Chapter 5: It’s Here for Me
Brynn was transfixed by the silver glow of the wolf’s eyes. She could no more look away from them than she could capture the moon in her hands. Impossible. She took another step forward. Its low growl reverberated in her blood and sent her bones to shiver. She took another step. The wolf did the same.
Closer and closer they came. As she neared the creature, Brynn lifted her arm, stretched it out in front of her, and reached with her fingertips. The great beast lowered its mighty head, though its eyes remained trained on her face. So close now, Brynn could feel the heat radiating from its body. She leaned forward, anticipating the feel of its fur in her hands.
Suddenly, a light burst into the clearing, and the still night air shattered around them.
“Brynn!” Garan bellowed as he dove for her, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her down to the side. Her fingers remained outstretched as she fell. The torch Garan had brought fell with them, and sputtered softly on the damp ground, but the light from another filled the corners of Brynn’s eyes.
The wolf jumped in surprise, snapping his great jaws. It regained its composure quickly, however, and prowled toward the two struggling on the ground, baring its bright teeth. Garan jumped to his feet, hauled Brynn with him, and dragged her backward. He tried to shove her behind him, but she couldn’t be torn away. Instead, he wrapped his arm as protectively around her as he could, shielding her neck from those gleaming teeth, as he slowly pulled her back with tremendous effort.
“Get back!” Garan growled, his voice fierce and furious. With his free hand, he swung his dagger wildly in front of them, the blade glinting in the firelight. “Get AWAY! I will gut you, you foul creature!”
The wolf sauntered closer, unaffected by either Garan’s words or his blade. Finally coming back to herself a little, Brynn registered that the wolf was so large that it stood eye to eye with Garan even on all four of its enormous paws. Its body was a hulking mass of muscle covered in a thick pelt comprised of a medley of grays. Its lips were pulled into a vicious snarl.
Brynn heard frantic footsteps running into the clearing, and just over the wolf’s shoulder, she saw Maeve and Vesta come into view. Vesta, bow in hand, pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back. Maeve was a wave of frantic energy, her hair wild and eyes even more so.
“Get away from them,” Maeve screamed, stooping to grab something from the forest floor. She launched a large stone across the clearing, and it made contact with the wolf’s left flank with a loud thwack.
The wolf leaped, thrashing furiously, to the side just as Vesta’s arrow flew toward it. The arrow buried itself in the ground, close but useless. Vesta nocked another one.
Vesta grit her teeth in anger as she pulled the string tight and took aim. Just as she went to let it fly, Trevor, having made his way to them along the outer edge of the clearing, jerked the bow down at the last second. This arrow also pierced the ground, this time very near Vesta’s own feet and so deep that the fletching fluttered only inches above the forest floor.
Vesta let loose a frustrated banshee scream as she whirled on Trevor.
Meanwhile, the wolf’s agitation grew as it continued to snap and snarl at Brynn and Garan. Its eyes darkened to mindless fury. Garan pulled her further backward, but Brynn knew the wolf could close the small distance in seconds with minimal effort should it choose to.
‘Why doesn’t it,’ she wondered internally. Despite the chaos – the screaming and the dragging, the snarling and the snapping – Brynn somehow felt at ease. The wolf could take her at any moment, she knew. It could rip Garan’s arm away, shred it like paper, and sink its teeth deep into her throat. There would be nothing that she or any of them could do about it. ‘But why doesn’t it?’
“Don’t kill it! We can still trap it,” Trevor yelled, his face inches from Vesta’s. He still hadn’t let go of her bow, and she looked as though she would bury an arrow in his gut the second he did.
“You’re a dammed superstitious fool,” Vesta spat in his face. Maeve, ignoring this, furiously gathered more rocks and sticks and started hurling them through the air. None made purchase quite like that first stone, however, and those that did meet their mark bounced off the animal’s pelt without even a flinch from the wolf.
‘I might die here,’ Brynn thought, ‘we all could.’ That thought was followed up by another, a deeper, whispering thought that made no sense but that she felt in her heart was true.
‘It’s not here for them. It’s here for me.’
“Wait!” Trevor yelled, his voice cracking. He wasn’t yelling at Vesta anymore, but at the threesome locked in a deadly standoff across the clearing. In one firm tug, he had the bow out of Vesta’s hand. He sprinted back around toward the others, giving the wolf a wide berth despite his hurry.
Garan faced the beast while his arm still held Brynn close, ever so slowly edging her backward. His progress had slowed, though, as he realized the quicker he pulled her away, the quicker the wolf advanced. Still, they inched backward, widening the gap between human flesh and angry beast ever so slightly.
“Come on,” Garan dared the wolf through clenched teeth. His muscles tensed against Brynn’s body in preparation for his next move. The wolf sensed this, and its body became a coiled spring, ready to lunge forward at the slightest provocation. Brynn saw Trevor edging closer, his right hand reaching for them open and ready while his left hand fondled the silver sun of his necklace.
Garan slowly pulled back his arm from its position crossing Brynn’s neck and torso. The wolf snarled. Garan slid his hand from Brynn’s shoulder down her arm to the crook of her elbow. The wolf growled and stamped heavily, claws flexing. Garan carefully placed his other hand on Brynn’s waist, strong palm gripping her firmly. The wolf tensed backward tightening the spring.
What happened next would stand in Brynn’s mind as if each action were a separate, slow-moving moment rather than a jumble of actions that happened all at once. Garan tightened his grip on her with both hands and shoved her so hard that her body flew far to the right. He spread his arms out wide and accepting, awaiting his bloody fate in a dramatic show of sacrifice.
Trevor dropped his hand from his necklace, hunched his body low, and sprinted toward Garan, tackling him out of the way.
The wolf, at the very same moment, made his attack, surging forward, missing his prey by inches. Its front claws hooked into Garan’s leg, tearing quickly through trouser and flesh before they fell apart.
Brynn was certain the wolf would quickly regain its feet, turn, and be on them in moments. She closed her eyes against the carnage and ruin she knew was coming next.
Metal screamed and slammed – an alien noise unnatural to this moment. This clearing. This forest.
The wolf’s growl turned into a high-pitched shriek that made Brynn’s stomach turn and skin crawl.
A metal bear trap, once concealed by night and pine needles, clamped the animal’s back left leg. Blood seeped through the teeth of that cruel, metallic smile. The wolf’s eyes blazed in pain and fury as it flailed and kicked, trying to knock the trap off.
Trevor wasted no time, however, and within seconds he was searching beneath the pine needles for a small string, tugging it, lifting, tightening, pulling, until a strange net emerged from beneath the agonized beast. With careful, methodical movements, Trevor circled it, raising the edge of the net and pulling it closer and tighter until the net fully encased the creature.
Brynn, now standing, took a step closer. In the flickering firelight, she saw that the netting was covered in strange, shining barbs. Trevor tugged harder, the net tightened again, and the wolf’s keening deepened.
Again, Trevor pulled, this time using the full brunt of his weight to remove any bit of remaining slack, and Brynn saw those barbs disappear into the wolf’s pelt to dig into its flesh. Dark spots of blood bloomed around each one, staining its fur.
Without thinking, she rushed forward, hating the net, sickened by the blood, wanting only to rip it away. The wolf flailed, and with every movement, the barbs bit deeper. Its eyes rolled, and as Brynn approached, it struggled and thrashed. It swung its head as much as the net would allow, knocking into her body and sending her sprawling back onto the forest floor.
She tried to catch herself before impact, but pain burst through her right wrist as she landed heavily on it.