Ruthless V5Ch31-Snake Hunt

Luna blinked awake.

“Did I sleep?” she asked groggily.

Her eyes focused on the two figures who stood over her, Dave and one of the Healers.

“You did,” the Healer replied. “But only for a little while.”

“You resisted completely until the battle was over,” Dave added.

Luna quickly lifted her left and right heads and swiveled them to scan the environment. She verified that no enemies were present, only her wolfpack and a handful of human guards.

“Where is everyone?” she asked, unable to keep a certain anxiety out of her voice.

“Snake hunt,” Dave replied. “The King’s orders. Finishing the rattlesnakes off. He doesn’t want us to end up fighting an enemy that’s familiar with us from this battle in the future. It spoils the surprise about what our force is like.”

“The Ruler?” Luna asked, pushing herself up off the ground. Rising was much less painful than she had expected. The Healers had done their jobs well—and gotten to her much more quickly than she had managed to get Romulus to them.

Dave frowned. “We inflicted a lot of damage to her, but she escaped. Kept regenerating and switching places with those apparitions made of smoke or whatever. She healed faster than we could hurt her, and she slithered faster than most of those—like Samuel—who could actually go toe to toe with a creature her size.”

Luna nodded, using her central head this time, just to test how it felt. Her lower jaw had regrown all the lost tissue, and a general raw soreness was the only hint that she had ever been injured.

“How is Romulus?” she asked.

“He woke up,” Dave said gently. “Only for a little while, but he said your name. He is sleeping again now. Appears to be recovering well.”

“I cannot face him,” Luna said. “Not until I avenge his injury.” She extended her central neck and cracked it. “Thank you for the rescue—and for the healing.” She nodded at the Healer. “Please pass my thanks along to your comrades.”

The Healer nodded in return, his expression serious.

Dave frowned. “You’re going? Right now?”

“You only just recovered,” the Healer said.

“As you said, we cannot allow anyone who knows the capabilities of the Fisher Kingdom and is hostile to live,” Luna replied. She made eye contact with Dave, attempting to inject meaning into the gesture. “You know what that means.”

The Captain slowly nodded. “Good luck.”

“I have the King’s Blessing, and I already know the hydra’s tricks,” Luna replied. “If I need luck—” She shook her head slightly and wagged her tail—“I have received it in ample supply.”

“Miss wolf,” said the Healer a little awkwardly, “perhaps it’s not my place to ask this, but you had poison in your system and acid burns on several places—you can feel them now, spots where the fur hasn’t grown back in. What are you going to do if—” He swallowed and didn’t finish the sentence.

“If the hydra bites me, I will return to you for treatment,” Luna replied. “Slaying her is more important than anything I could do here.”

She left unspoken the last part of her answer.

If I do not make it back, and I die at her hands, that was simply my fate…

“There was one more thing,” Dave said. “James wanted you to report back to him once you woke up. He was worried about you.”

Luna nodded. “Thank you for informing me.” She charged off through the pines, following the scent trail of the hydra. It was fortunate that the Healers had not been forced to remove any of the armor or weapons the Goblins had prepared for Luna as they healed her—in part because the acid and snake bites had all landed in the areas unprotected by those things, and perhaps also in part because with Luna lying down in her armor, removing the main pieces would have been difficult.

She opened the telepathic channel with James as she moved.

I have awakened, my King, she sent once the connection with James was established. She considered adding a question or a request for guidance, but she did not know why he had wanted to hear from her specifically, other than the fact that he was worried about her.

It is good to hear from you, James replied immediately. How are your injuries?

Substantially healed and unworthy of your concern, sire, Luna sent. Thank you for asking.

I am also in communication with Dave, James transmitted. He tells me that you are going after the Ruler from this territory?

Luna swallowed nervously, a little worried for the first time since she opened the conversation. Was James going to order her to return?

I am, yes, she replied. I believe it is necessary for the security of the army moving forward. These snakes have witnessed much of what we are capable of, and while the Captain and the others are slaying the lesser followers, the Ruler outpaced them. She is the biggest threat, and I want to prevent the possibility of our being forced to face her again, when she has had the time to forge alliances and acquire new followers—

And you are the only one fast enough to chase her down? James cut her off. You could not bring more of the army—or even just more of the wolfpack—with you?

Luna was quiet for a moment. She did not want to lie to the King.

The wolfpack is faster than the rest of the army, she acknowledged. Humans are slower than wolves, Goblins are slower than humans, and alligators are barely better than Goblins on land. Only the scouts would truly be able to keep up, and I do not need scouting. I have the enemy’s scent. I did not want to put the other wolves in any further danger.

She realized she was spending a lot of mental energy justifying herself, and it might come across as desperate rationalization, but she could not frame her thoughts more persuasively. She was running hard, having recognized the trail of the hydra’s odor made a beeline for the borders of her territory. Rather than finding some other cave to hunker down in, the Ruler appeared to have completely fled.

Your mate was also hurt, James observed. Going off on your own… Is this really about him?

If you order me to return, I will, my King, Luna replied, her ears moving back as if James was there in person.

Revenge or wanting to protect someone you care about are completely valid motives, Luna, he replied. I just want to understand. I am not going to order you to fall back. Are you sure having more wolves would not be wise?

Luna felt a surge of relief. I can do it, she sent. If there is only the hydra, I know it is possible. Unless she has more minions there with her, others on my side would only be a distraction. More targets for her to attack. Probably some fatalities.

I know the feeling, James replied. She felt a dry chuckle from him. Go ahead. You have my blessing. Give her hell. Show her what it means to fuck with the wolfpack that guards the Fisher Kingdom.

Luna felt a pleasant sensation similar to when James had initially blessed her. She thought it might be a sort of placebo effect, because it was much weaker than the positive sensation from an actual blessing, so much that it could have been in her head. A little like phantom itching in a severed limb.

Thank you, Luna sent.

There was a pause, as James seemed to be distracted by something for a moment.

Luna, you said this thing was a hydra, he added. I heard from one of the others that it showed some impressive healing? Recovered very quickly from serious injuries?

Yes, my King, she replied, slightly worried again. I must admit, it growing new heads whenever an old one was chopped off was a problem to deal with. She was prepared to go into her plan of battle, but the King did not ask for that.

Let me know when you have killed her, then, James sent instead. Recovery is a very useful power.

I will not let you down, she replied.

Return alive as the top priority, James shot back instantly. This is not about letting me down. If you’re alive, then the Healers can patch you up again. That’s all I’m worried about. The army will consolidate the territory you’ve won, heal the wounded, and then continue moving in the same direction. The words of the first two sentences resonated in Luna’s mind like the pronouncement of an ironclad law. When the last words were spoken, she knew that James had broken off the connection.

That is a relief. She had been afraid he had changed his mind and would think the hydra was beyond her abilities—which might be true. But it did not change her desire.

A haze of gratitude enveloped her.

Luna gave no more thought to the army’s movements. Given how long it would take for them to get the wounded fully recovered and move on, she was optimistic that they would still be in roughly the same place once she returned. She did send brief instructions to the wolfpack regarding the chain of command in case Romulus was not fully recovered by the time they were required to move again.

And she raced on, cutting through the trees on the trail of the many-headed Ruler who had almost killed her before. Running all the way to the very edge of the territory.

There was a body of water there, marshy and full of plants. Luna could feel that it was another creature’s territory.

The hydra started swimming. I did not know that rattlesnakes could do that…

As she had feared, the Ruler had abandoned the familiar ground of her own territory and fled for grounds untraveled. With the ability to travel through the water, her scent would be that much more difficult to trace, too.

Perhaps I will regret not asking for one of the scouts to come with me.

For now, Luna stepped into the water and began swimming. She could see a patch of land on the other side of this marshy water. It was just an island in the bog, but she would get there and see if she smelled the hydra at all. If not, she would have to continue to the far shore and hope that the Ruler had stopped swimming there.

She could have swam up or downstream…

Luna felt a slight concern that she was playing a game now that the hydra was much better equipped to win than her: hide and seek.

The enemy Ruler had already shown herself to be sneaky and underhanded. The only advantage Luna would have was that the hydra would likely not expect to be pursued.

I will have to try and think like a snake, Luna thought. If I was a cowardly reptile, what would I do here?

She worked over the problem in her mind as she dog paddled to the little island in the middle of the marsh.

Sure enough, as she reached it and scented the air, she smelled no trace of the hydra. That would have been too easy, of course.

Luna returned to the water and kept going.

If I wanted to hide from an enemy instead of fight, would I be willing to enter the territory of another Ruler? While I was hurt and alone? Although I suppose her injuries will have healed without any help, unlike mine…

It was a very unfamiliar perspective.

Not that Luna had never run from an enemy in her life. It was, however, something that she needed to be pushed to.

Not like Silk, who abandoned her army in the middle of battle, she thought. What was she thinking?

Luna would not have fled from herself in a parallel situation.

Then again, she is not running from me specifically, she reminded herself. She is running from the army. If it was just me there, Silk would have continued the fight until one of us was dead. Probably. If it was truly just me, she probably would have sicked her underlings on me instead of fighting herself.

She reached the other shore, wrinkled her nose, and sniffed the air.

The Wolf Lady shook her head.

Nothing.

But she did not give up. She thought she might know why she smelled nothing here.

If I were Silk, the one thing I would be more afraid of than the army is rushing headlong into another Ruler’s territory. The reason she believed she could beat us before was that we did not have a Ruler accompanying us. She is at least somewhat weakened and alone. She will have kept to the periphery of her neighbor’s territory. Which means…

Luna walked around the shoreline for a minute, getting a feel for the local Ruler’s aura. Then she raced off down the shoreline, moving in the direction in which it was thinnest. That way would be the direction of the border—the area Silk would have stuck closest to, if Luna was correctly interpreting the hydra’s motivations.

It took several minutes, and Luna was almost out of the marsh Ruler’s territory when she skidded to a stop. She could smell the scent again. The odor that so resembled that of a skunk. The hydra.

Luna bared her teeth in a savage grin and began to follow the scent.

We will meet again, and sooner than you think, Silk…