Dawn used her anger and pulled all the power from the person holding her hand, she didn’t spare them at all. In one giant rush she drew in all the life she could take and the prison of her mind shattered into tiny pieces. Dawn used her freedom to breath. Deep full breaths she stretched her lungs wide and inhaled all the smells of her surroundings. Her eyes took a moment to focus. When they had, she saw a tent above her, held together in a native style it peaked a good eight feet overhead. Dawn sat up and stretched her arms and legs. Oh, it felt good to move again! Then Dawn noticed the woman sitting on the ground in front of her. Her eyes were wide with shock. She looked to be about in her thirties. Her black hair was tied back in a single ponytail and her skin was reddish brown. Dawn felt an immediate draw to her.
"She is a werewolf too! Her eyes are the same as Bonetwister’s. Oh God where am I and what has happened?"
Dawn took a chance and spoke again inside this woman's mind.
"Hi, my name is Dawn."
#####
It took a lot longer for Shade to get across the fire wastes. After he placed a good distance between himself and the winged dinosaur, he started moving much more carefully. He also no longer travelled in a straight line. Shade scouted ahead before moving and only when the skies were clear. Now that he was watching more carefully, he saw that there was more than one beast in the sky. Shade wasn’t sure how many of them that he saw, it was too hard to say if they were different ones or not. He did catch a glimpse of three at once though so he knew there must be at least that many, and probably more. Occasionally he would see one of the beasts go into a dive only to open its bat like wings just before hitting the ground.
A small rodent or animal met its death and became a meal, and then the beast would once again take to the air and continue its hunt. Shade knew they must have still been seeing him. He hoped if one decided to attack, his vigilance would pay off and he would have some kind of warning. There wasn’t a single moment Shade didn’t have the moonstone clutched in his hand. He didn’t pull in the power but he was as ready as he could get. He knew he wouldn’t get a second chance.
Night was the worst. Shade didn’t dare chance any kind of a fire so he did his best to find somewhere safer at night. A large rock to put his back against or a crack in the earth he could dig out with his hands to lie inside of, anything rather than just sitting and waiting. He had no choice but to sleep, his body wouldn’t let him stay awake. He never did sleep a whole night through, his dreams kept repeating going back to Greytop and the fight. Shade would wake in a cold sweat, his mind full of Greytop’s body being torn up so casually.
"He wasn't exactly a close friend, but he wasn't an enemy either. He cared for Dawn. We had that in common." Shade rubbed at his eyes trying to scrape some of the ash off but only succeeded in putting more on. The line of trees was much closer. Shade had thought about trying for it last night but decided to keep playing it safe. He still didn't know what to expect when he got there. All he knew was Greytop had been the key to his introduction to the werewolves, and his best hope of finding Dawn.
#####
Kai carefully stood up and looked at the young woman before her. Moments ago, she had been unresponsive and now here she sat fully awake and staring at her with a...caution, in her eyes.
"My name is Kai, did... did you just talk inside my head?"
Dawn simply nodded her response.
"Ok, So I’ll assume I’m not going crazy for now. Care to explain how you did that?"
Dawn's eyes took on an uneasy look for a moment then she seemed to make an internal decision.
"No I would rather not, but for now let's just leave it that I can. I'm sorry I had to drain you like that. I can assure you it was necessary. Your own life's power will come back on its own in a few days. At least for the few I have had to pull power from it always has. You say your name is Kai, where am I and how did I get here?"
Dawn flexed her burned hand and looked at it closely. The healing was almost complete. However, the scars were very visible. Those would never go away.
"Did you have anything to do with this healing? The last I remember of it was a bolt of lightning."
Kai pulled over a chair and sat down in front of Dawn.
"No, your hand was almost healed when you got here. You wouldn't wake though. I admit I was at a loss as to why. Perhaps you could explain that to me?"
Dawn shook her head. "Not yet, I can't...no."
"Ok, well then maybe later you will?"
Dawn offered only the barest of shrugs in response.
"Well, as for your other question, Bonetwister dropped you off here two days ago. Other than him or his lackeys, I haven't seen much of anyone. I've just been in here tending to you and doing my best to keep Brokentooth away from you. He sure doesn't care for you very much. What did you do to him anyway?"
At the mention of Brokentooth Dawn's eyes went open wide. "I'm in Brokentooth's camp?" No! That’s not good. He will want me dead as soon as possible! You can't tell him I’m awake yet. You have to keep it a secret."
Kai didn't know how Dawn did it, but her words inside her head were like a command. Even if she had wanted to tell Brokentooth, she wasn't sure if she could.
"Your secret is safe with me. We can't hide you in this tent forever. Brokentooth comes at least a few times a day to see if you are awake yet. As soon as he finds out, he will have you taken from here. He leaves me alone because the other clan members like me but that will not keep him away much longer. Each time he comes here I can see the anger is only barely contained."
Dawn's eyes flew to the closed tent flap.
"Someone is coming." Dawn lay back down on the bed trying to calm her breathing. It felt to her that her chest would burst from the pressure of her heart inside. Kai brushed off the dust from when she had fallen to the ground and busied herself with a packet of herbs. Seconds later the tent flap brushed aside.
"Brokentooth wants to know if the bitch is awake yet." A very bored werewolf barely in his twenties glanced lazily over at the table that Dawn still lay on. "I'll take it she hasn't yet. I'm so glad I was made to come and check." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and left out of the tent complaining about wasting time the whole way.
Kai waited a moment to be sure he had left before speaking to Dawn."How did you know someone was coming?"
Dawn carefully leaned herself up on one arm. Kai noticed her unconsciously protecting her injured hand.
"I can see people. I guess you would say it's called an aura but it's inside the person. More like a light inside them, life I guess."
"So you can see this inside of me right now?"
Dawn blushed deeply and turned her eyes to the side. "Actually no, I pulled yours out and used it. I needed your power to help me break free from inside my mind."
Kai's eyes went wide and she backed away from Dawn. "You took my life! Is that why everything is so dark now? I'm dying?"
Dawn's hands went up reflexively.
"No. It's not like that, well yes, but it's as if I used your power like a battery. Yours will come back in a little time. Everyone has a power inside. I just needed to use yours to help me since I wasn't strong enough to do it myself. I'm not the only one who can pull it out of other people. My friend Shade can do it as well."
At the mention of Shade, a whole mess of memories rushed though Dawn's head. Kai's head lowered and she seemed to be trying to look at herself, looking for the light that was missing. Dawn remembered what Kai had said about Bonetwister. If he had dropped her here, where was he now? Where were Shade and all the rest? Kai was still doing her self-examination, trying to understand what had happened.
"Kai, please stop. Maybe Shade could explain it better, but for now just know it will come back. You might feel odd for a while but it will return. I promise. I need to ask you some questions. I have to try to figure out what happened to me in the last few days. You said Bonetwister dropped me off. What happened to him?"
Kai shook herself
visibly as though trying to shake off the feeling of wrongness.
"Sorry. It's weird. Everything seems darker, greyer, and dead. It's hard to get used to this sensation. I didn't see when Bonetwister dropped you off. You were just here when I came back to the tent. I don't know where he went after, but I can guess."
Dawn didn't respond she just waited looking at Kai's eyes.
"Well, you might not like the answer. The word outside is that Brokentooth doesn't care for Bonetwister very much. He was angry that he even came back, even more angry that he brought you. I'm sure that Brokentooth had him dragged to the prison tent. It was hard for him to find a way to detain a werewolf at first, but he figured it out pretty fast. He makes a spiked collar and inverts the spikes so they point into the neck. Its fine if you stay human but if you try and change to a werewolf to run away the spikes will impale you on the spot. Even werewolves don't heal that fast. Most wolves in the clan do their best to avoid it but the few people that piss off Brokentooth enough to anger him, but not enough to get that collar, find them sent on a guard duty shift. Normally they don't come back. So Bonetwister either got send out on a guard run or he's in the tent. Either way, when Brokentooth is done with him he is as good as dead."
Dawn lay back down on the table, her mind going a mile a minute.
"Ok, how did Brokentooth become the leader then?"
Kai reached over and pulled a chair closer. "That's a bit of a longer tail. You will tell me if someone gets close?"
Dawn nodded her agreement and waited for Kai to start.
"When Brokentooth came back from the attack on the Nightwalkers he told us what happened out there.
"They rushed to the home of the leader and he told them of his plans to attack the base. He instructed everyone to do a frontal assault since it was the only way inside. The ten rushed to do his bidding. The leader chose to stay behind for some reason. Brokentooth refused to tell us why no matter how many times we asked. He would only say it was dishonourable. When the attack party got inside the base, they hit an ambush. The numbers of the Nightwalkers were uncountable. The ten fought their way inside in hopes of finding a defensible area, but the Nightwalkers are still slow fighters and ten werewolves can hold them off for a long time. In the end, the numbers wore them down. Even though they fought their way inside, the Nightwalkers forced them to flee out of the back through a warehouse. Only three of the original ten made it outside, and only two of those made it back to the leader. Brokentooth was the only one of those to make it back here."
Kai paused waiting for Dawn, but she only signalled to continue with her hands.
"Well, Brokentooth said that when he got back to the leader that he was furious at them for failing his mission. He said he was ashamed to be a werewolf, and refused to give any more orders to the clan. He renounced his leadership and turned his back on the clan. Brokentooth said that Bonetwister had fallen in love with one of the human women that lived there and decided to stay behind. It was then that Brokentooth claimed leadership and it explained why we didn't feel the pull to him as leader. The blood leader was still far away. According to Brokentooth, he would never come back. Brokentooth’s leadership has been less than perfect, but at least we have someone to lead, having him as a leader is better than the chaos that was before."
Dawn sat quietly a moment soaking up all that Kai had told her. "What a mess I have gotten into now. She thought. Then it struck her.
"If you feel for your leader now, can you tell me how far away they are? You should still be able to do it even though your power is faded."
Kai seemed surprised at the idea.
"I haven’t tried in a long time. It was always so far away I just stopped looking. One moment, I will try and locate him." Kai closed her eyes and seemed to shift a little. She didn't become a wolf but her features took on the look of a wolf for only a moment. Then her eyes sprang open and she fell to her knees from the chair.
"The leader is right in front of me!"
#####
The line of trees was quiet. Shade began to wonder if he was lost. As far as he could tell, there wasn't a single person, or wolf, around. The flying beasts seemed to stay away from the wooded area. Perhaps it would be safer inside the woods.
Shade took a deep breath and relaxed a little, but not much. The memory of Greytop wouldn't fade for some time. He pulled himself out of his hiding spot and moved farther into the woods. He found an unexpected bonus from the ashes of the fire wastes. It was almost perfect camouflage. Shade did his best to keep low and quiet. He still clutched the stone in his hand in case he needed it. In fact, he hadn't put it away in days. Shade's fingers were stiff from holding the stone for so long. Shade searched out with his senses and tried to see if he could see any life outside of his vision. So far, as best as he could tell, he was still all alone.
Chapter 17
The General and the Oracle did the best they could to pass the time. It had been days since the Oracle had seen Greytop fall to his death and over a week since Shade and Greytop had left. The vision had brought her to her knees. The General immediately went into a defensive mode. His vigilance strong until the Oracle had recovered enough to explain what had happened.
"Is Shade still alive?" was the first question he had asked after she had regained herself.
"Yes, he's run off and is hiding for now. The winged beasts, I can't see their decisions. They act on instinct and hunger. It is hard to say what they would do next. I haven’t seen something like them before. They almost look like the dinosaurs that were in the books we would read Shade as a child."
The General simply nodded and relaxed a bit.
"Somehow, it doesn't surprise me too much. Yet now it's just one more thing to watch out for. You said it was flying. Could you see how fast?"
The Oracle took a seat outside the cabin and pressed her hands against her head.
"Your headaches are getting worse aren't they?" The General sat beside her and placed one arm around her shoulders.
"Yes, but I will cope with them. The beast, dinosaur I guess. It dropped from the sky very quickly. It looked like it had been flying high above and plunged to the earth. It hit Greytop hard with no warning at all. If Shade wasn't there, I wouldn't be able to have seen it at all. When it comes to the wolves it is still very hard to see into their future."
The General gave his wife a gentle squeeze.
"I liked Greytop. I wonder what possessed him to leave Shade behind."
The Oracle didn't answer but just rubbed her temples gently.
"When Dawn gets back, maybe there is something we can do about the headaches." The Oracle just nodded and left her husband outside to lie down on her bed. It offered no comfort, but her husband felt better when she seemed to be trying to do something to relieve the pain. She knew what the headaches were from, and they weren't leaving just yet. She couldn't tell her husband though. If he knew, he would run off and try to change everything, and events had to play out as they would, without his interference.
The Oracle didn't know how things would end. Only that they were coming to a head. Everyone was making so many decisions, and then changing them, abandoned and relived. It was tearing her up inside trying to follow them all. She knew she could stop the headaches if she gave it up, but she couldn't. If there was a chance that they could help, she had to watch for it.
The events were playing out faster then she could keep up. She caught a flash again of a person. He came into her visions often lately, but she couldn't tell who he was. It was as though the future around him was so uncertain that even the picture of him couldn't quiet manifest. He was cropping in more and more, and she knew that whoever he was. What he was doing was most important.
The Oracle felt her husband place a damp cloth on her forehead and she jumped.
"Sorry, I thought you knew I was here." The General spoke in a whisper.
"No, I was distracted a moment. It's ok though, thank you." The Oracle cursed herself and decided to try harde
r. She wouldn't lose control. Her family needed her here too.
Chapter 18
Every time Donovan's power had returned enough that he could feel it, he sunk it back into the Nightwalker. Since she had said her name that one time, Donovan hadn't heard another word from her. He had tried everything he could think of. Donovan was beginning to think he had imagined her saying it. Even if he was so sure, so confidant, that she had. She had said "Silvia". It was only a whisper, but it was the only time he had ever heard a Nightwalker make any noise but a grunt.
Donovan looked across the room at his moonstone glowing slightly. He had left it to charge in the bright sunlight until it was full of power. His gaze kept shifting from the moonstone to the Nightwalker.
He had taken her every night since the first time he had commanded her to lay down. He thought that perhaps that had triggered something inside her mind but it hadn't made any difference either. Donovan was running out of ideas. The Nightwalker stood in one corner of his room, ever obedient to his whims but not showing any will of her own.
He had made her change into a dress he had found for her. It wasn't a perfect fit, but the red looked good against her skin, even if it was dirty and worn. In fact, he was sure someone made it for a much smaller woman, but he found the look appealing so he didn't make her try on any others. Her ample chest filled the dress to overflowing. It was a good thing the Nightwalkers didn't breathe any more or the movement would either cause her pain or burst the seams on the stitching.
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