Mike the White's Arc

Chapter 7 of 10

Mike did not ride north alone. Before he left the tavern, Dara and Luna stood at the door with packs on their backs. Sela stood behind them, her green tunic swapped for a hunting cloak. "We're coming," Dara said. "One axe won't break their walls." Mike opened his mouth to argue. Nia stepped from the kitchen and pressed dried meat into his hands. "Bring my sisters home," she said. He nodded. They rode at dawn. The pack's stronghold sat where the trees stopped. Log walls, twice a man's height, ringed a muddy yard. Torches burned on the gate. Inside, Mike knew, they held what Zara's pack had lost. He crouched in the brush and counted guards. Six. Maybe more. He had an axe and a shield. The walls did not care about either. "We can't climb it," Luna said. Flat. "We can't burn it. The logs are green." Sela pointed low, near the gate. "There. The drain." A gap ran under the wall where waste washed out. Small. Foul. Wide enough for one body at a time. Mike looked at his own shoulders. Too big. He looked at Sela. She was the smallest of them. "I'll go," Sela said. Her voice shook. She went anyway. "I open the gate from inside. You come through." Dara gripped her arm. Sela pulled free and crawled into the muck. Mike waited with his shield up. His heart pounded. Minutes crawled. Then the gate bar scraped. The doors swung. Sela stood there, covered in filth, alive. "Now," Mike said. He charged. The yard erupted. Guards came from the huts. Mike met the first with his shield and split him with the axe. Dara and Luna fought at his flanks, teeth and knives. He fought toward the largest hut, kicked the door, and found it. A cage. Inside, a gray-furred pup, thin and scared. Zara's lost cub. This was what the pack took. Mike broke the lock with one blow. He scooped the pup into his cloak. "Out," he roared. They ran for the gate. An arrow caught Mike's shoulder. He did not stop. He shoved his sisters through and turned, shield raised, holding the gap while they mounted. Then he ran too. They did not stop riding until the stronghold was far behind. In a hollow by a stream, Mike knelt and pulled the arrow free. Sela washed the pup in the water. It licked her hand. "You did it," Dara said. Not flat now. Something soft under it. Mike held the shaking cub. He had promised Zara he would return what her pack lost. The promise was kept. But the pup whined and would not settle, and its eyes searched the trees. Sela looked up. "It won't stop crying," she said. "It's looking for its mother." Mike went cold. The cage held one pup. The pack had taken two.