Just an Old Legend Ch. 11

That plan evaporated as another quick glance showed him gaining fast. She couldn't believe how he could run. He hadn't even changed into the pure wolf form for the speed as she'd hoped he would. She'd been counting on that, since it ought to give her an advantage in mental horsepower.

She made the trees and hid for a moment beneath the bushy lower boughs of an evergreen to get some wind back. A second later, he flew right past and kept going. Lia smiled and shifted position. The aromatic needles would cover her scent and she'd just wait for him to backtrack.

But he didn't do that.

Ten minutes later, Lia began to follow him. The trail led her to a rocky depression near the shore. His scent just vanished. She looked everywhere, even up in the trees, but came up empty. It was as if he'd just jumped into a hole and was gone. She got her nose down to recheck.

There was a faint trail on the rock. It led her to a pool right at the shoreline. The pool opened outward behind some branches toward the channel.

Had he just swum away?

She crouched and peered through the branches. The water here was calmer than outside, but it still bore the ripples of the autumn wind. She wondered where he could go if he'd jumped in here to swim away. She looked down into the darkness there.

After a second, she thought she could see two slightly brighter narrow lines. Lia leaned down just a little to see if they were only reflections and felt the sharp point and gentle burn of silver just touch her under her topmost breasts.

Her eyes opened wide in realization, but she knew that it was already too late. If he pressed hard, she'd be skewered.

Lia jumped backward as he shot upward out of the water. She landed hard on her backside twelve feet away. He tore off the way that they'd come. Scrambling to her feet, she ran after him. As he ran, he changed to human form to shed the weight of the water in his fur, and then changed back through the wolf-man to the wolf. He didn't even miss a step and just accelerated away. Lia realized that she had no chance to catch him now even if she followed suit and changed form. She slowed to a stop.

She chuckled anyway about a couple of things. That she was still alive was the big one. If he'd really wanted to, he could have killed her easily. That he hadn't killed her just reinforced her idea that he was in this potentially deadly game for the fun of it. The second thing made her grin. For just a second, she'd had a perfect view that had made her failed attempt worthwhile.

She thought he had the nicest ass that she'd ever seen on a male werewolf anywhere.

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They played this all day. Lia would try to gain control of the game, and he'd take it back sooner or later. She was growing raggedly tired, but whenever she started to flag, he would somehow appear tantalizingly nearby for just a second. He didn't do it every time, but he seemed to know just when to laugh or chuckle quietly. It always got her blood up and she'd be back in the game once more. She realized a several things from it.

He appeared to be able to do this forever. He made it look effortless and showed no sign of getting weary before sometime next week.

The one time that she'd caught him in trees, he'd simply knocked one flat between them, tore out a smaller one before she could blink, threw it at her with a grin and was gone as though it was nothing to him while she'd had to dodge it. So her earlier estimation of his power from what she'd seen of his build had been incorrect.

He was far stronger than that.

Though he'd always laughed good-naturedly if she was on top, she knew that if it ever came down to a last-ditch effort on his part, he'd be a murderous opponent.

Finally, the last thing made her grin and shake her head in open admiration.

She was having a really great time chasing him.

There were usually about twenty Kaze hunters at any one time. Lia was by far the best of them and he was making her look like a fool with ease. She knew that he'd have some home-field advantage, but even if she allowed for that, he was plainly giving her the most challenging hunt of her life.

She looked down and stopped for a moment. What the hell would she do if she actually cornered him with no possibility of escape for him? Males always went down fighting if they were not complete cowards. It was rare, but she'd been in some fights that had torn her up pretty badly before she got the upper hand or they'd made their final mistake.

He hadn't made any yet, and she wondered if he could be brought down at all. It might take all twenty of them, and she'd still be hesitant to give great odds of their success after what she'd seen today.

Before she could really begin to chew on that, to her slight surprise, she came upon her own footprints walking toward herself, and there next to them were his footprints leading away. She began to follow and turned off when he had. It led her to a flat stone surface on the top of a rock outcropping. There were some old evergreen trees around it like sort of a tree ring with two entrances.

She could see the water beyond that, and just past the crest of the rock, she saw the top of a dark shape. She crouched and walked cautiously forward. Thoroughly on edge now, she took her time and was careful not to look directly at the shape. If this was her quarry, she didn't want him to sense her glance on him. Another few slow steps and she wanted to curse.

There on the rock before her sat her knapsack. She looked around, and waited a full minute until she was sure that she was alone. Finally, she stepped over and snatched it up in disgust.

The now-missing weight of the knapsack allowed the thin rope underneath to slide away to the side and disappear out of sight. Lia jumped back, clutching her pack - right into the path of the old broken piece of tree trunk which now came swinging at her.

She wound up on her ass.

She sprang up and grabbed the pack and her sword with lightning-fast motions. This was going from bad to worse to just awful. She couldn't believe that she'd fallen for something as simple as this. Though she stood ready, there was no threat, - nothing coming at her. If she'd put something like this together, she'd have followed it up with a second surprise to complete the confusion before stepping in for the fight against a disoriented opponent. There was nothing at all here that she could see. She was disgusted with herself.

She felt even more disgust at herself when she noticed him standing there, leaning with his right shoulder against the trunk of a tree with a soft friendly smile. She stopped and glared at him across the space of perhaps twenty feet. She set her pack down and held the sword in a two --handed grip.

At least he wasn't laughing.

If she had set an opponent up this way, she'd have made sure to laugh just to goad them. He just looked surprisingly relaxed and wasn't even giving her a hint of the satisfaction that she'd have felt if their roles were reversed. Lia stared at him.

He was a beast. All that she could see was serious muscle wherever her glance went on him. He was completely relaxed, but his build and obviously great condition told her that silver sword or not, this fight -- whenever it happened -- was going to be a cast iron bitch. Her own strength and condition might slow him -- just maybe -- but if anything could get her through, it was going to have to be her speed and technique.

She willed herself to be still and forced her rage down deep. She had to gain some control over this situation. Putting just a little sad honey into her voice, she asked him if he was satisfied now.

He still smiled, but shook his head.

"No. There can be no satisfaction for the one who is hunted. At best, the hunted one survives. But I have enjoyed the chase. I had the chance several times, but my respect and my curiosity would not allow me to kill you any more than why you did not press the advantage against me the times when you had it."

He bowed his head to her very slightly while keeping his eyes on her as a precaution. "I admire your courage and persistence."

Lia was surprised by his civility and obvious respect. She even felt a little charmed by the open smile that he'd said it with.

The smile faded only a little as he added, "By the way, I do not consider that either of us has won the game yet. "

There he'd said it.

He'd confirmed what Lia had wondered all along. Though she'd come prepared to kill an adversary if she had to, with all of the weapons that she'd need to kill that adversary six ways from Sunday in any of perhaps twelve different proven approaches ...

He'd only been playing with her, and had likely been in complete charge of this despite what he'd just said to the contrary.

He tilted his head, "I wonder who this beautiful she-wolf is who comes here for me. I just live quietly here alone. Now I have a werewolf after me, one who by her weapons and skill shows me that she is experienced at hunting what we are."

"Do we hunt each other as trophies now? I would like to know what I have done to deserve this attention though I have to thank you for this. I have enjoyed it so much. I would even like to play it the other way around with you, but I guess that you are not here to play at all by the way that you look at me. Would you please tell me why? "

Lia didn't relax a muscle. She was prepared now for anything, but she smiled a little coldly, "I guess first off, I'd like to know where Ms. Helen Patterson is, the author who wrote the book about you."

She heard one quiet chuckle from him, "You speak as though you are not the one with a sore backside here."

He shook his head a bit sadly, "I asked you a question first, and all that I get is an angry question from you in return. If you keep going this way, I will only begin the game again, and this time, I will play it a lot harder. We will see how the huntress feels as she runs for her life."

He stepped away from the tree and brought his right hand out from behind it. Lia stared at the shotgun's double muzzles rising to settle in a steady point at her chest.

"The one from the book," he said with a bright smile, "It's as though the little story springs to life before you, isn't it?"

The smile disappeared, though he maintained a slightly friendly expression. "To answer you and, I hope, begin a civilized conversation, I do not know where Elena is. I think she is off signing copies of her cursed book somewhere. She left a week ago in her wooden launch. We have not spoken for three weeks now."

Lia tilted her head, "Why?"

"Why what?" he asked, "What are you asking me, why we haven't spoken or why she left? She left to make more money from my life. We haven't spoken because I no longer wish to speak to her. Why are you asking this?"

"I came to make sure that she was alright, -"

"Ah," he said, interrupting as his friendly expression faded, "you want to make sure that I have not killed her. You - a werewolf yourself, and you care about her while you hunt me?"

He laughed, "This gets better as it goes along. I would not hurt her in any way. I only want her to leave me alone."

He looked her up and down, perhaps sizing her up as though he might have missed something, puzzled why one of their kind would hunt another.

"So, you are here for her welfare? I heard your comment when you thought that you were alone. You spoke limba română. You have come a long way. It is quite a journey for only the welfare of a writer who has never been to Romania."

His left hand let go of the shotgun to flick out and back, and there was a flash of silver in the air between them. Lia dodged a bit as a throwing knife thudded into the tree behind her at about the height of her heart. She looked back as the thin rubber covered haft of it vibrated there and she groaned.

It was one of hers.

"You know then that I have four more like this," he smiled, "You have such well-made toys. At the barn, you said that you are not here to hurt me -- yet you are armed with weapons such as these. Can we please come at last to my questions? I now want some answers that make sense."

He was right, she realized. Beside anything else here, she'd been rude. "Of course," she nodded as she tried to sound professional, "Please let me apologize for my rudeness and also for asking about her before asking about you. I needed to know if she was alive or if you had killed her. It changes things."

"What does it change?" he asked. "You hunt me like this without knowing if she is alive. If you found her dead, it would make you, ... chase me harder? You make little sense,"

She shook her head, "Her being alive or not is only a condition, a signpost for me. What is most important, ... I came here to see if you were sane and if you were, I hoped to find you well-adjusted here."

He snorted, "Sanity. What good is it if what I think does not fit the madness that my life has been? You are sane only if you fit to what you perceive. Look around you and imagine yourself here with what has happened to me. There is no sanity here in the winter when the wind screams and there is nothing to eat and nowhere to go. I rub snow on my skin to scrub off my stink because I cannot bathe, and then I shiver in a hole in the frozen dirt and hope to sleep. What good is it to be sane then?"

"And look how well I am adjusted, as you say. I am always being adjusted, even if I don't want it. My life here has been a grand and never-ending ball of dancing and laughter. You have read her book, no?"

Lia nodded, hoping vaguely. She found herself holding her breath as he exhaled heavily. She tried to see if he was giving her an unwitting opening, but the dark bores at the end of the shotgun didn't move a hairsbreadth in his fur-covered hand. The muzzles hung there in the air waiting.

"Well then I can say that it is much as it was, my life here. Except for the ending. The book has a happy ending. For Elena."

"My life has only more of the same long pain for me. I came to farm and make a home. My wife adjusted my life by killing my cattle and my workhorse. I worked like a dog for money to buy silver and this gun to keep her from hunting people. She adjusted me with her bite. The men around here adjusted my land and my home away from me since I could not tell them what had happened. Who would believe me? I was so adjusted that I ate mice and bears and even a skunk in my happiness and joy. Then Elena came and adjusted me again."

"The only adjustment that I want is to be left alone, since I cannot go anywhere else but this prison. Now you come here with weapons and talk foolishness about NOT wanting to kill me." He shook his head slowly.

"My face hurts with all this happy laughing."

His expression changed and Lia could see that it showed just a hint of sorrow, "How sad is my life that being chased now by a lovely wolf-girl with a silver sword is the most enjoyable day that I have spent in over seventy years?"

He chuckled, "You thought I was going to run out and sniff where you made water?"

His laugh suddenly turned bitter, "Females of any sort have brought me only pain in one way or another. I have no use for more pain. I have no use for anyone anymore. I trust no one. Elena kept me as a pet or something. She thinks that I am stupid. With her last breath, my wife told me that I am a fool."

His smile turned inwardly bitter as he looked down just a little. "I must be one, I think. Everyone else cannot be wrong."

Neither of them spoke for a minute as the wind blew coldly. Lia found her desire to exploit any chance fading from her. Whoever this was, she thought, here was one whose heart felt the same cold wind that chilled her own and she knew that for him, just as for her -- that wind never ever stopped. It might drop off a little for a time, but it was always there.

His voice softened to a sad and quiet tone, "So please, ... tell me now, ... am I adjusted enough for why you came here?"

Lia found that she had no words for him as she felt her shoulders slump slightly. If wild and solitary werewolves were sane when discovered, it was usually a joyous meeting.

It wasn't supposed to go like this.

His eyes suddenly burned brightly as he looked at her with defiance. "You say one thing, but your sword there says something else to me. If it is really what you came here to do, then do what my wife and Elena have never done and just speak the truth to me. I deserve that at the least. Be honest and tell me that you have come to kill me."

He looked away for a moment in obvious pain, fighting to maintain his composure when clearly he wanted to do something else which would show how he really felt deep inside.

His gaze came to her again, and he spoke through his teeth, struggling to keep the sob that he felt from escaping.

"Say it now so that a fool like me can understand it plainly. If you do that, maybe I will let you make the last adjustment to me with your sword now. You can go back to your home with your trophy. I am so tired of being this happy."

Her eyes narrowed their focus to the single tear that rolled from his cheek. His next blink would send two more

Lia was torn. She now knew what she'd wanted to find out, she was almost certain of it. Yet he was so bitter that his glare felt almost like a slap. She found that she had no rage left anymore.

He hadn't meant what he'd done to belittle her. He'd done it to force a pause in the hunt so that they might speak to each other. She suddenly felt only profound sadness.

"I've gotten this all wrong," she said a little distantly, "I came here for several reasons. I am afraid now that you won't even listen to me if I try to explain the other ones to you because of how badly I started this. I found nothing recent about this woman, and I just assumed the worst. That is usually how I find that these things have gone. But you aren't like the others that I often find. You're very different."

He watched as she sheathed the sword and stepped away from her pack.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I want you to know that I enjoyed this game as much as you did, and I want to talk with you about that later, if we could. But for now, what I want very much is to be able to begin again the way that I really should have done it," she said as she opened the clasps of the scabbard. She took it off and set it down on the rock between them, and then removed the sheathed dagger to place it down as well.

She stood before him, facing him empty-handed.

"Alright then," Lia said, "I will speak the truth to you -- if you think that you can believe me. I really didn't come to kill you, though I was very prepared to, and I have handled this all wrong. I want you to see something by this," she said, indicating her weapons.

"I need to speak with you without these things getting in the way. I have two tasks. If we hear of a werewolf who is barking mad and killing humans, someone like me is sent to kill them. We do our best to live hidden among humans so that we all can benefit. Crazed werewolves draw attention to us. It was my mistake here. You are not one like that. I am very sorry for my assumption." She bowed her head for a moment and then continued.

"If we hear of a werewolf who is unknown to us, we look to see whether they live well and quietly. We offer help if we can. That is what I want to do for you as well, if you would let me. I have so much to tell you. I can't do that if we only stand like this, and, ... there is something else, something that we both need to be sure of. I'm not speaking for the federation who I work for now. I speak only for myself and for you. This Patterson woman, you are not - involved with her now?"

He wondered about all of this, but shook his head, "I was, but, ..." He shrugged. "We were close at first, but I caused the start of our trouble when I refused to bite her. Elena said that I was keeping a gift from her, and it got worse from this point. Much later, I saw that this book only made her richer. The things that she promised me never came. That is not the hardest part to bear for me, but it is a part. I am now sorry that I let her see me at all. She was sorry after I left, but it is only for a time. If I went back, this would all begin again. She would demand that I bite her, and I would refuse. I do not see this as having a gift, do you?"