Sisters Three (Completed)

7. Adair (2/2)

Adair didn't notice the wolf until Silver brought her to a jarring stop. She looked up to reprimand him but instead saw the flash of yellow eyes as a ragged wolf darted behind a boulder a few feet away.

"Did it see us?" she whispered, fingers tightening in Silver's hand.

"I think so," he replied, slowly backing toward the railing. Adair followed him, heart pounding in her chest. "Don't move fast. Maybe it won't want to bother with such big prey."

"Wolves don't travel alone, Silver," Adair said. "And, in case you've forgotten, there's no food anywhere around here. I think they'll bother with the only bit of meat on this mountain-side."

The wolf moved again, peeking around the edge and staring at them. It wasn't very large, but a pack of even just three would easily be able to overpower her and Silver. Adair drew her sharpened bit of rock and held it in front of her. A pitiful weapon, but at least it might give the wolf a reason to be cautious of approaching.

After a minute of stand-off, the wolf was finally joined by its pack mates. They scrambled down from the higher path, skidding to a stop in a semi-circle around Silver and Adair. Each was painfully skinny and shedding fur even though they needed it for warmth. They stared at the two humans with hunger in their eyes and hot breath puffing around their muzzles.

Silver edged in front of Adair, his arm outstretched across her chest and his head blocking half her vision of the wolves. A bit of annoyance struggled its way through her fear and she pushed him back to the side, leaving her front free. If she was going to be eaten by wolves, it might as well be while she was fighting. Nothing said failure like a cowering corpse.

The lead wolf broke away from the semi-circle and lunged forward. It didn't come within range of Adair and Silver, but close enough for them to get a very good look at the gleaming incisors in its red maw. It growled and barked, a sight far more terrifying than anything her old dog Eros had been able to do. She hadn't realized something that only came to her knee could be so vicious. Spit flew from its mouth at each bark and landed, smoking, in the snow.

"Off!" Silver shouted, waving his arms in an attempt to shoo the wolves away. It might have worked on a farm dog that was a little too zealous in its guarding of the land, but with this pack it was almost as if he had invited them to dinner. The whole semi-circle pressed in, forcing Adair and Silver to lean farther onto the railing. Adair risked a quick look over one shoulder and immediately whipped her head back around when she saw the dizzying height of the drop on the other side. Either be eaten, or dashed into a powder on the rocks. A tough choice. Adair tried to calculate which would be more painful, but she was interrupted when the first wolf finally lurched forward for a real attack.

Adair screamed and dived to the right, just narrowly avoid the snapping jaw of the wolf. It did catch her cloak and she came up short as it yanked backward. Her feet flew out from under her and she landed on her hands and knees, panting heavily as the wolves scurried to take their advantage. Silver tried to reach her before the animals, but he only had enough time to kick at the wolf on her cloak before the pack had descended on her.

White teeth and red tongues filled her vision, and Adair's arms flew up to block them. Knowing her life would be over in a second more, she opened her mouth and shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Stop!"

It was silly, really. They were not trained. They were not humans. Her words meant as much to them as a deer bellowing in distress. Yet they stopped. And they stopped as if they had been turned off. They weren't dead, or even frozen, just stopped in their tracks and looking at her with cocked heads.