These Broken Hands

Chapter 4

The edge of town let out into a wild field marked by a path taken by carriages. The path seemed to go on forever and Aela wanted very badly to explore it. Yuin took out the piece of paper and looked around for the meeting place written down. A watering hole about a mile from the town.

Yuin turned to Aela and put the paper away. "It will be a long walk to the meeting place. Can you make it?"

Aela was about to say something when she noticed the ground shifting a few feet away. She stared with wide eyes at what she believed to be two eyes looking directly at her. Yuin turned to see what she was looking at and caught a glimpse of something big running away. "What was that, faxi?" Aela asked, utterly mystified.

"It looked like a wolf," he said. "It might be the other Shiera. Wait here." He ran after the animal.

Aela tried to call after him but it hurt her throat to yell so loudly. Yuin ran as fast as he could and within a few minutes he was able to see the watering hole. It was less than a mile away. He slowed until he stumbled forward and fell to his knees, panting heavily.

When he looked up, two soft brown eyes stared at him from a distance, low in the grass. He slowly lowered himself to the ground and crawled toward it. "I mean no harm."

The animal raised its head and he stopped moving. Their eyes met and he could tell it was no ordinary wolf.

"Are you a Shiera?" he asked softly.

It stood and started to back away, growling in warning.

"Are you waiting for your friend?"

The wolf stopped growling and its ears perked. "Your friend was taken by guards. I came to tell you it is not safe here."

The wolf lowered its head and its back began to swell. It became more humped and wider while its arms shed the autumn colored fur and doubled in size. Yuin could not move as he watched the bones in its face reconstruct to a rounder, more human-like appearance and the legs snap back into place so that the creature could stand.

Looking at him with the same striking brown eyes was a girl with hair as wild as the mane of the wolf. Her skin was as dark as the wolf's black fur. She wore a fur kuip under a dirty cloak and sandals with a four inch sole. She breathed heavily as she looked down on him.

"You know where Kyunho is?" Yuin nodded. "Your people have him?" He nodded again. "Then you will take me to him."

Yuin got to his feet and knocked the dust from his pants. "If you go into town, they will take you too," he said. "I came to tell you what happened so you would leave before they came to get you too."

She narrowed her eyes. "I will not leave without Kyunho. I cannot leave without him."

Her presence was just as threatening as the other's even though she was considerably smaller.

"I do not know what they plan to do with him, but you cannot go rushing into town. I will try to find out what is going on and bring him back to you."

The girl crouched into a dog-like sitting position. "Why are you trying to help me? I did not ask for your help."

"Well, you will need my help to get him back."

She sneered. "That's what you think. I will get him back myself."

"That is not a good idea."

She stood close to him and folded her arms. "I am not hard of hearing. I understand the danger of going into human territory but he is my pequam and we have sworn to stay together until the end of our journey." Her stomach growled as she spoke. "It has also been a day since I have eaten. Kyunho was supposed to come back with food..."