Chapter 6: Masiaka.
I padded softly through the forest trying to find the Pakuna run again. I soon found it thought the carcass of the Pakuna I had killed earlier was gone. I wasn’t surprised. The forest is full of many predators without pride to keep them from savaging.
I crouched in the same bushes I had been hiding in the first time. I supposed there was no sense in spreading my scent everywhere.
It wasn’t along until a Pakuna came along, they were evidently numerous in this forest. I waited patiently as the little creature timidly poked its way down the run. It seemed to be taking its time but I knew I couldn’t rush. If I pounced to soon I would doubtlessly scare the little animal away and it might alert the others of it’s kind that I was hiding by this run.
The moment the animal was close enough, I tensed and then sprang. The Pakuna never saw me coming. I hit it and closed my jaws around its throat and bit down as hard as I could. The Pakuna’s neck snapped like a twig. The creature died almost instantly but it’s body continued to twitch even though it was dead. I disgustedly dropped it on the ground and growled. This was almost as bad as killing them with my power. I hated killing, even if it was for hunting.
I made myself forget my disgust and picked up the creature. It was completely dead now and didn’t twitch anymore.
I quickly made my way back to Rodain. As I neared the river I saw the pale orange glow of fire in the distance. Fearing the worst I began to run. The Pakuna carcass dragged along the ground and got caught up in the bracken with slowed me down, so I dropped it. I burst into the clearing and nearly ran into a small fire . I skidded to a stop inches away from the fire, I stared at it for a moment realizing how harmless it was, and how badly I could have hurt myself.
I heard a soft chuckling and realized that Rodain was laughing at me. With wounded pride I collected my self and backed away from the fire. I hung my head low and mumbled something about how she should be more careful.
“So, where’s that food you were going to catch? I see blood on your jaws. What happened? Did some big bad birdie come and steal it from you? Is that what you were running from?” She asked tauntingly.
I mumbled something again and skulked into the forest to find the carcass that I had dropped. After a little sniffing about I found it and picked it up and walked carefully back to Rodain.
She lay behind her fire with a huge smirk on her muzzle. While she wolfed down her dinner I found a comfortable place to sleep on the other side of the fire. And presently the events of the day caught up with me and I fell asleep.
We spent the next few days like that. Rodain experimented with her powers and worked on healing herself. It proved to be more difficult than expected but after three days she had managed to fix her broken bones and wounds to the point where she could walk and run easily and with no pain to speak of.
On our fourth night there we agreed that it would be the last night we spent there. That night I let Rodain do the hunting. I was alone by the fire we had kept p ever since the night she had lit it. The moon was full that night and it cast a pale blue-gray light over everything in my ‘sight’.
Something passed over the moon blocking out the light for a split second and then it was gone. At first I thought it was a cloud but then I realized that there was no wind to make a cloud pass that fast.
The shadow passed again and I looked up just in time to see something half silhouetted against the moon. I had seen a wing half spread and a long lizard like tail. I heard a growl rising in my throat.
“What’re you so upset about?”
I whirled snarling half expecting the monster in the sky to be behind me. Infact it was only Rodain. I noted she hadn’t caught anything.
“Something’s scared all the prey off,” she said when she saw my quizzical look, “And you look pretty spooked yourself. What’s going on?”
“Something is in the sky Rodain, it looks bad. Look up. I think whatever it is, is circling.”
We both looked up and after a moment the shadow passed over the moon again. This time we clearly saw what appeared to be the silhouette of a giant winged lizard.
“Scalefang…” whispered Rodain.
“What!?”
“Quiet, maybe it hasn’t seen us.”
The thing circled back again. It’s shape completely blotted out the moon this time. Rodain put her ears back and whirled and started running.
“RUN! RUN! IT’S SEEN US!”
I followed her as fast as I thought I could go. Then the thing in the sky bellowed loudly. I found I could run faster. I leapt over countless things. Fallen branches, rocks, and who knows what else.
Then the thing spat a fireball. I heard something like a might wind followed by rock cracking. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked over my shoulder. The place where Rodain and I has been resting these past few days was ablaze. Even this far away I could feel the heat. I couldn’t move, fear and horror glued me to where I stood.
“RUN! YOU IDIOT!”
Rodain’s voice broke the spell and I began to run again. I heard the creature bellow again, this time with rage at missing us.
I saw the trees thinning ahead of me and wondered what was going on. I soon burst through them and found myself in the bottom of a canyon. I realized I had been a little off in where I thought we were. We were on the border but we were much farther south. In the land the was full of canyons.
Rodain was already galloping down this one at top speed. At first I hesitated but then I realized there where was nowhere else to run but back. On either side of the canyon mouth was sheer cliff wall the stretched as far as could be seen.
I plunged into the canyon at full speed. As I ran I noted that it was not a truly deep canyon. At my guess it could only be 13 feet deep. But the walls were far too smooth to climb. The only choice a wolf had was to run . So I ran.
I ran at top speed slowing only to ground a sharp curb, the first true bend in the canyon so far. I rounded it and found my worst fears confirmed. It was box canyon. Rodain was already at the back of it clawing viciously at the back of it in a pathetic effort to climb. I ran up to her and stopped. I turned to her feeling frantic.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“ We fight.” Was Rodain’s answer.
I nodded and turned around bracing myself for the thing to come. I bared my teeth and felt my hackles go up. I could see the glow forming around Rodain as she touched the elements. And then I saw the black shape in the sky drawing nearer and nearer.
Rodain mumbled something and I felt the air around us change. I was almost certain that she had just set up a shield around us.
“It can still bite us,” she mumbled as if reading my thoughts, “But now the fire won’t hurt us.”
The shape drew nearer and began to soar over the canyon. To it’s surprise the earth on either side of the canyon walls began to explode. Rocks flew up cutting it’s huge bat like wings.
One huge rock flew up and narrowly missed the creature. It roared again and then landed in the canyon just beyond the bend. It evidently had had enough of Rodain’s exploding earth. Rodain shifted her weight and tweaked the air a little bit more.
“Now it will remain for a day and a half, the shield that is. So even if it kills me you’ll still have a chance” she said .
The creature rounded the corner and I got my first look at a Scalefang. It was a monstrous creature as high as the canyon walls. It had a long horse like head with a falcon’s beak at the end and silt eyes like a cats and it had two horns that reminded me of rams’ horns curling out of the back of it’s skull. It’s body was like that of a giant fat lizard. It was covered completely with scales. It had two long forelegs and two back legs that appeared to be of equal length with the forelegs. Each of it’s feet and forefeet had five long ‘fingers’ tipped with long talons. With my sight the scales appeared to be the dark sickly red of dried blood.
It flicked a forked tongue out of it’s mouth and hissed something at us in a language I didn’t understand.
I growled and crouched ready for it. But it did nothing at first it just glared at us and seemed to be waiting for something.
“It’s getting ready to spit fire. Don’t be afraid…I-I-I won’t let the fire get near. Air will not give way” she said faintly. She was glowing like a small star now as she wove the elements together holding up the shield and perhaps readying attacks.
The Scalefang took a step forward and brought it head down and opened it’s mouth in one smooth motion. Fire blazed from its jaws. I took a step back unable to resist fear as the fire cam hurtling toward me, but Rodain’s shield held true and the fire struck it as it if were rock. The Scalefang bellowed with rage and galloped forward.
“Save The Whales” was what my imagination made out of it’s guttural war cry. I laughed at that in my head, I barely knew what a whale was.
It was soon upon us and it snaked out it’s long serpent like neck and struck at Rodain. I heard her cry out and could only watch in horror as the creature picked her up and slammed her against the wall of the cliff. The Glow around her abruptly disappeared and the creature dropped her and turned to me.
I wildly reached out for my power but something was still suppressing it. I cursed the power, it was never there when I needed it.
I dodged out of the way of the scalefangs first attack. I barely had time though. The jaws closed right beside me and I could smell the stench of it’s rancid breath.
I swung around as fast as I could and slashed at the things eyebrow with on of my fangs. The scales were small there and the skin ripped easily. Its blood poured into its eye. I whirled again dodging one of it’s fore claws as it slashed out at me with it.
It reared up on it hind legs like a bear and turned it’s head so the good eye could see me. I panicked and thought wildly about that to do. It started to come down and I realized I was out of time. I dashed between the monster’s legs and ducked under it’s tail.
That bought me a little bit more time but only a precious little. I realized I needed to lead the Scalefang away from Rodain because she might still be alive and if we stayed in the back of the canyon we might trample her. So I began to play a warped game of cat and bird with the huge lizard like creature.
It would lunge at me and I would keep just out of the way. It tried spitting another fireball at me but Rodain’s shield held true. It became angrier and it bellowed at the top of it’s lungs
I lead it all the way back to the trees and then stopped for a moment grinning to myself. I can hide in the trees. I thought happily to myself. Little then did I realize what I a dire mistake I had made.
I began to back into the trees as the Scalefang sauntered up It was also grinning to itself. I wondered briefly why and froze. It was charging up another fireball. I realized what it was going to do ; it was going to set the trees on fire. Trapping me.
I whimpered to myself realizing how foolish I had been. I had walked right into this without trying to. I was dead, but I was determined to put up a fight to the last. And as the scale fang spat it’s fireball towards the trees I crouched low to the moist earth and snarled. I tried for my power once more but still it was suppressed.
As I stood there facing what I was certain was my death a I heard a loud crackle and the Scalefang roared with anger and spun around. I blinked with surprise and peered around the huge behemoth . My eyes widened with surprise. Standing there was Rodain, glowing like a small sun. She stood there for a moment with her eyes half open and then threw back her head and howled long and loud. After she finished she teetered there for a moment and then folded to the ground, unconscious.
The Scalefang started for her. It had a long burn along the back of it’s neck and I realized Rodain must have attacked it with fire. I needed to do something, quickly or the Scalefang would kill Rodain.
So I leapt at it jaws open wide. I landed on it’s back and bit down. The monster spun around snarling at me and I saw it’s gaping maw moving in on me.
And then it froze it. It just froze. It snarled with frustration but it couldn’t move.
I let go and slid off the monster’s back feeling puzzled. The monster then grew silent and I heard two voices above the crackle of the flames.
“Flying lizards should be seen and not heard. Infact, in this world they shouldn’t even be seen. Move away from the lizard, Sightless. Wouldn’t want you to get killed along with it.” The first voice said.
“ Should the Kyrnin be moved too?” the second voice asked the first.
“ No, I’ll be careful with this. I’m no expert with Air . But I’m good enough to make sure I don’t hit the Kyrnin. Actually Taiga, moving her might hurt her badly.”
I backed away from the lizard feeling odd. This was surreal, and the two voices didn’t sound concerned with this at all. They sounded like they were discussing how to break a cub’s bad chewing habits. Not how they were planning to kill a Scalefang. And one was Taiga! The Leader of the Rowalkin. I wondered for a moment what she was doing out here on the far edge of her territory. I shook the though off though. If these two could really get rid of the scalefangs there would be plenty of time to talk later.
I looked around from where the voices where coming from and saw three forms on the edge of the cliff that made up the left side of a canyon. Two were wolves. One was huge and the other only half it’s size. The small one was surrounded with the glow that encompassed Aldhi when they touched the elements. The third looked like it belonged to a Songeagle, but in the strange light and with the distance I couldn’t make out the details about any of the forms.
I knew the big one had to be Taiga, and I couldn’t make out who the other one was but if my intuition wasn’t failing me I had a pretty good idea of who it probably was. I swallowed and took another step back.
I saw the smaller of the two wolf figures on the cliff glow brighter and almost felt her carefully manipulating a flow. As she worked the scale fanged levitated up into the air. It began to snarl fiercely. The smaller wolf simply made the creature move over the fire and then she forced it down into the pyre.
I winced at the screams of pain and rage that came from the burning Scalefang and tried to block them out, closing my bending my head so I stared at the dirt beneath my paws. They continued on for what seemed to be like hours and then when a final angry howl from the creature the cries stopped . Then there was silence except for the crackling of the angry fire.
After a bit the two wolves started talking again.
“ Levitate us down would you dear?” Taiga asked the smaller wolf.
“ Sure thing”
I didn’t look up but a soft thump on the ground told me they were down.
“I think I’ll put out those fires before they cause any more damage” said the voice of the smaller wolf, and abruptly the heat was gone.
“So you got that other one we saw too?” Taiga asked.
“Yes”
“ That’s impressive. I remember a day when fire wouldn’t listen to you at all.”
“ Ahh yes, I remember that too dearie. But that was long ago. And it isn’t time to reminisce now. These two need our help. Masiaka. Head up boy. No need to mourn over the death of one of those critters .”
I sighed and lifted my head to find my eyes staring at the two matriarchs known of all through out the nine packs. The two were practically sisters though they were as different as two wolves could be. They were Misty and Taiga. The Aldhi healer of the Ravenas pack , and the Leader of the Rowalkins.