Whichever Way the Wind Blows

"Who are you?" Fechin pressed harder, trying to squeeze the answer from the black wolf.

"I'm Johyn! Ask my friends over there. My lady, he is going to betray you. I have proof! He didn't want you to come with me because he knew I would warn you." Gandr watched as Livie's face went from contemplative to angry.

"How dare you!" Her eyes looked almost as wild as the creatures around her. Maybe at last they were rubbing off on her. "After so much time in my service, after all the hours spent by my side, after tears shed and discoveries made...how could you..."

Livie's wild eyes switched from the back of the silver wolf to looking straight into the halfling's eyes. "How could you ever even suggest that Fechin would betray me?" She clicked her tongue. "Kill him."

"Gladly," Fechin, who had never once thought of murdering a fellow human in cold blood before turning, smiled viciously at his first victim.

Gandr flinched, dropping the knife from his restrained hand. With the wind to guide it, the blade caught the light just right to flash in Fechin's eyes, blinding him for a split second.

But it was long enough. Fechin tilted his head down and squinted, giving Gandr the leeway to slam his head against his foe without risking the creature's teeth.

The two skulls collided, but the half-gnome's rocklike skeleton won. Fechin took a step back, stars filling his eyes for a moment.

He quickly recovered, but it was too late. Gandr punched the beam of the battering ram. Although the force of his earth magic was not behind it, his strength was more than enough to finish the crack which had already begun.

With a creak the beam began to fall towards Fechin, threatening to flatten him. The silver wolf barely lunged to the side in time to avoid the massive falling lumber.

Having narrowly escaped death, Fechin's eyes began to see red. The fool thought he could kill him just like that? Never! The intruder would pay with his own blood!

That was when a feminine whimper brought him back from the brink of disaster. He turned to look towards the source, a roar escaping his lips as he realized that he had never been the target of the falling beam.

Livie had.

And it had hit its mark.

With the help of other abominations, Fechin rushed to lift the beam off of his mistress before cradling her in his arms. "My lady!" he whined, tears welling his eyes.

Livie's eyes fluttered open. "Taran," she whispered.

Fechin took her from the platform, oblivious to the rest of the chaos around them. "I don't have any of his potions with me..."

Livie he shook her head. "No, not a wolf or a lizard. Taran knows what to do," she said. "Take me to him."

Fechin thought about disobeying her orders just as she had defied him. The woman had been crushed. The chances of her surviving in the week or more that it would take to reach the nobleman were very slim.

Maybe she was still in shock. Surely she didn't realize just how bad off she was. Fechin flexed his fingers to scratch her and force a transformation when he locked onto her pleading eyes.

"Please, Fechin. I must see my brother."

The assistant hesitated. He could not deny her request. Foregoing the rest of the abominations, he held the woman against his chest and ran due north.

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As soon as Gandr struck the beam, he rolled along the platform to retrieve his knife. It was not a moment too soon.

For Hadley had not tended to her mistress. Inflamed by the murderous action of the black wolf, the tan abomination lunged straight at the attacker.

Her paw met with the flat side of Gandr's knife as the momentum of her body pinned the halfling to the ground.

"Treacherous fiend," she screamed, her voice sounding less and less like herself.

Gandr gave her a lopsided grin. "And here I was thinking we were getting along so well! I guess it was never meant to be—."

With a sudden jerk, Gandr shoved her paw straight into her nose, sending a wave of pain up the tan wolf's snout. Her eyes watered, blurring her vision temporarily.

Two knees pressed against her chest, thrusting her into the air. She landed skidding on the wooden platform. When Hadley's sight returned, the black wolf was gone, replaced with a slightly smaller replica of the silky tan wolf.

"A shapeshifter!" Hadley could hardly believe her eyes. Fechin had clearly been right. Magic was afoot. "Kill him…her…it!"

"My work here is done," Gandr saluted the abominations.

A spot in his new tan fur wavered as he pulled a red ball from his invisible pocket. Bursting the ball in his hand, the halfling allowed the dust inside to fill his palm. Then, with a gust of wind magic, he sent the shimmery red powder into the air to be seen far and wide.

Hadley covered her nose. But as the glitter settled around her, the wolf sniffed and then barked a laugh.

"That strange gas does not work on us, All you did was tell all your enemy exactly where you are." She cracked her knuckles.

Gandr turned to leap from the platform and disappear into the dirt, but his foot caught on one of the many ropes littering the wooden surface.

The cord knotted around his leg, tripping him just shy of the ground which would free him. As he worked to untie the knot, the halfling noticed a silver wolf flee the army with a ghostly pale human woman in his arms. Her body hung limp, obviously unconscious if not worse.

He could not follow up on the issue though. Gandr had a battle of his own. While he struggled against his bonds, the abominations which had helped free Livie from the beam now circled around their new target.

Unlike Hadley, they had not maintained control of their instincts. Their eyes were black as pitch with no visible iris.

"Death to magic wielders!" Hadley narrowed her gaze. The others echoed her cry. For a moment their yelps and howls drowned out the world.

Gandr tried to call over them. "Is this up for discussion? I know some very nice magic wielders... the one before you in particular is near and dear to my heart..."

It was no use, the abominations had been whipped into a fury. Even Hadley, on her final words had lost her sense of reason, her eyes glazing over like the rest as the predatory instincts of a wolf took over.

On her signal they all leapt upon their prey. A flurry of teeth and claws piled onto the broken platform, not realizing that their quarry was already gone. At the last possible moment, Gandr pulled his foot free of the bindings and disappeared from view entirely.

The last thing that any of the abominations saw of him was a glimpse of a hole in the ground as he disappeared. Rather than register it for what it was, they began to maul the only other tan wolf that they could see: Hadley.

Gandr could hear her snarls as the ground closed around his head. The earth whizzed past him as he was finally able to make his way toward Oblivion. The soil around him felt warm and inviting after his time with the abominations.

He reveled in it for a moment before realizing something was off. Overhead, there was a lot of movement. But it was not toward Oblivion. The movement was away from it.

Unable to quell his curiosity, the halfling surfaced, nearly being stomped by the imperial troops. He leapt from the ground and joined the thundering herd. Where was the Emperor?

Devrim was clad in full armor, with barely a slit for his eyes to see. "I sent the red dye not the green!" Gandr said coming alongside the ruler. "Livie was crushed with a beam from her battering ram."

The Emperor did not slow his pace, pushing his people ever forward. "We are taking advantage of the chaos. We have found a way to bring back the wolves and lizards into their right mind when they go feral. With their help we have a fighting chance."

At the front of the pack of Imperial creatures, Junayd was leading the charge with sword drawn. Each of the mighty wolves and a few lizards held a padded pouch at their side containing a fist-sized block of ice. Having dipped into the manor's reserve, this was all that was available to keep each soul in check.

As soon as any of them felt their vision cloud with red, they could reach into the pouch for a moment and regain their reason. It was a solution, albeit not a long term one.

"We have a limited time. We must end this now," Devrim confirmed.

"Is there anything you need from me?" the halfling would have to stay out of the fray or return to get his armor.

"One thing, if you can." Devrim said after a moment. "Wind. We need to keep things as cold as possible."

Gandr gave a lopsided grin. "Then, Your Majesty, prepare for a gale!"