Unlikely Allies

by Davina Jolley

  Pulling on every last vestige of strength left, Dilly jumped wildly. Her front paws landed safely on the other side, but her back legs just missed their footing. Desperately scrambling and pulling with all her might with her front legs she tried to drag her body onto the bank, but her back legs swung hopelessly. Mud, stones and grass loosened by her struggles fell into the river. Dilly knew by the splashes it was a long way down.

  Camouflaged perfectly against the river bank, a brown rat with black, beady eyes watched curiously as a young wolf jumped across the chasm above her head. She watched as the wolf struggled hopelessly to gain a footing. Eyes darting to and fro, ears twitching, the rat heard the pounding feet of an excited wolf pack hurtling in her direction. The rat, although completely unseen, did not wish to stay around and took flight directly, knocking a broken branch purposely sideways, giving Dilly the foothold she desperately needed.

  Dilly refused to give up, she swung her legs to gain purchase and finally her back legs found something solid, something that gave her the footing she desperately needed. She sprang. Success! All four feet on the ground, Dilly was running again.

  Behind her, she heard two splashes, two wolves had fallen, but the others still pursued her. Ahead lay a forest glade, an opening. Dilly sped towards it. If, she was to fight, it would be in a place where she could move and it might as well be there. She stopped in the middle and turned to face her foes. Eight wolves entered the glade.

  Ursa’s coat dripped steadily, he had been one of the wolves that had fallen. Now, Ursa wanted Dilly to pay dearly for his embarrassment, falling in front of the pack had not improved his mood.

  The sun shone on Dilly, highlighting her silver, black and grey coat. Dilly was a fine-looking wolf, despite the scarring on her side. Dilly breathed in long and hard to regain her breath and strength as she prepared herself to fight. Eight wolves lined up side by side and started to fan out, they intended to attack on all sides.

  ‘You killed Lightning,’ snarled Ursa, son of Antares, ‘he fell into the river and was swept away, Sasha is torn and bloody. You will pay for this!’

  ‘I killed neither.’ Dilly stated bravely, ‘You should not have encouraged a young wolf to jump and do the wrong thing. Lightning chose to jump. I forced no one, I killed no one. The fault lies at your feet, not mine.’

  ‘You’re unnatural! A freak of nature!’ Corvus spat nastily.

  The pack steadily approached, heads down, teeth bared. They growled angrily and took their time. They were in no rush; it was obvious that Dilly could not escape.

  ‘Don’t like your chances, cub.’

  The nonchalant voice came out of nowhere, Dilly jumped, the voice sounded familiar. The wolves became more brazen as they saw Dilly startle and look around, they thought Dilly was showing fear.

  Ursa growled, ‘There’s no escape for you, Dilly. Today, you will experience pain!’

  ‘Nasty piece of work, that one,’ the voice came again, ‘eight to one, even I consider that unfair.’

  Dilly shivered, she thought she recognised the voice. Now she had eight wolves and Primrose to deal with.

  Primrose had been out in the forest, testing the Invisibility and Barrier Spells and had been totally surprised when a young wolf had run straight past her and not even picked up her scent. It pleased her to know that her magic was getting stronger. She was even more surprised to realise that she knew the fleeing wolf. Believing it would be an ideal opportunity to practise another new spell, Primrose decided to practise the sending and receiving of unspoken thoughts.

  ‘Relax, Dilly. They can’t hurt you and neither will I. They can’t hear me either, only you can. I can also read minds. They don’t like you very much,’ Primrose laughed, ‘Didn’t think you would recognise me so quickly.’

  Dilly thought she heard Primrose laugh and wondered why she would do that? She was confused. Why couldn’t she see her? Where was she?

  ‘Magic,’ Primrose remarked or rather sent her thoughts to Dilly, ‘I’m becoming quite good at it. How about we give those wolves the fright of their lives?’

  ‘Sounds good to me, but how?’ Dilly thought, her survival instinct kicking in. She was unsure whether Primrose was being truthful. She feared that Primrose could still hurt her, but she was also acutely aware that without her help, she would not survive this fight.

  ‘I told you, I’ll not hurt you. I meant it. Do as I say and say what I do,’ Primrose added seriously, wanting Dilly to trust her. Primrose was beginning to enjoy herself immensely. The situation also had an added bonus - testing her magic for real. Dilly’s insecurities and the pack’s lust for revenge would test her developing skills perfectly.

  The pack had stopped. Dilly seemed preoccupied and not at all worried at their approach. Thinking that Dilly did indeed have magic, the first wave of doubt swept through the pack. They believed Dilly should be preparing to fight, but she stood motionless.

  Dilly heard Primrose give out an infectious laugh as she picked up on the pack’s confusion,

  ‘Oh, funny, very funny, they think you have magic, Dilly. How on earth did you manage to convince them of that?’

  ‘I didn’t, you did!’ Dilly thought.

  ‘But I don’t know them,’ Primrose queried; her curiosity piqued.

  ‘They’ve heard stories about you and they think I should be dead, because of the wound you gave me!’ Dilly couldn’t help it, but she found she couldn’t keep the hurt and anger out of her thoughts, especially when it came to her disfigurement.

  ‘Now, now, Dilly, play nice… show me!’

  ‘How can I? I don’t know where you are!’

  Primrose laughed again, ‘Good point, I forgot. Let’s wind the pack up a bit, turn your back on them. Don’t worry, they can’t hurt you. Trust me!’ Primrose repeated as Dilly faltered.

  Primrose became serious for a moment, it had been such a long time since someone had trusted her and she was surprised to realise how much she wanted Dilly to.

  ‘Trust you! After what you did to Briony and Elina,’ Dilly almost screamed, but nevertheless, she did as she was asked.

  ‘I cannot change what happened that day,’ Primrose added with a tinge of regret. She then became quiet as she surveyed the damage done to Dilly’s side.

  ‘I did that!’ Primrose was stunned and felt a flicker of guilt, no wonder Dilly was having trust issues. ‘Who healed you?’

  ‘Elina.’

  Primrose knew for a fact that Elina could not have healed that wound. She was too inexperienced and most of her magic had been drained when she herself had been restored to life. It might have been possible for Elina to ease the pain but nothing more - Primrose’s reading of the Ancient Tome had taught her that. So, that meant one thing - the only people with enough experience to heal a wound like that was Briony or worse still, Vile Vi.

  As Dilly turned to face the pack again, she was surprised that they had not moved; they were just staring at her, confused and wary. They could not understand Dilly’s behaviour; no wolf in their right mind would turn their back on their enemy.

  ‘Warn them off, Dilly, tell them to go, use your own words. Their indecisiveness is beginning to bore me.’

  Dilly recognised the change in Primrose’s voice and mood, but again, she did as she was told.

  ‘You all need to turn around and go. If you stay, I will be forced to use magic and it won’t be pleasant.’ Dilly spoke with confidence and authority.

  ‘That’ll be interesting to see you use magic,’ Primrose thought with amusement.

  ‘I won’t need to, you said I was safe and to trust you, so I know you will,’ Dilly thought, with a smirk.

  ‘Clever girl, I like it, testing me!’

  The wolves faltered. Dilly gave a sudden pounce forward and was amazed to see all of them jump back quickly.

  ‘Go! I won’t say it again!’ Dilly threatene
d.

  But still the wolves refused to move, either forwards or backwards.

  Primrose sent another thought to Dilly, ‘Dilly, turn your bad side to them and say, “If I can do this to myself, think what I can do to you!”’

  Dilly did not falter, if Primrose was about to do what she believed had been impossible, she was not going to give her an opportunity to change her mind. With a clear, strong, confident voice Dilly repeated the phrase and at the same time showed the wolves her disfigured side. Dilly felt a soft touch on her head, while another hand gently stroked the scar.

  The wolves couldn’t believe their eyes, in front of them Dilly’s scar completely disappeared; fur grew and matched the pattern identically to the other side. Dilly was totally healed - the wolves were stunned and shocked. They paled visibly.

  They turned tail and fled; one-hundred percent convinced that Dilly possessed magic. They were dreadfully panicked and frightened, finally believing that Dilly was capable of doing them untold harm. Not one of the wolves had the sense to ask themselves why Dilly had not healed herself sooner and avoided all of her suffering.

  Dilly collapsed thankfully onto the ground.

  Laughing so much that she was fit to burst, Primrose stepped forward and her cloak slipped momentarily to reveal a near spitting image of Elina. The only difference being the short, golden hair. Gone was everything that had been grey. Gone was the monstrosity of a stone foot. Primrose was normal and so, so pretty. Dilly was amazed.

  ‘Close your mouth, Dilly, it doesn’t suit you gawping like that,’ Primrose said with amusement, quickly adjusting the cloak and hoping Dilly was now within her invisibility barrier, ‘Come, let’s go home.’

  Dilly, without question, rose to her feet and started to walk by Primrose’s side, totally besotted. Every now and then, she would stop and turn around to make sure that the scar had truly, truly gone.

  It reminded Primrose of the time her foot had become normal again. She knew exactly how Dilly felt.

  Walking inside her barrier spell, Primrose and Dilly completely disappeared from view. Primrose could not help but trail her fingers on top of Dilly’s head and occasionally scratch her between the ears. She remembered the time when a baby otter had nestled against her and of the comfort she had received from it. Primrose felt she had made a friend, an ally. She smiled; the smile was brighter than the sun.

  7. Jack receives a message

  Jack paused from his fruitless search. He did not know how it had happened, but he had lost something important. The last time he had seen it was on the night of the Full Moon during the meeting at the fallen oak tree - Primrose’s scarf had disappeared.

  Jack had left Velvet and Victor to continue their search for Primrose. He, on the other hand, needed to retrace his steps carefully. Every place of rest and every room in the cottage had been meticulously searched, as well as every forest trail they had visited, but no luck. The scarf had gone. Jack knew that many animals had seen that scarf and any one of them could have taken it; there had been much jealousy, some had thought Primrose did not deserve such a gift.

  Jack felt he had failed totally. It had been almost two weeks and along with the disappearance of Primrose’s scarf there had also been no news of Evelyn. Briony’s voice seemed to whisper in his ear, ‘everything will be fine, remember don’t give up,’ but Jack couldn’t help feeling depressed, surely things couldn’t get any worse.

  ‘Oh, things could get worse, a lot worse,’ an ethereal voice floated on the air and then wafted away gently into the dimming light.

  Jack shook his head, hearing voices now, he thought. He knew he must get some sleep soon or he would go mad. Perhaps he had done that already, he smirked at that idea.

  A faint howl drifted through the air. Jack’s smirk widened: he was definitely going mad. As the howl continued, Jack recognised the familiar sound, a coded message and a request for help from Orion, a wolf and his dear friend. The message required his surgical skill; a wolf had been injured in a deep gully. Orion was asking him to travel to a certain position, just inside the Ancient Forest on the northern side of the island.

  Jack, who had once tended the forest in that area, knew the place Orion referred to straight away. He stood, cupped his hands to his mouth and howled his answer, just as Orion had taught him. He hoped that his answer would travel the distance through the still night’s air and be received.

  Gathering up his rucksack, Jack started on his way. He was aware it would take him most of the night due to the distance and his leg, which was becoming more and more painful as the days passed. Sleep would have to wait for another night.

  As Jack followed the forest trails, he recalled the events since his wife’s funeral. He was relieved that he would be seeing Orion soon. His friend’s advice and company were important to him and there were some unsettling things that had happened recently that needed to be discussed. He wanted Orion’s point of view and to mull everything over with him.

  One of the things that concerned him was Bolter the rabbit, who was becoming extremely worried. Strange messages had been intercepted that were causing confusion and anxiety, as well as a lot of misunderstandings; these messages had not originated from his warren. As a result, Bolter and Jack had devised a new secret code; they would now be able to distinguish which messages were true or false.

  The rabbits had also noticed strange things flying in the sky. Things that looked like birds but weren’t. Jack had yet to see one of these contraptions and wondered what their purpose might be.

  Jack’s mind went back to the missing scarf again; he felt certain that it had been stolen at the meeting and felt sure the irritating robin was the culprit. The robin had continually interrupted the meeting at the fallen oak tree and didn’t like the idea of Primrose having the scarf, but without any evidence Jack was unable to accuse him of the theft without causing animosity.

  Then there was that strange voice that Jack thought he had heard earlier, he wondered whether he should mention that to Orion too.

  He glanced at the Ancient Tree as he passed it, remembering old times. Even the Tree looked different tonight, better somehow, less threatening. It was hard to see what was different, though, as the night cast too many dark shadows.

  The final and most unsettling thing that had happened, to which Jack had no reasonable explanation - was that Briony’s coffin had vanished. Around the empty, granite plinth four roses had grown miraculously, each one was heavy with many wonderful, exotic blooms and although, only one primrose had been planted, they had spread like wildfire and carpeted the glade entirely.

  The vivid, vibrant colours of the primroses complimented each rose perfectly. Jack could not make head or tail of it. It was a beautiful sight, breathtakingly so, but could it be a sign that Primrose was becoming a powerful magician? Or was it Briony’s way of saying that everything was as it should be?

  Jack could not wait to see Orion again.

  8. Elina and Violette

  Elina was sitting by herself at the computer desk in Primrose’s bedroom. Violette had just left. Violette was looking after Elina while she recovered from Primrose’s attack. Elina was feeling much stronger now, Violette’s cooking and tonics had done her a world of good, but Elina missed her father, Jack, and wished to be back in the forest.

  During the past week or so, Elina and Violette had both settled into a comfortable routine. Elina spent the mornings with Shadow, formerly known as Trouble, walking to the outskirts of a nearby wood or to the local park. People often stared at the strange, pale girl with the growing wolf cub that Elina passed off as a German Shepherd dog. She was surprised that they believed her and by how gullible some of them were.

  While she spent time with Shadow, Violette baked high quality cakes for all occasions in her pristine modern kitchen with all the mod cons. She then delivered them to her own delicatessen called, ‘Cakes to Die For’. Elina had thought it
was rather an unusual name, but looking at the finished articles - beautifully decorated, adorned to perfection to suit all occasions, maybe it was not such a weird name after all.

  The cakes were true masterpieces which smelled and tasted divine - according to the reviews Elina had read online. Even the other delicacies made on the shop’s premises received high praise: ‘never tasted anything so scrumptious’, ‘a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach’, ‘melt in the mouth loveliness’, ‘pastries that take you to heaven’. Elina couldn’t find any bad reviews concerning her aunt’s business.

  There were just two, additional house rules that her aunt had insisted on: Elina was never to enter the kitchen whilst her aunt was cooking and never, ever to enter her bedroom without an invitation. Elina was more than happy to follow these stipulations, although she was slightly concerned by just how many more secrets her aunt kept from her. She also found it strange that her nose had never savoured the delicious smell of home-baking like it had done at the cottage. Then again, her aunt’s kitchen was always immaculate within seconds after every baking session. Elina was certain that was due to magic, magic that Violette tried hard to keep hidden from her.

  Elina’s hands were poised over the keyboard of Primrose’s computer. Violette had given her one quick lesson on how to use it, but at times she was still baffled by all the things it allowed her to do. She had finally discovered the game Primrose loved to play, which involved the hunting, stalking and capturing of various animals through different landscapes, resulting in their eventual slaughter.

  The more difficult the hunt and intricate the capture the more points, strength and levels Primrose’s character gained. However, although Elina was shocked at the cruelty portrayed in the game, it was not that, that had momentarily confused her, but a red icon that had just popped up on the screen as she’d opened the game. The icon demanded her attention and informed her that immediate action was required. Many urgent notifications had been received and now, at this moment in time, Elina was unsure whether to acknowledge the messages or not.