Chapter 35

As Maya understood more, her curiosity increased. She’d recently learned the word curiosity, but it never felt like enough. Maya understood hunger a lot better. It was apparent that her human—Flint—was making changes to her body and mind. However, he didn’t understand how much was changing. It angered Maya that he didn’t understand her as well as he understood him. She loved him still.

Listening in on Flint’s conversations with Winona and Twylip helped a lot. Maya’s knowledge of words and the world improved with every discussion. Two recent developments especially interested her. First of all, she found it amusing how Flint’s scent changed whenever Winona appeared. Maya didn’t know a lot yet, but she understood what that meant.

Recently, Maya had started to believe Winona felt similarly. The moon woman’s scent didn’t change around Flint. However, Maya detected something else through her newest sense. She had recently learned what it was. Essence. Essence let Winona turn moonlight into wings and bolts. The odd existence continued to live in her but had dulled once Flint put the metal collars around her limbs. However, over the last couple of days, whenever Winona was around him, the essence flared.

After Flint changed her again, Maya knew that it wasn’t just her fur and body that had changed. She now had essence in her too. It bubbled inside and coursed through every part of her body as if hunting for a way out. The essence came with urges. It told her to be a bad girl. Flint probably thought Maya was naughty already when she challenged his call as the alpha. So, she didn’t want to give in to the essence and make things worse.

The tall grass parted around Maya. It felt like the green was responding to her essence. Maya wanted to go faster, running as fast as her feet would carry her. Unfortunately, Winona would struggle to keep up. Her body burned essence to help her move faster, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with Maya. Besides, too much would most likely tire her out for when they found the bad humans.

Whenever Maya left home with Bjorn, they’d run as fast as their legs would carry them. Even then, she had to slow down for him. They’d follow the many scents tracking the best meats and drag them home as a trophy for Flint. Maya knew a time would come when she had to ignore the scents. She didn’t think it would come so soon. However, the thought of taking down bad humans certainly helped.

Maya remembered their scent vividly. It still lingered in her nose and made her sick. There was a dirtiness to their smell that Maya did not like at all. She looked forward to ending them like she had the others. After ascending a steep hill, Maya stopped. Even though she hadn’t sped up, Winona had fallen behind. It took her annoyingly long to catch up. For once, the woman didn’t look like a chunk of the moon. Winona resembled Flint after playing a game of chase. However, her face wasn’t red, and sweat didn’t make her long hair cling to her skin. Instead, her essence faltered. Winona inhaled deeply and then exhaled.

It was then Maya noticed the strange blackness around Winona’s lower legs. It looked like the grass’s shadows had come to life and wrapped around her boots and shins. They coiled and relaxed like they were breathing. Maya knew they weren’t regular shadows, though. She could feel the essence bursting from them.

“I see them,” Winona said.

Maya froze. The moon woman had found the bad humans before her? She turned her nose to the sky and sniffed in all the surrounding scents. Her ears swivelled from side to side, too, trying to listen for oddities. None of her senses gave her what she was looking for. An involuntary whine escaped Maya as she realised she wasn’t as great a huntress as she thought.

“They’re moving faster than I expected.” Winona pointed at a thicket of trees ahead. “I can feel them in the shadows. They’re hiding.” The essence inside Winona flowed away from her stomach to her head, focusing around her eyes and ears. The coiling blackness around her limbs tightened too. “We need to execute a pincer attack.”

Winona lost Maya with her final words. Maya had no idea what pincher meant. She knew attack very well, though. So, she followed Winona’s arm movements as she continued to speak. Left made a lot of sense, as did right. Maya followed the moon woman’s fingers as she talked, and it didn’t take her long to figure out the rest of the plan.

The blackness expanded before they started again. The grass’s shadows wrapped all the way around Winona’s lower half, forming trousers. They slowly enveloped her arms too up to the shoulder. Then they started running again, and Winona moved almost twice as fast as before. It still wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Maya, though.

As they got closer to the thicket, Maya smelled the bad humans’ scent again. Winona was right. They were hiding in the trees. Unlike the men she had killed earlier in the day, their prey smelled especially twisted and vile. Maya couldn’t exactly put a paw on it, but she knew straight away that biting them wasn’t in her interests. Tasting their blood or flesh would most likely make her sick.

Maya stumbled when her essence responded to her thoughts. Once again, the invisible energies boiled up inside of her, begging to get out. She begged them to hold on for the time being. The opportunity would come safe enough.

The thicket’s trees smelled different from the ones around their home. They didn’t have pointy needles and didn’t smell like the mountains. Instead, Maya detected a sweetness about them. It reminded her of golden sap Flint would buy when they visited colder places. She often begged for a taste, but her human was a miser with the tasty liquid. He’d pour it on fluffy flatbreads and then feed her a tiny corner. For a moment, Maya wondered whether she could use her essence to make the trees give her the sap. Then Winona whistled in the distance and snapped her back to reality.

Bad dog.

Flint often said getting distracted during a fight could get people killed. Even though Maya wasn’t sure whether she liked Winona yet or not, she didn’t want her dead. So, she gave herself a good shake, getting rid of idle thoughts and zipped into the trees.

Maya saw their prey before either of them saw her. She sped at the closest one but then faltered when the ugly smell coming off them assaulted her nose. It was their breath. Then as Maya slowed, she sensed essence radiating them from too. Unlike the energy in her and Winona, it felt alien, like it didn’t belong. Maya’s senses told her that the power emanated from their stomach. It sat there like a sickening circle, and wisps of it broke off to the rest of their body.

The bad humans ate essence!

When a swarm of black hounds rushed past Maya, she almost jumped out of her skin.  She scrambled away from them with her tail between her legs—even though she wasn’t scared. It took her a moment to realise that they were made of shadows, much like the blackness surrounding Winona’s limbs. The essence inside gave them heft and felt Maya with a chill she hadn’t felt since she was a week pup.

The bad humans screamed like children, waving their monstrous axe’s around. Their blades ripped through the hounds like they were cloth. Maya watched from between the trees as the essence inside the bad humans flowed through their arms into their weapons. The energy burned through the wolves and the thought of what they’d do to her flesh terrified Maya. However, their movements slowed with every hound. Their essence didn’t run out, but the hounds’ energy filled the air with cold, and it pushed the vileness back.

Maya knew she wouldn’t get a second opportunity. So, she ran at the bad humans. The essence inside her boiled up once again, begging to get out. She didn’t hold it back this time. A rumble stirred in Maya’s throat as she closed in on her enemies. One of them saw her and his eyes widened. The man raised his axe and ran at Maya.

When Maya barked, the trees in front of her shook. Despite the volume, her ears didn’t hurt, and bones didn’t rattle. On the other hand, her enemy found himself thrown off his feet and into a tree. A sickening crunch sounded from within his body. He hung in space for a moment as the air rippled around him, then he fell to the floor in a limp heap. The second bad human roared. Even though he’d heard her bark and seen his companion’s fate, the man charged.

Maya barked again but didn’t get the same effect. Instead, it sounded like an ordinary bark. There was more essence in her still, but it refused to collect in her throat like last time. Instead, it coursed through her limbs and spine. The air felt smelt off to Maya, much like after lightning. Then it occurred to her why the bark had sounded familiar.

It’s thunder.

Thunder had never bothered Maya like it did other dogs. She enjoyed how the sky lit up and spoke while showering her with rain. Maya’s tail took off despite the man charging at her. If her barks were thunder, that meant she had lightning too. She lunged at her opponent but all of a sudden found herself standing in the trees past him.

The yelling stopped. Maya turned around to find the man looking around with a confused expression on his face. His brow furrowed as he saw her. Then the bad human charged again. Maya fell into a crouch, ready to meet his charge. She could feel the air around her body crackling. When he was close, she jumped at him.

The bad human didn’t expect Maya’s lunge. He swung his axe downwards and hit her, but with the shaft’s base and not the head. A loud yelp escaped Maya as the blow glanced off her ribs, cracking something inside. She landed uncomfortably on her front limbs and stumbled onto her face. Maya struggled to recover, worried the bad human would be upon her at any moment, but he didn’t come. Instead, the man lay on the floor, spasming. At first, Maya thought she had gotten an attack off too. Then she saw essence crackle in his body like lightning, forcing the vile energy out.

Much to her annoyance, the ugly essence regained control, and he charged at Maya. She tried calling on her remaining essence, but neither her throat nor her spine responded. Neither part of her was ready to wield thunder or lightning yet. The man was almost on Maya, and she was preparing to run when Winona stepped out of the shadows. Black tendrils uncoiled from around her arms and grabbed the man, pulling him off balance. Then she punched him with her left fist in the throat, and the shadows shaped themselves into a spike, impaling him.

Maya didn’t need to get closer to confirm the man was dead. The ugly essence inside him rushed out of his body and disappeared into the air. Then everything in him went still. Winona approached the man Maya had downed with her bark and stabbed him through the stomach.

“I’m sorry I didn’t help earlier, Maya,” Winona said. “You’re much faster than me, and after your bark, I wanted to see what else you could do.” The man at her feet gurgled and coughed up a chunk of purple flesh. Maya recoiled on sensing its essence. The smell and feeling together made her sick. “If you ever see, smell, or sense anything like this in the future, run and find me. We don’t want any of this getting anywhere close to home. Alright?”

Maya barked, hoping it was enough to get her confirmation across.