Chapter 44: Chapter 38

"If you can’t keep up, I am leaving you." Kate said to Keyl, when the Ice Fang nearly dropped the container once more.

Once the blue wyrm finally deemed it possible to let them go, Kate called Aranea to the side and admitted her problem. During the battle in the hospital, she nearly let the regulator die. Enemies they may be, at that moment, they were their allies. But seeing their uniforms and fighting side by side with them caused Kate to feel rage and fear anew. Caused her to remember how Blaguna sawed off her limbs, how Yasen and his goons dragged her and Kaleb across the corridor, laughing and… Kate shook her head, banishing the memories.

She screamed less at nights by now and no longer suffered from panic attacks at mid-night, thank the Spirits for this small mercy. Her new limbs worked just as well as her old ones, the doctors claimed that this was because Kate was getting stronger, ever so slightly. All was well, but her hatred for the regulators was a problem. These men and women will become new citizens of the state, and Kate has decided that she will never again let the problem fester. Kaleb helped her with learning about her power, but she felt too ashamed to reveal this to him. So she asked Aranea, and the wolf hag gave her the task of helping the locals, including treating the captured enemies. The kitchen and even prison personnel refused her offer to help, and Kate was stuck with helping a mixed engineering team rebuild the city. She was carrying two crates filled with energy cells to the teams at the water processing facility right now. Kaleb wanted to help her, but she told him to have some rest instead. Ultis planned to throw a party in the morning, and everyone was invited.

The Ice Fang insisted on joining her. Without his armor, the man looked skinny, his fur was shorter than hers. He was dressed in a green jacket and leather pants, on his neck he had the symbol of his "household," as the ice boys called their packs. Kate’s blood was boiling at his presence, she wasn’t sure why, but she wanted to challenge him, to find out where he stood in the hierarchy. There was a sense of utter wrongness in him, like looking in a distorted mirror. His snout was shorter than hers, his fangs looked less impressive, there was a keen look in his eyes, but not a single trace of innate bloodlust. Janine herself warned the packs that anyone who issues a challenge to the Ice Fang will be greeted with a kick from the warlord. Kate still had the scars on her back from the time when Janine sent her flying all the way into the hill for disobedience and thus kept her instincts under check. But this Ice Fang was getting on her nerves by merely existing.

"I have to admit something," Keyl panted heavily, putting two large containers with tools over his shoulder, "We came here in part to find Aranea Wintersong, a relative of lady Camelia Wintersong. Our order wronged her and…"

Just great. Kate thought, ignoring Keyl’s babbling and spying Leila with the corner of her eyes. The half-wyrm finished whatever she was doing to the captured Soultakers and was now busy pestering the rebuilding crews with questions about their culture. The crews were made from captured regulators, bentos, and even soultakers. They were busy removing rubble and saving the civilians who ended up being buried beneath it. The half-wyrm was working alongside them, covered by dirt and dust from head to toes. She was currently helping a four-meter-tall cyborg from the Bento tribe excavate a large boulder that blocked access to the underground bunker.

Can I really drop her? Kate thought, seeing how laughing Leila lifted a stone the size of herself with one arm. She still intended to settle things with the half-wyrm in combat. Not because of something as petty as revenge, no. Leila wasn’t the worst person to be around most of the time, and she earned her place in the pack. But Aranea and Leila were not of the Wolf Tribe, not fully. They refused to understand that you can’t grow unless you climb a wall in your path. Leila took Kate’s place as scout, and that was fine. The former scout spoke with other members of her former pack and admitted that Leila, for now, was a better leader. Even if she will always be ahead of Kate, to calm her own pride, Kate must lose or win fair and square against her.

"Be specific. You mean Aranea from the Alpha’s pack?" Kate said, cutting Keyl’s words, and the Ice Fang looked at her with hope, "Or do you mean Aranea from the Ygrite’s pack? My wolf hag also bears the name Aranea, which one do you need exactly?"

"The Aranea we're looking for has one crimson eye, like mine," Keyl eagerly continued, "She... Ugh... she used to be taller and faster than me."

"Never heard about crimson-eyed Araneas," Kate lied. The wolf hag asked them to keep her secret from the ice boys, and this was exactly what Kate intended to do, "But I heard that Aranea in the Ygritte’s pack only has one eye." Kate lied, hoping to throw off the Ice Fangs. Warlord Ygritte was chosen to remain and guard the Wolf Tribe villages for this campaign.

"Thank you." Keyl tried to press a paw to his chest and nearly dropped one of the containers with tools, causing Kate to roll her eyes.

She noticed a piece of rubble that was about to fall on several workers from the ranks of enlistees. The warrior dropped one of the crates, catching it with her toe before it could fall on the ground and allowing her power to activate itself. The piece of rubble, the size of a human body, that was about to fall from a ruined wall stopped for a brief second. And the second was all that Kate needed. She leaped from the place, still holding one of the crates in her paws.

Even now, she wasn’t sure how exactly her power worked. Together with Kaleb, they experimented and found out that by experiencing the pain or negative emotions, she could produce a "positive" result. Kaleb and she found out that she could "store" some of her frustrations and anger, paying with them to activate her power at a later date. At least from this point of view, being in the presence of the ice boy wasn’t a total waste of time. Sometimes, like right now, when she concentrates on what the exact result should be, she can even control the payoff.

But not always with full precision. Her leg sliced through the empty air when the falling stone became frozen in the air. Kate’s snout was almost crushed against the rubble when an unseen force lifted it in the air and the warrior landed on her feet, turning around to see the worried faces of the workers all around her. Something snapped above her, and stone dust fell onto her shoulders.

"Good reactions," Inspector Javenika said to Kate as she turned to face the soldiers in charge of security, "Be more attentive. You are bringing shame to the state."

The inspector was still clad in full armor. In the past hours, while the blue wyrm all but courted the Iternians, she walked around the city like a ghost, barely saying anything but keeping note of everything around her. Kate had no idea what the woman will report back, she only hoped that Janine and all others will be left free from it. The Wolf Tribe has enough troubles and grief as it is.

"Thank you, lass," A bearded man in a torn uniform of a regulator said to Kate, "Would’ve hate to have my skull cracked."

I didn’t do sh… Just to take the bloody thanks, idiot. Kate calmed herself with a breath and forced herself to smile at the man instead of snapping at him, before turning around and charging back to Keyl and the crate that she left on the ground. 

Cub’s steps, Kate. Cub’s steps, no hurry. You can do it. She told herself.

****

"Larry," Annie cracked her fingers, forcing herself to be calm, "After your investigation video," She spat the words, "People started to think that I am suicidal. My own warlord thought that I was going to off myself. My sister went into the military because of a misguided sense of guilt before me. And now I am forced to live with it. Dragena is dead, my sister nearly died today, what the fuck do you want from me?!" She roared at him, and the man took a step back away from her, "Why… Why!? My comrades died trying to save you, why the in the world did you do this to us?" She grabbed her throat, struggling to find a breath all of a sudden, "You wanted to know how I felt today? I am scared, forced into a position that I am inadequate for, and I hate myself for putting Sveta in danger! Go on, spread the word, you sleazy scum!"

Limping on one leg, she charged into one of the untouched buildings that served as a field hospital. The troops flooded the city after the fighting was over, creating a line of defense way to the north. Military police and a token garrison ensured the peace inside the city’s walls, and now several of them looked at Annie’s outburst in confusion. The wolf hag didn’t care. Larry tried to ask her questions and hear her opinion as to why the president of Iterna came here. Annie lost her nerve. Had Dragena seen her, she would have been reprimanded. As it stands right now, she will write the report herself.

The wolf hag calmed herself, allowing herself to concentrate on a pain in her waist. Her power armor was taken away for maintenance, but she found out the hard way that it was hard to move around without the support of the exoskeleton when your bones are shattered. Swallowing her pride, she asked for an older model of power armor and now limped around, clanking with every step like an idiot.

Aranea temporarily took over the charge of her and Olesya’s pack. Olesya was taken away for some "therapy sessions" by Till Ingo, and Annie herself was forcibly put on leave on the orders of Ivar. With nothing to do, Annie visited Carty in a field hospital in the center of the city, cheered up a few other wounded members of her pack, checked on other wolf hags, and now went to see a more seriously injured soldier.

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The corridors of the hospital were surprisingly clean. She remembered the refugee center Gamma and how people were dying in the corridors of that place. Here, the organization was far better, only a few lightly injured people were in corridors, the new hospital equipment and medicaments were arriving in a never-ending stream, and personnel had yet to look overworked. Annie passed a minor security check and was allowed to go on the fifth floor, where the new breeds were treated. Thankfully, the lift was working.

Annie passed near a door where warlord Martyshkina was being treated. The doors leading into the room were wide open, showing the personal doctors of the captain Ivar working on the patient inside. Ivar’s elite troops stood outside of the room, armed to the teeth. To her surprise, she saw Olesya, still fully clad in her power armor, standing in the room. Either she was already freed by Till, or she came here from the start. The doctors were working on the massive body of the warlord, cursing something about a weird toxin that was causing the warlord to suffer from lowered blood pressure, shock, and muscle paralysis. Apparently, Martyshkina’s blood also had problems with clotting ability, creating a risk that the warlord might bleed to death. The stench that was coming from the room reminded Annie of the sickness that Chosen Prince was creating in his victims. The wolfkins were naturally resistant to the illnesses, but according to the doctors, this toxin was self-replicating and imprinted itself onto the genetic structure of the warlord. The doctors had no idea how to remove it from Martyshkina’s body. Olesya was listening to the doctors’ words in utter silence.

Unwilling to eavesdrop any further, the wolf hag walked further to another room, taking a breath. When she reached for a door handle, the door flung open in her face, nearly smashing against her nose.

"My apologies, wolf hag." Sonya said, pushing past Annie without explaining herself further.

Weirdo. The wolf hag decided, walking inside. The room was somewhat crammed. Svetlana was busy checking Kayleen’s condition. The scout lost her entire left shoulder, along with her arm and the left side of her snout, showing the blackened fangs to the world. Her left eye survived, but the eyelid burned away, and now an eyepatch covered the damaged eye. Her leg was missing at the knees, and while her bleeding stopped, the sheets on her bed were stained with red, and now that strange woman, Andrea, was preparing fresh replacements. Kayleen’s entire body was heavily bandaged. The King’s energy beam evaporated skin from Kayleen’s ribs, along with several of them. The scotching heat reached all the way to her left lung, exploding it. It was a sheer miracle that the scout’s heart, stomach, and other insides endured, but Annie was thankful to the Spirits for any mercy at this point. Even now, the scout was hooked up to a life support machine that helped her breathe.

Aside from them, five more wolfkins were in the room, one from the Aranea’s pack, the woman who lost her leg, and three more from the Olesya’s pack, all bearing burn marks, but otherwise they were whole. The windows outside showed a dimming night that was bringing a blessed night into the city.

"Svetlana," Annie nodded to her sister. She wanted to ask if Kayleen was awake but noticed the open eye of the scout focused on her, "Kayleen," She put both arms behind her back, trying to mimic Dragena’s posture and frowning from the pain in her pelvis, "I know we usually leave such decisions to individuals, but you are a valuable member of the pack, and thus I take it to myself to…"

"I am getting augs." Kayleen's voice was barely a whisper, she loudly sucked air between each word, taking a full minute just to finish this short sentence. The scout tried to reach for a glass of water on a table with her remaining arm. Upon missing once, Andrea picked up the glass and allowed Kayleen to drink through a special drinking straw.

"Bitch!" Annie exploded both from anger and relief, making her sister look at her and the scout giggled through coughing, "I was expecting that you, of all people, will be stubborn…" She found a chair near Kayleen’s bed and fell onto it.

"Why? Never had anything against the Crippled, but personally I like having all of limbs," Kayleen coughed and reached for a table nearby, showing a golden pin with diamond engraving to Annie, "You remember it? Iterna promised us free healthcare for the rest of our lives. I decided to take their offer. How is Carty?"

"Angry, bitter, and wants to get back to work," Annie smiled to Kayleen, “Have fun in Iterna. Bring me a lot of photos, you got it?”

"Sure thing," Kayleen coughed, and Andrea took away the glass, "Listen, I have no idea how long I will be out of action. But you need to do something with your temper. Annie, if Dragena was alive…"

"I know," Annie replied, standing up, "I messed up a lot in the past few days. But this is the end of it, I will become worthy of carrying out Dragena’s legacy. Get better, Kayleen, the pack is needing you."

She stormed away without allowing Kayleen to say anything. The scout was right, Annie’s rage was getting out of hand. Dragena was a monster of the state, but she was a monster of cold precision, not a snapping idiot like Annie was becoming. The pack can’t function like this, everything that Annie had worked up was about to crumble because she herself was breaking her rules. No more. There were several people to whom she owed an apology. She glanced at the warlord’s room and saw that Olesya had already left. All the better.

The lift’s doors opened, and Annie came face to-face with Lucendra. The soldier survived that day without any serious damage. Lucendra nervously licked her lips and tried to bare her throat upon seeing Annie, but the wolf hag simply patted her on the shoulder.

"At ease, Lucendra. I have been less than a stellar leader in the past few days," She clutched Lucendra’s shoulder slightly, "And for this I apologize. You came to visit Kayleen?"

"Yes, wolf hag." Lucendra said quickly, and Annie let her go.

"Take your time and have a well-deserved rest. We have a party tomorrow."

Larry was still outside, pestering Zeke with questions. The Ice Fang tried to wave him away, undoubtedly trying to find a free moment to pester wolfkins and soldiers with questions about Aranea. The Third Army had their own pride, and Ivar made it clear to the lower ranks that they were to keep their mouths shut, and the wolfkins took small solace in the opportunity to lie to the faces of the ice boys.

"Larry!" Annie waved her paw and the reporter turned to her, "Sorry for being an asshole. You had questions, if you want to, I have some free time while I am limping to the store."

"Sure," The man joined her, slowing himself to keep pace with her. A small flying drone followed after him, and Larry pressed something on his belt, turning the camera off, "Listen, if there is any way I can make up to you…"

"As a matter of fact, you can," Annie smirked, "Pay for me in the store."

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