The Bewitching Hour

✧ chapter fifteen: forest-full of friends

"Well, now it knows that we know," Lance says, and that alone seems strange. It indicates something with more intelligence than your average animal. Maybe it really is a monster this time.

Right as he says that, he catches a glimpse of something just barely in the distance, looking back at him briefly over its shoulder before it continues its retreat. Pidge almost screams. She does scream when Lance abandons the two of them to follow it.

"What are you doing?! Are you trying to get us all killed?!" Hunk yells after him.

To Lance's surprise, the two of them wait only a moment before they seem to steel their nerves and pursue him.

"I told you guys you're allowed to ditch me!" Lance scolds.

Neither one of his friends answer him. They stick to his sides as he marches through ferns. The thing he spotted is crouching, maybe hoping he didn't actually see it, but making no further effort to escape.

When Lance stops walking, he is directly in front of the supposed beast that has, supposedly, been stalking them. Only, Lance doesn't think it was doing that at all. Hunk grabs Lance's shoulder for support, nearly fainting at the sight of it up close.

"Dude," he says, which seems an inappropriate word for the occasion. "That's, like, literally a demon."

"It's not." Lance snickers, and the others look at him as though he's lost his mind. He crouches to face it, extending a hand. "C'mere!"

The thing looks at him, uncertain. Hunk and Pidge, too, of course.

What crawls very slowly from the bush it's hidden in is a wolf. Sort of. A pitch-black, enormous wolf with long bony legs, near-silent footfalls, and amethyst eyes. The very same herald he saw not long ago before he properly met Yorak in these very same woods. He feels silly for not having realized what it was right away.

"Lance. ...Lance! Have you lost your mind?!" Pidge hisses. Lance ignores her.

"Who's a good boy? C'mere! I won't bite, honest!"

The wolf obliges at last. It crawls forward just a bit further so that Lance can stroke its nose. Like Yorak's other familiars, it doesn't seem to know what it's supposed to be doing with the affection.

"They've never seen you before," Lance explains, "but they know your cat friend. Maybe Kitty mentioned them? They're alright, though, I promise. They're both with me."

"Is that... is that just some kind of messed-up dog?" Hunk asks, mouth hanging open. It acts more like a dog than a wolf, Lance thinks, so he's not far off.

The wolf stands up and retreats so suddenly that all three of the gathered humans jump. It conceals itself in the brush once more, and when Lance stands to try and find it again and apologize for having frightened it (or maybe having been too familiar too fast) he can't seem to see it anywhere. That thing really is sneaky. Its black fur is surely a great aid in blending into the night like this.

"...What does Yorak's cat have to do with—"

Pidge begins asking a very good question, from her position. But her words are cut off by her own shriek as she turns to face the other direction. She backs up, knocking into Hunk, who barrels further backwards and almost crushes Lance. He pushes past the two of them to see what has them both screaming bloody murder.

Just like last time.

The wolf vanishes, and then, from a different direction, its master appears— he must send it ahead of him to scope out the surroundings. Yorak looks quite agitated, but then, Lance would probably have a similar look on his face if he was greeted with this kind of weeping and bellowing every time he tried to talk to someone.