The dusk turned into night and the forest was as silent as it ever was. Despite being shattered from the exertions of the day and yesterday’s broken night, Niall did not think he was going to sleep. As a result, he was surprised to be shaken awake to take his turn on watch. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Fangast and Tierra were on watch with him and they both gave him a nod before looking outwards again.

Niall looked around from inside the hide. In the charcoal maker’s campsite, the cooking fire had died down to barely glowing embers. The horse staked at the side of the camp stamped its foot and then was still. Niall looked away from the campsite and focussed on looking into the trees across the sector he had been assigned. Nothing.

An hour passed, then two. Niall’s original adrenaline had worn off and boredom and a slight cramp were beginning to set in. A hand gripped his arm and he gave a small start, quickly stilled, as he saw Tierra next to him. She pointed to the far side of the campsite before moving off to quietly wake the sleepers. Niall gripped his spear and looked to where Tierra had pointed.

At first he saw nothing, but then he made out a patch of dark cut out of the black of the trees. Before his Perception had improved, he would never have been able to make it out. Now, as he focussed, he picked out the silhouette of a ragged shape. He took a silent intake of breath as he realised quite how large it was. The head to the wolf he had seen with Kiran in the woods around Raintor had come up to his waist. That had been terrifying enough. This was bigger. Much bigger. As Niall watched, the beast slowly moved its head to stare at the horse. Even from his distance Niall could tell the dire wolf would reach to his chest.

He turned to look at Tate. With hand gestures she indicated that Tierra was to come with her while the others were to stay where they were and keep watch for the remaining dire wolves. With a nod from everyone to indicate they understood, the two of them ghosted into the woods.

Niall continued to keep watch over his sector but could not help but sneak repeated glances over to where the dire wolf still silently watched the camp. Then there was a scream behind him followed by loud growls.

Niall spun in time to see Mak bitten in two by the jaws of a huge dire wolf that had jumped into their hide. Like a big dog it tore and worried at the pieces of body in front of it. Rafaela ran towards it.

At the same time another dire wolf soared over the wall of the hide to fall onto Fangast’s shoulders and bear him to the ground. To his own surprise, Niall did not freeze but instead allowed his training to take over. He crouched behind his shield with his spear pointing towards the dire wolf. From the corner of his eye, he saw Huff take an identical stance. On the ground Fangast was covered in blood but still managed to feebly stab up at the creature’s underbelly with his sword.

Seeing his opportunity, Niall stabbed out at the dire wolf that loomed over Fangast. Intent on finishing the prey lying in front of him, the dire wolf was distracted but its instincts were still good. Sensing, rather than seeing, Niall’s spear coming towards it the dire wolf span away from the blow. That gave Huff an opening he did not hesitate to take.

Putting his bodyweight behind the blow, Huff thrust out with the head of his spear. His strike pierced deep into the shouldfer of the dire wolf who twisted away with a snarl. Spotting its attacker, it leapt towards Huff. The movement ripped the spear out of Huff’s hands and sent it flying out of the dire wolf’s side. Niall saw his friend stumbling backwards scrabbling for his sword as the dire wolf lunged at his arm.

Ignored for the moment, Niall ran toward the injured dire wolf with his spear. Hours of training with Lupa and Tate came together as he attacked. He bent his knees and used his legs to power the strike of his spear. The was a moment of resistance, and then his spear plunged deep into the dire wolf’s flank.

Niall drove the butt of his spear into the ground to brace it and flung off his shield to hold onto the spear with both hands as tightly as he could. The dire wolf gave a near-human scream and thrashed around on the end of the spear. It tried to claw its way towards Niall and it was only the lugs on the spear that stopped it doing so. Even so Niall took deep slashes to his arms and side. He grimaced but held on. Despite the gains in his strength over the past months, it took all of his concentration to retain his grip on his spear. Its thick, hardwood shaft creaked and started to bend under the strain.

From where he crouched, Niall looked up at his foe. The smell of rank fur filled his nose and he twisted his head away as spittle from the dire wolf’s jaws fell on his face. Then the thrashing stopped and the wolf was a dead weight on the end of his spear. He looked up to see Huff pulling his sword out of the thick ruff around the creature’s neck.

Niall looked around just in time to see Rafaela’s body flying towards a tree. It hit with a sickening crunch and her body collapsed in an unnatural heap. The other dire wolf turned its head towards Niall. Blood stained its muzzle. It was substantially larger than the dire wolf he and Huff had killed, its head rising to Niall’s shoulder. In the light of the moons, Niall could see the glint of intelligence in its black eyes. A long open slash dripped red along its side but it was otherwise uninjured. The dire wolf looked at the corpse of its comrade with Niall’s spear still inside it and its eyes narrowed. Deliberately it started to pad towards Niall and Huff. Its injury did not appear to affect it in any way.

Niall scrambled to his feet yanking the spear out of the dire wolf’s corpse as he did so. He could hear the sound of fighting in the charcoal makers camp but he could not worry about anyone other than those in the hide. The remaining dire wolf reached the centre of the hide and paused next to Fangast. The Militia man was lying on the ground, covered in blood. He was not moving but Niall could see his chest rising and falling rapidly. Without taking his eyes off Niall, the dire wolf lowered his head and, with a shake of its jaws broke Fangast’s neck with an audible snap.

Dropping the limp body the dire wolf continued to pad towards Niall. A rumbling growl started to emanated from deep within its chest. Niall sensed Huff come up next to him.

“Just keep calm.” Huff’s voice was tight with pain. “We can do this.”

Niall flicked his eyes to his friend for a moment. Huff held his bloodied sword in one hand but his other arm hung limp and bloody at his side.

The dire wolf stopped its advance and looked into the trees behind Niall and Huff. Then, with a yelp, it jumped out of the hide and ran into the woods. Niall’s shoulders slumped in relief. He ran over to Huff who had fallen to his knees.

He had just reached Huff when there was a loud rustle in the trees. Despite his weariness Niall spun on his feet with his spear held before him. He relaxed again as Tierra burst into the hide.

She looked around at the carnage, her mouth open in horror.

Niall turned back to Huff and started to channel his Spirit into him to try to aid the healing. He called to Tierra. “The others are dead, but we can still save Huff. Get over here and help me.”

Tierra ran over to him and Niall felt her healing join his. After a couple of moments Huff spoke. “Thank you. You can stop now. It looks worse than it is. I’ll be fine.”

Niall pushed his Spirit into Huff for a few moments longer and then rocked back on his heels. He looked at Tierra. “Where’s the Corporal.”

Tierra swore. “She’s alive, but in bad shape. We got the dire wolf but it was vicious. It was expecting us. I wanted to stay with the Corporal but she insisted I come over to check on you.”

Niall forced himself to his feet. “Let’s get to her then. It sounds like she needs our help.”

The three of them ran across the camp. The sounds of the battle must have woken the charcoal makers as the three of them were clustered around a body that lay on the ground. The bloody corpse of a dire wolf lay to one side. Niall took a sharp intake of breath as he approached them. Tate lay there, her face grimaced in pain. The armour across her stomach had been ripped away and deep slash marks ran across her belly exposed her organs.

Tate forced her eyes open as they approached. “Report.” She ground out the word from gritted teeth.

“Rafaela, Mak and Fangast are dead.” Niall said “We killed one of the dire wolves, the other, the biggest one, is injured but escaped.”

“We have to go after it,” Tate ground out the words. “While it’s injured it gives us the best chance. Dire wolves learn. If it heals then it will be more dangerous than before.”

Tate took a deep breath then tried to get to her feet. She barely lifted her shoulders before she collapsed. “Damn it,” she said.

Niall knelt next to her. “You can’t go anywhere, Corporal. We’ll deal with it.” He looked up at Tierra and Huff as he spoke and received grim nods in return.

“Don’t be stupid,” Tate said. “You won’t stand a chance. I’ve already lost half of this Patrol. I’m not going to lose the rest.”

“We have to try. Like you said, Corporal, this is our best chance and you’re in no state to come with us. Also, I’m the Patrol Leader, and I’m at least as good at tracking as you are. I’m not going to let the thing that killed my friends just keep on running around.” Niall did not allow Tate to respond before he stood up.

He looked at Jenna. “Can you heal her?”

Jenna shook her head. “We can keep her alive for a while, but this is beyond us.”

“Fine, you continue to try to stabilise her. Have your men get your horse and cart ready. The bodies of my people are over there.” He gestured with his spear. “Treat them with respect and get them onto the cart. Then settle the Corporal onto it. If we aren’t back when you’re ready to leave, then start heading down to Low Vale. The priest there is her best hope. We’ll catch up when we can.”

“But what about...” Jenna gestured to her camp. “We can’t just leave it all.”

Niall felt his anger and frustration and fear bubble up inside him. He bent over until his face was inches from Jenna’s. “We have saved you at the cost of the lives of three of my friends. I am not going to let the Corporal die as well just for some charcoal. Is that clear?”

Jenna cringed back as Niall spoke. “Yes, of course. Thank you. Sorry.”

Niall glared at her for a moment longer then stood up. He looked over at Huff and Tierra. “Are sure you’re happy to do this?”

Huff flexed his arm. “I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

Niall nodded. “Good. We leave in five minutes. Get some food and water into you and check your weapons. We have to go fast. If we don’t catch it by dawn, it’ll be long gone.”

“Listen,” Tierra called up from where she lay. “Don’t underestimate how smart they are. The dire wolf Militia Velaz and I killed was a decoy to draw some of us off before the others attacked you. It tried to escape as soon as it saw us. If we hadn’t flanked it, it would have got away.”

Niall nodded. “Understood, Corporal.”

A few minutes later Niall was leading them into the woods as a slow jog. The three of them had their weapons, armour and a water bottle but little else. As they moved, he ran his Spirit through himself to heal the minor cuts and bruises he had picked up.

Before they left, Niall took a moment to try to move the bodies of Mak, Rafaela, and Fangast into some semblance of respectability. It was the first time he had seen a dead person and he had never seen injuries like the ones on his friends. His mind kept coming back to the bodies as he ran, but he pushed it aside. That was for later. To keep his surviving friends alive, he would need to focus on the living, not the dead.