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The smog had been building for several weeks....
« Thread Started on Nov 20, 2008, 7:03pm »

The smog had been building for several weeks. Black, thick enough to smother, it filled the valley like tar. Slowly, so slowly it had oozed up the valley sides and spilled over until the whole region was under its dark miasma.

In a deep scar at the foot of the mountain, whose floor was only touched by sunlight on the highest and brightest day of summer, a patch of smog stirred, and thickened.

So long had he waited for this; to have a body again. It so much easier to think with a body, that was one of the first things he noticed, without one it was so hard to find where Kerberos stopped and the rest of creation began but a body helped you divide the world, you, the bit behind they eyes and everything else separate.

The bear shuffled slowly down the rocky slope to the bottom of the ravine and waited. Its heavy coat was greasy its eyes and muzzle crusted with a dark ooze that mixed with blood. Once it might have fished and hunted berries in the woods but wasn’t a bear anymore, it wasn’t anything with a name, the body of the creature remained but its mind was cold and dead. Kerberos wrinkled his lip in disgust, it smelt foul. But it was a useful servant; he has spent many months worming his way into its mind until he controlled it completely. He turned and trotted in the opposite direction not looking to see if it followed.

*********

Malignity cracked the last rabbit bone and washed the blood off her paws. Stupid things seemed to be running faster at the moment. Must be this fog, it was making everyone edgy. That was why she had wondered off, the pack was fractious and right now, even more than usual she wished everyone would just disappear.

The fog was thick. It caught in the branches of the trees, struggling like scraps of weed in a stream. She shifted, looked around, her hackles standing on end. Malignity had not risen to become the alpha bitch of one of the most powerful evil packs without learning to trust her instincts. Right now her instincts told her to be wary. The birds had stopped singing, if the cawing of crows, the only birds who would tolerate the barrens, could be called song. She could see no reasons why they should, but still, she decided to move on.

But Malignity did not leave. Her body walked away from that place but Malignity was gone. The bear, for all its size had moved so silently, just patch of fog, until it exploded out of the murk.

She snarled at it, ears pasted to her skull. The bear would kill her, she had no doubt, the creature was obviously out of its mind. If it was going to kill her then she’d make damn sure that it didn’t have an easy time of it. She crouched to spring.

“Stop.” The voice its self was just noise, like the crash of thunder and crackle of flames, but the meaning of the words arrived in her head just the same. “Stay where you are.”

Kerberos stepped out of the gloom to stand next to the bear, like a master with a favourite pet. Malignity fought furiously to free herself but her mind was no longer in control of her body. “When I was wandering I often found myself drawn to you, the source of so much fear and hate and chaos. It is fitting that you should serve me now.” Kerberos stepped closer, until he was looking directly into her eyes. She stared into those two eyes like holes in the fabric of the universe and was gone.

*********

“I know you don’t like it but I don’t think we have a choice.” Kesenai looked over his shoulder to check that no one had followed before continuing. “Just because we haven’t seen any of them too close to the packland doesn’t mean that we’re safe. We’re the biggest pack, makes sense that they’d leave us until last.”

“I don’t think they’re coming at all Kes.” Jace retorted. “I don’t care what Sylvie and her little playmate saw or claim to have seen. Lunar Ecstasy don’t exactly have a history with Malignity do they. Besides, these days she only bothers people if they bother her first, granted her definition of bothering can cover just being in the same square mile as her but still…”

Kesenai shook his head, “I told you, I don’t think it was Malignity.” He stopped walking and turned to face his brother. “It might have looked like her but it wasn’t. You’ve been here with the litter for the last few weeks, you haven’t seen them. It’s like…” He scrabbled for words to accurately describe what he has seen. “It’s like they’re empty, hollow.”

“But we can stay here, at least for another few weeks, until the cubs are older. If we post guards and all stay together we’ll be safe enough.” If he could just persuade Kesenai to stay another few weeks then maybe he’d consider it but right now Jace was stopping where he was.

“I’m not reading too much into it, I know you think I am but I’m not.” Kesenai’s temper, already worn thin through worry began to fray. “I sent Pell and Sylvie back out last night. Apparently half the packs are already long gone and I don’t doubt that those who have held this long will be gone before the day is out.” He turned to go. “I can’t wait for you forever Jace.”

*********

It was almost dawn when Pell and Sylvie returned from their latest scouting mission. Other scouts were also trickling back to the safety of the packland, although Pell noticed they were fewer than had gone out. It had been a bad night.

They had been counting the numbers of the “affected”, as Kesenai called them, when they had met scouts from another pack checking the road ahead of the main party. They were from the Dancing Winds pack and were heading to the mountains to be closer to White Magic. They had talked, although the other pair were not overly chatty, discussed who had gone and who had yet to leave until the rest of their pack caught up.

But they didn’t. As the sparse convocation petered out altogether they heard the shouts.

It was the calmness with which the old dog had faced down the bear that affected Pell most. As they tumbled down the scree slope it lumbered towards the pack. Hemmed in by the hoards of affected behind and the bear in front the Dancing Winds pack was at bay against the foot of the mountain. The fall of scree made them look round and Pell though he saw the old dog shut his eyes for a second. Then he was running, running straight at the bear. Rather than leaping straight for the throat he danced and dodged its enormous paws. Transfixed, like all others present Pell watched him lead it out onto the most unstable part of the slope and then he struck. With the wolf tearing at its throat the bear reared up onto its hind legs. The scree slope shifted hurling wolf and bear down the mountain side, leaving the way free for the rest of the pack to escape.

*********

“I heard someone call him Shade.” Pell had been talking fast for over an hour now and his throat ached but this needed to be told. With the bear unconscious several of the affected had drifted away, those that remained lacked their former compulsion leaving the pack able to break free.
“No!” The hoarse exclamation escaped Kesenai like a moan.
Jace shook his head. “He was a good Alpha.”
“Do you see now.” Kesenai rounded on his brother “After us Dancing Winds are the biggest pack in these parts, and one of the strongest. How long do you think it’ll take them to come for us?”
Jace did not meet his brother’s eyes and was silent for several moments before he let out a long ragged breath. “I see.” He answered quietly and for just a heart beat Pell saw the fear that consumed him.
Kesenai was already issuing orders, mustering the pack and organising the scouts. “We leave in an hour.”

*********

Sariel walked toward the outcrop of rock that jutted out over the precipice and watched the narrow trail that was the only path to the caves. Nothing stirred below. On another outcrop higher up a pair of sentries stood guard, dog and bitch; they seemed to prefer the solitude that their duty offered. She didn’t blame them. Another figure appeared beside her, a little distance away. She nodded cordially, one alpha to another. Living as they were so crammed together, it was important to observe the niceties. There had already been several fights and it was taking all her diplomacy to sooth the feelings of her pack and maintain some semblance of order.

“Has the council reconvened?” She asked.
Kesenai shook his head. “Not yet, as I understand it Dark Avengers is still being difficult.”
Sariel rolled her eyes.
“Well, White Magic’s talking to him. Hopefully he’ll listen to her if no one else”
She nodded. A moment of silence passed. Kesenai flumped down and stared out over the valley, searching for his packland though he knew it was far out of sight. Sariel regarded him for a moment before shuffling closer to murmur in a hushed voice. “Did you watch White Magic at the end, I think she suspects at least. And I fear her suspicions are not to her liking.”
“I did”

As a couple of youngsters passed close by, going to relieve the guards they started guiltily. Kesenai watched them go before continuing. “I think you’re right, about pack bonds being important to all this. Look at the packs that managed to stay out longest. The affected steered clear of packs even when they outnumbered them, it’s more than simple self preservation.”
“Until the end.” Sariel qualified.
“Until the end.” He echoed. The attack on the Dancing Winds pack had been the last straw, by the following evening no pack remained in its lands. They stood silent looking down into the abyss until a howl shook them from their reverie and they trooped back to the council in silence.

*********

The talking was finally over. Jaxx snapped orders at his offspring happy to finally be doing something. The fact that the thing he was about to do involved killing was just an added bonus. At a diplomatic distance the Alphas of Whispering Darkness and Frigid Plague were doing the same. Under normal circumstances working together would be unthinkable but right now, in this moment, Jaxx would have worked with Kesenai if it meant being able to go home. That bear was dead already; it just didn’t know it yet.

It had taken them three days to find the perfect spot, where the scree was thick and unstable. Scouts were tracking the bear. His own grandson, Vito, had been chosen, being the smallest and fastest, to lure the bear out onto the slope while the rest continued to the other side of the fall on a narrow ledge above it. If the plan worked once on the scree slope the bears weight would trigger the slide; burying it. If it was still alive after that then they’d kill it the old fashioned way, with teeth and numbers.

So many parts of the plan made him uneasy, not least that the plan had been inspired by some neutral, and a dead one at that: if the bear managed to cross on the narrow shelf of rock rather than being forced to use the scree slope, if its weight did not trigger the slide, if Vito’s did. But killing the bear meant going home and going home meant finding Malignity, where ever she was. It was that thought that helped him put his doubts aside and lead the way out of the caves.

*********

It was full dark before they returned. They had lost many but it was done, the bear was dead. Now Jaxx, along with Ade and Misdemeanour stood in front of White Magic and made his report. Ranged in a rough ring around them were the Alphas of the other packs as well as those others who had been invited for their wisdom or skill. White Magic listened with interest to the discussion that sparked as the three finished their report. All of them had such faith in her! But she was afraid that it will ill deserved. The death of the bear whilst no doubt a blow to Kerberos it brought them little closer to defeating him. Kazza shifted slightly offering a supportive shoulder to lean on. Taking comfort from him finally she spoke. “One week ago, at my request, one of the affected was caught and brought to me. I have tried every medicine and remedy that I know but to no avail. This evening I gave him a sleeping draught that will at least allow him a merciful death.” The speech she had been preparing in her mind for the last few hours, when it came to it, seemed thin and mawkish.

“This morning scouts reported that they have nearly breached the first rock fall.” Sariel, who along with Kesenai, had become the unofficial leader of the defence spoke up to fill the silence. “We have food for another two weeks, three at a stretch. Every day the affected become bolder and their numbers increase.”
“Can we retreat further into the caves?” Montana, the alpha of Aphotic Eclipse, asked quietly.
Kesenai answered him grimly. “If we retreat further into the caves and block the pass further up we may stand a chance of holding them off. But not for long, the bear could be through any blockade we can rig in a matter of hours.”
The group lapsed into a grim silence again.
“Leave it. Go away.” He spoke in a murmur as if to himself.
“And you are? I don’t seem to remember you pack name.” Jaxx snapped sarcastically.
“Brone, no pack, just me.” Brone answered distractedly.
“He’s here because I invited him Jaxx so stop griping.” Sariel answered, bristling.
White Magic ignored them. “He’s here.” Kazza aligned his body with hers, keeping her upright. “He hid himself from me, taken a body. He has become subtler in his old age. Else I would have sensed him long ago.”
“Who is?”
“He has many names.” She stared blankly at him. In distance a howl went up and ended abruptly. Someone shouted and was answered by several more. But White Magic was oblivious. “I do not know his true name, I don’t think even he remembers it. He calls himself Kerberos now.”
Kazza’s eyes widened in surprise. “You know him?”
She nodded, “He is like me, the yin and the yang, the light and the dark.”

*********

“Quite sure.” The young bitch shook, tail clamped between her legs, too terrified by what she had seen to be unnerved by interrogation by the Alphas of the valley. “I thought I heard something down there so we went to take a look. They were almost though the second rock fall. There’s so many of them.”

“Run. Why aren’t we running” A crowd was already gathering, the fear in the air was palpable.
“Because we wouldn’t get anywhere.” Jace replied with a hint of a snarl. “They’d be on us as soon as we were past that rock fall.”
“Running won’t work.” White Magic’s voice was soft. “You can’t out run him and you can’t kill him. He was clouding me but he’s been thrown off balance by the death of the bear, that’s how I sensed him. He’ll find his footing soon.” She shook her head as if she had water in her ears. “I’m losing him already.”
“Can you bind him?” The question escaped Sylvie before she could censor it.
“What do you mean” White Magic stared.
“I heard it in a story. Nemali’s stories are really good, I’ve been bringing her food and she tells me stories.” Pell nudged her meaningfully. “Sorry, just that she was telling me a story, 'How foxes came to be'. There was this deamon, it couldn’t be killed and it couldn’t be injured so the way they stopped it was by binding it.”
“Binding…”
“Sorry.” Sylvie tried to hide behind Pells ruff to escape White Magics gaze.
“But that’s it.” White Magic licked Sylvie on the cheek. “Now hurry, and find this teller of tales.”

*********

It was an old magic, White Magic explained to the massed ranks of wolves, one of the very oldest. Even the smallest cub knew that Pack was a powerful thing but it was little know just how strong they really were. Before the world had settled, the power that had created it become more placid and gentle, there were many dangers, creatures such as Kerberos were not uncommon. But packs provided protection against them. Wolves that were part of packs were less commonly affected. The bonds between a pack attracted the power that infused the valley so that it became part of them and kept them safe.

“You have all felt the power of the Pack Song, a feeling that great power is flowing through you just for a moment.” Nemali sat in the centre of the circle and, even though almost every wolf in the valley had gathered around to listen, there was silence. “I have heard it said that the whole of creation is a song sung by the power. In Pack Song a tiny bit of that creation song can be heard. Kerberos is a creature that seeks to destroy, he is chaos and death and destruction. But he is a part of the power, one voice in the pack. When the pack sings he has no choice but to lift his muzzle and join in. He seeks to sing his song alone but forgets that Pack Song does not work that way. All voices weave together to form the song and no one is allowed to drown out the others.”

And so the plan was laid.

The mountain was chosen to be the battle field. With his hold over such great numbers of affected it would be difficult to bind Kerberos. The mountains power would lend them strength but its effect would be little until he entered the caves. And Kerberos had no intention of doing that alone. He led his army from behind, following after, watching the carnage from a safe distance. The ever more hopeful crowd had sobered quickly at that though; to bind Kerberos they would have to allow the affected to enter the caves.

*********

The sun was setting, the remains of the weak winter sun tainting the valley with bloody light. White Magic stood at the edge of the wide ledge in front of the caves, around her milled those wolves staying to fight. Many had retreated deep into the caves and others had gone to protect them, should the worst happen. With the bear gone the work had slowed, but it had not stopped. The affected were almost through, she would have said that the determination with which they worked was single minded but they did not have even that left to them. Several had been killed but the work did not stop, no one spared a glance for a dying friend. And now they were coming. To escape the frying pan they must jump into the fire. The last stone fell away, releasing the slide to tumble down the mountain. They were coming. In silence positions were taken, a few bodies to hold back the tidal wave.

And like a tidal wave they did come. Rank upon rank of dank, lank, blood encrusted bodies. All entrances to the deeper caves had been blocked save one, its entrance higher up, with a spur of rock projecting from its mouth like a jagged tongue. On this the fighters stood, watching the sea of affected swirl around them.

And then, at last he came. His powers swelled by the number of lives he had taken he had almost dispensed with his wolvish body. In its place was a wolf shaped blackness, a rent in the universe. When he saw White Magic, standing on the prow of the rock, he smiled. “Sister, blood of my blood.”
“Kerberos.” Her tone was harsh. “You cannot not come to this place. In this place, this small valley, you may not set foot.”
Kerberos’s grin widened. “Look around you little sister. I am here.” He dabbed his paw at the ground. “Nope, no, I don’t think so.” His gaze snapped back to her. Around them the shadows lengthened. “It seems that in these new days, so far from our youth the old agreements,” he spat, “no longer stand. Can and can’t no longer hold sway.”
White Magic continued to meet his gaze as, all around them, the shadows began to move. In a quiet voice she replied, “Can and can’t may have be sleeping but will and won’t are here and they have teeth and claws.” She bared her teeth, “and voices.”

His eyes widened but already the song had begun. Deep in the caves it started, so deep it was more felt that heard, and it rose and it rose and it rose. Thousands of voices weaving the song. At its beginning it was Pack Song but as it grew something great awoke. Brone shivered as he felt it run through him, White Magic had spoken of it, Nemali, hinted at it; but, he realised, no words could hold this thing. The World Song, begun at the beginning and sung by reality ever since. He felt the great power of the mountains, drowsy at first but as the song grew it too grew, burning brighter and brighter. Any creature that had been touched by it reflected this brightness, in the eyes of those next to him he saw its spark. White Magic glowed. And then, as quickly as it had come it left, a great wave withdrawing, carrying with it all the shadows that filled the cave and the hearts of those affected who remained. Before he lost consciousness he whispered aloud, though the voice that was heard thoughout the valley did not belong to him. “All things in balance. All things have their time; but this is not yours.”

There was a song; he’d heard it one day as the thing that thought of its self as Kerberos, nothing more than a scrap of consciousness in the rapids of reality, had drifted close to a pack. It went; twinkle, twinkle little star. Just like that they reduced flaming balls of gas, billions of miles across with more power than they could ever imagine, into a song for cubs. But this song was not like that, this was the Song of the World. It tore at him until he lifted his muzzle and wove his song into it, feeling it pull the whole of his being into its embrace, his grip on the world fading like morning mist under the sun.

« Last Edit: Nov 20, 2008, 7:11pm by mutty »

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