Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 26
26
Wolves were screaming, chanting, shouting, cursing, but it sounded different now, muffled, as if someone had stuffed his ears full of moss.
He could see many feet, hundreds of them, shifting back and forth, stepping left and right as their owners jostled to see what was going on.
Was... was someone calling his name?
"Hezzi! Hezziiiii!!"
Who was that?
"Can't you see there's something wrong with him!? Let me go! Let me go!! Stop it! Stooop!"
A large foot stepped down right before his bloody eyes, crushing a thin layer of snow beneath its pads. There were drops of red dripping down from somewhere above, mingling with the snowflakes. They made sounds like rain.
The knee bent and suddenly Dorin's face was there, looking down at him from so high up. He didn't look very happy.
"You shouldn't have fought so hard, boy. You only ended up hurting yourself."
Hezzi didn't say anything.
"Give up now, otherwise I have to kill you."
Hezzi swallowed back some of the blood in his mouth. "No..."
"You don't have to die, you idiot! Just give up!"
The side of his face pressing against the ground was going numb and tingly. He could feel his energy leaving his body, being pulled away. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, just long enough to ease the sting. When he opened them again, Dorin was still there, waiting for him to give up. Hezzi opened his mouth and said: "No."
"Why not!?" Dorin cried, incensed. "Do you think I won't do it? Don't mistake my kindness for mercy, boy. If you don't give up right now, I won't hesitate to break your scrawny little neck."
"Maybe... a puppet like you... really can break my neck. But you won't make me... break... my promise."
Dorin punched the ground. "What the hell kind of promise did you make, Hezzi? To die lying facedown in a pool of blood? If so, then I guess you don't have anything to worry about!"
"I promised... I would protect them..."
"Protect who? Those traitors? Those weaklings? That mousy little girl? They-"
Now his fingers were going numb. Was that from the cold or the blood loss? He couldn't hear very well either. Was Dorin still talking? His eyelids were all gummed up with blood. He could barely see.
There was something pressing against his neck. It was soft, but it was pushing down hard.
"Then you've made your decision. I don't know why I expected any better of you. Live as a fool, die as a fool, I guess."
It was Dorin's foot. He wasn't kidding around when he said he'd break Hezzi's neck. He was going to stomp down on it, and that would be the end.
Hezzi's heart fluttered inside his chest, but he didn't have any energy. He couldn't raise his arms or lift his head or roll away. He was simply too cold and tired, too hurt. He could feel the pain everywhere, but the one in his back was the worst. It felt like the cold was trying to worm its way inside. He couldn't move at all.
The pressure around his neck vanished and he knew Dorin must have lifted his leg. It might as well be an executioner's axe above his head right now.
You have to move. You have to get up. You have to do something. You promised Father you'd protect them!
Hezzi tried to push himself off the ground. All he succeeded in doing was scratching a few bloody lines through the snow with his claws. He watched the crystals deform and melt before his eyes. Was that going to be the last thing he ever saw? Blood and snow? This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to finally make something of his life. He was supposed to step up and protect everyone. He wasn't supposed to be the baby anymore. He was a Wolf, just like his father, and just like his brother. He was supposed to make a difference. He was supposed to change things.
But this... this wasn't supposed to happen. He didn't want to die in the snow...
"Stoooop! Let go of me!"
"Renna, don't!"
"Stop it!"
"By the Cora, not again!"
He was still lying in the red snow, but he didn't feel so cold anymore. There was something covering him like a blanket, something soft and warm.
"Boooo!!"
"Get her out of there!"
"Interference! I told you not to cross the line, young she-wolf! You disgrace your entire family!"
"Are you blind!?" Was that Renna, shouting right above him? "He's been stabbed! He needs help!"
"This is a man's fight, little girl. Get out of my way before I break you, too."
"You go ahead and try it! I won't let you hurt him any more!"
"Did she say 'stabbed'?"
"There is an awful lot of blood."
"What do you expect? They've been tearing each other apart."
"No, I mean even for that. Just look at his back!"
"Did you actually see him get stabbed?"
"Well, no..."
"Yeah, I bet Dorin nicked a vein with his claws when they were rolling around earlier."
There were too many voices coming from too many different directions. He couldn't tell which belonged to who. He just wanted to go to sleep and forget about this terrible failure...
"Out of my way! Get out! You, girl! Get away from him!"
"Shekka-Kai, please help him!"
"I can't do anything if you're all over him like that! Move!"
The warmth left and suddenly his back was open to the frigid air once again. He could feel the snowflakes landing in his wounds, piercing the heat of his body with pinpricks of icy cold. There was something else, too... something heavier than snow. He could feel it slowly rubbing up and down his back... His mother's hands? Parting his fur until they reached the -
He gasped as the weight found the hole in his back. The red snow wavered and turned black for a second, as if his eyes had momentarily lost the ability to discern colour.
"Hezzi, can you hear me?"
"Mother?"
"This is going to hurt, but I need you to lie still."
"What are you going to -"
She pressed down on his wound, using all of her weight, and the pain exploded throughout Hezzi's body in a frightful burst, and worst of all, it wasn't letting up. She was just pressing down harder and harder, pinning him to the ground, pushing the pain inside of him. He screamed and tried to get away, but any attempt to lift himself only caused whatever the hell she was doing back there to hurt even more.
"I told you to lie still! Hey, you! Girl! Make yourself useful and calm him down! By the Cora I can't believe I have to do this again..."
He heard someone scramble through the snow. It made that strange noise, that kind of whispery crunchy noise that only snow could make, and then Renna was there, holding his bloody hand. He could feel her holding it, but he couldn't really see much of her save for her knees. But that was okay. Renna had pretty knees. Wait, was that weird? Thinking that a girl had pretty knees? Something told him it might be, but he didn't much care.
"Hezzi, are you awake? Your mother is stopping the bleeding, so everything is going to be okay."
"Okay...?" Hezzi croaked. "No. Nothing is going to be okay, Renna. I failed you. I failed everybody."
"No, Hezzi! Don't say that! You fought so bravely!"
Bravely? No... I fought stupidly. I should have paid more attention to the things Nilia showed me. I should have worked harder. I should have kept my feelings under control. She must be so disappointed...
He saw her in the crowd, standing out by standing still. Her hands were balled into fists and her face... Hezzi had never seen her look like that. She was always so eerily calm, but now her lips were slowly peeling back into a vicious snarl, revealing the tips of her fangs. There were deep furrows in her brow and her eyes were practically blazing with green fire. She looked absolutely furious. Was she mad at him for failing? Or...?
No, she wasn't even looking at him. She was looking at something else. Hezzi tried to look back and see, but it hurt too much to move.
There was more noise, more footsteps in the snow, and then Del's voice rang across the village, surprisingly loud for such an old Wolf. "Hezzi is clearly unable to fight. Therefore, I declare Dorin the winner, and our new Chie -"
"He cheated!" Renna screamed, briefly squeezing Hezzi's hand so hard it would have hurt quite a bit had he not already been so concerned with the hole in his back.
"Young girl, be thankful that this fight was more or less over when you decided to flout the laws of such an important challenge, otherwise we would have been forced to tie you up and throw you over the walls! Now be quiet!"
"No, you be quiet you doddering old fart! There was someone in the crowd with a knife! He stabbed him! Can't you see!? Hezzi, tell them! Tell them what happened!"
It was difficult to concentrate, but Hezzi didn't need to think very hard to recall the feeling of iron invading his body. It was a sensation he's now felt twice.
"When I was pushed... into the crowd... something - Ah!" Mother pushed down harder on his wound, but Hezzi gritted his teeth and powered on. "Something long and sharp stabbed me in the back."
This caused even more of a stir among the crowd. Hezzi could hear them bickering and arguing with each other, their words swirling through the air much like the snow.
"Who did it, then? We have to find them!"
"It happened over there, where Stedler and all his chums are standing!"
"Hey! You shut your dirty mouth! I didn't stab anybody! I don't even have a knife!"
"The culprit could be anywhere by now."
"There is no culprit, you idiots! The boy is just making excuses like the sore loser he is, trying to blame his defeat on an invisible assailant! He's a coward and a liar, just like his brother! It's downright shameful!"
"But what if he's telling the truth? We need a rematch!"
"Aye, we give them both a few days to recover, and then we have a rematch!"
"Rematch!"
"Silence! The lot of you!" Del shouted. "Shekka-Kai, you've treated hundreds of injuries in your lifetime. Are the children speaking the truth? What made that wound in your son's back?"
The breeze blew, the snow swirled, but there was no noise anymore. Everyone was waiting with bated breath, waiting for the witchdoctor's verdict.
"This is just a deep claw wound. Nothing else. Dorin won fair and square, so there will be no more fighting, and no rematches. That is my final word."
No...
Renna squeezed Hezzi's hand, and Hezzi squeezed back, not knowing how close she was to losing it completely.
"You... liar!" she screamed.
If the Wolves weren't quiet before, they certainly were now. Even Hezzi was speechless. No one, no one, had ever raised their voice to Shekka, the Empty One, witchdoctor of the tribe, communer of the Cora, let alone screamed an insult at her.
"What did you call me?" Mother asked. Her voice was barely louder than the breeze blowing about their heads, but every syllable could be heard crystal clear.
"I called you a liar! You know that wound was made by a knife! Lift that rag and show everyone!"
"If I lift this rag he'll bleed to death, you filthy little waif!" she shouted for everyone to hear, but then she leaned in close and whispered: "What are you trying to do, Renna, daughter of Rinno? Are you trying to get Hezzi stuck in a doomed rematch? Are you trying to get my drisa killed!?"
Renna was taken aback by those words. "N- No, of course not, I would never..." she stammered.
"Then shut up and let me save my son!"
Hezzi couldn't take this anymore. He pushed against the ground with his free hand, fighting against the dizziness, the pain, the weight...
"Hezzi, no! You're gonna hurt yourself!" Renna said. She gently put her hand on his shoulder, but she was too scared to try anything as extreme as pushing him back down.
"I told you to keep him still!" Mother shouted.
"He won't listen!"
Ander never gave up. He was cut worse than this, but he still got up and he kept on fighting. He didn't just lie down and die. I'm his brother, so if he can do it, I can do it...
He slowly lifted his face off the ground, blinking blood out of his eyes. He could see Renna, and Dorin, and Dell, and lying just out of arm's reach, slowly being covered in snow, was his father's necklace. Renna must have dropped it on her way over here.
He forced himself forward, reaching for it with everything he had, pushing against the snow with his reaching fingertips...
"I told you to lie still!" Mother screamed and bore down on the wound in his back. The pain was unbelievable, almost worse than when the blade went in. He screamed into the snow as Renna squeezed his hand and begged for him to stop.
He couldn't. He had to try.
He reached for the necklace, drawing on every last ounce of strength he had left, snowflakes drifting down onto the back of his hand, pain flaring throughout every inch of his body until...
He touched the tip of an eagle's talon, and that was as far as he could go.
Del reached down and picked it up, raising it into the air in a cascade of pure white glittering snow. He brushed it off, gave it a quick blow, and presented it to Dorin, who had presumably just been standing there the entire time, staring down at his fallen opponent.
It made Hezzi feel sick with shame.
"Dorin!" Del thundered for all to hear. "You have defeated Hezzi, drisa of Kadai, and in so doing you have proven your strength to all of us. As the oldest Wolf of this tribe, I am proud to name you our new leader and Chieftain! Congratulations!"
Dorin took the necklace and raised it above his head, blood trickling down his arm, and the entire tribe erupted in applause, chanting his name.
"Don't pay them any heed," Renna whispered. "Just ignore it. They don't know anything."
Hezzi wished he could look away, but Dorin was standing so tall. Even with a broken nose and a lacerated wrist, he was just... so... tall...
Dorin lowered the necklace and stared at it. He had a strange look on his face, not anything Hezzi would have expected, like happiness or pride, or even smug satisfaction. His look was decidedly blank and empty, almost... disappointed, as if he were looking at something no more interesting than a rock.
"Chieftain, do you have any words for your tribe?" Del inquired.
Dorin turned and spat a drop of crimson to the snow. He swallowed, sniffed, and said, "Yeah, I have something to say."
Del bowed his head and stepped back politely, since there was no longer any real need of him.
Dorin stood still for a while, waiting for the noise to die down. When it did, he began. "I'm not usually one for big speeches, so I'll just say what needs to be said. First, Hezzi... You fought very well, much better than I thought you would, and because of that, you have my respect. It was an honour to fight you."
Amazingly, Wolves started clapping for him. Hezzi was lying in a pool of blood, fighting just to stay conscious, and now they were clapping for him. He didn't even know how to feel about that. Apparently he had gained more respect by almost dying than Ander had gotten his whole life by trying to make the village a better place. It all just seemed so... backward.
"There's one more thing. The only thing, really..." He gave the necklace that weirdly disappointed look again, as if he was the real loser here, and then said something that made Hezzi forget all about the pain. "I cannot accept this title." Gasps and whispers all around, Wolves all asking each other the same thing, but Dorin continued as if he still had absolute silence. "Much like Hezzi, I am still too young and inexperienced. My shoulders are not strong enough to bear the weight of my people. That is why..."
No, Dorin... Don't do what I think you're about to do, please...
"... I'm stepping down as Chieftain of this tribe. The only one who truly deserves to wear this necklace is..."
No, Dorin! No!
"... Wardo."
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