Page 45 of Tears of the Wolf
Movement rustled from the shadows of the barn.
Kalen’s spear was up the next moment. He glanced to Cenric.
Snapper’s ears flicked up.Pup?
Realization hit Cenric.Oh no.
A squeaking whine came from the dark. Something stirred.
“Can you carry the torch?” Cenric knew what they were going to find already.Stay,he ordered Snapper.
This time, the dog dropped to his haunches, whining beside the dead female.
Kalen picked up the torch from where it burned on the ground. He led the way into the dark, spear at the ready.
The whimpering took them to a corner of the barn, in one of the stalls. The gnawed bones of a goat lay cracked and chewed across the entrance. From the look of it, the dyrehund had even cracked open the bones to lick out the marrow.
A flurry of motion, the shape no bigger than a cat, yelped and leapt into the light.
Kalen reached for it but missed. The small shape scurried toward Cenric, and he used his boot to block it.
The shape ran straight into his foot and yelped, scurrying back as the torchlight fell on a dyrehund pup. Its coat was the same shade as its mother. It flattened its ears and growled even as it balled into the tightest coil it could manage.
Kalen reached for it, and the pup dodged again. It ran straight for Cenric, and he grabbed it by the scruff of its neck.
He lifted the puppy with his bruised arm, though it was starting to ache. The puppy weighed no more than a pound or two, face still plump and limbs too short.
It wiggled in his grip, making a squeaking sound like a wounded rabbit, calling for its dead mother.
The puppy appeared well-fed despite Nettles’ almost emaciated shape. That was probably why she’d been desperate enough to come this close to humans. It was a wonder that Nettles had gone into heat so late in the season. This pup should have been weaned and learning to hunt by now.
Cenric wondered if there had been more pups somewhere in the woods. There probably had been at some point. Cenric grimaced, looking over to the corpse outside the barn. He wasn’t sure what else they could have done. Maybe he should have put Snapper inside Aegifu’s house, first. Regardless, he couldn’t take back what had happened.
“Do you want me to take it, lord?” Kalen asked, holding out a hand.
Cenric held the pup to the light. It had drawn itself into a ball again, whimpering.
“No…” Cenric said after a long moment. “No. Find a basket for me.”
“A basket, lord?”
Cenric thought about it. Foretellings were Morgi’s only way of telling him whatnotto do. Her ways of telling him what heshoulddo tended to be more symbolic.
It wasn’t often Cenric was sure he was seeing a sign from Morgi, but this seemed too coincidental to be anything else. He had found an orphaned dyrehund puppy the same day he brought his new wife home. A dyrehund puppy that had been born months out of season.
“This is for my wife.”
“Lady Brynn?”
Cenric shrugged. “She likes dogs.”
“Cenric!” Aegifu’s voice shouted from the entrance to the barn. She jabbed at the dyrehund’s carcass with her cane. “Are you just going to leave this here?”
“Kalen, find something we can use to wrap the body. We’ll take her home and bury her with my brother.” He would reunite Nettles with Godric, if he could do nothing else for her. “After you fetch me a basket.”
“What happened to your sleeve, boy?” Aegifu demanded. “And what’s that?”
Cenric sheathed his sword and moved the pup to his right hand. “It’s a gift,” Cenric answered.
