F09T Book 1 Chapter 12

Fox O'Nine Tales
Book One: Larissa of Foxwood

Chapter 12

     "We are halfway to our destination. You rode very well last night."
     Dr. Gwen looked up into the great wolf's face, which fairly glowed, its frame of sleek wolf-hair looking like glistening flames in the illumination of the setting sun's last rays.  She attempted a small smile at the compliment. But even the muscles in her face were still sore from the exhausting ride, even after she had slept almost the entire day away. She had awakened only an hour earlier to find a meal left warming for her over a nearby campfire.  There was also in the near distance a small makeshift teepee-like tent which she discovered was equipped to provide everything needed for a quick ladylike clean-up, including privacy. But Knight Nathaniel was missing. It was as she was finishing the surprisingly sweet and tasty tea he had left prepared for her that the wolfen guardian reappeared, leading the two freshly watered horses, Havoc and Sirocco.
     "What is our destination?" asked Gwen.
     Knight Nathaniel knelt down on one knee to address the doctor who sat cross-legged on the ground.
     "We have to hide you, at least for a short time, in a safe haven out on the Wolf Steppes.  You will be staying for a while in the Den of Graywolf.  It is not only the great wolf den closest to Foxwood proper, but it's people are most loyal to the Council of the Princesses and most ready to obey my commands and instructions unquestioningly. You will be safe there."
      Gwen sensed in the way the knight then looked away that he wasn't telling her everything.
      "Why was I not safe in the castle?"
      The great wolf held his gaze on the glimmering coals of the dying campfire.
      "It's a complicated and dangerous time.  Our King is returning soon.  In weeks, perhaps. And there are those – those who thought him only a myth from olden times – who would launch their long-simmering plot to seize power over the Princesses – seize it now, before the King's arrival.  Rumors and conspiracy theories abound.  Anything strange or unusual – like your appearance – is only more grist for the plotters' mad mills."
     Gwen detected a frightening glint of savagery in Nathaniel's momentarily narrowed eyes as he regarded the red coals in the campfire and the black hearts of those he spoke of.  She shivered to think of having such a powerful and fierce wolf less than happy with her for any reason.  But then his voice just as quickly softened as he turned his head to look at her.
     "You will be safe.  You have my most solemn word on that.  I will protect your life and well-being with the same ardor as I do that of any of my charges here in Foxwood."
     As he turned his head away and rose to his feet, Gwen thought she heard him add one last word just under his breath:
     "More."
         
     Knight Nathaniel motioned for Gwen to rise.  As she did so, he handed her the reins to the two horses and he walked off in the early evening gloaming to the edge of the forest clearing, to just where the high grasses of the immense plain beyond the forest began.  Again, Nathaniel went down to one knee.  And then she saw them.  Wolves.  Massively large wolves.  A dozen or so of them, emerging from the tall grasses to encircle Nathaniel – but not in menace; obviously, more in greeting.  These were not wolves like Nathaniel – not wolf-men or wolf-beings, but "regular" wild animal wolves like the wolves back in Dr. Gwen's waking world … only maybe bigger.  And they seemed most deferential to Nathaniel, as if he were their commander, too, as much as he was commander of his horseback cavalry of werewolf Wolfen Guards.
   The wolves' heads remained slightly bowed, eyes averted away from Nathaniel's, as he appeared to communicate with them in low, rumbling wolf growls and coughs.  One by one they lifted their heads to meet his eyes as he seemed to address them individually, adding hand signals from his mightily-clawed paws to his instructions. Thus seemingly individually "assigned", the wolves then one by one plunged back into the tall grasses, each going off in a different direction, apparently in accordance with Nathaniel's commands.    
     Dr. Gwen realized that she and Nathaniel did not ride alone.  The good knight had provided them with a most effective bodyguard of fearsome escorts for their journey.  And the covering night was once again beckoning.

     His wolf sentinels having been dispatched to their stations, and with the full moon rising to light their way, Knight Nathaniel assisted Dr. Gwen in preparing for the second leg of the long ride.
     "One moment," said Nathaniel, "before you mount up.  I've something for you."
     The great wolf opened one of the packs borne by his own mount. He pulled forth what looked like a bolt of burgundy fabric and unfurled it.  It was a long hooded riding cape.  He presented it to Gwen.
     "Put this on," he said. "While those to whom I'll be presenting you will accept you and protect you without reservation if I so order…  Still, it will be best to not shock them too much upon first sight of you."
     Gwen donned the elegant cape, which reached the heels of her riding boots.
     "The wolfen folk of Graywolf Den have never before been asked to harbor one of the Visitors from the Dreamworld, let alone a full grown woman – a mythical creature of idle conjecture only, up until now.  So we'll let them wonder for a while about the stranger under the hood.  Until I've had time to prepare them with some more or less rational explanation."
     And with that, Nathaniel pulled the deep burgundy hood up and gently fit it around Gwen's head, concealing her face almost entirely – all but her luminous eyes, betrayed by a shaft of moonlight.
     "How do I look?" asked Gwen.
     "Positively mysterious," said Nathaniel, "… and absolutely bewitching."
   
     Dr. Gwen thought Knight Nathaniel, mounted upon his black steed, looked like a strangely handsome if fearsome dark Paladin come to life straight off some enchanted chessboard.  The wolfen commander turned to look back for one last assessment of Gwen's readiness, then slapped a rein to his mount's neck and roared, "Harrrrr!!!"  Havoc reared back on his hind legs, tossed his head with a scream to the heavens, and crashed his front hooves together so that sparks flew in the night air.  Then the knight and his heavy horse bolted forward as one and plunged into the sea of tall grasses at a full gallop.  Before Gwen could touch a heel, knee or rein to horseflesh, Sirocco gave chase to Nathaniel on Havoc, following fluidly in the wake of crushed grasses cleaved asunder by the mighty surging warhorse.  

     The turning of my whole world upside down, thought Dr. Gwen, is now finally complete.  I am now the mythic monster, not the lost maiden, of this mad fairy tale.  It is I who must conceal her terrifying face under this Red Riding Hood, lest I should suddenly be sprung forth upon the innocent wolfen babes of Graywolf Den – the nightmare fiend of their bedtime stories come alive – and rob them forever of their sleep!

     Across the endless and ever slightly rising plain of tall grasses, Nathaniel and Gwen rode through the night.  Dark clouds had rolled in as if from nowhere, eventually blotting out the illuminating moonlight.  Lightning bolts began crashing down from the heavens, their strikes upon the ground growing closer and closer, each strike followed by an even more deafening and frightening explosion of thunder.  Gwen feared that a supernatural force was targeting them, closing in for a direct hit, but she choked back her fear and concentrated on holding on to Sirocco's reins.  Then she thought she saw something just out the corner of her eye, something moving, racing in the grasses alongside Nathaniel and herself.  She turned her head and pulled back her riding hood and peered into the blackness, determined to face whatever evil demons might be hunting her and her brave knight.  Her heart pounded harder and harder – but then became suddenly becalmed.  For with each flash of lightning she could now see that what she had feared were assassins were, in fact, Nathaniel's sentinel wolves, running in formation as an escort ahead of, behind, and on both sides of Havoc and Sirocco.  Their arched backs were just visible as they dove again and again against the waves of blowing tall grasses.  Gwen was instantly reminded of the friendly leaping dolphins that once frolicked alongside her Catalina excursion cruise one summer long ago.  Though she was so bone-weary tired she feared she might let drop Sirocco's reins, and though the cruel symphony of thunder and lightning continued unabated, Gwen clung to the thought of her powerful fanged and clawed protectors, her wolf bodyguards, just beside her out there in the dark, swimming in leaps and bounds through the sea of grasses like beautiful deadly dolphins.  The thought of being so not alone, of being wrapped all the way round in the protection of Nathaniel and his mighty wolves, was enough to allow her to focus her mind, steel her will and steady her shaking hands.  It was enough to ensure her unsure grip on her fearless Sirocco's reins.

     The storm of lightning bolts finally subsided as the first rays of the rising morning sun washed over the tilted grassland plain.  Up ahead, looking past Nathaniel's broad back, Gwen could see an end to the sea of grasses.  There was definitely an earthen ridge separating the horizon between plain and sky.  Gwen hoped this meant the end of their journey, for she wasn't sure how much longer she could stay in the saddle before collapsing in a dead faint.  Then she saw Nathaniel's sentinel wolves up ahead, one by one, appearing out of the crowning grasses and jumping up onto the edge of the ridge.  There they sat, all in a long row, waiting for the two exhausted riders to make it another few dozen yards to the ridge.  Then the horses began appearing atop the ridge, one by one, each ridden by a wolfen guardian clad in black leather just like Nathaniel.  They, too, waited patiently for Nathaniel and Gwen.
     At the lip of the ridge, Nathaniel turned to look to Gwen, motioning for her to rein Sirocco up alongside Havoc. She could see he was smiling his mysterious wan smile as he regarded her face.  Then she realized she was "un-hooded" and awkwardly bolted upright as she tried to correct her infraction.
     Nathaniel smothered her trembling hands in his huge paws.
     "Whoa there, dear lady," he said quietly.  "That's not necessary yet.  These men are my men, the same who were with me when I plucked you out of the bog."
     "Oh, good," sighed Gwen. "Wouldn't want to mess up now, having made it so far."
     "Indeed, you have made it," said Nathaniel.  "Indeed, you have."
     Gwen looked up at the mounted wolfen, and the groundling wolves, about six or seven feet above them on the ridge.
     "Are we there yet, good Knight Nathaniel?"
     Nathaniel smiled and nodded his head.
     "We have traversed the great basin of Foxwood and we have reached the Wolf Steppes.  A few more miles and you will be safe within the Great Den of Graywolf.  There you can sleep for as long as you like and then eat well when you awake."
     "Great," said Gwen, woozy with exhaustion.  "So, are you going to lift me up to your men up there on the ridge or are there some steps or what?"
     Nathaniel's blue eyes twinkled in the morning light, which Gwen took as an omen of something untoward about to happen.
     The wolfen commander whistled a command.  The mounted wolfen guards directly above Nathaniel and Gwen, and the wolves seated by those guards, moved quickly out of the way.  Gwen felt a sickening lightness in the pit of her stomach.  And then Nathaniel whistled another whistle.
     Havoc and Sirocco both took a quick step backward and then launched themselves up and onto the ridge above.  Nathaniel caught Gwen in his arms as she slid sideways off her saddle upon the jarring landing.  The murmur of laughter amongst the wolfen guards was stopped almost before it started by one stern look from their commander.     
     As Nathaniel steadied Gwen on her mount, and tied Sirocco's reins around the exhausted woman's wrists, he raised his great arm and pointed with one of his black-nailed fingers.
     "Just a little bit farther, Gwen," he said encouragingly. "Just over there is the Great Den, a wolfen city of warmth and welcome."
     Dr. Gwen raised her sleepy head and stared out with bleary eyes to where he pointed, expecting another magical castle.  But all she saw was yet another endless ocean of blowing grasses eventually disappearing into a distant hazy horizon.  
     "Is your wolf city invisible?" she asked, with no sarcasm intended, as she was now no longer surprised by the impossible.
     Knight Nathaniel smiled slightly.
     "Yes, you might say that," he answered. "Yes, it is."