She was too far from the village when she heard it. Wild howl from close by. Then metallic clank and startled yelp. Something falling to the ground with heavy thud. She stopped, hesitating. Agonized whimper came from behind thick bushes framing the path. Every fiber in her being told her to run, to find safety, but curiosity got the better of her and she ventured in to the darkness to find the source of those pitiful groans.
It was Logan. He had stepped to a bear trap. Gaping maw of the trap had locked tightly around his left hind paw, tearing through muscle and bone. He was unable to get free, no matter how hard he trashed and yanked, snare held its grip. As soon as he saw Marie, he stood up, baring now bloodied teeth and let out a warning growl. She kept her distance, not giving him a chance to grab her, but sat on to a fallen tree trunk. It would be several hours before the dawn, but eventually Logan would gain control of that body, and he would need her help to get loose.
“Stop that. You’ll only hurt yourself more.” Wolf stopped trashing and sat on the ground, panting and whimpering softly, glaring at its injured paw menacingly.
“Calm down. It’ll get better, I promise,” she said. Wolf didn’t seem to listen. It leaned its snout closer to the trapped paw and gave an experimental nip to the metal of the trap, snarling and grimacing when it refused to budge.
“I would help you to get free, but somehow I think I wouldn’t like your idea of the reward. I’ll sit with you, and we’ll wait for Logan together, okay?” She said when wolf’s somewhat questioning gaze landed on her. It snorted.
“It’s not that I don’t like animals. I love them, in fact, but I have this funny problem. I’m kind of attached to life…” Wolf let out long, wavering whimper and gave its wounded ankle a lick.
“I know that hurts. I wish there was something I could do, but… Actually there is something I could do!” She jumped to her feet, startling the wolf that staggered up too, lunging away from her rather than towards her. Trap held, and it fell again.
She had seen a flicker of white on the ground, near the upturned roots of the tree she had been sitting on.
“Yes…” Small white mushrooms. Deadly poisonous, but in small amounts very efficient in relieving pain. Now she had to find a way to get the wolf to eat them. It was a big animal, it would probably be all right even if it ate one whole mushroom, but she didn’t have the slightest idea how to feed one to it. She couldn’t just walk over there and hope it didn’t much away her palm as well as the mushroom.
“Uhh… Catch!” She shouted and threw one white mushroom towards the wolf. It raised one giant paw and flicked the mushroom away, snorting and glaring at her accusingly.
“Look, I want to help. This…” She held up a mushroom.
“This will take off the pain, but only if you eat it.” She didn’t know if the beast had understood her explanation, or if it was even marginally interested about anything else that maiming and tearing her to shreds, but she approached it carefully. Wolf shied away from her, dragging the wounded paw and heavy metal snare around its ankle, leaving a trail of clotted blood to the ground. It was keeping a small noise at the back of its throat, small keening whine. Like a hurt puppy. At the last possible moment she saw something dark flicker in the glowing, yellow orbs that had replaced Logan’s hazel eyes, and she jumped back when wolf let out deafening roar and tried to take a bite out of her. Impossible looking fangs chomped thin air, and wolf howled its frustration out in to the night. Another howl answered from somewhere close by, and they both froze.
“You didn’t kill that other wolf?” She asked.
Trapped wolf was trembling, and renewed its efforts to get free. Marie felt torn. She should go. She should leave and let the two beasts settle their score. She could still make it to the village if she left right now. But what would happen to Logan?
“Will you let me help?” She asked. Wolf looked equally torn. It seemed to understand her words. It seemed to understand what would happen if the other wolf got to it when it was still trapped.
“I can help. I know how to open that trap. Can I let you go?” For a moment it seemed to think. Then another howl pierced the air. The other wolf was much closer now. Wolf growled softly, closed its eyes and extended the trapped paw in front of her.
“This is going to hurt,” she warned. Wolf whimpered, but didn’t try to stop or bite her when she took the paw on her lap and studied the snare carefully. All she would have to do was to remove the pin holding the metal maw closed, and wolf would be free.
“Promise not to hurt me?” She asked, searching the yellow eyes of the beast with her own. Gnarled front paw landed on top of her hands holding the pin. Squeezed gently.
“Goddess, bless me…” She whispered a short prayer and pulled off the pin. Trap flew open. Wolf hissed, pulling the hurt paw to its lap, laving the deep gashes with its tongue. She started to back away slowly. Wolf raised its head, eyes fixed to somewhere behind her. Suddenly it was on its feet, towering over her and growling.
“You promised…” She gasped, but her sentence was cut short. Wolf shoved her aside, and now she saw the other wolf, standing just few meters away. Wolf that had been Logan grabbed her arm and pushed her towards the path, nudging her to the direction of the village.
She managed two whole steps before the other wolf attacked, barreling in to her instead of the wolf she had already started to think as Logan. Impact threw her on the ground and knocked her out of breath. She heard Logan’s furious howl, then the other wolf was thrown away from her. Two huge beasts were grappling and tangling, snarling and clawing each other in a flurry of black hair and tangled limbs. She couldn’t make her feet obey, but she started crawling towards the path. Towards the village and safety.
She hadn’t gotten far, when she heard one last howl from behind her. Forest around her fell silent. Very silent. She rolled on her side. One wolf lay on the ground, throat and chest cavity torn open. The other wolf was kneeling next to it, tearing off huge chunks of meat from the carcass and swallowing them whole. She could see a flicker of white fur on its chest. She coughed and rolled back on her stomach, trying to get on her knees. She would have to get away from here before Logan finished his meal.
She heard a low growl from above her. Strong paw grabbed the back of her dress and she was lifted on her feet. When Logan let go of her, she fell to the ground again. Another growl. Again Logan grabbed her, this time taking a firm hold from around her waist. She hung on his side like a sack of potatoes. He was dragging the carcass of the wolf with his one paw, and the other he used to offer her support when they started walking slowly towards her cabin. Breathing was still difficult, but it was getting easier after every step she took. Soon she was able to walk on her own.
“Thank you. For not hurting me,” she whispered when they reached her cabin. Logan murmured and pushed her inside, sitting to the open doorway to continue his meal.
Had she been reasonable, she would have gathered her things and left. Gone to the village, and beg for a shelter, but she was too tired. Too beaten. She undressed slowly, wincing for the huge bruises marring her side, and crawled in to bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
She woke up to the sound of somebody moving around in the other room. Sun was streaming through the window, landing golden pattern to the quilt on top of her. She was still tired, stiff and groggy. She sat up slowly and gathered the most modest clothing she could find aside from the dress she had worn on the previous night. There was no way she could squirm to the tight bodice it had.
Rather battered looking Logan was sitting in front of the fireplace. He had cleaned up, and replaced the door with a thick blanket. She had no idea from where he had gotten it, but it kept the sunlight away. He had covered all the windows as well.
“How… How are you feeling?” He asked with a raspy voice, taking in her rumpled appearance. She had flipped on her father’s old shirt and it hung past her knees. Long woolen socks were another piece of clothing she had managed to pull on before the pain in her side had gotten too intense.
“Not bad. Could be worse…” She hissed, sitting carefully to a chair opposite Logan, trying not to aggravate her side anymore.
“You’re hurt…” Logan said, narrowing his eyes.
“You didn’t do it. And it’s just a bruise, nothing serious,” she explained hurriedly. Logan wasn’t convinced. He was kneeling in front of her, tugging the hem of the shirt.
“Let me see.”
“Logan, that hardly is proper…”
“Screw proper! You’re hurt. Get this off!”
She let the shirt fall to the floor, blushing furiously. This really wasn’t proper. Nobody had seen even her bare legs, and now here she was, standing stark naked upon a practical stranger. Logan’s warm fingers skimmed over the bruise gently.
“Who did this?” He asked.
“The wolf.” Logan flinched and stepped away from her.
“You said it wasn’t me!”
“There was another wolf. It attacked me. You killed it.”
“Another wolf? How… Who?”
“I don’t know. But the body is probably outside,” she said.
“At least what is left of it.”
“Left of it?” Logan asked puzzled.
“You ate it.”
“Well, that explains why I didn’t woke up hungry,” Logan noted dryly, covering his mouth with his palm before darting outside.
She could hear him coughing and gagging. She pulled the shirt back on and retrieved some herbs from her stash. Peppermint and chamomile. She ground them in a mortar, and added some water.
“Rinse your mouth and drink this,” she said, giving the pint she had put the mixture in to Logan. He drank greedily, thankful for the opportunity to get the foul aroma of bile off from his mouth.
“I must have stashed the body away just in case I get hungry again. It wasn’t out there,” he said with a trembling voice, handing the pint back to her. Thought of him dragging the corpse, tucking it away for later use made her slightly nauseous, but she understood the logic behind the act. It was the wolf’s way.
They sat in front of the fireplace in silence, both deeply immersed to their thoughts. Suddenly Logan stood up.
“You should move to the village. Now.”
“Who would take me in? And what good it would do to me?” Marie asked.
“What good it would do to you? Look around! This isn’t exactly the safest possible place for you to live! I’m going to leave, but I can’t guarantee that after I turn I won’t come back and hunt you down!”
“You can guarantee that. Last night you promised not to hurt me. I freed you from a bear trap, and you helped me back in here after that other wolf had attacked me. I don’t expect you to protect me, but you gave me your promise, and I expect you to honor it.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Next part might take some time, bear with me.