The Great Passing
He couldn’t see Jack anymore, and it was getting so hot that his lungs burned each time he tried to inhale. The fairy was no longer there, either, making him wonder if he hadn’t imagined everything because he was in too much pain.
With one last-ditch effort, Vince rolled on his back, his eyes turned toward the ceiling. It was burning like a furnace, hot yellow and red, and he had the strangest sensation that something was staring right at him through that haze of heat.
“Jack,” he shouted, but his voice came out wheezing. “If you could help me, that would be really grand.”
***
“Wait,” Jack said. “I think I heard Vince’s voice.”
Skarg turned to look curiously at him. “Are you sure? You keep hearing voices.”
Jack tsked. “Come on, don’t make it sound like that. I need to get to Vince. Are we there yet?”
“Where there?”
“The lava cave,” Jake said the words syllable by syllable to make sure his guide understood.
“Ah, but that is still so far. Do you want to play now?”
Just as Skarg said those words, a tremor shook the ground.
“Jack, in here!” A strong voice boomed from afar.
“There,” Jack said with satisfaction. “That was Vince’s voice. Oh, no, he sounds like he’s in a lot of pain. Come on, Skarg. We need to get to him.”
It was maybe only his impression, but Skarg seemed to be looking around like he needed an escape route and fast.
“Hey,” Jack protested, “what are you doing? You look really, but really conspicuous right now.”
“I’m sorry,” Skarg blurted out. “I don’t know anything about a lava cave. I just wanted you to play with me.”
“Are you serious right now?” Jack staggered as another tremor passed through the earth beneath them. “You’re a bad skeleton.”
“I’m not bad,” Skarg whined. “I’m just… no one ever plays with me.”
“I… get it,” Jack said, “but I must save my friend. Are you with me?”
“Do you want me to come with you anyway?” Skarg sniffled.
“Yeah. Aren’t you Lord of the Underworld?”
“Not really,” Skarg admitted.
It was silly to have this heart-to-heart conversation while the place was tearing apart around them, but Jack felt a bit like he’d found his footing. As long as he took this world as it was, he could deal with it. There was also the matter of what he’d heard earlier, so he needed to find Vince fast and together hurry to help Theodore.
“I thought as much,” he told Skarg. “Come. I’m sure there’s strength in numbers. We’re two. With Vince, we’re going to be three. Let’s go.”
“But where?” Skarg began running by his side.
“I’m not sure, but we’ll get there.”
He barely had time to say those words when the earth collapsed underneath their feet.
Back to the burning cave, it seemed.
“Great,” Jack said, mostly to himself. “Vince!” he started yelling. “Skarg, help me. Do as I do. Let’s find Vince.”
Skarg seemed to be quite the conscientious little soldier, because he started yelling Vince’s name right away. They split up and began circling the cave.
When they met again, Vince, lying on the ground, was between them. Without thinking twice, Jack hurried to help Vince to his feet and make him wrap an arm around him. “Can you walk? It doesn’t matter, I’ll drag you out.”
Skarg was helping from the other side, which made Vince, who was grunting in pain, turn his head.
“Is this a friend of yours, Jack?” Vince whispered hoarsely.
“Yep. Got myself a skeleton friend,” Jack said.
“I’m a wolf,” Skarg protested.
“Right. Wolf. Awoo and all that.”
The ground shook.
And they were falling again.
Only to find themselves in the clearing from before, with the dead trees all around them. At least there was no more lava threatening to boil them, burn them, and roast them alive.
***
“Why would I believe you?” Theodore said. He blinked fast; his eyes were stinging something fierce.
“Because that is the only way to keep them from becoming as the rest of us,” the strange apparition before him said.
“But they will die,” Theodore said. “I can’t let them die.”
“You have no choice, young alpha. I know what they plan. They will make you forget and then they will only give you back memories that aren’t real. I wish there was more I could do.”
“I’ll be alone.” His voice trembled, young and weak. “I should have never stolen the flint of Embercasting.”
“You didn’t, young alpha. Evil spirits will always try to weaken you. You mustn’t trust their lies.”
“You are like them.”
“Yes. But I can’t let them win. I still recall the world above, with its fresh grass and fast rivers.” The creature’s voice grew soft. “And prey that’s bountiful, and cubs laughing and playing in the forest. Even if I’ll never be part of that world again, I also can’t be part of its destruction. Alas, my powers are weak. But you are strong, Theodore. Never forget it.”
He couldn’t help himself, the soft whines that escaped his lips.
“You can cry, young cub,” the creature said. “Your tears are pure, as is your heart. When all is over, find the wisdom tree. It may succeed where I failed. Don’t refuse it when it offers you one of its leaves. Your memory, the true one, will return.”
“But,” Theodore said through his sobs, “what if I don’t remember this, either?”
“You won’t,” the apparition said, saddened and forlorn. “But I must tell it to you anyway, in the hope their plan is not as impossible to defeat as they make it out to be. Turn your face toward the moon, even if it’s the break of dawn. She was forced into silence tonight, but they can’t keep her prisoner forever.”
“What do I do now?”
“Run back. I will help you. Save as many as you can. And may the future hold a better destiny for you and Whiteflame.”
***
“Jack,” Vince exclaimed, “you really pulled me out of there! Come here, you.”
He squeezed Jack in his arms, reveling in feeling his strength returning. As he did so, he looked up, but the night was dark, no moon, no stars. Where were they? More important, when were they?
“I got myself Skarg as a companion, and we rushed to you as soon as we could,” Jack said in a muffled voice.
Vince looked around for the strange skeleton. He found him standing a few feet away. Even though he had no facial features to speak of, he looked embarrassed.
“Wow, it looks like we really can see in the dark,” Vince said.
“Yep. I think we are still a bit wolves,” Jack said. “We truly are in a magical realm. Like I had to shout awoo like a wolf, and bam, we were out of that place. Don’t you think so?”
“It definitely felt like that,” Vince agreed. “Skarg is your friend’s name? What is he doing over there?”
“Skarg, come meet Vince,” Jack said, and the skeleton, who indeed, had the muzzle of a wolf, approached them shyly. “But, we don’t have time to waste on niceties,” he said quickly, Vince barely having had the time to acknowledge their strange companion. “Theo is on trial for his future. I’m not kidding, and not making stuff up.”
“I wouldn’t dream of accusing you of making stuff up. What do you know? It seems like you’ve been through some things. I, for instance, took a break from that lava cave in a lake that felt like a rejuvenation resort and met a fairy.”
Jack gasped and hit Vince on the shoulder. “Shut up!” Immediately, he proceeded to caress the exact spot he had hit, making Vince laugh.
“Good people,” Skarg said in a hurried whisper, “we must run. The guardians are awaking.”
The young skeleton spoke the truth. Vince felt goosebumps breaking out on his skin everywhere while a cold chill rushed down his spine.
The forest was on the move, like before. And the smell of damp earth and rot rose with the branches lifting menacingly above their heads.
***
Theodore was running as fast as his paws could take him. The tears flowing freely from his eyes froze into specks of ice, moving in a soft swirl around him as an unlikely companion. He couldn’t trust that ugly tree, could he? Were they truly wolves? Had they ever been wolves? Whatever they had been in the past, it no longer mattered. They were evil, and this evil had spread and grown underneath their settlement until it had broken through the surface.
Could he trust that guide? It could all be just another attempt to fool him, and he no longer knew what to believe. But he’d fight alongside of his pack. He knew that the battle was near, by the smell of blood and ash reaching him from not very far away.
He was running through a moonless night. Deep, bone-chilling cold made its way into his veins, as if it intended to hold him back. Theodore knew he couldn’t dally. He tipped his head back and howled, without stopping for a moment.
Echoes of howls answered him from a distance. That meant that his pack was still fighting. They still had a chance. The guide had told him that Whiteflame would be vanquished by dawn, but that couldn’t be true. Not as long as there was fight left in them.
The clamor of bodies clashing, bones and twigs breaking, reached him the closer he got.
Theodore stopped. So few remained. The battlefield had been overrun by ugly dead trees, and only a handful of wolves were still fighting. The rest of them had fallen.
The guide had told him what to do. But Theodore couldn’t bring himself to believe it. Like a moth drawn to a flame, he began moving again.
“Theodore, what are you doing here?” his father asked him in a harsh voice. He was holding three of those cursed trees at bay alone, crushing a fourth underneath his large paws. “Go back to your mother, now!”
“I came to fight, father,” Theodore said in a trembling voice. He saw what his father couldn’t tell him. Their pack had been reduced to a few wolves, and they were losing.
“Run, child, run!” His father warned him. The silver on his back shone even in the pitch-black night. Theodore could smell his blood, flowing from many cuts. As strong as his father was, he couldn’t face an entire army by himself.
And their enemies were many, crowding around the alpha to drag him down.
Theodore was about to take another step when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
Branches rose from the ground and wrapped themselves around the bodies of the dead and injured. They were pulling them down, down below, into the underworld where the moon would never shine.
Then what the guide had told him was true! Theodore tore his eyes away from his father. He had to stop what the rotten roots below them were doing, turning his pack into less than ghosts. Even their memories would be no more.
He jumped among the bodies, stopping briefly to sink his fangs into their throats, his eyes swimming in tears. Each time he did it, the branches trying to drag the body down retreated with a horrified whine.
“Theodore, what are you doing?” his father shouted. “Stop! Leave my child alone, you beasts! Don’t make him into--”
Theodore had squeezed his eyes shut, needing all the power he had in him to do what he had to. But when his father’s words were cut off so abruptly, he stopped and looked over his shoulder.
“Dad!” he yelled as loudly as he could and abandoned his quest.
His father was still breathing, but there were branches, dark and slick with blood, coming through his ribs from the inside, as if they had grown there only to burst through his thick, beautiful coat.
Theodore rushed to him. “Dad,” he cried.
“My boy,” Tharion said, his eyelid barely lifting a smidge over the only eye Theodore could see. “You must run and save yourself.”
“No, Dad,” Theodore whispered. He pressed his muzzle against his father’s head, whining.
“Don’t let them hurt you. Don’t let our fight be in vain.”
“Dad, don’t go,” Theodore cried.
His father raised one paw and rested it on his back. “I’ll always be with you, Theodore. Never forget that.”
The evil branches had made a circle around them while Theodore cried. A silver-grey dawn was breaking over the trees. He started and remembered. Like he’d done to the others, he sank his fangs into his father’s throat and prayed that he wasn’t a foolish child for believing.
Whiteflame will live again, he heard a soft whisper by his ear. He turned his face to the sky and saw the Moon, pale as a ghost, slowly fading with the coming of the new day.
***
“It looks like we have to fight,” Vince said, protecting Jack with one arm and Skarg with the other.
“We will fight, too,” Jack said.
Vince was about to scold Jack, but then remembered the fairy’s strange little riddle. “Very well, then. We’re three, so we can cover all our angles. Our purpose isn’t to defeat these trees, but to find a way out. Dawn is almost here.”
“Um, Vee, I’m afraid it’s just the two of us,” Jack said. “Skarg is just a kid. He must’ve run away.”
Vince knew that it didn’t matter. Whatever purpose the skeleton-wolf had had, it must have been fulfilled. Now, he had faith in Jack and himself.
“We need to get to Theodore, right? Then let’s give these assholes some pain!”
True strength came from the inside. It seemed like such a trite thing to believe, yet it was true. Vince lunged at the closest tree, shouting like a warrior, and smacked it hard, breaking the bark and more.
Behind him, Jack squealed in delight. “That’s right, Vee! Smack’em and hack’em!”
“Be sure of that! Can you cover that lovely ass of yours while I’m dealing with these pricks?”
“Sure can! Today, we’re wolves. Awooo,” Jack howled.
It seemed so easy at first. Vince was hitting and kicking, punching and breaking left and right, but the forest crowded in front of them. He could feel Jack pressing against his back, which meant that he was getting overcome from that direction, too.
“Any ideas, Jack? Your seer abilities might come in handy right now.”
“Not really. Fighting with evil trees is not my jam,” Jack shouted back. “Ah, damn it, just when we thought we were out of the woods – literally --”
“Hey, isn’t that your friend Skarg?” Vince continued to fight, but he was sure he’d caught a glimpse of the skeleton-wolf from before. He was sneaking through the trees, not getting too close to the fight.
“Frankly, I’m not sure he was that much of a friend,” Jack confessed. “I mean, the moment the fight started, he made a run for it.”
“He’s over there,” Vince said, gesturing at the silhouette sliding through the trees. He wasn’t easy to spot because all of the trees were moving. One branch stabbed by Vince’s cheek, breaking the skin. Something told him that the more time they spent here, the hairier the situation would become.
“Okay, I see him,” Jack said, turning so that he could trade places with Vince. “Damn, you have your work cut out for you, don’t you, Vee? Skarg! Hey, get over here! Is this how you treat your friends?”
“I can’t come,” Skarg shouted from where he was hiding. “I’m scared!”
“But you’re a wolf,” Jack said. “You can’t be scared of a few ugly trees. I mean, look at it all you like, wolves are above trees.”
“They’re the guardians,” Skarg complained. “I was not supposed to be out playing.”
“Ugh, I don’t know how to tell you this,” Jack continued, deftly moving out of the way of a jutting branch trying to stab him, “but this is a bit more serious than getting grounded.”
Vince had abandoned fighting to the rear since he needed to help Jack get close to Skarg. At least the fairy’s lessons were being put to good use. He was willing to compromise for some help. If they spent all their energy on fighting the trees that appeared to be endless in numbers, they’d never get to Theodore.
“I’m going to catch you and bite your ears,” Jack threatened. “What kind of wolf are you?”
“I don’t have any ears!” Skarg yelled, rushing through the trees with Jack and Vince hot on his tail.
“Then I’ll tickle your ribs,” Jack continued. “You know these guardians. Didn’t you say you could sing and make them fall asleep?”
“I haven’t done that in a while. I’ll get punished,” Skarg whined.
Vince grabbed Jack under his arm and lunged forward. While he only gleaned fragments of information from Jack’s and Skarg’s back and forth, he understood that the skeleton-wolf could very well be the key to their escape from the vengeful forest.
“Jack, get ready. I’m going to throw you,” he warned.
“What?” Jack squealed in alarm. “Wait, that’s a good idea—Ah!”
Vince knew that Jack was stronger than he looked. He didn’t waste a moment as he launched him straight to Skarg. His seer friend landed on top of the skeleton, maybe a little too hard, but at least he didn’t miss the mark.
Once he started, Jack could improvise any role. Right now, he was on top of the skeleton-wolf, pulling at his muzzle to open it.
“Sing, little wolf, sing!” Jack ordered.
“You should let him use his mouth, Jack,” Vince said kindly.
“Right.” Jack let go of poor Skarg’s muzzle but didn’t get off him. “Let’s hear a little trill. Like now, Skarg!”
Vince realized Jack’s urgency almost too late. He jumped out of the way as a huge trunk fell, cutting him off from the other two.
But the attack seemed to convince Skarg to help. A strange, low and sweet sound emerged from somewhere inside him.
Vince blinked hard trying to stay awake but a languid stupor overcame him. He fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
TBC
Author's note:
Thank you for reading!
@Derek - thanks a bunch! I did get comments on Wolf in the City about being too short... and I guess it was for my usual type of story, but I thought it out as a bit of a lighter read. With this one, I had more tragic material with Theo, so to speak, and I built on that. We'll see about Skarg. And the boys will be reunited!
@Mark Mortland - he-he, Derek is the fastest commenter this part of the West! Skarg will find his place, I promise!
@DavidB - now Vince is better equipped to face new challenges! Spa day - I did laugh :D
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