As he considered whether he should wake the others or let them sleep, he hears the muffled flurry of movement coming from just outside. Cautiously, he rose from the chair and went to the window, standing off to one side a bit to peer down at the street below. What he saw down there was unnerving ... to say the least.
Thundering down the street was the largest pack of wolves he had ever seen in his life. These didn't appear to be normal wolves either. Even from his vantage point, he could tell that these wolves were much larger than average. The pack seemed to be growing in size; others were joining from around nearly every building on the street. To Edward, it looked as if there were close to a hundred of them down there. They were all rushing down the street heading toward the edge of town.
Edward was unsure if they were running away from something, or heading into a scuffle with some unseen foe. He maintained his position by the window for a few more minutes until he saw, what he felt to be, the last stragglers lope off into the distance at the back of the pack. Now that they seemed to be gone he began to relax and noticed how eerily quiet the town had become. He imagined that if he were to drop a blade of grass at this very moment he would hear it hit the floor.
He turned his attention from the window and looked over at Amber. She didn't seem to be any calmer. If anything, she looked more nervous now than she had when the pack was running through the street below.
Suddenly, there was a loud crash that sounded as if it had come from downstairs. The impact of it caused the floor to tremble beneath Edward's feet. At the sound, Mike jumped up out of bed so quickly that he nearly fell to the floor.
"What the hell was that?" Mike asked, looking wildly around the room and trying to shake the fuzziness of sleep to gain his bearings. It took a minute for him to realize where he was and that he wasn't dreaming. Another loud crash from below shook the room, followed shortly by a heavy object falling to the floor.
"What's going on?" Katie mumbled as she sat up groggily and tried to focus her eyes. Suddenly, a long, strange sounding howl emitted from somewhere below them in the tavern. The sound made Katie shiver. The light grew strange in the room. As Katie tried to gather her wits, she looked around the room and saw Amber cowering in a corner as far from the door as she could get. Instead of the normal glow that usually emanated from her ghostly form at night, she seemed to be pulsating. Bright one second, significantly dimmer the next, as if she were trying to disappear.
Mike stood and retrieved his sword from the floor next to his bed. Edward opened the palm of his hand and produced a small flame to give the room more light. It hovered steadily just above his palm as he walked to Mike's position near the door. As Edward approached, Mike opened the door slightly, cautiously peering out into the hallway. When he saw that it was empty, he motioned with his head to Edward and both stepped out of the room.
Katie stayed inside and crossed to where Amber cowered, still pulsating in the corner. She hoped that her presence would comfort Amber, at least enough to make her stop flickering in and out. Katie's courage seemed to be bolstered by Amber's presence, so she hoped the same would be true for her.
In the hallway, the two men moved slowly toward the staircase at the far end. About halfway along they began to hear heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. They stopped in their tracks and anxiously waited for whatever was coming.
Moments later, an enormous, wolf-shaped metal head appeared at the top of the stairs. It stopped when it saw them and regarded them with its baleful, glowing, green eyes as if it were assessing their potential threat.
"What the hell is that?" Mike whispered nervously to Edward.
"I don't know and I'm not sure I want to find out either. I hope it doesn't come after us, because somehow I think it would take more than the two of us to keep that thing at bay," Edward replied.
As if it could sense their fear, the beast turned and entered the hallway. As it did, Mike and Edward backed up a few steps. The monstrous creature had three heads, two that they had been unable to see when it was still in the stairway, and it was much larger than either of them had thought. It was easily five feet tall, and broad enough at the shoulders that it made them wonder how it had fit up the stairway in the first place. It must have taken up the entire width when it was coming up. It began to crouch slightly, while it stood eyeing them malevolently. The two outer heads lowered and growled menacingly. The middle head rose toward the ceiling and uttered the most horrible sounding howl either of them had ever heard. Its deafening pitch echoed wildly off the walls.
In his fear, Edward lost his concentration. The flame hovering just above his hand sputtered for a moment and then went out. The hallway was plunged into darkness. The only things visible in that moment were the six glowing green orbs that were the beast's eyes.
In the room, despite any courage they had mustered from their closeness, Katie and Amber were visibly trembling. The tremendously loud howl that erupted moments before sounded as if it were just outside the room. It made Katie more terrified than she had ever been in her life. Something that could make a sound like that was surely going to kill them all. With every nerve on edge, she waited to hear the inevitable scream that would soon come from the hallway just before her friends were killed. The sound she heard next was anything but what she expected to hear.
In the darkness of the hallway Mike gathered himself, knowing his next move might be his last. He raised his sword into striking position and let loose a battle cry that he never thought he was capable of managing until now. He rushed blindly toward the only point of focus he had; the glowing green orbs that he knew were the creature's eyes. When he thought he was close enough to strike, he swung the sword as hard as he could in a downward motion that he hoped would damage the monster enough to get it to back off.
His swing had yet to gain any momentum when it encountered resistance. The blow glanced off of one of the heads, causing a brief spark of light. Not used to wielding a sword, Mike was unable to stop the blade's momentum, its entirety now embedded in the wooden floor of the hallway. He struggled for a moment to free the blade, and seconds later found himself lying on his back on the floor. The creature had hit him with one of its enormous paws, but to Mike it felt more like he had been hit by a car. He laid there in an agony, stunned by the blow, and wondered if he had managed to acquire some broken bones.
Just when he began to think it was the most pain he had ever endured in his life, the beast bit into his left leg with such force that he was sure part of his leg was no longer attached to his body. Just then, a bright slice of blue light passed over his head. As it went by, he felt a temporary chill and wondered briefly if he was dying.
The bolt of blue light struck the mechanical monster with a blinding flash. As the beast roared in rage, Edward quickly came forward to grab Mike under the arms, dragging him out of the immediate vicinity of the beast's massive jaws. Then, Edward stood up and turned his palms to the sky. Sparks began to dance from one hand to the other as he gathered his concentration. Moments later they began to crackle. Edward turned his hands so that his palms were facing the beast. Two streaks of lightning instantly sped toward the creature. As they struck, the outer heads of the beast sagged lifelessly, tiny flames appearing on them. The remaining head roared at him in fury.
Suddenly, the beast charged toward Edward. With nowhere to go, and barely any time to react, he quickly jumped to one side. He pressed himself as flat as he could against the wall, hoping that it would miss him. Luck was with him as the beast thundered past and crashed through the wall at the end of the hallway.
Dim light filtered through the gaping hole. Edward moved toward the opening and looked outside. Other than a dissipating cloud of dust, there was nothing moving in the street below. When he turned from the hole to check on Mike, he saw that Katie and Amber had now joined them. Katie was bent over Mike and appeared to be tending to his wounds the best she could. Amber didn't seem to be scared anymore, as the glow of her form was steady once again.
Mike groaned in agony as Katie checked his leg. It was definitely broken in at least one place. A piece of bone was protruding through his pants and his leg was slick with blood.
"Can you see if you can find something to splint his leg with?" she asked Edward. He nodded and headed toward the stairs, sure he would find something in the wreckage caused by the creature ramming its way inside. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw broken tables and chairs were strewn about everywhere, as if there had been a really big fight before everyone had gone home. He sifted through the debris and found a couple wooden chair legs that he felt would do the job, and then went behind the bar and found some towels. He grabbed a few of them and headed back upstairs.
Katie heard him coming and called out, "Did you find anything useful down there?"
"Yes," he said, as he reached the top of the stairs. He held the items out to her. "Will these do?"
"I think so. I'm going to need your help when I do this."
"What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"Hold him down, please. This is really going to hurt and I need to keep him as still as possible."
Edward knelt down beside him, rolled up the end of one of the towels, and put it in his mouth. "Bite down on this as hard as you can." Mike nodded his head to let him know he understood and then Edward leaned forward, putting his hands on Mike's chest. "Go ahead," he instructed Katie.
She felt around as delicately as possible, trying to locate each end of the broken bone. She had done this for animals on the farm where she grew up, but never a human. Once she determined the correct angle, she pushed down on the bone that was protruding from his leg. His scream, muffled by the towel, was so brief that she thought he must have passed out. With the bone now back inside of his leg, she quickly squeezed her hands around the break on both sides and aligned the bones the best she could. While she did this Mike didn't even flinch, which confirmed to her that he was unconscious. When she was satisfied that the bone was properly set, she began using the materials Edward had brought her. First placing the wooden chair legs on either side of his leg to keep it straight, and then tying the towels tightly around it to keep everything in place as firmly as possible. When she was finished she looked to Edward and asked, "Is there anything you can do to stop the bleeding? I can't put a tourniquet on him for fear of interfering with the splint."
"I think so," he replied, moving from his position at Mike's head down to where Katie sat. He knelt down next to her and began to rub his hands together. Within moments they started to glow a fiery red and Katie could feel the heat pouring from him in waves. Edward then placed his hands gently over the wound. Even though he was still unconscious, Mike groaned in pain. In a matter of seconds the scent of seared flesh filled the air around them. Just before the blood on his pants could dry completely, Edward removed his hands. "That should stop the bleeding and possibly even have fused the bone back together."
Katie smiled. "For now, let's get him back into the room and in bed. We'll see how he feels when he wakes up."
Together they gently lifted Mike and carried him into the room, laying him on the bed. With that done, Katie went back into the hallway and found his sword. She worked it back and forth until it loosened enough that she could pull it free. Returning to the room, she put the blade on the floor next to Mike.
"It would probably be safer if one of us stayed awake to make sure that thing doesn't come back," Edward suggested.
"How long do you figure we have until morning?" she asked.
He went to the window and looked out at the sky. "Judging from the positions of the moons, I would say we probably still have a few hours until daylight begins to push the darkness away."
"Then maybe we should split the time somehow so that both of us can get some rest."
"That sounds like a good idea. Go ahead and lay down for a bit. I'll go first," he told her.
"Okay." She briefly smiled at him before going to the other bed to lie down. With all that had just happened, she was exhausted. Within moments, she was snoring lightly.
Chapter 2
When the sun peeked over the horizon, Katie began to wake the others. The night had passed uneventfully, with no sign of the creature that had attacked Mike, and none of the wolves from the massive pack had returned.
Edward sat up, swung his legs out of the bed, and began to rub the sleep from his eyes. On the other side of the room, Mike sat up in his bed with a grimace and saw the splint on his leg. "How bad is it?" he asked.
"I could only find one break, but you may have some fractures. I set the bone the best I could and Edward did something to stop the bleeding that may help the bone mend quicker, too," Katie told him.
"Honestly, it feels like I've been burned really badly more than anything. If I have broken bones then I don't think I am feeling the pain of them. Do you think I will be able to walk on it?"
"I'm not even sure if it would hold your weight if you tried to stand on it ... let alone walk on it," Katie said. "As a matter of fact, I would feel a whole lot better if you didn't even try standing by yourself until you've tried it with help."
"Indeed. You are lucky to still be alive, my friend. If I hadn't been able to distract that beast from you, I'm sure it would have ripped you to pieces," Edward told him.
"In that case, can the two of you please help me stand up so I can see how it feels?" Edward and Katie moved over to where he sat on the bed, one on either side, and each grabbed an arm to help him up. As he stood, Mike hopped on his good leg for a moment to gain his balance and then gingerly put his splinted leg down to test it. He slowly shifted his weight to the bad leg and grimaced in pain as he did.
"I think I can put my weight on it, but not for very long," Mike told them as he quickly shifted his weight back to his good leg. "I could probably walk for a short distance if I had to, but I would prefer to let it heal some more."
"We're going to need to find some horses if we intend to keep traveling." Katie crossed the room and looked out the window.
"That might be difficult to do in our current situation," Edward said. "We don't have money and have very little to barter with. Surely not enough to acquire horses."
"Judging by what I can see right now, that might not be a problem," Katie said, pointing out the window at the town below.
Mike and Edward made their way over to the window and looked out. Nothing was moving out there aside from the occasional dust devil that would pop up in the street. "Where is everyone?" Edward mused to himself out loud. "There should be people down there going about their morning routines by now. I hope that gigantic pack of wolves didn't attack the townsfolk before they ran out of town. The last thing I want to see when we get outside is a bunch of mutilated corpses."
"For that matter, the creature that attacked us in the hallway last night could also be the reason this place looks like a ghost town," Mike chimed in.
"We should probably get down there and check things out," Katie said. "There's no sense standing around up here speculating when we could be down there helping anyone we find."
"Good point! Let's go see if we can find anyone that needs our help," Mike said.
Edward and Katie positioned themselves on either side of him, allowing him to get an arm around each of them to steady himself. Slowly they made their way to the doorway of the room. It was tricky to get Mike through it, but they managed by shuffling sideways for a couple of feet. Once the doorway was behind them, they made their way to the staircase. Sunlight filtered through the gaping hole in the outer wall of the building at the end of the hallway where the mechanical creature had crashed through. It created a very strange looking shadow that stretched out in front of them, looking like an upright version of the nightmarish creature they had dealt with in the night.
They all breathed a little easier as the staircase got closer, causing their shadows to climb the far wall. It looked more normal when cast there. As they reached the top of the stairs, they turned to begin their
descent. "It looks like it's going to be a tight squeeze getting you down there, Mike," Edward said. The daunting task of getting Mike down the stairs without incident caused Katie to smile, stifling a giggle as images of a large tumble rolled through her mind.
When they actually began to go down the stairs, it looked very similar to Katie's vision. She momentarily lost her balance when she began to laugh and Mike listed to one side nearly falling on top of her. With great effort, Katie managed to get her laughing fit under control. She steadied Mike and they began making their way downstairs again.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, both Katie and Mike were taken aback by the devastation they saw. Edward, who had already been down here to get the things to patch up Mike's wounds, was not surprised by the scene.
They made their way slowly through the clutter of broken chairs and tables, towards the front door of the tavern. When they finally reached it, Edward pushed open the door and guided everyone into the bright morning sunshine. Other than a dust devil, which was weaving its way lazily down the street, there was no movement out here. At this time of day there should have been a bustle of activity in the streets, but instead they were greeted by an ominous silence. As they looked down the street, Edward noticed a building at the edge of town. "That looks like it could be a stable. We should go check it out."
Mike and Katie agreed and they began to make their way slowly down the street. Mike wore a grimace of pain as they went, using Katie and Edward as support, but for the most part trying to walk on his own. When they got to the edge of town they paused in front of the building.
"I'll wait out here," Mike stated, pointing to a chair located flush with the building, shaded by an overhang. "I need to rest for a few minutes anyway. I hope you find something useful in there because I think it will be slow going if you don't." He tried to smile, but couldn't pull it off.
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