Nighttime Visions...
#4 of The Blazewood Pack Saga
Nighttime Visions... by Nightcatcher Blackwolf Thornpaw awoke, his heart pounding as he lay staring into the depths of the starry night. The same dream that had haunted him for the past week now prevented him from sleeping at all. He carefully uncurled from where he lay with Fleetstrike, trying not to wake the feline. Fleetstrike turned over in his sleep and began to snore softly. The wolf stood, and looked down at his mate, a soft smile creeping over his face at the sight of the innocent cheetah curled into a small ball on the ground, sleeping amidst the Blazewood pack, surrounded by wolves... and not having a problem sleeping at all. He's so cute... A hiss cut through the noises of the forest at night and the pack's slumber. "Thornpaw!" The alpha looked around swiftly, but no one appeared to be nearby. He frowned, standing slowly and guardedly, and made his way through the sleeping wolfpack in the direction his lupine hearing had informed him the owner of the voice existed. "Thornpaw!" The hiss came again, from deeper into the woods. He looked deeper into the dense layer of trees ahead of him, and still saw nothing. His frown deepened. Whoever it was was deliberately staying hidden.... which meant that it wasn't one of his pack. But they knew his name... "What do you want of me?" He hissed back, his own voice sounding much too loud in his ears, though none of the pack stirred. "Thornpaw! Help... me!" The voice stopped, and Thornpaw could feel the 'presence' of the owner dissappear momentarily, then reappear. The alpha glanced around, but still couldn't find the owner of the voice. After a moment, Thornpaw slowly crept from the clearing, away from his slumbering friends, and headed towards the unknown voice... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkwind sat bolt upright in his place at the edge of the clearing. Had he heard...? Was he still dreaming...? Loud as a shout in his mind, the answer came swiftly. "Thornpaw's in trouble! He's walking into a trap! Quickly, find him!" A swift impression of the direction Thornpaw was from him branded itself into his mind... then disappeared like the heat of the sun's light on a cloudy day. "SHIT." Darkpaw grabbed his pouches and leapt over the rest of the wolves, completely silent even at the speed he traveled. He stopped at the edge of the clearing, looking back at Fleetstrike, who still lay slumbering. Hesitating a moment, he shook his head. You can't help him this time... He bounded off into the woods, the eerie silence following him, a shroud of darkness over his sounds as surely as the one under which the wolves slept now... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Thornpaw! Help!" The blackfurred wolf ran through the forest towards the voice, not thinking about what could happen. "Thornpaw!" He ran through the clearing.... and stopped dead still in the center. The icy chill that went down his spine and caused his fur to slowly rise slowly crept into his bones. My dream... He slowly turned... and saw Fleetstrike tied to a tree, vines wrapped around him tighter than any kidnapper's rope. "Thornpaw!" "FLEET!" The wolf bounded towards the cheetah, only to trip... he looked down, and saw his foot caught in a vine.... and the vine slowly creeping up his side, like a thing alive, covered in thorns and deadly. And then the sound he knew would come next. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! And with it, the laughter, that somehow was the silence that surrounded him and even being the silence, was somehow stronger. He looked towards the edge of the clearing, waiting for the iron giant to appear through the trees... And out stepped... Greyheart. The greyfurred wolf laughed, the laughter the same as the one earlier... but not Greyheart's voice. Greyheart's voice had not the power of this one. In his hand, he held a silver sword, its shine dulled by a thin coating of blood... "NO! You're dead! He killed you!" The blackfurred alpha sturuggled, all his efforts pushing the thorns deeper into his sweatsoaked fur and flesh... The larger warrior continued laughing in the voice that was not his own, and slowly walked towards the cheetah, whose eyes grew larger as he saw the intent on the wolf's face... Thornpaw drew breath to inhale... and coughed, his vision suddenly hazy... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Thornpaw. Wake up." He felt himself being shaken, and slowly opened his eyes. He lay in the clearing in the woods, his head propped up in Darkwind's lap. The red-furred wolf was staring down at him, and Thornpaw saw the smoke on Darkwind's breath. "What happened? I... I saw Fleet... and Greyheart..." Thornpaw tried to sit up, but Darkwind layed a paw on his chest. It was a needless gesture, for Thornpaw had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming at the fiery pain that ripped through his legs. "Don't move. The wounds that that... vine thing gave you are deep." Darkwind took a small cloth from one of his pouches, and a vial of greenish liquid from another one. Spreading the oil on the rag, he reached towards Thornpaw's wounds, and paused momentarily, looking at his alpha. "This is going to hurt. A lot." Thornpaw drew breath to tell Darkwind to go ahead... then screamed it all out as the salve touched his wounds, making the burning intensify, feeling like not just thorns, but white hot pokers had seared his flesh. He struggled, then stopped immediately on feeling the pain intensify more. Darkwind finished rubbing the ointment on Thornpaw's wounds, wincing as scream after scream ripped its way from his alpha's open mouth. Once he was done, he set the cloth aside, capping the vial and putting it back in his pouch. He waited for Thornpaw to regain the sanity in his eyes, then said: "It wasn't exceptionally bright to go out by yourself." "What was that shit?" Thornpaw was still breathing hard, and an occasional whimper escaped him whenever he moved position slowly. "Fun stuff. Few people realize that one way to beat a poison is to use another one, unpleasant as it may feel. It'll feel worse the next two or three days, at least, and itch like all hell. Don't scratch it; scratching poison ivy only makes it worse." "You put POISON IVY on my WOUNDS?" Thornpaw stared at Darkwind, letting his skepticism on the Theurge's sanity show clearly in his eyes. "The poison would have been worse, trust me. This is very, very trivial in comparison. Do you have any idea what happened to you?" Darkwind reached into his pack and took out a piece of jerky, giving it to Thornpaw. "No. I'd dreamt it before, though." The alpha stuck the jerky in his mouth and chewed... then blinked. "Hey, this is good stuff, where'd you get it?" Completely ignoring the second question, Darkwind glanced about. "Dreamt it before... " Returning his gaze to Thornpaw, he continued. "There are certain kinds of spirits who like to do this kind of stuff, more for fun than anything else. But I didn't feel any of them when I got here." "Did you see...?" Somewhat muffled through the jerky, but still audible. "Yes, I saw it too. And I certainly see what the vine did to you. That's why I came in and blew that stuff in your face. You're lucky I keep that stuff on hand, or you may very well have died. Tell me what happened from the beginning." "I heard a voice calling me..." Thornpaw related the entire tale. "... and can I have some more of that stuff?" Darkwind sighed and handed him another piece out of the bag. "Well, as I said, it sounds like a spirit was playing a joke... but once again, I didn't feel any spirits. Not here, at least. You're lucky that one of the more friendly ones was hanging out in the clearing at the time and warned me. Do me a favor?" "What?" The alpha looked at Darkwind questioningly. "Don't go following strange voices into the woods anymore. Speaking of which... Do you recognize the voice Greyheart used?" "No." Thornpaw shook his head. "If I heard it again, I probably would." "Well... I suppose it's not important right now. Look... I'm going to lift you, and carry you back to camp. Those punctures are going to be giving you hell for the next week or so. The hunt for Riverwind's killer will have to be delayed. Probably the same creature that set this up. I'll let you tell Fleet. I'll explain to the rest of the pack that the alpha's own brash, foolhardy and simple nature led him into injury..." It took several moments for Thornpaw to catch the joke on the end of that, delivered so conversationally that it fit right in until thought about, and several more moments to begin laughing. He quickly stopped his giggling, as it moved his legs and sent fresh waves of chainsaw-like pain ripping through him. Darkwind winced. "Sorry about that. Should have realized... ah, well. Let's get you back home." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Poor Thornpaw. I really should learn to be nicer to my characters. They keep getting injured... ah well. Hope this satisfies all of you out there who've been asking me for a new story. ;) You know where to find me. [email protected]