Chapter Thirteen
Perrin stared at the masses of wolves in the field around him, staring around for one of them in the milling throng. He found her eventually, her fur a mass of blacks and greys, faded over the long seasons.
"I am glad that you came, my old friend." Perrin said to Dapple
"Young Bull, did you not think that I would not come to hunt with my pack, which is what you and Long Tooth are. You have matured. You are no longer a cub hunting small thorny back. You have gained wisdom over the hunts. Now we may face the Last Hunt together."
"Are you not afraid of the Shadowbrothers, Dapple?"
"Young Bull, the Brothers and Sisters have been visited in the Wolf Dream recently by pack Brothers and Sisters who have gone to the plentiful hunting ground. I was visited by Hopper. Precepts have been changed by the Maker. The Shadowbrothers may kill us in the Last Hunt, but if we die by their making, then we will not become Shadowbrothers." Dapple suddenly turned her head. "Young Bull, Burn says that white clad two foot approaches. He has sun on chest." A Whitecloak, Perrin thought grimly. He fingered his axe haft, and wondered through the mass of wolves. He could see a white-cloaked figure approaching, but his smell was unfamiliar. It smelt calm, yet ready to fight. Perrin called to him
"Name yourself! What is your business in the camp of the Dragon Reborn? You should keep to your own camp, Whitecloak, until you are summoned."
"Listen to me, Darkfriend. You will not cheek the Commander of the Light Galadedrihd Damodred!" As Galad approached her saw Perrin with his axe drawn and barring his path.
"Darkfriend? You'll die before you say that again."
Galad drew his sword, and placed himself in a readied stance. "Is that true? Well then, let us see how well you fight, DARKFRIEND!" Galad and Perrin launched themselves at each other. Steel clashed against steel as they fought each other with the anger of mortal enemies.
Mat was walking alone, thankful that he had finally got a moment to himself in the hubbub of the camp. He turned his head to the left,
"There are two men fighting. I am sure that it is nothing." They continued to walk until a wolf blocked their path. She was an old female and was obviously trying to get their attention.
"Its Dapple. She is one of Perrin's commanders in the army of Wolves that he commands. One of those men must have been Perrin." Mat started to run to where the shouting was.
Perrin had fallen to the ground, and Galad was just about to strike him a fatal blow when Mat reached him and grabbed his sword-arm and twisted his blade away. Mat stared into his face, and he stepped back in surprise.
"You! What are you doing in this camp?" Elayne had been walking around the camp also, thankful to have been able to leave her twins with Aviendha. She saw Mat, and then she saw the face of her brother.
"Trust me, Mat Cauthon of the Two Rivers, I do not want to be here, but the fate of the world rests on your shoulders, it seems, as it so rests with you friend here, and also on the shoulders of Rand al'Thor, so I have come to make an agreement. It seems that you have not only helped to split the world asunder, Cauthon, but my sister follows you and your friends blindly even still. Elayne, my best wishes." He gave her a dirty look, as if he could never accept that fact that she was an Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah.
"Would you like to come up to my tent. We can talk there with the rest of my commanders."
"It is not with you that I have come to make an agreement with. There is nothing I would not like more than to stick a knife in your chest so that I could release my sister and the world from your grasp, so it is not with you that I make this agreement with."
"Then who? Your sister? My oldest friend lying on the floor there?"
Galad stared at the three of them.
" I would speak with Nynaeve."