Shadow and Memory

Part 2

He was at the base of the tower in moments and began to climb, using the deep folk who hadn't seen him coming like stepping stones. He climbed up to her in seconds, his great furred bulk taking up most of the space atop the tower.

"Wulfric!" She breathed in relief.

He snarled and jerked his head up, motioning for her to climb atop his back again. She did so without further discussion, and once she was secured he leaped from the tower. He landed heavily, feeling Carol slam into his back, but she was alright and he took off running, feeling her holding on for dear life.

They had broken free of the main mass of them now, though there were still some in their way. In normal circumstances he would have gladly bowled them over or dived through them, but they would certainly have pulled Carol from his back. He pelted forward, skirting around one group, surprised to see an arrow burrow into the chest of one. Carol it seemed was still shooting from his back. By luck or judgement her arrows were finding home even from his heaving back. Perhaps though it was simply the sheer number of targets she had to aim at.

A glance down showed him a horrifying sight. Hundreds of them at the least, pale eyes alight with anger, long limbs raised and shaking weapons, emerging out from behind every ruin and out of every hole, like ants emerging from a disturbed nest.

He looked away from the sea of pale bodies and began to climb, running up the switchback path that led towards the far distant exit. Carol shot away the last of the arrows into the great mass but it was as droplets into an ocean. Anything that got directly in their way was quickly removed. Wulfric batted them aside with his head, or grabbed limbs in his jaws and threw them out over the pit, not watching as they fell.

Closer, closer, he could taste the fresh air now, could scent the grass sand the trees. There were no more enemies now, he knew instinctively these things could not stand the light of the sun. Arrows smacked into the stone around them, fired in desperation or simple fury, but some of them came terrifyingly close. Then they were out of the chamber, racing up an uneven, seemingly natural tunnel, blazing light at the end of it which seemed to grow until it filled his entire vision.

Emerging out into the sunlight was like being born again. His paws landed heavily upon soft grass, all around him were trees and bushes. He thought he might cry or break into laughter at the sight of it all, the sunlight warming him as nothing else could, the world of proper nature welcoming him home, but he could not spare the time. He did not think the things behind him would chase after them now, but he would not take the risk. Carol clinging tightly to his back and laughing with relief, he raced off through the forest, leaving the tunnel and the horrors within it far behind.

It took them a further week of travel to get back to safety. Carol asked to be taken back to her home after that ordeal, so this was where Wulfric took her. They wandered through the forest until finding a road, and then asked directions. The travelers they had stumbled across seemed very eager to cooperate with an armed woman riding a giant wolf. He carried her on his back most of the way, though sometimes she asked him to walk at her side as a human so they could speak, discussing what had happened to them and theorizing about what it might mean.

When they reached her home and explained what had happened, Carol had left his side for a while, off to consult with her family about the whole event. It was odd to be alone after nearly two weeks of constant companionship, but it was made up for by the safety and comfort of her family Manor. He was allowed, to his surprise, to stay in a guest room, enjoying hot food and cleaning himself in the baths. It felt like it might take days to work all the grime out of his system.

After her long consultation, Carol had come back out, looking exhausted but faintly pleased.

"What are you smiling about?" Wulfric asked, looking from his plate of roast beef and cheese.

"Well, we found out who was behind all that. The kidnapping I mean."

He nodded, in truth the kidnapping that had begun this whole misadventure felt like a half forgotten dream. Not really important anymore. But he supposed Vaden nobility would be far more concerned with house to house rivalries than the revelation of a society of aberrant monsters living beneath their feet.

"It was Lord Hesskin, or one of his little princelings rather. He turned up to the meeting place sporting a fresh arrow wound in his shoulder, claiming that he'd witnessed me be killed by bandits on the road, who had injured him in the fight. My family was pleasantly surprised to see me turn up alive. I saw the Hesskin brat in the cave there at the end, gave him a parting shot right before we rode off into the tunnels."

Wulfric nodded, though in truth exactly what this meant was beyond him. Probably some complicated legal action which would in someway benefit Carol's house ten years down the line when the paperwork was all properly signed. But if it was good for her then he was pleased, at least some benefit had come from this whole mess.

"So we know he hired the mercenaries then?" Wulfric asked, feeling that Carol was quite enjoying telling her story of triumph.

"Oh yes, his family investigated his books and found he was short enough gold to pay for that. He'd wanted to force my family's hand by holding me captive, and he could have even used my death as a useful ploy as several treaties are bound only to my word and would be annulled if I died. I suppose he must have written us both off for lost after we went down those tunnels."

"That makes sense I suppose." Wulfric half lied, chewing on a bit of beef to give himself time to think. "What about the mercenaries anyway, have they been captured?"

Carol deflated slightly, and a bit of worry stole over her face. "Well. No. We sent some people out to investigate the cave where we were being held, but they were all gone."

"Fled?" Wulfric queried.

She shook her head. "Their gear was still there. Some of it anyway, things they wouldn't leave behind. Money, books, maps. But the mercenaries themselves were gone, and all their weapons gone too. Like they just all got up and left."

Wulfric paused, before he sipped his wine. He was distracted by a vivid mental image of a horde of pale skinned, long fingered killers silently stealing over the unwary mercenaries, dragging them down to the depths, looting their weapons for their own use. "Or were taken." He said, putting his cup down. He shuddered a little, thinking of that dark realm beneath the earth. Of the shattered memories of a bygone age swathed in eternal shadow.

She nodded with a sigh, then poured herself some wine. "Well, we were able to retrieve the payment that Hesskin gave them in the first place, and I've insisted that a good portion of it be given to you as a bonus." She beamed. "I think you've earned it."

Wulfric's ears perked up, and he smiled, raising his cup to meet hers. "I would hope so!" He laughed. She laughed with him, and sat down with him to continue talking. All in all, it hadn't turned out that bad, he decided.