Page 12 of Dragonbound

She cried great, hacking sobs. Arrow slid up to her and pressed her flank against her. Sereh pulled the warm wolf’s body towards her and cried into her white, grey and black fur.

After what seemed a long time, her grief quietened. Arrow looked at her with sorrowing yellow eyes and curled on her lap, as much as a full-grown wolf-dog could, anyway. Sereh’s stomach rumbled. She hiccupped an embarrassed laugh, even though Arrow didn’t seem upset by her grief.

‘We need to eat,’ Sereh muttered, just to hear the sound of her voice.

Pulling open Erann’s backpack, Sereh extracted another pot of curdled blood and more peat cakes. She stood, unsteadily, and walked to the glowing heatstone. She pulled up some very dry animal bedding from the corner of the annex to make a pitiful fire. It would do to warm the curdled blood, and then she’d sleep. She didn’t want to risk going outside for wood or turf from the burnt remains of the steading. It was too dark, and fear the ravaging wolves would return kept her inside.

The evident presence of the wolves was a worry. It was rare for them to come close to where people lived. Normally, they kept to the colder, less accessible Odedahraun range and fended for themselves there. If they’d come all this way to forage, there could be no food for them in the Odedahraun range. That meant the wolves were desperate for food, while it appeared Estrith and her family had also most probably starved to death. Why was food in such short supply?

Her meal was barely warm but she could wait no longer. She and Arrow ate quickly and silently, Arrow licking her share from one of Erann’s wooden beakers. Sereh found it hard to chew the peat cakes, even when dipped in the curdled blood. So much had changed since she’d last eaten. Now she found herself forcing the food down and purposefully didn’t think of what it had looked like when it’d come back up again earlier.

Arrow didn’t share her despair. She happily munched through her meal, before curling up next to Sereh, ready to sleep. Sereh stroked her wolf-dog affectionately. She’d fed well that day. The last few days had been hard on her, as used to deprivation as she was. Rankil had treated his wolf-dogs poorly, even while he relied on them to hunt down small animals to feed the cookpot. While during the Long Day, Arrow had happily slept outside, as winter set in, he only allowed them to sleep inside the tunnel of his steading, claiming they needed to keep away from his herd beasts.

But then he always was cruel, Sereh thought.

She forced down the last scraps of food, pulled the fur from her backpack and settled down to sleep on the hard wooden floorboards. She was certain she wouldn’t be able to sleep, her mind too full of all she’d seen today, and yesterday. But, in only a few heartbeats, her eyes fell shut, and she fell into a welcome dreamlessness.

7

SEREH

A scrabbling noise jolted Sereh awake from a deep sleep. Her heart thundered in her chest from some disturbing dream or simply from being so rudely awoken. Blinking, she focused on Arrow standing in front of her, upright and rigid, yellow eyes glowing angrily. She’d no idea what part of the night it was, but she couldn’t have been asleep for long. Her eyes were burning, heavy and itchy.

Sereh suspected what had woken her. As a howl split the night, her worst fears were confirmed. The wolves were back.

She scanned the small room desperately, her chest growing tight as panic threatened to consume her. The dying fire provided the only light, a faint orange glow emitting enough illumination with which to see. But the wooden door held firm. There were no sounds coming from immediately outside the annex. Hopefully, the wolves had returned to the steading, where they knew a meal awaited them – but there was no way to know without going outside herself, and she had no intention of doing that.

She spotted a ladder to the left that disappeared into the darkness above. A loft? She pushed herself up and crossed to it, making as little noise as possible.

She tested the bottom two rungs with her sealskin boot, then risked climbing upwards. The loft was small, just big enough for her and Arrow. Arrow stood, immobile, a low thrum of menace coming from her.

‘This will have to do,’ she whispered. She lifted the backpacks up to the loft quickly, the weight pulling at her tired arms, then she scurried back to the ground floor.

Arrow stood where she’d left her, growling softly, her tail rigid, keen for a fight, or so Sereh suspected. But she couldn’t allow it. She needed Arrow, and from the howls outside, Sereh knew there were more wolves than Arrow could face down alone.

‘Come with me.’ Sereh grabbed her roughly by the neck and pulled. Arrow resisted, glaring at the door, refusing to move. Sereh could feel the thrum coming from her body. Memories of when Arrow had been wounded bubbled up, and that had just been from a fight with the other dogs. She couldn’t allow that to happen again.

‘This way. Now.’ She tried for firmness, but it was hard when she couldn’t raise her voice any higher than a murmur. Sereh placed herself between Arrow and the door and pointed towards the ladder. Her reward was a baleful look, unwillingness streaming from the wolf-dog, ears alert to sounds beyond her own hearing.

‘Come on. Up the ladder,’ Sereh whispered, angry now, her legs shaking with fear. Was that the noise of the wolves coming closer? Were the wild animals now stalking her and Arrow? And still the damn wolf-dog continued to ignore her.

‘Fine.’ Sereh huffed, bending to heave the large wolf-dog over her shoulder, as she’d done when Arrow was once too weak to walk. ‘I’ll carry you then.’ The wolf-dog was heavy, and Sereh staggered, but she was determined.

She wasn’t leaving Arrow alone to face her wilder kin.

With shaking legs, and a lot of wolf-dog fur in her mouth, making it hard to breathe, Sereh staggered up the ladder. By the time she reached the top, she was out of breath and trembling. Arrow slipped out of her grasp as soon as her legs drew level with the raised surface, and, with as much dignity as she could manage, stalked away from her. But she didn’t try to jump back down. Sereh hauled herself up the last rungs and turned, grabbing the ladder to pull it up beside them. She was taking no chances. She collapsed in a heap on the loft floor.

Arrow looked at her darkly in the distant glow from the heatstone, which remained down below. Sereh felt no remorse. There was too much wild wolf in Arrow – she’d want to confront the other beasts, and Sereh couldn’t let that happen. She was all she had left.

The single, solitary howl from earlier was joined by a cacophony of others. Sereh trembled, clinging to Arrow’s stiff, solid form.

It was going to be a long night.

8

SEREH

Sereh woke, stiff and cold. Arrow was awake but quiet at her side, keeping her warm as best she could, and Sereh ran her hand over the wolf-dog’s nose, earning herself a lick from Arrow.