Page 34 of Blood of the Fallen
Nice way to compliment yourself,Ila replied.Our wolves are exactly alike. They’ve always been. We take after our father.Sadness laced her statement and seemed to permeate through me. It was so sudden that a whine nearly escaped me. Growing up an orphan, I always felt a certain sadness whenever I thought of my parents, but this was much deeper. The Academy had killed him, and they were the reason I couldn’t remember him.
Pawing at the ground as my resolve grew, I lowered my nose and began trying to sniff out the bone once more, determined to search every inch of the place.
Stop,Ila said.
I glanced back, confused.Don’t you want me to do this?
You’ve been going about it all wrong, sniffing around aimlessly.
Then what am I supposed to do?
Ila pointed her nose upward, her nostrils twitching.
I did the same, but all I could detect was the scent of pine and damp earth. She turned her head to either side and sniffed again. When she was done, she turned around and completed the circle, repeating the same process.
My ears twitched as I understood what she was doing. Closing my eyes in concentration, I completed a full circle as I twitched my black nose. On the first rotation, I sensed little else besides the strong pine aroma. But I was determined not to fail, so I went around again, this time turning more slowly.
When I was facing east, I noticed a slight difference in the air, a slightly sweet smell riding on top of the stronger ones. I stopped.
Good,Ila said.Now, just let your nose guide you. Don’t think about it. Just go! Go!she urged me insistently.
I did as she said, following my nose and shoving down every intruding thought that materialized in my mind. As I went, I wanted to over-analyze my impulses, but I resisted the urge. I’d been taught to think before acting, but this was different. It was… amazing, so rich and liberating.
Feeling confident, I trotted to a patch of brambles and pawed at the ground, right at the spot where the scent felt cloying. Peering through the tangle of leaves and branches, I spotted the bone, ants already hard at work on it. The sweetness I scented in the air was the decaying bits of flesh around the bone. It was incredible to realize that I’d been able to detect such minute traces.
Good job!Ila appeared behind me, and through that communication bond, I sensed her gratification at seeing my success.
Still acting on pure instinct, I turned and nudged my head against hers. She seemed surprised for an instant, then leaned in. Her forehead pressed against mine, our muzzles aligning. Her gratification turned to happiness, which seemed to permeate from her to me. I felt our connection and scented something strong and familiar, something that made me feel at home, and I knew, without explanation, that this familiarity was the sense of pack—the same thing Kall must’ve recognized when he attacked me that night Tello died.
The Academy had robbed me of this too, but I was more than ready to reclaim it.
The rest of the week, Ila and I worked on different skills while Bethel sat as a spectatorandcommentator. Once I got used to her jaded sense of humor, she had me in stitches, laughing at all her creative quips. She wasn’t so bad. Not at all.
Every day, it became easier to listen to my instincts and simply follow them, though, in the beginning, every new skill proved challenging. Still, my worries diminished as Ila was always there to guide me.
One afternoon, after practicing a series of maneuvers that involved using my tail for balance, Ila, Bethel, and I were back in our human forms, sitting by the river and eating pieces of dry meat when the triad appeared through a thicket of trees.
They approached and swiftly shifted as they joined us. Ila offered them her satchel where she’d packed our snack. The three dug in and ate with relish.
“See anything suspicious?” Ila asked.
Kall shook his head. “Everything looks normal.”
Every afternoon, the three ran a perimeter around the camp, searching for any signs of trouble. They shared the responsibility with other pack members, ensuring our safety at all hours.
“Let me check your eye,” Ila said, leaning over Kall. She moved his head this way and that. “It’s amazing. It’s healed all the way.”
Every day his cloudy eye had looked clearer than the day before, and I’d been glad for it. If it hadn’t, I would’ve probably felt guilty my entire life.
“The triad healing abilities are something,” Bethel said.
Since our talk in the woods, I hadn’t spent much time with Kall, and I found myself stealing glances in his direction, admiring his strong profile. His dark hair appeared freshly trimmed. Unlike Maki and Novuk, he didn’t seem to favor longer hair. I resisted the urge to raise a hand to my head to feel the churned length of my own hair. It had grown a little more, and I found myself wishing it was long and luscious like Ila’s and Bethel’s.
Would Kall find me beautiful if it was?
I winced at the thought. Since when did I care?
After a moment of sitting quietly, Bethel poked Novuk in the ribs and took off running. He jumped to his feet and chased her. They weaved around the trees like two little kids, laughing and taunting each other.
