Chapter 48: Chapter 42

"…Iterna condemns this war," The image of president Kaia Mcgee said on the screen, "We understand that there is a genuine grievance between King and the Dynast, however in this war, people from both sides are dying. Nonetheless, we confirmed the attempted usage of weapons of mass destruction by the Resistance, the undeniable evidence of the attempted usage of W-venom was brought to our attention, and we have seen the evidence of one of the Resistance’s leaders using their own people as hostages. With a heavy heart, Iterna will cut off all military support for the Resistance. This does not mean that the locals are abandoned by us!" The voice of the president hit a steel note, "The refugee camps are still under our protection, if you are one of those who seek protection from the war, come to us! The humanitarian aid will still keep on going to help those who can’t reach safety. The Net will still be available for the locals! Iterna only stops the military aid and…"

Keyl nodded, watching the news. The interview had just begun, and the official ruler of the Iterna was making her statement, cutting all ties with the Resistance. There will be no more military training, no more satellite video feeds, no more military equipment or funds to purchase such equipment. By providing the evidence, captain Ivar, despite his disgusting reputation, won a major victory for the state.

The eyes of the knight captain moved to a figure standing next to the president. The wolf hag Aranea. He frowned, noticing an eyepatch over the eye. Keyl wasn’t stupid. He asked around, and most wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe pointed him and Zeke toward the Ygritte’s pack, way behind the front line. However… His ears moved when he heard how Zeke stepped into the half-empty barracks. He and his subordinate were given a place in the main barracks. During the night, this place was crowded, but their kin kept a distance from them, the rumors of the Ice Fangs being cursed spread like a wildfire, no one wanted to sleep next to them. And now that their kin had gathered outside the barracks for a party, their loud songs and brawls could be heard even from inside the barracks. 

"Gotta say, they sure know how to party," Zeke hiccupped, falling on the bed. Unlike Keyl, Zeke wormed his way into the ranks of their savagery kin and was tasked by Keyl with loosening the warriors' tongues, "I failed. They outdrank me. They all keep saying, "Ygritte this, Ygritte that, Aranea is a common name..." Even the Alpha pack says this, in between the moments when they try to bite or mate with me!"

"What about Ultis?" Keyl asked, allowing the last part to slip past his ears instead of chastising his fellow knight for such vulgar behavior. Sometimes honor must take a backseat for the sake of the mission. Besides, the more Zeke interacts with their kin, the less prejudiced he will be. Keyl reached for his notes and added his suspicions.

"She excused herself, saying that she could no longer help us with this." Zeke complained. Scout Ultis spent quite some time in the care of the Ice Fang order when she was in the hospital. Sword saint Camelia Wintersong and lady Ulrica Voidrunner managed to befriend her, and the scout promised her aid in finding Aranea’s location.

"The lack of an answer is also an answer in itself," Keyl smiled, placing a paw on the TV screen, where wolf hag Aranea started answering the journalist’s questions. One, the eyepatch. Two, the people of the Wolf Tribe always refused to speak with them about Aranea before, claiming that she was dead. Now, however, they were a real chatterbox, saying that Aranea was a common name among them and pointing the knights toward the pack of the warlord in the rear. And the last part of the puzzle, Ultis and her sudden silence, "Inform our masters Camelia and Osiris at once! We have found our missing kin!" He quickly added new information and his verdict to his notes, before throwing the notes to confused Zeke.

She is so big now. Her amber eyes shone like a dying star. Someone from the command persuaded her to actually wear a full suit for this interview, and now she was dressed in a strict black jacket, a crimson shirt underneath, long black pants, and black shoes. The mark of the Third Army, the stylized image of a golden wyrm, rested on her left lapel. The knowledge that Aranea was next to him, and he had allowed her to slip away, was almost unbearable. I will not allow anyone to hurt you anymore. Keyl swore to himself, standing up. Aranea was currently in Iterna, taken there by Eugenia’s portal. She should come back in the evening. But Keyl could not sit idly anymore, he had to wind up, to loosen the hold of anxiously over his weary mind. All these years… His stupidity ruined Aranea’s life. He will make up for this, he has to!

Keyl stormed outside, breathing in the disgusting, overheated air of the Ravaged Lands. She lived here, all these years, inhaling the air that tore at his lungs like a set of knives. He looked at the wild rabble of the wolfkins, dancing on tables with food, howling at the sun above, fighting with each other, drinking, cutting each other with their claws… Even here, in this party, some females dominated the males, biting their necks when they decided that the males showed too much familiarity. The aggression was quickly forgotten, however, everyone quickly jumped back to celebrating being alive, and it was not uncommon to see the same female that just dominated the male, now hugging him and laughing alongside him.

So uncivilized. Keyl made an oath to himself to never judge people who look differently harshly. His casual racism already caused a tragedy once, and this was not something that he wanted to repeat. But seeing how these… savages competed with each other by forming groups and lifting trucks in the air, how they consumed booze with no second thought… The knight captain failed to see even a trace of nobility in his kin.

"Lucendra," His ears twitched, hearing a growl, and he saw how the wolf hag Annie rose on her feet, looking down on a smaller warrior that sat next to her, "These are my tokens. If I want you to transfer them to charity, then you will transfer them to charity."

"And I said no, I will not allow you to throw all your life savings down the trash pit, wolf hag," The smaller wolfkin said stubbornly, too afraid to look into the eyes of her superior. Instead, she focused her attention on a cup in her hands, saying, "The state and Iterna both provide to the locals, you..." Lucendra trembled lightly when the arm of her wolf hag crashed into the table, breaking through the wood and making another wolfkin, the one with gorgeous looking blue fur, turn to them. The woman started making her way to them, but Keyl was faster.

"Lady!" He called Annie, and the wolf hag turned to look at him, "This is no way to treat your subordinate."

"You stay out of this, ice boy." The wolf hag hissed, trying to keep her rage in check.

"I'm afraid I can't stand by when a weak is in peril," Keyl said, placing his paw on the handle of his claymore, "If you want to vent your rage on someone, I, Keyl Summerspring, gladly challenge you to a sparring match."

The shouts and songs around them slowly died down. The wolfkins from several packs were looking at them, their eyes trailing Keyl’s movements almost with hunger. He knew that they were not allowed to challenge the Ice Fangs. But now he was the issue, the challenge.

"What fun." Annie smiled, standing up. When she made a step toward him, her left leg limped slightly.

"Wolf hag, please, you are still i…"

"Lucendra, for the love of Spirits, stop embarrassing me!" Annie almost groaned, looking for someone in the crowd and finally stopping her eyes on the blue-furred wolfkin, "Carty, get in here and keep Lucendra entertained and happy! Also keep Svetka out of this." The wolf hag hushed the last words before walking forward and gesturing for Keyl to follow after her.

Several wolfkins trailed after them, all too curious about how things would play out. The wolf hag ignored them, leading Keyl to a temporary sparring hall, a run-down warehouse located at the edge of the Wolf Tribe’s camp, this place was once used by the resistance to store their hover tanks. Now the place was empty, someone covered the metal floor with sand, and despite the fact that the wolfkins were here less than a day, the remains of broken fangs already stained the floor, and a faint trail of blood could easily be sensed through a thick smell of oil.

Annie pointed at the center of the arena, walking toward the stand with weapons and picking up two dull knives. Keyl wanted to choose a weapon for himself, but the wolf hag growled at him.

"Use your pretty sword," Annie said, walking to stand before him. She limped each time, making a third step. There were no electric lamps left in this warehouse, the only source of light was coming from spacious windows in the walls, and the wolf hag stood in one rectangle of light, while Keyl stood in another. Several wolfkins took places around the arena, eagerly making bets on the fight, "I can take a cut or two from this blade, no problem."

"Of course, lady," Keyl took out his claymore from the back, keeping the weapon sheathed to the annoyance of the wolf hag, "If you feel injured, I…"

Her right leg struck forward, kicking sand into his eyes. The knight captain made an overhead swing with his blade, splitting the incoming sand and baiting the wolf hag in advance. The fool charged forward, and Keyl smiled, turning his swing into a thrust by leaving one paw on the handle of his claymore and gabbing the lower part of his blade with the other, wielding the oversized blade like a spear. Keyl aimed to touch the chin of his opponent.

His thrust kissed only the air when Annie leaned to the side, evading the incoming attacks and slicing across the index finger of his left paw. The knight captain found himself on the defensive, taking the handle of his weapon with both paws and retreating while blocking the blindingly fast net of cuts and slushes that Annie weaved in the air. The wolf hag was good, not once did she take the full brunt of his incoming blows on the training knives, using her weapons to barely slow the slash and cut, leaning her body to avoid the blow instead. Each time when Keyl focused on the bladework, the wolf hag would kick the sand into his ear, pressing him, step by step, to the wall of the arena. None of them had managed to leave any new marks on each other, Keyl kept his wounded finger from reaching the handle of his claymore.

"Take the weapon normally!" Annie howled in anger, dodging a horizontal swing. She tried to counterattack in the opening, but her left leg gave in, throwing her onto the knee. Keyl stopped the momentum of his blade, moving it to her neck. The wolf hag moved on three limbs, circling around the knight and losing the opening to strike.

"My finger was "cut off" according to the rules," Keyl replied coldly, turning to face Annie, who was standing up. Now it was she who had her back to the wall. Usually, the knight captain will never fight against an injured opponent like this, his pride would demand a similar handicap. But right now, he pushed on, remembering the words of lady Camelia about the pride of the Wolf Tribe. The best way to honor them is to give his all, "And stop making bets on me!" He yelled at the wolfkins, who were sitting on the sideways. They only laughed at him, continuing to make bets. He growled and turned back to his opponent.

He breathed hard, the relentless assault of his opponent and the need to be constantly on the edge broke his breath, making him get tired faster than usual. Annie breathed hard as well, but he could see pain in her eyes, the wolf hag was fighting far from her peak. He remembered her now: a scared-looking girl who had come to Houstad. In such a short span of time, she got so strong. The knight captain refused to press his attack, giving his opponent a chance to collect herself. The Wolf Tribe may be savages, but he will hold himself to a higher standard. And right now, he was all too excited to see who the better fighter was, fair and square. And to his surprise, Keyl saw the same desire in Annie’s eyes, both of them enjoyed themselves.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The Keyl’s eyes widened when he heard a loud laugh approaching him. 

Something… No, someone was jumping across sand, moving in a blur of red. The figure was first landing on her feet, then jumping and landing on her paws while making her way to the combatants. Annie barely managed to make a step back when the leg of the newcomer crashed against the raised arm, sending the wolf hag back a few steps with a single kick. The paw moved toward Keyl’s arm, the seemingly innocuous hit knocked him to his knees, and the force of the blow rendered his left arm numb. The knight captain grunted in approval of such skill and swung his blade at the new foe, unwilling to back down, no matter the odds.

The tip of the blade got caught between two fingers of the attacker’s paw. With a twist of her wrist, the crimson figure jerked away the massive blade, throwing it aside before leaping into the air once more, reaching for Annie.

The wolf hag threw aside her weapons and met the attacker head on, her right paw struck forward and two palms of two opponents grasped each other, locked in a fierce struggle. The force that the figure in crimson put behind her strike burrowed Annie’s legs deep into the sand, The wolf hag’s face was strained from the effort and pain, blood flowed from underneath the stitches on her waist. With enormous effort, Annie threw the unknown attacker away from herself with a flick of her wrist, this almost impossible movement tore stitches on her waist, opening the wound anew.

The figure landed nimbly on her feet, raising her paws in the air, cheerfully laughing as she threw her head up. Finally, Keyl saw his new opponent in full.

It was another wolfkin, her fur was the rare color of pure rust. A coat of pure crimson was thrown on her shoulders, buttoned just enough to hide her small breasts and leave her chest wide open for everyone to see the scars that covered her entire body. A bronze medal was on the lapel of her coat. The lower parts of the coat were sliced, showing overly muscular legs covered with black wellingtons. Not even the fur of a wolfkin could hide the sheer number of scars that were covering her body, scar tissue was budling through the fur, creating ugly lines on the once nice-looking face of a strange lady. While she was laughing with her mouth open, Keyl noticed that she was missing several fangs. And yet when she looked at Keyl and Annie, smiling, she looked beautiful despite her flaws, her amber eyes were shining ever There was no hostility in her features, just sheer joy.

"Annie! I missed you so much, sweetie! Have room for one more?" The wolfkin asked with anticipation, taking a combat stance. Keyl swallowed in worry, but Annie just straightened herself up.

"What is wrong with you, Virginia?" Annie asked in a serious tone, sizing up her opponent.

"Whatever do you mean by these strange words?" The smile never left Virginia’s face, but she relaxed her posture and walked toward Keyl, leaving a few rust-colored hairs behind herself in the air, "I and others have finally arrived! Gotta say, the assault on the city was morbid, many of people I know are injured or dead," For a moment, happiness left the face of the strange wolfkin, replaced by an unusual looking seriousness, "My condolences to the losses of everyone, your pack included Annie. Abandon your worries, though! With Zero, Alpha, and little old me here, the Resistance will have no choice but to give up!!" Keyl felt how goosebumps ran down his spine at the mention of Alpha and Zero. He looked around, against his will, in something resembling a divine fear. He was the Ice Fang, a member of the best among the best. And yet… Even the Ice Fangs revered and respected Alpha and Zero. These two were truly ancient. Who knows how they will react to their kin…

"Don’t worry, ice knight, Alpha has no reason to be angry at you specifically." Virginia whispered into Keyl’s ear, guessing his worries. Keyl frowned, sensing a stinking smell coming from Virginia’s mouth, as if something had crawled there, died, and was now busy rotting.

Virginia danced around Annie, throwing her arms up and releasing her claws, long weapons of murder, covered with the tiniest cracks. Virginia tapped her claws against each other, producing a surprisingly nice sounding melody, turning around and causing the lower part of her coat to float around her waist like a skirt.

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"So don’t worry about a thing! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! You and me, like before…" She stopped suddenly, in a surprise, when Annie caught her by the wrist. The wolf hags looked each other in the eye, the rust colored wolfkin with barely held back anticipation and rage, the black and grey wolfkin with actual worry in her eyes.

"I am not fighting against half-dead opponents. Virginia, go and sort yourself out. For Spirits sake, have you seen your eyes? Wash them, clean your teeth, what is going on with you?" Annie let go of Virginia’s paw and another wolf hag hurriedly stepped back.

"Screw you! You are making this weird. Bye, I am glad that you are alive, get well and eat well! You too, strange dude!" Virginia’s first words were filled with barely held in check rage, but while she talked, her rage was disappearing, with her last words sounded unmistakably good-natured. She jumped and made a somersault toward the window, crashing through it and jumping away from the sparring area as if nothing had happened.

"Strange… dude?" Keyl asked in surprise, walking toward his sword and lifting it, "Takes a weird one to see a strange one, I’d say."

"I can still hear you!" A scream came from behind the window.

"And I can see you!" A new voice, the one belonging to warlord Janine, roared, "I gave the order about leaving the ice boys alone, unless they challenge you!"

Keyl had no idea what had happened outside of the walls, but he heard a loud noise and the walls of the building shook, followed by Virginia’s scream, a scream that sounded both filled with pain and excitement in equal measure and was getting weaker by the second. The wolfkins in the room darted away upon hearing the warlord’s voice.

Keyl shut his mouth, turning toward Annie with the intention of finishing their sparring session. The wolf hag just shrugged her shoulders, showing that she had no idea either and limped to get the knives.

"What is the meaning of this!" A scream came from the entrance of the training area, and a smaller wolfkin, looking almost like Annie’s twin, charged inside, stopping between fighters, her paws outstretched toward each fighter.

"We are training, Svetka, that’s all." Annie growled, pressing a paw to the wound on her side. Her blood ran down her leg, staining her sneakers.

"Training!" Svetlana screamed with sheer rage, "Your wounds are open. You are bleeding like a cusack after slaughter."

Keyl lowered his blade, seeing truth in the words of the newcomer.

Spirits be praised, she was injured all this time? Keyl shook his head, resizing his opponent. Just how strong is she in her prime…

"And you, sir knight!" Svetlana turned toward the knight captain, her ringing voice marking her last two words with a mocking sound, "My sister may not be the nicest person to have around, but I expected better of someone so supposedly enlightened as you. Who taught you to bully the injured person, the person who gave her all to save bloody lives yesterday! What right do you have to make her suffer any more? She needs rest and car…" Svetlana stopped talking when the embraced-looking Annie closed her paws around the snout of the furiously breathing woman. The huge wolf hag held the smaller wolfkin surprisingly gently, looking pleadingly at Keyl.

"Svetlan… Svetka, I am fine, fine… Stop embracing me in front of the guests…" Annie asked, "Bitch!" She gasped when Svetlana beat her and planted an elbow into Annie’s stomach.

"Shut up, An! Just for once, shut up! I am tired. I haven’t slept in two days and you all just. Keep. Getting. hurt!" Svetlana turned to her, grabbing Annie under the arm and dragging her after herself, "One more word and I'll call Janine!"

The knight looked with confusion at how the two wolfkins left in a hurry. He put the claymore behind his back and walked away, promising to keep his urges in check once more.

****

"You," Annie said, sizing up the new medic while Svetlana treated her wound, "Why are you here?"

"Enlisted in the medic corps, ma’am!" The woman saluted before joining Svetlana in treating the wound.

"You tried to kill us." Annie accused her.

She remembered this woman, despite the lack of hair, a few more scars on her face, and the uniform of a field medic. Back then, the woman was clad in the power armor, Annie and Virginia faced her in the arena. By all rights, she should have been in the Torment to this day! Even the guards of the arena were sentenced to twenty years in prisons, no way this woman could be out by now.

"We accepted a deal from the state. Wolf hag Annie, I am assigned to your pack as a field medic."

"How do I know that you won’t poison us in our sleep?" Annie demanded to know, sizing her up. The wound that she dealt to her solar plexus seemingly no longer bothered this scum.

"For one, there is no poison strong enough to do it. Two, I want to be out and clear. Three, all of us have an imprint in our brains, the moment we even try to think about running away or harming anyone, we feel pain all over our body," The woman noticed the confused look in Annie's eyes and mistook it for something else, "Worry not, wolf hag! Our imprints can distinguish between causing pain to treat an injury and causing pain to cause harm. Captain Scorpio himself put the restriction on us, they are flexible enough. I won't be a burden!"

"You said, "we" and "us". What do you mean by this?" Annie asked, and the doors leading to the medical room flung open, allowing two women to move Virginia, strapped to a stretcher inside. The wolf hag lay face down, struggling to break free, while four deep claw wounds marked her back, slightly above her back.

Stomping like an elephant, Janine walked after them.

"How. How do your kind manage to injure themselves so much during times of peace!? Why in the world did you kicked her into the building!" Hekanta demanded to know, pushing Virginia’s down and reaching for the instruments to clear up the wound, "Listen, you oversized bitch…"

"You will address me as warlord Janine." The warlord growled, towering over the woman. Hekanta no longer had her gorgeous hair from before, her head was now cleanly shaven of all hair and a serial number IV was on the back of her head. The gray uniform of a field medic did little to hide her impressive physique that allowed her to tower over most people. Several scars covered the once pristine skin of her face, but the fire in her eyes burned anew when she looked into the warlord’s eyes.

"Oversized bitch," Hekanta replied slowly, while the second woman backed off from them. The former arena champion had to stand on her toes to even be close to Janine’s snout, "I have enough on my hands keeping people alive as it is. We're at war, war needs soldiers to fight, remember that, you retarded potato! You injure anyone else, I am going straight to the Wyrm Lord! Now be a good little girl, sit at the table and write a report, explaining why exactly the pack of my lady is one soldier short for the next two days." Hekanta turned around, unafraid of the warlord’s growl.

"Two days?!" Virginia tried to break free from her restraints, "But I will miss all the fun!"

"Great, now every bitch in the land has arrived! Hekanta, why in the Abyss are you still alive and on the loose?" Annie cursed, feeling the woman begin to stitch her side again.

"This is first class medic Hekanta for you, shit for brains," The former champion replied, "As for your question, after years of learning medicine in the Torment’s schools, I was finally assigned to the pack of the most illustrious warlord, Alpha, as a field medic, to save the likes of you. Regular normies can’t keep up with the packs, but we can. Captain Ivar, in his boundless wisdom, believes that this will limit the number of dead among the Wolf Tribe during the war, and all of us are eager to prove him right. I’ll have you know that we passed the final exams and had practiced in some of the most prestigious medical establishments in the Core Lands, so village dwellers like you are better appreciate our hard work. Now shut your trap and let us work," Hekanta closed in on Annie, grabbing her by the snout and running a finger across her scars, moving the snout up and taking a strange metal device that she shoved into Annie’s left nostril, "Air barely goes in. Who did it to you?"

"My work!" Virginia eagerly admitted, "When we were cubs and…"

"Figures, the soldiers of my lady are all of the finest stock."

"Heard that, Annie!? She thinks I am better than you! Ouch!" Virginia jerked when one of the women injected painkillers into her back.

Hekanta glanced at the stumbling Svetlana and took the wolfkin by her snout, looking into her pupils, before snapping her fingers, "Off to sleep immediately. Don’t show up in the infirmary until you have slept for at least eight hours, or I will report you to Alpha. We don’t need anyone to slip and harm the patient."

Well, at least Svetka is going to get a taste of her own treatment. Annie smirked at the confused face of her sister, allowing the medics to treat her injury.

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