The Lost Bloodline 1 - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

“I cannot linger for long right now, my child, but I want to let you know that I have never abandoned all of you. I just couldn’t rally the power to do anything like this.” Thera gestured to her ghostly self, her foxy tail flicking behind her before it narrowed slightly to match Sienna’s as a wolf tail.

“No! Do not apologize, Pack Lady. We knew you had spent yourself to protect our ancestors long ago, that you had given us everything already. We had believed you were gone or faded to the point you might never return…” Sienna’s tears ran freely now, mirrored by a handful of crystalline drops that traced Thera’s cheeks.

Turning towards him, the apparition of his black-haired goddess spoke directly to Koda. “You look after her, Koda Burke. She is the first of my children I have truly laid eyes upon in centuries.” He nodded without hesitation at her demand.

Thera’s words broke Sienna out of her trance, and she turned to look at Koda, their eyes nearly level as she stared up at him.

Koda turned to meet those sparkling blue-green orbs and lost himself in them for a long moment. Surprise, wonder, and hope danced in those eyes, and they tried to drink him in. How easy it was for Koda to fall into Sienna’s beautiful eyes.

It wasn’t until Thera spoke that he was broken free of their spell. He still struggled to look away from Sienna, but he was no longer drowning in an ocean of crystalline, blue-green light.

“I don’t believe I will have to worry on that front, it seems.” Thera’s voice was bright with laughter now. “As much as I would love to linger and tease you two, this is draining on my limited reserves of power. Koda, my champion, there are two more war parties of Crooked that lurk within the Silverstone Vale.”

The goddess’s words immediately pulled both of their attention back to her. Koda felt a rippling growl start deep in his throat. Beside him, Sienna matched it perfectly only half a moment later, and he shot her a surprised glance.

The fur on Sienna’s ears was bristling, and he caught sight of her tail sticking out straight behind her. The love, joy, and relief she had been wearing like a cloak was falling away, replaced by pure fury.

“They hunt for people to convert and for places of power they can claim for their profane gods. Destroy them and take those sites of power for me,” Thera continued, a small smile on her lips at seeing their reaction. “Claim the two sites they are seeking to corrupt, and I can grant you a boon, Koda. I wish I could give you one now for your actions in saving the village and speedily finding this one, but—”

“No need,” Koda interrupted. “You promised me a people—a family to call my own—when you called me here. What kind of man would I be to demand a reward for doing something I would have done anyway?”

Thera smiled down at them for a long second, her form growing more translucent by the second. She spoke after the moment had passed, her voice echoing from a great distance.

“I am glad to have found you, Koda. Fate has blessed both me and my children with an opportunity in you. While I cannot reward you yet, I have a feeling my children will find a way to thank you. Until we speak again.”

The goddess’s silhouette dissolved into a cascade of black and silver sparks that swirled three times over the center of the standing stones, spinning like a chest-high dust devil.

First, it scoured the remnants of the fire stains from the rock. The second pass left behind a pristine, tanned hide of a gray wolf. And then the third deposited a stone bowl in the center of the hide.

That done, the swirling cloud of motes scampered across the ground before diving into Koda’s gauntlet, sinking into the stones and fangs that studded the back of his forearm and vanishing.

A faint pulse ran through the gauntlet. The various bits of blood and evidence of battle that had lingered on its surface vanished as if he’d dunked the weapon into a fast-moving stream.

Silence descended over the standing stones, with Koda and Sienna still holding each other as they stared down at the fur and bowl there. Both items gleamed as if new, shimmering with a glossy finish that stood in defiance to the ancient, worn stone upon which they sat.

Koda could feel the power collecting in the bowl already. While before, the altar had felt profane and wrong, this one felt at one with the world around it and peaceful.

Sienna turned again to look at Koda, their nearly matching heights evened out further by her position tucked against his shoulder. Tear-stains still marked her cheeks, having cut through the dust, mud, and blood there, but hope glimmered in those crystalline spheres.

Sienna’s lips parted like she was about to speak, but then the sounds of the rest of the world finally made it back to them.

“What the hell was that?”

“Is Sienna okay? She went into that tent before it collapsed!”

“What about the man with her? Did Koda turn on her?”

Glancing over his shoulder, Koda saw that the remnants of the tent still hung in the way, blocking an easy view of the center of the circle. He could see people moving and casting shadows on the far side of it as they hurried over to check on Sienna and him.

The pulse that had come from his destruction of the altar had mostly destroyed the big tent, but the outer edges still had enough scraps of canvas and half-standing tent poles that he and Sienna had been the only ones to see Thera when she appeared, it seemed—a thought that was disproved a moment later.

Flickering movement at the edge of his vision drew Koda’s eyes to the stony ridge above. Directing his gaze up, Koda saw the awestruck face of Netta, the eagle-woman, and her two hunting partners staring down at them.

Using his gauntleted hand, Koda held one finger to his lips in the universal ‘shush’ gesture while locking eyes with Netta. The feathered huntress stared dumbly at him for a long second before nodding once with narrowed eyes that gave off a distinct ‘you will explain later’ look, to which he nodded his agreement.

“Come on, Sienna. Let’s go and let the others know we are fine.” Koda gave the redheaded wolf-woman a squeeze with the arm around her shoulders, and she nodded, not looking away from him.

In an effort to break the growing sensation of awkwardness from her staring, Koda continued to speak while not looking away from her glittering eyes as they had captured him again.

How do they keep doing that? Koda thought just before he spoke, unable to look away.

“Don’t want your people to worry about you, you know? Besides, we can’t let that old fellow and the villagers do all the work of cleaning up the mess we made. Come on, let's go.”

Sienna blinked, and again, that action broke the spell of her gaze.

Koda glanced away quickly before her blue-green orbs could trap him again, though he did not release the arm around her shoulders until Sienna shifted to step back.

“You are right, Koda. We have much to do, and I am sure the village will want to celebrate the safe return of its citizens. Farmer Oslo needs to get that arm seen to by the healers as well.” Sienna’s tone was businesslike as she straightened her clothing and then bent at the waist to pick up her spear.

The action put the redheaded huntress’s back to him. The banner that was her red-black tail was already stirring up a storm, showing she was clearly happy about something. Whether from the idea of getting back to the village, that her people were safe, or seeing the vision of Thera, Koda had no idea. But he had to fight the urge to reach out and touch that fluffy appendage to see if it was as soft as it looked.

Clearing his throat, Koda turned towards where the bulk of the voices were coming from.

“We are fine. Don’t worry!” he called out, and the shouting quieted down, followed by a bit of relieved laughter from the villagers.

“Is Sienna okay?” came another voice, a female one that Koda thought might have been Jenna Oslo.

“I’m fine, Jenna,” Sienna said quickly while straightening, her spear going over her shoulder. “I think the camp is clear. If there were any more of those beasties lingering around when that… thing went off, they’d have reacted, I’m sure.”

Turning slightly, Sienna shot Koda a look over her shoulder, her tail still wagging away, a smile on her full lips with a quirked eyebrow. He nodded in agreement with her summation, and her smile spread further into a full-on grin.

“Let's get this done with. I really want to get clean again,” Koda said, glancing meaningfully at his bloody clothes so he didn’t lose himself in her eyes and make an idiot of himself. Again…

Sienna glanced down with a shared grimace. He’d managed to get some of it on her during their brief hug, but she just shrugged it off a moment later.

“Fair. I know I want to wash as well.”

<><><>

The group of hunters that the Crooked had spotted earlier returned a few minutes later, battered and bloody but without having lost anyone.

They’d successfully led the group following them to the northern fissures. Those that had not fallen to the traps, tripwires, and deadfalls that the hunters had set up in the woods ended up either on the point of an arrow or down the ravines.

Two of the three-member hunting parties remained on the cliffs to watch over them as the other two hunting parties descended to help the captured villagers deal with the camp.

There had been some argument about whether to just leave the bodies there or burn them initially, but Farmer Oslo had been firm that they needed to burn the Crooked to ensure they stayed dead.

Koda had sided with the older wolf-man, given he’d watched what he guessed was the champion raising one of the Crooked from the dead just before they’d attacked. It didn’t take much to convince the villagers and hunters, thankfully.

Working together, the villagers piled the dead Crooked at the far end of the little valley, where the ground was hard and stony. On top of the dead, the villagers piled the tents, bedding, and everything else the Crooked had brought with them before adding wood in several layers.

The villagers even tossed on the weapons they had claimed to defend themselves. Everything went onto the pyre. The gnarled swords and bent spears were apparently not worth keeping to the tired folk.

When all that was done, they set the whole thing alight with the embers of one of the cooking fires before kicking dirt over any cooking fires that remained.

This action resulted in a slowly growing fire and the rank scent of burning flesh spreading out from it. The smell quickly pushed everyone back to the northern end of the valley—as far from the pyre as possible.

In the end, the six hunters who had stood watch while they piled up the bodies agreed to stay at the valley to ensure the fire didn’t spread while the others, Koda, and Sienna returned to the village to let them know of their success.

Sienna had spent the entire time moving from group to group, ensuring that everyone was okay and that they didn’t overdo it while helping where she could. When she wasn’t doing that, she followed close behind Koda to help with what he was working on.

Koda caught her talking quietly with Netta and her group several times, the four of them shooting glances at him the entire time. Netta and her friends speculatively, and Sienna with pride glowing on her face. He had to glance away quickly each time as her blue-green orbs drew him in like a magnet drew iron.

The exhaustion hit Koda as their group filed out of the valley and up one of the narrow tracks.

He’d gone up first to stand guard at the top while the others followed after in a single-file line. Once he stopped moving, though, he could feel the tiredness seeping into his bones.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, Koda squinted in the dim light of the oncoming evening as he surveyed what he could see of the little valley.

They’d been thorough in collecting anything that had belonged to the Crooked and throwing it onto the pyre. They even disassembled the corral—the splintered logs used for fuel for the blaze.

Now, by the light of that fire, Koda could see that the little valley was in much better shape, though it was not pristine. It had been stamped flat by the passage of many feet, torn from tent stakes, and the stains of blood still scarred the floor of the valley where the camp had stood. But still, Koda felt like the little valley would recover given a season or two.

A light pressure on his right hand, like someone taking it and squeezing gently, gave him the impression that Thera knew what he was thinking and agreed, which set his heart at ease. This place could recover and would, given time, he decided.

“Come on, Koda. Let’s get back home,” Sienna called from nearby as she crested the slope, having come up last.

Nodding to himself, Koda turned to her with a broad smile.

Arrayed behind Sienna were Netta and her two companions, as well as the other three hunters who would be escorting the captured villagers back. Said villagers stood in a group just behind the hunters, some huddling against each other, while others just took deep breaths of the clean air that the wind brought from between the trees, savoring being alive and free.

“Yes, let’s head back home.”