Chapter warning: violence
"Finally!" The knight practically weeps as he collapses into the cave entrance.
The cave of the injured Aigiddyrn just had to be the one at the very top of the mountain. And it was no easy place to reach, well, for him anyway.
Alfred groans as he forces himself to roll over, tipping his head back to look into the cave. Arthur is happily lounging at the edge of a steep drop down into a tunnel to the heart of the cave, having been waiting for Alfred for several minutes now.
The wolf had no issue climbing over the sharp rocks that jutted out from the sheer rock-face as they climbed. Sharp claws and extremely grippy paw pads insuring he didn't slip once as he hopped rather gracefully up the steep climb. Alfred however, with his not at all grippy metal armour weighing him down had a much harder time, especially getting into the cave, which sits atop the biggest overhang he's ever seen.
At one point, he was forced to dangle from his fingers as he shifted along the ledge, a drop of several hundred feet awaiting him should he mess up.
But that's enough wasting time, they have a job to do, so, he climbs to his feet and draws his sword. The sound of the metal sliding against each other echos off the cave walls, making everything seem louder than normal.
Seeing that Alfred is now prepared, Arthur stands and leads the way down.
Past the initial drop, the cave slopes steeply downwards, quickly becoming pitch black as the light from outside doesn't reach down this far.
"Good thing I brought a torch."
In the last of the caves light, he fumbles with pulling the wood out and lighting it with the flints he always carries. It's time like these that he wishes he could use magic, things would be so much easier then. But after a moment, he manages, holding the fire out to light their way.
For a while, the only sounds are that of their footsteps and the crackle of the torch burning. Occasionally they can hear water dripping somewhere deeper down. Looking back over his shoulder, only darkness meets the knights sight.
Along with this, the cave gradually becomes narrower and damper, snowmelt wetting the rocks around them and making the descent slippery. As the tunnel shrinks, Arthur is froze to walk in front, then crouch in the increasingly cramped space. And Alfred can feel himself becoming jumpy, the torch casting eire shadows and the quiet, all putting thoughts of being watched in his head. It doesn't help when at one point Arthur pauses and sniffs warning him that 'I can smell more than one down here.'
He's so wound up, that he nearly squeals when a drip of ice cold water lands on his neck.
Then, after what feels like an eternity, the cave opens up into a large carven.
The space feels massive after the tunnel down, but really, it's no bigger than a tiny house.
But the source of the dripping is clear now.
To the right is a small lake, most likely formed from the snowmelt runoff gathering down here, and to his left is a sharp ledge jutting out from the wall. But Arthur wasn't kidding...
On the ledge, he can clearly see two of the beasts, one lying across the injured one their after. But that is less concerning than the dozens of eggs grouped around the lake edge...
Alfred holds his breath at the sight.
This is very bad...
They just walked right into a nest.
He jumps when one of the beasts shifts, but makes no further move.
Good.
The adults are asleep, so they're save for now.
"Arthur..." He whispers, not daring to speak any louder.
The wolf drops his head, ears going back, and Al knows exactly what he's thinking. There's no conceivable way that they can leave with out being heard and waking up the adults. And the tunnel is far too cramped to make a quick exit, so they'll just have to fight them here. If they can make it up to the beasts and kill them before the wake up, then they'd have a chance, but to do that...
Al looks down at his feet, surrounded by bones and pieces of egg shells. He might as well be standing in a mine field, a single miss step, and he'll wake them. And that's not even considering his noisy armour or Arthur's far larger paws.
He can't see a way around this until Arthur's voice enters his mind.
'Get back in the tunnel, I'll deal with this.'
He want to argue, wants to tell the idiot, 'No, don't be insane.', but, he trusts the wolf so does as told. As silently as he can, he steps back up into the tunnel, watching to see what Arthur is planning.
As soon as his feet are clear, Arthur makes his move.
Crouching slightly, his eyes glow, spreading his paws out, using his magic. Alfred's jaw drops as he watches every inch of the cave floor freeze over, ice spreading outwards from the wolf, trapping the bones and shells in place, before creeping over them, and in a matter of seconds, the floor is incased in several inches of ice. Even the lake is now frozen solid, and Al shivers violently from the sheer cold.
Smirking Arthur soundlessly stalks across the ice, heading for the ledge.
Well, no time like the present.
Reaffirming his grip on his sword, Al joins him, quietly creeping after the wolf.
But Arthur didn't account for the change in temperature to wake the beasts.
Just as they near, the uninjured one wakes, instantly telling something is wrong and screeching its partner awake as well.
They take to the air just as Arthur pounces, missing the first, but grabbing hold of the others single leg with his teeth. The creature tries to fly away, but with his immense strength, the wolf jerks his head to the side, pulling the beast down and slamming it hard into the ground.
Screeching fills the air as one cries in pain while the other turns on Arthur.
"Arthur!"
Diving into action, Al charges across the ice, but slides, colliding with the cave wall as he scrambles to reach the fight. But he needn't have bothered.
From his position he can't see what's happening on the ledge, but a blast of cold air flows over him as Arthur, with the second creatures neck in his jaws, launches down from above, smashing the creature into the ice below. He watches as Arthur, with his front legs holding the creature down by the wings, rips its throat open, killing it. But the wolf was so focused on killing that one that he forgot about the other.
Good thing Al's there, as he pushes off the cave wall to slide across the ice in time to protect his companion, swinging his sword and slicing the second in half.
Silence falls as the fight is over as quickly as it started. The pairs heavy breathing the only sound between them as they recover from the adrenal rush. Back to back, the wolf standing poised over its kill, the knight on one knee, still in the same position from making his killing blow, sword held loosely at his side. The pair lit by the torch Al had dropped in the tunnel.
The knight finally sighs, standing to face his partner.
"Dude," Al whispers in awe, "that, was the single most awesome thing ever! What else can you do?"
He knew the wolf was magic, and could make and end Blizzard from their first meeting, but he had know idea he could freeze the entire room.
Arthur smirks at him, raising his head in pride as he boasts, 'I am capable of far more than you can imagine.'
"You have got to show me!"
'Perhaps. If you keep providing me with food like this, I just might.'
Alfred grins, liking the idea of more hunts together.
"Heh, yeah, we make a pretty good team."
And for once, the wolf actually smiles back at him.
'Yes, we do.'
'Mine.' Arthur growls annoyed, some time later, when Alfred tries to grab for the beast carcass he's eating.
"Dude, I already told you, I don't want to eat it. But I need that head. How else am I going to prove we killed it if you eat it all?"
He watches the wolf huff before begrudgingly allowing him to grab hold of the head. Now he takes his prize, as any good hunter knows, proof of the kill is best shown with the dead's head.
He sits down on the ice, taking out his knife and begins to cut through the neck.
"There." He smiles, holding up the severed head to show Arthur, "Now you can have the rest." He says as he stuffs the head in a separate bag for safe keeping, not bother by the black blood slowly dripping out of the bottom.
As Arthur eats, he looks over at the eggs worriedly.
"Sooo," He starts, flicking his eyes to his ever hungry friend, "what are we gonna do about those? I know we can't just leave them. If they hatch they'll just be even more problems for the towns people. But I kinda feel bad about killing them. Horrible man-eating creatures aside, they're still just babies."
Not even pausing, Arthur flicks his eyes to the eggs and, like before, they glow and ice starts to creep up over the eggs, freezing them solid.
'There, now you don't have to.'
"Dude, that was cold."
Arthur blinks at him, confused.
'That was the point.'
"No, I meant... Never mind." He shakes his head, giving up.
If there's one thing he's learned, it's that Arthur can be oddly literal at times, while at others, he can understand things just fine.
"Okay, once your done, we can get going. We might even be able to make it back to town before nightfall."
Climbing back down the mountain side was never going to be easy, Al knew, but he didn't think he'd get stuck at the very beginning.
He leans over the edge of the cave entrance, trying to find a safe way down. But no matter how he looks at it, he's not getting down with out breaking something.
Actually seeing the knights difficulty, Arthur jumps back up to be beside him again.
'What's the matter?'
"Urgh, there's just no way I can get back down with out falling." He sighs as he lies on his stomach, giving up on finding a safe way down, "I'll just have to live the rest of my life up here."
Arthur tilts his head at him, looking between the drop and Alfred, before surprising the knight.
'Don't be ridiculous, your coming back down with me.'
"Dude, I'll fall if I try."
'Then don't try.'
Not looking at him, Arthur lies down beside him.
'Come on.'
Confused, Alfred let's out an intelligent, "Huh?" Causing the Wolf to huff.
'Get on.'
Al blinks, once, then twice for good measure, wondering if he heard that right.
"Get on... your back?"
Arthur rolls his eyes at the Knight's apparentcluelessness.
'No, my head,' He drawls sarcastically before snapping, 'Yes my back, hurry up.'
With no small amount of apprehension, he does as told, carefully approaching the other, before gently placing his hands on the wolfs back and swinging his leg over, mounting him.
'Hold on.'
He warns as he stands, feeling the human shift about as he rises.
"W-whoah!"
With nothing else to hold onto, Al desperately grabs at Arthur's fur, holding on tightly as the wolf moves. Once standing, he adjusts his position, shifting back a bit to be sitting just behind Arthur's shoulders, moving his hand to grip the fur around the back of his neck, and squeezing his thighs to hold on with his legs.
It's kind of like riding a horse bareback.
Once he's sure he's seated as best he can, he sighs.
"O-okay. I'm good."
'Good.'
And with that, Arthur begins the rapid descent down the mountain with Alfred holding on for dear life. If ever asked, the knight will absolutely deny having screamed as Arthur jumped off the edge, dropping several feet to land on the next rocky outcrop. Or having continued screaming with each jump. Though, past the terror, he can't help but feel an exhilaration, and once he realises he's not going to die, he starts to enjoy it.
"Hehehe! YEAH!"
Feeling their bond, Al leans into the jumps, adjusting himself to ease up his weight on Arthur at the right moments, and together, they descend faster and faster. This allows Arthur to quickly get up to his top speed, which Alfred learns, is pretty damn fast.
He could get used to this.
Authors notes: Ah, team work. The pair are starting to get along quite well now as their friendship starts to develop over the sense of being stuck together. And Alfred is starting to realise that having a massive wolf as a friend might not be so bad after all, especially since when Arthur is well fed, he can actually be nice. Like giving him a lift down sheer drops.
This is one of those little plot points left over from the beginning of this story, just alfred riding Arthur like a badass.
They might just be able to get along together.
R & R people.
Until next time, stay awesome!