Wolf Spirit
Focus, Kyrazha, focus. I was breathing hard and ragged by now, blood leaking down my chin. The wolf wasn’t the only one who had gotten a few bites in. I took a short moment to assess my injuries. My left arm was still hanging useless by my side, the earlier bite had probably dislocated it or maybe tore a muscle, I couldn’t say. It was still bleeding and actually sapping a lot of my strength, but I didn’t feel the pain anymore right now. There were some scratches on my stomach and another set of teeth marks in my leg.
She didn’t look much better though. She was limping, blood matting her fur on various places. So far we’d been pretty evenly matched. But looking into each other’s eyes, we both knew it. This was destined to be, one of us would have to die.
Crouching down as I was, I picked up a small rock in my right hand. I’d have to end this battle soon, I wouldn’t last long with this blood loss.
She lunged, sensing my weak moment. I ducked, feeling the sharp fangs scrape over my shoulder. In the same movement, I threw the rock I was holding against a tree nearby, creating a loud sound. And she made a fatal mistake. She turned her head out of instinct towards the sound when she landed, giving me a perfect opening to do an attack of my own. Tensing, I put all my strength into my jump, howling in pain as I hit her side with my injured shoulder first, but I needed my good hand free.
She tumbled over, a flurry of fangs and fur, but I put my entire weight on her, my claws digging in neck, my elbow pressing her head down. She growled and snarled, but even she was weakened from the long fight. I returned the favour, blood pounding in my ears, the only thing still keeping me up was the adrenaline and the taste of blood in my mouth.
It took a few minutes of struggle and me almost giving up a few times, ready to let her go. But I remembered my talk to Feraleye. I had a duty.
When the realisation hit her, I could see it in her eyes. My grip on her neck tightened. She let out a soft huff, almost as if accepting her fate, accepting defeat by me. And then lay still, her eyes glazing over.
I collapsed on top of her, my vision going black.
Pain woke me. Pain everywhere, my entire body screaming, muscles tensing… I opened my eyes. It was still dark, but there was movement around me. I was still lying on the wolfs body, no clue how much time had passed. Shapes of silver moved beside me and when I looked around, there was the pack. Almost all of them had come to the clearing, standing in a circle around me. One of them, I recognized him as the Alpha male, was standing on a fallen log nearby, above the others. He looked down at me.
I expected them to attack me. To finish me off in my weakened state, punishment for killing one of theirs.
But they didn’t. The alpha merely dipped his head down for a second, then turned his back to me and walked away, the pack following.
A few hours later I felt slightly better. I’d ripped up my chestwrap to bind my arm. In the pouch I had taken, I had a jar, which I used to collect a good amount of the wolfs blood. My nails were the perfect tools to skin the fur from her, though it took a long time with just one hand. I also took some of her fangs, but left the rest of the body to the wilds.
I’d never before really felt any connection to one of the wolf kind. Never before this one. She, so alike to me.
It was time to return to my own pack, to my own Alpha.