Arron Liken's Arc

Chapter 3 of 11

By dawn Arron had climbed past the black pines. He found a waterfall spilling into a still pool. Behind the curtain of water lay a cave. He ducked inside to rest and drink. When he turned back to the entrance, he saw it. The black wolf stood at the treeline across the pool. Smoke curled off its dark coat. Pale eyes watched him. It was the same wolf that had saved him from the hunter. Arron did not know what it wanted. It had bought him his escape once. Now it followed him. A friend would not stalk from the shadows. A hunter would. He gripped a loose stone and waited. The wolf sat down. It did not charge. It did not leave. He had to know. Arron stepped from the cave into the open. He raised his empty hands. "If you mean to kill me, come now," he said. "I'm done running from things I can't see." The wolf rose. It walked around the pool, slow, ears forward. It stopped an arm's length away. Arron smelled wet fur and old blood. He held still. The wolf lowered its head and pressed its brow to his chest. Then it looked back the way Arron had come and growled low. A branch snapped in the trees below. The wolf's warning made sense at once. Victor Crowe climbed into view along the stream. His long coat was soaked. The carved saber hung ready in his fist, wolves running down the steel. He had followed the water, same as Arron. "Two dogs now," Victor said. He did not slow. "Better. I can finish both." The black wolf spun and faced him. It snarled and drove forward, snapping at the hunter's legs. Victor swung the blade. The wolf twisted away, then darted in again, herding him back toward the rocks. It was not attacking to kill. It was clearing a path. Arron understood. The wolf was on his side. He would not let it die alone this time. He ran, not away, but to the pool's edge behind the cave. "This way," he called. The wolf broke off and bolted after him. Together they slipped behind the falling water into the dark cave. Victor reached the pool. He stared at the curtain of water, blade dripping. "You can't hide in there forever," he said. But the cave had a second gap at its rear, a crack in the stone leading up. Arron squeezed through it, the wolf at his heels. Cold air poured down from above. A passage climbed north, toward the valley. Arron looked at the wolf beside him. It was no shadow to fear. It was a guide. "Take me to her," he said. The wolf turned and led him up through the dark, away from the hunter's voice, toward the mate the goddess had promised.