The sharp point of the needle hovered over the wolf female’s vein, shaking in my talons.

Air scrapes down my dry throat with one big gulp, dry eyes roving between the embedded vine and down the length of it to the sharp point of the makeshift needle. This I continued doing multiple times, checking to make sure the Wolf King wouldn’t jerk around and yank on the makeshift IV vine.

Grrrrrrrrl.

The one scarred eye he had was twisted closed in a harsh grimace, only allowing a yellow glimmer to glint from its slit. Even in pain, he watched me work, his intense gaze making me grasp the needle tighter.

A pause as I grasp the pulsating vine with my beak and stretch out with my talon. The sharp point goes right through the tiny unfolded leaf pouch that I’d taken out of the pack on my back.

Alpha.

The Wolf King pushes out his chest even more towards me, widening the large gash gored out by Crixus.

Schlk.

In response, the lone vine swells up, blood pulsating into the thick plant frond like a leech as it feasts on its prey.

Shh…

Upon the leaf I’d pierced with my talon to bring closer sat a fine pinkish-red powder of Tufted Redring Mold and goblin skin. A soft dip of the needle end of the vine into the powder…

We don’t want your mate to turn out like that bush, do we? If I don’t do this, there’s a high chance the vine will use your mate’s body as feed to grow into another bush.

No…

Not daring to follow my pointed look out the cave entrance to the wall of green outside, the Wolf King grows silent after that.

Hooooo. Here we go.

Breathing out deeply, we all watch as the needle slowly pierces into the vein made prominent by Greenie, pressing his fingers tightly around her forelimb in a ring like I’d asked him to. Though dark bits of what I knew wasn’t only dirt remained under his long claw-like fingernails, I chose to ignore it.

Dark blood wells out around the needle, after the initial piercing into her vein, but it seemed to work. While the vine worked hard to suck the blood out of the Wolf King, it sent all the precious blood right into the vein of the Wolf King’s mate.

Now we wait. Your turn now.

Without looking up from the leaf I tied tightly around the silver female wolf’s foreleg to keep the needle in, I address the Wolf King.

It wasn’t too difficult patching the Wolf King up.

What next?

Blinking slowly, his snout slowly relaxes from its tensed up position, laying his head flat on the ground while I surveyed our handiwork. The able-bodied wolves continued to go out in small rotations, bringing back water and feeding it to their poisoned Pack members.

Stay still.

I can go gather water with the Pack-

Craackle.

No!

Hardened bit of clay crackle off his kneecaps when he tries to stand, wobbling on unsteady feet.

No?

Arghh!! No! My wing flies to my small cranium in distress. Another hunk of clay plops to the ground.

Raven. Don’t pull out your feathers. Don’t do it. He’s not worth it…

I tell myself, while Greenie gets up from his crouch further back in the cave. The goblin had taken it upon himself to begin slopping up each and every wolf that laid on the ground with our medicinal clay.

I would go first, then Greenie second, hooking up pairs of wolves to each other, healthy and poisoned.

There was a loud clanging reverberating off the cave walls through it all, Advari pausing multiple times to check on the needles he was crafting for me. The more he made, the more thin and sharp the needles became.

The two fistfuls of the metal, what he called Igni Alumen were more than enough. With the needles becoming a lot thinner than Greenie’s pinky finger, I’d considered replacing the needle feeding the Wolf King’s mate then thought against it.

Master.

A crusty finger rubs against my scalp, his way of calming me down. It was then I’d realized that my vision was shaking, and I stop. The stress of fixing up the large wolves, and the time it was taking to do it was making me jitter my body.

But this Wolf King!

We’d twisted his forelimbs back into position and he was trying to stand on them again.

No! Don’t move! Don’t even move your tail. And don’t move from that spot!

But I am-! Was! The Alpha!

My sharp look makes him lower himself back down, ears dropping downward.

I need to defend my Pack..

Hearing his emotion shrink inwards, so obedient to my look made me surprised inwardly. When he made me Alpha, he really meant it. This Wolf King treated me like the boss.

Since he wanted me to be Alpha I guess it was time for this boss raven to take charge.

White feathers fluff out below my beak as I puff out my chest pompously.

A-hem! Fine.

Pointed ears perk back up in excitement, strange to see on such a large, scarred, tough looking animal like him.

First! Stay calm!

Yes Alpha! Right away!

Immediately, he lies on his side, showing me his belly.

Second! I need information. Tell me the biggest creatures you know of around here.

...And also get comfortable, that position doesn't look too comfortable.

I add,

Settling his head forward on his paws, the Wolf King lets out a heavy breath, wincing from his injuries.

Hmm. There’s the big one, but the tough hide broke our teeth so it takes many of the Pack to hunt. With my flames, it helps to get the tree eating round-faced prey, but it takes time to get past their hide. And the even bigger fluffy one, but that one’s really quick and it hides in the trees. A lot of the ones here are hard to hunt. They run away, or drag you into the water, or they start sucking off your snout, or they live in hard to reach places.. Hmm. And some of them wrap tightly until something breaks. The usual fast ones we get, those had been hard to hunt recently..

The Wolf King continues on in the background while I go back to work.

Listening to him speak, I’m surprised he knew a lot less about the animals living here than I did. I’d known the names of the creatures using Appraisal, and figured out which ones were better to hunt from observation. And it seemed that they’d only recently learned which creatures were better to hunt.

I would have to ask him later on that-

Gently grasping the next vine with my beak, I wag my wing at him in warning when he raises his head. At this point, he looked more statue than living creature. Every inch of him was matted blue-grey with wet clay, drying atop his fur so that he looked like a lifelike statue.

The creatures here are stranger than what we were used to. Well, it’d been too easy before, taking from the enclosed spaces. All the soft, meek prey there..

Drooling, the Wolf King closes his eyes and continues to speak.

He’d obediently allowed Greenie and I to slop clay all over him, which made things go a lot easier than I’d negatively imagined. However, hi over-enthusiasm in chugging down the gourds the other wolves bring back caused him to accidentally chokes on one.

Forcing me to have to teach Greenie a rough, truncated version of the Heimlich Manuever. All the while continuing to give blood transfusions to one wolf after another.

This might be more stressful than the multitasking I did when working at the company, researching while fielding my boss’ requests and taking phone calls from disgruntled clients.

Sigh..

Neck bobbing, I pierce the next wolf’s foreleg with the needle, moving on after checking to make sure the Siphon Bush vine was sucking properly.

The now silent Wolf King was now asleep, the hint of his chest heaving the only sign that he was alive. Other than that, he looked a lot like the frozen pilot character encased in silver from the famous space opera I’d watched once.

My black wings were matted even darker now, the shine disappearing from my prized feathers with all the blood I’d bathed from the bleeding wolves. I’m sure my beak and talons were even dyed red by now.

In addition to the blood scattered around the wolves, our cave was now decorated with another smelly puddle of stomach acid and drool.

Grouucgh!

Oop. The puddle grew bigger again when the Wolf King heaves a second time.

My goodness, the convincing it’d taken to make Greenie to climb atop the large wolf.. That took some time, finding the sweet spot above the belly that Greenie could force his clasped fists into while hugging the humongous wolf from behind.

Thanks, Greenie. I’m ok now.

His thick fingers crusted with bloody clay didn’t feel all too great, catching against the short feathers atop my scalp, but I appreciated the gesture.

Tip-toeing up and rubbing my head up back in response to him, I hop away and go back to finishing up my latest procedure.

Master, ok? Master not ok, we go.

Bending down and nodding down at me, Greenie whispers to me through our Thought Link giving me a small leering grin.

He taps himself on top of his head, then taps my head.

Master, Greenie.

How sweet of Greenie. And what a tempting offer.

I mean, that wasn’t a bad idea, was it? There was nothing forcing me to take care of all these wolves-

The plan already begins coming together in my mind. Wait for Crixus to wake up, and then, while all the wolves were asleep, sneak out?

How would we get past all these wolves without alerting any of them?

A short glance out over the wolves quietly licking their sick cohorts, steadfastly cleaning their faces of the tears of blood slowly dripping out of their eyes and noses…

I’d done that. I’d caused this to happen. I wish I didn't have to keep reminding myself of this. This sick feeling. I hate it.

Soft whimpers echo in the cave room, a smaller wolf curling up into another, back pressed to the belly and tail lying limply across the stone floor.

Resisting the cry building in my throat, I look down at my wings, then wish I didn’t. The clay covering my injured wing was wet with red. The scent of blood was everywhere. Staining through my feathers, my skin, into my bones, deep into my very soul.

Beak clenching tightly together, I wave the thought away. My parents raised me to clean up after my messes.

A gruff voice breaks the dreadful reverie circulating in my head.

Take me with you as well, won’t you? If you do.

We both look to the back of the dwarf hunched over his makeshift stone anvil.

Andvari lifts up a newly made needle and taps it with a long, curled fingernail, cocking his head at the sound.

No.

I tell him again, and Greenie, for good measure.

No.

Another hard gulp. This time, with a firmer note to my thought.

I’m not leaving.

With a gentle pat on the top of my head, Greenie grins again, standing up and picking up his cloth sack filled with wet clay.

Well then, here’s the rest of the thin needles you requested, Lady.

Andvari murmurs and beckons me over. Of course he waved confidently towards the wall with back faced to me.

I watch his back as he goes, going back to work on the next wolf in need of patching up, while chucking a wad of clay on Crixus as he goes past the unconscious Minotaur.

From the small crusty mountain forming atop Crixus’ body, it seemed he’d been doing that every time he went past Crixus.

Easy on the clay, Greenie!

At this rate, Crixus would be buried alive.

Greenie stops, looks back at me.

Greenie?

Was the rivalry between the Minotaur and goblin still continuing?

Greenie, heal. Good, yes?

Patting himself on the chest like he’d discovered a great invention, Greenie sets down his sack of clay-

Clay go wolf.

And-

Not breaking eye contact, proceeds to slowly drool on Crixus, grinning evilly while rubbing his spit into Crixus’s skin.

Greenie help Crixus.

I guess it was.

He knew exactly what he was doing. And he acted like I didn’t see the booger he sneakily wiped on Crixus, while the poor dude was passed out.

What happened to the understanding they seemed to share after Crixus’ victory? I know I didn’t dream of Greenie cheering for Crixus when he’d won.

Sigh…I thought you liked him after the fight?

Shrugging, Greenie picks up his sack and moves on.

I do the same, hopping to go gather the needles from Andvari.

Poor Crixus, I hoped he woke up from his evolution before Greenie peed on him in the name of medication.

Lady.

Hmm, Andvari?

Cloudy eyes gaze over my head as he waves around himself.

You’ve gained a Pack. What follows?

What do you mean?

I quietly pick up each needle one by one and stick them in my pack.

The fires of day fade. What of the morrow?

You mean tomorrow?

Ouch!

Something shiny grows straight up out of my foot. I'd accidentally dropped a needle, pointy end right into my talon, straight through.

Muffling a shout of pain, I try my best to yank it out. But the blood on my wing-fingers make the needle slip out. Every. Single. Time.

Come on!

Snap!

Uh-oh.

And beyond.

He adds, seeming to not notice me doing a terrible job at Lamaze breathing through my pain.

Hmm.

That makes me pause. The pain was beginning to fade already, probably an effect of the Pain Tolerance.

Now that. That was a question I wish I knew the answer for. Most of what happened so far in my new life as a Raven had been planned, unlike my old life.

And at this point, I couldn’t see myself coming up with some fancy goal or step-by-step life plan like the billionaires did. Life was too unpredictable for that, especially life here.

How would I know what happened after this. There were so many things. Find out why I was here, where I was, who made me into a Raven..

The long silence from me makes the dwarf act first.

Lady..

Andvari kneels low and stretching out a hand, slowly waves in front of him till he finds me. Tapping down my body till he finds the needle-

Youch!!

He yanks it out and sets it back on his rock to fix.

Blunt, calloused fingers brush past my chest, his other hand pounding on his chest similar to the way he’d done that night of the beautiful chant.

What desire makes the flame burn, Lady?

What do I desire? I think of my family, of my parents, my sisters, the memories I had with friends gone long before. From my youth to the last days I remembered working as an analyst, I could say what I desired most was-

I guess, you could say…

Andvari hums in encouragement, drawing out the low tones between his teeth.

All I want is a home. A good home. For you, for Greenie, for Crixus, even the wolves.

All of us.