She directed me around to the back of the hut where a thick tree stuck out in the clearing. It was the only tree on the inside of the thorn bush wall and I could see it had been marked up already and I hoped it was from Aelish. She took the knife from me then placed my hand around it properly, with my thumb firmly holding down my forefingers that she squeezed tight against the handle. It felt incredibly awkward.
She nodded towards the tree, “Strike it,” and I stared blankly back at her. Didn’t I just tell her I hadn’t even been taught to hold the knife, let alone use it?
She rolled her shoulders back as she narrowed her eyes towards me. “If a Dred Wulf were to attack you right now, right here, what would you do?” My instincts told me to run, but I didn’t say this.
“You can’t outrun a Dred Wulf, not for long.” She’d read my thoughts.
With a drop of my shoulders, I reluctantly turned towards the thick tree. I lunged forward with the knife in a feeble attempt to attack the tree, but the knife merely flexed against the thick bark and sprung out of my hands, falling to the ground. The sting reverberated from my hand to my shoulder. I waited to be scolded, to be told I was useless and incompetent like my dad used to whenever I failed. He was never one to accept failure. But she just picked up the knife and wrapped my fingers around it tighter. She instructed me to try again with a nod of the head.
I barely made a notch in the wood, poking pathetically at it, but she let me continue, let me try. Not once did she correct my improper form or my loose wrist that should have been strong. And as I jabbed and lunged at the wood, something began to break inside of me. Something was wrapped tightly around my heart, and I thrust the knife over and over again, slowly chipping away at whatever had a hold of it. Tears welled up in my eyes and my vision went blurry, but I kept pushing, jabbing, and thrusting all I had into that tree, no matter how pathetic the effort was. Tightness clenched at my chest, my breath was rapid and sweat dripped down my brow.
My bones ached and the palm of my hand felt raw from holding the knife and stabbing with it so frequently. With one last savage thrust, my hand released the knife and I dropped to my knees and began to sob.
I wasn’t even sure what for, or how come. But whatever had been holding on so tight, deep inside of me, had let go. I felt my pulse steady as my breath came back to me and the tightness in my chest eased. That feeling of being alone, that fear, it was still there but it didn’t consume me anymore. And just like the tree I had made a small dent in, so too did those tears make a dent on my heart. Hours passed as I remained on the ground, hugging my knees tight while my broken body began to mend the internal wounds.
As the sun set and a dark chill fell over the clearing, I finally straightened myself and grabbed the knife from the ground.
Aelish was still there, silently observing me, but I didn’t feel any pity from her. There was no sympathy in her eyes though they were still warm, and I was glad for it. She put a hand on my shoulder as she steered me back to the hut.
“Now that you have that out of your system, tomorrow we will start training.”
The grace and speed with which Aelish moved was mesmerizing. She was fast when she needed to be, and patient when she was supposed. I sat on a tree stump as she showed me steps I thought looked like a dance. Her feet moved with precision back and forth and side to side, as her arms swirled in the air painting a picture right before my eyes. She held the knife in her hand, and I could see the moments when she sliced at the invisible enemy, and the times when she blocked a potential blow. It was like the winds moving through the forest to a song only she could hear.
When it was my turn to try, I stumbled over every step and tripped on my own feet, unable to keep up or even remember what to do next. I couldn’t hear the song she moved to or see the picture she had painted.
Aelish was patient. She didn’t raise her voice at me once, even when I pouted with frustration. She never gave up on me when I failed countless times, over and over again.
By the end of day one, I didn’t feel I was any closer than I had been the day before, but she still smiled at me and told me I had done well and it filled my heart with the tiniest bit of joy. My body ached all over and my feet groaned with every step, and that night I ate two full bowls of stew with ease.
As we sat beside the fire drinking the tea that soothed my aching body and I had already grown to love, Aelish asked me about my family. My body tensed at the question, but she waited patiently for me to speak. Aelish sat across the table from me, knitting a pair of socks she said would keep me warm during the approaching winter.
“They’re all gone. Well I assume they are.” I looked down into the steaming hot tea as I spoke. “My mom and sister are gone, that much I’m sure of. I saw them die myself. My dad – he’s strong, but I don’t see how he could possibly have survived the horrors that filled our city. He sacrificed himself so I could live.” It angered me that I was so weak when he was so strong. I had tried to suppress the memory for so long, but it still ate me up to think they were all gone. I pushed it away so I didn’t fall apart.
Aelish inclined her head to me for a second as she placed her wool on her lap and looked me over with such soft eyes. “Your father is still alive. He will live for some time.” I appreciated the words though I knew there was no way for her to truly know that.
“There will come a day when you will see him again. Though it will be long and hard, you will find each other once more. But know that he will not be the same man you left, nor will you be the same boy he sent out into the woods.” He eyes drifted to the window, to the darkness that had settled in.
I scrunched my brows at her as I thought of seeing my father once more. I would have to learn how to survive this forest if I ever hoped to see him again.
Folding my arms across my chest I replied, “If I ever learn to fight,” and she chuckled softly at me, the wrinkles by her eyes clenching tighter making her features warm and inviting.
“You will. I know you will.” She reached across the table and gave my shoulder a little squeeze.
The tea was taking its hold as my mind was a dizzy fog. I stood to head to my tiny room when I spun back around towards her. “How long have you been here? How long have you been alone?”
She pondered at the questions dancing in my eyes before she spoke. “I have been here many years. Always alone though never truly by myself. I have had visitors, guests like you, who enter my life as often as the leaves have turned colors. I am here for your purpose, not mine. And when the time comes and the stars will it, I will move on to the next one in need.”
“Which stars?” I covered my mouth with the back of my hand to stifle a yawn.
She chuckled. “All of them.”
And as my eyes dropped, and I think I nodded a reply, I went into my room, laid my head upon the pillow, and dreamed of a thousand stars overhead.
Many weeks had passed before the nightmares returned, only they were not haunting my dreams but rather my reality as I stood in the woods alone that night.
Aelish had left me in the forest. Alone. She gave me a knife, a bow with arrows, and said not to return until I had the eye of the Dred Wulf in my hand.
I had almost chuckled at the thought, thinking she must be joking, but here I was, alone in the forest as the howls filled the nighttime air around me.
My breathing quickened and the hairs on the back of my neck rose as a howl sounded closer, and closer. I turned and ran. Where I would run I didn’t know, but I knew I had to get out of there. I knew I had to find my way back to the hut.
In the weeks I had spent with Aelish we had not left the compound containing the hut. On that day, when she took me past the thorn bush wall for the first time, I didn’t think to track my steps and remember my turns. I hadn’t expected to be left out here alone.
I stumbled awkwardly over the branches on the forest dark bed, though my eyes were growing more accustomed to the darkness. I pumped my arms harder. The bow strapped across me
bounced up and down against my back.
The Dred Wulfs didn’t tire, and did not slow down. I left a trail of fear that billowed like smoke behind me and hung in the air like a beacon fueling the Dred Wulf’s thirst for me. I could feel them all around me now, surrounding me on all sides as I searched for a way out.
Silently I cursed Aelish, burning with anger. I cursed her for throwing me out here so unprepared. I wasn’t ready for this! I would never be ready.
I finally reached the end. The end of the forest I stood on and the beginning of a new one below. But I was probably 50 feet up at the edge of the steep cliff with no way down and nowhere to go.
I turned back around to find a Dred Wulf stalking slowly towards me, its teeth bared in a snarl that left me weak in the knees and seeped straight into the marrow of my bone. Another appeared from the bushes to my right, and a third finished the semi-circle to my left. I was surrounded.
My foot slipped at the cliff’s edge, sending a few rocks skittering down the distant side as I collected myself again.
One Dred Wulf growled low, sending a shiver down my spine as I gripped the hunting knife at my side. I feebly pulled it out and did my best to keep my wrist strong and my grip tight around the handle. My hands were sweating and I nearly lost the knife entirely.
The Wulf took another step forward, and the other two at my sides stayed true to block off my exits as the one in the middle took me in as his prey. Drool dripped from the corner of its mouth.
I glanced at my feet—never look away from the Dred Wulf Aelish’s warning to me rang in my ears. She had told me the Dred Wulfs’ vision wasn’t as good as their sense of smell or hearing. They relied on the scents and sounds of their enemy more than their vision to hunt. When a Dred Wulf comes across prey, it doesn’t necessarily know who or what is before it—only that there is food to be had.
Keep eye contact, don’t ever look away from it. It will charge at you once before it ever attacks. This is its way of sizing you up. A lesser animal will balk at the charge and run away, but a stronger opponent will hold its ground. You will hold your ground.
And so I did. Though I was shaking in my boots and wanted nothing more than for that moment to be over, praying to wake from the nightmare, I stood true and didn’t look away.
My eyes trained on the Dred Wulf, and it on mine, I puffed out my chest to make my presence bigger, though the size of a ten-year-old child was nothing compared to the enormous Dred Wulf, but I faked confidence as I stood up a little taller.
The Dred Wulf lifted its haunches and bore down on its powerful back legs. I saw it coming and it took everything, everything in me to not look away as it charged forward, stopping only a few feet from me with its teeth exposed. Hot breath hit my face, but I didn’t flinch. Even though my body shook on the inside, I didn’t look away from its hideous eyes.
The Dred Wulf took a tentative step back. Its eyes surveyed me, and all the while I kept strong and locked eyes with the beast I knew would haunt my dreams for years to come, if I lived to see tomorrow.
The beast took another step backwards and I nearly fell to my knees as it inclined its thick head to its brothers surrounding me before they turned and took off, away from me! I sighed with relief.
I had done it, I had scared away the mighty Dred Wulf.
As I went to let out a little cheer, I felt a strong hand grip my shoulder sending my heart sputtering again. “Keep quiet boy. They will return if they suspect you can be beaten.” I spun around to find Aelish beside me, covered head to toe in dark brown and green mud. She was a shadow in the night and I startled back at the sight, but she shushed me once more.
Together we walked back to the hut, and this time I took care to watch every turn made and mentally mark any trees I could remember.
We didn’t speak until we had entered the hut. And I had to ask the question running through my brain. “Were you there the whole time?”
“Yes,” she said, and my heart dropped just a little. “But, they did not know I was there.”
I looked up to her, to the mud dripped shadow before me. “You did that all yourself, I was just there to help lead you home after.” She said the word home as if it truly was that, my home.
She had much more confidence in me than I had in myself. And I somehow understood why she’d sent me out there alone. I wouldn’t always have her there to protect me or teach me what to do. But her lessons, as small as they had been, stuck with me.
“I didn’t get its eye,” I grumbled as I looked down to my feet, kicking at the dirt childishly.
“An impossible task meant for you to keep your eye on the prize,” she said with a wink. “Eat up while I wash, then I will run a bath for you.” She strolled to the bathing room and I noticed the bowl of stew still steaming on the table. I dug in while it was still hot.
Chapter Four
The years went by in that hut as the seasons changed the lands from blistering hot to freezing cold. Winters were so cold it made my bones ache, but each cold winter that passed marked another year I was alive. Another year with Aelish at my side, always teaching me to hunt, to fight.
I’d grown into a strapping young man of sixteen, and became a warrior to match even Aelish’s skills, though I still lost in every mock fight against her.
Patience and precision were what she honed in me over these past six years. And as I sat high up in the tree overlooking the Dred Wulf below who cautiously crunching through the snow, I was the picture of everything she had taught me.
I kept my movements minimal and my breath barely a whisper while I unsheathed the hunting knife at my side.
The predator sniffed at the trap I had laid for it. It knew it was a trap, but one so well-crafted that even though the Dred Wulf knew I was coming, it didn’t see me high above it waiting to pounce.
I sprung from the branch, and drove my knife deep into its side. It roared and thrashed sending wisps of white and red snow in the air. But I held true and I did not let go, plunging deeper until the knife reached its target and the heart pumping below me stuttered to a stop. The Dred Wulf slumped to its side on the fresh white snow, staining it bright red beneath its loose body.
I removed the knife and wiped away the blood in the snow and on the sleeve of my jacket, then I wrapped a rope around the large creature and began pulling the beast back to my home, back to that hut.
Aelish was waiting for me when I arrived, already prepared to remove the hide and cut out the good parts of the meat that we would feast on tonight. She always knew the nights I would be successful, and I had stopped asking how a long time ago. But there she was, ready for my fresh kill.
“This will make a good blanket. I have nearly frozen the past few weeks waiting for you to return with something bigger than a rabbit or a squirrel,” she teased with a raspy chuckle.
“Why didn’t you just go get one yourself?” I dropped the Dred Wulf before her as I narrowed my eyes, and before she could say one word I said, “Ah, but the training right? I needed the training?”
And with a little smirk on her face. “Always,” she replied.
I went inside and cleaned up, a bath already drawn for me and still warm as always. I had grown accustomed to the routine, to the way we worked together as we went about each day as if it wasn’t our last.
I hadn’t thought about it in over six years. My death that is. The thought no longer haunted my nightmares and I no longer felt alone. I was comfortable with her, with this routine.
Deep down I knew it wouldn’t last, that it couldn’t last, but I didn’t let the thought seep in too deeply.
The smell of food wafted into the room as I dressed, pulling on the thick wool socks Aelish had knitted for me, and heading straight for the fire where a dish of stew was waiting.
Once we had finished eating and our tea was steeping on the table in front of us, Aelish turned to me with almost a sigh. “When spring arrives, our time will be over,” she said.
I’d grown used to her riddles,
but this one caused my brows to knit together. “Over how?”
“You must move on. I have taught you all you need to know, but there is still one thing you need to see. Something you must remember in order to move the stars.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, wanting an explanation, but she just sipped on her tea.
“And what if I don’t want to move on?” I scowled.
“You do not have a choice. The stars have willed it to be, so you must,” she said simply as she downed the rest of her tea and stood. She clasped a hand on my shoulder and I wasn’t sure if it was for her own support or mine. “Come, I have one more thing to show you.” And she turned towards her bedroom where I followed.
In all the time I’d been here, I’d never stepped foot in her room. And as I entered I realized it looked exactly how I pictured it would. The room was the same size as mine with a small bed against one wall and a tiny nightstand. But along the curved walls hung shelves filled with little trinkets and photos. Some things I had no idea what they even were.
She stood onto her tippy toes at the back of the room and pulled down a small box. She didn’t open the box but on the top I could see a star engraved into the wood.
“This is not for you. It is for someone else, and you will know who when the time comes.” She let me hold the box but I did not open it.
“For who?” I asked, knowing she wouldn’t tell me.
She took it back from me and returned it to on the shelf, hidden within the rest of the trinkets and boxes that lined the many shelves in this room.
“Some powers are so strong, that to use them, to really hone them, the person must give themselves over completely to them.” She looked down to her hands as she spoke. “This can break a person, both on the inside and the outside.” Her eyes met mine as her voice became serious. The coal black eyes bored deep inside of me, like she was speaking to a part of my soul. “This will help win the battle. This can help control the powers deep inside a person so they are not torn apart by what lies deep within them. When the time comes, you will give this to them.” She nodded to the box at the top of the shelf.
Untold: The Complete Watcher Series Mini Novellas (Watcher #4) Page 11
