Chapter 111: Gift...
[ Somewhere far away from the borders of the known packs... beyond the Great lake and the mountains ]
The wind howled across the steppes like a wounded beast,as a pair of feet walked forward in long strides, carrying Autumn along. She was dragged across like a piece of rag,only to be hurled on the back by the one carrying her once they stepped into the region where the wind carried with it the scent of iron and wet earth .
At the border of the territory, a warning sign stood as clear as the fading day.It was a gruesome marker for anybody who even dared to think about trespassing.These territories were sacred areas... For the devil.
The marker was unmistakably a wolf’s head, severed clean at the neck. It was mounted on a pike twice the height of a man. Its jaws had been pried open in a permanent snarl and teeth filed to razor points. The flesh had long since rotted away, leaving only sun bleached bone and scraps of sinew, but the message was clear... ’Cross this line at your own risk!’
Beyond the border lay a vast, untamed expanse of rolling grasslands and jagged cliffs.Smoke rose in thick columns from countless fires, staining the horizon gray. The air trembled with the sound of drums.
These wolves...this pack...they were one of the packs who were part of the Ancient alliance.They were nothing like the wolves Velor or Kieran commanded.They did not answer to the Council... in fact the Council was formed because the newer packs were so scared of the Ancient Alliance. None dared to even check if they were still alive. Not hearing from them was good news... because most of the ones that heard from them, did not live to tell the tales.
As for them...their elders were prehistoric.They told tales older than the moon goddess. Their children learned to kill before they learned to shift.
They didn’t walk into other packs.They stormed them.Mutilating and terrorising.
They were massive ’war’ wolves, most of the time they roamed around in partial shifts...as they thundered through the boundaries...half beast, half man...bristling with bloodstained fur and cloaked in the pelts of those they had devoured.
A particular slow, thunderous beat rolled through the soil like a warning as those feet carrying Autumn,neared their borders.The guards at the perimeter stilled.
They were clad in blackened leather armor reinforced with werewolf hide and human bone plated mantles, they stood like statues...faces painted in shades of gray and crimson, their eyes glowing faintly beneath the slash marks across their cheeks.