Daughter of the Witch Wood Pt. 10

Min wasn't sorry to see her go. It was a temporary truce between them, one that Min knew wouldn't last. But for now, she hoped she wouldn't have to keep looking over her shoulder.

—

The wolf tribe marched through the day without stopping. Need and fear drove them, knowing that the bears were out there, somewhere, chasing them—bear-men noses weren't quite as sharp as those of the wolf-men, but the children of Kelash had left a wide trail behind them.

Erkin seemed receptive to the idea of making for the Basin, of the wolves choosing their own battleground. Min was relieved to hear it, but then it became a race to reach the Basin, to see if the wolves could reach it before the bears found them first. She wasn't a party to knowing just what Erkin had planned once they got there—Sergen told her that preparations had been made, that her mother and grandmother would tell her what to do when the time was right.

The tribe's good luck held. Min heard the waterfalls long before she ever saw them. The wolf scouts found a wide, fast-moving river and the whole tribe made for it. After they'd drunk their fill and quickly refreshed themselves, they followed the course upstream, heading for the sound of the crashing water that floated through the trees.

The sight of Bhalot's Basin was an impressive one: the huge stone rock near the top was its most prominent feature, but the falls themselves were wide, in multiple tiers of stone and rock; water fell over the cliff's edge, crashing into the wide pool below, before being swept away down the river.

But one mystery remained: what had become of the bears?

That mystery was solved, in part, when a great roar came from the direction of the falls. Several of the wolf scouts came running towards the tribe, moving so fast they seemed like colored blurs. Behind them came two bears, snarling and spitting, roaring at the sight of their enemies. They charged in spite of the danger of being severely outnumbered.

The sound of wolf-men shifting and changing shape from the front line was so loud that it made Min's teeth hurt. She was at the second line of marchers, accompanied by Sergen, her mother and grandmother and a number of other wolf-men. The third line held the remaining warriors, the human women and the children. There was shouting and screaming, the barking of wolves and roar of the charging bears, who never bothered to even slow down.

The fighting was over practically as soon as it began. Min had called on aku, standing ready to defend herself, but it wasn't needed—the wolves cut the bears to pieces, ripping fur and flesh, like ants pulling an animal apart piece by piece. But she could sense the beasts as they died, feel their anger and disbelief at being overwhelmed, and something about it felt wrong.

Erden must have seen her daughter's face, for Min blinked in surprise when she felt herself folded in those familiar, tender arms. "You don't have to watch, dearest," she said, starting to hide Min's face and turn her away.

"No, wait," Min said, pulling out of her mother's arms. She walked towards one of the bears, forcing herself to go forward in spite of how several of the wolves were biting and tearing into both of the huge corpses.

"Yasemin!" Sergen's voice sounded alarmed, and he ran forward to stop her. When he took her arm she didn't fight him, but the wolves seemed to take notice of her for the first time.

"These creatures." Min looked around, saw Sait nearby, at her mother's elbow. "They didn't act like men, didn't feel like men. They were animals." Her voice stumbled, not knowing how to explain herself. "They didn't change, didn't attempt to speak or surrender. They behaved like beasts. Do the bear-men always fight this way?"

"The children of Bhalot do not keep pets," Sait said, sneering at the dead bears. "Whether intelligent or not, these mongrels will only be the first to die."

Some of the wolf-men raised their fists in a shout, while others howled to heavens. Min shook her head as Sait turned away. There was no more time to talking—someone shouted up ahead, a man's voice almost lost in the roar of the falls. "Speaker! Chieftain! Come quick!" One of the wolf-men, his hair soaked from the pouring water, was waving his hands as he ran forward.

Erkin was walking up from the rear of the group. "What, what is it? Speak!"

"We found them!" the wolf-man said.

"Who, the bears?" Sait said.

"No, Speaker. Better." The man was grinning from ear to ear as he wiped the spray from his face. "We found their women."