Lychaon's Curse Ch. 01

She winced, "Not exactly" He seemed like he was going to press further but his companions started standing and gathering their things, so instead he only nodded.

"Well, Natalie NotExactly- My good friend Prue will be happy to know that she can get a taste of the Old Delphinium even on the frontier," He stood and shook her hand, " Well I've kept my friends long enough and we have business. Perhaps we'll meet again. In fact, I'm sure of it should you choose to frequent the establishment. Good evening" and with that, he joined the group. Natalie watched them leave and shook her head. Odd. Just odd. She thought before turning her attention back to the stage.

Sometime later she made her way. Up the stairs and to her room, which was barely larger than the bed, but was fairly comfortable nonetheless and Natalie was able to get a good night's sleep. In the morning she paid for a roll and some coffee before collecting Nimrod from the stables and heading back to the ranch.

When she returned she found Nathan in front of the house with Cecelia hitched to a fence post. Both He and his horse were covered in blood and dirt, and the look on his face was one of pure fury. Natalie lept from her horse and ran towards Nathan, Nimrod trailing behind. Nathan was strapping a gun and ammo to Cecelia's saddle when she got close.

"Are you alright?" She asked. He nodded brusquely

"Blood ain't ours, we got hit again while I was out with the cattle. Bastard looked almost like a boar, crushed the head of a steer and gored another." He pinned her with a look, "I'm tracking that thing down and killing it. Can't risk it hitting the livestock again, or worse tracking them back here. You stay here and watch the ranch."

Natalie nodded, swallowing the bitter taste of fear as she took hold of Nimrod's bridle and led him back to the barn. Outside the doors" a little ways off to the side were the two cattle that had died. One had a long gash in its side, its entrails trailing from the wound. The other had a lump of flesh and bone where its head had been. Trying hard not to look any further she led her horse into the barn and set about getting him settled.

By the time she was done Nathan was mounted and waiting by the gate. Cecilia pranced restlessly as Natalie approached. "I should be back sometime tonight if anything unfamiliar approaches the ranch arm the defenses from the control room upstairs." He told her.

"What if you aren't back by tonight? Is it really safe to go alone?" He shrugged off the question.

"If anything bad happens to me the ranch is yours, I'll be fine though." And with that, he spun his horse around and rode off. Natalie watched him go until even the dust cloud was gone before going inside. The house seemed suddenly forlorn, the light filling the rooms accentuating the open spaces in a way that made Natalie want to hug herself.

She gave herself a firm mental shake before putting a kettle on the stove and set about tidying the house. Once her tea was brewed she settled down to read a book on the wildlife in the surrounding area. Sometime after the tea had grown cold and the shadows had started to grow long Natalie decided to start dinner; thinking to herself that Nathan was due back soon.

But he wasn't back by the time food was done, nor when the food had grown cold; and a deep-seated worry started to gnaw away at her from the inside. She knew Nathan had told her to stay home and watch for him. In fact, she kept repeating it to herself as she saddled Nimrod and rode after him.

Tracking Nathan to the scene of the attack had been fairly easy, as the dead steer had left large trails of blood in the sand, but after that, the ground was torn up and scattered in a large arc in front of her. Here Natalie rode around looking for clues until she found some tracks leading away, a large deep-set of cloven hoof prints and another, smaller set that looked like a horse. She set off after them, hoping the trail was more or less straight as the last bit of light faded from the sky.

Natalie and Nimrod walked along for some time, long enough for the moon to rise and for Natalie's eyes to get accustomed to the dark. Then Natalie noticed the pale coat of Cecelia glowing in the moonlight as she shifted her weight. As Natalie drew close she saw that Nathan had hitched her to a cactus at the bottom of a sand dune and gone ahead on foot. Natalie swung down from Nimrod and quickly set up his travel harness, and was about to look for another clue as to where to go next when there was an explosion of noise from just over the rise. Natalie crouched and started to make her way up the dune, keeping low and glancing around for a sign of Nathan.

She was moments from the top of the dune when a hand clapped around her mouth as she was pulled to the side. "Have you lost your mind?" Came Nate's furious whisper in her ear. Natalie squirmed away and faced him.

"No. Maybe. I had a bad feeling and followed you." Nate nodded slowly, before shaking his head.

"The desert is no place to wander around unarmed after dark."

"I'm not unarmed," Natalie pulled a revolver from the holster hidden under her skirts. Nathan rolled his eyes.

"Can you even use it?"

"Yes, Dad taught me the basics before he died," she said somewhat defensively. He snorted in disbelief.

"I bet he showed you how to ride too. Ah well. You're here now." He pointed towards the ridge, " followed the beast here when it got cornered by two wolves. Something ain't right. Keep your head down and follow me," with that he slowly made his way up to the rise. Natalie followed, lowering herself onto her stomach next to Nathan when she had reached the top.

Below them the dune fell off sharply, framing the battle taking place below them. In the center was the beast Nathan had described, tall as a man at the shoulder, sloping down to a diminutive pair of legs. However what caught Natalie's attention about it was the huge head with large, bony projections off the cheeks and the wicked set of tusks jutting from its jaw. Its eyes were flashing with rage as it spun in a little circle, trying to fend off its attackers. Pacing slowly around it were a pair of massive wolves. Even with their size, they were blindingly agile, working as a team to harry their prey.

First, the larger wolf, black and battle-scarred, would dart in and snap at the beast until it charged, while the other wolf, smaller and bright white, would snap at the legs from behind. The ground was already beginning to saturate with blood as paw and hoof tore up the earth. Natalie was propping herself up on her elbows when Nathan dragged her back down.

"Stay hidden and look" he whispered, nodding his head to the side. Natalie peered in that direction for a moment. Nothing but darkness in the darkness. Just when she was about to ask what Nathan was pointing at she saw it; the glimmer of a gun barrel as the person holding it shifted. As she continued to watch a smaller flash of light appeared, flickering in a short, repeating pattern. After a moment a similar light flashed from the other side of the clearing, a response from a second person. This time the white wolf caught the motion, its head jerking up and looking in its direction.

From their vantage point, Natalie could see that the animals had been surrounded, seven guns now raising in unison. Natalie felt something in her scream "You shouldn't be here!" as the little clearing became a hailstorm of bullets. All three animals dropped within moments. Next to her, Natalie felt her uncle reach down to the gun in her holster, but his eyes never left the scene.

As they watched the seven hunters came out of hiding and began looking at the dead animals.

"These aren't normal wolves," a feminine voice finally said. It took Natalie a moment to pair it with one of the hunters, who was pushing the head of the white wolf back and forth with the toe of her boot. "It's much larger, and look, this one has braids in its fur." As others came over to look Natalie lost track of who was who, as all of them were dressed in black from head to toe. They talked quietly to themselves for a moment before two of them broke off and left, while another walked over to the black wolf.

"I don't want the hassle of housing any extra beasts. We can take samples from that one. This one..." he trailed off as he loaded his weapon, "isn't needed." As he finished his sentence he emptied the gun into the black. By that time the two that had left returned with a cart that had a large cage on the back. One of the two wrapped a large chain around the legs of the boar-like creature as the other grabbed an axe.

Watching all of this Natalie was still swept up in the urge to flee, the feeling that she was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, seeing something she wasn't meant to see. Like her fate was being warped by the scene below. A scream built in her throat as the hunter with the axe approached the white wolf. Just then Nate grabbed her and pulled her back, blocking her view. However, he couldn't stop the sound- a wet thud of a sound, followed by a horrible noise Natalie couldn't bring herself to imagine. After some time Nathan's grip on her shoulder loosened as he slid next to her.

"They left. We're gonna sit here a bit before moving." She nodded and looked up towards the ridge again, thinking about how quiet it was now. Sometime later Nathan tapped on her shoulder and crawled towards the rise. Natalie followed, swinging her legs over and sliding down the dune to where Nathan was waiting.

Both of them looked around at the aftermath in silence. The beast that had attacked the livestock was gone, leaving nothing but a pool of mud made from the torn earth and its blood. Nate bent and dug up a small handful and deposited it in a small leather bag attached to his waist, before moving to look at the black wolf. Natalie, on the other hand, couldn't tear her eyes from what was left of the white wolf. They had taken its head, marring the perfect white fur with the same deep red on the earth. Something about it felt painful, to see such a beautiful creature mutilated. Natalie reached out and touched its fur, its silkiness passing through her fingers until she caught a braid that had been woven in and fixed with a bone bead. Natalie slipped it off the fur to examine. It was about the size of her first pinky joint and carved, with a deep purple stain in the grooves. Natalie reached up to her own hair and felt the hairpin her mother had left to her and felt another pang of sympathy. Who were you? She wondered.

"Nat, come look at this," Nathan's gruff tone pulled her out of her thoughts. She turned to see him also looking at the fur of the other wolf. She walked over, half expecting to see more braids and beadwork. However, this wolf had hair that was very short on its body, save for a long strip of hair over its shoulders. What Nathan was looking at instead was the bullets used on it. He pried one out of its skin and held it up to the moonlight.

"Look at this. It's not a bullet." He dropped it into her hands. Instead of a lump of warped metal, it was a small tube that narrowed down to a long needle-like point on one end and a plume of feathers at the other.

"What is it?" She asked. He bent to pull out another one.

"If I had to guess it was filled with something to knock out whatever it hit. What I want to know is who tries hunting something like that monster with these?" He pocketed the ones in his hand and looked around again, "We don't have the equipment to take anything big back with us but I think we have enough." He started back up the sand dune. Natalie started after him.

"Wait, why would we need to bring anything back? This doesn't involve us, does it?" They slid down the other side. As they unhitched their horses Nathan explained his reasoning.

" It might. People hunting strange beasts with bullets that don't kill? Makes no sense. And I've lived out here since before you were born- I've never seen anything like that," he was quiet as he mounted his horse, "Makes no sense at all. And I don't want none of it by my property."

After that they both fell into a brooding silence, each in their own thoughts. The sky was just starting to lighten as they got to the ranch. Natalie felt like every movement had slowed to a crawl as she settled Nimrod until she dozed off leaning on the horse as he nosed her. When Nathan was done with his Cecelia he gently shook her awake.

"Head on inside and wash, Ill finish up for you. Wait at the table for me when you are done." Natalie nodded and headed for the ranch. She took her time in the bathroom, making sure to scrub the sand and dirt out of her hair before changing into a simple nightgown. Luckily she didn't have to wait, as Nathan was already seated at the table when she was done. She sat across from him and waited, too tired to initiate the conversation. After a moment he spoke.

"I'm leaving the ranch to you for a week or so." Natalie sat up, her face forming a frown of confusion. She and her uncle didn't talk much but she knew enough to know the ranch was his entire world.

"What? Why? I would have thought that you would want to stay close by with what just happened." She said in a rush.

He held up a hand and shook his head. "I have to take the cattle to market soon anyways, and I want to take what I gathered, these darts and that bloody soil to an old friend at the University. I need you to keep the place from falling down while I'm gone." She nodded slowly, not liking the idea of being left alone.

"When are you leaving?" She asked. He stood and stretched.

"As much as I'd like to sleep a week I'm going to start getting ready now. I'll probably be gone before you wake up." Natalie didn't like it, but her protest was cut off by a yawn before she ever voiced it and was ushered upstairs and into bed within moments.

Sleep was not easy for Natalie. Her dreams were dark and bloody, a warped version of the night's events. First, she was sitting in the bloody sand next to the white wolf, the bone bead in her cupped hands. As she watched the grooves etched into it began to bleed, and soon the blood seemed to pour over her hands. Natalie dropped it with a cry and scooted back, but when she looked up she didn't see the body of the white wolf. Instead, she saw a naked woman, tall and athletic sitting before her. She may have once been beautiful, but it was hard to say with her hair matted in blood, head in her lap. The woman was staring at her with eyes that were very much alive, however, and was filled with sorrow. As Natalie watched she leaned forward, reaching for the bead. Natalie grabbed it and pressed into her hands and retreated, trying not to watch as the woman threaded the bead back into her hair.

"I'm sorry," Natalie felt the words fall out of her mouth and regretted them as soon as the woman looked back to her. She smiled a sad smile and waved her hands in front of her.

You have no reason for regret. The voice was the same as the scream she had heard at the clearing. Natalie shook her head, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

"I don't understand what's happening," she confessed. The woman lifted her arms again.

I wait to join my pack. I watch over my brother. Her eyes looked behind her, and she started to cry. My baby brother. He's in danger but I cannot help him now. The woman did make a sound then, her eyes widening as she shrieked a name. Natalie whirled around to see an axe raised over her head, light reflecting off its blade as it began an agonizingly slow descent. The last thing Natalie saw was the reflection of the black wolf charging towards her.

Natalie awoke with a blood-curdling scream, inhaled deeply and screamed again; hands clawing at her throat. It took her several moments of wide-eyed staring to realize she was safe in her bed, with light pouring through the window.

She leaped out of bed and raced down the stairs to the bathroom, where the clothes she had worn the night before were laying in the bottom of a hamper. Inside the pocket of her work tunic was the bead and the dart Nate had given her. She held them in her hands, turning them over, admiring the craftsmanship of the bead and the bright feathers on the dart. After a moment she took them upstairs and opened the chest at the bottom of her bed.

The first night she had been there she had used some glue to attach a small, thin box to the underside of the lid in such a way that it was all but hidden if you didn't know where to look. It was in this that Natalie placed the bead and the dart, sealing the box and closing the lid with a snap. Then she stood and gave herself a good mental shake.

It was just a dream. She told herself before she went about her daily chores. In fact, by the time she got through her chores- made easier by the absence of cattle in the barn- she had repeated the phrase over and over until it was more a mantra than a dismissal.

And yet her unease lingered, her eyes wandering to the patch of horizon she knew led back to the clearing. The final straw was when she realized that she had been standing in front of the compost heap, lost in thought, staring into the distance. The ghostly voice echoed in her head. My baby brother... With a start, she dropped the wheelbarrow that she had been using and headed back to the barn. Most of what she needed was already with Nimrod's harness, but Natalie found herself adding other things- the jars of ointment she used for Nimrod, a tarp and poles, and a satchel. With these gathered she readied Nimrod.

The ride out took less time than she expected, though it was harder to find the trail now that time had passed. However, she soon found the sand dune with the cacti at its base. Much like the night before she harnessed Nimrod and began the climb. When she reached the top she closed her eyes and gathered herself.

I'm going to open my eyes and it's going to look just like it did before, She thought to herself. With a sigh, she opened her eyes and looked below. At first, she thought she had been correct, the large body of the white wolf and the bloodstained ground- turning to a rusty brown in some places. But then Natalie realized the black wolf was gone. Cautiously she slid down the sand and landed in the clearing.

She turned her head from side to side, wondering if the darts had worn off. She doubted it, the masked hunters seemed to know what they were doing. But if he died from too much sedative where is he now? She wondered. Now that she was here and facing the dilemma she questioned if it was safe and why she was there at all.

Then she heard the groan, low and pained. Natalie circled the dead wolf, wondering if she was going to see the black wolf hiding in the shadows surrounding the clearing. Instead, curled up against the white fur of the dead wolf, was a naked man. She was so startled that she tripped over herself backing away. Once again she thought back to the nightmare.

"Her baby brother," she breathed. She stared a moment longer, unsure of what to do. Then she remembered the tarp and ointments she had brought. As she climbed the dune again she decided to shove the nagging unease she felt to the back of her mind. As quickly as she could she grabbed the tarp and ointment and circled around the base, using the poles to shove thorny brush to the side.

Once a path was cleared she went back to the man and, with some effort, rolled him onto his back. For the most part, he seemed uninjured, though he had scars all over- including a cluster of small dots on his shoulder. However he was deeply sunburned, his skin deepening from a tan to angry red in some places. Natalie grabbed the jar which held the ointment made from aloe and chamomile and scooped out a liberal amount with her finger and let it slide onto his shoulder, where the burns were at their worst. Gently she spread it, first working it down his arm and then up towards his neck.