Wolf Child

XII

The bushes led to a grass patch, separated by the veil, the misty veil blurred what was on the other side, but they could still make out the silhouette of a woman dressed in old fabric playing a flute. Ferhia glanced at Kilfer, who swallowed anxiously. They did not know who was that, but the fact that she is on the other end of the veil (which, in short, meant that she is in the boundaries of the Swamps) meant that she is not a normal human as they were.

Between the duo and the woman was simply a few metres, but between them was the veil, the separation between living beings and the dark forces. The tension swelled to a deafening crescendo and they did not move, but instead the woman stopped mid-note, and placed her flute on the stone she sat on, and turned.

Time was stagnant to Ferhia for a moment until she faced them. Her features were just like the normal woman they saw, but something seemed so different about her, they did not know. Something that was so subduing that made Kilfer want to walk past the veil towards her. Kilfer frowned, and turned towards Ferhia. She seemed to have lost her consciences, blindly staring forward, taking slow, shaky steps forward lije being controlled.

Kilfer turned back. The woman smiled, her lips curling upwards slightly. "Come, come to me," The woman's voice echoed, "Come and I shall give you what you want. Parents, right? You do want parents, yes? Then come forth, your parents are here waiting for you."

"Stop!" Kilfer let out a burst of magic that sizzled through the veil to the woman, and she was thrown back. For a moment, her face changed into a four fanged, ten eyed monster with limbs as long as ten feet with spines from its back that stretched out from its bony body at grotesque angles, and Ferhia finally jolted back, bewildered.

"Who are you?" Kilfer took a step back as the devilish creature inched forward.

"You need not know, mere mortal," It placed a bony palm on the veil, "But halt. How do you have magic with your blood? What do you seek? Monies? Power? Glory? I have them all." It studied Kilfer for a moment, before grinning, its bony cheeks flicked upward, "Or the Pack, alive?"

That caught both Kilfer and Ferhia by shock, and Kilfer unleashed a pounding blow of magic directly slamming into the creature right through the veil. The creature tried to ise its own magic, but no matter how hard it tried no magic could reach Kilfer.

Silently, it bounded back, deep into the Swamps and Kilfer knelt on the muddy soil, his face expressionless. Or the pack, alive?  The words revolved in his mind, the temptation he tried so hard to forget but just could not.

"Kilfer," Ferhia spoke beside him, "Don't listen to it, the Pack is..."

"No, you don't understand," Ferhia could see tears in Kilfer's eyes, no matter how hard he tried to conceal it, "I had a dream, so surreal. That the Alpha is coming for me. It's red eyes of an assasin... I can even visualize it now..."

Kilfer's voice trailed away, and Ferhia let out a deep sigh, not because of the dream or the creature, but because of Kilfer. She loved him as a brother, even though they did not speak to each other often she still could not bear to see his heart punctured with sorrow and grief.

"Let's go," Kilfer finally stood up, "If the Alpha wants to kill me, or is manipulated to kill me or anything, let it be the case. I shall face anything to avenge the Pack."

***

They ventured through the veil, which was thicker than they expected, and as soon as they passed it a pungent smell took over their senses, those of rotting meat and flesh while everything was in a chaos, winds threatened to hurl them into the air and ripped into shreds, and bats and remnants of trees (which mostly were left with tree barks and probably one or two brown leaves) filled the place, the ground trembled and shook as if it were alive. Ferhia did not know how Kilfer thought, but to himself this should be the exact resemblance of hell.