Page 113 of Tears of the Wolf
Her puppy and Snapper were both gone. Where was Brynn? Why hadn’t she awakened him first?
Snapper?He sent out the thought to be meant with emptiness. It must mean his dog was too far away.Thorn? Ash?
Silence.
A touch of fear whispered along his spine. Cenric reached the door of the longhouse, tearing out to a view of the village below.
Some hundred auroch yearlings barreled through everything in their path, ploughing through Hróarr’s camp and the village. The yearlings were not fully grown, but they were each a blockof pure muscle, easily the height of a man with massive, arched horns.
They left a swath of destruction in their wake, screams and cries rising in the early morning.
The cattle galloped into the forest on the other side, following the curve of the river. Some of the animals tripped only to be trampled by their fellows.
They trailed past the village and into the forest, loping into the trees. It would be a nightmare to get them out and rounded back into the pens, assuming the pens were still intact.
The distant barking of dogs rang out from the village. At least he knew where the dyrehunds had gone.
“Brynn!” Cenric searched left and right. She couldn’t be down there, could she? She’d brought her pup outside, that was all. He was sure he’d heard her call for him…
“Lord!” Kalen came rushing out of the house. He looked down on the destruction below and his face went white. “What happened?”
“I don’t know yet.” Cenric’s heart raced as he cast left and right. “Find Lady Brynn at once. If you see her, tell her I’ve gone down to the village, and we need her.” People would be hurt. Edric and Gaitha’s house was in the village as were many of Cenric’s thanes.
That was probably where Brynn had gone.
“Yes, lord.” Kalen sprinted back into the house.
Cenric sheathed his sword, buckling it on as he ran down the path toward the field.
He had posted guards over the cattle, like they always did. What had happened? Was this some foul play from men sent by Olfirth? Had the old man decided that he didn’t want to be neighborly after all?
“Hróarr!” Cenric reached the first of the Valdari tents.
Something moved under the torn canvas and the bent tent poles. Cenric pulled aside the flotsam, revealing a Valdari man on the ground, leg crushed beneath the pole that had smashed down on him, along with three others who seemed more confused than hurt.
Cenric saw them upright before running to the next tent.
Figures stirred from beneath the flattened tents. Though poles had been knocked over and, in some cases, trampled, most people had not been struck directly by the animals.
Cenric found Hróarr and Vana’s tent at the center. It looked like an auroch had smashed into the side and gotten tangled in the ropes. The outside stakes had been ripped up, making the tent collapse.
“Hróarr!” Cenric dove into the partially collapsed tent to find his cousin on the ground, head bleeding.
Vana knelt beside him, disheveled with a gash on her shoulder. It looked like she’d been cut by a falling tent beam.
“Vana.” Cenric dropped into a crouch beside his cousin, nearly weeping when he saw Hróarr’s chest rising and falling.
“I’m fine,” Hróarr grunted in Valdari, one hand to the cut on his forehead. “But I’m going to skin the damned cow that made my woman bleed.”
Vana rolled her eyes, though she favored her injured shoulder. “What happened?”
“I don’t know yet,” Cenric answered, looking back outside.
Hróarr made to sit up, then groaned. “I might need a moment.”
“Brynn will be able to help.” Cenric didn’t doubt his wife could heal this. He’d seen her mend broken ribs, after all.
“Where is your wife?” Vana looked up as if expecting to see Brynn.
