Hazel looked towards the temple grounds. All of its side buildings had been leveled. There were pillars of black ash everywhere. She saw her mother’s unmoving form at the center of the destruction and whined.

She ran towards her. The talon like claws of her feet tearing up the remnants of the sandstone courtyard. She scooped her mother up and started towards the nearest gate. The streets were deserted. She thought she would get out without incident, but then a man stood in her path. He was regal looking with a grey beard and hair and yellow eyes. A woman and a man appeared beside him. The yellow eyed man held up his hand. He looked familiar. He reminded Hazel of her grandfather. But the other two… She put her mother done gently behind her and crouched and growled. Sharpening her claws across the stone street. The second man was a Pugmentia she could smell his stench.

“We have no quarrel with you wolf-born. She is one of us and you should not be interfering with our business.”

The Pugmentia approached and paid the price for his intrusion immediately as her claw tore up his face and his ribcage. He was no ancient. He screamed as her claw wound made his flesh sizzle. She grabbed him with her other claw and tore his arms off and tossed him aside. His wounds sizzled for a few more seconds than he seemed to expire.

“Approach my mother and die. Treaty or no treaty I will rend you limb from limb.”

She growled, then lifted her head and howled a request for help. If any wolf-born were near enough they would hear and respond. One…then two…then three…then four…. five… it went on. She was not alone.

“They are coming, if I were you, I would run.”

The two vampires still barred her way she moved from side to side shielding her mother.

“She already killed a hundred of you, why are you so foolish as to try again.”

The woman tried to get past and found herself smashed into the stone so hard she got stuck. Hazel was careful not to do permanent damage. She knew the price a spirt would extract for truly breaking the treaty. Hazel grabbed her and threw her at the city wall it cracked where she struck. The woman picked herself up. The man paced.

“She is an ancient, she could not possibly be your mother. You’re what, fifteen seasons?”

Shift to human form and draw me from my sheath daughter. That is Remus. Being faced with a soul drinking blade in the hands of a wolf-born he will readjust his attitude. The treaty says nothing about death by spirit.

Hazel let her human skin out and spun around and drew Lucius. The woman lunged but Remus caught her in midair and pushed her behind him when he saw the sword. Hazel repeated what Lucius was telling her exactly. What she didn’t realize was that she was speaking Atlantean.

“This soul drinker with a mind of its own if it kills you, I didn’t break the treaty because the sword chose to do it not I.”

Remus stepped back pushing the woman with him. There was a hint of something close to fear in those inhuman gold eyes.

“Why does it obey you?”

“Because the spirit bound to it is my stepfather and he is pissed you came after his wife.”

“Impossible there is only one.”

“No Remus, there are two because my mother made a second one, herself.”

Four shapes leaped down from the wall. Each was an eight foot plus tall sandy furred half-wolf. They started snarling when the saw two allies threatening one of the wolf-born. The largest of the four spoke.

“What is the meaning of this? You threaten one of our kind?”

Remus motioned to Enid’s unconscious form.

“She is interfering in an internal matter.”

The wolf-born turned to Hazel.

“Is this true?”

Hazel responded in the language the wolf-born.

“Please help my mother, she is blooded and true named Slays-Demons by tooth and claw. She birthed me from her womb and raised me. She is my pack. She is mother to the Winter Wolf. She is sister to all wolf-born. Ask the spirits if I lie.”

One of the other wolves howled and spoke.

“She tells the truth. This is her birth mother. She wears a false face to protect herself. Her true name is Slays-Demons. She is blooded by tooth and claw, and she has slain fallen ones. The Desert Wind says…she is mother to all spirits. We must aid her, or we are traitors to our traditions and the spirits.”

The alpha growled. Hazel knew she was going to catch hell from him for putting him in this sticky predicament. She spoke up maintaining a submissive posture towards him.

“I ask only that she be kept safe until she wakes and may defend herself, she and I were attacked by his kind she slew a hundreds of tainted and several of his kind before she fell. She is a hero of our people, if she is to die, let her die, with honor, by tooth and claw on her feet. Hazel showed her own neck and a bite mark from an Imperial.”

He growled.

“You have already violated the treaty Remus. I should gut you where you stand.”

“It was not us who attacked her. We are fighting a rogue vampire. Your wolf-born got caught in the middle because of her belief that this one is her mother. Deluded fool that she is. Take her so she may be cured of her addled wits and leave this one to us.”

“You do not know of which you speak bloodsucker. The cub is her daughter by blood and birth. You bring your pack dishonor by accusing her of falsehood. The one you seek to harm is spirit-kin, and she bears the blooded name Slays-Demons, earned by tooth and claw. She is protected by the spirits. If her daughter seeks asylum for her, we must grant it as if Slays-Demons asked herself. I am spirit-bound. Treaty or no treaty. I will not risk their wrath so you can seek revenge. Slays-Demons is under our protection until she is able to defend herself and die with honor by tooth and claw or blade as she chooses.”

Remus looked infuriated. But he stood aside. Hazel picked up her mother after sheathing Lucius. Remus glared at her. She knew she had made an enemy of him. She did not trust his motives towards her mother. She carried her mother with her head held high. She did not let any of them see the pain she was in. The Atlantean armor had been subsumed in her form so she was covered in wounds that would take a long time to heal and she was barely standing by shear stubbornness she made it half a mile before collapsing.

The spirit-talker looked down at her with a heavy sigh.

“Why are cubs always so thick-headed?”

She picked up Hazel, the pack alpha picked up Enid. Hazel lost consciousness somewhere along the journey. When she woke, she was on a bed roll and naked. Her Altantean armor folded neatly beside her, and her sword leaned against it. She saw her mother inside a cave in a similar state. Hazel moved to sit up, but pain shot through her body. She looked down and she was covered in claw and tooth marks. She fell back down and silently wondered how many tainted ones she had killed. There were so many it was like swatting into a swarm of flies. She didn’t even have a glorious battle epic to tell. She killed a few got blown down and cowered with some humans.

A darker skinned woman knelt beside her applied some paste to her wounds. Hazel winced. The woman’s voice had a familiar quality to it when she spoke. She was older, probably her thirties.

“Stay still and don’t shift. These wounds are easier to heal in human shape.”

“That smells awful.”

Hazel switched to the language Lucius was trying to translate for her too. The woman shook her head.

“Just stick to wolf-kin language please your Sumerian is terrible.”

“I said that smells awful.”

“Which is why you should avoid being chewed on by tainted one’s, cub.”

“I’m sixteen seasons old!”

“And until you are considered blooded by tooth and claw and granted a true name by the spirits you are still a cub even if you’re fifty seasons old. Stay still”

“Owe. I guess I will be a cub for life.”

“Based on your hands I would say you killed many of the tainted ones. Did you stand with your mother in battle?”

“Yes, there just so many of them and they were so fast.”

“Did you slay any with your teeth or claws?”

“I don’t know maybe ten or fifteen before I was blasted off my feet.”

“It sounds like you were blooded by tooth and claw this night. Why do you say you will be a cub for life?”

“Because I fled from my mother with two humans.”

“Where they in danger?”

“Yes, everything around her was, she was out of control.”

“So, if you had stayed with her, you would have died needlessly? And you saved innocents?”

“Yes.”

“So tonight, you faced down over a hundred tainted ones, rescued two innocents and then stood between your fallen pack mate and enemy you could not raise tooth or claw against. And had the wisdom to use an intelligent blade against them?”

“Well…no, the spirit in the blade that I talk to told me to do it.”

“You can speak to spirits directly?”

“Yes.”

“Cub, if Crushes-his-Foes agrees I will stand for you with the spirits as they declare your true name.”

“Only when my mom wakes up. I want her to be there.”

“I am afraid I do not know what ails her. She has no injuries of the body they have all healed. I communed with the spirit in her blade, and he told me he cannot speak to her either.”

Hazel looked at her mother in the dark she was motionless; Her chest did not rise and fall.

“She is strong. Her true name tells me that. Demons are terrible foes.”

Hazel looked back to the spirit-talker.

“She killed three greater demons.”

The older woman’s eyes went wide.

“Well, my sister and her killed one of them, the other ones she killed alone.”

“How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

“She has had twenty-five children, twelve of them wolf-born.”

“So many?”

Hazel shifted and groaned. Every inch of her body hurt.

“She oathbound herself to a mortal man and a wolf-kin woman. She gave up her powers and immortality to share her life with them. They had many children; I was their last. She asked for a child of her two mortal loves and the spirits gave her me.”

Hazel felt tears on her face as she looked at her mother. She didn’t know what she would do if she didn’t wake up, or if she did wake up who she would be. The loving mother or the immortal blood goddess of death.

“I didn’t say anything because of Remus, but she is the sword of the Winter Wolf. She slew the devourer far in the future. She tried to sacrifice herself, but her mother saved her. When she slew the devourer her soul blade was lost. She was tossed out into the past, her past, and stuck here.”

The woman was watching Hazel and listening. Her eyes growing wider.

“The spirits granted her a mortal life as a reward for her great service. That is all she wanted was to be normal, to love and be loved. When I was ten, she had a vision, she’s a Seer, a vision of a great darkness engulfing the pack, then our village. For two weeks she worked without food or sleep. Forging a weapon to fight it. Then she went to the cave of winter and called the Winter Wolf to her. He was flippant, like a disrespectful child. She grabbed him by his ear and forced him to submit to her. Still as a mortal woman. He acknowledged her his mother, then summoned the other greater spirits. One by one they bowed to her as they bound the spirit to the soul blade. The spirits warned her if she were to take up the blade, she would undo their gift and she would be cursed with immortality once more. Never again would she feel life growing within her, her breasts would nevermore give succor, never again would she feel the warmth of life. Knowing that only she could wield the blade and that she was giving up her greatest wish, she took it and went to battle the fallen one.”

Hazel didn’t notice the rest of the pack join them, or the kin. She was staring up at the stars.

“When she arrived, she found him sunk into the ground, infesting it. He had tornados of bones. He tried to attack her with them. She used her great powers to shatter the bones to splinters and when he made tornados of those, she turned it in to dust. Then she called down a rain of purifying fire the fallen one was forced out of the purified earth and lunged at her. It was a tentacled monstrosity with a massive mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. She picked up a stone and enchanted it. She threw it into his mouth, he swallowed it thinking it just a rock, but then it exploded. Pieces of his bones and flesh were sent flying everywhere. Then she walked up to it, now in its true form. A human with molted wings. She stood over him and asked him to go back to its prison. It started to insult her mother and she stabbed it in the face. Her weapon is a soul blade, and it destroyed the beast. Lifting the curse, it had placed on the area.”

Hazel looked over to her mother only to see her view blocked by a row of children who were watching her intently. She blushed and got tongue tied before she finished it.

“That is how my mother earned the gift of mortality then gave it up again to save her pack.”

All eyes turned to the cave now. There was a palpable sense of awe. Several of the wolf-kin stopped and kissed the stone above the natural alcove asking the spirits to protect Slays-Demons. A large man who was wearing desert clothes started shooing everyone away. He sat beside her.

“Tell me cub, was any of that true?”

“To my knowledge it was, I told it as the spirit in the sword told it.”

“Then I need to know what happened in Akkada. Your mother may the only one who can help us with a demon.”

Hazel looked at him.

“You do not recognize me; I am the pack alpha. Crushes-his-Foes.”

She adjusted her posture, so it was more submissive instinctually.

“I am sorry I didn’t know.”

“Tell me what happened.”

Hazel recounted the events of the night. Leaving out any embellishments. Crushes-his-Foes, or Abdi, listened intently as did the spirit-talker which Hazel had no name for yet.

“I have never heard of a godling with such power. No wonder Remus wanted her. He is as power hungry as he is tiresome. Of course, he wanted her power.”

Hazel looked back up at the stars.

“I am worried about her; We may not want her to wake up. She is growing more and more powerful and less and less in control of it.”

“We can stake her.”

She shook her head.

“You cannot stake her, she is immune. The only way to render her powerless is sunlight.”

“Sunlight? Would that not kill her?”

“No, but in sunlight she is a mortal, she needs to eat, drink, sleep.”

“You said she seems normal most of the time even at night.”

“She seems to lose control when she thinks I’m hurt or dead. Last time she destroyed a village, now she smashed a temple courtyard and devoured the souls of so many tainted ones and godlings. She’s not her anymore when it happens, she’s an unstoppable force of nature.”

They looked at each other. Their expressions made Hazel feel the need to try and defend her further.

“She’s not evil, she sat with a dying man who tried to kill her for an entire day because she didn’t want him to die alone.”

“The spirits gave me a vision of a woman made of desert wind and lightning who blows in from the desert and delivers us from darkness. She had the silhouette of a wolf and woman. Everything was darkness then she there was a beacon of light. The woman reached up and tore the sky asunder and the sun shone down. The wolf leaped from her belly and tore the neck of a fallen one.”

Hazel groaned. She hated spirit visions. Always so cryptic. But this one made sense. She was the wolf of her mother’s womb and her mother, maybe her mother stops Remus from darkening the sky permanently. She realized that she would be the one slaying the demon while her mother dealt with the vampires. She was quiet for several minutes then after closing her eyes she spoke.

“My mother also told me of a prophecy. The pharaoh’s mother will die in Egypt and then the vampire elders will crush their children. Then the children will feast on their elders. Then the endless night will come, and the elders will feast on their children, based on last night I think we’re at the children feasting on their elders stage. Eternal night will come when Remus seeks vengeance for his fallen mate.”

Hazel forced herself to sit up and started pulling on the Atlantean armor. Abdi tried to stop her and she pushed his hands away. Every movement hurt. But if there was a demon here it was after her mother who was in no shape to fight back. She cried out as she pulled the first sleeve on.

“You should not be moving.”

“If there is a demon here it is after my mother.”

“This is no mere demon it is a fallen one. You’re a cub.”

“I’m a cub with a soul blade.”

She had finished putting on her armor and reached into the cave and pulled Lucius out.

“I can use you to protect mother can’t I father?”

I will never deny you my blade unless you raise me against your mother.

“That will never happen father.”

The spirit-talker looked from the blade to Hazel and then to her alpha.

“She speaks to the blade; It has accepted her.”

Hazel leaned heavily on the top of the stone alcove.

“You cannot go, I forbid it.”

Hazel smiled at him.

“I am not a member of your pack, and I am a cub. My mother is the only one who can tell me no because she is my spirit-bound mentor.”

He shifted, then growled and blocked her path with all nine feet of muscle and claws. The spirit-talker put her hand on his arm.

“She speaks true.”

“Mai, she is a child she is going to die! I will not be responsible for her death.”

“She is responsible for her own death.”

“The fallen one won’t let her anywhere near him with that sword.”

Hazel cracked her neck and shifted. In her half-wolf form, she was a physical match for Crushes-his-foes. In this form the blade was subsumed into her body along with her armor.

“He won’t see it coming. I will use the ritual which hides me from all things, and I will attack in this form. And when he least expects it, I will shift and stab him with my stepfather. He will think I’m just some injured solitary cub out for glory and full of my own strength.”

Abdi shifted back to his human shape and looked up at her.

“A cunning plan, using your disadvantage as an advantage. Hardly the tactic of a brash cub.”

“My mother has always said that the only weapon a true warrior needs is their mind.”

“Strange philosophy.”

“Please keep my mother safe. I will track this demon down and slay it.”

“Go with the spirits, by tooth and claw.”

Hazel shifted to her silvery white wolf form and trotted out of the hidden oasis and into the desert. Her wounds pained her with every step but the gunk that was put on them was doing a passable job and she had to protect her mother.