It was a crisp cool night in the forest, setting up for the banishment ritual had taken some time having to keep the candles lit and pouring out a patter on the ground with salt. At the center of the circle sat a pool of water, an actual pool of water. Since the wolves couldn't find something in the vault big enough to hold enough water and give enough space to hold the wendigo they decided a pool from the hardware store would have to do. It was a little unusual but if it worked it worked. Vera waited with Lilith for the wolves to come back with their mark, they had set off only a few minutes ago but their tracking skills tended to be superior and if anything was easy to track it was the wendigo. "I'd rip that thing apart if I got near it, then we wouldn't even need this stupid ritual."
"Let's pretend for a moment that it could be harmed which it can't, it's bigger, it's bite and claws inflict a damage that causes magical decay, and it's ravenous, more so than you Ms. Bathory." She loved the not so subtle art of murder and meyham, more so now that she was corrupted by the demonic realm but not everything could be solved with violence. More often than not magic was the answer.
"I don't see you volunteering to go after it."
"Actually I did." Vera looked over to her. "But, seeing as I am the most experienced practitioner here and the most powerful I need to be on standby to start the ritual as soon as they lure him into the center. We won't have much time to start it as that's the only thing locking him in place." Any later and they would have to hope it was stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice and get it back into the center. Even if it was supposed to be more animal than human she knew one this old was still going to be smart.
"Well if you are so tough and fearless then why did Hamish ask me to stay back to keep you safe?"
"Excuse me but what?" She raised a brow and crossed her arms over her chest. "Seriously?" Hamish, dammit. She loved him but sometimes he was a little too protective. She was more than capable of handling herself against anything that came her way, including this wendigo. It was him she worried about.
The wolves were on the trail, a powerful stink that wasn't hard to pick up and follow. It had taken out a few out of town campers and left behind a deer gutted and strung up in a tree by its intestines. The stench of blood and rot was powerful on the beast making it stand out like a sore thumb to the wolves. Tundra and Greybeard kept their distance from each other but ran along in the same direction. The plan was to push the wendigo towards Silverback and then towards Midnight so it would chase the black wolf back to their trap. The grey wolf's pelt was kissed by silver rays of moonlight making Tundra shimmer in the darkness of the forest. From behind a tangle of trees there was movement. Something that looked like branches one moment shifted and the black figure rose up on its hind legs turning its attention towards the wolves.
Tundra slid to a stop snarling at the wendigo as it rose up opening its talons and screaming back at him with an elk like cry. Greybeard slid up to the wendigo jumping up along with Tundra, both grabbing on to the beasts shoulders and tag teaming as they swiped at its face. The Wendigo threw them off one at a time before snarling and running off on all fours. Tundra and Greybeard started the push, moving him towards Silverback. The Wendigo tried to turn on them forcing Greybeard to swing to the side and snap at it. They had this, this was going to be easy once they got to Silverback. Greybeard snapped at its heels again driving it up in the line of sight of Silverback. The third wolf came down pressing it on while Greybeard broke off from the group and swung back around in case the Wendigo decided to come back his way.
Tundra brakes a moment letting out a howl for Midnight, Timber, and Vera. The sound of his voice gave them a good idea where the group was and how close the wendigo was to the next stage of the trap. Silverback was the last to back off while Midnight snuck up through the shadows, quick as a bullet and threw himself into the wendigo taking a bite into its throat and retching. The wendigo threw the wolf to the ground turning to swipe at it only to have Midnight roll out of the way and start running. He looked back to see if the wendigo was following but there was nothing there. Midnight nearly slid to a stop when behind him the wendigo lifted him off the ground and threw him into a tree. The werewolf yelped, alerting Silverback who howled to let the others know Midnight was in trouble.
Tundra and Greybeard picked up speed heading towards the other wolves, falling to all fours then galloped towards the fight seeing Silverback already hanging off one arm and Midnight grabbing hold of its leg. This wasn't going to work, they couldn't stand here and fight. They needed to get this thing to the ritual circle. "Deleatur." The wendigo screamed as a hunk of it's flesh was ripped from its body and tossed across the forest. It howled in pain getting down to all fours again and making it easier for the wolves to manage. Tundra turned his head seeing Vera standing there, her hand extended after setting off her spell. Seeing the wendigo coil up like a cat about to pounce Tundra ran towards her letting out a startled yap.
Tundra bolted towards her to block off the attack of the wendigo on Vera, the larger beast now coming right for the werewolf and about to trample him. "Sopite." Vera shouted, raising a hand out at the beast and before it could come up on Tundra it went down. They didn't have much time to catch their breath as the wendigo started getting back up and huffing angrily. It turned its attention back to Vera and screamed. Tundra grabbed Vera, picking her up in his arms and starting to run towards the circle. At least it was pissed off enough at this point that it was following them without the other wolves having to come up behind it. They reached the circle as Tundra set Vera down and let her take up her position, the wendigo coming up behind them and howling at Tundra. "You need to get it into the pool.
The other wolves came running up, circling behind the wendigo so it couldn't move back and reset this whole thing. They snapped and growled pushing the wendigo into the circle little by little. It's main attention was on Tundra as he passed over the pool and stood on the other side. Once inside the circle the wendigo stopped, seeming to know what was happening. It let out a low growl before opening it's maw and screaming again but with the other wolves coming up behind it and attacking it's legs it had no other choice but to move forward to escape them. One hoof splashed down into the pool, its desperation growing as it turned and swiped down at the wolves with a snarl. They jumped back to escape it's attack and then pressed on forcing it forward.
Once its second hoof splashed into the water Vera spoke up quickly. "Hic habere." The wendigo fell to all fours trapped in the pool and screaming out as the wolves moved around the circle standing there and watching the beast struggle. "Ortus e uiseribus in terram ibis." The wendigo screamed, chunks of it's flesh falling off into the pool and turning to black smoke. Its cries made the wolves cower in pain, even Lilith cringed holding her hands over her ears. "Anima discedit tumultu." The water around it started glowing gold, more of the black flesh falling from the wendigo's body as it was surrounded by light. In a sudden the wendigo caught fire, it's body dissolving into ashes that floated up into the sky and swirled around in a vortex.
Slowly the wolves started turning back into their human forms watching the wendigo shrink in size, it's body burning away until all that was left was a man. He looked like an early European settler, long dark hair falling around his shoulders, body scratched and trembling. As the last of the black ashes vanished the man found some strength to stand himself, no longer the beast held by the incantations. He looked over the wolves with a smile on his face. "Thank you, you have freed me from my endless nightmare." There was a heavy sigh released as his human body started to fade away, a bright light consuming his form until the human man had vanished just as the beast. Once the pool was empty Randal stepped forward swinging his arm through the space both man and beast had stood.
"Cool." He nodded his head. "You know this magic thing is pretty alright sometimes."
Hamish rolled his eyes at him before he headed up to Vera. He was about to grab her before Vera put out a hand to stop him in his tracks. "Ah." She raised a brow and looked him over. "Just remember the next time you try to secretly protect me from something like this that I'm more powerful than you and I don't need your protection."
Hamish had a guilty little smile on his face as he nodded his head. "Lilith told you."
"Damn right I did." Lilith shouted at him. What? It wasn't like Hamish ever listened to her, since when did she have to listen to him?
"Well, I didn't want you to get hurt and the wendigo is a pretty terrifying creature."
"Yes, well, as am I." Vera raised a brow and put her hands on her hips.
"She's not wrong about that." Lilith added again. After all, out of all of them Lilith had known her the longest.
"I'll remember that next time we are fighting a terrifying ancient evil."
"Good, as you should."
"But Vera, we don't want to fight you." Randal spoke when she said next time they were fighting a terrifying ancient evil because after all that described Vera perfectly. "You are practically our mom." Vera looked over at Randal with that look on her face like she wanted to kill him right now. "Anyone else feel like a post wendigo banishing burger?" Jack raised his hand almost instantly after and then Lilith while Gabrielle tried to avoid jumping into the mix with enthusiasm if only because Vera was there. "Vera?" He pointed at her trying to get her to come along because if she didn't then Hamish would likely skip out on the group celebration too. "I know you normally only eat human souls but burgers are good too."
"I have to get home to Theo." Besides, she couldn't be caught with the other wolves, people would start to think she played favorites. They already accused her of it and being that childish to go drinking and eating burgers after banishing a wendigo would make her look like a poor Grand Magus as well. No, there was an air of regality she had to uphold in her position. She shrugged off her jacket and gave it to Hamish so he could not stand around naked for five seconds as well because honestly that was fairly distracting for her.
"Yeah, mini me doesn't do well when one of us isn't home with her. She gets pretty fussy and I'm sure the babysitter is tired of her right now."
"Hamish, you too? Come on, just one night of having fun like the old times." Man, since Hamish had become a dad he was really acting like a dad. Couldn't hang out with the guys or anything and they weren't even married yet. Didn't make it easier that he was Temple Magus either. He still had a lot more freedom than Vera did but it was hard being buddy buddy with his actual friends when everyone wanted his attention. "Fine, you two crazy kids have fun, don't do anything I wouldn't do and don't do each other in front of my niece." Randal did pistol fingers at them both.
Vera was about to dish out a verbal scolding when Hamish pulled her in for a hug. "So, we should head home. I'm sure Theo misses you." He waved at Randal to get the hell out while he still could. One of these days Vera was actually going to kill him.