A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

'Sneaky little shit…' Erik thought as he walked away with a groaning Frostfang over his shoulder.

"Think we can expect another attack like that, Elora?" he asked his trusty fairy partner.

"I doubt it," she answered quickly, but without taking her eyes of the vampire across the sigil-filled plain. "That was a powerful sigil, meaning it would take quite a while to recharge."

"Couldn't he just have more of those sigils?" Erik wondered, his brows furrowed in a skeptical frown.

"Possibly," she answered, thoughtfully. "But I doubt it. That stone he used was actually made from a third-rank material. Which is the only reason it could even support such a powerful sigil. I guess he must have gotten it from the same place as he got his knowledge about sigils in the first place."

Erik nodded inwardly, "Alright, but keep an eye on him until we're inside the town. I'm not sure our aetherium storage can handle another attack like that"

"Of course!" Elora answered with plenty of confidence.

While most people watching this event were looking at either Frostfang, Erik, or Sigurd, there was one looking at the fourth person with third-ranked power present here: Liv Frost. Or, at least, the ghoulified puppet version of Liv Frost.

Naturally, that person was Astrid. Despite being currently located inside Erik's dimension, he had, at some point in the last eleven months, figured out how to project the outside world onto the inner structure's walls.

Now, the entire circular wall around the main hall of their home had become one large view-screen, showing a 360 degree view of Erik's surrounding.

And currently, Astrid was looking at a point behind Erik, next to Sigurd. Her mother, Liv Frost.

"Mom…" Astrid whispered sadly, as her hand rested on the wall turned view-screen. The sight of her mother's usually beautiful strawberry-blond hair turning gray, her subdued eyes concealing the chaos of her ghoulified state, and the graying, wrinkled skin covering her body wrenched Astrid's heart with pain.

Still, to finally see confirmation that her mother was still alive, was a huge relief for the vampire woman, even if it still hurt to see her like that.

"Did I look like that? When I was a ghoul?" she asked, her voice cracking a little. "Is she hurting…?"

Unfortunately, the only one with her was Alice, and the poor wereverine had no idea how to answer her questions.

"I… I don't know, Miss Astrid," Alice mumbled awkwardly, scratching her hair, not sure how to deal with this situation. "But look at it this way: she's still alive! You just need to save her, right?"

A sad smile appeared on the vampire's face as she turned to Alice, "You must think I'm pretty selfish for complaining about my living mother, when you've lost two…"

"N— No!" Alice quickly shook her head, vehemently denying anything of the sort. "I— If our roles were reversed, I'm sure I'd be reacting the same way! If I were you, I'd want nothing more than to run in there and save her now…"

Astrid looked at her young companion with a grin. In the past eleven months, Alice had turned eleven, and was growing like a weed, both physically and emotionally.

"You're such a good girl," the vampire chuckled as she tousled the wereverine's hair.

Alice had become somewhat of a mascot to the entire group. Even Emily had taken a liking to the girl. The young wereverine reacted in a way most teenagers receiving affection would: she quickly shook Astrid off and glared at her.

The vampire chuckled, before turning her attention back to her mother and sighing sadly, "I'll get you soon, Mom…"

Meanwhile, outside the dimension, Frostfang wasn't entirely happy with being slung over Erik's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He groaned painfully, "Can you put me down already?! I can walk just fine!"

"Maybe," Erik shrugged, purposefully shaking Frostfang around a little. "But this is probably way more embarrassing for you. Which makes it more fun for me. Also, how about a 'thank you for saving my life', instead of complains?"

Frostfang, realizing Erik wasn't going to put him down, simply grumbled angrily to himself. "Damn brat… no respect for his elders…" He refused to thank Erik, knowing perfectly well that Erik didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart.

When they reached the crowd of shapeshifters, they parted to let them through. Most of them had their heads bowed in a sign of respect, while only a handful seemed to scowl a little, apparently unhappy with this result.

Erik didn't care. He wasn't here to stay, so they just needed to follow his orders for a few days. For a short period like that, his recent display of power should put them all in line just fine.

Walking into town, he noticed Olaf was still lying unconscious where he dropped him earlier. It seemed that, in all the excitement, no one had taken the effort to help him out a little.

'Guess I shouldn't be surprised that guy doesn't have many friends,' Erik chuckled inwardly, before bending down, grabbing Olaf's leg, and dragging him along.

Naturally, the shapeshifters around got a little uncomfortable, but they didn't dare say anything.

Meanwhile, Erik turned to Viljar and Anne, who were still trying to get come to grips with what just happened. "You guys coming? We need to talk about next steps."

His tone was nonchalant and confident, as if it was normal that he, a mere second-ranker, had just defeated Frostfang, defended them both from a clearly powerful attack launched by Sigurd, and now dragged Olaf behind him like a dirty rag.

Still, his question pulled the both of them back from their own thoughts and they quickly followed him. "Do you have to drag Olaf like that…?" Viljar complained with a sigh.

"He's an impulsive idiot," Erik answered, matter-of-factly. "Impulsive idiots get dragged. So yes." Looked around, he wondered out loud, "Where's Nora?"

"Master!" the busty blond werewolf suddenly came running out of the crowd with a bright smile and puppy-dog eyes. "Here I am!"

Immediately, Anne's eyebrows twitched and she pointed an accusing finger at her fellow general. "Master?! That's why you've been acting weird! Something happened that first night in Frostvik, didn't it! You didn't just sleep with him, you betrayed us!"

"Betrayed you?" Nora blinked innocently, while grabbing Erik's arm and hugging it between her breasts. "I'd argue it was you and anyone else who didn't immediately submit to Teacher's son who betrayed her, instead."

"You…!" Anne growled, but didn't actually have any good counter arguments. Not that Nora's argument made particular sense, it was just hard to counter without sounding dismissive of Runa. Something that was akin to heresy; not just in the Enclave, but to Anne herself as well.

"Besides," Nora shrugged while turning her back to Anne and walking by Erik's side, still hugging his arm. "All I did give him occasional updates on our status, which is also what allowed him to be here today to save us!"

"She's not wrong, Anne," Viljar shrugged. "I consider Jonas one of my best friends, but he didn't really treat Erik in a way that I agreed with. And if Erik really can save us, we should be thanking both him and Nora."

Anne simply kept quiet. Her gaze was a little complicated, but mostly just annoyed. Still, their words had made her think. Perhaps, if Erik really did end up saving the day, she might change her opinion of him…

——————

About eight hours after Erik had earned his new role as leader of the Enclave, a certain pair of sisters had reached their destination: Alta.

The paper thin golden disc they rode in on stopped on top of a hill overlooking the city, and the sisters jumped off, their dresses flapping in the wind. "Finally, we're here," Emily complained and stretched her back. "Think you could change that disk into a sofa next time?"

In response, Emma pouted, aggrievedly, her eyes a little watery. She didn't say anything, but she sniffed sadly, and looked away.

"Ah!" Emily immediately exclaimed, a little panicky, afraid she truly upset her little sister. "S— Sorry! The disk is great!"

"R— Really?" Emma asked, looking sideways at her big sister, with puppy dog eyes.

Naturally, Emily quickly nodded.

Like snow in the sun, Emma regained her bright smile, but now with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Naturally, Emily immediately realized she'd been played, and there was nothing she could do about it.

There were two things Emily remained weak against: Emma's hurt puppy eyes, and, since recently, a stern, piercing look from Erik.

"Brat…" she mumbled to herself, despite knowing she would fall for it all over again next time. The truth was, that it actually made her a little happy. Emma was returning to the girl she knew before the awakening.

Except perhaps a little more mature. Just a little, though.

Hearing her big sister's curse, Emma giggled, then waved her arm to make the disc of light disappear into thin air.

Emily shook her head in exasperation, but then they both gained serious expressions, and carefully walked up the hill's edge. They were in enemy territory now, and likely outnumbered.

They had a few measures for emergency, given to them by Erik and Elora in case things went horribly wrong, but ideally, they wouldn't be discovered until it was already too late.

When they reached the edge and looked out over the city of Alta, a grim sight greeted them.

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