034 - Sky Beyond Sky

Across the room sat a woman sat on a tall backed chair. By a window, next to her a large brass telescope pointed out at the sky. Apart from a small area around her the place the giant white wolf had carried Magnus looked to be a total mess of animal bones and empty wine casks.

She wore a loose fitting shirt, long black hair partially covering her face. Her eyes widened in shock, mouth agape. Magnus coughed lightly, the white wolf flicked its tail looking from him to the woman.

"Alive? Sif! What the hell?" She jumped to her feet, the white wolf whined again, rolling over onto its back and wagging its tail. She advanced on Magnus, cursing and kicking junk out of the way. Magnus grinned helplessly, getting to his feet.

"Uh, hello miss? Um, I guess I'll just be on my way, you know . ." Magnus said nervously, stumbling on a pile of filthy rags. The room wasn't all that large, several wooden posts held up a high wooden rafters, to his left he could just about make out a broken altar. A shrine! A filthy shrine house with a giant wolf and a furious beauty . .

The woman advanced on Magnus in a flash, the closer she got the more lopsided Magnus grin became. Her dark skin and dark hair were unlike anything Magnus had ever seen.

Ring! Ring!

A bell beside the brass telescope rang, she halted, immediately turning and running back to the window and peering through the telescope muttering to herself. Magnus scratched his head. The white wolf seemed to be gnawing on a bone and the woman was entirely distracted . . time to leave? Best be off . . .

"Sif!" She clicked her fingers. The white wolf leapt up, swatting Magnus to the ground and keeping him pinned down. Magnus fought against the giant paw, lifting one of the wolf's claws and squirming in its grasp, but Sif only put a second paw over Magnus' face, keeping him pinned against the ground.

Am I this weak? Couldn't I punch through those stone golems? Magnus grabbed handfuls of fur, biting and punching. He felt an anger building, a fury at his utter helplessness. Everything went from bad to worse, from taking part in the bloody experiment to finding an empty Witching Road, to falling in the bloody swamp and being spat out by a lizard. Now? Now he'd been carried in the mouth of a giant wolf and was held captive as easily as a child, waiting on the judgment of a some unkempt beauty?

Something cracked, from within his gut, with the feeling of a glass ball shattering and exploding inside. A wave of anger, red hot, surged through Magnus, his skin burst open and countless black lines appeared, a yellow pus boiling up through his pores. He felt a rush of strength, his fingers dug into the wolf's fur.

"Movement in the fourth quadrant . . fifteen, fourteen, another seven degrees . ." The woman muttered aloud, scribbling down a series of notes and turning the knobs of the brass telescope.

"Awooo!" The white wolf howled, a piece of its white fur torn off in Magnus' hands. It leapt back, snarling and gnashing its teeth.

Magnus stood, his chest and arms creaking, pus and blood running down his face. "Nice doggy, uh, wolfy. . uh . ."

The wolf leapt forwards, Magnus threw himself flat on the floor, the wolf's giant mouth snapped through the air missing by inches.

Magnus grabbed hold of its back leg, digging his fingers in and pulling out clumps of fur. The wolf howled in pain, kicking its hind legs up and trying to bend around to bite at Magnus.

Around and around, the wolf and the boy spun, like a dog chasing its tail, unable to reach Magnus with its mouth. The white wolf suddenly sat squashing Magnus beneath and begun to drag itself along the floor. Magnus coughed violently, his mouth full of wolf arse, but held on for his life.

"Sif!"

"Awoo!" The giant white wolf stopped.

Magnus felt dizzy and sick. Much worse, he thought, so much worse being dragged around like this to being carried in the wolf's mouth. At least, in the wolf's mouth there is only the danger of losing his life, back here . .

The woman grabbed Magnus by the neck and flung him to the ground, placing a dainty foot on his chest. Magnus spat out a mouthful of wolf fur, still dizzy.

"Stars above!" She wrinkled her nose. "You really carried this in your mouth, Sif?"

"Huuu, huu, woooooo!" Sif whined, sitting obediently by her side.

"Let me go! Get your damned foot off me!" Magnus yelled, finding that no matter how he struggled he could not move her foot from his chest, or so much as lift himself an inch off the floor.

The woman pressed down a little harder, leaning in to examine Magnus. "Hmm. Yellow pus . . reeks! Sulfur? No . . black veins? And, and a shattered core, hmm." She raised her eyebrows, her eyes studying his body made Magnus' heart beat even faster. Even like this, even in this situation Magnus gulped, staring back at her dark eyes. "I'd give you a month boy, no one can survive longer than that with a shattered core."

"A month? Ha ha ha, right right. I heard that a month ago, bloody Alchemist!" Magnus spat hitting her in the face.