coughed politely to get his attention, and Wolf shook himself back to the present, firmly pushing all thoughts of lovemating out of his mind. But he did make a mental note about it, adding it to his list of things to do when all the current mess was sorted out. He stepped out confidently and within minutes both half-wolfs were floundering around in the mucky ground of the swamp.
The trail led directly to a small humpy-like hut. Wolf peered at it from a safe distance, almost certain that this was the same place that Virginia had described to him. The wretched old Swamp Witch, Snow White's wicked stepmother no less, lay rotting in the basement of this decrepit house, Virginia had told him. This was where she had gotten the deadly poisonous comb from, the one Wolf had carefully lifted from her coat to give to the Queen when it became apparent that they would be captured and he'd had to hastily appear to switch sides. It had been a dangerous moment, that one, he recalled. The Queen might have chosen not to believe his explanations. Wolf wondered what would have become of them all had she decided to call his bluff. Likely they'd all be dead, plus most of the nobility of the 9 Kingdoms as well and the world would be a much darker place under her rule. It gave Wolf a moment of confidence to think about these things. Surely he was fated to do only good deeds for the 9 Kingdoms, and what could be a greater task than to return the next Great Woman of History to her rightful form? Wolf shuddered suddenly and crouched down in confusion. Cripes, where had that thought come from? Great Women of History? Willem reached over to shake his shoulder.
"Wolf? Are you alright?" he whispered.
"Oh, um, yes, I think so" Wolf replied, scratching at his temple in agitation. Willem looked at him somewhat dubiously as he blew out his cheeks, straightening once more, pushing the ever wayward locks of hair out of his eyes. Time to act and stop thinking too much. He stepped away from their cover in the trees, approaching the hut quite openly. He walked right up to the door, snuffing in some alarm as he scented the all too familiar Connor. Huff puff, how had that boy gotten here? Then he remembered leaving the mad priest on the ground in Central Park, right in front of the open mirror. He cursed his own stupidity for a moment. All too easy for the man to come slinking through the portal, probably getting out of the castle in the confusion of Wendell turning out the guards and raising the alarm. Why would he come here though? Wolf pushed open the door a crack, listening hard for the telltale sounds of breath, heartbeat. Satisfied that the top room was empty at least, he shoved the creaking door back and stooped to enter, hearing Willem come in close behind. Wolf surveyed the room, seeing the signs of the hurried departure of a dwarf, Acorn, whom he had known from his days in the Snow White Prison. Someone had made a fire in the grate recently, and strewn across the table were various types of herbs wilting in the humid air. Wolf picked up one of the plants and knew it to be commonly used for wound infections. He tossed the herb away. None of this made any sense. He saw Willem moving away slightly, towards an opening in the floor of the hut. Strong iron gates had been pushed aside and cool damp air, heavy with the scent of Elias wafted up from whatever was down there. Willem raised his eyebrows in a silent query. Wolf sighed and took up a length of candle, lighting it from the grimy lantern in the corner. He went to the doorway, seeing a long staircase descending into the earth. Wolf was not by nature very easily frightened, but he knew that evil power lay below. They would have to be very wary. Not wanting to appear too hesitant, he led the way down into the darkness.