Renat?

After reaching the opposing bank, Renat was exhausted. Yet somehow he could still find the faint whiff of his wife hanging in the air. He followed the intoxicating scent up until he found an imperial sentry watching over the landscape.

Renat's keen eyesight allowed him to see the man before the soldier could sound the alarm, and the brown wolf sank back into the shadows to bide his time. When morning came, the scientist finally got a view of Oblivion that wasn't clouded by fear or rain.

The strange sunken island, supported by towering stone walls, was magnificent but unreachable. So when boats began to come to shore and collect the imperial army, Renat was most glad to hitch a ride on the back of one.

As long as he crept along the torn up shoreline, his mottled brown fur melted into the dirt of the hillside. The instincts of a predator took over his body as he inched towards the wooden vessels.

The brown wolf eventually slid into the water and swam covertly until he could get behind one of the study watercraft. Digging his nails deep into the bottom of the wood, Renat only allowed the tip of his nose to poke above the water from the back of the boat.

A casual observer would have at most thought it was an acorn bobbing in the water, having no idea a creature's body was pressed up against the belly of the bough.

A dozen soldiers climbed into the boat, which was larger than the one the twins had taken the night before, and stumbled into the benches.

Their extra weight pressed the wolf against the ground under the water, but the incline of the mountain was steep enough for him to not be crushed.

"What a strange place Oblivion must be to be placed in a watery pit like that," one of the men said.

"It is curious indeed," the muscular woman agreed as she climbed on the bench beside him. "The sergeant said it is never like this at this time of year."

Overhearing them, a third soldier chimed in with an angry mutter. "Oh, well it's too many strange things for my taste. It's a bad omen…ouch!"

"What is it?" The woman furrowed her brow as the last man to have spoken nearly fell out of the boat.

Instead he splashed across the other two's laps while gripping his foot.

"I took off my shoes to keep them dry, but these Infernal nails got my foot! Lucky they didn't break the skin or I would have a word with the shoddy ship maker!"

"Keep your voice down!" The first man scolded, scooting over so his comrade could sit. "You want the rowers to throw you over as soon as we are in the middle of this river?"

The grump soldier cast a furtive glance at the rowers and bit his tongue. He slipped on his boots and stomped on one of the offensive nails, causing it to retreat into the wooden surface.

Below the water, Renat tried not to cry out from the mistreatment of his claw. The boot's hard soul had nearly broken the tip and irritated the sensitive nerve beneath the surface.

Thankfully, the rest of the dozen troops entered without incident, and the boat was underway before any more of the occupants could notice the strange pattern of nails piercing the floor.

The boat moved at a rapid clip as it sliced through the water. Renat tried clinging as tightly to the hull as he could to avoid being dislodged by the current.

It didn't help that he had to time his breaths through his nose with the rowers' strokes to prevent getting a wavelet of water into his nostrils. Overall, it was a miserable but manageable trip.

So when the rowboat went still, Renat was relieved. That was until the wenches attached and began to pull the entire boat from the water.

The brown wolf hurriedly worked to detach himself from the underside of the craft before he, too, was exposed. He only barley managed not to be hung swinging from the air by his back left paw.

"Hurry up!" someone called from the top of the battlement. "The river is already beginning to drain! You were lucky not to have been sucked in by its pull." The boat moved ever upward, leaving the wolf behind to his own devices.

'Beginning to drain!' That explained the tugging of the water against his body even though he was free of the boat. Renat heeded the warning that the dock workers had unknowingly given him and heaved his body out of the water's flow.

Clinging to the wall, the brown wolf eventually found a blind spot by one of the towers and scaled it much in the same method that he had seen his brother-in-law do days before. Finding cracks between the stones for his nails to dig in, the prince made slow but steady progress.

Renat had only one goal in mind when he finally reached the top. He needed to find his wife and warn her of the attack. Livie had said they would come once the water had lowered, and with the way the level was dropping, that time would be all too soon.

When the scientist found the tower to be empty, he had decided that his best course of action would be to hide until nightfall would cover him. After all, the place was crawling with soldiers. It only took one concerned citizen to alert the soldiers and he would be finished off before he could explain himself.

Even if Alaron and the princess were not willing to tell of the events from the night before, there was no way they would have convinced Junayd to keep the crazy chase a secret.

In all likeliness, everyone was looking for a wolf matching his exact description who had nearly attacked the princess.

The thought of how afraid Mairwen had looked when she had seen him coming was nothing short of heartbreaking. The princess had feared him. It was almost more than he could bear.

After last night's ordeal, Renat was sure Mairwen would be safely tucked away in the duchess's manor. He could almost picture her looking out a window, waiting for his return. In his utter exhaustion from lack of food and overexertion, his mind started to wander to where his wife might be this very moment.

That is why when the lithe figure came in to escape the rain and took the exact position he had seen in his mind's eye, Renat did not initially want to believe it. But then the woman spoke.

"Where are you when we need you, Hanna?" The lovely woman said aloud.

The woman's scent was unmistakable and her voice drew Renat instinctively from his hiding spot. He loomed behind her, unsure of what to say.

The princess sensed his presence behind her. "You came!" Mairwen exclaimed, "Oh Hanna, I have been such a mess…" She turned and locked eyes with the brown wolf, her hope draining from her porcelain face in an instant.

As Renat gathered his energy to explain, he heard the unwelcome sound of footsteps behind him. 'Not now!' he wanted to scream.

"Princess," a guard yelled to Mairwen as he returned to his post, "Watch out!"

The anger in Renat welled up as he viewed the man with the broadsword. His vision began to blur red when he thought that he might be thwarted after coming so close to reaching his goal. He would not be stopped.

The brown wolf turned on the soldier, his eyes blazing with fury. Using his massive paw, he hurled the guard against the wall. The poor man didn't even have a chance to draw his weapon before his head hit the rounded stones, knocking him unconscious.

The whole struggle had taken less than a moment. Renat's anger at being opposed only seemed to grow as he turned back to the princess. The wolf bore his sharp, canine teeth. The princess seemed weak and vulnerable in his predatory state.

The perfect prey for a hunter like the proud wolf.

Mairwen pulled a knife from her dress and held up to defend herself. "Help!" She screamed trying to draw the attention of anyone nearby. "Stay back!"

Her words only pushed the wolf further into a frenzy. No one could tell a hunter what to do.

Through his visions of bloodlust, Renat could feel the power surging into his limbs, ready to tear the young woman apart. The monster growled, his lips rippling along long his jagged teeth. It would all be over quickly…He would be able to kill his wife with almost no effort.

...His wife?! NO! He had come to protect her, not harm her! Protecting Mairwen was everything.

It took nearly all of his effort to quell the fire of rage, but Renat's vision suddenly came into focus. He looked at Mairwen with brown eyes trying desperately to focus on why he had worked so hard to find her.

Exhausted, the wolf fell to the ground. "They're coming," he rasped. "The wolves, the lizards and more…you have to be ready. Please. You must listen!"

Renat teetered on the verge of passing out. He had worked so hard to deliver the message, and now his job was complete. If his wife wanted to kill him now with her knife, he would not stop her.

However, no deadly strike came as the knife loosened in the princess's hand until it clattered to the ground. Mairwen looked in stunned silence at the creature before her. Her face had changed from one type of fear to another as a flicker of recognition crossed her face.

"Renat?"