The Foretelling - Prologue

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Prologue: The Serpent and the Garden

Just keep running. Don’t look back. Keep running, one paw after another. Keep running. Don’t you dare look back…

The land glowed with a thick blanket of snow though the night was dark under the cold shoulder of the new moon. Were it not for the snow, the black she-wolf would’ve blended entirely into the darkness. Her slender figure darted frantically between the trees, chest heaving as she gasped for air. She choked back a sob as she stumbled to a halt beside a half-frozen pond.

“God, be gone, be gone…please be gone.”

She couldn’t restrain a whimper as the ache that gnawed at her stomach turned suddenly sharp and persistent. No matter how deep she dug her claws into the frigid earth to brace herself, the agony still tore at her insides. Her panicked gaze flickered to her reflection in the pool, eyeing precious bulge of her stomach. It wouldn’t be long now. She could only pray she’d managed to outrun him.

And even if I do, will I be strong enough to make it through the birth?

In another life, she had never known what it was to starve or suffer. Hunger had morphed her lean bodice into an emaciated one, fear drew her eyes wide and bloodshot, and past mistakes ripped snaking scars across her back. Sickness had claimed the better part of her voice. She was a shell, nearing a breaking point. Her bone structure ached; her tendons snarled in protest. She dropped to her knees before the small, iced-over pool, breathing in strangled gasps.

The earth waited, suspended in silence. Cold tears leaked from the corners of her tightly shut eyes. The lupine body stilled, joining with the universe in the holding of breaths. Absently, ice water broke the solemnity with its oblivious trickling.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

“You’re only making this more difficult for yourself, Raven. Why did you run?”

A large shadow fell across Raven’s features; a muscular wolf leaned against a towering oak tree on the opposite side of the pond. She stood at once and stepped briskly backwards, pelt bristling. “Why did you follow?” She hissed. “Did he send you, Regulus?”

Regulus stepped out from his place behind the oak, paws splashing as he dipped into the shallows of the pool. His expression was grim as he watched the she-wolf. Raven's heartbeat quickened to a thudding metronome in her ears.

“You know why I’m here, Raven. I’m asking you to come back home,” his voice was strained as he clenched his jaw in frustration. The eyes of the she-wolf narrowed.

“Trying to suppress something sour, Regulus? I wouldn’t know, but the way you move is enough to say there’s a bitter taste to the lies you tell!” With a bracing snarl, she slowly backed away.

Regulus hesitated; for a moment a sincere ache shimmered in his gaze.

“Raven, let’s not be hasty. You’ll regret it if you go against your pack, and I don’t want—”

“My pack?” She hissed incredulously. “I am a Shanti of birth, a Shanti raised, and a Shanti traitor! I left them for you, Regulus!" She shook her head decisively, "And I shouldn't have! So long as the fenrit still pulses inside of me, you will not touch me or my family ever!” Her eyes flashed venomously.

He took a few pawsteps towards her and, too intent on his target to go around, stepped deeper into the pond. The anger dissolved from his face as she spoke, replaced by burning sorrow. His mouth opened, but he closed it without speaking. Their eyes locked in swimming reflections of each other. “I…. I didn’t want this to happen, Raven…. he said…. he said it wouldn’t be like this. That we’d still…that it would be all right. I didn’t think I would…lose you,” he whispered his words to the cold air, and Raven closed her eyes against them.

“I know, Regulus. I will never forget, for as long as I exist. If Valhalla takes me, I will hope you are not too far gone—”

He remained fixed in place, the pond milling around him, eyes glowing sadly. “You know as well as I do it’s too late, Love. My fenrit has crumbled to dust. You would pray for a soulless monster, destined to roam the darks of Evernight?”

“I would pray for you,” she corrected. She continued to recede from the frigid pond border.

In a flash as quick as lightning, the emotion fled from his face. A blank bloodlust turned his eyes into unfeeling stones. In a sudden shift, his jaw popped audibly. Rows of curved fangs ringed his shadowed smirk. “Prayers! They mean nothing to the gods of the earth.”

Raven forced her head to nod curtly and forced her limbs to stay strong, though they trembled. Regulus lurked forward with lips curled back over his fangs, pure white daggers that glistened maliciously. She watched, petrified as she faced the monster she’d once loved. He’s dead. His soul…his fenrit…it’s gone. Her lips fluttered; the words quivered in the air, “Goodbye, Regulus.”

Snow crunched underpaw.

The she-wolf lurched to the left. I have a reason to get back…a reason beyond just me. I have to get back…for the pups…to keep them away from the others…Wind and snow whipped at her face as she rocketed away from him. ...to keep them whole. Don't you dare look back, don't look back, don't look back...

Her paws pounded against the ground. Raven pressed forward, eyes peeling with tears. Sweat flooded across her skin, wetting her thick pelt. The pain accumulated in a stabbing sensation that lashed vigorously at her stomach. Internally, instinct notched with realization.

The pups…

Raven’s paws caught on gnarled roots. Her hind legs dug into the earth and saved her from the fall. She shrieked in terror at the sound of teeth snapping shut on vacant air, his fangs barely missing her. Regulus’ rancid breath blew against her tail and she trampled desperately through the forest.

Just keep running. Keep running, keep running…

Regulus screamed in high-pitched, cold laughter as his prey faltered in flight.

No, no, I can’t run anymore, I can’t! She whirled and faced Regulus. His jaws slammed shut immediately. Raven yelped as fangs scored her muzzle. The wound pulsed with a slow trickle of blood. He...he would never hurt me! Saliva dribbled down from his foaming jowls. He's not Regulus anymore. Raven tore away from him in the nick of time as he rushed at her.

Each movement brought him closer to the back of her neck, the crack of the spinal cord, the feel of death on his paws, at long last, she would be spoiled, broken, no longer. Like milk for a newborn, he needed her blood on his thirsting claws.

The forest gave way suddenly to a vast clearing with three she-wolves at the center. Raven’s eyes widened in shock as the trio pelted towards her. Tears ran from her eyes as the first of the wolves, a dark gray, collided with the rabid hunter. Raven collapsed in the snow as they somersaulted away in a fit of fangs and claws. Seconds later, Raven’s entire body began to quake with uncontrollable agony.

It had to be now, and it had to be here. The pups couldn’t wait any longer.

She gasped for air as the other two she-wolves, one black, the other pale ginger, gazed down at her with solemn faces.

“Raven,” the soot-colored sister sighed, “what have you gotten yourself into now?”

Raven only sobbed in protest. “S-Shaya, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I was wrong! P-promise me you’ll take care of them?”.

“Not before they’re born,” the ginger sister, Aura, chided. Her gray, watering eyes blazed with determined fire. “I’m not letting you die on me!”

Fire… fire, something’s burning! I’m on fire! NO! I didn’t come this far to die before they were born… Her body was crazed with pain, her claws slashed desperately at the frozen earth. Raven completely ensnared in torture. “What’s happening to me?”

The third sister, Anima, sprinted to her side. Shaya and Aura scoured their surroundings for Regulus, but he was nowhere to be seen. Anima studied Raven with an apprehensive gaze. “I need you to hang on for me, Raven. Your pups are coming, but they need your help.”

"Damn!" Aura swore under her breath. "There's so much...blood..." Raven felt her spirit crumple in anguish as her sisters watched over her. If Anima can't help me...no one can.

Aura and Shaya looked away, unable to watch as Raven entered the ordeal of the birthing process. Shaya’s eyes were wide with horror as her gaze dropped to her own stomach, plump with pups that were promised to come in a month’s time.

Time ticked slowly by as the sisters watched, waited, and worried over Raven’s condition. Aura’s watchful eyes never left the woods; she waited, claws flexing eagerly at the promise of vengeance, for Regulus to appear. Even hours after the beast had vanished, when the sun had appeared above the trees to blaze down upon the group of she-wolves, the specter kept himself hidden.

“You shouldn’t be here, Shaya,” Aura growled eventually. “It’s too dangerous.”

Shaya shook her head, fearful, but determined. “I couldn’t, Aura. I couldn’t stay back knowing that this could be the last time…this could be the last time we see her.”

Abruptly, Aura stood and padded towards the woods. Snarling, she sliced at the air with her paws. “Where are you, you bastard? Come and face me!”

As if he’d been awaiting her call, Regulus strode out into the open, eyes fastened on Raven’s heaving figure.

There was an exchange of glances, and the three standing sisters nodded in solemn agreement.

“We’ll take care of him, Shaya,” Anima murmured. She was strangely calm as she glared at the beast, but her eyes betrayed her disgust.

Shaya swallowed her fear and bent low next to Raven, who teetered on the rim of unconsciousness. “I’m here, sister, I’m here.” Shaya looked back over her shoulder, watching Anima and Aura as they prepared to meet their enemy.

She couldn’t help but stare at the creature who called himself Regulus. She’d never once seen the wolf her sister had run away with. Even in her wildest nightmare, she would never, ever understand what had brought Raven to love him.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this, Regulus…” Aura licked Raven’s cheek gently as she passed her. Sinking low, she trapped Regulus in a strategic circle. Bloodlust choking his veins, he dove for Raven’s throat.

SLAM.

Aura rammed his side as he made his charge. Anima coiled and sprang onto his back. White razor fangs plunged into the back of his neck. Instinctively he bucked, jolted, and shook violently. Regulus lashed out in attempts to dismantle her, but Anima held fast while Aura battered Regulus was a flurry of blows to his front. His throat rumbled with a deep, boiling roar. From Raven’s perspective on the wintry earth, she watched three sets of paws engage in fatal festivity. Regulus kicked Aura hard in the gut and threw his body backwards to the snow-encrusted earth. Anima was smashed beneath Regulus’ body.

"ANIMA!" A snarl sizzled in Aura's throat. She whirled around and stormed Regulus, snapping at the first flesh her furious teeth could find. Her claws sank into his vulnerable stomach. In a slicing motion, great gashes slit his underside. A shrill wail speared the air. Instantly, Regulus tumbled from Anima's crumpled form, splatters of blood splashing across the intense white of the snowdrifts. "Anima!" Aura shrank to her side and prodded her gently. Anima lay in the frozen earth without response. "No," Aura growled firmly, taking her sister's tail and snapping down. "I can't lose you both! Now wake up, damn it, Anima!"

At the edge of the clearing, where Shaya hovered over Raven, her eyes caught sight of Anima’s crumpled body. Instinctually, she cried out for her sister and darted towards her fallen form.

Life trickling from his veins, the dying beast limped towards his target.

One set of paws had disentangled themselves from the rest of the battle dance. Raven raised her head, oblivious as she stared at the dark, blotchy black figure prowling towards her. Shaya...?

Regulus had no opposition as he stumbled towards his mate. Blood rolled steadily down his side from the wounds Aura has slashed into his stomach. Raven wept softly as he loomed over her His fangs lightly grazed her throat, hesitating, wondering, through the shifting haze of insanity that plagued his mind, if the taste was worth it. A small sadness spawned in the mindless shape of the wolf, and a soft sigh escaped his jaws. What was left of sense told him that this was the end, the drawing of the final curtain over his eyes. Growling with firm resignation, his incisors tore into her gullet with sadistic glee. The beast relished his kill with the cruel curve of a smile as her life thundered to a halt.

“Shaya – NO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Aura whirled on Shaya as she approached. Reality smashed over her at Aura’s snarl.

Shaya’s eyes grew huge with terror. Before she could turn, Aura soared past her.

He was staring blankly at Raven’s dead body, taking no notice of the yelping pup that lay alone at her side. He hadn’t moved an inch since he’d made the cut that ended her life. Regulus had waited for revenge to take him.

Aura growled in anger with every heaving breath. So long…so long I’ve waited for her to come home…and now she’s taken from me... Her claws flitted across Regulus' throat. The blind, black pits of his eyes bore into her as a curtain of blood cascaded from the wound. His body dropped into the red snow beside Raven’s ravaged form.

Aura stumbled backwards, bile rising in her throat as she looked at what she’d done.

Shaya aided a trembling Anima to her paws. The sage wolf survived suffocation, but sadness crushed Shaya’s lungs in a way no physical force ever could.

It’s my fault she’s dead.

A shrill, high-pitched yelp forced all three heads to turn back to the scene of the crime.

A single pup wriggled in the snow, yipping powerless next to his mother’s cold body. Hesitantly, Shaya took a step towards him, eyes flitting to Aura in a silent plea for permission.

"Take him, Shaya," Anima barked. Her eyes traveled to the slight bulge of Shaya's own stomach. She shouldn't have come here...with an attack like that, she’s lucky she didn’t get hurt. Shaya dipped her head and took the pup tenderly in her jaws. She said nothing more as she left, but she could feel Aura’s accusatory gaze burning into her back.

Aura forced her paws towards home. It was no proper way to say goodbye to her sister, but nothing about the situation was proper. Raven’s single son, the one she had died to save, would die himself if he wasn’t properly cared for.

Anima was alone.

The sage's eyes fell to the forms of Raven and her wicked lovely. Disbelief rattled its fingers on her mind. She's...gone. She's really gone.

"All right, then...." she whispered, "I suppose I have to cast your bodies."

Anima dragged the bodies to the nearby river. It was a sacred river in which all wolves of the land disposed of their dead. The river carried the souls of the departed to the Mirror Sea, where they would either ascend or renter the circle of life and death. She'll go to Valhalla. Raven is finished here. And him... she thought coldly, he’ll go straight to hell. As she let go of the bodies at the edge of the river, Anima frowned with sudden uncertainty. Something was stirring in her sixth sense, the sense she exercised with great care as sage, a spiritual leader, to the Shanti pack. It was Anima’s duty to perform the ritual of release that would let Raven and Regulus depart for the next life. Breathing a deep, cleansing breath, she managed to shove the uncomfortable sensations to the back of her mind and turn, with a sore heart, to the task at hand.

Her sister’s body, grasped limply in her jaws, was the first to meet the river’s frothing surface. Raven’s bloodied mass was sucked away from Anima in an instant. Anima blinked tears from her eyes as she watched her sister go. "I, Anima, sage of the Shanti, cast this fenrit..." She ceased the ceremonial words, jaw dropping into a gape as her eyes locked on the glittering silhouette of the body, shifting away from her in the rapids. "Not two...three!" she breathed aloud, realization igniting in her brain. She leaped forward, holding fast to Raven’s paw. The current snapped in protest. “No!” The she-wolf’s claws burrowed into the muck-laden ground for support as the current dragged her forward. Sweat broke out under her thick fur. Distraction…maybe it will be satisfied with another offering… She kicked Regulus’ body harshly into the thirsting river. It swallowed him greedily, but remained suctioned to Raven’s carcass. The river lashed at Anima’s face with cold, piercing bites.

“You…will…not…take…the other one…too!” She barked with cutting conviction. She tunneled her teeth deeper into Raven’s foot, frantic for a solid hold. The river slashed at her in defiance. All around her, waves and pools began to ripple and tremble with their rage at the sheer nerve of the sage wolf. Her pelt was tossed and matted with mud as she was hauled further and further into the chilling murk. The water rose so it was level with Anima’s chest. She glared hatefully back at the glistening blue.

“All of my life, I have worked to interpret and deliver the will of the lupine spirit of Fenrir. His spirit powers my actions; I will not be ignored, and I will not be withheld!” A rampaging wave claimed the rest of her air. Panic fluttered in her heart as she was shoved roughly under, but she forced herself upward once more.

“River, you will not take this pup! I won’t let you take it!” She gasped for one final swallow of precious oxygen, and then dove. Her form was whipped away into the spirit waters. As she surged through the torrent, the temperature plummeted until a roof of ice caged her overhead.

“Won’t let you…take her pup….” Anima faded into a shadowed comatose, her resolve smoldering with her into the last seconds of her rapid pounding heart.

A raven crowed, alone on its perch, miserable with the rousing day.