13. Kit Facing the Wolves
Kit: Facing the Wolves
“This is really, really bad,” Kemma repeated for the third time since leaving the castle. “We shouldn’t be out here. There’s a storm coming. Can’t you smell it?”
“Yes,” Kit said through gritted teeth. “Which is why we need to find Nelle and get back to the castle as soon as possible.”
“And that’s another thing!” Kemma said. “Lol—Nelle made me promise to never leave the grounds. I don’t think?—”
“You can go back to the castle if you want, but if you do, you’ll share the blame of whatever befalls Nelle,” Kit growled.
“I doubt I’ll be able to convince her to return on my own, even factoring in the impending storm.
You are someone she knows, someone she trusts.
If anyone can convince her to return, it’ll be you. ”
Kemma eyed him distrustfully. “I’m not sure I should. All you care about is breaking your spell.”
Kit clenched his fists. “That’s not true.” At least, he didn’t think it was. No matter what she’d done to him, she didn’t deserve to get caught outside in the rain or?—
Howls rent the air, making Kemma shudder visibly.
Kit just threw his head back and groaned.
It seemed the wargs were back. Ever since he’d intervened when they’d attacked his brother and a friend, the warg pack had taken to hunting his lands at least once every few months.
None of them had done him any lasting damage, but that didn’t stop them from trying. But if they came across Nelle…
Kit quickened his pace, heading in the direction of the howls. Kemma watched him in horror. “You’re going toward those horrible beasts?” she squeaked.
“Unless you have a better idea,” Kit grumbled. “Odds are good that the wargs will attack any traveler, particularly vulnerable ones. I have no doubt that they’d find Nelle a particularly easy target.”
Kemma squeaked but fluttered after him. “You don’t really think they’d hurt Nelle, do you? I mean, she isn’t a danger to them. Not really.”
Kit shook his head. “I really don’t know, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Wargs tend to think with their stomachs. They don’t see danger. They just see food.”
Kemma shook her head. “And we’re heading towards them. This is such a bad idea.”
Kit opened his mouth to tell her she could turn back if she couldn’t find another complaint to make, but before he could snap the words out, shrieks of terror startled both companions.
The dragon hybrid barely had time to blink before two small, blonde children emerged from the darkness.
He recognized Gretyl, who was stumbling as she tried to keep up with the boy, who he assumed was her older brother.
The boy skidded to a stop when he saw Kit, fear in his startlingly blue eyes.
“Hansel? What’s wrong?” Gretyl asked, tugging at her brother’s sleeve.
“It’s…it’s a?—”
“Hello again, little one,” Kit said, cutting off the boy’s words.
Gretyl’s face lit up with recognition. “Kit! You came back!”
“More like you came back to me,” Kit said, shaking his head. He reached for the little girl, but Hansel stepped in front of her.
“Get away from her!” he shrieked, his voice cracking a little at the last word.
Obediently, Kit froze. Gretyl glared at her brother. “Hey, be nice. He helped me find my way back to camp after you and Jack left me behind.”
Hansel frowned. “But he’s a?—”
“A very good friend of Nelle,” Kit interrupted again. “Have you seen her?”
“She told us to run to the castle and not to stop, or the wolves would get us,” Gretyl said, her voice a little trembly. “She said we had to make lots of noise, because it would scare the wolves off.”
Kit nodded. “Okay. Which way?”
Gretyl opened her mouth to respond, but her brother clapped his hand over her mouth. “Don’t tell him anything else, Gret,” he said. “He’s that dragon beast that Papa said was prowling around the gates. He’s probably going to eat Nelle and then us too.”
“Nah,” Kemma said, fluttering into view. “He doesn’t really eat people. At least, not that I’ve seen.” She shot me a suspicious glance. “If he does, he hides it very well.”
Hansel’s eyes got even wider. “Holy—Gretyl, there really is a flying cat, just like Nelle said.”
Gretyl poked his side. “See? I told you!”
“I’m not a cat—” Kemma started to say, but Kit cut her off. “We don’t have time for this. Where’s Nelle?”
Hesitantly, Hansel pointed back the way the children had come. “She’s back there. Not far.”
“Perfect.” Kit took a step in the direction the child had offered and threw over his shoulder, “Kemma, take the kids to the castle and get them settled in. I’ll be back with Nelle as soon as I can.”
“Aye-aye, captain,” Kemma said, relief clear on her furry little face. “Come on, you two. Hot chocolate awaits us.”
Kit shook his head and continued deeper into the forest, his heart hammering in his chest.
Another howl sounded to his right, and he peered through the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of the wargs.
What he saw made his blood run cold. Nelle was surrounded by three of the wargs, while another one prowled through the trees behind her.
She clutched a hefty tree branch in front of her, as if it would protect her from the blood-thirsty beasts.
Kit cursed and bolted towards her, making as much noise as possible as he stomped through the brush. Nelle whirled around, turning her back to two of the three beasts. Her eyes widened when she saw him.
“Kit. What are you?—”
“Look out!” Kit brushed past her, putting himself between the warg that had leaped at her as soon as she’d turned her back.
He threw his arm up, and the warg’s teeth immediately closed around it.
He winced, but quickly shook it off, sending the beast flying into its companion on the right.
The first warg yelped, but shook its mane out, as if shaking off the injury.
Nelle’s scream, and then a solid THWACK, alerted Kit that the third warg had made its move. He spun around to see the warg stumble dazedly to the side. Nelle glared at it, shifting her grip on the two halves of the tree branch in her hand.
“I’m impressed,” Kit said, as the other two wargs leaped towards him. He dodged the first one and batted the second into the tree. “You’re stronger than you look.”
“Thank you…I think?” Nelle muttered, trying to keep an eye on the warg pacing the treeline and the one she’d just hit. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you think I’m doing here? I told you, if you ran, I was coming to find you,” Kit growled as a fifth warg emerged from the trees. “Besides, Gretyl said you were dealing with some wolves, and I wasn’t going to let you fight this battle on your own.”
Nelle took her eyes off the wargs to stare at him. “You found Hansel and Gretyl?”
“Yes, I—Look out!” Kit lunged forward, knocking himself and Nelle to the ground, just in time for the pouncing warg to sail harmlessly over their heads.
It lifted its head and released a howl that Kit recognized as a call for reinforcements.
He muttered a curse as he stood and helped her to her feet. “This is not good.”
“If you have any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them,” Nelle murmured.
“Fire’s a good deterrant, but I don’t like using it when other humans…or human-like creatures are so near,” Kit admitted. “How about your ice magic? Would that be?—”
“I can’t use the ice magic,” Nelle said. “I think fire’s our safest option.”
Kit frowned. “But—” He didn’t have time to argue as three more wargs came into view. They lurked near the warg that had howled. Their red eyes glittered with malice and hunger. He couldn’t wait for them to get their bearings. If he didn’t act quickly, they were going to die.
Kit took a deep breath in and, with a single blow, forced his heart’s fire from his lungs. The flames licked up the side of the nearest warg, clinging to its pelt. It yelped in fear before rushing off into the forest.
Nelle dipped her two branches into the flames, letting the wood catch on the dry bark. When a low growl came from her right, she didn’t hesitate to lash out with the fire. More yelping and then crashing sound told Kit that her mark had been true.
Two of the remaining wargs whimpered, a sign that they weren’t comfortable with the direction the fight was going.
Their leader barked sharply, nipping at the two dissenters, but even its wrath wasn’t enough to keep them in place with the threat of quickly spreading flames.
They turned tail and ran into the forest, yipping all the way.
Kit fought a grim smile as he stared down the warg leader. It was already missing an eye from the first time the two had met over a year before. Kit gave an animalistic snarl to warn the creature off, curling his lip in a sneer. The warg growled and prowled closer, its focus on Nelle.
Kit moved to put himself between the warg and the sorceress, but before he could, another warg bounded out of the forest and pounced on his chest, knocking him to the ground.
His head connected painfully with a rock, and, for a moment, his vision blurred.
The warg on his chest snarled and snapped at his throat.
Kit tried to hold the slavering beast at bay, but its weight and his prone position made the fight a losing battle.
Just then, a piercing songbird’s cry pierced the forest.
“Ember.” The groaned word slipped from Kit’s mouth before he could stop it. Ember was the name of the bird he’d trained at the royal palace. His cry sounded just like this one. But that was imposs?—
Suddenly, a huge, red, orange, and yellow-colored bird swooped from the trees, straight for the warg on Kit’s chest. Its sharp talons raked across its eye, and the beast howled in pain. Taking advantage of the moment, Kit shoved the warg away and stumbled to his feet.
Behind him, Nelle was jabbing aimlessly at any warg that got close to her.
Between heaving coughs, she muttered curses that would make the proverbial sailor blush.
The sound of wolves howling and skittering away filled the air.
But as the fire and smoke intensified, the cursing became less prevalent and the coughing intensified.
Simultaneously, her jabs became weaker and more frenzied.
He wasn’t even sure what she was aiming for at that point.
“Nelle!” Kit shouted to be heard over the roaring fire. “We need to get out of here.”
She turned to him and nodded, but made no move towards the small and shrinking areas the flames hadn’t touched yet.
Kit muttered a curse of his own as a flicker of flame got far too close for his comfort.
He surged forward and wrapped his arm around Nelle’s waist. In her surprise, she dropped the now-charred bits of wood, and Kit kicked them aside.
Then, he dashed toward the closest pocket of unscathed path, hoping against all odds that they would make it in time.
“We can’t…just…” Nelle struggled against his hold as she looked back at the burning trees.
“It’s fine,” Kit assured her as he continued running, unwilling to release her. “The storm will come along soon and put out the fires. But I want to be far away from here when it does.”
“What are you talking about? What stor—” Before Nelle could finish her question, a low rumble of thunder sounded and the first raindrop fell.
Behind them, the smell of wet fur and smoldering flames intensified as they loped toward the castle, with Kit praying that Kemma and the kids would be waiting for them at the castle when they returned.