Blood for Wolves (3 page)

“No,” Marianne persisted, sounding
more frightened now. “I don’t think it is.”

“It’s okay.” I patted her hand. “I’ve
done a lot of work out here in the field; I know how to take care of us. Trust
me.”

I decided maybe if I got her
talking she might calm down. Kids tended to forget their worries when they got
on a chatting spree. That and I might find out more about her and how she ended
up lost.

“I like your dress, Marianne.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice
soft.

“It makes me think of bluebells.”

“That’s what everyone says. But
it’s not my dress, it’s me.”

“You?”

She nodded emphatically. “It’s
because I was born in a fairy ring.”

I played along. “Really? Does that
make you special?”

“I don’t know.” She pondered the
thought. “Maybe that’s why the wolves all want to eat me.”

Great. Now we were back to the
wolves again.

“Wolves aren’t all that dangerous,”
I told her.

She made a face. “Yes they are.”

I tried not to let my frustration
show. Who kept telling kids that crap? Probably from all those stupid bedtime
stories where wolves ate up grandmothers and little girls.

“You know,” I said, “when I was a
little girl a wolf once saved my life.”

“Really?” Then she wrinkled her
nose. “Why?”

“She saw that I was in trouble, so
she helped me.” I left out why I was in trouble. Why I’d been out in the woods
alone. Forgotten. I shoved the memory to the back of my mind.

Marianne didn’t say anything. My
words seemed to have brought up a lot of confusion. After a long time, she
finally spoke again.

“A wolf killed my sister.” She said
it quietly, in a matter-of-fact tone.

Shit.
That was it. I
immediately stopped walking.

“Marianne,” I knelt in front of her
and held her shoulders. “I am so sorry.”

“I never saw it,” she continued,
“but I heard them talking. They said she was ripped to pieces.”

I had absolutely no idea what to
say. So I hugged her. Now I wasn’t so sure of what she meant. Did a real wolf
kill her sister? Or was wolf the proxy of a murderer, an illusion she’d built
up in her mind to handle the pain of losing a sister? Then another thought hit
me. Was the crazy guy the same person that killed her sister?

“When did it happen?” I asked.

“Three full moons ago. I think
that’s why everyone wanted to move me. They were afraid the wolves would get me
next.”

I smoothed her hair. “Well don’t
you worry. I’m not letting any wolves get you. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

The ground soon became rocky and
the trees thinned. Eventually, the trees disappeared altogether and we hiked
through boulder fields, mountains reaching up on either side. I held Marianne’s
hand a little tighter. I didn’t know these mountains, and I knew my mountains. These
were completely unfamiliar, as was the boulder field. I couldn’t panic though. I
didn’t want to scare Marianne. But I didn’t remember going up. We were above
tree line somehow, or out of it. The ground sloped more, but not by much. Where
the hell was this?

Marianne whimpered. “I don’t like
it here. I thought that giants lived here.”

Giants? Maybe her issues reached
farther than I thought. “Who told you that?”

“My parents. All the people of the
village say that giants live in the mountains.”

“Marianne, it’s okay. There aren’t
any—”

A low vibration rolled under my
feet. I stopped. Marianne whimpered again and grabbed at my waist, hugging me
close.
Don’t be stupid Caroline. Probably just a falling boulder.

“It’s okay,” I said, trying to pry
her off me. “You’re safe with me.”

The entire area suddenly shook
violently, boulders and rocks breaking loose and crashing down the
mountainside. I crouched low and put my arms around Marianne.

“Hmm.”

A deep voice reverberated through
the air. I looked up to find the source, and my mouth fell open in utter shock.
Men—huge men—emerged from behind vast boulder piles and out of massive caves. They
had to be at least twenty feet tall, each one of them. Their legs and arms were
thick, covered in animal skins sewn together with sinewy ties. One of them
actually had a club slung over his shoulder. They advanced on us, each step
rocking the mountains and then ground.

“What is this? Little villagers
trespassing on our mountains?” one of them said.

Giants. Real giants. Where the hell
was I? What the hell
was
this? It was all I could do to hold onto
Marianne and not fall over from the shaking or start laughing because I’d
actually drowned in that pond and someone had found me and this was some sort
of screwed up coma dream. Marianne cried softly against my chest, her little
fingers twining in my hair.

“Uh….” I cleared my throat and
stood, picking Marianne up. I had to leave. I needed to leave. This was not Wyoming. This was not
normal
. “We’re…. We were lost. Sorry. We didn’t mean to
trespass. We can just go. It’s okay.” I was saying that a lot. It most
certainly was
not
okay. This was so far from okay it was ridiculous.

I started walking backward, keeping
the giants—all five of them—in my sights. They seemed amused, and not in a good
way.

“Once a trespasser trespasses,
there is no returning,” the one with the club said.

“True, true,” said another. “One
cannot simply un-trespass by leaving.”

“Yes they can,” I blurted out. I
felt like I was losing my mind. “If I’m on the land, I’m trespassing. If I’m
off the land, I’m not trespassing. See, I have to be on it to trespass.”

They pondered this, looking at one
another. Good enough. I kept edging back, but the tree line was still
horrendously far away.

“We don’t agree,” the one with the
club said finally. “But you’re still here, so you’re still trespassing. It’s
time we took care of you.”

I turned and ran as best I could,
carrying Marianne with me. But two violent shakes of the ground toppled the
both of us. A club slammed into the ground, blocking the trees from sight. Marianne
screamed as one of the giants picked her up.

“Let go of her!”
I shouted, picking up rocks and throwing them at the giants’ faces. They failed
to reach their targets, and the giants laughed. My eardrums rang painfully. I
spotted a sharp branch lying on the ground and grabbed it. I charged at the
giant holding Marianne, driving the branch into his leg as deep as it could go.
The giant howled, and I let go of the branch to clap my hands over my ears. He
kicked his leg to dislodge the bough, and the edge of his foot caught my
shoulder to send me sprawling. My head struck a boulder, sending little black
stars to dance in my eyes. Something warm trickled down the side of my face,
and the world went dark.

When I awoke my head was pounding. First
I thought it was due to the cut on my head. Then I thought it was more likely a
combination of that and being hung upside down. It took me a few minutes to
adjust, trying to figure out where the hell I was as bits and pieces of the
day’s events filtered back into my brain.

I wasn’t in Wyoming anymore. That
was for damn sure. I was in a cave, or inside somewhere. The walls looked like
rock. A big fire burned brightly in the center. The flames warmed my front;
ropes tied my hands to my feet, and my feet to something in the ceiling. I
grunted and tried to swing around. No good. The movement only served to make my
head swim a little. My breath started to come in short little gasps.

Okay. Okay. Don’t panic. Focus.
What
had they done to Marianne? And what were they going to do to me next? I’d gone
from being under the knife by a man claiming to be a half-wolf to hanging in a
giant’s larder. The thought made me pause. Man
claiming
to be a
half-wolf? I’d just run into giants and Marianne kept insisting the man was a
wolf.
Damn.

“Where the hell am I?”

I screamed it, but no one answered.
No one came. I shut my eyes for a moment. My head swam. Something had happened.
Something—the pond. Marianne had jumped into the pond after saying there were
wolves “here” too. Had she meant Wyoming? The woods there? I’d followed after
her and ended up…where?

“Hey! HEY! Someone! HELP!”

Nothing. I groaned. My head
throbbed. A small pool of blood had formed beneath me. Or was it dripping into
a bowl? I squirmed around again, but the ropes held tight. How soon before the
giants came back? Was this a Jack and the Beanstalk sort of deal? Were they
going to eat me and grind my bones for bread?

I stared at the glowing embers in
the fire. The whole situation was just too unreal for me to even cry about. There
was no way this could be happening.

Scuffling noises came from the cave
opening somewhere to my right. I could still see some of the sunlight sifting
in through the mouth. A giant was back. I was about to get eaten. My heart
pounded away like a terrified bird trapped in a cage. Except…for a giant, he
wasn’t making things shake very much. I heard something that sounded like
panting and muffled growly noises. Hooray! Saved by a badger. I snickered to
myself.
That’s right Caroline, lose your mind. That’ll make it much easier
on you when the giants flay you.

The man from the cottage suddenly
jumped into the cave.

“There you are my love.”

“Oh my God,” I couldn’t help but
say aloud. “My life has just gone from bad to worse.”

“Don’t say that, lovely little
thing. I’m here to help. Trust me why don’t you? Or don’t you trust me because
I’m half-wolf? An awful thing it is, the way people hate us wolves. Unjust and
unfair.”

I was tied up and about to die
anyway. What did I have to lose? “Maybe if you didn’t try to kill little girls
and rape women and eat all the pieces, people wouldn’t be on your case so much.”

He actually growled. “Don’t be so
absurd. Eating up little girls and the like. We didn’t ask to be made like
this, mind you. I’ve been good my entire life and where does that get me? I end
up locked away for eating a few lambkins. They’re going to get eaten anyway,
aren’t they?”

He bounded over to me, and I
flinched away from him. His face was way too close to mine. And I had no idea
how he managed it, but his breath was surprisingly minty.

“But enough about me. Seems you’ve
gotten yourself into trouble. Time to get you down and away from here, my heart.”

He hauled over a large rock with
surprising ease and hopped on it to begin working at the knots.

“I can’t believe you found us all
the way out here,” I muttered.

My hands fell free. I was tempted
to push him off the rock and into the fire, but I was too high off the ground. If
I untied my own feet, I’d have a nasty fall and probably hit my head again.

“It’s because I can smell you,” he
said, as if that were perfectly natural. “And you, oh, you smell so delightful.
I could follow you anywhere, even if it meant out of the forest, and we wolves
never travel out of the forest.”

“Smell me? Yeah right. I probably
left a blood trail.”

“Ah yes, that was a sweet surprise
I must say; there is something very enchanting in your blood. Though perhaps
that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t thrashed around on that window. Really,
you should have just let me explain myself to you.”

“Explain yourself?” I practically
shouted. My feet came free from the rope noose. I thought he was going to let
me fall, but he caught me in his arms and very gently set me on the ground
again. Suddenly being right-side up sent a wave of dizziness over me, and I had
to cling to his shoulders a moment longer than I wanted to. He held my waist
lightly, giving me time to recover. His tender movements took me aback and for
a moment all I could do was stare at him, confused. His hair was surprisingly
well groomed now that I had the time to pay attention to it.

Then he frowned. “You’re hurt.” He
gently touched my chin and tilted my head to examine the cut. He looked angry
about it.

I stepped back and batted his hand
away. “Never mind that. What do you mean explain yourself? You had a huge knife
and you were about to kill a little girl. Not to mention you started feeling me
up and sniffing me. Do you know how creepy that is?”

He cocked an eyebrow, mulling that
over. “No, not really. And I wasn’t going to do anything to her.  I was just…following
her.”

“With a
knife
?”

He grumbled to himself, looking a
bit cowed. “Perhaps that was a bit much. Not like we wolves need knives.” He
held up his hands. “See? I don’t even have it now.”

I examined him. I didn’t see it,
but that didn’t mean he didn’t have it hidden somewhere.

“Would you like to use your hands
to find out?” he asked as if he knew what I was thinking.

“No!”

“I hate to rush you my heart, but
we really ought to leave before the giants get back.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. This
was all just too bizarre.

He stared at me as if I were the
crazy one. “What?”

“Giants. So they are real?”

He glanced around like I’d just
asked a trick question. “Yes. Giants have always been real. Come, we must go
before they return to make a meal out of you.” He paused and eyed me in a way
that made me shiver. “Not entirely an unappealing idea.”

“Who are you anyway?”

“Just Wolf.”

We made our way out of the cave,
picking our path through boulder fields. I was thankful I had my hiking boots. The
extra traction and support gave me a better chance of avoiding a broken ankle.

Once we were free of the boulders,
he sped toward the tree line. I let him run and turned back to face the
boulders. Marianne had to be in there somewhere. No matter how screwed up this
whole situation was, I couldn’t let a bunch of giants eat or do whatever it was
they did to kids and people they caught. She had to be here. Maybe in a cave,
like I was. I crept up behind a boulder to examine the mountains.