Werewolf Knight 2, page 22
I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt like a pressure cooker. All the energy had built up inside me, and if I didn’t move my body right now, I was going to burst.
I leaped forward and turned into the great wolf. I looked up at the girls, who exchanged a glance and then pounced on top of me. Tabitha pulled her arms around my neck and spoke into my ear.
“You’re going through the palace grounds, slow down when we get to the guards so that they see it’s you,” she said. “When we’re in the forest, I’ll tug at your fur when you need to turn. It’s only a slight adjustment to the route, but I think it’ll cut off a decent amount of time, especially at your speed!”
I pawed the ground with my foot and barreled toward the open gate. I didn’t care where we went, as long as I got to run.
Chapter 12
I bolted over the hills and dales. I hadn’t even known what a dale was before coming to Lupercalia, but Charles had explained it to me one night at a royal banquet that it was just a quaint word for a valley.
“Palace on the right!” Tabitha shouted, and I veered over to the big gray blur that was the palace.
I followed the advice she’d given me before we set off and slowed down just before we reached the drawbridge. I didn’t want the guards to think they were suddenly under attack since the rest of the nobility had already set off to Lake Wahaya. I’d also bet they were bored out of their brains and just itching for something to do, like fight off an invader.
I used all the strength and patience in my body to slow down to a canter, and then a trot. We bounced over the drawbridge, and Tabitha sat up straighter on my back.
“Morning, boys,” she called. “Just going, uh… out for a run.”
Neither of the two hybrid guards batted an eyelid, which I took as a signal that it was go time. When I was sure that I was out of sight, I bolted around the castle and toward the jousting fields.
I was running at what felt like lightning speed. If I had been a direwolf in a jousting tournament right then, I’m pretty sure I would’ve been able to take my opponent out from sheer force alone.
The jousting fields disappeared behind me, and I leapt through the clearing into the woods. I continued straight onward along the familiar path for another hour or so before I felt Tabitha tug slightly on my left.
“Time for a course adjustment,” she said. “We should approach a village, and the land should be clear. It’ll be much easier to pass through this area.”
I veered slightly left, just as she’d told me. Even though I was running at lightning speed, my nose began to pick up on something that smelled like it was coming from the direction we were running in.
The smell was dry, and I couldn’t quite make it out at first. But within five minutes I’d traveled significantly farther, and the smell was getting stronger. Suddenly, I recognized what it was.
Something was burning.
If I could’ve stopped and told the girls what I smelled, I would’ve. My sense of smell was way more powerful than theirs, and the wind was blowing away from us, so I knew that my passengers wouldn’t pick up on it until we were almost at the source.
I decided to pick up my pace, if that was even possible at this speed. I doubled down and imagined myself as a meteor rocketing toward the source of the fire.
We ran for another ten minutes or so before the girls picked up on the smell.
“What is that?” Sybil asked. “Is something burning?”
“I’m not sure,” Tabitha said. “There’s supposed to be a village coming up on our left. Maybe they’re burning the stalks? Isn’t it bonfire season this time of year?”
“Yes,” Sybil shouted back. “It is bonfire season, but no one would build one in the middle of the woods.”
I’d burned through enough of Sybil’s speed juice by then that I didn’t have the mad desire to keep rushing forward. I slowed down to a canter again so I could focus on the fire. Now that the world wasn’t going by in a blur, I could just pick out smoke rising in the distance. A few minutes later, I could see a collection of thatch roofs, and the smoke definitely seemed to be coming from the buildings.
I ran in the direction of the houses. Now that I was a knight, it was my duty to make sure that everything was okay for the citizens of Lupercalia. These peasants didn’t belong to my estate, but I liked to think of Charles as a role model. He gave everything and helped out everyone no matter what, and he was a better man for it.
“Eternal protector!” I heard a cry from the bushes.
I stopped dead in my tracks, and Sybil and Tabitha rolled off of my back. If I was going to be in knight mode, I had to be in my hybrid form. I rose up on my hind legs into my hybrid knight form, and felt myself rise to nine feet tall.
I looked around from my new vantage point and saw a young peasant girl running at us. She must’ve been about four feet tall, and she was wearing a simple white long-sleeved dress and a blue hat. She had mousy-brown hair and bright blue eyes that lit up when she saw us.
“Eternal protector!” the girl shouted again, and ran over.
I kneeled down so that I was down on her level, and I saw a very frightened but determined little girl in front of me. For a second, the memory of the burning house that got me to Lupercalia in the first place flashed in my mind.
“Is everything okay?” I growled.
“No,” she replied resolutely and shook her head. “Forest fires have spread to our village, and some of the houses are burning!”
I looked back at Sybil and Tabitha, who rushed over.
“Is that your village?” I asked as I pointed toward the houses.
“Yes,” she said. “Please, can you help?”
“Of course, we can,” I said. “Why don’t you show us the fastest way to get there.”
The girl nodded and then started to run across a field toward a small copse of trees. We ran after her, and despite my greater size, I was running hard just to keep up with her.
The burning smell was strong once we were in the trees, and I could hear the flames as well. A strange orange glow seemed to surround us, though I couldn’t see the fire yet, and ash drifted down from the sky.
The trees suddenly parted at the edge of a clearing, and I could see that we were in a small village. Or what was left of one. Most of the buildings were little more than piles of blackened wood, and those that still stood were already enveloped in flames.
“Where’s the nobleman for your village?” Tabitha asked as she took in the scene. “Why hasn’t he come to help?”
“Our nobleman is Clancy,” the little girl said. “But he’s on a journey with the other nobles. That’s why I was so relieved to find you. There’s been nobody else in the woods for days, and we don’t know where to go.”
There was a stable on the edge of the town, and I realized that a group of men were still trying to save the structure. They’d formed a line from a pump, and they passed buckets of water to the men at the end, who then tossed the water at the flames. But it wasn’t very effective against the fast moving fire, and I knew they wouldn’t be able to save the stables.
Luckily, my wolf power would.
“I’m going to help save the stables,” I said. “Tabitha, Sybil, find the other villagers and make sure everyone’s okay. And then find out what you can about how this fire started.”
“Will do,” Sybil shouted after me.
As I bounded over to the burning stable, I felt the heat of the flames radiating from the wooden building. It was hot enough as a human, but having a coat of fur as well as a suit of armor made the heat damn near scorching.
Still, I had a job to do, and even though I felt like I’d been put in a toaster, I wasn’t going to pussy out now.
“Eternal protector!” one of the peasants called out when he spotted me.
The other men all murmured the same greeting, but I waved it away.
“Do you have something bigger to put the water in?” I asked. “Those buckets will never hold enough.”
“There’s the troughs,” one man replied and pointed. “But they’re almost too heavy to lift even when they’re dry and impossible when they’ve been filled with water.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said, and it was time for my wolf strength to make itself useful.
I ran over to one of the troughs and dragged it to the pump with little effort. I whacked on the tap, and water flowed into the trough with an impressive force.
“But surely you won’t be able to lift that?” one of the men protested.
“It’ll be fine,” I replied. “I can do it.”
“I always knew that bluebloods were strong, but not this strong,” another man said.
“Oh,” I replied. “I’m not a blueblood. It’s a long story, but I’m not even from Lupercalia.”
There were some murmured protests, but the fire line resumed its work as the men filled the buckets and passed them down the line again. In between buckets, the trough quickly filled up, and when the water was nearly to the rim, I grabbed the sides and lifted.
Sure, it was heavy, but not enough to slow me down. It was like lifting my sister’s overstuffed suitcase into the car for the drive to the airport. There was a grunt of surprise at how much it weighed, but then I adjusted my grip, and it was no big deal.
At nine feet tall, I had a distinct advantage, and I could even reach the flames that danced across the roof. I knew the hard part would be the toss. I had to get that right to ensure that most of the water landed on the barn and not on the ground.
When I was as close as I could get, I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer to the Moon Goddess, and then tossed the water at the roof. There was a satisfying sizzle as the water hit its mark, and I grinned as the men near me gave a small cheer.
I ran back to the pump with the empty trough and filled it up again while the other peasants kept the fire down with their buckets of water. When the trough was full, I ran back to the stable, lifted the water over my head, and tossed it on the flames.
The fire started to die down, and after I’d tossed three more troughloads of water on the flames, it was barely more than a few embers that were quickly put out. The men started to cheer, and though most of the buildings had been destroyed, at least we’d saved something.
“Thank you, great protector,” one of the men called out.
“Happy to help,” I replied as I looked around.
I noticed that the men were covered in sweat and ash, and I was sure I was as well. I was also hot as hell beneath the fur and armor, but maybe we’d have enough time to stop at the lake and clean off.
“Hank,” Tabitha shouted and ran up to me. “Hank, you did it.”
I walked up to the crowd of people that had gathered and realized that I was panting up a storm. I shook my head and shrunk down to my human self so that I could cool off and remove my armor.
Tabitha ushered me through the crowd and sat me down on a tree stump. She helped me remove my armpieces and my breastplate, and she set them down on the ground next to me.
“Phew,” I said. “I hope that the other guys back there are also okay…”
Just as I said it, one of the men from the fireline started to make his way through the crowd. He was accompanied by the young girl who had found us in the forest, and I realized they had the same blue eyes. Sybil followed behind them, and I saw the girl grab the witch’s hand for a moment as if she needed the reassurance.
“We can’t thank you enough for what you did today,” he said. “It’s by the grace of the Moon Goddess that you happened to be in these woods today. We’ve lost so many buildings already, and if you hadn’t come along, then we couldn’t take care of the horses, and without the horses, we’d be stranded.”
He looked back at the crowd, which was beginning to disperse. Still, there were a lot of people standing around and sitting on the ground, which led me to believe that maybe their houses had been caught in the fire before I got there.
“What’s happened here?” I asked as I stood up.
“Wildfires,” the girl sighed. “So many homes have been lost.”
“It’s a catastrophe,” the man said. “The few houses that are left are already overcrowded. We have no idea when the next fire is coming, or which houses will be caught. It’s a risk of living in the forest, but it’s never been as bad as it is now.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Is your house still standing?”
“No,” the man shook his head. “Come with me, please.”
He gestured at us to follow him, and we walked through the crowd over the scorched earth. Some of the peasants were standing and talking amongst themselves, and there were still groups of children playing. A few peasants were leading a group of horses back from the safety of the woods into their stable. A few children dragged bales of hay behind them, which made me smile. Even in a time as hard as this, there was still a sense of community and mutual appreciation for each other.
The man stopped in front of a pile of burnt wood and the remains of a thatched roof. The only piece of furniture I could still identify was a scorched chair.
“Oh, my goodness,” Sybil said. “I’m so sorry.”
Tabitha just looked at the ground and shook her head.
“We have to find a way to weather such things,” he said and shrugged. “Our ancestors did, and we will, too. But it’ll take time to rebuild.”
Suddenly, something in me clicked. I looked between Tabitha and Sybil, who met my eyes. The estate still had a lot of empty houses on it, and I could always use extra workers to expand the moon-bean fields.
I knew what we had to do.
“Tabitha,” I said. “Can I take a look at your map?”
At first, she looked puzzled, but then she grinned as she realized what I was about to suggest. She rummaged through her satchel for a moment to find the map, and then she handed me the neat scroll.
“Everything’s marked,” she said.
I unfolded the map and saw that she had marked out the exact route we had taken.
“What’s your name?” I asked the peasant man.
“I’m Peter,” he said. “And this is my daughter Alia. My wife, Cassandra, is over there with some of the other women of our village.”
“Well, great to meet you, Peter,” I said. “I have an idea.”
The man’s eyes glinted, and he looked down at his daughter, who stared up hopefully.
“Well,” he said with a smile, “right now we need any ideas we can get. And after all your hard work back there, I think I can definitely trust you.”
I smiled and held out the map so he could see it.
“Look,” I said and pointed to where the estate was. “I have a new estate that we’ve only been running for about two months now. My trade is moon-beans, so it’s a farming estate. If you want to join my community on the estate, we will take care of you better than you can even imagine. All the houses are insulated, and we designed them so that they’re even storm-proof. Plus, instead of taking fifteen percent of the crop harvest, we only take twelve. If you need somewhere to go, and you want a community that’ll take care of you, the option is there.”
Peter looked down at the map and then back up at me. His deep blue eyes twinkled with a sense of awe.
“It’s not too far from the palace,” he said.
“Yep,” I replied. “It’s just a few miles west.”
“It’s near the village of Stock,” Sybil replied. “That’s where I’m from.”
“I’m familiar with Stock,” Peter said with a smile. “I have a saddle that was made there a few generations ago. It’s been passed down in my family because it’s such good craftsmanship.”
“Yes,” Sybil said with a smile. “It’s known for leather goods.”
Peter looked down at Alia, and she smiled.
“Let’s find Mom,” she said.
“Alright,” Peter said, and then he addressed me. “Do you mind if I take this map for a moment? I want to show the other members of our village who have lost houses and tell them what’s on offer. I know that some of them will want to stay in the forest, since their families have been here for generations. But I’m happy to go to your estate.”
“That’s good to hear,” I said with a smile. “And of course, let the others know about my offer. We have plenty of room for everyone.”
“I want what’s best for my Alia, and I think this is the best course of action we can take,” he said with a smile. “I’ll be back shortly with your map.”
As they wandered off, Alia turned her head back and waved at me. I waved back, and the gesture made my heart feel full. In fact, I felt a lot like I had when I’d rushed into the burning house in New Jersey to save those families. Whether it was back home or in Lupercalia, there were some things that didn’t change, and that included the need to protect your pack.
“This is so exciting,” Sybil declared. “I mean, not that their houses burned down, but that they can start a new life on our estate.”
“Yeah,” Tabitha smiled. “It feels so good to be able to offer people those houses. They’ll be much safer, and of course, we’ll be able to extend the moon-bean fields. Imagine what Ava will say when she sees all the beans we bring her next time.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Not only do they get a safer place to live, but our output will increase. It’s a win-win.”
I nodded and shook hands with a few more people then, and when I looked around, I saw that Peter was showing his compatriots the map. A few of them looked at each other and nodded, while others went to consult their wives, who were gathering stacks of hay for the horses. I watched as an animated discussion took place, and then Peter waved his hand in my direction before he ran back with the map.
“Good news,” he said. “There’ll be five families altogether that will be heading for your estate.”
“That’s great news,” I replied. “And like I said, we’ll be happy to have you.”
“This isn’t how I expected my day to go,” Peter laughed. “But I’m more grateful than ever. My wife is loading up the horse with what’s left of our belongings now. Do you have stables at the estate?”
