Liam Wolfe's Arc

Chapter 2 of 10

The next night, Liam carried the healed silver creature back toward the deep brush to set it free. Luminara, the fairy who kept the willow alive and taught him to hold the wolf, floated at his shoulder. Her light was the only lamp between the trees. She flew ahead in quick loops, checking the path the way she always did before Liam moved. Then she stopped cold. "Iron," she said. Her glow dimmed. "A snare. Hidden in the leaves, three steps ahead." Liam froze. He smelled it now, that cold metal bite under the wet earth. A hunter had left the trap in his forest. Iron. The one thing that could truly cut him. His pulse jumped. Heat climbed his chest, the same heat that woke the wolf. The creature in his arms whimpered and squirmed. "Easy," Luminara said. She hovered before his face. "Fear feeds the shift. You know this. Breathe with the tree." But the willow stood far behind them now. Liam could not see its blossoms. His teeth ached. His fingers curled around the creature's fur, and claws pressed under his skin. If he shifted here, the iron would gut the wolf when it lunged. "I can't feel the tree," he said. His voice cracked low, half growl. "Then feel me," Luminara said. She landed on his wrist. Her small warmth spread up his arm. "I carry the tree with me. In. Hold. Out." Liam shut his eyes. He breathed in. He held it. The iron smell still clawed at him, but he did not chase it. He breathed out. The heat stalled. It did not win. He opened his eyes and stayed a man. He set the creature down behind him. Then he knelt at the leaves. His hands shook, but they were hands. He brushed the brush aside and found the snare, a loop of dark wire staked to the ground. He gripped a fallen branch, not the metal, and pried the stake loose. He flung the whole trap into the dark water of a nearby pool. It sank. The silver creature slipped past his legs and vanished into the safe brush. Liam sank back on his heels, soaked in sweat. He had smelled iron and held himself. Twice now the wolf had risen, and twice he had won. Luminara settled on his knee. "You did it without the tree," she said softly. "That's new." But she did not smile. Her light flickered toward the sunken trap. "One hunter set one snare," she said. "They don't hunt alone. If they're laying iron in your woods, they already know the way in. Back to the tree. They'll come for the willow next." Liam stood. He looked toward his home ground, the hidden den beneath the mossy stone where he slept by day. Tonight he had mastered his fear far from the tree. Now the hunters were bringing the fight to its roots.