Page 105 of Untamed

"Mactiir? The hero, legend wolf from the fairy-tales? What... Wait... Who is Mactiir?" One-Eye asks me with curiosity shining in her eyes.

I spare her a glance. "My male."

"Your... you mean Alphason Inuit? I hope you mean our Alphason."

I ignore her comment. All of my concentration is on tossing this rock at the window successfully. I was never good at throwing.

Spindly arms on ya, yea? Little scrawny female.

I miss. I hear One-Eye mutter softly, "finally, something you don't do well." Her voice is finally low enough not to be heard past an arm's length away. Goddess, it took her long enough.

One-Eye picks up another rock and pulls back her arm. Her projectile hits the window, dead center.

I offer her a smile. Maybe she isn't as useless as I feared. The glass breaks into a spider-web but doesn't shatter. I wait for movement, for the Abbi-wolf to appear. My eyes scan the house, the forest, the lake. There is nothing, no movement at all, until something on the lake catches my eye. A ripple on the surface. Maybe it's just a play of light on the calm grey surface, but I'm not waiting around to find out.

"Throw another," I tell One-Eye.

Her second rock hits the same plane of glass, shattering it into glittering pieces that fall into the grass below. I hear a gasp; a shocked inhale of someone trying desperately to be quiet.

"Come out," I command. I wait, still watching the forest, the house, the lake. Everything is quiet.

"We will go inside," I announce to One-Eye. She just sighs nods wearily.

"It'll be good to be able to wash up and get a drink," she agrees.

We break a window on the first floor and walk inside the house. I shiver in revulsion as soon as I step through the hole. The glass shimmers all around me as I carefully step to avoid it. The house wall across from the forest is one large sheet of glass. I can see the lake, the glass blending seamlessly with the water. It makes me uneasy, as if I'm still in the lake, in the belly of that cold, wet beast.

"Wow. Who would have thought that the Mauja had this much money?" One-Eye murmurs. “Their town isn’t nearly this wealthy.”

To our left is a ladder unlike I've never seen. Oh, it's meant to be like the ladders at the Cow-House and the Too-Large-House, but it's not quite the same. This ladder has simple dark wood rectangles held suspended in the air with metal hooks and strings... and glass, of course.

My she-wolf and I don't want to climb it, but I know Abbi-Wolf is still upstairs. I heard nothing but that one gasp, so she's hiding up there.

"What's wrong?" One-Eye whispers, "you look upset."

"Do I?" Who can blame me? Still, I realize that I have a... "moue of distaste, isn't that a pretty saying?" I climb.

"Ah..." I hear One-Eye scramble up the terrible ladder behind me. "You climb trees. Even sleep in them. And a staircase makes you...moue?"

I smile at the play on words. I miss Helga. Those warm, soft eyes remind me of my Mactiir a bit.

With the moue fixed on my face, I take in the house from the added height of the ladder. It's cold, unfeeling. Nothing like the cottage Mactiir lives with me in.

The sharp scent of fear stains the air. It's oriented in the right direction, towards the forest instead of the lake. Turning toward a door, I nod at One-Eye, letting her know that this is the room.

I shove the door open, ready for anything... but this. One-Eye gasps behind me. "It's so pretty."

"Whimsical," I tell her absently. The room is truly unique and such a shock from the cold interior of the rest of the house. Nothing is exciting about the room itself, I suppose. The walls are a muted grey with white accents as plain as the rest of the house. The bed is basic, with a black and grey blanket pulled tight and straight over the top. That's where the sterile cold of the house ends, however.

Pictures, hand-drawn, of enchanted forests and animals cover the walls. Gauzy scarves of every color hang over a chair in the corner, making it seem like a little hideaway, maybe from the nasty lake. Hanging from the ceiling are white paper birds from thin white strings.

I reach out and touch one of the birds, smiling as all of the birds start to flutter from the breeze coming through the broken window.

"W-who are you?"

I look at the little female in the corner and feel my she-wolf stirring from her vigilant stance she's been locked into since we woke up in the grey room.

"This is the future luna of the RustClaw," One-Eye says cooly, "and I am Elna, head female warrior of the RustClaw."

---