I waited in the trees, silent as a shadow, watching the caravan pass below me on the road. The wolves waited out of sight in the woods beyond, just as watchful. When the caravan was out of sight around the bend, I dropped silently to the road. After a few moments, the five wolves joined me.
‘How much farther?’ Nighthunter asked. Of the five wolves present, Nighthunter was the alpha male. He and his mate, Lightfoot, led the pack of thirteen wolves that was now all the family I had left.
“How should I know?” I replied. “The least we can do is get a map or directions at the next town! We can follow the road for a few more hours, then find a place to stop for the night.
As we walked, I allowed myself to become lost in memories. It has been almost nineteen years since the druid couple found me as an infant at their door. They took me in and raised me as their own. As I grew up, my parents Liam and Riona taught me as much as they could of the ways of the forest: how to hunt and prepare game, how to use a bow, dagger, and quarterstaff. I learned how to stalk the most skittish animals, and to be utterly silent in the woods even when the leaves fell in the fall and could crunch underfoot. I used to practice by sneaking up on herd of deer, the most abundant and likely to run at the slightest movement or scent. Mother and Father taught me few things that didn’t have to do with nature, only to read and write. Although they didn’t agree with violence, they did agree that I should know how to defend myself without a weapon. They wouldn’t have anything to do with swords, but Father and I would entertain ourselves with knife throwing.
Much of what Mother and Father did had very little to do with magic, but I learned all I could of the magic they did use. When it became obvious in my younger years that I had inherited mage abilities from some parent... well I just had to blunder through that myself, as best I could. Mother and Father were druids, not mages or wizards, and so couldn’t teach me much of what I needed. They did show me some runes which I learned to focus on, and the rest is like feeling around in the dark: sometimes I latch on to something useful.
Liam and Riona also introduced me to as many animals as possible, including the wolf pack. I used to hunt as a pair with Nighthunter when he was a pup. I was twelve, and Notch and Twilight led the wolf pack. A few years later, Nighthunter became alpha male, and Lightfoot became his mate. I learned to ride on the old plow horse we kept for the fields, and learned from the mice what an owl sounds like in its silent flight.
My parentage was an entirely different topic. Although Liam and Riona rarely discussed it if they thought I was listening, I once overheard them say I was a child of a rape. They thought my father was a dark elf, for I had most of his unique coloring. However, it was fairly obvious that my mother was human, for while I was tall and slender, I was sometimes much too clumsy for an elf. I also had some un-drowlike qualities. Like most dark elves, I had ebony skin, but my long, waist-length hair, except in deep shadow, shone a bright silver. My deep blue eyes changed little, whether in normal vision or heat vision. While hunting, I usually dressed in black, so my wolf name, Shadow, was quite appropriate, since a shadow is what I normally made myself.
While I grew up well, every person I met thought I was drow - even the inhabitants of a nearby town. As a result, I often stayed away from the town, and people in general. Everyone in the town knew what I looked like, and hated me because of it. I guess in this, my actions couldn’t outweigh the color of my skin, especially with a constant reminder of how evil those who share my skin really were. Apparently, the area was close to an exit from the Underdark, so drow often came and raided the area. Liam and Riona would hear rumors and get sideways hateful glances when they went into town after a recent strike. Once spring came, the town was usually full of bounty hunters, who got paid for each drow ear they brought in. Liam and Riona always made sure that I stayed out of sight, whether I was in the house or in the woods.
Unfortunately, one bounty hunter came early, when spring was only a hint in the air, a month and a half ago. In one short month, he talked the entire town into believing that I was the reason the drow kept coming back. When the mob showed up, I was in the woods with the wolf pack. Hearing the noise, we had crept to the edge of the woods and watched. When the hunter demanded the druids give me up, Liam and Riona refused to even tell him and the rest where I was. They had seen me - I was in the woods behind the mob, and they made eye contact with me. I saw Liam motioning subtly with his head - he wanted a telepathic link.
I hurriedly made the gesture and whispered the words that would allow me, with the help of a small crystal around my neck, to share minds with Liam.
<What are you doing?> I asked in our thoughts. <They’ll kill you!>
<They would kill you as well.> He talked so calmly, in the face of the danger. <We knew this day would come. It was inevitable. We have lived our lives, and would die so that you can live yours.>
<But...!>
<GO!> This was nearly a shout in my mind. <Don’t let them find you! Nighthunter will know what to do. There is another like you, a drow ranger. He is called Drizzt Do’Urden. As far as I know, he lives past Silverymoon, in Icewind Dale. Find him!>
With this said, he broke the link. I could only watch, helpless, as the crowd surged forward, parting around Liam and Riona, and setting fire to the house. It was only when I saw the first person turn, and the two wolves, one small and the other huge, that I realized Windrunner and Howl had attacked them.
I didn’t notice that I’d started forward until I felt Nighthunter against my legs. I dropped to my knees and threw my arms around his shaggy neck, burying my face in his fur. When I looked up again, the house was completely engulfed in flames. The bounty hunter was standing in front of my foster parents, who were held from behind by two men. I could just barely see Liam shaking his head, and the defiant look on Riona’s face. At a nod from the bounty hunter, the men killed them, cut their throats. The mob dealt with Windrunner and Howl the same way, although they did have some trouble; Howl is half worg, and stands tall enough to almost look me in the eyes.
I hid my face in Nighthunter’s neck again, wetting his fur with my tears.
After a while, he nudged me. ‘We must leave; the humans will soon be searching the area. Come with me.’
I followed Nighthunter and the pack, and soon realized that they were leading me to The Tree. The Tree is huge, big enough that three people with linked arms couldn’t surround it. It’s roots can be as thick as a man’s torso, and they spread for many yards. We - Liam, Riona, and I - often climbed it for the view, because the branches are thick even at the top and it’s taller than most trees in the forest. At the top, you can see for miles. It also had a secret compartment cunningly concealed in the hollow of one large root, built to look like part of the tree. I walk over to the root and opened the compartment.
It seemed that Mother and Father had been prepared for something like today; the hollow was completely filled with supplies. I pulled everything out and took and inventory, starting with food. There was enough food to last two weeks, and money to buy more. I could also hunt food; most of the food in the hollow was dried. There were enough herbs and bandages to last a long time, unless I was severely wounded. I pulled out a calf length wool cloak, pants, good, knee height boots, some shirts - loose, but not too much so, gloves, socks - all of it dyed a nice earthy dark brown. In one of the belt pouches I found leather ties for my hair. In the way of weapons, there were half a dozen well balanced knives, an ebony quarterstaff, and a shortbow, unstrung. In another beltpouch, I found several oiled bowstrings. I also pulled out a quiver of forty arrows, completely black.
Blinking away tears, I swiftly stowed away the food, herbs, and most of the money in packs that looked suspiciously like saddlebags. I also stored all of the clothing- what I was wearing was dark brown, dark enough to blend in. The weapons I stashed in the appropriate places - a knife in each boot, two on one wrist, one on my waist, and the rest in my beltpouch. The bow I strung, placed in a sheath, then strapped on my back. I also strapped the arrows on over the bow. Then I held up the packs, completely at a loss until Longstride stepped up.
‘They are like saddlebags,’ he said. ‘They go over my back and are secured in place by a chest strap.’
“You don’t mind?”
‘No.’
So I placed the bags on his back and followed his instructions to secure them. Then I stood, picked up my quarterstaff, and leaned it against The Tree. I stood up on the root and climbed swiftly to the top, as I had done almost every day since I was able. At the top, I surveyed the forest one last time. I could see the column of smoke from the house, rising high into the sky. I climbed down slowly.
‘Where to now, Shadow?’ asked Solitude. He kept to himself and rarely talked, his mottle gray and brown coat helping him blend into his surroundings. Even now I had a hard time seeing him.
“North. Father used to go to the town there for supplies, so we should find someone to point us in the right direction.” I didn’t mention Liam or Riona.
‘You missed something in here,’ Tangle, another younger wolf, was sniffing at the hole in the root. When I looked, I almost missed them, they were so well tucked into a crevice. I reached in and lifted the objects into the light to see them better.
The first was a circlet made of what appeared to be silver. It was molded in a wire frame crown shape and ended in a point meant to hang centered high on the brow. The bottom point made a frame around a medium sized cut stone. The stone was a deep purple that matched the color of my magic. Stormwatcher was by my side in an instant.
‘Mithril,’ he commented. ‘Good metal. Never breaks. Good for holding magic. Try it on.’
It was not a request, but a demand, and so I complied.
‘Look at yourself,’ he said, leading me over to a small pool nearby. I obliged, bending over slightly to peer at my reflection in the puddle.
For a second, I thought the puddle shimmered and I had seen a light-skinned stranger for an instant. I blinked and looked again, but saw only my own dark skin and blue eyes. “I see only myself.” I glanced at Stormwatcher expectantly, but he only looked back with his penetrating eyes. With a sigh, I turned to the last object I’d found: a rolled piece of parchment.
As soon as I touched it, I could feel the spell on it, one that kept it from disintegrating in the dampness underneath a tree root. Still, I carefully unrolled it to see my father’s neat script.
To our daughter Alyssa, our dearest Shadow:
As you maybe can already tell, we prepared this for you in the event that things take a turn for the worst. Which means that we are no longer by your side to guide your steps. Fear not. You are a smart girl, and with the wolf pack by your side, I have the utmost confidence that you will be capable of dealing with whatever comes your way. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t anticipate some of the difficulties you will face. So I leave to you one last gift, and a story.
The story starts long ago, the day your mother opened the door to find a baby on our doorstep. Even though the baby’s skin was black as night, we couldn’t leave an infant to die in the wild. Against most recommendations, we took you in and raised you as our own.
By the time you were several months old (for we had judged you to be less than a week old when we found you), word of what we had done had traveled through all of the Druidic order. Some murmurs were uneasy; others were simply curious. After a year or two, the novelty wore off, but not before bringing us another rumor.
It seemed that a few of the rangers had heard of you and were reminded of another drow elf in the area less than a decade ago. He had stayed in the northern mountains with a blind comrade. When the ranger passed on, the drop moved on, finally making his home in the inhospitable northern reach of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. The blind ranger’s name was Montolio DeBrouchee, and the drow was Drizzt Do’Urden.
I tell you all this because we fear for you. You are most likely without a home, and without companionship of your own kind. The wolf pack may be your family right now, as they always will be, but they cannot give you more than that. So my wish and hope is that this man will help you to understand yourself better. If you do not find the place where you belong at the end of your journey to him, then you will find it somewhere along the way.
To help you in your travels, I have gathered what I believed to be necessary to survive. That includes what you probably now hold in your hand – a Mithril circlet, set with an amethyst. This is bound to your essence. Once you are familiar with it, I am sure it will prove to be invaluable to you as a focus for your magic. There is one spell already in the crystal for you to learn: a spell of illusion. Use it wisely.
Our love be with you always,
Liam & Riona
I sat down on a tree root and pulled the circlet off, mostly in shock from it all. “You planned this? All of you? I mean... the saddlebags, the food and weapons, the bandages? And the circlet, that alone must have cost them a small fortune... where did they find it?”
‘That time when Liam went on a trip, to get supplies and grain? He ordered this as well, took a few pieces of hair so it could be attuned to you.’ Longstride sat on his haunches, the bags slipping off his shoulders a little. I remember the trip he spoke of, and knew as well that getting a few strands of my hair wouldn’t be difficult; long hair tends to leave itself everywhere.
“But... how did they know?”
‘They could see the hearts of the people, dear. They kept you out of sight for as long as possible, but knew that there would come a day when it wouldn’t be enough. So they prepared: themselves, us, all this.’ Lightfoot explained.
I looked at my hands, then at the bags on Longstride’s back and the rest of the pack. “I could stay here forever, you know. Those people would never find me in this forest.”
Nighthunter nudged me with his head and licked my cheek. ‘But they can burn the forest, and the bounty hunter is a tracker, he very well might be able to find you.’
I sighed, and stood. “Then as Father wished it, we go to find this man... the closest town is north, we can figure it out from there.” With that, we turned and headed north, skirting the townspeople searching for me.
- - - - - - - - - -
My thoughts were interrupted by a cold, wet nose on my hand. It was Nighthunter.
‘We need to hunt. There are only a few hours of daylight left,’ he said.
“Then we might as well stop for the night. You and the pack go hunt. I’ll start a small fire and start some food cooking.”
‘You two-leggers and your fires!’
“Well, unlike you, I can’t eat meat raw!” I retorted, grinning.
Nighthunter shook his shaggy head, then loped off with the rest of the pack to hunt, leaving Solstice and Equinox, the two youngest pups. They were too young to hunt, and I often played the part of pack mother, watching them while the rest of the pack hunted. They followed me as I walked a few yards from the road before setting my pack down and preparing a camp.
After searching a few minutes, I soon had an armful of firewood. Solstice and Equinox tried to help, each trying to bring the biggest stick, which soon grew to be twice their length and just as round! I laughed at their antics, and realized it was the first time I’d laughed since leaving.
I sighed, and concentrated on the task at hand. I built a frame for the fire, then stood up. After a few minutes of concentration, when I wasn’t rewarded with the usual lick of flame and wisp of smoke, I traced the rune for fire in the air. It glowed briefly, then disappeared, but nothing changed. I sat down in front of the fire pit and crossed my legs. After carefully clearing my mind of visions of the house burning, I concentrated on the rune in my mind once more, and was satisfied to see smoke curl up and flames start.
The flames were mesmerizing, and as I stared into them I could once again see my burning house. Mother and Father had given their lives for me, and two wolves had given their lives for Liam and Riona. Windrunner had been the fastest runner in the pack, named because it seemed she could run as fast as the wind. Howl was half worg, he stood almost as tall as me at his shoulder. Because of his size, his howl was so loud it seemed to penetrate my body and make my bones vibrate. Both of them were very close to my parents, but they hadn’t been enough to stop my parents’ deaths.
I shook my head to clear it of the flames, and the painful memories they brought back. By now, the fire was burning well and wouldn’t go out, so I bid the twins to stay put and grabbed my bow and quiver. Soon I had two rabbits for a meal, hind legs tied together and slung over my shoulder. Making my way back to the fire, I set the two rabbits on a spit.
We had been on the road for little more than two weeks, but I had already had my share of blunders. For three days afterwards I had walked in a fog, letting the wolves guide my steps. Each night I have a vague memory of sleeping where I dropped, in the midst of the pack like another wolf. On the fourth day, the fog lifted, but my heart ached with loss. Since then, I’d been getting better at starting a fire without seeing the house burning. Some nights I’d had trouble finding small animals, but I never truly went hungry, eating the packed food if I needed. Often, before I tried to sleep, I would take out the circlet and put it on, trying to figure out its secrets.
By the time the rabbits were ready, Nighthunter and the pack were back, thoughtfully bringing back part of their kill for me in several small, fist sized pieces.
“Do you want me to dry this?” I asked. Nighthunter nodded once. The wolves felt that dried meat was no replacement for fresh, but it did keep the pups endlessly occupied chewing it. While proper drying took more than one night, I could, through partially magical means, make the fire hot enough to dry meat sufficiently.
After I ate, I built up the fire to dry the meat. Since I didn’t feel much like sleeping, I got out the circlet and put it on as I had several nights before, closing my eyes to try and feel the magic.
As I took several deep breaths I was aware of my magic stirring, making itself known. There was a faint answering call from the gem centered on my forehead that I had never felt before. In a flash of understanding, I felt how my magic should be and made it so, feeling my body tingle slightly. I opened my eyes, but even though I’d sensed the magic settle over me, I could see no visible change. Disappointed, I reached up to remove the circlet, frustrated enough to be done for the night. But what I saw shocked me.
My skin had lightened from its normal ebony hue, closer to the shade of someone who spent a lot of time in the sun and my slender fingers had shortened. I was dumbfounded for a moment, then rushed over to a nearby stream to look at my reflection. There I could tell my eyes were rounder than my normal almond shape, my cheeks were a bit fuller, and my ears no longer had their slight points. My face was the same light brown color as my hand, and my hair held a blonde tint, although my eyes stayed their vibrant hue. Amazed, I tried to think of what I had done to trigger the spell, and how I could reverse it.
Nightsong had heard my movement and wandered over. When she saw me, her only comment was, ‘You look different, Shadow, but you smell the same.’ I smiled at her and redoubled my magical efforts, finally figuring out how to release the illusion. I practiced a few more times casting and breaking the illusion by seeing the specific rune form in my mind, all while learning more about how the amethyst focused my power. By the time I crawled under my blanket, the moon was starting to rise and I was exhausted from using magic. I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the ground.
- - - - - - - - - -
The night passed uneventfully, other than me rolling over to make sure the fire hadn’t burnt the forest down or scorched the meat, then going back to sleep. For several nights after we left, I didn’t sleep much, since every time I closed my eyes I saw the house burning. If I slept at all, my sleep was plagued with nightmares.
I got up, smothered the fire, and shouldered my pack. Nighthunter barked, once, to signal our moving. We were upon the road shortly after dawn. By noon, we were skirting the forest’s edge, and soon after had to leave the forest altogether. By nightfall, I could see the lights of a small town. That night, we ate trail rations and dried meat, camping there while we decided what to do the next day.
“I need to get more trail rations, and we desperately need a map,” I said.
‘We can’t go in town with you, but you can go in yourself wearing the circlet,’ Nighthunter was quick to point out.
‘Don’t take any visible weapons,’ piped Tangle. Tangle was young, only older than the twins by a year.
‘Wear something other than all black. Complete black isn’t something a surface elf wears,’ Lightfoot advised. Lightfoot was Nighthunter’s mate, and the alpha female.
‘Are you going to stay a night in the inn?’ asked Moonlight. She was light as the moon, one of Tangle’s siblings.
“Calm down guys! I can’t think of everything at once!” I laughed. “Tomorrow morning I will go into the town. I’ll take my quarterstaff and no other visible weapons, and I’ll wear my forest clothes. Is everyone happy?!” My forest clothes consisted of dark brown pants and a dark green tunic.
‘If you stay a night at the inn, you can inquire about directions, and you’ll meet any merchants that might have maps. And it would look suspicious if you just came and went, since you’ll be a stranger.’ Nightsong said quietly. Everyone turned and looked at her.
“Since when did you know all this about towns?” I asked.
‘Your father and I talked a lot about it, and he used to go adventuring with Notch,’ she replied.
“Well, do you have any other suggestions?”
‘No, not any that I can think of.’
“Okay, so tomorrow morning I’ll go into town. I’ll leave what I don’t take in the packs with Longstride so that it’s not just left on the ground. While you wait for me, I would suggest waiting in the woods. Anything else?” The edge of the forest could be seen from where we were.
‘I don’t think so,’ Nighthunter replied.
“One last question: should I get a horse? I think I have the money, and it’ll make the trip a little faster.”
There was silence. Finally, Nighthunter spoke. ‘No horse would accept riding with us.’
“I thought so, but I had to ask,” I was disappointed for not being able to speed up the pace, but the wolves were right. A horse would only be spooked by the wolves, and unable to travel with them. I went to sleep that night with that problem in my mind.
The next morning, I was up around dawn like usual. I packed almost all of the weapons in the packs, except for my quarterstaff, and a few of the knives that could be hidden on my person. Bidding farewell to the wolves, I put on my circlet and turned to go.
‘Be careful,’ Stormwatcher called after me. ‘The circlet can still be seen, just not your true skin color.’
I acknowledged this with a wave and started towards the town.
- - - - - - - - - -
It took me less than an hour to get to the town, but once I was there I wandered around until I found an inn. After renting a room for the night, I discovered, through a few inquiries, that the name of the town was Ashabenford. It was so named because of the river that flowed straight through its center. I also learned that the best place for maps was a scribe service, and that there was one a few streets over called Irigrim’s Quill. I decided to eat a small lunch and make my way towards it, noting the trade store on the way and resolving to stop on the way back.
I spent most of the rest of the afternoon in Irigrim’s Quill, learning about maps. I bought several maps that I would need, and Irigrim was happy to explain how to read them to me. He seemed to enjoy my company, so invited me to stay for supper, but I politely declined, saying that I still had to stop for supplies.
The sun had set when I left for the inn, stopping at the supply store on my way. I had come out the back of Irigrim’s shop, and took the road there. I soon realized that this road wasn’t the same road as the one I went to the scribe shop on. Indeed, the road was getting narrower and darker the further along I went, making me nervous. I’d never been in anything bigger than our tiny village before, hadn’t even been in the village by myself. I may have jumped at every noise in that alley, but nothing prepared me for when I was grabbed from behind.
“So, the little wench thinks she can freely walk through our alleys, does she?” The rough voice behind me growled. I was too terrified to move, much less reach any of my various daggers stowed on my person. My quarterstaff had been left at the inn. “Whaddya think we should do wit ‘er, boys?” The speaker slowly turned us around until we were facing a group of two or more men, both burly and carrying long, slim daggers in their hands.
“Le’s have some fun wit ‘er before we send ‘er on ‘er way,” one said, drawing his finger from ear to ear in imitation. The second man just grinned an evil grin and nodded. Fear inspired me to inch my hand towards my waist, but I didn’t have a chance to grab one before the man holding me threw me to the side of the alley, where I impacted with the wall with a sickening thud. I managed to slide down the wall, stunned, onto my stomach so that I could grab a dagger from a hidden waist sheath. I heard the men approaching me and prepared myself to jump and run.
When I did jump up with a dagger in one hand and assumed a fighting position, they just laughed and moved in closer. “We’s likes th’ ones tha’ fight,” said the one who had been holding me. The man who hadn’t spoken yet had moved quite close, and so he reached for me, only to be met with a dagger swipe as I tried to take his hand off. He only smiled, then seemed to sag as my other dagger found its way into his heart. This set the other two back a little, but they kept advancing. I rolled under the first man’s arms and came up behind him. He was a large man, and too slow to turn to block my dagger as it plunged into his back. I was now facing the remaining man, expecting him to act as the other two had, and keep advancing. But he had stopped and was staring at my face.
“D-d-d-drow!” he stammered. I then spied my circlet lying bright on the ground at the same time he turned to run. My heart sank. I knew what would happen if he escaped and spread the word about a drow wearing a silver circlet that was masquerading as a surface elf. Reluctantly, I drew out two of my throwing stars and threw them in the direction of the now running man. He fell before he reached the end of the alley.
Looking around, I decided that it wouldn’t do for the three bodies to be discovered. I picked up my circlet and put it back on, becoming once again the golden-skinned, silver-haired elf that hid what I truly was. Then I managed to drag all the bodies together, meaning to light them with magefire, which would simply burn the bodies and not light anything else on fire. But my hands were shaking too badly to cast the spell, so I ended up simply hiding the bodies behind the refuse on the edges of the alley. They would be discovered in several days when they started to smell, but by then I would be long gone, nothing but a memory. I retreated back the way I’d come, to the main road, where I headed straight for the inn, not even noticing that The Trading Post was closed. Dark had completely fallen by that time, and the only light was light from the houses of windows. I went right to my bed and fell asleep immediately.
My dreams were filled with rotting corpses and burning houses, and a bounty hunter with a throwing star in his skull cutting my ear off. By the time I awoke, I was bathed in sweat and not rested at all. There was no wolf to nuzzle me and tell me everything was alright, it was just a dream, and to go back to sleep.
When I woke in the morning, I felt like I hadn’t slept at all, but I forced myself to get up and get dressed I was glad to find that I had bolted the door and drawn the shutters before I had taken off the circlet but I didn’t remember it. I packed my things and left the inn to go to The Trading Post, where I bought more rations, some actual food, and flint and steel so I could start a fire without a spell. After paying and thanking the man, I left, heading straight out of town.
In less than an hour, I had reached the wolf pack. We traveled a bit, to the edge of the forest, arriving a few hours before dark, and setting up a camp just inside the tree line. I showed them the maps I had gotten, and the route I proposed we take. Everyone agreed, and we soon settled down for the night. After a little while, Nighthunter came over to me.
‘What’s wrong? Something has been bothering you since you got back.’ His straightforward questioning was comforting.
“I spent all afternoon yesterday in the scribe service,” I replied, proceeding to tell him of the night’s event. “I killed three men, and I wasn’t exactly happy about it. I had nightmares about them.”
‘Be glad you are not happy about killing two-leggers,’ came his wise reply. ‘They were trying to do you harm. The day you get pleasure out of killing and it ceases to disgust you so, then that is the day you become like your brethren everyone hates so much.’
“Thanks, packbrother. You always know how to make me feel better. I think I want to stay out of towns as much as possible from now on!” And with that, I rolled over and went to sleep.
My dreams were plagued with burning houses, my dad parents and packsiblings, and the rotting corpses of the three men I had killed. But, in the middle of the night I felt a cold wet nose on my cheek and a soft voice reassured me that I was safe, it was just a dream, and to go back to sleep. I was unaware of anything else for the rest of the night.
- - - - - - - - - -
Sunbeam, Stormwatcher, Nighthunter, and Lightfoot watched their half-elven packsister toss and turn in her sleep. ‘At this rate she will never get a good night’s sleep. I wish we could do something about the dreams, instead of reassuring her when she’s in the throes of one.’ Sunbeam spoke softly to the other three. ‘Montolio’s grove will block the dreams because it is blessed by a goddess, but she can’t stay there forever, and neither can we.’
‘We can’t speed up the pace any, either.’ Nighthunter was thinking out loud. ‘We’re wolves, though not quite normal. No horse would suffer to travel with us unless it was not quite normal as well.’
‘We will just have to wait, and see what the All Mother brings.’ Stormwatcher replied. There were nods of ascent all around, then the small group split up to sleep, all of them close to their packsister Shadow, whose two-legger name was Alyssa. She seemed to calm when they lay down aside of her.
- - - - - - - - - -
The next day we set out again. During the discussion the previous day, and while reading the maps, we had discovered our destination. Icewind Dale was above the Ten Towns, all the way up to the Spine of the World, over three hundred miles over land. The trip would be a long one, since there was no way to speed up the pace. No riding animal would tolerate the wolf smell; instinct would insist that they run from the scent of predator. Traveling by sea was out of the question, because the wolves were unwilling to leave me, and no ship’s captain would ever allow wolves on his ship, especially one that was part worg.
That night when we stopped, I asked Nighthunter why the pack had come with me instead of saying at home. He sat and looked at me a moment before answering.
‘Because we couldn’t. The townspeople would have killed any wolf that they chanced upon, and we would not have been able to stay so close to painful memories. Better to help our packsister find where she belongs, and then we will find a place as well, create our own niche from the wilderness. No other packs will ever accept us as part of theirs because you and your parents have changed us too much. We think more as a human than that of a wolf.’
“Oh.” I had never thought of it that way. His long speech almost had me stunned. In the wolf pack, emotions weren’t expressed in words, they were expressed in actions. This was the most I’d ever heard Nighthunter speak. “Thank you, Nighthunter. It means a lot to me.” He nodded once, then lay down beside me so that I could scratch his ears. I went to bed that night in the midst of wolves, and dreamed mostly wolf dreams.
The next day, I stopped the pack early for hunting. I went on my own hunt, looking for a particular bird. When I had finally killed the pheasant I was looking for, it was twilight. I carried the bird back to the campsite, lit a fire, and spent the next few hours cleaning my kill carefully under a witchlight. The meat I placed in a pile near the fire, some on a spit to cook. The bones big enough to be saved I cleaned very carefully and set in a pile next to me. By the time I was done, I had a pile of warm meat, one of clean bones, and a pile of beautiful feathers. The feathers I wrapped in a rag and put in my pack, carefully so they wouldn’t readily break. I cooked the meat thoroughly, wrapped the bones in a rag, and put them in my pack as well. I kept out one slender bone about the size of my smallest finger. Cupping it in my hands, I concentrated carefully, with a picture in my mind, and was soon rewarded with a small, bright white flame that engraved a word on the bone. I then pulled out three strands of my silver hair and braided them together, concentrating on them as well until they grew as thick as one of the leather thongs I use to hold my hair back. Threading the bone, which read Nighthunter, onto the braided hair, I held the ends together until they fused themselves seamlessly. I was left with a collar-like amulet that could be attuned to the wearer, wouldn’t break, and was almost weightless. I smiled to myself and went to sleep.
I made an amulet every night before I went to bed, for fourteen nights, until I had enough for each of the wolves, and myself. I made myself a bracelet, with both of my names on it, Alyssa and Shadow. The night after I finished the last one, I gathered the pack around the fire and gave them out. “These are for if we get separated. They attune to the one whose name is carved on the bone, the wearer. Each member of the pack will then be able to tell where the other members of the pack are when they concentrate. Likewise, you will be able to find me, and I you, the same way. They are nearly weightless, they won’t break, and they should be snug enough that the strands of hair are buried in your fur and won’t get caught on anything.” The twins were fascinated, each trying to grab their amulet. It was like watching a pup chase its tail.
‘How do we know if it is working?’ Moonlight asked.
“Go on a hunt. Concentrate on an individual, and you should be able to tell where they are as if they were within range.” So they did, briefly, each coming back with tales of success. I was pleased with myself. Even if the wolves never used it, I now had a way to tell where each of them was in case of an emergency.
Liam & Riona's
The Tree