The Wolf's Heart

by Rain Oxford

  “That’s impossible,” Magician said. “The road was straight.”

  “Either we’re in Eykann, or there is a---”

  “What is Eykann?” Red asked.

  I hesitated. “I don’t know. Nevertheless, this must be part of the same curse that took away our memories.”

  “We should go a different direction,” Red suggested.

  I nodded. “We can try.” The wolf wasn’t in sight, so we headed east. Unfortunately, as soon as we crossed the tree line, we saw the wolf in the distance ahead of us, and he saw us. He growled. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”

  “Don’t be afraid, Wizard,” Magician said, taking off his hat. He made a gesture of pulling something out of it, but nothing happened. “Oh, no.”

  We started running for the road. The wolf had incredible speed, though, and easily overcame us. He crashed into Magician and bit Magician’s leg. He started pulling the man further into the forest, ignoring Magician’s struggles. I grabbed Magician by the robe to pull him away, but the wolf was relentless and stronger than he looked. Magician screamed.

  Red picked up a rock and bashed it against the wolf’s shoulder. The wolf yelped and let go. “Next time, it’s your head,” Red threatened. She and I helped Magician back to the path quickly while the wolf growled. Every time we turned our backs on him, he nipped us. Once we got out of the forest, he stopped. He wasn’t willing to cross the tree line.

  We returned to the town. “I really hope Mage can somehow do her magic,” Magician said as we returned to the green cabin. He couldn’t stand on his own, so we got a chair from the kitchen and helped him into it. In the kitchen, there was also a stew sitting on the fire, some fresh bread, and water.

  Mage arrived. “We found another person.”

  “Can he remember anything?”

  “No, but we believe he’s a sorcerer. Come see for yourself.”

  Red and I helped Magician up and we followed her out. I could hear the sorcerer yelling before we entered the one-story orange cabin. While it wasn’t any fancier than the other one-story cabins, this one was full of crates of frilly silk dresses. There were four mirrors on the wall, a desk covered in paints and candles, and a bathtub. It was clearly a woman’s cabin, but it wasn’t a woman tied to the chair.

  The man was tall and fit with shoulder-length, oily black hair and maroon eyes. His clothes were black, while his lineage robe was dark red. “He’s definitely a sorcerer,” I said.

  “Let me go! I didn’t do anything to you.”

  “You can’t know that,” Magician argued. Red and I helped him sit on the bed.

  “Where am I?” the sorcerer asked.

  He sounded panicked rather than angry. Sorcerers weren’t supposed to show fear. “Do you know that you’re a sorcerer?” I asked.

  He nodded towards the largest mirror. “I saw myself in the mirror, but that doesn’t mean I’m behind this. I don’t know who I am.”

  “Neither do we,” I said, going to the mirror. I saw my blond hair and blue eyes. Looks wise, I was a wizard, yet that thought didn’t fit comfortably with me. I wondered if I was actually a sorcerer who was pretending to be a wizard, but I rejected that idea immediately.

  “We were cursed, and you’re the only one here who could have done it,” Magician accused.

  “Don’t you think that if I cast a curse, I would leave myself out of it?”

  “You could be faking,” Red said.

  Warrior studied the sorcerer closely for a moment before declaring, “He’s telling the truth.”

  “Seeing as how I don’t know you, I’m not going to take your word for it,” Magician said. “He stays tied up until we know more.”

  “That isn’t very fair,” I said.

  “Of course you’d say that, Wizard. Your people are known for being walked all over.”

  I didn’t let his snipe bother me, since I wasn’t completely convinced I was a wizard. “He might actually be the best person to help us. If this was a curse, he might be able to break it or find the person who put it on us.”

  “Or he’s lying, and as soon as we let him go, he leaves and we’ll never be able to break the curse.”

  “Without a wand or staff, he’s not going anywhere.” Warrior checked the sorcerer’s pockets and found a wand. Unlike mine, it looked sinister. It was crooked and made of black wood with silver-painted sigils.

  “He can just walk out of here,” Jevwen said.

  “No, he can’t,” I argued. “We tried to walk out and we just ended up on the other side of the village. We can’t go into the forest without getting attacked by the wolf.”

  “If we all go in together, we can fight him off,” Mage said.

  “Let’s go to bed for now. I don’t want to end up stranded in the forest at night.”

  “I need to be healed first,” Magician said, gesturing to his leg.

  Mage pulled out a potion. “This might be a healing potion.”

  “Can’t you tell?”

  She shook her head. “No. We’ll know if you drink it.”

  Instead of waiting to see whether the potion healed Magician or not, I left them and got some bread and stew from the kitchen of the green cabin. Afterward, I found the coziest room left in the village to sleep in. It was in the two-story dark blue cabin, on the second floor. It had a window, but was in good shape.

  I took off my boots and was surprised to find a leather slot with a dagger hidden in it. I didn’t think it was normal for wizards to keep daggers hidden on them. It wasn’t like they hunted animals.

  I slipped it back into the boot when I heard a knock on the door. “Come in.”

  Red opened the door. She had taken off her vest and shoes and was carrying a mattress. “Do you mind if I sleep in here with you? I won’t bother you. The hole in the wall of the other room makes it uncomfortable.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  She set the mattress on the floor far enough from mine that it wasn’t invasive, yet close enough that it wasn’t unfriendly. Soon, we both fell asleep.

  Chapter 2

  I woke to shouts and the sound of cabins collapsing. Red went to the window to see out. I was slower, because my head still hurt and the noise wasn’t helping. We hadn’t been asleep for long. When I reached the window, everything outside was still, but I saw three more cabins destroyed. “What happened?” I asked.

  “I missed it, but it sounds like we were attacked.”

  We went out onto the road, as did Mage and Warrior. “Do you know what happened?” I asked them.

  They both shook their heads. Before we could investigate, Magician emerged from the decimated orange cabin, carrying the bleeding, dust-covered, and unconscious sorcerer. He dropped Sorcerer at his feet. “Sorcerer isn’t behind this. We were attacked by a massive wolf. It was too dark to see him clearly, but I’m certain it was the wolf.”

  I groaned. “Then he’s not staying in the forest. We’ll have to deal with him.”

  “We’ll kill him,” Warrior said.

  “With what?” Red asked. “I haven’t seen a single weapon since I woke.”

  “We can set a trap for him,” Magician suggested.

  “Isn’t our time better spent trying to break this curse?” Mage asked.

  “Where is Jevwen?” I asked. Warrior and Magician both turned to look at a one-story purple cabin that was completely destroyed.

  “He was in there,” Warrior said.

  * * *

  We searched the debris and eventually found him unconscious and bleeding, but alive. We took him to the green cabin and Mage gave him what we hoped was a healing potion. Just because the potion she’d given Magician was one didn’t mean they all were.

  While she was tending to him, the rest of us discussed the plan. “We need to break the curse,” I said. “However, we have no idea who did it, how, or why, so breaking it is going to be extremely difficult.”

  “We also have to get out of here,” Red said.

  “The curse that is keeping us
here and the curse that took our memories are probably the same one.”

  “We also have to kill the wolf,” Warrior added.

  “I think that’s secondary. If we break it before he attacks again, we don’t have to worry about him.”

  “Could he have cursed us?” Magician asked.

  “No. Wolves can’t do magic.”

  “They’re supposed to be extinct,” Red said. “We don’t know what he can do. He might be a werewolf.”

  “Yes, but werewolves can’t do magic, either,” I pointed out.

  Magician and Warrior got to work building a cage made of scrap wood and metal. I thought a pit trap would have been more successful, but I didn’t share my idea.

  “What do we use as bait?” Magician asked.

  “Wolves always go after defenseless, innocent children,” Warrior said.

  “That’s just stories,” I argued. “They were intelligent, wise creatures.”

  “How would you know?”

  “I’ve read a lot of books. I can’t remember what I’ve read, but I think I like reading.”

  “Well, unless you know what wolves do eat, then we’ll assume he wants the most innocent of us, and that would be a wizard.”

  “What?”

  Warrior grabbed my arms and pushed me towards the cage. “We’ll try to kill him before he can kill you.”

  “Be reasonable!” Red insisted, stepping in front of me. “You can’t let the wolf have him. He’s a person.”

  “If it’s the wizard or all of us, I say we let the wolf eat him.”

  “I don’t want to be eaten!” I said, struggling. Unfortunately, the warrior was a lot bigger than me and they were literally born with a talent for fighting.

  Magician grabbed Red and pulled her out of the way. “Wizards are always willing to be a sacrifice for the greater good.”

  “That’s not true!”

  “Well, we don’t have anything else to use, so unless you---”

  “Rabbits! Wolves eat rabbits!” I yelled.

  Everyone froze. “That can’t be right,” Magician said.

  “Wizards don’t lie,” I lied.

  “He’s got a point,” Mage said.

  “Okay,” Warrior agreed, releasing me. “Magician, you and Sorcerer will hunt a rabbit. The rest of us will prepare the trap.”

  Magician nodded. Sorcerer would argue, but magicians weren’t afraid of rabbits like everyone else.

  I returned to my room to figure out a way to break the curse. I didn’t know how to do magic, so I meditated. When Red found me, she asked what I was doing. “I think I’ve done this a lot. I know I can break this curse if I could remember something.”

  She sat across from me. “I think we’re friends.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I feel like I know you. Maybe if you can remember something about me, it will help you remember something about yourself.”

  I studied her face for a while. “You’re very pretty.”

  She smiled. “Looks mean nothing, but thank you.”

  “You’re a magician.”

  Her eyes widened. “You remember something?”

  “I remember that magicians are taught that looks mean nothing.”

  “Then where’s my hat?”

  “I don’t know.”

  At that point, Magician entered. “I caught a rabbit and he’s waiting in the cage for the wolf to find. We’re going to watch from the window.” He left us alone.

  Red and I sat in silence for a while, watching the cage. The rabbit was sitting quietly in a nest of clothes. The door was open so that the wolf could enter while Sorcerer and Magician were waiting in the distance with a rope to close the door after he entered. I didn’t think the wolf was dumb enough to fall for such a trick.

  “Poor rabbit,” I said. “He doesn’t even know he’s in danger.”

  “It’s better him than you.”

  That was when the wolf emerged. Most of his fur glowed softly in the light of the moons, making him seem more like a creature of magic and wisdom than flesh. With slow, deliberate steps, he circled the cage, sniffing at the rabbit. I wondered if he had eaten the previous night. Hunger could make anyone irrational. Instead of entering the cage, however, the wolf suddenly rammed into the back of it. The terrified rabbit bolted out and the wolf gave chase.

  “That is a smart wolf,” Red said.

  “Yes, but now they’re going to use me as bait again. We might as well try to get some sleep.”

  “I’m going to look for a hat.”

  “Do you want help?”

  She shook her head. “You should get some sleep.” She left and I managed to fall asleep.

  * * *

  I woke to a shout and reluctantly went outside. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon. Everyone was gathered around the two-story red cabin, except for Warrior, who was missing. The two cabins to the left of it were destroyed, but the red one was only mildly damaged. “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “The wolf is in there with Warrior,” Jevwin said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I saw it pass by the hole in the wall,” Magician said.

  I looked at Red, who shrugged. “I just arrived a moment before you. It’s been quiet.”

  “No one was in those two cabins, right?” I asked, pointing to the debris.

  “Right,” Mage confirmed.

  “It seems like maybe he was looking for something.” Without waiting for a response, I approached the cabin.

  “What are you doing?” Red asked.

  “Helping, I guess.” I went inside. Although the cabin was laid out like the green one, everything inside was destroyed, from the furniture to the walls themselves.

  Warrior was on the floor in the corner with a dagger at his side. There was blood on his hands and the dagger, but I couldn’t tell if it was his or the wolf’s. Bloody paw prints led upstairs.

  If the wolf wanted to kill him, why would it go upstairs instead of outside after the job was done?

  I started to follow the tracks until Warrior stirred. Knowing it was more important to get him out, I grabbed his arm to pull him up. He was heavy, but he didn’t fight me. “What happened?” he asked.

  “You were attacked.”

  “By the wolf,” he said.

  “It would appear so.”

  “I stabbed him in the chest. He should be dead.”

  “I’ll get you outside and then look for him.” I got him out and went back inside, ignoring the protests of the others. With my wand aimed ahead, I followed the tracks up the stairs into one of the rooms, where they ended abruptly. I touched the blood and found it warm.

  When I went outside, the others were waiting. “What did you find?” Red asked.

  “Nothing. The wolf was gone.”

  * * *

  Magician, Warrior, and Sorcerer discussed the next plan to capture the wolf, either using a pit or a snap trap. Deciding not to wait for them to volunteer me as a sacrifice again, I snuck out of town and into the forest. Fortunately, the wolf didn’t immediately attack, but I suspected he wouldn’t if he was injured.

  I walked cautiously for a while until I came across a rudimentary shelter. There was a hollow in the base of the tree and the ground around it had recently been dug out. Sticks and logs were built up around it to hold up a thatch roof over the small den. It wouldn’t protect against much, but it was better than anything I had thought a wolf could create. I wondered where he got the roof, which appeared to be from a shack.

  However, the roof had been torn off, many of the sticks and logs were broken, and there were huge claw marks in the tree. If the wolf was using this, why is it destroyed? I wondered if there wasn’t something more going on. Why isn’t the wolf attacking? Where is he?

  I headed back to the village and found everyone gathered around the cage, which the wolf was in. “We captured him,” Warrior said.

  The wolf was bleeding and lying on his side, barely conscious. “What did you do to h
im?”

  “Nothing,” Red said. She didn’t look happy like the others. “He limped out here, covered in blood, and walked into the cage.”

  “I told you I stabbed him,” Warrior said.

  The wolf’s paws weren’t covered in blood, though. Instead, it was his neck and shoulders that were wounded. “Maybe we should get him some water,” I said. “Mage, can you---”

  “No,” Mage interrupted. “I won’t help him after he attacked us.”

  “Are you sure it was him who attacked us?”

  “Yes,” Magician said.

  “He doesn’t look well enough to have done the damage he did. I found a den that was destroyed, too. That might be where he got the wounds from.”

  “It doesn’t matter. He’s just a wolf.”

  “He’s still a living creature. What if there’s a reason he attacked? Maybe he was only after the person responsible for the curse.”

  “That would make sense if it was one of us, and only the sorcerer could have done so.”

  * * *

  We decided to leave the wolf caged and let him die on his own rather than kill him. I wanted to bring him water, but ultimately decided it would only prolong his suffering. I returned to my room and tried to tune out my conscience. Unfortunately, the wolf’s cage was right outside my window.

  Wolves once roamed Caldaca freely. There were different types that lived in different areas. The northern wolves were known to be the fiercest. Wolves were wise, intelligent, and powerful. They ruled over animals and shaped the lands like dragons. They used to guide warriors through battles and guard people in exchange for food and housing. Unfortunately, their blood, teeth, and bones were used in many potions, and they were considered a plentiful source of meat. They were hunted to near extinction, and most people believed they were completely extinct. This caused the extinction of many prey animals that people ate.

  I had no idea how I remembered the fate of wolves when I couldn’t remember my own name. I wondered if I had parents or siblings who were concerned about me.

  The wolf howled mournfully and my heart ached. That sound conveyed so much misery. I went back outside and stood in front of the cage to watch him. He was helpless. I knelt to be at eye level with him and he opened his eyes. They weren’t glowing as brightly as before. When I reached out tentatively, he reached through the bar to touch my hand.