35

Jason seriously couldn’t believe his luck. Had he seriously survived being face-to-face with the Kraken only to be devoured by a pack of wolves in the middle of a frozen waste land. At least the Kraken would’ve eaten him whole. But he seemed to be the only person freaking out in the slightest. Jaye and Barine were drawing weapons he didn’t even know they had out of their bags and from inside their clothes while Zemar looked at him weirdly. When he locked his gaze on her, she stepped over to him and spoke in a low voice.
“I cannot keep the forcefield over the entrance of this cave for much longer but when I bring it down, I can still make one small enough to protect you,” she looked at him, gold eyes swimming with sincerity, “we will be fine. Barine, Jaye and I are trained warriors. But I need you safe.”
Jason’s pride was bristled once again. He wanted to be able to find alongside the rest of them. He found it grossly unfair that he couldn’t but he also knew he had to put his childish grumblings aside. This was most definitely not the time for such. So while Zemar, Jaye and Barine readied themselves for a ferocious fight, Jason retreated to the back of the cave and waited.
Soon enough, Zemar let out a deep breath and the wolves clamouring at the forcefield fell through. They got over their fall quickly and attacked, jumping higher than Jason had ever seen any animal jump before, with their white fur bristling and their teeth gnashing. The first one that lunged met Jaye’s sharp sword which gutted it from abdomen to jaw. Red blood splashed everywhere and Jason recoiled in disgust at the violence. Neither Zemar nor Barine held any of those inhibitions. Barine’s sword met the next hungry wolf in the neck and Zemar went straight for the biggest wolf.it had grey strands in its fur and stood proudly at the mouth of the cave, glad to let the other, smaller wolves do the dirty work. He was obviously the alpha of the pack and Zemar was heading right to him.
She stopped in front of the huge wolf; about the size of a small horse and looked it in the eye; gold eyes to orange eyes, one born leader to another. They locked gazes for about twenty seconds before the wolf snarled, baring huge fangs and a hint of black gums. His whiskers were long and his face showed that he was in the twilight of his days. Zemar did not let this deceive her. A wolf could be extremely strong well up to its last breath and if the hideous scar across one eye was anything to judge by, this aged wolf had seen enough fights in his lifetime to have gathered enough experience to obliterate an ordinary warrior in seconds.
But Zemar was no ordinary warrior. And she knew one thing about wolves: make the alpha retreat, and they would all follow like puppies with their tails between their legs. So she would make this wolf pay for setting his pack on her comrades and one mistake she wouldn’t make was to attack first.
She waited until the wolf understood the threat she posed to him while Barine and Jaye slaughtered his pack one wolf at a time. When she thought the alpha would give up and call off his warriors, he attacked.
But he did not lunge like his less-experienced counterparts had. No, this wolf had fought with people before and he knew that simply jumping would expose the belly to the deadly weapons they carried. Instead, he went for the heel and almost took off Zemar’s foot. She noticed what he was about to do at the last second and dodged his razor-sharp teeth by a hairs breadth.
This wolf, however, was fast. No sooner had he attacked Zemar’s foot than he was going for her face with razor-sharp claws attached to massive paws. Zemar had to be quick and light on her feet to dodge the savage blows. The goal was not to kill the alpha, but to scare him off. If she killed him, the entire pack would be angered and double their efforts to murder them. And she did not have much time. The more tired she got, the more she lost control of the forcefield around Jason and she refused to let him come to any harm.
Luckily for her, the wolf she was dodging and weaving was getting irritated at her ability to avoid his skull-crushing blows. He reached for her with his entire body weight, trying to bring her down but she stepped to the side and he landed on the ground, still on all four feet. In his confusion, he was dazed for a few seconds and Zemar took good advantage of this to stab a small knife into one of his hind thighs, then twisting and pulling the knife out. The wolf gave a howl of pain and all the other wolves stopped and turned back to see what was going on with their leader. Even Jaye and Barine stopped and stared, a skewered wolf hanging off Jaye’s sword. Enraged and humiliated, the alpha lunged once again at Zemar with the full intent of tearing her to pieces. Zemar reached into her well of power; one that seemed endless and one that she had been storing and replenishing for the months since she had been on Erogon. She had refused to use too much of her power; giving the intention that she had very little power left. However, she had a feeling a dangerous evil lurked somewhere on Erogon and she was saving her power for that. Now however, she took a thread out of her reserve and threw it at the alpha, knocking him back thirty feet in the air mid-pounce.
The wolf landed on the ground with a loud thud and struggling to his feet, scampered away from her as fast as his wounded thigh would allow him. The rest of the wolves looked from Zemar to their leader in confusion before whimpering and following his lead.
Zemar let out a deep breath before turning to the others. They were carcasses all around them and Jason’s round eyes showed that he was a little shaken by all he had seen.
“We have to get a move on. We have no idea what can come for those carcasses and I have a feeling we don’t want to be here when it does.”
Barine and Jaye quickly cleaned their weapons in the snow and sheathed them. Jason looked at them from head to toe and could swear that it didn’t look like they actually held any weapons. He didn’t ask any questions and started following in the direction Zemar was headed.
“How long is it going to take for us to find this Muna and how many of those things are we going to have to face?” Jason asked, irritated at the way his voice trembled. He had watched violence a lot in movies but it was a whole new thing; actually seeing it in front of him.
“I do not have the answer to either of those questions, Jason,” Zemar replied with a sigh, “all I can guarantee is your safety.”
“That sounds promising,” Jason said through gritted teeth. He found it very annoying that he actually needed Zemar’s protection. He couldn’t argue against it because without it, he wouldn’t have even made it out of Irewood, not to speak of all the way to the Frozen Islands.
“We are on one of the Frozen Islands,” Zemar explained, “the one closer to the edge. My guess is that after Firgewan took over, Muna would’ve wanted to stay deep within her territory. Which means we are crossing over this island entirely and moving to the one opposite it.”
“Sounds like a long journey,” Jason said.
“It really is not,” Barine said, “at least, not as long as it takes to trek the length of Irewood. If I remember correctly from the last time I was here, it should take about three more days to get to the river where we will be able to cross to the opposite island.”
“Yes, but first of all,” Zemar stretched her palm towards the ground and a hot orange flame shot out of it, forming a small pool of water, “Barine and Jaye, clean up. I will keep you warm and dry you but please, you reek of blood.”
Jaye chuckled while Barine turned around for some privacy. Jaye didn’t seem to be bothered with privacy and started stripping right in front of Zemar and Jason. Jason had seen Jaye half-naked several times but he was shocked to see that Zemar didn’t so much as bat an eyelash. He wondered if they had slept with each other before and then realized how dumb he sounded. Of course they had. They were practically married and had lived together for years before going to Earth. The realization made him flush red from to toe and huffing, he turned away from Jaye and Zemar, deciding to walk a short distance away to cool his head.
He was only a few meters away when he saw a small white huddle a short distance away from him. For some reason, he felt drawn to it and felt himself walking towards it.
If for some reason, he had remembered Zemar’s warnings not to leave the group, he would have been extremely thankful because what he was about to walk into wasn’t something he would walk away from as the same man.