Chapter 5

Noora

Her boots scraped against the dry soil of the forest, crunching leaves and branches before they disappeared into high piles of snow. Even though the sun was halfway across the sky, there were no sounds of life echoing in the trees. Noora felt suspicious of the silence and crouched down, dipping her hand into the snow. Reaching the ground, she noticed that the earth was hard and dry even underneath the piles of frozen water.

It wasn’t something out of the ordinary that the leaves left their places on branches during winter but somehow this time it felt different. Thanks to her powers Noora was always deeply connected to the nature around her. She could feel the roots of the trees running around each other, buried deep beneath the soil. A network that could not be pried apart or understood without actually feeling it. She could hear the singing of the birds as they settled in the crowns of the trees or the splashing of the river av Livet a few metres away.

But today it was strange, in a way she had never felt before.

A deep howl disrupted her thoughts and she quickly grabbed her bow. The howling continued and she followed the sound, ducking underneath hanging branches and jumping over fallen tree stumps. Her nose grew numb a while ago, her feet soaked with cold water, snow that crept through her boots and melted in the process.

The howling turned into a whine the closer she got and when she rounded into a more secluded part of the forest her steps faltered.

Right there, behind a fallen stump, it laid. She would’ve not seen it if it weren’t for the small whimpers and heavy breathing that passed its snout.

A wolf as white as the snow was leaning against the fallen trunk, its breath turning foggy in the cold air.

In a matter of seconds, Noora gathered her wits, drew her bow, and pointed the tip of the arrow in the direction of the wolf.

Its flesh would give her at least forty Gulls, another twenty for its fur. She steadied her breath, the wolf unaware of her presence as it whimpered. That’s when she saw it. A gashing wound on his left flank, dripping blood onto the snow. It was hurt. Noora hesitated even though she hated herself for it. She always lived with the mentality of killing or being killed but something about the wolf’s whine made her hesitate. It wasn’t fair if it couldn’t defend itself.

“You soft-hearted girl,” she cursed herself. The wolf seemed to hear her, its face turning toward her. Blue eyes, as piercing as the ocean meet her stance. The wolf didn’t move, and Noora didn’t either.

Before she could decide to doom the animal or not, a round of howls sounded in the distance. Crouching quickly she watched a snarling pack of white wolves break through the snow. The lonely wolf cowered but still stood up, baring its teeth at the leader. Noora noticed one missing eye, and a black scar running along the alpha’s snout, deep and claw-formed.

She should have left before this got ugly. She could take one wolf but a whole pack of them?

The alpha growled at the lonely wolf before pouncing at it, biting into his neck. Instead of going down the wolf kept on fighting, howling but it still managed to get a bite into the bigger wolf, attacking him.

They tumbled through the dry forest ground, the rest of the pack only watching, baring their teeth in delight, fresh pieces of meat stuck between their incisors. They looked eager to participate but apparently, they had a personal agenda, as the alpha of the pack bit again and again. The injured wolf would not make it but that was how it was, the weak got eaten only the strong ones survived. Though it had survived a lot when considering its whining only a few moments ago.

Noora turned to go when a whine split the air. “Godsdamnit,” she cursed before she turned, drawing her bow and letting go.

The arrow flew through the air with such precision there was no way it would miss. A pathetic yowl that turned into gurgling sounded as it hit the alpha in the eye. He tumbled away from the injured wolf, down a small hill before a defeating creak of its neck sounded.

The rest of the pack scattered in panic of being ambushed, their whines echoing through the forest as they left, mourning their leader. What a disloyal shit pack.

Noora got out of her crouch and walked over to the wolf . Dead.

Heavy breathing sounded just to her left and she turned to see the injured wolf now lying on the ground defeated but not lost. Its blue eyes met hers again as if to communicate something to her.

“I didn’t do this for you. No one would want an ill wolf. He has much more flesh which means more gold for me.” The wolf cocked its head at her words, still breathing heavily.

“I am not going to help you, understood?”

The wolf kept on staring.

She turned her back on it and threw the heavy body over her shoulders. She groaned at the weight, grabbing the legs of the dead wolf to balance herself.

Before leaving the woodland, she threw the last stale meat, which she always kept in her bag when she went hunting, towards the injured wolf.

“That’s all that you get,” she called after as she scrunched through the snow. A huffing kind of laughter accompanied her the rest of the way.