Chapter 23 - Interlude (Skadi, Valeria)

  Skadi:

  Three hours before the attack:

  Skadi was once again reassuring James. It was getting harder and harder to do that. To suppress the pain and anger during the telepathic conversations. And to lie to her Bond. She had thought that he would come storming in without a plan, if he knew how these people were treating her.

  She had just finished with another ‘Training Session’, which meant two or three sadists gave her commands and then burned, or cut her if she didn’t immediately comply. Or when they felt like it.

  Skadi surmised that this was intentional, to foster a fearful demeanour in the wolves. She wouldn’t break that easily, but the other wolves that were being ‘trained’ were genuinely starting to become fearful.

  To Skadi these people should be ashamed to call themselves ‘Wolf-Shifters’. It didn’t matter in the end though. James told her he had a plan. Their telepathic bond wasn’t advanced enough to communicate complex ideas, so she didn’t know the details of his plan, but she made sure it was approved by Valeria. Now she only had to wait.

  Skadi usually had a few hours of peace, after a training session, so she decided to take a nap. Not much more to do in a cage. Well except imagining the violent torture of her captors, but she had done that earlier today

  Three hours later:

  Skadi was awoken by a rumbling. The sound of hundreds of feet trampling the ground.

  James had come.

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  For all that Skadi was hurting from the ‘training’, she was mostly excited to finally be free and to see her Bond again. She just hoped James wouldn’t kill himself in the assault.

  After a few minutes of listening to the Stampede, Skadi heard something different. A scratching, clawing and banging sound. She figured that something was bashing against the main gates, or rather a lot of somethings.Then she heard a cacophonous sound, and she saw splinters flying high into the air.

  How did he do that?

  The next few minutes were absolute chaos. Animals were running around wildly, every human in the tribe was either fleeing, or arming themselves, and she could hear screams of pain and the sounds of breaking bones and tearing flesh from the gate.

  Only a few more minutes. She thought to herself.

  After the dust had settled and all the animals had fled, Skadi could finally see James. A hut had collapsed in such a way that she had a narrow viewport, through which she could partially observe the last stand of the wolf-shifters.

  It was a sight to behold.

  The way James didn’t even flinch, as his claws started to smoke.

  The terror in the face of the Humans, when they realised the extent of James’ regenerative abilities.

  Watching this spectacle made Skadi affirm her decision to be in a pack with James. And it made her feel like she had a lot of ground to cover, if she wanted to be on an even level with him.

  In that moment Skadi resolved herself to not be left behind. She would find something James couldn’t do, that she could. She would find a way to be his equal. She would find a way to not be a burden. This she swore.

  Valeria:

  During the attack:

  Val was hovering above the village, invisible of course. She was glad about that fact, because she couldn’t suppress a wide smile on her face. James was playing his role perfectly. The role of the monster. The thing that lurks in the Shadow, the beast that will not be stopped, the bringer of doom.

  Val chuckled to herself, she was getting a bit dramatic these days, but drama aside, James was the perfect subject for her experiment. If she could prove his combat style to be a valid approach, then she could regain all that she had lost. She would have to throw threats at him worthy of the gift from the great old ones, of course, but she was sure he could handle it.

  “The Path of the Shifter” was what she had in mind as the title of her class guide. It would have a high barrier of entry, but the celestian council had never cared about that. Also anyone following it would be ridiculously versatile on top of the combat prowess.

  This could work, she just had to make sure James continued to grow and continued to get into more and more ridiculous troubles.

  She could facilitate that.

  Easily.

  She just had to make sure he didn’t end up somehow civilised or … ew, settle down.

  She would need some … Val paused as she witnessed James impaling himself to attack someone on his back. She decided to stop scheming for a moment and just enjoy the show. And what a show it was