Chapter 8 - Saving Rhydian

Rhydian stiffened as the dark shadow, the strange force his wolf had been sensing, crept into view. It slid across the ground towards him and Maddy. The closer it got, the larger the shadow became. Instead of pitch-black, the growing shadow was this weird dark purple. The moon, the dirt under their feet, the river's rushing water, all of it was slightly off-color from what it should have been in the human world. He would have given anything to be back there now, with Mads and his parents, supported by the strength of his pack. He had come to help Maddy's wolf fight and conquer her fears, and they'd done that…only for him to discover that his wolf had its own nasty demons. He felt it in his veins—like an old man whose bones ache when the chill of winter sets in. His fears were coming home to roost.

"Mads, you have to go!" he hissed. "Wake yourself up." He tried to push her away, but she just growled and leapt back to his side.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving you!" And that's when it hit. The shadow, which stretched from the riverbank all the way to the cliff, came rushing over them…and turned into something else. A mist out of some kind of nightmare.

Rhydian blinked. For a few heartbeats he couldn't see a thing, enveloped in the deep purple haze. He turned around as his eyes adjusted—just in time to see Maddy scream as some kind of tentacle wrapped around her torso and pulled her into the mist.

"Maddy!" he rushed towards the direction which the thing had pulled her, but all he came across was empty air. He kept running and running. His heartbeats clashed like a thousand cymbals in his chest.

"Rhydian!" He heard the fear in her voice. The absolute terror. He felt so helpless. He kept moving, trying to follow the sound of her voice. Then, suddenly, there she was, suspended at least five feet off the ground. Her legs kicked frantically as a tall creature, vaguely human-looking, held her by the neck with a pulsing tentacle. It had ten tentacles, maybe more, and a blazing yellow eye near the end of each tentacle now stared at him. Words echoed in his mind, searing into his brain like a hot iron pressed into sizzling flesh.

Can you live without her? Can you live without your one true mate? Let's find out…

Rhydian had already transformed into his wolf, and he was about to lunge when it happened.

NO!

Rhydian watched as the tip of one of those tentacles morphed into a sharpened spike and slammed through Maddy's chest. There was a perfect storm of horror as he felt his stomach almost burst. Maddy's anguished face looked at him for the last time. Then the life drained out of Maddy's eyes as her entire body went limp. Rhydian's wolf snarled and began tearing at the creature, his fangs ripping into its flesh. It tasted like charcoal, but Rhydian didn't care. His wolf was enraged. He wouldn't stop until the monster was dead. His wolf's instincts roared inside of him. Kill. Destroy. He would brutalize every single shred of the monster until there was nothing left of it but pulp or ashes.

Meanwhile, Maddy's Point of View…

Maddy tensed up as the shadow enveloped them. Then, just like that, it was gone. She blinked.

Whoa. Wait. That was way too easy.

"Rhydian, what's wrong?" Rhydian was standing next to her, but he was freaking out. His eyes were wild and darting everywhere. He didn't seem to hear her. He turned and seemed to witness something awful.

"Maddy!" he shouted, running off in the opposite direction as Maddy tried to snag him. He was too fast.

"Rhydian, I'm right here! Rhydian, stop!" But he didn't seem to realize she was even there. He just kept dashing ahead. Maddy followed, trying to keep up, but it was nearly impossible. The boy's fear and desperation had Rhydian moving like the wind, and Maddy couldn't keep pace. Finally, she caught up to him. He'd transformed back into his wolf. He was snarling, biting and tearing at empty space. Clearly his wolf had been triggered into a frenzied state, an animal gone berserk.

Something was very, very wrong. Maddy called out to him.

"Rhydian, calm down. Rhydian!" She rushed over to him and tried to touch him, thinking it might help. Instead, she cried out as Rhydian's fangs tore into her hand. Blood spurted everywhere as Maddy screamed. Rhydian's wolf wouldn't stand down. He lunged on her and Maddy shielded her face with both arms.

"Rhydian, it's me!" she cried out, but it was no use. He kept on attacking her. It would have been so easy to panic, but instead Maddy's thoughts raced for some kind of way to break through to him. Whatever fear's got him by the throat, there must be a way to snap him out of it…but how? Then she got an idea. The wily wolfblood girl morphed into wolf form and darted clear. Rhydian's disoriented wolf let her go and resumed attacking what appeared to be just empty air. Yet Maddy didn't hang back. The she-wolf flung herself forward, nipping at Rhydian's side. She ignored the throbbing pain in her left paw and left front leg, leaping out of the way when Rhydian retaliated with gnashing teeth. Whenever he tried to go back to fighting the non-existent thing that looked to be just empty air, Maddy lunged back at him, nipping at his heels, his face, even batting at his snout with her paw.

Come on, Rhydian. Come and get me! Mads kept up the constant harassment until Rhydian's enraged wolf finally broke off from whatever it was fighting and lunged after her. She dodged out of his way and fled just fast enough to lead him on a merry chase. The single-minded male wolf pursued her relentlessly, but he wasn't prepared for her sudden maneuver at the last moment. Just as they neared the riverbank, Maddy changed directions. She swerved and got behind him for just a split second. Before Rhydian could recover, the chocolate-brown wolf rammed into him from behind, and they both pitched headlong into the river.

Meanwhile, Rhydian's Point of View…

Guilt consumed Rhydian. I should never have come with Maddy. No…I should never have let Maddy enter the eyethwyd at all. I shouldn't have listened to my parents. I should have told her it was too dangerous. Maddy's dead, and it's MY fault. If he'd been in human form, tears would have stung his eyes—but his wolf thought of only one thing: vengeance. He tore into the tall creature with the writhing tentacles. Each time his jaws bit into the shadowy creature, he felt it shudder with pain, and the pain spurred on the rising bloodlust in his wolf. Yes, he would maim, mangle, and tear this creature apart—piece by piece.

Abruptly a tentacle reached for him from behind. He bit into it, felt the satisfying sensation of canines sinking into flesh. It was odd, though—this tentacle didn't have the same color or texture as the others. He kept attacking this new tentacle, wondering how the creature had gotten behind him. Or was it another creature entirely? Eventually the tentacle seemed to vanish, and he went back to attacking the first nightmare creature head-on. But then the strangely-colored tentacle seemed to come back out of nowhere. It kept striking at him from behind, from the sides, and finally his enraged wolf gave chase.

Yes, there must be two of them he thought. No matter. He'd kill them both. He sprinted ahead, snarling as his fangs gleamed with a slip of moonlight. He had almost caught up with the second creature when it somehow zig-zagged out of reach and rammed into him from behind.

AAAHHH!

Moments Later…

The freezing shock of the water sent Rhydian back into human form. His teeth chattered as he realized that Maddy was right beside him, also back to human, with the river's current weaving about them. It wasn't just the sub-zero temperature of the water that had his arms turning blue, though; it didn't help that they were both in birthday suits.

Maddy looked stunned but also relieved. And furious. "Are you back to normal? Can you finally see me, ya daft idiot?" Maddy hugged him like he was a life preserver and she was drowning. For a few fleeting seconds they were too caught up in the moment to worry about anything except being grateful to be alive. Next the two wolfbloods waded through the current. Rhydian put his arm around the she-wolf's shoulders and Maddy slipped an arm around Rhydian's waist. Finally, collapsing on dry land, both of them heaving out big gasps of air, Rhydian noticed something.

His face twisted in horror.

"Maddy, you're bleeding!" He looked down at her hand covered in blood. Further up her arm, there were also bite marks. The strong tang of iron caught his nose as he saw more red streaks going all the way up to her elbow.

"Of course I'm bleeding. Your wolf bit me," she sighed. The fingers of her damaged hand twitched as she tried to sit up. She fell back on her side with a gasp of pain.

"I did that to you?" There was anguish overshadowing the disbelief in his voice. "We need to wake up, Mads. Right now."

Maddy looked into his eyes as he gathered her onto his lap and put his arms around her. Her teeth were chattering almost as badly as his. The water had been colder that second time around. Or was it the deepening night, and the way the breeze had picked up? The moon still hovered over them like an angry eye. The dreamworld seemed to be getting colder and colder by the second.

"H-how?" Maddy coughed. "The shaman said our wolves won't let us go back to the human world until we've overcome our fears. I won't go back without you, and you…" She didn't say it, but she didn't need to. Even though she'd helped banish his fear by pushing Rhydian's wolf into the freezing river, his wolf hadn't yet dealt with its emotional demons. The creature that Rhydian had seen—or something very much like it—would be back.

"T-there m-might be a way," Rhydian said. He hugged her now as tightly as he could. "If you think of home as hard as you can, and if I stay close enough to you, you can bring us both back."

Her brown eyes flashed. "You don't know that, Rhydian. What if I concentrate thinking of home, and all I do is leave ya here, all alone?"

"That's a risk we'll have to take," Rhydian said. "Please, Mads. We don't have much time." He could sense something forming behind them. His spine tingled with dread. The fear was returning, his biggest fear of all, the one fear he'd never fully come to terms with.

What would I do if something happened to Maddy and I could never see her again? Just the stray thought suddenly caused the dreamworld around them to shift. Walls of jagged rock erupted all around them and began to close in. The walls had wide-set, blazing yellow eyes, the same blazing eyes as the creature Rhydian had seen impale Maddy before.

"Maddy, hurry!" Rhydian clasped her even more tightly as Maddy closed her eyes and focused. Then her eyes snapped open, a vivid caramel color lapsing into burnished gold. She thought of Stoneybridge. She thought of the time she and Rhydian had stolen that trophy during detention and snuck it onto the roof of the gymnasium. She thought of milkshakes at Bernie's with Tom and Shan. She thought of all the people she cared about waiting for her back in the human world.

And then she woke up.

A/N - Hey wolfblood fans,

Will Rhydian find himself trapped in the dreamworld by himself or was Maddy able to save him? What will Rhydian's parents and Cedren's pack do when they discover that Maddy and Rhydian's fears are the least of their problems? Please review, comment, or let us know if you're enjoying the story. Next chapter will be up by this weekend at the latest, I promise! :)