Red and The Wolf [EverlyxNivan]

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Kaiya glanced up at Cathal as he rose to take care of his dishes. For some reason, it had not occurred to her that some people might not find her lack of killing as a bad thing. Of course she had not taken into account how he would feel. She had spared his life and he was glad for it. That made her feel much better about the whole thing, and she put her family's likely disappointment out of her mind as she finished eating. She was not able to put away as much as he had, but she at least cleared her plate of what she had served herself, which had been her only true goal.

She picked up her glass and sipped at her water, mentally going over things that needed to be done until Cathal started speaking to her again. He was.. complimenting her? She looked up at him in surprise, a faint pink blush on her cheeks. Nobody had ever complimented her like that before. At most she got a 'not bad' while training, and that was it. She smiled a bit and finished off her water, then stood to put her dishes on top of his.

"Yes, and no," she admitted. "I love the freedom of the Wolfwood. It's so vast and beautiful. I love running down the trails and just soaking in the sunlight and the sounds of nature. It can be bliss.. but.. It can also be a prison. I am no skilled Hunter, and I wanted out of this war. My brother knew, but my father.. I had not worked up the courage to tell him just yet. I wanted to leave home, to see the world, to get away from a life that consisted only of eating, sleeping and hunting," she explained, looking up at him. "But now, I don't want to leave it."
 
Cathal stared at the girl as she blushed. What was she blushing for? He listened in silence as she explained her take on the Wolfwood, and let himself be lost -for a moment- in the longing to be out among the trees, and the streams, and the wildlife. To feel wind in his fur. To hear the howls of his brothers on a moonlit night, and to taste the satisfaction of victory when the trap snapped closed on unsuspecting game.

He came back to his self with a shake, taking a deep breath to ground himself in his body. His duty as host was not yet finished. The girl was still under his roof.

"We should go soon," he said. "Prepare your things. I will lock up the shop, and we can be on our way."

He hoped for Kaiya's sake that the carrion hadn't been long at the remains of her family. The dead that were left to rot tended to stink. They also tended to draw angrier beasts than werewolves to feast, although the fighting likely hadn't been widespread enough to merit the arrival of corpsers to the Wood. Not with the Wolves on the prowl.

"Are you armed?"
 
"Always."

Kaiya went back to the living room and picked up her bag, which was already packed and ready to go. She slung it over her shoulder and tightened the strap slightly, which she had been in no condition to do the night before. It hadn't even occurred to her. Her mind wandered to the massive white werewolf she had seen in the middle of her panicked flight. How had it not noticed her? It wasn't as though she was bothering to move with any sort of stealth. An idiot would have been able to track her down, even when she hid behind the tree. She frowned a bit at the thought and fastened her belt on, ensuring her blades were loose and ready in their sheaths before she walked out the back door.

Once outside, she took a deep breath and gazed at the Wolfwood as she waited for Cathal to finish up and join her. This was not going to be easy. She knew that. It was necessary that she accept what she was to do before doing it, or she could fail. Technically it was very straightforward. Go home, check Nathan. Then, scout the wood and find the bodies. Return the bodies to home as quickly as possible. All that was left after that was digging graves and burying her family. Nothing too difficult, despite having not slept the night before. Adrenaline ensured that she felt no exhaustion just yet.

She looked back over her shoulder when she heard Cathal come out, giving him a bit of a smile.

"Alright, let's go."
 
Cathal went about the business of locking and securing his shop. He double checked that no potions were brewing, that the fire was out, and that all the water was off. The windows were locked, and the front door as well. He doffed his clothing inside, carrying only the brass key for the back door with him as he exited the back door. That, he deposited in the hidden wall compartment.

He turned his face skyward for a moment, enjoying the sun on his bare skin. The warmth in his hair. The grass between his toes, and the breeze against his skin. And then he began to shift again.

The jarring process took less than a minute, all told, and when everything was said and done, a waist-high brown wolf stood in his place. Silently, the great wolf sniffed out his guest, and trotted over to the girl. Solemnly, the beast turned his muzzle towards the Wolfwoold.
 
Kaiya stared at Cathal, then purposely looked away. He was naked.

Again.

Seriously, did this man enjoy walking around and getting stared at? She rubbed her face, holding in a sigh. He was going to kill her. She was going to have a heart attack from seeing his gorgeous body naked, and she was going to die. How shameful. A Hunter killed by a werewolf that didn't even have to bite her. Her father was probably cursing her idiocy from the heavens. She grimaced at the thought, then automatically glanced back as she heard the horrible snaps and groans of shifting bone when Cathal changed.

"Gods, you could warn a girl when you're about to do that! It's not exactly pleasant to listen to, you know! And strutting around naked is just.. just.. stop it!" she snapped at him as he walked over to her like nothing was wrong. She glared at the back of his furry head, tempted to pick up a pebble and pelt it at him, but she restrained herself once she remembered that he could decide to munch on her for entertainment.

So, instead, she just huffed at him and started walking.
 
The woman started speaking at him again, but her words seemed somehow unimportant to the wolf. He understood them still, they just... Didn't matter as much as they did when he was a man. They only came from her lips, discordant with her intent. Things were simultaneously simpler, and more complex when he was a wolf. She finished talking, and she smelled... Embarrassed. Excited. Beneath it all, sad.

The great Wolf strode beside the huntress silently, one ear cocked toward her to listen. For what, Cathal wasn't sure, but if she was still in his charge, he had to look after her. Wind was blowing toward the Wolfwood, carrying his scent. With luck, any wolves wandering the Wood would disregard the girl's as long as his was with it.

Cathal exuded calm. Ease. Certainty. It would have to do. Standing upwind of the forest would leave his ears and eyes the only senses that would warn the pair of encroaching threats. Unless of course the threats came from the town, but if that were the case, Cathal doubted that Kaiya would be the one who needed protecting.
 
Though she obviously wasn't going to get one, for some reason, Kaiya had been expecting some sort of response. She looked over at Cathal, but he didn't seem to be really paying her attention. Instead he was focused on the Wolfwood. That made sense. She looked around the quiet trees, her steps much more careful than they had been the night before. Thankfully the walk was uneventful. She led him to the cabin, pausing as she saw the dried spot of blood on the ground at the bottom of the front steps. Taking a deep breath, she walked closer, seeing that there were bloody streaks over the wood leading to the door.

"Stay here," she murmured to Cathal, not sure he'd even fit through the front door in his current state. Apart from that, the cabin was filled with amulets and charms that her father claimed would cause great harm to a werewolf. She had her doubts, but she did not want to risk it.

She mentally braced herself, then went up the stairs and pushed open the door that was barely hanging on to the hinges. Long scratches had scarred the wood, rendering it unable to close properly. She ignored that and walked inside, following the bloody trail until she found Nathan. He was dead. She looked away for a moment, closing her eyes. If she had stayed.. but no. She could not allow the guilt to consume her just yet. There were things that needed doing. So, she set her bag aside and walked over to her mangled brother, picking him up. He was heavy, despite the fact that there were bits missing. She hauled him outside, not looking at Cathal as she carefully laid Nathan down on the ground next to the house were a couple of graves already stood. There would be several more before the day was over. She straightened up and glanced down at her clothing, trying not to be sick at the sight of the bloodstains.

"Now to find the rest of them."
 
Cathal had no particular urge to step into the abode of a hunter, in or out of his wolven form. He could practically feel the silver from where he stood, next to the dried blood at the bottom of the steps. Deep, brown eyes watched the last of the hunters enter the cabin's sundered door. His brothers had fought here. He could smell their blood, among that of the humans. He could smell the sick of silver-poisoning. At least one wolf had died taking the house. Likely more. They'd taken their own dead for burial by the end, as was their way.

He turned to the Wolfwood, lowering himself to his belly, and strafing the treeline with his eyes. An ear swiveled to the slight girl, as she dragged a corpse from the house. He could smell the death on the man. Back to the forest, his eyes turned, and he pushed himself to his pads.

When it looked as if Kaiya was ready to go, he approached the dead man. He sniffed him. The scent filled his nose. A near scent to Kaiya's, but different. It would do. He turned to the Wolfwood, and began to pad back to the forest. He would be able to find the girl's family. What remained of them.
 
Kaiya watched Cathal with a bit of unease as he approached Nathan, but she made no move to stop him. When all he did was start sniffing, she stared. Why was he acting like a puppy? She frowned and was going to ask, but then he wandered off down the trail. What..? Oh. Tracking. Right. She wanted to slap herself right then and there for not realizing it, but at least she hadn't spoken aloud. Shaking her head slightly, she followed after him, trying to figure out where her family would have gone.

They had gone out together and likely would have split up at the fork that came before the falls. Half east, half west. Once the slaughter began, they probably would have tried to get back together. More force in one place. They would have looked for a place that they could defend, a small place that would allow them a place to hide, to try and wait out the attack. Had they gotten that far? She doubted it. From what she had heard before she ran and from what Nathan had told her, nothing had worked. They were all dead before they knew enough to start running. Even if they hadn't been, they may not have. Stubborn, all of them.

Why couldn't they have just given up this stupid war..?
 
Cathal followed the trail to the fork. He could see signs of human travel. Boot prints in soft soil, scuff marks on stones, snapped twigs. The freshest scent followed off to the northeast. Likely where the last survivor had returned to the house from. He turned west however. The fresh scent would be there the longest, and -thus- would still be there when they were finished with the older.

He followed the scent to the river where he'd first seen Kaiya. The area was thick with the scent of death, and rot. Dried blood painted the river stones dark. Human blood. Wolf's blood. More had died here. He found a pair of bodies on the eastern shore, that looked as if they'd been dragged out of the water, and picked as clean as wolves could get them.

He'd never met the family beyond adversaries, and couldn't tell one from the other as far as scent carried his knowledge, but beneath the blood and death, they smelled like Kaiya. There was no doubt that these were two of her number.
 
Kaiya remained quiet as they went, occasionally pausing to look down at the trail. So much turmoil. She could see it before she even saw the river. Once she heard the water, she looked up, immediately regretting the gesture. Blood. She forced herself not to turn away. This was something she had to get used to. She was a Hunter. The last one. She frowned and looked around, slowly following Cathal over to the pair that were sprawled on the shore. These two were in far worse condition than Nathan had been. So bad, in fact, that she was not even sure who they were until she bent down and found their pendants stuck in the mud nearby. The twins.

She picked up the stone pendants and flicked the mud from them, then tucked them into her pocket. They would be buried with them, as was proper. She straightened up and approached the bodies once more, gauging their sizes. Thanks to being ripped apart, she doubted they would weigh more than Nathan did, even combined. She supposed she could thank the werewolves for that. Fantastic. She frowned and glanced between the pair, trying to decide how best to carry them without dropping them. After a moment, she scooped up one, then hesitated and glanced at Cathal, not wanting to drop her brother just to grab the other.

"Can you.. hand him to me, please..?" she managed, her voice surprisingly steady.
 
Cathal's ear swiveled to Kaiya as she spoke, grasping the remains of one of her kin in her arms. She wanted him to hand her one of the corpses. Slowly, -almost reverently- the Great Wolf bent, parting his jaws, to take the torso of the man in his maw. He tasted blood, but there was none of the usual sweetness, or satisfaction that came with the kill. He slowly dragged the corpse farther from the river, and toward his charge. He lifted his muzzle, bringing the dead higher for the girl.

He might've transformed to help, but the process was nearly as painful as it sounded, and required energy besides. He'd need to hunt when all was said and done, or rest for days. Nothing happened for free.

His nose twitched, and he half-turned his muzzle toward the waterfall again. The dead hunter in his jaws curdled his tongue, even as his deep, brown eyes fell on the great, white wolf standing over the waterfall. There was no doubt that the wolf saw the two, but it simply sat back on it's haunches. Observing.
 
Kaiya had to hold back the irrational bubble of emotion that she felt when Cathal scooped up her brother. For some reason, even though she asked him to, it killed her inside to see a werewolf anywhere near her family. Or what had been her family. She bit her lower lip, watching him and moving closer as he stepped over. As she moved down to more easily take the second body, she noticed that Cathal wasn't paying attention anymore. She looked up in the direction of his gaze and froze. That was the same werewolf she had hidden from the night before. She was certain of it.

"If you're going to leave, it's okay," she said quietly, glancing back at Cathal. She could only imagine how he felt right now, helping a Hunter while a member of his family watched. Everybody in a pack was family, right? She honestly didn't know. After a moment, she gently took her brother from Cathal's grasp and straightened up to carry them both. It was not easy, nor light. She could not afford to stand around and wait, lest she lose her balance or tire. There were still four more bodies to find. She looked up at the white creature again, silently begging it to wait if it planned on killing her, then she turned away and made a wobbly path back to the cabin.
 
The brown wolf let his jaw go slack when the girl had her kin firmly in hand. Blood marred his already dark fur. He didn't break his eyes from the white wolf. From his father. The human spoke. Something about leaving. Another conversation was happening. A silent one, full of scents, intentions, and demands.


Walk with human. Wolfkiller.

Guestright. Burial. Unblooded.

Hunter.

Duty.

Duty

The exchange didn't lend itself well to human speech. It was both a brief inquisition, and a lecture, all wrapped up in scents and emotions. The exchange between father and son was intense, and by the end of it, the air smelled of comprehension.

The great brown wolf loped off into the forest, after his charge. He caught up to her back at the cabin, waiting silently to continue the search.
 
Walking through the forest alone should have been terrifying, or at the very least tense, but it wasn't. Kaiya was exhausted and she knew that she should have listened to Cathal when he suggested drinking the potion to help her sleep last night. She owed it to her family to have the strength for this. Though she would not fail them, she knew that she would be dead to the world for several hours afterward. If more werewolves came knocking, she was going to make it all too easy. Then again, did it matter anymore? She was going to be a sitting duckling if they felt the need to wipe the entire slate clean.

Oh well.

She made it to the cabin without incident, laying the two bodies next to Nathan. Three brothers. Three more brothers to go, plus her father. He would have put up the strongest fight. There was no doubt that he was the best fighter out of all of them, and he had been killing werewolves far longer than any of his children had. He would have been a prime target. She wondered absently if he had been eaten entirely or not.

She looked back at Cathal, rather relieved that he had chosen to rejoin her instead of going off with the other werewolf. Giving him a slight nod, she waited to follow his guidance.
 
Cathal waited to make sure his charge was following, before turning back to the Wolfwood. This time, the great brown wolf padded down the northeast past, following the fresher track. It was another ten minutes of walking before they found any more signs of the battle that had taken place. Cathal stopped, his dark eyes turning to the muddied ground, and his hackles rose. A low growl rumbled in his chest.

To the unwary eye, the signs of the scuffle may have been missed, but to the wolf, they were plain. A broken arrow haft along the side of the path. Scuff marks made by pivoting boots. Broken shrubbery, where wolves darted out from the undergrowth. None of this was the cause of the wolf's ire however. Scattered all over the path were little, silver, four-pointed spikes. Caltrops.

There was a body in the center of the spikes, with blood painting one pantleg, and a deformed skull. The wolves had barely been at that particular human, likely due to the hazzards all around. Cathal sat back on his haunches to wait for the girl to retrieve her kin.
 
Growling.

Kaiya stopped her silent following and looked up, frowning. Was it another werewolf? She peeked around Cathal, spotting the silver scattered on the ground. Oh. Well, he certainly could not blame them for trying to defend themselves, could he?

"Relax," she mumbled, glancing at him before going around and picking up the spikes with ease. There was no point in leaving them laying around so that somebody else could get hurt. No werewolves deserved that. Well.. Okay, perhaps some, but she wasn't going to purposely leave them behind. She sighed and pocketed them all, then scooped up the body. Another brother. The second youngest, Ryan. She couldn't look at his face.

"Three more," she reminded herself softly, speaking aloud for Cathal's benefit as she headed back to the cabin yet again.
 
Cathal's growl had been a cautionary one, although it reflected his opinion on the weapon. There was a difference between defending one's self, and leaving hazards where your enemy's children may one day happen upon them unwittingly. This may have been a battleground, but before that, it had been a home.

His ire cooled somewhat, as the girl picked up the caltrops, and pocketed them. He followed her in silence back to the cabin. Another one secure.

Back into the woods they went. Back to the northeast, past the sign of the first scuffle. Farther up the path, were another pair of bodies, and the signs of conflict told their tale. The first fell at the roots of an ancient oak, his throat missing. The second lay on the ground some three yards away, sprawled on his stomach. There was blood all over one of his shoulders. Moreover, there was blood all the way up the tree where the first had died. Likely, the second had climbed it to get away from the wolves. It had worked for a time, if the scratched bark only a third of the way up was any judge to go by, but with no treatment for his injuries, the man had succumbed to his bloodloss, and fell from the tree. That left one.
 
Kaiya laid her brother down next to the other three, taking a minute to gather herself after she straightened up. This was hard, but she had expected that. Once she was ready, she turned and followed Cathal back down the path. This time there were two again. She knew without close inspection that they were her remaining two brothers. Even without the heightened sight of a wolf, she could see the struggle. They had fought so hard, wanting nothing more than to survive, but it had not been allowed. She closed her eyes and braced one hand on the bloodied tree, holding back a fresh desire to cry.

Not now.

She couldn't.

She dropped her hand and opened her eyes, going over and picking up both of the bodies. Each time it was getting more difficult, but she didn't care. It had to be done. So, she balanced them as best as she could, starting to weave back and forth unsteadily as she headed back to the cabin.
 
One more trip into the wood with the Hunter, and his duty would be complete. He padded silently along the path, painting the battle in his mind. The corpses weren't there any longer. Neither the wolves, nor the men. Only one would remain. The end. The final chapter.

Cathal padded past the bloodied tree, and walked on. And on. For an hour, he followed an old scent, deeper into the wood. North, towards the elven village. It would have taken days to reach it on foot. No hope for a man being hunted by wolves. The scent trailed off of the path, past a clearing. Rocky hills rose around them, and Cathal slowed when he followed the scent to a cave.

He smelled dead. Blood. Violence, anger, and fear. He stopped, well clear of the mouth of the cave. A sense of urgency overtook him, and his hackles rose again. The scent here was fresh. Fresher still than the one he'd followed northeast the first time. His ears laid low, and he tried to pinpoint the source of the scent, but it was all over the hills. It was strongest in the cave.

The wolf would not enter the cave.
 
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