Wolf Rock Solo Closed

The hilltop space, while not crowded, was certainly alive! And how different it appeared now under the Moon! The vision of Colin in boy shape was replaced by the vision of Colin in wolf shape. Gone were the beautiful wild flowers and the brilliant orange red of the setting Sun! The world was changed, replaced by drab yellowy green hues yet more than amended by millions of scents! And not merely scent as a static concept, but scent as a living, moving, ever changing array of activity in the area! Just as Colin the boy could see and distinguish AngelFyre or Clair by shape and posture and colour and broom whilst flying, so too could Colin distinguish scores of wolves here on the hill top around Wolf Rock!

Two streaks of white crested the hill, darting here and there, following dozens of different scent trails as the Sun cast her long shadow over the Rock towards the east. And even as the sky darkened, neither Colin nor Liam had any difficulty seeing either! For though they could no longer distinguish a red flower from a yellow, they could easily see their fellows in the dimming light of night. Many were gathered near the Rock. A few lingered at the far edges of the broad space. Some of the bigger wolves were already bloodied, and Colin could sniff out that wolfy games were every bit as dangerous as wizarding games!

A few younger wolves charged over to sniff out the twins! A few males greeted them before passing on. The females lingered! Colin grinned at Liam, showing all his fangs --- for real this time! Liam nudged Colin towards one of the females, before checking out the other ones. She turned her head this way and that, making some soft yowly sounds. Wait. Was she flirting with Colin? He made a little huffing sound and leapt towards her! He stretched out his long forelegs towards her, turned his body slightly and bowed!

She yipped and the two darted off chasing each other through the groups of wolves! Colin was chasing the female now! At the last second, she darted to one side and Colin found himself skidding right into the forepaws of a grown wolf! He didn't seem terribly amused, though the females with him chortled.

CLACK! GRRRR!

"YEEEEP!" Colin squeaked!

The big wolf's huge fangs almost snapped onto Colin's tail! Fortunately, he dodged out of the way just in time, only to find the young female taking his place, chasing all over the hill top! Colin yowled inquisitively! He wondered who she was! Sure not Tes! The female certainly didn't smell familiar! A couple of the other young wolves did smell vaguely familiar, though. But surely none of them went to Hogwarts! Wouldn't Colin have known? Such thoughts were easily dismissed and shoved aside in wolf shape! They played forever! Just exhilarating in the joy of the four footed chase and wrestling and mouthing each other as the Moon rose towards his zenith. Colin had never felt the liberty of his werewolfery so keenly as he did this night among the northern packs!

@Jun Mayumi Mochizuki | @Meyra Lancaster | @Colby Vidler | @Tesla Stone | @Keith Moore | @Myra Markab

UFF!!

Something big slammed into Colin's side, knocking the breath out of him! The other wolves scattered, still chasing one another, but Colin found himself separated. He got back to his paws and turned quickly at the sound of a low growl. A dark wolf paced back and forth, his eye on Colin, his lips curled back. Colin let out a quick yelp, but the bigger wolf snapped at Colin before he could say anything more!

The moonlight caught the wolf's fangs just right!

Colin couldn't believe his eyes!

He wasn't sure if the wolf had intended to reveal himself or not, but certainly knew who he was now! Not by name, maybe, but certain by the nickname he and his siblings had given him: Old Threefang! Colin could only hope that Liam had heard his yelp, as there was no time to go find him or look for other help! The dark wolf leapt! His maw wide, he went straight for Colin's throat!

Colin felt the wolf's fangs clamp onto his throat! He couldn't breathe! Colin tried to gouge the dark wolf's eye with his claws, but only managed to scrape the side of his head. Colin wiggled, trying to get himself free. He couldn't manage it! The bigger wolf held fast, trying his best to kill Colin right then and there! Colin tried again, kicking at the big wolf with his hind legs!

He smashed his hind paws into Three Fangs's throat! The wolf yelped and let his go! There was no time to waste! Colin leapt to the attack! And at the same moment, Three Fang must have thought the same! They leapt at the same moment! They both realised at the same moment that they were each headed for disaster!

BAMPF!

"YOWWW!" the two wolves cried in unison as their snouts smashed together straight on! That hurt! Colin thought!

Colin shook himself quickly and made some quick dodgy moves, side to side! The bigger wolf seemed confused! Colin stuck out his tongue and dove into a play bow, his tail high and wagging! He whuffed playfully!

The bigger wolf was now truly confused! Colin had him! What the big wolf had in strength, he lacked in agility. Colin dodged and squirmed aside, regaining his paws and turning before his attacker could recover from the play bow feint! Colin readied himself to leap as he saw streaming into the fray a most welcome sight!

As one they leapt! Two streaks of white fur pummelling into the mass of black fur from opposite sides! Colin went for the big wolf's hind quarters and Liam went for the throat! Fur and blood flew in every direction as the big wolf's attack turned into defeat! Liam ripped off half the wolf's ear and bit into his eye! Colin gnawed into a couple rather important bits himself, making the big black wolf yelp and squeal in pain!

When the younger wolves at last let him be, Old Three Fangs took the opportunity to turn tail and run! But not before the twins clamped onto his tail, breaking the tip of it!

Left alone at last, Liam sniffed at Colin. They left Wolf Rock, heading back down the hill a way. They paused, Liam licking his brother's bleeding throat wound. Here they would wait until the transformation took hold and brought them back into boy shape. Curled up together, they listened as the other wolves continued their gathering. They could hear, too, a short distance away, someone else whimpering in the darkness.

@Jun Mayumi Mochizuki | @Meyra Lancaster | @Colby Vidler | @Tesla Stone | @Keith Moore | @Myra Markab

Silence greeted the dawn after the full moon.

Colin's neck felt stiff. The boys checked each other out. There was blood everywhere. Colin smirked. Liam smirked in return. The full moon had been thrilling and their hearts still pounded with the excitement of it! For a while the sat in wonder at what they had experienced. The chasing and the fighting! Just the gathering of so many wolves in one place! Neither had any idea how many there really were --- it wasn't really in the wolf's nature to bother with things like numbers --- and they talked about who they might be when in human shape.

"Why is it always blood with us, Liam?" Colin asked. It seemed like any time the two boys got into some kind of adventure, there was blood everywhere.

"Dunno, lad," Liam responded with a shrug. "I reckon we're just a pair of bloody active blokes!" Colin shook his head at his twin's pun. "Right, let's get ye scourgified and wounds tended to! Then we need to get home. I'm starving!"

Home was several miles away, though, and it struck Colin that they'd landed nowhere close to where they'd left their things before transformation. They looked at each other and laughed. Two naked fools wandering the Highlands after the wild gathering. "Liam, we really need to work out a better system than this."

Liam snorted as they walked arm in arm. "Cail." Liam shook his head. "A better system? Since when have we even had a system?" They laughed and talked over what they'd done in wolf shape. Liam rolled his eyes when Colin brought up the female wolf he'd chased about. "Oh! Is that all you did was chase?" he asked with a wink and a glint of mischief his his own green eyes. "But what do you think of that big black wolf Cail?"

Colin thought about it as they found their things and got dressed. Scraggly fellow he must be in human shape. "Do ye know what I think Liam?" he asked as he reached into the pocket of his kilt and drew out a a bit of leather thong with something dangling from it. Liam smirked. Colin slipped the loop over his head and shook out his mane of pale hair. He smirked in response. "I really think we've seen him before." Colin stuck his tongue between his teeth and tapped the wolf fang that rested against the wolf and moon tattoo on his chest.

The walked in thought for some time. "Do you know what else I think, Liam?"

"No, what else do you think, Cailean? Unless it's about that wolf girl..."

"Shush. No, not her. Mind you, she was ..." Colin shook his head. Liam had managed to side track him again! "Wait. No! What I'm thinking is about that ---"

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

A high pitched scream pierced the morning air a little ways ahead. Colin and Liam looked at each other before turning to rush into whatever what was going on! They scrabbled over the short distance and found two small huddled and pitiful things at the bottom of the valley! There they found a small figure crouching over another. A little girl. Colin's heart fell. He knew instantly who it was. The boys took off at a run, closing the distance easily.

There was more blood.

The grass and wildflowers had been trampled. Something had been dragged down from higher up. Ciarán was shaking violently. She was covered in blood. She was all scratched up. Her spectacles were nowhere to be seen and her clothes had been ripped. The other figure --- a little boy. He wasn't moving at all. Colin closed his eyes. This wasn't happening! Liam scooped up little Ci into his arms and tried to get her away from the place a little. But she fought! She kept screeching her brother's name. Liam did his best to comfort their little sister. They knew they had to get her home, and fast! She must have been attacked --- how did she even get out here? How did --- Colin couldn't even bring himself say his little brother's name.

He moaned. This couldn't be happening! He looked around again for any sign. Ciarán must have been trying to drag her brother home. She'd only gotten as far as the base of Wolf Rock. Liam was already running. Colin fell to his knees. In that moment he understood. The runes he had seen in his dreams. The weird shapes. The dark monument. He knew he was no seer, but he also knew there must be other ways of seeing. He just didn't know how to decipher what he had seen.

And now it was clear.

The sky turned black as high clouds skidded across the wan newly risen sun. The sun herself turned black and the landscape fell into a hush. Colin looked up. He was in that place again. The obelisk waited patiently. Deep black against a deeper black. The only brightness was the retreating figures of his brother and sister. In the black world of shadows, they radiated from within. Colin found himself facing the eighth side of the square.

From this vantage point, it was obvious. He saw himself before, standing in this place, trying to gauge the nature of the weird structure, a seven sided square that took some time to reveal its eighth side. The dark things laughing at him as he tried to understand this thing incomprehensible. They sneered, jostling each other at the far periphery of his vision.

Colin knelt next to his dead brother. Aye. He was dead. He was beyond all Colin's magic. Beyond any magic. Beyond any power of this world. Colin looked up from his brother's still face. The obelisk stood patiently. Colin could see it now. The seven sides had to be rotated just so. The figure opened. The runes, once jumbled and corrupted now radiated, their dark light casting darker shadows across Colin's mind. He read the named they spelled out.

Cruel runes. Not made by anything remotely human. The heart of the obelisk was open like a doorway into a chamber. Was it some kind of prediction? A future story now past? He hadn't been able to read it before, last spring when he first saw this thing in his mind. Still, he knew what doom it had portended. And now the cruel runes laughed. What chance did the heart have against such cold and calculating intellect? Powers far older and far greater than Colin could ever imagine. Why did they even care? Why did they torment him so?

A realisation dawned on him. Colin understood something in that moment. And the laughter faltered. Hesitated. Colin gently scooped up the cold and lifeless body of his brother. He understood something that had been bothering him for more than a year. His heart felt keenly the loss of his little brother. Evil had ripped them apart. Evil had stolen what was good. Evil had raped and destroyed, leaving only sorrow and loss in its wake.

Yet ...

Why didn't I feel this when Liam was gone?

He held the dead boy's body close to his own. He stood up, setting his jaw firmly. He understood now. It was a sham. All that time he had been led to believe that Liam was dead. The cruel letter. A sad prank perpetrated by a sad and pitiable woman. Colin had known in his heart all along that Liam was never dead. He straightened up, snarled derisively at all shadow creatures and their deceits.

Softly Colin sang.

A rune more powerful than any dark or doomful book in an old stone. The dark things hissed. Colin carried his brother into the dark obelisk. The runes inside cracked and broke. They fell to the side, and as if the whole dark world rotated again, he pushed through to the morning air of the Highlands. Liam was just ahead, waiting. Together they had to get the little ones home.

AngelFyre McCubbin